Ex-Pakistan spy chief: Afghanistan war 'lost cause'

[sabra]

Source: CNN

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is a "lost cause," said a former Pakistani intelligence chief, and the United States needs to negotiate peace with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. "You have to talk to him, and I'm sure it will work out very well," Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview to air Sunday.

U.S. intelligence documents published last week by WikiLeaks cited Gul and implicated Pakistani intelligence as supporting al Qaeda. Gul has denied the allegations. "I'm quite a convenient scapegoat," he said. "I don't support any one faction in Afghanistan. I support the Afghan nation."

The career military officer, who supported the U.S.-backed Taliban resistance against Soviet occupation during the 1980s, called the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan "unjust" and said he sees legitimacy in the Afghan insurgency against Western forces. "This is a national resistance movement. It should be recognized as such," he said. "They are Mujahedeen of Afghanistan as they were during the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union."

The attacks of September 11 were a pretext to a war already under consideration, Gul said. "I think some of the neocons, who were very close to President (George W.) Bush, they wanted that he could embark on a universal adventure of Pax Americana, and they thought that the world was lying prostrate in front of them," he said. The 2001 terrorist attacks helped win the public support for the neocon plans, he said.

There was no legitimate reason for the United States to attack Afghanistan, Gul said, because the FBI had no solid evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the attacks on New York and Washington. "Why has not a single individual connected to 9/11 been caught in America so far, and why hasn't Osama bin Laden been charged?" With no evidence anyone in Afghanistan was involved, there is no way to legitimize the U.S. occupation, Gul said.

Read more: http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/06/ex-pakistan-spy-chief-afghanistan-war-lost-cause/

[Dogtown]

1. K&R n/t

[EFerrari]

2. K&R

[Turborama]

3. This is the same guy who said the WikiLeaks release was "pure fiction," a conspiracy

And everyone laughed him off when this was posted last week...

Former Pakistan ISI Chief Gul Denies US Accusations

By Hasnain Kazim in Islamabad, Pakistan

What part did Pakistan's former intelligence chief Hamid Gul play in Afghanistan? Did he support the Taliban, as leaked US documents on the war suggest? The former general vehemently denies the accusations. The whole thing is "pure fiction," he says -- a conspiracy aimed at discrediting him.

The name Hamid Gul appears more often than virtually any other in the almost 92,000 classified American documents leaked this week. The former Pakistani general and head of the country's ISI intelligence service from 1987 until 1989 is regarded as someone who has a lot of sympathy for the Taliban's fight against the United States and its allies. In previous interviews with SPIEGEL and SPIEGEL ONLINE, he has said that Sharia, or Islamic law, should be introduced as a generally applicable legal system in Pakistan as well, not just in Afghanistan.

Gul has repeatedly stated that Pakistan must end its pro-Western stance in the war on terror. Pakistan only supports the West because it needs American money, he has said, adding that at some point, Allah willing, Pakistan won't be dependent on outside help, and will be able to return to its Islamic roots.

The 73-year-old lives in a bungalow in an exclusive district of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. He regularly receives journalists to air his pro-Taliban views, much to the irritation of the Pakistani government. Critics dismiss the former general as a braggard, as a crazy old man who can't stand the fact that his time has run out.

But the 91,731 Afghanistan documents published on the WikiLeaks Internet platform and analyzed by SPIEGEL, the Guardian and the New York Times suggest that Gul is more than just a garrulous old man. If the accusations are true, Gul isn't just an ally of the Taliban in spirit, but is also supplying them with weapons and thereby actively taking part in the fight against Western forces. Gul is effectively being accused of being an important helper of the Taliban, and possibly even one of their leaders.

Full article: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708592,00.html

(edited to fix Spiegel's typo)

[Downwinder]

4. Don't discount crazy old men. Remember there is Cheney.

[Turborama]

5. I'm looking forward to seeing how Fareed deals with him on Sunday

Back in 2008 he told Fareed that he thought Israel was behind 9/11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSLgC4cTKcs

He also said that Mumbai was a "false flag": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YUfxHhKf4A

[cosmicone]

6. More tough talk from a tinpot country that

lives off baggage handling handouts from the Americans and the Chinese.


Stop all aid to Pakistan, win the Afghan war ... simple.