Embarrassed by the Osama bin Laden raid and by a series of insurgent attacks on high-security sites, top Pakistani military officials are increasingly concerned that their ranks are penetrated by Islamists who are aiding militants in a campaign against the state.Don't laugh - it's likely some officers had no idea.
So you're saying that it's the 95% of the ones who did who make the others look bad...
Those worries have grown especially acute since the killing of bin Laden less than a mile from a prestigious military academy. This week's naval base infiltration by heavily armed insurgents in Karachi -- an attack widely believed to have required inside help -- has only deepened fears, military officials said.
Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who like the civilian government has publicly expressed anger over the secret U.S. raid, was so shaken by the discovery of bin Laden that he told U.S. officials in a recent meeting that his first priority was "bringing our house in order."
I added the bold, but the WaPo made the distinction between public and private anger.
U.S. officials and Pakistani analysts say support by the nation's top military spy agency for insurgent groups, particularly those that attack in India and Afghanistan, is de facto security policy in Pakistan, not a matter of a few rogue elements. But Kayani is under profound pressure, both from a domestic population fed up with the constant insurgent attacks and from critics in the U.S. government, who view the bin Laden hideout as the strongest evidence yet that Pakistan is playing a double game.
U.S. officials say they have no evidence that top Pakistani military or civilian leaders knew about bin Laden's
Two words: Plausible deniability. Except it is getting more and more implausible.
We need the Bizzaro-world pic...
The senior military official said belief in militant jihad -- long glorified in the national education curriculum -- is prevalent in the rank and file, making screening for it a daunting task that the military has been loath to perform.
I swear it was 30 years ago I read about madrassas in the Reader's Digest. But no one (important)reads that magizine!
The ISI is believed to have an entire branch -- known as the "S Wing" -- devoted to relationships with militant organizations.
I think they got that wrong. It's "Swing", as in AC-DC, playing both sides.
Some analysts believe the wing operates with relative independence, whether by design or default, that gives top brass plausible deniability when cooperation between the spy service and insurgents comes to light.
"Some analysts,", you say?
It's WaPo, you expect them to name sources? That would be uncouth...
U.S. officials, for example, say they do not believe Pasha or Kayani knew about Pakistani militants' plans to attack Mumbai in 2008. But federal prosecutors have implicated the ISI in a trial underway in Chicago, where the star witness has said he was paid by the spy agency to help arrange the siege.The Agency? Or someone inside the Agency? Or someone who claimed to be inside the Agency? I fear we'll never know.
U.S. officials have emphasized since the bin Laden raid that billions of dollars in U.S. assistance could end if Pakistan is found to have harbored the al-Qaeda leader. Pakistani officials said that pressure has included demands that the military purge Islamists in its ranks and identify agents connected to bin Laden.
Yup, we got 'em all this time! Islamist schools? Sure, we have to teach our children!
Some Pakistani officials and soldiers
Well, yeah, that's part of the curriculum.
"Any public action on the part of the military at this point will be seen as capitulating to U.S. demands," said Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
So we're back to cutting off aid. Civil war insues. Turbans get 100 nukes. Use 98, reverse engineer the other two, make a hundred copies. Only 47 work. Obama is re-elected. Then what?
One Pakistani security official said the Karachi attack had prompted the military to begin a "thorough overhauling" of the armed forces. But, he asked: "if someone is helping the militants from inside the forces, why are they doing it? And the answer, to us, is their disdain for the U.S. and anger at Pakistanis cooperating with Americans."
Why don't they ask the US Army how they discovered and cast out Major Nidal? Why should we think the Paks can do it?
Wikipedia - In 1947 there were only 189 madrassas in Pakistan. In 2002 the country had 10,000-13,000 unregistered madrassas with an estimated 1.7 to 1.9 million students. A 2008 estimate puts this figure at "over 40,000".