THE SUNDAY TIMES

Pakistans spies out to kill Afghan peace say US officials

The Pentagon has accused Pakistan's spy agency of orchestrating a series of deadly attacks to dictate the region's future
Christina Lamb in Washington Published: 25 September 2011

Pakistan is sabotaging peace efforts in Afghanistan in retaliation for the killing of Osama Bin Laden and to ensure any future Afghan government is of its choosing, senior American officials claim. The Pentagon says it has evidence that Pakistans spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was behind a series of recent deadly attacks in the Afghan capital. It believes ISI backed the suicide turban-bomber who killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and Afghanistans chief peace negotiator last week, by posing as a Taliban carrying a message of reconciliation. The last two numbers dialled from his mobile phone were to Pakistan. Phone intercepts also link the agency to the recent 19-hour siege of Kabul, in which both the United States embassy and Nato headquarters came under attack; a huge lorry bomb on September 10, which killed five and wounded 77 coalition soldiers; and an attack in June on the InterContinental hotel. What were seeing is a tug of war between Pakistan and the US with Afghanistan as the rope, said a former Afghan diplomat. Its a new Great Game.

The Obama administration has been losing patience with Pakistan because, US officials claim, it refuses to stop providing sanctuary for militants from the so-called Haqqani network, a relatively unknown militant grouping that has killed more American soldiers than the Taliban. The US has suspended $800m (517m) in military aid but until last week voiced its criticisms only in private. The attack on the US embassy a fortnight ago was a step too far. Americas top military, intelligence and law enforcement officials all hammered home the same message to their Pakistani counterparts. Its quite simple, said a senior military officer. If you dont go after the Haqqanis in north Waziristan and Quetta, then we will. One senior US official after another, including General David Petraeus, the CIA director, pointed out that the Haqqanis and the Pakistani army both have bases in the same small town of Miranshah in north Waziristan yet have never attacked each other. The Haqqani network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistans ISI, said Admiral Michael Mullen in testimony to the Senate armed services committee on Thursday. With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb as well as the assault on our embassy. ISI has always predicted that the US will lose in Afghanistan and has, so far, derailed all attempts to reach a peace settlement, claim American officials. Afghan officials are convinced the agency was behind Tuesdays assassination of Rabbani, who was spearheading nascent peace talks with the Taliban. This has ISIs fingerprints all over it, said a US official. It was a

sophisticated plot. The killing was the result of an elaborate ruse begun four months ago, just after Bin Ladens killing. Contacts were initiated between Rahmatullah Wahidyar, a member of the peace council, and a Pakistan-based man named Hamidullah Akhund, who was said to be a confidant of Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. According to Wahidyar, who survived the attack, Akhund called him a week ago and said the Taliban leaders of the Quetta shura (leadership council) were ready for talks and would send a representative. Initially the representative requested a meeting with President Hamid Karzai. The palace said he should meet Rabbani instead. Rabbani was on a visit to Iran but arranged for the man, who gave his name as Mullah Esmatullah, to stay in a guesthouse in Kabul while he flew back. Esmatullah had brought with him two CDs which, he said, bore messages from the Quetta shura. One was for Masoom Stanekzai, who headed the peace secretariat, and the other was for Rabbani. The message praised Rabbani and went on to call for the withdrawal of foreign troops and expressed concern over the moral breakdown of Afghan society. Last Tuesday, when Rabbani returned to Kabul, Wahidyar and Stanekzai drove to the guesthouse and picked up Esmatullah. They then took him to Rabbanis house, where he was not searched because he was with them.

As Rabbani went to embrace his visitor, the man touched his hands to his head and his turban exploded. Rabbani was killed instantly and Stanekzai left in a coma. In the bombers pocket was a blood-soaked letter, apparently stating: Pakistan is neither our master, nor our lawyer. Strangely, the Taliban at first told the Reuters news agency that they were behind the killing and then retracted the statement. We do not wish to talk about this issue at this time, said Zabihullah Mujahid, their spokesman. At Rabbanis funeral on Friday there was an outpouring of anger against Pakistan. These attacks tell us that the policy of appeasement and deal-making with the Taliban and Pakistan is not going to lead to peace, said Amrullah Saleh, the countrys former intelligence chief. There is no reconciliation process to derail, said Said Jawad, a former Afghan ambassador to the US. Its just sporadic contacts between individuals in government and Taliban who claim to have influence. Pakistan has repeatedly insisted that only it can bring the Taliban to the table. Some say that, having got away with a double game for so long, it still believes the US would not dare risk a breach in relations, particularly as it is a nuclear power.