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‘CIA and FBI operating freely in Pakistan’

WASHINGTON: “Under procedures agreed to by the US and Pakistani governments, agents from the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency have been allowed to eavesdrop and conduct wiretaps on terrorism suspects in Pakistan, a cabinet minister said on condition of anonymity,” reports the Washington Post Tuesday.

The report filed by the newspaper’s Pakistani stringer says that “for its part, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence service, has designated special units to collect counterterrorism intelligence through hundreds of newly recruited agents and state-of-the art surveillance equipment provided by the US government. ‘There is almost daily exchange of information between the CIA and ISI. The cooperation is even better than the Afghan war days,’ said the minister.”

Pakistani police and intelligence officials, continues the report, say that once a target is tracked down, any raid is always conducted by local law enforcement agencies “under the direct supervision of senior ISI officials, many of whom have taken training courses with the FBI and the CIA.” All key al Qaeda suspects arrested in Pakistan have been “handed over to US authorities for broader investigation.” In each case, Pakistani intelligence officials have been called in by their US counterparts for coordinated follow-up, according to the report.

The correspondent writes that the intelligence information that led to an orange alert being declared in New York and Washington came from the al Qaeda oprative, Musaad Aruchi, who was arrested on 12 June by “Pakistani paramilitary forces in an operation supervised by the CIA.” Aruchi told his interrogators that al Qaeda would hit New York or Washington “pretty soon.” He had street maps of New York City and addresses of some important buildings. Some CDs containing data were also recovered from him.

According to the report, Aruchi was handed over to American authorities three days later and he has been flown out to an undisclosed location. khalid hasan

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