Tag: Afghanistan

Impact Lab > Afghanistan
Latest News, Science & Technology News

Taliban public relations rep accidentally leaks email list

Taliban accidentally CC-d all email addresses on their mailing list to subscribers.

This may be good to know if you’re a terrorist organization, BCC is your friend. A Taliban spokesperson’s misstep resulted in all addresses on the Afghanistani militant movement’s email list being disclosed to the public. ABC News’ Muhammad Lila reports that Qari Yousuf Ahmedi, an official representative for the movement, accidentally used CC: instead of BCC: on a mass Taliban communication. Ahmedi forwarded a press release he received from another Taliban spokesperson in a mass email; instead of moving the CCs from the previous email to BCC, they stayed intact.

 

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government, Science & Technology News

U.S. Air Force Giant Spy Blimp Could be Afghanistan’s Biggest Brain

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“Blue Devil”

Come this fall, there will be a new and extremely powerful supercomputer in Afghanistan. But it won’t be in Dave Petraeus’ headquarters in Kabul or at some three-letter agency’s operations center in Kandahar. It’ll be floating 20,000 feet above the warzone, aboard a giant spy blimp that watches and listens to everything for miles around.

 

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Analysis, Art, Big Problems, Culture, Current Events, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News

The Plight of Female Drug Addicts in Afghanistan

Afgan drug addict woman 123456 by R Persson

Addiction strikes many women in Afghanistan.

Photographer Rafaela Persson has lived in Afghanistan since 2008, and spends time getting to know her subjects.

I had an idea to photograph female drug addicts. Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived. According to a study made by U.N. Drugs and Crimes Office in 2010, the rate of drug addiction in Afghanistan is twice the global average; Afghans have become the leading consumers of their own opium.  Approximately one million Afghans, or eight percent of the war-shattered country’s total population is suffering from drug addiction, a 75 percent increase since 2005. What is even more alarming is that studies show that 50 percent of Afghanistan’s opium-using parents give the drug to their own children…

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Alternative Transportation, Science & Technology News

U.S. Military Developing Flying Car That Could Be Ready by 2015

flying car

The vehicle will be able to travel 280 miles by land and air, using vertical take-off and landing to increase access to difficult terrain.

US troops in war-torn Afghanistan may soon get a new mode of transportation as top military bosses are considering procuring advanced vehicles that can also fly over the battlefield to avoid enemy attacks.

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Animals, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Hot Issues, Latest News

Monkeys Trained As Battlefield Killers In Afghanistan

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Showing Off A Killer Monkey
Afghanistan’s Taliban warlords have developed a bizarre way to deal with foreign forces: they have trained monkeys who love to eat bananas and peanuts to be killers. Taliban forces have taught monkeys how to use the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun and trench mortars. They also teach them how to identify and attack soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms.

Ironically, the idea of training monkeys to fight was first invented by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA in the Vietnam War initiated a program that used the peanuts and bananas as prizes to train some “monkey soldiers” to kill Vietnamese in the jungle.

It is reported that these monkey soldiers are mainly composed of macaques and baboons hunted at an early age in the jungle and sold to the Taliban…
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Economy, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

World’s Largest Deposits of Lithium Discovered in Afghanistan Could Alter Their Economy

MINERAL

Pentagon study says Afghanistan may have among the world’s largest deposits of lithium.

A large mineral deposit worth an estimated $1 trillion has been discovered in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials revealed today. The find could change the nation’s economy, alter the war, and contains vast amounts of lithium—found in many of today’s batteries.

 

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Economy, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Military Meets Recruiting Goal – First Time In 35 Years

recruits

For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.  The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.

 

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Analysis, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Is Terrorism A Diminishing Threat?

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Najibullah Zazi after his arrest in a terrorism investigation

Eight years after 9/11, the specter of terrorism still haunts the United States. Just last week, F.B.I. agents were working double time to unravel the alarming case of a Denver airport shuttle driver accused of training with explosives in Pakistan and buying bomb-making chemicals. In Dallas, a young Jordanian was charged with trying to blow up a skyscraper; in Springfield, Ill., a prison parolee was arrested for trying to attack the local federal building. Meanwhile, the Obama administration struggled to decide whether sending many more troops to Afghanistan would be the best way to forestall a future attack.

 

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Big Problems, Culture, Education, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, People Making a Difference

A Letter From Afghanistan: Help Needed For Afghan Children

A Letter From Afghanistan: Help Needed For Afghan Children

Afghan School Girls

To my family and friends,

As some of you know, I have just started my tour in Afghanistan.  Everything is going really well, so no worries.  This country is beautiful and has a lot of problems but that makes being here so worth it.  I have received emails from a few of you asking what I need while I’m here so I decided to write you all and let you know that I don’t need anything.  At least not for me.  I’m asking all of you to send me a few items to help the Afghan Children.  Let me explain.

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Big Problems, Culture, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Photo Perspectives

West Outraged Over New Discriminatory Afghanistan Law

West Outraged Over New Discriminatory Afghanistan Law 

Women have long been considered second-class citizens in Afghanistan

A new law signed by President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan requires Shiite women to ask their husband’s permission before leaving the home and forces them to have sexual intercourse. The West is outraged, and German politicians are mulling restrictions in development aid. (Pics)

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