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November 1, 2001
Alexander
Cockburn
FBI
Eyes Torture
William Blum
Unleashing the
CIA
October 31, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
Terrorize
the Poor,
Subsidize the Rich
Chris Clarke
Thank God
for Berkeley
Steve
Perry
The
Silent Genocide
October 30, 2001
Rep. Ron Paul
War on Terror
Bad as War on Drugs
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flying
Blind:
The Predator's Problem
Ali Abunimah
Dear Colin
Powell
St. Clair/Cockburn
Atomic
Trains Grounded
Maud Hurd
We Need a Real
Stimulus Package
Dr. Susan
Block
We're
All Afghans Now
Tariq Ali
Busted in Munich
Francis
Beer
Toward
the Terrorist
Anti-World
October 29, 2001
Alexander Cockburn
The Left
and the Just War
John Pilger
Hidden
Agenda
of the War on Terror
David Krieger
Nukes on
the Loose
Jack McCarthy
Neo-Nazis
and 9/11
Marina Kalashnikova
The Brzezinski
Interview
Richard
Manning
Terrorism:
a definitive history
October 27, 2001
Edward
Said
A
Vision to Lift the Spririt
October 26, 2001
CounterPunch
Wire
Genocide
Scholar Gagged
Over Comments on the
Bombing of Afghanistan
Rahul
Mahajan
Poisoning
the Well
Sen. Russ Feingold
Why I Opposed
the
Anti-Terrorism Bill
John Troyer
Put
the War to a Vote
Norman Madarasz
What It
Means to be
Against the War
Patrick
Cockburn
Northern
Alliance Attacks
US Bombing Strategy
Richard Lloyd Parry
Terrible Images
of a "Just" War
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November 1,
2001
US Attempting To 'Recruit' Russian
Veterans of AfghanWar
By Sami Amarah
Moscow
Russian sources have asserted that US
officials are seeking to recruit Russian veterans who fought
in Afghanistan to join the international coalition forces attacking
the Taliban government.
The sources said the US Defense
Department is offering a salary of $5,500 to volunteers for
a tour of duty in Central Asia. They added that the US military
attaché in Moscow is advertising this offer on the Internet
and looking for persons with combat experience in hot regions.
They noted that the Russian military establishment is dismayed
by this effort.
While the Russian and US governments
are asserting the extensive scope of the agreement on confronting
terrorism and the need to liquidate al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan,
contradictions over other aspects of the crisis are emerging.
These include the position toward the Taliban government and
the true nature of the relationship with the Northern Alliance
forces in Afghanistan. The Pentagon and US State Department,
Russian sources say, believes in the need to go back to the situation
that existed prior to the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979.
Under this scenario, former King Mohamad Zaher Shah and the
various ethnic groups and
nationalities in Afghanistan would be represented together with
the moderates in the Taliban Movement.
The alliance led by deposed
President Borhannodin
Rabbani, which has the support and backing of the Kremlin and
President Vladimir Putin himself, believes that it is impossible
to restore the monarchy. This alliance is relying primarily
on the ethnic groups that are close to Central Asia, that is,
the Tajiks and Uzbeks. It agrees
with Putin's remarks "that there is no place for the Taliban
in the anticipated coalition government" in Afghanistan.
The government of Tajikistan supports this position.
These contradictions are apparently
one of the reasons that the Northern Alliance forces have failed
to launch much of a military attack in Maza-e-Sharif and at Kabul.
Northern Alliance officials have also griped about the inconsistencies
in the levels of US support. The Russian sources said Washington
is playing the card of the contradictions between the commonwealth
countries.
While Moscow relies primarily
on Dushanbe (Tajikistan), the forces of General Mohammad Fahim
in northeast Afghanistan, and the forces of Gen. Ismail Khan
in Herat province in western Afghanistan, the United States is
concentrating its efforts on backing Gen. Abdol Rahid Dostum's
forces. US aircraft are therefore attacking the positions that
will help the forces of the Uzbek general
advance. This is putting the Tajik forces in the alliance in
an embarrassing position and is forcing them to operate without
US air cover and is even subjecting them to the dangers of air
strikes, like the 22 October incident when the Tajik positions
in northern Afghanistan were bombarded.
Despite the official statements
about Moscow's blessing for the US presence in Central Asia,
there are apprehensions that Uzbekistan "might weaken"
under the current pressure from the United States, which recently
announced the allocation of $8 billion for the agricultural sector
there.
The pro-Moscow Tajikistan is
meanwhile standing nearby content with the presence of the "201st
Battalion" of the Russian border guards.
Russian sources have revealed
that the military establishment and the general staff are apprehensive
about the possible bolstering of the US military presence in
the region and NATO's expansion in Central Asia that
this would entail, which might include extending the US missile
shield cover to them. This is in addition to the danger of
the commonwealth's collapse and the decline of Russia's influence
in the former Soviet Union's empire in Central Asia. The sources
said the general staff commanders broached this subject with
President Putin before he left for the Shanghai summit.
This is apparently one explanation
for Moscow's admission for the first time through Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov that Russia supported and continues to support
the Northern Alliance forces and also his statements about supplying
these forces with T-55 tanks and heavy armored vehicles, which
cost around $50 million.
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