"Now the Taliban will pay a price" vowed President George
W. Bush, as American and British fighter planes unleashed
missile attacks against major cities in Afghanistan. The
US Administration claims that Osama bin Laden is behind
the tragic events of the 11th of September. A major war
supposedly "against international terrorism" has been
launched, yet the evidence amply confirms that agencies
of the US government have since the Cold War harbored the
"Islamic Militant Network" as part of Washington's
foreign policy agenda. In a bitter irony, the US Air
Force is targeting the training camps established in the
1980s by the CIA.

The main justification for waging this war has been
totally fabricated. The American people have been
deliberately and consciously misled by their government
into supporting a major military adventure which affects
our collective future.

"OSAMAGATE"

by Michel Chossudovsky

Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa

Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montr�al

Posted at globalresearch.ca 9 October 2001

----

Confronted with mounting evidence, the US Administration
can no longer deny its links to Osama. While the CIA
admits that Osama bin Laden was an "intelligence asset"
during the Cold War, the relationship is said to "go way
back". Most news reports consider that these Osama-CIA
links belong to the "bygone era" of the Soviet-Afghan
war. They are invariably viewed as "irrelevant" to an
understanding of present events. Lost in the barrage of
recent history, the role of the CIA in supporting and
developing international terrorist organisations during
the Cold war and its aftermath is casually ignored or
downplayed by the Western media.

Yes, We did support Him, but "He Went Against Us"

A blatant example of media distortion is the so-called
"blowback" thesis: "intelligence assets" are said to
"have gone against their sponsors"; "what we've created
blows back in our face."1 In a twisted logic, the US
government and the CIA are portrayed as the ill-fated
victims:

The sophisticated methods taught to the Mujahideen, and
the thousands of tons of arms supplied to them by the US
- and Britain - are now tormenting the West in the
phenomenon known as `blowback', whereby a policy strategy
rebounds on its own devisers. 2

The US media, nonetheless, concedes that "the Taliban's
coming to power [in 1995] is partly the outcome of the
U.S. support of the Mujahideen, the radical Islamic
group, in the 1980s in the war against the Soviet
Union".3 But it also readily dismisses its own factual
statements and concludes in chorus, that the CIA had been
tricked by a deceitful Osama. It's like "a son going
against his father".

The "blowback" thesis is a fabrication. The evidence
amply confirms that the CIA never severed its ties to the
"Islamic Militant Network". Since the end of the Cold
War, these covert intelligence links have not only been
maintained, they have in become increasingly
sophisticated.

New undercover initiatives financed by the Golden
Crescent drug trade were set in motion in Central Asia,
the Caucasus and the Balkans. Pakistan's military and
intelligence apparatus (controlled by the CIA)
essentially "served as a catalyst for the disintegration
of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim
republics in Central Asia." 4

Replicating the Iran Contragate Pattern

Remember Ollie North and the Nicaraguan Contras under the
Reagan Administration when weapons financed by the drug
trade were channeled to "freedom fighters" in
Washington's covert war against the Sandinista
government. The same pattern was used in the Balkans to
arm and equip the Mujahideen fighting in the ranks of the
Bosnian Muslim army against the Armed Forces of the
Yugoslav Federation.

Throughout the 1990s, the Pakistan Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI) was used by the CIA as a go-between --
to channel weapons and Mujahideen mercenaries to the
Bosnian Muslim Army in the civil war in Yugoslavia.
According to a report of the London based International
Media Corporation:

"Reliable sources report that the United States is now
[1994] actively participating in the arming and training
of the Muslim forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina in direct
contravention of the United Nations accords. US agencies
have been providing weapons made in ... China (PRC),
North Korea (DPRK) and Iran. The sources indicated that
... Iran, with the knowledge and agreement of the US
Government, supplied the Bosnian forces with a large
number of multiple rocket launchers and a large quantity
of ammunition. These included 107mm and 122mm rockets
from the PRC, and VBR-230 multiple rocket launchers ...
made in Iran. ... It was [also] reported that 400 members
of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran) arrived in
Bosnia with a large supply of arms and ammunition. It was
alleged that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had
full knowledge of the operation and that the CIA believed
that some of the 400 had been detached for future
terrorist operations in Western Europe.

During September and October [1994], there has been a
stream of "Afghan" Mujahedin ... covertly landed in
Ploce, Croatia (South-West of Mostar) from where they
have traveled with false papers ... before deploying with
the Bosnian Muslim forces in the Kupres, Zenica and Banja
Luka areas. These forces have recently [late 1994]
experienced a significant degree of military success.
They have, according to sources in Sarajevo, been aided
by the UNPROFOR Bangladesh battalion, which took over
from a French battalion early in September [1994].

The Mujahedin landing at Ploce are reported to have been
accompanied by US Special Forces equipped with high-tech
communications equipment, ... The sources said that the
mission of the US troops was to establish a command,
control, communications and intelligence network to
coordinate and support Bosnian Muslim offensives -- in
concert with Mujahideen and Bosnian Croat forces -- in
Kupres, Zenica and Banja Luka. Some offensives have
recently been conducted from within the UN-established
safe-havens in the Zenica and Banja Luka regions.

(...)

The US Administration has not restricted its involvement
to the clandestine contravention of the UN arms embargo
on the region ... It [also] committed three high-ranking
delegations over the past two years [prior to 1994] in
failed attempts to bring the Yugoslav Government into
line with US policy. Yugoslavia is the only state in the
region to have failed to acquiesce to US pressure.5

"From the Horse's Mouth"

Ironically, the US Administration's undercover
military-intelligence operations in Bosnia have been
fully documented by the Republican Party. A lengthy
Congressional report by the Republican Party Committee
(RPC) published in 1997, largely confirms the
International Media Corporation report quoted above. The
RPC Congressional report accuses the Clinton
administration of having "helped turn Bosnia into a
militant Islamic base" leading to the recruitment through
the so-called "Militant Islamic Network," of thousands of
Mujahideen from the Muslim world:

Perhaps most threatening to the SFOR mission - and more
importantly, to the safety of the American personnel
serving in Bosnia - is the unwillingness of the Clinton
Administration to come clean with the Congress and with
the American people about its complicity in the delivery
of weapons from Iran to the Muslim government in
Sarajevo. That policy, personally approved by Bill
Clinton in April 1994 at the urging of CIA
Director-designate (and then-NSC chief) Anthony Lake and
the U.S. ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith, has,
according to the Los Angeles Times (citing classified
intelligence community sources), "played a central role
in the dramatic increase in Iranian influence in Bosnia.

(...)

Along with the weapons, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and
VEVAK intelligence operatives entered Bosnia in large
numbers, along with thousands of mujahedin ("holy
warriors") from across the Muslim world. Also engaged in
the effort were several other Muslim countries (including
Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and
Turkey) and a number of radical Muslim organizations. For
example, the role of one Sudan-based "humanitarian
organization," called the Third World Relief Agency, has
been well documented. The Clinton Administration's
"hands-on" involvement with the Islamic network's arms
pipeline included inspections of missiles from Iran by
U.S. government officials... the Third World Relief
Agency (TWRA), a Sudan-based, phoney humanitarian
organization ... has been a major link in the arms
pipeline to Bosnia. ... TWRA is believed to be connected
with such fixtures of the Islamic terror network as Sheik
Omar Abdel Rahman (the convicted mastermind behind the
1993 World Trade Center bombing) and Osama Bin Laden, a
wealthy Saudi �migr� believed to bankroll numerous
militant groups. [Washington Post, 9/22/96] 6

Complicity of the Clinton Administration

In other words, the Republican Party Committee report
confirms unequivocally the complicity of the Clinton
Administration with several Islamic fundamentalist
organisations including Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

The Republicans wanted at the time to undermine the
Clinton Administration. However, at a time when the
entire country had its eyes riveted on the Monica
Lewinsky scandal, the Republicans no doubt chose not to
trigger an untimely "Iran-Bosniagate" affair, which might
have unduly diverted public attention away from the
Lewinsky scandal. The Republicans wanted to impeach Bill
Clinton "for having lied to the American People"
regarding his affair with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky. On the more substantive "foreign policy lies"
regarding drug running and covert operations in the
Balkans, Democrats and Republicans agreed in unison, no
doubt pressured by the Pentagon and the CIA not to "spill
the beans".

>From Bosnia to Kosovo

The "Bosnian pattern" described in the 1997 Congressional
RPC report was replicated in Kosovo. With the complicity
of NATO and the US State Department. Mujahideen
mercenaries from the Middle East and Central Asia were
recruited to fight in the ranks of the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) in 1998-99, largely supporting NATO's war
effort.

Confirmed by British military sources, the task of arming
and training of the KLA had been entrusted in 1998 to the
US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Britain's Secret
Intelligence Services MI6, together with "former and
serving members of 22 SAS [Britain's 22nd Special Air
Services Regiment], as well as three British and American
private security companies".7

The US DIA approached MI6 to arrange a training programme
for the KLA, said a senior British military source. `MI6
then sub-contracted the operation to two British security
companies, who in turn approached a number of former
members of the (22 SAS) regiment. Lists were then drawn
up of weapons and equipment needed by the KLA.' While
these covert operations were continuing, serving members
of 22 SAS Regiment, mostly from the unit's D Squadron,
were first deployed in Kosovo before the beginning of the
bombing campaign in March. 8

While British SAS Special Forces in bases in Northern
Albania were training the KLA, military instructors from
Turkey and Afghanistan financed by the "Islamic jihad"
were collaborating in training the KLA in guerilla and
diversion tactics.9:

Bin Laden had visited Albania himself. He was one of
several fundamentalist groups that had sent units to
fight in Kosovo, ... Bin Laden is believed to have
established an operation in Albania in 1994 ... Albanian
sources say Sali Berisha, who was then president, had
links with some groups that later proved to be extreme
fundamentalists. 10

Congressional Testimonies on KLA-Osama links

According to Frank Ciluffo of the Globalized Organised
Crime Program, in a testimony presented to the House of
Representatives Judicial Committee:

What was largely hidden from public view was the fact
that the KLA raise part of their funds from the sale of
narcotics. Albania and Kosovo lie at the heart of the
"Balkan Route" that links the "Golden Crescent" of
Afghanistan and Pakistan to the drug markets of Europe.
This route is worth an estimated $400 billion a year and
handles 80 percent of heroin destined for Europe. 11

According to Ralf Mutschke of Interpol's Criminal
Intelligence division also in a testimony to the House
Judicial Committee:

The U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist
organization, indicating that it was financing its
operations with money from the international heroin trade
and loans from Islamic countries and individuals, among
them allegedly Usama bin Laden" . Another link to bin
Laden is the fact that the brother of a leader in an
Egyptian Jihad organization and also a military commander
of Usama bin Laden, was leading an elite KLA unit during
the Kosovo conflict. 12

(1/2: CONTINUA)

---

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