The Taliban Guy the CIA Won't Question

by Tim McGirk
Time (Europe version)
February 25, 2002

Has the CIA ignored a potentially useful Taliban informant? Mullah Haji Abdul Samat Khaksar, the No. 2 Taliban official in U.S. custody, has been waiting for months for the CIA to talk to him. The former Taliban deputy interior minister ssays he has valuable information for the U.S. - and may be able to help locate former Taliban leader Mullah Omar. (Khaskar's borther-in-law, a top aide to Omar, may be on the run with him.) But until Time recently alerted the U.S. military in Kabul of Khaksar's desire to talk, American officials had not spoken with him. Two weeks later Khaksar met with a U.S. general, but no senior intelligence official has come for a full interview. The CIA will not comment.

When the Taliban abandoned Kabul, Khaksar stayed behind, 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 pass on information about al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. Khaksar says the U.S. hasn't been able to find Omar because it is relying on "liars" and tribal chieftains 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 that has been a key partner in the U.S. war on terror. In exchange for his information, Khaksar wants safe passage for his family to a location of his choice. Though he has had trouble getting U.S. intelligence officials to listen, Khaksar fears his former comrades are paying close attention and want him silenced.

Copyright © 2002 Time Inc.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of criminal justice, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.