ISI walks both sides of the street: US senator

Washington: Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is maintaining double standards when it comes to fight against terror, a powerful US lawmaker said on Wednesday.

The ISI appears to be walking both side of the street as on the one hand it claims to assist the US against terrorist and on the other hand refuses to hand over to India those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, said.

"It appears the ISI walks both sides of the street. The failure of the country to turn over two leading – one operator, one leader -- from the Mumbai attack to India; the reluctance to go into North Waziristan; the development of a safe harbour; the concentration of a number of terrorist groups in that safe harbour," said Feinstein.

"The fact that Pakistan has major flood issues and yet has chosen to build another nuclear weapon, which to some, I think, seems a very bad choice at this time," Feinstein said during the course of a congressional hearing on 'The Worldwide Threat' which was attended by top intelligence officials of America including CIA chief Leon Panetta, FBI head Robert Muller and Michael Leiter, director of the National Counter-terrorism Centre.

India has been demanding arrest of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack, which Pakistan has been denying on one pretext or the other.

Thursday, February 17, 2011, 12:27

PTI