Ex- ISI chief Gul claims US making him a scapegoat for Afghan-war defeat

NEW YORK - Former chief of the Pakistan spy agency ISI, Hamid Gul, has been accused in several of the leaked documents, posted by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, of regularly meeting al Qaeda and Taliban commanders to order suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

Responding to the allegations, Gul said that the United States had orchestrated the mass leak of war files to make him a scapegoat for its imminent withdrawal from Afghanistan, The News reported.

“I am a very favourite whipping boy of America. They can’t imagine the Afghans can win wars on their own,” the Financial Times quoted him, as saying.

He said that the US had a hidden role in the publication of thousands of classified reports through the WikiLeaks website, as the US had lost the war in Afghanistan, and that the leak of the documents would help the Obama administration deflect blame by suggesting that Pakistan was responsible.

Gul told the paper that his main occupation in retirement was spending time with his grandchildren, and pursuing his horticultural hobby of refining mango and peach species.

“It would be an abiding shame that a 74-year-old general living a retired life manipulating the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan results in the defeat of America,” said Hamid.

According to the paper, Gul’s name appears in about 10 of roughly 180 classified US files, which blame that the ISI supported Afghan militants fighting NATO forces. (ANI)