Washington Supports International Terrorism

Chapter 3

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". 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".

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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.

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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.