The ISI - Pakistan's invisible government (the real terrorist behind New York attacks)

A secret report obtained by TheNewspaperToday's Pradeep Thakur reveals the ubiquitous role played by the ISI in the governance of Pakistan. The following is the transcript of a classified Indian government assessment on the role of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.

The role of the Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate (ISI) of Pakistan in its proxy war against India has been well documented and hence is well known to the public. What is not so well known is the ubiquitous role played by the intelligence agencies in the internal affairs of Pakistan.

The intelligence community of Pakistan, which was once described by The Frontier Post of Peshawar (May 18, 1994) as its invisible government, consists of the Intelligence Bureau and the ISI. While the IB comes under the Interior Minister, the ISI is part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Each wing of the armed forces also has its own intelligence Directorate for tactical military intelligence. The IB is the oldest dating from 1947.

Its unsatisfactory performance in the first Indo-Pak war of 1947-48 over Kashmir led to the decision in 1948 to create the ISI to specialize in the external intelligence, with the main focus on India. The IB, which was patterned after the IB of British India, used to be a largely police organization, but the post of Director General (DG) IB, is no longer tenable only by police officers as it was in the past. Retired and serving army officers are in recent years being appointed in increasing numbers to serve posts in the IB, including the post of DG.

General (retd) Imtiaz, who had served as the head of IB, during the regime of late General Zia-ul-Haq and was sacked by Mrs Benazir Bhutto after she came to power for the first time in 1988, was appointed by Mr Nawaz Sharif as Director IB, after he came to power in 1990. He was dismissed again and arrested by Mrs Bhutto after her return to power in 1993 and prosecuted for allegedly misappropriating funds and trying to organize a revolt against her in her Pakistan People's Party(PPP).

He was latter discharged by the court for want of evidences. Mrs Bhutto appointed Mr Masood Sharif, a retired Major and a personal friend of her husband Asif Ali Zardari, as Director, IB, and upgraded the post to DG. Suspicious of the role played by the ISI in her dismissal in 1990 and in allegedly rigging the subsequent elections to ensure the victory of the Islamic Democratic Front (IDF) headed by Mr Nawaz Sharif, Mrs Bhutto initiated a number of steps in 1995 to strengthen the role of the IB in the collection of internal intelligence and to divest the ISI of its self-assumed responsibility in this regard.

Steps to strengthen IB

These steps included: a four-fold increase in its budget, creating of 20 senior posts of the rank of Joint Directors (Inspector General of Police) and above and a three-fold increase in the staff at the lower levels, the opening of IB offices in Tehsil (township) headquarters and all police stations (PS) jurisdictions so that she could have a continuous flow of intelligence from the PS upwards, computerization of IB offices, and making the ISI share with the IB the responsibility for liaison with foreign intelligence agencies in matters relating to terrorism, narcotics and organized crime instead of leaving it an exclusive responsibility of the ISI as in the past.

Mrs Bhutto also made the IB, under the supervision of Maj Gen Nasirullah Babar, her Interior Minister, exclusively responsible for dealing with the revolt of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi and other areas of Sindh and made the ISI share with the IB the responsibility for operations in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Maj Gen Babar had served in the ISI during the regime of her father and was the head of its Afghanistan division. He is thus extremely knowledgeable on Afghanistan and knows personally most of the Afghan Mujahideen leaders.

In fact, according to the Pakistani press, it was he who drew up the plan for the use of Pakistan army and ISI officers for the capture of Kabul in September 1996, under the cover of the Taliban. The dilution of the role of the ISI in internal intelligence and its being forced by Mrs Bhutto to share with the IB the responsibility for Afghanistan operations led to considerable resentment against her in the ISI.

This resentment played an important role in its supporting President Farooq Leghari's action in dismissing Mrs Bhutto in November 1996. Since then, the ISI has seen to it that the IB's role, was once again diluted with the organization brought under greater military control through the induction of more army officers. The ISI has again assumed exclusive responsibility for the operations in Afghanistan in support of the Taliban.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What we see here, ISI, is the organization which made it possible for Osama bin Ladin to build his terrorist network from Afghanistan.