# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread March 2010



## GAP (1 Mar 2010)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread March 2010 *               

*News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!*


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## GAP (1 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 1,2010*

 On the front lines in Kandahar, the crowd went wild 
Article Link

From the beginning, Corporal Nicole Harcombe had a feeling.

Wearing a Team Canada T-shirt and waving a Canadian flag, Cpl. Harcombe took a second-row seat in a theatre at Kandahar Airfield's New Canada House just after midnight Monday morning.

The military clerk is the middle of a tour here in Afghanistan. Her husband, Peter, a soldier and Afghan veteran himself, was across the world in Edmonton, but she was sure they were both settling in for the same event, albeit at different times of the day - watching the men's hockey gold-medal game.

The married Cpl. Harcombe was, however, forthcoming about a wee crush, a player she felt sure would win it for Canada. A certain slumping star forward from Cole Harbour, a Nova Scotia town she once lived in. The player who'd win it all?

"Sidney Crosby," she says before the game, breaking a wide smile.

The gold-medal match was aired live throughout the Canadian buildings at Kandahar Airfield, the home of Canada's military efforts in Afghanistan. Most prominent, however, was the gathering at New Canada House, where about 200 people crowded in to watch the game. Whether sitting on chairs, stairs, the floor or standing in back, the late hour didn't discourage many people, though free Timbits and coffee were served as incentives. 
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 Pro-gov't party leads Tajik elections; fraud cited
Article Link
By PETER LEONARD (AP) – 1 hour ago

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Preliminary results show Tajikistan's pro-government party winning weekend parliamentary elections by a landslide, officials said Monday, as international monitors and the opposition cited widespread fraud.

The results — if confirmed by the final count in 10 days — would reinforce President Emomali Rakhmon's two-decade hold over the impoverished Central Asian country that serves as a supply route for international forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

The initial tally after all of Sunday's votes were counted showed the government-backed party with 71.7 percent and the main opposition Islamic Revival Party with just 7.7 percent, the Central Elections Commission said.

However, international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that while the vote peaceful, it was marred by ballot-box stuffing and proxy voting. Islamic Revival said it had evidence of forged ballot count reports.

"Such serious irregularities weaken genuine democratic progress," said Pia Christmas-Moeller, an OSCE delegation leader.
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 Afghans Move to Protect Rare Bird
Benjamin Joffe-Walt Monday, March 01, 2010
Article Link

The world's 'least known bird' added to Afghanistan protection list.

Afghanistan's National Environment Protection Agency added one of the world's rarest birds recently rediscovered in the country's mountainous east to a new list of protected species on Sunday.

The large-billed reed warbler, a five-inch long olive-brown bird, is so rare it has only been documented twice in the last 100 years.

Robert Timmins, a researcher with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society found a large-billed reed warbler in 2008 during a wildlife survey in the in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanitan's Pamir Mountains. In the two years since researchers have found 20 of the tiny perching birds, the largest number ever recorded.

Afghanistan's National Environment Protection Agency added the bird to a list of protected species established last year.

"It is not true that our country is full of only bad stories," Mustafa Zahir, the agency's director-general, told reporters. "This bird, after so many years, has been discovered here. Everyone thought it was extinct."

Dubbed the world's 'least known bird', the large-billed reed warbler was first documented in November, 1867 in the Sutlej Valley near Rampoor, Himachal Pradesh, India.
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 Two blasts hit Afghanistan's Kandahar, six dead
Article Link

Four Afghan civilians and one foreign soldier were killed on Monday when a suicide car bomber hit a convoy of NATO-led troops near the southern city of Kandahar, officials and witnesses said.

Hours later, a car packed with explosives blew up outside the main police station in the city, the birthplace of the ousted Taliban in Afghanistan and the expected next target of NATO troops fighting to oust the militants.

The second Kandahar blast killed one police officer and wounded 16 people, including nine police, said Fazl Ahmad Sherzad, deputy police chief for Kandahar province.

A Reuters reporter at the scene saw at least six vehicles badly damaged. Shattered glass littered the area and several buildings nearby were destroyed.

In the earlier suicide attack, several soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were wounded in the attack on a road several miles from Kandahar airport, a provincial official said.

The airport is a key base for a major offensive by ISAF and Afghan forces launched in neighboring Helmand province two weeks ago to retake the town of Marjah from the Taliban.
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 Afghan: When shooting stops, some soldiers read
Article Link
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA (AP) – 9 hours ago

BADULA QULP, Afghanistan — When he was a child, and it was bedtime and lights out, Gene Hicks would hide under the blankets and read with a flashlight. Now he's Army 1st Sgt. Gene Hicks, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and sometimes lies in his sleeping bag reading with a flashlight.

"I'm still doing the same thing," said Hicks, whose mind travels far from the war zone to a world inhabited by a monk, a duke, an assassin and the merchant princes of medieval Europe.

Hicks, 39, of Tacoma, Washington, is reading "The Anger of God" by Paul Doherty, a mystery novel set in London in 1379. His girlfriend in the U.S. wrote to Doherty to tell him Hicks was a fan. The author mailed a prayer card, autographed copies of four books, and a note — "Be safe."

Hicks is part of a force from the 5th Stryker Brigade that has pushed into Taliban land near the southern town of Marjah, where U.S. Marines are fighting. He retreats to Doherty's book when he can.

"I like reading about the history of how things were; he doesn't sugarcoat things much," said Hicks. He likes the atmospherics — the gallows, the intrigue, the intensity of religious belief.

The first line:

"The man waiting in the corner of the derelict cemetery between Poor Jewry and Sybethe Lane jumped as an owl in the old yew tree above him hooted and spread ghostly wings to go soaring like a dark angel over the tumbled grass and briars."

The soldiers of Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment have fought insurgents in the fields and villages of Badula Qulp. Bombs and snipers are a daily threat. There is downtime. Some read in the quiet hours, when they are not shooting or patrolling or scanning, or cleaning their weapons or waiting or sleeping or eating or chatting or tending to Stryker infantry trucks.
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 Coalition forces eye athletic facility for Kandahar
Article Link
Indoor complex would be ‘very important,' city sports director says

Being a recreational athlete in Kandahar isn't easy.

Equipment is expensive, when even $20 shoes represent a double-digit percentage of a monthly wage. Fields are crowded, far away and often muddy. Furthermore, there is only one multisport complex, which is outdoors. There's no major indoor facility in the entire city, which has an estimated population of about 800,000.

“When it's raining, really cold or really hot, we can't play,” said Wali Mohammad, a 21-year-old soccer player from Kandahar.

The city and its 21,800 enrolled recreational athletes (said to be almost all men) are in line for a big boost, however. Coalition forces are considering a deal to build what would be Kandahar's only indoor athletic facility.

Canadian Brigadier-General Daniel Ménard, the head of the coalition's task force in Kandahar, said in an interview that coalition forces are “looking at” building the multi-use centre, with possible American funding, but that it's in the early stages and any ribbon-cutting is a ways off. He framed it as an investment in sport that is meant to draw young men away from the insurgency.
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 Afghan soldiers show improvement in Marja assault
The top Marine commander says Afghan troops, overall, exceeded his expectations. But there is still a need for more training.
Article Link

The Afghan troops who supported the U.S. Marines in the battle to end Taliban control of this town in Helmand province showed marked improvement over last summer's performance in a similar fight but still need much more training, Marine commanders say.

Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the top Marine here, said that overall the Afghan battalions exceeded his expectations. Nicholson said he would give some Afghan units an A-minus or B-plus but that others, particularly those with soldiers fresh from basic training, would get a C-minus or D.

The lead Afghan commander, Brig. Gen. Mahayoodin Ghoori, agreed with Nicholson's assessment. "We fought hard, we beat the terrorists, but we need more training, especially more training with heavy weapons," Ghoori said.

The fight to oust the Taliban has been billed as a major test of the Afghan army's state of readiness to assume the lead role in providing security for the nation.

Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has called for improving the Afghan army's training and increasing its size and capability. That priority has taken on added urgency since President Obama declared in December that he wants to begin withdrawing U.S. combat troops by mid-2011.
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## GAP (2 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 2,2010*

 Keep the military off the budgetary chopping block
Article Link
Matt Gurney, National Post  Published: Tuesday, March 02, 2010

On Thursday, the government will bring down a new budget. It is widely rumoured to be a stay-the-course affair that recognizes the need for tough fiscal choices. But tough choices must still be correct ones, and sometimes that means knowing where not to cut.

A recent C.D. Howe Institute report, approvingly cited by Terence Corcoran in his Financial Post series on proposed deficit-reduction measures, called for a freeze in military spending at current levels, adjusted for population growth and inflation, noting that the end of the Afghanistan campaign would provide Ottawa an opportunity to "limit the expansion of spending on National Defence without lowering our military capacity." While I share the Institute's concern over the deficit, its scholars are mistaken in two key ways: Current spending would not be enough to sustain our current capabilities, nor are those current capabilities sufficient.

As the report notes, military spending in Canada has climbed at an annual rate of 8% since 2000, far outpacing the growth in the overall economy. Beginning under Paul Martin and continuing during the Conservatives' leadership, chronically undermanned units began to return to something close to full strength. Rusted out equipment was replaced. When specific problems with Canadian gear were discovered -- for example, when the infamous unarmoured Iltis patrol jeeps fared poorly in an IED-strewn Afghan desert -- new equipment was ordered and rushed to the troops.
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 Afghanistan bans coverage of Taliban attacks
Article Link

Afghanistan on Monday announced a ban on news coverage showing Taliban attacks, saying such images embolden the Islamist militants, who have launched strikes around the country as NATO forces seize their southern strongholds.

World

The announcement came on a day when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting the Taliban reported six of its service members had been killed in various attacks.

Journalists will be allowed to film only the aftermath of attacks, when given permission by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) spy agency, the agency said. Journalists who film while attacks are under way will be held and their gear seized.

"Live coverage does not benefit the government, but benefits the enemies of Afghanistan," NDS spokesman Saeed Ansari said. The agency summoned a group of reporters to announce the ban.

The move was denounced by Afghan journalism and rights groups, which said it would deprive the public of vital information about the security situation during attacks.

"Such a decision prevents the public from receiving accurate information on any occurrence," said Abdul Hameed Mubarez head of the Afghan National Media Union, a group set up to protect Afghan journalists, who often complain of harassment by authorities.
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 British soldier shot dead in Afghanistan: ministry
Article Link
(AFP) – 23 hours ago

LONDON — A British soldier was shot dead in southern Afghanistan on Monday, defence officials said.

The serviceman, from 3 Rifles Battle Group, was killed by small arms fire near Sangin, Helmand Province, said the Ministry of Defence.

His death was not connected to Operation Mushtarak, a major US-led assault to clear Taliban insurgents out of towns in Helmand, said officials.

"The patrol he was on was part of ongoing operations... to expand the area of security around the district centre, when he was shot and killed by small arms fire," said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield.
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 'Mowing the grass' in Afghanistan
By H.D.S. Greenway March 2, 2010 
Article Link

‘MOWING THE grass’’ is the term frustrated soldiers use to describe the war in Afghanistan. America and its NATO allies sweep in and clear an area. But, once they leave, the Taliban creep back like weeds in the lawn and the allies have to mow it all over again.

The Soviets felt the same frustration. Their firepower was superior, but they were never able to keep the Mujahideen from growing back. So it was with the British who kept mowing the Afghan grass for the better part of 100 years - sending armies in again and again, but never to lasting effect.

It is ever thus with these kinds of wars. Think of the Israelis who have been mowing the Palestinian grass for more than 40 years, with the last major cutting in Gaza in 2007.

In Indochina, Americans churned over the same area again and again for more years than it took armies and navies to sweep across Europe and the Pacific in WWII, but, as it was for the French before them, never succeeding in keeping the grass trimmed.
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 Afghanistan troops shocked at use of lightly armoured vehciles
By Richard Smith 2/03/2010 
Article Link

An inquest was told yesterday that soldiers felt "disbelief" at the use of lightly armoured Snatch Land Rovers in Afghanistan.

A sergeant, known as soldier O, spoke out at the hearing into the death of Corporal Sarah Bryant, the first woman killed on operations in the country.

Married Cpl Bryant, 26, right, with the Intelligence Corps, died when her Land Rover was blown up by a bomb concealed in a drainage ditch in June 2008. Territorial Army special forces soldiers Cpl Sean Robert Reeve, 28, L Cpl Richard Larkin, 39, and Private Paul Stout, 31, also died. Soldier O said: "The use of a Snatch Land Rover was met with disbelief from virtually everybody. I questioned the vehicle's suitability."

At the start of the hearing in Trowbridge coroner David Masters said: "We will look at the damage the bomb would have done to another vehicle."
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 Pakistani police submit charges against Americans
Article Link

Pakistani police submitted on Tuesday charges of plotting terrorism against five young Americans detained last year, a lawyer said.

U.S.

The students, in their 20s and from the U.S. state of Virginia, were detained in December in the town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, and accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting attacks.

They have not been formally charged, but police on Tuesday submitted a charge sheet in an anti-terrorist court in Sargodha, said defense lawyer Hassan Dastagir.

"The court received the challan (charge sheet) which carries charges of criminal conspiracy, having the intention to go to Pakistan's neighboring countries to topple the government and involvement in fund raising for terrorist acts," he told Reuters.

The court is expected to formally charge the five at the next hearing on March 10, he said.

The case has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet to evade tighter international security measures and plan attacks.

The five, who earlier told the court they only wanted to provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and financial help, face life imprisonment if convicted, Dastagir said.
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 Pakistan Seizes Insurgent Stronghold on Afghan Border 
Article Link

Pakistani forces have seized a key al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold along the border with Afghanistan that once served as a hideout for Ayman al Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.

The capture of Damadola, a district in the Bajaur tribal region, is a major success in Pakistan's counterinsurgency campaign. The area had long been dominated by insurgents operating on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Pakistani forces seized the scenic district late last month, after several days of fierce fighting that Pakistan said left more than 75 foreign and local militants dead. Pakistan's military took reporters to the site, which is surrounded by snow-capped mountains less than five kilometers from the Afghan border, for the first time Tuesday.

"It was the main hub of militancy where al Qaeda operatives had moved freely," said Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, the regional commander.
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## GAP (3 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 3, 2010*


 Canadian Forces distributing ethics guide
Article Link
 By Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News ServiceMarch 3, 2010

The Canadian army has produced an ethics guide to help equip soldiers to be "ethical warriors" who will instinctively do the right thing.

It addresses everything from cruelty and torture — "We don't do that," the guide says — to turning a blind eye when a comrade does something wrong.

"Where once only physical courage defined heroism, the need for moral courage throughout the breadth of our army is now a key institutional goal in shaping our culture," army chief Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie says in a preface to the guide.

It says detainees must be treated with dignity and respect. Sleep deprivation to soften someone up for interrogation is as unacceptable as physical assault, it says.

And it cautions against verbal abuse, such as referring to enemies with dehumanizing labels, on grounds that will escalate to physical abuse.

Leslie also warns that public support for a mission can rapidly collapse "if Canadian society believes that we conduct ourselves in an unethical, inhumane or iniquitous manner."

The guide is being distributed to commanders in the army's nearly 300 units — and eventually to all 40,000 army forces — as Parliament is about to resume a months-long debate over diplomat Richard Colvin's allegations that the Canadian Forces have transferred detainees to Afghan security forces despite a risk of torture.
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 Pakistan reveals the Taliban’s secret underground cave network
Article Link

 Pakistan's army on Tuesday revealed a vast Taliban and al-Qaeda hideout dug into mountains near the Afghan border.

Commanders gave journalists a guided tour of the bastion, carved into sheer rock within clear view of the snow-capped mountains of eastern Afghanistan and said by one general to comprise 156 caves developed over five to seven years.

Pakistan seized the complex in its latest offensive against terrorists in its semi-autonomous tribal belt, following U.S. pressure on the country to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups who attack Western troops in Afghanistan.

Major-General Tariq Khan told journalists on the visit that the warren of caves in the Damadola area had served as a terrorist headquarters until it was overrun by troops in an offensive launched in January.

"It was the main hub of militancy where al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely," he said.
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 AHMED QURAISHI: CIA’S ROGUE “DRUG FUNDED” OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN
March 3, 2010 by Gordon Duff ·
Article Link

When these CIA agents killed a couple of Chinese engineers back in 2004, CIA psy-ops used the incident to put the blame on Afghan Taliban, thereby creating doubts in the minds of Chinese officials that Pakistani intelligence might have had something to do with this since Pakistan maintained ties with the Afghan Taliban government in Afghanistan before 2002.”

CIA needs authorization from US Congress before launching covert operations in other countries. Congress approves releasing funds for the operations.

Because of this requirement CIA has to give people in government details about the covert operations it is asking money for.

To avoid this disclosure, CIA has been looking for funding from other sources to launch ‘rogue’ operations, ones that are not fully endorsed by the government.

In Afghanistan, CIA has launched several covert operations since 2002 meant to target not al-Qaeda or Taliban but some of the neighboring countries whose policies may not sync with US interests.
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 Military aid work in Afghanistan 'risks charity staff' 
Article Link


Afghan children at a refugee camp
An infant dies every two minutes in Afghanistan, Unicef estimates

UK soldiers in Afghanistan should not carry out humanitarian work as it puts aid staff at risk, a charity has said.

Save the Children said the UK's policy of funding troops to work alongside aid workers threatened their impartiality.

The link-up on projects such as rebuilding schools blurred military and humanitarian objectives, it warned.

The Department for International Development (Dfid) said military and civilian efforts needed to be combined as security was such a huge problem.

The charity, which is launching a humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, said the current policy could turn hospitals or schools, rebuilt with military help, into targets.
More on link
  
 Montreal cop says she's up to challenge of working in Afghanistan
Article Link
 By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceMarch 2, 2010

Const. Annie, as she asked to be called for security reasons, is unique.

The 44-year-old Montrealer is the only foreign policewoman teaching policing skills in the most conservative corner of an extremely traditional society where women have few rights and many men regard women as chattel.

It is a job that last week took Annie to a dusty firing range in Kandahar City where she instructed several Afghan policewomen in how to shoot a 9-mm Smith & Wesson pistol similar to the one she uses at home.

"As a policewoman, I want to help other women and Afghanistan is a big challenge," Annie said as she sat in the mess hall of a small army base in the provincial capital where she lives among Canadian and American troops and male Canadian police officers who, like her, serve as police mentors.

Annie downplayed the courage she has shown by volunteering to spend nine months at the epicentre of the war against the Taliban, insisting that it was nothing when compared to the every day bravery of the 10 Afghan policewomen she instructs.
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 Torch brings strangers together to help Canadian troops
Article Link
Updated: Tue Mar. 02 2010 7:49:42 PM

ctvwinnipeg.ca

An Olympic torch has drawn together two strangers with a shared goal of helping Canadian troops.

Shilo-based soldier Master-Cpl. Adam Cyr lost his leg in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan.

After returning to Shilo, he was chosen to carry the Olympic torch through the base.

He decided to sell his torch afterwards on eBay to raise funds for soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Colleen Kulowich saw CTV News' previous story about Cyr putting his torch up for sale. Having friends who have gone to war, she was inspired to help.

She bid more than $2,300 on the torch, enough to win it on the eBay auction.

When Cyr delivered the torch to Kulowich, she gave him the money and then handed the torch back, telling him she wanted him to keep it.

"I just thought it was such a nice gesture," says Cyr.

Kulowich hopes others will be inspired to show support.

"Put your money where your mouth is. And put your efforts in what you believe in," says Kulowich.

Months before bidding on the torch, she also got a tattoo of a support the troops yellow ribbon.

Kulowich and Cyr have become friends since meeting through the torch exchange and she plans to help him with a new organization he has named Operation Good to Go. Cyr's group provides a support network to help fellow soldiers. 
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## a_majoor (3 Mar 2010)

From the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/who-are-the-taliban/article1487435/



> *Who are the Taliban?*
> 
> They aren't just bushy-bearded Afghan men with black turbans - they are a state of mind AP
> 
> ...


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## GAP (4 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 4, 2010*

 Ex-Gitmo prisoner helps lead Taliban in Afghanistan
Article Link
12:00 AM CST on Thursday, March 4, 2010

Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A man who was freed from Guantánamo more than two years ago, after claiming that he only wanted to go home and help his family, is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.

Abdul Qayyum also is seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, the officials said.

The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantánamo by sending some current prisoners back to their home countries or to other willing nations, while putting others on trial.

U.S. intelligence officials say that 20 percent of inmates released from the Guantánamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and that the number has been steadily increasing.

Qayyum's key aide in plotting attacks on Afghan and international forces is another former Guantánamo prisoner, Abdul Rauf, according to the officials and a former governor of Helmand province, Sher Mohammed Akhundzada.
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 Don't pull out every soldier
Article Link
Canada can make a huge difference by leaving a small contingent of military trainers in Afghanistan after the 2011 withdrawal deadline
 By Roland Paris, Citizen SpecialMarch 4, 2010

In yesterday's throne speech the federal government reiterated its plan to end Canada's military mission in Afghanistan next year. No one can fault Canadians for wanting to conclude this long, costly deployment. But by leaving behind a small contingent of troops to help train the Afghan Army, Canada could make a modest but vital contribution to the ongoing NATO operation.

Building Afghan security forces is central to NATO's disengagement strategy. The alliance hopes that the current "surge" of U.S. troops will reverse the insurgency's momentum and buy time to increase the size and capability of Afghan forces, thus making it possible to hand off the lead responsibility for security to Afghan army and police units, province by province, district by district.

Whether this plan will succeed or fail remains to be seen, but in a universe of bad options, it offers the best prospects for gradually ending NATO's massive Afghan mission in a responsible manner. (An irresponsible strategy, by contrast, would be to withdraw all NATO forces precipitously. Doing so would be a recipe for renewed civil war whose destructiveness would likely dwarf the guerrilla conflict now underway.)

In January, the Afghan government and its international backers agreed to nearly double the size of Afghanistan's army within two years. But building such a force will require many more military trainers from NATO countries. In fact, the alliance estimates that it needs 1,600 additional trainers by the end of this year.
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 5 Pakistani road workers shot dead in Afghanistan
  Article Link
(AP) – 8 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Five Pakistani road construction workers were shot dead Thursday in Afghanistan's restive southern city of Kandahar, police said

The workers were traveling to their construction site when two gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on their minivan at about 7 a.m., said Kandahar's deputy police chief, Mohammad Shah Faroqi. Five of the laborers were killed and one was wounded.

The Pakistanis worked for Saita Construction Co., a Japanese joint-venture with a contract to repair the road from Kandahar to Punjwai district, Faroqi said.

Taliban insurgents dominate much of southern Afghanistan and often attack aid projects. On Monday, car bombs in and around Kandahar killed one NATO soldier and five Afghan civilians.

Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's largest city, is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban and was the seat of the government before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the hard-line Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaida leaders allegedly behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
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 Military rebuffs blogger’s call for top Canadian general to be fired
Article Link
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service  Published: Wednesday, March 03, 2010

The Canadian military in Afghanistan emphatically denied Wednesday a claim by an American blogger popular among soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that Canada's commander, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, should be fired for not having prevented an attack on a bridge near the Kandahar Airfield where an American soldier and four Afghan civilians died Monday.

Blogger Michael Yon, a former Special Forces soldier who has sometimes had strained relations with the U.S. and British military bureaucracy because of his writing, alleged Canadian troops were not providing security as they should have because they and Brig.-Gen. Menard were watching the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game on television at the time of the attack and that the U.S. should take over his command before a major offensive that will likely begin late this spring.
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 Will Others Follow Dutch and Leave Afghanistan?
Article Link

The Dutch government has collapsed over whether to keep its soldiers in Afghanistan.  In this report from Washington, Senior Correspondent André de Nesnera looks at what effect - if any - that will have on other nations that have troops in that country under the banner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  

About 2,000 Dutch troops have been in Afghanistan's southern province of Uruzgan since 2006.  They are part of the 86,000 troop NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Analysts say NATO has three objectives in Afghanistan.  The first is to assist the Afghan government in its efforts to rebuild and stabilize the country.  The second is to train the Afghan army and police.  And the third is to hunt down and eliminate insurgents in southern Afghanistan - home of the Taliban, ousted from power by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001.
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 Reluctant Pashtuns hamper Afghan recruitment drive
Article Link

High drop-out and low recruitment rates have hampered NATO efforts to boost security forces to control insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. general leading the effort said on Wednesday.

World

Lieutenant-General William B. Caldwell, who is directing an effort to increase the size of the Afghan army and police to 300,000 by 2011, said drop-out rates for the police stood at 25 percent and at 18 percent for the army.

The rate for the best police unit, the paramilitary Afghan National Civil Order Police, was 60-70 percent, Caldwell told reporters.

"This is absolutely unacceptable," he said.

Training Afghan soldiers and police to take over security is critical to the U.S. and NATO strategy in Afghanistan. The sooner Afghans are capable of securing the country, the sooner foreign troops can withdraw, commanders say.

But the strategy hinges on finding enough recruits and training them rapidly.

While new pay scales had helped push recruitment rates since December to more than 7,000 a month, the number of recruits from among ethnic Pashtuns in southern provinces, where the Taliban insurgency is fiercest, remains only 2-3 percent of the total.

"We are not satisfied with the number of Pashtuns coming into the army from the south," Caldwell said.
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## GAP (5 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 5, 2010*

 U.S. general goes silent on Canada’s Afghan withdrawal 
Article Link

The key to fighting the war in Afghanistan is the experience of Canada and other nations, but the international force will muddle through when Ottawa starts withdrawing soldiers and equipment from Kandahar next year, a top U.S. commander says.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, flew to the nation’s capital Thursday to lay out his country’s military strategy in Afghanistan. But he took great care to brace for the existential question facing the Canadian government, which he compared to an explosive lying in wait for visiting American officials: what role, if any, to play on the Afghan battlefield after a scheduled 2011 withdrawal?

“When we were coming up on the plane, we had a little discussion about that,” Petraeus told reporters following a speech to the Conference of Defence Associations. “Generally if you reach this point in life you figure out that there’s some minefields that you can go around rather than going through. So with respect if I could I’m not going to get into national decisions.”

The Conservative government says it is committed to the planned withdrawal of all Canadian forces from Kandahar between July and December 2011. It is not clear what role Canadian diplomats, aid workers or corrections officials will play in the country without the security currently provided by soldiers, but the government says it is committed to the Afghan people long past 2011.

The Dutch government also plans to pull out its troops from the southern province of Uruzgan later this year, a decision that came last month and kicked off a wave of existential angst over the future of the coalition effort in Afghanistan. 
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 U.S. commander in Afghanistan gets more authority
Article Link

U.S. General David Petraeus said on Thursday he had expanded the authority of his top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to give him operational control over virtually all American forces in the country.

Officials in Washington said the move was part of an effort to further streamline the military hierarchy in Afghanistan.

McChrystal commands U.S. and NATO troops there -- except for U.S. Special Operations forces and prison guards who run detention facilities and answer to Petraeus, they said.

Special Ops have come under scrutiny since a NATO airstrike late last month killed 27 Afghan civilians. U.S. officials say Special Ops called in the strike.

McChrystal has sought to curtail the use of air power, arguing that civilian deaths hurt a campaign to win over the local population and defeat Taliban insurgents.

Speaking to a defense conference in Ottawa, Petraeus said he had ordered that "all U.S. forces, less a handful, be placed there under General McChrystal's operational, not just tactical, control."
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 McChrystal bans night raids without Afghan troops
Article Link

U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan will be permitted to carry out raids at night only when there are Afghan security forces present, their commander, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, ordered on Friday.

McChrystal's order falls short of the outright ban on raids at night sought by President Hamid Karzai but would ensure that such raids took place only with Afghan authorities included in the planning and execution.

At a security conference in Munich last month, Karzai called for an end to civilian casualties, as well as an end to night raids and the arrest of Afghans in their homes, saying "the war on terror is not in the Afghan villages and homes".

Civilian deaths and injuries inflicted during operations by international forces have caused deep anger among Afghans. Analysts argue such casualties encourage people to join the Taliban-led insurgency.

Afghan security forces "should be the first force seen and the first voices heard by the occupants of any compound entered" during a night raid, said excerpts from McChrystal's classified directive made public by his headquarters.
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 Encouraging Signs in Afghanistan 
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What if the West's war in Afghanistan is in the process of being won? It has become standard practice to presume that this isn't possible and that immersion in a quagmire followed by ignominious retreat is guaranteed.

Much of the discussion among policy makers and commentators has priced in a debilitating stalemate or defeat. But what if these presumptions turn out to be plain wrong?

There are some encouraging signs of progress becoming visible on the horizon in Afghanistan. Operation Moshtarak in Helmand province got under way in mid-February, with a combined force in the region of 15,000 taking on the Taliban.

It has had some success with various insurgent strongholds taken. Under the direction of ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) the force is around 60% Afghan.

In Pakistan, the renewed focus on cooperation and assistance from American drones appears to be producing a dividend. One of the most experienced Pakistani commanders in the frontier war with the Taliban, Major Gen. Tariq Khan, told the Times of London that his force of 45,000 has inflicted significant casualties, killed the Taliban leadership and captured bases. Earlier this week Gen. Khan showed off to journalists the recently captured network of caves on the Afghan border reported to have sheltered Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.
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## GAP (6 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 6, 2010*

 For soldiers in the real world, The Hurt Locker sets off explosions of laughter
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There sits Staff Sergeant William James, the bomb technician at the centre of The Hurt Locker, lighting a cigarette and bragging about his credentials. "I saw a little bit in Afghanistan, too," he says on his first Hummer ride with his new team.

Heading into Sunday's Academy Awards, The Hurt Locker is a favourite, as it has been with critics and at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards last month. With nine Oscar nominations, it's heralded for its documentary style, based on a script by a reporter who embedded with a bomb team, and billed by the LA Times as "overflowing with crackling verisimilitude."

But the film's admirers don't include those who actually do the job - defusing or destroying makeshift bombs. Canadian explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) soldiers in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's most volatile and bomb-laden provinces, say their life is no Hurt Locker.

"First reaction was, 'This is pretty Hollywood,' " says EOD soldier Lieutenant Caroline Pollock. "All of us were laughing at the movie, at parts in the movie where no one else would laugh. Like, this is ridiculous."

The Canadians, for example, think Guy Pearce's character - killed early on while wearing the heavy bomb suit and running from an explosion - shouldn't actually have died.

"The guy was 100 metres away and running when it exploded? I was surprised he died," said Leading Seaman Doug Woodrow, a 13-year Forces veteran who has donned the suit himself.
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 NATO details its Afghan night raids policy
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By TINI TRAN (AP) – 7 hours ago

KABUL — A new directive from NATO's top commander in Afghanistan orders coalition forces to avoid night raids when possible, but to bring Afghan troops with them if they must enter homes after dark.

The coalition released details of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's new policy Friday — changes that are meant to cut down on the storm of complaints from Afghan people.

Though McChrystal's order falls short of the complete ban on night raids sought by President Hamid Karzai, it does reflect new sensitivities by NATO at a time when the coalition is pursuing a strategy of gaining Afghan public trust in a bid to rout Taliban extremists.

McChrystal had issued the order in late January — as reported by The Associated Press last week — and portions of the classified directive were made public Friday by his headquarters. It follows the NATO commander's move to limit the use of airstrikes last year that were responsible for the bulk of civilian deaths.

"Despite their effectiveness and operational value, night raids come at a steep cost in terms of the perceptions of the Afghan people," according to excerpts of his directive.

"In the Afghan culture, a man's home is more than just his residence. ... Even when there is no damage or injuries, Afghans can feel deeply violated and dishonored, making winning their support that much more difficult," it said.
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 British soldier jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan
March 5, 2010
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A British soldier who went absent without leave rather than return to fight in Afghanistan was jailed Friday for nine months by a military court, officials said.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed that Lance Corp. Joe Glenton had been convicted by a military judge at a court martial in Colchester, southeast England,

Glenton, who completed a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006, became an outspoken critic of British military operations in the country during his absence, frequently appearing at anti-war rallies and on television.

In an interview last July, the 27-year-old told CNN that he was not a conscientious objector, but was refusing to return because he felt the 2001 invasion and subsequent conflict against Taliban militants was not a legitimate use of force.

"The situation in Afghanistan and our involvement is further antagonizing the Muslim population of the world," Glenton said.
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 European Governments Restrict Their NATO Forces In Afghanistan
Andre de Nesnera | Washington 05 March 2010 
Article Link

International troops under the banner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are continuing to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. But, NATO field commanders are hindered by certain restrictions placed on troops by European governments.

NATO has more than 86,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the United Nations mandated contingent known as the "International Security Assistance Force" - or ISAF. More than 40 countries are part of ISAF, including all 28 NATO members.

One of the most difficult ISAF mission is to fight insurgents in southern Afghanistan - home of the Taliban, ousted from power by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001. NATO troops are now engaged in a major military operation in southern Helmand province.

But analysts say NATO commanders are hindered in their fight against insurgents by so-called "caveats" - restrictions placed by various countries on what their forces can or cannot do.

Michael Williams, a NATO expert at London University, describes some of those restrictions.

"Some caveats might be our forces can't operate after night," said Michael Williams. "Our forces can't operate outside of this region or district. They can't be sent in combat operations. They can only fire when fired upon, etc. And so it can lead to some bizarre circumstances where if your rules of engagement are unless you are fired on you can't return fire - if let's say you are with the British and they are being fired at, but technically your soldiers aren't being, they can't actually assist the British forces."
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 Problems with U.S. civilian surge' could upset Afghanistan timetable
By JONATHAN S. LANDAY McClatchy Newspapers
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The Obama administration's "surge" of U.S. civilian officials and experts into Afghanistan is beset by a shortage of qualified personnel, a lack of housing and other problems that could disrupt its timetable for turning over full control of the country to the Afghan government, according to a report released Friday.

"Even with the able leadership of Kabul's senior (civilian) officers, the best of intentions and the most dedicated efforts, Embassy Kabul faces serious challenges in meeting the administration's deadline for 'success' in Afghanistan," said the report by the State Department Inspector General's Office.

The civilian buildup is a key component of the strategy that President Barack Obama unveiled in December for defeating the Taliban-led insurgency, which continues to rage more than eight years after the United States invaded.

Inspectors found that Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and his staff have made "impressive progress" overseeing the personnel increase since his arrival in May.
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 Report warns of overwork, low morale at U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan
March 5, 2010 7:55 p.m. EST
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A State Department inspector general's report says the U.S. Embassy staff in Afghanistan suffers from morale problems, overwork and the constant demands of visiting VIPs, which the report calls "war tourism."

The inspector general warns that problems may increase as the embassy doubles in size in coming months.

"Morale at Embassy Kabul has been challenged by the stresses of an almost 100 percent personnel turnover, a massive civilian buildup at a frenetic pace, the redesign of development assistance programs, the continuing high volume of official visitors, and the need to support an extended presidential strategy review," the report says.

Because of the time difference between the United States and Afghanistan, it says, the ambassador and top aides often must work through the night on video conferences with Washington.

Ambassador Karl Eikenberry was part of the lengthy White House meetings President Barack Obama called to hammer out a new Afghanistan policy.

"From October 1 through November 12, 2009, Embassy Kabul participated in 10 late-night video conferences, some called at the last minute, between 9:00 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. (local time), in addition to other video conferences scheduled during working hours," the report says.
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 New top official in Marja, Afghanistan, was convicted of stabbing stepson
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By Joshua Partlow and Jabeen Bhatti
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 6, 2010

MARJA, AFGHANISTAN -- The newly appointed top official in Marja, Abdul Zahir Aryan, is the Afghan face of the American-led military offensive. As the lone government representative in this town, he stands at the center of the next phase of the battle: the fight to build an Afghan government that is more attractive than Taliban rule.

But Zahir, who goes by Haji Zahir, arrived at this position after a tumultuous personal history that American and Afghan officials have not publicly disclosed. During more than a decade living in Germany, Zahir, 60, served four years in prison for attempted murder after stabbing his stepson, according to U.S. officials.

Three top U.S. officials in Afghanistan and one senior administration official in Washington confirmed his German conviction, though none would speak on the record. They did not say if the Afghan or U.S. government had known of his criminal conviction before Afghan officials appointed him to his post.

U.S. officials in Afghanistan said Zahir's criminal conviction did not undermine their confidence in his ability to govern.

"He served his time, so I suspect he will survive this," a U.S. military official said, adding though that the U.S. government had expressed concern to the Afghan government about this issue. 
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## GAP (7 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 7,2010*

 Twittering in Pashto: A New U.S. Military Communications Strategy in Afghanistan?
Article Link

In August 2009, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke  told the New York Times that "concurrent with the insurgency is an information war," as he discussed the new U.S. effort of up to $150 million a year (to be led by him) to counter the Taliban's well-oiled propaganda machine. "We are losing that war," he confessed.

Now, seven months following the Times interview, Ambassador Holbrooke sings the same tune, even if slightly out of pitch. In accepting the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award last week at Tufts University for his distinguished career in public service, Holbrooke again touted the lack of strategy in countering the Taliban's consistent and effective use of the airwaves to undermine the U.S. engagements in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Citing the initiative mentioned late last summer, Holbrooke stated that efforts to that end are "just rolling in." In fact, the initial figure of $150 million seems to have not been adequate. According to a State Department document from January, the budget this year for Afghanistan and Pakistan communications projects is about $250 million, with pots of money in the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies, too.

Given how complex it is for us living here in the United States to measure the effectiveness thus far of the U.S. strategy to counter the Taliban communications team on the ground -- though by most accounts, progress has been pegged between abject and abysmal, for such information campaigns are inherently viewed as U.S. propaganda themselves -- let's focus on an initiative we can take a closer look at, such as the military's use of Twitter.
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 Taliban clashes with rival Afghan militants kill 60 
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At least 60 militants have been killed in fighting between the Taliban and a rival Islamic group, Hezb-e-Islami, in northern Afghanistan, police say.

The fighting in Baghlan province erupted on Saturday morning. A number of civilians died in the crossfire.

It appears to be a rivalry over control of local villages and the taxes they generate, a BBC correspondent says.

Hezb-e-Islami, loyal to former PM Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is the second biggest militant group in Afghanistan.

The two groups have previously been allied in their opposition to Afghan's central government and foreign forces.

Baghlan's police chief told the BBC that 40 Hezb-e-Islami fighters had been killed, as well as 20 Taliban militants.

The Taliban are said to have detained at least 50 members of Hezb-e-Islami, Gen Akhbar said. 
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Afghan president visits town seized from Taliban
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By HEIDI VOGT
Associated Press Writer
updated 5:19 a.m. CT, Sun., March. 7, 2010

MARJAH, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is visiting the town of Marjah and hearing complaints from residents about the actions of Afghan and international troops who recently seized it from the Taliban in a major offensive.

Karzai, along with NATO commander U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, met Sunday with about 300 elders in a mosque in the central part of the town.

They complained — sometimes shouting — about house searches conducted by the military, and civilian casualties that occurred during the offensive. They told Karzai that they want Afghan troops — not international forces or local policemen — searching houses.
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 Army launches investigation: Corrupt Afghans stealing millions from aid funds
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Money that is supposed to help impoverished civilians and farmers is ending up in the hands of the Taliban, drug lords and profiteers
By Jonathan Owen Sunday, 7 March 2010

A major investigation has been launched into contracts awarded by coalition forces in Afghanistan that are worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The probe into construction and logistics contracts of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has been ordered by Major General Nick Carter, commander of Isaf forces in the south of the country.

It is prompted by mounting concerns that the very money supposed to win over the hearts and minds of Afghans is ending up in the hands of the Taliban, drug lords or profiteers.

The British commander's concern is part of a wider crackdown on corruption, with General Stanley McChrystal having declared war on those making millions out of what has become a billion-dollar black hole for aid funds
, in an anti-corruption directive issued last month. 
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 Pakistani Taliban Deputy Believed Killed
Intelligence Officials Say Two Dozen Militants Dead in Pakistan Army Air Strike
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A senior Pakistani Taliban commander with close links to al Qaeda and the Afghani Taliban was “probably killed” in an attack by Pakistani army helicopter gunships in a remote region along the Afghan border Friday, a senior Pakistani security official told CBS NEWS on Saturday.

Rehman Malik, the interior minister, also speaking to Pakistani reporters on Saturday, said Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was likely killed in the attack at a remote location in a region known as "Mohmand" on Friday.

“I would be surprised if Faqir Mohammed survived. We are hoping to receive further confirmation in a couple of days,” said Malik.

The security official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said, "Faqir Mohammed's killing will be a setback to the Taliban and al Qaeda in more ways than one."
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 Wounded pilot evacuates casualties in Afghanistan
March 7, 2010
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Weeks after a firefight in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, a story has emerged of a British pilot who was struck in the head by a bullet and still managed to safely land a helicopter full of casualties, medical personnel and troops.

British TV host Mike Brewer says he was onboard the Chinook that day as Flight Lt. Ian Fortune, 28, was shot in the helmet, just above his eyes.

Brewer, who was accompanied by a cameraman, was filming a series called "Frontline Battle Machines" for the Discovery Channel and was aboard Fortune's helicopter because it is the only surviving aircraft from the Falklands War, making it the oldest serving Chinook in the fleet.

He told CNN Saturday that he expected that flight that took off about three weeks ago to be a relatively routine trip to pick up wounded Afghan soldiers.

"Instead, the Chinook "landed in a firefight," Brewer said. "There was a battle going on. On the way in we could never have imagined it would become this kind of mission."
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 Pullout of troops from Afghanistan signals crisis, former NATO boss says
Article Link 
By Peter O'Neil, Canwest News ServiceMarch 6, 2010

Canada, despite its "robust" and "valiant" effort in Afghanistan, is among a group of countries contributing to a growing crisis caused by western allies who are failing to stay the course in that conflict, says the former secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Lord George Robertson, a former British defence secretary who served as NATO's top civilian leader from 1999-2004, said the planned Canadian pullout of combat troops next year is dangerously premature.

"To get out when the job's half-done is I think the wrong thing to do," Robertson told Canwest News Service on Friday.

He said he empathizes with those who feel Canadian troops have suffered disproportionate losses because Canada, with its forces stationed in Kandahar, is one of the few countries willing to deploy troops in the country's most dangerous areas.

"But it's the job that matters," he said, noting Britain recently increased its troop contingent despite suffering a surge in casualties over the past year.

Robertson, in a speech in Washington earlier this week, said Canada's decision and the Dutch troop withdrawal this year signals a "crisis" in the alliance.
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 Signs of life return to an Afghan ghost town
A campaign has begun to lure residents back to war-ravaged Now Zad in Helmand province, with Marine and Afghan guards posted 24 hours a day to ward off Taliban attacks.
Article Link
By Tony Perry March 7, 2010

Reporting from Now Zad, Afghanistan - Under a late winter sky, surrounded by mountains left verdant by recent rain showers, is one of Afghanistan's spookiest-looking and most dangerous places: the once-vibrant but now war-ravaged and virtually empty city of Now Zad.

For decades, it was among Helmand province's largest and most prosperous cities, thanks at least in part to the profitable opium poppy crop grown by local farmers, many of whom are sharecroppers.

Dozens of shops, numerous schools, government offices and mud-built homes for 25,000-plus residents were arrayed in a crowded pattern that resembled the Western idea of a city. One bakery produced 1,200 loaves of stone-baked bread daily; the main school had 2,500 students.

But residents fled four years ago amid fighting between the Taliban and the U.S.-led coalition. Only howling dogs remained.

The Taliban, seizing the city as a buffer against U.S.-led forces to the south, swooped in and planted hundreds of roadside bombs to block their enemy from using the streets to mount an advance or to set up more than a tiny outpost.

In the middle of last year, 200 Marines assaulted the Taliban in Now Zad and an encampment north of the city, but the result was a stalemate. Then, in December, the Marines launched a new assault, this time with 1,000 troops and several 70-ton assault breacher vehicles to clear a path through the buried bombs.

After several days of fighting, the Taliban dispersed. The Marines and Afghan soldiers and police moved cautiously into Now Zad.

Now there is a campaign to lure the residents back with promises of security, healthcare and schools. A few thousand have returned and Marines and Afghan forces have posted 24-hour guards in a city where nearly all the structures show the ravages of bitter war and harsh winter weather.
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## GAP (7 Mar 2010)

Last exit from Kandahar 
Article Link
Josh Wingrove

Haji Baba, Afghanistan — From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010 3:57PM EST Last updated on Saturday, Mar. 06, 2010 4:45PM EST

Standing on the roof of this mud compound and armed with only a bent seven-iron, Corporal James Riley is dealing with the changing nature of the Afghanistan mission, writ small.

He has finished the “stick” part of his day, a patrol through the harrowing, bomb-laden dirt roads that connect the nearby villages of the volatile Panjwaii district of Kandahar province. Now, on this typically hot and sunny Afghan winter afternoon, Cpl. Riley has moved on to his “carrot” strategy: One by one, he clubs golf balls into the rolling fields. Children scream with excitement and run to fetch them.

One returned ball is worth two candies – in theory. In reality, he has to barter with the kids. This is, after all, a war for hearts and minds.

A few months ago, this place was nobody's idea of a driving range. About 15 kilometres southwest of bustling Kandahar City, the villages of Haji Baba and Nakhonay, a few minutes' walk apart, are staggeringly poor. Life moves slowly in this area of perhaps a few thousand people. The roads are lined with solid mud walls, wide enough for a small car or a donkey pulling a cart but not for armoured vehicles.

Occasional breaks in the barriers make for a labyrinth of peering eyes and possible threats. Everything is covered in dust or mud. The small homes and shops have few windows. This is a place closed to outsiders.

The compound where Canadian soldiers now live was home to insurgents and drug traffickers, who used the villages as bases – “Taliban central,” says Major Wayne Niven, the head of Canada's Delta Company, which has embedded three platoons around these communities. Canada swept in and took over four months ago.

Now, the compound is held by Captain James O'Neill, the hard-nosed but informal commander of Delta's 11 Platoon, and officially called Combat Outpost Shkarre (a Dari word meaning “to hunt”). However, an older name has stuck, inspired by the Afghan graveyard across the road and, perhaps, the bloody toll Canada has paid here.

Welcome to Camp Tombstone. 
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## GAP (11 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 11, 2010*

 Allies Absent in Afghanistan - Helicopters Hired
Article Link

Afghanistan is shaping up as a test of the NATO alliance. Thus far, the report is mixed. While a number of allied countries have committed troops, very few of the NATO countries’ available helicopters have been committed, despite promises made and commanders’ requests from the field. At the moment, Britain, the Netherlands, and the USA still contribute most of the combat helicopter support in theater, alongside some CH-47s from non-NATO partner Australia. They are supplemented by helicopters from some east bloc countries like Poland and the Czech Republic (Mi-8/17s), and the very recent addition of a few CH-47D Chinooks and Bell 412ERs from Canada. The sizable helicopter fleets belonging to NATO members like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have seen some use in Afghanistan, but the bulk of their use has been in areas away from the serious fighting in the south.

That is creating political tensions within the alliance, especially when set against the backdrop of European shortfalls in meeting NATO ISAF commitments. At one point, the USA was forced to extend the deployment of 20 CH-47 helicopters by 6 months, in order to try and make up the shortfall. Over the longer, term, however, a 2-track solution has emerged. Track one involves keeping up the pressure, and some members of NATO have responded. Track 2 has involved stanching the wound by chartering private helicopter support that can take care of more routine missions in theater, freeing the military helicopters for other tasks.
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Article Link
 Canadian Helicopters, Ltd.

 is a firm that provides helicopter services for use in oil & gas, mining and forestry, emergency medical services, police support, and other tasks that include support for the Canadian Forces’ North Warning System. These industries and roles require flight into and through remote areas, while contending with difficult weather and terrain in order to get the job done. To that end, Canadian Helicopters operates a diverse fleet of Bell Textron, Eurocopter, and Sikorsky platforms. They also operate the Canadian Helicopters School of Advanced Flight Training, which trains elite military and police pilots as part of their customer base. According to the firm, the Commander of the US Navy Helicopter Special Warfare Squadron describes this training as “best in the world”.
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 Canadian hospital workers face cultural challenges in Afghanistan
Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceMarch 9, 2010

How does a doctor treat a woman when he can only make a diagnosis by asking her husband to tell him what is wrong with her?

What are the challenges for a dentist who only sees a female patient when she is in serious agony because a male relative is required to escort her to a clinic and he won't go unless her situation is dire?

Aside from violent trauma and disease caused by war and extreme poverty, cultural issues were always a major consideration when Canadian military health care workers mentored their Afghan colleagues at the Kandahar Regional Military Hospital.

"There is a gender barrier," said navy Lt. Kirsten Barnes, a general practitioner who assists Afghan doctors attending to the wives and children of Afghan security forces at a once-a-week clinic at this Afghan army base just outside Kandahar City.

"Traditionally, male doctors are not hand's-on with female patients, especially when it comes to things that are gynecological. There are no other female doctors and I have a feeling more women come to the clinic now because a female is here."

"Cultural sensitivity is important," said Maj. Mike Kaiser, a dentist and deputy commander of Canada's health services unit at Kandahar Airfield.

"You may have to ask a male relative to find out what a female's problem is. We must be respectful of the culture."
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 Canadians, Afghans beat back Taliban in 'crazy' fighting: Soldier
Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceMarch 10, 2010

"It was crazy," was how Capt. Terry MacCormac described the fighting that he and several dozen other Canadians were involved in while mentoring Afghan troops who took part in the biggest offensive of the eight-year war against the Taliban in neighbouring Helmand province.

The only Canadian ground forces to be involved in Operation Moshtarek, which focused on the town of Marja, returned to Kandahar on Tuesday after spending more than a month in Helmand with a kandak or battalion of Afghan troops that they normally advise in this province's Zhari District.

Several dozen Canadian mentors and the 250 Afghans they instructed there were involved in several days of heavy fighting to the east of Marja, including one wild exchange of about three hours during which "we were engaged from three different firing points simultaneously," MacCormac said.

"The intelligence we got was that the insurgents were very accurate and well trained in small-arms fire, but we were not expecting that they would be as accurate as they were. Based on our experience in Zhari, they usually just shoot and scoot."

Still, whenever the Afghans and the Canadians engaged the insurgents "with a lot of firepower," in Helmand, the enemy "realized that it could not compete with our force" and quickly reverted to its weapon of choice, the improvised explosive device, the 39-year-old captain said.

As the Canadians and the Afghans they mentored returned from Helmand to Kandahar, other Canadians from Task Force Kandahar and another Afghan kandak were beginning a "shaping operation" to prepare the battlefield for a potentially decisive major offensive that is expected to be underway by summer in this province — which is considered the Taliban's spiritual home.
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## GAP (12 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 12, 2010*

 Castanet in Kandahar: Fearing IED'S
by Kelly Hayes - Story: 53219 Mar 11, 2010 
Article Link

If there's one thing that soldiers loathe it's an IED.

It stands for Improvised Explosive Device and they're everywhere.

A bulk of the Canadian casualties suffered in the Afghanistan war are from IED's.

Without revealing any military secrets, the Taliban (or Insurgents as the military likes to call them) have become extremely creative in fabricating these deadly devices.

It's common knowledge that they like to place them underneath culverts, meaning you hold your breath every time you cross one in a vehicle.

With that in mind, travelling in Afghanistan can be painfully slow in a military convoy.

Unless the road was swept by military engineers, each convoy must stop and physically inspect almost every culvert.

A 10 kilometre journey can sometimes take hours under the hot Afghanistan sun.

One of the Taliban's favourite means of making an IED is with plastic containers similar to a Gerry can at home. Add a little wiring and a detonator from an old Russian mine and you have the deadly combination.

Word is that Iran is training the insurgents on how to make IED's, but that's just a rumour.

I did a military exercise where I had to detect five IED's spread out over 50 metres. I only found two.

The threat of suicide bombers is also preoccupying.

During my travels with the Canadian troops, I couldn't help but cringe every time our armoured personnel carrier would drive by an Afghan vehicle. 
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AT WAR: Captured Taliban Leader Reportedly 'Singing Like A Male Canary'
Article Link
First Posted: 03-11-10 

Baradar 'singing like a canary.'  Captured Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is "singing like a male canary," according to intelligence officials, reports Fox News. Baradar, who remains under Pakistani custody, is providing vital information about the Taliban and other extremist groups in the region. After a series of arrests, the Afghan Taliban's leadership has reportedly dispersed across Pakistan to avoid capture. The pressure on the Taliban is undermining insurgencies in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Western officials.
end


 Canadians split on military cuts
Article Link
Quebecers most likely to back reductions

By JULIET O'NEILL, Canwest News ServiceMarch 11, 2010

Canadians appear divided on whether the government should reduce military spending to shrink the deficit when the Afghanistan mission is over, according to findings of a poll conducted for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

The poll by Innovative Research Group Inc. found nearly five in 10 people think military spending should not be cut, even if it means cutting other services to shrink the deficit. By contrast, four in 10 think military spending should be cut with Quebecers most likely (52 per cent) to have that opinion and Atlantic residents least likely (25 per cent).

The online survey of 1,339 people was conducted March 2-3. That was the eve of announcement of a federal budget plan to slow the rate of growth in military spending after withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2011.

The Canadian Forces, which costs about $20 billion this year, would get $2.5 billion less from 2012 to 2015 than the government forecast.

Institute representative Elinor Sloan cited the "remarkable" level of support for military spending in a commentary asserting the government "missed this prevailing sentiment" in its budget decision.

"Critical gaps in army, air force and especially navy capabilities will appear in the second half of this decade," she wrote.

Among investments the government has not yet arranged, she cited offshore patrol vessels and aircraft, replacement of aged naval destroyers, supply ships and fighter aircraft.
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 Muslim child brides on rise
Article Link
By TOM GODFREY, Toronto Sun March 11, 2010

Federal immigration officials say there’s little they can do to stop “child brides” from being sponsored into Canada by much older husbands who wed them in arranged marriages abroad.

Top immigration officials in Canada and Pakistan say all they can do is reject the sponsorships of husbands trying to bring their child-brides to Canada. The men have to reapply when the bride turns 16. The marriages are permitted under Sharia Law.

Muslim men, who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents return to their homeland to wed a “child bride” in an arranged marriage in which a dowry is given to the girl’s parents. Officials said some of the brides can be 14 years old or younger and are “forced” to marry. The practice occurs in a host of countries including: Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Lebanon.

Not valid in Canada

Canadian visa officer Steve Bulmer said in classified documents he refused to allow one Pakistani man to sponsor his 15-year-old bride in August 2009.

“I can find no section (of law) that states the marriage is ‘invalid’ or ‘void,” Bulmer wrote in e-mails obtained by lawyer Richard Kurland under Access of Information. “I am afraid the age does not invalidate the marriage even if it is illegal to marry.”

Abdul Hameed, of the Canadian embassy in Islamabad, said child marriages are not valid in Canada.

“A child marriage is punishable but it does not render the marriage invalid,” Hameed said. “We are refusing such application on grounds the marriage will not be valid as per Canadian laws.”

William Hawke, of immigration’s Permanent Resident Unit, said the young brides won’t be allowed in Canada.

“Sponsorship applications submitted for a spouse under 16 will be refused,” he said. 
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## GAP (13 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 13, 2010*

Canadian soldiers repair blown-up bridge in Afghanistan
Article Link
KANDAHAR  March 15, 2010

Canadian soldiers are repairing a key bridge on the road between Kandahar city and Pakistan after it was badly damaged by a suicide bomber’s blast earlier this month.

The March 1 attack on a convoy of NATO-led troops killed four Afghan civilians and one foreign soldier.

The attacker struck the convoy on a bridge spanning the Tarnak river, which is several kilometres away from Kandahar Airfield where Canadian and other coalition troops are based.

For several days, Canadian troops have been putting metal replacement pieces over the blown-up sections of the bridge.

Afghan soldiers were involved in the initial stage of bridge building, but Canadian and Afghan journalists who visited the bridge site in recent days saw only Canadian troops doing the repair work.

Canadian Press 
end

 Canada may have painted itself into corner in Afghanistan
Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News serviceMarch 12, 2010

One of the principal reasons Canada ended up in a shooting war in Kandahar was the Martin government dithered for so long about what to do in Afghanistan that when it finally made up its mind about what to do in 2005, all the soft spots in the north and west of the country were grabbed by European allies such as France, Spain and Germany.

History looks set to repeat itself.

As Canada retreats from its biggest foreign commitment in more than half a century, European allies whose role in Afghanistan the Harper government has often strongly criticized, have quietly volunteered for nearly 600 relatively safe, non-combat positions as mentors to Afghanistan's burgeoning security forces.

Everyone of those jobs would seem to be a perfect fit for Canada's relatively small but highly professional army and for a country that has grown weary of combat.

There have been 130 Canadian soldiers killed in Kandahar since the Martin government sent troops to the heart of the war in 2006. Over the past four years, Canada has spent billions of dollars fighting the Taliban.

Notwithstanding this loss of blood and treasure, or arguably because of it, the Harper government has confirmed a decision Parliament made two years ago to stop combat operations in Kandahar in 2011.

But the Harper government has gone much further than Parliament did, loudly stating that other than a few embassy guards, no Canadian troops would remain anywhere in Afghanistan beyond the end of next year.

It is a position complicated by the fact the government has declared its intention to continue its massive diplomatic and aid effort in Kandahar, without providing any hint of how the Canadians who do this work are to be protected
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 Strategic Afghan bridge rebuilt in co-ordinated allied effort
Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceMarch 11, 2010

TARNAK BRIDGE, Afghanistan — Canadian, American and Afghan military engineers repaired a bomb-damaged bridge Thursday that the Taliban had attacked because it is southern Afghanistan's lifeline to Pakistan.

"This is an important route for Afghans, the Afghan army and NATO because so many people use it and that is why it has to be quickly fixed," said Lt. Muhammad Fahem, who commands a team of Afghan army engineers mentored by Canadians.

Part of the original bridge, which is located only a few kilometres from Kandahar Airfield, was destroyed on March 1 by a suicide bomber who aimed his car at a passing U.S. convoy. An American soldier and four Afghans were killed in the explosion.

Afghan engineers and their mentors pieced together a 42-metre, metal "overbridge" earlier this week at Kandahar Airfield and then moved parts of the Meccano-like structure a few kilometres to the blast site.

With the main route closed by the explosion, a huge traffic jam of Afghan cars and seriously overloaded trucks as well as armoured NATO convoys has spent the past few days inching gingerly across a mostly dry river bed near the damaged bridge.
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 Adrian MacNair: Asking for honesty is asking too much
Posted: March 11, 2010, 2:00 PM by NP Editor afghanistan, Adrian MacNair
Article Link

Despite the myriad sources of information from which to draw in order to write a column that has a grain of truth to it, it would appear that the usual suspects from the usual media sources insist on getting it wrong. You can hardly blame them. Well, actually you can, but it will hardly help. At this point, people are merely going to believe what they want to believe, and truth be damned. When it comes to Afghanistan, has it ever been any different?

Thomas Walkom, in particular, seems to get it wrong the most frequently. This rather pathetic self-flagellation of Canadians throwing their hands up in the air and making excuses that nothing else could have been done, is as depressing as their inability to get basic facts correct. Journalists are treating this fluid battle with ever-changing dynamics as something static, as though everybody has morphed into Francis Fukuyama, mourning the end of history. Pakistan capturing half the Taliban leadership in the past month? Barely a whisper.

It’s certainly easier to report on a story if you have a prearranged view on what’s actually happening. The evolution of the detainee story is a prime example. What began as little more than hearsay from Amir Attaran in the CBC, became a report in the Canadian Press, which became a fact in the minds of the official opposition in the House of Commons, as Jack Layton and Ujjal Dosanjh asked ridiculous questions about secret spies, torture, and rendition. The latter word, as I mentioned before, being technically incorrect by definition alone.

The question is, what would make the critics of the treatment of captured detainees happy? It’s as though people actually expect that we can fight a battle against the Taliban, who abide by no rules of warfare, wear no uniforms, and respect no international laws, without ever making a mistake. It’s already disturbing enough that people seem more concerned about the treatment of men who are fighting for a way of life considered barbaric by just about everybody who isn’t an Islamic Fundamentalist, than they are for the women or children used as human meat shields in the Taliban quest to outlast our resolve. But to ignore these crimes, while sifting through every prison, poring through every report, to attempt to find one instance of injustice that might undermine our moral cause, is quite simply disgusting.

As Bruce writes on his blog:

So if we accept that the Afghan justice system was or is in no state to receive our detainees in anything like a just or efficient fashion, we are certainly justified in looking around for alternatives. The alternative the Americans came up with was American-run detention in Bagram, and we can see how well that’s worked out for them. I suppose a sort of Timurid approach of refusing to take any prisoners at all, ever, could be an option: not sure how well that would go over at home, though. Not really many other alternatives than those, though. Take them home in our kit bags? Soylent Green? What?

Good questions. What would make people happy? Take no prisoners? Inhuman. Hand prisoners over to their own legal authority? Inhumane. Build our own prisons? Well, then you get the complaints that it’s too expensive, or it’s an extra-judicial gulag, or it’s a sign of colonialism. And before long you can be sure Amir Attaran would find a document which proved that a detainee slipped in the shower and cut himself, and we’d be back in permanent scandal mode anyway.
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## GAP (14 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 14, 2010*

Afghan family killed as special forces defy night raid ban
 March 14, 2010
Article Link

THE two helicopters swooped low over a cluster of mud homes, whirling in the cold night sky before landing in a wheat field on the edge of the small Afghan village.

From his home nearby, 23-year-old Najibullah Omar strained his eyes in the darkness as he made out the faint shapes of armed men pouring from the helicopters’ bellies.

A third helicopter circled menacingly in the moonless sky above the village of Karakhil in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul.

Then a loud explosion shook the ground and a plume of smoke rose from his cousin Hamidullah’s house 20 yards away. Its guest room caught fire. Omar heard a burst of gunfire before all went quiet. 

His worst fears were confirmed the moment he walked through the compound gate at first light.

The body of his cousin, a 32-year-old construction engineer who had taken a break from his job in a far-off province to visit his family, lay sprawled next to those of his wife and their seven-year-old son. Blood ran in dark pools on the mud floor of the terrace outside their door.

The wife and son had been shot in the head, each with a single bullet. The engineer had died from a shot to the chest. The precision of the killings, coupled with his failure to find any bullet casings after the raid, led Omar to believe that his cousin was murdered either by US special forces or by an intelligence agency.

The sole survivor was the couple’s younger son, aged six, whose upper torso was riddled with puncture wounds from grenade shrapnel.

Some of the villagers dug away the fallen wooden beams, revealing the charred corpses of three Taliban fighters — a mid-level commander and two bodyguards, apparently killed where they slept by a missile from the circling helicopter. 
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 Blast kills Pakistani national in Afghanistan: police
Article Link

Reuters
Sunday, March 14, 2010; 12:17 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a Pakistani construction worker and wounded six of his compatriots on Sunday in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, police said.

The device hit the vehicle which was carrying the group on a road close to Pakistan's consulate in the eastern part of the city and came after a series of attacks overnight by Taliban killed 31 people in several parts of Kandahar.

"It was a roadside bomb that hit the vehicle of Pakistani construction workers, killed one of them and wounded six more," police officer Mohammad Asif told Reuters.

Last week, five Pakistani employees of the same Pakistani construction firm, CITA, were gunned down by unknown people in another part of Kandahar.

Kandahar is the next target of an offensive by NATO-led forces after foreign and Afghan troops secured a district regarded as a key Taliban stronghold from the militants in adjacent Helmand in recent weeks. 
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## GAP (16 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 16, 2010*

 Kandahar Airfield without Canadiana 
Article Link

Josh Wingrove

Kandahar Airfield — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Mar. 15, 2010 8:55PM EDT Last updated on Monday, Mar. 15, 2010 10:28PM EDT

Beyond its troops and tanks, Canada casts a long shadow at Kandahar Airfield, the hub of the coalition's Afghan mission.

There's the Canadian gym, popular among the nearly 20,000 soldiers from other countries. So too is the on-base Tim Hortons, owned and operated by the Canadian Forces. The base's prominent Canadian-built hockey pad is home to a house league, which is dominated, naturally, by Canadian teams.

KAF is heavy on its Can-con, all of it built since Kandahar became the focus of Canada's Afghan mission in 2006. But with Canadian combat troops set to withdraw next summer, coalition countries face a cold reality: KAF without Canada.

Call it Ottawa’s other pullout.

“We’d take all our equipment,” says Jan Kwasniewski, Canada’s manager of troop welfare at the base. It's a long packing list. His crews will take home the gym's weights, leaving the 900 foreign soldiers it draws each week to find other facilities. Canada will take its hockey gear, leaving only the rink and about three non-Canadian teams. Even the Tim Hortons, self-contained in a trailer, will be shipped home. The gear will get repacked and prepared for the Canadian military’s next theatre of operations. When the Canadians first arrived in Kandahar, they unpacked gym equipment that had last been used by Canadian troops serving with the NATO peacekeeping force in Bosnia in the 1990s.

About the only sign left of Canada's presence on the sprawling base will be the maple leafs dotting the boards around the iceless hockey rink. Asked if he is worried about the effect on the morale of other NATO troops when the perks of Canada’s easygoing culture have gone, Mr. Kwasniewski smiles.

“The priority is for the Canadians,” the former infantryman says. “We’re here for them first. I always have to keep that in mind.”
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 Lend Me Your Ears: US Military Turns to Contractor Linguists
Article Link
15-Mar-2010 10:02 EDT

The US military has come to rely more and more on contractors to provide linguist services to function effectively in non-English speaking regions. The need for these services is particularly acute in the Middle East and Central Asia where US troops are actively engaged.

An indication of what could go wrong with an unskilled linguist is illustrated in a short documentary video produced by journalist John McHugh of The Guardian newspaper. In the video, a US Army sergeant and an Afghan tribal elder engage in a conversation about Taliban rocket attacks.

The US interpreter incorrectly conveys the tribal leader’s response to a question about the security in the area. The elder says that there is no security in the village and that is a problem. The interpreter tells the sergeant that the elder says the security is fine. “We have no problems here.”

The elder then tells the sergeant that he would like to cooperate with the Americans, and points to the direction from where the Taliban attacks are coming. But he says the villagers can’t cooperate under the current conditions because the Taliban are like “ants,” they are everywhere and impossible to stop.

The interpreter translates the elders words by saying, “He is giving many examples, the main point is that if you want to get the ACM [anti-coalition militia] they are behind this road, behind this mountain.”

As they walk away, the interpreter says “I hate these people.”

This video highlights the necessity for the US and allied forces to have interpreters who understand the dialect of the local people and can serve as cultural liaisons. The success of the US and allied mission, as well as the lives of soldiers, depends on it.
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 Afghan troops deliver medical care as means of fighting Taliban influence
Article Link
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 23 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Afghan National Army began delivering medical aid and hygiene seminars to remote villages Monday as another means of fighting Taliban influence.

Members of the 205 "Hero" Corps helped facilitate and guard clinics at three locations in Zabul province, east of Kandahar - a program that is being closely studied by Canadian commanders.

Col. Mohammad Hakim Zahidi, the brigade's top doctor, says safeguarding the delivery of some health services was something the Afghan army did five years ago before NATO moved into southern Afghanistan.

With the system resurrected, the hope is that more people will have consistent access to health care and eventually put more faith in the government.

"The Ministry of Public Health is not able to give these facilities to the people so therefore our army is going to help the clinics and support them," said Zahidi, a doctor who studied at the medical institute in Kabul during the Soviet occupation.

The health care is being delivered in some cases by civilian physicians and staff, under the protection of Afghan troops. But Afghan army medical personnel would be around to assist.

Aligning civilian doctors and nurses so closely with the military makes many in the international aid community nervous. They argue it paints a target on the backs of medical staff.

But Zahidi argues the need is there, especially when it comes to public education of villagers who have little access to clean drinking water, few opportunities to bathe and keep livestock in their compounds.
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 Pillows For Troops
CJOB's Barry Burns reporting 3/15/2010
Article Link

All members of the Canadian Forces currently serving in Afghanistan are about to get a little comfort from home. Thirty nine hundred Pillows for Troops have finally arrived at Kandahar Airfield, and this week the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency staff on the ground will be handing them out. The pillows have been donated by Canadians in memory of Corporal James Arnal of Winnipeg, killed in Afghanistan in 2008. There are more pillows to go too.  Another 4 thousand will be shipped there as the Canadian military changes rotations over the next year and 3 quarters untill the end of our combat committment in 2011. 
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 Basic hygiene key to helping ordinary Afghans
Article Link 
By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceMarch 15, 2010

An Afghan army-led program that seeks to strengthen government control by improving public health in Taliban-rich areas could soon move into Kandahar province, where Canada's military and development efforts are concentrated.

Maj. Mike Kaiser, a Canadian Forces medical officer, toured the village of Shinkay in adjacent Zabul province Monday to determine if the Afghan army's project to teach preventive health techniques to rural Afghans could be applied in Kandahar, where support for the Taliban is strong.

Under the program, the Afghan National Army will organize health seminars and provide security for villagers while local doctors, nurses and midwives do the teaching.

"The intent is to educate the local population in some very basic hygiene practices," Kaiser said, adding the overall strategy for the war-torn country is always to have the government empower the people.

"It adds credibility to the government and it demonstrates for the Afghans that the government cares about them, that the government has the capacity to provide services, and creates that sense of stability," he said.

Kaiser's consensus was that he "certainly" saw potential in the project for Kandahar, especially in villages that don't currently have a medical capacity. In areas of insurgency, he said, pre-emptive health education provides greater benefits than hit-and-run visits by medical teams.

"Our understanding, and the literature on (counter-insurgency) operations does not support that medical outreach where you go to a village and dispense medication for a day and then leave," Kaiser said. "This type of approach, where you're educating the people, is deemed far more beneficial."
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## GAP (18 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 18, 2010*

 Taliban came close to retaking Kandahar
Documents reveal key Afghan leaders fled province last spring
Published On Thu Mar 18 2010
Article Link

Governance in Kandahar was pushed to the brink by Taliban bombs and assassinations last spring, an onslaught that at one point saw provincial council members temporarily abandoning the region, newly released documents reveal.

An extraordinary set of quarterly campaign reviews, prepared by Canadian Forces Expeditionary Command over several months, paint a startling picture of the civilian administration in Kandahar province, where Canadian troops operate.

The events of last spring may well foreshadow the kind of battle likely to be fought in the province this spring. The censored reports were obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information laws and stand in contrast to the measured, sanitized quarterly reports released by the Conservative government.

Casualties among Canadian and NATO forces always grab headlines back home, but what often goes unappreciated is the carnage that took place on the streets of Kandahar as the Taliban systematically attempted to decapitate the local government. They came perilously close last spring.

"Most provincial committee members have left (Kandahar city) due to security," said a memo dated April 28, 2009.
More on link

 Taliban onslaught drove Afghan councillors from province last spring: documents
Article Link
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 19 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Governance in Kandahar was pushed to the brink by Taliban bombs and assassinations last spring, an onslaught that at one point saw provincial council members temporarily abandoning the region, newly released Canadian documents reveal.

An extraordinary set of quarterly campaign reviews, prepared by Canadian Forces Expeditionary Command over several months, paint a startling picture of the civilian administration in Kandahar province where Canadian troops operate.

The events of last spring may well foreshadow the kind of battle likely to be fought in the province this spring.

The censored reports were obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information laws and stand in contrast to the measured, sanitized quarterly reports released by the Conservative government.
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 Canada's ROCK in Afghanistan
Article Link
Canada's diplomatic corps is not nearly as staid, cosseted and conservative as it used to be. And as Matthew Fisher reports, Ben Rowswell is paving the way for the country's 'combat diplomats.'

By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceMarch 18, 2010

Canada has a rapidly growing cadre of "combat diplomats" and none of them has more experience in the danger zones than Ben Rowswell.

The genial, prematurely greying 39-year-old career diplomat does not hold the rank of ambassador, but as the Representative of Canada in Kandahar, or ROCK, Rowswell oversees a staff of about 75, which is far larger than most Canadian embassies and has a budget that dwarfs that of any other Canadian foreign mission.

"There is a sense that this is what the future of Canadian diplomacy looks like and that those of us who are cutting our teeth here will be able to apply what we've learned to further Canada's interests in other conflict settings," Rowswell said after taking a reporter out with him for a fast-paced, unpredictable day in Kandahar City.

That day began with the abrupt cancellation of a visit to a police sub-station because two Canadian soldiers had been wounded in a shooting incident; and it ended with meetings with the UN on projects to improve water and sanitation systems and encourage government at the neighbourhood level.

Rowswell's life on the front lines began in 2003 with the UN in Somalia.
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 No evidence torture has ended in Afghan jails: Amnesty lawyer
Article Link
By John Ward (CP) – 15 hours ago

OTTAWA — Detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers still face a substantial risk of torture, a civil rights lawyer has told MPs.

Paul Champ, counsel for Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, said Wednesday that he's seen no evidence to suggest that torture in Afghan jails has ended.

"Our concern is that there still remains a risk of torture in Afghanistan with respect to detainees captured by Canadian forces and handed over to Afghan authorities," he told a special Commons committee investigating the Canadian mission in Afghanistan.

"We have no reason to believe that the situation has improved in Afghan prisons. We have no evidence of that."

He made similar comments before an informal meeting of the committee in December. But at that time, government MPs boycotted the hearings so they had no official status.

Champ said the focus of the detainee issue has become skewed in recent months around the idea that: "there were problems in Afghanistan in '06 with the detainees transfer system and that they were fixed in '07 and the focus has been, 'Why did it take so long to fix the problem?"'

But the problem hasn't been fixed, he argued.
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 Random tests show marijuana drug of choice in Canadian military ranks
Article Link
By Dean Beeby (CP) – 17 hours ago

OTTAWA — Marijuana is the illegal drug of choice in the Canadian Forces, according to the first random tests of the entire military.

Almost one in 20 Forces members - 4.7 per cent - "recently" used illicit drugs, says the newly released study based on random urine samples.

And the vast majority were using some form of cannabis, with cocaine, morphine and codeine far behind.

The survey results are based on 1,327 mandatory urine samples taken randomly, without prior notice, among all three services and across the country. Refusal to provide a urine sample could result in disciplinary action.

Previous illicit-drug surveys in the Canadian Forces had concentrated on smaller populations in one of the branches, or among key military professionals such as submariners or divers.

But to establish a broad baseline, the Canadian Forces carried out its widest survey yet, between Feb. 2 and April 6, 2009. Mandatory urine samples were demanded "at unpredictable times and without prior notice."

However, the samples were "blind" in that the identity of the individual tested was not recorded, and therefore no sanctions could be applied to anyone testing positive.
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 Travers: Harper uses troops as political shield
Article Link

This easy winter has been hard on Stephen Harper's reputation as the smartest guy in the room. Suspending democratic debate to silence questions about prisoner abuse, using a throne speech and budget to recalibrate his agenda and tinkering with the national anthem have all fallen flat.

Conservatives today are a little less popular with Canadians than they were before the Prime Minister padlocked Parliament. But the nugget in the latest public opinion polls is that the ruling party is almost exactly where it was when it came to power four years ago.
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 Afghanistan exhibition extended by a month
Article Link

Canwest News ServiceMarch 18, 2010

An exhibit called Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures at the Canadian Museum of Civilization is being extended for a month due to popular demand. The exhibit was to have closed March 28, but the run has been extended to April 25. It is the only Canadian venue for the exhibit, which features a collection of gold and other antiquities from Central Asia. Nearly 60,000 visitors have already seen the exhibit, say museum officials.
end

 Canada broke pledges on Afghan jails, letters show 
Article Link

PAUL KORING

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Mar. 16, 2010 11:00PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2010 5:42PM EDT

Canada and its allies have repeatedly promised – and failed – to build a new prison in Afghanistan where transferred detainees could be interned without risk of abuse, torture or ill-treatment and where Afghan guards could be mentored and trained in treating battlefield captives within the bounds of international law, according to Afghan secret police documents.

In an apologetic letter to Amrullah Saleh, head of Afghanistan’s National Security Directorate, Canadian, British and Dutch officials pledged “to assure you of our commitment to help build a new NDS detention facility in Kabul.”

The letter, signed by senior diplomats in Kabul representing Canada, Britain and the Netherlands – the three NATO countries doing most of the fighting and transferring most of the detainees to overcrowded and notorious Afghan prison – was hand-delivered to NDS headquarters on Feb 12, 2009. “We expect construction to start this summer,” the letter added, referring to last summer.
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## GAP (19 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 19, 2010*

 Afghan army dropout rate poses 'challenge' to Canada's exit strategy
Article Link
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 18 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — They are supposed to be our exit strategy.

But the latest Canadian government quarterly assessment raises concern about the number of soldiers leaving the Afghan National Army, which is expected to take over security in key Kandahar districts by next summer.

Although the high attrition rate among Afghan soldiers has always bothered Canadian and NATO mentors, the challenge of recruiting, training and keeping those soldiers has started to weigh more heavily as Canada prepares to wind up its military mission in Afghanistan in 2011.

The report, released late Wednesday in Ottawa, said the benchmark of a capable security force "continues to be challenged by issues relating to attrition, retention and recruiting."

Another battalion, or kandak, of Afghan soldiers under Canadian guidance has reached its top-tier status. That makes two battalion-sized units ready to go, but the report said they're undermanned and the ranks looked thin last fall.

"Leave granted to soldiers around the Eid holiday and following the presidential elections likely contributed to decreased (Afghan National Army) capacity in this quarter," said the quarterly report, which covers the period up to the end of 2009.

"Until targeted ANA growth is realized, benchmarks for shouldering the security burden and leading security operations will continue to be a challenge."
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 State of the Afghan army, police: not what you’d hope
by John Geddes on Thursday, March 18, 2010 
Article Link

The federal government’s seventh quarterly report to Parliament on Canadian military and development work in Afghanistan was tabled late yesterday without fanfare. These reports have become routine, but through the bland, bureaucratic prose, they still provide a glimpse—often an unsettling one—of the situation in Kandahar.

The most pressing question, as the 2011 deadline for bringing Canadian troops home approaches, is what progress is being made toward beefing up the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP). When Canada pulls out entirely next year, and the U.S. begins a planned drawdown of its forces, the Afghans will have to shoulder more of their own security burden. Yesterday’s report doesn’t inspire confidence.

The closest thing to a candid appraisal of the security landscape can be found in its “benchmarks” section, where the generalities of these quarterly updates gives way to more specifics. In the report for the Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2009 period, the good news is the claim that two ANA kandaks (a unit of about 650 soldiers) are “are fully capable of planning, executing and sustaining near-autonomous operations.” That’s up from just one kandak the previous quarter.

But that apparent progress is hard to reconcile with other information in the benchmarks section. For instance, Canada’s goal is for all kandaks and the ANA’s headquarters to have 70 per cent of their needed troops and officers by next year. None were operating at 70 per cent strength last fall, their ranks diminished by holidays and scheduled leaves. (There will, presumably, still be vacations and leaves after coalition forces exit.)

Another indicator of how thinly Afghan troops are spread: the percentage of military operations the ANA executed with Canadian troops in Kandahar declined in the quarter, as more Afghans were linked to growing U.S. forces for training. In other words, there aren’t enough Afghans in uniform to go around.
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 Tims server honours brother with Afghan work
Article Link
 By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceMarch 18, 2010

Every day, Sean Wilson walks along the perimeter fence of this NATO base, and looks in the direction of Panjwaii District where Canadian troops are fighting and dying.

Wilson is not a soldier, but his brother Mark was a member of the Armed Forces.

Mark was killed beyond that perimeter fence in a massive Taliban bomb explosion.

How Wilson, a former entertainment-complex manager from London, Ont. ended up in Afghanistan is a story of tragic death, a brother's undying love, a chance encounter with a general, and iconic Canadian coffee and donuts.

Trooper Mark Wilson, 39, was a Royal Canadian Dragoon based in Petawawa, Ont. In October 2006, he was manning the machine gun from inside an armoured vehicle when it hit a devastating road bomb in Panjwaii.

The married father of two was killed.

For Sean Wilson, it took about a year to fully accept he'd never see his brother again. Then he decided he had to find a way to get to Afghanistan.

"I wanted and needed to come here to see where my brother died," said Wilson, 38. "I don't call it closure. The pain never ends. I just needed to take that step for my brother, to say I went as far as I could, in honour of him.
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 With allies like these ...
Article Link 
By Susan Riley, The Ottawa CitizenMarch 19, 2010 7:08 AM

 Peter W. Galbraith -- yes, from that Galbraith family -- is a seasoned and controversial former American diplomat with a stark message on Afghanistan: the war is unwinnable and unilateral withdrawal unthinkable.

Which leaves us -- where? Galbraith, son of the late Canadian-born economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, suggests a reduced military presence, from 150,000 to 30,000 western troops, and a new focus on protecting "relatively peaceful" Kabul and other non-Taliban regions. Not a full retreat, but re-positioning to validate the West's huge investment in Afghanistan and salvage the mission's significant gains.

Of course, that would leave Kandahar, where Canadian troops are centred -- and much of the Pashtun-dominated south -- to the tender mercies of the Taliban, or other local strongmen. It could also produce a radically decentralized Afghanistan.

Although Galbraith doesn't believe the Taliban has the support or strength to take over the entire country, his is hardly a comforting conclusion for those still promoting a united, more democratic Afghanistan and those who lost loved ones in that struggle.

But Galbraith, who was the United Nations' second-in-command in Kabul until September, believes it is the only realistic alternative. To win a counter-insurgency, he told a Carleton University audience this week, you need a credible local partner -- and the government of Hamid Karzai hardly qualifies.

Indeed, the regime is irredeemably corrupt in his view and widely seen by Afghans as weak and ineffective -- an opinion shared by many western diplomats in Kabul, if mostly privately.
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 Afghanistan Update
by Andrew Potter on Thursday, March 18, 2010 5:57pm - 3 Comments
Article Link

Some new stuff on Afghanistan:

First, go read Brian Stewart’s latest piece on the cone of silence that the Canadian military insists upon when it comes to the tempo of the combat mission over there. As Brian points out,  there is an almost constant pace of mortar attacks, rocket attacks, firefights, and other forms of enemy contact, but the bizarre part is that the only time we hear about it, it is when a soldier has died. Everything else is considered offlimits to reporters, due to “OPSEC”.

As an example of how bizarre it gets, Brian mentions that during our first briefing at KAF we suddenly found ourselves “dropping to the floor when the sirens wailed to announce the approach of Taliban rockets.” Often, the old rockets never even go off. But at one point, we heard a massive WHOOMP behind us, the building shook, windows rattled, and even senior officers hit the dirt pronto. “Wow, that one actually went off,” someone said, voice a tad shaky. But at the end of the briefing, a PR flack came in to tell us that what we heard was not a rocket going off, but a “controlled detonation” on the base. We’d just missed the announcement, apparently. Only later did another soldier tell us that it was bullshit, that it was indeed a rocket and they just didn’t want us to report it.

Second:  As colleague Geddes alerts us, the government oh-so-quietly tabled its latest quarterly report on the Afghanistan mission yesterday. I just had a chance to go through it, and what struck me was how much more blandly bureaucratic it was from the last one. (The last one, you’ll recall, was refreshingly honest in places about the state of the mission, especially with respect to security as well as the disaster that was the presidential election).  It seems that the government has learned its lesson: there’s nothing to be gained by actually being honest about what is going on. So yes, you need to skip the banal prose of the report and turn to the benchmarks at the back.

Reading them over, I agree entirely with John’s assessment,viz., that the single most pressing issue is the state of the ANSF, and that the report manifestly does not inspire confidence. All of the Kandahar-based kandaks are below strength, the ANA forces that exist are being stretched too thin, and only 18% of police units are at the target capability. The predictable consequence is that Kandaharis do not see security as improving, nor do they have any great faith in the abilitiy of the ANA to be an effective security force.
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## GAP (21 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 21, 2010*

 City-based tank squadron nears final tour in Afghanistan
  Article Link
 By Ryan Cormier, edmontonjournal.comMarch 20, 2010

One of the last rotations of the Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona's Horse will soon leave for Afghanistan, signalling the beginning of the end for the largest and most experienced tank squadron serving in that country.

In 2007, the armoured regiment was the first to bring tanks to Afghanistan, and 70-to 80-tonne Leopards have become a critical tool in high demand from other coalition forces. Both American and British forces, which have only wheeled vehicles in the country, have often requested the help of the biggest guns in Afghanistan.

When the Canadian Forces withdraw in December 2011, they will take some of the coalition's most powerful weapons with them.

"What they provide is, there's something very comforting about a big steel tank rolling around on the battlefield," said Lt.-Col. Malcolm Bruce, deputy commander of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. "Myself, as an infantryman, we take a lot of comfort in having them around. They're a great asset, but they will withdraw with the rest of the forces we have overseas."
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 We shouldn't abandon Afghanistan
Article Link
 By Lauryn Oates, For The Calgary HeraldMarch 21, 2010

In the recent speech from the throne on March 3, Afghanistan was mentioned in only two instances, and not mentioned at all in the budget speech the following day, strangely sidestepping the subject of the country in which we have engaged with so closely for the last seven years.

This is perhaps not surprising, given the inability of any of the three political parties to take any leadership on what a Canadian contribution to Afghanistan after 2011 might look like, and the Afghanistan fatigue that sadly characterizes Canadian public opinion.

And yet, for the past seven years we have taken part in a historically significant and tremendously expensive military mission in which we lost 140 men and women of the Canadian Forces as well as five civilians, and poured more money into Afghanistan than in any other country in the history of Canada's foreign development assistance.

One would think that sustaining an investment of over $18 billion would be at the very top of our country's political agenda, and on the minds of the public, as it should be in all countries that have participated in ISAF and that have taxpayer dollars supporting reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Instead, the solutions that we see put forth in Afghanistan originating from powerful institutions and from the echelons of some of the highest paid positions in the public offices of the governments of the likes of the United Kingdom and the United States are utterly alarming in their simplicity. Half-baked "solutions," like the currently in vogue pay-off-the-Taliban scheme show, a profound lack of imagination, on top of a disregard for the will of ordinary Afghans.
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 Afghanistan blast 'kills 10' in Helmand province 
Article Link

Ten people have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, officials say.

The victims were civilians, killed as a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army convoy on a bridge, a spokesman for the provincial government said.

Seven people were also injured in the attack in Gereshk district, spokesman Daud Ahmadi told news agencies.

Helmand province is the focus of a major Nato-led offensive against Taliban insurgents.

"An explosion by a three-wheeled motorcycle targeting an Afghan army convoy killed at least 10 civilians in a crowded area of Gereshk district," AFP news agency quoted Mr Ahmadi as saying.

He said the bomb went off at a bridge after the convoy had passed. 
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 Taliban denies secret channels of talks with UN
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Article Link

The Afghan Taliban has rejected former UN Envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide's claims that talks with its leaders were on before the arrest of Mullah Ghani Barader, the Taliban's second in-command.

Buzz up!
A self-proclaimed spokesman of the Afghan Taliban Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi told the Afghan Islamic Press that none of the Taliban leaders had ever met Eide or any of other US official.


"No Taliban official or representative has met or held talks with Kai Eide. We do not know what targets Kai Eide wants to achieve by telling such lies. However, we firmly say that the Taliban have not held negotiations with Kai Eide or any other UN official," The News quoted Ahmadi, as saying.

Asked whether the Taliban held talks with Saudi Arabia or any other country, the Taliban spokesman said : "No, there is no change in our stance."

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier this week, Eide had claimed that Barader's arrest has blocked the secret channels of talks with the Taliban.
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 Taliban behead three 'US spies' in Pakistan
Article Link
Agence France-Presse Posted 15:04:00 03/21/2010

MIRANSHAH – Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive tribal area Sunday beheaded three men they accused of spying for US forces stationed across the border in Afghanistan, police said.

The bodies of three men were found near Mir Ali town in the North Waziristan tribal district that borders Afghanistan.

"Notes found with the bodies said the men were killed for spying for the US," tribal police official Nisar Khan told AFP.

Khan said the three dead men had themselves killed "several Taliban and ordinary people".
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Taliban fighters being taught at secret camps in Iran
Article Link
 March 21, 2010 



THE Taliban fighters scurried up the craggy mountainside. As they neared the top, their 30-strong platoon split into three sections and they launched a ferocious assault on an enemy fort, opening fire from numerous positions.

The bullets they sprayed at the fort’s mud-coloured walls were blank, however. They merely pretended to fire their rocket-propelled grenades. When they reached the desert at the foot of the mountain, they did not race away on motorbikes, but filed into sand-coloured tents to refresh themselves with tea and naan.

The attack was a training exercise overseen by Iranian security officials in plain clothes. The Taliban do not know whether they were police officers, soldiers or secret service agents. What they can say is that in camps along the border between Afghanistan and Iran, Taliban recruits are being taught how to ambush British, American and other Nato troops using guns and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

They are learning to attack checkpoints as well as mountain bases. Iranian instructors are also giving them target practice on desert ranges with Kalashnikov assault rifles. 
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## GAP (24 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 24, 2010*

 Canadian soldiers battle flood in Afghanistan
Article Link
Soviet invasion of country left legacy
 By ETHAN BARON, Canwest News ServiceMarch 24, 2010

Canadian Forces fought a losing battle yesterday against a legacy of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, failing to stem rising floodwaters on a day that began with hope and ended with a deadly threat.

Canadians took this commanding outpost from the Taliban in 2006 after a series of bloody battles for Panjwaii District that culminated in Operation Medusa.

An earthen dome that resembles a small mountain from a distance, Sperwan Ghar was built of packed mud by the Soviet Union during their occupation in the 1980s. But by digging out an area a kilometre across, they created a basin prone to frequent flooding.

Now, after a torrential downpour six weeks ago became a lake that half encircles Sperwan Ghar, 20 local families are in danger of losing their mud-built homes, the threat of a malaria outbreak is looming, and one of the Canadian Forces access roads to their base here is shut down and could wash away. Canadian army engineers estimate the lake holds up to 200 million litres of water, and groundwater and inflow from a stream to the east are making it bigger.

"It's a very multi-faceted problem. With the threat of IEDs and direct fire, it's not exactly easy," said the Canadian base's senior engineer Lt. Kent Miller.

Sperwan Ghar is heavily fortified and the area immediately to the west is riddled with insurgents, who use the many mud walls, compounds, vineyards and grape-drying huts to cover their movements.

Yesterday army engineers, with added protection from infantry, attempted to buy some time by installing a pump on the west side of the lake to move water into a ditch that irrigates the fields of wheat and opium poppies in the vicinity. Problems started even before the pump was placed, as Afghans from the west-side village expressed their concerns.

"The water is day by day going to my house," Mohammad Wali, a 35-year-old father of five said through a Pashto interpreter. "It is eliminating my fields."
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 Gates, Canadian Counterpart Meet at Pentagon
By John J. Kruzel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 22, 2010 – 
Article Link

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his Canadian counterpart discussed bilateral defense issues here today, including Canada’s future role in the NATO mission in Afghanistan. 

The meeting between Gates and Canadian National Defense Minister Peter MacKay covered the projected U.S.-Canadian defense relationship over the next five years, and areas of mutual interest such as the countries’ shared border area, the Arctic, and relief efforts in Caribbean nations.

“The relationship between the U.S. and Canada is vitally important to both of us,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon following his meeting with MacKay. “I look forward to continuing this dialogue in the future.”

MacKay described the talks as a “substantive and productive” discussion on the enduring defense relationship between Ottawa and Washington. He said the recent Olympic Games in Vancouver highlighted bilateral cooperation with the United States.

MacKay added that security preparations are ongoing ahead of G-8 and G-20 summits to be hosted in Canada.

“We’ve demonstrated a very close working relationship and commitment to continental security, [and] we’re looking to areas of further cooperation,” MacKay said. “At a military-to-military level in places like Afghanistan, … our countries continue to work together in a very sophisticated and very important way to provide for the type of security both at home and abroad that both of our countries and our populations expect.” 
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In Afghanistan, violence claims more US-led troopers
Tue, 23 Mar 2010 
Article Link

Three more US-led troops die in Afghanistan, taking to 129 the number of foreign forces' mortalities since the beginning of the year.

The British Ministry of Defense said two service members, including a Briton, had died separately in south of the war-torn country, AFP reported Monday.

The ministry said the soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device while on foot patrol south of Sangin town in Helmand Province.

A Press TV correspondent, meanwhile, reported two NATO deaths in Helmand.

A Canadian soldier also died in a Canadian hospital of wounds he had sustained earlier this month west of Kandahar City, said the Canadian military in a statement.

Unprecedented violence has swept through Afghanistan despite the presence of some 120,000 US-led foreign soldiers there. 
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I Was in the Middle of Nowhere
Wendy Hayward  Article Link
 March 23, 2010

Editor’s note: Canada has been in Afghanistan for eight years, and in that time 140 of her men and women have given their lives in extraordinary acts of courage and bravery for their country. Cpl James Arnal was the 88th soldier to sacrifice all. His mother Wendy, and brother Andrew, went to Kandahar last September. What follows is Wendy's account of their journey, in her own words, as forwarded to us by Ros Prynn:

I was fortunate to travel to Kandahar Air Force Base with our military and experience something awesome, and I mean that in every sense of the word. This phrase covers the whole spectrum of impressions, and that is why I feel compelled to share my experiences and the validation it gives to our cause and the global crises of not only 50 million landmines in over 70 countries, but also the need for the help necessary in a country that has been riddled with wars for over 30 years. The more I research this crisis, the more daunting the task seems to become. I was told by someone recently that it would take 500 years to rid the world of all the landmines! There are reported to be over 650,000 landmines in Afghanistan ... the middle of nowhere.

To me Afghanistan, and more specifically Kandahar Air Force Base, is an area that prior to being there was more surreal than it is to me today. Upon my arrival, “the middle of nowhere” became real in many ways – physically, mentally and emotionally. This was no longer a place described to me by my son, but rather a reality that he lived and that I needed to experience for myself. “The middle of nowhere” wasn’t just the geographical location of Afghanistan to me, but rather the place my son died; and I knew I needed to experience it as part of my journey to not heal – because I don’t think I ever will – but cope with this loss. This trip made the middle of nowhere real.

I was taken as far and as close as I could go safely to where my son died. This story does not depict the level of risk, physical endurance, and courage it takes to go outside the wire. I was left feeling that heaven and hell is just outside that wire. My son is out there ... in the middle of nowhere.
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 US judge orders release of 9/11 recruiter 
March 22, 2010
Article Link

A US federal judge has ordered the release of a top al Qaeda recruiter for the 9/11 attacks from custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was identified by the 9/11 Commission as a key recruiter of al Qaeda’s Hamburg cell, was ordered to be released from the prison by US District Judge James Robertson, according to The Wall Street Journal. Slahi was also allegedly an important facilitator of the failed millennium bomb plot at Los Angeles International Airport in 1999. Robertson’s ruling on Slahi’s detention has not been disclosed, and is currently classified.

Slahi is known to have recruited several al Qaeda operatives before his detention in Mauritania in November 2001. His most high-profile recruits were the top members al Qaeda’s cell in Hamburg, Germany -- the key planners and operatives of the 9/11 attack. He was “a significant al Qaeda operative,” who was “well known to U.S. and German intelligence,” according to the 9/11 Commission’s final report.

While in Hamburg in 1999, Slahi arranged for Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the key facilitators of the 9/11 operation, and three of his cohorts to travel from Germany to Afghanistan so that they could train in al Qaeda's camps and swear allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Binalshibh's three friends were: Mohammed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah--the suicide pilots of American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, and United Airlines Flight 93, respectively.
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## GAP (25 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 25, 2010*

 Afghans beating swords into ploughshares; want al-Qaida compound demolished
Article Link
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 14 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It stands alone near the edge of vast desert - a powerful reminder of Afghanistan's recent, bloody past and a symbol that Afghans say should be demolished.

Tarnak Farms, the giant mud-walled complex that once housed Osama bin Laden, towers over thousands of hectares of parched farmland that irrigation has slowly and painfully brought back to life this spring.

The isolated, one-time al-Qaida training camp - the place where 9/11 was allegedly hatched - was bombed into rubble immediately following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. But the ghostly skeletons of buildings, twisted columns and smashed masonry remain.

In a country that is largely illiterate, symbols are often more important than words. Tarnak Farms is a powerful reminder to Afghans of the Taliban and everything they have endured since.

"The ruins mean the Taliban are still here," said Abdul Hai Niamati, director of the Kandahar office of the Afghan Agriculture Ministry.

"Destroying them would help convince people they are gone and not coming back."

Niamati is encouraging the Canadian and U.S. governments to help tear down the structures and reclaim the area, which remains littered with unexploded munitions.

The ministry owns the roughly 960 hectares of land surrounding the complex and has been trying to entice tenant farmers into the area.
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 Top U.S. general in Afghanistan gives order: Close TGI Friday's
By DION NISSENBAUM McClatchy Newspapers
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- By American standards, the boardwalk at Kandahar Airfield isn't much to write home about.

There's no roller coaster, mirror maze or carousel with unicorns. There's no cotton candy to buy, no candied apples and no annoying mimes trying to get out of imaginary boxes.

But this little square of Western culture in the Taliban heartland has served for years as a rare oasis for international forces embroiled in the ongoing Afghan war.

The Kandahar boardwalk now has a Burger King, a Subway sandwich shop, three cafes, several general stores, a Cold Stone Creamery, Oakley sunglasses outlet, a hockey rink (thanks to the Canadians, of course), a basketball court, and a tiny stage where members of Bachman-Turner Overdrive (the '70s Canadian band that brought the world "Takin' Care of Business" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet") recently performed on a cool southern Afghanistan evening.

The most recent addition is a TGI Friday's, complete with the Americana kitsch, Rihanna videos playing on the flat screen behind the bar (which serves no alcohol), fried mozzarella sticks and a life-size Yoda action figure with a light saber looking down on patrons from on high.

"The intent, it seems, is to create a surreal slice of Western material comfort where inhabitants can momentarily forget that they are living in one of the world's most benighted countries," Julius Cavendish recently wrote in The Independent, a British newspaper.

Well, now it's time to say goodbye to all that.

By the order of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, is shutting down most of these reminders of home.

"This is a war zone - not an amusement park," Command Sgt. Maj. Michael T. Hall recently wrote on the ISAF blog.

The decision is likely to prove unpopular with ISAF forces working and living in southern Afghanistan.
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 A small town in combat boots
Article Link
Ready, aim, fire. Then fill a cavity, save a soul, sort the mail, make a map, fix up dinner for 1,000 …
 By Bruce Deachman, The Ottawa CitizenMarch 24, 2010

When I was a youngster, my family made the two-day drive north each summer, through almost impenetrable clouds of rain, mosquitoes and blackflies, to return to Thunder Bay, the origin of our mid-’60s emigration to Ottawa.

For a young boy, one of the most captivating, if brief, stretches of Highway 17 was also visually one of the dullest. For barely 20 kilometres between Petawawa and Chalk River, the road was bounded on either side by monotonous forests of pine trees rendered inaccessible by chain-link fences with barbed wire and signs that warned visitors away.

Beyond those fences lay CFB Petawawa’s training grounds and base. Seventy-five thousand acres of — to an untethered seven-year-old imagination, anyway — soldiers shooting, cannons blasting and tanks pounding. It didn’t matter that I never heard any shooting. We’d probably just missed it because we’d stopped for gas in Cobden. Or, more likely, they were taking a break and practising garrotting as we drove by.

It never occurred to me that much else other than shooting could be happening beyond that treeline, that there might be dentists and doctors, cooks, lawyers and mechanics there, doing what dentists, doctors, cooks, lawyers and mechanics everywhere did, except in combat boots.

More than 40 years later, however, and after making the necessary arrangements with the base authorities, I finally pulled off of the highway and drove in for a closer inspection.

There, I found about 600 buildings and an additional 1,600 housing units occupied by close to 6,000 military personnel, 1,000 civilian workers and 7,000 spouses and children. In total, the military presence at CFB Petawawa almost exactly matches the town’s population of 14,000, making the federal government, which also signs the cheques at AECL in nearby Chalk River, far and away the area’s single largest employer.

To a non-military outsider, CFB Petawawa — much of which appears as though it stepped straight out of the Cold War — can be an odd world. When asked his given name, Sgt. (Terry) von Stackelberg, a mechanic, wasn’t entirely joking when he answered, “My first name is Sergeant.”

Base commander Lt.-Col. Rudderham (Keith), meanwhile, compared his role on the base to that of a town mayor, and in many ways CFB Petawawa is just that — a town, with churches, clinics, a school, department and grocery stores, golf course and numerous recreational clubs, a barbershop, performing arts theatre, hockey rink, park and auto repair and doughnut shops cosying up to drill halls, weapons repair shops, shooting ranges and barracks. And owing to the limited number of access roads to the base, there’s even rush-hour traffic congestion.

“If it happens off the base, it happens on the base, and I can assure you of that,” says military police officer Cpl. Brandon Beaulieu. 
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## GAP (27 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 27, 2010*


 Altering Afghanistan's landscape
 Change through work Irrigation project provides employment and improves farming fields
 By ETHAN BARON, Canwest News ServiceMarch 27, 2010
Article Link

Canada's army construction-management team got its largest project ever in violent Panjwaii District under way this week. Eighty Afghans will make $7 a day for six months, building an irrigation system in an area of grape fields the army bulldozed to stop incessant Taliban improvised-explosive device attacks along the main access road to the Sperwan Ghar base.

Four canals totalling 6.5 kilometres are planned, to channel water into surrounding fields and drain the flood-prone basin around Sperwan Ghar.

The project's success is crucial for the Canadian army to build trust and support among the populace, said Capt. Pierre-Vincent Daigle of the army's Construction Management Organization.

"If we don't succeed at it, we demonstrate a bad impression in Panjwaii District about our capacity," Daigle said. "We're putting all our effort here to make sure this project is a success."

Because the area is so volatile, and education levels so low, local business activity is minimal and the unemployment rate is higher than 82 per cent, said Capt. Elisa Holland, a Canadian Forces civilian-military co-operation officer.

"If you have fighting-age males or unemployed males working, whether it be for us or for the government, they're not going to be working for the insurgents," Holland said.

"I had no job before. Now I have a job and make good money," Abdul Ghani, 28, a worker on the project and father of six children age 2 months to 6 years said through a Pashto translator.

About half the workers are children as young as 10. Holland said many local mothers have lost husbands and older sons to war, and because cultural norms prohibit women from working outside the home, boys can become vital wage earners.
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 Nothing quiet on the home front at CFB Petawawa

Soldiers prepare for deployment: 'We've got to do it, no matter what'

By Bruce Deachman, The Ottawa CitizenMarch 27, 2010
Article Link

Ask John Kassil if he's nervous about his son Mackenzie deploying to Afghanistan and he shakes his head and smiles.

"He's played with guns since he was seven years old," he said, adding that Mackenzie grew up hoping to some day be a police officer. "He's well-trained and well-prepared. He's doing what he wants to do."

Kassil and his wife, Michelle, made the six-hour drive from Guelph to CFB Petawawa's Dundonald Hall, where a departure ceremony was held Friday to send off the 2,500 soldiers who will deploy to Afghanistan beginning next month.

The ceremony may be the last such held at Petawawa for some time. The government has said it will pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan in July 2011.

A necessary rotation subsequent to this one would come from a base elsewhere in Canada.

"I'm very proud of my son," said Michelle, "and all our boys that are going over."

Mackenzie's wife, 23-year-old Tanya Duncan, surrounded by their three boys -- Braedyn, 4, Kaleb, 3, and seven-month-old Wyatt -- admitted that the tour, expected to last between six and eight months, won't be easy.
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 Terry Glavin: Ottawa's Afghanistan merry-go-round
Posted: March 26, 2010, 3:15 PM by NP Editor
afghanistan, Terry Glavin
Article Link

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the question of Canada's commitments to Afghanistan after 2011 came up once again, and once again, Canadians were left knowing less about the answer than they did before the question was raised. At this rate, it would be better to prorogue Parliament permanently so that we might be able to say with absolute certainty exactly what is happening in the House of Commons. We could say 'nothing,' and we would be right. This would be an improvement over the current state of affairs.

Relying on the press won't help you: Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Thursday no Canadian soldiers will be in Afghanistan after 2011, even if the United States and NATO ask for a continued Canadian presence. "In 2011, we're out," Cannon told the House of Commons.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had asked Cannon about a report that the Americans would like Canada to maintain a force of about 600 soldiers in Afghanistan - a "trial balloon," Ignatieff called it. "This is no way to conduct foreign policy. Will the government commit to putting any deployment in Afghanistan past 2011 to a vote in Parliament?"

Cannon didn't bother answering the question. The government side has consistently maintained that it will be up to Parliament to decide what Canada should be doing in Afghanistan after 2011, but all Parliament has done in response is demand to know what Canada should be doing in Afghanistan after 2011. Round and round it goes.

Yesterday, Ignatieff's version of the question 'What am I thinking?' elicited this weird response from Cannon: "Canada will continue to maintain diplomatic relations and monitor development through its embassy in Kabul, as we do in other countries."

This isn't a decision, you should realize. It's the consequence of the absence of a decision. It's the direct result of the absence of any Parliamentary debate, the non-existence of any consideration or resolution or motion about what Canada should be doing in Afghanistan after 2011 - which is next year, remember.

Canada's engagement in Afghanistan is governed by six priorities: Security, border protection, national reconciliation, building national institutions, humanitarian aid and basic services. We have been in the top five of UN member states in Afghanistan, in the most ambitious project in the history of the UN, and this is what it has come to. It is how Canada has become the laughing stock of the entire world, the idiot boy of NATO, the brain-damaged auntie of the 50-plus-nation Afghanistan Compact. And the vast majority of Canadians have absolutely no idea what has happened, or what is happening, or how it has happened.
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This U.S. plea is a Harper saver 
Article Link
 David Bercuson

The United States, according to The Globe and Mail, is going to ask Canada to retain some 600 soldiers in Kabul to help train Afghan National Army troops after the Canadian mission in Kandahar ends next year. If this comes to pass, it will give Stephen Harper a way out of his rash promise – made during the 2008 election – to leave Afghanistan completely.

It also will force Parliament to have a very significant debate over Canada's role in Afghanistan. And it will force the Liberal Party – Canada's other national governing party – to choose between a foreign and defence policy made primarily by former NDP premiers and one that puts the Liberals back where they belong, in the political centre.

In the midst of this country's last federal election, Mr. Harper saw his government's polling numbers crater in Quebec. With that collapse went the fate of his majority. These are facts. It seems, then, it was no coincidence that the Tory demise in Quebec came just ahead of the Prime Minister's sudden declaration that Canada would leave Afghanistan lock, stock and barrel in 2011. Mr. Harper said he was merely reiterating the essence of the 2008 parliamentary motion that extended Canada's mission to 2011 but that also called for an end to combat operations in Kandahar at that time.

In fact, he was fudging both the wording and intent of the 2008 parliamentary motion. It literally called for Canada to deploy out of Kandahar but left other options wide open. But having declared an absolute end to the mission during the 2008 election – for whatever reasons – Mr. Harper's word became holy government writ.

The Prime Minister is now in a box of his own making because the Americans are not happy with Canada's intent. A complete Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011 will be read in Washington as abandonment of the U.S. in the midst of a war and abandonment of NATO. If Canada pulls out of Afghanistan entirely next year, it won't matter how many Canadians have been killed there. In Washington, history is nothing more than a rationale to be used to make or break policy; history does not substitute for politics.

A Canadian government that leaves Afghanistan in the middle of a fight will find very few friends in the State Department, the Defence Department, the White House or on Capitol Hill.

A U.S. request to Canada to keep 600 or so troops in Kabul for training purposes fits both the wording and the intent of the 2008 parliamentary motion. If made, Mr. Harper would be entirely within the parameters of that motion to simply agree to the request. He could explain to Canadians that the U.S. wasn't asking for more than Parliament had already agreed to, that Canada simply had to support an ally in the middle of a war to achieve a goal that so many Canadians had already died fighting for, and that 600 or so troops in a training role in Kabul was the least Canada could do for its allies.
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## GAP (28 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 28, 2010*

 Let's go - it's hunting season
Article Link

BY the yellow light of dusk, two American Black Hawk helicopters traced their silhouettes across the mountainside. “Medevac birds!” a soldier said. “Something’s happening.”

Taliban gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade had just struck a joint US-Afghan base on Route Red Dog, near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. An ammunition store blew up and an Afghan soldier was wounded by shrapnel.

The insurgents rode off on motorbikes. But as darkness fell, they attacked another outpost. From two miles away, I heard American paratroopers firing more than 1,000 rounds back. Afghan soldiers on a hill behind us opened up with heavy machinegun fire, right over our heads.

It was the Taliban’s first direct attack this year on American bases in Arghandab valley, northwest of the city — the first shots of what many soldiers believe will be the decisive battle of President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.

The paratroopers of 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, from the 82nd Airborne Division, have faced a largely hidden enemy since they arrived just before Christmas. Within days a chain of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) killed a company commander, Captain Paul Pena, and another soldier. The leader of the platoon I joined lost a leg.

Last week, however, the Taliban were moving into the open. A suicide bomber who attacked one patrol killed only himself. But as spring warmth and irrigated water restore the vegetation to this valley of grapes and pomegranates, the opportunities flourish for insurgents to mount ambushes.

“This is going to be quite a hunting season,” said a paratrooper, one of nearly 20,000 foreign and Afghan soldiers committed to the forthcoming offensive.

Many are guarding the approaches to Kandahar, which is not only Afghanistan’s second city, with a population of more than half a million, but is also the spiritual home of the Taliban. 
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British forces to withdraw from Helmand under new US plan for Afghanistan
British forces are to be withdrawn from Helmand and replaced by United States Marines under controversial new plans being drawn up by American commanders.
 By Toby Harnden in Kabul Published: 2:00AM BST 28 Mar 2010
Article Link

The proposal, which would have to be approved by a new British government, is facing stiff resistance. Whitehall officials fear that a pull-out from Helmand, where nearly 250 British troops have been killed since 2006, would be portrayed as an admission of defeat.

Under the plans, British forces would hand over their remaining bases in Helmand to the US Marines as early as this year. 

Such a move could bring back unhappy memories of the 2007 withdrawal from Basra in southern Iraq, which provoked jibes about British forces being bailed out by the Americans.

The proposal is linked to a reorganisation of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces that will split the current Regional Command (South) in two after an American-led offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar this summer.

A senior American officer in ISAF said that "the Marines will be the primary force in Helmand and Nimruz" while "British forces will go to a combination of Kandahar and Uruzgan and Zabul".

British officials opposed to the move argue that the ground-level expertise and knowledge of local power brokers in Helmand, which they have built up over many years, would be squandered in apparent contradiction of the "know the people" counter-insurgency doctrine put in place by the Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal.

But while acknowledging the political sensitivities, a senior British officer in ISAF said that a new role outside Helmand would be central to Gen McChrystal's campaign strategy, which is based on protecting the main Pashtun population centres.

"Through the microcosm of the UK media lens, a lot of people will say, 'We fought, we've spilt British blood in Helmand and now we're withdrawing'," the official said.

"Completely wrong. We're going to where the main effort is." 
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 Terry Glavin: Ottawa's Afghanistan merry-go-round
Posted: March 26, 2010, 3:15 PM by NP Editor afghanistan, Terry Glavin
Article Link

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the question of Canada's commitments to Afghanistan after 2011 came up once again, and once again, Canadians were left knowing less about the answer than they did before the question was raised. At this rate, it would be better to prorogue Parliament permanently so that we might be able to say with absolute certainty exactly what is happening in the House of Commons. We could say 'nothing,' and we would be right. This would be an improvement over the current state of affairs.

Relying on the press won't help you: Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Thursday no Canadian soldiers will be in Afghanistan after 2011, even if the United States and NATO ask for a continued Canadian presence. "In 2011, we're out," Cannon told the House of Commons.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had asked Cannon about a report that the Americans would like Canada to maintain a force of about 600 soldiers in Afghanistan - a "trial balloon," Ignatieff called it. "This is no way to conduct foreign policy. Will the government commit to putting any deployment in Afghanistan past 2011 to a vote in Parliament?"

Cannon didn't bother answering the question. The government side has consistently maintained that it will be up to Parliament to decide what Canada should be doing in Afghanistan after 2011, but all Parliament has done in response is demand to know what Canada should be doing in Afghanistan after 2011. Round and round it goes.

Yesterday, Ignatieff's version of the question 'What am I thinking?' elicited this weird response from Cannon: "Canada will continue to maintain diplomatic relations and monitor development through its embassy in Kabul, as we do in other countries."
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## GAP (28 Mar 2010)

Escalation of Force
by babatim on March 28th, 2010
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I have written on this topic many times before; most of you have by now seen this article from the New York Times: Tighter Rules Fail to Stem Deaths of Innocent Afghans at Checkpoints.  Here are the first two paragraphs;

    American and NATO troops firing from passing convoys and military checkpoints have killed 30 Afghans and wounded 80 others since last summer, but in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops, according to military officials in Kabul.

    “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat,” said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who became the senior American and NATO commander in Afghanistan last year. His comments came during a recent videoconference to answer questions from troops in the field about civilian casualties.

As usual the reporting or at least the title is deceptive.  There may be Afghans shot at checkpoints but that seems to be a very rare occurrence.  Most of these shootings occur in escalation of force incidents involving rear vehicle turret gunners. To the best of my knowledge a VBIED has never been prevented from ramming home by a rear turret gunner although at least one died trying to stop one.  That brave soldier would have most likely survived had he ducked down inside the MRAP.

There is a problem with the concept that a turret gunner can identify and identify as friend or foe a potential Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) in time to stop it with machinegun fire.  That problem is the OODA Loop which I discussed at length in this post.  There is another problem and that is with the rules that American military units most conform to.   There is a standing order that every vehicle convoy leaving a FOB must have four MRAP’s and 16 soldiers at a minimum. If the Commanding  General wants to preach about getting off the FOBs to protect the population on one hand, but declares that four MRAP’s and 16 riflemen at minimum for “force protection” there is a rhetorical disconnect.  Is the local environment safe enough to conduct COIN operations or are the atmospherics such that it is reasonable to anticipate a determined, IED followed by SAF (small arms fire) complex attack in all areas at all times in Afghanistan?  I believe that in the vast majority of this nation ISAF vehicle (especially MRAP’s) can travel without any concern from IED or SAF attack.  I would further stipulate that even if they were attacked a two vehicle MRAP convoy could easily hold its own against the the dozen to two dozen Taliban who comprise your average shoot and scoot squad.
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## GAP (29 Mar 2010)

*Articles found March 29, 2010*

 On the beat in a war zone
Article Link
Toronto police officers help to bring the rule of law to Afghanistan

Matthew Coutts, National Post  Published: Monday, March 29, 2010

Eleven Toronto police officers are on the ground in Afghanistan patrolling and training local forces and building a complete justice system, as part of an international effort to establish a rule of law in the country.

They are among a team of Canadian officers dispatched as part of the International Police Peace Operations Program, a 20-year-old initiative that sends Canadian police to patrol streets, mentor recruits and essentially work as a region's police force until they can establish their own.

The program has been active in Afghanistan since 2003, with Toronto representatives making up a large part of that group today.

"Half of the contingent is our police officers," said Sergeant Daniel Martin, co-ordinator for the Toronto Police's International Police Operations unit. "They are not only representing Toronto police, they are representing Toronto, Ontario and Canada on a global stage. We want to pick the best representatives so when people look, they say, 'Man, Toronto police. Those guys are switched on.' "

The program runs under the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's International Peace Operations Branch and, currently, about 160 Canadian police officers are on the job in 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan. The program could expand to as many as 500 officers next year.

York Regional Police also have one officer stationed in Afghanistan. Ontario Provincial Police have six officers stationed in Sudan and another in Kosovo.

The current group of Toronto police officers are the city's first to be posted in Afghanistan; another 10 will replace them at the end of the month.
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 Keeping the guns firing
Article Link 
By Cpl. Gavin Biro, FreelanceMarch 28, 2010

My name is Cpl. Gavin Biro. I have been serving in the Canadian Forces for close to eight years now as an Electronic Optronic Technician from Canadian Forces Base Shilo, Man., and this is my first tour to Afghanistan.

I have been in Afghanistan for just over four months now, and I live in a Patrol Base maintaining Task Force 3-09 C Battery Artillery equipment. This includes a wide range of additional kit such as weapon sights, generators, night/thermal vision and computer systems.

My primary focus, however, is to support the M777 Howitzer, which is a large artillery piece that shoots 155-mm projectiles in many forms, mainly Illumination in support of infantry operations.

Day-to-day life in our Patrol Base is fairly busy. When I am not maintaining the artillery equipment, I also help out with other tasks that need to be completed. These tasks have included helping the carpenter build structures, helping to build better beds for the soldiers to stay in, wiring up the bedrooms for lights and outlets, and helping to maintain the generators used to power our camp. All these tasks help bring more comfort to our Canadian troops living in forward patrol bases.

I am continually surprised by how nice it actually looks in the Panjwayi District. Prior to coming to Afghanistan I had pictured desert as far as the eye could see, always hot and very barren, in my mind. In actuality, it has trees, water systems, and it gets quite cold here in the winter (much to my chagrin). I was actually looking forward to it being always hot here, so I could trick myself into thinking I had finally got that Tahiti posting I keep asking for.

We have all the amenities in our location that anyone could ask for: washing machines, showers, an amazing kitchen facility with great cooks and, our most recent addition, Wi-Fi Internet access. With all the commodities we have, morale is usually pretty high and it's tough to find a face that isn't smiling. Mind you, when duty calls and the Artillery have to go into a fire mission, the whirr of activity can be hectic and disorienting, but once the mission is over, it's back to the jokes for them.

Overall, this tour has been an amazing opportunity for me to travel and see how this part of the world lives. This unique experience is something I will be able to reflect on for years. It makes me realize how great we have it at home in Canada.

On one final note, I would like to provide one term that describes my current position in this theatre of operation and a definition for it. Fobbit -- one who spends his whole tour inside a FOB (Forward Operating Base) due to the requirements of his work and never steps foot outside the wire.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
end

 14 injured in NATO helicopter crash in Afghanistan
Article Link

The Associated Press

Date: Monday Mar. 29, 2010 9:00 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO helicopter crashed Monday in southern Afghanistan, injuring 14 people, the international force said.

Elsewhere in the south, a service member was killed in a bomb strike, NATO said, without providing further details.

The coalition said no one is reported to have been killed in the helicopter crash and that all personnel on board were evacuated to nearby medical facilities.

Jilani Farah, deputy police chief in Zabul province where the crash occurred, said 14 people were injured, including international service members, three Afghan soldiers and one Afghan policeman. NATO confirmed that 14 people were injured in the crash, and said that none of them sustained life-threatening injuries.

The Taliban have posted a message on their Web site claiming responsibility for the crash in Atghar district.

NATO said the crash was still being investigated, but that there was no indication that insurgents shot down the aircraft.
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