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September 11 -
Islamic Jihad or Another Northwoods?

Tim Howells, Ph.D. (Nov 10, 2003) (extract)(#)

THE HIJACKERS LEAD BACK TO PAKISTAN'S ISI, AND THROUGH THE ISI,
BACK TO THE CIA AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

There is no doubt about who the immediate sponsor of the 9/11
hijackers was. In at least one case they received their funding
directly from the top man in the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency.
The ISI has long been a heavily funded CIA client and one of our
staunchest allies, first in the prolonged guerilla war against the
Soviets in Afghanistan, and now in the so called "War on Terrorism."

And yet we know now that in the summer of 2000 ISI Director General
Mahmud Ahmad ordered his aide Saeed Sheikh to transfer $100,000 to the
leader of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta, and that this was done via two
banks in Florida.

"India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links," Manoj Joshi, Times News
Network, October 9, 2001 (#)(#)(#)

"Gen Mahmud's exit due to links with Umar Sheikh," DAWN, October 9,
2001 (#)

"Our Friends the Pakistanis," James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal
Editorial Page, October 10, 2001 (#)

On the day of September 11, Director General Ahmad, Mohammed Atta's
paymaster, was in Washington meeting with the chairmen of the House
and Senate Intelligence Committees:

"Rifts Plentiful as 9/11 Inquiry Begins," James Risen, The New York
Times, June 4, 2002, Late Edition--Final, Section A, Page 1, Column 5 (#)

Conveniently this allowed him to confer directly with Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage the following day, and soon Secretary of
State Colin Powell was announcing Pakistan's cooperation in our
campaign to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice:

 "Powell Says It Clearly: No Middle Ground On Terrorism," Jane Perlez,
The New York Times, September 13, 2001 (#)(#)

The fact that one of our foremost allies in the "War on Terrorism" was
in fact the sponsor of the 9/11 terrorists was uncovered by Indian
intelligence and confirmed by the FBI in early October, just a few
weeks after the attacks: "India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links,"
Manoj Joshi, Times News Network, October 9, 2001 (#)(#)(#)

At this point Ahmad quietly retired, and disappeared from the
limelight.


WHY HAS THE SPONSOR OF THE 9/11 HIJACKERS BEEN ALLOWED TO
SLIP AWAY LIKE THIS?


Where is the swift and terrible retribution
promised us on so many occasions by our President? Why was Ahmad not
immediately taken into custody and brought to the United States for
intensive questioning to uncover further links in the chain? The
answer is obvious and unavoidable to anyone reading this with an open
mind.


THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION DOES NOT  WANT TO UNCOVER WHERE THIS
MOST SIGNIFICANT LINK IN THE COMMAND CHAIN BEHIND THE EVENTS OF
SEPTEMBER 11 LEADS.

Since the administrations of Reagan and George Bush Sr., the ISI has
been a major CIA client and has acted on our behalf first to organize
and command the Afghan resistance forces in the war with the Soviets,
and later to set up the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden
was recruited by the ISI, because they wanted someone who represented
the Saudi elite as part of their Afghan effort for public relations
purposes. The ISI initially tried to find a member of the Saudi royal
family, but they were happy to settle for a member of the bin Laden
family, one of the richest in Saudi Arabia:

"A man of wealth transformed into warrior," John Dorschner, Miami
Herald, September 24, 2001 (#)

The total control that the ISI and the CIA exercised over bin Laden
and their other surrogates in the Afghan conflict is witnessed, among
many other things by the planning of the attack on Jalalabad, the most
significant offensive for the guerillas in the entire war:

Typical of the war's overall conduct, the attack [on Jalalabad in
March 1989] was planned at a meeting in Islamabad [Pakistan] attended
by U.S. Ambassador Robert Oakley, senior Pakistani officials, and 
not a single Afghan.

 (The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,
Prof. Alfred W. McCoy, Lawrence Hill Books, New York, 1991, pg. 452.)

The pattern then is clear and has been well established for decades.
The US, acting through the CIA, sets the agenda and provides the
money. The ISI acts as our agent in this part of the world, selecting
local proxies and orchestrating the activities of the guerilla
warlords. The guerilla leaders themselves, including Osama bin Laden,
are merely pawns in the game. George Bush Sr. as Vice President
personally traveled to Pakistan in 1984 to cement these relations 

(The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI,
Jonathan Beaty and Sam Gwynne, Random House, New York, 1993, pg. 317).

Bin Laden's dependence on the ISI is just as strong now as it ever was.
According to Jane's Intelligence Digest in an article written shortly after
the September 11 attacks, "both the Taliban and Al-Qa'eda would have 
found it difficult to have continued functioning--
including the latter group's terrorist activities--
without substantial aid and support from Islamabad."

"Overt assistance from Pakistan may bring dire consequences," Jane's
Intelligence Digest, September 20, 2001 (#)

Equally, the ISI's alliance with the CIA is as strong as ever. Milton
Bearden, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan who has worked closely
with ISI recently defended the alliance, describing Pakistan as "the
only country in South Asia that always did what we asked."

"The Getaway--Questions surround a secret Pakistani airlift," Seymour
M. Hersh, The New Yorker, January 25, 2002 (#)

Therefore it is highly implausible that ISI Inspector General Ahmad
was acting as an operative for bin Laden when he funded the September
11 hijackers; the chain of command works in the opposite direction. It
is also highly implausible that Ahmad would have chosen on his own
initiative to attack the United States, his own best ally and his
primary source of funding and technology.

Anyone who seriously wants to see the perpetrators of September 11
tracked down and brought to justice should urgently petition their
elected representatives to see that former ISI Director General Ahmad
is arrested and brought to the United States for questioning by an
independent investigative body.

Clearly the Bush administration does not want to see this happen,
because this, the most significant lead we have,
does not seem to point to bin Laden, but rather to the Bush
Administration itself.