General Abdul Rashid Dostum is an Afghan warlord, periodically aligned with the Northern Alliance and periodically with the Taliban. He oversaw the loading and transport of approximately 2,000 surrendered Taliban prisoners into unventilated shipping containers during the Dasht-i-Leili massacre of November 30 – December 1, 2001 — an operation in which all but sixteen of the prisoners suffocated.[1][2][3]
John Kiriakou’s characterization:
General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who’s like the greatest traitor in the history of Afghanistan, he’s with the Northern Alliance, then he’s with the Taliban, then he’s with the Northern Alliance again, he’s with the Taliban again — and he’s just a traitor of the worst ilk.[1]
Kiriakou’s view, shared with other CIA personnel of the period, is that Dostum’s failure to ventilate the Dasht-i-Leili containers was deliberate: “We always believed Dostum did it on purpose because he was that kind of a psychopath.”[3]