US documents leaked
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
ISI accused of secretly helping Taliban; Papers show war crimes; Iran accused of funding Taliban; US denounces leak, assures of continuing partnership; Islamabad rejects reports as skewed; UK condemns, Kabul welcomes
KABUL/WASHINGTON: Pakistan was actively collaborating with the Taliban in Afghanistan while accepting US aid, new US military reports showed, a disclosure likely to increase the pressure on Pakistan.
The revelations by the organisation Wikileaks emerged as Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of greater Nato casualties in Afghanistan as violence mounts over the summer.
Contained in more than 90,000 classified documents, the Wikileaks revelations could fuel growing doubts in Congress about US President Barack Obamas war strategy at a time when the US death toll is soaring. The White House condemned the leak, saying it could threaten national security and endanger the lives of Americans. Pakistan said leaking unprocessed reports from the battlefield was irresponsible.
The documents said representatives from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) met directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organise militant networks fighting US soldiers. They also spoke about civilian casualties caused by foreign forces while hunting down militants and efforts on some occasions to cover them up.
The Afghan government refused to react specifically to the report but said Kabul had spoken in private and public meetings with its Western allies about the deaths and the role of ISI in destabilising Afghanistan. It welcomed the leaks, saying the documents on Pakistans activities in Afghanistan could help raise awareness on the sanctuaries Islamabad provides for militant groups.
Over the years, we have raised the issue of civilian casualties and how harmful civilian casualties or collateral damage could be to achieving our joint objective of defeating terrorism in Afghanistan, government spokesman Waheed Omer said.
He said there have been reductions in civilian deaths over the past one-and-a-half years and that there was a common understanding about the negative impact such incidents have caused and the role of the ISI in supporting the militants.
In April 2007, for instance, the Guardian said the ISI allegedly sent 1,000 motorbikes to Jalaluddin Haqqani, head of the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network based in Pakistan, to carry out suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
Other reports claimed the ISI and insurgents planned to buy alcohol to mix with poison and use against Nato and Afghan security forces; and accused the ISI of deploying children as suicide bombers.
Another inflammatory report said the spy agency offered 15,000 to 30,000 dollars for the assassination of road workers from India. US national security adviser Jim Jones said the leak would not affect our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Jones said such classified information could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security. Under the heading Afghan War Diary, the 91,000 documents collected from across the US military in Afghanistan cover the war from 2004 to 2010, Wikileaks said in a summary.
One of them discusses a meeting of insurgents attended by a former senior Pakistani intelligence official, who appears to be working against US forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan denounced leaked US intelligence reports as skewed and inconsistent with realities on the ground.
Pakistans ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani denounced the leak of secret files and insisted his nation was fully committed to fighting insurgents. Reports by the UK daily The Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel say the leaked papers reveal Nato concerns that neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
They carry allegations that Iran is providing money and arms to Taliban and detail how widespread corruption is hampering a war now in its ninth year. These are far-fetched and skewed reports, evidently inconsistent with ground realities, Pakistans foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said. If anything these betray the lack of understanding of the complexities involved, he said.
The leaks reportedly link the ISI to an assassination plot on Afghan President Hamid Karzai which never came off attacks on Nato warplanes, a plot to poison the beer supply of Western troops and the 2008 Indian embassy bombing.
The reports also suggest the Taliban have had access to portable heat-seeking missiles to shoot at aircraft. A secret US unit of army and navy special forces has been engaged on missions to capture or kill top insurgents. Many civilian casualties have gone unreported, both as a result of Taliban roadside bombs and Nato missions that went wrong.
The head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Senate said that however illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of Americas policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent, said Democrat Senator John Kerry.
Britain said it regretted the leaking of tens of thousands of secret military files about the Afghanistan war which have thrown the spotlight on civilian deaths there.
We would lament all unauthorised releases of classified material, a Downing Street spokeswoman said. The White House has made a statement. We will not comment on leaked documents, she said.
Germany demanded close scrutiny of claims about Iranian and Pakistani aid to the Taliban, as Britain expressed hopes that leaked documents would not poison the Afghan war effort.
We have to examine what new information there could be within thousands of secret files released, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said on the sidelines of talks with his EU counterparts.
German General Egon Ramms, responsible for Natos International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, called for greater vigilance after the leak of secret US military documents.
At the moment we always actually have to wait until papers or documents are pushed out into the open via leaks, but that obliges even more to work with the greatest care, he said.
We are not waging our own war in Afghanistan but acting on political orders, Ramms told the online edition of Germanys economic daily Handelsblatt. Meanwhile, the Wikileaks founder said they showed that the course of the war needs to change.
Julian Assange of Wikileaks also used a press conference in London to state that thousands of war crimes may have been committed in Afghanistan. It is up to a court to decide clearly whether something is in the end a crime. That said, prima facie there does appear to be evidence of war crimes in this material, he said.
He cited an example of a missile strike on a house which killed seven children. When asked whether the leaks would have any bearing on planned international troop withdrawals in the next few years, he said: I think its too early to say yet.
Its clear that it will shape understanding of what the past six years of war have been like and that the course of the war needs to change, he said. Asked what he hoped would come from the leaks, he added: Hopefully a deep understanding and scrutiny of the war in Afghanistan and hopefully a change in policy about prosecution of the war and a deep consideration given... into how they want it to continue.
US documents leaked
