Pakistan’s sinister Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) remains the key to providing information to the US-led alliance in its war against the Taliban hosts in Afghanistan but the CIA is starting to wonder if the U.S. is being played as the fool. Known as Pakistan’s ‘secret army’ and ‘invisible government’, its shadowy past is linked to political assassinations, the smuggling of narcotics as well as nuclear and missile components. However, there’s speculation that the intelligence community may have to rethink its relationship with the ISI. In July of 2008 George Bush expressed concern that certain elements in the ISI were leaking information to the terrorists before they could be hit by the US or Pakistani forces. Pakistani intelligence services continue to support the Taliban because they see the Taliban leadership "as a strategic asset," a good back-up force in case things go north in Afghanistan. As of August 2008, The New York Times quoted anonymous intelligence officials in the U.S. claiming the ISI was behind the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul, which killed 58 people and wounded 141. And now we have the fires of Mumbai yet another horrific terrorist attack on Indian soil. First Pakistan was going to send their top ISI Leader but that changed as quick as it was suggested. Was this an attempt to confront India to stir up trouble between the two countries? If India were to respond, would this help the ISI by inflaming Islamic extremists in Pakistan? As a result, are they looking to destabilize the already weak civilian government hoping to create chaos and a potential coup? Are they getting fed up with U.S. strikes into Pakistan by the U.S. and the continued favored relationship between India and Afghanistan? Pakistan’s possession of nuclear weapons, close ties to both al Qaeda and the Taliban, and funding from Saudi Arabia make the ISI formidable. Any move by the ISI to once again gain control forthright of Pakistan could shift the ground below this part of the world like an earthquake on a scale of 10.



Clearly the history of the ISI lends itself to many questions. After the Soviet withdrawal from Kabul in 1989 the ISI created an Islamic Caliphate the Taliban. They installed the regime in Kabul in 1996. It then helped to extend their control over 95 per cent of the war-torn country. The ISI is believed to have posted additional operatives in Afghanistan. Along with Bin Laden, intelligence sources say a number of other infamous names emerged from the 1980s ISI-CIA collaboration in Afghanistan. This included Mir Aimal Kansi, who assassinated two CIA officers outside their office in Langley, Virginia in 1993, Ramzi Yousef and his accomplices involved in the New York World Trade Center bombing five years later as well as a host of powerful international narcotics smugglers.



Opium cultivation and heroin production in Pakistan’s northern tribal belt and neighboring Afghanistan was also a vital offshoot of the ISI-CIA co-operation in the 80’s. It succeeded not only in turning Soviet troops into addicts, but also in boosting heroin sales in Europe and the US. Today the Bush Administration has decided to focus on military options while ignoring the rising tide of heroin that supplies up to 80 percent of the drug in the illegal world market. They’ve closed their eyes to this fact as long as these operators promise to fight the insurgents. Could it be the Taliban actually would like to shut down the heroin production and it helps assure the U.S. that these producers would stay loyal to us to keep their profits flowing?



So the ISI seems to continue to maintain the U.S. in its tight little box. Saudi Intelligence also raises concerns that what the CIA gives them, may also ultimately be filtering down to the insurgents. The CIA suspected that Bin Laden was part of Saudi intelligence prior to 9/11, and there’s little doubt that he wasn’t. In 1998 George Tenent under Clinton disbanded the CIA team trailing and trying to capture Bin Laden. Clinton didn’t want U.S. blood on his hands by killing him but now more recently he’s changed his story. That year (1998) Saudi intelligence said they would capture him, and Tenant disbanded the group and gues what, nothing happened. Bill Clinton wasn’t really very interested in foreign policy discontinuing daily briefings with the CIA. In addition, the CIA gave increased intelligence to the Saudis only to find out there weren’t getting much more from them. When they shared intercepted communications with them, they also noticed, that these intercepted communications slowed down. The Saudis continue to fund the Sunni minority in Iraq, and probably it’s believed some of this money is making its way to the insurgents in Afghanistan. The CIA could also be the foil of Saudi Intelligence.



In 2003, the CIA had a highly encrypted email system to send messages to its agents in Iran. Until one day when one was sent, in a major error, a trailing address list was left on the message that caught the eye of one CIA operative that happened to be a double agent. Shortly afterward, Iran’s Intelligence apparatus rounded up an arrested those on the trailing list. In essence, the CIA became blind in Iran and hasn’t recovered yet today. It’s a wonder today how the Intelligence estimate was formulated on Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program?



There’s an intelligence crisis within the CIA today and after the politicalization of the agency for the false claims on the run up to the war in Iraq, the agency is in shambles. The CIA did a great job of disproving the WMD’s but it wasn’t what Bush and Cheney wanted to hear. Consequently when Powell went in front of the U.N. with the false information from the discredited source “curve ball” (German Intelligence was shocked who held curve ball) and then the Administration outed a CIA operative for not supplying them with information they wanted, it was increasingly frustrating to veteran agents. When Jordan Intelligence Officials had an opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia and had an opportunity to view some intelligence offices, they were taken aback when they noticed officials there with Bin Laden screen savers. We’ve seen way too many valuable assets leave the agency only to be left one that has become a shadow of itself. In a world awash in incredible danger, we need intelligence, good quality intelligence. Let’s begin with establishing Afghanistan Intelligence started up by the CIA so we can get Afghan assets to infiltrate the border in Pakistan. It’s time to get the CIA back in business of being a true intelligence asset, instead of the continued foil of the ISI and Saudi Intelligence. We continue to neglect its effectiveness at our own peril? And, I see no conversation or initiative to change things.