Al Qaeda and Intelligence Essay

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Threat Analysis

A Foreign Intelligence Entity (FIE) can be delineated as any identified or suspected foreign organization, individual, or group, whether private, public, or governmental, that undertakes intelligence activities to obtain United States information, block or damage U.S. intelligence gathering, impact U.S. policy, or mess up U.S. systems and programs. In particular, this term takes into account an international terrorist organization and also a foreign intelligence and security service.[footnoteRef:1] The FIE considered in this essay is Pakistani's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the nation's biggest of its five intelligence services. Pakistan is deemed to be one of the fast-paced and rapidly developing nations in the [1: Center for Development of Security Excellence. "Counter Intelligence Awareness Glossary." CDSE, 2017.]

South Asian expanse. Owing to the country's strategic positioning in the core of all the nuclear adversaries, it had grown and develop to become of the best intelligence services globally with regard to the preservation of its sovereignty, and protection of its state security and territory. In fact, the ISI was ranked as the best intelligence agency across the globe by the International Business Times.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Tristam, Pierre. "Intelligence: The ISI is Pakistan's powerful and feared intelligence service." ThoughtCo, 2017. ]

The United States government, from preceding periods, largely rely on the collaboration and sharing of information with the ISI, with the world superpower perceiving Pakistan to be a valued ally in the expanse. This mutual relationship can be traced back to the Cold War period, a time when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) directed covert planes into the Soviet Union. More perceptibly, subsequent to the 9/11 attacks, the two intelligence services worked in tandem closely to seize numerous al-Qaeda suspects. High-ranking members of the al-Qaeda such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Younis Al Mauritan were captured by the joint task of the two agencies. Nonetheless, with the intelligence community of America intensifying its endeavors on the Global War on Terror, the association between the two nations started to disintegrate. With the increase in suspicions, the two different sides have come to be near adversaries.[footnoteRef:3] [3: Waraich, Omar. "The CIA and ISI: Are Pakistan and the U.S.'s Spy Agencies Starting to Get Along?" TIME, 2012.]

Overview of Inter-Services Intelligence

Location

The headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence is situated in Islamabad. In particular, the agency's entrance is aptly inconspicuous with a single barricade neighboring a small hospice off a busy Islamabad highway. More perceptively, the long walls are filled with barbed wire with bougainvillea spilling over them. From the outset, any visitor is met with an ISI undercover officer, who is responsible and in charge of directing and organization the entrance security and gives directions to both personnel and visitors to the check-point entrance with sniffer dogs and soldiers for checking.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Walsh, Declan. "The ISI, Pakistan's notorious and feared spy agency, comes in from the cold." The Guardian, 2009. ]

Organizational Structure

The Inter-Services Intelligence agency is one of the most efficacious and well-organized foreign intelligence and security services (FISS) in the globe. The agency was founded in 1948 but was formally handed the key responsibility of safeguarding the interests of the nation, both domestically and globally in 1950. The key objectives of ISI comprise of not just protecting the interests of Pakistan, but also reinforcing the nation's power base in the region. The agency operates under a Director General, who is usually a serving Lieutenant General of the Pakistan Army. Under the Director General are three deputies that are designated three different tasks, being general, political, and external. With regard to its staffing, the ISI largely comprises of employees assigned from the police, para-military forces and a number of specific units of the Army. In the contemporary, the agency consists of more than 25,000 personnel, exclusive of its various assets and informants.

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[footnoteRef:5] [5: Pakistan Defence. "ISI Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence". (2006).]

Structurally, the Inter-Services Intelligence is organized into 6-8 divisions:

i. Joint Intelligence X: JIX

This division functions as the secretariat by bringing together and providing administrative help to other wings of the ISI as well as field institutions. In addition, it partakes in the preparation of intelligence approximations and threat assessments. It grants administrative help to the other key regional organizations and divisions of the agency.

ii. Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB)

It is considered to be one the biggest and most authoritative divisions of the agency and its key function encompasses the monitoring of political intelligence. The division is made up of three subdivisions for VIP security, anti-terrorism, and operations that encompass India.

iii. Joint Counter Intelligence Bureau (JCIB)

In authority for foreign intelligence actions in Central Asia South Asia, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Israel and Russia also accountable for field observation of Pakistani envoys posted overseas, if need be observing far-off attaches also.

iv. Joint Intelligence/North (JIN)

The division partakes in Inter-Service Intelligence operations for Kashmir and Jammu, which take into account the monitoring and supervision of Indian forces deployed within borderline Kashmir powerfully possessed by India.

v. Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous (JIM)

This particular division is liable for undercover offensive intelligence operations as well as war time reconnaissance.

vi. Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB)

It comprises of Deputy Directors for Wireless, Photos and Monitoring, leads a sequence of signals intelligence collection points, as well as, offers communication support to its assets. It additionally gathers Intelligence via monitoring of communications mediums of neighboring nations. It has a number of stations, which track as well as collect data signals along the India and Pakistani border, as well as, it offers communications help for freedom struggles in Kashmir.

A sizeable number of the staff is from the Army Signal Corps. It is believed that it has its units deployed in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

vii. Joint Intelligence Technical (JIT)

There is minimal information regarding this particular division of the ISI. However, it is believed that the division encompasses an individual section for explosives as well as one designated for chemical warfare.

viii. Joint Intelligence Technical Division

From the outset, the Inter-Services Intelligence primarily lay emphasis on domestic undercover activities, for instance, monitoring political affairs within the country and also the tapping of telephone conversations. However, as a result of its constricted scope, the agency failed to pinpoint an Indian protected division in the course of the Indo-Pakistani War in 1965. Once the war culminated, a committee was formed to appraise and assess the agency and its divisions. In the 15-year period between 1983 and 1997, it is reported that the ISI undertook the training of more than 80,000 Afghan Mujahideen for movements in Afghanistan. In particular, in the course of the 90s era, the ISI matured into a dominant and dubious organization. It is considered to operate as an invincible government and is more often than not referred to as a state within a state.5

Approaches and techniques

Inter-Services Intelligence employs several approaches and methods to conduct its intelligence operations both domestically and internationally. In particular, these approaches are methodically and accurately selected by the agency owing to the fact that they provider the protection essential for the FIEs intelligence agents to operate undercover. One of these approaches is through diplomatic concealment. Pakistani ISI members seek diplomatic….....

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