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Washington Plots, Moscow Crawls, Kabul Burns by Jared Israel [19 October 2001]

"We in India have always been victims of terrorists from Pakistan. Many times the Pakistan government would be on the Terrorist Watch List of the U.S., but the U.S. would never brand them terrorists. How can the Pakistan government be an ally to fight terrorism? They are the terrorists. Remember that the 1993 bomber of WTC found sanctuary in Pakistan. As for the U.S., when Indians were being killed by the Islamic terror groups from Pakistan and Afghanistan, it wasn't terrorism - it was a "dispute." But when the exact same groups attack the U.S., it is World Terrorism." (Arvind Kumar, a reader in California)

Colin Powell flew into Pakistan and gave a press conference two days ago. U.S. fighter-bombers have been flying into Afghanistan all week.

On 17 October, the 'New York Times' reported:

"American pilots have for the first time been freed to choose their own targets and fire at will within specific zones around Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan, senior Pentagon officials said today. United States commanders warned that none of the Kabul leadership's forces were immune from attack."

Tell that to the Red Cross. While President Bush was exhorting school children to:

“'go out and mow a lawn or do somebody a favor to earn a dollar' to help the children of Afghanistan, and told them to send it directly to the White House to be turned over to a Red Cross fund." ('Washington Post,' 17 October)

U.S. planes were bombing the Red Cross in Afghanistan:

"'U.S. forces did not know that I.C.R.C. was using one or more of the warehouses,' a Pentagon statement said. The Red Cross said each of five warehouses in its compound was marked on the roof with a large red cross. The raids occurred at about 1 p.m., in daylight, the agency said." ('N.Y. Times,' 17 October 2001)

This is strikingly reminiscent of U.S. military crimes and justifications in the 1999 war against Yugoslavia. There too, buildings with red crosses on the roofs were bombed in daylight, though always by accident. (1)

If clearly marked Red Cross buildings are not safe in the bright light of day, then any structure, animal or person, with the bad luck to be situated in a 'fire at will' zone may be blown to pieces. And we will never hear about most such crimes because a) the U.S. military is enforcing tight media control and b) most of the victims won't have the Public Relations clout of the International Red Cross. Here's a philosophical problem for you: if a child screams in pain but you are not there to hear it, is he or she actually wounded?

[Residents of Kabul, Afghanistan look for belongings amid the rubble of their home, Oct. 18. Four children were killed. Sayed Salahuddin/Reuters]

Why isn't this terrorism?

Because the U.S. government says it's not. Instead, we are told, it is the unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of war, as if some natural process were in control, as if the U.S. military command were helpless to prevent the occurrence of 'fire at will' zones.

According to Washington, which has yet to present evidence that the WTC horror was in fact masterminded from Afghanistan, it has no choice. but to bomb. Thousands of hours of media broadcasts and miles of newsprint support this claim, so who are we to ask for evidence?

Government officials and the media say: "Bin Laden's terrorists are attacking us. We have no choice but to wage 'infinite war' to root out such terrorism."

Elsewhere we have argued that this answer is either weak or crazy. But as more facts come to light, it becomes increasingly clear that this answer is a conscious lie. (2)

The proof lies in one word: Pakistan. Pakistan is a key supporting player in the infinite war, supposedly against terrorism.

On the 16th, Secretary Colin Powell held a joint press conference in Islamabad with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, military dictator of Pakistan. Here's what the 'New York Times' reported:

[Start 'New York Times' Quote:]
"The United States and Pakistan agreed today to work urgently for the creation of a new, broad-based government in Afghanistan that both sides said could include moderate elements of the Taliban movement whose present leadership is now a target for the American-led military campaign.

"Secretary Powell said he had come to tell Pakistan that the United States -- long chastised here as having abandoned its cold war ally following the collapse of the Soviet Union -- was returning "to demonstrate our enduring commitment" to "a great Muslim nation." ... "The high praise heaped on Pakistan provided a curious sight: an American secretary of state standing next to a general in uniform who seized power in a military coup, and lauding his achievements.

"Secretary Powell said the United States would also get more deeply involved -- if asked -- in resolving the longstanding and often violent conflict between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, a mainly Muslim territory claimed by both countries.

"The American secretary's visit left no doubt that a far more robust American military and diplomatic initiative lies ahead in southern Asia, one that will require large expenditures, a re-examination of sanctions and other restrictive policies and, in general, a much deeper involvement in the region than President Bush anticipated when he came to office nine months ago.' [End 'New York Times' quote, 17 October, 2001]

THE REAL MEANING OF POWELL'S VISIT

Despite the reference in the excerpt above to Washington having abandoned Pakistan after the cold war, there is overwhelming evidence that Washington has actively supported the efforts of Pakistani intelligence, which guided the Taliban. (3) & (4)

The ties between the CIA and ISI are long standing and remain intimate:

"Trained by the CIA and the French SDECE, the ISI 'ran' the mujahideen in their decade-long fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf, who headed the ISI's Afghan bureau for four years until 1987, says in his book The Bear Trap that the agency funneled US money and weapons to the mujahideen." ('Sydney Morning Herald.' 27 September 2001, posted at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/allies.htm )

For several days we have been commenting on 'Times of India' revelations about Lt-Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, head of Pakistani intelligence, the ISI. Apparently Lt-Gen. Ahmad was told to 'request' early retirement after India presented the FBI with proof that he had ordered an aide, who happened to be an international terrorist, to wire $100,000 to the leader of the alleged WTC hijackers. (5)

Now articles from the 'Wall Street Journal' and the Pakistani newspaper, 'Dawn,' posted at the end of this article, confirm the 'Times of India' charges. Why hasn't our terrorism-fighting President commented?

Lt-Gen Ahmad was not only the chief of Pakistani intelligence (ISI). He was also one of the main leaders of the military coup that put Pakistan's dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power.

It is inconceivable that Gen. Musharraf did not know his intelligence organization was financing the WTC hijackers. And this is the man with whom Secretary of State Powell held a press conference 16 October in Islamabad.

The bombing of Afghanistan is monstrous, not least of all because it is based on a lie, because Washington and Britain have not launched this war to fight terrorism. Because the goal is not to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. This war brings together the sponsors of terrorist armies that have ravished Afghanistan, the Balkans and other areas: the U.S., Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The true goal is to establish a powerful U.S. presence in Central and Southern Asia.

The 'New York Times' said:

"The American secretary's visit left no doubt that a far more robust American military and diplomatic initiative lies ahead in southern Asia."

Get it? They are not in Afghanistan to knock out bin Laden. They are not there to destroy the Taliban. The immediate goals of bombing Afghanistan are a) to prepare the locals to have a proper attitude toward U.S. domination and b) to send a message to any independent-minded leaders in Iran, India, China and especially the former Soviet Republics, that those who defy the U.S. will get bombed. What is the final goal?

The more long-term goal is to set up a '100% independent' Afghan government dominated by the U.S. and British foreign policy Establishments. A lot of the day-to-day dominating of these independentistas will be done by Pakistan under CIA and State Department direction. (The leaders in Washington prefer to delegate petty dominating.) The 'independent' government will 'approve' a powerful U.S. military presence, probably including a massive military base or bases, similar to Bondsteel in Kosovo.

We have been sold a vicious little war, my friends. The terrorists will not be eliminated. They will be regrouped into a more effective force. The talk of keeping 'moderate Taliban' in the government is the tip-off. A 'moderate Taliban' is one who does what the U.S. tells him to do. Washington plans to combine some of these moderates with moderate muhajedeen (i.e., terrorists) from the Northern Alliance, with the aim of creating a unified moderate terrorist apparatus modeled after the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). (6)

Most Americans have scant knowledge of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). This is the fault of the mass media, which has simply not told us the truth about the KLA. For example, we have not been not told:

The crucial thing in terms of Afghanistan is this: after NATO used the terrorist KLA to consolidate its control of Kosovo, it unleashed the KLA, with reinforcements from Islamist terrorists from Chechnya, against neighboring Macedonia. This despite the fact that the Macedonian government had done everything it could to please Washington, allowing NATO to use Macedonia as a rear base for attacking Yugoslavia. (7)

Washington and London plan to create a new terrorist apparatus to replace the incompetent Taliban. This terrorist force will be used to attack countries around Afghanistan, especially the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, and to attack Russia.

Washington has coupled the KLA terrorist assault on Macedonia with military 'aid' to that besieged state. In the same way, the attack from terrorists based in Afghanistan will be coupled with military aid to the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia. Washington likes to control both the attack and the victim's response, the better to determine the outcome of the struggle. (10)

The goal of this assault on the lands of the former Soviet Union is not small-time economic exploitation, as many on the Left think. Washington does not need to decimate Central Asia in order to control this or that natural resource, for example oil deposits, or to put through a pipeline or some other economic project. Washington is playing for vastly bigger stakes. The goals are 1) to reduce the nations of the former Soviet Union to U.S.-controlled territories, helpless to protect any of their treasures, whether oil or gold or forests or land or people or natural gas and 2) to eliminate the potential threat that these former Soviet states might get together as a powerful political and military force and challenge Washington's ability to do the same thing all over the world.

A Russian reader informs us that politicians allied with president Putin have popularized a new slogan in Russia: "Better the U.S. in Kazakhstan than the Taliban in Tartarstan."

This is consistent with Putin's approach since 9-11, which has been to avoid challenging Washington. For example, he has accepted Washington's amazing self-definition as champion of the war on terror, even though everyone in Russia knows Washington has sponsored and continues to sponsor terrorist forces in the Balkans and covertly supports them in Chechnya and that it has openly threatened the former Soviet Republic of Belarus with a campaign of destabilization and terror. Moreover, Putin has not challenged Washington's version of the actual scenario on 9-11, even though the head of the Russian Air Force, Gen. Anatoli Kornukov, rejects Washington's claim that the U.S. Air Force was unable to intercept any of the hijacked planes. (8)

Is Putin hopelessly misled? Does he actually believe he is going to play some imaginary Berlin card against Washington? Or is he just a traitor?

Whatever Putin's intentions, his behavior betrays not only Russia but the whole world, because everyone, including the American people, needs to hear the truth. And all of us, including ordinary people in the U.S., needs Russia to rally nations to resist Washington's attempt to transform the planet, as it has transformed the Balkans, into a terrorist-dominated hell. (9)

Washington could not carry out this truly crazy 'strategy' were it not for the betrayal of leaders, like Mr. Putin, who know the truth but tell their people lies.

Because the truth is this: if the U.S. Establishment takes over Afghanistan then it will not be long before the muhajedeen are in Tartarstan.

And from there?

Our thanks to Arvind Kumar who sent us the following two articles.

GEN MAHMUD'S EXIT DUE TO LINKS WITH UMAR SHEIKH

Monitoring Desk

NEW DELHI, Oct 8: Director General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed has been replaced after the FBI investigators established credible links between him and Umar Sheikh, one of the three militants released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

The FBI team, which had sought adequate inputs about various terrorists including Sheikh from the intelligence agencies, was working on the linkages between Sheikh and former ISI chief Gen Mahmud which are believed to have been substantiated, reports PTI website.

Informed sources said there were enough indications with the US intelligence agencies that it was at Gen Mahmud's instruction that Sheikh had transferred 100,000 US dollars into the account of Mohammed Atta, one of the lead terrorists in strikes at the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, it adds.

(c) 'Dawn' 2001 Reprinted for Fair Use Only

http://www.dawn.com/2001/10/09/top13.htm

WSJ.COM OPINION JOURNAL from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Edtorial Page

By JAMES TARANTO

Wednesday, October 10, 2001 2:10 p.m. EDT

OUR FRIENDS THE PAKISTANIS

Yesterday we noted a report from a Pakistani newspaper that Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad had been fired as head of Islamabad's Inter-Services Security agency after U.S. linked him to a militant allied with terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane in 1999. Now the Times of India says Ahmad is connected to the Sept. 11 attacks:

Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.

Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link. -----------------

(c) 'Wall Street Journal' 2001 Reprinted for Fair Use Only

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001298

***


Further Reading:

(1) 'Barbarians At The Gate ' by Jared Israel. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/Barbaria.html

(2) "'Bin Laden, Terrorist Monster.' Take Two!" Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/taketwo.htm#c

(3) Washington's Pakistani Allies: Drug Dealers, Killers By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/allies.htm

(4) Congressman: U.S. Set Up Anti-Taliban to be Slaughtered. Excerpts from a most revealing Congressional hearing with comments by Jared Israel. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/rohr.htm

(5) 'Did Pakistan Pay WTC Terrorists?' by Jared Israel. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/isi.htm

(6) 'Kosovo Concentration Camps : The KLA Archipelago' Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/reporter.htm

(7) 'Terrorist Thug Boasts: "Thanks to Uncle Sam, Macedonians are no match for us!"' by Scott Taylor. Can be rad at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/taylor.htm

(8) 'For Nicaragua, Read Belarus'. Letter to the 'Guardian' (London), by Mark Almond. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/alm.htm

(9) 'WHAT NATO OCCUPATION WOULD MEAN FOR MACEDONIANS'. A truly mind boggling report on what happened after NATO took over the Kosovo town of Orahovac in June of 1999. Can be read at http://www.emperors-clothes.com/misc/savethe-a.htm

10) To provide more information about the terrorist assault on Macedonia, sponsored by NATO under Washington's direction, we have posted a list of relevant articles with brief descrptions. See, 'Washington and its Partners are Waging a Proxy War in Macedonia' at http://emperors-clothes.com/mac/list-m.htm

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