This Day in History | 2001 Simpson smuggled into Afghanistan

The BBC’s world affairs editor has become the only television reporter to broadcast from Taleban-held Afghanistan as the country prepares for an American attack.
John Simpson and a cameraman were smuggled into the Nangarhar Province, near the border with Pakistan, by heavily armed smugglers.
On the advice of their escorts, the two men donned burqas – the traditional full-length garment compulsory for all women living in Taleban-controlled Afghanistan.
The United States is targeting Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members present in Afghanistan after blaming them for the 11 September attacks.
Mr Simpson, who has reported from many of the world’s trouble spots over the past 20 years, said the disguises worked “superbly”, despite both of them being more than six feet tall.
“Merely putting on the burqa, I found, has an extraordinary effect – it seems to make you disappear,” he said.
“Behind their burqa, women have become an invisible sex in Afghanistan.”
The BBC duo spent several hours in Afghanistan before being taken back over the border into Pakistan.
Mr Simpson reported a heavy Taleban presence along large stretches of the frontier, but said there was still an “eerie emptiness” in the province they visited.
He said people appeared to have either fled their homes in anticipation of an American attack or were keeping their heads down.
The BBC correspondent also noted talk in Afghanistan of a “gradual defection” from the Taleban as their popularity declined.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

The US attack began on 7 October, with air strikes targeting the airports of Kandahar and Kabul, and terrorist training camps near Jalalabad.
The offensive was the first retaliatory response to the 11 September 2001 terror attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died.
Nato’s International Security Assistance Force began peace-keeping duties in 2002 and maintains a heavy presence in Afghanistan.
Infighting between local commanders over power and territory became a feature of the post-Taleban period. The authorities in Kabul have been able to exert little control beyond the capital and militant violence has continues.
John Simpson went on to report from northern Iraq when the US and Britain attacked the country in 2003.
In April 2003 he was injured in a “friendly fire” attack by a US Navy jet which killed his Iraqi translator.