THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The ISI and its covert support of Islamist terrorism must be confronted
In December 1979, at the end of a meeting in which Pakistan decided to embark on a United States-backed, Saudi Arabia-funded secret war that could well have ended in its annihilation by the Soviet Union, the military dictator who ruled Pakistan offered his spymaster a Zen-like maxim. "The water in Afghanistan," Gen Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq told Lt Gen Akhtar Abdul Rehman Khan, the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), "must boil at the right temperature."
Ever since 9/11, the ISI has been seeking to keep the jihad inside Afghanistan and Pakistan warm, nurturing allies it gave birth to in the years after that meeting, while also joining the West's war against terror – the source of billions of dollars in aid and military patronage.
But Osama bin Laden's killing may mark the point where the water boiled over – destroying Pakistan's relationship with the West, and setting off a chain of events no one can predict.
Irrespective of whether bin Laden was being sheltered by the ISI or merely succeeded in evading its ineffectual counter-terrorism efforts, the challenge for Western policymakers is stark: it has become clear the ISI isn't willing or able to act against jihadists operating from its soil. Even though it is unwise to underestimate the incompetence of south Asia's under-funded, ill-trained police and intelligence services, it is hard to imagine that Pakistan's spies did not investigate just who was building a $1 million fortified complex a few hundred yards from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul – a potential target for Pakistani jihadists who have claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers. Bin Laden's neighbours have said the house was protected by closed-circuit cameras; that neighbours were never allowed in; that the rubbish was disposed of by burning – all of which ought to have attracted the attention of even the most indolent spies. Continue reading and comment » | Praveen Swami | Tuesday, May 03, 2011
My comment:
Western politicians refuse to accept the true nature of Islam. No self-respecting Muslim is going to show loyalty to an infidel over a believer. It's just not going to happen. When are the powers-that-be going to learn the lesson?
And Cameron's recent gift of £650million to Pakistan for educational aid was about as dumb as it gets. Who on earth did he think was going to benefit from that? Certainly not children in regular schools. Children in madrasahs, maybe; corrupt politicians, certainly.
And what about all the other gazillions Pakistan has been given in aid? Let's face it: They're taking us for fools! – Mark
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