# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2011



## The Bread Guy (30 Nov 2011)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2011  *               

[size=12pt]*News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!*


----------



## GAP (1 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 1, 2011*

 Border closure halts return of Canadian military gear
  Article Link 
By Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News November 30, 2011

OTTAWA — Hundreds of sea containers stuffed with military gear that were supposed to be returning to Canada are instead languishing at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan because of Pakistan's decision to close its border to NATO, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

Lt.-Cmdr. John Nethercott said the border closure isn't expected to affect the military's imminent withdrawal from Kandahar, though he acknowledged there could be complications if Pakistan doesn't reopen its borders soon.

"We're assessing the situation," he said. "At this point, there's no impact on our withdrawal of personnel and no immediate impact on our efforts to repatriate equipment back to Canada by land and sea."

About 1,200 troops are in Kandahar packing up for the imminent end of Canada's military presence after six years in the southern Afghan province. They have until the end of the year to wrap up their work.
More on link

Helicopter crash survivor an Afghanistan vet
Article Link
     Thu Dec 01 2011

WATERLOO REGION — The student pilot who survived Monday’s fatal helicopter crash fought in Afghanistan last year.

Scott Puillandre is recovering in hospital, his family confirmed. He’s a Canadian soldier training to be an officer, who’s currently enrolled at the University of Guelph.

Puillandre survived Nov. 28 when a small helicopter on a routine training flight fell from the sky shortly after taking off from the Region of Waterloo International Airport. He was in a two-seater with flight instructor Tiffany Hanna, 29. Hanna, a mother of two, was killed.

The helicopter crashed into a pond on airport property. The cause is under investigation.

Relatives declined to be interviewed Wednesday, citing Puillandre’s condition. They said he was in surgery for six hours Tuesday. Hamilton General Hospital was planning to move him into a spinal unit Wednesday.

Puillandre joined the regular forces last August after almost six years as a reservist, said Capt. Tristan Hatfield, a public affairs officer based out of London, Ont.

Puillandre went to Afghanistan in April 2010 attached to an artillery regiment out of Brantford. He returned to Canada seven months later in Nov. 2010. His rank at the time was bombardier, comparable to corporal in the infantry. 
More on link

 Afghan mission depletes army leadership
  Article Link
 Postmedia News November 29, 2011

Canada's new training mission in Afghanistan is putting the army's "long-term health" at risk because of the demands being placed on the force's small number of sergeants, captains and other mid-level leaders, a new defence department report indicates.

There are now 19,500 full-time soldiers in the Canadian army, 3,000 more than in 2004. The force shrank significantly through the 1990s and early 2000s because of deep budget cuts, but began expanding again with Canada's involvement in combat operations in Kandahar starting in 2005.

That growth, however, hasn't been without its own problems, says the departmental performance report, an annual, internally-produced publication that looks back at the department's work over the past year.
More on link


----------



## GAP (4 Dec 2011)

*Articles found November 4, 2011*

German Military Fears Civil War in Afghanistan
Article Link
 12/02/2011

Officially, NATO troops in Afghanistan are making progress in the fight against the Taliban and will be able to hand over security responsibilities to Kabul as planned in 2014. Unofficially, according to secret US and German documents revealed in a German daily, military leaders fear civil war once they depart.
Info

Officially, the Afghanistan conference set to kick off in Bonn on Monday is, according to the German Foreign Ministry website, intended to "solidify together with Afghanistan the long-term engagement of the international community and to advance the political process in the country."

Unofficially, however, many see the gathering, which will bring Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai together with NATO foreign ministers, as but a prelude to withdrawal. US President Barack Obama has begun the American drawdown and has said it will be complete by 2014. His NATO allies, including Germany, have followed suit, with Germany planning to reduce its presence in Afghanistan by 950 troops by the beginning of 2013. The remaining 4,400 troops are to leave by the end of 2014.

NATO has referred to the process as a handover of security responsibility to Afghanistan. But a report in the German tabloid Bild on Friday, citing secret US military intelligence documents as well as confidential German military documents, indicates that military officials in both countries believe that civil war in Afghanistan will be the result.
More on link

 'It was him or me. I chose me': Extraordinary story of woman medic who became the first British female to kill a fighter in Taliban ambush
Article Link
By Chantelle Taylor
4th December 2011

A woman medic has become the first female front-line British soldier known to have killed an enemy fighter in combat.

Chantelle Taylor has described the terrifying moment when – as a sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps – she had to choose whether to shoot a Taliban gunman or be  shot herself.

She says: ‘Faced with the choice of him or me, I chose me.’

It was the first time the 32-year-old medic, who was sent to the war zone to save lives, had fired her standard issue SA80 assault rifle at another person.

Female soldiers in the British Army are officially not allowed to fight on the front line in battle and are banned from serving in infantry units whose job is to ‘close with and kill’ the enemy.

The group is listening intently. They all know the importance of what is being said, if they are to stand any chance of surviving a blast in Helmand province. It is early 2008 and I have been selected to oversee haemorrhage-control training for 16 Air Assault Brigade before its deployment to southern Afghanistan. This means making sure that guys on the ground know how to stop bleeding.

It doesn’t take long before I notice my own Squadron Sergeant Major chuckling to himself. Suddenly the penny drops and I recognise one seemingly familiar face in the group. As my talk finishes, this now very familiar guest approaches me and I don’t know whether to salute him or curtsy. I can feel the burn of my reddening cheeks. Pausing for a moment and taking hold of his outstretched hand I introduce myself to Prince William.

‘Thanks for that, it was very informative,’ he says.
More on link

 British soldier fired for stabbing Afghan boy
Article Link
Grenadier Guardsman Daniel Crook jailed and dismissed from the army after bayoneting boy, 10, in kidneys for no reason
Nooruddin Bakhshi, Rob Evans, Richard Norton-Taylor and Jon Boone guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 December 2011

A British soldier has been dismissed from the army after stabbing a 10-year-old Afghan boy in his kidneys with a bayonet for no reason.

Grenadier Guardsman Daniel Crook was suffering from a hangover after a heavy vodka drinking session when he bayoneted the boy, who was running an errand. He could not explain why he carried out the attack.

After being traced by the Guardian, the boy's father said the attack had left his impoverished family bitter and financially burdened. More than 18 months after the attack, his son is still unable to go to school. He said British forces were "in Afghanistan to build the country and remove insurgents, not to stab a child".

The unpublicised conviction of Crook is the latest in a series of prosecutions mounted against British military personnel accused of causing civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

The Guardian has learned that in a separate case, another soldier is being investigated on suspicion of murder after allegedly shooting dead an Afghan civilian who was digging near a military base.

Prosecutors are considering whether to charge the private in the Royal Welsh Regiment over the incident in Helmand province in June last year.

The Guardian has pieced together the the court martial of Crook from an interview with the boy's father and an account from the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA), the agency established in 2009 to conduct independent prosecutions of military personnel.

One evening in March last year, Crook "drank a considerable quantity of vodka which was sent to him in a mineral bottle contained in a welfare parcel", according to prosecutors. He was so drunk that medics had to treat him overnight.
More on link

 Pakistan authorized U.S. airstrike that led to deadly friendly-fire bombing: report 
Country's army chief authorizes Pakistani army to use force in future cross-border incidents
Article Link
BY Joe Kemp NEW YORK DAILY NEWS December 2 2011

American airstrikes that left 24 Pakistani troops dead Monday were permitted by Pakistan officials who didn’t know their own forces were in the area, according to a new report.

The friendly-fire incident — the worst since the start of the 10-year war in Afghanistan — began as a mission to hunt Taliban militants when American troops were fired upon near the Afghan-Pakistan border, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Thinking they were under attack by an encampment of insurgents, the troops contacted a joint border control center to check if Pakistani forces were in the area before firing back, the officials said.

Pakistani representatives — who were not told by U.S. or Afghan officials that they were conducting the commando operation — said they had no military forces in the area and gave the go-ahead for the troops to conduct airstrikes, the officials said.
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (6 Dec 2011)

> At least 58 people were killed and scores wounded after bombers struck Shiite religious observances on Tuesday in three cities, detonating explosives amid crowds of worshippers in the first such sectarian attacks in a decade of war in Afghanistan.
> 
> Two of the attacks — in *Kabul*, where dozens died, and in the northern city of *Mazar-i-Sharif*, where four were killed — were carried out by suicide bombers on foot. A third attack, in the southern city of Kandahar, used a bomb hidden on a parked motorcycle, but no one was killed.
> 
> ...


_New York Times_, 6 Dec 11


----------



## GAP (7 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 7, 2011*

 A losing battle for Afghan women 
Article Link
 BY PETER WORTHINGTON ,QMI AGENCY  MONDAY, DECEMBER 05, 2011

Anyway you look at it, it’s hard to imagine a more outrageous case than the 21-year-old woman in Afghanistan being sent to prison because she was raped.

The story has been newsworthy for some time now, but every time one reads or hears about it, it somehow gets worse.

To recap: The woman, identified only as Gulnaz, was initially sentenced to two years in prison for adultery after she was raped and impregnated. She appealed — and the sentence was boosted to 12 years.

She then was told she would be freed if she agreed to marry the rapist, who was already married.

Gulnaz has already spent 2½ years in prison for her “offence” – an “offence” that apparently has hundreds of women in Afghan jails.

In Gulnaz’s case, public pressure (mostly from abroad and from human rights groups) forced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to become involved. He initially ordered Gulnaz released on condition that there be mediation between her and the guy who raped her.

What sort of “mediation” one wonders? Like a marriage counselor, perhaps? Maybe mullahs seeking to convince the woman that this was love at first sight by the rapist, who was so beguiled by her burka, or silhouette, that he couldn’t restrain himself?
More on link

 Afghanistan pledges electoral, anti-corruption reforms
GRAEME SMITH BONN, GERMANY— Globe and Mail Monday, Dec. 05, 2011
Article Link

A gathering of 85 countries extracted promises from Afghanistan’s leadership on electoral and anti-corruption reform in exchange for continued support in the coming years.

The conference in Bonn, Germany, had been billed as a step toward ending the conflict in Afghanistan. Hobbled by the absence of Pakistan and any Taliban representatives, however, focus shifted toward the often tense relationship between Kabul and its international partners.
More on link

 Recent major attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul
Article Link

2011

—Dec 6: A suicide bomber strikes Shiite worshippers gathered the Abul Fazl shrine in Kabul, killing at least 54 people. The bomber blows himself up in the midst of a crowd commemorating the Ashoura, a Shiite holy day.

—Oct. 29: A suicide bomber driving a van loaded with explosives hits an armored NATO bus, killing 12 Americans, one Canadian and four Afghans.

—Sept. 20: An insurgent with a bomb wrapped in his turban assassinates former President Burhanuddin Rabbani who was leading a government effort to broker peace with the Taliban. The explosion also kills four bodyguards.

—Sept. 13: Taliban insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades at the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other buildings, killing seven Afghans in a coordinated daylight attack. No embassy or NATO staff members were hurt.

—Aug. 19: Taliban suicide bombers storm the British Council, the U.K.’s international cultural relations body, killing eight Afghans during an eight-hour firefight on the anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain.

—June 29: Nine insurgents armed with explosive vests, rifles and rocket launchers storm the InterContinental Hotel in Kabul, killing at least 12 people and holding off NATO and Afghan forces for five hours.
More on link

 Canadian Rug Traders sell Afghan war rugs
REPORTED BY Laura Carlson
Article Link

More on link

 As Canada pledges Afghan aid, signature project winds down‎
by DEEPAK ACHARYA on DECEMBER 6, 2011 · 
Article Link

Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, Ottawa is a promising long-term commitment to Afghanistan to help, but they are the last days of Canada’s commitment in its first class service end of the project, which are the Dahla Dam.

Mr. Baird was in Bonn, Germany on Monday for an international conference on Afghanistan to dry up in a central allay fears West is money in the withdrawal of most troops in 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his country will need the generator for another decade. Mr. Baird and his colleagues as the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle has promised to help. ”We will not disappoint you,” Westerwelle said.
More on link

Pakistan's Zardari in hospital 'for heart condition'
Article Link
 7 December 2011 

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is being treated in Dubai for a heart condition, his spokesman has said, dismissing reports that he may resign.

A presidential spokesman said that Mr Zardari was undergoing "medical tests and check-ups as planned".

But his departure has fuelled speculation in the Pakistani media that he may be on the verge of resigning.

A controversial political figure, he came to power after his Pakistan People's Party won elections in 2008.

The party had been led by his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, until she was assassinated in 2007.
More on link

Roadside bomb kills 19 civilians in south Afghanistan
Article Link
 7 December 2011 

At least 19 Afghan civilians have been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province, said officials.

The vehicle was driving in the province's volatile Sangin district - a Taliban stronghold - Helmand spokesman Daud Ahmadi was quoted as saying.

The dead are said to include women and children, many from the same family.

The deaths come amid mourning for 59 people, mainly Shia worshippers, who were killed in twin bomb attacks in the country on Tuesday.
More on link


----------



## GAP (10 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 10, 2011*

Pakistan, Taliban peace talks 'progressing well'
Article Link
 By The Associated Press, cbc.ca,  December 10, 2011

The deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban announced Saturday that the militant group was in peace talks with the government and an agreement to end its brutal four-year insurgency was within striking distance.

The statement by Malvi Faqir Mohammad, which appeared timed to exploit tensions between the Pakistan army and the U.S., will likely stoke further concerns in Washington over Pakistan's reliability as a long-term partner in the fight against extremists.

It represented the first time a named Taliban commander has confirmed that the group is negotiating with the Pakistani government. Still, it was unclear whether Mohammad speaks for the entirety of the increasingly factionalized network, especially its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Asked about the alleged negotiations, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his government has followed a policy of "dialogue, deterrence and development" to tackle militants who are based in the lawless, Afghan border region. 
More on link

 Pakistan says U.S. drones in its air space will be shot down
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news service reports
Article Link

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan will shoot down any U.S. drone that intrudes its air space per new directives, a senior Pakistani official told NBC News on Saturday.

According to the new Pakistani defense policy, "Any object entering into our air space, including U.S. drones, will be treated as hostile and be shot down," a senior Pakistani military official told NBC News. 

The policy change comes just weeks after a deadly NATO attack on Pakistani military checkpoints accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting Pakistani officials to order all U.S. personnel out of a remote airfield in Pakistan.

Pakistan told the U.S. to vacate Shamsi Air Base by December 11.
More on link

Pakistan Invades India
December 8, 2011
Article Link

 Indian counter-terror operations recently resulted in the arrest of six Islamic terrorists, one of them a Pakistani, who were responsible for three attacks in India this year. This sort of thing is not unusual for India. Pakistan has been seeking, for decades, to organize a widespread Islamic terror campaign in India, but has been hampered by a lack of support from Indian Moslems. There are more Moslems in India than in Pakistan and the Indian Moslems are much better off economically and much less likely to embrace Islamic radicalism. But there is always a radical minority, and this keeps the Pakistani terrorists in business throughout India. 
More on link

 The Winter Of Discontent
December 6, 2011
Article Link

 Pakistan continues to insist it was the victim in a November 26th incident where Pakistani troops fired  across the border at Afghan and American troops, and an American airstrike response that killed 24 Pakistani troops. The Pakistani military is waging a major media campaign to portray itself as a victim of American aggression. For decades the Pakistani military has been pushing the idea that the U.S. is the enemy, even though Pakistan has gladly taken billions in American aid in the last decade. This border incident also gives the Pakistani generals another excuse to avoid shutting down (as the Americans keep demanding) one of the last two terrorist sanctuaries in the tribal territories; North Waziristan. This is what the Haqqani Network uses for their main base. The other sanctuary is in and around Quetta, the largest city in Baluchistan (southwest), and there Pakistan will not even let American UAVs operate. Quetta is where the Afghan Taliban leadership has been sheltered for the last decade and is right across the Afghan border from the Taliban heartland in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. Since the Taliban and other terror groups have not made terrorist attacks in Baluchistan, there has been an unofficial truce with the Pakistani government. That seems unlikely to change. The U.S. sees the Pakistani military as determined to maintain good relations with Islamic terrorists, and use incidents like this to extort more aid money out of the United States. Inside Pakistan, there is growing demand for an end to the Islamic terrorism, and, to a lesser extent, holding the military responsible for corruption and economic problems. 
More on link


----------



## GAP (11 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 11, 2011*

 Canadian Forces won't let Taliban run away
Article Link
BY MARK DUNN	 ,SENIOR NATIONAL REPORTER SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2011

OTTAWA - The remaining Canadian Forces' troops in Afghanistan performing non-combat duties will face situations involving the capture of insurgents and transferring them to U.S. forces.

A Defence Department official suggests that while "the likelihood that Canadian Forces will be required to take detainees is very low," it will happen.

On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced a new arrangement with the Americans that allows captured Taliban fighters and others to be transferred to a U.S. detention facility north of Kabul in Parwan.

"A small number of detainees will be transferred to the new facility," the official confirmed in an e-mail to QMI Agency.

"Individuals are detained by the Canadian Forces because they have either attacked or killed Canadian soldiers and officials, Afghan citizens or our international partners," says a background document.

"Or because there is credible information to suggest that they intend to do so."

Canada's combat role ended in July, but hundreds of troops are remaining to train Afghanistan's police and military personnel until 2014 as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
More on link

 Appeal of Taliban fading, ISAF commander says
Article Link
Allen denies tactical confusion in Afghanistan
By Francis Matthew, Editor at LargePublished: 00:00 December 11, 2011

Dubai: "The appeal of the Taliban is fading, and the Taliban's narrative is becoming stale," said a confident General John Allen, commander of the International Security Force in Afghanistan (ISAF).
Allen forcefully denied there was any confusion in ISAF tactics of both keeping up military pressure on the insurgents while at the same time seeking dialogue to find a political solution.
"We will pressure the insurgency, so they cannot find a military win," he said.
"As in any insurgency, they need to know that they cannot win by continuing to fight.
More on link


----------



## GAP (14 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 14, 2011*

 Canadian Mining Companies Make the Big Move into Afghanistan
Article Link
by Michael Skinner Global Research, December 13, 2011

On 24 November 2011, the Government of Afghanistan awarded a Canadian mining company, Kilo Goldmines, approximately 25 percent of the stake to develop the massive Hajigak iron deposit in Bamiyan Afghanistan. A consortium of Indian companies won the other 75 percent of the development.

The Hajigak deposit – the largest iron deposit in Asia and possibly the world – is “truly significant on a global scale”.

Developing Hajigak among approximately 1,500 other geological deposits in Afghanistan is significant not only economically, but also geopolitically in the global battle for control of Eurasia.

Investments measured in the tens of billions of dollars are necessary to develop the Hajigak mine and the transportation, communications, and energy infrastructure needed to support it. This is big business at work at its biggest scale working in tandem with the most powerful and wealthiest governments in the world.

With the announcement that a Canadian mining company will begin to reap some of the dividends of Canada’s significant military investment in Afghanistan, you might think the story would have been front-page news in Canada. It wasn’t. The story only made news in the mining journals.

Not surprisingly, it was news for Afghans, however.

Canadian mining in Bamiyan, Bamiyan province, Afghanistan.

The city of Bamiyan, near Hajigak, is the capital of Bamiyan province and the centre of Hazarajat – the home of the Hazara people. The Hazara are one of many distinct nations that compose the diverse multi-national state of Afghanistan. They are also one of the most oppressed and persecuted of the many Afghan nations.
More on link

Daily brief: Pakistan denies talks with Taliban
By Andrew Lebovich   Monday, December 12, 2011 
Article Link

Rumor mill

PakistaniPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan all denied this weekend that talks were taking place between the Pakistani government and the TTP (Reuters, AP, AJE, AFP). The statements came after the TTP's deputy commander and leader in Bajaur, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, saida peace deal with the government was close, and that the latter had released 145 TTP prisoners as part of the negotiations (BBC, Dawn, Reuters, CNN, ET, AP). 

Pakistan'smilitary confirmed Sunday that all U.S. personnel had left the Shamsi Airbase in the province of Balochistan, though U.S. officials said the base's closure to U.S. drone flights would have little impact on American counterterrorism operations in the country (NYT, ET, WSJ, AFP, Tel, AFP, Dawn, AJE, Reuters). Ananonymous Pakistani military official told NBC that any U.S. drones in Pakistani airspace would be shot down, as Pakistan has reportedly increased its air defenses along the border with Afghanistan (MSNBC, CNN).The departure of U.S. forces, ordered after a U.S. airstrike in Mohmandkilled 24 Pakistani soldiers last month, took place as Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan's shuttering of border crossings to U.S. supplies may last "weeks" (BBC, ET, AFP, ET). The stranded supply trucks and tankers are increasingly coming under attack and causing congestion in Pakistan's ports (ET, ET, CNN, ET, AFP). Chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey called U.S.-Pakistan relations "a mess" in remarks in Washington Friday (CNN, Dawn). And Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Monday chaired a meeting of 15 Pakistani ambassadors to key foreign capitals (ET, Dawn). 
More on link

Sask. soldiers leave Afghanistan better off than they found it
 BY BOB FLORENCE, THE STARPHOENIX DECEMBER 12, 2011
Article Link

As she leaves Afghanistan following her third mission in the country, Master Cpl. Colette Welch of Rosetown has a lasting image. She talks about being there the first time in 2006.

"A gentleman came up to me with two young children, girls around (age) three or four," said Welch, talking by phone one evening from Kandahar. "I'm in my army kit in a country where women are treated very differently. He shook my hand. He had his daughters shake my hand. I assume he wanted his daughters to see what women could do.

"This is the impact we've had, not only on men."
More on link

 Three Afghan Women Attacked With Acid After Sister Refused to Marry Local Gunman
Published December 02, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Article Link

Afghan gunmen attacked and poured acid on a father, his wife, and three daughters after the eldest daughter refused marriage to a warlord, Reuters reports. 

The unknown gunmen busted into the family's home Wednesday after eighteen-year-old Mumtaz, the oldest daughter, denied marriage to a local gunmen who the family considered a troublemaker and bully, Officials report. With her parents support, she instead got engaged to a relative.

"First they beat her father and then they attacked with acid," said Mumtaz's mother, who asked not to be identified.

All five are now receiving medical treatment, said Abdul Shokor Rahimi, head of the Kunduz regional hospital, Reuters reports.

"The father and oldest daughter are in critical condition as they have been attacked all over the body," Rahimi said.
More on link

 Australia countering IEDs in Afghanistan
Published: Dec. 13, 2011 
Article Link

CANBERRA, Australia, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Australia intends to acquire route-clearance vehicles for use by its troops in Afghanistan.

Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith and Minister for Defense Materiel Jason Clare announced that Australia would also upgrade about 200 Bushmaster vehicles to better protect troops from improvised explosive devices.

The route-clearance systems will include Husky MK IIIs from the United States, purchased through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program.

The four route-clearance packages will cost a total of about $71.5 million. Each package includes two Husky MK III vehicles with ground-penetrating radars; one Husky with an interrogator arm to confirm from a safe distance that an explosive hazard has been found; two protected High Mobility Engineer Excavators to repair damaged routes or create bypass routes; and two Australian-made Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles with mine rollers.
More on link

 Respected colonel fined $2,000, career ends with 'slight blemish'
COURT MARTIAL: Col. Paul Scagnetti's weapon accidentally discharged in Afghanistan
By DEBORA VAN BRENK, THE LONDON FREE PRESS  December 14, 2011 
Article Link

It was a few seconds of controlled chaos that blemished an otherwise-stellar military career.

And it was an incident that illustrates how seriously the Canadian Forces treats an act most civilians would regard as a minor blip.

Col. Paul Scagnetti pleaded guilty Tuesday to negligently discharging his rifle -- specifically, of "conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline" -- during a security exercise in Afghanistan last May.

Scagnetti most recently served with 31 Canadian Brigade, based in London. A 30-year reservist who also commanded 33 Brigade Group, Scagnetti was fined $2,000 during Tuesday's court martial, a rare proceeding that was the second court martial in London in two days.

In a spartan, white room with spotless tile floors and adorned only by a Canadian flag and the Canadian Forces ensign, Lt.-Col. J.G. Perron, the presiding military judge, heard of Scagnetti's record of service and the sole misstep of his career.

"Negligent discharge of a weapon is a serious offence," Perron said during sentencing. "We all understand the importance of keeping complete control over our weapons."
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (14 Dec 2011)

Taliban to have an address
Article link
Praveen Swami, _The Hindu_, 14 Dec 11

Ten years after 9/11, Islamist groups prepare to open political office in Qatar to conduct peace talks

Final arrangements have been put in place for the opening of a Taliban mission in the state of Qatar — the Islamist insurgent group's first formal diplomatic office since it was evicted from power after 9/11 and internationally proscribed for its links to al-Qaeda.

Indian diplomatic sources have told The Hindu the mission will be designated as a political office for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban calls itself, and have the privileges but not the formal protection of a diplomatic mission.

Taliban envoy Tayyab Agha, former private secretary to Mullah Omar, met representatives of the United States in Qatar last week to hammer out details on the role of the office, the sources said. Shahabudin Dilawar and Sohail Shaheen, both former Taliban diplomats, accompanied Mr. Agha.

Mullah Muhammad Zaeef, a Kabul-based interlocutor between the West and the Taliban's Pakistan leadership who served as the Emirate's envoy to Islamabad before 9/11, is said to be among those being considered to serve as the head of the political office. Mr. Zaeef's appointment is however being resisted by hardliners in Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar's Pakistan-based command council, the sources said.

News that the Taliban was planning an overseas mission first emerged in September. Both Istanbul and Qatar were considered possible headquarters for the mission. The Gulf kingdom was finally picked, the sources said, because of its proximity to the region — and also because the U.S. Air Force base there would facilitate logistics.
More on link


Afghanistan recalls envoy from Qatar 
Kabul recalls ambassador for "consultations" amid separate reports of a Taliban office to be opened in the Gulf state.
Al Jazeera English, 14 Dec 11
Article link

Afghanistan has recalled its ambassador from Qatar for "consultations," the Afghan foreign ministry announced, amid media reports over the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state.

In a statement on Wednesday, the foreign ministry thanked Qatar for help with reconstruction, but said the Afghan ambassador had been recalled to Kabul. It did not give any reason for the recall.

"Considering the recent developments in Afghanistan and the region, including the relations between Afghanistan and Qatar, the Afghan government has decided to recall Khalid Ahmad Zakaria from Doha for some consultations," the ministry said in the statement.

"Diplomatic relationship between the two countries will continue through the Embassy and Afghanistan's charge d'affaires in Doha."

The ministry did not respond to calls seeking comment on why the ambassador had been recalled.

However, The Hindu newspaper in India, citing unidentified Indian diplomatic sources, said that final arrangements had been put in place for a Taliban office in Qatar that would have "the privileges but not the formal protection of a diplomatic mission".

Details were agreed by a senior Taliban representative close to the group's leader, Mullah Omar, together with officials from Qatar and the US, the newspaper said.

_Plans for peace talks_

The US has discussed plans for the Taliban to open an address in Qatar by the end of the year in a move designed to allow the West to begin formal peace talks with the group, the AFP news agency reported.

The AFP quoted a high ranking Afghan government official, who spoke to the news agency anonymously, saying that the Afghan government was aware that Qatar had held talks with the US and Germany on allowing a Taliban office to open, and supported the move as a means of facilitating the peace process.

But he said: "The ambassador has been recalled as a protest over why they did not allow the Afghan government into these talks while there are official diplomatic relations between the two countries."

He added that the opening of such an office "should not be seen as a concession" to the Taliban, the AFP reported.
More on link


----------



## GAP (15 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 15, 2011*

 Canada's quest to turn Afghanistan’s army of phantoms into fighters
GRAEME SMITH ISTANBUL— From Thursday's Globe and Mail Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011
Article Link

The current rate at which Afghan soldiers walk away from their jobs, and other kinds of attrition from the army, will make it difficult to adequately build up the force before international troops leave the country in 2014, a top general says.

“Before the end of the NATO mission we really do need to get a grip on attrition,” said Major-General Michael Day, Canada's senior commander in Afghanistan, speaking by telephone from Kabul.

Military trainers are scrambling to build the Afghan National Army into a force that can stop the Taliban and prevent anarchy after foreign troops hand over responsibility for security.

Canada took on one of the toughest jobs during the fighting stage of the mission, on the front lines in Kandahar. Now Canadian soldiers have become central to the next “mission impossible” – bulking up the army.

For the 950 Canadian trainers deployed to Afghanistan in the coming years, it's not so much a matter of attracting more recruits, but rather a challenge of stemming the number of Afghan soldiers who simply quit
More on link

 Inside Taliban training camp, where suicide bombers are born
Reuters  Dec 14, 2011
Article Link

By Saud Mehsud

LADDA, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Taliban say they have started peace talks, but in a mountain camp young recruits learn how to mount ambushes, raid military facilities and undertake the most coveted missions — suicide bombings.

“America, NATO and other countries could do nothing to us despite having nuclear weapons,” said Shamim Mehsud, a senior Taliban commander training the fighters who hold AK-47 assault rifles and cover their faces with white cloth.

“Our suicide bombers turn their bones into bullets, flesh into explosives and blood into petrol and bravely fight them, and they have no answer to that.”

On Saturday the deputy commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, said exploratory peace talks with the U.S.-backed government were underway.
More on link

 Pakistani police rescue 54 students chained by clerics in the basement of an Islamic seminary
Reuters  Dec 13, 2011 
Article Link

By Imtiaz Shah
KARACHI — Police in the Pakistani city of Karachi have rescued 54 students from the basement of an Islamic seminary, or madrassa, where they said they were kept in chains by clerics, beaten and barely fed.

Police raided the Zakariya madrassa late on Monday on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial hub. They were now investigating whether it had any links to violent militant groups, which often recruit from hardline religious schools.

Most victims had signs of severe torture, and had developed wounds from the chains, police said. The main cleric of the madrassa escaped during the raid.

“Those 50 boys who were kept in such an environment like animals,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told journalists.

Many of the students — who varied in age from 15 to 45 and were kept 30 to a room — were still in chains while shown on television.
More on link

U.S. Congress freezes $700-million in aid to Pakistan
Reuters  Dec 13, 2011
Article Link

By Qasim Nauman and Rebecca Conway

ISLAMABAD — A Congressional panel has frozen $700-million in aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances it is helping fight the spread of homemade bombs in the region, a move one Pakistani senator called unwise and likely to strain ties further.

Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid and the cutback announced is only a small proportion of the billions in civil and military assistance it gets each year.

But it could presage even greater cuts.

Calls are growing in the United States to penalize Islamabad for failing to act against militant groups and, at worst, helping them, after the secret U.S. raid on a Pakistan garrison town in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in May.

Salim Saifullah, chairman of Pakistan’s Senate foreign relations committee, warned that relations, which are already at a low point, could worsen further following the decision by the U.S. House-Senate panel.

“I don’t think this is a wise move. It could hurt ties. There should instead be efforts to increase cooperation. I don’t see any good coming out of this,” Saifullah told Reuters.
More on link

 NATO drivers to US, Pakistan: Keep us truckin'
As Pakistan's blockade on NATO's Afghanistan supply lines enters day 20, truckers in Karachi are struggling to make ends meet.
Article Link
By Issam Ahmed, Correspondent / December 14, 2011

It's day 20 of Pakistan's blockade on NATO's Afghanistan supply lines, and few people are watching for updates more closely than Ijaz Khan.

The trucker has plied the 2,500-mile round-trip journey from the port of Karachi to the Afghan border town of Torkham since 2002. And though he dislikes the work, he desperately wants to get back on the job. 

“Everyone around here is waiting for the news that the blockade is over. We need to work to feed our families.” But, he adds: “I wish I had a different job. People hate NATO truck drivers, we get no respect.”
More on link


----------



## GAP (16 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 16, 2011*

Military clears JTF2 after lengthy Afghan probe
Article Link
Dec 15 2011

OTTAWA—The military has cleared Canada’s elite counter-terrorism unit of wrongdoing, wrapping up a more than three-year probe that began with an alleged murder in Afghanistan.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service said it could find no evidence to support allegations that a member of Joint Task Force 2 committed assault and murder against Afghan detainees in 2005 and 2006. Details are sketchy, but appear to relate to JTF2’s handling of detainees.

The findings of military police investigators were reached in October 2009 when they said that the killing in question was covered by the military’s “rules of engagement.”

A second phase of the investigation looked into whether members of the military failed to report serious crimes by forces from other countries between 2007 and 2008.

The two related probes were known as Project Sandtrap and separated into two phases so that the allegations of murder could be dealt with quickly.

“The investigation found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by any members of the Canadian Forces,” the military said in a statement, adding that certain evidence relating to forces from other countries were passed on to other military authorities.

The military police investigation involved about 100 interviews and work in both Canada and Afghanistan.
end

 Base posties breathe sigh of relief
Article Link
By Jerome Lessard Posted 14 hours ago
CFB TRENTON - The recent conclusion of the Canadian Forces' 10-year mission in Afghanistan also gave Canadian military postmasters a chance to catch their breath.

Since April 2005, dozens of postal clerks like Sgt. Carlo Gagnon have processed the equivalent of 98,841 mail bags for a total weight of 1,759,498 kg. sent to Afghanistan from the Trenton air base's CF Postal Unit.
More on link

IPhones Guide Artillery Fire as Pentagon Plans App Store: Tech
Article Link
 December 15, 2011 

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- At Camp Blessing in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, some American soldiers played “Angry Birds” on their iPhones when off-duty. Jonathan Springer decided to put his device to a different use: building an app to help fight the Taliban.

“I wanted to give something back to soldiers that might help save their lives,” Springer, 32, said in an interview from his base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The result is Tactical Nav, an iPhone application the U.S. Army captain built with $30,000 of his savings and a maxed-out credit card a year ago. The $5.99 app uses GPS technology and the iPhone's camera to chart coordinates and guide artillery fire. It has been downloaded about 8,000 times by U.S., Canadian and Australian soldiers, as well as hunters and hikers, Springer said. From e-mails he has received from soldiers who have gone on patrol with it, the app has been used in both combat and training, Springer said.

If Teri Takai gets her way, American soldiers, sailors and marines may all soon be able to download Tactical Nav and other military programs through a dedicated U.S. Defense Department app store. Takai, the department's chief information officer, wants to build a secure network of smartphone apps to help soldiers fight in new ways, from more precise maps to better manuals. If security challenges get resolved, the project will result in a revenue source for app developers and a potential boon for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
More on link


----------



## Petard (21 Dec 2011)

Canadians at KMTC: Working shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghan gunners

www.afghanistan.gc.ca/canada-afghanistan/stories-reportages/2011_12_19.aspx?lang=eng&view=d


----------



## GAP (21 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 21, 2011*

Five Polish soldiers killed by Afghanistan bomb
Article Link
 21 December 2011

Polish media said the soldiers were a few miles from their base in Ghazni province when the bomb exploded.

Three soldiers died at the scene. Another two were said to have died of their wounds at a military hospital.

Poland has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan who are responsible for handling security in Ghazni.

The soldiers were part of a provincial reconstruction team, according to Polish reports, who were in an all-terrain M-ATV vehicle.
More on link

 Army says it needs to study report completed in April
Contractor blames government for policies leading to rogue gunman's hiring
Article Link
Posted: December 20, 2011 

The way private military contractors in Afghanistan recruit their guards to protect U.S. troops is being scrutinized following published accounts of a U.S. Army investigation into the killing of a Canyon Country man that exposes systemic shortcomings.

In April, a U.S. Army investigator in Afghanistan released his findings into the March 19 shooting at Forward Operating Base Frontenac in which a rogue private security firm recruit killed two soldiers - including Army Spc. Rudy A. Acosta of Canyon Country - and left four wounded.

His report, however, surfaced only now to the surprise and anger of those eagerly awaiting its conclusions, including Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, who at the time of the attack called on General David Petraeus, then commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force, to launch an investigation.

As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, McKeon received a copy of the April report for the first time last week and immediately fired off a stinging letter of rebuke to Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta.

Panetta spokesman Bryan Whitman responded to The Signal Tuesday in an e-mail that reads: "Looks to me that the 15-6 (investigation) was conducted by the Army - specifically the 10th Mountain Division, so I think your questions would be best directed to the United States Army."

U.S. Army officials, meanwhile, need more time to study the report before answering questions about its recommendations, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

U.S. Army Col. James Hutton said Tuesday, "It's going to take some time before someone can respond to your questions." He said the first time he heard about the report was when he read The Signal's story online Monday night.

"We are diligently going to try and get these questions answered for you," Hutton said.

The Army investigation is one of several similar probes now under way into the hiring practices of private security contractors.

A week after the attack, Brigadier General Kenneth R. Dahl appointed a U.S. Army investigator to look into both the March 19 incident and the hiring practices of Tundra Security, the Canadian private security firm that hired the gunman.

The investigator identified "several areas and procedures that could be improved to prevent" similar future insurgent attacks like the one that claimed the life of Acosta.

The investigator concluded:

n The gunman, Shia Ahmed, hired by Tundra, expressed a desire to kill U.S. soldiers in July 2010, several months before the Acosta shooting. Although Tundra fired him, it "failed to ensure his files were updated to reflect that he should not be hired again," the report said.

n The policies defining the duties and responsibilities for vetting individuals recruited by private contractors is vague and confusing.
More on link

Army: Broken Vetting Process to Blame for SCV Soldier’s Death
McKeon to launch investigation as Pentagon withholds report for nine months despite inquiries
BY LEON WORDEN, SCVNEWS.COM | TUESDAY, DEC. 20, 2011
Article Link

Dante Acosta got many of the answers he was looking for Monday, and most of them aren’t pretty.
Acosta’s son Rudy, 19, and another soldier were killed March 19 in Afghanistan when an Afghan national who’d been hired as a private security guard opened fire on them while they were cleaning their weapons. More soldiers were wounded before one of them managed to kill the infiltrator.
Who was responsible for vetting this guy?
Everyone and no one, according to the AR 15-6 investigation report completed by an Army major nine months ago on April 14.
U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Acosta’s congressman, learned of the report’s existence Thursday night. A McKeon staffer presented the report to Dante Acosta on Monday afternoon.
Both men have been asking the Pentagon for answers ever since they learned the manner in which Rudy Acosta died.
McKeon asked then-commanding Gen. David Petraeus for answers in a March 28 letter, unaware the investigation had been ordered by a one-star general two days earlier.
Petraeus promised McKeon “a thorough investigation”in a letter dated April 17, apparently unaware the investigation had been completed three days earlier.
Why it took nine months for the findings to reach McKeon and Acosta remains a mystery.
In a new document, McKeon said he received emails in August saying the investigation “would be delayed because of backlogs in the standard processing of similar investigations.”
More on link

Upper Gereshk: The Helmand plan meets tough reality
By John Cantlie Gereshk Valley, Helmand
Article Link
 1 October 2011 

After 10 years in Afghanistan, foreign troops can claim successes in the notorious province of Helmand - but a vicious guerrilla war still rages in the Upper Gereshk valley, which US marines are in the process of handing back to British forces.

It has only just turned 07:00 and it's already pushing 35C (95F). The three litres of warm water you drank at dawn have already soaked into your flak vest.

The patrol advances slowly, inching through poppy fields like their lives depended on it. Suddenly a massive explosion rips through the air less than 50m behind. The Taliban have booby-trapped the right-hand gate of the compound with a grenade and an IED (improvised explosive device) during the night. By chance we exited by the left gate.

"Well good morning to you, too," grunts a marine.

Twenty-one-year-old Dustin Weier picks himself up and leads with a metal detector sweeping this way and that, followed by a dog handler with a black Labrador called Moxi. Both are there to detect the countless other IEDs buried just inches under the dry, lumpy soil, and they're not always successful. The patrol follows directly in their footsteps, a safe path indicated by baby powder or bottle-tops placed on the dirt.
More on link

What now for Afghanistan, 10 years on?
By John Simpson BBC World affairs editor
Article Link
 6 October 2011

A little under 10 years ago, as the fighting ended and the people of Kabul emerged from their houses to realise that the nightmare of Taliban rule was over, I watched some children make a kite and start to fly it.

It was a celebration of their new independence - kite-flying, like singing, whistling, showing any skin above the ankle or possessing photos or drawings of human beings, was a crime punishable by savage beating.

The Taliban government of 1996-2001 was the most extreme form of government I have ever seen. And the most absurd - the man who often cut the hands and feet off convicted thieves was the minister of health.

When the Taliban were chased out of the towns and cities of Afghanistan with Western help, I assumed that they would never be back.

It never occurred to me that the United States and Britain would, only a year later, be planning an all-out invasion of a different country, Iraq; or that the money that might have lifted Afghanistan out of its wretched poverty might be spent on overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

'More sophisticated'
In the years between 2001 and 2005, with scarcely anyone in the West noticing, the Taliban started to come back. British and American diplomats based here often used to tear their hair out in private when they realised what was happening.
More on link


----------



## GAP (22 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 22, 2011*

Americans troops who relieved Canadians face charges in soldier's death
By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press  12/21/2011 
Article Link

OTTAWA - Zangabad was the kind of place that used to send shivers down the spines of Canadian troops, a boiling cauldron of never-ending roadside bombs, booby traps and ambushes that drove even the best right up to the edge.
American soldiers stepped into that breach, 45 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, six months ago and now eight of them stand accused of contributing to the death of one of their own at a hard-scrabble combat outpost ironically nicknamed The Palace by soldiers of the Royal 22e Regiment.
The controversy has opened a window on the war left behind by the Canadian withdrawal.
Pte. Danny Chen, 19, an infantryman with the C Company of the 3rd Battalion, 21st U.S. Infantry Regiment, apparently committed suicide on Oct. 3 in one of the plywood and sandbag guard towers — an alleged victim of bullying and abuse, according to reports in the U.S. media.
Eight of his platoon mates were charged with counts ranging from dereliction of duty to making a false statement to assault, negligent homicide and reckless endangerment.
It is unclear whether the U.S. military believes the soldiers killed Chen — or whether they drove him to suicide.
More on link

US admits mistakes over killings of Pakistan troops
Article Link
 22 December 2011

The US military has admitted it bears significant responsibility for last month's air strike on the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

A statement said US and Afghan troops acted in self defence, but conceded there had been a lack of proper co-ordination with Pakistani forces.

A Pentagon spokesman later expressed "deep regret" over the incident.

In retaliation for the killings, Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan, cutting Nato supply lines.

There was no immediate response from Pakistan to the findings of the US investigation. Pakistan, a vital partner in the fight against militants in the region, has demanded a formal US apology.

'Incorrect mapping'
In the statement the US once again expressed its deepest regret for the "tragic loss of life" caused by the air strike in Mohmand tribal agency on 26 November.
More on link

Why have Afghanistan's Shias been targeted now?
By Waheed Massoud BBC Afghan Editor, Kabul  6 December 2011
Article Link

The deadly and unprecedented attack on a packed shrine in a historic district of Kabul has put the spotlight on Afghanistan's Shia minority.

Unlike their brethren in Pakistan, Afghanistan's Shias have largely escaped the wrath of the Sunni militant groups that operate in both countries.

There have been low-level tensions between the Shia and Sunni communities and one clash in the largely Sunni area of Herat in 2006 left five dead.

But over the last decade Shias in Afghanistan have been able to celebrate their festivals on a larger scale and with more confidence and openness than ever before.

Ashura, the climax of Muharram, the month of mourning for the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, is the most important day of the Shia calendar and in Afghanistan it is now marked with a public holiday.

Every Ashura, streets in Shia areas of Kabul are lined with black flags - as a symbol of the community's mourning.
More on link

Pakistan plot to overthrow government, says PM Gilani
Article Link
 22 December 2011

Conspirators are plotting to bring down Pakistan's civilian government, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.

Without specifically blaming the military, he said it was accountable to parliament and no institution could be a state within a state.

His government is struggling with a memo scandal that has forced the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the US and threatens the president.

The leaked memo allegedly asked for US help to prevent a military takeover.

Correspondents are describing Mr Gilani's tirade as an unprecedented attack by a civilian leader on Pakistan's powerful military.
More on link


----------



## GAP (25 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 25, 2011*

Canadian commander in Kabul urges soldiers to help lonely comrades at Christmas
Friday, Dec 23, 2011 03:15 pm | Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canadian troops will celebrate their first Christmas in years away from the guns of Kandahar, but still far from home.

Plans are well underway to celebrate the holiday among the roughly 950 soldiers involved in the mission to train the Afghan army at bases in Kabul, as well as in the north and west of the war-wasted country.

Maj.-Gen. Mike Day, the top Canadian military officer in Afghanistan and deputy commander of NATO's training mission, says the season is a time for reflection and troops are pulling together.

"It's tough," said Day, in an interview from Kabul.
More on link

Deadly suicide attack on Afghanistan funeral in Takhar
Article Link
 25 December 2011 Last updated at 09:33 ET

At least 22 people, including a prominent MP, have been killed in a suicide bombing at a funeral in north-eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

Fifty people were also hurt when a man detonated his explosive vest as prayers were about to be said at the funeral in Taloqan, a city in Takhar province.

Local MP Mutalib Beg, a former commander in the Western-backed Northern Alliance, died at the scene.

Takhar has seen a series of high-profile attacks over the last year.

In May, the police commander for northern Afghanistan was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack on the provincial governor's compound.
'Target'

Intelligence and security officials told the BBC that Sunday's suicide attack took place at about 12:00 (07:30 GMT), as people gathered for the funeral of a government official in Taloqan.
More on link

Pakistan Imran Khan rally draws tens of thousands
Article Link
 25 December 2011 Last updated at 11:34 ET

Tens of thousands of people have turned out at a rally in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi for former cricketer turned politician Imran Khan.

Mr Khan, who has been an established politician for many years but has struggled to win votes, has seen his support increase recently.

Correspondents say he has been riding a wave of disillusionment, particularly among the urban middle class.

The next national elections are scheduled for 2013.
'Potent power'

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, at the rally, says there were posters, banners and T-shirts espousing hope - clearly reminiscent of the sentiment that carried President Barack Obama to office in the US.

One supporter there told the BBC: "I'm highly optimistic that Imran Khan has the potent power to bring in change which we highly need because our country can't survive without a fair and just leadership.
More on link


----------



## GAP (26 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 26, 2011*

Afghan National Security Forces make history in Taliban stronghold
Article Link

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MASUM GHAR, Afghanistan - The history books in Panjwa’i district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, has historically been written by the Taliban. Known more commonly as the birthplace of the Taliban and a strategic stronghold for the insurgents, each chapter in Panjwa’i holds stories of insurgents’ dominance with little to no resistance from either Afghan or coalition forces.

In July, the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, operating as Task Force Arctic Wolves, moved into the area and began a partnership with Afghan forces in an effort to begin writing a new chapter, one that the people of Afghanistan controlled instead of the insurgents.

On Dec. 17, the 1st Brigade, 205th Afghan National Army Corps, began rewriting the history books as they began Operation Hope Hero 58. 
More on link

'Mammoth task' lies ahead in Afghanistan 
POLICE CHIEF RICK HANSON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2011
Article Link

As the aircraft circled over Kabul lining up for its approach onto the runway, I was craning my neck against the window trying to take in every detail that I could see.

After all, Kabul is the capital city of a country that has been at war virtually non stop for 30 years.

The pre-briefings in Ottawa prior to leaving outlined some disturbing facts about a country of roughly 30 million where there is little acceptance of any centralized form of government.

46% of the country’s population is age 14 or under. The median age is 18 and only 14% of the country is literate. In other words, 86% of the population can neither read nor write.

Having spent the last 37 years in policing, I know what these numbers mean.

In any society, children have to grow up with hope and an opportunity to improve their living conditions.

Without that opportunity, the risk is high marginalized young people will gravitate towards activities that will provide them with the trappings of life that will put them on an even keel with those who are affluent.
More on link

Deadly suicide attack on Afghanistan funeral in Takhar
Article Link
 25 December 2011 

At least 22 people, including a prominent MP, have been killed in a suicide bombing at a funeral in north-eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

Fifty people were also hurt when a man detonated his explosive vest as prayers were about to be said at the funeral in Taloqan, a city in Takhar province.

Local MP Mutalib Beg, a former commander in the Western-backed Northern Alliance, died at the scene.

Takhar has seen a series of high-profile attacks over the last year.

In May, the police commander for northern Afghanistan was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack on the provincial governor's compound.
More on link


----------



## GAP (27 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 27, 2011*

 Jonathan Kay on Afghanistan: The end of the mission isn’t the end of the road
Jonathan Kay  Dec 26, 2011 
Article Link

This month brings an end to the longest combat mission in Canadian history. About 1,000 Canadian Forces soldiers will remain in Afghanistan with the NATO Training Mission. Yet here in Canada, there has been very little debate about what our remaining troops and diplomats should be doing in Afghanistan to protect the fragile gains that our sacrifice (158 soldiers lost, plus one diplomat, a journalist and two aid workers) has made possible. Is the dream of a functional Afghan democracy still realistic? And if it is, what can Canada do to make it real?

These are questions that are hard to answer from a desk in Toronto. So I’ve spent the last few days speaking with National Post op-ed contributors who’ve traveled to Afghanistan in recent years, and asked them to share their impressions.

One point of consensus: If there is long-term hope for Afghanistan, it rests in large part with the increasingly professional Afghan army. Everyone agreed that Canada can help Afghanistan by continuing to provide military training. The sooner Afghans can secure their country without American military support, the better.

“Americans arrive with a lot of firepower and not enough firepower control,” says Caldwell Securities Ltd. chairman Thomas S. Caldwell, who traveled to Afghanistan in 2009 with the Conference of Defence Associations Institute. “They have to stop killing non-combatants. If you kill a Pashtun, they will never forget it. A hundred years from now, his relatives will be talking about how Americans killed their great-great grandfather.”

Yet the people I spoke with also recognize that no military force in Afghanistan – indigenous or otherwise – can secure the country so long as regional foreign powers continue to support the insurgents.
More on link

Monitoring the dangerous Pakistani border
By Clarissa Ward December 26, 2011
Article Link

The Afghan government Monday signaled that it may be open to peace talks with the Taliban. In the meantime, Taliban fighters keep slipping back and forth across the border with Pakistan. American soldiers are on a mission to stop them and CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward spent time with one squad on a remote base in a mountainous border region.
Sgt. Eric Scharf knows the importance of discipline as squad leader at a tiny outpost of just 19 soldiers overlooking the dangerous Pakistani border. His men are the eyes and ears for key U.S. bases below, trying to keep them safe from insurgent attacks.

"If they are close enough to be firing us, we're close enough to be firing them," said Scharf. "The guys need to be quick. They need to be accurate and they need to be absolutely brutal when the time calls for it."

Perched at 7,000 feet, it doesn't get much more isolated than here. The stunning scenery provides abundant hiding places for an enemy the men rarely catch a glimpse of.
More on link

Pakistan: PM Gilani denies he is to sack army chief
Article Link
 26 December 2011

Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has dismissed reports he is planning to sack army and intelligence chiefs.

This follows latest rumours in the Pakistan media about a rift between politicians and the military.

Earlier, the army chief denied reports of plans to oust the civilian government - after the PM spoke of a conspiracy, referring to the army.

Tensions are high in the wake of a leaked memo that allegedly asked for US help to prevent a military coup.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari - who recently spent nearly two weeks in Dubai for medical treatment - denies any role in the memo.
More on link

China gets approval for Afghanistan oil exploration bid
Article Link
 26 December 2011

China has gained potential access to millions of barrels of oil after it won approval for oil exploration and extraction in Afghanistan.

The country's cabinet approved a deal to allow China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to develop oil blocks in the Amu Darya Basin.

The basin is estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil.

The deal comes as China is looking to expand its oil resources in wake of a growing domestic demand.

"The Afghan cabinet has ordered mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation," Afghanistan president's office said in a statement.

'Taking a punt'
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

It is about five to ten years before they can get a feel of what is under the ground and start commercially producing it”

The state-owned CNPC will carry out the oil exploration and extraction with a local partner, the Watan Group.

While there has been a lot of talk about the potential of natural resources in Afghanistan, analysts said that it was too early to predict the profitability of the venture.

"To a certain extent they are taking a punt," Tony Regan of Tri-Zen, a Singapore-based consultancy, told the BBC.

Mr Regan explained that CNPC will have to spend a considerable amount of money to explore the basin before it can actually find out about the amount of oil that may exist there.

"It is about five to ten years before they can get a feel of what is under the ground and start commercially producing it," he added.
More on link


----------



## GAP (27 Dec 2011)

Afghanistan to Disband Irregular Police Force Set Up Under NATO
Article Link
 By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and ALISSA J. RUBIN  December 26, 2011 

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai has taken steps to disband a little-known, irregular police force financed by the American military with members in at least four northern provinces. Some members of the force are former militiamen and thugs known as much for extorting money from ordinary citizens as for intimidating insurgents and upholding the law. 

The decision appeared aimed at stopping at least some of the militias that are beyond the control of Mr. Karzai’s administration and could one day challenge the government. It also appeared to be an effort to constrain the independence of northern Afghanistan, where strongmen and power brokers, especially the governor of Balkh Province, have often seemed to operate with only nominal deference to the central government in Kabul.

Additionally, it was a slap at NATO, which has had a hand in establishing this particular force, known as the Critical Infrastructure Police.

For Mr. Karzai, the potential long-term threat posed by an irregular police force outweighed any short-term gains it could deliver, said Shaida M. Abdali, Afghanistan’s deputy national security adviser. The force is distinct from a far larger irregular police force, the Afghan Local Police, which Mr. Karzai is preserving, and which is under the control of the Interior Ministry. “We don’t want a force that is likely to be out of control. We don’t want a force that will become a future security threat,” Mr. Abdali said.

The Critical Infrastructure Police has members in Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan and Faryab Provinces, according to a letter sent this month to the governors of those provinces by Maj. Gen. Markus Kneip of Germany, the head of NATO’s Regional Command North. Mr. Karzai’s disbandment announcement, released Sunday, said the force also operates in Sar-i-Pul Province.

The force, officially set up in August by Regional Command North, was organized in part to fill a security gap, but it also appears to have been an effort to get control of the scores of often lawless militia groups that intimidate residents in the region.

In Kunduz Province, for instance, local officials and tribal leaders said that many of the infrastructure police officers were simply militiamen renamed. Numbering 1,200 to 1,700 men, according to the estimates of local officials, the infrastructure police officers are untrained, mostly self-armed or armed by the strongmen who are their patrons. They do not wear uniforms.

Formerly unpaid, the force’s members used to routinely extort money, food, fuel and other support in areas under their jurisdiction. NATO then used an American discretionary fund to pay monthly salaries of $150 per officer and $200 per commander, partly in hopes that they would stop such behavior. But it still happens, according to local police officials, one of whom described the force members as “thieves and lowlifes.” 
More on link


----------



## GAP (28 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 28, 2011*

 Afghan Taliban on Night Raids, New Explosives, the ISI, Peace
Dec 27, 2011
Article Link

Peace in Afghanistan has never seemed more distant. After a full decade of combat, even after the start of America’s phased military withdrawal, no one has the upper hand, let alone a realistic prospect of actually winning the war. Each party in the conflict—the Americans, their Afghan government allies, and their Afghan Taliban adversaries—has weaknesses and vulnerabilities that preclude a decisive victory. Although peace negotiations might seem like the only sane option in such a stalemate, efforts to bring the insurgents to the table have repeatedly failed. The Taliban’s top leadership has shown not the slightest interest in meaningful talks, or in peace at all.

The insurgents’ rejection of negotiations has nothing to do with how they’re faring on the battlefield. Far from it: in the past two years the U.S. military surge in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s traditional heartland, has mostly driven the guerrillas to the peripheries of far-flung villages, if not all the way back to their sanctuaries in Pakistan. The insurgents themselves admit that the coalition’s relentless nighttime commando raids on their hideouts have decimated the ranks of mid- and lower-level Taliban commanders, bomb makers, and operational facilitators. The danger is so great that senior guerrilla commanders rarely set foot on Afghan soil. Instead, the insurgents’ hierarchy spends most of its time hiding in plain sight across the border, safe in Pakistani territory. A senior Taliban commander admitted as much recently while on a rare visit inside Afghanistan. “Taliban fighters can live in Afghanistan, but our leaders can’t,” he told a Newsweek correspondent. “The reason is the night raids.”
More on link

Stumbling Around In The Dark
Article Link
December 25, 2011


 In Pakistan, the generals are particularly keen to see president Zardari resign or otherwise leave office. Zardari has been very vocal about the need for the generals to take orders from elected leaders. The generals consider this heresy and not in the best interest of Pakistan. The Pakistani military considers itself under attack and in danger of losing some of its independence and privileges. The Pakistani military is actually under attack, both by America and by many Pakistanis who are fed up with the arrogance and incompetence of the generals. The Pakistani military takes a huge chunk of the national income, lives very well (especially the senior officers) and treats the elected government with disdain. In turn, the civilian government now openly admits that it has no control over the military. This is a reality that, for decades, the generals and politicians pretended did not exist. That has changed and the generals don't like it. The generals are even less amused by the growing disdain they are being shown by the Pakistani media and public. Pointing out that the Pakistani military had lost every war it had been in was for a long time a quick way to get yourself killed or, if you were lucky, jailed. That's much less true today and the generals don't like it one bit. The generals want some respect. No, make that a lot of respect, but they are not as willing to kill for it as they were in the past. So now the generals are trying to portray the United States as the enemy of Pakistan and seeking to destroy Pakistan. Lots of Pakistanis agree with this kind of talk, but these inventions only take you so far. The generals have started something they can't stop or control and are now very uneasy about where it will all end.
More on link

Taliban Take A Tumble
Article Link
December 23, 2011


 The U.S. has completed the withdrawal of 10,000 troops from Afghanistan, reducing the American force from 101,000 to 91,000. All foreign troops are planning on leaving by 2014. Meanwhile, the foreign troops remain fully engaged in combat. The Taliban and drug gangs continue to run a terrorism campaign against civilians who will not cooperate or submit to Taliban or gang control.  Foreign troops often go after Taliban who participate in these terrorist acts (especially murders and kidnappings). Increasingly, the guilty parties are caught and kidnap victims are freed.
For the first time in five years Taliban attacks were down (nearly 20 percent) over an entire year. Despite the hostile relations with Pakistan, the Taliban bases in Pakistan are increasingly unsafe, denying the Afghan Taliban sanctuaries. The Pakistanis are not happy with the growing activity of Islamic terror groups inside Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan is itself headed for more unrest, or even civil war, as public anger against the military and ISI (the local CIA) increases.

Despite the often corrupt behavior of the police, Taliban and outlaw efforts to disable the Afghan police are increasingly failing. The police are better armed and trained, and attacks on their bases tend to fail. Police patrols are more difficult to ambush and the cops more frequently win firefights with the Taliban and gangs.
More on link


----------



## GAP (29 Dec 2011)

*Articles found December 29, 2011*


 Child bride imprisoned in bathroom for 5 months	
By QMI Agency	
Article Link
Another Article Link with video

Police in Afghanistan say they've rescued a child bride who was confined in a bathroom for more than five months.

Sahar Gul, 15, was found in the basement of her husband's house late Monday after her parents had reported her missing, reports Agence France-Presse. They hadn't been able to contact her since her marriage seven months ago to a man who is not named in the report.

District police chief Fazel Rahman told AFP, "She was beaten, her fingernails were removed and her arm was broken." She was taken to hospital suffering severe shock.

Police believe she may have been punished for refusing to be forced into prostitution by her in-laws.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011, compared with 2,700 cases for all of 2010, according to the AFP report.

And according to an Oxfam report released in October, more than 87% of Afghan women report having experienced at least one form of physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

Three women, including Gul's mother-in-law, have been arrested in connection with the case, but her husband has not been located.
end

Acid sprayed over Afghan family in marriage row
Article Link
 30 November 2011

A gang in north Afghanistan reportedly indignant at a father's refusal to give his daughter up for marriage have sprayed the family of five with acid.

Allegedly led by the suitor, they broke into the house in Kunduz, beat the father up, then sprayed him, his wife and three daughters in the face.

The father and eldest daughter are in critical condition, doctors say.

The lives of the wife and other two daughters are said to be out of danger after the attack early on Wednesday.

Skin-burning acid is used intermittently as a weapon in Afghanistan, usually against women, correspondents say.

Family members told the BBC the trouble had stemmed from the father's refusal to allow a member of a militia known as the Arbakis to marry the elder daughter, Mumtaz, 18.

The suitor was reportedly much older than the young woman.

He allegedly broke into the family home with his followers carrying acid in buckets.

Growing problem

"The man who did this is a criminal thug," a family member told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul.

"There is no reason why we should be forced to accede to his demands. It is now a serious crime he has committed and the police must arrest him.''

The Arbakis have been accused of a range of crimes including rape and extortion, our correspondent says.

Many people in Kunduz believe police will not pursue them because they have been fighting the Taliban and are considered a powerful force but police told the BBC that there were no Arbakis in Kunduz.

However, no-one denies that acid attacks are a growing problem.

In the conservative, Taliban-influenced south and east, acid has been thrown at girls attending schools.
More on link

US Army unveils 1.8 gigapixel camera helicopter drone
Article Link
 29 December 2011

New helicopter-style drones with 1.8 gigapixel colour cameras are being developed by the US Army.

The army said the technology promised "an unprecedented capability to track and monitor activity on the ground".

A statement added that three of the sensor-equipped drones were due to go into service in Afghanistan in either May or June.

Boeing built the first drones, but other firms can bid to manufacture others.

"These aircraft will deploy for up to one full year as a way to harness lessons learned and funnel them into a program of record," said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Munster, product manager at the US Army's Unmanned Aerial System Modernization unit.

Big eyes
The A160 Hummingbird systems are capable of vertical take-off, meaning access to a runway is not necessary.

The army also confirmed that they have hovering capabilities - something its existing unmanned aircaft lack.
More on link

Petraeus nearly quit over Afghan drawdown, book claims
29 December 2011
Article Link

General David Petraeus almost resigned over President Barack Obama's decision to draw down US troops levels in Afghanistan, says a new biography.

But he ultimately decided quitting would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications".

The book is "part hagiography" of the commander, according to AP news agency, which has seen an advance copy.

The CIA, of which Gen Petraeus is now the director, denied he had considered quitting as Afghan commander.

"Director Petraeus has publicly stated that he never contemplated resignation," CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said on Thursday.

'Self-promotion'
Gen Petraeus, then head of Nato forces in Afghanistan, was nominated by Mr Obama in April to direct the intelligence agency.

The president soon afterwards announced that 33,000 US troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 2012.

The new biography covers Gen Petraeus's 37-year Army career, from his time as a West Point cadet to masterminding the counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Co-author Paula Broadwell reportedly had extensive access to the four-star general for the book.

"His critics fault him for ambition and self-promotion," she writes, but adds that "his energy, optimism and will to win stand out more for me".

The biography also says that Gen Petraeus felt frustrated at being viewed as an outsider of the current US administration.
More on link


----------

