Posted on 03/13/2002 3:54:59 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
WASHINGTON – A former Pakistani spy master with links to the Taliban claims that al-Qaeda has captured American prisoners in eastern Afghanistan, forcing U.S. troops to end the siege of their stronghold and withdraw. U.S. officials say the claim is false.
Talking to United Press International from his home in Islamabad, Gen. Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence, said the United States sent "some Americans to Shahikot, dressed as Afghans."
Shahikot is the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where U.S. forces and their Afghan allies taking part in Operation Anaconda have been bombing and fighting several hundred al-Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas holed up in cave complexes since March 1.
According to Gul, the Americans sent to infiltrate the mountain strongholds could speak the local language of Pashto, and some even had beards.
"The idea was to slip through the Taliban defenses into the al-Qaeda hideouts in the mountains. But they were detected and captured."
Gul said this forced the Americans to make a deal with al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters and withdraw their troops.
"The withdrawal of U.S. troops allowed most of the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters to escape and melt away among the Pashtun tribesmen living in the area," said the Pakistani general.
"I wonder what the Americans were trying to achieve with this Hollywood-style operation. Afghanistan is no Hollywood. It is a traditional tribal society where even a dog from another tribe is noticed by everyone."
Gul also claimed that not many Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters were killed in eastern Afghanistan as there was "no face-to-face fighting" and the "bombing is not very effective against those hiding in the caves."
'No Servicemen Missing'
Commenting on the claim of U.S. prisoners, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said, "We have no servicemen missing."
"We have no information at all about any American being taken prisoner ... it is totally inaccurate," added a U.S. Central Command spokesman, Charles Portman.
A government official also rejected Gul's claim as "totally false" and said no CIA agents had been seized either.
Gul headed ISI during the Afghan war from 1979 to 1989 and played a key role in forming Mujahedin groups fighting the Russians. He is also considered the "spiritual" father of the Taliban movement as many from his Mujahedin group later joined to form the religious militia.
He maintained close ties with the Taliban during the six years they ruled Afghanistan until 2001 and is believed to have strong sympathy for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
Gul also strongly opposed Pakistan's decision to join the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan and urged the Pakistani government to support its "Muslim brothers."
This reminds me of the Monty Python skit where a couple of low level mobsters went around to a military base and tried to threaten the camp commander -- "You don't want some of your tanks to get broke, now do ya?"
He's the former head of ISI. Didn't Musharref fire a bunch of those Taliban sympathizers early on after 9-11? I don't believe anything he says.
Here's how I see it. During the Kosovo action, the Serbs made many allegations (us hitting civilians) which the U.S. initially denied, but later turned out to be true. This time around, how many times have the enemy or enemy sympathizers (such as Gen. Gul) made allegations that the Pentagon has denied, but that turned out to be true?
During Kosovo, the Serb allegations about what our military was doing turned out to be mostly, if not entirely, true. The enemy-sympathizing Pakistanis' track record hasn't been as good. Their credibility record leaves a lot to be desired, and the Pentagon's credibility record gives me no reason to doubt their word now.
Therefore, I think this General Gul is full of crap!
Does that really sound credible? We are dealing with a military that will suffer enormous casualties in order to recover a dead comrade, and that goes into afterburner to recover prisoners. Most of our casualties in both Mogadishu and in this latest Afghan battle resulted from attempts to rescue missing or downed people.
The US armed forces in Afghanistan learn that the baddies are holding some of our guys prisoner. Which reaction seems more likely
There may be some truth to his statement about prisoners. There was a report this weekend from a witness who reported seeing a blonde man with a military haircut being tortured in one of the caves. The man was not identified by nationality. The fact that the Pentagon denied it doesn't mean some other agency or country has lost an agent or freelancer.
The bigger question is what does Gul have to gain by making this statement? I suspect he is trying to sell his services in one form or another.
RIGHT!!!
Our government would never lie to us!!!
It is obvious that we are always right and tell the truth and our enemies are always wrong and always lie.
It is obvious that all we do is proper and all our enemies do is improper.
It is obvious that none of our people are casualties but they have many casualties.
It is obvious that we win every conflict and they lose every conflict.
It is obvious that we are always right and they are always wrong.
It is obvious that we are innocent of any actions leading to terrorism and that they terrorize us for no reason other than they envy us for being so good.
It is obvious... OH, you get the idea.
And virtually everyone else in the world. Do you ever wonder how everybody but us can be wrong and that we are the only good and right people?
Take a look here:
All of you other patriots take a look too!!!
It's a no-brainer to see that this story of his is a lie. If it were the truth, al-Qaeda would have certainly smuggled out video of their prizes and said video would have been proudly shown around the Arab world on al-Jazeera.
That this hasn't happened is proof positive that Gul is lying.
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