Pakistan: Not a compliant ally

WASHINGTON — Release of 92,000 U.S. military field reports from Afghanistan by WikiLeaks has revealed the war’s ugly underbelly and embarrassed the hell out of Washington and its NATO allies, including Canada.

They have fired back, claiming release of these old reports from 2004-2009, endangers “our boys.”

Nonsense. The only thing the truth endangers are the politicians who have hung their hats on the Afghan War and some paid informers.

The facts are shocking: Wide-scale killing of civilians by U.S. and NATO forces; torture of prisoners handed over to the Communist-dominated Afghan secret police; death squads; endemic corruption and theft; double-dealing and demoralization of western occupation forces facing ever fiercer Taliban resistance.

I’ve been reporting on the lies and propaganda about the Afghan war since 2001.

The most interesting part of Wikigate was Pakistan’s supposedly duplicitous behaviour in aiding the U.S.-led war while maintaining secret links with the Taliban and its allies.

The U.S. government and media have been blasting Pakistan while downplaying the atrocities — and, charges WikiLeaks, “war crimes” — committed by western forces.

Here’s the bottom line on Pakistan’s “duplicity.”

After 9/11, the U.S. threatened to “bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age” unless it turned against the Taliban, a religious, anti-Communist movement, and opened Pakistan to U.S. military forces and intelligence operations.

This was told to me by a former head of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service whose directors I have known since 1985.

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf says his nation was forced to reluctantly give in to intense U.S. pressure and abandon the Taliban, which served as Pakistan’s proxy army in Afghanistan battling the still active Afghan Communist Party — Tajik Northern Alliance, also backed by Russia and Iran. Intensifying efforts by India to extend its influence into Afghanistan deeply worry Pakistan.

Pakistan was forced by the U.S. to act against its own vital strategic interests. Southern Afghanistan has long been Pakistan’s sphere of influence.

This column revealed that in 2007, Pakistan and India concluded that the U.S. and its dragooned allies would be defeated and driven from Afghanistan. Both old foes began implementing a proxy war to control strategic Afghanistan.

Pakistan was compelled to follow a dual-track policy: Accepting semi-occupation by the U.S. and $1 billion annually from Washington and paying lip service to the U.S.-led war, while keeping open links to Taliban and tribal militants.

This was basic common sense. No one should have been surprised — particularly not Washington which has a long record of abandoning faithful allies.

Washington and U.S. media are heaping blame for the growing fiasco in Afghanistan on Gen. Hamid Gul, former director general of the ISI intelligence agency.

Gul led the anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan in the 1980s and was one of America’s most formidable allies.

I knew Gul well. He is not anti-American. He is pro-Pakistan, a Pakistani patriot at a time when so many Pakistani politicians and generals have been bought like bags of Basmati rice.

Many of the false charges against Gul came from the Communist-led Afghan secret police.

What Washington really wants is a totally obedient, obsequious Pakistan, not a real ally.

But the interests of the two nations must at times diverge

Trying to make Pakistan into a satellite state will result in that vastly important, nuclear-armed nation one day exploding with anti-American hatred, as was the case in Iran in 1979.

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is putting the two nations on a collision course.

Here in Washington, the U.S. Congress just ignored the WikiLeaks scandal and voted for yet more billions to fuel the Afghanistan War.

Politicians are petrified to oppose this nine-year war, lest they be accused of being anti-patriotic, the kiss of death in hyper-patriotic America — where flag-wavers root for foreign wars so long as their kids don’t have to serve and they don’t have to pay taxes to finance them. ERIC MARGOLIS, QMI Agency

Wheres the government?

All I see is that its the Army which has taken the initiaive of providing relief to the flood victims while our political establishment is nowhere to be seen, its the Army chief who is visiting the victims and giving them solace while our president is on his expensive over seas visit, its the Army which is taking stance on Pakistan’s honour and it is the Army which is taking a stern stance on the core interests of Pakistan… If its the Army which is supposed to do all this then whats the point of having this shenanigan we call our government?

First Cameron Insults, Now UK Media Disfigures Our Flag

It should be abundantly clear that the British government and media have commenced a campaign against Pakistan both at the diplomatic and propaganda levels. Prime Minister David Cameron fired the first salvo deliberately choosing India so as to have the proper impact in Pakistan. Our state, seeming to wallow in abuse at the hands of the White Man, pussyfooted around these abusive remarks and shamefully President Zardari

continued with his private visit to the UK while the Foreign Office woke up only days later to summon the British High Commissioner – when it realised the public outcry was getting stronger. Not that any of this mattered since the British Prime Minister was totally unrepentant and, just to make sure the Pakistanis got the point, he reiterated that he meant what he had said and was neither going to take his words back or express any regret over them. Now where does Foreign Minister Qureshi stand, given how he insisted the Cameron remarks were a mere “slip of the tongue”?
Following Cameron, The Independent (clearly not so independent of UK government links!) newspaper has now seen fit to distort the Pakistani flag in a way that clearly insults the nation. Would they dare to do something like this to the Indian flag? This is a repeat of the blasphemous cartoons targeting Islam in the absurd claims of “freedom of expression”, only this time Pakistan is the target. Everyone knows the national flag symbolises the nation and the British media, by disfiguring the flag, has assaulted the state and nation of Pakistan. How many more insults will our leaders compel us to bear? Is there no end to how much abuse we are meant to take in the post-9/11 era?

Kashmir spins out of control: Pro-Pakistani protestors keep up the pressure

Srinagar (Indian Occupied Kashmir): In an unprecedented situation, virtually the whole Kashmir Valley has erupted in night-time protest demonstrations, with Pro-Pakistani slogans reverberating at a high pitch far and wide.

Community and mosque loud speakers are being used to air Pro-Pakistani slogans at a high pitch creating an extraordinary situation. People are being exhorted to come out of their homes and join the protests.

Srinagar and its adjoining areas are witnessing widespread Pro-Pakistani demonstrations. Women and children are part of the protests.

Similar reports are pouring in from almost all the towns and villages across Valley.

A report from Bandipora says that thousands of people from across the district have descended on the district headquarter town and are raising slogans. All paramilitary and police forces have disengaged from the area.

The situation is getting grimmer as the news of the killings of young protesters is spreading across the Valley.

• Stone-pelting mobs defied curfew restrictions at many places in Srinagar, Budgam, Bandipora and Baramulla in North Kashmir and Awantipora and Kulgam in South Kashmir
• With four more deaths in police firing on Tuesday, Kashmir appeared to be headed for a deeper crisis, a clear sign that the violent events were a throwback to the street mayhem of the nineties when life in most parts of the Valley remained paralysed.
• The situation has come to such a pass that faced with the grim situation of an uninterrupted cycle of violence with every passing day
• The Centre may consider the option of suspending the state assembly
• A major development of the day was the re-arrest of hardliner Pro-Pakistani separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, whose release on Monday created hopes of a possible thaw.
• Pro-Pakistani Geelani’s demand for lifting of curfew was not acceded to by the state government.
• Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party, might be behind the current spate of violent protests.

With four more deaths in police firing on Tuesday, Kashmir appeared to be headed for a deeper crisis, a clear sign that the violent events were a throwback to the street mayhem of the nineties when life in most parts of the Valley remained paralysed.

The situation has come to such a pass that faced with the grim situation of an uninterrupted cycle of violence with every passing day, the Centre may consider the option of suspending the state assembly. A suggestion to this effect is understood to have been made by Governor N N Vohra in his report to the Union Home Ministry.

Additional forces
On the streets, protesters defied curfew, coming out in droves to defy the security forces as the Centre, on a request from a beleaguered chief minister Omar Abdullah, decided to despatch an additional 2,000 security men to bolster the paramilitary presence in Srinagar and other towns where violent demonstrations have spread like wildfire.

Stone-pelting mobs defied curfew restrictions at many places in Srinagar, Budgam, Bandipora and Baramulla in North Kashmir and Awantipora and Kulgam in South Kashmir and attacked police parties.

In Frisal Sherpora, Kulgam, a police post and the houses of a policeman and Special Police Official (SPO) were set on fire by rampaging mobs. In Budgam, the Soibugh police post was set ablaze.

Nearly half a dozen police stations were attacked by mobs before the police fired on them, causing the deaths of four persons. At least 20 policemen were injured in Tuesday’s incidents. A major development of the day was the re-arrest of hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, whose release on Monday created hopes of a possible thaw. Geelani’s demand for lifting of curfew was not acceded to by the state government.

There were reports that shoot-at-sight orders were issued in curfew-bound Srinagar to control the crowds defying security restrictions. While the state government denied these reports, the police said announcements were being made on loudspeakers asking people to remain indoors and not violate curfew failing which they would be dealt with severely.

Abdullah had on Monday sent a tough message to protesters indulging in the vicious cycle of violence, warning that consequences will be “tragic and serious” if curfew regulations were violated.

The events that have unfolded in the Valley over the past seven weeks have followed a script that has been played out in the past, especially in the nineties when street violence and defiance of the administration would occur in the backdrop of bombings and attacks by terrorists from across the border and the consequent retaliation by the forces.

The current surge in violence is different in that there have been no terrorist attacks in Srinagar or elsewhere in the Valley where the protests have assumed a more political character with much of the anger directed against Abdullah, leading analysts to believe that other political forces, including Mehboob Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party, might be behind the current spate of violent protests.

However, it is surprisingly clear that although the Congress and Abdullah’s National Conference are partners in the government in Jammu and Kashmir, there was no input at the political level that could have helped the Centre assess the emerging situation and take appropriate decisions. What has also raised eyebrows is how the internal intelligence establishment could not gauge the prevailing mood that has caught the both the Centre and the state government by surprise.

Hospitals here are under tremendous pressure to handle an increasing number of injured people. Abdul Jabbar, an employee of SMSH hospital here said he was witnessing such a grim situation for the first time after the early nineties.

The best Intelligence Agency in the world: ISI

Topping the Top Ten? “ISI for sure,’ says Gren, “No double agents, no agent ever caught on camera, the lowest budget but still affective. In war with 6 big intelligence agencies of the world. ISI has even countered MOSSAD in the 1980s and late ‘90s when there was a plan of a possible strike on Pakistan’s nukes.”

“It has to be the ISI” says John Smith on the Web site. “It broke down the Soviet Union (which also led to the reunification of Germany; the German Intelligence Chief gave a piece of the Berlin Wall to the Pakistani Intel Chief with a plaque under it saying, ‘To the one who struck the first blow’), has protected and developed the country’s nuclear assets against all odds, has defeated Al Qaeda/Taliban especially these days with the capture of Baradar, etc. by the ISI, has deep ingress into India. No other agency matches it in efficiency, precision, discipline and professionalism.”

10. ASIS – Australia
Formed 13 May 1952
Headquarters Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Annual budget $162.5m AUD (2007)
Minister responsible The Hon. Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Agency executive Nick Warner, Director-General

Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the Australian government intelligence agency responsible for collecting foreign intelligence, undertaking counter-intelligence activities and cooperation with other intelligence agencies overseas. For more than twenty years, the existence of the agency was a secret even from its own government. Its primary responsibility is gathering intelligence from mainly Asian and Pacific interests using agents stationed in a wide variety of areas. Its main purpose, as with most agencies, is to protect the country’s political and economic interests while ensuring safety for the people of Australia against national threats.

9. RAW – India
Formed
21 September 1968
Headquarters
New Delhi, India
Agency executive
K. C. Verma, Secretary (R)
Parent agency
Prime Minister’s Office, GoI

Research and Analysis Wing is India’s external intelligence agency. It was formed in September 1968, after the newly independent Republic of India was faced with 2 consecutive wars, the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and the India-Pakistani war of 1965, as it was evident that a credible intelligence gathering setup was lacking. Its primary function is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations. In addition, it is responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons, in order to advise Indian foreign policymakers. Until the creation of R&AW, the Intelligence Bureau handled both internal and external intelligence.

8. DGSE – France
Formed April 2, 1982
Preceding agency External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service
Minister responsible Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence
Agency executive Erard Corbin de Mangoux, Director

Directorate General for External Security is France’s external intelligence agency. Operating under the direction of the French ministry of defence, the agency works alongside the DCRI (the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence) in providing intelligence and national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. The General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) of France has a rather short history compared to other intelligence agencies in the region. It was officially founded in 1982 from a multitude of prior intelligence agencies in the country. Its primary focus is to gather intelligence from foreign sources to assist in military and strategic decisions for the country. The agency employs more than five thousand people.

7. FSB – Russia
Formed 3 April, 1995
Employees 350,000
Headquarters Lubyanka Square
Preceding agency KGB

The Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSD) is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet-era Cheka, NKVD and KGB. The FSB is involved in counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance. Its headquarters are on Lubyanka Square, downtown Moscow, the same location as the former headquarters of the KGB. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under the guidance of FSB, if needed. For example, the GRU, spetsnaz and Internal Troops detachments of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs work together with the FSB in Chechnya. The FSB is responsible for internal security of the Russian state, counterespionage, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling. The number of FSB personnel and its budget remain state secrets, although the budget was reported to jump nearly 40% in 2006.

6. BND – Germany
Formed 1 April 1956
Employees 6,050
Agency executive Gehlen Organization
Parent agency Central Intelligence Group

The Bundesnachrichtendienst is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Chancellor’s Office. The BND acts as an early warning system to alert the German government to threats to German interests from abroad. It depends heavily on wiretapping and electronic surveillance of international communications. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international terrorism, WMD proliferation and illegal transfer of technology, organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare. As Germany’s only overseas intelligence service, the BND gathers both military and civil intelligence.

5. MSS – China
Jurisdiction People’s Republic of China
Headquarters Beijing
Agency executive Geng Huichang, Minister of State Security
Parent agency State Council

Ministry of State Security is the security agency of the People’s Republic of China. It is also probably the Chinese government’s largest and most active foreign intelligence agency, though it is also involved in domestic security matters. Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as regular police for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by the procuratorates and the courts. It is headquartered near the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. According to Liu Fuzhi, Secretary-General of the Commission for Politics and Law under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of Public Security, the mission of the MSS is to ensure “the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies, and counter-revolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China’s socialist system.” One of the primary missions of the MSS is undoubtedly to gather foreign intelligence from targets in various countries overseas. Many MSS agents are said to have operated in the Greater China region (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) and to have integrated themselves into the world’s numerous overseas Chinese communities. At one point, nearly 120 agents who had been operating under non-official cover in the U.S., Canada, Western and Northern Europe, and Japan as businessmen, bankers, scholars, and journalists were recalled to China, a fact that demonstrates the broad geographical scope of MSS agent coverage.

4. CIA – America
Formed September 18, 1947
Employees 20,000
Agency executive Leon Panetta, Director
Parent agency Central Intelligence Group

CIA is the largest of the intelligence agencies and is responsible for gathering data from other countries that could impact U.S. policy. It is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States of America. The CIA’s primary function is to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and to advise public policymakers. The agency conducts covert operations and paramilitary actions, and exerts foreign political influence through its Special Activities Division. It has failed to control terrorism activities including 9/11, Not even a single top level Al-Queda leader captured own its own in the past 9 years – ‘they missed 1 Million’ Soviet troops marching into Afghanistan’. Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, Have the found them yet? -Number of defectors/ double agents numbers close to a thousand. On 50th anniversary of CIA, President Clinton said ”By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one knows that what CIA really does”. Highly funded and technologically most advanced Intelligence set-up in the world.

3. MI-6 – United Kingdom
Formed 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau
Jurisdiction Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters Vauxhall Cross, London
Minister responsible The Rt Hon. William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary
Agency executive Sir John Sawers KCMG, Director General
Parent agency Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The British have had a long public perception of an effective intelligence agency (due to the success of the unrealistic, yet entertaining, James Bond movies). This perception matches reality. MI6, the British equivalent to the CIA, has had two big advantages in staying effective: The British Official Secrets Act and D notices can often prevent leaks (which have been the bane of the CIA’s existence). Some stories have emerged. In the Cold War, MI6 recruited Oleg Penkovsky, who played a key part in the favorable resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Oleg Gordievski, who operated for a decade before MI6 extracted him via Finland. The British were even aware of Norwood’s activities, but made the decision not to tip their hand. MI6 also is rumored to have sabotaged the Tu-144 supersonic airliner program by altering documents and making sure they fell into the hands of the KGB.

2. Mossad – Israel
Formed December 13, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination
Employees 1,200 (est)
Agency executive Meir Dagan, Director
Parent agency Office of the Prime Minister

The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations including paramilitary activities. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. The list of its successes is long. Israel’s intelligence agency is most famous for having taken out a number of PLO operatives in retaliation for the attack that killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. However, this agency has other success to its name, including the acquisition of a MiG-21 prior to the Six-Day war of 1967 and the theft of the plans for the Mirage 5 after the deal with France went sour. Mossad also assisted the United States in supporting Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s.

1. ISI – Pakistan
Formed
1948
Jurisdiction
Government of Pakistan
Headquarters
Islamabad, Pakistan
Agency executive
Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, PA Director General

With the lengthiest track record of success, the best known Intelligence so far on the scale of records is ISI. The Inter-Services Intelligence was created as an independent unit in 1948 in order to strengthen the performance of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence during the Indo-Pakistani War of 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. This GOLD MEDAL makes it rank higher than Mossad. It has had 0 double agents or Defectors throughout its history, considering that in light of the whole war campaign it carried out from money earned by selling drugs bought from the very people it was bleeding, the Soviets. It has protected its Nuclear Weapons and it has foiled Indian attempts to attain ultimate supremacy in the South-Asian theatres through internal destabilization of India. It is above all laws in its host country Pakistan ‘A State, within a State’. Its policies are made ‘outside’ of all other institutions with the exception of The Army. Its personnel have never been caught on camera. It is believed to have the highest number of agents worldwide, close to 10,000. The most striking thing is that it’s one of the least funded Intelligence agencies out of the top 10 and still the strongest.