John K. Cooley - Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America And International Terrorism

Unholy Wars:

Afghanistan, America

and International

Terrorism:

NEW EDITION

Pluto Press

Unholy Wars

Afghanistan, America

and International Terrorism

John K. Cooley

P

Pluto

Press

LONDON STERLING, VIRGINIA

Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous ... For mercenaries are disunited, thirsty for power, undisciplined, and disloyal; they are brave among their friends and cowards before the enemy; they have no fear of God, they do not keep faith with their fellow men; they avoid defeat just so long as they avoid battle; in peacetime you are despoiled by them, and in wartime by the enemy ... Mercenary commanders are either skilled in warfare or they are not: if they are, you cannot trust them, because they are anxious to advance their own greatness, either by coercing you, their employer, or by coercing others against your own wishes. If, however, the commander is lacking in prowess, in the normal way he brings about your ruin ... Experience has shown that only princes and armed republics achieve solid success, and that mercenaries bring nothing but loss.

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

First published 1999 by Pluto Press

345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA

and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling,

VA 201662012, USA

Second edition published 2000

Copyright John K. Cooley 1999, 2000

The right of John K. Cooley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7453 1692 1 hbk

ISBN 0 7453 1691 3 pbk

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Cooley, John K., 1927Unholy wars : Afghanistan, America, and international terrorism /

John K. Cooley.

p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0745316921 (hbk)

1. United StatesForeign relationsAfghanistan. 2. AfghanistanForeign relationsUnited States. 3. Espionage, AmericanIslamic countries. 4. Terrorism. 5. United States. Central Intelligence

Agency. I. Title.

JZ1480.A57A3

1999

958.104'5dc21

9850370

CIP

Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services

Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton

Printed in the European Union by T.J. International, Padstow, England

Disclaimer:

Some images in the original version of this book are not

available for inclusion in the eBook.

Contents

Fergana Valley

KYRGYZSTAN

TURKMENISTAN

R.Am

u Darya

CHINA

Termez

Mazar-i-Sharif

PAKISTANI-HELD

E

C

K u s h

IN

V

Cease-fire

H i n d u

O

line, 1949

Kabul

R

Herat

Jalalabad

P

R

Bagram

IEPeshawar

AFGHANISTAN

T

AND

IRAN

N

n O

R

Ghazni

ista F

Islamabad

T

S

E

an d

PushtunW

H

elm

T

R

s

R. H

O

u

d

Kandahar

N

In

.R

Quetta

INDIA

Map 1

Afghanistan after the 1989 cease-fire.

(U.S.)

U.K.

RUSSIA

JAPAN

CHECHNYA

AZERBAIJAN

MONGOLIA

KAZAKHSTAN

Xinjiang

UZ

B

(Uighurs)

BEK

E IS

TA

RKME

N

TU

CHINA

N

I

N S

I T

S A

T N

A

EGYPT

IRAQ

N

IRAN

Kashmir

PHILIPPINES

N

Punjab

SAUDI ARABIA

INDIA

YEMEN

(KENYA,

TANZANIA)

Map 2

Movements of CIA-trained guerrillas and drugs outwards from Afghanistan after the 197989 Afghanistan war. to Vania Katelani Cooley

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to publications of friends, colleagues and manyother persons I have never met. Theyare journalists, travelers, scholars, diplomats and members or former members of government and the military. They are mentioned in the endnotes. Among those so mentioned and others who are not, deserving special thanks are Helga Graham, author of excellent books on the Mideast; my old friend and neighbor during my years as a news correspondent in Beirut, David Hirst of the Guardian and his colleague on that newspaper, Martin Woolacott. In Cairo I was helped generously by the distinguished Egyptian author and publicist, Muhammad Hasseinine Haykal and many others, including journalist and former ABC News producer Miss Hinzada al-Fikry, now teaching journalism and mass communications at the American University in Cairo. Flora Lewis, both in her syndicated column in the International Herald Tribune(IHT) and in private conversations offered great encouragement when it was needed most, as she knows. Robert Donahue, editor of the IHTs editorial page, has allowed me to publish my ideas on the theme of this book in the premium space he commands. In Germany, Wilhelm Dietl, investigative reporter and author, expert and frequent traveler in South Asia, generously opened to me his unique files and archives. At ABC News, my old friend anchorman Peter Jennings, investigative team chief Chris Isham and a few other colleagues have always been supportive. Dr. William R. Polk, former professor of Arab history at Harvard University and Mideast advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, has been a constant friend and scholarly guide.

In Washington DC, Georgetown University professors Michael Hudson and Hisham Sharabi are foremost among many helpers. Charles Cogan, a retired senior CIA official in the Afghanistan war program, now a visiting scholar at Harvard University and elsewhere, was informative, courteous and helpful. William Charles Maynes, now president of the Asia Foundation, has always been supportive. So have Tom Hughes, former president and Selig Harrison, former senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Eric Rouleau, ex-Mideast editor of Le Monde, and former French ambassador to Tunisia and Turkey, is another old friend who has always helped.

Robin Raphel, widow of former US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, an American victim of the 197989 Afghan war, former assistant secretary of state for South Asian Affairs and now US Ambassador in Tunisia, graciously received me in Tunis in the spring of 1998, giving generously of her time and her insights. At Brown University, Professor Jim Blight and his associate, graduate student Michael Corkery, shared with me transcripts and thoughts about the Oslo meetings of Russian and US diplomats in the early 1990s, dealing with the origins of the 197989 Afghanistan war. Declassified Soviet documents on this subject were ix

x