President Hamid Karzai: Did some in the ISI want him dead?
Outlook Afghanistan, Afghanistan
WikiLeaks Memos Say Ex-ISI Chief Plotted Karzai
Assassination
"The
documents indicate how ISI officials attend meetings of the Taliban and issue
orders to militants. … and report that al-Qaeda, the Taliban and [ex-ISI chief]
General Gul plotted to kill President Karzai; and
that an ISI officer, Colonel Muhammad Yousaf,
directed Taliban leader MaulviEzatullah
to supervise the assassination plot."
Founder, spokesperson and editor in chief of WikiLeaks Julian Assange: His group's release of 90,000 classified documents pertaining to Afghanistan has turned the media world and world at large upside down.
Leaked Afghan war logs show that
former Pakistan spy chief, LieutenantGeneral Hamid Gul (retired), connived with al-Qaeda and the Taliban to
hatch a plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai. Released by Wikileaks, at
least 180 confidential files contained a jumble of previously unknown details about
the Afghanistan War. The stream of U.S. military intelligence reports accused
Pakistan's spy agency of arming, training and financing the Taliban insurgency
since 2004.
In July and August 2008, the Afghan National
Directorate of Security (NDS) passed information
to the U.S. that three Pakistan-trained militants, plotting to kill President Karzai,
had been groomed by a named officer of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),
and had trained at a camp in Zarb-i-Momin outside
Karachi. The attackers, Palestinians and Arabs, intended to strike during a Kabul
mosque visit by Karzai, or during a visit to the luxury Serena Hotel.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The files, compiled by mostly
junior officers based on informants and Afghan officials, reveal that Pakistan
aided militants, despite supporting the U.S. war on terrorism. According to the
files, NATO is concerned about Pakistan double-dealing, and data that indicates
how ISI officials attend meetings of the Taliban and issue orders to militants.
The documents report that al-Qaeda, the Taliban and General Gul
plotted to kill President Karzai; and that an ISI officer, Colonel Muhammad Yousaf, directed Taliban leader MaulviEzatullah to supervise the assassination plot in
August 2008.
According to the memos, the
Taliban are guided in their attacks on Afghan and NATO forces from Pakistan, which
is a safe haven for militants. They reveal that Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis,
and Muslims from European states sneak into Afghanistan from Pakistan to fight
NATO and Afghan troops. Gul has also been accused of re-organizing
Afghanistan's second-largest militant group, Hizb-i-Islami,
led by Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, and the Haqqani
Network, a Waziristan-based rebel outfit. Mr. Gul
allegedly visited Waziristan in January 2008 to devise a plan to avenge the
killing of Ahmad Alkani, an al-Qaeda leader killed in
a U.S. drone missile strike.
He is also accused of
directing Pakistani Taliban to wage a jihad in Afghanistan instead of Pakistan.
The former spy chief is said to have handed over 65 vehicles full of ammunition
to the Taliban. The agency he headed provided 7,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles
to the fighters in Kunar, and 1,000 motorcycles to
the Haqqani Network for suicide attacks in southeastern Afghanistan. The
documents also link Gul to the abduction of United
Nations workers on the Kabul-Nangarhar highway. But some
of the most eye-popping claims come from the National Directorate of Security.
U.S. National Security
Advisor General James Jones has condemned the classified disclosure by
individuals and organizations, which could put the lives of Americans and their
partners at risk. Since 2009, the United States and Pakistan have deepened bilateral
ties, and counter-terror cooperation has led to significant blows against the
al-Qaeda leadership. The United States and Pakistan have also commenced a
Strategic Dialogue that has expanded cooperation on issues ranging from security
to economic development. Jones went on to say that Pakistan and Afghanistan
have also improved ties, most recently through the conclusion of a transit
trade agreement.
Another significant point raised
by the WikiLeaks intelligence leak is that the ISI
played a role in terrorist attacks within Afghanistan. Presidential spokesman
Wahid Omar told reporters on Monday that the Afghan government has said clearly
and repeatedly that foreign interference is one of the key reasons for the
instability in war-torn Afghanistan. Some Afghan analysts told Pajhwok Afghan News
that the leaked information was nothing new to Afghans. Afghans say they the
world should now know that Pakistan interferes in the internal affairs of
Afghanistan, and that it must come to an end.
Pakistan has, however, rejected
the documents released by WikiLeaks as baseless, and asserts
that it has sacrificed a lot to fight the war on terror and continues to fight
the terrorist menace with all of its powers.
