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."

'Defection'

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.

"The militias and smaller contingents whch joined them back in 1996 when they were plainly winning [are beginning] to have second thoughts now," he said.

"People say they are starting to be corrupted by power."

The Taleban have controlled large areas of Afghanistan for the past five years. The mission of leader Mullah Mohammed Omah and his fighters was to make the country the world's purest Islamic state.

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