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KLMNO THE WORLD Leaked documents all part


of U.S. plot, Pakistani says Prominent ex-general denies papers’ allegations against him


by Karin Brulliard in rawalpindi, pakistan


F


rom the deluge of leaked mili- tary documents published Sun- day, a former Pakistani spy chief emerged as a chilling person- ification of his nation’s alleged


duplicity in the Afghan war — an erst- while U.S. ally turned Taliban tutor. Now planted squarely in the cross hairs, retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul seems little short of delighted. In an interview Tuesday, Gul dismissed


the accusations against him as “fiction” and described the documents’ release as the start of a White House plot. It will end, he posited, with an early U.S. pullout from Afghanistan — thus proving Gul, an unabashed advocate of the Afghan in- surgency, right. President Obama “is a very good chess


player. . . . He says, ‘I don’t want to carry the historic blame of having orchestrated the defeat of America, their humiliation in Afghanistan,’ ” said Gul, 74, adding that the plot incorporates a troop surge that Obama knows will fail. “It doesn’t sell to a professional man like me.” That sort of theory makes Gul an in-


carnation of some of the United States’ greatest challenges in dealing with Paki- stan, a U.S. ally. Here, prominent figures closely linked to the security establish- ment not only trumpet what they view as vast American scheming but also, U.S. of- ficials and the leaked documents allege, provide support to Afghan rebels. Gul did that in an official


capacity as head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency from 1987 to 1989, when he helped the CIA funnel Islamist fighters into Afghanistan to fight the So- viets. Eloquent and polished, he was viewed by his Amer- ican partners as pro-Western and moderate, while his Saudi benefactors saw him as a pi- ous, conservative Muslim. After the Soviet withdraw- al, the Saudis’ characterization seemed to prevail. Gul continued to support the reb- els in a semiofficial capacity, as did other elements of Pakistan’s security forces that view the Taliban as a tool for influence in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say. With the greatest detail yet made pub- lic, the leaked documents depict Amer- ican views of Gul as a murderous terrorist agent. According to some of the docu- ments, he possessed dozens of bombs for Taliban fighters to detonate in Kabul, in- structed militants to kidnap United Na- tions workers, hatched a plan for a sui- cide bombing in Afghanistan to avenge an insurgent and assured fighters that Pa- kistan would provide them haven. The reports are unconfirmed. But they are hardly surprising to those closely fol- lowing the Afghan war, or to Gul himself. On Monday, he described himself as a “whipping boy” for the United States. Current and former U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, variously described him as “very dirty” and a man with a “horrible reputation.” “There’s no doubt where his sympa- thies lie,” a U.S. official said, echoing the views of many Pakistani defense analysts. “Even though Gul may not be a card- carrying member of a terrorist group, he stays in touch with militants, offering his insights and advice on their activities.” Obama said Tuesday that the docu- ments do not reveal any issues that we- ren’t already part of the public debate on Afghanistan and that they “point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall.” Gul, one of several former Pakistani


military officials whom the United States accuses of fueling the Afghan insurgency, has deemed the war a “war against Mus-


lims.” He has acknowledged being a member of a militant organization banned by Pakistan. Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who had fired Gul as ISI chief on suspi- cion that he wanted to overthrow her, fin- gered him as a threat shortly before her assassination in 2007. Gul has since pub- licly shared what he calls his “assess- ment” that the United States was behind Bhutto’s slaying, an allegation U.S. offi- cials vehemently deny. Gul and a senior ISI official say he cut ties with the agency upon retiring two decades ago. But he remains a major fig- ure in Pakistan, where he regularly airs his anti-American views on talk shows. Gul said talking to the media is one of his hobbies, as are horticulture and trying to lower his golf handicap of 18. His support for the Taliban is purely “academic,” he said. “There is not physical input to it. I


don’t have the means. I don’t have the will,” Gul said, speaking in his living room in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. “I am not an enemy of America. I am against their policy, much as many very patriotic Americans are against the policies.” To that end, Gul said, he holds Taliban leader Mohammad Omar in high regard for his “resistance” to U.S. invaders, though he said he has never met the man. He readily acknowledged that he has maintained friendships with former mu- jaheddin such as Jalaluddin Haqqani, a onetime CIA-backed fighter whose net- work is now viewed as the coalition forces’ most lethal foe. “The Americans dropped him


like a hot brick,” Gul said. “Why should I discard him just because he is doing the same thing . . . that they did against the Soviet occu- pation? They are fighting for the liberation of their country.” A conversation with Gul is a


Hamid Gul says Obama is playing a game.


journey into the dense web of sus- picion in this region, where Amer- icans detect Pakistani and Iranian involvement in attacks in Afghani- stan, Afghans see the ISI under ev- ery rock, and Pakistanis sense ne-


farious Indian designs all around them. In Gul’s version, India is where the


leaked documents implicating Pakistani aid to the Taliban originated. The reports, he said, were fed by Indians to Afghan in- telligence agents and intelligence “con- tractors” who are paid for each report they file. The reports are meant to pres- sure Pakistan to toe the American line, he said, a view widely shared here. Gul said he was singled out in the re-


ports because of American fears that he will expose U.S. “cavities” — corruption, poor planning and complicity in the opi- um trade — in the Afghan conflict. Paki- stan’s cooperation with the United States, he said, has “ravaged” its economy and social fabric. “My future generations are going to be proud when they read about their ances- tors,” Gul said. “What about the American children, when they read about this — that a retired 74-year-old general brought about the defeat of America in Afghani- stan? What were their generals doing?” But Gul reserved praise for Obama, who, he said, was expertly playing this game of intrigue. The document leak was orchestrated to indict Bush-era war pol- icy, and the troop surge to expose Penta- gon follies; soon a massive antiwar move- ment will rise, Gul said. “I am sitting here understanding your politics better,” he said, almost giddily. “Obama has been given the peace prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, in anticipation of what he is going to do. Somebody has read his mind. And I have read his mind, too.”


brulliardk@washpost.com


Staff writer Peter Finn in Washington contributed to this report.


Partners in the fight in Afghanistan


House backs $37 billion in additional war funding


by Perry Bacon Jr. and Ben Pershing


The House on Tuesday approved spending an additional $37 billion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, overcom- ing the opposition of some Democrats who have concluded that the Afghan conflict is unwinnable. The funding bill, which passed 308 to


114, had stalled for two months as a growing number of Democratic lawmak- ers objected to the continuation of the war in Afghanistan and insisted that spending on the conflicts be accompa- nied by funding for domestic initiatives, to help Americans suffering from the re- cession. The domestic funding was stripped from the final bill. The legislation was passed by the Sen-


ate last week in a voice vote, and it now goes to President Obama. The disclosure Sunday of more than 91,000 secret documents about the war had little impact on the debate; most of the 102 Democrats who voted against the funding had already expressed doubts about the war in Afghanistan and Oba- ma’s decision last December to add 30,000 troops there. They were joined by 12 Republicans. The number of Democrats who op- posed the funding was more than double the number who voted down a similar measure last year, illustrating the grow- ing divide between Obama and members of his party about Afghanistan. “What has changed in my mind is I am so discouraged at the chances of our commitment in Afghanistan succeeding that I think it’s time to say, no more,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had urged Congress to approve the legis- lation, saying the money will be needed soon to support troops in the field. Along with funding for operations by the De- fense and State departments in Afghani- stan and Iraq, the $58 billion measure in- cludes $13.3 billion to provide payments to Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange and about $3 billion for re- lief efforts in Haiti. “I am confident General Petraeus and the troops will succeed in Afghanistan, if given the time, space and resources they need,” said Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKe- on (Calif.), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, who backed the war funding. When the House passed an earlier ver- sion of the legislation this month, it con- tained a variety of domestic spending measures, including $10 billion for a fund to avoid layoffs of teachers, $5 bil- lion for Pell Grants for low-income col- lege students and $1 billion for a pro- gram to help teenagers and young adults get summer jobs. Senate Republicans, joined by 11 Dem-


ocrats, stripped the money last week and instead passed the pared-down bill that the House approved Tuesday.


With the spending removed, Demo- KEVIN FRAYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS


These Afghan soldiers stood for portraits after returning from a recent patrol in the volatile Arghandab River valley, north of Kandahar city. On Tuesday, U.S. and Afghan forces engaged insurgents in a short but fierce gunfight in Kandahar province. To see video of the fight, and for the latest in Afghanistan, visit washingtonpost.com/world.


DIGEST BRITAIN


Former arms inspector: U.S., U.K. misjudged Iraq The United Nations inspector who led


a doomed hunt for weapons of mass de- struction in Iraq told the British inquiry into the 2003 invasion Tuesday that the U.S. and Britain relied on flawed intelli- gence and showed dubious judgment in the buildup to war. Hans Blix, 82, former chief U.N. weap- ons inspector, said Washington was “high on military” action in the after- math of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and re- fused to heed concerns over the paltry threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s gov- ernment. At a London hearing, Blix said those who were “100 percent certain there were weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq turned out to have “less than zero per- cent knowledge” of where the purported hidden caches might be. Blix told the panel, set up by the British


government to examine the case for the war and errors in planning for post- conflict reconstruction, that he had warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a February 2003 meeting — as well as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice


in separate talks — that Hussein might have no weapons of mass destruction. —Associated Press


SOMALIA


African leaders pledge to send more troops


African leaders are pledging thou- sands of new troops for Somalia to fight al-Qaeda-linked militants responsible for the twin World Cup bombings that killed 76 people in Uganda, and the United States says it will help bankroll the mili- tary campaign. But internal documents obtained by


the Associated Press show that African Union forces and Somali troops don’t trust one another and that Somalia’s gov- ernment “lacks consistency, coherence and coordination,” raising questions about the plan.


African leaders and U.S. officials called for stepped-up efforts in Somalia as an A.U. summit ended Tuesday in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. The summit opened days after the July 11 bombings there, an attack that prompted Uganda’s president to call for Africa to band together against Somalia’s militants.


—Associated Press AFGHANISTAN


NATO confirms death of missing U.S. sailor


One of two U.S. sailors missing in Af- ghanistan since last week has been con- firmed dead and his body recovered, a NATO spokesman said Tuesday. The search continues for the other missing sailor, said Lt. Col. Todd Breas- seale, a spokesman for NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The two Navy personnel disappeared


Justin McNeley


Friday in the eastern province of Logar after an armored sport-utility vehicle was seen driving into a Taliban-held area. NATO officials were unable to say what they were doing in such a dangerous part of Afghanistan. The Taliban had said that it had killed one of the two men in a firefight and cap- tured the other. Jim Kerr, a Colo- rado legislator, said


the sailor killed was his wife’s nephew, Justin McNeley, 30. Kerr told the Denver Post that McNeley, a noncommissioned


officer and father of two sons, was due to return to the United States in August. —Associated Press


FRANCE


Hostage death prompts attack against al-Qaeda France has declared war on al-Qaeda


— and may already have matched its words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network’s North African branch — after the group killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April. The declaration and attack marked a


shift in strategy for France, usually dis- creet about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism. “We are at war with al-Qaeda,” Prime


Minister François Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy an- nounced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau, who was abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and later taken to Mali. On Thursday, the French backed Mau- ritanian forces in attacking an al-Qaeda camp on the border with Mali. It is the first time France is known to have at- tacked an al-Qaeda base.


—Associated Press


U.S. will admit Colombian journalist: The State Department has reversed its deci- sion to deny a visa to a leading Colombi- an journalist whose reporting has been highly critical of his country’s U.S.-allied president. Hollman Morris, an independ- ent TV producer and reporter, and his family picked up their visas at the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday. They can now trav- el to Harvard for a year-long fellowship. A U.S. consular officer in Bogota told Morris last month that he had been ruled permanently ineligible for a visa under the “terrorist activities” clause of the USA Patriot Act.


Cambodian police break strike: Cambo- dian police moved in Tuesday to break up a week-long strike triggered by the sus- pension of a union official at a Malaysian- owned garment factory. Union leaders said nine women were injured at the PCCS Garment factory in Phnom Penh.


Iran to reward large families: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a policy to encourage population growth, dismissing Iran’s decades of family plan- ning as ungodly and a Western import. Families will be paid for every new child. —From news services


crats likely lost any chance to grant Oba- ma’s request for billions of dollars in fresh aid to state governments before Congress leaves for its August recess. Democratic aides said House leaders have no plans to include the money in another bill before the House adjourns Friday for the summer. Neither the domestic funding nor the Afghanistan money was debated intense- ly Tuesday. The House spent less than an hour debating Afghanistan, even in the wake of the leaked documents.


baconp@washpost.com ben.pershing@wpost.com


Staff writer Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.


WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010


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