More damaging than Pentagon Papers leak?

The WikiLeaks story on Pakistan\'s double game in Afghanistan over the last seven years, the US cover-up, civilian casualties in the war, and the total lack of strategy on part of the US leadership has had a wide impact all over the world. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, likens WikiLeaks to his own.



As is to be expected, the leaks have been denounced by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the arch deceiver, as fabrication. The US national security adviser (NSA), General James Jones, denounced the leaks saying they endangered the lives of the US servicemen and has tried to dismiss bulk of the documentation as pertaining to pre-Obama period, arguing that since then better understanding has developed between the US and Pakistan. He has left himself a loophole by insisting that Pakistan must continue its strategic shift against insurgent groups.



Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, has said, \"However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America\'s policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan...Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent.\"



Even the American NSA concedes that the disclosures cover the situation up to end-2009. If there had been a change in the Pakistani policy since then, the burden of proving it is primarily on Pakistan. In 2010, Pakistan has not moved against any additional terrorist organization as demanded by the US authorities.



Secretary Clinton\'s remark during her recent visit to Pakistan — She said she believed Pakistan officials knew Osama bin Laden\'s whereabouts — and the fact that she was pressing them for intelligence about the matter shows up the current gap in the understanding between the two countries. The Pakistani army chief\'s attempt to promote a power-sharing arrangement between Haqqani group and the Kabul government would show that he has not abandoned the strategy of promoting the interests of US adversaries, which he pursued from 2005, first as the chief of the ISI and subsequently, as army chief.



Though a UN panel was appointed by the Security Council at the request of Pakistani government to investigate the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the panel\'s adverse findings against the ISI have been rejected by the government of Benazir\'s Party — obviously under pressure from the army and the ISI .While General Jones talks of increasing cooperation between the two countries, thereby implying a change in the earlier Pakistani strategy of deception of the US in Afghanistan, the Pakistan government extends the tenure of General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief, who practised that strategy of deception against US successfully for the last six years.



The leakage of these papers has a lot more significance than that of the Pentagon Papers. The latter dealt with gross misperceptions of US strategic community and its deliberate misguidance of the US public opinion and the Congress. The present papers deal with US cover-up of seven years of strategic deception by another country, which was the hub of terrorism, which originated the 9/11 conspiracy and has been continuing a terrorist campaign against the US, the UK and India, and which has been supporting terrorist groups that have caused hundreds of US casualties in Afghanistan. That country is being generously financed with billions of US tax payers\' dollars when unemployment rates and budgetary deficits are a record high in the US.



This has not only occurred in the earlier administration but continues under the present president who has recognized Pakistan as suffering from the cancer of extremist terrorism, that in the past Pakistani record was a mixed one and that he is fighting a just war. While most of the disclosures were known earlier, yet the compilation of seven years of continuous deception and the US cover-up shreds the credibility of US policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan. It reflects poorly on US strategic competence and judgment. It is highly probable that the continuous US cover-up is compelling Karzai to hedge his bets.



India has been adopting a policy of extraordinary restraint against Pakistani provocations, relying on a broader US strategy to curb Pakistan. If the credibility of US strategy comes under question, as it is bound to as a result of these disclosures, India has to move in the matter and invoke the mechanism of strategic consultations agreed upon between the two countries.



The Indian Prime Minister, foreign minister and the NSA should contact their counterparts in the US and come out clearly about the likely loss of credibility of the US in India as a strategic partner unless visible remedial steps are taken to repair the enormous damage.



Senator Kerry has hinted at the urgent need to recalibrate the policies towards Afghanistan and Pakistan. India should, through appropriate channels, get in touch with congressional leaders as well.




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