As the Afghanistan campaign winds down, attention is shifting to a ‘second phase’ of the anti-terror war. Signs emanating from the Bush administration indicate that it may be getting ready to target Iraq. This amounts to pulling wool over the eyes of US citizens and betraying the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It is not Iraq or North Korea where future September 11s will be plotted, but in extremist centers of Pakistan, as pointed out by a Washington Post editorial on December 2nd, 2001. A shameless betrayal was carried out in the nights of Kunduz leading up to the Taliban surrender, when US authorities surreptitiously allowed Pakistan to evacuate trapped personnel without any accountability, as reported by the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 27), and the New York Times (Nov. 22) indicated otherwise.

An unknown number of fighters have already escaped to Pakistan, with US complicity. There is no accountability about their involvement with terrorist planning. These escapees are free to conceive and implement future attacks against the US.

Pakistan has taken this US double dealing as a signal that it can continue its sponsorship of terrorism in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. Over two dozen civilians and two dozen security personnel were killed last week in the region at the hands of Pakistan-trained terrorists.