Today in Afghanistan, they celebrated Sayyef versus Massoud Day.
This is the anniversary of September 9, 2001. The day, as a memory jog, and being careful, for which Abdul Rausul Sayyef, mentor to Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, had arranged the interview at which Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated.
The Haqqani Network celebrated the day by trying to blow up the CIA station in Kabul.
Asked whether the bombing had been directed at a C.I.A. property, Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the formal name of the NATO-led military coalition, said, "We do not feel it appropriate to talk about what the Taliban was trying to target."
New York Times (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
The Ustad, gentle mentor, Abdul Rab Rausul Sayyef (our side, more or less) celebrated the day by gathering together the warlords and giving speeches calling for a harsh crackdown.
Even as the bomber struck Kabul, former warlords who fought the Soviets and the Taliban in the 1980s and 1990s gathered to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the death of the former mujahedeen commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, who is considered a national hero by many here.
At a time when the American-led coalition is trying to oversee a peaceful transition to full Afghan control, the warlords, including some in the government, joined a meeting of about 1,000 officials in Kabul to urge former mujahedeen fighters to take up arms against the Taliban.
"If the Afghan security forces are not able to wage this war then call upon the mujahedeen," said Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, the first vice president.
Another former warlord who addressed the meeting, Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, said the government no longer inspired respect and fear, and urged officials to be tougher. "You can't achieve peace and security through pleading and begging," he said.
Massoud supporters observed the day with demonstrations.
To tamp down potential frictions, the Ministry of Defense had warned supporters of Mr. Massoud, an ethnic Tajik from the Panjshir Valley who was assassinated by the Taliban in 2001, against parading through the streets with flags and portraits.
But on Saturday long convoys of armed supporters drove through Kabul, and Mr. Massoud's portrait adorned taxis and buildings. An angry crowd converged on Massoud Circle, a landmark in front of the American Embassy, some brandishing AK-47s and harassing passers-by.
The Afghan security forces (our side again, more or less) celebrated the day with gunfire.
Mr. Yawar said as many as five people were killed in the unrest. Many of the deaths were the result of indiscriminate police shooting, he said.
Here, out of historical interest, is our former and current friend, defeating Communism and helping Afghans look ahead:
With Soviet Forces Out, the Afghans Look Ahead
By BARBARA CROSSETTE, Special to the New York Times
Published: February 16, 1989
''Some people may think it was the Geneva agreement that paved the way - or external pressures,'' an Afghan guerrilla leader, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, said today, after hearing that Soviet troops were finally out of Afghanistan.
''No,'' he said. ''It was the power of faith, the steadfastness, the will, the determination of the Afghan nation that forced them to leave.''
''Not only forced them to leave,'' he continued, ''but also began the defeat of the Communist philosophy in the world as a whole. The liberty of Afghanistan will be the beginning of liberty for all the oppressed peoples.''
10:10 PM PT: See comment, about Sayyef and Muhammad Qasim Fahim having similar rhetoric at this meeting.