[iwar] [fc:Military.Proposes.a.'Roll-the-Dice'.Raid.Against.Taliban.Leadership]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-28 16:21:07
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 16:21:07 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Military.Proposes.a.'Roll-the-Dice'.Raid.Against.Taliban.Leadership]
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SOURCE: Newsweek

Rumsfeld Puts Pressure on Central Command to Come up With Creative War
Plans; Military Proposes a 'Roll-the-Dice' Raid Against Taliban Leadership

Pentagon Officials Say First U.S. Ranger Raid in Afghanistan Was Met With
Swift, Well-Organized Resistance

Former Reagan National Security Adviser Says Haq Was Not Backed by CIA

NEW YORK, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Under pressure from Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld to offer more creative war plans, Central Command -- the
Florida-based U.S. headquarters of the campaign against the Taliban -- has
proposed what one informed source characterized to Newsweek as a
``roll-the-dice'' raid against the Taliban leadership. Assuming that U.S.
special forces can find the Taliban leaders (no mean feat), the commandos
may be in for a tough fight. Pentagon officials tell Newsweek in the
November 5 issue that, contrary to earlier public reports, the initial
paratroops assault by U.S. Special Forces on October 21 met surprisingly
swift and well-organized resistance.

And the obstacles to capturing Taliban leaders or Osama bin Laden are
daunting, report Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas and Beijing Bureau
Chief Melinda Liu in the current issue (on newsstands Monday, October 29).
The military must contend with the fast-approaching Afghan winter, rugged
mine-strewn battlefields, and the near impossible task of waging all-out war
against Islamic extremists without offending Islamic sensitivities. But the
biggest trap may be dealing with Afghanistan's notoriously fickle warlords.

Buying an Afghan warlord requires a complicated courtship. Offering a bag
full of cash is deemed to be offensive. First must come much talking and
many cups of tea and promises of good works and, most important, some kind
of job security, like a governorship. Yet, Gen. Hamid Gul, the retired chief
of the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, offers a more nuanced rule
of thumb: ``They say you can always rent an Afghan. But you can never be
sure you own them.''

The agency in charge of lining up the right warlords is the CIA. In an
interview with Newsweek last week, Robert C. McFarlane, the Reagan
Administration national security adviser, said the CIA ``has failed
miserably. There's an appalling lack of intelligence skills. I haven't yet
found one Dari speaker in the agency -- or anyone who speaks any other
Afghan dialect, for that matter. Or any analyst with real knowledge of
Afghanistan's history, its tribal cultures, the networks that exists here.''

But American officials are wary of former Afghanistan chieftains who
suddenly appear offering to produce miracles, for a price. Just a month ago,
a former Afghan commander, Haji Zaman Ghamshirik, returned from exile in
France and opened a guest house in Peshawar, Pakistan. He recently offered
to play Let's Make a Deal with U.S. officials. ``He phoned at 9:50 one night
saying he could deliver Osama bin Laden and bring down the Taliban,'' a
knowledgeable foreign diplomat tells Newsweek. ``He just wanted a guarantee
that he would get the $5 million reward, a satellite phone, and the
governorship of Nangarhar Province.''

Newsweek also reports a denial that Abdul Haq, the scion of an Afghan ruling
class family who was killed by the Taliban last week, was not sent into
Afghanistan as a bagman for the CIA. McFarlane, who was acting as a kind of
informal adviser to Haq, says he was not backed by the agency and that the
CIA turned down Haq's requests for weapons, helicopter airlift, and a field
radio. The agency did offer to provide the old rebel leader with a satellite
phone, but Haq dismissively replied that he already owned several. U.S.
government sources say the CIA was wary of Haq, considering him a maverick
and a bit of a self-promoter. Later, when Haq was surrounded by the Taliban,
McFarlane did appeal for a U.S. air mission to help him, but it arrived too
late.

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