Afghan Leader Warns of Another 9/11

"The circle — of terrorism, drug lords, and warlords ... will be complete when the Taliban comes in"

KABUL, Afghanistan -- One of Afghanistan's leading members of parliament, Mrs. Malalai Joya, warns that the current U.S. policy in Afghanistan is virtually certain to lead to another 9/11.

Joya has a unique perspective. In 2003, she blew the whistle on warlords and drug traffickers whom she said were being incorporated into the Afghan government. Ever since, she has received death threats on a daily basis.

"The circle — of terrorism, drug lords, and warlords ... will be complete when the Taliban comes in," she warns.

Any interview with Malalai Joya involves an element of risk. The hazards begin with a taxi driver who doesn't know where the parliament building is. He stops to ask directions from a fruit vendor, then races down one of Kabul's dusty roads past half-collapsed buildings that are riddled with bullet holes.

"Taliban!" he yells, by way of explanation. "Much fighting here!"

Upon arriving at the parliament building, I'm escorted into an unmarked car and informed that the meeting will be elsewhere. I'm driven to a house somewhere in Kabul.

A Prisoner of Fear

Bodyguards search me while other armed men wait outside the door. When I finally meet Joya, she apologizes profusely. Both her house and her office have been attacked, she explains, and she sleeps in a different place every night.

"For me it is torture to have these bodyguards," she says. "But I have to have them while fighting against the warlords and gangs, and especially since I'm young. If I want to do something for my people, I have to stay alive and it's painful. But on the other hand, if I look at all the people that live under bad security conditions in Afghanistan, I at least have protection."

An attractive woman, smaller than expected and just 27 years old, Joya's dark eyes belie an honest intensity that has won her both loyal friends and mortal enemies. She has made it her mission to help her country fulfill the promises of fair and just governance made after the Taliban were overthrown.

The so-called "Northern Alliance," a coalition of regional and religious organizations, governed Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 before one of its member groups, the Taliban, took over the government. After a U.S.-led coalition in 2001 ousted the Taliban regime in response to the 9/11 attacks, Northern Alliance figures were appointed to government positions despite their extensive and well-documented history of human rights abuses.

And from Joya's perspective, that's the biggest problem Afghanistan now faces.

Malalai Joya says the former Mujahideen - "warlords who have now learned how to talk about democracy and women and how to wear a suit and a tie" - are no better than the Taliban: "Every country that wants to prove itself as real and honest friends of the Afghan people must stop following the policy of the U.S., because this is not a real democracy and this is not a real war on terror. At one hand they are saying 'we fight the Taliban' and on the other we have members of parliament who are Taliban. The only way is to stop this policy. If they don't stop this policy, I am sure that one day there will be another September 11. Another September 11 will happen — because they are like the Taliban [and] they will act like the Taliban."

Keeping the Warlords at Bay

Joya says, "Look, they want again an office of 'vice and virtue,' just like the Taliban had, and which they used as a pretext for their crimes. This is the reason we want a secular government. With a secular government, they cannot commit their crimes in the name of Islam. Or in the name of Jihad. Until these warlords, these drug lords, who right now have the support of the U.S. and its allies in our country, until they become powerless, our people can never hope for democracy, women rights, human rights, and especially security in Afghanistan."

As one example of the approach that Joya objects to, Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., while visiting Afghanistan two weeks ago, voiced his support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban into a larger, more representative government."

She says these are the same "warlords and drug lords [who] committed lots of crimes when they were in power under the name of jihad and even now are committing lots of crimes under the name of jihad and Islam."

Joya dismisses the current talk about Pakistan supporting the Taliban. That, she says, is a deliberate distraction from what she claims is the real issue: the presence of criminals in the current government and the crimes they commit with impunity.

She says one member of parliament is known to have killed two children and thrown them in a river. Another, she says, used to kidnap people and put them in his personal jail.

"But nobody discusses this inside the parliament," she says. "When I try to discuss it, they threaten me. So I ask you, are these the Pakistan-supported terrorists?"

The people who control parliament also support the Taliban, Joya says.

"I have received reports, for example, that a car loaded with weapons went from Kabul to the Logar province and they were captured. The investigation showed that it belonged to people in power and they wanted to give it to the Taliban," she says.

Today there are 31,000 NATO soldiers keeping the peace in Afghanistan as part of the International Assistance Security Force (IASF). The IASF force includes 11,250 soldiers from the United States; 5,200 from Britain; 2,750 from Germany; and 2,100 from the Netherlands, plus forces from 33 other countries.

Willing to Rebuild — But Safely

Joya says Afghans will "rebuild their country with their bare hands" as long as there is security, and if the international community stops supporting the "warlordism government," as she calls it. The warlords, she adds, should be brought to justice before the International Criminal Court.

"If they want, they can do this," Joya states. She points out that in 2005, a London court convicted former warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad for torture and murder.

"Most of these criminals that are now in power were like Zardad's teachers. He was their student," she says.

"I'd like to remind you how easy it was," she adds, "for the U.S. to destroy the government of the Taliban. It was very easy when they wanted it, right after 9/11. And I would like to tell you, and especially those countries around the world that support these criminals who are now in the government, that they have the same ideals as the Taliban. One day, they will do another September 11. They are more dangerous than the Taliban right now because they are in power."

Okke Ornstein is an internationally acclaimed journalist working on assignment for NewsMax.com in Afghanistan. He reports from Kabul.