Blaming Pakistan's Spies For A War Gone Wrong
By Eric Margolis
08/08/08 "Huffington
Post" -- - NEW
YORK -- The almost forgotten war in Afghanistan, that was
supposed to have been won in 2001, has roared back to life with
a vengeance. More American soldiers are now dying in Afghanistan
than Iraq.
As resistance to the US-led occupation of Afghanistan
intensifies, the increasingly frustrated Bush administration is
venting its anger against Pakistan and its military intelligence
agency, Inter-Service Intelligence, better known as ISI.
The White House leaked claims ISI is in cahoots with pro-Taliban
groups in Pakistan's tribal agency along the Afghan border and
warns them of impending US attacks. Some administration
officials believe ISI may even be hiding Osama bin Laden.
On top of this, the Bush administration just leaked to the New
York Times, which lost no time in again acting a megaphone for
the administration, a claim that CIA had electronic intercepts
proving ISI was behind the recent bombing of India's embassy in
Kabul.
President George Bush angrily asked Pakistan's visiting prime
minister, Yousuf Gilani, "who's in charge of ISI?" This is a
good question, and one not easily answered.
I was one of the first western journalists invited into ISI HQ
in 1986. ISI's then director, the fierce Lt. General Akhtar
Rahman, personally briefed me on Pakistan's secret role in
fighting Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. ISI's `boys' provided
communications, logistics, training, heavy weapons, and
direction in the Afghan War. I kept ISI's role in Afghanistan a
secret until the war ended in 1989.
ISI was primarily responsible for the victory over the Soviets,
which hastened the collapse of the USSR. At war's end, Gen.
Akhtar and Pakistan's leader, Zia ul Haq, both died in a
sabotaged C-130 transport aircraft. Unfortunately, most
Pakistanis blame the United States for this assassination.
On my subsequent trips to Pakistan I was routinely briefed by
succeeding ISI chiefs, and joined ISI officers in the field,
sometimes under fire.
ISI is accused of meddling in Pakistani politics. The late
Benazir Bhutto, who often was thwarted and vexed by Pakistan's
spooks, always playfully scolded me, `you and your beloved
generals at ISI.'
But before Gen. Pervez Musharraf took over as military dictator,
ISI was the third world's most efficient, professional
intelligence agency. It still defends Pakistan against internal
and external subversion by India's powerful spy agency, RAW, and
by Iran. ISI works closely with CIA and the Pentagon and was
primarily responsible for the rapid ouster of Taliban from power
in 2003. But ISI also must serve Pakistan's interests, which are
often not identical to Washington's, and sometimes in conflict.
In fact, Washington has been forcing Pakistan's government,
military and intelligence services through huge secret payments
and threats of war into policies that are bitterly opposed by
90% of Pakistan's people. Small wonder Pakistan's leadership is
so often accused of playing a double game.
The last ISI Director General I knew was the tough, highly
capable Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmad. He was purged by Musharraf
because Washington felt Mahmood was insufficiently responsive to
US interests. Ever since 2001, ensuing ISI directors were all
pre-approved by Washington. All senior ISI veterans deemed
`Islamist' or too nationalistic by Washington were purged at
Washington's demand, leaving ISI's upper ranks top-heavy with
too many yes-men and paper-passers.
Even so, there is strong opposition inside ISI to Washington's
bribing and arm-twisting the subservient Musharraf dictatorship
into waging war against fellow Pakistanis and gravely damaging
Pakistan's national interests.
ISI's primary duty is defending Pakistan, not promote US
interests. Pashtun tribesmen on the border sympathizing with
their fellow Taliban Pashtun in Afghanistan are Pakistanis.
Many, like the legendary Jalaluddin Haqqani, are old US allies
and `freedom fighters' from the 1980's. When the US and its
western allies finally abandon Afghanistan, as they will
inevitably do one day, Pakistan must go on living with its
rambunctious tribals.
Violence and uprisings in these tribal areas are not caused by
`terrorism,' as Washington and Musharraf claimed. They directly
result from the US-led occupation of Afghanistan and
Washington's forcing the hated Musharraf regime to attack its
own people.
ISI is trying to restrain pro-Taliban Pashtun tribesmen while
dealing with growing US attacks into Pakistan that threaten a
wider war. India, Pakistan's bitter foe, has an army of agents
in Afghanistan and is arming, backing and financing the Karzai
puppet regime in Kabul in hopes of turning Afghanistan into a
protectorate. Pakistan's historic strategic interests in
Afghanistan have been undermined by the US occupation. Now, the
US, Canada and India are trying to eliminate Pakistani influence
in Afghanistan.
ISI, many of whose officers are Pashtun, has every right to warn
Pakistani citizens of impending US air attacks that kill large
numbers of civilians. But ISI also has another vital mission.
Preventing Pakistan's Pashtun, 15-20% of the population of 165
million, from rekindling the old `Greater Pashtunistan' movement
calling for union of the Pashtun tribes of Pakistan and
Afghanistan into a new Pashtun nation. The Pashtun have never
recognized the Durand Line(today's Pakistan-Afghan border) drawn
by British imperialists to sunder the world's largest tribal
people. Greater Pashtunistan would tear apart Pakistan and
invite Indian military intervention.
Washington's bull-in-a-china shop behavior pays no heeds to
these realities. Instead, Washington demonizes faithful old
allies ISI and Pakistan while supporting Afghanistan's
Communists and drug dealers, and allowing India to stir the
Afghan pot -- all for the sake of new energy pipelines.
As Henry Kissinger cynically noted, being America's ally is more
dangerous than being its enemy.
copyright Eric S. Margolis 2008
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