US Should Slap Sanctions on ISI Officials

Evidence is emerging that top officials of Pakistan’s ISI spy agency assisted fugitive Osama bin Laden. Because of such links, Pakistan could not serve as a base of operations for fighting extremism for the foreseeable future, predicts Bruce Riedel, former official with the US Central Intelligence Agency, now with the Brookings Institute. He argues that imposing tough sanctions against individuals, the top officials, rather than the agency or the country would be most effective in cutting the links. Individual officers assist terrorist groups like Harakat-ul-Mujahedin, allegedly created by the ISI to fight India, yet their resources and inside information allow their own families to escape the deadly consequences. Riedel argues that support for terrorist groups would be greatly reduced if individual property was seized and family members were made unwelcome in the US, Great Britain and other nations allied against extremism. – YaleGlobal