Brother-in-law of Taliban leader killed during raid 13 June 2006

SECURITY forces raided a southern Afghan village and killed 15 suspected militants — one a relative of Taliban leader Mullah Omar — while fighting killed 25 people elsewhere, an Afghan army general said yesterday.

The violence extended three weeks of the fiercest battles since the Taliban’s fall in 2001. US Ambassador Ronald Neumann said the insurgents are proving to be better organised and greater in numbers than expected.

But he predicted the Taliban would be hit hard when thousands of British, Canadian and Dutch troops deploy to the volatile south by next month to take over from US troops.

“I think you will now see a very strong press back. I think a lot of unfortunate people who believe the Taliban and fight with them are going to die.”

Mullah Omar’s brother-in-law, Mullah Amanullah, was killed along with 14 other insurgents in Siachave village, Uruzgan province, when troops stormed the area late yesterday after a tip from tribesmen, said army commander General Rehmatullah Raufi.

Amanullah, whose body was recovered, was the Taliban commander in Uruzgan province’s Dihrawud district and responsible for numerous rebel attacks, Gen Raufi said.

It was not clear how close Amanullah was to Omar, who is believed to be hiding in the mountains along Afghanistan’s rugged border with Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Canadian television’s CTV and CBC Newsworld reported that two Canadians were reported shot and wounded in Panjwai, an area west of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and the scene of recent fierce battles.

In a second raid, Afghan and coalition troops killed 12 suspected militants in a fierce gunbattle in southern Kandahar province’s Saidan village. The forces tracked the rebels for two days and discovered them hiding in a fruit shop.

Ten other militants were killed in neighbouring Helmand province’s Sangin district late yesterday in a battle involving Afghan and British forces, the Afghan general said. A British soldier was killed and another two seriously injured in the clash.

The surge in fighting has killed 550 people, mostly militants, since mid-May.
Mr Neumann said the rebels have stepped up attacks to deter NATO countries from sending their troops here.

“They are making a major effort, believing wrongly that the European, Canadian forces will not have the will to fight,” he said.

The new troops are part of a NATO force that is assuming responsibility for security in the south from the US-led coalition. The number of foreign combat soldiers in the region will double once the transition is complete.

Mr Neumann said he thought some of the violence has been encouraged by drug barons trying to undermine the Afghan government’s US-backed counter-drugs campaign.

“President (Hamid) Karzai led a very strong policy to have governors eradicate poppies and to tell people not to grow. There were efforts by drug dealers and terrorists together to prevent that. Now they are trying to use the violence to guard their wealth.”

Afghanistan supplies 90% of the world’s opium and heroin and some of the drug profits have long been believed to fund the Taliban.

NATO to grant military equipment to ANA

KABUL, June 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak said Sunday the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) will provide some modern military equipment to the Afghan National Army (ANA) in next two to three months.

Addressing a press conference here returning from the 26-member NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, Wardak said the organisation was agreed to send new warfare instruments to the fledging National Afghan Army (ANA) to enable it to perform duty in efficient manner.

Representative of the only non-member country, Wardak attended the NATO defence ministerial meeting that discussed issues of strengthening stability and peace in the war-battered central Asian state.

Wardak said enhancing capacity of the ANA, police and border forces was also discussed in the meeting. He said that his meeting with NATO defence ministers was very fruitful.

The minister said roots of the surging insecurity in parts of Afghanistan were from outside. He said the violence would continue as long as its original sources were not eliminated outside the country.

Mujahideen Council condemns Newsweek article

KABUL, June 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Representatives of 'Mujahideen Council' from three northeastern provinces Sunday condemned an article of the American magazine, Newsweek, which termed President Hamid Karzai consultation with jihadi leaders in government affairs as a weakness of the President.

In its latest edition, the US magazine quoted a western diplomat as saying: "There is a widespread perception that the president too often consults leaders from the jihadi groups, who were strongly rejected by the Afghans."

Members of what they call 'Mujahideen Council' from Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces were gathered in Kabul to discuss their regional problems, said statement of the western diplomat was baseless and far from reality.

"Jihadi leaders have a status of very firm and strong pillars for this nation and the Afghan people," said a statement issued from the council. They also said people's dissatisfaction was due to the discrimination in launching reconstruction projects in the country. They said the government must step up reconciliation of anti-government dissidents.

They asked the government not to allow foreign troops to conduct military operations and searches irresponsibly without consultation of the local people and officials. They referred in the statement to killing of a mother and her child in Yaqobi district Khost province by the US forces in April.

Two Canadian soldiers injured in Afghanistan, Jun 12,

Two Canadian soldiers were wounded in combat in southwestern Afghanistan, Canadian military officials told AFP. The pair were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital at Kandahar airfield in "serious condition" and underwent surgery, Captain Stephanie Godin said.

Canadian and allied troops, as well as Afghan national security forces, had engaged suspected Taliban militants in Zharey district, about 25 kilometers southwest of Kandahar, she said.

The operation was meant to "rout out Taliban fighters who had recently returned to this area," Godin said. The two Canadian soldiers were injured by "small arms fire" in a firefight with the militants during a search after artillery and aircraft bombed the Taliban compound.

One Taliban fighter was detained and assorted bomb-making materials were seized in the sweep, Godin said. Canada has some 2,300 troops in Afghanistan, mostly in the south.

Sixteen Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in the region since 2001 when US-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime.

British soldier killed in Afghanistan named - 13/06/2006

The first British soldier to be killed in action in the Helmand province of Afghanistan has been named as Capt Jim Philippson. Capt Philippson, 29, of 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, was killed on Sunday evening after a firefight with suspected Taliban forces.

Two other soldiers were seriously injured in the incident and were taken to a military medical site for treatment. Today Lt Col David Hammond, commanding officer, hailed Capt Philippson, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, as a top quality officer "in the best traditions of the regiment and the British Army".

"Those around him were influenced not only by his commitment, passion and drive but also his enthusiasm and ready wit," Lt Col Hammond said. "A gifted commander, he had the self-confidence of an assured professional yet was also modest and willing to learn.

"All of this earned him the respect of all those he touched. The commitment he showed to his task in Afghanistan and every challenge he undertook was an inspiration.

"He was a rising star in every sense who had a huge amount to offer. He is a tremendous loss and our thoughts are with his family and many friends at this very difficult time." Capt Philippson's father, Anthony, today paid tribute to his "wonderful and brave" son.

Speaking from his home in Hertfordshire, Mr Philippson said his son had loved being in the Army. "It's what he lived for. It's our only consolation," he said. "He was killed doing exactly what he wanted to do. He could never have worked behind a desk."

US soldier killed in Ghazni blast

GHAZNI CITY, June 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): One US soldier was killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb in Andar district of the southern volatile Ghazni province.

The US forces were carrying out a joint patrol with the Afghan National Army (ANA) in the area when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Yaqoub village this afternoon, for which Taliban have claimed responsibility.

Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick, spokesman for the US-led coalition forces in Kabul told Pajhwok Afghan News the coalition and ANA had been engaged in small arms fire with a thin number of insurgents after the explosion.

"Yes, a Coalition soldier was killed in an IED attack near the village of Yaquob in Ghazni province," said the spokesman. Provincial police chief of Ghazni Tafsir Khan Shinwari said a US military vehicle was destroyed in the blast, but number of casualties was not clear yet. He said fresh security forces had been sent in the area to track down the militants involved in the attack.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. Mullah Hilal, who claims to be a local commander for the Taliban, told this news agency they blew up the US patrol vehicle, killing all its occupants.

Andar district has seen an upsurge in attacks on government and coalition targets in recent weeks and thus turned it in the most precarious district in the southern province.

Taliban kills District Intelligence Chief in Afghanistan

Kandahar, June 13: Taliban militants have killed a District Intelligence Chief in a drive-by shooting in southern Afghanistan, a police official said today.

Zulmai Khan was driving home from his office in the Ghazni provincial district of Waghuz yesterday when two men firing from motorcycles shot him to death, provincial police chief Thafir Khan said.

"According to our information, the Taliban carried out this attack," the Provincial Police Chief told.

Taliban militants have been stepping up attacks against Afghan officials and us-led coalition forces in a bid to derail American-led reconstruction efforts in this central Asian nation.

NATO troops in Afghanistan try `people-friendly' approach

By Kim Barker - Tribune foreign correspondent - Published June 13, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The men were on a mission, looking for mullahs, schools and a nightclub called The Pink Flamingo.

The British soldiers walking through downtown Kabul were also a bit of a spectacle, wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying SA80 combat rifles, a scene previously rare in Afghanistan's relatively secure capital.

"Do you know the nearest mosque?" Lt. Jim McMillan asked two Afghans, one holding a tea kettle and the other wearing a Hard Rock Honolulu shirt. "Do you know where the senior man around here is?"

This foot patrol is part of an effort by the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, to get close to Afghans, to find out what community leaders want. Although ISAF troops have gone on foot patrols from other bases, these patrols in the heart of Kabul are the first sent out of ISAF headquarters.

The daily patrols started about six weeks ago, when Lt. Gen. David Richards took over as commander of ISAF. They illustrate the "people-friendly" approach the NATO-led international force will take late next month when it takes over security for six troubled southern provinces from the U.S.-led coalition.

This transition comes at a key point for Afghanistan, still recovering from 23 years of war and the fall of the Taliban almost five years ago. At the same time, Taliban remnants and other insurgents have mounted their most serious challenge to Afghanistan's fledgling democracy since early 2002. Much of the fighting has been in the south, in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, also home to the bulk of the country's poppy crop, the raw material for heroin. The Taliban now controls some parts of these provinces.

On Thursday, NATO defense ministers reaffirmed their commitment to expand in Afghanistan, despite the increased insurgency. After the transition, ISAF troops will increase to 17,000 from about 9,000 throughout Afghanistan. The level of U.S. troops, now at 23,000, will decrease, but it's not clear by how much.

Troop strength in southern Afghanistan will double, to about 6,000 under ISAF.

As for the most troubled provinces, Canadian forces have already moved into Kandahar province, British forces are almost finished deploying in Helmand, and the Dutch have just started moving into Uruzgan.

In an interview, Richards said he hoped to build on the U.S. military approach in southern Afghanistan. He said the foot patrols in Kabul were an example of how he planned to tackle the south--by talking to Afghans, listening to their needs and helping more with reconstruction, rather than just hunting down insurgents.

Richards said the ISAF troops would fight the Taliban when required, but would not necessarily chase down every report of Taliban insurgents hiding in the hills.

"I may say, `Let them fester,'" Richards said. "Why am I going to go fight in their terrain? I'm going to remain very unpredictable."

U.S. troops have faced criticism for not working enough with Afghans and for performing raids and major operations without enough evidence or government permission.

But some experts and officials question whether NATO's "hearts and minds" approach is the answer in southern Afghanistan, or whether this could just allow the Taliban to gain more strength. Experts also question whether some countries in NATO have the political will to handle the casualties certain to come in the south.

One U.S. official said he was particularly concerned about the British approach in Helmand province, where most of the country's poppies are grown.

"You cannot be, `We just want to win everybody's hearts and minds and be nice to everybody and go along and by the way, we'll never do anything about drugs or this and that because it's not on our horizon, it's not on our screen,'" the U.S. official said. "I'm like, impossible."

Richards and other ISAF officials said they will have enough troops to tackle reconstruction and the Taliban. Troops will move into places where they have never been, where they will likely find more resistance from the Taliban.

Many experts believe the Taliban has stepped up its fight this year to take advantage of the transition in power, new troops on the ground and the unpopularity of the war in some NATO countries.

Mullah Ibrahim, a Taliban ground commander in Helmand province, said in a telephone interview that Taliban forces have captured two districts in Helmand since the British arrived.

"But if they are Americans or Canadians or British forces, it doesn't matter for us," Ibrahim said. "They are thieves who are not from our neighborhood and do not know about our homes. They have come from far away and are not as familiar with our soil as we are. And even if we fight them with stones, they will not be able to win."

Most experts agree that this will be the crunch year for Afghanistan, a time when the Taliban, poppies and corruption will be defeated or the country could slide back into chaos.

The British soldiers who patrol Kabul out of ISAF headquarters said they believed their "people-friendly" approach allows them to connect more with Afghans, even if they worried that Afghans were not being entirely honest. Afghans often tell foreigners not what they think, but what they think foreigners want to hear.

The mission this day was a baby step. Soldiers found the mosque, but at prayer time, so they could not talk to the mullah. Soldiers did not have time to track down The Pink Flamingo, a nightclub that the Afghan government wants to know more about.

"Does everybody go to school, or do only certain people go?" McMillan, the lieutenant, asked a young man wearing a pistol-shaped belt buckle.

"Girls and boys go," replied Ahmad Afredi, 21, a painter. "What do you think?" McMillan asked. "I'm hopeful," said Afredi, grinning.

Afghan ministers to attend meeting on power supply

KABUL, June 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Energy and Water Ismail Khan and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Saiqal will attend two-day meeting on supply of water from Central Asia to India and Pakistan in Istanbul on Monday (tomorrow).

Faqiryar, foreign relations officer at the Energy and Water Ministry, said besides Afghanistan, high officials and representatives from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan would attend the meeting.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News in case power was supplied from the Central Asian countries, the country from where the power was passing would also get some benefit. He said after the agreement was made a delegation would specify the areas from the power would be passed.

This is the first meeting where the participants will discuss supply of power from Central Asia to India and Pakistan through Afghanistan. Turkmenistan power is also set to be supplied via Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Communication ministry receives Int'l award

KABUL, June 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Communication Ministry has received the Intelligent Community Technology 2006 award for expanding communication services throughout the country, the ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Abdul Haid Hadi, told Pajhwok Afghan News the award named after Intelligent Community Technology Visionary, was handed over to Afghanistan embassy in United States.

He said the award was granted on annually by Internationally Communication Forum ICF to a country or communication company that showed excellent performance. While handing over the award, John G. Jung, chief of the International Communication Forum ICF, said: "The communication has helped in brining the people of Afghanistan closer." Issuing licenses to two new companies, extending communication services to 34 provinces and connecting ministries by communication and internet and Fiber Noori Network between Afghanistan and Iran were of the main achievements of the ministry in the current year.

The ICF was founded by World Teleport Association in 2000 and ICF focuses on the uses of broadband and information technology for economic development by communities large and small.

DiManno: Canada owes maimed Afghan

Jun. 12, 2006. 05:38 AM - ROSIE DIMANNO Toronto Star -

They are the front line troops of the war against a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. But we rarely put a name to the faces of slain and wounded nationals.

Here is one name: Mohammed Niaz.

The 21-year-old is not even a combatant, formally. He's an interpreter, a civilian employed by Canadian Forces in Kandahar, specifically at the Provincial Reconstruction Team satellite base on the outskirts of the Kandahar City.

A strapping young man, as I recall him, endlessly useful, and very much the apple of his father's eye — Col. Hussain Andiwa, senior liaison officer between the Canadians and Afghanistan's central government.

At this moment, Mohammed Niaz is lying in a bed at the multinational hospital at Kandahar airfield, despondent over the loss of both his legs, grievous injuries suffered when he was caught in a firefight between Taliban and Bravo Company troops on May 24.

"Help me,'' he pleaded recently to a reporter from National Public Radio, an American agency and the only media I know of that has chronicled his plight.

"All the day ... I'm crying.''

It is Canada that Mohammed Niaz is beseeching, and rightly so. He is, for all intents and purposes, one of us — part of our presence there and this country's responsibility.

Canadian and Dutch medical personnel have been treating Mohammed Niaz at KAF, making him as comfortable as possible. But there's been no explanation for why this young man — so hideously wounded in the service of Canadian troops — has not been transferred to the sophisticated military hospital in Germany where coalition casualties are routinely evacuated.

"Whenever their (soldiers get) hit, they are sending them to Germany or Canada right away,'' Mohammed Niaz complained to NPR last month. "I've been laying here for one week now. Come on! Help me.''

Despite repeated calls by the Star to Canadian Forces authorities in Ottawa, no information has been forthcoming about what this country intends to do for Mohammed Niaz, not even if Canada is legally — or morally — bound to do anything. If a policy exists on casualty coverage and compensation for Afghan nationals in the direct service of our military in Afghanistan, bureaucrats at the Department of National Defence seem unable to put their hands on it.

This would be the same commissariat that neglected to share, with the Canadian public, details of a bilateral agreement signed between the two countries last December on what Canadian troops were to do with enemy combatants taken into custody. (They're turned over to Afghan authorities, with no rules in place to ensure humanitarian treatment, nor — as Holland specified before they deployed troops — a method for monitoring the condition of those detainees.)

The same department that has no intention of letting us know how much Canada paid to the family of an innocent Afghan man who was shot and killed at a Kandahar City roundabout by one of our soldiers in March. (The soldier, himself devastated by the incident, says he fired upon a motorized rickshaw cab that refused to stop as it neared a Canadian convoy parked on the side of the street.)

The same department that, nearly three months after the fact, has yet to release the findings of an investigation into whether Pte. Robert Costall was killed by "friendly fire" during a fierce firefight at Forward Operating Base Robinson. Nor will military commanders allow the Canadian troops involved to speak with reporters about that event, though several have indicated they very much wish to do so.

Thank God there are more sensible — and morally upright — can-do Canadian military commanders on the ground, who aren't twisted in a bumbledom pretzel over their obligations toward Afghans.

"We do have a responsibility and we will assist in whatever way we can,'' Lt.-Col. Ian Hope told the Star in an telephone interview from KAF the other night. "It's extremely unfortunate that a non-combatant was injured in such a way. But Niaz remains an employee of the PRT.''

Hope is commander of Task Force Orion, the battle group component of Task Force Afghanistan. His combat companies rely extensively on interpreters, Afghan security details and civilian adjutants.

"Not only are they our eyes and our ears, they're also critical advisers. Every one of them is a direct link to the locals. We rely upon them. They spread the purpose of our mission by word of mouth. And our success here, everything about it, depends on human goodwill.''

That goodwill is a fragile thing. Afghans place extraordinary importance on even the most simple of courtesies, and non-negotiable core principles of loyalty. If Canadian military authorities ignore these social precepts, it won't matter how many Taliban enclaves are cleaned out by troops on the ground — the campaign will be lost.

Over the last month, fighting has escalated, as the Taliban carry out their promised spring offensive. Clashes have been occurring almost daily, particularly in the Panjwai district west of Kandahar City. Capt. Nichola Goddard was killed there in an ambush when Canadian troops entered a village.

It was a similar ambush that targeted the B Company platoon with which Mohammed Niaz was travelling. He was in a G-Wagon, which lacks the armoured protection of the LAV-III or Bison.

"They were taking small arms fire and trying to get out of the ambush area by driving through back alleys,'' says Hope. A rocket-propelled grenade then struck the vehicle, on the side where Mohammed Niaz was sitting, and he took the full brunt of it. "Everybody else suffered only minor injuries. So they all piled into another vehicle, carrying Niaz. The soldiers did first aid on him as best they could, while they continued to take fire.''

The RPG severed one of Niaz's feet. His other leg, so mangled it could not be saved, was amputated upon arrival at KAF. "He's a very brave young man,'' says Hope of Niaz. "Brave and stoic. Physically, his health is strong and he is recovering.''

Niaz is held in great affection by Canadian troops, who have been constant visitors to his bedside. But he will need far more than morale boosting now. Though only 21, Mohammed Niaz is married with a young daughter. And Afghanistan is among the worst places in the world for a handicapped person to survive with any dignity.

"The handicapped are a very vulnerable community here,'' says Hope. "They are not looked after.''

It is incumbent on Canada to look after Mohammed Niaz and his family —medically, financially, morally. Commanders on the ground will provide a wheelchair when the patient is released — and arrange for his home to be made wheelchair-accessible — while doctors determine if he can be fitted for prosthetics.

But that can't be done there.

This is a made-in-Afghanistan tragedy. Yet it can only be fixed — insofar as fixing is possible — here. Mohammed Niaz matters. We owe him.

A secret weapon against Afghan insurgency

Religious language helps connect to local people, Canadian Forces imam says - GRAEME SMITH – Globe and Mail

EL BAK, AFGHANISTAN -- A rich voice sang out from a tent, over the bowed heads of elders sitting on carpets and out across the moonscape of rocks, dust and jagged mountains. It was a Muslim prayer, but the kind of prayer never before heard in this part of southern Afghanistan.

"Oh God, help us," Captain Suleyman Demiray said. "Help the Afghan forces and coalition forces root out all kinds of terrorism from this country."

In his Canadian Forces fatigues, Capt. Demiray, 39, looks like any other soldier, except for his white skullcap and the embroidered crescent moon on his chest. As the only military imam in Afghanistan, Capt. Demiray is one of Canada's secret weapons against the insurgency.

Journalists in Afghanistan are forbidden from photographing him, and he hasn't given an interview since he arrived here in early March because he fears making himself a target.

aPs="boxR"; var boxRAC = fnTdo('a'+'ai',300,250,ai,'j',nc); But after watching the warm reaction of elders who listened to his prayers on Saturday during the official opening of Forward Operating Base Martello, Capt. Demiray cautiously agreed to talk about his work.

"The religious language is so powerful," he said, quietly. "It's a common language for connecting with these people."

Brigadier-General David Fraser spent part of the afternoon sitting cross-legged on carpets at the new base, picking at a bowl of grapes, oranges and kiwi fruit, and talking with men in turbans who represent the local tribes. The success of FOB Martello, perched on a rocky outcrop about 200 kilometres north of Kandahar, depends largely on the goodwill of the elders who can advise the nearby villagers whether to help the Canadian newcomers or the Taliban insurgents.

The elders seemed argumentative with the Canadian commander. But when Capt. Demiray stepped into the circle and started reciting verses of the Koran, a hush fell over the tent and the bearded men lifted their hands in supplication.

"I was watching the eyes of the people in that tent," Gen. Fraser said afterward. "They were listening to our imam very carefully."

Among dozens of countries fielding armies in Afghanistan, Canada is the only one to experiment with using an imam to deliver a message of peace. This is an area where Canada brings something new to the battlefield, Gen. Fraser said, because of the country's strong tradition of multiculturalism.

"We bring that very fabric to everything we do," he said. "It's an understanding and a sensitivity to the people, and it's one of our real strengths." One measure of Capt. Demiray's influence was his effect on Mullah Yara Jan.

The 60-year-old used to preach at a village mosque not far from the Canadian base, but he was forced to quit a year ago when his 30-year-old son was arrested on suspicion of helping the Taliban. The loss of a working son obliged Mr. Jan to leave his mosque and start working at a pharmacy to support his family. He had every reason to hold a grudge against the foreign troops, but he showed up at Saturday's ceremony to help Capt. Demiray sing the prayers.

"I am angry about my son," Mr. Jan said. "I can hardly sleep. My eyesight fails, I get so angry. . . . [But] it's very good work here. They are trying to enforce security."

Capt. Demiray was born in Turkey and immigrated to Canada in 1993. He joined the military a decade later, becoming its first Muslim chaplain. Beyond saying prayers with elders, Capt. Demiray ministers to the 200 Muslims among Canada's 60,000 military personnel. He also advises the forces on cultural issues. He recently tried to persuade the chain of command that soldiers shouldn't give away copies of men's magazines to their Afghan allies, because the photos of scantily clad women could tarnish the Canadians' image among devout Muslims.

Religion could become a more powerful tool against the insurgents, Capt. Demiray said, if the Afghan government took more control over spiritual discourse in the country. The government already supports the Islamic Scholars' Council, or ulema, which has been attacked several times by the Taliban because of its success with persuading radical preachers to tone down their rhetoric.

But the government could go further, Capt. Demiray said, by putting mullahs on the public payroll and checking to ensure that they're not supporting terrorism. He acknowledges that it's an unusual idea, and it would only be a temporary measure until Afghanistan is pacified.

In the meantime, he added, he'll continue singing prayers, and continue watching for reaction among his listeners. "You see it in their faces," he said. "They want to say so many things to you. You can feel it."