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Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 17-48-The Deep Battle against the West

ISIS to Western Christians: "You Won't Have Safety ... Until You Embrace Islam"- "After Blowing Up the White House, We Want Paris”

"Those who eat together and bond together can bomb together,"

In times like this – when the White House’s former counterterrorism strategist can declare it unconstitutional to allow national security analysts to look to Islam to understand jihad – there’s an urgent need to pull away the blindfold so we can see and confront the threat. Such is the goal of Catastrophic Failure.

C: BRZEZINSKI: We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident that their struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours. You will go back to it one day, because your fight will prevail and you'll have your homes and your mosques back again, because your cause is right and God is on your side...

To date, some 35 armed militant groups are thought to have pledged allegiance to IS around the world, including Ansar al-Sharia in Libya, al-Mourabitoun in Mali and Boko Haram in Nigeria. With more than 25,000 foreign fighters having flocked to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, according to UN calculations, gauging IS’ strength has sparked debate among analysts and world powers

“The flight of youth to join IS is a global phenomenon. It’s not limited to the Arab world. He remarked that thanks to al-Qaeda's system, “Lone-wolf attacks are the future of terrorism.”  -- Martin Ewi.

Noting a source of IS' strength, Ewi said that IS' “ideological model is powerful.” “[IS] starts by targeting minorities, then security forces, then foreigners and

journalists, then the princes and king of Saudi Arabia, for example.”  “The increasing number of groups pledging allegiance to IS, I think, is worrisome in

Africa,” said Ewi. The war against IS is also worrisome in Lebanon, a country often forgotten but on the

front lines of the Syrian crisis.  As IS spreads its tentacles globally, some wonder how it can be defeated. Hashimi

believes that if IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi falls in Iraq, the armed factions from Africa and elsewhere will simply return to their activities in their own countries. Ewi sees things differently, asserting, “If the groups are committed, when the leadership of the current [IS] organization is removed, these groups can easily reorganize themselves.”

Pro-Islamic State (IS) groups have issued their first online periodical in Turkish. The main theme of the first issue is the conquest of Konstantiniyye, as it coincides

with the anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul on May 29, 1453. The article ends by stating, “As you will understand from these hadiths, this city now

called Istanbul will be conquered without weapons and without bloodshed — only with chants of 'God is great.' The new army of the caliphate, rebuilt as ordained by the prophet, with God’s blessing, will thus capture the city.”

“We are the soldiers of the mission declared by the prophet" — that there is strong emphasis on Aleppo and the prophet’s visions.

IS growing in numbers, money Author: Ash Gallagher Posted June 8, 2015 The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks against Shiites in Qatif and Damman, Saudi

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Arabia, on May 22 and 29, respectively. To date, some 35 armed militant groups are thought to have pledged allegiance to IS around the world, including Ansar al-Sharia in Libya, al-Mourabitoun in Mali and Boko Haram in Nigeria. With more than 25,000 foreign fighters having flocked to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, according to UN calculations, gauging IS’ strength has sparked debate among analysts and world powers. Iraqi military strategist Hisham al-Hashimi told Al-Monitor, “It is not hard for IS to be present in these countries, because, in the case of Saudi Arabia, for example, they go there for the hajj.” He added, “IS is good at branding itself,” asserting that its use of social media is unprecedented.

Martin Ewi, senior researcher for the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, told Al-Monitor, “The flight of youth to join IS is a global phenomenon. It’s not limited to the Arab world.” He also noted IS sympathizers who choose to stay in their home countries, stating, “IS will support lone-wolf kinds of attacks. Many of these attacks have happened with people who have not had direct contact with IS.” Ewi explained that the group’s influence has benefited from al-Qaeda’s ideology and practices. He remarked that thanks to al-Qaeda's system, “Lone-wolf attacks are the future of terrorism.” Such isolated operations are forcing world leaders to focus on domestic security in addition to fighting IS in Iraq.

Saudi media analyst Jamal Khashoggi told Al-Monitor by phone, “The Ministry of Interior announced the names of 16 individuals who are suspects for assisting in recent attacks.” He said the government is offering nearly $2 million to anyone who provides information resulting in the arrest of those involved. Khashoggi said, “The public is very angry. It is not gaining IS any popularity [here].” He also admitted, however, “We have a problem in Saudi Arabia.” Hashimi predicts that events in Saudi Arabia will develop in the coming months to reveal IS' strategic pattern. He said, “[IS] starts by targeting minorities, then security forces, then foreigners and journalists, then the princes and king of Saudi Arabia, for example.” 

Noting a source of IS' strength, Ewi said that IS' “ideological model is powerful.” He believes it is currently sufficient for IS to induce dedication among younger people and encourage smaller militant factions to align with the group. Hashimi asserted, “Their force comes from expansion.” In this regard, money has been a driving force behind IS' influential reach and contributes to its staying power. Hashimi said that IS has distributed up to $6 million a month to groups like Boko Haram and Ansar al-Sharia. In September 2014, the United States began bombing oil installations held by IS, but the group still proved capable of making up to $2 million a week from the occupied facilities. 

In June 2014, Iraqi intelligence forces arrested Abu Hajjar, who oversaw IS' finances. According to Hajjar, who was interviewed by Hashimi, before September 2014 the group was exporting “$2 billion in international investments” to Libya, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa and Yemen, money that is now being spread among external allied IS branches. “The increasing number of groups pledging allegiance to IS, I think, is worrisome in Africa,” said Ewi. He said of Boko Haram and groups like it, “The decision to join or to pledge allegiance is actually strategic.” For the smaller armed groups, financial support is crucially important and can help guarantee their survival. “When Boko Haram joined al-Qaeda, they received money,” Ewi explained. “They also used to receive training. They received strategic support. We’ve seen Boko Haram militants fighting in Iraq. So that means their alliance is very deep.” Ewi added, “They give up their autonomy when they join forces with

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IS' leadership … They may maintain some structure, tools or ideology, but they give up the command of their group.”

The war against IS is also worrisome in Lebanon, a country often forgotten but on the front lines of the Syrian crisis. Khashoggi said, “Lebanon is connected to Syria. If things go bad in Syria, it will go bad in Lebanon. It has already spilled over.” He puts much of the blame on Hezbollah, which, Khashoggi contends, “has dragged Lebanon more and more into this sectarian war.” In April, shipments of weapons for the Lebanese army began arriving through an arms deal between Saudi Arabia and France worth nearly $3 billion. Riyadh has also urged the Lebanese to elect a president as soon as possible, to help ensure the stability of the country. Lebanese politicians have gone a year without naming a successor to Michel Suleiman, whose term ended in May 2014.

As IS spreads its tentacles globally, some wonder how it can be defeated. Hashimi believes that if IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi falls in Iraq, the armed factions from Africa and elsewhere will simply return to their activities in their own countries. Ewi sees things differently, asserting, “If the groups are committed, when the leadership of the current [IS] organization is removed, these groups can easily reorganize themselves.” He also believes that the countries challenging the armed rebel groups will “weaken” IS' reach in Africa, but he is uncertain of whether they can defeat them. Khashoggi stated, “I think what will help [defeat] IS the most is for them to be countered by other Islamist fighters, and that has been happening in Syria.” Khashoggi believes some of these forces are moderate factions that can defeat IS while will refraining from becoming another version of the extremist group. According to Ewi, the South African government is providing support to the South African Islamic Center to help educate and reach out to Muslim communities to counter the spread of extremist ideologies, such as that adopted by IS. In Europe and the United States as well, government officials are concerned about defending their domestic soil and educating the public. As world powers mull over cultural and military strategies against religious extremism, there appear to be no simple, clear-cut solutions for halting IS’ growing influence.

Islamic State releases first Turkish publication

Author: Metin Gurcan Posted June 8, 2015 Pro-Islamic State (IS) groups have issued their first online periodical in Turkish. Believed to be designed by veteran IS digital experts at Al-Hayat Media Center, which is known for its highly professional work, the periodical launched its first edition last week, titled "Konstantiniyye" — referring to Constantinople, Istanbul’s name before its conquest by the Ottoman army. The 46-page periodical includes symbolically relevant visual material that offers important clues to IS’ strategic vision of Turkey.

The main theme of the first issue is the conquest of Konstantiniyye, as it coincides with the anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul on May 29, 1453. The unsigned lead editorial explains that the periodical is published because of a “lack of access for Turkish people, especially Muslims, to news, articles and videos that are published in the Islamic State.”

The first article is about the city's conquest. The article states that although the city was conquered by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II on May 29, 1453, Konstantiniyye was not really conquered; it has to be conquered again, this time by the "armies of Islam." The article begins with the Prophet Muhammad extolling the importance of Istanbul. The strategic vision of IS for Istanbul is inspired by the hadiths (the prophet’s sayings), especially the one that predicts that the Islamic armies will first engage the Romans in a major war at Aleppo, close to the

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Day of Judgment; following that war they will go to Konstantiniyye to conquer it "without arms." The article ends by stating, “As you will understand from these hadiths, this city now called Istanbul will be conquered without weapons and without bloodshed — only with chants of 'God is great.' The new army of the caliphate, rebuilt as ordained by the prophet, with God’s blessing, will thus capture the city.”

The articles in this first issue, in general, do not advocate violence against Turkey. This may be interpreted as IS refraining from declaring Turkey as an enemy, at least for the time being. It is not clear whether this attitude reflects their opinion of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Why such a careful attitude toward Turkey? The answer to this question can be found in another article, titled "Immigration." The message in that article implies that IS does not see Turkey as a battlefield but as a rich source of human resources. All Muslims of Turkey, in particular those in the fields of engineering, health care, education and the military, are invited to emigrate to the Islamic State. Hence, it becomes clear that capturing and holding on to territory is important in the strategic narrative of IS.

A poem that promises the conquest of Istanbul with chants of God’s greatness is seen as a way of praising the glory of the Ottomans, making one wonder whether there is some strategic reason behind it and whether IS is trying to assume the label of "protector of the Sunni world," against Iranian expansionism. If so, then it would mean a radical shift in the strategic vision of IS. The ambition to take over the role of the Ottoman Empire by challenging the nearby enemy of Iran and Shiite expansionism, and the distant enemy of the West and its values, suggest that IS has global aspirations.

It is possible to interpret the article titled "Who is an Apostate?” as a discreet threat to political decision-makers in Turkey, particularly the AKP elites. The basic message to the AKP in this article is that "if you don’t mess with us, we will not mess with you as long as you don’t become apostates." IS here openly warns the AKP that if it takes action against IS, those involved will be declared apostates and their legitimacy will be questioned in front of the Sunni world.

The article "Democracy on Fire," accompanied by a photo of coffins of US soldiers wrapped in US flags, without a doubt reflects IS' perception of democracy as the worst enemy. The article explains, "Democracy can never be compatible with Islam. These are two different religions. No other religion and ideology is compatible with Islam. You cannot add a qualifier to a Muslim. There cannot be a democratic Muslim, communist Muslim, socialist Muslim, Jewish Muslim or Buddhist Muslim. This calls for the Islamic world and Turkey to fight against democracy.” The article is perceived as a reaction to the Kurdish radical Islamist Huda-Par (Free Cause Party). Pro-IS thinkers in Turkey are thus saying the recent elections are not legitimate in their eyes while trying to attract the Huda-Par voters to its ranks.

However, the IS periodical does not include any distinctly anti-Kurdish articles and visual material, apart from challenging Huda-Par. This indicates that radical Islamist Kurds in Turkey constitute for IS a major source of manpower, and that IS is focused on attracting Islamist Kurdish youths.

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The article "After Blowing Up the White House, We Want Paris” is a collection of stiff messages to Europe and the United States. After stating that the Kobani resistance of the Kurds succeeded with the efforts of the coalition forces under US leadership, the article resorts to sarcasm: "Congratulations, Pentagon. May the Crusaders enjoy the rubble at Kobani … If you are dreaming of Mosul, Tikrit, Shengal and a piece of a forest in Nigeria we will make your life miserable and blow up your White House, Big Ben and Eiffel Tower.”

From this first online periodical in Turkish, one can conclude — at least for the time being — that IS does not see Turkey as a battlefield, and that Turkey will not be conquered with weapons. Hence, IS is expected to continue to appeal primarily to the hearts and minds of Kurdish youths. The publication also makes it clear — with its message, “We are the soldiers of the mission declared by the prophet" — that there is strong emphasis on Aleppo and the prophet’s visions.

For the first time, we see how closely IS is monitoring the changes in political Islam in Turkey, and how it is looking for a place for itself in that transformation. There is no doubt that Turkish Islamism represented by the AKP has been tarnished with corruption allegations. IS appears to be fusing its ideology with Islamism and Ottomanism in Turkey to create a new radical Islamist school of thought there that could motivate the Islamist masses already disengaged from socio-economic life and democracy closer to IS.

That IS has a long-term strategic vision for Turkey is the most important message the periodical is sending. It emphasizes the popular-centric approach aimed at winning the hearts and minds of Turks, instead of armed violence and terror; hence the call to conquer Istanbul not with weapons but with Islamist spiritual action.

C: BRZEZINSKI: We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident that their struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours. You will go back to it one day, because your fight will prevail and you'll have your homes and your mosques back again, because your cause is right and God is on your side...

Regards Cees: After the events of September 11, 2001, Stephen Coughlin 1 was mobilized from his private sector career to the Intelligence Directorate at the Joint Chiefs of Staff to work in Targeting. Thus began his education in terrorism. In the years that followed, Coughlin earned recognition as the Pentagon’s leading expert on the Islamic-based doctrines motivating jihadi groups that confront America. He came into demand as a trainer and lecturer at leading commands and senior service staff institutions, including the National Defense University, the Army and Navy War Colleges, the Marine Corps-Quantico, the State Department, and the FBI. So effective were his presentations that some in the special operations community dubbed them “Red Pill” briefings, a reference to an iconic scene in The Matrix. It’s an apt metaphor: Once the facts and doctrines are properly explained and understood, there is no going back. This was more than our enemies – and, it seems, our leaders – could tolerate. Beginning in 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood convinced the White House to ban Coughlin and put an end to his briefings. The move was in keeping with

1 http://www.amazon.com/Catastrophic-Failure-Blindfolding-America-Jihad/dp/1511617500/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433354429&sr=8-1&keywords=catastrophic+failure

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shariah concepts of slander that seek to blindfold America to certain realities that render us defenseless against a threat made existential by the very ignorance it gets our leaders to enforce. In times like this – when the White House’s former counterterrorism strategist can declare it unconstitutional to allow national security analysts to look to Islam to understand jihad – there’s an urgent need to pull away the blindfold so we can see and confront the threat. Such is the goal of Catastrophic Failure. The book, drawn heavily from Coughlin’s “outlawed” briefings, is a comprehensive assessment of Islamic law and doctrine known to form the basis of hostile threat strategies directed against America and the West, the challenges they present, and the ideologically induced breakdown of fact-based decisionmaking that is nothing short of professional malpractice by our national security elites.

Obama ordered CIA to train ISIS jihadists: Declassified documents May 2016, U.S. intelligence documents released to a government watchdog confirms the suspicions that the United States and some of its so-called coalition partners had actually facilitated the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as an effective adversary against the government of the Syrian dictator President Bashar al-Assad. In addition, ISIS members were initially trained by members and contractors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at facilities in Jordan in 2012. The original goal was to weaken the Syrian government which had engaged in war crimes against their own people, according to a number of reports on Sunday.

The non-profit, non-partisan Judicial Watch -- a group known for its investigation of government corruption and abuse -- had obtained more than 100 pages of classified documents from both the US Department of Defense and the State Department through a federal lawsuit. One of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents declared that President Barack Obama and his counterparts within the coalition considered the establishment of a Salafist organization in eastern Syria in order to further downfall of the Assad regime. “And this is exactly what the supporting powers to the (Syrian) opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime,” said the DIA report, which had been formerly classified until its release. Salafists are radical Sunnis and an offshoot of the Saudi's Wahhabi sect.

The contents of that document had been promulgated by the Obama administration to the U.S. Central Command (CENCOM), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its directorates, as well as to the State Department and many other related agencies.Military intelligence officials had also warned that any further damage caused by the Syrian civil war might have an adverse effect on the fragile government in neighboring Iraq. The intelligence analysis predicted that such a situation could lead to al-Qaida in Iraq (AQII) returning especially in the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Ramadi. The DIA report also predicted that ISIS would declare a caliphate through its affiliation with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, including members of what the Obama administration terms "core al-Qaida" to differentiate it from offshoots such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The now declassified document appears to confirm that the U.S., the European Union and other nations viewed Muslim extremists in ISIS as "a strategic asset toward regime change in Syria." As a result parts of Iraq have been in chaos since ISIS began to cross the Syrian border in early June 2014. The documents obtained by Judicial Watch also provide the first official documentation that the Obama administration was well aware that weapons were being shipped from Benghazi to rebel troops -- including members from ISIS, the Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist terror groups -- in Syria. An October 2012 report confirms thatr: "Weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles were

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shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s, and 125 mm and 155mm howitzers missiles." The deadly and shocking attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission that saw four Americans -- including a U.S. ambassador -- slaughtered by jihadists occurred just weeks after the weapons shipment. Following the downfall and killing of Gaddafi in October 2011 until almost a year later in September 2012, the desolved Libyan military's weapons were stockpiled in Benghazi, Libya. According to the intelligence report, they were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya, to the ports located in Syria. The ships used to transport the weapons were medium-sized and able to hold 10 or less shipping containers of cargo, according to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

The CIA’s Creation of “Islamic Terrorism” on American SoilBy Dr. Paul L. Williams Global Research, July 03, 2015C: BRZEZINSKI: We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident that their struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours. You will go back to it one day, because your fight will prevail and you'll have your homes and your mosques back again, because your cause is right and God is on your side...Islamic paramilitary camps have been set up in the United States and Canada to train African American Muslims in guerilla warfare. After months of training on firing ranges and obstacle courses, the black Muslims are sent to Pakistan where they receive advanced training in explosives. Many never return.Stories about these camps are not new. They have been reported by the main stream media, including Fox News. The origin of these compounds for would-be jihadis dates back to 1979, when the Agency sent hundreds of radical Islamic clerics to the United States in an effort to recruit African American Muslims for the holy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.The Tablighi Missionaries By and large, these missionaries hailed from Pakistan and belonged to Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim movement with 150 members in 213 countries.[1] Upholding a strict interpretation of Islamic law (shariah), the Tablighi were united in their resistance to Western culture; their insistence that Muslims should avoid contact with all those who do not share their beliefs; and their approval of jihad by sword (jihad bin saif).[2] Members of the movement gathered every year for three days in the small Pakistani town ofRaiwind.In 1979, Sheikh Mubarek Ali Gilani, a Tablighi missionary from Lahore, Pakistan, arrived in Brooklynwhere he called upon members of Dar ul-Islam, a notoriously violent street gang, to take arms in the great jihad. Scores answered his call and were headed off to Pakistan with payments of thousands of dollars in cash and promises of seventy houris in seventh heaven, if they were killed in action.[3]

Welcome To Islamberg

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By 1980, the Agency realized that considerable expense could be saved by setting up paramilitary camps under the supervision of Shiekh Gilani in a rural area of the country. An ideal location was located near Hancock New York at the base ofPointMountain, where the east and west branches of the Delaware River converge to form the headwaters that flow throughPennsylvania and New Jersey to the Atlantic Ocean. The rocky terrain was infested with rattlesnakes, and the woods were home to black bears, coyotes, wolves, and a few bobcats. Islamberg, a seventy acre complex, came into existence.Firing ranges and obstacle courses were set up in Islamberg along with a massive underground bunker and a landing strip. The residents lived in single-wide trailers that lined the hillside. The settlement contained a small shack that served as a laundry facility; a claptrap community center; a tiny grocery store, and a masjid. A sentry post was placed at the entranceway.[4]

The sound of gunfire and explosions emanating from the property alarmed local residents, who filed complaints with local and state law enforcement agencies. But a marked law enforcement vehicle never appeared at the compound.[5] Islamberg was off-limits to police inspection on the spurious grounds of “national security.”The camp also came to contain an illegal

cemetery where bodies were buried in unmarked graves.[6] This alone should have warranted a raid by the New York State Police. But not even dead bodies could prompt a police investigation.When Islamberg was established, Gilani presented himself as an employee of the CIA and the future jihadis, who resided in the compound, called themselves CIA operatives.[7] Few in law enforcement doubted the professed credentials of the Muslim newcomers.Communities of the ImpoverishedIslamberg was a great success. Hundreds of African American Muslims made their way to Afghanistanand joined the ranks of the mujahedeen. Several were killed in action.[8] Others, including Clement Rodney Hampton-El, returned to the U.S. to plot the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.[9]

Under the CIA’s directions, a host of other paramilitary camps were established in such places as Red House, Virginia; Commerce, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Macon, Georgia; Squaw Valley, California; Marion, Alabama; Talihina, Oklahoma; and Toronto, Ontario.[10]Gilani placed Islamberg and the other camps under a governing organization called “Jamaat ul-Fuqra” or “the community of the impoverished.” He established the headquarters of this “charity” in Lahore. The American arm of Jamaat ul-Fuqra became the Muslims of the Americas,” a tax-exempt corporation with Gilani’s mosque in Brooklynas its address.[11]

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Increased Need of Radicals The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 did not spell an end to the CIA’s support of radical Islam. Throughout the 1990s, Dr. Ayman Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command, travelled at the expense and bidding of the CIA throughout Central Asia, where he cultivated new armies of jihadis to destabilize the newly created republics. His efforts resulted in the uprising of the Chechens against the Russian Federation, the attempted toppling of the government in Uzbekistan, and the insurgence of the Uigurs in the Xinjiang provinceof China.[12]A dutiful operative, Dr. Zawahiri met regularly with U.S.military and intelligence officials at the U.S.embassy in Baku, Azerbaijanto plan the Balkan operations in which the CIA worked with al Qaeda to overthrow the government of Slobodan Milosevic for the creation of “Greater Albania,” encompassing Albania, Kosovo, and parts of Macedonia. [13]These operations, particularly in the Balkans, required the recruitment of more and more jihadis. Gilani’s camps continued to prosper. And more and more of his African American recruits appeared among the rank and file mujahedeen in various theaters of warfare throughout the world.Dr. Zawahiri’s help was so valuable that he was granted permanent U.S.residence by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in January 2000.[14]

The Rise of ISIS After 9/11, the Agency continued to cultivate Islamic holy warriors to maintain the “strategy of tension” in the Middle East, the Balkan states, and Central Asia and to mount new uprisings in Africa to expandU.S.hegemony. The grand purpose of these enterprises wasUSeconomic and political control ofEurasia. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of State and leading strategist for the Council on Foreign Relations, writes: (C: Zbigniew Brzezinski to Jihadists: Your cause is right! http://mprofaca.cro.net/news0000.htmlZbigniew Brzezinski in late 70's, telling Afghan Jihadists: "Your cause is right. God is on your side." Photo: Brzezinski and Tim Osman, aka Osama bin Laden, discuss the string of Jihads that Zbigniew never regrets -- http://tinyurl.com/jbbze "What is most important for world history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? Some Islamic hotheads or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?" -- Le Nouvel Observateur's Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser, published 15-21 January 1998)

For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia. . . . Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia – - – and America’s global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained. . . . To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three great imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep the tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.[15] In accordance with the strategy of keeping “the barbarians from coming together,” ISIS forces were and are trained at a secret U.S. military base in the Jordanian town of Safawi.[16] The weapons for ISIS came, compliments of the Agency, from the arsenal of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi. The shipment of these weapons to ISIS in Syria was supervised in 2012 by David Petraeus, the CIA director who would soon resign when it was alleged that he was having an affair with his biographer.[17]

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Supply and DemandIn response to the increased demand, Gilani continued to churn out more and more African American jihadis. More and more training camps opened, including one in Texas.[18] More and more bodies were buried in unmarked graves. More and more complaints were made to law enforcement officials. And more and more graduates from the training camps made their way toPakistan.

BlowbackOf course, there was blowback to the CIA’s establishment on Islamic paramilitary camps on American soil. Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul Fuqra have been convicted in U/S. court of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers’ compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen firebombings between 1979 and 1990.[19]In 2001, a resident of the ul-Fuqra camp in California was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy; another was charged with gun-smuggling; and twenty-four from the camp in Red House, Virginia were convicted of firearms violations.[20]By 2004 investigators uncovered evidence that purportedly linked both the Washington, DC “sniper killer” John Allen Muhammad and “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid to Gilani’s group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had been captured and killed in the process of attempting to gain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.[21]By 2015, Jamaat ul-Fuqra had been involved in more terror attacks on America soil (30 and counting) than all the other terrorist groups combined. Despite these attacks, the group has never been placed on the official US Terror Watch List, and the Muslims of the Americascontinues to operate as a legitimate non-profit, tax-exempt organization.[22]The WarningInvestigators, including Patrick Walsh and William Krayer, who have visited Islamberg and other paramilitary settlements, believe that the next major attack on US soil will emanate from Gilani’s jamaats of homegrown terrorism. Based on the history of the CIA’s involvement in the creation of these camps, such an attack may occur in accordance with the Agency’s own design.Dr. Paul L. Williams is the author of Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, The CIA, and the Mafia.Notes [1] Alex Alexiev, “Tablighi Jamaat: Jihad’s Stealthy Legion,” Middle East Quarterly, no. 1 (Winter 2005)[2] Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), p. 161.[3] Robert Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam (New York:OxfordUniversity Press, 2002),[4] Douglas J. Hagmann, “Special Report: Jamaat ul-Fuqra Training Compound Inside the U.S.,” Northeast Intelligence Network, February 28, 2006.[5] Ibid.[6] Paul L. Williams, Crescent Moon Rising: The Islamic Transformation of America (Amherst,New York: Prometheus Books, 2013), p. 134.[7] “Afghanistan Update,” Daily Telegraph (London), August 5, 1983; Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1983.[8] Ibid[9] Zachary Crowley, “Jamaat ul-Fuqra Dossier,” Center for Policing Terrorism, March 16, 2005.[10] Gordon Gregory and Sonna Williams, “Jamaat ul-Fuqra,” Special Research Report, Regional Organized Crime Information Center, 2006.[11] Ibid.[12] Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, “Whistleblower: Al Qaeda Chief Was US Asset,” Huffington Post, May 21, 2013.[13] Sibel Edmonds, “Know Your Terrorists: Ayman al-Zawahiri,” Boiling Frogs Post, February 16, 2013.[14] Rory McCarthy, “The Real Ayman al-Zawahiri,” The Guardian, August 5, 2005. See also Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of War (Montreal: Global Research Rublishers, 2015), p. 111.[15] Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperative (New York: Basic Books, 1997), pp. 20, 40.

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[16] “Americans Are Training Syria Rebels in Jordan,” Reuters, March 10, 2013.[17] Ibid.[18] Ryan Mauro, “Islamic Terror Enclave Discovered in Texas,” The Clarion Project, February 18, 2014.[19] “Jamaat ul-Fuqra: Terror Group ofPakistan,”Institute ofContact Management, 2001.[20] Ibid.[21] “The Jamaat ul-Fuqra Threat,” Stratfor, Security Consulting Intelligence Resources, June 3, 2005.[22] Patrick B. Briley, “AL Fuqra: U.S. Islamic Terror Network Protected by FBI, U.S. State Department, Liberty Post, July 28, 2006.

Regards Cees, What have we learned…. CNN PRESENTS Encore Presentation: Soldiers of GodAired September 29, 2001 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KENNETH BRANAGH, NARRATOR (voice-over): Afghanistan: a war which cost the lives of nearly 15,000 young Soviet conscripts and an estimated one million Afghans.

ANATOLY CHERNIAYEV, AIDE TO MIKHAIL GORBACHEV (through translator): It was the Soviet Union's "Vietnam syndrome," so to speak. It was impossible for a great superpower to run away from this wild country.

BRANAGH: The United States supplied billions of dollars of weapons to unlikely allies -- Islamic fundamentalists.

FRANK ANDERSON, CIA DIRECTOR, AFGHAN TASK FORCE: It is entirely true that this was a war that was fought with our gold but with their blood.

BRANAGH: The Panjshir Valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan -- a rural, traditionally Islamic country of 15 million people.

Foreign nations had tried to conquer it for centuries. None succeeded. But civil war and years of Cold War conflict would bring the people of Afghanistan a terrible toll of death and destruction.

In the 1970s Afghanistan became a focus for superpower rivalry. Close to the Persian Gulf's oil and the Indian Ocean ports, it bordered Iran in the west and Pakistan in the south and east. In the north, it shared a border with the Muslims of the Soviet Union's Central Asian republics. To Moscow, a friendly Afghanistan was vital.

Kabul, Afghanistan, April 1978.

A military coup brings a left-wing regime to power. Soviet cameras portray it as a romantic popular revolution. Crowds were organized to celebrate the change of power.

Nur Mohammed Taraki, Afghanistan's new leader, looked to the Soviet Union for support.

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Moscow sent hundreds of Soviet advisers to advance socialism.

ABDUL RASHID JALILI, AFGHAN MINISTER OF EDUCATION (through translator): The vast majority of Afghan people had no jobs. Afghanistan was an agricultural country. We thought it was best to introduce land reforms and give land to the landless. It would enable them to work their own land and raise their standard of living.

BRANAGH: The left-wing regime set about reforming Afghanistan by decree. Land was taken from large owners and handed to the peasants who worked it.

Women were encouraged to stop wearing veils and were put into literacy classes alongside men.

In the countryside the reforms were seen to threaten ancient customs and the authority of the Islamic priests, the mullahs.

SAHAR GUL, MULLAH LAGHMAN PROVINCE (through translator): The Communists were trying to change the law of God. They wanted to destroy Islamic traditions -- to rid Afghanistan of poverty and make everyone equal. This is against the law of Islam -- God has decided who is rich and who is poor. It can't be changed by Communists. It's beyond imagination.

BRANAGH: To counter Communists' efforts to spread their new doctrine, opponents of the reforms burnt down schools and universities. Thousands of Afghans fled to Pakistan to avoid the revolutionary turmoil. Resistance was growing throughout the country.

GEN. VLADIMIR KRUICHKOV, DEPUTY HEAD OF KGB (through translator): Brezhnev and the Politburo tried to talk sense into Kabul. We couldn't understand how they could build socialism in just five years. We said, "You can't do that. We've been building socialism for sixty years and we're still not finished." But they thought it was us that had got it wrong. Naivete was coming out of their every orifice. It was in their every word.

BRANAGH: In neighboring Iran, crowds joined the call of the Afghan resistance for a jihad, or holy war, against the godless Communists. Other Islamic countries took up the cry.

In Washington, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski was convinced the left-wing regime in Afghanistan was a major threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER (on telephone): Yes. And that will deal first with Iran, then with Afghanistan and the regional implications.

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(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH: Brzezinski told President Carter that Moscow might use the Afghan crisis to move south and seize the oil of the Persian Gulf.

Brzezinski's fears for the stability of the region gained weight when mass demonstrations in Tehran led to the overthrow of the shah of Iran.

The shah's fall lost America its most important ally in the region.

BRZEZINSKI: We were faced with the possibility that one way or another, before too long, we may have either a hostile Iran on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf facing us, or we might even have the Soviets there.

BRANAGH: The Islamic groups fighting the Communists received covert American aid for the first time in July 1979. President Carter began by sending communications equipment.

The rebels called themselves the Mujahedin -- the Soldiers of God. They were mostly peasants, organized by village mullahs and landowners. Many of their weapons were captured from the Communist regime.

From the refugee camps in Pakistan, recruits for the jihad walked for days across the mountains to reach the fighting.

Ranged against the Mujahedin was a mechanized, Soviet-trained Afghan army.

Soviet film depicted a highly motivated fighting force.

In fact, each month, thousands of soldiers deserted. Kabul pleaded with Moscow to send Soviet troops.

In the Kremlin Soviet leaders repeatedly met to discuss the Afghan crisis. After mobs massacred Soviet advisers and their families in Herat, Kabul's request for Soviet troops moved up the agenda.

VASILY SAFRONCHUK, SOVIET FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): The Afghans wanted us to introduce a limited contingent of Soviet troops to guard military bases. They just couldn't cope with the Mujahedin themselves. At first they spoke about a battalion, then about a brigade. They kept insisting and pushing for Soviet troops but we kept refusing and refusing and refusing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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BRANAGH (voice-over): President Taraki had an apparently devoted prime minister, Hafizullah Amin.

Amin was the regime's strongman. In spite of the unrest he was determined to drive on with the reforms.

Amin launched a campaign of terror. He had opponents arrested and shot.

SAFRONCHUK (through translator): I said to Amin that his policies were too harsh -- that they were turning the Muslim population against him. Like the land reforms which did not take into account Afghan traditions. But he used to reply, "Did Stalin make the revolution in white gloves?"

BRANAGH: Afghan President Taraki flew to Moscow to discuss with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev how to curb Amin's excesses.

They decided to oust him, hoping the Kabul government could get popular support by slowing the reforms and ending the terror.

Moscow's secret plans leaked out. When President Taraki returned to Kabul, Amin had him seized and executed.

Amin realized the Soviets wanted him out. He began to seek better ties with the West. The KGB even imagined Amin might be a CIA agent.

GEN. VALENTIN VARENNIKOV, COMMANDER SOVIET FORCES, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): Andropov, the head of the KGB, became very concerned about Amin flirting with the Americans. Andropov felt that if we didn't introduce Soviet troops, Amin would claim that Moscow hadn't fulfilled its obligations. He would then turn to the Americans for help and they would put their own troops in.

BRANAGH: In Moscow the arguments were mounting in favor of using an invasion to remove Amin. In the past, Soviet military action to topple troublesome foreign leaders had worked in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

In Europe the nuclear arms race was gathering speed. NATO wanted to counter the Soviet Union's mobile missiles. On December 12, 1979 the West announced it would deploy hundreds of cruise missiles in response.

Moscow now felt it had little to lose internationally by intervening in Afghanistan with troops. That evening the Politburo held an emergency meeting.

SAFRONCHUK (through translator): Our major concern was the security of the southern borders of the Soviet Union. We also feared the spread of Islamic fundamentalism into Afghanistan from Iran.

KAREN BRUTENTS, INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT, COMMUNIST PARTY (through translator): I said that military intervention

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in Afghanistan would be very difficult for our army. It would not necessarily lead to success. One only has to consider the conditions in Afghanistan, its geography, its history and especially the independent nature of the Afghans.

KRUICHKOV (through translator): We also felt that if we didn't go into Afghanistan then some other countries would. The intervention of these states could destabilize the situation on the Soviet-Afghan border and in the region as a whole.

BRANAGH: The Politburo took its fateful decision.

By December 25, 1979, tens of thousands of men in tanks and trucks started to trundle across the border. Moscow hoped they could complete their mission within weeks. The old royal palace on the edge of Kabul was Prime Minister Amin's favorite residence. KGB special forces stormed the building. Amin tried to hide, but they shot him dead. Moscow replaced Amin with a more manageable leader, Babrak Karmal.

Since the Cold War started, the Soviet Union had never invaded a country beyond the borders of the Warsaw Pact. Now Soviet forces were stepping across the line.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JANUARY 23, 1980)

JIMMY CARTER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The implications of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan could pose a more serious threat to the peace since the Second World War. The vast majority of nations on Earth have condemned this latest Soviet attempt to extend its colonial domination of others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT CARTER: I had to put restraints on the Soviet Union. One of them was to issue a public statement that if the Soviets did invade either Pakistan or Iran -- or -- or -- or Iran out of Afghanistan, that I would consider this a personal threat to -- to the security of the United States of America and I would take whatever action I desired or considered appropriate to respond, and I let it be known that this would not exclude a nuclear reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED U.N. REPRESENTATIVE: The military intervention of the Soviet Union can not be justified. There can be no question of any

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country other than the Soviet Union having interfered in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH (voice-over): At the United Nations, the Soviet invasion was widely condemned. President Carter blocked grain deliveries to the Soviet Union, launched a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow, and stepped up U.S. spending on arms.

Detente was over.

U.S. National Security Adviser Brzezinski flew to Pakistan to set about rallying resistance. He wanted to arm the Mujahedin without revealing America's role. On the Afghan border near the Khyber Pass, he urged the Soldiers of God to redouble their efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRZEZINSKI: We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident that their struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours. You will go back to it one day, because your fight will prevail and you'll have your homes and your mosques back again, because your cause is right and God is on your side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRZEZINSKI: The purpose of coordinating with the Pakistanis would be to make the Soviets bleed for as much and as long as is possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRZEZINSKI: Do we know whether any Soviet units have reached these border posts?

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: No, sir. No.

BRZEZINSKI: They're holding back?

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: They are holding back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRZEZINSKI: We started providing weapons to the Mujahedin, from various sources again -- some -- for example, some Soviet arms from the Egyptians and the Chinese. We even got Soviet arms from the Czechoslovak Communist government, since it was obviously susceptible to material incentives; and at some point we started buying arms for the Mujahedin from the Soviet army in Afghanistan, because that army was increasingly corrupt.

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BRANAGH: Brzezinski sought the help of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan's military ruler. Pakistan always had a keen interest in Afghanistan. Pakistan wanted a friendly and strongly Islamic neighbor.

The U.S. Congress had earlier cut U.S. military aid to Pakistan. Gen. Zia had a bad human rights record. He was developing a nuclear bomb. He had failed to curb drugs trading. Now, the Americans set aside their displeasure.

CHARLES DUNBAR, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: I think we had a double standard with respect to the Pakistanis. And we knew that there were big problems with drugs, and that there were big problems with nukes and we were prepared in various ways, in any way that we had to, to turn Nelson's eye to those problems as long as the Afghan resistance was being supported via the government of Pakistan -- and that's what we did.

BRANAGH: In Afghanistan the Red Army guarded cities, roads and airports, leaving the Afghan army free for combat. By 1980 almost 100,000 Soviet troops would be deployed around the country. It was a civil war, but many of the Soviet conscripts were told they were coming to Afghanistan to confront Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED SOVIET SOLDIER, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): After we took our first Afghan prisoners, we started to realize that the Americans were not there. We said, Americans? What Americans? They are not here. But, the KGB officers said, "Oh, they're in the rear. They are advising the Mujahedin, just like we advised in Cuba. Maybe they are teaching them how to fight." But the more operations we carried out, the more we realized that the Americans were not there.

BRANAGH: Against their wishes, the Soviets were soon sucked into combat. They started with textbook sweep offensives devised to defeat NATO in Europe and Chinese troops on the plains of Manchuria. In mountainous terrain against guerrilla fighters their approach was a disaster.

ARTYOM BOROVIK, SOVIET JOURNALIST: Well, I would say 99 percent of all the battles that we fought in Afghanistan were won by the Soviet side. But the problem is that the next morning we had the same old situation as if there was no battle: Mujahedin were again in that village where they were -- we thought we'd destroyed them just the other day. So it was an absolutely useless war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear...

UNIDENTIFIED MINISTER: ... that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States ...

PRESIDENT REAGAN: ... that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH (voice-over): A fervent anti-communist, Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election with an image of forceful leadership and a promise to rebuild U.S. military might.

To many Americans, Carter's foreign policy had seemed weak.

Reagan stepped up aid to the Afghan rebels.

The Mujahedin were made up of numerous factions. They were split on tribal and ethnic lines.

When the Mujahedin weren't fighting the Soviets, they sometimes fought each other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MUJAHEDIN SOLDIER (through translator): Move your fat ass and shoot the (expletive deleted) rocket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH: The Mujahedin often captured military equipment in working order but were so disorganized that within hours it would be made useless by looting.

ANDERSON: I made the comment that "gratitude" in the Afghan dictionary is gonna be found somewhere after "gimme" and "gotcha." On the other hand, there was a constant undercurrent of understanding that while we were providing the means to wage this war, they were waging it and that it is entirely true that this was a war that was fought with our gold but with their blood.

BRANAGH: The Reagan administration increased its covert military supplies to the Mujahedin. Money and arms were channeled through camps in Pakistan.

By controlling the way aid was distributed the Pakistanis hoped to install a fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan. They favored the extremist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

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ELIE KRAKOWSKI, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: The Pakistanis -- they needed to have people that they could manipulate. It is for that reason that American aid, whatever it was, and in the early period it was minimal, later it became more significant, was essentially directed by the Pakistanis to Gulbuddin at the expense of other groups.

AHMED SHAH MASSOUD, MUJAHEDIN LEADER (through translator): The arms were not distributed fairly. Despite our military successes, Pakistan only gave us eight missiles. For two years they cut all aid to my group. The Pakistanis had their own agenda. They gave the lion's share of weapons to the hard-liner Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

BRANAGH: Inside Afghanistan the ferocity of the civil war increased. After heavy casualties, the Red Army changed tactics. They abandoned massive armored sweeps and took to the air. Soviet commandos would be dropped in by helicopters to cut the Mujahedin's escape routes.

While more weapons poured into Afghanistan, the United Nations sought a diplomatic solution. Under-Secretary Diego Cordovez tried to broker a deal for the Soviet Union to withdraw if military aid to the Mujahedin was stopped. His shuttle diplomacy made little headway with Afghan President Babrak Karmal.

Moscow -- November 1982: After 18 years in power Brezhnev is dead.

The state funeral was used for a new Afghan initiative. After the ceremony, Yuri Andropov, the new Soviet president, told Pakistan's foreign minister that he might accept the United Nations plan. But the Americans didn't trust Andropov.

CHARLES COGAN, CIA HEAD OF COVERT OPS, NEAR EAST: We never considered that the Soviets would actually back out of Afghanistan and negotiate their way out. It didn't seem -- it didn't seem a credible thing for them to do, because we didn't think that they were at all disposed to do that. So naturally when we talked with the Pakistanis, we pressed them always to continue the pressure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT REAGAN: The Bible tells us there will be a time for peace, but so far this century mankind has failed to find it. In these times ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH: The United States and Pakistan were not ready for a deal with Moscow. For Washington the U.N.'s peace plan was a sideshow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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PRESIDENT REAGAN: The peace-loving nations of the world must condemn aggression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH: Throughout Afghanistan, Soviet aircraft were now bombing indiscriminately.

They pummeled village after village into oblivion.

In a typical attack on April 8, 1985, the villages of Kats and Mindrawar on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway were bombed, then overrun by Soviet troops.

BIBI SARDARA, VILLAGER, LAGHMAN PROVINCE (through translator): The Soviets destroyed the whole village. It's impossible to count how many they killed. The men were dragged out of their houses and sent off to the Afghan army. Those who refused were taken aside and gunned down -- butchered.

MOHAMMAD HANIF, VILLAGER, LAGHMAN PROVINCE (through translator): The Russians took 14 of us and made us stand in a line near this wall. Two Russian soldiers stood in front of us with machine guns. We began reciting the Holy Kalima from the Holy Koran, because we knew we were about to die. They machine-gunned every one of us. I fell. There was a pile of bodies, all on top of me. The bullets missed me. The soldiers searched us and took our money. They moved me but I just pretended to be dead.

MAJNOON, VILLAGER, LAGHMAN PROVINCE (through translator): The rockets were falling all around us like leaves off a tree. My daughter's head was smashed open. Her brains were hanging from a branch. I lost everything -- my cousins, my nephews -- everybody was killed -- my wife, my four children.

UNIDENTIFIED SOVIET SOLDIER, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): There was no such thing as a "peaceful population" -- they were all guerrilla fighters. I remember how we once rounded up all the women and children, poured kerosene over them and set fire to them. Yes, it was cruel. Yes, we did it, but those kids were torturing our wounded soldiers with knives.

UNIDENTIFIED SOVIET SOLDIER, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): When you kill, you don't feel calm -- you just feel indifferent. You're paranoid -- you lose your morality. You become very cold- blooded. Your soul grows cold because you're confronted with something you don't like doing.

UNIDENTIFIED SOVIET SOLDIER, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): A young soldier might kill just to test his gun, or if he's curious to see what the inside of a human being looks like, or what's inside a

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smashed head. But there is also the fact that if you don't kill, you'll get killed. It's a feeling of being drunk on blood. Often you kill out of boredom or because you just feel like doing it -- it's like hunting rabbits.

GULAB SHAH, VILLAGER, LAGHMAN PROVINCE (through translator): We have cried so much that we can no longer cry. Even if we do cry who will wipe away our tears? So you see there's nobody to turn to anyway. We can only pray to God to take our revenge for us because we are helpless.

BRANAGH: In the Kats and Mindrawar villages 72 women and children were slaughtered. Thousands of civilians were killed in similar Soviet atrocities throughout Afghanistan.

The Mujahedin committed their own war crimes, often executing Soviet and Afghan prisoners in cold blood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRANAGH (voice-over): With increasing ruthlessness and daring, the Mujahedin attacked Soviet convoys -- the lifeline bringing oil and weapons to the Red Army. The toll of Soviet dead rose to as much as 2,000 a year. Many Soviet conscripts were raw recruits. Sent to Afghanistan after only three months of basic training. Sickness, drunkenness and drug abuse sapped the army's strength. The wounded got minimal care.

The war seemed pointless.

UNIDENTIFIED SOVIET SOLDIER, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): You don't know what you're doing. You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. Perhaps you're gonna die and for the sake of what? For the sake of a system that lies to you? For the sake of a system that turned my father, and all our parents into alcoholics? You suddenly realize that you have been brought up in a system which only creates evil. You just want to escape from it but you don't know where to run. You have only got one hope -- to eat half a kilo of opium, go to sleep and never wake up. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SOVIET INFORMATION FILM)

NARRATOR: Soldiers of the friendly army. You often find them giving their spare time to days of communal labor. Today the soldiers are building a children's home. Soviet forces are not only defenders but also creators.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRANAGH: The propaganda was repeated daily in the Soviet press. Returning veterans began to reveal the Soviet troops' true role. But Soviet

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newspaper readers searched in vain for accurate reports.

BOROVIK: Basically, it was total disinformation of the Soviet public. Soviet soldiers were not fighting a war: the propaganda said they were building schools, kindergartens, roads, er, and guarding caravans with food. That's it.

BRANAGH: In cemeteries across the Soviet Union the cost of the invasion became impossible to hide. Many Russian mothers lost their only child.

SOFIA ZHURAVLEVA, BEREAVED MOTHER, MINSK: A military officer came to me. He said, "Try to be brave. Your son has died."

I couldn't believe it. No. I had only received a letter from him the day before.

I didn't try to open the coffin myself. My brother wanted to, but we were not allowed. The funeral was very quick. They buried him and that was it. It's very hard. I wasn't allowed to write on his gravestone that he'd died in Afghanistan. I could only write in small letters at the bottom that he'd "died while fulfilling his internationalist duty." I didn't see him dead, so to me he's still alive. At every doorbell I think my son has come back. I don't believe he died.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRANAGH (voice-over): In March 1985 an energetic new leader took power in the Kremlin. As Mikhail Gorbachev met crowds of Russians on tours around the country, opposition to the war could finally be expressed in public. Thousands of protest letters poured into Gorbachev's office each week.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, GENERAL SECRETARY, SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY (through translator): We had to finish this war, but in such a way that the Russian people would understand why tens of thousands had died and tens of thousands had become invalids. We had to explain what it was all for. We couldn't just run away from there in shame. No. We needed to find a process. CHERNIAYEV (through translator): There was an obstacle, an ideological one. It was our Vietnam syndrome. It was impossible for a great superpower to run away from this wild country like the Americans in Vietnam. It would damage our prestige.

BRANAGH: The United Nations envoy, Diego Cordovez, was told by Gorbachev that the Soviet Union would consider withdrawing under a U.N. agreement. The emerging issue was what kind of government would run Afghanistan if the Soviets left.

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Hoping the U.S. and Pakistan would accept a coalition friendly to Moscow, Gorbachev chose a new Afghan leader, Mohammed Najibullah.

Gorbachev instructed Najibullah to offer talks with the Mujahedin about forming an Afghan government of national reconciliation.

Gorbachev and his peace initiatives were applauded in Moscow, but not yet accepted in Washington.

CASPAR WEINBERGER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: He was KGB and he was all the old school and he had some very dubious associations and all the rest. He was trying to persuade the old-line Communists that he was with them and he would appoint them to various positions and he would not make major changes in the economy or in the economic policies or in the military policy.

BRANAGH: On return from his first summit with Gorbachev, Reagan sensed Moscow wanted a deal to get out of Afghanistan. But American hard-liners wanted revenge for Vietnam. Pressed by Congress, Reagan urged the Mujahedin to go for victory.

ANDERSON: It wasn't until really between about '83 to '85 that the forces in Washington who asked the question, "Well, maybe we can win this. Let's not put in $100 million a year worth of weapons, let's put in a billion dollars a year worth of weapons."

BRANAGH: To combat Soviet air supremacy, the United States decided to try out its latest missile -- the Stinger.

Field trials like this looked impressive as the shoulder-fired missile locked on to its target. By sending state-of-the-art American-made Stingers to the Mujahedin, Washington was making plain that America was directly involved in the Afghan war.

Spurred on by the increased American aid, the Mujahedin opposed a U.N. brokered peace agreement that would enable the withdrawal of Soviet troops, but leave the Kabul regime in place.

Signed in Geneva, the 1988 peace agreement barred further military aid to either side in Afghanistan.

Both superpowers ignored the ban; the supply of weapons went on.

The Geneva accords did not bring peace.

WEINBERGER: Our basic feeling was that what the Russians were talking about was a way to get the resistance and the opposition of the West off their backs so to speak, and that they then would be free to pursue other methods of dominating Afghanistan and that's what we did not want to have

Cees: Intel to Rent Page 23 of 24 15/04/2023

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happen.

SAFRONCHUK (through translator): The Americans didn't want a trace of Marxism left. They wanted to install an anti-Soviet puppet regime they could control. The bleeders or the hawks finally won. Our reason was very simple: "If you carry on giving aid, we'll carry on giving aid."

BRANAGH: In 1988 under the terms of the Geneva agreement, Soviet troops started pulling out. But instead of peace, Afghanistan was to endure more years of bloodshed.

Fighting among rival groups of Islamic fundamentalists continued to destroy the country long after the Cold War was over.

Since 1979, five million Afghans were wounded or forced to flee their homes. Almost 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed.

One million Afghans perished.

ANDERSON: I haven't had a bad night. It's not because I am without feeling for -- or without understanding of how much agony goes along with war. It's just that this was such a contribution to the end of what was otherwise an evil that inflicted other kinds of pain and on so many other people, that on balance it was worth it.

BRUTENTS (through translator): The Afghan people have become the main victims. The Afghans are now fighting each other. Of course they have plenty of internal reasons for that. But at the same time it's because of a legacy which started in the 1970s that they are now fighting each other with American and Soviet weapons.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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