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Leading Personalities - These are the
Wikipedia entries I could find - Of course, they contain much more interesting
detail about these gentlemen.
Pervez Mushrraf
Pervez Musharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a Pakistani politician and a retired
four-star general who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the
successful military takeover of the federal government in 1999. He held the
presidency from 2001 until 2008, when he tendered his resignation to avoid
impeachment.
Mullah Omar
Mohammed Omar Mujahid(1960 – 23 April 2013) was an Afghan religious
scholar, partisan fighter and political leader. He was a co-founder of the
Taliban and served as its first leader. He founded the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan in 1996.
General Abdul
Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum; born 25 March 1954) is an Afghan politician, former
Marshal in the Afghan National Army, founder and leader of the political party
Junbish-e Milli. Dostum was a major army commander in the communist government
during the Soviet-Afghan War, and in 2001 was the key indigenous ally to US
Special Forces and the CIA during the campaign to topple the Taliban
government. He is regarded as one of the most powerful and notorious warlords
since the beginning of the Afghan wars, known for siding with winners during
different wars.
Haji Mohammad
Mohaqiq
Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq; born 26 July 1955 in Balkh is a current politician in
Afghanistan, serving as a member of the Afghanistan Parliament. He is an ethnic
Hazara. He is also the founder and chairman of the People's Islamic Unity Party
of Afghanistan. During the 1980s, he served with the mujahideen rebel forces
fighting against the Soviet-backed Afghan government. After the withdrawal of
the Soviet Union in 1989, Mohaqiq was appointed as the leader of the Hezb-e
Wahdat for northern Afghanistan. During the Afghan civil war in the early
1990s, he was regarded as a prominent leader fighting for his Hazara people. In
the late 1990s, Mohaqiq joined the Northern Alliance (United Front) in their
resistance and struggle against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban).
After the fall of the Taliban, he was appointed as the Vice President and the
Minister of Planning in the interim government of Hamid Karzai. Mohaqiq ran as
a candidate in the 2004 Afghan presidential election. He came in third place
with 11.7% of the votes after Hamid Karzai and Yunus Qanuni.
Atta Mohammud Nur
Atta Muhammad Nur: born 1964 is an Afghan exiled politician and former militant
who served as the Governor of Balkh Province in Afghanistan from 2004 to
January 25, 2018. An ethnic Tajik, he worked to educate the Mujahideen after
the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, gaining the nickname "The
Teacher". He then became a mujahideen resistance commander for the
Jamiat-e Islami against the Soviets. When the Taliban government took power in
late 1996, Noor served as a commander in the United Front (Northern Alliance)
under Ahmad Shah Massoud against the Taliban. He led operations in the Balkh
area. In 2004, President Hamid Karzai appointed him as the governor of Balkh
province. He has been described by The Economist as being "immensely
wealthy." He was removed from the position of Provincial Governor by
President Ashraf Ghani in January 2018. During the 2021 Taliban offensive, Nur,
along with Abdul Rashid Dostum, fled Mazar-e-Sharif to Uzbekistan in August
2021.
General Daud
General Mohammed
Fahim
Mohammad Qasim Fahim, also known as "Marshal Fahim"; 1957 – 9
March 2014) was a politician in Afghanistan who served as Vice President from
June 2002 until December 2004 and from November 2009 until his death. Between
September 2001 and December 2004, he also served as Defense Minister under the
Afghan Transitional Administration. As military commander of the Northern
Alliance, Fahim captured the Afghan capital Kabul in the fall of 2001 from the
Taliban government. In 2004, President Hamid Karzai provided Fahim the honorary
title Marshal and a year later, he became member of the House of Elders. He
later became a recipient of the Ahmad Shah Baba Medal. Fahim was a member of
Afghanistan's Tajik ethnic group. He was affiliated with the Jamiat Islami
(Shura-e Nazar) party of Afghanistan.
Abdul Haq
Abdul Haq (born Humayoun Arsala; April 23, 1958 – October 26, 2001) was an
Afghan mujahideen commander who fought against the Soviet-backed People's
Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the de facto Afghan government in the 1980s.
He was killed by the Taliban in October 2001 while trying to create a popular
uprising against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11th
attacks.Haq first engaged in the fight against the Afghan government in 1978,
initially without external support, then with the Hizb-i-Islami faction led by
Mohammad Yunus Khalis—not to be mistaken with the Hezb-i-Islami faction of
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. During the Soviet–Afghan War, Haq coordinated
mujahideen activities in the province of Kabul. Haq was one of the CIA's few
Afghan contacts in the early years of the war; Coll writes that he "grew
to become Howard Hart's most important Afghan guide to the anti-Soviet
war." Later in the 1980s he became a critic of ISI and (after his
relationship with them ended) the CIA. Following the US-led invasion of
Afghanistan in October 2001, Haq entered Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan from
Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to implement his resistance plan against the
Taliban. Some sources have speculated that the CIA supported this initiative
but family members and other witness sources have denied this claim writing
that the CIA actually urged him not to enter Afghanistan. Former CIA director
George Tenet reports that, at the recommendation of Bud McFarlane, CIA
officials met with Haq in Pakistan and after assessing his capabilities urged
him not to enter Afghanistan. After a chase,] he was captured by the Taliban
along with nineteen others between the towns of Hisarak and Azro in Nangarhar
province, and was killed on October 26, 2001. The Guardian speculates that his
capture was due to a betrayal by double agents. Some reports soon after his
death blamed the CIA for siding too closely with Pakistan's ISI, which did not
wish to see Afghans united across ethnic lines, and for failing to intervene to
rescue him from his Taliban captors. This version was solidified by reports of
tension between Haq and American agents after an interview in which he stated
"we cannot be [America's] puppet." He was one of many Afghan rebel
leaders opposed to the U.S. intervention.
Burhauddin Rabbani
Burhanuddin Rabbani; (20 September 1940 – 20 September 2011) was an Afghan
politician and teacher who served as President of Afghanistan from 1992 to 2001
(in exile from 1996 to 2001). Born in the Badakhshan Province, Rabbani studied
at Kabul University and worked there as a professor of Islamic theology. He
formed the Jamiat-e Islami (Islamic Society) at the university which attracted
then-students Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud, both of whom would
eventually become the two leading commanders of the Afghan mujahideen in the
Soviet–Afghan War from 1979. Rabbani was chosen to be the President of
Afghanistan after the end of the former communist regime in 1992. Rabbani and
his Islamic State of Afghanistan government was later forced into exile by the
Taliban, and he then served as the political head of the Northern Alliance, an
alliance of various political groups who fought against the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan. After the Taliban government was toppled during Operation Enduring
Freedom, Rabbani returned to Kabul and served briefly as President from 13
November to 22 December 2001, when Hamid Karzai was chosen as his succeeding
interim leader at the Bonn International Conference. In later years he became
head of Afghanistan National Front (known in the media as United National
Front), the largest political opposition to Karzai's government. On 20
September 2011, Rabbani was assassinated by a suicide bomber entering his home
in Kabul. As suggested by the Afghan parliament, Afghanistan's President Hamid
Karzai gave him the title of "Martyr of Peace". His son Salahuddin
Rabbani was chosen in April 2012 to lead efforts to forge peace in Afghanistan
with the Taliban.
Yunus Qanuni
Younus Qanooni, born on 10 May 1957 in Panjshir Valley is an Afghan politician
who was Vice President of Afghanistan. As a leader of the Northern Alliance, he
supported the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but opposed
Pakistani involvement, as Pakistan favored a reformed Taliban government rather
than a new government based upon the Afghan Northern Alliance. In 2001, Qanuni
served as chief negotiator for the Afghan Northern Alliance delegation to the
Bonn conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany. Immediately after the fall of
the Taliban government, Qanuni was interior minister in an interim
administration. He was eventually made the education minister in the Afghan
Transitional Administration (established in June 2002), and served as a
security advisor to interim President Hamid Karzai. Along with Fahim and
Abdullah, Qanuni was seen as one of the dominant figures of the Transitional
Administration An ethnic Tajik, Qanooni is the leader of the Afghanistan e
Naween (New Afghanistan) political party and former Speaker of the House of the
People (the lower house of parliament or Wolesi Jirga).
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as
President of Afghanistan from 22 December 2001 to 29 September 2014. He is also
the khan (head) of the Popalzai Durrani Pashtun tribe of Kandahar Province.
Karzai had been a US CIA contact, and was well regarded by the CIA. After the 7
October 2001 launch of Operation Enduring Freedom, the United Front (Northern
Alliance) worked with teams of U.S. special forces and together they overthrew
the Taliban regime and mustered support for a new government in Afghanistan.
Karzai and his group were in Quetta, where they began a covert operation.
Later, many would claim that at this moment the US decided that Karzai should
be the next leader of Afghanistan. Karzai gather several hundred fighters from
his tribe, but were attacked by the Taliban. Karzai barely survived, and used
his contacts with the CIA to call for an airlift. On 4 November 2001, American
special operation forces flew Karzai out of Afghanistan for protection. On 5
December 2001, Hamid Karzai and his group of fighters survived a friendly fire
missile attack by U.S. Air Force pilots in southern Afghanistan. The group
suffered injuries and was treated in the United States; Karzai received
injuries to his facial nerves, as can sometimes be noticed during his speeches.
Gul Agha Sherzai
Gul Agha Sherzai, also known as Mohammad Shafiq, is a politician in
Afghanistan. He is the former governor of Nangarhar province in eastern
Afghanistan. He previously served as Governor of Kandahar province, in the
early 1990s and from 2001 until 2003. Sherzai's capture of Kandahar in late
2001, with assistance from American special forces and Hamid Karzai, marked the
first time territory in southern Afghanistan had been captured from the Taliban
forces. In October 2013, Sherzai resigned from his post as governor and
formally announced himself as a candidate for Afghanistan's 2014 Presidential
Election, and served as the minister of border and tribal affairs until the
Taliban victory in 2021.
Hazrai Ali Haji
Haji Abdul Qadeer
Haji Abdul Qadeer, 1951 – July 6, 2002) was a prominent Northern Alliance
leader in Afghanistan and opposed the Taliban. Originally a commander of the
Hezb-i Islami Khalis faction during the Soviet–Afghan War, he then served
as governor of Nangarhar Province, the head of the Eastern Afghanistan Shura,
and later Vice President of Afghanistan and Minister of Public Works in the
administration of Hamid Karzai from 19 June 2002 until his assassination on 6
July 2002. He was the older brother of fellow anti-Soviet and Northern Alliance
commander Abdul Haq, who was executed in late 2001 by the Taliban. Abdul Qadeer
is notable for welcoming Osama bin Laden to Jalalabad.
Zaman Ghamsharik
Hajji Mohammed Zaman (Zaman Ghamsharik) (29 April 1965 – 22 February 2010)
was a Pashtun Afghan military leader and politician. He was an ethnic Pashtun,
connected to the Khogyani tribe. According to Maj. Dalton Fury, who fought
together with Ghamsharik in November/December 2001 in the Tora Bora campaign
against the Taliban, Haji Zaman had been "one of the more infamous
mujahideen junior commanders during the Soviet–Afghan War. When the
Taliban took over, Zaman departed Afghanistan for France. When the Taliban fell
from grace after 9/11, he returned to his homeland to reclaim his former VIP
status. He was said to have influential friends within neighboring Pakistan,
including members of the Pakistan intelligence service. He reportedly led a
force of 4,000 men during the campaign to oust Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers.
Abdul Satar Sirat
Abdul Satar Sirat returned to Afghanistan in 2001. Sirat was a representative
of the Rome group at the Bonn talks, where Sirat was elected as head of the
interim government with 80% of the delegate vote. However, there were
ethnicity-based concerns by the US government and particularly President Bush's
Special Presidential Envoy Khalilzad, that Sirat was not a Pashtun, and Sirat
was told to step aside for Hamid Karzai. In later peace talks between the
Taliban and the US government, the Taliban asked for the establishment of a
neutral interim government, and specifically nominated Sirat as head of such an
interim administration.
Saif-ur-Raham Mansur:
Zakim Khan
King Mohammed Zahir
Shah
Mohammed Zahir Shah 15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last king of
Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July
1973. Serving for 40 years, Zahir was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan
since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century. He expanded
Afghanistan's diplomatic relations with many countries, including with both
sides of the Cold War. In the 1950s, Zahir Shah began modernizing the country,
culminating in the creation of a new constitution and a constitutional monarchy
system. Demonstrating nonpartisanship, his long reign was marked by peace in
the country that was lost afterwards. In 1973, while Zahir Shah was undergoing
medical treatment in Italy, his regime was overthrown in a coup d'etat by his
cousin and former prime minister, Mohammed Daoud Khan, who established a
single-party republic, ending more than 225 years of continuous monarchical
government. He remained in exile near Rome until 2002, returning to Afghanistan
after the end of the Taliban government. He was given the title Father of the
Nation, which he held until his death in 2007.
Gary Schroen
Gary Charles Schroen (born November 6, 1941) is a former Central Intelligence
Agency field officer who was in charge of the initial CIA incursion into
Afghanistan in September 2001 to topple the Taliban regime and to destroy
Al-Qaeda. Schroen worked with the Agency for 35 years, rising from case officer
to Deputy Chief, Near East Division, Directorate of Operations in 1999, a post
he held through 2001. During his career, Schroen served in numerous posts,
including Station Chief in Kabul, Afghanistan (but working out of Pakistan) in
the late 1980s. From 1992 to 1994, Schroen worked at CIA headquarters in
Langley, Virginia, controlling Iranian operations. Schroen was the chief of
station in Islamabad, Pakistan from 1996 until mid-1999. During this period, he
directed CIA operations to find and capture Osama bin Laden, and began renewing
relationships with the Mujahideen commanders who fought the Soviets in the
Soviet–Afghan War. Although he planned to retire, Schroen was recalled
after the September 11th attacks to lead a CIA team into Afghanistan. The
seven-officer team flew into Afghanistan on September 26 and began securing
support among the Northern Alliance just days before the arrival of 12-man
Special Forces units ODA 555 and ODA 595. He has since written the book First
In, recounting his Afghan experiences.
Johnny Spann
Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann (March 1, 1969 – November 25, 2001)
was an American paramilitary officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's
Special Activities Division. Spann was the first American killed in combat
during the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He died at the
Qala-i-Jangi fortress during an al-Qaeda prisoner uprising. Spann joined the
CIA in June 1999 and trained at The Farm, where he met his future wife Shannon
Verleur (nee Joy) and was known as "Silent Mike".[4] On completion of
training, he was assigned to Ground Branch of the CIA's Special Activities
Division. In early 2001, he was on a training course[5] with a fellow former
Marine called Brian (who in 2021 was head of the CIA's Special Activities
center[6] ) and discussed the Al Qaeda threat and the USS Cole, which had been
bombed in October 2000. "What would we be doing right now as a country if
the Cole had snapped in half and gone to the bottom of the Gulf of Aden?"
Spann asked Brian. "Would we be on a training course?" Later in 2001,
Spann undertook temporary duty in Uzbekistan,[7] where he helped train Uzbek
commandos, and the Balkans.[8][9] Spann returned from the Balkans on September
8, 2001 [10] was inside CIA headquarters on 9/11 and was angered by the order
to evacuate, asking colleagues: "Why are we leaving when we can stay and
do something?"[11] On October 17, 2001, Spann was one of the eight members
of the CIA's Team Alpha[12] who were inserted into the Darya Suf Valley, south
of Mazar-i-Sharif. Team Alpha was flown into Afghanistan in two Black Hawk
helicopters[13] from the Karshi-Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan. The eight were
the first Americans behind enemy lines after 9/11; the CIA's Jawbreaker team
had arrived on September 26, but were located in terrain controlled by the
Northern Alliance in the Panjshir Valley. Three days later, they were joined by
12 Green Berets from ODA 595. On October 27, Spann led a three-man team[14] to
Yakawlang, sixty miles west of Bamiyan, to prepare the way for the CIA’s
Team Delta and ODA 553. CIA medic Mark Rausenberger and Captain Justin Sapp, a
Green Beret, were under his command. Spann insisted that the Landing Zone at
Yakawlang be named after his baby son,[15] despite opposition from CIA
headquarters. "There are no rules here,” he said. "We’re
making the decisions and it’s going to be called LZ Jake." Spann's
three-man team rejoined Team Alpha just before the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif on
November 9.
John Walker Lindh
John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American who was
captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of
Afghanistan in November 2001. He was detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, used as
a prison. He denied participating in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent
uprising of the Taliban prisoners, stating that he was wounded in the leg and
hid in the cellar of the Pink House, in the southern half of the fort. He was
one of 86 of the estimated 400 prisoners to survive the uprising, in which CIA
officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed. Brought to trial in United
States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he
pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was
released on supervision on May 23, 2019, for a three-year period of supervised
release. A convert to Sunni Islam in California at age 16, Lindh traveled to
Yemen in 1998 to study Arabic and stayed there for 10 months. He later returned
in 2000, then went to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban in fighting against the
Afghan Northern Alliance. He received training at Al-Farouq, a training camp
associated with al-Qaeda, designated a terrorist organization by the United
States and other countries. While at the camp, he attended a lecture by Osama
bin Laden. After the 9/11 attacks, he remained with the Taliban military forces
despite learning that the U.S. had become allied with the Northern Alliance.
Lindh had previously received training with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, an
internationally designated terrorist organization based in Pakistan. Lindh went
by the name Sulayman al-Faris during his time in Afghanistan, but prefers the
name Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi today. In early reports following his capture,
when the press learned that he was a U.S. citizen, he was usually referred to
by the news media as just "John Walker
General James Mattis
James Norman Mattis (born September 8, 1950) is a retired United States Marine
Corps four-star general who served as the 26th US secretary of defense from
January 2017 to January 2019. During his 44 years in the Marine Corps, he
commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq
War. Mattis was commissioned in the Marine Corps through the Naval Reserve
Officers' Training Corps after graduating from Central Washington University. A
career Marine, he gained a reputation among his peers for
"intellectualism" and eventually advanced to the rank of general.
From 2007 to 2010, he commanded the United States Joint Forces Command and
concurrently served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation. He was
commander of United States Central Command from 2010 to 2013, with Admiral Bob
Harward serving as his deputy commander. After retiring from the military, he
served in several private sector roles, including as a board member of
Theranos. During the initial planning for the War in Afghanistan, Mattis led
Task Force 58 in operations in the southern part of the country beginning in
November 2001, becoming the first Marine Corps officer to command a Naval Task
Force in combat. According to Mattis, his objective upon arriving in
Afghanistan was "make sure that the enemy didn't feel like they had any
safe haven, to destroy their sense of security in southern Afghanistan, to
isolate Kandahar from its lines of communication, and to move against
Kandahar." In December 2001, an airstrike carried out by a B-52 bomber
inadvertently targeted a position held by US special operations troops and
Afghan militiamen in Uruzgan Province. Numerous men were wounded in the
incident, but Mattis repeatedly refused to dispatch helicopters from the nearby
Camp Rhino to recover them, citing operational safety concerns. Instead, an Air
Force helicopter flew from Uzbekistan to ferry the men to the Marine Corps base
where helicopters sat readily available but unauthorized to fly. Captain Jason
Amerine blamed the delay caused by Mattis's refusal to order a rescue operation
for the deaths of several men. Amerine wrote, "Every element in
Afghanistan tried to help us except the closest friendly unit, commanded by
Mattis," though he also wrote that "none of that was assessed
properly because the [5th Special Forces Group] chose not to call for a formal
investigation". This episode was used against Mattis when he was nominated
for defense secretary in 2016. Mattis describes being presented with the
location of Osama bin Laden in December 2001 and creating a plan to kill him
that was never executed. While serving in Afghanistan as a brigadier general,
Mattis was known as an officer who engaged his men with "real
leadership." A young Marine officer, Nathaniel Fick, said he witnessed
Mattis in a fighting hole talking with a sergeant and lance corporal: "No
one would have questioned Mattis if he'd slept eight hours each night in a
private room, to be woken each morning by an aide who ironed his uniforms and
heated his MREs. But there he was, in the middle of a freezing night, out on
the lines with his Marines."
Colonel John
Muholand
Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland Jr. (born 1955) is a retired senior
officer who served in the United States Army and is the former Associate
Director for Military Affairs (ADMA) at the Central Intelligence Agency. LTG
Mulholland previously served as Deputy Commander of the United States Special
Operations Command, after having previously served in the US Army's Special
Forces. He assumed command of 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell,
Kentucky in July 2001, and in October that year became commander of Task Force
Dagger, Joint Special Operations Task Force North during Operation Enduring
Freedom in Afghanistan. He commanded special operations task forces in both
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, earning an appointment
as Deputy Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command and later
as Commanding General, US Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg.
Ambassador
James Dobbins
James Francis Dobbins Jr. (born May 31, 1942) is an American diplomat who
served as United States Ambassador to the European Union (1991–1993), as
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (2001), and as Special
Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (May 2013 – July 2014). He is
a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy. He was envoy to Kosovo, Bosnia,
Haiti, and Somalia. In 2001, he led negotiations leading to the Bonn Agreement,
and served as acting Ambassador of the United States to Afghanistan during the
transitional period. He was head of international and security policy for the
RAND Corporation.
Lt General Tommy
Franks
Tommy Ray Franks (born 17 June 1945) is a retired general in the United States
Army. His last army post was as the Commander of the United States Central
Command, overseeing United States military operations in a 25-country region,
including the Middle East. Franks succeeded General Anthony Zinni to this
position on 6 July 2000 and served until his retirement on 7 July 2003. Franks
was the United States general leading the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan
in response to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and The
Pentagon in 2001. He also oversaw the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow
of Saddam Hussein.
Major General Hagenbeck
Lakhdar Brahimi
Lakhdar Brahimi; born 1 January 1934) is an Algerian United Nations diplomat
who served as the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria until
14 May 2014.[1] He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria from 1991 to
1993. He served as chairman of the United Nations Panel on United Nations Peace
Operations in 2000. Its highly influential report "Report of the Panel on
United Nations Peacekeeping" is known as "The Brahimi Repor."
Brahimi was the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Before his appointment in 2001 by the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, he had
served the U.N. as special representative to Haiti where he narrowly escaped an
assassination attempt. Brahimi facilitated the first American UN Force
Commander since their involvement in the Korean War. Before coming to the U.N.,
Brahimi, who represented the National Liberation Front in Tunis during
Algeria's independence movement in 1956–1961, was an Arab League official
(1984–1991) and the Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1991 until
1993. Brahimi was also chair of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations,
which produced the influential Brahimi Report.
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