Word: isis
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...Even after Sept. 11, Pakistani loyalties were still divided. At least five key ISI operatives?some retired, some active?stayed on to help their Taliban comrades prepare defenses in Kandahar against the Americans. None has been punished for this disobedience. And in New Delhi, Indian intelligence agents insist that during the battle for the Taliban bastion of Kunduz, Musharraf persuaded the U.S. to allow Pakistani C-130 planes to airlift out between 300 to 1,000 of its pro-Taliban fighters before American jets poured fire onto the northern Afghan town. Both Washington and Islamabad deny this happened. What...
...longer is that true. The ISI is now actively supporting the U.S. "We've joined out of conviction, not compulsion," says a government official. This change has been noted gratefully in Washington. "We're quite pleased with the cooperation we've got from them," says a U.S. official. A Western diplomat in Islamabad concurs, "There's grudging compliance. The ISI is saluting Musharraf and obeying him." This required a 180 turn for Pakistani spooks. Former friends such as the Taliban and homegrown jihad outfits became the new enemies. "Overnight, our strategic assets," as one top Islamabad official puts...
...Still, by and large, the ISI has snapped into line with U.S. requests. When suspected terrorists are collared by the ISI along the Afghan border, they are turned over to the fbi for joint interrogation at safe houses in Peshawar and Kohat, near the tribal borderlands. In all, the ISI has grabbed about 300 al-Qaeda agents in recent months. Most are Yemenis, followed by Saudis and Palestinians; all were given one-way tickets to the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay. It was an ISI tip-off last month that enabled the feds to put a tracking device...
...more could be done. The ISI wants to keep its militant "assets" should it decide to rev up its clandestine support for Kashmiri combatants, say Western diplomats. (For now, activity in guerrilla training camps inside Pakistan is suspended, militant sources say.) And some of these assets are downright dangerous. For example, the seven main suspects still at large in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in January all had indirect links with the spy agency through the Kashmiri conflict, according to Western diplomats. Now they are on the run, and as one investigator remarks acidly...
...Even with the ISI's help, conditions in the tribal territory still favor al-Qaeda. There are few roads into these mountain labyrinths, and as one Pakistani official gripes, "If we get a lead, it takes four days to send an agent up into the villages, and by then the suspect's gone." That should improve this June once Pakistan takes delivery of U.S. choppers and planes for border surveillance. A thornier problem for the American and ISI trackers is the tribesmen's natural affinity for bin Laden, his combative vision of Islam and the lure of big bucks from...