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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (230161)	2/22/2002 6:56:52 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

ISI purge sets stage for covert U.S. base By Richard Sale UPI Terrorism Correspondent Published 2/22/2002 6:25 PM Pakistan's intelligence service is conducting a quiet purge within its ranks, with at least one aim of laying groundwork for a secret U.S. base for covert operations in the region, U.S. sources have revealed to United Press International. American intelligence officials are assisting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in weeding out Islamic extremists in what a State Department official called a "black" or highly classified operation. The goal is to set up the means to monitor what the United States considers potentially destabilizing threats in the region, such as Iraq's Saddam Hussein government and anti-Western fundamentalist elements in Iran. Pentagon and other Bush administration sources confirmed the efforts on the condition of anonymity. Why Pakistan? "We need countries" in the area, replied a Pentagon official. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, known commonly as ISI, was heavily involved with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which Pakistan cultivated as a friendly government that could provide a buffer against Russian influence to the north and strategic depth against possible clashes with India to the south. When Musharraf chose to throw Pakistan's support to the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, he removed several pro-Taliban ISI leaders. Many rank-and-file operatives and other staff remained, however, and it is these that the current purge is examining for loyalty. "The matter is closely held at a very high level of the U.S. government," a State Department official said. But the bulk of the work "is being done by the Pakistani government from within," in the face of some opposition from Pakistani military, he added. The net result could be a transfer of up to 40 percent of the organization, one of the most powerful in the Pakistani military government, sources said. One spur of the purge appears to have been the Jan. 23 abduction of a Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, confirmed Thursday as dead. As UPI reported exclusively last month, U.S. intelligence officials believe there may be a link between ISI and Pearl's captors, who are also those believed to have killed him. Since that report, two ISI operatives have been arrested as possible suspects in the case, according to U.S. and Pakistani news accounts. Another spur in cleaning house at ISI is that some members have helped secretly fund the reconstitution of the Taliban under various new names and allowed al Qaida and Taliban officials to escape from Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said. "There have been a lot of handshakes between the ISI and Taliban and al Quida fugitives," a State Department official confirmed, but noted the United States has chosen not to belabor the point: "We didn't want to make a big issue out of it. We didn't want to expend our political capital on an area which was an internal Pakistan matter." As a result of the recent visit of Musharraf, during which a U.S. profile in Pakistan was discussed, according to a State Department source, the U.S. military will have a "semi-permanent presence" in Pakistan, at least during its declared war on terror. The Pentagon official who said "we need countries" also told UPI the United States will have the use of Pakistan's ports and other facilities such as ranges for live-fire exercises to increase military readiness. Pakistan's Musharraf government will get something, too. Although the United States has continued to stand firm on the 1998 settlement that aborted Pakistan's purchase of F-16 fighter aircraft, U.S. officials said the door is open to some aircraft purchases if done at market rates and needed for the war on terrorism. Administration officials also said the United States agreed to resume sales of military spare parts for U.S. military equipment purchased by Pakistan in the past. India is nervous about the new arrangements, admitted a State Department source, reacting to the news "by military exercises to show us they are in a heightened posture," he said. But the U.S. government has given India "various reassurances" that the interests of the United States are "only to fight the war on terrorism" and that America "is aware of India's concerns for its security." The Bush administration also agreed to reschedule $12.5 billion of Pakistan's outstanding $38 billion external debt and arranged for Pakistan to receive $1 billion in annual U.S. aid and another $1 billion a year in multilateral aid, these sources said. Military-to-military contacts and bilateral military training programs will be resumed and the United States will supply new military equipment to strengthen the defense and surveillance of Pakistan's borders, U.S. officials said. Copyright © 2002 United Press International upi.com