transport

kabul/herat to + fro + in between:

an adventure, for certain.

[massoud @ kabul airport]

[travel by tuk-tuk (zaranaj) (rickshaw),

with maximum enthusiasm!]

[pamir airways terminal, herat airport]

[herat baggage claim]

eid mubarak!

a good way toward revived, with all thanks due to the wonders of german medicine.



+ off to herat, despite a few rumblings . . . never was/never gonna be the retiring sort.

xoxo

airborne

no herat weekend, after all.


i have successfully evaded the various kabul illnesses that strike most internationals - illnesses primarily due to the lack of a sanitation system, the abysmal water quality, + the 30% fecal matter (!) found in the city's air.









no more . . . it looks like i probably have h. pylori bacteria or something similar. the german clinic is taking good care of me, but i am v. sad to miss seeing lovely herat. perhaps another opportunity will arise . . .











in the meantime, i may be found at peach house,

nursing seltzer +

listening to barking dog ...

uh oh

i don't think this has been circulated much . . .

an interesting follow-up on sultan munadi (listed here as an unnamed "colleague").

****************************

Al Qaeda calls for foreign kidnappings in Afghanistan

A senior al Qaeda official has called on the Taliban to kidnap foreign civilians in Afghanistan to force U.S.-led forces to negotiate prisoner exchanges, a former Australian police counter-terrorism analyst said.

The directive has been issued by veteran al Qaeda adviser Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al Masri, and stems from the U.S. detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Leah Farrall told Reuters on Wednesday.

Farrall, who had worked for the Australian Federal Police, said she had found the al Qaeda internet document, written in late July, while completing a PhD on al Qaeda at Monash University in Australia.

The document, "The U.S. Soldier in Afghanistan - the first step for the release of all prisoners of the war on terror," argues the capture of a U.S. soldier earlier this year should serve as a precedent in a campaign of abducting Western civilians to negotiate the release of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners.

Farrall said the document rallies against the U.S. treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and calls on the Taliban to treat their enemy the same, citing examples of kidnapping campaigns by Hamas and Hezbollah.

But whereas some al Qaeda kidnappings have led executions, Hamid does not call for hostages to be harmed.

"He does not speak about executing prisoners at all. It's all about hostage taking and holding the hostages and negotiating. There is nothing about what to do with them if negotiations fail," Farrall said.

"He also talks about using the bodies of dead servicemen and pretending that they are still alive. He certainly does not advocate killing at all," she said, adding that Hamid had, until now, been regarded as a moderate voice in al Qaeda.

Six weeks after his directive was released, New York Times journalist Stephen Farrell and his Afghan colleague were kidnapped in Afghanistan. British journalist Farrell was freed, but his colleague was killed in a rescue raid in early September.

Farrall said the capture of the journalist suggests the Taliban may be considering Hamid's advice as he is very close to Taliban leaders Mullah Mohammad Omar and Jalaluddin Haggani.

In the document Hamid said he fought alongside Haggani in the Afghan-Soviet war and personally delivered Osama bin Laden's oath of allegiance to Omar, said Farrall.

Australia's Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism Bill Paterson said that while kidnapping campaigns had been used by al Qaeda, militants in north Africa and the Philippine's Abu Sayyaf rebels, it was unclear whether the Taliban would adopt such a tactic.

"The Taliban learn from al Qaeda and possibly vice versa," Paterson told Reuters in Sydney.

"But the Taliban are their own people and there is some evidence that some in the Taliban see al Qaeda in their midst in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan as intruders and foreigners."

Hamid has been detained in Iran since 2003 but remains an influential figure in the militant movement and maintains contact with his followers through jihadist websites, said Farrall.

The document calling for kidnappings of Westerners first appeared on an internet source page Farrall has been tracking for several years, but has since been posted widely on al Qaeda forums.

Farrall said she wrote about the document in an article in The Australian newspaper on Wednesday because of concerns other militant groups may see it as a call to kidnap Westerners.

"It has been posted on the forum that is used for al Qaeda strategic communications," Farrall said. "Prior to this his work had had a fairly limited distribution."

"My concern is this document has now gone out to wide readership of groups with different agendas, who may take the idea but not necessarily take the precautions of looking after the hostages and holding them."

h-what? x 2

traveling to herat this weekend for the eid break!



i hear that herat may have hammam baths. do i dare?

i instruct you to pls. see here for a view on the city via the hit reality tv show, afghan star. the lady in the yellow headscarf is my friend zohra's mama, one of the show's judges!

youtube has tons of these episodes, v. fun to watch.

sultan munadi

when reported upon at all, afghan journalists often get labeled as "fixers" or "interpreters." sultan munadi, who died last week in kunduz, was a journalist.

he was also one of the many afghans who emigrated temporarily for reasons of safety + education + now have returned to work at rebuilding their homeland. i know many such courageous people at the university. in munadi's words:

"And if I leave this country, if other people like me leave this country, who will come to Afghanistan? Will it be the Taliban who come to govern this country? That is why I want to come back, even if it means cleaning the streets of Kabul. That would be a better job for me, rather than working, for example, in a restaurant in Germany."

as you probably have read, munadi and his colleague stephen farrell were new york times journalists kidnapped by talebs in early september while reporting in kunduz. a captor told munadi that they could get a prison exchange for farrell but nothing for him. and when the gunbattle went down, it was munadi who stepped out into the line of fire, identifying himself as "journalist." he was shot + killed, + farrell escaped unharmed (thankfully).

it is unclear whether sultan munadi was shot by british forces or his captors. what is shameful, though, is that those who went on to rescue stephen farrell did not even bother to retrieve sultan munadi's bullet-riddled body upon their departure. a colleague of munadi's, writing in the excellent new york times "at war" blog describes speaking with his friends about this atrocity at the funeral last week:

"I spoke to his closest friends. They were all furious and deeply saddened by his death, especially when his body was left behind and not flown back with the international journalist who was rescued. For them it didn’t matter who killed him, whether he was killed by the Taliban or the British special forces, what was important for them was why a sketch or picture of Sultan was not given to the Special forces, and also why did they have time to bring back one of their own soldiers who died, and rescue the British journalist, but left Sultan’s body to rot at the house. Sultan was buried right away when his body was brought back to Kabul. His close friends that saw his body in the white shroud, that Muslims wrap bodies before burial, say that the shroud was soaked in red because of his blood, and his body and face could not be recognized. To them this was the sign of utmost disrespect, as they found it to be inhumane and some were saying that we think the Taliban wouldn’t be this heartless."

i feel unbelievably sad to read about all the wonderful things sultan munadi's friends and fellow journalists had to say about his personal spirit and his contributions to reporting about afghanistan. it is tragic that so many people here, like munadi, must risk their lives just to live in their homeland and do the work they are best at. and that when they are forced by horrendous circumstances toward heroism, as sultan munadi was when he tried to save his own life and the life of his colleague, they are not treated with according respect. it seems so basic, and yet, clearly, so fleeting.

and i will go via zaranaj

zaranajs for hire

hop in

i pass thru zaranaj junction each day in a giant, airconditioned van


















and want for a smoother ride . . .













afghan beauty parlor visit yesterday! big hair that lasted about 30 minutes. they love the late 80s/early 90s lady hairfashions, yeah!