"major deployments of U.S. and British forces had taken place before the [911] attacks. And the U.S. Army and the CIA had been active in Uzbekistan for several years. There is now evidence that what the world is witnessing is a cold and calculated war plan - at least four years in the making - and that, from reading Brzezinski's own words about Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center attacks were just the trigger needed to set the final conquest in motion."

Mike Ruppert - HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE?

Washington, July 25 (NNN): The final report of the 9/11 probe panel has said that Pakistan helped Osama bin Laden set up base in Afghanistan.

The report, which reviews the circumstances that allowed a group of terrorists to attack the United States on Sept 11, 2001, said that after the 1977 coup, Pakistan military leaders turned to Islamic groups for support, and fundamentalists became more prominent. Pakistan military rulers, the report said, found "ardent young Afghans" educated at privately madressas "a source of potential trouble at home but potentially useful abroad."

They believed that the Taleban movement could bring order in chaotic Afghanistan and make it a cooperative ally. Pakistani generals also thought that the Taleban might give Pakistan greater security on one of the several borders where Pakistani military officers hoped for what they called "strategic depth," the report said.

"It is unlikely that Osama could have returned to Afghanistan had Pakistan disapproved. The Pakistan military intelligence service probably had advance knowledge of his coming, and its officers may have facilitated his travel," the report said.

The report claimed that during his entire time in Sudan, Osama had maintained guesthouses and training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These were part of a larger network used by diverse organizations for recruiting and training fighters for Islamic insurgencies in such places as Tajikistan, Kashmir, and Chechnya.

"Pakistani intelligence officers reportedly introduced Osama to Taleban leaders in Kandahar, their main base of power, to aid his reassertion of control over camps near Khost. In doing so, Pakistani generals hoped that Osama would expand the camps and make them available for training Kashmiri militants," the report said.

When arrived in Afghanistan, the Taleban controlled much of Afghanistan, but key centers, including Kabul, were still held by rival warlords. According to the report, Osama went initially to Jalalabad, probably because it was in an area controlled by a provincial council of Muslim leaders who were not major contenders for national power. He found lodgings with Younis Khalis, the head of one of the main Mujahideen factions.

After September 1996, when first Jalalabad and then Kabul fell to the Taleban, Osama cemented his ties with them. The Taleban, like the Sudanese, would eventually hear warnings, including from the Saudi monarchy. The Taleban leader Mullah Omar "invited" Osama to move to Kandahar, after he gave a controversial interview to the CNN, hoping that this would allow him to exercise greater control over the Saudi dissident.

Osama eventually enjoyed a strong financial position in Afghanistan, thanks to Saudi and other financiers associated with his network. Through his relationship with Mullah Omar, Osama was able to circumvent restrictions; Mullah Omar would stand by him even when other Taleban leaders raised objections. - indolink.com

Half-jesting, half-serious, Benazir Bhutto has told shocked Western capitals that the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, may be well be securely hidden in the "basement of the presidency of Pakistan", three years after George W. Bush set out to hunt him down.

"But you'll have to ask General Musharraf if it is true", she finished mockingly in what many believe to be the swiftest, single-shot, character assassination in Pakistani politics.
Times of India

FEDERALLY ADMINISTERED TRIBAL AREAS, PAKISTAN September 15, 2003

The dirt road that connects Pakistan's remote town of Wana with Afghanistan is lined with walled compounds. They form the outermost ramparts for Osama bin Laden's hideaway of forests, mountains, and ravines, local residents and officials say.

The compounds are believed to be part of the concentric circles of defense that insulate senior Al Qaeda leaders, giving them plenty of early warning in the event of a ground assault here.

Although US officials say they have set their sights on a 20-square-mile section within this northwestern region of South Waziristan, they face a number of obstacles to going after America's Enemy No. 1.

The terrain here is as treacherous politically as geographically. Government control is tenuous in this fiercely conservative district of Pakistan's tribal belt, where tribesmen share the Taliban's Pashtun ethnicity.

Local residents and officials recently gave a reporter a tour of the zone near Wana, the district capital, which they described as "infested" with Al Qaeda members.
CS monitor

Jan. 29, 2004

(CBS/AP) Pakistan will not allow U.S. troops to use its soil for a planned "spring offensive" against Taliban or al Qaeda fugitives, officials said Thursday.

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, who as chief of the National Crisis Management Cell coordinates with U.S. officials in the war against terrorism, said Pakistan's policy did not allow U.S. troops to operate inside the country.

"As a matter of fact they (the United States) have not contacted us for this purpose," he told The Associated Press.

U.S. officials in Washington said Wednesday the U.S. Defense Department was planning a new offensive amid concern that current operations in Afghanistan aren't having the effect they want on terrorist networks. One official hinted that troops might extend operations to the Pakistani side of the Afghan border.

Osama bin Laden and top lieutenants are believed to be in hiding in the rugged border regions possibly inside Pakistan. The U.S.-backed Afghan government have complained that resurgent Taliban rebels are operating from Pakistani territory and launching cross-border assaults.

A Pakistani intelligence official said Thursday authorities have no specific information on bin Laden's whereabouts.
CBS News

Pakistan's establishment recently labeled Amjad Farooqi as al-Qaeda's mastermind in the country. However, Asia Times Online contacts vigorously dispute this claim ... and they suspect that Farooqi has already been arrested in Karachi and that he will be "presented" at a later date. - Twin hot spots near boiling point, Asia Times Online, Jun 5

KARACHI - Even as President General Pervez Musharraf played to the international gallery on his trip to the United Nations and beyond, at home, Pakistan was cooking up another treat to be served on the tour.

On Sunday, Pakistan announced that paramilitary police had killed Amjad Farooqi, a suspected top al-Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl two years ago, as well as for two assassination attempts against Musharraf last December.

Asia Times Online contacts, however, are adamant that Farooqi was in fact arrested some months ago, and that the "incident" resulting in his death in the southern Pakistani city of Nawabshah was in fact stage-managed by Pakistani security forces. - Syed Saleem Shahzad

Pakistan complained Saturday that the United States blew the cover of an al-Qaida suspect, putting an end to a sting operation against the terror network. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, an al-Qaida computer expert, had agreed to work for Pakistani intelligence agencies after his arrest early last month in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

After an arrangement with Pakistani agencies, he agreed to send coded e-mail messages to other al-Qaida operatives. Pakistani intelligence agents had hoped that with his cooperation they would be able to net other al-Qaida suspects as well.

But in an effort to justify the high security alert in three American cities declared last Sunday, U.S. officials told The New York Times that the decision was based on the information received from Khan.

The revelation exposed Khan and forced Pakistanis to move him to a secret location.

During the last two weeks Pakistan arrested more than 20 al-Qaida operatives, including Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, the man suspected of orchestrated the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people. - Big News Network.com Sunday 8th August, 2004

The Pentagon has offered Pakistan a $1.2 billion arms package, the first in more than 14 years, the Hindustan Times reported Thursday.

Some see the offer as a reward for Pakistan's support in the U.S. war on terror.

The arms package, which must be approved by the U.S. Congress, includes eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, six Phalanx rapid-fire guns for the Pakistan navy and more than 2,000 TOW 2 missiles for the army, according to Pentagon sources.

It does not include the F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan has been keen to acquire. Islamabad had asked the United States for at least 18 new F-16s.

Congress has 30 days to reject or approve the proposed arms sales. But congressional sources said the sale is expected to sail through smoothly, as both the House of Representatives and Senate have Republican majorities.

The delivery of an earlier batch of 60 F-16s to Pakistan was suspended in 1990 due to the Pressler sanctions, which blocked the sale amid reports that Pakistan was clandestinely developing nuclear weapons. The sanctions were lifted after Pakistan pledged to help the United States rid the region of terrorist activity. - bnn

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday praised the "terrific cooperation" of Pakistani forces in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

"They're working closely with the tribal leaders in that area. We have also trained an Afghan national army, which is participating with our coalition forces. And they're working their way around in that country to see that the Taliban and Al Qaeda don't have an opportunity to regroup and try to cause additional terrorist acts."

Rumsfeld said he believed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was doing everything possible to aid the US war on terrorism. "We have a lot of respect for the efforts they're making. And they've been helpful.

They've rounded up Al Qaeda from time to time and put pressure on the Taliban. And we appreciate that cooperation in the global war on terror both by the Afghan and Pakistani governments."

He also said US forces were better equipped to counter Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan as US forces launched a new offensive against Bin Laden's fighters.

But Rumsfeld insisted that Bin Laden's whereabouts remained a mystery.

"He may be alive and he may not be. We don't know if he's alive or dead," Rumsfeld told CNN television. "He may be in Afghanistan. He may be in Pakistan. - dailytimes - AFP

REBUKE: The tensions may stem from a combination of US impatience to accelerate the hunt for militants, and Pakistani reticence to anger the tribes sheltering them

Friday, Apr 22, 2005 - Cross-border tensions in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants erupted into the open on Wednesday as Pakistan's frontline commander issued a stinging rebuke to the top US general in Afghanistan.

Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, who leads 70,000 troops in the lawless tribal belt, described as "highly irresponsible" comments by Lieutenant General David Barno that Pakistan was about to launch a fresh anti-terrorist operation.

"He should not have made that statement. It was a figment of his imagination. There is no bloody operation going on until we have the right intelligence," he told reporters at his headquarters in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The rift underscored Pakistani sensitivities about its military cooperation with the US, which is unpopular across the country and particularly among the conservative northern Pashtun tribes.

"I don't want to give the nation the impression that Barno can come down here and dictate the operation," he said.

In response, Lieutenant Cindy Moore, a coalition spokeswoman in Kabul, said: "Coalition and Pakistani forces share a common enemy in the global war on terrorism."

Pakistan cooperates in operations to corner al-Qaeda fugitives hiding along the 2,250km border but vehemently rejects suggestions that US troops should be allowed to cross into its territory.

Pakistani troops opened fire on a joint US-Afghan patrol that strayed across the border on Jan. 30, killing one Afghan soldier, Hussain said.

"We warned them `you are in Pakistan, please go back' through a loudhailer, and fired warning shots in the air. They kept going. Thereafter we opened up on them," he said.

He confirmed that the CIA was operating remote surveillance posts near the border, but said its agents were not allowed to roam the tribal areas "for their own safety and security." - Guardian via Tapei Times

This exemption allows the government to withold all information about US persons in "personnel and medical files and similar files" when the disclosure of such information "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

Before invoking such a privacy protection, the FBI must carry out a balancing "test" of the public's right to disclosure against the individual's right to privacy, Judicial Watch says.

"It is dumbfounding that the United States government has placed a higher priority on the supposed privacy rights of Osama bin Laden than the public's right to know what happened in the days following the September 11 terrorist attacks," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. "It is difficult for me to imagine a greater insult to the American people, especially those whose loved ones were murdered by bin Laden on that day."

Last month Judicial Watch obtained other documents from the same report showing that the privacy rights of Saudis, helped to leave the United States immediately after September 11, were also protected for law enforcement purposes, even though the report also says that "no information of investigative value" was gained from interviews with Saudi royals or members of bin Laden's family. The report also showed that they were given only "cursory" questioning, which Judicial Watch said "shows a lackadaisical investigation" and suggested that "the FBI dropped the ball."

Between September 11 and 15 in 2001, 160 Saudis were allowed to leave on 55 commercial flights from airports around the country. source

April 14, 2005 - The head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service says Osama bin Laden was able to elude capture after the US invasion of Afghanistan by paying bribes to the Afghan militias who were supposed to be finding him.

"The principal mistake was made already in 2001, when one wanted bin Laden to be apprehended by the Afghan militias in Tora Bora," August Hanning said in an interview with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt published on Tuesday.

"There, bin Laden could buy himself free with a lot of money." A spokeswoman for Dr Hanning said Afghan forces had told bin Laden that they knew his whereabouts and that he would be arrested, but they allowed him safe passage in exchange for a bribe.

Other officials - including the former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks - have admitted that Afghan militias who fought on the side of the invasion coalition had allowed al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders to get away, but Dr Hanning is the most senior intelligence official to suggest that bin Laden was among them.

Military experts have also questioned the practice of relying on Afghan militias during the hunt for senior al-Qaeda and Taliban figures, saying that once the Taliban fell, the militias became more interested in gaining power in Afghanistan's many tribal regions than in fulfilling American political goals.

During last year's US presidential campaign, the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, frequently criticised the Bush Administration for what he called "outsourcing" the hunt for bin Laden. The search reached its most active phase after the fall of the Taliban government, when American and Afghan troops attacked al-Qaeda hideouts in the Tora Bora mountains on the Afghan border with Pakistan.

Defenders of President George Bush's Administration have maintained that using local troops to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban was aimed at minimising US casualties and at preventing the conflict from becoming an "American war".

In his interview, Dr Hanning was critical of that strategy. He said bin Laden was able to insulate himself inside a protective network of supporters after the early efforts to arrest or kill him failed.

"Since then, he has been able to create his own infrastructure in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and has won many friends from the tribal groups there," Dr Hanning said.

A CIA contractor has told a North Carolina court that his rough interrogation in 2003 of an Afghan prisoner who subsequently died was indirectly authorised by the highest ranks of the Bush Administration.

A lawyer for David Passaro, the only CIA contractor to be indicted publicly as the result of a prisoner's death in Afghanistan, said in court documents released on Tuesday that he wished to call the legal counsel to the Vice-President, Dick Cheney; two former senior Justice Department officials; the former CIA director, George Tenet; and the Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, as witnesses in his defence.

Passaro pleaded not guilty to four charges of assault. - source

The Times April 14, 2005 - WASHINGTON: Three terror suspects being held in Britain were yesterday indicted in the US for allegedly plotting al-Qa'ida attacks on major financial institutions in New York and Washington.

US Justice Department officials were due last night to unseal four indictments accusing a 32-year-old man with British and Pakistan citizenship and two alleged accomplices of scouting the New York Stock Exchange and the Citicorp building in New York, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington and the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey.

Dhiren Barot (also known as Issa al-Hindi), Nadeem Tarmohammed and Qaisar Shaffiare were arrested in Britain last August after raids on leading al-Qa'ida figures in Pakistan, who reportedly led detectives to them.

US officials, speaking anonymously, said they would seek extradition of the trio from Britain, but possibly not until they had been prosecuted there.

Senior British legal sources said yesterday the men's trial at the Old Bailey would take precedence.

This was not expected to begin until next year.

US security chiefs claim the key figure is a senior al-Qa'ida member who carried out detailed surveillance of the financial institutions at the behest of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qa'ida leader, shortly before the September 11 terror attacks. US prosecutors say the three men conducted surveillance on the buildings between August 2000 and April 2001. Key al-Qa'ida figures captured since the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon have reportedly told how bin Laden's network was planning a second series of attacks in the US, aimed at the financial heart of New York and Washington.

The charges revealed yesterday include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to a terrorist organisation and conspiracy to damage and destroy buildings used in interstate and foreign commerce. Lawyers say the men deny all the charges against them. The Australian

see: Neo UK - The non-existent ricin ring

Wednesday 4th May, 2005 - President Bush said Wednesday the capture of al-Qaida's operational chief in Pakistan represents a critical victory in the war on terror.

"Before I talk about Social Security, though, I want to remind you the war on terror goes on," Bush told a gathering in Washington. "Today's report on the capture of a top al-Qaida operative -- Abu Farraj al-Libbi -- represents a critical victory in the war on terror."

The announcement of the capture of the No. 3 al-Qaida leader triggered wild applause from the audience.

"Al-Libbi was a top general for Osama bin Laden. He was a major facilitator and a chief planner for the al-Qaida network," Bush said.

"His arrest removes a dangerous enemy who was a direct threat to America and for those who love freedom. I applaud the Pakistani government for their strong cooperation in the war on terror," said Bush.

He said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acted on solid intelligence to bring the man to justice, and vowed to stay on the offensive until al-Qaida is defeated. Big News Network.com

Taliban making its way back in Afghanistan

Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of 'mistaken identity'

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as "a critical victory in the war on terror". According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists' third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as "among the flotsam and jetsam" of the organisation. Al-Libbi's arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as "a major breakthrough" in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Bush called him a "top general" and "a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network". Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was "a very important figure". Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI's most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department "rewards for justice" programme.

Another Libyan is on the FBI list - Anas al-Liby, who is wanted over the 1998 East African embassy bombings - and some believe the Americans may have initially confused the two. When The Sunday Times contacted a senior FBI counter-terrorism official for information about the importance of the detained man, he sent material on al-Liby, the wrong man.

"Al-Libbi is just a 'middle-level' leader," said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French intelligence investigator and leading expert on terrorism finance. "Pakistan and US authorities have completely overestimated his role and importance. He was never more than a regional facilitator between Al-Qaeda and local Pakistani Islamic groups."

According to Brisard, the arrested man lacks the global reach of Al-Qaeda leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden's number two, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, or Anas al-Liby.

Although British intelligence has evidence of telephone calls between al-Libbi and operatives in the UK, he is not believed to be Al-Qaeda's commander of operations in Europe, as reported. The only operations in which he is known to have been involved are two attempts to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, in 2003. Last year he was named Pakistan's most wanted man with a $350,000 (£185,000) price on his head. No European or American intelligence expert contacted last week had heard of al-Libbi until a Pakistani intelligence report last year claimed he had taken over as head of operations after Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's arrest.

A former close associate of Bin Laden now living in London laughed: "What I remember of him is he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying."

What is known is that al-Libbi moved from Libya to Pakistan in the mid-1980s before joining the jihad in Afghanistan. He married a Pakistani woman and is said to specialise in maps and diagrams. He is thought to have joined Bin Laden in Sudan with other Libyan nationals in about 1992 and to have become Al-Qaeda's co-ordinator with home-grown Pakistani terrorist groups after 9/11. Some believe al-Libbi's significance has been cynically hyped by two countries that want to distract attention from their lack of progress in capturing Bin Laden, who has now been on the run for almost four years. Even a senior FBI official admitted that al-Libbi's "influence and position have been overstated". But this weekend the Pakistani government was sticking to the line that al-Libbi was the third most important person in the Al-Qaeda network. One American official tried to explain the absence of al-Libbi's name on the wanted list by saying: "We did not want him to know he was wanted." Whatever his importance, al-Libbi is the sixth Al-Qaeda figure to have been caught in Pakistan, suggesting that the country is now the organisation's centre of operations. The interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, conceded that Bin Laden and his deputy might be hiding in a Pakistani city.

"But the capture of al-Libbi will have made them very apprehensive. Whether big fry or small fry, they're on the run, I can tell you that." timesonline

Supposedly the worlds most hunted man, he is living under the protection of the Saudi royal family and with the full knowledge of Western intelligence, a high-level intelligence source has revealed to Pharo. It is understood he entered Saudi Arabia after escaping from Afghanistan through Pakistan and Iran. - Pharo.com

CNN: The last interview you did with bin Laden was back in 1997. How different was the Osama bin Laden we saw in this tape, the interview taped late in October of 2001?

BERGEN: He's actually quite similar. I mean, in terms of his demeanor and his voice -- these kinds of things are quite similar. The big difference is that he's aged enormously between '97 and October of last year.

This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see from these pictures here, he's really, by December he's looking pretty terrible. But by December, of course, that tape that was aired then, he's barely moving the left side of his body. So he's clearly got diabetes. He has low blood pressure. He's got a wound in his foot. He's apparently got dialysis ... for kidney problems.

I mean, this is a man who has a number of health problems, apart from the fact that anybody running around the Afghan mountains is not going to be in great shape.

CNN: And, of course, the question that people continue to debate is not only is he not well, is he still alive today? Peter Bergen, thank you very much for coming along to share your insights with us this morning.
CNN

"We saw Osama while standing here in front of our guesthouse at 9 p.m. on that Tuesday," says Babrak Khan, a Jalalabad resident who once worked as a guard at a nearby base for Islamic militants. Mr. Babrak says he's sure of the time, because he listened to part of the BBC Pashto language news broadcast that begins at 9:30 p.m. in Afghanistan.

As Babrak and three other city residents describe it, bin Laden rapidly exited the sixth or seventh car, a custom-designed white Toyota Corolla with an elongated, hatchback, in a convoy of several hundred cars. Bin Laden cradled a Kalakov machinegun, a shortened version of a Kalashnikov, as he barked orders to his man.

Not long after this rare sighting of bin Laden, the convoy, mostly four-wheel drive trucks but followed up with six armored vehicles in the rear, hastily left town. The fleeing Al Qaeda and Taliban members snaked their way down a bumpy dirt road that runs through ancient battlefields and tattered villages and into the Al Qaeda base.

In the foothills of Tora Bora, about 30 miles southeast of Jalalabad, the convoy split up. One group went to the village of Mileva and the other group to the village of Garikhil as they prepared to take up their positions in the nearby cave complex.

"They were scornful and in a hurry, and sat there on a stoop, dividing up the fighters and assigning them to different caves," says Malik Osman Khan, chief the village of Garikhil. "Our people were terrified, because we thought the planes would hit the Arabs as they stopped in our village. We sent the women and children into another village for their own safety." - CSM

Centcom Central command