by Fariba Nawa
FIFTEEN: UPRISINGS AGAINST WARLORDS
245 Mahmoud, was accused of raping: Khalil Ahmad Fetri, “Kingdom of Bandits Prevails in Takhar Province, North of Afghanistan,” Pajhwok Afghan News, August 18, 2007, viewed online at www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2007/08/18/kingdom-of-bandits-prevails-in-takhar-province-north-of-afghanistan.html.
247 Piram Qul is accused of crimes similar: Interviews with Rustaq residents, Rustaq, 2006.
247 Two people are killed and thirty-three injured: Sarfaraz, “Takhar Residents Took to the Streets.”
SIXTEEN: THE GOOD AGENTS
260 Haji Juma Khan and Haji Baz Mohammad: Interviews with DEA agents, Washington, D.C., 2008.
261 the Taliban receive funding and weapons: Ibid.
261 Baramcha district, in Helmand: The Pak Tribune, “Afghan Drug Barons Flaunt Their Wealth and Power,” April 9, 2006, viewed online at paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?140142.
262 Four to six men on motorcycles: Interviews with Idrees’ brother, General Asif, and an official in the Afghan Directorate of Counter Terrorism.
263 The British protected their informant: Interviews with US and British counternarcotics officials, Kabul, 2006.
265 “Price: $12,000 a month”: Karin Brulliard, “Affluent Afghans Make Their Homes in Opulent ‘Poppy Palace,’ ” Washington Post, June 6, 2010, viewed online at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/05/AR2010060502872.html
268 about 3.5 million still rely on food rations: United Nations World Food Program, “3.5 million Afghans face critical shortage of food aid,” appeal to donors, April 5, 2006, viewed online at www.wfp.org/node/573.
268 bombings shot up 600 percent: “Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords and the Propaganda of Silence,” Democracy Now TV, October 6, 2006, viewed online at www.democracynow.org/2006/10/6/bleeding_afghanistan_washington_warlords_and_the
SEVENTEEN: IN SEARCH OF DARYA
275 The warnings were ignored: Adam Curtis, “The Lost History of Helmand,” The Medium and the Message (blog), BBC, October 2009, viewed online at www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/10/kabul_city_number_one_part_3.html.
275 guerrilla war: Gretchen Peters, Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009, 32.
EIGHTEEN: THROUGH THE MESH
304 graveyard of empires: Christian Caryl, “Bury the Graveyard,” Foreign Policy, July 26, 2010, viewed online at www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/07/26/bury_the_graveyard.
NINETEEN: LETTING GO
305 paying its recruits more: Taliban pay $300 per fighter, according to U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, Afghanistan Crossroads, “Taliban Pay vs. Afghan Forces Pay,” CNN, December 9, 2009, viewed online at afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/09/taliban-pay-vs-afghan-forces-pay/.
305 holding secret talks with the Taliban: Steve Coll, “US-Taliban talks,” The New Yorker, February 28, 2011, viewed online at www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/02/28/110228taco_talk_coll.
306 The U.S. killed its leader bin Laden: “Bin Laden is Dead, Obama Says,” New York Times, May 1, 2011, viewed online at www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html.
306 poppy production peaked, with 477,000 acres: United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan: 2007 Annual Opium Poppy Survey, August 2007, IV, viewed online at www.unodc.org/pdf/research/AFG07_ExSum_web.pdf.
307 United States allocated $600 million: David Rohde, “Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again,” New York Times, August 26, 2007, viewed online at www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26heroin.html.
307 a supply fueled by greed, not need: Afghanistan: 2007 Annual Opium Poppy Survey.
307 American former counternarcotics coordinator: Thomas Schweich, “Is Afghanistan a narco state?,” New York Times Magazine, July 27, 2008, viewed online at www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/magazine/27AFGHAN-t.html.
307 International opinion: Associated Press, “U.S. Announces Revamp of Afghan Drug Policy,” June 27, 2009, viewed online at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31580590/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/.
308 replaced it with cannabis cultivation: Kirk Semple, “Cannabis thrives in an Afghan province,” New York Times, November 4, 2007, viewed online at www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/asia/04cannabis.html.
308 dropped 22 percent: United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan: Opium Survey 2010, Winter Rapid Assessment, February 2010, 1, viewed online at www.unodc.org/documents/research/Afghanistan_Opium_Survey_2010_Winter_Rapid_Assessment.pdf.
308 Three of the twenty poppy-free: Ibid.
308 500 percent for acetic anhydride: interview with DuPee.
309 Gul Agha Sherzai: “Afghanistan’s Opium Poppies: No Quick Fixes,” The Economist, June 19, 2008, viewed online at www.economist.com/node/11591396.
EPILOGUE: 2010
316 Marjah’s main source of income: Saeed Shah, “Afghanistan War: Marjah Offensive Targets Opium Capital,” McClatchy Newspapers in the Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 2010, viewed online at www.csmonitor.com/content/view/full/279158.
316 Fifteen civilians were killed: Alfred de Montesquiou and Rahim Faiez, “Civilians Used as Human Shields in Marjah Fight,” Associated Press, in San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 2010, viewed online at articles.sfgate.com/2010–02–18/news/17926999_1_civilians-afghan-forces-human-shields.
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