Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 22, 2004
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/22/stories/2004062202461300.htm
Undermining global efforts to combat
terrorism, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the September
11 attacks on the U.S. by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin
Laden that allowed his Al- Qaeda terrorist network to flourish, a media
report has said.
The financial aid to the Taliban
and other assistance by two of the most important allies of the U.S. in
its war on terrorism date at least to 1996, and appear to have shielded
them from Al-Qaeda attacks within their own borders until long after the
2001 strikes on the U.S., the report said quoting several senior members
of the September 11 Commission and U.S. counter-terrorism officials.
``That does appear to have been
the arrangement,'' one senior member of the Commission staff involved in
investigating those relationships told the paper.
The officials said by not cracking
down on Osama bin Laden, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia significantly undermined
efforts to combat terrorism worldwide, giving the Saudi exile the haven
he needed to train tens of thousands of soldiers.
They believe that the Governments'
funding of his Taliban protectors enabled Osama to withstand international
pressure and expand his operation into a global network that could carry
out the September 11 attacks, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Pakistan provided even more direct
assistance, its military and intelligence agencies often coordinating efforts
with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Commission and U.S. officials were quoted
as saying.
