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THE WORLD
Operation Enduring Payouts
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=============================================================
Afghans Killed in U.S. Attack
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By RONE TEMPEST and BOB DROGIN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Sitting on lawn furniture inside the screened-in
porch of a Peshawar safe house, the CIA officer made his pitch bluntly
to
Haji Mohammed Zaman.
Was he prepared to kill Al Qaeda Arabs? the American asked. Zaman, a
powerful warlord from eastern Afghanistan, nodded. With that, the operative
handed him $10,000 in cash and a sleek hand-held Thuraya satellite
telephone.
"Is that all?" Zaman demanded angrily, according to a senior Western
diplomat who witnessed the exchange in November, as Taliban forces
were
collapsing in Afghanistan. "Is that all you give to someone who knows
where
to find Osama bin Laden?" The answer, clearly, is no. No one has yet
snagged the Bush administration's $25-million "dead or alive" bounty
on Bin
Laden. But a senior intelligence official in Washington says America's
spy
service has distributed "tens of millions of dollars" in cash since
last
fall in the effort to find him, as well as in other covert operations.
The CIA's small army of operatives often has worked less like James
Bond
than like bagmen, handing out bundles of $100 bills--often with sequential
serial numbers--to purchase intelligence and support.
Sometimes the money bought less than complete loyalty. Sometimes the
Americans bought bogus information. And some officials question whether
the
practice is counterproductive in the long run.
"All money does is buy you information," explained a Capitol Hill staffer
familiar with the operation. "It doesn't necessarily buy you reliable
information."
But other officials say the CIA payoffs played a critical role in
persuading commanders from the Northern Alliance and other opposition
groups to provide proxy fighters last fall to help oust the Taliban
and
search for Al Qaeda members.
"Sometimes you can do more with $100 bills than with bullets," said
the
intelligence official, who, in keeping with his agency's policy, spoke
on
condition of anonymity. "And if we can rent guys to help, that's fine."
The going rate, other officials said, was $100,000 for warlords; far
less
for lower-ranking commanders, village elders and the like. Generous
cash
payments also encouraged some Taliban commanders to switch sides, or
to
abandon their positions and go home.
"The Taliban conquered the country with bribery and negotiation," said
a
former CIA officer familiar with the operation. "And basically, that's
the
way we reconquered it--with help from air power."
Agency spokesman Bill Harlow declined to discuss the CIA's use of cash
in
Afghanistan. And although most Afghan commanders deny receiving payoffs,
the evidence suggests otherwise.
In Kabul, for example, three car dealers along Parwan Say, the city's
commercial strip, said they sold "dozens and dozens and dozens" of
new and
late-model SUVs--including fully loaded Toyota Land Cruisers costing
up to
$60,000--to cash-rich Northern Alliance warlords and their commanders
in
November, December and January after the Taliban abruptly abandoned
the city.
"These commanders, they were fighting each other to get these cars,"
one
dealer said. "We couldn't satisfy them all."
The dealers said the cars were sold for cash, usually crisp 1999 series
$100 bills, often with sequential serial numbers. Afghan merchants
note the
dates closely because many are convinced that 1988, 1990 and 1993 dollars
are counterfeit, and refuse to accept them.
The scene was much the same in Pakistan. Early last fall, as Afghan
warlord
Gul Agha Shirzai gathered his men near the Pakistani border city of
Quetta,
U.S. forces airdropped assault rifles, sleeping bags, ammunition, radios
and other gear to fight the Taliban.
But Shirzai's aides say the warlord was also given boxes of U.S. dollars
and Pakistani rupees. At one point, they say, he even got a Land Cruiser
containing cash. Shirzai is now governor of Kandahar province.
Witnesses say stacks of dollars and rupees, as well as satellite phones,
were handed out to ethnic Pushtun commanders at two safe houses in
Peshawar
on Nov. 13 to enlist their support. The Northern Alliance, composed
mostly
of Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic minorities, had just taken Kabul,
the
capital, and provincial Taliban governments and garrisons were collapsing
across eastern Afghanistan.
Pakistani smugglers willing to haul communications gear, weapons and
other
equipment to U.S.-backed proxy forces also got satchels of cash. So
much
money changed hands that the value of the dollar fell sharply against
the
rupee, and local prices shot up.
"Money, money, money," said local truck driver Yar Khan. "That was what
was
happening. Bagmen ... were offering varying amounts of money, from
$5,000
to $1 million and more for arrangements to deliver goods to the commanders
who wanted to fight the Taliban or desert them."
Khan said old smuggling tracks "became the lifeline of the anti-Taliban
forces."
And the CIA knew the way.
In the late 1980s, the agency secretly funneled $3 billion worth of
weapons
and ammunition to rebels fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Supplies
were hauled by mule, truck, horse, motorcycle and foot on about 300
trails
that cross the rugged border.
Back then, recalls former CIA operative Milton Bearden, rebel commanders
prized his gifts of multi-pocketed Banana Republic photographers' vests
and
top-of-the-line Bianchi leather holsters. "I always had beads and mirrors
in my duffle bag," he joked.
This time, the CIA kit bag contained compact Thuraya satellite phones.
Sales jumped at the Abu Dhabi-based company as U.S. and British
intelligence agencies ordered thousands of the $660 black handsets
for
Afghan contacts. They quickly became status symbols, and some commanders
claimed three or four.
Inevitably, the CIA got scammed in Afghanistan.
A Pakistani intelligence official said a Peshawar shopkeeper and his
cohort
got $50,000 from the CIA for a tip on Bin Laden's location--then
disappeared with the money. "It turned out to be a swindle," said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
More important, officials say, warlords misled U.S. intelligence during
the
battle of Tora Bora in December. Despite intense bombing of suspected
Al
Qaeda caves and encampments, hundreds of fighters--perhaps Bin Laden
himself--apparently escaped by buying safe passage from Afghan commanders
who were supposedly aiding U.S. forces.
U.S. officials suspect Zaman, who had ridiculed the $10,000 offer at
the
Peshawar safe house, of milking money and support during the battle
by
providing phony intelligence about Bin Laden and inflating reports
of enemy
fighters.
The CIA had given support to Zaman's 4,000 anti-Soviet fighters in the
1980s. He lost out in the civil war that followed the Soviets' withdrawal
and eventually became a political refugee in France.
Zaman returned home in November after the Taliban abandoned his former
political perch, the regional capital of Jalalabad, and soon received
new
supplies, vehicles and cash to join the battle at Tora Bora.
But Zaman neglected to send food, blankets or ammunition to his troops,
forcing them to retreat, and he announced a cease-fire with Al Qaeda
that
was immediately denounced by U.S. officials. Today Zaman is security
chief
in Jalalabad, a powerful position in a city that traditionally has
thrived
on smuggling and drugs.
The other key U.S. ally at Tora Bora, Hazrat Ali, wasn't totally reliable,
either. U.S. officials say that Ali allowed his troops to escort Al
Qaeda
fighters into Pakistan during the battle. Today, Ali is a powerful
figure
in Nangarhar province, where Jalalabad is located. He drives a new
Land
Cruiser and commands a fleet of other vehicles.
Others reputed to have received CIA largess now help run the Defense,
Justice and Foreign ministries in the interim post-Taliban government.
A
senior Western aid official in Kabul questions whether that's wise.
"They make mercenaries of these people, then put them in charge and
expect
a democratic government to emerge," said the official, also speaking
on
condition of anonymity. "You can't build a democracy based on bribery."
Intelligence officials defend the practice.
"There is a long and strong tradition of buying just about anything
in
Afghanistan," a senior CIA official said. "You win battles by striking
deals. The loyalty a warlord gets with his men is usually from physically
taking care of them. He provides cash, housing and food. That's a big
part
of the equation."
The equation isn't new for the CIA. Gene Cullen, a former CIA covert
commando, said he and other officers routinely paid up to $25,000 to
informants during America's military and humanitarian mission in Somalia
in
the early 1990s.
The intervention became a disaster when 18 Army Rangers and Delta Force
soldiers, as well as hundreds of Somalis, were killed in the "Black
Hawk
Down" attack in 1993. But Cullen said the CIA sees cash as one of its
best
weapons.
"Let's face it," he said. "The one thing we do have is a lot of money."
*
Tempest reported from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Drogin reported from
Washington. Times staff writers David Zucchino and Eric Slater in
Afghanistan and Greg Miller in Washington, and special correspondent
Talat
Hussain in Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies
Director of Research,
Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social
Movements
<http://www.u-grenoble3.fr/ciesimsa>
University Stendhal, Grenoble-III
Grenoble, France