By Mohammad’s account, much has changed since it became clear the United States would attack. Al Qaeda’s nerve center in Afghanistan is in disarray, suggesting that if the terror network is to continue to be a threat, it may be up to its “sleeper” cells worldwide. Mohammad said he believes morale is low among Al Qaeda’s Taliban hosts. At least half of the 50 pilots and technicians in his unit have deserted, he said. He was among them, fleeing to Pakistan in early October.
During the heyday of Al Qaeda’s training camps, Mohammad recalls, the terrorists seemed to look down on native Afghans. The Arab mujahedin flaunted their bankrolls, rented costly villas in Kabul and often treated their hosts impatiently. “The Arabs and Central Asians had more money than anybody,” Mohammad said, sighing. He said they had their own “offices” in Kandahar, to deal with the mujahed version of consular services.
Mohammad, a thin, bearded man in his 30s, complained that the foreign mujahedin “got even better food than we pilots did.” He said he was given only dal (a bean dish) and potatoes to eat, with very little protein. Mohammad said he earned little more than $30 a month and had to moonlight just to make ends meet. During one of these odd jobs seven months ago, he was brought to a residential complex in Kandahar known simply as “Osama’s compound” to help repair a wall. There he had to go through three security checks to get in. Inside, Mohammad said he saw Osama bin Laden, with “many, many bodyguards,” presiding over the wedding of one of his sons. Mohammad overheard guests talking about terrorist camps and conducting assassinations, including how to shoot rockets from moving motorcycles.
When U.S. airstrikes on the Kandahar airport where his chopper was based became imminent, Mohammad and other pilots were told to take their families to a safe place to wait out the war. The Taliban authorities meant the countryside. But Mohammad gathered eight family members–including a 78-year-old grandmother–and headed east. They kept on walking after they reached the Afghan-Pakistani frontier, ultimately arriving in Peshawar. Even here he fears that pro-Taliban elements in the Pakistani security apparatus may try to silence him forever. “I have so much more that I can tell you about the Taliban,” he claimed, “But first I need to feel safe, far away from Pakistan.”
