AFGHANISTAN REMEMBERED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030097-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 97
• Publication Date: May 11, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST'iTeclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030097-2
LRTICLE AFFLLEJ'
ON PAGE WASHINGTON TIMES
11 MAY 1983
Afghanistan remembered
of the countries involved to continue: The
Pakistanis, for example, have -been the
object of regular Kremlin threats to come
into Pakistan and cut off the arms flowif-the
Pakistani government. does not. And.the
Kremlin loves any excuse to pressure the
stability-poor, oil-rich.states of Saudi Ara-
,news? ,Or,does the silence simply mean'.that ; ,eveII more aid than we are. The Soviets ow
the Reagan administration has vvimped out , -have more than 100;a00-troops bogged+down :
and .is,providing the freedomn ghtersa~itb* ..,:,what -looks like- an ,,endless -struggle:-
little r_t~oaid,at ll?; _ ? r - Soviet-spokesmen admit they can =alre y
Even some of the president'smore
seasoned foreign policy supporters were
beginning to wonder: Is -it possible that we
are actually aiding 'the Afghan rebels in
their fight against the Soviets without
somebody in the. press, or on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, filing a freedom of
information request .and spilling all the
details of the operation on the evening
tough.on the Russians, we weren't really
doing much to help," a Reagan aide admits.
said.about helping the:guerril.las and being
"I ,couldn't believe that after'ali we had' feel the-impact of limited U.S. aid: Anot'hef
Reagan administration quietly began step-
ping up military support for the Afghan
resistance and is now spending from S15 to
S25 million a year on supplies for the guer-
rilla forces.
It's too bad that yet another covert CIA
operation has been un-coverted, and not just
on principle. The leaked reports of U.S.
arms shipments-which travel through
Pakistan, and involve hardware purchased
from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran-
cannot help but endanger the tenuous sup-
ply routes that have been worked out, not to
mention the lives of some of our agents.
The leaks also make it tougher for some
turn of the screw couldn't hurt.
This is particularly true because of what
the takeover has cost the Soviets.Morethan
15,000 Soviet. soldiers have died in
Afghanistan since the Kremlin launched its
1979 attack.
Yet what the Soviets have suffered is
small next to the punishment the Kremlin
has inflicted: thousands of painful deaths
theless, it appears that as of December, the'` by- chemical 'poisoning; - regular-torture
"It was outrageous"
Indeed it was. According to recent pub-
lished reports, however, this outrage has
ended; in fact, it never really existed. The
reports, of course, are neither confirmed
nor denied by the U.S. government. Never-
campaigns. There are children with .arms
and legs blown off by booby-trap bombs;
one family in five has been forced to flee its
home.
We don't see much of this in the United
States. While no sparrow falls in Central
America or the Middle East without making
front pages all over the world, the Soviets
have been unusually successful in keeping
reporters and photographers out of
Afghanistan. But they cannot keep the
Afghans and their plight out of the geopo-
litical picture that is deciding the future for
all of us. Fortunately, the State Department
seems to be, at last, letting itself notice.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030097-2