Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Iowa Cornfields Changing Afghanistan Agriculturally

Afghanistan and Pakistan sent their agriculture ministers to visit family farmer Keith McKinney's cornfield in Colo, Iowa to observe and bring back beneficial information to better their country's agriculture system. Afghan Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asef Rahimi watched the American farmers with keen interest while thinking about how Afghanistan's crops could improve. Afghanistan is known for growing poppy and they are the world's biggest producer of opium.

"You have to understand that what the Afghan farmer is doing is rational. The Taliban give farmers the cost of raising poppies upfront; the farmers don't have to risk any money."  -Rahimi


"So what we have to do for building the Afghan economy is to suggest that there are other cash crops that could be grown...and benefit the farmers to a greater extent than growing poppy." -U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Rahimi hopes he could help his country fight this notorius reputation by implementing the ideas he gained from Iowa. He is aware that most American farmers are educated and machine/tech-savvy so he would only apply the ideas that would benefit Afghan farmers. Vilsack hoped the agriculture ministers could see the many possibilities to better their agriculture economy and the success it could bring to the communities and families. Raising crops like the ones in Iowa means that the Afghan government would have to create a credit system, build storage facilities, and many other supports would be needed. To bring hope to Afghan and Pakistani's agriculture minister, Keith McKinney believes that change is very possible. McKinney thinks it wouldn't take a lot to improve crop yields and that in the end it comes down to "better seed, better cultural practices, the way you till your land and take care of it."

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Friendly-Fire Mishap

A British aid worker, Linda Norgrove (36), was taken hostage by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan on September 26. Ms. Norgrove was working for an American aid organization called Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI). She left in an unarmored car to go to Kunar to review a project with three Afghan men; two drivers and a DAI employee. All were held hostage but the three Afghans were released while Ms. Norgrove was still being held in the remote and mountainous area. She was killed in a failed American rescue raid. The cause of her death is still being determined by autopsy (carried out by British officials) as well as a joint U.S.-U.K. investigation, officials said earlier that Ms. Norgrove was killed by her captors with a suicide bomber’s vest. U.S. special forces unit raided the area to free her. British Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the raid had been approved before the U.S. troops went in. There is a high possibility that Ms. Norgrove was accidentally killed by a grenade that was detonated by the U.S. special forces unit and not by the suicide vest. A review of surveillance footage, mission plan, communications, members of the rescue team, and video from the operations are all being investigated (led by U.S. Maj. Gen. Joseph Votel, chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command). The investigators said that there is conflicting evidence about whether Ms. Norgrove was killed by a U.S. grenade, an Afghan suicide vest, or both.  A suicide vest was found near her body but it was not clear if it had been detonated or if other explosives had killed her.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

U.S. Soldiers Killing Civilians and Keeping Body Parts

Twelve U.S. soldiers are faced with charges for killing three unarmed Afghan civilians. Five of the soldiers are being charged for the actual murders while the other seven are charged for helping with the coverup. The soldiers that did the killing were under the influence from smoking hashish and some were said to have brain damage from IED attacks. The sadistic soldiers were lead by Sgt. Calvin Gibbs.


Overview of what the soldiers did:
  • throwing grenades and shooting at civilians (separate incidents)
  • forcing an Afghan man out of his house and then shooting him
  • kept finger and leg bones as well as a tooth as souveniors
  • kept a skull from the corpse
  • taking pictures with them stabbing the corpse
One of the victim was Mullah Allah Dad, 45, a poppy farmer. He was at home with his wife and children sipping tea when a group of American soldiers in tanks came. The victim's wife, Mora, describes the incident:


“In a minute I heard shooting,” she said. “I saw my husband face down, and a black American stood next to him. Another soldier pushed me away. They pushed me back into the house and the interpreter made me go inside one of the rooms."
"Minutes after that I heard an explosion...I rushed out of that inner room and out the gate and the translator was telling me to stop, but I did not pay any attention, and then I saw my husband, my husband was burning.”


The soldiers claimed that Mullah Allah Dad was armed with a grenade and that it went off and he was killed. Mullah Allah Dad was unarmed and had no link to the Taliban.