Bob Woodward’s new book “Obama’s Wars” reveals Pakistan ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, admitting involvement of at least two retired Pakistani Army officers who had ISI links in the Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008.
“The day after Christmas, Pasha flew to the US, where he briefed CIA chief Mike Hayden at his headquarters.. Pasha admitted that the planners of the Mumbai attacks – at least two retired Pakistani Army officers – had ISI links, but this had not been an authorized ISI operation. It was rogue,” Pasha said. “That’s different from authority, direction and control.”
Hayden was apparently convinced by Pasha that it was not an official Pakistani-sponsored attack but the book commented that the open secret is that Lashkar-e-Taiba was created and continues to be funded by the Pakistani ISI.
At another section in the context of a failed bomb plot at Times Square in New York by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad and refusal of Pakistani Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to undertake any of the four of the American demands , the book brings out the American misgivings on Kayani, who was referred to as a “liar”. Bruce Riedel, a top former CIA official and one of the architects of America’s AfPak policy told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of US Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, “not to trust him (Kayani) as he is a liar”.
“I have known every head of ISI since the mid-1980s. Kayani is either not in control of his organization or he is not telling the truth. The US should see the obvious and connect the dots. The Pakistanis are lying,” Riedel said.
Pakistan has always factored a `deniability’ strategy in its export of cross-border terrorism into India and Afghanistan. Gen. Pasha had tried to convince the Americans that the Mumbai attacks had not been an authorized ISI operation, but a `rogue’ one although some of those linked with the ISI were directly involved. His implication was that these `non-state’ characteristic of the perpetrators means there is no link to the state, i.e. the Pakistani government and security agencies. This is a clever strategy that Pakistan Army and the ISI had built into its low-cost insurgency. But these no-state actors do not function in isolation and they are facilitated in every possible form to carry out the Security Establishment’s agenda.
There was no doubt about who created these `non-state’ actors. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Harakat-ul-jehad-e-Islami (HuJI), etc. are all creations of the ISI for terrorist acts in Kashmir and hinterland of India. In order to further camouflage ISI/Army involvement, they started using retired officers who were earlier involved in training the terrorist groups to coordinate their launch and execution plans. The CIA documents, recently put up on public domain by WikiLeaks, gave lucid account of former ISI chief, Gen. Hamid Gul, directing the Taliban to attack American targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Since Gen. Pasha had convinced Hayden of no-state involvement in the Mumbai attacks, a number of new facts have emerged proving a larger coordinated state support.
- Interrogation of lone survived gunman, Azam Amir Kasab, revealed involvement of one Colonel Saadat Ullah of helping to set up the phone network used by the terrorists to speak to their handlers during the attacks. This officer was part of the Pakistan Army’s Special Communications Organisation (SCO), an offshoot of the signals corps. FBI investigations helped tracing Col. Ullah. The charge sheet against Kasab says that the Colonel’s address is Qasim Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, which is the headquarters of the SCO. The document further says that Col. Ullah and another man, Khurram Shazad, of the same address facilitated communications.
- American LeT terrorist, David Coleman Headly, who is currently in Chicago jail, confessed that all the 10 Mumbai attackers had got intensive training from Pakistan Navy frogmen. He told his American interrogators that the ISI had been involved in planning and execution of the Mumbai terror attacks. Headly, using his American passport, visited Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and cities in South India to select targets for these terrorist attacks.
- Headley also revealed names of serving officers of the Pakistan Army – Major Sameer Ali, Major Iqbal and Major Haroon – as those who collaborated with LeT terrorists.
The above revelations by the terrorists themselves are enough proof, besides other substantial technical evidence, which pin down the ISI and Pak Armed Forces involvement in the Mumbai attacks. No body doubts it, notwithstanding Pakistani denials.
It is a wake up call for Obama administration which, in its eagerness to exit from Afghanistan, feels that only the Pakistani Army could help them to leave with `grace’. Pakistani Army wants the US and NATO to leave Afghanistan so that it will have unquestioned monopoly on the beleaguered nation. Whether any `grace’ will be left for `exiting’ American forces is a question mark as the Taliban and al Qaida would be celebrating their victories.
