MOLES IN THE AFGHAN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ESTABLISHMENTS
Naser Koshan
Afghan security establishments are in a greater risk of falling into the growing conspiracies of our enemies. The enemy has been able to effectively infiltrate and install treacherous moles in our security institutions.
In fact, Secrecy which is indeed the main essence of an active spy agency where classified documents related to the national security of a certain country is shared with the prime leadership to shape the political policies of the given country. Though, the NDS (National Directorate of Security) with meager physical and technological capacity manages to gather some intelligence on enemies’ movements, unfortunately enemy infiltration and the increasing defection in security forces fail them to execute any clandestine operations in this regard. These defectors who are placed within and outside the government are secretly leaking these plans to their recruiting agencies which later become easily accessible to their assets on the ground.
As a good example, the recent increasing insider attacks on NATO and U.S. forces is clearly a sign of the enemies’ infiltration in the security forces who can easily target any number of Afghan and foreign forces at any given time. On the one hand, there is a huge flaws in the recruiting process of individual joining the army, police and intelligence, where an effectual background check on these individuals are not carried away, while on the other hand, any infiltrator can easily acquire the needed Afghani identification documents from the issuing departments with ease and bribe to enter these secret - oriented institutions.
These mentioned insider attacks on the NATO and U.S. forces have forced them to halt their ongoing training process of the Afghan police and army recruits which are undoubtedly carried out by the enemy infiltrators in these institutions. The enemy is trying its best in order to jeopardize the relations between Afghanistan and that of its foreign allies and prolong the hatred war for its long term strategic depths in the region.
In addition, these hostile organizations towards Afghan security and interests have already began agent penetration in our infant intelligence and security institutions who are working covertly to destabilize Afghanistan in the long – run and bring about unnecessary clashes between the prevailing leadership and its western allies. The elements surrounding the president as advisors and policy makers are indeed looking to decompose the strengthening of the Afghan security forces from inside. These policy makers have merely advised the president to reach out for better ways to institutionalize a strong and disciplined security forces. We have to bear in mind that governments come and go, but the security structure of a country tends to be stable and organized to back the long term interest of the country regardless of which political party is in power.
No doubt, the mighty Afghan intelligence bureau of 1980s was no longer in place to tackle all these challenges post 9/11 and neutralize enemies’ threats and infiltration in its origin, but the experienced, committed staff of the then intelligence bureau were intentionally thrown out of service and the plan sketched by the Afghan enemies of leaving Afghanistan with a weak and malfunctioning intelligence agency worked and is working as of yet.
Sadly, our intelligence community lacks the required means to detect the clandestine operations of the hostile organizations and conduct effective sting and counter intelligence measures to expose the plotters and prevent harm to the ordinary public and that of our national interests. Meanwhile, observing the close ties existing between different intelligence agencies, the leadership in the NDS in Afghanistan should have been able to establish close working relations with its western counterparts and had utilized their expertise, technological superiority to train their operatives and officers for these operations and challenge their adversaries in all aspects of intelligence.
It is an accepted fact that tangible intelligence plays a vital role in spoiling your enemies’ intentions and creates a constant fear among them for being watched and traced at all times, clearly the most prominent targets achieved by the U.S. government since 9/11 has been through trusted intelligence on Taliban and Al-Qaida’s whereabouts.
Last but not least, only a strong intelligence agency along with a disciplined security forces could guarantee to safeguard the security of the Afghan people post 2014.
Author: Naser Koshan
Washington, U.S.
September 2012
