Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
Notes from the Pentagon.
China-al Qaeda nexus Top Stories
China continued to supply arms to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist even after the group began the September 11 attack on America, says a senior U.S. official.
The official said that a week after the terrorist attack, the ruling Taliban and the al Qaeda fighters embedded among them, received a shipment of Chinese-made SA-7 missiles. The shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons are similar to the U.S. Stinger.
This official says the shipment raises serious questions about Beijing's pledge to help fight terrorism.
We already know the Taliban and al Qaeda got sizable arms shipments from China, which borders Afghanistan on the north. Opposition forces found huge amounts of Chinese ammunition in the caves of Tora Bora. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says Chinese have been found fighting among al Qaeda.
Earlier this week, Mr. Rumsfeld said eastern alliance forces near Tora Bora made another China-related discovery. "They also interestingly seem to have captured a good deal of Chinese ammunition," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
One U.S. official said the Chinese ammunition may have been left over from the 1980s, when Beijing, along with the United States, was a major supplier of the anti-Soviet mujahideen fighters.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said Tuesday he had "no idea" what Mr. Rumsfeld was referring to in mentioning the large quantities of Chinese ammunition found in al Qaeda caves.
Asked if China had sold weaponry to Afghanistan or neighboring nations, the spokesman said, "the United Nations once adopted the resolution on weapon embargo against Afghanistan, and China has acted according to the Security Council resolutions."
Reply With Quote
