Washington. Former US National Security Adviser Lt Gen (Retd) HR McMaster said in his book that there is undisputed collusion of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with terrorist groups. Giving a first-hand account of his tenure during the Trump administration as the National Security Adviser, McMaster claimed in the book that then-Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was planning to give a military aid package to Islamabad that included armoured vehicles worth $150 million, but that aid was stopped after McMaster’s intervention.
It was also difficult for State and Defense to comply with Trump’s directives to halt certain activities, McMaster wrote. When Mattis visited Islamabad, he learned that this was contrary to the South Asia Strategy, which called for suspending all aid to Pakistan with a few exceptions. The Pentagon was going to deliver a military aid package that included armored vehicles worth more than $150 million.
The former NSA wrote that he convened a meeting with Mattis, Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Gina Haspel and other senior officials, where he said Trump had been very clear on multiple occasions to stop aid to the Pakistanis for their support for terrorist organizations that were killing Afghans, Americans and coalition members in Afghanistan. Mattis noted that Pakistan might retaliate in certain ways, but others, including US Ambassador to Islamabad David Hale, did not share this view. Mattis reluctantly halted shipments of aid but other assistance continued. As a result, Trump said the US had foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the past 15 years and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking our leaders were fools.
McMaster wrote that Pakistan’s failure to change its behaviour and release UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, was an insult to the US.