# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread June 2012



## The Bread Guy (31 May 2012)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread June 2012 *               

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


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## GAP (3 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 3, 2012*


 U.S. drone strike kills 10 in Pakistan
By Hafiz Wazir, Reuters 
Article Link

WANA, Pakistan  -- The second U.S. drone attack in as many days killed 10 people in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, intelligence officials said, an incident likely to raise tensions in the standoff between Washington and Islamabad over NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

The remotely-piloted aircraft fired four missiles at a suspected Islamist militant hideout in the Birmal area of the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghanistan border, officials said.

A drone strike in the same area killed two suspected militants on Saturday. 
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 US returns military liaison officers to Pakistan
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon says that at Pakistan's request, the U.S. military in Afghanistan has returned two officers to the headquarters of the Pakistani army's 11th Corps to help coordinate military actions along the Afghan border.

The move is a small step toward improving U.S. relations with Pakistan, which were partially severed last November after an American air attack on the Pakistani side of the border killed 24 members of the Pakistani army.

The U.S. liaison officers were withdrawn after the incident. U.S. trainers also were withdrawn and have not been returned.
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 Army adds charges against Afghan shooting suspect
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By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) - The Army dropped a murder charge, but added others, including steroid use, against a soldier accused in a deadly shooting rampage in Afghanistan, his lawyer said Friday.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is now accused of gunning down 16 civilians in a pre-dawn raid on two Afghan villages in March. Initial reports pinned the number of dead at 16, but the Army put the figure at 17 when it first charged Bales.

Due to discrepancies in the names on lists of the victims, officials had apparently counted one of them twice, but are now certain there were 16 killed, said Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, where Bales is based.

His attorney, Emma Scanlan, said there was nothing surprising in the new charges, which also accuse Bales of assaulting an unidentified Afghan male with his hands and knees the month before the shooting.

"We're looking forward to putting on a defense and seeing what they can prove," she said. The Army dropped off 5,000 pages of discovery materials at the defense team's office on Friday, she said.
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 Canada defends drone attacks, says technology reduces likelihood of civilian casualties
Article Link
Sunday, June 3

SINGAPORE — Canada defended the use of military drone attacks Sunday, saying technological advances have reduced the likelihood of civilian casualties.

Unmanned systems have proved their effectiveness in the decade-long U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and also in NATO strikes in Libya last year, Canadian Defense Minister Peter Gordon MacKay said.

“The use of drones has been referenced a number of times, and it all depends on the accuracy of the system,” MacKay told an Asian security summit. “These eyes-on systems that can literally read a license plate from outer space have increased our ability to decrease civilian casualties.”

“We want to reduce if not eliminate collateral damage,” he said at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore.

U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan are a key tactic in the campaign against al-Qaida and its Taliban supporters. An American drone strike in the northwest frontier tribal areas of Pakistan killed 10 suspected militants Sunday, officials said. It was the sixth such strike in the country in less than two weeks.

The covert CIA-run program is a cause of tension between the U.S. and Pakistan. Most of the Pakistani public resents the strikes, which are considered an affront to the nation’s sovereignty.

Despite Pakistan’s demands for a halt in the drone attacks, the U.S. has fired scores of missiles into northwest Pakistan since 2008, targeting al-Qaida and Taliban operatives there
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 Afghan mission will prompt NATO reform: MacKay
By Ronald Popeski, REUTERS 
Article Link

The NATO alliance will emerge strengthened from its decade-long mission to crush Taliban militants in Afghanistan with a general will to reform the 28-nation bloc, Canada’s defence minister said on Saturday.

Peter MacKay, in an interview with Reuters, said both Canada and NATO had learned tough lessons about counter-insurgency during their efforts to maintain stability after the removal of the Taliban from power in 2001.

He said the Afghan mission, and the NATO air campaign in Libya last year, would prompt the organisation to proceed with changes needed to tackle security issues worldwide.

“We are big believers in NATO as the pre-eminent security establishment, security body. It has its shortcomings - what organisation doesn’t?” MacKay said on the sidelines of the Shanrgi-La Dialogue in Singapore, devoted to international security issues.

“There appears to be a willingness and desire to reform NATO and take on board some very serious lessons learned over the course of this mission.

”I think it will modernise in a way that will increase its flexibility, its deployability and, dare I say it, its accountability.“ 
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## GAP (5 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 5, 2012*

Nato signs deal to move Afghan equipment via Central Asia
Article Link
 4 June 2012

Nato has signed deals with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to use their territory for evacuating vehicles and military equipment from Afghanistan.

The agreement will allow the military alliance to bypass Pakistan, which has blocked Nato from using its territory in a disagreement over drone strikes.

Nato will begin pulling troops and equipment out of Afghanistan in earnest later this year.

This deal means it can return equipment to Europe overland via Russia.

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced the Central Asian deals on Monday.

He told a press conference: "These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need."
Route issues

The US-led Nato operation in Afghanistan is due to wind down completely by the end of 2014.

Tens of thousands of vehicles, containers and arms will have to leave them. The force has already started pulling out some equipment.

Pakistan is the easiest and cheapest route out of landlocked Afghanistan, but it has been closed to Nato forces for six months.

Islamabad shut down the southern supply routes after US airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, forcing Nato to switch mostly to the so-called Northern Distribution Network through Central Asia, the Caucuses and Russia.
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US drone attack 'targeted al-Qaeda deputy'
Article Link
 5 June 2012 

A US drone strike on Monday in Pakistan targeted al-Qaeda's second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, US officials say.

They say it is still unclear whether he was among those killed in the strike on a suspected militant compound in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

Two missiles by the unmanned aircraft killed 15 people, Pakistani officials say.

Pakistan's foreign ministry strongly condemned the strike, calling it "illegal", Reuters news agency reports.
'Major blow'

A senior US official told the BBC that Libi was the target of Monday's morning strike in Hesokhel, to the east of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan.

The first missile struck the compound, killing three militants, Pakistani security officials said.

A second missile then killed 12 more militants who had arrived at the scene, they added.

If Libi's death is confirmed, it would be a "major blow to core of al-Qaeda", the US official told the BBC.
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 Woman risks life to bring bowling to Afghanistan for 'total peace of mind'
    June 4, 2012  ANI  Washington
Article Link

A woman from Afghanistan, whose family fled from the country when the Taliban took power and is one of many Afghans who have since returned, is doing something no one else has ever done.

Behind a blastproof door and through a cordon of armed guards searching for hidden weapons, Meena Rahmani is planning her day one strike at a time.

Welcome to Strikers, Afghanistan's first and only bowling alley. It's a stark contrast to the world outside, which is filled with barbed wire, armed soldiers, and concrete blast-proof barriers.

Inside, it's a different world - strobe lights, a menu with nachos and pizzas, and families enjoying a night out together.

"I'm responsible for taking part in rebuilding the country," ABC News quoted her as saying.

The bowling alley is so authentic, so western, you'll even hear the latest Rihanna tunes blaring from the alley's many speakers.

"They should feel like they're not in Afghanistan, a war torn country."
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## GAP (7 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 7, 2012*

 Panetta Visits Afghanistan Amid Mounting Violence
Article Link
By ALISSA J. RUBIN  June 7, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — Leon E. Panetta, the United States defense secretary, arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, after the deadliest day for civilians this year and amid controversy over a NATO airstrike the day before in which Afghan officials say 18 women and children were killed.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the strike in the strongest terms and decided the episode was serious enough to cut short his trip to China where he was participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit meeting.

“NATO cannot justify any airstrike which causes harms to the lives and property of civilians,” Mr. Karzai said in a statement released by his office.

A joint investigation into the episode by the Afghan government and NATO has begun, according to a NATO spokesman. Initial reporting by NATO, however, said that no civilians had been killed.

Mr. Panetta, who said that he wants an assessment of the situation in Afghanistan from the senior allied commander, Gen. John R. Allen, used a news conference to speak out strongly about the safe havens in Pakistan where Taliban and other extremists take refuge between attacks on coalition and Afghan forces.

“It is an increasing concern that the safe havens exist and that the Haqqanis are using it to attack our forces,” said Mr. Panetta as he stood next to the Afghan defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak. He was referring to the Haqqani network, Islamic militants operating from Pakistan. 
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Panetta: US losing patience with Pakistan on militancy
Article Link
 7 June 2012 

Washington is running out of patience with Pakistan over alleged safe havens for Taliban militants, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned.

On an unannounced trip to Kabul, he said Islamabad must act against the Haqqani militant network, which attacks Nato troops based in Afghanistan.

Mr Panetta's visit comes amid a recent rise in insurgent attacks in the war against the Taliban, including one on Wednesday in which 22 people died.

Pakistan denies providing safe havens.

Pakistani officials have previously pointed to army operations against militant organisations in tribal areas, adding that many hundreds of Pakistani civilians and troops have died at the hands of such groups.

Washington has for many years urged Islamabad to deal with the militants based in its tribal regions.

“Start Quote

    I think it's important to make sure we are aware of the kind of attacks [the Taliban] are going to engage in... as we go through the rest of the summer”

Leon Panetta US defence secretary

"We are reaching the limits of our patience here," Mr Panetta said after talks with Afghanistan's defence minister.

He singled out the Haqqani militant network, which is widely believed to be based in Pakistan's volatile north-western tribal areas, and has been blamed for some of the most audacious attacks on Afghan soil in recent years.
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 Suicide bombers kill 22 in Afghanistan
by The Canadian Press Jun 6, 2012
Article Link

Three suicide attackers blew themselves up in the largest city in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing 22 people and wounding at least 50 others in a dusty marketplace that was turned into a gruesome scene of blood and bodies.

In the east, Afghan officials and residents said a pre-dawn NATO airstrike targeting militants killed civilians celebrating a wedding, including women and children, although a NATO forces spokesman said they had no reports of civilians being killed in the overnight raid to capture a local Taliban leader.

Also in the east, NATO said two service members were killed in a helicopter crash. The coalition did not disclose any other information about the crash, but a senior U.S. defence official at the Pentagon said two American pilots were killed in the crash in Ghazni province. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details of the crash, said there was no indication of enemy activity in the area at the time. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in an email that the insurgents shot down the helicopter.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in Kandahar, the capital of Kandahar province and the spiritual birthplace of the insurgency.

In the past two years, tens of thousands of U.S.-led coalition troops have flooded Taliban strongholds in the south, and have largely succeeded in boosting security there. But the Taliban have proven resilient, continuing to conduct suicide attacks and targeted assassinations of pro-government figures, opening up new fronts in the north and west and stepping up attacks in the east.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack on innocent civilians, saying it proved the "enemy is getting weaker because they are killing innocent people."

The explosion occurred about five kilometres (three miles) from the main gate of the massive military installation run by the U.S.-led coalition and roughly 500 metres (yards) from an Afghan military base.
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 Afghan officials say Taliban poisoned schoolgirls
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Afghan government accused the Taliban Wednesday of poisoning schoolgirls by bribing students and workers to sneak toxic chemicals into drinking water or spread it around school grounds, sickening scores. Fifteen suspects have been arrested, officials said.

Government officials said six schools were affected in northern Takhar province in the past three weeks, and though they did not give a total number of girls who got sick, they said one school alone had 125 cases.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, girls were banned from going to school and women were only allowed to leave their homes with a male relative as an escort. After their 2001 ouster, Taliban insurgents would attack schoolgirls by spraying their faces with acid. However, the group has appeared to tone down its stance against education for girls more recently.

Government officials suggested the alleged plot may also have been aimed at undermining the government's achievements.

President Hamid Karzai called for an investigation and intelligence service spokesman Latifullah Mashal said the intelligence service discovered a conspiracy by militants to try to scare families from sending their children to school.

"They want to create terror and fear among students, especially in the education sector and also in the health sector, which are two of the major achievements of the 10 years of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," said Mashal.

He said 15 people have been arrested in connection with the school poisonings. Those being held include 12 identified Taliban insurgents, a teacher and a school treasurer and his wife, he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied any involvement in the poisonings.

"The poisoning of innocent children is against Islamic law. The mujahedeen are not involved in the poisoning of schoolchildren. It is a crime," Mujahid said in an email.

Government officials had previously said it was unclear what caused the series of outbreaks of illness at girls' schools in the province starting about three weeks ago. In at least one case, doctors in the capital city of Taluqan attributed complaints of illness by 125 students to mass hysteria.

But cases continued to mount and seven alleged school poisonings have now been reported in six schools in the province, said Mustafa Rasouli, a spokesman for the provincial government.
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 NATO strike in Logar province killed 18 women and children, Afghans say
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Afghan officials claim a NATO strike in Logar province killed 18 women and children.

A NATO air strike in Logar Province, Afghanistan, has killed an unspecified number of people, with Afghan officials claiming 18 women and children are among the dead.

NATO denies civilians were among those killed in the predawn "precision air strike," but rather said "multiple insurgents" were killed in a joint Afghan-NATO operation, the LA Times reported. 

Civilian casualties have been a source of tension between Kabul and Western powers, particularly when Afghans have been killed in US drone strikes.

According to the BBC, which cited tribal elders and officials in Logar, NATO was targeting top Taliban commanders who had gathered at a house in a remote village in the district of Baraki Barak.

A statement from the International Security Assistance Force, posted on the ISAF website, said the operation was to detain a Taliban leader in Baraki Barak district who "plans and participates in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout the province."

After encountering "small arms fire," Afghan and coalition security forces "requested a precision air strike," the statement read. It added that two civilian women had "sustained non-life-threatening injuries."

At least eight Taliban commanders were killed in the strike, according to the BBC. 

In preparation for the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops by 2014, Afghan troops now take part in all "night raids," the LA Times wrote.

However, while Western forces describe such operations as Afghan-led, the key roles of intelligence-gathering, planning and air support fall to NATO troops, the Times wrote.
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 Afghans Protest Iranian Interference
By Lauryn Oates
Article Link

As Canadian fans of Ayatollah Khomeini beat their grovelling wings at an event commemorating the Ayatollah's demise (commemoraring it for all the wrong reasons), Afghans are putting their foot down at persistent Iranian interference in their nation's sovereignty.

As Michael Petrou of MacLean's explains of the event in Ottawa, co-hosted by the Iranian Embassy there and Carleton University's Iranian Cultural Association:

    The conference featured a talk by Moulana Sayyid Muhhamad Rizvi, the “Guidance Alim” of a Toronto Islamic school whose teaching materials — some of which which were written in Iran or by a foundation believed by the FBI to be controlled by the Iranian government — refer to “crafty” and “treacherous” Jews.

Also on the agenda was Kurt Anders Richardson of the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, who drooled of Khomeini that he “was the one who emphasized the equality of human beings, the equality of male and female.”

Petrou notes,

    This revelation is likely news to millions of Iranian men and women, and would have been news to thousands of more, if they hadn’t already have been tortured, raped, and murdered during Khomeini’s reign and its violent and ongoing aftermath.

It would also probably cause many an Afghan to roll their eyes, given Iran's role in influencing the original, horrifying content of the Shia Personal Status Law, infamously known as the "rape law," legislation that sought to re-Talibanize the status of Shia women by imposing a highly discriminatory family law code on them. It's quite a stretch to claim that the Ayatollah is friend to woman.

For their part, Afghans celebrated Khomeini's death by defacing and ripping down posters of him that had mysteriously appeared around Kabul ahead of the anniversary.

It's but the latest demonstration that Afghans are more than fed up with Iran's antics. Today, June 6, a group of Afghans held a peaceful demonstration outside of the Iranian Embassy in Kabul, protesting Iran's interference in Afghan affairs, and the hanging of Afghans by the Iranian Government.
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## GAP (8 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 8, 2012*

 The kill chain: Australia's drone war
Article Link
Updated June 08, 2012

A senior Australian Defence Force officer has revealed details of how the Royal Australian Air Force deploys Israeli-owned drones for battlefield surveillance and to target anti-government Islamic fighters in Afghanistan.

Wing Commander Jonathan McMullan says Australia is "just buying hours" on the Heron drones from a Canadian company that in turn "leases them from IAI" (Israel Aerospace Industries), which is wholly owned by the Israeli government.

While enthusiastically endorsing the Heron's capabilities, Wing Commander McMullan was highly critical of the quality of training provided by Israeli and Canadian instructors to Australian drone crews.

The unarmed Israeli Herons first entered RAAF service in Afghanistan in December 2009.

They are the centrepiece of the ADF's rapidly expanding drone warfare capability that has so far cost an estimated $550 million.

Australian Defence Force chief General David Hurley told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra late last month: "I wouldn't discount the fact that we might have armed UAVs thinking through our force structure review into the future."

In this report, Foreign Correspondent's Mark Corcoran goes behind the scenes of Australia's drone war.
'Saving Australian lives'

The Royal Pines Golf Resort on the Gold Coast is a long way from Afghanistan.

But it was there recently, at the Heli and UV Pacific aviation convention, that Australia's top military drone commanders launched an extraordinary public relations offensive.

In one sense they were preaching to the converted; this gathering of aviation industry insiders was fascinated by the technology but displayed no interest in discussing the political or ethical considerations of this rapidly expanding form of warfare.
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 America's Last Prisoner of War
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Three years ago, a 23-year-old soldier walked off his base in Afghanistan and into the hands of the Taliban. Now he’s a crucial pawn in negotiations to end the war. Will the Pentagon leave a man behind?
by: Michael Hastings

The mother and father sit at the kitchen table in their Idaho farmhouse, watching their son on YouTube plead for his life. The Taliban captured 26-year-old Bowe Bergdahl almost three years ago, on June 30th, 2009, and since that day, his parents, Jani and Bob, have had no contact with him. Like the rest of the world, their lone glimpses of Bowe – the only American prisoner of war left in either Iraq or Afghanistan – have come through a series of propaganda videos, filmed while he's been in captivity.

In the video they're watching now, Bowe doesn't look good. He's emaciated, maybe 30 pounds underweight, his face sunken, his eye sockets like caves. He's wearing a scraggly beard and he's talking funny, with some kind of foreign accent. Jani presses her left hand across her forehead, as if shielding herself from the images onscreen, her eyes filling with tears. Bob, unable to look away, hits play on the MacBook Pro for perhaps the 30th time. Over and over again, he watches as his only son, dressed in a ragged uniform, begs for someone to rescue him.

"Release me, please!" Bowe screams at the camera. "I'm begging you – bring me home!"

Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl arrived in Afghanistan at the worst possible moment, just as President Barack Obama had ordered the first troop surge in the spring of 2009. Rather than withdraw from a disastrous and increasingly deadly war started by his predecessor, the new commander in chief had decided to escalate the conflict, tripling the number of troops to 100,000 and employing a counterinsurgency strategy that had yet to demonstrate any measurable success. To many on Obama's staff, who had been studying Lessons in Disaster, a book about America's failure in Vietnam, the catastrophe to come seemed almost preordained. "My God," his deputy national security adviser Tom Don­ilon said at the time. "What are we getting this guy into?" Over the next three years, 13,000 Americans would be killed or wounded in Afghanistan – more than during the previous eight years of war under George W. Bush.
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## GAP (10 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 10, 2012*

 Four French soliders killed in Afghanistan
By Sanjeev Miglani, Reuters 
Article Link

KABUL - A suicide bomber dressed in a burqa blew himself up near a French patrol in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing four soldiers and wounding five as the Taliban step up a spring offensive.

The attack - one of the deadliest on the French contingent in months - occurred in the mountainous Kapisa province in the east of the country, an area mainly patrolled by a French force under NATO command.

“It was an unfortunate incident. There was a patrol of coalition soldiers in a small bazaar and they were attacked by a suicide bomber wearing a burqa,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Reuters.

French President Francois Hollande restated his plan to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan by end-2012, well before NATO allies, as he offered condolences to the victims’ families.

“This operation will start in July and be finished by the end of 2012,” Hollande, who took office in mid-May, said as he visited his political fiefdom 500 km (310 miles) south of Paris on the eve of a parliamentary election.

Hollande said Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and army chief Edouard Guillaud planned to be in Afghanistan on Sunday.
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 Al-Qaida down, but not out in Pakistan
By Michael Georgy and Saud Mehsud, Reuters
Article Link

ISLAMABAD/DERA ISMAIL KHAN, PAKISTAN - When al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi arrived in northwest Pakistan several years ago, he commanded so much respect that even some of the world’s most dangerous militants held him in awe.

Already a legend in the shadowy world of jihad for breaking out of a high security U.S. prison in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2005, he seemed to promise endless funds, training and inspiration for men who dreamed of unleashing carnage in New York or London.

By the time he was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week, he was the latest victim of a series of the unmanned aerial attacks that has crushed al-Qaida’s network along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officials and commanders of militant groups said.

Its finances have dried up, and those who once idolised the group wonder whether it can survive.

“Imagine. They used to travel in Land Cruisers and double-cabin pickup trucks a few years ago,” said a commander from the Pakistani Taliban, which is close to al-Qaida. “Now, they are riding motorcycles due to lack of resources.”

The downfall of the network in the border area started with the killing of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May last year, and the sustained campaign of drone attacks has further weakened the group. Only about eight hardcore al-Qaida leaders are still believed to be based in the lawless borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, compared with dozens a few years ago.

Current al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri is among those believed to be hiding in the area.
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Afghanistan's 'graveyard of foreigners'
By Andrew North BBC News, Kabul 
Article Link
 9 June 2012

There is an odd kink in Martyrs Road in the Sherpur district of Kabul. It forces the traffic - from cyclists to rattling yellow taxis - to slow down suddenly, in what looks almost like a mark of respect.

But no-one looks up at the weathered metal sign on the wall on the bend which reads "British Cemetery".

It is a high wall. From outside you cannot see in and, once inside, it muffles the sounds of Kabul.

When you pass through the wooden gates into the small, tree-lined graveyard you have a feeling of entering another world - and another era.

The cemetery was created in the 19th Century, during Britain's past wars in Afghanistan. 

Some 160 soldiers from that period are thought to be buried here, although that is just a small fraction of the casualties from successive battles fought to keep Kabul in British hands.

They first took the city in 1839 with little trouble.

It was a straight land-grab to stop Russia getting in first. But an Afghan uprising soon began and, two years later, the British were forced out in a now well-chronicled disaster.

Nearly the entire Kabul garrison of 16,000 British and Indian troops, their families and servants, were slaughtered by Afghan forces as they tried to retreat.

British troops marched back in the same year, razing much of Kabul to the ground in revenge. 
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## GAP (15 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 15, 2012*


 Still Not Good Enough
Article Link
June 15, 2012:

 Version 1A-2 of the U.S. Excalibur 155mm GPS guided shell recently achieved its longest range shot (36 kilometers) in combat when two were fired that distance by U.S. Marine Corps gunners in Afghanistan. Eight months ago, this version of Excalibur was cleared for use in combat. This extended range version can hit targets with precision up to 40 kilometers away (with the M777 howitzer, or up to 60 kilometers with longer barreled howitzers). This is particularly useful in Afghanistan, where the older (23 kilometer) shell was restricted by its short range. Even so, some veteran American artillerymen are firing their 155mm guns for the first time in four or five years, now that they are operating in Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

This is a big change. Back in 2004, when the counter-terrorism campaign began in Iraq, it was quickly realized that artillery units were not needed. Smart bombs were far more accurate and effective. Excalibur did not show up until 2007. So in the meantime, most artillery units were converted to light infantry, and performed security and counter-terrorism tasks. Eventually, many Cold War era artillery units were disbanded, made obsolete with the arrival of GPS guided shells and MLRS rockets.

While Excalibur proved useful in Iraq, it didn't increase the workload of the few 155mm howitzers that were being used there. But Afghanistan was a different story, with the troops spread over a much larger area. This was the kind of situation that the new M777 towed 155mm howitzer was made for. So the artillery battalions attached to combat brigades once more had something to do in Afghanistan. So far, nearly 600 Excalibur shells have been fired in combat, most of them in the past year. The marines have been the most enthusiastic user of Excalibur, recently using 32 of them in one week.

The 155mm Excalibur "smart shell," got into service a year late because testing kept revealing more bugs in the system. For example, there were problems with some shells not getting the GPS signal. If the Excalibur shell does not get the GPS signal, you have to make sure it's unguided trajectory will take it where there are no friendly troops or civilians. Having to do this every time you use Excalibur can be complicated, time consuming, and often not possible. These problems were solved, but then some temperature related problems were encountered. They were fixed, and eventually, five years ago, Excalibur was ready for combat.

Problems with getting "smart shells" to work effectively are nothing new. Back in the 1980s, the 155mm Copperhead round was developed, at great expense, to take out tanks with one shot. The Copperhead was laser guided. That is, it homed in on laser light that a forward observer was creating by pointing a laser at the target. It was the same technique used with laser guided bombs. But this was expensive technology for an artillery shell. Each of the 3,000 Copperhead shells eventually built, cost several hundred thousand dollars (the price varied, up to half a million bucks, depending on who was doing the calculating). While a "dumb" artillery shell will land within 75 meters of the aiming point, the Copperhead would land within a meter or two. But so what? It turned out there were many easier, and cheaper, ways to destroy enemy tanks. This was demonstrated during the 1991 Gulf War, when a few Copperhead shells were used, successfully, but to reactions of, "whatever."

Russia developed its own version of Copperhead, Krasnopol, and sold some to India. During a 1999 war with Pakistan, high in the Himalayan Mountains, Krasnopol proved very useful in taking out enemy bunkers, without causing avalanches or destroying the few pathways up the steep hills. However, Krasnopol had not been tested at such high altitudes (over 4,000 meters) and in such cold weather. There were problems that had to be fixed. 
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 Radio To Bleed For
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June 15, 2012: U.S. commanders in remote Afghan outposts have found a powerful, and non-lethal, weapon to use against the Taliban; FM radio broadcasts. There are often locals who oppose the Taliban, and would love to broadcast their opinions on this to everyone in the area. But they know that the usual Taliban response to such activity is destruction of your broadcast equipment and perhaps some personal harm as well. So the anti-Taliban broadcasters are being invited to set up shop in American bases, and live nearby in order to keep the Taliban from getting personal in their protests. This approach has worked as most Afghans see the Taliban as a bunch of self-righteous thugs who will rob you while preaching about what a bad Moslem you are. You can see that anti-Taliban broadcasters have a lot to work with here.

This all began over six years ago when the Taliban, and political or religious activists of all sorts, began taking advantage of cheaper radio broadcasting equipment, and growing affluence among Afghans (who can now afford a few bucks for a cheap radio). This has given rise to hundreds of illegal FM radio stations in contested areas.

The equipment is easy enough to get. A rig the size of a large suitcase, weighing about 14 kg (30 pounds) can generate 50 Watts of power. If you put your broadcast antenna on a hill, you can reach listeners several hundred kilometers away. This is more than enough range to stay in touch with thousands of potential listeners. Such broadcast equipment (which requires a government license to use legally in the U.S.) is available for a few thousand dollars (including bribes and smugglers fees). Many legal stations in Pakistan and Afghanistan use similar equipment.

You can get a 45 kg (hundred pounds), 250 Watt rigs, used by commercial stations in that part of the world, for under $10,000. You can mount all this in an SUV or pickup truck and stay mobile, and one step ahead of the police, but not American electronic monitoring gear and smart bombs. The Taliban soon learned to find a place with lots of women and children before turning the transmitter on.

The radio stations protected by the foreign troops can play music and conduct call in shows. These often attract Taliban callers, in addition to a lot of anti-Taliban locals. It gets pretty lively at times. 
end

 Rebuilding Afghanistan
Article Link

While 2011 marked the end of Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan, CIDA continues to help rebuild the country. The Agency remains committed to its development objectives and will keep working to help Afghans overcome the main challenges that affect them, including poverty, inequality, and insecurity.

Development progress continues in Afghanistan, particularly in the areas of education, health support especially for women and children, and food security, three areas in which CIDA made advancements during 2010-2011.

In the past fiscal year, CIDA helped establish more than 4,000 community-based schools throughout the country. Of the more than 125,000 students receiving a basic education in these schools, approximately 80 percent are girls.

Canada also helped engage parents in their children's education by establishing more than 10,000 school management committees, which provide a voice for the community and a mechanism to hold the government accountable for service delivery.

Canada supports the training of Afghan health professionals to improve the quality of, and accessibility to, Afghanistan's health care system. To date, more than 1,455 health workers have received training including doctors, nurses, midwives, and community health workers.

In 2010-2011, Canada continued working to eradicate polio in Afghanistan. During the immunization campaign, in the first two months of 2011, 1.26 million children received vaccinations. To maximize the campaign's health benefits, children also received deworming tablets along with the oral polio vaccine.

In 2010, there were 25 cases of polio reported, down from 38 in 2009. As of June 2011, there were only 8 new cases of polio reported in Afghanistan.
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## GAP (17 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 17, 2012*

Canadian military equipment trapped in Afghanistan
CTVNews.ca Staff at Jun 16,
Article Link

Hundreds of containers of Canadian military equipment remain trapped in Afghanistan as the Pakistani government continues to refuse to reopen NATO supply lines into the country.

Thousands of tonnes of equipment including armoured vehicles, guns, ammunition and combat uniforms have already been airlifted out of the country. However, an estimated 400 containers remain stranded in secret locations throughout southern Afghanistan.

Pakistan closed NATO's main transit route from the port of Karachi in November following an air attack on the country's border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Supply trucks have sat idle in Afghanistan since then.

"It's engineering stores, it's spare parts, it's camp stores, defensive stores, things of that nature. This is equipment that we want to bring back to Canada," Brig.-Gen. John Mackay told CTV News.

Meanwhile, the port in Karachi, Pakistan is jammed with containers of equipment belonging to the U.S. and other NATO allies, waiting to be shipped to bases in Afghanistan.

Thousands of Pakistanis have rallied against the reopening of the NATO shipping routes. Anti-American sentiment is so strong in the country the government is afraid of the political backlash if the trucks are allowed through.

As a result, the U.S. has pulled its team of negotiators out of Pakistan.

"The teams themselves have taken it as far as we can right now," said Capt. John Kirby, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence. "And it's in the hands of the political leadership in Pakistan.

Pakistan is demanding NATO pay $5,000 a truck, a significant hike from the old rate of $200 a truck.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Canada is working with NATO allies in hopes of retrieving the Canadian Forces equipment.

"We are working with our allies to try to persuade Pakistan to be more co-operative when it comes to supply of the mission and when it comes to the return of certain equipment," MacKay said.
end

Pakistani militant commander refuses polio vaccine teams over drone attacks
Article Link
Published June 16, 2012

A militant commander in northwest Pakistan warned polio vaccination teams on Saturday to stay away from the territory he controls near the Afghan border, saying he would not allow immunizations until U.S. drone attacks in the country are stopped.   

The statement by Hafiz Gul Bahadur is an obstacle to efforts to beat polio on Pakistan, one of only three nations where the virus is endemic.

The threat came in a pamphlet distributed Saturday in markets in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region. "We don't want benefits from well-wishers who spend billions to save children from polio, which can affect one or two out of hundreds of thousands, while on the other hand the same well-wisher (America) with the help of its slave (Pakistan's government) kills hundreds of innocent tribesmen including old women and children by unleashing numerous drone attacks," it said.

The pamphlet also said spies could enter the region under the cover of vaccination teams to get information for the United States about "holy warriors." It said teams who disregarded his warning would be responsible for any consequences.

The polio virus, which usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions, attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze.

Bahadur is believed to have a truce with the Pakistani army, while he focuses on attacks against U.S. and NATO troops across the Afghan border. Some of his fighters have recently been killed in the U.S. drone attacks, which Pakistan's government also opposes.

Washington has refused to stop the strikes, which it holds are an essential weapon against militants. It is widely believed in Pakistan that most of the dead are civilians, but villagers living near the sites of a number of major strikes told the The Associated Press in a report published earlier this year that a significant majority of those killed were combatants.

The region's top health official Mohammed Sadiq said that teams had completed an initial round of anti-polio vaccinations, but would not start another round of the campaign that was scheduled to begin from June 20. He said 162,000 children were to be immunized.

Sadiq said they had informed Pakistani authorities and the World Health Organization about the warning.
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 US drone strike kills 4 in Pakistan, officials say
Article Link
Published June 13, 2012

PESHAWAR, Pakistan –  Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike has killed four suspected militants after firing two missiles at a vehicle in which they were riding near the Afghan border.

Two officials say Wednesday's attack occurred near Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region.

It's the first drone strike since an American missile fired June 4 killed al-Qaida's second-in-command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.

The identity and nationality of the men killed Wednesday is not immediately known and the officials say their agents are trying to get more details.

Washington has pushed on with its drone campaign against suspected Taliban and al-Qaida operatives in Pakistani tribal areas, despite Pakistani objections.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
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## GAP (20 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 20, 2012*

 Roya Shams: Afghan teen working hard on her English before enrolling in grade 10 in Ottawa in fall
Article Link

BROCKVILLE, ONT.—A winding path is often the best way up a mountain, even if sometimes a switchback seems to lead down.

So it is with Roya Shams’ steep climb.

The 17-year-old Afghan schoolgirl fled Kandahar in January with the help of the Toronto Star and its readers.

Inspired by her courageous stand against extremism in Afghanistan, Ashbury College, an Ottawa private school, gave a girl who excelled in one of the world’s worst education systems the chance to learn in one of Canada’s best.

Ashbury demands a lot of its students, around 20 per cent of whom come from more than 30 different countries for what headmaster Tam Matthews calls “a global education that prepares them for positions of leadership and service to others.”

Amid the stately mansions of Rockcliffe Park, the 121-year-old school’s 5.3-hectare campus is a welcoming place, a world away from the violence and intolerance of Kandahar.

But for a teenaged Afghan girl used to poorly trained teachers who show up for classes when they choose, or when they aren’t scared off by insurgent death squads, Ashbury can be frighteningly demanding in its own way.
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 CF training advisors spread the PMED message in Afghanistan
Article Link
Fri June 15, 2012 By Gary Hengstler

As the Afghan national security forces grow and train to combat the Taliban insurgency, they are also taking aim at another equally insidious enemy — disease. In Kabul, the Armed Forces Academy of Medical Sciences (AFAMS) is now delivering a Preventive Medicine (PMED) program to train technicians to find and eradicate health hazards at military and police facilities throughout the nation.

The PMED course is a one-year program of instruction for select members of the Afghan National Army (ANA), the Afghan Air Force (AAF) and the Afghan National Police (ANP). Taught by Afghan instructors, it is also supported by Canadian PMED technicians Warrant Officer Eric Bouchard, Master Corporal Sonia Lavigne, MCpl Ryan MacDonald and MCpl Brad Studham. Deployed on Roto 1 of Operation ATTENTION, they are members of the Medical Advisory Training Team assigned to AFAMS by the NATO Training Mission–Afghanistan.

""When we arrived in February, our objective was to assist them in improving the course,"" said WO Bouchard. ""We saw that their classroom course is very strong and provides much-needed knowledge. We also concluded that their students would benefit from more hands-on field activity and practical training. We worked with them to develop a 12-day course to provide them with this field hygiene practice."" 
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 Nanaimo man building security 11 time zones away
Article Link
 Chris Bush - Nanaimo News Bulletin June 19, 2012 1:00 PM

Kabul, Afghanistan, is about as geographically and culturally far from Nanaimo as you can get. But a member of Canada's armed forces who was born and grew up here is literally half a world away bridging cultures and ideologies to help a nation rebuild and sustain itself.

Col. Jim Goodman is serving a one-year tour with Operation Attention, Canada's contribution to NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan, as a senior advisor to the Afghan National Army.

He arrived in Kabul May 10 from Gagetown, New Brunswick, where he commanded the 4 Engineer Support Regiment.

"I'm one of the select people who is specifically attached to an Afghan National Army general officer," Goodman said. "What we're basically helping them do is develop their capabilities to reflect a modern Afghan fighting force that's able to effectively live, move and fight on their own without NATO support."

Canadians operating out of Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif are advising Afghan forces and police and helping introduce gender equality in the Afghan workforce, military and politics.

Of the 38 nations helping the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan build and maintain the Afghan National Security Force, Canada, with 920 personnel, is the second-largest contributor of troops.

Since 2002, the Afghan military grew rapidly to about 195,000 personnel in its army and air force, while another 144,000 joined the Afghan National Police.

Afghan forces were outfitted with modern equipment and technology, but need help building an effective management structure. Goodman works alongside U.S. advisors and civilian contractors who bring different perspectives from varying military backgrounds.

Goodman said Afghan officers are highly capable and some have 40 and even 50 years of military experience from fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s and Taliban fighters in recent years.
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## GAP (20 Jun 2012)

Pakistan court shuts plants, angers US investor
the Mesh Report Staff May 29, 2012
Article Link
 By CHRIS BRUMMITT

ISLAMABAD – David Walters saw a business opportunity where few other foreign investors would dare to tread: Pakistan’s power sector. He forecast profit by importing power stations, linking them to the national grid and selling the electricity to the energy-starved country.

But the former governor of Oklahoma didn’t reckon on three things that would sour his multimillion dollar investments: the inability of the government to provide the fuel, a chronically unstable grid and, in the end, the country’s activist Supreme Court.

Acting on a petition by lawmakers who alleged the businesses were little more than a scam, the court declared his company’s plants and all other similar projects established in the country since 2006 illegal. Judges ordered criminal investigations into those involved, saying corruption marred the bidding process and the country didn’t need any more power plants – just better management of existing ones.

Supporters say the decision was a much needed move by the only institution in Pakistan willing or able to strike a blow against rampant government graft and incompetence. Others called it a political decision by an overreaching court that has killed off any hope of foreign investment.

“Every company that will consider making an investment in Pakistan will now have a lump in their throat,” said Walters, who counts his own losses in the millions and is vowing to seek international arbitration.

The chaos has highlighted the chronic mismanagement of Pakistan’s power sector, which is unable to produce enough electricity to meet demand. The country suffers rolling power cuts for up to 18 hours a day. The government charges consumers less for the power than it costs to produce, but it doesn’t have enough money to subsidize the producers, trapping the sector in a debt cycle.

The outages have crippled the country’s industrial base, particularly textile factories, and serve as a daily reminder of the state’s inability to take care of its citizens. As air conditioners are switched on this summer, record power cuts are being forecast – along with added social unrest in a country already creaking under assault from Islamist militants.

The government, which devotes most of its attention to political survival, has done nothing to address the causes of the energy crisis since it took power four years ago.

Back in 2006, the government of Pervez Musharraf pitched what it thought was a short-term solution to the problem – granting small power plants contracts of between three and five years, while it worked on longer-term projects like hydroelectric power.

Walters saw an opportunity and teamed up with one of the country’s wealthiest businessman, Iqbal Ahmed, to exploit the demand for power. Ahmed’s family company is Pakistan’s biggest producer of natural gas and was close to Musharraf.

President Asif Ali Zardari continued with the so called “rental power projects” when he took office. By April, Walters Power International or its local partner had contracts to run three stations and was aiming to build one of Pakistan’s largest power generation portfolios.

Under the deals, the companies received multimillion dollar payments in advance. But in many cases the government failed to provide gas to run them. With the plants not producing and the frequency of power outages increasing nationwide, the deals that led to them came under scrutiny from the media, the opposition and anti-corruption agencies.

“The government knew there was no gas. Walters knew there was no gas,” said Khwaja Mohammad Asif, one of two lawmakers who petitioned the Supreme Court asking it to investigate the projects. “There is overwhelming evidence that these were scams from the word go.”

Walters denied any wrongdoing and said the contracts were vetted by seven government agencies before it was signed. He said he never had any reason to doubt the government would provide gas, and said the advance and guaranteed payments were standard in such power arrangements around the world. 
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## GAP (22 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 22, 2012*

 Afghan Taliban attack on hotel near Kabul ends
Article Link
 22 June 2012

Afghan security forces have ended a 12-hour attack by Taliban militants on a hotel outside Kabul, in which at least 20 people died, officials say.

Insurgents attacked the Spozhmai Hotel in the Lake Qargha area on Thursday night, taking many hostages.

Kabul's police chief said 15 civilians, including hotel guests, died. All five insurgents were killed.

The Taliban claimed the attack, saying the hotel was used by wealthy Afghans and foreigners for "wild parties".

Lake Qargha is on the outskirts of Kabul and is favoured by residents of the Afghan capital for day trips and family outings. 
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A glimpse of life after Nato in Afghanistan's wild east
Article Link
 18 May 2012 

Farmer Haji Zerak greets his visitor in the usual way of Afghanistan's eastern Pashtuns.

A light touch with his right hand on the other man's left shoulder, then a warm handshake - symbolising in Islamic teaching both men's sins being washed away.

But this is not supposed to be a social call.

His visitor, the local district governor, has arrived in Achin with a posse of heavily-armed policemen and a team of labourers wielding long sticks.

They have come to his isolated mountain hamlet in Nangarhar province to cut down Haji Zerak's fields of poppy.

The opium they produce is the source of most of Europe's heroin demand - and illegal.

But things are rarely as they seem in Afghanistan.
Deal done

For a man who says he has "no choice" but to grow poppy, Haji Zerak looks relaxed as the labourers lay into the green bulb-heads nodding in the wind.
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Nato grapples with rogue elements in Afghan ranks
By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Helmand Province, Afghanistan 
Article Link
 1 May 2012

Through thick mud in Helmand province, a joint Afghan and British patrol snakes its way through fields deep in opium poppies and wheat.

They march in single file in the hope of reducing the chances of triggering a Taliban roadside bomb.

But the Taliban are not the only threat to British soldiers.

In this year alone, 18 foreign soldiers have been killed by the Afghans they serve alongside.

A dramatic jump in so called green-on-blue killings, amounting to an average of one a week this year, has led to a serious erosion of trust. Only Taliban bombs have killed more international soldiers.

Maj Bev Allen of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who is leading the British advisers on this patrol, acknowledges that "there are moments when we are vulnerable".

"We live out in austere locations, we have procedures. We remain vigilant at all times, and we try to keep that risk to a minimum," he said.

"But it's one of the most important elements of the job we do here. We demonstrate to the Afghans that we trust them, and that we are in the fight and we share the danger with them."
Convivial atmosphere

The soldiers on the patrol say they never fully let their guard down. 
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## GAP (28 Jun 2012)

*Articles found June 28, 2012*

 Canada troops not complicit in Afghan abuse, panel says
Article Link
By David Ljunggren OTTAWA | Wed Jun 27, 2012 

A Canadian panel on Wednesday cleared eight military police of complicity in the abuse of Afghan prisoners by Afghan authorities, but also blasted Ottawa for trying to impede the investigation.

Canada's Conservative government has been dogged for years by allegations that military and political officials ignored evidence that Afghan authorities were torturing detainees transferred by Canadian troops stationed there.

The Military Police Complaints Commission said the eight could not have known that prisoners they handed over might be tortured and that their actions "met the standards of a reasonable police officer."

Handing over prisoners in the knowledge they could be mistreated is a war crime.

The panel issued its ruling after human rights groups complained the police must have known prisoners transferred in 2007 and 2008 ran the risk of being abused.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had Parliament suspended at the end of 2009 as a way of killing off a probe by legislators into what had happened in Afghanistan.
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 Afghanistan wants its cultural heroes back
Article Link
By Sanjeev Miglani and Mirwais Harooni KABUL | Thu Jun 28, 2012

KABUL (Reuters) Interred a quarter century ago in Pakistan, the remains of Afghan poet Ustad Khalilullah Khalili now lie in a forlorn corner of Kabul University, brought here to be reburied so that no one else can lay claim to the revered poet-philosopher.

He has no epitaph; only a few wilted bouquets lie at the grave of Afghanistan's most prominent 20th century poet. Three policemen guard the site.

But if President Hamid Karzai - who ordered the remains be disinterred from a grave in the Pakistani city of Peshawar last month - has his way, the reburial will become an assertion of Afghan culture over encroachment by Pakistan and Iran.

"We brought him back from Pakistan because he was our poet and scholar," said Mohammad Hussain Yamin, head of the Persian and Dari department at Kabul University.

"We don't want someone in future to say that he belonged to Pakistan just because he lived the final years of his life there."

The assertion of cultural sovereignty is part of an effort to unite Afghanistan and prove it can stand on its own after most foreign troops leave at the end of 2014.

The government says it wants an end to "foreign interference", usually a reference to Pakistan, but also Iran with which it is locked in a fierce debate over ownership of some of the greatest poets and philosophers in the region.

Poetry is big in Afghanistan, from the time of the kings of the 10th century to the present day, permeating every level of society from children in school to warlords and even the austere Taliban who study long works of classical Persian poetry as part of their education in religious schools.

It's the thread that runs between Afghanistan's often warring ethnic groups whether Tajik, Hazara, Pashtun, Uzbek, Turkmen, Nuristani, Baluch, or any of the many other sub-groups and clans.
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 Poppy blight could boost 'Krokodil' use: UN
4 part video documentry on link
By Michael Shields, Reuters
Article Link

VIENNA -- A fresh blight is poised to hit Afghanistan’s poppy fields this year, driving up opium prices and threatening to fuel a shift to potentially lethal heroin substitutes such as “krokodil”, the UN drugs watchdog said on Tuesday.

Plant diseases destroyed nearly half the 2010 opium harvest in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer, but output there rebounded 61 percent last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its 2012 World Drug Report. That helped put global opium production at 7,000 tonnes in 2011, still more than a fifth below the 2007 peak.

“We may anticipate that this year there will be another plant disease - maybe not to the same scale as 2010 - but (it) still may affect, especially in the southern part of Afghanistan, poppy cultivation,” UNODC Executive Director Yuri Fedotov said.

“This means that the production of opium may not increase or may even decrease, but at the same time definitely it would lead to an increase in prices for the next year. That is something we need to address very seriously.”

The UNODC report cited indications that shortages had encouraged users in some countries to replace heroin with other substances such as desomorphine - whose street name is krokodil - acetylated opium, and synthetic narcotics.

Krokodil is a crude, codeine-based drug that users inject, risking serious health problems as it attacks body tissue. “It is a powerful drug which can kill people in just two months, in a few weeks,” Fedotov said.

It was hard to gauge what impact the 2010 crop failure in Afghanistan had on major markets, the report said, but drug seizures fell in most countries getting Afghan opiates.

Some European countries, including Britain and Russia, saw heroin droughts. Opiate prices in Europe and the Americas had not changed much since 2009, officials said, but farm-gate prices in Afghanistan and number-two producer Myanmar kept rising in 2010 and 2011. A kilo of opium costs around $200-$250 in Afghanistan. 
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 Where The UAVs Go After Afghanistan
June 27, 2012
Article Link

 When the U.S. pulls most of its forces out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, over a hundred large (Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk) U.S. Air Force UAVs will go with them. Most of these will not go back to the United States. There is great demand for these UAVs in South America and the Pacific.

In Colombia, American intelligence advisors are eager to have these large UAVs to track drug gang and leftist rebel operations. Colombian troops see the UAVs as a way to track down the remaining leftist rebel leaders and locate well hidden cocaine operations. The U.S. Air Force has new sensors they believe can detect hidden camps and drug operations hidden in tropical woodlands. These sensors have been successful in forested areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the Pacific, American advisors in the Philippines want to bring the same kind of surveillance to seek out Islamic terrorists and leftist rebels there. In South Korea UAVs can fly just south of the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea) and see many kilometers into North Korea. Global Hawk UAVs fly at 20,000 meters altitude and can see into most of North Korea, for hours at a time. Even though all these UAVs will stay out of North Korean air space, the North Korean have an extensive (although antiquated) air defense system and a well-deserved reputation for aggressiveness. For the U.S. Air Force, this would be an opportunity to test UAV defensive measures for operating in more hostile environments.

Meanwhile, Afghan security forces are not looking forward to losing all their UAV support. Some of the large American UAVs will remain behind, including the CIA ones that hunt down and kill terrorist leaders across the border in Pakistan. But the current plan is to remove over a hundred of these UAVs from the region. A few will return to the United States to assist in training airmen who operate and maintain these aircraft. But most will continue on to other overseas hotspots where their services are needed. 
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