Masood Khalili: The commander told me that there will be journalists waiting in Khwaja Bahauddin. Amongst them there were two Arabs who were waiting since 15 days. We each had the room which was about seven by seven metres, two, three couches were there. One couch was two-seater, the commander sat there and asked me to accompany him and sit beside him. Then commander said to the cameraman you will start, please. The cameraman put the tripod and he mounted the camera and self set two yards behind the camera. The commander made himself very much ready and like usual very graceful and with a good smile. That day he looked to me very handsome. The first question with him a little bit, what is the situation? I turned myself towards commander like this, he was just beside me and I said what in Persian, "What is the ..." Before saying question, that bomb blasted. Then I saw the hand of commander pushing me back and I was unconscious. That is the time from entering the room until I was unconscious that I witnessed to. Not less, not more. Peter Tomsen: The Great Game's been going on not for centuries but for millennia, perhaps you can trace this back to Alexander the Great. The outside players in The Great Game always change over the succeeding centuries. The Afghans, though, have remained the only constant in their mountainous areas fighting off invaders, resisting domination by outside powers. In the last century, the two competing outside powers, the Russian and the British Empires decided to create a buffer state at the centre of the Eurasian landmass, and neither would seek domination in Afghanistan. In the last quarter of the 20th century with the Soviet invasion, ideology came into play, of course, in the form of communism, which never found fertile ground in the Afghan Muslim society. Now a second ideology was beginning to push into the Afghan woodwork during the Soviet occupation, and that was radical Muslim extremism. The Pakistani military intelligence and the Pakistani military supported this, they favoured the radical Afghans in the resistance even though the moderate Afghans were tribal forces and the nationalistic forces did most of the fighting and dying. During this period, the Pakistani military intelligence, ISI, also brought in Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamic elements from the Muslim world to assist in establishing training basis and training muslim extremists, not only Afghans, but others from Pakistan, from Southeast Asia, Middle East. Narrator: The site of Ay Khanom, at the juncture of the Kokcha River with the Oxus separates the rugged and harsh Mountains of Tajikistan from the equally desolate landscape of Afghanistan. This site attracted the Emperor Alexander the Great to strike camp and build an encampment as he prepared to cross the Oxus. Today, the Taliban is three kilometres away from these historic rooms and the Northern Alliance controls the heights. John Elliott: I'm John Elliott, I'm in Ay Khanom in Afghanistan close to the border with Tajikistan in the half of Central Asia. I'm sitting by the banks of the River Amu Darya, better known in the West as the Oxus. This is a river steeped in history because conquerors through the centuries have crossed this river usually from north to south irrevocably changing the history and destiny of the lands and peoples that they've conquered. One of them was Alexander the Great, who in the 4th Century B.C. crossed from south to north and built an encampment where I'm sitting today. Narrator: Almost 2300 years later, on Christmas Eve in 1979, Russian tanks cross this very river kickstarting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. [foreign language]. 10 tumultuous years later, when the Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan, different faction leaders of the Mujahideen transformed themselves into warlords fighting each other for control of the country. This set the stage for the Pakistanis to introduce the Taliban as a new player in the game and they saw to it that the ranks of the Taliban's forces will be traced by Pakistani combatants and International Islamic mercenaries from countries as varied as China, the Philippines, West Asia, and Burma. There is hard evidence of the International Islamic conspiracy of Osama bin Laden behind the Taliban in the form of international prisoners of war of different nationalities taken by the Northern Alliance. These prisoners have been kept in an isolated and remote camp, making it very difficult for the Taliban to mount a rescue operation. John Elliott: What's your name? Mamusar Hyatt: My name is Mamusar Hyatt. John Elliott: Where do you come from? Mamusar Hyatt: Viya in Burma but nationality to Pakistan in Kachhi. John Elliott: What made you come to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban? Mamusar Hyatt: We have an organiser and name is Islami Mahaz. My commander sent me go to for fight. John Elliott: What is your name? Mohammed Isla: My name is Mohammed Isla. John Elliott: Where do you come from? Mohammed Isla: From Pakistan, Peshawar. John Elliott: From Peshawar? Mohammed Isla: Yeah. John Elliott: Why did you join the Taliban? Mohammed Isla: [foreign language]. John Elliott: You speak English? Speaker 7: Yes. John Elliott: Could you tell me please what your name is and where you come from? Speaker 7: I come from China, my name is [inaudible]. John Elliott: What part of China? From Xinjiang province? Speaker 7: From Xinjiang. John Elliott: From Xinjiang. Why did you join the Taliban? Speaker 7: I come here for study religion. John Elliott: For religion? Speaker 7: Yes. John Elliott: But for what purpose did you join a fighting force? Speaker 7: I studied two months what my teacher tell me go to the fight. John Elliott: Where are you from? Speaker 8: Karachi. John Elliott: Why did you join the Taliban? Speaker 8: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What Job did you do in Karachi before you joined the Taliban? Speaker 8: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What is your name? Salauddin Khali: My name is Salauddin Khalid. John Elliott: Where do you come from? Salauddin Khali: I am from Pakistan. John Elliott: What is your profession, your job when you're in Pakistan? Salauddin Khali: I was commander of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen organisation. John Elliott: Why did you join the Taliban? Salauddin Khali: My organisation, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, is a fundamentalist organisation and my area is as Taliban area. Therefore, my organisation commander said to me, "Go with your personnel in the Taliban." John Elliott: What is your name? Mohammed Shahid: My name is Mohammed Shahid. John Elliott: Where do you come from? Mohammed Shahid: I came from Karachi, in Karachi, nationality, Pakistan. John Elliott: Why did you join the Taliban? Mohammed Shahid: I want to Islamic religion sharia. John Elliott: What made you decide to join a fighting force? Mohammed Shahid: [foreign language]. John Elliott: In the autumn of 1994, this mysterious new organisation called the Taliban had emerged out of the blue. It had acquired a command structure, weapons, skilled manpower, funding, and a strategic plan. The responsibility for this metamorphosis lay with Pakistan. Narrator: The capture of the small town of Spin Boldak on the border with Pakistan on October 12, 1994, marked the Taliban's first military victory. This squalid refuelling stop in the middle of the desert was an important staging post at the Pakistani transport mafia on the route to Iran and Turkmenistan. Control of this town was critical. The Mafia's donation of several thousand dollars to Mullah Omar and a promise monthly stipend to Taliban coffers secured control of this town. This was the beginning of the Taliban's blitzkrieg in Afghanistan. Peter Tomsen: There's Pakistani military intelligence officers in virtually every Taliban ministry in Kabul and you often hear Urdu spoken as much as the Afghan languages. There's hundreds of ISI officers around Afghanistan. The Council in Herat, the Pakistani Council in Herat is a Pakistani ISI officer. They also hold key positions in other diplomatic establishments around Afghanistan, and as the Taliban's popularity has gone down, more and more Pakistani fighters, not only from the religious side, but also from the regular Pakistani military have begun to be deployed to Afghanistan to shore up the Taliban. Peter Bergen: The Taliban armoured vehicles and pickup trucks can't move without Pakistani fuel. It's certainly not coming from Iran and it's certainly not coming from the former Soviet Union countries of the former Soviet Union to the north. Pakistan can influence the Taliban, I don't think that they can turn around and say to the Taliban, "Hand over Osama bin Laden." If the Taliban don't want to hand over Osama bin Laden, they're not going to do it. A Western diplomat based in Pakistan told me relatively recently that up to 40% of Taliban soldiers come from Pakistan now. That doesn't mean they're all Pakistani, a lot of Afghans because of the war study in Pakistan and then go back to Afghanistan. Nonetheless, that's a pretty big figure. He said in fact somewhere between 20% or 40% of Taliban soldiers come from Pakistan. So clearly Pakistan does have a role to play, Pakistan has always had a role to play in Afghanistan. Pakistan has always wanted to control who runs Afghanistan because they are concerned about strategic depth. They are in their own view surrounded by enemies, they fought as you well know three wars with India. They're concerned basically to have strategic depth as regards Afghanistan. Steven Emerson: Pakistan and the ISI created the Taliban and it's an organisation that's designed to promote the most virulent form of militant Islamic fundamentalism. It's also, obviously, an extension instrument of the Pakistani government. Olivier Roy: I think that the Afghan policy of Pakistan is still and it's more and more becoming dangerous for Pakistan. Because it's a policy based on an escalation, an internationalisation, and this internationalisation of the Afghan crises may get out of hands of the Pakistanis themselves in favour of internationalist radical groups like bin Laden. What happens, what will happen, for example, if tomorrow there is an over terrorist action of bin Laden against American interest? The Americans we do not want to be involved in Afghan politics will be obliged to do something sooner or later. This escalation is very dangerous, not only for the Pakistan itself, but for the whole region. Narrator: Olivier Roy's prophetic statement of August 15, 2001 came true on September 11, 2001, when Osama bin Laden struck the continent of United States. Peter Tomsen: In some, aetiology is today continuing to play a role in Afghanistan, it's the radical Islamic ideology. In fact, what we are seeing are politicians and military leaders in Pakistan using a religious mask, in this case, religious extremism to stir up opposition to the moderate forces in Afghanistan. Abdul Hamid M.: You know the number of madrasa in Pakistan and every day, every day that is the foundation of madrasas. These people are educated in this madrasas because they was poor people, they had no something to eat. They put it as a sense to the madrasa and for the education too. But these madrasas financed by Gulf people, by the Gulf Arabic people, by Saudi people. They came under the influence of Mohave religions. From other side, you know the deal when went so the deal with madrasa was in India and the British time but this madrasa is from a bit found by [inaudible] who this madrasa was for liberation of India. They wanted to educate some people to participate in liberation and independence of India. But after, this madrasas begin this change as we ... Narrator: The Deoband madrasa in northern India developed a Hanafi view of Islam that emerged as a spillover centre to the Wahhabi School that originated in Saudi Arabia. The torch bearers of the Deoband philosophy in Pakistan, [foreign language], both these madrasas provide the recruits for the Taliban. Maulana Qari: [foreign language]. John Elliott: Who then runs the schools in the Taliban area? Who are these novels who work in the parts of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban? Mufti of Khodja: [foreign language]. John Elliott: How can you be so sure though? It's very hard for somebody from the other side of the world to believe that the Pakistan Secret Service, the ISI, can actually have this much influence in Afghanistan. Mufti of Khodja: [foreign language]. John Elliott: I spoke to Commander Masood about the war with the Taliban and about Pakistan's involvement in it, and I also asked him about the threat that the Taliban poses to the rest of the world with its involvement in international drug trafficking and terrorism. Commander Masood, thank you very much for making time to see us. We know you've come here primarily to inspect your troops and the lines, but it is very good of you to spare the time for us and to let us fly down in the helicopter with you yesterday. Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: The U.S. recently welcomed the Taliban's announcement that they just stopped growing poppies. Do you believe it has stopped? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What is the current military position in Afghanistan? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What is the percentage of Afghanistan held by your troops and by the Taliban? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: You keep on mentioning Pakistan, it is primarily Pakistan which is behind the Taliban, is that correct? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What actual evidence do you have of the direct involvement of say their generals? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: Do you have names of Pakistan generals who are actually fighting with the Taliban? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What is the role of Osama bin Laden in the Taliban? Ahmed Masood: [foreign language]. Frank Wisner: The Taliban has kept its operations shrouded in secrecy. I don't think I can really tell you who pulls the strings and how they're pulled, but that it is now a deeply rooted fact in Afghan life and is not going to go away. That in its interests, the Taliban have got to figure out how to deal with the world, but also in time if we can find some common ground, we're all going to have to figure out how to live with the Taliban. My view is that the Taliban knows its own mind, has fought to get itself to the position it's in and is not manipulated idly by foreign hands and forces. But Osama bin Laden does not give the Taliban orders. The Taliban controls the Taliban today. John Elliott: Today, I'm at Bagram Airport, about 30 kilometres from Kabul, and the Taliban are dug in just a kilometre away beneath those mountains. On the surface, this looks like one of the age old battles between Afghanistans warring tribes, but this time there is a significant difference. And the difference is that all the ethnic groups in the country, apart from a majority of the platoons are linked together in a united front. They are united by Afghanistan's historic and traditional determination not to let outsiders interfere in their affairs. The outsider, on this occasion, is Pakistan working through the Taliban. General Baba Jaan, when did you capture this airport and was it a big battle? Baba Jaan: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What is the significance of Bagram Airport? Baba Jaan: [foreign language]. John Elliott: Notwithstanding its earlier acquiescence in the birth of the Taliban, the U.S. government is becoming increasingly concerned about the spillover effect on the deserts of Uzbekistan and her neighbours. Behind me, you see the ancient Uzbek City of Samarqand. For centuries, southern Uzbekistan, northern Afghanistan, and Tajikistan were one large borderless state. Then with the Russian Revolution of 1917, they were split into three separate entities. Narrator: The five million people of Tajikistan share a 640 mile border with Afghanistan, divided by the historical River Amu Darya, once called the Oxus. A quarter of Afghanistan's population is Tajik, and for them as well as for their ethnic brothers here in Tajikistan, the primary symbol of Tajik nationalism was Commander Ahmed Shah Masood as he relentlessly battled the Taliban. Yesterday's bitter enemies have become today's allies. The Russians who have 25,000 crack troops stationed in Tajikistan to bolster her defence are now allied against the Taliban with the Northern Alliance and their late leader, Commander Masood, formerly an opponent of the Red Army. However, today the Russian sell the Northern Alliance weapons and also endorse Tajikistan's decision to provide them with sanctuary in Tajikistan, which is essential for their operations. John Elliott: The Taliban had access to a vast cache of weapons leftover from the Mujahideen's war against a Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They also had a huge cash flow from international drug trafficking. Michael Swetnam: I do know that the flow of drugs through that part of the world through Afghanistan specifically is a critical part of the drug trade around the world. The money generated from that flow of drugs through Afghanistan has to be a critical part of their economy, a critical part of the funds that they raise and use for the spread of their beliefs and their thesis around the world. General Nazarov: [foreign language]. Narrator: In February 2001, a UN Drug Control Programme team reported that the opium crop was barely visible in the fields of Afghanistan. This information was in sharp contrast that held by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. They believe that although the Taliban had indeed cut back on production, there is a vast stockpiling operation in progress currently estimated at around 4500 metric tonnes of opium. Prices of opium are four times higher this year as compared to last. In 2000, Afghanistan was the source of 75% of the world's supply of opium. The Afghan provinces of Helmand and Nangarhar now have an estimated 227,500 acres on the poppy cultivation which yields an estimated 4600 metric tonnes of opium annually, making it the world's largest producer of opium. This growth has been spectacular since 1996 when the Taliban took over Kabul and when there was only 135,000 acres on the poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. The United Nations Drug Control Programme has a formidable task ahead of it in Afghanistan. Brice Lalonde: I think they want to be recognised so they're trying on one hand to show that they're not cultivating opium. But I think opium is good for people who do not believe in Islam, it's not good for believers of Islam so I think the reserves are ready to be sent to Europe or United States, in any place which are enormous for them. John Elliott: About 100,000 Afghans lost their homes two years ago when the Taliban captured the Shomali Plain about 10 miles from here. The United Nations and other agencies accused the Taliban of a scorched earth policy in what was the fruit bowl of Afghanistan and have also of wanton killings. However, 5000 refugees found their way to the safety of Commander Masood's Panjshir Valley, and I've come to one of their camps today to see how they're doing. Narrator: The refugees in the Shomali Plains were fortunate to have escaped with their lives to the safety of the Panjshir Valley. Countless others lost their lives or were badly wounded. John Elliott: Could you tell me please why you came to this camp? Why you left your home in Shomali Plain? Speaker 23: [foreign language]. John Elliott: What happened in the village where you came from? Speaker 24: [foreign language]. John Elliott: Did they kill your children or your families' children? Speaker 25: [foreign language]. John Elliott: And how did they kill them? Speaker 26: [foreign language]. Narrator: With the country torn apart, hospitals such as this makeshift one in the town of Khodja Bahauddin have struggled to keep the innocent victims of this war alive. Saeed A.: There was no hospital in this area absolutely in this four or five districts in the north Takhar. As you see, it doesn't look like a hospital because it's not a hospital, it was an administrative building. When we came here, we had to change it to a surgical centre, and now it's welcome to the hospital. We have medical patients as well as surgical patients here. He's injured by Taliban bombardment and basically he has bone right tibia and fibula fracture and neck injury, fresh injury. Head trauma due to bombard. Head injury. He's a soldier. His leg was amputated by bombing. We amputate his leg and now he is going to be well. Speaker 28: [foreign language]. John Elliott: It's around the hills over there? So the Mujahideen were over here in the distance and the Soviets were in the town here. Speaker 28: [foreign language]. Narrator: While the Taliban and the areas under their control have banned women from working or from educating themselves, in the areas ruled by the Northern Alliance, life tries to catch up with the rest of the world as women are fortunate enough to get their due share of education. Speaker 29: That tells us divided and three times. One is past tense, another is present tense and another is future tense. Today verbs, as you know today verbs, we have today verbs and as, or, was, were, we have today verbs. But from today verbs went by, it is that first person. Speaker 30: [foreign language]. Peter Bergen: When I visited Kabul in 1993, government ministries were staffed by women who were unveiled which is unimaginable under the Taliban. Chekeba Hashmi: I think the problem of Talibans today is to destroy their nation and the best way to destroy nation we know is to destroy women. We know, everyone know when you want to destroy a nation and to take a country the best way is to touch women because women are mothers. And when they destroy mothers and old women, for me, it's the destruction of all the future generation. Michael Swetnam: Terrorism is an extremely successful tool for an organisation such as the Taliban. Of course, it is probably the tool of choice because it has success in the world in which we live in. When your enemies are forces such as the United States or larger regional forces such as secular forces such as India or even Russia, opposing them one on one on the battlefield is unthinkable because of the mic that they have to bring to it. But opposing them through an act of terror is very thinkable, and in fact, in a world where there is mass media open to most of the world, the rule of terror were kill one and frighten 1000 becomes great reality. So terrorism is a wonderful way for an organisation such as the Taliban to spread its message through terror and through mass media. It's a very effective tool. Osama bin Laden can be seen by many people as a world leader because he's threatening the largest country in the world, the United States, by blowing up its embassies, by threatening its warships who pull into harbours. This is a very, very effective tool and makes his power and influence on the world seem much, much larger than it is. Peter Bergen: Mullah Omar, the leader the Taliban said of handing over bin Laden to United States it would be like leaving one of the pillars of Islam, so for them it's impossible. Michael Swetnam: Their primary weapon in the world is Osama bin Laden. He not only is their weapon against forces that they're fighting against, but he is also their intellectual flagpole, if you will. He is the moral flagpole from which they can use to spread their message to the young boys and families in that part of the world. See how this man backed by God is able to threaten the largest imperial nations of the world, certainly Allah must be with us. Sheikh Amonollo: [foreign language]. John Elliott: The question now is whether the Taliban will actually reverse the tide of history? Will it be the first army since Alexander the Great to cross the Oxus from the south to the north? Is this band of zealots actually being used by Pakistan to access the untapped oil and natural gas reserves of Central Asia? Reserves that are among the largest in the world and are bigger than America's and Mexico's combined? Frank Wisner: Certainly, tapping the oil wealth of Central Asia is in everybody's interest. The focus has been principally on things that get across the Caspian and then over to the Black Sea or down to Johor and Turkey. More remote in practical considerations has been the thought of a pipeline which would both be very long, very dangerously exposed across Afghanistan into Pakistan and down to the coast. My bones tell me frankly that this is some time off, this is it would be wonderful if there was that alternative but the conditions are too unstable in the area to see it go forward. Olivier Roy: Osama bin Laden is fighting for the liberation of the whole Islamic Alma from any kind of foreign and Christians or Jewish encroachment. He has a very clear agenda. This doesn't mean that the Arabs will cost you access. Narrator: With the assassination of Commander Ahmed Shah Masood on September 9, 2001, and with the terrorist attacks on the shores of the United States on 11 September 2001, the new Great Game has expanded the boundaries of its playing fields to become a global context. Peter Tomsen: In terms of the United States, we basically walked away in 1992 and up until today through both Clinton administrations, the United States has really not had a comprehensive Afghan policy. Our policy has been a "get bin Laden" policy, it's been basically a police policy of going after one terrorist. John Elliott: As our story on Central Asia's New Great Game draws to a close, it's becoming clearer that there is a threat to peace here that has wider implications than just the war in Afghanistan. Narrator: With the sophisticated assassination of Commander Masood coinciding with the destruction of the World Trade Towers and the bombing of the Pentagon, Osama bin Laden has emerged as the principal player in the New Great Game. He has instilled life and direction in the ragtag army of the Taliban despite the relative sophistication in terms of its Pakistani interest. However, the actions of bin Laden and the Taliban has divested Islam of its great legacies, except for theology. Ignoring Islamic philosophy, science, arts, aesthetics, architecture, and mysticism that leads the entire non-Islamic world to condemn Islam for being intolerant and anti-modern. The last warrior has passed from the battlefield. The greatest and most powerful nation in the world, the United States, has been forcibly drawn into replacing him as the adversary of the Taliban. Perhaps the last warrior did not die in vain.