AFGHANS AND U.S. MORALITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740078-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 78
• Publication Date: May 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740078-8
ARTICLE
0 YdG~
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
25 May 1985
perspective
:hams arid U S. ;morality
-
-? ` IV/15, was 1u~uuaB.???-?-?--- ------
3y ~@W8n_ handle: The U.S., ambassador - was murdered .
rr' Hafizullah Amin was almost murdered, but became
--- - president instead after the mysterious death of his
1 see that you are betting on the morality of the predecessor. As a climax, the Soviets invaded.
i meriban people. I think that is a very good bet- In late 1984 Con ,ress passed a measure to -enable
Those are^the reassuring words Salman Gailani, a, the mt tates to o sea ai -to g an.
rceclom lighter from Afghanistan, heard about two free om ig ters e t at was -UFm-g -ffe-_U6aa--_1(U6T,
D Mich 1 cy w irh had been
E
dl
le an
But botli -the American peop ??~?? 'sending covert aid au aoe -"-
; to be bewildered about the way American can yu ,r wrt stones f that aid.
u
se
a
morality is being shown. True, the federal budget a ~, wiaiicu rc t~ rPmaln Covert
allocates $280 million in aid for 1985 to the men Wen a measure passed, few Americans knew
ing days of the =Congress,
ir land up rom
clo
f th
th
s
e
e
In
fighting Soviet domination o
about it.. $1.2o million an'1984: ?4 ,Afghanistan's situation was lost in the- flood of
At the same ltime, the United states last year sold .. publicity on other matters. The message ' was re-
$2.6 million in civil airplane - - ceived in Kabul, though; the Kabul New Times went
parts- to-ihe4people the So- into a hysteria of polemic.
,,jet .Union, installed in' .? y~o o - On May 8, one result of that resolution became
power; wheth' it. invaded Af, known when the State Department announced,that
ghanistan in'- December, we have sent openly, to Afghans resisting inside
ttatts
orth of humanitarian aid.
lli
on w
thiuntry $4 mi
1 1979. These are the same?
er co, people -whose military air What about military aid? Are we now likely to
craft` drop bombs, on, h;. send that openly> {
s a United States Army officer.-
"
d
ll
"
say
Not.at a
on y
Gailani's comrades an
,tile women-and children of VV If American trucks start to roll on the highways of
villages'that shelter them ~, r ! Pakistan with arms for the Afghan.resistance,
The Soviet puppets in the FIeEis Pakistan will be destabilized
weapons sent to the
n is the conduit for
f Kabul
l
ki
t
i
, o
Pa
s
a
ta
Afghane cap
. enjoy .most-favored-nation freedom fighters and distributes them according to
ed to a fundamen
, v:?;. r:.?..
. its own. litics.' Being committ
status, as our, trading part-
ners.`Last.year.our trading ;a moist Islamic society, Pakistan is likely' to favor
with' them, increased the freedom fighter groups with that orientation, rather
deficit by. nearly $6 .. ' artun, than the more liberal, Westernized groups. Theology
ctiveness:
ff
b
e
at e
million. While we sent is the criterion, not com
ong groups of Afghan freedom
se
th
lri
o
es am
va
Kabul, in addition to
publicized. Recently the
The ri airplane parts, .old clothes fighters have been well
and cigarettes,. we were president of Pakistan issued an ultimatum: unite. ,
importing such necessities He said he must have a central leader with whom to:..
Yet the manner of arms delivery tends to
deal
licorice root
,
of life,. as _
. cashrnereygoat hair and ..!:_ foster competitiveness and suspicion.
carpets, to, the .tune. of And when those weapons reach the combat zones
nd to be outmoded, defective and`
f
e
f
,
ou
n
t
they are o
.
twice our exports., c,,,,,, N)ost-favored-nation sta=. - ' supplied with inadequate ammunition. Last month'
taus would be removed from?the Kabul regime-under the supply officers of three resistance organizations
%'brill introduced in the Senate last month by Sen. told the Federation for American-Afghan Action that
Gordon' Humphrey [R., N.HJ? The State Depart- improvements in the delivery of weapons have been
meat, according to Afghanistan desk officer Phyllis so slight as to be inconsequential. Two officers
C~r,lcley, will not oppose this legislation. Yet initiative, reported improvement of less than 10 percent, the
for it after five years of Soviet occupation came not third an actual decrease. This, in spite of a 150
frotn; the State Department_ but from private percent leap in appropriations by the United States.
citizens. Directi The-exported "airplane parts have been intended mAinNentational
wh h would offer a new serious policy for
for the American planes that make up the fleet of this country concerning Afghanistan. Meanwhile,
he Afghan airline, Ariana. The newest of these is a people like Salman Gailani come to Washington
DC-7 bought with a loan from the Export-Import seeking something better,. only -to be ignored by the
Bank`' and delivered on Oct. 7, 1979, just a few State Department or received at a low level. And in
months before the Soviet invasion. the plains of Afghanistan the resistance missiles hit
That year, 1979, was-hectic in, Afghanistan, where only one target out of four.
a government that had been Communist since April,. ; "An oversight" is the way a staff aide in the State
d ntinuing the
l
T,h a Talley Stewart' is 'the author' of "Fire in
ft.f hanistan [Doubleday, 1973` of the tSo work onn-
7 book on the backgr0
deserves
vusion.
e
'Department is said to nave exp
au- Soviet-backed regime's most-favored-nation status
for five years after the invasion. The deaths of
brave men deserve closer attention. Salman Gailani
to win his bet on American morality.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740078-8