LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Afghanistan: Soviet Union
built 628 days ago
Formerly a colonel in the Royal Afghan Army, he joined the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, a mujahideen party led by Pir Sayyed Ahmed Gailani, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. As a mujahideen commander, he was based in Peshawar, and operated in Paktia and Kunar provinces, taking part in the 1986 Zhawar fighting.[2]
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The report, "Supporting Credit Union Development in Afghanistan: An Overview of Issues Important to the Development of Shari'a-Compliant Cooperative Finance," outlines the challenges WOCCU confronts in establishing credit unions in the war-torn Islamic country. Robert Wieland, the report's author and a researcher with Main Street Economics... takes a comprehensive look at ways financial services are evaluated under Islamic jurisprudence, arriving at the conclusion that credit unions may have the best chance to meet the needs of Muslim borrowers with the terms of their religion.
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When President George W. Bush meets European Union leaders for the annual US-EU summit in Washington on April 30, Afghanistan will be high on the agenda. This offers the EU the chance to move beyond rhetoric and take action to show it can be a credible force in the world, writes Robert Hunter.
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President Jimmy Carter immediately declared that the invasion jeopardized vital U.S. interests, because the Persian Gulf area was "now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan. But the Carter administration's public outrage at Russian intervention in Afghanistan was doubly duplicitous. Not only was it used as an excuse for a program of increased military expenditure that had in fact already begun, but the U.S. had in fact been aiding the mujahideen for at least the previous six months, with precisely the hope of provoking a Soviet response. Former CIA director Robert Gates later admitted in his memoirs that aid to the rebels began in June 1979. In a candid 1998 interview, Zbigniew Brezinski, Carter's national security adviser, confirmed that U.S. aid to the rebels began before the invasion:
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Magnus and Naby have prepared a superb introduction to the often murky and misunderstood position of Afghanistan both inside and outside Asia. In addition to outlining the tumultuous history of the country and its people, the authors ... provide information detailing the unique geographical, social, political, cultural, religious, and economic circumstances that have contributed to the evolution and development of contemporary Afghanistan. During the course of the twentieth century, Afghanistan has idly progressed from a colonial prize to a politically volatile Third World player. Although the successful campaign mounted by the Mujahid (Holy Warriors) to overthrow the prevailing Communist regime and oust the occupying Red Army signaled the decline of Soviet power in the region, post^-cold war Afghanistan remains plagued by both inner turmoil and outside interference. A trenchant and insightful analysis of the internal and external forces that continue to influence the destiny of Afghanistan and the entire Middle East.
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Soviet estimates from the late 1970s placed Afghanistan's proven and probable oil and condensate reserves at 95 million barrels. Most Soviet assistance efforts after the mid-1970s were aimed at increasing gas production. Sporadic gas exploration continued through the mid-1980s. The last Soviet technical advisors left Afghanistan in 1988. After a brief hiatus, oil production at the Angot field was restarted in the early 1990s by local militias. Output levels... are though to have been less than 300 b/d.
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