October 12, 2001, 3:19 pm
Don’t eat while you read this 
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Terror isn’t only something that is done to people. It’s also what makes people to do terrible, terrifying things. I was one of the Taliban’s torturers: I crucified people is the brief story of Hafiz Sadiqulla Hassani, an accountant who committed hideous atrocities as a member of the Taliban secret police and finally as a bodyguard for Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s leader. The story is apocolyptic, right out of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, or the more familiar Apocalypse Now, with Osama bin Laden playing Col. Kurtz. Consider this narrative, which begins with a profile of Omar: |
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“He’s medium height, slightly fat, with an artificial green eye which doesn’t move, and he would sit on a bed issuing instructions and giving people dollars from a tin trunk,” said Mr Hassani. “He doesn’t say much, which is just as well as he’s a very stupid man. He knows only how to write his name `Omar’ and sign it. |
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“It is the first time in Afghanistan’s history that the lower classes are governing and by force. There are no educated people in this administration – they are all totally backward and illiterate. |
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“They have no idea of the history of the country and although they call themselves mullahs they have no idea of Islam. Nowhere does it say men must have beards or women cannot be educated; in fact, the Koran says people must seek education.” |
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He became convinced that the Taliban were not really in control. “We laughed when we heard the Americans asking Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden,” he said. “The Americans are crazy. It is Osama bin Laden who can hand over Mullah Omar – not the other way round.” |
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While stationed in Kandahar, he often saw bin Laden in a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers all with darkened windows and festooned with radio antennae. “They would whizz through the town, seven or eight cars at a time. His guards were all Arabs and very tall people, or Sudanese with curly hair.” |
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He was also on guard once when bin Laden joined Mullah Omar for a bird shoot on his estate. “They seemed to get on well,” he said. “They would go fishing together, too – with hand grenades.” |
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This time, however, we don’t seem to be sending a Willard up the river to “terminate the Colonel’s command.” But when it’s over, if it ever is, how do we save this hell from itself? |
[Doc Searls Weblog]
