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A year ago tomorrow, as no one in India needs reminding, Urban Jihad set sail from hostile shores, came aground in Mumbai, flickered live on our TV screens, and purveyed death across the city. Recovering from the monstrous invasion, a wounded and incensed India that had had enough of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism seriously contemplated letting rip against terrorist targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. But following entreaties to hold back in the interests of not diverting attention and military resources away from the larger goal of targeting jihadi forces in Afghanistan, it exercised tremendous restraint. A year later, look at where Pakistan stands....

The United States has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn on Monday. He said that four “major neutral players” were engaged with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).The GID and ISI have been doing the job on behalf of the US government and CIA. The source said that one of the main objectives of the recent visit to Pakistan by CIA chief Leon Panetta was to assess progress in...

Fearing that Taliban supremo Mullah Omar might be targetted by US drones, Pakistan's ISI has helped him to flee from the border town of Quetta to the mega port city of Karachi, where he has established a new Shura council. One-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban recently found refuge from potential US attacks in Karachi with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) assistance, the Washington Times reported quoting US intelligence officials. "Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so...

WASHINGTON: The United States has come perilously close to calling Pakistan a terrorist state by alleging that the country’s spy agency ISI recently spirited Taliban leader Mullah Omar to Karachi to save him from American drone attacks in Quetta. In the most direct charge of its kind, current and former US intelligence officers are saying on background that the one-eyed leader and illiterate leader of the Afghan Taliban, ''has fled a Pakistani city on the border with Afghanistan and found refuge from potential US attacks in Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service.'' Washington believes that Omar was in...

The CIA has paid millions of dollars to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) since 9/11, "accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget", says a media report. The ISI also collected "tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA programme", which pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a newspaper reported on Monday citing current and former US officials. An intense debate has been triggered within the US government due to "long-standing suspicions that the ISI continues to help Taliban extremists who undermine US efforts in Afghanistan and provide sanctuary to Al Qaeda...

No one should be surprised by this. But all the learned analysts who know how much we need Pakistan will be. Double Game Update: "Pakistani Army ran Muslim extremist training camps, says anti-terrorist expert," by Charles Bremner in the Times Online, November 14 (thanks to Kris): The Pakistani Army ran training camps for a Muslim extremist group, at least until recently, with the acceptance of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to France's foremost anti-terrorist expert. Jean-Louis Bruguière, who retired in 2007 after 15 years as chief investigating judge for counter-terrorism, reached this conclusion after interrogating a French militant who...

A suicide car bomb devastated Pakistan's main spy agency building in the northwest city of Peshawar, striking at the heart of the institution overseeing much of the country's anti-terror campaign. At least 11 people have been confirmed dead and 39 injured in the blast, the police co-ordination officer Saebzada Anees confirmed. The attackers struck at the headquarters of the ISI intelligence agency, which was completely razed by the blast, in the city's most high security neighbourhood. The homes of the chief minister, provincial governor, the army corp commander and the American consultate are all close by.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Authorities say seven people have been killed and 35 wounded in a bomb blast outside the headquarters of Pakistan's spy agency in the northwest. The attack Friday took place in the city of Peshawar.

The ISI has influence over every terrorist group and uses this to its “advantage”, Pervez Musharraf has said in a rare admission that corroborates India’s suspicions of Pakistani hand in attacks. The former President debunked Pakistan’s oft-repeated position that its ISI had no role in terror activities across the border and claimed that the intelligence agency was effective because of such influence — which he chose to describe by using the word “ingress”. “Always, in every group, there is an ingress of the ISI. And that is the efficiency, the effectiveness of the ISI. You must have ingress, so that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Al Qaeda's umbrella group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in the heart of Baghdad that killed at least 155 people, including 24 children trapped in a bus leaving a day care center. The Al Qaeda branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, said in a statement posted on the Internet late Monday that its "martyrs ... targeted the dens of infidelity."

On July 25, Najibullah Zazi, a lanky man in his mid-twenties, walked into the Beauty Supply Warehouse in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. The visit was captured on a store video camera. Wearing a baseball cap and pushing a shopping cart, Zazi appeared to be just another suburban guy.Of course, not many suburban guys buy six bottles of Clairoxide hair bleach, as Zazi did on this shopping trip--or return a month later to buy a dozen bottles of "Ms. K Liquid," a peroxide-based product. Aware that these were hardly the typical purchases of a heavily bearded, dark-haired young...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a ground offensive against al-Qaida and the Taliban's main stronghold along the Afghan border Saturday, officials said, in the country's toughest test yet against a strengthening insurgency. The United States has long pushed the government to carry out an assault in South Waziristan, and it comes after two weeks of militant attacks that have killed more than 175 people across the nuclear-armed country. That has ramped up pressure on the army to act. Pakistan has fought three unsuccessful campaigns since 2001 in the region, which is the nerve-center for...

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan has boldly stepped up where even India has been discreet in treading, bluntly accusing the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI of masterminding the latest bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul which killed 17 people.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2009 – Iraqi forces, with U.S. advisors, in recent days have arrested an alleged terrorist financier and recruiter, as well as five suspects in a roadside bomb network, military officials reported. In Balad, the Iraqi army’s emergency response brigade arrested alleged Khitab Hezbollah financier and recruiter Khalid Masur Ismail in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. Ismail, who also is known as Abu Mustafa, was arrested on a court-issued warrant when he identified himself upon contact and admitted to working as a manager for a security firm alleged to be a front for Khitab Hezbollah. During the operation, Iraqi...

Note: The following SNIPPET is a quote: Al-Qaeda's "Islamic State of Iraq" Calls on Muslims to Join Uighur Jihad against China On August 22, 2009, the media division of Al-Qaeda's "Islamic State of Iraq" organization (ISI) released the sixth video in its "Knights of Martyrdom" series, which celebrates jihadists killed in the war in Iraq. This time, the video was dedicated to the Muslims of East Turkestan, i.e. the Uighurs of China's Xinjiang Province. The clashes that took place in Urumchi in July between Uighurs and the Chinese authorities and other Han Chinese elicited a large wave of popular support...

Among the questions asked by the Goldwater survey were such puzzlers as “What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?” and “Who was the first president of the United States?” The full report will be released shortly, but here are ten of the questions asked, along with the percentage of students who answered them correctly. To pass, the students had only to correctly answer six of the ten questions, pulled at random from a pool of questions from the U.S. citizenship exam. Only 3.5% of the students, all from government schools, passed the test. That’s about 40 out of...

More than 80% of Pakistanis view the Taliban and Al Qaeda as a critical threat to the country, according to an opinion poll released Wednesday, marking a turn in public opinion that stands to bolster the army's ongoing offensive against militants close to the Afghan border. The findings will be welcomed by Washington, which is pressing Islamabad to take the fight to insurgents blamed for scores of bloody bombings in nuclear-armed Pakistan in recent years as well as attacks on NATO and US troops in Afghanistan. The army has been battling militants in the Swat Valley in the country's northwest...

WASHINGTON: In a new revelation, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA of the United States and his country's ISI together created the Taliban. "I think it was part of your past and our past, and the ISI and CIA created them together," Zardari told the NBC news channel in an interview. In the interview, which was given to the NBC on May 7, Zardari also accused the US of supporting the military rule of Pervez Musharraf who was alleged to be taking sides of the Taliban. He disagreed with the popular belief in the US that...

The Corporate State Culture by: Heather Latham, April 14, 2009 “Just what exactly is a culture of enterprise?” Dr. Richard Brake, Director of the Culture of Enterprise Initiative at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), asked at a Heritage Foundation event on April 2nd. “[P]erhaps even more important, how have this past year’s dramatic and, in many ways, unprecedented economic events…affected the long-term viability and prospects for securing and expanding the benefits of a dynamic, vibrant, and humane culture of enterprise?” He said simply, “[W]e are…at a crossroads today” and turned to the panelists to answer his previous questions. The panelists...

NEW TORK: Operatives in Pakistan's military intelligence are directly aiding Taliban's campaign in southern Afghanistan, despite official claims that ISI has severed all relations with the extremists, a media report said here on Thursday. The Taliban's widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the New York Times said, citing US government officials. The support, it said, consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements....

Pakistani authorities have given an ultimatum to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hizb-ul Mujahideen terror camps in Meerpur and Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, to restart anti-India activities and push trained operatives into India, intelligence sources told this newspaper. They have been given one month to carry out terror acts or face closure. Intelligence sources claimed that Pakistan’s ISI area commander, one Col. Musa, called a meeting of zonal heads of the LeT and Hizb in Rawalkot, PoK, on February 13 and instructed them to send trained operatives of defunct camps into India. "The ISI has told all defunct terror camps in Meerpur and...

The United States needs to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan until it has achieved a decisive victory over Islamic jihadists, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday. “Containing them is not enough,” the two-term conservative Republican senator said during a telephone interview. Santorum, who will be in Lincoln Tuesday for two speaking appearances, said Islamic radicals view the election of President Barack Obama as a signal that the United States is “in the process of surrender.” Obama plans to order a phased withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq over the next 16 months. Although he is preparing to send...

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India has for the first time directly accused Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency -- the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) -- of involvement in last year's Mumbai attacks. "The perpetrators planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organisers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said in a speech in Paris on Thursday that was picked up by the Indian media. In January, India handed Pakistan what it said was evidence linking "elements" in Pakistan to the November attacks on India's financial capital, in which 10 gunmen killed 165...

JAMMU: At the time when militancy in Jammu & Kashmir has fallen to its lowest levels in two decades, desperation across the border is evident with Pakistan's ISI preparing women terrorists squads to fuel violence in the state. The revelation of a Pakistani woman, Asiya Bibi (23), who is in J&K police's custody, that ISI is training about 100 women for terror assignments in the state has sent the security establishment into a tizzy.

I want to see my mother: Kasab 9 Dec 2008, 0308 hrs IST, S Ahmed Ali, TNN Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text: MUMBAI: Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist in police custody, repents his act and wants to return to Pakistan. On Saturday night, he broke down in custody, police sources said. "Mujhe maaf kar do, mujhe apne desh Pakistan jana hai, meri emmi ke paas'' (Please forgive me, I want to see my mother, I want to go back to my country Pakistan)" Kasab is said to have told policemen interrogating him. "I want to live,"...

India has proof that the Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI was behind the deadly Mumbai attacks. Sources have told NDTV that ISI trained the attackers.The names of trainers and the places where meticulous training took place are also known to the government, the sources said. The United States is believed to have even more evidence some of which it has shared with India, they said. The US has told Pakistan that they have proof of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's role and sought the arrest of its chief Hafeez Sayeed. Sources added it is hard to imagine that Pakistan army was not aware...

WASHINGTON/ NEW DELHI: Pakistan has agreed to a 48-hour timetable set by India and the United States to formulate a plan to take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and to arrest at least three Pakistanis who Indian authorities say are linked to the multiple attacks in Mumbai, a top US daily reported, citing a top Pakistani official. ( Watch ) The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, said India had also asked Pakistan to arrest and hand over LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi and former chief of Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Hamid Gul, in...

Ignorance is a B.A. by: Jesse Masai, December 05, 2008 Americans, including elected officials, earn a failing grade when tested on American history and economics. The recently-released third Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) Report on Civic Literacy suggests there is an epidemic of historical, political and economic ignorance in America and that colleges ought to be the main part of the cure. “Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America’s constitutional system,” reads the report referring to its test of civic literacy in which liberals score 49%, conservatives 48%, and...

A little over a decade ago I sat in the living room of Hamid Gul, a still-powerful former head of Pakistani intelligence, listening to him rail in cold fury about the United States. A hawk-like man with laser black eyes, Gul was known as the "father of the Taliban" for his role in midwifing the fundamentalist Afghan coalition into a fighting force that took Kabul and ruled the country with a puritanical zeal until ousted by the U.S. in the wake of 9/11. Now he's been fingered by the U.S. as one of four former top Pakistani intelligence officers supporting...

I am sure many of you have read "Ghost Wars" by Steven Coll and saw "Charlie Wilson's War" or read the book 2 excellent sources for the Afghan-Soviet War in the 1980s and our involvement The question is, based on what you have soaked in from those sources, and of course hindsight being 20/20, if you were in charge, would you have conducted the American role in the Afghan-Soviet war in the same fashion as we conducted it. I.E we (The United States with matching Saudi donations) funneled money and weapons through Pakistan, to General Zia's ISI and into the...

Details emerge on CIA terror plot warnings Praveen Swami MUMBAI: Indian intelligence sources have confirmed to The Hindu that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) delivered two warnings of an impending terror attack on Mumbai in September. The first one was delivered through the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) on September 18. The sources said the information was of general nature, suggesting that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was planning to attack Mumbai. The sources said that on September 24, the CIA provided further details in response to a request from the RAW. In this second warning, the U.S. agency expressly stated that the...

Former Pakistan army officials trained Mumbai attackers: NYT 4 Dec 2008, 0911 hrs IST, IANS NEW YORK: Former Pakistani army officials trained the terrorists who went on rampage last week in Mumbai, The New York Times said on Wednesday quoting unnamed Pentagon officials. "A former Defense Department official said on Wednesday that American intelligence agencies had determined that former officers from Pakistan's Army and its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped train the Mumbai attackers," The New York Times said in its news report from Washington. "But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that no specific links had...

Preliminary investigations on Thursday pointed to involvement of at least some Pakistani nationals in the serial terror attacks in Mumbai that left over 100 dead and 270 others injured. "There are indications that the perpetrators of the crime, who arrived in Mumbai by boats, are Pakistani nationals," authoritative sources said. The indications are based on information gathered from captured terrorists, the sources said.

If there is any presidential speech that has captured a place in popular culture, it is the Gettysburg Address, seemingly recited by school children for decades. The truth is, however, Lincoln’s most memorable words are now remembered by very few. Of the 2,508 Americans taking ISI’s civic literacy test, 71% fail. Story Below The test contains 33 questions designed to measure knowledge of America’s founding principles, political history, international relations, and market economy. While the questions vary in difficulty, most test basic knowledge. Six are borrowed from U.S. government naturalization exams that test knowledge expected of all new American citizens....

Civics Quiz Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

Voters Fail the Test By Kathleen Parker Tuesday, November 25, 2008; 7:56 PM WASHINGTON -- So much for the wisdom of The People. A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on the nation's civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote. Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics. In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent. Only 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an...

WE’RE NOT LED BY THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). “It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI’s civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned,” said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy...

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: In a major reshuffle in the army’s top command, Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday brought in a new head of the all-powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), changed four of the nine corps commanders and appointed a new chief of general staff, besides giving key postings to a few others. The shake-up is the most wide-ranging since Gen Kayani took over as the COAS and perhaps even more significant since the former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf stepped down as the country’s controversial president. The move came within hours of the...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has appointed a new chief for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, months after U.S. officials had questioned the reliability of the military's premier spy agency in the war against terrorism. In a statement released late Monday, the military said Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, formerly head of Military Operations, had been appointed Director-General of the ISI, replacing Lieutenant-General Nadeem Taj. Often referred to by critics as a "state within a state," the ISI is feared by neighboring Afghanistan and India, as well as Pakistan's civilian politicians whose governments have been overthrown by military coups. U.S. fears that...

Excerpt - Karachi, 24 Sept. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged. The suspect, Qari Zafar (photo), has become part of Al-Qaeda's hardline Takfiri inner circle. He enjoys the protection of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and is believed to be hiding out in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area of North West Frontier Province. Zafar is not only the suspected mastermind of the Marriot bomb blast, but has created a network which will shortly target strategic installations belonging to...

Several senior officers of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who are reported to be currently visiting Islamabad were the target of the blast at the Marriott Hotel which took place here tonight. Well placed sources said that Marriott Hotel is usual hotel choice of the US officials and it seems that militants tipped off that certain high level US intelligence officers were currently staying at the hotel.

An excellent article by Fraser Nelson in London's Spectator at the end of July put it as succinctly as I have seen it: At a recent dinner party in the British embassy in Kabul, one of the guests referred to "the Afghan-Pakistan war." The rest of the table fell silent. This is the truth that dare not speak its name. Even mentioning it in private in the Afghan capital's green zone is enough to solicit murmurs of disapproval. Few want to accept that the war is widening; that it now involves Pakistan, a country with an unstable government and nuclear...

Excerpt - The plane crash that killed President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan has spawned myriad conspiracy theories since his C-130 plunged into the Bahawalpur Desert with his top generals and the US Ambassador on board exactly 20 years ago tomorrow. The despot’s death changed Pakistan’s political landscape in an instant, ushering the Muslim state into a period of shaky civilian rule, similar to the situation the country finds itself in today. American, Soviet, Pakistani, Indian and even Israeli intelligence agents are among those blamed for sabotaging the plane. But now, two decades on, the The Times has reviewed the...

Pakistani intelligence complicit in Afghan violence: US general WASHINGTON (AFP) - The top US commander in Afghanistan Thursday publicly accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate of "some complicity" over time with militant groups fomenting violence in Afghanistan. Lieutenant General David McKiernan's comment in an interview with CNN was the most unambiguous statement yet on the matter by a senior US military officer, reflecting growing US frustration over the insurgent violence in Afghanistan. "Do I believe that the Pakistani government must do more? I absolutely do. Do I believe there has been some complicity on the part of organizations such as the...

India Daily Aug 3, 2008 Editorial: Sudhir Chadda America can do it. It has large enough stick and carrot to do it. The Bush Administration is proceeding in the right direction. Finally the Americans have understood how terrorism works in Pakistan. It is based on the Pakistani spy network ISI. Now Americans have moved to force ISI (the mother of all terrorists) flush out its own creation. US on Sunday asked Pakistan to get its intelligence network to work towards tackling terrorism that is affecting its neighborhood. "Pakistan needs to get everybody lined up in the same direction if they...

Bush warns Pakistan of ‘serious action’ Monday, August 04, 2008 LONDON: The United States has accused Pakistan’s main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting, the Sunday Times reported. President George W Bush confronted Yusuf Raza Gilani in Washington last week with evidence of involvement by the ISI in a deadly attack on the Afghan capital and warned of retaliation if it continues. The move comes amid growing fears that Pakistanís tribal areas are turning into a global launch pad for terrorists. Gilani, on his...

Pakistan to probe embassy bombing The pledge to investigate the bombing came after talks between the leaders Pakistan has offered to investigate a bomb attack on India's embassy in Kabul last month that killed more than 50 people, India's foreign secretary says.The announcement followed talks between the two countries' prime ministers at a South Asian summit in Sri Lanka. Pakistan has come under pressure over claims, which it denies, that its spy agency was involved in the bombing. Earlier, the Indian foreign secretary said relations had deteriorated to their worst level for four years. The leaders are attending the...

The United States has accused Pakistan’s main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting.

As Western and Pakistani intelligence sort through the fallout from the July 28 airstrike in South Waziristan, Pakistan, rumors are swirling that Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, was either killed or seriously wounded in the attack. All of these rumors have been based on Pakistani intelligence sources, which makes the allegations suspect. Without confirmation from the US military or intelligence, the reports from Pakistan should be viewed with deep skepticism. From the strike to the Zawahiri rumor Rumors of Zawahiri's death or wounding began four days after what appears to be a US Predator unmanned aerial vehicle...

ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: Pakistan on Friday angrily rejected a report that the United States had accused its main spy agency – ISI – of helping to plan a fatal bombing at India’s embassy in Kabul last month. Citing unnamed officials, the New York Times said intercepted communications had provided clear evidence that the ISI was involved in the July 7 suicide attack on the Indian mission, which killed around 60 people. “It’s rubbish. We totally deny it,” Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said. “This is a baseless allegation that the New York Times keeps on recycling using anonymous sources. These...