Credit : Press TV
Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:49:51 GMT
 |
Retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul says the United States was trying to put him on a UN list of people and organizations linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban long before the Mumbai tragedy.
The US and Indian media reported on Saturday that Washington has asked Pakistan to extradite long retired General Gul to India over Mumbai attacks which left almost 200 people dead and many others injured.
Gul, who served as director-general of the ISI between 1987 and 1989, is a vocal critic of the US military presence in Afghanistan; he says he supports the Afghan resistance to Western forces at a moral and academic level, but no more than that.
He also believes that the 9/11 attacks in the US were more likely an inside job than the work of al Qaeda.
According to Pakistani daily The News, Gul is among the five former ISI officers the US wants the Security Council to put on the UN terror list to freeze their assets.
The US accuses Gul of providing financial and material support to the Taliban operating in Kabul.
"I don't know why America is so much after me," Gul said.
''I am sure the Indians would not have demanded for my interrogation. After all I am retired for almost 20 years now and hold no influence in my country. I know this is coming from (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice,'' he added.
He also advised India to be cautious about Washington and not to fall into their trap.
''We know them better. We have dealt with them for a much longer time. You have started befriending them only now. The US is dying to get Indian forces in Afghanistan. That is why it is courting India,'' Gul said.
India and the US have recently increased their economic and political cooperation after New Delhi signed a controversial nuclear deal with the US.
Also See below: Times of India report on it:
ISLAMABAD: Former ISI chief Hamid Gul on Sunday dismissed the reports that Pakistan has agreed to arrest and hand him over to India in connection with the probe into the Mumbai
terror attacks as "nonsense". "It is nonsense, it is disinformation because (Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice and America want my name to be included," he told a private Indian channel over phone from Rawalpindi.
He was reacting to a Washington Post report that said Pakistan has agreed to a 48-hour timetable set by India and US to take action against Lashkar-e-Toiba and arrest at least three Pakistanis believed to be linked to the Mumbai attacks.
Citing a top unnamed Pakistani official, the Post said among the people India asked Islamabad to arrest and hand over is the former ISI Director Gul.
"They (the US) don't like this loud voice in which I condemn them, their aggression, their oppression, their invasion over Afghanistan and lies in Iraq. I expose them, their 9/11 was a fraud, it was an inside job," he told NDTV.
"I want to say to the Indian public and the Indian leadership please don't fall into their trap, look at what they have done to us, they are deceitful and they will use you for their own purpose," he said.
On his links with the Pakistani spy agency, Gul said: "I left the ISI 20 years ago ... I have no contact with ISI."
The former ISI head claimed that the US now wanted Indian troops to be "committed" to Afghanistan "because they have run short of their own troops and NATO is pulling out."
Asked whether he will cooperate with India in probe into the deadly attacks, Gul said he is ready to help if his government tells him to do so. However, he said New Delhi should show "more sagacity" in dealing with Islamabad.
Also See: Former ISI Cheif Says both Mumbai and 911 are inside jobs
Zionist Jews attacked WTC - Gul
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