CIA helped India, Pakistan share Mumbai probe evidence

[LahoreEstate]

* WP report says Indian, Pakistani agencies separately shared their findings with CIA

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The US Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated back-channel intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks enabling the two to quietly share highly sensitive evidence, The Washington Post revealed on Monday.

Citing US and foreign government officials, the newspaper claimed the exchanges had begun within days of the attacks.

“The intelligence shared went well beyond the public revelations about the 10 Mumbai terrorists, and included sophisticated communications intercepts and an array of physical evidence,” the newspaper report said.

It said Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies had separately shared their findings with the CIA, which relayed the details while also vetting the intelligence and filling in blanks with gatherings from its own networks.

Officials from both the US and Pakistan said the unparalleled cooperation was a factor in Pakistan’s decision to charge nine Pakistanis accused of involvement in the attack.

“India shared evidence bilaterally, but that’s not what cinched it,” said a senior Pakistani official. “It was the details, shared between intelligence agencies, with the CIA serving mainly as a bridge.” The FBI had also participated in the process, he added.

The US effort to foster cooperation had begun under the Bush administration and was given new emphasis by President Obama that feared a renewed India-Pakistan conflict could undermine progress in Afghanistan or lead to a nuclear war.

The new US administration recognises it cannot reach Pakistan without going through India, as said by Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg7_7