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9/11 ANALYSIS: From Ronald Reagan and the Soviet-Afghan War to George W Bush and September 11, 2001by Michel Chossudovsky on September 10, 2010 Spread it! Share16 | More By Michel Chossudovsky* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.bizThis
article summarizes earlier writings by the author on 9/11 and the role
of Al Qaeda in US foreign policy. For further details see Michel
Chossudovsky, America's "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005"The
United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren
with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic
teachingsâŠ.The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and
featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served
since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the
Taliban used the American-produced books,..", (Washington Post, 23 March 2002)"Advertisements,
paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters
around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the
[Islamic] Jihad." (Pervez Hoodbhoy, Peace Research, 1 May 2005)"Bin
Laden recruited 4,000 volunteers from his own country and developed
close relations with the most radical mujahideen leaders. He also worked
closely with the CIA, ⊠Since September 11, [2001] CIA officials have
been claiming they had no direct link to bin Laden." (Phil Gasper, International Socialist Review, November-December 2001)
Osama bin Laden, America's bogyman, was recruited by the CIA in 1979 at
the very outset of the US sponsored jihad. He was 22 years old and was
trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training camp. The
architects of the covert operation in support of "Islamic
fundamentalism" launched during the Reagan presidency played a key role
in launching the "Global War on Terrorism" in the wake of 9/11. President Ronald Reagan met the leaders of the Islamic Jihad at the White House in 1983
Under the Reagan adminstration, US foreign policy evolved towards the
unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic "freedom fighters".
In today's World, the "freedom fighters" are labelled "Islamic
terrorists". In the Pashtun language, the word "Taliban" means
"Students", or graduates of the madrasahs (places of learning or coranic
schools) set up by the Wahhabi missions from Saudi Arabia, with the
support of the CIA. Education in the years preceding the Soviet-Afghan
war war largely secular in Afghanistan. The number of CIA sponsored
religious schools (madrasahs) increased from 2,500 in 1980 to over
39,000.The Soviet-Afghan war was part of a CIA covert
agenda initiated during the Carter administration, which consisted in
actively supporting and financing the Islamic brigades, later known as
Al Qaeda.The Pakistani military regime played from the outset in
the late 1970s, a key role in the US sponsored military and intelligence
operations in Afghanistan. in the post-Cold war era, this central role
of Pakistan in US intelligence operations was extended to the broader
Central Asia- Middle East region. From the outset of the Soviet Afghan
war in 1979, Pakistan under military rule actively supported the Islamic
brigades. In close liaison with the CIA, Pakistan's military
intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), became a powerful
organization, a parallel government, wielding tremendous power and
influence.America's covert war in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a
launch pad, was initiated during the Carter administration prior to the
Soviet "invasion":"According to the official version
of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to
say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the
reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it
was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for
secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that
very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him
that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military
intervention." (Former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, 15-21 January 1998) Defense Secretary Robert GatesIn
the published memoirs of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who held the
position of deputy CIA Director at the height of the Soviet Afghan war,
US intelligence was directly involved from the outset, prior to the
Soviet invasion, in channeling aid to the Islamic brigades.With CIA
backing and the funneling of massive amounts of U.S. military aid, the
Pakistani ISI had developed into a "parallel structure wielding enormous
power over all aspects of government". (Dipankar Banerjee, "Possible
Connection of ISI With Drug Industry", India Abroad, 2 December 1994).
The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers,
bureaucrats, undercover agents and informers, estimated at 150,000.
(Ibid)Meanwhile, CIA operations had also reinforced the Pakistani military regime led by General Zia Ul Haq:"Relations
between the CIA and the ISI had grown increasingly warm following
[General] Zia's ouster of Bhutto and the advent of the military regime. âŠ
During most of the Afghan war, Pakistan was more aggressively
anti-Soviet than even the United States. Soon after the Soviet military
invaded Afghanistan in 1980, Zia [ul Haq] sent his ISI chief to
destabilize the Soviet Central Asian states. The CIA only agreed to this
plan in October 1984." (Ibid)The ISI operating
virtually as an affiliate of the CIA, played a central role in
channeling support to Islamic paramilitary groups in Afghanistan and
subsequently in the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.Acting
on behalf of the CIA, the ISI was also involved in the recruitment and
training of the Mujahideen. In the ten year period from 1982 to 1992,
some 35,000 Muslims from 43 Islamic countries were recruited to fight in
the Afghan jihad. The madrassas in Pakistan, financed by Saudi
charities, were also set up with US support with a view to "inculcating
Islamic values". "The camps became virtual universities for future
Islamic radicalism," (Ahmed Rashid, The Taliban). Guerilla training under CIA-ISI auspices included targeted assassinations and car bomb attacks."Weapons'
shipments "were sent by the Pakistani army and the ISI to rebel camps
in the North West Frontier Province near the Afghanistan border. The
governor of the province is Lieutenant General Fazle Haq, who [according
to Alfred McCoy] . allowed "hundreds of heroin refineries to set up in
his province." Beginning around 1982, Pakistani army trucks carrying CIA
weapons from Karachi often pick up heroin in Haq's province and return
loaded with heroin. They are protected from police search by ISI
papers."(1982-1989: US Turns Blind Eye to BCCI and Pakistani Government Involvement in Heroin Trade See also McCoy, 2003, p. 477) . Front
row, from left: Major Gen. Hamid Gul, director general of Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Director of Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) Willian Webster; Deputy Director for
Operations Clair George; an ISI colonel; and senior CIA official, Milt
Bearden at a mujahedeen training camp in North-West Frontier Province of
Pakistan in 1987. (source RAWA)Osama Bin LadenOsama
bin Laden, America's bogyman, was recruited by the CIA in 1979 at the
very outset of the US sponsored jihad. He was 22 years old and was
trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training camp.During the
Reagan administration, Osama, who belonged to the wealthy Saudi Bin
Laden family was put in charge of raising money for the Islamic
brigades. Numerous charities and foundations were created. The operation
was coordinated by Saudi intelligence, headed by Prince Turki
al-Faisal, in close liaison with the CIA. The money derived from the
various charities were used to finance the recruitment of Mujahieen
volunteers. Al Qaeda, the base in Arabic was a data bank of volunteers
who had enlisted to fight in the Afghan jihad. That data base was
initially held by Osama bin Laden.The Reagan Administration supports "Islamic Fundamentalism"Pakistan's
ISI was used as a "go-between". CIA covert support to the Mujahideen in
Afghanistan operated indirectly through the Pakistani ISI, âi.e. the
CIA did not channel its support directly to the Mujahideen. In other
words, for these covert operations to be "successful", Washington was
careful not to reveal the ultimate objective of the "jihad", which
consisted in destroying the Soviet Union.In December 1984, the
Sharia Law (Islamic jurisprudence) was established in Pakistan following
a rigged referendum launched by President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Barely a
few months later, in March 1985, President Ronald Reagan issued
National Security Decision Directive 166 (NSDD 166), which authorized
"stepped-up covert military aid to the Mujahideen" as well a support to
religious indoctrination.The imposition of The Sharia in Pakistan
and the promotion of "radical Islam" was a deliberate US policy serving
American geopolitical interests in South Asia, Central Asia and the
Middle East. Many present-day "Islamic fundamentalist organizations" in
the Middle East and Central Asia, were directly or indirectly the
product of US covert support and financing, often channeled through
foundations from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Missions from the
Wahhabi sect of conservative Islam in Saudi Arabia were put in charge of
running the CIA sponsored madrassas in Northern Pakistan.Under NSDD 166, a series of covert CIA-ISI operations was launched.The
US supplied weapons to the Islamic brigades through the ISI. CIA and
ISI officials would meet at ISI headquarters in Rawalpindi to coordinate
US support to the Mujahideen. Under NSDD 166, the procurement of US
weapons to the Islamic insurgents increased from 10,000 tons of arms and
ammunition in 1983 to 65,000 tons annually by 1987. "In addition to
arms, training, extensive military equipment including military
satellite maps and state-of-the-art communications equipment"
(University Wire, 7 May 2002). Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White House in 1985 (Reagan Archives)
Video link:
With William Casey as director of the CIA, NSDD 166 was described as the largest covert operation in US history:The
U.S. supplied support package had three essential
components-organization and logistics, military technology, and
ideological support for sustaining and encouraging the Afghan
resistanceâŠ.U.S. counterinsurgency experts worked closely with
the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in organizing
Mujahideen groups and in planning operations inside Afghanistan.âŠ
But the most important contribution of the U.S. was to ⊠bring in men
and material from around the Arab world and beyond. The most hardened
and ideologically dedicated men were sought on the logic that they would
be the best fighters. Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were
placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering
inducements and motivations to join the Jihad. (Pervez Hoodbhoy,
Afghanistan and the Genesis of the Global Jihad, Peace Research, 1 May
2005)Religious IndoctrinationUnder
NSDD 166, US assistance to the Islamic brigades channeled through
Pakistan was not limited to bona fide military aid. Washington also
supported and financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), the process of religious indoctrination, largely to secure the
demise of secular institutions:⊠the United States
spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks
filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of
covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.The
primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of
guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan
school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the
American-produced books,..The White House defends the religious
content, saying that Islamic principles permeate Afghan culture and that
the books "are fully in compliance with U.S. law and policy." Legal
experts, however, question whether the books violate a constitutional
ban on using tax dollars to promote religion.⊠AID officials said
in interviews that they left the Islamic materials intact because they
feared Afghan educators would reject books lacking a strong dose of
Muslim thought. The agency removed its logo and any mention of the U.S.
government from the religious texts, AID spokeswoman Kathryn Stratos
said."It's not AID's policy to support religious instruction,"
Stratos said. "But we went ahead with this project because the primary
purpose . . . is to educate children, which is predominantly a secular
activity."⊠Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari
and Pashtun, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an
AID grant to the University of Nebraska -Omaha and its Center for
Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $ 51 million on the university's
education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994." (Washington Post,
23 March 2002)The Role of the NeoConsThere
is continuity. The architects of the covert operation in support of
"Islamic fundamentalism" launched during the Reagan presidency played a
key role in role in launching the "Global War on Terrorism" in the wake
of 9/11.Several of the NeoCons of the Bush Junior Administration were high ranking officials during the Reagan presidency.Richard
Armitage, was Deputy Secretary of State during George W. Bush's first
term (2001-2004). He played a central key role in post 9/11 negotiations
with Pakistan leading up to the October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
During the Reagan era, he held the position of Assistant Secretary of
Defense for International Security Policy. In this capacity, he played a
key role in the implementation of NSDD 163 while also ensuring liaison
with the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus.Meanwhile,
Paul Wolfowitz was at the State Department in charge of a foreign
policy team composed, among others, of Lewis Libby, Francis Fukuyama and
Zalmay Khalilzad. Wolfowitz's group was also involved in laying the
conceptual groundwork of US covert support to Islamic parties and
organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Bush's Secretary of
Defence Robert Gates also was also involved in setting the groundwork
for CIA covert operations. He was appointed Deputy Director for
Intelligence by Ronald Reagan in 1982, and Deputy Director of the CIA in
1986, a position which he held until 1989. Gates played a key role in
the formulation of NSDD 163, which established a consistent framework
for promoting Islamic fundamentalism and channeling covert support to
the Islamic brigades. He was also involved in the Iran Contra scandal. .The Iran Contra OperationRichard Gates, Colin Powell and Richard Armitage, among others, were also involved in the Iran-Contra operation.Armitage
was in close liaison with Colonel Oliver North. His deputy and chief
anti-terrorist official Noel Koch was part of the team set up by Oliver
North.Of significance, the Iran-Contra operation was also tied
into the process of channeling covert support to the Islamic brigades in
Afghanistan. The Iran Contra scheme served several related foreign
policy:1) Procurement of weapons to Iran thereby feeding the Iraq-Iran war,2) Support to the Nicaraguan Contras,3) Support to the Islamic brigades in Afghanistan, channeled via Pakistan's ISI.Following
the delivery of the TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran, the proceeds of
these sales were deposited in numbered bank accounts and the money was
used to finance the Nicaraguan Contras. and the Mujahideen:"The
Washington Post reported that profits from the Iran arms sales were
deposited in one CIA-managed account into which the U.S. and Saudi
Arabia had placed $250 million apiece. That money was disbursed not only
to the contras in Central America but to the rebels fighting Soviet
troops in Afghanistan." (US News & World Report, 15 December 1986).Although
Lieutenant General Colin Powell, was not directly involved in the arms'
transfer negotiations, which had been entrusted to Oliver North, he was
among "at least five men within the Pentagon who knew arms were being
transferred to the CIA." (The Record, 29 December 1986). In this regard,
Powell was directly instrumental in giving the "green light" to
lower-level officials in blatant violation of Congressional procedures.
According to the New York Times, Colin Powell took the decision (at the
level of military procurement), to allow the delivery of weapons to
Iran:"Hurriedly, one of the men closest to Secretary
of Defense Weinberger, Maj. Gen. Colin Powell, bypassed the written
"focal point system" procedures and ordered the Defense Logistics Agency
[responsible for procurement] to turn over the first of 2,008 TOW
missiles to the CIA., which acted as cutout for delivery to Iran" (New
York Times, 16 February 1987)Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was also implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair.The Golden Crescent Drug TradeThe
history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the
CIA's covert operations. Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war, opium
production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to small regional
markets. There was no local production of heroin. (Alfred McCoy, Drug
Fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The
Progressive, 1 August 1997).Alfred McCoy's study confirms that
within two years of the onslaught of the CIA operation in Afghanistan,
"the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's top heroin
producer." (Ibid) Various Islamic paramilitary groups and organizations
were created. The proceeds of the Afghan drug trade, which was protected
by the CIA, were used to finance the various insurgencies:"Under
CIA and Pakistani protection, Pakistan military and Afghan resistance
opened heroin labs on the Afghan and Pakistani border. According to The
Washington Post of May 1990, among the leading heroin manufacturers were
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan leader who received about half of the
covert arms that the U.S. shipped to Pakistan. Although there were
complaints about Hekmatyar's brutality and drug trafficking within the
ranks of the Afghan resistance of the day, the CIA maintained an
uncritical alliance and supported him without reservation or restraint.Once
the heroin left these labs in Pakistan's northwest frontier, the
Sicilian Mafia imported the drugs into the U.S., where they soon
captured sixty percent of the U.S. heroin market. That is to say, sixty
percent of the U.S. heroin supply came indirectly from a CIA operation.
During the decade of this operation, the 1980s, the substantial DEA
contingent in Islamabad made no arrests and participated in no seizures,
allowing the syndicates a de facto free hand to export heroin. By
contrast, a lone Norwegian detective, following a heroin deal from Oslo
to Karachi, mounted an investigation that put a powerful Pakistani
banker known as President Zia's surrogate son behind bars. The DEA in
Islamabad got nobody, did nothing, stayed away.Former CIA
operatives have admitted that this operation led to an expansion of the
Pakistan-Afghanistan heroin trade. In 1995 the former CIA Director of
this Afghan operation, Mr. Charles Cogan, admitted sacrificing the drug
war to fight the Cold War. "Our main mission was to do as much damage to
the Soviets. We didn't really have the resources or the time to devote
to an investigation of the drug trade," he told Australian television.
"I don't think that we need to apologize for this. Every situation has
its fallout. There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes, but the main
objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan." (Alfred
McCoy, Testimony before the Special Seminar focusing on allegations
linking CIA secret operations and drug trafficking-convened February 13,
1997, by Rep. John Conyers, Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus)Lucrative Narcotics Trade in the Post Cold War EraThe
drug trade has continued unabated during the post Cold war years.
Afghanistan became the major supplier of heroin to Western markets, in
fact almost the sole supplier: more than 90 percent of the heroin sold
Worldwide originates in Afghanistan. This lucrative contraband is tied
into Pakistani politics and the militarization of the Pakistani State.
It also has a direct bearing on the structure of the Pakistani economy
and its banking and financial institutions, which from the outset of the
Golden Crescent drug trade have been involved in extensive money
laundering operations, which are protected by the Pakistani military and
intelligence apparatus:According to the US State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (2006) (quoted in Daily Times, 2 March 2006),"Pakistani
criminal networks play a central role in the transshipment of narcotics
and smuggled goods from Afghanistan to international markets. Pakistan
is a major drug-transit country. The proceeds of narcotics trafficking
and funding for terrorist activities are often laundered by means of the
alternative system called hawala. ⊠."Repeatedly, a network of
private unregulated charities has also emerged as a significant source
of illicit funds for international terrorist networks," the report
pointed out. ⊠"The hawala system and the charities
are but the tip of the iceberg. According to the State Department
report, "the State Bank of Pakistan has frozen more twenty years] a
meager $10.5 million "belonging to 12 entities and individuals linked to
Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda or the Taliban". What the report fails to
mention is that the bulk of the proceeds of the Afghan drug trade are
laundered in bona fide Western banking institutions.The Taliban Repress the Drug TradeA major and unexpected turnaround in the CIA sponsored drug trade occurred in 2000.The
Taliban government which came to power in 1996 with Washington's
support, implemented in 2000-2001 a far-reaching opium eradication
program with the support of the United Nations which served to undermine
a multibillion dollar trade. (For further details see, Michel
Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism, Global Research, 2005).In 2001 prior to the US-led invasion, opium production under the Taliban eradication program declined by more than 90 percent.In
the immediate wake of the US led invasion, the Bush administration
ordered that the opium harvest not be destroyed on the fabricated
pretext that this would undermine the military government of Pervez
Musharraf."Several sources inside Capitol Hill noted
that the CIA opposes the destruction of the Afghan opium supply because
to do so might destabilize the Pakistani government of Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. According to these sources, Pakistani intelligence had
threatened to overthrow President Musharraf if the crops were destroyed.
âŠ'If they [the CIA] are in fact opposing the destruction of the
Afghan opium trade, it'll only serve to perpetuate the belief that the
CIA is an agency devoid of morals; off on their own program rather than
that of our constitutionally elected government'" .(NewsMax.com, 28 March 2002)Since
the US led invasion, opium production has increased 33 fold from 185
tons in 2001 under the Taliban to 6100 tons in 2006. Cultivated areas
have increased 21 fold since the 2001 US-led invasion. (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 6 January 2006)In
2007, Afghanistan supplied approximately 93% of the global supply of
heroin. The proceeds (in terms of retail value) of the Afghanistan drug
trade are estimated (2006) to be in excess of 190 billion dollars a
year, representing a significant fraction of the global trade in
narcotics.(Ibid)The proceeds of this lucrative multibillion
dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of
the revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates
outside Afghanistan.The laundering of drug money constitutes a
multibillion dollar activity, which continues to be protected by the CIA
and the ISI. In the wake of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.In retrospect, one of the major objectives of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was to restore the drug trade.The
militarization of Pakistan serves powerful political, financial and
criminal interests underlying the drug trade. US foreign policy tends to
support these powerful interests. The CIA continues to protect the
Golden Crescent narcotics trade. Despite his commitment to eradicating
the drug trade, opium production under the regime of Afghan President
Hamid Karzai has skyrocketed.The Assassination of General Zia Ul-HaqIn
August 1988, President Zia was killed in an air crash together with US
Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and several of Pakistan's top
generals. The circumstances of the air crash remain shrouded in mystery.Following
Zia's death, parliamentary elections were held and Benazir Bhutto was
sworn in as Prime Minister in December 1988. She was subsequently
removed from office by Zia's successor, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on
the grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993, she was re-elected and was
again removed from office in 1996 on the orders of President Farooq
Leghari.Continuity has been maintained throughout. Under the
short-lived post-Zia elected governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir
Bhutto, the central role of the military-intelligence establishment and
its links to Washington were never challenged.Both Benazir Bhutto
and Nawaz Sharif served US foreign policy interests. While in power,
both democratically elected leaders, nonetheless supported the
continuity of military rule. As prime minister from 1993 to 1996,
Benazir Bhutto "advocated a conciliatory policy toward Islamists,
especially the Taliban in Afghanistan" which were being supported by
Pakistan's ISI (See F. William Engdahl, Global Research, January 2008)Benazir
Bhutto's successor as Prime Minister, Mia Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of the
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) was deposed in 1999 in a US supported coup
d'Etat led by General Pervez Musharraf.The 1999 coup was
instigated by General Pervez Musharaf, with the support of the Chief of
General Staff, Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmad, who was subsequently
appointed to the key position of head of military intelligence (ISI). Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Mahmoud AhmadFrom
the outset of the Bush administration in 2001, General Ahmad developed
close ties not only with his US counterpart CIA director George Tenet,
but also with key members of the US government including Secretary of
State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, not to
mention Porter Goss, who at the time was Chairman of the House Committee
on Intelligence. Ironically, Mahmoud Ahmad is also known, according to a
September 2001 FBI report, for his suspected role in supporting and
financing the alleged 9/11 terrorists as well as his links to Al Qaeda
and the Taliban. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America's "war on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005)Concluding Remarks These
various "terrorist" organizations were created as a result of CIA
support. They are not the product of religion. The project to establish
"a pan-Islamic Caliphate" is part of a carefully devised intelligence
operation.CIA support to Al Qaeda was not in any way curtailed at
the end of the Cold War. In fact quite the opposite. The earlier
pattern of covert support not only extended, it took on a global thrust
and became increasingly sophisticated.The "Global War on
Terrorism" is a complex and intricate intelligence construct. The covert
support provided to "Islamic extremist groups" is part of an imperial
agenda. It purports to weaken and eventually destroy secular and
civilian governmental institutions, while also contributing to vilifying
Islam. It is an instrument of colonization which seeks to undermine
sovereign nation-states and transform countries into territories.For
the intelligence operation to be successful, however, the various
Islamic organizations created and trained by the CIA must remain unaware
of the role they are performing on geopolitical chessboard, on behalf
of Washington.Over the years, these organizations have indeed
acquired a certain degree of autonomy and independence, in relation to
their US-Pakistani sponsors. That appearance of "independence", however,
is crucial; it is an integral part of the covert intelligence
operation. According to former CIA agent Milton Beardman the Mujahideen
were invariably unaware of the role they were performing on behalf of
Washington. In the words of bin Laden (quoted by Beardman): "neither I,
nor my brothers saw evidence of American help". (Weekend Sunday (NPR);
Eric Weiner, Ted Clark; 16 August 1998)."Motivated by
nationalism and religious fervor, the Islamic warriors were unaware
that they were fighting the Soviet Army on behalf of Uncle Sam. While
there were contacts at the upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy,
Islamic rebel leaders in theatre had no contacts with Washington or the
CIA." (Michel Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism, Chapter 2).The
fabrication of "terrorism" âincluding covert support to terroristsâ is
required to provide legitimacy to the "war on terrorism".The
various fundamentalist and paramilitary groups involved in US sponsored
"terrorist" activities are "intelligence assets". In the wake of 9/11,
their designated function as "intelligence assets" is to perform their
role as credible "enemies of America".Under the Bush
administration, the CIA continued to support (via Pakistan's ISI)
several Pakistani based Islamic groups. The ISI is known to support
Jamaat a-Islami, which is also present in South East Asia,
Lashkar-e-TayyaÂba, Jehad a-Kashmiri, Hizbul-Mujahidin and
Jaish-e-Mohammed.The Islamic groups created by the CIA are also
intended to rally public support in Muslim countries. The underlying
objective is to create divisions within national societies throughout
the Middle East and Central Asia, while also triggering sectarian strife
within Islam, ultimately with a view to curbing the development of a
broad based secular mass resistance, which would challenge US imperial
ambitions.This function of an outside enemy is also an essential
part of war propaganda required to galvanize Western public opinion.
Without an enemy, a war cannot be fought. US foreign policy needs to
fabricate an enemy, to justify its various military interventions in the
Middle East and Central Asia. An enemy is required to justify a
military agenda, which consists in " going after Al Qaeda". The
fabrication and vilification of the enemy are required to justify
military action.The existence of an outside enemy sustains the
illusion that the "war on terrorism" is real. It justifies and presents
military intervention as a humanitarian operation based on the right to
self-defense. It upholds the illusion of a "conflict of civilizations".
The underlying purpose ultimately is to conceal the real economic and
strategic objectives behind the broader Middle East Central Asian war.Historically,
Pakistan has played a central role in "war on terrorism". Pakistan
constitutes from Washington's standpoint a geopolitical hub. It borders
onto Afghanistan and Iran. It has played a crucial role in the conduct
of US and allied military operations in Afghanistan as well as in the
context of the Pentagon's war plans in relation to Iran.
article summarizes earlier writings by the author on 9/11 and the role
of Al Qaeda in US foreign policy. For further details see Michel
Chossudovsky, America's "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005"The
United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren
with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic
teachingsâŠ.The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and
featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served
since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the
Taliban used the American-produced books,..", (Washington Post, 23 March 2002)"Advertisements,
paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters
around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the
[Islamic] Jihad." (Pervez Hoodbhoy, Peace Research, 1 May 2005)"Bin
Laden recruited 4,000 volunteers from his own country and developed
close relations with the most radical mujahideen leaders. He also worked
closely with the CIA, ⊠Since September 11, [2001] CIA officials have
been claiming they had no direct link to bin Laden." (Phil Gasper, International Socialist Review, November-December 2001)
Osama bin Laden, America's bogyman, was recruited by the CIA in 1979 at
the very outset of the US sponsored jihad. He was 22 years old and was
trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training camp. The
architects of the covert operation in support of "Islamic
fundamentalism" launched during the Reagan presidency played a key role
in launching the "Global War on Terrorism" in the wake of 9/11. President Ronald Reagan met the leaders of the Islamic Jihad at the White House in 1983
Under the Reagan adminstration, US foreign policy evolved towards the
unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic "freedom fighters".
In today's World, the "freedom fighters" are labelled "Islamic
terrorists". In the Pashtun language, the word "Taliban" means
"Students", or graduates of the madrasahs (places of learning or coranic
schools) set up by the Wahhabi missions from Saudi Arabia, with the
support of the CIA. Education in the years preceding the Soviet-Afghan
war war largely secular in Afghanistan. The number of CIA sponsored
religious schools (madrasahs) increased from 2,500 in 1980 to over
39,000.The Soviet-Afghan war was part of a CIA covert
agenda initiated during the Carter administration, which consisted in
actively supporting and financing the Islamic brigades, later known as
Al Qaeda.The Pakistani military regime played from the outset in
the late 1970s, a key role in the US sponsored military and intelligence
operations in Afghanistan. in the post-Cold war era, this central role
of Pakistan in US intelligence operations was extended to the broader
Central Asia- Middle East region. From the outset of the Soviet Afghan
war in 1979, Pakistan under military rule actively supported the Islamic
brigades. In close liaison with the CIA, Pakistan's military
intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), became a powerful
organization, a parallel government, wielding tremendous power and
influence.America's covert war in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a
launch pad, was initiated during the Carter administration prior to the
Soviet "invasion":"According to the official version
of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to
say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the
reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it
was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for
secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that
very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him
that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military
intervention." (Former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, 15-21 January 1998) Defense Secretary Robert GatesIn
the published memoirs of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who held the
position of deputy CIA Director at the height of the Soviet Afghan war,
US intelligence was directly involved from the outset, prior to the
Soviet invasion, in channeling aid to the Islamic brigades.With CIA
backing and the funneling of massive amounts of U.S. military aid, the
Pakistani ISI had developed into a "parallel structure wielding enormous
power over all aspects of government". (Dipankar Banerjee, "Possible
Connection of ISI With Drug Industry", India Abroad, 2 December 1994).
The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers,
bureaucrats, undercover agents and informers, estimated at 150,000.
(Ibid)Meanwhile, CIA operations had also reinforced the Pakistani military regime led by General Zia Ul Haq:"Relations
between the CIA and the ISI had grown increasingly warm following
[General] Zia's ouster of Bhutto and the advent of the military regime. âŠ
During most of the Afghan war, Pakistan was more aggressively
anti-Soviet than even the United States. Soon after the Soviet military
invaded Afghanistan in 1980, Zia [ul Haq] sent his ISI chief to
destabilize the Soviet Central Asian states. The CIA only agreed to this
plan in October 1984." (Ibid)The ISI operating
virtually as an affiliate of the CIA, played a central role in
channeling support to Islamic paramilitary groups in Afghanistan and
subsequently in the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.Acting
on behalf of the CIA, the ISI was also involved in the recruitment and
training of the Mujahideen. In the ten year period from 1982 to 1992,
some 35,000 Muslims from 43 Islamic countries were recruited to fight in
the Afghan jihad. The madrassas in Pakistan, financed by Saudi
charities, were also set up with US support with a view to "inculcating
Islamic values". "The camps became virtual universities for future
Islamic radicalism," (Ahmed Rashid, The Taliban). Guerilla training under CIA-ISI auspices included targeted assassinations and car bomb attacks."Weapons'
shipments "were sent by the Pakistani army and the ISI to rebel camps
in the North West Frontier Province near the Afghanistan border. The
governor of the province is Lieutenant General Fazle Haq, who [according
to Alfred McCoy] . allowed "hundreds of heroin refineries to set up in
his province." Beginning around 1982, Pakistani army trucks carrying CIA
weapons from Karachi often pick up heroin in Haq's province and return
loaded with heroin. They are protected from police search by ISI
papers."(1982-1989: US Turns Blind Eye to BCCI and Pakistani Government Involvement in Heroin Trade See also McCoy, 2003, p. 477) . Front
row, from left: Major Gen. Hamid Gul, director general of Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Director of Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) Willian Webster; Deputy Director for
Operations Clair George; an ISI colonel; and senior CIA official, Milt
Bearden at a mujahedeen training camp in North-West Frontier Province of
Pakistan in 1987. (source RAWA)Osama Bin LadenOsama
bin Laden, America's bogyman, was recruited by the CIA in 1979 at the
very outset of the US sponsored jihad. He was 22 years old and was
trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training camp.During the
Reagan administration, Osama, who belonged to the wealthy Saudi Bin
Laden family was put in charge of raising money for the Islamic
brigades. Numerous charities and foundations were created. The operation
was coordinated by Saudi intelligence, headed by Prince Turki
al-Faisal, in close liaison with the CIA. The money derived from the
various charities were used to finance the recruitment of Mujahieen
volunteers. Al Qaeda, the base in Arabic was a data bank of volunteers
who had enlisted to fight in the Afghan jihad. That data base was
initially held by Osama bin Laden.The Reagan Administration supports "Islamic Fundamentalism"Pakistan's
ISI was used as a "go-between". CIA covert support to the Mujahideen in
Afghanistan operated indirectly through the Pakistani ISI, âi.e. the
CIA did not channel its support directly to the Mujahideen. In other
words, for these covert operations to be "successful", Washington was
careful not to reveal the ultimate objective of the "jihad", which
consisted in destroying the Soviet Union.In December 1984, the
Sharia Law (Islamic jurisprudence) was established in Pakistan following
a rigged referendum launched by President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Barely a
few months later, in March 1985, President Ronald Reagan issued
National Security Decision Directive 166 (NSDD 166), which authorized
"stepped-up covert military aid to the Mujahideen" as well a support to
religious indoctrination.The imposition of The Sharia in Pakistan
and the promotion of "radical Islam" was a deliberate US policy serving
American geopolitical interests in South Asia, Central Asia and the
Middle East. Many present-day "Islamic fundamentalist organizations" in
the Middle East and Central Asia, were directly or indirectly the
product of US covert support and financing, often channeled through
foundations from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Missions from the
Wahhabi sect of conservative Islam in Saudi Arabia were put in charge of
running the CIA sponsored madrassas in Northern Pakistan.Under NSDD 166, a series of covert CIA-ISI operations was launched.The
US supplied weapons to the Islamic brigades through the ISI. CIA and
ISI officials would meet at ISI headquarters in Rawalpindi to coordinate
US support to the Mujahideen. Under NSDD 166, the procurement of US
weapons to the Islamic insurgents increased from 10,000 tons of arms and
ammunition in 1983 to 65,000 tons annually by 1987. "In addition to
arms, training, extensive military equipment including military
satellite maps and state-of-the-art communications equipment"
(University Wire, 7 May 2002). Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White House in 1985 (Reagan Archives)
Video link:
With William Casey as director of the CIA, NSDD 166 was described as the largest covert operation in US history:The
U.S. supplied support package had three essential
components-organization and logistics, military technology, and
ideological support for sustaining and encouraging the Afghan
resistanceâŠ.U.S. counterinsurgency experts worked closely with
the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in organizing
Mujahideen groups and in planning operations inside Afghanistan.âŠ
But the most important contribution of the U.S. was to ⊠bring in men
and material from around the Arab world and beyond. The most hardened
and ideologically dedicated men were sought on the logic that they would
be the best fighters. Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were
placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering
inducements and motivations to join the Jihad. (Pervez Hoodbhoy,
Afghanistan and the Genesis of the Global Jihad, Peace Research, 1 May
2005)Religious IndoctrinationUnder
NSDD 166, US assistance to the Islamic brigades channeled through
Pakistan was not limited to bona fide military aid. Washington also
supported and financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), the process of religious indoctrination, largely to secure the
demise of secular institutions:⊠the United States
spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks
filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of
covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.The
primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of
guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan
school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the
American-produced books,..The White House defends the religious
content, saying that Islamic principles permeate Afghan culture and that
the books "are fully in compliance with U.S. law and policy." Legal
experts, however, question whether the books violate a constitutional
ban on using tax dollars to promote religion.⊠AID officials said
in interviews that they left the Islamic materials intact because they
feared Afghan educators would reject books lacking a strong dose of
Muslim thought. The agency removed its logo and any mention of the U.S.
government from the religious texts, AID spokeswoman Kathryn Stratos
said."It's not AID's policy to support religious instruction,"
Stratos said. "But we went ahead with this project because the primary
purpose . . . is to educate children, which is predominantly a secular
activity."⊠Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari
and Pashtun, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an
AID grant to the University of Nebraska -Omaha and its Center for
Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $ 51 million on the university's
education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994." (Washington Post,
23 March 2002)The Role of the NeoConsThere
is continuity. The architects of the covert operation in support of
"Islamic fundamentalism" launched during the Reagan presidency played a
key role in role in launching the "Global War on Terrorism" in the wake
of 9/11.Several of the NeoCons of the Bush Junior Administration were high ranking officials during the Reagan presidency.Richard
Armitage, was Deputy Secretary of State during George W. Bush's first
term (2001-2004). He played a central key role in post 9/11 negotiations
with Pakistan leading up to the October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
During the Reagan era, he held the position of Assistant Secretary of
Defense for International Security Policy. In this capacity, he played a
key role in the implementation of NSDD 163 while also ensuring liaison
with the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus.Meanwhile,
Paul Wolfowitz was at the State Department in charge of a foreign
policy team composed, among others, of Lewis Libby, Francis Fukuyama and
Zalmay Khalilzad. Wolfowitz's group was also involved in laying the
conceptual groundwork of US covert support to Islamic parties and
organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Bush's Secretary of
Defence Robert Gates also was also involved in setting the groundwork
for CIA covert operations. He was appointed Deputy Director for
Intelligence by Ronald Reagan in 1982, and Deputy Director of the CIA in
1986, a position which he held until 1989. Gates played a key role in
the formulation of NSDD 163, which established a consistent framework
for promoting Islamic fundamentalism and channeling covert support to
the Islamic brigades. He was also involved in the Iran Contra scandal. .The Iran Contra OperationRichard Gates, Colin Powell and Richard Armitage, among others, were also involved in the Iran-Contra operation.Armitage
was in close liaison with Colonel Oliver North. His deputy and chief
anti-terrorist official Noel Koch was part of the team set up by Oliver
North.Of significance, the Iran-Contra operation was also tied
into the process of channeling covert support to the Islamic brigades in
Afghanistan. The Iran Contra scheme served several related foreign
policy:1) Procurement of weapons to Iran thereby feeding the Iraq-Iran war,2) Support to the Nicaraguan Contras,3) Support to the Islamic brigades in Afghanistan, channeled via Pakistan's ISI.Following
the delivery of the TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran, the proceeds of
these sales were deposited in numbered bank accounts and the money was
used to finance the Nicaraguan Contras. and the Mujahideen:"The
Washington Post reported that profits from the Iran arms sales were
deposited in one CIA-managed account into which the U.S. and Saudi
Arabia had placed $250 million apiece. That money was disbursed not only
to the contras in Central America but to the rebels fighting Soviet
troops in Afghanistan." (US News & World Report, 15 December 1986).Although
Lieutenant General Colin Powell, was not directly involved in the arms'
transfer negotiations, which had been entrusted to Oliver North, he was
among "at least five men within the Pentagon who knew arms were being
transferred to the CIA." (The Record, 29 December 1986). In this regard,
Powell was directly instrumental in giving the "green light" to
lower-level officials in blatant violation of Congressional procedures.
According to the New York Times, Colin Powell took the decision (at the
level of military procurement), to allow the delivery of weapons to
Iran:"Hurriedly, one of the men closest to Secretary
of Defense Weinberger, Maj. Gen. Colin Powell, bypassed the written
"focal point system" procedures and ordered the Defense Logistics Agency
[responsible for procurement] to turn over the first of 2,008 TOW
missiles to the CIA., which acted as cutout for delivery to Iran" (New
York Times, 16 February 1987)Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was also implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair.The Golden Crescent Drug TradeThe
history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the
CIA's covert operations. Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war, opium
production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to small regional
markets. There was no local production of heroin. (Alfred McCoy, Drug
Fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The
Progressive, 1 August 1997).Alfred McCoy's study confirms that
within two years of the onslaught of the CIA operation in Afghanistan,
"the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's top heroin
producer." (Ibid) Various Islamic paramilitary groups and organizations
were created. The proceeds of the Afghan drug trade, which was protected
by the CIA, were used to finance the various insurgencies:"Under
CIA and Pakistani protection, Pakistan military and Afghan resistance
opened heroin labs on the Afghan and Pakistani border. According to The
Washington Post of May 1990, among the leading heroin manufacturers were
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan leader who received about half of the
covert arms that the U.S. shipped to Pakistan. Although there were
complaints about Hekmatyar's brutality and drug trafficking within the
ranks of the Afghan resistance of the day, the CIA maintained an
uncritical alliance and supported him without reservation or restraint.Once
the heroin left these labs in Pakistan's northwest frontier, the
Sicilian Mafia imported the drugs into the U.S., where they soon
captured sixty percent of the U.S. heroin market. That is to say, sixty
percent of the U.S. heroin supply came indirectly from a CIA operation.
During the decade of this operation, the 1980s, the substantial DEA
contingent in Islamabad made no arrests and participated in no seizures,
allowing the syndicates a de facto free hand to export heroin. By
contrast, a lone Norwegian detective, following a heroin deal from Oslo
to Karachi, mounted an investigation that put a powerful Pakistani
banker known as President Zia's surrogate son behind bars. The DEA in
Islamabad got nobody, did nothing, stayed away.Former CIA
operatives have admitted that this operation led to an expansion of the
Pakistan-Afghanistan heroin trade. In 1995 the former CIA Director of
this Afghan operation, Mr. Charles Cogan, admitted sacrificing the drug
war to fight the Cold War. "Our main mission was to do as much damage to
the Soviets. We didn't really have the resources or the time to devote
to an investigation of the drug trade," he told Australian television.
"I don't think that we need to apologize for this. Every situation has
its fallout. There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes, but the main
objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan." (Alfred
McCoy, Testimony before the Special Seminar focusing on allegations
linking CIA secret operations and drug trafficking-convened February 13,
1997, by Rep. John Conyers, Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus)Lucrative Narcotics Trade in the Post Cold War EraThe
drug trade has continued unabated during the post Cold war years.
Afghanistan became the major supplier of heroin to Western markets, in
fact almost the sole supplier: more than 90 percent of the heroin sold
Worldwide originates in Afghanistan. This lucrative contraband is tied
into Pakistani politics and the militarization of the Pakistani State.
It also has a direct bearing on the structure of the Pakistani economy
and its banking and financial institutions, which from the outset of the
Golden Crescent drug trade have been involved in extensive money
laundering operations, which are protected by the Pakistani military and
intelligence apparatus:According to the US State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (2006) (quoted in Daily Times, 2 March 2006),"Pakistani
criminal networks play a central role in the transshipment of narcotics
and smuggled goods from Afghanistan to international markets. Pakistan
is a major drug-transit country. The proceeds of narcotics trafficking
and funding for terrorist activities are often laundered by means of the
alternative system called hawala. ⊠."Repeatedly, a network of
private unregulated charities has also emerged as a significant source
of illicit funds for international terrorist networks," the report
pointed out. ⊠"The hawala system and the charities
are but the tip of the iceberg. According to the State Department
report, "the State Bank of Pakistan has frozen more twenty years] a
meager $10.5 million "belonging to 12 entities and individuals linked to
Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda or the Taliban". What the report fails to
mention is that the bulk of the proceeds of the Afghan drug trade are
laundered in bona fide Western banking institutions.The Taliban Repress the Drug TradeA major and unexpected turnaround in the CIA sponsored drug trade occurred in 2000.The
Taliban government which came to power in 1996 with Washington's
support, implemented in 2000-2001 a far-reaching opium eradication
program with the support of the United Nations which served to undermine
a multibillion dollar trade. (For further details see, Michel
Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism, Global Research, 2005).In 2001 prior to the US-led invasion, opium production under the Taliban eradication program declined by more than 90 percent.In
the immediate wake of the US led invasion, the Bush administration
ordered that the opium harvest not be destroyed on the fabricated
pretext that this would undermine the military government of Pervez
Musharraf."Several sources inside Capitol Hill noted
that the CIA opposes the destruction of the Afghan opium supply because
to do so might destabilize the Pakistani government of Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. According to these sources, Pakistani intelligence had
threatened to overthrow President Musharraf if the crops were destroyed.
âŠ'If they [the CIA] are in fact opposing the destruction of the
Afghan opium trade, it'll only serve to perpetuate the belief that the
CIA is an agency devoid of morals; off on their own program rather than
that of our constitutionally elected government'" .(NewsMax.com, 28 March 2002)Since
the US led invasion, opium production has increased 33 fold from 185
tons in 2001 under the Taliban to 6100 tons in 2006. Cultivated areas
have increased 21 fold since the 2001 US-led invasion. (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 6 January 2006)In
2007, Afghanistan supplied approximately 93% of the global supply of
heroin. The proceeds (in terms of retail value) of the Afghanistan drug
trade are estimated (2006) to be in excess of 190 billion dollars a
year, representing a significant fraction of the global trade in
narcotics.(Ibid)The proceeds of this lucrative multibillion
dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of
the revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates
outside Afghanistan.The laundering of drug money constitutes a
multibillion dollar activity, which continues to be protected by the CIA
and the ISI. In the wake of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.In retrospect, one of the major objectives of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was to restore the drug trade.The
militarization of Pakistan serves powerful political, financial and
criminal interests underlying the drug trade. US foreign policy tends to
support these powerful interests. The CIA continues to protect the
Golden Crescent narcotics trade. Despite his commitment to eradicating
the drug trade, opium production under the regime of Afghan President
Hamid Karzai has skyrocketed.The Assassination of General Zia Ul-HaqIn
August 1988, President Zia was killed in an air crash together with US
Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and several of Pakistan's top
generals. The circumstances of the air crash remain shrouded in mystery.Following
Zia's death, parliamentary elections were held and Benazir Bhutto was
sworn in as Prime Minister in December 1988. She was subsequently
removed from office by Zia's successor, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on
the grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993, she was re-elected and was
again removed from office in 1996 on the orders of President Farooq
Leghari.Continuity has been maintained throughout. Under the
short-lived post-Zia elected governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir
Bhutto, the central role of the military-intelligence establishment and
its links to Washington were never challenged.Both Benazir Bhutto
and Nawaz Sharif served US foreign policy interests. While in power,
both democratically elected leaders, nonetheless supported the
continuity of military rule. As prime minister from 1993 to 1996,
Benazir Bhutto "advocated a conciliatory policy toward Islamists,
especially the Taliban in Afghanistan" which were being supported by
Pakistan's ISI (See F. William Engdahl, Global Research, January 2008)Benazir
Bhutto's successor as Prime Minister, Mia Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of the
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) was deposed in 1999 in a US supported coup
d'Etat led by General Pervez Musharraf.The 1999 coup was
instigated by General Pervez Musharaf, with the support of the Chief of
General Staff, Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmad, who was subsequently
appointed to the key position of head of military intelligence (ISI). Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Mahmoud AhmadFrom
the outset of the Bush administration in 2001, General Ahmad developed
close ties not only with his US counterpart CIA director George Tenet,
but also with key members of the US government including Secretary of
State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, not to
mention Porter Goss, who at the time was Chairman of the House Committee
on Intelligence. Ironically, Mahmoud Ahmad is also known, according to a
September 2001 FBI report, for his suspected role in supporting and
financing the alleged 9/11 terrorists as well as his links to Al Qaeda
and the Taliban. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America's "war on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005)Concluding Remarks These
various "terrorist" organizations were created as a result of CIA
support. They are not the product of religion. The project to establish
"a pan-Islamic Caliphate" is part of a carefully devised intelligence
operation.CIA support to Al Qaeda was not in any way curtailed at
the end of the Cold War. In fact quite the opposite. The earlier
pattern of covert support not only extended, it took on a global thrust
and became increasingly sophisticated.The "Global War on
Terrorism" is a complex and intricate intelligence construct. The covert
support provided to "Islamic extremist groups" is part of an imperial
agenda. It purports to weaken and eventually destroy secular and
civilian governmental institutions, while also contributing to vilifying
Islam. It is an instrument of colonization which seeks to undermine
sovereign nation-states and transform countries into territories.For
the intelligence operation to be successful, however, the various
Islamic organizations created and trained by the CIA must remain unaware
of the role they are performing on geopolitical chessboard, on behalf
of Washington.Over the years, these organizations have indeed
acquired a certain degree of autonomy and independence, in relation to
their US-Pakistani sponsors. That appearance of "independence", however,
is crucial; it is an integral part of the covert intelligence
operation. According to former CIA agent Milton Beardman the Mujahideen
were invariably unaware of the role they were performing on behalf of
Washington. In the words of bin Laden (quoted by Beardman): "neither I,
nor my brothers saw evidence of American help". (Weekend Sunday (NPR);
Eric Weiner, Ted Clark; 16 August 1998)."Motivated by
nationalism and religious fervor, the Islamic warriors were unaware
that they were fighting the Soviet Army on behalf of Uncle Sam. While
there were contacts at the upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy,
Islamic rebel leaders in theatre had no contacts with Washington or the
CIA." (Michel Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism, Chapter 2).The
fabrication of "terrorism" âincluding covert support to terroristsâ is
required to provide legitimacy to the "war on terrorism".The
various fundamentalist and paramilitary groups involved in US sponsored
"terrorist" activities are "intelligence assets". In the wake of 9/11,
their designated function as "intelligence assets" is to perform their
role as credible "enemies of America".Under the Bush
administration, the CIA continued to support (via Pakistan's ISI)
several Pakistani based Islamic groups. The ISI is known to support
Jamaat a-Islami, which is also present in South East Asia,
Lashkar-e-TayyaÂba, Jehad a-Kashmiri, Hizbul-Mujahidin and
Jaish-e-Mohammed.The Islamic groups created by the CIA are also
intended to rally public support in Muslim countries. The underlying
objective is to create divisions within national societies throughout
the Middle East and Central Asia, while also triggering sectarian strife
within Islam, ultimately with a view to curbing the development of a
broad based secular mass resistance, which would challenge US imperial
ambitions.This function of an outside enemy is also an essential
part of war propaganda required to galvanize Western public opinion.
Without an enemy, a war cannot be fought. US foreign policy needs to
fabricate an enemy, to justify its various military interventions in the
Middle East and Central Asia. An enemy is required to justify a
military agenda, which consists in " going after Al Qaeda". The
fabrication and vilification of the enemy are required to justify
military action.The existence of an outside enemy sustains the
illusion that the "war on terrorism" is real. It justifies and presents
military intervention as a humanitarian operation based on the right to
self-defense. It upholds the illusion of a "conflict of civilizations".
The underlying purpose ultimately is to conceal the real economic and
strategic objectives behind the broader Middle East Central Asian war.Historically,
Pakistan has played a central role in "war on terrorism". Pakistan
constitutes from Washington's standpoint a geopolitical hub. It borders
onto Afghanistan and Iran. It has played a crucial role in the conduct
of US and allied military operations in Afghanistan as well as in the
context of the Pentagon's war plans in relation to Iran.