Afghanistan Weather
Department of State Washington File: Defense Department Report, April 16: Afghanistan Operations
Members of the 41 Commando unit are participating in Operation Mountain Lion, an ongoing U.S. operation in eastern Afghanistan, Air Force Brigadier General John Rosa said April 16 at a Pentagon briefing. The unit specializes in high mountain and extreme cold weather warfare. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: USAID Head Stresses Urgency of Aid Delivery to Afghanistan
Washington -- The international aid effort to prevent famine in Afghanistan has placed a "huge focus" on moving food stores into areas that could soon become inaccessible to delivery trucks as winter weather sets in, according to Andrew Natsios, the senior U.S. official in charge of the humanitarian relief effort. In a matter of weeks, winter snow may begin in the Hindu Kush mountains with elevations greater than 7,000 meters in the landlocked Central Asian nation. ... [Read More]
US and Coalition 2001
The Defense Department admitted that an Army helicopter had crashed in northern Afghanistan during bad weather. Four injured crew members were rescued and an air strike destroyed the wreck. Adm. Stufflebeem admitted that freezing rain was hampering efforts to fly more Special Forces teams into Afghanistan. ... [Read More]
Southwest Asia
During the 2002/03 crop year, CBN began to estimate the actual acreage under licit opium poppy cultivation by using satellite imagery and then comparing it with exact field measurements. The survey was also used in conjunction with satellite imagery of weather conditions to compare cultivation in similar geo-climatic zones to estimate potential crop yields, assess storm damage and determine whether opium was being diverted. The satellite results were then confirmed by on-ground CBN visits that measured each farmer’s plot size. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Rebuilding of Afghanistan's Transnational Highway in Full Swing
Jordano said the Soviets used precast concrete blocks eight meters long laid in two lateral panels to construct the road in the 1960s and 1970s. Over time, freezing weather and flooding caused the concrete blocks to crack and buckle. As a result, machines called “rubblizers” are being used to crush the concrete slabs into small fragments to be used as a gravel bed for the new highway, which will be covered with asphalt 25 centimeters thick. ... [Read More]
British Counternarcotics Efforts in Afghanistan
SOUDER: Thanks. I want to add just a little bit further to that.Several years ago, when I traveled with the subcommittee to England, and we met with the different departments there in London as well as the intelligence there, they were very critical of our efforts in Afghanistan and our commitment on the heroin question, and urged us to be more aggressive against our own government in pushing them on, which we have been doing. At last year's parliamentarian conference that was held in Europe, one of the major discussions, in addition to another prevention conference that Ambassador Sembler's wife, Betty Sembler, organized in Rome, UNODC directly criticized the United States for not being more aggressive on the heroin effort in Afghanistan, and we need to be working together and with our close allies of which Britain is clearly our closest ally in the ... [Read More]
Afghanistan: Are the British Counternarcotics Efforts Going Wobbly
It is hard to imagine how any economic development program can be feasible if it ignores the fact that the IMF estimates that as much as 50% of the GDP of Afghanistan is derived from narcotics, or that the opium crop can yield up to 100% more profit than the alternatives. Clearly, Afghan drugs affect Afghanistan, and the progress of democracy there. But Afghan drugs also affect all consuming nations and dozens of countries along the drug trafficking routes. Afghan heroin presents a sobering domestic issue for our European allies, since 90% of the heroin on European streets comes from Afghanistan. As Ronald Reagan was fond of pointing out, facts are stubborn things. Initial reports just in from the field indicate that we could be on a path for a significant surge—some observers indicate perhaps as much as 50% to 100% growth—in the 2004 crop over the already troubling figures from last year. By ... [Read More]
U.S. Embassy, Afghanistan Update
-- 500,000 children are expected to return to the warm-weather school locations this September in the south and east. ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
The Taliban posed serious obstacles to the efforts of international aid organizations to deliver food aid and other humanitarian assistance. U.N.-led negotiations to obtain Taliban permission for delivery of food and nonfood aid across the front lines into the Panjshir Valley and the Dara-i-Suf area remained at an impasse during the period that the Taliban controlled these areas. The Taliban imposed severe restrictions on international assistance activities, severely hampering personnel and limiting their effectiveness. It also restricted the ability of women to take advantage of the limited aid available by restricting their movement, and at times banned or limited deliveries into areas inhabited by non-Pashtun groups. Such restrictions and actions against humanitarian organizations by the Taliban increased during the intensified fighting late in the year. After the fall of the Taliban, looting by armed groups and individuals, general insecurity, and harsh weather conditions at times ... [Read More]
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