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Kunduz
& Kandahar Fights to the Death?
Excerpts
from articles describing the fears and challenges remaining
in the US efforts to end Taliban control of Kunduz and Kandahar:
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...
Officials feared the international repercussions of a massacre
by the US-led international coalition's unofficial allies, but
also expressed concern that a large part of the Taliban force
could escape unscathed if unreliable Northern Alliance leaders
made a deal with them.
...
There are unknown thousands of foreign Taliban in Afghanistan,
believed to be a mixture of Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens and
Uzbeks, many with links to al-Qaeda.
...
The fears of mass killings of foreign Taliban fighters brought
a strong protest from Pakistan, the crucial front-line ally
of the US-led coalition. Large numbers of Pakistanis have crossed
the border to join Taliban ranks.
Pakistan's
leaders appealed last night to the United Nations, the US and
the international community to make "special efforts"
to avoid a massacre at Kunduz.
...
As a measure of the distrust that abounds, he added: "These
[foreign Taliban fighters] are evil people. When an evil person
is cornered, he surrenders. But as soon as he gets a chance
to stab you in the back, he will take it."
The
Alliance pounded Kunduz with rocket and tank fire, and US B-52
bombers and fighter jets were so busy in the skies overhead
on Thursday and again yesterday that it looked as though they
were queuing up to drop their deadly loads.
Northern Alliance soldier stands beside
rocket launcher, gazing up at B-52
circling overhead near Kunduz, 11/23/01
...
The risk at Kunduz is that the Alliance attack could become
a bloodbath. The international community has had the Alliance
under pressure to avoid massacres such as those that have studded
Afghan history, particularly in recent years.
...
Despite the Taliban's assertion they are in full control of their
last southern stronghold of Kandahar, they have refused the media
access and expelled about 100 foreign journalists they had invited.
The
order to leave on Thursday, after three days of being restricted
to a government compound, was seen as a sign that the Taliban's
grip on Kandahar province may be tenuous after six weeks of
air raids. ...
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Sources:
Man
of Steel Certain He Can Make Skyscrapers Stronger, Safer
Excerpts
describing the efforts of a steel expert to strengthen buildings:
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Like
so many Americans, Hassan Astaneh sat glued to his TV, shocked,
as the twin towers burned. Unlike most viewers, he almost immediately
sensed a bigger disaster looming.
"I realized the intensity of the fire was really bad when
I saw the fire was that white and yellow. I told my wife, 'That's
not looking good,' " the Berkeley civil-engineering professor
recalled. "When
it collapsed ... I knew I would be involved."
The
Iranian American is one of the nation's leading experts on structural
steel. He finds himself a key part of the disaster's engineering
postmortem, one of four engineers armed with emergency grants
from the National Science Foundation to study the disaster and
its immediate aftermath.
He
also finds himself in a painful position: a Muslim angry his
fellow Middle Easterners could cause so much death, an American
citizen repeatedly interrogated by federal agents as he tries
to keep it from happening again.
He
searches the twisted wreckage for clues that could help engineers
understand exactly what caused the towers to collapse. More
than that, he is determined to use the information to find ways
to design safer — even bombproof — buildings.
"We
have to know what happened here," he said. "It's like
doing an autopsy."
...
He has been asked a few times what he's doing in the World Trade
Center debris. "I was very happy that one day FBI agents
came by my hotel and interrogated me ... we are now very close
friends," he said. "It wasn't prejudice, they were
just doing their job."
...
Not everyone believes building performance can be improved greatly.
The actions that took out the World Trade Center were so damaging
and unexpected that many engineers have said there was no way
to protect against them. Bombproofing buildings, they argue,
would be too expensive and would allow only forbidding, cavelike
structures.
Nonsense,
Astaneh said. "Are you going to say, 'If the Sears Tower
is attacked, there's nothing we can do. It's too bad?' "
Cost-effective ways exist to build stronger buildings and to
retrofit existing buildings, he said.
...
The engineer also is developing and testing a new shear wall,
lightweight concrete bolted to steel, that can absorb much of
a bomb's blast. In tests using extreme force, the concrete crumbled,
but columns holding up the building held.
Such
technology, Astaneh said, would add 1 to 2 percent to construction
costs but could help buildings withstand major earthquakes and
bomb blasts.
Such
strong shear walls, he said, could prevent planes from entering
and delivering massive amounts of fuel into tall buildings as
they did at the World Trade Center.
Giving
up on trying to fortify buildings, he said, is not the American
way. It is certainly not the way of engineers, who like nothing
more than solving problems. "In
engineering," he said, "there is nothing you cannot
do."
...
Structural engineers don't get the glory of architects. They usually
stay behind the scenes. But these experts in steel and construction
are emerging from the shadow of the World Trade Center disaster.
Many who design and build the world's skyscrapers take the attack
almost personally.
"It's
your product, and they used it to kill people," Astaneh
said. "We want to make it right somehow."
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Source:
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God
of christians, God of muslims ...
The
destroyer, the saver, the almighty ...
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The
God of christians (World Trade Center God for survivors of terrorists'
attack on America) [The Times - link inactive]:
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Death
can strike in an instant, he declares.
“People all over the world are dying without Jesus and
face eternal death,” he shouts.
...
As tons of steel and concrete began cascading downwards with
a deafening roar he shouted: “We’re going to die.
Do you know the Lord? I said ‘Call upon the
name of the Lord and you’ll be saved’, and these people
started crying out ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus’.”
He
said that he had lain on the ground for 20 minutes, thinking
of his family and expecting to be killed at any moment. When
the deluge ended he was covered in 3 ft of dust and debris.
The
others did not make it, he said. “But I felt the peace
of God as never before because I knew they were in a better
place.” ...
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The
God of muslims (tanker driver God for survivors of American
destruction of tankers in Afghanistan) [The Times - link inactive]:
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Abdullah is grateful to have escaped with his life, but he gives
no credit to the Americans’ efforts to avoid civilian casualties
by removing the drivers from the convoy.
He
believes that a higher force intervened that night, the first
of the Muslim holy month, to save him and his friends from the
enemy. “It’s because of the grace of Allah,”
he said, “that we are alive today.” ...
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Isn't
the God game fun? You can play, too. No doubt allowed. Just
believe. Woo-hoo! Oh, and don't forget, the God of power for
victims can be the God of power for mass murderers, too ...
yikes!
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The
God of muslims (terrorists' God for mass suiciders / mass murderers
of 9-11-01):
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Everybody
hates death, fears death...
But only those, the believers who know the life after death
and the reward after death, would be the ones who will be seeking
death.
...
Remind yourself that in this night you will face many challenges.
But you have to face them and understand it 100 percent.
...
Obey God, his messenger, and don't fight
among yourself where you become weak, and stand fast, God will
stand with those who stood fast."
...
There is no God but God, I being a sinner. We are of God, and
to God we return....
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Source:
Prophets
of Doom and Some Believers Fear the Worst
Excerpts
from article describing the latest efforts of "the end
is near prophets" to profit off of tragedy and fear:
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September
11 has invigorated the cataclysmic theology embraced by many
Christian fundamentalists.
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The September 11 attacks have invigorated the apocalyptic theology
embraced by many Christian fundamentalists, who view the collapse
of the World Trade Centre towers as the latest harbinger of
the end times.
Pastors
are predicting that the second coming is near, with some going
so far as to speculate that they could be preaching their final
sermons.
...
the leaders of the prophecy movement are always looking for
cataclysmic events to validate their doomsday scenarios and
paper over previously failed forecasts. "There are always
these events that the prophecy teachers seize upon and say,
'See, I told you so'." ...
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Source:
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