ISI Has 'Undeniable Complicity' With Terrorists, Pentagon And State Department Resisted Trump's Order To Halt Pakistan Aid: Ex US NSA

Former US national security advisor, Lt Gen (retd) H R McMaster, has said that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has "undeniable complicity" with terrorist organisations.

McMaster revealed that during his time under President Donald Trump, the administration encountered opposition from the state department and Pentagon regarding the provision of security aid to Pakistan.

In his latest book 'At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House,' McMaster recounts how, despite Trump's orders to cease all aid to Pakistan till it stops giving safe havens to terrorists, then Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was preparing to send a military aid package to Islamabad that included $150 million worth of armoured vehicles.

McMaster writes in his book, which will be released this week, that the aid was ultimately halted after his intervention.

He noted the challenges in getting the State and Defence departments to adhere to Trump's directives, pointing out that despite the South Asia strategy's call for suspending aid to Pakistan, the Pentagon was still planning to send the aid during Mattis's visit to Islamabad.

Upon learning of the Pentagon's plans, McMaster called a meeting with Mattis, CIA deputy director Gina Haspel, and other top officials.

He reminded them that Trump had repeatedly ordered the suspension of aid to Pakistan until it ceased supporting terrorist groups targeting Afghans, Americans, and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

"We had all heard Trump say, 'I do not want any money going to Pakistan'," McMaster says.

McMaster recounts that while Mattis acknowledged the risk of Pakistani retaliation, others, such as Ambassador David Hale, did not share this concern.

Reluctantly, Mattis agreed to halt the aid shipment, though other forms of assistance continued.

This prompted Trump to tweet on New Year's Day, criticising the U.S.'s past aid to Pakistan, stating, "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan with little help. No more!'," he writes.

According to McMaster, Pakistan's behavior remained unchanged, evidenced by the release of Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, just before Mattis's visit.

"Moreover, a recent event in Pakistan involving hostages had exposed the undeniable complicity of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence with the terrorists," McMaster writes, news agency PTI reported.

McMaster noted that while the president's tweet was criticised in the media as impulsive and lacking a coherent policy, the suspension of aid was a key element of the South Asia strategy Trump approved at Camp David in August.

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