Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 24, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Once-bitten-US-still-seeks-Pak-American-spies/articleshow/5493369.cms
There's nothing secret or subtle about it.
Uncle Sam is seeking spies, informers, linguists, and analysts from immigrant
communities in the US to diversify its intelligence work force and tackle
national security challenges.
Undeterred by the Headley-Gilani episode,
Washington is sounding out Pakistani-Americans in the first round of recruitment,
ostensibly because its intelligence agencies see Pakistan as the epicenter
of international terrorism and a clear and present danger to the world community.
David Headley aka Daood Gilani, a Pakistani-American
suspected of involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai massacre, was reportedly an informant
of the US Drug Enforcement Agency. Some analysts have suggested he was a double
agent who betrayed US.
In an extraordinarily open and transparent
recruitment drive, Dennis Blair, who as director of National Intelligence
is the country's top intelligence czar, held a round-table discussion last
week with the Pakistani-American community in Washington to seek their cooperation
and offer jobs in US agencies.
"We need you to help us build a better
relationship between the United States and Pakistan," Blair told some
two dozen Pakistani-Americans who came to the meeting. Citing a common threat
faced by both nations, Blair said Pakistan is an important US ally in the
fight against terrorists and violent extremists, but "understanding needs
to be improved on both sides and Pakistani-Americans can help bridge the gaps".
Their language skills and cultural expertise
would make them extremely valuable professionals in the Intelligence Community,
he added.
The roundtable discussion was the first of
its kind under the umbrella of the Intelligence Community Heritage Liaison
Council, which is a sounding board for Blair on recruiting first- and second-generation
Americans for employment in US intelligence agencies, his office said in a
statement. The Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence, headed
by Blair, oversees 16 federal organizations that make up the US Intelligence
Community, including CIA and FBI among others.
What was remarkable about the outreach meeting
was the presence there of Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani,
amid strong resentment in Pakistan about the activities of the US intelligence
agencies there and the uneasy relationship between the CIA and the ISI in
the Af-Pak theater.
Far from being shifty or secretive, the statement
from Blair's office suggested the Pakistani-American participants were quite
gung-ho about cooperating with US intelligence agencies.
