-Osama bin Laden, America's bogyman, was recruited by the CIA in
1979 at the very outset of the US sponsored jihad. He was 22
years old and was trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training
camp.

-The architects of the covert operation in support of "Islamic
fundamentalism" launched during the Reagan presidency played a
key role in launching the "Global War on Terrorism" in the wake
of 9/11.

- President Ronald Reagan met the leaders of the Islamic Jihad
at the White House in 1983

-Under the Reagan adminstration, US foreign policy evolved
towards the unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic
"freedom fighters". In today's World, the "freedom fighters" are
labelled "Islamic terrorists".

-In the Pashtun language, the word "Taliban" means "Students",
or graduates of the madrasahs (places of learning or coranic
schools) set up by the Wahhabi missions ffrom Saudi Arabia, with
the support of the CIA. Education in the years preceding the
Soviet-Afghan war war largely secular in Afghanistan. The number
of CIA sponsored religious schools (madrasahs) increased from
2,500 in 1980 to over 39,000.

The Soviet-Afghan war was part of a CIA covert agenda initiated
during the Carter administration, which consisted in actively
supporting and financing the Islamic brigades, later known as Al
Qaeda.

The Pakistani military regime played from the outset in the late
1970s, a key role in the US sponsored military and intelligence
operations in Afghanistan. In the post-Cold war era, this central
role of Pakistan in US intelligence operations was extended to the
broader Central Asia- Middle East region. From the outset of the
Soviet Afghan war in 1979, Pakistan under military rule actively
supported the Islamic brigades. In close liaison with the CIA,
Pakistan's military intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI), became a powerful organization, a parallel government,
wielding tremendous power and influence.

America's covert war in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a launch
pad, was initiated during the Carter administration prior to the
Soviet "invasion":

"According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the
Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet
army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly
guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July
3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for
secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I
explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce
a Soviet military intervention." (Former National Security
adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Interview with Le Nouvel
Observateur, 15-21 January 1998) [2]

In the published memoirs of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who
held the position of deputy CIA Director at the height of the
Soviet Afghan war, US intelligence was directly involved from the
outset, prior to the Soviet invasion, in channeling aid to the
Islamic brigades.

With CIA backing and the funneling of massive amounts of U.S.
military aid, the Pakistani ISI had developed into a "parallel
structure wielding enormous power over all aspects of government".
(Dipankar Banerjee, "Possible Connection of ISI With Drug
Industry", India Abroad, 2 December 1994). The ISI had a staff
composed of military and intelligence officers, bureaucrats,
undercover agents and informers, estimated at 150,000. (Ibid)

Meanwhile, CIA operations had also reinforced the Pakistani
military regime led by General Zia Ul Haq:

"Relations between the CIA and the ISI had grown increasingly
warm following [General] Zia's ouster of Bhutto and the advent
of the military regime. … During most of the Afghan war,
Pakistan was more aggressively anti-Soviet than even the United
States. Soon after the Soviet military invaded Afghanistan in
1980, Zia [ul Haq] sent his ISI chief to destabilize the Soviet
Central Asian states. The CIA only agreed to this plan in
October 1984." (Ibid)

The ISI operating virtually as an affiliate of the CIA, played a
central role in channeling support to Islamic paramilitary groups
in Afghanistan and subsequently in the Muslim republics of the
former Soviet Union.

Acting on behalf of the CIA, the ISI was also involved in the
recruitment and training of the Mujahideen. In the ten year period
from 1982 to 1992, some 35,000 Muslims from 43 Islamic countries
were recruited to fight in the Afghan jihad. The madrassas in
Pakistan, financed by Saudi charities, were also set up with US
support with a view to "inculcating Islamic values". "The camps
became virtual universities for future Islamic radicalism," (Ahmed
Rashid, The Taliban). Guerilla training under CIA-ISI auspices
included targeted assassinations and car bomb attacks.

"Weapons' shipments "were sent by the Pakistani army and the ISI
to rebel camps in the North West Frontier Province near the
Afghanistan border. The governor of the province is Lieutenant
General Fazle Haq, who [according to Alfred McCoy] . allowed
"hundreds of heroin refineries to set up in his province."
Beginning around 1982, Pakistani army trucks carrying CIA
weapons from Karachi often pick up heroin in Haq's province and
return loaded with heroin. They are protected from police search
by ISI papers."(1982-1989: US Turns Blind Eye to BCCI and
Pakistani Government Involvement in Heroin Trade [3] See also
McCoy, 2003, p. 477 [4] ) .

Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden, America's bogyman, was recruited by the CIA in
1979 at the very outset of the US sponsored jihad. He was 22 years
old and was trained in a CIA sponsored guerilla training camp.

During the Reagan administration, Osama, who belonged to the
wealthy Saudi Bin Laden family was put in charge of raising money
for the Islamic brigades. Numerous charities and foundations were
created. The operation was coordinated by Saudi intelligence,
headed by Prince Turki al-Faisal, in close liaison with the CIA.
The money derived from the various charities were used to finance
the recruitment of Mujahieen volunteers. Al Qaeda, the base in
Arabic was a data bank of volunteers who had enlisted to fight in
the Afghan jihad. That data base was initially held by Osama bin
Laden.

The Reagan Administration supports "Islamic Fundamentalism"

Pakistan's ISI was used as a "go-between". CIA covert support to
the Mujahideen in Afghanistan operated indirectly through the
Pakistani ISI, --i.e. the CIA did not channel its support directly
to the Mujahideen. In other words, for these covert operations to
be "successful", Washington was careful not to reveal the ultimate
objective of the "jihad", which consisted in destroying the Soviet
Union.

In December 1984, the Sharia Law (Islamic jurisprudence) was
established in Pakistan following a rigged referendum launched by
President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Barely a few months later, in March
1985, President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Decision
Directive 166 (NSDD 166), which authorized "stepped-up covert
military aid to the Mujahideen" as well a support to religious
indoctrination.

The imposition of The Sharia in Pakistan and the promotion of
"radical Islam" was a deliberate US policy serving American
geopolitical interests in South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle
East. Many present-day "Islamic fundamentalist organizations" in
the Middle East and Central Asia, were directly or indirectly the
product of US covert support and financing, often channeled
through foundations from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
Missions from the Wahhabi sect of conservative Islam in Saudi
Arabia were put in charge of running the CIA sponsored madrassas
in Northern Pakistan.

Under NSDD 166, a series of covert CIA-ISI operations was
launched.

The US supplied weapons to the Islamic brigades through the ISI.
CIA and ISI officials would meet at ISI headquarters in Rawalpindi
to coordinate US support to the Mujahideen. Under NSDD 166, the
procurement of US weapons to the Islamic insurgents increased from
10,000 tons of arms and ammunition in 1983 to 65,000 tons annually
by 1987. "In addition to arms, training, extensive military
equipment including military satellite maps and state-of-the-art
communications equipment" (University Wire, 7 May 2002).

Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White
House in 1985 (Reagan Archives [5] )

VIDEO (30 Sec.)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3f9mlUQzJA&feature=player_embedded

With William Casey as director of the CIA, NSDD 166 was described
as the largest covert operation in US history:

The U.S. supplied support package had three essential
components-organization and logistics, military technology, and
ideological support for sustaining and encouraging the Afghan
resistance....

U.S. counterinsurgency experts worked closely with the
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in organizing
Mujahideen groups and in planning operations inside Afghanistan.

... But the most important contribution of the U.S. was to ...
bring in men and material from around the Arab world and beyond.
The most hardened and ideologically dedicated men were sought on
the logic that they would be the best fighters. Advertisements,
paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and
newsletters around the world offering inducements and
motivations to join the Jihad. (Pervez Hoodbhoy, Afghanistan and
the Genesis of the Global Jihad, Peace Research, 1 May 2005)

Religious Indoctrination

Under NSDD 166, US assistance to the Islamic brigades channeled
through Pakistan was not limited to bona fide military aid.
Washington also supported and financed by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), the process of religious
indoctrination, largely to secure the demise of secular
institutions:

... the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan
schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and
militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur
resistance to the Soviet occupation.

The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured
drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since
then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the
Taliban used the American-produced books,..

The White House defends the religious content, saying that
Islamic principles permeate Afghan culture and that the books
"are fully in compliance with U.S. law and policy." Legal
experts, however, question whether the books violate a
constitutional ban on using tax dollars to promote religion.

... AID officials said in interviews that they left the Islamic
materials intact because they feared Afghan educators would
reject books lacking a strong dose of Muslim thought. The agency
removed its logo and any mention of the U.S. government from the
religious texts, AID spokeswoman Kathryn Stratos said.

"It's not AID's policy to support religious instruction,"
Stratos said. "But we went ahead with this project because the
primary purpose . . . is to educate children, which is
predominantly a secular activity."

... Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and
Pashtun, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under
an AID grant to the University of Nebraska -Omaha and its Center
for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $ 51 million on the
university's education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to
1994." (Washington Post, 23 March 2002)

The Role of the NeoCons

There is continuity. The architects of the covert operation in
support of "Islamic fundamentalism" launched during the Reagan
presidency played a key role in launching the "Global War on
Terrorism" in the wake of 9/11.

Several of the NeoCons of the Bush Junior Administration were high
ranking officials during the Reagan presidency.

Richard Armitage, was Deputy Secretary of State during George W.
Bush's first term (2001-2004). He played a central key role in
post 9/11 negotiations with Pakistan leading up to the October
2001 invasion of Afghanistan. During the Reagan era, he held the
position of Assistant Secretary of Defense for International
Security Policy. In this capacity, he played a key role in the
implementation of NSDD 163 while also ensuring liaison with the
Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus.

Meanwhile, Paul Wolfowitz was at the State Department in charge of
a foreign policy team composed, among others, of Lewis Libby,
Francis Fukuyama and Zalmay Khalilzad.

Wolfowitz's group was also involved in laying the conceptual
groundwork of US covert support to Islamic parties and
organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who now serves the Obama
administration, was also involved in setting the groundwork for
CIA covert operations. He was appointed Deputy Director for
Intelligence by Ronald Reagan in 1982, and Deputy Director of the
CIA in 1986, a position which he held until 1989. Gates played a
key role in the formulation of NSDD 163, which established a
consistent framework for promoting Islamic fundamentalism and
channeling covert support to the Islamic brigades. He was also
involved in the Iran Contra scandal. .

The Iran Contra Operation

Richard Gates, Colin Powell and Richard Armitage, among others,
were also involved in the Iran-Contra operation.

Armitage was in close liaison with Colonel Oliver North. His
deputy and chief anti-terrorist official Noel Koch was part of the
team set up by Oliver North.

Of significance, the Iran-Contra operation was also tied into the
process of channeling covert support to the Islamic brigades in
Afghanistan. The Iran Contra scheme served several related foreign
policy:

1) Procurement of weapons to Iran thereby feeding the Iraq-Iran
war,

2) Support to the Nicaraguan Contras,

3) Support to the Islamic brigades in Afghanistan, channeled via
Pakistan's ISI.

Following the delivery of the TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran, the
proceeds of these sales were deposited in numbered bank accounts
and the money was used to finance the Nicaraguan Contras. and the
Mujahideen:

"The Washington Post reported that profits from the Iran arms
sales were deposited in one CIA-managed account into which the
U.S. and Saudi Arabia had placed $250 million apiece. That money
was disbursed not only to the contras in Central America but to
the rebels fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan." (US News &
World Report, 15 December 1986).

Although Lieutenant General Colin Powell, was not directly
involved in the arms' transfer negotiations, which had been
entrusted to Oliver North, he was among "at least five men within
the Pentagon who knew arms were being transferred to the CIA."
(The Record, 29 December 1986). In this regard, Powell was
directly instrumental in giving the "green light" to lower-level
officials in blatant violation of Congressional procedures.
According to the New York Times, Colin Powell took the decision
(at the level of military procurement), to allow the delivery of
weapons to Iran:

"Hurriedly, one of the men closest to Secretary of Defense
Weinberger, Maj. Gen. Colin Powell, bypassed the written ''focal
point system'' procedures and ordered the Defense Logistics
Agency [responsible for procurement] to turn over the first of
2,008 TOW missiles to the CIA., which acted as cutout for
delivery to Iran" (New York Times, 16 February 1987)

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was also implicated in the
Iran-Contra Affair.

The Golden Crescent Drug Trade

The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately
related to the CIA's covert operations. Prior to the Soviet-Afghan
war, opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to
small regional markets. There was no local production of heroin.
(Alfred McCoy, Drug Fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in
the Narcotics Trade. The Progressive, 1 August 1997).

Alfred McCoy's study confirms that within two years of the
onslaught of the CIA operation in Afghanistan, "the
Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's top heroin
producer." (Ibid) Various Islamic paramilitary groups and
organizations were created. The proceeds of the Afghan drug trade,
which was protected by the CIA, were used to finance the various
insurgencies:

"Under CIA and Pakistani protection, Pakistan military and
Afghan resistance opened heroin labs on the Afghan and Pakistani
border. According to The Washington Post of May 1990, among the
leading heroin manufacturers were Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan
leader who received about half of the covert arms that the U.S.
shipped to Pakistan. Although there were complaints about
Hekmatyar's brutality and drug trafficking within the ranks of
the Afghan resistance of the day, the CIA maintained an
uncritical alliance and supported him without reservation or
restraint.

Once the heroin left these labs in Pakistan's northwest
frontier, the Sicilian Mafia imported the drugs into the U.S.,
where they soon captured sixty percent of the U.S. heroin
market. That is to say, sixty percent of the U.S. heroin supply
came indirectly from a CIA operation. During the decade of this
operation, the 1980s, the substantial DEA contingent in
Islamabad made no arrests and participated in no seizures,
allowing the syndicates a de facto free hand to export heroin.
By contrast, a lone Norwegian detective, following a heroin deal
from Oslo to Karachi, mounted an investigation that put a
powerful Pakistani banker known as President Zia's surrogate son
behind bars. The DEA in Islamabad got nobody, did nothing,
stayed away.

Former CIA operatives have admitted that this operation led to
an expansion of the Pakistan-Afghanistan heroin trade. In 1995
the former CIA Director of this Afghan operation, Mr. Charles
Cogan, admitted sacrificing the drug war to fight the Cold War.
"Our main mission was to do as much damage to the Soviets. We
didn't really have the resources or the time to devote to an
investigation of the drug trade," he told Australian television.
"I don't think that we need to apologize for this. Every
situation has its fallout. There was fallout in terms of drugs,
yes, but the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left
Afghanistan." (Alfred McCoy, Testimony before the Special
Seminar focusing on allegations linking CIA secret operations
and drug trafficking-convened February 13, 1997, by Rep. John
Conyers, Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus [6] )

Lucrative Narcotics Trade in the Post Cold War Era

The drug trade has continued unabated during the post Cold war
years. Afghanistan became the major supplier of heroin to Western
markets, in fact almost the sole supplier: more than 90 percent of
the heroin sold Worldwide originates in Afghanistan. This
lucrative contraband is tied into Pakistani politics and the
militarization of the Pakistani State. It also has a direct
bearing on the structure of the Pakistani economy and its banking
and financial institutions, which from the outset of the Golden
Crescent drug trade have been involved in extensive money
laundering operations, which are protected by the Pakistani
military and intelligence apparatus:

According to the US State Department International Narcotics
Control Strategy Report (2006) (quoted in Daily Times, 2 March
2006 [7] ),

œPakistani criminal networks play a central role in the
transshipment of narcotics and smuggled goods from Afghanistan
to international markets. Pakistan is a major drug-transit
country. The proceeds of narcotics trafficking and funding for
terrorist activities are often laundered by means of the
alternative system called hawala. ... .

œRepeatedly, a network of private unregulated charities has
also emerged as a significant source of illicit funds for
international terrorist networks,” the report pointed out. ...
"

The hawala system and the charities are but the tip of the
iceberg. According to the State Department report, "the State Bank
of Pakistan has frozen more twenty years] a meager $10.5 million
"belonging to 12 entities and individuals linked to Osama bin
Laden, Al Qaeda or the Taliban". What the report fails to mention
is that the bulk of the proceeds of the Afghan drug trade are
laundered in bona fide Western banking institutions.

The Taliban Repress the Drug Trade

A major and unexpected turnaround in the CIA sponsored drug trade
occurred in 2000.

The Taliban government which came to power in 1996 with
Washington's support, implemented in 2000-2001 a far-reaching
opium eradication program with the support of the United Nations
which served to undermine a multibillion dollar trade. (For
further details see, Michel Chossudovsky, America's War on
Terrorism, Global Research, 2005).

In 2001 prior to the US-led invasion, opium production under the
Taliban eradication program declined by more than 90 percent.

In the immediate wake of the US led invasion, the Bush
administration ordered that the opium harvest not be destroyed on
the fabricated pretext that this would undermine the military
government of Pervez Musharraf.

"Several sources inside Capitol Hill noted that the CIA opposes
the destruction of the Afghan opium supply because to do so
might destabilize the Pakistani government of Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. According to these sources, Pakistani intelligence
had threatened to overthrow President Musharraf if the crops
were destroyed. ...

'If they [the CIA] are in fact opposing the destruction of the
Afghan opium trade, it'll only serve to perpetuate the belief
that the CIA is an agency devoid of morals; off on their own
program rather than that of our constitutionally elected
government'" .(NewsMax.com, 28 March 2002) [8]

Since the US led invasion, opium production has increased 33 fold
from 185 tons in 2001 under the Taliban to 6100 tons in 2006.
Cultivated areas have increased 21 fold since the 2001 US-led
invasion. (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 6 January 2006)
[9]

In 2007, Afghanistan supplied approximately 93% of the global
supply of heroin. The proceeds (in terms of retail value) of the
Afghanistan drug trade are estimated (2006) to be in excess of 190
billion dollars a year, representing a significant fraction of the
global trade in narcotics.(Ibid)

The proceeds of this lucrative multibillion dollar contraband are
deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of the revenues
accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside
Afghanistan.

The laundering of drug money constitutes a multibillion dollar
activity, which continues to be protected by the CIA and the ISI.
In the wake of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.

In retrospect, one of the major objectives of the 2001 invasion of
Afghanistan was to restore the drug trade.

The militarization of Pakistan serves powerful political,
financial and criminal interests underlying the drug trade. US
foreign policy tends to support these powerful interests. The CIA
continues to protect the Golden Crescent narcotics trade. Despite
his commitment to eradicating the drug trade, opium production
under the regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has skyrocketed.

The Assassination of General Zia Ul-Haq

In August 1988, President Zia was killed in an air crash together
with US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and several of
Pakistan's top generals. The circumstances of the air crash remain
shrouded in mystery.

Following Zia's death, parliamentary elections were held and
Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister in December 1988.
She was subsequently removed from office by Zia's successor,
President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on the grounds of alleged corruption.
In 1993, she was re-elected and was again removed from office in
1996 on the orders of President Farooq Leghari.

Continuity has been maintained throughout. Under the short-lived
post-Zia elected governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto,
the central role of the military-intelligence establishment and
its links to Washington were never challenged.

Both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif served US foreign policy
interests. While in power, both democratically elected leaders,
nonetheless supported the continuity of military rule. As prime
minister from 1993 to 1996, Benazir Bhutto "advocated a
conciliatory policy toward Islamists, especially the Taliban in
Afghanistan" which were being supported by Pakistan's ISI (See F.
William Engdahl, Global Research, January 2008) [10]

Benazir Bhutto's successor as Prime Minister, Mia Muhammad Nawaz
Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) was deposed in 1999 in
a US supported coup d'Etat led by General Pervez Musharraf.

The 1999 coup was instigated by General Pervez Musharaf, with the
support of the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Mahmoud
Ahmad, who was subsequently appointed to the key position of head
of military intelligence (ISI).

From the outset of the Bush administration in 2001, General Ahmad
developed close ties not only with his US counterpart CIA director
George Tenet, but also with key members of the US government
including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of
State Richard Armitage, not to mention Porter Goss, who at the
time was Chairman of the House Committee on Intelligence.
Ironically, Mahmoud Ahmad is also known, according to a September
2001 FBI report, for his suspected role in supporting and
financing the alleged 9/11 terrorists as well as his links to Al
Qaeda and the Taliban. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America's "war on
Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005) [1]

Concluding Remarks

These various "terrorist" organizations were created as a result
of CIA support. They are not the product of religion. The project
to establish "a pan-Islamic Caliphate" is part of a carefully
devised intelligence operation.

CIA support to Al Qaeda was not in any way curtailed at the end of
the Cold War. In fact quite the opposite. The earlier pattern of
covert support took on a global thrust and became increasingly
sophisticated.

The "Global War on Terrorism" is a complex and intricate
intelligence construct. The covert support provided to "Islamic
extremist groups" is part of an imperial agenda. It purports to
weaken and eventually destroy secular and civilian governmental
institutions, while also contributing to vilifying Islam. It is an
instrument of colonization which seeks to undermine sovereign
nation-states and transform countries into territories.

For the intelligence operation to be successful, however, the
various Islamic organizations created and trained by the CIA must
remain unaware of the role they are performing on the geopolitical
chessboard, on behalf of Washington.

Over the years, these organizations have indeed acquired a certain
degree of autonomy and independence, in relation to their
US-Pakistani sponsors. That appearance of "independence", however,
is crucial; it is an integral part of the covert intelligence
operation. According to former CIA agent Milton Beardman the
Mujahideen were invariably unaware of the role they were
performing on behalf of Washington. In the words of bin Laden
(quoted by Beardman): "neither I, nor my brothers saw evidence of
American help". (Weekend Sunday (NPR); Eric Weiner, Ted Clark; 16
August 1998).

"Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor, the Islamic
warriors were unaware that they were fighting the Soviet Army on
behalf of Uncle Sam. While there were contacts at the upper
levels of the intelligence hierarchy, Islamic rebel leaders in
theatre had no contacts with Washington or the CIA." (Michel
Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism, Chapter 2 [1] ).

The fabrication of "terrorism" --including covert support to
terrorists-- is required to provide legitimacy to the "war on
terrorism".

The various fundamentalist and paramilitary groups involved in US
sponsored "terrorist" activities are "intelligence assets". In the
wake of 9/11, their designated function as "intelligence assets"
is to perform their role as credible "enemies of America".

Under the Bush administration, the CIA continued to support (via
Pakistan's ISI) several Pakistani based Islamic groups. The ISI is
known to support Jamaat a-Islami, which is also present in South
East Asia, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jehad a-Kashmiri, Hizbul-Mujahidin
and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The Islamic groups created by the CIA are also intended to rally
public support in Muslim countries. The underlying objective is to
create divisions within national societies throughout the Middle
East and Central Asia, while also triggering sectarian strife
within Islam, ultimately with a view to curbing the development of
a broad based secular mass resistance, which would challenge US
imperial ambitions.

This function of an outside enemy is also an essential part of war
propaganda required to galvanize Western public opinion. Without
an enemy, a war cannot be fought. US foreign policy needs to
fabricate an enemy, to justify its various military interventions
in the Middle East and Central Asia. An enemy is required to
justify a military agenda, which consists in " going after Al
Qaeda". The fabrication and vilification of the enemy are required
to justify military action.

The existence of an outside enemy sustains the illusion that the
"war on terrorism" is real. It justifies and presents military
intervention as a humanitarian operation based on the right to
self-defense. It upholds the illusion of a "conflict of
civilizations". The underlying purpose ultimately is to conceal
the real economic and strategic objectives behind the broader
Middle East Central Asian war.

Historically, Pakistan has played a central role in "war on
terrorism". Pakistan constitutes from Washington's standpoint a
geopolitical hub. It borders onto Afghanistan and Iran. It has
played a crucial role in the conduct of US and allied military
operations in Afghanistan as well as in the context of the
Pentagon's war plans in relation to Iran.


[1]  http://www.globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/truth911.html
[2]  http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html
[3]  http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a82blindeyedrugs#a82blindeyedrugs
[4]  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1556524838/centerforcoop-20
[5]  http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/atwork.html
[6]  http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/97-08%20AUG/ciacovert.html
[7]  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C03%5C02%5Cstory_2-3-2006_pg7_32
[8]  http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/3/28/95240.shtml
[9]  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5514
[10]  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7728