Taliban - former ISI officials' link

PAKISTAN: CRACKDOWN FEARS AS MUSHARRAF ADMITS FORMER SPY CHIEFS' TALIBAN TIES
The Global Information Gateway: October 2, 2006

Karachi, 2 Oct. (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - The acknowledgment by Pakistan's President Musharraf, in a US media interview, that some retired Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI - Pakistan's spy agency) officials could be assisting Taliban insurgents, has sparked fears of a crackdown back home. "General Pervez Musharraf’s statement will open up a new Pandora’s box and the possibility cannot be dismissed that there will be a crackdown on retired military officials on US pressure," said the former ISI director-general, retired Lt. General Hamid Gul in an exclusive interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

In the interview aired on Sunday, Musharraf said that some retired ISI could be assisting Taliban insurgents. "We are keeping a very tight watch and we will get hold of them if that at all happened," he said in the television interview with NBC's Meet The Press programme, details of which were published in local newspapers on Monday.

"I have some reports that some dissidents, some retired people who were in the forefront in ISI during the period of 1979 to 1989 may be assisting the links somewhere here and there," said Musharraf in the interview recorded before he left the United States.

Gul, said to be an architect of the Kashmir insurgency against India and one of the oligarchs of the school of thought which developed Pakistan's policy towards Afghanistan as "strategic depth" against India, referred to Musharraf’s interview as further evidence of the Pakistani leader’s impulsive behaviour.

Despite Musharraf's statement on American television, when contacted by AKI, the spokesperson for the Pakistani military dismissed any speculation of a possible crackdown on retired intelligence officials.

“Whatever is published in today’s newspaper is wrong," said the director-general of the Inter-Services-Public Relations of the Pakistan Army, Major General Shaukat Sultan. "I have recording of the president’s interview with me, in which he only discussed a few trends in the ISI between 1979 and 1989, and the whole discussion was of that period. There is just no chance of any crackdown on retired army officials," Sultan maintained.

However Gul, who is believed to be well-respected among Islamists and jihadi groups, disagreed with Sultan.

"This [Musharraf's] statement would obviously go a long way," he told AKI. "Any American pressure to round up former army officials and ISI officials to investigate their links with the Taliban is inevitable and why would they not be arrested?

"When a national hero like Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan can be detained, any body can be arrested and interrogated in Pakistan,” the retired general commented, referring to the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, AQ Khan, who has lived under virtual house arrest in Islamabad since he confessed in early 2004 to leaking sensitive nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Also see:
Two ex-ISI chiefs refute president’s statement
By Iftikhar A. Khan; Dawn, October 3, 2006

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: Two former chiefs of the Inter-Services Intelligence have rejected as baseless a statement of President Pervez Musharraf about former officials of the agency abetting Taliban.

Former ISI directors-general Asad Durrani and Hameed Gul, talking to Dawn, said there was no need to issue such a speculative statement.

Mr Durrani said he was at a loss to understand as to what was the need for issuing such a statement.

It would not serve any interest of Pakistan, he said.

He said some people in their individual capacity might have associated themselves with the Taliban, but it was improper to make such a statement without any concrete evidence.

He said the statement was highly speculative and it was astonishing to see it coming from the head of the state who was under oath to protect the interests of the country.

Mr Gul said former officers of the ISI were not involved in helping Taliban. He said the Taliban surfaced in 1994, some five years after his tenure as ISI chief was over and about three years after his retirement from the army.

He said Gen Musharraf was a distinct type of team captain who was scoring goals against his own team by accusing his own people. The nation was astonished to see the captain hell-bent to see his own team’s defeat, he said.

Mr Gul claimed that a charge-sheet against him was being prepared.

He said no Afghan leader, including President Hamid Karzai, had levelled such an allegation. “I am sure they do not have such an opinion about me,” he stressed. He said President Karzai had not named any personality but had accused the government of Pakistan.

He said perhaps the situation in Afghanistan had boggled Gen Musharraf as the defeat of United States interests in the country was visible. “We pray for the success of Taliban. If it is tantamount to helping someone, I do it everyday for the Afghan nation as I am a friend of the Afghan nation,” he remarked.

He said it was his desire to see the pullout of US forces from Afghanistan, which would be in the interest of both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He recalled that Gen Musharraf had also expressed his desire for a limited stay of US forces in Afghanistan.

He said retired officers of the ISI could not help Taliban. He said there was no dearth of weapons with Taliban as they had kalashnikovs, machine guns and rocket launchers in large numbers. They did not need training as they had been in war for 27 years and they were experienced enough now to deal with their enemies.

He said the opium trade was at its peak in Afghanistan with the blessings of US generals and businessmen. He said opium cultivation in the country this year was expected to cross 6,000 tons, while it had dropped to 185 tons in the last days of the Taliban rule.

He alleged that the founder of the country’s nuclear programme, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, had been put under house arrested on baseless charges.