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Wednesday, October 16, 2024

What's Five Eyes staring at India amid Canada stand-off

In the probe into the attack on Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Canada and the US seem to be coordinating their moves. That is because the two are part of Five Eyes, a powerful, close-knit intelligence-sharing grouping. Here's more about Five Eyes and why Justin Trudeau is using it for leverage.


Intelligence officials of Five Eyes made their first joint public appearance in October 2023 in the US on the invitation of FBI Director Christopher Wray. (Image: Federal Bureau of Investigation)


India Today News Desk
New Delhi,
Oct 16, 2024 
Written By: Sushim Mukul

On October 14, the chill in Indo-Canada ties took the shape of a diplomatic stand-off. Justin Trudeau's Canadian government labelled the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats 'persons of interest' in the murder probe of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. On that day, the US State Department put out a statement, which it withdrew later, related to the probe into the bid on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's life. Like Nijjar, Pannun is a Khalistani terrorist. The American move seemed to be in coordination with Canada's. And it wasn't the first time. That the US and Canada were waving red flags at India together is linked to the two being part of the powerful Five Eyes grouping.

The Five Eyes is one of the most close-knit espionage alliances in the world, dating back to World War II.

Canada first accused the Indian government of links to Nijjar's killing, and that came after it received intelligence from the Five Eyes network.

And not just that. Caught in conflict with an assertive India, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is dialling leaders of the Five Eyes to shore up support.

On shaky ground since 2023, India-Canada diplomatic relations plunged further on October 14 as India recalled six diplomats, including its high commissioner, and expelled six Canadian diplomats.

As all eyes were on the tit-for-tat diplomacy between India and Canada, the US made a move related to another Khalistani terrorist. The US, investigating a foiled plot to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, said an Indian inquiry committee was set to travel to the country on October 15.

The US was probing allegations that an Indian government official was linked to the foiled assassination attempt on Pannun. However, the statement, posted by the US Department of State on X, was later withdrawn.

Not just that, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller even alleged that India was not cooperating with Canada on its Nijjar killing probe.

That the US and Canada, two close allies, moved in sync shouldn't come as a surprise as they are part of the Five Eyes alliance and have close cooperation on sharing of all vital information.

And not just the US, even New Zealand -- another Five Eyes member -- backed Canada, albeit with caution.

CANADA SHARED NIJJAR MURDER INTEL WITH FIVE EYES, CONFIRMS TRUDEAU

The Five Eyes, comprising the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is one of the most close-knit intelligence forums in the world, where the member states share a wide range of intel in a coordinated manner to shield their national interests.

That's the Five Eyes, that has appeared amid the Indo-Canada row as the US and Canada investigate attacks on two Khalistani terrorists.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau revealed that Canada shared all information it had related to the allegations of the involvement of Indian officials in the killing of Nijjar. In 2023, a New York Times report said that the US shared intelligence inputs on Nijjar's killing with Canada.

"From the beginning as of last summer, we have worked closely with our Five Eyes partners, particularly with the US, where they have gone through a similar pattern of behaviour from India in regard to an attempted extrajudicial killing. And we will continue to work with our allies as we stand up together for the rule of law," Trudeau said at the news conference on Monday.

The admission came with Canada's Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, revealing the same.

"We will continue to engage with our Five Eyes partners, we will continue to engage with all the G7 partners, and everything is on the table," Mélanie Joly answered when she was asked if Canada would consider imposing sanctions against India.

She also confirmed that she had communicated with her Five Eyes counterparts, which includes the Foreign Ministers of member nations, on the matter.

New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, agreed that the island nation was briefed by Canada on "recent announcements on ongoing criminal investigations into violence and threats of violence against members of its South Asian community".
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"The alleged criminal conduct outlined publicly by Canadian law enforcement authorities, if proven, would be very concerning," Winston Peters wrote on X on Tuesday.

However, Peters did not mention India in his X post.


WHAT IS THE FIVE EYES INTELLIGENCE GROUPING?

The Five Eyes alliance is a longstanding and highly influential intelligence partnership between five English-speaking countries.

Formed in the aftermath of World War II, the alliance is rooted in the UKUSA Agreement of 1946, a multilateral treaty for cooperation in signals intelligence (SIGINT).

This alliance originated from secret meetings between British and American code-breakers during World War II and was formalised to enhance the war effort. Over the years, it has expanded to include Canada in 1948 and Australia and New Zealand in 1956.

"The alliance is one of the world's most unified multilateral arrangements", says the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada.

The Five Eyes alliance is known for its comprehensive global surveillance capabilities, monitoring electronic communications, including phone calls, emails, and text messages, through various methods such as intercepting data from satellites, telephone networks, and fibre optic cables, according to Forbes.

The alliance is also said to collaborate with major technology companies to gather user data, said a 2013 report in The Washington Post.


It is ironical that the Five Eyes is being mentioned in India's context as the grouping became increasingly active amid China's muscle-flexing, and the US bid to contain it.


HOW FIVE EYES PLAYED A ROLE IN TRUDEAU'S ALLEGATION AGAINST INDIA

Since Nijjar's murder, the United States has stepped up cooperation with Canada in investigating related plots, including the attempted assassination of Pannun in New York.

As the India-Canada row escalated on October 15, the US again underlined that Trudeau's allegations about the Nijjar killing in Canada are "extremely serious", and 'India needs to take them seriously'.

"We wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation. Obviously, they have not chosen that path," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

It was the intelligence from the Five Eyes that resulted in Canada publicly accusing the Indian government of the murder of Nijjar, according to a CNN report from 2023.

I'm "confirming that there was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to make the statements that the prime minister made," US Ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, told CNN, a week after Trudeau's claims, that the Indian government called "absurd and motivated".
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Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc on Monday, revealed he briefed US Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on actions being taken by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

"He [Garland] and I discussed the importance of the FBI and the RCMP continuing to share information as these various criminal cases continue," LeBlanc said, while underlining the importance of continued information-sharing between the FBI and the RCMP.

The US's FBI and Canada's RCMP are the participating federal agencies in the Five Eyes forum.

Not just for intelligence-sharing, the Five Eyes also works in providing strategic advantage to its members. Trudeau has been trying to garner support on the Nijjar issue from other members as a pressure tactic against India.

On October 15, Trudeau dialled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to brief him on the issue.

The five members of the group are all developed nations of the Anglosphere. The US, the UK and Canada, three of the Five Eyes members, are also part of the G7 economic grouping. That's where the sanctions talk comes in too.

Though Canada risks billions of dollars in trade if the conflict with India snowballs, there is the Five Eyes that the Trudeau government would like to leverage as the issue takes a turn for the worse.

India's cooperation with Canada's legal process right next step: UK backs Ottawa

The UK joined its 'Five Eyes' allies in backing Canada's charge against India, saying New Delhi's cooperation with Ottawa's legal process was "the right next step".


British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Photo: AFP)


India Today World Desk
New Delhi,
 Oct 16, 2024 
Written By: Rishabh Sharma

In Short

Five Eyes alliance supports Canada's claims against India

India asked to cooperate with Canada's legal process

Canada accused India of involvement in Khalistani terrorist's murder


The UK has backed its 'Five Eyes' ally Canada's claims against India's alleged involvement in promoting criminal activities on Canadian soil. In a statement, Britain said India's cooperation with Canada's legal process was "the right next step".

"We are in contact with our Canadian partners about the serious developments outlined in the independent investigations in Canada. The UK has full confidence in Canada’s judicial system," the British government said in a statement.

"The Government of India's cooperation with Canada's legal process is the right next step," it added.

The 'Five Eyes' is an intelligence alliance comprising five countries: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

This group focuses on monitoring global communications, cyber threats, terrorism, and other security issues, with an emphasis on collecting and exchanging intelligence to protect their mutual interests.

The US, New Zealand, and Australia have already released statements backing Canada's claims against India.

The ongoing diplomatic row between India and Canada escalated on Monday after Ottawa alleged that Indian diplomats were working with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to target pro-Khalistan elements.

Canada also made Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and other diplomats as 'persons of interest' linked to the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.

The Ministry of External Affairs released a scathing statement, saying that Canada did not share a "shred of evidence of India's involvement in Nijjar's killing" despite repeated requests and accused Trudeau of doing vote bank politics and not doing enough to tackle separatist elements on Canadian soil.

The row escalated with New Delhi recalling its top envoy to Ottawa and expelling six Canadian diplomats from the country on late Monday evening.

Published By:
Rishabh Sharma
Published On:
Oct 16, 2024



EXPLAINER

Who is Lawrence Bishnoi, the gangster at the centre of India-Canada spat?


Canadian officials this week said Bishnoi’s gang was targeting Sikh dissidents at the behest of the Indian government. It’s a PR coup for India’s most notorious crime boss.

Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi amid heavy police security while coming out of the Amritsar court complex on October 31, 2022 in Amritsar, India [FILE: Sameer Sehgal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images]
By Yashraj Sharma
Published On 16 Oct 202416 Oct 2024


New Delhi, India — India-Canada bilateral relations touched a historic low this week when both countries expelled six diplomats each, in tit-for-tat moves, after Ottawa doubled down on its accusation that the Indian government masterminded the 2023 murder of a prominent Sikh separatist leader.

While levelling serious conspiracy charges against India’s senior-most diplomats in Ottawa, the Canadian officials dropped another bombshell allegation — linking the diplomatic mission with India’s most notorious crime syndicate boss, Lawrence Bishnoi.










Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which has been investigating the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, blamed the “Bishnoi group” for carrying out hit jobs at the behest of the Indian government’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Bishnoi is currently imprisoned in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat — in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad — ruled by his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

So, who is Lawrence Bishnoi? How does he continue to run his crime syndicate from behind bars? And how does a gangster fit into a serious geopolitical crisis between two democracies with deep historical ties?
From a Punjab village to Mumbai

Bishnoi, 31, first captured national attention when he was linked with the killing of hip-hop icon, Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, on May 29, 2022. Moose Wala was also a member of India’s opposition party, Congress. Bishnoi’s associates claimed responsibility for the murder as part of an intergang rivalry.

More recently, Bishnoi’s gang claimed responsibility for the murder of a 66-year-old Muslim politician, Baba Siddique, in Mumbai’s posh Bandra area last weekend.

Siddique was a three-time legislator and former minister in the Maharashtra state government. He was widely known for his closeness with Bollywood celebrities, most notably with actor Salman Khan.

“We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan … keep your accounts in order,” noted a purported Facebook post by an associate of Bishnoi, claiming responsibility for Siddique’s killing.

Bishnoi’s feud with Khan goes back nearly 26 years over the actor’s killing of two antelopes on a recreational hunting trip in Rajasthan while shooting a film in the western state in 1998. The Bishnoi religious sect considers the species sacred.

In April this year, two members of the gang were arrested for firing at Khan’s home in Mumbai.

“For gangsters, it is all in the name — and the fear of that name,” Jupinderjit Singh, author of Who Killed Moosewala?, who has traced gang wars in north India for nearly a decade, told Al Jazeera.

“Lawrence often says, ‘Bada kaam karna hai [I have to do something big]’. Earlier, the ‘big job’ was murdering Moose Wala, then attacking Salman Khan, and now Siddique,” said Singh. “These attacks add brand value to his name and multiply the extortion and ransom amount” the gang can demand.

His alleged collusion with the Indian government to assassinate Sikh separatists in Canada is eventually proven or not, Canadian officials — by naming Bishnoi’s gang — have already delivered a PR victory for them, Singh said,

“Eventually, the winner is Lawrence here. He is getting the name he has yearned for,” the author said.

“People like Lawrence live by the gun — and they die by the gun.”
The ‘I’m something’ syndrome

Born in 1993, near the Pakistan border in India’s Sikh-majority Punjab state, Lawrence Bishnoi was “exceptionally fair, nearly a pinkish complexion, and almost European rather than Indian”, according to his mother, Sunita, a graduate-turned-homemaker, as she told author Singh during their interactions for his research.

Hence, the name, Lawrence — uncommon among the Bishnoi community in north India — which was inspired by British educationist and administrator Henry Lawrence, who was stationed in Punjab during the colonial era.

Bishnoi’s family was well-off and owned more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of farming land in Punjab’s Duttaranwali village. After high school, Bishnoi went to Chandigarh, the state’s capital, to study law.

There, at DAV College, he stepped into student politics and allegedly ventured into the criminal world by locking horns with rival student groups. Bishnoi served as the president of the college’s student body. He was arrested over charges of arson and attempt to murder and sent to a jail in Chandigarh, where he reportedly came under the influence of other imprisoned gangsters.

In Punjab, it is a common phenomenon that the gangsters come from “well-off, good families”, said Singh, the author who has also tracked Bishnoi’s rise since his college days. “All of them suffer from a syndrome: ‘I’m something’,” he added.

However, when they move to cities and face “an elite, intellectual crowd, they realise they are not landlords any more”, says Singh. For many of them, crime becomes an answer to reaffirm their faith in themselves, he adds.

Among his young followers, Bishnoi is highly revered as “a man of principle”, said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity, in Rajasthan, where the Bishnoi gang has recruited members. “He positions himself as this righteous bachelor, a celibate, often signing off with remarks like “Jai Shri Ram (Hail Lord Ram)”, a Hindu right-wing war cry.

Bishnoi has been shuffling between prisons for more than a decade now but has still extended his crime syndicate to the national capital, New Delhi, and neighbouring states, and fought turf wars with rival gangs in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. He is known to have active associates across Canada and the United States.

“With Siddique’s killing, he is aiming to place himself in Mumbai’s feared underworld now,” the police officer told Al Jazeera.

So, when Singh, the author, woke up to the news of Canada linking Bishnoi to Indian agents, he said, “I really, really wished it is untrue” because of the legitimacy within the crime world Bishnoi may get out of it — “and spill over to a section of youth that is unfortunately looking up to him now”.
How does Bishnoi fit into the India-Canada crisis?

At the heart of the latest allegations levelled by Canada against Indian officials is the claim by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made on Monday, that Indian diplomats were collecting information about Canadians and passing it on to organised crime gangs to attack Canadians.

The RCMP, separately, made clear in comments to the press that Canadian authorities were referring to the Bishnoi gang when they were speaking of organised crime.

“India has made a monumental mistake,” said Trudeau. “We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil,” he added, marking an unprecedented escalation of the diplomatic crisis that has been brewing for more than a year now, since he first publicly accused the Indian government of involvement in Nijjar’s assassination.

India has denied the allegations as “preposterous” – and has been challenging Ottawa to share evidence to back the claims.

To Michael Kugelman, director of the Washington, DC-based Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, it is “remarkable how India-Canada relations have collapsed within a year”. And “the mere fact that an allegation [of the Indian government colluding with criminal gangs] has been put in public, including its senior diplomats’ participation, does not look good on India’s global reputation.”
‘Canada is new Pakistan?’

The issue of Sikh separatism, or the so-called Khalistan movement, has been a thorn in India-Canada relations for decades.

A crackdown on the movement by Indian security agencies in the 1980s also led to serious human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings of civilian Sikhs in Punjab, according to rights groups. Many Sikh families emigrated to Canada, where the community already had a presence.

In 1985, hardliner Sikh rebels blew up an Air India plane flying from Montreal, Canada to Mumbai, India, via London and New Delhi. The midair explosion over the Atlantic Ocean killed all 329 people on board — most of them Canadian citizens.

In recent years, the Khalistan movement — while almost dead in India — has regained some momentum among a few Sikh diaspora communities, including in Canada.

In September last year, less than a day after India’s premier investigation agency named a separatist, Sukhdool Singh, on its wanted list, he was killed in a shootout in Canada’s Winnipeg city. Soon, Bishnoi’s gang claimed responsibility, calling him a “drug addict” and saying he was “punished for his sins”.

But while Canada has now accused Bishnoi of working hand-in-glove with the Indian government in carrying out assassinations on its soil, New Delhi this week “strongly” rejected the allegations and insisted that Canada had not provided any proof “despite many requests from our side”.

“This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement said after Canada listed top Indian diplomats, including its high commissioner, Sanjay Verma, as people of interest in the investigation.

Speaking with Al Jazeera, Ajay Bisaria, a former Indian high commissioner to Canada, said, “With big targets painted on their backs and their security compromised for a while, the diplomats were in any case unable to function.”

Calling it a “needless escalation by Trudeau’s government of an already vexed diplomatic situation”, Bisaria said “such a move is unheard of in modern diplomatic practice. This kind of scenario plays out between hostile powers, not between friendly democracies.”

Harsh Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, said Trudeau “seems to have become emblematic of the problem with a lack of trust about him and his intentions” from India’s perspective.

“India and Canada have clearly gone to new lows,” he said, adding, “Canada is now the new Pakistan for New Delhi amid the persistent issues of extremism, Sikh separatism, and radicalisation in Canada.”

Kugelman, of the Wilson Center, said, “India has started to treat Canada like it treats Pakistan at least in terms of blistering diplomatic statements and the accusations that Canada is sponsoring terrorism.”

“Arguably, India’s relations with Canada today are perhaps worse than it has with Pakistan due to the ongoing rapid-fire escalation.”

Source: Al Jazeera


India should take Canada allegations 'seriously,' US says

Having made similar allegations recently, the United States has urged India to respond appropriately to Canada's concerns. Meanwhile, trade between India and Canada appears so far unaffected by the diplomatic spat.


Canada accuses India's government of involvement in the intimidation of Sikh groups in the country and the murder of an independence activis

The United States on Tuesday waded into the diplomatic spat between Canada and India, urging the latter to take the former's allegations of an assassination plot seriously.

"When it comes to the Canadian matter, we have made clear that the allegations are extremely serious and they need to be taken seriously," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"We wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation," he added. "Obviously, they have not; they have chosen an alternate path."

India and Canada are key partners of the United States, but both on Monday expelled each other's top diplomats over Canadian allegations that Indian government agents were involved in a violent campaign against Sikh separatists on its soil.

Ottawa has alleged in particular that New Delhi was involved in the assassination last year of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an India-born advocate for an independent Sikh state who had immigrated to Canada and become a citizen.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said India had made a "fundamental error."


Does the United States share Canada's concerns?

The US desire to see India take the matter "seriously" is rooted in similar allegations made by Washington over a similar, albeit unsuccessful, assassination plot by India on US soil in November 2023.

An Indian "Enquiry Committee" formed in response to the US allegations was visiting Washington on Tuesday to discuss the case, the State Department said.

India "has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow up steps, as necessary," the State Department said.

"The fact that they sent an Enquiry Committee here, I think, demonstrates that they are taking this seriously," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.


How has Canada-India trade been affected?

Meanwhile, despite the tensions, Canadian and Indian government officials have said that there has been no immediate negative impact on bilateral trade ties.

"I want to reassure our business community that our government remains fully committed to supporting the well-established commercial ties between Canada and India," Canadian trade minister Mary Ng said in a statement late on Monday.

"We will work closely with all Canadian enterprises engaged with India to ensure these important economic connections remain strong."

Canada primarily exports minerals, pulses, potash, industrial chemicals and gemstones to India and while goods such as pharmaceuticals, marine products, electronic equipment, pearls and precious stones go in the other direction.

But an Indian government source told the Reuters news agency: "We are not immediately concerned about trade ties. Our bilateral trade with Canada is not very large."

Bilateral trade between India and Canada amounted to $8.4 billion (€7.7 billion) at the end of the last fiscal year on March 31, according to India's trade ministry, marginally up on the previous year.

India's foreign ministry says more than 600 Canadian companies have a presence in India in sectors including IT, banking, and financial services.

Canadian Sikh leaders accuse India of hiring hitmen

Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s center-left New Democratic Party (NDP), called the allegations "deeply disturbing" in a video shared by Reuters news agency.

Singh, a Sikh, said that official investigations "painted a picture of a foreign government engaging criminal elements in Canada to perpetrate violence against Canadians."

He called for sanctions against some Indian diplomats in Canada with links to the right-wing Indian paramilitary the RSS.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist based in Canada and the US, has also allegedly been targeted for assassination by Indian agents. He told DW that he was "not surprised" to be on a "hit list" since "India declared me a terrorist" in 2019. Pannun has maintained that his Khalistan referendum movement seeks a peaceful separation from the Indian state of Punjab, where many Sikhs live.

He accused the Modi government of trying to hire hitmen from within the Sikh community.

mf,es/msh (Reuters, AFP)



Canada top cop urges Sikh community to speak up amid diplomatic row with India

In an interview with Radio-Canada on Tuesday, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme urged people with knowledge relevant to the investigation they are doing to come forward, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported




RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme appeal came amid the ongoing India-Canada diplomatic row.



Press Trust of India
Ottawa,
Oct 16, 2024

In Short

Canada cop Mike Duheme urges people with information linked to probe to come forward

He hopes Indian community members trust in Canadian police

Duheme's appeal comes amid ongoing India-Canada diplomatic row


The head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has urged the Sikh community here to speak out as they continue to investigate allegations linking the Central government to a campaign of violence on Canadian soil.

In an interview with Radio-Canada on Tuesday, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme urged people with knowledge relevant to the investigation they are doing to come forward, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

On Monday, Duheme publicly alleged that "agents" of the government of India had played a role in "widespread" acts of violence in Canada, including homicides.

Duheme alleged that Indian diplomats and consular officials in Canada have been linked to murders and acts of "extortion, intimidation and coercion" against Canadians and people living in Canada.

He told reporters that the national force felt it had to come forward to disrupt the networks working in Canada, which he said pose a "significant threat to public safety in our country."

"If people come forward, we can help them and I ask them to come forward if they can," he said in the interview with the Radio-Canada.

"People come to Canada to feel safe, and our job as law enforcement is to make sure that they're in an environment that is safe to live."

Asked if members of the Indian community should be concerned for their safety, Duheme said he hopes they "have trust and confidence in the police jurisdiction."

On Tuesday, the RCMP alleged that the Bishnoi gang is connected to the “agents” of the Indian government, which is targeting the South Asian community specifically "pro-Khalistani elements" in the country.

On this, India strongly rejected attempts by Canadian authorities to link Indian agents with criminal gangs in Canada with official sources in New Delhi even saying that Ottawa's assertion that it shared evidence with New Delhi in the Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar case was simply not true.

The sources in New Delhi also rejected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations that India was engaging in activities including carrying out covert operations targeting Canadian nationals in his country.

On Monday, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its high commissioner from Canada after dismissing Ottawa's allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Nijjar.


 

India's alleged interference in Canada was 'horrific mistake,' Justin Trudeau says

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a press conference on October 14, 2024, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, after Canada expelled six top Indian diplomats, including the country's ambassador. - India and Canada each expelled the other's ambassador and five other top diplomats, after New Delhi said its envoy had been named among "persons of interest" following the 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader. (Photo by Dave Chan / AFP)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a press conference on 14 October 2024, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, after Canada expelled six top Indian diplomats, including the country's ambassador. Photo: AFP / DAVE CHAN

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says India made "a horrific mistake" by thinking it could interfere as aggressively as it allegedly did in Canada's sovereignty.

Trudeau made the remark two days after Canada kicked out six Indian diplomats, linking them to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada and alleging a broader effort to target Indian dissidents in the country.

The Canadian leader's comments were the strongest he has made in a year-long dispute that plunged bilateral relations to a new low.

"The Indian government made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada," he told an independent probe into foreign interference in Canadian politics.

Trudeau said Ottawa could take further steps to ensure Canadians' security but declined to give details.

India denies the allegations of interference and has expelled six Canadian diplomats in a tit-for-tat move.

- Reuters


Offered ‘off ramps’ to diplomatic crisis, India doubled down, Trudeau testifies

By Stewart Bell & Alex Boutilier 

 Global News
Posted October 16, 2024


WATCH: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the ongoing diplomatic tensions between Canada and India during the Foreign Interference Inquiry on Wednesday.


India rejected repeated “off ramps” to avoiding a diplomatic crisis after intelligence linked it to the Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder in B.C., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified on Wednesday.

Rather than cooperating with the Canada’s investigations into the role of its intelligence services in the assassination, India instead pushed back, Trudeau told the foreign interference inquiry.

“Their response was to double down and attack Canada rather than take responsibility or say, ‘How can we fix this? Yes, this was a violation of the rule of law,’” Trudeau said.

Responding to Trudeau’s testimony, the Indian government said Canada had “presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats.”

“The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”

But appearing at the Hogue Commission two days after the RCMP said India was targeting its opponents in Canada with violence, Trudeau detailed his attempts to resolve the dispute with New Delhi.

He said that while the June 18, 2023, murder of the Surrey, B.C. Sikh temple leader was initially considered a gang or crime killing, indications of India’s involvement emerged over the summer.


4:19
Canada police say agents of Indian government involved in criminal activities on its soil




“In late July, early August, I was briefed on the fact that there was intelligence from Canada and possibly Five Eyes allies that made it fairly clear, credibly clear, that India was involved in this killing,” he said.

Canada first reached out to the Indian officials in August, to inform them of the findings and to try to work together “in a responsible way that doesn’t come and blow up the relationship.”

Trudeau said Canada could have made things “uncomfortable” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi by going public with the allegations before the G20 summit in September 2023 in New Dehli.

“We chose not to,” he said.

“We chose to continue to work behind the scenes to try and get India to cooperate with us,” he said.

But instead of looking into the conduct of its security agencies, India only wanted to know what Canada had on them.

“And at that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said, ‘Well, you know, let’s work together and look into your security services, and maybe we can get that done,”’ Trudeau said, adding the Indian response was, “No, no, no, we’re not doing that.”



2:02 Who is behind India’s alleged crimes in Canada?






At the end of the G20, Trudeau said he spoke directly with Modi.


“I sat down and shared that we knew that they were involved, and explained a real concern around it,” the prime minister said.

“He responded with the usual response from him, which is that we have people who are outspoken against the Indian government living in Canada that he would like to see arrested,” he testified.

“And I tried to explain that freedom of speech and freedom of people who come to our country to be Canadians, to criticize governments overseas, or indeed to criticize the Canadian government, is a fundamental freedom of Canada.”

“But as always, we would work with them on any evidence or any, concerns they have around terrorism or incitement to hate or anything that is patently unacceptable in Canada.”

Upon returning to Ottawa, Trudeau said it was obvious India was continuing its approach of attacking Canada instead of dealing with the issue, and he decided to go public with his allegations about India’s role in late September.


1:24 Trudeau says Five Eyes allies have seen ‘similar pattern’ from India with ‘attempted extrajudicial killing’



On Sept. 18, 2023, with the Canadian press about to report the story, Trudeau told the House of Commons that security agencies had “credible allegations” of the potential involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar’s killing.

“We determined that it was in the interest of public safety in Canada to let people know that we knew about these allegations, that we were following up on them,” Trudeau told the inquiry.

The prime minister said he did so partly “to ensure that nobody in Canada, in any communities, felt like they needed to take action themselves, that they should trust Canadian institutions to take this threat seriously and follow up on it.”

The Indian government again responded to the statement with attacks and denials, instead of cooperation, he said. India also ejected dozens of Canadian diplomats in an act of reprisal, as if to say, “‘We don’t like what you said in the House about us, and we’re going to punish you for that,” according to Trudeau.


“This was a situation in which we had clear, and certainly now even clearer, indications that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty, and their response was to double down and attack Canada further.”

He said Canada did not want to pick a fight with India, an important trade partner, but he had to stand up for Canadian security and sovereignty.

Last weekend weekend, Canadian officials made another effort to secure India’s cooperation, asking it to lift immunity on six diplomats the RCMP had identified as “persons of interest” in investigations.

India declined and launched a broadside early Monday, accusing Trudeau of playing politics. Later that day, the RCMP announced it had uncovered evidence of India’s involvement in a wave of violent crime.

Agents based at India’s high commission in Ottawa and consulates in Vancouver and Toronto had been denying visas to Canadians who needed to travel to India in order to coerce them into spying, sources said.

Cash payments were also used to recruit informants. The information they gathered was relayed back to India’s intelligence services, who used it to plan attacks on Modi’s opponents.



1:49 Indian government linked to violent attacks in Canada

Indian intelligence contracted organized crime groups such as the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to carry out the attacks in Canada, which targeted mostly activists in the Khalistan movement that champions independence for the Sikh-majority Punjab.

Global News reported Tuesday police have evidence the operation was approved by Modi’s right hand man, Amit Shah, the hardline Hindu nationalist who serves as India’s Home Minister.

Asked if he agreed the violence in Canada was a policy that was “authorized and directed by responsible members of the government of India,” Trudeau said that was “an extremely important question.”

“And that is a question that actually we have been repeatedly asking the government of India to assist us on, and to get to the bottom of, the question of whether it is or could be, rogue elements within the government or whether it was a more, systemic, systematic, endeavour, for the government of India.”

Canadian investigators were “somewhat removed from being able to uncover the internal machinations of the Indian government, of who went wrong or who did this or who did that,” he said.

“That’s why from the very beginning, we have been asking for India, the Indian government to take, these allegations seriously and proceed with their own investigations and work with us on, figuring out exactly how these egregious violations of Canadian sovereignty, actually happened.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca



Trudeau accuses India of 'massive mistake' amid diplomatic row

Nadine Yousif
BBC News, Toronto
AFP via Getty Images

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India of making a "massive mistake" that Canada could not ignore if Delhi was behind the death of a Sikh separatist leader last year on Canadian soil.

Trudeau made the comments two days after Canadian officials accused India of being involved in homicides, extortions and other violent acts targeting Indian dissidents on Canadian soil.

After Canada levelled the accusations on Monday, both countries expelled top envoys and diplomats, ramping up already strained tensions.

India has rejected the allegations as “preposterous”, and accused Trudeau of pandering to Canada’s large Sikh community for political gain.

In his remarks on Wednesday before a public inquiry looking into foreign interference in Canadian politics, the prime minister criticised India's response to the investigation into Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing in June 2023.

According to Trudeau, he was briefed on the murder later that summer and received intelligence that made it "incredibly clear" that India was involved in the killing.

He said Canada had to take any alleged violation of its sovereignty and the international rule of law seriously.

Mr Nijjar was shot and killed in Surrey, British Columbia. He had been a vocal supporter of the Khalistan movement, which demands a separate Sikh homeland, and publicly campaigned for it.

At the time, however, Canada's intelligence did not amount to hard evidence or proof, Trudeau told the inquiry.

Police have since charged four Indian nationals over the Mr Nijjar's death.

Trudeau said he had hoped to handle the matter “in a responsible way" that didn't "blow up" the bilateral relationship with a significant trade partner, but that Indian officials rebuffed Canada's requests for assistance into the probe.

"It was clear that the Indian government's approach was to criticise us and the integrity of our democracy," he said.

Shortly after he made the allegations public, saying in that September that Canada had "credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the murder.

The prime minister also added on Wednesday more detail to further allegations released this week by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The police force took the rare step of publicly disclosing information about multiple ongoing investigations “due to significant threat to public safety” in Canada.

RCMP said on Monday there had been “over a dozen credible and imminent threats to life” which “specifically” focused on members of the pro-Khalistan movement.

Subsequent investigations had led to police uncovering alleged criminal activity orchestrated by government of India agents, according to the RCMP.

Trudeau said the force made the announcement with “a goal of disrupting the chain of activities that was resulting in drive-by shootings, home invasions, violent extortion and even murder" in the South Asian community across Canada.

India has vehemently denied all allegations and maintained that Canada has provided no evidence to support its claims.

The RCMP and national security advisers travelled to Singapore last weekend to meet with Indian officials - a meeting the RCMP said was not fruitful.

Following Monday's allegations from Canadian officials, the UK and US urged India to co-operate with Canada's legal process.

On Wednesday, the British Foreign Office said in a statement that it is in contact with Ottawa "about the serious developments outlined in the independent investigations in Canada".

The UK has full confidence in Canada’s judicial system,” the statement added.

"The Government of India's cooperation with Canada's legal process is the right next step."

The US, another close Canadian ally, said that India was not co-operating with Canadian authorities as the White House had hoped it would.

“We have made clear that the allegations are extremely serious and they need to be taken seriously and we want to see the government of India co-operate with Canada in its investigation," said spokesperson Matthew Miller at a US State Department briefing on Tuesday.

"Obviously, they have not chosen that path.”

Canada's foreign minister, Melanie Joly, has said that Ottawa is in close contact with the Five Eyes intelligence alliance - comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - on the matter.

Monday, October 14, 2024

BOOK REVIEW

NON-FICTION: HUBRIS AND MISCALCULATION

Ahmad Faruqui 
Published October 13, 2024
DAWN


The Achilles Trap
By Steve Coll
Penguin
ISBN: 978-0525562269
576pp.

The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. In The Achilles Trap, Steve Coll, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of nine books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the decisions that led to the war.

The book is based on more than 100 interviews with several individuals who had first-hand involvement in the invasion of Iraq and transcripts of tape recordings made by the regime of Saddam Hussain. This allows Coll to take a deep dive into the minds of the two men who made the war possible: US President George W. Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussain.


The book is a searing indictment of how Saddam governed Iraq and an even bigger indictment of Bush. Not only were some of George W.’s senior advisers opposed to the war, so also was the former President George H.W. Bush, his father. The elder Bush expressed his opposition via his former national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, who penned an editorial, ‘Don’t Attack Saddam’ in the Wall Street Journal.

Coll concludes that “The president careered toward an unnecessary war… based on unabashed fear-mongering.” None of Iraq’s neighbours wanted the US to invade Iraq, worried that it would destabilise the region.

The US did not have any evidence that Iraq had ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ and Saddam assumed the CIA knew that and thus the US was unlikely to attack Iraq. The book is entitled The Achilles Trap because both sides assumed the other had a fatal weakness, which did not exist.

Washington assumed that Saddam did not have the guts to fight the US. Saddam assumed that the US would never attack Iraq because it did not have the guts to incur large-scale battlefield casualties: “Saddam thought of the CIA as all-knowing. This contributed to his misunderstandings of America, which were at least as profound as America’s misunderstandings of him.”

The CIA’s record in Iraq after 1991 “was mostly one of operational and analytical calamities.” Even within the agency, the Iraq Operations Group was known as “the ‘House of Broken Toys’.” Of course, that did not stop the CIA from being ruthless. As one observer put it, the agency was “completely prepared to burn down your house to light a cigarette.”

Bush just wanted to get rid of Saddam. When his secretary of state presented some made-up evidence on WMDs to the UN, he was met with scepticism. Iraq had no connection with the terrorist attacks of 9/11, yet the US thought it would carry out an even deadlier attack against the US.

Almost to the very end, citing new evidence, the book shows that the US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was opposed to the invasion. But Bush was determined to attack Iraq to implement regime change, to turn Iraq into a Western-style democracy.

Saddam comes across as a dual-faced man wallowing in hubris. On the one hand, he had created an extensive social/welfare system within Iraq. On the other hand, he had created an equal system of terror, directed at his political opponents. If anyone dared speak against him, they could be arrested, tortured and executed within a matter of days. He did not have the slightest qualms in killing nearly 200,000 Kurds.

Soon after he came to power in 1979, Saddam plunged Iraq into a senseless war against Iran. It lasted for eight years and cost $500 billion. It left Iraq saddled with a debt of $80 billion, of which $35 billion was owed to Saudi Arabia and $10 billion to Kuwait. Hundreds of thousands were killed on both sides.

US troops pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad | Reuters

Unable to repay the debt, Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The US failed to anticipate Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, but neither did Saddam realise that the invasion would turn the world against him. After the US captured him, Saddam left his US investigators befuddled by saying: “If you didn’t want me to go in, why didn’t you tell me?”

Equally naïve was the king of Saudi Arabia. King Fahd knew that the presence of American and European troops on Saudi soil would upset many Saudis and the clergy. But under US pressure, he caved in. Later, Osama bin Laden would capitalise on anti-Saudi sentiments to launch the 9/11 attacks. As shown in the book by Nelly Lahoud, The Bin Laden Papers, he did not expect the US would invade the Muslim world. He thought the US would withdraw from the region.

In March 2003, when the US finally attacked Iraq, Saddam invoked the “Mother of all Battles” metaphor and thought he would defeat “the treacherous criminal Bush … because this is a fight between good and evil.” He also thought the Iraqi army would go underground and fight a guerilla war on his behalf.

But there was no love lost between the conscripts and the dictator. After the US dropped 150,000 “dumb” gravity bombs, killing some 10-12,000 Iraqi soldiers, most surviving soldiers simply took off their uniforms and went home.

The book also paints a damning picture of other actors in the tragedy. King Hussein of Jordan had served as America’s lackey in the Arab world. He fancifully thought that “by helping engineer a regime change in Baghdad, he might somehow restore his own extended family’s royal rule in Iraq.”

Earlier, in 1996, Madeleine Albright, the former US ambassador to the UN, said that even though the economic sanctions imposed by the US after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait had killed 500,000 Iraqi children, the price was worth it.

In April 2003, Scott McLaughlin, the former weapons inspector in Iraq and now a CIA analyst, cross-examined the head of Iraq’s nuclear programme, Jafar Dhia Jafar, and said: “We made a terrible mistake.” But that did not slow down the US invasion of Iraq, which would then turn into a multi-year occupation. More than 200,000 Iraqi civilians eventually died. More than 4,400 US servicemen died and more than 30,000 were wounded.

Early on, when Iraq was looking for nuclear weapons, its leaders would often cite the example of Pakistan, which they believed had moved to acquire a bomb to deter and balance India. An Iraqi scientist said that Iraq was at least as advanced as Pakistan and should be able to do it.

Dr A.Q. Khan, known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, sensed an opportunity and reached out to Iraq with an offer of assistance that was spurned by Iraq, according Coll. Meanwhile, Israel, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Tuwaitha without the knowledge, let alone the permission, of the US.

There are several lessons to be learned from the tragic history of the Iraq War, which this book vividly brings out. First, wars, instead of solving problems, create more problems. Second, wars are often based on faulty assumptions. Third, military superiority does not guarantee victory. Fourth, the US understands the Middle East even less than the UK, which colonised the region for decades. Finally, dictators, who rule through fear, delude themselves into believing that the population would rise to support them when a war breaks out.

The book leaves some big questions unanswered, however. How competent is US intelligence about other parts of the globe, given how incompetent it was about Iraq? When will the US ever learn any lessons from the wars it wages around the globe? Is it necessary to spend nearly a trillion dollars on the US military, which exceeds the sum of the next 10 countries combined? Would that money not be better spent on human, social and economic development of the US?

Even despite these unanswered questions, the book is a great read for anyone with a serious interest in US foreign policy. It will also interest the general reader, since it reads like a thriller.

The reviewer is the author of Rethinking the National Security of Pakistan:
The Price of Strategic Myopia.

X: @ahmadfaruqui

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, October 13th, 2024

NON-FICTION: FISK’S FINAL WORDS
Published September 22, 2024
DAWN




Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East
By Robert Fisk
Fourth Estate
ISBN: 978-0007255481
672pp.

Robert Fisk’s book Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East was published posthumously and is a reminder of the strength and courage of his voice and words, not only as a journalist but also as a historian.

In the Night Of Power, Fisk ponders over the 35 years he spent as a Middle East correspondent for The Independent, witnessing an almost Dante’s Inferno-level of darkness, bloodshed and tragedy wrought upon that part of the world. His constant struggle to stay true to what he saw underlies all his writing, as he acknowledges, “Our own cowardice, the manufacture of deceit, the safe, formulaic expressions used to mask the reality of this tragic place, have turned us journalists into blood-soaked brothers of the politicians who go to war.”

That is who he was, a journalist who reported from the dangerous side, the ‘other’ side.

It would be convenient to qualify this book as a memoir of an award-winning journalist reflecting upon events that he covered, but it is so much more than that. Night Of Power outlines the cataclysmic events of post-invasion Iraq and its impact on the Middle East as a whole. Fisk navigates his way through a country where, “Killings were now like heartbeats in Iraq”, witnessing the callousness of the occupiers who showed wanton disregard for the path of destruction they paved on their way to their ‘Emerald Cities’, the green zones they allocated themselves.

Journalist Robert Fisk’s posthumously published book about the Middle East is an analysis of his decades of reporting from that part of the world and a reminder of the power his words wielded

He takes stock: the bodies that pile up because of the shootings, bomb blasts, private contractors who kill with a blood lust that would rival the Saddam-era secret police. Then there are the diseases and cancers left behind, children born with deformities, stillbirths, birth defects, a result of the use of phosphorus shells and other uranium-laced weapons. Fisk is matter of fact; he does not allow his pain to distract him from his purpose. He writes, “You go on a story in a war and you’re there to report on the atrocity, to speak for the dead, but not to cry.”

It will be pertinent to mention here that Robert Fisk was perhaps one of the most significant voices of our time. His ability to look past innate biases and identify the context in which events occur has always been immaculate. In the chapter ‘Walking on Windows’, he reminds us of the plague that was Blackwater and other private defence contractors. He recorded their actions with meticulous detail, the contempt and arrogance they showed towards the Iraqis and the shooting down of innocent people with complete impunity.

He reminds us that, “like all wars…[the Iraq war’s] reasons [were] fraudulent, its occupation ferocious, its ‘victors’ ever more cruel in responding to the insurgency that overwhelmed them…” Mercenary casualties were not included in the military fatality/injury lists put out by occupation authorities.

The duplicity is enraging and, as one continues to read the book, Fisk’s own anger is very much tangible. With meticulous detail, he deconstructs the ‘truths’ we have been fed by the media and by our governments and politicians. Language is weaponised, as he illustrates how mainstream Western media has toed the line when it comes to ‘selling’ the Iraq invasion to the public.

Later, when news of torture cells, black sites, mercenaries, and terrifying rebellions began creeping into headlines, many prominent newspapers provided space for advocacy of war crimes that were being committed by occupation soldiers, under the pretext that Saddam’s torturers were attacking US troops. Even today, mainstream media stands accused of promoting a one-sided narrative and working to drown Palestinian voices as the assault on Gaza continues.

Robert Fisk | AP

Mainstream media has never been less reliable and, as governments rush to curtail free speech, we are reminded by Fisk that, “I always believed that those who suffered on the ‘other’ side deserved to have their story told, that Western powers should not have the press corps as their foot-soldiers.”

Fisk was that rare journalist who had the ability to comprehend the enormity of what he was witnessing, stepping back and placing it into context. In this book, he lays it out, calling the Iraq invasion for what it was, a “vast and lamentable occupation.” He makes it clear though that, while Britain and the US have consistently denied that this was also an ‘oil-grab’, let’s be abundantly clear: “if the major export of Iraq had been beetroot, did anyone believe the American 82nd Airborne would really have gone to Fallujah and Mosul?”

Fisk’s ability to use words that cut like the sword of a samurai is, frankly, inimitable. He credits author and activist Naomi Klein for being one of the first to recognise “the boldest attempt at crisis exploration” in Iraq by the US and Britain, as they prepared to re-organise the country’s oil exports.

Fisk is detailed and judicious in his condemnation of the many ‘client states’ of the West, the despots and dictators of the Middle East and South Asia. He explains in great depth how the Middle East has been carved up and divided amongst authoritarian figures who are in a constant state of war with their own citizens. They are tolerated, armed even, and oftentimes ignored for their crimes by the ‘upright, civilised’ world for as long as they maintain a status quo for the US and its allies.

He writes of how the depravity of the Assads, Saddams and Mobaraks birthed a network of ruthless secret police and ‘elite’ army units that work within the shadows, stoking the fires of sectarianism, weaponising religion and crushing even a whisper of dissent. And yet, all dictators are not created equal. The West decides who becomes a liability and when. In the case of Saddam, it was the invasion of Kuwait and not his feared torture cells or use of chemical weapons against fellow Iraqis that made him unacceptable.

Night of Power is a testimony from one of the most prominent journalists of our time. Robert Fisk had called the Arab world home for more than 40 years and so stands as a giant among his peers. One of the first witnesses of history in the making, he was an analyst and interpreter par excellence. Each chapter in this book looks back on moments in history that have shaped the Middle East in one way or the other.

Fisk’s words are clinical and succinct, yet there is heartbreak and pain as he faces the bloody abyss that is the Middle East at the hands of its own leaders and the West. Fisk reminds the reader that this book is not about him, it is not a memoir, instead it is a cautionary tale, a tragedy and the story of betrayal and deceit. He tells the story as it stands, regardless of consequences.

If Robert Fisk were alive today, I wonder what he would report when confronted by the more than 40,000 innocent civilians viciously killed in Gaza and the tens of thousands more buried under the rubble since October 7, 2023? What would Fisk think after seeing photographs of the Haditha Massacre that were acquired and published by The New Yorker on August 28, 2024, showing the grisly aftermath of the bloody rampage carried out by US Marines.

Fisk had covered the Haditha atrocity extensively in 2005, where he asked his readers if this could be the “tip of the mass grave?” (It is pertinent to note that not a single perpetrator spent a day in prison.) How would he respond to the horrific images coming from Gaza that flood our social media timelines? How would he have reported on the brave young men and women studying in high profile universities scattered across the Western world, as they risked their futures to set up encampments in protest for a free Palestine, for an end to the siege that he and many others had reported on and that imprisons the people of Gaza?

It is difficult to read when he writes about the Nakba, and the pain behind his words is difficult to hide. “Keys must always be the symbol of the Palestinian Nakba,” he writes. “That terrible last turning of the lock of those front doors. Goodbye — only for a few days.”

Simple words, but they complete the job and, like a dagger, strike the heart of their reader. This was the power of the pen yielded by Robert Fisk.

The reviewer is a freelance writer with a background in law and literature. X: @ShehryarSahar

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, September 22nd, 2024


Monday, September 23, 2024

THE DREADED ISI

Pakistan appoints Lt General Asim Malik as head of powerful spy agency


Lt Gen Asim Malik to replace Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum as Director General of ISI and will take charge on Sept.30, 2024.
Photo / X

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Lt General Muhammad Asim Malik has been appointed as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISi) to take charge of the position on September 30, the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) announced on its official X account.

The new appointee is currently serving as the adjutant general at the General Headquarters (GHQ) of Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi, the statement said.

He will be replacing Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, who was picked up for the position in 2021 by then-prime minister Imran Khan on the insistence of the then army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.

In October 2021, then-Major General Asim Malik had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and was then appointed the adjutant general.

During the course of his military career, he served in the Balochistan infantry division and commanded the infantry brigade in Waziristan, the PTV said and highlighted that he had been awarded a Sword of Honour during his army service.

Other than that, Gen Malik also served as the chief instructor at the National Defence University (NDU) in Islamabad and as an instructor at the Command and Staff College Quetta.

The military officer is a graduate of Fort Leavenworth in the United States and Royal College of Defence Studies in London, the statement added.

He belongs to a military family and his father Ghulam Muhammad was also a lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army.

The outgoing ISI chief retired from the army service last year, but was retained in this post after he was given extension in service.

The post of ISI director general, usually a serving military officer, is one of the most powerful positions in Pakistan, at the intersection of domestic politics, the military and foreign relations.

While the ISI chief technically reports to the prime minister, he is controlled by Pakistan’s army chief.


The shadow games of Pakistan's ISI

Friday, 23 August 2024 | Bhopinder Singh


Often accused of overstepping its professional bounds, ISI has become a player in domestic politics, international intrigue, and personal vendettas

Spy novelist John Le Carre describes spies as complicated and lonely beings, living double lives. Such seclusion makes deception, intrigue and unrequited ambition, their default mode. The fact that they know the deep and dark secrets but are still expected to comply by restrains occasionally leads them to flex their ‘privilege’ (read, confidential information) towards reckless ends. Because they are dangerously privy to so much dirt, they fear their ambition.

Like the proverbial Ceaser’s wife, must always be above suspicion – but often aren’t.Pakistan’s notorious spy agency Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) is infamous for going beyond its professional remit and dabbling in domestic politics, commercial interests or even partaking in cross-border dalliances, beyond their approved mandate. If the Pakistani Army Chief is the real power (pretence of civil politicians, notwithstanding), arguably the second most powerful person is the DG-ISI. Supposed loyalty to the Army Chief or to the PM (in times when the Army takes a backseat and politicians have an upper hand) is implicit, though, in the Pakistani narrative, backstabbing is common.

Ironically for such a powerful ‘number two’ post, there have been 29 DG-ISIs so far, and only one has ascended to the post of Army Chief i.e., the current Army Chief, General Asim Munir. It is reflective of the slippery slope that the post entails which invariably ends up making some power centres in Pakistan unhappy about their conduct e.g., Clergy, Politicians, Americans/Chinese or even their alma mater, the Pakistani ‘establishment’.

Even the current Army Chief, General Asim Munir was abruptly moved out as the DG-ISI as the then PM Imran Khan felt uncomfortable with his conduct (karma later evened out the equation as Imran finds himself languishing in the jail today). Seemingly the profile is for a loyal, unquestioning and low-key DG-ISI who does the job is satisfied with obscurity (shouldn’t be overambitious) and effectively rides into the sunset after retirement, without much fuss. Given the opportunity, lure and access, many do try to take their chances.

There is a curious case of one DG-ISI who did get appointed as the Army Chief, but his tenure was only for a few hours and the same does not go in official records as having become the Pakistani Army Chief. Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt was a typical DG-ISI who went across the Afghan border to meet the dreaded leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, to negotiate – he was in the thick of the dark corridors and machinations of the Pakistani State.

Ziauddin had direct access to the other competing power centre i.e., PM Nawaz Sharif, and was a willing accomplice in Sharif’s attempt to remove Pervez Musharraf as the Army Chief. Before the coup(or countercoup as Musharraf calls it), ‘General’ Ziauddin was hastily appointed the Army Chief and then immediately dumped by the Pakistani Army which refused to back their DG-ISI’s ambition. Spymaster’s gambit failed. Ziauddin was not the first or the last of DG-ISIs to harbour personal ambition beyond what was warranted constitutionally. The shadowy likes of Lt Gen Akhtar Rahman, Hamid Gul, Shamsur Kallu, Zaheerul Islam etc., operated with questionable interests. Yet another one who is in the news for harbouring extraconstitutional ambitions and paying the price for the same is the former DG-ISI, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed. Forced into premature retirement over his dubious role amid the recent turf war between the Pakistani ‘establishment’ (led by previous and current Army Chiefs i.e. Qamar Bajwa and Asim Munir, respectively) against the Imran Khan dispensation – he has been brought back to public news for having misused his then powerful position and arm-twisting people in some realty deal.

While he was earlier afforded a relatively face-saving ‘early retirement’ (though everyone knew better), he could be embarrassingly court-martialed to score fresh brownie points against the deposed Imran Khan dispensation (which Lt Gen Faiz Hameed is popularly believed to be identified with). Many acts of Lt Gen Faiz Hameed did suggest a rather megalomanic, cavalier and overreaching conduct that did not behove the role of spymasters, but perhaps the personal ambition had got the better of him. As the roll of the dice played out, the narrative changed and with it, he too was ousted. Only he is back for a possible second round of infamy and disrepute if the current dispensation has its ways.Whereas the unhinged politicians like Imran Khan who are desperately trying to save their skins and ingratiate themselves to the Pakistani ‘establishment’ (after realising that they are not going anywhere) have disowned and thrown Lt Gen Faiz Hameed under the proverbial bus! Instead of backing their henchman who did their bidding, Imran said, “if Faiz Hameed was involved, it should be investigated” and he welcomed the enquiry!

The whole saga says a lot about the unprofessionalism and complete absence of loyalty in overall governance, as exemplified by Lt Gen Faiz Hameed or by Imran Khan – the former was disloyal to his institution, and the latter to his word. As Israeli Michael Bar-Zohar notes in Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service, “Dirtiest actions should be carried out by the most honest men”, perhaps former DG-ISI Faiz Hameed wasn’t one and will pay the price, again.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views are personal)

Unity, faith, discipline – The ISI of Pakistan

Global Defense Insight
January 28, 2022


ISI was established by Australian army commander Major-General Walter Cawthorne, then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-8. Later, he became the chief of Australia’s Secret Intelligence Service. Cawthrone based ISI’s design on the British intelligence service MI-6 and the United States’ CIA.

Author Hein G. Kiessling’s book “Faith, Unity, Discipline – The ISI of Pakistan” gives readers a fascinating historical look into the secret world of one of the most admired and dreaded secret services of the modern age.

Kiessling explains ISI’s start and how it was first charged with carrying out foreign operations. He also goes into great detail on the pivotal events that changed the path of history and made ISI what it is today.

The author reflects on the ISI’s early failures, like Operation Gibraltar, which used irregulars to incite an uprising in Kashmir. Although General Ayub Khan approved the ideas, they did not pay off for Pakistan.

The writer explores the role of the ISI in East Pakistan. Its first attempt to inject religion into politics, which ended in failure, was to get enough support for Jammat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. While the Indian RAW, on the other hand, not only completed its core objective of dismembering Pakistan but also posed a threat to the ISI’s emergence as a secret organization.

For years, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was an underdeveloped and unknown organization. It became well-known in 1979 when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of their communist ally’s government. To defend the mujahideen against the Soviets, the organization collaborated with the CIA, an American intelligence agency by providing weapons and funding.

Since then, the ISI has expanded its sphere of influence throughout the region. The directorate’s support in Indian-held Kashmir, assistance to the Afghan Taliban, and potential ties to Al-Qaeda are all fiercely debated topics. It also puts the spotlight on the ISI’s participation in the country’s nuclear program and its covert role in the Dr. A.Q. Khan case.

This book provides an excellent overview of the ISI’s participation in internal politics and foreign counter-intelligence operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, and North East India, among other places. It details the events of the 1990s when Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto established an information-sharing network between the ISI and Pakistan’s foreign office for policy research and other purposes.

The author further claims that ISI wields diplomatic power through the appointment of former military generals as ambassadors.

One of the book’s most intriguing parts is its debunking of the misconception that ISI is a rogue organization. The author argues that such an idea does not exist and ISI is a well-established organization with a robust command structure overseeing the directorate’s operations.

Because there is little public discussion about ISI’s actions, the author’s attempt to dispel some of the agency’s clouds is pushed back.

The material in the book comes from the author’s personal networking with ISI professionals, as well as secondary source data, particularly from Indian academics that view ISI through a RAW lens. This book, on the other hand, succeeds in explaining the workings of intelligence as well as Pakistan’s politics and overall policies.

‘ISI didn’t plan the Taliban victory. The US facilitated it,’ says Adrian Levy

Open Conversation with Adrian Levy, author


Ullekh NP  | 27 Aug, 2021


(Illustration: Saurabh Singh)

Adrian Levy has never stayed back this long in London since he was 16, he says. The Covid-19 pandemic has confined him to his London home from where he currently gives interviews on the latest among several books he has co-authored with Cathy Scott-Clark who, these days, is tied up with an upcoming project: on the American use of torture. Like their previous works, their new book Spy Stories: Inside the Secret World of the R.A.W. and the I.S.I. is an explosive volume that talks about the men and methods of the bitterly rival external intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The 360-page book offers valuable insights into various operations launched apparently by ISI and RAW, the 2019 Pulwama attack, the Pathankot airbase attack of 2016, the Parliament attack and also about people and assets.


There is much more in the book than what has often been said about the two agencies.

The duo, known for their superb investigations, have authored books and made films on jihad, geopolitics, strategy and foreign policy, among others. Their books include The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight; The Meadow: The Kashmir Kidnapping That Changed the Face of Modern Terrorism; The Siege: The Attack on the Taj; Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy.

In his conversation with Open, Levy dwells on the Afghan situation, the role of spy agencies in that country and warns against knee-jerk reactions on the part of the media and analysts to run into judgments on events, saying these could be profoundly damaging. As with terror attacks, he says it is important to understand the distinction between intelligence failures and the intent to allow things to run their course. Excerpts:

How many years did it take you to finish this book?

It’s a continuum for Cathy and myself. Each book is an overlapping enterprise rather than one book or film ending and another beginning. Work goes on concurrently and so it is more horizontal than vertical. For example, when we were doing The Meadow (the 2012 book about the 1995 kidnapping of tourists in Kashmir by an unnamed group to secure the release of dreaded Pakistani militant Maulana Masood Azhar), we had the idea of the Western hostage-taking in mind to look at the wider issue of disappearances. But we couldn’t do it for many years. Finally, after the earthquake happened in Kashmir (in 2005) and the security came down, we got to see the landscape of Kashmir.



Now, building relationships takes a long time. It is a decades-plus-long effort. Cathy must have worked from 1994 to until now, but in terms of specifics, the work on this started in 2009 when we were doing The Siege (on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks). We had this idea then of making a South Asian version of the Israeli film called The Gatekeepers, which is an intriguing, well-made, educative and entertaining documentary feature that got the Israeli security agency Shin Bet to open up. It gave a conflicting, overlapping narrative of oral history, not substantiated by paperwork, how they (members of Shin Bet who agreed to talk) saw the Israeli-Palestinian issue. We had this idea to make a film in which one of us would be on this side of the LoC and the other on the other side. We started conversations in 2009 with everybody, but on either side, not one person wanted to be on camera (from ISI or RAW).

The issue with spies is that they don’t want to be accountable to anyone. We kept working on it, with new RAW chiefs, new ISI chiefs, telling them to own the narrative. Owning the narrative is what Americans had done exceptionally well. But everyone in India and Pakistan rejected it although we kept pleading. So instead of a film we decided to write an oral book based on inputs from all of those we spoke to about ISI and RAW. We were working on the book intensely for four years, travelling to India and Pakistan. But most of these people who spoke to us were people we knew since 1994.



When did you meet Major Iftikhar whom you describe in the book as the nom de guerre for an ISI operations officer?

We met him three years ago, but everyone else who provides the infrastructure were relationships we began when we were kids (laughs) and so they were genial. A lot of meetings, by the way, happened in the Gulf states, Thailand, a proxy territory for a lot of spy agencies. Some meetings took place in France, Germany, Syria, the US and England. These meetings overlapped with another project that is coming up: on American use of torture. We have an extremely thin level of budgeting and so we manage multiple projects together. Otherwise, it would be practically and economically impossible for two people who do freelance work and are not supported by institutions to do such projects.

Do Iftikhar and Monisha (the RAW agent who is a source for the authors) have multiple identities?

Yes. We keep interviews that go back to 1994. All the interviews are taped and transcribed, but we agreed to use trade names. Iftikhar was one of the identities he (the ISI operative) had used. He had five identities all the way from Korea in 1994 up until his vanishing. In fact, Iftikhar was his favourite nom de guerre. Monisha had several identities. She was not in clandestine service. She was an analyst.



In David Muntaner’s 2015 film CIA vs KGB: Battleground Berlin, CIA officers admit that KGB was slightly superior to them because of their ideological drive and commitment. Is that kind of faith-based passion at play between ISI and RAW?

It is a super-interesting question. I have got many different takes on that. I believe that it is true that both outfits take on a different mantle as the time changes. If you take a micro timeline, that is from 9/11 onwards, you can see that there is an evolution of ideology and character within those organisations. It will be tempting initially and incorrectly to say that India is taking on its ideological foe in ISI, which stands for an austere and extreme interpretation of Islam. That is to assume that RAW doesn’t have any politics. I touch upon this because that (giving such a perception) is one of RAW’s biggest achievements. Its projection of itself as benign and vanilla is something it does very effectively.


Owning the narrative is what Americans had done exceptionally well. But everyone in India and Pakistan rejected it. So instead of a film we decided to write a book based on inputs from all of those we spoke to about ISI and RAW. We were working on the book intensely for four years, travelling to India and Pakistan

Both organisations have gone on interesting journeys. Both involve inculcation by a faith and a certain kind of worldview, a deepening of a religious-social worldview. It is certainly true of RAW and certainly true of ISI. Let’s not forget that a new kind of nationalism is emerging in India encouraged by the US post-2001. Therefore, the forces that become corrosive in Pakistan become corrosive in India, too. And yet the story is not told that way. You have jealousies on both sides.



Your book quotes Monisha saying that Lodhi Road (RAW headquarters) is dominated by IPS officers who think Muslims are duplicitous. How do you think such an attitude would restrict intel gathering against ISI?

I am not in the business of writing a transformative policy document. I am reporting (laughs). I will make an observation though. India’s Intelligence Bureau (the main internal intelligence agency), for example, has a certain number of Muslims but senior positions are mostly not filled by them with the probable exception of Asif Ibrahim. The organisation, according to insiders—and it is not my view—suffered incalculably because of that. If you look at all spy organisations across the world, they invest a lot in communities they investigate. In that sense, the transformation of the CIA, MI5, MI6 is all radical. In places like India, such reforms are only on paper.

The result of this attitude could be dangerous. Again, it is very easy to look at everything through the narrow prism of post-2014 politics when BJP returned to power. Actually, it involves a much longer timeline, all the way through various other governments. RAW officers tell you that the organisation does not reflect the humongous gifted communities of India and that it would benefit from being a truly representative security establishment.

Who do you think are the most effective, storied and feared officers of RAW and ISI?

It would be true to say much against the common beliefs that RAW and ISI have both been hugely effective. And yet, because they resist telling stories, what you tend to hear is hugely negative, such as big episodes of infiltration, collapses, the failures like 26/11, etcetera. There are many, many heroes. At a very senior level, I always found that (the late RAW chief) B Raman’s influence just cannot be overstated. He is an extraordinary person who brought in extraordinary changes, professionalism and rigour to RAW.



KC Verma is among such a breed of people who did the impossible, politically as well. A very good example of short-termism is that after 26/11 lots of people said to me that we never imagined the unimaginable. That’s just rubbish, right? What do the security services do? They imagine the unimaginable every day. People like Verma and Raman imagine the unimaginable and try to go into the unimaginable space, including the outreach to Iran, the outreach to China, the balancing of America, Iran and China, the outreach to Russia and so on. They played hugely sophisticated, big-country games that are never really well-documented. The courting of Israel is a story in its own right.

The illicit relationship with Israel, which took place in the 1990s at a time when it couldn’t even be acknowledged, goes right up to Pegasus today. So, I’ve named some of those people. Anyone who is really interested in this psychology of jihad, who is really interested in the pathology of political movements, wants to be with these people. You want to understand how and what are the influences that lead to the cell splitting, the creation of new ideologies and flavours. There is an enormous knowledge base in RAW and it is never shared with its own people.

What do you think is the role of ISI in the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan?

I think there are some useful handholds: in November 2001, ISI under General Ehsan ul Haq manoeuvred Saudi royals to front a deal to protect the Taliban and that was backed by the Tony Blair government, in parts, in the UK. They warned—collectively—that the movement could not be defeated and should be incorporated into what the US intended to do in Afghanistan.

That proposal was taken by the Saudi royal family and Blair to Dick Cheney who rejected it outright—just as he rejected a side deal with Iran which in 2002 and 2003 offered the bin Laden family and top military commanders in their custody, in return for normalisation of relations with the US. Cheney said then that Iran would fall after Iraq and the Taliban, and the US was not prepared for any deals or normalcy as it invaded Baghdad.

The Taliban victory is inspirational for Islamists, Islamic states but also for anti-imperialists. Taliban are not Al Qaeda. I fear the chaos more than the Taliban. In ungoverned spaces, terror groups could grow as happened in Libya and Syria. So, there’s an argument to help the Taliban quickly govern and increase their capacity

That deal was never forgotten by ISI—and Ehsan’s legacy would live on until 2006-07, when ISI and CIA parted ways, the relationship having soured completelyas ISI would not relinquish the idea. For its part, the US—by now distracted by civil war in Iraq—would not embrace it and could not persuade Pakistan to relinquish its strategic interests.

What we see here is not so much Pakistan’s manifest destiny or even long-haul planning but the abject failure of US policy to launch an impossible low-intensity war in Afghanistan, and then further dilute it with an illegal invasion of Iraq—and finally abandoning both Iraq and Afghanistan, while neighbours in Pakistan continued to hold on to their ambitions.

Imagine if Bush-Cheney had embraced the Saudi-Pak plan at the start and also taken control of the bin Laden family and Al Qaeda military commanders. How many lives would have been preserved? Impossible to know, but a painful thought.

ISI did not plan this victory. And what we are seeing is not the fall of Saigon. It is the failure of Kabul to rule all of Afghanistan, and for a centralised army to represent an ethnocentric nation. Kabul did not equal Afghanistan, ever. Taliban prevailed because the governors of provinces decided not to oppose them, and not to support corruption in Kabul, rather than acceding to the Taliban or their goals and ideals. Provincial governments voted against Kabul and enabled it to be encircled and occupied today. ISI did not do this. The US facilitated it.

How influential do you think RAW is in the Panjshir Valley, the seat of anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan?

ISI was attempting to make outreach here—but stumbled over the fact that a corps of officers, all forged in the 1980s war against the Soviets, held sway over Afghan policy. RAW was doing the same, and had contacts but inside the Panjshir Valley there seems to have been a feeling that these links would not amount to anything substantial—in terms of political capital, actual capital or mentoring.



If you look at spy organisations across the world, they invest a lot in communities they investigate. In that sense, the transformation of the CIA, MI5, MI6 is radical. In India, such reforms are only on paper. The result could be dangerous. RAW officers tell you that the organisation would benefit from being a truly representative security establishment

The outcome in Kabul is extraordinary—mostly for what it tells us about the US. The campaign to rout Al Qaeda became a war against the Taliban who were not responsible for 9/11. Seeking vengeance, the US lost its way and—instead of reassuring a terrified world post-9/11 and selling the idea of secular democracy—has worked to undo rules-bound systems.

Talibs are from Afghanistan and have regained power in their country upturning a meandering American project. They are not a terrorist movement but a group with stringent precepts and beliefs. So, let’s wait to see what they have become and what they want to achieve. Previously they have not sought influence or power outside Afghanistan. India, for example, was not their enemy. What is also unknown is what their attitude will be to the foreign radical elements in the country—the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Pakistan Taliban, and Sunni fighters from Iran and China. Will they continue to win shelter? Will they be allowed to recoup and strike from Afghanistan?

The Taliban victory is, of course, inspirational—for Islamists, Islamic states but also for anti-imperialists. But will it grow movements inside the country or inspire others elsewhere? We don’t know is the short answer. Taliban are not Al Qaeda. There was a fraternal relationship, mentoring by Al Qaeda. And Taliban leaders have been ambiguous in their statements. I fear the chaos more than the Taliban. In ungoverned spaces, terror groups could grow as happened in Libya and Syria. So, there’s an argument to help the Taliban quickly govern and increase their capacity. More government and greater authority rather than a lawless vacuum are preferable.



'Faith, Unity and Discipline: The ISI of Pakistan' reveals the agency's clandestine dynamics

Shantanu Mukharji • 
December 10, 2016,

A book on the ISI is hitting the stands, which exposes every detail of the ISI setup and its functioning




Ordinarily , intelligence agencies involved in espionage and counter-espionage the world over are cloaked in deep mystery with people having negligible or no knowledge of their structure and working. Even if some segments of the society have knowledge, they are distorted and garbled .

For Indians, the Pakistan Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) is seen as a monstrous and dreaded outfit threatening to harm India by fomenting multiple destructive problems. This belief is deep seated in the Indian mindset. But such a perception is not wide off the mark. A book on the ISI is hitting the stands, which exposes every detail of the ISI setup and its functioning. Authored by Hein Kiessling, the book dispels all the misgivings surrounding the ISI and it adequately deals with all the questions about Pakistan’s unwieldy intelligence body which have perhaps not been answered as yet — making it a most readable book on the subject

The author, Dr Kiessling, has lived in Pakistan for thirteen long years (1989- 2002) enabling him to develop a close relationship with the ISI hierarchy and top leadership of Pakistani polity and military. A scholarly personality with history and political science as his forte, Kiessling is a PhD from a well known Munich university. Given his long exposure in Pakistan and close professional interactions with powerful players who mattered , he is best suited to come out with this magnum opus on the ISI.

The highlight of the book in the Indian context is ISI’s direct involvement in funding the Khalistani movement including sheltering of the Sikh extremists in Pakistan. The book adds that ISI threw itself into its Khalistan adventure from the early ’80s. Terrorist training camps for young Sikhs were set up in Karachi and Lahore. ISI had chalked out a three pronged blueprint: to precipitate the alienation of the Sikhs from mainstream India; emphasised the need to subvert the state machinery and trigger off mass agitation launching a reign of terror in Punjab. Further , ISI contributed to the high number of fatalities in Punjab by supplying sophisticated weaponry, adding to the arsenal of Sikh militants .

Continuing his revelations on the ISI machinations, Dr Kiessling writes that ISI had instructed one of the Khalistanis to receive training at a flying college in Mumbai, aimed at crashing at an off shore oil rig. This shows how deeply embedded the notorious ISI was way back in the ’90s, to strike at critical Indian infrastructure.

Glaring revelations are also mentioned in the book about active ISI complicity in the Indian Northeast. In 1990, ISI undercover operatives stationed in Pakistani embassy Dhaka got in touch with Naga insurgent groups — NSCN and ULFA — and commenced supply of arms to the Naga ultras and organised training to ULFA cadres in Pakistan. Several such batches were trained in arms and that eventually saw unleashing of terror in Assam and adjoining places. The Pak embassy Dhaka emerged as the hub of Indian Northeast operations. China too collaborated with ISI in the joint anti India (Northeast) activities which, inter alia, included funding, supply of weapons and providing safe havens to Northeast insurgents, wanted in India.

In the book under review , Kiessling has provided minute details about covert ISI operations in Kashmir, Northeast and Punjab. Readers would find the contents interesting to read themselves rather than to judge by this review alone.

Speaking about the budget of ISI, the author estimates the ‘official’ budget quantum stands today at a whopping USD 300 million. This is in addition to various other channels generating colossal extra funds for the ISI activities from drug trade, counterfeit money, foreign donations etc.

This book is recommended not only for the intelligence community but for all academics and students of Geopolitics to know the truth about the clandestine dynamics the ISI is engaged in to subvert and penetrate the Indian system . There is comprehensive mention of Indian RAW as well, but readers may like to discover themselves the ‘facts’ contained therein.

On the whole, this is worth a read as its 300-plus pages give some insight into the working of this draconian intelligence outfit targeting a diverse range of objectives employing most lethal means. Academically, the book carries the history of the ISI, profiles of their erstwhile chiefs, supported by illustrated plates .

The reviewer is a retired IPS officer and a senior fellow with the Indian Police Foundation. Follow him on Twitter: @Shantanu2818


ISI controlled Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound: Book

The Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden was under ISI control and a Pakistan Army doctor treated the most dreaded terrorist in the world before he was killed in a daring raid by US commandos in 2011.



Published: April 28, 2016 
By Press Trust of India


Washington, Apr 28: The Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden was under ISI control and a Pakistan Army doctor treated the most dreaded terrorist in the world before he was killed in a daring raid by US commandos in 2011, according to a new book. In fact, the doctor Amir Aziz, of the rank of major, who lived in a compound near bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, was rewarded by the CIA with a share of the USD 25 million bounty the US had put up because a DNA sample had conclusively proved the al-Qaeda leader’s identity.

In his latest book, ‘The Killing of Osama bin Laden’, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claims that ISI got hold of bin Laden in 2006 after paying bribes to some of the tribal leaders. At the time he was said to be very ill. “Early on in his confinement at Abbottabad, the ISI had ordered Amir Aziz, a doctor and a major in the Pakistani army, to move nearby to provide treatment,” Hersh claims, basing his account on a conversation he had with an unidentified retired Pakistan Army official. (ALSO READ: Pakistan was aware of US operation that killed Osama Bin Laden : US Journalist)

And all this while the Pakistani leadership in particular the army chief and ISI boss repeatedly told the US that they did not know the whereabouts of bin Laden. “It’s understood in Washington that elements of the ISI believe that maintaining a relationship with the Taliban leadership inside Afghanistan is essential to national security. The ISI’s strategic aim is to balance Indian influence in Kabul.

“The Taliban is also seen in Pakistan as a source of jihadist shock troops who would back Pakistan against India in a confrontation over Kashmir,” Hersh said in his book that hit stores early this month. “The Pakistanis also know that their trump card against aggression from India is a strong relationship with the United States. They will never cut their person-to-person ties with us,” a senior retired army official is quoted as saying.

Hersh claims that the CIA came to know about bin Laden’s hideout from a senior Pakistani intelligence official who betrayed the secret in return for much of the USD 25 million reward offered by the US. The said official is now living near Washington along with his family.

Hersh said his information collected from US intelligence and other sources was vetted by former ISI head Asad Durrani.



Pakistan's ISI, a hidden, frustrating power for U.S.


By Reuters
October 8, 2010
By Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Top U.S. defense officials are concerned some elements of Pakistan's main spy agency may be interacting improperly with the Taliban and other insurgent groups, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday.
Colonel David Lapan said Pakistani army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, himself a former spy chief, was aware of U.S. concerns about the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and shared some of them.

Here are some questions and answers about the ISI, the most powerful intelligence agency in Pakistan, a country the United States sees as indispensable to its efforts to tame a raging Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

HOW POWERFUL IS THE ISI?
The shadowy military intelligence agency has evolved into what some describe as a state within a state.
Widely feared by Pakistanis, it is believed to have a hidden role in many of the nuclear-armed nation's policies, including in Afghanistan, one of U.S. President Barack Obama's top foreign policy priorities.

The ISI is seen as the Pakistani equivalent of the U.S. Central Agency (CIA) -- with which it has had a symbiotic but sometimes strained relationship -- and Israel's Mossad.
Its size is not publicly known but the ISI is widely believed to employ tens of thousands of agents, with informers in many spheres of public life.
Hardline elements within the ISI are capable of being spoilers, no matter what position a Pakistani government might take, a reality the U.S. and Afghan governments should take into account if they attempt to exclude Pakistan from negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.

WHAT ABOUT THE ISI'S PAST?

Created in 1948, the ISI gained importance and power during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and is now rated one of best-organized intelligence agencies in the developing world.

The ISI along with the United States and Saudi Arabia, nurtured the Afghan mujahideen, or Muslim holy warrior guerrillas, and helped them win the war. It helped to plan many of their operations and was the main conduit for Western and Arab arms. It later helped create the Taliban.

Although Pakistan officially abandoned support for the Taliban after joining the U.S.-led war against al Qaeda and Taliban, critics, including Western military commanders in Afghanistan, say it has maintained its ties with, and support for, the Afghan Taliban. The military denies supporting the Taliban but says agents maintain links with militants, as any security agency would do, in the interests of intelligence.

Analysts say the main preoccupation of the ISI, and the Pakistani military, is the threat from nuclear-armed rival India and it sees the Afghan Taliban as tools to influence events, and limit India's role, in Afghanistan.

The ISI was heavily involved in the 1990s in creating and supporting Islamist factions that battled Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region. Some of those groups have since joined forces with the Pakistani Taliban to attack the state, including the ISI. That militants alliance may be the biggest threat to Pakistan's long-term security, analysts say.

WHAT ABOUT THE ISI'S CURRENT LEADERSHIP?

Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha is the director general of the ISI and a close ally of Kayani. Pasha is seen as anti-Taliban, unlike some of his predecessors, and analysts suggest he is using the ISI to broker some sort of deal between factions of the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan government. Although he is seen as relatively moderate, the ISI is almost certain to come under a new wave of pressure as the United States gets increasingly frustrated with the army's perceived reluctance to go after Afghan Taliban fighters who cross the border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan. But the strategic interests of the ISI, headquartered in a sprawling, well-guarded complex in Islamabad, will invariably come first, analysts say.

(Additional reporting by Chris Allbritton; Editing by Zeeshan Haider and Robert Birsel)


The ISI, Pakistan's notorious and feared spy agency, comes in from the cold

In its own land the agency is viewed with awe and dread. Now it is opening up – a little – to western journalists



Declan Walsh
Islamabad
THE GUARDIAN
Wed 5 Aug 2009 


The entrance is suitably discreet: a single barrier near a small hospital off a busy Islamabad highway. Bougainvillea spills over long walls with barbed wire; a plain-clothes man packing a pistol questions visitors. Further along, soldiers emerge to check for bombs.

Then a giant electric gate slides back to reveal a sleek grey building that would not look out of place on a California technology campus. With one difference: nothing is signposted.

Welcome to the headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate, Pakistan's premier spy agency. Powerful and notorious in equal measure, for decades the ISI has operated behind a dense veil of secrecy, impervious to allegations of election rigging, terrorist training, abduction and assassination. Many Pakistanis call it the "state within a state".

Now, though, the ISI is coming in from the cold. Over the past year the agency has invited a stream of western journalists into its swish, modern nerve centre. Over tea and PowerPoint briefings, spies give details of some of Pakistan's most sensitive issues – the Taliban insurgency, the hunt for al-Qaida, the troubled relationship with India.

"We've started to open up a little," said an ISI official authorised to speak to the press. "In the past, irrespective of whether we did something, we were getting blamed for it. Now we want to reach out and get our point of view across."

Yet rehabilitating the ISI's image would tax the most inventive spin doctor. For 30 years its covert operations have been at the sharp end of Pakistani policy, supporting Islamist extremists fighting Indian soldiers in Kashmir, and boosting the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.

At home the agency is viewed with awe and dread. It is the eyes and ears of military power, with huge phone and email monitoring capability and a wide network of informers.

Some Pakistanis refer to its agents – who often wear white shalwar kameez – as "the angels". Under President Pervez Musharraf they abducted hundreds of people, some of whom were allegedly tortured.

Recently, though, it has been the agency's turn to be on the receiving end.

Last May suicide bombers hit an ISI office in Lahore, killing a colonel; in the tribal areas militants have killed 57 agents and wounded 86. Security is tight at the Islamabad headquarters, where last month the ISI asked its next-door neighbour – the city authority – to move to another neighbourhood.

Influencing the local press has always been part of ISI operations, usually through bribes, blandishments or intimidation. But it rarely reached out to the foreign press, until now.

"This is totally unprecedented," said Stephen Cohen, a Pakistan expert at the Brookings Institution policy research organisation in Washington. "It seems to be part of a new openness in the military. They're worried about caricatures of Pakistan, especially in the foreign press, such as people saying the country is going to break up in three months."

The briefings, which take place about once a week, belie the agency's gritty image. Reporters are shepherded into a wood-panelled conference room with soft armchairs, a long table and a wall-mounted screen.


Officials in business suits, who could pass for middle management in any company, introduce themselves without full name or job title.

During the interview liveried servants ferry in trays of tea and fried snacks, served on ISI crockery. Smoking is allowed.

Officials speak openly, but journalists expecting them to gush state secrets may be disappointed. Every talk is carefully vetted in advance. "We're opening up but it's not a total glasnost," said the unofficial spokesman.

The ajar-door policy got off to a rocky start last year when the newly appointed ISI chief, Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha, told Der Spiegel that the Taliban had a right to "freedom of opinion". The agency later said he misspoke. Now, though, it is paying dividends. Two weeks ago a front page lead in the New York Times, highlighting Pakistani concerns with the US military surge in Afghanistan, was sourced from an ISI briefing.

The agency was pleased. "That was the first time [the journalist] carried both sides of the argument," said the ISI official. "I think we are getting there."

The bolder media policy is part of a wider global trend. The CIA and MI6 have always maintained relationships with selected journalists, an engagement whose importance has increased amid the furore over torture and abduction allegations.

For journalists, the challenge is to sift fact from propaganda. In a recent briefing to the Guardian, ISI officials suggested Indian officials had orchestrated last November's Mumbai attacks. The Indians wanted to cover up an investigation into Hindu extremism, they said.

Days later Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman from the massacre, told an Indian court how he had been trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani jihadi outfit with links to the ISI.

In the briefing the ISI also accused New Delhi of supplying arms and explosives to the Pakistan Taliban, even though the Taliban has killed Indians inside Afghanistan.

"Circles within circles," said an ISI official when asked to explain the apparent contradictions. "It makes an excellent plot for a Le Carré novel."

Western officials quietly support some ISI contentions, such as covert Indian support for nationalist rebels in Baluchistan. But more than anything the briefings reveal how the ISI's world view is framed by its decades-old enmity with India.

"They tell you a lot about themselves even when they don't know it," said Bruce Riedel, a retired CIA official, Obama adviser and trenchant ISI critic. The contradiction at the heart of agency policy, he said, is its support for Islamist militants: "That can't be removed by clever briefings."

Still, the old cliches about the spy collective being a "state within a state" or a "rogue agency" are out of date. These days it is said to be firmly in the grip of the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, who previously ran the agency for three years.

But the new openness does underscore the country's fragile balance of power. Two weeks ago The Hindu reported that the ISI's Pasha had invited Indian diplomats to deal with him directly, bypassing President Asif Ali Zardari's government.

"Formally, Zardari has a lot of power. But on the ground he's not too strong right now," said analyst and newspaper editor Najam Sethi.

Despite its new openness, the ISI remains in the shadows. One question stands out: as well as improving its image, is it ready to really change its stripes? At headquarters, nobody can give a straight answer. Circles within circles, as they say.