Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26isi.html

by Charuru • 16 years ago

17 5 16 years ago

Groxx• 16 years ago

>Nonetheless, senior lawmakers say they have no doubt that Pakistan is aiding insurgent groups. “The burden of proof is on the government of Pakistan and the ISI to show they don’t have ongoing contacts,” said Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat on the Armed Services Committee who visited Pakistan this month and said he and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee chairman, confronted Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, yet again over the allegations.

Wait... what? Granted, it looks pretty bad, but what does this imply about our good Democrat's view of "innocent until proven guilty"? If they have evidence, bring it out and be done with it; if not, that's a rather backwards claim.

barry-cotter• 16 years ago

Innocent until proven guilty is for courts of law. In real life I don't go back to that restaurant that probably gave me food poisoning even though I can't prove it.

Anyway, the U.S.'s attitude to Pakistan is illogically friendly, for more see: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/10/whats-pakistans-secret...

tptacek• 16 years ago

Wikileaks link: http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010

The notion that the ISI works with the Taliban is an open secret; it's alluded to more or less directly in a Frontline episode from last year, for (one) instance.

Pakistani politics are not simple. It is probably a mistake to view Pakistan as a single, coherent state. The ISI in particular does not appear to be accountable to "civilian leadership", which who knows if that even exists.

fleitz• 16 years ago

In Kandahar fields the poppies grow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Kandahar fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Kandahar fields.

roboneal• 16 years ago

Looks like they are going to take some consideration of operational security in the relase of these documents:

"We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually, in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits."

Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert

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