Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the notorious jihadi commander of his own faction of Hizb-i-Islami and an ally of the Taliban and al Qaeda, stated the obvious on Saturday: that al Qaeda carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. From Geo News:
Hizb-i-Islami leader and Afghanistan’s former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said the September 11 incident was an action carried out by 19 Arab fedayeen hailing from al Qaeda, Geo News reported Saturday. He was talking to Geo News in its program ‘Jirga’ with renowned journalist Saleem Safi, in connection with 9th anniversary of 9/11 incident.
Nothing earth-shattering there, except to maybe the Truthers. But Hekmatyar’s next statement is sure to have caused logic fault errors for conspiracy theorists worldwide: he said that the Jews are incapable of organizing and carrying out a plot such as the Sept. 11 attacks.
Responding a question regarding a conspiracy theory involving Jews in the Nine Eleven incident, Hekmatyar said the Jews are completely devoid of capabilities to carry out incidents such as these, adding also the Jews could not prepare anyone for sorts of actions.
Someone needs to get Hekmatyar back on message.
Also, given that Hekmatyar is praising the “19 Arab fedayeen hailing from Al-Qaeda” who carried out the Sept. 11 attack, do Major General Michael Flynn, the top military intelligence official in Afghanistan, and Sir Graeme Lamb, a former senior adviser to General McChrystal, still believe that Hekmatyar is a “pragmatist” who “has reconcilable ambitions“?
And isn’t it odd that Hekmatyar can stroll into a TV studio in Pakistan, unbeknown to Pakistan’s vaunted Inter-Services Intelligence directorate?
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5 Comments
Some memes and themes have just suffered an epic fail.
He may well feel safer in the studio than on the road.
(Too much vertical traffic for his comfort.)
The comments about “the Jews” are really odd/interesting.
Has GH made public comments about “the Jews” before? Were they the usual Islamist vitriol or are they the same “couldn’t dismissive organize anything” comments? Has he changed position or has he always had this “odd” view?
Is he positioning himself in the global media to look like “the reasonable enemy”? “Look I’m not an anti-semite I just think they’re idiots” sort of position. Now about my position in the government …”
I dont see why his praise of the fidayeen makes his ambitions unreconcilable. After all, the US is looking for a face-saving exit from Afghanistan. All it needs is the minimum facade that Taliban will not (atleast explicitly) allow anti-US terrorist camps to operate in its soil (anti India or anti-Russia are fine)
Given such a limited requirement, I dont see why they cant rope in Hekmatyar into this. What do you expect – that US will only do deals with those who proclaim their secularism and faith in the Western way of life?
@kp, you may not be aware that a popular theory among many Muslims in South Asia is that 9-11 was carried out by “the Jews”. As in, Ashfaq: “Did you know that not one perfidious Jew was killed in the destruction of the twin towers?” Pervez: “Indeed! They were all told to stay away that day. Please return my copy of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion as soon as you are done.”
he did not “stroll in a studio”. According to Geo tv, interview happened in an undisclosed location probably in afghanistan where the tv team was taken blind folded.