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‘Signature Reduction’ programme signals more active American intelligence work in Pakistan

June 18, 2021

By Mohammad Mehdi

Newsweek recently published a report on US intelligence activity that took Newsweek two years to prepare. The significance of this report is that it includes the name of Pakistan.

The report narrates about the unique U.S. intelligence program named "Signature Reduce". This program deals with the preparation of fake gender, fake faces and even fake hands of individuals, and the intelligence is mobilized of this unseen force in the field, which is the largest in the history of American intelligence.

As the time for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan draws near, there is growing interest in what will be the latest US strategy for the region.

However, it is a well-established fact that the US military's wrapping up of its sacks indicates that the US military boots may be gone, but the presence of US intelligence in civilian clothes will only increase and persist.

The growing US intelligence operations make it clear that US intelligence has already been present in Pakistan and in the region and that the intelligence activities of other countries are also ongoing and still on the chessboard.

Unfortunately, the worst religious terrorism is also part of these intelligence activities. In this regard, there have been major incidents in Pakistan that have been formally stated at the official level that US intelligence operations have entered the country to spy on Pakistan and fabricated fake documents in the past. The case of Matthew Brett is a good example to illustrate this type of activity. An American intelligence worker, with the pseudonym of Mathew Brett, lived in Pakistan as an ordinary American for many years before arousing the suspicions of the Pakistani intelligence agencies.

It was not until 2011 that Pakistan's intelligence system was aware that the Americans had been spying on Pakistan's nuclear facilities with the latest equipment and that they had tried to use the old method of human intelligence to collect information of the Pakistani nuclear installations.

Now the question arose whether the US intelligence is using Americans in disguise or Pakistani locals. Pakistan's civil police noticed that Mathew Brett was making frequent visits under the pretext of walks to an area that is considered a no-go area for nuclear facilities.

Local police immediately brought his movements to the attention of Pakistani intelligence officials, who then quickly arrested him while he was caught in the act of taking pictures of the prohibited areas of the nuclear facility.

After the necessary interrogation, he was deported and added to the blacklist for entry into Pakistan. The next scene of the story is even more interesting. His mission in Pakistan was not yet completed so he obtained a visa again from the Pakistani consulate in Houston on the basis of fake documents and he once again crept into Pakistan.

At the airport, he managed to deceive the Pakistani immigration officials and he reached a guest house in Islamabad. But only a few hours later, he was arrested by the Pakistani intelligence in Islamabad and was immediately deported from the country. The Pakistani Ministry of Interior issued a press note on this incident. The case of Raymond Davis is also well known.  He disguised himself as an Islam enthusiast and befriended the religious circles of Pakistan.

Only when he brutally killed persons on the road in Lahore was his real identity as a CIA agent revealed. These two incidents show how active American intelligence is in Pakistan. The influence of the American intelligence will only grow in Pakistan as the US deploys the “Signature Reduce” campaign and possibly other new programmes in the region and Afghanistan.

It is relevant in this article to emphasise the importance of the past intelligence activities of the US and other countries in Pakistan and alert people to the new-found risks due to the events of Afghanistan.

Pakistan will face similar measures of foreign intelligence