Militants Escape Control of Pakistan, Officials Say
By CARLOTTA GALL and DAVID ROHDE
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say.
As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.
The growing strength of the militants, many of whom now express support for Al Qaeda’s global jihad, presents a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, as well as NATO efforts to push back the Taliban in Afghanistan. American officials have begun to weigh more robust covert operations to go after Al Qaeda in the lawless border areas because they are so concerned that the Pakistani government is unable to do so.
The unusual disclosures regarding Pakistan’s leading military intelligence agency — Inter-Services Intelligence, or the ISI — emerged in interviews last month with former senior Pakistani intelligence officials. The disclosures confirm some of the worst fears, and suspicions, of American and Western military officials and diplomats.
The interviews, a rare glimpse inside a notoriously secretive and opaque agency, offered a string of other troubling insights likely to refocus attention on the ISI’s role as Pakistan moves toward elections on Feb. 18 and a battle for control of the government looms:
¶One former senior Pakistani intelligence official, as well as other people close to the agency, acknowledged that the ISI led the effort to manipulate Pakistan’s last national election in 2002, and offered to drop corruption cases against candidates who would back President Pervez Musharraf.
A person close to the ISI said Mr. Musharraf had now ordered the agency to ensure that the coming elections were free and fair, and denied that the agency was working to rig the vote. But the acknowledgment of past rigging is certain to fuel opposition fears of new meddling.
¶The two former high-ranking intelligence officials acknowledged that after Sept. 11, 2001, when President Musharraf publicly allied Pakistan with the Bush administration, the ISI could not rein in the militants it had nurtured for decades as a proxy force to exert pressure on India and Afghanistan. After the agency unleashed hard-line Islamist beliefs, the officials said, it struggled to stop the ideology from spreading.
¶Another former senior intelligence official said dozens of ISI officers who trained militants had come to sympathize with their cause and had had to be expelled from the agency. He said three purges had taken place since the late 1980s and included the removal of three ISI directors suspected of being sympathetic to the militants.
None of the former intelligence officials who spoke to The New York Times agreed to be identified when talking about the ISI, an agency that has gained a fearsome reputation for interfering in almost every aspect of Pakistani life. But two former American intelligence officials agreed with much of what they said about the agency’s relationship with the militants.
So did other sources close to the ISI, who admitted that the agency had supported militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir, although they said they had been ordered to do so by political leaders.
The former intelligence officials appeared to feel freer to speak as Mr. Musharraf’s eight years of military rule weakened, and as a power struggle for control over the government looms between Mr. Musharraf and opposition political parties.
The officials were interviewed before the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, the opposition leader, on Dec. 27. Since then, the government has said that Pakistani militants linked to Al Qaeda are the foremost suspects in her killing. Her supporters have accused the government of a hidden hand in the attack.
While the author of Ms. Bhutto’s death remains a mystery, the interviews with the former intelligence officials made clear that the agency remained unable to control the militants it had fostered.
The threat from the militants, the former intelligence officials warned, is one that Pakistan is unable to contain. “We could not control them,” said one former senior intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We indoctrinated them and told them, ‘You will go to heaven.’ You cannot turn it around so suddenly.”
The Context
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Deadly blast raises pressure on Musharraf Article from: Agence France-Presse By Hasan Mansoor January 15, 2008 10:44pm
PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf faced new calls for his resignation after a bomb killed 10 people in the teeming port city Karachi ahead of key February elections.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which tore through a street market on Monday evening (local time) as President Musharraf was visiting Karachi.
Officials said it was intended to sow fear ahead of the February 18 polls, already delayed once by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, was also in the city of 12 million people but there was no suggestion either man was targeted.
Angry residents took to the streets Tuesday, burning tyres and forcing shops to close their doors, in protest at the government's failure to provide adequate security.
Opposition officials called for the ex-general to resign in the wake of the latest of dozens of bombings that have rocked the nuclear-armed US ally over the past 12 months, claiming more than 800 lives.
"The rulers must admit their failure and quit," said Raja Zafar-ul Haq, the chairman of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N.
He said the government's weakness was encouraging militant violence.
"The bombings have destabilised the economy and tarnished the country's image. There are people who are trying to destabilise the country but the government is doing nothing to deal with them," he said.
Mr Sharif, the man ousted by then-military chief Musharraf in a military coup in 1999, has repeatedly called for the president's resignation since returning to the country from exile in November.
Police were on high alert in Karachi and thousands of paramilitary forces were fanning out across Pakistan's largest city.
"We have deployed 10,000 personnel at all sensitive points and installations," Paramilitary Rangers spokesman Captain Mohammad Fazal said. Another 4000 were on standby.
The Monday evening blast ripped through a busy intersection outside a factory as workers were buying food on their way home.
"There was no specific target, it was just meant to kill ordinary civilians. The terrorists chose a soft target to spread panic and terrorise society," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.
Officials said the bloodshed was meant to force the government to push back the elections again, a move that could further undermine stability in the Islamic republic of 160 million people.
It was one of three bombings in Pakistan on Monday night.
One person was wounded in a blast at a political party office in the northwestern city of Peshawar, while a third explosion in the southwestern town of Hub caused no casualties.
On Tuesday a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a paramilitary post in the tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said. There was no damage or casualties among security personnel.
That attack occurred in the same district as a major battle between Pakistani troops and suspected Taliban extremists on Monday, in which seven soldiers and 23 militants were killed. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Seven soldiers, 23 militants killed in Pakistan clashes 14/ 01/ 2008
ISLAMABAD, January 14 (RIA Novosti) - At least seven Pakistani soldiers and 23 militants were killed in a special operation in northwest Pakistan on Monday, national television reported.
The operation started early on Monday in response to an attack on a military convoy in Mohmand, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The Pakistani army has deployed artillery, armor and combat helicopters.
"The fighting broke out when militants attacked a troop convoy," said Pakistani military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad.
Mohmand is part of Pakistan's so-called tribal region, which consists of seven semi-autonomous areas. Mohmand residents live under strict tribal laws, following the customary pre-Islamic "code of honor" known as Pashtunwali. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ "Pashtunwali ... or Pakhtunwali is a concept of living for the Pashtun people, which dates back to the pre-Islamic era."
"Pashtunwali promotes core tenets including self-respect, independence, justice, hospitality, love, forgiveness, revenge and tolerance toward all (especially to strangers or guests)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtunwali $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ There have been few prior reports of clashes between Mohmand tribesmen and government troops, although neighboring regions are known for their support for Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda.
Some Western sources have claimed that al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and his close aides could have found refuge in the mountainous Mohmand region. http://en.rian.ru/world/20080114/96585459.html ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? President Musharraf has come under mounting criticism for failing to stem the growth of Islamic militancy fuelled by the US-led "war on terror" in neighbouring Afghanistan.
President Musharraf's spokesman Rashid Qureshi quoted the president as saying the election schedule would not be changed again regardless of the violence.
It was the first bombing in Karachi since a double suicide attack on a parade to welcome Ms Bhutto home from exile in October. Ms Bhutto survived that attack but 139 other people were killed.
The opposition leader and two-time former prime minister was eventually killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27. The government has blamed militants linked with al-Qaida.
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