Title: The 9/9/2001 Massoud Assassination
Show: CovertAction Bulletin
Date: 2021-12-11
URL: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903718/episodes/9721047-the-9-9-2001-massoud-assassination.mp3
Duration: 9:00

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[00:06] Hello everybody, this is Aaron Good, editor-at-large here at Covert Action Magazine. If you're listening to Covert Action Bulletin, the official podcast of Covert Action Magazine exposing Covert Action since 1978. For today's episode, we have assembled a stellar cast to discuss the September 9, 2001 assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, commander of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, with his murder at the hands of Al-Qaeda operatives. The main roadblock to U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was blown away.

[00:37] We will be talking about this fateful assassination with Pepe Escobar and Peter Dale Scott. Back in December of 2020, Peter Dale Scott and I wrote a groundbreaking article on Massoud's murder. Peter, of course, is a retired UC Berkeley English professor, a renowned poet, and the legendary scholar who essentially invented the study of parapolitics and deep politics. He's the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, including Coming to Jakarta, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, The Road to 9-11, and The American Deep State.

[01:09] Last September, Peter and I were delighted when Asia Times editor-at-large Pepe Escobar cited our work in his own article about Massoud, published on the 20th anniversary of the assassination. Escobar was one of the last journalists to speak to Massoud before his death. He has been THE guy writing about the New Silk Road in China and Central Asia for the last 20 years. We are also joined by a new member of the Covert Action team, the illustrious John Kariaku. John is the courageous CIA whistleblower who went to jail for exposing the CIA's outrageously

[01:40] criminal and highly immoral torture program. We're thrilled to have him on board here at Covert Action. All right, we are here today with John Kariaku, who's going to be doing some work for Covert Action Bullets in the Podcast and Covert Action Magazine. We are honored today to also have Peter Dale Scott and Pepe Escobar with us.

[02:14] Gentlemen, it's great to be here with you all. Absolute pleasure. Looking forward to this. Okay, so Pepe Escobar, you were one of the last Westerners to see Massoud, Ahmad Shah Massoud alive. And so there's nobody better to ask this question. Could you summarize who he was and what's important about him as a historical figure? Absolutely. He essentially, he was a great African nationalist hero.

[02:49] He had a Che Guevara side, let's put it this way. And he also had a ruthless Crypto-Islamist side as well. So he was a very complex personality. Born in Afghanistan, he studied in the Lycée Francais in Kabul. So it was very interesting because he understood French perfectly. I didn't speak French, he understood French perfectly well.

[03:19] So he was acquainted since he was a kid with French culture at least, if not wider European culture. Then he studied engineering. And a twist of fate led him to the anti-Soviet jihad in the 80s. He was one of the top commanders of the jihad. So these top commanders, they were always passing through or they were connecting in Peshawar, the capital of the tribal areas with different sorts of alliances, different

[03:56] sorts of finance. So Massoud was a very independent, first of all because he was Tajik and most of the other commanders were Pashtuns. Russia and China, Russia much later, so I was thinking about Russia and China nowadays. At the time it was in fact Iran. So the Tajiks in Iran or in Tajikistan, of course, they had a connection with Massoud.

[04:33] I mentioned Russia because it was fantastic. Later after the jihad and after the fall of Kabul in 95 and the Taliban took power, the Russians began a re-approximation. And one of their top interlocutors, their only interlocutor in fact was Massoud from 95 to 2001. With Iran, the same thing. But the big problem started after the end of the jihad, in fact, from 88 to 89 because

[05:05] then there was a civil war period started in 92 until 95 when the Taliban took power, where Massoud was directly confronting other big, big characters of the previous jihad, especially Gubuddin Haqmatyar. And there was a time when Massoud and Haqmatyar were bombing each other's forces in the outskirts and even inside Kabul.

[05:37] And this is absolutely horrendous because if you visited Kabul after the civil war, during the Taliban reign, 96 to 2001, most of Kabul was destroyed. And it was destroyed because of this internecine war between the Hazaras, Massoud and Haqmatyar. So he was not, of course, a saint. But considering something that I saw for myself and I've never seen

[06:13] this anywhere else in the world, a so-called government straight out of the 7th century Islam, in fact. This is what Afghanistan was in the late 90s and the early 2000s. There was it was an enormous smuggling and money laundering operation, which was financing the Taliban army at the time. And there was no social life except the precept established by this

[06:45] extremely radical vision of Islam that the Taliban had, which was from the Dilbandi's, a sect in India from the 19th century. But with some elements of Wahhabism and Salafi jihadism as well. It was one of the most demented regimes in modern history. One might say, and obviously the only people in different parts of the country that could profit from it were the people who were linked to their smuggling rings,

[07:19] especially, for instance, in the border between Afghanistan and Baluchistan, a place called Springbaldak, which was probably the largest smuggling operation on earth at the time. And that was one of the largest traffickers. Exactly, Peter, the largest traffickers. It was fascinating because when I went there the first time, Peter, I was afraid that I was going to be kidnapped, in fact.

[07:49] And in fact, myself and my photographer, we were appropriated by one of the smugglers. He protected us because he wanted to show us how his business worked. So that was the way to deal with these people. So Masoud, which will lead us to, I would say, the main point of our conversation, which is what happened in 2001 with Masoud, right? Like Aaron said, I was the next before last Westerner who talked to Masoud

[08:25] before he was assassinated on 9-9, 2001. His last interview was a radio interview with Radio France when he was already preparing a counteroffensive against the Taliban. You've been listening to Covert Action Bulletin, the official podcast of Covert Action Magazine. To listen to the full episode, head on over to patreon.com forward slash covert action bulletin. Feel free to also check out our magazine at covertactionmagazine.com

[08:56] where you will find hundreds of articles we have published since 1978 exposing the nefarious covert activity of U.S. imperialism and plutocrats worldwide. I'm Chris Agee, executive editor, signing off. Until the next episode, remember, educate, agitate, and organize.
