Morning Brief: Pakistan’s out-of-control spooks

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The CIA this month accused members of Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, of working with pro-al Qaeda militants, the New York Times reports. The main bad guy in question is Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Taliban affiliate who has long had ties to Osama bin Laden as well as the ISI. The Agency sees Haqqani’s hand in the worsening violence in Afghanistan and possibly the recent attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Pakistan’s prime minister, in Washington this week, rejects the charges, but there are growing signs that the ISI has gone rogue.

“The country’s security establishment, often working quietly behind the scene and more often working at odds with elected political power players, has started raising serious doubts about the competence and even credentials of the present ruling set-up,” Ansar Abbasi reports for The News in Islamabad. The prime minister had better watch his back.

Twice as many U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan in July, compared with Iraq, and the Taliban’s ranks are swelling with foreign fighters. Meanwhile, combat deaths in Iraq have reached a new low.

Decision ’08

John McCain is going negative.

Barack Obama is already acting as if he’s president, Dana Milbank jokes.

Rumors are flying about Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor, as an Obama veep pick. But it’s worth noting that Obama is in Missouri today.

Global Economy

The WTO trade talks in Geneva have collapsed.

Oil and gas prices are falling. Energy analyst Ed Morse explains why.

Americas

Mexican drug cartels have begun terrorizing the innocent.

Asia

The International Olympic Committee admitted to cutting a secret deal with China on censoring the Internet during the games. Among the banned sites: Amnesty International and Web sites related to the Falun Gong.

President Bush met with five Chinese dissidents at the White House.

The U.N. is warning of a worsening food crisis in North Korea.

Middle East and Africa

Bin Laden as the Middle East’s Teddy Roosevelt?

The IOC will let Iraq’s two athletes compete in Beijing.

Zimbabwe plans to introduce its new currency on August 1.

Europe

Radovan Karadzic has been taken into custody in The Hague.

British Foreign Minister David Miliband called upon the Labour Party to offer “real change” to voters (Miliband is the odds-on favorite to succeed Gordon Brown as party leader).

The “world’s most dangerous hacker” (TM) will be extradited from Britain to the United States.

Today’s Agenda

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is hosting Israeli and Palestinian representatives, but optimism is hard to find.

Somalia’s warring factions are holding peace talks in Mecca.