Cover-up Or Complicity of The Bush Administration?
Michel Chossudovsky
04.11.2001
The Role of Pakistan's Military Intelligence Agency (ISI) in the September 11 Attacks.
Pakistan's chief spy Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad
"was in the US when the attacks occurred." He arrived in the US on the
4th of September, a full week before the attacks. He had meetings at
the State Department "after" the attacks on the WTC. But he also had "a
regular visit of consultations" with his US counterparts at the CIA and
the Pentagon during the week prior to September 11.
What was the nature of these routine "pre-September 11
consultations"? Were they in any way related to the subsequent
"post-September 11 consultations" pertaining to Pakistan's decision to
cooperate with Washington. Was the planning of war being discussed
between Pakistani and US officials? On
the 9th of September while General Ahmad was in the US, the leader of
the Northern Alliance Commander Ahmad Shah Masood was assassinated. The
Northern Alliance had informed the Bush Administration that the ISI was
allegedly implicated in the assassination: The Bush Administration consciously took the decision in "the
post September 11 consultations" with Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad to
directly "cooperate" with Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI)
despite it links to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and its alleged
role in the assassination of Commander Masood, which coincidentally
occurred two days before the terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, senior Pentagon and State Department officials had
been rushed to Islamabad to put the finishing touches on America's war
plans. And on the Sunday prior to the onslaught of the bombing of major
cities in Afghanistan (October 7th), Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad was
sacked from his position as head of the ISI in what was described as a
routine "reshuffling." In the days following General Ahmad's dismissal, a report published in the
Times of India,
revealed the links between Pakistan's Chief spy Lt. General Mahmoud
Ahmad and the presumed "ring leader" of the WTC attacks Mohamed Atta.
The Times of India article was based on an official intelligence report
of the Delhi government that had been transmitted through official
channels to Washington. Quoting an Indian government source Agence
France Press (AFP) confirms in this regard that:
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"The
evidence we [the Government of India] have supplied to the US is of a
much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue
general to some misplaced act of terrorism." |
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The revelation of the Times of India article has several
implications. The Indian intelligence report not only points to the
links between ISI Chief General Ahmad and terrorist ringleader Mohamed
Atta, it also indicates that other ISI officials might have had
contacts with the terrorists. Moreover, it suggests that the September
11 attacks were not an act of "individual terrorism" organised by a
separate Al Qaeda cell, but rather they were part of coordinated
military-intelligence operation, emanating from Pakistan's ISI. The
Times of India report also sheds light on the nature of General Ahmad's
"business activities" in the US during the week prior to September 11,
raising the distinct possibility of ISI contacts with Mohamed Atta in
the US "prior" to the attacks on the WTC, precisely at the time when
General Mahmoud and his delegation were on a so-called "regular visit
of consultations" with US officials. In assessing the alleged links between the terrorists and the
ISI, it should be understood that Lt. General Ahmad as head of the ISI
was a "US approved appointee". As head of the ISI since 1999, he was in
liaison with his US counterparts in the CIA, the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA) and the Pentagon. Also bear in mind that Pakistan's ISI
remained throughout the entire post Cold War era until the present, the
launch-pad for CIA covert operations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and
the Balkans The existence of an "ISI-Osama-Taliban axis" was a matter of
public record. The links between the ISI and agencies of the US
government including the CIA are also a matter of public record. The
Bush Administration was fully cognizant of Lt. General Ahmad's role. In
other words, rather than waging a campaign against international
terrorism, the evidence would suggest that it is indirectly abetting
international terrorism, using the Pakistani ISI as a "go-between". The
Bush Administration's links with Pakistan's ISI --including its
"consultations" with General Ahmad in the week prior to September 11--
raise the issue of "complicity". While Ahmad was talking to US
officials at the CIA and the Pentagon, ISI officials were allegedly
also in contact with the September 11 terrorists. In other words, according to the Indian government
intelligence report, the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks had
links to Pakistan's ISI, which in turn has links to agencies of the US
government. What this suggests is that key individuals within the US
military-intelligence establishment might have known about the ISI
contacts with the September 11 terrorist "ring-leader" Mohamed Atta and
failed to act.
Whether this amounts to the outright complicity of the Bush Administration remains to be firmly established.
What is crystal clear, however, is that this war is not a
"campaign against international terrorism" as claimed by The Bush
Administration. It is a war of conquest with devastating consequences
for the future of humanity.
And the American people have been consciously and deliberately misled by their government.
Ultimately the truth must prevail. The falsehoods behind America's war against the people of Afghanistan must be unveiled.
The above is a Summary. The complete text of this article is at the
Centre for Research on Globalisation
See also from Michel Chossudovsky in Telepolis:
OsamagateCopyright,
Michel Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG),
October 2001. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to post this
text on non-commercial community internet sites, provided the source
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