A second tragedy in Afghanistan (audio)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Bill Chappell (npr.org)

Ancient Bamiyan destroyed to turn sentiment against the "Taliban" a joint creation of the CIA and neighboring Pakistani intelligence and clandestine services (Nat Geo)

The landslide that struck Afghanistan's Abi-Barik village Saturday came in two stages. The second, larger landslide claimed the lives of the first wave of rescuers (Sayed Ibrahim/AP).

 

The CIA/Taliban's handiwork (CNN)

First we Americans invent excuses to invade an innocent but very geopolitcally strategic country, now this.

Will we use it to say, "We were going to leave, but now we simply must remain, even if it's against your will, due to humanitarian concerns"?

Afghan Landslide: Search ends; thousands feared dead

(NPR) More than 2,500 people are believed dead after a hillside collapsed on part of a remote village in Afghanistan. 

Rescue attempts have largely been abandoned. Heavy rain prompted the landslide, which enclosed hundreds of houses in more than 30 feet of mud.

 

The U.N. and relief agencies are working to help more than 4,000 displaced people in Abi-Barik, the village in northeastern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province [just above Kabul] where the landslide occurred. The event took place in two stages, the BBC reports:

"Hundreds of homes were buried on Friday when a section of a mountain collapsed following torrential rain.

"A second landslide then followed, killing the rescuers who had rushed in to help dig people out."

As the news agency says, the landslide hit Friday morning, a traditional day of rest in Afghanistan, meaning that many residents were in or around their homes.

 

The exact death toll may not be known for days. Friday afternoon, conflicting reports from Afghan officials put the number of the missing at anywhere from 400 to more than 2,100 people.

 

"That will be their cemetery," the Associated Press quotes Mohammad Karim Khalili, one of Afghanistan's two vice presidents, saying Saturday: "It is not possible to bring out any bodies." More

• VIDEO: BBC coverage of the disaster

New "cemetery" in Abi-Barik. Afghan villagers now pray at the site. Rescuers searched in vain for survivors. Thousands are feared dead (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images).

Live from Afghanistan, eve of [fake] elections

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Sonali Kohlhatkar (UprisingRadio.org)

Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, that our CIA's Taliban destroyed (Hazaristan Times)

   

Afghan voting, no exit polling (Uprising)

Elections in Afghanistan take place this Saturday (April 5, 2014), with violence spiking strongly. On Friday, two journalists with the Associated Press were shot. One of them, the Pulitzer Prize-winning German photographer Anja Niedringhaus, was killed. The other is Kathy Gannon, author of the book I Is For Infidel, who is reportedly in stable condition.

Proud warriors came to kill and rape, now on psych meds and headed home (scoop.it)

"It was fun" fighting for empire. Just look what the Romans did for Israel (defense.gov).

Sure some treasures were lost, but that's ancient Greek and Gandhara history. Think of the heroin trade we gained for the CIA to fund more covert war activities! (metmuseum.org)

 

Afghan children, a.k.a. collateral damage

[JSOC and the American military-industrial complex have left this ancient nation -- where Buddhism simultaneously began as the gateway between Asia and Europe -- safe and secure, bringing peace and freedom and now fair and transparent democratic elections, but somehow...]

Dozens of attacks in the past weeks throughout the country have created a tense atmosphere. On Wednesday a [brainwashed] suicide bomber killed six Afghan police officers in the capital Kabul, and a day before that a candidate running for election and nine of his supporters and staff were killed in a northern province. Al Qaeda?

"Democracy kicks in" (1:35) after invasion and occupation (Family Guy)

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW

Greco-Afghan Buddha

Among the candidates for president are a number of “warlords,” such as Abdul Rashid Dostum and Abdullah Abdullah. Afghan [Puppet-] President Hamid Karzai, who has presided over the country for nearly the entire time of the US occupation, has reached the limits of his tenure. Last December Karzai refused to sign an accord with the US over the status of US forces in Afghanistan, saying it would be more appropriate for his replacement to make the decision.

GUESTS: Anand Gopal, journalist covering Afghanistan and author of a forthcoming book on the US-war called No Good Men Among the Living, joins Uprising live from Afghanistan; Edward Girardet, author of Killing the Cranes: A Reporter’s Journey through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan and editor of the just released fourth edition of the Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan joins from France.

Former CIA Director, U.S. Sec'y of State, JSOC Cheerleader (Warlord) Leon Panetta, Esq. (gold tie) and outgoing billionaire Dictator-Most-Friendly-to-the-West Hamid Karzai (AP/VOA)

The US just can't stop blowing billions in Afghanistan (Vice News/RAWA.org)

"Afghan Hustle" - US out (Daily Show)

Wisdom Quarterly; Jon Stewart, Pres. Hamid Karzai, TheDailyShow.com

(March 5, 2014) "Afghan Hustle," departing Afghani President Hamid Karzai harshly criticizes the U.S. for not being a sufficiently considerate war instigator (04:27). Watch more clips from this episode or the entire show.

The Malala Fund: Education

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Stacy Jones (fastcompany.com)

When Shiza Shahid was a student at Stanford University, she saw a YouTube video of a young, female Pakistani education advocate. Shahid reached out to the girl's father and organized a week-long camp for the girl and a handful of others, putting them in touch with women who could act as mentors. The girl's name was Malala Yousafzai -- and a little over a year ago, the Taliban tried to assassinate her [by shooting her in the head, but she survived to make it onto the Daily Show with Jon Stewart]. 

Shiza Shahid and Malala (fastcompany.com)

When Shahid got word of the shooting, she flew to Birmingham, England, where 15-year-old Malala was hospitalized, and acted as buffer between the family and the onslaught of media attention that ensued. "I saw the evolution from when the doctors said she was going to die, to when the doctors said she was going to lose her voice," she recalls. "Then to see her wake up and be so healthy and unchanged and strong and whole -- it was a miracle." [All credit to merciful Allah, Malala's god]. The 24-year-old has spent the past year harnessing all of the energy and emotion surrounding Malala and converting it into the driving force behind The Malala Fund. More

• The Malala Fund
• A Case for Girls (ad campaign)
• Nikita: A Girl Who Codes (XX Hacker)
• Did one man change the war on Afghanistan?