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U.S. says Pakistan, Iran helping Taliban

Skeptic

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U.S. says Pakistan, Iran helping Taliban


Remarks from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, are the first in months on the sensitive issue.

Reporting from Washington - The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan says he has evidence that factions of Pakistani and Iranian spy services are supporting insurgent groups that carry out attacks on coalition troops.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan are being aided by "elements of some intelligence agencies," Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal wrote in a detailed analysis of the military situation delivered to the White House earlier this month.

McChrystal went on to single out Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency as well as the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as contributing to the external forces working to undermine U.S. interests and destabilize the government in Kabul.

The remarks reflect long-running U.S. concerns about Pakistan and Iran, but it is rare that they have been voiced so prominently by a top U.S. official. McChrystal submitted his assessment last month, and a declassified version was published Sunday on the Washington Post website.

The criticism of Pakistan is a particularly delicate issue because of the United States' close cooperation with Islamabad in pursuing militants and carrying out Predator airstrikes along the nation's rugged eastern border.

"Afghanistan's insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan," McChrystal wrote, adding that senior leaders of the major Taliban groups are "reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan's ISI." The ISI has long-standing ties to the Taliban, but Pakistani officials have repeatedly claimed to have severed those relationships in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

More recently, the ISI has been a key U.S. partner in the capture of a number of high-level Al Qaeda operatives, including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. But U.S. officials have also complained of ongoing contacts between the spy service and Taliban groups.

U.S. frustration peaked last year when Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other U.S. officials secretly confronted Pakistan with evidence of ISI involvement in the suicide bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Since then, U.S. officials have sought to avoid public criticism of the Pakistani service as part of an effort to defuse tensions in the relationship. Indeed, U.S. officials in recent months have said that the ISI had become more committed to the counter-terrorism cause after one of the service's own facilities in Lahore was the target of a suicide bombing.

McChrystal's comments are the first public indication in months that the United States continues to see signs of ISI support for insurgent groups. Experts said elements of the ISI maintain those ties to hedge against a U.S. withdrawal from the region and rising Indian influence in Afghanistan.

"There is a mixture of motives and concerns within the ISI that have accounted for the dalliances that have gone on for years" with insurgent groups, said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA counter-terrorism official.

Iran has traditionally had an adversarial relationship with the Taliban, and McChrystal's report said that Tehran has played "an ambiguous role in Afghanistan," providing developmental assistance to the government even as it flirts with insurgent groups that target U.S. troops.

"The Iranian Quds Force is reportedly training fighters for certain Taliban groups and providing other forms of military assistance to insurgents," McChrystal said in the report. The Quds Force is an elite wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that carries out operations in other countries.

McChrystal did not elaborate on the nature of the assistance, but Iran has been a transit point for foreign fighters entering Pakistan. Experts also cited evidence that Iran has provided training and technology in the use of roadside bombs.

U.S. intelligence officials said Iran appears to calibrate its involvement to tie down U.S. and coalition troops without provoking direct retaliation.

Iran's aim "is to make sure the U.S. is tied down and preoccupied in yet another theater," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. "From Iran's point of view, it's an historical area of interest and too good an opportunity to pass up."
 
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U.S. just needs someone to blame for its flawed foreign policies.
 
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First off, I am not supporting or denying report just stating the same.

Here is the link to 68 page declassified report and excrept mentioned:

washingtonpost.com

Paragraph about Pakistan's external influence:
Pakistan. Afghanistan's insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan. Senior leaders of the major Afghan insurgent groups are based in Pakistan, are linked with al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups, and are reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan's lSI. AI Qaeda and associated movements (AQAM) based in Pakistan channel foreign fighters, suicide bombers, and technical assistance into Afghanistan, and offer ideological motivation, training, and financial support. AI Qaeda's links with HUN have grown, suggesting that expanded HQN control could create a favorable environment for AQAM to re-establish safe-havens in Afghanistan. Additionally, the ISAF mission in Afghanistan is reliant on ground supply routes through Pakistan that remain vulnerable to these threats.

Stability in Pakistan is essential, not only in its own right, but also to enable progress in Afghanistan. While the existence of safe havens in Pakistan does not guarantee ISAF failure, Afghanistan does require Pakistani cooperation and action against violent militancy, particularly against those groups active in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, the insurgency in Afghanistan is predominantly Afghan. By defending the population, improving sub-national governance, and giving disenfranchised rural communities a voice in their government, GIRoA - with support from IsAF - can strengthen Afghanistan against both domestic and foreign insurgent penetration. Reintegrating communities and individuals into the political system can help reduce the insurgency's virulence to a point where it is no longer an existential threat to GIRoA.
 
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The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan says he has evidence that factions of Pakistani and Iranian spy services are supporting insurgent groups that carry out attacks on coalition troops.
[...]
Taliban groups are "reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan's ISI."
[...]
McChrystal did not elaborate on the nature of the assistance

He is just covering his a** and shifting the blame for his ineptitude.

These guys just can't live down the fact that Pakistan military has done a superb job fighting the insurgency in FATA. Maybe they can repeat what they did in Iraq -- buy out insurgent groups and call it a military victory.

As for their "investigations", let's hope they haven't outsourced this job to the Indians too, like so many others in the US economy.
 
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This is not the first ever such claim from US and there exists many opposite claims, so first they need to make up their mind.

As a matter of fact, Al-Qaeeda is a CIA subsidary and loosing control over its own subsidary is a their own failure.

To the contrary, general first need to raise guard of his arms, which are being regularly stolen in large amount by terrorists and ending up only in hands of terroists operating against Pakistan girls and women.
Which is clear cut proof of US arming terrorist activities against Pakistani women but Pakistan President order Pak army to fight it out instead of complaining!
It was Pakistan who have to bear the burden of migrants displaced due to stolen US and indian wepons.
Any how, i never understand how a press briefing is going to help?
Why the subject US commander did not wished to take up this matter on diplomatic level before going out in public against an ally state?
This nagate fully the recent statement of Hillary Clinton (addressing to Poland and Czeck) about respecting and supporting the ally states.
 
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Hope they do this... we are willing to do this even if they say no to us...:smitten:

There is no doubt that the Americans are working with RAW. After all, the Indians already have contacts with the ruling Northern Alliance, so it wouldn't surprise me if the American "intelligence" was heavily influenced by RAW.
 
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There is no doubt that the Americans are working with RAW. After all, the Indians already have contacts with the ruling Northern Alliance, so it wouldn't surprise me if the American "intelligence" was heavily influenced by RAW.

No RAW was not at all involved. ISI was working with them and ISI and CIA shared intelligence. Ever heard of RAW and CIA sharing intelligence in Afghanistan.:smitten:
 
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No RAW was not at all involved. ISI was working with them and ISI and CIA shared intelligence. Ever heard of RAW and CIA sharing intelligence in Afghanistan.:smitten:

ISI shared intelligence to help an ally state but ever heard ISI sharing intelligence to kill indian girls and docotrs in india?
though CIA never informed ISI (ally state) about objectives, operation records of Black water operations in Pakistan and its logisitics arrangments.

Comming to RAW - CIA nexus, its a two way traffic:
We hear it a lot (confessions of terrorists), we see it lot (objective and support to terrorist), we analyse it a lot (our threat perceptions and history of respective organaisations) though you never said so.
 
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ISI shared intelligence to help an ally state but ever heard ISI sharing intelligence to kill indian girls and docotrs in india?
though CIA never informed ISI (ally state) about objectives, operation records of Black water operations in Pakistan and its logisitics arrangments.

Comming to RAW - CIA nexus, its a two way traffic:
We hear it a lot (confessions of terrorists), we see it lot (objective and support to terrorist), we analyse it a lot (our threat perceptions and history of respective organaisations) though you never said so.

wow what a co-incidence we have same theories here about ISI and terrorist nexus against India.
 
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