"The botched mission of Hollywood Haq"
by CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 2:22am Sun Oct 28 '01
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"He radios for help. The CIA fails in a half-hearted attempt to rescue him. He is executed. There's confusion and finger pointing in Washington over a botched mission."

"With no successes to show for in this war, Washington is finding it hard to staunch critical opinion that is beginning to surface."
The Times of India – 28 October 2001-10-28

'The botched mission of Hollywood Haq'
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA TIMES NEWS NETWORK

ASHINGTON: It is a scene straight out of Tom Clancy and Harrison Ford's Clear and Present Danger. US intelligence agencies back a covert operation in Afghanistan. The operative is betrayed and is ambushed in Taliban territory. He radios for help. The CIA fails in a half-hearted attempt to rescue him. He is executed. There's confusion and finger pointing in Washington over a botched mission.

The death of Peshawar-based Afghan leader Abdul Haq on Thursday at the hands of the Taliban had all the trappings of the pulp fiction-turned-film. A much-romanticised former mujahideen fighter nicknamed Hollywood Haq for his adventurous past, the Pashtun leader went into Afghanistan last weekend in a bid to stir up an uprising against the Taliban.

Haq's 19-member lightly armed expedition was reportedly financed by wealthy American brothers James and Joe Ritchie, both based in Pakistan and having US intelligence connections. But the CIA and other western agencies apparently declined to provide Haq with the arms and air support he asked for his mission. They offered him satellite telephones, which he already had. He turned down the offer suspecting they wanted to tap into his conversations.

So he set off on a horse or a mule - he had lost a foot during the anti-Soviet war - with a group of camp followers armed with only a few rifles, phones and lots of dollars. Four days later, he found himself trapped on a steep mountain road, with the Taliban in front of him and the Taliban behind. He may have been betrayed.

According to reports in the US media, including two separate accounts in the New York Times, he had to shake off Pakistani intelligence operatives before he left for Afghanistan. One version has it that the Taliban spy network knew his every movement from the time he left Peshawar. The other has it that he was exposed by Afghan villagers who ratted to the Taliban.

In any case, he desperately rang his nephew in Peshawar for help. The nephew called the Ritchies, who are originally businessmen from Illinois with long time Afghan and Pakistan connections. The Ritchies, in turn, contacted their friend Robert McFarlane, a former National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration, a cold warrior and a long time Pakistan supporter. McFarlane tapped into his contacts at the CIA. (Another version has it that the Ritchies contacted the Pakistanis, who contacted McFarlane, who rang the CIA).

The CIA quickly alerted the US CentCom, which is conducting the operations in Afghanistan, with the coordinates Haq had dictated over the satellite phone. Bombings were ordered using unmanned Predator drones to disperse the Taliban and try and secure a safe passage for Haq. But the Taliban militia was already on him.

Some hours later, Haq's nephew's phone rang again.
Only this time it was the Taliban. They had cornered and executed Haq. Some reports said he had been shot. Others said he had been hanged.

Judging by what the Taliban did to former President Najibullah, they might have first shot him and them hanged him or vice versa.The Taliban were not done yet though. The next morning they announced they had executed five other men from Haq's group, including his nephew.

They also said they were looking for an American who was in the group, and gave his name as "Jamber Jihi" - which sounded a bit like Ritchie, though neither of the Ritchie brothers is believed to have accompanied the mission. In Washington, the abortive mission to subvert the Pashtun support for Taliban left officials and analysts crushed. In fact, the Bush administration almost completely disowned the operation, suggesting that it was a personal enterprise. The State Department however acknowledge it may have been in touch with Haq, but said to describe any rescue mission as a bungled operation would be "wildly speculative."

Already, the administration has been spinning for all it is worth to staunch speculation that its first incursion with ground forces last week was also botched, and that US forces fled when confronted by the Taliban. With no successes to show for in this war, Washington is finding it hard to staunch critical opinion that is beginning to surface.

For the Taliban, this would be second major hit against Afghan forces arrayed against it after the assassination on September 9 of Ahmed Shah Massoud, though Haq was never in the same league as the man named Lion of Pansher Valley.

Several accounts from Pakistan over the past few months indicated Haq was a bombastic publicity hound with little ground support.

But reports from Afghanistan say the Taliban celebrated Haq's hanging by firing in the air in an apparent bid to demonstrate to the Americans that they are still strong in resolve. Almost three weeks into the war, it is the Americans who are beginning to look weary and frustrated.

 http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1473799702


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"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them."
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)


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