Slipping out the back door?

By Nicholas Schmidle, May 7, 2010 Share

Ever since Richard Armitage's infamous "Stone Age" ultimatum swayed the Pakistani government in favor of cutting ties with the Taliban and allying with the United States in the "war on terror," the performance of Islamabad's military and intelligence agencies has typically wavered somewhere between halfhearted and straight-up duplicitous. But things have begun to change, and if Pakistan's response to Faisal Shahzad's failed car bombing in Times Square is any indication, relations between the CIA and Pakistan's top intelligence agency, the ISI, haven't been this congenial since the glory days of fighting the Soviet Army in Afghanistan.

Take, for example, the CIA's drone program. The recent success of that program owes as much to the well-placed moles working for the ISI in North and South Waziristan as it does to the gamers pushing buttons in Langley. Then, earlier this year, the ISI and the CIA conducted a joint operation and arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban's military commander; weeks later, two of the Afghan Taliban's "shadow governors" were also arrested in Pakistan. Now, the ISI is rounding up Shahzad's associates, including the individual who apparently drove with Shahzad from Karachi to Peshawar -- and possibly on to North Waziristan.

What do all these arrests mean? Has Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's military chief, ordered his underlings in the various intelligence agencies to put their professionalism to good use, rather than dedicating their efforts to smearing politicians and rigging elections?

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. High-profile arrests have happened before, of course, ending with ignominious results. In December 2007, the alleged mastermind of the 2006 transatlantic bomb plot, Rashid Rauf, escaped from police custody by telling his handlers that he needed to pray -- and then disappearing out the back door. (Rauf is thought to be hiding out somewhere in North Waziristan.) Whether Faisal Shahzad's associates similarly slip out the back door remains to be seen. But there does seem to be a qualitative shift in Pakistan's behavior lately. And Pakistan's cooperation is necessary if investigators are going to unearth the roots of Faisal Shahzad's criminal conspiracy.

Nicholas Schmidle is a fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan.

 

SURESH SHETH

4:07 PM ET

May 7, 2010

Pakistan was, is & always will be terror center of the world

The whitewash about the real culprits behind continuing terror threat from Pakistan in Western foreign policy establishment and news media continues.

Pakistani governments have been given an intentional free pass for their role in creating this global menace.

Nobody forced Pakistani government to facilitate relocation of Osama bin Laden from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. Democratic government of Pakistan chose to do so of its own free will.

Ex-CIA official Bruce Riedel said in an interview on 1/29/2009 that ''In Pakistan, the jihadist Frankenstein monster that was created by the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence service, is now increasingly turning on its creators. It's trying to take over the laboratory.'' Pakistani Army and Intelligence Service (ISI) chose to create this ‘jihadist Frankenstein monster’ with full blessings and financing by Pakistan’s democratic governments in 1990s.

Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton’s national security advisor told 9/11 Commission in March, 2004 that ’Pakistani Army was the midwife of Taliban’.

Declassified DIA Washington D.C., "IIR (intelligence Information Report) Pakistan Involvement in Afghanistan," dated November 7, 1996 states how "Pakistan's ISI is heavily involved in Afghanistan," and also details different roles various ISI officers play in Afghanistan. Stating that Pakistan uses sizable numbers of its Pashtun-based Frontier Corps in Taliban-run operations in Afghanistan, the document clarifies that, "these Frontier Corps elements are utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary combat“.

Declassified U.S. Department of State, Cable "Pakistan Support for Taliban" from Islamabad dated Sept. 26, 2000 states that "while Pakistani support for the Taliban has been long-standing, the magnitude of recent support is unprecedented." In response Washington orders the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad to immediately confront Pakistani officials on the issue and to advise Islamabad that the U.S. has "seen reports that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with materiel, fuel, funding, technical assistance and military advisors. [The Department] also understand[s] that large numbers of Pakistani nationals have recently moved into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, apparently with the tacit acquiescence of the Pakistani government." Additional reports indicate that direct Pakistani involvement in Taliban military operations has increased.

For the American and other Western apologists who claim that ‘Pakistan is also the victim of terrorism’, following are some observations by UN report on Benazir Bhutto’s killing published on April 15, 2010:

- "The jihadi organizations are Sunni groups based largely in Punjab. Members of these groups aided the Taliban effort in Afghanistan at the behest of the ISI and later cultivated ties with Al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban groups. A common characteristic of these jihadi groups was their adherence to the Deobandi Sunni sect of Islam, their strong anti-Shia bias, and their use by the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in Afghanistan and Kashmir".

- "The PAKISTANI MILITARY ORGANIZED AND SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN TO TAKE CONTROL OF AFGHANISTAN IN 1996. These policies resulted in active linkages between elements of the military and the Establishment with radical Islamists, at the expense of national secular forces, and the entrenchment of religious extremist and other militant groups in the tribal areas and Punjab.

- “Elements within the Pakistani Establishment ……. retain links with radical Islamists, especially the militant jihadi and Taliban groups and are sympathetic to their cause or view them as strategic assets for asserting Pakistan’s role in the region. The ISI cultivated these relationships, initially in the context of the Cold War and the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980’s and later in support of Kashmiri insurgents. WHILE SEVERAL PAKISTANI CURRENT AND FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS TOLD THE COMMISSION THAT THEIR AGENCIES NO LONGER HAD SUCH TIES IN 2007, VIRTUALLY ALL INDEPENDENT ANALYSTS PROVIDED INFORMATION TO THE CONTRARY AND AFFIRMED THE ONGOING NATURE OF MANY SUCH LINKS."

 

LAL QILA

4:31 PM ET

May 9, 2010

 

GUPTAN VEEMBOOR

10:12 AM ET

May 8, 2010

Slipping out the back door?

There are reports that Baradar was captured by mistake. Those who caught him did not think that he was such a highranking Taliban functionary.
As regards other arrests, it is still not clear. It looks that the Pakistan government has not officially confirmed. Also arressts of many high profile terrorists/militants are given big publicity and later they are quietly released.. Even this cooperation between CIA and ISI for the drone attacks is how much above board? It could be very well that ISI does not give information about the whereabouts of their valuable assets. To please CIA they must be throwing some smaller guys.

 

LAL QILA

11:17 AM ET

May 8, 2010

Shouldn't AFPAK be AFPAKIN

Shouldn't AFPAK be AFPAKIN, given the number of INdians commenting on the issue?