Event

Claim of U.S. support for the Taliban, 1999

A congressman’s charge of a covert U.S. policy of supporting the Taliban, and the State Department’s denial, April 1999.

5 links, 2 backed by primary records

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Dates
14 Apr 1999
How each side tells it

According to Dana Rohrabacher

According to Karl Inderfurth

According to Ahmed Rashid

Connections 5

involved

Timeline 1 date
  1. 14 Apr 1999 Claim of U.S. support for the Taliban, 1999
Proof 3 sources
  1. Afghanistan: U.S. Denies It Secretly Supports Taliban, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 15 Apr 1999. Scholarship & press
    I believe the administration has maintained this covert goal and kept Congress in the dark about its policy of supporting the Taliban, the most anti-Western, anti-female, anti-human rights regime in the world.
    I can determine nothing else but either the State Department is incompetent or that they have a covert policy of supporting the Taliban.
    He asserted the government was quietly supporting the Taliban as part of Washington's efforts to secure regional support for oil and gas pipeline links from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
    Nothing could be further from the truth -- no arms, no training, nor any other form of assistance, nor any quiet encouragement.
    Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth said Wednesday that the U.S. has provided no weapons, no training, nor any other form of assistance to the Taliban.
  2. The Taliban: Ahmed Rashid and his passion for Afghanistan (interview, broadcast 8 October 2000), Radio Netherlands Archives, 8 Oct 2000. Scholarship & press
    I don’t think the Americans gave material aid to the Taliban, but they certainly encouraged Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to back the Taliban, to fund the Taliban and give military aid to the Taliban.
  3. The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 9-11-commission, 22 Jul 2004. Primary record
    Sheehan and Clarke prevailed in July 1999, when President Clinton issued an executive order effectively declaring the Taliban regime a state sponsor of terrorism.
    two senior State Department officials suggested asking the Saudis to offer the Taliban $250 million for Bin Ladin.
    Clarke opposed having the United States facilitate a “huge grant to a regime as heinous as the Taliban”
Page history 1 change
  1. Add 55 stories, each checked against its sourcesAlibek96e92fe6

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