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October
8, 2001
Mahajan
and Jensen
A
War of Lies
Patrick
Cockburn
Northern
Alliance
Builds an Airport
October
7, 2001
John Pilger
Hitchens'
Slurs
Tariq
Ali
Who
Said History
Stopped Being Ironical?
October
6, 2001
Vijay
Prashad
US
War Aims
Kevin
Gray
The
Trap:
Blacks and 9/11
October
5, 2001
Ronnie
Gilbert
Déjà
Vu: The FBI's War
on Civil Liberties
Patrick
Cockburn
Taliban
Cluster Bombs
Dave
Marsh
John
Brown, Woody Guthrie
and the Secret Music of 9/11
Babak
Nahid
A
Suspect's Perspective
October
4, 2001
David
Vest
Send
in the Cons
Robin
Blackburn
Road
to Armageddon
Noam
Chomsky
Chatting
with Chomsky
Tony
Blair
The
Dossier on bin Laden
Norman
Madarasz
Canada
Kow-Tows to US
Lorenzo Ervin
No Palestinian
Ever
Called Me Nigger
October
3, 2001
Peter Bell
Hitchens
and Coulter:
Love at Last?
Patrick
Cockburn
Waiting
Is the Hardest Part
Jeff
Chang
Clear
Channel Fires
Davey D!
John Chuckman
War
on Terror:
Crusade Without a Definition
Mahajan/Jensen
Tough
Talk Won't Solve
Problems of Terrorism
Ariel
Dorfman:
America
the Wounded
Lennie
Brenner
Dr.
Watson in Afghanistan
Steve
Perry:
Ashcroft's
Scare Tactics
October
2, 2001
Patrick
Cockburn:
Inside
an Afghan Hospital
Richard
Manning:
A
Vietnam Vet on Patriotism
St. Clair/Cockburn:
Tarnished
Star,
Tom Ridge in Vietnam
October
1, 2001
Noam
Chomsky:
Memo
to Hitchens
Hizam
Bitar:
Refuting
Michael Kinsley
David Grenier:
The
Good, The Bad,
and the Ugly
Douglas
Valentine:
Homeland
Insecurity
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Aftermath
Diary
Ashcroft's Onslaught
on
Civil Liberties
Ridge Long Groomed
for
Cheney's Job
Those CIA Killing
Bids
Never Stopped
The Not-So-Great
Mayor Giuliani
Crop Duster
Ban
Will Save Lives
Madeleine Albright's
Deadly Legacy
How the Bin
Laden Women
Fled Bel Air
Tom Ridge's
Vietnam
Same as Kerrey's?
A CounterPunch
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to Ramallah
A Word About
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Whiteout:
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by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
A Pocket Guide to
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by James
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Zbigniew Brzezinski:
How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen
Interview of Zbigniew
Brzezinski Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p.
76*
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert
Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"],
that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen
in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this
period you were the national security adviser to President Carter.
You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version
of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that
is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec
1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely
otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter
signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of
the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a
note to the president in which I explained to him that in my
opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate
of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this
Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
Brzezinski: It isn't quite that. We didn't push
the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability
that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention
by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement
of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them.
However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything
today?
Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation
was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians
into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that
the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President
Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its
Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry
on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought
about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet
empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported
the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future
terrorists?
Brzezinski: What is most important to the history
of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire?
Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and
the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has
been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world
menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West
had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There
isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and
without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of
the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common
among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan
militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism?
Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
* There are at least two editions
of this magazine; with the perhaps sole exception of the Library
of Congress, the version sent to the United States is shorter
than the French version, and the Brzezinski interview was not
included in the shorter version.
The above has been translated
from the French by Bill Blum author of the indispensible,
"Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World
War II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only
Superpower" Portions of the books can be read at: <http://members.aol.com/superogue/homepage.htm>
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