Mohammed Qasim Fahim

General Mohammed Fahim is an ethnic Tajik who succeeded Ahmed Shah Mahsood as the Military Commander of the United Front (Northern Alliance) when Masoud was assassinated in 2001. Today Fahim and his Northern Alliance faction form the backbone of Karzai's government, set up after the United States toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. Fahim, 45, at first was Karzai's vice president and survived an attempt on his life in the eastern city of Jalalabad during a spring visit in 2002.
Born in a small village in the Panjshir Valley to a Muslim cleric, Fahim went on to study Islamic law in Kabul. Towards the end of the 1970s he joined the anti-Soviet resistance. Under Masood's command, Fahim gained a reputation as a sturdy and reliable leader of men -- a rare phenomenon in a war of turncoats. Fighting the Red Army across northeastern Afghanistan, he was quickly promoted to head intelligence operations, after Masood's forces entered Kabul in 1992. Fahim was given charge of the defence of Kabul's southern frontlines, under almost daily rocket and mortar barrages, first from rival Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and then by the Pashtun Taliban movement. The general played a central role in the September 1996 strategic withdrawal from Kabul, returning to the Tajik heartland of the Panjshir to continue battling the Taliban, both in the valley and in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where bloody fighting erupted in 1997. Prior to the fall of the Taliban, Fahim was a factional leader of the Northern Alliance. On September 13, 2001, Fahim was confirmed as the senior military commander of the Northern Alliance, succeeding Ahmad Shah Masood. Masood had been assassinated four days earlier. By September 22, Fahim was in Tajikistan holding talks with Russian army chief Anatoly Kvashnin.
Mohammad Qasim Fahim became the defense minister of the Afghan Transitional Administration in 2002. While holding the position, he continued to command his own militia. However, on December 10, 2003, he ordered part of his militia to transport their weapons (including 11 tanks, 10 rocket-launchers and two scud missiles) to an Afghan National Army installation near Kabul.
As defense minister he has toured army bases in Great Britain, negotiated security issues with U.S General Tommy Franks and Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum, NATO Secretary General George Robertson, visited Moscow and Washington, DC. He also replaced 15 ethnic Tajik generals with officers from the Pashtun, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups
In June of 2003, a bomb was found in front of his home. Later in the year, the head of his personal security died at the hands of a suicide bomber.
On September 12, 2003, Miloon Kothari, appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to investigate housing rights in Afghanistan, announced that Fahim and Education Minister Yunus Qanooni were illegally occupying land and should be removed from their posts. However, three days later, Kothari sent a letter to Lakhdar Brahimi, the head of the U.N in Afghanistan, saying he had gone too far in naming the ministers.
As a top leader in the Northern Alliance - the primary military faction that joined with the US to oust the Taliban - Mr. Fahim is making no secret of the fact that he and his fellow ethnic Tajiks are not willing to be sidelined during the run-up to the presidential elections. A power struggle between Fahim and President Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, has Western diplomats and coalition commanders concerned. Any change in leadership is seen as an unwanted distraction from the process of nationbuilding and the war on terrorism.
As head of the embryonic national army, Mohammed Qasim Fahim is arguably Afghanistan's most powerful warlord, but the defence minister, who has failed to win nomination for vice-president in elections set for October, has also acted as a brake on an arduous disarmament drive. A former intelligence officer for the Northern Alliance, Fahim has emerged in recent years as an able administrator and is seen by many as the most effective man in charge of the Afghan military.
In August 2004, Fahim withdrew his support of interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai and is backing his ethnic Tajik countryman and former Education Minister, Yunus Qanuni in the upcoming presidential elections in October. Afghanistan’s ruling Northern Alliance fielded their own candidate for the presidential elections after President Karzai dropped Fahim as one of his running mates as a vice president and instead named Ahmad Zia Masood (also spelled Masoud), the brother of slain Afghan national hero and famous mujahideen commander, Ahmed Shah Masoud, an ethnic Tajik from Panjshir valley. Karzai’s move to drop Fahim as his running mate has reportedly been welcomed by some western diplomats who often saw Fahim as an obstacle to the disarmament of private militias in the country. Fahim said he would push for the disarmament of militias in the country, adding that he would work for a peaceful political campaign. Fahim said he would not allow anyone to resort to violence and harm the election process.

By: Feroz Nikzad

Mohammed Qasim Fahim

General Mohammed Fahim is an ethnic Tajik who succeeded Ahmed Shah Mahsood as the Military Commander of the United Front (Northern Alliance) when Masoud was assassinated in 2001. Today Fahim and his Northern Alliance faction form the backbone of Karzai's government, set up after the United States toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. Fahim, 45, at first was Karzai's vice president and survived an attempt on his life in the eastern city of Jalalabad during a spring visit in 2002.
Born in a small village in the Panjshir Valley to a Muslim cleric, Fahim went on to study Islamic law in Kabul. Towards the end of the 1970s he joined the anti-Soviet resistance. Under Masood's command, Fahim gained a reputation as a sturdy and reliable leader of men -- a rare phenomenon in a war of turncoats. Fighting the Red Army across northeastern Afghanistan, he was quickly promoted to head intelligence operations, after Masood's forces entered Kabul in 1992. Fahim was given charge of the defence of Kabul's southern frontlines, under almost daily rocket and mortar barrages, first from rival Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and then by the Pashtun Taliban movement. The general played a central role in the September 1996 strategic withdrawal from Kabul, returning to the Tajik heartland of the Panjshir to continue battling the Taliban, both in the valley and in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where bloody fighting erupted in 1997. Prior to the fall of the Taliban, Fahim was a factional leader of the Northern Alliance. On September 13, 2001, Fahim was confirmed as the senior military commander of the Northern Alliance, succeeding Ahmad Shah Masood. Masood had been assassinated four days earlier. By September 22, Fahim was in Tajikistan holding talks with Russian army chief Anatoly Kvashnin.
Mohammad Qasim Fahim became the defense minister of the Afghan Transitional Administration in 2002. While holding the position, he continued to command his own militia. However, on December 10, 2003, he ordered part of his militia to transport their weapons (including 11 tanks, 10 rocket-launchers and two scud missiles) to an Afghan National Army installation near Kabul.
As defense minister he has toured army bases in Great Britain, negotiated security issues with U.S General Tommy Franks and Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum, NATO Secretary General George Robertson, visited Moscow and Washington, DC. He also replaced 15 ethnic Tajik generals with officers from the Pashtun, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups
In June of 2003, a bomb was found in front of his home. Later in the year, the head of his personal security died at the hands of a suicide bomber.
On September 12, 2003, Miloon Kothari, appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to investigate housing rights in Afghanistan, announced that Fahim and Education Minister Yunus Qanooni were illegally occupying land and should be removed from their posts. However, three days later, Kothari sent a letter to Lakhdar Brahimi, the head of the U.N in Afghanistan, saying he had gone too far in naming the ministers.
As a top leader in the Northern Alliance - the primary military faction that joined with the US to oust the Taliban - Mr. Fahim is making no secret of the fact that he and his fellow ethnic Tajiks are not willing to be sidelined during the run-up to the presidential elections. A power struggle between Fahim and President Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, has Western diplomats and coalition commanders concerned. Any change in leadership is seen as an unwanted distraction from the process of nationbuilding and the war on terrorism.
As head of the embryonic national army, Mohammed Qasim Fahim is arguably Afghanistan's most powerful warlord, but the defence minister, who has failed to win nomination for vice-president in elections set for October, has also acted as a brake on an arduous disarmament drive. A former intelligence officer for the Northern Alliance, Fahim has emerged in recent years as an able administrator and is seen by many as the most effective man in charge of the Afghan military.
In August 2004, Fahim withdrew his support of interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai and is backing his ethnic Tajik countryman and former Education Minister, Yunus Qanuni in the upcoming presidential elections in October. Afghanistan’s ruling Northern Alliance fielded their own candidate for the presidential elections after President Karzai dropped Fahim as one of his running mates as a vice president and instead named Ahmad Zia Masood (also spelled Masoud), the brother of slain Afghan national hero and famous mujahideen commander, Ahmed Shah Masoud, an ethnic Tajik from Panjshir valley. Karzai’s move to drop Fahim as his running mate has reportedly been welcomed by some western diplomats who often saw Fahim as an obstacle to the disarmament of private militias in the country. Fahim said he would push for the disarmament of militias in the country, adding that he would work for a peaceful political campaign. Fahim said he would not allow anyone to resort to violence and harm the election process.

By: Feroz Nikzad

Race Rival Blames Karzai for Misusing Authority

Provincial officials run rallies to support President Karzai's nomination for elections, a tough competitor, Ahmadzai said
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai a runner for Afghan presidential polls in August revealed he has some evidence that government officials in Laghman and Maidan-Wardak provinces are campaigning for President Hamid Karzai.
Mr Ahmadzai in a press conference at his residential place in Kabul on Monday also said he has formed a long-term strategy for Afghanistan which he proposes to back his nomination.
He declared the curriculum for Afghanistan is translated in Dari, Pashto and Uzbaki, the three main Afghan languages.

"I will sign up for the elections and will introduce my two deputies as vice-president in the next few days," Ahmadzai told in the conference.
"I will give up my second citizenship," said Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai who is holding a U.S passport.
Ahmadzai has been one of the harsh critiques of the Afghan government over the past years since he quit as the minister of finance in 2004.
He was appointed as the dean of Kabul University after the ministerial post as likely he failed to reject his foreign nationality, but this time, for the top position in his birthplace, he is eager to end to his American citizenship.
New Candidate
Meanwhile, Mirwais Yasini, deputy speaker of the Lower House of the Afghan Parliament said he would also run in the crowded election race.
"Fight against corruption, drugs and stablising security" are his priority if he is elected as the president among the 60 runners.

By: Feroz Nikzad

Race Rival Blames Karzai for Misusing Authority

Provincial officials run rallies to support President Karzai's nomination for elections, a tough competitor, Ahmadzai said
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai a runner for Afghan presidential polls in August revealed he has some evidence that government officials in Laghman and Maidan-Wardak provinces are campaigning for President Hamid Karzai.
Mr Ahmadzai in a press conference at his residential place in Kabul on Monday also said he has formed a long-term strategy for Afghanistan which he proposes to back his nomination.
He declared the curriculum for Afghanistan is translated in Dari, Pashto and Uzbaki, the three main Afghan languages.

"I will sign up for the elections and will introduce my two deputies as vice-president in the next few days," Ahmadzai told in the conference.
"I will give up my second citizenship," said Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai who is holding a U.S passport.
Ahmadzai has been one of the harsh critiques of the Afghan government over the past years since he quit as the minister of finance in 2004.
He was appointed as the dean of Kabul University after the ministerial post as likely he failed to reject his foreign nationality, but this time, for the top position in his birthplace, he is eager to end to his American citizenship.
New Candidate
Meanwhile, Mirwais Yasini, deputy speaker of the Lower House of the Afghan Parliament said he would also run in the crowded election race.
"Fight against corruption, drugs and stablising security" are his priority if he is elected as the president among the 60 runners.

By: Feroz Nikzad

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American envoy to the United Nations and an influential figure in the Bush administration, may run against Hamid Karzai for the Afghan presidency after resigning from his post.
Mr Khalilzad, who is Afghan-born, fuelled recurring reports of his political ambitions by appearing on television in Kabul to announce that he is to leave his job and wants to be "at the service of the Afghan people".

Although Mr Khalilzad, who holds US citizenship, added: "I have said earlier that I am not a candidate for any position in Afghanistan," his decision to step down from the prestigious UN job has been widely regarded as clearing the way for a run at the Afghan leadership, with President Karzai facing serious and mounting internal and international criticism.
But Mr Khalilzad has his own share of baggage. He had once lobbied for the Taliban and worked for an American oil company, Unocal, which sought concessions for pipelines in the country. In 1997, he urged the Clinton administration to take a softer line against Afghanistan's Islamist rulers and wrote in The Washington Post: "The Taliban do not practise the anti-US style of fundamentalism practised by Iran. We should... be willing to offer recognition and humanitarian assistance and to promote economic reconstruction."
Mr Khalilzad, 56, became US ambassador to Kabul in January 2002 then was sent to Baghdad by the White House when the "war on terror" moved on to Iraq. He has visited Afghanistan several times, adding to the speculation that he saw himself as a political player in the land of his birth.
For months, Mr Khalil-zad's supporters are said to have been holding talks with Pashtun groups in the south as well as the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the Northern Alliance, which now calls itself the National Unity Front, to offer him as a candidate who can bring the increasingly divided country together.
Mr Khalilzad is Pashtun but he was born in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, and was schooled in Kabul. His followers say this background gives him the ideal qualifications to be a bridge-builder between the north and the south where the Pashtun population bitterly complain of being disenfranchised. The region has suffered most of the recent upsurge in fighting and has benefited little from reconstruction. Mr Khalilzad played a major role in Mr Karzai becoming President after the fall of the Taliban. But the Afghan ruler's popularity has slipped and he has been increasingly at odds with his Western backers, criticising British policy in Helmand and blocking the appointment of Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon as the UN envoy to Kabul. But Mr Khalilzad has himself been accused of undermining Lord Ashdown by failing to support him adequately at the UN for the Afghan job.
Critics say this was part of a long-term strategy to ensure he does not have another heavyweight international figure as a possible rival, controlling a vast budget, if and when he becomes president.

By: Feroz Nikzad

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American envoy to the United Nations and an influential figure in the Bush administration, may run against Hamid Karzai for the Afghan presidency after resigning from his post.
Mr Khalilzad, who is Afghan-born, fuelled recurring reports of his political ambitions by appearing on television in Kabul to announce that he is to leave his job and wants to be "at the service of the Afghan people".

Although Mr Khalilzad, who holds US citizenship, added: "I have said earlier that I am not a candidate for any position in Afghanistan," his decision to step down from the prestigious UN job has been widely regarded as clearing the way for a run at the Afghan leadership, with President Karzai facing serious and mounting internal and international criticism.
But Mr Khalilzad has his own share of baggage. He had once lobbied for the Taliban and worked for an American oil company, Unocal, which sought concessions for pipelines in the country. In 1997, he urged the Clinton administration to take a softer line against Afghanistan's Islamist rulers and wrote in The Washington Post: "The Taliban do not practise the anti-US style of fundamentalism practised by Iran. We should... be willing to offer recognition and humanitarian assistance and to promote economic reconstruction."
Mr Khalilzad, 56, became US ambassador to Kabul in January 2002 then was sent to Baghdad by the White House when the "war on terror" moved on to Iraq. He has visited Afghanistan several times, adding to the speculation that he saw himself as a political player in the land of his birth.
For months, Mr Khalil-zad's supporters are said to have been holding talks with Pashtun groups in the south as well as the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the Northern Alliance, which now calls itself the National Unity Front, to offer him as a candidate who can bring the increasingly divided country together.
Mr Khalilzad is Pashtun but he was born in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, and was schooled in Kabul. His followers say this background gives him the ideal qualifications to be a bridge-builder between the north and the south where the Pashtun population bitterly complain of being disenfranchised. The region has suffered most of the recent upsurge in fighting and has benefited little from reconstruction. Mr Khalilzad played a major role in Mr Karzai becoming President after the fall of the Taliban. But the Afghan ruler's popularity has slipped and he has been increasingly at odds with his Western backers, criticising British policy in Helmand and blocking the appointment of Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon as the UN envoy to Kabul. But Mr Khalilzad has himself been accused of undermining Lord Ashdown by failing to support him adequately at the UN for the Afghan job.
Critics say this was part of a long-term strategy to ensure he does not have another heavyweight international figure as a possible rival, controlling a vast budget, if and when he becomes president.

By: Feroz Nikzad