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Courtesy NCPA - The National Council of Pakistani
Americans
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FBI wants active role in Pakistan
By Umar Cheema,
The Nation,
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The Chief of Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) Tuesday
held a crucial meeting with Interior Minister
Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat
on his second leg of tour to Pakistan and
discussed the expansion plan of
agency's operations in the country to curb
terrorist elements.
The FBI Director, Robert Mueller, who arrived
here Tuesday from Saudi
Arabia,
also held extensive talks with the top
brass of Intelligence Bureau
and Federal Investigation Agency.
The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Nancy Powell, and
the FBI's operational
head in the country, accompanied Mueller in his
one-hour meeting with the
Interior Minister. Secretary Interior Tasneem
Noorani, Additional Secretary
Iftikhar Ahmad and another official were also
present in the first round.
While the latter two officials were excluded from
the last twenty-minute
talks
which is believed to be held on the most critical
issues and Pakistan's new
'assignments being delegated by the
US
to meet
its "objectives" in the region
under the garb of
war on terrorism.
An official privy to the meeting, told The
Nation, the US officials have
sought
Pakistan's co-operation to institutionalise the
agency's role in the country
by
establishing an active co-ordination between FBI
and IB as well as FIA.
The sources said the meeting decided to modernise
the anti-terrorism cell
in IB and FIA that would be run with full
collaboration of FBI.
It has been learnt that the FBI official head
also informed the minister that
his
country is ready to make a significant downsizing
in its staff stationed in
Pakistan if it feels the said two agencies are
sufficient enough in toeing
the
operational lines of FBI.
The minister agreeing on the idea, however, asked
the visiting delegation to
send a team of instructors to Pakistan to train
the agencies' staff here that
would be more effective for the trainees since it
would help acquainting them
with the domestic challenges pertaining to
terrorism and how to curb them,
sources said.
The govt believes this option as cost-effective
and more beneficial since the
special cadre of anti-terrorism would be trained
on modern lines and yet with
practical exposure at a place where they are to
do their job.
According to the sources, the delegation also
discussed the current exchanges
of intelligence gathering. The US urged Pakistan
to speed up the process in
order to make the war on terrorism more
effective.
Mueller is likely to leave for
Afghanistan
within
a day to discuss the rising
security concerns of the US in the war-torn
country where US troops had
been killed in an ambush by deserted Taliban.
FBI chief's ongoing tour of the countries is of
immense importance where
public resentment is consistently growing and
sabotage activities have taken
place time and again damaging the US interests in
the regions.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/June-2003/4/main/top3.asp
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The National Council of Pakistani Americans is a
Washington-based
civil rights and public education organization.
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2003-06-07 Sat 19:15ct