We’re pleased we delayed the announcement of a winner of this month’s Captain Louis Renault Award the other day, because this story from The Guardian is truly worthy of the honor. Someone in Pakistan is manufacturing US cables in the WikiLeaks document dump. The faux cables are said to claim that the US is concerned about India’s sponsorship of Hindu terrorists, the Taliban in South Waziristan, and rebels in Baluchistan:
They read like the most extraordinary revelations. Citing the WikiLeaks cables, major Pakistani newspapers this morning carried stories that purported to detail eye-popping American assessments of India’s military and civilian leaders.
According to the reports, US diplomats described senior Indian generals as vain, egotistical and genocidal; they said India’s government is secretly allied with Hindu fundamentalists; and they claimed Indian spies are covertly supporting Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt and Balochistan.
“Enough evidence of Indian involvement in Waziristan, Balochistan,” read the front-page story in the News; an almost identical story appeared in the Urdu-language Jang, Pakistan’s bestselling daily.
If accurate, the disclosures would confirm the worst fears of Pakistani nationalist hawks and threaten relations between Washington and New Delhi. But they are not accurate.
An extensive search of the WikiLeaks database by the Guardian by date, name and keyword failed to locate any of the incendiary allegations. It suggests this is the first case of WikiLeaks being exploited for propaganda purposes.
You can read The News’ report here, which also claims the US doesn’t believe Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) was involved in Mumbai and says the US called for UN intervention in the Indian “genocide” in Kashmir.
It truly is shocking that the ISI would do such a thing.
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7 Comments
At the risk of being Machiavellian, I wonder if such fakes might actually work in favor of the Allies. To justify moving against the Salafist Pashtu fundamentalists, perhaps a belief in their “evil” connection to India is required?
Otherwise, this is just more of the fantastic fantasy that characterizes the Pak press. We can and should buy the lot of them and start a massive white-press operation in Pakistan.
Will we always have Islamabad?
Extraordinary. If I helmed the CIA one of the first operations I would launch would be to initiate a massive eavesdropping/penetration operation against the ISI to rival anything we did against the Soviets. I might even partner up with the Indians in such an effort. The goal would be to listen in to every cell phone and or land line communication of every ISI employee that exists 24/7. First I’d determine which Pakistani cell phone provider supplies the ISI. Then I’d hack that company’s computer system to get every cell phone number belonging to the ISI account. Then I’d have NSA hone in on those phone numbers. We’d know the exact location and situation of every islamic terrorist in Pakistan in a relatively short period of time as well as all of the ISI’s strategic secrets as well.
Bill, why is it so ‘shocking?’ Wouldn’t an expression like ‘entirely predictable’ have been more apt? Also, it is not merely a ‘fantastic fantasy that characterises the Pak press’ as Jack has, most charitably, put it. In these matters, recognising that a spade is a spade is the best policy! I would use one word that sums up the entire psyche of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment and that is ‘diabolical.’ And as long we don’t base all our thinking and actions on that fundamental premise, we will continue to be ‘shocked’ — again, and again, and again…
India wouldn’t tolerate having its rep tarnished. US would lose them too.
On the other hand, this is hilarious and sad. Pakistan is a sad country indeed.
@Sam Brown
The word “shocking” is being used ironically here. See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIX_0nMlIBU
I find it shocking that I havent heard anyone question the validity of ANY of the wikileaks posts. How do we know any of it is real? An “authentic” leaked document? This is the perfect misinformation campaign or at least could be. ANY of it could be phoney. The ISI guys are smart. WE are not spo very bright to believe wikileaks at all. I’m very surprized the whole event hasnt been discounted as counterfeit, propoganda, or a combination thereof. Ridiculous!