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Friday, May 16, 2003
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Whatever Happened to Bin Laden?: Springmann complained himself right out of a job. Now a lawyer, he has obtained more information on the questionable "engineers" with no engineering knowledge whom he was ordered to permit into the United States. "What I was protesting was, in reality, an effort to bring recruits, rounded up by Osama bin Laden, to the United States for terrorist training by the CIA. They would then be returned to Afghanistan to fight against the then-Soviets." But then they turned their talents against the post-Soviet power: us. In the parlance of spook-world, this is called "blowback." Bin Laden and his bloody brethren were created in America's own Frankenstein factory. It would not do for the current president nor agency officials to dig back to find that some of the terrorists we are hunting today were trained and armed by the Reagan-Bush administration. And that's one of the problems for agents seeking to investigate groups like WAMY, or Abdullah bin Laden. WAMY literature that talks about that "compassionate young man Osama bin Laden" is likely to have been disseminated, if not written, by our very own government.
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Sunday, April 20, 2003
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Monday, December 30, 2002
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Hijacking India's History: "India's Hindu nationalists have long had a quarrel with history. They are unhappy with the notion that the most ancient texts of Hinduism are associated with the arrival of the Vedic "Aryan" peoples from the Northwest. They don't like the dates of 1500 to 1000 B.C. ascribed by historians to the advent of the Vedic peoples, the forebears of Hinduism, or the idea that the Indus Valley civilization predates Vedic civilization. And they certainly can't stand the implication that Hinduism, like the other religious traditions of India, evolved through a mingling of cultures and peoples from different lands. Last month the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the central government body that sets the national curriculum and oversees education for students up to the 12th grade, released the first of its new school textbooks for social sciences and history. Teachers and academics protested loudly. The schoolbooks are notable for their elision of many awkward facts, like the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu nationalist in 1948."
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Thursday, December 19, 2002
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t r u t h o u t - Group Says U.S. Broke Law in Use Of Cluster Bombs in Afghanistan: "The U.S. military violated international law in Afghanistan by indiscriminately dropping cluster bombs on populated areas, killing at least 25 civilians and injuring numerous others, Human Rights Watch said in a report scheduled for release today. The group also said that another 127 civilians have been killed or injured in Afghanistan by unexploded cluster "bomblets" that have become "de facto antipersonnel landmines" across large areas of the country. Sixty-nine percent of those killed or injured, the group said, were children. "
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Monday, December 09, 2002
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G.I.'s Walk Perilous Line Between Finding Enemy and Alienating Afghans: "Four months after the United States adopted a new strategy of using more ground troops to hunt for remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, it is unclear if the strategy is working, Afghan officials say. Attacks on American bases have continued through the fall, and by some measures are intensifying. Afghans along the border with Pakistan say aggressive American ground troops and a lack of relief aid are alienating the local population. The central issue of the American military mission here is at stake: how to defeat a shadowy guerrilla enemy without alienating fiercely independent Afghans with a long tradition of souring on, and then humbling, great powers, among them the British Empire and the Soviet Union. Recent attacks and dozens of interviews with Afghans in three strategic border provinces -- Paktia, Khost and Kunar -- suggest that American forces are, at best, holding their own in what has evolved into a classic counterinsurgency campaign. Rather than being cowed, their enemies appear to be gradually growing bolder."
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Grand Soviet Scheme for Sharing Water in Central Asia Is Foundering: "From the mountainous Chinese border to the Caspian Sea, the Soviet Union remade the two grand rivers of Central Asia, building 20,000 miles of canals, 45 dams and more than 80 reservoirs. The government turned sand and dust into one of the world's great cotton-growing regions. But the Soviet Union is long dead. And here in western Uzbekistan and in areas of its four neighbors, one of socialism's most grandiose schemes is being sundered by capitalism, nationalism and a legacy of waste. Without a bigger supply of water -- or better use of it -- an economic and social crisis seems to be awaiting the region of 58 million people"
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Monday, December 02, 2002
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India's Poor Starve as Wheat Rots: "More than two decades after a "green" revolution made India, the world's second-most-populous country, self-sufficient in grain production, half of India's children are malnourished. About 350 million Indians go to bed hungry every night... Yet the government is sitting on wheat surpluses -- now at about 53 million metric tons -- that would stretch to the moon and back at least twice if all the bags were lined up."
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Wednesday, November 27, 2002
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In Iran, a 'second revolution' gathers steam | csmonitor.com: ""When I remember the promises and pledges of the revolution, I tremble like a willow thinking of my faith," wrote Ayatollah Jaluddin Taheri, a long-venerated cleric who has since been placed under house arrest. Ayatollah Taheri struck at the ruling clerics as corrupt hypocrites and a "gang of shroud-wearers," whose "deviations" were undermining Islamic rule. He accused Khamenei of being propped up by "louts and fascists, who sharpen the teeth of the crocodile of power.""
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Monday, November 25, 2002
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Rights Group Says Governor in Afghan West Abuses Power: "Human Rights Watch, in a new report, accuses one of Afghanistan's most powerful regional governors of creating a "virtual ministate" in western Afghanistan where "political intimidation, arrests, beatings and torture" are widespread. The human rights group, in a report to be issued on Tuesday, also contends that the commander, Ismail Khan, who controls the western province of Herat, is reinstituting Taliban-era restrictions on dress for women and is banning Western movies and music. The group also says the United States and the United Nations are not doing enough to rein in Mr. Khan, who is accused of personally ordering political arrests and beatings, and it accuses the United Nations of turning a blind eye to the violations in the hope of maintaining stability. Mr. Khan, an ethnic Tajik who battled the Taliban, is also accused of overseeing the systematic harassment of ethnic Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group and a large source of support for the Taliban."
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Former Hostage Taker Now Likes to Take On the Mullahs: "The three leaders of the embassy takeover -- Mr. Asgharzadeh, Mohsen Mirdamadi and Habibollah Bitaraf -- were university students in Tehran in late October 1979, when they met to plan the operation. Today, Mr. Asgharzadeh, along with his former compatriots, is a changed man. As the secretary general of the Solidarity Party -- which advocates more political and social freedom -- he is a strong supporter of President Mohammad Khatami and is a member of the Tehran municipal council. Mr. Mirdamadi is a member of Parliament and Mr. Bitaraf is President Khatami's minister of power. All three consider themselves political reformers. "
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Saturday, November 09, 2002
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002
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Iranian Leader Says U.S. Helps bin Laden's Image: "I hear a discourse from two poles," Mr. Khatami said in his native Persian. "One is the voice raised from Afghanistan by bin Laden that says, `Whoever is not with us must be destroyed.' The other is the voice from the United States that says, `Whoever is not with us is against us."' ... At Complutense University in Madrid, he delivered a speech on Cervantes and his relevance in today's world. In the course of the speech, he cited Proust, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Orwell, Kafka and Mann, and criticized modern-day Don Quixotes who lack his "kindhearted, merciful and humanitarian" nature and "ruthlessly assassinate and annihilate people with their huge war machines."... "If chemical weapons are bad, why when they were used against us or Iraqi citizens wasn't Iraq condemned and pressured?" he asked. But Iran, which shares a long border with Iraq, is vehemently opposed to a unilateral American war against its neighbor and the installation of a government of Washington's choosing in Baghdad. Iranians of all political persuasions are deeply suspicious of American designs on the Persian Gulf, recalling that a C.I.A.-led coup overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and returned the shah to the throne.
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Wednesday, August 21, 2002
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The Death Convoy of Afghanistan: "Witness reports and the probing of a mass grave point to war crimes. Does the United States have any responsibility for the atrocities of its allies? A NEWSWEEK investigation. "
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Thursday, July 25, 2002
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Killings From Taliban's Era Still Haunt a Valley: "the people of the Bamian region have been counting their dead since they returned to this fabled valley seven months ago, after the departure of the Taliban. The ancient Buddhas carved into the great cliffs on one side of the valley are gone, destroyed by the Taliban in its Islamic fundamentalist fervor. Gone, too, are an estimated 1,400 villagers, killed in waves over the four years of Taliban rule. The Hazara, the main ethnic group here, say the massacres were part of a sustained campaign by the Taliban to eliminate them. But the scale and circumstances of the killings have not been independently established."
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Sunday, July 21, 2002
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Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundreds of Civilians Dead: "The American air campaign in Afghanistan, based on a high-tech, out-of-harm's-way strategy, has produced a pattern of mistakes that have killed hundreds of Afghan civilians. On-site reviews of 11 locations where airstrikes killed as many as 400 civilians suggest that American commanders have sometimes relied on mistaken information from local Afghans. Also, the Americans' preference for airstrikes instead of riskier ground operations has cut off a way of checking the accuracy of the intelligence."
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Monday, July 08, 2002
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Expecting Taliban, but Finding Only Horror: "What began as a major operation involving 300 to 400 American and Afghan soldiers against suspected Qaeda and Taliban positions in this isolated corner of southern Afghanistan had apparently turned into a slaughter of innocents. An Afghan delegation says the attack killed 48 people, mostly women and children, and injured 117... it is the scale of the operation in reaction to that intelligence that has angered people, from the villagers right up to ministers in Kabul. "If they have information, they should surround the village and then question us. This is not the way to do it, to bomb the village," said Muhammad Shah, who is the bridegroom's brother and was wounded and lost 25 relatives in the raid. Mr. Rahim said he asked an American commander who visited the scene: "Mullah Omar and Mullah Bradar are just two people and you bombed four villages. Why?" He went on to say that the four villagers arrested by the American soldiers were ordinary farmers."
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Sunday, June 02, 2002
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Wednesday, May 29, 2002
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Allies' Focus in Afghanistan Turns Toward Militant Islamic Leader: "The remnants of Al Qaeda and Taliban's senior leadership are attempting to build ties to a prominent militant Islamic leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, with the goal of attacking American-led forces and undermining the interim government in Kabul, senior American and British military officials here said today.... Earlier this month, the C.I.A. attempted to kill Mr. Hekmatyar with a Hellfire anti-tank missile fired from a Predator drone outside Kabul. He survived the attack, and coalition officials said they do not know whether he is still in Afghanistan or has fled into Pakistan, where he once enjoyed wide support. Mr. Hekmatyar has long been hostile to the United States and has openly proclaimed his opposition to Mr. Karzai's government, calling it a puppet of foreigners. But linking him directly to Al Qaeda and the Taliban could provide the Pentagon much stronger justification for launching a major military strike against him and his supporters."
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Monday, May 27, 2002
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A Raid Enrages Afghan Villagers: "An airborne assault on this village by United States-led troops three nights ago has raised anti-American fury among villagers, who say soldiers shot several people, killed the headman of the village and caused a 3-year-old girl to flee and fall to her death down a well. About 50 men were arrested and taken away in helicopters, they said. "
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Saturday, May 25, 2002
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'Jihad': Predicting an Islamic Reformation: "''Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam'' will be a welcome respite for anyone who fears the fury associated with militant Islam. Despite the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel, Gilles Kepel argues that the trend is, in fact, now on its last legs. The violence is merely a reflection of the movement's failure, not its success."
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Thursday, May 23, 2002
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Look Out, the Gurkhas Have Come! With Lawyers: " former Gurkhas have begun legal proceedings against the British government in the High Court here. Britain, they say, has discriminated against them for as long as they have been part of its army, paying them far less than other British soldiers and denying them a range of rights their colleagues take for granted. The case has an unusually high profile, in part because Cherie Booth, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, is on the Gurkhas' legal team, essentially charging her husband's government with human rights violations."
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Monday, May 20, 2002
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Thursday, May 09, 2002
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U.S. Attack on Warlord Aims to Help Interim Leader: "The Central Intelligence Agency, using a missile fired from an unmanned surveillance drone, tried on Monday to kill an Afghan factional leader who has vowed to topple the current government, Pentagon and administration officials said today. American officials said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of a militant and predominantly Pashtun party called Hezb-i-Islami, was the target of an American missile strike outside of Kabul. The officials said he survived the attack, which was carried out by a Predator drone carrying Hellfire antitank missiles."
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Wednesday, May 08, 2002
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Over 100 Dead in Nepal Rebel Attack: "The Bush administration recently asked Congress for $20 million in non-combat assistance for Nepal. ``Nepal is fighting a Maoist rebellion, and Nepal is an example, again, of a democracy, and the United States is committed to helping Nepal,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday."
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Tuesday, May 07, 2002
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Afghan Warlords Squeeze Profits From the War on Drugs, Critics Say: " critics say the crackdown, now a few weeks old, is showing many of the hallmarks of the wider ills besetting Afghanistan. Warlords, these people say, have hijacked the program and turned it into a way of gouging cash for use in recruiting new followers, paying soldiers and acquiring weapons. Many of the crops the warlords claim to have destroyed continue to yield opium gum, and farmers mill about every day at the warlords' gates complaining that they have been denied the money that is their due."
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Monday, May 06, 2002
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Saturday, May 04, 2002
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Arundhati Roy: Democracy and Religious Fascism: "Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn't very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved 'OM' on her forehead. Precisely which Hindu scripture preaches this?.... The more the two sides try and call attention to their religious differences by slaughtering each other, the less there is to distinguish them from one another. They worship at the same altar. They're both apostles of the same murderous god, whoever he is. In an atmosphere so vitiated, for anybody, and in particular the Prime Minister, to arbitrarily decree exactly where the cycle started is malevolent and irresponsible. Right now we're sipping from a poisoned chalice: a flawed democracy laced with religious fascism. Pure arsenic. What shall we do? What can we do?"
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Wednesday, May 01, 2002
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Study Hints at Mass Killing of Taliban: "Physicians for Human Rights, which has experience in investigating mass graves in the Balkans, has called for urgent measures, including an international force, to secure the desert site and others in the north and investigate what it suspects was the mass killing of Taliban prisoners last November. That was when the Taliban's Northern Alliance foes took control of northern Afghanistan after American bombs had weakened the Taliban. Hundreds of Taliban soldiers surrendered at the town of Kunduz in November and are thought to have been killed by troops of the Uzbek leader, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, and buried in at least two spots about a mile apart in this desert. "
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Tuesday, April 30, 2002
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Bustling U.S. Air Base Materializes in the Mud: "A Kyrgyzstani public television station recently reported that 60 percent of people surveyed around Bishkek, the capital, which is nearby, would just as soon not have the base. Local villagers are quick to explain why. Dirt roads and open fields near the airport have been cut off. Local people who board buses at the airport for the ride into Bishkek now have to show their identity papers because the airport has become a restricted area. Furthermore, although the foreign soldiers seem friendly, they spend little money locally." - 2000 soldiers living in air conditioned tents.
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'Desirable Daughters': The Cross-Culture Wars: " novel of grace and shrewd intellect, Bharati Mukherjee's most absorbing book to date. Tara serves as tour guide to her surprising family history, to her tangled relationships with her sisters -- one in Bombay, the other in Upper Montclair, N.J. -- and to the undeclared war of Westernized Indian women with their country's traditional concept of a wife. The marvel of ''Desirable Daughters'' is that even as its story flows into deeper and deeper pools of Indian history, religion and intrigue, it stays convincingly anchored in the wry, self-deprecating voice of a West Coast woman with a spiky, agnostic curiosity about the world, "
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Personal and Political in Afghanistan: "The stories told in the three books under review -- Zoya's Story,'' ''My Forbidden Face'' and ''West of Kabul, East of New York'' -- illustrate many of the questions that the West needs to answer if Afghanistan is to emerge from this latest round of warfare in a better state than before. A little reflection on the long battle over the bodies and souls of Afghan women raises one question in particular: Was this a battle between secularism and Islam or between tradition and modernity? Two of these books are written by young women who lived under the Taliban -- both using pseudonyms here -- the third by an Afghan-American man who became famous overnight for an e-mail message he sent to 20 friends in the wake of Sept. 11"
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Two Afghan Warlords Coexist, Warily: ""Dostum is more of a politician than the other faction leaders," said one United Nations official. "He understands his future is in becoming the political representative of the Turkic groups in the north."" and Tadjik General Atta Muhammad
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The Loya Jirga: Transcending the Past With a 'Pseudotradition': " the fear is that some of the very warlords likely to disrupt the loya jirga process, or to try to control it through bribery and intimidation, are allied with American military forces in their campaign to find Osama bin Laden. If foreign money makes its way into the selection procedures, that, too, follows Afghan tradition. Few experts doubt that Russia, Iran and maybe Pakistan are players behind the scenes."
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Discord Over Killing of India Muslims Deepens: "a retired chief justice of the Supreme Court, condemned the government's attempt to silence its critics abroad. "It's the duty of the international community to raise its voice," he said. Harsh Mander, a civil servant who resigned to protest what happened in Gujarat, declared: "I would like to testify that no riot can go on for more than a few hours without active state complicity. It's a crime which is difficult to describe.""
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A Warlord Takes His Revenge, Launching an Attack That Kills 25: "Washington's recent conduct in Afghanistan was a sore subject to many who attended funerals of those killed by the rockets. "During the time of the Taliban, there was no fighting like this," said Jawad Haidry. "They made us wear beards and pray, and there were other strict rules. But now America has replaced the Taliban with the warlords, and what we have is the death of innocents." .... One mourner, Engineer Amin, looked toward where the rockets had been launched. His gaze was angry. "The American camp is on that mountain," he said. "The rockets came from right behind. At any time, the Americans could have stopped it. All they would have had to say was, `Don't kill these poor people.' ""
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Thursday, April 18, 2002
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Monday, April 08, 2002
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Mass Graves Reportedly Tied to Last Days of Taliban Rule: " Bamiyan region was the site of the enormous 1,500-year-old carvings of the Buddha that the Taliban destroyed last year. The region is home to the Hazaras, people set apart by their Asiatic features and adherence to the Shiite branch of Islam. Thousands of Hazaras, mostly civilians, are thought to have been killed by soldiers of the Taliban"
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Shattered Afghan Families Demand U.S. Compensation: " The embassy has recommended that a positive response be given, ... but ... neither the Defense Department nor the State Department had replied yet. You cannot imagine how difficult it is to listen to stories like this and not to be able to give an answer"
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Yankee, bin Laden Jehads and the Devastation of Afghanistan - Hassan Gardezi: "Neither has the US military victory over the Taliban, with all its human costs, brought Afghanistan any closer to peace. The Yankee jehad, metamorphosed into war on terrorism, has not only reduced the country into a physical wasteland, its remaining inhabitants have been driven apart more than ever into bitter tribal and ethnic enemies. The warlords who masqueraded as CIA-ISI sponsored mujahideen for more than two decades are now going to be waging their wars of revenge and material gain for many more years to come in a cycle of bloodshed.For the US this will serve as the pretext, if one is needed, to prolong its military presence in Afghanistan, and administer the aid funds for reconstruction of the country until UNCOL is done with laying its pipeline and beyond. "
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Thursday, April 04, 2002
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Afghan nomads cloaked Al Qaeda | csmonitor.com: "Of the three pillars of that code -- which distinguishes them from the settled and urbanized Pashtun, whose forefathers gave up this itinerant existence -- the most important principle is to give shelter to those in flight."
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Al Qaeda's village lifeline: "ZEROK, AFGHANISTAN -- By day, this is a lively village where young and old imbibe rumors along with cups of tea. But when the sun goes down, the town becomes a sea of clandestine activity: Pick-up trucks race into the mountains, carrying supplies to remote Al Qaeda bases. Many of Zerok's residents are seen as heroes for their role in launching the initial attacks on Soviet-supported Afghan bases in 1979. Now, this remote village, which traditionally divides eastern and southern Afghanistan, is again becoming a nexus for a holy war aimed at ousting the new foreigners. But, in contrast to the situation 22 years ago, there are signs of growing local resistance to the campaign against foreigners."
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Afghan Officials Arrest Hundreds in Bombing Plot: "Afghan officials said the conspiracy was linked to Hekmatyar, a longtime warlord known for his anti-Western views and his ruthlessness on the battlefield. ... suspicions that the government fabricated the threat to crush its opponents. Many of them belong to the Pashtun ethnic group that predominates in the south. Mr. Karzai himself is a Pashtun. But his government is dominated by Tajiks, who formed the core of the resistance to the Taliban."
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Monday, April 01, 2002
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U.S. Fears Afghan Farmers Can't End Cash Crop: Opium: "American officials have quietly abandoned their hopes to reduce Afghanistan's opium production substantially this year and are now bracing for a harvest large enough to inundate the world's heroin and opium markets with cheap drugs. While American and European officials have debated such measures as paying Afghan opium farmers to plow under their fields, they have concluded that continuing lawlessness and political instability will make eradication all but impossible."
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Thursday, March 28, 2002
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Two top Al Qaeda leaders spotted "Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are regrouping in the mountains south and northeast of the city of Khost, helped and supplied in part by Afghan sympathizers who can blend into the city and bring information and supplies to the fugitives."
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Wednesday, March 27, 2002
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Tuesday, March 26, 2002
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Tribal Leaders in Pakistan Warn the U.S. to Keep Out: "Tribal leaders from the treacherous mountainous areas along the border with Afghanistan have an unambiguous message for American commanders who have suggested that they might enter the region in pursuit of Al Qaeda fighters: Don't. One tribal leader, wagging his finger for emphasis, said that tribal elders saw America as the enemy and that his people would sacrifice their lives to keep American soldiers off their land. "
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Village Voice - Ridgeway: "since October 7 the United States Air Force has been raining down depleted uranium shells at targets inside Afghanistan, especially against the Taliban front lines in the north. . . . 'There is widespread radiation in many areas that could adversely affect tens and thousands of people in the two countries for generations to come" [Pentagon denies, says the DU is from Al Queda]
World War 3 Report: "MYSTERY METAL NIGHTMARE IN AFGHANSTAN?""
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Saturday, March 23, 2002
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Afghans Have a Palace, but Not a Role, Ready for the Former King: "Commonly, Afghans tell outsiders that Zahir -- who came to the throne as an 18-year-old when his father, Mohammad Nadir Shah, was assassinated inside the Arg Palace grounds in 1933 -- accomplished little in his nearly 40 years as king, and that the country's failure to develop laid the grounds for his overthrow in 1973 as well as the Communist revolution five years later. Afghans also note that Mohammad Nadir Shah was himself a usurper, an army general who suppressed a peasant revolt in 1929 and took the throne for himself, deposing King Amanullah, the legitimate monarch. Yet Afghans also remember that under Zahir the country was at peace. After 23 years of war and chaos, that alone makes the former king a figure of reverence. But there are strong factions opposed to his restoration, mainly among the Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities"
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Friday, March 22, 2002
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Al Qaeda's ploy: parry and run: "Al Qaeda ... are reportedly regrouping with additional funds in the region. But both Afghan and international military analysts say that the caves -- the focus of US firepower in Tora Bora last December and here in Shah-e Kot this month -- may be decoys that Al Qaeda is laying out for coalition forces to target, while the planning for guerrilla warfare here and terrorism abroad is done in other quarters."
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Taliban take the battle to the south Asia Times - "strong indications that preparations are well advanced for a large confrontation with US and allied forces in southern Afghanistan in the Kandahar region. According to informed sources, the battle will be fought by Taliban and al-Qaeda troops who have regrouped after escaping from the Gardez region in the east of the country, where they engaged US and allied forces for several weeks in what the Pentagon dubbed Operation Anaconda. In the new engagement, which is likely to begin with guerrilla-type attacks on US and allied forces some time next week, the Taliban and al-Qaeda will receive widespread backing from local Afghan tribes. "
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Taliban bargaining on 18 US soldiers: "18 US soldiers were taken hostage during the severe fighting in the snow covered mountains of Gardez in Afghanistan between the US soldiers and the Taliban forces. Sources said that Taliban are now "demanding the release of all the Taliban and non Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo X-Ray cells but so far diplomacy is going on with no positive signs from Bush administration". More than 400 American forces had not only withdrawn from the Gardez region but also provided safe passage to the AlQaida and Taliban forces for the safety of the US soldiers who were taken hostage during a night time operation. "
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Tuesday, March 19, 2002
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Anaconda ends; battle winds on: "more Al Qaeda up there. All together, there are another 3,000 or 4,000 of them around. A lot of them have already moved out of Shah-i-Kot and have moved east, to around here," says the young Mr. Khan....after the heaviest fighting of Operation Anaconda was past, he says, about 300 of the anti-Al Qaeda Afghan forces were captured. They had gone into the caves looking for evidence, thinking most of the fighters who had been holed up in them were dead. They were not. Instead of killing them or taking them prisoner, the Al Qaeda forces tried to sway them, and then set them free. "When we sent everyone into the caves, our men were surrounded, and the Al Qaeda took them," says Malik Jan. "They arrested 300 of our men, they took our weapons and jumpers and uniforms," he says. "They said, 'Go back to your bosses, and tell them we don't want to fight you and kill you. We want to kill the Americans.'""
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Monday, March 18, 2002
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Al Qaeda plotted new US attacks: "fortified Shah-i-Kot caves of this region just before the recent US attacks. Local villagers, who spoke on the condition that their village not be identified, provided details on how they were recruited to blast a new network of caves for these fighters... A few of the some 100 workers helping the Al Qaeda fighters were also "working" with US forces. So they were able to give the mostly Arab and Chechen fighters a day's notice that Operation Anaconda was about to begin. That information enabled the fighters to send the families traveling with them to a safer place, and spurred the comfortable departure of some of the more senior Al Qaeda figures, who also sent their extraordinarily well-paid workers home."
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World War 3 Report: (citing SF Chronicle) "RUSSIANS WARN NOT TO BE DECEIVED BY EARLY VICTORIES Soviet veterans of the USSR's decade-long Afghanistan campaign warn US troops not to overstay their welcome--and that things may not go so well come spring. The Soviet disaster in Afghanistan actually began swimmingly, said retired colonel Gennady Chebyshev. "The first year it was very peaceful, and people were very friendly," recalled Chebyshev, who now works at a Moscow satellite phone dealership. "I could drive across the entire country and nobody would touch me. People would invite me in for tea. Then...all hell broke loose and the real war began." "
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Sunday, March 17, 2002
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Pakistan Seethes as the Militants Lash Out: " three doctors -- and three others who barely escaped death after their car was fired on -- are the latest victims of sectarian violence that has surged in Pakistan in the last six weeks. Though the doctors were members of the country's Shiite religious minority, they were not politically active, and the attackers' real target appears to be the government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf."
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Al Qaeda's Grocery Lists and Manuals of Killing: ""The vast majority of them were cannon fodder," a United States government official said. A smaller group of recruits was selected for elite training that appeared to prepare them for terrorist actions abroad."
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Friday, March 15, 2002
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A Hospital the U.S. Nursed, Again in Need of Care: "Just after midcentury, when the great powers vied for influence in Afghanistan with aid, not arms, Americans essentially built this city on the Helmand River. It was a suburban Shangri-La created by corporate colonialism, its showpiece a state-of- the-art public hospital that drew patients from hundreds of miles around. The city anchored what was to be the Tennessee Valley Authority of Afghanistan, a multimillion-dollar American project to use dams and irrigation canals to transform desert into a lush breadbasket. The Americans called it Bost, for the ruins of an ancient city nearby. So many settled here with their families that the Afghans called it "Little America." "
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Thursday, March 14, 2002
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Marooned Taliban Tick Off Grim Hours in an Afghan Jail: "Each cell is dark, narrow and deep, holding dozens of men, many of whom can be seen lying on dirty mattresses or huddled in blankets in a corner. ... In January, a team from Physicians for Human Rights found an epidemic of dysentery and jaundice, the latter indicative, the group said, of hepatitis A. The group said the conditions at Jowzjan were in "grave violation of international standards for the treatment of prisoners" and called on the United States to ensure that conditions improve. Exactly how many prisoners have died here seems a mystery. General Beg estimated that "six or seven" had died within the prison walls, most of them from diseases they had brought into the jail. Physicians for Human Rights quoted the warden as saying in January that "many, many prisoners had already died," mainly from dysentery, some from pneumonia. "
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Tuesday, March 12, 2002
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A Village at Source of Heroin Trade Fears Crop Eradication: "Afghanistan's government risks their sanction by turning a blind eye to the crop, but it risks the wrath of men like Mr. Hakim, and those who make the real profit from his labor, by destroying it. Poppies are by far the best crop in much of this drought- parched land."
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Monday, March 11, 2002
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America's Shady Ally Against Terror: "Uzbekistan... has been raised by its antiterror alliance with America into the pre-eminent Central Asian power. Uzbekistan is located in the very center of a highly explosive and densely populated region where almost 60 million people live, more than a third of them in Uzbekistan itself. The Karimov government's example of repression is likely to be infectious in a neighborhood of states that have little tradition of democracy or human rights. Mr. Karimov shows them that it is possible to gain prestige and money and extend your rule on a whim -- and still gain American support in the post-terrorism world. "
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Taliban and War Deliver a Double Blow to Villagers: "This village is a fine and dreadful place to watch the American air attack. .. an old man with a wrinkled face, a white beard and a regretful pair of eyes was watching intently today. It was his home being destroyed. ... Two and a half months ago, a handful of retreating Taliban soldiers visited a cluster of mountain villages ... They wanted to live there, instead of the people who did. "They told us that we should go and they would stay. They told us that Shah-i-Kot will be bombed by the Americans and if we stayed, we would probably be killed and they would not be responsible for our deaths.""
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Sunday, March 10, 2002
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Gandhi's Dream and India's Latest Nightmare: "Hindu nationalism, once a pariah movement associated with Gandhi's assassination, has become politically mainstream in this nation and in the West. Its political leaders have led a national coalition government for most of the past four years. ... But recent images of rampaging Hindu mobs torching Muslim neighborhoods in the Hindu nationalist- dominated state of Gujarat -- and of the charred bodies of Muslim children burned alive in those attacks -- have again raised profound questions about what the movement stands for and where its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is leading the world's largest democracy and second most populous nation. Fundamentalism and its violent excesses, themes that leaders of the ruling party have used so effectively against Pakistan, are now boomeranging. If thuggish elements in the party's Hindu nationalist family are not quickly controlled, Hindu-Muslim violence that weakens India's unity and secular foundations could spread."
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Friday, March 08, 2002
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Children as Barter in a Famished Land: "Mr. Muhammad did something that has become ruefully unremarkable in this desperate country. He took two of his 10 children to the bazaar of the nearest city and traded them for bags of wheat."
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Thursday, March 07, 2002
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Novelist Arundhati Roy Convicted of Contempt: "jailed Wednesday after the Supreme Court convicted her of criminal contempt for suggesting it was trying to ``silence criticism'' of its approval of a hydroelectric project."
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Saturday, March 02, 2002
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More Than 200 Die in 3 Days of Riots in Western India: "Muslim, Sikh and Hindu residents of Ahmedabad said today that people associated with the World Hindu Council, the group that was aboard the train, had played a role in instigating the anti-Muslim riots in revenge, with their trademark shouts of "Jai Shri Ram!" â014 "Victory to the God Ram!" The council is part of a movement that seeks to build a temple to Ram on the site of the mosque in Ayodhya, in north-central India. Members of the same group destroyed the mosque in 1992, which led to the last round of sectarian violence. "
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Thursday, February 28, 2002
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To Rebuild Afghanistan, Look Next Door (Iran): "This labor force is culturally the closest to Afghanistan's among neighboring countries. Iranians speak the same language as a large percentage of the Afghani population and share the same literature. Such ties help explain why Iran has already committed $500 million over the next five years to help Afghanistan."
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Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Make Wells, Not War: "Bangladesh ... millions of lives could be saved for as little as $20 a pop... . In that impoverished South Asian nation, an estimated 35 to 70 million people are drinking arsenic-contaminated water. A 2001 report published by the World Health Organization called it "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history." In some areas, the water is more than 50 times what WHO deems healthy. Arsenic exposure leads to lung, bladder, and kidney cancer after two decades, not to mention diabetes and heart disease. In some villages the majority of the population already suffers from disfiguring skin lesions from prolonged exposure to arsenic. As an environmental disaster it dwarfs Chernobyl and Bhopal. The arsenic is naturally occurring. Ironically, the fact that so many people are drinking the poisoned water now is the result of an otherwise successful development initiative over the last two decades. "
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Afghan Witnesses Say G.I.'s Were Duped in Raid on Allies: "Local officials and relatives of Afghans killed by United States Special Forces angrily reject the Pentagon's inquiry into the raid, on Jan. 24, insisting that men were shot without a chance to surrender and that in many cases the Americans, not the Afghans, fired first." - lots of interviews with survivors & neighbors
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Top General Defends Raid in Which 16 Afghans Died: "General Franks offered no apologies and said there was no cause for disciplinary action. The only error, the general said, was made by the Afghans who fired first at the American troops as they approached the compounds under cover of darkness. General Franks said the Americans returned fire in self-defense. "The one mistake that I know was made was when people shot at American forces doing their job on the ground in Afghanistan," General Franks said."
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Tuesday, February 26, 2002
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Hinduism's Political Resurgence: "What was once quickly identified as unreasonable and aberrant â014 Hindu majoritarianism â014 enjoys a growing influence and legitimacy as the ruling ideology of the Indian government. Oddly, the illiberal tendencies a military dictator seeks to expel, with popular support, from Pakistan seem to be finding a hospitable home in democratic India."
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Monday, February 25, 2002
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New Clues Suggest Bin Laden Is Alive on Afghan Border: "The administration's contention that it is making progress in searching for Mr. bin Laden and in dismantling Al Qaeda's hierarchy is politically important to President Bush and his military team.... confronted with new reports from Afghanistan indicating that the military actions in areas where Mr. bin Laden may have been living have caused scores of deaths and injuries among Afghan civilians, and flattened whole villages, as well as mosques and residential compounds. "
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Sunday, February 24, 2002
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002
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Foe's Identity Still Unclear in a Skirmish Aided by U.S.: "Senior American officials insisted today that the United States did not have a new policy of using airstrikes to quell fighting among rival warlords in Afghanistan. But a weekend skirmish near the provincial town of Khost shows how murky the fighting in Afghanistan can be. "
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Tuesday, February 19, 2002
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Villagers Say U.S. Should Have Looked, Not Leapt (US bombs 3 Afghan villagers): "spokesman for the Pentagon added, ``We're convinced that it was an appropriate target,'' although ``we do not know yet exactly who it was.'' Admiral Stufflebeem said an American military ``exploitation team'' of about 50 men had spent several days at the site collecting evidence..., including tissue and bone fragments for DNA testing to identify the victims, apparently by comparing the samples with DNA taken from relatives of Mr. bin Lade.... But on a trip into the mountains, just about every Afghan encountered along the way - goatherders, brushwood collectors, militiamen and farmers - readily identified the three victims, and their villages....Relatives of the victims said they had not been visited by the Americans, or by any Afghan officials working with the Americans"
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To Wait or to Flee: NYT magazine, MICHAEL FINKEL "The [Hazara] people of Abdulgan ... died in prosaic ways -- of disease and cold and starvation. They died because they were trapped by nature and politics and war. They died because they were caught in the cross-fire of Afghan history. They died deep in the mountains of northern Afghanistan, dozens of miles from the nearest dirt road. "
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The New Yorker: SHADOW LAND by JOE KLEIN "Who's winning the fight for Iran's future? Issue of 2002-02-18 and 25"
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Monday, February 18, 2002
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Restarting Afghan Cycle of Agriculture: "Much of the seed brought in for the project will come from collections made in Afghanistan in the early 1970's, as part of an international effort to safeguard samples of crop varieties. Many important plants originated in Afghanistan, including carrots and chickpeas. Dr. Beltagy says the crisis in Afghanistan illustrates the value of maintaining these dispersed genetic repositories. Afghanistan's own plant gene bank, stored in its agricultural headquarters in Kabul, was destroyed in 1992 as rival factions ransacked the city; more recently, a severe drought depleted Afghan farmers' remaining stocks of seed."
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Millions in Iran Rally Against U.S.: "Ever since Mr. Bush designated Iran part of an international terrorist network open to American attack, conservatives in Iran have been greatly buoyed, trying to use a resurgence of disgust with America to quash reform at home"
Iran and the 'Axis of Evil': NYT editorial "Over the long term, improved relations with Iran would be a force for peace in the Middle East. There is a growing political force within Iran whose equivalent we would welcome in many other countries. In Iran, it already exists, and we must nurture it. "
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