The Americans seem to discover things that are known to the rest of the world. You can call it the willing suspension of disbelief. The US media reports citing former intelligence operatives have revealed that one-third of Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIS) budget has been channelled to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The establishment in Islamabad is sure to revel in the fact because it just goes to show how important Pakistan is for the US, especially in the war against terror. The Americans too recognise Pakistan as a strategic partner, and it is for this reason there is acknowledgment that aid amounting to billions of dollars - including clandestine channels - has been funnelled to Pakistan, and to the ISI in particular. It is now official that $15 billion has been given to Pakistan since September 11, 2001.
The Pakistanis are not complaining though some of the former intelligence officials have woken up to the harsh reality that it is not really paying off. The most optimistic of them say that in the last eight years about 700 Islamic extremists have been taken off the streets and that is good.
The truth is much worse. Despite the billions of dollars spent and hundreds of American and Pakistani lives lost in the running battle between the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda, the threat of terror has not really receded, much less overcome. The Obama administration is desperately looking for an exit policy in Afghanistan because the realisation is sinking in that this is an unwinnable war. And more depressingly, it is becoming more evident than ever that the ISI is actually undermining the American effort to eliminate the Islamic terrorist network.
The American largesse for the ISI is a matter of grave concern for India in the light of the revelations about the possible connection between US-based jihadi operatives, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana and the terror attacks on Mumbai on November 26, 2008. The money that Americans choose to pay the ISI finds its way, unsurprisingly, to Pakistan-based terror groups waging a war against India. Washington and Islamabad cannot pretend that they have no clue about the ramifications of funding the ISI that is dangerously linked to the jihadis. This is not a US-Pakistan bilateral issue. It has dangerous and tragic consequences for south Asia, including Pakistan, and for the world, including the US. The blunt fact is that the US is funding, however unwittingly, terrorism on the one hand, and fighting against it on the other.
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