# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread February 2011



## GAP (31 Jan 2011)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread February 2011 *               

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


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## GAP (1 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 1, 2011*

Canadian Sniffer Dogs Protect Troops From IEDs
Article Link
 30 January 2011
Canine units deployed to Aghanistan protect Canadian soldiers by detecting concealed IEDs.

    The Canadian Army has been employing sniffer dogs to detect mines and improvised explosive devices (IED) not only along routes, but also in buildings and vehicles.

    “We work with canine teams nearly every day, and the dogs form an integral part of our teams and sections,” explained Sergeant Alexandre Murgia, commander of a combat-engineer section of the 1st Battalion Royal 22e Régiment Battle Group (1 R22eR BG).

    “The dogs provide us with an added measure of security during our operations, and it’s our role to protect them from the insurgents while they’re doing their job.”

    The vast majority of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan have been killed by explosions. The Canadian Forces have therefore been progressively stepping up the employment of sniffer dogs in Afghanistan since 2005. Most of these dogs are German or Belgian shepherds.

    The sniffer dogs represent an indispensable asset highly appreciated by the soldiers, given their ability to sense sources of danger well before humans.

    “Humans are not infallible and can’t see or detect everything. When they’re with us, we feel better and we feel safer,” added Sgt Murgia.

By: Shelldrake 
end

Massive transports helping Canadian Forces deal with banishment from U.A.E.
  Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News January 31, 2011

ABOARD CANFORCE 93 — The lights of ultramodern Dubai dazzle below and Canada's former logistics base, Camp Mirage, can be seen in the distance, as the Canadian air force C-17 Globemaster transport flies over the tiny emirate on a circuitous journey from Kandahar to its new hub at a U.S. airbase in Germany.

Despite having been banned from landing in the sheikdom last November because of a high-profile dispute between the two countries over commercial air-traffic rights, several Canadian flights a week still pass through U.A.E. air space for about 20 minutes.

The military insists that losing access to Mirage has had no effect on the 12,000-kilometre air bridge between Canada and southern Afghanistan.

Nor, they said, will it delay plans to bring home about 3,500 troops and thousands of tons of combat gear later this year in what is being described as by far the biggest airlift in Canadian history.

"It would be nice to have something closer (than Germany) but having the C-17 gives us the option to do something else," said Maj.-Gen. Yvan Blondin, commander of 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg. "If we had lost Mirage without the C-17, we would be in a world of hurt." 
More on link

 Afghan drug war to be won with crops, not jails: judge
Article Link
By Laurent Thomet (AFP) – 14 hours ago

BRUSSELS — NATO's military might will never win the war against Afghanistan's heroin trade alone, an Afghan judge said, urging the alliance to put more energy into weaning farmers off opium poppy crops.

Afghanistan's primary court of counter narcotics in Kabul has handled more than 2,000 cases in the past four years, said Hayatullah Ahadyar, one of the six judges who sit on the court that oversees big drug busts.

"We do not have to always use force, capture people, put them in jail. We have to have alternatives for farmers," he said.

"How many people should we capture and put in jail? Maybe nobody will be left in Afghanistan, everyone will be in jail," he told AFP in an interview ahead of a meeting with NATO officials in Brussels on Monday.

Despite raids against drug facilities and eradication campaigns, NATO faces an uphill battle as Afghanistan remains the world's top producer of opium, the base for heroin, accounting for 90 percent of the global supply.

Afghanistan's opium industry is worth almost three billion dollars (2.2 billion euros) a year, supplying heroin to Europe and helping to fund the Taliban-led insurgency against foreign troops in the more than nine-year-old war.
More on link

 Sikorsky's S-92 heads to Afghanistan
Rob Varnon, Staff Writer  Monday, January 31, 2011 
Article Link

Sikorsky Aircraft's S-92 is heading to Afghanistan where the Stratford helicopter maker hopes its performance will attract more buyers for the military variant of this already successful commercial aircraft.

On Monday, Sikorsky delivered two S-92s to Illinois-based AAR Corp. AAR won a $450 million U.S. Transportation Command contract and added the S-92s and four S-61s to its fleet to carry cargo and personnel for the military. The individual aircraft values were not released.

"Deployment to Afghanistan is a tremendous opportunity for AAR and the U.S. Government to see what the multi-mission S-92 aircraft is capable of in some very challenging flight conditions at high altitude," said Ed Beyer, vice president for Sikorsky Global Helicopters, in a press release. The helicopters were delivered from Sikorsky's Coatsville, Pa. plant.

Shares of Sikorsky parent company, Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., declined 13 cents to close at $81.30 in Monday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. AAR's shares lost 23 cents Monday to close at $26.79 on the NYSE.

Sikorsky has delivered 129 of its S-92 helicopters to commercial customers since September 2004. But the company has failed to create a lucrative military line for this helicopter. It is developing the CH-148 Cyclone based on the S-92 for the Canadian Defense Ministry, but delivery has been delayed.
More on link

 Adrian MacNair: In Afghanistan, two worlds share a single country
Article Link

I recently read a two-year-old article in The Walrus from a former journalism student at my own college, involving his trip to Afghanistan’s heavily fortified capital city, Kabul. Charles Montgomery describes the city in The Archipelago of Fear, suggesting giant military fortifications and barriers have generated a feeling of colonization and segregation between Afghans and the western aid workers who have come to help them.

In several passages that ring true to my own recent visit of Kabul, he describes the decadence and opulence of Western fortresses built right beside gnawing Third World poverty and human filth. “The air is s–t,” observes the author’s friend upon arriving in Kabul. It’s not an inaccurate pronouncement. Without wood for fuel, human and animal excrement is burned in great quantities, filling the air with invisible particulates that make breathing difficult.

The Canadian Embassy is housed inside the heart of the city, behind ISAF fortifications and AK-wielding police checkpoints who bar entry to all vehicles without diplomatic plates. Armour-plated cars ferry dignitaries and important business leaders accompanied by Close Protection Teams full of ex-military mercenaries whose job it is to open fire on Taliban ambushes. These vehicular excursions take place at random and secretly arranged times in order to avoid detection by the enemy. Upon my arrival in Kabul, our first briefing involved the discussion of a new magnetic IED placed under the chassis by beggar children who mob western cars stuck in rush hour. One such device had killed two policemen the day before. Police use long handles with mirrors on the end to check the bottom of each car as it passes through the multitude of security blockades.

Outside the embassy is filth, garbage and dust that swirls and covers the scant vegetation that has survived three decades of war. But inside are spacious gardens and flowers, fountains, grass and trees. A dazzling-blue pool sits outside the lounge, which offers a bar stocked with alcoholic beverages, a pool table, leather chairs and a large-screen television. The walls are adorned with autographed hockey sweaters of each Canadian team, folded neatly and presented from the front. It seemed extravagant in comparison to the dry and dusty barracks back in Kandahar, where soldiers were sweating under sixty-pound packs with body Kevlar, not sipping Coronas on air-conditioned leather.

As Montgomery wrote:
More on link


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## GAP (2 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 2, 2011*

 Chinook helicopters to be sold as Afghan mission ends
Article Link
The Canadian Press Tuesday Feb. 1, 2011 6:38 PM ET

OTTAWA — National Defence has put "For Sale" signs on the air force's Chinook helicopters in Afghanistan -- two years after taxpayers shelled out $282 million to buy them.

The department recently sounded out allies in the war-torn country to see whether any are interested in the heavy battlefield transports, purchased second-hand from the U.S. Army.

Some defence analysts suggest Canada might be better served by bringing the choppers home for domestic operations, perhaps improving the search-and-rescue system.

So far there have been no takers for the five CH-147D choppers, which were rushed into Afghanistan after the Manley commission made it a condition of Ottawa continuing the war until 2011.

Canada initially purchased six aircraft in a government-to-government arrangement with Washington, but one was shot down by Taliban small-arms fire in Panjwaii district, west of Kandahar city, last August.

To make up for the loss, Ottawa leased a D model American Chinook for the reminder of the mission. Defence officials refused to say at what cost.

If no buyers are found for the Canadian Chinooks they will be packed up and brought home when the combat mission ends in July, said the general who leads the transition headquarters.

"We're still looking to divest ourselves of them," Brig.-Gen. Charles Lamarre said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

"They're going to have to push that through and get them sold before we shut things down. If by chance we don't, we'll still have a responsibility to look after that equipment."

The air force picked up the Afghanistan choppers intending to sell them once the combat mission ended. The decision was made, in part, because there was a new fleet of helicopters on order.

The Conservative government signalled its intention to spend $4.7 billion on 15 new Chinooks a few years ago. The new choppers are latest model -- the F series -- and have been modified with extra-large fuel tanks and improved sensors.

But Rob Huebert of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary said the older Chinooks could serve a vital role in Canada. 
More on link

 ANALYSIS: Private mercenaries and the Afghan Army —Musa Khan Jalalzai
Article Link

The involvement of Afghan generals in land grabbing and drug trafficking is a major threat for the NATO mission. In Kabul and many other districts, narcotics are transferred from one place to another in military vehicles

Ethnicity, misgovernment, corruption and political violence have put in danger the national unity of Afghanistan. All ethnic groups have their own thinking of national unity and concordance. The recent institutionalised ethnic and sectarian divisions, specifically in the police and army units raised some questions: whether Afghanistan will again become the battleground or will this persistent insecurity affect the security of neighbouring states? The decade-long civil war in the country has already left devastating effects on Pakistan’s economic performance and security infrastructure. This is a big challenge for Pakistan, which has close ethnic, sectarian, cultural, religious and tribal proximity with Afghanistan. Thus Pakistan understands the way Afghan forces are being trained and armed is not a proper method to create a standing military.

The US, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are training soldiers of the Afghan National Army but rely on private security agencies and rogue warlord armies. Coalition forces in Afghanistan feel more threatened by the Afghan National Army than the Taliban. Last year, several coalition soldiers were killed by their Afghan partners during a military patrol in the south. Afghan Army commanders have established close contacts with drug lords and the Taliban militia, provide them with arms and military information, including counter-insurgency strategies.

The police department is considered to be the most corrupt institution. Last year, Britain’s top representative warned that amid enduring suspicions over the reliability of local forces, Afghans are turning to the Taliban for justice. Drug trafficking, facilitation, corruption and the trends of alienation among the police force may delay the force’s ability to take over the responsibility of law and order enforcement in 2014. Smoking narcotics in police barracks is not new. Illiteracy is another issue that has badly affected the performance of the police. A police officer needs to have some notes, write down number plates of vehicles and take a necessary statement, but unfortunately, Afghan police are not able to read or write.

The involvement of Afghan generals in land grabbing and drug trafficking is a major threat for the NATO mission. In Kabul and many other districts, narcotics are transferred from one place to another in military vehicles. Generals and their cronies have grabbed thousands of acres of agricultural and government land across the country. Commanders of the Tajik-dominated army protect drug lords and the criminal mafia and supply arms to the dissidents across the border into Pakistan.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (2 Feb 2011)

U.S. General Sees Success Even if Pakistan Doesn’t Act
_NY Times_, Feb. 1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/world/asia/02military.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper



> WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, the No. 2 commander in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that the United States and NATO could succeed in the war even if Pakistan refused to shut down a lawless frontier sanctuary that militants use for staging attacks on forces across the border in Afghanistan.
> 
> In comments that sought to make a virtue of a now-acknowledged reality, General Rodriguez, the NATO and American commander in charge of the day-to-day fighting in Afghanistan, said that while the United States continued to press Pakistan to root out the militants from their haven in the northwest tribal region of North Waziristan, the United States could still win militarily if the Pakistani Army did not act.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (4 Feb 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 4

Alaskan army brigade to replace Canadian Forces in Afghanistan
Postmedia News, Feb. 3
http://www.globalnews.ca/world/story.html?id=4218512



> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A U.S. army brigade from Alaska is to replace Canadian troops when their combat mission in southern Afghanistan ends this July.
> 
> *About 4,000 troops* [emphasis added] of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, are to "backfill" for Canada's 2,800-member battle group, according to the Stars and Stripes, which cited a U.S. army colonel as its source...
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (5 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 5, 2011*

 2009 a busy year for capturing possible Afghan insurgents
Article Link
By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau February 4, 2011 

OTTAWA — When it comes to capturing possible insurgents in Afghanistan, 2009 was a busy year.

The Canadian Forces detained 225 individuals in Afghanistan in 2009, eclipsing the next busiest years by more than 80 people.

Of the 225 detainees, one died in hospital from wounds sustained on the battlefield and 92 were transferred to the Afghan National Security Force.

Prior to 2009, the most people detained by the Canadian Forces in one year was 142, which happened in both 2006 and 2007.

But according to a Canadian Forces official, the numbers don't reflect any particular pattern or trend.

"Every CF operation that involves an individual being taken as a detainee is unique. As such, it is virtually impossible to draw broad conclusions about these statistics or infer a particular trend based on events in any calendar year," Dominique Verdon, a spokeswoman for the Forces, wrote in an e-mail Friday.

"The pace of combat operations ebb and flow based on a wide range of factors such as posture, geography, enemy activity, ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) capabilities as well as other allied activities.

"Simply put, numbers fluctuate for a host of reasons and it is virtually impossible to draw any significant conclusions or ascertain trends over time."

For each of the past four years, the Canadian Forces has made public the annual results of its post-transferring monitoring program. The data are held for 12 months before being released.

The statistics for 2009 were made public Friday.

Since Canada became involved in the Afghanistan conflict in 2001, the Canadian Forces have detained a total of 664 individuals.

Of those, three have died in hospital from wounds sustained on the battlefield and 375 have been transferred to either United States or Afghan security forces, the latter exclusively since 2005.

Allegations that the Canadian government knew some of the detainees being transferred to Afghan security forces were being abused or tortured has sparked heated debate on Parliament Hill.

Currently, a secretive all-party committee is pouring over tens of thousands of classified documents to see who knew what and when.
Little More on link

 Alaskan brigade to 'backfill' for Canadian troops in Afghanistan
  Article Link
 By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News February 4, 2011

A U.S. army brigade from Alaska is to replace Canadian troops when their combat mission in southern Afghanistan ends this July.

About 4,000 troops of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, are to "backfill" for Canada's 2,800-member battle group, according to the Stars and Stripes, which cited a U.S. army colonel as its source.

The "Arctic Wolves," who served in Iraq in 2009, are to train in the Californian desert for their impending 12-month tour, said the independent daily newspaper funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

As a matter of policy, Canadian troops in Afghanistan do not talk about the deployments of other allied forces, but it was confirmed here that the report is accurate.

The soldiers from Alaska use a more modern variant of the eight-wheeled light armoured vehicles that Canada's battle group uses for most of its combat patrols in Panjwaii.
More on link

 Canada Seeks Sale Of Recently Bought CH-47s
Article Link
February 4, 2011

 Less than three years after establishing an Air Wing in a combat zone (Afghanistan), Canada is seeking buyers for the Wing's major asset, five recently purchased CH-47 medium transport helicopters. Canadian troops are leaving Afghanistan later this year, and the government feels there is too little use for the CH-47s in Canada, nor any likely use for them in future peacekeeping operations. Canada spent over $250 million to buy six CH-47s for use in Afghanistan, and one was later lost to ground fire.

The Canadian Air Wing has six leased Russian made Mi-8 transport helicopters, five U.S. made CH-47 transport helicopters and eight Canadian made CH-146 armed transports to escort the larger choppers. The Wing has about 450 personnel form aircraft maintenance and support.

A primary function of the choppers was to keep Canadian troops off the roads, where half the casualties have been suffered because of roadside bombs. Previous to the establishment of the Wing, the 2,500 Canadian troops had much less access to helicopter transport than their American or NATO allies fighting in the south. This was the first time, since the Korean War (1950-53) that Canadian forces had established an Air Wing in a combat zone.

The 22 ton CH-47F can carry ten tons of cargo, or up to 55 troops, and has a maximum range of 426 kilometers. Its max speed is 315 kilometers an hour. Typical missions last no more than three hours. So far, no other NATO country in Afghanistan has expressed any interest in buying the five CH-47s, so they may return to Canada after all. Canadian aviation officials believe the CH-47s would be too expensive to maintain, even if used for search and rescue operations in Central Canada (especially in the Rocky Mountains, high altitude terrain similar to Afghanistan.)
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## MarkOttawa (5 Feb 2011)

More than 33,000 CAS sorties flown in 2010
_Air Force Times_, Feb. 4
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/02/air-force-more-than-33000-sorties-in-2010-020411w/



> The Air Force just completed its busiest year in Afghanistan, setting records for airdrops and combat sorties. An additional 30,000 U.S. troops in the war zone and the country’s ramshackle infrastructure explain the upswing in numbers.
> 
> The statistics, released Jan. 19 by Air Forces Central, include missions flown by all services — although the Air Force flies most of the sorties.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (9 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 9, 2011*

 Canadian general promoted to NATO Afghan training
Article Link
(AFP) – 1 day ago

OTTAWA — Canadian general Michael Day has been promoted to deputy commander of NATO's training efforts in Afghanistan to help soldiers take over security, Defense Minister Peter MacKay has said.

Day's appointment to major-general comes as Canada moves to complete its combat mission in Afghanistan and become a dedicated training force in the war-wracked country.

Ottawa is sending 950 military trainers to a base in Kabul until 2014 in a non-combat role in that capacity, following the withdrawal of its 2,800 Canadian troops from Kandahar starting in June.
More on link

 Defence department hunts for record of payments to Kandahar warlord
Article Link

Officials at the Defence Department are looking for records of payments to a warlord who signed on to help defend a Canadian base in Afghanistan.

Documents tabled in Parliament last week show Haji Toorjan received $2.5 million to provide an additional layer of defence around the Kandahar provincial reconstruction base that delivered aid and development help.

Those records show payments started in 2008, but access to information documents and published reports suggest Toorjan’s 40-man militia band was on the payroll in 2007 and perhaps earlier.

In the Commons, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon is defending the use of hired guns.

He says Ottawa signed a non-binding international best-practices deal last November that governs the action of the armed contractors.
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 Podmorow: Stoning is proof we're needed in Afghanistan
  Article Link 
By Alaina Podmorow, For the Calgary Herald February 7, 2011

My friend and mentor, Lauryn Oates, a Canadian aid worker in Afghanistan, sent me an e-mail from Kabul with a link to a Jan. 26 BBC story reporting that a young woman and man, who had fallen in love against the wishes of their families, had been stoned to death by a large crowd of men in the Afghan province of Kunduz, by order of the Taliban.

As I watched the clip, which has only recently been released, I turned sick to my stomach and felt filled with rage. At the same time, I felt another emotion — that of helplessness. It’s very difficult to understand how these horrific acts of hate, these blatant human rights violations, can continue to happen. When will this end? 
More on link

 Canadians taking senior posts in Afghan training mission
Article Link
By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau  February 7, 2011

OTTAWA – With the Canadian Forces preparing to leave southern Afghanistan for the relative stability of Kabul, top Canadian military brass are starting to take top spots in the NATO-led training mission.

Brig.-Gen. Michael Day was appointed Monday the deputy commanding army general, effectively putting him in charge of the army training mission. Brig.-Gen. Kelly Woiden is joining him as the assistant commanding general for Afghan national army development, replacing fellow Canadian Brig.-Gen. Dave Neasmith.

The Canadian appointments Monday pave the way for the Canadian Forces' involvement in the training mission, to begin in July, where around 950 Canadian Forces members will be training the Afghan army until 2014.

"I think it (the senior appointments) speaks to the confidence that NATO and our allies and the Afghans have in the command of the Canadian Forces, in the individuals that have provided enormous service to our country and to theirs, and the professionalism they bring to those roles," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Monday after the promotions.

He signed off on them at the recommendation of the chief of the defence staff, he said.
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 Man accused of plot against bomb base to appear in court
  Article Link 
By Ian Macleod, Ottawa Citizen February 9, 2011

The strange case of a newlywed woman who exposed her Afghan husband's alleged plan to bomb CFB Petawawa returns to Pembroke court this week.

Matin Abdul Stanikzy, 24, is accused of plotting to attack the nearby military base with "explosive materials" he allegedly demanded his wife steal from her job at the neighbouring Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories. It's not clear if the alleged demand involved radioactive materials for a radiation dispersal device, or "dirty bomb." 
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 New Super Hercules busy in Afghanistan's crowded skies
  Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News February 8, 2011

HERAT, Afghanistan — The Canadian Forces not only fight against the Taliban on the ground in Kandahar, a far less-known Canadian mission flies guns, butter and troops everywhere in the country for NATO.

That is how one of Canada's spanking new C-130J Super Hercules transports ended up passing over a herd of camels last week as it banked sharply to land near Afghanistan's western border with Iran.

The aircraft had flown down from Kabul that day to drop off Italian and Spanish troops and to fetch a senior U.S. army chaplain, several Afghan soldiers and 17 war-weary but exuberant U.S. Marines on the first leg of their return journey to North Carolina at the end of a long slog in the desert.
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 Closure of reconstruction bases won’t affect Canadian projects
Posted on Tue, Feb 8, 2011, 10:59 am by Steve Rennie
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s plan to close military bases that run provincial aid and development programs won’t affect big-ticket projects, Canada’s small contingent of civilians in Kandahar city says.

The eventual closure of the bases won’t affect legacy projects such as the refurbishment of the Dahla Dam, a Canadian official at Kandahar’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) said Tuesday.

”Canada’s signature projects are not linked to this issue, as they have a completion date of 2011, and President Karzai’s comments consistently refer to a transition date of 2014,” spokesman Adam Sweet said in an email.

Rehabilitating the 60-year-old dam and its system of irrigation canals is one of three so-called ”signature projects” the Conservative government announced in the spring of 2008.
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 Canada funds safe houses for Afghan civil service
Article Link

Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News · Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan — Two weeks ago, Kandahar deputy governor Abdul Latif Ashna inspected a Canadian project to provide secure homes for 15 Afghan government officials and their families.

Exactly one week later the Afghan lead on the Committee to Secure Civil Servants was dead when the car he was riding in was blown up by a suspected suicide bomber on a motorcycle.

“Ashna’s death was very poignant,” said Philip Lupul, a Canadian diplomat who worked closely with Mr. Ashna on the housing project, which is to be completed by the end of next month. “He had pointed out some changes that he thought should be made to the houses and we had accepted them.

“One of the tragedies of this is that he would certainly have been a candidate for one of these homes. We lost a good friend who was part of this project.”

As Lt.-Gen. David Rodriguez, the second-ranking NATO officer in Afghanistan, predicted last week in Washington, because there are thousands more U.S. combat forces spread cross Kandahar this year than 12 months ago the Taliban will find it much more difficult to terrorize rural areas by planting homemade bombs and will instead try to attack softer targets such as local government officials. 
More on link


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## GAP (12 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 12, 2011*


 Canadian helicopters keep eye in the sky on new Afghan road construction
  Article Link
 By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News February 11, 2011

ABOVE THE HORN OF PANJWAII, Afghanistan — Civilian contractors building a road that has been described by senior NATO commanders as a dagger through the Taliban's heart are being protected from lethal harassing fire by Canadian Griffon helicopters.

The potshots stopped the instant Canada's once-maligned Griffons and their powerful Gatling guns and high-tech scopes appeared above a tongue of grey farmland that, until three months ago, was controlled by insurgents, aircrews said.

"The single biggest element that air power brings is that the Taliban is afraid of us and this weapon," said Capt. Luc Savoie, a reservist who once flew F-18 fighter jets and in the civilian world is an Air Canada pilot. "We can see a lot of sh-- from up here. When we show up, the grunts tell us the Taliban flees. In this way, the Griffon really shows its worth."

The Griffons have not only been tasked with helping to keep insurgents in check. The primary role of the small choppers, which have two pilots and two door gunners, has been to fly escort missions for Chinook transport helicopters, which are providing critical support for about 800 Canadian, American and Afghan troops fighting the Taliban in the Horn and helping to guard the new roads.

As the Griffons buzzed around them, Canada's small fleet of Chinooks lifted more than 800,000 pounds of food, water, bullets and building supplies such as lumber into the Horn in January.

In fact, over the past 10 weeks the Chinooks have transported as much cargo into one of the Taliban's last sanctuaries as they did across the whole province in the previous 12 months.

"The question was: How much could we bring?" asked Col. Paul Prevost, commander of Canada's air wing in Kandahar. "In my mind it was going to be very tight, but it had to be 'no fail' because there was no other way to bring in the stuff. Without the Chinooks, this was not going to happen."

The air bridge had kept about 40 Canadian convoys and about 1,000 Canadian troops off Panjwaii's heavily mined roads for what would have been an eight-hour round trip, he said.
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 Taliban assassins on motorbikes strike fear in Afghanistan
 Thu Feb 10 2011
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Day and night, Taliban assassins on motorbikes hunt their victims, often taunting them over the telephone before gunning them down in the city’s streets.

They are working their way through lists, meticulously killing off people fingered as collaborators with the Afghan government or its foreign backers.

Unlike suicide bombers, who make headlines with periodic attacks that take themselves out along with their targets, most insurgent assassins escape as quickly, and anonymously, as they strike.

They slip quietly back into Kandahar’s shadows, still in the hunt, sowing terror with murders that number in the hundreds each year.

Each one sends a chilling message to anyone who doesn’t fall in line: You may be the next to go down. The execution could even come in broad daylight, close to home, in front of your children.

The build-up of Afghan police and soldiers, and foreign troops, in and around Kandahar city over recent months has improved security, but agile and coldly efficient motorbike death squads remain active.

They struck twice last Friday, a special day of prayer for Muslims. Around 7 a.m., two men riding a motorcycle murdered a police officer standing guard near a Kabul Bank branch in Kandahar. As usual, the killers got away.
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 Aluminum And The Better Bang
February 11, 2011
Article Link

 In Afghanistan, the most important Taliban allies are smugglers and corrupt officials. That's because the hundreds of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device, a roadside, or suicide car bomb) manufactured each week, depend on smugglers to get the essential ingredients (ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder) into the country. Both these items are forbidden in Afghanistan, and have to be smuggled in. Despite increased vigilance on the border, NATO troops have found that too many Afghan police or soldiers can be bribed by the smugglers, letting truckloads of this stuff into the country.

IEDs now cause over 50 percent of NATO casualties. It has also been discovered that there was one big difference between the IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan; the explosives used. In Iraq, there were thousands of tons of munitions and explosives scattered around the country after the 2003 invasion was over. This was the legacy of Saddam Hussein, and the billions he spent on weapons during his three decades in power. The Iraqi terrorists grabbed a lot of these munitions, and used them for a five year bombing campaign. The Taliban face a very different situation.

With no such abundance of leftover munitions, the Taliban had to fall back on a common local explosive; ammonium nitrate. This is a powdered fertilizer that, when mixed with diesel or fuel oil, produces a semi-liquid slurry can be exploded with a detonator. While only about 40 percent the power of the same weight of TNT, these fertilizer bombs are effective as roadside bombs. But they are bulkier as well. Moreover, the fuel oil must be mixed thoroughly and in exactly the right proportion, otherwise the explosive effect is much less than expected. But the biggest problem is that if you can't get the ammonium nitrate, you have no explosives. So, U.S. and NATO forces are now on the search for ammonium nitrate. Even the supplies held by farmers are being taken, although the troops are paying twice what the farmers paid for it. Thus many farmers are voluntarily turning their ammonium nitrate (usually in 50 kg/110 pound bags) in for the instant profit. Other, non-explosive, fertilizers are made available to the farmers, at equivalent cost to ammonium nitrate. Legal imports of ammonium nitrate into Afghanistan are monitored. All this doesn't make it impossible for the terrorists to get the stuff, but it is more difficult. This was supposed to  result in fewer, and less powerful, bombs. Didn't work out that way. Smugglers recognized an opportunity when they saw one. This was especially true with an additive that made ammonium nitrate bombs even more powerful.

Aluminum powder, when added to the slurry, makes the explosive go off faster, creating a more destructive shock wave (of compressed air). The aluminum powder must be added to the slurry in the right proportion, but a little of it, in the right proportion, will make a bomb much deadlier. Aluminum powder is forbidden as well in Afghanistan.

But as long as the Taliban have the cash to pay the bribes and the smugglers, the bomb ingredients will keep getting through.
end
  
 British Photographer Is Wounded in Afghanistan
By C. J. CHIVERS Published: February 11, 2011
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A British photographer on a foot patrol with Afghan and American soldiers in southern Afghanistan was gravely wounded this week when he stepped on a makeshift bomb, military officials and his family said.

The photographer, Giles Duley, was working on Monday beside soldiers from the First Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, near the village of Sangsar in rural Kandahar Province when he stepped on a pressure plate that detonated a hidden explosive charge, according to the United States military.

Mr. Duley, 39, lost one leg below the knee, the other leg above the knee and his left arm was severed above the elbow, according to his brother, David Duley. A finger on his right hand was fractured, and he had other superficial wounds. He was the second photographer to suffer multiple amputations while covering the military campaign in Kandahar since last fall.

But he did not suffer internal injuries or a head wound, his brother said by telephone, and he has been conscious and lucid while undergoing treatment in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England. No one else was wounded in the blast.

A freelancer associated with the Camera Press agency in London, Mr. Duley was formerly a fashion and music photographer, shooting for GQ, Esquire and other magazines. He had in recent years shifted his focus to humanitarian causes.

He has worked in Africa, Asia, Ukraine and elsewhere, documenting suffering and seeking “inspiring stories of the human spirit, stories that would otherwise remain untold in an era of commercialized media and news,” according to a written statement from his family and agency. 
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## MarkOttawa (12 Feb 2011)

U.S. troops see progress in training Afghan police
AP, Feb. 11
http://www.whptv.com/news/world/story/U-S-troops-see-progress-in-training-Afghan-police/tJFmw0kNUkuh3B40_taR5w.cspx



> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Kandahar's police substation No. 16 is a small green metal building plopped on a patch of dirt.
> 
> While still primitive, U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Voorhees boasted of its progress when he visited one rainy day last week as a ragtag group of Afghan policemen — some still in summer uniforms — were lined up...
> 
> ...



Taliban fighters kill at least 19 in attack on Kandahar police headquarters 
_Washington Post_, Feb. 12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/12/AR2011021200523.html?hpid=moreheadlines



> KABUL - Taliban fighters deploying car bombs and rocket-propelled grenades killed at least 17 members of the Afghan security forces and two civilians in the southern city of Kandahar on Saturday, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.
> 
> The Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack, which also wounded at least 49 other people, including nine schoolchildren.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (14 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 14, 2011*

 Afghan Government Says Prisoner Directed Attacks
By ROD NORDLAND and SHARIFULLAH SAHAK  February 10, 2011
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A cell of suicide bombers active in Kabul was run for three years by a Taliban commander operating from the city’s main prison, Afghan officials said Thursday

Another suicide bomber cell recruited young men from religious schools, and got them high on a drug that made them enraptured by the handlers who were trying to persuade them to commit mayhem.

Those were among the highlights of an extraordinary news conference held on Thursday by Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security. It was meant to expose the workings of the two cells, but raised nearly as many questions as it answered.

Not least of these was how Talib Jan, the jailed Taliban commander, was able to run his network from Pul-e-Charkhi, a maximum security prison in Kabul, which is staffed by Afghan police and military officials with American trainers and advisers.

“From inside the Pul-e-Charkhi prison he was appointing people and giving them targets and instructions: do this, and do that,” said a National Directorate of Security spokesman, Lutfullah Mashal.

“Most of the terrorist and suicide attacks in Kabul were planned from inside this prison by this man,” he asserted.

Mr. Mashal played a videotaped confession of Mr. Jan admitting as much, and saying that he had organized the suicide bombing of the Finest Supermarket in Kabul on Jan. 28, which killed 14 people. His confederate, Mohammed Khan, who was said to have visited Mr. Jan in prison to take his orders, confessed in person at the news conference to his part in the bombing. 
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 NATO: 740 trainers still needed in Afghanistan
Article Link
By Deb Riechmann - The Associated Press Sunday Feb 13, 2011 9:51:19 EST

KABUL, Afghanistan — More nations are pledging support, yet NATO still faces a shortage of 740 trainers needed to get Afghan soldiers and police officers ready to take the lead in securing their nation, the coalition’s top training official says.

Needed most are 290 police trainers, including those to work in new training centers opening in Afghanistan this year, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the commander of NATO’s training mission, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants his nation’s police and army to take the lead in protecting and defending their homeland by 2014, a deadline that will be reached only if the training effort — already on a fast track — gets even more support from NATO and other nations. Caldwell said the coalition wants to have the additional 740 trainers in place by this summer.
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 Taliban execute 4 'spies' in Pakistan's northwest
By Bill RoggioFebruary 5, 2011
Article Link

The Pakistani Taliban recently executed four men whom they had accused of "spying for Indian and Jewish intelligence agencies" in the settled district of Karak.

"We found bodies of four men, they had been killed by shooting and notes in their pockets said they were spying for Indian and Jewish intelligence agencies," Sajid Mohmand, the district police chief for Karak, told AFP.

The executions in Karak, a settled district in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, are the latest in a series of Taliban attacks in the central part of the province. The Taliban have carried out suicide attacks, bombings, and assassinations in the districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Hangu, and Bannu. Today, the Taliban killed three civilians in a car bombing in the nearby tribal agency of Khyber.

Karak has seen little Taliban violence over the past year, yet the Taliban have maintained a presence in the district. The last major attack in Karak took place in February 2010. In that attack, a suicide bomber targeted a police station, killing three policemen and leveling the station and a mosque. 
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 Afghan peace council requests release of Gitmo detainee
By Thomas Joscelyn February 7, 2011
Article Link

Afghanistan's High Peace Council has requested the release of Khairullah Khairkhwa, a top Taliban leader, from Guantanamo. The council was set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2010 as part of his attempt to broker a peace deal between the Afghan government, the Taliban and other insurgents. Members of the council requested Khairkhwa's release so that he could supposedly take part in possible peace talks between the Taliban and US officials in the future.

In an interview with The Telegraph (UK), Mullah Arsala Rahmani said that the council sent a written request for Khairkhwa's release to American officials last month.

"Khairkhwa was an important man for the Taliban and his release would show the Americans are serious about negotiation. He is a good man and is well respected among the Taliban," Rahmani, a former Taliban official, told The Telegraph.

Khairkhwa was allegedly involved in a number of nefarious activities during the Taliban's reign, ranging from drug trafficking to overseeing one of Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps. [For a profile of Khairkhwa, see LWJ report: Iran and the Taliban, allies against America.]

In 1999, Khairkhwa was appointed governor of Afghanistan's Herat province, and he held that position until the Taliban fell in late 2001. US officials allege in memos prepared at Guantanamo that Khairkhwa became a major drug trafficker with ties to senior al Qaeda leaders. 
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 Italian judge orders former Gitmo detainee freed
By Thomas JoscelynFebruary 10, 2011
Article Link

An Italian judge ordered a former Guantanamo detainee released from jail on Monday. The former detainee, a Tunisian named Adel Ben Mabrouk, had been convicted of terrorism-related charges.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Mabrouk's defense attorney claimed that both prosecutors and defense lawyers argued that Mabrouk's detention at Guantanamo was "inhumane" and "illegal." Therefore, the judge sentenced him to a two-year suspended sentence. Mabrouk's time at Guantanamo was considered "time served" toward his sentence.

Member of the Sami Essid network

Mabrouk was arrested on three occasions in Italy (1989, 1992, and 1998) for his involvement in narcotics trafficking. After his third arrest, Mabrouk spent a year and a half in prison before being released in 1999.

But Mabrouk was not just a drug dealer in Italy, according to declassified documents produced at Guantanamo. He became involved in businesses that catered to illegal immigrants, including selling "used cell phones...to immigrants with no valid residency documents" and running a "temporary employment agency" that found work for unskilled laborers. Those illegal immigrants included al Qaeda members.
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 Taliban suicide bomber kills 31 Pakistani soldiers in Mardan
By Bill RoggioFebruary 10, 2011
Article Link

The Taliban claimed credit for today's suicide attack that killed 31 Pakistani Army trainees at a military base in the country's violent northwest.

A teenage Taliban suicide bomber wearing a school uniform walked onto the parade grounds of a military base and detonated his vest as army recruits were gathered for early morning drills. Police said that more than 40 additional soldiers were wounded in the deadly attack.

The attack took place at the Punjab Regiment Center in the city of Mardan in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The suicide bomber was able to get past at least six security checkpoints, according to a report in the BBC.

Taliban spokesmen Azam Tariq and Ihsanullah Ihsan both claimed credit for the Mardan suicide attack, and said attacks would continue until the Pakistan military ceased operations in the tribal areas and also until US Predator strikes, which target Taliban and al Qaeda commanders in the tribal areas, are halted. 
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 Islamic Jihad Group operative captured in Afghan north
By Bill RoggioFebruary 11, 2011
Article Link

Coalition and Afghan special operations forces captured an Islamic Jihad Group (IJG) facilitator in the course of two recent raids in the Afghan north.

International Security Assistance Force and Afghan troops first targeted and missed capturing the operative during a Feb. 9 raid in the district of Nahr-e Shahi in Balkh province, an ISAF press officer told The Long War Journal. But during a second raid, in the district of Dowlatabad, also in Balkh, the IJG facilitator and several "insurgents" were detained.

The IJG facilitator "is responsible for coordinating the movement of foreign fighters from Iran and Pakistan into Afghanistan," ISAF stated in a press release. ISAF often uses "foreign fighters" to describe al Qaeda operatives and members of affiliated terror groups.

ISAF is seeking to determine whether the IJG operative is from Afghanistan or from outside the country.

"The targeted individual's nationality is still being verified at this time," the ISAF press officer told The Long War Journal.

The raid against the IJG in Balkh is the first of its kind in the province. Over the past four years, ISAF and Afghan special operations forces have targeted IJG commanders and facilitators during raids in Kunduz district in Kunduz province, Besmil and Khost districts in Khost province, and Zadran district in Paktia province.
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 Taliban suicide assault team hits police station in Kandahar
By Bill RoggioFebruary 12, 2011
Article Link

A Taliban team launched several attacks today, including a suicide assault that targeted a police headquarters, in the capital of Kandahar, the southern province that has been a major focus of a Coalition offensive in Afghanistan.

The largest attack took place in the heart of the capital, as a suicide assault team wearing explosive vests and armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades occupied a wedding hall across from the provincial police headquarters. The Taliban fighters opened fire on the headquarters, while a car bomb was detonated on the street. Two of the suicide bombers then attempted to storm the police building but detonated their vests on the street; a third suicide bomber was wounded by gunfire and was captured.

Fifteen policemen, an intelligence official, and three civilians were killed during the deadly attack.
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## GAP (15 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 15, 2011*

 Nonmilitary More Likely to Return to War Zone After Psych Condition
Researcher suggests more focus on medical issues facing civilian workers
Article Link
Posted: February 14, 2011

Among those who served in U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and who were evacuated due to a psychiatric condition, nonmilitary members were more likely than military personnel to return to duty, new research shows.

Nonmilitary personnel -- including diplomats, private contractors and Department of Defense civilians -- account for about 50 percent of U.S. personnel serving in Iraq and about two-thirds of those in Afghanistan.

"Nonmilitary personnel play an increasingly critical role in modern wars," Dr. Steven P. Cohen, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues wrote in their report published Feb. 14 in CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Their study looked at 2,155 nonmilitary members who were evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2007. Injuries were categorized as either non-war-related (such as non-cardiac chest pain or circulatory disorders) or war-related (such as combat-related, traumatic brain injury or psychiatric).

The researchers found that 75 percent of medically evacuated nonmilitary personnel did not return to duty and were less likely to return to duty after war-related injuries. But nonmilitary personnel were more likely than military personnel to return to duty after being evacuated for health problems not related to war or after being evacuated with a psychiatric illness.

"The observation that military personnel were more likely to be evacuated with war-related injuries, and nonmilitary members with non-war-related injuries, was not unexpected," Cohen and colleagues wrote.
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 Former senior Taliban member visits Britain
A former high-ranking member of the Taliban has made the first visit to Britain by a member of the regime to take part in secret negotiations.
Article Link

Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, a member of the Taliban government before September 11, visited London last week amid closely controlled security.

Zaeef, who is still said to be close to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, attended a closed conference part funded by the Foreign Office to discuss peace proposals aimed at ending the fighting.

The Taliban leader arrived in Britain on Wednesday and stayed in a central London hotel. He was banned from speaking publicly by the terms of his visa but is thought to have held private meetings with British officials.

Britain is attempting to facilitate talks between Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, and senior members of the Taliban.

A senior Foreign Office official said last month that senior members of the Taliban have been putting out "feelers" about making peace with the Western-backed government in Kabul. 
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## MarkOttawa (16 Feb 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 16

Russia, Italy to sign agreement on military transit to Afghanistan
RIA Novosti, Feb. 15
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110215/162621627.html



> Russia and Italy will sign on Wednesday an intergovernmental agreement on the air transit of military equipment via Russia to Afghanistan, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said.
> 
> The deal will be signed during a February 16-17 visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Italy. The Russian leader is also due to hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (17 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 17, 2011*

 Canada in Kandahar 2011: End in Sight
  Article Link
Photo Galleries
It's been nearly a decade since Canadian troops landed in Afghanistan to help aid the U.S. in its goal to identify and neutralize al-Qaeda members in that country, as well as topple the Taliban regime. At the time the goal was clear, but as the years went on and the Canadian soldier death toll increased, Canada's focus on the war dramatically shifted prompting the federal government to announce its withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011. 
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 Aboltina and Canadian ambassador discuss possible transit of cargo to Afghanistan via Riga
Alla Petrova, BC, Riga, 17.02.2011
Article Link

On February 16, Saeima Speaker Solvita Aboltina (Unity) met with the Canadian Ambassador to Latvia Scott Heatherington, during which the two sides discussed possibilities in increasing economic cooperation between the two countries, including the possible transit of non-military cargo from Canada to Afghanistan via Riga Port, LETA was informed by the Saeima's press service.
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 Guantánamo detainee pleads guilty to conspiracy with al Qaeda
  Article Link
A Sudanese captive admitted supporting terrorism, handing the Obama administration its third guilty plea in a row at the war court.

By Carol Rosenberg
crosenberg@miamiherald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A Sudanese terror camp trainer on Tuesday pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the ’90s under a plea bargain that, military sources said, offered him an early shot at freedom by 2015 in exchange for testimony at future trials.

Noor Uthman Mohammed, in his early 40s, handed the Obama administration its third guilty plea in a row at the war court. He stood before a Navy judge in a traditional white Muslim gown and headdress and said he voluntarily admitted to charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism when he sealed a secret plea agreement with a thumbprint last month.

This deal comes at a time when Congress has imposed stiff new rules on resettlements, trials and relocations of Guantánamo’s last 172 prisoners and raises a key question: Is the clearest path out of Guantánamo for little-known captives now to admit to being a war criminal?

“The path does seem to be to admit guilt to these war crimes,” said George Washington University law professor Mary Cheh, a Washington, D.C., city council member serving as an observer here this week.
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## MarkOttawa (18 Feb 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 18

Canada in Kandahar 2011: End in Sight
CTV photo gallery, Feb. 18 (via _Celestial Junk_ http://cjunk.blogspot.com/ )
http://www.ctv.ca/gallery/html/afgahn-mission-winding-down-110210/index_.html


Stepped-up night patrols aim to disrupt Taliban bomb planting
Postmedia News, Feb. 17
http://www.canada.com/Stepped+night+patrols+disrupt+Taliban+bomb+planting/4302937/story.html



> PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Canadian troops working to stabilize one of the most troublesome districts in Afghanistan have been substantially expanding their frequency of night patrols, a nerve-racking venture for the soldiers that seems to be producing big dividends with the local population.
> 
> Taliban insurgents have previously owned the nighttime hours in many areas of Panjwaii, using the cover of darkness to plant improvised explosive devices and intimidate villagers. The decision by the Canadians to increase their presence at night has the goal of disrupting both activities.
> 
> ...



Big gains reported in Afghan town that Taliban once owned
McClatchy Newspapers, Feb. 17
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/17/108960/big-gains-reported-in-afghan-town.html



> MARJAH, Afghanistan — Schools that the Taliban closed have reopened in this southern Afghan town, and some girls are even back in the classrooms. The wheat and cotton crops are flourishing, and poppy cultivation is way down.
> 
> A year after a major American-led operation to oust the Islamist insurgents from their onetime stronghold, security has improved dramatically, according to Afghan officials and U.S. troops, and townspeople say they no longer live in terror.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (18 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 18, 2011*

 Stepped-up night patrols aim to disrupt Taliban bomb planting
  Article Link
 By Keith Gerein, Postmedia News February 17, 2011

PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Canadian troops working to stabilize one of the most troublesome districts in Afghanistan have been substantially expanding their frequency of night patrols, a nerve-racking venture for the soldiers that seems to be producing big dividends with the local population.

Taliban insurgents have previously owned the nighttime hours in many areas of Panjwaii, using the cover of darkness to plant improvised explosive devices and intimidate villagers. The decision by the Canadians to increase their presence at night has the goal of disrupting both activities.

"If we are there by day, there by night, in vehicles, on foot, everywhere, then the insurgent has nowhere to go," said Maj. Francois Dufault, deputy commander of the current battle group, featuring the 1st battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment based in Valcartier, Que.

"When we patrol at night, one thing the people tell us is they feel like they don't need to lock their doors, that they won't get night letters," he added, referring to the Taliban practice of leaving threatening notes warning people not to co-operate with NATO troops.
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 Afghan plan poses threat to women's shelters
  Article Link 
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times February 17, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan - One is a barely pubescent girl, forced to wed a much older man to pay a family debt. Another is a scarred and bruised mother of four, so traumatized by her husband's beatings that she trembles whenever anyone speaks to her. A third is a spirited young woman marked for death by her brothers and father when she tried to run away with the man she wanted to marry.

All found sanctuary at a shelter in the Afghan capital run by a privately funded women's group. But this fragile haven and others like it are threatened by a plan, laid out publicly for the first time Tuesday by the administration of President Hamid Karzai, to bring all such facilities under strict government control.

Women's groups and their supporters say making the shelters answerable to the state in every aspect of their day-to-day operations would have a catastrophic effect on their ability to protect women and girls fleeing forced marriage or abuse, and rape victims at risk of being killed by relatives for the sake of family "honor."

Activists fear the takeover plan is part of a larger effort by the Karzai government to solidify its shaky political standing by wooing deeply conservative religious and tribal figures opposed to a broad spectrum of women's rights. The government is also trying to lure the Taliban to the bargaining table, leaving many women to fear that the limited freedoms they have achieved since the movement was overthrown nearly a decade ago are more tenuous than ever.

"This campaign is meant to try to appease the Taliban; it is a goodwill gesture toward them," said Manizha Naderi of the organization Women for Afghan Women, which pioneered the shelter movement and runs group homes in four Afghan cities, including Kabul. "For that reason, it's very, very dangerous."
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Former soldier faces new court martial in pal's shooting
  Article Link 
Postmedia News February 18, 2011

Matthew Wilcox, a former corporal in the Canadian military, will face a new court martial in April over the shooting death of a Canadian soldier -his friend -in Afghanistan four years ago.

In previous military court proceedings in September 2009, Wilcox was found guilty of criminal negligence causing death and negligent performance of a military duty in the shooting of Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, of Stellarton, N.S.

Based on several soldiers' testimony, judge Maj. Peter Lamont said he was satisfied Wilcox -who's from Glace Bay, N.S. -and Megeney "were engaged in a consensual game of quick draw" when the shooting happened in 2007.

Wilcox was sentenced to four years in prison.

The verdict was set aside in October after Wilcox won an appeal and the right to a new court hearing.
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## GAP (19 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 19, 2011*

 Stopping the Press: Kabul’s independent weekly may shut down

Article Link
Tom Blackwell  February 19, 2011 – 12:01 am

As one of Afghanistan’s largest-circulation newspapers, with a rich history and a reputation for fierce independence, the Kabul Weekly has been widely courted. Several foreign embassies — representing neighbouring countries and Western nations — have offered funding, but only in exchange for influence over its coverage.

One embassy even wanted to buy it and turn it into a virtual propaganda sheet for that country, says Ahmad Zia Kechkenni, an Afghan-Canadian journalist whose brother edits the publication.

The Weekly has refused all such come ons, however, and now appears to be paying the price for its integrity. With long-time advertisers withdrawing their support — possibly because of the paper’s outspoken criticism of the Karzai government — it says it will close down within a month if it does not find some other source of revenue.

Observers say that would be a great loss for Afghan news media — and the country’s struggling democratic system.

“If you want to promote democracy, if you want people to express their opinions and if you want people to have a window to express their opinions … you have to have a newspaper like Kabul Weekly,” said Mr. Zia Kechkenni, who was visiting his family in Toronto before returning to Kabul.
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 US helos kill more than 30 Taliban fighters in Kunar
By Bill RoggioFebruary 18, 2011
Article Link

US helicopters smashed a large Taliban unit operating in the northeastern Afghan border province of Kunar today.

A US air weapons team, which is typically made up of Apache attack helicopters, opened fire on "a large number of armed insurgents" after spotting them operating in the open in the Ghaziabad district, the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.

The air weapons team initially engaged a group of Taliban fighters while patrolling the district, killing several. "After the initial firing, a large number of armed individuals emerged from a nearby building and were subsequently targeted and killed by the air weapons team," ISAF stated.

The initial attack sparked a four-hour-long battle with Taliban fighters in the area. ISAF estimated that more than 30 insurgents were killed during the engagement, while no civilians were reported to have been killed.

ISAF also said that several more Taliban fighters were killed in the Bar Kunar district of Kunar province after insurgents attacked an outpost with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Kunar is the second-most violent province in Afghanistan, according to data released by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office. In 2010, there were 1,467 attacks in Kunar, compared to 1,540 recorded attacks in Ghazni, 1,387 attacks in Helmand, and 1,162 attacks in Kandahar.

Since the pullout of US and Afghan troops from remote outposts that began in late 2009, several districts in Kunar and the neighboring province of Nuristan have been contested. Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, and other allied terror groups are known to have moved into Kunar and Nuristan due to the security vacuum, and have expanded attacks throughout the region.
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 Taliban suicide bomber kills 9 in eastern Afghanistan
By Bill RoggioFebruary 18, 2011
Article Link

A Taliban suicide bomber killed nine people, including women and children, in an attack today on a police checkpoint in the eastern province of Khost.

The suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at a police checkpoint near the Porozha Bridge area, killing a policeman and eight civilians. The bombing also wounded more than 40 people.

The Taliban appear to have been targeting the governor of Khost province. The attack took place about 150 meters from the governor's house, according to Xinhua.

Today's attack is the second against a top-level Afghan civilian leader in Khost in two weeks. On Feb. 7, Taliban assassins gunned down the governor of Bak district in Khost.

Under a directive issued by Mullah Omar in June 2010, the Taliban have responded to the Coalition and Afghan offensive in the south with a campaign of violence and intimidation. Taliban fighters have been directed to "capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces" and the Afghan government, as well as "any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces."

ISAF and Coalition special operations forces have hit back against the Haqqani Network, a Taliban sub-group, and the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an allied insurgent group; both the Haqqani Network and the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin operate in Khost.
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 Analysis: Gap in Pakistan Predator strikes not unusual
By Bill RoggioFebruary 16, 2011
Article Link

For over three weeks, the CIA's controversial covert air campaign that targets al Qaeda, Taliban, and allied terror groups' leaders and operatives in Pakistan's lawless and Taliban-controlled tribal areas has been silent. There has not been an airstrike by the armed, unmanned Predators and Reapers, or drones as they are more commonly called, for 25 days. This pause has sparked speculation that the US has halted the strikes for political reasons, but a look at the pace of the strikes over time shows that long pauses are not uncommon.

The current 23-day lull in strikes in Pakistan is the third-longest period of inactivity since the US ramped up the program in August 2008, according to data on the strikes compiled by The Long War Journal [a list of operational pauses that have been longer than eight days appears below].

The most recent strikes took place on Jan. 23, when the Predators and Reapers pounded al Qaeda and Taliban targets in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

The two most extended periods of operational inactivity so far have occurred in 2009. The longest recorded pause was 33 days, from Nov. 4 to Dec. 8, 2009. The second-longest pause was 28 days, from May 16 to June 14, 2009.
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 Operation by Canadians in Afghanistan yields Taliban IEDs, weapons
Article Link
Updated: Fri Feb. 18 2011 4:14:00 PM The Canadian Press

NAKHONAY, Afghanistan — A major Canadian operation in southern Afghanistan has wrapped up, yielding caches of Taliban weapons and improvised explosive devices.

The sweep through the always-treacherous Panjwaii district comes as Canada gears up for one more stretch of combat this spring.

More than 3,000 troops from Canada, Afghanistan and the United States cleared large swaths of the Panjwaii district during Operation Hamaghe Shay, a four-day mission.

Maj. Frank Dufault, the deputy commander of Canada's battle group, says the goal was to allow the Afghans to take the lead on a major operation.

Nearly 1,300 Canadian troops were involved, making it the largest Canadian operation since the Afghan mission began in 2001. 
More on link


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## GAP (21 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 21, 2011*

 Commander building trust in Afghanistan's Ambush Alley
Article Link
Sat Feb. 19 2011 5:03:28 PM The Canadian Press

NAKHONAY, Afghanistan — Canada's top soldier marches through a narrow lane known among some troops as Ambush Alley, hoping to build trust in an Afghan village that has proven difficult to win over in recent years.

Against the backdrop of a crumbled clay wall -- the result of an improvised explosive device last week -- Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner offers a sobering assessment of the public mood in Nakhonay.

"I think they are sitting on the fence right now and they're waiting to see who is more capable, who is winning," Milner says.

"They've been intimidated for so long. Right now is that waiting period to understand what the situation is going to be like during fighting season."

Milner joined his troops during Operation Hamaghe Shay, a four-day mission that yielded weapons and IEDs on a daily and nightly basis throughout the Panjwaii district.

It culminated Saturday with a two-hour shura in the nearby village of Haji Baba, where Panjwaii's new governor railed against the Taliban -- to the point where he said he would "take a gun and shoot them myself" if they brought harm to the locals. 
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 Australian soldiers star in secret videos
Article Link
    * Ian McPhedran  * From: Sunday Herald Sun * February 20, 2011 

THE lethal methods used by Australian special forces troops to hunt down and kill enemy targets in Afghanistan have been revealed for the first time in secret video footage.

 The Sunday Herald Sun has obtained the exclusive footage which shows how our elite soldiers deal with Taliban commanders and bomb makers.

The secret footage was filmed by soldiers from the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment using helmet-mounted and hand-held cameras.

It records them conducting the hunt-and-kill missions codenamed Operation Peeler in Afghanistan's Mirabad Valley in Oruzgan Province.

The operation yielded seven enemy dead including two MVIs or "medium-value individuals".

What makes the footage significant is that it's the first time Australians have seen how our special forces take on the Taliban in one of the country's most treacherous areas.

Until now, the Federal Government and the Australian Defence Force have not allowed journalists or civilian photographers to travel with special forces troops in Afghanistan.

Their mission is clear: they must hunt, kill or capture high-value enemy targets.

Oruzgan province, in Afghanistan's southern region, houses numerous Taliban strongholds in villages bristling with weapons, where sorting friend from foe is a critical challenge.
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 Afghan sweep seizes weapons, drugs
February 20, 2011 
tags: Canada's Royal 22nd Regiment, Canadian
by mediaops
Article Link

A large-scale military sweep in southern Afghanistan involving Canadian troops has yielded the seizure of massive weapons caches hidden in fields around a tactically crucial region in Kandahar province.

The goal of the recently concluded five-day operation, planned and led by the Afghan National Army with support from
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 Afghanistan war diary: The journey in
Article Link
By Gretel C. Kovach Saturday, February 19, 2011 at midnight

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — A familiar smell permeated the cabin on our last flight into the war zone. Our fellow passengers heading into Afghanistan had purchased huge bags of McDonald’s hamburgers at the airport and toted them on the plane. Marines and sailors stationed at Camp Leatherneck – the main base of U.S. and international military operations in Helmand province – are privy to a bountiful dining facility featuring a weekly steak and lobster night and ice cream at practically every meal, but no fast food franchises. (A steady supply of Pizza Hut might weaken the Marines’ hardcore warrior mentality, apparently.) Those living at remote patrol bases subsist on far more spartan rations of chemically heated MREs and protein bars sent in care packages. So it was easy to understand why American and Canadian contractors and troops returning from leave suffer from Big Mac attacks. When you are at war half-way around the world, even a cold cheeseburger is a comforting taste of home.

Nelvin Cepeda, a Union-Tribune photographer I had traveled with before in Afghanistan and Iraq, embarked with me on this return trip to Helmand province to report on Camp Pendleton Marines stationed in the southwestern region of the country. Our last leg of the long journey from San Diego was a commercial flight reserved for passengers with official military travel orders, including bearded American IT experts with shaved heads and beer bellies, Bangladeshi camp workers and muscular combat vets fresh from government service, ready to make some real money. A former Navy SEAL wistful about his years in Coronado as a younger man sat in my row. President Hamid Karzai booted most of the foreign security firms that used to protect western diplomats and NGO aid workers, so the SEAL veteran and his partners set up a private venture working with Afghan special forces. “They have those?” I asked. The former SEAL smirked. “Yeah,” he said. “In Afghanistan ‘special forces’ means they can shoot straight.”
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 A war of bombs, bullets and gravel
  Article Link
Canadian tanks guard civilian dump trucks building key road
 By Keith Gerein, edmontonjournal.com February 20, 2011

In the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan, war is being waged not only with bombs and bullets, but with gravel.

Truckload after truckload is needed to build a new road carving west into the notorious Horn of Panjwaii. Taliban insurgents are doing whatever they can to stop the supply.

Finding it ludicrous to take on the heavily armoured vehicles of the Canadian Forces supervising the project, insurgents have instead been targeting local gravel truck drivers.

"They will wait until the other equipment is gone and the gravel truck is alone, and then take a shot at it," said Maj. Eric Landry, the officer commanding the "C" squadron combat team, which has been almost exclusively on road duty for the past few months.

"The Taliban knows gravel is the single point of failure for the road."

Such attacks on civilian drivers make it more difficult to recruit workers for the project, something that threatens to drive up the cost of labour and potentially to cause delays.

As such, the Canadians, mainly from 1st Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, have started protecting the gravel convoys with tanks. This can be a headache for the soldiers, requiring numerous escorts up and down the road so that trucks can reload from several stockpiles of gravel left along the way. Three different sizes of gravel are needed, laid down in specific layers, to build the road.

"I know everything about gravel now," Landry said, smiling. "The road is being built so fast, the trucks have to constantly drive back to get more gravel, which means we need the tanks."
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 Afghan-Canadian governor orders eradication of opium farms in Kandahar
Tara Brautigam KANDAHAR, Afghanistan— The Canadian Press  Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011
Article Link

The Afghan-Canadian governor of Kandahar has ordered a crackdown on the cultivation of opium after the United Nations urged him to stop the unabated growth of poppy production in his province.

Tooryalai Wesa met Sunday with his district governors and chiefs of police, ordering them to do what they can to eradicate poppy farms amid mounting concerns that more farmers will turn to the illicit but lucrative crop this year.

“Poppy cultivation is prohibited in Islam and illegal in the constitution. Therefore, we are supposed to ban this cultivation,” Mr. Wesa said during the meeting at his palace in Kandahar city, according to a statement from his office.

“Although poppy cultivation has been reduced in a few districts of Kandahar, it is not enough. We are supposed to bring it to zero and pave the way to award logistical support for the farmers.”

It is illegal in Afghanistan to grow opium, the raw ingredient used to make heroin. But the law is viewed by many farmers as more of a nuisance than deterrent and has been widely ignored for years by some police officers.

Attempts at eradicating opium in the province have so far failed. But district governors and police chiefs said they were optimistic such efforts would work this year because security has improved.

Mr. Wesa's announcement comes a month after the UN released a report warning that a dramatic jump in opium prices could lure more Afghan farmers to grow the narcotic, reversing the hard-won gains against the drug trade in recent years.
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Afghan military organizes massive operation
  Article Link
Vancouver Sun February 21, 2011 1:05 AM

Afghanistan's military has taken an important step forward by orchestrating a massive military operation through the towns and fields of the Panjwaii district, Canadian commanders say.

Operation Hamaghe Shay, which means "same team" in Pashto, involved close to 3,000 troops including about 1,300 Canadians primarily serving in a support role.

Largely planned by Afghan commanders, the goal was to scour huge swaths of territory across southwestern Afghanistan for hidden caches of weapons left behind by insurgents.

Though the Canadian military declined to provide specific numbers, several stockpiles of guns, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets and components for making improvised explosive devices were seized over the four-day campaign.
end

 In broken justice system, women in Kabul find their legal voice
SUSAN SACHS KABUL—  Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 
Article Link

Sitting cross-legged on blue velour cushions on the living room floor, the women of the self-help brigade sip green tea, nibble on sugar cookies and report the week’s news from the neighbourhood.

It is mostly grim. A despondent neighbour abused by her father-in-law is threatening to kill herself. The man whose young wife suspected him of taking drugs has beaten her up and abandoned her. A husband is demanding more money than his wife can afford before he will agree to a divorce. 

Sunshine pours in the windows. A squat black oil heater, all that furnishes the spare carpeted room, glows with warmth. The women frown over the stories, nod their heads in commiseration and plot how to intervene.

Perhaps a visit and some gentle reasoning with a recalcitrant husband might work in one case. Shuttle diplomacy between feuding families could help in another. A particularly bitter inheritance dispute, pitting a destitute widow against her hostile in-laws, may have to be referred to court. 
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## MarkOttawa (21 Feb 2011)

US restarts drone attacks on North Pakistan
Channel 4 News, Feb. 21
http://www.channel4.com/news/us-restart-drone-attacks-on-north-pakistan



> ...
> The first drone attack in Pakistan since the controversial arrest of US citizen Raymond Davis last month, has killed seven alleged militants.
> 
> The area of South Waziristan was a major centre of the US offensive against terrorism in 2010 with regular drones deployed to targeted sites. Channel 4 News investigated the effect they had had in eliminating the heavy militia presence in the area, with growing effect.
> ...



Increased U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan killing few high-value militants
_Washington Post_, Feb. 21



> CIA drone attacks in Pakistan killed at least 581 militants last year, according to independent estimates. The number of those militants noteworthy enough to appear on a U.S. list of most-wanted terrorists: two.
> 
> Despite a major escalation in the number of unmanned Predator strikes being carried out under the Obama administration, data from government and independent sources indicate that the number of high-ranking militants being killed as a result has either slipped or barely increased.
> 
> ...



Australians in tougher war in Afghanistan
Radio Australia News, Feb. 21
http://by153w.bay153.mail.live.com/default.aspx?n=1788068365



> The Australia Defence Association says Australia's casuality rate in Afghanistan is rising because fighting in Uruzgan province is getting more intense.
> 
> The Defence Force announced on Sunday that 21-year-old Sapper Jamie Larcombe and an Afghan interpreter were shot and killed in a Taliban ambush in Uruzgan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (21 Feb 2011)

Unfriendly Fire
German Troops Slam Afghan Training after Deadly Attack
_Spiegel Online_, Feb. 21
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,746855,00.html#ref=nlint



> Doubts about methods used to train Afghan soldiers are growing among German troops after a deadly shooting last Friday, which killed three. The attacker, a trainee, may have been turned by the Taliban. Bundeswehr troops are concerned that joint missions with Afghan comrades are too dangerous.
> 
> The concept is known as "partnering." Rather than merely training Afghan troops in classrooms and on bases, German Bundeswehr soldiers in Afghanistan go on patrol with their local counterparts and fight alongside them during operations. The idea is to ensure that Afghan soldiers will be adequately prepared once they begin taking full responsibility for their country's security in the coming months and years.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (22 Feb 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 22

CIA drones may be avoiding Pakistani civilians
A chance to kill a powerful militant was reportedly passed up last year because women and children were nearby, reflecting a possible increase in concern over such casualties.
_LA Times_, Feb. 22
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/afghanistan/



> Reporting from Washington —
> 
> The CIA passed up a chance last year to kill Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of an anti-American insurgent network in Pakistan that is closely linked to Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, when it chose not to fire a missile at him from a Predator drone because women and children were nearby, U.S. and Pakistani officials say.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (23 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 23, 2011*

 Attacks prompt Kandahar's Afghan-Canadian governor to move police HQ
  Article Link 
By Keith Gerein, Postmedia News February 21, 2011

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Afghan-Canadian governor of Kandahar has announced plans to move his battered provincial police headquarters to a safer location.

The headquarters, currently nestled in a busy section of Kandahar City, has become a favourite target of insurgents who increasingly, are focusing their attacks on the fragile institutions of Afghanistan's government.

"We have plans to shift police headquarters from the heart of the city," Gov. Tooryalai Wesa told a news conference in Kandahar on Monday. "There are many visitors to the headquarters now who sometimes create problems in the city, so soon, we will shift it to another location out of the city."

Wesa's announcement came more than a week after the latest attack on the headquarters, in which a team of four Taliban gunmen used a combination of car bombs, suicide vests, automatic weapons, and grenades to go after officers of the Afghan National Police. The Feb. 12 battle raged for hours, causing considerable damage to a complex containing shops, a hotel and wedding hall directly across from the headquarters.
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 B.C. artist heads to Afghanistan to capture the spirit of soldiers
  Article Link 
By KELLY SINOSKI, Vancouver Sun February 22, 2011

When former soldier Chris Hennebery heads to an Afghanistan patrol base next month, he'll be wearing his body armour and Kevlar helmet but will be armed only with pencils and paintbrushes.

The B.C. artist hopes to serve his country in a different way during his three-week mission to the war zone: to document through paintings and photography the efforts of Canadian soldiers to create stability in Afghanistan.

Hennebery, 42, will be joined by his friend and photographer Shaun O'Mara, both of whom are former military and will be embedded with the troops and sent out to the forward patrol bases to sketch and paint Canadians serving on the front lines.
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 Program boosts Afghan children's health
  Article Link
Micronutrient Initiatives fieldworker visits Ottawa headquarters
 By Jennifer Campbell, Ottawa Citizen February 23, 2011

In the poorest countries of the world, just a little vitamin A or folic acid can make a big difference in people's lives, particularly those of women and children. And Canada, thanks to a commitment to child and maternal health made at the G8 Summit held in Muskoka last year, is being recognized for such efforts.

Last week, Ibrahim Shinwari was in town to meet the people who fund his program in Afghanistan. A medical doctor, he is the director of the Micronutrient Initiative's program in the war-torn country. The Micronutrient Initiative is an Ottawa-based non-profit agency that works to provide basics such as vitamins to as many of the poorest members of society as possible. It works in 70 countries, of which Afghanistan is one. The Afghan program was established in 1999 and MI set up a permanent office there four years ago. But Shinwari had never been to Canada, so he figured it was time to pay a visit.
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 Air Force admits Army Cooks are best 
Article Link
Sunday, February 20, 2011

The headline about airforce guys admitting that Army cooks are best is written tongue in cheek. All military cooks have their stresses, yet they all produce wonderful meals with minimal products ot equipment.

Kandahar, Afghanistan — “An army marches on its stomach,” said Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Canadian Forces are no different. Our soldiers, sailors and Air Force members certainly appreciate the culinary delights served up by Food Services but, unless you have been on general duty (GD) at the kitchen, you probably have no idea how much effort will go into your next meal.

As an Air Force logistics officer who specializes in food services, it took me a while to find out that the life of a cook serving with the Army is very different from the lives of cooks in Navy or Air Force units. Their knowledge and skills are similar, but Army cooks endure hardships unknown to those who have never faced the realities of food service in the field.

After three years with the Navy and six years with the Air Force, I am finally experiencing that difference for myself. This last year of pre-deployment training and service in Afghanistan has made me a committed fan of the cooks who feed the Army.
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## GAP (25 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 25, 2011*

 Canadian in U.S. Special Forces wins bravery medal
Article Link

OTTAWA — A Canadian who served with U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan is to receive an American bravery medal.

Grant Derrick, a duel Canadian-American citizen, will receive the Silver Star on Friday for his part in a 14-hour battle in Hendon village, an isolated community east of Kabul.

The former Ottawa man, a member of the U.S. army special forces, was part of a raid in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan last spring. The action saw two commandos killed and three badly wounded.

Derrick, a 31-year-old retired staff-sergeant, was a member of Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, based in North Carolina.

A medic who spent most of his life in Canada until joining the U.S. army in 2003, Derrick is credited with saving the life of an Afghan commando shot in the face as the force swept into a Taliban weapons depot May 4.

He was carrying the wounded platoon sergeant — Sami Ullah — through an open patch of ground hoping for a medical evacuation helicopter when Taliban and foreign fighters in the hills above pinned them down.

The Afghan soldier was hit a second time laying on the stretcher and Derrick shielded the man with his own body, treating his wounds, as bullets whizzed around them for more than 20 minutes.

“I knew that he got hit. I could feel the jolt in the litter,” Derrick said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“I thought to myself, at first, there’s no way this guy got shot again. Poor bastard. He already got shot in the face, now he gets shot again.”

They managed to take cover behind a pile of rocks.
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Afghan probe says Nato killed dozens of Kunar civilians
By Paul Wood BBC News, Kabul   25 February 2011 
Article Link

Afghan government investigators have told the BBC that 65 civilians, including 50 women and children, were killed in a Nato operation last week.

But the Nato force, Isaf, says its initial findings show that no civilians were killed in Kunar province.

It said more than 30 insurgents died in an overnight raid in the area.

On Sunday, the provincial governor said civilians had been killed in recent Nato-led air strikes in a remote mountainous district.

Afghans - from President Hamid Karzai down - believe that in Kunar province, indiscriminate Nato firepower killed 20 women, 29 children, and more than a dozen unarmed men.
'Propaganda'

Nato believes there was not a single civilian casualty from its operation in Kunar.

It says that pro-Taliban villagers have created a propaganda story that was taken up by politicians in Kabul eager to prove their nationalist credentials.

The incident happened a week ago in a mountainous and sparsely populated area of the country.

Nato was carrying out a three-day offensive against Taliban fighters, using Apache attack helicopters equipped with 30-mm cannon Hellfire missiles. Huh?? what's that?
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## MarkOttawa (25 Feb 2011)

U.S. Pulling Back in Afghan Valley It Called Vital to War
_NY Times_, Feb. 24
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/asia/25afghanistan.html



> KABUL, Afghanistan — After years of fighting for control of a prominent valley in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the United States military has begun to pull back most of its forces from ground it once insisted was central to the campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
> 
> The withdrawal from the Pech Valley, a remote region in Kunar Province, formally began on Feb. 15. The military projects that it will last about two months, part of a shift of Western forces to the province’s more populated areas. Afghan units will remain in the valley, a test of their military readiness.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (27 Feb 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 27

Taliban Bet on Fear Over Brawn as Tactic
_NY Times_, Feb. 26
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/world/asia/27afghanistan.html?_r=1&ref=world



> KABUL, Afghanistan — This year the spring offensive by the Taliban and other insurgent groups has a new and terrifying face: the insurgents are using suicide bombers who create high casualties to sow terror and are planning an assassination campaign as well, Afghan and American military analysts say.
> 
> The insurgents’ deadly bet is that fear will trump anger and that Afghans will lose any faith they had in their government’s security forces and eventually turn to the Taliban.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (28 Feb 2011)

*Articles found February 28, 2011*

 Canadian mentors walk a delicate path in training Afghan soldiers
Written by masterchef on Feb-26-11 
Article Link

NEAR SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan — A hint of irritation is evident in Capt. Eric Bouchard’s voice as he tries to figure out where his counterpart in the Afghan National Army is going.

Canadian and Afghan forces have barely begun a two-day mission to search villages and fields in the central Panjwaii district, and already there’s confusion between the two groups. It seems the Afghan platoon commander paired with Bouchard has neglected to bring a proper map, and he’s leading his troops off the planned route.

Bouchard’s first instinct is to tell him to get back on track, but he restrains himself. After all, this operation has been organized by the Afghans and Bouchard’s job is to mentor their soldiers, not lecture them. Showing respect is paramount.

“Tell him the first objective is over that way,” Bouchard instructs his interpreter. “But … but, ask him where he wants to go.”

Such interactions are common for Canadians serving in the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team, also known as the OMLT or “omelette,” which provides on-the-job training for Afghan soldiers in the field.

Years of this side-by-side instruction has the Afghan army much closer to becoming an independent force, but the learning process can still be a frustrating experience for their Canadian teachers – particularly when it comes to senior command behavior.

“The non-commissioned officers, like the sergeants, are good,” Bouchard says. “They come to us asking for help – how do I do mapping, how do I separate my men during a patrol, how do I clear a road? They want to learn.”
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 Fewer casualties the unspoken good news of Canada's Afghanistan fight
Article Link
 By Keith Gerein, Postmedia News February 25, 2011

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have reached an important milestone, one that speaks to their recent success in securing territory previously under insurgent control.

Yet, it's also an accomplishment few troops are eager to discuss publicly, as if the very act of acknowledging it might prompt their run of good fortune to end.

As of this week, just one Canadian has been killed while on duty in the last six months.

That soldier was Cpl. Steve Martin, 24, of St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Que., who was killed by an improvised explosive device during a foot patrol on Dec. 18.

Prior to Martin's death, the most recent insurgent-related death was Cpl. Brian Pinksen's. Pinksen, of Corner Brook, N.L., was hit by a bomb blast on Aug. 22 and died of his wounds in hospital, eight days later.
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 Bombs kill 10 Afghans at dog fight

 From: AFP February 28, 2011 
Article Link

TWO bomb explosions have torn through a crowd of villagers watching a dog fight in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, killing 10 people, officials said.

The double bombing in Arghandab district targeted villagers and a police vehicle, killing eight civilians and two police, Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

The violence follows a deadly Taliban-led campaign of blasts and suicide attacks that have rocked Afghanistan this month and killed more than 100 people, mostly civilians.

"There have been two bomb blasts, one at the middle of a gathering and the other on the side of the road nearby. Eight civilians have been killed, two cops have been killed," the spokesman said.

He said a dozen civilians and five police were wounded.

Shah Mohammad, the district chief of Arghandab, said the attack was aimed at villagers watching a dog fight.
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 U.S. squadron in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province to help 'saturate' Kandahar
By: Tara Brautigam, The Canadian Press 02/27/2011
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A U.S. squadron will head to Kandahar's Dand district next month in a move that will enable the Canadian military to start "saturating" the western neck of Panjwaii before the conclusion of combat operations, Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan says.

The 1st squadron of the 2nd Stryker Regiment will leave the Uruzgan province and take command of the Dand battle space in mid-March from the 1-71 Cavalry of 10th Mountain Division. The 500-member cavalry has been under the command of Task Force Kandahar, stationed alongside Canadian and Afghan forces in the relatively calm district since May.

The 700-member Stryker squadron will fall under Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner's command until the Canadian military mission ends in July. Two companies of soldiers will go to Dand and a third will be deployed to Panjwaii.

"That's going to allow me to have more forces in Panjwaii and then I can push more forces towards the difficult parts of the Horn," Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner told The Canadian Press.

The Horn is the western belt of Panjwaii that straddles the Arghandab River. It has long been a insurgent nest used as a staging point for attacks in the provincial capital of Kandahar city.

"I'm going to thicken in Panjwaii and I'm going to saturate it when the Americans come," Milner said.

That will be in May, when the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division will begin making their foray into Canada's theatre of operations.

Dand is considered one of Kandahar province's more stable districts. A large part of its success is attributed to Canada's "model-village" experiment in counter-insurgency in 2009.
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Afghan Legislators Pick Leader
Compromise Choice Ends a Stalemate
Article Link
     * FEBRUARY 28, 2011
BY DION NISSENBAUM

KABUL—Afghan lawmakers ended a protracted political stalemate on Sunday by electing a little-known legislator as speaker of the parliament, which is seeking to establish itself as a counterbalance to President Hamid Karzai's authority.

After a month of political squabbling, lawmakers overwhelmingly threw their support behind Abdul Rauf Ebrahimi, a member of Afghanistan's minority Uzbek ethnic group, who emerged as a surprise compromise candidate.
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