WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence suspects rogue elements in Pakistan’s spy agency are giving militants sensitive information that helps them launch more effective attacks from the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, a Bush administration official said Wednesday.
Top CIA and U.S. military officials recently traveled to the country to press their concerns about the apparent ties with Pakistani officials.
An administration official said the decision to send CIA Deputy Director Steve R. Kappes to the meetings in Islamabad with Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came amid mounting evidence initially collected by the U.S. but then corroborated by Indian intelligence that some members of the Pakistani intelligence community were actively aiding the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The official said the information indicated that specific mid level officers in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency likely were leaking sensitive intelligence about operations in the tribal areas to militants that was “not only increasing their offensive capability, but also their defensive capability,” resulting in a rise in the number and lethalness of attacks.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said long-standing CIA frustration with the Pakistanis had been growing for months, especially since opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated last year, and hit a high after the July 7 suicide bombing at the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which New Delhi has blamed on Islamabad.
Kappes visited five days later on July 12, the official noted.
Pakistan Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied accusations of any official Pakistan complicity with terrorist groups, calling them “unfounded and baseless,” but he confirmed that Kappes and Mullen met earlier this month with Pakistani generals, including Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief.
