US writer blasts Bush admin for targeting ISI

NEW YORK - A noted American writer on Sunday denounced the Bush administration for blaming the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) as resistance to Western occupation of Afghanistan intensifies, saying that the agency's primary duty is to defend Pakistan.

"It's blame Pakistan week," Eric Margolis wrote in The Edmonton Sun, a Canadian newspaper, said, referring to the White House claims that ISI was in cahoots with pro-Taliban groups in Pakistan's tribal area along the Afghan border.

He noted, "Pakistan's Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said the White House accuses ISI of warning Pashtun tribes of impending U.S. air attacks. President George W. Bush angrily asked Pakistan's visiting Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani, 'Who's in charge of ISI?'".

Margolis ridiculed the Canadian government for "dutifully" echoing the Bush administration's accusation against Pakistan, including the so far unsubstantiated claim about ISI's involvement in the bombing of India's embassy in Kabul.

Margolis, who said he had over the years met several heads of the Pakistani spy agency, wrote: