20,000 Jihadis trained in Peshawar, Pakistan.
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http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world...abu000830.html
Deadly Pakistani University
As the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 1989, the CIA’s powerful Pakistani partner, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate) found itself losing control of the Afghan fighting groups.
Although the ISI continued to train and equip some for warfare against India in Kashmir and Punjab provinces, Abu Sayyaf had also established a “university,” north of Peshawar, Pakistan, to train terrorists in the methods taught by the CIA and ISI.
Senior Pakistani police officials said it trained terrorists for the Philippines, the Middle East, North Africa — and New York — and a senior Pakistani officer acknowledges that 20,000 volunteers were trained in the Peshawar “university” and that after the 1979-89 war ended, the alumni “looked for other wars to fight.”
Abu Sayyaf moved operations to the Philippines, ostensibly to support the generations-long battle for an independent Muslim state in the southern islands.
Among their leaders were two brothers, named Qaddafi Aburazak and Qadaffi Janjalani, ostensibly out of their father’s esteem for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has been mixing in Philippine affairs since the 1970s.
Other Afghan veterans ended up stimulating unrest, rebellion and civil wars in Pakistan itself, India, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania. Their proclaimed goal was to establish Islamic states, according to the commands of God, around the world.
Ramzi Ahmed Youssef, jailed for life for the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, is believed to have frequented Abu Sayyaf school.
Dangerous Alumni
Youssef’s work with Abu Sayyaf became known in 1994. On Dec.11, a bomb aboard a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Manila to Tokyo killed a passenger and injured six others.
The Abu Sayyaf group claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call.
FBI, CIA and Filipino investigators discovered that Youssef was the master planner of this and other unsuccessful attempts to bomb 11 other airliners, all American, over the Pacific on the same day.
Shortly after the bombing, Filipino security forces raided a Manila flat used by Youssef and found strong evidence of a plot to kill visiting Pope John Paul II when he visited in January 1995.
After a long international manhunt, Youssef was arrested in a safe house belonging to bin Laden in Islamabad, Pakistan. He was extradited to the United States and later given a life sentence in a New York federal court.
--
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world...abu000830.html
Deadly Pakistani University
As the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 1989, the CIA’s powerful Pakistani partner, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate) found itself losing control of the Afghan fighting groups.
Although the ISI continued to train and equip some for warfare against India in Kashmir and Punjab provinces, Abu Sayyaf had also established a “university,” north of Peshawar, Pakistan, to train terrorists in the methods taught by the CIA and ISI.
Senior Pakistani police officials said it trained terrorists for the Philippines, the Middle East, North Africa — and New York — and a senior Pakistani officer acknowledges that 20,000 volunteers were trained in the Peshawar “university” and that after the 1979-89 war ended, the alumni “looked for other wars to fight.”
Abu Sayyaf moved operations to the Philippines, ostensibly to support the generations-long battle for an independent Muslim state in the southern islands.
Among their leaders were two brothers, named Qaddafi Aburazak and Qadaffi Janjalani, ostensibly out of their father’s esteem for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has been mixing in Philippine affairs since the 1970s.
Other Afghan veterans ended up stimulating unrest, rebellion and civil wars in Pakistan itself, India, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania. Their proclaimed goal was to establish Islamic states, according to the commands of God, around the world.
Ramzi Ahmed Youssef, jailed for life for the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, is believed to have frequented Abu Sayyaf school.
Dangerous Alumni
Youssef’s work with Abu Sayyaf became known in 1994. On Dec.11, a bomb aboard a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Manila to Tokyo killed a passenger and injured six others.
The Abu Sayyaf group claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call.
FBI, CIA and Filipino investigators discovered that Youssef was the master planner of this and other unsuccessful attempts to bomb 11 other airliners, all American, over the Pacific on the same day.
Shortly after the bombing, Filipino security forces raided a Manila flat used by Youssef and found strong evidence of a plot to kill visiting Pope John Paul II when he visited in January 1995.
After a long international manhunt, Youssef was arrested in a safe house belonging to bin Laden in Islamabad, Pakistan. He was extradited to the United States and later given a life sentence in a New York federal court.
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