CIA Helped Neoconservative Think Tank Uncover Alleged Iran, Al-Qaeda Connection

Recently released files allegedly harvested from Osama bin Laden's secret Pakistan compound are said to establish a connection between al-Qaeda and Iran, a story broken by a neoconservative think tank has claimed. The same organization openly advocates "regime change" in the Islamic Republic, and has close ties to many key US officials.

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Pak GHQ using PLA ‘neocons’ to damage India-China ties

Analysts tracking developments within the China-Pakistan alliance of the two militaries warn that the Pakistan side is seeking to move the relationship “from the strategic to the tactical”. GHQ Rawalpindi’s expectation is that in future, field operations will take place in a coordinated manner, and both sides will participate in actions undertaken on the initiative of any of the partners. The analysts say that the intention of GHQ Rawalpindi is to make the China-Pakistan military alliance “acquire the core characteristic of NATO, which is that a conflict involving one of the parties will inevitably bring in the other”.

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War against Pakistan? Neocon Luniatic Sen. Lindsey Graham wants 'military action'

Next Up: Pakistan

I see someone besides myself has noticed all the "leaking" going on in the upper echelons of Washington over our rocky relationship with Pakistan. Suddenly Islamabad is on the verge of being classified as part of the Axis of Evil, with the head of the joint chiefs, Admiral Mullen, openly accusing the Pakistanis of "sanctioning" the killing of a journalist, and allying with a faction of the Taliban. Since when does a military man – the titular uniformed head of the US armed force, no less – speak out on such sensitive political matters? Why, when he has the full backing of the White House – which obviously has plans for the Pakistanis.

The new accusations add fuel to the fire started by the discovery of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad lair, where he had been hiding for years. The Pakistan-haters in the administration – of which there seem to be plenty – were quick to draw the conclusion that he'd been hiding with the knowledge and cooperation of the Pakistani military – because of the hideout's proximity to an elite military academy. Which is odd, since it is well known that al-Qaeda operatives were living in the US for years, undetected, as they planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Heck, FBI agents in the field warned Washington after one of the terrorists took flight training lessons and was reported for suspicious activities – to no avail. What if someone in Pakistan had reported similarly suspicious activity in Abbottabad to the local authorities, and no action had been taken – in the view of the anti-Pakistan crowd, wouldn't that constitute prima facie proof of Islamabad's guilt?

Pakistani Ambassador hosted fundraiser for neocon think-tank

The Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. hosted a fundraiser at his residence for a neoconservative D.C. think-tank, which solicited donations of $5,000 for invitations to the event. But the think-tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), didn't bother to tell the Pakistani embassy that the event was a fundraiser or that it was sandwiched in the middle of a two-and-a-half day conference on "Countering the Iranian Threat" put on by the group.

"We didn't know at all that they have done this fundraising," Imran Gardezi, a spokesperson for the Pakistani embassy, told the Middle East Channel. "And neither did they share with us that they would be doing this conference. Very frankly, we didn't know about this conference."

Though the dinner appeared in the paper and online conference programs, FDD president Cliff May insisted that the two were unrelated: "The dinner was separate from the conference but it coincided with the conference. Why? Because many friends of FDD were in town for the conference," he wrote in an e-mail to the Middle East Channel. May conceded that his staff may have failed to notify the Pakistani embassy that the group was in the middle of hosting the conference.

At the "Washington Forum," as the conference was called, fellows and scholars from FDD advocated for escalating measures against the Islamic Republic, ranging from "ratcheting up" sanctions and pressure to U.S. support for regime change and even military strikes against Iran. "Pakistan and Iran are brotherly countries and neighboring countries, brotherly Muslim countries," said Gardezi, citing cooperation between the two countries on a pipeline project. "Anything against Iran is unthinkable for us."