Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...involvement of roughly 100 FBI agents on the case further confirmed notions that terrorists were involved. One theory that arose the day after the crash: a surface-to-air missile had brought down the 747, perhaps a shoulder-launched Stinger missile, of the type smuggled by the U.S. into Afghanistan in the late 1980s to help rebels battle the Soviet-backed government. But while federal officials had not ruled out an attack by a surface-to-air missile, they privately viewed the possibility as remote...
...deeply saddened to read "Death of a City" and see the stark photos of Afghanistan's capital Kabul [WORLD, June 24]. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan from June 1970 to September 1972 and did some of my training in Kabul. It was by no stretch of the imagination a beautiful city. In midsummer it was hot, dusty and dirty, and in winter cold, mud-covered and miserable. But I lament the destruction of this backwater capital. For beneath the grime and mud were sharp colors and tantalizing smells. I lament the loss of the shopkeepers who manned...
...near their holy soil. Saudis also asked themselves why they had spent billions on planes and tanks if they had to ask the U.S. to defend them anyway. Many opponents of the regime appear to be drawn from the thousands of devout volunteers who received training and fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Others are conservatives who favor peaceful reform, and others are violent fanatics. Their strength is unknown, since political organizations are outlawed and they operate clandestinely...
Lebed, a professional soldier all his life, has an image as a rough-hewn nationalist and patriot. As an airborne commander in Afghanistan, Tbilisi and the former Soviet republic of Moldova, he was famous for using force first and asking questions later, if at all. His troops wielded shovels to crack civilian skulls in rebellious Georgia and let fly with heavy artillery to protect Russian separatists from ethnic Moldovans. He was also fairly insubordinate. "He smashed the Russian army tradition of servility to superiors," says Colonel Victor Baranets, a staff officer at the Defense Ministry. "He calls a spade...
...legal Islamic opposition to the government. These groups are not organized political bodies like Hamas or Hizballah, but the Saudis and the United States are taking them seriously anyway." Even in tightly controlled Saudi Arabia, says MacLeod, these groups are dangerous. "Some members of these bands fought in Afghanistan, possibly gaining military experience there. If one of them did attack the compound in Dhahran, they showed considerable technical expertise." -->