# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread March 2013



## The Bread Guy (26 Feb 2013)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread March 2013 *               

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


----------



## GAP (1 Mar 2013)

*Articles found Mar 1, 2013*

Afghan police officer drugs, kills 17 colleagues
By Reuters 
Article Link

KABUL - An Afghan police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead on Wednesday with the aid of the Taliban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called “insider”, or green-on-blue, attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taliban.

The attacks have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taliban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

The killings, the worst in a string of similar attacks in recent months, occurred at a remote Afghan Local Police (ALP) outpost in the eastern province of Ghazni.

“An infiltrated local policeman first drugged all 17 of his comrades, and then called the Taliban and they together shot them all,” the chief police detective for Ghazni, Mohammad Hassan, told Reuters.

Seven of the dead were new recruits still undergoing training, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
More on link

  Afghan president orders US troops out of volatile province on Kabul's flank
Article Link
President Hamid Karzai has asked US Special Forces to leave Wardak Province, raising concerns about how security might be affected in Afghanistan's capital city.

By Paige McClanahan, Correspondent / February 25, 2013 
Kabul, Afghanistan

The Afghan government has demanded that US Special Forces leave a strategic province that lies just to the west of Kabul, claiming in a written statement that American soldiers operating in the region have been “torturing and even murdering innocent people.” The US-led coalition denies the claims.

The Afghan government’s announcement, which was made on Sunday, ordered Special Forces from the United States – but not necessarily other countries – to immediately cease operations in Wardak Province and to entirely leave the area within two weeks.

In a press conference following the release of the statement, Aimal Faizi, the spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, suggested that Afghan nationals working with US Special Forces were thought to have committed the violent acts against civilians, not necessarily American soldiers themselves. But the order for US Special Forces to withdraw from Wardak remains intact.

Given Wardak’s proximity to Kabul, the prospect of an American departure from the province has raised concern about how security might be affected in the capital city. Just hours before the Afghan government’s announcement Sunday, Afghan security forces shot dead a suicide bomber who was targeting an intelligence agency office located in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter. Coordinated suicide bombs in two other eastern cities killed three and injured seven within hours of the foiled Kabul attack.

“This decision will have a huge impact on the security situation in Kabul,” says Waliullah Rahmani, a security analyst with the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies. “Wardak is one of the most volatile provinces. It is a center for the insurgency, which is mainly focused on Kabul.... I don't know why the Afghan president has come to reach such a risky decision.”
More on link


  Pakistan textbooks raise debate about 'curriculum of hate'
Article Link

Government-sanctioned textbooks across Pakistan contain numerous examples of anti-minority and anti-Western language, prompting activists to encourage teachers to stop using them.

By Taha Siddiqui, Correspondent / February 28, 2013 
Islamabad, Pakistan

In a public school located just outside the capital, a classroom of ninth-graders follows quietly along in their history textbooks as their teacher reads out loud about what happened shortly after the creation of Pakistan in 1947:

“Caravans that were on the way to Pakistan were attacked by Hindus and Sikhs. Not a single Muslim was left alive in trains coming to Pakistan.”

As the magnitude of the sentence registers with the students, the phrase “No Muslim was left alive!” echoes around the classroom from whispered lips. Students are clearly engaged with the subject and clearly disturbed with what history they have just learned.

The only problem? That description in the students' books is highly misleading.

Though the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 was indeed one of massive violence, Mubarak Ali, who has written several books on India-Pakistan history, says this is a one-sided account of events and an exaggerated version of the truth.  In fact, it was the Pakistani side where the communal riots started, and in reaction, Indians responded, he says, adding: "But very few trains were attacked. And many more made it alive, which is not taught."

Dr. Ali says that such content should be expunged from school books, much as India has managed to do.

"Instead of teaching Pakistani youth that Hindus from India are to be blamed for everything, textbooks should critically look at this communal violence, which can actually be traced to the way both Muslims and Hindus responded to British imperialism before the independence. We should not glorify this division but rather criticize it, because Muslims and Hindus coexisted peacefully for centuries before," he says.  

Across Pakistan, government-sanctioned school textbooks contain blatantly anti-religious-minority, anti-Western material. And many are worried the curriculum  is fueling intolerance, especially among youths – leading to violent behavior and even sympathy for the Taliban.
More on link


----------



## GAP (3 Mar 2013)

*Articles found March , 2013*

 NATO says its troops shot dead two Afghan boys
By Reuters
Article Link

NATO said on Saturday its forces had accidentally shot dead two Afghan boys, in the latest of a series of reports of civilian deaths at the hands of international troops.

The shooting in the southern province of Uruzgan could further strain the relationship between the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has demanded U.S. special forces leave another province over allegations of torture.

The two boys were shot dead when they were mistaken for insurgents during an operation in northwest Uruzgan on Feb. 28, ISAF commander, U.S. General Joseph Dunford, said in a statement.

“I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed,” Dunford said.

“The boys were killed when Coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces,” he said, adding that a team of Afghan and ISAF investigators visited the village on Saturday and met local leaders.

The area, Lowar-e-Dowahom, was often patrolled by international troops, a spokesman for provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said.

“They saw two young children who were apparently listening to a radio and they shot them - it is not yet clear why,” the spokesman said. 
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (10 Mar 2013)

:Tin-Foil-Hat:


> Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday accused the Taliban and the U.S. of working in concert to convince Afghans that violence will worsen if most foreign troops leave — an allegation the top American commander in Afghanistan rejected as “categorically false.”
> 
> Karzai said two suicide bombings that killed 19 people on Saturday — one outside the Afghan Defense Ministry and the other near a police checkpoint in eastern Khost province — show the insurgent group is conducting attacks to help show that international forces will still be needed to keep the peace after their current combat mission ends in 2014.
> 
> “The explosions in Kabul and Khost yesterday showed that they are at the service of America and at the service of this phrase: 2014. They are trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners are not in Afghanistan, we would be facing these sorts of incidents,” he said during a nationally televised speech about the state of Afghan women ....


Army Times, 10 Mar 13


----------



## little jim (12 Mar 2013)

*U.S. Green Beret among those killed in Afghan attack*
By Mark Morgenstein and Masoud Popalzai, CNN 
updated 8:43 PM EDT, Mon March 11, 2013

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/world/asia/afghanistan-insider-attack/index.html?iref=allsearch

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two Americans -- one a Green Beret -- were killed Monday when an assailant wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform opened fire on the group, U.S. and NATO's International Security Assistance Force officials said.

The shootout in eastern Afghanistan didn't last long, as coalition forces "returned fire and killed the attacker," a U.S. official told CNN.
Two Afghan army personnel also were killed, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman. A U.S. military official told CNN that at least 10 Americans were wounded as well.

The assailant fired at the victims with a truck-mounted machine gun, Azimi said, after a meeting between coalition and Afghan forces at a military base in the Jalrez district of Wardak province, about an hour west of Kabul. Green Berets and Afghan forces are based there, a U.S. official said.
More on link
*
5 dead in Afghanistan helicopter crash*
By Masoud Popalzai, CNN
updated 12:25 AM EDT, Tue March 12, 2013
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/world/asia/afghanistan-helicopter-crash/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Five coalition service members died after a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

The chopper went down in the Daman district of southern Kandahar during a rain storm, said Jawid Faisal, a government spokesman for the province.

There was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident, ISAF said. It has not released the nationalities of the service members.
More on link.


----------



## GAP (13 Mar 2013)

*Articles found March 13, 2013*

Canada spent $10 million for security at Afghan dam project
Canada spent about $10 million on security in Afghanistan at its $50-million Dahla dam project, where private security contractors were linked to allegations of corruption and involved in an armed standoff with Canadian security officials
Article Link
 Jessica McDiarmid News reporter, Mar 13 2013 

Canada spent about $10 million on security in Afghanistan at its $50-million Dahla dam project, where private security contractors were linked to allegations of corruption and involved in an armed standoff with Canadian security officials.

One of Canada’s signature projects in Afghanistan, the Dahla dam was guarded in part by Watan Risk Management, a controversial Afghan security firm with alleged ties to crime and corruption. How much they were paid remains secret.

The Canadian International Development Agency contracted the project to SNC-Lavalin, which was responsible for security.

Canadian problems with Watan included an armed standoff in February 2010 that erupted between Watan guards and two Canadian overseers. The Canadian security officials fled Afghanistan shortly afterward.

The U.S. banned contracts with Watan in 2010 as part of efforts to prevent aid money from winding up in the hands of corrupt officials and the Taliban, but SNC-Lavalin maintained its ties into 2011, when it finally severed the relationship. Watan has denied allegations of wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for SNC-Lavalin said details such as what was paid to subcontractors are confidential. CIDA and SNC-Lavalin officials have previously refused to say how much of the budget for the Dahla Dam went to security costs, citing commercial privacy.

Documents obtained by the Star under Access to Information law showed that $8.9 million was budgeted for security as of October 2010. CIDA later said it had paid about $10 million by March last year, when Canada’s four-year role in the project ended.

The money isn’t an exorbitant amount to spend on security in a place like Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban that’s often dubbed Afghanistan’s most dangerous province. But critics say the lack of transparency surrounding those costs raise troubling questions about how Canada’s development money is spent.

“This is what my problem with CIDA is, they’re doing things with public funds and they’re not accountable for it,” said Nipa Banerjee, a former head of CIDA’s operations in Afghanistan.
More on link


----------



## GAP (25 Mar 2013)

*Articles found March 25, 2013*

US army hands over Bagram prison to Afghanistan
  Article Link
 5 March 2013 

The US has handed over to Afghanistan the only prison still under American control, resolving an issue that has strained ties between the countries.

A transfer ceremony took place at the prison, which was renamed the Afghan National Detention Facility at Parwan.

It had been delayed while the two sides finalised a deal over the fate of prisoners considered dangerous.

The handover came as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit.

He is to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss a series of issues, such as the transfer of security to Afghan forces.
'Afghanistan's Guantanamo'

Bagram jail has a chequered reputation, having been at the centre of a number of prisoner abuse allegations. 
More on link


Gay Afghan man speaks out on deep cultural taboo
Hamid Zaher fled Afghanistan to escape the misery of his personal life. His book details his anguished years as a closeted gay Afghan man
Article Link

As a little boy in Kabul, Hamid Zaher steered clear of boys his own age. They were too rough and made fun of his soft voice. He preferred to play hide-and-seek with the girls.

By age 15, Zaher’s interest shifted to men, but there was no word in Farsi to explain his attraction to the half-clothed men he’d stare at in public baths and swimming holes.

“I wondered why I was upside down,” Zaher, 38, said. “At first I thought it might be temporary. I thought that after one or three years, my orientation will change like other people and I will become interested in girls.”

That never happened. In 2001, just before the Sept. 11 attacks, Zaher fled Afghanistan, not because of the oppressive Taliban, but to escape the misery of his personal life. Eight years later, and from the safety of Canada, Zaher wrote a book detailing his anguished years as a closeted gay Afghan man.
More on link

  Faulty info in feds’ Omar Khadr file suggests he killed two Afghans
Article Link
Colin Perkel The Canadian Press Tuesday, Mar. 19 2013

The federal government’s file on Omar Khadr contains faulty information based on a memo prepared by a senior policy analyst for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest.

Among other things, the government alleges the late terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was an accomplice of a 15-year-old Khadr, and that the Canadian citizen killed two Afghan militia men.
More on link

 Red Cross head warns Canada against swift exit from Afghanistan
Article Link
Lee Berthiaume	 March 22, 2013

OTTAWA — A decade of progress will be put at risk if Canada and the rest of the world run for the exit in Afghanistan next year, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Friday.
ICRC president Peter Maurer also echoed Canadian concerns about Western countries arming rebel forces in Syria, and said the two-year-old conflict is in danger of touching off a wider conflagration in the Middle East.
“Our assessment from the ground is that the conflict is expanding, the impact is deepening, and the impact on (Syria’s) neighbours is deepening,” Maurer told Postmedia News in an interview.
“The consequence of it will not only be a humanitarian disaster … it may be political destabilization even far beyond Syria.”
Maurer, a former Swiss ambassador who has headed the ICRC since last July, was in Ottawa this week to meet with Canadian officials and discuss this country’s contributions to humanitarian emergencies and crises.
The Geneva-based ICRC is one of the oldest and most respected international humanitarian organizations that works to protect and help victims of war and armed violence around the world.
Afghanistan is the ICRC’s largest active mission with about 1,500 people in the field providing assistance and helping rebuild the country.
More on link

 ‘A struggle of integration’: Deportation used to counter gang activity within Toronto’s growing Afghan community
Stewart Bell | 13/03/22
Article Link

The tattoo on Farhad Abdul Fatah’s right shoulder shows an AK-47 assault rifle over a burning Afghan flag.

AFGUN, it reads.

According to Toronto police, the tattoo is the mark of an Afghan street gang whose members have been implicated in stabbings, shootings, drugs, robberies, thefts and, most recently, automobile-insurance fraud.

Afghan For Life and its more violent-sounding offshoot, Afghan Fighting Generation, emerged partly in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood, a hub of Canada’s fast-growing Afghan population. Police and immigration enforcement officers have now launched deportation proceedings against several alleged members, including Mr. Fatah, a 28-year-old Russian-speaking Afghan from Thorncliffe Park.
More on link


----------

