- Ex-National Security Chief Brzezinski Admits: Afghan
Islamism Was Made in Washington
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- Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's
National Security Adviser in 'Le Nouvel Observateur' (France) Jan 15-21,
1998 p.76
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- [Note: There are at least two editions of 'Le Nouvel
Observateur.' With apparently the sole exception of the Library of Congress,
the version sent to the United States is shorter than the French version.
The Brzezinski interview was not included in the shorter version.] ___
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- Question: 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?
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- 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.
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- 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?
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- B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to
intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
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- 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?
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- 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.
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- Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic
fundamentlaism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
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- 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?
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- Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and
repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
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- 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. ___
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- 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
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