Wikileaks: US considers Pakistan spy agency a terrorist outfit

Flames and smoke gush out of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, one of the sites of attacks by alleged militant gunmen on November 26, 2008. (INDRANIL MUKHERJEE – AFP/Getty Images)

American authorities listed Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, as a terrorist organization, according to new Wikileaks cables related to Guantanamo, reports the Economic Times.

The ISI was lumped with 36 other alleged terrorist groups, including al-Qaida , Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence, the paper said.

Along with news that federal prosecutors in Chicago have charged four Pakistani men in connection with the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the leaks will no doubt give support to Indian officials lobbying for a shift in US policy toward Pakistan. But the most immediate impact of the cables will likely be to exacerbate tensions in the fraught alliance between Washington and Islamabad.

ET makes an interesting point about the Wikileaks revelation, however:

The American mainstream media largely ignored the US red-flagging of ISI, but it was highlighted by the British newspaper Guardian. "The inclusion of association with the ISI as a 'threat indicator' in this document is likely to pour fuel on the flames of Washington's already strained relationship with its key regional ally," the paper observed, adding that "a number of the detainee files also contain references, apparently based on intelligence reporting, to the ISI supporting, co-ordinating and protecting insurgents fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, or even assisting al-Qaida."