Ahmad Shah Massoud: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[File:Massoud and Qadir 2.PNG|thumb|220px|Ahmad Shah Massoud (right) with Pashtun anti-Taliban leader Abdul Qadir (brother of Abdul Haq) (left) as part of the pre 9/11 2001 grand Pashtun-Tajik-Hazara-Uzbek alliance against the Taliban]]

{{rquote|right|For me, north, south, Persian, Pashto is absolutely meaningless. In our home we can talk in every language.<ref name="Webster University Press Book"/>}}

From 1999 onwards a renewed process was set into motion by the Tajik Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Pashtun Abdul Haq to unite all the ethnicities of Afghanistan. While Massoud united the Tajiks, Hazara and Uzbeks as well as some Pashtun commanders under his United Front command, the famed Pashtun commander [[Abdul Haq (Afghan leader)|Abdul Haq]] received increasing numbers of defecting Pashtun Taliban as "Taliban popularity trended downward".<ref name=Tomsen>{{cite book|last=Tomsen|first=Peter|title=Wars of Afghanistan|year=2011|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1586487638|pages=565}}</ref> Both agreed to work together with the exiled Afghan king [[Zahir Shah]].<ref name=Tomsen>{{cite book|last=Tomsen|first=Peter|title=Wars of Afghanistan|year=2011|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1586487638|pages=565}}</ref> Senior diplomat and Afghanistan expert [[Peter Tomsen]] wrote: "The ‘Lion of Kabul’ [Abdul Haq] and the ‘Lion of Panjshir’ [Ahmad Shah Massoud] ... Haq, Massoud, and Karzai, Afghanistan’s three leading moderates, could transcend the Pashtun—non-Pashtun, north-south divide."<ref name=Tomsen>{{cite book|last=Tomsen|first=Peter|title=Wars of Afghanistan|year=2011|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1586487638|pages=566}}</ref> Massoud, Haq and Karzai worked in a group including the former Afghan king Zahir Shah who was living in Rome.<ref name=Akhbar>{{cite book|last=Akhbar|first=Said Hyder|title=Come back to Afghanistan: Trying to rebuild a country with my father|year=|publisher=|isbn=|pages=20}}</ref> The most senior Hazara and Uzbek leader were also part of the process. In September 2001 international officials who met with representatives of the new alliance, which Pulitzer Price winner [[Steve Coll]] referred to as the "grand Pashtun-Tajik alliance", would remark, "It's crazy that you have this today ... Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara ... They were all ready to buy in to the process ... to work under the king's banner for an ethnically balanced Afghanistan."<ref name="Steve Coll: Ghost Wars">{{cite book | last = Steve Coll| authorlink = Steve Coll| title =Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 |edition=February 23, 2004 |page=558| publisher =Penguin Press HC | isbn= }}</ref><ref name="The New Statesman">{{cite web |year=2011|url = http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2011/11/haq-afghanistan-taliban-kabul|title = The lost lion of Kabul| publisher = The New Statesman}}</ref>

In late 2000, Massoud officially brought together this new alliance in a meeting in Northern Afghanistan among other things to discuss "a Loya Jirga, or a traditional council of elders, to settle political turmoil in Afghanistan".<ref name="Corbis">{{cite web |year=2001|url =http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/AAEC001272/council-of-afghan-opposition?popup=1 |title = Council of Afghan opposition| publisher = Corbis}}</ref> That part of the Pashtun-Tajik-Hazara-Uzbek peace plan did eventually materialize. An account of the meeting by author and journalist [[Sebastian Junger]] says: "In 2000, when I was there ... I happened to be there in a very interesting time. ... Massoud brought together Afghan leaders from all ethnic groups. They flew from London, Paris, the USA, all parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. He brought them all into the northern area where he was. He held a council of ... prominent Afghans from all over the world, brought there to discuss the Afghan government after the Taliban. ... we met all these men and interviewed them briefly. One was Hamid Karzai; I did not have any idea who he would end up being ..."<ref name="Webster University Press Book 2">{{cite book | last = Marcela Grad| title = Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader|edition=1 March 2009 |page=65 | publisher = Webster University Press| isbn= }}</ref>

In early 2001 Ahmad Shah Massoud with leaders from all ethnicities of Afghanistan addressed the [[European Parliament]] in [[Brussels]] asking the [[international community]] to provide [[humanitarian]] help to the people of Afghanistan.<ref name="EU Parliament (2)">{{cite web |year=2001|url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1iCsEnXdIw |title = Massoud in the European Parliament 2001| publisher = EU media}}</ref> He stated that the Taliban and [[Al Qaeda]] had introduced "a very wrong perception of [[Islam]]" and that without the support of Pakistan and Bin Laden the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.<ref name="EU Parliament"/> On this visit to Europe he also warned that his intelligence had gathered information about a large-scale attack on U.S. soil being imminent.<ref name="nineeleven">{{cite news|last=Boettcher|first=Mike|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2003-11-06/us/massoud.cable_1_bin-qaeda-sheikh-osama?_s=PM:US|title=How much did Afghan leader know?|publisher=CNN.com|date=November 6, 2003|accessdate=June 11, 2011}}</ref>