Our Dangerous Pakistan Confrontation

The Pakistani military intelligence service ISI received a lot of bad press in Pakistan in the aftermath of the successful U.S. raid against Osama bin Laden in the army-garrison town of Abbottabad. Like their Western counterparts, Pakistani journalists raised tough questions about whether ISI knew bin Laden was there or was simply too incompetent to find him. This blunt, rough questioning clearly stung the army-directed spy service, which is not used to being criticized in the mainstream Pakistani press. It has responded with strenuous denials and by suggesting, through intermediaries, that such criticisms are unpatriotic. But now there are accusations, publicly embraced by U.S. officials (including Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Mike Mullen), that ISI ordered the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, whose tortured and severely beaten body was found outside Islamabad on May 31.