Operation Cyclone

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For Allied invasion of Noemfoor in 1944, also known as Operation Cyclone, see Battle of Noemfoor.
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Civil war in Afghanistan
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Soviet war in Afghanistan
U.S. involvement – Storm-333 – Khost – Panjsher – Maravar Pass – Badaber Uprising – Zhawar – Jaji – Magistral – Hill 3234 – Arrow – Soviet withdrawal

Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989.[1] American funding began with $20-30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987.[2]

Contents

[edit] Background

Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has stated that the U.S. effort to aid the mujahideen was preceded by an effort to draw the Soviets into a costly and presumably distracting Vietnam War-like conflict. In a 1998 interview with the French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled: "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would... That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."[3][4]

[edit] The Program

26 Aug 1988 SA-7.
26 Aug 1988 SA-7.

On July 3, 1979, U.S. President Carter signed a presidential finding authorizing funding for anticommunist guerrillas in Afghanistan.[2] Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and installation of a more pro-Soviet president, Babrak Karmal, Carter announced, "The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is the greatest threat to peace since the Second World War".[5]

The program relied heavily on using the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as an intermediary for funds distribution. Along with funding from similar programs from Britain's MI6 and SAS, Saudi Arabia, and the People's Republic of China,[6] the ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents between 1978 and 1992. Somewhere between $3–$20 billion in US funds were funneled into the country to train and equip troops with weapons, including Stinger man-portable air-defense systems.

Sale of non-U.S. arms to Pakistan for destination to Afghanistan was facilitated by Israel.[7][8]

[edit] Criticism

The U.S. government has been criticized for allowing Pakistan to channel a disproportionate amount of its funding to controversial Afghan resistance leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,[9] who Pakistani officials believed was "their man".[10] Hekmatyar has been criticized for killing other mujahideen and attacking civilian populations, including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons, causing 2,000 casualties. Hekmatyar was said to be friendly with Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda, who was running an operation for assisting "Afghan Arab" volunteers fighting in Afghanistan, called Maktab al-Khadamat. Alarmed by his behavior, Pakistan leader General Zia warned Hekmatyar, "It was Pakistan that made him an Afghan leader and it is Pakistan who can equally destroy him if he continues to misbehave."[11]

In the late 1980s, Pakistani prime pinister Benazir Bhutto, concerned about the growing strength of the Islamist movement, told President George H. W. Bush, "You are creating a Frankenstein."[12] American funding of Hekmatyar and his Hezbi Islami party was cut off immediately following the withdrawal of the Soviets.[13]

The U.S. says that all of its funds went to native Afghan rebels and denies that any of its funds were used to supply Osama bin Laden or foreign Arab mujahideen. It is estimated that 35,000 foreign Muslims from 43 Islamic countries participated in the war.[14][15][16][17]

[edit] Popular culture

The biographical drama film Charlie Wilson's War (2007) is based on the true story of Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who was responsible for the program funding in the 1980s.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Eduardo Real: ‘’Zbigniew Brzezinski, Defeated by his Success’’
  2. ^ a b Bergen, Peter, Holy War Inc., Free Press, (2001), p.68
  3. ^ Actualité, Spécial islamisme
  4. ^ No Regrets: Carter, Brzezinski and the Muj
  5. ^ Mark Urban, War in Afghanistan, Macmillan, 1988, p.56
  6. ^ Interview with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski-(13/6/97). Part 2. Episode 17. Good Guys, Bad Guys. 13 June 1997.
  7. ^ "Pakistan Got Israeli Weapons During Afghan War", Daily Times Monitor - Pakistan, 23 July 2003
  8. ^ Profile: Charlie Wilson
  9. ^ Bergen, Peter, Holy War Inc., Free Press, (2001), p.67
  10. ^ Graham Fuller in interview with Peter Bergen, Bergen, Peter, Holy War Inc., Free Press, (2001), p.68
  11. ^ Henry S. Bradsher, Afghan Communism and Soviet Interventions, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.185
  12. ^ Newsweek article
  13. ^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002)
  14. ^ 1986-1992: CIA and British Recruit and Train Militants Worldwide to Help Fight Afghan War. Cooperative Research History Commons. Retrieved on 2007-01-11.
  15. ^ "CIA worked with Pak to create Taliban", India Abroad News Service, 2001-03-06. Retrieved on 2007-01-11. 
  16. ^ CIA bin Laden (October 2001). Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
  17. ^ Did the U.S. "Create" Osama bin Laden?. US Department of State (2005-01-14). Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
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Alleged Afghan Training Camps
Kandahar
Kabul
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Jihad Wahl (1996-?) | Al Sadeeq | Khalden (198x-2000)
Takhar
Murad Beek
Unsorted locations