In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

by Seth G. Jones

  33. Yousaf and Adkin, Afghanistan—The Bear Trap, p. 117.

  34. Milt Bearden and James Risen, The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB (New York: Random House, 2003), pp. 236, 283.

  35. Quoted in Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), p. 120.

  36. See, for example, Bearden and Risen, The Main Enemy, pp. 236, 281–82.

  37. Thomas H. Johnson, “Financing Afghan Terrorism: Thugs, Drugs, and Creative Movement of Money,” in Jeanne K. Giraldo and Harold A. Trinkunas, Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007), p. 107.

  38. On Soviet information on Hekmatyar, see Dossiers of Alliance-7 Rebel Leaders. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  39. Author interview with Graham Fuller, August 19, 2008.

  40. Quoted in Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 119.

  41. See, for example, Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 128.

  42. Coll, Ghost Wars, p. 17.

  43. Yousaf and Adkin, Afghanistan—The Bear Trap, p. 1.

  44. Grau, ed., The Bear Went Over the Mountain; Grau, Artillery and Counterinsurgency: The Soviet Experience in Afghanistan (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Foreign Military Studies Office, 1997).

  45. Pierre Allan and Albert A. Stahel, “Tribal Guerrilla Warfare Against a Colonial Power,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 27, December 1983, pp. 590–617.

  46. Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, “The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: Five Years After,” May 1985. Released by the National Security Archive.

  47. See, for example, Andropov’s comments that the situation in Afghanistan is “stabilizing now,” in CC CPSU Politburo Transcript, February 7, 1980. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  48. Anatoly Chernyaev’s Notes from the Politburo of the CC CPSU Session of October 17, 1985. Released by the National Security Archive.

  49. Session of CC CPSU Politburo, November 13, 1986. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Colonel Tsagolov’s Letter to USSR Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov on the Situation in Afghanistan, August 13, 1987. Released by the National Security Archive.

  52. Minutes of the Politburo of the CC CPSU Session of February 23–26, 1987. Released by the National Security Archive.

  53. Tanner, Afghanistan, p. 266.

  54. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (New York: Basic Books, 2005), p. 408.

  55. Agreements on the Settlement of the Situation Relating to Afghanistan (Geneva Accords), April 14, 1988.

  56. Rashid, Taliban, p. 13; Rubin, Search for Peace in Afghanistan, p. 7; Grau, ed., The Bear Went Over the Mountain, p. xix.

  57. Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, “The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: Five Years After,” May 1985. Released by the National Security Archive.

  58. Rashid, Taliban, p. 18; Rubin, Fragmentation of Afghanistan, p. 20; Henry S. Bradsher, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1985), pp. 24–25.

  59. George Crile, Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003), p. 262.

  60. Gates, From the Shadows, pp. 251, 319–21, 348–49. Also see Crile, Charlie Wilson’s War.

  61. Yousaf and Adkin, Afghanistan—The Bear Trap, pp. 78–112; Gates, From the Shadows, p. 349.

  62. Gates, From the Shadows, pp. 349–50.

  63. Yousaf and Adkin, Afghanistan—The Bear Trap, p. 184.

  64. Anderson, “American Viceroy: Zalmay Khalilzad’s Mission,” p. 61.

  65. Huntington, Clash of Civilizations, pp. 246–48; National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), pp. 63–67, 371–74; Rashid, Taliban, pp. 48, 54; SIPRI Yearbook 1991: World Armaments and Disarmament (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 199.

  66. Session of CC CPSU Politburo, January 28, 1980; Gromyko-Andropov-Ustinov-Ponomarev Report to CC CPSU on the Situation in Afghanistan, January 27, 1980. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  67. Report by Soviet Defense Minister Ustinov to CPSU CC on “Foreign Interference” in Afghanistan, January 2, 1980. Also see Information from the CC CPSU to Erich Honecker, June 21, 1980; Report of Military Leaders to D. F. Ustinov, May 10, 1981. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  68. Intelligence Note Concerning Actions by the US in Aiding the Afghanistan Rebel Fighters, September 1, 1980; A Report by Soviet Military Intelligence, September 1, 1981. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  69. Excerpt from KGB USSR and General Staff Report of December 1982. Released by the National Security Archive.

  70. Session of CC CPSU Politburo, November 13, 1986. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  Chapter Three

  1. Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 431.

  2. Author interview with Ambassador Robert Oakley, February 1, 2008.

  3. Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Appraisal, “Afghanistan: Soviet Withdrawal Scenario,” May 9, 1988. Released by the National Security Archive.

  4. Central Intelligence Agency, Special National Intelligence Estimate 11/37/88, “USSR: Withdrawal from Afghanistan,” March 1988, p. 1. Also see, for example, Central Intelligence Agency, Special National Intelligence Estimate 37–89, “Afghanistan: The War in Perspective,” November 1989. Released by the National Security Archive.

  5. Zalmay Khalilzad, “Ending the Afghan War,” Washington Post, January 7, 1990, p. B4.

  6. CPSU CC Politburo Decision of January 24, 1989, With Attached Report of January 23, 1989. Released by the Cold War International History Project.

  7. Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), p. 179.

  8. Rubin, Fragmentation of Afghanistan, p. 165.

  9. Stephen Tanner, Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002), pp. 272–73.

  10. Zalmay Khalilzad, Prospects for the Afghan Interim Government (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1991), pp. v, vi.

  11. “Profile: General Rashid Dostum,” BBC News, September 25, 2001.

  12. On the 1988 Geneva Accords, which failed to establish peace in Afghanistan, see Barnett R. Rubin, The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995).

  13. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: [Excised] Briefs Ambassador on his Activities. Pleads for Greater Activism by U.N.,” August 27, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.

  14. Quoted in Neamatollah Nojumi, “The Rise and Fall of the Taliban,” in Robert D. Crews and Amin Tarzi, eds., The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), p. 99.

  15. Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch World Report 1993 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1993).

  16. U.S. Department of State, Cable, “Discussing Afghan Policy with the Pakistanis,” December 22, 1995. Released by the National Security Archive.

  17. Ibid.; U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan and Sectarian Violence Contribute to a Souring of Pakistan’s Relations with Iran,” March 13, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.

  18. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan and Sectarian Violence Contribute to a Souring of Pakistan’s Relations with Iran,” March 13, 1997. Released by the N
ational Security Archive.

  19. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: Taliban Seem to Have Less Funds and Supplies This Year, But the Problem Does Not Appear to Be that Acute,” February 17, 1999. Released by the National Security Archive.

  20. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: Russian Embassy Official Claims Iran Interfering more than Pakistan,” November 30, 1995. Released by the National Security Archive.

  21. U.S. Intelligence Assessment, [date and title unknown] Mori DocID: 800277, U.S. Central Command. Released by the National Security Archive.

  22. U.S. Department of State, Cable, “Discussing Afghan Policy with the Pakistanis,” December 22, 1995. Released by the National Security Archive.

  23. Ibid.

  24. U.S. Department of State, Cable, “A/S Raphel’s October 4 Meeting with Assef All on Afghanistan,” October 13, 1995. Released by the National Security Archive.

  25. U.S. Department of State, Cable, “Discussing Afghan Policy with the Pakistanis,” December 22, 1995. Released by the National Security Archive.

  26. Khalilzad, Prospects for the Afghan Interim Government, p. 2.

  27. Author interview with Ambassador Robert Oakley, February 1, 2008.

  28. Quoted in Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), p. 239.

  29. Author interview with Ambassador Robert Oakley, February 1, 2008.

  30. Peter R. Blood, ed., Afghanistan: A Country Study (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001).

  31. Rubin, Search for Peace in Afghanistan.

  32. Mountstuart Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and Its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck, 1969), p. 434.

  33. Zalmay Khalilzad, “Afghanistan: Time to Reengage,” Washington Post, October 7, 1996, p. A21.

  Chapter Four

  1. Central Intelligence Agency, Biography of Mohammad Omar, December 21, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  2. Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 54.

  3. Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), p. 20.

  4. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner, translated by Laura Mansfield (Old Tappan, NJ: TLG Publications, 2002), p. 130.

  5. Ayman al-Zawahiri, “Supporting the Palestinians,” Statement released June 2006.

  6. Osama bin Laden, “Message to the Peoples of Europe,” Released November 2007.

  7. Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 57; Kepel, Jihad, p. 58.

  8. S. V. R. Nasr, The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jamaat-i Islami of Pakistan (London: I. B. Tauris, 1994), p. 7. Also see, for example, Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi, A Short History of the Revivalist Movement in Islam (Lahore, Pakistan: Islamic Publications, 1972); Sayyid Abūlā’lá Maudūdī, Al-Jihād fī al-Islām (Dihlī: Markazī Maktabah-yi Islāmī, 1988).

  9. Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection, translated by John King (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 22–23.

  10. Kepel, Jihad, pp. 224–25.

  11. S. V. R. Nasr, “Islamic Opposition to the Islamic State: The Jama’at-i Islami 1977–1988,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, May 1993, p. 267; Kepel, Jihad, pp. 100–1.

  12. Jamal Malik, Colonialization of Islam: Dissolution of Traditional Institutions in Pakistan (New Delhi: Vanguard Books, 1996).

  13. Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, pp. 22–23.

  14. Rashid, Taliban, p. 17.

  15. Ibid., pp. 22–23.

  16. Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, p. 13.

  17. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan and Sectarian Violence Contribute to a Souring of Pakistan’s Relations with Iran,” March 13, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.

  18. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: [Excised] Describes Pakistan’s Current Thinking,” March 9, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  19. Abdulkader Sinno, “Explaining the Taliban’s Ability to Mobilize the Pashtuns,” in Robert D. Crews and Amin Tarzi, eds., The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 59–89.

  20. Jason Burke, Al-Qa’ida: Casting a Shadow of Terror (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2003), p. III.

  21. Decree Announced by the General Presidency of Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi An al-Munkar, Religious Police, Kabul, November 1996.

  22. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Scenesetter for Your Visit to Islamabad: Afghan Angle,” January 16, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive. The document was a background note for an upcoming visit of Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphel. The cable summarizes the political and military state of affairs in Afghanistan.

  23. Zalmay Khalilzad and Daniel Byman, “Afghanistan: The Consolidation of a Rogue State,” Washington Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 1, Winter 2000, p. 65.

  24. Decree Announced by General Presidency of Amr Bil Maruf, Religious Police, Kabul, December 1996.

  25. Privy Council Office (PCO) [Ottawa, Canada] [Released by the U.S. National Security Agency], “IAC Intelligence Assessment—IA 7/96,” “Afghanistan: Taliban’s Challenges, Regional Concerns, October 18, 1996.” Released by the National Security Archive.

  26. Rashid, Taliban, pp. 68–76.

  27. Quoted in Rashid, Taliban, p. 50.

  28. Ibid., pp. 119–20.

  29. Quoted in Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation-Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (New York: Viking, 2008), p. 317.

  30. U.S. Department of State, Cable, “Osama bin Laden: Taliban Spokesman Seeks New Proposal for Resolving bin Laden Problem,” November 28, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  31. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Scenesetter for Your Visit to Islamabad: Afghan Angle,” January 16, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.

  32. U.S. Department of State, Cable, “Discussing Afghan Policy with the Pakistanis,” December 22, 1995. Released by the National Security Archive.

  33. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: Pakistanis to Regulate Wheat and Fuel Trade to Gain Leverage Over Taliban,” August 13, 1997; U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Scenesetter for Your Visit to Islamabad: Afghan Angle,” January 16, 1997; U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: [Excised] Briefs Ambassador on his Activities. Pleads for Greater Activism by U.N.” August 27, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.

  34. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Bad News on Pak Afghan Policy: GOP Support for the Taliban Appears to Be Getting Stronger,” July 1, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  35. U.S. Department of State, From Ron McMullen (Afghanistan Desk), “Developments in Afghanistan,” December 5, 1994. Released by the National Security Archive.

  36. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: [Excised] Criticizes GOP’s Afghan Policy; Says It Is Letting Policy Drift,” June 16, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  37. From [Excised] to DIA, Washington, DC, Cable, “Pakistan Interservice Intelligence/Pakistan (PK) Directorate Supplying the Taliban Forces,” October 22, 1996. Released by the National Security Archive.

  38. Ibid.; U.S. Consulate (Peshawar), Cable, “Afghan-Pak Border Relations at Torkham Tense,” October 2, 1996. Released by the National Security Archive.

  39. Declan Walsh, “As Taliban Insurgency Gains Strength and Sophistication, Suspicion Falls on Pakistan,” The Guardian, November 13, 2006.

  40. Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, pp. 55–56.

  41. U.S. Department of State, Cable, From Ron McMullen (Afghanistan Desk), “Developments in Afghanistan,�
� December 5, 1994. Released by the National Security Archive.

  42. U.S. Department of State, Action Cable from Karl F. Inderfurth to Embassy, Islamabad, “Pakistan Support for Taliban,” September 26, 2000. Released by the National Security Archive.

  43. From [Excised] to DIA, Washington, DC, “IIR [Excised] Pakistan Involvement in Afghanistan,” November 7, 1996. Released by the National Security Archive.

  44. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Bad News on Pak Afghan Policy: GOP Support for the Taliban Appears to Be Getting Stronger,” July 1, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  45. US Mission to the UN (USUN New York), Cable, “Letter of GOP Permrep to SYG on Afghanistan,” November 1, 1995; U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: Taliban Seem to Have Less Funds and Supplies This Year, But the Problem Does Not Appear to Be that Acute,” February 17, 1999; U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “In Bilateral Focussed [sic] on Afghanistan, GOP Reviews Pak/Iran Effort; A/S Inderfurth Expresses U.S. Concerns About the Taliban,” July 23, 1998. Released by the National Security Archive.

  46. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: Foreign Secretary Mulls over Afghanistan,” October 10, 1996. Released by the National Security Archive.

  47. The report indicated that the ISI provided at least $30,000—and possibly as much as $60,000—per month to Harakat ul-Ansar. Central Intelligence Agency, “Harakat ul-Ansar: Increasing Threat to Western and Pakistani Interests,” August 1996. Also see, for example, U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, “Afghanistan: British Journalist Visits Site of Training Camps; HUA Activity Alleged,” November 26, 1996; U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, To Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel, “Scenesetter for Your Visit to Islamabad: Afghan Angle,” January 16, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.

  48. Ali A. Jalali, “Afghanistan: The Anatomy of an Ongoing Conflict,” Parameters, vol. XXXI, no. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 86–89.

  49. U.S. Embassy (Islamabad), Cable, To Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel, “Scenesetter for Your Visit to Islamabad: Afghan Angle,” January 16, 1997. Released by the National Security Archive.