US may use leaks to press Pak

War expose: Disclosures of Taliban-ISI links prove costly

 “This is now in the open,” a senior Obama administration official said referring to the 92,000 documents of the US Defence department’s war in Afghanistan made public by online whistleblower WikiLeaks.

“It’s reality now. In some ways it makes it easier for us to tell Pakistan they have to help us,” The New York Times reported quoting the official.

“The documents seem to lay out rich new details of connection between the Taliban and other militant groups and Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI,” the paper said.

It quoted several administration officials privately expressing the view that they might be able to use leaks and their description of a sometimes duplicitous Pakistani ally to pressurise Islamabad to cooperate more with the US.

More to be done

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that more needs to be done by Pakistan as status quo was not acceptable. Gibbs said that Pakistan should not expect a blank cheque from the US in the fight against terror, and progress is to be made in addressing the issue of safe havens, of extremists operating in the country.

There is a backdrop of mistrust and wariness between US forces and Pakistan’s military intelligence, other US media reports said claiming that the new leaks could lead to a near freeze in cooperation between US agencies and ISI.

NYT quoted leading democrats as saying that while the disclosures were not altogether new, “the details underscored deep suspicions they have harboured towards the ISI”.
“Some of these documents reinforce a longstanding concern of mine about the supporting role of some Pakistani officials in the Afghan insurgency,” Senator Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee told the Times.

Levin, who recently visited Pakistan, said he had confronted senior Pakistani leaders about ISI’s continuing ties with the militant groups.