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'Pakistan, Saudi Arabia set stage for 9/11'

NEW YORK, JUNE 21. Undermining global efforts to combat terrorism, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the September 11 attacks on the U.S. by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden that allowed his Al-Qaeda terrorist network to flourish, a media report has said.

The financial aid to the Taliban and other assistance by two of the most important allies of the U.S. in its war on terrorism date at least to 1996, and appear to have shielded them from Al-Qaeda attacks within their own borders until long after the 2001 strikes on the U.S., the report said quoting several senior members of the September 11 Commission and U.S. counter-terrorism officials.

``That does appear to have been the arrangement,'' one senior member of the Commission staff involved in investigating those relationships told the paper.

The officials said by not cracking down on Osama bin Laden, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia significantly undermined efforts to combat terrorism worldwide, giving the Saudi exile the haven he needed to train tens of thousands of soldiers.

They believe that the Governments' funding of his Taliban protectors enabled Osama to withstand international pressure and expand his operation into a global network that could carry out the September 11 attacks, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Pakistan provided even more direct assistance, its military and intelligence agencies often coordinating efforts with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Commission and U.S. officials were quoted as saying.

— PTI

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