The finest intelligence agency in the world – by Omar Ali
I was trying to figure out why our security establishment (rated number one in the world, according to the 200 emails I have received in the last few days from army officers and their cousins and admirers) is so helpless in the face of these killers? How is it possible that the ISI, the “finest and most competent intelligence agency in the world”, has no clue where these mysterious Taliban are located? More seriously, why is it that the establishment is still divided over this war and GHQ is unable to ask its publicity agents (Ahmed Qureshi, Shireen Mazari, Zaid Hamid, etc) to stop spreading confusion and disarray? And then I found this fresh article on ISI’s site (Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz) that pretty much explains everything.
As is clear from the article and the comments posted on it, our security establishment and its fans sincerely believe in “the clash of civilizations” and the coming world war between good and evil (as described in a hundred different Zaid Hamid videos). Once you accept that worldview, its not that hard to think that the killing of Sifwat Ghayoor, the bombings in different cities, the ongoing double-game with the taliban, all are justified in the light of the higher objective. If we take serious action against all the jihadis, then we are taking action against the very people who will be the frontline soldiers in the inevitable next phase of this war.
I would add that of course I don’t personally believe that ISI is the finest intelligence agency in the world. I think they are rather incompetent and internally divided, as is the entire establishment. The point is not that they are all single-minded closet jihadis, but that too many of them subscribe to a worldview (Islamic Ummah versus the rest of humanity, India as eternal enemy, the need for strategic depth, and so on) which prevents them from taking decisive action against dangerous terrorists. As an example of what I mean, let me relate a phone conversation I had with a friend: speaking of the tragic death of a fine officer like Sifwat Ghayoor, he put forward the possibility that someone in the ISI may have helped to target Ghayoor. This may not be true (I think it is probably NOT true) but the fact that many in Pakistan are not sure whose side the establishment is on makes this entire dirty war ten times harder than it should be. Consider India, whose security agencies are more primitive and rickety than our heavily funded agencies and are probably equally or even more corrupt. But if a senior Indian officer is assassinated by terrorists, one expects the entire establishment to be looking for the assassins, not shielding them. In other words, when it comes to terrorism, they are all likely to be pulling in the same direction. The only exception may be Hindutava terrorism, in which case some of them may have divided loyalties. But Hindutava terrorism has not yet taken on the state or reached the same proportions as jihadi terrorism in Pakistan, so that exception is not in the same category at all. Unless the Pakistani establishment makes up its mind about which side they are on and stops playing games and promoting Zaid Hamid type nonsense, we are in very deep trouble.
I agree with the argument that the loyalty of establishment seems divided, ISI however doesn’t seem so. In the past few decades we have seen the agency coming to rescue the country when fished in troubled waters.
Unfortunately our politician have never been strong enough to take stance against foreign forces and at times a few have been even willing to sacrifice the country’s interest for their own. It’s unfortunate to have an army holding more power than political system but in a country like ours it seems a basic requirement for her survival, as there are politicians in power who are willing to sell her out along with her nationals. There is no internal division inside ISI. It is governed under one command and has a clear agenda and objectives. Without a shadow of doubt it is serving the nation to the best of its abilities. As of now it is specifically countering US interest to bring instability to this country. This is one of the reasons that the US is putting pressure to bring it under Interior Ministry (Rehman Malik to be more specific). What do you expect afterwards ? CIA is having real difficulties in operating it this region and the word has come from its director that they cannot survive without ISI. The organization (ISI) knows its role well and has been performing since 1948. “Its success in achieving its goal without leading to a full scale invasion of Pakistan by the Soviets is a feat unmatched by any other throughout the intelligence world. KGB, The best of its time, failed to counter ISI and protect Soviet interests in Central Asia”. As claimed by CIA, ISI is playing a double role by allying with them and backstabbing them through Taliban. We’ve never had problem with Taliban till American invasion of Afghanistan. There didn’t use to be a single soldier on western border as it was the safest. Now thousands of troops have been deployed there leaving us with a smaller number to counter Indians on eastern border. Don’t you see the destabilization brought to our country by US ? The bomb blasts and targeted killings are being carried out by CIA funded organizations, black water to name one. And it all points to one direction, if we accept the CIA claim of ISI’s double role, it’s nothing but for the very good of its country. Besides suicide bombings can never be stopped anywhere. Adding to it, it’s not only CIA now but other foreign agencies have also used the cover of CIA and are trying to achieve their long awaited objectives, which ISI seems aware of. We must admit that these suicide attacks have significantly decreased in number over the past few weeks otherwise we were having one every single day. Besides we cannot attribute every assassination to the agency. There are a lot of possibilities.
To close it all I would second your comment in a higher perspective “In the course of this struggle, some good people will be sacrificed, but when the cause is so great and the stakes are so high, these are minor details”. We have a bigger objective; to sail the country safely out of the chaos it has been put it. Let’s keep our hopes high and support our institutions whose loyalty to this land cannot be questioned.
Muhammad Usman
Very well said omer, here is my point on it which i had said on that website too:
This is interesting but here is the question:
ISI is best in doing what ??
1. Creating snakes and charging the world billions of dollars for in in 80s first and then charging again for eliminating (or lets say the drama of eliminating) them??
2. Toppling successive civillian governments by half-truth stories of corruption (in which ISI itself helped the politicians at first place by distributing money i.e ref to mehran bank scandal)
3. By killing any voice which talks agains ISI?
3. By murdering its own people and abducting them and selling them to USA and WEST in the name of NATIONAL SECURITY?
4. By defending a COPY-PASTED and STOLEN nuclear program from what? none . . . . A self made sensivite issue to create justifications for BIG MILITARY BUDGETS?
5. For doing all kinds of evils in the world JUST TO ENSURE FEW CORE COMMANDERs keep power in their hand?
Well . . the writer of this post is definitely right. ISI is indeed best in doing evils of all kinds and this gives them CONTROL on POWER in PAKISTAN. And this exactly the reason the country is at the brink of collapse in all sectors of the affairs. Be it economics, education, health.
The writer definitely has a self-tilted biased vision of the issue. Since he has neither provided any reference nor any statistics nor any examples except some falsely put ones. ISI is definitely best in creating mess and then getting reward for removing it.
and i am a PAK by the way . . .
There isnt a single achievement by ISI which is for people of PAKISTAN. It is all for either the GENERALS or the USA (for dollars that is).
If this is what it is best in . . .well the writer is right
Well there is no doubt about them being number “1” keeping in mid their Track Record. Publicly Known Facts and Published too:)
جس روز شہر کا قتل ہوا۔۔۔
حسن مجتبی
سان ڈیاگو، کیلیفورنیا
وقتِ اشاعت: Friday, 30 September, 2005, 16:59 GMT 21:59 PST
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/miscellaneous/story/2005/09/050930_hyderabad_massacre_as.shtml
Read the above column in the light of this and you will solve “who is behind question”
A person is known by the company he keep and I am talking about Hamid Gul:)
A blast from the past read the names in All Pakistan Democratic Movement: ISLAMABAD: The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) on Tuesday decided to launch a campaign against the January 8 elections after Eidul Azha. The decision was taken at the national conference of the alliance held here under the chairmanship of APDM Convener Mahmood Khan Achakzai. President of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan, Dr. Qadir Magsi, Dr. Abdul Hayee Baloch, Abid Hassan Minto, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Rasul Bakhsh Palejo, Hamid Khan, Hamid Gul and others attended the conference. APDM to launch poll boycott drive after Eid
Wednesday December 19, 2007 (0902 PST) http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?195670
Politics is about public and masses and a person is known by the company he keeps.
Those who attended the meeting also included Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, Dr Qadir Magsi, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Rasul Baksh Palejo, Syed Muhammad Bilal, Abid Hassan Minto, Nawaz Gondal, Hamid Gul, Abdul Majeed Hazarvi, Mian Muhammad Aslam, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Chaudhry Tanvir, Sardar Naseem, Nawaz Gondal, Abul Khair Zubair, Zahid Khan and others. APDM announces polls boycott Sets four-day deadline for acceptance of demands Sunday, November 25, 2007 http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=11362
The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) name was ok but what Hamid Gul was doing in it???? Should we forget Nazir Abbasi, Thori Phatak, Military Operation in Moro, K N Shah, Mehar, Dadu and Lakhat during MRD Days, above all should we forget Hamid Gul’s proverbial hate towards Sindhis. [Introduction of Hamid Gul: Hamid Gul callling Baitullah Mehsud and Faqir Muhammad “Mujahids” http://criticalppp.com/archives/20304
Lt Gen (retd) Hameed Gul told The News that like Ms Bhutto, Maulana Fazl has also cut a deal with the Americans and was playing a dubious political role as per the script written by the US. He said that in the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) meeting, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad had assured the opposition leaders that the Maulana had given his assent to the resignation move. Benazir, Fazl doing US bidding
Sunday, September 23, 2007 http://www.thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=10263
General Hamid Gul [APDM] was saying that Benazir Bhutto was an American Agent whereas read Dr Qadir Magsi [APDM] says—
HYDERABAD, Jan 7: The Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party chairman, Dr Qadir Magsi, has said that PPP leader Benazir Bhutto was the symbol of federation and her murder was ‘tantamount to murder of Pakistan,’ adding that Pakistan has now become alien for Sindhis. HYDERABAD: Benazir was symbol of federation, says Magsi Bureau Report January 08, 2008 http://www.dawn.com/2008/01/08/local19.htm
Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as “Great Son of Sindh” do read GM Jatoi “achievements for Sindh in my posts and other two posts as well: Lies of Ghulam Mustafa Khar, General [R] Faiz Ali Chishti & Mehran Bank Scandal. http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/04/lies-of-ghulam-mustafa-khar-general-r.html
‘شریف النفس’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/urdu/2009/11/post_544.html
حسن مجتییٰ |
G M Jatoti, watch this DAWN NEWS CHANNEL Investigative Program ON MEHRANGATE SCANDAL, Late Mr Jatoi was one of the beneficiary [DAWN News TV Investigation Report with Masood Sharif – 6th January 2008 http://www.sharifpost.com/2008/01/06/dawn-news-tv-investigation-report/