AMY GOODMAN: Before we end, Sarah Chayes, you left journalism, and now you’re with an aid organization. Tell us what you’re doing now? We have less than a minute.
SARAH CHAYES: Right. It’s not an aid organization. I left that aid organization. I’m now running a cooperative called Arghand -- that’s A-R-G-H-A-N-D -- and we make high-quality skin-care products, which you can buy in the United States and Canada using licit local agriculture.
AMY GOODMAN: Why are you doing this?
SARAH CHAYES: It’s way of trying to combat opium-growing. In other words, the best way to make it possible for people not to plant poppy is for them to be able to make money growing other things.
AMY GOODMAN: And your choice to do this?
SARAH CHAYES: It’s about grassroots. It’s about building democracy on whatever level you can in a cooperative, where there are good relations with producers, where there’s a collective decision-making process, and where we can honor a lot of the traditional licit crops that Kandahar has been known for for millennia. Sems like a worthwhile thing to be involved in.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
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4 comments:
have u got a link to the original article or interview, shumit? might be interesting
Big Daddy D
The link is www.democracynow.org. Search the archives for Oct 11.
later,
shumit
Arghand and ACS both seemed to benefit from Chayes background. She helped with a radio station and had worked with NPR. She financed Arghand from Mercy Corps, which she ran - which was financed by USAID. She worked closely with the Green Berets during and after the invasion and embedded herself with Mercy corps.
The members of Arghand are all Karzai brothers and sitters in laws that were involved in Afghanistan back in 1998. This allowed Karzai to move into power nicely and his family was well paid through Chayes and the NGOs.
Chayes is from Cambridge and her father taught at the university. He was also a close advisor to Kennedy, who started Peace Corps, which Sarah Chayes served. This history got her the job at NPR and the rest is history.
As far as her being CIA, there was allot of money from AID going to Mercy Corps. She was with the Green Berets during and after the invasion, also started by Kennedy (PeaceCorps with guns, same training), and the director of the poppy program for the DEA was also the Director of Peace Corps. Chayes and the Peace Corps model seemed to work well for the invasion and pacification of Afghanistan- two phases: Green Berets and Peace. It is a model based on another war and so is the Poppy Program.
Chayes went for the whole Karzai family, an easy way to Hamid Karzai. Selecting this leader also involved Chalabi who was not approved by this group. Chayes provided money for the NGOs that Karzai and his family were involved with and deemed herself 'close' to the leadership.
A couple of months ago Chayes announced she was going to the US to sell her book, just before the 'insurgency' broke out. At the same time she denounced Karazai who just announced he is leaving. So, Chayes may have been good for financing, but used this to get close to karzai and his family and when she felt they were no longer needed denounced them and the government - went of to sell her book, advise governments and militaries regarding her five year work in Afghanistan.
Chayes is more a study on how to use a family and a country and how to leave them when done, which is why there always were CIA rumors. The invasion and pacification is a nice journey for Abrahm Chaye's daughter-Kennedy, Green Berets, Peace Corps, etc. I am sure Sarah Chayes appreciates the invasion, drug eradication, and pacification of Afghanistan in her history as a family and her service.
Wow...you have done some hardcore research on Chayes man. Thats some intense stuff. Thanks for the information. I usually listen to democracy now and found her interview sort of cool. I should have done some background research before putting up that stuff.
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