Jan 2002

TIME: Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

By MICHAEL WARE

On Wednesday night, the bandits moved from door to door, brandishing rifles and flashing knives. In the Kandahar suburb of Manan Medical, 15 men smashed their way into one mud-brick house after another. A local businessman named Shir Mohammed waited as they robbed his neighbors, holding blades to their throats. By 3 a.m., the thieves were inside his house, tying up a guest and demanding cash. But Shir and his relatives fought back and, in a running gun battle that lasted until dawn, chased the robbers to their safe house, the local police headquarters.
Read More...

TIME: Into the Heart of Baghran

By MICHAEL WARE

In Kandahar, a dusty, ramshackle place swirling with intrigue and all manner of scheming, a great Afghan mystery envelops us all — where is Mullah Omar? To foreign eyes the Muslim cleric who carried the Taliban from this, their spiritual home, to rule the country vanished with the fall of his regime five weeks ago. There is no sign, no trace. He is invisible to our technology.

Read More...

TIME: In Kandahar, Power Fills a Vacuum

By MICHAEL WARE

On Wednesday night the bandits came, brandishing rifles and flashing knives. In Kandahar's outer suburb of Manan Medical, 15 men smashed doors at one mudbrick house after another. Shir Mohammed's weaponless neighbors were robbed with blades to their throats. At 3 a.m. the thieves were at his house, tying up his guest and demanding cash. A businessman in a city of paupers, Shir admits "my guests have money, as do I." Shir's relatives fought back. They stirred into a one-family posse; the running gun battle lasting until dawn. The morning sun chased the robbers to their safe house — police headquarters.

Read More...