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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carolyn who wrote (3950)	9/19/2001 5:21:23 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 23908

Masood and the CIA --or how the pupil surpassed (and screwed?) the master: Central Asia in international relations New York Times, July 27, 1998 Russians Are Back in Afghanistan, Aiding Rebels James Risen In February 1989, the last Soviet troops wearily crossed the Amu Darya River bridge out of Afghanistan, a defeated army walking home to an empire on the verge of disintegration. Now, nearly a decade later, the Russians are back, secretly engaged in the new Afghan war, according to U.S. and foreign officials. This time, though, the Russians are after oil, as well as protection of their borders. In what senior U.S. officials believe may be part of a larger Russian strategy to reassert influence over Central Asia and its vast oil reserves, Moscow has begun to play a major supporting role on the side of a rebel coalition fighting a civil war against the Taliban, the militant Islamic group that controls most of the country. While it has not committed troops to a country where at least 13,000 of its soldiers died during a nine-year occupation, Russia is supplying heavy weapons, training and logistical support to the Northern Alliance, the rebel group that is hanging on to the mountainous northern tier of Afghanistan. The Russians find themselves in loose collaboration with Iran in countering the growing power of the Taliban. U.S. officials and other experts say Iran is now supplying even more arms, fuel and other resources to the anti-Taliban rebels than is Russia. Squared off against Russia and Iran in this post-Cold-War confrontation are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, both of which are backing the Taliban. And in a land of constantly shifting and often murderous alliances, the Russians are supporting rebel factions controlled by former leaders of the Afghan mujahedeen, the Islamic guerrillas who fought the Soviet Army in the 1980s with the backing of the CIA. A prime beneficiary of Russian support is the rebel group led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was once one of the most aggressive and effective mujahedeen figures in the CIA's covert program against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The irony of the situation has not been lost on Massoud's one-time U.S. backers. "Massoud was the pointed end of the stick, the man we went to when we really wanted something done against the Russians," a U.S. intelligence official said. [...] Moscow denies that it is arming the Afghan rebels, and Massoud has said in interviews that he receives much of his equipment from the Russian mafia, not the Russian government. U.S. officials believe the rebels do acquire equipment on the international arms market, but are still convinced that both the Russian and Iranian governments are directly involved. [snip] inic.utexas.edu TIME FOR THE FBI TO CRACK DOWN ON THE RUSSIAN MAFIYA!! HURRY UP YOU SLOUCHES!