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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The NYTimes takes an ISI briefing

An interesting NYTimes piece about the ISI complaining that the new US operations in Afghanistan will push militants across the border (back) into Pakistan.

But the most interesting bit is the context of how the NYTimes came to this story.
The country’s perspective was given in a nearly two-hour briefing on Friday for The New York Times by senior analysts and officials of Pakistan’s main spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence....

One of the first briefing slides read, in part: “The surge in Afghanistan will further reinforce the perception of a foreign occupation of Afghanistan. It will result in more civilian casualties; further alienate local population. Thus more local resistance to foreign troops.”


So, the ISI (which is frequently accused of working with the Taleban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups) comes to the NYTimes (the "most respected" US news outlet) with a well crafted 2 hour briefing/slideshow asking the US to let up?

Doesn't that seem as weird to you as it does to me?

6 Comments:

  • No...? It seems to me like a good newspaper wanted to put out a different opinion! If media stopped listening to dissenters what would happen to "crest of the empire"?

    By Blogger c'è montessori, at 8:57 AM  

  • I get that,and I'm all for dissent.

    Maybe what's weird to me is that this group, alleged to have current connections to Al Qaeda, known to have current operational connections to some elements of the Taleban and the KAhsmiri terrorists, would sit down in a cheap little conference room and deliver a powerpoint presentation making their case.

    And, on the plus side, the NYTimes was very, very clear on the sourcing.

    It just seems weird to me.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:15 AM  

  • Probably something to do with Holbrooke's visit. Gilani is asking for MORE help. Hi-tech weaponry and money. No mention of US personnel.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:37 AM  

  • That may be part of this.

    Thinking on it further, I think the oddity is that the ISI, this half and half group, is asking the US to lay off the Taleban, a working relationship for them while speaking for the Pak government who just spent tons of lives and political capital attacking this same group.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:27 AM  

  • Well the Pak army got well paid. And nobody knows for sure how many Taliban they actually killed.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:45 PM  

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