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The latest string of raids and the resultant arrests of Al Qaeda suspects and their Pakistani backers underlines two realities. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is present in Pakistan in full force and forced by this presence and a commitment for cooperation by President Pervez Musharraf, the ISI is conducting the anti-terror campaign with professional commitment. The FBI has put in place a system of electronic intelligence and communication never seen before in Pakistan. As an intelligence official put it, "We are in the electronic clutches of another country." But few people can guess the extent of FBI's all-pervasive presence and the extent to which it can monitor communications in Pakistan. The anti-terror war began with the US acquisition of the Jacobabad airbase in October 2001. The process of "acquisition" continues with the help of sophisticated eavesdropping technology and computerised identification systems installed at various locations in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, Faisalabad and, in particular, Karachi.
In late 2002, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad had to cede a chunk of its executive block adjacent to the ISI headquarters to accommodate the rising numbers of anti-terror agents, both local and the US. Besides serving the ISI-FBI personnel, these blocks also house the hi-tech surveillance and eavesdropping systems that are being used to intercept all calls to and from Pakistan. These systems have been instrumental in keeping an eye on almost every telephonic conversation that takes place in these cities, an intelligence official said, adding that the authorities owed some of the stunning victories over militants, beginning with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in Rawalpindi, to this equipment. |