Pakistan held the key to Osama bin Laden's
ability to use Afghanistan as a base from which to revive
his ambitious enterprise for war against the United States,
says the final report of the 9/11 commission.
The report, which reviews the circumstances
that allowed a group of terrorists to attack the United
States on Sept 11, 2001, says that after the 1977 coup,
Pakistan military leaders turned to Islamic groups for
support, and fundamentalists became more prominent.
Pakistan military rulers, the report said,
found "ardent young Afghans" educated at privately
madressahs "a source of potential trouble at home
but potentially useful abroad."
They believed that the Taliban movement
could bring order in chaotic Afghanistan and make it a
cooperative ally. Pakistani generals also thought that
the Taliban might give Pakistan greater security on one
of the several borders where Pakistani military officers
hoped for what they called "strategic depth,"
the report said.
"It is unlikely that Osama could
have returned to Afghanistan had Pakistan disapproved.
The Pakistan military intelligence service probably had
advance knowledge of his coming, and its officers may
have facilitated his travel," the report said.
The report claimed that during his entire
time in Sudan, Osama had maintained guesthouses and training
camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These were part of
a larger network used by diverse organizations for recruiting
and training fighters for Islamic insurgencies in such
places as Tajikistan, Kashmir, and Chechnya.
"Pakistani intelligence officers
reportedly introduced Osama to Taliban leaders in Kandahar,
their main base of power, to aid his reassertion of control
over camps near Khost. In doing so, Pakistani generals
hoped that Osama would expand the camps and make them
available for training Kashmiri militants," the report
said.
When arrived in Afghanistan, the Taliban
controlled much of Afghanistan, but key centers, including
Kabul, were still held by rival warlords.
According to the report, Osama went initially
to Jalalabad, probably because it was in an area controlled
by a provincial council of Muslim leaders who were not
major contenders for national power. He found lodgings
with Younis Khalis, the head of one of the main Mujahideen
factions.
After September 1996, when first Jalalabad
and then Kabul fell to the Taliban, Osama cemented his
ties with them. The Taliban, like the Sudanese, would
eventually hear warnings, including from the Saudi monarchy.
The Taliban leader Mullah Omar "invited" Osama
to move to Kandahar, after he gave a controversial interview
to the CNN, hoping that this would allow him to exercise
greater control over the Saudi dissident.
Osama eventually enjoyed a strong financial
position in Afghanistan, thanks to Saudi and other financiers
associated with his network. Through his relationship
with Mullah Omar, Osama was able to circumvent restrictions;
Mullah Omar would stand by him even when other Taliban
leaders raised objections.
