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'Terrorist' Haqqanis were amicable with US officials during Soviet Era
The Pakistan-based Haqqani network that was last week designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation, had a very amicable relationship with American officials during the Soviet war, that later soured, latest declassified documents have revealed.
National Security Archive, which released relevant classified documents yesterday, said these include a confession from the network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani that he had enjoyed very amicable relations with US officials during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, but that the friendship soured after the 1998 US bombing of a Haqqani-linked terrorist camp in Khost, Afghanistan, undertaken by the then President Bill Clinton in retaliation for al-Qaeda attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Offering new insight into the Haqqani family's long history with militancy, these documents records on Jalaluddin Haqqani detail direct meetings between him and US diplomats, his role as a Taliban military commander, and intimate ties to foreign militants, al-Qaeda connections, as well as his potentially critical function as a major advocate for Osama bin Laden within the Taliban administration.
Describing long-standing ties between Jalaluddin Haqqani and foreign terrorists, a 1995 report by the State Department on Kashmiri militant group Harakat-ul-Ansar notes "many of the activists of Harakat-ul-Ansar are reportedly veterans of the Afghan war who fought along with Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani in Paktia Province".
A significant portion of the membership is non-Pakistani, made up of Afghan war veterans from Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, and other countries, all of whom have stayed on after conclusion of the Afghan jihad.
"Three sources have told us that the membership also includes a small number of American Muslims - we've heard numbers ranging from six to sixteen," the cable says.
The Pakistan-based Haqqani network that was last week designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation, had a very amicable relationship with American officials during the Soviet war, that later soured, latest declassified documents have revealed.
National Security Archive, which released relevant classified documents yesterday, said these include a confession from the network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani that he had enjoyed very amicable relations with US officials during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, but that the friendship soured after the 1998 US bombing of a Haqqani-linked terrorist camp in Khost, Afghanistan, undertaken by the then President Bill Clinton in retaliation for al-Qaeda attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Offering new insight into the Haqqani family's long history with militancy, these documents records on Jalaluddin Haqqani detail direct meetings between him and US diplomats, his role as a Taliban military commander, and intimate ties to foreign militants, al-Qaeda connections, as well as his potentially critical function as a major advocate for Osama bin Laden within the Taliban administration.
Describing long-standing ties between Jalaluddin Haqqani and foreign terrorists, a 1995 report by the State Department on Kashmiri militant group Harakat-ul-Ansar notes "many of the activists of Harakat-ul-Ansar are reportedly veterans of the Afghan war who fought along with Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani in Paktia Province".
A significant portion of the membership is non-Pakistani, made up of Afghan war veterans from Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, and other countries, all of whom have stayed on after conclusion of the Afghan jihad.
"Three sources have told us that the membership also includes a small number of American Muslims - we've heard numbers ranging from six to sixteen," the cable says.
