’98 attack: Tip off to Osama cooked ISI chief’s goose
Vishal Thapar
(New Delhi, October 9)
The seeds of US distrust in the Pakistani military establishment, which claimed the scalp of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt.-General Mehmood Ahmed, lie in leaking out of information about the US cruise missile attacks on the terrorist camps of Osama bin Laden in Khost (Afghanistan) on August 20, 1998. This enabled Osama bin Laden to escape.
The fact that Osama left behind his satellite phone, otherwise his constant companion, before fleeing convinced the US that he had advance information about the attacks. The US had been able to pinpoint his position by using satellites to track his phone calls.
Before firing the 75-odd Tomahawk Cruise missles from ship and submarine platform in the Arabain Sea (the attacks were in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 224 people were killed), the US informed Pak that the missiles would be flying over its territory.
Even now, the US has reasons to believe that Pakistan is playing a double game by supporting Taliban. They believe that the Taliban is being tipped off about operational plans and surreptitiously helped to defend itself against the US attacks.
The sacked ISI chief, Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmed, led a group of Islamic clerics to Afghanistan, ostensibly to persuade Mullah Mohammad Omer to hand over Osama Bin Laden. The group led by the general did just the opposite - it asked Omer not to hand over Osama come what may.
Revelations that Gen Ahmed was aware of the wire transfer of $ 100,000 by Ahmad Omar Sheikh to Mohammad Atta, the mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, shook the US. Sheikh, who along with Maulana Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar was released from Indian prison in exchange for the safe release of the passengers of the hijacked IC 814 I-A plane, was known for his proximity to Gen Ahmed.
The US believes that Gen Ahmed, who was in the USA on Sept 11, was aware of the plan to bomb the US landmarks.
There are more suspicions with the Pakistani seizure of three Taliban helicopter gunships yesterday. Pakistan announced the `seizure' only after the US airborne surveillance stations informed it that the helicopters had landed at Kurram in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
The charitable view is that the Taliban was shifting its aircraft to prevent their destruction in the US bombings. But hard intelligence suggests that the Taliban is using its informality with the Pakistani establishment to ferry across to Pakistan, and safety, relatives of top Taliban leaders. By now, it is very clear that Gen Musharraf has sacked his three hard line, pro-Taliban generals under pressure from the US. But it is a measure of their relevance in the Pakistani military establishment that sacked ISI chief Gen Ahmed is tipped to be the governor of Punjab. The Indian military assessment is that the clean up in the Pak army won't end with the top generals. The US, in the interest of its safety and the success of Op Enduring Freedom may insist that the purge be affected till much lower down.
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