Inter-Services Intelligence

Inter-Services Intelligence
بین الخدماتی استخبارات
Insignia of the ISI
Intelligence agency overview
Formed1 January 1948; 76 years ago (1948-01-01)
HeadquartersAabpara, Islamabad, Pakistan[1]
33°42′14.3″N 73°04′47.0″E / 33.703972°N 73.079722°E / 33.703972; 73.079722
Mottoخُذُواحِذرُکُم [Quran 4:71]
"take your precautions" (heraldic slogan)
Employees~10,000 (2009)[2]
Intelligence agency executive
Child Intelligence agency

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; Urdu: بین الخدماتی استخبارات, romanized: bain-al-xidmātī istixbārāt) is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.

The ISI primarily consists of serving military officers drawn on secondment from the three service branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces: the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, and Pakistan Air Force, hence the name "Inter-Services"; the agency also recruits civilians. Since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in consultation with the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three officers for the position. As of 30 September 2024, the ISI is headed by Lt. Gen. Asim Malik.[3] The Director-General reports directly to both the Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff.

Relatively unknown outside of Pakistan since its inception, the agency gained global recognition and fame in the 1980s when it backed the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War in the former Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Over the course of the conflict, the ISI worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom to run Operation Cyclone, a program to train and fund the mujahideen in Afghanistan with support from China, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim nations.[4][5][6]

Following the dissolution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, the ISI provided strategic support and intelligence to the Taliban against the Northern Alliance during the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s.[7][8][9] The ISI has strong links with jihadist groups, particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir.[10][11][12][13][14][15] Its special warfare unit is the Covert Action Division. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees the insurgency in Kashmir by arming separatist militant groups.[14][15]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Walshreally was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Pakistan: How the ISI works". The Guardian. 5 August 2009.
  3. ^ Siddiqui, Naveed (26 October 2021). "PM Imran appoints Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum as new DG ISI". DAWN.COM.
  4. ^ Pear, Robert (18 April 1988). "Arming Afghan Guerrillas: A Huge Effort Led by U.S. (Published 1988)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  5. ^ "We created Islamic extremism: Those blaming Islam for ISIS would have supported Osama bin Laden in the '80s". Salon. 18 November 2015. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  6. ^ "9/11 convict: Osama Bin Laden a 'useful idiot' of the CIA". Middle East Monitor. 22 May 2020. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Rediff.com US edition: India protests airlift of Pakistanis from Kunduz". Archived from the original on 25 May 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  8. ^ Matt Waldman (June 2010). "The Sun in the Sky: The Relationship between Pakistan's ISI and Afghan Insurgents" (PDF). Crisis States Working Papers (series no.2, no. 18). Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science: 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 December 2010. Retrieved 16 October 2011. In the 1980s the ISI was instrumental in supporting seven Sunni Muslim mujahideen groups in their jihad against the Soviets and was the principal conduit of covert US and Saudi funding. It subsequently played a pivotal role in the emergence of the Taliban (Coll 2005:292) and Pakistan provided significant political, financial, military and logistical support to the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan (1996–2001)(Rashid 2001).
  9. ^ Coll, Steve (2004). Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to 10 September 2001. Penguin Group. pp. 289–297. ISBN 9781594200076. Yet ISI's ambition was greater than its purse. Pakistan's army suffered from acute money problems during 1995. The army commanded the lion's share of Pakistan's budget, but with American aid cut over the nuclear issue, there was not much to go around. ... As it had during the 1980s, ISI needed Saudi intelligence, and it needed wealthy Islamist patrons from the Persian Gulf. ... The Pakistanis were advertising the Taliban to the Saudis as an important new force on the Afghan scene. ... The scale of Saudi payments and subsidies to Pakistan's army and intelligence service during the mid-1990s has never been disclosed. Judging by the practices of the previous decade, direct transfers and oil price subsidies to Pakistan's military probably amounted in some years to at least several hundred million dollars. This bilateral support helped ISI build up its proxy jihad forces in both Kashmir and Afghanistan.
  10. ^ "Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) | World news | The Guardian". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  11. ^ "Pakistan's shadowy secret service, the ISI". BBC News. 3 May 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  12. ^ Burke, Jason (25 April 2011). "Guantánamo Bay files: Pakistan's ISI spy service listed as terrorist group". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  13. ^ Walsh, Declan (12 May 2011). "Whose side is Pakistan's ISI really on?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  14. ^ a b "ISI sponsors terror activities in Kashmir, FBI tells US court". Firstpost. 21 July 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  15. ^ a b "ISI gives arms to Kashmir terrorists: Rana to FBI - Rediff.com News". www.rediff.com. Retrieved 22 September 2021.