Sept._11's_Smoking_Gun
The Many_Faces_of_Saeed_Sheikh
- Part 6
~~~
Slow Justice
As previously mentioned, it was first reported
that authorities were looking for Saeed on September 23, 2001. In fact,
it appears British intelligence began asking for legal assistance in catching
Saeed Sheikh sometime during August 2001. It isn't clear if they were finally
starting to punish him for his 1994 kidnapping of Britons, or if this was
spurred by some new activity. [London
Times, 4/21/02, Vanity Fair,
8/02] Saeed's role in 9/11 began to be reported in late September and
early October, but an Indian magazine would note, "Curiously, there seems
to have been little international pressure on Pakistan to hand him over."
[Frontline, 10/6/01]
The strange slowness in catching Saeed continued.
In November 2001, a US grand jury finally secretly indicted Saeed Sheikh
for his kidnapping of a US citizen seven years earlier. [Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review, 3/3/02] The US later claimed it began asking Pakistan
for help in finding Saeed in late November 2001. [AP,
2/26/02, Newsweek, 3/13/02]
However, it took until January 9, 2002 for Wendy
Chamberlin, the US ambassador to Pakistan, to officially ask the Pakistani
government for help in arresting and extraditing Saeed. [AP,
2/24/02, CNN, 2/24/02, Los
Angeles Times, 2/25/02] Saeed was still seen partying with Pakistani
government officials well into January 2002. The Los Angeles Times later
noted that Saeed "moved about Pakistan without apparent impediments from
authorities" into February. [Los
Angeles Times, 2/13/02] The London Times said, "It is inconceivable
that the Pakistani authorities did not know where he was" before then.
[London
Times, 4/21/02] It took the events relating to Daniel Pearl for Pakistan
to finally "discover" Saeed's location. |
~~
Enter Daniel Pearl ... and Robert Mueller
The ever-busy Saeed meanwhile was taking part
in another kidnapping. The target was Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl. Pearl had become fascinated in a number of stories involving the
ISI. On December 24, 2001, he reported about ties between the ISI and a
Pakistani organization that was working on giving bin Laden nuclear secrets
before 9/11. A few days later, he reported that Jaish-e-Mohammad still
had its office running and bank accounts working, even after President
Musharraf claimed to have banned the group. [Vanity
Fair, 8/02, Guardian,
7/16/02]
He began investigating links between shoe bomber
Richard Reid and Pakistani militants connected to the ISI [Washington
Post, 2/23/02], investigating Dawood Ibrahim, a powerful terrorist
and gangster protected by the ISI [Newsweek,
2/4/02, Vanity Fair, 8/02],
and may also have been investigating the US training and backing of the
ISI. [Gulf
News, 3/25/02] |
~ ~
Daniel Pearl
|
Former CIA agent Robert Baer later claimed he
was working with Pearl on investigating 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
[UPI,
9/30/02] It is later suggested that Mohammed masterminded Reid's shoe
bomb attempt and has connections to both Pakistani gangsters and the ISI,
so some of these explanations could fit together. [UPI,
9/30/02, Asia
Times, 10/30/02, CNN,
1/30/03] Kidnapper Saeed later said of Pearl, "because of his hyperactivity
he caught our interest." [The News, 2/15/02]
~
~ ~
Ansari in
handcuffs
|
The attempt to lure Pearl into a position where
he could be kidnapped began on January 11, 2002. [Vanity
Fair, 8/02, Wall
Street Journal, 1/23/03] On January 22, FBI Director Robert Mueller
visited India, and was told by Indian investigators that Saeed Sheikh sent
ransom money to hijacker Mohamed Atta in the US. This story now broke into
the press, even being reported some in the US and Britain. [Los
Angeles Times, 1/23/02, Independent,
2/24/02, AFP, 1/27/02, Telegraph,
1/27/02]
On January 23, Saeed helped kidnap reporter Daniel
Pearl. Also on January 23, Saeed's criminal partner Aftab Ansari was placed
under surveillance in Dubai, UAE. The next day, Mueller went to Pakistan
and discussed Saeed at a previously scheduled meeting with President Musharraf.
Apparently Saeed's role in Pearl's kidnapping was not yet known. [AP,
2/24/02] Mueller then flew to Dubai on his way back to the US to pressure
the government there to arrest Ansari and deport him to India. Ansari was
arrested on February 5 and deported four days later. [AP,
2/10/02, Frontline,
2/16/02, India Today, 2/25/02] |
~
| Pakistani President Musharraf must have decided
that Saeed knew too much, and needed to die before he could be extradited
to the US. Around January 31, 2002, Daniel Pearl was murdered by his kidnappers.
Police investigators say "there were at least eight to 10 people present
on the scene," and at least 15 who participated in his kidnapping and murder.
"Despite issuing a series of political demands
shortly after Pearl's abduction four weeks ago, it now seems clear that
the kidnappers planned to kill Pearl all along." [Washington
Post, 2/23/02] Musharraf even brazenly stated, "Perhaps Daniel Pearl
was over-intrusive. A mediaperson should be aware of the dangers of getting
into dangerous areas. Unfortunately, he got over-involved'' [Hindu,
3/8/02] in "intelligence games." [Washington
Post, 5/3/02] At the same time he could eliminate the overly-nosy Pearl,
Musharraf could punish Saeed for the deed to make sure he would keep quiet
about the ISI's connections to 9/11 |
~ ~
Daniel Pearl before he was killed
|
The timing of Mueller's visits certainly is curious.
After months of doing little to catch Saeed, suddenly Mueller is traveling
all over Asia and both Saeed and Ansari are arrested within days? Did Mueller
act with Musharraf to silence Saeed so the Indian reports of Saeed's involvement
in 9/11 could be quashed? As shown in the next chapter, the US government
has acted as if this was the case ever since. |
