Pakistan, the ISI & State Sponsored Terrorism

I saw this posted over at Daily Kos by London Yank

It's a timeline that shows how many of the terrorist attacks since 1993 have been connected to Pakistan (and the ISI - Pakistan's CIA). Also - releasing a U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government was one of the demands of Daniel Pearl's Pakistani kidnapper/killers.

"It struck me a week or so ago that every time Bush and Musharraf get together there is another major incident of terrorism somewhere in the world followed by another grant of billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan.  Pay off or blackmail, I couldn't say, but surely more than coincidence.  With Musharraf coming to the White House this week, and Bush's warning last week that the terrorists "will strike again", I felt it was time to do a little research.

....The Bush administration has been very generous to Pakistan while being very tight with just about every other developing nation."

Quoting from the Times(London)

"Pakistan has again become one of the biggest recipients of US aid -- just as it was during the Afghan war against Soviet occupiers when ISI was the main conduit for arms and funds. Since September 11, America has dismissed $1.5 billion in debt and provided Pakistan with more than $3 billion in military assistance.

Last year Pakistan was one of the world's fastest-growing economies. It recently placed a $2.5 billion order for American F-16 jet fighters -- as much as Afghanistan's entire annual foreign aid."

PAKISTAN TERRORISM TIMELINE
(see the Kos site for links & more info)

1993 (Feb.): Bombing of World Trade Center (WTC); 6 killed.
Mastermind was Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani with links to the Pakistani government.

1998 (Aug.): Bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; 224 killed, including 12 Americans.
Masterminds were all terrorists based in Pakistan. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was captured by Pakistani security forces in the eastern city of Gujrat in 2004.

1999 (Dec.): Plot to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle foiled when customs agents arrest an Algerian smuggling explosives into the U.S.
Algerian plotters were trained in Pakistan and co-ordinated by Pakistan leadership.

2000 (Oct.): Bombing of the USS Cole in port in Yemen; 17 U.S. sailors killed.
Mastermind later captured in Pakistan and turned over via rendition to CIA.

2001 (Sept.): Destruction of WTC; attack on Pentagon. Total dead 2,992.
All 19 terrorists and Zacarias Moussaoui (suspected 20th) spent time in ISI-financed institutions in Pakistan.  In Septmeber 2001, the Bush administration proposes an aid package to Pakistan worth billions in sweeping debt rescheduling, grants stretching over many years and trade benefits as a reward for its support against terrorism.

2001 (Dec.): Man tried to denote shoe bomb on flight from Paris to Miami.
Richard Reid trained at an ISI-financed institution in Pakistan by the same explosives expert who taught Moussaoui.

2002 (April): Explosion at historic synagogue in Tunisia left 21 dead, including 11 German tourists.
Bomber trained in Pakistan and Al Qaeda unit in Pakistan claims responsibility for bombing.

2002 (May): Car exploded outside hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 14, including 11 French citizens.

2002 (June): Bomb exploded outside American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12.

2002 (Oct.): Boat crashed into oil tanker off Yemen coast, killing 1.

2002 (Oct.): Nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, killed 202, mostly Australian citizens.
The leaders and perpetrators of the bombings were trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

2003 (May): 4 bombs killed 33 people targeting Jewish, Spanish, and Belgian sites in Casablanca, Morocco. Bombers linked to Zarqawi and other Pakistan-linked terrorists.

2004 (Jan.): Daniel Pearl, journalist for the Wall Street Journal investigating financing of 9-11, kidnapped and killed in Karachi.

2004 (March): 10 bombs on 4 trains exploded almost simultaneously during the morning rush hour in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 and injuring more than 1,500.
Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, the Syrian-born mastermind of the Madrid bombings, fled to Pakistan where he lived quietly until his reported arrest in 2005 when he was rendered to either the Americans or Syrians.

2004 (July): Pakistani arrested for plotting bombing of 34th Street Herald Square subway station.

2005 (July): Bombs on 7 July exploded on 3 trains and a bus in London, England, killing 52.
Mohammed Sidique Khan atttended a madrassa in northern Pakistan in July 2003, and Khan and Shehzad Tanweer took the same flight from London to Karchi on 19 November 2004, returning together 8 February 2005.  A Pakistani who remains unidentified led the group of bombers on a white water rafting trip in Wales a month before the bombings.
Bombs on 21 July in London. The leader of the bombers travelled to Pakistan in December 2004.
Sophisticated road-side bombs detonated by long range cellular phones are deployed in Afghanistan. Investigators conclude that insurgents, training and equipment are all coming from ISI in Pakistan.

2005 (Nov): Australian police arrest Islamic militants in raids in Sydney and Melbourne.
Arrested Australian Khaled Cheikho trained in a paramilitary camp run by ISI-connected Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001.

2006 (March - June):  12 Pakistanis and Bangladeshis arrested for bomb plot in Toronto.

2006 (Feb.): Southern Afghanistan bombings intensify. Attacks were reported by suspects as organised and led by Taliban in Pakistan using Pakistani bombers.

2006 (March): 7 Pakistani Britons arrested for plotting shopping mall bomb.

2006 (Aug.): More than 25 arrested in plot to blow up jetliners between London and U.S.
At least 17 suspects arrested in London had ties to Pakistan.  Two ringleaders had travelled to and received funding from Pakistan.

Just this month Pakistan has agreed a truce with extremists, assuring them territorial sovereignty over the border region with Afghanistan and amnesty from arrest, including Osama Bin Laden. The Bush response has been to defensively assert in a press conference that we can't get OBL because it would violate Pakistani sovereignty. (Sovereignty didn't stop him in Afghanistan or Iraq, did it?)