Earlier this month, US officials blamed the “really good weather” for the growing number of Taliban attacks across Southern Afghanistan. Today, officials have found a new scapegoat: which is really an old scapegoat since they’ve pinned assorted other security failures on them in the past: Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

A largely autonomous intelligence agency within the military, the ISI has been accused of having long-standing ties with the nation’s assorted militant groups, and of being directly involved in an attack of the Indian Embassy in Kabul as well as the November Mumbai terrorist attack.

Now, officials say that the ISI is providing direct support to the Taliban in Afghanistan, including providing money and equipment as well as planning to the insurgency. They even claim evidence that ISI operatives regularly meet with Taliban commanders.

If true, such allegations would be enormously damning to the controversial agency. Yet all too often US officials anonymously make such claims in the media and the evidence behind the claim is never revealed.

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