Omar Sheikh's connection to the ISI

[Undesired Walrus]

So, I do apologise for the behaviour of my fellow Londoner, Omar Sheikh.

Regardless, the truthers new smoking phaser is the connection between Atta and the Pakistani ISI. I'm not sure however if they actually have looked into the entire Daniel Pearl/Omar Sheikh debate around it, and if they even know about it.

So, facts:

Omar's uncle, Rauf Ahmed Sheikh told the D.Pearl murder trial that he and Sheikh's father Saeed were with him when he 'gave himself up' to police on Febuary 5th.

Omar shouted out in court he had 'turned himself in to the home secretary of the punjab' which seems to contradict Musharraf's claims that he was captured on 12 Febuary. In Lahore.

Sheikh claimed he was held for a week so the police could have time to manufacture evidence against him (For kidnapping Pearl).

The Karachi police, who distrusted the ISI, leaked details of the interregation of Sheikh, in which he allegedly talked about his ISI connections, to the local press. The ISI then broke into the newsroom of The News, Pakistans largest English-language newspaper in Febuary 2002. This was allegedly to prevent the press from publishing a story in which Sheikh was funded by the ISI to carry out the attack on India's parliament in 2001.

Mohammed Aziz Khan allegedly knew Omar Sheikh personally.


Daniel Pearl Connection:

The first person Pearl contacted in Pakistan was the editor of The News, Shaheen Sehbai. Soon after the ISI demanded an apology from Sehbai after they failed The News from printing the ISI-Sheikh coneection,he fled to the US 'fearing for his life'.

Pearl was based in India, and the only paper to publish a ISI-Atta link was an Indian newspaper.

A 'source' in Karachi said 'He was beginning to get too close to understanding the links between the ISI and the Jihadis'. Allegedly Sheikh was the 'ISI's man'.

However, Pearl may have been killed not because of the ISI but because he was getting close to KSM. Robert Baer said he spoke to Pearl about KSM and that Pearl phoned him on 9/11 to get info on KSM. The Wall Street Journal denied Baer's claims.

If Pearl went on a story about Richard Reid, his link was Ali Gilani. But Gilani lived in Lahore, so it does not make sense for Pearl to travel to Karachi to meet him.

Musharraf's reluctance to send him to the US:

Musharraf is reported to have told Wendy Chamberlain, US ambassador that he would rather 'hang Sheikh myself rather than see him (Sent to US)'.

M.J Gohel of Asia-Pacific foundation said 'Sheikh is a vital key that can open the doors.. to links between the Pakistani military Intelligence and the terrorist groups... and destroy Musharraf's reputation with the US'

Speculations:

Is this why Musharraf is not allowing the US to interregate Sheikh?

Conclusions:

All in all, I see no reason to even begin to see how the US can be implicated in the Sheikh-Atta $100,000 connection.

The fact Musharraf will not send Sheikh over speaks volumes. I fail to see how this proves any US conspiracy.

(Sources from Masterminds of Terror by Yosri Fouda)

 

[Undesired Walrus]

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Really? Not a single post? Spent me bloody ages typing this up...

Boo.

 

[Drudgewire]

I'm still reading, be patient.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Really? Not a single post? Spent me bloody ages typing this up...

Boo.

The trouble is that:

a) It's very disjointed and hard to put together, and
b) Has a lot of speculation about what might be possible but zero hard evidence. In fact some of the points go beyond the "Huh?" point to past the "okaaaaaaay" point, such as Pearl working in India being linked to an India paper publishing a story about Atta and the ISI, a link that not only has no explaination as to why it is significant, but without evidence that they are linked, have a connection that only resides in the author's imagination.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Come on now, I thought it was worth debating.. I don't wish to keep being the guy who thrusts something time and time again that is not interesting, but I really do think this is worthy of further talk, as it is a bit of a mystery.

Omar Sheikh had a notorious history of kidnapping foriegners, and Daniel Pearl was allegedly on his way to follow up on the ISI lead. If it turns out he wasn't, I'll drop this, but if he was it really is worth looking into more. The book was released a while back so I wish to know if anyone has anything more of Omar's claims.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

The trouble is that:

a) It's very disjointed and hard to put together,

Ok, granted. Sorry about that.

b) Has a lot of speculation about what might be possible but zero hard evidence. In fact some of the points go beyond the "Huh?" point to past the "okaaaaaaay" point, such as Pearl working in India being linked to an India paper publishing a story about Atta and the ISI, a link that not only has no explaination as to why it is significant, but without evidence that they are linked, have a connection that only resides in the author's imagination.

Understood, and the Indian connection barely qualifies as a coincidence let alone a link. But the fact is that there is a reason why the ISI broke into The News, and the leak from the Karachi police to the local press seems to put pieces together. It doesn't mean the resulting picture means anything, but is there reason to suppose there is a picture?