Pakistan Plotted Afghan Attack, Spain Says

Report: Spy Service Was Arming Taliban In Attempt To Assassinate Afghan Officials

(AP)  A report marked confidential and bearing the official seal of Spain's Defense Ministry charges that Pakistan's spy service was helping arm Taliban insurgents in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government.

The report, which was obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station's Web site on Wednesday, also says Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI, helped the Taliban procure improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, to use in attacks against vehicles.

It alleges that Pakistan may have provided training and intelligence to the Taliban in camps set up on Pakistani soil.

"The plan is that the TBs (Taliban) use these RCIEDs (remote control IEDs) to assassinate high-ranking officials," the report warns. The August 2005 document, which is marked "confidential" and topped with the Defense Ministry seal and the title of Spain's military intelligence agency, does not describe the source of the information.

Cadena Ser did not say how it obtained the report.

The Defense Ministry and the Spanish prime minister's office said it had no comment on the document. Fernando Reinares, a terrorism analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid and former chief counterterrorism adviser at Spain's Interior Ministry, said the document appeared to be an internal government report meant for the eyes of high-ranking officials.

Spain has about 800 soldiers deployed in northwest Afghanistan.

The report also warns that "it appears possible" that advanced training camps exist in Pakistan "where the Taliban receive training, help and intelligence from the ISI and where they are also developing new kinds of IEDs." The report says the Taliban had also been receiving help from al Qaeda.

Reinares said the report on the alleged ISI-Taliban link is in keeping with information from other Western spy agencies.

"The intelligence services have done nothing more then confirm a reality which has also been reported by other Western agencies," he told The Associated Press. Reinares said Spain has developed a strong military and police intelligence operation in Pakistan, particularly since the terror attacks of March 11, 2004.

There have long been suspicions that members of Pakistan's shadowy spy agency have aided the Taliban, a charge that Pakistan has vehemently denied.

A senior military official in Pakistan told the AP on Wednesday that the Spanish report had no merit. He asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Pakistani officials did not immediately respond to requests for on-the-record comment on the allegations.

The ISI has helped kill or capture several top al Qaeda leaders since 2001, but there are lingering doubts about its loyalty, not least because its agents helped build up the Taliban in the 1990s.

U.S. intelligence agencies suspect rogue elements may still be giving Taliban militants sensitive information to aid in their growing insurgency in Afghanistan, even though officially Pakistan is a U.S. ally in fighting terrorism.

Some analysts say elements in the spy agency may want to retain the Taliban as potential assets against longtime rival India and believe Pakistan's strategic interests are best served if Afghanistan remains a weak state.

India and Afghanistan - and reportedly the U.S. - suspect the ISI of involvement in the July 7 bombing outside India's Embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 60 people. Pakistan denies the allegations.

Pakistan's army chief this week named a general considered a hawk in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban to head the ISI.

The Taliban has regularly used roadside bombs to attack U.S. troops and Afghan security forces since the beginning of the insurgency following the fall off the movement in 2001.

The explosives used have become increasingly powerful in the past year. Such IED attacks can now rip through an armored military vehicle and kill all personnel inside.

[impeach__w]

All the money and weapons Charlie Wilson, the CIA, and Reagan gave to fight the soviets were routed through Pakistan and the ISI. Reagan signed a presidential order to provide stinger missles and President Bush Declared anyone with said stingers was a war criminal. He First dealt with the Taliban over an oil pipeline then Whether they would turn over Osama. They were only declared enemy combatants after they refused. The "enemy or ally" staus and attitude towards the US of anyone in that region can change overnight. Can you say F.U.B.A.R.?