Saudis 'pushed ISI to aid U.S.'

Uzbekistan jails AIDS advocate over work: activists
Almaty (AFP) Feb 25, 2010 - An AIDS activist in Uzbekistan has been sentenced to seven years in prison for writing a brochure that authorities said would promote antisocial behaviour, activists said Thursday. Maxim Popov was convicted last September, his colleagues told AFP, but his case only came to light this week after US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch asked local activists to investigate his situation. "Maxim Popov was convicted for writing a brochure which was funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and UNICEF as an effort by international donor organisations to raise awareness about the disease in the country," said an AIDS activist who worked with Popov. Prosecutors argued that the brochure, which called for the use of condoms during sex and sterile needles when injecting drugs, was promoting immoral behaviour, the activist said. The court ordered the brochure incinerated and barred from circulation, said the activist, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by Uzbek authorities. The brochure explained the use of condoms in detail, a sensitive topic for Uzbekistan, a largely Muslim country which publicly condemns pre-marital and extra-marital sex. Uzbek prosecutors would not confirm the sentencing. Officials in the former Soviet republic rarely give public comments about politically sensitive cases and many trials are held behind closed doors. A spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Tashkent could not immediately be reached for comment. Ruled for two decades by strongman President Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan is a frequent target of criticism from human rights groups who accuse the Uzbek authorities of torturing prisoners and tolerating little dissent. The regime argues that its tough policing techniques are necessary to protect the secular government from Islamist militants. The most populous state in Central Asia, Uzbekistan has at least 16,000 people living with HIV, according to the most recently available report from UNAIDS, the joint UN programme on AIDS. Authorities have long been suspicious that foreign aid organizations have been trying to spread homosexuality and drug use, said another activist who also requested anonymity. "I think they made Popov a scapegoat," he said.

by Staff Writers
Beirut, Lebanon (UPI) Feb 25, 2009
The flow of high-grade intelligence from Pakistan's leading security organization that has led to the recent capture or death of a dozen top Taliban chiefs was the result of high-level pressure from Saudi Arabia, diplomatic sources said.

The close links established over the years between the Saudi royal family and the upper echelons of Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishments has given Riyadh unusual influence in Islamabad.

The Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's powerful intelligence service which helped create the Taliban in the 1990s, was persuaded to cooperate with the United States by the powerful head of Saudi Arabia's principal intelligence service, the General Intelligence Presidency, Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, younger half-brother of King Abdallah.

He conducted shuttle diplomacy between Riyadh and Islamabad, where he convinced Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of staff of the Pakistani army, to order the ISI to play ball.

Saudi petrodollars had a lot to do with that. The sources say that Riyadh has been helping the Pakistani military pay for its recent offensive against the Taliban.

Riyadh partly financed Pakistan's $1.6 billion purchase of three Agosta 90-B diesel attack submarines built by DCNS of France in 1994 and to buy Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets from the United States.

At the same time, Western governments, hit by the global recession, have been urging Riyadh to finance efforts to buy off some of the more "moderate" Taliban leaders in an effort to negotiate a settlement that would isolate the hard-line elements within the fundamentalist movement in much the same way the Americans bought off Sunni insurgents in Iraq to allow U.S. forces to withdraw.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has been advocating a negotiated settlement for some time, enlisted the Saudis two years ago, which resulted in a meeting between Karzai's envoys and Taliban chieftains in Riyadh.

Karzai visited Saudi Arabia in February, supposedly on a personal pilgrimage to Mecca, but in fact to meet King Abdallah and Muqrin to discuss Saudi help in accelerating efforts to bring about a settlement.

Muqrin met several times with Kayani, who was director general of ISI from October 2004 to October 2007 and retained immense influence with that organization when he was promoted to chief of staff in November 2007 to replace Gen. Pervez Musharraf when he relinquished his army commands.

Kayani has long been close to the Saudis. In May 2006, while still ISI's chief, he visited Riyadh with Gen. Mohammad Zaki, then head of ISI's counter-terrorism section, for closed-door talks with Muqrin on intelligence cooperation.

Amid all this activity, U.S. and British intelligence chiefs have been involved with the Saudis, too.

CIA Director Leon Panetta and John Sawers, who took over as head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, in June 2009, have both visited Riyadh in recent weeks.

At the behest of the Pakistani military, the Saudis sent their long-serving foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, to New Delhi in a bid to reduce tension with archrival Islamabad so that the Pakistani military could pull troops from the northwestern border to move against the Taliban.

For now, at least, the ISI appears prepared to work with the Americans against the Taliban but the Islamists are believed to still have many sympathizers within the powerful and highly secretive organization.

It remains to be seen whether these elements will sabotage the new-found cooperation with Western forces.

One indication may have been provided by the ISI's refusal to hand over Abdul Ghani Baradar, military commander of Afghanistan's Taliban and its No. 2 figures after leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, captured while hiding in Karachi Feb.16, to the CIA for interrogation.

However, the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor notes that the fact that Baradar was arrested at all underlines a significant shift in ISI policy.

Nonetheless, there remains considerable distrust of the CIA and other Western intelligence services within some sections of the ISI and it remains to be seen how long the policy of cooperation will continue.

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Outside View: Military principles, politics
Helsinki, Finland (UPI) Feb 25, 2009
In my 29-year U.S. Army career I have met my share of lap-dog generals and Defense Department officials. I recently noticed that one prominent example was just promoted. Well done. The system worked. With some notable exceptions one does not rise to that level in the military without political acumen, risk awareness - if not risk aversion - and a "get-along-by-going-along" attitude. I ... read more

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