Pakistan

WikiLeaks: ISI chief met Israelis to stop India attack

ISI contacted Israeli officials to head off attacks on Israeli targets in India, according to WikiLeaks cable.

Reuters December 01, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency said he had contacted Israeli officials to head off potential attacks on Israeli targets in India, according to an October 2009 US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.

Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan's spy agency, told former US Ambassador Anne Patterson that he wanted Washington to know he had been to Oman and Iran "to follow up on reports which he received in Washington about a terrorist attack on India".

"Pasha asked Ambassador to convey to Washington that he had followed up on threat information that an attack would be launched against India between September-November. He had been in direct touch with the Israelis on possible threats against Israeli targets in India," the Oct 7, 2009 cable reported.

An ISI spokesman had no immediate comment.

Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel. Such contacts would infuriate militants waging a campaign to topple the government.

Visit https://i1.tribune.com.pk/wikileaks/ for more stories/updates.

COMMENTS (32)

Noor | 13 years ago | Reply Dont forget " ISI is a State with in State". .....

007 | 13 years ago | Reply can the wikileaks be fully trusted

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Martial arts Canada | 13 years ago | Reply Why folks are believing every word of wikileaks?

Fauzia Haider | 13 years ago | Reply It is the new ISI chief and he has a different agenda then the ex ISI rogue chief, Gen Hamid Gul. Glad that they are realizing that their support for these terrorist groups is hurting the country itself. These people have turned their guns on Pakistan and thousands of Pakistanis have died at their hands. It is time we annihilate them once and for all.

User | 13 years ago | Reply I think wikileaks is right

Subbu Jois | 13 years ago | Reply @ Naeem, I like your sense of humor! Pray, where does wikileaks "say" so?

Naeem Siddiqui, Australia | 13 years ago | Reply Mr SJ, Wikileaks says that its the Israel who is scared of Pakistan :)

Deen Sheikh | 13 years ago | Reply Its no secret that Pakistan has maintained secret communication with Israel, despite no formal recognition of the state's existence or any formal diplomatic exchange. I read once, that our very own ISI helped Mossad agents in spying on Iran, along the Pak-Iran border, but at the same time I have even heard and read about deep rooted Mossad infiltration inside Pakistan which included plans for high profile assassinations, some of which were not executed at the last minute. This book I read, written by a former Mossad Agent (Gideon's Spies) has an entire chapter dedicated to a Mossad plan to take out our Nucluer physicist behind the Nuclear weapons that Pakistan today has. The Question is why does Jerusalem feel so threatened by Islamabad, we are even Geographically a fair bit of a distance from each other.

Adv.Alby Raymond Parackal | 13 years ago | Reply reality in higher ups may be reluctant to be within the reach of common man; and it may never be palatable to his senses ?!

SJ | 13 years ago | Reply This proves that Pakis are scared of Israelis. India needs to learn a lot from Israel.

zeeshan | 13 years ago | Reply gays r u gone made wht r u talking abt

zeeshan | 13 years ago | Reply pakistan should not belive on that

zeeshan | 13 years ago | Reply it is total bs that isi do so would any one belive that isi do so

Subbu Jois | 13 years ago | Reply If ISI was so "holy", what stopped them from warning : 1. to India directly and go all the way through Israel? 2. on 26/11? Get real! ISI is two-faced animal which is taking advantage of the Pak public's ignorance. It is only saying what you want hear, and doing just the opposite. In another article, ISI chief reported to some parliamentarians that Russia and India are running camps for Balochis in Afghanistan. Is he day-dreaming? Russians ? in Afghan? You think Americans will keep quite? How come there is no mention of the same by American sources collaborating the same? Quit the denial mode and get real, my friends!

Mohammad Ali | 13 years ago | Reply The comments by "Agnostic Muslim" make a lot of sense. I myself believe that if this leak (as is with the most things quoted on WikiLeaks) is credible, that means ISI was actually trying to prevent Mumbai Attacks. As unfortunate and violent the Mumbai Attacks were, we here in pakistan have been subjected to similar incidents things on a daily basis, and even worse, the threat of something like that repeating itself still looms. If ISI was in touch with Indian or Isareli agencies to prevent anything like that from happening, in Pakistan or elsewhere, I wouldn't mind that.

R.Raheem | 13 years ago | Reply Pakistan should recognize Israel! We have no disputes with them besides they can help us internationally.

J. Oberoi | 13 years ago | Reply I am happy that Wikileaks is instrumental in unraveling many of ISI's hidden dimensions and their dynamic with 'non-state' elements to the extent that the two are indistinguishable. It is obvious that the ISI is privy to everything that the 'non-state' elements are up to - if this revelation is any indication. What remains to be seen is how long the charade can play out. Thanks to America being bogged down in Afghanistan, this act will continue for some time to come. After that, it is anybody's guess.

Kamran | 13 years ago | Reply If the ISI chief did that, he did so in Pakistani interest and if anyone has a problem with it because they are more of a Muslim than someone else, remind them of the role Israel played in that biggest of 'holy' wins of recent times "the Afghan war". The point being that a states instruments such as it's intelligence apparatus's biggest and foremost responsibility is to safeguard the interests of the state. If that means occasional friendly gesture towards a perceived enemy, so be it.

MilesToGo | 13 years ago | Reply How did pasha know of india attacks before hand? I thought it was all non-state actors doin it. So why didn't pasha just foiled the attack...

Usama Zafar | 13 years ago | Reply Oh come on guys Nadir's comments are always a pleasure to read!!!

Agnostic Muslim | 13 years ago | Reply What this also illustrates is that the ISI was, as an institution, collaborating with various countries to prevent terrorist attacks, and in this particular case in fact was acting to prevent a terrorist attack in India, and shared that information with multiple intelligence agencies including the CIA, and asked them to pass it on to the Indians. This debunks the Indian propaganda that the ISI was complicit in the Mumbai attacks, when it was clearly acting to provide information to other intel agencies to prevent an attack.

SSA | 13 years ago | Reply Wow ! The ubiquitous Nadir El Udroos talking about Pakistan's interest on Tribune. Hacked account?

Nadeem Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Iran also purchased weapons from Israel and USA during war against Iraq, although Iran did not recongnize Israel and had no diplomatic ties with USA. World is not pure black and white, there are many grey areas too, especially when you are fighting terrorists. There is no harm in destroying one devil with the help of another devil.

Umair Waheed Sheikh, Khayban e Hafiz,IBA Karachi | 13 years ago | Reply Accept Israel now before it is too late. They will help us in modernising our economy and we can help them in reaching out to the muslim world.

Aftab Kenneth Wilson | 13 years ago | Reply Our business community also have good relations and some of our ruling elite also shook hands with Israel's high up on foreign trips so what is wrong if our spy master also talked whether directly or indirectly. There was a time when Iran purchased spare parts for their fighter aircraft from Israel but now both are enemy No.1. One must not forget that connections on highest level are never disconnected. So no surprise and nothing to worry about connections.

Saad Duraiz | 13 years ago | Reply @danish This means we think alike! extends hand of friendship

Saad Duraiz | 13 years ago | Reply @Nadir For once, Nadir finally says something, we BOTH agree on! :D

Danish | 13 years ago | Reply @ Syed Nadir El-Edroos For the first time i'm reading some thing logical written by you.....keep it up bro!!!

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply Pakistan doesn't recognize Israel. Then how can it contact Israelis? Is this a de-facto recognition of Israel by Pakistan?

Syed Nadir El-Edroos | 13 years ago | Reply This isnt really surprising. There has been alot of hints of intelligence sharing between Pakistan and Israel whether direct or indirectly. All those of course have been written up as conspiracy theories. Though if it helps Pakistani interests, what's the harm?

Raheel | 13 years ago | Reply There have been contact between these two countries for a while but it has never been public somehow I just feel this will be a problem for that Christian Pakistani who has received a death sentence for alleged blasphemy…anyhow clerics and their followers and less politically savvy people of Pakistan which constitute a major chunk of its population have tendency to be super suspicious at the very mention of ISREAL. It will just add another wound to credibility of the government ….. Wikileaks is the decedent of Anarchy…

IZ | 13 years ago | Reply Fair enough. These barbarian militants have killed far too many innocents already. Now if we can only cut off their funding and bring them to justice once and for all.

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