IDEALS

KABUL, (Aug. 12, 2009) IPS/GIN – The Afghan carpet weaving industry
is Afghanistan’s second largest, behind only agriculture in terms
of size and number of people employed.

Yet, carpet producers across the country receive only a fraction
of the profits that their work eventually makes on the global
market. And, Afghan carpets are distributed as a product that’s
made in Pakistan.

Read the rest of this entry →

KABUL, (Aug. 13, 2009) IPS/GIN – Carpet weaving has long been a
part of Afghanistan’s history and culture.

Though it is unclear exactly when Afghans began making carpets, it
is believed that long ago, women poured their emotions into the
carpets they created, telling stories of hero’s and prophets. Since
that time, carpets have come to symbolise Afghan national dignity
and stand as a testament to the creativity of her people.

Read the rest of this entry →

KABUL, (Aug. 13, 2009) IPS/GIN – Carpet weaving has long been a
part of Afghanistan’s history and culture.

Though it is unclear exactly when Afghans began making carpets, it
is believed that long ago, women poured their emotions into the
carpets they created, telling stories of hero’s and prophets. Since
that time, carpets have come to symbolise Afghan national dignity
and stand as a testament to the creativity of her people. Read the rest of this entry →

WASHINGTON, (Aug. 13, 2009) IPS/GIN – Basir “Steve” Ahmed was
returning from a bomb-clearing mission in Khogyani district in
northeastern Afghanistan when a suicide bomber blew up an
explosive-filled vehicle nearby. The blast flipped the military
armoured truck Ahmed was riding in three or four times, and filled
it with smoke. The Afghan translator had been accompanying the
927th Engineer Company near the Pakistan border on that October day
in 2008 that would forever change his life.

“I saw the gunner come out and I followed him. The U.S. Army
soldiers helped pull me out, but I got burns,” says Ahmed, who had
worked as a contract translator with U.S. troops for almost four
years. “The last thing I remember was the ‘dub-dub-dub’ of a
Chinook helicopter.” A medical evacuation team took the injured men
to a U.S. Army hospital at Bagram Base. Read the rest of this entry →

WASHINGTON, (Aug. 14, 2009) IPS/GIN – The U.S. government continues
to withhold even the most basic information about prisoners in the
Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan, according to the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a New York-based legal rights
organisation.

An April 2009 ACLU Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for
documents and information about the detainment of prisoners at
Bagram has yielded dead ends with both the Department of Defence
(DOD) and the Central Intelligence Agency). Read the rest of this entry →

WASHINGTON, (Aug. 14, 2009) IPS/GIN – Murtaza “Jimmy” Farukhi was
killed while on patrol with the U.S. Marine Corps on Sep. 9, 2008,
at the age of 23. He was not a soldier, but a local translator
employed by Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel (MEP).

Farukhi was one of 24 MEP translators killed and 56 injured since
the company’s contract with the U.S. military began in September
2007, according to company statistics. Read the rest of this entry →

KABUL, (Aug. 20, 2009) IPS/GIN – As Afghani people lined up this
week to elect the next president, thousands of acres of public
lands were being sold off by government officials and warlords,
despite the presence of Afghan families living on those same lands.

The Ministry of Urban Development (MUD) says that between 1,000
and 1,500 jirib (roughly equal to an acre) of public land where
private families reside, are being stolen or usurped by powerful
government officials and warlords every day. The ministry says that
in all, more than three and-a-half million jirib of these lands
have been stolen, a staggering figure. Read the rest of this entry →

KABUL, (Aug. 20, 2009) IPS/GIN – Afghanistan’s Independent Human
Rights Commission says that in the last seven months they have
received 12 complaints about stolen land. The complaints cover the
map, ranging from Wardak, Panjsher and Kapisa, to Parwan and Kabul.

Shamasullah Ahmadzai, who sits on the commission, says that these
complaints generally don’t specifically name the powerful people
who took the land because the complainants fear reprisals. “This
fact alone paves the way for land thieves to steal more.” Read the rest of this entry →

WASHINGTON, (May 17, 2010) IPS/GIN – The U.S. Senate is moving
forward with a 59-billion-dollar spending bill, of which 33.5
billion dollars would be allocated for the war in Afghanistan.

However, some experts here in Washington are raising concerns that
the war may be unwinnable and that the money being spent on
military operations in Afghanistan could be better spent. Read the rest of this entry →

KABUL, (May 9, 2009) IPS/GIN – U.S. President Barack Obama has made
Afghanistan and Pakistan his number one foreign policy priority.
As acting U.S. Ambassador, Francis J. Ricciardone, outlined his
country’s strategy for long-term peace, justice and prosperity in
the region in an exclusive hour-long interview. Excerpts:

KILLID: Many Afghans are confused. Why has President Obama called
for an end to U.S. military action in Iraq but increased military
involvement in Afghanistan despite his Secretary of Defense, Robert
Gates, saying there is “no military solution” to defeating the
Taliban and al Qaeda.

FRANCIS J. RICCIARDONE: We believe there is not a purely military
solution; we never believed it. However, military means are
necessary although they are not sufficient. Read the rest of this entry →