Riddle of CIA and Haq's smokescreen

In a land celebrated for its heroes, Commander Abdul Haq was the bravest of the brave. He was wounded 16 times in the guerrilla campaign against the Soviets and his famous limp was the result of trying to cross a minefield on foot.

His exploits and subsequent refusal to be drawn into the mire of post-civil war politics gave him a unique standing among the Afghan people. No one was better able to attack the Taliban from within and his death leaves a plan for establishing a new government in disarray.

It also leaves a number of unanswered questions. The crucial one is just how much support was Haq receiving from American and British intelligence services? From reports in New York and Washington it would appear that the coalition kept him at arm's length and that in the last dramatic moments he was all but abandoned by forces that may have been able to save him.

I believe the real story has been concealed behind a smokescreen Haq put in place. When we met outside Peshawar earlier this month Haq believed he could turn Pashtun leaders away from support for the Taliban. His arguments were backed by large amounts of US dollars.

"It will prove to be the cheapest way of doing it in the long run," he said. "What is spent now will be nothing compared to the costs of a military campaign." Was the CIA providing the money? Haq denied this. From what he told me I knew he was desperately anxious to be seen by his countrymen as an Afghan patriot and not a stooge of foreign powers. This was crucial to his plan for winning over moderate Taliban commanders. "The solution can only be brought about by Afghans," he said. "They will never accept something forced on them by foreigners."

He argued that air strikes would unite even waverers around the Taliban and said he had secured agreements that military leaders would rise up against Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Air strikes, he said, would jeopardise this. Days later, the bombing began, but Haq persevered. He told me the revolt would begin in Jalalabad and it was near there, last Friday, that the Taliban found him.

He and supporters had entered Afghanistan and had been lodged in a village near Jalalabad which was then surrounded by Taliban forces. "He had been betrayed," one of his men in Peshawar said. "The bombing changed things. People we could have trusted now see the Taliban as the only defence against a foreign invader."

Haq used his satellite telephone to call Peshawar. It has been suggested that an old friend then somehow alerted the CIA. The reality is the CIA staged a bungled rescue. The Taliban says American helicopter gunships attacked their positions. It is believed that one helicopter succeeded in picking up at least one man, understood to be an American national, but there is no confirmation of this. Haq was captured and summarily executed.

At a time of growing frustration over the apparent failure of the air campaign to shift the Taliban, Haq's loss will be felt keenly. It seems especially tragic that his importance in the Allies' effort to bring a broad-based government to Afghanistan may never be publicly acknowledged.