In the days leading up to the surrender of the Taliban at Kunduz, numerous reports (including ones from New York Times and Wall Street Journal) indicated nightly landings of Pakistani military airplanes that evacuated an unknown number of Pakistani soldiers, including top commanders, from the city. These personnel had been part of the Taliban, and were actively participating in the defense of the city against the Northern Alliance. Both the Pakistani government and the Pentagon denied any knowledge of such evacuations.
The battle for Kunduz was prolonged as Osama bin Laden loyalists were seen as preventing an early Taliban surrender.
Note: At the time of the evacuations the US and Britain had complete control of the air space above northern Afghanistan. Pakistan would have been utterly unable to fly large transports to Kunduz to remove it's fighters and allies without the cooperation of US military air controllers and direct orders to air combatants not to shoot down the nightly flights.
Before the secret evacuation: senior fighters were trapped:
news.ozarksnow.com
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The ‘Airlift of Evil’
NEW YORK, Nov. 29, 2001 — The United States took the unprecedented step this week of demanding that foreign airlines provide information on passengers boarding planes for America. Yet in the past week, a half dozen or more Pakistani air force cargo planes landed in the Taliban-held city of Kunduz and evacuated to Pakistan hundreds of non-Afghan soldiers who fought alongside the Taliban and even al-Qaida against the United States. What’s wrong with this picture?
THE PENTAGON, whose satellites and drones are able to detect sleeping guerrillas in subterranean caverns, claims it knows nothing of these flights. When asked about the mysterious airlift at a recent Pentagon briefing, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied knowledge of such flights. Myers backpedaled a bit, saying that, given the severe geography of the country, it might be possible to duck in and out of mountain valleys and conduct such an airlift undetected.
But Rumsfeld intervened. With his talent for being blunt and ambiguous at the same time, he said: “I have received absolutely no information that would verify or validate statements about airplanes moving in or out. I doubt them.”
SEE NO EVIL
Western reporters actually in Kunduz in the days after it fell this week found much to dispel that doubt. Reports first appeared in the Indian press, quoting intelligence sources who cited unusual radar contacts and an airlift of Pakistani troops out of the city. Their presence among the “enemy” may shock some readers, but not those who have paid attention to Afghanistan. Pakistan had hundreds of military advisers in Afghanistan before Sept. 11 helping the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance. Hundreds more former soldiers actively joined Taliban regiments, and many Pakistani volunteers were among the non-Afghan legions of al-Qaida.
Last Saturday, The New York Times picked up the scent, quoting Northern Alliance soldiers in a Page 1 story describing a two-day airlift by Pakistani aircraft, complete with witnesses describing groups of armed men awaiting evacuation at the airfield, then still in Taliban hands.
Another report, this in the Times of London, quotes an alliance soldier angrily denouncing the flights, which he reasonably assumed were conducted with America’s blessing.
“We had decided to kill all of them, and we are not happy with America for letting the planes come,” said the soldier, Mahmud Shah.
IN DENIAL
The credibility gap between these reports from the field and the “no comments” from the U.S. administration are large enough to drive a Marine Expeditionary Unit through. Calls by MSNBC.com and NBC News to U.S. military and intelligence officials shed no light on the evacuation reports, though they clearly were a hot topic of conversation. “Oh, you mean ‘Operation Evil Airlift’?” one military source joked. “Look, I can’t confirm anything about those reports. As far as I know, they just aren’t happening.” Three other military and defense sources simply denied any knowledge.
Something is up. It certainly appears to any reasonable observer that aircraft of some kind or another were taking off and landing in Kunduz’s final hours in Taliban hands. Among the many questions that grow out of this reality:
* Was the passenger manifest on these aircraft limited to Pakistani military and intelligence men, or did it include some of the more prominent zealots Pakistan contributed to the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qaida?
* What kind of deal was struck between the United States and Pakistan to allow this?
* What safeguards did the United States demand to ensure the evacuated Pakistanis did not include men who will come back to haunt us?
* What was done with the civilian volunteers once they arrived home in Pakistan? Where they arrested? Debriefed? Taken to safe houses? Or a state banquet?
WHY NOT ADMIT IT
The answers remain elusive. If the passengers were simply Pakistani military and intelligence men, and not civilian extremists, what possible motive is there for concealing the truth about their evacuation? Pakistan may believe that no one has noticed the warmth of its intelligence ties to the Taliban and even al-Qaida, but surely the Pentagon isn’t operating under this illusion, is it? This news organization has quoted U.S. intelligence sources as far back as 1997 as saying that ties between Pakistan’s intelligence service and al-Qaida, and links to the Taliban — a movement nurtured by Pakistan — are undeniable.
msnbc.com
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US Allows Pakistani Jehadis to Escape Kunduz:
thetimes.co.uk
Northern Alliance Reports Planes Flew Into Kunduz to Rescue Fighters:
nytimes.com
US, Pakistan in rift over fighters' fate
boston.com
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History lesson from Dunkirk for Kunduz
hvk.org
Author: K Subrahmaniam
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 26, 2002
In 1940 June, Adolf Hitler allowed the British expeditionary force in France, trapped at Dunkirk, to escape as the German Wehrmacht swept through. Hitler’s expectation was that the British would not be able to continue the war after the fall of France, and allowing the British troops to be evacuated, would cam him the goodwill of Britain. Hitler was thoroughly mistaken. Britain fought on, and four years later, the British troops stormed the beaches of Normandy as part of Operation Overlord which liberated Western Europe.
According to a story published by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, the Americans allowed Pakistan to evacuate thousands of its army officers and personnel trapped in Kunduz, Afghanistan, before it fell to the force-, of Northern Alliance on November 25. Pakistan evacuated not only its personnel but also a number of Al Qaeda and Taliban cadres. It was somewhat analogous to the British taking General De Gaulle and the Free French cadres along with their troops during the Dunkirk evacuation.
In November General Musharraf was pressing hard that moderate Taliban leaders should have a role in the new administration to be formed in Kabul. Though a number of Taliban were evacuated from Kunduz, they were never subsequently brought out as moderate Taliban. A logical inference is that those evacuated from Kunduz were not moderate but hard-core Taliban and, therefore, could not be projected in public.
The Americans are prepared to brave the criticism of the world while they try to break down the Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners taken at Kunduz and transported to Guantanamo. According to Seymoeir Hersh’s story, the Americans never got access to the Al Qaeda and Taliban cadres airlifted out of Kunduz. It is obvious they would have been more reliable sources of information for the Americans. But it was not in Pakistan’s interest to permit the Americans to question them as that would have revealed the full extent of collusion between Al Qaeda, Taliban and the Musharraf regime.
One should expect the leadership of Al Qaeda and Taliban, taken out of Kunduz, will he low for same time before they start to regroup in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are also believed to have slipped into Pakistan. Gen. Musharraf’s crackdown on the terrorist units has only been perfunctory. When more than 2 lakh of Lashkar-e-Taiba cadres assembled at Muridke for their annual function, arresting just a few hundred will not make much of a dent. These terrorists would be encouraged by the ease with which Gen. Musharraf could con the Americans to airlift out of Kunduz the hardcore Taliban and Al Qaeda cadres and the Pakistani armymen and ISI officials, most committed to the Taliban and Al Qaeda cause.
It was fortunate for the world that Hitler’s mistaken assumptions allowed the British expeditionary force to escape from Dunkirk. Will history record that the American decision to permit Pakistani airlift out of Kunduz was equally helpful to the war on terrorism?
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India protests airlift of Pak fighters from Kunduz, fears they will enter Kashmir
24 January 2002
The Indian Express
New York: India has protested to the US and Britain over Pakistan''s airlifting of its nationals and Taliban fighters after they were cornered in Kunduz during American action in Afghanistan, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra was quoted as saying. Diplomatic notes protesting the airlift were sent to Britain and the United States. Neither responded, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh quoted Mishra as saying in an article in New Yorker magazine (Read story). Mishra said that 5,000 Pakistanis and Taliban were airlifted by Pakistan after the fall of Kunduz, describing it as ''a ballpark figure''. Mishra was quoted as saying that the Indian intelligence was convinced that many of the airlifted fighters would soon infiltrate into Kashmir. There was a precedent for this. In the past, Pakistan''s ISI had trained fighters in Afghanistan and then funnelled them into Kashmir. Referring to the December 13 Parliament attack, which took place three weeks after the airlift, Mishra said if it had resulted in a more significant number of casualties ''there would have been mayhem''. ''Nobody in India wants war, but other options are not ruled out,'' Mishra said. The article quotes one of India''s ''most senior intelligence officials'' as saying Pakistan President Pervez ''Musharraf can''t afford to keep the Taliban in Pakistan. They''re dangerous to his own regime. Our reading is the fighters can go only to Kashmir.'' The US had denied reports of the airlift but the article quotes its intelligence and military officials as saying they indeed took place at musharraf''s instance. The article says operatives in RAW reported extensively on the Pakistani airlift out of Kunduz. RAW, it says, has excellent access to the Northern Alliance and a highly sophisticated ability to intercept electronic communications. An Indian military adviser was quoted as saying that when the airlift began ''we knew within minutes''. In interviews in New Delhi, Indian National Security and Intelligence officials, it adds, repeatedly declared that the airlift had rescued not only members of the Pakistani military but its citizens who had volunteered to fight against the Northern Alliance, as well as non-Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda. The article quotes RAW''s Senior Analyst for Pakistani and Afghan Issues as saying the most extensive rescue efforts took place on three nights at the time of the fall of Kunduz. Indian intelligence had concluded that 8,000 or more men were trapped inside the city in the last days of the siege, roughly half of whom were Pakistanis (Afghans, Uzbeks, Chechens, and various Arab mercenaries made up the rest). At least five flights were specifically ''confirmed'' by India''s informants, the RAW analyst said, and many more were believed to have taken place. In India''s assessment, the article says, 33,00 prisoners surrendered to a Northern Alliance tribal faction headed by Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum. A few hundred Taliban were also turned over to other tribal leaders. That Left between 4,000-5,000 men unaccounted for. ''Where are the balance?'' the intelligence officer asked, according to the article. The article quotes the officials as saying two Pakistani army generals were on the flights. ''None of the American intelligence officials I spoke with were able to say with certainty how many Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were flown to safety, or may have escaped from Kunduz by other means,'' the writer says. India, ''wary of antagonising the Bush administration'' chose not to denounce the airlift at the time. But there was a great deal of anger within the Indian government. ''We had all the information, but we did not go public,'' the Indian military adviser was quoted as saying. ''Why should we embarrass you? We should be sensible.'' A RAW official, according to the article, said India had intelligence that Musharraf''s message to the Americans had been that he didn''t want to see body bags coming back to Pakistan. ''Musharraf has not done as much as the Indians want,'' a Bush administration official who is involved in South Asian issues said. ''But he''s done more than I''d thought he''d do. He had to do some thing, because the Indians are so wound up.'' The official also said, however, that Musharraf could not last in office if he conceded the issue of Kashmir to India and would not want to do so in any case. ''He is not a fundamentalist but a Pakistani nationalist; he genuinely believes that Kashmir ''should be ours.'' at the end of the day, Musharraf would come out ahead if he could get rid of the Pakistani and Kashmiri terrorists; if he can survive it. They have eaten the vitals out of Pakistan.''
jammu-kashmir.com
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Kunduz falls:
"Kunduz residents said that during the past three nights there was intense air activity at the airport. They believe Pakistani aircraft had evacuated trapped foreign fighters."
news.bbc.co.uk |
