Via NY Times/Associates Press
On Tuesday, the NY Times came out with a punchy, no-holds-barred piece, reporting that Obama administration officials believe that the ISI was behind journalist Saleem Shahzad‘s death last month.
Wait. What’s that you say, Captain Obvious? We’ve been saying that for the past month? Oh.
Well, there’s no evidence like new evidence (*jazz hands*). The NY Times cited new intelligence obtained before Shahzad’s May 29th disappearance, showing that senior ISI officials had “directed the attack on him in an effort to silence criticism.” Administration officials, who said the evidence was reliable and conclusive, stated that the ISI’s actions were “unacceptable and barbaric.” Another official told the NYT, “There is a lot of high-level concern about the murder; no one is too busy not to look at this.”
A TIME piece Tuesday further explored the ISI-related development, discussing how journalists like Najam Sethi and Ejaz Haider heavily criticized the military/ISI for their alleged role in Shahzad’s torture and subsequent murder. In the article, Omar Waraich wrote, “The ISI denies that it ever threatened Shahzad or was involved in the kidnapping or killing of the journalist. The ISI has contacted Sethi, Haider and other journalists whom it feels have unfairly represented the spy agency.” Sethi told TIME, “For what I’ve been saying since the bin Laden raid, I have incurred the wrath of the ISI. The agency has officially expressed its anger and annoyance and irritation.”
This “wrath” could even turn into a court case, noted Waraich. A lawyer who served as deputy attorney general under Gen. Musharraf, Sardar Muhammad Ghazi, has filed a 20-page petition against Sethi, Haider, and Hamid Mir, telling TIME, “These people are criticizing my armed forces. They sit and castigate the army. I can’t tolerate it. There should be somebody who should come forward and say the media should be controlled.” Waraich added,
In the petition, he accuses Sethi, Haider and Mir of being “out to promote the foreign agenda to destabilize and denuclearize Pakistan.” He alleges that the journalists are intent on allowing India to “expand [its] boundaries” and are influenced by the American, Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies.
So apparently anyone who questions the actions of the state are conspirators to the Zionist/RAW/American degree? Somehow this does not surprise me.
What does infuriate me is the subsequent pressure (Waraich noted that one pro-army website even superimposed the star of David on Haider’s forehead to brand him as an Israeli agent) on journalists and figures willing to ask questions. The elements behind these tactics know very well that the aforementioned journalists aren’t foreign agents, evil mouthpieces for evil enterprises. But they’re manipulating the masses who feast madly on the coattails of conspiracy theories. They’re leveraging the anti-[insert here] sentiment that already pervades the atmosphere, framing the nationalist narrative as “with us-or-against us.” Poison lurks in that kind of polarization. For a nation crippled by the alleged transgressions of our security apparatus, this type of thinking gets us nowhere.
CHUP! - Changing Up Pakistan 
Anyone else also curious about why the NY Times, with their relationship with the White House, came out with this piece now? If Washington leaked intel to them, was it done for a purpose or just because? Am perturbed…
Kalsoom….you know, i’ve really tried to give the leadership of Pakistan the benefit of the doubt. they *do* have real interests that are at stark odds with DC but at this point, it’s painfully obvious….i’ve seen too many instances of over-the-line behavior, culminating in the blatant torture and killing of journalists. the govt of Pakistan is not responsible to its own people (abject poverty, lack of adequate schooling, next to no investment in programs to improve society), is not a responsible player internationally (AQ Khan, various schemes in Afg), and is somehow dysfunctional on every level except its ruthless security services, which are highly functional but frequently wrong-headed.
frankly the Obama administration has had to walk a fine line between working with an “allied” Pakistani govt that it feels it needs, to reign in severe bad guys in FATA and elsewhere, and all out criticism against a Pakistani govt that has no qualms about killing journalists, barely covertly supporting groups killing US troops (and Afghan civilians), and possibly maybe knowingly hosted bin laden.
the biggest losers in this are the Pakistani people, who by and large are some of the warmest, friendliest, salt of the earth people i’ve ever met. their government is shameful in its corruption, ineptitude, and lack of vision. pakistan zindabad, but i hope there are some real changes.
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This indeed was a tragic event for our country as one of our leading investigative journalist was killed and we still dont know the reasoning behind his murder. Why is the public kept in dark? This should have been an open trail!
The OBL incident proved that the ISI is a defunct agency incapable of intelligence and espionage actions and/or is run by Al Qaeda sympathizers.
Perhaps if the ISI wasn’t too busy trying to expend it’s sphere of influence in Afghanistan it would have the resources to focus on intelligence activities at home.
Oh and I can’t miss an opportunity to bash the army either which seems too busy making cornflakes to take on terrorists in North Waziristan.
@usman
i would like to add that the army has sacrificed their lives on many occasions and we can not forget that. Yes the army is to be blamed for some incidents but then again u cant blame the whole army its just few army officers who have been damaging their image. At the moment, the army is carrying out an operation in North Waziristan and lets hope they succeed in this operation.
Pakistan’s ISI puts the Mukarabat of the Arab World to shame.
I have not much to add this time, but I do muse over the slow realization by the Pakistani people and public that *really* they have been manipulated into supporting the bad guys (the Pakistani Army and its minion the ISI) through every one of Pakistan’s failed wars over the last 60 years.
What is the proof that ISI is behind it???
Journalists are being pulled into this prevalent conflict. Pakistan is being categorized as one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world, as they are continuously being pressured from both sides of the fence. It is imperative that the true circumstances behind the murder of not only Saleem Shahzad but also other journalists should be investigated and revealed.
I am currently reading Saleem Shahzad’s book “Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11”. It is a truly hair-raising account of the sophistication and planning undertaken by the AQ and Taliban cadres. It sheds a bright light on the inadequacies of the Pak Army and intelligence apparatus and documents how AQ/Taliban were always one step ahead of the military.
Furthermore, it names many army officers who were either directly involved in, or totally complacent with AQ operations. Saleem Shehzad even exposes officers who were at one time under direct command of top brass such as Gen. Tariq Majeed and Gen. Shuja Pasha…officers that later turned on the Pak Army. I am not surprised that some in the Pak military establishment got rattled by Saleem Shahzad’s accounts and had him killed to silence him.
However, the book is out and widely available. I recommend that everyone read it to get a more transparent picture of “war on terror” and the dynamics of the Pakistani side of the resistance. (To my surprise, certain events that I saw on the news and took them to be completely unrelated to the war on terror, are also linked by Shehzad to what is transpiring on the Af-Pak border).
A must read!
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For a nation crippled by the alleged transgressions of our security apparatus, this type of thinking gets us nowhere.
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Let me respectfully point out that there is a problem with this statement that the ‘silent majority’ of Pakistan prolly doesn’t realise. ‘This type of thinking’ pushes Pakistan further down into the netherworld instead of maintaining status quo.