U.S. Marines raise the flag at the embassy in Kabul.
Posted on 12/17/2001 12:49:53 AM PST by Gracey
For anyone with Cable - Check out CNN. Ceremonies for the opening of the United States Embassy in Afghanistan is going on - NOW!!!!!!
Thanks Gracey.
Blessed Christmas and be safe!
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The United States resumed its official diplomatic presence in Afghanistan when it raised the flag Monday at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul for the first time since 1989.
"It demonstrates that we're determined to play a continuing diplomatic, political and economic role here in assisting Afghanistan to make the transition from war to peace," according to James Dobbins, the State Department's top representative to Afghanistan.
The embassy will initially serve as a "liaison office" between the U.S. and the interim Afghan government, which is set to take office on December 22.
Through the years, the embassy has been hit by rocket fire and one of its annexes was burned by an anti-U.S. mob. In 1979, the ambassador was kidnapped by terrorists and killed in an ensuing gun battle.
But the embassy still stands, largely intact, on almost 28 acres in the capital city, even though the Taliban militia ransacked the building.
The interior has largely remained frozen in time. The ambassador's desk was strewn with papers from 12 years ago and a half-smoked cigar was found in an ashtray.
Books remained on shelves, pictures on walls, and the ambassador's fine china, crystal and service set are still intact.
U.S. Marines guarding the embassy compound said there have been no serious incidents there.
But they say that machinegun and anti-aircraft fire celebrating the end of the month of Ramadan added an edge to their duties.
Britain, France, Germany, and Italy already have embassies or missions open, joining Russia, India and Iran. Turkey is to open its embassy on Monday.
During the five years of Taliban rule, Afghanistan went unrecognized by all but three states: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Good to see.
Regarding your other post, it is great to see Afghani kids with US flags. It says more about the adults. I saw an interview with a Palestinian kid the other day on TV. The kid was parroting all kinds of anti-Israeli stuff and (according to the translator) using more sophisticated language than his age would allow.
These kids only know what they're taught.
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By LAURA KING, AP Special Correspondent
KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - The big metal U.S. seal over the entrance has been replaced, the sprawling grounds have been swept for bombs and booby traps, and a long-mothballed American flag was ready for the raising.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, shuttered since 1989, was reopening Monday as a liaison office - one of many long-abandoned diplomatic outposts in the capital being rushed into service in the days before Afghanistan's interim government is inaugurated Saturday.
Like Kabul itself, the embassy has stood silent witness to years of violent upheaval in Afghanistan - the Soviet invasion, the bloody civil war that left much of the capital in ruins, the harshly repressive Taliban era.
The last U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped by Islamic militants in 1979. He died in a crossfire in a botched rescue attempt by Afghan security agents.
The embassy functioned without an ambassador until the last of its staff left in early 1989. After that, Afghan custodians kept an eye on the deserted downtown compound, most of them working for years without pay.
In September, with Taliban police looking on, protesters attacked the embassy in a carefully choreographed display of anti-American sentiment, ripping down the U.S. seal, setting vehicles ablaze and burning a guardhouse.
The American-led air campaign began less than two weeks later, after the Taliban refused demands to hand over Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites).
At Monday's ceremony - to be presided over by veteran diplomat James F. Dobbins, who will run the liaison office until it is upgraded again to an embassy - a contingent of U.S. Marines was to hoist the same flag that last flew over the compound.
Invited guests and journalists were undergoing tight security checks, and northern alliance soldiers armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles milled about in the streets surrounding the embassy, preventing anyone from parking nearby.
Dobbins was a key architect of the U.N.-brokered interim government, and has long experience in troubled venues like Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The re-establishment of an American diplomatic presence in Kabul is laden with symbolic significance - but is also seen as an important practical move to help keep the transfer of power on track.
The new post-Taliban government is headed by hereditary Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, and key Cabinet posts are held by members of the northern alliance, which seized most of Afghanistan's territory from the Taliban, aided by a massive American air offensive.
Some Afghan factions - famous for settling their differences with gunplay - have made plain their dissatisfaction with the allocation of power in the new government. But Dobbins told The Associated Press in Washington last week that ``things are continuing to develop more positively than most of us would have expected.''
After the interim administration has been in place for six months, an emergency assembly is to meet, decide on another provisional government and begin writing a constitution. Approximately two years later, another assembly, a tribal council called a loya jirga, will adopt a constitution.
The small group of U.S. diplomats working the embassy is being guarded by Marines. An international peacekeeping force was expected to be deployed soon, roughly coinciding with the handover of power to Karzai's government.
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