The Foreign Service Journal, January 2004

planeside by the same security detail, and were greeted warmly by the U.N. airline personnel manag- ing the flight. After takeoff the views of the Hindu Kush, Jalalabad, the Spinghar range, the Khyber Pass, Peshawar and the Grand Trunk Road were crystal clear on the quick flight back to Islamabad. We secured the diplomatic pouches in the vault at Embassy Islamabad and made preparations for our return to Bangkok the next morn- ing. After Kabul, the capital of Pakistan seemed like Paris. Our flight to Bangkok, with a thousand kilos of the region’s classi- fied outbound material, initially fol- lowed the Karakoram Highway due north past the 26,660-foot, ice- gnarled Nanga Parbat, and the black granite pyramid of K-2 with its mas- sive Baltoro Glacier before crossing into Xianjiang at the Khunjerab Pass. For an introductory diplomatic courier assignment, Bob couldn’t have been given a more provoca- tive and, therefore, instructive mission. J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 69 The massive, snow-covered Hindu Kush, rising majestically to the northeast, still seem to wall the tragedy of Kabul off from the world. An ice cream soda is one of the few items we cannot mail. Drugs, cosmetics, sundries mailed to every country in the world. • Homeopathic & Herbal Remedies • Natural Body Products E-mail: care@morganrx.com Books by FS Authors Here’s how it works: 1. Go to the AFSA Web site, www.afsa.org. 2. Click on the Marketplace tab (second brown tab from the right). 3. Click on the “AFSA and Amazon Books” icon 4. Click on “FS Authors” and then go directly to book listings by subject. 5. Shop away! So bookmark the AFSA site, use the link and help your association — and yourself!