Nicole Dial
Nicole Dial was an aid worker who was ambushed and killed by militants, in Afghanistan.[1][2][3][4] Dial was born in Trinidad, immigrated to the USA, with her family, when she was a teenager, held both Trinidad and American citizenship. Her family settled in Colorado.
Prior to being hired by the International Rescue Committee, as their children and youth protection and development coordinator in Afghanistan.[5] Previously, she had worked for another aid organization, Search for Common Ground, in Ghana, and Malaysia.[6]
On August 13, 2008, Dial, two Canadian colleagues, and their Afghan driver, died when a Taliban vehicle pulled up beside theirs, and sprayed them with automatic gunfire. A Taliban spokesman claimed the women were foreign spies.[4]
Dial had a degree in International Studies from the London School of Economics.[5]
Legacy
The 2010 UNESCO report Protecting education from attack: a state-of-the-art review began with an account of the killing of Dial and her colleagues.[7] It reported that, after the killings, the International Rescue Committe withdrew all its surviving staff from Afghanistan.
In January 2011 Canadian columnist Terry Glavin cited the killings of Dial and her Canadian colleagues, in a criticism of the Afghanistan position of Jack Layton, then the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party.[8] Glavin's article incorrectly asserted the killings occurred in 2007, not 2008. Glavin's article incorrectly asserted that Dial, and her colleagues, were "shot dead at the side of a road," when they were killed in a drive-by shooting.
In his 2011 book on rehabilitating child soldiers in Africa peace activist Romeo Dallaire praised Dial, and expressed regret that Search for Common Ground had not been able to pay her what she was worth, so that she accepted the Afghan job where she was killed.[6]
In 2016 the Washington Post reported that who insisted on anonymity informed them that a former Guantanamo captive, who had chosen to fight with the Taliban, after his release, had played a role in her kidnapping and death.[9] Dial's brother told reporters that the FBI had not informed the family of the Guantanamo connection.
References
- ↑ "IRC Mourns Four Beloved Colleagues". International Rescue Committee. 2008-08-14. http://www.rescue.org/news/irc-mourns-four-beloved-colleagues-4385. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
- ↑ Nalinee Seelal (2008-08-15). "Trini funeral for aid worker". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,84420.html. Retrieved 2016-06-08. "Dial died on Wednesday when the SUV in which she was a passenger was fired upon while passing through the troubled Lohar Province of Afghanistan by gunmen in a car which pulled alongside the SUV."
- ↑ "B.C. aid worker shot dead near kabul". VancouverSun. 2008-08-14. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=b44034aa-a91f-4cf2-80e9-13a98c6ef0bd. Retrieved 2016-06-08. "The two other IRC employees killed in the ambush were Mohammad Aimal, 25, of Kabul, who had worked as a driver for the IRC since 2002; and Nicole Dial, 30, a dual citizen of Trinidad and the United States."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Edward Mickolus (2014). "Terrorism, 2008-2012: A Worldwide Chronology". McFarland Publishing. ISBN 9780786477630. https://books.google.ca/books?id=q3LzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=Afghanistan+%22Nicole+Dial%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ-b6_i5rNAhXKyoMKHbBUDjMQ6AEITzAJ#v=onepage&q=%20%22Nicole%20Dial%22&f=false. Retrieved 2016-06-09. "The Taliban said the aid workers were spies, trying to undermine the country. The trio were returning from meeting officials in Sayed Habibullah in Logar Province, where they were exploring setting up an education program for mentally and physically disabled children."
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Howard Pankratz (2008-08-16). "Slain aid worker with Colo. ties loved her work, despite danger". Denver Post. http://www.denverpost.com/2008/08/14/slain-aid-worker-with-colo-ties-loved-her-work-despite-danger/. Retrieved 2016-06-08. "On Wednesday, the 30-year-old Dial was gunned down in Afghanistan with two other women and one of their drivers, all workers with the International Rescue Committee."
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Romeo Dallaire (2011). [https://books.google.ca/books?id=KWZFgzcXxRQC&pg=PA222&dq=Afghanistan+%22Nicole+Dial%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ-b6_i5rNAhXKyoMKHbBUDjMQ6AEISTAI#v=onepage&q=Afghanistan%20%22Nicole%20Dial%22&f=false "They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers Author"]. Random House of Canada. p. 222. ISBN 9780307355782. https://books.google.ca/books?id=KWZFgzcXxRQC&pg=PA222&dq=Afghanistan+%22Nicole+Dial%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ-b6_i5rNAhXKyoMKHbBUDjMQ6AEISTAI#v=onepage&q=Afghanistan%20%22Nicole%20Dial%22&f=false. Retrieved 2016-06-09. "It was very hard, under the circumstances, to retain staff, or pay them what they were worth, without bankrupting the rest of the organization. In 2007 Nicole Dial left us to take up a humanitarian position with an NGO in Afghanistan. Three months later she and two of her colleagues were killed by the Taliban. What a terrible waste of live; what terrible payback for dedication to helping others."
- ↑ "Protecting education from attack: a state-of-the-art review". UNESCO. 2010. ISBN 9789231041525. https://books.google.ca/books?id=k1rYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71&dq=Afghanistan+%22Nicole+Dial%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ-b6_i5rNAhXKyoMKHbBUDjMQ6AEIMzAE#v=onepage&q=Afghanistan%20%22Nicole%20Dial%22&f=false. Retrieved 2016-06-09.
- ↑ Terry Glavin (2011-01-08). "Jack Layton's Afghan Fantasy". National Post. http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/terry-glavin-jack-laytons-afghan-fantasy. Retrieved 2016-06-08. "The next time Mr. Layton feels the urge to engage in such a callous exercise in wishful thinking he might want to call to mind the memory of the murdered aid workers, Jackie Kirk of Montreal and Shirley Case of Williams Lake. These two CARE Canada associates were not in any way “tied to the troops” when they were executed in the summer of 2007, along with their comrades Mohammad Aimal and Nicole Dial. They were shot dead at the side of a road for the crime of traveling unarmed without military escort in a clearly marked civilian NGO vehicle."
- ↑ Adam Goldman, Missy Ryan (2016-06-08). "About 12 released Guantanamo detainees implicated in attacks on Americans". Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/about-12-released-guantanamo-detainees-implicated-in-deadly-attacks-on-americans/2016/06/08/004d038e-2776-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54_story.html. Retrieved 2016-06-08. "Another woman, Nicole Dial, 30, a Trinidadian American who worked for the International Rescue Committee, was shot and killed the same year south of Kabul, along with two colleagues."
