March 22, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 18, 1424

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WASHINGTON, March 21: Pakistan and ISI faced severe criticism at a Senate briefing on Thursday on the drug trade.

Questioning two key members of the Bush administration at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, several Congressmen came down hard on Pakistan.

One of them, Rep Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, was particularly interested in ISI, forcing a senior US official to acknowledge that over the last six years the agency’s involvement in the drug trade was “substantial.”

Nancy Chamberlin, who was Washington’s ambassador in Pakistan till last year and is now a senior official with the USAID, tried to evade the question with help from a senior colleague, Christina Rocca. Ms Rocca, who is assistant secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, was also taken to task for not telling the committee what role the US government played in the formation of the Taliban movement.

Both officials said that Pakistan had been effective in curbing the drug trade in South Asia, with Ms Chamberlin reminding the Congressman that “Over the last six years, very little opium has been produced inside Pakistan.”

But Mr Rohrabacher insisted that his question was about ISI and not Pakistan.

“How would you characterize ISI’s involvement in the opium business on the Afghan-Pakistan border over the last six years,” he asked, repeating his question for four times until he got an answer.

“Substantial,” said Ms Chamberlin.

“So the Pakistani intelligence service had substantial involvement in the opium business along the Afghan-Pakistan border for the last six years”? He asked again.

“Over the last six years, substantial,” Ms Chamberlin reconfirmed.

When Ms Chamberlin and Ms Rocca tried to defend Pakistan by saying that over the last one year Pakistan has been very successful in fighting drug trafficking, the Congressman said that after Sept 11, 2001, Pakistan’s attitude had changed but “we’re not going to judge people based solely on that.”

He then asked Ms Chamberlin whether as ambassador did she ever report Pakistan’s involvement with the Taliban and its intelligence unit’s involvement in the opium trade?

“No, I did not,” said the former ambassador.

Rephrasing his question, Mr Rohrabacher asked: Was Pakistan a primary force behind the creation and the maintenance of the Taliban?

“Yes, sir, (Pakistan) supported the Taliban prior to 9/11,” said Ms Chamberlin.

Referring to a recent statement by Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri that the United States was also involved in the creation of the Taliban movement, Mr Rohrabacher asked Ms Rocca, as a former CIA official, did she know anything about the American involvement?

“I think, Congressman, we’ve actually talked about this before, and there was no US government involvement in creating the Taliban,” said Ms Rocca.

But the Pakistani foreign minister made this claim publicly at a meeting in California, said Mr Rohrabacher.

“I’m not aware of the statement that he made, so I don’t want to comment on the statement specifically,” said Ms Rocca.

Mr Rohrabacher then claimed that during the last 10 years he had been “over and over again” talking about the Clinton administration’s involvement with the Taliban, adding that it had “at least acquiesced” to the creation of the Afghan militia.

He asked Ms Rocca if after 9/11, the state department had put forward a strategy in dealing with Osama bin Laden that would have left the Taliban in power. “Not that I’m aware of, sir, absolutely not,” said Ms Rocca.