Via Yahoo News! -
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani spokeswoman conceded Friday that the government needs to root out Taliban sympathizers from its main intelligence agency, but officials rejected allegations that the spies helped plan a bloody bombing at the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan.
Government spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said there are "probably" still individual agents whose ideological convictions were formed in the 1980s, when the ISI intelligence agency marshaled Islamic warriors to battle Soviet troops in Afghanistan with U.S. support.
Such agents "act on their own in ways that are not in convergence" with Pakistan's interests or policies, Rehman said. "We need to identify these people and weed them out."
The statement was the first acknowledgment by Pakistan's new government that there may be pro-Taliban operatives in the intelligence service. But in a reflection of the sensitivity of the issue, Rehman later changed her statement to maintain the problems at ISI were in the past.
The conflicting comments will do little to build confidence in the 4-month-old administration's efforts to tackle Islamic extremism — a huge challenge facing Pakistan's first civilian-led government after eight years of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf.
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