[Rencana tersebut gagal sebaliknya Clinton sendiri yang tertanggal seluar.
- Editor]

Guardian

Skuad Penyauk Pakistan Dilatih CIA Untuk Membunuh Osama Laden

(Pakistani hit squad was trained by CIA to kill Bin Laden)

Oleh: Audrey Gillan

CIA telah dilaporkan pernah melatih dan melengkapkan sekitar 80 komando Pakistan untuk melancar satu operasi senyap menyelinap masuk ke Afghanistan dan membunuh atau manangkap Osama bin Laden.

Operasi haram pada 1999 telah ditaja oleh pentadbiran Clinton kurang dari 12 bulan setelah AS melancarkan serangan peluru berpandu ke arah markas latihan Osama Laden di negara itu, mengikut laporan Washington Post.

Sebagai balasannya, kata akhbar tersebut, Pakistan telah dijanjikan bantuan ekonomi dan penarikan balik sekatan ekonomi yang dikenakan gara-gara ujian senjata nuklear negara itu. Rencana pembunuhan itu terpaksa dibatalkan pada 1999, ekoran penggulingan Perdana Menteri Nawaz Sharif oleh tentera. Mengikut Washington Post lagi, rencana itu pada asalnya adalah usaha peningkatan AS untuk menyauk Osama Laden dan menghancurkan jaringan Al-Qaeda.

Tindakan militari yang menyeluruh termasuk serangan bom yang bertubi-tubi dan kerahan pasukan komando khas, telah difikirkan juga.

Berita itu dikeluarkan bersaing satu laporan betapa CIA telah berurusan dengan kerajaan Sudan pada awal musim bunga 1996, setelah negara itu menawarkan Osama Laden untuk diserahkan kepada kerajaan Arab Saudi. Rencana itu gagal 10 minggu kemudiannya kerana pihak pentadbiran tidak berjaya memujuk Arab Saudi menahan Osama. Pada waktu itu AS kekurangan bahan bukti untuk mendakwa beliau.

Pada awal musim panas di tahun yang sama, Osama Laden telah diusir oleh Sudan, kerana dia sudah dianggap satu bebanan kepada negara.

Kegagalan berganda itu telah menjadi bahan kajian Presiden Bush dan pentadbirannya dalam usaha mencari jalan bagaimana memusnahkan Osama Laden dan jaringannya.

Seorang pegawai yang rapat dengan pentadbiran Clinton pernah memberitahu Washington Post bagaimana pasukan komando Pakistan sudah bersedia untuk melancarkan serangan pada Oktober 1999. Tetapi, General Perves Musharraf, yang menggulingkan Nawaz Sharif pada Oktober 12, berkeras tidak mahu meneruskan rencana itu. Kini, Presiden General Musharraf memainkan satu peranan yang bermuslihat untuk bersekongkol dengan Washington untuk menjejaki Osama Laden dan menghapuskan Al-Qaeda.

Sambil Pakistan mempunyai banyak maklumat mengenai kegiatan di Afghanistan, pihak Taliban pun mempunyai banyak sumber mengenai pemikiran perisikan Pakistan melalui hubungan rapatnya dengan sumber yang dipercayai dalam perisikan Pakistan.

Ketika pentadbiran Clinton bertindak balas terhadap Osama Laden pada Ogos 1998 kerana kehancuran kedutaan AS di Kenya dan Tanzania, AS telah melancarkan peluru berpandu kepada khemah Osama di Afghanistan.

Beberapa sumber telah memberitahu Washington Post betapa Presiden Clinton bertindak menggunakan peluru berpandu kerana mahu mengelakkan kehilangan nyawa rakyat Amerika. Kini mereka yakin, selepas serangan dibuat ke atas WTC dan Pentagon, satu tindakan yang lebih kuat dan berisiko tinggi sepatutnya telah dilancarkan.

Seorang pegawai pertahanan berkata: 'Saya mengharapkan kita sudah memahaminya ketika itu untuk melancarkan kempen itu pada waktu itu daripada menunggu seperti sekarang ini.'

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR

Asal:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4269967,00.html

Pakistani hit squad was trained by CIA to kill Bin Laden

Covert plots US history of failure

Audrey Gillan
Guardian

Thursday October 4, 2001

The CIA is reported to have trained and armed around 60 Pakistani commandos to carry out a secret plan for them to go into Afghanistan and kill or capture Osama bin Laden.

The clandestine operation in 1999 was sponsored by the Clinton administration less than 12 months after US cruise missile strikes against Bin Laden's training camps in the country, according to the Washington Post.

In return, the newspaper said, Pakistan was promised economic aid and the lifting of sanctions imposed after it tested nuclear weapons. The assassination plan was abandoned later in 1999 when the Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the military as Pakistan's prime minister. According to the Washington Post, the plan was part of a more robust effort by the United States to get at Bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

Broader military action, including massive bombing raids and assaults by US special forces, were under consideration.

The news coincided with a report that the CIA also worked with the government of Sudan in the early spring of 1996 after the country offered to arrest Bin Laden and place him in Saudi custody.

The scheme failed 10 weeks later because the administration was unable to persuade Saudi Arabia to take him. The US lacked sufficient evidence to charge and try him at the time.

But in the early summer of the same year, Bin Laden was expelled from Sudan, where he had become too big a liability.

Both failures have been studied closely by the Bush administration in working out where and how to hit Bin Laden and his network now.

An official close to the Clinton administration told the Washington Post that the Pakistani commando team was ready to strike by October 1999. "It was an enterprise. It was proceeding," he said.

But General Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew Mr Sharif on October 12, pointedly refused to continue with it.

Gen Musharraf, now Pakistan's president, is currently playing the tricky role of ally in Washington's plans to track down Bin Laden and destroy al-Qaida.

While Pakistan has a great deal of information on what is going on in Afghanistan, the Taliban too has its sources on what the Pakistani leadership is up to, through its links with Pakistani intelligence.

When the Clinton administration retaliated against Bin Laden in August 1998 for the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania it launched cruise missile attacks against his camps in Afghanistan.

Sources told the Washington Post that President Clinton decided to use missiles so no American lives were put in jeopardy. They now believe - after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon - that stronger and more risky action should have been taken.

A senior defence official said: "I wish we'd recognised it then and started the campaign then that we've started now."