WMWG Part 6; 1996

1996...

·         This year opens with Massoud, Hekmatyar and Dostum fighting to control Kabul. These 3 joined forces to fight off the Taliban, and they were called the ‘Northern Alliance’.

·         Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are giving money to the Taliban. With this funding, the Taliban surrounded Kabul and cut off all resources to the city. The Alliance surrendered in September and the Taliban moved in.

·         One of the first things they did was to go to the U.N. compound where Najibullah had been staying since stepping down, and beat, castrated, dragged him by the back of a truck, before finally shooting him and hanging him from a pole in the center of Kabul.

I was shocked too the first time I read that. But this man was also a brutal person who very well could’ve tortured people in similar ways.

·         Many people were shocked that Omar actually did this, because his image moved drastically fast from Robin Hood to making Kabul a blood bath.

·         The Taliban now governed the country.

·         During the Soviet occupation, apparently the CIA gave Afghan Freedom Fighters (the Mujahedeen forces and what not) 2,300 missiles. Now they are probably in the hands of the Taliban and possible warlords.

(Confidential memos the CIA make can be deemed no longer important and be declassified and released to the public. Probably where Krakauer got a lot of his information.)

·         During this time, Bin Laden came back from Saudi Arabia, when he left the conflict in Afghanistan in 1990. Where was Bin Laden for 6 years? Well -

In 1990, when Bin Laden was in Saudi Arabia, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Bin Laden wanted to take veterans from the Soviet-Afghan war to take and fight Saddam Hussein. Well instead of the Saudi royal family taking Bin Laden’s advice, they had the U.S. send 300,000 soldiers over. Bin Laden got angry. Bin Laden started openly criticizing the royal family and the U.S.

So in 1992, Bin Laden went to Sudan (In Africa) and started training camps to teach men to make bombs and other terrorist things like guerilla warfare. The CIA saw this as suspicious and asked the president of Sudan to ask Bin Laden to stop the terrorist training camps or leave Sudan. Bin Laden left Sudan but not before he vowed to get revenge on the U.S. for doing this.

So by 1996 Bin Laden is out of Sudan, thoroughly mad at the U.S., and headed back to Afghanistan; Where the Northern Alliance gave Bin Laden a new home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Which I think happened because they wanted Bin Laden to help them defeat the Taliban.

I’ve been wondering if Bin Laden always hated the U.S. like this and if he had been planning on destroying us longer than we think he has... or if his hatred and resent grew during this time and he just made it up as he went along?

·         When the Taliban defeated the Northern Alliance, Bin Laden switched over to their side.

·         Omar and Bin Laden started spending a lot of time together

I think that Bin Laden was looking for someone who had the most power and money, so he would have the ultimate protection for when he started his attacks on the U.S. I think he waved the fact that he could open training camps to teach the Taliban forces guerrilla warfare and bomb making in front of their faces so they agreed to protect him. He follows the flow of money and power. Clever.

·         Apparently someone in Afghanistan got a hold of some CIA books on bombs and that is how they are learning to make bombs to use again the U.S.

·         Here’s an overview of what the money flow looked liked ---

o   Saudi Arabia Sending money to the Taliban

o   But Saudi Arabia is working with the CIA to keep a watch on Bin Laden and al-Qaeda

o   Saudi Arabia is supporting Pakistan’s ISI by giving them money as well

o   The ISI favored the Taliban and Bin Laden alliance, so they were sending them money.

·         And remember, the CIA had been working with the ISI during the Soviet-Afghan War. But now the CIA did not like Bin Laden and the ISI still liked him.

·         “Having secured the Taliban’s protection, he [Bin Laden] was free to start building the most efficient terrorist organization the world has ever seen.” – Journalist, Jason Burke. November 2001.