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In the winter of 1988-89, I spent a month in a mujahideen camp in the Argandhab Valley, a few miles north of Kandahar. The Soviets had begun to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, but MIG warplanes were still carrying out daily bombing and strafing runs, and in the slummy southern suburbs of Kandahar there was a front line where both sides were dug in. The commander of the camp, Mullah Naquibullah, known as Naquib, was a tall, beefy fellow, the chief of Kandahar's second-largest tribe, the Alokozai. He had installed about thirty of his fighters on the outskirts of his home village of Charqulba. The village itself was mostly destroyed and abandoned; nearly all the inhabitants had fled to refugee camps in Pakistan. The only civilians in the area were a few Kutchi nomad families who wandered around with their camels and herds of goats. The desert was pocked from years of Soviet bombardment, and unexploded rockets stuck out of the earth at odd angles here and there, like children's arrows. Naquib's camp consisted of half a dozen flat-roofed mud huts and a prayer ground in the midst of vineyards. The day before I arrived, a bomb had landed nearby, leaving a huge crater in which a beautiful black stallion lay dead, its hooves in the air.
The war, such as it was, was fairly abstract by then. You could see bombs exploding in the distance most days, but there was no real threat of ground attacks from the besieged government garrison, and Mullah Naquib pretty much had the run of the Argandhab Valley. His mujahideen prayed diligently five times a day, and, given their devotion and their abstinent way of life, I began to think of them as warrior monks.
One day Naquib sent me off to observe a court session led by two elderly Islamic scholars who were charged with imposing Sharia, religious law, in the region. I was driven at breakneck speed along a bombed-out road by a young man who played tapes of wailing Kandahari love songs at high volume on the cassette deck of a Toyota pickup truck. The court was set up out-of-doors, in the shade of a raisin-storage silo. The judges leaned on pillows propped up against the silo walls and told me how they followed the Koran in reaching verdicts about territorial rights, adultery, theft, and so forth. After some bickering over numbers, they agreed that they had put eighteen murderers to death. Their discourse on justice went on for some time, and then the younger of the two produced a piece of paper and announced that a new edict was being sent to all the mujahideen commanders in the region. Crime had increased, and this was due, they believed, to the playing of recorded music, which was banned from now on.
The ban obviously came as a shock to the mujahideen who had accompanied me. They looked embarrassed but didn't say much, and we left as soon as the court broke for lunch. Driving back to Naquib's camp, the young driver pointedly inserted a tape into the cassette deck and turned the volume up even louder than it had been before. I learned later that Naquib told his men that he was not going to make a big issue of the new edict. He said that they could continue to play music, but only when they were in camp, and that they should keep it low. Meanwhile, he told the judges that he would comply with their order. Naquib's pragmatic way of dealing with the situation seemed to me admirable.
I thought of that rustic court recently when I visited Mullah Naquib in Kandahar, where he has been living on and off since 1992, when the Communist-backed Afghan regime was finally defeated. Naquib is a controversial figure in Kandahar because of his relationship with the Taliban. When Burhanuddin Rabbani was President of Afghanistan, Naquib was made the supreme military commander of Kandahar, but in 1994 he turned the city over to the Taliban. Many people believe that he was also involved in the recent, unexplained disappearance of the Taliban from Kandahar, and they blame him especially for the escape of Mullah Omar.
Naquib didn't remember me at first, but when he did he seemed pleased, and he began introducing me as a friend from the old days of the jihad against the Soviets. Naquib has aged badly; although he is only forty-seven, he looks much older. He wears glasses now, and his long black beard is streaked with gray. He has a bad cough. We reminisced for a while, and he offered to take me back to the Argandhab Valley to revisit the mujahideen camp where we had met more than a decade earlier. The next day, followed by a dozen or so bodyguards, he led me to the carport in his living compound, where two late-model S.U.V.s were parked. We got into a pearl-colored VX Limited Edition Toyota Land Cruiser, and several small boys, the youngest of Naquib's eleven children, climbed into the back. The Toyota had a sunroof and a luxurious tan leather interior, and a CD player with an LCD display. It was a fine car, I said to Naquib. He chuckled. "It was Mullah Omar's," he said. "I have ten of his cars."
We took off, and I asked Naquib how he had come to own Mullah Omar's cars. "They were just parked, so I took them," he replied, somewhat glibly. We came to a gate on the security perimeter of Mullah Omar's property, which turned out to be more or less next door. The sentries at the gate saluted Naquib. Mullah Omar apparently owned a hundred acres or so on the edge of town, with about ten acres given over to a compound of living quarters and guesthouses that were surrounded by a maze of walls. We drove down a dirt road that runs through Omar's property, and soon came to the paved road to the Argandhab Valley, a rural fastness where dusty tracks lead off in all directions into the desert and the mountain ranges beyond. Omar's house was well placed for a getaway.
I asked Naquib if he had met Mullah Omar. "Lots of times," he said. He described him as "a very quiet man who never spoke to people."
As we drove through a pass between the mountains just behind Omar's land, Naquib turned on the CD player, and the Toyota was filled with Afghan music. I asked if the CD was his or had come with the car.
"It was here when I got it," Naquib said, opening the CD storage container on the armrest between the front seats. We looked for secular music among the disks of keening prayers, and fiddled with the sound system for a while.
"Are you telling me," I said, when we had made a selection, "that this stuff belonged to the man who put people in prison for listening to music?" Naquib shrugged. "It seems so." The song that was playing, he said, was a popular Afghan tune that vilified General Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord from Mazar-i-Sharif. Its chief refrain was "O murderer of the Afghan people."
"What is life without music?" Mullah Naquib said.
Many vestiges of the Taliban era remain untouched in the beat-up, dusty center of Kandahar, where the ruins of buildings that collapsed during the recent American bombing campaign lie among the ruins of older battles. Venders with carts sell "Super Osama bin Laden Kulfa Balls"—coconut candy manufactured in Pakistan and packaged in pink-and-purple boxes covered with images of bin Laden surrounded by tanks, cruise missiles, and jet fighters. The chaotic streets are full of men who look like Taliban, with white or black turbans and big, bushy beards. They roar around in Toyota pickups adorned with flags with green, black, and red stripes—the old royalist flag of Afghanistan, which has been revived by the followers of Hamid Karzai, the new interim Prime Minister—and there is no way, really, to know their past affiliations. In Kandahar, as in most other parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban didn't surrender so much as melt away. The leaders vanished, but most rank-and-file members simply returned to their homes. Karzai promised not to persecute former Taliban who stopped fighting, and he has kept his word. Kandahar is officially Taliban-free, but it has an unreconciled atmosphere. The past has not quite been overcome, and the future is unresolved.
The mausoleum that adjoins the Ahmed Shah mosque, which is across the street from the governor's palace, has a special subterranean chamber that kafirs, or unbelievers, cannot enter. It houses the cloak that is believed to have belonged to the Prophet Muhammad. On April 4, 1996, when Mullah Omar was declared the Keeper of the Faithful, he took the cloak out of the chamber and, in a dramatic display of hubris, donned it before a crowd of spectators. It was one of the few times that Omar appeared in public. I met only one person in Kandahar, besides Mullah Naquib, who had ever seen him. This was a young man named Popal, who worked at the governor's palace. Popal kept me company one evening as I waited for an interview with Gul Agha Shirzai, who was appointed governor of Kandahar in mid-December. Popal brought me tea, and we sat together on the floor of a large office. He apologized for the lack of chairs, and explained that the Taliban had taken virtually everything when they left—even the carpets. The cheap imitation Persian we were sitting on, he said, had been bought in the bazaar. "And those"—he pointed to some computer monitors, keyboards, and printers—"we got from some of the Arabs' houses." He was referring to members of Al Qaeda, several hundred of whom had lived in Kandahar. I noticed that none of the computers had towers. "The Americans who have a base here, just behind the palace," Popal said, "are checking the hard drives for information, and when they are done they will give them to us."
The city was crawling with Americans, mostly marines, who drove around in heavily armed convoys of sand-colored Humvees, their guns pointed and their faces masked by black balaclavas. There were also small groups of weather-beaten Special Forces commandos, who wore Afghan clothes and drove Toyota four-wheel-drive pickups. From a distance, they were hard to distinguish from the many mujahideen fighters in town. They kept to themselves.
Popal had worked at the palace under the Taliban, too. It was hard to find a job in Kandahar. His long-term goal, he said, was to improve his English, so that he could become an English-Pashto translator, and also to learn computer programming. These were both things that had been nearly impossible to do under the Taliban. "The Taliban wanted us to learn Arabic. They let us work with computers, but we could not use CDs or any programs that showed human images." He said that once, a few years back, he had been stopped by the Taliban's religious police, who said that his beard was too short. They had taken him to a building and told him that his head was going to be shaved as punishment. "The building had no running water, but there was a drainage ditch outside, full of sewage, and they made me wet my hair from it and they used a razor to shave my head. It was very dirty water."
Popal said that many Taliban officials had fled to the nearby Pakistani city of Quetta, and a few days earlier several of them, including the Taliban minister of justice, had dispatched representatives to Kandahar to meet with the new governor. "You see, the Pakistani authorities are now bothering them, saying they must leave Pakistan. So they sent their people to meet with Mr. Gul Agha Shirzai and they told him where they had hidden weapons and vehicles in Kandahar. And they asked Mr. Gul Agha Shirzai to ask the Pakistani authorities, on their behalf, to allow them to stay there. He has sent those letters today, I believe." This was a couple of weeks before the Taliban minister of justice and other Taliban officials turned up in Kandahar and were sent home by Gul Agha, much to the dismay of the Americans.
Popal had met Mullah Omar at the governor's palace. "I remember he arrived in a Toyota Corolla that belonged to someone else," Popal said. "A normal car. He came here because the father of one of the officials was ill and he wanted to wish him well. He was very quiet, gentle. He seemed to me like a good man, not like those other Taliban who shaved my head with the drainage water."
The austerity of the Taliban was particularly anomalous in the Pashtun homelands of eastern and southern Afghanistan, of which Kandahar is the principal city. Mosques, for instance, are more architecturally ornate in the Pashtun region than they are in the north. The streets are filled with motorized rickshaws covered with fanciful bronze embossing and shiny decals. Trucks are decorated with painted tin panels and wooden bulwarks like the prows of old-fashioned schooners. Metal gewgaws dangling from their fenders tinkle as the trucks lumber along.
Pashtun men, Kandaharis in particular, are very conscious of their personal appearance. Many of them line their eyes with black kohl and color their toenails, and sometimes their fingernails, with henna. Some also dye their hair. It is quite common to see otherwise sober-seeming older men with long beards that are a flaming, almost punk-like orange color. Burly, bearded men who carry weapons also wear chaplis, colorful high-heeled sandals. I noticed that to be really chic in Kandahar you wear your chaplis a size or so too small, which means that you mince and wobble as you walk.
Afghans from other regions joke about the high incidence of pederasty among Kandahari men. They say that when crows fly over Kandahar they clamp one wing over their bottoms, just in case. One of the first things the Taliban did—a popular move—was to punish mujahideen commanders who were accused of rape or pederasty. Homosexuals who were sentenced to death faced a particularly grisly end. Tanks or bulldozers crushed them and buried them under mud walls. Pederasty was evidently a continuing source of concern to Mullah Omar, who decreed that Taliban commanders couldn't have beardless boys in their ranks.
In downtown Kandahar, directly across from a row of small bakeries and the run-down Noor Jehan hotel, Kandahar's finest, there are several hole-in-the-wall photo shops. After the exodus of the Taliban from the city in early December, the proprietors hung portraits of their clients in the windows, along with photographs of famous people like Bruce Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ahmed Shah Massoud, and King Zahir Shah. There are many portraits of Taliban fighters posing in front of curtains or painted backdrops. They hold guns and bouquets of plastic flowers. Some are alone, others are with a friend. Some sit rigidly side by side and a few have their arms draped over one another, and some even clasp their hands together affectionately.
Said Kamal, the proprietor of the Photo Shah Zada shop, did a brisk business in Taliban portraits. He specializes in retouched photos. Kamal's artful brushwork removes blemishes and adds color. The backdrops of his portraits are vivid greens or blues with halos of red and orange, and clothing has been transformed from the drab to the garish. Many of the Taliban sat for their portraits with heavily kohled eyes, which made them look like silent-movie stars.
Taliban portraits lie under the glass of Said Kamal's front counter and hang on the wall in tin frames. He said that they belong to Taliban who fled the city, and he doesn't expect them to be picked up. I found this confusing, since Mullah Omar had enforced the Koranic prohibition on representations of the human image, but Said Kamal explained that after the ban on images was announced, and the Taliban forced the photo shops to shut down, they realized that even they needed passport pictures. There was no way around it, if they wanted to travel. So an exception was made to Mullah Omar's edict. Officially, Said Kamal made passport photographs, and he formally complied with the rules, displaying no pictures of human beings in his shopwindow. But the rules were never fully obeyed by everyone. Said Kamal continued to make portraits of the Taliban, just as he continued to take clandestine wedding pictures at the request of ordinary Kandaharis.
I visited Mullah Omar's compound by myself one day after Mullah Naquib had pointed it out. It had been heavily bombed and strafed and rocketed, and untidy piles of bricks and masonry lay everywhere, but the section in which Mullah Omar lived with his wives and children was mostly still intact, thanks to twelve-foot-thick bombproof roofs. Construction materials for future additions and improvements lay alongside the debris. Mullah Omar had had plans. He wanted to make the desert bloom. Scores of young shade saplings were planted along the driveways, and there were several flower gardens inside the compound. At one of the guesthouses, a tanker truck pumped water onto a bed of geraniums. The words "Donated by UNICEF to Kandahar Water Supply Department" were written on the side of the truck. The men holding the hose told me that they had been coming to water Omar's gardens for some time.
A pickup truck came by. Several RPG anti-tank rockets stood upright on either side of the cab, and an armed American wearing a black turban was sitting in the back. A U.S. soldier who appeared to be in his late thirties told me that the part of the compound in front of me was off limits but that I could walk around the part where Mullah Omar's living quarters were. "You can't miss it," he said. "It's the place that looks like Motel 6."
In front of Omar's house there is a small concrete mosque with several minarets, domed cupolas, and pillars with huge flowers painted on them. A sculpture of a fallen tree and boulders, painted black and green, serves as a kind of traffic island between the mosque and the house. Two or three faux date palms jut up around the sculpture, which seems to serve also as a fountain, although it was dry on the day I visited. The outer walls of the house are covered with murals depicting lakes and ornamental gardens and more flowers. Omar lived with his favorite wife in a private apartment on one side of the house, painted, for the most part, pink and green. The floor is covered with plastic terrazzo tiles. The bedroom, which is small and dank, has a ceiling fan, a double bed, and two white-and-faux-gilt mini-chandeliers. Several mujahideen were resting on Omar's bed when I poked my head in; they got up quickly and adjusted their turbans. On the other side of the house, I was told, three more wives had lived with their several children. These rooms were much plainer, and there was only one, rather crude flower painted on a wall of the common hallway.
Down the road, at Mullah Naquib's house, one of his bodyguards, a sun-darkened and rough-hewn man in black, showed me Naquib's flower garden in an inner courtyard. There were clumps of carefully tended roses, daffodils, and dahlias, and I complimented him on their beauty. The bodyguard smiled. "This is what we've grown with hardly any water, but you should see it when we have rain."
The day Naquib drove me to the Argandhab Valley to visit the old mujahideen camp, I recognized landmarks such as the tomb of Baba Wali—a holy man whose shrine is on top of a hill that during the jihad was part of Naquib's domain—but there were many more trees than I remembered, and cultivated fields, and more people, too. Naquib said that most of the people who had fled to Pakistan during the war had returned. Now it was drought, not war, that was the problem. We drove along dirt tracks between vineyards, and then walked across fields to where the camp had been. "We've plowed it all under to grow grapes," Naquib said. The only house left standing was the one where he had slept. In the intervening years, he had bought more land. He had inherited only ten jeribs from his father, but now he owned two hundred and fifty, about a hundred and twenty-five acres. He was growing wheat, grapes, almonds, and pomegranates.
Naquib's grandfather, and his father, too, had been the head of the Alokozai tribe, but during Zahir Shah's reign a malek, a government administrator, was appointed. Then, after the anti-Soviet jihad began, things reverted to the way they had been. Naquib said that a man named Azizullah Wasfi, who had moved to the United States, is the official tribal elder, but that in his absence Naquib was put in charge.
I asked Naquib to whom the tribal authority would pass when Azizullah Wasfi died. "Well, when the tribe appoints a leader, it chooses someone who can serve them," he said. "I am not so interested in doing this, because of health problems, but I will help if I am asked." Naquib said that his duties were "resolving disputes and grievances." For example, he said, "when Mullah Omar decided to leave Kandahar, he came to me as leader of the Alokozai." Almost as an afterthought, Naquib added, "The tribal chief also can call up the men for war." There were Alokozai all over the place, not only in Argandhab but in the neighboring provinces of Oruzgan, Helmand, and even, he said, as far away as Herat.
For a couple of hours, we walked from one sharecropper's home to another. Invariably, the peasants kissed Naquib's hand deferentially. He inspected irrigation systems and asked questions and gave orders. Then we drove to his house, near the village of Charqulba, and sat on large mats and cushions that his men fetched for us. His bodyguards fanned out vigilantly, and we talked about what had happened to him after I left Afghanistan. He was the military commander in Kandahar during the Rabbani regime in the early nineties, "but then the civil war started, and during the chaos the Taliban appeared. When the Taliban movement started, Hamid Karzai came to see me and told me not to fight against them. And Rabbani also called me and told me not to fight. At the time, we all thought the Talib were fighting for the King"—for the restoration of Zahir Shah to the throne—"and they told me, 'You should surrender the garrison and your guns.' Rabbani wasn't sending money or ammunition to me. How could anyone fight against the Taliban under those conditions?"
After he handed over Kandahar, Naquib said, the Taliban ordered him to go back to Charqulba to live. "I stayed here for a few years, and then I was wounded in an assassination attempt, and went to Islamabad for treatment." Naquib pulled up a sleeve and a trouser leg to show me his scars. He'd been hit by a bullet in his left leg and another in his left elbow, and he pointed to his chest, where, he said, he'd received a rocket fragment. The six men travelling with him had been killed; he was the only survivor. The attackers had been apprehended, he told me. "They claimed that it had been a case of mistaken identity. They said they thought I was a Taliban official." Naquib shrugged, and continued with his story: "I stayed in Islamabad for about two years, and Hamid Karzai and I met with some American officials there. The Americans wanted to know about Al Qaeda, so that they could act against it. We also met with the Italian ambassador. They all told us they would not let Pakistan interfere anymore in our country. And afterward, when I returned home to Kandahar, Hamid Karzai stayed in touch with me."
Naquib lived in Kandahar for about two years after his return from Pakistan, he said. "But then when September 11th happened, and the Americans started bombing, I came to this house in the village, and I was in touch with Hamid Karzai. He gave me a satellite phone." In early December, Naquib said, when Karzai was chosen as Afghanistan's interim leader, "Mullah Omar and the Taliban agreed to leave, and Karzai agreed that the Taliban would transfer power in Kandahar to me. But by the morning after the night the BBC announced the transfer, the Taliban had all left. Gul Agha entered the city, and Karzai appointed him governor and myself corps commander. I have some health problems, so I refused the job, and gave it to my deputy, Khan Muhammad."
The competition between Mullah Naquib and Gul Agha had been intense, and many people had expected fighting to break out between them in the days after the Taliban left the city, but Naquib insisted that he had no bad feelings toward Gul Agha, and I didn't press him, because he seemed to like his version of events and wasn't about to change it. He was more candid about his health problems, which were "mental." He had been to two hospitals in Germany for treatment. "I was crazy," he said, and laughed, and all the men who were gathered around now, listening to us, laughed, too, evidently at the memory of his behavior. "I was not myself. I would get tense and have headaches. The doctors told me that I had a heavy workload and it had damaged some of my brain cells." Naquib's symptoms had appeared after the Taliban took over Kandahar, but he said that the problems might have been caused by the explosion of a Russian mortar shell near him during the jihad. "A piece of the shell hit me here," he said, pointing to his forehead. "It was just a small piece, but maybe it had something to do with it." He pulled out a strip of capsules. He had been given a prescription for Risperdal, an antipsychotic. "Each pill costs three hundred rupees," he said, or about four and a half dollars.
Early one morning, a gunfight broke out in a residential neighborhood in Kandahar, not far from my hotel. At first, people said that it was a confrontation between Mullah Naquib and Gul Agha, but it turned out that one of Gul Agha's commanders, who claimed that he hadn't been paid his salary, had led his soldiers on a robbery expedition, and the local police chief had foiled it. Things had been resolved by sunset, when I stopped by the governor's palace. The commander had barricaded himself in a police station and threatened to blow himself up with grenades, but he had finally surrendered. He and his men had been beaten and put in jail, a guard at the palace told me.
Gul Agha was receiving visitors in a long room that had a red carpet and chandeliers. A framed portrait of King Zahir Shah was propped on a desk at one end of the room. Four or five uniformed soldiers carrying rifles stood around, and a couple of dozen venerable-looking petitioners sat attentively on red sofas awaiting their turn to speak with the Governor.
Gul Agha is a squat, bushy-haired man with a big belly and a rubbery face. He wore a brown shalwar kameez and sandals, and I noticed that his toenails were long and untidy. He was sitting in a chair next to the door, talking to a group of Noorzai tribal elders from the western province of Farah, an eight-hour drive from Kandahar. They had come to see him because they were having problems with mujahideen who had recently arrived from Iran. Gul Agha smoked a Benson & Hedges Special Filter cigarette and listened to the elders, and when they had finished he told them that he was aware of what he termed, darkly, "the Iranian interference" in their province, and that President Karzai was also aware of it. The problem would be dealt with soon. Gul Agha lisps clumsily, as if his tongue were too big for his mouth. "Before now," he said loudly, "there were commanders with autonomous power. But now I am the over-all commander of the whole area."
While Gul Agha was speaking, a soldier passed out cold cans of Pepsi-Cola to some of the guests. I took one and sipped it and then placed the can on the floor next to my feet, but almost immediately someone stuck his hand under my chair and grabbed it. I turned around and saw a soldier sitting on the carpet behind me, holding the Pepsi and snickering to a friend. I reached over and swiped it back.
When it was my turn to speak with the Governor, I asked him to describe his role in recent events. He had been governor of Kandahar during Rabbani's tenure, although Mullah Naquib, as military commander, had more power than he did then. When the Taliban took over Kandahar in 1994, Gul Agha moved to Quetta, across the border in Pakistan. "I went into business," he said, "trading goods between Pakistan, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries. When the Taliban and Al Qaeda became strong in Afghanistan, I wrote three separate letters to Mullah Omar, advising him not to do what he was doing, because he'd bring disaster upon Afghanistan. When he didn't listen to us, we began to fight against him, just as we fought against the Russians. The Afghan people have a long history, more than five thousand years old, and they have never accepted foreign invaders and have always fought to resist them. We have told the U.N. and U.S. troops at the airport that they are here to stop the foreign interference."
Gul Agha then complained at length about how some foreign powers, namely Iran and Russia, were still meddling in Afghanistan by backing fundamentalist warlords, including former President Rabbani. "These men all have the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood," Gul Agha said. They were trying to sabotage the interim government of Hamid Karzai by disseminating propaganda, sending their gunmen to his territory, and generally stirring up trouble. "We want an end to foreign interference in Afghanistan," he repeated. "We want peace in Afghanistan and we ask Allah to help us have honest government. We want rights for women, and we are against drugs and terrorism. My greatest hope and wish is that there will be a broad-based government in Afghanistan without friction between different groups."
The Governor sat back in his chair, apparently satisfied with his oration.
Since he had brought up the subject of friction, I said, what was his current relationship with Mullah Naquib? "Mullah Naquib himself agreed to leave the government," Gul Agha replied, "and he has no duties now." He said that he had told Hamid Karzai that he did not want to work with Naquib. "It was he who brought the Taliban and Al Qaeda to Kandahar," Gul Agha said, and he had helped the Taliban leaders escape. "The world is not happy with him, and the Americans are not happy with him. So maybe he will be brought to justice."
Ahmed Wali Karzai, one of the President's younger brothers, lives in Kandahar, in a heavily guarded house a few miles from the governor's palace. He speaks fluent American-accented English. "I spent ten years in Chicago," he explained. "I opened the first Afghan restaurant there." His Chicago restaurant was one of a family-owned chain of Afghan restaurants in the United States, all of them called the Helmand, after Afghanistan's longest river.
"We're trying to get things functioning here again," Karzai said. "Our main concern is security. We want to get the gunmen off the streets, and we've asked the commanders to have no more than one or two bodyguards." Karzai was reasonably sanguine about the town rivals, Mullah Naquib and Gul Agha. It was just a matter of keeping a lid on things until international peacekeeping forces took over and an Afghan national army was in place.
Karzai was less circumspect about Naquib's relationship with the Taliban. "In the early days, we did kind of help the Taliban," he said. "But you have to understand that in the beginning they were mostly commanders who had fought against the Russians. There weren't any Arabs and only a few Pakistanis." The Karzais began campaigning against the Taliban a little over three years ago. "In July, 1998, my brother and I talked to Mullah Naquib and asked him to go to Bonn"—for a meeting of Afghan opposition leaders—"and even gave him a ticket and a passport, but he didn't go," Karzai said. "He didn't want to leave his land, and he said that if he were to go to Bonn he would not be safe in Kandahar afterward. And I think this was the truth. But the fact is Naquib never took any action against the Taliban."
In November, when Gul Agha was approaching Kandahar from the south and Hamid Karzai was north of the city, Mullah Naquib was given the satellite phone to help him get involved. "But he said he was under too much surveillance," Ahmed Wali Karzai recalled. "All he did in the end was arrange for the talks between the Taliban and my brother. Mullah Naquib called me in Quetta to say that Mullah Omar was ready to talk." Karzai said that it was the Taliban's idea to hand the city over to Naquib. "But it didn't happen the way it had been agreed. We expected them to stay in the city, although we never expected Mullah Omar to remain."
Karzai said that the assassination attempt that almost killed Naquib in 1998 had been ordered by the Taliban security chief. They had done an investigation and had evidence to prove it. An influential businessman in Kandahar told me the same thing and claimed that the Taliban flew Naquib to Pakistan for medical treatment in one of their own helicopters to cover up their complicity in the attempted murder. Why, I asked the businessman, would the Taliban have wanted to kill Naquib? "Because Naquib was the only powerful figure remaining in Kandahar from the time before the Taliban came," he said. "In Argandhab, the people consider him their tribal leader. He represented a potential threat to the Taliban."
The Taliban may have had reservations about Mullah Naquib, but in December, when they realized they had to leave the city, they turned to him to make the arrangements. A man named Khairullah, an intellectual in his sixties who is a distinguished elder in one of the city's tribal councils, told me that the Taliban had bequeathed Naquib many of their weapons when they left. Naquib had complained to me that Rabbani had withheld weapons from him, yet he seemed to have them now, and was vague about where they came from, just as he was vague about the acquisition of the ten Toyota Land Cruisers. Khairullah also said that, as far as he knew, Naquib didn't have any serious health problems, mental or otherwise—certainly nothing incapacitating.
One afternoon, a man waiting outside Gul Agha's palace approached my translator, Qias, and said he had an Al Qaeda prisoner to sell. He was holding him in his house and would hand him over for two thousand dollars. Qias came back to our hotel to give me the news. He was excited. "What do you think?" he said. "What should I tell him? Will you pay the two thousand dollars?" I reminded Qias that I was not a Green Beret or a C.I.A. agent. Where would I keep an Al Qaeda prisoner? But I was curious, so I told Qias to tell the man to come see me. He showed up a couple of hours later, and Qias went downstairs to talk to him. It turned out that the man's story had been a lie, bait to see if we were interested. He didn't actually have a prisoner in his house. He had come from a village in eastern Afghanistan about a day's drive away, where, he claimed, there were a hundred or so Al Qaeda members hiding in a nearby cave. The villagers sympathized with them and took turns taking them food and other supplies. He had delivered food to the cave himself a few days earlier. But he was willing to betray the men for two thousand dollars. He would guide us to the exact spot, so we could capture them, he said.
Qias invited the man up to my room, but when Qias said that I was a journalist the deal was off. The man didn't want to talk to a journalist. He wanted to do business. In that case, Qias said, the best thing for him to do was to go out to the Kandahar airport and approach the Americans stationed there, who ran a detention camp for Al Qaeda members. The man thanked Qias and left.
I had been offered purloined Al Qaeda documents in Kabul and Jalalabad, and it didn't seem odd that an enterprising man from a village in eastern Afghanistan had raised the level of entrepreneurship. He must have assumed that if the Americans would pay twenty-five million dollars for Osama bin Laden they would pay a fair price for lesser souls.
Afghanistan was teeming with opportunists. It was not the country I had visited more than a decade earlier, when Mullah Naquib and his men were fighting a rather simple war over ideas of faith and nationhood. Or perhaps it just seemed simple then. Perhaps the jockeying for power, the hypocrisy and naked ambition and mendacity had just not had a chance to flower.
I asked Qias what it would take for me to set myself up as a warlord in Afghanistan. "It would be easy," he said. "You hire a hundred gunmen for a month, get a few Toyota pickups, and you're in business." He estimated that it would cost about ten thousand dollars. Gunmen came cheap, and most of them had their own Kalashnikovs already. In any case, Kalashnikovs were cheap, too. We might, he suggested, spend a bit more to add some muscle. We could buy a few RPG rocket launchers and a heavy PK machine gun or two, for instance.
O.K., I said. But once I have this army, what do I do? It is cheap enough to get going, but how do you sustain it?
This was also easy, Qias said. "In the first month, you find ways to make money so that it doesn't cost you anything more." You went to wealthy local people, merchants and traders, and asked them for money, and they paid.
Qias seemed to be talking about setting up a protection racket. Extortion was only the beginning, of course, he explained. Most of the mujahideen commanders in the Northern Alliance, for instance, were also involved in the opium and heroin trade.
Qias is young, maybe twenty-two, and his enthusiasm for whatever enterprise presents itself to him will serve him well in the new Afghanistan, just as Naquib's pragmatism and canny methods of dealing with the authorities have enabled him to prosper and to survive sudden and dangerous shifts in power. I even began to wonder about Naquib's illness, which conveniently removed him from a confrontation with Gul Agha that he probably wouldn't have won. His Risperdal capsules reminded me of Vincent (the Chin) Gigante, shuffling around Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and pajamas, trying to avoid racketeering charges. But then perhaps I had been in Afghanistan too long. ♦


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Maggie Beer's daughter accused of telling porkies over pig meat
Saskia Beer, the daughter of renowned chef Maggie Beer, has been accused of misleading consumers by using white pig meat in her black pig small-goods range.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claims Ms Beer, the sole director of Barossa Farm Produce, contravened consumer law between 2010 and 2013 for stating on product labels that the pork in the range was from heritage Berkshire pigs, when this was not the case.
Black pig breeds, which include Berkshire pigs, are heritage breeds. Berkshire pork is known for its texture and flavour due to a higher fat to meat ratio than white pig breeds, qualities that make Berkshire pork a premium meat product.
The ACCC received the complaint as a result of "industry intelligence" and it is understood Ms Beer's "The Black Pig" products predominantly contained white pig meat.
The regulator said Ms Beer told a cooking class held at the Maggie Beer Farm Shop in April 2013 that the pork used in the range was from Berkshire or other black pig breeds.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the company has accepted an undertaking to not mislead customers again and will be forced to publish a corrective notice on its website. Ms Beer has also agreed to attend trade practices compliance training.
When asked why the company was not fined, Mr Sims said the exposure of doing the wrong thing was a significant penalty. He said the mislabelling gave Barossa Farm Produce an "unfair advantage" in the market, as consumers were likely to seek out and pay more for products containing specialised gourmet ingredients.
In a statement, Ms Beer said she was responsible and apologised.
"This is an isolated instance that arose as a result of miscommunication on the part of our supplier and a failure on our part to adequately verify, in this instance, the source of the product," Ms Beer said.
"There was no intention to mislead or misrepresent in any way the origin of the product."
A first for gourmet products
Mr Sims said the regulator was "putting more of an emphasis" on product origin issues but said this was probably one of the first actions against a gourmet product.
He said there had been similar cases of misleading labelling by chicken, duck and game producers which concerned claims the animals were free range. The producers were fined for misleading consumers.
He said other "origin" claims included a company that claimed the product was 100 per cent olive oil when it was 93 per cent canola oil and 7 per cent extra virgin olive oil.
The ACCC is in the middle of legal proceedings against supermarket giant Coles over bread it labelled "Baked Today, Sold Today" when it was pre-baked. The Federal Court will hand down its decision on Coles on Wednesday.
South Australian butcher and former MasterChef contestant Richard Gunner said black pig breeds had more flavour and a higher fat content than white pigs.
Mr Gunner, who owns Feast Fine Foods, said Berkshire pork could cost up to 40 per cent more than white pork.
"We've been selling Berkshire pork for eight years and we've seen steady growth in demand for the product, year-on year," Mr Gunner said.
He said the ACCC case highlighted the need for greater certainty around definitions in the industry.
Black pigs are usually reared as free range pigs and unlike the white variety they do not get sunburnt.
The Berkshire breed has a different way of laying down fat than any other breed. It is used more by restaurants than in the general butcher trade.
A spokeswoman from Australian Pork said the products, which included a pink Pork Australia sticker, indicated the pork was grown in Australia but did not indicate the breed.
"Accurate labelling on any pork products is essential for consumer transparency and confidence," the spokeswoman said.

subset: commoncrawl


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All Metal Works employees help make event a success!
All Metal Works in Gasport recently held their 4th Annual Domstock BBQ and concert fundraiser that raised $11,000 for Niagara Hospice. All Metal Works owner Dominick Ciliberto said: "The event has become very popular among our employees and has grown each year. We decided to make the event an opportunity to give back to our community." Ciliberto said they chose Niagara Hospice as the beneficiary of this year's event because his family has experienced first-hand the excellent and compassionate care that Niagara Hospice provides to Niagara County residents in need of end-of-life services. Most recently, Niagara Hospice helped care for Ciliberto's grandfather, also named Dominick Ciliberto. Several other family members have received hospice care at home and at Niagara Hospice House.
Niagara Hospice Alliance Director of Development, Brendan McIntyre said, "Niagara County is fortunate to have residents like Jennifer, Dominick, his family, employees and friends who want to help make Niagara County a better place to work, live and volunteer. Their support and the support of so many others in the community allow Niagara Hospice to provide outstanding and unmatched services to people when its needed most, regardless of their ability to pay or availability of insurance. We are truly grateful for their commitment, hard work and support."
For more information about Niagara Hospice, call 716-439-4417 or visit www.NiagaraHospice.org.


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Farm Bill Threatens Our Right to Know
Patrice McDermott
Families who live near or share waterways with large corporate farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have a critical need to know some basic facts about these operations. The public's right to this information, however, could be stripped away by the Farm Bill currently under debate in Congress.
Negotiators from the House and Senate are currently meeting to try to develop a compromise between the House-passed version of the Farm Bill and what was passed by the Senate. Among the differences between the bills, the House's version includes language that unnecessarily cuts off public access to basic information livestock and agricultural operations.
We understand that the House's intent in including the language is to make sure that the government does not release farmers' personal information. But, there are two major problems with the way that the House's approach to this: one, the language ignores that the law already includes strong protections for personal privacy; and two, the language is so broad that it wraps up information about corporate farms with small farm operations.
Earlier this year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the information of around 80,000 livestock operations across the country to environmental groups. After hearing from affected farmers and members of Congress, the EPA determined that it improperly released personal information. The EPA asked that the requesters return the information and the requesters complied, agreeing to return the original documents and destroy all copies of the information in their possession. In other words, the EPA determined that existing protections for personal privacy should have prevented them from releasing this information in the first place.
Beyond being an over-reaction to the controversy surrounding the EPA's actions, the House's language sets a terrible precedent for extending the Freedom of Information Act's personal privacy protections to corporations. The House's failure to define "owners" or "operators" means that the EPA will be required to deny the public access to not only small family operations but to large corporate operations as well. In a recent Supreme Court case, FEC vs. ATT, the Court ruled that Congress never intended for corporations to enjoy such protections under the FOIA. To extend these rights to corporations would allow them to abuse personal privacy to escape public oversight and corporate responsibility.
FOIA is built on the premise that if the public has a right to government records, particularly if there is a public interest in the information. The House's language eviscerates the law's promise of transparency by completely cutting off access to information that people might need to protect the health and safety of their family and the broader community. House and Senate negotiators must not allow this harmful secrecy provision to become law.
McDermott is executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org, and author of "Who Needs to Know? The State of Public Access to Federal Government Information," and numerous articles. She is a recipient of the James Madison Award from the American Library Association in recognition of her work to champion, protect and promote public access to government information and the public's right to know.
Latest comments
- Ann GarrisonFebruary 22,2018 @ 08:03 PM
I think you have "Filtered HTML" turned on here. If you switch to "Full HTML," it will probably...
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The IMS™ Mobile solution involves a mobile server (IMS Mobile Feature Pack) and a tool for modeling, creating, testing, and managing services (IMS Explorer for Development).
This getting started slide deck covers four installation scenarios, depending on whether you already have IBM® WebSphere® Application Server for z/OS® Liberty Profile (WAS/z Liberty Profile) V8.5.5 or later, and whether you are configuring for SAF security or just basic authentication for initial installation verification.
Two installation options:
- Option 1. You already have WAS/z Liberty Profile (V188.8.131.52 or later)
- Option 2. You do not have WAS/z Liberty Profile
Two security configuration scenarios:
- Security scenario 1. Basic authentication for a quick installation verification
- Security scenario 2. SAF security
Download this IMSMobileSolution_GettingStarted_InstallScenarios.pdf file to get started!


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Obamacare showdown in Texas
HOUSTON — The ground war over Obamacare — the one that will determine whether people sign up — will be won and lost in places like Texas.
If Obamacare fails in the Lone Star State — that is, if a significant portion of the 6.1 million uninsured Texans don't or can't enroll — then the White House could miss its national enrollment targets, the new health insurance exchanges could falter and insurance rates could spike.
Story Continued Below
Obamacare could be unsustainable.
And that's exactly what leading Texas politicians like Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz would like to see happen. With the political leaders' "hell no" approach to Obamacare, Texas may not seem like a health law battleground. But the demographics — a huge, hard-to-reach uninsured population — mean it's a make-or-break state for making the law work.
( POLITICO's guide to Obamacare)
Advocates are banking on the idea that a grass-roots push in more liberal, urban areas of Texas, plus the demand among the uninsured to get health coverage, will overcome the state's institutional opposition and deliver on the promise of Obamacare.
"Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle are doing as much as they can to make it difficult for this program to work," state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Democrat from Houston and prominent supporter of the law, said as enrollment began a few days ago. He thinks the Republican strategy will backfire. "One more election cycle and all of this is going to go away," he predicted.
The challenge for Ellis, Houston and all of Texas is "to get the word out" about the law, he said.
Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country — about one in four people lack coverage, and one in three Hispanics. Perry's administration didn't expand Medicaid under the law to cover more poor people, which the Supreme Court made optional. And it spurned the state health insurance exchanges. So here in the Lone Star State, where resentment of federal interference runs strong, the U.S. government and its allies are stepping into the breach.
The best hope of Obamacare backers is to support the efforts of local allies in regions such as Houston, Dallas and Austin, the bluest areas of a deeply red state. That's because these areas lean liberal and also have an existing network of progressive activists. The Obama administration sent Texas nearly $11 million — more federal grant money than any other state — to fund "navigators" who are trained and tasked with helping people through the sign-up process.
In Houston, with 1.4 million uninsured residents, city officials are modeling their efforts on hurricane-force emergency response to counter the adamant state opposition, said Stephen Williams, director of the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.
"We believe this effort is so critical that we have created an incident command structure," Williams said. "This is the same structure that we use to respond to hurricanes and to respond to public health disasters."
The city of Houston has provided free office space to Enroll America, a nonprofit group closely associated with the former Obama campaign that is now spreading the word about the health law. The city has provided at least 55 people to help residents enroll and created space for a phone bank. It has ordered public library computers to have links to enroll access and it's even printing Obamacare information on local water bills "so the broader population can all be informed," said Mayor Pro-Tem Ed Gonzalez, a Democrat.
( PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)
That stance is a striking contrast with Texans on the national stage. Cruz, for instance, helped push the government shutdown over Obamacare, and now he's urging that the GOP link its demands for health law changes to the debt ceiling fight that will peak in mid-October.
"The debt ceiling historically has been among the best leverage that Congress has to rein in the executive," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, adding that leverage should be used with the Democratic health law.
But here, some people are eager for the promised coverage. Houston resident Reynoldo Gutierrez went on Tuesday, the first day of open enrollment, to a sign-up event. His experience was typical of the technical glitches that snarled computer systems across the country. The 55-year-old patiently tried again and again to log onto HealthCare.gov using a laptop at a Houston sign-up event. He wanted to get coverage for his wife. All he got were messages that said "please wait."
"I'm just trying to get enrolled in this health insurance, and I have to wait," he said matter of factly, determined to complete the sign-up process when he can. "I have no choice."
Enroll America has made Texas a priority, too.
"Our database is sophisticated," said Mario Castillo, who is leading Enroll America's efforts in Houston and the Gulf Coast region. "We can target uninsured individuals, where they live, what neighborhoods, what precincts."
The group then helps link the uninsured up with navigators or counselors who can walk them through the application process. "We don't want anyone slipping through the cracks," Castillo said.
In addition to Enroll America's activities, home-grown Texas health-oriented groups are pulling together. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, for instance, formed an alliance called Be Covered Texas to encourage people to check out new coverage options.


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The Huawei Mate 9 is a smartphone that was tested with the Android 7.0 operating system. This model weighs 6.7 ounces, has a 5.9 inch touch screen display, 20-megapixel main camera, and 8-megapixel selfie camera. It comes with 4GB of RAM. It was tested with 64GB of storage and has a memory card slot for expanded storage.
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NEW YORK -- Shares of Facebook surged in premarket trading Wednesday, as analysts praised the social media company's third-quarter results, including its first quarter of advertising to mobile device users.
Facebook's net income and revenue surpassed Wall Street expectations, and the company said about 14 percent of its advertising revenue came from ads for mobile users. It started showing those ads about six months ago.
In premarketing trading, Facebook Inc. shares shot up $5.19, or 26.6 percent, to $24.69. The stock hasn't traded that high during the regular session since July.
Citi Investment Research analyst Mark Mahoney said Facebook addressed two major concerns during the quarter: it was able to get money from mobile ads, and it reduced its revenue dependence on slumping Zynga Inc., the maker of "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars" and other games. Mahoney said Facebook got just 7 percent of its revenue from Zynga during the third quarter. That's down from as much as 12 percent in recent quarters.
Mahoney said Facebook shares have fallen to a reasonable price and the company's revenue growth is speeding up. He upgraded the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral," but trimmed his price target to $30 per share from $35.
"What investors have for the first time since the Facebook IPO is fundamentals acceleration WITH a reasonable valuation," he wrote.
Shares of Facebook closed at $19.50 Tuesday. The stock has lost half its value since its IPO priced at $38.
Jefferies analyst Brian Pitz said Facebook's ad revenue could improve as newer products like Offers and FBX ramp up over time. Pitz kept a "Buy" rating on the shares and raised his price target to $32 from $30.


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Avocado Milkshake
1 ripe medium avocado
1 cup ice
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk
Scoop the avocado flesh into a blender. Add the remaining ingredients, except the milk, and puree until completely smooth. Slowly, begin to add the milk the the rest of the ingredients, a little bit at a time until you reach the consistency you desire. More milk for a thinner shake, less milk for a thicker shake. The shake tastes better (the buttery avocado flavor becomes more pronounced) if it sits in the fridge for about 10 to 15 minutes. Makes 2 servings.
Here in the States, many of us do not realize that the creamy avocado can be used as a vehicle for both savory and sweet treats.(It is a fruit, after all.)
Our friends south of the border, in Mexico, have given us the most common use of the avocado in this country with gucamole. A savory dip in which avocado is diced and smooshed with a little salt, lime juice, red onion and tomato.
But in other parts of the world (most of Asia, Vietnam and Brazil, to be exact) the avocado is used in any number of sweet desserts. Custards, puddings, sweet sauces, ice cream and milkshakes are prepared using their soft buttery flesh.
Granted, if you aren't a fan of the flavor of avocados to begin with, you probably won't enjoy a milkshake made from them, but you should at least understand the additional health benefits you are missing by not at least giving this treat a shot.
Where avocados were once avoided because of their fat and calorie content, we now embrace them, knowing the fats, vitamins and minerals they contain are the good kind that can help lower our cholesterol, enhance our vision and help our bodies fight off certain kinds of cancers with the antioxidants they contain.
When Spring has sprung, my body starts craving lighter and greener food stuff, and this always fits the bill. I feed this to my son, Tastie, as it makes me feel like I have gotten something green in him for the day. You can lighten this treat up even further by substituting Agave in place of the sweetened condensed milk, and using skim or almond milk in place of whole milk. (If I have coconut milk, I might even use that in place of the skim or almond milk.) If you want a little brighter flavor add in some lime zest.
It might not be easy being green, but is sure is tasty. Enjoy!


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If you've just happened to come upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Katharina's Blog
Here are a close-up of the cute new Party Animal from Whiff of Joy!
The papers are from: Bo Bunny
The gorgouse new WoJ stamp is coloured with Distress Ink and some Glimmer Mist on the gift. The arrow is painted with Distress Crackle paint and prayed whit Glimmer Mist.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Jane Klick here


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Ten years ago, Starbucks introduced its Pumpkin Spiced Latte. The mix of Starbucks' signature espresso, milk, whipped cream and a mysterious pumpkin spice syrup was surprisingly good.
The drink has now become a fall staple for many coffee drinkers. It was different, and maybe that's what made it so popular.
Now, however, a trip down the grocery store aisles in late October reveals food companies have gone "pumpkin spice crazy."
There I was, sitting at my desk, writing a story on deadline and sipping from a tall cup of iced coffee, when I heard a comment that turned my head.
"Chris, I just have to tell you that I can't stand iced coffee," said my coworker, and occasional chef, Greg Summers. "Hot coffee is where it's at. I'll never figure out the appeal of that cold stuff. I just don't get it. Coffee is 'sposed to be hot enough to take hair off a hog's back."
Fall is on its way, and with it the foliage begins to turn, along with a slight nip in the evening air. And for my family and friends, it's football time.
The sport is big business in my part of the country - and everywhere else for that matter. Next to which rivalry is playing out on any given weekend, the most important part of the day is what's on the menu.
No football party is complete without something "buffalo" (at least in my eyes).
Love is a many-splendored thing, according to a 1955 movie of the same title, and one of the most splendid things about it is that it is not bound by time, distance, or even age.
Faye Williams, 65, will walk down the aisle on Saturday, Sept. 7 and say "I do" to 69-year-old Homer Moree, and a love that found its way to her under very unusual circumstances.
"I've known Homer for 10 years now," Williams said. "His wife, Crady, was my best friend."
Things are all a'bustle at Cedarleaf as we count down the days until Sept. 27 when we host the annual S.C. Tree Farm Field Tour.
"Field Days" are traditionally held at the current Tree Farm of the Year, and we have been busy preparing for our event over many months.
Teenage best friends share a lot – their dreams, their secrets, their laughter.
And a few months ago, four local girls shared a combined dream – to attend a One Direction concert.
The girls' determination to see the English-Irish boy band from London prompted them to begin a fundraising campaign to buy concert tickets.
Debbie Burchett, Breanna Burchett's mother, said the girls started raising money in February.
I've said it before and I will say it again; I love tomatoes.
When they are ripe and juicy, you can eat them as a snack (I may be known to do this from time to time). On their own, tomatoes are great. But once you start cooking with them, the taste factor goes to a whole new level.
The Dream Team Foundation in Lancaster is seeking for participants as it kicks off the sixth year of providing sports opportunities for special needs children in Lancaster County.
Shhhh, don't tell the kids, but it's nearly back to school time again.
I can hardly believe it myself. It seems just like yesterday that I finally got all the summer clothes ironed and hung up (Oh dear, I think that was yesterday).
Well, no matter - summer wasn't meant for chores anyway.
A new animal rescue group is forming in Lancaster in the hopes of lessening the number of animals that pass through the doors of Lancaster County Animal Control.
Lancaster resident Diana Knight said she's been fostering animals for a few years and finally decided that Lancaster needed some help in terms its homeless animal population as well as the number of animals that are put to sleep at the shelter each year.
Copyright © 2019
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


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As our increasingly wireless and gadget-filled world demands better screens and more complex functions, the underlying technology that may be showing the most signs of strain is also one of the oldest: batteries. Threatened with replacement and subject to massive recalls, the battery technology that we all rely on has shown signs of draining under the stress. But help may be on the way: researchers at Argonne National Labs are presenting data (PDF) on a method that provides a big boost to existing lithium ion batteries.
The researchers were able to get charge capacities of well above 250 mAh/g (more than twice the charge held by lithium ion batteries currently on the market) simply by replacing one of the electrodes. The new electrode relies on a layered-layered structure that includes a lithium-manganese oxide component. The new material apparently transfers charge both by freeing lithium ions and by reactions involving the manganese oxide itself.
Theoretically, these reactions should add up to a charge capacity of slightly below the 250 mAh/g figure, but the authors were surprised to find that capacity came in over 300 mAh/g when tested at 50°C, leading them to term the charging behavior "anomalous." It doesn't appear that they yet understand why it works so well, as their abstract says that "possible reasons for the anomalously high capacity and the electrochemical cycling stability of these manganese-rich electrodes will be discussed in this presentation."'
This new battery tech isn't ready for prime time yet, in part because the manganese reactions are predicted to damage the electrodes themselves. Even though the abstract suggests that they are unexpectedly stable, performance does decline too fast for commercial use: by 16 percent in as few as 10 charges. The reactions also produce oxygen during discharge of the battery, which will have to be rid of in some way. But there's reason to think that these problems will be overcome: in addition to allowing greater power capacity, manganese is much cheaper than what's currently in use.


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Designed for energy storage systems with rechargeable batteries, this 11kW digitally controlled, compact 1U power supply can automatically change conversion direction from high voltage 240V to 400Vdc sources, powered by solar or wind, to 150V to 300Vdc batteries and vice versa. Other applications include battery testing, HVDC facilities and the utilisation of regenerated energy from robots, cranes, autonomous ground vehicles and lifts.
Ideal for creating additional high current output voltages from a single output 12V or 24V AC-DC power supply, the highly efficient I6A series of step-down converters include the basic I6A supplying up to 14A, the wide input range i6A4W supplying up to 20A, and the i6AN allowing the creation of negative voltages delivering currents up to 8A.With an efficiency of up to 98%, these 1/16th brick format non isolated converters offer a cost effective solution with an adjustable output range of 3.3V to 24V (I6A), 3.3V to 15V (I6A-4W) and -3.3V to -30V (I6A-N).
The I6A series are suitable for use in medical, communications, industrial, test and measurement, broadcast and portable equipment.
The GQA series of DC-DC converters has 4 ruggedized package styles, with the industry standard quarter brick form pin-our, to allow product performance optimisation in multiple applications. The 120W rated GQA series operate over a 9V to 36V or 18V to 36V input range, withstanding 50V for 1 second. Input to output isolation voltage is 1,500VDC, 2,250VDC or 3,000VDC depending on the package style.
The i3A converters are ideal for creating additional mid-current output voltages from a single output 12V, 24V, 36V or 48V AC-DC power supply. These 100W step-down converters can accept a wide 9 to 53Vdc input and deliver wide adjustable output voltages of 3.3 to 16.5V at up to 8A or 5 to 30V at up to 4.5A. With efficiencies of up to 98%, the 1/32nd brick format non-isolated converters offer a very cost effective solution, with minimal derating at high ambient temperatures.
The i3A series are suitable for use in medical, communications, industrial, test and measurement, broadcast and portable equipment.
The HQA series of encapsulated DC-DC converters are packaged in a ruggedised quarter brick form factor and can deliver 85W and 120W output power. The HQA series operate over a 9V to 40V or 18V to 40V input range (50V for 1 second). These converters, with efficiencies as high as 92%, are suitable for use in COTS, communications and industrial equipment.


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Designers Jeremiah Shaw & Danny Jones have set up a site called Geo a Day. The idea is simple. It's a "daily exercise in exploration of shapes and form", meaning every day we get a new image made entirely out of geometric shapes.
It's like children's television, video games and graphic design got together and just...evolved. Into something that's just become the very first website I will check, every day, until they stop doing it.
GEO A DAY [Site, via Super Punch]


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Victoria Hotel Accommodation near Downtown Victoria
Search 33 hotels near Downtown Victoria
Save more with Secret Prices
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On the surface, Venus flytrap poaching may seem like a victimless crime. The valuable vegetation adapts to being held in captivity as a houseplant, after all. But the reason lawmakers pushed this year to make stealing the plants from their native land — which includes Brunswick County — a felony is because our heritage is the true victim of this crime.
Two news items in this edition are cause for concern.
One is the report that the North Carolina House defeated a bill last week that could have secured economic development funding linked to Brunswick County's effort to bring a new business into one of its industrial parks.
The other is the report that the Brunswick County school district has lost 181 of its 840 teachers in the past school year.
Sunset Beach town leaders are pushing for a change to allow swimming pools on the oceanfront.
The change is on a list of proposed Unified Development Ordinance amendments reviewed by the Sunset Beach Planning Board at its Aug. 7 meeting. The proposal is to add swimming pools as a permitted use in all town zoning districts except mainland business MB2, which could pave the way for a public swimming pool.
Traveling along our roads lately has become more treacherous thanks to persistent rainy weather. It creates an added risk in Brunswick County, where it seems motorists are surrounded by waterways at all times.
Although water is often visible on the surface of the road during and after a heavy rainfall, what motorists do not or cannot see is where the real danger lies.
While every month seems to be designated as the official observance for a particular cause, we would like to call attention to August as American Artist Appreciation Month.
This time next year, Brunswick County Schools will likely have a new superintendent.
We hope that person matches Edward Pruden's caliber. While we have not agreed with everything he has done during his tenure as the school district's leader for the past four years, it is obvious he genuinely cares about students and their success. It is the most important character trait a school system leader should have.
It might have been easier for Edward Mannon Gore to simply live in the shadow of his father, who founded the town where he spent most of his life.
Instead, Ed Gore chose to not only build upon the legacy of Mannon C. Gore, but also leave his own mark on Sunset Beach, Brunswick County and North Carolina.
After graduating from what is now East Carolina University with a bachelor's degree in business administration, the Longwood native served our county in the Air Force where he monitored Russian radio transmissions during the Cold War before returning home.
Any journalist with an ounce of compassion does not delight in reporting an event like the death of former Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald Hewett.
Hewett's story is familiar to most long-time residents. When he first became sheriff in 1994 at age 31, he was the youngest to be elected to the office in North Carolina. Hewett's leadership heralded a new era for the sheriff's office, which was stinging from Herman Strong's resignation following his conviction on federal drug-smuggling and conspiracy charges.
According to the American Pet Care Products Association, people are expected to spend more than $58 billion on their pets this year alone. And regardless of whether they are millionaires or living on the street, most people these days treat their pets as members of the family.
People were not as educated about spaying or neutering their pets as they are now. They did not understand that not only did it spare their four-legged friends from life-threatening illnesses and improve their quality of life, but it also reduced the number of strays who become homeless nuisances.
Consider how life could be without the freedom we enjoy as Americans.
We know citizens in North Korea, for example, live under a totalitarian regime that deliberately keeps them ignorant of world affairs. Many of us have read about Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the pregnant woman sentenced to death in Sudanese court for renouncing Islam. Fewer of us may know that Buddhist extremists are driving Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar with threats and acts of violence.
While Wilmington serves as the setting for most of the movie and television productions in North Carolina, several cross the New Hanover County border and make their way into our community.
All seems forgiven between West Brunswick High School Principal Brock Ahrens and Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Edward Pruden.
Ahrens rescinded his resignation at Pruden's request in a choreographed scene during commencement exercises Saturday, June 14, that bore little resemblance to the meeting before the West Brunswick High faculty and staff less than 24 hours earlier.
Last month, a bill was introduced in the General Assembly to ensure public records laws that apply to the state's public schools include charter schools.
Last week, that proposed bill was altered in the Senate education committee to "remove the provision that the charter school and its board of directors are subject to public records and open meetings laws."
We in Brunswick County pride ourselves on the tranquility of our beaches, which are the destinations of so many every summer. In fact, our tourism development authority's marketing slogan touts our community as offering "more beach for your blanket."
The prospect of enjoying peace, calm and quiet along the shore is what draws most people to our area every season.
And yet we are holding our collective breaths that this summer proves to be far less eventful than last when four people lost their lives in rip currents in less than 36 hours.
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and despite what the calendar shows, summer is under way in Brunswick County.
That means balmy weather, lots of recreational activities and festivals for residents and vacationers — and the return of a huge increase in traffic on our roadways as visitors flock to our community.
Careless and impaired drivers are hazards at any time of year, but odds are their numbers will increase exponentially based on the sheer number of motorists in our area at this time of year.
What was intended to be an adjustment to improve student performance and maintain efficiency turned into a scheduling debacle for Brunswick County Schools for a third consecutive year.
On Friday, May 9, Brunswick Community College Board of Trustees Chairman John Jones likened life as a college graduate to riding the waves of the ocean.
We think the same analogy applies to high school graduates, as students from West, North and South Brunswick high schools prepare for that transition this time next month.
Anytime student athletes step onto a field, a court or a track, they place themselves at risk.
With all the benefits sports provide — such as the reinforcement of the values of discipline, teamwork, leadership and responsibility, the development of confidence and serving as an outlet for their energy — the potential for injury always exists.
The day of the 2014 primary election, Tuesday, May 6, is almost upon us, but voting is already under way for six contested seats and an advisory referendum on a proposed quarter-cent Brunswick County sales and use tax.
The purpose of the primary is to nominate a candidate to represent a political party in the Nov. 4 general election.
The relatively young Brunswick County town of Leland is experiencing a growth spurt, as reflected in the many building projects under way.
Town staff and police are in the process of moving into a wing of the long-awaited new town hall.
An 18,000-square-foot building that sits off U.S. 17, at 1212 Magnolia Village Way, is being transformed into a highly anticipated cultural arts center. Plans are being finalized for a much-needed new senior center. And work has begun to create the first public water access at Sturgeon Creek Park.
Copyright © 2019
The Brunswick Beacon is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Brunswick County, North Carolina and surrounding areas.


text: Los Angeles-based label BCBGeneration bridges the gap between contemporary design and timeless style. Launched in 2008 as a diffusion label of design house BCBGMAXAZRIA, BCBGeneration is a full offering of ready-to-wear separates and evening essentials that embody the lifestyle of the modern, fashion-forward girl. Combining European sophistication and American cool, the looks are effortless and feminine with a tough edge for the girl who is ready to take on anything. The collection of women's BCBGeneration earrings range from everyday styles in gold and silver tones to designs embellished with faux pearls and crystals, providing the perfect finishing touch to any outfit.


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Man Proposes With Boy Band Video
This guy definitely went to a lot of trouble to propose to his girlfriend. He wrote a song, made a music video, flew her to Australia and arranged to have it played at the end of another video at a giant party with all of his friends. Sincerely, how would you say no to that?


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Most Americans correctly understand that the economic meltdown was caused by a perfect storm of misconduct in the lending and financial industries and inadequate rules and enforcement. A 2010 Pew Financial Reform Project poll, for example, found that American likely voters overwhelmingly blamed banks for making unsustainable mortgages (42%) and too little regulation of Wall Street (24%) for the crisis.
Fewer are aware, however, of the role that racial bias and discrimination by lenders and brokers played in creating the crisis. Understanding that role and the tools available to correct it is key to ensuring our nation's full economic recovery.
Despite the progress we've made as a nation toward the goal of equal opportunity for all, significant barriers remain, especially when it comes to mortgage lending by banks and brokers. In a 2005 report using federal data that presaged the current crisis, for example, The Opportunity Agenda, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council warned that—even controlling for income—African-American and Latino borrowers were significantly more likely to be sold high cost, subprime loans than whites, despite the fact that as many as 50% of those borrowers qualified for prime loans. Racial inequity in lending actually increased with borrower income levels, and with the degree of neighborhood segregation.
Loans in these communities were more costly, and were frequently predatory, carrying hidden fees and conditions or marketed through deceptive practices. Some, for example, were designed with built-in rate adjustment features making them unsustainable over the loan's lifespan.
More recently, a series of lawsuits and settlements have revealed pervasive patterns of racial discrimination in home lending. In December 2011, for example, the U.S. Department of Justice reached the largest fair lending settlement in its history with the lender Countrywide. The Department says that Countrywide discriminated on the basis of race and national origin against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers between 2004 and 2008, charging more than 200,000 of these borrowers higher fees and interest rates than non-Hispanic white borrowers, and steering borrowers of color into subprime loans.
The Justice Department has settled similar discrimination cases against AIG Federal Savings Bank, Wilmington Finance Inc., PrimeLending, C&F Mortgage Corporation, Midwest BankCentre, Citizens Republic Bancorp, Inc., and others, reinforcing the reality that these practices are pervasive.
Why would subprime lenders disproportionately target minority communities for risky loans and, often, deceptive and predatory lending practices? There are several possibilities. Many minority neighborhoods, even middle-classed ones, lack banks or other traditional lending institutions, making them more susceptible to exploitation. People of color are more likely to be first generation homebuyers, with fewer sources of information, experience, or advice. Many lenders assume them to be poor credit risks, even when they are well qualified for traditional loans.
Lenders' discriminatory treatment toward communities of color previewed and paralleled exploitative practices that they visited upon moderate-income white communities, senior citizens, military servicemembers, and more broadly. Today, consequently, we are all in it together, with some two million homes in foreclosure. In addition to homeowners, the mortgage crisis is displacing millions of renters whose landlords are in default.
Fortunately, solutions exist that can put homeownership back on track, repair devastated communities, and restore the promise of equal opportunity and fair housing for all Americans. Just as the Obama administration has correctly insisted on a review of loans to servicemembers, for instance, they should demand a review of loans in communities with high concentrations of discriminatory and predatory loan practices. The administration should direct the Treasury Department to issue long-overdue civil rights and fair housing regulations for programs it oversees. And Congress should modernize the Community Reinvestment Act to reach a wider range of institutions and to strengthen equal opportunity protections.
Other needed reforms include increasing homeowners' access to financial counseling, reducing the principal of loans owned or backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and maintaining a government role in the secondary mortgage market to ensure that qualified working Americans of all races have access to 30-year fixed mortgages going forward.
Acknowledging the role that racial bias has played in the financial and mortgage crisis is crucial to understanding the scope and scale of that crisis. Concrete steps toward greater and more equal opportunity for all are important to ending it.


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There has been a terrible injustice done to the citizens of Lancaster County. When County Council members covered up Ordinance No. 1073 under the guise of economic development and decided on their own that they were the only ones who needed to know about this sanitary landfill, we, as Lancaster County citizens, lost all respect and trust in those members.
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After sprinting to record levels this spring, the prices for basic commodities have now fallen 20 to 30 percent.
Prices are now lower on staples such as rice, wheat, corn, and soybeans. Also down are prices for metals such as aluminum, zinc, and copper. The commodity almost everyone follows – oil – is off nearly 20 percent as well, dropping Friday to its lowest level since May 1.
Falling commodity prices have important economic implications. They may indicate that the global economy – especially in terms of the role played by fast-growing countries such as China – is beginning to slow. The prices also take some pressure off the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates to counter inflation. Last Tuesday, the Fed kept short-term rates unchanged, but it did indicate it was still concerned about inflation.
The decline in commodity prices, if it continues, could also give consumers a little more money in their wallets to pay for something other than gasoline and groceries.
"The falling prices helps shore up consumer spending and also has an effect on inflation," says Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia Economics Group in Charlotte, N.C. "The Fed probably does not need to tighten interest rates now."
The prospect of interest rates remaining at low levels helped ignite a significant rally in the stock market last Tuesday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 331 points. On Friday, the rally continued, with the Dow climbing 302.89 points to close the week at 11734.32.
Although it may be too soon for the falling prices to be reflected in national inflation statistics, some of them are starting to work their way through to Americans' wallets. Last week, for example, King Arthur Flour reduced the prices on four grades of its product by 15 percent. On April 1, the company, which makes premium flour, had increased prices by 46 percent. "That price increase did not cover the difference in our costs," says Michael Bittel, senior vice president and general manager of the Norwich, Vt., company. Nevertheless, King Arthur Flour went ahead with a price decrease. "We were hoping the price would come down and we could pass that reduction back to our customers," Mr. Bittel says.
Good conditions for growing crops are partly why the grain markets have dropped in price, says William Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions in Omaha, Neb. "We've had frequent rain events and no persistent heat to affect yields, so the crop is off to a decent start," says Mr. Lapp, adding, "But the questions remain: Will we have a long enough growing season since it's been cooler than normal, and how much of the crop was drowned out this spring?"
On Tuesday, some of the questions will be answered when the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) gives its first official crop report. "Usually they are accurate to within about 5 percent of the crop estimate," says Lapp, a former chief economist at ConAgra Foods.
Despite the current decline in grain prices, they remain high on a historical basis. For example, corn prices are historically between $2 and $3 a bushel. They are now $5 a bushel, down from $8 a bushel. "It's kind of like calling gasoline at $3.50 a gallon cheap," Lapp says.
Rice, another key food commodity, has also declined in price. Earlier this year, rough rice was selling for as much as $25 per 100 pounds on the Chicago Board of Trade. Now, it's close to $16 per 100 pounds, a decline of 36 percent. However, it is still about 60 percent higher than it was last year at this time.
"There was real concern about the Asian crops [and] strong import demand from the Philippines. And people went into a panic mode over food security concerns," says Tom Tice, director of food grains analysis at the USDA in Washington. "Now, the panic-buying is out, and importers are waiting for the crops from Thailand and Vietnam."
The new rice crop is being harvested in Texas and parts of Southeast Asia. The rice crop from Arkansas will not come until late September, about three weeks later than normal. But, Mr. Tice says, in mid-July it appeared that the crop conditions were comparable to last year, which was a very good year. On Tuesday, the USDA will be releasing new estimates.
Even though some commodities have come down in price, some of the reductions have yet to be reflected in retail prices – for example, in copper and plastic piping. That's the case at Mayer Malbin Inc., a leading supplier of pipes, valves, and fittings in Long Island City in New York, says Jonathan Gordon, a vice president.
"We're seeing more increases, not falling prices," Mr. Gordon says. "Maybe from its high the price is down 10 percent, but we've seen price increases at the wholesale level of 40 percent to 50 percent since the beginning of the year. The basic cost to build something is so much higher than six months ago."
Even though prices are much higher in Portland, Ore., Dan O'Brien, president of Current Electrical, expects to see a "softening." "Demand is down, so they have to do something," says Mr. O'Brien, whose products include copper, aluminum, and steel.
Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America, says he is getting reports of increases in wallboard, an essential element in the construction industry. "We've gotten several examples of increases for August, September, and October of 10 to 12 percent each month," he says. "But I find it extremely hard to believe the price increases will stick given the weak housing market."