In 1933, Mohammed Zaher Shah became king and ruled in feudalistic fashion until he was deposed in 1973 by Mohd Daoud. A few families including the Karzais (Hamid Karzai is former Afghan President) and the Kalilzidads (Zalmay Kalilzidad is US Ambassador to Afghanistan) owned nearly all arable land, while most Afghans languished in poverty.
In 1978, King Daoud was killed in a revolution led by Nor Mohammed Taraki, who became President. Taraki made land reforms to help poor Afghan sharecroppers. He built schools for women, who were banned from education under the monarchy. He opened universities to the poor and introduced free health care.
When counter-revolutionaries burned down universities and schools, Afghans saw the hand of the CIA while US officials met with Afghan warlords bent on overthrowing Taraki.
As the sabotage intensified, Kabul called on Soviet leader Leonid Brezynev to send troops to help, Brezynev refused.
Pro-Taraki militants, convinced of a CIA plot, assassinated CIA Kabul Chief of Station Spike Dubbs. President Jimmy Carter then authorized secret aid to Afghan warlords. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski said he had convinced Carter that, “…this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.” Brzezinski, who co-founded the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, was baiting the Soviets to invade.
Taraki appointed Tabizullah Amin as cabinet minister in charge of land reform. Amin launched a brutal campaign of terror against political opponents, turning world opinion against Taraki. Former KGB Chief Yuri Andropov believed Amin was an agent working with the CIA to discredit its progressive agenda.
Taraki travelled to Moscow to consult with the Soviets on how to get rid of Amin. When he returned to Kabul, he was executed and Amin seized power and CIA-backed warlords massacred Afghan government officials in Herat. These events forced Brezynev’s hand.
In 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the Panshir Valley, while KGB operatives stormed the Royal Palace in Kabul. They assassinated Tabizullah Amin and installed Babrak Karmal as the new leader. Brzezinski now had the justification to arm counter-revolutionaries in Afghanistan.
Though Afghan conflict killed 2 million people, Brzezinski boasted, “Carter’s secret directive was an excellent idea, drawing Russians into the Afghan trap.”
CIA agents streamed into Peshawar, Pakistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees entered Peshawar to escape the war. With help from the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), the CIA scoured the refugee camps looking for Islamic fundamentalist assassins to intensify the guerilla war on Kabul and repel the Soviets.
It found what it needed in Hezbi-i Isbmi, feudal-minded Islamist fighters trained by Pakistani military with CIA oversight. Their leader was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who later took Kabul in a coup in 1996, then handed it to the Taliban.
In 1972, Hezbi-i Isbmi murdered hundreds of students in Afghanistan then fled to Peshawar, where they escaped prosecution. The group was hated by Afghans and Pakistanis, who viewed them as terrorists.
Pakistan’s dictator Zia ul-Huq allowed the CIA to use Pakistani military bases for reconnaissance over Afghanistan. These same bases were used to train Hekmatyar’s troops, whom Reagan would refer to as the mujahadeen.
Pakistan became the 3rd largest recipient of US military aid. Much of that aid went to the mujahadeen who raided Afghanistan, seizing land and planting poppies. Between 1982-83 opium harvests along the Afghan/Pakistani border doubled and by 1984, Pakistan was exporting 70% of the world’s heroin.
While Hekmatyar’s troops planted poppies, another mujahadeen leader, Sayed Ahmed Gailani's drug smuggling was underwritten by the Saudis. But Hekmatyar and Gailani were merely following Vang Pao, Phoumi Nosavan and Khun Sa, the CIA’s heroin warlords of the Golden Triangle.
In the 1980’s, senior US officials stated that, “key Hekmatyar commanders close run heroin laboratories and heroin operations”. In 1985, the Pakistan Herald reported that trucks belonging to the Pakistan Army transported arms from Karachi to Peshawar for the CIA, and the same trucks returned to Karachi, loaded with heroin.
2 high-ranking Pakistani military officers were caught with 220 kilos of heroin, but were never prosecuted. Golden Crescent heroin captured 60% of the US market and bricks of hashish appeared in US cities stamped with a logo of two crossed AK-47 assault rifles circled by the words, “Smoke Out the Soviets”. From 1982-92, the period of US involvement in Afghanistan, heroin addiction in the US rose by 50%.
In 1978, King Daoud was killed in a revolution led by Nor Mohammed Taraki, who became President. Taraki made land reforms to help poor Afghan sharecroppers. He built schools for women, who were banned from education under the monarchy. He opened universities to the poor and introduced free health care.
When counter-revolutionaries burned down universities and schools, Afghans saw the hand of the CIA while US officials met with Afghan warlords bent on overthrowing Taraki.
As the sabotage intensified, Kabul called on Soviet leader Leonid Brezynev to send troops to help, Brezynev refused.
Pro-Taraki militants, convinced of a CIA plot, assassinated CIA Kabul Chief of Station Spike Dubbs. President Jimmy Carter then authorized secret aid to Afghan warlords. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski said he had convinced Carter that, “…this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.” Brzezinski, who co-founded the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, was baiting the Soviets to invade.
Taraki appointed Tabizullah Amin as cabinet minister in charge of land reform. Amin launched a brutal campaign of terror against political opponents, turning world opinion against Taraki. Former KGB Chief Yuri Andropov believed Amin was an agent working with the CIA to discredit its progressive agenda.
Taraki travelled to Moscow to consult with the Soviets on how to get rid of Amin. When he returned to Kabul, he was executed and Amin seized power and CIA-backed warlords massacred Afghan government officials in Herat. These events forced Brezynev’s hand.
In 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the Panshir Valley, while KGB operatives stormed the Royal Palace in Kabul. They assassinated Tabizullah Amin and installed Babrak Karmal as the new leader. Brzezinski now had the justification to arm counter-revolutionaries in Afghanistan.
Though Afghan conflict killed 2 million people, Brzezinski boasted, “Carter’s secret directive was an excellent idea, drawing Russians into the Afghan trap.”
CIA agents streamed into Peshawar, Pakistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees entered Peshawar to escape the war. With help from the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), the CIA scoured the refugee camps looking for Islamic fundamentalist assassins to intensify the guerilla war on Kabul and repel the Soviets.
It found what it needed in Hezbi-i Isbmi, feudal-minded Islamist fighters trained by Pakistani military with CIA oversight. Their leader was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who later took Kabul in a coup in 1996, then handed it to the Taliban.
In 1972, Hezbi-i Isbmi murdered hundreds of students in Afghanistan then fled to Peshawar, where they escaped prosecution. The group was hated by Afghans and Pakistanis, who viewed them as terrorists.
Pakistan’s dictator Zia ul-Huq allowed the CIA to use Pakistani military bases for reconnaissance over Afghanistan. These same bases were used to train Hekmatyar’s troops, whom Reagan would refer to as the mujahadeen.
Pakistan became the 3rd largest recipient of US military aid. Much of that aid went to the mujahadeen who raided Afghanistan, seizing land and planting poppies. Between 1982-83 opium harvests along the Afghan/Pakistani border doubled and by 1984, Pakistan was exporting 70% of the world’s heroin.
While Hekmatyar’s troops planted poppies, another mujahadeen leader, Sayed Ahmed Gailani's drug smuggling was underwritten by the Saudis. But Hekmatyar and Gailani were merely following Vang Pao, Phoumi Nosavan and Khun Sa, the CIA’s heroin warlords of the Golden Triangle.
In the 1980’s, senior US officials stated that, “key Hekmatyar commanders close run heroin laboratories and heroin operations”. In 1985, the Pakistan Herald reported that trucks belonging to the Pakistan Army transported arms from Karachi to Peshawar for the CIA, and the same trucks returned to Karachi, loaded with heroin.
2 high-ranking Pakistani military officers were caught with 220 kilos of heroin, but were never prosecuted. Golden Crescent heroin captured 60% of the US market and bricks of hashish appeared in US cities stamped with a logo of two crossed AK-47 assault rifles circled by the words, “Smoke Out the Soviets”. From 1982-92, the period of US involvement in Afghanistan, heroin addiction in the US rose by 50%.
