All language subtitles for The Man Who Tried To Warn America About 9_11

On September 11th, 2001, the United
States was attacked in New York City and

Washington, D .C.

The entire world was shocked.

Al -Qaeda, a terrorist group in
Afghanistan led by a certain bin Laden,

responsibility for the attack.

Just two days earlier, on September 9th,
he had his only opponent assassinated.

A local hero in the Afghan resistance,
Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

I remember Massoud saying, there's
someone here who's very dangerous to

It's bin Laden.

Five months before the September 11th
attacks, while on a visit to France,

Commander Massoud had warned the rest of
the world.

He told us he only had one message for
us, and it was that Osama bin Laden was

preparing a huge strike against the
United States.

something extremely dangerous.

Massoud's message was loud and clear, so
why did no one listen?

Was it the trade agreements or the arms
sales to Pakistan that made the USA and

other Western countries look the other
way?

Why did they refuse to help this man,
the last line of defense against the

Taliban and the terrorists?

After ten years of war, to gain control
of Afghanistan, the Soviets finally gave

up and left in 1989.

When Kabul's communist regime crumbled
three years later, the country found

itself in a civil war between rebels
from various ethnic groups.

Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and Pashtuns.

Afghanistan spiraled into total chaos.

This ethnic civil war gave rise to a new
movement, the Taliban.

In Pashtun language, Taleb literally
means a theology student.

The Taliban are Islamic fundamentalists
who study religion.

Their supreme leader was Mullah Mohammed
Omar, a hardcore fundamentalist who

welcomed into his ranks terrorists from
Saudi Arabia and Yemen, al -Qaeda

jihadists, and their leader, Osama bin
Laden.

In September 1996, the Taliban seized
Kabul and most of the country.

imposing a tyrannical Islamic regime and
Sharia law.

Only one man dared resist, a Tajik from
the Panjshir Valley, Commander Ahmad

Shah Massoud, who was famous for having
defeated the Red Army during the Soviet

occupation.

Isolated in these mountains, he led a
northern alliance that struggled to

the Taliban.

I was pretty good in school, and I went
to the Sansevier Military Academy.

I spent three great years in France's
finest school, receiving a military

education, but also learning
engineering, history, and geography, the

needed to understand the modern world.

That's how I started my career as a
military officer in the French Army.

But after several disappointments, I
decided to resign in 1999 and became a

civilian again.

I thought the fight in Afghanistan with
Massoud fighting the Taliban and Al

-Qaeda was a noble cause.

So I went to Afghanistan to join the
adventure.

I introduced myself to Massoud as a
former French officer.

and told him about the time I had been
on a diving mission where we planted

mines under boats and sabotaged
propellers.

And he made a joke about how the Taliban
didn't have any boats.

And then I said something that finally
caught his attention, which was that I

was a certified French commando
instructor.

It turns out that Massoud had a team of
commandos.

a group that was a mix of both young and
experienced people.

He gathered them for me at a training
camp and said, You're a commando

instructor. Here you go. Do your thing
and teach them whatever you want. You

have carte blanche.

At that time, I think we had about 15
,000 fighters on the various fronts.

We were up against 10 times as many men,
but we resisted. The Taliban were well

equipped and had a lot of support from
Pakistan who wanted them to take over

country.

Armed by Pakistan and supported by al
-Qaeda fighters, the Taliban quickly

gained control of 90 % of Afghan
territory.

In the heart of their oppressive regime,
a single French representative remained

in office in Kabul, the chargé d
'affaires Jean -Yves Berthaud.

I had a position with the United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or

UNSMA, which was there to try to
establish peace in a country that was

completely ripped apart back then.

I continued to do my job in Afghanistan,
but I also became the sarge d

'affaires, which roughly coincided with
the Taliban unfortunately taking control

of the country.

We were the last European country to
have an embassy in Kabul.

I will never forget one of the first
diplomatic telegrams I received when I

arrived at the ministry.

which was the report from the newly
appointed French chargé d 'affaires,

-Yves Berthaud, in Kabul.

It said, I arrived in Kabul this
morning, and as I approached the city

I noticed a garland hanging over the
road.

As I got closer, I saw the garland was
made of hands.

He went on to explain that punishment
for theft was the loss of a hand, and

those severed hands were hung up on
display by the regime's thugs.

Many Westerners had a false
understanding of diplomacy in the

years, thinking through some sort of
Western triumphalism that we only talk

people who shared our values.

And that's absurd.

Diplomacy exists for exactly the
opposite reason.

It's designed as an alternative to war
for addressing conflicts.

It's based on being open to dialogue
with anyone and everyone to understand

their position.

Then you adjust the level of talks,
their symbolism, the image they convey.

But once we understood the level of
control the Taliban had in Afghanistan,

there was no way we could get involved,
even if we thought we should be helping

Massoud without being in contact with
the Taliban.

The moment they arrived in Kabul in
1996, the Taliban publicly hanged ex

-president Najibullah and his brother.
It was an introduction to their barbaric

interpretation of the Quran.

While the religious students virtuously
claim to be bringing back peace, this

comes at a huge cost to the 17 million
Afghans in the country.

The mullah professes to be fighting vice
with virtue and does so by imposing the

most obscurantist and inhumane Islamic
system on the planet.

My name is Marui Kalmudin, and I'm
currently the leader of the

Islamic movement in Afghanistan.

I was the Taliban's minister for the
propagation of virtue and the prevention

vice. My goal was to heavily promote
virtue until all vices disappeared

naturally.

We never wanted to directly or brutally
intervene.

That's why we trained people, young
people.

They went to the mosques in small groups
to raise awareness and warn against all

types of temptations.

This was necessary to get uneducated
people to follow Islamic precepts.

We needed to teach them to abandon their
vices.

and renounce everything that Islam
prohibits.

The Taliban delegation that we invited
to Islamabad for peace

negotiations stayed in a small
guesthouse next to our offices.

It so happened that the UN mission
leader's secretary was staying

in the same guesthouse.

She came in the next morning looking
very tired because the Taliban in the

room had been watching porn until four
in the morning, and this poor lady had

been unable to sleep.

That helped us understand that at the
end of the day, the Taliban were still

human beings made of flesh and blood,
and that their piety, despite what they

claimed, was not above a certain number
of temptations.

The Taliban are terrorists.

They don't believe in peace.

Their philosophy is to create eternal
war.

They view jihad as a religious
principle, an Islamic obligation that

Taliban to fight constantly.

Otherwise, they believe they'll be lost
to sin.

They believe that jihad guarantees them
entry to heaven and that God will grant

them mercy.

The Taliban have absolutely nothing in
common with the Afghan people or Afghan

society.

Pakistan, backed by Western nations and
an ally of the U .S., wanted to control

Afghanistan. It was in Pakistan's
Quranic schools that the Taliban were

trained.

Pakistan was the Taliban's major
supporter.

The Pakistanis thought it would be good
to have a regime that they controlled in

Kabul.

But they quickly realized they didn't
really control it at all.

Sometimes their puppets were out of
control.

And in our meetings with the Pakistanis,
we asked them to rein in the Taliban,

and they said it wasn't that easy,
because of course they were

Pakistan, the historic enemy of
neighboring India, had always feared

trapped between two hostile countries.

Trained in the US or the UK, the
Pakistani officials and military leaders

at reigning supreme over the region.

This meant that they needed to be
heavily armed, which is how they became

preferred client of the US.

The Americans didn't really have a
counterpart in Afghanistan.

They knew they couldn't really recognize
the Taliban regime.

They couldn't be associated with it.

The American vision of Afghanistan was
what was seen through Pakistani eyes.

Pakistan was an ally of the United
States and told them that the Taliban

simply part of traditional Afghan
culture and that they needed to accept

fact.

Massoud was simply a panchiri, a Tajik,
a group that didn't mean much and that

had never ruled Afghanistan.

They weren't a proper solution to lead
the country.

The Pakistanis didn't have a good
relationship with Commander Massoud.

They knew that Ahmed Shah Massoud would
never recognize a Pakistani puppet

government.

The Pakistanis saw that as resistance
and as direct opposition to them. It's

true because my brother would never have
accepted a pro -Pakistan government in

Kabul, and that's the real reason why
the United States never helped him,

regardless of what they claimed.

That was the context in which Europe
tried to make some progress by setting

visit with European deputies from France
and Belgium.

I remember when the parliamentary
representatives visited Panjshir.

In June 2000, a European parliamentary
delegation travelled to Panjshir to meet

Commander Massoud, leading the charge
with General Philippe Morillon.

who had previously served as commander
of UN forces in the former Yugoslavia

was a well -established peace advocate.

The man who instigated the visit was a
longtime friend of Commander Massoud,

Bertrand Gallet, who sought to raise
political awareness about the Afghan

conflict.

I think that Pakistan, I'm convinced
that Pakistan's goal is

a lot more religious in nature than it
is geographical.

whose much talked about in Afghanistan
these days, was trained by the Americans

back in the day.

They can't deny it.

It's in that context that he took
control of all the big madrasas,

Quranic schools.

The resistance is much bigger than that.

It encompasses everyone who is Tajik,
Pashtun, Hazara, and anyone else who

understands the threat.

They all oppose it.

From this moment forward, all
ethnicities need to unite against the

invasion. We're living in the 21st
century, and globalization is bringing

closer together.

No one could continue to exist in
isolation without any contact from the

outside. It's a natural phenomenon.

With a tolerant and moderate Islam, our
people can live in peace both internally

and within the international community.

I wore a pacol, like a local.

I speak the language, and since I didn't
use French in front of them, they

thought I was Afghan, which suited me
just fine.

I attended a number of those meetings.

Massoud wasn't a fool, he was sharp.
What he needed, above all else, was

military support.

If an intellectual or a politician
rallied behind him for their own

interests, so be it. What mattered...

was that they showed up and brought back
a vision that counteracted what many

others in Paris were thinking.

But in the Western world, in the U .S.,
in Europe alike, arms dealer lobbyists

were numerous and powerful, and Pakistan
was quite the client. In that regard,

Massoud was a problem.

Massoud was very good. He convinced them
easily.

We'll see where that leads in political
terms, but I think we're slowly moving

forward.

A country like Afghanistan is so far
removed from the current concerns of

European parliamentary representatives,
but this is how we'll get things to

evolve, through trips like this one.

They're tedious to put together, but
they're productive.

Safe travels home.

My heart is here with you.

So we'll be back.

We'll be back to bring you to Paris.

And to Washington.

Then when Morion got back to Strasbourg,
he convinced Nicole Fontaine, the

president of the parliament, to
officially invite Massoud, which had

done by anyone anywhere.

I think France's hands were a little
tied by the relationship and economic

connections with Pakistan, which was
valuable back then.

Of course, French intelligence services
were in contact with Massoud the same

way they were in contact with the
Taliban.

They met him regularly to ask questions
about the situation, to understand how

he saw things, and also to ask questions
about al -Qaeda.

That was the major point of interest of
the French intelligence services.

Given how Massoud had a significant
network of informants in the country, he

might learn things about bin Laden or al
-Qaeda.

and share that information with the
French.

I shared military insights about the
Somali plain front with French

services with Massoud's permission.

I was a messenger.

The messages transmitted by Western
secret services, including the CIA, were

eventually heard.

Still sparing Pakistan.

The Americans decided to put pressure on
the United Nations Security Council in

New York City.

The UN voted to put sanctions in place
against the Kabul regime.

The United

States

was in what I call their hyper -power
phase.

which meant that basically any other
power almost anywhere in the world had

take U .S. policies into account.

That didn't mean they needed to agree
with those policies.

In fact, the French government's
position with regard to the United

that time was to be a friend, an ally,
but not necessarily aligned with them.

The Americans found that unacceptable.

Because they thought, if you're an ally,
you have to be allied with them.

Otherwise, you're useless.

The moment international sanctions were
put into place, I knew they

would become even more radicalized.

And that the moderate, who were in favor
of keeping open the communication

channels with the Western world, would
essentially no longer have it their way.

As a result, it would be the radicals
who would seize power. I tried to tell

them that.

I tried repeatedly.

The radicalization of the Taliban had
brutal, inhumane consequences for women.

Their rights regressed even further.

Women were reduced to nothing, and any
suspicion against a woman could lead to

her imprisonment, beating, or even
stoning.

Thousands have come to the stadium to
see a woman die, a woman whose face

never see.

We only know her as Zarmina.

That's her in the middle, between the
two female guards.

The Taliban leader sentences her to
death for adultery.

Zarmina's seven children watched her
execution from the stands.

Their uncle was the one who pulled the
trigger.

Of course, the Taliban tried to provoke
me.

They couldn't resist the idea of luring
me to their side.

For example, one time they sent me a
beautiful written invitation asking me

honor them by attending a public
execution.

at Kabul Stadium.

That really made my blood boil, and I
went in person to return the invitation

the protocol service of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, which at that point had

been reduced to its simplest form.

I said, take this back, I don't want to
keep such an invitation, and I never

want to receive another one like it in
the future.

Freedom for women?

It's false to say that they had no
freedom.

They were not prisoners.

Granted, they did not have Western
freedoms, but they had Islamic, Quranic

freedoms.

And in our country, it's true that
stoning as prescribed by Islam is

Women are like ghosts, all shrouded in
the same covering, the chedri.

These furtive silhouettes were filmed in
secret.

In Afghanistan, one can't even look at
them from behind.

And here, even their underwear is a
man's business.

Women selling clothes?

No way.

Islam wouldn't allow it.

Because of this interpretation of the
Koran, in Afghanistan, women's fashion

entirely decided by men, from the cut of
the pattern to the actual models.

You know, when you own a rare pearl, you
don't just leave it lying around.

You keep it safe in a beautiful box.

You find a very beautiful box and you
keep it inside because it's very

Women in Islam are like pearls.

They are valuable, much more so than
they are in the Western world.

A man must serve his wife.

I myself am a servant.

My wife is at home along with my
daughter and I serve them.

Thanks to us, women do not have to work.

Women's rights are protected by Islam.

The Shadri also protects them.

Before the Taliban arrived in Kabul,
women played a major role in Afghan

society.

They held 80 % of administrative
positions and a third of medical jobs.

Massoud encouraged equality and
advocated women's return to public life.

Massoud believed Islam's fundamental
values that give women a space and the

right to have an education.

They fully belong in the organization of
political life.

And I think Massoud pushed for those
ideas.

Women's groups came to him asking him to
sign a charter for women's rights,

which he did.

He was fully aligned with everything
they brought up. He agreed with all of

Yet he still added a line about how
these clauses had to respect Afghan

Another indication of the Taliban's
radicalization was their desire to

all non -Islamic symbols.

After forbidding children to play with
kites, to listen to music, and to take

photos of themselves, they now opposed
looking at any work of art.

The Afghan government, with help from
France and a protocol signed in 1921,

had promoted national archaeology.

By destroying Afghan archaeology, the
Taliban wanted to prove that Afghanistan

had no culture other than that instilled
by the Pakistani seminaries.

To access these beautiful works carved
in the rock, one must take tunnels that

lead to an opening above them, where one
discovers beautiful frescoes that have

already been vandalized with a view to
the country's organized art trafficking.

This past Sunday, authorities in Kabul
tried to reassure a Western diplomatic

team who had come to investigate the
destruction of artworks.

Just two hours after our last meeting,
Mullah Omar announced the decision to

systematically destroy all anti -Islamic
works. Why?

Of course, there were obvious
ideological and religious reasons.

To them, these statues represent idols
and must hence be destroyed. That's also

a clear sign of radicalization.

I contacted the Minister of Foreign
Affairs and I told him, that if

they did this, they needed to understand
that their image would forever be

destroyed.

Stoning women was hard enough to
swallow, but here you had something that

been around since the fifth century and
which wasn't bothering anybody.

I said,

look, if you're really afraid that
people will come and worship these

I'm sure I can find you a company
somewhere that would be willing to

and donate curtains. You can cover the
statues and just open the curtains when

people come to observe their splendor,
as opposed to worshipping them.

He said, what a great idea.

and that he would relay it to Mullah
Omar.

He promised me that those Buddhas
wouldn't be destroyed.

He gave me his word.

When you play the diplomatic game,
you're faced with two types of fanatics.

There's the one who doesn't really
believe, so you can negotiate with him.

Then there's the fanatic who really
believes.

How can you negotiate with that?

And how can you tell one from the other?
And which one would you prefer?

I only found out what happened months
later, after September 11th, from an

Afghan friend.

He told me the day we left Mutawakil's
office, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,

he immediately picked up the phone and
called Mullah Omar in Kandahar, the

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate,
and told him he had given us his word,

and so on.

It turns out that Osama bin Laden was in
Mullah Omar's office

at the time, and he said,

Don't you think that would be an
embarrassment?

These foreigners are willing to spend
millions to install curtains or build a

wall around the Buddhas, while our
people are dying of starvation, and they

won't even lift a finger to help them.

That's shameful.

We need to destroy all that crap, those
pieces of stone.

And that's what happened. All of our
appeals were unfortunately totally

The Taliban's relentless destruction of
the Bamiyan Buddha statues in March 2001

was a huge shock because it revealed an
extremely deep -seated way of thinking,

which is why the world reacted.

It represented a resurgence of a way of
thinking

that we thought we were done with in our
world.

This thought that monuments and works of
art from civilizations that are not our

own carry ideological messages and pose
religious dangers, which

is why they must be completely
eradicated.

In favor of a moderate Islam, Then
French Minister

Alain Madelin took a keen interest in
Afghanistan very early on and visited

country on numerous occasions.

I went to Panjshir to explicitly meet
Massoud and spend time with him.

He was a true force of nature, an
extraordinary man.

While I was in there, Massoud gave me a
clear message, warning of the dangers

Afghanistan presented to the world, and
saying that the Afghan people needed to

be freed from this tyrannical regime.

I told him that he needed to come to
France.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
afraid for many reasons, but the main

reason, according to one of the senior
officials at the Ministry, was weapons

negotiations with Pakistan.

We couldn't upset Pakistan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn't
want him to come, which was strange

because in reality, and for a bunch of
reasons, the French military had people

on the ground there who knew the
country.

And they had a completely different
opinion.

They knew we needed to help Massoud, but
their voices were snuffed out as they

passed through military, diplomatic and
government channels.

I talked to people and offered them
solutions.

The Taliban were losing popular support,
and there were Taliban commanders that

we could have paid off.

To these 50 commanders or so, we could
have offered $40 ,000 each.

It would have cost $2 million. If
someone had just lent us $2 million, we

have taken down an entire front, or
multiple fronts, and taken back big

like Herat, Madari Sharif, or Jalalabad.

It would have been possible, but it
never happened.

In March, the French Minister for
Foreign Affairs invited a Taliban

I offered to greet them because I was
curious.

I wanted to see what they were like
after having read so many horrible

about them.

I remember they were completely closed
off. They never looked at me in the eye.

Even when we were two feet from one
another, they didn't say anything.

But it was done, and it probably had to
be done because we didn't know what was

next.

This March 2001 visit took place in
great secrecy without any cameras or

present.

Diplomacy required keeping both parties
happy in order to see the weapons deal

with Pakistan through.

Invited by the European Parliament and
not France itself, Massoud made his

stop in Paris.

Once again, our friends at the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs were quite sneaky.

They said Jospin was busy, Chirac was
busy, but the Ministry of Foreign

could probably give him just a bit of
his time.

Simultaneously, they had the nerve to
issue a press release announcing that

Ministry of Foreign Affairs was acting
as a bridge between all parties which

naturally included the Taliban.

We had a good discussion with Mr.
Badrin, even though the meeting was

hurried. It began over breakfast, which
was followed by discussions that led to

profound debates.

And that was when they realized they
were debating with a real leader

who was on the same level as they were.

I had many other meetings with Mr.
Badrin after that, every time.

He mentioned that first interview with
Commander Massoud.

Before that meeting, it was obvious that
they didn't trust us.

He was ecstatic about coming to Paris
and very happy to be received by the

minister. There's a certain prestige and
status attached to that.

Then he asked if the DGSE could help
more by providing weapons.

Let's be clear.

He was trying to rally the international
community to his side of the fight and

prove that his fight was just.

And his enemy was a serious threat, not
just to him, but to everyone.

He didn't get much out of that besides
talk.

He told me France didn't even give him a
Kalashnikov cartridge.

He made his pinky and said it in Dari.

Five months before September 11th,
Massoud came to Europe to deliver a

Of course I saw Massoud when he came to
Paris, and we had a meal together.

Of course we talked about all these
problems, and I was able to share my

and how disappointed I was with my
compatriots.

Of course I told him all about my trials
and tribulations at the various NGO

conventions in Washington, where
everyone had gone out of their way to

organizations.

to recognize the Taliban government and
cooperate with them.

I'll never forget when this official
from the U .S. State Department came to

in spring 2000 and said, listen, at the
end of the day, we know that

the Saudis are also violating human
rights that we consider fundamental, but

need to be realistic.

We collaborate with them, so why
wouldn't we recognize the Taliban?

People met with Massoud and they
listened to him.

He spoke in France and in Europe.

And of course there were some people who
really advocated that he should be

helped.

But what you need to understand is that
there were just as many people, maybe

more influential, who believed the
opposite.

They branded Massoud as a...

fundamentalist, like all the others.

Someone who would never have a political
future in Afghanistan, and a horse it

would be stupid to bet on.

Welcome to the European Parliament. I'm
so happy to have you here.

His message would finally be heard and
listened to.

You all know that for a long time now,
the European Parliament has been very

concerned with the situation in
Afghanistan, the serious and repeated

infringements of fundamental rights and
human dignity, the appalling situation

facing women,

the famine that threatens the country,
as well as refugees.

I would venture to say that the
destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statue

straw that broke the camel's back,

which confirmed beyond any doubt that
the Taliban simply have no respect for

anything.

The invitation I extended is first and
foremost the political acknowledgement

what Commander Massoud represents.

But I must also tell you that the
Pakistani ambassador wrote me a letter.

When his government had invited
Khomeini, that letter

gives me the opportunity to give a
strict warning to the Pakistani

authorities.

The support that they give the Taliban
is a threat to the entire region.

And in my response to this letter, I
will formally ask Pakistan to

cease supporting a regime which, through
its fanaticism and obscurantism, has

ostracized itself from the world.

The groups that accompany them, like
Osama bin Laden and the Taliban,

have similar ideas.

I want to say this way that the goal of
these groups is not

Afghanistan, but the first step of
Afghanistan and then the exit of

And unfortunately,

I must remind you that...

Masoud's visit to Europe was a very good
thing.

But it was also the worst possible thing
he could have done for himself.

Because I'm pretty convinced that's what
gave the enemy the idea that Masoud

himself had to be physically eliminated.

That idea came out of the sick minds of
al -Qaeda leaders.

To put it simply, Massoud's
assassination was bin Laden's gift to

I had noticed the fanatic radicalization
of the Taliban.

But I didn't really understand how much
influence bin Laden had at the time. Bin

Laden had married one of his own sons to
one of

Mullah Omar's daughters.

That meant their relationship had become
familial and dynastic, which

posed a lot of problems.

It was a gift to Mullah Omar in the
sense that it gave him the last little

of Afghanistan he was missing.

Assassinating Massoud meant he could
launch a massive operation to conquer

Panjshir and the entire northeast,
ruling over the entire country.

All of this without bin Laden having to
share what he was planning in the US.

Al -Qaeda thought that one of Massoud's
weaknesses was

his willingness to accept visits from
journalists and politicians.

So they decided to use that as a way to
get close to him. They can go in

pretending to be journalists with a
camera or batteries that were filled

explosives.

On September 9th, 2001, two al -Qaeda
kamikazes met with Commander Massoud.

The two terrorists pretended to be
journalists working for Arab media

Fahim Dashti, one of Massoud's loyal
lieutenants, is one of the only two

witnesses still alive today.

It's always hard for me to talk about
what happened on September 9th, 2001.

It always brings back terrible memories,
the worst of my life.

It was around 8 or 8 .30 in the morning
when I came out of my room.

I asked where those Arab journalists had
gone.

Someone told me they had already gone to
the commander's headquarters to

interview him.

Part of our work back then as a
Mujahideen was to record videos.

So I grabbed my camera and headed to the
commander's headquarters.

Before they started the interview, the
commander asked them to share what

questions they were planning to ask.

The Arab sitting next to the commander
listed a dozen or so questions, mostly

about al -Qaeda, the Taliban, bin Laden,
Pakistan, the war.

It was always the same questions back
then.

When I sensed the interview was about to
begin, I sat in a chair beside them and

prepared my camera to film.

I was suddenly blinded by a very strong
yellow light.

My eyes closed instinctively, and then I
realized that I was burned and wounded.

Since I had been setting up my camera,
the first thing I thought was there had

to have been a short circuit and that it
had exploded in my face.

I managed to open my eyes and I saw
there was dust and smoke everywhere and

the windows had been blown out.

Two people carried the commander from
the room with his pachol covering his

face.

He had injuries to his head and legs,
but most seriously to his chest.

When Commander Massoud was killed, for
the first time in my life, I realized

what a great responsibility that man had
been carrying up until that point.

Everything depended on him.

Millions of us felt it, and we weren't
strong enough to carry the weight of

responsibility.

I once read a sentence in a book that
said, Woe betide a nation in need of

heroes. And back when the commander was
still alive, I thought that that author

was stupid.

He didn't understand that it was great
to have a hero.

One should be so lucky.

But when Massoud died, I finally
understood what the author was trying to

What he meant was that it's so sad when
people need a hero, because when that

hero disappears, all is lost.

Two days after Massoud's assassination,
on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, at 8 .45

a .m., an airliner crashed into the
North Tower of the World Trade Center in

York. Just 18 minutes later, a second
plane hit the South Tower. Then a third

crashed into the Pentagon in Washington,
D .C., and a fourth in Pennsylvania.

It was the worst terrorist attack in
human history.

The two events are closely connected.

Before the attacks on September 11th, al
-Qaeda wanted to eradicate the leader

of the resistance so there would be no
more opposition to the Taliban in

Afghanistan.

Yes, bin Laden understood that Massoud
was his enemy for sure.

Perhaps he had thought that after the
attack on the Twin Towers, there would

a crackdown on Afghanistan.

And if such retaliations occurred, he
needed to ensure Massoud was gone,

he represented the main danger against
him.

The rest would work itself out, but the
connection between the two events is

absolutely obvious.

After September 11th, the United States
went after public enemy number one,

Osama bin Laden.

They took military action in
Afghanistan.

Helped by the Americans, the troops of
the late Commander Massoud liberated

Kabul in November 2001.

The Taliban's departure was a relief to
the local population.

I shaved, says the man. There's no more
Taliban.

This al -Qaeda command center shows
clear signs of its occupants' hurried

departure. But the most surprising thing
of all was found in the basement.

A dozen brand -new Milan -type anti
-tank missiles, weapons manufactured in

France and abundantly sold to the United
Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

In the Western world, the discovery of
this arsenal almost

went unnoticed.

Only one person was surprised and dared
raise the issue of certain dealings with

Pakistan. I yield the floor to Mr. Alan
Madland, the first speaker.

Today, Kabul has been liberated. The
Taliban have been chased out, and I'm

first to rejoice because for a very long
time, I've had the feeling that very

few of us were ready to denounce the
blind eye that France and the world's

democracies turned towards the
oppression of the Afghan people under

criminal Taliban regime.

Mr. Prime Minister, perhaps you can
enlighten us as to the origin of the

Milan missiles that were just found in
the Taliban's deserted arsenals in

Kabul.

By answering you would at least
partially explain the French

ambiguous position, because never once,
Mr.

Prime Minister,

Did you say that Afghanistan should be
free of the Taliban regime?

Taliban? You've never even said the word
a single time.

I wanted him to explain where those
French military Milan missiles were

from, the wire -guided Milan missiles
that had been found in the Taliban's

arsenals in Kabul.

He never answered.

Anyway, I'm not saying France delivered
Milan missiles directly to the Taliban.

That's highly unlikely.

That said, it might have been via a
country like Pakistan or some other

that somehow these missiles ended up in
the Taliban's arsenal.

Massoud remains a living legend to its
multi -ethnic and multicultural

population.

But Afghanistan is still threatened by
terrorists that coexist with the

And the Taliban continue to be supported
by Pakistan.

In this context, Massoud's heritage is a
source of inspiration and hope, a hope

that lives on through the political
arrival of the commander's only son,

who is following the footsteps of his
father.

and embody the new front against the
Taliban and international terrorism.

Well, before the collapse of the New
York Towers, the oppressed people of

Afghanistan were the first victims of
terrorism and its brutality.

If we consider how much of the world's
attention we have now,

if even 1 % of that attention had
existed in my father's days, the enemy

have been chased out of Afghanistan in a
week or two.

No more terrorism.

As long as Pakistan still wants to
control Afghanistan, there will never be

peace in the region and the war will
continue.

Only when Pakistan ceases to support
terrorism, when the leaders of Pakistan

change their policies with regard to
Afghanistan, will the region stabilize

find its way on the road to peace.

Pakistan could then develop and so could
Afghanistan.

My biggest regret is my own personal
failure.

I think that Massoud, I think he counted
on me at least a little bit. He counted

on me to relay his message.

Yes, it didn't work.

So it's a personal failure on my part.

That said, the collective failure is
even more consequential than my personal

failure.

Massoud's image remains untarnished.

It's an image that isn't exactly what
his supporters in Paris thought, but he

was still a strong figure, even if he
was a warlord.

I guess he never got a chance to
disappoint us.

He died too soon for that.

It all happened like a great tragedy.

Total disaster for Afghanistan.

We let the chips fall where they may.

And no matter how much of a fight we put
up, things took

a turn for the worse.

And that's still the case.