2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 2004 / 2003 / 2002 / 2001 and earlier
Rumblings of war: In the bazaars, Kurds say if war comes, they'll do what they've always done - flee to the mountains. The budding public alliance between Iraqi Kurds and more outspoken Iraqi opposition groups has civilians in this front-line city worried about the risks they'll face if the United States tries to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Over the decades the Kurds have proved themselves their own worst enemy - breaking and remaking friendships with neighboring Iran, Iraq and Turkey, and fighting among themselves. Despite carving out a relatively prosperous, liberal enclave in Iraq's far north, many Kurds believe their self-rule experiment will die if America does not oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. On the battlefield, the Kurds' 70,000 lightly armed soldiers are no match for Saddam Hussein's tanks, artillery and veteran troops. But the Kurds say they have one asset Baghdad cannot match - their spy agency. Plus, talk of U.S. attack against Iraq rattles Iran's ruling elites
— Associated Press, November 29 to December 19, 2002 and San Francisco Chronicle, November 15, 2002
Islamic fighters with alleged al-Qaida links attack Kurdish militia in northern Iraq
Ansar al-Islam, Islamic radicals believed linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, seized two remote hilltop posts from their Kurdish guerrilla rivals Wednesday in a fierce battle that left at least 20 fighters dead or wounded. When when the tall young men with long beards strode through town, people would shut their doors and windows. The women covered their faces and quickly gathered up their children. Plus, Ansar posts battle footage on the web.
— Associated Press, December 4, 7 and 15, 2002
Soccer Bridges Gap Between Arabs, Kurds
Despite bad blood
between the Kurdish-run northern Iraq and the larger chunk
of the country ruled by Saddam Hussein, soccer teams from
the two areas regularly compete, trade players and even steal
each other's coaches
— Associated Press, November 30, 2002
Hope rises from Kabul's rubble
The roads are a shambles. The power fails every few minutes. Open sewers fill the air with a fetid stench. Huge swathes of the city lie in bombed-out ruin. But a year after the liberation of Kabul a sign of normalcy and hope has sprouted from the rubble. It is a brand-new gym.
— South China Morning Post, November 13, 2002
Illegal oil lines Saddam's pockets
Locals have a name for the smoothly paved road that leads to this town near the Turkish frontier: The petroleum highway. It's where thousands of truckers make their living hauling crude oil from Baghdad-controlled wells, in stark violation of U.N. sanctions on Iraq . Plus, Haji Omran has one street, one restaurant and just one trade: smuggling.
— MSNBC.com, November 1, 2002 and Scotsman, November 1, 2002
In Iraq, Kurds fear another betrayal
Like many of the
women in this mountainous village of Iraqi Kurdistan, Qazal
Bashir works the fields. The women herd the animals, build
the homes and feed the children. They have no choice. Their
men are gone, disappeared. Each night, Ms Bashir continues
the long vigil for her husband, Omar Hassan, taken by Saddam
Hussein's soldiers 19 years ago.
— The Scotsman, October 10, 2002
Shiite leader vocal adversary of Hussein -- and U.S.
U.S. forces will have to overthrow Saddam Hussein without the help of Ayatollah Sayed Mohammad Baqir Al-Hakim, an Iraqi Shiite leader whose 8,000 armed fighters and experience at battling the dictator would surely come in handy.
— The San Francisco Chronicle, October 4, 2002
Iran starts to see benefit of deal with the devil
A delegation of Iraqi Kurds who travelled to Iran over the past couple of weeks found that even Iran's most traditionally anti-US institutions have accepted and acceded to the possibility of a regime change in Baghdad.
— The Scotsman, September 30, 2002
Terrorism, uncertainty: Checking the pulse of middle America
With stately Victorian
mansions on the bluffs overlooking the Illinois River, gritty
biker bars dotting the rough edge of town and rustic farms
beyond the town line, this city of 110,000 has long been considered
the perfect barometer of mainstream American public opinion.
— Anniston Star, September 8, 2002
Iran's '79 revolution has gone awry
The sprawling bazaar in the southern part of this city is where opposition to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the last Iranian monarch, sparked the Islamic revolution in 1979. Now, some of those same people who toppled the shah are desperately trying to pull Iran's economy into the 21st century.
— Washington Times, August 28, 2002
Afghanistan:
A Nascent Free Press Seizes the Moment (Carefully)
The rebirth of the Afghan media began, ironically, with
a bomb packed into a news camera by two apparent al Qaeda
operatives posing as journalists. Plus, the man
who decided to launch an underground 'zine filled with
nasty jokes and cartoons about the extremist militia that
had taken over Afghanistan.
— Columbia Journalism Review, July/August
2002 and South China Morning Post, May 13, 2002
Dancers step into cultural war
In any other part of
the world, Kamran and his breakdancing buddies would be considered
decent, though offbeat, kids. But in the Islamic Republic
of Iran they have become unwitting soldiers on the front lines
of a cultural war.
— South China Morning Post, July 2,
2002
Saturday's deadly earthquake highlights the primitive building
methods in rural areas
Assad Mohammad's childhood house and family were here, but
all that remains is a mangled heap of split wood, twisted
tin and mud bricks
— St. Petersburg Times, June 25, 2002
Once banned as 'unclean' - now unleashed
The days of terror,
late-night abductions and streetside executions are over now.
And Kayvan Azad no longer has to keep his best friend in hiding.
"Arf," says Zhopo, Azad's eight-year-old brownish-white terrier-poodle
mix.
— Christian Science Monitor, June 21,
2002
Mending Afghanistan: With the fall of the Taliban, it's time to fix the roads
They play homemade
instruments and use old buckets of yogurt for drums. They
sing terribly and can't keep a beat. Plus, they're not very
bright. "The neighbors don't like our music," says Aziz Khan,
an 18-year-old would-be flute player. "We play loud anyway."
Call them the punks of the Panshir Valley.
— The Anniston Star, June 16, 2002
Resentful Iranians ready for long, hot summer
It has started again.
In Pasdaran Square one night last week, the rough, bearded
men - the Basiji militia - were out in full force, looking
inside cars for unmarried couples.
— South China Morning Post, June 2,
2002
Scepticism clouds choice of political leaders
Despite official enthusiasm, Afghans across the political and ethnic spectrum have been complaining that the loya jirga is a shoddy process meant to give the stamp of approval to the United States-backed regime of Hamid Karzai rather than offer a political voice to the people.
— South China Morning Post, May 30, 2002
In the shadows of Bamiyan's Buddhas, it's showtime
It's that scene
where Buster Keaton manages to get his ramshackle homemade
house off the railroad tracks, narrowly missing the path of
an oncoming train, only to place it before a locomotive coming
from the other direction. The train pulverizes the house.
Keaton and his wife, downtrodden but arm in arm, walk off
into the distance.
— Christian Science Monitor, May 24,
2002
Foreign presence drives up rents
In the days of the
Taliban regime, the people here endured hunger, religious
oppression and political violence. But at least this dusty,
smog-choked capital offered one good thing they can no longer
count on: cheap rent.
— Washington Times, May 13, 2002
Herat: Afghan governor Ismail Khan is everywhere in this city. His picture adorns the walls of government offices. It is on the desk of the manager of Afghan television and radio. Here's Mr. Khan visiting a girls school. There he is giving a speech to teachers. At an old military base just outside Herat in western Afghanistan, Commandant Haji Ghari Ahmad Ali either heads an army division or leads the Afghan branch of Hezbollah, the Iranian backed militia. Plus, for 25- year-old Iranian businessman Reza Shakeri, western Afghanistan is a land of opportunity.
— Washington Times, April 4 and13, 2002 and South China Morning Post, April 8, 2002
Teheran awaits Saddam's downfall
Despite signs of
healing, the scars in the Iran-Iraq relationship still run
deep. And after obligatory rhetoric against United States
hegemony and attacks on Muslims, Iran will sit out any US
attack against Iraq.
— South China Morning Post, March 26,
2002
Nation counts cost of Israel policy
Nestled among stories
of chatty farm animals in the official second-grade Farsi
textbooks is a 'letter' from a Palestinian boy: 'They bomb
our tents, schools and even our hospitals,' the letter says.
'But since the Islamic revolution and the victory of Imam
[Ruhollah] Khomeiny, the enemy has got very scared. 'Our enemy
is Israel.'
— South China Morning Post, March 13,
2002
Iran captivated by prophet of fiscal doom
Though President
Bush named Iran a node on the "axis of evil" in his Jan. 29
State of the Union address, an economically hobbled Islamic
Republic could be a far less worrisome threat. The country
is likely to need $130 billion in loans from its prosperous
friends in western Europe and Asia over the next dozen years
just to stay afloat.
— Christian Science Monitor, March
12, 2002
Iran greets Afghans with smile, warning
Afghan and Iranian
officials in Tehran this week described themselves as brothers,
sharing a common border, religion and language. Iranian businessmen
wooed their smiling Afghan counterparts by reciting poems
in Farsi, evoking a shared cultural heritage. But behind the
warm handshakes, harsh realities have created rifts between
the two countries.
— St. Petersburg Times, February 26, 2002
Bush's words stir hope in Iran
Beneath the public
anger that most Iranians seem to share with their government
over President Bush's "axis of evil" speech lies another sentiment
heard only from hushed, anonymous voices - a hope that American
pressure can force changes in Iran's government.
— Washington Times, February 11, 2002
Take me instead! The one thing they've managed to fine tune in Iran
Whatever their
lot in life, whatever joys they share or miseries they suffer,
whatever car they drive or section of town they live in, most
people in Tehran eventually find their way to the gigantic
Behesht-e Zahra cemetery.
— The Iranian, February 7, 2002
