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October
9, 2001
Steve
Perry
It
Begins
October
8, 2001
Zbigniew
Brzezinski
How
Jimmy Carter and
I Started the Muj
Philip Agee
The
USA and Terrorism
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
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
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Aftermath
Diary
Ashcroft's Onslaught
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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
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A Word About
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Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James
Ridgeway
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October 9,
2001
Inside
Afghanistan
Northern Alliance Says
Attacks Seriously Weakened the Taliban
By Patrick Cockburn
in
the Panjshir Valley
The Independent
The anti-aircraft guns and radar systems
of the Taliban were largely destroyed during the first night
of the US and British air assault, according to spies working
for the Afghan opposition forces.
Osama bin Laden's headquarters
were completely destroyed in the southern city of Kandahar, and
so were the Defence Ministry and ammunition dumps in Kabul, Abdullah
Abdullah, the Foreign Minister of the opposition Northern Alliance
said yesterday.
The destruction of the airports
and so many of their helicopters and planes is a serious blow
to the Taliban because they used aircraft to supply their troops
in northern Afghanistan. It is here that opposition troops will
attack. "In the north the Taliban are vulnerable because
their supply routes are stretched," said Dr Abdullah.
Many people in opposition-controlled
districts had climbed on to the roofs of their houses to watch
the explosions of missiles and bombs around Kabul on Sunday night.
In the dusty, tattered village
of Golbahar yesterday, a crowd was listening in complete silence
outside an antique shop to a report of the bombing on Iranian
radio. The radio said that 25 people had been killed in Kabul
and two helicopters destroyed in Badghis province.
Feiz Agha, owner of the shop,
said: "I think I will soon be in Kabul. The bombing alone
will destroy the Taliban." It is a view widely held here.
Soldiers and civilians alike are optimistic that the end of the
Taliban is in sight, even though they still control 90 per cent
of Afghanistan. "A thousand Taliban have defected to us
in the last 24 hours," claimed Dr Abdullah jubilantly.
Over a wrecked bridge on a
road 10 miles from the front, three Northern Alliance soldiers
were making their way towards the battle line. Abdul Rahim, an
18-year-old who had already been fighting for seven years, seemed
suspicious of a foreigner asking questions. But he said: "I
expect a big war."
In the battered town of Charikar,
which the Taliban have taken and lost a number of times, we met
Jan Mohammed, a confident, cheerful officer who commanded a unit
of 10 men. He said they were stationed at Bagram, a particularly
dangerous part of the front line, because each side controls
one end of the big military airport built by the Russians. All
the buildings are gutted but the 2.5-mile runway is still intact.
The Northern Alliance would dearly like to drive the Taliban
back so that they can use the airport to resupply their forces.
Jan Mohammed said there had
been heavy shelling overnight with many killed and wounded. But
this was probably an exaggeration. We visited a first-aid station
for war wounded provided by the Italian charity, Emergency. Dr
Mohammed Qasim, 32, the doctor in charge, said he had received
only one casualty overnight from Bagram and he was dead on arrival,
having been shot in the head.
Dr Abdullah said yesterday
that he didn't rule out an advance on Kabul in a week. But his
hopes may be premature. The Taliban have 60,000 regular troops
compared with 15,000 for the Northern Alliance. The latter lost
its charismatic and highly skilled military leader, Ahmed Shah
Masood, to assassins, almost certainly sent by Osama bin Laden,
on 9 September. The Taliban's army is used to victory.
For the moment the Northern
Alliance says it will not attack on the Kabul front. Instead
it may try to recapture Taleqon, a Tajik town of 100,000 in the
north-east, which the Taliban took last year. They will also
launch probing attacks to see if the Taliban have been weakened
by the air attacks.
Afghanistan is divided by the
great Hindu Kush mountains with few passes and roads linking
the two sides. The main road south through the Salang tunnel
is held by the Northern Alliance. In the past the Taliban used
aircraft to supply their troops in the north. Having lost control
of the air, they can no longer do so. The opposition may now
be able to roll up the Taliban in the north of the country in
a single campaign.
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