4 Threat Matrix: NATO report implies Pakistan's ISI supports al Qaeda as well

Written by Bill Roggio on February 1, 2012 4:50 PM to 4 Threat Matrix

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/02/nato_report_implies_pakistans.php

Here is another interesting excerpt from the shocking! BBC article about the classified NATO report on Pakistan's support of the Afghan Taliban:

It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

"Senior Taliban representatives, such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad," it said.

It quotes a senior al Qaeda detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching."

"The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad."

First, an unnamed son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the family patriarch, has been reported in the past in the Pakistani press to be living in Rawalpindi, near General Headquarters.

Second, the statement from the "senior al Qaeda detainee" is interesting, as it implies that the ISI (the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, Pakistan's notorious military intelligence service) is quite aware of al Qaeda's activities in Afghanistan. Again, this should come as no shock. See this report by Thomas Joscelyn on the ISI's links with Haji Wali Mohammed, detailing the ISI's support of al Qaeda's "primary financial manager," and this report on Sabar Lal Melma, for some specific examples of the ISI's support for al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Third, while the identity of the "senior al Qaeda detainee" is not given, we may be able to guess who he is. As far as I can tell, only one senior al Qaeda leader has been captured recently in Kunar province: Abu Ikhlas al Masri. The rest of the senior al Qaeda leaders targeted in Kunar have been killed, according to ISAF's own press releases (most in airstrikes, not during raids designed to capture). It is also certainly possible that ISAF has captured another senior al Qaeda leader in Kunar and hasn't reported it.