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| A Blind Eye to the Islamic Bomb |
| 2004-06-24 |
| Excerpted and edited from a documentary shown on Australian television. It manages to touch on most of the key points of the whole sordid story behind the Islamic Bomb, from BCCI, to the Pak Generals racking of billions of dollars in aid for nuclear research and their personal back accounts. The report doesn’t mention that most of the money for the Islamic bomb came from the sale of Heroin. There is a reason the General governing Peshawar was known as the ’Noreiga of Pakistan’, or why General Aslam Beg is a dollar billionare. JOSEPH TRENTO: Does that mean it’s clear now that some of the same accounts that were used to fund the Muj also funded the nuclear weapons program in Pakistan? Now, we made a deal with the devil. The devil was Pakistan - they wanted to develop the weapons, we wanted to beat the Soviets. In order to do that we made a trade-off. "Look the other way, otherwise it’s not going to happen." The evidence for a US policy of looking the other way is there from the very beginning. In late 1979, Jimmy Carter’s administration was still reeling from the hostage crisis in Iran. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the whole region was in turmoil. The day after the Soviets invaded, Carter’s National Security Advisor - Zbigniew Brzezinski - penned this memorandum to the president. Under the heading, "What is to be done?" Brzezinski said it was essential to get Pakistan’s support for the Mujaheddin. BRZEZINSKI DOCUMENT QUOTE: "This will require a review of our policy toward Pakistan, more guarantees to it, more arms aid, and, alas, a decision that our security policy toward Pakistan cannot be dictated by our non-proliferation policy. " It appears the new policy was accepted. Billions of dollars flowed into the Afghan resistance and there was no real effort to close down Pakistan’s nuclear program. The ISI - Pakistan’s intelligence agency - was the favoured conduit and literally hundreds of suitcases stuffed with cash were given to them by both the CIA and Saudi intelligence. CIA sources suspect that up to half the funding for the Afghan resistance ended up being diverted to help make Pakistan’s nuclear bomb. But with so much cash flying about, the money trails were impossible to trace. But outside of the ISI money trail, there was another method of financing Pakistan’s nuclear program. The BCCI, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, was the first global bank for the Islamic world. Founded by a Pakistani and funded by Arab Gulf states, it was used by criminals, governments and intelligence agencies to fund activities they wanted to hide. But the bank’s illegal activities began attracting attention, and when BCCI collapsed in 1991, its books were thrown open. Jonathan Winer was part of a US congressional inquiry, led by Senator John Kerry, which began probing BCCI’s criminal activities in the early ’90s. It became clear that the BCCI trail led directly to Pakistan’s nuclear program. JONATHAN WINER: What we knew at the time was that BCCI officials believed that BCCI had been used for Pakistan’s nuclear program to handle the funds. We knew that BCCI officials believed that the bank had been used by British intelligence, by US intelligence. We documented its use by certain terrorists. It was here, through the BCCI’s former London headquarters, that much of the external financing for Pakistan’s nuclear program was channelled. Although we can’t reveal his identity, Dateline has spoken to a former executive manager of the bank who’s confirmed the links between BCCI and Pakistan’s nuclear quest. According to the source, who would not appear on camera, two years before the bank’s collapse, key executives querying a $400 million loss on a cotton project in Egypt were told that the loss didn’t exist and were informed that one of the bank’s Arab owners had directly contributed the $400 million to Pakistan’s nuclear development. What is disturbing about BCCI is that the links between the Saudi and Pakistan governments and terrorist networks were never investigated and Jonathan Winer believes they continued well into the ’90s. JONATHAN WINER: What’s interesting is what happened to the BCCI people afterwards and did any of them continue to engage in the kind of activities they engaged in for BCCI after the bank collapsed? Some of the underlying cast of characters in Saudi Arabia, in Pakistan, continue to turn up after the bank goes under. I personally believe that the same people behind BCCI are now the ones behind Al Qaeda and the entire Islamist movement. A bunch of Saudi Princes, Dubai Sheikhs, Pak Generals and Muslim Brothers turned businessmen. One level up from the Learned Elders of Islam perhaps. And I bet most of them truly don’t give a damn about Islam either. Almost a decade after BCCI collapsed, some of the family names linked to it turn up in the now well-established Khan nuclear network. Despite the evidence of extensive Saudi involvement in BCCI, former spymaster Prince Turki al-Faisal denies the links. Prince Turki’s denials may be disingenuous. His uncle, Kamal Adham, was a BCCI shareholder and John Kerry’s Senate investigation uncovered loans worth millions from a BCCI controlled company directly to Prince Turki. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #11 "Khashoggi sold his yacht and creditors impounded his jet. He lives mostly in Spain, is still fighting his legal battles, and was down to his last $54 million." I feel your pain. |
| Posted by: Zpaz 2004-06-24 2:35:37 PM |
| #10 Despite the evidence of extensive Saudi involvement in BCCI, former spymaster Prince Turki al-Faisal denies the links. Prince Turki’s denials may be disingenuous. This son-of-a-buck keeps turning up like some sort of bad This turd is dead center in the House of Saud's terror network. I remember when BCCI got into trouble, the pres was named something Kashogi. That would be Adnan Kashoggi. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-24 1:43:22 PM |
| #9 Zpaz: My personal experience has been that crooks go way out of their way to recruit bright, hard-working, aggressive young people. The corruptable ones get promoted. The others leave after a few years and never talk much about the experience. I only work for old, staid firms without much turn-over now! |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-06-24 1:39:02 PM |
| #8 Last TIVO trade: 6.60. Ouch. Speaking of insider trading, I would buy my own company's stock but I know some of the employees. |
| Posted by: Zpaz 2004-06-24 1:36:41 PM |
| #7 Yeah, I bought an early model (20 gig) TiVo and it beat my expectations all to hell so I bought the stock at 12.00. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-06-24 1:26:34 PM |
| #6 LOL, 11A5S. Your story is familiar. I did two days of work on an Enron power generation site near Ponce, Puerto Rico before the scandals hit. I thought at the time, "these guys are the nicest, funniest, most squared-away, can-do go-getters I have ever worked with. I should buy some of their stock." Its a good thing I am so lazy. I never did. They were something else. |
| Posted by: Zpaz 2004-06-24 12:49:33 PM |
| #5 I remember in the mid-80's,walking past the BCCI branch in Panama City at 9pm, seeing the clerks and managers still slaving away, and thinking, "man those ae some hard-working bankers!" |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-06-24 12:18:53 PM |
| #4 The news media very gently and with great anguish reported on the involvement of Clark Clifford, noted Democrat. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose... |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-06-24 10:02:19 AM |
| #3 Also...with Kerry as the lead Senate investigator of a project that has oodles of cash floating around, it would be interested to see if there are any correlations to the campaign donations in the "early 90's". |
| Posted by: Anonymous5333 2004-06-24 7:23:18 AM |
| #2 Keep mentioning John Kerry's investigation as if we should be impressed. All that comes to my mind is that if he had done more than a half-assed white wash - these people might have been stopped sooner. Looks like there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides. But I also notice this piece is fast and loose with the dates re: Kerry's heroic endeavours - "early 90's", "well into the 90's" Hmmmm... |
| Posted by: Anonymous5333 2004-06-24 7:14:32 AM |
| #1 I remember when BCCI got into trouble, the pres was named something Kashogi. It became known as Bank of Crooks and Criminals International. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-06-24 1:59:58 AM |