Big news is Mullah Omar. We've also got a direct statement in hand -- an outline for ending the Afghan War. It bears analysis in light of Binladen's death. He was our guy in Afghanistan and was as surprised as anyone at 9/11.
On the personal interest side, Lindh's father has an op-ed piece in the NY Times today. With Binladen dead, he begs for release of his son.
Bin Laden’s Gone. Can My Son Come Home?
But there's a lot more to this than a kid converting to Islam and trotting off to exotic Afghanistan. Turns out he was fighting for America. He was captured:
1. Unarmed
2. Already wounded from action against the Northern Drug Alliance
3. Barely survived a massacre
4. Taken off for abuse and mistreatment bordering torture
What does not come out in this Op-Ed is that John Walker Lindh was a low-pay mercenary, working on the payroll as part of the Good Old U.S.-of-A. War on Drugs.
This guy is doing 20 years for being an embarrassment. About time to release Lindh and make the call to Mullah Omar ???:::
The Taliban annihilated 90% of the poppy business in Afghanistan. After the Pakistani Army conducted a full scale war in 1997-1999, poppy production drifted north. Estimates from the United Nations put the value of this drug trade at $80-billion a year by 1999. But by then the Taliban had gone to war and poppy-growing tribes and their warlords either stopped the trade or had an army of 10,000 arrive on their territory.
John Walker Lindh joined that army.
Like Ernest Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War, John had volunteered for the army of a foreign government battling an insurgency. He thought he could help protect Afghan civilians against brutal attacks by the Northern Alliance warlords seeking to overthrow the Taliban government. His decision was rash and blindly idealistic, but not sinister or traitorous. He was 20 years old.
Before 9/11, the Bush administration was not hostile to the Taliban; barely four months before the attacks it gave $43 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. There was nothing treasonous in John’s volunteering for the Afghan Army in the spring of 2001. He had no involvement with terrorism.
-- Frank Lindh
Frank is being tactful. These "Northern Alliance" warlords were the remnants of the poppy trade. All they were trying to do was extract poppy oil, convert it to heroin, and sell it worldwide.
Mullah Omar had taken over the field army from Binladen and was using this army to eliminate the Northern (Drug) Alliance. George Bush continued the Clinton support for this effort including $55 million in 2001. A good summary of the situation is here.
UPI Exclusive: Osama bin Laden - 'Null and Void'
"We're still fighting a war," he says impatiently, referring to Ahmed Shah Masud's guerrilla forces that still hold 10 percent of Afghan territory in the northeastern part of the country. ...
Omar made clear to UPI that the Taliban regime would like to "resolve or dissolve" the bin Laden issue. In return, he expects the United States to establish a dialogue to work out an acceptable solution that would lead to "an easing and then lifting of U.N. sanctions that are strangling and killing the people of the Emirate."
The two issues are linked, both in Washington and in Kandahar. (Kabul is the official capital; Kandahar, a sprawling, dust-choked city of 750,000, is the country's religious capital where Omar and his 10-man ruling Shura (council) has their headquarters.)
According to U.S. intelligence reports, bin Laden has issued instructions, which his followers have described as fatwas. But Omar said, "Only muftis can issue fatwas." Bin Laden "is not a mufti and therefore any fatwas he may have issued are illegal and null and void."
Further, from Mullah Omar in 2001:
Afghanistan, according to the amir, has suggested to the United States (via the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan) and to the United Nations that international "monitors" keep bin Laden under observation pending a resolution of the case, "but so far we have received no reply."
Hashimi, in flawless English, added, "We also notified the United States we were putting bin Laden on trial last September [of 2000] for his alleged crimes and requested that relevant evidence be presented. The court sat for 30 days without any evidence being presented against him. It then extended its hearing for another 10 days to give the U.S. side time to act. [With Binladen in custody at a house in Kandahar during both periods.]
Omar said the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which the U.S. says bin Laden ordered, are "criminal acts and the perpetrators are criminals and should be so judged."
This kid Lindh was a foot soldier in our War on Drugs. Nothing more, nothing less.
The fact is, George Bush switched sides in that war after 9/11. The Heroin Biz was given a 4 year free rein to grow poppies and fly out the oil or processed heroin. In return the Alliance set up a deal with the Durranni tribe, big producers, and got to run Afghanistan. The Karzai brothers made hundreds of millions off that deal.
Today, Obama unleashed aerial spraying with poppy blight fungus, plus bringing in dogs to locate the heroin processing shops. "Heroin Drought" is the norm for EU and the most of Russia and Eastern Europe. (Maybe that'll cut back on spread of AIDS.)
Lindh was a low-pay merc. He worked for America. He was fighting an American war on the American-financed side of it.
Helluvan embarrassment. Bush and his wannabes panicked after 9/11 and gave it up to the Heroin Biz gangsters. Anybody looks closely at the Lindh case, similar to Tora Bora, you'll see what a useless coward we had for president 2001-2009.
Mullah Omar makes peace proposal in 2010
Washington Times is not where you'd first think to look for a serious international communication.
Not unless you'd followed Arnaud de Borchgrave and his connection with Mullah Omar over the last decade. From his article:
...Bin Laden, for his part, swore on the Koran he had nothing to do with the terrorist bombings in Kenya, Tanzania and Aden and that he isn’t responsible for what others do who claim to know him.
All our interlocutors kept telling us “the Koran forbids the taking of the lives of women, children and old people in strife, conflict and war.” Mullah Omar said the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which the United States says bin Laden ordered, are “criminal acts and the perpetrators are criminals and should be so judged.”
It would be interesting to know whether President Obama ever read what Mullah Omar had to say three months before Sept. 11. In his interview with Mr. Zakaria on Sunday, it became clear Mr. Holbrooke hadn’t. Unknown, too, is the Saudi link with Mullah Omar.
Mr. Holbrooke, the diplomatic magician who engineered the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, ending the Bosnia war, knows from personal experience nothing was possible without the hated Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. This time, exchange Dayton for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the late Milosevic for Mullah Omar. Add Pakistan and remove Afghan President Hamid Karzai. And you may get a peace deal that would enable 44 nations involved in Afghanistan to go home.
This was a direct message to this reporter from Mullah Omar.
-- Arnaud de Borchgrave
October 26, 2010
Afghan Peace Solution
Of course, Richard Holbrooke passed on December 13, 2010, shortly after this was published. Hopefully someone can pick up the ball.
Of course, they have to read some obscure things first. Learn recent Afghan history going back to the war with Russia. At least know who the seven groups were, who cooperated for that fight. Do a little more than skimming "Charlie's War" for their wisdom.
Following de Borchgrave over the years is not bad.
Want to end a war ??? Don't expect the work to be easy. At this point I'm not sure anybody wants to end this war. Not the American professionals, anyway.
I know my phone ain't going to ring and I got involved with that mess during the Russian war. Met the Taliban people who came over to meet with UNOCAL.
As soon as Rudy Giuliani said he wanted this kid Lindh executed and Rummy lied that he'd been armed with an AK-47, I knew that he'd been one of our mercs. We'd need to 'fess up that we abandoned our "War on Drugs" principles in 2001/2002 to reach truthfulness. And, just maybe, think seriously about the chances that 9/11, itself, was blowback from the "War on Drugs" instead of that "they hate our freedom" line of bull.
It is time to end it. Get on the horn and call the man.
That call will take somewhat more guts than killing Binladen.