The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

the colonel by a correspondent from a Czechoslovakian newspaper, who had made arecording on February 14. That tape saved Alexander Kliushnikov. His house arrest wasrescinded within three hours. In a day, Deputy Minister of the Interior General Yelisovcalled the colonel and informed him that the Ministry of the Interior didn’t have any furtherquestions for him.Later, Kliushnikov found out that the incident involving Dubs’s capture wasdiscussed at the Politburo. After that session, the KGB chairman called Kryuchkov andordered him to prepare a letter to the Central Committee immediately, with instructions tosubordinate the office of the representative of the Soviet Ministry of the Interior in Kabul tothat of the KGB representative’s Kabul office. Andropov had taken advantage of the incidentto gain another victory in his long, ongoing struggle with Minister of the Interior Schelokov.Additionally, taking the current situation in Afghanistan into account, the KGBdecided to send operatives from its secret group “A” to guard the Soviet ambassador andthe senior military advisers. Group “A” was later to become known as the anti-terroristgroup “Alpha.” This move further strengthened the KGB’s position in Afghanistan.***Kabul is an open city. Life there is very simple and unhurried. A chowkidarwatchman sits by the gate, observing—for lack of anything else to do—the happenings onhis city block. Here goes old man Babajan in his eyeglasses and new galoshes. He is walkingto the mosque for his evening prayer. Here a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance,Sayed Ahmad, is driving his old Volkswagen home. Here goes the Hazara prankster,Mohammad Ali Tagi, from household to household, peddling firewood to foreigners. Heregoes a pack of stray dogs, circling around a house where some Poles live.325