-Caveat Lector- from - http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,310701-412,00.shtml
Afghan Conspiracy Theory Interim Leader Karzai: Aviation, Tourism Minister's Death A Conspiracy Information Minister Calls The Death An Assassination Three Arrested So Far In Conection With Minister's Death (CBS) Interim leader Hamid Karzai accused six senior government officials of killing the country's aviation minister and said Friday that they were motivated by a long-standing feud. Three were arrested and the others were being sought in Saudi Arabia. The officials include generals and members of the intelligence service and the justice ministry, said Karzai's information minister, Abdul Rahim Makhdoom. The aviation and tourism minister, Abdul Rahman, was killed Thursday in what appeared to be a mob attack on his plane at Kabul's airport by pilgrims angry that they had been unable to travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Witnesses and officials had said pilgrims beat the minister to death and tossed his body to the tarmac. Karzai, however, said the attack "has nothing to do with hajjis" or those making the pilgrimage. "He was killed by people who planned it," Karzai told reporters at a hastily called news conference. "We are asking the Saudis to arrest them and bring them back. ... We will try them. We will put them behind bars." Information Minister Raheen Makhdoom echoed Karzai's accusations. "This tragic incident was the result of a personal vendetta and private hostilities of a group of people. It has no political roots," he told a news conference in Kabul. "Dr. Abdul Rahman was killed in an assassination attempt at the airport yesterday," he added. The information minister said three were believed to have left on flights for Saudi Arabia along with pilgrims traveling there: Gen. Abdullah Jan Tawhidi, the deputy intelligence chief; Gen. Kalandar Beg, deputy of the technical office of the Defense Ministry; and an official of the Justice Ministry for whom only one name was given, Halim. Three are already under arrest in connection with the case; one was identified only as Abdul Rehim. Three of the five were believed to have left on flights for Saudi Arabia along with pilgrims traveling there, the information minister said. Karzai suggested that the killing was linked to a blood feud dating back to the struggle against the Taliban. All five he named were part of a faction of the northern alliance with which Rahman had broken. "All this ... goes back to the days of the resistance," Karzai said, without giving any details. "We are trying to do justice." At the White House, press secretary Ari Fleischer said President Bush deplores the killing of Rahman. He said the incident demonstrates that Afghanistan will not emerge as a nation of peace after domination by the Soviet Union and the Taliban over the past 20 years. The violence Thursday underscored fears about the interim government's ability to establish security in chaotic post-Taliban Afghanistan - and raised questions about the role of international peacekeepers, who were present on the airport grounds at the time of the mob attack. The Kabul airport was sealed off Friday morning and white-helmeted Interior Ministry police were stationed every few yards on the roads leading to the main entrance. "We lost a good man, an educated man," said a top aide to Rahman, Mohammed Yakoub Nuristani. "He wanted to help rebuild Afghanistan." The fatal confrontation was sparked after Rahman went to the Kabul airport Thursday afternoon for a flight to New Delhi, according to accounts from government and Afghan airline officials. Hundreds of pilgrims, who'd been stranded at the airport since early morning awaiting Saudi visas and transport to Saudi Arabia, blocked Rahman's plane, airline and government officials said. The mob stormed the plane when Rahman emerged to try to talk to the crowd, said Abdul Wahab Nuristani, the deputy chief of a military division in eastern Afghanistan. Rahman was seized, beaten and his body tossed to the tarmac below, he said, citing witness accounts. Rahman, 49, was trained as a medical doctor. He fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took over and had been living in exile in New Delhi. In interviews since taking over as aviation and tourism minister in the interim government, he had spoken enthusiastically of his wish to make Afghanistan a tourist destination. A contingent of British and French peacekeepers, stationed less than a quarter-mile away in the military part of the airport, were apparently unaware that the situation had flared out of control. Earlier, they had sent food and blankets for the growing crowd. The security force "knew there was an ongoing incident, but it happened very quickly," said British Capt. Graham Dunlop, a spokesman for the peacekeepers. He said the civilian area of the airport was under the control of Afghan authorities. The hajj to Mecca - home of Islam's holiest shrine - is one of the pillars of Islam. Muslims who are able-bodied and can afford the journey are obliged to do it at least once in their lifetime. Concerns over disorder were further highlighted when a melee broke out at Kabul's main soccer stadium on Friday, marring what had been billed as a goodwill game between peacekeepers and an Afghan team. Afghan police fired shots into the air, set off smoke bombs and beat back thousands of football fans with rifle butts Friday as a "Game of Unity" between a Kabul team and foreign troops was marred by violence off the pitch. The match, planned as a step toward normality in the war-torn country was played in a Kabul stadium previously used for public executions by the deposed Taliban government. Several thousand ticketless fans surged toward the gates of the stadium and tried to scale a perimeter wall to watch their local heroes take on burly soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Typical of a country where violence is an everyday pastime, many fans smiled and laughed as they threw stones at Afghan police and nervous-looking German troops and received beatings in return. CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports the international community, already unenthusiastic about sending more troops into this fractious area, is unlikely to change its mind after Friday's violence and the suggestion that there is murderous intrigue inside the very government they are supposed to help. There were no reports of serious injuries but the tension illustrated the difficulties facing the interim government of Hamid Karzai as it tries to impose order after decades of war. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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