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Hotel Becomes Government Center
Wednesday, January 9, 2002
(3:49 PM ET)
The Associated Press

Eventually, the easy access to Afghanistan's new government will grow more difficult. But for now, anyone who wants an audience with a minister can go to the Inter-Con. If they can get past the two checkpoints on the access road manned by teen-agers with guns, they can head up and try to network.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
In the dark hallway outside Room 128, a thicket of bearded Afghans confer in hushed tones, walkie-talkies at the ready. Through the door, the newly appointed minister of irrigation nibbles roasted chickpeas and talks of the future. Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai may be running the new Afghanistan from the presidential palace, but part of the government's business is being conducted in the rooms and halls of Kabul's Inter-Continental Hotel.

"Every time somebody takes over the government, they stay here," said Sher Mohammad Babakarkhil, who has worked for the hotel since it opened in 1969 and was appointed general manager by Karzai last week.

Days after being sworn in, Karzai's interim government sent the Inter-Continental a message: We need the second and third floors. Journalists were rousted from rooms and a cadre of new ministers, military commanders, civil servants and state guests moved in.

More than two weeks later, the floors are a warren of smoke-filled rooms, most about the size of one in a Motel 6. They brim with men who sit on beds covered with floral blankets, draw their knees to their shoulders and discuss affairs of state. Not a single woman is in sight.
(More: USA Today News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Funny how the AP let the current security system of the new government slip like that. Just 2 checkpoints, huh?

Also:
With Afghanistan's luminaries now his guests, Babakarkhil has set his mind to re-affiliating with a chain. It will be difficult, he acknowledges, but believes it's the only chance the old hotel has to reclaim grandeur.

I can readily think of a number of U.S. hotel chains, including airlines, that would probably love to take the hotel on, merely from a financial investment and advertising point of view.

Dan