馬蘇德Ahmad Shah Massoud是我所認識的第一個阿富汗人。在我看國家地理頻道介紹馬蘇德之前，對阿富汗一無所知，只知在美國的幫助下反抗軍游擊隊擊潰了蘇聯的軍隊，蘇聯撤軍後，國家就陷入長期的內戰。國家地理頻道不斷地廣告這個特輯：阿富汗人民的英雄－－介紹阿富汗北方聯盟反抗軍的軍事領袖，潘傑希爾之獅的馬蘇德。再加上對阿富汗的好奇，就看了這個節目。
下面這一篇回顧就是當時去訪問馬蘇德的記者所寫的，當我透過國家地理頻道的鏡頭來看，直覺得馬蘇德他的組織／政府－－北方聯盟對美國人仍有所防備，但也了解要爭取美國人的同情與援助，美國人到處採訪，最主要是要訪問馬蘇德，但是卻也不知道哪一天才能見到他。國家地理頻道派去的人也不是甚麼菜鳥，知道他們所見到的應該有不少是北方聯盟的安排，也有不少自己的觀察，其中生活的刻苦與軍事統治的粗暴是我印象較為深刻的。
1989年蘇聯撤軍後，蘇聯所扶植的政權阿富汗人民民主黨（People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan aka. PDPA）的納吉布拉 Mohammad Najibullah在蘇聯武器源源不絕的供應下仍有效地控制各大城市。一直到1992年蘇聯解體，情勢才改觀。
國家地理頻道的記者觀察：馬蘇德是真正大家都服膺的領袖，但是他只是流亡政府拉班尼(Burhanuddin Rabbani) 的國防部長。我也不清楚是不是馬蘇德本人充滿了傳奇色彩，所以顯得很有魅力，還是因為報導的記者如此感受，所以整部節目看下來，讓人覺得馬蘇德是個魅力領袖，畢竟「潘傑希爾之獅」就是個魅力十足的稱號－－黝黑偏瘦，雖然是個將領，卻十分斯文，訪談中，他的聲音聽來還很溫和。
就在我看過國家地理頻道介紹過馬蘇德半年左右的時間，就在電視新聞中得知他遭到暗殺的消息了。而過兩天就是舉世震驚的美國世貿中心與五角大廈受到恐怖分子劫機攻擊，美國之所以一口咬定九一一攻擊事件為基地／蓋達組織所為，最主要也是因為馬蘇德遇刺，以及在四月時他在歐洲議會演講時提出塔立班與蓋達組織合作即將從事重大恐怖行動。
潘傑希爾之獅(Lion of Panjshir)－－馬蘇德 Ahmad Shah Massoud
Postscript
Sebastian Junger on Afghanistan's Slain Rebel Leader
The Perfect Storm author spent a month with anti-Taliban warrior Ahmad Shah Massoud in 2000. Now he offers his reaction to the recent murder of the Northern Alliance leader—and the subsequent attacks on the U.S.
In November 2000 Adventure sent contributing editor Sebastian Junger and photojournalist Reza to profile Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. The resulting article appeared in our March/April 2001 issue and has just been reprinted in Fire, a collection of Junger's journalistic work.
On September 9, 2001, suicide bombers killed Massoud. Two days later the U.S. was under attack. Here Junger offers his thoughts on those two days of terror and their implications.
THE ASSASSINATION
On the morning of September 9, 2001, guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud sat down with two reporters at his base in Khvajeh Baha od Din, in northern Afghanistan, to give one more interview about the unending civil war in his country.
The two men were apparently from North Africa—Algeria, Morocco, or Tunisia, no one seems to know for sure—and said they worked for an Arab news agency. They had been at Khvajeh Baha od Din for more than a week, keeping to themselves, eating the rice and mutton provided for them, waiting for Massoud. They had a TV camera, but no one thought to inspect it, and they came recommended by people within Massoud's own government.
Just before noon, with Massoud seated before them, they started the interview. Seconds later everyone in the room was either wounded or dead.
The attackers had packed the camera with explosives and blown themselves up. Nothing remained of one but his legs; the other was killed as he fled.
Massoud was horribly wounded but still alive. His men tried to rush him to a helicopter for the short flight to Tajikistan, but he survived only 15 minutes.
Ahmad Shah Massoud—hero of the war against the Soviets, implacable foe of the Taliban regime—passed from this life in the back of a battered Land Cruiser, racing through the mountains of Afghanistan. It was a sadly fitting end for a man whose life had been entirely dominated by war.
PRECURSOR TO THE U.S. ATTACKS?
I found out about Massoud's death as I walked into the small, walled garden of photographer Reza's house in Paris. It was a week after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and I was en route back to New York. I had called Reza from the airport and said I'd like to stop in to see him.
Reza knew Massoud well from the war against the Soviets, and he and I had spent a month together with Massoud last year.
I'd seen the reports of an assassination "attempt" on Massoud just two days before the U.S. attacks. But I'd also been told that he was going to survive. It was a lie, though—a desperate effort by Massoud's Northern Alliance to retain control of the situation.
Reza stepped out of his kitchen to greet me; his face was broken with grief, and I knew. For a few minutes there was nothing to say. "We have many works to do," Reza finally said. "There is too much to be done."
It was a terrible moment. Thousands of people had died in the rubble of the World Trade Center, victims of the same extremist perversion of Islam that Massoud had been fighting.
Like all Americans, I was worried about further attacks. And I was saddened that the most powerful military in the world was contemplating a campaign against one of the poorest nations on Earth. The irony was that there appeared to be no Afghans among the 19 hijackers.
It seemed to me that Osama bin Laden had ordered the attempt on Massoud's life before going ahead with his attacks on New York and Washington. He would not have dared provoke the United States the way he had, I believed, were Massoud still alive to make use of the military aid that might have finally been offered to him.
"AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN"
Reza and I sat at his kitchen table with a bottle of wine. Someone had sent him an e-mail that day that said, "You must be a happy man to have met Ahmad Shah Massoud." And in fact we knew we'd been incredibly fortunate to have met him.
Massoud—who loathed the extremism of the Taliban as much as he did the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union—once told me he was fighting not only for a free Afghanistan but for a free world. There was something about him—the slow nod of his head as he listened to a question, the exhaustion and curiosity engraved on his handsome, haggard face—that made it clear we were in the presence of an extraordinary man.
engrave vt. 1. 用(金屬、木、石等)雕刻 2. 雕刻出(文字、圖案等)
3. 製作…的照相雕刻版 4. 牢記,銘記(教訓、教義等)
haggard adj. 1. 消瘦的,形容枯槁[憔悴]的 2. (目光)呆滯的
3. (人)樣子兇惡的 4. (鷹)成年後被捕捉到的;不馴服的
I found it impossible not to listen to Massoud when he spoke, even though I didn't understand a word. I watched everything he did, because I had the sense that somehow—in the way he poured his tea, in the way his hands carved the air as he talked—there was some secret to be learned.
Reza and I talked for two hours. It was a windy day, and we finally put on our jackets and got ready to face the memorial service being held across town. Before we left, Reza called a close aide of Massoud's in Tajikistan to express our sorrow.
"I'm calling to find out that the terrible news is not true," Reza said.
"It is true. But it is OK," the aide said. "Now we are all Massoud."
—Sebastian Junger
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0111/junger.html
The story was taken from the website of National Geographic. The copyright belongs to it original owner. Mr. Sebastian Junger, the author and National Geographic are not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.
