title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: In Massoud's area, women and girls did not have to wear the Afghan burqa. They were allowed to work and to go to school. In at least two known instances, Massoud personally intervened against cases of forced marriage. While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions, which he said would need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion, that could be achieved only through education.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Massoud created democratic institutions that were structured into several committees: political, health, education and economic. Still, many people came to him personally when they had a dispute or problem and asked him to solve their problems.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the Taliban to the areas of Massoud. In 2001, Massoud and photographer and former UN ambassador Reza Deghati described the bitter situation of the Afghan refugees and asked for humanitarian help.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Following the rise of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and their capture of Kabul, Abdul Rashid Dostum aligned himself with the Northern Alliance (United Front) against the Taliban. The Northern Alliance was assembled in late 1996 by Dostum, Ahmad Shah Massoud and Karim Khalili against the Taliban. At this point he is said to have had a force of some 50,000 men supported by both aircraft and tanks.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Much like other Northern Alliance leaders, Dostum also faced infighting within his group and was later forced to surrender his power to General Abdul Malik Pahlawan. Malik entered into secret negotiations with the Taliban, who promised to respect his authority over much of northern Afghanistan, in exchange for the apprehension of Ismail Khan, one of their enemies. Accordingly, on 25 May 1997, Malik arrested Khan, handed him over and let the Taliban enter Mazar-e-Sharif, giving them control over most of northern Afghanistan. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee to Turkey. However, Malik soon realized that the Taliban were not sincere with their promises as he saw his men being disarmed. He then rejoined the Northern Alliance, and turned against his erstwhile allies, driving them from Mazar-e-Sharif. In October 1997, Dostum returned from exile and retook charge. After Dostum briefly regained control of Mazar-e-Sharif, the Taliban returned in 1998 and he again fled to Turkey.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Haji Abdul Qadeer ( in Jalalabad, Afghanistan – July 6, 2002 in Kabul, Afghanistan) (Arabic: الحاج عبد القادر) was a prominent Pashtun anti-Taliban leader in the United Front. He was the brother of Abdul Haq, a well-known resistance leader against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Qadeer's family was a traditionally powerful one, with ties to former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah. Haji Abdul Qadeer had a base of power in the east of Afghanistan and was the governor of his home province of Nangarhar before the Taliban took power.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Qadeer became the Vice President of Afghanistan in the post-Taliban administration of Hamid Karzai. On July 6, 2002, Qadeer and his son-in-law were killed by gunmen. Another of his sons, Haji Mohammed Zaher, was shot dead in Kabul also in 2002.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Mohammed Omar headed the Taliban forces during the Afghan civil war. Mullah Omar declared himself Amir-ul-Momineen (Commander of the Faithful). was rarely photographed and rarely spoke to journalists directly. Many saw Mullah Omar as a nominal figure trained and controlled by Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Followers of the Taliban claim that Mullah Omar was born in the central province of Uruzgan, in 1962. Other sources place his birth in Kandahar, . They also say that he studied in several Islamic schools outside of Afghanistan, especially in Quetta, Pakistan. In the 1980s he joined the resistance against the Soviet invasion. It is believed that he lost his eye fighting the Soviets as a deputy Chief Commander in the Harakat-i Islami party of Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi. In 1994, Mullah Omar seized power in Kandahar by overthrowing the local gangs and militias in a first appearance of the Taliban movement.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Mullah Omar had strong links with another popular figure in world politics: Osama bin Laden. He was married to one of bin Laden's daughters. He refused several US requests to hand over Osama bin Laden, who was killed in May 2011 in a covert operation conducted by members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Central Intelligence Agency SAD/SOG operators on the orders of U.S. President Barack Obama.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Analysis from the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) states: "The Taliban is the first faction laying claim to power in Afghanistan that has targeted women for extreme repression and punished them brutally for infractions. To PHR's knowledge, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment ..."


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: After taking control of the capital city of Kabul on September 26, 1996, the Taliban issued edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school, or to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. In public, women had to be covered from head to toe in a burqa – a body-length covering with only a mesh opening to see through. Women were not permitted to wear white socks or shoes, or shoes that make a noise while they are being walked in. Also, houses and buildings had to have their windows painted over so women could not be seen inside. Women were practically banned from public life, denied access to health care, education, and work and they were not allowed to laugh in a manner they could be heard by others.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: The Taliban, without any real court or hearing, cut people's hands or arms off when accused of theft. Taliban hit-squads from the infamous "Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" watched the streets conducting brutal, public beatings of people when they saw what they considered as un-Islamic behavior.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: General Pervez Musharraf, a retired four-star general who served as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1998 to 2001 and the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army from 1998 to 2007, played an instrumental role in drafting Pakistan's role in the Afghan civil war. In 2001, he would go on to become Pakistan's military ruler and President as well. General Pervez Musharraf was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistani nationals to fight alongside the Taliban and Bin Laden against Ahmad Shah Massoud. In total there were believed to be 28,000 Pakistani nationals fighting inside Afghanistan against the forces of Massoud. 20,000 were regular Pakistani soldiers either from the Frontier Corps, 50th Airborne Division or 12th regular army regiments, and an estimated 8,000 were militants recruited in madrassas filling regular Taliban ranks. The estimated 25,000 Taliban regular force thus comprised more than 8,000 Pakistani nationals. A 1998 document by the U.S. State Department confirms that "20–40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are Pakistani." The document further states that the parents of those Pakistani nationals "know nothing regarding their child's military involvement with the Taliban until their bodies are brought back to Pakistan." A further 3,000 fighter of the regular Taliban army were Arab and Central Asian militants. Of roughly 45,000 Pakistani, Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers fighting against the forces of Massoud only 14,000 were Afghan (Taliban).


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Lieutenant-General Mahmud Ahmed, the former director-general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence ("ISI"), was responsible for the support to the Taliban. Many of "ISI" officers, such as Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, Lieutenant-General Naseem Rana, Lieutenant-General Ziauddin Butt and retired Colonel Sultan Amir Tarar, played a major role in the war. The officers provided financial, economic, strategic, and military assistance to the Taliban. Pakistan's Combatant forces were led under the military leadership of General Naseem Rana, as he was the principal military commander of entire Pakistan's combatant forces. Training of the Taliban was provided by Colonel (retired) Tarar and, financial assistance was managed by General (retired) Hamid Gul. Major-General Ziauddin Butt served as the intelligence coordinator under General Naseem Rana. In this entire course of the war, all of the leading generals reported to General Naseem Rana who, of course, submitted his evaluation and later brief General Musharraf on the efforts led by him in Afghanistan. General Musharraf also sent young military and paramilitary soldiers under General Naseem to fight against the Northern Alliance, and none of them were told by General Musharraf or General Naseem Rana on why they are being sent to fight the war, on behalf of Taliban, against the enemy who did not declare the war on Pakistan, The Northern Alliance. The Pakistani soldiers fought the war with Khaki Shalwar Qameez, rather than wearing official war uniform, as they were ordered by General Naseem Rana. It was done by General Naseem Rana in an attempt to hide the identity of soldiers being Pakistani, and to avoid national pressure from the Navaz Sharif government and the international pressure from the Western world.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Ahmad Shah Massoud secretly sent a courier that contacted Navaz Sharif, Prime minister at that time. Details of Pakistan Army and "ISI" involvement were provided to Prime minister Sharif. When Sharif tried to intervene, General Musharraf stopped Sharif, and called Taliban as "valuable assets" and "Front-line defenders of Pakistan", therefore rejected any orders from Sharif to stop the Pakistan support for Taliban. However, in 2008, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had defended General Musharraf, and knew the entire history of "ISI". John Negroponte clarified that time has been changed and "ISI" is making an effort to fight against terrorism.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Observers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan and Pakistan reported that Pakistan Army Aviation Corps "4th Army Aggressor Squadron" surveillance aircraft assisted Taliban forces during combat operations in late 2000, and that senior members of Pakistan's intelligence agency and army were involved in planning major Taliban military operations. As the war progressed, Pakistan Army deployed its "50th Airborne Division" and the "Frontier Corps" to provide logistic support to Taliban campaigns against the Massoud's forces.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have created a deep strategic partnership on a variety of issues one of the more important being Afghanistan. After Musharraf's coup in October 1999, the Saudi capital Riyadh was the first foreign capital Pervez Musharraf visited, to signify the importance he gave to PAK-Saudi relations. President Musharraf honored King Abdullah by conferring upon him Pakistan's highest civil award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, in a colorful investiture ceremony at the presidential palace. On January 21, 2007, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah conferred the King Abdul Aziz Medallion, the Kingdom's top honor, on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf during a ceremony at his palace in Riyadh. The first Pakistani leader ever to receive this highest Saudi honor.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Osama bin Laden was a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founding leader of Al Qaeda. After the attacks on September 11, 2001 (in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in the U.S.), Osama bin Laden and his organization became major targets of the United States' War on Terror. Bin Laden himself was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 a.m. local time by U.S. special operations forces.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Ayman al-Zawahiri was the second and last "emir" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. In 1998 al-Zawahiri formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad into bin Laden's organization. He is often described as a "lieutenant" to Osama bin Laden, though bin Laden's chosen biographer has referred to him as the "real brains" of al-Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri is believed to be hiding in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas by some analysts while other observers believe he might be hiding in major urban areas in Pakistan or elsewhere.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: From 1996 to 2001 Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became a virtual state within the Taliban state. Bin Laden sent Arab fighters to join the fight against the United Front, especially his so-called 055 Brigade. Arab militants under Bin Laden were responsible for some of the worst massacres in the war, killing hundreds of civilians in areas controlled by the United Front. A report by the United Nations quotes eyewitnesses in many villages describing Arab fighters carrying long knives used for slitting throats and skinning people. Meanwhile, fighters of Bin Laden's Brigade 055 were known for committing collective suicide before running risk of being taken prisoners by enemy forces themselves.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a militant group formed in 1991 with strong ties to Al Qaeda.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: It is estimated that the IMU in the late 1990s was approximately 2000 men strong, and that they contributed around 600 fighters to the Taliban's offensive against Massoud, participating in the siege of Taloqan, where they fought alongside Bin Laden's 055 Brigade. It is unknown if the IMU directly worked with the Taliban or had any ties to them, given that the Taliban were ethnic Pashtuns who were pitted against the non-Pashtun ethnicities of Afghanistan. In 2001 the IMU was largely destroyed while fighting alongside the Taliban against the United States-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. An unknown number of their fighters escaped with remnants of the Taliban to Waziristan in Pakistan where they created a follow-up organization. The IMU's longterm leader Tahir Yuldashev was killed as a result of an August 27, 2009, U.S. predator airstrike in South Waziristan. Abu Usman succeeded him as the new leader of the IMU. Today there are an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 IMU fighters based in Pakistan's tribal regions and in Afghanistan.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: After the fall of the communist Najibullah-regime in 1992, the Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement (the Peshawar Accords). The Peshawar Accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan. From the first day of its founding until late 1994, the newly created Islamic State of Afghanistan (ISA) came under attack by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin militia armed, financed and instructed by neighboring Pakistan. Afghanistan expert Amin Saikal concludes in "Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival":


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Junbish-i Milli militia joined an alliance with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in early 1994. In addition, Saudi Arabia and Iran – as competitors for regional hegemony – supported Afghan militias hostile towards each other. According to Human Rights Watch, Iran was assisting the Shia Hazara Hezb-i Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari, as Iran was attempting to maximize Wahdat's military power and influence. Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittihad-i Islami faction. Conflict between the two militias soon escalated into a full-scale war. The capital city Kabul saw extremely violent fighting during that period. Power was highly decentralized.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Meanwhile, southern Afghanistan was neither under the control of foreign-backed militias nor the government in Kabul, but was ruled by local leaders such as Gul Agha Sherzai and their militias. In 1994, the Taliban (a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan) also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force, reportedly in opposition to the tyranny of the local governor. In 1994, the Taliban took power in several provinces in southern and central Afghanistan.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Late 1994, Kabul witnessed some weeks of relative calm, followed by resumed heavy shelling. Islamic State's Secretary of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud tried to initiate a nationwide political process with the goal of national consolidation and democratic elections, also inviting the Taliban to join the process. The Taliban declined. They started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government under Secretary of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud. Amnesty International, referring to the Taliban offensive, wrote in a 1995 report:


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: The Taliban's early victories in 1994 were followed by a series of defeats that resulted in heavy losses.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: On September 26, 1996, as the Taliban prepared for another major offensive, Massoud ordered a full retreat from Kabul. The Taliban that day attacked Kabul. President Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ahmad Shah Massoud and their troops withdrew from Kabul; the next day, 27 September, the Taliban occupied Kabul. Taliban's leader Muhammad Umar appointed his deputy, Mullah Muhammad Rabbani, as head of a national ruling council which was called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Islamic State government remained the recognized government of Afghanistan of most of the international community, the Taliban's Islamic Emirate however received recognition from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rashid Dostum, two former archenemies, created the United Front (Northern Alliance) in September 1996, against the Taliban that were preparing offensives against the remaining areas under the control of Massoud and those under the control of Dostum. The United Front included beside the dominantly Tajik forces of Massoud and the Uzbek forces of Dostum, Hazara factions and Pashtun forces under the leadership of commanders such as Abdul Haq, Haji Abdul Qadeer, Qari Baba or diplomat Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai. From the Taliban conquest in 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan. This union did not consist of a "Northern Alliance" thus only the "northern states" of Afghanistan, but included resistance forces from all parts and all major ethnicities of the country.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Massoud did not intend for the United Front to become the ruling government of Afghanistan. His vision was for the United Front to help establish a new government, where the various ethnic groups would share power and live in peace through a democratic form of government.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: According to a 55-page report by the United Nations, the Taliban, while trying to consolidate control over northern and western Afghanistan, committed systematic massacres against civilians. UN officials stated that there had been "15 massacres" between 1996 and 2001. They also said, that "[t]hese have been highly systematic and they all lead back to the [Taliban] Ministry of Defense or to Mullah Omar himself." The Taliban especially targeted Shias or Hazaras. Many civilians fled to the area of Massoud. The National Geographic concluded: "The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud." The 055 Brigade were also believed to be behind a string of civilian massacres of the Shia population nearby in Hazarajat, including one attack in early 2001, in which more than 200 people died.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: The Taliban with the support of the Pakistan Army's "13th Regular Army" and the "50th Airborne Division" launched an aggressive series of military operations against Panjshir and the surrounding areas. The Pakistan Army's" 4th Army Aggressor Squadron" provided the reconnaissance intelligence to the "13th Regular Army", "50th Airborne Division", and the Taliban forces. Meanwhile, Al-Qaida and Arab Brigades launched their own military campaign to support the Taliban hoping to gain control of the Panjshir Valley. This operation, planned and launched under General Naseem Rana, was well planned, more organized and comprehensively studied by Pakistan Armed Forces.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Despite the large series of organized attack operations led by the General Rana of Pakistan Army and their Taliban allies, they were not able to subdue the Panjshir. Ahmad Shah Massoud, who had defeated the Soviet Union's 40th Army in his hometown before, successfully defended the Panjshir Valley, and diverted further assaults led by the "13th Regular Army" and the "50th Airborne Division" of Pakistan.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: The Islamic State's Secretary of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud, who still represented the legitimate government as recognized by the international community and the United Nations, in 1997 summoned a conference under his leadership to decide on a future government and prime minister. The Pashtun Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, who was not affiliated with any party, was the candidate at that time and without dissenting votes was elected as new prime minister. Ghafoorzai's program was cordially received by wide sections of the population. A first step towards a new popular government was made. Massoud had the Afghan army equipped with newly acquired military uniforms and advanced after a few large offensives to the gates of Kabul. The alliance pushed forward with tanks, armored personnel carriers, and heavy weapons into the Bagram airbase, which was the first major victory against the Taliban since they lost Kabul. After making gains north of the capital, they met heavy resistance by Taliban forces inside Kabul. At the same time the new prime minister's airplane crashed over Bamiyan. By Ghafoorzai's death, Massoud lost his hope for a stable government in Kabul. Since Massoud no longer had a suitable government ready, he withdrew his troops from the north of Kabul. To avoid a dangerous repetition of the 1992-1994 period, he did not intend to march into Kabul without having formed a government which would be acceptable for all- especially for the civilian population.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Approximately 2,000 Taliban fighters in Kunduz were surrounded by forces of Massoud. These Taliban forces were able to survive when they allied with one of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's former Ittihad-i Islami commanders. Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi, who was among these men, led an attack on July 4, 1997, against the capital of Takhar, Taloqan, which was under the control of Massoud. Although the attack failed it produced difficulties for the United Front on another front.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: In May 1997, angry at Abdul Rashid Dostum's alleged involvement in the assassination of his brother, Abdul Malik Pahlawan and other commanders such as Qari Alam Rosekh, General Abdul Majid Rouzi and Ghafar Pahlawan met with Taliban commanders Mullah Abdul Razzaq and Mullah Ghaus in Baghdis. They agreed that Malik would betray Dostum, capture Ismail Khan and take control of the city of Mazar-e Sharif. Malik attacked Dostum's forces in Jawzjan on May 22, 1997, and occupied Dostum's stronghold of Sheberghan. Most of Dostum's commanders defected and joined Malik and even some of his air force pilots joined the battle on Malik's side. Although the exact details of the agreement were not clear, it appears as if the Taliban had failed to take their part. On May 25, the Taliban entered Mazar-e Sharif and began to close schools, offices and impose Sharia law. In the Hazara sections of the city, particularly in the north-east and east areas around Syedabad, local Hezb-i Wahdat commanders and armed "civilians" began to enlist themselves in resistance.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: On May 22, 1997, fighting also broke out between Dostum's forces and the Taliban in Andkhoy and Khwaja Dokoh. Massoud sent reinforcements.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: On May 30, heavy fighting broke out around Syedabad. Taliban fighters were ambushed. At this point, Malik changed allegiances allying his forces with Hezb-i Wahdat, taking thousands of Taliban soldiers as prisoners in Maimana, Sheberghan and Mazar-e Sharif. The Taliban prisoners were summarily executed, reportedly under the supervision of Malik's brother General Gul Mohammad Pahlawan. Estimates of the total number killed were 3000. Furthermore, Junbish commanders such as Ghulam Haidar Jawzjani were also captured and killed, along with Salam Pahlawan and Rais Omar Bey. In the months following the defeat of the Taliban in Mazar-e Sharif, Malik then proceeded to reincorporate troops loyal to Ismail Khan into the city's administration.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: By July 1998 the Taliban had taken control of much of the area north of Herat, including the road linked to Maimana. On August 8, 1998, the Taliban re-entered Mazar-e Sharif.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Some Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin forces joined the Taliban during that time encircling the front lines of Hezb-i Wahdat at Qalai-Zaini-Takhta Pul. About 1,500 – 3,000 Wahdat fighters were trapped and killed by the Taliban and Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin. Senior commanders of Wahdat such as Muhammad Muhaqiq evacuated by helicopter.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Junbish-i Milli infighting between Dostum's forces and those of Malik furthermore created opportunities for the Taliban. The Taliban were able to surround Mazar-i Sharif from the rear, capturing Hairatan directly across from Termez on September 20.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: The Taliban then proceeded to enter the city where they executed approximately 4,000 civilians mostly of Hazara ethnic or Shia religious background. The Taliban, for the next 6 days were reported to have gone door to door looking for male Hazara Shias and then subsequently executing them. Thousands of prisoners were transported by both sides in metal transport truck containers where many suffocated or died of heat stroke. One Taliban hit-squad, Sipah-i Sahaba, captured the Iranian consulate where they shot dead one journalist and 8 Iranian intelligence and diplomatic officers.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: In March 1997, Ismail Khan (United Front) returned from Iran. He led approximately 2,000 fighters to fight the Taliban in Badghis and push them to approximately north of the Marghab River leading to Qala-i Naw. The Taliban's advance was halted but significant gains could not be made by either side.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: Among those killed in Mazar-i Sharif were several Iranian diplomats. Others were kidnapped by the Taliban, touching off a hostage crisis that nearly escalated to a full-scale war, with Iran amassing 70,000 Iranian soldiers on the Afghan border. It was later admitted that the diplomats were killed by the Taliban, and their bodies were returned to Iran. In September the Taliban claimed that Iran had violated its airspace. Later Iran claimed minor clashes had occurred between the Taliban and Iran after the Taliban had allegedly led a raid into eastern Iran, though the Taliban denied it led the raid. Eventually with UN mediation, the tensions cooled.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: In early 2001 Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan. He stated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan and Bin Laden the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year. On this visit to Europe he also warned that his intelligence had gathered information about a large-scale attack on U.S. soil being imminent.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: On September 9, 2001, two Arab suicide attackers allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda, posing as journalists, detonated a bomb hidden in a video camera while under the pretense of interviewing Ahmed Shah Massoud. Commander Massoud died in a helicopter that was taking him to a hospital.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: In over 26 years Massoud had survived dozens of other assassination attempts by the Soviet KGB and the Afghan communist intelligence service, the Pakistani ISI, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Taliban and Al Qaeda. For many days the United Front denied the death of Massoud for fear of desperation among their people. In the end, the slogan "Now we are all Massoud" became a unifying battle cry.


title: Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)

text: After the attacks of September 11, 2001 on U.S. soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people, the United States and Britain launched an air assault on Afghanistan on 7 October 2001, which the Taliban referred to as an "attack on Islam". Ground troops of the United Front (Northern Alliance), supported by Iran, India, Tajikistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkey and the United States' extensive bombing of Taliban forces and military infrastructure, in November and December 2001 ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul and gained control of much of the rest of the country.


title: Spencer Davis

text: Spencer Davis (born Spencer David Nelson Davies; 17 July 193919 October 2020) was a Welsh singer and musician. He founded The Spencer Davis Group, a band that had several hits in the 1960s including "Keep On Running", "Gimme Some Lovin'", and "I'm a Man", all sung by Steve Winwood. Davis subsequently enjoyed success as an A&R executive with Island Records.


title: Spencer Davis

text: Davis was born in Swansea, South-West Wales, on 17 July 1939. His father was a paratrooper during World War II. While his father was away, his uncle Herman was a musical influence on Davis, teaching him how to play the harmonica at age six. While growing up in Swansea, Davis lived through The Blitz: "The bombed city centre was my playground. I watched the town being absolutely destroyed." Davis's mother continued to live in the West Cross area of Swansea until her death. He began learning to play harmonica and accordion at the age of six. He attended Dynevor School and became proficient in languages. He moved to London when he was 16 and began working in the civil service as a clerical officer at the Post Office Savings Bank in Hammersmith and then for HM Customs and Excise. However, he went back to his old school to study for A-levels in languages, becoming head boy in 1959. In 1960, he moved to Birmingham, to read German at the University of Birmingham. In music circles, Davis was later known as "Professor".


title: Spencer Davis

text: His early musical influences were skiffle, jazz and blues. Musical artists who influenced Davis include Big Bill Broonzy, Huddy Ledbetter, Buddy Holly, Davey Graham, John Martyn, Alexis Korner and Long John Baldry. By the time he was 16, Davis was hooked on the guitar and the American rhythm and blues music making its way across the Atlantic. With few opportunities to hear R&B in South Wales, Davis attended as many local gigs as practical.


title: Spencer Davis

text: When Davis moved to Birmingham as a student, he often performed on stage after his teaching day. While in Birmingham, he formed a musical and personal relationship with Christine Perfect who was later a member of Fleetwood Mac.


title: Spencer Davis

text: In 1963, Davis went to the Golden Eagle in Birmingham to see the Muff Wood Jazz band, a traditional jazz band featuring Muff Winwood and his younger brother, Steve Winwood. Davis persuaded them to join him and drummer Pete York as the Rhythm and Blues Quartet. Davis performed on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Steve Winwood on guitar, organ and vocals, Muff Winwood on bass and Pete York on drums. Reportedly, they adopted the name The Spencer Davis Group because Davis was the only band member who agreed to press interviews, allowing the other band members to sleep longer. The group's live reputation attracted the attention of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell who signed the group to its first contract and became their manager. The group had No. 1 hits in the UK with consecutive single releases in 1966 ("Keep On Running" and "Somebody Help Me"). Steve Winwood sang lead vocals on all the Spencer Davis Group's hits up to "I'm a Man" in 1967.


title: Spencer Davis

text: The Spencer Davis Group continued after Winwood left to form Traffic in April 1967. The group recorded two more albums before splitting in 1969. Another version of the group with Davis and York appeared in 1973 and disbanded in late 1974. Various incarnations of the band toured in later years under Davis's direction.


title: Spencer Davis

text: After the group broke up, Davis moved to California and recorded an acoustic album with Peter Jameson, "It's Been So Long", for Mediarts in mid-1971. He followed it with a solo album, "Mousetrap", for United Artists, produced by and featuring Sneaky Pete Kleinow. Neither album sold well. Soon after, he moved back to the UK, formed a new Spencer Davis Group and signed with Vertigo Records. In addition, Davis was an executive at Island Records in the mid-1970s. As a promoter for Island Records, Davis worked with Bob Marley, Robert Palmer and Eddie and the Hot Rods as well as promoting the solo career of former Spencer Davis Group member Steve Winwood.


title: Spencer Davis

text: In 1993, Davis formed the supergroup the Class Rock All-Stars. He left the group in 1995 to form World Classic Rockers with former Eagles bassist Randy Meisner, ex Totosinger Bobby Kimball and ex Moody Blues (band), and Wings (band) guitarist Denny Laine.


title: Spencer Davis

text: Davis retained an affinity for Germany, having studied its language and played in clubs in Berlin early in his career. He watched both the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and, with his son, its fall in 1989.


title: Spencer Davis

text: Davis was a supporter and honorary member of the Wales Nationalist Party, Plaid Cymru. From the mid-1970s onwards, Davis lived in Avalon on Catalina Island, a small island off the coast of Southern California. During the summer of 2012, the Catalina Island Museum hosted an exhibition called "Gimme Some Lovin': The Spencer Davis Group", to celebrate Davis's musical career. To complement the museum show, the museum also hosted a symposium on "The British Invasion", where Davis was joined on a panel by, among others, Micky Dolenz of the Monkees and a July Fourth concert featuring Davis singing his hits with a backing band named 'The Catalina All Stars'.


title: Token Ring

text: Token Ring is a computer networking technology used to build local area networks. It was introduced by IBM in 1984, and standardized in 1989 as IEEE 802.5.


title: Token Ring

text: It uses a special three-byte frame called a "token" that is passed around a logical "ring" of workstations or servers. This token passing is a channel access method providing fair access for all stations, and eliminating the collisions of contention-based access methods.


title: Token Ring

text: Token Ring was a successful technology, particularly in corporate environments, but was gradually eclipsed by the later versions of Ethernet.


title: Token Ring

text: A wide range of different local area network technologies were developed in the early 1970s, of which one, the Cambridge Ring, had demonstrated the potential of a token passing ring topology, and many teams worldwide began working on their own implementations. At the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory Werner Bux and Hans Müller, in particular, worked on the design and development of IBM's Token Ring technology, while early work at MIT led to the Proteon 10 Mbit/s ProNet-10 Token Ring network in 1981the same year that workstation vendor Apollo Computer introduced their proprietary 12 Mbit/s Apollo Token Ring (ATR) network running over 75-ohm RG-6U coaxial cabling. Proteon later evolved a 16 Mbit/s version that ran on unshielded twisted pair cable.


title: Token Ring

text: IBM launched their own proprietary Token Ring product on October 15, 1985. It ran at 4 Mbit/s, and attachment was possible from IBM PCs, midrange computers and mainframes. It used a convenient star-wired physical topology and ran over shielded twisted-pair cabling. Shortly thereafter it became the basis for the IEEE 802.5 standard.


title: Token Ring

text: During this time, IBM argued that Token Ring LANs were superior to Ethernet, especially under load, but these claims were debated.


title: Token Ring

text: In 1988 the faster 16 Mbit/s Token Ring was standardized by the 802.5 working group. An increase to 100 Mbit/s was standardized and marketed during the wane of Token Ring's existence and was never widely used. While a 1000 Mbit/s standard was approved in 2001, no products were ever brought to market and standards activity came to a standstill as Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet dominated the local area networking market.


title: Token Ring

text: Stations on a Token Ring LAN are logically organized in a ring topology with data being transmitted sequentially from one ring station to the next with a control token circulating around the ring controlling access. Similar token passing mechanisms are used by ARCNET, token bus, 100VG-AnyLAN (802.12) and FDDI, and they have theoretical advantages over the CSMA/CD of early Ethernet.


title: Token Ring

text: A Token Ring network can be modeled as a polling system where a single server provides service to queues in a cyclic order.


title: Token Ring

text: Physically, a Token Ring network is wired as a star, with 'MAUs' in the center, 'arms' out to each station, and the loop going out-and-back through each.


title: Token Ring

text: A MAU could present in the form of a hub or a switch; since Token Ring had no collisions many MAUs were manufactured as hubs. Although Token Ring runs on LLC, it includes source routing to forward packets beyond the local network. The majority of MAUs are configured in a 'concentration' configuration by default, but later MAUs also supporting a feature to act as splitters and not concentrators exclusively such as on the IBM 8226.


title: Token Ring

text: Later IBM would release Controlled Access Units that could support multiple MAU modules known as a Lobe Attachment Module. The CAUs supported features such as Dual-Ring Redundancy for alternate routing in the event of a dead port, modular concentration with LAMs, and multiple interfaces like most later MAUs. This offered a more reliable setup and remote management than with an unmanaged MAU hub.


title: Token Ring

text: Cabling is generally IBM "Type-1", a heavy two-pair 150 Ohm shielded twisted pair cable. This was the basic cable for the "IBM Cabling System", a structured cabling system that IBM hoped would be widely adopted. Unique hermaphroditic connectors, referred to as IBM Data Connectors in formal writing or colloquially as Boy George connectors, were used. The connectors have the disadvantage of being quite bulky, requiring at least panel space, and being relatively fragile. The advantages of the connectors being that they are genderless and have superior shielding over standard unshielded 8P8C. Connectors at the computer were usually DE-9 female.


title: Token Ring

text: In later implementations of Token Ring, Cat 4 cabling was also supported, so 8P8C (RJ45) connectors were used on both of the MAUs, CAUs and NICs; with many of the network cards supporting both 8P8C and DE-9 for backwards compatibility.


title: Token Ring

text: When no station is sending a frame, a special token frame circles the loop. This special token frame is repeated from station to station until arriving at a station that needs to send data.


title: Token Ring

text: Tokens are 3 bytes in length and consist of a start delimiter, an access control byte, and an end delimiter.


title: Token Ring

text: Data frames carry information for upper-layer protocols, while command frames contain control information and have no


title: Token Ring

text: data for upper-layer protocols. Data/command frames vary in size, depending on the size of the Information field.


title: Token Ring

text: Every station in a Token Ring network is either an active monitor (AM) or standby monitor (SM) station. There can be only one active monitor on a ring at a time. The active monitor is chosen through an election or "monitor contention" process.


title: Token Ring

text: When any of the above conditions take place and a station decides that a new monitor is needed, it will transmit a "claim token" frame, announcing that it wants to become the new monitor. If that token returns to the sender, it is OK for it to become the monitor. If some other station tries to become the monitor at the same time then the station with the highest MAC address will win the election process. Every other station becomes a standby monitor. All stations must be capable of becoming an active monitor station if necessary.


title: Token Ring

text: The active monitor performs a number of ring administration functions. The first function is to operate as the master clock for the ring in order to provide synchronization of the signal for stations on the wire. Another function of the AM is to insert a 24-bit delay into the ring, to ensure that there is always sufficient buffering in the ring for the token to circulate. A third function for the AM is to ensure that exactly one token circulates whenever there is no frame being transmitted, and to detect a broken ring. Lastly, the AM is responsible for removing circulating frames from the ring.


title: Token Ring

text: Token Ring stations must go through a 5-phase ring insertion process before being allowed to participate in the ring network. If any of these phases fail, the Token Ring station will not "insert" into the ring and the Token Ring driver may report an error.


title: Token Ring

text: In some applications there is an advantage to being able to designate one station having a higher priority. Token Ring specifies an optional scheme of this sort, as does the CAN Bus, (widely used in automotive applications) – but Ethernet does not.


title: Token Ring

text: In the Token Ring priority MAC, eight priority levels, 0–7, are used. When the station wishing to transmit receives a token or data frame with a priority less than or equal to the station's requested priority, it sets the priority bits to its desired priority. The station does not immediately transmit; the token circulates around the medium until it returns to the station. Upon sending and receiving its own data frame, the station downgrades the token priority back to the original priority.


title: Token Ring

text: Here are the following eight access priority and traffic types for devices that support 802.1Q and 802.1p:


title: Token Ring

text: Bridging solutions for Token Ring and Ethernet networks included the AT&T StarWAN 10:4 Bridge, the IBM 8209 LAN Bridge and the Microcom LAN Bridge. Alternative connection solutions incorporated a router that could be configured to dynamically filter traffic, protocols and interfaces, such as the IBM 2210-24M Multiprotocol Router, which contained both Ethernet and Token Ring interfaces.


title: Peter Banks

text: Peter William Brockbanks (15 July 1947 – 7 March 2013), known professionally as Peter Banks, was a British guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He was the original guitarist in the rock band Yes, and also the Syn, Flash, and Empire. Former "Sniffin' Glue" and "NME" journalist Danny Baker described Banks as "the architect of progressive music".


title: Peter Banks

text: Banks' father was an optical mechanic and his mother a cleaner. He grew up in Barnet, North London, where he attended Barnet Secondary School and Barnet College of Further Education. When he was a young boy, his father bought him an acoustic guitar. As a teenager, he also learned how to play the banjo.


title: Peter Banks

text: Banks started with the Nighthawks in 1963, and played his first concert at the New Barnet Pop Festival before leaving that band to join the Devil's Disciples in 1964. The band consisted of Banks on guitar, John Tite on vocals, Ray Alford on bass and Malcolm "Pinnie" Raye on drums. They recorded two songs on an acetate, Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On" and Graham Gouldman's "For Your Love" which would be a hit record for the Yardbirds one year later. These two songs can be found on Banks' archival album "Can I Play You Something". According to Chris Welch, The Devil's Disciples used to play the Rolling Stones' first album in its entirety, just for the sake of it. About a year later, Banks joined The Syndicats, replacing their guitarist Ray Fenwick, who himself had replaced Steve Howe, who would later replace Banks in Yes.


title: Peter Banks

text: Banks then formed a new band with ex-the Selfs bassist Chris Squire, this band being the Syn. They were joined by keyboardist Andrew Pryce Jackman, Steve Nardelli on vocals as well as Gunnar Jökull Hákonarson on drums. They recorded two singles, "Created by Clive"/"Grounded" and "Flowerman"/"14 Hour Technicolour Dream" both in 1967 before calling it a day a year later. Squire meanwhile joined friends Clive Bayley (rhythm guitar) and Bob Hagger (drums) in Mabel Greer's Toyshop, and Banks came to join that band. He briefly left the band, which was subsequently joined by singer Jon Anderson and then drummer Bill Bruford replacing Hagger. During that short period of time, Banks played with the band Neat Change, recording one single, "I Lied to Aunty May" with Squire on tambourine and chorus. Banks then returned to Mabel Greer's Toyshop, and with the loss of Bayley and the addition of organist/pianist Tony Kaye, they started to write new music together, adding to a repertoire already including two songs already written, "Beyond and Before" by Squire and Bayley and "Sweetness" by Anderson, Bayley and Squire.


title: Peter Banks

text: The members searched for an appropriate name, Anderson suggested Life and Squire proposed World but all agreed on Banks' proposition of Yes. Atlantic Records took notice of the band and, in 1969, got them into a studio to record their first album, "Yes". The next year another album was in progress ("Time and a Word") but Anderson and Squire decided they wanted an orchestra backing the five musicians. The idea was not well received by Banks, and things got worse when the orchestral arrangements left the guitarist, as well as Tony Kaye, with little to do (strings replaced their parts almost note-for-note). Once the album was released, a tour ensued; Banks was asked to leave the group, playing his last concert with Yes on 18 April 1970 at The Luton College of Technology. He was replaced by Steve Howe. In his autobiography, Steve Howe wrote that Banks "was an interesting guitarist to have to follow. He, too, adopted different guitar styles and had already set a scene I could relate to. He was a sweet guy and came to many of our early gigs. I can't think of many other ex-band members doing that - I mean, right after they've left the band."


title: Peter Banks

text: During Yes' 1991 Union tour, Kaye invited Banks to play during the encore at 15 May show at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California, United States. Banks accepted the invitation and went to the show, but says he was told by Kaye that Howe did not want him to play.


title: Peter Banks

text: In August 1994, Banks was a featured guest at a Yes fan festival called Yestival. In 1995, he performed "Astral Traveller" on the Yes tribute album "Tales from Yesterday". In 1997, he coordinated the release of a Yes compilation titled "". His liner notes described his early days with the band. Banks was also present at Yestival in July 1998. In 2006, he was interviewed for the Yes documentary "". Several music videos featuring him with Yes during their early days can be seen in "The Lost Broadcasts" DVD released in 2009.


title: Peter Banks

text: After leaving Yes, and while looking for some other musical projects, Banks supported Blodwyn Pig for a brief period in late 1970, replacing their original guitarist Mick Abrahams. He guested as session musician on an album by Chris Harwood, with other musicians like Dave Lambert of The Strawbs on guitar, Tommy Eyre on keyboards, ex-King Crimson Ian McDonald on sax and flute as well as ex-Spencer Davis Group Pete York on percussion.


title: Peter Banks

text: In 1971 Banks, singer Colin Carter, bassist Ray Bennett and drummer Mike Hough formed Flash and sessions began for a first album for Sovereign/Capitol Records, with Tony Kaye guesting on keyboards. The record appeared in 1972 (called simply "Flash") and had a warm reception, with the single, "Small Beginnings" rising to #28 on the Billboard Charts. Subsequent to Kaye's involvement, Flash continued without a keyboardist. Flash recorded and released its second album ("In the Can") in November that same year, with the singles "Lifetime" and "Children of the Universe" (from the first album) receiving significant airplay. A third album, "Out of Our Hands" was released in 1973. Due to on-going personal tensions within the band, including Banks meeting a new girlfriend, singer Sidonie Jordan, and wanting to form a band with her, Flash broke up while on tour in America in 1973.


title: Peter Banks

text: Parallel to work on the third Flash album, Banks and guitarist Jan Akkerman became friends and started to play and record together. Banks also played on an album by Roger Ruskin Spear at that time. In 1973, simultaneous with the third and final Flash release, Capitol Records released "Two Sides of Peter Banks". Guest musicians included Akkerman, bassist John Wetton, drummer Phil Collins, guitarist Steve Hackett and fellow Flash members Ray Bennett and Mike Hough.


title: Peter Banks

text: Around the summer of 1973, Banks played with the jazz-rock band called Zox & the Radar Boys, including Phil Collins (drums) and his mate from the Flaming Youth days Ronnie Caryl on guitar, Mike Piggott (violin) and John Howitt (bass).


title: Peter Banks

text: In 1973, Banks tried to form a new band, with singer and soon-to-be-wife, Sidney Foxx (real name Sidonie Jordan). Named Empire, Banks, Foxx, and various other band members recorded three albums up to 1979 which were unreleased. Phil Collins played drums on one track and Preston Heyman (later to join Kate Bush) played drums on the rest (after a recommendation from Collins), John Giblin from Brand X played bass, and Jakob Magnusson played organ on the first album, "Mark I". Ray Bennett of Flash was asked to join the band and initially agreed, but due to continuing tensions, declined. Banks and Foxx divorced, although Empire remained together as a band for some time after.


title: Peter Banks

text: Work in the second half of the 1970s included a number of session appearances, on separate albums by Lonnie Donegan and Jakob Frímann Magnússon. Banks made an appearance on "Romeo Unchained", a 1986 album by Tonio K. He also worked with Ian Wallace in The Teabags, including Jackie Lomax on vocals and Kim Gardner on bass, the two played before with Tony Kaye's Badger, David Mansfield on guitar and Mel Collins on sax and flute. No recordings came out of that.


title: Peter Banks

text: In 1993, Banks released "Instinct", a solo album of instrumental tracks with him playing all the parts. Only a keyboard player, Gerald Goff, joined him for his next album, "Self Contained" (1995). In 1997, Banks was mainly responsible for the release of a double live Yes album, "" (renamed "Beyond and Before" in the US), a collection of appearances at the BBC during 1969 and 1970, featuring the original line-up in all tracks and with a booklet containing the guitarist's account of those early days.


title: Peter Banks

text: Another archival release was "Psychosync", a live Flash recording made in 1973 for the King Biscuit Flower Hour and finally released in 1998. Also, between 1995 and 1997 all three Empire albums were released (one per year). Banks also collaborated in 1995's "Tales from Yesterday" (a Yes tribute album) performing a version of the song "Astral Traveller" with Robert Berry; appeared on the album "Big Beats" in 1997; and played on 1999's "Encores, Legends and Paradox", an Emerson, Lake & Palmer tribute album. He contributed to 1999's "Come Together People of Funk" by Funky Monkey (including keyboardist Gerard Johnson who helped on a number of Banks' projects in the 1990s and who also worked with Banks' old bandmate Chris Squire).


title: Peter Banks

text: Those collaborations filled the gap in his own recording career, until 1999, when the album "Reduction" was issued. In 2000, Banks put out a collection of his oldest recordings (many previously unreleased) called "Can I Play You Something?". The front sleeve of this last record showed an eight-year-old Banks posing with his first guitar. The track listing includes some early recordings by The Syn, Mabel Greer's Toyshop, and Yes, including an early rendition of the song "Beyond and Before".


title: Peter Banks

text: A short track in the latter collection was called "Lima Loop". This is because Lima, Peru, became a special place for Banks in recent years. Cecilia Quino, a Peruvian girl who was a Yes fan, met and later wed Banks. They married in Lima, where the bride's parents lived. They later divorced.


title: Peter Banks

text: Following an appearance by Banks and Geoff Downes together at the 1998 edition of Yestival (a Yes fan festival), the pair played some sessions and the possibility of Banks joining Asia was mooted. However, these sessions did not lead anywhere.


title: Peter Banks

text: Banks appeared in small concerts by new young local bands, including the Yes tribute band Fragile. Later recorded appearances by Banks included "Jabberwocky" (2000) and "Hound of the Baskervilles" (2002), a pair of albums recorded by Oliver Wakeman (Rick Wakeman's son) and Clive Nolan. Rick Wakeman also narrates on the "Jabberwocky" album. Peter Banks also guested further on the Funky Monkey project.


title: Peter Banks

text: Banks was initially involved in a reunion of The Syn in 2004 but left the band. After early talks in 2004, he was also not included in the current Flash reunion, which made their debut return at the Prog Day Festival 2010 with Flash bassist Ray Bennett taking over on lead guitar.


title: Peter Banks

text: In late 2004, Banks formed a new improvising band, Harmony in Diversity, with Andrew Booker and Nick Cottam (who had been working together as duo Pulse Engine). They played a short UK tour in March 2006, and released an album called "Trying". Booker left the band soon after. He was replaced by David Speight and the band continued to play further dates in the UK and Hungary in 2007. Banks was also planning a related project with keyboardist Gonzalo Carrera.


title: Peter Banks

text: In Gibson Guitar's "Lifestyle" e-magazine of 3 February 2009, Banks is listed as one of the "10 Great Prog Rock Guitarists". According to the article, "Before there was Steve Howe, there was Peter Banks. Artistic differences between Banks and singer Jon Anderson prompted Banks's departure from Yes in 1970, but in his little-known '70s band, Flash, Banks used an ES-335 to create several should-have-been prog rock classics. "Lifetime", from Flash's "In the Can" album, is his tour-de-force."


title: Peter Banks

text: Banks died of heart failure on 7 March 2013 at his home in Barnet, London. He was reportedly found after failing to turn up for a scheduled recording session. He was 65.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: Polling, or polled operation, in computer science, refers to actively sampling the status of an external device by a client program as a synchronous activity. Polling is most often used in terms of input/output (), and is also referred to as polled or software-driven . A good example of hardware implementation is a watchdog timer.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: Polling is the process where the computer or controlling device waits for an external device to check for its readiness or state, often with low-level hardware. For example, when a printer is connected via a parallel port, the computer waits until the printer has received the next character. These processes can be as minute as only reading one bit. This is sometimes used synonymously with 'busy-wait' polling. In this situation, when an operation is required, the computer does nothing other than check the status of the device until it is ready, at which point the device is accessed. In other words, the computer waits until the device is ready. Polling also refers to the situation where a device is repeatedly checked for readiness, and if it is not, the computer returns to a different task. Although not as wasteful of CPU cycles as busy waiting, this is generally not as efficient as the alternative to polling, interrupt-driven .


title: Polling (computer science)

text: In a simple single-purpose system, even busy-wait is perfectly appropriate if no action is possible until the access, but more often than not this was traditionally a consequence of simple hardware or non-multitasking operating systems.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: Polling is often intimately involved with very low-level hardware. For example, polling a parallel printer port to check whether it is ready for another character involves examining as little as one bit of a byte. That bit represents, at the time of reading, whether a single wire in the printer cable is at low or high voltage. The instruction that reads this byte directly transfers the voltage state of eight real world wires to the eight circuits (flip flops) that make up one byte of a CPU register.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: Polling has the disadvantage that if there are too many devices to check, the time required to poll them can exceed the time available to service the I/O device.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: A polling cycle is the time in which each element is monitored once. The optimal polling cycle will vary according to several factors, including the desired speed of response and the overhead (e.g., processor time and bandwidth) of the polling.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: In roll call polling, the polling device or process queries each element on a list in a fixed sequence. Because it waits for a response from each element, a timing mechanism is necessary to prevent lock-ups caused by non-responding elements. Roll call polling can be inefficient if the overhead for the polling messages is high, there are numerous elements to be polled in each polling cycle and only a few elements are active.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: In "hub polling", also referred to as token polling, each element polls the next element in some fixed sequence. This continues until the first element is reached, at which time the polling cycle starts all over again.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: Polling can be employed in various computing contexts in order to control the execution or transmission sequence of the elements involved. For example, in multitasking operating systems, polling can be used to allocate processor time and other resources to the various competing processes.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: In networks, polling is used to determine which nodes want to access the network. It is also used by routing protocols to retrieve routing information, as is the case with EGP (exterior gateway protocol).


title: Polling (computer science)

text: An alternative to polling is the use of interrupts, which are signals generated by devices or processes to indicate that they need attention, want to communicate, etc. Although polling can be very simple, in many situations (e.g., multitasking operating systems) it is more efficient to use interrupts because it can reduce processor usage and/or bandwidth consumption.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: In a multidrop line arrangement (a central computer and different terminals in which the terminals share a single communication line to and from the computer), the system uses a master/slave polling arrangement whereby the central computer sends message (called polling message) to a specific terminal on the outgoing line. All terminals listen to the outgoing line, but only the terminal that is polled replies by sending any information that it has ready for transmission on the incoming line.


title: Polling (computer science)

text: In star networks, which, in its simplest form, consists of one central switch, hub, or computer that acts as a conduit to transmit messages, polling is not required to avoid chaos on the lines, but it is often used to allow the master to acquire input in an orderly fashion. These poll messages differ from those of the multidrop lines case because there are no site addresses needed, and each terminal only receives those polls that are directed to it.


title: Baba Is You

text: Baba Is You is a puzzle video game created by Finnish independent developer Arvi Teikari (known professionally as Hempuli). Originating as a short demo built for the 2017 Nordic Game Jam, the game was expanded and released on 13 March 2019 for PC and Nintendo Switch. Mobile versions were released in June 2021. The game centers around the manipulation of "rules"—represented in the play area by movable tiles with words written on them—in order to allow the player character, usually the titular Baba, to reach a specified goal. A free update titled "Baba Make Level" was released on November 17, 2021, featuring over 150 new and previously unused levels and a level editor with online sharing.


title: Baba Is You

text: In each level, the player is presented with a one-screen puzzle consisting of various objects, characters, and movable word tiles. The player is given control of one or more characters or objects on the screen (most often the player controls a character named Baba). The word tiles consist of nouns corresponding to specific types of objects and obstacles on the field (such as Baba itself, the goal flag, walls and hazards, and other creatures), verbs such as "IS" and "HAS", linking operators such as "AND" and "NOT", and descriptive tiles determining the properties of these objects (such as "YOU", which makes all instances of the object become controlled by the player; "PUSH" and "PULL" to make them movable; "STOP" to make them impassable; and "WIN" to specify the goal object). When three or more word tiles (minimally consisting of one object, one verb, and one property or object) are aligned vertically or horizontally into a valid syntax, they create a rule that determines how the object behaves and that will be enforced until the string is broken up. For example, the goal can be changed by moving "IS" and "WIN" blocks to apply to another object, and the player can pass through objects by removing the "STOP" trait from them. Specific rules for a level can be placed in a way that the tiles cannot be broken up (for instance, by having the rule placed in a corner), committing that rule for the entire level. The player completes a level when an object that is the subject of an "IS YOU" rule (i.e. an active player-character) touches any object that is the subject of an “IS WIN" rule (i.e. an active goal). The game contains over 200 levels, with the player eventually having to manipulate rules around the map screen.


title: Baba Is You

text: The theme of the 2017 Nordic Game Jam was "Not There", which prompted Teikari, a student at the University of Helsinki who had previously developed the Metroidvania-genre game "Environmental Station Alpha", to envision a game concept based on manipulating logic operators. He explained that levels were often created by brainstorming a "cool" or "amusing" solution, and then coming up with how the player would accomplish it. Teikari noted that "the most satisfying moments in puzzle games are those which present the player with simple but hard-to-wrap-your-head-around situations, so that solving the puzzle is about figuring out that "one" neat trick/twist." As with his previous projects, the game was developed using Multimedia Fusion 2, and a Lua scripting plugin; Teikari credited his friend Lukas Meller for help with the Lua implementations. Teikari wrote on Reddit that the naming of the characters Baba and Keke was inspired by the bouba/kiki effect.


title: Baba Is You

text: Teikari stated in 2017 that he planned to release the full game in 2018, and placed a development version of the title for download at itch.io. After "Baba Is You" won at the Independent Games Festival in March 2018, a clone of the game was released by a French publisher on the App Store, using nearly the same graphics and calling itself the same name. Teikari worked with the French division of Apple to remove the offending app.


title: Baba Is You

text: The game, and a Nintendo Switch release, were focused upon in a Nintendo indie games showcase presentation on 31 August 2018. "Baba Is You" was released on 13 March 2019, via Steam for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, and on Nintendo Switch.


title: Baba Is You

text: A cross-platform level editor, with online level sharing, was added to the game on November 17, 2021, as a free update for the personal computer and Switch versions. This update included 150 additional levels in two new level packs, and added various new rules, art, and soundtracks.


title: Baba Is You

text: Alongside programming the game, Teikari also composed the soundtrack using OpenMPT. Shortly before the release of the level editor update, he released the music project files via the official Baba Is You Twitter account.


title: Baba Is You

text: "Baba Is You" won first place at the 2017 Nordic Game Jam. It was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and won awards for "Best Student Game" and "Excellence In Design" at the 2018 IGF Awards. It was also nominated for "Best Indie Game" at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, for "Indie Game of the Year" at the Titanium Awards, and for "Best Independent Game" at The Game Awards 2019, and won the award for "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design" for the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards; in addition, it was nominated for "Gameplay Design, New IP" at the NAVGTR Awards, for "Game Design" and "Original Property" at the 16th British Academy Games Awards, and for "Best Indie Game" at the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2019, and won the award for "Best Design" and the "Innovation Award" at the 20th Game Developers Choice Awards. The PC version of the game was among the best-selling new releases of the month on Steam.


title: Baba Is You

text: "Baba Is You" received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic. "Polygon" considered it "one of the best puzzle video games in years", with the reviewer observing that it "asks me to toss my assumptions about how rules in video games work, to analyze how and why they exist in the first place. And that sort of reprogramming of my brain, oddly enough, happens best when the game is turned off." "Pocket Gamer" was similarly positive, describing it as a "ridiculously complex puzzler that has you questioning not only every decision you make, but how anyone managed to think up something so bizarre", and concluding that it was one of the "most inventive, exciting puzzle games you will ever play. It's beautifully simple in its graphics and its core design, but it'll make your brain hurt with how nonsensical the solutions appear to be."


title: Baba Is You

text: A criticized aspect of the game is its level of difficulty. "Game Informer" expressed dissatisfaction with the overcomplication that arises from the compounding of variables in later stages of the game, which often resulted in "exhausting and unsatisfying" gameplay. "GameSpot" also criticized the increasing difficulty of later puzzles caused by the language of the operating words, saying that "as the language involved gets more complex, words are ushered in whose meaning seems vague and whose purpose remains hazy, and that can make certain puzzles infuriatingly obscure".


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: An extrinsic semiconductor is one that has been "doped"; during manufacture of the semiconductor crystal a trace element or chemical called a doping agent has been incorporated chemically into the crystal, for the purpose of giving it different electrical properties than the pure semiconductor crystal, which is called an "intrinsic semiconductor". In an extrinsic semiconductor it is these foreign dopant atoms in the crystal lattice that mainly provide the charge carriers which carry electric current through the crystal. The doping agents used are of two types, resulting in two types of extrinsic semiconductor. An "electron donor" dopant is an atom which, when incorporated in the crystal, releases a mobile conduction electron into the crystal lattice. An extrinsic semiconductor which has been doped with electron donor atoms is called an n-type semiconductor, because the majority of charge carriers in the crystal are negative electrons. An "electron acceptor" dopant is an atom which accepts an electron from the lattice, creating a vacancy where an electron should be called a "hole" which can move through the crystal like a positively charged particle. An extrinsic semiconductor which has been doped with electron acceptor atoms is called a p-type semiconductor, because the majority of charge carriers in the crystal are positive holes.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Doping is the key to the extraordinarily wide range of electrical behavior that semiconductors can exhibit, and extrinsic semiconductors are used to make semiconductor electronic devices such as diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, semiconductor lasers, LEDs, and photovoltaic cells. Sophisticated semiconductor fabrication processes like photolithography can implant different dopant elements in different regions of the same semiconductor crystal wafer, creating semiconductor devices on the wafer's surface. For example a common type of transistor, the n-p-n bipolar transistor, consists of an extrinsic semiconductor crystal with two regions of n-type semiconductor, separated by a region of p-type semiconductor, with metal contacts attached to each part.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: A solid substance can conduct electric current only if it contains charged particles, electrons, which are free to move about and not attached to atoms. In a metal conductor, it is the metal atoms that provide the electrons; typically each metal atom releases one of its outer orbital electrons to become a conduction electron which can move about throughout the crystal, and carry electric current. Therefore the number of conduction electrons in a metal is equal to the number of atoms, a very large number, making metals good conductors.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Unlike in metals, the atoms that make up the bulk semiconductor crystal do not provide the electrons which are responsible for conduction. In semiconductors, electrical conduction is due to the mobile charge carriers, electrons or holes which are provided by impurities or dopant atoms in the crystal. In an extrinsic semiconductor, the concentration of doping atoms in the crystal largely determines the density of charge carriers, which determines its electrical conductivity, as well as a great many other electrical properties. This is the key to semiconductors' versatility; their conductivity can be manipulated over many orders of magnitude by doping.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Semiconductor doping is the process that changes an intrinsic semiconductor to an extrinsic semiconductor. During doping, impurity atoms are introduced to an intrinsic semiconductor. Impurity atoms are atoms of a different element than the atoms of the intrinsic semiconductor. Impurity atoms act as either donors or acceptors to the intrinsic semiconductor, changing the electron and hole concentrations of the semiconductor. Impurity atoms are classified as either donor or acceptor atoms based on the effect they have on the intrinsic semiconductor.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Donor impurity atoms have more valence electrons than the atoms they replace in the intrinsic semiconductor lattice. Donor impurities "donate" their extra valence electrons to a semiconductor's conduction band, providing excess electrons to the intrinsic semiconductor. Excess electrons increase the electron carrier concentration (n) of the semiconductor, making it n-type.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Acceptor impurity atoms have fewer valence electrons than the atoms they replace in the intrinsic semiconductor lattice. They "accept" electrons from the semiconductor's valence band. This provides excess holes to the intrinsic semiconductor. Excess holes increase the hole carrier concentration (p) of the semiconductor, creating a p-type semiconductor.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Semiconductors and dopant atoms are defined by the column of the periodic table in which they fall. The column definition of the semiconductor determines how many valence electrons its atoms have and whether dopant atoms act as the semiconductor's donors or acceptors.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Group III–V semiconductors, the compound semiconductors, use group VI atoms as donors and group II atoms as acceptors. Group III–V semiconductors can also use group IV atoms as either donors or acceptors. When a group IV atom replaces the group III element in the semiconductor lattice, the group IV atom acts as a donor. Conversely, when a group IV atom replaces the group V element, the group IV atom acts as an acceptor. Group IV atoms can act as both donors and acceptors; therefore, they are known as amphoteric impurities.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: "N-type" semiconductors are created by doping an intrinsic semiconductor with an electron donor element during manufacture. The term "n-type" comes from the negative charge of the electron. In "n-type" semiconductors, electrons are the majority carriers and holes are the minority carriers. A common dopant for "n-type" silicon is phosphorus or arsenic. In an "n-type" semiconductor, the Fermi level is greater than that of the intrinsic semiconductor and lies closer to the conduction band than the valence band.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: "P-type" semiconductors are created by doping an intrinsic semiconductor with an electron acceptor element during manufacture. The term "p-type" refers to the positive charge of a hole. As opposed to "n-type" semiconductors, "p-type" semiconductors have a larger hole concentration than electron concentration. In "p-type" semiconductors, holes are the majority carriers and electrons are the minority carriers. A common "p-type" dopant for silicon is boron or gallium. For "p-type" semiconductors the Fermi level is below the intrinsic semiconductor and lies closer to the valence band than the conduction band.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Extrinsic semiconductors are components of many common electrical devices. A semiconductor diode (devices that allow current in only one direction) consists of p-type and n-type semiconductors placed in junction with one another. Currently, most semiconductor diodes use doped silicon or germanium.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Transistors (devices that enable current switching) also make use of extrinsic semiconductors. Bipolar junction transistors (BJT), which amplify current, are one type of transistor. The most common BJTs are NPN and PNP type. NPN transistors have two layers of n-type semiconductors sandwiching a p-type semiconductor. PNP transistors have two layers of p-type semiconductors sandwiching an n-type semiconductor.


title: Extrinsic semiconductor

text: Field-effect transistors (FET) are another type of transistor which amplify current implementing extrinsic semiconductors. As opposed to BJTs, they are called unipolar because they involve single carrier type operationeither N-channel or P-channel. FETs are broken into two families, junction gate FET (JFET), which are three terminal semiconductors, and insulated gate FET (IGFET), which are four terminal semiconductors.


title: Happily Divorced

text: Happily Divorced is an American sitcom created by Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson. Inspired by their own experiences as a formerly married couple, the series, which became TV Land's third original scripted series following "Hot in Cleveland" and "Retired at 35", ran from June 15, 2011, to February 13, 2013, and revolves around a Los Angeles florist who finds out her husband of 18 years is gay. The series was canceled after two seasons on August 23, 2013.


title: Happily Divorced

text: Drescher plays Fran Lovett, a Los Angeles florist who is shocked when Peter, her husband of 18 years, comes out of the closet as gay. They divorce, but because of the poor economy, they cannot afford to live separately. She struggles with navigating the new parameters of their relationship while re-entering the dating pool.


title: Happily Divorced

text: "Happily Divorced" is inspired by the real lives of series creators Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson, who had been high school sweethearts and then married in 1978. They divorced in 1999. Jacobson later came out as gay to Drescher and the two remained friends. In 2010 the pair, who had previously created Drescher's earlier series "The Nanny", began developing the series based on their life experiences. Initially Drescher planned only to write and produce "Happily Divorced" but eventually decided to star as well. Set in Los Angeles, Fran's gay ex-husband still lives with her for economic reasons, with "a very traditional family. Everyone's very accepting that he's gay. They're both dating; he's new at it, she's new at it." TV Land gave the green light to a pilot episode in November 2010. The network announced on March 21, 2011, that the series had been picked up with a ten-episode order. The show is shot in front of a live studio audience at CBS Radford in Studio City., which provides "Happily Divorced" the typical style of the 1990s' sitcoms. There are still more parallels to "The Nanny": the opener is an animation, underlaid with specially composed music and also, Drescher refuses a role name and is just called 'Fran'. "The Nanny" regulars, Renée Taylor and Charles Shaughnessy, have made guest appearances; the latter having also co-starred on "Living With Fran". The show premiered on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, in the 10:30 time slot after the television show "Hot in Cleveland".


title: Happily Divorced

text: The show was renewed on July 20, 2011, for a second season of 12 episodes, which started airing weekly on March 7, 2012. The new season is advertised by the slogan "The Laugh is Back". Beginning of February 2012 TV Land made the guest stars for season 2 public. There are again some famous "The Nanny" faces : Renée Taylor (alias "Sylvia Fine") returns from season 1 as Dori's neighbor "Marilyn", and Ann Guilbert (alias "Yetta") appears as Marilyn's mother, "Mrs. Kapelmaster". Furthermore, Hollywood beauties Morgan Fairchild and Joan Collins will be on view as well.


title: Happily Divorced

text: On April 29, 2012, the day of the TV Land Awards 2012, the cable broadcaster extended the second season, picking up an additional 12 episodes, bringing the total count of season 2 to 24 episodes. The initial 12 episode order concluded June 6. The 12 additional episodes began airing November 28, 2012, at 10:30 PM EST, following the Season 4 premiere of "Hot in Cleveland" at 10 PM.


title: Happily Divorced

text: Early reviews of the series were mixed. David Hinckley, writing for "The New York Daily News," noted that it "may be that all this will develop an interesting story. On opening night, though, it feels like the show's primary goal is to set up one-liners – which is not how the great shows got to be great." Brian Lowry of "Variety" called it "so painfully broad and filled with gay stereotypes all but Drescher's most faithful fans will yearn to be separated from their TVs," while Matthew Gilbert of "The Boston Globe" summed it as "the kind of throwback you just might want to throw back." Mark A. Perigard's review for "The Boston Herald" was very emphatic; he noted that "in "Happily Divorced", TV Land, the cable channel for baby boomers, finally may have found the perfect companion to its smash "Hot in Cleveland"."


title: Happily Divorced

text: Paramount Home Media Distribution released the first season of "Happily Divorced" on Region 1 DVD on March 6, 2012.


title: Happily Divorced

text: Endemol has sold "Happily Divorced" into multiple territories. The show has been bought by SBS in the Netherlands, SABC in South Africa, Global in Canada, Comedy Central in India, Italy, Mexico and Brazil, MTV in Latin America and TV 2 in New Zealand. Similar deals with a German company for "Happily Divorced" will be announced soon. In Bulgaria the show has been bought by Fox Life. Advanced negotiations are underway in Poland and Sweden. In Greece, the sitcom premiered on October 15, 2012, at the prime-time slot of Makedonia TV.


title: Happily Divorced

text: In Belgium the show premiered April 8, 2013, and airs daily on VIJF after reruns of The Nanny at 6.30pm. In the United Kingdom, the series made its debut on May 12, 2013, on TLC UK.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Cuba significantly advanced in the 21st century. Following the 2022 Cuban Family Code referendum, there is legal recognition of the right to marriage, unions between people of the same sex, same-sex adoption and non-commercial surrogacy as part of one of the most progressive Family Codes in Latin America. Until the 1990s, the LGBT community was marginalized on the basis of heteronormativity, traditional gender roles, and strict criteria for moralism. The Cuban revolution eradicated profit incentives and the superficial yet crucial tolerance of LGBT persons by the strongly homophobic Cuban society quickly evaporated. Therefore, those who did not fit the mold of the societal construct were deemed as either outcasts or as bourgeoisie. It was not until recently that the attitudes and acceptance towards LGBT people changed to be more tolerant.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: In 2018, the National Assembly of People's Power voted to legalize same-sex marriage, with a constitutional referendum to be held in February 2019; it was later removed from the draft constitution. In May 2019, the government announced that the Union of Jurists of Cuba was working on the new Family Code, which would address same-sex marriage. On 7 September 2021, the government announced that the new Family Code would be brought to the National Assembly for approval, and then be put to popular vote to legalize same-sex marriage if approved in the referendum. The referendum was approved in April 2022 and took place in September 2022, with the referendum passing. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal in Cuba.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Historically, public antipathy towards LGBT people was high. This had eased since the 1990s. Educational campaigns on LGBT issues are currently implemented by the National Center for Sex Education (locally known as "CENESEX"), headed by Mariela Castro, daughter of former president and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raúl Castro. Pride parades in Havana are held every May, to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, with attendance having grown every year. In 2022, Cuba has also become the first Latin American country to mark the LGBT History Month.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Pre-revolutionary Cuba was a place of intolerance toward the LGBT community. Due to the emphasis on traditional heteronormativity, there were few enclaves where the queer community could congregate together in a common space. The job market was uneven at the time and the "Afro-Hispanic culture was very patriarchal and emphasized a compulsory toxic and heterosexual society, especially in rural areas." Most of the community migrated toward Havana in search of jobs and sexual liberation. Moreover, rural communities would often alienate their LGBT community or family members deeming them the "village queer" or the "village idiot." Due to the uneven job market, Havana around the 1950s allowed for closeted occupational life and the underground job sector continued to grow aside from tourism like, drug distribution, gambling, and prostitution. This job sector curtailed homosexual desire into the "Havana Underworld, which was run by the Cuban homosexual bourgeoise." Homosexuality was a component of the thriving industry of prostitution in Cuba, with many gay men drawn into prostitution largely for visitors and servicemen from the United States. Homosexuality also was linked to gambling and crime. Therefore, while the LGBT community did not have official visibility, they had success in the job market for US tourists who were looking for homoerotic experiences. There were few LGBT-friendly bars in Cuban cities, such as the St. Michel, the Intermezzo Bar, the Dirty Dick, and El Gato Tuerto in Havana. However, despite the vibrancy of the Underworld and the breadth of its influence, Cuba still had laws that oppressed homosexuality and targeted gay men for harassment. Socially, gay men were considered outcasts. Families were often be heard calling their family members "locas" meaning queens, "maricones" meaning faggots or "tortilleras" meaning dykes. The homosexual culture was purely recognized as an economic strategy where the Underworld fostered a sense of reliance on homoerotic desires by US tourists and other niche interests that the community took part in. [D]iscrete lesbian or gay male identities in the modern sense - identities that are based on self-definition and involve emotional as well as physical aspects of same-sex relations - were rare. Erotic loyalty (and, in the case of women, subservience) to the opposite sex was assumed to be normal even by homosexuals. Hence, for many Cubans of this era, homosexuality was a mere addendum to customary marital roles. Among others, it was just a profitable commodification of sexual fantasy. For the vast majority, homosexuality made life a shameful and guilt-ridden experience.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Following the emergence of Castro's regime in 1959, the visibility of the LGBT community only worsened. The revolutionary leaders were typically white middle class men who were raised under the traditional sexual ideology. Furthermore, the Marxist-Leninist framework that the regime utilized prioritized a change in production and class relations with an emphasis on family and sexuality. In addition, the government emphasized the youth as the future of the Revolution which was a fundamental aim of the 1960s. Education was used to promote "moralism" along with a sense of total commitment to the Revolution. In the same breath, anti-Revolutionary tactics were criticized and penalized, therefore listening to American music, wearing mini skirts, and men with long hair were all forms of anti-Revolutionary tactics along with homosexuality. Accordingly, the Revolution defined a qualified citizen as one who promotes a productive labor force and homosexuality along with prostitution were deemed nonproductive and related to American decadence. Furthermore, oftentimes, men who had sex with other men were caught in bar raids to crackdown on commercial sex and drugs in the 1960s. Consequently, the Committees for Defense of the Revolution began to report homosexual people in the 1960s to authorities in response to a possible US invasion. It was plain to see that homosexual individuals in Cuba were painted as anti-Revolutionary threats to the regime.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: In 1965, the Ministry of Health stated that homosexuality was learned and therefore they began to implement preventative measures for children to learn of typical and traditional heterosexual normalities. "Effeminate" boys were taught to play sports, self-defense and military exercise. In addition, if men were deemed too feminine, they would be subject to expulsion from mass organizations such as the Young Communist League. There was even a sign held up on University of Havana's campus saying "no homosexual represents the Revolution, which is a matter of men, fists and not feathers, of courage and not trembling, of certainty and not intrigue, of creative valor and not of sweet surprises." Fidel Castro also stated in 1966 that "no homosexual could ever embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true revolutionary, a true communist militant." Overall, the homophobia established in the 1960s and persisted until the 2000s was a result of a combination of traditional heterosexual masculinity combined with socialist morality that identified certain sexual behaviors as non-productive. The Revolutionary Offensive was also a campaign that sought to nationalize private business in 1968 and was also a part of a greater scheme to promote morality within the political and economic campaign which allowed Cuba to create their path as socialist state.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: With the profit motive eradicated by the revolution, the superficial tolerance of LGBT persons by the strongly homophobic Cuban society quickly evaporated. Emigration to Miami began immediately, including lesbians and gay men who had worked for United States firms or had done domestic work for the native bourgeoisie. LGBT people who already had lived largely abroad moved away permanently.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: [T]he homophobia and heterosexism that already existed ... became more systematized and institutionalized. Gender and sexuality explicitly entered political discourse even as vaguely worded laws increasingly targeted gender-transgressive men who were believed to be homosexual ... whereas lesbianism remained unnamed and invisible. Between 1959 and 1980[,] male homosexuals suffered a range of consequences from limited career options to detention in street sweeps to incarceration in labor camps. ... Long hair, tight pants, colorful shirts, so-called effeminate mannerisms, "inappropriate clothing," and "extravagant hairstyles" were seen as visible markers of male homosexuality. Such visible markers not only facilitated enforcement of homosexual repression; more broadly, visibility and gender transgressions themselves constituted a central part of the problem identified by the revolution. Even during the severest period of enforcement, Marvin Leiner reminds us, private homosexual expression was never the main target. Rather, "... the major concern, as it had always been, was with the public display of homosexuality."


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Many of the progressive LGBT persons who remained in Cuba became involved in counter-revolutionary activities, independently or through encouragement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and were jailed. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, commando attacks from Florida bases, and internal CIA-sponsored subversion created in Cuba an increased concern over national security. Realistic fears gave rise to paranoia, and anyone who was "different" fell under suspicion. Homosexual bars and La Rampa cruising areas were perceived as centers of counter-revolutionary activities and they began to be systematically treated as such. The gay community was seen as a threat to the military order.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Cuba's new ally, the Soviet Union, had hostile policies towards gays and lesbians, seeing homosexuality as a product of the decadent capitalist society prevailing in Cuba in the 1950s. Fidel Castro made insulting comments about homosexuality. Castro's admiring description of rural life in Cuba ("in the country, there are no homosexuals") reflected the idea of homosexuality as bourgeois decadence, and he denounced "maricones" as "agents of imperialism". Castro explained his reasoning in a 1965 interview:


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: [W]e would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true Revolutionary, a true Communist militant. A deviation of that nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant Communist must be.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: According to Ian Lumsden, traditional Spanish machismo and the Catholic Church have disdained effeminate and sexually passive males for centuries. The homophobia exposed during the revolution was a mere continuation of the well-established culture of machismo and the rigid gender roles of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Barbara Weinstein, professor of Latin American history at New York University and co-editor of the "Hispanic American Historical Review", said that gay people were defined as deviant and decadent but not weak or sick. She also claimed that the way that the Cuban revolution came to power gave it a stronger sense of masculinity than other revolutions. The guerrilla experience pervaded the political structure and the guerrilla army itself became the nucleus of a new society.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Cuban gay writer Reinaldo Arenas wrote, "[T]he decade of the sixties ... was precisely when all the new laws against homosexuals came into being, when the persecution started and concentration camps were opened, when the sexual act became taboo while the 'new man' was being proclaimed and masculinity was being exalted." LGBT persons were imprisoned frequently, particularly effeminate males, without charge or trial, and confined to forced labor camps.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Camps of forced labour were instituted with all speed to "correct" such deviations ... Verbal and physical mistreatment, shaved heads, work from dawn to dusk, hammocks, dirt floors, scarce food ... The camps became increasingly crowded as the methods of arrest became more expedient ...


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: In 1965, the country-wide Military Units to Aid Production (; UMAP) program, located in the Camagüey Province, was set up as an alternative form of military service for members of pacifist religious groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, hippies, conscientious objectors, and gay men. It was believed that the work, together with the strict regimes operating within the UMAP camps, would "rehabilitate" the participants. The camps became notorious both inside and outside Cuba. Although the camps ended up targeting gay men more than most, "there is no evidence that [they] were created with homosexuals exclusively in mind." There is a debate whether or not these camps were labor or concentration camps. That being said, these camps were notorious for holding prisoners for up to three years without a charge.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: A homosexual man who worked in a UMAP camp described the conditions there as follows, "[W]ork is hard because it's nearly always in the sun. We work 11 hours a day (cutting marble in a quarry) from seven in the morning to seven at night, with one hour's lunch break." In 1968, the camps closed. Castro said, "They weren't units of internment or punishment... However, after a visit I discovered the distortion in some places, of the original idea, because you can't deny that there were prejudices against homosexuals. I personally started a review of this matter. Those units only lasted three years."


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Many gay artists and intellectuals like Reinaldo Arenas were attracted to the socialist promise of an egalitarian society, which would pave the way for cultural and sexual freedom and social justice. Gay writers largely wrote the popular journal "Lunes de Revolución". Its radical ideas seemed to enjoy the favor of the Cuban Government. But a couple of years after Castro's rise to power, this journal was closed down amidst a wave of media censorship. Its gay writers were publicly disgraced, refused publication, and dismissed from their jobs. Some were reassigned to work as janitors and labourers.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: This period was dramatically documented in the 1980s documentary "Improper Conduct", by Reinaldo Arenas in his 1992 autobiography, "Before Night Falls", as well as in his fiction, most notably "The Color of Summer" and "Farewell to the Sea".


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Homophobia in Cuba persisted in the 1970s, with more tolerant attitudes beginning to appear in the mid-1970s.


title: LGBT rights in Cuba

text: Although the UMAP program ended in 1968, the camps themselves continued. They became military units, and the same types of men were sent there as were sent to the UMAP camps. The only difference was that the men were paid a salary for their long and harsh working hours while living under very difficult and inhumane conditions. A 1984 documentary, "Improper Conduct", interviewed several men who had been sent to these camps. In his autobiography, "My Life", Fidel Castro claims the internment camps were used in lieu of the mistreatment homosexuals were receiving in the military during the Cuban intervention in Angola and other conflicts. They would do laborious tasks and be housed roughly, but some saw it as better than joining the Cuban military because there, they would often be publicly humiliated and discharged by homophobic elements.