India has known this for 2 decades. Pakistan’s intelligence agency – ISI – is not only “involved” in terrorist attacks on Indian soil, they actively plan and carry them out. For years I have read newspaper reports in the Indian media talk about the Indian government providing proof of ISI’s “involvement” to the Americans.
How many deaths will it take till he knows…? Finally, the New York Times reports that the CIA has directly obtained proof that ISI was “involved” in the attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008.
“It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held,” one State Department official with knowledge of Afghanistan issues said of the intercepted communications. “It was sort of this ‘aha’ moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof.”
The nation of Pakistan is, as the Brits might say, rummy. They have had serious political stability issues. Coups – bloodless or otherwise – have been commonplace. The liberals (or moderates, or sane people, or whatever you want to call them) in Pakistan are struggling with growing religious fanaticism that was, in its infancy, nurtured for targeting India. While they have certainly exported terrorism to India (in addition to exporting nuclear weapons technology to god knows who) over the years, the U.S. is now starting to get concerned because the terrorist network is interconnected globally. And Pakistan is a pretty big hub in that network.
Pakistan’s new civilian government is wrestling with these very issues, and there is concern in Washington that the civilian leaders will be unable to end a longstanding relationship between members of the ISI and militants associated with Al Qaeda.
One can only hope that the Pakistani government, military and ISI can rein in the fanatics, bring more peace and stability internally to Pakistan first and insha-Allah prosperity to that part of the world. But one’s optimism would be misplaced if one did.