| Amrullah Saleh امرالله صالح | |
|---|---|
| Amrullah Saleh in an interview | |
| Director of National Directorate of Security | |
| In office February 2004 – June 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | Muhammad Arif Sarwari |
| Succeeded by | Ibrahim Spinzada (temporarily) followed by Rahmatullah Nabil |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1972 Panjshir, Afghanistan |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| Military service | |
| Awards | Cleary University (honorary Doctorate Degree in Analysis Science) |
Amrullah Saleh (Persian: امرالله صالح; born 1972) is an Afghan politician who last served as head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. In 1997, at the age of 24, he was appointed by anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud to lead the United Front's (Northern Alliance) liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe handling contacts to international non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and intelligence agencies. After the fall of the Taliban regime, Saleh was appointed by President Hamid Karzai in early 2004 to lead the National Directorate of Security. Due to political differences with Karzai, Saleh resigned his position in 2010. He is currently leading one of the strongest Afghan pro-democracy and anti-Taliban movements, the Basej-i Milli (National Movement) or Afghanistan Green Trend, with about 10,000 of his supporters rallying against the Taliban in Kabul in 2011.
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Amrullah Saleh was born in the Panjshir Province of Afghanistan in 1972.
In the late 1990s, in his early 20s, Saleh worked for the anti-Taliban resistance, the United Islamic Front (Northern Alliance), under Ahmad Shah Massoud.[1][2] In 1997, Saleh was appointed to lead Massoud's international liaison office in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he served as a coordinator for non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and as a liaision partner for foreign intelligence agencies.[1]
After the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, Amrullah Saleh helped lead United Front intelligence on the ground in Afghanistan during the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) toppling the Taliban regime.[3]
After the creation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Saleh was appointed to head Department One of Afghanistan's main intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). The duties of Department One included liaison with foreign military, diplomatic, and intelligence organizations. In 2004, Amrullah Saleh was appointed as the head of the NDS by President Hamid Karzai.[2] In June 2010 Saleh resigned from his position. He subsequently founded the Basej-i Milli (National Movement) or Afghanistan Green Trend as a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban grassroots movement.
Saleh helped rebuild the Afghan intelligence service and according to the Los Angeles Times was considered as someone in the Afghan government with a clear understanding of the security challenges facing the country.[4] The United States considered Saleh and former interior minister Hanif Atmar two of the most effective ministers in Karzai's Cabinet.[4]
On June 6, 2010, Amrullah Saleh resigned from the NDS after a militant attack against the national peace jirga, although the attack was thwarted and none of the assembly participants was hurt.[4] Interior minister Hanif Atmar resigned the same day as Saleh. A few days after the jirga, Karzai had summoned Hanif Atmar and Amrullah Saleh to discuss the attack against the Jirga. After the meeting both men officially resigned because of the failure to stop the attack on the jirga.[4][5] CNSNews writes: "Saleh told reporters he had submitted his resignation as general director of National Security because he had lost Karzai’s trust as a result of the attack. He said he and Atmar had briefed the president on the security preparations for the jirga, and the subsequent "success in ... capturing the facilitators," but Karzai had not been satisfied. He had therefore felt unable to continue in his post. He also said there were “tens” of reasons for leaving his position, but would not elaborate on others."[6]
The two men's resignation/removal led to widespread concerns among Afghanistan experts.[4] Concerns were voiced over the direction the country was moving in.[6] President Karzai’s national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, was quoted as saying:
"With Amrullah Saleh, the Afghan people have lost a huge treasure of commitment, awareness and experience in this struggle against terrorism, Al Qaeda and the ISI. I can’t think of anyone who will be able to even slightly fill the vacuum that he leaves behind. Besides being a highly efficient chief at the N.D.S., he is a man of knowledge and research with an incredible memory and intellect. When he analyzed issues at international meetings, he exhibited tremendous ability at logical reasoning. He was head and shoulder above others. ... I had many differences in arguments with him, but I always saw his presence at the N.D.S. as a huge advantage to this country and this government. Despite my high respects for the president’s decisions, I am extremely mournful about Saleh’s departure. Extremely mournful."[7]—Rangin Dadfar Spanta, June 2010
The Afghan media also extensively covered the resignations with the daily newspaper Hasht e Subh headlining an article: "Resignation of Atmar and Saleh: Accountability to the People or Tribute to Pakistan?"[7]
The resignation of Saleh and Atmar came amidst heavy disagreement between Hamid Karzai and Amrullah Saleh on how to proceed against the Taliban.[8] "I’m sure the disagreement between the two men and the president have been going on for awhile," said Daoud Sultanzoi, a member of Parliament from Ghazni who is a businessman and is viewed as independent.[9] Saleh publicly blamed the Pakistani government and army for its support of the Taliban and other extremist groups.[9] Meanwhile Karzai had increasingly been placing his hopes on his attempts to reach a deal with the Taliban and Pakistan. Pakistan had repeatedly urged Karzai to oust Saleh from his position.[9]
Amrullah Saleh said he considered Hamid Karzai a patriot. But he said the president was making a mistake if he planned to rely on Pakistani support.[9]
"They are weakening him under the disguise of respecting him. They will embrace a weak Afghan leader, but they will never respect him."[10]—Amrullah Saleh, June 2010
Amrullah Saleh has repeatedly stated that Afghan intelligence believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an area close to Abbottabad, Pakistan, four years before he (Bin Laden) was killed there – but no action was taken after the claim was furiously rejected by Pakistan's president.[11] Agents working for the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) worked out that the world's most wanted man must be inside Pakistan proper, rather than the semi-autonomous tribal areas, as early as 2004, Amrullah Saleh told The Guardian. Saleh said they believed Bin Laden must be there based on "thousands of interrogation reports" and the assumption that Osama – "a millionaire with multiple wives and no background of toughness" – would not be living in a tent.[11] "I was pretty sure he was in the settled areas of Pakistan because in 2005 it was still very easy to infiltrate the tribal areas, and we had massive numbers of informants there. They could find any Arab but not Bin Laden."[11]
The NDS's intelligence became more precise in 2007 when they believed Bin Laden was hiding in Manshera, a town a short distance from Abbottabad where the NDS had identified two al-Qaida safe houses. But Amrullah Saleh says that Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, was outraged at the suggestion that Bin Laden was hiding in such a prominent part of the country. In a meeting that Musharraf, Hamid Karzai and Saleh attended, the Pakistani president reportedly became furious and smashed his fist down on the table.[11] According to Saleh, "He said, 'Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?' Then he turned to President Karzai and said, 'Why have you have brought this Panjshiri guy to teach me intelligence?'"[11]
A BBC journalist confronting Musharraf with Saleh's allegations writes: "The former leader of Pakistan plays the dispassionate broker very well. ... [But] this is when Mr Musharraf's camouflage starts to slip. The substance of the claim he handles like a politician (it was actually a case of mistaken identity involving the CIA, he says). But he bristles with anger at the mention of Amrullah Saleh's name."[12] Accusing Saleh of "impertinence" and being "lowly", Musharraf stated: "Amrullah Saleh I have never liked and therefore he has no right to present anything to me."[12]
A December 2011 analysis report by the Jamestown Foundation, however, came to the conclusion that "in spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani Army Chief General Ziauddin Butt (a.k.a. General Ziauddin Khawaja) revealed at a conference on Pakistani–U.S. relations in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director-General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah (retd.), had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad."[13]
General Butt repeated the allegation on December 11, saying he fully believed that "[Brigadier] Ijaz Shah had kept this man [Bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound] with the full knowledge of General Pervez Musharraf ... Ijaz Shah was an all-powerful official in the government of General Musharraf."[13]
In 2010 Saleh launched a peaceful campaign to warn that Hamid Karzai had lost conviction in the fight against the Taliban and was pursuing a compromise that could come at the cost of democracy, stability and human rights, especially women's rights. He criticized Karzai's policy, which he called a "fatal mistake and a recipe for civil war".[14]
"My view is there must not be a deal with the Taliban. Ever. There must be a process. And according to that process, based on that process, the Taliban should become part of the society and play according to the script of democracy. They should be demobilized, disarmed, reintegrated the way the Northern Alliance was. ... And also they should denounce violence. And that process will bring a lasting stability. Minus that, if there is a deal, deals never bring stability. They create fragile peace. ... if there is a deal, we will resist against the deal, "we" meaning all the forces who fought the Taliban. ..." [2]—Amrullah Saleh, November 2010
"[T]he Taliban have no message, no vision except intimidation, spreading fear, bringing exclusion in the Afghan society, stopping development and destroying pluralism. ... We all want to make peace, but we do not want to Talibanize Afghanistan."[2]—Amrullah Saleh, November 2010
Amrullah Saleh founded the Basej-e Milli (National Movement), also known as Afghanistan Green Trend, which has successfully established itself in Afghanistan. In May 2011, more than 10,000 of his followers took part in an anti-Taliban demonstration in the capital Kabul.[15][16][17]
In December 2011, Saleh warned that if the Afghan government did not bring in necessary reforms, the year 2014 - when international troops plan on having finalized their exit strategy - would be a year of challenges rather than opportunities. Saleh especially emphasized the need for fundamental reforms in Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission.
"2014 is a year of opportunities, some coalitions will form and whoever wins transparently or in an almost transparent situation, the Afghan people will support the new order ... If there are no reforms, I can foresee a popular uprising, a just uprising different from the Taliban's.[18]—Amrullah Saleh, December 2011
Speaking during the inauguration of an Islamic foundation in Kabul, Saleh said the Karzai government and the United States of America cannot represent the anti-Taliban Afghan civilians and initiate peace talks while simultaneously excluding them. The former Afghan Intelligence Chief insisted on considering the views of the Afghan people during the peace talks process, as a majority of Afghans both in the northern and southern regions, he said, have negative views of the Taliban.[19] He also questioned the honesty of the Taliban's involvement in peace talks.[20] The recent objections by nearly all major opposition parties come amid growing efforts by the US and Hamid Karzai to make headway in secret talks with the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami.[20] In these talks representatives from the anti-Taliban United Front, which fought the Taliban from 1994 until 2001 and unites leaders representing roughly 60% of Afghanistan's population, are being excluded. Critizising the secretive nature of US talks with the Taliban, opposition leaders have asked for a transparent UN-led peace process.[21]
Official
2011
2004-2010