Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism

319 Pages·2000·1.46 MB·English

by  John K. Cooley

Unholy Wars:
Afghanistan, America
and International
Terrorism:
NEW EDITION
Pluto Press
Unholy Wars
Afghanistan, America
and International Terrorism
NEWEDITION
John K. Cooley
P
Pluto Press
LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA
Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous ... For mercenaries are
disunited, thirsty for power, undisciplined, and disloyal; they are brave among their
friends and cowards before the enemy; they have no fear of God, they do not keep
faith with their fellow men; they avoid defeat just so long as they avoid battle; in
peacetime you are despoiled by them, and in wartime by the enemy ... Mercenary
commanders are either skilled in warfare or they are not: if they are, you cannot
trust them, because they are anxious to advance their own greatness, either by
coercing you, their employer, or by coercing others against your own wishes. If,
however, the commander is lacking in prowess, in the normal way he brings about
your ruin ... Experience has shown that only princes and armed republics achieve
solid success, and that mercenaries bring nothing but loss.
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
First published 1999 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling,
VA20166–2012, USA
Second edition published 2000
Copyright ©John K. Cooley 1999, 2000
The right of John K. Cooley to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 1692 1 hbk
ISBN 0 7453 1691 3 pbk
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cooley, John K., 1927–
Unholy wars : Afghanistan, America, and international terrorism /
John K. Cooley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–7453–1692–1 (hbk)
1. United States––Foreign relations––Afghanistan. 2. Afghanistan–
–Foreign relations––United States. 3. Espionage, American––Islamic
countries. 4. Terrorism. 5. United States. Central Intelligence
Agency. I. Title.
JZ1480.A57A3 1999
958.104'5––dc21 98–50370
CIP
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTPServices, Northampton
Printed in the European Union by T.J. International, Padstow, England

Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
Contents
Maps vi
Acknowledgements ix
Preface to the Second Edition xi
Introduction 1
1 Carter and Brezhnev in the Valley of Decision 9
2 Anwar al-Sadat 29
3 Zia al-Haq 47
4 Deng Xiaoping 65
5 Recruiters, Trainers, Trainees and Assorted Spooks 80
6 Donors, Bankers and Profiteers 106
7 Poppy Fields, Killing Fields and Druglords 126
8 Russia: Bitter Aftertaste and Reluctant Return 161
9 The Contagion Spreads: Egypt and the Maghreb 183
10 The Contagion Spreads: The Assault on America 215
11 More Contagion: The Philippines 248
Epilogue 259
Notes 263
Appendix I Press Release From United States Attorney, Southern District
of New York, November 4, 1998 274
Appendix II The Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee 276
Index 281
Fergana Valley
UZBEKISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN
TURKMENISTAN
R
.A TAJIKISTAN
mu
Darya CHINA
Termez
Mazar-i-Sharif
PAKISTANI-HELD
K u s h NCE KASHMIR
H i n d u ROVI Clineea,s 1e9-f4ir9e
Herat Kabul Jalalabad RP
Bagram E JAMMU
AFGHANISTAN NTIPeshawar AND
IRAN R.Helmand Kandahar Ghazni NPOuRsThtHuniWsEtaSnTFROIndus Islamabad KASHMIR
R.
PPAAKKIISSTTAANN
Quetta
INDIA
BALUCHISTAN
Map 1 Afghanistan after the 1989 cease-fire.
((UU..SS..)) UU..KK..
FRANCE
BOSNIA- RUSSIA JJAAPPAANN
HERZEGOVINA
CHECHNYA
AALLGGEERRIIAA AZERBAIJAN
MONGOLIA
KAZAKHSTAN
Xinjiang
LIBYA TURSKYERYIA TTUURRKKMMUUEEZZNNBBEEIISSKKTTIIAASSNNTTAANN TAKJYIKRIGSYTAZSNTAN(Uighurs) CHINA
EGYPT IRAQ N
IRAN AFGHANISTA KKaasshhmmiirr
N PPHHIILLIIPPPPIINNEESS
P AKISTA Punjab
SAUDI ARABIA
INDIA
SUDAN
YEMEN ((KKEENNYYAA,,
TTAANNZZAANNIIAA))
Map 2 Movements of CIA-trained guerrillas and drugs outwards from Afghanistan after the 1979–89 Afghanistan war.
to Vania Katelani Cooley
Acknowledgements
Iamindebtedtopublicationsoffriends,colleaguesandmanyotherpersonsIhave
never met.They are journalists, travelers, scholars, diplomats and members or
formermembersofgovernmentandthemilitary.Theyarementionedintheendnotes.
Among those so mentioned and others who are not, deserving special thanks are
Helga Graham, author of excellent books on the Mideast; my old friend and
neighbor during my years as a news correspondent in Beirut, David Hirst of the
Guardianand his colleague on that newspaper, Martin Woolacott. In Cairo I was
helped generously by the distinguished Egyptian author and publicist, Muhammad
Hasseinine Haykal and many others, including journalist and former ABC News
producer Miss Hinzada al-Fikry, now teaching journalism and mass communica-
tions at the American University in Cairo.
Flora Lewis, both in her syndicated column in the International Herald Tribune
(IHT)and in private conversations offered great encouragement when it was needed
most, as she knows. Robert Donahue, editor of theIHT’seditorial page, has allowed
me to publish my ideas on the theme of this book in the premium space he
commands. In Germany, Wilhelm Dietl, investigative reporter and author, expert
and frequent traveler in South Asia, generously opened to me his unique files and
archives. At ABC News, my old friend anchorman Peter Jennings, investigative
team chief Chris Isham and a few other colleagues have always been supportive.
Dr. William R. Polk, former professor of Arab history at Harvard University and
Mideast advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, has been
a constant friend and scholarly guide.
In Washington DC, Georgetown University professors Michael Hudson and
Hisham Sharabi are foremost among many helpers. Charles Cogan, a retired senior
CIAofficial in the Afghanistan war program, now a visiting scholar at Harvard
University and elsewhere, was informative, courteous and helpful. William Charles
Maynes, now president of the Asia Foundation, has always been supportive. So
have Tom Hughes, former president and Selig Harrison, former senior associate
of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Eric Rouleau, ex-Mideast
editor of Le Monde, and former French ambassador to Tunisia and Turkey, is
another old friend who has always helped.
Robin Raphel, widow of former US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, an
American victim of the 1979–89 Afghan war, former assistant secretary of state
for South Asian Affairs and now US Ambassador in Tunisia, graciously received
me in Tunis in the spring of 1998, giving generously of her time and her insights.
At Brown University, Professor Jim Blight and his associate, graduate student
Michael Corkery, shared with me transcripts and thoughts about the Oslo meetings
of Russian and US diplomats in the early 1990s, dealing with the origins of the
1979–89 Afghanistan war. Declassified Soviet documents on this subject were
ix
x Unholy Wars
obtained and passed to me by the ABC News Moscow bureau. Senior Russian
diplomat Alexander Zotov steered me to Soviet historians who helped. During
research and production work for ABC News documentaries on terrorism and the
Mideast, I benefitted from US government expertise not ordinarily available to
journalists. Highly placed individuals evidently opposed publication of my earlier
work on this subject. Their opposition, real or suspected, spurred my enthusiasm
for my task.
I would have been lost without the technical help with the manuscript of Samir
Srouji and Alexander Halliday, both students in Nicosia. Natalie Kovalenko
provided fine translations from the Russian.
Others who cannot be named provided extremely valuable information and
judgements. They know who they are, and I hope to repeat my gratitude to them
in person.
Finally, Roger van Zwanenberg, the director of Pluto Press, my publisher,
deserves my thanks for his patience with my delays and for his constant support.
My son, Dr Alexander Cooley, an assistant visiting professor of political science
at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and my daughter, Katherine
Anne Cooley, a news anchorwoman on French television in Paris, both gave me
substantial and well-informed advice and help. Opinions and any errors of fact or
judgement are, of course, entirely my own responsibility.
John K. Cooley
Athens, Greece,
April 2000