Pakistan military brass knew in advance that 9/11 would take place

http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?a...lnews&id=35893

4/3/2006

New Delhi: Top commanders of the Pakistan military establishment knew in advance about the Al Qaeda's plans to attack the United States in September 2001, claims a former senior Indian Government official.

B.Raman, a former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, claims that there are at least 220 references on Pakistan's involvement with Jihadi terrorists, including those associated with the Al Qaeda, in a report prepared by a U.S. National Commission which enquired into the 9/11 terrorist strikes across the United States.

The 9/11 Commission's report, though comprehensive, has two important omissions. First, it has failed to go into the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and brutal murder American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002. An in-depth enquiry into this murder was necessary in order to establish the pre-9/11 links of some of the Pakistani Generals with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and their frantic post-9/11 attempts to cover them up. It is the fear that these links might be exposed by Pearl's enquiries, which led to his kidnapping and murder.

The second relates to an assessment prepared by some members of the research staff of the commission on the events preceding 9/11 after scrutinising the records of the intelligence agencies, including the interrogation report of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, a Pakistani, who orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist strikes on behalf of Osama bin Laden from his (Khalid's) hide-out in Karachi.

Coupled with this revelation is another startling report that claims that the Pakistan Embassy in Washington paid out huge bribes to the National Commission through its American lobbyists. The bribes were allegedly paid to fudge the report and exclude some findings damaging to Pakistan.

The Friday Times, a prestigious weekly of Lahore, which carried the intriguing report, said it is based on a testimony given by a Pakistan Foreign Service officer to the Public Accounts Committee of the Pakistan National Assembly. The diplomat has been identified as Sadiq.

In spite of these references, Raman say that the National Commission has recommended long-term engagement with Pakistan in order to win the so-called war against terrorism.

"Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and Special Secretary Sher Afghan were present at the meeting when an FO (Foreign Office) official, Sadiq, who was part of the secret negotiations with members of the US inquiry team and has just returned from Washington after completing a three-year tenure at the Pakistan Embassy, revealed that a lot of money had been spent to silence the members of the Inquiry Commission and induce them to go soft on Pakistan," says the Friday Times.

According to Sadiq, "dramatic changes were made in the final draft of the Inquiry Commission report after Pakistani lobbyists arranged meetings with members of the commission and convinced them to remove anti-Pakistan findings."

Pakistan, according to The Friday Times, won over the sympathies of 75 US Congressmen as part of its strategy to guard the interests of Pakistan in the United States.