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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Tale of an American Taliban
In an exclusive, a U.S. citizen on the horror at Kala
Jangi
By Colin Soloway
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
http://www.msnbc.com/news/666055.asp?cp1=1#BODY
Dec. 1 � Abdul Hamid is tall, thin and barefoot
in a filthy black tunic. A prisoner of the Northern
Alliance, he sits with his elbows bound behind his
back with a strip of cloth, his right leg and left
foot bandaged for gunshot wounds. Hamid�s face is
almost entirely covered in dirt and black soot, but it
is quickly apparent that he is not just another beaten
and frightened Taliban warrior. Abdul Hamid, age 20,
is an American. He is not a naturalized citizen or
disaffected Arab-American youth rebelling against
Western culture. He is a white, educated-sounding,
apparently middle-class American, a convert to Islam
who came to Afghanistan six months ago to help the
Taliban build a �true Islamic state.�
HAMID IS ONE OF ONLY 86 survivors of a vicious,
four-day battle in the Northern Afghan fortress of
Kala Jangi. He refused to give more than the scantiest
details about his U.S. origins, including his real
name. But while waiting to be taken into detention
along with over a dozen other wounded men, mostly
Arabs, in a large cargo truck, Hamid talked to a
NEWSWEEK reporter about why he came to Afghanistan and
how he survived the nightmarish battle of Kala Jangi.
He said he was originally from the Washington,
D.C., area, but indicated he grew up elsewhere in the
states. Well spoken, with a mid-Atlantic accent, Hamid
said that he converted to Islam at 16 and later went
to Pakistan to study the Koran. �In my travels, I came
in contact with some of the original teachers of the
leaders of the Taliban movement,� he said. �The ideas
of the Taliban occupied my mind a lot.� Six months
ago, he entered Afghanistan �to help the Islamic
government� because �the Taliban are the only
government that actually provides Islamic law.�
American Taliban Update
When asked if he supported the September 11
attacks, he hesitated. �That requires a pretty long
and complicated explanation. I haven�t eaten for two
or three days, and my mind is not really in shape to
give you a coherent answer.� When pressed, he said,
�Yes, I supported it.�
Despite his confused state, Hamid also gave
NEWSWEEK what may be the most complete account to date
of the prisoners� uprising on Sunday morning, Nov. 25,
and the horrific final three days after the end of the
battle. Hamid said he had been fighting with the
Taliban during the two-week siege of the city of
Konduz, about 100 miles to the east of Mazar e Sharif.
Finally, under a negotiated deal, the foreign Taliban
forces surrendered to the Northern Alliance forces of
Gen. Rashid Dostum. But almost as soon as Hamid and
about 500 others were taken to the fortress. �Two of
the [Taliban] threw grenades they had hidden in their
clothes, and killed a couple of people,� Hamid says.
�After that they put us in the basement and
left us over night. Early in the morning, they began
taking us out, slowly, one-by-one, into the compound.
Our hands were tied, and they were beating and kicking
some of us. Some of the Mujahedin [Taliban] were
scared, crying. They thought we were all going to be
killed.
�I saw two Americans there. They were taking
pictures with a digital camera and a video camera.
They were there for interrogating us. As soon as the
last of us was taken out of the basement, someone
either pulled a knife, or threw a grenade at the
guards, and got their guns, and started shooting. I
don�t really know how it happened. As soon as I heard
the shooting and the screaming, I jumped up and ran
about one or two meters, and was shot in the leg. It�s
not as bad as you would think, but after that I was
down in the basement.�
The Americans were CIA agents Mike Spann and
another called Dave. Spann was badly beaten, possibly
to death, and then shot by the prisoners. Dave and
local Red Cross doctors were able to escape with the
help of a team of U.S. Special forces. Then, said
Hamid, �they hit us with everything they had. The
Americans were bombing us. It was horrible. Nearly
everyone in the basement was wounded.�
After Tuesday, all resistance above ground
stopped. Alliance soldiers poured diesel fuel into the
basement and lit it, assuming that any remaining
Taliban would be killed by the fire and the fumes. But
when workers on Thursday went into the basement of a
pink, one story building in the center of the compound
to take bodies out, they ran into as many as 100
Taliban, mostly wounded, still alive in the cells. Two
of the workers were wounded, and a third was abducted
or shot.
The Alliance then spent Thursday afternoon
dropping large artillery rockets into the basement and
setting them off with fuses. �It was horrible,� said
Hamid. �But the rockets were exploding in the hallway
of the basement, and we were all hiding in the cells.
The stairway was just a pile of rubble, and there were
parts of bodies all over.� Still they survived, with
no food or water.
� MSNBC coverage
� MSNBC: photos, video
Finally, on Friday, Alliance troops flooded
the basement with water. �We spent the night in the
freezing cold water,� said Hamid �Those who could
stand up survived, but there were a lot of wounded who
couldn�t stand, and they drowned. Most of the dead
down there drowned yesterday. At that point we had one
rifle with 15 bullets and one hand grenade.� On
Saturday morning they gave up. They came out of the
basement, soaking wet and shivering, clambering over
the rubble and body parts. Saturday afternoon they sat
and lay in the truck, waiting to be transported two
hours away to a camp in Sherbagan. It is unclear what
will happen to Abdul Hamid, who says he lost his U.S.
passport in Konduz. But he may well be headed for a
U.S. military tribunal.
__________________________________________________
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