” ‘An extremist seizure of Kabul would plunge Afghanistan into a fresh round of warfare, which could affect areas adjoining Afghanistan,’ [U.S. Special Envoy to the Afghan resistance] Peter Tomsen warned in a Secret cable to Washington that September 1991. ‘Should [radical Afghan Islamist guerrilla leader Gulbuddin] Hekmatyar or [Saudi-backed Afghan guerrilla leader Abdurrab Rasul] Sayyaf get to Kabul, extremists in the Arab world would support them in stoking Islamic radicalism in the region, including the Soviet Central Asian republics, but also in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Arab world.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Pages 232-233