"Anyone can be snookered and double-dealt. But after six years you have to start to figure it out," said Bruce Riedel, author of "The Search for Al Qaeda." Doug Mills/The New York TimesFrom The Washington Independent:
If Bruce Riedel, chairman of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review, has a bottom line as to the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence’s relationship with extremist groups, it’s that such relationships are deliberately murky. ISI is not a “rogue intelligence agency,” he told a crowd last night at the International Spy Museum, but instead mostly follows the prerogatives of the ruling Pakistani military or civilian leadership. “Fighting some, tolerating others and patronizing a few” is how Riedel described ISI’s relationship with various Afghan and Pakistani extremist organizations, calling such difficult contortions a sign of a “remarkable agile espionage instrument.” In other words: don’t think ISI has a capabilities problem.
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My Comment: More on Bruce Riedel can be found here. From his history .... it appears that he is the right man in the right place at the right time. Kudos to the Obama administration for selecting him.