THE latest batch of WikiLeaks files pertain to interrogation reports regarding the inmates of Guantánamo. These reports allegedly link ISI to Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban. Unfortunately, the documents are not only unconfirmed but indicate that they could have been obtained through torture and coercion. The exposé is attributed to sources including foreign spy agencies such as the Afghan National Directorate of Security. There is little independent corroboration for the reporting and some of the information is likely to have been obtained under duress. Systematic human rights abuses have been recorded at Guantánamo. Names mentioned in the files include Harun Shirzad al-Afghani, Abdul Kakal Hafiz, Hamidullah, Mullah Haji Rohullah and Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa. All the reports are not only speculative, but talk of a similar train of thought. Nearly every statement appears to be a carbon copy of the other and talks of a high level meeting of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, in which allegedly ISI officials were present, training imparted by ISI and the money disbursed by ISI.
The Daily Mail is of the opinion that fictitious reports by rogue CIA elements have soured relations between the CIA and ISI and in turn between the US and Pakistan. Both are supposed to be frontline allies in combating terror but the seeds of suspicion sown by the rogues have had a telling effect. The erstwhile partners became distraught with trust deficit. A major CIA rogue like Raymond Davis, whose name pops up in every discussion on CIA’s misdeeds, did maximum damage to the relationship. Raymond Davis exposed how he was personally wooing Pakistan’s enemies the Al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. His clandestine operations showed that he was not only in constant touch with them but was perhaps guiding them on to targets of opportunity to destabilize Pakistan. He also had photographs, maps and sketches of sensitive locations in Pakistan, which reveal volumes on the content and context of his surreptitious and covert operations against a so called ally. The way Raymond Davis was captured is nothing short of a windfall as the daring but cold blooded murder of two Pakistanis and the third accidental death owing to rash driving enabled his capture and the exposé of his macabre plot. So dangerous was the status of Raymond Davis that the US President Obama had to be coerced to lie and seek his arrest on the plea that he was a diplomat. The WikiLeaks exposé is based on cooked up evidence and shows the agenda and mindset of US secret agencies and should be taken with a pinch of salt, since it is based on fabricated and trumped up charges. It has also been surreptitiously convenient to ignore the “Guardian” BBC and “Telegraph” stories, which disclose an Al-Qaida operative accused of bombing two Christian churches and a luxury hotel in Pakistan in 2002, who was simultaneously working for British intelligence. Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili, an Algerian citizen described as a “facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for al-Qaida”, was arrested by Pakistan in 2003 and later sent to Guantánamo Bay. Such lapses indicate dual standards. Terrorists arrested by Pakistan will definitely try to embarrass ISI and their statements should be taken with a pinch of salt. It appears that a number of these terrorists were actually on CIA or MI-6 payroll and to hide their surreptitious role they are blaming ISI. The WikiLeaks exposé show the human rights abuses of CIA but the story is being twisted to lay the blame on ISI.
