The man who brought bin Laden to Afghanistan

[Tiarnan O'Corrain]

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/1025/wor1.htm

The man who brought bin Laden to Afghanistan

The United Front president offered bin Laden asylum, Lara Marlowe, in
Golbahar, is told

It is a heavy burden to be known as the man who brought Osama bin
Laden to Afghanistan - and not one that Mr Haji Qadir wants to
bear. Mr Qadir was governor of Nangarhar, the second largest
opium-producing province in Afghanistan, when the Saudi millionaire
returned to the regional capital Jalalabad in June 1996.

"Talk to Professor Rabbani," Mr Qadir replies when asked who offered
bin Laden asylum when he was thrown out of Sudan.

Prof Burhannudin Rabbani, the figurehead president of the United Front
(also known as the Northern Alliance) is a favourite scapegoat of
Front officials. After all, Prof Rabbani is far away in his northern
"capital" of Faizabad, a three-day trek from the Shomali plain.

Mr Qadir, a distinguished-looking bald man with a neatly trimmed grey
beard, is one of the few ethnic Pashtuns in the Front leadership, and
was one of five delegates who went to Rome to discuss the country's
future with King Zahir Shah.

"Osama came on an Ariana [Afghan national airline] plane - with a
visa," Mr Qadir continues.

"It was a special flight with no passengers. Three or four days later,
I went to the head of immigration at Jalalabad and I asked him, 'Is it
true that Osama has returned?' He said yes. I asked how, and he showed
me the book; I saw the visa number in the book."

About the same time, a British UN representative and two local UN
staff were found murdered in Nangarhar. Mr Qadir believes they were
killed by bin Laden's men.

When he was fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, bin Laden and
his Arab fighters spent a lot of time in Jalalabad. "Osama preached in
all the area, 'Qadir is not a good Muslim. He is westernised'," Mr
Qadir says, eager to distance himself from the world's most wanted
man.

Mr Qadir and his brother Abdul Haq were both mujaheddin commanders
during the Soviet occupation. "The Arabs caused a lot of problems," he
recalls. "They gave meat to other mujaheddin for the Ramadan feast,
but not to our men. We held Shura council elections in 1987 and Osama
spent six million Pakistani rupees - but I took 178 seats and Osama's
men won only 28."

In the mid-1990s, before bin Laden's return to Jalalabad, Mr Qadir
clashed with his Arab followers.

"I sent them a message that I wanted to talk to them. They refused, so
I sent more than 2,000 mujaheddin to arrest them - there were at most
70 Arabs. I said, 'Surrender or we'll kill you.' I put them all in
prison. Then we signed an agreement saying they would leave
Jalalabad. I took their artillery and they left."

After bin Laden's return, the American consul in Peshawar paid
Governor Qadir a visit. "I told him Afghanistan would be a centre for
drugs and terrorism if the US did not help us. I said, 'Osama is
here. If you want to capture him, I can help'. He showed no
interest. I am not the Americans' bodyguard. I am not in charge of
American security, so I dropped it."

Mr Qadir says bin Laden made his main camp at a place called Turabura,
in the White Mountains near Jalalabad. "Osama told all the people to
support the Taliban," he continues. "Engineers and chemists came from
Egypt and other Arab countries. He was busy in his workshop. We
thought he was making something chemical against us - later we
understood it was against the whole world." The former governor
believes bin Laden is in eastern Afghanistan.

"He never sleeps. He moves around all the time. The problem for him is
that the Taliban aircraft cannot fly.

"If we recapture eastern Afghanistan, he can move into the forests and
the mountains, and the Americans will never find him unless we help
them."

Like most United Front officials, Mr Qadir is bitter that opposition
to the Taliban was ignored for so long.

--
Tiarnán Ó Corráin
Technical Writer
CMG Cork.
Email: tiarnan.o'corrain at cmg.nl
Phone: + 353 21 4933316