The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations

Council on Foreign Relations ^ | May 4, 2011 | Jayshree Bajoria, Eben Kaplan

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The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations

Authors: Jayshree Bajoria, Senior Staff Writer

Eben Kaplan

Updated: May 4, 2011

Introduction

Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has long faced accusations of meddling in the affairs of its neighbors. A range of officials inside and outside Pakistan have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and terrorist groups in recent years. In fall 2006, a leaked report by a British Defense Ministry think tank charged, "Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism--whether in London on 7/7 [the July 2005 attacks on London's transit system], or in Afghanistan, or Iraq." In June 2008, Afghan officials accused Pakistan's intelligence service of plotting a failed assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai; shortly thereafter, they implied the ISI's involvement in a July 2008 attack on the Indian embassy. Indian officials also blamed the ISI for the bombing of the Indian embassy. Pakistani officials have denied such a connection.

Numerous U.S. officials have also accused the ISI of supporting terrorist groups, even as the Pakistani government seeks increased aid from Washington with assurances of fighting militants. In a May 2009 interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "to a certain extent, they play both sides." Gates and others suggest the ISI maintains links with groups like the Afghan Taliban as a "strategic hedge" to help Islamabad gain influence in Kabul once U.S. troops exit the region. These allegations surfaced yet again in July 2010 when WikiLeaks.org made public (NYT) a trove of U.S. intelligence records on the war in Afghanistan. The documents

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Reference book for The Pakistani Military and it’s support of Terrorists through Abbottabad
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/EBOOKS/pfs.pdf - Pakistan Failed State by Shiv Sastry ^ | Shiv Sastry

The book is mostly a collection of media, policy wonk, academic and other published reports on Pakistan in the years between 2001 and 2006. Then weaved together to produce timelines and storylines to the murky state of affairs regarding the ISI and Pakistani elites.

It’s a very interesting read, and brings serious questions as to why US taxpayers are sending US$3.8 Billion a year in tribute to the military industrial complex and web of terrorist facilitators in Pakistan.