In some of the now-disabled Agriculture
Department posts viewed by The Associated
Press, several, but not all, contained details that
would clearly be viewed by the Taliban as proof
of collaboration, such as names and photos of
Afghan agricultural specialists and governmental
officials who visited the U.S. on multiple USDA-
sponsored delegations or fellowships.
Others were more innocuous, such as an article
about Minnesota farmers donating more than
2,500 bushels of soybean seeds to their Afghan
counterparts. The fact that they have also been
scrubbed from the site possibly indicates the
level of caution being used —or simply that
whole sections of Afghan-related material were
hastily deleted in large batches.
One scrubbed article makes it clear that even
while the American military was deployed
across the country, Afghan civilians and
government officials were in danger of
retaliation for the most low-level associations
with the U.S. government.
It recounts in detail the USDA’s working
relationship with the members of an regional
agricultural authority in a province near Kabul.
USDA helped coordinate a shura (townhall
meeting) between the council members and
local farmers. The article, which includes a
photo of the meeting, notes more than 250
farmers showed up despite insurgent threats
of “violence against any farmer or government
official planning to attend the meeting or work
with USDA.”
The author praises the government officials
“who risk their safety each day to bring progress
and opportunity to their fellow Afghans.”Image: Zabi Karimi