Mansoor Ijaz (born in 1961) is a prominent businessman of Pakistani ancestry, a financier, and a media commentator on terrorism, mostly in relation to Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.^[1] He is the founder and chairman of Crescent Investment Management LLC, a New York investment partnership since 1990 that includes James Alan Abrahamson, former director of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.

Contents 1 Life 2 Media commentator 3 International negotiator 4 Statements Regarding bin Laden 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Life

Mansoor Ijaz was born in Tallahassee, Florida and grew up on a farm in rural Virginia.^[2] Ijaz received his bachelor's degree in nuclear Physics from the University of Virginia in 1983 and M.S degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985, where he was trained as a neural sciences engineer.

Ijaz developed CARAT, a currency, interest rate and equity risk management system. He started his own investment firm in 1990. Away from Crescent's daily business affairs, Ijaz serves on the College Foundation Board of Trustees at the University of Virginia and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

[edit] Media commentator

He used to appear regularly on a variety of financial and political news programs for CNN [1] [2], Fox News, BBC, Germany’s ARD TV, Japan’s NHK, ABC^{[disambiguation needed]} and NBC. He has commented for PBS’ Newshour with Jim Lehrer [3], [4], [5], [6] and ABC News Nightline with Ted Koppel. Ijaz has been featured twice in Barron's Currency Roundtable discussions. He has also contributed to the editorial pages of London’s Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek International, The Christian Science Monitor, The Weekly Standard, National Review, USA Today, and the Times of India. Among other topics, he commented on the Clinton administration's missed opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden: [7] and Pakistan's nuclear black market [8]

[edit] International negotiator

Mansoor Ijaz has been involved in unofficial negotiations between US and Sudanese governments with regard to extradition of Osama bin Laden. In 1996 the United States Congress had imposed sanctions against the Sudanese government over the terrorist operations on its soil [9]. Mansoor Ijaz reportedly tried to negotiate a deal between Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir and Clinton administration officials including Sandy Berger. Ijaz argued the U.S. should adopt a policy of "constructive engagement" with Sudan, in return for deporting Osama bin Laden [10]. However bin Laden made his way to Afghanistan after the deportation from Sudan. According to Ijaz, that was a missed opportunity to capture bin Laden who has not even been indicted by US authorities [11], a claim that Clinton's administration has denied. The 9/11 Commission found that although "former Sudanese officials claim that Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to the United States", "we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim." [12].

[edit] Statements Regarding bin Laden

According to Ijaz, the Sudanese government offered the Clinton administration numerous opportunities to arrest bin Laden and those opportunities were met positively by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright but spurned when Susan Rice and counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke persuaded National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to overrule Albright.

Ijaz’s claims in this regard appeared in numerous Op-Ed pieces including one in the Los Angeles Times ^[3] and one in the Washington Post co-written with former Ambassador to Sudan Timothy Carney .^[4]

Similar allegations have been made by Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose^[5] and Richard Miniter, author of Losing bin Laden, in a November 2003 interview with World.^[6]

Several sources dispute Ijaz's claim, including the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States (the 9-11 Commission) which concluded in part “Sudan's minister of defense, Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Sudan offered to hand Bin Ladin over to the United States. The Commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel Bin Ladin. Ambassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment out-standing.” ^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ CNN (October 18, 2001) Mansoor Ijaz: The Pakistan perspective (CNN interview of Ijaz) Obtained February 14, 2007.
2. ^ Rediff.com (November 28, 2000) The Rediff Interview/ Mansoor Ijaz Obtained February 14, 2007.
3. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/05/opinion/oe-ijaz05
4. ^ Carney, Timothy; Mansoor Ijaz (June 30, 2002). "Intelligence Failure? Let's Go Back to Sudan". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64828-2002Jun29. Retrieved 2008-12-01. 
5. ^ Rose, David (January, 2002). "The Osama Files". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2002/01/osama200201?currentPage=1. Retrieved 2008-12-01. 
6. ^ Belz, Mindy (November 01, 2003). "'Clinton did not have the will to respond'". World. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/8206. Retrieved 2008-12-01. 
7. ^ http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Ch4.htm

[edit] External links

• His testimony to House Judiciary Committee Sub-Committee on Terrorism and Crime, June 10, 1997
• His November 2000 interview with rediff.com on Kashmir's ceasefire
• A New Threat and a Renewed Organization NRO online
• Richard Clarke Top Seven Questions for Commissioners