August 2, 2008
Pakistan Denies Report Its Spy Service Planned Kabul Blast
By SALMAN MASOOD
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan on Friday angrily rejected a report that its powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, helped plan the bombing, according to United States officials, The New York Times reported in Friday's editions.
"The government has already stated that there are no links or evidence of I.S.I. involvement in the Kabul bombing," Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's Information Minister, said.
A foreign ministry spokesperson, Muhammad Sadiq, was quoted by The Associated Press as describing the report as "total rubbish" and "baseless."
"The foreign newspapers keep writing such things against ISI, and we reject these allegations," he said.
American and NATO officials have blamed elements of ISI for supporting and abetting the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani denials come amid political and media uproar in the country over the role of the ISI, and who should control the powerful intelligence agency, which has been described as a "state within a state."
On the eve of a visit to the United States by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani last weekend, the government issued a memorandum on July 26 placing the Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence under control of the civilian government, in the Interior Ministry, rather than the military, with "immediate effect."
Hours later, under pressure by top military officials, the government backtracked, however, issuing a press release at 3 a.m. on July 27.
The statement said that the earlier notification "only re-emphasizes more coordination between Ministry of Interior and ISI in relation to war on terror and internal security."
The current director general of the ISI is Lt. Gen Nadeem Taj, a relative of President Pervez Musharraf, who retired as the Army Chief last year. General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, the current army chief, has also served as the Director General of ISI.
The order to place the ISI under the Ministry of Interior, which is currently headed by Rahman Malik, a close associate of Asif Ali Zardari, the chairman of Pakistan Peoples' Party, was described as a "failed civilian coup" by Ikram Sehgal, a defense and military analyst in an op-ed piece Thursday in The News, the country's leading English daily.
"Emasculating the ISI had relevance only to personal gain, having nothing to do with national interest", Mr. Sehgal wrote in the article. He added that the move by the government was intended to "grandly show the United States that the civilian government had brought the ISI to heel" and to "enhance and solidify Asif Ali Zardari's control over the country."
If that was the intent, the effect may have been the opposite, with the ISI and the military coming out on top.
Talat Masood, a retired general and military analyst, in an op-ed piece appearing Thursday in Daily Times, another leading daily, took a different viewpoint and wrote that the government was "justified in trying to bring the premier intelligence agency under civilian control."
But the manner in which the government went about this "illustrates that Pakistan's decision making process about major national issues is extremely flawed", Mr. Masood wrote.