# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2009



## GAP (30 Sep 2009)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2009 *               

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


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## GAP (1 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 1, 2009*

Black Watch soldiers destroy Taleban stronghold in dramatic raid
 October 1, 2009
Article Link

Hundreds of soldiers from the Black Watch have destroyed a Taleban stronghold after uncovering a network of tunnels that concealed bomb factories, the Ministry of Defence said.

About 500 soldiers, including members of the Afghan National Army and Canadian experts, swooped into Howz-e-Maded in the Zhari district of Kandahar province in three waves of six Chinook helicopters.

They were dropped within touching distance of Taleban positions. The insurgents were taken by surprise and quickly overwhelmed. The raid, before dawn on September 14, was the last major assault carried out by The Black Watch before they are to return home.

The Black Watch (3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland) was supported by British, Canadian and US bombers, attack helicopters and unmanned drones. The target was known to be one of the biggest insurgent strongholds in southern Afghanistan. 
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 Pakistan Taliban chief's brother killed: officials
(AFP) – 12 hours ago
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The brother of new Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed in a clash with the military in the tribal region where insurgents hold sway, security officials said Thursday.

Kalimullah Mehsud was killed on Monday in a battle in the lawless insurgent stronghold of North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.

"Kalimullah was buried on Wednesday. He was killed on Monday in crossfire with security forces," a security official in North Waziristan told AFP.

An intelligence official in the region confirmed the report.

The English-language Dawn newspaper quoted Taliban spokesman Qari Hussain as saying that suicide bombers were being prepared to avenge the death.

"We will take revenge of the assassination of Baitullah and Kalimullah," Hussain was quoted as saying, referring also to Hakimullah Mehsud's predecessor Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in the tribal belt last month.
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 US helicopter hit in Afghanistan
Thu, 01 Oct 2009
Article Link

Militants have fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a US helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, but there were no casualties, says a military press officer.

Captain Elizabeth Mathias said the shooing happened on Thursday in Nangarhar province near the eastern border with Pakistan.

He said the helicopter was damaged in the dawn incident, but no one was seriously hurt.

"It did land due to enemy fire. Light injuries. None killed. Nothing severe," she was quoted as saying by Reuters.
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## GAP (2 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 2, 2009*

 Allies looking to Canada to decide post-2011 Afghan involvement: source
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 11 hours ago
Article Link

OTTAWA — The U.S., Britain and other NATO countries are waiting for Canada to decide precisely what kind of role it can play in Afghanistan once the current mission ends in 2011, says a high-level diplomatic source.

The silence and seeming indecision in Ottawa about the scope and shape of the future redevelopment mission is disconcerting to allies, who are struggling to refocus the overall strategy in troubled mission.

President Barack Obama has convened a series of high-level meetings in Washington this week and more will follow next week to consider a request for as many as 40,000 additional troops.

Beyond saying that Canada's combat operations will come to an end and there will be a "transition" to a development mission, the Conservative government has said nothing publicly about how it will accomplish that goal and, more importantly, what the consequences will be.

A diplomatic source said there have many behind-the-scenes discussions with Canadian officials who oversee the Afghan file and several meetings involving allied envoys, but no clear resolution.

"It's very tricky, you (may) have an election coming up," said a senior allied official involved in the talks who could only speak on background.
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 FACTBOX: Uzbek militant leader killed in Pakistan
Fri Oct 2, 2009 2:54am EDT
  Article Link

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked Uzbek militant leader, Tahir Yuldashev, was killed in Pakistan in a U.S. drone missile strike in August, Pakistani intelligence agency officials said on Friday.

Yuldashev, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), was killed on August 27 in South Waziristan on the Afghan border, where he had been based for some years, they said.

Here are some fact about Yuldashev:

* Yuldashev first emerged in the late 1980s as the founder of the Adolat, or Justice, movement, a gang of young Muslim vigilantes meting out mediaeval punishment in Uzbekistan's breathtakingly beautiful Ferghana Valley during the Soviet Union's final days.

* Thieves and prostitutes would be seated on donkeys, face to tail, and paraded around town, others beaten with sticks or tied to poles for passersby to spit in their faces.

* Precursors to the Taliban, Adolat youths wearing green armbands would drag off any woman daring to wear a short skirt and shave her head.
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Pentagon ships new M-ATVs to Afghanistan
  October 1, 2009 12:02 PM PDT
Article Link

U.S. troops in Afghanistan are now starting to receive the first of thousands of a new vehicle intended for treacherous mountain roads and tight urban lanes.

The Defense Department said Wednesday that it had loaded seven M-ATVs (for "mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles") onto a pair of aircraft for deployment to Afghanistan. Over the course of the next year, the military expects to field more than 6,600 of the vehicles (Click for a PDF of the M-ATV's brochure).

The M-ATV fits into a middle ground between up-armored Humvees, which it will be replacing in Afghanistan, and the hulking MRAP mine-resistant vehicles that the Pentagon has been sending in large numbers to Iraq over the last couple of years. While MRAPs have proved effective in protecting passengers against improvised explosive devices, they are often too large and too heavy for the roadways soldiers often need to patrol. And they're not exactly designed for off-roading.

Mine-resistant vehicles are characterized in part by their intrinsic armoring and by a V-shaped hull that helps to deflect the force of explosions at ground level. Humvees, meanwhile, weren't originally designed with IEDs in mind and have had to use add-on armor to gain some measure of protection.

The Oshkosh M-ATV weighs in at about 11 tons, which is only half as heavy as the average MRAP, and 5 tons lighter than the lightest MRAP. (Humvees are in the range of 5 tons apiece.) It can carry four passengers plus a gunner, and can handle a payload of 4,000 pounds.
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## MarkOttawa (2 Oct 2009)

Dutch troops look set to leave Afghanistan
_NRC Handelsblad_, Oct. 1
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2374894.ece/Dutch_troops_look_set_to_leave_Afghanistan



> ...
> _The Dutch military presence in Afghanistan will almost certainly end next year. Coalition partners Labour and ChristenUnie will block any move to extend the mission._
> 
> The surprise motion by coalition partners Labour and the orthodox Christian ChristenUnie was tabled late on Wednesday night at the end of a debate in parliament about the Dutch participation in the Nato mission in Afghanistan. A vote will follow later this week.
> ...



Civilians Killed in Dutch Air Raid
_Spiegel Online_, Oct. 2
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,652764,00.html#ref=nlint



> A Dutch F-16 fighter plane made a number of civilian casualties during an air raid in the Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday.
> 
> The Dutch Defense Ministry said it is still unclear how many people died in the air raid, but it confirmed that a woman and several children were wounded. The French press agency AFP quoted a local authority saying nine people died, including six children.
> 
> ...



Afghanistan: one of many options
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Oct. 2
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1254493502

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (2 Oct 2009)

Obama meets with Afghanistan commander in Denmark
By JULIE PACE and LARA JAKES (AP) – 43 minutes ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — At a pivotal point in the administration's Afghanistan strategy, President Barack Obama and his top Afghan war commander met privately aboard Air Force One Friday for a talk the White House described as productive.

The 25-minute meeting with Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, aboard Air Force One as it waited to carry the president home from Denmark, gave Obama a chance to step outside the circle of advisers he has convened to study the problem of Afghanistan. His war council has been sharing differing opinions on whether the U.S. should send thousands more troops to tamp down the Taliban, or shift to a narrower focus on al-Qaida in neighboring Pakistan.

The Copenhagen meeting was an extension of those war council sessions "as we reassess and re-evaluate moving forward in Afghanistan," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters afterward.

He said Obama and McChrystal "both agree that this is a helpful process." No decisions were made at their meeting, Gibbs said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (2 Oct 2009)

UK may send more troops to Afghanistan
_The Guardian_, Oct. 1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/01/uk-may-send-more-troops-afghanistan



> _• Increase will come if Nato allies also boost forces
> • US commander pushes hearts and minds strategy_
> 
> Britain is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan in the short term, Downing Street said today , but the commitment will be made only if Nato allies also pledge more forces...
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (5 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 5, 2009*

 Afghanistan & The Limits of Military Advice
Posted at: 2009-10-05 08:26:48.0 Author: Michael Sean Winters
Article Link

Is the President right to question the advice of his military advisers? You wouldn’t think so to hear some of the conservative and neo-con pundits excoriate President Obama for refusing to simply accept General Stanley McChrystal’s war plan for Afghanistan. Yesterday, National Security Adviser James L. Jones, who was a general in the Marines and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told CNN that other military advisers, and McChrystal himself, will be called upon to analyze a range of options.

Republicans forget that the founder of their party, Abraham Lincoln, spent most of the Civil War fighting with his generals and reminding them that he, not they, was the commander-in-chief. Closer to our own time, President Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Republicans chastised the President and celebrated the General who wished to launch World War III and who consistently disobeyed orders from his commander-in-chief. The outbursts of emotion for MacArthur subsided quickly as people realized his Caesarian potential.
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 Time's up for military police watchdog before Afghan torture probe ends
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 16 hours ago
Article Link

OTTAWA — The Harper government will not re-appoint the chairman of an embattled military watchdog agency, The Canadian Press has learned.

Peter Tinsley has been told his leadership with the military complaints commission will be allowed to expire and it will likely end before a probe of Afghan prison torture is completed.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay wrote Tinsley, a respected former international war crimes prosecutor in Bosnia, that his position will not be renewed; he'll be replaced when his term comes to an end on Dec. 11.

The termination date is well before any resolution to the often-delayed public interest hearings into allegations that Canadian military police knew - or should have known - that some of their Taliban prisoners handed over to local authorities faced possible abuse in Afghan jails.

A spokeswoman for the commission confirmed the existence of the Sept. 9 letter from MacKay, but declined to release it, citing the national security contents of some of its passages.
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 Eight U.S. Troops Are Killed in Afghanistan Battle
Attack by Tribal Militia in Remote Nuristan Province Comes as American Commanders Are Rethinking Strategy
Article Link

KABUL -- Eight American troops and two Afghan soldiers were killed during a firefight in a remote part of Afghanistan on Saturday, in one of the worst single-day battlefield losses for U.S. forces since the war began.

The deaths come as the U.S. is studying the possibility of closing remote outposts and shifting troops to more populated areas.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has said the U.S. needs tens of thousands more troops there.

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones was cautious in addressing Gen. McChrystal's recent public push for a troop surge, calling it an "initial assessment."
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 Obama to take on military gay ban at `right time'
(AP) – 1 day ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — National security adviser James Jones says the president is committed to taking on the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly in the military.

But Jones says President Barack Obama has many other pressing matters on his desk, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jones says he's sure that Obama will take the issue on "at the right time."

Obama indicated during last year's campaign that he supported repealing the 1993 law. But to the disappointment of his gay-rights supporters, he has made no move to do so.
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 First Look at Afghan War Documentary (VIDEO)
Tim King Salem-News.com
A documentary in production will be highly educational about the war in Afghanistan.
Article Link

(SALEM, Ore.) - It has been well over a year since I began working on a documentary about the war in Afghanistan. Now, thanks to a lost file turning up, I have recovered the first part of the program, which is located below.

This rediscovery of lost media has already sparked a desire to move quickly and complete production of this hour-long program in the coming months.

It is an in-depth look at the American and Afghan and Canadian and British troops who are engaged in the fighting there.

The clip is a few paces beyond "rough" but again offers an overview and example of what is to come.

Some of the stories that will be included in the full-length documentary include humanitarian aid missions, attempts to medically treat the impoverished citizens of Afghanistan, the wreckage left behind by ten years of Soviet occupation, and the challenges of training a foreign Army with educational levels that are well below average, if they have any education at all.
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 Change of course on Afghanistan could be politically toxic for Tories  TheStar.com - Canada - 
October 03, 2009 James Travers OTTAWA
Article Link

Michael Ignatieff's troubles were headline news this week, as was Jack Layton's decision to keep Stephen Harper in power. What didn't get the deserved attention was Defence Minister Peter MacKay's public musing about Canadian troops staying in Afghanistan after the 2011 withdrawal deadline.

Canada is reviewing its decision to leave just as the U.S. reconsiders what it's doing in Afghanistan. What each ultimately decides will dramatically shape the political landscape in both countries.

In Ottawa, Afghanistan has been an emotionally sensitive but politically benign issue since March 2008 when Liberals helped Conservatives set an end date for combat. It will become cancerous again – with predictably fatal results for the ruling party's support from the bring-the-troops-home NDP – if the asterisk attached to Canada's future Afghanistan role turns out to be more fighting and dying.

In Washington, Barack Obama is wavering. Facing demands for thousands more soldiers, badly embarrassed by Kabul's blatant rigging of recent elections and struggling to advance complex domestic and foreign policy agendas, the U.S. president is determined not to let Afghanistan become his Vietnam.
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 Kandahar can-do for canada's military
 By Nigel Hannaford, Calgary HeraldOctober 3, 2009
Article Link

You could see your breath in the cool air, for the sun was still not up. Accompanied by U. S. and Afghan forces, 200 members of the Royal Canadian Regiment stormed into a small village in Zhari district in the wee, small hours of March 7 this year.

After a night ride from Kandahar, surprise was complete: In counter-insurgency operations, just dropping-in is the best way to arrive.

Zhari is that fertile area along the north bank of the Arghandab River where the Afghans grow grapes of astonishing taste, size and quality. (And, it must be said, marijuana and poppies.) The landscape is attractive-- low, packed-mud houses, amid lush greenery.

But it is a dangerous place to be for Canadian troops: Here and there stand tall, thick-walled, grape-drying huts, sometimes used as cover by Taliban snipers (until their vulnerability to a 120-mm shell was revealed by the arrival of Canada's Leopard 2 tanks.) Meanwhile, its unmade roads and tracks are easy to mine, and Pakistan--the ready source of bomb-making materials --isn't that far away.
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## GAP (6 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 6, 2009*

 Canadian Chinooks make a difference for troop safety in Afghanistan: pilot
By Bill Graveland (CP) 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Getting from Kandahar Airfield to any of the forward operating bases in this troubled province has always been hazardous for the Canadian military.

Road convoys loaded with fresh troops and supplies were the lifeblood of the remote outposts - and a constant and easy target for the Taliban, who would attack with suicide bombers, small-arms fire and improvised explosive devices.

And then came the Chinooks.

Long awaited and much anticipated - even though they were "previously enjoyed," as one Canadian soldier joked - the six Chinooks purchased from the Americans have been seeing almost non-stop action since they began flying in Afghanistan in February.

On a recent day, a Chinook flanked by two CH-146 Griffon escort helicopters made about 15 stops, each for just a few minutes. It transported close to 200 Canadian and American soldiers to locations in the dangerous Panjwaii, Zhari and Arghandab districts, as well as one load of water.

"It is pretty cool when we see the actual results of the job we're doing," said Maj. Darryl Adams, 34, who has logged 60 missions in Afghanistan.

"You see the smiles on the faces. You see the effect on the ground as well, making sure the guys are getting from one place to another safely. I can't think of anything better than that."
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U.S. Afghanistan Base: Death Trap From The Beginning
'We're Sitting Ducks' Soldiers Told Reporter on 2006 Visit
By MATTHEW COLE Oct. 6, 2009 
Article Link

The remote base in northern Afghanistan where eight U.S. soldiers were killed this weekend in a deadly battle was well-known inside the military as extremely vulnerable to attack since the day it opened in 2006, according to U.S. soldiers and government officials familiar with the area. 

When a reporter visited the base a few months after it opened, soldiers stationed in Kamdesh complained the base's location low in a valley made most missions in the area difficult.

"We're primarily sitting ducks," said one soldier at the time.

Known as Camp Keating, the outpost was "not meant for engagements," said one senior State Department official assigned to Afghanistan, and brings "a sad and terrible conclusion" to a three-year effort to secure roads and connect the Nuristan province to the central government in Kabul.

The boulder strewn road that led into the valley was referred to by U.S. soldiers stationed there as "Ambush Alley." 
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 Afghan forces will be ready to take over from NATO by 2013
October 5th, 2009
Article Link

Kabul, Oct 5(ANI): Afghanistan has said that its army would be ready by 2013 to handle complete responsibilities and to fight the Taliban without the direct help of international forces.

“Within the next four years we will take the complete responsibility of the security from the international community, and the international forces will stay on their bases to support Afghanistan National Army forces,” The Globe and Mail quoted General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the chief spokesman for the Afghan military, as saying.

“Maybe it will go one year forward or one year backward. But the aim of the Afghans and the international community is to accelerate this process,” he added. 
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 Deadly Afghanistan attack: It wasn't just the Taliban
The Taliban combined with an Al Qaeda-linked militant group and others to kill eight US soldiers in northeastern Afghanistan Sunday. The Taliban's flexibility is a major threat to US forces.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor October 5, 2009  Article Link

New Delhi - The major ground assault by militants that killed eight US soldiers in Afghanistan this weekend illustrates nimble cooperation between the Taliban and smaller groups, according to NATO and regional security analysts. The ability of this militant medley to plug-and-play their fighters into larger forces, then disperse again into smaller groups, represents a major challenge to the US-led coalition.

"I think not enough credit is given that these groups operate together. I am not saying these guys have a hierarchal structural command like the US military does. But they do operate together when required," says Bill Roggio, managing editor of The Long War Journal.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack on a pair of remote US military outposts in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan Province, located in northeastern Afghanistan. But NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay told the Associated Press that the fighters also included tribal militias and forces under Al Qaeda-linked commander in Pakistan, Siraj Haqqani. (Read more about the Haqqani network here.) 
More on link
  
Per head military spending in Afghanistan: how the UK compares
Britain has one fo the largest defence budgets in the world. But do we really spend less on our troops in Afghanistan than the US and Canada? Get the data
Article Link

Well, when soldiers are demanding more boots on the ground direct from the defence secretary, it's time to look at the numbers. And the numbers say: Britain spends less per head equipping its soldiers in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban than either of the other major forces there.

US equipment spend in Afghanistan for 2009 is equivalent to nearly £463,000 for each of its 61,950 soldiers. For Britain's 9,000 troops in Helmand the Afghan-specific equipment spend equates to just £288,889 per head. For Canadian troops currently fighting in Kandahar province, the spend is equivalent to £507,539 per soldier. Only the Germans' 4,000 troops in the more peaceful north of Afghanistan come in lower than the UK, at around £152,000 per head.

The figures appear to back up recent comments by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, that the government needs to supply more troops and equipment for the conflict. It also echoes remarks by outgoing Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown apparently conceding a shortage of helicopters.
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Sacked UN man attacks mission
Article Link

Galbraith poses Afghan election questions

The UN official removed from his post after criticising Afghanistan's presidential election has lashed out at the UN mission in the country.

Peter Galbraith said the $300m mission is now "leaderless", calling the UN special envoy a "terrible manager".

Speaking to BBC News, he also accused Norwegian Kai Eide of failing to act upon evidence of electoral fraud.

Mr Eide responded by saying he had the full backing of the international community and the US administration.

"I feel that Galbraith is on a personal campaign for revenge, after what happened to him," Mr Eide said, adding: "It wasn't me who got fired, it was him."

A UN spokesman rejected Mr Galbraith's accusations, saying public debate about the organisation's credibility in Afghanistan was highly unfortunate. 
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## GAP (8 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 8, 2009*

  17 militants killed, illicit drug seized in S Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-08 
Article Link

    KABUL, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and the U.S. troops during a joint operation in the southern Helmand province, the hotbed of Taliban, eliminated over a dozen insurgents, a press release of the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

    "A join commando action by Afghan and the U.S. Special Force was carried out against Taliban in Gandam Zirkajaki village since Tuesday, during which 17 rebels have been eliminated," the press release added.

    It also stressed that huge quantity of ammunition, illicit drug and heroin labs worth 5 million U.S. dollars had been found and destroyed during the operation.

    Three more militants were made captive in the two-day operation. 
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New level of co-operation suggests growing trust of coalition among Afghans
By Bill Graveland (CP) – 22 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It's one of the basic tenets of counter-insurgency, and it's being deployed aggressively in the dangerous regions southwest of Kandahar city: drive out the enemy, make the area safe for the locals, and then stay there as long as you can.

Creating a base of operations and making it secure is considered one of the first major rules in defeating groups like the Taliban. As part of the Afghan effort, Canadian forces have cleared a handful of villages in the Dand and Panjwaii districts in recent months and simply moved in.

The hope is that as that military "footprint" continues to grow, the effect of marginalizing insurgents will grow with it.

"At the end of the day, the approach that we took is pure counter-insurgency," said Lt.-Col. Joe Paul, 42, the commander of Canada's battle group in Afghanistan, known as Task Force Kandahar.

It's part of a larger strategy being employed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and the man who has been urging President Barack Obama in recent weeks to send tens of thousands of additional troops to the country.
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## old medic (9 Oct 2009)

Nordic troops kill 3 insurgents in Afghan firefight
The Associated Press
Friday Oct. 9, 2009

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The Swedish army says Swedish and Finnish soldiers have killed three suspected insurgents after a firefight in northern Afghanistan.

Military spokesman Johan Lundgren says two Swedish soldiers were wounded in the clash. They have been transferred to a German field hospital and were in stable condition Friday.

The fighting began late Thursday during a planned operation near a police station west of Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of the northern Balkh province.

Lundgren says their armoured vehicles were targeted by rocket-launchers, before troops clashed with the attackers.

The Nordic soldiers are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.


Swedish soldiers shot in Afghanistan firefight
9 Oct 09
thelocal.se 

Two Swedish soldiers are recovering after sustaining injuries in a firefight in the vicinity of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan late on Thursday evening.
The Swedish soldiers were patrolling with Finnish soldiers when their ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) armoured vehicle came under rocket fire. The soldiers were then attacked with high calibre rifles.

In the ensuing skirmish one Swedish soldier was shot in the leg while another was shot in the hip.

"He was operated on during the night and the condition of both is described as stable. They are currently in the German field hospital in Marmal," Philip Simon at the Swedish defence forces told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

The soldiers engaged the enemy fighter and at least three of the attackers were reported to have been killed.

After the exchange of fire the operation continued its patrol as scheduled.

Swedish forces have been operating in Afghanistan since 2002. Since then two Swedes have been killed.


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## GAP (9 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 9, 2009*

 U.S. forces withdraw from isolated Afghan base 
The Associated Press Updated: Fri. Oct. 9 2009 6:08 AM ET
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. forces have withdrawn from an isolated base in eastern Afghanistan that insurgents attacked last week in one of the deadliest battles of the war for U.S. troops, the NATO-led coalition said Friday.

The pullout from the Kamdesh outpost near the Pakistani border is likely to embolden insurgent fighters in the region. The Taliban swiftly claimed "victory" for forcing the coalition to leave and said they had raised their flag above the town.

The withdrawal, however, had been planned well before the Oct. 3 battle and is part of a wider strategy outlined by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has said for months he plans to shut down such isolated strongholds to focus on more heavily populated areas in an effort to protect civilians.

The firefight in Kamdesh left eight Americans, three Afghans and an estimated 100 insurgents dead, according to NATO. Insurgents fought their way into the base during the battle, a rare breach of security that underscored how thinly manned the post was. It was the largest loss of U.S. life in a single skirmish in more than a year.

The Kamdesh base was largely burned down during the violence. But U.S. Master Sgt. Thomas Clementson said the damage did not affect the timing of the withdrawal and the U.S. was "just days" away from pulling out when the attack happened.

Clementson said coalition forces destroyed what was left of the outpost. The action was likely taken to prevent insurgents from using the base.

Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the U.S. bombarded the outpost with airstrikes after leaving, as well as the local police headquarters.

"This means they are not coming back," Mujahid said. "This is another victory for Taliban. We have control of another district in eastern Afghanistan."

"Right now Kamdesh is under our control, and the white flag of the Taliban is raised above Kamdesh," Mujahid said. 
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 In Afghanistan, more women are driving, but still few do
As more Afghan women obtain driver's licenses, they continue to face resistance from their male-dominated Muslim society.
Article Link

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan -  Karima Yousafzai jumps behind the wheel of her 1994 Toyota Corolla and heads into traffic, deftly negotiating around wannabe motocross champions, oblivious pushcart peddlers, a roadside herd of sheep and several contenders for the crazy-driver-of-the-year award. She takes little notice of the looks directed her way.

"I've stopped caring about the stares men give you," the 43-year-old university professor says. "I just ignore them."

A female driver in Afghanistan is something of a rare bird.

In the first six months of the fiscal year that began April 1, the number of driving permits issued to women in the Kabul area was up fourfold. That sounds great until you consider that officials issued just 180 licenses to women in the last 18 months, compared with 27,985 for men.

Men own the roads of Afghanistan, and many of them want it to stay that way.They say it is un-Islamic and culturally offensive for women to get behind the wheel.
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 Extra 500 troops to be sent to Afghanistan
By James Lyons 9/10/2009 
Article Link

Frontline Army forces are to be beefed up with an extra 500 troops to fight the resurgent Taliban.

Gordon Brown is expected to announce plans next week to redeploy the soldiers from more peaceful parts of Afghanistan.

The move will follow a telephone conversation held yesterday between Mr Brown and President Barack Obama. No 10 said: "They discussed their ongoing review of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Mr Obama is also prepared to allow the Taliban a say in Afghanistan's future, it was revealed last night. A White House source said he is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan's political future and is inclined to send only as many more US troops to Afghanistan as are needed to keep al-Qaeda at bay.

He will make up his mind today on a military request to send an extra 40,000 US troops.
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 Speaking truth to power part of U.S. military tradition
Article Link

Many Americans will have forgotten Eric Shinseki, the U.S. Army four-star general who bluntly and publicly warned then-president George W. Bush that “hundreds of thousands” of soldiers would be needed to prevent Iraq from sliding into chaos and civil war. The general's unwelcome, but prescient, pre-war advice was ignored and disparaged and he was sidelined.

America's war history is littered with high-ranking casualties, some of them generals who irked presidents with hard truths they didn't want to hear. Unlike most Western democracies, America's high-ranking military officers are expected to be outspoken and give unfettered professional advice. They know, too, that speaking truth to power – however noble – will sometimes mean they are sacrificed on the battlefield of political expediency inside the Beltway.

Standing tall and spare in the current fray is General Stanley McChrystal, a counterinsurgency veteran who learned the hard way in Iraq. He, too, may soon be a casualty, despite being President Barack Obama's hand-picked commander in Afghanistan, sent there with orders to get a grip on the “war of necessity.”

Depending on Mr. Obama's decision in the coming weeks about how to adjust U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, Gen. McChrystal may be held up as the field commander whose tough advice – that defeating the Taliban will require tens of thousands more troops – gave a president the grounds to make a hard choice in the face of growing doubts about the war.
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## MarkOttawa (10 Oct 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 10

Obama Selects U.S. General to Oversee Efforts to Train Afghan Forces
AP, Oct. 10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100904578.html



> President Obama has nominated the commander of Fort Leavenworth to lead U.S. and NATO efforts to train Afghan forces.
> 
> Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV would join the war's top U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, if confirmed by the Senate this fall. McChrystal is pushing for more help in developing Afghanistan's fledging military.
> 
> ...


  

Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (11 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 11, 2009*

Beware the small dreamers
Even they can have spectacular effect.
 Christie Blatchford
Article Link

A hint of the spectre that must haunt the Canadian security service and police most these days can be found in a single line of the 41-page agreed statement of facts in the Zakaria Amara prosecution.

Mr. Amara is the 24-year-old who abruptly this week pleaded guilty to two terrorism offences, the latest figure in the so-called “Toronto 18” case to do so, and as the acknowledged leader of the bomb plot, easily the most significant one. The agreed statement of facts is the legal term for a concise version of the evidence prosecutors had against Mr. Amara, and which he and his lawyers accepted.

On the last page is a précis of a report from an RCMP explosives expert who would have testified had the case gone to trial.

This expert tested the cellphone detonator Mr. Amara had built (and which he had himself given a dry run in his Mississauga home) and found that it had the potential “to be used as an arming or triggering mechanism in an improvised explosive device.”

Almost four years after Canadian troops moved to Kandahar province in Afghanistan, their countrymen have become sadly familiar with IEDs, the makeshift roadside bombs that can be so simply made, and have inflicted so many casualties and grievous injuries. But until I read the phrase in that document about homegrown terrorism, I hadn't imagined the grim possibilities.

Now, Mr. Amara and his band of radicalized young Muslim Canadians had been dreaming big – with his gang planning to blow up the Toronto Stock Exchange, among other targets, and another part of the group talking about storming Parliament.

They were clearly inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks and the London subway bombings, which they referenced frequently and gleefully in intercepted conversations that form part of the evidence. And it was the grandness of their plan, and the fact that they needed some number of them to carry it off (Mr. Amara, for instance, appeared to have been intending that two of the younger guys who have also pleaded guilty would drive the trucks and die in the blasts, not him), that made them relatively easy for authorities to keep an eye on.

But it's the possibility of the small dreamers, the low-tech fellows who realize, as one well-placed official puts it, that the unspectacular can have spectacular effect.
More on link

 1 US, 2 Polish troops die in Afghanistan blasts
By HEIDI VOGT (AP) – 1 day ago
Article Link

KABUL — Bombs have killed one American and two Polish troops in Afghanistan, military officials said Saturday.

Violence in this country has surged in recent months as insurgents grow bolder and the U.S. debates whether to send additional troops.

The U.S. service member died Saturday of wounds suffered in a bombing in southern Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.

The Polish soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Wardak province on Friday, Poland's Defense Ministry said. Four others were wounded.

Also Saturday, the spokesman for the provincial government in Wardak province, Shahidullah Shahid, said Afghan and international forces killed nine Taliban in a firefight there the day before.
More on link

 British troops fight Taliban 'seven times a day'
The Ministry of Defence confirms that UK forces are suffering death rates almost twice those sustained by US forces in Afghanistan
By Brian Brady, Jonathan Owen and Nina Lakhani Sunday, 11 October 2009
Article Link

The full scale of the lethal challenge facing UK forces in Afghanistan was laid bare last night after the Government reported that British soldiers fought directly with Taliban insurgents seven times every day.

As the threat from the resurgent Taliban has multiplied recently, the number of confrontations with opposition forces has soared more than twenty-fold from the 10 experienced every month only three years ago.

New details of the number of "contact events" undergone by British forces in Helmand province emerged as a new study, compiled from official Ministry of Defence figures, revealed that British forces are suffering death rates as bad as those endured by the Soviets, who lost a war of attrition against Afghan insurgents in the country during the 1980s.
More on link

 Commandos Free 39 Hostages, Ending Militant Siege in Pakistan
By Ayaz Gul Islamabad 11 October 2009
Article Link

Military officials in Pakistan say the siege near the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is over. Commando forces raided a building where militants were holding more than 30 hostages just before dawn Sunday. Four militants, two soldiers and three hostages were killed during the operation. Another wounded militant was captured.

The violence began just before midday Saturday when a group of heavily armed militants in army uniforms tried to enter the Pakistani military headquarters. As soon as they were stopped at a main check post, the attackers lobbed several grenades and opened fire with automatic weapons on the soldiers there. A firefight erupted, instantly killing six soldiers and five militants. 
More on link

 U.S. aims to grow tiny Afghan air force 
Article Link
Gloria Galloway Kandahar, Afghanistan — Globe and Mail  Friday, Oct. 09, 2009 

At the far east end of the Kandahar Air Field, a new group of 15 pilots – and the 200 support staff needed to keep them flying – has set up shop. All of them are Afghan.

This country’s tiny but developing air corps opened a new air wing in Kandahar this week, the only Afghan flying unit outside of Kabul.

There are just three helicopters here – all old M-17s which are Russia transport-combat choppers, flown with a stick and rudder, that lack modern technology like GPS systems.

But there are plans to grow the Afghan air capacity, both in Kandahar, and Kabul and at other bases like Shindand in the west.

“This is how we’re going to end the war,” Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Dunagin, the U.S. Air Force commander leading a team of 33 American mentors who work alongside the Afghans, said Friday. “We’re going to get out of here when the Afghans can do their own thing,”

By next year, said Lt.-Col. Dunagin, the number of Afghan helicopters in Kandahar will have doubled to six. Then the fixed-wing aircraft will come. And, if all goes according to plan, there eventually will be 800 people working at Afghanistan’s southern air wing. 
More on link


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## old medic (12 Oct 2009)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6869961.ece

October 11, 2009
US and UK 'working closely on Afghan strategy'



> Britain and America are working closely to ensure their Afghanistan strategy is as “clear, as effective and as decisive as possible”, David Miliband said today.
> 
> The Foreign Secretary was speaking following talks in London with Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, ahead of her meeting with Gordon Brown later today.
> 
> ...


----------



## old medic (12 Oct 2009)

October 11, 2009
Taliban 'daisy chain' kingpin captured in Afghanistan dawn raid
British troops in Helmand province are hitting back at the Taliban ‘daisy chain’ offensive

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6869504.ece



> The two point men failed to spot the booby trap hidden beneath the water as they waded along an irrigation canal. Then the shouting started.
> 
> “Get the f*** back now. We’ve gone over a tripwire,” bellowed Sergeant Lee Slater, the 17-stone section commander as he turned and splashed back towards the rest of his men. “We need to get the f*** out of here now.”
> 
> ...


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## old medic (12 Oct 2009)

Swedish soldier injured in Afghanistan
Published: 11 Oct 09 17:20 CET
http://www.thelocal.se/22592/20091011/



> A Swedish soldier was injured in Afghanistan on Saturday when his unit was attacked by rebels.
> 
> The Swedish and Finnish forces were on patrol in the company of Afghanistan police officers when they came under fire near Sayyad in the western part of their area of responsibility in war-torn Afghanistan.
> 
> ...


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## MarkOttawa (12 Oct 2009)

Five Years After Slayings
Doctors Without Borders Returns to Afghanistan
Spiegel Online, Oct. 12
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,654702,00.html



> _In 2004, five Medecins Sans Frontieres workers were murdered in Afghanistan, leading the organization to withdraw after more than 24 years of providing basic health care in the country. Doctors with the group have now returned to provide treatment at hospitals in Kabul and the contested Helmand region._
> 
> Five years ago a team of workers from Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) [MSF story here:
> http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=48B99F38-15C5-F00A-259C984C4732C976&component=toolkit.article&method=full_html  ]
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (13 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 13, 2009*

 Pakistan uses jets, helicopters to attack militants
By: CTV.ca News Staff Tuesday Oct. 13, 2009 
Article Link

Pakistani jets bombed militant targets along the Afghan border Tuesday, while helicopter gunships attacked militants elsewhere in the northwest part of the country.

The military actions came in advance of an expected ground offensive to root out those responsible for continued terror attacks against the nuclear-armed country.

A local intelligence official told The Associated Press that 15 houses had been destroyed in the Makeen, Ladha and Barwand regions of South Waziristan during Tuesday's bombings.

Some 300 kilometres north of Waziristan, helicopter gunships killed 26 insurgents in the Bajur region on Tuesday, authorities said. Local government official Abdul Malik said the attacks took place in Damadola and Sawai, places that are both known as being militant-held areas.

The national army says that 80 per cent of the militant attacks plaguing Pakistan are planned in South Waziristan -- the same region where U.S. officials believe insurgent leaders are responsible for the same type of violence in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The army and the government have indicated they intend to launch an offensive to clear the region of militants. No start date has been publicly announced.

Pakistani authorities are said to be in the process of attaining support from militant factions that have previously agreed not to attack Pakistani troops. 
More on link

 Afghan leader accused of meddling in fraud probe
By: The Associated Press  Tuesday Oct. 13, 2009 
Article Link

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai's top challenger in disputed elections alleged Tuesday the embattled head of state engineered the resignation of a chief fraud investigator to cast doubt over a process that may force a runoff vote.

Results from the Aug. 20 elections have been delayed by more than a month because of massive fraud allegations. A five-member, UN-backed panel is investigating the charges, and its decision on how many votes to throw out will determine whether Karzai wins outright -- as preliminary results show -- or if a runoff is required.

One of two Afghans on the Electoral Complaints Commission, Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai, resigned Monday because, he said, the three foreigners on the panel -- one American, one Canadian and one Dutch national -- were "making all decisions on their own."

A deputy campaign manager for former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's top challenger, called the resignation a move by the Karzai campaign to call into question the validity of the fraud investigations.

"Barakzai's resignation has direct connection to Karzai. It was Karzai's idea," Saleh Mohammad Registani said. "Karzai is trying to bring the work of the ECC into question." 
More on link

 Japan will stop Afghanistan's mission
Tue, 13 Oct 2009
Article Link

Japan's defense ministry says that it will end its nearly 8-year-old refueling mission in support of US-led controversial war in Afghanistan.

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said on Tuesday Japan would pull out its two naval ships from the Indian Ocean next January.

"The law will expire in January. We will solemnly withdraw based on the law," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano quoted Kitazawa as saying.

Hirano, however, said a final decision had not been made on whether to end the mission, which supplies fuel and water to US and other ships policing the Indian Ocean for weapons and drug smugglers as well as terrorists.

"The defense minister's statement should be accepted seriously as a defense minister's statement," Hirano noted.

"But as a whole, the government has not necessarily decided on it as of now," said Hirano, who also acts as the government's top spokesman.
More on link

  'Unknown' choppers carry Afghan militants to north
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 
Article Link

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his administration is looking into reports of 'unknown' army helicopters carrying gunmen to the north of the country, amid increasing militancy in the area.

Karzai said investigations were underway to decide whether the reports are related to the mounting insurgency in the north, the BBC Persian reported. He added that authorities have received similar inquiries in the northwest as well.

Reports say the choppers were 'American.' Press TV has not been able to confirm these reports.

The issue has raised serious questions about the security in Afghanistan as analysts question the unprecedented growth of militants in northern parts of the country, despite of the presence of thousands of foreign forces in the south, who are tasked with keeping the militants at bay.

The Afghan president added that according to the reports, the helicopters have been taking gunmen to Baghlan, Kunduz and Samangan provinces overnight for about five months now. 
More on link

 Attacks raise fears of nuclear thefts
Pakistani militants teaming up with Taliban
BY CHRIS BRUMMITT ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

SLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Militants from the heart of Pakistan teamed up with Taliban insurgents from the remote Afghan border region to carry out the bold weekend assault on army headquarters, the Pakistani army said Monday.

The ominous development comes on the heels of the fourth major attack in just over a week that killed 41 people at a northwestern market -- and growing fears about militants getting their hands on Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

The prospect of militant networks from across Pakistan cooperating more closely could complicate a planned offensive against the Taliban in their northwestern stronghold, a push seen as vital to the success of the faltering U.S. war effort in Afghanistan.

The audacious assaults and militant teamwork are again raising fears of an insurgent attack on the country's nuclear weapons installation. It is believed that the country has 70 to 90 warheads.

Pakistan has sought to protect its nuclear weapons by storing the warheads, detonators and missiles separately in facilities patrolled by elite troops. But analysts are divided on how secure those weapons are. Some say the weapons are less secure than they were five years ago.
More on link

 Australia admits to fatal shooting in Afghanistan
Tue, 13 Oct 2009 
Article Link

The Australian Defense Force has admitted to its erroneous account of a fatal shooting, which left an Afghan policeman riddled with bullets.

In August, Australian forces in Afghanistan opened fire on two Afghan policemen on a motorbike after they failed to stop at a checkpoint north of the Australian base at Tarin Kowt in the southern province of Oruzgan.

At the time, the Department of Defense initially issued a statement shrugging off blame for the incident, saying the men were not wearing uniforms and failed to identify themselves as police forces.

But the head of the Australian Defense Force (ADF), Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, on Monday conceded that the media statement was mistaken. 
More on link


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## GAP (14 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 14, 2009*

 Canadians at KAF prepare to turn over Role 3 Hospital to U.S. doctors
By Bill Graveland (CP) – 1 day ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The big red letters on the large white sign at Kandahar Airfield's Canadian-run Role 3 Multinational Hospital say it best: "The Best Care Anywhere."

As of Thursday, it will require a footnote - "Under New Management."

After three busy, challenging years under the guidance of Canadian doctors and soldiers, the Role 3 - the health-care hub of the major military headquarters in southern Afghanistan - is being turned over to the Americans, whose numbers at KAF are growing by the day.

Canada originally agreed to take responsibility for the facility for one year, but that agreement stretched into two years, and then three. Now, with massive U.S. reinforcements on hand, the time is right to hand over control of the facility.

There will likely be a tear or two to the eyes of the Canadian personnel who cared for the ramshackle facility for so long - particularly Col. Danielle Savard, the career soldier and trained pharmacist who has served as the hospital's director.

"I am proud," said Savard, the first and only woman to run the facility. "It was our time to shine, and we've been shining all the way, and all that because of the incredible team that we had in place."
More on link

 Voting again will risk lives, say Karzai tribal allies
By Nasrat Shoaib (AFP) – 16 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Angered and disillusioned by Afghanistan's election chaos, many tribal leaders who supported President Hamid Karzai say they would not risk their lives again by taking part in a new vote.

Fraud, the time taken to declare a winner and the government's inability to provide security have demoralised Pashtun tribal leaders in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand who form the backbone of Karzai's support.

Afghans voted nearly two months ago but no result has yet been declared.

"If there is a second round we will not participate," Sadruddin Khan, a tribal elder in Kandahar told AFP.

"It is not worth it to us to once again face the possibility of having our fingers and heads chopped off, and our police and soldiers die. Neither Karzai nor Abdullah are worth the lives of our children."
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (14 Oct 2009)

Afghanistan: muddying the waters
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Oct. 14
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1255537259



> ...
> The Canadian Press reports on a visit to Kandahar by family members of six Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
> http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/05/kandahar-families-memorial-soldiers.html
> 
> ...



Sway Over Afghan Insurgents Proves Elusive
A Key to U.S. Strategy Falters As the Taliban Gains Strength
_Washington Post_, Oct. 14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101302024.html



> KABUL -- As Washington policymakers debate the U.S. role in Afghanistan, most agree that one element will be important to whatever strategy emerges: the need for reconciliation with insurgents who can be bought off or persuaded to lay down their weapons.
> 
> But those efforts have become increasingly difficult in recent weeks as the Taliban gains strength and as Afghans grow more and more anxious that the United States is not committed to their country for the long term.
> 
> ...



U.S. Seeks to Ease Pakistanis' Concerns Before Obama Signs Aid Bill
_Washington Post_, Oct. 14



> President Obama will sign a bill providing Pakistan $7.5 billion in economic aid this week after Congress issues a statement designed to placate Pakistanis' objections that conditions attached to the legislation violate their sovereignty, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.
> 
> The joint House-Senate statement, negotiated over the past several days, will emphasize mutual respect between the two countries, officials said, and "clarify" provisions in the bill requiring administration reports to Congress on Pakistan's expenditures, its progress in combating Islamist insurgents and the extent of civilian control over the Pakistani military.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (15 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 15, 2009*

 Merkel Faces Pressure on Afghan Withdrawal Timetable
Article Link
 Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) 

Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing pressure from her future coalition partner to set a deadline for withdrawing German troops from Afghanistan just as Prime Minister Gordon Brown commits more U.K. resources to fighting the Taliban.

Merkel must set specific aims for Germany’s military mission in Afghanistan, including a timeline for shifting security tasks to Afghan forces, Free Democratic Party lawmaker Wolfgang Gerhardt said in an interview in Berlin yesterday.

“We’re saying we can’t have an open-ended timeframe,” said Gerhardt, a member of the negotiating team helping draft the coalition’s foreign and defense policy platform. “We want to set clear goals for what we want to achieve there.” 
More on link

Silvio Berlusconi attempts to duck Afghanistan bribe scandal
Article Link
 October 15, 2009

Silvio Berlusconi today sought to duck the blame for a series of secret Italian payments to Taleban fighters that left French soldiers exposed in Afghanistan.

The Italian Prime Minister denied any knowledge of money paid to Afghan warlords in an apparent attempt to divert attention over the clandestine deals to his predecessor’s administration.

The Times has learnt that when French soldiers arrived to assume control of the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, in mid-2008, they were not informed that the departing Italians had kept the region relatively peaceful by paying local Taleban fighters to remain inactive.

Western officials say that because the French knew nothing of the payments they made a catastrophically incorrect threat assessment. 
More on link

 Pentagon says no plan to cut time between combat tours
Article Link
(AFP) – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon hopes to avoid cutting back the time US soldiers spend at home between combat tours but it remains an option depending on the demands of the Afghan mission, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has sought to expand the time soldiers spend at home between deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan, and there were no plans to scale back what the military calls "dwell time," press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

"I see no indication, at this point, that that would have to be adjusted," Morrell said when asked about the affect of the war in Afghanistan.

"But I think we always reserve the right to make adjustments if that's what the national security dictates," he said.

Currently soldiers are granted about 12 months at home with their families for a year spent deployed abroad, and military leaders have said they hope to eventually increase it to two years of dwell time.
More on link


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## GAP (16 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 16, 2009*

Amid ominous warnings, Canadian soldiers cling to positives in Afghanistan
Article Link
By Bill Graveland (CP) – 19 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Soldiers don't often wear their hearts on their sleeves, but everyone needs an outlet - which is why, when it comes to how Canada's troops feel about their mission in Afghanistan, a graffiti-festooned bathroom stall can offer interesting insight.

One scribble, headed "Things you've Learned on This Tour," offers Gen. Douglas MacArthur's 1961 advice to President John F. Kennedy (especially familiar to fans of the 1987 film "The Princess Bride"): "Never get involved in a land war in Asia."

Indeed, in the face of a war that's raged for nearly a decade and an insurgency that's showing surprising resilience, the writing is on the wall in more ways than one.

The Taliban's reach is extending well beyond its traditional southern stronghold, and despite a massive U.S. troop surge, insurgent attacks are more brazen than ever - a fact dramatically illustrated by last week's bloody siege of an American outpost near the lawless Afghan-Pakistan frontier.

The signs are clear and growing ever more persistent: the mission is not going according to plan. But many Canadian troops - speaking, as they so often insist, only on condition of anonymity - say that when push comes to shove, what matters most are the men and women they fight with.
More on link

 One-on-one with Canada's new ambassador to Afghanistan
Article Link
CTV News Video
By: Janis Mackey Frayer, South Asia Bureau Chief, CTV News Thu. Oct. 15 2009

Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan discusses the direction of the mission there, the aftermath of the election and whether more troops are needed to succeed.

William Crosbie is Canada's fifth Ambassador to Afghanistan since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations in 2002.

Crosbie arrives to the job as Canada's Representative at a critical time: The NATO-lead war is entering its ninth year, the Taliban seems stronger, and Canadian soldiers are dying every month. Violence means reconstruction efforts are lagging, and the national elections that exposed widespread fraud have yet to produce a clear winner.

CTV's South Asia Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer spoke with William Crosbie at the Canadian embassy in Kabul. 
More on link

  No more French troops to Afghanistan: Sarkozy
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-16 09:00:23 	
Article Link

    PARIS, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- French force will stay in Afghanistan but no more troops will be sent there, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview to be published on Friday's edition of French daily Le Figaro.

    French military existence in the restless country is to aid Afghanistan "to win," Sarkozy said, "but France will send no more soldier."

    He stressed that the essential mission is to train the Afghan security forces as they are "the most effective factor to win the war." 
More on link

Italians bribed the Taleban all over Afghanistan, say officials 
Article Link
 October 16, 2009

A Taleban commander and two senior Afghan officials confirmed yesterday that Italian forces paid protection money to prevent attacks on their troops.

After furious denials in Rome of a Times report that the Italian authorities had paid the bribes, the Afghans gave further details of the practice. Mohammed Ishmayel, a Taleban commander, said that a deal was struck last year so that Italian forces in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, were not attacked by local insurgents.

The payment of protection money was revealed after the death of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of large Taleban force in Sarobi. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces and consequently misjudged local threat levels.

Mr Ishmayel said that under the deal it was agreed that “neither side should attack one another. That is why we were informed at that time, that we should not attack the Nato troops.” The insurgents were not informed when the Italian forces left the area and assumed they had broken the deal. Afghan officials also said they were aware of the practice by Italian forces in other areas of Afghanistan. 
More on link

Afghan election appears headed to a second round
Article Link
Gloria Galloway Kabul — Globe and Mail Update Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 12:05AM 

The controversy-plagued Afghan election appears headed to a second vote, reports out of the United States said Thursday.

Said Tayeb Jawad, the Afghan ambassador in Washington, told reporters that his government is preparing for Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission to announce on Saturday that a run-off election would be necessary.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai took about 55 per cent of the ballots in the first round which was held on August 20. He needs just 50 per cent to win.

But The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, said the investigation by the Election Complaints Commission, which is investigating the extent of the fraud that is acknowledged to have taken place, will drop him to about 47 per cent.

The report by the ECC was to have been submitted to the Independent Election Commission late this week.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (16 Oct 2009)

10,000-15,000 more troops needed in Afghan south: ISAF general
AFP, Oct. 15
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iePilxfnl7cBD1yE-RdvuOtQWDXQ



> KANDAHAR MILITARY BASE, Afghanistan — Between 10,000 and 15,000 more troops are needed to maintain security in restive southern Afghanistan, NATO's commander in the region told AFP in an interview Thursday.
> 
> "In RC (regional command) south, to really complete the 'shape, clear, hold, build,' we need at least two additional brigades of coalition forces, somewhere between 10,000 or 15,000 troops," said Major General Mart de Kruif.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (17 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 17, 2009*

 Pakistan Opens Offensive in a Militant Stronghold
Article Link
By JANE PERLEZ October 17, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan moved large contingents of its troops into the militant stronghold of South Waziristan on Saturday, the army said, beginning a long-anticipated ground offensive against militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban in treacherous terrain that has stymied the army in the past.

The operation is the most ambitious by the Pakistani Army against the militants, who have unleashed a torrent of attacks against top security installations in the last 10 days in anticipation of the assault. The militants’ targets included the army headquarters where planning for the new offensive had been under way for four months.

The United States has been pressing the army to move ahead with the campaign in South Waziristan, arguing that it is vital for Pakistan to show resolve against the Qaeda-fortified Pakistani Taliban, which now embraces a vast and dedicated network of militant groups arrayed against the state, including some nurtured by Pakistan to fight India.

American officials have said the fighting there would probably not substantially help the American and NATO effort in Afghanistan because most militants who cross the border to fight there are from a different area in Pakistan and because the Taliban stronghold within South Waziristan is not directly along the border. 
More on link

 Pentagon ends plans to send Army brigade to Iraq
(AP) – 3 hours ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is canceling plans to send a 3,500-member Army brigade to Iraq, a move that speeds the drawdown there and could free up forces as President Barack Obama considers sending new troops to Afghanistan.

The 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, New York, had been scheduled to relieve another combat brigade in Iraq in January. But the brigade will no longer deploy and will now return to the Army's pool of available combat forces, the Defense Department said Saturday.

"This decision was based on a thorough assessment of the security environment in Iraq and reflects the continued improvement in the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces to safeguard Iraqi citizens and institutions," the statement said.

The U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has recommended from as many as 80,000 more troops to as few as 10,000 for the war in Afghanistan — but favors a compromise of 40,000 more forces. Such additional forces would not be deployed until early next year at the soonest, and it is not clear how they would be fully compiled.
More on link

 FACTBOX-The battle in Pakistan's South Waziristan
Sat Oct 17, 2009 4:11am EDT
Article Link

(Reuters) - Pakistan's army began on Saturday a ground operation against Pakistani Taliban militants in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, a senior government official said.

The government in June ordered the army to launch an offensive in South Waziristan. The military has since been conducting air and artillery strikes to soften up the militants' defenses and blockading the region.

Here are some facts about South Waziristan:

THE LAND

South Waziristan has an area of about 6,620 square km (2,550 square miles). It borders Afghanistan to the west, North Waziristan to the north, North West Frontier Province to the east and Baluchistan province to the south. Its main town is Wana. It is an arid land of mountains pocked by dried-up creeks, along with sparse forests and rocky plains.

THE PEOPLE South Waziristan has an estimated population of about 500,000, according to the most recent figures, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. Pashtuns are in general religiously conservative and have a reputation for being fiercely independent and hostile to outside interference. But they also noted for being hospitable and protective of visitors. The Pashtuns are divided into tribes, with the main ones in South Waziristan being the Mehsuds, from whom the Taliban draw much support, and the Wazirs. Tribes are divided into sub-tribes or clans. THE FIGHTING

The main Pakistani Taliban bastion is a wedge of territory in a Mehsud tribe region, beginning to the northeast of Wana, to the south of Razmak, on the border with North Waziristan, and to the northwest of Jandola, on the border with North West Frontier Province. The Pakistani Taliban heartland does not border Afghanistan.

The army has launched brief offensives there before, the first in 2004 when it suffered heavy casualties before striking a peace pact. This time, the army has spent months preparing and it says it has encircled the main Pakistani Taliban zone.
More on link

 Canadian soldiers pull out the stops for unofficial monkey mascot
By Bill Graveland (CP) – 1 day ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A little monkey named Lucy has become the apple of the eye of a group of Canadian soldiers working out of Kandahar Airfield.

Lucy is believed to be a rhesus monkey - native to Afghanistan, neighbouring Pakistan and several other countries - and mysteriously appeared back in July as a pet at an Afghan guard station just outside of the main coalition base in southern Afghanistan.

Since then, she has been all but adopted by the Canadian soldiers who stop by the guard station on an almost daily basis.

"When we first saw her, she had a chain on her neck - she couldn't even go inside that white building here, so she basically went underneath the building," said Capt. Dave Marcotullio, one of the Canadians to have taken a shine to the animal.

"It's still sad that she's in a cage, but at least she's got that chain off her neck and she's great now. She's enjoying herself."
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United States admits tackling Italians over payments to the Taleban
 October 17, 2009
Article Link

The US Government acknowledged for the first time yesterday that payment of protection money to the Taleban by Italian forces in Afghanistan was discussed by American officials and their Italian counterparts last year.

A senior US official confirmed, two days after The Times reported that Italian authorities had paid the bribes, that “the issue [of payments] was raised with the Italians”.

The official would neither confirm nor deny that the representation to Silvio Berlusconi’s Government was in the form of a démarche or diplomatic protest, but Nato officials have told The Times that such a complaint was made by the US in Rome last year.

The payment of Italian protection money was revealed after the deaths of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of a large Taleban force in Sarobi, east of Kabul. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of the secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces, and misjudged threat levels. 
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## old medic (17 Oct 2009)

Canadian military denies paying Taliban for peace
The Canadian Press
Date: Friday Oct. 16, 2009 5:46 PM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091016/Canada_Taliban_091016/20091016?hub=Canada




> KANDAHAR — Both the Canadian Forces and the federal government strenuously denied any suggestion Friday that Canada ever paid off Taliban insurgents in order to prevent troops in Afghanistan from being attacked.
> 
> A report out of Kabul by news agency Agence France-Presse quoted unnamed Afghan and Western officials as saying the practice of paying insurgents not to attack was widespread among NATO coalition forces, including Canadian soldiers.
> 
> ...


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## old medic (17 Oct 2009)

Setbacks weaken Al Qaeda's ability to mount attacks, terrorism officials say
LA Times
17 Oct 2009

Al Qaeda and its allies remain a threat, particularly because of an increasing ability to attract recruits from Central Asia and Turkey to offset the diminishing number of Arab and Western militants.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-alqaeda17-2009oct17,0,4675032.story



> Reporting from Washington -  As Al Qaeda is weakened by the loss of leaders, fighters, funds and ideological appeal, the extremist network's ability to attack targets in the United States and Western Europe has diminished, anti-terrorism officials say.
> 
> Nonetheless, Al Qaeda and allied groups based primarily in Pakistan remain a threat, particularly because of an increasing ability to attract recruits from Central Asia and Turkey to offset the decline in the number of militants from the Arab world and the West.
> 
> ...


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## GAP (19 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 19, 2009*

  Pakistan 'push into Taliban area'
Article Link

The Pakistani army has said it has pushed deeper into South Waziristan as it battles to wrestle control of the region from the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

On the offensive's third day, the army said it had captured important strategic heights in the mountains.

Nine soldiers and 78 militants have now been killed, the army says, though no independent verification of the figures is possible.

Up to 100,000 civilians have fled the conflict zone, according to the army.

The Taliban, who claim not to have lost a single fighter, say they have killed many more Pakistani soldiers than the nine reported by the army.

Residents in the remote area say dozens of people have died since the offensive began.

Pressure

The army has set up five bases in the region near the Afghan border to try to seal off the Taliban's main stronghold. 
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Canadian Sperwers Join The French Military
Article Link
 October 19, 2009

Sperwer UAV France has accepted delivery of six unmanned air vehicles from Canada. French Defense Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire said experts were "verifying the conditions of the six UAV Sperwers bought from Canada to assess their operating conditions," Avionews reported. France is already using four of these aircraft in operations in Afghanistan.

Teisseire also acknowledged that France was in talks for the purchase of a fourth SIDM interim medium altitude long-endurance UAV. The UAV is currently undergoing maintenance operations in Mont de Marsan in central France, and expected to be back into service in 2010 with the induction of the new UAV. The Air Force calls the SIDM "Harfang," or "Snow Owl." France's fourth SIDM is also expected to be deployed by next year and used for training.

As for the UAVs, Teisseire told French media that the purchase of six SDTI from Canada had been completed. "They are already on the ground," he said. Safran group's Sagem had delivered 18 Sperwer aircraft and four launch systems in 2004, and additional three more were ordered in June. The French defense spokesman also did not deny that France was in negotiations to purchase Reaper UAVs from General Atomics, a U.S. based company specializing in harnessing the power of nuclear technologies and development of remotely operated surveillance aircraft, airborne sensors and advanced electric, electronic, wireless and laser technologies. 
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Military families work to put pieces back together as soldiers return home
 By Mark Cardwell, Montreal GazetteOctober 16, 2009
Article Link

CFB VALCARTIER — Melanie Fournier won’t get a medal for her role in Canada’s military mission to Afghanistan.

But like the hundreds of men and women who are anxiously awaiting the return of military spouses and partners in the coming days and weeks, Fournier has been working hard to hold things together on the home front as she prepares to welcome a war-weary soldier with a homecoming that’s as stress-free as possible.

“The excitement is almost too much to bear,” Fournier, a real-estate agent and mother of three young children, said about the scheduled return in two weeks of her husband, Master Cpl. Andre Rondeau.

“We can’t wait to welcome him home.”
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## MarkOttawa (19 Oct 2009)

Many Sources Feed Taliban’s War Chest
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world/asia/19taliban.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
_NY Times_, Oct. 18
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world/asia/19taliban.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper



> The Taliban in Afghanistan are running a sophisticated financial network to pay for their insurgent operations, raising hundreds of millions of dollars from the illicit drug trade, kidnappings, extortion and foreign donations that American officials say they are struggling to cut off.
> 
> In Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed an elaborate system to tax the cultivation, processing and shipment of opium, as well as other crops like wheat grown in the territory they control, American and Afghan officials say. In the Middle East, Taliban leaders have sent fund-raisers to Arab countries to keep the insurgency’s coffers brimming with cash.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (22 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 22, 2009*

 Military Aircraft Crashes in Afghanistan
By VOA News 22 October 2009
Article Link 

A senior Afghan intelligence official says a military aircraft crashed in the country's northern region Thursday.

Provincial intelligence chief Abdul Majid Azimi says the aircraft went down in the mountains of Afghanistan's Baghlan province. He says it is unclear if the aircraft involved is a helicopter or a plane or to whom it belonged.
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 Travers: Pro-military Tory image under fire
Article Link

OTTAWA—Friendly fire is politically deadly. It comes from unexpected directions, hits sensitive targets and can't be returned without making the situation worse.

Rick Hillier and Richard Colvin have Stephen Harper's government in those crosshairs. Doubts about Conservative priorities are raised in a new book from the former chief of defence staff critical of the Prime Minister's advisers, and in memos from the senior Canadian diplomat warning of Afghanistan prisoner abuse. Hillier directly and Colvin by implication suggest a ruling party that publicly makes so much of its support for the military is privately more concerned with protecting its political skin than doing right by the troops.

Hillier's claim is that Harper's inner circle, borrowing a page from the George W. Bush war manual, tried to keep the image of flag-draped coffins off the evening news. Resisted as an affront to honour and tradition, the military stood its ground and continues celebrating the returning dead as war heroes.
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  Police arrest drug trafficker, confiscate drug in W Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-22 15:09:42 	  
Article Link

    KABUL, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Counter-Narcotic Police arrested a suspect drug trafficker with Iran nationality in Afghanistan's western Herat province on Wednesday, a statement of Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

    "Police found and confiscate 54 kg of Ice in a car near the Custom Office in Herat," the statement added.

    "An Iranian nationality was arrested and transferred to prosecution department for investigation," The statement quotes Gen. Mohammad Daud Daud counter-narcotics deputy to interior ministry as saying.

    Poverty is a major reason behind production of poppy that can bring a farmer ten times income than wheat crop. 
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 Afghan election officials fired ahead of run-off
Wed Oct 21, 200
Article Link

By Jonathon Burch and Maria Golovnina

KABUL (Reuters) - More than half the top Afghan district election officials are being replaced to try to prevent more fraud and produce a credible result in next month's presidential run-off vote, U.N. officials said on Wednesday.

The move followed an announcement by President Hamid Karzai that he would accept a November 7 run-off, clearing one obstacle for U.S. President Barack Obama as he considers whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban.

In Washington, Obama said he could reach a decision on his new Afghanistan strategy before the run-off, although he said it might not immediately be announced.
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## GAP (23 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 23, 2009*

 NATO members: no more troops to Afghanistan now
Article Link
The Associated Press Friday Oct. 23, 2009 6:18 AM ET

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — NATO members the Netherlands and Denmark said Friday they will not send more troops to Afghanistan unless its Nov. 7 presidential runoff creates a legitimate government and until President Barack Obama decides on a new strategy.

Dutch Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop said his country, with 2,160 troops in Afghanistan, is awaiting the final election results "because the legitimacy of the Afghan government is key," as well as a decision by the Obama administration.

"I think most countries are waiting for the American decisions," van Middelkoop said at a meeting in Bratislava of the defense ministers of the 28 NATO countries.

The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was briefing NATO ministers -- including U.S. Defense Minister Robert Gates -- on his view of the war in Afghanistan at the meeting.

Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said allies won't increase troop levels until they are assured the new government in Kabul is committed to the international effort.

"I think whoever is going to send more troops to Afghanistan will put up some conditions," said Gade, whose country has 690 soldiers in Afghanistan. 
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 Fresh attacks rock north Pakistan
Article Link

At least 22 people have been killed in fresh violence in northern Pakistan, amid an upsurge of militant unrest.

A suicide bomber killed six other people near an air force facility south-west of the capital, Islamabad.

In Peshawar, a car bombing wounded at least 15 people - the first attack in the city since an army offensive in the nearby region of South Waziristan.

Later at least 15 wedding guests - most of them children - were killed when their minibus hit an explosive device. 
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 Military wife shocked to receive letter about 'dead' husband
 Recently retired sergeant on city bus when spouse called to make sure he was OK
 By Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa CitizenOctober 23, 2009
Article Link

After Lisa Scott opened the insurance company letter that offered its sympathies on the death of her husband -- and told her how to collect on his policy -- she tried to remember if he looked any different walking out the door that morning.

"All these crazy things ran through my head," said Scott, 45, of Kanata. "I thought, 'Oh my God, when he came back from Afghanistan, maybe it was someone else who looked like him ... It was really bizarre."

Her husband, Sgt. John Scott, 47, had retired in April after a 27-year career in the Canadian military. His career had included two tours of duty in Afghanistan, the most recent of which ended in December.

After reading and re-reading the letter that announced John's death, Lisa telephoned him just to make sure it wasn't some horrible Twilight Zone prophesy.
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 Afghan Ballots Go Out, by Air and Donkey
Article Link
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and ANAND GOPAL

KABUL -- Afghan authorities and the United Nations, supported by U.S.-led international forces, began distributing millions of ballots, tamper-proof ink and equipment for a runoff presidential election on Nov. 7.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission decided to cut the number of polling stations that will be open during the runoff, officials said. The closings will be in areas where the central government has no control and the security threat is high -- and where, according to observers, ballot boxes were stuffed by corrupt poll supervisors in the first round of voting on Aug. 20.
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 Strong earthquake rocks Afghanistan
Article Link

ABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A strong earthquake rumbled deep beneath mountainous regions northeast of Kabul early Friday, waking residents and sending some into the streets.

But no serious damage has been reported from the magnitude 6.2 quake, which struck about 12:30 a.m. about 50 miles southeast of Feyzabad, Afghanistan, in a sparsely populated area.

Centered nearly 170 miles down, the earthquake's power was muted on the surface, although was felt lightly as far away as northern India.

CNN's Thomas Evans and Chris Lawrence, both in Kabul, said the quake lasted for nearly 30 seconds and seemed to increase in intensity.
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## GAP (28 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 28, 2009*

 Fighting Afghanistan’s Dumbed-Down — and Deadly — Bombs
By Nathan Hodge October 27, 2009
Article Link

fghanistan’s low-tech, relatively primitive bombs might be even harder to stop than Iraq’s comparatively sophisticated improvised explosives. The Pentagon is sinking almost a billion dollars into new tools to stop this dumbed-down threat, like sensors and software that can detect minute changes on the ground, along with dozens of other initiatives.

It’s a particularly urgent need: Between 70 and 80 percent of coalition casualties in Afghanistan are now caused by improvised bombs. The International Security Assistance Force announced today that eight U.S. troops — and an Afghan civilian working for the coalition — were killed in “multiple, complex” roadside bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan.

In Iraq, the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization played a cat-and-mouse game against sophisticated insurgent bomb-making cells who used military-grade explosives and radio-frequency triggers. As violence crested, insurgents there were laying as many as 100 of the deadly devices in one day. The organization spent billions to field radio-frequency jammers and speed the development of mine-resistant vehicles, and the total number of deadly attacks dropped precipitously.

In comparison, Afghanistan’s bombs are much more crude. Insurgents there often mix up homemade explosives that are triggered by command wire or a simple pressure plate. But detecting those elementary components “is a very difficult physics problem,” JIEDDO director Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz tells Danger Room.

We’ve become accustomed to the idea that a weapon’s potency grows with its sophistication: “Smart” munitions are more effective than dumb ones; supersonic jets can shoot down slower planes. But Afghanistan and its IEDs are proving the exception to that rule.
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Karzai's Problem Brother: Drugs, Spies and Controversy
By Aryn Baker Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009
  Article Link

 The claim that Ahmed Wali Karzai has been on the pay roll of the CIA for the past eight years, as reported in today's New York Times, won't come as a surprise to most Afghans, who have long considered his brother, Afghan president Hamid Karzai, to be an American puppet. The revamped allegations that Karzai frère is deeply involved in Afghanistan's annual $4-billion drug industry isn't much of a shocker either — on the streets of Kabul and Kandahar the name 'Wali' has long been synonymous with someone who can get away with a crime because he has friends in the right places. Diplomats, counter-narcotics officials and commanders from the International Security Assistance Force, NATO's military wing in Afghanistan, have all privately (and not so privately) expressed frustration with President Karzai for not reining in his brother. In fact, the people most likely to be shocked by the revelations are Americans back at home, who are already wondering why we should be sending more soldiers and money to a country whose leadership has rarely proved an adequate partner.
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Canadian forces pay higher price
Analysis shows proportionally more Canadians dying among mission partners
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Article Link

Canadian soldiers have been part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan since 2002. It's been a dangerous posting for all of the coalition soldiers involved, with 1,480 coalition military deaths recorded as of Oct. 26, 2009, including 131 Canadians.

The number of Canadian soldiers on the ground there has always been much lower than the numbers of either American or British soldiers posted there. So one would expect that the number of Canadian military fatalities in the Afghan field would be lower than for their closest military allies — and it is.

Statistical analysis, however, also reveals that the Afghan mission is taking a much bigger toll on Canadian forces, proportionately speaking, than the other major coalition nations. 
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Taliban using children to attack and bomb troops
 Kids found being used more often to plant explosives
 By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceOctober 26, 2009
Article Link

A 12-year-old boy caught in the act as he placed a homemade bomb under a road in the volatile Zhari District on Friday grabbed a baby as a human shield to protect himself from attack from the U.S. helicopter that had spotted him.

The incident, in an area where U.S. forces operate under Canadian command, appears to be part of an ominous and growing Taliban strategy to use youngsters to act as lookouts, carry out attacks or as human shields, because they know that NATO rules of engagement make troops extremely reluctant to open fire in such situations.

There have been 29 incidents in which children have helped carry out attacks or otherwise abetted the Taliban in Afghanistan's four southern provinces since March, according to a document provided by the Canadian military this weekend. In a sign that the trend may be accelerating, eight of the incidents have taken place this month.
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Afghanistan Votes, the U.N. Dithers 
Article Link

IF the second round of Afghanistan’s presidential elections, now scheduled for Nov. 7, is a rerun of the fraud-stained first round, it will be catastrophic for that country and the allied military mission battling the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In the next week and a half, the United States and the United Nations, which has a mandate to support Afghanistan’s electoral bodies, must do everything possible to ensure that the election is, in the words of that mandate, “free, fair and transparent.”

In spite of the clear connection between successful elections and stability in Afghanistan, the rest of the world largely chose to ignore the obvious risks of fraud before the Aug. 20 polling and the evidence of fraud immediately afterward. As a result, Afghanistan has endured a political crisis that has threatened to divide the country along ethnic lines and undermined domestic support for President Obama’s counterinsurgency strategy. 
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 Pakistan Army against Taliban: What are the Waziristan goals?
The Pakistan Army claims 42 Taliban militants killed in Waziristan today. But does it have enough troops to take on the Taliban's Uzbek strongholds?
By Ben Arnoldy October 27, 2009 
Article Link

New Delhi - Pakistan's "South Waziristan offensive" has long had the billing of something epic – a beaches-of-Normandy assault on the mountain caves that form the closest thing to an enemy capital in the war on terror.

In the week and a half since launching its three-pronged attack on the Taliban stronghold, the Pakistan Army claims it has killed more than 160 militants and lost two dozen soldiers. Today, the Army claimed it had killed 42 in its march toward Taliban strongholds. Over the weekend, it recaptured the key town of Kotkai, which has switched hands three times since the offensive began – a sign of the fierce resistance the Taliban is putting up.

Given the Pakistani military's lack of capacity and a diminished enemy, however, analysts suspect Pakistan won't try to reclaim all of South Waziristan. Instead, they say, its aims are more modest and surgical: to eradicate a group of Al Qaeda-linked Uzbek militants and some local supporters.

Those goals need not involve the massive infusion of forces that a counterinsurgency effort would require, nor hold out the prospect of closing down South Waziristan as a militant haven on the border of Afghanistan. Even achieving limited aims, however, could prove difficult – depending on Pakistan's ability to keep other militant factions at bay. 
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## GAP (29 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 29, 2009*

 Afghanistan Increases Polling Stations for Election
By VOA News 29 October 2009
Article Link 

Afghan election officials say they plan to increase the number of voting stations for next week's presidential runoff election, despite concerns that could lead to more fraud than in the first vote.

Afghanistan's independent election commission says it will slightly increase the number of polling centers to 6,322 and have enough staff to ensure a credible process.

Foreign election observers had recommended reducing the more than 6,000 polling centers used in the first round after auditors found more than one million fraudulent votes.
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 Pakistan army targets Uzbek base 
Article Link

Pakistani troops fighting the Taliban in South Waziristan have surrounded a key stronghold of Uzbek fighters, military officials say.

They say that the town of Kaniguram - one of the largest towns in the area - is also the "operational centre" of the Pakistani Taliban.

The army says its offensive against the militants is "making good progress".

But a US-based rights group warned of "catastrophe" if aid is not allowed in to help civilians trapped in the area.

In a statement released on Thursday Human Rights Watch said that Pakistani authorities should ensure that civilians who cannot escape the fighting should have sufficient access to basic necessities.

The group cites reports of people trying to escape the fighting before the onset of a harsh winter.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the conflict zone since hostilities broke out. 
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 U.S. Reportedly Rushes Aid for Pakistani Assaults on Taliban
Article Link

The Obama administration has reportedly rushed hundreds of millions of dollars in arms, equipment and high-tech sensors to Pakistani forces in recent months to support military operations in Taliban-controlled areas along the border with Afghanistan.

The New York Times, citing senior U.S. and Pakistani officials, reports that Obama personally intervened at the request of Pakistan's top army general to quicken the delivery of 10 Mi-17 troop transport helicopters. Senior Pentagon officials have also rushed spare parts for Cobra helicopter gunships, night vision goggles, body armor and eavesdropping equipment to the region, the New York Times reports.
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 Taliban vow more pre-poll attacks in Afghanistan
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
Article Link

KABUL — Afghanistan's Taliban militia vowed Thursday to intensify its attacks in the build-up to next week's run-off presidential election after an attack on a guesthouse for foreigners in Kabul.

"We'll intensify our attacks in the coming days. We'll disrupt the elections," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"We have new plans and tactics for attacks to disrupt the elections," the spokesman emphasised.

Attacks by the Taliban, toppled by US-led forces in late 2001, were a major deterrent to voters in the first round of the election on August 20 when turnout in some provinces was as low as five percent.

Almost 200 violent incidents around the first vote were attributed to the Taliban, including amputations of fingers marked with purple ink as proof of voting, and rocket and grenade attacks on polling stations.
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## GAP (30 Oct 2009)

*Articles found October 30, 2009*

 German troops OK in calling for airstrike
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER (AP) – 18 hours ago
Article Link

BERLIN — A top German general said Thursday that a NATO investigation of an airstrike against a pair of hijacked Afghan tanker trucks showed the attack was appropriate and that it could not be confirmed that "uninvolved persons" were killed.

Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who is the general inspector of the German army, also said that the exact death toll could no longer be confirmed.

James Appathurai, a NATO spokesman in Brussels, said he could not comment on the report.

In Washington, Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell told a Pentagon press conference later Thursday that he couldn't comment because as far as he knows the investigation is not yet complete.

Schneiderhan told reporters he had read the classified report prepared by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force on the airstrike, which was called by a German colonel against the trucks on Sept. 4 because he feared that insurgents would use them to mount a suicide attack on his troops.
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 Obama to meet military brass on Afghanistan
By Stephen Collinson (AFP) – 11 hours ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Friday meets his top military chiefs to talk strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan in one of the final steps before deciding whether to send thousands more US troops to war.

Obama invited the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the heads of the branches of the US armed services, to the secure White House Situation Room to hear their input on his war plan and deliberations on troop numbers, officials said.

He will hold the meeting a day after his poignant visit to witness the return to home soil of fallen Americans from Afghanistan, after which he said the heavy sacrifice of US soldiers was weighing on his decision-making.

"It was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day," Obama said in the Oval Office, hours after watching remains of 18 US servicemen flown home.

"Obviously the burden that both our troops and our families bear in any wartime situation is going to bear on how I see these conflicts.

"And it is something that I think about each and every day," Obama said, after the visit to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
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