TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010


KLMNO Allegations ‘misplaced,’ Pakistan says


by Joshua Partlow and Karin Brulliard


kabul — Pakistani officials re- acted angrily Monday to the pub- lication of a trove of U.S. military documents that suggested Paki- stan’s spy agency collaborated with the Taliban, saying the Unit- ed States is using their country as a scapegoat for its failing war. Diplomats and officials dis- missed the reports as rehashed falsehoods, but ones that could have damaging consequences for Pakistan’s relations with the Unit- ed States. Some expressed doubts about whether the United States could be trusted with sensitive in- formation and questioned pledg- es of increased trust in Pakistan. In a statement, the Pakistani


government called the allega- tions, contained in more than 91,000 military documents leaked by the group Wiki- Leaks.org, “misplaced, skewed and contrary to the factual posi- tion on the ground.” Referring to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelli- gence agency (ISI), the govern- ment said, “The people of Paki- stan and its security forces, in- cluding the ISI, have rendered enormous sacrifices against mil- itancy and terrorism.” Pakistan’s spy agency worked alongside the CIA to support anti- Soviet Afghan rebels in the 1980s. Some U.S. officials have long said privately that the ISI continued to back some of those fighters after they morphed into the Taliban as a bulwark against arch-rival India and a tool for influence in Af- ghanistan. Pakistan fervently denies that, and the allegation has been a source of tension as the United States seeks to deepen relations as part of its Afghan war strategy. The revelations in the documents, the Pakistani backlash and the prospect of anger in the U.S. pub- lic could heighten those tensions. Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, said in an interview in Kabul that re- gardless of how the documents emerged, they cast as poor a light on the Obama administration as on Pakistan. “If the documents were stolen,


it’s a very big question mark . . . because that creates a lot of doubt about the security of supposedly confidential information,” Sadiq said. “If it’s part of the official leak


policy, then it must be timed.” A U.S. intelligence official, speaking Monday on the condi- tion of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, praised Paki- stan’s battle against Islamist mil- itants in the Afghan border re- gion and its growing cooperation in the U.S. war on terror. The offi- cial said Pakistani help had sup- ported key U.S. “victories” against al-Qaeda and other terror net- works.


But the official also said U.S. of-


ficials continue to suspect that Pakistan is playing more than one side of the war in Afghanistan. “It’s not as if they’re helping us on one hand and killing us on the other. But they’re not beyond try- ing to use select extremist groups” as proxies in Afghani- stan, the official said. “The trends with the Pakistanis are positive, but nobody should think every bit of the picture is.” In Kabul, many Afghans and others who have lived through the war considered that an under- statement. Among Afghans, there is widespread suspicion that the ISI supports the Taliban leader- ship, and residents here are pain- fully aware of the harm wrought on civilians from insurgents and NATO forces. President Hamid Karzai was


“shocked” that “such a huge num- ber of documents were leaked” — but not by the allegations in them, his spokesman told report- ers.


Wahid Omar said the disclo- sures would help increase world awareness about two issues that the Afghan government has long raised with NATO forces: Paki- stan’s role in fomenting the in- surgency and civilian casualties. “We have been saying this for quite a long time, that Pakistan is not honest when it comes to their cooperation in the war on terror. Now, I think it’s up to the U.S. ad- ministration what to do about it,” said Haroun Mir, a political ana- lyst in Kabul. “Are they going to continue to reward bad behav- ior?”


Secretary of State Hillary Rod-


ham Clinton visited Pakistan last week to unveil $500 million worth of development projects, the first disbursement of a $7.5 billion, five-year aid package approved by Congress last year. In Islamabad, Pakistan, a sen- ior ISI official, speaking on the condition of anonymity accord-


ing to agency custom, said it was still sifting through the docu- ments. But the official said that the allegations did not sound new and that they appeared to contain no concrete evidence of ISI back- ing for the Afghan insurgency. The official acknowledged,


however, that some of the allega- tions sound “very damning” and could erode support in the United States for the alliance with Paki- stan. If the CIA does not de- nounce the suggestions, the offi- cial said the ISI might need to re- examine its cooperation. Pakistani officials dismissed the disclosures that their coun- try’s spies meet and coordinate attacks with Taliban leaders. Sev- eral officials and analysts suggest- ed that the Obama administra- tion is trying to exert pressure on their government or smear Paki- stan’s reputation. Retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, a former Pakistani spy chief who was repeatedly implicated in the documents, also lashed out at the allegations that he aided the Tali- ban attacks. Gul is accused, among other things, of directing Pakistan-based militants to craft plans for strikes inside Afghani- stan, including one meant as pay- back for the death of an al-Qaeda operative killed by a U.S. drone at- tack. In an interview Monday, he said the leaked documents should prompt Pakistan to drop its alli- ance with the United States. The Americans are “facing defeat in Afghanistan and to cover that, they are coming up with false al- legations against Pakistan,” he said. “This is a pack of lies to malign [the] Pakistan army and the ISI.”


Gul worked closely with the


CIA’s anti-Soviet campaign dur- ing his tenure from 1987 to 1989. Today, he is one of Pakistan’s most strident critics of the United States and an unabashed sup- porter of Afghan insurgents. U.S. officials have long suspected him of retaining links to former muja- heddin such as Gulbuddin Hek- matyar. The senior ISI official said Gul has no remaining ties to the agency.


partlowj@washpost.com


Staff writer Peter Finn in Washington and special correspondents Javed Hamdard in Kabul and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.


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