Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Rizwan Akhtar visited the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA on February 25, and despite past American officials acknowledging that theISI helps kill American troops there is no indication that current American officials are concerned with this.
The U.S. Army War College issued a press release on March 2 announcing Lt. Gen. Akhtar’s visit to the military school at Carlisle Barracks. A photograph of Akhtar posing with school officials and staff accompanied the press release. Officers attend the U.S. Army War College in preparation of becoming generals or otherwise assuming senior leadership roles. Akhtar attended the school in 2008 as a student.
The press release quoted Prof. Michael Marra as saying, “We were honored the general would take time out of his worldwide visit schedule to provide an open forum for questions and answers to a capacity crowd in the Will-Washcoe Auditorium.” However, the press release did not address if anyone questioned Akhtar on the ISI killing American personnel, or why the U.S. should continue considering the ISI and Pakistan as allies.
Dawn interviewed former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen in April 2011, at which time it wrote that he said the ISI supported the al-Qaeda and Taliban linked Haqqani Network, which in turn was “killing American and coalition troops in Afghanistan.”
Mullen later testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in September of 2011. His written testimony said the Haqqani Network “is, in many ways, a strategic arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.” Nevertheless, he stated he did not think the U.S. should “disengage from Pakistan” at that time.
Akhtar’s visit to the Army War College is part of a longer trip to the U.S. Dawn published an article on February 26 stating that, “Baqir Sajjad Syed in Islamabad adds: Lt Gen Akhtar is on a five-day trip to the US for discussions on intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism cooperation and imminent peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government – a process that Pakistan is midwifing.” Dawn also said that Akhtar was in the U.S. as a guest of CIA Director John Brennan. The CIA and ISI have had a long history of working together despite the ISI murdering American personnel.
Engaging with the ISI and attempting to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban, the group that sheltered Osama bin Laden, is consistent with existing American policy.
Current American policy has the U.S. reaching out to Islamic extremists. Examples of this include the U.S. engaging with the Muslim Brotherhood even as doing so angers Egypt, which views the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. The U.S. also continues backing Syrian rebels even as former Syrian ambassador Robert Ford acknowledges they work with al-Qaeda and its affiliates. And the U.S. continues indirectly supporting Iran in Iraq while it simultaneously negotiates nuclear issueswith it.
The U.S. previously backed an al-Qaeda linked terrorist to help overthrow former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
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