Military style wearhouse in sector I-9/3 of Isalamabad
Pakistani authorities have enough evidence that implicates US diplomats and trainers in spying on Kahuta, one of the prime nuclear facilities in the country.
What is stunning for most Pakistanis is that elements in the elected government, and especially the Interior Ministry, appear to be facilitating the Americans despite protests from police and intelligence officials.
The issue brings into question, once again, the role of Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik. A trail of internal ministry documents sharply bring Mr. Malik’s role into focus, especially in a case where his ministry appears to have permitted US defense contractors to conduct suspicious activities on Pakistani soil without informing Pakistani intelligence agencies. Those activities have included allowing at least one US defense contractor to conduct a large scale recruitment of retired Pakistani military officers.
In 2003, the government of former president Pervez Musharraf allowed the Americans to establish a police training facility within the police college at Sihala, a few kilometers away from the Khan Research Laboratories, one of Pakistan’s premier nuclear research centers.
In a report titled, US Spying On Kahuta Since 2003, Pakistan’s The Nation newspaper revealed on Oct. 23: Read Full Report
Several senior police officials are asking, on condition of anonymity, that even if this training by the Americans was necessary, why had this very sensitive area been chosen and why this training has continued, risking the secrecy and sensitivity of nuclear installations of Pakistan. They were of the view that the Americans had no interest in the area except the intention to monitor the activities at the Khan Research Lab in Kahuta.
The Commandant Police Training College Sihala, Mr. Nasir Khan Durrani, wrote a letter on Aug. 15 to senior Pakistani police officers drawing their attention to the suspicious activities of American ‘trainers’ at Sihala. Mr. Durrani is widely respected within the officer corps of Pakistan’s police service. Some of his ideas, like Rescue 15, were implemented nationwide.
Durrani’s letter was not without basis. In his report, titled, Agency wants survey of site to assess equipment, Mr. Ansar Abbasi, editor investigations at The News International, revealed that there was some evidence that radiation measurement equipment has been installed by the Americans at the training facility. He reported that US diplomats have been caught making frequent visits to the facility, attempting at one point to get into the high security perimeter around Kahuta. Amazingly, someone from FIA, the interior minister’s former employer and a lead civilian spy agency, helped release the arrested American diplomats.
On Oct. 22, Rehman Malik said Defends US interests.
The US Embassy in Islamabad, under a new policy of aggressively countering what it alleges to be ‘anti-Americanism’, responded to these accusations but conveniently kept silent on the alarming incident of the arrest of US diplomats in July as they tried to survey the area around Kahuta.
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