AAM DISPATCH

This report on the lives of street children was created by Rebin Fazil, a 24-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

This report on a young Iranian musician living in Iraqi Kurdistan was created by Karokh Nuraddin, a 22-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next two months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

This report on a nomadic Kurdish family living near the Iranian border was created by Shivan Sito, a 27-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

A suicide bomber targeting Iraqi army recruits blew himself up in Bagdhad killing 61 and wounding at least 125 people. This attack comes on the heels of another suicide attack on July 18th targeting a government-backed Sunni militia, killing 39 and wounding 41. Iraqi citizens are concerned that a new wave of insurgent attacks may target ordinary citizens and are wondering if the Iraqi security forces are up to the challenge.

All but 50,000 Americans will leave the country by September 1st leaving the majority of security challenges to the Iraqis themselves. As the US forces change the nature of US engagement in Iraq from combat counter-insurgency operations to stability operations, the remaining force will focus on training, not fighting.

In an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security, Michael Corbin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, and Dr. Colin Kahl, Deputy Assistent Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, discussed the roles the State and Defense Departments will play in the following months.

Read more…

Javier Barrera Iraq

This report was created by Muhammed Nawzad, a 23-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

On Tuesday, the UN released a report reporting civilian casualties surged by 31% during the first six months of this year compared the same period in 2009 in Afghanistan. The report goes on to blame most of the deaths to the Taliban and other insurgents, while fewer are being killed by coalition forces. With increasing deaths and public sentiment turning against the war in Afghanistan, many people are asking, “Is this war winnable?”

According to Stephen Biddle, Roger Hertog Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, early rapid progress lead to overly optimistic sentiment on the part of the military and the government. He compares Afghanistan now to Iraq in June 2007, near the beginning of the surge of American troops. Biddle argues that we must wait through a “fighting cycle” — one year to 18 months to see where we stand in Afghanistan. He cites the current situation in Helmand Province as an example of a successful campaign: the Taliban were kicked out, they tried to re-establish, the Taliban failed and now the province is reasonably stable. If at the end of the current fighting cycle, in places such as Kandahar, or the situation deteriorates in what were once safe havens, it will be hard to sustain public support.

The stakes are particularly high because of Afghanistan’s proximity to nuclear Pakistan. Pakistan’s internal war conflict and access to nuclear weapons leaves no doubt that an unstable Afghanistan could again become a base for launching attacks against the US. Biddle goes on to state that although the deadline for troop withdrawl is August 2011, he thinks the US will not abandon Afghanistan and that may change some perceptions in Afghanistan concerning security and governance.

America Abroad journalist Sean Carberry embeds with the military in Paktya and Khost Provinces in southeastern Afghanistan to see how the counterinsurgency campaign is playing out near Afghanistan’s lawless border with Pakistan. Listen >

Javier Barrera Afghanistan

In a recent WSJ op-ed two very unlikely bedfellows, Paul Wolfowitz and Al Gore, came together over the issue of the unjust imprisonment of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Mr. Anwar is being tried on the trumped up charge of sodomy in an effort to derail the opposition movement he spearheads. On a trip last year to the United States, Mr. Anwar stopped in to chat with AAM’s Katherine Gypson about restrictions on media freedom and political opposition in Malaysia. View the interview here.

Chris Williams South Asia

This story was written by Sahar Alani, a 24-year old reporter living in Erbil.

Yakub Najmaldeen, 31, faced the same challenges as many Iraqis did when he was a child. He was poor. He had a big family to take care of. At the age of 9, during the Iran-Iraq War, Yakub made just a few dinar each day by carrying stacks of bread loaves on his head and selling them to people on the street. He pressed himself against the walls of stores and cried when sirens alerted the city that Iranian bombers were nearby.

Yakub didn’t accept his conditions. He decided to throw everything he had into improving his and his family’s life. In two decades, Yakub went from a peddler in the streets to a vastly wealthy businessman.

His father was sick and his family needed money for medicine, food and a roof over their heads.

“I helped myself and all my family, by myself,” Yakub said.

As a child, he wandered the streets of Erbil from 6 in the morning to 9 at night, offering people bread and cigarettes.

In 1989, at age 10, his father lent him 650 dinar to start a money exchange business. “I remember I earned 750 dinar during the first 15 days, which was really great,” he said.

In 1991, Iraq freely traded with Turkey and Iran. So, at the age of 12, Yakub decided to travel to Haji Omran to sell cigarettes to traders, who crossed through the border town every day. He began to watch how they conducted their sales. Read more…

Katherine Gypson

This slideshow was created by Shivan Sito, a 27-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

Rabat is probably one of the sleepiest cities in the Middle East/North Africa region. It’s certainly the quietest capital city that I’ve visited. It’s clean, relatively well developed and easy to navigate. But, there’s not a lot of character or energy to the city.

Probably the most character (or more appropriately, characters) I have experienced so far was at lunch today. I sat down at City VIPs, one of the many small street-front restaurants this afternoon. It is basically a fast food place with a few Moroccan dishes. I was the only American there, and the only person eating a Moroccan dish (I had a chicken tagine) rather than a burger or pizza or pasta.

Within minutes of sitting down, an odd assortment of street vendors and beggars passed by my table to offer their wares or solicit handouts. First was a shoeshine guy. I’ve noticed more shoeshine guy in this city than I can remember seeing anywhere else. Read more…

Sean Carberry Morocco, Rabat, Street Vendors