Alleged ISI role: US muzzles evidence in businessman’s trial

Quashes records that discuss Pakistan’s links with militants.


May 15, 2011

WASHINGTON:


US authorities are keeping secret much of the evidence of alleged “Inter-Services Intelligence malfeasance” that may emerge from the Chicago trial of Pakistan-born businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana and his associate David Headley which begins on May 16, The New York Times reported late Saturday. Any new evidence of the ISI role will reverberate in Washington too, with the relationship between the United States and Pakistan at its most tenuous state in years, the newspaper said.


As the United States presses Pakistan for answers about whether ISI directorate played a role in harbouring Osama bin Laden, David Headley is set to recount another related story in a federal courthouse in Chicago. What he discloses could further deepen suspicions that ISI operatives are connected to terrorists and potentially worsening relations between Washington and Islamabad. Headley himself is not on trial. But he will be the main witness against Rana, who is accused of providing financial and logistical support for the 2008 siege on Mumbai. The attack, a barrage of gunfire and grenades, killed at least 163 people, including six Americans. Rana’s defence is that he agreed to support Headley’s activities in India because he was led to believe he was working for the ISI, and therefore the Pakistan government.

An American official, cited by The New York Times, said that the US government’s view of Headley was murky. No agreement exists in Washington on whether the ISI guided Headley and the attacks on Mumbai.

“It’s not very clear,” the official said. “A lot of this is going to come out of the trial. His claim could just be his claim.”

Still, the very fact that the government is presenting him as a prosecution witness suggests that at least some believe he has a truthful story to tell. And the authorities said they expected the government to present supporting e-mails and tapes of telephone conversations to support his story. Pakistan denies his claims.

Bruce O Riedel, a terrorism expert at the Brookings Institution, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and a critic of the ISI, predicted that the upcoming trial would be “the next nail in the coffin of US-Pakistan relations as the ISI’s role in the murder of six Americans is revealed in graphic detail.”

Citing national security concerns, they have successfully moved to quash the defense lawyers’ subpoenas for State Department cables and records held by the FBI that discuss Pakistan’s links with militants.

And though the government has charged four other men on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of American citizens, including Major Iqbal, the indictment refers to them either as commanders or associates of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, not as having links to ISI.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2011.

COMMENTS (7)

IndiAnn | 12 years ago | Reply Instead of blaming India, start thinking about Musharraf, Zia-ul-Haq and Bhutto's policies. You are breeding these creatures and now when they turn and sting you it makes holier-than-thou people like you so shocked.
Maulana Diesel | 12 years ago | Reply Very weird defence by Rana saying that he financed the terror attack because he thought the ISI was involved. Even if it was an an ISI operation the fact that Rana financed it means a crime has been committed and he will spend the rest of his life in jail. So obviously there is something in the trial that has yet to come out. Furthermore, as a witness David Headley's evidence will be worth nothing because he is a drug addict who worked for the DEA, ISI, CIA and now LET. Seems his loyalty can be easily bought and obviously has been in this case. I would be absolutely astounded if any link with the ISI can be proven. Obviously, the US government can always "manufacture" some piece of evidence as it did in the WMD programme in Iraq in which case this is no different than a kangaroo court.
VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ