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Pakistan Admits Possible Taliban Ties In Spy Agency

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Los Angeles Times

Published: August 2, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Stung by U.S. allegations that elements in its premier spy agency colluded with Islamic militants in the July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan, Pakistan on Friday conceded that there were "probably" Taliban sympathizers within the ranks of its powerful intelligence establishment.

The Pakistani government, which indignantly denied the reports of involvement in the bombing as soon as they surfaced, reiterated that there was no evidence that members of its Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence aided Taliban militants in the attack in the Afghan capital, Kabul, which left about 60 people dead.

But by Friday evening, senior Pakistani officials were offering a more nuanced response to U.S. intelligence officials' allegations of complicity in the July 7 bombing, allegations first reported Thursday by The New York Times.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman, who is close to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, this week said: "There are probably still individuals within the ISI who are ideologically sympathetic to the Taliban and act on their own in ways that are not in convergence with the policies and interests of the government of Pakistan. ... We need to identify these people and weed them out."

U.S. officials said the ISI has financed, supported and possibly trained members of the Taliban-linked extremist network headed by Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and that his network was responsible for the embassy blast and other attacks.

The uneasy relationship of Pakistan's 4-month-old government with the country's vastly influential intelligence establishment became an unwelcome focal point of Gilani's visit to Washington, his first as prime minister.

Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, a member of Gilani's entourage, said President Bush had informed the Pakistani leader that American intelligence agencies were reluctant to share sensitive information out of concern that the ISI was passing it on to militants.

"Today, we are still suffering the blowback from having helped the Afghan Taliban," said analyst and author Ahmed Rashid.

Rehman and other Gilani aides suggested that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had fed the White House outdated information about the ISI's ties to militants to put pressure on Pakistan's government to send more troops into the tribal areas.

A former ISI head, retired Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani, said he had no knowledge of involvement by operatives of the agency in planning the Indian Embassy attack.

"To understand how these organizations operate, you always have to keep links with all kinds of groups, all the time. ... Ask the CIA," he said.

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