Mohammed Qasim Fahim

Fahim was the son of a Tajik Mullah from the Panjishir valley. A Communist agent for the bulk of the Soviet occupation, Fahim joined the mujadeen as victory spoils, then rose to leadership of his former enemies. At present, he is a threat to Karzai and the US plan for Afghanistan.

Fahim started in the Afghan secret police, the KhAD, under the tutelage of Najibullah. Afghan intelligence-gathering techniques were medieval. KGB training made analysis more sophisticated, but it did not domesticate the brutality. The Afghans have a saying that what you do to your enemies today, you will do to your friends tomorrow. Najibullah never lived down his torturer reputation, and Fahim will bear the badge of cruelty for the remainder of his career as well.

Following Fahim's career is difficult. One story says he left the Communist government to join Masud in the 1980s. But the alternate story makes more sense: when Najibullah fled to the UN compound, his stockpiles of military equipment and personnel were seized by Masud, Hekmatyar, and Dostum to be used in the struggle against one another. Fahim was probably an asset from this windfall; in any case he spent 1992 to 1996 in Kabul fighting as part of Masud's forces against Hekmatyar. During this time Fahim arrested, beat, and nearly murdered Hamid Karzai. Hekmatyar unwittingly saved Karzai by rocketing the compound which allowed Karzai to escape in the confusion.

Al-Queda murdered Masud on September 9, 2001, and Fahim replaced him. It is strange that Fahim was chosen over commanders who had been fighting under Masud for decades, but Fahim had developed a strong reputation in Kabul. He also had contacts in Russia from his days in KhAD. A weakness of Masud's organization was that Masud had not established strong ties with any patron countries that might have supported him with weapons and money.

The United States made Karzai president in 2002. Because Fahim commanded the militia that occupied Kabul, he was appointed defense minister. The interrogation years before contributed to distrust between Karzai and Fahim, but with the United States backing Karzai, Fahim dared not make overt hostile moves. He is considered the single greatest danger to Karzai today.