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form, at least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan's state and Saif Adel, also accused of carrying out the embassy attacks. security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the Some of these men are now among the FBI's 22 most-wanted CIA's primary conduit for conducting the covert war against terrorists. Moscow's occupation. In Afghanistan, the Taliban protected bin Laden and his al- Qa'ida Even after the war, bin Laden was on good terms with the CIA (p. network. There is an odd symmetry revealed through this relation- 3): ship. Both bin Laden and the Taliban were little more than a cre- Though he has come to represent all that went wrong with the ation of the CIA. Selig Harrison, a South Asian expert from the CIA's reckless strategy there, by the end of the Afghan war in 1989, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, made this bin Laden was still viewed by the agency as something of a dilet- | known at a conference in London. The Times of India records tante—a rich Saudi boy gone to war and welcomed home by the Harrison's revelations (p. 1): Saudi monarchy he so hated as something of a hero. LONDON — The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) worked in Bin Laden would later receive three necessary provisions from tandem with Pakistan to create the "monster" that is today factions of government. These essentials would allow him and al- —- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, a leading US expert on South Asia Qa'ida to conduct one of the worst terrorist attacks ever conceived. said here. These constituents were: (1) protection courtesy of highly influen- "I warned them that we were creating a monster," Selig Harrison tial, well-placed shepherds in government; (2) government funding; from the Woodrow Wilson International Centre [sic] for Scholars and (3) government training. Without a beat, individuals in posi- said at the conference here last week on "Terrorism and Regional tions of authority delivered. Security: Managing the Challenges in Asia". Both Democrat and Republican administra- To the average American, the Taliban might tions protected bin Laden. Undaunted by have been a rogue gallery of maniacs that Osama's attack on the USS Cole and bomb- comprised a fanatical outlaw government and ings of the embassies, this non-partisan aegis nothing more. However, Harrison makes it consistently insulated the terrorist and his net- clear that the Taliban was a well-coordinated work. President William Jefferson Clinton, a "The Taliban are not intelligence project (p. 2): Democrat, shielded bin Laden and compan . . The Taliban are not just recruits from from the hand of justice in Sudan. Mansoor just recruits from "madrassas" (Muslim theological schools but Ijaz revealed this fact in the December 5, "madrassas" are on the payroll of the ISI (Inter-Services 2001, Los Angeles Times (Ijaz, p. 1): . . Intelligence, the intelligence wing of the President Clinton and his national security (Muslim theological Pakistani government). team ignored several opportunities to capture schools) but are on the Osama bin Laden and his terrorist associates, payroll of the ISI including one as late as last year... A Covert Government Agenda The government had all the means From 1996 to 1998, I opened unoffi - Inter-Servi necessary to detect and prevent the cial channels between Sudan and the ( ter Se ces September 11 attacks. Researcher Russ Clinton Administration. I met with offi - Intelligence, the Kick makes a significant statement con- cials in both countries, including Clinton, US National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger and Sudan's President and intelligence chief. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who wanted terrorism sanctions against Sudan lifted, offered the arrest and extradition of bin Laden and detailed intelligence data about the cerning this point (p. 1): The US has the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Secret Service, and a host of other intelligence and security agencies. These agencies employ Echelon, which global networks constructed by Egypt's monitors the majority of electronic com - Islamic Jihad, Iran's Hezbollah and the munication in the world; Carnivore, Palestinian Hamas. Among those in the networks were the two which intercepts email; Tempest, a technology that can read a com - hijackers who piloted commercial airliners into the World Trade puter monitor's display from over a block away; Keyhole satellites Center. The silence of the Clinton Administration in responding to that have a resolution of four inches; and other spy technologies, these offers was deafening. probably most of which we don't know about. Sudan offered Bill Clinton the ideal opportunity to apprehend bin In 2001, the US spent $30 billion on intelligence gathering and Laden and prevent future terrorist attacks. Instead, the US pressured — an additional $12 billion on counterterrorism. With all these intelligence wing of the Pakistani government)." Sudan to make bin Laden leave, "despite their [the Sudanese] feel- resources, and more, we're supposed to believe that the government ing that he could be monitored better in Sudan than elsewhere" (pp. didn't have the slightest inkling that terrorists were planning to 1-2). It was off to Afghanistan for bin Laden and his merry, attack the United States, much less hijack planes and send them marauding band of cut-throats and murderers (p. 2): careening into major landmarks. Bin Laden left for Afghanistan, taking with him: Ayman Zawahiri, After reviewing the facts, one must consider a more sinister possi- considered by the US to be the chief planner of the September 11 bility: that certain factions in the United States government created attacks; Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, who traveled frequently to the bin Laden menace and actually desired the attacks. Whether Germany to obtain electronic equipment for al-Qaeda; Wadih El- Moran realises it or not, his article, "Bin Laden Comes Home to Hage, bin Laden's personal secretary and roving emissary, now Roost", reveals evidence that the Agency may have been equipping serving a life sentence in the US for his role in the 1998 US Embassy bin Laden's network for purposes other than fighting the Soviets (p. bombings in Tanzania and Kenya; and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed 4): ‘madrassas’ (Muslim theological schools) but are on the payroll of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence, the intelligence wing of the Pakistani government)." 14 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2003 "The Taliban are not just recruits from www.nexusmagazine.com