October 1

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October 1, 2001: Some Officials Question If Intelligence Service Helped Bin Laden in Plot
The New Yorker reports that “a number of intelligence officials have raised questions about bin Laden’s capabilities. ‘This guy sits in a cave in Afghanistan and he’s running this operation?’ one CIA official asked. ‘It’s so huge. He couldn’t have done it alone.’ A senior military officer told me that because of the visas and other documentation needed to infiltrate team members into the United States a major foreign intelligence service might also have been involved.” [NEW YORKER, 10/8/2001] No specific service is named, but the ISI would be one likely candidate. In fact, one day after this article is published, a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) cable indicates the ISI created the Taliban and has helped al-Qaeda extensively (see October 2, 2001). Entity Tags: Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Osama bin Laden, Central Intelligence Agency Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI

October 1, 2001: Kashmir Suicide Attack Involves 9/11 Funder Saeed Sheikh A suicide truck-bomb attack on the provincial parliamentary assembly in Indian-controlled Kashmir leaves 36 dead. It appears that Saeed Sheikh and Aftab Ansari, working with the ISI, are behind the attacks. [PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 3/3/2002; VANITY FAIR, 8/2002] Indian intelligence claims that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is later given a recording of a phone call between Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar and ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed in which Azhar allegedly reports the bombing is a “success.” [UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, 10/10/2001] Entity Tags: Mahmood Ahmed, National Security Agency, Pervez Musharraf, Maulana Masood Azhar, Aftab Ansari, India, Saeed Sheikh Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Saeed Sheikh

October 1, 2001: Taliban Possibly Trained Pilots in Afghanistan It is reported that “a worldwide hunt is under way for 14 young Muslims said to have been trained in secret to fly Boeing airliners at an air base in Afghanistan. A senior pilot for the Afghan state-owned airline Ariana has told how he and four colleagues were forced by the Taliban regime to train the men who are now thought to be hiding in Europe and the United States. The fourteen men, seven of whom are said to speak fluent English, are described as ‘dedicated Muslim fanatics’ who spoke of being involved in a holy war. They are thought to have left Afghanistan a year ago. All had close links with the Taliban and some had fought for the regime.” [EVENING STANDARD, 10/1/2001] Entity Tags: Taliban Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline Category Tags: Other 9/11 Investigations