AikiRooster
Tube Monkey USMC
My assumption is that Pakistan is similar to Saudi Arabia for us these days. Some allies there but also quite a few under cover enemies as well.
The Afghanistan government publicly accused the Pakistani intelligence service Wednesday of organizing the plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai at a parade in Kabul in April.
At a time of rising tension between the two neighbors, the accusation is by far the most serious leveled by Afghanistan against Pakistan and it is the first time the Afghan authorities have described specific and public allegations that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, had been involved in the attack on Karzai.
During a news conference in Kabul, Sayeed Ansari, the spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, said the accusation had been based on documents uncovered during the investigation into the assassination attempt, confessions from 16 suspects detained after the attack and cellphone contacts.
He gave no further details or names of officials within the Pakistani agency who may have been involved.
"Based on the investigation of the case and documents we found, as well as confessions by suspects we arrested, they show that the real schemers and organizers of the terrorist attack" on the celebratory parade on April 27 "is the intelligence organization of Pakistan, ISI, and its associates, which committed unforgivable crimes."
There was no immediate public response from Pakistan, and spokesmen for the ISI and the Foreign Ministry did not return telephone calls for comment.
Tension has been increasing between the two countries and Karzai threatened last week to send soldiers into Pakistan to fight Islamic militant groups operating in the border areas to attack Afghanistan.
Karzai has said that he regards the Pakistani government as a friendly government, but in an escalating war of words he has urged it to join Afghanistan and allied nations to fight those who wanted to destabilize both countries and to "cut the hand" that is feeding the militants.
The Afghan intelligence service had already said that three of the people involved in the attack were in contact with people outside Afghanistan, including people in Miram Shah, a town in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, the main base for Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.
The three, who were killed in a house raid in Kabul in the days after the assassination attempt, included an Afghan named Homayoun, suspected of directing an attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in January, and a second Afghan man and a foreign woman who had been planning suicide bombings in the city. In the past, Afghan intelligence officials had linked Homayoun through an intermediary to Jalaladdin Haqqani, a mujahedeen commander who is based in Pakistan's tribal areas and has long had ties to Al Qaeda.
During the news conference on Wednesday, Ansari said cellphones belonging to the three recovered after their deaths had yielded telephone numbers with Pakistani codes. The numbers showed "a direct link" between Homayoun and the Pakistani intelligence organization, he said.
"We don't guess about the involvement of ISI, we are saying it precisely," he said.
The assassination attempt against Karzai took place at the Afghan national day military parade in central Kabul. Karzai escaped unhurt, but three people were killed in the assault, including a tribal chief and a member of Parliament who were in the reviewing stands near Karzai, and a 10-year-old boy.
Shortly after the attack, Afghan officials suggested that the attempt to kill Karzai had been the work of militants who had infiltrated Afghanistan's security forces and had ties to groups linked to Al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The officials said militants linked to Al Qaeda and based in Pakistan were working closely with the Taliban to threaten the Karzai government, bringing a new level of sophistication to attacks in and around the capital.
The assassination attempt sent government officials, diplomats and legislators scrambling for cover and caused a stampede of soldiers from the parade ground. It turned what was supposed to have been a proud moment for Afghan security forces and the government into a moment of embarrassment and humiliation, coming just as the government had been pressing to take over responsibility for Kabul's security from NATO-led foreign forces.
Afghan forces caught a mortar team on the morning of the parade and found a number of suicide vests in the days before the attack, evidence that the plan was for multiple coordinated attacks that could have been far more deadly.
Graham Bowley reported from New York.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/asia/afghan.php
The Afghanistan government publicly accused the Pakistani intelligence service Wednesday of organizing the plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai at a parade in Kabul in April.
At a time of rising tension between the two neighbors, the accusation is by far the most serious leveled by Afghanistan against Pakistan and it is the first time the Afghan authorities have described specific and public allegations that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, had been involved in the attack on Karzai.
During a news conference in Kabul, Sayeed Ansari, the spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, said the accusation had been based on documents uncovered during the investigation into the assassination attempt, confessions from 16 suspects detained after the attack and cellphone contacts.
He gave no further details or names of officials within the Pakistani agency who may have been involved.
"Based on the investigation of the case and documents we found, as well as confessions by suspects we arrested, they show that the real schemers and organizers of the terrorist attack" on the celebratory parade on April 27 "is the intelligence organization of Pakistan, ISI, and its associates, which committed unforgivable crimes."
There was no immediate public response from Pakistan, and spokesmen for the ISI and the Foreign Ministry did not return telephone calls for comment.
Tension has been increasing between the two countries and Karzai threatened last week to send soldiers into Pakistan to fight Islamic militant groups operating in the border areas to attack Afghanistan.
Karzai has said that he regards the Pakistani government as a friendly government, but in an escalating war of words he has urged it to join Afghanistan and allied nations to fight those who wanted to destabilize both countries and to "cut the hand" that is feeding the militants.
The Afghan intelligence service had already said that three of the people involved in the attack were in contact with people outside Afghanistan, including people in Miram Shah, a town in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, the main base for Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.
The three, who were killed in a house raid in Kabul in the days after the assassination attempt, included an Afghan named Homayoun, suspected of directing an attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in January, and a second Afghan man and a foreign woman who had been planning suicide bombings in the city. In the past, Afghan intelligence officials had linked Homayoun through an intermediary to Jalaladdin Haqqani, a mujahedeen commander who is based in Pakistan's tribal areas and has long had ties to Al Qaeda.
During the news conference on Wednesday, Ansari said cellphones belonging to the three recovered after their deaths had yielded telephone numbers with Pakistani codes. The numbers showed "a direct link" between Homayoun and the Pakistani intelligence organization, he said.
"We don't guess about the involvement of ISI, we are saying it precisely," he said.
The assassination attempt against Karzai took place at the Afghan national day military parade in central Kabul. Karzai escaped unhurt, but three people were killed in the assault, including a tribal chief and a member of Parliament who were in the reviewing stands near Karzai, and a 10-year-old boy.
Shortly after the attack, Afghan officials suggested that the attempt to kill Karzai had been the work of militants who had infiltrated Afghanistan's security forces and had ties to groups linked to Al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The officials said militants linked to Al Qaeda and based in Pakistan were working closely with the Taliban to threaten the Karzai government, bringing a new level of sophistication to attacks in and around the capital.
The assassination attempt sent government officials, diplomats and legislators scrambling for cover and caused a stampede of soldiers from the parade ground. It turned what was supposed to have been a proud moment for Afghan security forces and the government into a moment of embarrassment and humiliation, coming just as the government had been pressing to take over responsibility for Kabul's security from NATO-led foreign forces.
Afghan forces caught a mortar team on the morning of the parade and found a number of suicide vests in the days before the attack, evidence that the plan was for multiple coordinated attacks that could have been far more deadly.
Graham Bowley reported from New York.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/asia/afghan.php
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