Pakistan’s spy agency on Monday dismissed as “unsubstantiated raw intelligence” claims in the war logs published on WikiLeaks that it was supporting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
The Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) is accused repeatedly in the logs by coalition commanders of directing insurgent attacks or planning operations, though there is little evidence to substantiate many of the most sensational allegations.
“In the intelligence world, preliminary and final reports are two different things. Only once something is collaborated from multiple sources does it become a credible piece of information,” an ISI official said. “The majority of these [documents] are preliminary reports, and they are mostly from Afghan intelligence, so you can imagine their credibility.”
Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief who is extensively cited in the documents as aiding the Taliban, reacted furiously, calling the material “a pack of lies, a fairly tale.”
“They are targeting Pakistan. I’m just the whipping boy,” said Gul, who led the agency from 1987 to 1989.
“If a 74-year-old sitting in a small house in Rawalpindi is instrumental in defeating the world’s biggest power, I don’t mind if they say that. But it will put to shame American posterity,” he said.
Though Gul retired from the military back in 1991, he is frequently accused of remaining active, along with other former intelligence officers, in a “shadow ISI.”
“This is akin to Saddam Hussein having the bomb in the closet and Colin Powell telling the world about it,” Gul said, referring to the case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq put by the former US secretary of state.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry in Islamabad called the leaks “far-fetched and skewed.”
Spokesman Abdul Basit said: “Pakistan’s constructive and positive role in Afghanistan cannot be blighted by such self-serving and baseless reports.”
The ISI has been deeply involved in Afghan affairs since the 1980s, when it worked with the CIA to back an Islamist uprising against the Soviet invasion.
“The documents circulated by Wikileaks do not reflect the current on-ground realities,” Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani said. “The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are strategic partners and are jointly endeavouring to defeat al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies militarily and politically.”
Kayani led the ISI from 2004 to 2007 before being appointed army chief, a period documented in many of the leaks as one of close collaboration between the insurgents and the ISI.
“We have a political establishment that does not have the authority to engage the military,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, author of Military Inc. “We don’t have the mean to know how deeply the agency [ISI] was involved. All intelligence agencies have contacts.”
“The leaks put pressure on Kayani, tell him what the Americans want him to do. But he also faces pressure from the rest of the [Pakistani] military high command. He is being embarrassed in front of his generals. He’s caught in the middle,” Siddiqa said.
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