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Hek, Haqqani used to work with the CIA
Two former CIA allies in Afghanistan are now fearsome warlords responsible for killing scores of American troops in the escalating border war, intelligence experts told the Daily News.But officials said CIA assessments of Jalaluddin Haqqani and ex-Afghan premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are gathering dust instead of being used to fight them. The CIA forged ties with warlords in the 1980s by funding mujahedeen battling the Soviets. "I broke bread with Hekmatyar," recalled Vince Cannistraro, a retired CIA counterterrorism chief. "He dealt with me." Before author Michael Scheuer ran the CIA's Bin Laden Unit, he met Haqqani in the early 1990s and remembered him as a "border brigand out of Kipling." Both ex-spies said neither warlord was a paid CIA agent, but each likely got arms and money indirectly from the spy agency through the Pakistanis. After the Soviets were driven out, mujahedeen like Hekmatyar battled each other. Haqqani later allied with the Taliban until the regime fell following the 9/11 attacks. Now, with help from Al Qaeda-linked Arabs, the duo coordinate increasingly sophisticated attacks on U.S. Special Forces based at dozens of secret camps along the rocky border frontier, where Osama Bin Laden may be hiding among Pashtun tribesmen. Yet some intelligence officials claim CIA dossiers created years ago on the Afghan warlords are useless today and admit they don't share them with frontline U.S. commanders. "I'm not saying there's no benefit, but tactically I'm not sure what went on 20 years ago has any bearing today," said a skeptical U.S. official in Washington, who tracks the insurgency. But one secret U.S. warrior who recently hunted border insurgents was shocked to learn of the CIA's past relationships with the enemy leaders, adding, "The information would have been extremely useful." Scheuer said, "You'd know the whole lay of the land if you reviewed the information we had." "Know thy enemy. If you don't factor in that knowledge, you're fighting blind," Cannistraro said. Pentagon analysts taking a different stance than the CIA discovered that Haqqani's son Saraj now has operational control of a network with deep ties to Bin Laden's henchmen. "[Haqqani's] organization has remained intact from the Soviet era, and are much more closely aligned with the Arabs than [the Taliban are]," a defense intelligence official told The News. Haqqani has Arab backers providing Al Qaeda jihadists to lead his Pashtun fighters against U.S. forces. "The Arabs go on operations and help them do it in a smarter way," said the official. Well-funded Arabs in a war that escalated even after the Sept. 18 election are a troubling sign that Afghans have won support from Gulf financiers who have also thrown money at Iraqi rebels, officials said. Arab "advisers" were with Pashtun guerrillas on June 28 when they shot down a chopper rescuing a Navy SEAL team in northeastern Afghanistan, killing 19. A chopper in southern Afghanistan on Sept. 25 was also downed by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing five, officials disclosed. "When you have a helicopter shot down in Kunar [Province] and then one in Zabul, it's obvious that there are some strategic decisions being made at above the tactical operation level," said a defense intelligence official. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-12-03 |
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