Remember Pakistan? That bulwark of South Asian Democracy? Seems that the Asscrack Justice Department has been over there in the guise of the FBI, busting ISI and Pak Army officers who are ... suspected terrorists ... or who have terrorist connections. Interestng, and a worthwhile endeavor if true. Apparently, we have been allowed to set up surveillance on Army Officers who might have, shall we say "conflicting loyalties". They are then "disappeared" by the Musaharraf regime, and it's done very quietly.

Two possible explanations here; they really are damming up the headwaters of the terrorist movements by taking these guys out; or they are helping Musharraf stabilize his government by removing potential opposition to him and his policies. Some of the "disappeared" officers made their reputations under the late President Zia ul-Haq, a Secular Muslim of some repute, who rewarded piety with promotions.

A more interesting (an unexplored) passage in the article:

It is an open secret in Washington now that a delegation of senior Pakistani army officers, sent to Afghanistan prior to the US invasion ostensibly to convince the Taliban to step down, actually spent their time instructing the Taliban on how to protect their weapons from the impending US aerial bombing.

The FBI seems to pretty much have a greenlight to go for it in Pakistan, whether that is a good thing or not remains to be seen. It's also got to be of interest to Pakistans near and dear neighbor, India. I'll bet the Indian Government would be thrilled to get these intercepts.

Initially, the FBI was allowed to set up small cells in the operations offices of the ISI, and ISI officials were attached to these cells. However, the FBI was able to decide on its own targets, and it delegated specific assignments to ISI officials, but under FBI surveillance.

Lately, the FBI has been given separate premises all over the country, and its own separate teams of officers, who, with the best bugging devices in the world, now have maximum access to Pakistan's telecommunications system.

This kind of access means that the FBI is now privy to much of the information that the Pakistan army has, which has led to the Americans being able to nip in the bud a number of attempts by the ISI to re-establish its presence in Afghanistan through local commanders of the Hezb-I-Islami of warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, now a key player in the Afghan resistance movement.

A good base of intelligence may finally be getting built up, and it's the best defense we can have in the war on Terra™. My only concern is are we dancing with the devil (yet again) by dancing with Musharraf, or is he actually trying to bring democracy to Pakistan on a full-time basis?