A Journey with Spies, Afghans, and Orphans

A Journey with Spies, Afghans, and Orphans PDF Author: Terrence Douglas
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN: 1480992305
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
A Journey with Spies, Afghans, and Orphans By: Terrence Douglas Fifteen years ago, author Terrence Douglas accepted a contract to go to Afghanistan and help create an academy for the Afghan intelligence professionals who were charged with defeating Taliban insurgents who threatened the growth of democracy. Upon arriving in Kabul, he was assigned to reside in a “hutch,” a modified shipping container within a fortified compound. His companions were fellow U.S. contractors attracted to the challenging assignment and the pay they were to receive. They were protected twenty-four hours a day by members of the ethnic tribe of the Afghan Intelligence Minister. Any journey outside the compound was in a vehicle protected by professional U.S. security contractors. The isolation of the assignment and the environment caused much reflection. This book is the result of Terrence’s time spent alone in his hutch, socializing with fellow Americans in a confined environment, the close professional relationships developed with his Afghan hosts, and instructing the Afghans who yearned for a free environment to raise their families.

A Journey with Spies, Afghans, and Orphans

A Journey with Spies, Afghans, and Orphans PDF Author: Terrence Douglas
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN: 1480992305
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
A Journey with Spies, Afghans, and Orphans By: Terrence Douglas Fifteen years ago, author Terrence Douglas accepted a contract to go to Afghanistan and help create an academy for the Afghan intelligence professionals who were charged with defeating Taliban insurgents who threatened the growth of democracy. Upon arriving in Kabul, he was assigned to reside in a “hutch,” a modified shipping container within a fortified compound. His companions were fellow U.S. contractors attracted to the challenging assignment and the pay they were to receive. They were protected twenty-four hours a day by members of the ethnic tribe of the Afghan Intelligence Minister. Any journey outside the compound was in a vehicle protected by professional U.S. security contractors. The isolation of the assignment and the environment caused much reflection. This book is the result of Terrence’s time spent alone in his hutch, socializing with fellow Americans in a confined environment, the close professional relationships developed with his Afghan hosts, and instructing the Afghans who yearned for a free environment to raise their families.

When the Moon Is Low

When the Moon Is Low PDF Author: Nadia Hashimi
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062369628
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Mahmoud's passion for his wife Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she's ever known. But their happy, middle-class world—a life of education, work, and comfort—implodes when their country is engulfed in war, and the Taliban rises to power. Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with her three children, Fereiba has one hope to survive: she must find a way to cross Europe and reach her sister's family in England. With forged papers and help from kind strangers they meet along the way, Fereiba make a dangerous crossing into Iran under cover of darkness. Exhausted and brokenhearted but undefeated, Fereiba manages to smuggle them as far as Greece. But in a busy market square, their fate takes a frightening turn when her teenage son, Saleem, becomes separated from the rest of the family. Faced with an impossible choice, Fereiba pushes on with her daughter and baby, while Saleem falls into the shadowy underground network of undocumented Afghans who haunt the streets of Europe's capitals. Across the continent Fereiba and Saleem struggle to reunite, and ultimately find a place where they can begin to reconstruct their lives.

Operation Pineapple Express

Operation Pineapple Express PDF Author: Scott Mann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1668003651
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An edge-of-your-seat thriller about a group of retired Green Berets who come together to save a former comrade—and 500 other Afghans—being targeted by the Taliban in the chaos of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In April 2021, an urgent call was placed from a Special Forces operator serving overseas. The message was clear: Get Nezam out of Afghanistan now. Nezam was part of the Afghan National Army’s first group of American-trained commandos; he passed through Fort Bragg’s legendary Q course and served alongside the US Special Forces for over a decade. But Afghanistan’s government and army were on the edge of collapse, and Nezam was receiving threatening texts from the Taliban. The message reached Nezam’s former commanding officer, retired Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who couldn’t face the idea of losing another soldier in the long War on Terror. Immediately, he sends out an SOS to a group of Afghan vets (Navy SEALs, Green Berets, CIA officers, USAID advisors). They all answer the call for one last mission. Operating out of basements and garages, Task Force Pineapple organizes an escape route for Nezam and gets him into hiding in Taliban-controlled Kabul. After many tense days, he braves the enemy checkpoints and the crowds of thousands blocking the airport gates. He finally makes it through the wire and into the American-held airport thanks to the frantic efforts of the Pineapple express, a relentless Congressional aide, and a US embassy official. Nezam is safe, but calls are coming in from all directions requesting help for other Afghan soldiers, interpreters, and at-risk women and children. Task Force Pineapple widens its scope—and ends up rescuing 500 more Afghans from Kabul in the three chaotic days before the ISIS-K suicide bombing. Operation Pineapple Express is a thrilling, suspenseful tale of service and loyalty amidst the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Orphan Sky

Orphan Sky PDF Author: Ella Leya
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402298676
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Set at the crossroads of Turkish, Persian and Russian cultures under the red flag of Communism in the late 1970s, The Orphan Sky reveals one woman's struggle to reconcile her ideals with the corrupt world around her, and to decide whether to betray her country or her heart. Leila is a young classical pianist who dreams of winning international competitions and bringing awards to her beloved country Azerbaijan. She is also a proud daughter of the Communist Party. When she receives an assignment from her communist mentor to spy on a music shop suspected of traitorous Western influences, she does it eagerly, determined to prove her worth to the Party. But Leila didn't anticipate the complications of meeting Tahir, the rebellious painter who owns the music shop. His jazz recordings, abstract art, and subversive political opinions crack open the veneer of the world she's been living in. Just when she begins to fall in love with both the West and Tahir, her comrades force her to make an impossible choice.

Orphan of Asia

Orphan of Asia PDF Author: Zhuoliu Wu
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231137265
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Born in Taiwan, raised in the scholarly traditions of ancient China but forced into the Japanese educational system, Hu Taiming, the protagonist of Orphan of Asia, ultimately finds himself estranged from all three cultures. Taiming eventually makes his mark in the colonial Japanese educational system and graduates from a prestigious college. However, he finds that his Japanese education and his adoption of modern ways have alienated him from his family and native village. He becomes a teacher in the Japanese colonial system but soon quits his post and finds that, having repudiated his roots, he doesn't seem to belong anywhere. Thus begins the long journey for Taiming to find his rightful place, during which he is accused of spying for both China and Japan and witnesses the effects of Japanese imperial expansion, the horrors of war, and the sense of anger and powerlessness felt by those living under colonial rule. Zhuoliu Wu's autobiographical novel is widely regarded as a classic of modern Asian literature and a groundbreaking expression of the postwar Taiwanese national consciousness.

In Afghanistan

In Afghanistan PDF Author: Jere Van Dyk
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 059521553X
Category : Afghanistan
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In Afghanistan is the story of a young man, searching for adventure and self-discovery in war-torn Afghanistan during the time of the Soviet invasion. It is also a portrait of an exotic land and people desperately struggling for survival during that war, as they are today. In 1981, with a letter and some financial backing from The New York Times, Van Dyk, bearded and dressed as an Afghan, sneaked into Afghanistan , then off-limits to foreigners, and lived in the ruggedly-beautiful mountains and desert of this country with the Mujahideen, the men then fighting the Soviet Union. “My spine tingled like a boy’s. I felt the sensation of adventure…The Turbans of ten laughing young men, armed to the teeth, flapped in the wind…I would not have traded this moment for all the money in the world. It was suicidal, magnificent, and I knew we’d be all right.” But it was close. He lived through Soviet ground and helicopter attacks, saw death and suffering, but also laughter. He had much to learn about Islam, tribal traditions and the holy war the guerrillas were waging. He was accused of being a Soviet spy, but ultimately won the trust of his Afghan guides. He saw a strong, courageous, often frightened people fighting to protect the only thing they knew--their homes, their families, their way of life. The author, a former runner, a fledgling politician and writer, who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family in a small town in the Northwest, also went looking for something deep among these men who shouted “God is Great” and went into battle against the Red Army. His story is about the people he met and his journey.

The History of Afghanistan (6 vol. set)

The History of Afghanistan (6 vol. set) PDF Author: Robert McChesney
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004234985
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 3180

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Book Description
The Sir?j al-taw?r?kh is the most important history of Afghanistan ever written. This pinnacle of the rich Afghan historiographic tradition is available in English translation, annotated, fully indexed, including an introduction, eight appendices, Persian-English and English-Persian glossaries, and bibliography.

The Arthashastra for Children

The Arthashastra for Children PDF Author: Deepa Agarwal
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN: 935708469X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
India's gift to the world-Kautilya's Arthashastra addresses almost every aspect of governance from the duties and objectives of the ruler to social welfare, financial management, town planning, law and justice and foreign affairs. Lost for centuries, it was miraculously rediscovered by Rudrapatna Shamasastry, a Sanskrit scholar, in 1905 CE. This version, especially adapted for young readers, aims to acquaint them with a heritage work, while providing insights into the nitty gritty of running a country. Using examples from history as well as current geopolitics, it attempts to illustrate how Kautilya's theories of governance remain as relevant as they were two thousand years ago.

The History and Theory of Children’s Citizenship in Contemporary Societies

The History and Theory of Children’s Citizenship in Contemporary Societies PDF Author: Brian Milne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400765215
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
This book examines the notion of children having full citizenship. It does so historically, through intellectual discourse, beliefs, and moral and ideological positions on children. It looks at the status and extent of knowledge of the position of children covering about 2500 years. The book takes European and other cultures, traditions and beliefs into consideration. It reflects on the topic from a variety of disciplines, including social sciences, theology and philosophy. The book places children’s citizenship in the centre of children’s rights discourse. Part of the work is a critical appraisal of ‘children’s participation’ because it diverts attention away from children as members of society toward being a separable group. The book moves on from child participation using a children’s rights based argument toward examination of the relationship of the child with the state, i.e. as potentially full member citizens. ​

Afghan Crucible

Afghan Crucible PDF Author: Elisabeth Leake
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192584863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A new global history of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - an invasion whose consequences are still felt in Afghanistan and across the wider world. On 24 December 1979, Soviet armed forces entered Afghanistan, beginning an occupation that would last almost a decade and creating a political crisis that shook the world. To many observers, the Soviet invasion showed the lengths to which one of the world's superpowers would go to vie for supremacy in the global Cold War. The Soviet war, and parallel covert American aid to Afghan resistance fighters, would come to be a defining event of international politics in the final years of the Cold War, lingering far beyond the Soviet Union's own demise. Yet Cold War competition is only a small part of the story. Soviet troops entered a country already at war with itself. A century of debates within Afghanistan over the nature of modern nationhood culminated in a 1978 coup in which self-described Afghan communists pledged to fundamentally reshape Afghanistan. Instead what broke out was a civil war in which Afghans asserted competing models of Afghan statehood. Afghan socialists and Islamists came to the fore of this conflict in the 1980s, thanks in part to Soviet and American involvement, but they represented a broader movement for local articulations of social and political modernity that did not derive from foreign models. Afghans, in conversation with foreigners, set many of the parameters of the conflict. This sweeping history moves between centres of state in Kabul, Moscow, Islamabad, and Washington, the halls of global governance in Geneva and New York, resistance hubs in Peshawar and Panjshir, and refugee camps scattered across Pakistan's borderlands to tell a story that is much more expansive than the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - a global history of a moment of crisis not just for Afghanistan or the Cold War but international relations and the postcolonial state.