Why ISI and Pakistan Military Establishment is a Grave threat to the World

What was being said in the early hours of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai – that ISI and regular State Actors were heavily involved in the entire planning and execution was, after all, not without basis.  Such an attack, was not a “Terrorist Attack” but an “Act of War”.  And this has been borne out by the investigations by Indian Government agencies with inputs from US Agencies – and specifically from interrogations with David Headley.

Officers of the Mlitary Establishment, ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were heavily involved in the entire plot.  Per Headley, two of his surveillance missions were financed by the ISI.  He used to report back the Pak spy agency of his information gathered.

The strike on India seems to have been a way for the Pakistani Spy and Military agencies to wrest control of the agenda as there is a strong internal churn going on.  Radicalization is going on and there is a section of the Jehadi organizations that routinely targeted Kashmir and India to become more global in nature.  A spectacular strike against India was an attempt to showcase what Pak Agencies along with its chosen Jehadis could do and fire the imagination of the other groups.

“The ISI had no ambiguity in understanding the necessity to strike India,” Headley is reported to have said. The aim of the agency was “controlling further split in the Kashmir-based outfits, providing them a sense of achievement and shifting the theatre of violence from the domestic soil of Pakistan to India”.

However, it seems that some of the top brass, although knew of the operation, but were unaware of the scale and ambitious nature of the attacks.  And that becomes even more scary, since one realizes that the entire attack could have been managed by parts of the Pakistani establishment.  These sections, can act alone while keeping the others in the loop only to the extent that they can facilitate the operation.  No more.  This could spell disaster for Pakistan soon internally.

Meanwhile, the admission from an American source has come about Osama and Ayman al-Zawahiri that far from being in caves, the Al Qaeda operatives are living well in safe houses provided and protected by ISI itself.

“Nobody in al-Qaeda is living in a cave,” said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the intelligence matters involved, CNN said.

Rather, al-Qaeda’s top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services ISI, the official said.

Of course Pakistan has always – as a matter of routine – denied any backing or help to the Al Qaeda.  The question however, is – what does “Pakistan” mean?  Specifically to the outsiders?  If you think the Pakistani Prime Minister and/or his Council of Ministers is Pakistan, then one is mistaken.  Is one thinks its the Pak President, then even that isn’t true.  If one thinks its the Chief of their Army, then even that may not be the truth.  Somehow behind these faceless, powerless, and nameless power-combine is the real soul of Pakistani terror – its entire Jehadi Establishment and its Arm of Pakistani establishment.  That is what really runs Pakistan.  And they never give any statements to the papers.  They just run their terror network as efficiently as possible.  The PM, the President and the rest of the jokers are useful actors working on their behalf in a giant game of Al-Taqqiya.

The Moderates fool the world so the Extremists can “do the needful”!

Basically the intransigent nature of ISI in terms of how it backs up terror tactics against the world should of greatest concern to the leaders of West, India, and Israel.  It is not just a one off thing.  Its a carefully orchestrated, funded and backed strategy which has a certain world-view.  Until it is taken head on, there is little chance that one can save innocent lives in future.  The terror juggernaut will keep rolling until then and the leaders will keep issuing nauseatingly cliched statements after every attack.