Most Famous Political Lobbyists and Advocates of the Taliban in the West
Many
Pashtuns engage in lobbying activities abroad to support the Taliban or to
secure foreign backing for the Taliban and Pashtun elites. Some of these
individuals will be introduced below.
Laili Helms
Laily Helms is the right woman on the picture
Laili
Helms was the Taliban's best-known advocate in the West before the 9/11
attacks. Following the attacks, The New York Times described Helms, who is
married to a nephew of the former CIA director Richard Helms, as the
Taliban's "unofficial liaison to the West" [1].
During the Pashtun Monarchy in Afghanistan her family was part of Afghanistan's
elite; both her grandfathers were ministers in the government of Afghanistan's Pashtun King Mohammad
Zahir Shah.
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai was the President of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. He is from the Popalzai Durrani branch of the Pashtun ethnic group. Before becoming president, Karzai lived in the United States. His family owns several Afghan restaurants on the East Coast and in Chicago. James Risen of The New York Times and others reported that Hamid Karzai’s half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, might have been involved in the Afghan drug trade, including opium and heroin. In 2011, Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot and killed by one of his security guards at his home in Kandahar, which raised concerns about instability in a city considered crucial to the Afghan conflict. [2] Karzai has called the Taliban his "discontent brothers" in various interviews and has asked for the release of Taliban prisoners, some of whom were detained for terrorism or murder. Many of these freed fighters later fought against Afghan government forces. His wealth is estimated to be several hundred million to several billion dollars and primarily consists of real estate and land in Afghanistan as well as abroad, such as in the United States. Additionally, he holds assets in various accounts overseas.
Zalmay
Khalilzad is an Afghan-American diplomat from the Noorzai tribe of the Durrani
Pashtuns. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under
President George W. Bush and briefly under President Barack Obama. Earlier in
his career, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and to
Iraq from 2005 to 2007. In 2017, he was considered for the position of
Secretary of State under President Trump. From September 2018 to August 2021,
Khalilzad was the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation,
working on the US–Taliban peace deal and helping oversee the U.S. withdrawal
from Afghanistan during both the Trump and Biden administrations. He is married
to Cheryl Benard, who is an author and political scientist, or possibly an
agent herself.
Hamdullah Mohib
Former deputy chief of staff to former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. He is a Pashtun and according to his interview in the Washington Post, he is married to Lael Adams (born 1987), an American expert on Afghanistan, in 2011 [4]. But his wife is also said to be a Western agent, either of the American CIA or the British MI6. Furthermore, after his fleeing the Taliban several Western institutions, among others the British Oxford Union, invited him to enable him to justify his incompetence. Choosing him as Afghanistan's national security advisors gave the Western intelligence the power and opportunity to control Afghanistan's politics.
Ashraf Ghani
The pictures show Ghani boarding the airplane,
while suitcases filled with cash might have been on board as well.
Ashraf
Ghani was the president of Afghanistan from 2014 to 2021. He is from the
Pashtun tribe called Ahmadzai, which is part of the Ghilzai confederacy. When the Taliban took
over Kabul, Ghani and Hamdullah Mohib escaped from Afghanistan, flying from Kabul airport
to the United Arab Emirates. There are claims that Ghani and Mohib took
suitcases filled with millions of US dollars when they left.
In his interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, he responded to the question about whether he had taken any money with him, as previously reported: “I was wearing Afghan clothes with a waistcoat and a pair of shoes, and that was it. I didn't even have a book. I've lived an honorable life. I have been a self-made man and did not need... I declared all my assets in SIGAR now, and its detailed report has shown that there was no money on the helicopter.”
Contrary to this, Forbes Magazine writes on August 10, 2022: "SIGAR said that while fleeing, government officials took as much cash as they could carry, they were limited by the 'payload and performance limitations of the helicopters.'"
Forbes further comments on SIGAR’s report: “The SIGAR report doesn’t inspire much confidence and its conclusions are admittedly best guesses, often based on second-hand hearsay. “Since undeclared cash leaves no paper trail,” the report said, investigators had to rely on eyewitnesses instead of documentary evidence. Some key witnesses were “well-known Afghan officials,” all allies of Ghani. It’s impossible to judge their credibility or motivations since SIGAR agreed to their requests for anonymity.”
Similar to
Hamid Karzai's wealth, Ashraf Ghani's fortune is also estimated to be between
several hundred million and several billion dollars. However, Ghani's assets
are likely mainly held abroad, with a larger share in offshore accounts than in
real estate or land within Afghanistan, particularly when compared to Karzai.
On 12 May 2016, Pashtun bodyguards of Ashraf
Ghani were also involved in beating a Hazara man in London for protesting
against the bloodshed caused by Ghani's security forces in Afghanistan.
Jamil Qaderi
Jamil Qaderi is a Pashtun YouTuber and social media activist who most probably resides in Germany. Qaderi joins a number of young Pashtun Afghans, who live in the West and support the Taliban through the social channels. They are also called Taliban with neckties. On his YouTube channel Qaderi defames anti-Taliban groups and opposition members and shows support for high-ranking Taliban members.
His YouTube channel is called King of Youtube, and the following is a screenshot of his channel:
Diva Patang
Diva Patang
is a Pashtun woman living in the United Kingdom. She has become famous since
August 2021, when Afghanistan again fell to the Taliban, and she repeatedly
justified their rule. She claims that her husband is a businessman.
On her
twitter account she implied that armed anti-Taliban resistance members and
leaders are thieves, while she has not condemned the imposed war, atrocities
and human rights abuses of the Taliban against non-Pashtun Afghans.
Her tweet [6]:
Roshan M.d Salih and other Islamists
Screenshot of his twitter account looks as follows - 13. Nov. 2022 [7]
Although it
may seem unusual, there are actually many non-Afghans from Wahhabi or Muslim
Brotherhood backgrounds living outside of Afghanistan who support and promote the Taliban
primarily through their YouTube channels. One such individual is Roshan
Muhammed Salih, based in the UK, who, according to his Twitter profile, is the
editor of the British Muslim news website 5Pillars (5pillarsuk.com). He was
invited by the Taliban and has reported from Afghanistan positively, claiming
that people there are not oppressed.
Sources:
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/27/world/a-nation-challenged-the-liaison-she-spoke-for-taliban-and-now-pays-a-price.html?scp=1&sq=Laili+Helms&st=cse&pagewanted=all
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/12/ahmed-wali-karzai-killing-sparks-fears
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-does-afghanistan-need-some-major-rebranding-says-its-32-year-old-ambassador/2016/04/21/2adb3a66-06e3-11e6-a12f-ea5aed7958dc_story.html
[4] https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asraf-gilzay-the-afghan-chief-who-ruled-as-shah-over-part-of-iran-from-1137-1725-to-1142-1729
[5] https://youtu.be/gEhjylR_xMA. Accessed 13. Nov. 2022.
[6] https://twitter.com/DivaPatang
[7] https://twitter.com/RmSalih. Accessed 13. Nov. 2022.
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