Brzezinski Admits
Afghan Islamism Was Made in Washington
Via NY Transfer
News
Interview with
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security
Adviser in 'Le Nouvel Observateur' (France), Jan 15-21, 1998 p.76. Note
that copies of 'Le Nouvel Observateur' distributed in America did not include
the following Brzezinski interview. Only the editions distributed outside
the USA had the interview. Think what that says about the US society.
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?
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.
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?
B: It isn't quite
that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly
increased the probability that they would.
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?
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.
Q: And neither do
you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentlaism, having
given arms and advice to future terrorists?
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?
Q: Some stirred-up
Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism
represents a world menace today.
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.
_____
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