# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread July 2010



## GAP (30 Jun 2010)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread July 2010 *               

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


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## 57Chevy (1 Jul 2010)

Insurgents killed, Taliban district chief captured in firefight:

 International and Afghan security forces wounded and captured a Taliban district chief and killed a "large number" of insurgents in a four-hour firefight, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement Thursday.

The battle took place in a compound outside a village in the Baghran district of Afghanistan's Helmand province after insurgents opened fire on security forces with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, ISAF said. 

No security force members or civilians were killed or wounded in the fighting, but a "large number of insurgents" died, ISAF said, without providing specific numbers. 

"Dozens of automatic weapons, RPG launchers and rounds, a machine gun, grenades, and ammunition were discovered along with 20 pounds of wet opium" after the fighting, the statement said.

"This joint force operation dealt another significant blow to the Taliban network," said Col. William Maxwell, ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center director. "These joint efforts are key to further establishing peace in the region."

NATO-led forces have been waging an offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Dubbed Operation Moshtarak, the offensive was launched in February by an international coalition of 15,000 troops including Afghans, Americans, Britons, Canadians, Danes and Estonians.

The Taliban had set up a shadow government in Helmand province's Marjah region, long a bastion of pro-Taliban sentiment.

It is a key area in Afghanistan's heroin trade and full of the opium used to fund the insurgency.

link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/01/afghanistan.firefight/index.html?fbid=X-q7GDAv616

            (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)


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## MarkOttawa (1 Jul 2010)

U.S. Enlists New Afghan Village Forces 
_WSJ_, July 1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704103904575336933258787038.html



> RABAT, Afghanistan—The men of this remote village, dressed in crisp beige uniforms and armed with Kalashnikovs, are defending their land against the Taliban, in a U.S. Special Forces-driven experiment that is set to spread nationwide.
> 
> New legislation, hammered out by American and Afghan officials and expected to be enacted by President Hamid Karzai in coming weeks, would authorize armed village forces across Afghanistan and bring them into the country's law-enforcement system.
> 
> ...



Some Afghan military officers to get training in Pakistan
_Washington Post_, July 1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/30/AR2010063005193.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead



> Afghan President Hamid Karzai has agreed to send a group of military officers to Pakistan for training, a significant policy shift that Afghan and Pakistani officials said signals deepening relations between the long-wary neighbors.
> 
> The move is a victory for Pakistan, which seeks a major role in Afghanistan as officials in both countries become increasingly convinced that the U.S. war effort there is faltering. Afghan officials said Karzai has begun to see Pakistan as a necessary ally in ending the war through negotiation with the Taliban or on the battlefield.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (1 Jul 2010)

*Articles found July 1, 2010*

 Afghan Attorney General Says U.S. Ambassador Pushed for Corruption Prosecutions
By ALISSA J. RUBIN Published: June 29, 2010
Article Link

Afghanistan’s attorney general disputed published allegations Tuesday that he had been pressured by the Afghan political leadership to sideline corruption investigations into some of the country’s elite, and he turned on the American ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, alleging that the ambassador had pressed him to bring particular cases against high-profile figures. 

The implication was that rather than being inappropriately pressured by Afghan government figures, the attorney general, Mohammad Ishaq Alako, was being inappropriately pressured by the Americans.

The dust-up comes at a delicate time for both governments. The Afghan government is facing increasing pressure from Western countries that are spending billions of dollars here to crack down on widespread corruption, which has crippled the justice system and demoralized most Afghans.

On Monday, Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, announced she was cutting most of the $3.9 billion in foreign aid requested for Afghanistan by the Obama administration until the country got a handle on corruption.

For the United States it is also a politically delicate period, with patience for the war ebbing and uncertainty about the change of the top general running the war. Gen. David H. Petraeus arrives later this week to take over for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who resigned under pressure last week. The rampant corruption here has accelerated the sense that perhaps America is wasting its money here.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Alako offered an almost point-by-point rebuttal of an article that appeared Monday in The Washington Post that quoted unidentified American officials as saying that senior members of President Hamid Karzai’s government and those close to them had been able to escape prosecution after senior Afghan 
More on link

 New Estimate of Strength of Al Qaeda Is Offered
By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI Published: June 30, 2010
Article Link

ASPEN, Colo. — Michael E. Leiter, one of the country’s top counterterrorism officials, said Wednesday that American intelligence officials now estimated that there were somewhat “more than 300” Qaeda leaders and fighters hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a rare public assessment of the strength of the terrorist group that is the central target of President Obama’s war strategy.

Taken together with the recent estimate by the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, that there are about 50 to 100 Qaeda operatives now in Afghanistan, American intelligence agencies believe that there are most likely fewer than 500 members of the group in a region where the United States has poured nearly 100,000 troops.

Many American officials warn about such comparisons, saying that Al Qaeda has forged close ties with a number of affiliated militant groups and that a large American troop presence is necessary to helping the Afghan government prevent Al Qaeda from gaining a safe haven in Afghanistan similar to what it had before the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Monday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that on a recent trip to the region he was struck by the “depth of synergies” between Al Qaeda and a number of other insurgent groups, including the Pakistani and the Afghan Taliban.

Mr. Leiter, who is the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, concurred with Admiral Mullen’s judgment.

But with the fighting in Afghanistan intensifying and few indications that the Taliban are weakening, the recent estimates of Al Qaeda’s strength could give ammunition to critics of President Obama’s strategy who think the United States should pull most of its troops from the country and instead rely on small teams of Special Operations forces and missile strikes from C.I.A. drones. 
More on link

 After Afghan Shift, Top U.S. Civilians Face Tricky Future
Article Link
As General David H. Petraeus takes command in Afghanistan, the two top American civilian officials in the war face an uncertain and tricky future, working with a newly empowered military leader, under the gaze of an impatient president who has put them on notice that his fractious war council needs to pull together. 

Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative to the region, and Karl W. Eikenberry, the ambassador to Afghanistan, both hung on to their jobs in the uproar that followed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s career-ending quotes in Rolling Stone magazine.

But privately, at least one senior White House official suggested using General McChrystal’s exit as an excuse for a housecleaning, according to senior officials. That was rejected as too disruptive during a military campaign that relies heavily on civilian support, these people said.

In recent days, other administration officials have begun floating the idea that Ambassador Eikenberry might be replaced by Ryan C. Crocker, the highly regarded former ambassador in Iraq who forged a close partnership with General Petraeus during the successful Iraq troop increase. Such a prospect is viewed as remote, given Mr. Crocker’s prestigious new post at Texas A&M University. But the fact that his name is being invoked underlines the challenges that confront Ambassador Eikenberry, as he adapts to a new partner — one who has strong ideas about how soldiers and diplomats should work together in war.

It also illustrates the remarkably powerful role that General Petraeus will assume in the nine-year-old war, setting him up as almost a viceroy in Afghanistan and a key broker in negotiations between President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan over an eventual political settlement. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (2 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 2

Security ring set up in Kandahar 
CP, July 1
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100701/national/afghan_cda_security_ring



> A ring of security was set in place on the major routes in and out of Kandahar city on Thursday - NATO's first major step to try to bring a degree of calm to Afghanistan's second largest city.
> 
> The measures are part of Operation Hamkari, which translated into English means co-operation. The coalition has been talking about the new security measures for months.
> 
> ...



Canada hands over hot spots to U.S. command
Canwest News, July 1
http://www.canada.com/news/Somnia/3224741/story.html



> Kandahar City, Afghanistan — Canada relinquished command of two hotly disputed districts in Kandahar where more than 40 Canadian soldiers have died over the past four years, to the U.S. earlier this week.
> 
> The quiet transfer of authority for Zhari and Arghandab to the 101st Airborne Division was revealed by Canadian Brig.-Gen Jon Vance on Thursday. It was the first reduction in Task Force Kandahar’s area of military responsibility in Afghanistan since the Paul Martin government authorized combat operations in the southern province in the spring of 2006.
> 
> ...



Record Western military deaths in Afghanistan in June
At least 102 Western troops died in June; 60 were U.S. service members. Although roadside bombs pose a significant hazard, other threats are growing as insurgents become bolder in their attacks. 
_LA Times_, July 1
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-military-deaths-20100701,0,7780394.story



> As the Afghan war's bloodiest month for Western forces drew to a close Wednesday, the widening scope and relentless tempo of battlefield casualties pointed to a formidable challenge for U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the incoming commander.
> 
> At least 102 coalition troops were killed in June in Afghanistan, according to the independent website icasualties.org, far surpassing the previous highest monthly total of 76 military fatalities in August 2009.
> 
> ...



Taliban claims Afghan attack that killed five
Suicide squad storms the compound of a U.S.-based development group in northern Afghanistan, killing at least five

_LA Times_, July 2
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghanistan-kunduz-attack-20100704,0,6732950.story



> A Taliban suicide squad stormed the compound of a U.S.-based development group in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least three expatriate workers, a security guard and an Afghan police officer, officials said.
> 
> All six attackers also died in the predawn assault in the city of Kunduz. One died when he blew up a sport-utility vehicle at the compound's gates at the outset of the strike, and the other five died in a subsequent gunbattle, according to provincial police.
> 
> ...



Ohio brigade deploying 3,600 to Afghanistan
AP, June 30
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-oh-brigadedeployment,0,3861164.story



> COLUMBUS, Ohio —
> The Ohio National Guard's 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is preparing to send about 3,600 soldiers from Ohio and Michigan to Afghanistan in what will be its largest deployment since the Korean War in 1952.
> 
> The state Adjutant General's Department says the guard received an alert order in May, and that the team will mobilize out of Camp Shelby, Miss., in the spring and *deploy to Afghanistan in summer 2011. The 37th will replace the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division*
> http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=59299 [emphasis added]...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (2 Jul 2010)

*Articles found JuLY 2, 2010*

 Water: Canada's secret ingredient for Afghan development 
Article Link
Bill Graveland and Tara Brautigam

Kandahar, Afghanistan — The Canadian Press Published on Thursday, Jul. 01, 2010 12:42PM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 01, 2010 1:19PM EDT

In an arid wasteland of desert, dust, and drought, water is worth its weight in gold — a life-giving legacy that Canada hopes to leave behind in Afghanistan when it starts pulling out a year from now.

In a country racked with abject poverty and decades of strife, it wasn't easy to decide where Canada could best focus its development and aid efforts.

“There's so many things that could be done when you're in an environment like this, it's the challenge for a mission in any conflicted society,” said Ben Rowswell, the government's top civilian official in Kandahar province.

When Ottawa decided in 2008 to establish a firm pullout date for Afghanistan, it also opted to identify three specific target areas for development: rebuilding the tactically important Dahla Dam in the heart of Kandahar's Arghandab district, developing schools and vaccinating locals for polio.
More on link

Beer, barbecue, rocket attack: Canada Day for troops in Afghanistan
Article Link

Canadian soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan marked Canada Day with beer, barbecue _ and a rocket attack.

An afternoon of red and white Maple Leafs combined with beige combat fatigues had all the earmarks of a Canada Day at home.

Hundreds of Canadian flags were strung up at Canada House, the recreational centre for Canada’s soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Even Canadian vehicles were sporting shiny new flags attached to windows and mirrors.

In addition to barbecued hotdogs and hamburgers the celebrants were given a rare ration of two beer apiece.

Troops and civilians donned Team Canada hockey jerseys, giant Maple Leaf hats and painted their faces to show their Canadian pride.

“It’s definitely more poignant here. We’re proud to be Canadian and represent our country here,” said Master Cpl. Cindy Brooks.

“Everybody is looking at us going who are those crazy Canadians? It’s awesome today.”

Meantime, Cpl. Robin Blackburn said that after being in Kandahar for months, she is missing the colour green _ as in grass. But getting together with fellow Canadians is special she said.
More on link

 USAID compound attacked in Afghanistan; 4 killed 
Article Link

By Amir Shah, The Associated Press
ADVERTISEMENT

KABUL - Six suicide bombers stormed a USAID compound in northern Afghanistan before dawn Friday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said. At least two of the dead were foreigners.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began about 3:30 a.m. in Kunduz when a suicide car bomber blew a hole in the wall around a building used by Development Alternatives Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based global consulting company on contract with the United States Agency for International Aid, or USAID. The company is working on governance and community development in the area.

At least five other attackers then ran inside the building, killing or wounding security guards and others inside before dying in a gunbattle with Afghan security forces who raced to the scene. Afghan authorities said the five were all wearing explosive vests.

Black smoke poured from the windows of the four-story building. The bodies of the victims were found inside amid rubble, pools of blood and broken glass. Stunned aid workers were led from the scene as NATO troops carried bodies wrapped in black plastic out on stretchers.

Gen. Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, police chief in Kunduz province, said those killed included an Afghan policeman, an Afghan man who worked as a security guard at the house and two foreigners. The German Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press in Berlin that a German citizen was killed in the attack.

"It was 3 o'clock in the morning, close to the morning prayer time, when a suicide bomber in a 4x4 vehicle exploded his vehicle," Yaqoubi said as Afghan national security forces were battling to kill the last surviving attacker. "There is no way for him to escape."
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (3 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 3

Troops call it the Heart of Darkness, the spiritual home of the Taliban
US forces are taking on the insurgents in their own back yard in Zhari district, reports Ben Farmer with the 101st Airborne Division.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7868176/Troops-call-it-the-Heart-of-Darkness-the-spiritual-home-of-the-Taliban.html



> ...
> Two convoys travelling to the combat outpost in the Pashmul area of Zhari district had been attacked the previous day. The craters left in the giant sandbagged perimeter by rocket propelled grenades were clearly visibly.
> 
> American soldiers arriving in Kandahar for this summer's long-awaited operation to secure Afghanistan's second city have found a well-prepared enemy.
> ...



The challenge of Kandahar
Nearly nine years into the U.S.-led war, it remains a Taliban stronghold, ill-served by corrupt Afghan officials, and patrolled by Western forces just now getting around to governance and development issues.
_LA Times_, July 2
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-kandahar-20100703,0,2482346.story



> Rahmatullah, a slender Afghan engineer who lives in Kandahar city, tried to be polite when young Shawn Adams of Digby, Nova Scotia, offered to help in his efforts to build a local school.
> 
> Sgt. Adams, 23, was leading a Canadian foot patrol when he encountered Rahmatullah, who complained that he and his neighbors had donated land for a school that the Afghan government has refused to build.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (4 Jul 2010)

*Articles found July 4, 2010*

 Cooperation is not optional: Gen. David Petraeus
New NATO commander in Afghanistan begins job with urgent plea for teamwork
Article Link
Deb Riechmann Associated Press

The new top American general in Afghanistan prepared for his formal takeover as the NATO force commander on Sunday by calling for a “unity of effort” among the international troops and Afghans working to restore stability to the war-torn nation.

“Civilian and military, Afghan and international, we are a part of one team, with one mission,” Gen. David Petraeus told hundreds of guests who had gathered on Saturday for a pre-Fourth of July celebration of U.S. independence at the American embassy in Kabul.

“In this important endeavour, cooperation is not optional.”

The words were welcomed in Ottawa.

“Canada welcomes the appointment of General Petraeus as commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan and encourages positive and cooperative civilian-military relationships,” Jay Paxton, director of communications for Defence Minister Peter Mackay, told the Toronto Star in an email.

Paxton, noting Canada “has been in Afghanistan to help Afghans rebuild their country as a stable, democratic and self-sufficient society since 2001,” stressed the importance of cooperation and working together.
More on link

 Canadian commander's team honours soldier who died guarding 'The Boss'
  Article Link 
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service July 3, 2010

Cpl. Nick Bulger was honoured Saturday in a poignant act of remembrance by Brig.-Gen Jon Vance and the small band of soldiers who protect the commander of Task Force Kandahar.

Bulger was 30 years old when he was killed by a homemade landmine exactly one year ago while travelling as part of the general's tactical crew in Zhari district. It was the only time since the Canadian army came to Afghanistan in 2002 that the Taliban has killed a member of the commanding general's personal staff.

"A year ago today, we lost a good soldier," Vance told his current TAC, which is comprised of members of the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment.
More on link

IEDs pose real threat to troops: UNB prof
Published Saturday July 3rd, 2010 
Article Link

When Sgt. Robert Short and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger were killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2003, the story of how it happened was a lot like the mission itself: new, controversial and difficult for many to understand.

Seven years later, it has grown all too familiar.

Short and Beerenfenger were on patrol on a dusty road near Kabul on the afternoon of Oct. 2, 2003, helping to stabilize the country after the fall of the Taliban, when a massive blast from a buried stack of anti-tank mines ripped apart their lightweight Iltis jeep.

They were family men who were devoted to their careers and proud to be part of Canada's first full combat mission in decades, a mission no one knew at the time would last as long as July 2011 - a date that's now just 12 months away.

Together, they now occupy a tragic place in its history: the first Canadian lives to be claimed by an IED, a cheap, insidious, accessible weapon that has since become one of the most substantial obstacles to NATO's efforts in Afghanistan.

"You can't defeat an army with (IEDs), but you can cause a collapse of morale," said Andrew Mack, director of the Human Security Report project on the Vancouver campus at Simon Fraser University.

"That collapse of morale is ultimately the thing that is going to cause (the international soldiers) to pull out."

To date, 100 Canadian Forces members and two civilians - Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry and Canadian journalist Michelle Lang - have been killed by IEDs or suicide bombers, which the military considers a type of IED.

IEDs are far from new. They've have been used in both traditional and untraditional conflicts, from resistance fighters blowing up railways during the Second World War to grenades hidden in cans in Vietnam.
More on link

 The wounds of war: physical, psychological injuries legacy of Afghan battle
Article Link
By: Dene Moore, The Canadian Press 3/07/2010

Master Cpl. Jody Mitic was a sniper on patrol with his unit in Kandahar province in January 2007 when he stepped on a land mine and lost both legs below the knee.

In the split second it took for the charge to explode, Mitic's life changed instantly, irrevocably.

"I've been a soldier since I was 17 and I'd hoped to be a soldier until the day I died," the young father, nary a hint of self-pity in his voice, said in a recent interview. "In my heart I will be, but I'm just going to have to choose a new career path now."

Mitic is one of the more than 500 Canadian soldiers who have been wounded in action in Afghanistan; even more suffer from "invisible wounds" that range from mild depression to debilitating post-traumatic stress syndrome, experts say.

As Canada enters the final year of its combat mission in Afghanistan, already more than 27,000 Canadian troops have been deployed to the central Asian country that has put words like Taliban and "improvised explosive device" on the tip of every tongue.

Parliament's mandate for the combat mission in Kandahar expires in 12 months, but the fallout from the conflict will continue for years to come.

The Canadian Forces said in February that 529 soldiers had been injured in action from 2002 to the end of last year, and another 913 had suffered "non-combat" injuries.
More on link

 Preparing for the exit from our Afghan burden
July 3, 2010 — MarkOttawa
Article Link
Unless, by some sudden change of its course, the government and Liberals reach an agreement on some sort of post-2011 CF mission:

The silent road home

Canada’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will be a lengthy, complicated process and the only thing the government will say with certainty is that all troops will be home by the end of next year, writes Matthew Fisher.﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/3231230.bin

Soldiers with BRAVO Company, 1st battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment [part of CF's Task Force 1-10, current Task Force Kandahar details here] leave their base to patrol outside the village of Nakhonay in Afghanistan on June 11. Canadian troops will be leaving the war against the Taliban next year.
Photograph by: Denis Sinyakov, Reuters, The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Sheldon Alberts, canwest news service

Exactly one year from this Canada Day the Harper government officially begins its retreat from Kandahar.

However, details regarding the Canadian Forces’ withdrawal from the war against the Taliban are shrouded in far more secrecy than many combat operations here…

…All that anyone seems to be allowed to say is that Canadian troops are definitely leaving Afghanistan; combat operations will continue until the July 1, 2011, deadline; and all troops will be home by the end of next year.

The one disclosure — made a few weeks ago by a visiting air force general — was that Canadian helicopter operations in Kandahar are to end by early August next year [see Joint Task Force Afghanistan Air Wing, more here--why could we not keep the Air Wing going, see here and here?].

In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus cautioned Americans to prepare for several more years of war in Afghanistan and cast the Obama administration’s July 2011 timeline to begin withdrawing troops as a highly flexible deadline…

It is now widely assumed, although not publicly announced, that U.S. troops will begin to take over Canada’s last combat responsibilities in the province from a battle group led by the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment, known as the Van Doos [the main part of next Task Force 3-10, photos here], sometime late next spring .

A series of ceremonial handovers is bound to take place between Canadian and American commanders between now and next Canada Day. They will mark the close of an unlikely chapter in Canadian military history — an unexpected combat deployment that was initiated with almost no public discussion by the Chrétien and Martin governments that is now ending with the first withdrawal of Canadian combat forces before the war they were fighting has concluded.

Just as the war ramps up this year with a surge of U.S. troops, Canada’s military footprint has already begun shrinking.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (4 Jul 2010)

In Sangin, most dangerous Afghan district, British troops fear war will last 10 years
British troops fear they may need to keep fighting for control of Sangin, Afghanistan's most dangerous district, for another 10 years.
_Sunday Telegraph_, July 3
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7870537/In-Sangin-most-dangerous-Afghan-district-British-troops-fear-war-will-last-10-years.html



> ...Just 50,000 Afghans live here and in the surrounding district, in Helmand province, yet Sangin has proved the most dangerous spot in the country for the British forces that have been attempting to subdue it for the past four years.
> 
> Almost one third of all British deaths in Afghanistan have been in Sangin – 99 out of the 310 fatalities so far...
> 
> ...



NATO retools in a key mission: Building an Afghan police force
_Washington Post_, June 30
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/29/AR2010062904791.html



> ...
> The alliance is shaking up existing training programs and adding new incentives in an attempt to turn around what has been one of the biggest, most enduring disappointments of the nearly nine-year-old war: the inability to transform the country's 90,000 police officers into a professional force capable of assuming control of local security.
> 
> NATO officials touted the changes in advance of the release of an audit by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. The report, released Monday,
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## The Bread Guy (5 Jul 2010)

*Envoy says reconciliation key to peace *
Bill Graveland, Canadian Press, 5 Jul 10
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100705/national/afghan_peace_cda


> Canada could be convinced to back plans for political reconciliation in order to bring peace to Afghanistan but only if a number of stiff conditions are met first, says Canada's ambassador to the country.
> 
> Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been reaching out to the insurgents in hopes of ending the war.
> 
> ...


_More on link_


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## GAP (6 Jul 2010)

*Articles found July 6, 2010*

 Canada borrows $19-million worth of electronic defence systems from U.S.
Roadside bombs now accounting for nearly all combat deaths in the war in Afghanistan as Canada enters its final year of the war.
By TIM NAUMETZ Published July 5, 2010 
Article Link

With roadside bombs now accounting for nearly all combat deaths in the war in Afghanistan, Canadian troops are borrowing $19-million worth of electronic defence systems from the United States to counter the threat as Canada enters its final year of the military mission in Kandahar.

Cabinet approved an unusual directive last month giving Defence Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.) authority to borrow the sophisticated gear from the U.S. Marine Corps, prompting opposition questions about whether the Canadian government has done all it could over the past four years to protect soldiers against the deadly toll from so-called Improvised Explosive Devices.

As the war has dragged on, Afghan insurgents who initially engaged Canadian troops in open combat with rocket propelled grenades and small arms have turned almost exclusively to the deployment of landmines and IEDS—to the point that last year the improvised bombs claimed the lives of 29 of 32 Canadian dead. 

A Cabinet order dated June 17 authorizes Mr. MacKay to borrow an unspecified number of "Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Countermeasure System devices" from the Marines. The directive says the systems have a total replacement value of $19,059,336 in U.S. currency.

The order also authorizes Mr. MacKay to reimburse the U.S. up to that amount for any of the equipment that is lost or destroyed and to compensate the U.S. from any claims for injury, death or property damage that could result from Canadian use of the system. 
More on link

 Beyond McChrystal Lies a Bigger Tug of War
  Article Link

WHILE the uproar set off by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s imprudent comments in Rolling Stone magazine has focused on the larger-than-life personalities involved, there is an important subtext: What does all this drama suggest about how the Pentagon and the State Department are sharing responsibility for the war in Afghanistan?

Perhaps a clue came during a secure video conference call between Washington and Kabul last Saturday. General McChrystal’s replacement, Gen. David H. Petraeus, called up the two top American civilian officials in the war — Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy; and Karl W. Eikenberry, the ambassador in Kabul.

The general raised a touchy issue: whether to buy generators to supply electricity to Kandahar. For months, the ambassador and many civilian development experts had opposed doing so now, because it didn’t fit long-term national plans for power generation. But Kandahar is the Taliban stronghold that is the American military’s next target. And General Petraeus, according to an official familiar with the conference call, said the basic services were so badly needed there that it justified going ahead.

The ambassador fell into line, the official said. In the perennial tug-of-war between civilian aspirations and military imperatives, score one for the Pentagon. 
More on link

Fighting, but Not Calling It Combat
By TIM ARANGO  Article Link  July 2, 2010, 9:53 pm

In an air conditioned tent here in the middle of the desert, surrounded by a security wall of armored vehicles, the chatter drifted to America’s other war.

Nothing, said Maj. Bryan L. Logan, the squadron operations officer for the Third Squadron, Seventh Cavalry Regiment, makes the wives back home (there are only men here) more angry than when an acquaintance makes a remark such as, “You must be happy your husband is in Iraq rather than Afghanistan.”

The soldiers understand Iraq is still a dangerous place – more dangerous, in fact, for the local population than in Afghanistan. Americans just aren’t leaving the wire as much anymore in Iraq.

From late-March to late-April this year, 173 civilians died in Afghanistan, according to a government official there, The Associated Press reported. In April, 235 civilians were killed in Baghdad alone, according to an official at the Ministry of the Interior.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (6 Jul 2010)

France: More military trainers to Afghanistan
AP, July 4



> France's military will soon send 250 more trainers to Afghanistan, bringing the overall French force to 4,000 people.
> 
> The chief of the French defense staff, Edouard Guillaud, said in French Senate hearings that the French troops in Afghanistan "are 3,750 men and women who are engaged in a difficult operation."
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (7 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 7

Afghanistan: British troops to hand over northern Helmand to US Marines
British troops will hand over some of the most dangerous and heavily contested parts of Afghanistan to US forces, ministers will announce on Wednesday.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 6
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7875855/Afghanistan-British-troops-to-hand-over-northern-Helmand-to-US-Marines.html



> Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, will tell MPs that British troops in Helmand province will hand over districts including Sangin, where scores of British troops have been killed.
> 
> The change will see British troops withdrawing from large parts of northern Helmand and concentrate on the central area of the province.
> 
> ...



Dent in Afghanistan war strategy: Why Kandahar locals turn to Taliban
The key to success in the Afghanistan war, Sen. John McCain said yesterday, is Kandahar. But despite efforts under way to improve governance, locals say they prefer the Taliban's quick justice to corrupt local courts.
_CS Monitor_, July 6
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0706/Dent-in-Afghanistan-war-strategy-Why-Kandahar-locals-turn-to-Taliban



> Kandahar, Afghanistan —
> 
> As he took command of the Afghanistan war this weekend, Gen. David Petraeus wrote to NATO troops of building “a brighter future for a new country in an ancient land.”
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (8 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 8

In scramble for Afghanistan, India looks to Iran
Reuters, July 6
http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2010/07/06/in-scramble-for-afghanistan-india-looks-to-iran/



> Diplomats like to stress that Afghanistan is not a zero-sum game, that if only the many regional players — including Pakistan and India – can settle their differences, they can find common cause in seeking a political settlement that will offer stability. That view comes complete with an appealing historical template – the British in India were able to extricate themselves from their failed Afghan wars in the 19th century in part because they agreed with Tsarist Russia that Afghanistan should be allowed to remain neutral.
> 
> Yet in the feverishness of the 21st century Afghan war, the perception (right or wrong) of a likely early American disengagement may be encouraging more, rather than less, zero-sum gamesmanship. The danger then is that far from moving towards a settlement for Afghanistan, regional players back different sides in the Afghan conflict, leading to de facto partition and renewed civil war.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (8 Jul 2010)

“Afghanistan is hardly lost” – Hanson 
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, July 8
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1278603792/0#0



> ...
> Roland Paris, an Associate Professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, has launched True North Blog, providing international affairs commentary from a Canadian perspective.
> http://rolandparis.wordpress.com/ ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## George Wallace (8 Jul 2010)

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

*
“Corruption: an industry and a culture in Afghanistan”
*
CTV News, July 8


LINK 


*ASHRAF KHIL & KABUL, Afghanistan — The men of the village sat cross-legged, listening to the candidate under a tent that was a reprieve from the sun but heaved with heat. 
*

All generations of the village of Ashraf Khil it seemed were here (except the women) to see the candidate who would be their pick in upcoming parliamentary elections. 

The audience was diligent and quiet for the most part until the candidate's speech turned to the issue of corruption. The men stirred. The very mention of the word set heads nodding and voices mumbling. Someone shouted something I didn't understand but others seemed to agree and even added Allah akbar!, or God is great, as punctuation. 

Corruption is something that strikes a similar chord in any village or city anywhere in Afghanistan. It is the nation's bond. Bribes, graft, and outright embezzlement are pervasive and flourish at every level and at every scale. Corruption is both an industry and a culture. 

Take Ashraf Khil as an example. The village has no school or clinic for 2,400 people. There is no electricity and barely a road. The way the men tell it district officials have long been aware of their needs but the money they were promised never seemed to make it. 

Is there corruption in the government? 

Of course, they said, almost scoffing, and went on to list the many ways that corruption warps their lives. They pay bribes to register a car, or to get a job, or to keep the jobs they already have. 

"When we make bricks from mud out in the field," one man said, "the police come and we have to pay them 50 or 100 Afs." 

A dollar or two is a lot to lose when the day's wage is not much more than that. Refusing to pay can be costlier. 

"You think you can spend a quiet night in your village if you don't?" asked a labourer who loads trucks and forfeits a third of his salary to local police and officials. He said refusers land in jail. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In its second national survey on corruption, the group Integrity Watch Afghanistan (www.iwaweb.org) found that Afghans paid nearly a billion dollars in bribes in 2009. The average kickback was US$180 and it is the poor who get ripped off the most. 

"It has soared to levels not seen before," says Lorenzo Delesgues, one of the authors of the report who questioned 6,500 people across the country. A third of households paid a bribe to get a public service. Corruption was listed among Afghanistan's most corrosive problems after insecurity and unemployment. 

One of the more disturbing trends shows that half of those polled believe corruption is fostering the growth of the Taliban. In 33 of 34 provinces, the Taliban has established ‘shadow governments' and a system of courts that resolve criminal accusations or property disputes in a day. 

"Taliban justice is swift and they provide security," said Haroon Mir, who heads a think-tank in Kabul. "The Taliban have one advantage over the Afghan government in that they are not corrupt." 

A former Taliban ambassador told me in an interview that Afghans are pleased with the Taliban system because it is free of delay and bribery. 

"The spirit of the Taliban Islamic Movement and the people who are supporting it is high. Very high," he stressed, suggesting it may matter less whether the Taliban can outfight NATO forces because in many ways they are out-governing Afghans. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corruption is the known and open wound in Afghanistan that has been exacerbated by billions of dollars in foreign aid that has flowed into the country for years. Studies show less than half of every development dollar actually reaches a project. 

If reports are to be believed there are also billions being secreted out of Afghanistan, allegedly in boxes and suitcases through Kabul airport to tax havens like Dubai. A number of Afghan businessmen and officials are said to be owners of lavish villas in the Gulf. 

If Afghanistan's total GDP (gross domestic product) is about US$13.5 billion, the alleged carry-on migration of nearly US$3 billion would suggest not all of those ‘transfers' were necessarily licit. The U.S. Congressional Committee that controls handouts has frozen about US$4 billion in aid until it is convinced the money is doing more than lining pockets. 

When Afghan president Hamid Karzai renewed his claim to power he vowed to fight corruption. He talked about ending the "impunity and violations of the law." Karzai is often quick to blame Western influence and waste, as a resentful and often defensive stance when he is criticized for his lack of action. 

Karzai formed the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption with a big splash and a lousy budget. To date, the commission is expected to tackle a multi-billion dollar scourge with only US$2 million. 

"It's not nearly enough," says Qaseem Ludin, the Afghan-Canadian who is the Office's deputy chair. He explained that budget increase is bogged down in paperwork and bureaucracy. Ludin's frustration is obvious though he is far more diplomatic in explaining it. 

"There are a lot of hurdles," he concedes. 

A centrepiece of the Office's new powers was the decree by Karzai for ministers and officials to declare their assets. A number of ministers, including some in Karzai's own cabinet, have so far refused or simply ignored the requirement. 

Karzai's declaration was the first to be made public: net monthly earnings of US$525, less than US$20,000 in a German bank, and no land. I asked Ludin if he thought Afghans actually believed that. 

"Well, he's the president," he said, "he has expenses." 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the Integrity Watch survey Afghans are far less tolerant of corruption and the lavish lifestyles they see thriving around them. The disparity of wealth is striking. 

In Kabul, massive Hummers and kitted-out Lexus SUVs cause traffic jams in a city that still lacks a proper sewage system. Near the airport there is a billboard announcing that ‘Land Rover Has Come to Town.' Restaurants buzz with the banter of drunk contractors and the war's sleazy profiteers. There is a building boom of gaudy mansions with gauche pillars on streets where kids are routinely eating from garbage. 

"The authorities put it in their pockets," said a carpenter repairing a storefront. "Only the rich get richer." 

Despite inroads by the Taliban in the countryside it seems the vast majority of Afghans still look to the president to fix corruption. They also claim to surveyors that they feel guilty about paying bribes but figure it is the only way to get things done. If it is habit at every level of government it is seen as not only acceptable but a tactic of survival. 

"Corruption compromises everything," says Thomas Ruttig, an analyst who has spent decades in Afghanistan. "It feeds the warlords, undermines the administration and international effort. It gets poisoned from the inside like a cancer." 

Some people chuckle at the idea the disease might ever be cured, or even controlled. Mohammed Ismail has had the past few years to ponder this. A car dealer accused of supplying vehicles for the Taliban to repurpose as bombs, he is at the half-way point of a 10-year sentence at Kabul's notorious Pul-e-Charki prison. 

Like most prisoners he claims his incarceration on something short of innocence. For 20 minutes, Ismail berated Afghan 'justice' as a system that is neither "Islamic law nor infidel law" but a tool for regimes to take revenge in family feuds, make money, and settle scores. 

"There is no justice without a bribe," he says, "there is only the pocket law." 

The Integrity Watch survey declared the judiciary among the most corrupt institutions. 

I asked another prisoner, Hajji Halat Daad, if he thought he might be released under a decree from Karzai to free nearly a thousand Taliban prisoners. He actually laughed. 

"There was a decree last year, too," he smiled through scrabbled teeth, "but it didn't happen because the official here wanted a bribe. An exit fee." 

Sources at the U.S. Treasury Department in Kabul say they have long held out hope of a "high-profile conviction" to set an example. Ludin, the anti-corruption deputy, confirms that dozens of Afghan officials, some of them important, are being investigated. 

So far nothing has happened to suggest to Afghans it is anything but business as usual.


----------



## MarkOttawa (9 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 9

Petraeus reviews directive meant to limit Afghan civilian deaths
_Washington Post_, July 9
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070806219.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead&sid=ST2010070806293



> To the U.S. soldiers getting pounded with thunderous mortar rounds in their combat outpost near Kandahar, it seemed like a legitimate request: allow them to launch retaliatory mortar shells or summon an airstrike against their attackers. The incoming fire was landing perilously close to a guard station, and the soldiers, using a high-powered camera, could clearly see the insurgents shooting.
> 
> The response from headquarters -- more than 20 miles away -- was terse. Permission denied. Battalion-level officers deemed the insurgents too close to a cluster of mud-brick houses, perhaps with civilians inside.
> 
> ...


  

British combat role in Afghanistan 'could be over in three years'
Ambassador Sir William Patey sees need for long-term partnership between the two countries
_The Guardian_, July 8
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/british-combat-afghanistan-timescale



> British troops could end their combat role in Afghanistan even sooner than the five years the government has suggested, the UK's top diplomat in the country said today.
> 
> Political developments could accelerate the process, leading to a reduction in fighting and to Nato forces ending their combat in a "three- to five-year timescale", said Sir William Patey, Britain's ambassador to Kabul. Talks leading to a political settlement should get off the ground sooner rather than later, he added, referring to contacts with Taliban elements.
> 
> He was speaking at a meeting in London organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, at which *a Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, emphasised the government's commitment to ending the combat role of British troops in Helmand at the latest by 2015* [emphasis added], the date Britain's next general election is due...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (11 Jul 2010)

*Articles found July 11, 2010*

 2400 Canadian Soldiers on 72 Hour Notice For Gulf Deployment
Article Link

Originating Article Link

Gen. Gene Renuart, and Canadian Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, head of Canada Command, signed the plan, which allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation in a civil emergency.

The new agreement has been greeted with suspicion by the left wing in Canada and the right wing in the U.S.

There is potential for the agreement to militarize civilian responses to emergency incidents. Also underway is a plan for the two nations to put in place a joint plan to protect common infrastructuresuch as roadways and oil pipelines.

If U.S. forces were to come into Canada they would be under tactical control of the Canadian Forces but still under the command of the U.S. military.

News of the deal, and the allegation it was kept secret in Canada, is already making the rounds on left-wing blogs and Internet sites as an example of the dangers of the growing integration between the two militaries.
More on link

 Obama wiggling on pledge to exit Afghanistan 
Article Link

Paul Koring

Washington — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Jul. 05, 2010 8:32PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010 8:04AM EDT

Unless he can contrive to decisively win the war in Afghanistan in the next 12 months, Barack Obama must stage a successful retreat under attack, the toughest manoeuvre for any supreme commander, even when fought on the political battlefield at home.

Mr. Obama is caught in the pincer between his pledge to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan by next July and the starkly evident reality that the raging Taliban insurgency may require more U.S. reinforcements instead of repatriating any of the 100,000 already there.

Mr. Obama left himself some wiggle room when he made the initial promise, and one of his senior lieutenants is now floating a strategy that could mean using the Canadian pullout to cover the President’s exposed political flank. 
More on link

 Canadian colonel says security ring will result in safer city in days
  Article Link
By: Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 10/07/2010

A senior military official said Saturday that the security cordon that has been set up around Kandahar city should show almost immediate results in guaranteeing the safety of the Afghan people.

As of July 1, a ring of security checkpoints started to set up on major routes in and out of Kandahar city and being staffed with a formidable combination of Afghan and NATO forces.

The 13 checkpoints, which include search areas for vehicles, aren't unlike a border crossing between Canada and the United States.

The idea is to keep out the Taliban and keep the criminal element in check in terms of narcotics and weapons.

"This is going to have an effect within days for the communities and subdistricts and possibly weeks for the city itself and perhaps months for the city to be able to operate and deliver effective governance," explained Lt.-Col. Simon Bernard, the head of mid and long term planning for Task Force Kandahar.

"If we're looking at it at the provincial level that of course will take months if not years. Delivering Kandhar city is really the key piece for the south and after that we can use the inkspot analogy and increase security from Kandahar city to the outskirts and districts around the city."

The number of checkpoints will likely go as high as 20 depending on need or even 30 if needed said Bernard.
More on link

 Top commanders meet in bunker in Afghanistan
  Article Link
U.S. and Canadian leaders share thoughts behind fortifications
 By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service July 10, 2010

NATO's new Afghan commander, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, sent a message to the Taliban on Friday with his first meeting outside Kabul since taking up the job last weekend.

Petraeus met for 15 minutes with Canada's Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance at a heavily fortified checkpoint that had recently been erected to prevent insurgents from getting into or out of Kandahar City.

The checkpoint, which has enormous concrete blast walls to impede suicide bombers, leads into what is regarded as one of the most volatile districts in Kandahar City and has been an important infiltration point for Taliban hooking down into the provincial capital from the northeast from Pakistan.

It is an area where the Red Army was sometimes ambushed by the mujahedeen in the 1980s.

It was not revealed what Vance, who commands NATO forces in Kandahar City, discussed with Petraeus, but the alliance and the Taliban have identified the city as the potentially decisive battleground in their nearly nine-year war.
More on link

 Afghanistan air drops provide life support to troops
Article Link

With the roads in southern Afghanistan fraught with danger for land convoys, some vital supplies are now being air-dropped into the coalition troops' more remote forward operating bases by the RAF.

The airfield at Kandahar airbase works night and day, seven days a week, transporting troops and equipment into this landlocked country.

In the blazing afternoon sun, a heat-haze rises from the tarmac as soldiers from 47 Air Despatch Squadron load up huge pallets of water and rations into the back of a Hercules C-130 aircraft.

It is a method dating back to the air drops of World War II, when British troops operating in France were re-supplied by air.

Today, air drops are being used for the smaller Nato patrol bases and checkpoints scattered across Helmand province - still one of the most hostile areas of Afghanistan. 
More on link

 Afghan police chiefs brief NATO mentors
   Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service July 11, 2010

s scores of veteran Afghan policemen ran around the regional training centre grounds on Saturday pretending to fire red-coloured fake assault rifl es, police chiefs from across southern Afghanistan watched through the windows of a hall where they were meeting with senior NATO officers charged with expanding and improving the much maligned force.

"I don't think we anticipated the degree of difficulty that there would be for the commanders in the field," said Maj.-Gen. Mike Ward, the Canadian army officer who has headed all police training in Afghanistan since last year.

One of the biggest headaches has been that 40,000 of Afghanistan's 107,000 policemen have never had any formal training. While trying to recruit and educate tens of thousands of new policemen to help confront the Taliban, there was also an urgent parallel need to train all those who had never had any training in the first place.

Other major difficulties included a high turnover rate, drug abuse and the question of how to add lustre to a force that Afghans have regarded for years as being grossly corrupt.
More on link


----------



## George Wallace (11 Jul 2010)

GAP said:
			
		

> *Articles found July 11, 2010*
> 
> 2400 Canadian Soldiers on 72 Hour Notice For Gulf Deployment
> Article Link
> ...




Just to put this OLD news into perspective:

*Commander - Canada Command *


*Lieutenant-General W. Seminaniw, CMM, MSC, CD *

Lieutenant-General Semianiw is the Commander of Canada Command headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

Lieutenant-General Semianiw enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1982 and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry also known as the PPCLI. After completing his infantry officer classification training, he joined the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the PPCLI where he served in a variety of command and staff appointments. He later commanded the 1st Battalion PPCLI.

Lieutenant-General Semianiw has served at the Brigade, Area, Division, and Task Force levels in a variety of command and staff appointments at home and abroad. He has served at the National Defence Headquarters as the Army G3, and on the Joint Staff as the J3 Land and J5 Policy Coordinator. He has also served at the Privy Council Office of Canada, and as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Deputy Minister Military Personnel.

He was responsible for CF operations in Afghanistan in 2005. On his return from Afghanistan he was appointed the Commandant of the Canadian Forces College. He was subsequently appointed the Assistant Chief of Military Personnel and then Chief of Military Personnel from 2007 until 2010. Lieutenant-General Semianiw was appointed the Commander of Canada Command in July 2010.

Lieutenant-General Semianiw is a graduate of the Canadian Forces College. He holds a Master of Arts in Military Studies, and a Master in Defence Studies. He has also completed the Joint Warfighter Component of the U.S. Military General/Flag Officer Capstone Programme and the NATO General Officer's Course.

Lieutenant-General Semianiw’s awards include Commander of the Order of Military Merit, the Meritorious Service Cross and the Order of St John. 

Lieutenant-General Semianiw is married to Nancy nee Paradis and has two children.


----------



## MarkOttawa (12 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 12

Britain's top general in Afghanistan admits 'courageous restraint' must change
Britain's most senior general in Afghanistan has admitted that rules for opening fire on Taliban insurgents must be "re-examined" following complaints from soldiers that they were too restrictive.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 11
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7884017/Britains-top-general-in-Afghanistan-admits-courageous-restraint-must-change.html



> Soldiers and Royal Marines told _The Daily Telegraph_ last week that their lives were being endangered by the policy of "courageous restraint" introduced by Gen Stanley McChrystal to cut down the number of civilian casualties.
> 
> In an interview with the _Telegraph_, Lt Gen Sir Nick Parker said troops in more dangerous areas should be able to use "all the tools at their disposal".
> 
> ...



Afghanistan's North Heats Up
Insurgents Kill 11 Police as a Reprise of Violence in the Region Presents a Challenge for NATO
_WSJ_, July 12
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580104575360541911931032.html



> Insurgents killed 11 Afghan police and assassinated a district chief over the weekend, in a reprise of violence in a once-peaceful region of northern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday...
> 
> A stronger insurgency in northern Afghanistan has presented a challenge to North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, who have so far concentrated their offensive against the Taliban in the southern and eastern provinces, the insurgents' traditional stronghold.
> 
> ...


  

Karzai to push for removing up to 50 ex-Taliban officials from U.N. blacklist
_Washington Post_, July 12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/11/AR2010071103505.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead



> UNITED NATIONS -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to seek the removal of up to 50 former Taliban officials from a U.N. terrorism blacklist -- more than a quarter of those on the list -- in a gesture intended to advance political reconciliation talks with insurgents, according to a senior Afghan official.
> 
> The Afghan government has sought for years to delist former Taliban figures who it says have cut ties with the Islamist movement. But the campaign to cull names from the list, which imposes a travel ban and other restrictions on 137 individuals tied to the Taliban, has taken on renewed urgency in recent weeks as Karzai has begun to press for a political settlement to Afghanistan's nearly nine-year-old conflict.
> 
> ...



Distrust Slows U.S. Training of Pakistanis
_NY Times_, July 11
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/world/asia/12training.html?ref=todayspaper



> The recent graduation ceremony here for Pakistani troops trained by Americans to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda was intended as show of fresh cooperation between the Pakistani and American militaries. But it said as much about its limitations.
> 
> Nearly 250 Pakistani paramilitary troops in khaki uniforms and green berets snapped to attention, with top students accepting a certificate from an American Army colonel after completing the specialized training for snipers and platoon and company leaders.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (13 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 13
David Cameron’s signal of a five-year timetable for withdrawing British troops from Afghanistan risks encouraging the Taliban to step up their attacks on Western forces, the head of Nato has said.

Nato chief: Afghanistan timetable puts British troops at risk
_Daily Telegraph_, July 13
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7886019/Nato-chief-Afghanistan-timetable-puts-British-troops-at-risk.html



> Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary-general, delivered the blunt message after the Prime Minister said he wanted most British troops to leave Afghanistan  by 2015.
> 
> He also warned that cuts in defence spending could harm the Transatlantic relationship with the US and leave countries like Britain lacking the cutting-edge military technology needed to work with American forces...
> 
> ...



U.S. and Afghanistan Debate More Village Forces
_NY Times_, July 12
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/asia/13afghan.html?ref=todayspaper



> With American commanders pushing to expand the number of armed village forces in areas where their troops and the local police are scarce, the Afghan president is signaling that he has serious concerns that such a program could return the country to warlordism, challenging the power of the central government.
> 
> The village forces have been one of the top subjects under discussion in frenetic daily meetings for the past week between Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American military commander in Afghanistan, and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. The two are scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, according to senior NATO military officials here.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## George Wallace (13 Jul 2010)

Afghan soldier kills 3 British troops
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 | 8:33 AM ET 
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/07/13/afghanistan-nato-troop-death.html



> A rogue Afghan soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade on NATO troops, killing three British soldiers and wounding at least two others, Afghan officials say.
> 
> The NATO-led mission confirmed that three soldiers were killed early Tuesday in southern Afghanistan but not disclose the nationalities of the three soldiers killed attack.
> 
> ...


----------



## Dog Walker (13 Jul 2010)

Afghan-led attack will be 'Taliban's worst nightmare'
Published: July 13, 2010 at 6:27 PM
By Heather Somerville, Medill News Service, Written for UPI

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/07/13/Afghan-led-attack-will-be-Talibans-worst-nightmare/UPI-96711279060038/

WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Afghan troops will lead an attack on a Taliban stronghold in the coming weeks, a sign that the country's security forces have strengthened, U.S. officials said.
The attack will involve U.S. and international troops and will strike the Arghandab district, an area in southern Afghanistan just outside Kandahar, where some of the heaviest fighting has occurred.
Arghandab is considered the "Taliban's home," said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in a news conference Tuesday.
Levin and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they met with top government and military officials.
Levin said the attack, which is scheduled for the end of the July or early August, will be "the Taliban's worst nightmare."
"This is going to be Afghan-led," Levin said. "The meaning of that will not be lost on the Afghan people and it will not be lost on the Taliban."
U.S. troops won't be spared the dangerous combat in Arghandab. The terrain is difficult and casualties are expected to be high, Reed said.
"We have very serious fighting ahead," Reed said.
An additional 30,000 U.S. troops will be deployed over the summer to help fight the surge in the southern region of the country.
The senators pointed to improvements in the Afghan army as progress in the 9-year war. Levin said the Afghan army has been actively recruiting since the announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama that the United States will begin withdrawing troops in July 2011 and turn responsibility over to Afghan forces. Levin confirmed Tuesday that the United States was on schedule for meeting that deadline.
Pakistan terrorist groups continue to pose a threat to U.S. and international forces, Levin said. Terrorist organizations, including the Pakistan-based Taliban and the Haqqani network, have launched attacks over the border into Afghanistan. The Pakistan government has failed to take action against the terrorist groups, Levin said.
Levin said he would ask the U.S. State Department to add both organizations to the list of foreign terrorist groups.
"It's long overdue," he said.
With the terrorist organizations added to the state department list, U.S. law would require Pakistan to take action against them, Levin said. If Pakistan didn't cooperate, the United States could restrict or revoke aid to the country, or even strike against the terrorist groups from inside Pakistan.
"Their country is used as the launching platform for terrorist attacks," Levin said.


----------



## MarkOttawa (14 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 14 (_Allons enfants_...)

Coalition eases up on Afghan airstrikes 
_USA Today_, July 14
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-07-14-1Aairstrikes14_ST_N.htm



> WASHINGTON — Warplanes in Afghanistan are dropping bombs and missiles on insurgents at about 25% of the rate they did three years ago despite more widespread combat, reflecting commanders' emphasis on reducing civilian deaths.
> 
> So far this year, jets have dropped bombs on only 10% of their combat support missions, compared with almost 40% in 2007, Air Force records show. The decline coincides with the arrival of most of the additional 30,000 U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama. Attacks on U.S. and allied troops — as well as deaths — are at all-time highs.
> 
> The reduction in bombing comes amid debate about rules restricting the use of overwhelming firepower for troops in combat. Some military analysts, including Barry Watts, who flew combat missions in Vietnam, say the rules have increased risk to ground forces fighting the Taliban...



German PzH 2000 Baptism of Fire
"Ares", _Defense Technology_ Blog, July 12 
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3aa9184891-8590-41ef-a875-fad896f8d85d



> The German army has fired artillery in support of a combat operation for the first time since World War II. The Bundeswehr’s operations command in Potsdam announced over the weekend that Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) 155 mm armored artillery
> [ http://www.army-technology.com/projects/pzh2000/ ]
> fired five rounds in support of troops dealing with two attacks by improvised explosive devices 12 kilometers west of the German provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan.
> 
> ...



U.S. May Label Pakistan Militants as Terrorists
_NY Times_, July 13
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/asia/14diplo.html?ref=todayspaper



> WASHINGTON — The new American military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, is pushing to have top leaders of a feared insurgent group designated as terrorists, a move that could complicate an eventual Afghan political settlement with the Taliban and aggravate political tensions in the region.
> 
> General Petraeus introduced the idea of blacklisting the group, known as the Haqqani network, late last week in discussions with President Obama’s senior advisers on Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to several administration officials, who said it was being seriously considered.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (15 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 15

Dutch close to end 
_Defence News_ (Australia), July 14
http://www.defence.gov.au/defencenews/stories/2010/Jul/0714.htm



> The Netherlands' partnership with Australia in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, will come to an end on August 1.
> 
> The Dutch-led Task Force Uruzgan began in 2006 when Dutch forces first arrived in the province.
> 
> Dutch and Australian forces have worked together on rebuilding local infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and mosques and improving the local security situation...



Afghans to Form Local Forces to Fight Taliban
_NY Times_, July 14
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?ref=todayspaper



> After intensive negotiations with NATO military commanders, the Afghan government on Wednesday approved a program to establish local defense forces that American military officials hope will help remote areas of the country thwart attacks by Taliban insurgents.
> 
> Details of the plan are sketchy, but Americans had been promoting the force as a crucial stopgap to combat rising violence here and frustration with the slow pace of training permanent professional security forces — the bottom-line condition for the American military to begin pulling back from an increasingly unpopular war. Many parts of Afghanistan have no soldiers or police officers on the ground.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (15 Jul 2010)

Canada hands over responsibility for Kandahar City to U.S.
Postmedia News, July 15, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=3281650



> KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — After holding the Taliban at bay in Kandahar City for more than four years, Canada transferred responsibility for the war in the provincial capital to the U.S. army’s 82nd Airborne Division on Thursday afternoon.
> 
> With the move, Canada’s area of responsibility has now formally shrunk to Panjwaii and Dand districts, to the southwest of Kandahar City. The 1 Royal Canadian Regiment battle group now patrols Panjwaii and a squadron from the U.S. army’s 10th Mountain Division, which remains under Canadian command, does the same in Dand.
> 
> ...



New US commander in Uruzgan: “We’ll continue the Dutch work”
Radio Nederland, July 14
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/new-us-commander-uruzgan-%E2%80%9Cwe%E2%80%99ll-continue-dutch-work%E2%80%9D



> The Dutch effort in Uruzgan will not be wasted, said United States Army Colonel James Creighton in an interview at Camp Holland with Radio Netherlands Worldwide. On 1 August, he will take over command from the Dutch troops who have been stationed there for the last four years…
> 
> The new US commander is not entirely sure how many additional US troops will be deployed in Uruzgan. Earlier, US Special Forces and diplomats told RNW that Uruzgan might possibly have to make do with less troops than the current 1700 from the Netherlands, because the situation in the bigger provinces is demanding more attention. The colonel has another idea about that.
> 
> ...



“The Afghanistan Tightrope”- Moore
Conference of Defence Associations’ media round-up, July 15
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1279212332/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (16 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 16

On the battlefield, Canadian soldiers get permission to shoot
Since Brigadier-General Jon Vance took command in June, Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are finding it easier to fight insurgents
_Toronto Star_, July 16
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/836407



> PANJWAI DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN—A pair of Canadian helicopters circled low over a vineyard, watching two insurgents try to slip away, waiting for permission to shoot.
> 
> The chopper crew and soldiers on the ground were confident they had a good kill in their sights, with little risk of harming innocent bystanders if the Griffon’s door gunner pulled the trigger.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (16 Jul 2010)

NATO launches Afghan intelligence-sharing drive
Reuters, July 15
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE66E5YL20100715



> THE HAGUE (Reuters) - NATO said on Thursday it had begun implementing a project to improve intelligence-sharing among foreign forces in Afghanistan, with the aim of boosting operational efficiency and cutting casualties.
> 
> NATO officials said the Afghan Mission Network was based around a high-speed broadband link between 63 locations in Afghanistan to allow better sharing of operational information and databases to help counter threats from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and speed up medical evacuation times.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (19 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 19

New Afghan rules clarify when helicopters gunners can unleash 'Allah's breath of death'
Postmedia News, July 18, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.canada.com/news/Somnia/3293546/story.html



> KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — After months of complaints from NATO troops about strict rules of engagement, Canada's trigger-pullers are expressing universal approval of a new written tactical directive from Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance that clarifies when soldiers in Task Force Kandahar can shoot at the Taliban.
> 
> "We feel much more pleased with the way things are done now. That's the general consensus," said Cpl. Luke Carlson of Emo, Ont., who mans a Dillon Gatling gun on a Griffon helicopter. "It's crystal clear what the general's directive is. It has made it easier for us."
> 
> ...



Riding with ghosts
Meet ‘Team Canada' — the last major aid group remaining in Kandahar takes a uniquely daring approach to the struggle for Afghanistan, operating almost invisibly on a mission to put tens of thousands of Afghans to work
_Toronto Star_, July 18, by Mitch Potter
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/837190



> KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—We are motoring down a bare-dirt back road in Kandahar Province, a road where NATO patrols never go. This way is better, explains the ghost behind the wheel, because roads without soldiers tend not to explode.
> 
> The car is “soft-skinned” — no armour. There are no body vests. No helmets. No blast goggles. No convoy. There is a gun on board, but it is concealed to avoid undue attention. Just plain vanilla wheels with two men from Canada dressed as Afghans — one, the driver, surveying the way ahead with purposeful, probing eyes, the other, a reporter, wondering what fresh hell awaits on this sweltering Friday afternoon.
> 
> ...



Liam Fox: troops will leave Afghanistan by 2014
Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, confirmed today that 2014 was the target date to pull out troops from Afghanistan.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 18
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/7897111/Liam-Fox-Troops-will-leave-Afghanistan-by-2014.html



> But he said some military personnel would remain in the country to train Afghan forces.
> 
> ''It has always been our aim to be successful in the mission and the mission has always said that the Afghan national security forces would be able to deal with their own security by 2014,'' Mr Fox told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.
> 
> ...




Commitment to Afghanistan troop build-up wanes 
_The Australian_, July 19
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commitment-to-afghanistan-troop-build-up-wanes/story-fn59niix-1225893665486



> WITH six Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan in a month, Tony Abbott has backed away from a promise to commit more troops.
> 
> Asked yesterday if he still planned to send more troops and to take over the lead role in Oruzgan Province from the departing Dutch, the Liberal leader told Sky News he would support the existing Australian Defence Force commitment of about 1500 personnel.
> 
> ...



U.S. hopes Afghanistan-Pakistan trade deal boosts cooperation in war effort
_Washington Post_, July 19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/18/AR2010071803086.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead



> ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Like an anxious matchmaker nudging a nervous couple together, the Obama administration has persuaded Afghanistan and Pakistan to take their first tangible step toward bilateral cooperation -- a trade agreement that will facilitate the ground shipment of goods between and through the two countries.
> 
> The accord has been under negotiation for years; Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised President Obama more than a year ago that it would be completed by the end of 2009. During marathon talks between the two sides that began last week, U.S. officials helped forge a deal in time to announce it Sunday night, just hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived for a two-day visit.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (20 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 20

Karzai sticks to 2014 goal for Afghans to take charge of security
The Afghan leader's statement to an international conference comes as casualties mount and exit-strategy worries intensify.
_LA Times_, July 20
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghan-conference-20100721,0,7688442.story



> President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday told a major international conference that he believes Afghanistan's  security forces will be ready to take over responsibility for safeguarding the country within four years.
> 
> That timeline was endorsed in a communiqué to be issued by conference participants, who included all the major troop-contributing nations in the Western military coalition that is battling the Taliban and other insurgents.
> 
> "I remain determined that our Afghan national security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout our country by 2014," Karzai told dozens of high-level delegates who gathered amid a near-lockdown in the Afghan capital. Participants included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon...



Canadian foreign affairs minister offers conditions for support of Afghan reconciliation
CP, July 20
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/foreign-affairs-minister-cannon-supports-afghan-reconciliation-with-conditions-98811354.html



> *KANDAHAR, Afghanistan* [emphasis added] - Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told an international conference in Kabul Tuesday that Canada would be willing to support reconciliation with the Taliban to bring peace to Afghanistan but only if a number of criteria are met first.
> 
> Cannon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior foreign officials from nearly 70 countries gathered in Afghanistan's capital for the one-day conference, which was seen as an affirmation of international support for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (21 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 21

U.S. Forces Step Up Pakistan Presence 
_WSJ_, July 20
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723604575379132838698738.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories



> U.S. Special Operations Forces have begun venturing out with Pakistani forces on aid projects, deepening the American role in the effort to defeat Islamist militants in Pakistani territory that has been off limits to U.S. ground troops.
> 
> The expansion of U.S. cooperation is significant given Pakistan's deep aversion to allowing foreign military forces on its territory. The Special Operations teams join the aid missions only when commanders determine there is relatively little security risk, a senior U.S. military official said, in an effort to avoid direct engagement that would call attention to U.S. participation.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (21 Jul 2010)

*Articles found July 21, 2010*

 Tanks Work in COIN
Article Link
By Greg Grant Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 

Two top-notch RAND researchers, David Johnson and John Gordon, who are drilling deep into the subject of heavy armor performance in irregular and hybrid warfare, released a teaser of some initial findings from surveys of U.S., British, Canadian, Israeli and Danish land forces’ experiences over the past decade.

The bottom line: from Iraq’s city streets to to Gaza’s narrow alleyways to the mountains of Afghanistan, ground troops love the intimidating presence of the 60 to 70 ton main battle tanks, their precise firepower and their unmatched utility as mobile pillboxes. Tanks provide unmatched survivability on battlefields seeded with IEDs; while a number of tanks have been lost to very large IEDs, they are more survivable, against a larger range of threats, than any other vehicle on the battlefield.

When it comes to comparing wheels versus tracks in off road mobility, there’s no contest, tracks win hands down; due to their high ground pressure, wheeled vehicles are easily mired in soft ground.

When it comes to fighting hybrid enemies, loosely defined as irregular opponents armed with high-end weaponry, tanks are an essential ingredient. “Light and medium force complement heavy forces in hybrid warfare, particularly in urban and other complex terrain, but they do not provide the survivability, lethality, or mobility inherent in heavy forces,” the RAND team writes.

The big downside of heavy armor is the greater logistical burden; while extremely robust in a toe-to-toe fight, tanks and heavy armored personnel carriers can often be mechanically fragile creatures.

Some selected input from the team’s interviews:
More on link

 Dutch military abandon Afghan helpers
Published on : 20 July 2010 - 4:42pm | By Bette Dam
  Article Link

The 102 interpreters who have assisted the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan are angry. Although they have risked their lives for the country, the Netherlands has abandoned them. The Americans, by comparison, are allowing their interpreters and translators to apply for visas to travel to the United States.

The Afghan interpreters are not actually permitted to talk to journalists but they don't care any more. With the Dutch leaving the southern province of Uruzgan soon - on 1 August - their contracts have been terminated. They feel they are being forced to return to their families. But that's part of the problem - they complain in interviews with Radio Netherlands Worldwide - they are afraid the enemy will target them – and hence possibly their loved ones too - for working with the "heathens".

High-value targets
"The Taliban know how important we are. Ideally they'd like to shoot dead a Dutchman but we interpreters are the number two high-value target," explains one of the interpreters, who has spent four years with the Dutch troops.

"The Taliban know we are the eyes and ears of the Dutch mission. If they kill us, the Netherlands can't get as much done. Our translation work has helped pull the Dutch guys through this war. We listen to radio messages and we can tell them which direction the enemy will be shooting from. We have saved many Dutch lives and that is why the Taliban will do everything they can to track us down."

One of the interpreters - in his twenties and like his colleagues afraid his name may be known to the Taliban - doesn't go home any more when he has leave. "There are many armed groups in Afghanistan these days which hate the foreigners. So associating with them is no longer popular. And it's extremely dangerous."

Another says he stays indoors during his holidays hoping he will not be noticed. In May, four "terps" - as they call themselves - were murdered in eastern Afghanistan for working with the Americans. 
More on link

 Caregiver burnout adds to veterans' woes
  Article Link
Post-traumatic stress disorder; Not enough social workers to help soldiers returning from Afghanistan, union says 
By KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette July 21, 2010

 Canada's soldiers returning home from the war in Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder face added obstacles because of caregiver burnout at Veterans Affairs, the federal department charged with helping them.

Magali Picard, vice-president of the union representing Veterans Affairs employees, told reporters yesterday that social workers within the department have a caseload of 40 clients, compared with caseloads of 20 in provincially run community clinics.

And in the Quebec City office, which serves the Canadian Forces Base at Valcartier, department norms say there should be 24 social workers, but there are only 16.

"Several have left for professional burnout," Picard said.

That means soldiers suffering from PTSD can wait up to four months before seeing a social worker, a necessary step to integrate them back into society and return them to the labour market.

Picard explained that patients waiting to see a Veterans Affairs social worker can't go to a CLSC because the CLSC will just send them back to Veterans Affairs.
More on link


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## Dog Walker (23 Jul 2010)

*Article found July 23, 2010*

 Taliban says US drone attacks 'temporarily' hindering insurgency
Spokesman says increased use of unmanned aircraft has forced change in operations, but drummed up new recruits
Friday 23 July 2010 10.07 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/23/taliban-drone-attacks-pakistan

The Taliban have admitted that US drone attacks have disrupted their operations in Afghanistan but insist it will be only for the short term.
Under Barack Obama, the US has stepped up the use of unmanned aircraft to target Taliban leaders and foreign fighters sheltering in neighbouring Pakistan, particularly in the border region of North Waziristan and South Waziristan.
"In the short term, yes, you can say it has caused us some difficulties because of the martyrdoms and realignment of our ranks," a Taliban spokesman, Muhammed Umer, told the BBC. "But our command and control system is very strong and well established, so we won't be affected for long," he said, adding that anger at drone attacks was drumming up new recruits. "Instead we get new courage, becoming more powerful with the flow of new blood."
Analysts say the increase in drone attacks has forced a change in the pattern of militant behaviour in the tribal area, with Taliban and foreign fighters more careful about gathering in large groups and tending to move on from locations more quickly.
In the most recent attack, Pakistani security officials last week said that between 10 and 14 "militants" were killed in a Predator strike, although no senior Taliban or al-Qaida leaders were reported killed. It was the first strike reported inside Pakistan this month, coming after a 16-day hiatus – the longest delay between strikes recorded since the US stepped up its the air campaign at the end of July 2008.
So far this year, the US has carried out 46 strikes in Pakistan, with all but three in North Waziristan. The other two strikes took place in South Waziristan and the tribal agency of Khyber. The US is well on its way to exceeding last year's strike total in Pakistan. In 2009, the US carried out 53 strikes in Pakistan; and in 2008, the US carried out 36.
As for casualties, 700 people reportedly have been killed in such attacks under Obama, compared with slightly fewer than 200 from under his predecessor, George Bush.


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## GAP (23 Jul 2010)

*Articles found July 23, 2010*

 Chinooks not returning to Canada after Afghan mission
Article Link

Thu Jul. 22 2010 05:03:44

The Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Six aging Canadian Chinook helicopters that have become the pride of the air force in Afghanistan may not be headed to the scrap heap when the mission is over but they are not coming home either.

The CH-47D Chinooks, purchased from the United States with a price tag of $292 million a couple of years ago, have done yeoman's service since they began flying here early last year.

But with a plan to purchase 15 brand new CH-47F Chinooks there will be no need to bring home the aging fleet.

"Believe me, the value of those aircraft cannot be diminished. They will not be scrapped," explained Defence Minister Peter MacKay as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Afghanistan.

"We will turn them over. Most likely they'll go back to the company (Boeing) for resale. Possible consideration could be given for the purchase of the new F models that we will receive," he added.

The purchase of the new Chinooks will cost $2 billion plus an estimated contract value of $2.7 billion for 20 years of in-service support.

"We are, as you know, contracted to buy new Chinook aircraft so we'll be swapping them out but it is yet to be determined the fate of those particular aircraft. They will not come back to Canada," said MacKay.

MacKay couldn't say if Canada would receive credit from Boeing to offset the nearly $5 billion cost of the new Chinooks. He said there is little doubt that the current Chinooks will find a new home.

"There's still discussion on what the specific outcome of these discussions with Boeing will be" he said. 
More on link

 National Post editorial board: Afghanistan’s new target date
Article Link
National Post editorial board, National Post
Wednesday, Jul. 21, 2010

On Tuesday, delegates to an international conference agreed that Afghan forces should take primary responsibility for security in all areas of Afghanistan by 2014.

This is a reasonable consensus. It also provides a more realistic departure date for Canadian troops, who currently are scheduled to end combat operations by the end of 2011. In light of this week’s events, Prime Minister Stephen Harper should consider extending our Afghan operation.

Iraq shows what sort of progress is possible when local troops take responsibility for the security of their own country. Eight years out from the U.S.-led invasion of their country, Iraqi forces now are responsible for security in over 90% of Iraq. This could be the most significant reason that negotiations on how to resolve the indecisive results of April’s national elections have not deteriorated into bloodshed: It is easier to honour the rule of law when those enforcing the laws are one’s neighbours.

A lot of work remains before Afghanistan can achieve a similar level of success. Huge strides have been made toward professionalizing the Afghan national army. But there is still so much corruption in Afghanistan that police services often go to the highest bidder. And soldiers whose government pay is irregular are still occasionally lured away to the Taliban, which continue to find support across the border in Pakistan, and dominate much of the Afghan hinterland.
More on link

 Afghanistan war: The civics in a Kandahar governor's slap
Article Link
In the Afghanistan war, the Kandahar offensive was postponed this summer to strengthen civic institutions. Does a governor who smacks his constituents toe the appropriate line?

 By Tom A. Peter, / Correspondent / July 22, 2010
Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan

Tension was running high in this farming area in late June after a number of locals were arrested by Canadian and Afghan troops for suspected insurgent activity. So the Canadians were relying on Haji Baran, governor of this district in the heart of Kandahar Province, to help them quiet villagers' concerns.

Crisply robed and rotund, with the air of authority of Afghan khans of centuries past, Mr. Baran swept from an Afghan Army vehicle through the 115-degree F. heat and into the shade of a patio crowded with village men anxiously chattering about sons and brothers detained. Though illiterate, Baran had in his head the carefully crafted NATO talking points about the necessity of the recent military operation.

But he didn't have the specifics that his constituents wanted so soon after the operation: Where were their loved ones? So, adjourning the meeting and rising to leave, he invited anyone with questions to come to his office in a few days when he would know more. But as he was exiting, a crescendo of questions followed, the crowd tugging at his sleeves.

Without warning, Baran firmly lashed out with a beefy palm and slapped one of the more persistent villagers across the face. The stunned questioner was silenced, but the crowd continued the clamor all the way to the ramp of a Canadian armored troop carrier that would seal him off from the crowd.

For Baran, the slap was business as usual.

For the Canadian soldiers and US civilians advising him, trying to put a positive face on the local government, the slap was a minor disaster. Officers filed disapproving reports. A Monitor reporter, the only journalist in attendance, received numerous briefings about the International Security Assistance Force's emphatic condemnation of such conduct.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (26 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 26

All _Spiegel Online_, first July 25, rest July 26

The Afghanistan Protocol
Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html#ref=nlint

Leaked Afghan War Documents
Former Pakistan ISI Chief Gul Denies Accusations
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708592,00.html#ref=nlint

The Truth about Task Force 373
War Logs Cast Light on Dirty Side of Afghanistan Conflict
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708559,00.html#ref=nlint

The Helpless Germans
War Logs Illustrate Lack of Progress in Bundeswehr Deployment
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,708393,00.html#ref=nlint

Plus _NY Times_ main site for its pieces:

The War Logs
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/war-logs.html

And the _Guardian_:

The War Logs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/afghanistan-the-war-logs

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (29 Jul 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 29

Wikileaks is No Smoking Gun
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, July 29
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1280425801/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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