The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“Because they are Parchamis.”“Vilior Gavrilovich, don’t you think that cutting out Parchami agents would be erroneous?First, this action would discredit our intelligence work. The instruction of the Center allows for thepossibility of failure or the leaking of information. People in the Center, for some reason, think thatmy contacts with my agents may become known to somebody else, besides you and the Centeritself. Why do they underestimate us so? What gave them the idea that Khost or Artem would leakthe information or fail us as our agents?“Second, I cannot understand why the Center is not interested in information from theParcham wing of the PDPA. It’s the cradle of complex and dangerous machinations. How can wefind out about their plans and intentions if we cannot maintain contacts with agents from thefaction? If they do something crazy tomorrow, the Center will be the one to blame us for ourinability to follow the political developments in the country. What, then, would we tell Moscow?Shall we write that you, our dear leaders, prohibited us to work with our Parchami agents? Wouldthe Center accept such an excuse?“Third, why is the Center so afraid that Taraki and Amin will be informed about ourParchami contacts? Let’s suppose that, however unlikely, it will become known to them. Ourfriends Taraki and Amin will certainly survive that, and moreover, become more obedient! Whatwould they do without us? Where will they go? To the West? To China? In that case, their closestallies would tear them to pieces.“Fourth, you know better than I do how difficult it is to freeze an active agent. It would havea very traumatic effect on his psyche. Under current circumstances, Khost and Artem—both ofwhom are very intelligent—will clearly perceive even temporary rejection of them as cowardiceand betrayal on our part. However, let’s suppose we succeeded in freezing Khost and Artem. What172