Asadullah Khalid - Afghanistan's Minister of Defense (acting)

On 24 December 2018 President Ashraf Ghani appointed Asadullah Khalid as Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Defense. Asadullah Khalid’s full biography is linked here, or click the links below to specific reports of allegations: 

Amnesty International said in a statement released in September· 2012:

"There are also credible allegations that Khalid was involved in the bombing of a vehicle that killed five UN workers in Kandahar in April 2007," 

Human Rights Watch has urged major donors to impose sanctions on Afghanistan’s newly appointed acting defense minister over alleged war crimes and human rights abuses.

Richard Colvin, a Canadian diplomat posted in Afghanistan in 2006/07 claimed:

Khalid was known to have private detention facilities where he held businessmen to extort money 

Colvin says this was known within Canadian government officials in May and June of 2006. 

Canadian Government documents detailed accusations that Khalid is the most crucial member of a narcotics producing and smuggling syndicate. Various sources say one of Gul Agha Shirzai ’s (former governor of Nangarhar) tasks was to collect a toll from narcotics caravans for Asadullah Khalid. 

Canadian Government documents detailing the accusations were heavily censored by the government which, claiming national security, blacked out the references to “the governor.”


Today Asadullah Khalid is being armed with attack helicopters by the Indian Air Force, empowered by US Department of Defense officials and endorsed by European NATO representatives. Even Jonathan Rath Hoffman, the US Pentagon’s chief spokesperson is trying to rehabilitate Asadullah Khalid, the man accused of murdering 5-UN workers to protect his extensive illegal drugs business. 

Please click the images below for links to the original tweets on twitter:

 











A Personal Note

So what has this got to do with me, Anthony C Heaford? After all I was only a one-tour British army vehicle mechanic who spent most of my six-month tour of Helmand sat in Camp Bastion eating ice-cream. 

On 15 September 2012 Asadullah Khalid was appointed head of the Afghan domestic spy agency the National Directorate of Security

On the 15 September 2012 I was clearing Camp Bastion’s airfield of battle debris to allow airstrikes launched from the base to continue; I now realise my presence and those airstrikes are what enabled Asadullah Khalid to continue to torture, extort, murder & traffic heroin with impunity. 

If I chose to remain silent about what I have learnt then I will remain complicit in the handing over of the Afghan nation to a bunch of thieving, murdering criminals such as Vice President Dostum, acting Minister of Defense Asadullah Khalid and the Kabul peace loya jirga chairman Abdul Rasul Sayyaf.

My conscience will not allow me to do that - I refuse to remain complicit in my government’s and NATO’s criminal War-mongering as part of their on going ‘great game’.

Truly, for some of us nothing is written, unless we write it 
© Anthony C Heaford - The Quiet Mancunian