Members of the Taliban in front of a #Christmas tree at the Texas home of UNOCAL’s Vice President in December 1997. UNOCAL [Union Oil Company of California] was acquired by Chevron in 2005. Taliban also made a stop in Washington DC. Thread:
Dec 8, 1997: "Acting Minister of Mines & Industry" Ahmad Jan, "Acting Minister of Information & Culture" Amir Khan Mottaqi & "Acting Minister of Planning" Din Mohammad (ethnic Tajik) meet with American diplomats Karl Inderfurth & Michael Malinowski.
Mottaqi asked to be friends..
U.S. diplomat Karl Inderfurth pushed back on women's education. Mottaqi "repeated, however, that the Taliban did not wish to stop female education. Inderfurth responded that we were extremely concerned about this point & declared that men & women should have equal opportunities..
Then on negotiating with Dostum.
Mottaqi agreed Taliban favored talks and sent important people but North responded with "low-level people without authority or creative ideas." Mottaqi brought up mass killing of Taliban in 1997.
Remember, UNOCAL pipeline needs the North too..
About the "UNOCAL Pipeline:
Acting Minister of Mines & Industry Ahmad Jan said the commencement of the project would give an incentive to the peace process and "Afghan Central Bank would guarantee investment." Diplomat Malinowski (now a Congressman) said there had to be peace.
Before American diplomat Inderfurth leaves for another meeting, Mottaqi asks for the U.S. Embassy to open in Kabul. [You are basically reading today's Taliban talking points, same thing is likely being said behind closed doors in Qatar]. Diplomat Malinowski takes over the meeting
On terrorism:
Mottaqi (now Min of Foreign Affairs) said Bin Laden & others damaged image of AFG
Din Mohammad (Min of Economy) said Bin Laden would go to Iran if expelled
Ahmad Jan (Haqqani Spiritual leader) said Taliban didn't invite Bin Laden, he was guest of previous regime
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Qala-i Jangi was the 1st battle of post 9/11 AFG war. Took place in "fort of war" outside Mazar-i Sharif & led to deaths of @CIA officer Mike Spann, dozs of Northern Alliance & ~300 Al-Qaeda fighters who'd staged fake surrender planned by Mullah Fazl. How did it happen? 1/25 - TH
Fazl (here w Noori) & Dostum had made deal on prisoners Nov. 21. CIA later found Dostum had received $500K from Fazl to ensure the latter safe passage. Present for deal was Amir Jan Naseri, fmr. Taliban who had switched sides to Dostum. Nature of deal murky to this day 2/25 - TH
Mullah Noori was present for talks but Mullah Dadullah stayed away. Dadullah later stayed at Naseri's home in Balkh. Fazl promised to deliver Taliban & Al-Qaeda fighters bloodlessly, setting up Dostum for position in new post-Taliban Afghan govt. 3/25- TH
21 years ago, the CIA’s Team Alpha linked up with Abdul Rashid Dostum, the ethnic Uzbek warlord and one of the most controversial figures in Afghanistan history. I interviewed Dostum in Sheberghan in Nov 2020 - last interview, I think, b4 Taliban takeover 1/48 - TH
So what did Team Alpha’s first impressions of Dostum. All this is drawn from my book First Casualty. It was clear to the CIA men that Dostum inspired unquestioning loyalty from his men, who viewed him with a combination of love, fear, and awe. 2/48 - TH
Noting his powerful frame and gruff demeanor, Team Alpha members nicknamed him Bluto, after the cartoon sailor and rival to Popeye. Loud, jovial, and impatient, Dostum was determined to launch a new push against Taliban, whose front lines were <1 mile away. 3/48 - TH
Here's @CIA Team Alpha at Karshi-Khanabad (K2) in Uzbekistan just b4 insertion into Afghanistan. They ranged in age from 29 to 49 - 2 spies, 4 paramilitaries, 1 medic & 1 soldier. 1 of them would not return. So who were these men & what was their mission in Afghanistan? 1/9 - TH
I've covered David Tyson & Scott Spellmeyer. Team Alpha chief was J.R. Seeger, @CIA case officer based in San Francisco on 9/11 liaising w @FBI. A Dari speaker, he had worked with Afghan mujahideen in 80s out of CIA's Islamabad station. Fmr. 82nd Airborne captain 2/9 - TH
Deputy chief of Team Alpha was Alex Hernandez of Special Activities Division. Fmr Sgt. Maj. aged 49, with a storied career in Special Forces. He'd been on scene in Somalia in Dec 1992 when CIA officer Larry Freedman was killed. 3/9 - TH
First Casualty book cover (& @AfghanHistorian profile pic for now) is Nov 27, 2001 at Qala-i Jangi. Show 1 of Dostum's commanders (who'd lost a leg in Soviet era) + @CIA's David Tyson & Scott Spellmeyer discussing battle against AQ fighters in the fort 1/4 - TH
David Tyson was an Uzbek linguist at CIA station in Tashkent. Deep specialist in Central Asia, former academic at Indiana Univ. On 9/11 he'd been flying to London to discuss Stinger missile retrieval. Had been in U.S. Army but limited military experience. 2/4 - TH
Scott Spellmeyer was CIA paramilitary & former US Army Ranger who'd been wounded Mogadishu 1993. No. 3 in Team Alpha, his role was to link up with Tajik leader Atta Mohammed Noor near Aq Kopruk. He later rose to become CIA station chief in Kabul 3/4 - TH
December 2001: “At around 11 a.m. one day in the first week of December, a group of about 300 armed Hazaras arrived at the remote Pashtun village of Bargah-e Afghani, located in the Chimtal district of Balkh province.” 1/?
“Just two days prior to the arrival of the Hazara fighters, the villagers of Bargah-e Afghani had handed over their firearms to Manzullah Khan, an Uzbek commander of Junbish, and in return had received a written confirmation from him that they had been disarmed.” 2/?
“Manzullah Khan had also placed twelve of his soldiers in the village after its population was disarmed, but the soldiers ran away when the Hazara fighters attacked the village.”
1980s: USID awarded $60m to Uni. of Nebraska at Omaha to produce children books for Afghan refugees in Pakistan
Pg1 “T” (te) of alphabet for topak (weapon) ex “My uncle has a weapon”
Pg2 “J” (jim) for jihad ex “Jihad is mandatory” “Jamil went to jihad” &“I too will go to jihad”
Books for Afghan refugee kids in PAK were also used in AFG by 1990s.
In 2014 NPR interview, Intel. Education Prof Dana Burde said “as part of war efforts [referring to Cold War]..the alphabet of jihad literacy tried to solidify the links between violence & religious obligation.”
March 2002: Uni of Nebraska was awarded another multimillion dollar grant to produce books for Afghan children
Pres Bush said 10 million books were being trucked into AFG that would teach “respect for human divinity, instead of indoctrinating students with fanaticism & bigotry.”