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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (9078)	10/29/2001 10:30:13 PM
From: Lola	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27666

Clinton was warned of fears over spy agency Julian Borger in Washington Tuesday October 30, 2001 The US secret service believed that Pakistan's spy agency was so deeply infiltrated by terrorist organisations including al-Qaida, that last year it begged President Clinton to cancel a visit to the country, it was reported yesterday. Mr Clinton rejected the advice and went ahead with the trip. But, according to the New York Times, the secret service took unprecedented precautions, flying in the presidential jet, Air Force One, empty while the president arrived in an unmarked jet. Once in Pakistan, the president's motorcade stopped under a flyover so that Mr Clinton could switch cars. His bodyguards were deeply concerned that details of his itinerary would be leaked by Pakistani intelligence to extremists like Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organisation. The subterfuge reflected deep-seated suspicion of Pakistan's directorate of inter-services intelligence (ISI). The agency, founded in 1948, had collaborated with the CIA to back the Afghan mojahedin resistance to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, but the relationship was allowed to decay after the Soviet collapse. In the eyes of Pakistani officials, the Americans dropped their involvement in Afghanistan, allowing it to fall into chaos. In its search for stability on Pakistan's western border, the ISI was instrumental in the creation and financing of the Taliban. Shamshad Ahmad, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN, told the New York Times: "After the Soviets were forced out of Afghanistan, you left us in the lurch with all the problems stemming from the war: an influx of refugees, the drugs and gun running, a Kalashnikov culture." The ISI took over a slice of the drug trade to fund its activities, according to US accounts. In effect, the agency became a state within a state, staffed increasingly by Islamic fundamentalists. The ISI's former chief, Hamid Gul, is now a leading figure on the extreme fringes of Pakistani politics. guardian.co.uk