aggieliiL
t'HE BATTALII Monday. October 6. 2003
WORLD
THE BATTALION
m m wm
America’s warlord allies
continue Afghanistan patrols
villa she buys, Pram
than moping over
icceeds.
)ical story about matt!
ryside offers viewers[i
i simply change careet
and completely re»
it her four-letter word,
lesson, some men
nature. Although ita
ind warmth of the hejit
/ all.
-Lauren Romer;
ni illk iii lUm
> are
:d drive space
copy
f your own
.1 a friend
:een
three
lates
-month concert tout
k Cadillac ride from
nt climate.
)ylan as a one-s
n stage, across
tst 2002 in northed'
rmed for more tl
d to nearly 50,(
'oss' popularity,
mi the tour started.
song, “Code
tending that there's
) on.”
ith the truth durin;
id a video clip of
uction, Springsteei
hat such things had
lustrations,
imanding account
search out for the
Dylan.”
first encore, draw
ed “Highway 61
ng offstage,
land stuck mostly
gging deeper into
ng the most lucra-
11.2 million record
tar magazine,
ner and fall in the
the final three at
that anybody who
ith band members
others.”
ith a wave.
ire didn't send a clear
s a sappy track called
:k tracks. If that does-
match up to their its
t Get Enough ofy«
atience to apprecife,
te as the perfect id I
n the bright s/de, //is|
er siblings sticky fm-
-Nishi Fatima
By Mark Fritz
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITHAVE, Afghanistan — A
Soviet bullet entered his skull
behind the left ear and exited via
the nearest eye socket, leaving
nothing but lid. Two decades
later, a permanently winking
Maj. Mulla Naimatullah beams
with pride when his command
ing general tells this story.
Then there is Col. Talib
Hayatallah, who literally ate it
Taliban slug. It crashed into his
mouth and pulverized every
tooth on the left side of his (ace
before bursting out his cheek
bone. He, too, smiles in satisfac
tion about the flesh-and-bone
medal of valor.
These are America's allies in
the south-central Afghan
precinct of the worldwide war
on terrorism, just two of the 220
men who recently began an
open-ended mission to hunt for
Taliban fighters who have
gained a foothold back inside
the country.
The United States toppled the
’s darkly repressive
regime in 2001, payment
for harboring the headquarters of
Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida
terror group, which pulled off the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the
United States.
The Bush administration's
plan to rebuild this Texas-sized
place includes the creation of a
new national army and the dis
arming of a veritable army of
warlord militias — including the
relatively elite 1818 Advanced
Special Operations, an oft-
ambushed intelligence task
force to which Naimatullah and
Hayatallah belong.
U.N. teams plan to begin the
disarmament program on Oct.
18, offering cash for weapons.
But few expect much coopera
tion from the warlords who have
bankrolled their own armies to
fight 23 years worth of wars in
Afghanistan.
To the commanding officers
of this unit — run by the secular
ruler of southern Kandahar
Province and various other
regional Sunni Muslims — the
disarming idea triggers more
perplexity than anger.
“We're fighting the Taliban
and they want us to disarm?”
asked the hulking Gen. Atta
Mohammad, director of
Kandahar Special Forces and
leader of this patrol, which con
sists of 20 commanding officers
NEWS IN BRIEF
of other units, each with 10 of
their own hand-picked men.
Their mission, is to patrol the
rugged and isolated area that
forms the apex of three hot
provinces: Zabol, Kandahar and
Uruzgan. Scores of aid workers
and others affiliated with the
Western presence in Afghanistan
have been murdered in recent
weeks in the region.
The guerrillas, shrouded in
robes over their camouflage
fatigues, traveled in 10 light
pickups and two larger trucks
filled with fuel, spare tires and
other supplies. They were on a
loosely planned mission to fly
the flag for the isolated, impres
sionable people of the flyspeck
villages that are often hideaways
for the Taliban — a term that has
been loosely used of late to
include any enemy of the U.S.-
backed central government.
The Afghan government is try
ing to rein in warlords who con
trol most of the countryside while
it builds an entirely new army,
which so far numbers only about
5,000. The militias are proving
difficult to control, and even those
who support the post-Taliban gov
ernment have waged war with
each other over local disputes.
Government rolls out
new vehicle safety test
WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of using a
dry, mathematical formula to predict rollover risk,
the government is adding a wheel-squealing road
tesl intended to give consumers more information
about a vehicle’s handling capabilities.
Automakers say the road test will reward the
best-handling vehicles in each class by highlight
ing performance measures the formula could not
assess.One example is stability control, a system
tet applies brakes to specific tires and deceler
ates if it senses a driver is veering off course.
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, the government’s auto safety
is considering two different road tests
announce its decision Tuesday at its
test facility in Ohio. In the future, the govern
ment’s five-star rating system for rollover risk
will factor in both road tests results and the
mathematical approach.
Oldest American dies
in sleep at age 114
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Elena Slough, docu
mented as the nation’s oldest person, -died
Sunday at the nursing home where her daugh
ter died three days before. She was 114.
Slough died in her sleep at the Victoria Manor
Nursing Home, where she and her 90-year-old
daughter, Wanda Allen, lived, according to Judy
Moudy, a supervisor at the Lower Township facility.
Slough lived through 21 presidents and seven
U.S. wars.
■ *
ONLY SUPERSTAR
ATHLETES SHOULD
COME OUT OF RETIREMENT.
There’s nothing romantic about lacing up the wingtips for your big comeback.
An SRA is an economical, tax-deferred way to ensure you don’t run out of
retirement savings. Contact us before you decide to hang it up.
TIAA-CREF.org or call 800.842.2776
Managing money for people
with other things to think about.
RETIREMENT I INSURANCE I MUTUAL FUNDS I COLLEGE SAVINGS I TRUSTS I INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
TIAA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, Inc. and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. distribute
securities products. For information and prospectuses, call (877) 518-9161. Read them carefully before investing.
© 2003 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), 730 Third Avenue,
New York. NY 10017