Now that things are changing in Pakistan, and seeing that Pakistani intelligence has been against us from the beginning, we might want to rethink our military involvement in Afghanistan. Perhaps we should take a lesson from the Russians and get out while we are behind, before we get further behind.
We have worked with Pakistani Intelligence before. That’s who we had provide arms to the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan from 1980-1989. In order to thank us for the help, the ISI rounded up a group of Pakistani students, ‘Talibs’, hardliners, to run the country. Now they continue to fund and supply the same. We call the ISI ‘rogue’ but the reality is that Pakistan, our ‘allies’, are nothing of the sort. Musharrev played us, we let him a bit to maintain our influence, and even that has failed abysmally.
ISI is a disciplined force, breaking the back of al-Qaeda. (?!)
Are we making the same mistakes the Russians did in the 80s? Is Afghanistan winnable? How much more time, money, and effort should we spend on Afghanistan? Is it worth wasting our money, effort, and troops on? Can we really expect a US-backed government to last in Afghanistan without permanent deployment? Who is funding and arming the ISI? Oh wait, we have been. D’oh.
...the civilian government is powerless to confront the [ISI]. The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, announced on the eve of a trip to Washington last month that the ISI had been brought under the control of the interior minister.Also, it appears the ISI has been f*cking the British too.
He was forced by the army to retract the statement at 3am the following day.
Similarly a week later, Sherry Rehman, the PPP’s information minister, was forced to withdraw her call for Taliban sympathisers to be rooted out of the ISI.
Until recently, American suspicion of ISI involvement with the Taliban had been offset by Pakistan’s capture and rendition of senior terrorists such as the mastermand of al-Qa’eda Sept 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
A power vacuum following Pervez Musharraf’s loss of military command last year has enabled hardliners within the Pakistani army to press their agenda more actively both in Afghanistan and on its eastern border, in Kashmir.
Many of the ISI’s ideological and strategic convictions were formed in the 1980s, when it commanded and armed Islamic militias against Soviet troops in Afghanistan at the behest of the US.
CIA officials have pointed to continued links between the ISI and the Soviet-era veterans such as Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is believed to maintain close ties to senior figures of al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
The Pakistani establishment is suspicious of America’s regional ambitions and wary of “encirclement” as its arch-foe, India, increases its influence in Afghanistan.
The Sun said Mr Durcan, 56, had been "tricked into a close friendship by the attractive woman".
It said there was no evidence classified information or British agents had been compromised.
The paper described the woman as a "defence academic" who was "also believed to be an undercover agent for rogue elements within Pakistan's intelligence services".