Ahmad Shah Masood’s murder remembered

Twenty years ago today, al-Qaida terrorists posing as Belgian cameramen detonated a bomb that they planted in their camera that killed Northern Alliance commander and 1980’s mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Masood, popularly known as the “Lion of the Panjashir.”

His memory looms large over President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan catastrophe and surrender to the Taliban. Just like 20 years ago, Masood’s men are the only people in Afghanistan waging armed resistance against the Taliban. This time led by his son, Ahmad, who unlike his father lacks American support, due to Biden’s betrayal and decision to side with those who aided and abetted the 9/11 attacks.

During the 1980s, Masoud was a close ally of the U.S. against the Soviets, whose exploits in conjunction with the CIA and Britain’s MI6 were discussed in detail in George Crile’s book “Charlie Wilson’s War.” Masood was legendary because his troops repeatedly repulsed Soviet land and air attacks aimed at taking the valley.

Masood, an ethnic Tajik, was the Taliban’s principal antagonist before 9/11. His forces controlled the 15 percent of Afghanistan that was not controlled by the Taliban. The CIA considered Masood a primary asset against al-Qaida.

Masood played an important role in CIA planning for countering Bin Laden and the Taliban in the run up to 9/11. Former CIA Director George Tenet sought Bill Clinton’s approval to use Masood and his forces against al-Qaida in 1998, but the idea went nowhere.

The 9/11 Commission found that his murder by al-Qaida was part of its effort to appease its Taliban patrons. Bin Laden viewed eliminating Masood as something that needed to be done before the 9/11 attacks to deprive the United States of a natural ally in the event of the inevitable American retaliation to the attacks.

“… [B]y engineering his death bin Laden gave the Taliban something they desperately wanted, and ensured that the Taliban would protect al-Qaeda in Afghanistan after 9/11,” former CNN reporter Peter Bergen wrote.

Clinton noted in Executive Order 13129 that the Taliban’s policies “threaten to continue to commit acts of violence against the United States and its nationals, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.” The former president also barred financial and technological transfers to the Taliban, which Joe Biden ignored in his Afghanistan exit strategy.

The Biden administration tries to distinguish between the Taliban and al-Qaida, but it’s a distinction without a difference. Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri pledged allegiance to the Taliban’s Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The new Taliban government includes Sirajuddin Haqqani, who played a key role as an advocate for Osama bin Laden with the Taliban as interior minister. Haqqani appears on the U.N. sanctions list. He also is closely linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist organization, which is sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.N. due to its history of supporting al-Qaida.

“Sirajuddin Haqqani was involved in the suicide bombing attack against a Police Academy bus in Kabul on 18 June 2007 which killed 35 police officers,” the U.N. designation said.

Taliban Minister of Refugees Khalil Haqqani helped al-Qaida in 2002 following the U.S. invasion and has a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government.

The Taliban’s “Prime Minister” Mullah Hassan Akhund refused to hand over Osama bin Laden following the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, saying he was innocent. Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada’s son was a suicide bomber.

The Biden administration’s appeasement of the Taliban and decision to throw the remnants of Masood’s Northern Alliance to the wolves stands in stark contrast with the policy of 25 years of Republican and Democratic administrations.

Twenty years ago, the U.S. government was squarely on the side of Masood and Northern Alliance. Times have changed, and the U.S. government now sides with the same people who President Clinton said posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

Now due to Biden’s appeasement Masood’s son, family and supporters find themselves alone and fighting for their lives in the face of the Taliban and Pakistani military onslaught, in contrast with even under the Clinton administration.

Since Masood’s murder the U.S. government has gone from fighting international terrorism to siding with the supporters of international terrorism.

Despite Biden’s appeasement Americans find themselves held hostage on planes in Mazar-i-Sharif by Taliban, and female Taliban activists marched through its streets chanting “Death to America” earlier this week.

If Biden won’t stand with Masood and the Panjashir, the Congress and the American people must do everything they can to provide political and humanitarian assistance. This includes providing medical assistance, food and other supplies allowed under U.S. law and lobbying governments such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and others to provide military assistance to the Northern Alliance to honor Ahmad Shah Masood’s memory.