Despite the massive presence of the world's media with their instant satellite links to their news desks, there are reasons to believe that we are not being told the truth about what the American and British forces are up to in Afghanistan.
The most recent oddity is Tuesday night's raid on an alleged Al-Qaeda base near Kandahar, supposed to be used by several senior leaders as their headquarters. This development does not square with the Pentagon's announcement last month that, as part of the initial air raids against Afghanistan, all Al-Qaeda bases had been destroyed. If that was true, then which was this Al-Qaeda base that was hit on Tuesday evening? Was this one that the Americans somehow missed? Or was it one that they left intact, precisely because they thought that it might become a rallying point for their enemies as the end of the campaign approached?
Then there is the news that the Americans are themselves holding alleged Al-Qaeda "terrorists" in custody. Where were these individuals captured? Were they weeded out from among the Taleban defenders of Kunduz who surrendered? Have they been seized from one of the mountain cave systems to which it is said that Osama Bin Laden and his cadres have retreated? Is this why four British SAS men were injured and have been flown back to the UK for treatment?
Or maybe these people fell into US hands another way. There was a curious report that came out of Kunduz as the Northern Alliance tightened its grip on the city. It was that there had been at least one flight out of the city, carrying Al-Qaeda and top Taleban officials. Some sources said that the aircraft used was Pakistani, another that it was an Antonov. Since the Pakistan Air Force is largely equipped with US-made aircraft, the use of a Russian-built Antonov seems curious. But curiouser still is how, when the Americans had total control of the skies over Afghanistan and have even been using satellites to monitor Taleban troop movements, any flight at all could have been permitted to land and take off from Kunduz without being shot down.
Was the whole show a trick? Were the passengers persuaded that it was a Pakistani flight that could get them out? And did they become prisoners once they boarded it?
There are other oddities which probably form part of a disinformation campaign that has been mounted by the Pentagon. It is said that the Americans are now pretty sure that they know where Osama Bin Laden is holed up. They are giving it to be understood that the routes out of Afghanistan into Pakistan are now being watched to cut ofF any escape by Al-Qaeda leaders. The truth is that they may still not have a clue. Alternatively, they could have pinpointed him all along, perhaps by intercepting and tracing his communications, but wanted him to remain operational, so that he could continue to give orders to his network and Washington could know what those orders are.
It seems clear that an elaborate game of bluff and counterbluff is going on in Afghanistan, using the world media as dupes. It must be hoped then that these lies are confined only to the project of rolling Al-Qaeda and do not extend to Washington's wider plans for the new Afghanistan.
