Posted on 01/29/2002 10:49:55 PM PST by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON -- India's Central Bureau of Investigation is turning up evidence that is proving inconvenient for the Bush administration as it tries to maintain its shaky alliance with Pakistan.
As administration officials, led by State Secretary Colin Powell, praise Pakistan for its help in the war on terrorism, FBI agents responding to Indian leads are quietly investigating Pakistan-based terrorist groups connected to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 hijackings.
While the American press has largely ignored the Pakistan angle, the Indian press has been putting together pieces to a puzzle that makes Islamabad look more like a willing sponsor of terrorism than a trusted ally in the fight against terrorism.
The Pakistani connection
First, rewind to 1999. On Dec. 24, five Pakistani nationals armed with knives hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 from Katmandu to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Led by Sunny Ahmed Qazi, alias "Burger," the hijackers slashed the throat of one of the 178 passengers, a honeymooner, and forced pilots to open the cockpit door.
On Sept. 11, of course, five al-Qaida terrorists armed with knives hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and steered it into the first World Trade Center tower. Led by Mohamed Atta, the hijackers slit the throats of at least two flight attendants and forced pilots to open the cockpit door. Their confederates, also operating in groups of five and wielding knives, hijacked two other jetliners. Another group of four, reportedly one man short, hijacked a fourth plane.
What's the connection, besides the mode of operation? Plenty.
Burger demanded the Indian government release three Pakistani terrorists from prison in exchange for the airline hostages. After an eight-day stand-off, New Delhi agreed to free Ahmed Omar Sayeed Sheikh among the three.
Sheikh turns out to be one of Osama bin Laden's chief money men. About a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, Sheikh wired $100,000 from Pakistan to Atta from an account in the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai. Sheikh was spotted in Islamabad at the time the money was transferred.
The $100,000 covered the hijackers' flight-school tuition and airfare, as well as living expenses. Sheikh picked up an unspent residual of more than $25,000 from Atta and three other hijackers in Dubai right before the attacks, then fled back to Karachi, Pakistan.
The 28-year-old Sheikh is a leader in Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (J-e-M), an Islamic militant group. Its founder, Mohammad Masood Azhar, aka Maulana Masood, is closely linked to bin Laden.
In fact, bin Laden is understood to have helped fund the well-financed, well-organized J-e-M, making it al-Qaida's arm in Pakistan. J-e-M also runs terrorist training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
But don't stop there.
Azhar was freed along with Sheikh in the 1999 India Airlines hostages-for-prisoners deal.
Delhi's capitulation proved a fatal error, as Azhar is now accused of masterminding the J-e-M's Dec. 13 suicide attack on India's Parliament House in which 14 were killed, including five J-e-M terrorists.
And there's more: Delhi police believe that the leader of the suicide squad was none other than Burger, the lead hijacker of the India Airlines flight.
'Pampered' terrorist
The Indian government thinks Pakistan's military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has sponsored and protected Azhar and his protégé, Sheikh. And it accuses ISI of sponsoring the Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament. What's more, it suspects ISI was tied to the 1999 hijacking.
"Azhar is considered to be a pampered terrorist of Pakistan's ISI," said The Press Trust of India.
India Abroad says ISI has been "instrumental" in recruiting terrorists for training camps in Kashmir.
But here's what's really disturbing.
According to accounts in both The Times of India and India Today, former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad instructed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta.
"A direct link between the ISI and the WTC attack could have enormous repercussions," the Times article said. "The U.S. cannot but suspect whether there were other senior Pakistani Army commanders who were in the know of things."
It added: "Evidence of a larger conspiracy could shake U.S. confidence in Pakistan's ability to participate in the anti-terrorism coalition."
The Times says Ahmad lost his job only after India shared with the FBI evidence showing a link between the general and Sheikh's wiring of funds to Atta.
Dennis M. Lormel, director of FBI's financial crimes unit, confirmed the transaction. Not long after, J-e-M's accounts were frozen.
The Bush administration has said the money trail is a crucial link in uncovering the support network for the 19 hijackers, and then destroying that network.
However, a major hub of that network is in Pakistan, and it's still active, as India learned, tragically, last month.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has banned J-e-M and arrested Azhar. But Azhar is not the only terrorist on India's list of wanted terrorists from Pakistan.
Sheikh reportedly now lives near the Binori mosque in Karachi, on the Pakistani coast. And the four remaining hijackers of Indian Airlines Flight 814 are still hiding in Pakistan.
The FBI has trusted Pakistani authorities to question Azhar.
But according to the Gulf News, the FBI earlier this month asked the Pakistani government for permission to question Azhar. U.S. officials are reportedly interested in his links to bin Laden, Sheikh and the Sept. 11 attacks. They also want to ask him about bin Laden's whereabouts.
Asked about the request, an FBI spokesman demurred.
"I can't answer that question at this point because of the diplomatic issues involved," FBI's Jay Spadafore told WorldNetDaily, referring to the administration's tender alliance with Pakistan.
Have any FBI agents traveled to Islamabad recently?
Spadafore put down the phone and checked with a superior before returning to the line.
"I can't comment on where we've deployed agents," he said.
It's become increasingly clear that Pakistan is the epicenter of terrorism, and is most likely sheltering bin Laden.
Yet, at least publicly, the Bush administration continues to trust the Pakistani government to help capture bin Laden and other anti-American terrorists.
At a Jan. 16 press conference in Pakistan, for example, Powell stubbornly insisted that Pakistan is not running a base for terrorism, or sponsoring and harboring terrorists linked to al-Qaida. He suggested the terrorists there are nothing more than free radicals.
Asked by an Indian reporter about the seemingly well-organized network of terrorists still operating there, he said that no country is immune from terrorism. Even America has its own "home-grown" terrorists, Powell said dismissively.
Remember all the wailing from the people who were supposed to be thinking about and preventing terrorism (the FAA, FBI, etc.)? "No one could ever have imagined that anything like this could happen (911)," they wailed.
They are proven to be complete idiots now, since the same modus operandi was used by the same guys in 1999.
You can't particularly trust anything written about Pakistan in even the more responsible Indian newspapers. Just as I've noted you can't trust anything about Turkey in Greek newspapers, anything about Greece in Turkish newspapers, anything about Serbia in Croatian newspapers, anything about Croatia in Serbian newspapers, etc.
...or anything about Pakistan in US newspapers?
That is one of the most reckless and irresponsible comments I have ever read, considering that India is a bustling democracy, with 25 political parties, each vying for the position as leader.
If there is any news to break on any side, then the Indian newspapers will do it. There are simply too many factions to not eventually discover the truth.
Sounds like Powell considers this nothing more than a nutritional problem which could be treated with antioxidants.
From the LA Times, Janury 27, 2002 - "Despite its denials, Pakistan controls most Kashmiri insurgent groups. On May 29, 1999, shortly after the Pakistani army launched its offensive across the cease-fire line at Kargil, Indian intelligence intercepted a revealing international telephone conversation between then-Gen. Musharraf, who was in Beijing, and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz. CIA sources have validated the authenticity of the intercept. Nawaz Sharif, then prime-minister, had expressed concern, Aziz said, that Kashmiri insurgent groups fighting with the army might get out of hand and force an escalation, but that "there need be no such fear, since we have them by the scruff of the neck and whenever desired, we can regulate the situation."
From Radio Free Europe - Musharraf's Visit Focuses On Taliban. "Pakistan is one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban government...'We consider that the Taliban movement, which is the dominating force in Afghanistan, should not be ostracized in any way. Last year in March, by order of the president, I was in Islamabad where I met with Taliban officials. I said then that we considered the Taliban movement as the dominate and a serious political force in Afghanistan, from both a political and military point of view.'" Pakistan was the only country on the planet to have a Taliban Ambassador in residence, as well as Pakistani ambassadors living in Taliban ruled areas in Afghanistan.
...but because Pakistan agreed to let us use their space for lauching attacks we look the other way. Much like our justice system looks the other way when we give a murderer a plea bargain.
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