U.S. said to suspect rogue Pakistani agents

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration suspects that rogue elements in Pakistan's spy agency are helping extremists stage attacks from the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, a U.S. counterterrorism official said yesterday.

Top CIA and U.S. military officials recently traveled to the country to press their concerns about the apparent ties with Pakistani officials.

A Pakistani army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, denied accusations of any official Pakistan complicity with extremist groups, calling the accusations "unfounded and baseless."

But he confirmed that CIA Deputy Director Steven R. Kappes and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met earlier this month with Pakistani generals, including Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief. The meeting, first reported by the New York Times, occurred July 12.

That high-level meeting came five months after Pakistan elected a civilian government to replace Gen. Pervez Musharref, a U.S. ally who seized power in 1999.

It also came as a top Pakistani official publicly rejected giving the U.S. military authority to enter Pakistani tribal regions to directly attack extremist networks, and shortly after a devastating attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul that Afghan and Indian officials said was aided by Pakistan's intelligence service.

The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaeda, the Taliban and others thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has asked that U.S. troops be allowed to strike at extremist networks inside Pakistan.

U.S. officials have long suspected that members of Pakistan's intelligence service support or turn a blind eye to tribal warlords who have built extensive criminal networks in the semiautonomous western border area.

The warlords traffic in drugs, weapons and consumer goods, launch attacks on Pakistani and Afghan targets, and support groups such as al-Qaeda.

The U.S. counterterrorism official said some Pakistani intelligence officers' support for the Jalaluddin Haqqani network - associated with both the Taliban and al-Qaeda - is of particular and long-standing concern.

He emphasized, however, that it had not been determined that Pakistan officially supports those groups or provides succor to al-Qaeda.

"The Pakistani government and the [intelligence service] are not monolithic," the official said, suggesting that rogue elements within the agency are helping extremists.

He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information relating to a critical ally.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), a member of the House intelligence committee who travels frequently to Pakistan, said the Kappes-Mullen meeting was unlikely to have an effect on the Pakistani government.

"We just have never pushed the envelope with these people as much as we needed to and could have," he said.

The counterterrorism official said there was a concern that if Pakistan put too much pressure on the extremists or alleged rogue officers, the result could be destabilizing to the government itself.

Asked if the U.S. government is confident that Pakistan's government is in control of what its intelligence agency does, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "As far as I have been told, there is not an issue there."

Getting the Pakistani government to crack down on intelligence officers with links to tribal extremists is difficult for several reasons.

The tribal areas have never been fully under the control of Pakistan.

Moreover, elements within the Pakistani government see utility in having strong tribal militias as a security buffer against Afghanistan, with whom the country has long-standing tensions, the counterterrorism official said.