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Kiriakou: Afghanistan 'A Mess'

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: John Kiriakou
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

October 9, 2007

John Kiriakou, a former CIA anti-terrorism official based in Pakistan from 1998-2004, says the security situation in Afghanistan has worsened in the past couple of years, especially in the capital, Kabul. “I think we are seeing a real breakdown in society in Kabul itself,” he says. “There is rampant crime that the country has really never seen before: kidnappings, shootings, armed robbery, burglaries, and even just street violence.”

You and Richard Klein did a piece for the L.A. Times that said the country is “plain and simple a mess.” Most people know there’s trouble in Afghanistan because of the Taliban and the resurgence but is it really that bad?

Yes. And not necessarily just because of an increase in terrorism. The reasons are several-fold really. Obviously everybody is aware that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have been resurgent in Helmand province [where many Taliban leaders came from] and in Kandahar province. But we are seeing two other things that are disturbing. Just a few weeks ago several Italian coalition forces were captured and nearly killed in western Afghanistan, which had previously been friendly to Western forces. In addition, and I believe this is more troubling, I think we are seeing a real breakdown in society in Kabul itself.

Kabul, a typical traditional Muslim capital, relied very heavily on family and tribes to negotiate and settle the differences that people may have with another. Now there is rampant crime that the country has really never seen before: kidnappings, shootings, armed robbery, burglaries, and even just street violence.

Who is causing that?

There are sectarian flare-ups, usually between the Pashtuns [Sunni] and the Hazaras [Shiite], but it’s more of an “every man for himself” attitude.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.