NP? article: The Afghan King and the Nazis

[Doug Millison]

http://www.counterpunch.org/tariqking.html
The Afghan King and the Nazis:
A German Dispatch From 1940 Shows
King Mohammed Zahir Shah's True Colors

By Tariq Ali

"[...] The Northern Alliance is a confederation of monsters. Attaching
dissidents to the chains of a tank and crushing them in public view,
executing defenceless prisoners, extracting gold teeth from corpses, raping
men and women, are all part of a day's work for these guardians of the
heroin trade. Blemishes of yesteryear? No such luck. Much of this is going
on today under the approving gaze of US marines, CIA agents and the handful
of SAS men that Blair was allowed.

 [...] And if the 87 year-old King Zahir Shah is wheeled over from Rome,
what then? Nothing much, thinks the West, except to try and convince the
Pashtuns that their interests are being safeguarded.

Judging from past form indicates that Zahir Shah might not be satisfied
with the status quo. His people were in fine fettle at the Afghan summit in
Bonn, where they were put up in the hotel where Neviille Chamberlain used
to stay. A document from the German Foreign Office, dated 3 October, 1940
(cracked by the Enigma decoder during the Second World War) makes
fascinating reading. It is from State Secretary Weizsacker to the German
legation in Kabul and is worth quoting in some detail:

"The Afghan Minister called on me on September 30 and conveyed greetings
from his Minister President and the War Minister, as well as their good
wishes for a favourable outcome of the war. He inquired whether German aims
in Asia coincided with Afghan hopes; he alluded to the oppression of Arab
countries and referred to the 15 million Afghans [Pashtuns, mainly in the
North West Frontier Province ---TA] who were forced to suffer on Indian
territory. My statement that Germany's goal was the liberation of the
peoples of the region referred to, who were under the British yoke, as well
as the restoration of their rights, was received with satisfaction by the
Afghan Minister. He stated that justice for Afghanistan would be created
only when the country's frontier had been extended to the Indus; this would
also apply if India should secede from Britain...The Afghan remarked that
Afghanistan had given proof of her loyal attitude by vigorously resisting
English pressure to break off relations with Germany. Today he wanted to
present Afghanistan's wishes as a matter of precaution, but he requested
strict secrecy; he called a fulfilment of these wishes a matter for the
future."

The King who had dispatched the Minister to Berlin was the 26-year old
Zahir Shah. The Minister-President was his uncle Sardar Muhammad Hashim
Khan. What is interesting in the German dispatch is not so much the hatred
for Britain, which was normal at that time. It is the desire for a Greater
Afghanistan by the incorporation of what is now Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province and its capital Peshawar. Zahir Shah's return is being
strongly resisted by Pakistan. They know that the King never accepted the
Durand Line, not even as a temporary border. They are concerned that he
might encourage Pashtun nationalism. [...]