Posted on 09/11/2003 4:52:54 AM PDT by knighthawk
The seeds of 9/11 thrived under the Taliban's regime of repression, reprisal and death
KABUL - The road that led to Sept. 11 began on Sarak Darulaman, the long, broad avenue that leads to the ruined King's Palace in the west of the city.
Here, within sight of the base camp for the 1,900 Canadian troops now in Afghanistan, lies a rusted-out, shattered bulk container, perforated with holes from bullet and cannon fire. None of the locals will go near the twisted wreckage, or any of the dozens of similarly wrecked containers scattered around the city: They know the story.
During the Taliban's five-year reign of terror, the Islamic extremists would periodically round up political enemies or people who did not conform to their hard-line interpretation of Islam, then herd them into the long, metal containers. Women who refused to wear the all-encompassing burqa or men who refused to grow their beards were crowded into the airless boxes, which were then locked shut.
"Sometimes the Taliban throw in a grenade; sometimes they shoot; sometimes they let the sun do their work," said an old man who would only give his first name, Hamid, staring impassively at the wrecked container. "Many people died there."
Without the Taliban, who swept to power in Afghanistan after years of factional fighting that ravaged Kabul and much of the rest of the country, al-Qaeda's terrorist network could never have gained a secure base from which to train recruits and plan an increasingly elaborate campaign of terror that culminated in the attacks on New York and Washington two years ago.
While the West's attention has shifted to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's founder and mastermind of Sept. 11, or the war in Iraq, ordinary Afghans say they cannot forget the evil perpetrated by the Taliban.
Karim Ghani, an electrical engineer who has lived his whole life in Kabul, said the Sept. 11 attacks were a terrible tragedy, but they were also the beginning of his country's liberation.
"Even if the people in the West are forgetting the Taliban, the people in Kabul can never forget how cruel they were," he said.
"They used the name of Islam and shariah ... to torture hundreds of men and women, and kill many more. They killed the men and took their women away."
The Taliban banned television, music, fashion magazines and hundreds of other things considered "corrupting influences" -- including even children's kites. Women were forced to leave work and schools, and all men were required to grow beards.
"I was beaten three times because my beard was too short," Mr. Ghani said. "That was all -- my beard was too small for them."
But the soft-spoken engineer said the same harsh rules did not seem to apply to Taliban leaders, who routinely extorted bribes from the terrified people and tolerated prostitution on condition they could use Kabul's underground brothels free of charge.
"A few Talibs invited me into their house once, and they had VCRs and TVs and were watching movies," Mr. Ghani said, frowning angrily. "If anyone else had been caught doing that, they would have been sent to jail or executed.
"When they went to the front, they would take music players with them and handsome young men, and they'd make them dance for them," he said, adding quietly, "And more."
Hypocrisy was also rife among the thousands of al-Qaeda fighters who flocked to Afghanistan after the Taliban won power. The "Arabs," as Afghans called them, also espoused a hard-line version of Islam, but international aid workers who toured homes in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district used as al-Qaeda safe houses said they found floors littered with hypodermic needles.
"These guys were shooting up [heroin] all the time," said one UN worker, who did not want her name used. "I mean, there were thousands upon thousands of these needles. They were everywhere."
Because the Taliban and al-Qaeda were so intertwined, the road from Sept. 11 also led Canadians into Afghanistan.
Major Fred Wolanski, of Scarborough, is one of only few Canadian soldiers to serve in the 2002 mission by Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry to Kandahar and the current "peace support" mission to the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.
He is now the Chief of Staff for the Canadian contingent, but in 2002 he was commander of the mortar platoon supporting the battle group fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts in the southern Afghanistan.
While four Canadian soldiers died in a friendly fire incident during the Kandahar deployment, Maj. Wolanski said it was important for Canadians to take part in both missions.
"Our allies, the Americans, were attacked and we had to support them," he said. "We've got to finish the job."
And although the two missions are "completely different," he believes both are important to Canada.
"It's worth it. The Taliban and al-Qaeda could've just as easily attacked Toronto or Montreal ... and may still do that. We have to do our part to ensure that doesn't happen."
Canadian soldiers will observe a moment's silence today at 6 p.m. Kabul time, 9:30 a.m. in New York.
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