Afghan Warlord Urges War Versus Coalition

[Khephra]

By THOMAS WAGNER
Associated Press Writer

December 10, 2003, 12:52 PM EST


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In a video recording released Wednesday, renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar urged the Afghan people to join a jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led coalition and to drive "the occupying infidel forces" out of the country.

The compact disc, containing a 22-minute speech by Hekmatyar, appeared to be authentic and recently made because it mentioned President Bush's visit to Iraq last month and political unrest in Georgia, the former Soviet republic.

more............

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-afghan-hekmatyar-video,0,6694318.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[NNN0LHI]

1. Rumsfeld meets Afghan warlords

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031204/325/eg8ib.html

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has begun a one-day visit to Afghanistan with the focus on issues ranging from war on the Taliban to efforts to rein in provincial warlords and narcotics traffic.

Rumsfeld arrived in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday where he met rival pro-government warlords, including ethnic Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who has been accused of dragging his feet on efforts to disarm factional militia.

Such militia are seen as the main obstacle to extending central government rule into the unruly provinces and U.S. officials said Rumsfeld wanted to show support for President Hamid Karzai's efforts to stabilise the region.

"The signal we are trying to send is that this is an important effort that Karzai's trying to do to extend the reach of the central government into the provinces, and particularly into the north," a senior U.S. official with Rumsfeld said.

more

[starroute]

2. Back to that, is he?

I've been more or less keeping track of events in Afghanistan over the last two years. According to my notes, Hekmatyar started out as (yet another) CIA creation, but after the US invasion in 2001, he began plotting to take over the government and may have been behind an attack on the Kandahar airport.

The US tried to kill him on May 7, 2002, so he called for a holy war against the US on May 31. And again on September 3. And again in December. And again in February 2003.

Either I missed a few after that point or he started getting lazy, but it seems like he's back to it again. Only now he's doing it by CD. Do you suppose that means he's serious this time? ;)