Is Pakistan Really Double Dealing?

Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), has been secretly aiding Taleban and its allies in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. So charged the 'New York Times' in a front-page story last week that was clearly planted by the Obama administration.

In 2003, the 'NY Times' severely damage its once stellar reputation by serving as a primary conduit for fake war propaganda put out by the Bush administration over Iraq. The 'Times' is now beating the war drums for more US military operations against Pakistan.

Even so, these latest angry charges being hurled by Washington at Pakistan's spy agency ring true. Having covered ISI for almost 25 years, and been briefed by many of its director generals, I would be very surprised if ISI was not quietly working with Taleban and other Afghan resistance movements. Protecting Pakistan's interests, not those of the United States, is its main job.

According to General Pervez Musharraf, Washington threatened war against Pakistan after 9/11 if it did not fully cooperate in the US invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan's bases and ports were and remain essential for the US occupation of Afghanistan.

Pakistan was forced at gunpoint to accept US demands though most of its people supported Taleban as nationalist, anti-Communist freedom fighters and opposed the US invasion. Taleban, mostly composed of Pashtun tribesmen, had been nurtured and armed 
 by Pakistan.

Many of Pakistan's generals and senior ISI officers are Pashtun, who make up 15-18 per cent of that nation's population and form its second largest ethnic group after Punjabis. ISI routinely used Taleban and militant Kashmiri groups Lashkar-i-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Pakistan was enraged to see its traditional Afghan foes, the Communist-dominated Northern Alliance of Tajiks and Uzbeks, put into power by the Americans. The Northern Alliance was strongly backed by India, Iran, Russia, and the Central Asian post-Communist states.

Pakistan has always considered Afghanistan it 'strategic hinterland' and natural sphere of influence. The 30-million strong Pashtun people straddle the artificial Pak-Afghan border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by Imperial Britain as part of its divide and 
 rule strategy.

Pakistan supports the Afghan Pashtun, who have been denied a fair deal in US-occupied Afghanistan, yet fears secessionist tendencies among its own Pashtun. The specter of an independent Pashtun state - 'Pashtunistan' - uniting the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan has long been one of Islamabad's worst nightmares.

Pakistanis are outraged by US bombing attacks against their own rebellious Pashtun tribes in the frontier agencies. Most also strongly oppose Washington's 'renting' 130,000 Pakistani troops and aircraft to attack Pashtun tribesmen. A majority believe the increasingly unpopular and isolated government of President Asif Ali Zardari serves the interests of the US rather than Pakistan.

Pakistan is bankrupt and now lives on American handouts. Its last two governments have been forced to do Washington's bidding though most Pakistanis are opposed to such policies. The US has ignored intensifying efforts by India, Iran, and Russia to expand their influence in Afghanistan. Washington sees Pakistan only as a way of advancing its own interests in Afghanistan, not as a loyal old ally.

President Barack Obama announced that more US troops and civilian officials will go to Afghanistan, and more billions will be spent sustaining a war against the largely Pashtun national resistance in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

None of this will benefit Pakistan. In fact, America's deepening involvement in what is now called 'Afpak' in Washington brings the threat of growing instability and violence, even the de facto break-up of Pakistan.

It is ISI's job to deal with these dangers, to keep in close touch with Pashtun on both sides of the border, and to counter-act the machinations of other foreign powers in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal belt.

Many Pakistanis also know that one day the US and its allies will quit Afghanistan, leaving a bloody mess behind them. Pakistan will have to 
 pick up the pieces and deal with the 
 ensuing chaos.

ISI is not playing a double game, as Washington charges, but simply assuring Pakistan's strategic and political interests in the region. Anyway, who are the Americans, who supplied Taleban with millions in aid until four month before 9/11, to criticise Pakistan for its choice of friends.

Eric S Margolis is a veteran US journalist who has reported from the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan for several years