WikiLeaks: Pakistan tied to al-Qaida

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LONDON, April 25 (UPI) -- The Pakistani intelligence service ranks alongside terrorist groups like Hezbollah and al-Qaida, sensitive files distributed by WikiLeaks reveal.

A leaked copy of a so-called threat indicator matrix used to determine which of the inmates at Guantanamo Bay can be released lists the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate alongside groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the brainchild of al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri.

"Through associations with these ... organizations, a detainee may have provided support to al-Qaida or the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against U.S. or coalition forces (in Afghanistan)," documents obtained by WikiLeaks and published by The Guardian newspaper in London state.

The British newspaper added that it reported in November that U.S. intelligence agencies have been concerned about possible links between the ISI and Taliban groups for years.

The potential intelligence fallout follows a dust-up over Raymond Davis, an alleged CIA officer accused of fatally shooting two Pakistani men in January.

Davis was released and left the country in March after paying diyya -- blood money -- to the relatives of the victims who pardoned him in a Pakistani court. Public prosecutors said Davis paid the families of the dead men a total of $2.3 million.