'US intelligence agencies link Indian embassy bombing to ISI'

(August 01, New York, Sri Lanka Guardian) American intelligence agencies have for the first time directly linked the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul to Pakistan's ISI and indicated that it might have been authorised by the top officials as those involved in assisting militants were not renegades, a media report said here today.

The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack on July 7 that left nearly 60 people, including two Indian diplomats, dead but intercepts were not detailed enough to issue any specific warning, the American officials told the New York Times.

The government officials, it said, were guarded in describing the new evidence and would not say specifically what kind of assistance ISI officers provided to the militants. They said the ISI officers had not been renegades, indicating that their actions might have been authorised by superiors.

Indian and Afghan officials had accused the ISI of orchestrating the attack within days but this is first time that the American intelligence agencies have indicated they have evidence of the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in the attack.

American officials, the Times said, believe that the embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose alliance with al-Qaeda and its affiliates has allowed the terrorist network to rebuild in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The disclosure of the evidence about attack on the Indian embassy comes within three days of President George Bush confronting Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with evidence during their meeting in Washington of connivance of ISI with the militants which is leading to increasing casualties among American and NATO forces.

"It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held," one State Department official with knowledge of Afghanistan issues said of the intercepted communications. "It was sort of this 'aha' moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof."

In this context, the Times noted that Pakistani troops had exchanged fire with Indian security forces along the LoC in Northern Kashmir which, it said, threatens to "fray an uneasy ceasefire".

It said Pakistan has been concerned about India's growing influence inside Afghanistan, including New Delhi's close ties to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Unnamed Indian officials were quoted as saying by the paper that they are equally worried about what is happening on the Pak-Afghan border because they say the militants active in Jammu and Kashmir and those targeting Afghanistan are related.

The Times says Pakistani agency is also actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in region.

US officials were also quoted as saying that there is new information showing that members of Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the US campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid the US missile strikes in tribal areas.

A top CIA official had travelled to Pakistan this month to confront senior Pakistani officials with information about support provided by members of the ISI to militant groups, the paper said.

US officials were quoted by the Times as saying that the communications were intercepted before the July 7 bombing, and that Stephen R Kappes, CIA deputy director, had been ordered to Islamabad even before the attack. The intercepts were not detailed enough to warn of any specific attack.

The information linking ISI to the bombing of the Indian embassy was described to the Times in interviews by several US officials with knowledge of the intelligence.
- Sri Lanka Guardian