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Revision as of 19:02, 5 November 2008 by Bihco (talk | contribs) (Reverted 1 edit by Raozafarsirf identified as vandalism to last revision by ISBN. (TW))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the Pakistani intelligence agency. For other uses, see ISI.

Template:U.S. government agencies{| ! style="text-align:left;" | Director  : Ahmad Shuja Pasha |- ! style="text-align:left;" | Department  : Military of Pakistan |- ! style="text-align:left;" | Established  : 1948 |- ! style="text-align:left;" | Major departments: |- | style="text-align:left;" |

  • Joint Intelligence X (JIX)
  • Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB)
  • Joint Counter Intelligence Bureau (JCIB)
  • Joint Intelligence North (JIN)
  • Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous (JIM)
  • Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB)
  • Joint Intelligence Technical (JIT)

|- ! style="text-align:left;" | Notable Directors: |- | style="text-align:left;" |

|} The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (also Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI) is the largest and most powerful intelligence service in Pakistan. It is one of the three main branches of Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

After the poor performance of Pakistan's Military Intelligence during Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 the need for a separate intelligence body was keenly felt. Inter-Services Intelligence was therefore created as an independent unit in 1948 from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which handled intelligence sharing between the different branches of the military as well as external intelligence gathering. Its headquarters was initially located in Rawalpindi but later it was moved to the newly built capital, Islamabad. The current director of the organization is Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, who took over in September 2008.

History

After independence in 1947, two new intelligence agencies were created in Pakistan called the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI). However, the weak performance of the MI in sharing intelligence between the Army, Navy and Air Force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 led to the creation of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 1948. The ISI was structured to be manned by officers from the three main military services, and to specialize in the collection, analysis and assessment of external intelligence, either military or non-military. The ISI was the brainchild of Australian-born British Army officer, Major General R. Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff in the Pakistan Army. Initially, the ISI had no role in the collection of internal intelligence, with the exception of the North-West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir. This changed in the late 1950s when Ayub Khan became the President of Pakistan.

Ayub Khan expanded the role of ISI in safeguarding Pakistan’s interests, monitoring opposition politicians, and sustaining military rule in Pakistan. The ISI was reorganised in 1966 after intelligence failures in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, and expanded in 1969. Ayub Khan suspected the loyalty of the East Pakistan based officers in the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau or the Internal Bureau (IB) branch in Dacca, the capital of then East Pakistan. He entrusted the ISI with the responsibility for the collection of internal political intelligence in East Pakistan. Later on, during the Baloch nationalist revolt in Balochistan in the mid 1970s, the ISI was tasked with performing a similar intelligence gathering operation.

The ISI lost its importance during the regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was very critical of its role during the 1970 general elections, which triggered off the events leading to the partition of Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh.

The ISI regained its lost glory after Gen. Zia ul-Haq seized power in July 1977. Under his reign, the ISI was expanded by making it responsible for the collection of intelligence about the Sindh based Communist party and monitoring the Shia organization after the Iranian revolution of 1979, as well as monitoring various political parties such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s saw the enhancement of the covert action capabilities of the ISI by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). A special Afghan Section was created under the command of colonel Mohammed Yousaf to oversee the coordination of the war. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in the US and many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen, specifically the fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The United States of America provided technical assistance and financial support to Afghan Mujahideen through ISI.

Further information: Kashmir conflict

In 1988, Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq initiated Operation Tupac, which was designation of a three part action plan for the liberation of Kashmir, initiated after the failure of Operation Gibraltar. The name of the operation came from Túpac Amaru II, the 18th century prince who led the war of liberation in Peru against Spanish rule. By May 1996, at least six major militant organizations, and several smaller ones, operated in Kashmir. Their forces are variously estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 armed men and were mostly of Pakistani Punjabis and Pashtuns. They were roughly divided between those who support independence and those who support accession to Pakistan.

During 1998-1999, the ISI Director General was sidelined due to his relationship with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; General Muhammad Aziz Khan was in operational control and directly answerable only to General Pervez Musharraf.

Objectives

The objectives of ISI are:

  1. Safeguard Pakistani interests and national security inside and outside the country.
  2. Monitor the political and military developments in adjoining countries, which have direct bearing on Pakistan's national security and in the formulation of its foreign policy and to collect foreign and domestic intelligence in such cases.
  3. Co-ordination of intelligence functions of the three military services.
  4. Keep vigilant surveillance over its cadre, foreigners, the media, politically active segments of Pakistani society, diplomats of other countries accredited to Pakistan and Pakistani diplomats serving outside the country.

Organization

ISI's headquarters are located in Islamabad and currently the head of the ISI is called the Director General who has to be a serving Lieutenant General in the Pakistan Army. Under the Director General, three Deputy Director Generals report directly to him and are in charge in three separate fields of the ISI which are Political, External and General.

The general staff of the ISI mainly come from police, Paramilitary Forces and some specialized units from the Pakistan Army such as the SSG commandos. The total work force of the ISI has never been made public but experts estimate the size to be around 25,000. In addition to this ISI has over 30,000 informants and assets.

ISI is divided into several departments who are each tasked with various duties with the over all aim to safe guard Pakistan's interests.

Departments

  • Joint Intelligence X: JIX is the coordinator of all the other departments in the ISI. Intelligence and information gathered from the other departments are sent to JIX which prepares and processes the information and from which prepares reports which are presented.
  • Joint Intelligence Bureau: JIB is the largest part of the ISI and was perhaps the most powerful component of the ISI in the late 1980s. Its main area of work is to gather intelligence on political parties. It also has three sub-sections which include operations in India, conducting anti-terrorism operations and providing security to VIPs.
  • Joint Counter Intelligence Bureau: JCIB is Pakistan's version of the NOC's of the CIA. Pakistani diplomats who conduct intelligence gathering operations report directly to this department. The area in which most of this kind of operations are conducted are in the Middle East, South Asia, China, Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics. It is alleged that the ISI has expanded the range of the diplomats to conduct intelligence gathering operations in Europe, Africa and South America as well.
  • Joint Intelligence North: JIN is exclusively responsible for the Jammu and Kashmir region and in particular the Indian troop movement along the LOC (Line of Control). However, due to recent peace overtures between India and Pakistan, the size of this department is being reduced.
  • Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous: JIM is responsible for conducting espionage, offensive spy missions, surveillance and any other activities during war time.
  • Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau: JSIB has three Deputy Directors who are each charged with wireless communication intercepts, Monitoring enemy agents and other assets and conducting reconnaissance operations such as photographs. Most of the work force in this department are recruited from the Military College of Signals Academy and others come from the Army Signal Corps.
  • Joint Intelligence Technical: JIT is responsible for developing gadgets, monitoring equipment, explosives and even has known to have a chemical warfare section. Other than that, not much is known about this department.

Directors

Controversies

Critics of the ISI say that it has become a state within a state, answerable neither to the leadership of the army, nor to the President or the Prime Minister. The ISI has been deeply involved in domestic politics of Pakistan since the late 1950s. The 1990 elections for example were widely believed to have been rigged by the ISI in favor of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) party, a conglomerate of nine mainly rightist parties by the ISI under Lt. General Hameed Gul, to ensure the defeat of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the polls. Gul has denied that the vote was rigged. In early 1990s ISI became involved in politics of Karachi, it launched operation against the Mujahir Qaumi Movement (MQM) seeing its growing popularity and political strength in the province of Sindh. It is alleged that ISI was involved in dividing MQM. This led to the creation of MQM-A and MQM-H, the former being the party of Altaf Hussain and latter Haqiqi group. MQM-Haqiqi group was made by ISI to target MQM-A and to stop its growing popularity. It even bribed several journalists and newspapers to agitate against MQM-A. ISI's Internal Political Division has been accused by various members of the Pakistan People's Party in assassinating Shahnawaz Bhutto, one of the two brothers of Benazir Bhutto, through poisoning in the French Riviera in the middle of 1985 in an attempt to intimidate her into not returning to Pakistan for directing the movement against Zia's Military government, but no proof has been found implicating the ISI.

The ISI was also involved in a massive corruption scandal dubbed "Mehrangate", in which top ISI and Army brass were given large sums of money by Yunus Habib (the owner of Mehran Bank) to deposit ISI’s foreign exchange reserves in Mehran Bank. This was against government policy, as such banking which involves government institutions can only be done through state-owned financial institutions and not private banks. When the new director of the ISI was appointed and then proceeded to withdraw the money from Mehran Bank and back into state-owned financial institutions, the money had been used up in financing Habib's “extracurricular” activities. On April 20, 1994, Habib was arrested and the scandal became public.

India, on basis of data collected on islamic insurgents in Kashmir, has blamed the ISI for training, arming and giving logistics to the militants who are fighting the Indian security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir. Federation of American Scientists reports that the Inter-Service Intelligence, is the main supplier of funds and arms to the militant groups. The British Government had stated there is a 'clear link' between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and three major militant outfits The Guardian newspaper had uncovered evidence that Pakistani militants were openly raising funds and training new recruits and that the ISI's Kashmir cell was instrumental in funding and controlling these outfits.India also accused ISI of masterminding the 1993 Mumbai bombings, with backing from Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company. Aside from Kashmir, India accuses the ISI of running training camps near the border of Bangladesh in late 1990s where India claims the ISI trains members of various separatist groups from the northeastern Indian states. The ISI has denied these accusations, although without being able to clear its involvement from them.

In January 1993, the United States placed Pakistan on the watch list of such countries which were suspected of sponsoring international terrorism. This decision was made in part because the current head of the ISI in 1993, Lt. Gen. Nasir, had become a stumbling block in American efforts to buy back hundreds of shoulder-fired, surface-to-air FIM-92 Stinger missiles from the Afghan Mujahideen and was assisting organizations such as Harkat ul-Ansar, which had been branded as a terrorist organization by the US. Once Nasir's tenure as ISI chief ended, the US removed Pakistan from the terrorism watch list. The ISI is also suspected to have been involved with the hijackers of the September 11, 2001 attacks, having paid the ringleader Mohamed Atta. After 9/11, ISI was supposedly purged of members who did not support President Pervez Musharraf's stance towards the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Newsreports in July 2008, however indicate that ISI may instead have chosen to merely suppress the activities of these individuals rather than remove them from office.

In the BBC Newsnight Programme on 27 September 2006, a research paper prepared for the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), was quoted linking the ISI with support for the Taliban and other terrorist acts in the west. The report states, "The US/UK cannot begin to turn the tide until they identify the real enemies from attacking ideas tactically - and seek to put in place a more just vision. This will require Pakistan to move away from Army rule and for the ISI to be dismantled and more significantly something to be put in its place." This was denied by President Musharraf, "I totally, 200% reject it. I reject it from anybody - MoD or anyone who tells me to dismantle ISI." The Council on Foreign Relations, a US foreign policy think tank published an article casting doubt on some of the accusations, 'Though Pakistan does offer safe haven to Kashmiri groups, and perhaps some Taliban fighters, the suggestion that the ISI is responsible for the 7/7 bombings of London’s mass transit system is “a real stretch,” Gannon says'. However, a later report by the same think tank, The Council on Foreign Relations, stated there was probably support for terrorism from rogue elements of the ISI, exhibiting the failure of civilian intelligence like the CFR in estimmating the capability of the ISI .

Amnesty International publish a report on 29 September 2006 accusing Pakistan of detaining hundreds of alleged terror suspects without legal process. The group says some were tortured or otherwise ill-treated, others were sold to the US military, and others have vanished without trace. "Journalists and human rights activists have told Amnesty International that most terror suspects deemed important by Pakistani intelligence were held in "safe houses" run by "the agencies" – Pakistan’s intelligence agencies including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI)." 'In many cases, U.S. agents paid a bounty of $5,000 (2,667 UK pounds) to those, usually intelligence agents, who simply declared people terrorists, seized them and handed them over for interrogation with no legal process, Amnesty said. "Enforced disappearances were almost unheard of in Pakistan before the start of the U.S-led war on terror– now they are a growing phenomenon, spreading beyond terror suspects", Amnesty researcher Angelika Pathak said.' Gen Musharraf strongly denied the allegations that some alleged terror suspects had vanished without trace, "I don't want even to reply to that, it is a nonsense, I don't believe it, I don't trust it". 'Gen Musharraf has boasted of the arrests as proof of his commitment to the fight against Al Qaeda. In his new memoirs, "In the Line of Fire", he claims that the CIA has paid Pakistan hundreds of millions of dollars in bounty payments for the capture of 369 Al Qaeda suspects since 2001.'

Some members of the American media and political establishment have questioned Pakistan's commitment in combating the Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants in border areas. In response, Pakistan has pointed to the deployment of nearly 80,000 troops in the border areas and the arrests of more than 700 Al Qaeda members carried out by supposedly ISI members, the most high profile ones including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as proof that the ISI was serious in its commitment to fighting the War on Terrorism. However, the recent deal with the rebels to end the Waziristan War has been seen by many observers as a defeat for Pakistan, that has strengthened Taliban powerbase in Waziristan. Moreover, NATO's top commanders have criticized ISI's continued role in supplying weapons and providing sanctuary to the terrorists but have approved the deal.

In the aftermath of the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul, the Afghan, Indian, and United States governments all accused ISI of orchestrating the attack, leading Bush to ask the civilian Prime Minister of Pakistan, "Who controls ISI?" The information leak in question referred to the fact that information shared by the Americans to the ISI about future strikes against terrorist targets seemed to be leaked to the terrorists prior to the attacks, indicating widespread connections between Pakistan's intelligence agency and fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations.

ISI and militant groups

See also: Operation Cyclone

ISI and the CIA supported violent Islamist non-government organizations during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. With the Assassination of Benazir Bhutto, this relationship has received renewed public attention. Author Steve Coll wrote in the January 28, 2008 New Yorker on this relationship without coming to specific conclusions about shared responsibility. The United States is encouraging Pakistan to pursue a counterinsurgency campaign against Western Pakistan Taliban militia. Because of its role in supporting Taliban forces and recruiting and training mujahideen to fight in Afganistan and Kashmir, ISI has been alleged to support terrorist attacks outside of its territory.

The Inter-Services Intelligence has been accused of playing a role in major terrorist attacks across the world including the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, terrorism in Kashmir, Mumbai Train Bombings, London Bombings, Indian Parliament Attack, Varnasi bombings, Hyderabad bombings The ISI is also accused of supporting Taliban forces and recruiting and training mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir

Media portrayal

The ISI has rarely been portrayed on the silver screen and on Television by the Pakistani Media as they are shy to explore such a sensitive institution of Pakistan.

However foreign media such as Hollywood and Bollywood are now starting to portray ISI in movies and television programming given the current nature on the fight with global terrorism and Pakistan being the forefront of this fight.

Some of the media portrayals of ISI are:

Notes

  1. "A new phase in the militant proxy saga", Kuwait Times, April 30, 2008
  2. "Pakistan: The Taliban's Godfather?", National Security Archive Briefing BOok No. 227, edited by Barbara Alias, August 14, 2007
  3. "Pakistan: Islam, radicalism and the army", National Observer, September 22, 2007
  4. Inter-Services Intelligence
  5. http://www.politicsbharat.com/pakistan.php
  6. ^ Defense, Pakistan. "Overview Of Intelligence Services". Retrieved 2006-05-05.
  7. Altaf Gauhar. [http://fas.org/irp/world/pakistan/isi/politics.html "How Intelligence Agencies Run Our Politics"] The Nation, August 17, 1997
  8. "Changes in the Army High Command:Profiles of Yahya and Yaqub Khan" British High Commission, 5 May, 1966
  9. Chazan, David. "Profile: Pakistan's military intelligence agency". Retrieved 2006-05-05.
  10. ^ Pike, John. "Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI]". Retrieved 2006-05-05. Cite error: The named reference "FAS" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. "The Military and the Intelligence Agencies". Retrieved 2006-05-05.
  12. ^ Raman, B. "PAKISTAN'S INTER-SERVICES INTELLIGENCE (ISI)". Retrieved 2006-05-05. Cite error: The named reference "South Asia Analysis Group" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. Ghazali, Abdus Sattar. "ISLAMIC PAKISTAN: ILLUSIONS & REALITY". Retrieved 2006-05-05.
  14. "Information regarding links between ISI and militants".
  15. "Dangerous game of state-sponsored terror..." - The Guardian
  16. Centre for Research on Globalisation
  17. Iraq war 'recruiting extremists' - BBC
  18. ISI linked with attacks in the West - BBC
  19. Musharraf defends his spy service - BBC
  20. The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations - Council on Foreign Relations
  21. Pakistan - Human rights ignored in the ‘war on terror’ - Amnesty International
  22. Pakistan accused of terror abductions- Reuters
  23. West 'will fail' without Pakistan - BBC
  24. Terror suspects tortured, claims Amnesty report - The Guardian
  25. "Al-Qaeda suspect 'under interrogation'". Retrieved 2006-05-05.
  26. A battle lost By Tony Blankley The Washington Times September 27, 2006
  27. Pakistan Cedes North Waziristan to Taliban - Threats Watch
  28. Nato's top brass accuse Pakistan over Taliban aid - The Daily Telegraph, 06/10/2006
  29. NATO wants to copy Pakistan's militant peace deal
  30. Annoyed by ISI information leak, Bush asks Gilani who's in control
  31. Coll,Steve (2005). Ghost Wars. Penguin. pp. pp.190-199. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  32. "Letter from Pakistan: Time Bomb: Musharraf's Pakistan after Bhutto", by Steve Coll, January 28, 2008, The New Yorker
  33. BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's shadowy secret service
  34. Nato's top brass accuse Pakistan over Taliban aid - Telegraph
  35. At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge - New York Times
  36. A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SUSPECTS; Death of Reporter Puts Focus On Pakistan Intelligence Unit - New York Times
  37. The Pakistan connection The Guardian
  38. Political Deception: The Missing Link behind 9-11 Global Research Canada
  39. Pakistan spy service 'aiding Bin Laden' BBC News
  40. Terrorism Havens: Pakistan Council for Foreign Relations
  41. Indian minister ties ISI to Kashmir
  42. Kashmir Militant Extremists Council on Foreign Relations
  43. Pakistan 'role in Mumbai attacks' BBC News
  44. The Pakistani Connection: The London Bombers and "Al Qaeda's Webmaster" Global Research Canada
  45. Home Minister L. K. Advani's statement on terrorist attack on Parliament House Indian Embassy
  46. ISI now outsources terror to Bangladesh Rediff.com
  47. Hyderabad blasts: The ISI hand Rediff.com
  48. ISI may be behind Hyderabad blasts: Jana Reddy
  49. ^ Pakistan's shadowy secret service BBC News
  50. Nato's top brass accuse Pakistan over Taliban aid Daily Telegraph
  51. At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge The New York Times
  52. ^ A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SUSPECTS; Death of Reporter Puts Focus On Pakistan Intelligence Unit The New York Times

Further reading

  • ISBN 0-8059-9594-3, By Muhammad Ayub; An Army, Its Role and Rule ( A History of the Pakistan Army from Independence to Kargil from 1947-1999).
  • ISBN 0-9733687-6-4. By Abid Ullah Jan; From BCCI| to ISI: The Saga of Entrapment Continues
  • ISBN 0-85052-860-7, By ISI brigadier Mohammad Yousaf; Afghanistan the Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower.
  • ISBN 1-59420-007-6, By Steve Coll; Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001.
  • ISBN 1-57488-550-2, Brassey's International Intelligence Yearbook.
  • ISBN 0-415-30797-X, By Jerrold E Schneider, P R Chari, Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, Stephen Phillip Cohen; Perception, Politics and Security in South Asia: The Compound Crisis in 1990
  • ISBN 0-8021-4124-2, By George Crile; Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
  • ISBN 1-84277-113-2, By Jonathan Bloch; Global Intelligence : The World's Secret Services Today
  • ISBN 0-385-50672-4, By James Bamford; A Pretext for War : 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies

See also

External links

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