The claim by Hamid Gul, a retired general, is unlikely to gain much traction in Washington, where the publication of 75,000 classified reports by WikiLeaks, a website, has renewed debate over its Afghan strategy.
But Mr Gul’s allegations that a hidden US government hand played a role in the huge breach of classified files may resonate in Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment runs high and conspiracy theories feed mainstream discourse.
“I am a very favourite whipping boy of America. They can’t imagine the Afghans can win wars on their own,” Mr Gul told the Financial Times. “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,” he joked. “What are they going to do to the history books for their own posterity?”
Mr Gul’s name appears in about 10 of roughly 180 classified US files that allege Pakistan’s intelligence service supported Afghan militants fighting Nato forces.
The reports, which have not been independently confirmed, allege the ISI supplied 1,000 motorcycles to the Haqqani network of Afghan fighters to stage suicide attacks. Mr Gul is alleged to have ordered roadside bomb attacks on Nato forces in 2006 and conspired with Afghan militants to plot the kidnap of United Nations officials.
Pakistani analysts have cast doubt on the reports, saying they reflect misinformation fed to the US by Afghanistan’s intelligence service, which has a long history of hostility towards Pakistan.
Mr Gul branded the reports as “pure fiction”, saying his main occupation in retirement was spending time with his grandchildren and pursuing his horticultural hobby of refining mango and peach species.
He is credited with playing a key role in a campaign backed by the US Central Intelligence Agency to fight Soviet invaders in Afghanistan in the 1980s by supporting Mujahedeen guerrillas, and headed the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency from 1987 to 1989.
Mr Gul has not held an official position since 1992, although he is regarded as well-connected within Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.
Mr Gul said 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. “A lot of bloodshed, a lot of turbulence, a lot of turmoil is in store if the American policy continues in this way,” he said. “You can’t snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.”
The accusations against Mr Gul chime with long-standing suspicions among US officials that an opaque network of retired ISI officers have supported Afghan militants to serve Pakistan’s broader competition with India while giving Islamabad plausible deniability.
Pakistani officials advance a counter-narrative that says their country will bear the brunt if the US fails to stabilise Afghanistan. The announcement that American troops will start to leave next July has fuelled concerns in Pakistan that a rapid US withdrawal will sow further turmoil in its neighbour.
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