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I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have

US endorses some allegations against Pakistan: Website blows the whistle on Afghan game

ISLAMABAD, July 26: Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency lashed out on Monday against a trove of leaked US intelligence reports that alleged close connections between it and Taliban militants fighting Nato troops in Afghanistan, calling the accusations malicious and unsubstantiated.

A senior ISI official denied the allegations, saying they were from raw intelligence reports that had not been verified and were meant to impugn the reputation of the spy agency. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with ISI’s policy.

Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, spokesman for Pakistan’s armed forces, was not reachable for comment on Monday.

Some of the reports, which were generated by junior intelligence officers, do seem a bit far-fetched. One dispatch from February 2007 claims militants teamed up with the ISI to kill Afghan and Nato forces with poisoned alcohol bought in Pakistan.

London’s Guardian newspaper which was given early access to the documents expressed scepticism about the allegations in the documents, saying “they fail to provide a convincing smoking gun” for complicity between the ISI and the Taliban.

It said more than 180 intelligence files accuse the ISI of supplying, arming and training the insurgency since at least 2004. One of the reports even implicates the ISI in a plot to assassinate the Afghan president, said the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced the leaked reports as ‘skewed’ and inconsistent with realities on the ground.

“These are far-fetched and skewed reports, evidently inconsistent with ground realities,” spokesman Abdul Basit said. “If anything these betray the lack of understanding of the complexities involved.”

“Pakistan’s constructive and positive role in Afghanistan cannot be blighted by such self-serving and baseless reports,” Mr Basit added. —AP/AFP

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I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have

Pakistan calls leaks malicious, skewed

ISLAMABAD, July 26: Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency lashed out on Monday against a trove of leaked US intelligence reports that alleged close connections between it and Taliban militants fighting Nato troops in Afghanistan, calling the accusations malicious and unsubstantiated.

A senior ISI official denied the allegations, saying they were from raw intelligence reports that had not been verified and were meant to impugn the reputation of the spy agency. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with ISI’s policy.

Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, spokesman for Pakistan’s armed forces, was not reachable for comment on Monday.

Some of the reports, which were generated by junior intelligence officers, do seem a bit far-fetched. One dispatch from February 2007 claims militants teamed up with the ISI to kill Afghan and Nato forces with poisoned alcohol bought in Pakistan.

London’s Guardian newspaper which was given early access to the documents expressed scepticism about the allegations in the documents, saying “they fail to provide a convincing smoking gun” for complicity between the ISI and the Taliban.

It said more than 180 intelligence files accuse the ISI of supplying, arming and training the insurgency since at least 2004. One of the reports even implicates the ISI in a plot to assassinate the Afghan president, said the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced the leaked reports as ‘skewed’ and inconsistent with realities on the ground.

“These are far-fetched and skewed reports, evidently inconsistent with ground realities,” spokesman Abdul Basit said. “If anything these betray the lack of understanding of the complexities involved.”

“Pakistan’s constructive and positive role in Afghanistan cannot be blighted by such self-serving and baseless reports,” Mr Basit added. —AP/AFP

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I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/world/2010..._stories.shtml

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Every Heart Sings a Song,Incomplete until another Heart Whisper it Back-Plato

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...006657,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...istan-military

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I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have

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I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have

Wiki Leaks, an online whistle-blower, has released the ‘Afghan War Diary’, a set of over 91,000 leaked US military reports from 2004-2009. Some 75,000 reports have been released online while the release of some 15,000 reports has been delayed “as part of a harm minimization process” as per the demand of their ‘source’. Apart from putting up the documents on its own website, Wiki Leaks gave the Afghan war logs to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel. Though these reports have created a buzz worldwide, there is nothing earth-shatteringly new in them. According to some of the leaked reports, the ISI is helping the Afghan insurgents; there has been an increase in the use of drones by the US-led NATO forces; more than 2,000 civilians have died due to the Taliban’s roadside bombing campaign; the Taliban have access to heat-seeking missiles; humanitarian aid is being pocketed by corrupt Afghan officials, among other things. Now all these revelations may be something new for the American and European public, but they are nothing new for people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The American administration and its military were not unaware of what has been going on in Afghanistan since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and ousted the Taliban regime. Thus there has not been any ‘surprise’ in the official US circles. US National Security Advisor General James Jones said that the US “strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information...which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk” but the leaks “will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan”. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the leaked reports were not based on facts and “do not reflect the current on-ground realities”. The denials from Pakistan were not unexpected either while the Americans have tried to soften the blow of these accusations against its front line ally in the war on terror by taking a line that does not deny the ISI’s alleged assistance to the Afghan Taliban but at the same time applauds Pakistan’s efforts in cooperating with the Americans. The Afghans have not shown any surprise either and are of the view that this gives more credibility to what they had been saying over the years about Pakistan’s role in destabilizing Afghanistan.

So the real issue here is the ISI and its links with the Afghan Taliban. It has been known for years now that our security establishment’s skewed policies vis-à-vis the Taliban have pushed the country and the region into a quagmire of disaster. General Musharraf played a dual game with the Americans by handing over al Qaeda members while giving protection and rear base areas to the Afghan Taliban. That same policy is continuing under General Kayani, the only difference being that the local Taliban are being hunted down but the Afghan Taliban are being protected for a post-withdrawal Afghanistan. Now that these documents are out in the open for all to see, voices in the US have already started to emerge and will get louder with each passing day about Pakistan biting the hand that feeds it, in fact chewing it off till the elbow. We cannot overlook the billions of dollars in aid that we have received from the US since 2001. Despite being hit hard by the global recession, the US continued to support Pakistan financially. The outrage in the American media is understandable and soon it will change public opinion to an extent that might lead to US aid being cut off or at the very least being reduced or delayed. Pakistan has to clarify its position beyond a shadow of a doubt if it wants to stay in the US’s good books. It is time that we quit playing games with the security of the world at large and the region in particular in our ‘too clever by half’ mode.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________

* US officials say person behind release of documents may have ‘secret’ clearance and access to Afghan war documents

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Monday it was launching a manhunt to find whoever leaked tens of thousands of classified documents on the war in Afghanistan, one of the largest security breaches in US military history.

US defense officials said the person behind the release of some 92,000 classified documents appeared to have “secret” clearance and access to sensitive documents on the Afghan war.

More leaks were possible, officials acknowledged.

“We will do what is necessary to try to determine who is responsible for the leaking of this information,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. “Until we know who’s responsible, you have to hold out the possibility that there could be more information that has yet to be disclosed. And that’s obviously a concern,” he said.

The Pentagon said its review of the documents made public by the website WikiLeaks would take “days if not weeks” and that it was too soon to assess any damage to national security.

US military officials say the leaked documents are low-level assessments. “The scale of (the leak), the scope of it, is clearly alarming. I don’t think the content of it is very illuminating,” Morel said.

The Pentagon has declined to name any suspects over the leak, but also has refused to rule out potential involvement of an army specialist already awaiting trial for leaking Iraq war information.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________