Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [Ths report contains all the biases it does, but helps serve as a reminder to those in a mad rush to launch bellum omnium contra omnes, that let he who is without sin cast the first stone.] Sydney Morning Herald September 18, 2001 Made by the USA: a $6billion rebel group that haunts its former masters Who built the monster? America itself, with Pakistan's help, writes Christopher Kremmer. If, as the old saying goes, you must set a thief to catch a thief, then America may have found the right partner for its new war on terror. Since the 1970s, Pakistan has patronised Islamic fundamentalist groups with close links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda ("The Base") organisation, experts say. Ironically, it organised them at the behest of the same United States Government which now demands their elimination. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan saw the CIA funnel some $US3billion to mujahideen rebels. The fundamentalist - but friendly - oil sheikhs in Saudi Arabia provided another $US3billion. With his family background in the construction business, and inspired by the Islamic cause, bin Laden helped build a system of tunnels near Khost used by the CIA-funded Muslim rebels to fight the Russians. By 1998, when the US tried to kill him with cruise missiles for his alleged role in bombing US embassies in Africa, they had to target those very same facilities, where he now runs training camps. '); document.write(''); document.write(' advertisement '); } } // --> In the 1980s, deciding where covert US funding for the Afghan rebels went was delegated to the Pakistan military government of General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq. The generals siphoned off millions to buy ranches in the US and other baubles. Today, with no embassy in Kabul, and cutbacks to the budget for expensive human intelligence, US intelligence relies mainly on satellites. Now another Pakistani military ruler is being leaned on heavily - and relied upon - to do Washington's bidding. Pakistan will want to see the sanctions imposed on its nuclear weapons program lifted, and a decisive American role in sorting out its Kashmir problem with India. Calls for restoring democracy in Pakistan will be muffled. The ironies continue when you remember that it was Pakistan which nurtured the Taliban. In the mid-1990s, American officials flirted with the mad mullahs in Kandahar, lured by the promise of a new order which could secure pipeline routes to tap the rich oil and gas reserves of Central Asia. As late as 1997 I met former CIA officials based in Kandahar and engaged by US oil companies to grease the wheels between the US and the Taliban. In the end, they failed. But having sown the wind, America now reaps the whirlwind. A blind, wounded giant is demanding retribution for attacks almost certainly carried out by the very Muslim groups it used to bring down the Soviet Union. The road leads back to Afghanistan. But it also leads to Kashmir, where extremist Islamic militias based in Pakistan have for a decade been engaged in a bloody struggle to wrest the disputed territory from India. "In the Kashmir war, Pakistan provided explicit diplomatic and political support to the insurgents and, according to Pakistani military sources, a substantial amount of money and weapons, as well as training, logistical support, and a sanctuary," wrote Samuel P. Huntingdon in The Clash of Civilisations. Pakistan relies on the jihadi groups to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir. It was one of these groups which hijacked an Indian Airlines plane, which they flew to Kandahar and held for a week, killing one Indian captive by slitting his throat. The hijackers succeeded in forcing the Indian government to release three Muslim militants held in its jails, among them the fundamentalist preacher Maulana Masood Azhar. Not long afterwards, investigators believe, Azhar met bin Laden in Afghanistan and received generous funding to establish a fundamentalist political party, the Jaish-e Mohammed. Perhaps it was then that bin Laden decided that crime paid. __________________________________________________ Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help? Donate cash, emergency relief information http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
