The edited version
The Question, Which, If Taken Seriously,
[And If The Media Had Independently Done It's Job As The Fourth Estate]
Could, Potentially, Have Saved
7 Trillion (U.S.) Dollars?
$7 000 000 000 000
and
Goodness Knows How Many Human Lives
(Christian and Muslim)
In 2002/2003 just after the U.S. deployed forces to Afghanistan to hunt Osama Bin Laden, I was present at a Dinner-Discussion where many of those attending were actively engaged in that deployment in some support, administrative or logistical capacity.
It was after my book on terrorism in Indonesia was released.
So I had recently returned from areas where al-Qaeda were highly active, had a lot of support, and the details were in the book for all to see.
This would also have been after a briefing where, at a very small informal gathering (about twelve of us) over light refreshments, I had a few minutes with the individual tasked with that earlier briefing before he returned later that evening to other tasks.
We discussed a number of topics, including what should happen to the Muslim (Islamic) 'Volunteers' from the Caucasus now settled in Bosnia.
[I sensed that there were different opinions as to what their future role or configuration or 'mission' should be, now that the Balkans wars were at an end.]
There is a connection between both discussions which you will see later - which is why I have paired them above.
Before I say what the question was I want to go back even further - to Pakistan. The year is 1983.
Pakistan, 1983
(Learning The Basics)
I was aware that outside secondary schools in the city of Lahore (Pakistan) schoolchildren were getting pamphlets from this new group called 'Al Qaeda'.
The issuers were immaculately dressed clean charismatic bearded young men and the invitation was to come to their workshops after school to learn about 'The Basics' ('The Basic Principles' of Islam.)
[So this, folks, is the true and deeper interpretation and of the word: 'al-Qaeda' – 'the basics' or 'basic principles' or, by extension, ' the basic principles of Islam'.]
One student (then) thirteen-years of age – took up an invitation and attended such a workshop held at a Masjid Study Center after school. It was not a well-attended meeting.
Many of those there – young teenagers – were totally bored with the 'lessons' in Islam being relayed by what were such enthusiastic individuals – just a few years older in many cases than their young audience.
They (the kids) had come for the 'event' straight from attending school in the early afternoon – to sadly find themselves to be returning to yet another school (!)
It was almost a total failure of a meeting.
So this was the actual genesis of al-Qaeda – the real genesis you will never hear nor read about in the history books – because they (Westerners) were not there nor had they any contacts there when this unknown unheard of group of enthusiastic 'revivalists' got started.
These Meetings were taking place across the country – with the 'blessings' of the Pakistan authorities - and not all were complete failures.
Certain schools (those of 'elite' secular students) were particularly targeted and campaigned and their secular staff wooed to encourage the pupils to attend the meetings to learn more about 'the basic principles'. There was no coercion and many Heads of Schools and teaching staff were particularly impressed with these clean, polite, bearded young men who were joyous and highly motivated about proclaiming Islam and a return to 'basics' 'traditional' and 'religious values'. (There many also have been some sympathy because this was in an era of declining Mosque attendance by the young – being swept away as the world was in other values and priorities for that time in history.)
So, as educated academics, I would guess there was a lot of sympathy for such young men prepared to forsake pop music, television and the 'swinging world' in favor of a return to more 'traditional' values.
They were more than happy at that time to give Al Qaeda a platform in the hope that it might encourage their (wayward?) 12-16- year-olds to be more 'responsible' and to think about tradition, about Muslim heritage and cultural values, rather than just accept the transient fashions of the modern world.
(And who would not under these circumstances?)
General Javid Nasir ( DGISI)
Al Qaeda was not a total failure in motivating and recruiting but it needed something or someone to provide more impetus and organise it to be more effective and charismatic in order for it to have any longer-lasting impact on the struggle against the Infidel Russians next door (in Afghanistan.)
There was another reason for the urgency:
Strong political differences were emerging between the Mujahideen leadership in Afghanistan (Gulbuddin Hikmatyar - Islamic Party Of Afghanistan) and Islamabad, with Pakistan eager to be in the driving seat for any future peace negotiations between the Kremlin, it's (then) installed government in Kabul and the other Islamic Resistance Groups (Hezb-i-Islami -The Islamic Party; Jamiat Islami (Islamic Society); The Islamic Alliance for The Liberation of Afghanistan; Harakat -i-Inqlab Islami (the Islamic Revolutionary Movement); The National Front For The Liberation of Afghanistan;National and Islamic Front; and Hezb-i-Islami (The Khalis Group).
An even more Islamist less U.S. influenced group needed to be organised which would be totally controlled by Pakistan with no future prospects for India influence in it's 'backyard' through it's 'backdoor'.
The greatest fear of Pakistan is to have a nightmare scenario – of being 'crushed' between the two allied nations – of India and Afghanistan - where both Russia and India (at that time firm military allies) would have bases – perhaps even nuclear bases in Afghanistan or, just as bad, in a post-Soviet Afghanistan, the United States and Britain replace the Soviet Union as the regional power brokers all along the new Silk Road from China to Europe and grab for themselves, exclusively, the enormous fabulous wealth which this will eventually generate all along this new golden economic highway.
Something had to be done to permanently destroy such new Imperial dreams and ambitions of the West and former colonial masters. But what? But how?
'The Base'
'The Basics' (sic. Basic Principles sic. The Basic Principles of Islam) and their 'Students' ('Taliban') were the answer.
I have already mentioned in my previous blog the one singular individual identified by a foreign agency as having been responsible for inviting Osama Bin Laden to organise the basics in Afghanistan. He not only arranged for him to be brought to Afghanistan but provided all the necessary logistics and financing required to defeat the Soviet invader.
To The ISI, General Nasir is one of the greatest heroes of Pakistan. I would not place him in the historical category of a Muslim 'Warrior-Saint' - but he certainly comes as close as anyone can to this title and more than most I have seen or heard about in my lifetime.
(I suspect him too humble to want to be seen in this light as a historical figure. What I am doing is making it easier for my readership to appreciate his profound impact on not just Afghanistan and Pakistan's history, but the destiny of three world superpowers in this region (Russia, China and The United States) and what the profound impact of his influence and the legacy of decisions which he made decades ago will echo on the history of the world for hundreds of years into the future.)
Indeed one might even say that Pakistan's ISI may well be regarded as one of the world's most internally (financially) powerful, financially autonomous, all-encompassing, and utterly ruthless (in the history of modern integrated intelligence services) of all agencies after those of the CIA and the KGB.
It's exploits (successes and disasters) have that same ring of incredulity as those of the CIA – probably because some of it's Officers spent time in the United States and others studying the 'exploits' of the world's foremost agency of the post-Second World War and post-Soviet eras.
Gwadar
[China's Dream Becomes A Reality - Thanks To Pakistan - 'The Dreamweaver']
I should also mention that General Nasir was also one of the masterminds behind the plan to facilitate and develop the coastal port of Gwadar as a Pakistan-China Economic Development Zone and giving China, for the first time in it's recent history, access to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea.
(You have not heard of this Port? You better quickly find it on your map because it will be one of the most important commercial ports on the Arabian Sea over the next 100 years.)
The $7 000 000 000 000 Question
So what was this $7 000 000 000 000 question?
It was a very simple question.
I asked why 9/11 was not classified as a 'political' crime and it's investigation was not placed in the hands of the FBI rather than mount a military invasion of Afghanistan.
[Remember I already knew all of the above about Pakistan and while unable to 'fit the pieces' together, instinctively, it just did not seem to be the most carefully laid-out strategy – that of U.S. and Coalition Forces invading Afghanistan and configured for the war on terror.]
You need to appreciate that this was the time, after 9/11, of extreme patriotism so my comments (even in our private setting where Chatham House Rules applied) were seen rather suspiciously as being 'unpatriotic' 'unsupportive' and 'unhelpful' by my colleagues.
As for myself, Pakistan appeared to be more a problem than was Afghanistan.
But the 'obsession' (with Afghanistan) was more motivated by pride and arrogance than it was by common sense and what the clear 'war on terror' strategy and objectives were to be.
Few in the audience knew what I was getting at but I always had one or two 'supporters' who thanked me afterwards and privately for raising 'awkward' questions others were too frightened to ask.
The Effect On Pakistan Becoming A Nuclear State
I must add that, in my opinion, Pakistan's decision to acquire nuclear weapons made it less vulnerable to destabilization by Western nations on the one hand while making it a greater regional threat to peace on the India sub-continent on the other hand.
Gwadar:The Golden Gate
This however created a huge dilemma for the West: how to stop China at Afghanistan when Pakistan is giving it an economic 'back-door' (Gwadar) to the Arabian Sea – with little the United States can do to stop this action since it's key partner, Britain, was having no influence over Pakistan's nuclear direction nor it's internal politics.
You need to always appreciate that Pakistan's supporting and encouraging al-Qaeda is no diffferent from the U.S. supporting the 'Contras' in Nicaragua.
It is part of a longer-term foreign policy strategic objective.
Should the priorities change, support for this group may well go the same way as that of the 'Contras'.
©Patrick Emek, October 2017
If you are really interested in history, as a project, why not look up the names, events and places mentioned above?
Indeed, if you are living in Pakistan or have relatives in Lahore or other cities, why not test the validity of the statements I have made above?
