Prior to heading the Afghan intelligence, he was a member of Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance.[1] In 1997, Saleh was appointed by Massoud to serve as Northern Alliance's liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, handling contacts to international non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and intelligence agencies.[2] After resigning from the NDS in 2010, Saleh created a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban movement called Basej-e Milli (National Mobilization) and Green Trend.[3]