A Hydra-headed Monster?

This is the heading (minus the question mark which is mine) in the lead article published in The Times of India on July 31, 2008. The writer is Sumit Ganguly and his name coupled with the fact that the article is in an Indian newspaper, suggests that he is of Indian extraction. He is a professor of Political Science in some obscure University of Indiana in the town of Bloomington.
The opening statement of the article reads ‘Pakistan's much-dreaded Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate is in the news again.’ The article goes on to relate instances of terror such as the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul an instances reported in every newspaper and TV station in the world and available to anyone who can read or watches television.
He mentions the fact that the suggestion of moving control of the ISI to the Interior Ministry was suggested by Mr. Zardari (reported in the Pakistan press) and that the ISI had enough clout to counter it. The first part is probable though I think that it was most probably a piece of advice slipped in during the constant talks with American delegates and Mr. Zardari.
He says the Pakistan army’s decades of political power has weakened every institution in Pakistan. By using its extraordinary prerogatives from Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf, the ISI has served many political ends beyond the tasks of espionage and counter-intelligence. He thinks it is courting political disaster if any government tries to curtail its powers.
His article ends with some naïve suggestions and one extremely silly one. The only facts in his article are the incidents of terrorism which are documented. The rest of his article is pure speculation, based on material he has culled from the so-called intelligence reports. Is he trying to make us believe that he is privy to actual American, Afghan and Indian intelligence agency reports?
I find it extremely offensive that other countries are interfering in our internal affairs. We do not tell other countries how they should run their intelligence agencies. We are as aware as they are of all the covert actions they take against us and it is thanks to the ISI that their operations are brought to naught.
Everyone knows that American Army intelligence, Britain’s Military Intelligence (MI 5), the ISI as well as a host of othercountries, are the premier intel agencies in the land. They are all answerable to one person and one person only. The president, be he Pakistani, American or in the case of a monarchy, the Prime Minister.
My question is, why this sudden desire to clip the ISI’s wings? I think that it is basically an American ploy to justify cross-border action and of course, India will benefit in Kashmir also if the ISI’s performance is inhibited by moving it to the Interior Ministry. It is the ISI’s intel that is keeping these two countries at bay.
Ganguly’s opening remark applies only to those who think that they are above the law. Since I don’t, I feel safer and sleep better, knowing the ISI is on watching over us.