The “axis of evil” speech had one interesting unintended consequence. Iran had captured Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former Afghan mujahideen leader who had worked with Osama bin Laden and publicly declared his opposition to the US campaign in Afghanistan, and were holding him under house arrest in Tehran. As Crocker explained: “They were willing to hand him over to the AIA as part of a rendition operation, since [the Iranians] wanted to keep a low profile.”25 Crocker was referring to the newly established Afghan government, which was called the Afghan Interim Administration, or AIA. At that
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