How the Taliban Rose from Afghan Turmoil

The Road Ahead: After Soviet Defeat in Afghanistan, U.S.-Backed Mujahedeen Becomes Radical Faction Bankrolled by Bin Laden

(CBS)  When the Soviet Union invaded in 1979, a group of Afghan Muslims declared a holy war. They were known as the Mujahedeen.

"The term Mujahedeen derives from the word jihad - the holy struggle," said Michael Semple of the Kennedy School of Government.

They shared a common enemy with the United States and both the Carter and Reagan administrations gave the Mujahadeen $3 billion in military aid to fight the Soviets, reports CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

"Any form of assistance that they could think of, the United States administrations provided," Semple said.

CBS News Special Report: The Road Ahead

All while the Mujahedeen were celebrated as freedom fighters, standing shoulder to shoulder with James Bond and Rambo in Hollywood films.

The Soviets withdrew - defeated - in 1989. But the mujahedeen could not secure peace. The country quickly disintegrated into civil war. And with the Russians gone, the Americans lost interest in Afghanistan.

"We withdrew," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "And we left the problems of a well-equipped, fundamentalist, ideological and religious group that had been battle-hardened to the Afghans and the Pakistanis."

The most militant, extremist faction of the Mujahideen turned into the Taliban.

"The Taliban emerged as this kind of altruistic group which wanted to bring peace to Afghanistan and initially they were very popular," said Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid.

But the Taliban's fight to be more powerful than the Mujahadeen cost money. And a wealthy Saudi Arabian exile, in need of safe haven, stepped up as the Taliban's banker.

"Osama Bin Laden completely ingratiates himself with the Taliban," Rashid said. "He provides them with money, fighters, reconstruction efforts. So he's a great asset to them."

Less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush issued an ultimatum to the Taliban: turn over Osama bin Laden, or face the consequences.

"None of these demands were met. And now the Taliban will pay a price," Bush said in 2001.

Although the U.S. and its Afghan allies did topple the Taliban, a fateful strategic error cost the coalition its prize. In November 2001, bin Laden was cornered in the Tora Bora mountains along the Pakistani border. But the U.S. chose not to act and instead outsourced the capture of the al Qaeda leader to local Afghan militias.

Bin Laden escaped - and the trail has been cold ever since.

More special coverage on CBSNews.com:

Marines in Afghanistan: A Day in the Life
Taliban Gaining Firepower and Confidence
Battle of Wanat - Inside the Ambush
Afghanistan, 8 Years In: How We Got Here
McCain, Kerry Answer Key Questions on Afghanistan
Public's Views of Afghanistan War Have Turned Sour

[brian1920]

brian-bwb- Your quotes and your rational is bogus. You draw conclusions which are just fabrications and you think that the "evil" CIA and "evil" Bush" are responsible for al of the ills of the world. You have no back up for the data you write but quotes fragmented from publications taken out of context. Start asking yourself how people who have nothing can afford a $6 20MM round. What did Bin Laden gain by attacking the US? Would they do it again if given the chance? Why don't the Pakistanis control the north-west region of Pakistan? The US is not the evil in the world.

[brianbwb-2009]

Then you assume that declassified information from the CIA and Fbi files, as well as public documents, are all bogus. You call them bogus, but don't have the wherewithal to show how they are. I simply extract the central points of the material, in order to post without unnecessary text.

Feel free to examine my points, and show how they are "bogus" as you say, by providing material, not opinion, which it seems so far is all you have.

Your first question is easy, they cannot, the money has to come from somewhere, and that money trail is well documented, and leads directly to the CIA.

Bin Laden gained money by attacking the US, just as the warmongers gained money by siphoning the resources spent on our "response".

Would they do it again? If their bosses in the CIA, the Bush/Cheney/Bin Laden Families, and the royal family of Saudi Arabia told them to, then they would not only attack, but they would succeed.

The Pakistanis don't control it because the US puppet, Pervez Musharraf, chooses not to. If he did, then there would be absolutely no reason for US troops to be there, and no opportunity for the war profiteers to steal more money.

Here with references,

THE LATEST FRIENDLY DICTATOR: MUSHARRAF

The US has supported a string of dictators in Pakistan, including General Ziaul Haq, a military dictator who was an ally during the proxy war against the USSR in Afghanistan. The most recent dictator to win US favor is President Musharraf, who seized power in 1999. Musharraf is now enjoying support due to his willingness to assist US efforts in Afghanistan.

In 1999, Musharraf took control of Pakistan in a "bloodless coup," therefore putting the nuclear power under military control.
www.rnw.nl/hotspots/archive/pak/html/pakistane991013.html

Pakistan and India are now on the brink of nuclear war, due in no small part to Musharraf's actions, which include current missile tests (although India is no less to blame for engaging in dangerous brinkmanship).
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9198-2002May25.html

No we are not "the" evil, but our leaders are among the most virulent of many evils.

[brianbwb-2009]

Hey Hey CBS CBS,, What's What's up up with with the the double double posts posts??

[Ms_enza]

Not JUST Bin Laden... HIS COUNTRY. The House of Saud is buried in this up to their eyebrows. The Al Qaeda, and Taliban is fully funded through the gas pump at your local 7-11

[brianbwb-2009]

So is the house of Bush.

[brianbwb-2009]

So is the house of Bush.

[formrusmcsgt]

The jist of this article is puzzling, to say the least.

The author appears to only take OBL's escape into account and completely ignores the decision by dubya, et.al, to leave Afghanistan to it's own devices and go head-hunting in Iraq after 4 months.

[brianbwb-2009]

It also fails to mention the history of American-sponsored terrorism in Afghanistan during the years from the war with Russia, the imposition of homicidal maniac Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and his subsequent erasure of this gross mistake by the CIA-backed Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Hekmatyar is still around btw, facing no charges for his genocide, and also offering to the US to help fight Al Qaeda, while simultaneously offering the Taliban to help fight the US.

Funny thing, the CIA is apparently interested.

[incog-nito]

Just another incident in the long, celebrated history of the U.S. encouraging people to fight when it suits its objectives, then abandoning them when it no longer does. Korea. Vietnam. "Helping" Cubans fight Castro, then abandoning them in the Bay of Pigs. "Helping" the Kurds rise up against Saddam, then abandoning them to slaughter.

What will happen with Afghanistan, is that the U.S. will prop up a puppet regime long enough to be able to declare "victory" and withdraw its troops. Then wash its hands clean while the regime slowly fall. Just like Vietnam.

[brianbwb-2009]

Helping the Kurds? You might be interested to know this,

on 25 May 1994, the US Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs produced a report entitled "United States Chemical and Biological Warfare-related Dual-use exports to Iraq and their possible impact on the Health Consequences (sic) of the Persian Gulf War".

This was the 1991 war which prompted our liberation of Kuwait, and the report informed Congress about US government-approved shipments of biological agents sent by American companies to Iraq from 1985 or earlier. These included Bacillus anthracis, which produces anthrax; Clostridium botulinum; Histoplasma capsulatum; Brucella melitensis; Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli. The same report stated that the US provided Saddam with "dual use" licensed materials which assisted in the development of chemical, biological and missile-system programmes, including chemical warfare agent production facility plant and technical drawings (provided as pesticide production facility plans)..."

Also,

"December 19th, 2007

by The Stiletto in All News, Iraq News, Iraq War, Middle Eastern News, The War on Terror, US News, World Politics

Synonyms for the word ?ally? include ?friend,? ?helper,? ?partner? and ?supporter.? What kind of ?ally? has Turkey been to the U.S. in Iraq? Duplicitous and double-dealing.

Here?s just the latest example.

The U.S. provided the real-time intelligence that enabled Turkey to mount Sunday?s airstrike. A U.S. military official tells The Washington Post that we are ?essentially handing them their targets.

?The Kurdish regional government takes the view that the U.S. ?allowed? Turkish bombers to cross into its territory since our military controls the airspace ? which means that we ?approved? it. Rice denied that the U.S. gave the Turks the go-ahead for the air incursion, but her credibility was immediately undercut by Turkey?s military chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, who bluntly stated that ?America ? opened the [Iraqi] airspace to us. By opening the airspace, America gave its approval to this operation.?


We disn't abandon them, we took part in the slaughter of them.

[bubbadubba]

And once again the Bible is prophetic.
"You will reap what you sow".
We are being killed by the very same people we helped to kill others.
The Bible, that's some Book.

[citizenusa-2009]

After more than 8 LONG, BLOODY, YEARS in TWO Third World Countries (who have been at war for CENTURIES), it's time we PULLED OUT and stop the madness of sacrificing our men and women for.... WHAT??? Osama could have been "taken out" a week after 911 by a paid assassin, but noooo we had to wage a FULL SCALE INVASION.

Obama, in my opinion has been a wonderful breath of fresh air but now needs to put his foot down and undo some of the HORRIFIC decisions that the Bush Crime Family made with regard to the wars. Economically, I know Obama has had a lot on his plate, but it's now time for the war games to END.

[dblbar1]

Osama could have been "taken out" a week after 911 by a paid assassin, but noooo we had to wage a FULL SCALE INVASION.

Problem is grasshopper.......we went to the wrong COUNTRY, so Bush could feel like a MAN!

[citizenusa-2009]

Excuse me, the correct spelling is Assassin, I believe.

[citizenusa-2009]

After more than 8 LONG, BLOODY, YEARS in TWO Third World Countries (who have been at war for CENTURIES), it's time we PULLED OUT and stop the madness of sacrificing our men and women for.... WHAT??? Osama could have been "taken out" a week after 911 by a paid asassin, but noooo we had to wage a FULL SCALE INVASION.

Obama, in my opinion has been a wonderful breath of fresh air but now needs to put his foot down and undo some of the HORRIFIC decisions that the Bush Crime Family made with regard to the wars. Economically, I know Obama has had a lot on his plate, but it's now time for the war games to END.

[brianbwb-2009]

Therein lies the problem, Obama is surrounded by people who make money from Bush's crimes, the moment he "puts his foot down" will probably be among the last moments of his life, and if Biden didn't tell him so, Bush certainly did during that meeting in the WH just before Obama was sworn in.

[doc_holliday76]

"The Soviets withdrew - defeated - in 1989. But the mujahedeen could not secure peace. The country quickly disintegrated into civil war. And with the Russians gone, the Americans lost interest in Afghanistan."
-----------------------------------------





Exactly what happened at the end of the movie "Charlie Wilson's WAR," where Tom Hanks was asking for a paltry $1 Million for Afghanistan schools and education after the U.S. had already spent $3 Billion on WARmongering, and we screwed-up the end game -- only to have it reappear and bite us in the butt 20 years later!

[superdem1]

Where are the Taliban getting all their weapons ? Who is making and supplying these automatic weapons and explosives ? They are NOT being tapped into shape in remote villages by smithies. They can be traced - but nobody's talking. Somebody is making big bucks trafficking in high powered weaponry, ammunition, and explosives. It is pointless to talk about "success" in Afghanistan when the "insurgents" have an endless supply of ordnance. The American deaths in this god-forsaken place will go on so long as money can be made from this conflict. War is big business.

[brianbwb-2009]

Most of the weapons are Soviet-made, but paid for with American dollars. Yet others were shipped into the region from the US during the Soviet-Afghan war, yet others magically appeared after going missing from arms shipments meant to support the Iraq operation.

No matter where they are made, almost all have American fingerprints on them.

[sjc_1]

Years ago, Pakistan supported the Taliban in Afghanistan because it looked like they might bring peace to the feuding that was going on after the Soviets. This turned out to be the wrong direction and now they are having to deal with the consequences.

[brianbwb-2009]

Pakistan supported the Taliban because the CIA told it to do so, and provided the money for the support.

"It was revealed by the London Telegraph in 2007 that the US, through the CIA, was funding and arming terrorist organizations to "sow chaos" inside Iran. ABC News reported just over a month later that the terrorist group was a Pakistani militant group named Jundullah, which is based in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. Jundullah also has very close ties with Al-Qaeda. Although the US funds this Al-Qaeda-linked group, the funding is indirect, as it travels through Pakistan?s ISI.

So clearly, the ISI has some troubling connections to Al-Qaeda, various other Islamic extremist groups, and British and American intelligence. Where the ISI is operational, so too, are Anglo-American ambitions."

Ever wonder why Bin Laden's tapes magically appeared exactly within the news cycle when Bush wanted to foist yet another illegal act upon the American people?

[brianbwb-2009]

Pakistan supported the Taliban because the CIA told it to do so, and provided the money for the support.

"It was revealed by the London Telegraph in 2007 that the US, through the CIA, was funding and arming terrorist organizations to "sow chaos" inside Iran. ABC News reported just over a month later that the terrorist group was a Pakistani militant group named Jundullah, which is based in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. Jundullah also has very close ties with Al-Qaeda. Although the US funds this Al-Qaeda-linked group, the funding is indirect, as it travels through Pakistan?s ISI.

So clearly, the ISI has some troubling connections to Al-Qaeda, various other Islamic extremist groups, and British and American intelligence. Where the ISI is operational, so too, are Anglo-American ambitions."

Ever wonder why Bin Laden's tapes magically appeared exactly within the news cycle when Bush wanted to foist yet another illegal act upon the American people?

[bradkt1]

This story left out one very important detail. The Taliban is the creation of Pakistan's notoriously corrupt intelligence agency...the ISI. Osama Bin Laden may have been a major contributor, but it was the ISI that organized and equipped them and used them to advance their own purposes. Pakistan wanted a "friendly" regime in Afghanistan because they shared their other border with their long-time enemy...India. This is why Pakistan has been playing a double game with the United States ever since...taking billions in U.S. anti-terrorism funding and other assorted aid and making only token efforts to crack down in Western Pakistan on the Taliban and the tribes that gave them and Al-Quaida safe haven in Pakstani territory.

As for the U.S. role...well Charlie Wilson's War didn't work out like the U.S. thought it would. Things didn't end happily ever after once the Russians were defeated. After the Russians left, the U.S. lost interest in Afghanistan and the most extreme factions united and took over...exactly like Pakistan wanted, so long as they were on friendly terms with Pakistan.

I believe that if one went all the way back in time to the U.S. "tilt" toward Pakistan during the Cold War (thanks, Henry Kissinger...for nothing), you would find a real series of CIA horror stories.

[brianbwb-2009]

Still one step removed, from where do you think ISI gets the money?

Read on.

"Omar Sheikh, a British-born Islamist militant, is waiting to be hanged in Pakistan for a murder he almost certainly didn't commit - of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Both the US government and Pearl's wife have since acknowledged that Sheikh was not responsible. Yet the Pakistani government is refusing to try other suspects newly implicated in Pearl's kidnap and murder for fear the evidence they produce in court might acquit Sheikh and reveal too much.

Significantly, Sheikh is also the man who, on the instructions of General Mahmoud Ahmed, the then head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), wired $100,000 before the 9/11 attacks to Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker. It is extraordinary that neither Ahmed nor Sheikh have been charged and brought to trial on this count...

Why not?

"The ISI may also have played a roll in 9/11 itself, as its General was in Washington in the lead up to and during the 9/11 attacks, meeting with top intelligence, State Department and Congressional officials, including CIA Director George Tenet, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Senator Bob Graham, Representative Porter Goss, who would go on to become CIA director, and Joseph Biden, who is now Barack Obama?s running mate. The ISI?s General, while meeting with all these top US officials in foreign affairs and intelligence, also happened to be the money man behind 9/11, having wired $100,000 to the lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta.

hmed, the paymaster for the hijackers, was actually in Washington on 9/11, and had a series of pre-9/11 top-level meetings in the White House, the Pentagon, the national security council, and with George Tenet, then head of the CIA, and Marc Grossman, the under-secretary of state for political affairs. When Ahmed was exposed by the Wall Street Journal as having sent the money to the hijackers, he was forced to "retire" by President Pervez Musharraf.

The ISI has long established ties with terrorist networks in the region. The ISI was used as a conduit by the CIA in 1979 to finance and arm the Afghan Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the Afghan-Soviet War of 1979 to 1989.

During the 1980s, many "officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in the US and many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen, Islamic fundamentalists of Pakistan and Arab volunteers." Further, the "CIA, through the ISI, promoted the smuggling of heroin into Afghanistan in order to make the Soviet troops heroin addicts Once the Soviet troops were withdrawn in 1988, these heroin smugglers started smuggling the drugs to the West, with the complicity of the ISI."

[worldcitizen1]

Another story of the US (CIA) causing more harm than help with their intervintionilist policies. The US decision makers were so short sighted, they helped establish the organization that would attack the US, just because they were fighting the Soviet Union. Similar to the mistakes regarding Iran, supporting the dictator "Shaw" of Iran, and supporting both Iraq and Iran in their war to destroy each other. It seems the largest threat to US security is our own foreign policy makers. The deaths of 9/11 are directly linked to the failures of US foreign policy. The US has the best, most powerful technologically advanced military on earth, but lacks the wisdom to use it effectively.

[doc_holliday76]

by worldcitizen1:
"It seems the largest threat to US security is our own foreign policy makers."
----------------------------------




Absolutely! We allowed corporate America and our banking industry to help arm Hitler and Nazi Germany back in the 1930's as well as helping Iraq, Iran and the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan back in the 1980's.

Those that fail to read and understand history, are destined to repeat it!

[oldhotel]

This was the first well thought out and displayed compilation for an evening newscast I have seen in a long time. It also was the first time I have seen any evening news show the true failure of the Bin Laden escape. While there was a lot more in the story than told, I was impressed by the entire show. I hope many get to see it.

[brianbwb-2009]

Except for the fact that its numerous ommissions make it a blatant lie.

"By 1987, the annual supply of arms had reached 65,000 tons, and a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon officials were visiting Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Rawalpindi and helping to plan mujahideen operations:

At any one time during the Afghan fighting season, as many as 11 ISI teams trained and supplied by the CIA accompanied mujahideen across the border to supervise attacks, according to Yousaf and Western sources. The teams attacked airports, railroads, fuel depots, electricity pylons, bridges and roads...

CIA operations officers helped Pakistani trainers establish schools for the mujahideen in secure communications, guerrilla warfare, urban sabotage and heavy weapons.

Although the CIA claimed that the purpose was to attack military targets, mujahideen trained in these techniques, and using chemical and electronic-delay bomb timers supplied by the U.S., carried out numerous car bombings and assassination attacks in Kabul itself."

And now the neos call the Afghamis "terrorists". But read on, dear pilgrim...

"One of the first non-Afghan volunteers to join the ranks of the mujahideen was Osama bin Laden, a civil engineer and businessman from a wealthy construction family in Saudi Arabia, with close ties to members of the Saudi royal family. Bin Laden recruited 4,000 volunteers from his own country and developed close relations with the most radical mujahideen leaders.

He also worked closely with the CIA, raising money from private Saudi citizens. By 1984, he was running the Maktab al-Khidamar, an organization set up by the ISI to funnel "money, arms, and fighters from the outside world in the Afghan war."

Since September 11, CIA officials have been claiming they had no direct link to bin Laden. These denials lack credibility. Earlier this year, the trial of defendants accused of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya disclosed that the CIA shipped high-powered sniper rifles directly to bin Laden's operation in 1989. Even the Tennessee-based manufacturer of the rifles confirmed this..."

"We're going to get [Bin Laden] Dead or alive, it doesn't matter to me." Bush 12/14/2001

"So I don't know where [Bin Laden] is..You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. ...I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him." Bush, only 3 months later, March 13, 2002

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar received millions of dollars from the CIA through the ISI. Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin received some of the strongest support from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and worked with thousands of foreign mujahideen who came to Afghanistan.

As the war began to appear increasingly winnable for the Mujahideen, Islamic fundamentalist elements within the ISI became increasingly motivated by their desire to install the fundamentalist Hekmatyar as the new leader of a liberated Afghanistan.

Alfred McCoy, author of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, accused the CIA of supporting Hekmatyar drug trade activities, basically providing him immunity against his assistance in the fight against the USSR.

It gets worse, but these omissions alone are sufficient to show the Whitewashing of the US role in the terrorism that has been in that country since long before 9/11