The ISI as two organizations
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The ISI as two organizations is the formula John Kiriakou uses to describe Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, whose officers he worked alongside as CIA chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after September 11.

The half he worked with

Asked whether the Pakistanis were not supposed to be on the same side, Kiriakou answered that he always said the ISI was really two separate organizations.

The officers he was working with he describes without reservation as fantastic. They had all been trained in the United Kingdom, had gone through Sandhurst and British police training, and were, in his words, really great counterterrorism partners.

The half that built the Taliban

The same organisation, Kiriakou continues, is the one that created the Taliban. He attributes the creation to Benazir Bhutto as prime minister, and explains the word itself: talib is Arabic and Urdu for student, taliban its plural, and the students in question were Afghan nationals studying in Pakistani madrasas. The scheme that put them aboard Pakistani trucks with weapons is set out in the Taliban truck escort origin.

The consequence for an American officer

Kiriakou's summary is that Bhutto and the ISI created the Taliban, trained it, financed it and armed it, while at the same time other ISI officers were working with the Americans to fight it.

There was, he says, this disconnect within the Pakistani intelligence service: you could trust some of them and you could not trust others, and you just had to play your cards well.

The judgement informs his broader view of Pakistan, a country he says he loved living in and remains biased toward, set out in the 2025 India,Pakistan clash assessment.

See also

- The Taliban
- Benazir Bhutto
- The Taliban truck escort origin
- The 2025 India,Pakistan clash assessment
