And HERE lies the real problem. Follow the money! I would bet that the Saudis actually provide the majority of the funds, with much smaller amounts from the UAE and Libya.
Pakistan is, was, and remains the global nexus of Islamist terrorism, nuclear irresponsibility, heroin distribution, and irredeemably corrupt government.
Heroin refinement and distribution has been run by the ISI since 1985, and is to this day (70 percent of the world's output). It funded the nukes, the Taliban, the Kashmir terrorists.
Raise your hand if you seriously believe that Iraq is "the next target."
Arnaud de Borchgrave is a very competent journalists!
Indeed, follow the money. This IS about Islam, and although its ascendance has been taking place in fits and starts for over thirteen centuries, we live in a time when Islam is resurgent, fueled by oil money (the "Gift of Allah to the Faithful").
In the madrassas, the soldiers and officers for the next Islamic Clone War are being methodically indoctrinated for an inevitable attack on the "unbelievers". As their fellows around the world have amply demonstrated, the traditional Islamic values of murder, rapine and plunder are very much alive. We can expect a particularly nasty World War III since NO weapons and NO targets are off-limits to Islamists. It will be the worst war known humanity has ever seen, and it's coming soon.
While I generally don't consider UPI or any of the major news bureaus to be infallible, they do tend to be pretty careful about their facts. Pakistan is a house built on sand, and I've never considered them to be a reliable U.S. ally. Sacking the former head of the ISI was hardly a housecleaning, and probably a Musharraf canard. His personal support of Islamic terrorism is well documented.
Presumably, U.S. strategists are well aware of what's really going on in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and are simply dancing the deadly dance that must preceed every major war.
Imal