CIA Says It Gets Its Money's Worth From Pakistani Spy Agency -- L.A. Times
It has given hundreds of millions to the ISI, for operations as well as rewards for the capture or death of terrorist suspects. Despite fears of corruption, it is money well-spent, ex-officials say.
Reporting from Washington - The CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan's intelligence service since the Sept. 11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget, current and former U.S. officials say.
The Inter-Services Intelligence agency also has collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA program that pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department, officials said.
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My Comment: I am very skeptical that paying off Pakistan's Intelligence Agencies has been worth it. The Taliban are gaining strength in their war against U.S. soldiers and our allies in Afghanistan .... all possible because of safe havens in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda leaders are still roaming freely in Pakistan .... years after being forced out of Afghanistan by U.S./Afghan Alliance forces. Rumors of Pakistan ISI support of Taliban factions are accepted as fact .... and speculation that the ISI was involved in the assassination of key Pakistan political leaders (Benazir Bhutto being one of them) still make the rounds.
I am not even going to talk about the corruption and the diversion of public funds to personal projects and bank accounts that Pakistani corruption is well known for, as well as Pakistan ISI support for terror groups that are at war with India ... a U.S. ally in the war against terror.
From where I am standing .... the only thing that we have to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars that this organization has received from us are a few dead bodies from middle to upper middle levels of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and a lot of dead civilians. The only upper level leader in the Taliban that was killed from a targeted CIA strike (helped with information from the ISI) was Baitullah Mehsud, but he was more of a threat to Pakistan than to the allied forces fighting the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Hmmmm .... coincidence?
If Pakistan's ISI has helped us in our war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda .... that information must still be classified top secret, because I certainoy have not seen enough to accept the premise that this money has been well spent.