Reply #13: CIA and ISI Nurtured Mujahedeen and Taliban...

[Junkdrawer]

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GOULD: Well, that's when everything really does fall apart. And the-again, in terms of the mujahedeen, what ended up happening was the multiple groups of Islamists known as the Mujahideen began to war with one another in their attempt to take over Afghanistan. In fact, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud were two of the main people who caused the major destruction in Kabul-75 percent of Kabul was destroyed during the exchanges. And that actually was the precipitator of the creation of the Taliban. In an effort to try and guarantee that-the Pakistanis wanted to guarantee that they would have a Pakistani-friendly government installed in Afghanistan. The Taliban became the method and went around to the refugee camps, where they basically brought Afghan boys into the madrasahs and indoctrinated them. But this was all part of the buildup that eventually was presented, by 1994-96, as an Afghan movement, but really was very much part of the ideological political process that the Pakistani ISI military facilitated.

JAY: Together with the Saudis, I think, should be added.

GOULD: Oh, absolutely.

FITZGERALD: Together with the Saudis. But also the United States was very much behind it. And, you know, Madeleine Albright, as an example, was very, very positive on backing the Taliban, and she considered them to be a cleansing force.

JAY: You know, from one angle it gets vilified, the nurturing of the Taliban. But from Pakistan's national interest, don't they have a right? They had utter chaos on their borders. And, in fact, the Taliban, if I understand correctly, certainly, at least in the early days, were quite welcomed by the Afghan people as getting rid of the terrible lawlessness, the culture of rape of young-especially young boys, and, I mean, the hundreds of thousands of people that were killed in this inter-warlord fighting, that from Pakistan's interest and from Afghans' interest there was a stabilizing factor there. Was there not?

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http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/reality/archive/2010/08/03/cia-and-isi-nurtured-mujahideen-and-taliban.aspx