Morphing; KGB to KHAD to NDS

How can you get control of a state's intelligence apparatus? You either get your own man to head the intelligence agency or you ensure control over the intelligence system by bringing it under the control of a government that you already control. The ideal is to do both.

Afghanistan's original intelligence agency-the KHAD-was set up and run by the KGB. That was when Afghanistan was a Soviet satellite. At that time India was also in the Soviet orbit so its RAW was also in cahoots with both the KGB and KHAD. The management has changed. The CIA and FBI now control KHAD's successor the NDS. This control is total because the KARZAI government and its former Northern Alliance backers are US sponsored. The India-US relationship has also changed so RAW has found space in Afghanistan. RAW and NDS now target Pakistan besides inflicting atrocities on the unfortunate Pashtun Afghans in Southern Afghanistan. The US has no problem with this arrangement.

Amrullah Saleh heads the Afghan intelligence apparatus. To get him in this slot the US ensured the exits of Engineer Araf and the Panjshiri Sarif Sarwari---both real Afghans and diehard former Northern Alliance loyalists. The US wanted an 'americanized Afghan' and Amrullah Saleh with his penchant for money, torture and impeccable English fitted the bill. Amrullah moved from being a $ 400 a month interpreter to a $ 200 a day intelligence chief with unlimited power, perks and a hand in Afghanistan's rampant drug trade. A US Congressman sponsored him to get an 'honorary degree' from Cleary University, Michigan to give a sheen of respectability to all his doings. Through Karzai's brother he also controls the Afghan Center for Research and Policy Studies. Amrullah's US connections give him unlimited power and when things go wrong he can always fall back on his US citizenship. The fact that there is documentary proof of his torture of Americans has been ignored. Why be surprised that nothing is working in Afghanistan in spite of the billions being spent there-especially when everybody in the food chain is getting his share?

Having 'investigated' the February 11 coordinated attacks on ministry and prison department buildings Spymaster Amrullah has concluded that the attackers had "Pakistani connections' and 'made three telephone calls to their contacts in Pakistan to get their blessing'. If such calls were actually made they were probably to their Afghan brethren in the refugees camps in Pakistan---over 2 million Afghans are in such camps and most are Pashtuns from Southern Afghanistan. He was probably trying to ape the Mumbai outcome ignoring that a similar attack had taken place in Pakistan. What better way to cover up your lapses?

By now every single terrorist knows that if caught the best way to avoid torture is to admit a Pakistani connection. Do this and you are off the hook. Mumbai and Kabul are good examples though there are plenty more. Every think tank earning its keep knows that it must talk vaguely about 'rogue military elements in Pakistan', 'rogue ISI personnel in contact with terrorist networks' and 'civilian control over the military and intelligence in Pakistan'----do this and your job and funding are both secure. Small wonder then that such naïve thoughts are being churned out by the ton.

Pakistan's government, its institutions, its military and its intelligence apparatus are the only assets that can resolve the conflict in Afghanistan and stabilize Pakistan. The US needs to shift focus and rein in the minions who are the real problem because of their tunnel vision and slick act.