Unanswered Questions: Thinking For Ourselves

1979: The CIA begins pumping billions of $'s in military and other aid into Afghanistan in opposition to the invasion by the Soviet Union. (Former National Security Advisor Brzezinski later boasts that the U.S. goaded the Soviets into an "Afghan trap" by de-stabilizing the pro-soviet regime, . The aid largely goes to support the build-up of an army of Mujahadeen, (Moslem religious fighters) in alliance with the most extreme of sects, (Wah'habism) emanating out of Saudi Arabia. The prime partner in the immediate region is Pakistan; and in particular, the ISI, Pakistani intelligence.

early 1980: Osama bin Laden begins providing financial, organizational, and engineering aid for the mujaheddin in Afghanistan, with the advice and support of the Saudi royal family.[] CIA money is funnelled through Pakistan's ISI, so that, as one CIA official claims, "Osama bin Laden was not aware of the role he was playing on behalf of Washington." (Ahmed Rashid, link follows bellow).

1982-92: "some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan's fight .... Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs,[religious schools]" from which the Taliban movement emerges.

1982-91: Afghan opium production balloons from 250 tons in 1982 to 2,000 tons in 1991, (startribune093001.html). The ISI grows so powerful on this money, that Time magazine later says, "Even by the shadowy standards of spy agencies, the ISI is notorious. It is commonly branded 'a state within the state,' or Pakistan's 'invisible government.'" [Time, 5/6/02]

Mid-1980's: French Intelligence says that Salem bin Laden, Osama's oldest brother, was involved in the Iran-Contra affair, (the diversion of arms to anti-Nicarguan terror groups, from Iran, via Saudi Arabian connections). [New Yorker, 11/5/01 Frontline, 2001]

1984-94: The U.S., through USAID and the University of Nebraska, spends millions of dollars developing... then printing textbooks for Afghan schoolchildren. The textbooks are filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings. The Taliban were still using them in 2001. [Washington Post, 3/23/02]

1988: George Bush Jr. is a failed oil man. The same year his father becomes President, some Saudis buy a portion of his small company, Harken, which has never worked outside of Texas. Later in the year, Harken wins a contract in the Persian Gulf and starts doing well financially. These transactions seem so suspicious that even the Wall Street Journal in 1991 states it "raises the question of ... an effort to cozy up to a presidential son." Two major investors into Bush's company during this time are Salem bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's father, and Khaled bin Mahfouz. [Salon, 11/19/01 Intelligence Newsletter, 3/2/00]. Khaled bin Mahfouz is a Saudi banker with a 20% stake in BCCI, a bank that will go bankrupt a few years later in the biggest corruption scandal in banking history. The Washington Post claims, "The CIA used BCCI to funnel millions of dollars to the fighters battling the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan." A French intelligence report in 2001 will state, "The financial network of bin Laden, as well as his network of investments, is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI for its fraudulent operations, often with the same people (former directors and cadres of the bank and its affiliates, arms merchants oil merchants, Saudi investors)." [Washington Post, 2/17/02]

March, 1991: The Gulf War against Iraq ends, the US does not withdraw all of its soldiers from Saudi Arabia, but stations some 15,000-20,000 there permanently. Their presence isn't admitted until 1995. Many sources say this is why Bin Laden turned against the U.S. and began plotting attacks. [Nation, 2/15/99] The question is, did CIA funds for the Mujahadeen, The Taliban, and the ISI continue finding its way into Bin Laden and Al Qaeda's hands? Did the usefulness of Bin Laden to the CIA, as an asset, end?

1993: Canadian police arrest Ali Mohamed, a high ranking al-Qaeda figure. However, they release him when the FBI says he is a US agent [Globe and Mail, 11/22/01]. Mohamed, once a US Army sergeant, then will continue to work for al-Qaeda for a number of years. He trains bin Laden's personal bodyguards. Between 1993 and 1997 he tells secrets to the FBI about al-Qaeda's operations. He is arrested in late 1998 and subsequently convicted of his role in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya. [CNN, 10/30/98, Independent, 11/1/98]

February 26, 1993: An attempt to blow up the WTC fails. 6 people are killed in the misfired blast. The New York Times later reports a curious story about an undercover agent who ends up being the key government witness in the trial against the bomber. This agent, Emad Salem, says that the FBI knew about the attack beforehand and told him they would thwart it by substituting a harmless powder for the explosives. However, this plan was called off by an FBI supervisor, and the bombing was not stopped. [New York Times, 10/28/93] Ramzi Yousef, (close ties to bin Laden/ISI) is found guilty of masterminding the plot, [Congressional Hearings, 2/24/98] yet the actual "perpetrators" appear to be innocent "scapegoats". The FBI's own senior explosives expert, testifies that the FBI concocted misleading scientific reports and pressured two of their scientists to perjure their testimony. The FBI also intimidated defense attorneys, and breached court orders in an attempt to prejudice the jury.

April 92 to Oct. 94 Afghanistan... Najibullah ousted. Mujahideen factions seize power but fighting erupts along ethnic lines between the Pashtoon, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and Turkmen.

Oct 1994: Islamic Taliban movement emerges to challenge the Mujahideen (who eventually retreat, forming the Northern Alliance). "Pakistan provides the Taliban with the resources they need... through its ISI... to control the [greater] whole of Afghanistan.... finances, weapons and military equipment, besides Pak Special Forces cadres, airforce pilots and army cadres for direction of the war effort. In parallel..., Pakistan enlisted the support of its Islamic Fundamentalist organisations (the various Jamaats and Harkats) to swell the ranks of the Taliban with militant cadres from the thousands of Îmadrassasâ run in Pakistan. Any observer of the Afghan scene would conclude that a ragtag combination like the Taliban could only succeed with sustained and organised external military assistance."

1994: Mohammed al-Khilewi, the first secretary at the Saudi Mission to the United Nations, defects to the U.S. and offers the FBI fourteen thousand internal government documents depicting the Saudi royal family's corruption, human-rights abuses, and financial support for terrorists. "The agents refused to accept them." [New Yorker, 10/16/01

1996: FBI investigators are prevented from carrying out an investigation into two relatives of bin Laden. A high placed intelligence official tells the Guardian: "there were always constraints on investigating the Saudis. There were particular investigations that were effectively killed." An unnamed US source says to the BBC, "There is a hidden agenda at the very highest levels of our government." [BBC Newsnight, 11/6/01, Guardian, 11/7/01]

1996: The Saudi Arabian government starts paying huge amounts of money to al-Qaeda, becoming its largest financial backer. Electronic intercepts by the NSA "depict a regime so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it." US officials later privately complain "that the Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration, is refusing to confront this reality, even in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks." [New Yorker, 10/16/01]

March, '96: The US pressures Sudan to do something about bin Laden. Sudan offers to extradite bin Laden to anywhere he might stand trial. It is later explained that the US decides not to take him because they don't have enough evidence at the time to charge him with a crime. Saudi Arabia doesn't want him. He is sent to Afghanistan. One US intelligence source in the region later states: "We kidnap minor drug czars and bring them back in burlap bags. Somebody didn't want this to happen." [Village Voice, 10/31/01, Washington Post, 10/3/01]

August 7, 1998: Terrorists bomb the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. retaliates by firing some 60 missiles at 6 training camps in Afghanistan and about 20 missiles at a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan -actions which are eventually described as "inept" by most sources. [Observer, 8/23/98, New Yorker, 1/24/00] The destruction of the pharmaceutical factory is a brutal crime.

April, 99: A Saudi government audit shows that five of Saudi Arabia's billionaires have been giving tens of millions of dollars to al-Qaeda. [USA Today, 10/29/99, Boston Herald, 12/10/01]

December 24-31, 1999: An Indian Airlines flight is hijacked; as a result, an Islamic militant, Saeed Sheikh, is released from Indian prison. [BBC, 12/31/99 ] He travels to Pakistan, and lives openly and opulently there. "US sources say he did little to hide his connections to terrorist organizations, and even attended swanky parties attended by senior Pakistani government officials." This behavior has led US authorities to believe he is a "protected asset" of the ISI. [Newsweek, 3/13/02]

January, 2000: Former President George Bush Sr. meets with the bin Laden family on the behalf of the Carlyle Group. [Wall Street Journal, 9/27/01, Guardian, 10/31/01]

April 4, 2000: ISI Director and "leading Taliban supporter" General Ahmad visits Washington. [Washington Post, 12/19/01]

before June 29, 2000: Pakistani ISI Director General Ahmad orders an aide to wire transfer about $100,000 to 9/11 hijacker Atta. Ahmad later resigns after the transfer is disclosed in India and confirmed by the FBI. [Times of India, 10/9/01] The individual who makes the wire transfer is Sheikh Saeed, later convicted for the kidnapping and murder of reporter Daniel Pearl in Feb. 2002. [ABC News, 9/30/01] [CNN, 10/1/01, CNN, 10/6/01, New York Times, 7/10/02]

June, 2000-September 10, 2001: The Financial Times later reports, "US investigators believe about half the $500,000 that the hijackers spent on the September 11 plot was sent by Mustafa Ahmad, who is today regarded by investigators as bin Laden's finance chief, via Dubai money exchanges through Citibank in New York and on to Florida." [Financial Times, 11/29/01] Mustafa Ahmad is another name for Saeed Sheikh

2001: Human Rights Watch report charges that Pakistan has violated the U.N. arms embargo on the Taliban imposed in December 2000, by permitting arms to cross its border... providing military advisers, logistical support during key battles, and financing.

summer, 2001: Egyptian investigators track down a close associate of bin Laden named Ahmed al-Khadir, wanted for bombing the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad in 1995. Egyptians surround the safe house in Pakistan where al-Khadir is hiding. They notify the ISI to help arrest him, and the ISI promises swift action. Instead, a car sent by the ISI filled with Taliban and having diplomatic plates comes to the house, grabs al-Khadir and drives him to safety in Afghanistan. Time magazine later brings up the incident to show the strong ties between the ISI and both the Taliban and al-Qaeda. [Time, 5/6/02]

mid-July, 2001: John O'Neill, FBI counter-terrorism expert, says, "the main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it." He also states, "All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia." [CNN, 1/8/02, CNN, 1/9/02 , Irish Times, 11/19/01, the book "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth"]

[NOTE: John O'Neil became head of security at the WTC towers a few weeks before Sept. 11th, and died in the attacks].

August, 2001: Former CIA directorate of operations officer, Robert Baer, obtains a computer record of "hundreds" of secret al-Qaeda operatives in the Gulf region, many in Saudi Arabia, concerning a "spectacular terrorist operation" that will take place shortly. The Saudi defense minister, Prince Sultan, refuses to look at the list or to pass the names on. Large sections of Baer's book are blacked out, having been censored by the CIA. [Financial Times, 1/12/02, the book See No Evil by Robert Baer, 2/02]

September 11, 2001: The Carlyle Group, the twelth largest arms contractor in the world, (for whom George Bush Sr. is a consultant/executive, as are many of his former cabinet members) is hosting a conference at a Washington hotel. Among the guests of honor is investor Shafig bin Laden, brother to Osama.

September 13-19, 2001: Members of bin Laden's family and important Saudis are flown out of the US, during the time that all U.S. commercial flights are grounded.[Boston Globe, 9/21/01, New Yorker, 11/5/01, [Tampa Tribune, 10/5/01]

September 14, 2001: flight instructors in Florida say that it was common for students with Saudi affiliations to enter the US with only cursory background checks and sometimes none. [Boston Globe, 9/14/01]

September 15-17, 2001: A series of articles suggest that at least 7 of the 9/11 hijackers had training in US military bases. [New York Times, 9/15/01, Newsweek, 9/15/01]

September 17, 2001: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R), who claims to have made many secret trips into Afghanistan and even fought with the mujaheddin there, describes to Congress how "our intelligence services knew about the location of bin Laden several times but were not permitted to attack him... because of decisions made by people higher up." [Speech to the House of Representatives, 9/17/01]

October 27, 2001: The bin Laden family divests from the Carlyle Group around this time, in light of public controversy surrounding the family after the 9/11 attacks. [Washington Post, 10/27/01]

early November, 2001: It is later reported that many locals in Afghanistan witness a remarkable escape of al-Qaeda forces from Kabul around this time. Says one local businessman, "We don't understand how they weren't all killed the night before because they came in a convoy of at least 1,000 cars and trucks. [London Times, 7/22/02]

November 5, 2001: A New Yorker article points to evidence that the bin Laden family has generally not ostracized itself from bin Laden, but retains close ties in some cases. The large bin Laden family owns and runs a $5 billion a year global corporation that includes the largest construction firm in the Islamic world. [New Yorker, 11/5/01]

November 10, 2001: Telegraph reporter Christina Lamb is arrested and expelled from Pakistan by the ISI. She had been investigating the connections between the ISI and the Taliban. Reporter Daniel Pearl's investigation into the ISI will later result in his death. [Telegraph, 11/11/01]

mid-November, 2001: At the request of the Pakistani government, the US secretly allows rescue flights into the besieged Taliban stronghold of Kunduz to save Pakistanis fighting for the Taliban and bring them back to Pakistan. [Independent,] The New Yorker magazine reports that, "What was supposed to be a limited evacuation apparently slipped out of control and, as an unintended consequence, an unknown number of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters managed to join in the exodus." [New Yorker, 1/21/02]

mid-November, 2001: Ismail Khan, governor of Herat province and one of Afghanistan's most successful militia leaders, later claims that his troops and other Northern Alliance fighters held back from sweeping into Kandahar at this time at the request of the US. Khan maintains "we could have captured all the Taliban and the al-Qaeda groups. We could have arrested Osama bin Laden with all of his supporters." [USA Today, 1/2/02]

November 16, 2001: According to Newsweek, approximately 600 al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters escape Afghanistan. Many senior leaders are in the group. They had walked a long trek from bombing in the Tora Bora region. There are two main routes out of the Tora Bora cave complex to Pakistan. The US bombed only one route. [Newsweek, 8/11/02 ]

November 21, 2001: The Independent runs a story headlined, "Opium Farmers Rejoice at the Defeat of the Taliban." The story reports that massive opium planting is underway all over the country. [Independent, 11/21/01]

November 28, 2001: A US Special Forces soldier stationed in Fayetteville, North Carolina later (anonymously) claims that the US had bin Laden pinned in a certain Tora Bora cave on this day, but failed to act. On the same day this story is reported, the media also reports a recent spate of strange deaths at the same military base in Fayetteville. Five soldiers and their wives have all died since June, 2002 in apparent murder-suicides. All five soldiers had recently returned from Afghanistan, at least three were special forces. [Independent, 8/2/02 ]

late November, 2001: The Telegraph later reports on the battle for Tora Bora: " Eyewitnesses express shock that the US pinned in Taliban and al-Qaeda forces... on three sides only, but left the route to Pakistan open. "The border with Pakistan was the key, but no one paid any attention to it. When the battle was over, only 21 bedraggled al-Qaeda fighters were captured. [Telegraph, 2/23/02]

December 4, 2001: Convicted drug lord and opium kingpin Ayub Afridi is recruited by the US government to help establish control in Afghanistan by unifying various Pashtun warlords. The former opium smuggler, who was one of the CIA's leading assets in the war against the Russians, is released from prison in order to do this. [Asia Times, 12/4/01]

December 13, 2001: The US releases a video of bin Laden that seems to confirm the role of bin Laden in the 9/11 attack -save for a number of discrepancies, the most important of which appears to be that the person in the video just plain doesn't look like him, especially in the nose.[http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/people/twoosamas.jpg]

December 30, 2001: The new Afghan Interior Minister Younis Qanooni claims that the ISI helped bin Laden escape from Afghanistan: "Undoubtedly they (ISI) knew what was going on." He claims that the ISI is still supporting bin Laden even if Pakistani president Musharraf wasn't. [BBC, 12/30/01]

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Primary Sources:

http://www.unansweredquestions.org/timeline/

http://www.unansweredquestions.org/timeline/AAsaudi.html

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/

http://www.globalresearch.ca

http://www.copvcia.com