‘ISI close collaborators with US’

The Obama administration depends on Islamabad in its war against terrorism and the Pakistani spy agency ISI is one of its “closest collaborators,” despite it being “maligned a lot in the media,” Pakistan’s ambassador here has said.

The Obama administration depends on Islamabad in its war against terrorism and the Pakistani spy agency ISI is one of its “closest collaborators,” despite it being “maligned a lot in the media,” Pakistan’s ambassador here has said.

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“Pakistan is an American ally. America depends on Pakistan. We can’t and do not do everything that the Americans think we should do because sometimes we don’t have the capacity, sometimes we don’t have the means,” Hussein Haqqani said. “We work those things out, and that is exactly what we are doing right now,” he said

Haqqani claimed that the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is co-operating fully with the CIA in its war against terrorism, despite that it has been maligned much in the West.

“Even though the ISI is maligned a lot in the media, the fact remains that it is one of the closest collaborators, partners, and allies of U.S. intelligence,” Haqqani told the CNN in an interview. He referred to the latest unearthing of plot by the CIA and European intelligence agencies that eight Germans, two British brothers, who are hiding out in northern Waziristan as part of the plan to launch a Mumbai-type attack in European cities.

“In this particular instance, the United States is very happy, I can say this on your show, that American officials have told us that the quality of cooperation they have received from the ISI is really 100 percent,” he said.

The top envoy said Pakistan will take action against extremists at its own pace and will, whose time line can’t be dictated by the west.