Fugitive warlord urges Afghan uprising [calls for an uprising in a "competitive spirit" with Iraq]

News Observer ^ | April 12, 2004 | AP

[yonif]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of America's most-wanted men, has urged his compatriots to rise up against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. In a statement obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, Hekmatyar calls for an Afghan uprising in a competitive spirit with Iraq. He welcomed the uprising by supporters of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who have been battling U.S. forces in Iraq.

Afghans "like Iraqi mujahedeen, will choose the way of uprising against the occupiers," said the Pashtu-language statement, translated by the AP.

Hekmatyar heads Hezb-e-Islami, an Islamic guerrilla faction that fought invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He has reportedly joined forces with the Taliban against the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"Everyone believed that ... Afghans would be ahead of Iraqis in starting a popular uprising to evict the foreign occupiers," the statement said.

The statement was released to AP by a Hekmatyar aide who visited Peshawar in northern Pakistan, some 30 miles east of the Afghan border.

It was not clear when or where the statement was made, and its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed. It was signed "Hekmatyar, Afghanistan."

Hekmatyar has issued numerous calls to fight against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He is believed hiding in Afghanistan since leaving Iran in 2002.

[the Real fifi]

Fine--bring it on--then we can cleanse the country of this thud faster..

[CatOwner]

Hmmm, maybe we are having an affect in this region. Time would be on their side just to wait it out, but maybe they don't have much time left if we are silently (read: not reported in the press) making inroads to controlling that region.

[McGavin999]

Why is that creep still alive?

[tubavil]

Why are Hekmatyar and Sadr alive?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Ah, the bandit lord, who destroyed Kabul with a rocket barrage because he did not get a big seat in a government right after Soviets withdrew. Then he was eventually chased out of Afghan by Talibans and holed up in Iran, because he was such a bandit. Now he wants to be back again. This time as a Mullah's stooge.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Hekmatayar has a long and vile history. During the jihad of 1979-92 he was the ISI's "boy." He got a disproportionate share of weapons but he didn't do much fighting. Still, he inspired great loyalty in his followers; people who know him told me he has great personal charisma.

He was always a religious extremist. At one point he was in one of the crumbling mujahideen governments as Prime Minister. During that period, he used to carry a glass jar of battery acid in his official vehicle. If he saw an unveiled woman, he would command his driver to stop and he'd dash the acid in her face. A number of these women's brothers have a reckoning with him in mind, also.

As you pointed out, his reaction to a political setback was to shell Kabul. For weeks.

The guy is a piece of crap and he has been high on the HVT list all along. Like in the eighties, he hides among loyal tribesmen in Pakistan and very, very rarely goes into Afghanistan where we can take a poke at him. But he doesn 't have official Pak sponsorship any more, and it's just a matter of time for him.

I spent several months bagging his underlings, who usually had criminal histories that boggled the mind. We found innocents in dungeons... murdered innocents rotting in caves... bones of innocents on the banks of a river. Yep, the dude's a regular Koranic scholar.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[ThermoNuclearWarrior]

"Why are Hekmatyar and Sadr alive?"

Especially Sadr when we basically know where is, but have done nothing to kill him in a targeted air strike. If we don't kill or capture Sadr and we allow him to go to Iran he has basically defeated us. He will have effectively made us look weak when the going got tough. We better take complete control of Fallujah and kill or capture Sadr or it's going to be a huge pathetic loss on our part. We will look weakened and will have shown that terrorism and revolt does pay to some degree. I am hopeful we won't allow that to happen. Our military is capable of dealing with these people if given the go ahead.

[tubavil]

I agree.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #7

So he is now in Pakistan bad land? Do Iranian Mullah still support him?

Anyway, I agree that he should be gone for good.

[astounded]

I love how these muslim studs call for uprising, jihad, whatever they want call it, but are then described as being "in hiding" somewhere. If they are so brave,, so tough, so willing to die for their "cause", why don't they come out to play with the USMC or the USA? I'll tell you why - they are like every other muslim in the world. They are pussies with big mouths who have achieved nothing, produced nothing, contributed nothing to the world since about the 4th century, if that. I am getting so sick of hearing about muslims, reading about muslims, thinking about muslims that I could puke. I don't understand why our government is not letting the USMC wipe out the "insurgency" in falljua and that fat little punk Al Sadr or whatever his name is in whatever stinking mosque he is hiding in. These pricks know nothing but force, respect nothing but action, and are laughing at us right now, in between plinking Marines and soldiers. I am so pissed off that I want to scream.

[2banana]

Isn't this the same dude who had a human monster (big, big guy) chained up in a cave. His only food was the victims thrown to him. Hekmatayar would threaten anyone who would not talk to be made into a McMeal for for this guy?

[Steve_Seattle]

These "warlords" are precisely that - ignorant little creeps who would keep their country mired in endless warfare and poverty; that is all they have to offer. The world will be much better off when they are eliminated.

[Steve_Seattle]

These macho men need to be captured, dressed in tutus, and paraded before the cameras. They will cease to have an appeal only when their macho posturing is countered with ridicule.

[Criminal Number 18F]

2banana: I hadn't heard that (feeding the monster). With Hekmatyar, anything is possible. He is one sadistic creep.

Tiger: Doubt the Iranians would support Hekmatayar much, although they did provide him with asylum when he was on the outs with the Taliban. The Iranians are trying to balance their hatred and fear of the US with their hatred and fear of militant Sunni Islam, which in the long run is probably a greater threat to their Shia theocracy. Also "Iranians" doesn't mean just one group. There are any number of secret agencies and mobs in Iran and they are all capable of drawing on official resources and working at cross purposes with one another.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F