Ali Ahmad Jalali (born 1940) is an Afghan American and a Distinguished Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University, which is located in Washington, D.C. He is also the former Interior Minister of Afghanistan, (who served from January 28, 2003 to September 27, 2005) … (wikipedia).
His Bio on Afghanistan online.
Afghanistan: Top Security Official Resigns Amid Controversy.
He says: … « I will not work as Interior Minister anymore. Maybe there are reasons for this and maybe not, but one of the main reasons is that I wish to resume my academic research », … and: « All these rumors are baseless, and I seriously reject them », … and: (he is) more committed than anyone else in the fight against drugs » …(full text, September 28, 2005).
… Prior to joining the Afghan government, Jalali lived with his family in suburban Maryland. His family remains there, and his children continue to attend Prince George’s County schools … (full text).
Ali Ahmad Jalali – Afghanistan and USA
… Trafficking amongst children has turned into one of the major menaces of a developing society amongst which Afghanistan, a war, torn and socio-economically dilapidated nation has turned into one of the major breeding grounds of such a menace after illegal narcotics trafficking … ‘Afghan children are being kidnapped on their way to school or while playing in parks. The Afghan interior minister, Ali Ahmed Jalali, says that both boys and girls are abducted for both domestic and international markets, to be used for sex or labor, or to provide human organs’. (full text, 03 May, 2008).
Many speculations have been made about his retirement from Karzai but nothing has officially been confirmed as the real reason for his leaving his post. He told Afghan television on Tuesday there were « various reasons » for his resignation, primarily a desire for the « more relaxed » life as an academic … (full text).
Find him and his publications on amazon; on Encycopedia; on EMM; on INSS; on Google Book-search;
on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.
Fun Summer Reading: I am finally getting around to reading, The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan, Lester W. Grau and The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War, Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester W. Grau. For some reason, The Other Side of the Mountain is about twice as long as The Bear. Go figure … (full text, Aug. 7th, 2008).
… “The Afghan authorities have always said that if Pakistan’s government does not prevent cross-border activities by the militias, they will pose a serious threat to Pakistan’s government itself,” former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, who is a professor at the Near East South Asia center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, told RFE/RL. “The security situation inside Peshawar is now worse than the security situation inside most Afghan cities. Therefore, the first phase of this Pakistani military activity is aimed at forcing these militants out of these areas.” Jalali expressed his “hope [that] this operation continues until it creates such a situation that, on one hand, it destroys the strongholds of the militants inside Pakistan from which they attack NATO and Afghan forces across the borer, and on the other hand, until it creates such a situation in [Pakistan’s] tribal areas that militants no longer pose any threat to Pakistan or Afghanistan or the region” … (full text, July 3, 2008).
More of his profile: U.S. citizen since 1987, Ali Ahmad Jalali left his job as a broadcaster for VOA in February 2002 to become the Interior Minister of Afghanistan; Prior to joining the Afghan government, Jalali lived with his family in suburban Maryland. His family remains there. He has a son, 33, and a daughter, 30; Jalali, a former employee of the U.S. government, is a longtime student of military organization. He was for several years a top military planner with the Afghan resistance against the Soviets; He has written extensively about the Afghan military for scholarly journals and the mass media, in addition to reporting on Afghanistan and Central Asia for VOA for almost two decades; Jalali wrote an influential critique in the spring of 2002 of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan, arguing that the way the United States used local chieftains in the war on terrorism « enhanced the power of the warlords and encouraged them to defy the central authorities. » He later softened his criticism but pointed out that local militias still play a significant role in working with the U.S. military … Jalali left Karzai’s cabinet on 27 Sep, 2005.
links:
… we need books, July 14, 2008;
The Google download book: Afghan Guerrilla Warfare, 2001, 420 pages;
The Quqnoos website, and its page for the Afghanistan Presidential Election of 2009;
Political Tea Leaves in Afghanistan, Sept. 15, 2008;
Isn’t Karzai really on the edge? May 20, 2008;
A Spiegel interview with Hamid Karzai, June 17, 2008;
Afghanistan timeline October 2003;
Bid to reconstruct Afghanistan;