Intelligence doctored — again

posted Thursday, 9 August 2007

THE report in the US press that an intelligence document about Pakistan was altered to suit the Bush administration’s policy towards Pakistan should surprise no one. As reported in the Washington Post, the intelligence report submitted last month to President George Bush was altered to prove that Islamabad’s deal with the militants had enabled the Al Qaeda to establish a ‘safe haven’ in the tribal area. According to the Post, the deliberate change completely altered the complexion of the intelligence estimate. This had the desired effect and forced President Pervez Musharraf to launch a military operation against the militants. As the paper put it, the report “sparked outrage in Islamabad but helped yield the result that US officials sought”. Islamabad was also double-crossed, for Pakistan had asked US officials not to speak of any safe haven for Al Qaeda in the report. Washington assured Pakistan that the report would be carefully worded, but in its final form it contained the words “safe haven”.

The fake entry in the intelligence document should shock no one, for this is not the first time that an intelligence dossier has been doctored to advance policy aims. The very basis of the war launched on Iraq in 2003 — that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction — was false. But to dupe their own peoples and the world at large, American and British governments mutilated the data on Iraq, including the ‘45-minute warning time’ inserted in the British dossier. While the American intelligence community acted in the perceived interests of their country, it is a pity that our own government should have launched a military operation on the basis of a falsified report from a foreign country. The truth reported by the Post gives some signals to Pakistan, the foremost being that it must not launch or call off military operations against the terrorists at foreigners’ bidding, and that in all actions in the war on terror Pakistan must see and evaluate things from its own perspective. No disrespect is meant for satellite imagery and electronic gadgetry, but human intelligence counts for more than technical intelligence. It is important for Pakistan to rely on its own human intelligence.

tags: politics us american militants

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Intelligence doctored — again

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