the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Begg considered it an economical place to bring up his family, and one where they would not be harassed for their race. He wrote in his autobiography that by 2001 the Taliban had made "some modest progress — in social justice and upholding pure, old Islamic values forgotten in many Islamic countries". Begg has since criticised the Taliban for its human rights abuses. He says that he moved to Kabul to build wells in northwest Afghanistan, where there had been a drought in 2000. He and others also intended to build a school for girls in Kabul. Begg says while still in the UK, he, and others, had raised money and had begun providing equipment for a school. He says he was in the process of starting the school, and intended to work in it as an aid worker. The Taliban regime opposed education for females and had not given him a licence for the school, but "they didn't try to stop us either", The Taliban, he says, "were more receptive to Islamic volunteers", and that the repression of women was less intense in Kabul than in other places he saw. While in Afghanistan, he bought a handgun. In his book Enemy Combatant, Begg recalls telling two US agents who visited him in Guantanamo Bay that: I wanted to live in an Islamic state–one that was free from the corruption and despotism of the rest of the Muslim world.... I knew you wouldn't understand. The Taliban were better than anything Afghanistan has had in the past 25 years. Begg has also said "before the Taliban, warlords abounded, there was no security, the opium trade was booming, children were being used as sex slaves. At least the Taliban provided security and were building roads, and as opposed to the warlords, they seemed honest". Begg says that he "had never even heard of Al Qaeda before 9/11", and although he knew about Osama bin Laden, he agreed with those who saw bin Laden's conflict with the US as "counterproductive for Muslims". The Allied attack on Afghanistan began in October 2001, and, following the fall of the Taliban, a US Justice Department dossier on Begg alleges that he joined their retreat to the Tora Bora mountains. The Pentagon claims that he was "prepared to fight in the front line against allied forces". He says that he and his family