| Haissam Haqqani | |
|---|---|
| |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Cause of death: | Execution by firing squad |
| Nationality: |  Pakistani
|
| Profession: | Taliban leader |
| Children: | Jalal Haqqani (son) |
| Played by: | Numan Acar |
| Season(s): | 4, 8 |
| First episode: | "Iron in the Fire" |
| Last episode: | "Threnody(s)" |
Haissam Haqqani is a Taliban commander, and later the organization's leader. He fought in the Soviet-Afghan War and was a long-time client of Pakistan's ISI. He was a former high priority target and Taliban leader. In The Drone Queen, Carrie mentioned to Sandy that he is careful because he was trained by the CIA and learned paratroopers (82nd Airborne) from the American army.
Biography
Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar) is a high-ranking member of the Taliban and has already killed a number of people. Hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, he plans to retaliate after an American drone strike that killed most of his family.
Season 4
Haissam Haqqani is an internationally wanted terrorist who acts on behalf of the Taliban and has already killed a number of people. When Carrie Mathison gets the opportunity to take him out, she has his current location bombed, killing several members of Haqqani's family, who was at a wedding. An angry mob then lynched the responsible CIA chief in Islamabad, Sandy Bachman, who was blamed for the deaths of many civilians.
However, Haqqani was never at the wedding. He apparently started the attack to make people believe he was dead and off the CIA's radar. It is only when he comes into contact with his nephew Aayan Ibrahim that the FBI draws his attention to him again, when he goes to a hospital to get medicine for his sick uncle. Haqqani is very grateful to him for this, but has long known that the CIA was on Aayan's heels, so he ordered the kidnapping of Saul Berenson. During his last meeting with Aayan, he shoots him for unintentionally leading the CIA to him, but shortly before he presents Saul as his hostage, so the CIA doesn't intervene. (From A to B and Back Again.)
On the drive to the Afghan border, Haqqani confesses to his hostage that he has captured Saul as a shield for himself and confesses that he hasn't felt this free in a long time. Then he drives to a town where he meets his family for the first time in a long time. When one of his sons throws a shoe at Saul, Haqqani rebukes him. He makes it clear to him that even if Saul is their enemy, nothing should happen to him.
Haqqani takes Saul to his family home and over dinner discusses responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks, religion and politics. Only later, when they are on the road again, Haqqqani admits that he intends to use Saul to free some of his people who are in American captivity. Finally, Haqqani turned to the CIA in a video and demanded that his men be handed over.
When the exchange is about to take place, Saul has already attempted to escape, but was caught again. To ensure that the exchange will definitely take place, Haqqani has put a bomb vest on a little boy. Carrie's intervention allows the exchange to go through without further bloodshed. However, while Carrie and the others are making their way back to the embassy, their convoy is attacked. Haqqani uses his knowledge that all security personnel and military are being withdrawn to help the convoy storm the embassy with his men.
Haqqani is targeting a very specific document that exposes all spies in the Middle East. This is owned by CIA director Andrew Lockhart, who is holed up in a panic room with a few others. When Haqqani appears at the door with Fara Sherazi and a few others hostage and threatens to kill them all, Lockhart gives in and confronts the terrorist. He hands him the list and then has to watch Fara being executed anyway. Meanwhile, Peter Quinn and a military force have sneaked into the embassy and are able to take out several of Haqqani's men. Quinn also manages to shoot Haqqani, but he still manages to escape from the embassy. (13 Hours in Islamabad)
Season 8
The war between the Taliban and the US has been going on for 18 years and Haissam Haqqani is slowly getting tired of it. He wishes peace for his people and says this during a telephone conversation with his son Jalal, which - unnoticed by him - is overheard. Shortly thereafter, he receives a letter from Saul Berenson offering him a talk about peace. As he makes his way to the agreed meeting point, he hears on the radio that Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir G'ulom has agreed to peace negotiations and the release of 1,000 Taliban fighters from captivity, which gives Haqqani hope. He is satisfied that Saul kept his word, even though his men and Jalal believe they are being set up. When the convoy reaches the small town where Saul has set the rendezvous point, one of the cars is hit by a rocket launcher. Haqqani survives the attack and has Saul kidnapped without further ado. When he shows his relief that Haqqani is still alive, he is irritated and knocks him down.
Haqqani learns that his eldest son Jalal betrayed him to the ISI over his opposition to peace talks. He stops short of killing his son and instead exiles him from the family, unaware that Jalal was later picked up by Tasneem. After a helicopter carrying U.S. President Warner and Afghan President Daoud crashes in the mountains, killing both world leaders, Afghanistan's new president, General Abdul Qadir G'ulom, publicly blames Haqqani for the attack and orders his arrest. He turns himself in to the U.S., hoping for a fair trial, but is swiftly sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad.
Fitting Ending
Despite desperately trying to make amends in this series’s last season, former leader of the Taliban Haqqani was met with an unfortunate and spectacular ending. Though he was not responsible for the downing of the president’s helicopters in “Chalk Two Down", Haqqani spent his last days accepting a fate he had for a long time seen coming. Haqqani’s death was a fitting ending, as, in hindsight, it was also a form of reckoning for the crimes and murders he committed in the “13 Hours in Islamabad." - ELIVA ANDRIAMORA
Quotes
- We're sure this is Haqqani?
- Pretty much. We have voice samples going back three decades to when he was training with the 82nd Airborne.
Haissam Haqqani: "We are just strong enough never to lose and just weak enough never to win."
... 40 years of war. No one is innocent. - Haqqani
Trivia
The Haqqani Network is real.
The Haqqani Network is a Sunni Islamist militant organization founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, who emerged as a top Afghan warlord and insurgent commander during the anti-Soviet war; he was a member of the Hezb-e Islami faction led by renowned mujahedin commander Younis Khalis. Jalaluddin later allied with the Afghan Taliban as that group’s Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs when the Taliban held power in Afghanistan during the mid-to-late 1990s. He was a known associate of Usama Bin Ladin and was recognized as one of Bin Ladin’s closest mentors during the al-Qa‘ida founder’s formative years in the 1980s Afghan war. Sirajuddin Haqqani, Jalaluddin’s son, currently leads the day-to-day activities of the group, along with several of his closest relatives. Sirajuddin in August 2015 was named as a deputy to newly appointed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansur—cementing the alliance between the Haqqanis and the Taliban.
The Haqqani Network is primarily based in North Waziristan, Pakistan, and conducts cross-border operations into eastern Afghanistan and Kabul. The group is primarily composed of members of the Zadran tribe. The Haqqanis are considered the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group targeting US, Coalition, and Afghan forces in Afghanistan; they typically conduct coordinated small-arms assaults coupled with rocket attacks, IEDs, suicide attacks, and attacks using bomb-laden vehicles.
The Haqqani Network is responsible for some of the highest-profile attacks of the Afghan war, including the June 2011 assault on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, conducted jointly with the Afghan Taliban, and two major suicide bombings—in 2008 and 2009—against the Indian Embassy in Kabul. In September 2011, the Haqqanis participated in a day-long assault against major targets in Kabul, including the US Embassy, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters, the Afghan Presidential Palace, and the Afghan National Directorate of Security headquarters. More recently, in October 2013, Afghan security forces intercepted a truck bomb deployed by the Haqqanis against Forward Operating Base Goode in Paktiya Province. The device, which did not detonate, contained some 61,500 pounds of explosives and was the largest truck bomb ever built. The group is also involved in a number of criminal activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including extortion, kidnapping for ransom, and smuggling.
The US Government in 2012 designated the Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization because of its involvement in the Afghan insurgency, attacks on US military and civilian personnel and Western interests in Afghanistan, and because of its ties to the Taliban and al-Qa‘ida. In addition to designating the group, key members have also been individually designated. Haqqani leaders Saidullah Jan, Yahya Haqqani, and Muhammad Omar Zadran, as well as suicide operations chief Qari Abdul Ra‘uf (also known as Qari Zakir), and Ibrahim Haqqani, remain either designated for financial sanctions or are on US most-wanted lists.
Appearances
| Season 4 | ||||
| "The Drone Queen" | "Trylon and Perisphere" | "Shalwar Kameez" | Iron in the Fire | "About a Boy" |
| From A to B and Back Again | Redux | Halfway to a Donut | There's Something Else Going On | 13 Hours in Islamabad |
| Krieg Nicht Lieb | "Long Time Coming" | |||
| Season 8 | ||||
| "Deception Indicated" | Catch and Release | False Friends | "Chalk One Up" | Chalk Two Down |
| Two Minutes | F**ker Shot Me | Threnody(s) | "In Full Flight" | "Designated Driver" |
| "The English Teacher" | "Prisoners of War" | |||
