>from the NYTimes (website 19/11):
>"Several hundred Pakistani fighters are also believed to have sought
> refuge in Kunduz, including relatives of some powerful clerics, this
> intelligence official said. Saving them could improve President
>Musharraf'S strained relations with his country's hard-line religious
> parties, which have opposed his assistance to the United States.
>
>Northern Alliance commanders and numerous refugees from Kunduz said
>in recent days that at least two airplanes landed at Kunduz airport,
presumably to take away some of those who had retreated to the city.
>The commanders speculated that the planes were from Pakistani
>intelligence but officials in Islamabad emphatically denied
>knowledge of the flights."
>
>Is there anyone in the world who imagines that airplanes could fly into
>and out of this besieged "terrorist" stronghold without the explicit and
deliberate approval of the highest US command authorities?
Shane Mage
>[more via Sam Smith]
>
>JANE WALLACE INTERVIEWS
>SY HERSH ON PBS
>
>JANE WALLACE: It's your story, take it.
>
>SY HERSH: Okay, the cream of the crop of Al Qaeda caught in a town called
>Konduz which is near ... it's one little village and it's a couple hundred
>kilometers, 150 miles from the border of Pakistan. And I learned this story
>frankly-- through very, very clandestine operatives we have in the Delta
>Force and other very...
>
>We were operating very heavily with a small number of men, three, 400 really
>in the first days of the war. And suddenly one night when they had everybody
>cornered in Konduz-- the special forces people were told there was a
>corridor that they could not fly in. There was a corridor sealed off to--
>the United States military sealed off a corridor. And it was nobody could
>shoot anybody in this little lane that went from Konduz into Pakistan. And
>that's how I learned about it. I learned about it from a military guy who
>wanted to fly helicopters and kill people and couldn't do it that day.
>
>JANE WALLACE: So, we had the enemy surrounded, the special forces guys are
>helping surround this enemy.
>
>SY HERSH: They're whacking everybody they can whack that looks like a bad guy.
>
>JANE WALLACE: And suddenly they're told to back off--
>
>SY HERSH: From a certain area--
>
>JANE WALLACE: -- and let planes fly out to Pakistan.
>
>SY HERSH: There was about a three or four nights in which I can tell you
>maybe six, eight, 10, maybe 12 more-- or more heavily weighted-- Pakistani
>military planes flew out with an estimated-- no less than 2,500 maybe 3,000,
>maybe more. I've heard as many as four or 5,000. They were not only-- Al
>Qaeda but they were also-- you see the Pakistani ISI was-- the military
>advised us to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. There were dozens of senior
>Pakistani military officers including two generals who flew out.
>
>And I also learned after I wrote this story that maybe even some of Bin
>Laden's immediate family were flown out on the those evacuations. We allowed
>them to evacuate. We had an evacuation.
>
>JANE WALLACE: How high up was that evacuation authorized?
>
>SY HERSH: I am here to tell you it was authorized - Donald Rumsfeld who -
>we'll talk about what he said later - it had to be authorized at the White
>House. But certainly at the Secretary of Defense level.
>
>JANE WALLACE: The Department of Defense said to us that they were not
>involved and that they don't have any knowledge of that operation.
>
>SY HERSH: That's what Rumsfeld said when they asked him but it. And he said,
>"Gee, really?" He said, "News to me." Which is not a denial, it's sort of
>interesting. You know,
>
>JANE WALLACE: What did we do that? Why we would put our special forces guys
>on the ground, surround the enemy, and then-- fly him out?
>
>SY HERSH: With al Qaeda.
>
>JANE WALLACE: With al Qaeda. Why would we do that, assuming your
>story is true?
>
>SY HERSH: We did it because the ISI asked us to do so.
>
>JANE WALLACE: Pakistani intelligence.
>
>SY HERSH: Absolutely.
>
>JANE WALLACE: Yeah.
>
>MORE
>http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hersh.html