Pakistani Peridy

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Pakistani Spy Unit Aiding Insurgents, Reports Suggest,” describes a double-dealing attitude by, at the very least, many former members of the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, to help the Taliban and other militants attack U.S. forces.

While the Pakistani government strongly denies any current involvement — they are recipients of billions of dollars in U.S. aid — these new documents suggest otherwise. A pattern seems to be emerging with one stance in public and another on the ground.

The United States is in a delicate situation because it wishes to maintain its semi-legal drone attacks that have been so successful against Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and that the Pakistani government seems to be willing to permit, at least in an informal capacity. But what are we to do when the money we use to support the Pakistani government ends up being used to fight our own troops?

The documents the Times has unearthed include a damning portrait of a former head of the ISI, Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, with longstanding, and U.S.-condoned, relationships with the mujahedeen who were supported by the United States when they were fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. But the mujahedeen transformed themselves into the Taliban.

All this has increased tensions between the American military and Pakistani soldiers, an ominous development in itself. There must be some resolution to this situation if our fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda is to succeed.