CHAPTER III
Washington Supports International
Terrorism
While the “Islamic Jihad”—featured by the Bush administration as “a
threat to America”—is blamed for the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, these same Islamic organizations
constitute a key instrument of US military-intelligence operations
not only in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, but also in
India and China.
While the Mujahideen are busy fighting on behalf of Uncle Sam, the
FBI—operating as a US-based Police Force—is waging a domestic war
against terrorism, operating in some respects independently of the
CIA, which has—since the Soviet-Afghan war—supported international
terrorism through its covert operations.
Confronted with the evidence and history of CIA covert operations
since the Cold War era, 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” to a bygone era.
According to the CIA, an “intelligence asset”—as distinct from a
bona fide “intelligence agent”—need not be committed to the pursuit
of US interests. Rather, it is meant to act and/or behave in a way
which serves US foreign policy interests.
Intelligence assets are often unaware of the precise functions and
roles they are performing on behalf of the CIA on the geopolitical
chessboard. In turn, for these covert operations to be “successful”,
the CIA will use various proxy and front organizations such as
Pakistan’s military intelligence apparatus.
Most post-September 11 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 the September
11 crisis. Lost in the barrage of recent history, the role of the
CIA, in supporting and developing international terrorist
organizations during the Cold War and its aftermath, is casually
ignored or downplayed by the Western media.
The ‘Blowback’ Thesis
A blatant example of post-September 11 media distortion is the
“blowback” thesis: “Intelligence assets” are said to “have gone
against their sponsors; what we’ve created blows back in our face”.1
In a display of 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 1996] is partly the outcome of
the US 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 CIA has never severed
its ties to the “Islamic Militant Network”.
‘Bosniagate’: Replicating the Iran-Contragate
Pattern
Remember Oliver 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
in the 1990s to arm and equip the Mujahideen fighting in the ranks
of the Bosnian Muslim army against the Armed Forces of the Yugoslav
Federation.
Pakistan’s 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 by 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 [of 1994], there has been a stream
of “Afghan” Mujahideen … covertly landed in Ploce, Croatia (SouthWest
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 Mujahideen landings 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.4
‘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 accuses the Clinton administration
of having “helped turn Bosnia into a militant Islamic base” leading
to the recruitment, through the “Militant Islamic Network”, of
thousands of Mujahideen from the Muslim world:
Perhaps most threatening to the SFOR
[Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina] 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 US
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 Mujahideen
(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 US Government officials …. [T]he 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 émigré believed to bankroll numerous
militant groups.5
Complicity of the Clinton
Administration
The RPC report confirms unequivocally the complicity of the Clinton
administration with several Islamic fundamentalist organizations,
including Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.
The Republicans wanted to undermine the Clinton administration.
However, at a time when the entire country had its eyes riveted on
the Monica Lewinsky scandal, they 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 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 Defense 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”.6
“The US DIA approached MI6 to arrange a training program 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 [1999].7
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 guerrilla and diversion tactics.8
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 fundamen-talists.9
Congressional Testimonies on KLA-Osama
Links
According to Frank Ciluffo of the Globalized Organized 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
per cent of heroin destined for Europe.10
According to Ralf Mutschke of Interpol’s Criminal Intelligence
division, also in a testimony to the House Judicial Committee:
The US 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 Osama 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 Osama bin Laden,
was leading an elite KLA unit during the Kosovo conflict.11
Madeleine Albright Covets the KLA
These KLA links to international terrorism and organized crime
documented by the US Congress, were totally ignored by the Clinton
administration. In fact, in the months preceding the bombing of
Yugoslavia, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was busy building
a “political legitimacy” for the KLA. The paramilitary army had—from
one day to the next—been elevated to the status of a bona fide
“democratic” force in Kosovo.
In turn, Madeleine Albright forced the
pace of international diplomacy: the KLA had been spearheaded into
playing a central role in the failed “peace negotiations” at
Rambouillet in early 1999. Meanwhile, the KLA developed and
reinforced its relationship to the Militant Islamic Network
including Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.
The US Congress tacitly Endorses State
Terrorism
While Congressional transcripts confirmed that the KLA had been
working hand in glove with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, this did not
prevent the Clinton and later the Bush administration from arming
and equipping the KLA. The Congressional documents also confirm that
members of the Senate and the House knew the relationship of the
Administration to international terrorism. To quote the statement of
Rep. John Kasich of the House Armed Services Committee: “We
connected ourselves [in 1998-99] with the KLA, which was the staging
point for bin Laden.”12
Members of Congress were fully cognizant of the links between the US
Administration and Al Qaeda. They knew exactly who Osama bin Laden
was—a pawn in the hands of the Clinton and, later, the Bush
administration. Therefore they also knew that the “campaign against
international terrorism”, launched in the wake of September 11,
implied a hidden agenda. Despite this knowledge, Republicans and
Democrats in unison gave their full support to the President to
“wage war on Osama”.
In 1999, Senator Joe Lieberman stated authoritatively that “fighting
for the KLA is fighting for human rights and American values”. When
making this statement, he knew that the KLA was supported by Osama
bin Laden. In the hours following the October 7, 2001 cruise missile
attacks on Afghanistan, the same Joe Lieberman called for punitive
air strikes against Iraq: “We’re in a war against terrorism … we
can’t stop with bin Laden and the Taliban.” Yet Senator Joe
Lieberman, as a member of the Armed Services Committee of the
Senate, had access to all the Congressional documents pertaining to
KLA-Osama links. In making this statement, he was fully aware that
other agencies of the US Government, as well as NATO, had been
supporting Al Qaeda.
The War in Macedonia
In the wake of the 1999 war in Yugoslavia, the terrorist activities
of the KLA were extended into Southern Serbia and Macedonia.
Meanwhile, the KLA—renamed the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC)—was
elevated to United Nations status, implying the granting of
“legitimate” sources of funding through the United Nations as well
as through bilateral channels, including direct US military aid.
Barely two months after the official inauguration of the KPC under
UN auspices in September 1999, KPC-KLA commanders— using UN
resources and equipment—were already preparing assaults into
Macedonia as a logical follow-up to their terrorist activities in
Kosovo. According to the Skopje daily Dnevnik, the KPC had
established a “sixth operation zone” in Southern Serbia and
Macedonia:
Sources, who insist on anonymity,
claim that the headquarters of the Kosovo Protection Brigades
[i.e., linked to the UN-sponsored KPC] have [March 2000] already
been formed in Tetovo, Gostivar and Skopje. They are being
prepared in Debar and Struga [on the border with Albania] as
well, and their members have defined codes.13
According to the BBC, “Western special
forces were still training the guerrillas”, meaning that they were
assisting the KLA in opening up “a sixth operation zone” in Southern
Serbia and Macedonia.14
The Islamic Militant Network and NATO
Join Hands in Macedonia
Among the foreign mercenaries fighting in Macedonia in 2001 with the
self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) of Macedonia, were
Mujahideen from the Middle East and the Central Asian republics of
the former Soviet Union. Also within the KLA’s proxy force in
Macedonia, were senior US military advisers from a private mercenary
outfit on contract to the Pentagon, as well as “soldiers of fortune”
from Britain, Holland and Germany. Some of these Western mercenaries
had previously fought with the KLA and the Bosnian Muslim Army.
Extensively documented by the Macedonian press and statements made
by the Macedonian authorities, the US Government and the “Islamic
Militant Network” were working hand in glove in supporting and
financing the NLA, which was involved in the terrorist attacks in
Macedonia. The NLA is a proxy of the KLA. In turn, the KLA and the
UN-sponsored KPC are identical institutions, with the same
commanders and military personnel. KPC Commanders on UN salaries are
fighting in the NLA together with the Mujahideen.
Ironically, while supported and financed by Osama bin Laden’s Al
Qaeda, the KLA-NLA is also supported by NATO and the United Nations
mission to Kosovo (UNMIK). In fact, the “Islamic Militant
Network”—also using Pakistan’s ISI as the CIA’s “go-between”— still
constitutes an integral part of Washington’s covert
military-intelligence operations in Macedonia and Southern Serbia.
The KLA-NLA terrorists are funded from US military aid and the
United Nations peace-keeping budget, as well as by several Islamic
organizations, including Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Drug money is
also being used to finance the terrorists, with the complicity of
the US Government. The recruitment of Mujahideen to fight in the
ranks of the NLA in Macedonia was implemented through various
Islamic groups.
US military advisers mingle with the Mujahideen within the same
paramilitary force; Western mercenaries from NATO countries fight
alongside the Mujahideen recruited in the Middle East and Central
Asia. And the US media calls this a “blowback” where “intelligence
assets” have gone against their sponsors.
But this did not happen during the Cold War. It happened in
Macedonia in 2001. And it is confirmed by numerous press reports,
eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence as well as official
statements by the Macedonian Prime Minister, who has accused the
Western military alliance of supporting the terrorists. Moreover,
the official Macedonian news agency (MIA) has pointed to the
complicity between Washington’s envoy Ambassador James Pardew and
the NLA terrorists.15 In other words, the “intelligence assets” are
still serving the interests of their US sponsors.
Misleading the American People
A major war in Central Asia, supposedly “against international
terrorism”, was launched by a government which is harboring
international terrorism as part of its foreign policy agenda. In
other words, the main justification for waging war has been totally
fabricated. The American people have been deliberately and
consciously misled by their government.
It is important to remember that this decision to mislead the
American people was taken barely a few hours after the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center. Without supporting evidence,
Osama had already been tagged as the “prime suspect”.
TEXT BOX 3.1
America’s Envoy James Pardew
James Pardew started his Balkans career in 1993 as a
senior intelligence officer for the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, responsible for channelling US aid to the Bosnian
Muslim Army. Colonel Pardew had been put in charge of
arranging the “air drops” of supplies to Bosnian forces.
At the time, these “air drops” were tagged as “civilian
aid”. It later transpired—confirmed by the Republican
Party Committee (RPC) Congressional report—that the US
had violated the United Nations arms embargo. And James
Pardew played an important role as part of the team of
intelligence officials working closely with the Chairman
of the National Security Council, Anthony Lake.
Pardew was later involved in the Dayton negotiations (in
1995) on behalf of the US Defense Department. In 1999,
prior to the bombing of Yugoslavia, he was appointed
“Special Representative for Military Stabilization and
Kosovo Implementation” by President Clinton. One of his
tasks was to channel support to the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA), which at the time was also being supported
by Osama bin Laden. Pardew was in this regard
instrumental in replicating the “Bosnian pattern” in
Kosovo and subsequently in Macedonia. |
Two days later on Thursday the 13th of September—while the FBI
investigations had barely commenced—President Bush pledged to “lead
the world to victory”.
Moreover, the entire US Congress—with only one honest and courageous
dissenting voice in the House of Representatives—had endorsed the
Administration’s decision to go to war. Members of the House and the
Senate have access through the various committees to official
confidential reports and intelligence documents which prove beyond a
shadow of a doubt that agencies of the US Government have strong
ties to international terrorism. They cannot say “we did not know”.
In fact, most of this evidence is in the public domain.
Under the historical resolution of the US Congress adopted by both
the House and the Senate on the 14th of September, 2001:
The President is authorized to use
all necessary and appropriate force against those nations,
organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized,
committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on
September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons,
in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism
against the United States by such nations, organizations or
persons.16
Our analysis confirms that agencies of
the US Government, as well as NATO, have, since the end of the Cold
War, continued to “harbor such organizations”.
Ironically, the text of the September 14 Congressional resolution
also constitutes a “blowback” against the US sponsors of
international terrorism.
The resolution does not exclude the
conduct of an “Osamagate” inquiry, as well as appropriate actions
against agencies and/or individuals of the US Government (including
members of the Clinton and Bush administrations, the CIA and the US
Congress) who may have collaborated with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.
Notes
1. United Press International (UPI),
15 September 2001.
2. The Guardian, London, 15 September 2001.
3. UPI, op cit.
4. International Media Corporation Defense and Strategy Policy,
US Commits Forces, Weapons to Bosnia, London, 31 October 1994.
5. Congressional Press Release, Republican Party Committee
(RPC), US Congress, “Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers
Help Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base”, Washington DC, 16
January 1997, available on the website of the Centre of Research
on Globalization (CRG) at
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html. The original
document is on the website of the US Senate Republican Party
Committee (Senator Larry Craig), at
http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1997/iran.htm; see also
Washington Post, 22 September 1999; emphasis added.
6. The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 29 August 1999.
7. Ibid.
8. Truth in Media, “Kosovo in Crisis”, Phoenix, Arizona,
http://www.truthin-media.org/, 2 April 1999.
9. The Sunday Times, London, 29 November 1998.
10. US Congress, Testimony of Frank J. Cilluffo, Deputy Director
of the Global Organized Crime Program, to the House Judiciary
Committee, Washington DC, 13 December 2000.
11. US Congress, Testimony of Ralf Mutschke of Interpol’s
Criminal Intelligence Division, to the House Judicial Committee,
Washington DC, 13 December 2000.
12. US Congress, Transcripts of the House Armed Services
Committee,
Washington, DC, 5 October 1999, emphasis added.
13. Macedonian Information Centre Newsletter, Skopje, 21 March
2000, published by BBC Summary of World Broadcast, 24 March
2000.
14. BBC, 29 January 2001.
15. Scotland on Sunday, 15 June 2001. See also UPI, 9 July 2001.
For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, “Washington Behind
Terrorist Assaults in Macedonia”, Centre for Research on
Globalization at
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO108B.html, August 2001.
16. See The White House Bulletin, 14 September 2001.
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