On the back foot with WikiLeaks
July 27, 2010 by nannikapoor
Filed under war on terror
The American and Pakistani world turned on its head with WikiLeaks this monday. This is just the tip of the iceberg says WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange. This has started an intense debate across the globe on whether the leaks are a way to correct the wrongs or a grave danger to National security. It depends on which side of the fence you are sitting on. For America it is embarrasing, for Pakistan a vehement no no and Afghanistan is shocked at the revelations.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that military field documents included in the leak by wikiLeaks.org suggest that Pakistan, an ally of the United States in the war against terror, has been running something of a “double game,” allowing “representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.”
Washington is blindly paying Pakistan massive amounts of money for access to Afghanistan even as Islamabad uses its spy agency, ISI, to plot the death of American and Nato troops, allied Indian personnel, and undermines US policy.
The website charged that Washington needed to deal with Pakistani intelligence, the ISI.
“There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists,”. “These reports show that the U.S. was already aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue and now the United States should answer.”
The Afghan Response
“The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war,” said Siamak Herawi, a government spokesman.
Herawi focused on the allegation that Pakistan was secretly supporting al Qaeda and asserted that Washington needs to deal with ISI.
“There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists,” he said. “These reports show that the U.S. was already aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue, and now the United States should answer.”
The Pakistani First Take
General Hamid Gul, known as the father of Taliban and former head of ISI rubbished the reports and said that there was no truth in these motivated reports. Incidently General Gul figures prominently in alleged ISI role in supporting various Taliban networks in Afghanistan supporting the larger Pakistani cause.
On the official side Pakistan has termed the reports baseless and has argued that Pakistan has no links with al Qaida.
“Pakistan’s government under the democratically elected leadership of President Zardari and Prime Minister [Yousuf Raza] Gilani is following a clearly laid out strategy of fighting and marginalizing terrorists, and our military and intelligence services are effectively executing that policy,” a statement of the Pakistan ambassador to USA stated.”If someone has any evidence, it should be brought to us, and we will take action,” the report said. “The Pakistani military, especially the ISI, has sacrificed more than any other forces in the war on terrorism.”
The US Stance
US strategic circles, senators and Pentagon are busy extinguishing the fire the leaks have generated. There are views from both side of the fence, arguments and counterarguments go to prove only one thing – the American house in Afghanistan is not in order. The most interesting revelation comes from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton,”These leaked documents, while troubling, appear to support what I was asserting for years: The war in Afghanistan was not going well, and we needed a real strategy for success. For nearly a decade under the previous administration, our brave war fighters were under-resourced and lacked the direction of a clear strategy. Under the new counterinsurgency strategy implemented earlier this year, we now have the pieces in place to turn things around. These leaked reports pre-date our new strategy in Afghanistan and should not be used as a measure of success or a determining factor in our continued mission there.” On Pakistan’s support to Afghan Taliban he articulated that there was a forward movement,”While we still have concerns about Pakistan’s efforts against the Afghan Taliban, there is no doubt that there have been significant improvements in its overall effort.”
Clearly an attempt to pre-date and pass off the blame to the Bush administration.
In addition, these leaks have sparked off a debate about the impact of such leaks on National Security and whether they should be allowed.
First Take
Considering that these reports covered the period between 2004 and 2009 and that they are just the tip f the iceberg, establishment of ISI and Pakistani role in playing a double game in Afghanistan stands established without doubt. No Afghan watcher had any doubts about Pakistan’s dubious role in Afghanistan but this confirms our worst fears. A CIA – ISI nexus to subvert the Afghanistan based geopolitical process for marginal strategic gains by both sides.
These leaks have substantiated what a lot of people have suspected about many situations. For instance, this allegation that the Pakistani intelligence service – the Inter-Services Intelligence – has been supporting the Taliban fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It has been known for a long time that Pakistan sees huge importance in having a government that supports it in Afghanistan. They fear India on the other side of the border and therefore they want a friendly government on the other side of the country.
The U.S. war in Afghanistan has been drawing comparisons to the Vietnam War for many years, and WikiLeaks’ publication of more than 90,000 government documents about the war in Afghanistan will give more credence to that comparison. Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower responsible for leaking the U.S. government’s top-secret study on the Vietnam War in 1971, says that like the Pentagon Papers, these documents will not justify the ongoing war.
“I think what the Pentagon Papers showed with 7,000 pages was that there was a lack of any good reason for doing what we were doing,” Ellsberg told CNN. “My strong expectation is these 92,000 pages will not convey any good reason for the dying and killing and the enormous money we’re spending over there in a time we cannot afford it.”
These are things that have been discussed before. These are things that have been suspected; now there is some factual evidence about them.
What they’ve been able to do – and this is just the tip of the iceberg because nobody has had time top go through all 92,000 of them – is to make a comparison with some of these individual documents and then the information and reporting that came out in the subsequent days after those documents were filed.
WikLeaks Take
What they’re able to show is that there is sometimes a discrepancy, or there is sometimes some very revealing information. So it’s in those small details that you really see how the war is being played out. That’s what WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange wants to do. He wants to put that out in the public domain.
It is too early to determine the full impact of the leaks, we expect more fireworks. Stratfor has this to say. There will be more.
Simply put US is paying Pakistan to kill or maim NATO forces through the various terrorist outfits it controls in Afghanistan in exchange for its supply routes through Pakistan.
For India, a sort of grim confirmation comes from revelations that it was the ISI that ordered the Haqqani network to kill Indian road workers and doctors, engineers etc building the Zaranj-Delaram road or attack the Indian consulates in Afghanistan.
But this is unlikely to change US policy in Af-Pak. The inescapable conclusion is that in Afghanistan, the US will be defeated not by Afghans, but by Pakistan, which it has declared to be its strongest ally.
What the revelations will do though is sharpen US public opinion and political opinion against the way war is being conducted in Afghanistan and US’ approach to Pakistan.
I sincerely hope so.
This leak is going to change nothing . The Americans have known it a long long time but there is nothing they will do about it except to nudge pakistan to control the situation . The Pakistanis know that the americans know , but they also know that the Americans will do nothing about it since they are desperately in need for pakistan to clean up the taliban and its support system inside Pakistan .
In short , Pakistan has the US by the shorthairs and they are going to fashion Afghanistan to their own requirement , and while they are at it they will milk America of every dollar and weapon hardware they can squeeze .
The Americans want to leave — and if the price of departure is leaving behind an emboldened Pakistan supporting a militant structure that can target India, the Americans seem fine with making India pay that price.
I expect a lot of dust storm and a calm after the dust settles…status quo ante as both America and Pakistan can not afford to get at each others throats right now. The timing is just not right.
Relevant to all the trouble in the world –some of its detail is contained in Wikileaks, of course — is the domination of USA by Neocons (read Zionists). They are solely responsible for causing the Iraq war. It is now officially admitted at the highest levels. But the war criminal Wolfowitz who wrote the entire scenario was promoted to World Bank presidentship.!! The war devastated several million Iraqis for having to abandon their hearth and homes. Several hundred thousand were killed. THE RESULT— Iran is now the most influential power in Iraq.
USA invaded Afghanistan after sub-contracting to Mossad the staging of the criminal drama of 9/11. The result Pakistan has emerged as the king pin. And if USA invades Pakistan and India too tries its luck in the game how very nice!! A hundred and seventy million Pakistanis will join 25 million Afghans to become Jehadis to a man, and go on to overhaul the combined armies of the two. For Taliban hawks it is a dream scenario!!
Luckily the Wikileak’s 9/11 like exercise has had quite a hostile reaction in Europe, if only because Europeans are too fearfully pre-occupied with their “economic life threatening” financial crisis and the stress tests of their banks. Much the same does apply to USA though; if they ignore it then USA will, repeat will, go the way of USSR. If a Pakistan front is opened. Come on USA, be man enough. DO IT!!
Sultan Geelani
I didn’t quite understand the Pakistan front..could you please explain.
WikiLeaks has only confirmed a win win for Pakistan…provided it manages its internal fault lines. Please read the next post for my views.
The Taliban have a much larger support base as against US assumptions and there appears to be a growing support to their cause from around the Arab world including Iran. The al Qaeda signatures seem to have faded but their complexity in defeating ISAF on either side of the Durand line is very much there. Pakistan may be visibly claiming successes against Pakistan Taliban but there support to the Afghan Taliban continues unabated as part of their grand design to institute a Pakistan friendly Taliban led Government in Afghanistan . The machinations of ISI in supporting the Taliban therefore can not be ruled out. Much to the chagrin of CIA, their long standing partners ISI are definitely double crosssing CIA when it comes to combating Taliban in Afghanistan in pursuance of their long term aim in the region.
This assertion was made by a month ago and WikiLeaks have only confirmed this Pakistani game.
Nannikapoor
Mullah Umer and Osama bin Laden are lionized by more Pakistanis than even Americans imagine. As I see it, the apparent support of USA in its “war on terror” in the world by Pakistan government is to do with making the most of it for getting strategic advantage. And that is now quite close to fruition. USA has to get out of Afghanistan to salvage its economy from the ruin of Great Recession. And the American public would prefer unemployment benefit rather than the waste of four billion dollars a week on Afghan war. The Afghan war goose is fully skivered for cooking. The oven is ready and Mulla Omer is impatient to taste the goose!
Sultan Geelani
Sultan Geelani
Victims of terror??
A very astute observation in Asia Times by Spengler articulates:
Since 2009, the United States and Pakistan have deepened our important bilateral partnership. Counter-terrorism cooperation has led to significant blows against al-Qaeda’s leadership. The Pakistani military has gone on the offensive in Swat and South Waziristan, at great cost to the Pakistani military and people. The United States and Pakistan have also commenced a Strategic Dialogue, which has expanded cooperation on issues ranging from security to economic development … yet the Pakistani government – and Pakistan’s military and intelligence services – must continue their strategic shift against insurgent groups. The balance must shift decisively against al-Qaeda and its extremist allies. US support for Pakistan will continue to be focused on building Pakistani capacity to root out violent extremist groups, while supporting the aspirations of the Pakistani people.
That this is nonsense, Obama knows, along with the whole world. At some point the charade must come to an end, and it would be a novelty in world affairs if the reluctance of American commanders to feed the charade with American blood were the proximate cause of its termination. The United States would be better advised to stop the game now and seek an open alliance with India, the world’s largest democracy and America’s natural partner in Central Asia.
On Spenglers comment
America is like a man who would like an ‘open’ relationship with the hot woman next door ( India ) but he knows his wife (pakistan ) is watching, so he cant …