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SPY TALK: Jeff Stein
Everything that is terrifying about Washington’s relationship with Pakistan can be summed up in the Wikileaks documents on Hamid Gul, a former chief of the ISI, Islamabad's intelligence service.
The documents portray Gul as the public face of an underground Pakistani military network that appears to be working to destroy the U.S. effort to create a pro-West Afghanistan.
A hawk-like man with laser black eyes, Gul's animosity toward the United States is well known. But the audacity of his plotting with the Taliban and even al-Qaeda, as represented in the documents, has the ability to shock.
If the documents are to be believed -- and the uncorroborated U.S. intelligence reports must be read with caution -- Gul has taken a direct hand in quarterbacking attacks against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
Gul calls the reports "fiction and nothing else."
In mid-December 2006, one report says, Gul met with “senior members of the Taliban leadership in Nowshara, Pakistan,” during which he said he had dispatched three insurgents to Kabul to carry out attacks with improvised explosive devices during the celebration of Eid, a Muslim holiday.
“Gul instructed two of the individuals to plant IEDs along the roads frequently utilized by Government of Afghanistan and ISAF vehicles,” the intelligence report says. “The third individual is to carry out a suicide attack utilizing a suicide vest against" Afghan government or NATO targets.
“Make the snow warm in Kabul,” he told the bombers, according to the report. “Set Kabul aflame.”
“Gul reportedly has received approximately 50 of these mines in order for them to carry out their operation,” the report said.
In January 2008 Gul also directed the Taliban to kidnap high-level United Nations personnel in Afghanistan to trade for captured Pakistani soldiers, according to another report.
“The (Taliban) group led by (Qari) Naqibullah,” it said, “is working with the coordination of retired Pakistani General Hamid Gul. This group is targeting un vehicles marked with black lettering, which Naqibullah believes is an indicator that the vehicle is carrying high level UN officials or members of the UN intelligence service.”
“Naqibullah,” it added, “has been instructed by Gul to place a higher priority in securing the release of the Pakistani soldiers.”
* * *
While not proven, the allegations that the Taliban would take orders from Gul are not surprising.
After the Red Army left Afghanistan in 1989, he and fellow Islamists in the ISI midwifed the fundamentalists into a fighting force that took Kabul and ruled the country with a puritanical zeal until they were ousted by U.S.-led forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But if another U.S. intelligence report released by Wikileaks is to be believed, Gul has also been working hand-in-glove with al-Qaeda.
On Jan. 5, 2009, the report says, insurgents in the Pakistani tribal zone of South Waziristan met to discuss taking revenge for the death of a Taliban commander killed in a CIA drone attack.
“Also in attendance were three unidentified older Arab males, who were considered important” because they were accompanied by “approximately 20 Arab bodyguards,” said the report, which originated with the U.S. Army’s Task Force Castle engineering group.
“Hamid Gul, a former member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was in attendance at the meeting also,” the report said. “Hamid Gul was described as being an older man and a very important person from ISI.”
Gul “encouraged (their) leaders to focus their operation inside of Afghanistan in exchange for the government of Pakistan's security forces turning a blind eye to the presence of (their) commanders and fighters in Pakistan,” the report said.
Gul also had a tip for al-Qaeda and the insurgents: ”The aerial threats in the area were controlled from the airport in Wana,” the largest town in South Waziristan.
* * *
Gul was also accused by the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of authoring the first assassination attempt upon her after her return to Pakistan.
And so on. None of this is a surprise to U.S. officials, who have had to live with the Pakistani army’s duplicity on Afghanistan since coalition forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
The first reaction Pakistan’s leadership to the Wikileaks reports was telling.
"These reports reflect nothing more than single-source comments and rumors, which abound on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Pakistani ambassador said in a prepared statement, “and are often proved wrong after deeper examination."
Gul's first reaction was to call the allegations “absolute nonsense.”
“I have had no hand in it,” he told The New York Times, adding, “American intelligence is pulling cotton wool over your eyes.”
The ex-general had a more measured response later.
“Report of my physical involvement with al-Qaeda or Taliban in planning attacks on American forces is completely baseless,” Gul told The Wall Street Journal. “I am not against America, but I am opposed to what the American forces are doing in Afghanistan.”
Everything that is terrifying about Washington’s relationship with Pakistan can be summed up in the Wikileaks documents on Hamid Gul, a former chief of the ISI, Islamabad's intelligence service.
The documents portray Gul as the public face of an underground Pakistani military network that appears to be working to destroy the U.S. effort to create a pro-West Afghanistan.
A hawk-like man with laser black eyes, Gul's animosity toward the United States is well known. But the audacity of his plotting with the Taliban and even al-Qaeda, as represented in the documents, has the ability to shock.
If the documents are to be believed -- and the uncorroborated U.S. intelligence reports must be read with caution -- Gul has taken a direct hand in quarterbacking attacks against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
Gul calls the reports "fiction and nothing else."
In mid-December 2006, one report says, Gul met with “senior members of the Taliban leadership in Nowshara, Pakistan,” during which he said he had dispatched three insurgents to Kabul to carry out attacks with improvised explosive devices during the celebration of Eid, a Muslim holiday.
“Gul instructed two of the individuals to plant IEDs along the roads frequently utilized by Government of Afghanistan and ISAF vehicles,” the intelligence report says. “The third individual is to carry out a suicide attack utilizing a suicide vest against" Afghan government or NATO targets.
“Make the snow warm in Kabul,” he told the bombers, according to the report. “Set Kabul aflame.”
“Gul reportedly has received approximately 50 of these mines in order for them to carry out their operation,” the report said.
In January 2008 Gul also directed the Taliban to kidnap high-level United Nations personnel in Afghanistan to trade for captured Pakistani soldiers, according to another report.
“The (Taliban) group led by (Qari) Naqibullah,” it said, “is working with the coordination of retired Pakistani General Hamid Gul. This group is targeting un vehicles marked with black lettering, which Naqibullah believes is an indicator that the vehicle is carrying high level UN officials or members of the UN intelligence service.”
“Naqibullah,” it added, “has been instructed by Gul to place a higher priority in securing the release of the Pakistani soldiers.”
* * *
While not proven, the allegations that the Taliban would take orders from Gul are not surprising.
After the Red Army left Afghanistan in 1989, he and fellow Islamists in the ISI midwifed the fundamentalists into a fighting force that took Kabul and ruled the country with a puritanical zeal until they were ousted by U.S.-led forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But if another U.S. intelligence report released by Wikileaks is to be believed, Gul has also been working hand-in-glove with al-Qaeda.
On Jan. 5, 2009, the report says, insurgents in the Pakistani tribal zone of South Waziristan met to discuss taking revenge for the death of a Taliban commander killed in a CIA drone attack.
“Also in attendance were three unidentified older Arab males, who were considered important” because they were accompanied by “approximately 20 Arab bodyguards,” said the report, which originated with the U.S. Army’s Task Force Castle engineering group.
“Hamid Gul, a former member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was in attendance at the meeting also,” the report said. “Hamid Gul was described as being an older man and a very important person from ISI.”
Gul “encouraged (their) leaders to focus their operation inside of Afghanistan in exchange for the government of Pakistan's security forces turning a blind eye to the presence of (their) commanders and fighters in Pakistan,” the report said.
Gul also had a tip for al-Qaeda and the insurgents: ”The aerial threats in the area were controlled from the airport in Wana,” the largest town in South Waziristan.
* * *
Gul was also accused by the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of authoring the first assassination attempt upon her after her return to Pakistan.
And so on. None of this is a surprise to U.S. officials, who have had to live with the Pakistani army’s duplicity on Afghanistan since coalition forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
The first reaction Pakistan’s leadership to the Wikileaks reports was telling.
"These reports reflect nothing more than single-source comments and rumors, which abound on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Pakistani ambassador said in a prepared statement, “and are often proved wrong after deeper examination."
Gul's first reaction was to call the allegations “absolute nonsense.”
“I have had no hand in it,” he told The New York Times, adding, “American intelligence is pulling cotton wool over your eyes.”
The ex-general had a more measured response later.
“Report of my physical involvement with al-Qaeda or Taliban in planning attacks on American forces is completely baseless,” Gul told The Wall Street Journal. “I am not against America, but I am opposed to what the American forces are doing in Afghanistan.”
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