Word: isis
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...roared up to the Peshawar house. As the Egyptians watched, a gang of Taliban spilled out, grabbed Khadr and then drove him over the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan, beyond the Egyptians' reach. The Pakistani spy agency, known as Inter-Services Intelligence, had betrayed the Egyptians. "The next day the ISI called up and said, 'So sorry, the man gave us the slip,'" a diplomat recalls...
...Since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf threw in his lot with the U.S. after Sept. 11, he has been wrestling to gain control over the 10,000-strong ISI, a group of soldiers, field agents, sneaks and tens of thousands of additional informers so formidable and independent its critics call it "a kingdom within a state." The stakes for Musharraf and the U.S. are high. Transforming the organization from one that has abetted Islamic militancy to one that combats it is fundamental to both Washington and Islamabad as they struggle to impose moderation on a radicalized part of the world...
...ISI to sign on to Washington's war against terrorism is quite a switch. Until Sept. 11, the organization was suspected of propping up the Taliban and by extension its al-Qaeda guests in Afghanistan, although Pakistan hotly denies this. As Washington mops up after the war in Afghanistan, pursuing the surviving remnants of bin Laden's terrorist web, the ISI's cooperation is particularly critical. Western intelligence sources in Islamabad say hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives are still hiding out in Pakistan. Last week, according to tribal elders, some 40 U.S. commandos set up base in the Pakistani town...
...arrangement has worked well. When suspected terrorists have been collared by the ISI along the Afghan border, they have been turned over to the fbi for joint interrogation at safe houses in Peshawar and at Kohat, near the tribal borderlands. 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 Guant?namo Bay. It was an ISI tip-off last month that enabled the feds to put a tracking device on a car that led them to al-Qaeda...
...Hunting down al-Qaeda agents is just one of Musharraf's challenges. ISI has also backed Muslim rebels in Kashmir, a disputed territory that both India and Pakistan claim as their own. Five months ago, violence by the guerrillas escalated tensions between India and Pakistan and nearly led to full-scale warfare. The President must also rely on the agency to crack down on sectarian extremists who operate within Pakistan proper - zealots have killed more than 70 people this year, including two Americans and three others in an Islamabad church in March - even though the ISI is believed to have...