Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former CIA top spy in Pakistan has conceded that General (r) Pervez Musharraf never double-crossed the Americans in the aftermath of 9/11.

“I can say with good authority that General Musharraf never double-crossed us,” Robert Grenier, former Islamabad station chief of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) told Daily Times in an interview. Several American journalists, analysts and politicians had repeatedly accused Musharraf of playing both sides, just to stay relevant in the eyes of the world superpower. After the US Marines’ raid to kill Osama bin Laden, another former CIA official Bruce Riedel had claimed that Gen Musharraf knew where the al Qaeda chief was hiding. Though, Riedel was quoting former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general, Ziauddin Butt.

Grenier is visiting Pakistan after 11 years to promote local publication of his book “88 Days to Kandahar: A CIA Diary.” After his assignment in Islamabad, he spearheaded CIA operations, in Iraq, to topple Saddam Hussein. He also worked at CIA’s Counter Terrorism Centre. He was reportedly fired by then CIA chief Porter Goss, after he opposed the torturing of captured al Qaeda operatives. He also testified against Lewis Scooter Libby, adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney, who was accused and later sentenced for leaking the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame.

Grenier recounted how at several occasions Gen Musharraf went the extra mile to help the Americans. He claimed it was Gen Musharraf who had made explicit instructions to powerful ISI to extend full cooperation to the CIA whether it was about convincing Mullah Omar expel bin Laden from Afghanistan or capturing important al Qaeda leaders. He was given the task of running CIA Islamabad station several months before 9/11. “Despite my request, I could not meet then DG ISI Gen Mehmood. He was too busy digging up corruption cases against (deposed prime minister) Nawaz Sharif,” he revealed.

On page 58 of his book, Grenier termed the ISI “an infamous organisation.” Asked to elaborate his position on the ISI, he took a diametrically opposite view and denied his own words. “What I wrote was merely a set perception about the ISI in the world. That was not my estimation. Throughout in my book I praised the role and services of the ISI,” he said. Grenier said the most important catches from Pakistan were Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, popularly known as KSM and Abu Zubeyda, two key al Qaeda leaders. He refused to comment on who had pocketed big bounties the Americans were offering on al Qaeda operatives.

The former CIA station chief sent an important memo to Washington in September 2001, which he described as the most important three-hour work of his entire 27-year career. In that memo he recommended covert operations in Afghanistan enabling Northern Alliance and Pushtun tribal leaders topple Taliban regime.