Literature Organizer

In 1998, the CIA, a long time aide of Massoud; offered Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban opposition leader a substantial bounty for the capture of Osama bin Laden, dead or alive. [3] The claim was further supported by former US president Bill Clinton in an interview with New York Times in 2001. Clinton said, “At the time, we did everything we can do,”. “I authorised the arrest and, if necessary, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and we actually made contact with a group in Afghanistan to do it.”

In April 2001, Nicole Fontaine invited Massoud to address the European Parliament. In his speech, he warned that the Taliban had connections with Al-Qaeda, and that an important terrorist attack was imminent. The US and European governments paid no attention to these warnings. [4]

Death

A memorial for Massoud during an anti-war demonstration at the United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland.Massoud was the target of a suicide attack which occurred at Khvajeh Ba Odin on September 9, 2001. The attackers were two Arabs who claimed to be Belgians originally from Morocco. However their passports turned out to be stolen and their nationality Tunisian. The assassins claimed to want to interview Massoud and set off a bomb either in their video camera or in a belt worn by the cameraman while asking Massoud questions. The explosion also killed Mohammed Asim Suhail, a Northern Alliance official, while Mohammad Fahim Dashty and Massoud Khalili were injured. The assassins may have intended to attack several Northern Alliance council members simultaneously.[citation needed] One of the attackers was killed by the explosion and the other was shot while trying to escape. The news of Massoud’s death was reported almost immediately, appearing in European and North American newspapers on 10 September 2001. It was quickly overshadowed by the September 11, 2001 attacks, which proved to be the terrorist attack that Massoud had warned against.

The timing of the assassination, two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, is considered significant by commentators who believe Osama bin Laden ordered the assassination to help his Taliban protectors and ensure he would have their protection and cooperation in Afghanistan. The assassins are also reported to have shown support for bin Laden in their questions of Massoud. The Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Mujahideen leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan Wahhabi Islamist, have also been mentioned as a possible organizers or assisters of the assassins. [5] Massoud was a strong opponent of Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan. The assassins are said to have entered Northern Alliance territory under the auspices of the Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and had his assistance in bypassing “normal security procedures.” [6]

The French secret service revealed October 16, 2003 that the camera used by Massoud’s assassins had been stolen in December 2000 in Grenoble, France from a photojournalist, Jean-Pierre Vincendet, who was then working on a story on that city’s Christmas store window displays. By tracing the serial number that appeared in the camera, the FBI was able to determine Vincendet as the original owner. The French secret service and the FBI then began working on tracing the route that the camera took between the time it was taken from Vincendet and the Massoud assassination.[citation needed]

After death

Massoud’s tomb in the Panjshir Valley.In 2001, the Afghan Interim Government under president Hamid Karzai awarded him the title of “Hero of the Afghan Nation”. Massoud is the subject of Ken Follett’s Lie Down With Lions, a novel about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Many documentaries, books and movies have been made about Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Massoud was married with four daughters and a son, and the family still carries a lot of prestige in the politics of Afghanistan. Of his six brothers, Ahmad Zia Massoud is the current vice-president of Afghanistan and Ahmad Wali Masoud is the ambassador to the United Kingdom.

A bigger mausoleum is being built in Panjsher to replace the smaller one.

The Myth of a Lion
Massoud’s nickname, the “Lion of Panjshir” is a rhyme and play on words in Persian, which alludes to the strength of his resistance against the Soviet Union, the mythological exaltation of the lion in Persian literature, and finally, the place name of the Panjshir Valley, where Massoud was born. The place name of “Panjshir” Valley in Persian means (Valley of the) Five Lions. Thus, the phrase “Lion of Panjshir” which in Persian is “Shir-e-Panjshir,” is a rhyming play on words.