Businessmen work to overthrow Taliban

CHICAGO -- They seem an unlikely trio to be dabbling in world politics: a pair of brothers from Chicago with deep pockets and a deeper love of Afghanistan, and a former national security adviser involved in the Iran-Contra affair.

But Joseph and James Ritchie, with the assistance and expertise of former Reagan national security adviser Robert "Bud" McFarlane, are trying to do what U.S. bombs so far have failed to accomplish: topple the Taliban.

The Ritchies worked in relative obscurity for years -- known to some at the State Department and to Afghan experts in this country -- until the highly public and disastrous expedition by Taliban opponent Abdul Haq into southern Afghanistan two weeks ago.

Haq, who had worked with the Ritchies and was carrying cash they had given him, was captured and executed by the Taliban. With the Taliban closing in, a member of Haq's group placed desperate calls over a satellite phone, the pleas for help going through the Ritchies and then McFarlane, who contacted the CIA. An unmanned aircraft was sent and attacked a Taliban convoy, but it was too late.

Although saddened and disappointed by Haq's death, the Ritchies are still committed to working with Afghanis who oppose the Taliban to tap into what they and McFarlane believe is a deep well of dissent within the country.

"There are many leaders and commanders that would love to step in where Abdul left off," Joe Ritchie said from his office in Batavia, a western suburb of Chicago. "We just gotta see what the opportunities are ... after losing the main guy."

Thomas Gouttierre, the director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the Ritchies filled a vacuum for the United States in that region of the world. "They kind of sprang up in the absence of U.S. foreign policy (in Afghanistan) over the last decade," he said.

While Joe Ritchie has international business interests, he said he has no financial stake in the overthrow of the Taliban. He said he and his brother are motivated purely by their love for the country and people of Afghanistan, where their family lived for a few years when they were children.

Their father taught civil engineering in Afghanistan in the late 50s and early 60s, and was later killed in a car accident there. Their mother still returns to Pakistan, where she teaches English to Afghan refugees.

"The place really hooked me," Joe Ritchie said.

Options traders

The Ritchies were successful options traders in Chicago and sold their business in 1993 for a reported $250 million. Now Joe, 54, runs an educational mentoring firm and dabbles in real estate and other ventures. James, 44, does humanitarian work in Afghanistan and Pakistan and runs a foundation that assists Afghan women, according to Dan Cooper, who works for Joe Ritchie.

Cooper, who has picked up the Ritchies' passion for Afghanistan, said he and Joe Ritchie were to meet with state department officials on Sept. 11 -- "then the world blew up." They traveled to Rome just days later to meet with the exiled Afghan king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, whom they believe is now the best hope to reunify the war-torn country.

"Everybody kind of says, 'Well, why the heck does Joe have such an interest over there?'," Cooper said. "His parents committed their lives to the place. Joe kind of looks at it like, 'Why haven't I done more up until now?' He's been looking for this window of opportunity for 20 years."

No details

Joe Ritchie refused to discuss details of his work in Afghanistan -- including how much money has been spent over the last several years. He cited the need to protect his ongoing efforts overseas and security concerns for his family since the Haq story broke. He has also hired McFarlane and a Washington lobbyist to persuade the government to help Taliban opponents.

James Ritchie, who left Pakistan for Rome after Haq's death, was unavailable for comment.

McFarlane, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in the Iran-Contra investigation but was later pardoned by the first President Bush, has had a long-standing interest in Afghanistan.

But in a column he wrote for The Wall Street Journal this week, McFarlane said he and Joe Ritchie "shared a sense of the potential for Afghans to take back their country from the Taliban."

But, McFarlane says, the government didn't show much interest prior to Sept. 11.

That is changing. The State Department has announced the appointment of career diplomat James Dobbins to serve as U.S. ambassador to anti-Taliban parties in Afghanistan.

A state department official confirmed that officials there have met with the Ritchies and are aware of their work.

"The Ritchies have been involved for awhile in trying to encourage alternatives to the Taliban in Afghanistan," the official said. "We certainly in principle don't oppose that idea. We have been trying to do that ourselves."

He did note that "it's quite clear they are not acting as agents for the United States government."