Why Didn't the CIA Show Interest in Arraigning Bin Laden Prior to Sept. 11 Attacks??
A inside source on the administrative team of the American hospital of Dubai has told France's top conservative newspaper, Le Figaro, that Osama bin Laden, US "public enemy No.1" stayed at the facility this July 4-14 for kidney treatment.
How the accused terrorist mastermind eluded international security forces during the visit is unclear. But the real mystery about the stay, according to the translated Le Figaro article posted on www.democrats.com, is what was said during an alleged visit to bin Laden by a local agent of the CIA.
According to this article, after departing from the airport of Quetta in Pakistan, bin Laden landed at Dubai Airport accompanied by his personal physician, four bodyguards, an Algerian male nurse, and possibly his Egyptian associate Ayman Al Zawahari.
Bin Laden was admitted to the hospital's department of urology, which has gained international recognition under the lead of Doctor Terry Callaway, a kidney stone and male infertility specialist. Le Figaro said that despite being contacted by phone numerous times, Callaway did not wish to answer any questions.
The French paper noted that as early as March 2000, the magazine AsiaWeek had inquired about the health of Bin Laden and reported a serious physical problem, even stating that his life was threatened because of a "renal infection which had propagated to the liver and required specialized care." According to "reliable sources" cited by Le Figaro, bin Laden had mobile dialysis equipment delivered to his Afghan hideout during the first half of 2000, and that between 1996 and 1998, he went to Dubai several times for this and other "business."
The paper noted that bin Laden's local connections were sufficiently numerous that two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center, and at the request of the US government, the Central Bank of the UAE announced the freezing of the accounts and the investments of 26 people or organizations suspected of maintaining contacts with the Saudi dissident.
While hospitalized, said Le Figaro, bin Laden received visits from family members, as well as Saudi and local personalities. During this same stay, the local representative of the CIA, who the paper said was very well known in Dubai, was allegedly seen using the hospital's main elevator to go to bin Laden's room.
A few days later, said the report, the CIA man boasted to friends that he had visited the Saudi millionaire, and was recalled to US by his superiors on July 15, shortly after bin Laden's return to Quetta.
Another twist came later when Dubai airport autorities arrested a Franco-Algerian Islamist, Djamel Beghal, who allegedly revealed that bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization had assigned him to blow up the US embassy in Paris, said Le Figaro.
According to various Arab diplomatic sources and French secret services themselves, very accurate information was communicated to the CIA related to planned terrorist attacks aimed at American interests in the world and within the territory of the European Union, said the paper. A DST (Direction Securite Territoire - the French FBI) report dated Sept. 7 recapped all of this information, mentioning specifically that these orders to strike emanated from Afghanistan.
In August, at the US Embassy in Paris, an emergency meeting took place between the DGSE (France's CIA) and the highest-ranking American secret services personnel, according to Le Figaro. Acting visibly and clearly worried, the Americans submitted to their French counterparts very narrowly defined requests for information concerning certain Algerian activists, although they did so without ever providing any background or context for their request, said Le Figaro.
When the French asked "But what is it exactly that you fear in the next few days?" the Americans reportedly replied with absolute silence - which, to the French, was incomprehensible and almost raised more questions than it answered.
If the Le Figaro report is true, why the apparent CIA disinterest in bringing bin Laden to justice, a goal loudly and publicly espoused by the US ever since the bombing of two US embassies in Africa in 1998?
One possibility lies in the alleged terrorist mastermind's long-standing relationship with the CIA, which, as Le Figaro noted, stretches back to the 1980s collaboration to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan.
In addition to these ties, before the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden's Taliban protectors had a network of allies in Washington reaching to the highest levels. One, Laili Helms, has been said by The Village Voice to stand "at the public relations hub of a ragtag network of amateur Taliban advocates in the US." She is no other than the niece of Richard Helms, director of the CIA during the 1960s, who according to the Voice trained Iran's feared secret police under the Shah.
On the other hand, according to Helms herself, the US may have even turned down a Taliban offer to betray bin Laden, for reasons which remain murky.
The Voice has reported that early this year, the Taliban's ambassador at large met with CIA operations people and State Department reps, proposing that the Taliban hold bin Laden in one location long enough for the US to find and destroy him. The US refused, says Helms.
An unidentified US official told the Voice that the refusal stemmed from the government's desire to nab bin Laden alive, not dead. But others, including sources in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, have suggested that prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, the US had tacitly agreed to lay off bin Laden if he would abandon his anti-American campaigns and concentrate his energies elsewhere.
This policy switch could be borne out by some arguments by ex-CIA personnel themselves. Milt Bearden, the former CIA station chief in Pakistan and Sudan, said in The Wall Street Journal in June that the Bush administration should take a "more restrained approach" to bin Laden.
Complicating the story are the Bush family's own ties to the bin Laden clan. Until recently, both Bush Sr. and the Saudi family had profitable dealings with the Carlyle Group, a mammoth venture whose holdings cover weapons companies, and - according to the UK newspaper The Guardian - Le Figaro.
Whatever the explanation, it is clear that US officials will have a great deal of damage control to do if the Le Figaro report is widely circulated among Americans, who are still mourning the more than 5,000 people killed on Black Tuesday. (Albawaba.com)