Pak Helped Bin Laden Set Up Base In Afghanistan: Report

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Pakistan military rulers, the report said, found "ardent young Afghans" educated at privately madressas "a source of potential trouble at home but potentially useful abroad."

They believed that the Taleban movement could bring order in chaotic Afghanistan and make it a cooperative ally. Pakistani generals also thought that the Taleban might give Pakistan greater security on one of the several borders where Pakistani military officers hoped for what they called "strategic depth," the report said.

"It is unlikely that Osama could have returned to Afghanistan had Pakistan disapproved. The Pakistan military intelligence service probably had advance knowledge of his coming, and its officers may have facilitated his travel," the report said.

The report claimed that during his entire time in Sudan, Osama had maintained guesthouses and training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These were part of a larger network used by diverse organizations for recruiting and training fighters for Islamic insurgencies in such places as Tajikistan, Kashmir, and Chechnya.

"Pakistani intelligence officers reportedly introduced Osama to Taleban leaders in Kandahar, their main base of power, to aid his reassertion of control over camps near Khost. In doing so, Pakistani generals hoped that Osama would expand the camps and make them available for training Kashmiri militants," the report said.

When arrived in Afghanistan, the Taleban controlled much of Afghanistan, but key centers, including Kabul, were still held by rival warlords. According to the report, Osama went initially to Jalalabad, probably because it was in an area controlled by a provincial council of Muslim leaders who were not major contenders for national power. He found lodgings with Younis Khalis, the head of one of the main Mujahideen factions.

After September 1996, when first Jalalabad and then Kabul fell to the Taleban, Osama cemented his ties with them. The Taleban, like the Sudanese, would eventually hear warnings, including from the Saudi monarchy. The Taleban leader Mullah Omar "invited" Osama to move to Kandahar, after he gave a controversial interview to the CNN, hoping that this would allow him to exercise greater control over the Saudi dissident.

Osama eventually enjoyed a strong financial position in Afghanistan, thanks to Saudi and other financiers associated with his network. Through his relationship with Mullah Omar, Osama was able to circumvent restrictions; Mullah Omar would stand by him even when other Taleban leaders raised objections.