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Afghanistan Foes Unite In Their Hatred Of America
Source: NNI
The expelled Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and the former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, once bitter foes, do not make the most obvious bedfellows. But with support from some of the channels that funded the Afghan struggle against the Soviet Union, remnants of the former hardline regime and Hekmatyar have come together over their hatred of the US and distrust of the pro-western government of President Hamid Karzai.
Are we discussing Soddy and ISI money here? Except for the U.S., nobody else kicked in for the holy war, so we've run out of suspects, haven't we? The questions is, is it one, the other, or both?
"Hekmatyar and remnants of the Taliban are members of the same play and that play is not being directed by Afghanistan," said Yunis Qanooni, the education minister and former interior minister, who is a powerful member of the Northern Alliance. Afghan officials and western diplomats think Hekmatyar and the Taliban are working in a loose alliance, sharing information and perhaps exchanging logistical and financial support, Financial Times reported.
So'd Rantburg. So'd lotsa other places...
The Taliban are regrouping under a new command structure, says a senior western diplomatic source - a structure in which Mullah Mohammad Omar, its former leader, plays a lesser role. Mullah Omar's whereabouts are uncertain. A senior Afghan official said he had recently been "spending time in the border area", supporting the theory he is using it as a refuge.
Do they have a sanitarium there, perchance?
Hekmatyar, meanwhile, has been sighted in some half-dozen provinces along the border and in Kunar, the eastern province from which have emerged reports of terrorist training camps. How great a threat the regrouped Taliban and Hekmatyar present is debatable, officials say. While Hekmatyar has the capability and will to carry out attacks on western or western-allied targets, officials say he lacks the broad popular support needed to foment an uprising.
That's because most people detest him and his own party tossed him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=10131