The Man the CIA Won't Question

By Tim McGirk

Has the CIA ignored a potentially useful Taliban informant? Mullah Haji Abdul Samat Khaksar, the second highest-ranking Taliban official in U.S. custody, has been waiting months for the CIA to talk to him. The former deputy interior minister of the Taliban says he has valuable information to share with U.S. intelligence--and claims he may be able to help locate former Taliban leader Mullah Omar. (Khaksar's brother-in-law is a top aide to Omar and may be on the run with the fleeing leader.) But until TIME alerted the U.S. military in Kabul in late January of Khaksar's desire to talk, no American officials had spoken with him. Two weeks later, Khaksar met with an American general and his intelligence aide, but no senior U.S. intelligence official has come for a full interview. The CIA will not comment.

When the Taliban abandoned Kabul, Khaksar stayed behind in his villa, giving himself up to the Northern Alliance. Since then, he says he has sent five letters to the U.S. embassy in Kabul, offering to meet the diplomats and pass on information about al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. Khaksar says the reason the U.S. hasn't been able to find Omar so far is that it is relying on "liars" and tribal chieftains who are using U.S. firepower to take revenge on their enemies. He claims to have information about al-Qaeda links to the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency that has been a key partner in the U.S. war on terror. In exchange for his information, Khaksar wants safe passage for his family to a location of his choice. Though he has had trouble getting U.S. intelligence officials to listen, Khaksar fears his former comrades in the Taliban and al-Qaeda are paying close attention and want him silenced.

--By Tim McGirk