Ali Ahmad Jalali

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ali Ahmad Jalali

• Originally from Afghanistan, Ali Ahmad Jalali is an American politician, diplomat, and military officer. Apart from his role as Afghanistan’s Interior Minister, Mr. Jalali has also held the position of distinguished professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He made headlines in August 2021 after his name appeared in the media as the most likely candidate for the interim Afghanistan administration under Taliban control.

• He grew up in Kabul, where he earned his early education and learned the basics of politics and military tactics.

• During his military career, he served in command, educational, and staff positions, earning a final rank of colonel.

• While serving as a colonel in the Afghan National Army, Mr. Jalali played a vital role in the Afghan resistance during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

• Colonel Jalali served as the leader of the resistance movement in Pakistan during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.

• At the time of the Soviet invasion, he also served as a professor at the Foreign Ministry’s Institute of Diplomacy, and as a top advisor at the Afghan Resistance HQ in Peshawar, Pakistan.

• Between August 1982 and January 2003, he worked extensively at Voice of America in Washington, D.C. as a writer, a broadcaster, and chief of the Pashto, Dari and Farsi services, among other things.

• Ali Ahmad Jalali quit Voice of America in January 2003 to serve as Afghanistan’s Interior Minister. US officials are said to have picked him to revamp the perennially weak Afghan government.

• Between 1982 and 1993, Mr. Jalali extensively covered Afghanistan’s war as a journalist in the United States. Additionally, he covered the former Soviet Central Asia war from 1993 to 2000.

• Mr. Jalali travelled extensively throughout Iran and Central Asia while working as a journalist in the United States.

• Upon his return to Afghanistan, he assumed the position of Interior Minister in Ashraf Ghani’s administration, a post he held from 28 January 2003 to 27 September 2005.

• By sending him home, the US was apparently seeking to prevent inciting Afghan nationalism that had weakened previous foreign invasions, both British and Soviet. The US also wanted Afghan expatriates to be appointed to high-ranking positions, according to reports. In an interview, while talking about his return to Afghanistan, Mr. Jalali said,
  

  I came here because I thought I could make a difference.”

• As Interior Minister, Mr. Jalali set up the Afghan National Police (ANP) and Border Police, each with a strength of 50,000 and 12,000 respectively, for counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and criminal investigation to combat organized crime and smugglers. 

• During his tenure as Interior Minister, he led a nationwide campaign to protect the country’s constitutional assembly (Loya Jirga), as well as a national voter registration drive, the 2004 Presidential election, and the 2005 parliamentary elections.

• Late in 2005, Ali Ahmad Jalali resigned as Interior Minister due to personal reasons. In a statement quoted by Tolo Television on 27 September 2005, Jalali said,
  

  I will not work as Interior Minister anymore. Maybe there are reasons for this and maybe not, but one of the main reasons is that I wish to resume my academic research.”

• Analysts believe Jalali stepped down as Afghanistan’s Interior Minister because of conflict with Hamid Karzai over the appointment of governors and other upper-level officials in the Interior Ministry, as well as issues related to counter-narcotics.

• In October 2005, Mr. Jalali became a distinguished professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

• As a published author, Mr. Jalali’s works have been published in the United States, Afghanistan, Iran, and Great Britain in three languages, English, Pashto, and Dari.

• Numerous books and articles have been written by Jalali about Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, covering topics as diverse as politics, military, and security, as well as Islamic movements in the region.

• In addition to his extensive writings on Afghanistan affairs, Jalali also authored The Other Side of the Mountain’, an analytical review of Mujahideen warfare with Soviet forces in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.

• Jalali penned an influential critique of the role of the United States military in Afghanistan in the spring of 2002, and he criticized how local chieftains were used in the War on Terror.

• Another of his books, “Afghanistan: A Military History from the Ancient Empires to the Great Game,” is considered a masterpiece that helps to provide a deeper understanding of Afghanistan’s history.

• Several of his articles were published by Parameters, a senior US Army professional journal, between 2001 and 2010.

• In addition to The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times, Jalali’s works have been published in many leading U.S. and European newspapers.

• The American Enterprise Institute’s Ahmad Majidyar listed Jalali as a likely candidate for the Afghan Presidential election in a 2009 article; however, he was disqualified from running for office because Article Sixty Two, Chapter Three of the Afghanistan Constitution states that only Afghans can run for president; no dual citizenship agreements have been signed by the country.

• Marquis Who’s Who has recognized Ali Ahmad Jalali as a noteworthy federal agency administrator. ^[7]Prabook

• Among the major TV networks in the United States where Mr. Jalali frequently comments on regional security and development issues is CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, FOX News, PBS, NPR, and Australian National TV (ABC).

• Mr. Jalali’s fluency in Pashto, Dari/Persian, Arabic, Turkish, French, and Russian is impressive.

• In August 2021, Ali Ahmad Jalali became the most probable candidate to head the interim government in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban militants. On 15 August 2021, Kabul was sized by the Taliban militants who, reportedly, also captured the presidential palace after which President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, reportedly to Tajikistan.