>Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 22:41:55 -0800 >From:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alex Constantine) >Subject:Bin Laden's US Connections 3 > >News & Analysis: North America: US Militarism > >Charges brought against former Green Beret >More connections between US agents and embassy bombings > >By Martin McLaughlin >7 November 1998 > >Several reports appearing in the American press reveal >new connections between the August 7 bombing of US >embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the activities of US >intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces. These >reports pose the question whether the embassy bombings >were the product of a US government operation gone awry. >They moreover highlight the role played by US and other >intelligence agencies in the activities of terrorist and >alleged terrorist organizations, which raise the >possibility that such tragedies as the embassy >explosions may involve an element of provocation on the >part of these agencies. > >The New York Times reported October 30 that a former >Green Beret sergeant and instructor has been secretly >charged by federal prosecutors in connection with the >bombing of the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam. >The charges are sealed so that the nature of the >indictment is not known, but the former soldier, Ali A. >Mohamed, is in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional >Center in New York City. > >Former Sgt. Mohamed's career gives an extraordinary >glimpse of the relations between the CIA, the Pentagon >and Islamic militants recruited by the US government for >the war against Soviet forces who invaded Afghanistan in >1979 and waged a decade-long war against guerrilla >forces backed by the US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. > >Mohamed, born in Egypt and educated at the Egyptian >military academy, served in the Egyptian army and then >as a security officer for Egyptair, the country's >airline, before emigrating to the United States in 1985. >According to a report that appeared in the Boston Globe >in 1995, Mohamed was brought into the United States >under a special CIA program that provides visas and >citizenship for key informants. > >The former Egyptian officer served as a special warfare >instructor for the Green Berets at Ft. Bragg, North >Carolina from 1986 to 1989, helping train American >special forces who were to operate in Afghanistan and in >other predominately Moslem countries throughout the >Middle East and North Africa. Mohamed appeared on army >videotapes that were used to educate soldiers and >and Australian officers bound for the Persian Gulf war zone in 1990. > > At about the same time, Mohamed had begun training >former Afghan guerrilla fighters now living in the >United States, including some of those who were later >arrested in the World Trade Center bombing or convicted >on charges of planning other bomb attacks in the New >York City area. > >The Times, citing intelligence sources, suggests that >like many of the Islamic fundamentalists who >collaborated with the CIA in Afghanistan, Mohamed turned >against the US government after it dispatched hundreds >of thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia and waged war >against Iraq. > >Such a political transformation, however likely, does >not explain Mohamed's alleged involvement in training >former Afghan guerrillas in bomb-making in 1989, while >he was still on active service in the Green Berets, and > while the Afghan mujehadeen were still allies of the > Pentagon and CIA. It is also significant that well after > his alleged break with the US government, in the early > 1990s, Mohamed worked as an informer for the FBI in > efforts to detect smuggling of undocumented workers from > Mexico. > > According to the Times account, the key link between > Mohamed and those involved in the World Trade Center > bombing was El Sayyid Nosair, the Egyptian immigrant > imprisoned in the assassination of the fascistic Zionist > extremist Meir Kahane. > > Nosair was put on trial for allegedly assisting the > World Trade Center bombers while he was in prison. His > defense, largely unreported at the time of his trial, > was that the group of immigrants from the Middle East > was receiving paramilitary training from Mohamed as part > of a US government program to prepare them for combat in > Afghanistan. > > By the time of the World Trade Center bombing, Mohamed > had left the United States, working first as a security > officer for Saudi construction magnate Osama bin Laden, > then seen in Afghanistan in 1992 at a camp for Islamic > guerrilla fighters built with US government funds and > staffed with recruits from all over the Moslem world, > under bin Laden's supervision. > > Most of this information must have been provided to the > Times, the Washington Post and other newspapers by CIA > and military intelligence sources, seeking to portray > bin Laden as the mastermind of a huge terrorist > apparatus which must be combated by mobilizing US > military forces. But the details raise many questions > about the close collaboration between bin Laden and the > US government. > > A second series of press reports revealed that the CIA > had received explicit warnings about the attacks on the > Kenya and Tanzania embassies only a few months before > the bombs which killed 270 people, the vast majority > innocent civilians. > > Another Egyptian man, Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed, jailed > in Tanzania in the bombing investigation, walked into > the Nairobi embassy in November 1997 and gave a detailed > account of the bombing plans. Ahmed was questioned > intensively, but his story was discounted by the CIA, > according to the New York Times, after "a foreign > intelligence service that cooperates with the agency > believed that Mr. Ahmed was a fabricator of > information." The foreign intelligence service was > almost certainly the Israeli Mossad. > > It is significant that although Ahmed clearly had > advance knowledge of the bombing and could be an > important witness, if not a suspect, the Clinton > administration has made no attempt to extradite the > Egyptian citizen from Tanzania, although similar actions > have been taken against several other suspects in the > embassy bombings. >
