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More World NewsTaliban Responds to WikiLeaks
Mushtaq Yusufzai is a Peshawar-based journalist who covers the war on terror for The News International, one of Pakistan's largest newspapers. He has worked for ABC news and NBC. He is the winner of the Kate Webb award and a graduate of the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Journalism Fellowship program.
A computer screen shows classified information published on Wikileaks, July 26, 2010. (Newscom)
A high-ranking Taliban commander reacts to the release of classified military documents, and denies any links with Pakistan’s spy network. Mushtaq Yusufzai reports.
Responding to WikiLeaks' release of tens of thousands of pages of classified military documents about the war in Afghanistan, a high-ranking Taliban commander rejected reports that the Taliban had any links with Pakistan’s spy agency.
“Look, we’re at war and would like to get aid from anyone to fight against the U.S. and its allies who invaded our homeland,” Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior leader of the Haqqani network, told The Daily Beast on Monday, denying any existing links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, known by its acronym ISI.
According to The New York Times, the leaked military reports suggest that Pakistan—a country at least nominally a U.S. ally and the recipient of more than $1 billion a year in U.S. aid—has been collaborating indirectly or directly with the Taliban and its affiliates in Afghanistan.
While Haqqani said the leaked reports were useful to him, he also said he wished they had been leaked earlier because they provided evidence of American brutality in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials have recently made more forceful suggestions that a link exists between the ISI and terrorist groups—as noted in a report by the Council on Foreign Relations.
For example, in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes last year, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates suggested that ISI has links with the Afghan Taliban for strategic reasons and that “to a certain extent, they play both sides.”
Four years ago, a leaked ministry of defense think-tank paper in Britain suggested that “indirectly, Pakistan [through the ISI] has been supporting terrorism and extremism.”
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• The 7 Most Shocking Secrets from the WikiLeaks Files Haqqani, who spoke by phone from an undisclosed location, is the oldest son of veteran Afghan Taliban leader Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, a violent Taliban faction that U.S. officials allege is operating both in Kabul and the Pakistani province of Waziristan. The younger Haqqani has a $5 million bounty on his head.
The commander said the group had learned about the leaked documents through the media.
Julian Assange, founder of the website WikiLeaks.org, leaked more than 90,000 secret military reports detailing more than six years of the war effort to The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
In an earlier interview with The Daily Beast, Haqqani said that he doesn’t carry a radio or any other kind of electronic equipment for fear of surveillance and assassination. Underlings tasked with monitoring the media instead convey to him what’s in the news. “We have a… media section whose job it is to monitor national and international media outlets,” he told The Daily Beast after the ouster of Gen. Stanley McChrystal last month.
While Haqqani said the leaked reports were useful to him, he also said he wished they had been leaked earlier because they provided evidence of American brutality in Afghanistan.
“This is just 30 percent of the atrocities which the U.S. and NATO forces have done to the Afghan people during their nine years of occupation,” he said. “Some people who were strong supporters [of the U.S.] were disappointed by their cruelties… They never admit their mistakes or regret the loss of innocent lives in bombings.” Such bombings, he said, brought civilians “into Taliban camps.”
On Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai claimed that a NATO bombing had killed 52 civilians —a charge vehemently denied by the U.S. military and NATO officials.
One high-ranking U.S. military officer stationed in Afghanistan speculated that Karzai’s claim was just a way to test the mettle of newly installed Gen. David Petraeus, pointing out that the Afghan president in the past had made similar statements to test his predecessor, Gen. McChrystal.
The officer also said he felt “betrayed and angry” by the leaked documents, reserving special criticism for the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Pfc. Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst charged this month with leaking classified information.
“I do think he should go to jail,” the officer said, but added: “The release of the documents has made it painfully clear that it’s a bleaker picture,” than what has been reported previously.
Mushtaq Yusufzai is a Peshawar-based journalist who covers the war on terror for The News International, one of Pakistan's largest newspapers. He has worked for ABC News and NBC. He is the winner of the Kate Webb Award and a graduate of the U.N. Dag Hammarskjöld Journalism Fellowship program.
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Mushtaq Yusufzai is a Peshawar-based journalist who covers the war on terror for The News International, one of Pakistan's largest newspapers. He has worked for ABC news and NBC. He is the winner of the Kate Webb award and a graduate of the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Journalism Fellowship program.
jayare
This guy just proved the veracity of the reports of collusion between ISI and Taliban.
If it were NOT true, they could not care less. This is a weak attempt to debunk the reports. :)
robertell
We should call that Taliban leader fella and make a Peace Deal with him immediately......
robertell
what were the two Sailors doing in Taliban country?
YearsLaterXXI
rob,We will be, sooner or later, they want to receive the money..Just like the Hussain's of the world. Condolences to the navy officer's family,to us all.
doctor j
no ISI is more direct link, the taliban is a puppet organization for the ISI filled with uneducated criminals
Fritz Lentz
to the daily beast editor they are no lt colonels in the united states navy maybe you meant lt commander. you a real brain
alloypony
Right after 9-11 Bush spirited the whole laden family out of the US , who is working for whom ? Thank A republican ! (not)!
oceanaris
The Haqqanis have been provisioned and in league with the Pakistani ISI since the war against the Russians. They were on the outs for some time, but are still receiving aid and intelligence.
The LSE report, as well as numerous other non-classified well document the links. How do you know a Pashtun is lying? His lips are moving.
oceanaris
P.S. The Haqqanis are not Taliban, but rather sometimes allied with them.
The-Big-Al
The Taliban are idiots. Destroy them. NOW.
SpaceOdessy2001
Very much like our Chisian-fundamentalists and Jewish Orthodox, yes? And I'm not entirely sure about you "Big Al." Does your overly-simplistic statement consider the complications of the so called "collateral-damage"? You know, innocent children and their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters? You should read Mark Twain's "War Prayer." If this does not change your mind, then, well, who knows?
susangalea
I agree with you SpaceOdessy2001
I think The-Big-Al has just articulated the coaltion's war aims. Sadly, they are on a hiding to nothing and espousing some of The- Big-Al's bombast seems to be the order of the day. These documents have revealed the absolute hopelessness of the army's attempt to win the hearts and minds of the indigenous population. The latter know full well that once the army leaves the Taliban will flood the vacuum left and they will be hellbent on revenge. We will never learn. And this is Obama's war now. It was if he was offering a sop to the Republicans and had received some very bad advice about this unwinnable war.
jomamas
Yeah. There are so many idiots outside the USA. Let's kill them all. NOW.
silas1898
Hmmm, chasing out a superpower neighbor after 10 bloody years, then bogging down another superpower for nine years.
We may not like their ideology or politics, but they are not idiots.
The idiots are the ones in the Pentagon who thought the US could control the place.
whipmawhopma
I wonder if Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf writes this stuff for the Taliban.
JohnConnughton
The Taliban are NOT idiots. Unhappily they are halfway competent. I would agree destroy them now, except if that is what the Afghans want for government you have to let them make their own. It is up to them. and the women in particular need to decide what is acceptable among them.
My only condition is that they not tolerate the existence of people like Al Quida who will try to kill innocent people here. If they allow that, I'd be willing to nuke them all.
What is the minimum you can live with?
SpaceOdessy2001
One thing is for sure, however, the young military man who released these "telling" documents is going to pay a very high price for the truth. He, Like Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers, will be labeled a traitor. He is, to my mind, a true hero, however. Elected politicians and bureaucrats and profiteers who play their deceitful games with the lives of the innocent, and very frequently are "wrapped" in the American flag in order to conceal the deceitful machinations, are the true enemies of democracy and justice. These people are filled with such imperious hubris, and self importance. As Thomas Jefferson once said: "I fear for my country when I consider that God is just." America is the Imperial Rome of our time. Space and time prevent an historical over-view, but just look at the history books and the wars this country has been involved in. All of them always presented as the fault of others. "We have met the enemy and the enemy is US."
JohnConnughton
That's pretty, and I will not match you quote for quote. Let's talk now. I think it is probably good these documents got exposed, but tell me again what is the bottom line?
Should the thing called Al Quida have a home base from which to train people and make them more competent so that they can murder hundreds or thousands of Americans or Spaniards or British or Kenyans or Aussies?
gordona
Space,
I wholeheartedly agree you sir/madam. I also must applaud anyone who can quote both Jefferson and Pogo in the same paragraph. Well done.
The comment line is also noteworthy in that there are no rantings of Plant, MadChuck and their ilk. Such a peaceful world we live in tonight.
No good can come of our involvement in this region. We are only there to steal their resources. They know it and they resent us for it. Freedom and democoracy have nothing to do with it. We're sending our best and bravest men and women over there to fight and die for a corrupt government that only exists because we keep sending our sons and dollars over there. We need to get out now. Just as fast as the C-17s and cargo ships can get us out. We need to get the hell out of there and apoligize to the people of that region for what we have done. Screw Karzi and his funny hat and cloak. He and his brother have made billions off us and the herion trade.
Our congress has been debating about extending unemployment benefits to out of work families. Those families are being evicted from their homes with no assistance coming from the very same congressmen who are so willing to send the occupants of those homes off to do the dirty work, fight and die for Exxon and Halliburton. This has to end. This has to end NOW!
Enough is enough. Not one more death. Not one more lie. We as a nation have had enough of the very wealthy profitting on the bodies of our youth.
Rhett6
AMEN!
YearsLaterXXI
gordona.Amen,again to you! and Now what?
demon01
I didn't know that the Taliban was so accessible; I mean a telephone interview with the son of one of the strongest leaders of the Taliban! Is that even possible?
T1Brit
Jesus Christ. How wrong is it possible to be. You might consider it heroic to betray the oath of every serving soldier on uniform. But I see nothing in the leaks that I didn't already know - certainly nothing worth betrayal.
The democratically elected and answerable leaders, and the flag you scorn represent a thousand years of progress beyond the Taliban savages and their medieval cruelty.
The world has changed just a little bit since Jefferson wrote those lines - what do you imagine with your giant intelligence, he would have said about the Taliban with their hand-chopping and woman-burying?
The United States entered the first great war in order to end it - which they did - they entered the second when viciously attacked - and the Korean war at the request of the South Koreans and the United Nations - to drive back the hordes sent by the cruel tyranny of the North with their millions of Chinese footsoldiers and mercenary Soviet fighter planes.
When the 3000 people in the world trade centre were murdered, they were not murdered by US.
We have met an enemy and he is NOT US. He is a totalitarian ideology ( as always ) that seeks to dominate the world. It is called Islamism.
You are a perfectly useful idiot.
You are an ill-informed disgrace to your nation and the 1000 year tradition of hope and progress that it has defended from the date of it's birth.
Shut your fucking mouth.
T1Brit
( @ SpaceOdessy2001 )
Drock1983
I used to be like you...until I learned the True American history. Forget everything you've been taught about the United States...the attack on Pearl Harbor was planned just like the WTC attacks were. The Taliban, Hamas, al Qaeda, and Hezbollah are all funded with our tax dollars. War isn't about doing the right thing, defending freedom, or spreading democracy; it is about making the rich richer and it puts the rest of us further under their control. Do some research. Here's a start:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/us-indirectly-funds-taliba n/afghanistan/
jomamas
You insist that the Taliban are cruel, and that Americans are righteous, however; the Taliban have only ever killed American soldiers or civilians part of the force invading Afghanistan. In pursuit of some unknown objective, the Americans have killed scores of civilians.
How is it that you 'good guys' are doing all the invading and all the killing???
And PS don't give me that 9/11 crap - the Taliban offered to turn Bin Laden over to Bush if we could show proof that he was involved. Bush had other ambitions.
Only someone of extreme arrogance could invade a nation without cause, kill many civilians, and still claim to be the righteous liberators.
ROOSTERTLC
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT !!! I WISH MANY MORE AMERICANS COULD SEE THIS FOR WHAT IT IS.
HYPOCRACY AT IT'S FINEST !!!
susangalea
@ jomamas
I agree with space and your arguments in the main. What you are wrong about is your claim that the Taliban has not killed innocent civilians. The Taliban is feared by the indigenous population of Afghanistan and the Swat valley region for doing precisely that. If, even a youngster of 12, is suspected of being an informant for another sect or village, the taliban leader who is suspicous of his loyalty will kill him and ask questions after. There are scores of incidents like this documented on various websites including the BBC.
What is insane is this claim to be fighting al-Qaeda to keep the streets safe at home. They are a moving target who flit from country to country and are not going to be defeated by conventional boots on the ground on their rocky backyard or anyone else's when they can move and deploy in a way impossible for the coalition troops to do. The unmanned drones are killing thousands of innocents and further destroying any hope of persuasion of the innocent civilians who survive. This is a ghastly, unjustifiable mess. Troops out now.
Karin69
I'll help the Taliban.
Give me a rusty knife and I'll help them sing falsetto.
Benny Hill
The Taliban response was written by the ISI. Pakistan doesn't want to risk losing the free $Billions we are sending their way. It's as simple as that.
jomamas
Even though that is logical, we don't know that.
ROOSTERTLC
YOU KNOW, I DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD OUR GOVERNMENT EXPECTS US TO BELIEVE. THEY PROPAGANDIZE US EVERY SINGLE DAY !!!!!
SO WE HAVE TO PUT AN END TO ALL THEIR BULL !!!
greenback
It's all just about Bush. He's no longer a problem. What are we worried about? Obama is is complete control of this.
bcaldwell
Wow!!!!! That settles it for me. The Taliban is denying any association and connection with the ISI. We gotta believe them. This is the same Haqqani that wiped out an entire town because they refused his control, right? Why he's a decent, moral and truthful man. Let's talk about Haqqani and the Taliban shall we???? Decapitations of men when they refuse to let their sons be drafted by them? The wanton rape of women and 12 year old girls for fun and games then to force their husbands to retain their honor through stonings or "honor" killings? I could go on jomamas. I've been there, I've seen what the Taliban are capable of... we are but a patch of hair on their ass in that respect when it comes to cruelty.
I get sick and tired of you mamby pambys who decry our lack of perfection in the execution of one of the most brutal acts a nation can engage in (war). It's dirty business and cruelty is a component of that business. We happen to be very much less cruel by comparison than the Taliban. Even at our worst, we don't even come anywhere close to what the Taliban or for that matter the Iraqi insurgents and Saddam Hussein would and could do as a matter of regular exercise.
My belief is that we give the Taliban its wish and that is to dispatch them to paradise with extreme prejudice.You have no idea the animals you are dealing with when you deal with the Taliban .
These leaks are nothing new...it has been out there for a while. It has been common knowledge that the ISI is very sympathetic to the Taliban. It's been no secret that the Taliban have gotten their hands on heat seeking missles - dumbshits don't know how to program them right and they are of an older grade. All this is not new ...where's the story. We're wacking bad guys from drones..sorry but I don't see where that is new or all that secret either. We're killing civilians???? Welcome to war. A lot of these "civilians" are also part time combatants. They actively give aid and comfort to the Taliban and al Qaeda...in my mind I see no distinction. We need to get over this nuanced thinking that we only have the Taliban and al Qaeda as our enemies and that we are not at war with the Afghan people. They are the same. Don't kid yourself.
Besides, we know they harbored the training camps where the 9/11 hijackers tained . We know Atta and Jarrah amongst others spent quite a bit of time there. I say payback is a bitch. Like I said, you have no idea the type of animals you are dealing with when you deal with the Taliban.
Thank you.
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