ISLAMABAD – The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency is ready to split with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States because of frustration over what it calls heavy-handed pressure and its anger over what it believes is a covert US operation involving hundreds of contract spies, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press (AP) and interviews with Pakistani and US officials, The Washington Post newspaper reported on Thursday.
Conversely, however, Reuters reported a senior ISI official as saying that relations between the two agencies – while at a definite low – were not broken. “It’s not business as usual, [but] it’s not open war [either],” the official said. “Cooperation and operations together will continue at a lesser scale,” he added. Another ISI official also denied reports that the two agencies were not working together.
“We are not ready to split,” he said. “There has been a patch-up because we have both realised that in the larger interest of the region and the war on terrorism, CIA and ISI must work together.” According to a statement drafted by the ISI, supported by interviews with officials, however, an already-fragile relationship between the two agencies collapsed following the shooting death of two Pakistanis by Raymond Davis, allegedly a US contracted spy who is in jail in Pakistan facing possible multiple murder charges.
“[The] post-incident conduct of the CIA has virtually put the partnership into question,” said a media statement prepared by the ISI but never released, a copy of which was obtained this week by the AP, the Post reported. The statement accused the CIA of using pressure tactics to free Davis. “It is hard to predict if the relationship will ever reach the level at which it was prior to the Davis episode,” the statement said according to the Washington Post.
“The onus of not stalling this relationship between the two agencies now squarely lies on the CIA.” According to the Post, the ISI fears there are hundreds of CIA contracted spies operating in Pakistan without the knowledge of either the government or the ISI, a senior intelligence official, who wished to remain unnamed, told the AP in an interview. The intelligence had no idea who Davis was or what he was doing when he was arrested, the Post quoted the official as saying, who added that there were concerns about how many more such spies were out there.
According to the American newspaper, the ISI official told the AP that Davis had contacts in the tribal regions and knew both men he had killed. He said the ISI was investigating the possibility that the episode had stemmed from a meeting or from threats to Davis. US officials deny both claims and CIA spokesman George Little said that any problems between the two agencies would be sorted out.
“The CIA works closely with our Pakistani counterparts on a wide range of security challenges, including our common fight against al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies,” the Post quoted him as saying. “The agency’s ties to ISI have been strong over the years, and when there are issues to sort out, we work through them. That’s the sign of a healthy partnership.” The ISI is now reportedly scouring thousands of visas issued to US employees in Pakistan following government orders to bypass the usual vetting process before a visa is issued, the newspaper quoted the ISI official as saying.
He said further that Davis’ visa application contained bogus references and phone numbers. A Western diplomat in Pakistan agreed that a “floodgate” opened for US Embassy employees requesting Pakistani visas. The ISI official said that for now, the agency was not talking with the CIA at any level, including the most senior.
To regain support and assistance, he said, “they have to start showing respect, not belittling us, not being belligerent to us, not treating us like we are their lackeys,” he said according to the Post.
