[pjc50]

So, normally in the West we assume that some form of "collective responsibility" principle applies to government agencies. That the views and actions of the government can be talked about as if it were a single coherent entity.

Pakistan is very much not like that. The intelligence agencies are extremely autonomous and unaccountable. It's a large country with underpopulated "bandit country" uplands (FATA) where all kinds of armed groups can hide. And there's substantial evidence that, while Pakistan has formally been a US ally since the Cold War, internal factions have been supporting the Taliban.

Now it appears that the US is replicating this structure, as factions within one intelligence agency start arresting members of another as a means of influencing foreign policy. The Hilary Clinton email controversy that everyone has now forgotten was another similar move; maybe it wasn't aimed so much at her personally, but an attack on the State Department?

(And of course now the FBI director's favoured candidate has won, and is conducting diplomacy in a manner that completely bypasses the State Department ...)

(Edit: this post seems to be bouncing up and down in the voting. Feel free to take the analysis with a pinch of salt, the general point is to be aware of the political actions of intelligence agencies.)

[eternalban]

> Pakistan is very much not like that. The intelligence agencies are extremely autonomous and unaccountable.

This was [US] news in 1973: https://ia802601.us.archive.org/12/items/pdfy-JnCrjsoqI22z8p...

It's well worth the read. In fact, possibly required reading. The author was retired military and directly involved.