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October
10, 2001
Tom
Turnipseed
Earth
is Our "Homeland"
Steve
Perry
What
Is To Be Done?
Simon
Jenkins
The
Dumbest Weapon
Tariq
Ali
The
Pakistan Maelstrom
Cockburn/St.
Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
October
9, 2001
David
Vest
The
Rout That Wasn't
Michael
Mandel
This
War Is Illegal
Patrick
Cockburn
Bombs
Weaken Taliban
Lenni
Brenner
Powell
the Owl
Zha
Marginalization
and Terror
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
Resources:
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About 9/11
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Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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8-Page Special
Issue
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
Journey
to Ramallah
A Word About
God
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James
Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas
Valentine
Al
Gore:
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by Cockburn
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October 11,
2001
Inside
Afghanistan
Northern Alliance Calls
for Hilltop Taliban to be Bombed
By Patrick Cockburn
in
the Panjshir Valley
The Independent
In the front line at Bagram airport
north of Kabul, General Babajan, a veteran opposition commander,
is laying plans for the capture of the Taliban positions overlooking
the runway as soon as they have been softened up by US bombers.
General Babajan, a confident,
jovial man, pointed to the menacing ridgeline of Tota Khan, 10
miles to the south, from whose summit Taliban gunners can ensure
no plane lands or takes off at Bagram. He said the main Taliban
headquarters was just behind the ridge in an old brick factory.
The question of close air support
by the US is critical for the military future of the opposition
Northern Alliance. Outnumbered and outgunned, its commanders
can only hope to launch a successful offensive, as they have
promised to do, if they get tactical air support from the US
and its allies.
So far there is no sign they
are going to. The Northern Alliance would love to push the Taliban
back far enough to prevent them hitting Bagram airport with rockets.
This would enable its soldiers to use the large Soviet-built
airport to fly in supplies. But as long as the Taliban hold the
four-mile long Tota Khan ridge, as well as a large hill called
Kohi Safi, "the airport is useless to us" said an officer
called Zahir, who is deputy commander at Bagram.
General Babajan said the Alliance
leadership was waiting to see what the US would do. So far, he
added, they had hit some important Taliban bases, but not others.
"Probably the Americans will start attacking the front line
in the next few days. We won't attack until they do."
General Babajan may be over-optimistic
for the moment. The US has until now kept its distance from the
predominantly Tajik Northern Alliance, out of fear of offending
Pakistan and the Pashtun, the largest single community in Afghanistan's
ethnic mosaic, with 38 per cent of the population.
But the US air offensive may
inevitably hit targets such as the strong points at Tota Khan
and Kohi Safi simply because that is where the Taliban have concentrated
their resources.
Rumours of impending air attacks
on the front line have swirled in opposition-held districts over
the past two days. "At first we were told that it was to
be on Tuesday and now it may be tonight," a Northern Alliance
security chief told us. People living within a kilometre of the
front have been told to leave their houses.
It is difficult to know what
is happening on the other side of the line. Zahir, the deputy
commander at Bagram, said his forces had spies who told them
Taliban morale is crumbling. On the other hand, he admitted his
forces had not received any defectors. On the whole of the Kabul
front, only two or three Taliban have changed sides. CP
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