Wikileaks - Saleem Shehzad was working for CIA

[*Awan*]

Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI Involved?

On 6/1/2011 8:46 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:

Amazon.com: Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage (9780393078114): David Ignatius: Books

i don't think we're going anywhere with this SSS thing, though it is
interesting.
On 6/1/11 8:41 AM, Fred Burton wrote:

The poor bastard went down the rabbit hole and was neutralized.

ISI is fully infiltrated by sympathizers and operatives. So, he was
killed by ISI. Will we find a smoking gun? No. Will anybody care
about this dude? Not really. The Agency lost an asset. Life goes
on. There is a reason the CIA set up unilateral operations in
Pakistan.

Suggest everyone read David Ignatius new book on CIA NOC and front
company operations in Pakistan. Once again, he has gotten dead
right.

On 6/1/2011 8:06 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:

the question, though, is still who did it.

It means very different things if it is the ISI, the traditional
military, or the jihadists. Then a question of who within those
groups can also mean different things. Not saying we can answer that
very easily, but who specifically killed who (with the support of
who) would explain if there is an issue or not. Operating between
the intelligence services and jihadists is a very, very dangerous
place- so it's not all that surprising that these deaths occur. And
as tensions go up, so will those deaths. But we would have to know
the same people were involved in the deaths to really know what 'the
issue' actually is.
On 6/1/11 7:59 AM, Kamran Bokhari wrote:

The issue is not the man himself (though I am personally spooked
out because I knew him and we met not too long ago and he wrote on
my fb wall a day before he went missing). Instead the issue is the
growing number of deaths of people who have been supportive of
jihadists. Recall KK and Col Imam and now Triple-S. The other
thing is that each of these 3 people were with the ISI at one
point. A former army chief confirmed to me that SSS was at one
point on the payroll. Each of these guys had a falling out with
the official ISI but maintained links deep within the service.
These guys have also had ties to jihadists of one type while
pissing off other more radical types.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Fred Burton
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 07:51:53 -0500 (CDT)
To: Sean Noonan
Cc: Secure List
Subject: Re: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI Involved?
Pluto Press - Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban

Note his May 20 book release.

He was living on borrowed time operating in the belly of the
beast. His last interview is telling. Regardless, he's dead.
Life on the edge.

On 6/1/2011 6:34 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:

Did y'all read his most recent story?
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

These three stories are pretty good on his death and what was
going on:
Syed Saleem Shahzad: Suspicions Fall on Pakistan
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ed-by-pakistani-security-service-2291604.html
Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI Involved? - TIME
Just throwing ideas out here. This is such a clusterfuck I
don't know what to think.

His next was to be "Next: Recruitment and training of militants
" So who was doing the recruitment and training, huh?
If it's anything like the first half, it sounds like he's going
to accuse someone in the Pakistani military. Maybe they wanted
to stop that?

Excerpt of new book on AQ and friends. Says the Mumbai plan was
ISI's and a dude under Kashmiri at LeT carried it out:
http://www.syedsaleemshahzad.com/2011/05/who-masterminded-mumbai-attack/

It seems just as likely jihadists could go after him for
exposing their location (or that they thought he exposed it).
The reports I've read through of 'torture' were really just that
he had been hit in the face. That's probably pretty typical of
any militant or criminal outfit, and while the other reports of
his ISI meetings were more peaceful, it wouldn't be that
difficult for them to go that far either.

Here's his email to the HRW:
Pakistan journalist Saleem Shahzad dead: Another one bites the dust | Asian Correspondent

For future reference:

Meeting details as on October 17, 2010 at the ISI headquarters
Islamabad between DG Media Wing ISI, Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir
and Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Bureau Chief Pakistan for Asia
Times Online (Hong Kong). Commodore Khalid Pervaiz, the Deputy
Director General of Media Wing ISI was also present during the
conversation.

Agenda of the meeting: discussion on Asia Times Online story
published on October 15, 2010, titled Pakistan frees Taliban
commander (see
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan).

The meeting discussed the following issues.

1-Syed Saleem Shahzad told Rear Admiral Adnan that an
intelligence channel leaked the story. However, he added that
story was published only after a confirmation from the most
credible Taliban source. Syed also explained that DG ISPR was
sent a text message about the story, but he did not respond.

2- Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir had the view that story caused a lot
of embracement for the country but observed that issuing a
denial from the government side is no solution. He suggested
Syed Saleem Shahzad should write a denial of the story.

3- Syed Shahzad refused to comply with demand and termed it
impractical.

4-Rear Admiral Adnan was curious to know the source of the story
as it is a shame that information would leak from the office of
a high profile intelligence service.

5- Syed Shahzad called it an intelligence leak but did not
specify the source.

6-The conversation was held in an extremely polite and friendly
atmosphere and there was no mince word in the room at any stage.
Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir also offered Syed Saleem Shahzad a
favor in following words.

"I must give you a favor. We have recently arrested a terrorist
and have recovered a lot of data, dairies and other material
during the interrogation. The terrorist had a hit list with him.
If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know,"

(end of email)

On 5/31/11 7:56 PM, burton@stratfor.com wrote:

I'm sure the ISI extracted a confession of his CIA work before
he died. There will be a leaked story about his double agent
work and the Pakis rub the CIA's nose in it. Its what intel
agencies do. Tit for tat. The world will soon forget him.
Price one pays for playing the game.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Kamran Bokhari"
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 19:36:07 -0500 (CDT)
To: Reva Bhalla; Kamran
Bokhari
ReplyTo: bokhari@stratfor.com
Cc: Secure List; Fred
Burton
Subject: Re: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI
Involved?
Pretty big one. Domestic and int'l media ****-storm about how
ISI brutally killed a journalist who uncovered ties between
navy and aQ. The big thing now is aQ penetration of ISI.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Reva Bhalla
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 19:29:03 -0500 (CDT)
To:
Cc: Secure List; Fred
Burton
Subject: Re: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI
Involved?
is it that much of a crisis?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Kamran Bokhari"
To: "Fred Burton" , "Kamran Bokhari"

Cc: "Secure List"
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 7:28:02 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI
Involved?

Yes, he is dead. But the question is why create this new
crisis when there are no shortages of crises.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Fred Burton
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 19:18:28 -0500 (CDT)
To: Kamran Bokhari
Cc: Secure List
Subject: Re: Fwd: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI
Involved?
I'm not surprised. Have we confirmed he's dead?

On 5/31/2011 7:16 PM, Kamran Bokhari wrote:

Heard that the ISI agents who were "interrogating" him
didn't realize he had a heart condition and when they began
the thrashing the guy had a heart attack and died.
On 5/31/2011 2:17 PM, Fred Burton wrote:

A reasonable man would conclude that the chap was on the
CIA dole, but you did not hear that from me. Payback is a
*****.

-------- Original Message --------




Subject: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI
Involved?
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 13:15:00 -0500
From: Fred Burton
To: OS

Fears are growing for the safety of a well-known Pakistani journalist
who has been missing for 39 hours now and, according to an international
advocacy group, is believed to be in the custody of Pakistan's
controversial Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Human
Rights Watch declared that Syed Saleem Shahzad, a reporter working for
the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and Adnkronos International, the
Italian news agency, could be subject to mistreatment and even torture
while in custody.

UPDATE: Pakistan's main news channels are reporting that Shahzad's dead
body has been found. One news channel broadcast what appeared to be a
black and white image of Shahzad's face. There were visible signs of
torture..

Read more:
Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI Involved? - TIME


--

Sean Noonan

Tactical Analyst

Office: +1 512-279-9479

Mobile: +1 512-758-5967

Strategic Forecasting, Inc.

www.stratfor.com

--

Sean Noonan

Tactical Analyst

Office: +1 512-279-9479

Mobile: +1 512-758-5967

Strategic Forecasting, Inc.

www.stratfor.com

--

Sean Noonan

Tactical Analyst

Office: +1 512-279-9479

Mobile: +1 512-758-5967

Strategic Forecasting, Inc.

www.stratfor.com

The Global Intelligence Files - Re: Pakistan Journalist Vanishes: Is the ISI Involved?


Before any one comment on this thread please educate your self about
Stratfor and Fred Burton

 

[Leader]

ISI works for CIA did u notice not ?

---------- Post added at 03:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:48 PM ----------

and everything is a huge conspiracy...

 

[Free Soul]

Trying to find a hand behind every sad episode in Pakistan is Suicidal not just simply short-sighted.
RAW, ISI,CIA and such like agencies when creating assets operate in such a way that the asset himself would not know that what he is doing is detrimental to his own cause.
It is our simplistic view that a CIA operative would walk up to a guy pass him a parcel of money under the table. Its so old school.
For that matter anyone can be called a agency’s asset just on the basis of his/her opinion. Would our adversaries even think of hiring Kashif Abbasi, Hamid Mir, Auria Makbool Jaan, Talat Hussian and other loud mouths who cause more damage to the moral of the nation, why put them on a payroll when they are doing a splendid job just on their own. The max our adversaries do is create such conditions that ‘idiots’ are more relevant in main stream Pakistan, and make sure in a indirect manner, that bigots remain relevant, Job done.

Allegedly Saleem Shazad’s investigation was calming that Terrorists, Taliban and rightwing hardliners did not want and were not willing to find a peaceful settlement on issues and lay down their arms.

I ask to who’s detriment was this so called investigation. To the ISI the Army or rightwing nut jobs terrorists and Pakistani Taliban?

The Hoo Haa in Media that this chap was gunned down by agencies for proving the case in Army’s favour? This poor guy would be remembered no more than the GEO reporter how was butchered in a hotel in Swat – who was with joy reporting the fruits of stone aged shariya spearheaded by Molvi Sufi Mohd. His head was taken off by the Sufi Mohd and Taliban guys just because their knives were getting rusty. I don’t think for once that, that reporter was known to be a anti Taliban, otherwise he would not even join the procession of Molvi Sufi M. Hamid Mir only mentioned the reporters demise only a few times, saying Molvi Sufi it would be nice of you to point out people who did this – and that is all, no one dare talk of it anymore.

The biggest assets of any of our adversaries are all these clowns who do not know their rear end from their elbow.

It is rightly said that stupid friend is far more dangerous than an enemy.

 

[Free Soul]

double post... sorry

 

[regular]

Looks like nowadayz everybody is just working for money $$$...can't trust no one anymore....

 

[Respect4Respect01]

our journalists are misusing their power and rights.

 

[graphican]

I don't buy this.. ISI is not always right.. and this is their opportunity to improve on where they lack. Making false accusations is not going to help ISI or Pakistan. Accept your flaws, improve them and stay good for times to come. There is no "better" way of improving other than that.

 

[Pakistanisage]

Trying to find a hand behind every sad episode in Pakistan is Suicidal not just simply short-sighted.
RAW, ISI,CIA and such like agencies when creating assets operate in such a way that the asset himself would not know that what he is doing is detrimental to his own cause.
It is our simplistic view that a CIA operative would walk up to a guy pass him a parcel of money under the table. Its so old school.
For that matter anyone can be called a agency’s asset just on the basis of his/her opinion. Would our adversaries even think of hiring Kashif Abbasi, Hamid Mir, Auria Makbool Jaan, Talat Hussian and other loud mouths who cause more damage to the moral of the nation, why put them on a payroll when they are doing a splendid job just on their own. The max our adversaries do is create such conditions that ‘idiots’ are more relevant in main stream Pakistan, and make sure in a indirect manner, that bigots remain relevant, Job done.

Allegedly Saleem Shazad’s investigation was calming that Terrorists, Taliban and rightwing hardliners did not want and were not willing to find a peaceful settlement on issues and lay down their arms.

I ask to who’s detriment was this so called investigation. To the ISI the Army or rightwing nut jobs terrorists and Pakistani Taliban?

The Hoo Haa in Media that this chap was gunned down by agencies for proving the case in Army’s favour? This poor guy would be remembered no more than the GEO reporter how was butchered in a hotel in Swat – who was with joy reporting the fruits of stone aged shariya spearheaded by Molvi Sufi Mohd. His head was taken off by the Sufi Mohd and Taliban guys just because their knives were getting rusty. I don’t think for once that, that reporter was known to be a anti Taliban, otherwise he would not even join the procession of Molvi Sufi M. Hamid Mir only mentioned the reporters demise only a few times, saying Molvi Sufi it would be nice of you to point out people who did this – and that is all, no one dare talk of it anymore.

The biggest assets of any of our adversaries are all these clowns who do not know their rear end from their elbow.

It is rightly said that stupid friend is far more dangerous than an enemy.

What nonsense. You have no clue how CIA operates. CIA only considers those people its assets who are on their payroll. There are two kind of people who are linked with CIA.
1. CIA Employees ( You have to be a US Citizen to be Hired by CIA as a Career Employee).
2. CIA Contractors ( these are US Citizens OR Non-Citizens who are hired on a short term basis).

It is common in the Intelligence circles to refer to Non US Citizens hired as contractors as Assets. These are people who have contracted with the CIA and are under their direct control. CIA is pretty much run as a Military organization which is why more than 95% of CIA directors in the past and present have been Generals and Admirals ( Politicians like George H.W. Bush and Leon Panetta are the exceptions and even they had served in the military at some point in their life ).

CIA Assets are not picked on their opinions. They go through very exacting stringent Psychological profiling and a battery of tests at Langley. Please do not make stuff up.

 

[seekers]

saleem shehzad working for cia or not but had been killed.
what about the naval officers and lower staff who had assist terrorist in mehran base and still enjoying service in navy and as alqaeda agent.

 

[salmakh84]

Anyone who is working against the ISI doesnt mean he is on the CIA's payroll.

Nothing here proves he was ISI, infact, emails suggest he was AQ sympathiser (which is fighting CIA and ISI)

 

[Kompromat]

^^^^ISI is source of all evil , blame them , just blame them for everything , even if your chicken is not laying any eggs or your cat has lost a tooth - blame them !

 

[Irfan Baloch]

Anyone who is working against the ISI doesnt mean he is on the CIA's payroll.

Nothing here proves he was ISI, infact, emails suggest he was AQ sympathiser (which is fighting CIA and ISI)

I learnt about Saleem Shehzad first time when I read a news article on some western media website which gave an account of the reasons that led to his death and it left me undecided and confused.

the premise was that the late journalist was investigating on some leads relating to a story that military (navy, air force, army & its intelligence wings) was against an undercover undisclosed deal between the terrorists (AQ/ TTP etc) and the government concerning the release of some terrorists that were under arrest.
therefore, (as per the news article) Saleem Shehzad was working on the story to blow the lid off this secret deal and he started getting threats from ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


Ok lets wait here now. And think how many parties can be identified in this story

1. Al Qaeda/ Tehreek e Taliban
A terrorist body fighting the state of Pakistan & its institution.
2. The Government of Pakistan
Which represents the state of Pakistan
3. Pakistan Military & security Agencies
Elements of the state responsible for internal & external security

Now tell me, which of the 3 parties had the interest (& perceived ) benefit in the secret release of the terrorists?
Which of the 3 parties would have liked to keep this story private to ensure that the deal was successfully executed?
Which of the 3 parties would have actually benefited if the story got leaked, thus destroying the chance of the release of the terrorists?

(do I really have to spell it out for everyone or should I respect your judgement let you decide yourself?)

Coming back to the news I was talking about.

….and he started getting threats from ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Al Qaeda……?
NO!!!

The story maintains that it was in fact the military intelligence agencies that started harassing him.
Because his investigation could jeopardise the deal that was apposed by the agencies???






Following is one of the links about that story that blames ISI for the killing with very bizarre (IMO) reasons including the leaked wiki documents about Pakistan and CIA collusion regarding drone strikes and the failure to prevent Mehran and GHQ attacks.

Missing Pakistan journalist Saleem Shahzad found dead near Islamabad | World news | The Guardian

 

[53fd]

Another interesting thing is that Mike Mullen accused the Pakistan government (not the ISI) in the Shahzad Saleem murder.

Pakistan government may have sanctioned Saleem Shehzad’s death: Mullen – The Express Tribune

 

[Jango]

We need to get rid of this mentality now that everyone who goes missing is kidnapped by ISI ( as if the CO decides hey lets kidnap some civilians), everyone killed is by ISI etc etc.

It could be a multitude of reasons.

If others can be innocent until proven guilty, then so is the ISI.

And every problem is because of the ISI.

It is the fault of the government for not accommodating this war on terror in the legal framework and allowing some exceptions in certain cases( still not advocating the idea of picking up anyone off the streets), that is suspected, a person can be caught and be tried with minimal proof of involvement.

If the government can pass BS Amendments like 19 ,18 and 20, why not this kind of law?

 

[Irfan Baloch]

What nonsense. You have no clue how CIA operates. CIA only considers those people its assets who are on their payroll. There are two kind of people who are linked with CIA.
1. CIA Employees ( You have to be a US Citizen to be Hired by CIA as a Career Employee).
2. CIA Contractors ( these are US Citizens OR Non-Citizens who are hired on a short term basis).

It is common in the Intelligence circles to refer to Non US Citizens hired as contractors as Assets. These are people who have contracted with the CIA and are under their direct control. CIA is pretty much run as a Military organization which is why more than 95% of CIA directors in the past and present have been Generals and Admirals ( Politicians like George H.W. Bush and Leon Panetta are the exceptions and even they had served in the military at some point in their life ).

CIA Assets are not picked on their opinions. They go through very exacting stringent Psychological profiling and a battery of tests at Langley. Please do not make stuff up.

you got to be farting me.

you have oversimplified the most complex, secret and shady operations of world's most prolific organisation in 2 points.

there are no visiting cards or official notepads in this line of work my simpleton friend.
your understanding is purely amateur and layman.

this is not the bollywood movie plot where the boss with horde of minions goes through the trouble of doing everything himself to the hero or his parents so that he can be implicated later.

I know you didnt get it. CIA, like any other agency with foreign operations employs local people to avoid suspicion. not everyone of them goes though some grueling "Jason Bourne" like training and doesnt carry concealed weapons. the local operatives dont even know their local spymasters. the communications are always one sided and indirect.

and there are different tiers of local recruits (very few have knowledge that their boss ultimately reports to Langley) some of these people maybe pursuing their noble causes like NGO work, vaccination, free education, missionary work, journalism and preaching. the ones that have the capacity and promise are exposed to their real employers but only after years of scrutiny and surveillance.

CIA doesnt go about signing employment contracts on stamp papers so that the people it wants to use might point to itself in case they are investigated or secretly put under surveillance.

what you mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg. a typical Hollywood image of stern faced black suited guys in sunglasses. in reality the actual grunts might be as unassuming, nondescript and ordinary as naturally possible.

if you are still reading then let me emphasize on the word tier. that Doctor Afridi might have knowingly worked for the CIA but the staff he employed to help him with the CIA funded pseudo vaccination drive might have remained under the dark. I hope this example helps you to understand this multi-layered operational structure.

If CIA needs a well known opinion maker in the electronic media, it doesnt have to send a cheque and the signed photograph of Mike Mullen (for argument sake) to Kashif Abbasi or Hamid Mir to convince them to directly and strictly work for CIA. if I am the local spy master or station chief then I will get someone to approach the producers of the program and will bribe them through funds and advertisement.. with some seemingly very innocent requests.. about how the program is run and what content etc and then up the game.

I hope you havent lost me.

your post suggests that you know ins and outs of the way CIA works yet your way of rubbishing very covert nature of an organisation (whose work is very much defined as "a cloak and dagger" ) was very ill-informed.

if you want to debate anymore on this then please PM me and I will let you know more.