Video Transcript
Fred Burton: Hi. I’m Fred Burton here today with my colleague Kamran Bokhari. We thought we would chat about the Pakistani ISI’s fighting against jihadists. Kamran, what’s your take on the current state of play with the ISI and the war on the jihadists?
Kamran Bokhari: It’s interesting, Fred. We’ve reached a situation where the ISI and the military establishment as a whole in Pakistan is now engaged in a full-fledged war against the very type of characters that they once cultivated.
Fred: What do you mean by “cultivated”?
Kamran: It’s no secret that the Pakistani state during the 1980s — at that time, the CIA was involved in it as well with the mujahedeen in the Soviet war in Afghanistan — that they were supporting these non-state actors for purposes of foreign policy projection. Interests aligned the Saudis, the Americans and the Pakistanis at that point in time against the Soviets. The Soviets left, and so did the Americans. The Pakistanis then decided to continue to deal with these characters. In fact, they cultivated them for purposes of fighting against India as well. Then 9/11 happened, and now 13 years after 9/11, the situation is such that Pakistan is still fighting that same war, only the battles are different. The type of people who were once allies are now the enemies.
