Afghanistan

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2008-03-27 /S/D/ Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans “ Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. .. But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur. .. With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces. .. Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging...”

2007-06-29 Afghan Ladies Driving School: After the Taleban (BBC report): "a new sense of freedom, and fragile democracy, are re-emerging in Afghanistan. The last time I was here, the Taliban was in power, and music and television were banned for being "un-Islamic". Girls and women were barred from going to school, and women were forced out of their professions -- held virtual prisoner in their own homes. Now, 4 years after the US invasion, and the collapse of the Taliban regime, life has returned to the streets of Kabul." Life seems to be returning to pre-Taliban levels of freedom since the invasion, at least in Kabul.