Descent Into Chaos Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  GLOSSARY

  INTRODUCTION

  PART ONE - 9/11 AND WAR

  CHAPTER ONE - A Man with a Mission The Unending Conflict in Afghanistan

  CHAPTER TWO - “The U.S. Will Act Like a Wounded Bear” Pakistan’s Long Search ...

  CHAPTER THREE - The Chief Executive’s Schizophrenia Pakistan, the United ...

  CHAPTER FOUR - Attack! Retaliation and Invasion

  CHAPTER FIVE - The Search for a Settlement Afghanistan and Pakistan at Odds

  PART TWO - THE POLITICS OF THE POST-9/11 WORLD

  CHAPTER SIX - A Nuclear State of Mind India, Pakistan, and the War of ...

  CHAPTER SEVEN - The One-Billion-Dollar Warlords The War Within Afghanistan

  CHAPTER EIGHT - Musharraf’s Lost Moment Political Expediency and Authoritarian Rule

  PART THREE - THE FAILURE OF NATION BUILDING

  CHAPTER NINE - Afghanistan I Economic Reconstruction

  CHAPTER TEN - Afghanistan II Rebuilding Security

  CHAPTER ELEVEN - Double-Dealing with Islamic Extremism Al Qaeda and the ...

  CHAPTER TWELVE - Taliban Resurgent The Taliban Return Home

  PART FOUR - DESCENT INTO CHAOS

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Al Qaeda’s Bolt-Hole Pakistan’s Tribal Areas

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - America Shows the Way The Disappeared and the Rendered

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Drugs and Thugs Opium Fuels the Insurgency

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Who Lost Uzbekistan? Tyranny in Central Asia

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - The Taliban Offensive Battling for Control of Afghanistan, 2006-2007

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - Conclusion The Death of an Icon and a Fragile Future

  Acknowledgements

  NOTES

  SUGGESTED READING

  INDEX

  ALSO BY AHMED RASHID

  THE RESURGENCE OF CENTRAL ASIA

  Islam or Nationalism?

  TALIBAN

  Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

  JIHAD

  The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

  VIKING

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  First published in 2008 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © Ahmed Rashid, 2008

  All rights reserved

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Rashid, Ahmed.

  Descent into Chaos : the United States and the failure of nation building in Pakistan,

  Afghanistan, and Central Asia / Ahmed Rashid.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  eISBN : 978-1-4406-3104-7

  1. Afghanistan—Politics and government—2001- 2. Pakistan—Politics and government—1988-

  3. South Asia—Relations—United States. 4. United States—Relations—South Asia. I. Title.

  DS371.4.R37 2008

  954.05’3—dc22 2008002949

  • Set in Granjon

  Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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  This book is dedicated to my children

  Rafael and Saara

  and to their friends Mohammed, Ameera, Emile, Sasha, Mehvish, Graham,

  Naveen, Arooj, Taimur, Mamdot, Rachel, Lucy, Shabaz, Charley, Zoha,

  Sarah, Amar, Jamal, Dona, and many more.

  May you build nations.

  And in loving memory of Begum Qamar F. R. Khan.

  If the Central Asian Society exists and is meeting in fifty or a hundred years hence, Afghanistan will be as vital and important a question as it is now.

  —Lord Curzon, speaking at the annual dinner of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1908

  Go massive—sweep it all up, things related and not.

  —U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to his aides on September 11, 2001, after the Pentagon was attacked

  GLOSSARY

  Abdali, Ahmad Shah—King and founder of modern Afghanistan in 1747.

  Abu Ghraib—Prison in Iraq where U.S. soldiers carried out torture and abuses.

  Afghan Militia Force (AMF)—Tribal mercenaries hired by the CIA and U.S. forces to help guard the border with Pakistan.

  Ahmad, Mehmood—General and director-general of ISI from 1999 until October 2001.

  Akayev, Askar—President of Kyrgyzstan, 1991-2006.

  Albright, Madeleine—U.S. secretary of state, 1997-2001.

  Al Qaeda—Islamic terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden.

  Amin, Hafizullah—Second president of Afghanistan from the Khalq Party, killed by Soviet invaders in December 1979.

  Andijan—Town in the Ferghana Valley, in Uzbekistan, where 800 to 1,200 people were killed in May 2005.

  Awami National Party—Moderate and secular Pashtun nationalist party in the North-West Frontier Province, which did well in the 2008 elections.

  Azhar, Maulana Masud—Leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani extremist group allied to al Qaeda and backed by the ISI; set up in 2000.

  Babar, Naseerullah—Lieutenant-general and Pakistan’s interior minister who helped launch the Taliban in 1994.

  Bagram—Large U.S. military base outside Kabul where Afghan prisoners are also held.

  Bakiyev, Kurmanbek—President of Kyrgyzstan, 2006- .

  Balochistan—Province of Pakistan.

  Barno, David—Lieutenant-general, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, 2003-2005.

  Berdymukhamedow, Gurbanguly—President of Turkmenistan, 2006- .

  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—Major political party in India.

  Bhutto, Benazir—Leader of Pakistan Peoples Party and twice prime minister of Pakistan; assassinated in December 2007.

  Bin al-Shibh, Ramzi—Planner of 9/11 and a leader of the Hamburg cell; captured in Karachi in 2002.

  Bin Laden, Osama—Leader of al Qaeda.

  Blair, Tony—British prime minister, 1997-2007.

  Brigade 555—Brigade of Arabs an
d North Africans, led and funded by al Qaeda; used by bin Laden to strengthen Taliban front lines against Ahmad Shah Masud during the Afghanistan civil war.

  Chemonics International—U.S. consulting firm based in Washington; contracted by USAID to help in counter-narcotics programs.

  Dadullah, Mullah—Taliban commander and, after 2003, in charge of Taliban operations in southern Afghanistan until he was killed in 2007.

  Daud, Mohammed—President of Afghanistan, 1973-1978; killed during the Afghan communist coup.

  Daud, Sardar Mohammed—Governor of Helmand who replaced Sher Mohammed Akhunzada in 2006.

  Dobbins, James—Former U.S. ambassador to the Afghan Northern Alliance.

  Dostum, Rashid—General and the Uzbek anti-Taliban commander from northern Afghanistan.

  Durand Line—Border dividing Pakistani and Afghan Pashtun tribes; demarcated by Sir Mortimer Durand in 1893 but which the Afghans do not recognize.

  Durrani—One of the two major sections of the Pashtun tribes, the other being Ghilzai.

  DynCorp International—U.S. contracting firm hired to train Afghan army and police.

  Ecevit, Bülent—Former prime minister of Turkey.

  Eikenberry, Karl W.—Lieutenant-general and commander of U.S.-led Coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan, 2006; in 2002, head of the Office of Military Cooperation in the American embassy, Kabul.

  Fahim, Mohammed—General and successor to Ahmad Shah Masud as leader of the Panjsheri Tajiks and the Northern Alliance; later defense minister in President Karzai’s government.

  Fallon, William—Became chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in January 2007; resigned in March 2008 after differences with President Bush.

  Farooqi, Amjad Hussain—A leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed who planned the two assassination attacks on Musharraf in December 2003.

  Fazlullah, Maulana—Head of extremist militants in the Swat Valley; fought against government forces in 2007. Commander in the Taliban movement in Pakistan famous for his broadcasts on illegal FM radio.

  Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)—Comprises the seven semiautonomous tribal agencies on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

  Ferghana Valley—A valley bordering Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, and a hotbed of Islamic radicalism in Central Asia.

  Fischer, Joschka—Former German foreign minister and leader of the Green Party.

  Franks, Tommy—General and head of CENTCOM during the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

  Frontier Corps—Eighty-thousand-strong Pakistani paramilitary force made up of Pashtun tribesmen.

  Gailani, Pir Sayed Ahmad—Sufi Afghan leader who led a party that fought the Soviets in the 1980s; after 9/11 headed the Peshawar group of Pashtuns.

  Ghilzai—One of the two major sections of the Pashtun tribes, the other being Durrani.

  Goss, Porter—Chairman of the U.S. Congressional Intelligence Committee in 2001 and later head of the CIA.

  Guantánamo Bay—Prison in Cuba where al Qaeda prisoners were interrogated by the United States.

  Haass, Richard—Director, Policy Planning, State Department.

  Haq, Abdul—Pashtun commander killed by the Taliban in October 2001.

  Haq, Muhammad Zia ul-—President of Pakistan, 1977-1988.

  Haqqani, Jalaluddin—Leader of Taliban front based in Miramshah, Pakistan; his son Sirajuddin Haqqani led his father’s troops against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

  Harkat ul-Ansar—Pakistani extremist group fighting in Kashmir and allied to al Qaeda.

  Harkat ul-Mujahedin—Movement of Holy Warriors, extremist group based in Pakistan fighting in Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

  Hikmetyar, Gulbuddin—Leader of the Hizb-e-Islami Party, allied to the Taliban.

  Hizb-e-Islami—Afghan party allied to the Taliban and led by Gulbuddin Hikmetyar.

  Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT)—Islamic party very active in Central Asia.

  Hussain, Altaf—Leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement of the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs, who migrated from India to Pakistan in 1947.

  Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI)—Pakistan’s military intelligence service.

  Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)—Islamic radicals in Central Asia who provided support to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

  Jaish-e-Mohammed—Army of Mohammed, militant group that introduced suicide bombing in Kashmir; formed in 2000 by the ISI and Maulana Masud Azhar in the aftermath of the hijacking of an Air India plane to Kandahar.

  Jalali, Ali Ahmad—Minister of interior in Karzai’s cabinet, 2003-2005.

  Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam—Main Islamic party in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan and key supporter of the Taliban; after the 2002 elections formed the government in the NWFP and Balochistan.

  Jehangir, Asma—Head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

  Jundullah—Army of God, terrorist group trained by al Qaeda and active in Karachi.

  Kabulov, Zamir—Senior Russian diplomat representing Russia at major conferences on Afghanistan; later Russian ambassador to Kabul.

  Kamal, Babrak—Installed as president of Afghanistan by the invading Soviet army in December 1979; belonging to the Parcham Party.

  Kargil—Mountainous region of Indian Kashmir, briefly captured by Pakistani forces in 1999.

  Karimov, Islam—President of Uzbekistan, 1991- .

  Karshi-Khanabad, or K2—U.S. base in Uzbekistan; used until 2006.

  Karzai, Abdul Ahad—Father of Hamid Karzai; murdered by the Taliban, 1999.

  Karzai, Ahmed Wali—Younger brother of Hamid Karzai.

  Karzai, Hamid—President of Afghanistan, 2001- .

  Kayani, Ashfaq—Former head of the ISI, he was appointed as the new chief of staff of the Pakistan army in November 2007.

  Kazemi, Syed Mustafa—Afghanistan’s commerce minister, killed by a suicide bomb attack in 2007.

  Kellenberger, Jakob—President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

  Khalili, Karim—A leader of the Hazara resistance to the Taliban and later vice president under President Karzai.

  Khalilzad, Zalmay—U.S. chief of mission to the United Nations; former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq.

  Khalq—The Masses, one of the communist parties of Afghanistan.

  Khan, Ismael—Anti-Taliban leader in western Afghanistan.

  Khan, Jan Mohammed—Governor of Uruzgan province, former Taliban.

  Khan, Mohammed Ayub—Military ruler of Pakistan, 1958-1969.

  Khan, Yahya—Military ruler of Pakistan, 1969-1971.

  Khatami, Mohammed—President of Iran, 1997-2005.

  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi—The Army of Jhangvi, a militant Sunni group opposed to all Shias.

  Loya Jirga (LJ)—Traditional meeting of Afghan tribal chiefs and elders.

  McColl, Sir John—General and British commander of ISAF troops in Kabul in 2002.

  McNeill, Dan—Lieutenant-general and commander of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2002; reappointed to head NATO forces in Afghanistan in February 2007.

  Manas—Air base used by NATO alliance in Kyrgyzstan, close to the capital, Bishkek.

  Mansur, Saif ur-Rahman—The Taliban commander at the battle of Anaconda.

  Marshall, George C.—President Harry Truman’s secretary of state and the architect of the Marshall Plan for Europe in the 1950s.

  Masud, Ahmad Shah—Leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance; assassinated by al Qaeda two days before 9 /11.

  Mehsud, Baitullah—Head of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, formed in 2007. Named by the Pakistan government as assassin of Benazir Bhutto. Fought against the Soviets in 1980s, alongside the Taliban in the 1990s, and against the U.S. and NATO forces after 2001. Member of the Mehsud tribe of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

  Mohammed, Faqir—Based in Bajour agency, considered a key aide to al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri. Primary recruiter for young men to fight in Afghanistan and to enlist as suicide bombers.

  Mohaqiq, Moha
mmed—Hazara leader in northern Afghanistan.

  Muhajirs—Urdu-speaking refugees from India settled in Pakistan after Partition.

  Mujaddedi, Sibghatullah—One of the seven Mujahedin leaders based in Pakistan; headed the National Liberation Front of Afghanistan, to which Hamid Karzai belonged; also a spiritual leader and head of the Naqshbandiyah order of Sufism in Afghanistan; president of Afghanistan in 1992 and later headed the Peace and Reconciliation Commission dealing with the Taliban.

  Murray, Craig—Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan.

  Musharraf, Pervez—Military ruler of Pakistan, 1999- .

  Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)—Alliance of five Islamic parties that won many seats in the 2002 elections in Pakistan.

  Muttawakil, Wakil Ahmad—Taliban foreign minister.

  Myers, Richard—General and chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  Najibullah, Mohammed—Last communist president of Afghanistan, 1986-1992.

  Namangani, Juma—Military commander of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; killed by U.S. bombing in Afghanistan, October 2001.

  Naqibullah, Mullah—Warlord from Kandahar and ally of Karzai.

  National Directorate of Security (NDS), or Riasat Amniat-e-Meli (“Amniat” for short)—Afghan intelligence service, headed by Director-General Amrullah Saleh.

  Natsios, Andrew—Head of U.S. Agency for International Development.

  Nazarbayev, Nursultan—President of Kazakhstan, 1991- .

  Negroponte, John—Deputy secretary of state. He moved from a position as director of national intelligence to become deputy secretary of state in January 2007.

  Niyazov, Saparmurat—President of Turkmenistan, 1991-2006.

  Noor, Sadiq—Powerful tribal leader in North Waziristan whose followers have fought both U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani forces in Pakistan; close ally of Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.

  Northern Alliance—Anti-Taliban opposition centered on commander Ahmad Shah Masud, also called Shura-e-Nazar.

  North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)—Province of Pakistan.

  Omar, Mohammed—Mullah; leader of the Taliban movement, 1994- .