---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 09:48:11 -0500
From: by way of John Fournelle <BBlum6@aol.com>
To: sixties@lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: How Carter and Brzezinski helped start the Afghan mess
In light of what's happened, I think it's important to give the following
very wide currency. So start forwarding:
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski
Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76*
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From
the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the
Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this
period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You
therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to
the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army
invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until
now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President
Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the
pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the
president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going
to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But
perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke
it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we
knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they
intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in
Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of
truth. You don't regret anything today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the
effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret
it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to
President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its
Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war
unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the
demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [intgrisme],
having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the
collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of
Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic
fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to
Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a
rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading
religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in
common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan
militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more
than what unites the Christian countries.
* There are at least two editions of this magazine; with the perhaps sole
exception of the Library of Congress, the version sent to the United States
is shorter than the French version, andthe Brzezinski interview was not
included in the shorter version.
The above has been translated from the French by Bill Blum
Author, "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II"
and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower"
Portions of the books can be read at:
http://members.aol.com/superogue/homepage.htm (with a link to Killing Hope)
If anyone whose French is better than mine can translate the bracketed word,
"intgrisme", I'd appreciate hearing from them <bblum6@aol.com>
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