Anyone remember Richard Helms?
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Lecture over, the chairman asks for questions.
One man after another rises to describe his own
observations while in the foreign service. The
moderator pauses, looks to the back of the room,
and says in a scarcely audible voice: "Laili Helms."
The room goes silent.
For the people gathered here, the name brings
back memories of Richard Helms, director of the
CIA during the tumultuous 1960s, the era of Cuba
and Vietnam. After he was accused of destroying
most of the agency's secret documents detailing
its own crimes, Helms left the CIA and became
President Ford's ambassador to Iran. There, he
trained the repressive secret police, inadvertently
sparking the revolution that soon toppled his
friend the Shah.
Laili Helms, his niece by marriage, is an operative,
too—but of a different kind. This pleasant young
woman who makes her home in New Jersey is the
Taliban rulers' unofficial ambassador in the U.S.,
and their most active and best-known advocate
elsewhere in the West. As such she not only
defends but promotes a severe regime that has
given the White House fits for the past six
years—by throwing women out of jobs and
schools, stoning adulterers, forcing Hindus to
wear an identifying yellow patch, and smashing
ancient Buddha statues.
In meetings on Capitol Hill and at the State
Department, Helms represents a theocracy that
harbors America's Public Enemy No. 1: Osama bin
Laden, the man who allegedly masterminded the
bombing of American embassies in Tanzania and
Kenya and is suspected of blowing up the USS
Cole. From his Afghan fortress, bin Laden
operates a terrorist network reaching across the
world. villagevoice.com
A brutal regime's American voice
The Taliban employ many weapons in pursuit to of a new Islamic order. One of the more
effective may be an American who volunteers as their PR representative. Laili Helms, 35, from
New Jersey, arranges media appointments and translates and disseminates Taliban materials.
She is a long-time Afghanistan activist, but her support to for this regime has shocked friends,
who wonder: Is she Naïve, or has she been away from Afghanistan too long?
Though from a privileged family, Laili spent only 5 years there as a child. She lived in the US for
18 years, moved to Pakistan for 5, then come back to the States. She has not returned to
Afghanistan since the Taliban took over. Yet she says, "Call me crazy, but I've been elated
watching the Taliban progress."
Laili is far from crazy. She's articulate, college-educated and fluent in three languages. Her
lifestyle is decidedly American. She coaches her son's soccer team and is a pro-choice
activist. She sees no irony in working simultaneously for one organisation which empowers
women and another that denies them basic freedoms. Laili's dark hair is fashionably short,
and even when working with the Taliban she wears pants. She never covers her head or face:
"I told the Taliban I won't wear a burqa. They laughed." She denies the burqa is a human rights
issue: "I don't know why the media target the sort of thing. Why focus on the small issues,
when the Taliban are struggling for with so much? The country is in the throes of war. You
can't have half of the population playing while the other half is dying. Until the war is finished,
there must be national austerity."
Laili blames the international community for Afghan women having to beg. It wouldn't happen,
she says, if the UN or foreign agencies assisted them. (Some humanitarian programs have
been frozen in protest against the Taliban's policies.) "Aid should not be conditional on
opening women's schools, or permitting women to work. As a woman and a mother, I think
this is immoral.
One of the Taliban's most effective apologist, Laili is unwavering in her support for them. She
insists reports of brutality, particularly against women, are anti-Taliban propaganda - despite
the regime's openness about its activities. "This doesn't compare to the brutality under the
previous government," Laili claims. While life may seem austere now, Laili is convinced that
the regime represents hope for peace in Afghanistan.
Afghan women who know of Laili's work believe she is dangerously misinformed. "How can
someone who has lived in the US for over two decades understand what it is like in
Afghanistan today?" asks 27-year-old Fatima, a former high school teacher in Kabul.
Addressing Laili, Fatima says, "From the luxury of your American home, where your children
are well fed, and where you can dress as you please, it is easy to support the Taliban. I beg
you come to Kabul. I will show you the reality." rawa.fancymarketing.net |
