Pakistan's Intelligence Chief Is Told To Step Down

The Nondescript Entrance To Pakistan's ISI

ISI Chief Urged To Quit As Battle Rages At Border
-- The Australian

PAKISTAN'S top spymaster - the boss of the powerful ISI intelligence agency accused of double-dealing with the militants - was under intense pressure to quit last night as Islamist forces poured into the country to resist a security clampdown in the restive border region.

As militants have begun rushing back from Afghanistan - along with al-Qa'ida cadres from Iraq - into Pakistan to join the "Battle of Bajaur" in Pakistan's tribal belt, "sorting out the ISI" has taken on a new urgency among US strategists.

The conflict in Bajaur, a tribal agency close to the border with Afghanistan, is seen as a litmus test of the new Pakistan Government's ability to defeat Taliban and al-Qa'ida militants who use the border regions to mount attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan and send suicide bombers into Pakistani cities.

US officials have praised the Bajaur effort, saying it has reduced violence in the neighbouring region of Afghanistan.

But Washington is understood to be exerting intense pressure on Pakistan to remove ISI boss Nadeem Taj and two of his deputies because of the key agency's alleged "double-dealing" with the militants.

Amid the testiness of the past fortnight over US military incursions into Pakistani territory, Washington remains determined to maintain co-operation with Pakistan in order to deal with the militant surge.

But Washington strategists believe the ISI is inhibiting that co-operation.

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My Comment: This is not a surprise. Nato, the Afghan Government, and the U.S. have directly blamed the ISI for many of the problems that now exists in the Tribal Regions of Pakistan .... and for the support that the Taliban have been receiving in Afghanistan.

The ISI is a powerful institution in Pakistan, but it has lost its focus, and more importantly it has forgotten its responsibilities and who they must remain loyal to. The ISI chief should not be asked to step down .... he should be fired.