Table Of ContentAN ENEMY WE CREATED
ALEX STRICK VAN LINSCHOTEN AND FELIX KUEHN
An Enemy We Created
The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective
of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Oxford is a registered trade
mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2012 by Oxford University Press
Published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016,
United States of America
Published in the United Kingdom in 2011 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.
www.oup.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by
law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights
law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights
organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above
should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address
above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose
this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Strick van Linschoten, Alex.
An enemy we created : the myth of the Taliban-al Qaeda merger in Afghanistan /
Alex Strick van
Linschoten and Felix Kuehn.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-992731-9 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Taliban—History. 2. Qaida
(Organization)—History.
3. Afghanistan—History—20th century. 4. Afghanistan—History—2001–5.
War on Terrorism, 2001–2009.
6. Terrorism—Religious aspects—Islam. I. Kuehn, Felix, 1979– II. Title.
DS371.3.S758 2012
958.104—dc23 2012006855
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
1. Introducing TalQaeda
2. Forebears (1970–1979)
3. Jihad (1979–1990)
4. Rethink (1990–1994)
5. Closer and Farther (1994–1998)
6. A Bone in the Throat (1998–2001)
7. September 11, 2001
8. Collapse (2001–2003)
9. Redux (2003–2009)
10. The Forge (2010)
11. Conclusion
Notes
Definitions
Biographies
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Any manuscript of this size necessarily involves the input and assistance of a
large number of different voices and perspectives. First and foremost, it would
have been impossible to conduct our research without the support of Afghan
friends and colleagues in Afghanistan, particularly in Kandahar. Unfortunately,
the ongoing conflict means we cannot name individuals out of concern for their
safety, but we hope they know who they are and how important they were (and
are) to our ability to do this kind of work. This project would simply not have
happened were it not for this help.
An Enemy We Created was originally commissioned as a study for New York
University’s Center on International Cooperation. Barney Rubin (as Senior
Fellow and Director of Studies) was instrumental in ensuring we could get on
with our research uninterrupted and was extremely patient with our late
submission of the draft manuscript back in October 2010. Jake Sherman and
Tom Gregg were extremely helpful with the administrative side of the project.
Funding from the Center on International Cooperation was important in allowing
us to translate key texts and to facilitate our research.
Our interviews for this project were conducted in several countries. In
Afghanistan, these ranged from government members and tribal elders to
Taliban fighters, more senior members of the movement’s political cadre, as
well as ordinary people, too. We spoke with journalists, analysts and researcher
colleagues based in and outside Afghanistan, and humanitarian and political
practitioners themselves.
These included: Abdullah Anas; Orzala Ashraf; Martine van Bijlert; Vahid
Brown; Bob Churcher; Faisal Devji; Vanda Feldab-Brown; Kathy Gannon;
Antonio Giustozzi; Joanna Nathan; Gretchen Peters; Ahmed Rashid; Naeem
Rashid; Michael Semple; Saleem Shahzad; James Shinn; Brendan Simms; Yaro-
slav Trofimov; Francesc Vendrell; and Marvin Weinbaum. There were many
other encounters in Europe and in the United States. We thank them all for
taking the time to talk to us. In addition, Sebastian Dietrich helped find some
very useful out-of-print documents for us; Naira Antoun conducted an interview
on our behalf in London as well as some background research; David Rohde
generously helped find some documents left in Kabul in 2001 by Afghan Taliban
and foreign fighters.
We want to express our thanks, too, to Peter and Margaret Ann McCann and
the staff of Castle Craig in Scotland for hosting us for several weeks in late 2010
while we were finishing the first draft of the manuscript. Similarly, in Germany,
Klaus, Inge and Peter Kuehn’s continued support has been invaluable.
Our research required a fairly complex technical back-end and we were lucky
to receive advice and support from Mark Anderson, Mark Bernstein, Nathan
Matsias and Stacey Mason; all helped with the tricky-yet-indispensable
Tinderbox programme.
Early drafts (partial and full) of the manuscript were read by a small group of
some of the best minds working on these issues: Mariam Abou Zahab; Matthieu
Aikins; Steve Coll; Gilles Dorronsoro; Jere van Dyk; Andrea Binder; Joshua
Foust; Marcus Geisser; Tom Gregg; Thomas Hegghammer; Ron Neumann;
William Reeve; David Rohde; Barney Rubin; Thomas Ruttig; and Farida
Strickel. We are grateful for their comments and suggestions. This book is better
for it, although needless to say any errors and omissions remain ours and ours
alone.
Among this group a few friends went above and beyond in their help:
Christian Bleuer delivered voluminous and useful criticism; Leah Farrall—one
of the top ‘unknown’ scholars working on al-Qaeda-related issues—provided
constant and dependable feedback over the course of the past year; Anand Gopal
—surely the best new-generation writer researching the Taliban and their
Afghan affiliates—generously offered his time and titbits from his research
archive throughout; Anatol Lieven was happy to discuss Pakistan and India at
length on multiple occasions; Jean MacKenzie continued to offer us a roof over
our heads whenever when we were in Kabul and kept us regularly supplied with
good conversation and pizza; Graeme Smith—the grandfather of post-2001
journalism and research in southern Afghanistan—patiently kept in touch and
offered his advice throughout.
Larry Landrigan offered painstakingly detailed line edits of the entire text
when we were going through the final proofs.
We have been very lucky with our publisher. Hurst punches well above its
weight in the leagues of serious scholarship, and we are glad to be able to call
Michael Dwyer our friend as well as our editor.
The authors also wish to thank O.W. and S.I..
‘A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be
false.’
