ISI: Musharraf’s defence of ISI

ISI has been the cash cow for the generals running Pakistan army.

No one is aware of its international beneficiaries.

Suffice to say that ISI has international protection in its operations.

US $ are funded through ISI. Moolah is raked in through opium trade and gun running. All this has official sanction. Pakistan is not USA. Iran-Contra deals may surface in USA and abettors fingered, but not in Pakistan.

ISI Pak’s first line of defence: Mush

Islamabad: Amid pressure from India and the US to rein in ISI, President Pervez Musharraf has come to its rescue saying any attempt to target the spy agency will weaken Pakistan as it is “the first line of defence” and lashed out at his detractors for calling him an “American stooge”.

Musharraf, who was addressing businessmen in Karachi on Sunday, said the recent allegations levelled against the ISI are a “conspiracy” against Pakistan.

The former military strongman described the intelligence agency as “the first defence line of Pakistan”, saying that weakening the ISI would weaken Pakistan and its armed forces as well as the war against terror.”

Conspiracies against the ISI are aimed at defaming Pakistan and the spy agency is a patriotic institution working for the stability of the country, he said.
Musharraf ’s comments came against the backdrop of India and Afghanistan accusing the ISI of being behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed nearly 60 people.

He hit back at his detractors, saying: “The nation will have to decide as to which kind of Islam it wants. The world says that Pakistan is extremist. We will have to prove that we are not so.When I say this, I’m dubbed as an American stooge.”

“We have to decide whether we want a liberal and moderate Pakistan or a terrorist or extremist Pakistan,” he added.

It is widely believed that Musharraf and the armed forces played a key role in pressuring the government to go back on a notification issued last month to place the notorious spy agency under the complete control of the interior ministry.

Musharraf also said he was ready to talk to the Jamaat-e-Islami and the PML-N, which are demanding his impeachment.

The president said that a dangerous situation is brewing as the economic situation of the country was very fragile and it has become difficult for Pakistan to survive with such a weak economy. PTI

Extracts:

ON MARCH 21, the US Assistant Secretary of State, Ms Christina Rocca, and the former US ambassador to Pakistan, Ms Wendy Chamberlain, appeared before the House International Relations Sub-Committee for the Asia-Pacific.

Ms Wendy Chamberlain was asked by Mr Dana Rohrabacher Republican Congressman from California: “How will you characterise the ISI’s involvement in the opium smuggling business on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border over the past six years?” “Substantial,” replied Ms Wendy Chamberlain.

“So the Pakistan Intelligence Service had substantial involvement in the opium business along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border over the last six years?” he asked again. “Over the last six years, substantial” confirmed Ms Chamberlain.

This was the first time that a senior American official testifying under oath was publicly admitting what had been long known and vehemently denied by Gen Pervez Musharraf and his minions about the direct involvement of the ISI in drug smuggling. Substantial evidence had emerged in the 1990s about how the ISI had indulged in drug smuggling across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and used vehicles of the army’s National Logistics Cell to transport heroin from Peshawar to Karachi and Lahore.

It is no secret that the ISI uses the drug money to promote terrorism abroad. The US Congress should now inquire why the Clinton Administration chose to cover up these facts during its eight years in office.

It is not without reason that Pakistan’s army has been categorised a `rogue army’. The highly respected International Crisis Group (ICG) in Brussels recently described how Gen Musharraf and the army establishment have been promoting the interests of fundamentalist political parties of the MMA in Pakistan.