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Trading a life in Vegas to speak for troops in Afghanistan
Some 250 US citizens of Afghan origin have made unlikely career changes to become military interpreters.
By Danna Harman | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the January 9, 2009 edition
Page 1 of 2
Kalagush Forward Operating Base, Afghanistan - It's a long way from Vegas.
For the past three years, Torpekay (Peggy) Farhamg, a longtime security guard and dealer at the strip's Imperial Palace, has been living behind concertina wire with American troops in Afghanistan. Ahmadullah Barak, who until recently was a used-car salesman at his cousin's dealership in Jamaica Heights is here, too, daydreaming about a slice of New York thin-slice pizza.
The two are among some 250 American citizens of Afghan origin who have made unlikely career changes and become Pashto or Dari military interpreters here – working as intermediaries between foreign troops and the locals they meet, collaborate with, and fight against – and making big bucks along the way.
Most easily admit it was the generous remuneration offered by the contracting agencies – up to $225,000 a year for those with the highest security clearances, they say – that convinced them to give up comfortable lives and join a war effort in the dusty land they long ago left behind. But there is a sprinkling of idealism as well.
"If they didn't pay well, who would even consider it?" asks Mr. Barak. "But I was excited, too. I thought the Americans could do good here."
The American "terps," as they are known, are paid far more than $800 a month typi- cally given to approximately 3,000 locally hired interpreters. But they also abide by a stricter set of rules.
They may not leave their base, unless on patrol or another mission. They could be prosecuted as traitors if found acting against US interests. And they are not allowed contact with relatives or old friends.
When Farhamg's three nieces, whom she had not seen since she left Afghanistan as a 14-year-old bride 30 years ago, came to the gate of the base one day to greet her, they were turned away.
"My kids think I have lost my mind," admits Farhamg, who today has siblings, grown children, three grandchildren, and a home back in California. "And I am pretty tough ... but when I got here, I cried all the time. I missed everyone and I felt locked in."
The daughter of a well-to-do Kandahar family, Farhamg was brought to the US by her first husband, a cousin who had secured a green card. They lived in Queens, where he worked as a doctor's assistant and she went to beauty school. They had four children before opening a pizzeria. Slowly, she managed to bring most of her family over to join her.
When Farhamg's husband died, she moved her family to Las Vegas for a decade before setting off for California with her second husband, an Afghan widower she met near the slot machines and married, in a traditional green Afghan wedding dress, at Graceland Chapel.
Post 9/11, her eldest son, a high school teacher in San Diego, began dabbling in extremist Islam, traveling to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia for militant training. Five years ago, he was killed in Mexico. While the case was never solved, Farhamg believes he was murdered by his own mentors and friends after refusing to carry out a suicide attack.
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