New Delhi: The Bush administration "closed its eyes" for two years over Pakistan's sponsoring of Taleban and al-Qaeda, despite documents showing that Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) knew about the role of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in it, a former top Indian intelligence officer has said.

B Raman, former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, analysed three recently de-classified DIA documents of 2001 relating to Taleban and al-Qaida and said, "From these documents, it is clear that the DIA knew of the role of the ISI in the sponsorship of not only Taleban, but also al- Qaida."

"And yet the Bush administration has for over two years chosen to close its eyes to the complicity of Pakistan and to project General Pervez Musharraf to its own public as well as to the international community as a frontline ally in the war against terrorism. Why? A question to which there has been no convincing answer," he said in an article in Hong Kong-based weekly 'Asia Times'.

PTI