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NEWS ANALYSIS Unlikely U.S. Allies in Afghanistan Anti-Taliban Coalition is Motley Band with Shady Past
Thursday, September 27, 2001
By Anna Badkhen / Chronicle Foreign Service

Who supports the alliance?
The Taliban's enemies -- Iran and Russia -- among others...

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -- San Francisco Chronicle
Until President Bush signaled that the U.S. campaign against terrorism would start in Afghanistan, the West paid little attention to the cluster of fighters who have opposed the country's Taliban regime for the past five years -- the Northern Alliance.

Although the Bush administration says ousting the Taliban regime would not be the goal of attacks against terrorist havens in Afghanistan, alliance leaders say U.S.-led attacks would afford them an opportunity to do precisely that.

America's newfound friends are potentially very useful: Alliance fighters know Afghanistan's difficult terrain, speak local dialects and control the Soviet-built Bagram air base north of Kabul. But they have a troubling history as well.

Russian border guards, who still man the 682-mile frontier between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, reported last year that the alliance pays for rocket launchers, helicopters and ammunition with precious stones and, occasionally, opium and heroin.

The U.S. State Department and the United Nation's top anti-narcotics official have said that drug traffickers operate freely in areas controlled by the alliance.
(More: SF Gate News Source)
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

Dan