Pakistan’s spy agency working with Taliban, study says

Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency provides funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a study which claimed to have the strongest evidence yet of their links.

However the report for the London School of Economics (LSE) was on Sunday dismissed by the Pakistani military as "malicious and baseless".

The LSE study, based on interviews with nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan between February and May this year, claims their relationship goes far beyond what is currently known.

"Although the Taliban has a strong endogenous impetus, according to Taliban commanders the ISI orchestrates, sustains and strongly influences the movement," wrote author Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.

"They say it gives sanctuary to both Taliban and Haqqani groups, and provides huge support in terms of training, funding, munitions, and supplies. In their words, this is 'as clear as the sun in the sky'."

Waldman said the ISI appears to exert "significant influence" on strategic decision-making and field operations of the Taliban and controls the most violent insurgent units, some of which appear to be based in Pakistan.

Insurgent commanders claimed the ISI was even officially represented, as participants or observers, on the Taliban supreme leadership council, he said.

The report also alleges that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari himself had assured captive, senior Taliban leaders that they were "our people" and had his backing. He had apparently authorised some to be released from prison.

It concludes that efforts by the Afghan government and NATO-led forces to end the insurgency in Afghanistan will only be possible with Pakistani support.

The report drew an angry reaction from the Pakistani military.

"It is a part of a malicious campaign against the Pakistan army and the ISI," Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

"It is baseless. The sacrifices by Pakistan's army and the ISI and the casualties in the war on terror speak for themselves," he said. "We have a series of questions on the credibility of the report."

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0613/pakistans-spy-agency-working-taliban/ 

 

Can someone fill me in on the CIA-ISI Connection?

"Waldman said the ISI appears to exert "significant influence" on strategic decision-making and field operations of the Taliban"

and doesn't our CIA exert "significant influence" on the ISI?

ALSO RELATED:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?emc=na
U.S. Discovers Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan /June 13, 2010 NYT

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
At War

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

The ISI and 9/11

Good information on the ISI (and its relevance to 9/11 Truth) can be found in Prof. Griffin's books:

The New Pearl Harbor – Ch. 8, pp 108-118
The 9/11CR: Omissions & Distortions – Ch. 9 (whole chapter)
The New Pearl Harbor Revisited – Ch. 8, pp 222-224

"and doesn't our CIA exert "significant influence" on the ISI?"

yes, and this is a significant omission- plenty of info documenting CIA-ISI links here:

Pakistan and the ISI Intelligence Agency Timeline
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timelin...

Furthermore, just the fact that the CIA is doing drone strikes in Pakistan, and Blackwater operatives are in Pakistan, means that the CIA has "significant influence" with the ISI. That's not to say that there may not be elements in the ISI that have dual or other loyalties/interests- but what's the CIA's role here? Not likely it's going to be stated explicitly, but maybe it can be read between the lines.

I couldn't find the original report either- there's no link from rawstory and it doesn't come up in a site search:
http://search.lse.ac.uk/search/search.cgi?query=pakistan+isi+taliban&sit...

Afgans believe the US is funding the Taliban in order to justify continued US presence- certainly a possibility:
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-05-25/afghans-believe-us-funding-taliban...

and just a couple weeks after the above report, for some reason, the NY Times comes out with a story saying, "For months, reports have abounded here that the Afghan mercenaries who escort American and other NATO convoys through the badlands have been bribing Taliban insurgents to let them pass."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/world/asia/07convoys.html?pagewanted=all

More about the NY Times Afghan Mineral article...

http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/reality/archive/2010/06/14/us-knew-about-afghan-mineral-bonanza-in-2007.aspx
"... what the NYT describes as "the previously unknown deposits", were in fact quite well known - in 2007, well before President Obama made the fateful decision to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan.
..."Afghanistan has significant amounts of undiscovered non-fuel mineral resources according to the U.S. Geological Survey's 2007 assessment . . . ""

at RAW STORY

‘Discovery’ of Afghan riches a pro-war PR scam?

By Daniel Tencer
Monday, June 14th, 2010
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0614/discovery-afghan-riches-prowar-pr-scam/

News for the uninititated.

US,Israeli,British,French,Saudi etc Intelligence Agencies ALSO working with the Taliban-Al-Qaeda.

so what?

There is no credible evidence that the ISI was involved in the attacks on 9/11/2001. In nut-shell....so what if the ISI is funding the Taliban? Really....so what? So what if the ISI sent money to the 9/11 Patsies. Is this not another example of the patsy threat of Islamic Extremism being used to further scare people?

I have one word that best describes the ISI's relationship to the 9/11/2001 attacks:

PATSIES.

Someone wired those buildings for demolition and it wasn't the ISI and it wasn't Muslim extremism which might have been sponsored by the ISI. Islamic extremism was BLAMED for 9/11/2001 attacks.