Under the Cover of ISI?

by Sajjad Shaukat

(August 04, Peshawar, Sri Lanka Guardian) US-led India, Afghanistan and Israel have intensified the implementation of their covert strategic designs by manipulating Pakistan's multi-faceted crises which they have themselves created through their secret agencies CIA, RAW, Khad and Mossad. By taking new shifts in their propaganda campaign, they are acting upon anti-Pakistan agenda under the cover of tarnishing the image of our Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

The plot reached apex when on July 26 this year, a notification was issued by some officials to bring ISI under the control of the interior ministry, but the same was reversed, surprisingly, with no time, indicating that it was the result of some misunderstanding. In fact, some politicians of the government had made useless efforts to please Washington as the intrigue coincided with the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's trip to the United States.

During prime minister's visit to America, talking to a Pakistani TV channel, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said on July 30, 2008 that US President Bush expressed concerns over the role of ISI as Washington is reluctant to share intelligence with Islamabad because people in Pakistan's premier intelligence agency are sharing it with the militants. Meanwhile on the same day, The New York Times disclosed that CIA Deputy Director Stephen Kappes visited Pakistan in July and confronted Pak officials with evidence of ties between the country's intelligence service and militants in the tribal areas. This false accusation could be judged from the self-contradictory approach, when a US spokesman said that there was no evidence of Pakistani official support for Al Qaeda.

In the US, Prime Minister Gilani has rejected the report of The New York Times as "not believable" in relation to any links between Pakistan's ISI and the militants. He told PBS programme, "We would never expect it from our ISI which is very competent" and is "directly working under the prime minister". Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas also rejected this report, as "unfounded, baseless and malicious," saying that ISI is a premier intelligence agency which has caught maximum Al Qaeda operatives.

Recently, a number of the US senior military and intelligence officers blamed Pakistan for her failure in restraining infiltration of Taliban in Afghanistan, accusing ISI behind militancy there, predicting that the next plot by Al Qaeda to attack inside America will be made in Pakistan's FATA regions. In the recent past, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Indian Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor blamed Pakistan's ISI for the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

In this context, Indian National Security Advisor M. K Narayanan pointed out on July 12, 2008, "The ISI needs to be destroyed". However, Pakistan Foreign Office rejected these baseless allegations replying, these "serve no purpose other than creating an artificial crisis in Pak-Afghan border". In fact, having failed in crushing the stiff resistance of the Afghan Taliban and Kashmiris who have been fighting against the occupying forces, US-led coalition troops and Indian forces, equipped with sophisticated weaponry including Kabul-led puppet regime of Hamid Karzai have badly failed. But they want to fulfil a number of sinister designs by distorting the image of Pak army and ISI. First of all, such an allegation is essential for these countries to divert the attention of their publics from their frustrated adventure in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

US also wants to keep the NATO members united for a prolonged war in Afghanistan because some countries are reluctant to maintain their troops there for a long time in wake of growing casualties and insecurity. Besides, increase in the cost of war against terrorism, hike in oil prices and decline of dollar have made the matter worse for Americans. Apart from various accusations like terrorist's training camps in Pakistan's tribal areas, cross border terrorism etc., new 'Machiavellian blame-game' is likely to provide the US with some justification to pacify her people.

ISI is being defamed because Pakistan is the only Islamic nuclear country, irking the eyes of 'nuclearized' America, India and Israel who are exaggerating through western thinktanks and media that safety of the atomic weapons is doubtful as these can go in the hands of Al Qaeda operatives who are likely to use them inside the US and Europe. The sole aim behind is to convince Washington to invade Pakistan's tribal areas. As regards India, it has become fashion to blame ISI for every mishap to conceal her own covert strategic game against Pakistan. For example, more than 12 crude bombs exploded on July 26 this year across Ahmedabad, one day after the blasts of Bangalore. Although some Indian leaders accused Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI or a Mujahideen group as usual, yet reality behind the bombing is quite different as disclosed by Sushma Swaraj, a leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

While revealing the horsetrading by the Manmohan-led ruling party, she pointed out that the blasts in two BJP-ruled states could be the handiwork of a central agency like RAW in order to deflect attention from "cash for vote scam", used to derail the vote of no confidence against the P.M. Under the mask of ISI, New Delhi also wants to distract the attention of the west from her atrocities, being perpetrated on the innocent Kashmiris. Recently, hundreds of unidentified graves with at least 940 bodies discovered in the Indian held Kashmir. Sources blamed Indian RAW for the custodial killings through brutal methods. Even the European Parliament passed a resolution, condemning India for human rights violations. Besides, more than 800 persons, mostly Muslims are still living in Indian jails and they are likely to die due to similar torture.

In this respect, we should not ignore the real aims of the US-led India, Afghanistan and Israel whose intelligence agencies are trying to convert Pakistan into a failed state under the pretext of distorting the image of ISI by directing false allegations against it. Creation of lawlessness in the Frontier Province and Balochistan is part of the plan to prove that Pakistan is a terrorist state. Particularly, RAW has become pro-active as more than 50 Indian consulate offices along with the north-western border of Pakistan are supporting the militant activists in our country. While, inside Afghanistan Indian intelligence agencies and army personnel have been training saboteurs who are provided with arms and ammunition and are being sent to Pakistan to conduct bomblasts as noted in case of Islamabad, Karachi, Kohat, Swat etc. The major purpose is to create a rift between Pakistan's security forces and the general masses on one hand and to tarnish the image ISI in the commity of nations on the other.

It is of particular attention that on July 29, 2008, Pakistan's Prime Minister Gilani during his interview to CNN told, "The insurgents in the FATA are better armed with sophisticated weapons than Pakistani forces". It is most important to point out that Washington Post on June 24, 2008 quoted Charles R. Black Jr., the top adviser of the Republican nominee for the American presidential elections, suggesting that a fresh terrorist attack inside the US "certainly would be a big political advantage to McCain." So CIA, RAW, Khad and Mossad could train some criminals to conduct another 9/11 type catastrophe in the United States with a view to manipulating the same against Pakistani intelligence service, ISI. Especially, a number of recent developments against Pakistan like president Hamid Karzai's threat, Indian shelling inside Azad Kahmir, US hostility to FATA peace deals, NATO's intermittent air strikes and new assumption of blaming ISI so as to hide their own aggressive goals clearly show future nefarious designs of the external elements against the federation of Pakistan. It is because of a plot against Pakistan that on June 29, 2008, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani surprisingly stated that there were "several enemies of the country" and "foreign hands were also involved in the acts of terrorism".

Renowned political philosopher, Hans Morgenthau in his book, Politics Among Nations, remarks that the true nature of the policy is "concealed by justifications and rationalization". It needs "a mask behind which the ulterior motives are concealed". We can conclude that CIA-led RAW, Khad and Mossad are one in destabilizing Pakistan by concealing their own secret activities against Islamabad under the cover of a continuous propaganda campaign against ISI which serves as the first line of our country's defence due to its effectiveness in castigating the plans of any hostile elements against Pakistan.

(Peshawar based writer can be reached at: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com )
- Sri Lanka Guardian