Ex-Afghan intelligence chief planted LSE lies, anti-Pakistan propaganda

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Ex-Afghan intelligence chief planted LSE lies, anti-Pakistan propaganda

June 13, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The former chief of Afghan intelligence gathering outfit Amrullah Saleh has taken up the full-time job to malign Pakistan on one end while providing all sorts of assistance to terrorists to step up activities on the soil of Pakistan on the other.

He throughout had been in league with Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to destabilise Pakistan but has been recently ousted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai due to his dubious role in the affairs of the state. Amrullah has also assumed the task of creating difficulties for the Afghan administration. The story carried by the Sunday Times and so-called report against Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by London School of Economics are the handiwork of Amrullah Saleh.

Well placed diplomatic sources told The News that Amrullah Saleh has threatened his leadership that he would bring the peace fragility back in the region to the previous level since he was refused a free hand to play the Indian game in the region.

Amrullah has been brought up and groomed by the Indian intelligence organisation and he had been involved in anti-Pakhtun activities throughout his career. He was the head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS). He was appointed to the position by President Hamid Karzai in early 2004, succeeding Muhammad Arif Sarwari.

Saleh is an ethnic Tajik from Panjshir, and worked for the Northern Alliance under Ahmad Shah Masood. In 1997 he was appointed to lead the Northern Alliance’s Dushanbe office, where he served as the main conduit linking the CIA to Masood.

With the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States and the beginning of US bombing against the Taliban, Saleh returned to Afghanistan towards the end of October to help lead Northern Alliance intelligence, serving as the special assistant to intelligence chief Muhammad Arif Sarwari. The Northern Alliance subsequently took over Afghanistan’s existing intelligence apparatus. While Sarwari became director, Saleh was appointed to head Department One, whose duties included liaison with foreign military, diplomatic and intelligence organisations.

Sarwari and Saleh reportedly had a falling out over the latter’s enthusiasm for greater reform, leading to Saleh’s assignment to a lesser post in late 2003. Sarwari was removed from his post as leader of the NDS in early 2004 amidst various criticism that he had, amongst other things, abused his powers, worked against the government and that the NDS had committed human rights violations. President Hamid Karzai appointed Amrullah Saleh in his place in February 2004. Saleh resigned from the NDS on June 6, 2010 after a Taliban attack against the national peace jirga held by President Karzai. He was temporarily replaced by Engineer Ibrahim Spinzada. Saleh has been accused of following the footprints of his predecessor. Ex-Afghan intelligence chief behind anti-Pakistan propaganda, Monday, June 14, 2010, Our correspondent

Ex-Afghan intelligence chief planted LSE lies, anti-Pakistan propaganda

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Pakistan spy agency 'has ties to Taliban': study

Sun Jun 13, 2010

LONDON (AFP) – Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency provides funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban in Afghanistan on a scale far greater than previously believed, a study claimed Sunday.

The Pakistani military swiftly dismissed the report for the London School of Economics (LSE) as "malicious and baseless".

The LSE study, based on interviews with nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan between February and May this year, claims the relationship between the ISI and the militants goes far beyond current estimates.

"Although the Taliban has a strong endogenous impetus, according to Taliban commanders the ISI orchestrates, sustains and strongly influences the movement," wrote author Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.

"They say it gives sanctuary to both Taliban and Haqqani groups, and provides huge support in terms of training, funding, munitions, and supplies. In their words, this is 'as clear as the sun in the sky'."

Waldman said the ISI appears to exert "significant influence" on strategic decision-making and field operations of the Taliban and controls the most violent insurgent units, some of which appear to be based in Pakistan.

Insurgent commanders claimed the ISI -- an acronym for Inter-Services Intelligence directorate -- was even officially represented, as participants or observers, on the Taliban supreme leadership council, he said.

The report alleges that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari himself had assured captive senior Taliban leaders that they were "our people" and had his backing. He had apparently authorised some to be released from prison.

The study drew an angry reaction from the Pakistani military.

"It is a part of a malicious campaign against the Pakistan army and the ISI," Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

"It is baseless. The sacrifices by Pakistan's army and the ISI and the casualties in the war on terror speak for themselves," he said. "We have a series of questions on the credibility of the report."

Most interviewees explained the ISI's involvement in terms of Pakistan's rivalry with India, as the regional powers vie for influence ahead of the start of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan next year.

Waldman's report argues that resolving this is key to bringing Islamabad onside efforts to defeat the insurgency.

"Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency," he concluded.

The ISI has played a key political role in Pakistan, which has spent more than half of its near 63-year history under military rule, and there have also long been suspicions about its role in neighbouring Afghanistan.

And there have long been suspicions about its role in neighbouring Afghanistan, despite it helping to capture and kill hundreds of Al-Qaeda militants since Pakistan joined the US-led "war on terror".

It funnelled weapons bought with US cash to Muslim fighters battling the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, a war that spawned Al-Qaeda, and also supported the Taliban regime in Kabul between 1996 and 2001.

Last year, top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said there were "indications" that elements of Pakistan's intelligence service lend support to Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants -- sparking furious denials in Pakistan.

For his report, Waldman interviewed nine insurgent field commanders, three operating in the south of Afghanistan, three in the centre and three in the south-east, as well as one high-level Taliban intermediary.

He also talked with 10 former senior Taliban officials, a number of Afghan elders, politicians and analysts, as well as foreign diplomats and security officials. A research assistant interviewed six further insurgents.

Pakistan spy agency 'has ties to Taliban': study - Yahoo! News

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Pakistan angry over Taliban support claims

June 14, 2010

Pakistan has responded angrily to renewed allegations that its military intelligence agency, the ISI, is actively supporting Taliban militants in Afghanistan - and on a much larger scale than previously thought. The report, commissioned by the London School of Economics, says Taliban field commanders that it interviewed, suggested that ISI intelligence agents even attended Taliban Supreme Council meetings. The report follows one of the deadliest weeks for NATO troops in Afghanistan, with over thirty soldiers killed.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Rajan Menon, South Asia security analyst and Professor at City College of New York

MENON: The report I think confirms something that we've known for quite some time now from academic studies from journalists who've been in the field in Afghanistan, as indeed as you mentioned in the lead up from ex-Taliban fighters. It's not surprising that the ISI would react negatively to this because they want to be seen as in the forefront of the anti-Taliban fight, that's how they're presenting themselves to the Americans.

LAM: Well the alleged involvement of the ISI, as you say that's been reported for some time, but for it to be so closely linked to even attend Taliban Supreme Council meetings, do you find that surprising?

MENON: Well yes and no, there has always been since the creation of the Taliban substantial assistance from the ISI at the time, I'm talking about 1994, an ongoing relationship. But since 9/11 and the involvement of the American military in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, there's been a dual relationship between the ISI and the Taliban. On the one hand fighting, capturing operatives, handing them over to the Americans or interrogating them themselves, that's one element of it. And the ISI has been particularly hard on the Pakistani wing of the Taliban, the so-called Tehrik-i-Taliban, because they see them as a threat to the Pakistani state. On the other hand there have been close ties with three Afghan Taliban groups; first the Afghan Taliban, the Taliban Shura headed by Mohammad Omar. Second, two groups that were active in fighting the Soviets, Afghan Pashtun militant groups, the Hakani group and the Hezb

LAM: So are you saying then that the ISI is operating with the full knowledge of the Pakistani government?

MENON: It's very hard Sen to make a separation between the ISI and the Pakistani government, they are very, very closely fused, in fact since the creation of Pakistan as a state the military and the government there's been a very thin line between the two. I don't think on national security issues any civilian leader in Pakistan takes a step that is out of kilter with what the military and the ISI want as corporate entities.

LAM: Well the ISI and the government may be intertwined, but how do you think President Asif Ali Zardari might explain this all the way to the White House, given that Washington has always been on Pakistan's case to back away from supporting the militants?

MENON: Yes I think what he will do is to do what the Pakistani government has done for many years and when confronted with these kind of studies and this kind of evidence to say look, this is pure rubbish, look at the number of Taliban what we've killed, look at the number that we've captured, look at the number of intelligence breakthroughs there have been because of cooperation from us, and that this report is totally to be discredited. I think that will be the line and that has in fact as you mentioned in your lead up, been the line.

LAM: But the report also claims that the government has indeed released some captured Taliban from captivity?

MENON: Right this goes back to my point that whatever Mr Zardari might in fact say, that when it comes to the relationship with the Taliban there's dual policy, which is has very much been crafted by the military and the ISI. He, the President Zardari, has very little running room it seems to me. That that policy is very much crafted and implemented by the combination of the ISI and the military, the Pakistani national security operatus if you will.

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Pakistan rejects report saying nation's intelligence agency aids Afghan Taliban

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 15, 2010

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Pakistani officials on Monday angrily dismissed a report published this weekend alleging that the nation's primary intelligence agency finances, trains and at least partially controls the Afghan Taliban insurgency.

The report, issued by the London School of Economics and based on interviews with Taliban commanders and former Taliban officials, concludes that it is official Pakistani policy to support the rebellion as a bulwark against Indian influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan is an ally of the United States, which leads coalition forces fighting the Taliban.

Pakistan has long-standing ties to the Taliban, and some Western officials and Pakistani terrorism analysts allege that elements of the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency continue to foment the movement. The new report asserts that links remain so deep that ISI representatives are "participants or observers" on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura.

The ISI's role in the Afghan insurgency remains one of the biggest sources of mistrust between the United States and Pakistan, and the report could heighten those tensions. Although Pakistan's army has gone after militants who attack inside Pakistan, it has resisted U.S. pressure to attack Afghan Taliban havens on its soil, saying it is overstretched.

Pakistan has long denied that it provides support to the Afghan Taliban, although ISI officials say they still have lines of communication to some of the movement's leaders. On Monday, a military spokesman dismissed the report as a "malicious" account with little solid evidence. "If there is great turbulence on the other side, it directly affects this side of the border," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army spokesman. "Nobody would be more interested in seeing a more peaceful, more stable, more friendly Afghanistan than Pakistan itself."

According to the report, written by Harvard University fellow Matt Waldman, the ISI provides Taliban leaders with sanctuary in Pakistan's border region but maintains control over them with threats of arrest. Taliban commanders interviewed said the ISI provides ammunition and funding and supports training camps where militants learn to lay roadside bombs, among other skills.

"Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude," the report says.

Some U.S. officials and analysts suspect Pakistan is interested in maintaining good relations with the Afghan Taliban in the belief that the group will eventually hold power in Kabul. On Monday, a senior Pakistani official suggested that supposition is true but strongly denied that the ISI supports or controls the Taliban.

"If [the Americans] decide to pack up and go, what is going to happen to Pakistan? We are going to be alone to face these people?" said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We've got enough problems on our homestead. Why should we go for people who are not our enemies?"

Many Afghan and some U.S. officials suspect the ISI has played a part in some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan. Last week, after resigning, Afghanistan's former intelligence chief told the Reuters news agency that the ISI is "part of the landscape of destruction in this country."

But U.S. officials rarely publicly state their suspicions about the ISI for fear of jeopardizing what they view as one of Washington's most strategic, but fragile, relationships. They stress that cooperation with Pakistan has improved, pointing to examples such as its arrests in February -- at times in coordination with the CIA -- of a handful of Afghan Taliban commanders, including deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The report also accuses Pakistan of releasing senior Taliban prisoners. Earlier this year, senior U.S. intelligence officials said they had seen evidence that Pakistan had let at least two high-level Taliban operatives go at roughly the same time as Baradar's arrest.

U.S. officials said the releases reflected Pakistan's strategy of working closely with the United States on key fronts while also maintaining relationships with militant groups capable of serving Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan when U.S. forces are gone.

Among the report's most striking claims is that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met with Taliban prisoners and assured them of Pakistan's support. That assertion was greeted with skepticism by several analysts and U.S. officials, who note that Pakistan's civilian government and military establishment have mutually suspicious relations. One U.S. official said the assertion "didn't make sense, to put it mildly."

The senior Pakistani official said Zardari "doesn't deal with these people. . . . I cannot think of a more ridiculous story or a bigger fairy tale."

Staff writer Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

washingtonpost.com

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Expert questions anti-Pakistan blusters

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

WASHINGTON: A prominent journalist and expert on Afghanistan, Imtiaz Gul, has questioned a Harvard researcher’s suggestion that Pakistan covertly supports the Afghan Taliban, saying the “blusters” cited in the recent report are too sweeping and superficial to be credible.

Imtiaz Gul is visiting the US these days for launching of his book “The Most Dangerous Place — Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier.”“I don’t think (President) Zardari is the person who will be talking to the Afghan prisoners,” he told the National Public Radio when asked to comment on claims in Matt Waldman’s report published by the London School of Economics.

Gul, who has widely reported on events in the region over the past two decades, also doubted the authenticity of the Afghan militants’ statements on which the report has largely been based.

“There is a lot of loose talk going on — people tend to bluster,” he pointed out. Answering a question about the role of the Pakistani intelligence, he said: “I think the ISI is doing the same job as the MI-6 or the CIA.” The writer said that in the past, Pakistan and the international backers of Mujahideen had links to militants during the fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

“Whether, as of today, they (Pakistani intelligence) are doing it anymore, I am really not sure (because) if they were doing this that means the ISI is going against its own interest,” he said while referring to the fact that the militants have been targetting the intelligence organisation.

Gul said three ISI regional headquarters had been attacked by the militants in the past six months in retaliation for Pakistan’s anti-militancy operations and hundreds of Pakistan security personnel had been killed.

On the state of the Pakistan-US relations, Gul felt the “counterinsurgency cooperation has never been more effective” between the two countries. He said both the Pakistan Army and the Pentagon leaders were satisfied with the level of mutual cooperation and “believe they are on the right track.”

Expert questions anti-Pakistan blusters

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Afghan Taliban deny link to ISI

WASHINGTON (June 16 2010): The Afghan Taliban is denying a report that it receives funding, training and protection from Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, a US monitoring group said Tuesday. A message viewed by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors communications linked to international terrorism, said the Afghan Taliban described the reported link this week as "void of all truth, false and untrue propaganda."

The comment came in reaction to a report for the London School of Economics (LSE) based on interviews with nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan between February and May of this year. That report claimed the relationship between the ISI and the militants goes far beyond current estimates and that the Pakistani intelligence agency "orchestrates, sustains and strongly influences the movement."

But the Afghan Taliban, according to SITE, said that "no sound mind" would accept that Pakistan, which supports the United States, would back the jihad against the US presence in Afghanistan. The message from the self-proclaimed Shura leadership in Afghanistan also alleged the report was concocted by the London School of Economics to "protect" American and British interests in the country.

Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]