Lt.-Gen. Hamid Gul, the Former Chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Denies WikiLeaks Accusations of Involvement in Taliban Resistance, but Says: 'The Afghan National Resistance [Led by the Taliban] is Fully Justified'; Afghan Officials Claim the Documents Prove Pakistan is the Center of Resistance

Responding to secret military documents published by the WikiLeaks website that accuse the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of aiding the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government has dismissed the accusations as "unsubstantiated" and "baseless."[1] Abdul Basit, spokesman of the Foreign Office in Islamabad, noted Pakistan's sincerity in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, arguing that "Pakistan's role in the settlement of Afghan issue and its efforts for peace and stability there could not be denied."[2]

A New York Times report on some 92,000 documents, which were released in advance by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks to The New York Times, The Guardian of London, and the German magazine Der Spiegel, noted: "Some of the reports describe Pakistani intelligence working alongside Al-Qaeda to plan attacks [in Afghanistan]."[3]

The documents also reveal for the first time that retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul – the former ISI boss who worked during the 1980s jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and who has described himself as an ideologue of jihad – continues to play an active role in planning and executing militant attacks against Western targets in Afghanistan, in cooperation with the Pakistani military.

According to the New York Times report, "more than two decades later, it appears that General Gul is still at work. The [WikiLeaks] documents indicate that he has worked tirelessly to reactivate his old networks, employing familiar allies like… [Jalaluddin] Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose networks of thousands of fighters are responsible for waves of violence in Afghanistan… The United States has pushed the United Nations to put General Gul on a list of international terrorists…"[4]

On Tuesday, July 27, 2010, the government of Afghanistan also responded to the documents, reiterating its oft-repeated charges that the source of terrorism in Afghanistan lies in the Pakistani tribal region. According to an Afghan website, Afghan National Security Advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta issued a statement, saying that Afghanistan has always emphasized that counter-terrorism must be conducted in its birthplace, and the terrorism sources must be targeted.[5]

The following are excerpts from statements by Afghan officials about the revelations from the WikiLeaks documents, denials of involvement by Hamid Gul, and a previous statement (from the MEMRI archives) by Gul defending Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, and labelling the Taliban's resistance as a legitimate jihad:

Afghanistan National Security Advisor: "Our Allies have Not Paid Necessary Attention to Prevent the Support for International Terrorism and to Eliminate Their Hideouts [in Pakistan]"

Noting that the United States' "incomplete and unclear policy against those forces that support terrorism as a tool to interfere and destroy other countries have had disastrous consequences" in Afghanistan, the statement further observed:

"We must regretfully mention that our allies have not paid necessary attention to prevent the support for international terrorism and to eliminate their hideouts and centers that can create a major threat to security and stability in the region...

"The content of these documents reveal that Afghanistan has been righteous in its stance about the rise of terrorism and political and military discrepancies in counter-terrorism struggle...

"It is important for us to take lessons from our bitter past experiences. Thus, we must implement a crucial and clear policy against terrorism, and put an end to the unclear policies. This is the only way to success and this is the only way to get Afghans together in the war against terrorism..."[6]

Afghan Presidential Spokesman: "We have Always Told Our International Partners that We will Not Succeed… Unless We Pay Attention to the Places Where Terrorism is Being Nurtured"

Waheed Omer, the spokesman of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also responded to the WikiLeaks document, saying:

"We have always told our international partners that we will not succeed in Afghanistan, we will not have a stable Afghanistan, and we will not be able to defeat terrorism in the villages of Afghanistan unless we pay attention to the places where terrorism is being nurtured, where they are kept and where they are given sanctuary and where they are given ideological motives to carry out their attacks in Afghanistan.

"I think this has been a very clear stance, and the leaked documents so far as we have read them will hopefully help all of us understand better the role of both these phenomena in war and terror in Afghanistan…

"Whether it is in private meetings or whether it has been in public comments we have maintained that the war on terror in Afghanistan will not succeed unless we have addressed the root causes, and when we say root causes we actually refer to the role of forces beyond the borders of Afghanistan in destabilizing activities here in Afghanistan…

"We have been forceful about this; we have raised our voice on this issue, and I think over the past few months there has been constant information that points to this direction and constant information that backs the claims and the information that the Afghan government has given to our international partners on the role of certain forces beyond the Afghanistan borders in destabilizing Afghanistan, and will continue to raise this issues until we have more realistic way of approaching the war on terror in Afghanistan, which obviously is addressing the root causes of instability and terror here in Afghanistan…"[7]

Hamid Gul: "I Consider American and NATO Forces as Aggressors… and Believe that the Afghan National Resistance [Led by the Taliban] is Fully Justified"

Responding to the accusations in the WikiLeaks documents about his involvements with the militants, former Pakistani spy chief Hamid Gul told the Al-Jazeera television channel that the charges are a "pack of lies."[8] The website of Al-Jazeera, which posted a video of Hamid Gul, quoted him as saying:

"I have no involvement whatsoever… I'm not involved because I have no means and no wherewithal. This is absolutely, utterly wrong…"

Gul stated that the U.S. sees him as a "convenient whipping-boy," and added: "They took my case to have me declared an international terrorist to the UN sanctions committee and it was vetoed, or placed a technical hold upon by the Chinese, because they could not produce any evidence…

"I consider American and NATO forces as aggressors – in pursuit of a vicious agenda for the region, especially Pakistan, and believe that the Afghan national resistance is fully justified…"[9]

From the MEMRI Archives – Former Chief of Pakistani ISI Lt.-Gen. Hamid Gul: I Am an Ideologue of Jihad; As Far As Al-Qaeda is Concerned – Come Up With the Evidence for 9/11; You Haven't Even Charged Osama bin Laden; It Is Very Clear That Obama's State of the Union Address Did Not Focus On Terrorism; After Obama's December 1 Speech, It's Clear That the Taliban are Afghanistan's Future – And the Americans Are Its Past

In February of this year, Hamid Gul, whose relationship with militant organizations goes back to the 1980s, gave several exclusive interviews with the Urdu-language Pakistani daily Roznama Ummat and the Al-Jazeera television. In the interviews, he talked about jihad and the U.S. role in Afghanistan. Excerpts from the interviews are below:

(To read the full report, click here: Former Chief of Pakistani ISI Lt.-Gen. Hamid Gul: I Am an Ideologue of Jihad; As Far As Al-Qaeda is Concerned - Come Up With the Evidence for 9/11; You Haven't Even Charged Osama bin Laden; It Is Very Clear That Obama's State of the Union Address Did Not Focus On Terrorism; After Obama's December 1 Speech, It's Clear That the Taliban are Afghanistan's Future - And the Americans Are Its Past)

"Even if the Taliban and America both urge Pakistan to play a role [in peace talks with the Taliban], Pakistan still should not enter into [such talks]. [They should] just say: We can make arrangements for you; you do the talks. There are only two parties [who should participate in the talks]: America and the Taliban. No one else. Both should talk; we can be the medium, but cannot play an [active] role, neither can we be party to these talks. The Americans will have to talk to the Taliban of Mullah Omar; there is no benefit in talks here or there [as have been mentioned in media reports]…

"The Americans are defeated. It isn't necessarily because their firepower and their might has been weakened, but because their own people are sick and tired [of the war in Afghanistan]. Now… they are threatened by fatigue, and fatigue is the worst thing a nation can suffer from…

"The Pakistani Taliban is being sponsored by the Indian intelligence and the Mossad, by the way, to carry out their attacks in Pakistan. The Mossad is very active in Pakistan and providing all the guidance and technical support to the Indian intelligence. So, Pakistan has to cover its own back – no country can fight on two fronts…

"I wrote a letter to Zardari [saying] that I am an ideologue of jihad, which we share in common. He is a Muslim like myself and believes in the Holy Koran. Terror is a totally different thing. I do not support terror at all, but jihad is our right when a nation is oppressed. According to the United Nations Charter, national resistance for liberation is a right. We call this jihad."[10]