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Octafish

(55,745 posts)
21. In June 2001, the Ambassador's niece played a stirring role in history to come.
Sun Mar 29, 2015, 12:19 PM
Mar 2015
The Accidental Operative

Richard Helms’s Afghani Niece Leads Corps of Taliban Reps

By Camelia Fard & James Ridgeway
Village Voice, Tuesday, Jun 12 2001

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6—On this muggy afternoon, a group of neatly attired men and a handful of women gather in a conference room at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The guest list includes officials from the furthest corners of the world—Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Turkey—and reps from the World Bank, the Uzbekistan chamber of commerce, the oil industry, and the Russian news agency Tass, along with various individuals identified only as "U.S. Government," which in times past was code for spook.

At hand is a low-profile briefing on international narcotics by a top State Department official, who has recently returned from a United Nations trip to inspect the poppy fields of Afghanistan, source of 80 percent of the world's opium and target of a recent eradication campaign by the fundamentalist Taliban. The lecture begins as every other in Washington: The speaker politely informs the crowd he has nothing to do with policymaking. And, by the way, it's all off the record.

Lecture over, the chairman asks for questions. One man after another rises to describe his own observations while in the foreign service. The moderator pauses, looks to the back of the room, and says in a scarcely audible voice: "Laili Helms." The room goes silent.

For the people gathered here, the name brings back memories of Richard Helms, director of the CIA during the tumultuous 1960s, the era of Cuba and Vietnam. After he was accused of destroying most of the agency's secret documents detailing its own crimes, Helms left the CIA and became President Ford's ambassador to Iran. There, he trained the repressive secret police, inadvertently sparking the revolution that soon toppled his friend the Shah.

Laili Helms, his niece by marriage, is an operative, too—but of a different kind. This pleasant young woman who makes her home in New Jersey is the Taliban rulers' unofficial ambassador in the U.S., and their most active and best-known advocate elsewhere in the West. As such she not only defends but promotes a severe regime that has given the White House fits for the past six years—by throwing women out of jobs and schools, stoning adulterers, forcing Hindus to wear an identifying yellow patch, and smashing ancient Buddha statues.

SNIP...

She stands at the public relations hub of a ragtag network of amateur Taliban advocates in the U.S. At the University of Southern California, economics professor Nake M. Kamrany arranged last year for the Taliban's Rahmatullah Hashami, ambassador at large, to bypass the visa block. He even rounded up enough money for Hashami to lecture at the University of California, both in Los Angeles and Berkeley. The trip ended at the State Department in D.C., with a reported offer to turn Osama bin Laden over to the U.S.

CONTINUED...

http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-06-12/news/the-accidental-operative/full/

PS: That photo from the set looks like the Ambassador is happy with the way things are going with the, ah, shoot.

Excellent movie, along with All the President's Men and Marathon Man salib Mar 2015 #1
Yes, the scene at the end outside the NYT... ybbor Mar 2015 #3
Quite startling how prescient that film was villager Mar 2015 #2
In the opening scene, the killer is standing in front of my parent's apartment brooklynite Mar 2015 #4
No way! ybbor Mar 2015 #5
The film halved the number of days. BlueMTexpat Mar 2015 #6
I'll have to give it a read ybbor Mar 2015 #9
Being paid to read mystery novels BlueMTexpat Mar 2015 #18
Perfect movie Action_Patrol Mar 2015 #7
Great movie. kiva Mar 2015 #8
For old movies that are prophetic about our government undercover operations, Cleita Mar 2015 #10
It's funny you bring up that movie ybbor Mar 2015 #12
I've seen this film in the last year, and you know what struck me? How truly FREE a person Nay Mar 2015 #11
I was thinking the same thing ybbor Mar 2015 #13
Richard Helms was an advisor on the film .. MinM Mar 2015 #14
In June 2001, the Ambassador's niece played a stirring role in history to come. Octafish Mar 2015 #21
One of my favorite movies of all time Joe Turner Mar 2015 #15
wait there's more! Fan Mar 2015 #16
It also had one of the sexiest love scenes I've ever seen (the uncut version)... CTyankee Mar 2015 #17
I'm always stunned at the end when they debate whether the NYT will publish it riderinthestorm Mar 2015 #19
Also "The Anderson Tapes" PCIntern Mar 2015 #20
The last scene was prophetic. Baitball Blogger Mar 2015 #22
Coming Soon: Ed Snowden the Movie; and Robert Redford as Dan Rather MinM Mar 2015 #23
Sweet ybbor Mar 2015 #24
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