Officials in the United States may be considering Pfc. Bradley Manning as a "person of interest" in their investigation into the leaked Afghan "war diary" made public by whistle-blower Website WikiLeaks, but a retired Pakistani general says he knows who the culprit really is. According to General Hamid Gul, the U.S. government did it. Washington orchestrated the leak, he told the UK's Financial Times, in an effort to "scapegoat him for its failures in Afghanistan."

"I am a very favourite whipping boy of America," Gul told the Financial Times. "They can't imagine the Afghans can win wars on their own."

Gul's name is at the center of some of the more interesting revelations contained within the leaked papers, specifically with regard to those related to the role of Pakistan's notorious secret intelligence agency, the ISI, in helping the Taliban.

Until 1989, Gul served as head of the ISI, where he worked closely with the CIA against the then-Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and is widely believed to have maintained influential contacts with many in the Pakistani military and intelligence establishments.

Following the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Gul became virulently anti-American, declaring the War on Terror to be a "war against Muslims" and saying: "Let's destroy America wherever its troops are trapped."

In the WikiLeaks documents, reports Der Spiegel, "Gul is depicted as an important source of aid to the Taliban and even, in one report, as ‘a leader' of the insurgents."

The leaked data implicates Gul in ordering suicide attacks and of coordinating a kidnapping plot aimed at capturing United Nations employees on a highway between Kabul and Jalalabad.

But according to the leaked documents, its not just Gul, but the entire ISI that is supporting Taliban and insurgent operations in Afghanistan. "According to the war logs, the ISI envoys are present when insurgent commanders hold war councils — and even give specific orders to carry out murders," Der Spiegel reported.

One of the leaked documents contains information about Taliban and insurgent activities provided by Abdul Jabbar Taqwa, then Governor of Afghanistan's Parwan province in 2006 when the report was recorded.

"Governor Taqwa volunteered the following information," the "Non-Combat Event" report dated "2006-02-06" begins. "There are Taliban (TB) in the Parwan Province.... Hes [sic] known about the Hizbul Mujahideen operating in Afghanistan and has knowledge of them working in the Parwan Province at least for the last two years. He suspects that they ... work with TB and Pakistani ISI."

According to GlobalSecurity.org, "Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) is one of the largest terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir.... It was reportedly formed as the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) at the behest of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence agency."

In the same 2006 report, Governor Taqwa also supplied information from one of his informants about weapons trafficking. According to that informant, the Taliban were moving a few people at a time into the region "bringing small amounts of weapons and ammunition ... to be used on attacks in either Kabul or on Bagram Airfield." According to the informant, "the weapons trail" starts in Parachinar, Pakistan, a city of half a million near the border with Afghanistan that geographers at the University of California, using "standard geographical tools routinely employed to locate endangered species and fugitive criminals," claimed in 2009 was the likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

In another report, this time dated "2007-02-25," the Patan District Commissioner, who claimed to be eager to work with U.S. forces because "the Taliban had destroyed his country and now they had a chance because the US was present," said that insurgents "were entering from Pakistan facilitated by Pakistans [sic] ISID" using as a "staging point" the Pakistani village of Mata Sangar. The District Commissioner, who according to the report became considerably more circumspect when pressed for additional information about ISI activity, nonetheless identified the "lead ISI agent staging attacks" from the village of Mata Sangar by name as "Akhtaro, son of Nirbashai."

Regular reports from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's National Police Command Center (IRoA NPCC) also detail purported Pakistani ISI activity, and sometimes allege Iranian activity, in support of insurgents in Afghanistan.

The "NPCC Daily Log" for June 5, 2007 reports from Nuristan that the "Intelligence Department is reporting that the ISI Department of Pakistan has ordered Taliban and other Islamic party members to kidnap foreign citizens from within Afghanistan. They are especially to kidnap India nationals. Once they have been kidnapped, the Taliban or Islamic group is to take pictures or video and then kill the hostages."

The same NPCC Daily Log also notes in another brief report that "the Iranian Government has established a training center for the Taliban in the Saman Abad area."

For its part, Pakistan denies supporting the Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan, even though it was the ISI, as former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan Peter Galbraith notes in the London Guardian, that "helped create the Taliban."

Former ISI chief Hamid Gul also denies any involvement. "Report of my physical involvement with al Qaeda or Taliban in planning attacks on American forces is completely baseless," he told the Wall Street Journal.

And the clear collusion between Pakistan's ISI and insurgents in Afghanistan has not been an impediment to closer ties between the United States and Pakistan. According to the Wall Street Journal, the CIA and the ISI have agreed to set up new listening posts in Karachi, and one U.S. official told that paper: "There's a team of crack ISI and CIA people there now."

But, according to the unnamed official, there remains an awareness that all may not be as it seems with the ISI. "Everyone's eyes are wide open," he said.

Related articles:

Defense Secretary Gates “Mortified, Appalled” by Wikileaks Exposure

Who's at Fault if WikiLeaks Endangers Innocents?

WikiLeaks.org Releases More Than 90,000 Afghan War Secret Documents

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (6)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

lee Gonzales said:

Unconstitutional war begets this type of ramifications. Soldiers lose sight of the mission and Big Time newspapers run these stories to further denigrate the US military and parade these alleged offences before the world. All wars produce ugliness and some soldiers resort to being inhuman and lose sight of their mission. These undeclared forays to "build democracy" or whatever the propaganda machine decides to call it lead to less freedom not more! We must use the Constitution to take away from the empire builders and the tyrants their ability to use war for their own agenda. These two wars - Iraq and Afghanistan- only serve the agenda of a few special interests and have nothing to do with saving or protecting the freedoms of Americans. Despite the constant rhetoric by Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity, and the NeoCon media our troops are there fighting for the UN not for America.

July 28, 2010 | url

Charles Kafka said:

Mix feelings about the leak. my first concerns would be for the safety of our troops. but being against this war from the start, for reasons to numerous for this thread., im for any released information that would bring an early close to it. however, my friends all agree wiki leaks is a gov't troll anyway, so these 91,000 were all plastered across the net, for some unknown intelligence coup. I am thank full that people are putting in time looking through these. finding the head of pakistani intelligence is funding al qaeda, and the taliban. and that civilian deaths are non consequential. but we knew this information already. so keep digging, lets put this war to rest, and bring our troops and our money home (sorry halliburton, and blackwater) and use it for job creation, and finding alternatives to oil.

July 28, 2010

zarin said:

The Kurram route I want to highlight the the part of report that ISI used a small village of Mata Sangar in Kurram for cross boarder infiltration. The Kurram is the valley of Turi tribe which is only anti taliban tribe in the region except few small pockets like Mata sangar , Tari Mangal etc are in the hands of ISI sponsored groupes helping terrorists. Turis always resisted this cross boarder infiltration and an un ending war imposed upon them. The ISI is projecting this war as sectarian among shia & sunnis but this report proves that the miseries of Turis are related to this subject not sectarianism. The road connecting Parachinar the capital city of Kurram is blocked for the past 3 years and recently a convoy of Turis under protection of security forces was attacked killing 18 Turis including womwn & children. They have abducted so many on the road for ransome. The imposed war in Kurram is part of ISI stratigy to force Turis to facilitate the cross boarder infiltration of terrorists but so far Turis resisted and they paid huge cost in the form of human lives and properties.International community UN and coalition against terrorism must take notice and support the cause of Turi tribe in their war against taliban.

July 29, 2010

K.L. Prilson said:

... I'm starting to wonder more and more about Wikileaks and whether it isn't some sort of psyop designed to spread disinfo. I wouldn't trust the ISI as far as I could throw them, but I could say the same thing about the CIA and the whole regime in DC. END THE WAR! We want our brave troops home NOW!

August 03, 2010

Pathenry said:

Terrorism and doubleagency "The ISI helped create the Taliban." And the ISI was involved and paid on the day of the Twin Tower attacks of 9/11 (with WTC 5 being demolished, with its incriminating documents, with hardly a notice given the sensationalism of the Twins). The links between the CIA ops and the ISI, not only in Pak and Afg but in attacking America need a thorough Congressional investigation. Given Cheney's threatening looks and the obvious stuff they pulled off, it is little wonder no one wants to touch it. However, there is a just God who governs in the affairs of men. In addition to clearer investigation, it is time to vote for alternative-to-two-party candidates, and not only in Federal halls, but in every State, so the People have more ways to oppose those who want to monopolize power. Recent history is revealing more and more why centralized power and information can be dangerous, even to those who help construct such a powerful beast.

August 03, 2010

jackson said:

[url=http://www.prescriptionsunglasses123.com]Prescription Sunglasses[/url] To be fashionable with a pair of designer Prescription Sunglasses that can protect your eyes from bright sunshine, even if you suffer from poor vision. Buy Discount Prescription Eyeglasses and Prescription Sunglasses Online with any style of Eyeglass Frames for Kids, Women, and Men's Eyeglasses onnline

August 03, 2010 | url