ISI PROTECTING Haqqani NETWORK

Photo by Gerald: cr 2008

Mullah Nasrullah, a Taliban commander, made what has become a routine trek from his guerrilla base in Afghanistan across the jagged peaks intoPakistan last month. His destination: the headquarters of his patron and supplier, the powerful insurgent leader Sirajuddin Haqqani. A genial young man in his late 20s or early 30s with a bushy black beard, Haqqani leads the bloody Taliban insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, where American casualties are highest. Interviewed by NEWSWEEK on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Nasrullah refused to specify the reason for his meeting with Haqqani, though it's likely he was looking for more suicide bombers, explosive vests, weapons and money to use against U.S. and NATO forces.

Once inside Pakistan, Nasrullah says, he traveled between insurgent camps. He rode in a new four-wheel-drive vehicle with a towering radio antenna fixed to the front bumper, followed by four pickup trucks filled with militants. Yet their convoy sailed through Pakistani military checkpoints. Whenever they neared one, the jihadists would hail someone named "Col. Niazi" on the radio, who would arrange their safe passage. Nasrullah believes this was a Pakistani Army officer and possibly an operative in the military's premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. "He seems to feel invulnerable," Nasrullah says of his patron, Haqqani. "The ISI protects him."

Washington seems to agree. Combating Haqqani fighters has become one of the top priorities for American commanders in Afghanistan. But U.S. officials who would speak only on condition of anonymity when discussing sensitive matters say they have evidence that some elements of Pakistan's ISI are protecting or even helping the Haqqani network. That's helping to drive a far more aggressive U.S. strategy in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where the Haqqanis and other Taliban groups have established a network of safe havens and training camps for their own and Al Qaeda fighters. And it's raising tensions between America and Pakistan, supposed allies in the war against terror, to levels not seen since September 11.

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By Carol Grisanti, NBC News Producer, Pakistan
A prominent Taliban commander boasted to NBC News in an interview that Afghan officials are aiding his forces in fighting U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

In the interview, wanted Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said that the corrupted Afghan officials are a key to the Taliban's military success. “There are some people with government portfolios who are supporting us because they are worried about their own security,” Haqqani said. “They inform us of the movements of U.S. and NATO troops. There have even been some instances where they have assisted us in carrying out attacks,” he added.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, 28, controls the Taliban in the Afghan border areas with Pakistan, and in the area surrounding Kabul. Under tight security, he consented to an interview with NBC News’ Mushtaq Yusufzai in a safe house in Khost, the Afghan province that borders Pakistan.

An NBC producer interviews Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani (whose back faces the camera). Haqqani would not reveal his face.
SOURCE: MSNBC
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Sirajuddin Haqqani was accused by the CIA of working with ISI agents.
CIA confronts the Paki gov.

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