Lohbeck, Kurt. Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the CIA's Secret War
in Afghanistan. Washington DC: Regnery Gateway, 1993. 306 pages.
Kurt Lohbeck lived in Peshawar, Pakistan, on the Afghan border, for
nine years. During much of that time he was the major source for CBS News
coverage of the war in Afghanistan. Lohbeck did not pretend to be objective.
He became close to rebel leader Abdul Haq, and was twice wounded in action.
Lohbeck also had the ear of CIA director William Casey, and has been
credited with giving Casey the idea of providing Stinger missiles to the
mujahaddin. He was the live-in companion of Anne Hurd, the Mercy Fund's
field director for Afghanistan. A sign outside their Peshawar residence
said that it was the headquarters of the Mercy Fund, CBS News, and HNS
(Humanitarian News Service).
It probably should have said "CIA" as well -- Lohbeck was in close
contact with U.S. officials involved in the war effort, and his contacts
even included Jonathan Jay Pollard, who was later convicted of spying for
Israel. In Pakistan he functioned as a gatekeeper for journalists who sought
entry into Afghanistan, and in Washington he helped raise funds for the
mujahaddin. Eventually Lohbeck was disillusioned over the CIA's preference
for mujahaddin leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which was channeled through
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). After the Soviets finally
withdrew in 1989, the various rebel leaders took to fighting each other.
ISBN 0-89526-499-4
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