A Pakistani Fifth Column? The Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate's Sponsorship of Terrorism

The current struggle in Afghanistan has highlighted many challenges facing strategies for waging and winning a global war on terrorism. The mission in Afghanistan has morphed over the course of a decade from a mission set reliant on defeating and toppling the Taliban, waging a counter insurgency campaign and to the current focus on defeating al- Qaeda. The Obama administration has emphasized the need for the United States and Western allies to focus not on nation building but on dismantling al-Qaeda and disrupting the ability of the Taliban to facilitate its operations. However, the key to this strategy rests not on the ground in Afghanistan but within the neighboring borders of Pakistan. Within those borders, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other extremist networks are facilitated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), which serves as a figurative “fifth column ” to cooperative efforts and negotiations with the Pakistani government. This paper outlines the origins of the ISI, argues that the ISI is directly engaged in sponsoring extremist networks and highlights the degree of influence ISI maintains within the nuclear armed state of Pakistan