Rana Athar Javed’s article published in Pakistan Observer on 7th October talks about the role of Counter Intelligence (CI) in combating the war on terror. He is a National Security Expert based in Denmark. According to him one of the major aims of CI is to hinder the efforts of foreign intelligence agencies. The secondary aims include however to protect civilians and government institutions etc by combating terrorist activities.

He emphasizes the imperative role of cooperation with regards to Counter Intelligence strategy. While discussing the case of Pakistan it is important to observe the role of the US intelligence agencies. Rana Javed mentions:
    “In the case of the US, the lack of integrating intelligence sharing systems culminates in unequal unit of cooperation and thus limits the center of gravity, intentions and probable course of action by Pakistan.”

However he also adds that Pakistan itself needs to build up its capabilities in the face of an increasing threat from adversarial intelligence agencies so that it can place its forces in a more effective manner. Nevertheless it is important for the US to realize that sharing sensitive information with Pakistan can in fact bring more lucrative results for them with regards to the war on terror.  The lack of cooperation that occurs due to the counter intelligence strategies is not desirable. He mentions that there have been incidents in the past in which the Pakistan military were in fact carrying out operations against militant groups such as Al Qaeda however their own installations were subject to attacks by foreign agencies.

Throughout his article the author emphasizes the role of cooperation which should be increased if counter intelligence strategies are to be made successful. He argues that militant terrorist groups have found new and undiscovered methods of attack many of which include exploiting ethnic religious differences. Moreover they have targeted civilians in the past which has resulted in the loss of millions of innocent lives. If such acts are to be stopped in future, it is important for friendly forces to share valuable information and work together on achieving the shared goal of combating terrorism.