Could the Northern Alliance – America’s allies who helped bring down the Taliban Government in 2001 and bring Hamid Karzai to power – be behind the brazen attempt on his life during a military parade last week?
This theory has been making the rounds in Russian circles and has been enunciated by analyst Pyotr Goncharov for Russia’s Novosti news service.
Goncharov writes in part:
“Who was behind the April 27 attempt on the life of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and what did they have to gain? There are many possible answers … But it’s clear that the Taliban could not have mounted such an attempt without the help of “third parties.”
After explaining how Afghan history sheds light on this question, Goncharov writes:
“The Parliamentary opposition in the person of the United National Front, which for the most part represents the Northern Alliance, has accused Karzai’s government of incompetence … While the confrontation between Karzai and the former Northern Alliance is now fully exposed, Kabul is trying not to broach the painful issue. Karzai must have many questions for his national security apparatus in Kabul, staffed largely by ex-members of the Northern Alliance.”
Goncharov finishes off his analysis this way:
“Now comes the search for the perpetrators … Conducted by the perpetrators themselves …”
By Commentator Pyotr Goncharov
Translated By Igor Medvedev
April 29, 2008
Russia – Novosti – Original Article (Russian)
MOSCOW: Who was behind the April 27 attempt on the life of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and what did they have to gain?
There are many possible answers to this question, as always happens in such cases. But it’s clear that the Taliban could not have mounted such an attempt without the help of “third parties.” It would be naïve to believe otherwise.
The operation in Kabul was literally copied from the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in October 1981 . The script was followed exactly: the timing – during a military parade; the executors – militants sent by the regime’s irreconcilable opponents. There operation had, however, its own purely Afghan features.
Just as a military band started playing the national anthem and soldiers began a 21-gun artillery salute, those gathered for the ceremony were attacked not only with light weapons, but with mortars. This from any point of view is quite a shock. Experts sat that no matter what caliber these mortars were, their appearance in such a carefully-guarded zone raises doubts about the competence of the regime’s security forces (assuming of course, that they weren’t directly involved). What kind of security is it, when the nation’s president is attacked in broad daylight by mortars and from all sides by small arms – and on Mujahedin Day, Victory Day for the jihad?!
For clues as to who is responsible for the assassination attempt, let’s recall a little history. In Kabul on April 27, there is an annual military parade to mark the Mujahedin victory in 1992 . The current year, the 16th anniversary of the victorious jihad and fall of Najibullah government coincided with the 30th anniversary of another major all-Afghan event – the 1978 Saur Revolution .
The Saur Revolution diverted Afghanistan onto an unexpected course. It’s obscure even now, thirty years later. Experts still argue about whether it was an absolute detriment or some good came of it. There are many experts and many opinions. The most common diagnosis is that Afghan society wasn’t ready for the radical reforms that were proposed by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan [communist]. These radical reforms failed to take account, first and foremost, of the traditions of Islam, which engendered sufficient resistance that ultimately yielded a civil war.
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