Word: khaksars
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Karzai favors reintegrating low-level Taliban into Afghan society. But Mullah Khaksar, an ex-Taliban minister who later allied himself with the Northern Alliance, says Talibs are warned by their peers that "they'll be sent to Guant?namo" if they return. Or, he adds, "[the Taliban] pay people to join their jihad." Mullah Nik Mohammed, a Taliban commander captured in Spin Boldak, told his interrogators that he would have received $850 for detonating a bomb, double that if it killed a civilian, and $2,600 for taking a soldier's life...
...course, pursuing enemy elements more aggressively carries the risk of further alienating innocent Afghans who invariably get hassled during security sweeps. "No one ever forgets that American soldiers came into their house and trawled through their women's clothing. Nor do they forgive," says Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, who despite having served as the Taliban deputy interior minister, is a relative moderate. "Doesn't the U.S. realize that with every one of these operations, their enemy is not decreasing but increasing with fresh, embittered new recruits...
Repairing Afghanistan's infrastructure and economy might have the secondary benefit of improving security by reducing the ranks of malcontents and extremists. Mullah Khaksar says he has just returned from Kandahar, where young men fill the teahouses talking of their hatred for America. "I asked, 'Why are you here?' They answered that there was no work and no jobs; what else did they have to do?" He adds, "It's the only time they talk politics, when they are without work. Every unemployed man is the President of Afghanistan." Or a possible recruit for the enemy. --With reporting by Massimo...
...ignored a potentially useful Taliban informant? Mullah Haji Abdul Samat Khaksar, the second highest-ranking Taliban official in U.S. custody, has been waiting months for the CIA to talk to him. The former deputy interior minister of the Taliban says he has valuable information to share with U.S. intelligence--and claims he may be able to help locate former Taliban leader Mullah Omar. (Khaksar's brother-in-law is a top aide to Omar and may be on the run with the fleeing leader.) But until TIME alerted the U.S. military in Kabul in late January of Khaksar's desire...
When the Taliban abandoned Kabul, Khaksar stayed behind in his villa, giving himself up to the Northern Alliance. Since then, he says he has sent five letters to the U.S. embassy in Kabul, offering to meet the diplomats and pass on information about al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. Khaksar says the reason the U.S. hasn't been able to find Omar so far is that it is relying on "liars" and tribal chieftains who are using U.S. firepower to take revenge on their enemies. He claims to have information about al-Qaeda links to the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency...