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Word of caution to US: Paki knavery afoot
Editorial
The role of the United States in precipitating the tragedies that struck America on September 11, and the miseries Afghans themselves have faced since the 1990s is clear and has been written about not only in this newspaper but also in US and other Western press. The primary cause of US abetment of the perpetrators of these tragedies is Washington's reliance on Pakistan's fundamentalist-run intelligence agency, the InterServices Intelligence (ISI) directorate. Of course, this was especially true during the Clinton administration, which through various means -- such as the cooperation or understanding between the Clinton State Department and Unocal in the oil-giant's "oil exploration" trips to Taliban-occupied Afghanistan -- helped Pakistan to nurture the Taliban militia and their associates. (eds: see the Editorial column in Omaid Weekly's previous two issues for further details on US-Pakistan-Taliban-Bin Laden relations.)
What has transpired in the past two weeks shows that the ISI is now attempting to thwart the US-led international effort aimed at terminating global terrorism -- which mainly involves nixing Osama bin Laden and uprooting the Pakistani-created international conglomerate of extremists and terrorists groups, collectively known as the Taliban. The ISI's blueprint includes sending delegations of so-called religious scholars for supposed "negotiations" with the Taliban. The "negotiations" merely buy time for the ISI to revise its strategy -- which before September wasn't complicated by international scrutiny -- of completing Pakistan's long-planned take-over of Afghanistan.
Pakistan is now hurriedly trying to transport thousands of Arab terrorists, the vast majority belonging to Bin Laden's Al-Qaida network, and their families from their bases and homes in Taliban-occupied parts of Afghanistan to the border town of Quetta and its surroundings. These Arabs are being introduced to the international community as Afghan refugees. Their expenses will now be paid by US taxpayers and funds from the UN and non-governmental organizations.
Pakistan is dead set on preserving its extremist and terrorist groups, which Islamabad hopes will deliver them an Afghan protectorate, control of Kashmir, and influence over Central Asia -- in essence, "Greater Pakistan." The ISI is bent on preventing aid to the United Front and support for the peace plan of former Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah.
The former King and the leadership of the United Front -- whose political and military wing, previously led by Ahmad Shah Masood (God's blessings upon him), are now headed by his foremost protégés Mr. Yonnous Qanooni and General Mohammad Fahim, respectively -- are now working closely together at fast pace to create a broad-based government in the wake of the Taliban's impending demise. (Contrary to Pakistani-influenced news reports and commentaries, the United Front, erroneously referred to as the "Northern Alliance," also includes large number of Pashtoons.)
ISI-agents, under the guise of high-ranking military officers and veteran diplomats, are being sent to Washington in droves, all with varying agendas and differing proposals, such as penetrating and disrupting the peace process of the former King, providing false information to news agencies and naïve reporters, and in some cases, posing as journalists themselves. (As was the case this Saturday: In an interview with CNN, Pakistani "journalist" Talat Hussain spoke about the United Front's Pashtoon problem, Pakistan's intentions in Afghanistan, etc., all lies and misinformation right out of an ISI handbook.)
In addition to their subversive activities, Pakistan is pretending to participate in the US-led international effort against terrorism. In return for its cooperation, Islamabad has drafted a laundry list of wishes and wants, like a beggar except without a semblance of human dignity, such as the disolution of billions of dollars of debt and lifting of all sanction. Islamabad again wants to be the conduit of US and international aid to Afghanistan. And once again, Pakistani generals and ISI agents will fill their pockets and Pakistan's war chest with this aid, as they had done so during the Afghan war of resistance against the former Soviet Union.
It is for these reasons that the US and Washington's policymakers must listen to this cautionary advice: Do not be hoodwinked, once again, by Pakistani knavery; consider your suffering at the hands of Bin Laden's terrorist acts and the long and unspeakable agonies of the people of Afghanistan at the hands of Bin Laden and Pakistan; take decisive and wise steps toward saving American lives, international peace and stability, and the entire nation of Afghanistan; do so by uprooting and destroying the Bin Laden network, the Taliban monstrosity, and especially the puppeteer of these evils, Pakistan's ISI and key figures like Hamid Gul, Taliban-patron Naseerullah Babar, and that country's countless false mullahs and mowlanas. ><
Pakis to morph puppet: Meet the Moderate Taliban
By Omaid Weekly staff
As we have witnessed this month, genocidal terrorists have not only inflicted an immeasurable blow to the nation of Afghanistan by martyring its inimitable and sainted national resistance leader, but they have wreaked death and destruction against the US -- in Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania. They now face the ire of the entire civilized world -- the Orient and the Occident.
For the past six years, these terrorists have been at the heart of the Pakistan-Taliban-Bin Laden axis, exacting what amounts to genocide against the people, culture, history, and land of Afghanistan. And they have turned Afghanistan into the world's center of terrorist activities -- the antithesis of that country's ancient history and its people's enduring noble character.
The world's peace lovers and justice seekers have now joined hands to eradicate the terrorists who have taken Afghanistan hostage. This new global partnership must also ensure that once Afghanistan is completely free from its Taliban captors -- and the militia's Arab and Pakistani "guests" -- the country is afforded the opportunity to establish a broad-based government suitable for the 21st century and in accordance with the will of its people. If so established, Afghanistan would once again assume its rightful place as an honored member of the international community.
While the international effort against terrorism has the world abuzz with activity, it is dead certain that Afghanistan's enemies, the forces behind the terrorist plague, are also busily plotting their next step. Pakistan's military establishment, mainly the ISI, is keen on safeguarding its grip on Afghanistan. Pakistan's new plot is a twist on its previous Frankenstein: a yet to be named group that we can currently call the moderate Taliban.
It seems the ISI, using some of its typical tactics, intends to
do away with Mulla Omar and his murderous Arab guest. In place of
Mulla Omar, Pakistan will simply substitute another ISI agent,
place him at the head of its new moderate Taliban group, and with
the new façade, demonstrate to the world that terrorists and
extremists no longer roam Afghanistan or fill the ranks and top
brass of the new moderate Taliban. However, while it will replace
the so-called leadership of the Taliban, the militia and its
terrorist associates will remain intact. And Pakistan is aiming to
use its non-Taliban reserve of ready and willing Afghan servants
-- which include former jihad faction leaders, like Gulbudin
Hekmatyar and Pir Gailani -- in its reinvention of the Taliban.
Both the people of Afghanistan and the world must be aware of this
new scheme, and it should be made clear that neither the Taliban
nor their Pakistani-created successors will be allowed to once
again occupy Afghanistan and continue the scourge of terrorism
against that country and the entire world. ><
[Web eds: This story, first broken in Omaid Weekly's print issue, is now widely reported in international news agency dispatches.]
Open letter to Americans of goodwill
As received by Omaid Weekly, the following is an open letter by prominent French journalist Christophe de Ponfilly. Mr. De Ponfilly was the producer of "Massoud l'Afghan," a landmark Western book and documentary on the martyred Ahmad Shah Masood (God's blessings upon him), Afghanistan's national resistance leader. The letter's English translation includes only minor grammatical edits.
By Christophe de Ponfilly
Your nation is immense. Your nation is rich. Your nation is powerful, and beautiful in many respects. Unless fooled by the illusions of your dreams and myths, you cannot bear to ignore all truth of what caused this drama of which you are now the victims. When the eleventh of September ranks among the most disastrous days of your history, it seems strange and worrying that another event -- the murder of Commandant Massoud [eds: alternate spelling for "Masood"] -- did not attract -- with a few very rare exceptions -- any attention by your media. At the hour of your riposte, you risk to stir up, in the Muslim world, a burning hatred. A few fighters, in the shadows and this very hatred, are waiting for your mistakes to commit again and again other acts of terror.
To defeat without perishing, one has to add to strength, intelligence, cleverness, and subtlety. Think as a man of action, act as a man of thought, take your time and know everything. Thought shall not exclude any piece of knowledge, even if discomforting, above all, do not oversimplify. If your response misses the target, who is hidden since a few days ago, you will spread the evil that some of your services, have, already sparked on those grounds of intolerance, ignorance, fundamentalism and fanaticism without knowing where it would lead. Then, may God help you! And all of us with you.
Before your media exclusively concentrated on the terrible tragedy that plunges your society into mourning, on Sunday September the 9th, in a valley of North-Eastern Afghanistan, another attack, suicidal as well, was committed against Ahmad Shah Massoud, historical figure of Afghanistan that you ignored for reasons many of us still fail to understand. Do we have to explain to you how much this man was worth, who lost his life, on his dear Afghanistan ground, the charismatic leader of an obstinate resistance against the Taliban? Do we have to specify that, once he became the feared opponent of the Arabs and Pakistanis supporting the Taliban, he suffered the same fate as every American victim? He was not innocent like the victims of the attacks committed on your territory, but he was fighting for a freedom of which you know the value, and for his culture. Free Afghan, moderate Muslim, man of peace, fighter of the first hour, Massoud earned the right to figure on top of the list of the victims of this terrorism without morals. His murder happened before the suicide attacks that hurt you and this is probably no coincidence. But why isn't there any room for him in your American eyes, in your thoughts, in your hearts? Do we have to tell you that Massoud was this hero of the mountains who fought back and defeated the soviet army so deviled by you military? Do we have to tell you that he never ceased to warn you against the dangers that have just victimized you?
His murderers were not Afghans but of Arabic origins. Carrying stolen Belgian passports, they came posing as journalists. According to a French journalist who met them, ignoring all of their dark intentions, they were calm, seemed educated, did not fit the illuminated stereotype at all. Yet they were as fanatics as the hijackers who turned your planes against your world of wealth and power. They were well chosen for a precise mission, well thought-out, carefully planned and prepared for a long time. They were willing to die for a cause: destroying all those who do not belong to their universe of wahhabite Islam. The explosives were hidden in their video camera. In their eyes was the death of Massoud, a Muslim himself nevertheless.
This 9th of September no American network is speaking about, the last moments of Massoud dedicated to let the world at large hear about his fight against intolerance. So, in an office as large as a closet of the World Trade Center, there was a devastating deflagration, recorded by no camera. There as well were dreadful shredded bodies: those of the two criminals, of Massoud, of a guard and of one of his close counselors, Massoud Khalili, a lucid man and friend from the time of the fights against the soviets. The link between this suicide attack and those perpetrated, three days later, in New York City and Washington DC, is obvious. Ignoring it reverts to silencing part of the causes that led to the present situation. On the 11th of September, your media quickly designated as number one suspect of the attacks against your nation Ossama Bin Laden, terrorist from Saudi Arabia, friend of the Taliban, already accused in 1998 of the deadly attacks on your embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania, a enemy who decidedly, possesses a bloody power, embodying the Devil himself. It is true that he is a billionaire and as you know money well placed can buy everything one wants: skills, human complicity, even lives and, doubtlessly, with the proper price: death ... I can not believe that you think that he alone is against you. Ossama Bin Laden is an icon. During the last years, journalists found him in the city of Kandahar. Your intelligence services could have executed him. Why didn't they do it? Behind this devilish icon exists a reality of hatred complicity involving many other Arab fanatics, a few criminal Taliban and many Pakistani military men directly compromised in the fall, craziness and destruction of a free and independent Afghanistan.
Your Nation just suffered attacks thought unbelievable on its own territory. It doesn't know how to react, feels groggy, crossed with tensions, with sadness, and with vengeful feelings. I wonder however if the virtual world you are flirting with more and more often isn't backfiring on you, so great are the boldness and the harm of the aggression. While you networks broadcast report upon report, repeating the most spectacular explosion sequences, the most moving testimonies, comments of all kind can be heard. Never were mentioned Massoud nor the fight of Afghans seeking peace and freedom. Why? Why are there so few people among you that dare to remember that your intelligence services played with the fire that burnt you? Why didn't you lend an ear to those who spoke to you about Afghanistan with accuracy? By believing self invulnerability one eventually gets weaker. Learning from his mistakes, that's what Massoud was accomplishing. It's up to you not to fail drawing upon experience.
From Paris, such a tiny dot on the map of the world where your are so powerful, I dare join those who remind you that your intelligence services, whom you hope will put light on the terrorist networks, seem in so many respects suspect. Their implication in the Machiavellian games of Afghanistan's past today has consequences that should not disappear under the eraser of forgetfulness. Please don't see in this accusation another manifestation of anti-Americanism among countless others. It's nothing like that. I sincerely love America and what hurts you makes me sad. But loving Afghanistan as well, I have, personally, a field experience and some fragments of truth that prevent me from holding my tongue.
From knowing and following Massoud throughout his fights, - first against the Soviets, then against the Taliban and their supporters- I know that his heart was the determination of just Man. Why has America ignored him so much, just as she hasn't hear his warnings concerning the dangers his enemies cast over the world? Cruel, sad, and dramatic acknowledgment: your dead are here, as a result of your own blindness.
When Massoud should objectively have became your ally in the fight against Muslim terrorism, he just succumbed from his wounds; murdered by the very people your services helped and who hate you, and us, so much. But Massoud's men live, and you have to help them. I love America but I don't understand your so frequent ignorance of the world beyond your borders. Your networks who advertise their special news programs like blockbusters' trailers are frightening. Don't they risk to imprison you in a fictitious reality? Generous, brave, standing together, your population, aching from its open wound, is ready to go to war, forgetting Vietnam that had so many victims and resolved nothing, the Gulf that masked the reality of the true tragedies, Somalia that solved nothing, surgical strikes that made stains and murders... Going to war is maybe not the most efficient solution to fight an enemy that will always escape you if you do not know him as much as he has known you. The poor Afghans are living in war for more than 20 years, they do not have to pay for a handful of madmen that your shadowy men fed with weapons and dollars. Facts must be looked at straight, and that statement repeated so as not to be forgotten: for years, your CIA supported the most fundamentalist Afghans, giving birth to monsters now uncontrollable. Large numbers of people foreign to Afghanistan (Algerians, Arabs from the Emirates, Palestinians, Saudi Arabs, Sudanese...) came to train for guerilla warfare for years. Choosing the most Muslims among them and seeing them as the most efficient opponents of the Soviets, was a limited and wicked bet. The Westerners who knew the ground, most of them French, did what they could to make your specialists understand that. In vain! The one who fought the Russians the most efficiently was Massoud, not those who received the American support! Again in 1992, Massoud was the one who managed to take Kabul from the hands of the communist Afghans, three years after the retreat of the Soviet troops. Alas for the Afghan people, in 1992, nobody came to disarm a population who knew only to wage war or suffer it. Massoud did not take the power, he gone it to a President who humiliated the Pashtoons today Taliban. Five weeks after the arrival of Massoud's men in the Afghan capital, Gulbudin Hekmatyar, power thirsty, jealous of Massoud, prepared to do anything and supported by your CIA, ordered to bomb the town.
How could your intelligence services make such a mistake? How and why did they choose to listen to the Pakistanis, whose obsession had always been to stand up to India and to secure their strategic position by controlling Afghanistan? Didn't they see, your specialists who don't lack intelligence, didn't they perceive in their skillful objective analysis that there would be, some day, a danger wouldn't? The interest for you Americans, for us Westerners, have been to support Massoud who kept asking for help, who wanted elections, who wanted to disarm the population, who, in fact, was talking of peace after his mistakes in Kabul? No, you ignored this man. You even helped, in a second phase, the Taliban that the Pakistanis presented as the only ones able to eventually bring peace back in Afghanistan. One of your oil companies, allied with another from Saudi Arabia (Unocal and Delta) even started to believe in the possibility to build a gas pipeline to carry, thro ugh Afghanistan, gas from Turkmenistan to the harbors of Pakistan. The dollars received by the Taliban were then used to buy out Mujahideen commanders to make them give back their weapons, agreed, but also to wage war against Massoud and the Northern Alliance. The fact that these Taliban were surrounded by fanatic Arabs and Pakistani counselors never, obviously, disturbed you intelligence services.
That the extreme madness of the Taliban existed and didn't balk
at showing off its radical measures to the face of the world
didn't,
apparently, make you feel like examining the material that would
shape the future. Strange contempt for human reality. Your
services used people as pawns on a chessboard. They bought out
those that could be bought, the law-less. But human pastry isn't
always as shapeable as one could believe. The reasons why men live
aren't the same for everybody. Your services sparked a fire of
which you're now the victims. Right now, the situation is serious:
when your intelligence services have to designate the guilty,
don't choose the Taliban Law to destroy those you understood so
little and you are still caricaturing in your media. Be careful, I
beg you: the Afghan population, in all the richness of its ethnic
groups and cultures, must not pay for the crimes it has been
suffering for so long. Its resistance must be supported. In
Afghanistan, the criminal leaders are few, your services may know
them better than us since they have been interlocutors for a long
time. Ossama Bin Laden, guilty or scapegoat, left to hide and will
rejoice to see your multiple mistakes, to better light the fire of
revolt against our Western world. But he is far from being alone,
you know that. Because Afghanistan isn't the only place in the
world where the fighters of hatred are preparing.
By murdering Massoud, your enemies made even less clear the Afghan reality. For pity's sake, never forget how happy you were to see the Afghan peasants face, with courage and dignity, the Soviet army. Your President Reagan called them the fighters of freedom. A democracy like yours needs lucidity to keep on being a reality. You must seek in yourselves the reasons for the hatred of which you're now the victims...
We need too as well since our politicians didn't manage to help
Massoud either when he came, a few months ago, to ask Paris and
Strasbourg home of the European Parliament, to put pressure on
Pakistan. May God help you from your reprisals. Don't bring fire
in a bloodless garden where your representatives gave birth to
scrubs, be precise, wise and generous. So things go for Nations
who wish to
remain great and rich and powerful and beautiful and fair... And
use
those who know. ><
From Help the Afghan Children, Inc., the premier Afghan-operated aid organization:
We are leaving for Afghanistan
Alarming statistics released by the United Nations (office) on Sept. 20th show that 7.5 million women and children are at risk of hunger and starvation in Afghanistan. A severe winter is fast approaching and all relief agencies, including the U.N., are suspending their operations in that country.
We will be leaving on or before the 20th of October for Afghanistan. Our mission is to purchase food and other emergency items from neighboring countries and deliver them to thousands of internal refugees who are trapped within the country and unable to receive humanitarian goods because all borders have been closed to them. We desperately need your donation. A child, a family, and a nation are in agony and in need of a helping hand.
Those of us that are blessed with the privilege of living in a country such as the United States too often forget the millions of people around the world whose daily life is a struggle for survival. This is particularly true of the people of Afghanistan at this terrible moment.
You can make a donation by:
Check payable to Help the Afghan Children, Inc.
Credit cards, American Express, MasterCard, and Visa by calling our office Online donation by check is also available. Please see our website: www.htaci.com
Direct Deposit: First Virginia Bank Acct. # "056001118" 0602-7733
Your donation is fully tax deductible.
Help the Afghan Children, Inc.
A non-profit organization, 501-c-3, Tax ID: 54-1695838
Established in 1993
8133 Leesburg Pike, Suite 310, Vienna, Virginia 22182, USA
Phone: (703) 848-0407 Fax: (703) 848-0408
E-mail: htaci@msn.com Website: www.htaci.com
First Virginia Bank Acct. # "056001118" 0602-7733
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