National Security Archive Update, March 19,
2004
The Taliban File Part III
Pakistan Provided Millions of
Dollars, Arms,
and "Buses Full of Adolescent Mujahid"
to the Taliban in
the 1990's
For more information contact
Sajit Gandhi - [log in to unmask]
202/994-7239
http://www.nsarchive.org
Washington,
D.C. - Pakistan provided millions of dollars,
arms, and "buses full of
adolescent mujahid," to the
Taliban in the 1990's, according to declassified
State
Department documents obtained by the National Security
Archive under
the Freedom of Information Act, and posted
today on the Web.
This
third installment of The Taliban File, edited by
Archive research associate
Sajit Gandhi, includes:
* An August 27, 1997 cable in which U.S.
Ambassador to
Pakistan Thomas Simons comments on Pakistan's claim
that its
total aid to the Taliban through the end of
1996 had been only 20 million
rupees (approximately
one-half million dollars). Simons notes that this
amount
"did not include access to Pak wheat and POL, or the
trucks and
buses full of adolescent mujahid crossing the
frontier shouting 'Allahu
Akbar,' and going into the
line with a day or two of weapons training."
"That,"
Simons' noted, "was Pakistan's real aid."
* An October 30,
1997 United Nations cable in which former
United Nations Special Mission for
Afghanistan (UNSMA)
charge Norbert Hull candidly discusses his meetings
with
Pakistan Foreign Ministry official Iftikhar Murshed.
Murshed
indicated to Hull that Pakistani Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif "bluntly
demanded that the Taliban make a
gesture of goodwill," despite Mullah
Rabbani's claim that
Afghan interim President Barnahuddin Rabbani
was
politically irrelevant.
* A March 9, 1998 cable on a meeting
between the U.S.
Deputy Chief of Mission Alan Eastham and a source
who
appears to be Pakistan Foreign Ministry official Iftikhar
Murshed, who
for the first time admitted that Pakistan
provided arms supplies to the
Taliban.
* A July 1, 1998 cable indicating that the Pakistani
Prime
Minister had recently signed off on a 300 million
rupee
(approximately 6.5 million dollars) payment to Taliban
officials and
military commanders, despite the potential
that Pakistan - due to sanctions
imposed after its May 1998
nuclear tests - could potentially default on its
own
international loans.
* A July 2, 1998 cable that not only confirms
the planned
Pakistani 300 million rupee (approximately 6.5
million
dollars) payment, but also indicates that even though
certain
Taliban officials thought it might be easier to
"force bin Laden out" of
Afghanistan rather than trying to
control him, Supreme Taliban leader Mullah
Omar's commitment
to Osama bin Laden (UBL) precluded this from
happening.
This cable also shows U.S. concern over repressive
Taliban
edicts discriminating against women.
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