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Cia sides against afghan hero fighting taliban Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/10/31/haq.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/10/31/haq.htm
10/31/2001 - Updated 12:12 AM ET
Taliban foe's death sparks criticism of U.S. goals
By Barbara Slavin and Jonathan Weisman, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Taliban's execution of Afghan opposition leader Abdul Haq will be a subject of contention at a congressional hearing today and could lead to new scrutiny of the CIA's close ties to Pakistan's intelligence service. A House International Relations subcommittee is expected to air charges that Pakistani agents betrayed Abdul Haq, and the CIA didn't do enough to save him.
Recriminations are rising in the aftermath of Abdul Haq's execution Friday in Afghanistan. His champions say the hero during the war with the Soviet Union was a potential unifying force for anti-Taliban opposition factions.
His detractors, including members of the U.S. intelligence community, say Abdul Haq, 43, was a "cowboy" who recklessly entered Afghanistan from Pakistan without adequate protection.
Abdul Haq's death has prompted some of the strongest criticism of the U.S. war effort. "A lot of people are very upset," says Al Santoly, an aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "The whole episode shows a lack of coherence in the (Bush administration) policy."
Abdul Haq had crossed into southern Afghanistan to try to arouse opposition to the Taliban among fellow Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group and the mainstay of Taliban support. Joseph Ritchie, a wealthy Chicago businessman and Abdul Haq patron, says the Afghan fighter had asked the CIA to airdrop weapons into the region to lighten his entourage's load, and offered to pay the costs. Ritchie says the CIA refused.
Last Thursday, a member of that entourage telephoned Ritchie in a panic. The group had been surrounded by Taliban forces, he said. The CIA sent an unmanned, missile-equipped drone, but, Ritchie says, "at that point it was too late."
A senior U.S. official says CIA officers met Abdul Haq in Pakistan last week and urged him against going into Afghanistan.
Abdul Haq supporters say the loss is serious. Robert McFarlane, national security adviser to President Reagan, calls Abdul Haq "a man of extraordinary tactical vision and leadership."
Abdul Haq had forged ties with Afghanistan's exiled king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, and with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
The crux of the criticism over his death is the CIA's relationship with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Abdul Haq ran afoul of the ISI more than a decade ago when he was a commander of Afghan freedom fighters battling the Soviet army. The ISI sided with other factions that wanted to create an Islamic fundamentalist state.
The CIA went along with the ISI, including the ISI's creation of the Taliban, critics say. "The CIA was hoodwinked by the ISI in the Soviet Afghan war," says Peter Tomsen, former State Department envoy to the Afghan fighters. "I fear this is happening again."
Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA director of counterterrorism, says there is "credible information" that the ISI tipped off an Afghan tribal leader about Abdul Haq's whereabouts, and the tribal leader told the Taliban. A senior official of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance made the same charge on Tuesday, as did several congressional aides.
Asad Hayauddin, a Pakistani spokesman in Washington, denies the allegation. He called the death a "major setback in terms of the credibility of the CIA," because it makes it more difficult to wean support from the Taliban.
Abdul Haq's allies included Joseph and James Ritchie, two wealthy Chicagoans who grew up in Afghanistan and contributed $41,000 to Republican congressional candidates during the 1990s. Joseph Ritchie, an ardent Taliban opponent, maintained contact with his congressman, House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Wounded 17 times and minus his right foot, the portly Abdul Haq had 5,000 armed followers in 1989, when the Soviets withdrew. A darling of Western media at the time, the English-speaking commander was dubbed "Hollywood Haq" by the CIA and ISI.
Two years ago, his wife and one of his five sons were murdered in Peshawar, Pakistan. Supporters say Pakistani agents might have been responsible.
The senior U.S. official would not say if the ISI betrayed Abdul Haq last week. But the official says the Afghan leader used a satellite telephone that could be easily tapped by the Taliban, as well as foreign intelligence agencies, and had told news media that he planned to sneak into Afghanistan.
The official says Abdul Haq refused a secure phone offered by the CIA. His heart was in the right place, but his judgment was flawed, the official says.
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