[A-List] Taliban snatch away America's hope - Asia Times Online (fwd)

[Andre Gunder Frank <franka@xxxxxxx>]

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                    ANDRE  GUNDER  FRANK
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 15:27:27 PDT
From: shniad@xxxxxx
To: shniad@xxxxxx
Subject: Taliban snatch away America's hope - Asia Times Online

http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/CJ27Ag04.html

Asia Times Online					  October 27, 2001

Taliban snatch away America's hope

     By Syed Saleem Shahzad and Nadeem Malik

Karachi and Islamabad - Battle-scarred mujahideen commander Abdul Haq was
quoted recently as saying that he regretted that he had not destroyed the
Taliban in the conflict in Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in
the early 1990s.

He paid with his life by not doing so. On Friday he and at least five of his
officers were captured by the Taliban while on a foray inside eastern Logar
province in Afghanistan to woo support away from the Taliban. A Taliban
Foreign Ministry spokesman in Peshawar subsequently said that the Taliban
had executed Haq in Kabul. The spokesman added that Haq had two satellite
phones and "lots" of US currency on him when he was arrested.

His initial capture, despite the best efforts of a supporting cast of United
States Black Hawk attack helicopters, has dramatically altered the situation
in Afghanistan as Haq was the man that the US believed was the ace in their
pack in unseating the Taliban regime without US troops having to become
bogged down in a lengthy military campaign.

Now, with Haq removed - on its own a graphic illustration of the efficiency
of the Taliban intelligence network - hopes of splintering the Taliban
forces in the eastern regions are remote. The United States appears to have
little option but to send more troops into Afghanistan, a move that carries
grave dangers.

As Haq himself was quoted recently as saying, "I'm telling you, if they [US]
troops start to get involved, and they send ground troops, I'm telling you
that would be a big disaster for peace in the country, and that they would
push the whole nation into Taliban hands. You will just create thousands of
[Osama] bin Ladens."

Indeed, the death of Haq appears to have triggered the Pakistani militant
religious group Hizb-e-Islami, led by Gulbaddin Kekmatyar, into sending
troops to join hands with the Taliban. The Hizb-e-Islami, and other similar
groupings, have long said that they would supply members for a jihad in
Afghanistan. Now it appears to be happening. And on Friday, the United
Kingdom said that it would make 200 Royal Marine commandos immediately
available for ground operations in Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman in the eastern city of Jalalabad told the private
Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press on Friday that Haq had been captured
while fleeing on horseback at Azra in Logar province, 20 miles west of
Pakistan's northwestern frontier, in rocky, mountainous terrain. "We had
secretly surrounded the place for two days where Haq was hiding with his
supporters," said the spokesman. The Taliban claimed that Haq had used a
satellite telephone to call for attacks by US aircraft in a vain attempt to
stave off capture, the news agency said.

The 43-year-old Pashtun, who lost his right foot to a land mine in the 1980s
and carries at least a dozen scars of war, left the Afghanistan scene in
1992 to run an import-export business in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
He returned last month at the behest of senior Pakistan officials as he was
viewed as the only person capable of inducing defections from the ranks of
the Taliban in the eastern provinces, where he is highly respected among
fellow Pashtuns, many of whom fought alongside Haq against the Soviets
during the 1980s.

Another Pakistani chieftain, Hamid Karzai, leader of the Popalzai tribe that
lives around the Taliban spiritual capital of Kandahar, is reported to have
left Quetta for that city to pursue the same objectives as Haq. Sources say
that the Taliban are still trying to track him down. The two commanders were
implementing Pakistan and US plans to convene a loya jirga (grand council)
to topple the Taliban and replace it with a Pashtun-dominated
administration.

Sources say that Haq's decision to enter Afghanistan at this stage was a
hasty and ill-informed one, illustrated by the fact that he was left
isolated when the Taliban attacked his group. Although he had already had
some success in causing some minor commanders to defect, and had been
promised more, and bigger ones, he should have remembered that these very
commanders and tribesmen have on different occasions been obedient to
virtually every person who has headed a government in Afghanistan. For the
present, they clearly feel that they are better off with the Taliban, who
have made Logar their power base. Even if Kabul falls, they can mount an
indefinite guerrilla war in the region.

And to the north of the country the situation is not going the way of the
United States. US-led air forces have been pounding the frontline Taliban
positions lined up against the Northern Alliance just a few score kilometers
from Kabul. But the alliance, apparently weakened by internal differences,
has been unable to capitalize on the assistance it has received, and in fact
its troops have even been pushed back in some places. The introduction of
ground troops by the US and its allies in this theater now seems the only
solution.

In Pakistan, authorities are taking measures to prevent thousands of
tribesmen from flooding into Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban.They have
reinforced security along the North Western Frontier province after reports
that several thousand men were gathering in Dir district in the
semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. These are
Pashtun-dominated regions where the fellow Pashtun of the Taliban are widely
supported for tribal and ethnic reasons as much as for their shared Islamic
faith. "The situation is very tense, but we are putting a security cordon in
place. We're taking measures to stop them from marching into Afghanistan,"
one official said.

The tribesmen have rallied to the call of a radical Islamic group, Tanzim
Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TSNM), which is trying to enforce Islamic Sharia
law in the area. Many of the volunteers have their own guns, swords and
axes, with around 2,500 said to be carrying automatic weapons.

Much of the border is awash with weapons. TSNM leader Maulana Sufi Mohammed
said that they would send a delegation of clerics to meet the Taliban, who,
he said, had welcomed their offer of support. Previously, the Taliban have
suggested that they do not need reinforcements from outside, possibly
because many volunteers would be untrained.