Why do you think the US was so happy with the military coup in Pakistan? Sami ul-Haq, Osama bin Laden's closest friend in Pakistan, runs the "University for the Education of Truth," a fundamentalist institution that educated and trained nine out of the Taliban's top 10 leaders. Pakistan is sure to go down with the 'infinite justice'. It seems that the US will not keep its forces on its soil, and it is perhaps only interested in taking away Pakistani nukes in case Muzzaraf's forces lose a war with fundamentalists.
ivo
Organization: Infinite Justice
To: Direct Action <direct_action@yahoogroups.com>
From: Miroslav Visic <visic@pipeline.com>
Date sent: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 10:44:57 -0400
Send reply to: direct_action@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Direct Action >> Why only Afghanistan, Pakistan is worse...
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Russian Memo Lists Bin Laden Camps in Afghanistan
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By Tom Heneghan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden had
at least 55 bases or offices in Afghanistan
earlier this year with over 13,000 men, ranging from Arabs and
Pakistanis to Chechens and Filipinos, according to Russian
information.
A Russian memo to the United Nations, obtained by Reuters Wednesday,
reported that in addition to bin Laden's own men,
about 3,500 fundamentalist Pakistanis were in the country as well as
Pakistani soldiers and diplomats it said were working as
advisers to the hard-line Taliban movement.
The memo to the U.N. Security Council, dated March 9, 2001, said most of
bin Laden's facilities were in or around the main
cities of Kabul, southern Kandahar, eastern Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sherif
in the north.
Most were at former Afghan Army bases, on large former state farms and
in caves in rugged mountain regions. About 150 men
are based in Bagh-i-Bala, the hilltop restaurant that was once Kabul's
most fashionable dining spot.
It was not clear whether these facilities, part of bin Laden's al-Qaeda
(''the base'') network, were all still in use at the time of or
after the September 11 suicide flights into the World Trade Tower and
the Pentagon in the United States.
Washington has named bin Laden as the prime suspect in those attacks and
vowed to capture him ``dead or alive'' and punish
the Taliban for harboring him. The Taliban say they have already taken
emergency measures to defend themselves against any
U.S. air attack.
A cover note from Moscow's U.N. delegation said the memo responded to a
1999 Security Council appeal for information
``on bases and training camps of international terrorists in
Afghanistan'' and on foreign advisers to the Taliban.
Pakistani military spokesmen were not immediately available to comment
on the list, which named 31 Pakistanis -- from
generals to diplomats -- it said were working as advisers in
Afghanistan.
Pakistan, the only country in the world that still recognizes the
Taliban government, has long been accused of supporting and
arming the movement, but it officially denies any involvement.
LARGE CAMP OUTSIDE KABUL
The memo, obtained from the Philippines Defense Ministry after being
cabled there from Manila's mission to the U.N. in New
York, says the focus of bin Laden's forces is at the former Afghan Army
Seventh Division base at Rishkhor, south of Kabul.
Run by bin Laden's deputy Qari Saifullah Ahtar, it has 7,000 fighters,
including 150 Arabs and some Pakistani fundamentalists,
as well as a Pakistani army regiment, the memo said. A nearby camp has
instructors from Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, it said.
Further south in Charasyab, at a former base for the anti-Soviet
mujahideen, troops included 50 Filipinos and 40 Uighurs from
the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region in western China.
The memo from Russia, which is fighting Muslim separatists in Chechnya,
reported that at least 2,560 Chechens were serving
or training with the bin Laden organization.
An unknown number of Czechs and Bulgarians were reported to be active at
a well-defended base in Logar province south of
Kabul.
Kandahar, the southern city that is spiritual center for the puritanical
Taliban, was mentioned six times in the report, but without
any major military installations.
In the eastern region around Jalalabad, bin Laden units were based in
the city, in two large Soviet-built state farms nearby and
at former army posts close to the Pakistani frontier.
PAKISTANI INVOLVEMENT
Of the 19 camps said to be run by Pakistani fundamentalists, the memo
named three militant groups active near Kabul. It did
not identify who ran the other camps.
Several Pakistani groups have mobilised students at religious schools to
go and fight in Afghanistan.
The memo said six Pakistanis had senior posts in the Taliban military
and identified a former royal palace in southwestern Kabul
as ``headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Pakistani forces in
Afghanistan.''
It said a Pakistani AWACS reconnaissance plane, of the type originally
provided by the United States to monitor Soviet and
Afghan air activity during the 1980s war, was based at Mazar-i-Sharif in
northern Afghanistan to survey the borders with
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The memo did not reveal the source of the information.
Moscow had close ties with Afghanistan's Khad intelligence service
during the 1979-1989 Soviet War and trained thousands
of Afghan leftists at universities in the Soviet Union during that time.
--
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"If everything's under control, you're going too slow." Mario Andretti
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