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| U.S. hit squads signal new twist to Afghan war |
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| amatullah |
| 05/16/02 at 21:21:47 |
| May 12, 2002 U.S. hit squads signal new twist to Afghan war By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor Toronto Sun (Sun Newspapers) Gen. Ariel Sharon's habit of sending hit squads to kill people he deems enemies has caught on in Washington. It's been revealed that last Monday the CIA tried to assassinate my old acquaintance, the Afghan leader, Gulbadin Hekmatyar. U.S. forces and CIA agents have targeted senior members of al-Qaida and the Taliban since October. But Hekmatyar belonged to neither group: he leads the well-established Hisbi-Islami Party, which played the leading role in the 1980s struggle to free Afghanistan from Soviet rule. He had nothing to do with al-Qaida or Sept. 11, and was an enemy of the Taliban. But in Washington's eyes, Hekmatyar was marked for death because he opposed the U.S.-installed regime in Kabul of Hamid Karzai, and was thus a "terrorist." I've known Hekmatyar since the mid-1980s, when we spent time together in Peshawar. Tall, heavy lidded, and extremely pale, the turbaned Pashtun leader looked like a saint from a Goya painting. Engineer Hekmatyar was the only mujahedin leader who did not come from a traditional tribal background: he was a raw and hated upstart who called for the end of tribalism and for the creation of an Islamic democracy. Hekmatyar was also the most effective mujahedin leader. Among the seven guerrilla groups, his Hisbi Islami was the leading recipient of U.S. arms and money, and did the bulk of fighting against the Soviets. Gulbadin worked closely with the CIA and Pakistan's once crack intelligence service, ISI. But at war's end, the U.S. decided Hekmatyar and his fellow Islamists were a liability. Overnight, the CIA's closest Afghan ally, once hailed by Washington as a "freedom fighter," was marked for termination. Hekmatyar told me the CIA tried to assassinate him by detonating a large truck bomb that killed scores of civilians, but missed him. In the early 1990s, Gulbadin served as prime minister of Afghanistan until it dissolved into civil war. He has now returned from exile in Iran and is calling on Afghans to oust the U.S.-installed Karzai regime, which he calls a puppet under the control of foreigners - which it clearly is. A missile-armed Predator drone - the CIA's new weapon of choice in assassinations - was sent to kill the troublesome Hekmatyar. The missiles failed to hit him, but reportedly killed bystanders. What makes this attack noteworthy - and deeply disturbing - is that Washington now seems to have decided to "liquidate" troublesome foreign political opponents, using unproven charges of "terrorism" as a pretext. The administration might as well accuse political opponents of being "enemies of the people," as Stalin did. The White House and Pentagon have embarked on a campaign to rub out foes because of what they might do. It's called "pre-emption," a favourite Israeli term. Iraq must be invaded because Saddam Hussein might at some distant future date have weapons of mass destruction that he might be crazy enough to use against the U.S. and thus invite the vaporization of himself and his nation. Muslims across the U.S. might get up to no good, so Grand Inquisitor/cum Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered that many be rounded up and interrogated. Old ally Hekmatyar might cause trouble for America's puppet regime in Kabul, so he must be rubbed out. The Bush administration is so gripped by iron-fisted Sharonism that not one of its members has challenged the CIA's attempted murder of Hekmatyar, though this misdeed could well constitute a crime under American law. In fact, George Bush's hang 'em high White House has shown an alarming lack of concern with domestic and international law. Not just in its crusade against Muslim foes, or in threatening the rights and liberties of Americans, but also by an arrogant, Neanderthal unilateralism that has outraged friends abroad: crude rejection of the Kyoto Accords; spitting on the worthy idea of an international court to try war criminals; abrogating arms treaties with Russia; violating the laws and conventions of war in Bush's Guantanamo gulag; and abetting Israel in its devastation of the Occupied West Bank. Prime Minister Sharon's mantra, basically: "We are right and the rest of the world is wrong," has become that of his acolyte and admirer, George W. Bush. The Pentagon claims the "war" in Afghanistan is over. This is nonsense. The Taliban and al-Qaida have blended back into the civilian population and are simply lying low - for now. The conflict costs U.S. taxpayers over $1 billion U.S. monthly; Bush just asked Congress for $14 billion more until year end. Each day the U.S. is getting sucked deeper and deeper into Afghanistan, and, now, Pakistan. The CIA's attempted murder of Hekmatyar marks an ominous, new stage in America's involvement in the murky Afghan conflict. How long before the CIA starts murdering political opponents of Pakistan's U.S.-backed military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf? Or all those irksome radical Arabs and Iranians? Or Cubans? The CIA's missile-armed Predators are certainly a more effective murder weapon than the exploding cigar it once tried to send to Fidel Castro, who, by the way, still remains on Washington's hit list. Besides, in the U.S. view, killing from the air is simply "bombing," not really murder. Bush and his far-right Republicans think it's perfectly acceptable for the world's greatest democracy to act like Murder Inc. It is not. |
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