Afghanistan Time Line
Remarks at a PBS Reception and Screening of Afghanistan Unveiled
In making this film, these creative and courageous women also showed the world the hope and determination of free Afghan women. This determination was clearly demonstrated last month, when over 8 million Afghans voted--more than 3.2 million of them women. This historic event marked the first time national elections have been held in Afghanistan’s 5,000-year history. ... [Read More]
Future of Afghanistan
Mr. Chairman: I am pleased to have this opportunity to testify before the Committee on Foreign Relations in my capacity as U.S. Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan.Our aims in Afghanistan are well known to the American people and this Committee. We seek to bring about an Afghanistan that is free of terrorists, that no longer is a source of poppy, and that allows its citizens -- including an estimated five million refugees and an unknown number of internally displaced persons -- to return to their homes and live normal lives in which opportunity comes to ... [Read More]
U.S. First Lady Laura Bush's Trip to Afghanistan
MS. PONTICELLI: We love all of you and it's really just a great pleasure for me to meet with you this afternoon. I really do feel like I'm surrounded by so many friends, and colleagues and, more importantly, by those of us who have worked in the trenches together. We have put so much of our effort and our time and our commitment to the cause of the women of Afghanistan. And that, of course, is what I'm going to talk about today because I just had the incredible thrill of being in Afghanistan for two weeks. I'm just back, I guess, a little over a week. It's hard to believe. I feel like I've left a big part of my heart there, as I always feel when I come back from Afghanistan. ... [Read More]
Southwest Asia
General political and economic circumstances in Afghanistan have improved since January 2004, but the narcotics situation continues to worsen, despite positive steps taken by both the government and international donors. Dangerous security conditions make implementing counternarcotics (CN) programs difficult and present a substantial obstacle to both poppy eradication efforts by the national government and to international efforts to provide related assistance. As a result of the profound destruction and disruption of normal life brought about by more than 25 years of conflict, the lack of legitimate income streams, and the limited enforcement capacity of the national government, the area devoted to poppy cultivation in 2004 set a new record at 206,700 hectares, more than three-times the area devoted to poppy last year. Opium gum production of 4950 metric tons in Afghanistan dwarfed opium gum production in second-place Burma (292 metric tons) by a factor of almo ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
November 15, 2004 This Travel Warning provides updated information on the security situation in Afghanistan and on the upcoming Afghan presidential inauguration events. The security threat to all American citizens in Afghanistan remains critical. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for Afghanistan issued July 30, 2004. The Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan. There is an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens a ... [Read More]
Afghanistan Reconstruction - “1st Day Of School”
Young girl goes to school for the first time ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
June 09, 2005 This Travel Warning provides updated information on the security situation in Afghanistan. The security threat to all American citizens in Afghanistan remains critical. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for Afghanistan issued November 11, 2004. The Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan. There is an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) wor ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul strongly recommends against flying Ariana Afghan Airlines.In January 2004, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reviewed an aviation safety assessment report prepared by the International Civil Aviation Organization, which outlined significant safety deficiencies with Ariana Afghan Airlines. The FAA's review of the ICAO findings and interviews with Ariana Afghan Airlines officials identified significant safety deficiencies. Based on these findings, the U.S. government does not authorize official personnel to fly Ariana Afghan Airlines. Because existing civil aviation regulations in Afghanistan do not meet international aviation standards, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul also does not authorize official personnel the use of other Afghan-certificated airlines, including ... [Read More]
Afghanistan (04/05)
In the 1960s, the United States helped build a highway connecting Afghanistan’s two largest cities. It began in Kabul and wound its way through five of the country’s core provinces—skirting scores of isolated and otherwise inaccessible villages; passing through the ancient market city of Ghazni; descending through Qalat; and eventually reaching Kandahar, founded by Alexander the Great. More than 35% of the country’s population lives within 50 kilometers of this highway, called, appropriately, modern Afghanistan’s lifeline. In 1978, the Soviet Union invaded. By the time its forces withdrew more than a decade later, more than 1 million Afghans had been killed and 5 million had fled. Civil war followed. The Taliban emerged, controlling all but the remote, northern regions. Afghanistan was terrorized by this group, which was dogmatically opposed to progress and democracy. More than two decades of war had left the Kabul-Kandahar highway devastated, like much of the country’s infrastructure. ... [Read More]
|