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| India-Pakistan |
| Drug trafficking by the Pakistani Army |
| 2003-04-02 |
| Site requires registration.. IN A SURPRISE STATEMENT BEFORE THE House Sub-committee on Asia and the Pacific on March 20, former US ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, has described the involvement of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in opium trade over the last six years as âsubstantialâ. It was also the major source of funding for the Taliban, the Golden Crescent being home to more than half the worlds Heroin Interestingly, the former US ambassador admitted that she never reported the information to Washington during her tenure as the US envoy to Pakistan. Her inability to report the matter during her tenure technically amounts to a dereliction of official responsibilities. Intriguingly, however, the sub-committee does not seem to have pressed this point. The ârevelationâ, therefore, raises more troubling questions than it answers, especially about the nature of US-Pakistan relations. This is not the first time the ISI has been accused of trafficking in drugs. Stories about the agencyâs drug connections have previously appeared in the foreign and, also, Pakistani press. But most stories have relied on allegations and speculations rather than any conclusive evidence. The question of why Ambassador Chamberlain might have decided to âcome cleanâ on the issue at this point is important. Is it an attempt to make a case to put pressure on Pakistan? Or did the ambassador not report the matter earlier because Washington was prepared to overlook narco-trafficking while extending covert support to the Taliban in pursuit of its then overriding strategic policy goals in Afghanistan: to contain Iran and exploit Central Asian oil reserves? Opium cultivation and heroin production in Pakistanâs northwestern tribal belt and the adjoining areas of Afghanistan was an offshoot of the CIA-ISI led anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan. Heroin sales in the European and American markets, carried out through an elaborate network of drug czars, transport mafias and intelligence operatives helped the United States finance the decade-long âholy warâ in Afghanistan. When the war in Afghanistan ended in 1989, the money and arms pipeline from the United States to Afghan mujahideen dried off. Stories connecting the ISI to drug trafficking allege that the agency, pinched for funds, was looking for alternative sources to sponsor the proxies in Afghanistan. The most damaging statement actually came from now exiled premier Nawaz Sharif. Mr Sharif has revealed that three months after his election as prime minister in November 1990, the ISI unveiled before him a blue print for financing covert foreign operations through drug deals. Sharif was reportedly assured that trustworthy third parties would carry out the whole operation, providing Islamabad with plausible deniability. According to Sharif, he ordered the operation to be called off. The temptation to blame it all on the ISI, or ârogueâ elements within it, is likely to be high both within and outside Pakistan. But scapegoating the intelligence agency for what is essentially the armyâs larger institutional responsibility would be misplaced. Contrary to its deliberately created, and now widespread, image as a rogue agency, the ISI was and remains an integral part of the military hierarchy, typically operating under the army chiefâs command. Manned largely by career military officers, who are usually rotated in and out on a regular basis, it is merely an executing agency for the armyâs external and internal intelligence goals. An important point that is overlooked by many, and it kind of sheds new light on the involvement of the ISI in supporting Hek, the Taliban, the Kashmir Jihad and all the rest that is blamed on 'rogue' agents. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #3 Like we always said growing up, "Cops got the best dope." |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-02 14:19:13 |
| #2 Reading this, following the "urging" of the State Department for our civilians to leave Pakistan, I'd say that Pakistan has finally made it onto the list of "Nations to be revived". Good place to stay away from for a few years. Pak has nukes, so the way we handle them would be different than how we're taking care of Iraq, and even more unique from what we're doing in Afghanistan. The list keeps getting longer... Looks like the ENTIRE Arab world will need a little "re-education" before we can live in peace in THIS nation. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-04-02 13:01:21 |
| #1 Now that the Taliban have been booted, the new fear is that the Afghans will start growing lots of poppies again. It's almost irresistable for the farmers; no other cash crop pays nearly as well. We should be buying off farmers if necessary, and making it clear to Karzai that our support evaporates if he can't get the opium situation under control. And of courser, we need to squash the ISI like a bug. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-04-02 13:00:03 |