Hekmatyar: we evacuated bin Laden and Zawahri

In an interview aired today, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar (who during the 1980s received, through the ISI, more US funding than any of the other mujahideen) declared that his militia helped bin Laden escape after September 11:

Afghan warlord says he helped bin Laden escape
ISLAMABAD (Reuters), Jan 11: ...Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister in early 1990s, said in an interview aired on Pakistan's private Geo television channel on Thursday that he met bin Laden and Zawahri after fighters loyal to his Hizb-e-Islami group helped the two al Qaeda leaders escape from the Tora Bora region in late 2001.

"After the American attack on Afghanistan, I directed my people to evacuate our guest brothers to safer places," said Hekmatyar. "Some valiant and honest mujahideen of Hizb-e-Islami evacuated Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri along with some other comrades and transferred them to a safer place," he said. "I met with them there." The authenticity of the interview could not be independently confirmed, but interviewer Saleem Safi told Reuters that it was conducted inside Afghanistan nearly three weeks ago. . .

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Comments

[Major John]

Mr. Hekmatyar, while someone with quite an interesting history, does tend to...um, embelish a little.

A pity he couldn't have peacefully rejoined Afghan society after the Taliban was chased out...

[safrang]

Mr. Hekmatyar has a proven track record of being virtually incapable of pursuing political goals through non-violent means. In the early days of the Mujahideen government he was palacated to the level of being appointed the country's Prime Minister and slated to be the next president after Rabbani, all to no avail - his first and most unrelenting task in office as the country's PM was to shell the capital Kabul to rubble. He joined the Taliban military offensive because he could not stand against that tide, but still he did not quite join the political process and the Taliban government. When they were overthrown, he reverted back to default mode again. To those of us familiar with his ways in Afghanistan, Mr. Hekmatyar's issues are deeper than than merely political or ideological.