The assessment in India that the Pathankot terrorist attack was
initiated by the Pakistani military (PakMil) establishment was endorsed
on Tuesday by Bruce Riedel, a top US author
ity on counter-terrorism, who was an analyst with the CIA and has
advised several presi dents on security issues in the region. He said
the ISI was be hind the attack, aimed at sab otaging the peace process.
“The attack is designed to prevent any detente between India and
Pakistan after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise Christmas Day
visit to Pakistan,“ Riedel
a Washington insider who is familiar with the workings of the Pakistani
establishment going back to the Kargil invasion, wrote in the Daily
Beast, while suggesting that PakMil had used the proscribed and revived
Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) for the attack.
Riedel told TOI, “The
history of Jaish-e-Muhammed is very clear. It was created by the ISI and
its activities are
protected by them as well.That was true in 2001 and remains so today“.
Riedel attributed his assessment to “knowledgeable sources“.
Riedel has warned that the “Pakistani intelligence service has the
capability to launch more attacks with little notice, at some point
prompting a vigorous Indian response“.
JEM founder Maulana Ma sood Azhar kept a low pro file for several years
after
LET's 2008 attack on Mumbai, but he reappeared publicly in 2014, giving
fiery calls for more attacks on India and the United States. His group
is technically illegal in Pakistan but enjoys the continuing patronage
of the ISI,“ former White House official Bruce Riedel has revealed in an
article in the Daily Beast.
The reason for PakMil's
continued show of hostility against India is well-known and
well-chronicled the posture allows it to loot billions of dollars even
from the depleted national treasury , leaving the occasional civilian
government to carry the can, begging and borrowing from rest of the
world.
“The ISI is under the generals' command and is composed of
army officers, so the spies are controlled by the Pakistani army ,
which justifies its large budget and nuclear weapons program by citing
the Indian menace,“ Riedel wrote. “Any diminution in tensions with India
might risk the army's lock on its
control of Pakistan's national security policy .“
The army
continues to distinguish between ''good'' terrorists like JEM and LET
and ''bad'' terrorists like the Pakistani Taliban, despite decades of
lectures from American leaders.
But the same duplicitous
Pakistani policy has also made suckers of Americans, Riedel
acknowledged, saying although Washington put JEM on the terrorist
sanctions list years ago, ''it continues to coddle the Pakistani army
.'' He also pointed out how General Raheel Sharif got a warm embrace
from Pentagon last fall ''despite the ISI's support for the Afghan
Taliban's offensive against the Kabul government and despite the
Pakistani military's backing of terror groups like JEM.'' To put it
bluntly , the United States backs a terrorist entity , but few people in
Washington say it directly or publicly . Georgetown University scholar C
Christine Fair came closest over the weekend, tweeting, ''I don't
understand why my country keeps coddling this terrorist state.''
Source:- Times Of India, 07-Jan-2016
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