The Canadian military ran into a brick wall of apparent Pakistani duplicity last year as they pressed officials on why so many Taliban were crossing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to a newly released WikiLeaks cable.
The fall, 2009, cable reveals a Pakistani brigadier-general's assertion that the Taliban leadership's home in Quetta, Pakistan, was merely a "fabrication."
"The high point of the September 29 Border Flag meeting in Kandahar was Pakastani delegation leader BG Sajjad's assertion that the [Taliban]Quetta Shura [in Pakistan]is an unsubstantiated fabrication," the cable says. "When pressed Sajjad expanded on his position saying that the Americans had fallen victim to rumours and adding that Pakistani security authorities have more than 80 patrols and checkpoints in Quetta every day and every night."
Saying that the Taliban's cross-border movements were "negligible," the official said that the bigger problem was Afghan drugs and terrorists moving into Pakistan.
The 2009 meeting was chaired by Canadian Forces Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance, who was trying to iron out greater border co-operation between the feuding neighbours.
"It was apparent that the session would have degenerated into acrimony without {Brig.-Gen. Vance's]multiple diplomatic interventions," said the cable, written by a U.S. diplomat who attended the meeting.
The cable shows the slow progress in meetings that Canada has touted as a major part of its diplomatic initiatives in the region. The Border Flag meetings are cited by Canadian officials as the principal example of how they are proceeding on one of Canada's self-declared Afghanistan priorities, Afghan-Pakistan diplomacy.
At the time, the Canadians were trying to supply surveillance equipment and satellite phones at the Spin Boldak border crossing, a major drug- and terrorist-transit point near the Kandahar area of operations that the Canadian Forces have been tasked with protecting.
The memo says the Pakistani side was aloof to Canadian overtures to buttress border security.
"The Pakistanis essentially rebutted each Canadian point with a complaint or counter-point," it says, adding that they complained proposed Iridium satellite phones "were useless for cross-border communications," and that "they would not send any personnel for training on the Canadian-supplied truck surveillance equipment."
The Pakistanis did say that, compared to fractured relatonships with Afghanistan, they were getting excellent co-operation with Iran.
"For their presentation, the Pakistanis displayed a map slide with 171 border stations between the southern edge of the FATA and Iran to demonstrate the excellent control they maintain on their side," the cable says.
It adds that Islamabad wanted to talk instead about the integrity of its own air space, viewing NATO planes as a major irritant - even alleging there were nine "aircraft border incursions in the past two months … for which they demanded an accounting.."
A couple of months before the meeting, Brig.-Gen. Vance's own convoy had been bombed in Kandahar by Taliban insurgents, an attack that killed a Canadian Forces soldier.
To date, 153 Canadian Forces soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, mostly in Kandahar, where the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border is regarded as a major problem.
A previously released WikiLeaks cable revealed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was picking up intelligence about looming terrorist attacks in Kandahar that were planned by the Quetta Shura, which is believed to be headed by the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Colin Freeze