A Brief Refresher on the Taliban's Worst-Kept Secret

[G_j]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/wikileaks-taliban-afghanistan

A Brief Refresher on the Taliban's Worst-Kept Secret

Wikileaks' papers are just the latest Afghan military shockers to surface. Remember Reagan and the Pakistani spooks?

— By James Ridgeway

Fri Jul. 30, 2010 5:31 PM PDT

The "most damning collection of data" in Wikileaks' massive trove of secret documents from Afghanistan are 180 files that show the Pakistani intelligence service helping Taliban insurgents in their fight against US forces. The documents are dark reading indeed: They describe Pakistani agents meeting directly with the Taliban, supporting commanders of the insurgency, and even training suicide bombers. But for anyone versed in the contemporary history of Afghanistan, they are hardly news.

<snip>

That context is especially useful now. I explored the Taliban's history in my 2005 book The Five Unanswered Questions About 9/11, which asked, did US 'allies' help make the attacks possible?" Most of what follows is adapted from that book.

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Pakistani intelligence service became a key part of the CIA's strategy in the country, where a full-scale covert war was carried out under Ronald Reagan, with hundreds of millions in funding eventually provided by Congress.

As meticulously described by Steve Coll in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2005 book Ghost Wars, the covert operation took place under the zealous leadership of then-CIA Director William J. Casey, to whom Afghanistan represented an opportunity to fight the Soviets right on their own border. It was an opportunity for Pakistan, as well: As Soviet journalist Artyom Borovik wrote in his 1990 book The Hidden War, Pakistan's leader General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq "saw in the Afghan conflict a unique opportunity to obtain a sharp increase in US military and financial aid to Pakistan. The Pakistani generals regarded the entrance of Soviet troops into Afghanistan as 'Brezhnev's gift.'" Over the next seven years, Reagan would engineer more than $7 billion in aid to Pakistan.

..more..

[G_j]

1. CIA AND ISI NURTURED MUJAHIDEEN AND TALIBAN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x490826

[LWolf]

2. More:

Zia was more than willing to support Casey's strategy, which included both funding the Afghan mujahaddin and attracting an international force of Islamic militants to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. According to Ahmed Rashid's 2000 book Taliban, Pakistan issued standing orders to all its embassies to grant visas to anyone who wanted to come and fight with the mujahaddin. As a result, a growing force of Muslims from around the world gathered in camps in easternmost Afghanistan, just across the Pakistani border. These camps, Rashid notes, became "virtual universities for future Islamic radicalism."

One of those in attendance was a wealthy Saudi named Osama Bin Laden. "I settled in Pakistan in the Afghan border region," he said in a 1998 interview with Agence France-Presse. "There I received volunteers who came from the Saudi kingdom and from all over the Arab and Muslim countries. I set up my first camp where these volunteers were trained by Pakistani and American officers. The weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis." Later, he said, "I discovered that it was not enough to fight in Afghanistan, but that we had to fight on all fronts, communist or western oppression."

Good read.

[G_j]

4. remember when pointing out the possible "blowback" factor

of 9/11 was a no no for the mainstream, actually the whole blowback issue is taboo still.

[LWolf]

6. It is still taboo. nt

[formercia]

3. The Paks used some of that money to fund their Nuclear Program

Thanks to Bill Casey and Ronnie Raygun, they now have the Bomb.

Be careful what you wish for.

[G_j]

8. ah yes,

that little matter...

what a mess,
on a highway to hell

[Greyhound]

5. Clinton allowing these criminals to walk away was possibly the worst (in)action

a President has ever taken. It retained the precedent of ruling privilege that so many fought and died to end over the centuries before him. It was shameless and, his actions afterward indicate, deliberate.

He sold us out to get his entry into the Big Club, and boy does it pay well.

[H2O Man]

12. Clinton's role

was even larger, though many moderate-to-conservative democrats appear incapable of processing this. As US President, he opted to have alQueda and Hezbollah "operatives" into Bosnia. (Boston Globe, 2-12-03; New York Times,2-11-03)

[amborin]

7. not that big a secret: long known that the ISI is seriously compromised

[G_j]

9. kick

[G_j]

10. kick for the DU war hawks -nt

[another saigon]

11. an excellent find G j!

thank you!

K&R

[G_j]

13. and thanks

for the kick :-)

[jonnyblitz]

14. It;s good to see James Ridgeway is still around. I need to

dig out my unread copy of Steve Colls "Ghost Wars" mentioned in this piece and read it.