The US has vowed to put the heat on Pakistan's spies in its new regional strategy, with top officials openly accusing elements in the powerful intelligence agency of abetting al-Qaeda.
US President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled a plan to root out extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan by boosting troops and drastically increasing civilian personnel and aid to the region.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region, said he would visit Pakistan again next week to follow up on the plan. Investigating the nuclear-armed nation's spy network “is the most important” issue, he said.
“The issue's very disturbing,” Holbrooke told public television's Newshour with Jim Lehrer when asked if Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was assisting al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists.
“We cannot succeed if the two intelligence agencies are at each other's throat or don't trust each other and if the kind of collusion you referred to is factual,” Holbrooke said.
General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, did not dispute that ISI elements have tipped off extremists to let them escape US-led forces.
“There are some cases that are indisputable in which that appears to have taken place,” Petraeus told the same program.
During the Cold War, the ISI worked with the CIA to arm Islamist groups that fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The ISI later backed the Taliban, which imposed a medieval brand of austere Islamic rule on the war-torn country.
Pakistan switched from top Taliban backer to frontline US ally after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. But the ISI has long faced allegations of insubordination to Pakistan's government, now led by US-friendly civilian President Asif Ali Zardari.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that US officials had found evidence that ISI operatives offered money, military supplies and even strategic planning to Taliban commanders.
Links between the Taliban and ISI “are very strong and some unquestionably remain to this day,” Petraeus told public TV. “It is much more difficult to say at what level.”
Such open criticism of the ISI will be music to the ears of India, which accuses Pakistani intelligence of plotting attacks in divided Kashmir and involvement in last year's bloodbath in Mumbai that killed 165 people.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the top US military officer, told CNN there were “certainly indications” of ISI involvement with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
He voiced hope that the new US “regional approach” would try to reduce tensions over Kashmir, allowing Pakistan to redeploy troops away from arch-enemy India and to Afghan border areas.
Obama branded al-Qaeda a “cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within,” saying that the extremists were responsible for thousands of deaths and waves of destruction against Pakistanis.
He offered a major boost in aid and training to Pakistan but also issued a veiled warning.
“Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al-Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders,” Obama said.
“And we will insist that action be taken — one way or another — when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets,” he said.
Obama has continued the previous administration's policy of unmanned drone attacks inside Pakistan, which are said to have killed high-level extremists but also civilians — inflaming Pakistani public opinion.
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