My Life with the Taliban
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MY LIFE WITH THE TALIBAN ABDUL SALAM ZAEEF My Life with the Taliban Edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © Abdul Salam Zaeef 2010 Editors’ introduction and translation Copyright © Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, 2010 Foreword Copyright © Barnett R. Rubin, 2010 All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Za’if, ‘Abd al-Salam, 1967 or 8– My life with the Taliban / Abdul Salam Zaeef. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-70148-8 (alk. paper) 1. Za’if, ‘Abd al-Salam, 1967 or 8– 2. Taliban—Biography. 3. Afghan War, 2001—Biography. 4. Prisoners of war—Afghanistan—Biography. 5. Prisoners of war—United States—Biography. 6. Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp—Biography. I. Title. DS371.33.Z34A3 2010 958.104'7—dc22 [B] 2009040865 ∞ Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in USA c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. CONTENTS Kandahar: Portrait of a City ix Editors’ Acknowledgements xxv Editors’ Notes xxvii Character List xxix Foreword by Barnett R. Rubin xxxvii Preface by Abdul Salam Zaeef xli Maps xlviii–xlix 1. Death at Home 1 2. The Camps 13 3. The Jihad 21 4. Lessons from the ISI 31 5. Bitter Pictures 39 6. Withdrawal 47 7. Taking Action 57 8. The Beginning 67 9. Administrative Rule 81 10. Mines and Industries 91 11. A Monumental Task 101 12. Diplomatic Principles 107 13. Growing Tensions 123 14. The Osama Issue 131 15. 9/11 and its Aftermath 141 16. A Hard Realisation 157 17. Prisoner 306 171 18. Guantánamo Bay 187 19. Graveyard of the Living 199 v CONTENTS 20. Getting Out 211 21. No War to Win 219 Epilogue: Afghanistan Today 229 Notes 245 Bibliography 285 Chronology 288 Glossary 297 Suggestions for Further Reading 309 About the Author and Editors 313 Index 315 vi This “freedom” put a proud people in chains And turned free men into slaves “Independence” made us weak And slaughtered us In the name of kindness This is democracy by the whip And the fear of chains With a whirlwind at its core Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef (written in Guantánamo*) * Special thanks and credit to Jean MacKenzie and Abaceen Nasimi for working on this poem. KANDAHAR PORTRAIT OF A CITY Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn You could tell it was a big bomb from the numbers of corpse-laden pickup trucks that passed us on our way to the river. There were so many bodies that in death they were shown disrespect, tossed into the back of cars and trucks for the journey back to town. As we approached the scene we could see a gathering crowd of police cars and onlookers. Policemen and local villagers stood among what remained: overturned thermos flasks of green tea; vendors’ plas- tic baskets with nuts, biscuits and matches; a bright green, red and orange woven mat—all stained with bright red blood. Young police officers mill around, manifesting a faint attempt at standing guard, as if they could somehow bring him back; three 4 ´ 4 cars, the fronts gnarled as if chewed by some subterranean monster; and everywhere the shoes that people had taken off before stepping onto the mats. In front of the cars, the mat is ripped and mixed with a twisted mess of skull-caps, woollen blankets, shreds of clothes, half of someone’s brain, a trail of intestines. In the midst of all this lay a pair of primi- tive, rusted metal crutches. Trampled oranges, mixed with splatters of blood—now starting to darken as they soaked into the ground. These were the meagre traces of the people who stood here before the explosion, watching, laughing, talking. Witnesses at the hospital told of scores of severed feet being collected together, all detached from their bodies and a surprisingly common injury on that day. It was 17 February 2008 in Kandahar, a clear-blue day with thin wisps of clouds in the sky. Abdul Hakim Jan, a well-known local mili- ix KANDAHAR: PORTRAIT OF A CITY tary commander and tribal strongman, was dead. The suicide-bomber also took the lives of at least a hundred1 others with him in Afghani- stan’s deadliest attack ever. Abdul Hakim Jan had driven to the banks of the almost-dry river to watch a dog fight. The commander was well- known for his unique style and appearance: he only ever wore blue, and used to wear three pairs of the Afghan traditional clothes, one on top of the other. His death was traumatic for his Alikozai tribe—al- ready decapitated by the loss of Kandahar’s pre-eminent mujahedeen commander, Mullah Naqib—and an irreversible loss for the city. As milestones go, this was an important one. Abdul Hakim Jan was one of the last of his generation of mujahedeen commanders still alive, and the only remaining guarantor of security in his native Arghandab district. It showed just how bad things had become in the south. *** Two years later, Kandahar is even more dangerous. The average Kan- dahari faces daily NATO bombings throughout the region, occasional suicide attacks within the city, pervasive and unabashed corruption, rising food and fuel prices, and an increasingly brutal campaign of assassinations. Kandahar never had what could be described as a bustling night- life, but now the streets are deserted after dark. Even eighteen months ago there were many more people out and about in the evenings. Almost every week residents in the centre of the town are woken in the middle of the night by the crackle of a heavy machine gun or the boom of a rocket detonating, a sign that government installations are under attack. Corruption is the norm in the Afghan government, and accompanies the majority of interactions between Kandaharis and officials at all levels. Bribes are needed for even the simplest operations, such as pay- ing bills. Contractors frequently wage wars over foreign donor money, while tribal and personal disagreements are on the rise. Drug-related corruption is endemic, particularly during the poppy harvest, or when the authorities make their half-hearted attempts at eradication. This links into the government security apparatus, which is often seamlessly attached to the drug traffickers and traders who seek to limit the power of the Afghan state. Particularly in southern Afghanistan, these links are common knowledge and are the cause of confusion and disappointment among the local population. x KANDAHAR: PORTRAIT OF A CITY Few areas in Kandahar province can be termed safe, particularly when you remember that feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing. City-dwellers are largely restricted to the urban areas, and travelling from Kandahar to other parts of the country is a perilous undertaking. The main highway west from Kandahar to Herat is plagued by Taliban patrols and attacks, sporadic banditry and police corruption. The road passes through many notorious trouble-spots of Kandahar, Helmand and Farah provinces. Insecurity on the road has made it increasingly difficult to find drivers willing to transport goods the 136 kilometres to Lashkar Gah. One construction company owner said that shifting material from Kandahar City to Lashkar Gah costs him several times more than getting the same material from Lahore to Kandahar. When you travel east of Kandahar City towards Kabul, the road passes through Zabul province as well as through dangerous areas of Ghazni and Wardak. Taliban fighters regularly attack convoys on this road, snipers have been known to target passing vehicles, and Taliban inspections and checkpoints are a standard feature. The road itself is heavily damaged, with many deep potholes from IEDs and other attacks scattered along the way. All bridges seem to have been destroyed. For foreigners, there is no longer any place where it is safe to spend an extended amount of time. The only option is to make trips into the districts almost at random, which severely hampers movement and makes planned or extended work nearly impossible, especially for international organisations. Indeed, almost no foreigners visit the dis- tricts on any occasion. One of the most serious problems is the invisibility of the people who pose a threat to ordinary Kandaharis. This is the major difference between Kandahar in 2009 and early 1994: in 1994 you knew—at least to some extent—where the danger was coming from. In 2009, hazards can emerge and disappear out of nowhere without explana- tion. Assassinations, beheadings, suicide bombers, IED attacks, aerial bombing, large-scale infantry attacks, or just crime-with-a-gun remain actual and present threats to ordinary residents of Kandahar province. As one tribal elder put it: “I am not afraid of being killed by the Tali- ban. If the Taliban want to get you, they get you. There is nothing you can do. I am afraid of the suicide bombings, the random attacks, bandits and the fighting that can literally break out anywhere at any time”. Ordinary Kandaharis believe a bewildering array of conspiracy theo- ries about foreign forces and NATO. Some of these are almost touch- xi KANDAHAR: PORTRAIT OF A CITY ingly naive rumours; in February 2009, for instance, people sent each other frantic text messages not to answer any phones because NATO forces were testing out a new type of laser ray that would instantly kill them if they picked up.