Is That Osama Or A Gun Under There, Ma'am

IOL ^ | 9-23-2002

[blam]

Is that Osama or a gun under there, ma'am?

September 23 2002 at 10:16AM

Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan - US troops searching women in Afghanistan have found weapons and other items concealed under traditional head-to-toe garments known as burqas, a US military spokesperson said on Monday.

Lieutenant Colonel Carla Sylvester said searches of women had uncovered large quantities of weapons, equipment and documents suspected to have been concealed on behalf of al-Qaeda terrorists.

Two separate raids on Sunday yielded an array of items, some of them concealed under burqas.

"We have seen several incidents of this kind of thing where women are used to hide weapons and other items under their burqas," Sylvester said.

'Women are used to hide weapons and other items under their burqas' In one raid, in the eastern province of Khost, several laptop computers were found along with passports, propaganda related to Osama bin Laden, 11 rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition. Some items were concealed under burqas.

In a separate search at Deh Raud in the central province of Uruzgan, US troops discovered two high-frequency radio antennas and weapons including a Russian machine gun and 10 Soviet grenades.

Two AK-47 rifles and an 82-mm mortar were found under a blanket on which women were sitting, Sylvester said.

US-led coalition searches of women in Afghanistan, where strict Islamic values prevail, have come in for repeated criticism from local leaders who say troops often act in a heavy-handed or offensive fashion. The military says all searches are in line with Islamic practice.

"There are several common threads that appear through these stories about searches of women or mistreatment of women. The bottom line is that coalition forces as a rule do not search women," another spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Roger King, said last week.

"If we are suspicious of Afghan women, then we will approach Afghans to approach the women and lately we have women military police going out with the soldiers to conduct searches in line with cultural norms," King said. -Sapa-AFP

[Tired of Taxes]

lately we have women military police going out with the soldiers to conduct searches in line with cultural norms

...and who says that women don't belong in the armed forces? Apparently, we're fulfilling a need in Afghanistan.

[BlueLancer]

"US troops searching women in Afghanistan have found weapons and other items concealed under traditional head-to-toe garments known as burqas, a US military spokesperson said on Monday."

You'd be surprised what they can hide under there.