.
.
.
On the so called ISI-CIA rift on the Raymond Davis issue
BY ABDUL NISHAPUR OF "LET US BUILD PAKISTAN BLOG"Related articles:
General Kayani allowed US special forces to secretly operate in Pakistan
WikiLeaks unmasks who are our real puppet-masters?
On Declan Walsh’s latest scoop: ‘Raymond Davis is a CIA spy’
LUBP Archive on Raymond Davis
The Raymond Davis saga has soured the relationship between the ISI and CIA. Or so the ISI and a select group of Pakistani and foreign journalists would like us to believe. Really?
Some specimens:
Declan Walsh in Guardian: Truth hard to find in US-Pakistan war of words over Raymond Davis. But fact is only one aspect of the issue, which has become enmeshed in a web of nationalist passions and spy agency rivalries.A troubled spy agency relationship lies under the media frenzy. Complaining of American arrogance, the ISI says its links to the CIA have been badly damaged by the affair, warning in an unusual press statement this week that it was “hard to predict if the relationship will ever reach [its prior] level”
@OmarWaraich: Pakistan’s ISI spy agency is ready to split with the CIA – by the awesome @kathygannon in Washington Post: Pakistan’s intelligence ready to split with CIA: The ISI fears there are hundreds of CIA contracted spies operating in Pakistan without the knowledge of either the Pakistan government or the intelligence agency, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told the AP in an interview.
Geo TV: The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is ready to split with its US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because of frustration over what it calls heavy-handed pressure and its anger over what it believes is a covert US operation involving hundreds of contract spies.
The aim of this post is to highlight the possible motives behind this current turn of news and analysis in the Raymond Davis saga.
A number of motives and reasons may be identified:
1. The image of the ISI, particularly in terms of its active cooperation with the CIA, in planning, coordinating and approving the drone attacks and the operation of regular US soldiers and under cover CIA agents on Pakistani soil, has been badly tarnished by the WikiLeak Cables.(in the eyes of the Pakistani people....1400 innocent Pakistani civilians have died in Pakistan)
2. The civilian government in Pakistan is on a pathway to complete its full constitutional term of five years, which is tantamount to an insult to the all powerful military establishment of Pakistan. The civilian government needs to be discredited and destabilized not only in the eyes of the US and other governments but also domestically in Pakistan. (2013, 2 years away. But Zardari is a poor political leader given his corruption, and level of compliance and cooperation with the USA and its dirty deeds in Pakistan. Zardari is no less a villain as far as Pakistani true interests are concerned, and on a par with the Pakistani military. We must not be filled with pride if Zardari completes a full constitutional term......that is not an achievement by any stretch of the imagination)
3. The GHQ / ISI have not yet forgotten the (for them) humiliating terms which they had to bear through an independent agreement between the civilian government and the US government in the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act which imposed certain pro-democracy and anti-terrorism requirements on the Pakistan army in order to be eligible for the US financial and logistic assistance. (if we recollect the Swat/Taliban saga where 3000 Taliban were suppose to take over ALL Pakistan which obviously was also their stunt in 2009, thus destabilizing the civilian government in Islamabad, which mercifully the Americans quickly brought to an end by giving Kiyani his marching orders.
The Americans toppled Busharaf of the PAKISTAN MILITARY, their compliant puppet who more than anybody else conceded to the Americans on Pakistan's national security with the full agreement of the Corps Commanders; Kiyani, Pasha etc. So the Americans were not prepared to see their new puppet Zardari, brought into power through rigged elections, toppled just one year after being installed by the USA. For the Americans they thought/think they can gain better strategic mileage from the utterly corrupt, inept Zardari. American support for Zardari viz Kiyani wasn't so much about protecting Democracy as much as protecting their interests.
The situation in Pakistan HAS gotten worse since Zardari came to power, at many levels. We may obviously debate how much of that is down to Pakistani military destabilization, OR how how much of this is due to Zardari's sheer ineptitude, where senior British diplomats described him as a complete idiot.
Pakistan's INTERESTS will be marginally better served if the next civilian government is Sharif ASAP........because his government will be more effective administratively, and as a Punjabi Party will be better placed to stand up to the Punjabi dominated military of Pakistan. Sharif won't need the USA to wet nurse him for all the wrong reasons.
The American's are OBVIOUSLY playing the present civilian government against the Pakistan military, by having closed meetings with each party, SEPARATELY, in various locations around the world.
Divide and Rule anybody?
With Sharif, that will become less of an issue.......Pakistan needs Sharif ASAP......who keeps his integrity/Izzat once in power)
4. The military establishment has thus far lost on two key fronts which it so vehemently relied on in order to destabilize the civilian government, i.e., a forceful anti-Zardari, anti-PPP campaign through its right wing and pseudo-liberal proxies in Pakistani media, and a clearly lopsided and biased judicial activism against the PPP led federal government.(The Zardari government has many faults on which to pick on...1) The Zaradri government openly stands with continued American security policy in Pakistan, including drone strikes,AND has not voiced strong opposition to such a policy, OR provided an alternative peaceful solution as would be the normal requirement of any serving concerned government. No normal government of Pakistan should be a passive spectator to the murder of its own citizens by a foreign gora power. 2) The economy has done very poorly under Zardari....and is floundering, with huge budget deficits. 3) There is major social instability throughout the country. 4) There are major political instability throughout the country-------all this cannot be dismissed by Zardari supporters as the dirty deeds of the Pakistan military.
Civilian governments aren' elected so that they can merely stay in power for 5 years---they actually have to do their job, properly.)
5. Recent publication of the WikiLeaks Cables on Pakistan once again made evident that the real power in Pakistan is still held by the most powerful institution, i.e., Pakistan Army (GHQ) which has almost total control not only on country’s security policy (read Deep State policy and the nuclear program policy) but also on issues related to foreign policy (Afghanistan, India, USA etc) and economy (particularly issues related to the foreign financial assistance).
6. The Cables also confirmed the presence of regular US soldiers and agents on Pakistani soil as a part of an ongoing cooperation between the CIA and ISI in their joint operations against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban. (up to 5,000 in various bases around Pakistan, some run by the American exclusively) The Cables also confirmed that Pakistan’s ISI is in active cooperation with the CIA in planning and supporting the drone attacks on militant hideouts in the FATA.
7. It was also revealed through the Cables that Pakistani generals told their US counterparts that while they would keep supporting the US drone attacks and other operations on Pakistani soil, their stance in the media would be totally opposite for domestic consumption in Pakistan.
The GORA PUDI SALA COOLIE ORGANIZATION.
8. After the rude exposition of the duplicity of the GHQ’s / ISI’s role in their cooperation with the USA/CIA, it had become necessary to create an impression of an artificial rift between the ISI and the CIA.
9. The most recent Raymond Davis saga has provided the ISI / GHQ with a great opportunity in terms of the following:
(a) To destabilize the civilian government in the domestic arena and to discredit them internationally, particularly in the eyes of the US government. The aim is to convince the US government that we (the GHQ) are in charge, civilian government cannot give back your man to you, hence deal with us if you want to have some serious business with Pakistan.
(b) To rebuild and further strengthen the ISI’s relations with the right wing particularly with the Taliban, Jamaat-e-Islami, PMLN and Imran Khan’s PTI on a farce agenda of national honor (ghariat).
(c) To pave the way for a mid-term elections by creating an artificial hype in the media and a law and order situation in Pakistani streets.
(I would support a Sharif government coming to power soon)
(d) Last but not least, to give a false impression of the growing gulf between the ISI and the CIA in order to rebuild an impression of the ISI as reliable guardians and protectors of the national honor (ghairat) and security (salamti).
It is in the above context that any articles by Pakistani and foreign journalists on the so called ISI-CIA rift need to be examined. Of course such articles are being written by a select group of not only right wing journalists but also certain liberal journalist some of whom are known for their softness towards the military establishment. (In the MSM...Salim Shahzad, Ahmed Rashid...and who are the rest?)
Such articles are tantamount to crappy journalism at best and agencies’ propaganda at worst. We trust our readers’ judgment in this regard.
Laughing point:
In their carefully written and much publicized article, Kathy Ghannon and Adam Goldman write:
According to a statement drafted by the ISI, supported by interviews with officials, an already-fragile relationship between the two agencies collapsed following the shooting death of two Pakistanis by Raymond Davis, a U.S. contracted spy who is in jail in Pakistan facing possible multiple murder charges. “Post-incident conduct of the CIA has virtually put the partnership into question,” said a media statement prepared by the ISI but never released. A copy was obtained this week by the AP
How convenient!
