# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (January 2008)



## GAP (1 Jan 2008)

The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (January 2008)        

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

*Articles found January 1, 2008*

Afghanistan says no return for expelled foreign officials
Article Link

* Official says expulsion a message that the govt is ‘watching everyone’

KABUL: The Afghan government Tuesday defended its decision to expel two foreign officials over national security charges, saying “no way is left open” for the pair’s return to the strife-torn country.

The government last week expelled two Westerners - the second most senior European Union official in Afghanistan and a top UN political advisor - accusing them of threatening national security. The UN dismissed the charges as a “misunderstanding” and hoped the pair would be cleared of the allegations.

But the Afghan government is not backing down. “The government’s definite decision is that the two individuals have... been expelled... and no way is left open for their return,” President Hamid Karzai’s senior spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, told reporters in Kabul. Kabul has said the two expelled officials - Irish national Michael Semple, working for the EU, and Briton Mervyn Patterson - made contact with the Taliban during visits to the southern province of Helmand, a rebel stronghold.
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110-year-old military heirloom a lucky charm for Cdn. soldier in Afghanistan
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - More than a century ago, a young British army private returned home safely from battle along what is now the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He later joined the Canadian Forces during the First World War and survived that conflict as well before going on to raise a family.

Four generations later, Pte. Charles Taylor's great -grandson has found himself in the same region battling another insurgency.

Maj. Walter Taylor was among 133 Canadian soldiers to proudly accept his own tour medal on New Year's Day for service in Afghanistan.

"I'm very glad to be able to follow in my great-grandfather's footsteps," Taylor said, clutching his great-grandfather's 1897 service medal for participating in the Trash Campaign.

"But obviously, for the reasons of the goals we're trying to accomplish here, I certainly hope my great -grandchildren aren't still here," the 34-year-old engineer with the 43rd field squadron quipped after the ceremony.

Just days after the Canadian Forces registered it's 78th death in Afghanistan, the Ottawa native said he holds his great-grandfather's medal close to him as a bit of a talisman or good-luck charm.
More on link

Coalition: Several Taliban Killed in Afghanistan  
By VOA News 01 January 2008
  Article Link

Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops say they have killed several suspected Taliban militants during an operation in southern Helmand province.

Coalition officials said in a statement released Tuesday that the latest clash occurred as troops searched a compound for militants associated with the Taliban, as well as others helping foreign fighters. 

During the search a gun battle erupted in which several suspected militants died. 

A coalition statement said no civilians were killed or injured in the fighting.

The statement adds that a cache of weapons including rifles, rockets and explosives was found and destroyed following following the battle.
More on link

Dispatches From Zambar, Afghanistan
Laying Down Roads in Bin Laden's Lion's Den
Reporter's Notebook By MATT GUTMAN ZAMBAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 1, 2008 
Article Link

 Share The slop tasted good. Spam cubed with a jack knife, rice, Ramen noodles and a cup of chicken soup, dumped in a steel pot and cooked on a gas burner, until the ingredients reach the right temperature: hot. The sun slunk back behind the snow-capped mountains to the west. The temperature dropped faster. Delta Company, a light infantry unit farmed out to the 82nd Airborne's Second battalion Airborne field artillery regiment, had seized a compound in this hostile village of seemingly identical mud-brick compounds. Just a few miles away are the remnants of the training camp in which Muhammad Atta and other 9/11 hijackers trained. Also nearby is Osama bin Laden's training camp, Al Masadah, or the Lion's Den, where he gained fame in 1988 following a bloody battle with the Soviets. The men of this platoon, infantry men all, accustomed to eating battle rations and sleeping in sub-zero temperatures for months on end, had come looking for a fight. Now they were just trying to get warm. They greedily slurped down Sgt. Rodolfo "Marty" Martinez's slop from the battle rations bag they had sliced in half and used as a bowl. It was the first hot meal in a couple of days, and they were grateful to eat something other than battle rations. Their Humvees were stuffed with thousands of rounds of ammunition. Gunners manned the cannon-ike .50 cal machine guns. And behind each gunner was a LAW anti-tank missile. But five days in and they had not fired a shot. They rumbled into this village as part of a mile-long convoy that ferried in the first coalition troops this town had seen in a year. This was the biggest mission of their 15-month deployment with more than 850 American and Afghan troops involved. The operation was set to last 30 days, with the troops searching each house twice. 
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'Be proud; you deserve it,' general tells Canadian troops receiving service stars
Ottawa soldier among honourees also carries great-grandfather's medal from 1897
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 1, 2008 | 11:54 AM ET CBC News 
Article Link

An Ottawa soldier based in Afghanistan whose great-grandfather fought in the same part of the world 110 years ago was among about 150 personnel honoured with service medals during a ceremony in Kandahar Tuesday.

Maj. Walter Taylor's ancestor served in the Tirah Campaign in 1897-98 in what was then India and is now a region of Pakistan close to the Afghanistan border.
More on link

Assassinated because she was a woman  
 January 02, 2008 
Article Link

ARE women across the world mourning Benazir Bhutto? They should be. Not because she was a saint; she wasn't. She was at least a beneficiary of the billions stolen by her husband from the people of Pakistan. Nor did she do anything much for Pakistani women during her two periods of leadership, declining even to try to repeal the infamous Hudood laws whereby rape victims can be punished for adultery.

She should be mourned not because of what she was but because of what she symbolised. Her death was a political assassination, not an honour killing, as some have said. 

Nevertheless it was a reminder of what we face. Bhutto was murdered because to her enemies she was Westernised, a traitor to her culture and an American stooge. She was murdered because she had vowed to bring secularism and democracy to Pakistan. She was murdered because she was all these things, and a woman. 

"I know I am a symbol of what the so-called jihadists, Taliban and al-Qa'ida, most fear," she wrote in her autobiography, Daughter of the East. "I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education and technology to Pakistan." 

Yes, fear is the right word. The fear of women, of women's freedom, and most of all, of women's sexuality, runs through Islamism. It is a large part of Islamist hatred of the West. "The issue of women is not marginal," writes the Dutch scholar Ian Buruma. "It lies at the heart of Islamic occidentalism (anti-Westernism)." 

It is the "deep, ignored issue", writes Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism. Why, I wonder, is it mainly men who are making these points? 

To call these warriors for God sexually repressed is to absurdly understate it. Consider Mohammad Atta, one of the September 11 hijackers who -- despite having spent his last nights in the US going to strip clubs -- wrote in his will that no pregnant woman or other "unclean person" should come to his funeral and that no woman should visit his grave. 
More on link

Settling into Afghanistan: Nearly 6 months after deployment, B Company has suffered and learned a lot from war
Allison Lampert , CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Article Link

ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan -- The soldiers of B Company had spent months preparing for Afghanistan, but the harshness of the war they were about to fight really hit them at their going-away party in June.

The crowds were cheering during a parade along the Grande Allee in Quebec City for the departing soldiers from Valcartier base. Amidst the hoopla, Major Dave Abboud, commander of the Van Doos infantry company, noticed a soldier with his left leg missing below the knee. 

Abboud, of the Royal 22nd Regiment's third battle group, said he admired how proud the soldier looked in his military uniform, despite his injury delivered by a roadside bomb.
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Jean celebrates troops devotion, Quebec's birthday
Published: Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Article Link

Governor-General Michaelle Jean's addressed the nation New Year's day with a speech that touched on the war in Afghanistan, argued for the need of solidarity at home and abroad and celebrated the 400-year anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.

As Canada counted its 74th soldier to die in the war in Afghanistan last week, Jean fittingly started her address by underlining the courage and devotion of Canadian troops and their families.

"As Canadians we are inspired by the courage, determination and conviction shown by our soldiers overseas," she said.
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Premature mine explosion kills 2 Taliban in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-01 19:32:00 
Article Link

    KABUL, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two Taliban insurgents were killed as their mine exploded prematurely in Afghanistan's central Ghazni province in the wee hours of Tuesday, police said. 

    "Some Taliban fighters were busy in planting a mine on a road in Nawa district very early today to target government troops. Suddenly it exploded killing two insurgents on the spot," senior police officer in the province Mohammad Zaman told Xinhua. 

    However, Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid put the number of militants' casualties three and said three fighters were killed in the premature explosion. 

    The year of 2007 has been considered the most violent year since the collapse of the Taliban regime six years ago as more than 6,000 people had been killed in conflicts and Taliban-related violence. 
More on link


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## GAP (2 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 2, 2008*

Comrades pay final tribute to fallen Canadian soldier
Parents 'extremely proud' of son's accomplishments
Allison Lampert , CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Article Link

The body of Gunner Jonathan Dion, the Canadian soldier killed Dec. 30 when the armoured vehicle he was travelling in struck a roadside bomb near Kandahar City, will return to Canada on Wednesday.

Dion's remains are due to arrive at 2 p.m. local time at the Canadian Forces base at Trenton, Ont., according to a statement from the base.

The 27-year-old native of Val D'Or, Que., died Sunday when his tracked light armoured vehicle, known as a T-LAV, hit an improvised explosive device during a routine patrol in Zhari district, about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city. Four other soldiers were wounded.

Dion was serving with the Fifth Light Artillery Regiment of Canada, a Valcartier, Que.-based unit of the Royal Canadian Artillery.

Soldiers from Canada and other coalition countries gave Dion their final salute Monday in a sombre ramp ceremony -- the 30th for Canadian soldiers in 2007.

Two of the capless pallbearers began to sob as they loaded his casket into the waiting Hercules aircraft to begin the journey back to Canada.

"This is a very difficult time for the family and friends of Gunner Dion, and our thoughts are with them," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

In a statement issued Monday, Dion's parents said they are proud of their son, who loved being a soldier.

"It is never easy for parents to lose a child. We are devastated by the death of Jonathan who, with dignity, gave up his life serving his country with honour and pride alongside his brothers in arms in Afghanistan.
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Canada to focus on mentoring Afghan forces in 2008  
Tuesday January 01, 2008 (1013 PST)
Article Link

OTTAWA: As Canada prepares for its sixth year in Afghanistan, there is growing consensus that the mission needs to focus on empowering the Afghan army and government with the tools to achieve independence. 

An example of this is a small but growing number of Canadian troops heading to Kandahar next year that will find themselves in a mentoring role instead of on the front lines of combat. 

Roughly 200 soldiers, under the umbrella of NATO’s Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT), will arrive this February with the goal of helping to develop the Afghan National Army (ANA). 

Col. Francois Riffou, the incoming commander of the Canadian forces mentoring program, has been preparing the new batch of soldiers since April 2007. 
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Militants kidnap four Pakistani soldiers: military
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Militants abducted four Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in a tribal area on Tuesday in the first such incident since the death of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, officials said.

Militants, believed to be loyal to alleged Al-Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud, seized the soldiers as they descended from their observation post on a hill near Makeen in South Waziristan.

The military said five rebels had been killed and 20 others detained amid fighting following the abduction of the four soldiers.

"Troops retaliated and launched an operation supported by artillery fire," the statement said. "Security forces apprehended 20 miscreants and killed five others."

The rebels had launched rocket and mortar attacks on a military base near Ladda town from rugged terrain bordering Afghanistan, a security official said.

Several militants were injured, but were evacuated by their comrades, the official added.

A local administration official said the attackers were loyal to Mehsud, who is alleged to be an Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan.
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Police clerk going to Afghanistan
By CARLA GARRETT, SUN MEDIA
Article Link

Deb Graf is getting a six-month leave of absence from the Oxford police to work as a fire dispatcher at the Kabul airport.

WOODSTOCK -- A new year brings a new life experience for a local woman heading to Afghanistan this week. 

Just four days after ringing in the new year, Oxford Community police clerk Deb Graf will board a plane headed to the war-torn Asian country. 

"It's a great opportunity and a great life experience," Graf said. "It's something I have wanted to do for a long time." 

For the next six months, the 42-year-old mother of two will work as a civilian fire dispatcher at the Kabul International Airport. She will work at the airfield alongside British, Danish and American troops. 

The company that hired her, ATCO Frontec, provides support services to NATO forces from 26 countries as part of the International Security Assistance Force. 

Graf, who has worked for the local police force since 1996, was given a six-month leave of absence to go work in Afghanistan. 

"We think it's a great opportunity to have someone from our organization go to the other side of the world to try to make it a better life for the people there," deputy Chief Rod Freeman said. 

Graf said she has had nothing but "tremendous support" from the chief and her colleagues. 

The ongoing support is easing any fears she may have about leaving her husband and two children, a 13-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son, at home. 

"They will be well looked after," said Graf, whose father was in the military. 
More on link

'If it was jihad then, it's jihad now.'
Colin Freeze, today at 7:56 AM EST Article Link

A former Pakistani intelligence officer says he has a message for Canadian and NATO forces in Afghanistan: “Ultimately you will lose,” he told me a phone interview. “You are not bringing any peace here."

Khalid Khawaja, an English-speaking ex-spy, spoke from Lahore after I called him from Kanadhar, where I am an embedded journalist with the Canadian Forces. The idea was to try to suss out the views of a known extremist, one who might put regional events in a different kind of perspective. 

“In [1980s] Afghanistan, when the Russians attacked, the Canadians and Americans and Europeans supported the jihad against the Russians,” Mr. Khawaja said.  Foreign policies and foreign armies may shift over time, he said, but real Muslims stand firm. 

"Our religion has not changed," he said. “If it was jihad then, it is jihad now.” 

Mr. Khawja is the most accessible of Pakistan's rogue elements. The agency he once worked for, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), has been getting lot of press this week, amid allegations of complicity in the last week’s mysterious assasination of Benazir Bhutto and of continued ISI meddling in Afghanistan.  

These events occurred after Mr. Khawaja's time. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was something of a regional power broker. Firmly ensconced within Pakistan's military-intelligence apparatus, he first served as an Air Force squadron leader, then as an ISI operative, while forging personal relationships with Afghanistan-based  jihadists. He says he has met Osama bin Laden, Taliban Leader Mullah Omar, and just about every Afghan warlord of note.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (3 Jan 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 3

Forces' Death Rate Higher Than Allies'
Canadian soldiers dying at higher rate than U.S., British troops
_National Post_, Jan. 3
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=211624



> The death rate among Canadian soldiers fighting around Kandahar has outstripped not only that of U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, but Americans in the bloody Iraq war as well, the forces' own figures indicate.
> 
> A National Defence Department analysis of casualty rates in the first year of operations in and around Kandahar -- obtained by the National Post under Access to Information legislation -- confirms unofficial reports that Canada has suffered a lopsided toll in the conflict.
> 
> ...



US general warns on Afghan defence plan
*Financial Times*, Jan. 2
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f31af380-b95e-11dc-bb66-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1



> British plans to equip tribes to defend their villages against the Taliban will not work in the region of Afghanistan in which UK forces are responsible, the top US general commanding Nato forces in the country warned on Wednesday.
> 
> With overstretched international and Afghan security forces struggling to contain the country’s insurgency, some countries, including the UK and Denmark, are pushing for greater use of tribal militias to strengthen efforts against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (4 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 4, 2008*

Hundreds of Pakistani families flee sectarian violence, pour into Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Thursday, January 3, 2008 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan: Hundreds of Pakistani families have poured across the border into Afghanistan in recent days as they flee sectarian violence in northwestern Pakistan, officials said Thursday.

Clashes last week between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's Kurram tribal area left at least 21 people dead, and authorities imposed a curfew in the troubled area.

Afghan officials said that about 900 families — most of them Sunnis — have fled across the border in the past two weeks to the provinces of Khost and Paktia. The majority of those fleeing are women and children, and most are staying in the homes of friends and acquaintances.

"The situation is under control. There is no serious threat," said Khost Gov. Arsallah Jamal, who noted that about 400 to 500 Pakistani families had fled to the province. "In the past 30 years, we have seen these conflicts between Shia and Sunni in Kurram."

Abdul Rahman Mangal, the deputy governor in neighboring Paktia province, said that about 480 families had come to the border districts there, including about 20 to 30 Afghan families who were living in Pakistan.

The officials said that blankets, charcoal, wood and food had been delivered to assist.

Kurram, a semiautonomous region near Afghanistan, is prone to sectarian violence.
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7 Killed in Afghanistan Suicide Attack
By NOOR KHAN 
Article Link
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber attacked Indian road construction workers and their Afghan police escorts Thursday in southwestern Afghanistan, killing seven and wounding 12, an official said.

The convoy had been traveling on a main road toward the city of Khash Rod in Nimroz province when it was first hit by a remote-controlled bomb that was planted on a motorcycle, wounding one policeman, said Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad.

The convoy stopped after the primary explosion, and a suicide bomber set off a secondary attack, killing six policemen and an Indian worker, Azad said. Ten policemen and two Indian workers were wounded.
End

Islamist Politicians Emerge As Pakistan's Power Brokers  
Unrest Creates a Role For Devout Lawmakers; 
'Yes' to Anti-Vice Squads
By PETER WONACOTT January 4, 2008; Page A1
Article Link

CHAMKANI VILLAGE, Pakistan -- Just after night fell at a campaign rally last Thursday, conservative Islamist politician Khalid Waqar heard the news: Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's best-known secular politician, was dead.

Here in the Northwest Frontier Province, just miles from Afghanistan and Pakistan's wild tribal areas, Mr. Waqar heard scattered cheers. There was the crack of rifle shots, he recalls, in apparent celebration of the former prime minister's assassination.

He hushed the crowd.

"We are all Muslims," he said. "Benazir was faithful to her country. This is a sad day for Pakistan." Then the 46-year-old Mr. Waqar -- a member of a coalition of religious politicians that some critics accuse of fostering the religious radicalism that Ms. Bhutto vowed to curb -- led a prayer for her.
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Afghanistan warns of dire food shortages
Article Link

BERLIN (AFP) — Afghanistan could face serious food shortages in the coming months that could lead to a famine, Economy Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang told a German newspaper in an interview published Friday.

Farhang called on the international community for help, noting that 400,000 tonnes of wheat were still needed to feed the population through the winter and sufficient oil, sugar and flour were also lacking.

"The situation is serious," he told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung, adding that President Hamid Karsai had formed a special commission to head off a potential humanitarian disaster.

Farhang said it would cost the Afghan government at least 80 million dollars if it has to buy grain on the free market.

"We call on the World Food Program, (German food aid group) Welthungerhilfe and friendly governments to help us in this crisis," he said.

Farhang said rising grain prices on the global market posed a serious problem while the political crisis in Pakistan made it difficult for food shipments to reach Afghanistan
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Afghan soldiers begin training with Canadian rifles
Allison Lampert, CanWest News Service  Published: Thursday, January 03, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- "Keep it loaded, keep it loaded!," Sgt. Nicolas Girard of the Royal 22 Regiment in Valcartier, Que. tells the Afghan soldiers over the popping of bullets on the rifle range.

"Tell them to keep their rifles loaded," Sgt. Girard tells an interpreter, eager to clear up any confusion over when the soldiers should be removing their magazines during the shooting drill.

Today is the Afghan soldiers' first time on the firing range with their Canadian-issued C-7 assault rifles. The Canadian Forces is in the process of equipping four Afghan army battalions with 2,500 surplus C-7 rifles.

"We are doing this at the request of the Afghan army as the weapons they have at the present time are pretty old," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche in an interview with reporters Wednesday. "And they don't have enough of them."

The Afghan army has been asking for the rifles for about three years, despite repeated promises by the Canadian government. 

Gen. Laroche attributed the delay in delivering the rifles to red tape. 
More on link

Gurkhas a big help to the mission in Afghanistan
Allison Lampert , Montreal Gazette Published: Thursday, January 03, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- They are often referred to as human machines, soldiers with oversized hearts and lungs tucked into smaller than average-sized bodies.

Yet during a recent Christmas Day volleyball match, one observer on the court described the soldiers of the Royal Gurkha Rifles - in their floppy red hats - as "little Nepalese Santas."

Soft-spoken and exceedingly polite, the Gurkhas have become a key Canadian ally in Afghanistan, with the Rifles' C company fighting side-by-side during three recent operations in Kandahar province. Since they arrived in September, the Gurkha company has played an essential role in helping Canadian and Afghan soldiers chase insurgents out of Kandahar's volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts.
More on link


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## Ex-Dragoon (5 Jan 2008)

http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=9346dae9-3f21-4c23-8234-d3d5e1a6fae3

 Saturday » January 5 » 2008 
  
Canadians find formidable ally in Gurkhas
  
ALLISON LAMPERT 
The Gazette 


Saturday, January 05, 2008


They are often referred to as human machines, soldiers with oversize hearts and lungs tucked into smaller-than-average bodies.

Yet during a Christmas Day volleyball match, one observer on the court described the soldiers of the Royal Gurkha Rifles - in their floppy red hats - as "little Nepalese Santas." Soft-spoken and exceedingly polite, the Gurkhas have become a key Canadian ally in Afghan-istan.

Since arriving in September, the Gurkha company has played an essential role in helping Canadian and Afghan soldiers chase insurgents out of Kandahar's volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts.

"The Gurkhas are a very remarkable organization. They have very good fighters," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. "We want to keep on working with them as long as we can." Created after a peace treaty in 1816 between Britain and Nepal, the Gurkha brigade has served as part of the British army.

Selected through rigorous testing in Nepal - Gurkha candidates must climb five kilometres carrying a 70-pound backpack in under 35 minutes - only one in 300 is accepted into the legendary British infantry regiment.

"We've got good quality blokes," said Lt.-Col. Jonny Bourne, commander of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. "A lot of them come from particularly rugged backgrounds." Besides working well with the Canadian soldiers, the Gurkhas are praised for being able to communicate with Afghan soldiers. Reared on Bollywood films, most Gurkhas speak Hindi, which is close to Urdu, a Pakistani language spoken by many Afghans.

But they are best known for their physical prowess, including being able to carry their own weight in ammunition, gear and British-issued SA-80 assault rifles. This strength allows them to jump spectacularly high during their favourite game, volleyball.

"In Nepal, we don't have the big roads that you have in Canada, so we have to carry everything ourselves," said Lance-Cpl. Shree Krishna Gurung, who grew up in a small town in the hills of Nepal.

As a child, he had to walk 90 minutes each way to school, carrying his books and lunch. At age 9, Gurung's family moved closer to a school that would give him a better education - academic proficiency is essential to becoming a Gurkha.

At Kandahar Airfield, the Gurkhas have gained a quasi-mythical reputation among soldiers. After a recent, high-profile battle to chase the Taliban out of Musa Qala in Helmand province, word spread how insurgents fled at the news the Gurkhas were coming.

"One Canadian soldier said to me: 'You guys must have magical, mystical powers,' " recalled 21-year-old rifleman Rajen Limu of C Company.

"I think he was joking." The Gurkhas also are said to mystify the Taliban, who were initially surprised by their presence on the battlefield. With their Asian features, the Gurkhas somewhat resemble Afghan- istan's ethnic Hazara population.

The Gurkhas wear British uniforms with the emblem of Nepal's traditional khukuri knives on their shoulder. About 500 Gurkhas are based at Kandahar Airfield.

High unemployment in Nepal, coupled with the rich history of the storied infantry group, generate huge demand among young Nepalese to become Gurkhas.

"Our forefathers were in the British army, so we followed them," Gurung said. "It's a tradition. In our opinion, being a Gurkha is one of the best jobs."

alampert@ thegazette.canwest.com

Check out The Gazette's Allison Lampert's blog, From Oil to Dust, at montrealgazette.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008








Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.


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## GAP (5 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 5, 2008*

How it feels to be at war
Soldiers, doctors and aid workers in Afghanistan try to bring apathetic Canadians into the tent
Pat Burkette, Vancouver Sun Published: Saturday, January 05, 2008
Article Link

Outside the Wire: The War in Afghanistan in the Words of Its Participants is a collection of 17 first-person accounts -- to be released next Saturday -- by Canadian soldiers, doctors, journalists and aid workers on the front lines in Afghanistan. Co-editor Kevin Patterson, whose idea it was, is a B.C. doctor who earlier this year served for seven weeks as an internist at the Kandahar Air Field hospital. He's also the talented author of the novel Consumption and other books.

Outside the Wire's foreword, by Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire, does what post-war memoirs like Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Studs Terkel's The Good War and Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July couldn't -- namely, provide insight into a war while it's being waged.

Which naturally leads to the book's burning question. When Capt. Casey Balden recounts a roadside bombing, when Cpl. Gordon Whitton writes of his battle on Three Mile Mountain and when Vancouver carpenter Mike Frastacky tells, posthumously, about building a school amid tribal politics, they're really asking us readers: "If you knew more about how and why our guys are getting killed over there, would you still want them to go?"
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In support of the troops
 TheStar.com - comment - In support of the troops
 January 05, 2008 
Article Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soldier's body arrives home

Jan. 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I feel our government does not support the mission in Afghanistan to the extent it should. If our brave soldiers put their lives on the line, then we should be 100 per cent committed to protecting them. 

I recall watching a news story on TV showing our troops patrolling Kandahar province during the day while the Taliban plants improvised explosive devices at night. Why are we not using planes, helicopters or remotely piloted vehicles with forward-looking infrared cameras and the like to patrol at night looking for the Taliban while they are planting the IEDs?

Identified positions of nighttime activity in the patrolled areas could, at the very least, be pinpointed by GPS and reported to ground troops so they would know where to expect an IED the next day. 

I believe it is possible using currently available technology to monitor every inch of Afghanistan 24 hours a day if we choose to do it. The bottom line is we don't want to spend the money that this would require. 

If we are not committed to giving our troops the best support we can, then we should not send them in.


Robert Jones, Richmond Hill

On Nov. 20, 2007, I, along with many residents of Whitby, stood on the Brock St. bridge and either saluted, prayed, clapped, waved flags or sang "O Canada" as the cavalcade carrying the bodies of Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp and Pte. Michel Lévesque drove along Highway 401 on that cold, windy day.

I met and talked to strangers while waiting for the cavalcade to arrive. After it passed and was no longer in sight, we shook hands with the couple beside us, and the man said, "It was nice meeting you. Let's hope and pray we don't meet again on this bridge."

Now, just 44 days later, gunner Jonathan Dion has passed beneath that bridge.

How many more times will we and others be standing on the bridges overlooking the Highway of Heroes? 

My prayer is that all of the Canadian soldiers fighting in Afghanistan will come home and walk off their planes to their loved ones.
Carol Doughty, Whitby
End of Article

Muslim clerics warn Afghanistan president against missionaries
by Daniel Blake Posted: Saturday, January 5, 2008
Article Link

The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has been told by the country’s Islamic council to stop foreign aid groups from converting locals to Christianity.

The influential council of Islamic clergy and ulema (scholars) made the warning in a statement during a meeting with Karzai on Friday in which it also called for the reintroduction of public executions, which have not taken place since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

"The council is concerned about the activities of some ... missionary and atheistic organs and considers such acts against Islamic sharia (law), the constitution, and political stability," the council said in its statement.

"If not prevented, God forbid, catastrophe will emerge, which will not only destablise the country, but the region and the world."
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« Australia: 2007 UAV Outback Challenge (video)Part spy, part sniper: UAVs increasingly in use in war
Allison Lampert , Montreal Gazette Published: Friday, January 04, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Unmanned, aerial spies regularly take to the skies over Afghanistan because of a hunch from the ground.
That hunch might come from a coalition force operative who suspects a white pick-up truck is delivering weapons to insurgents in one of this country’s many isolated, mud-walled compounds. Soon, the U.S. air force pilots who fly Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles over Afghanistan are watching the pick-up truck’s every movement from their base in Nevada.
While the scenario of the truck is fictitious, it illustrates how an increasing number of unmanned aerial vehicles - slow-moving, remote-controlled aircraft with cameras - are being used during wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Good News in Afghanistan
Contributed by: psiclone
Article Link

Taliban insurgents are depending more on foreign fighters because of increased difficulties recruiting locals, Canadian Brig.-Gen. Marquis Hainse said Sunday.

Coalition forces have observed a greater number of Arabs and other foreign nationals among the insurgents killed recently during battles in Afghanistan's southern provinces said Hainse, ISAF's deputy commander at its Regional Command South.

While the Taliban has used foreign fighters for years, that reliance is increasing because of a local backlash by Afghans against the militant group, he said.

There is more evidence of foreign fighters," Hainse told CanWest News Service in an interview. "These are signs for us that they (the Taliban) have a recruiting problem."

The Taliban movement is also said to have been plagued by an increasing number of defectors, even as its upper echelons were shaken by internal squabbles this week.

"Just the fact that the Taliban, or the insurgents, are showing a lot more interest in reconcilliating with the government in the last couple of months, to me, is a good sign," Hainse said.
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Kandahar mayor teams up with Canadians to reduce pedestrian, auto congestion
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - For a sexually repressed country like Afghanistan that frowns on any contact between men and women who aren't married, it may come as a surprise that even in the bustling marketplace in ultra-conservative Kandahar city, women are regularly subject to sexual harassment and assault.

Even with the ouster of the Taliban, many women rarely leave their homes and those who do seldom go out without the guise of their burka.

Yet in the hustle and bustle of the bazaar, men commonly take advantage of the noisy crowds to whisper obscene comments in women's ears or grab their rear ends.

"That happens on a normal average basis every day," said Rangina Hamidi, a local advocate for women's rights.

Also the daughter of Kandahar Mayor Ghulam Hayder Hamidi, Rangina calls herself her father's "biggest critic," but even she supports his plan to clean up the streets and sidewalks of Kandahar.
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Jonathan Kay on Canada's (newfound) outsized influence on the world stage
Posted: January 04, 2008, 2:27 PM by Jonathan Kay 
Article Link

A few months ago, a representative from a think tank asked me to participate in an international Internet roundtable — whereby one writer from each country would summarize in about 700 words what he or she predicted would be the most important issues facing his or her country in 2008.

As Canada's representative, I racked my brain thinking about how our relatively tiny country was going to impact global events. Surprisingly, I had lots of ideas. In the past few decades, Canada's role on the world stage has largely consisted of championing multilateral agreements and hectoring other nations about "soft power," human rights and such. But these days, our power is a lot more tangible. 

Here is what I came up with:


By Jonathan Kay
in Toronto

As a decidedly second-tier OECD country, Canada usually does little to affect important global trends. But that won’t be true in 2008. On at least three major issues, what happens in Canada will have a crucial impact on events in the rest of the world.

First, there is oil, the price of which has just peaked above the symbolic US$100 threshold, setting off a fresh bout of hand-wringing over energy prices and oil scarcity.
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Afghanistan: Marriage Practice Victimizes Young Girls, Society  
By Farangis Najibullah
  Article Link

Most girls dream about about falling in love, getting married in a beautiful dress, and having a family. But for thousands of young Afghan girls, and millions more across Asia and Africa, marriage often comes before they are old enough for such dreams -- and ends in nightmare.


Torpekay, for example, is an Afghan girl from western Herat Province. Although just 17, she has been married for four years.

Torpekay tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that becoming a wife at the tender age of 13, being forced to serve her husband's family, and having virtually no say in her own life have taken a heavy toll on her. So heavy, she says, that she tried to escape -- by taking her own life.

She survived the attempt, and has been recovering at a local hospital. "I was so angry that I wanted to kill myself," she says, asking that her surname not be used. "I didn't have a knife, I didn't have any drug to inject into myself, so I decided to set myself on fire. Using gasoline was the easiest way."

The issue of child marriages, which affects more than 50 million girls worldwide according to the United Nations, was thrust back in the headlines recently when the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) selected its "Photo of 2007." The winning shot, by American photographer Stephanie Sinclair, shows a 40-year-old Afghan man, Mohammad, sitting next his visibly horror-stricken fiancee, Ghulam. She is barely 11 years old.

"We needed the money," Ghulam's parents, from Ghor Province, were quoted as saying.
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Afghanistan: Foreign Troops Accused in Helmand Raid Massacre
Submitted by blackandred on Sat, 2008-01-05 22:47. Afghanistan Imperialism Terrorism War 
Article Link

By Matiullah Minapal and Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Lashkar Gah (Afghanistan); January 1, 2008 - IWPR
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2008/01/01/foreign-troops-ac... 

Residents of a southern village tell of a night of violence at the hands of foreign and Afghan soldiers.

A young man lies in bed in the Emergency Hospital in Lashkar Gah. His throat is bandaged, and he can barely speak. Holding his hand to his wound, he is clearly in pain as he tells of his ordeal in a whisper, interjecting over and over again, “My two brothers! My two brothers!”

The man’s name is Abdul Manaan, but locals call him “Naanwai”, “the baker”, as he has a bread shop in Lakari, about two kilometres from the village of Toube in the southern Garmseer district of Helmand province.

Abdul Manaan claims he suffered slashes to his neck during a night time raid which locals say was carried out by a mixed force of foreign and Afghan troops helicoptered into Toube on November 18. Eyewitnesses say the soldiers killed 18 civilians in an attack that was brutal even by the standards of the Afghan conflict. 

Although the raid is said to have happened three weeks ago, there has been no news or comment about it outside Helmand. 

“It was about two in the morning when we heard the aircraft, and I woke up,” said Abdul Manaan. “I looked out but I couldn’t see anything. My two younger brothers who were in another room came to me to ask what was going on, but I told them, ‘Nothing, just go back to sleep’. They went back to bed, as did I. 
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## GAP (6 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 6, 2008*

Afghanistan's Mullahs demand TV crackdown
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan's Islamic clerics have called on President Hamid Karzai to clamp down on a burgeoning television industry which it accused of spreading "immorality and unIslamic culture."

The call was made during a meeting between Karzai and dozens of clerics from an influential religious council in Kabul on Friday, an official in Karzai's office told AFP under condition of anonymity on Saturday.

"The unrestrained programmes on TV has angered and prompted the Ulemas (scholars) to react," the conservative council comprising religious clerics said in a statement to Karzai, a copy of which was provided to AFP.

"Hop... is spreading immoralities and hurts the sacred religion of Islam," the statement said, referring to an MTV-style music show on Tolo TV, one of the biggest among several private stations launched after the fall of the Taliban regime.

"Afghan Star... encourages immorality among the people and is against Sharia (law)," the statement said referring to an American-Idol-type show on Tolo.

Over a dozen privately run television stations have sprung up following the fall of the Taliban, who banned TV as unIslamic during their strict 1996-2001 rule before they were toppled in a US-led invasion.
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Soldier's Christmas in Afghanistan
By BILL CONNOR | Sunday, January 06, 2008 
Article Link

My Christmas this year in Afghanistan was a bit unique. However, the description may give readers some idea of how other service members spent that day.

A few may have spent their Christmas on big bases without much work. Unfortunately, as the enemy does not take the day off, workloads and security levels for most actually increase. Interestingly, working hard and staying focused was good for many soldiers, as it kept us from becoming despondent missing our loved ones back home.

I had to deploy from my regular base to a forward position near Taliban lines over the Christmas period. I tell this story of my Christmastime to remind other Americans that throughout Iraq and Afghanistan so many of our sons and daughters sacrificed their holiday for the freedom of others.

The trip began on Dec 20 when I traveled with key leaders in my command and Afghan National Security Force leaders to a forward base. Our destination is one of the few locations in Afghanistan we can see a conventional battlefield situation: friendly forward lines facing Taliban forward lines with only a few hundred meters in between. As soon as we arrived, we heard the sound of friendly mortars (on the base) and artillery pounding enemy positions only about one kilometer away. At the same time, we were briefed where to take cover in the event of missile or even mortar attacks directed at the base on a frequent basis. Incidentally, this base was made up of coalition troops from a certain European nation and soldiers from Nepal (Ghurkas).

During the trip, our party reconnoitered locations throughout the local town for the possible movement of Afghan troops. As part of this visit, we were invited to an elaborate "Eid" meal with a local Afghan leader. Interestingly, in the days before Christmas the Afghans celebrate the "Haj" Eid (Muslim celebration, similar to the Eid after Ramadan). During this three-day period, Afghans take time off work and invite guests to Thanksgiving-type meals. Our meal initially involved hours of social discussions while eating nuts, dried raisons and pistachios. We were then invited to sit down in a circle on bea.jpgul Afghan carpets while the food was brought to the middle of the group
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US military not welcome in Pakistan: army
Article Link

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — The Pakistani military reacted angrily Sunday to reports that US President George W. Bush is considering covert military operations in the country's volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

"It is not up to the US administration, it is Pakistan's government who is responsible for this country," chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

"There are no overt or covert US operations inside Pakistan. Such reports are baseless and we reject them."

The New York Times reported on its website late Saturday that under a proposal being discussed in Washington, CIA operatives based in Afghanistan would be able to call on direct military support for counter-terrorism operations in neighbouring Pakistan.

Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the newspaper said the proposal called for giving Central Intelligence Agency agents broader powers to strike targets in Pakistan.

Pakistan's western tribal belt is seen as a safe haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who carry out attacks in Afghanistan, as well as the most likely hideout for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 

The United States now has about 50 soldiers in Pakistan, the report said.
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War and pests: Saugerties' Anthony Sloan set for Afghanistan as civilan contractor 
By Blaise Schweitzer, Freeman staff 01/06/2008
Article Link
    
It isn't just Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine servicemen and women who risk their lives representing the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. Civilian contractors are also behind the scenes there.
Anthony Sloan, 29, of Saugerties, is among them - or he should be shortly.

Today, Sloan is to fly to Houston for two weeks of training prior to being sent to Afghanistan where he is to work as a pest controller for the next year.

Specifically where, he won't know for some time.

"I'm going into it kind of blind," said Sloan. 

With a background in the Air Force as well as the family's pest control business, he does have some vision for what his service might be like, but much of it is speculative. 

Hired by KBR, a former subsidiary of the defense contractor Halliburton, Sloan will have short stints off for rest and recreation but his on-time will be intense 12-hour days, he said. He isn't even certain if he will have a home base, or whether he will be in constant rotation, ferried from unit to unit on Blackhawk helicopters.

Sloan has only a casual understanding of the sorts of pests he will be dealing with, but he has seen videos posted by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan of the countries' YouTube-famous camel spiders. One showing a spider dangling a struggling lizard makes his spine tingle, he said 
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Government stymying efforts to obtain info, commissioner failing to help: critic
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HALIFAX - It's taking in excess of a year for some Canadians to obtain government documents because the federal information commissioner isn't demanding swift action from departments that are bogged down in increasingly lengthy reviews, say critics.

Several recent requests under the Access to Information Act have been returned to applicants with a notice that they require a 240-day extension - a delay three times the previous average, making data outdated and often useless when it is released.

Users of the system say Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has imposed so many layers of scrutiny that even the most benign material gets fetched up in reviews for months, even years.

"The intent is to frustrate efforts ... and ultimately you're going to go away," said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel and expert in access-to-information legislation.

"By the time (the information) is issued, it has lost some of its value and ultimately you have a Canadian public that's not as well informed as it should be."

People using the legislation to acquire personal information or documents on government activities have found the average wait time for release has risen sharply from 30 to 60 days a couple of years ago to 150 or even 250 days over the last several months

Some departments, like Defence and Foreign Affairs, are so backlogged they're automatically tacking on extensions of more than 100 days to most, if not all, requests. Further extensions can be applied, pushing some requests beyond a year.
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## MarkOttawa (6 Jan 2008)

U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within Pakistan
_NY Times_, Jan. 6
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html?ref=todayspaper



> WASHINGTON — President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
> 
> The debate is a response to intelligence reports that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (7 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 7, 2008*

Two Canadians die in Afghan accident
TOBI COHEN Canadian Press January 7, 2008 at 9:22 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid tribute Monday to two Canadian soldiers who died in a vehicle accident in Afghanistan on Sunday.

In a statement issued Monday, Mr. Harper said the contribution that Warrant Officer Hani Massouh and Corporal Éric Labbé made will not be forgotten.

"They deserve the gratitude of all Canadians for their commitment and the work they performed on our behalf," Mr. Harper said. "Warrant Officer Massouh and Cpl. Labbé made an important contribution to the lives of the people of Afghanistan."

WO Massouh, 41, and Cpl. Labbé, 31, were members of 2nd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment — the Van Doos — based in Valcartier, Que.
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The face of Canadian courage   
'Outside the wire' compiles powerful first-person accounts of war in Afghanistan
PAUL GESSELL CanWest News Service
Article Link

Outside the Wire: The War in Afghanistan in the Words of its Participants

Edited by Kevin Patterson and Jane Warren

Random House Canada. $32

Capt. Nichola Goddard was the quintessential Canadian, and not because she has entered history books as this country's first female soldier killed in combat. Her death came, at age 26, May 17, 2006, during a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan's Panjwayi district.

Goddard possessed two quintessentially Canadian qualities. The first is fearlessness on the battlefield. Just ask the Germans, who declared during the First World War that Canadian troops were the toughest to beat and not just at Vimy in France, where we captured key territory our allies had previously and most miserably failed to secure. The second essential attribute of the quintessential Canadian is politeness. The definition of a Canadian, after all, is that of someone who says "thank you" to a cash-dispensing ATM.

Serving with the First Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Goddard was described by colleagues as courageous in battle, winning the respect of the men who served under her and, simultaneously, astounding the male Afghan elders with whom she was required to meet after lugging herself and 40 kilograms of gear up and down mountains to reach remote villages.

Being the quintessential Canadian, Goddard also scored high on the politeness meter. Like all soldiers, she uttered her share of crude four-letter words to prod her subordinates into action. But she would then write letters, filled with girlie smiley faces, to her father in Calgary, apologizing for using rough language.
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Canada examined bigger Afghan deployment with jets and helicopters: documents
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OTTAWA - The Canadian military initially planned for a much wider involvement in the Afghan war than what it delivered in Kandahar, newly released documents show.

As a battle group of 2,200 soldiers was preparing to face the Taliban two years ago, the air force drew up plans in late 2005 to deploy eight CH-146 Griffon helicopters, specially modified as attack aircraft, and a fleet of CF-18 fighter-bombers.

The proposals were eventually set aside, despite NATO's plea for more aircraft, specifically transport and attack helicopters.

The Griffons and jetfighters were intended to give Canada's troops their own hard-hitting air power, instead of relying on other allied nations, such as the United States and Britain.

Canada eventually chose to send C-130 Hercules transports, which drop supplies to far-flung desert bases.

The country's top military commander said he asked the air force to draw up the contingency plans, but ultimately decided against recommending the deployment of the fighters and helicopters.
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Going for the goat  
Article Link

I've seen many Canadians here play volleyball and soccer with Afghans, but few foreigners would dare step on a Buzkashi field.

Lester Smith, a project manager from Kingston, Ont., is the first Canadian I've met who's actually played Afghanistan's national sport - think polo but with a dead goat as the ball. 

It all started when he was working for the United Nations in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Smith was watching a Buzkashi game just down the block from the UN guest house where he was staying. 

One of the players got hurt playing the aggressive game, which involves teams of riders trying to carry the dead, gutted goat, across the field and back to their turf. 

Suddenly, an Afghan warlord pulled up in a black Hummer and approached the tall, friendly Ontarian. He was surrounded by bodyguards with AK-47s. But instead of attacking the sole foreigner at the game, the warlord asked Smith if he could ride horses. 

Growing up in Kingston, Smith had been riding horses since he was a child, so he said yes. That was all it took. Smith would ride the warlord's Arabian horse during at least nine Buzkashi games. 

Children hawking bread at the game to spectators would stop their wheeling and dealing to stare at the curious, pale-skinned foreigner who towered over the other players on the field. 

At the beginning his legs ached from the wooden saddle. It also took time for Smith to get used to the aggressive behaviour on the field: his horse would bite at the other horses. And the players would hit and kick each other to get at the goat. 

"I'm a gentle person, I wouldn't want to hurt people," Smith said. That was a little over a year ago. Now stationed at the Kandahar Air Field, Smith works for the Quebec company SNC Lavalin. 
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Wheat flour crisis worsens in Afghanistan  
Article Link

KABUL: Owing to the shortage of wheat flour in Pakistan, residents of many areas in Afghanistan, including the central capital Kabul, are suffering from price hike of basic commodities and food shortage. 

Afghanistan’s southern, eastern, southeastern provinces and the central capital Kabul are mainly dependent on food import from Pakistan via its border towns of Peshawar and Quetta. However, the prices of daily commodities, especially wheat flour and cooking oil have suddenly jumped in the war-battered country as the authorities in Pakistan have stopped flour smuggling to Afghanistan via many illegal border crossings. Pointing to the crisis, an Afghan minister has sought help from the international community to avoid any food shortage in the country, especially its remote areas which have remained covered under snow with all linking routes blocked in the winter season. Mohammad Amin Farhang, Afghanistan’s Minister for Commerce, has told journalists that his country is facing a shortage of wheat flour and the international community should increase wheat supply to the country to alleviate the looming crisis. Although Afghanistan is popular for its fresh and dry fruits, the country does not grow as much wheat to fulfill the requirements of a small fraction of its population, which mostly depends on rice and wheat flour. Both commodities are not grown in the landlocked country and are mostly imported from Pakistan or other neighbouring countries. 
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Royal Marines rescue dogs from Afghanistan  
Last Updated: 1:28am GMT 07/01/2008
Article Link

Leave no man behind is a rule the military tries to live by, but Royal Marines in Afghanistan appear to have adopted an additional principle: leave no dog behind.

Report claims Army ads 'glamorise war'
A pair of cross-breeds are starting a new life in Britain after Marines from 42 Commando smuggled them across the war-torn country.

The dogs, which were found begging for food, were taken in by the soldiers in Helmand province and spent months living in a bunker, building up their strength on military rations.

When the men ended their deployment they feared for the animals' welfare so they arranged for them to be transported by Afghan people to a rescue centre in Kabul.
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Pakistan: Militants Kill 8 Tribal Elders
By SADAQAT JAN – 
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected Islamic militants fatally shot eight tribal leaders involved in efforts to broker a cease-fire between security forces and insurgents in Pakistan's volatile northwest, authorities said Monday.

The men were killed in separate attacks late Sunday and early Monday in South Waziristan, a mountainous region close to Afghanistan where al-Qaida and Taliban militants are known to operate, a security official and the military said in a statement.

The suspected insurgents killed three of the men in a market in Wana, the region's main town, while the other five were killed in attacks on their homes, the security official said. The men were scheduled to meet each other on Monday in Wana to discuss the negotiations, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

Pakistan is an ally in the U.S. war on terrorism, and its security forces have fought intense battles with militants in South Waziristan. Although the government has encouraged moderate tribal elders to broker a cease-fire in the region, there has been little sign of success.

The Pakistan-Afghanistan border area has long been considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, and the U.S. has pressured the government of President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on militants operating in the area.
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## MarkOttawa (7 Jan 2008)

Afghans need weapons they know how to use
ChronicleHerald.ca, Jan. 7, by By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1002121.html



> WHEN I visited the Kabul Military Training Centre last January, I was dismayed to see that the Afghan National Army recruits were equipped with Cold War surplus U.S. camouflage uniforms, an assortment of footwear (ranging from sandals to boots), and a variety of headgear and helmets.
> 
> The one thing that was consistent among the Afghan ranks was that they were invariably armed with the ubiquitous AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle. For sure a large number of the weapons were worn-out older models produced in a variety of former Warsaw Pact countries. Nevertheless, after nearly three decades of continuous guerrilla warfare, virtually every Afghan male can field-strip and reassemble a Kalashnikov rifle in his sleep by the time he reaches puberty.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (7 Jan 2008)

U.S. Officials Review Approach in Pakistan
Fight Against Al-Qaeda May Intensify
_Washington Post_, Jan. 7
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/06/AR2008010602262.html



> The political upheaval in Pakistan and emergence there of a new military leader has revitalized the Bush administration's long struggle to develop a coherent strategy for uprooting al-Qaeda from Pakistan's western tribal areas, U.S. officials said yesterday.
> 
> The administration is hopeful that Pakistan's new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, will support more robust efforts involving U.S. intelligence and military operatives targeting al-Qaeda's terrorist sanctuaries in the country, the officials said.
> 
> ...


  

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (8 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 8, 2008*

Military's surge in public esteem could pass, authors warn
David ********,  CanWest News Service  Published: Monday, January 07, 2008
Article Link

The charisma of Gen. Rick Hillier and the Afghanistan war have provided the Canadian military with widespread public support and a key role in government but that could prove to be short-lived, warns a new book that examines the attitudes of the next generation of generals.

Canada's defence leadership should prepare military personnel for the potential return to more "Blue Beret" missions rather than the combat-oriented missions of Afghanistan, according to the book Between 911 and Kandahar.

The book points out that recent changes, such as the emergence of the charismatic chief of the defence staff and the clear vision of a defence policy, increased budgets, the commitment of troops to major combat operations and the visible support of Canadians to honour those who have died in Afghanistan, might indicate to officers the "dawn of a new age of enlightenment with the military finally restored to its rightful place in the political-social order."

But it warns this might prove to be fleeting. 
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Vehicle tough, but top-heavy
Speedy carrier stands up to bombs, but tends to roll over
JAMES MENNIE, The Gazette Published: 5 hours ago
Article Link

The 17-tonne LAV III involved in an accident Sunday that cost two Canadian soldiers their lives is top-heavy and can roll over when forced onto soft ground, a study by a Canadian military think-tank suggests.

But that vulnerability is offset by the Light Armoured Vehicle's increased speed and armament, says the study, done in 2006 by Simon Fraser University's Canadian-American Strategic Review.

"There have been a dozen rollovers involving Canadian Forces LAV IIIs, some with fatal results," researcher Stephen Priestly wrote.

"The most common cause of these incidents is soft ground, either the shoulder or an embankment giving way beneath the vehicle.

"The LAV III is top-heavy, but ... better to ask why LAV IIIs have a high centre of gravity or what the trade-offs were.

"The answer is simple. ... The LAV III is armed with a large, turret-mounted 25-millimetre cannon."

The LAV III's armour protection has stood up well against roadside bombs, the Taliban's weapon of choice in Afghanistan, Priestly noted.

The vehicle's higher centre of gravity is also attributable to high ground clearance that allows the LAV to reach speeds of 100 kilometres an hour, compared with the top speed of 60 kilometres an hour reached by its United States counterpart, the M113, he added.

The performance of the eight-wheeled LAV is expected to come under scrutiny again after the deaths Sunday of two soldiers of the Royal 22e Régiment, killed when their LAV III rolled over on a rain-soaked road 40 kilometres south of Kandahar City.

National Defence Department officials identified the two as Cpl. Éric Labbé, 31, and Warrant Officer Hani Massouh, 41.
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Junior partner in global war
 TheStar.com -January 08, 2008 Linda McQuaig
Article Link

For Canadians, watching a televised debate of Republican presidential candidates, like the one last Saturday night, can be a bit like observing an inscrutable species.

Baffling as it is to us, all the candidates reject public health care and celebrate the excellence of the U.S. health-care system, apparently regarding the fact that millions of Americans lack basic coverage as a minor flaw in the system.

Even more disturbing, the Republican presidential hopefuls seem to see the West as engaged in an all-out war against radical Islam in what sounds awfully like a crusades-style "clash of civilizations."

This is instructive for Canadians. Much as Canadian political leaders and commentators emphasize the notion that we're in Afghanistan to help with "reconstruction" and to improve the lot of women – goals Canadians readily support – we can perhaps get a better sense of the real nature of what we've signed on for by listening to these leading Republicans, who come from the same political pool as the war's architect, George W. Bush.

And while Canadians like to think of Afghanistan as a very different war than the one in Iraq, the Republicans clearly see the two wars as simply twin parts in America's battle with radical Islam. 
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US Marines open rare 'court of inquiry' into Afghanistan shooting  
The Associated Press Monday, January 7, 2008 
Article Link

CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina: For the first time in more than 50 years, the U.S. Marine Corps launched a special tribunal Monday to publicly investigate allegations a newly formed special forces unit killed as many as 19 Afghan civilians in March after their convoy was rammed by a car bomb.

Many details — including the exact number of civilians killed and injured — remain in dispute, despite the attention the case has attracted in Afghanistan and inside the U.S. military. That makes the rarely used "court of inquiry" an ideal venue for a public investigation, said former military attorney Scott Silliman, now a law professor at Duke University.

"I think they are very much aware of the fact that questions of accountability are very much on the public's mind," he said.

The administrative fact-finding hearing will focus on the actions of two officers: Maj. Fred C. Galvin, commander of the 120-person unit, and platoon leader Capt. Vincent J. Noble. At the end of the inquiry, which is scheduled to last two weeks, the panel will recommend whether the officers should be charged with a crime.

Military prosecutors said Monday the court would consider whether the two officers should be charged with conspiracy to make a false official statement, dereliction of duty, failure to obey a lawful order and making a false official statement. The decion on charges ultimately will rest with Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of U.S. Marine Forces Central Command.
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## GAP (9 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 9, 2008*

ArmorWorks Delivers Vehicle Armor To Protect Canadian Troops
Article Link

ArmorWorks announced the early completion and delivery of a production contract to deliver lightweight vehicle armor to Canadian special operations forces. The kits are of the same type of advanced armor protection used by U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The advanced armor provides advanced ballistic protection against small arms fire, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and mines.
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The great Afghan juggle
Both the Grits and the NDP will take shelter in anti-Americanism 
J.L. GRANATSTEIN From Tuesday's Globe and Mail January 8, 2008 at 8:27 AM EST
Article Link

At the end of January, John Manley's panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan will report to the government. We don't know how it will phrase it or what nuances will be encompassed, but the Manley report is likely to recommend that Canada continue its military presence in Afghanistan, if not necessarily in Kandahar. If so, what will the political response be?

There is no doubt about the New Democratic Party's position. Leader Jack Layton wants Canada out of Afghanistan immediately rather than waiting for the mandated end of the mission in 2009. He also wants negotiations with the Taliban. Those who faithfully parrot the NDP line put it more baldly. Steven Staples of the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute sees Canada as "part of a NATO force but really fighting for George Bush," while the University of British Columbia's Michael Byers argues that "it's time to move from a combat-oriented approach to one that focuses on negotiation, peacemaking and nation-building. ... It's time to move NATO troops out, and UN peacekeepers in." If only there was some peace to keep, someone with whom to negotiate and enough stability to permit nation-building to take hold.

The Liberals' position has been different than the NDP's. They were, after all, the government when the decision was made to go into Afghanistan in 2002 and into Kandahar in the current combat role in 2005. Officially, the Grits still continue to support the continuation of the mission until 2009, something for which many Liberal MPs voted - including deputy leader Michael Ignatieff and Bill Graham, the defence minister when the decision to go into Kandahar was taken.

But Bob Rae, the party's foreign affairs critic and now a candidate in the St. Patrick's Day by-election in Toronto Centre, Mr. Graham's old riding, is pushing the party position leftward. "If we continue down the path that [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper wants to take us on, we're really going to be essentially engaged in a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, and I think that's extremely unwise," he was quoted as saying in an article published at year-end. "I don't think that's where people want to be. I think they want to see us in a peacekeeping role. I think they want to see us in a peacemaking role." You can take Bob Rae out of the NDP, it seems, but it's going to be pretty difficult to get NDP ideas out of Bob Rae's orations
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Hunting Death in the Sand: Sgt. Paul Coppicus
  Article Link

DON'T EXPECT MUCH sympathy from Sgt. Paul Coppicus. For the rugged soldier from Moosomin, Sask., tackling challenges on your own initiative is the only way to prove your worth. "When someone comes up to me," says the 37-year-old with barely a twitch of his twirled mustache, "and claims, 'I have a problem dealing with this,' my gut reaction is - so what?"
For a military engineer whose job includes removing LAND MINES - he spent six months in Bosnia in 1996, doing just that - toughness is not a bad character trait. Last week, he was called on to lead a team to the site of the mine blast that killed two Canadians. As that tragedy underscored, Afghanistan is one of the world's most heavily mined countries. Over the last year, thousands of mines have been removed, but they're still being found in areas designated as safe, while new ones are being deployed by the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In spite of the danger, Coppicus recalls, "The first time going into a minefield in Bosnia was exhilarating. The adrenalin was flowing and I was too nervous to look anywhere other than right in front of me."
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Stepane Dion Seems To Want It Both Ways On Afghanistan  
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Article Link

At times it almost sounds like Mr.Dion actually supports the mission in Afghanistan, going as far as to praise Canadian soldiers before insisting Canada needs to withdraw in 2009. The mood of Mr.Dion suggests that he might actually understand, in some form, the importance of finishing the job in the country by continuing to provide an increased security for Afghanistan. The Liberal leader submitted his party's opinions for Canada's role in Afghanistan to the John Manley led blue-ribbon panel today, saying that the Liberals are prepared to remain engaged, but the military should be redeployed somewhere else in the world:
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Two Wars, One Enemy
January 9, 2008
Article Link

The Taliban offensive, that has been going on for nearly a year now, is transnational. About 40 percent of the action takes place across the border in Pakistan. Thus while the fighting has killed about 6,500 in the past year (two-thirds of them Taliban) in Afghanistan, 3,600 have died just across the border in Pakistan (40 percent of them Taliban). Civilians are more likely to be the victims in Pakistan, where they are 42 percent of the dead, compared to Afghanistan, where civilians are only 14 percent of those killed in the fighting. NATO is better at killing Taliban, and avoiding civilian casualties. 
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Minister says laws coming to protect jobs and schooling for reservists
Article Link

VANCOUVER - New federal laws are on they way to protect Canadian reservists who may have to leave their jobs or interrupt their education to serve in the Canadian military.

Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn told a few dozen reservists from Vancouver's 39 Canadian Brigade group Tuesday that it's the least the government can do for those who risk their lives defending our country.

"Reservists should not be penalized in their civilian lives as a result of serving within the Canadian forces," Blackburn said Tuesday.

The legislation to be pushed through the next session of Parliament will allow reservists in federally regulated sectors to take leave without pay and would prevent employers from discriminating against them.

The new laws would also allow students to retain their active student status and put Canada Student Loan payments on hold with no accumulating interest while the student is on leave.

"We realized how could we see those people defending our values around the world ... and when they come back after maybe one year and a half they don't have protection for their job," Blackburn told the group. "This is unbelievable that we didn't act before."
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Man jailed for planning 'revenge' terror mission
By Duncan Gardham Last Updated: 2:10am GMT 09/01/2008
Article Link

An al-Qa’eda terrorist who planned to travel from Britain to Afghanistan on a mission of “revenge” has been jailed for four and a half years. 
   
Qureshi was arrested carrying almost £9,000 
Sohail Qureshi, 29, a dental assistant, was stopped at Heathrow airport with military equipment, thousands of pounds in cash and an autobiographical book called “My father the bomb maker.”

In internet conversations, Qureshi claimed to have been trained by al-Qa’eda and said he was going to Pakistan, Afghanistan or Waziristan, an area which straddles the borders, for two weeks, adding: “Pray that I kill many, brother. Revenge, revenge, revenge.” 

Qureshi had been using Samina Malik, a Heathrow sales assistant who dubbed herself the “Lyrical Terrorist”, to check the security situation at the airport, the Old Bailey heard.  
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (9 Jan 2008)

Tell NATO Canada's combat role must end in 13 months: Liberals
Don't just rename mission 'training,' party tells panel
_Ottawa Citizen_, Jan. 9
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=5b9ccfd7-365a-40c6-823b-d91317c309fb



> The Liberals say Canada's "enormous sacrifice" in Afghanistan must be brought to a close by ending the combat mission in Kandahar, reducing troop deployments and shifting them to training, civilian protection and reconstruction in safer zones.
> 
> The Liberals insisted yesterday on a halt to the 2,500-member combat mission in Kandahar as scheduled in February 2009, in a formal submission to a government-appointed panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan, headed by former Liberal politician John Manley.
> 
> ...



Submission available here:
http://www.liberal.ca/story_13465_e.aspx



> Other key points of Mr. Dion’s submission to the Panel included:
> 
> * Canada should join with those, like Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who question the utility and effectiveness of air and artillery strikes as a counter-insurgency technique...



Afghanistan: a volatile situation
Conference of Defence Associations, Jan. 9 ( a round-up of press and more)
http://www.cda-cdai.ca/Focus%20Briefs/FB%2009-01-2008%20Afghanistan-volatile%20situation.pdf

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (9 Jan 2008)

US to send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan
AP, Jan. 9
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghanistan;_ylt=AvUxGxb3T8NEtTq8ekRrZe934T0D



> The Pentagon is preparing to send at least 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan in April to bolster efforts to hold off another expected Taliban offensive in the spring, military officials said Wednesday.
> 
> The move represents a shift in Pentagon thinking that has been slowly developing after months of repeated insistence that the U.S. was not inclined to fill the need for as many as 7,500 more troops that commanders have asked for there. Instead, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed NATO allies to contribute the extra forces.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (10 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 10, 2008*

Already too late for 2009 Afghan pullout, experts say
James Cowan,  National Post  Published: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
Article Link

It is already too late for Canada to withdraw from combat in southern Afghanistan when the mission expires in 2009, military analysts said Wednesday. 

The federal Liberal party this week made a submission to the panel studying Canada's future role in Afghanistan, headed by former finance minister John Manley. In it, the party insisted Ottawa should formally notify NATO now of Canada's intention to end its combat mission in Kandahar next year, contending it would be a "travesty" if the mission continued beyond February, 2009. 

But experts Wednesday warned there is not enough time to safely replace the 2,500 Canadian troops in the region with soldiers from other NATO countries. And pulling out without a replacement would endanger the mission's hard-won progress.

"Pulling out Canadian forces from Kandahar in 2009 is risky," said Roland Paris, a former foreign policy advisor with the federal government who now teaches at the University of Ottawa. "It is so soon, that NATO would likely be scrambling to fill the hole, and that could create a real security vacuum in this strategically vital part of the country."

Mr. Paris said it would likely take NATO until 2010 or 2011 to move Canadian soldiers out of the region. Extending the combat mission would offer other advantages as well, such as allowing time to digest the results of the presidential election in the United States.

"It's unclear what the stance of the American government will be under a new administration," Mr. Paris said. "It would make sense to buy some time to take the measure of the United States after the election."
More on link

Portraits aim to honor Canada's fallen soldiers
Wed Jan 9, 2008 7:55pm GMT By Natalie Armstrong
Article Link

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - Joanne Tod is sickened every time she hears about the death of another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, even though she plans to paint the portrait of each and every one.

It's a work, she says, that will remain unfinished until either the war is over or Canada pulls out its troops.

The prominent contemporary artist has painted every detail of what she says are 36 "beautiful faces" but she's yet to catch up to the total of 76 soldiers who have died since the mission began in 2002, including two who died over this past weekend.

"It's a sad questioning of when does it end," Tod told Reuters, calling the piece a gesture of appreciation to the soldiers, and an homage to an uncle -- also an artist -- who was killed during World War Two.

The Toronto artist, who's been painting portraits for 30 years, was moved to begin painting the 6- by 5-inch wood panels last September. She works chronologically and began with four soldiers who were killed by friendly fire during the Afghan mission.

Tod clips the soldiers' photos out of newspapers or searches the Canadian military's Web site. She said she realizes how long the war has gone on because the images begin as formal studio shots and are turning into updated candids of soldiers, wearing their fatigues in the desert.
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One NATO soldier killed, another wounded in southern Afghanistan   
Posted : Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:41:02 GMT Author : DPA  
Article Link

Kabul - One NATO peacekeeping soldier was killed and another wounded when their vehicle was blown up by a mine in southern Afghanistan, the military said on Thursday. The statement did not identify the nationalities of the soldiers, who came under attack on Wednesday, citing the policy of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which does not release the nationalities prior to the relevant national authorities doing so. 

Most of the troops serving under the ISAF banner in Afghanistan deployed to southern provinces are US, Canadian, British and Dutch soldiers. 

There are more than 41,000 soldiers under ISAF command, while the US-led coalition has more than 10,000 troops, carrying out anti-terrorist operations. 

Taliban-led insurgents, whose government was ousted in a US-led campaign in late 2001, have waged a bloody insurgency against the Afghan and international forces in the country.  
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Canada emerges as top buyer of U.S. military products in Americas
David ********, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008
Article Link

Canada was the top purchaser of U.S. military products and services in the Americas during the past eight years, according to a newly released congressional report.

From 1999 to 2006, Canada entered into agreements to purchase a little more than $2.1 billion U.S. of defence products direct from the United States government through a special process called Foreign Military Sales or FMS.

The figure doesn't include U.S.-built equipment that the Canadian government purchased direct from U.S. companies, an amount that is in the billions of dollars. That total is estimated to be worth around $1 billion per year, while Canadian firms ship a similar amount of products back to the Pentagon and U.S. companies, defence industry officials say.
More on link

   Pentagon may send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan
Article Link
January 9, 2008 -- Updated 0150 GMT (0950 HKT) From Barbara Starr CNN
     
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon may send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan in the coming weeks to beef up U.S. combat capabilities in advance of an expected spring offensive by the Taliban, senior U.S. military officials tell CNN.

 U.S. Army General Dan McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, has made the request, and as of Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is "giving it a hard look," according to Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

But in a signal that it is expected to be approved, Morrell told CNN "the request is based upon an anticipated spring offensive by the Taliban. They failed last time and they will fail again this time, but commanders are seeking additional forces to ensure that."

The Marines would be sent on a seven-month tour. There are currently about 26,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It is not known yet where the Marines would come from.
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Two huge decisions are looming for Dion
 TheStar.com January 09, 2008 Chantal Hébert
Article Link

OTTAWA - Sometime over the next two months, Stéphane Dion will have to decide whether to plunge Canada into a spring election. From all indications, he will make that call in the absence of clear guidance from public opinion. At this point, the Liberals are in second place but they are ultimately no worse off than the Conservatives on the eve of the 2005 campaign. 

Besides, pre-election standings are often a mirage. Kim Campbell was well ahead of Jean Chrétien when she called the 1993 election that saw her party reduced to two seats.

Dion is known to view the Liberals' score in the polls as a half-full glass. Like many of his strategists, he takes solace from the fact that the party remains in a competitive position in spite of a dismal fall. With his popularity lagging behind that of the other leaders, he feels he can ill afford to continue to be portrayed as running away from an election by abstaining on confidence matters such as the upcoming budget. 

Dion is also convinced that he can out-campaign Stephen Harper. Given the demonstrated capacity of the Prime Minister to damage himself when he is not scripted, he may have a point. Whether that makes up for his own shortcomings and the abysmal Liberal weakness in Quebec remains to be seen.
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Afghanistan: A First Step Toward 'Turning' Moderate Taliban?  
By Ron Synovitz Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Article Link

For years, Afghan officials including President Hamid Karzai have extended an olive branch to moderate Taliban to lay down their arms and back the government.

But their overtures have been largely rejected -- until now. 
  
On January 7, the Afghan government announced that a former Taliban commander who switched sides before a battle last month to secure Musa Qala, a Taliban-held southern town, had been named the government's top official there. 
  
By making a deal with Mullah Abdul Salaam, the new district chief of Musa Qala, the government appears to have taken a key step toward changing the face of Afghan politics. And Kabul is hoping the move will encourage more defections by moderate Taliban. 
  
From his headquarters in Musa Qala today, Mullah Abdul Salaam told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that his appointment is already fostering reconciliation between the government and moderate Taliban. 
  
"There were many problems before. There was no trust before. There was no one you could trust," he said. "People didn't know whom to contact. Now they are talking with me. They give me assurance and I give them assurances. There were many problems before. There was no trust before." 
  
Mullah Abdul Salaam was once the Taliban's governor in the southern Afghan province of Oruzgan -- the birthplace of the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, as well as Karzai. 
More on link

More Macedonian troops leaves for Afghanistan  
www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-10 04:41:26    
  Article Link

    TIRANA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A new batch of Macedonian army contingent left for Afghanistan on Wednesday to take part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission on the ground. 

    The fourth rotation of the mission is composed of 127 members of Macedonia's First Mechanized Infantry Brigade and three officers, news reaching here from Skopje reported. 

    The Macedonian peacekeepers, under the command of the British army, will take part in providing security to the ISAF command in Kabul, patrolling streets and guarding military bases and facilities. 

    "Our detachment has the honor to be part of the mission in the year when Macedonia is expecting NATO membership invitation at the upcoming Bucharest summit, and we will do our best to complete our mission ahead of us," Goran Pertusevski, commander of the contingent said at the sendoff ceremony. 

    Macedonia has been longing to join NATO for years. It signed the Adriatic Charter with the United States along with Croatia and Albania in 2003 in order to facilitate its entry into the alliance. 
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Marines Testify About Afghanistan Battle
By ESTES THOMPSON – 12 hours ago 
Article Link

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Two Marines involved in a shooting that killed as many as 19 Afghan civilians testified Wednesday that their unit was responding to an ambush so intense that the crossfire took out tree branches as their convoy of Humvees fled from the scene.

"You could see branches falling across the road ... all along our route," said Sgt. Benjamin Baker. "We were taking semiautomatic small arms fire all along this road."

Baker's testimony followed that of Sgt. Brett Hayes, who told the administrative panel investigating the conduct of two officers involved in the shooting that the convoy was fired upon at least three times after it was attacked by a car bomb.

Hayes said the blast knocked a gunner in his vehicle out of the turret. The gunner returned to his position and began firing, shouting that he was taking small arms fire from both sides of the road near a bridge over a dry riverbed. Hayes said he heard fire from AK-47 rifles and cracks of the bullets passing overhead.

"I'm 100 percent sure we were taking fire," Hayes said. "And I'm sure we had to kill some guys who were shooting at us."

Hayes recalled the March 4 gunfire during the second day of testimony at a rarely used Court of Inquiry, which will recommend whether two officers — Maj. Fred C. Galvin, 38, commander of the 120-person special operations company, and Capt. Vincent J. Noble, 29, a platoon leader — should be charged with a crime.
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US military has no intention to cross into Pakistan’
By Our Correspondent
Article Link

WASHINGTON, Jan 9: So far the US-led forces in Afghanistan have no plan for crossing into Pakistan to target Al Qaeda or Taliban hideouts, says a senior US military commander.

Brig-Gen Joseph Votel, the deputy commanding general for operations for the Combined Joint Task Force in Afghanistan, acknowledged that terrorist activities along the Pak-Afghan border had decreased recently, but said that the enemy also had learned to better coordinate its actions in that region.

“Right now we do not plan or really have any vision for operations with our forces into the Fata or into Pakistan,” Brig-Gen Votel told a teleconference at the Pentagon. “That’s a sovereign country; that’s their responsibility to deal with.”

As a senior commander in the field, Gen Votel has direct access to day-to-day military operations in Afghanistan but his statement contradicts those of other officials in Washington who are often quoted in the US media as saying that the United States will send troops into Pakistan if it has “actionable intelligence” about the presence of Al Qaeda or Taliban militants inside the country.

It also has become a major issue in the 2008 presidential race. At least half a dozen key contenders for the 2008 presidential race have said that if elected they would not hesitate to send troops into Pakistan to conduct anti-terrorism operations.

Brig-Gen Votel, however, painted a totally different picture of joint military operations along the Pak-Afghan border. “I would assess our relationship, both from a US standpoint and from an ISAF-Nato standpoint here in our portion of Afghanistan with the Pakistan military and with the Frontier Corps, to be very, very good,” he said.
More on link

British troops under medical checks for contaminated blood transfusion  
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-10 18:57:44   
  Article Link

    LONDON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen British soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are being screened for diseases including HIV after it emerged that they were given contaminated blood transfusion, the Sky News said Thursday. 

    According to the report, the soldiers, who were serving in the Afghanistan or Iraq since 2001, were given transfusions using blood supplied by the American military, and the blood may not have been properly screened, leaving a risk it could have been contaminated with HIV, hepatitis or syphilis. 

    However, the U.S. military insisted the donors have now been tested for HIV and hepatitis -- and the results came back negative. And it was reported that the donors were American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

    But the British Ministry of Defense said it was taking the issue "extremely seriously". 

    Defense Minister Derek Twigg said, "These 18 service personnel would almost certainly have died without receiving an emergency blood transfusion at the front line." 
More on link


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## GAP (11 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 11, 2008*

Off to Afghanistan
 'Support our troops' decals take on additional meaning for Thorold family
 By Doug Draper Thorold Jan 11, 2008 
Article Link

Those 'Support Our Troops" decals the City of Thorold now has on all of its municipal vehicles are already beginning to mean more to Fred and Saundra Neale than they did when Fred was among the first members of the city's council to support displaying them this past fall. 
The Neales have recently learned that their son-in-law - 45-year-old Mike Breske, a military firefighter and platoon chief at the Canadian Forces' airbase in Trenton - will be shipped off to Afghanistan in February for seven months of service as fire chief for the Canadian military in the war-torn region of Kandahar. 

"Definitely, those decals are even more meaningful now and bring everything to bear," said Fred during a recent interview at his home. "It also makes you think more about how precious life is." 

For the Neales, it also means following even more closely news reports coming out of Afghanistan on the status of the NATO-led mission where 2,500 Canadians troops are serving and where more than 70 of those troops have lost their lives in ongoing fighting against the Taliban. 

"We are confident he will be alright," added Fred of his son-in-law's coming redeployment, "but we still have concerns about him going over there. You never know what is going to happen. But Saundra and I both understand why (Canadian troops) are over there and we think they are doing something positive in Afghanistan." 
More on link

The Kabul Tailor Shop
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Article Link

No, this shop is not in Afghanistan. It is right here in Canada. I am a little hesitant to give it’s location because I did not ask permission from the owner to write this little story and also would never want to expose him to danger from some wild radical.

I took a leather jacket to the Kabul Tailor Shop to get the lining of one pocket replaced. My wife and I have been well satisfied with work they have done but have not spoken to the proprietor and his wife for some time. I asked the wife how things were going in their country, Afghanistan. She replied that things were not all that good with the roadside bombs and too many people, including Canadian soldiers, being killed. The lady’s husband joined the conversation and I volunteered that I could understand that some Afghanis may consider soldiers from other countries in their land might be considered invaders. They both responded immediately to say they, and the people of Afghanistan were very pleased to have Canadians there. They had reservations about the American soldiers suggesting the Americans have not yet learned to approach and get friendly with the people, however further on in the conversation they said the Americans are considering training their soldiers, as the Canadian Forces already do, the niceties of this valuable tool for winning over the local populace.

This is where the man’s face lit up and he pointed to a picture of a Canadian soldier and with two apparently Afghani citizens. The picture was from Wainwright Army training base. He proudly said he and other Afghani immigrants become instructors of our Canadian soldiers there on how to greet, shake hands, go to the head man of the village and all the correct ways to respect the Afghani people. I asked to shake his hand and told him I was very proud of him. He said he was thankful for what Canada is doing to return his country to normal but said it was difficult because Afghanistan is surrounded by bad neighbors.
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Top soldier frustrated by 30-month delay for new helicopters
Last Updated: Thursday, January 10, 2008 | 8:54 PM AT CBC News
Article Link

Gen. Rick Hillier says he's frustrated that the Canadian military will likely have to wait 30 extra months to receive a fleet of new helicopters to replace its aging Sea Kings.

"Someone said we've become world-class at maintaining old equipment, but we don't want to be world-class at maintaining old equipment," Hillier, Canada's chief of defence staff, said Thursday in Halifax.

"What we want to do is replace the equipment at a reasonable time so we get the best capabilities for men and women in uniform to do the jobs we ask them to do."

On Wednesday, a senior government source told the Canadian Press that the Canadian military will likely not get the 28 new CH-148 Cyclone helicopters it ordered on time.

The military was supposed to get one Cyclone a month, starting in November, from the Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, but the order has been delayed.

Hillier, giving a speech at the historic Pier 21 in the Halifax Harbour, said there were issues getting the latest technologies into the helicopters.
More on link

CFB Gagetown-based soldier charged with trafficking
Updated Thu. Jan. 10 2008 1:49 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Military police said Thursday that a Canadian soldier stationed at the Canadian Forces Base Gagetown has been charged with drug trafficking.

Cpl. Jeremy Springer, attached to the Canadian Forces Armour School, was charged with one count of trafficking in connection with allegations he was distributing marijuana.
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Afghans see value in using female officers
Checkpoint security trumps culture
Allison Lampert, CanWest News Service Published: 2:30 am
Article Link

PASHMUL, Afghanistan - Once rejected by a culture that denies women's basic freedoms, Canada's female soldiers and military police are now in demand in Kandahar province.

Initially barred from working with male Afghans for fear of upsetting southern Afghanistan's conservative sensibilities, female security forces are now badly needed to search women at checkpoints. With insurgents dressing up in burkas to escape detection, demand for female officers at police stations and Afghan military outposts is rapidly growing.

"We are always worried about people who disguise themselves," Canadian Forces Col. Stephane Lafaut says. "The use of Canadian women at police stations will help us. What we are hoping to have one day are female Afghan police officers (at the stations)."
More on link


Hillier says he plans to stop using term 'non-life-threatening injuries'
Article Link

HALIFAX - Canada's chief of defence staff says he plans to stop using the term "non-life threatening injuries" to refer to soldiers who survive attacks but are left with severe and often debilitating conditions.

Gen. Rick Hillier was asked about the term following a speech in Halifax on Thursday by an audience member who argued the phrase is misleading.

Hillier said he doesn't want the public to underestimate the severity of injuries suffered by soldiers serving in places like Afghanistan, which often require months or years of recovery and forever change their lives.

"That's probably a term that I won't use again, because non-life threatening in this day and age can be very severe injuries," Hillier said during the question-and-answer session.

"I don't want to convey the wrong message here. Non-life threatening is because of the incredible skill sets in the medical world that keep them alive when otherwise they would have died."
More on link

Extra U.S. forces for Afghanistan no ticket home for Canadians
Pentagon to send in 3,000 marines for one-time stint
Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service  Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Members of the U.S. Marine Corps were among the first western soldiers into Kandahar in 2001, and now they are coming to the rescue again. 

But the Pentagon's decision to possibly send in some 3,000 marines to southern Afghanistan for a one-time only, seven-month rotation in no way represents a ticket home for Canada's 2,500 troops in Kandahar. 

Nor does it end NATO's perpetual struggle to find enough troops and equipment to break the back of a Taliban insurgency in the south, now emerging from its bloodiest year of inflicting casualties on foreign troops and innocent Afghan civilians.

As early as Friday, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates is expected to approve a request from NATO for the additional 3,000 marines, who would be up and running by April to assist the alliance's International Security Assistance Force in southern Afghanistan.
More on link


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## GAP (11 Jan 2008)

Japan rejoins Afghanistan mission  
Last updated: Friday 11 January 2008 14:59 UTC 
Article Link

Tokyo - Japan has rejoined the US-led war in Afghanistan. Japan's navy will resume refueling United States vessels in the Indian Ocean next month.

The mission was halted two months ago after the opposition refused to extend the mandate. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's government has now used its majority in the lower house to overrule the opposition-controlled upper house. It was the first time this procedure was used in more than fifty years. 

Mr Fukuda said the move was vital for Japan's international standing. The opposition argues the mission breaches the country's pacifist constitution and lacks a UN mandate. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (11 Jan 2008)

Head of Canada's army faces busy year
Lt.-Gen Andrew Leslie must find and train enough soldiers every six months to fulfil Canada's commitment in Afghanistan
CanWest News, Jan. 11
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=8a5e153d-ed41-4874-a4ae-503a4b22142b



> ...it is Leslie's job to find soldiers for each six-month rotation of the approximately 2,500 troops bound for Afghanistan.
> 
> "It gets more difficult as time goes on, not to send the same people back," says [executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, retired colonel Alain] Pellerin.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (12 Jan 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 12

Dion makes surprise Afghan visit
AP/CP, Jan. 12
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080112.wafghandion0112/BNStory/Afghanistan/home



> Canada should be looking at aid projects and other non-combat roles in Afghanistan when its current commitment expires next year, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told President Hamid Karzai on Saturday.
> 
> Mr. Dion, accompanied by deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, met with Mr. Karzai in the Afghan capital to discuss the future of Canada's role in the war-torn country.
> 
> ...



Darfur:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/64763/post-653119.html#msg653119

We're already 'protecting civilians'
Given the Liberals' latest proposals for Canada's role in Afghanistan, you have to wonder if they know what we've been doing there all this time
_Ottawa Citizen_, Jan. 12, by MGEN (ret'd) Lewis MacKenzie
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=379a88ea-5fb7-44f4-aedd-ffab1e14f3be



> After 36 years wearing Her Majesty's uniform I am well aware that political direction, no matter how impossible or ridiculous, has to be obeyed -- except in the rare circumstances when the order is illegal. Regrettably in Canada, we have a dearth of any kind of military experience represented in Parliament in general and the Liberal party in particular.
> 
> On Tuesday we had the latest opinion of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion regarding Canada's future role(s) in Afghanistan. Calls for withdrawal in 2009 were replaced by "remaining engaged" in Afghanistan with roles including "training, protection of civilians and reconstruction."
> 
> ...



Opposition should be reminded Afghanistan war is UN-approved
While the U.S. pushed for the war, Canada is involved because of NATO
_Montreal Gazette_, Jan. 12, by Jack Granatstein
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=0278567f-9293-47a4-8b58-32a05b729c96



> At the end of this month, John Manley's panel on Afghanistan will report to the government. We don't know how it will phrase it, but the Manley report is likely to recommend that Canada continue a military role in Afghanistan, if not necessarily in Kandahar. If so, what will be the political response?
> 
> There is no doubt about the New Democratic Party's position. Leader Jack Layton wants Canada out of Afghanistan immediately rather than wait for the mandated end of the mission in 2009. He also wants negotiations with the Taliban. Those who faithfully parrot the NDP line put it more baldly. Stephen Staples of the Rideau Institute sees Canada as "part of a NATO force but really fighting for George Bush," while Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia's Liu Institute argues "it's time to move from a combat-oriented approach to one that focuses on negotiation, peacemaking and nation-building. ... It's time to move NATO troops out, and UN peacekeepers in."
> 
> ...



Afghanistan: The politics of sending in the marines
CBC, Jan. 11, Henry Champ blog
http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/champblog/2008/01/the_politics_of_sending_in_the.html



> The Pentagon today announced it will send 3,200 marines to Afghanistan. They will be deployed in May, in the southern provinces near where the Canadians are, to counter an expected spring offensive by Taliban fighters.
> 
> Bush administration officials are now saying publicly that they have given up trying to get more troops for Afghanistan from their recalcitrant NATO allies in Europe.
> 
> ...



Clinton, Obama on Afstan:
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2008/01/afghanistan-volatile-situation.html

Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (13 Jan 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 13:

A year in Helmand: 4m bullets fired by British
_Sunday Telegraph_, Jan. 13
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=BB4OT2BLGBDVPQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/12/wafg112.xml



> The intensity of fighting in Afghanistan is laid bare today in new figures which reveal that almost four million bullets have been fired by British Forces in less than a year - almost double the number previously reported.
> 
> The Ministry of Defence has been forced to admit it misled Parliament over the huge amount of ammunition used, after an accounting error.
> 
> ...



UK Troops Facing 'Decades' In Afghanistan
Sky News, Jan. 13
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91211-1300400,00.html



> British troops could be fighting in Afghanistan for decades, Defence Secretary Des Browne has indicated.
> 
> His comments were the most explicit sign yet from the Government that the UK's commitments in the war-torn country may last more than 20 years.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (13 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 13, 2008*

Two Dutch soldiers killed in gun battle in Afghanistan
PM expresses shock in special statementby our Internet desk
13-01-2008
Article Link

"The mission in Afghanistan is tough and full of risks. Each time, we feel the loss of Dutch soldiers is difficult to bear. Their relatives are confronted with immeasurable grief" - the words of Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Sunday.

Dutch soldier leaves overwatch for a patrol as part of operation Spin Ghar, the recent ISAF offensive in the unruly Uruzgan province. (Photo: Dutch Defence Ministry/Gerben van Es) 
In a special statement, Mr Balkenende expressed his shock at the deaths of two Dutch soldiers the day before. They were killed in clashes with Taliban insurgents in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan. 
The two, 20-year-old Wesley Schol and 22-year-old corporal Aldert Poortema, came under fire near their base in Deh Rawod, a Taliban militants' stronghold, after they found a weapons cache during house-to-house searches.

They were killed in a lengthy exchange of gunfire. Two Afghans were also reported dead. A third Dutch soldier was seriously injured in both legs.

Cause for concern
Both Prime Minister Balkenende and Defence Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn offered their sympathy to the families of the dead soldiers. The chief of staff said the situation in Uruzgan was unstable and a cause for concern.
More on link

Taliban attack kills 8 police in southern Afghanistan; suicide bomber kills 1
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban militants killed eight police officers Sunday in an attack on a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, while a suicide bomber killed another policeman in a separate attack, officials said.

The militants stormed the police checkpoint in Maywand district of Kandahar province, said Sadullah Khan, a police officer in neighbouring Neven district.

After the attack, the militants took two police vehicles and the officers' weapons, Khan said.

In neighbouring Helmand province, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body tried to enter the house of a regional police commander in a housing compound in the town of Lashkar Gah, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal.

Guards challenged the man, who then blew himself up, killing one policemen and wounding two children, four civilians and two other police officers, Andiwal said.

No Canadian soldiers are based in Helmand province.
More on link

Soldier loved his job on Afghan mission
By CP
Article Link

GATINEAU, QUE. -- Family and friends gathered at a private funeral yesterday in Gatineau, Que., to remember a soldier killed late last month in Afghanistan. 

About 300 people mourned gunner Jonathan Dion at the military ceremony that included a 12-gun salute. 

A soldier walked over to Dion's mother, Lise Marcil, and kissed her on each cheek before handing her the Canadian flag that had been draped on the casket and folded by pallbearers. 

Marcil walked towards her son's casket as it was being placed in the hearse, gently placed her right hand on it and cried before lowering her forehead to the casket for a moment. 

She then released a white dove that flew over the hearse, past the honour guard and disappeared over a row of houses. 

Dion, 27, died Dec. 30 after his light-armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city. 

Childhood friend Kevin Graham, also a member of the Canadian military, said Dion loved his job and had no regrets about enlisting. 

Graham, who met Dion 15 years ago in a Gatineau elementary school, said his friend did not know what he wanted in life until he discovered the military. 
More on link

Victoria commissionaires go to Afghanistan
Lindsay Kines, Victoria Times Colonist Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008
Article Link

For the past five years, Paul Crilly has been guarding history. Now he gets to be part of it. 

The 55-year-old security sergeant at the Royal B.C. Museum departs Sunday morning for Afghanistan, where he and fellow Victoria commissionaire Howard Eames, 62, will help control access to the NATO airfield at Kandahar. 

The men are part of a six-member team of commissionaires from across the country who volunteered for the one-year mission. The other four are from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
More on link

Dead soldier found his calling in Afghanistan, say mourners
Kathryn May, Canwest News Service
Article Link

OTTAWA — Gunner Jonathan Dion was something of a lost soul until he joined the army and found his mission in Afghanistan to “make a difference,” said friends as they mourned the soldier who was killed late last month. 

More than 400 family and friends crowded into a small Gatineau church on St. Rene Boulevard West Saturday for the private funeral of Gunner Dion held with full military honors. 

Dion, who would have turned 28 years old last week, died Dec. 30 during his first NATO mission after his light-armored vehicle struck a roadside bomb about 20 kilometers west of Kandahar city. 

After an hour-long mass, his flag-draped casket was carried down the stairs of Jean XXIII Catholic Church by eight military pallbearers, followed by his mother Lise Marcil, stepfather Raymond Pelletier and sister Guylaine Dion, as a dozen members of his regiment, 5 Regiment d’artillerie legere du Canada, gave him the traditional gun salute. 
More on link

Canada will taste the U.S. appetite for change
 TheStar.com -  January 13, 2008 Rudyard Griffiths
Article Link

For Canadians, the quadrennial race for the U.S. presidency is traditionally a spectator sport. The hoopla of the primaries, the wall-to-wall cable news coverage and preening candidates are all amusing but ultimately unsatisfying fare. After all, whatever we feel about our comparatively stodgy politicians, what matters in our day-to-day lives is how ably the Canadian federation is governed and not who won the New Hampshire primary. 

Our usual benign indifference to U.S. politics could be in for a sea change if the last few weeks are any indication of what is to come in 2008. 

For starters, the Republicans and the Democrats are falling over each other to position themselves as champions of the ailing American middle class. In both camps of presidential hopefuls, this has meant more than just the usual populist attacks on greedy lobbyists and "special interests" in Washington, D.C. This time, however, there is a heavy dose of protectionist rhetoric not only in the stump speeches of the Democratic front-runners but among the traditionally laissez-faire Republicans. These relentless bipartisan attacks on NAFTA and the outsourcing of American jobs do not bode well for a Canadian economy that sends three-quarters of all its exports to the U.S.

Canadians should also take note of the growing isolationist sentiment that is surfacing in both parties. It is not simply that a majority of Americans want their troops out of Iraq. Instead, at both poles of the political spectrum, voters are warming to candidates who espouse making deep cuts to foreign aid and either ending completely or scaling back overseas military missions so that more money and resources can be spent on U.S. domestic priorities. 

None of this is encouraging news to our soldiers who are relying on a bigger U.S. military presence in Afghanistan in 2009 and beyond to turn around an increasingly tough situation on the ground and shore up a shaky NATO.

The biggest impact of the 2008 U.S. presidential race on Canada, however, will be on our own domestic politics. Based on the phenomenal voter turnout in Democratic primaries combined with George W. Bush's record low popularity, it is hard to see how Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will not go on to make history and become the first woman or black U.S. president. 
More on link

Medical technician dies in his sleep while serving at base in Afghanistan
By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 13, 2008 
Article Link

They were up in the high country, floating across the lake in a houseboat. Nicholas Eischen wanted to know what his family thought he should do with his life.

He had worked at a pool service and at a few other short-term jobs. "All of them were things that didn't have a future to them," said his grandfather, Bob Pinion. "He was looking for a future."

By that time, in the summer of 2003, Eischen was already drinking the same beer as his father and grandfather, and listening to the same music -- "there are only two kinds," Pinion said, "country and Western" -- but he didn't want the same job as they had.

"His father and I," Pinion said, "are both plumbers. We didn't want him in the trade. He had better fish to fry. We didn't want him all broken up at 50 years old."

The clan from Clovis, adjacent to Fresno, gathered around hot dogs and steaks aboard the family's houseboat on Huntington Lake in the Sierra, helped him settle on a career in the Air Force. 
More on link

Canadian opposition wants non-combat role in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Canada's opposition Liberal Party supports keeping troops in Afghanistan but not for combat missions, party leaders said Saturday during a visit to Kabul.

"We wanted to see with our eyes and hear with our ears what more we can do, how to continue to help Afghanistan after February 2009 with other missions, other development projects," other than combat, party president Stephane Dion told a press conference.

"We are here to see how we can contribute," party number two Michael Ignatieff added.

Canada's parliament has voted to keep its 2,500 troops in Afghanistan until 2009 while considering its future policy. Seventy-six Canadian troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban.

Dion and Ignatieff visited Kandahar in the troubled south where Canadian troops are fighting Taliban militants alongside US and British forces.

They were received in Kabul by President Hamid Karzai, parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanuni and NATO ambassadors.
More on link

Women earn respect in Afghanistan
Canadian Forces; Female security in demand at checkpoints
Allison Lampert,  Canwest News Service  Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008
Article Link

PASHMUL, Afghanistan - Once rejected by a culture that denies women's basic freedoms, Canada's female soldiers and military police are now in demand in Kandahar province.

Initially barred from working with male Afghans for fear of upsetting southern Afghanistan's conservative sensibilities, female security forces are now badly needed to search women at checkpoints.

With insurgents dressing up in burkas to escape detection, demand for female officers at police stations and Afghan military outposts is rapidly growing.

"We are always worried about people who disguise themselves," Canadian Forces Colonel Stephane Lafaut says.

"The use of Canadian women at police stations will help us. What we are hoping to have one day are female Afghan police officers [at the stations]."

There are now three Canadian women working as mentors to Afghan police officers at stations in Kandahar's Zhari district. One female soldier is working in a similar capacity with the Afghan National Army, said Col. Lafaut, commanding officer of the Canadian mentoring team that's working with Afghan police and soldiers in Kandahar.
More on link

Troops use new technology
By ERICA SHERRILL OWENS 
Article Link

The days of pinning locations on a map are drawing to an end for armed forces, and Canadian reserves from Quebec have descended upon Camp Shelby to learn the new digital field technology that makes this possible.

The troops - totaling 1,487 - began arriving in Mississippi on Dec. 27, and they will conclude their stay in the Pine Belt on Monday and then head home to Canada, said Maj. Sylvain Tousignant, the operation officer for the Canadian troops' exercise at Camp Shelby.

Tousignant said the troops are running exercises with a digital communication system in conditions that are similar to those in Afghanistan. 

"Because of the climate we have this time of year back at home, it's a lot better to conduct this kind of training here," Tousignant said.

Tousignant said this is his seventh year to make the trip to train at Camp Shelby.
More on link

Afghan aid projects bearing fruit: CIDA
Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008
Article Link

Canada's development efforts are starting to transform the lives of Afghans, three members of the Canadian International Development Agency's Afghanistan task force said yesterday.

But, they warned at a public forum at the International Development Research Centre, there's still a very long way to go.

"My major message would be sustainable development takes a long time," said Diana Youdell, former head of aid for CIDA in Kabul. The same is true of strengthening security and governance.
More on link

Soldiers speak from beyond
Raw first-person accounts conveyed in moving book from Afghanistan
Paul Gessell, CanWest News Service Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008
Article Link
OUTSIDE THE WIRE: The War in Afghanistan in the Words of its Participants,

Edited by Kevin Patterson and Jane Warren, Random House Canada, $32

Capt. Nichola Goddard was the quintessential Canadian, and not because she has entered history books as this country's first female soldier killed in combat. Her death came, at age 26, May 17, 2006, during a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan's Panjwayi district.
More on link

Dozens killed by snow, cold in Afghanistan
Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:09am EST.
Article Link

The snow falls have also blocked roads connecting remote districts to urban areas in several western provinces, said Ghulam Mohammad Mujahid, an official of the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

Some 35 employees of a construction company, including Iranian nationals, have been trapped by an avalanche in Herat province close to the border with Iran, Mujahid said.

"Efforts are underway to rescue them," he told Reuters.

More than 15 people and thousands of head of sheep perished in various parts of Herat, while 20 people were killed in the rugged province of Uruzgan in the south by cold weather and snow.
More on link

Manning the Army's Afstan mission  
Friday, January 11, 2008
Article Link

What the Chief of the Land Staff faces:

...it is Leslie's job to find soldiers for each six-month rotation of the approximately 2,500 troops bound for Afghanistan.

"It gets more difficult as time goes on, not to send the same people back," says [executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, retired colonel Alain] Pellerin.

At most, the army has a pool of 9,000 to 10,000 full-time soldiers as well as several thousand part-time reserves to draw from to staff Afghanistan.

The army is responsible for a minimum of 2,200 of the 2,500 that staff each rotation, says Pellerin.

Compounding the challenge is the fact the rate of soldiers leaving the army has risen to 12 per cent from eight per cent.

But Leslie must do more than find warm bodies to ship to Afghanistan with a rifle. He must build a contingent of soldiers that can shoot to kill, deliver aid, and negotiate the cultural divide of that country.

"It's small unit warfare. You've got the young officers and the senior NCOs that have to deal with the population and have to deal with issues that go much further than military issues," says Pellerin.
More on link

Dion meets Canadian soldiers in Kandahar
COLIN FREEZE Globe and Mail Update January 13, 2008 at 10:45 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada's top two Liberal politicians visited troops around Kandahar this morning, meeting Canadian Forces soldiers, speaking with them, even briefly playing hockey with them.

But Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff came away upholding their party's position that the troops must cease combat operations in this restive southern province of Afghanistan by early next year.

"The military forces of Canada have a role to play after February 2009 — even though it's not combat, it will be for security," Mr. Dion told reporters.

He maintained Canada should continue to play a role in reconstruction in the future, but "the only difference is you don't proactively be in a situation to engage the enemy."
More on link


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## GAP (14 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 14, 2008*

Navy team combs Afghan dust for clues from bombs
Mike Blanchfield  Canwest News Service Sunday, January 13, 2008
Article Link

The Navy's underwater demining specialists are diving into the dust of Afghanistan, and their efforts are being heralded as heroic and life saving.

"The application of the type of naval de-mining training that they have is quite applicable in Afghanistan. They're everyday heroes over there, saving the lives of Canadian Forces personnel, and allies and Afghans," Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.

Lt.-Cmdr. Roland Leyte once spent three weeks combing the depths of Peggy's Cove off the Nova Scotia coast, recovering body parts and smashed pieces of the airliner that was once Swissair flight 111, and has plumbed the black, debris-infested waters of Louisiana's inter-coastal waterway, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in search of survivors.

But Leyte's greatest challenge, after a decade and a half as a navy scuba diver specializing in bomb disposal, has come on the landlocked, battle-scarred terrain of southern Afghanistan. It started in earnest on March 22, 2006, and would end later that year - literally in the line of Taliban fire on a day when four more of his Canadian comrades would lose their lives.

On his first assignment, Leyte was struck by the size of the hole before him. Two metres deep and five wide, it was the product of four Russian-built anti-tank mines hooked to a radio-controlled detonator. Four of his Canadian comrades lost their lives there hours earlier while riding in their G-Wagon.

For the next 90 minutes, Leyte and his team of forensic experts gathered four garbage bags of evidence - bits and pieces of the bomb and the all-important radio detonator - strewn along the dusty track that skimmed along a creek bed north of Kandahar City.
More on link

Dutch Troops Kill 4 in Friendly Fire
By ALISA TANG 
Article Link

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — Dutch troops in Afghanistan killed two of their own men during a nighttime battle, and separately two allied Afghan soldiers they mistook for enemies, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

"Darkness, the weather conditions and the confused situation" played a role in the mistake Saturday in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, Gen. Dick Berlijn, the top Dutch military commander, said in a statement.

Opposing fighters were in between Dutch units during the fighting several miles northwest of Camp Hadrian, near Deh Rawod.

The two Afghan soldiers, who were not "recognizably in uniform," also were killed Saturday after they approached a wounded Dutch soldier six miles to the south, Berlijn said.

Military police were investigating both incidents.

In the most famous friendly fire case of the Afghan conflict, Pat Tillman, a former U.S. football player who became an Army ranger, was killed in April 2004 by fellow troops near the Pakistani border.

In August, a U.S. warplane mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on British troops after they called for air support in Afghanistan, killing three soldiers and seriously wounding two others.
More on link

IED blast injures soldiers during Dion visit
Updated Sun. Jan. 13 2008 11:11 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

On a day when Liberal Leader Stephane Dion was in Kandahar insisting Canadian troops had done their share of fighting, four soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb. 

The incident happened Sunday afternoon, when the soldiers struck an improvised explosive device while driving along a dirt road in Kandahar province's dangerous Panjwaii district. 

They were working to clear mines from an area near the town of Zangabad, 35 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, when the blast occurred. 

All four men were taken by helicopter to the Kandahar Airfield hospital and have been listed in good condition. Two were quickly released, while the others are expected to be released Monday morning. 

On Sunday, Dion maintained that the Canadian military should end its combat mission, and insisted that the government warn Afghanistan and NATO allies of that intention. 
More on link

For Afghan police, staying alive is the first priority
COLIN FREEZE January 14, 2008
Article Link

ZHARI, AFGHANISTAN -- When the sun rose over Kandahar yesterday, 10 Afghan police officers were found dead in their compound, killed in the middle of the night.

It was an all-to-common massacre. Suspected Taliban insurgents stormed an Afghan National Police checkpoint west of Kandahar at around 3:30 a.m., according to a police chief. They shot the ANP guardsmen, then entered the compound and killed everyone sleeping inside.

Cop killings occur with such frequency here that they barely register as news.

After the sun set over Kandahar, greater fanfare surrounded another event. Visiting Canadian politicians were wrapping up their trip, once again expressing hopes that the local security forces would hurry up and find their feet.
"At the end of the day, the goal is that they will take care of their country on their own," federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told reporters.

For NATO countries and their politicians, it has become a mantra: As soon as the Afghans become security self-sufficient, then Western soldiers will get out. But several days spent recently at one ANP outpost shows just how far this goal is from reality, as well as the struggles the police face to become self-sufficient.
More on link

Nation owes it to troops to ensure mission justifiable
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. Jan 14 - 5:14 AM
Article Link

I AM in the process of writing my memoirs and I must have the completed manuscript delivered to the publisher by the end of March. This project has naturally enough entailed numerous walks down memory lane and has required me to do a fair amount of self-analysis. 

For instance, the 1964 Paramount Pictures movie Zulu remains one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. Seeing it as a young boy, I was overwhelmed with the matinee shoot-’em-up action. But when I revisited Zulu after my service in the military, I realized just how accurately the script writers, director and actors had captured the character and interplay of the enlisted men, non-commissioned officers and officers. More important, the movie correctly portrays the role that soldiers play in the big picture of an overall conflict.

For those not familiar with this classic film, the story is set in a remote corner of South Africa in 1879. The tiny British garrison at Rorke’s Drift has just been informed that the main British force has been annihilated by a massive Zulu army, and those thousands of warriors are now en route to their isolated outpost. As the soldiers nervously await the first attack, one terrified young private turns to his sergeant major and asks the age-old question, "Why? Why us?" The handlebar-moustachioed sergeant-major swells out his barrel chest, adjusts his swagger stick slightly and says, "Because we’re here, lad. Because we’re here."

It is a great dramatic moment in film, but it also summarizes what is expected of a soldier in service of his country. Perhaps Alfred, Lord Tennyson said it best in his poem The Charge of the Light Brigade, describing the senseless slaughter of British cavalry at the Battle of Balaclava: "Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die."
More on link

Soldier's death in Afghanistan blamed on helicopter fault
Richard Norton-Taylor Monday January 14, 2008 The Guardian 
Article Link

A British soldier bled to death in Afghanistan because of faulty equipment, compounded by incompetence, according to a military inquiry into the incident.
Corporal Mark Wright, who died from his injuries in a minefield after rescuing an injured colleague, could have lived if the helicopter summoned to help had been equipped with a winch, the inquiry reveals.

Wright, a 27-year-old paratrooper posthumously awarded the George Cross, was among seven soldiers trapped in a minefield in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, in September 2006. They had to wait five hours for a US Knighthawk helicopter to rescue them. Wright died before the aircraft reached a military hospital in Camp Bastion.
More on link

US Envoy Meets Former Taliban Commander
By JASON STRAZIUSO – 5 hours ago 
Article Link

MUSA QALA, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan flew to a town previously held by the Taliban in the heart of the world's largest poppy-growing region and told the ex-militant commander now in charge there that Afghans must stop "producing poison."

Ambassador William Wood on Sunday drank tea and talked with Mullah Abdul Salaam, a former Taliban commander who defected to the government last month and is now the district leader of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand.

Wood urged Salaam to tell his people to leave behind "the practice of producing poison," and said poppy production, the key element in the opium and heroin trade, was against the law and Islam.

"In Musa Qala the price of bread has risen dramatically. I won't say why — you know why," Wood said, alluding to farmers' practice of growing poppies instead of needed food.
More on link


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## GAP (14 Jan 2008)

Time to shift away from Afghan combat role: NATO
Updated Mon. Jan. 14 2008 10:08 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

NATO agrees its time for the role of foreign troops in Afghanistan to shift away from one of combat to one of support, says a spokesperson for the international organization. 

James Appathurai discussed the NATO position as Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and deputy leader Michael Ignatieff visited the war-torn nation and called for Canada to stay on beyond February 2009 when the mission is scheduled to end, but in a non-combat role. 

"I think actually we all agree on the end state -- NATO and I think probably the political parties here too -- and that's transition," Appathurai, a Canadian, told CTV's Canada AM on Monday. 

"We want to move to a phase where the Afghans are in the lead and we provide support, training, close air support, emergency support but let them do the frontline fighting. It's a question of when." 

Appathurai, who recently returned from a visit to the Panjwaii region of Afghanistan, said that transition -- which many see as no more than a distant and unlikely possibility -- may actually not be that far off. 

"We have two Afghan battalions now, with Canadian troops, and taking an increasingly leading role. But the key is, from my perspective but also from NATO's perspective, we haven't reached a tipping point. We're not at the phase where we can take that step." 

Canada has taken a lead role in the volatile south of Afghanistan, facing the Taliban head on and taking casualties, with 76 soldiers and one diplomat now killed since 2002 -- and several more injured over the weekend. 
More on link

Two dead following attack on Kabul luxury hotel
Updated Mon. Jan. 14 2008 10:30 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

At least two guards are reported dead following a suicide bomber's attack at a luxury hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The story is developing and the death toll could change.

The Taliban is claiming responsibility for Monday's attack at the five-star Serena Hotel, which may have also left some guards wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said four militants were involved in the attack.

Three used small arms to create a distraction while a fourth entered the hotel compound to detonate his suicide vest.

They were targeting "senior foreign military officers," according to Mujahid.

There were reports of fighting between the attackers and the hotel's security guards. The assault occurred just after 6 p.m. local time.

Vanessa Valentino, an American working in the Afghan capital, said she heard a faint explosion, gunfire, another faint explosion and then a large blast.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (14 Jan 2008)

Japan Sails Again
_WSJ_, Jan. 14 (editorial)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120026495934287047.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries



> The Japanese Diet voted Friday to resume an antiterror mission in the Indian Ocean -- to which we say, welcome back to the fight. It's a signal that Washington's staunchest ally in Asia hasn't abandoned its recent ambition to play a greater role in international security, especially in its own part of the world.
> 
> The legislation reauthorizes the naval refueling mission that Japan launched in 2001 in support of the U.S.-led coalition's military operations in Afghanistan. Tokyo ordered its ships home after the original law expired in November and the opposition blocked an extension.
> 
> ...



Gates recommends additional troops for Afghanistan
Reuters, Jan. 14
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1442127320080114



> Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended that additional troops be sent to Afghanistan to augment NATO forces, but *no final decision has been made* [emphasis added] on the deployment, defense officials said on Monday.
> 
> Gates has forwarded a recommendation to the White House in prelude to discussions with President George W. Bush and other top administration officials, the officials said.
> 
> ...



A relevant piece by a US Marine who served in Iraq:

The Lessons of Iraq
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120027115653587297.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (15 Jan 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 15

Allies Feel Strain of Afghan War
Troop Levels Among Issues Dividing U.S., NATO Countries

_Washington Post_, Jan. 15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402722.html



> The U.S. plan to send an additional 3,200 Marines to troubled southern Afghanistan this spring reflects the Pentagon's belief that if it can't bully its recalcitrant NATO allies into sending more troops to the Afghan front, perhaps it can shame them into doing so, U.S. officials said.
> 
> But the immediate reaction to the proposed deployment from NATO partners fighting alongside U.S. forces was that it was about time the United States stepped up its own effort...
> 
> ...



Diplomatic niceties aside, Karzai utterly rejects Liberal Afghan policy
_Ottawa Citizen_, Jan. 14
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=f10eafef-647a-4008-be4d-ebc63ea44190&k=12560



> Behind their courteous pleasantries, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his senior cabinet reject the Liberal position that Canada should end its combat mission in southern Afghanistan by February 2009.
> 
> Following Saturday's visit to Kabul by Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and deputy Michael Ignatieff, the Grit notion that Canada's military mission can somehow be changed to focus less on combat and more on diplomacy and development simply didn't fly with the Afghan government.
> 
> ...



Militants Escape Control of Pakistan, Officials Say
_NY Times_, Jan. 15
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/asia/15isi.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin



> Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say.
> 
> As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (15 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 15, 2008*

Canadian soldier killed by roadside bomb  
Updated Tue. Jan. 15 2008 1:09 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

A Canadian soldier was killed and another injured in southern Afghanistan Tuesday when the heavily armoured vehicle they were travelling in was struck by a roadside bomb. 

Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Alma Que., died in the blast, which occurred at around 7:15 a.m. local time. 

Renaud and the injured soldier, along with two others, were travelling in a Coyote vehicle in the Arghandab district -- about 10 kilometres north of Kandahar city. 

Renaud was a member of the 12th Regiment of Blinde du Canada, Val Cartier, Que. 

"I would like to convey my most sincere sympathies to the families of our lost comrade," Brig.-Gen Guy Laroche told reporters in Kandahar. 

The injured Canadian soldier, who has not been identified, was taken to hospital at Kandahar Airfield and has since been released, said Laroche.

The soldiers were part of a routine 'presence patrol' -- intended to demonstrate to local people and insurgents that Canadian forces remain active in the area. 

"We go there often, it's something that we do on a regular basis following the operation that we conducted last November in the Arghandab district," said Laroche. 
More on link

NATO bickering over Afstan  
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Article Link

Further to this post on the Marines' going, there's this major story in the Washington Post, which devotes, unusually, a lot of attention to the US's allies:

The U.S. plan to send an additional 3,200 Marines to troubled southern Afghanistan this spring reflects the Pentagon's belief that if it can't bully its recalcitrant NATO allies into sending more troops to the Afghan front, perhaps it can shame them into doing so, U.S. officials said.

But the immediate reaction to the proposed deployment from NATO partners fighting alongside U.S. forces was that it was about time the United States stepped up its own effort...

While Washington has long called for allies to send more forces, NATO countries involved in some of the fiercest fighting have complained that they are suffering the heaviest losses. The United States supplies about half of the 54,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, they say, but the British, Canadians and Dutch are engaged in regular combat in the volatile south.

"We have one-tenth of the troops and we do more fighting than you do," a Canadian official said of his country's 2,500 troops in Kandahar province. "So do the Dutch." The Canadian death rate, proportional to the overall size of its force, is higher than that of U.S. troops in Afghanistan or Iraq, a Canadian government analysis concluded last year.
More on link

Envoy warns Dion on combat role
 TheStar.com - January 15, 2008 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau Chief
Article Link

Afghan ambassador says call for less violent mission could undo gains made by Canadians in the south

OTTAWA–Calls by the federal Liberals for a new, non-combat role for Canadian troops in Afghanistan could undo the gains made so far and mean the sacrifices made by slain soldiers have been in vain, says Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada. 

Omar Samad says that message was delivered to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion when he met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Saturday.

Dion wants Canadian troops to take on a less dangerous role once their current assignment in Kandahar runs out in a year. But Karzai delivered a pointed reminder to Dion that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, had their roots in Afghanistan and warned that the country's stability is not yet assured.

"The Afghans do not want a relapse, especially to pre-9/11 conditions," Samad said yesterday in an interview.

"This type of threat, in the form of terrorism and extremism, needs to be dealt with directly and head-on. That point had been made by the president."

After his meeting on Saturday, Dion said Karzai would "welcome" whatever role Canada plays in rebuilding his troubled country even if it's not a combat mission.

But yesterday, Samad suggested that while Afghanistan would "respect" Canada's decision on the future of the mission, it might not welcome a decision to withdraw Canadian soldiers before Afghan security forces are ready to take over.

"Decisions have to be made in a co-ordinated fashion," Samad said. "Also we have to be mindful of timeliness, for example the readiness and capacity of the Afghan security forces to not only control the situation but protect civilians and be able to perform their duty."
More on link


Tanks to hit the Yellowhead
By KEVIN CRUSH, SUN MEDIA
Article Link

Tanks rolled through Edmonton's streets early this morning, clogging the Yellowhead before the rush hour started. 

In preparation for exercises taking place in Fort Bliss, Texas, next month, 42 armoured vehicles drove in six convoys from CFB Edmonton to the Bissell Railyard where they were loaded on rails for the rest of their journey. 

CONVOY OF MILITARY VEHICLES 

The convoys of seven vehicles each, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and other support vehicles, hit the roads between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. 

"We're doing it at four in the morning because we're trying to avoid impacting traffic," said Capt. Mark Peebles, public affairs officer for 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. 

"Armoured vehicles, especially 42 of them, take a fair bit of space so we're trying to avoid impact on civilian traffic." 

The convoys drove south from the base along 97 Street before turning west onto the Yellowhead Trail to the railyards at 156 Street. 
More on link

Less combat, more diplomacy idea doesn't fly with Afghanistan's leader
Karzai reiterates need to stay the course, rejects goal of Canadian Liberal leader
Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service Published: 1:00 am
Article Link

Behind their courteous pleasantries, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his senior cabinet reject the Liberal position that Canada should end its combat mission in southern Afghanistan by February 2009.

Following Saturday's visit to Kabul by Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and deputy Michael Ignatieff, the Grit notion that Canada's military mission can somehow be changed to focus less on combat and more on diplomacy and development simply didn't fly with the Afghan government.

Karzai spoke of the need to continue fighting terrorism "head on," while his foreign minister and parliamentary house leader emphasized the need for the Canadian Forces to stick to their primary purpose in Kandahar -- fighting the Taliban insurgency.
More on link

Canadian military begins travel to Fort Bliss
Times staff and wire report Article Launched: 01/14/2008 02:59:48 PM MST
Article Link

A Canadian brigade along with 42 tanks, armored engineering vehicles and armored personnel carriers will be traveling through Edmonton Tuesday before making their way to Fort Bliss for training.
Exercise Southern Bear, taking place at Fort Bliss in February, will include two Canadian mechanized brigades.

The exercise, designed to prepare soldiers for deployment to Afghanistan in 2008, will involve roughly 3,300 soldiers, with the overwhelming majority of them based in Ontario at CFB Petawawa, according to a news release from Canada's Land Force Central Area - Dept of National Defence.

Involved in the exercise will be members of the Canadian Battle Group, Provincial Reconstruction Team, Observer Mentor Liaison Team, National Support Element and the Headquarters for Joint Task Force Afghanistan Rotation 5.
More on link

Norwegian journalist killed in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-15 06:25:14      Print 
  Article Link

    STOCKHOLM, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen was killed in a terrorist attack on Monday in Afghan capital Cabul, according to a statement posted on the Norwegian Foreign Ministry website. 

    Thomassen was one of journalists who were accompanying Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on his visit to Afghanistan, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said. 

    "I was deeply saddened to learn that Carsten's life could not be saved following the terrorist attack on Hotel Serena," the Norwegian foreign minister said in the statement. 

    "Carsten was dedicated to his work as a journalist. All of us who were together with Carsten in Kabul are filled with grief and despair," the foreign minister added. 

    An employee of Norwegian Foreign Ministry was also wounded and was sent to a hospital for treatment together with Carsten Thomassen, according to reports reaching here from Oslo. 
More on link

The Wacko-Vet Myth  
Now echoed by the New York Times. 
by John J. DiIulio Jr. 01/14/2008 4:00:00 PM 
Article Link

IN A PAGE-ONE STORY published Sunday, January 13, 2008, "Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles," the New York Times reported on homicides by veterans of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seven Times reporters contributed to the lengthy story, which was co-authored by Deborah Sontag and Lizette Alvarez. 

The Times "found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war." All but one case involved male veterans. They speculated that their research "most likely uncovered only the minimum number of such cases, given that not all killings" were "reported publicly or in detail," and because "it was often not possible to determine the deployment history of other service members arrested on homicide charges." 

The Times cited experts including Robert Jay Lifton, a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who "used to run 'rap groups' for Vietnam veterans and fought to earn recognition for what became known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD." The story noted that numerous "studies on the problems of Vietnam veterans have established links between combat trauma and higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, gun ownership, child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse--and criminality." It also quoted criminologist Lawrence W. Sherman: "The real tragedy in these veterans' cases is that, where PTSD is a factor, it is highly treatable. . . .
More on link

Roadside blast kills former provincial governor in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-15 16:05:46      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb blast triggered by remote-control has killed two tribal elders, including a former provincial governor, in Tirin Kot district of southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, the police said Tuesday. 

    "The two were heading towards their houses from a mosque at around 7:00 p.m. (1430 GMT) Monday when the bomb exploded," Uruzgan's police chief Juma Gul Himat told Xinhua. 

    Fazl Rabi once served as Uruzgan governor during the Mohammad Najibullah regime in the 1990s and deputy governor of Uruzgan in 2003-2004, Himat said. 

    No one or group took the responsibility yet. 

    Militancy-related violence left over 6,000 people dead in war-torn Afghanistan in 2007, the bloodiest year since the Taliban regime were toppled six years ago. 

    Both Afghans and NATO commanders have expected more militants attacks this year in Afghanistan.
More on link


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## GAP (16 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January  16, 2008*

Canadian soldier killed in early morning IED blast in southern Afghanistan    
BY TOBI COHEN The Canadian Press—Kandahar, Afghanistan
Article Link

Canada’s 77th soldier has died in Afghanistan after the vehicle he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device early Tuesday in southern Afghanistan.
Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Alma Que., a member of the 12e Regiment blinde du Canada was killed in the blast involving a Coyote light armoured vehicle.
Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche said Renaud and three other soldiers were involved in a reconnaissance patrol in the Arghandab district, about 10 kilometres north of Kandahar city, when the attack occurred around 7:15 a.m. local time.
One other soldier suffered minor injuries and was evacuated by land to hospital at Kandahar Airfield. He has since been released.
“This is a very emotional time for the family and friends of Trooper Renaud and our thoughts are with them,” Laroche said.
“Our brave men and women have a dangerous but important job to do but our determination to carry out our mission is stronger than ever.”
This was the third IED strike against Canadian soldiers in as many days but Laroche said the attacks have happened in different places and don’t appear to be co-ordinated.
Laroche said troops have been conducting regular patrols in Arghandab since beating back Taliban insurgents during an operation in late October.
While the lush fruit-growing region has typically been calm, insurgents sought to move in following the death of revered warlord and Taliban enemy Mullah Naqib.
Naqib’s son and newly appointed district leader Kareemullah Naquibi has since been struggling to win the support of his constituents.
Noting this doesn’t appear to be a sign the Taliban is moving back into the district which is considered a strategic gateway into Kandahar city, Laroche said IED attacks are simply the Taliban’s “weapon of choice.”
Improvised explosive devices are responsible for most of the 77 deaths suffered by Canadian soldiers since the mission began in 2002.
An IED attack in the volatile Panjwaii district Monday resulted only in property damage.
Four soldiers, however, were injured Sunday in Zangabad, about 35 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, when their vehicle struck an IED that was planted along a dirt road.
The troops were involved in a road clearance patrol aimed at finding and defusing mines.
Jonathan Dion, a 27-year-old gunner with 5e Regiment d’Artillerie legere du Canada from Val-d’Or, Que., was the last soldier to die as a result of a roadside bomb Dec. 30.
It appears Taliban insurgents have escalated attacks across the country over the last few days.
More on link

Canada eyes leaner role in Afghanistan
 TheStar.com -  January 16, 2008 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa bureau chief
Article Link

OTTAWA – Canada should reduce its contingent of combat troops in Kandahar and focus on training Afghan police and army officers to eventually take over security duties in southern Afghanistan.

That's likely to be among the chief recommendations when a federal panel created to study the future of Canada's Afghan mission after February 2009 releases its long-awaited report early next week.

The federal panel, led by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley, is likely to endorse the transformation of the mission from combat to training that is already underway.

"I hear the recommendations will support the mission in Kandahar with a transformation of the approach to the mission which is already happening," said Alain Pellerin, of the Conference of Defence Associations, a lobby group active on defence issues.
More on link

Foreigners in Afghanistan now key targets for Taleban's suicide bombers
Nick Meo January 16, 2008
Article Link

A young Pakistan-based warlord with links to al-Qaeda was blamed yesterday for a suicide assault on a luxury Kabul hotel, as the Taleban threatened a new wave of attacks against foreign civilians. 

At least one suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest as gunmen stormed into the Kabul Serena hotel, shooting guests and employees in an attack that appeared to mark a ruthless development in the tactics of the Taleban. 

Two more victims died yesterday, bringing the total killed to eight, including a Filipina spa supervisor who was shot along with three guests in the hotel gym. A Norwegian journalist, three Americans and a French woman were also reported killed, as well as an Afghan woman employee, although there were conflicting reports of casualty numbers. Several more people were wounded. 

Aid workers and diplomats are concerned at the prospect of a terror campaign directed against foreign civilians, who since 2001 have largely been spared the attacks. The suicide bombing has highlighted the problem of how to protect thousands of foreigners working on aid and reconstruction projects in Kabul, where there is no Baghdad-style protected “green zone”. 
More on link

John Turley-Ewart: Dion's misleading call to abandon Afghanistan
Posted: January 15, 2008, 5:42 PM by John Turley-Ewart 
Article Link

When the tragic news of another Canadian death in Afghanistan was released Tuesday, federal Liberals praised the Canadian Forces for “put[ting] themselves in harm’s way to create a safe and secure world for the people of Afghanistan.” So what were the party’s two most powerful politicians doing in the country undercutting that very mission? 
Stéphane Dion was promoted as a principled, honest political leader — an academic-turned-pol who would do politics differently from Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and their amoral lieutenants. Yet when he emerged from his Saturday meeting in Kabul with the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, Mr. Dion, flanked by his deputy, Michael Ignatieff, was sounding the language of cut-and-run.
More on link

Taliban Resurgence Strains Alliance in Afghanistan
by Tom Bowman January 16, 2008 
Article Link

 Defense Secretary Robert Gates is sending more than 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to guard against a possible Taliban offensive in the spring. This comes after the U.S. was unsuccessful in getting NATO to boost its own forces there. With the steadily rising violence in Afghanistan, there are deeper questions about the alliance itself. 

More than six years after they were toppled in Afghanistan, Taliban forces are resurgent. An average of 400 attacks occurred each month in 2006. That number rose to more than 500 a month in 2007.

"It appears to be a much more capable Taliban, a stronger Taliban than when I was there," says retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who was the top commander in Afghanistan from 2003 through 2005. "Just the size of engagements, the casualties reflected in the Taliban [attacks] show a stronger force."
More on link

Paddy Ashdown to become 'super envoy' in Afghanistan
January 16, 2008
Article Link

Paddy Ashdown was said today to have agreed terms for him to become the new United Nations “super envoy” to Afghanistan. 

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the former Liberal Democrat leader, was said by United Nations sources to have accepted the role. A formal announcement is expected to follow, although his precise responsibilities have yet to be confirmed. 

He has been keep to do the job but has insisted on been given enhanced powers to give him the scope and authority he felt were needed to undertake the role. Otherwise he felt the job would not be worth doing, he had told friends. 

His conditions required extra negotiation and approval, particularly from the Americans. There were also sensitivities within the Afghan government about beefing up the role in a way that carries echoes of a British colonial-style governor. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (16 Jan 2008)

Admiral: Pakistan OKs bigger U.S. role
AP, Jan, 16
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_pakistan;_ylt=At73web5F.exQBmz_xqqt2p34T0D



> Pakistan is taking a more welcoming view of U.S. suggestions for using American troops to train and advise its own forces in the fight against anti-government extremists, the commander of U.S. forces in that region said Wednesday.
> 
> Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command, said he believes increased violence inside Pakistan in recent months has led Pakistani leaders to conclude that they must focus more intensively on extremist al-Qaida hideouts near the border with Afghanistan...
> 
> ...



Lord Ashdown set for UN role in Afghanistan
_Daily Telegraph_, Jan, 17
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/16/npaddy116.xml



> Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, is on the verge of becoming the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, it has emerged.
> 
> This key position would give Lord Ashdown a central role in the international effort to restore stability in Afghanistan and defeat the Taliban insurgency.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (17 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 17, 2008*

You and Whose Army, Stephane?
 Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Article Link

Stephane Dion says if Pakistan won't clean the insurgents and terrorists out of its ungovernable tribal areas, NATO forces should go in and do it for them.

Say what?

This is what the National Spot claims Dion said: "We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they (the Pakistanis) are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan." 

At the same time Dion proposed NATO take on a mission in Pakistan far tougher than the one it's currently bungling in Afghanistan, the Liberal leader reiterated that he wants Canadian troops out of their Kandahar combat mission very soon.

Is this guy serious? Just where does Dion think NATO is going to conjure up the masses of troops that would be needed to attempt to conquer and occupy Pakistan's tribal lands? Dion seems to think the answer is easy.

"For the mission to succeed, NATO must apply the principle of rotation. When a country is in the most difficult combat mission during three years, there must be a time for rotation," he said.
More on link

Canada plays down Gates critique of NATO Afghan force
Article Link

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay on Wednesday played down criticism of the capabilities of NATO troops in Afghanistan by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, saying Gates told him the remarks were reported out of context.

Noting that Gates praised Canada's military performance just the day before, MacKay said Gates had just told him by telephone that comments published in the Los Angeles Times that most NATO forces were ill-trained to fight insurgencies were "taken out of context."

"They were comments made of a general nature about the need to focus training of NATO and the alliance on counter insurgency," MacKay said of Gates' explanation.

"He made similar comments, quite frankly, when we were in Scotland at the RC south (the southern Afghanistan regional command) defense ministers conference talking about the need to specifically gear training of the NATO alliance towards counter-insurgency," MacKay said.

"And so his comments were certainly not directed at Canada."

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gates said: "I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counter-insurgency operations" in Afghanistan.
More on link

Despite string of local casualties, Quebeckers stand behind Canadian troops
INGRID PERITZ January 17, 2008
Article Link

MONTREAL -- The soldiers returning in flag-draped caskets have names like Longtin, Lévesque, Dion and now Renaud. Since CFB Valcartier's troops started shipping out to Afghanistan last summer, nine men from Quebec have paid with their lives.

Each casualty has left local communities grieving and spawned strong coverage in the Quebec media. Yet the death toll has not significantly altered public opinion in the province.

Before troops from Valcartier deployed, some expected a rising death count to cause support for the Afghan mission in Canada's most pacifist-minded province to collapse.

Yet as the troops' tour winds down, the death toll has neither inflamed anti-war passions nor sparked a burst of support-the-troops fervour.
More on link

Afghanistan veteran saves man, dog from fire
UNNATI GANDHI January 17, 2008
Article Link

Corporal Spencer Curry had just grabbed a coffee and was about to make the 300-kilometre drive home to Sudbury from a job interview yesterday morning when he saw plumes of thick, black smoke coming out of a small Timmins apartment building.

While he doesn't find out until tomorrow whether he got the security position at a local mining company, the 35-year-old - who returned from a six-month tour in Afghanistan last year - is being hailed as a hero for saving a man and his dog.

The Canadian Forces Reserve soldier pulled his car over to the side of the road about 10:30 a.m., ran over to a man watching the flames and asked if anyone was inside. The Timmins Fire Department was on its way, he was told, but there might still be someone upstairs.

"I ran around to the back and there was smoke billowing out from the apartment, so I kicked in buddy's door and there was a little puppy there," Cpl. Curry said from Sudbury last night.
More on link

No-nonsense Afghanistan envoy for UNFrom correspondents in London
January 17, 2008 03:30am Article from: Agence France-Presse
Article Link

PADDY Ashdown, who is to be appointed United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, ruled Bosnia with an iron hand during more than three years as the country's international envoy.

The former leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats has carved out a new career as an international envoy, drawing on his military past and no-nonsense leadership skills.

Mr Ashdown, 66, enjoyed sweeping powers as Bosnia moved to update its system of government a decade after the Dayton peace accords that ended its 1992-1995 war.

Appointed in May 2002, the former British marine commando's authoritarian style led some analysts to label him a "colonial-style governor".

In June 2004, Mr Ashdown sacked 60 Bosnian Serb officials including the president of the main nationalist Serb Democratic Party and interior minister over suspicions they were part of a support network of war crimes suspects at large, notably wartime leader Radovan Karadzic.
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Fallen Canadian soldier remembered for his passion for military life, mission
Article Link

RIMOUSKI, Que. - One of two Canadian soldiers killed in a rollover accident earlier this month in Afghanistan was laid to rest Wednesday in his hometown in eastern Quebec.

An estimated 800 people filled Saint-Robert Church in Rimouski to pay their last respects to Cpl. Eric Labbe.

Labbe, 31, and warrant officer Hani Massouh, 41, died on Jan. 6 when their light armoured vehicle (LAV) toppled over on its side in wet, rugged terrain southwest of Kandahar city.

The eulogies touched on Labbe's commitment to the mission and his passion for military life.

It was Labbe's second mission abroad since joining the Canadian Forces in September 2001.

At the conclusion of the civic funeral service, a brief military ceremony was held outdoors and Labbe's beret and the Canadian flag that adorned his casket were given to his grief-stricken mother.

A military funeral for Massouh will be held in Quebec City on Thursday
More on link

US ex-congressman indicted in terror funding case
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a former US lawmaker for his links to a charity that sent funds to an Afghanistan-based supporter of Al-Qaeda through banks in Pakistan.

Former Republican representative Mark Deli Siljander was named in a 42-count indictment against the Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), charged with "engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of US-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

Siljander, 57, faces money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in the case.

Hekmatyar is an Islamist rebel leader who received US aid in the 1980s to resist the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He briefly served as Afghan prime minister in the 1990s and initially opposed the Taliban regime, but then switched sides after the October 2001 US-led invasion.

According to the indictment, in 2003 and 2004 IARA sent some 130,000 dollars to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan "purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar" -- who is believed to be hiding in eastern Afghanistan or Pakistan while leading his Hizb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) faction.
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Islamic militants capture Pakistani fort
McClatchy Newspapers
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan | Hundreds of Islamic militants overran and occupied a fort near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan in a bold assault that left as many as 47 people dead.

Wednesday’s loss of the Sararogha Fort was a significant blow to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s efforts to re-establish control over the frontier region of South Waziristan, which has become a base for Taliban and al-Qaida operations.

Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants fled after a U.S. assault drove them out of Afghanistan in 2001, is fast overtaking Iraq as the central front in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism.

U.S. officials are increasingly worried that if militants seize control of the region, they could establish an even more secure terrorist base than the one they already have and further destabilize Pakistan’s shaky central government.

A group of militants led by Baitullah Mehsud, a local chief who Pakistani authorities charge was behind last month’s assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The leader of the Mehsud tribe that runs much of South Warizistan, Mehsud commands thousands of men and heads the Pakistani version of the Taliban. Pakistani authorities say he also is closely linked to al-Qaida.

“This was a very intense attack, and the number of the militants this time was quite large,” said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the Pakistani army spokesman.
More on link

Kabul hotel attack a shock but it's business as usual
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — A deadly strike on a luxury Kabul hotel opened to fanfare two years ago as a high-security haven has driven home the Taliban's reach and shaken confidence in the restive nation, analysts and officials say.

They said Monday's attack -- the latest in a series of increasingly deadly Taliban suicide blasts -- may not ultimately significantly affect international efforts in Afghanistan.

But what most shocked people was that the extremists were able to penetrate the capital's most secure hotel, the Kabul Serena, previously seen as an oasis of peace and luxury in a troubled land.

"There were many guests who used to say to us they would never come to Kabul if the Serena did not exist," a hotel spokesman said on condition his name was not used.

"Of course they are going to find it difficult to come here in the future."

That the attackers came as visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was about to host a dinner meeting "is also going to have implications," he admitted.

Such was its status that Australia located its embassy there -- it has now moved its staffers out.
More on link


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## GAP (17 Jan 2008)

Calgary reservists to join Afghan mission
Calgary Herald Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008
Article Link

As Calgary soldiers prepare to leave one of the city's biggest single military deployments in at least a half-century, Calgarians are being urged to show support for their local soldiers.

There are 115 Calgary soldiers bound for Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

They will join about 2,400 other Canadian soldiers in Kandahar in February.

More than half of this city's deploying soldiers are members of the Calgary Highlanders, a local infantry reserve unit.

"This is the largest Highlanders deployment since the Second World War," said retired lieutenant Barry Agnew, curator of the Calgary Highlanders Museum and Archives.

"History begins today."

The entire city is behind the soldiers, said Mayor Dave Bronconnier.

"It's an important mission."
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (17 Jan 2008)

Army Chief May Shorten Tours In Iraq, Afghanistan by Summer
_Washington Post_, Jan. 17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603789.html



> Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, said yesterday he hopes to shorten the 15-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan this summer. The move would end a policy, required by the buildup of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq last year, that has placed significant stress on soldiers and their families.
> 
> Casey suggested that the withdrawal from Iraq of five U.S. Army combat brigades by July could allow soldiers once again to deploy for 12 months and then spend a year at home, although he cautioned that a decision will depend on conditions in Iraq...



Fight in Afghanistan
It's becoming clear that the war must be won by U.S. troops, and not by NATO. (editorial)
_Washington Post_, Jan. 17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603521.html



> THE BUSH administration's decision to dispatch an additional 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan raises the question of whether NATO's participation in the war has been a failure. Though the United States already provides more than half of the 53,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, the additional Marines are needed because no other NATO country was willing, despite months of pleading and cajoling by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, to commit fresh forces to the troubled southern provinces where the Taliban has made a comeback.
> 
> What's more, Mr. Gates and other senior Pentagon officials seem to have concluded that the three NATO countries that have been willing to operate in the south -- Britain, Canada and the Netherlands -- have been relatively ineffective...
> 
> ...



NATO Allies Bristle at Criticisms From Gates
Washington Post, Jan. 17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603785.html



> Some of the United States' closest NATO allies expressed anger and astonishment Wednesday at published statements by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates describing their forces as poorly trained for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
> 
> Gates's comments, which were reported in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, came the day after the Pentagon announced it would send about 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan because NATO allies had failed to contribute more troops.
> 
> ...



Mark 
Ottawa


----------



## a_majoor (17 Jan 2008)

Petty office politics at home may derail another part of our 3D strategy:

http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2008/01/long-knives.html



> *The long knives *
> 
> The long knives in Ottawa are out for Canada's Strategic Advisory Team - Afghanistan (SAT-A), and the Globe & Mail eggs on those who would end this most effective mission:
> 
> ...


----------



## GAP (18 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 18, 2008*

Dion will never be pal of soldiers
By PETER WORTHINGTON
Article Link 
  
From his visit last weekend to Afghanistan, it seems clear that if Stephane Dion ever becomes prime minister of Canada, the Armed Forces will be reduced to their previous depleted strength and their role limited as it was in the Trudeau years. 

Jean Chretien, too, robbed the military -- preferring a $500 million penalty rather than honouring a contract to re-equip our soldiers and sailors with EH101 helicopters. 

Unlike Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff, who accompanied him to Kabul and Kandahar for a quick look-see, Dion has little appreciation, empathy or understanding of soldiers or things military. Come to think of it, he probably viscerally and intellectually dislikes soldiers. 

In his press conference on leaving Afghanistan, Dion seemed to think our role should consist of turning soldiers into social workers -- no more seek and destroy stuff our troops have been doing so effectively. 

Instead he wants our troops building schools, enhancing women's rights, digging wells for fresh water, training and assisting local communities. Silly ass. What escapes Dion's limited comprehension is that our troops have been doing all this social work stuff from day one, as well as kicking butt of the Taliban. 

How can there be effective reconstruction if the Taliban retain a strong and malignant presence? 

IGGY KNOWS 

Ignatieff seems to realize this, and while careful not to contradict his boss, has acknowledged that the Taliban are a malignancy that must be exorcised. 

The weekend in Afghanistan was a first for Dion. 
More on link

Soldiers praised
Face a 'formidable enemy'
By RENATO GANDIA, SUN MEDIA
Article Link 

A senior military leader heralded NATO's "made-in-Canada" spine yesterday at Edmonton Garrison in a pep talk to 1,300 soldiers destined for Afghanistan. 

"You're gonna be facing a formidable enemy, who is increasingly discredited time and time again in Kandahar province," Brig.-Gen. Mark Skidmore, commander of Land Force Western Area, told the soldiers. "The enemy has learned that NATO does have a spine and that spine is made right here in Canada." 

The official send-off was held due to the large number of local troops who will be part of Task Force 1-08. It will be comprised of 2,500 soldiers: 1,300 from Edmonton and 1,200 from Shilo, Man. Deployment will stretch into July. 

Edmonton's last large deployment to Kandahar was in 2006. 

Sgt. Keiron Sterner, 35, is among the first batch of soldiers leaving for Afghanistan next month. Sterner was joined yesterday by his two daughters, two sons and wife Kathy. 

Sterner and his wife don't discuss the dangers of the deployment with their children. 



"The boys don't have any idea what's going on, but my girl is getting the gist and she gets upset," Kathy said. 

She said she has grown accustomed to her husband's being away because he has been deployed in Bosnia three times. 

Meanwhile, Canada's Army commander defended U.S. defence secretary Robert Gates for his stinging criticism earlier this week. 

Gates suggested Wednesday in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that Canadian, British and Dutch troops have been ineffective in Afghanistan. 

"The secretary of defence's comments, I think, have been taken out of context," Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie told reporters. "As well, he did not criticize the efforts, the training, nor the expertise of the Canadian Army." 

Leslie said he had lunch with Gen. George Casey, Jr., the chief of staff of the U.S. Army on Tuesday, and the general had nothing but praise for the Canadian troops. 

"Gen. Casey was nothing but complimentary about the excellent work that those young men and women out there right now are doing in their preparations and contribution toward defeating the ruthless and cunning foe." 
More on link

Blair urges NATO unity amid Afghan friction
Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:42pm EST By Jonathan Spicer
Article Link

TORONTO (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday that NATO must challenge its enemies in Afghanistan firmly and in a united way, despite recent reports of friction among Western countries.

Blair urged an audience in Canada -- which is deeply split on its combat role battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan -- that it and other NATO members "have got to take a decision on this global fight on terrorism."

"Our determination to fight can't be in inverse relationship to theirs," he said.

Blair's comments come just days after Canada's death toll in southern Afghanistan rose to 77, and amid reports of discontent between the United States and its NATO allies.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quoted on Wednesday in a U.S. newspaper criticizing NATO's counterinsurgency abilities. But Washington moved quickly to smooth any ruffled allied feathers.

Gates called Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay to say the Los Angeles Times took his quotes out of context, and on Thursday he denied friction among members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
More on link

Canadian military probes Afghan civilian deaths
 TheStar.com - January 17, 2008 Tobi Cohen THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canadian and coalition forces trying to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people face the prospect of a new kind of insurgency as a result of mounting civilian casualties from military operations.

Frightened residents in one village say tension is brewing after Canadian gunfire hit civilians during a battle with insurgents about five days before Christmas.

A 12-year-old boy said he was there when soldiers – whom he insisted were Canadian because he recognized their vehicles – shot and killed his father and 7-year-old brother while they tended crops north of Kandahar city.

"I said `Let's go. Let's run.' But my father said `What are you talking about? We have shovels in our hands, no one's going to shoot us'," said the boy, whose guardian asked that he use an alias, Niamatullah, for fear of reprisal.

It seemed the victims became caught up in a battle in the late afternoon when military vehicles rolled into the Arghandab district village.
More on link

Pakistan blasts Dion for suggesting NATO role
 TheStar.com -January 17, 2008 Joan Bryden THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

OTTAWA – The government of Pakistan has blasted Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion for his "irrational" suggestion that NATO intervention might be necessary in the troubled South Asian country that borders Afghanistan.

"We are dismayed by the statement of the leader of Opposition," the government said in a statement released late Thursday by the Pakistan High Commission in Ottawa.

"It shows a lack of understanding of the ground realities."

Dion, who made a brief visit to Afghanistan last weekend, said on his return that NATO will never bring peace to Afghanistan as long as Taliban militants are able to escape across the border into neighbouring Pakistan.

"If they (Pakistani leaders) are not able to do it on their own, it is something we could consider with NATO, how to help Pakistan help us bring peace to Afghanistan," Dion said Wednesday.

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre quickly clarified that Dion was not calling for military intervention in Pakistan but rather a diplomatic solution.

However, the Pakistan government was not mollified.
More on link

Canada puts US on 'torture list'  
Article Link

The United States has been listed as a country where prisoners are at risk of torture in a training document produced by the Canadian foreign ministry. 
It also classifies some US interrogation techniques as torture. 

The manual - part of a training course on torture awareness for diplomats - also includes Israel, China, Iran and Afghanistan on its watch list. 

A government spokesman said the manual did not reflect the views of Canada, which is an ally of the US and Israel. 

"The training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government," said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier. 

The manual lists US interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and the blindfolding of prisoners under "definition of torture". 

It also refers to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held. Critics say it ridicules Ottawa's claims that Omar Khadr is not being mistreated. 
More on link

Liberal demand would endanger soldiers
Canadian troops would be at increased risk if ordered to protect civilians, and not engage the enemy
LEWIS MACKENZIE, Freelance Published: 8 hours ago
Article Link

After 36 years wearing her majesty's uniform, I am well aware that political direction, no matter how impossible or ridiculous, has to be obeyed - except in the rare circumstances when the order is illegal. Regrettably, in Canada, we have a dearth of any kind of military experience represented in Parliament in general and in the Liberal Party in particular.

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion's latest opinion on Canada's future in Afghanistan calls for us "remaining engaged" in Afghanistan with roles including "training, protection of civilians and reconstruction."

The last time I received an order regarding the "protection of civilians" was in 1992 when the UN Security Council, as is its habit, came up with its usual lowest-common-denominator
More on link

Afghanistan air force is 'reborn'  
By Charles Haviland  BBC News, Kabul  
Article Link

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says that his country's air force has been reborn after inaugurating its new headquarters freshly equipped with new aircraft. 
His announcement is a boost for Afghanistan's armed forces as their struggle against the Taleban and al-Qaeda continues. 

There is a constant need for air power to transport and supply army troops. 

The military has taken delivery of 26 new or refurbished aircraft, including Czech-made helicopter gunships. 

'God has blessed us' 

With US money the government has also acquired transport helicopters and Ukrainian military planes. 

These will be added to the 20 or so helicopters the army already has. 

Opening a new hangar at Kabul airport to house the fleet, President Karzai was jubilant. 
More on link

Bin Laden's son seeks to be peacemaker
Article Link

Omar Osama bin Laden, the 26-year-old son of the Al-Qaeda leader, tells the Associated Press that he wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. As part of his campaign, he and his wife are planning a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa.

"It's about changing the ideas of the Western mind," Omar, one of Osama's 19 children, said in an interview in Cairo. "A lot of people think Arabs — especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama — are all terrorists. This is not the truth."
More on link

Pakistan troops reported to have fled border outpost
By Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad 
Article Link

DOZENS of Pakistani troops are understood to have fled an outpost near the border with Afghanistan yesterday after receiving threats from Taleban militants who a day earlier overran a nearby fort.

If reports are confirmed, it would raise questions about the central government's ability to control the border area, where Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters are responsible for rising attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

An intelligence official said the paramilitary troops fled the roadside post without a fight after the militants warned them to leave or face attack.

Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a purported militant spokesman, said the troops surrendered after 500 fighters surrounded the post. "We released them (the troops) under the spirit of Islam," he said. "The Taleban have now hoisted their white flag on the fort."

A resident in Jandola said the troops had abandoned the post, citing accounts from other tribesmen who had seen it.

Militants overran the nearby Sararogha Fort in South Waziristan late on Tuesday in a battle that left seven soldiers dead and at least 15 troops missing. The British colonial-era fort, which the militants have since abandoned, is one of a string of positions held by the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary along Pakistan's porous border with Afghanistan.

The militants took it after blowing a hole in one of its walls.
More on link

Scores dead in Afghan cold snap  
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kabul  
Article Link

The number of people who have died due a cold snap in Afghanistan has risen to 200, government officials say. 
Four large provinces in the western part of the country have been especially badly hit. Tens of thousands of livestock have also perished. 

Local people are saying the winter conditions have been the most severe in decades. The cold spell is also affecting neighbouring countries. 

People seem to have been unprepared for the heavy snow and low temperatures. 

Most of the 200 dead are herdsmen - but women and children have also died. 

Alert 

Much of the west is quite low-lying by Afghan standards and the International Committee of the Red Cross says many people only expect a day or two of snow each winter. 

Tens of thousands of sheep, vital for local livelihoods, have also perished in the cold. 

At the other end of the country, the north-east, people say recent snowfalls have been the heaviest for 20 years. 

A local member of parliament has told the BBC that many villages in this rugged territory are completely cut off and in need of food and medicine. 

In the capital, Kabul, where temperatures are dropping, dozens of families who have fled the violence in Helmand in the south, are camping in tents in the streets, dependent on charitable handouts of clothing and food. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (18 Jan 2008)

Afghanistan: politics and policy (18 January 2008)
Conference of Defence Associations (Lot's of good, annotated, links)
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1200684475/

Mark
Ottawa


----------



## Mike Baker (20 Jan 2008)

Roadside bomb kills five Afghan civilians



> Roadside bomb kills five Afghan civilians
> Updated Sun. Jan. 20 2008 8:12 AM ET
> 
> CTV.ca News Staff
> ...


----------



## MarkOttawa (20 Jan 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 20

Dion out of this world on foreign affairs
_Toronto Sun_, Jan. 20 , by ANGELO PERSICHILLI
http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/2008/01/20/4782989-sun.html



> "I'm not just positively surprised, I'm elated," a Liberal strategist told me when he heard about the surprise mission of his leader, Stephane Dion, last week in Afghanistan.
> 
> "For the first time in a long time we are taking an initiative on our own, developing a policy and not just criticizing the government."
> 
> ...



Dion's view on Afghanistan dangerously flawed
_Toronto Sun_, Jan. 20, by MICHAEL DEn TANDT
http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/2008/01/20/4782993-sun.html



> When people talk about Stephane Dion's difficulties they tend to talk about his personal style. But what if there's something more fundamental at work?
> 
> What if Dion's failure to catch on, especially in Ontario, relates directly to the mush, nonsense and outright falsehoods that he continues to perpetuate about the Afghan mission?
> 
> ...


  

Come clean on why we are in Afghanistan
_Toronto Star_, Jan. 20, by Haroon Siddiqui 
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/295478



> Can't win, can't quite quit. Our quandary in Afghanistan has eerie parallels to the American quagmire in Iraq.
> 
> There is no easy way out, no matter what U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates or our own politicians – the dithering Liberals and the warmongering Tories – tell us.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (21 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 21, 2008*

Courageous and Courteous
Soldiers' writings reflect traditional canadian virtues
PAUL GESSELL, Canwest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, January 19
OUTSIDE THE WIRE: THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN IN THE WORDS OF ITS PARTICIPANTS
Edited by Kevin Patterson and Jane Warren
Article Link

Random House Canada, 296 pages, $32 - - - Capt. Nichola Goddard was the quintessential Canadian, and not because she has entered history books as this country's first female soldier killed in combat. Her death came, at age 26, May 17, 2006, during a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan's Panjwayi district.
More on link

Canadians see signs of progress in Afghanistan 
Monday, January 21, 2008 Washington Times:
Article Link

When Canadian tanks and troops roll along the dirt tracks that connect villages in rural southern Afghanistan, many farmers turn from their grapevines and poppy fields to stare.

Some smile. Occasionally they wave.

It is the waving that thrills the soldiers of Battalion Royal, 22nd Regiment, Battalion Group. They take it as evidence that the locals sense a difference between them and the Americans who used to patrol these desolate rural villages.

"The best are the children," said Trooper Michael Hayakaze. "When the kids come running up to the road and they smile, it's the best.

"When we first showed up, you know, they used to run and hide, or they would throw stones at our tanks. And you know they get that from their parents, so if they're not afraid of us, that means it's getting better."

The 2,500 Canadian soldiers and their officers will not publicly criticize their U.S. counterparts; there is too much respect between the allies to allow for that.

But like many of the NATO allies fighting in Afghanistan, they find themselves in a two-front public-relations war — struggling for the cooperation of the Afghans as well as the support of a skeptical public at home. And in such a war, perceptions are as important as territory and body counts.
More on link

The next rotation to Afstan  
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Article Link

First, two news stories:

1) Edmonton Sun:

Soldiers praised
Face a 'formidable enemy'

2) Winnipeg Sun:

'Best-prepared' troops get send-off

Now the details:

Task Force 1-08 (Joint Task Force Afghanistan, Roto 5) composed of approximately 2500 soldiers will comprise of the following units: 
• A 1000 soldier Battle Group in Kandahar, primarily from the
2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (2 PPCLI), which includes: 

• Battle Group Headquarters – 2 PPCLI (Shilo); 

• Two Rifle Companies – B and C Companies 2 PPCLI (Shilo) and elements of A Company 3 PPCLI (Edmonton); 

• One Artillery Battery with two Surveillance and Target Acquisition ( STA ) troops– B Battery 1 RCHA (Shilo); 

• One Field Engineer Squadron – 12 Field Squadron 1 CER (Edmonton); 

• One Reconnaissance Platoon – 2 PPCLI (Shilo); 

• One Reconnaissance Squadron – D Squadron 12 RBC (Valcartier); 

• One Tank Squadron – B Squadron LdSH(RC) (Edmonton);. 

•One Armoured Engineer Troop – 1 CER (Edmonton ); 

The majority of about 400 Reserve Force soldiers, will come from: 

• 39 CBG from British Columbia - approximately 136 soldiers; 

• 41 CBG from Alberta - approximately 145 soldiers; and 

• 38 CBG from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario- approximately 117soldiers

• A Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) unit comprised primarily of personnel from 444 Close Support Squadron and 4 Air Defence Regiment
(4 AD Regt) based in Moncton; and .......
More on link

This Afghanistan column has seven days
January 19, 2008
Article Link

A great piece by a great journalist:

BLATCHFORD'S TAKE: A WOEFUL WEEK [print version only] 
...painful displays of ignorance and arrogance

[...]

...before the Liberal leader met Canadian troops and posed in the cute camo outfit (I would knock the block off whoever lent the gear to him, by the way) he had his mind made up - the combat mission, as the party's submission said, should end as scheduled in February, 2009. His visit there was a disingenuous and fraudulent exercise in bullshit public relations.

On Mr. Gates: The defence secretary's remarks to the Los Angeles Times, to the effect that some of the NATO armies in Afghanistan "don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations," were profoundly inaccurate and disrespectful, particularly of the British and Canadians, who have been running the show respectively in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

His absolute arrogance - that only Americans know how to fight - and ignorance aside, Mr. Gates ignored the indisputable fact that what the Brits and Canucks have run into in the fiery south is a direct result of too few U.S. troops having been left in the country after the so-called fall of the Taliban [well, they did fall to the Northern Alliance, with some US and UK help, and took some time to really start coming back]...
More on link


Keep troops in Kandahar until 2011, Manley to recommend
BRIAN LAGHI From Monday's Globe and Mail January 21, 2008 at 12:47 AM EST
Article Link

OTTAWA — John Manley's report on Canada's future role in Afghanistan will likely recommend that troops stay in Afghanistan until 2011 while also criticizing the federal government agency responsible for delivering aid to the war-torn nation, CTV News reported last night.

The widely anticipated report from the former Liberal foreign affairs minister is also expected to criticize NATO for not taking on its share of the burden and will say that Canada's role should be reconfigured from counterinsurgency to training the Afghan police. The Canadian International Development Agency and Foreign Affairs will also come under fire for their aid programs, CTV said.

Mr. Manley, who was asked by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to chair a blue-chip panel to make recommendations on the mission, is expected to issue his report Tuesday.
More on link

Singing songs of Piccadilly, Strand and Leicester Square ...
Lorne Gunter, National Post  Published: Monday, January 21, 2008
Article Link

I'm with you and you're with me, so we are all together;

And we are marching to Islamabad, Islamabad, Islamabad;

Oh, we are marching to Islamabad, Islamabad, Hurrah!

Come on, Canada. Let's get our creative juices flowing. Now that Liberal party leader Stephane Dion has declared war on Pakistan, we're gonna need some great tunes our boys and girls in uniform can sing as they slog their way from the rolling sand dunes of the Thar Desert, through the mangrove swamps of the southern coast to the frigid peaks of the Himalayas and Hindu Kush.

There'll be pheasants over, the wide Hunza Valley; Tomorrow, just you wait and see ...

The goatsman will tend his kids. The opium will bloom again. And Rashid will go to sleep, in his own little room again.
More on link

General calls Afghan-bound soldiers best prepared in Canada's history
Article Link

CFB SHILO, Man. - Family was the dominant theme as hundreds of Afghan-bound soldiers from Manitoba were recognized Saturday at a ceremonial farewell.

Hundreds of soldiers dressed in arid-pattern combat uniforms, many accompanied by loved ones, stood shoulder-to-shoulder as Brig.-Gen. Mark Skidmore talked to the departing troops at the Shilo base.

For Master Cpl. Michael Bursey, the farewell ceremony was important to his family, especially when Skidmore approached his sons - Noah, 9, and Damien, 6 - after the speech.

"That was certainly the highlight for me. He took the time when he was leaving to come over," the medic said, an arm around each teary-eyed son.

The closer it gets to the day he leaves, it gets a little scarier and a little more daunting, says Bursey's wife Sheila.

"I've been trying to put up a brave front right from the get-go, and saying it's no big deal," she said, adding quickly, "and I do. It's his job."

Because he joined the Canadian Forces after Sept. 11, 2001, she says the couple knew what they were getting into.

"We knew going in that he was joining a military that was going to war."

And that military, Skidmore told the soldiers, is the best-prepared force Canada has produced.
More on link

Canada's role in depleted uranium weapons 
Article Link

The Government of Canada is in non-compliance with the statutes and regulations of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), prohibiting the use of Canadian uranium in depleted uranium (DU) weapons. Moreover, Canada has a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement with the US, under which uranium exports to the US may only be used for peaceful purposes, and not in weapons. This includes 'control over the high enrichment of Canadian uranium and subsequent storage and use of the highly enriched uranium,' a Foreign Affairs document states. The same rules that apply to uranium apply to depleted uranium, according to the CNSC.

DU weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction under international law. Thus Canada may be complicit in the US use of weapons of mass destruction in the 1991 Iraq war I, the 1998 Balkans war, the 2001 war in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Iraq war II, where the British medical journal Lancet estimates that one million civilians have died. In each of these wars, it is likely that depleted uranium in the DU weapons used by the U.S. and the UK comes from Canadian uranium exported to the US and processed in US enrichment plants into depleted uranium and subsequently manufactured into DU weapons.

The Americans and British have denied using depleted uranium weapons in Afghanistan. Canada says it eliminated depleted uranium munitions from its stockpile in 1998, in part because of the logistical challenges of storing the material, since it required special precautions.
More on link

Bickering among politicians does nothing for real battle
STEPHEN MAHER Sat. Jan 19 - 4:47 AM
Article Link

WHEN YOU COVER federal politics for a living, you end up getting to know and like politicians in all the parties. 

Many of them are admirable — for their intelligence, their hard work, their integrity, and their personality. They are, after all, are in the business of being likable, and an awful lot of them are here because they have game.

To be sure, some of them are stunned porch climbers whose biggest talent is for keeping their mouths shut, but for every dim-witted former small town mayor who was lucky enough to win a nomination, there is a sharp customer who wants to do good work.

But the nature of the business means that MPs — smart or not — spend a lot of their time spouting nonsense that they don’t believe and that they don’t expect their opponents to believe. Any complicated idea must be abandoned in the struggle to hammer home a simple point to disengaged television viewers.

It is difficult for a politician to express an intelligent opinion. Not only must he have one, it must be inoffensive both to voters and to party bosses. 

And she must be always attacking her opponents — the very similar people in the other parties.

As Liberal backroom wizard Keith Davey once put it: "If the other guy says, ‘You’re fat,’ don’t say, ‘I’m not.’ Say, ‘You’re ugly.’ " 
More on link

True tales of courage
Our troops fight as well as anyone else -- if not better 
By PABLO FERNANDEZ
  Article Link

In the wake of a firestorm unleashed by NATO members against the U.S. defence secretary following his criticism of the alliance's performance in Afghanistan, one only hopes Canadian soldiers fighting there will do better than to pay attention. 

As Calgary soldiers prepare to return home from Afghanistan in the next couple of months, and more than a hundred city troops prepare to replace them, they come home, and deploy, with the knowledge their job is among the toughest currently undertaken by any modern army. 

Canadian soldiers have the unenviable task of going toe-to-toe with Taliban fighters desperate to re-establish dominance along the Pakistani border, while mentoring the fledgling Afghan army and helping to rebuild Afghanistan's decrepit infrastructure and political fibre. 

The job's tough and it's exacted a high price, with 77 Canadian soldiers killed and hundreds more injured. 
More on link

Bringing the war home
Anthology of first-person accounts from front lines of Afghanistan features compelling tales, hard truths
Richard Helm, The Edmonton Journal Published: Sunday, January 20
Article Link

With Canadian soldiers continuing to die in Afghanistan and NATO commanders facing new U.S. criticism of their fighting tactics there, Kevin Patterson thinks it's high time to bring the war home.

The B.C. doctor and author does just that with Outside the Wire, a new anthology of first-person accounts written by Canadian soldiers, doctors and aid workers from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. Patterson co-edits the collection with Jane Warren, drawing on visceral, intimate material that features some compelling dispatches by soldiers, including Cpl. Gordon Whitton of Edmonton from his two tours there in 2006.

Some hard truths for home is also precisely what Patterson had in mind when he ran afoul of military brass last year with a published account of his experiences while volunteering with other civilian medical workers at Kandahar Airfield, the main coalition base in southern Afghanistan. In an article for the American magazine Mother Jones, Patterson related, in graphic detail, the operating-room death of Cpl. Kevin Megeney, a young reservist from Stellarton, N.S. Megeney was shot March 6, 2007, purportedly by another Canadian soldier. Cpl. Matthew Wilcox has since been charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death and negligence in performance of duty.
More on link

An updated listing of NATO troops and others !! Serving in AFghanistan 
MILITARY BLOG SITE - WITH ROBBY MCROBB  The Guardian
Article Link

The CBC Canada's national Media service has produced a well documented list of Canadian Operations in Afghanistan. Well worth the read for information and perhaps assist you in your thoughts of the Afghan Mission.

Canadian troops in Afghanistan
There are currently three Canadian Forces operations in Afghanistan. 

The largest is Operation Athena with 2,500 troops. This is Canada's contribution to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. According to the Canadian Forces, this operation includes: 

A battle group in Kandahar. 
30 CF members with the Multi-National Brigade Headquarters and Signal Squadron in Kandahar. 
300 CF members with the National Command Element in Kandahar. 
300 CF members in the National Support Element in Kandahar. 
250 CF members with the Theatre Support Element in southwest Asia. 
Health Service Support personnel at the Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar airfield. 
The Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar of approximately 250 military and civilian personnel. 
Other countries in ISAF: ......
More on link

Blast kills British soldier in southern Afghanistan
Last Updated: Monday, January 21, 2008 | 6:40 AM ET CBC News 
Article Link

A British soldier was killed and five others were wounded when an explosion struck a NATO patrol vehicle in southern Afghanistan, according to Britain's Ministry of Defence.

The ministry said the soldiers' vehicle hit a mine Sunday northeast of Musa Qala, a town in northern Helmand province.

Musa Qala had been held by the Taliban for 10 months until U.S., British and Afghan forces retook it last month.

One soldier died at the scene and the five others were airlifted to NATO bases for medical treatment, the ministry said in a statement. The wounded soldiers were not in a life-threatening condition.

A total of 87 British forces personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001
More on link

Desperate Afghans swarm Canadian health clinic
  Brian Hutchinson Canwest News Service Sunday, January 20, 2008
Article Link

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - An elderly man pulled a wooden cart through the crowd and stopped, exhausted, before the main gate to this dusty city's regional district centre.

In the payload of his wagon was a thin, frail figure: His ailing wife. "She is dying," said the man.

He brought his wife here Sunday in the hope she might receive medical attention from a team of Afghan and Canadian military doctors, dentists, nurses, and medical technicians.

The aged couple joined almost 300 other men, women and children clamouring for assistance. Ragged, poor, and ailing, they came from all around Spin Boldak, a city of 30,000 that's just six kilometres from the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, at the very edge of Kandahar province.

An initiative of the Canadian military, the so-called Village Medical Outreach (VMO) clinic was advertised on local radio and on roadside billboards. Word also spread by word of mouth and even reached nomadic Kuchi living on the city's fringes.

People came in droves; some walked to the clinic barefoot. Others limped along on crutches. Dozens of children arrived in the arms of their fathers, or their mothers, clad in blue burkas.
More on link


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## GAP (21 Jan 2008)

*More Articles found January 21, 2008*

Pakistani forces say kill up to 90 militants
Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:32am EST By Augustine Anthony
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces killed up to 90 militants in two battles on Friday in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, the military said.

The clashes came two days after hundreds of militants overran a paramilitary fort in another part of South Waziristan, dealing the military a setback in its efforts to defeat the al Qaeda-linked militants.

In one incident on Friday, government forces attacked a large number of militants who had gathered to attack another attack fort in the region, at Ladha, killing 50 to 60 of them. The rest dispersed, said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.

"The miscreants, these terrorists, wanted to probably attack another fort and they were gathering there. Therefore, the security forces took action in retaliation," Abbas said.

Security forces used artillery and mortars to attack the militants and suffered no casualties, he said.
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Aid groups warn war in Afghanistan ‘just beginning’
IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent January 21 2008 
Article Link

The war in Afghanistan is "only just beginning", according to a report published this week by the international body established to oversee the work of non-governmental aid agencies in the country.

In contrast to Western claims that progress is being made, the Afghanistan NGO Security Office (Anso) says: "The consensus among informed individuals at the end of 2007 seems to be that Afghanistan is at the beginning of a war, not the end of one: 2007 will likely be looked back upon as the year in which the Taliban seriously rejoined the fight. With the Taliban resurgent, it has become obvious that their easy departure in 2001 after the US-led invasion was more of a strategic retreat than an actual military defeat," the report adds.

Taliban insurgents, fighting to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign forces, carried out more attacks over a wider area in 2007, Anso claims, and the best-case scenario for this year, is "more of the same".
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In pursuit of Afghanistan's poppy crackdown   
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Kabul  
Article Link

The small digital display next to the clock on the car dashboard read -4C (24.8F). But then it was 0600 in Kabul, in January. 

Officials believe 200 people have died in the recent cold weather 
As the sun slowly started to pour light into the city we headed north out of the bustle of the slushy streets, across the Shomali plain near the big American air base at Bagram, and up towards the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush. 

And as the sun gradually turned the white mountain tops shades of red, the thermometer drifted ever downwards -6C, -7C, -8C, before settling on a nice even -11C. 

It was one of those beautifully clear days with a piercing blue sky. 
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Pakistani Teen Suspect Reportedly Confesses Involvement in Bhutto Assassination
Sunday , January 20, 2008
Article Link

Authorities questioned a 15-year-old boy who reportedly confessed to joining a team that killed Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, while helicopter gunships attacked suspected militant positions close to the Afghan border, officials and witnesses said Sunday.

A villager said two civilians were killed in the attacks Sunday in the South Waziristan region, where a spike in fighting in recent days has killed about 100 people, most of them militants. But military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there were no reports of casualties.

The arrest of the teenager in the town of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's North West Frontier province could be the first break in the investigation into Bhutto's killing on Dec. 27 in a gun and suicide bomb attack.

A senior intelligence official said the boy was arrested Thursday along with another militant suspect.

He told investigators that his five-person squad was dispatched to Rawalpindi — where Bhutto was killed — by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader with strong ties to Al Qaeda and an alliance with the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan. The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Authorities have already accused Mehsud, who is believed to be hiding in South Waziristan, of organizing the killing.

Interior Secretary Kamal Shah also said the boy had confessed to involvement in the slaying. Both of the detainees were being questioned in an attempt to corroborate the confession, he said.

Bhutto's assassination triggered days of unrest that left 40 dead and thrust Pakistan into a deep political crisis at a time of surging attacks by Al Qaeda and Taliban militants. The violence came as the country prepares for Feb. 18 polls that many predict will weaken President Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.

Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan in October after spending nearly eight years in exile, had vowed to support tough military measures against Islamic militants who have used the border areas as staging points for infiltration into Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the country's Shiite minority held processions and prayers to mark the festival of Ashoura, which in the past has been marred by attacks from Sunni extremists, who regard Shiites as heretics.

Tens of thousands marched and beat their bare backs with chains and blades, bloodying themselves in a sign of penitence. They said the threat of violence did not worry them.
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Roadside bombing kills 5 civilians, injures 2 in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-20 15:57:02      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least five Afghans were killed and two others injured when the van they took hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan's province of Kandahar, a local official said on Sunday. 

    "It occurred on Saturday evening," said Haji Shabaran, the chief of Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. "The van hit the roadside mines which were supposed to be planted by Taliban who meant to attack NATO and Afghan National troops in Panjwayi district." 

    However, the Taliban outfits, usually being reluctant to admit having done harm to local civilians, have not yet confirmed. 
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Taliban kills gov't official, takes away 2 others in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-21 08:54:10  
  Article Link

    KABUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants on Sunday intercepted the car of a government official, killing him and taking away his driver and one guard in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, a provincial government spokesman said. 

    Abdul Kayum Mujabadi, director of Commission for National Reconciliation, a body established by Afghan government to persuade militants to lay down arms and join the government's peace efforts, was shot dead in Shahjoy district of Zabul, Zabul provincial administration spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhail told Xinhua. 

    "Mujabadi was on the way to Kabul with his driver and one guard when his car was stopped by the militants," the spokesman said. 

    Local police are conducting a search operation to recover the two missing, he added. 

    The Taliban has yet to make any comment. 
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Pakistan gunships pound militant stronghold: residents
Article Link

WANA, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, residents and officials said.

The military said they fired artillery after coming under attack in Ladha village of restive South Waziristan district, where a Taliban commander linked to the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto is said to be hiding.

"At 0100 hours miscreants fired 12.7 millimetres gun from old Ladha to Ladha observation post. Security forces retaliated with artillery guns fire," a military statement said, but gave no casualties.

Residents however said that shells fired from six helicopter gunships killed two people and left seven others wounded, but officials were not immediately available to confirm the deaths.

The military said Saturday that troops captured 50 Islamist militants in an operation in the rugged Chaghmalai and Ladha areas of South Waziristan.

The clashes started after hundreds of heavily armed militants overran a Pakistani paramilitary fort on Wednesday, killing seven soldiers and leaving another 15 troops missing, presumed kidnapped.
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US to deploy 500 mine-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan
Article Link

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AFP) — The US military plans to ship 500 roadside bomb-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan amid a reinforcement of 3,200 extra US troops to be deployed to fight Taliban militants.

While the mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles remain a top priority for Iraq, where US soldiers face frequent attacks from armor-piercing explosives, more MRAPs will be sent to Afghanistan, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"I think we are going to send more MRAPs to Afghanistan," Gates said Friday as he toured a military factory where every day 50 of those vehicles are equipped with electronic equipment.

But the defense chief emphasized that Iraq, where nearly 4,000 US soldiers have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion, is still "the first priority."

"IEDs are the tactic of choice of our enemies," he said. "They are cheap and deadly and difficult to detect and they have been the biggest killer of our troops in Iraq."

The V-hulled vehicle "is a proven life saver on the battlefield and provides the best protection against these attacks," Gates told employees of the factory with banners reminding workers that "Your Work Contributes to the War on Terrorism."
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (21 Jan 2008)

Peter MacKay’s terrible day
_ChronicleHerald.ca_, Jan. 21, by Scott Taylor
http://thechronicleherald.ca/News/1033176.html



> ...U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates was quoted in the Los Angeles Times making disparaging remarks about NATO forces letting down the Americans.
> 
> What Gates implied was that the NATO troops — particularly those in southern Afghanistan, where the Canadian contingent is based — were not experienced in counter-insurgency.
> 
> ...



Moving day Helmand style: how to turn a farm into a fortress
_The Times_, Jan. 21
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3221602.ece



> ...
> Unknown to the Afghans, their home was the focal point of Operation Thunder, an *ambitious British and Danish plan* [emphasis added] to seize, hold and build on a chunk of territory in the Taleban heartland of the Upper Gereshk Valley, central Helmand. Their spacious compound just happened to be the intended base for FOB Armadillo, a new base of Nato troops. So they had to move. That very day.
> 
> There was compensation. After two hours of negotiation, with British troops keeping watch, the Danes agreed to pay the brothers a four-figure sum in dollars, followed by a relatively handsome monthly rent. Even so, the experience left a bitter aftertaste for many of the soldiers...
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (22 Jan 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 22

'Death trap' failed to protect soldier from mine
_Daily Telegraph_, Jan. 22
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SQUFTOL43OI4FQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/22/wafghan122.xml



> The soldier from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers died when his vehicle hit a mine on Sunday, the Ministry of Defence said. He was the first British fatality in six weeks.
> 
> Five other soldiers, some from 5 Regiment Royal Artillery, were wounded.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (22 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 22, 2008*

Was Mr. Gates badly briefed? Or does he simply not understand?
No other contingent, particularly the Americans, has demonstrated greater mastery of dealing with insurgents. 
TERRY LISTON From Tuesday's Globe and Mail January 22, 2008 at 6:42 AM EST
Article Link

The U.S. Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, shocked the Western world last week, charging that the NATO troops deployed in the south of Afghanistan are, in effect, unskilled cowards who rely on air strikes that cause civilian deaths and hide in their own protected bases in order to avoid casualties. He also charged that they failed to connect with the Afghan security forces. He loudly applauded, in contrast, the U.S. contingent in the eastern provinces.

Whether we support the Afghan mission or not, we must step back and ask: Is that us? Canadians know their soldiers were given the one area of Afghanistan that no one else wants. Even the Americans were relieved to get out, going to the relative safety of the eastern provinces. Kandahar, the ancestral home of the Taliban, was the first city to be captured when the Taliban took power, and the last to fall when they were removed from power in 2001. The city and the surrounding provinces remained quiet, for a time, only because the U.S. focus on the Iraq invasion of 2003 left the south of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban, war lords and drug dealers.

Consequently, the first Canadian battle groups in Kandahar, based on the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the Royal Canadian Regiment, had to fight a Korean-style conventional campaign to break the huge Taliban force that, under previous (U.S.) management, had brazenly built Soviet-style fighting positions, almost encircling the city of Kandahar.
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Conditional extension of Afghan mission justified, panel says
Mike Blanchfield and Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA - Saying the status quo is not an option, the special Manley panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan has called for a conditional extension of the mission and more co-ordination and support from the Harper government and Canada's NATO allies.

"The status quo is not good enough; we need a different approach," panel chair John Manley told a news conference after the release of the report Tuesday morning. 

Manley said there is considerable justification for the combat mission, which currently sees about 2,500 Canadians deployed to fight Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan. 
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Contemplating a Post NATO World
 Rick Moran on January 22, 2008 @ 4:42 pm CET 
Article Link

A very interesting and in the end, a very depressing article in The Guardian this morning about some recommendations by a blue ribbon panel of ex-military leaders in NATO who believe that the organization is in danger of becoming irrelevant to the security interests of its members.

In short, they conclude that NATO is not addressing the fundamental security threats facing the organization in a rapidly changing world and that there is a real danger that NATO itself will not survive many of the challenges facing it.


The headline grabbing part of the article is actually the least surprising - that NATO should maintain its nuclear first strike option. This has always been NATO’s unstated doctrine going back to the cold war given the huge perceived disparity in conventional forces the organization was facing from the Soviets. It was always believed that the US would have to abandon Western Europe in the face of a Soviet attack or launch its missiles. Maintaining this doctrine then is not surprising when faced with the possibility of rogue states or terrorist organizations threatening a launch against a NATO member.

The authors of this “manifesto” are an eye opening lot and “paint an alarming picture of the threats and challenges confronting the west in the post-9/11 world and deliver a withering verdict on the ability to cope.”

General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and Nato’s ex-supreme commander in Europe, General Klaus Naumann, Germany’s former top soldier and ex-chairman of Nato’s military committee, General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff, Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff, and Lord Inge, field marshal and ex-chief of the general staff and the defence staff in the UK.
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Peter MacKay’s terrible day
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Tue. Jan 22 - 5:46 AM
Article Link

LAST WEDNESDAY was certainly not a stellar day for Defence Minister Peter MacKay. As media outlets were still running stories about the death of Trooper Richard Renaud, the 77th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates was quoted in the Los Angeles Times making disparaging remarks about NATO forces letting down the Americans.

What Gates implied was that the NATO troops — particularly those in southern Afghanistan, where the Canadian contingent is based — were not experienced in counter-insurgency. 

Gates compared the situation of the intensifying insurgency in NATO’s southern sector with the relative stability in eastern Afghanistan, which is under U.S. control. The implication being that the Americans know what they’re doing — NATO does not.

Using this logic, one would have to commend the German contingent in Konduz and the Italian military in Herat with having a tremendous grasp of counter-insurgency warfare because those sectors have been almost completely pacified since the Taliban was toppled in 2001.

Of course, Gates is fully aware of the vast regional ethnic diversity of Afghanistan, and his comparison of apples to oranges in this instance was aimed at placating a domestic U.S. audience. War-weary Americans have every right to wonder why 3,200 additional Marines are now being deployed to Afghanistan to fight a war they were told was won in November 2001.

At first, the Pentagon told us it was Pakistan’s fault that the insurgency in Kandahar was being rekindled; now Gates is telling Americans that it’s actually NATO’s fault for not being aggressive enough.

Canadian officers, familiar with the way in which the fiasco in Kandahar evolved, have called Gate’s comments the "height of hypocrisy." Even American Special Forces soldiers who participated in the battles that cleared the Taliban from Kandahar in early 2002 admit that the U.S. strategy was flawed from the outset.

When I visited Kabul last January, I was introduced to a U.S. Navy SEAL who had been assigned as an adviser to the Afghan Northern Alliance. When he learned that I was a Canadian, he had insisted on paying for my drinks. "We sold you guys a bucket of crap down in Kandahar, and for that I apologize," he said. 

The SEAL explained that after the Taliban were chased out of the region, the U.S. left just one battalion stationed at the Kandahar airfield and fewer than 500 soldiers in all of Helmand province. The Pentagon had been completely focused on the invasion of Iraq and, as a result, from 2002 to 2005, the once scattered Taliban were able to regroup and rearm.
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Documents reveal evidence of Afghan prisoner abuse
 TheStar.com -January 22, 2008 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

Rights groups in court to seek halt to transfer of Canadian detainees

OTTAWA–His name is shielded from the public, but proof of his abuse at the hands of his Afghan jailers was literally right before the eyes of Canadian officials. 

According to newly released documents from a court case brought by human rights groups, a Canadian human rights officer discovered last Nov. 5 an electrical cable and rubber hose alleged to have been used by Afghan jailors in the torture of a prisoner turned over by Canadian forces. The officer, in an interrogation room at the secret police facility in Kandahar, examined a 10-centimetre bruise on the man's back. 

"He ... pointed to a chair and stated that the implements he had been struck with were underneath it," reads the court document in the case brought by rights groups seeking to halt the transfer of Canadian detainees to Afghan prisons. "Under the chair we found a large piece of braided electrical wire as well as a rubber hose. He then showed us a bruise on his back that could possibly be the result of a blow."

It is the most shocking example of mistreatment outlined by Canadian prison and foreign affairs officials who investigated abuse allegations in Afghanistan and contained in the documents, which are reports of site visits by Canadian officials to Afghan jails. 

Among the other revelations from the documents:

It has been difficult to track prisoners that Canadian soldiers send to local jails because soldiers record the personal information in English while Afghan officials keep records in Pashto.

Very few of those interviewed by the Canadians report being granted access to a lawyer. Most are unaware of the charges against them.

More than a dozen individuals at one prison facility were kept in permanent leg shackles, a practice that falls well below international standards. 
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Afghan National Police to receive intensive training
Updated Mon. Jan. 21 2008 1:24 PM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Things are about to change for the beleaguered Afghan National Police in Zhari-Panjwaii where Canadian Forces mentors have been struggling to whip the ill-equipped, underpaid lot into shape over the last few months.

Part two of the Focus District Development campaign is slated to get underway next month, but efforts to register police for the intensive training program are already underway.

Maj. Louis Lapointe, commander of the Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Team, says the eight-week, mandatory program is certain to eliminate some of the equipment, drug and corruption issues plaguing the ANP.

As part of the program, which began in Zabul province nearly two months ago, police will receive specialized investigative, tactical, weapons and ethics training.

They'll also get their very own AK-47, a uniform and a fixed salary, which not all of them currently receive.

The move comes as two new police sub-stations get set to open Tuesday in Panjwaii -- a region deemed the next big focus for Canadian troops according to Brig.-Gen Guy Laroche.
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Kabul's Old City Getting Face Lift
By ALISA TANG The Associated Press Monday, January 21, 2008; 3:16 PM 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Last year the streets in parts of the old city dropped by nine feet. 

The reason? A massive garbage haul. Just about every unemployed man in Murad Khane was recruited to clean up years of litter and mud piled on top of the streets. By the time they were done, the streets and alleys were lower. 

The garbage project is part of an effort to clean up and restore old Kabul, after six years of relative peace and with millions of dollars from foreign donors. 

The Turquoise Mountain Foundation, which is dedicated to traditional Afghan arts and architecture, has spent $1 million on conservation and clean-up in the Murad Khane neighborhood since last year. The Kabul organization is financed by both Western and Middle East donors. 

The lower street level at first left Abdul Salaam's door looking oddly out of place, perched three feet higher than the square in front of it. So Turquoise Mountain had to fix his door, too, with fresh mud scars showing where it used to be. The frayed edges of plastic bags still stick out of the wall. 
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Pakistani Army Seizes 35 Pro-Taliban Militants in Swat Valley  
By Ed Johnson
Article Link

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani soldiers arrested 35 pro- Taliban militants in the Swat Valley region bordering Afghanistan, as President Pervez Musharraf ruled out letting U.S. troops into his nation's tribal areas to fight terrorists. 

Among the insurgents detained was an aide of Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric seeking to impose Islamic law in the region, the military said in a statement on its Web site. 

The aide, Moulvi Habib, supported suicide attacks and a decree by Fazlullah ordering the beheading of government officials, according to the statement. Weapons and ammunition were also seized in yesterday's raid in the Chuprial area of the valley, a once popular tourist destination about 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital, Islamabad. 

The military is battling Islamic extremists along the border with Afghanistan, where U.S. intelligence agencies say al-Qaeda has rebuilt bases. Pakistani officials said last week that soldiers had driven militants from the Swat Valley after a three-month operation. 

Pakistan has al-Qaeda ``on the run,'' Musharraf said yesterday in Brussels, at the start of an eight-day European tour to repair Pakistan's battered image. 

He rejected what he said was media-driven talk of allowing U.S. troops and NATO's International Security Assistance Force into Pakistan to fight insurgents. 

``Nobody should violate our sovereignty,'' the president said. ``Let us handle the situation on our side of the border and let ISAF and U.S. forces operate in Afghanistan, in cooperation with each other.'' 

NATO Talks 

Musharraf met yesterday with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and discussed the campaign against terrorism. 

NATO commands a force of 41,000 soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. The alliance has previously criticized Musharraf for failing to shut down terrorist training camps on Pakistani territory and stop insurgents crossing the mountainous border. 

The Pakistani leader is ``part of the solution and certainly not part of the problem,'' Agence France-Presse cited the NATO chief as saying. ``We are fighting the same terrorists that are trying to destabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan.'' 
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Militants kill five Pakistani troops
January 22, 2008 - 3:23PM
Article Link

AdvertisementMilitants attacked a Pakistani fort in the South Waziristan region on the Afghanistan border early on Tuesday, killing five soldiers and wounding seven, the military said.

The militants attacked the Ladha fort and an observation post an hour after midnight.

"Security forces retaliated with fire causing heavy casualties ... the attack was beaten back," the military said in a statement.

The exact number of militants killed could not be ascertained, it said.

Violence has intensified in recent days in South Waziristan, where an al-Qaeda-linked militant leader blamed by Pakistani authorities and the United States for the December 27 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is based.

The militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud, has been blamed for a string of attacks in recent months, compounding a sense of crisis in the nuclear-armed country as President Pervez Musharraf has struggled to hold power in the face of protests from opponents.
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## GAP (23 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 23, 2008*

The guts of the Manley panel report  
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Article Link

Beyond what's in my earlier post, below are some excerpts that strike me as fundamental to the panel's message (the substantive part of the report is just thirty-two pages). The best possible result, for the internal politics of both Canada and NATO, would be if France provided the 1,000 strong battle group to partner with us at Kandahar. With M. Sarkozy as Président de la République...

...But despite the violence and destruction of conflict, Afghans are achieving substantial development progress. The Afghan economy has been growing by about 10 per cent annually for the past five years, and per-capita incomes have doubled. More than five million refugees have returned to Afghanistan since 2002, a telling indicator of new hope for the future. Some six million children are in school, a third of them girls; school enrolment has tripled in six years. Child mortality rates are improving. Roads are being built, and power lines restored. In short, the evidence of real development is there to see...

...events in Afghanistan, and Canada’s participation in the outcomes, will directly affect Canada’s security, our reputation in the world, and our future ability to engage the international community in achieving objectives of peace, security and shared prosperity. Informed and fair-minded Canadians can differ on the policy choices before us. None need doubt that the future of Afghanistan matters to Canada...

...the international military and development presence in Afghanistan has been explicitly and repeatedly authorized by the UN Security Council—most recently in a Security Council resolution in September 2007; it has also been approved collectively by the 26 member countries of NATO. ISAF, which includes 13 countries along with all NATO members, is thereby defending and enforcing international law [emphasis added]. In this defining way, and in others, the international presence in Afghanistan differs from the later invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States and its coalition partners in that war...

In the face of a serious and potentially strengthening Taliban insurgency, the Panel observed harmful shortcomings in the NATO/ISAF counterinsurgency campaign. The most damaging shortfalls include an insufficiency of forces in the field, especially in high-risk zones in the South; a top-heavy command structure at ISAF headquarters in Kabul; an absence of a comprehensive strategy directing all ISAF forces in collaboration with the Afghan government; limitations placed by some NATO governments on the operations of their units, which effectively keep those forces out of the conflict; and inadequate coordination between military and civilian programs for security, stabilization, reconstruction and development. One source of ISAF inefficiencies, cited by senior NATO officers, is the too frequent rotation of ISAF commanders at its Kabul headquarters and in the regional commands...
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Civilian effort in Afghanistan criticized
 TheStar.com - January 23, 2008  Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau 
Article Link

Commitment to reconstruction needs beefing up with development officials on ground, report says

OTTAWA–More civilians – not just soldiers – are part of the prescription for a successful Canadian mission in Kandahar, according to the Manley report on the future of the Afghan mission.

Although the report calls for 1,000 additional NATO soldiers to help out Canadian troops, it also urges that the government try to ramp up the number and responsibilities of civilian officials in the region.

To date, their efforts have been insufficient and ineffective, and some of the problem rests with the Canadian International Development Agency, the government aid organization, the report says.

"Canada's civilian programs have not achieved the scale or depth of engagement necessary to make a significant impact," the report says. "It is essential to adjust funding and staffing imbalances between the heavy Canadian military commitment in Afghanistan and the comparatively lighter civilian commitment to reconstruction, development and governance."

The foreign affairs department, CIDA, the RCMP and corrections officials are represented by a scant 47 civilians spread among the Canadian embassy in Kabul; at Kandahar Airfield, where the soldiers are based; and at a smaller outpost in Kandahar city known as the Provincial Reconstruction Team.

This is in contrast to the 2,500 Canadian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.

CIDA spends about $100 million each year in the country, but controls only 15 per cent of that amount to be spent on projects that are clearly Canadian. The rest is funnelled to organizations such as the World Bank, or to programs run by the Afghan government.

The report recommends that aid spending should go more toward "direct, bilateral" assistance that addresses the immediate needs of local people, particularly in Kandahar province.

The panel suggests "signature" projects that can be traced directly back to Canadian efforts would go a long way toward winning the support of the Afghan people.

Also, CIDA should rethink its overly restrictive policies, fashioned in Ottawa with no regard for the situation on the ground, that essentially tie its officials to safe areas and alienate them from the people they are trying to help, the report says.
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Families of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan praise Manley report
Article Link

HALIFAX - The families of several Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan are praising a report today that recommends troops get better equipment and that NATO take on a greater role in the country.

Jim Davis, whose son Cpl. Paul Davis was killed in 2006, says it's time NATO stepped up and offered more assistance in the volatile southern region where Canada is operating.

He says Canada can't be expected to bear the brunt of the responsibility without help.

Julie Mason lost her husband Master Cpl. Jeff Walsh in 2006 and says it's been a longstanding complaint that soldiers don't have the gear they need to do their jobs.

Both relatives were responding to a report by a panel headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley.

Manley says Canada's mission is noble and justifiable, but is doomed to fail unless other NATO countries shoulder a heavier burden.
End

Military's best hope for help? Probably the U.S.
 TheStar.com -January 23, 2008 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa bureau chief 
Article Link

Washington could provide extra troops, choppers, expert says

OTTAWA–From extra troops to new choppers, Ottawa could be turning to the United States to help it meet the conditions that will keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan, a defence expert says.

With NATO allies reluctant to provide additional soldiers for Afghanistan's dangerous southern regions and helicopter production lines sold out, it could be Washington's vast military resources that might be the saving grace, said Brian MacDonald, a senior analyst at the Conference of Defence Associations.

Yesterday, an independent panel said any extension of Canada's military mission should be conditional on NATO allies providing 1,000 more troops for Kandahar as well as Canadian troops getting transport helicopters and unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles.

Ottawa is in negotiations with Boeing to buy 16 Chinook helicopters – the chopper of choice for transport – but they aren't expected to arrive until 2011.
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UNICEF: Afghanistan makes progress in reducing child mortality   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-22 21:47:16      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The post-Taliban Afghanistan has made significant progress in bringing down the child mortality over the past six years, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced here Tuesday. 

    "Afghanistan has made tremendous progress on child survival," said Dan Toole, the UNICEF regional director for South Asia, while addressing a function featuring the launch of the agency's State of the World's Children in 2008 report. 

    The latest data indicates that Afghanistan has managed to reduce its under-five children mortality by 25 percent since 2001,Toole said. 

    However, he stressed that there is a long way for Afghanistan to go to further improve the status of children in the war-torn country, saying "Afghanistan has the second maternity mortality and third child mortality in the world." 
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Pakistan soldier killed in tribal rocket attack: army
Article Link

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) — Islamist militants fired rockets at a Pakistani fort in the troubled tribal belt Wednesday, killing one soldier and wounding two in the latest violence to hit the region, the army said.

Rebels attacked the facility at Razmak in North Waziristan, a rugged and semi-autonomous tribal area bordering Afghanistan, at about 7:00 am, an army statement said.

"One security forces personnel embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and two others were injured. Security forces retaliated with artillery and mortar fire," the statement said.

The rocket attack came a day after two soldiers were killed in another militant attack in Razmak.

Separately troops exchanged fire with militants at the Ladha fort in neighbouring South Waziristan, the statement said, a day after clashes there left five soldiers and nearly 40 militants dead.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest gunbattle.
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2 women injured in suicide bombing in E Afghanistan  
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-01-23 16:09:02      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber targeted a restaurant in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province Wednesday wounding two women besides killing himself, a local official said. 

    "A terrorist tied explosive device in his body blew himself up next a restaurant this morning killing self and wounding two women," Director of Information and Culture of Khost province Deen Mohammad Darvish told Xinhua. 

    However, he did not say who was the real target but added the attack took place outside the hotel where locals including personnel of the law enforcing agencies use to frequent it. 

    A premature bomb explosion in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province left four persons dead when Taliban loyalists were busy in making handmade bombs.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (23 Jan 2008)

Afghanistan: editorial reaction to Manley Report 
Summary by Conference of Defence Associations, Jan. 23
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1201119097/

Mark
Ottawa


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## a_majoor (23 Jan 2008)

Lots of reactions in the Blogosphere

http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/010738.html



> My head is spinning
> 
> Warren the K. has a fine post on the Manley panel report at his National Post blog. [Yes, that's two posts in a single day agreeing with Warren Kinsella. It's in Revelations, people! - DJP]
> 
> ...


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## GAP (24 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 24, 2008*

Canadian soldier killed by IED
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update January 23, 2008 at 11:30 PM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Canadian soldier died when a bomb exploded under his armoured vehicle Wednesday, as the military struggles to regain control of a notorious district southwest of Kandahar city.

The improvised explosive device detonated at 1:40 p.m. while bulldozers and troop carriers were trying to clear a safe route through Panjwai district, the scene of many battles between Canadians and insurgents over the past two years.

The soldier was declared dead at the scene, according to Brigadier-General Guy Laroche, Canada's top commander in Afghanistan. The soldier's family has asked for his name to be temporarily withheld. Two other Canadians soldiers suffered minor injuries in the attack. It's the 78th death so far in the Canadian mission, and the fourth death so far this year.

The location of the blast, about 35 kilometres southwest of the city, falls roughly along the informal line of control that divided Canadian-controlled territory from Taliban lands when the latest rotation of troops, mostly from the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment, arrived this summer.
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Suicide bomber falls down stairs ...
Article from: Agence France-Presse Print From correspondents in Khost, Afghanistan January 24, 2008 12:39pm
Article Link

A WOULD-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say.

It was the second such incident in two days, with another man killing himself and three others on Tuesday when his bomb-filled waistcoat exploded as he was putting it on in the southern town of Lashkar Gah. 

Yesterday's blast was in a busy market area of the eastern town of Khost, a deputy provincial police chief said.

The would-be attacker tripped as he was leaving a building apparently to target an opening ceremony for a mosque that was expected to be attended by Afghan and international military officials, said Sakhi Mir. 

"Coming down the stairs, he fell down and exploded. Two civilian women and a man were wounded,'' Mir said. 

Suicide attacks are regular feature of an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban movement that was in government between 1996 and 2001. The most deadly was in November 2007 and killed nearly 80 people, most of them school students. 
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Canada Joining the Anglosphere C-17 Club
22-Jan-2008 17:35 | Permanent Link
Article Link

When Canada announced a program to replace its aging CC-130 Hercules fleet in November 2005, there was a great deal of speculation about where the C-17 might fit in. The fast answer was that it didn't, but speculation revived following the Liberal government's defeat and the formation of a new Conservative Party government. The new government justified that speculation, creating a separate Strategic Airlift competition – and the shape of its specifications suggested that Canada was about to reprise Australia's recent move and buy at least 4 of Boeing's C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. Australia, Britain, and the USA already operate the C-17; NATO is scheduled to buy 3-4 as a shared strategic airlift solution, but the procurement is in limbo.

Canada has traditionally resisted buying strategic airlift, choosing instead to participate in NATO's SALIS consortium that leases ultra-heavy AN-124 aircraft for such roles. Other leased alternatives to the C-17s were available to Canada, including one based on Canadian soil – but in the end, the C-17 was the sole realistic competitor for this C$ 3.4 billion (USD$ 3 billion) program, and is entering service in Canada as the CC-177.

Canada has now taken delivery of its 1st and 2nd CC-177s, and begun flying missions to Jamaica, the Arctic, and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Boeing has announced industrial offsets in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. DID has updated our article, and added new pictures…
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Canada quietly halted Afghan detainee transfers
Updated Wed. Jan. 23 2008 9:59 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The Canadian government halted the transfer of Afghan detainees last November after a "credible allegation" that a prisoner had been tortured by local authorities, but didn't reveal the decision until this week. 

Officials acted after a prisoner told Canadian diplomats he had allegedly been beaten with electrical cables and a rubber hose by Afghan secret police in Kandahar

Earlier this week the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) released documents it said were given to federal government officials and that detailed reports of detainee abuse. 

Large portions of the documents were censored but they contained interviews with detainees who claimed they had been "whipped with cables, shocked with electricity and/or otherwise hurt" while in Afghan custody in Kandahar. 
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Manley Canada More Inspiring Than Layton and Dion's Can't-ada
Posted January 23, 2008 - 5:28pm by Murray Wood
Article Link

John Manley asks a darned good question.  If we as Canadians aren’t willing to lend our military resources when asked to do so by the United Nations in a mission coordinated by NATO, in a country where the democratically elected government wants us there and its citizens desperately need us, then he wonders where and when Canada would do so?

The former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister led an independent review of Canada’s mission that recommends we stay in Afghanistan, with conditions.

Families of Canadian soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan applaud the report.  So does the government of Afghanistan.

But Liberal leader Stephane Dion rejects the recommendations without reading the report.  He still insists our troops must leave by next year.  NDP leader Jack Layton wants them out now.  

Dion and Layton disregard an important truth.  Canadian troops are helping liberate Afghans from religious fanatics who would enslave them.  The Taliban treats women like property; beat sand beheads people like we hand out parking tickets.  Thanks to Canadians, Afghans are leading freer lives, girls are allowed to go to school, teachers don’t have to worry about being killed for daring to teach.  John Manley’s question remains to be answered.
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Canadian troops far from alone
Foreign soldiers abound around Kandahar
Don Martin, National Post  Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -The Afghanistan panel is wrong: We are not alone. There are numerous foreign partners for Canadian soldiers at their Kandahar Air Field headquarters.

The Romanians are there and, last I looked, preoccupied with fixing the stink from a nearby sewage lagoon called Emerald Lake. The Germans have contributed the closest thing to a real restaurant, offering welcome competition to Burger King and Pizza Hut. Portuguese soldiers swing by forward operating bases for a sleepover occasionally, leaving behind gifts of beer and wine. And the Americans constantly make themselves heard as their howling F-16s launch at dawn from a runway beside Canadian sleeping quarters.

There are a handful of other countries strolling the base boardwalk, but even southern regional command officials couldn't explain their responsibilities when I asked last summer.

These are not the sort of partners John Manley, the former Liberal Cabinet minister who chaired a panel probing the Afghanistan conflict, was talking about when he demanded help for stretched and stressed Canadian troops. The way his panel argues it, another 1,000 soldiers must join the Kandahar fight by 2009 or we should abdicate the battle.
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May's words now matter
Green take on Afghan solution unrealistic
John Ivison, National Post  Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -Elizabeth May is keen to shake up Canada's political system by portraying herself as the unpolitical politician and her Green Party as an anti-party.

But she is discovering there is good reason why politicians lack candour and rarely stray beyond their carefully vetted script. In her former life as executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, she could say outrageous things and nobody cared. But as leader of a party that may have a big say in who runs the country after the next election, she is discovering that her words weigh heavily.

Last May, the Green leader was assailed for her contention that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's environment policy was "worse than Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis." Now, she's in trouble again for inferring that Western soldiers in Afghanistan are "Crusaders."

After the Manley Report on the future of Canada's role in Afghanistan was delivered on Tuesday, the Greens issued a press release rejecting the main conclusions. "The Manley Report fails to consider that the recommendation of more ISAF forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a 'jihad,' " Ms. May was quoted as saying.
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Poppy politics
By GREG WESTON, NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Article Link

John Manley's otherwise brutally frank assessment of the dismal situation facing Canada and other countries fighting in Afghanistan, curiously glosses over one of the most serious and intractable enemies of the entire effort: Opium. 

This week's controversial report by a panel of experts headed by the former Liberal cabinet minister acknowledges only that "the opium trade is a complicating factor in Afghan security, and it is both a result of violent instability and a contributor to it. 

"Opium profits flow to the Taliban, to criminal elements and to corrupt government officials," the Manley report notes. "Coherent counter-narcotics strategies need to be adopted by all relevant agencies." 

Talk about a problem understated, and a solution easier said than done. 

According to the United Nations authority on drugs and crime, the poppy fields of Afghanistan now produce a stunning 93% of the world's heroin. 

Writing in the Washington Post this week, former U.S. ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke, calls the Afghan narcotics trade "probably the largest single-country drug production since 19th -century China." 

Afghan government officials, he says, "including some with close ties to the presidency," are protecting the drug trade and profiting from it." 
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Warren Kinsella: Of Manley and Afghanistan
Posted: January 23, 2008, 8:20 AM by WKinsella 
Article Link

My Dad was a proud Armed Forces man, and - in my case - I wanted to attend Royal Military College. As a teenager, I even travelled across the country to apply at RMC - but they made clear to me that they wanted engineers-to-be, not lawyers-to-be. (Given what was to come, it made sense, I suppose.) 

But I have always been a pretty pro-military Liberal: inside government, I angrily opposed the cuts to the military we Liberals made back in the 1990s; when outside government, and after 9/11, I energetically supported the mission we Liberals initiated in Afghanistan. While it is never to be desired, I believe that the use of military force is sometimes absolutely necessary.

John Manley's report is not what I had been expecting. I had believed the pre-release spin, which was to the effect that it would call for an indefinite extension of the mission. As a citizen, I don't like "indefinite" being applied to anything; nothing is forever, politically and militarily.

But Mr. Manley - as he has done in the past - surprised me, us. His report is a finely-balanced effort, thoughtful, and it poses formidable political challenges for all of our current political leaders. Fine columns about all of that are found here and here and here. 
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Karzai says war "engulfing region" around Afghanistan
Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:46pm EST
Article Link

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that violence was engulfing his region and called on countries to confront militancy with action not rhetoric.

"While Afghanistan is still a critical battlefield, a rapidly spreading war is engulfing the wider region," Karzai said in a speech to the World Economic Forum.

"Our strategies in this war have often been short-changed by a host of deceptive rhetoric," he said. "Governments in the region need to move beyond rhetoric and cease to seek the pursuit of interests in the use of extremist politics".

Karzai did not accuse any country by name, but his relations with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf have at times virtually broken down over Afghan complaints that Taliban insurgents operate from Pakistan's side of their common border.
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Army Wants to Cut War Tours to 12 Months
By LOLITA C. BALDOR – 
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soldiers' battlefield tours would be cut from 15 months to 12 months beginning Aug. 1, under a proposal being considered by the Army as part of an effort to reduce the stress on a force battered by more than six years at war.

The proposal, recommended by U.S. Army Forces Command, is being reviewed by senior Army and Pentagon leaders, and would be contingent on the changing needs for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Our top priority is going to be meeting the combatant commanders' requirements, so there may be no decision until we get more clarity on that," Army Col. Edward Gibbons, chief of the command's plans division, said Wednesday. He said the goal was to meet those demands while still reducing soldiers' deployments and increasing their time at home between tours.

Gen. George Casey, chief of staff of the Army, has been pushing to move back to one-year deployments, citing the heavy burden that the 15-month stays put on troops and their families. Just last week he hinted the shorter tours could begin this summer.

But defense officials have been reluctant to talk much about the shift because it will depend heavily on what Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, recommends when he gives his assessment of the war to Congress in March or April.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the move to 15-month deployments about a year ago, as the Pentagon struggled to fight wars on two fronts.
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Pakistani tanks, choppers kill dozens of militants: army
Article Link

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani troops backed by tanks and gunships cleared militant hideouts near the Afghan border amid fierce fighting that left eight troops and 40 rebels dead, the army said Thursday.

Thirty militants have also been arrested during clashes over the past 24 hours in the South Waziristan tribal district, the hideout of an Islamist commander accused of masterminding the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistani forces have launched a major operation against extremist positions following days of gunbattles in the barren region, which the United States has identified as a key lair of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

"Reportedly, 40 miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants have been apprehended, many of them injured," an army statement said.

Eight soldiers "embraced martyrdom" while 32 others were injured in the clashes, it said, the heaviest single-day toll in several weeks of fighting since Bhutto's assassination almost one month ago.

Soldiers have cleared militants from strongholds in Spinkai Raghazai, Nawazkot and areas surrounding Tiarza village in the tribal zone, the statement said.
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 RAVEN II to Develop Sense and Avoid Systems for Small UAVsCanada: Manley Report Recommends UAVsIN DEPTH
Afghanistan
Canada in Afghanistan
What the mission is, and where it might go next
Last Updated January 22, 2008 CBC News
Article Link

In the years after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Canada steadily increased its military involvement in Afghanistan.

By 2006, Canada had begun a major role in the more dangerous southern part of the country for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). A battle group of more than 2,000 soldiers called Operation Athena was based around Kandahar.

A NASA/MODIS satellite image shows the rugged country in southern Afghanistan where Canadian troops are operating.

For six months ending Nov. 1, 2006, Canada also held the command of one of the main military forces in the area, called Multi National Brigade for Command South. During this time, Operation Medusa, a major offensive against insurgents in Kandahar province, was launched.

The fighting grew fiercer and the casualty count began to rise. By mid-January 2008, 77 Canadian military personnel had died in the country.

A heated debate arose within Parliament, and among Canadians, on the future of the Afghanistan mission. Should troops be pulled out at the end of the existing commitment in February 2009? If so, when? If the mission continues, what should be its focus?
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (24 Jan 2008)

Few allies can help Canada: Diplomats
Large reinforcements unlikely in Afghanistan
_Toronto Star_, Jan. 24
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/296991



> Paper ultimatums are unlikely to yield any wholesale solutions for Canada's vexing military struggle in southern Afghanistan, according to European diplomats and analysts familiar with the inner workings of NATO.
> 
> While expressing general agreement with the recommendations of Canada's blue-ribbon panel on Afghanistan, European military and political sources said that with the possible exception of the United States, no single ally is in a position to meet the call of providing more than symbolic reinforcements to the project to stabilize Kandahar province...
> 
> ...



European press snubs findings, NATO refuses to comment
_Ottawa Citizen_, Jan. 24
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=70f264b4-2092-48d9-98fc-44a61a287f99



> ...
> NATO spokesman James Appathurai said it is too soon to comment on the Manley panel's recommendations or its stinging criticism of the campaign against Taliban insurgents.
> 
> "The (Canadian) government has not taken a position. The Parliament is not taking a position on these recommendations," Mr. Appathurai told reporters during a briefing at alliance headquarters in Brussels. "So NATO will certainly not take a position at this time."
> ...



In Kabul, Shattered Illusions
_NY Times_, Jan. 24
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/opinion/24mackenzie.html?ref=todayspaper



> “WELL, at least we’re not in Baghdad,” we used to say when confronted by the vagaries of the Kabul winter. No heat, sporadic electricity and growing disaffection among the population might make us uncomfortable, but those of us living outside the smothering embrace of the embassies or the United Nations had relative freedom of movement and few security worries.
> 
> And of course we had the Serena hotel. Its spa offered solace, a gym and a hot shower; we could pretend for a few hours that we were in Dubai.
> 
> ...



Taliban offensive unlikely in east Afghanistan: U.S.
Reuters, Jan. 23
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN2365106220080123?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0



> A senior U.S. military commander said on Wednesday he did not expect the Taliban to mount a major offensive in eastern Afghanistan this spring, but experts warned of rising violence and a stronger insurgency.
> 
> Army Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, the top commander of NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan, said Afghan security forces and other civilian authorities had established a stronger presence in the east of the country...
> 
> ...



U.S. to Step Up Training of Pakistanis
_Washington Post_, Jan. 24
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/23/AR2008012303524.html



> The U.S. military plans to significantly expand and accelerate its counterinsurgency training and provision of equipment for Pakistan's armed forces this year as part of a five-year, $2 billion U.S.-Pakistani effort to help stabilize the country, senior U.S. and Pakistani officials said.
> 
> The enhanced cooperation will include U.S. military assistance toward counterinsurgency training, technical gear and assistance to improve the Pakistani military's intelligence gathering and its air and ground mobility, the officials said. If requested by Pakistan, it could also involve U.S. Special Operations Forces working with the Pakistani military as it launches "more aggressive" actions against insurgents in northwest tribal areas, said Ambassador Dell L. Dailey, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator...
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (25 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 25, 2008*

Ombudsman probes how PTSD affecting troops returning from Kandahar, families
Article Link

EDMONTON - The military ombudsman is investigating how the Canadian Forces is dealing with soldiers who return from Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder and with their families.

In 2002, before large-scale deployments of troops to Kandahar, the ombudsman's office issued a critical report on PTSD that contained 31 recommendations for change.

Six years later the ombudsman is reviewing half of those recommendations that were not implemented, including a call to establish databases on the number of soldiers with stress-related injuries and on soldiers who kill themselves, and another to improve support programs for the families of those diagnosed with PTSD.

The probe is a follow-up on what progress has been made but within the context of Afghanistan, where an estimated 10,000 Canadian troops have served since 2005.

"The big observation we have made is that there needs to be consistent treatment for people no matter where they live," interim ombudsman Mary McFadyen said from Ottawa.

"We want to ensure that the Canadian Forces is doing what they can to help families. And from the general observations we have made, it appears that there is more work to be done."

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological injury from a severe stress such as military combat, seeing another person harmed or killed, or learning that a close friend or family member is in serious danger.

Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, withdrawal from friends and family and increased aggression. PTSD can lead to depression, anxiety, and alcohol and drug abuse. Successful treatment can take years.

A report prepared for the Public Health Agency of Canada last fall in the Atlantic region called PTSD an emerging mental health issue. The report noted that it is important to anticipate how service in Afghanistan will put soldiers at risk for increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use and depression.
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Not easy to get job done
 Editorial Jan 25, 2008 
Article Link

John Manley hopes every Canadian takes the time to read a report released this week on our country's mission in Afghanistan.

With public support for the mission teetering on each Canadian casualty, Mr. Manley said this week Canadians really need to take the time to appreciate and understand the mission before passing judgement on outcomes and potential withdrawal.

Federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion returned from a recent trip to Afghanistan with a pledge to pull Canadian troops from a critical combat role by 2009.

Despite having the opportunity to stand side by side with our troops as they engage a ruthless enemy and attempt to bring peace to one of the most troubled parts of the world, Dion's comments are more about scoring political capital with schizophrenic and uniformed Canadians who measure success through body bags.

Instead of supporting our troops, and the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, Mr. Dion only cares about opinion polls.

But really now?

Just after returning from Afghanistan, Mr. Dion sparked an international row when he suggested NATO forces should intervene in Pakistan. His comments triggered outrage from that powerful South Asian nation, and Mr. Dion quickly retreated.

Mr. Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton have a lot in common. Both want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan because they think it will help win them support from voters. Mr. Layton would re-direct troops to troubled Darfur, while, apparently, Mr. Dion would send them to Pakistan.

Thankfully, neither man is currently running the country at this critical point.

This week, the Canadian public received a non-partisan, arm's length report on the mission in Afghanistan.

And according to Mr. Manley, a former Liberal cabinet minister who led the panel looking into Canada's role in the troubled area, there is no "obvious answer."

What Mr. Manley and his fellow panelists did recommend, however, is that Canada must extend its role in Afghanistan beyond 2009.

"We are recommending a Canadian commitment to Afghanistan that is neither open-ended nor faint-hearted," said the panel.

Unlike Mr. Dion and Mr. Layton, Mr. Manley said Canada's presence in Afghanistan "does matter" and that our commitment "has not yet been completed."

However, the panel is bang on when it suggests Canada only extend its mission beyond 2009 provided key conditions are met:

&149; that a new battle group (made up of other NATO nations) is deployed to assist in Kandahar province, where Canadians have suffered the majority of casualties, and accelerate training of the Afghan National Army.

&149; that the government provide medium-lift helicopters and high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles by February 2009.
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U.S. marine deployment to Afghanistan won't help Canada: Gates
Last Updated: Thursday, January 24, 2008 | 8:38 PM ET CBC News 
Article Link

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that 3,200 marines headed to southern Afghanistan will not provide the Canadian Forces there with the additional troop support recommended by the Manley report.

The marines, slated to stay for seven months following their spring departure, will be on a one-time assignment, Gates said during a Pentagon press briefing.

He said he will be putting pressure on NATO to provide more troops to bolster coalition war efforts in Afghanistan's turbulent south.

"No, it's a one time plus-up, this 3,200 marines that we're sending over there, but I have started a dialogue with my NATO colleagues about falling in behind the marines when the marines come out, for others to go in and take on some of the responsibilities that they will have carried out," Gates said.
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Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan; Twenty-seven troops from Kingston 'looking forward' to mission
Posted By Ian Elliot 
Article Link

Twenty-seven Canadian Forces soldiers will trade snow for sand today as they leave the city to join the Canadian Forces serving in Afghanistan. 

The 27 soldiers are part of a force of around 80 Kingston personnel, all of whom will be on the ground in Kandahar within the next month. The group represents the largest single deployment to Afghanistan from CFB Kingston. 

The troops have been training specifically for this mission since September, including participating in a large field exercise with other NATO allies in Norway. Most are signallers who will operate and maintain the communications network. 

Although they are leaving their family, friends and homes for almost a year, the soldiers who are leaving today have no qualms about the mission they are undertaking. 

"A lot of people do ask why would we want to go there, but this is what we train for. It's what we do," said Capt. Dave Perry. 

"It would be like a carpenter who trains all his life and never builds a house." 

"We're looking forward to it," concurred Capt. Stan Druskis. "We want to go." 

Both men have served on the sort of overseas tours, including Bosnia, that come with military life but this is their first posting to Afghanistan. Perry, who has also done tours in Africa, said this one is different. 
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Forces kept Ottawa in the dark on halting detainee transfers
Military commanders acted alone in reversing controversial practice, Prime Minister's Office says
CAMPBELL CLARK With reports from Rhéal Séguin in Victoriaville, Que., Karen Howlett in Toronto and Paul Koring in Ottawa
January 25, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The military did not tell the government that it suspended the transfer of prisoners taken by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities in November, the Prime Minister's Office says.

This week's revelation by government lawyers that Canada had quietly suspended the transfer of people detained in Afghanistan because of a credible allegation of torture has opposition leaders accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of deception.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Harper said yesterday that the Canadian Forces acted alone.

"Our transfer policy and agreement remains unchanged. The Canadian Forces, working with other Canadian officials in Afghanistan, exercise their discretion concerning this policy," the Prime Minister's communications director, Sandra Buckler, said in an e-mail.
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NATO wear and tear
January 25, 2008
Article Link

The U.S. can't afford to lose the support of Canada or other allies as the war in Afghanistan falters.

By every measure, the war in Afghanistan is going badly, and NATO is showing the strains. After sacrificing Afghanistan on the altar of its war of choice in Iraq, the Bush administration appears belatedly to have realized the stakes of a Taliban comeback. President Bush has rightly decided to deploy an additional 3,200 Marines, and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has pledged to bankroll an increase of the Afghan National Army, from 70,000 to 80,000 troops. (Gates' predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, wanted to hold that army to 50,000, in a country half again as large as Iraq and with a larger population.)

But these steps have proved insufficient to hold together the international fighting force in Afghanistan. That's because most of the NATO countries don't want to fight -- they believe they signed up for peacekeeping duty, not a "hot war" -- and the rest have battle fatigue. The latest casualty is Canada, where antiwar sentiment threatens to bring down the government. A high-level panel has recommended that the government insist on the deployment of at least 1,000 combat troops from another country (presumably the United States) to the free-fire zone in southern Afghanistan, while the Canadian troops are shifted to the more peaceful north to help with nation building and training Afghan soldiers. Expect a showdown at the next NATO summit in Bucharest in April.
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Afghan-bound soldier faces child porn charges  
By The Canadian Press
Article Link
     
CFB Shilo, Man. — A Canadian soldier scheduled to start a tour of duty in Afghanistan in February is staying behind to answer to a child pornography charge. 
RCMP have charged Cpl. Timothy Gallacher, 26, with one count of possessing, accessing and making child pornography available on the Internet. 

A military spokeswoman confirmed Thursday Gallacher is with the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, just east of Brandon, Man. 

He was supposed to go overseas in the next troop rotation. 

“Obviously, the Canadian Forces take these types of allegations extremely seriously, and that’s why we do things like pull them off — the soldier in question — off deployments, because it is a serious allegation,” said Maj. Chuck LaRocque, the chief of staff at CFB Shilo. 

It would not be fair to deploy a soldier who is facing charges, LaRocque said. 
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Former CIDA head in Afghanistan dismisses Manley's development ideas
Article Link

OTTAWA - The recent Manley commission report missed the point of development efforts in Afghanistan and sets out unrealistic expectations, says the former head of Canadian aid in Afghanistan.

Nipa Banerjee, who spent three years heading the Canadian International Development Agency's mission in Kabul, says the commission's recommended approach won't do much to add legitimacy to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

She also bristled at the suggestion by the panel, chaired by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, that development efforts have so far made little impact in the brutally impoverished country.

"I don't see how he can say we've been ineffective," said Banerjee, who recently left government to take up an academic position at the University of Ottawa.

The blue-ribbon panel recommended that Canada refocus its $1.2-billion aid-and-development effort on projects that address the immediate needs of Afghans, particularly in Kandahar.

The approach thus far has been to spend money on long-term, institution-building programs and to funnel the support through the government in Kabul.
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Defence chief baulks at more diggers for Afghanistan
Misha Schubert, Canberra January 25, 2008
Article Link

DEFENCE Chief Angus Houston has made a case against boosting Australian troop numbers in Afghanistan — despite his political masters leaving the door open to expand the force in a US-led surge to crush a revived Taliban insurgency.

Air Chief Marshall Houston said that, as the 10th biggest contributor of foreign troops and the largest non-NATO deployment, Australia was already "carrying our share of the burden" in the turbulent South Asian nation.

But Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has been careful not to rule out more troops for Afghanistan. Instead, he has warned that any extra commitment hinges on the NATO-led coalition outlining a clearer strategy and lifting its own troop numbers.
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Why Waziristan matters  
By Jill McGivering BBC News  
Article Link

The Pakistani army says it has cleared militant strongholds in three areas of the tribal region of South Waziristan near the Afghan border. 

The military said troops, backed by artillery and helicopters, killed 40 militants and captured another 30. 

It is not possible to verify the reports independently. But it is the latest sign that violence in the area is intensifying. 

The battle for control in South Waziristan is critical. It is described as one of the most important frontlines in the fight against Islamic extremism, a new proxy war. 

It has implications both for the stability of President Musharraf's government and for the struggle for dominance in Afghanistan. 

Urged by the United States, which is increasingly alarmed by the situation, the Pakistani authorities are expanding their military forces there. 

But any gains on the ground will be hard won. 

Militants in the area are drawn from a cluster of local tribes and embedded in local communities. 
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U.S. ready to fight militants with Pakistani troops
Thu 24 Jan 2008, 23:14 GMt  By Andrew Gray
Article Link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be willing to send troops to Pakistan to fight alongside the South Asian country's forces against Islamist militants, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.

Gates said Pakistan had not requested such a move and Washington had not presented proposals to Pakistan's leaders. But he made clear the United States was open to providing more direct assistance.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (25 Jan 2008)

Exclusive: Afghanistan is the bad war, Iraq the good, says White House co-ordinator
_The Times_, Jan. 24
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3243599.ece



> Iraq may turn out to be America’s “good war” while Afghanistan goes “bad”, the Bush Administration official responsible for co-ordinating efforts in Baghdad has told The Times.
> 
> For years Iraq appeared to be a country spiralling deeper into violence and anarchy with no end in sight to the war, while Afghanistan boasted a popular president, a stable capital city and an insurgency that was no match for US and Nato forces.
> 
> ...



The British have made matters worse, says Afghan President
_The Times_, Jan. 25
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3248318.ece



> Britain and Afghanistan fell out in spectacular fashion yesterday after President Karzai accused his British allies of bungling the military operation in Helmand and setting back prospects for the area by 18 months.
> 
> Mr Karzai, Britain’s key ally in Afghanistan, had little praise for the efforts of the 7,800 British troops deployed in his country. Most are in the restless southern Helmand province, where Britain has invested billions of pounds in trying to defeat the Taleban, bolster central government authority and begin reconstruction.
> 
> ...



Britain defends its forces against Karzai criticism
CP, Jan. 25



> Britain defends its forces against Karzai criticism
> 
> Britain is defending its forces against comments by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which he reportedly accused them of making the security situation in the country's volatile south worse.
> 
> ...



Pakistan's Musharraf Says No US Troops
AP, Jan. 25
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-World-Forum-Pakistan.html



> Pakistan's president said Friday U.S. troops cannot do a better job than his forces in routing the Taliban and al-Qaida, and the United States should increase its presence in Afghanistan instead to deal with the growing insurgency there.
> 
> Pervez Musharraf reiterated that Pakistan opposes any foreign forces on its soil and said ''the man in the street will not allow this -- he will come out and agitate.''
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (26 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 26, 2008*

Gunmen seize U.S. aid worker in Afghanistan
Updated Sat. Jan. 26 2008 1:06 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Gunmen have captured a burqa-clad U.S. female aid worker in Kandahar province.

They stopped Cyd Mizell, 49, and her driver outside Kandahar City, Assadullah Khalid, the provincial governor, told reporters on Saturday.

Mizell had been living in Kandahar for years and spoke Pashtu, the local language. She didn't travel with armed guards, he said.


Mizell works for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation. It operates food-for-work, irrigation rehabilitation, health care and restoration projects around Kandahar, according to information on its website.

No group has claimed responsibility yet or made any demands. The U.S. Embassy said it has no immediate information about the incident.

Jeff Palmer, the aid group's international director, said the kidnappers had not contacted his group
More on link

New Taliban Chief Entering Limelight
By KATHY GANNON – 6 hours ago 
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Sometime in mid-December, as the winter winds howled across the snow-dusted hills of Pakistan's inhospitable border regions, 40 men representing Taliban groups all across Pakistan's northwest frontier came together to unify under a single banner and to choose a leader.

The banner was Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, with a fighting force estimated at up to 40,000. And the leader was Baitullah Mehsud, the man Pakistan accuses of murdering former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The move is an attempt to present a united front against the Pakistani army, which has been fighting insurgents along the border with Afghanistan. It is also the latest sign of the rise of Mehsud, considered the deadliest of the Taliban mullahs or clerics in northwest Pakistan.

Mehsud is based in the rugged, heavily treed mountains of South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's so-called tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan, where Western intelligence says al-Qaida is regrouping. His organization has claimed responsibility, often backed up by videos, for killing and kidnapping hundreds of soldiers, beheading women and burning schools that teach girls anything other than religion. He also claims he has a steady supply of suicide bombers and strong ties to al-Qaida.
More on link

New U.S. strategy working in east Afghanistan
Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:18pm EST  By Jon Hemming
Article Link

SAKYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan village elder Noor Mohammad stroked his white beard as he listened to a local government chief appeal for help to rebuild the economy of this snow-bound plateau shattered by war and the fight with the Taliban.

Mohammad and the other elders at an impromptu shura, or council, think they have seen it all before, but new U.S. counter-insurgency strategy backing Afghan government and security forces in the east of the country aims to break with the past and appears to be achieving some results.

"Many people came here and made promises, but nothing has been done," said Mohammad, the senior elder in the village of Sakyan, a scattered collection of sparse high-walled compounds and snow-bound fields in Paktia province, south of the capital Kabul and close to the border with Pakistan.

Afghan army troops, backed by U.S. forces, are in the middle of an operation in the district, until only a few months ago a Taliban stronghold.
More on link

Support for withdrawal from Afghanistan declines, but divisions remain
Juliet O'Neill ,  Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The portion of Canadians who want Canadian troops to withdraw from Afghanistan has dropped seven points to 37 per cent in the aftermath of John Manley's report recommending a conditional extension of the military mission in Kandahar, says an Ipsos Reid poll released Friday.

The portion willing to extend the mission if the role shifts from combat to non-combat, such as training Afghan soldiers or police officers, has risen five points to 45 per cent since October.

The poll for Canwest News Service and Global National, conducted as Canadians digested the Manley recommendations earlier this week, suggests Canadians are open to an extension of a mission for non-combat purposes, said pollster John Wright. The 14 per cent of Canadians willing to extend the mission as is remained unchanged.
More on link

Harper stays clear of decision on Afghanistan report
Andrew Mayeda ,  Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed not to let politics dictate his government's decision on the future of the Afghanistan war on Friday, but continued to defer a clear response to the hard-hitting report on the mission by the Manley panel.

"The Manley panel report is a good report-strong, balanced and realistic. I urge you all to read it," Harper said in a campaign-style speech to commemorate his government's second year in power.

"Friends, let me just say this: on a matter of national and global security like this, we will never make a decision based on polls. We will make our decision based on what is right."
More on link

Soldier faces October trial for Afghanistan shooting
Jim Day ,  Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008
Article Link

CHARLOTTETOWN -- A soldier from Prince Edward Island will go on trial this fall in the shooting death of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan.

Master Cpl. Robbie Fraser is charged with manslaughter and negligent performance of duty. His trial begins Oct. 14.

Lt.-Col. Bruce MacGregor said he expects to spend about three weeks prosecuting the case.

Fraser, 30, will face the court martial in Shilo, Man., where he is stationed with the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Regiment.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life. If found guilty only of negligent performance of duty in connection with the Aug. 9, 2006, death of Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh, Fraser could face anything from dismissal with disgrace to imprisonment under two years.
More on link

A Conversation With Hamid Karzai
By Lally Weymouth Sunday, January 27, 2008; Page B03 
Article Link

With Taliban violence on the rise in Afghanistan and reports of government corruption marring his government's image, Afghan President Hamid Karzai finds himself embattled and on the defensive. Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he spoke with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth about the Taliban and Pakistan, his government's challenges and its ties with Iran. Excerpts: 

Q. How are the Taliban affecting you in Afghanistan? 

A. By trying to prevent progress, by trying to prevent reconstruction, by killing our people, by [preventing] our children in southern Afghanistan from going to school, by killing the community leaders, the religious leaders, intimidating cultural leaders. By all means. 

How strong are they now? 

They would not be strong without support. 

From Pakistan? 

I've just had a very good trip to Pakistan, so what I would say is that Pakistan and Afghanistan and the United States and the rest of the world must join hands in sincerity in order to end this problem. They have to take [action]. They have to. 
More on link

Ottawa stumbles over transfer of Afghan prisoners
Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:42pm EST By David Ljunggren
Article Link

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government stumbled on Friday over a decision to halt soldiers from handing over Afghan detainees to local authorities, first appearing to blame the military for not telling ministers and later withdrawing the remarks.

The incident is the latest controversy to affect Canada's 2,500-strong combat mission in southern Afghanistan, where 78 soldiers have died.

Polls show Canadians are split over the mission, which Ottawa wants to extend beyond the scheduled pull-out date of February 2009, and opposition parties accuse Ottawa of mismanagement.

The Conservative government -- which for months dismissed allegations that prisoners captured by Canadians had been abused in Afghan jails -- has been on the defensive since it emerged on Wednesday that the transfer of detainees had been halted in early November because of torture fears.
More on link

Dion says he learned of detainee policy change during Afghan visit
Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, January 25, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The Afghanistan prisoner controversy exploded Friday on the Harper Conservatives with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's revelation that he was briefed weeks ago that Canada had stopped transferring battlefield detainees to Afghan custody.

Dion's disclosure came as the Afghan detainee affair rippled overseas to NATO headquarters, where Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has asked Canada to explain its Nov. 6 decision to quietly suspend handing over detainees captured by the Canadian Forces to the Afghan government.

That detainee policy shift - publicly disclosed this week in a Justice Department letter - appears to contravene NATO's guidelines that Afghan detainees must be transferred within 96 hours, Canwest News was told Friday. 
More on link

Afghanistan: Iran accused as mines are found in Taliban cache
Article Link

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — Iran was accused of supplying weapons to the Taliban after security forces found dozens of Iranian-made mines in a rebel cache in western Afghanistan.

Afghan police and intelligence agents raided a Taliban compound in Farah province on Thursday and discovered 130 mines, 60 of which were made in Iran, Farah governor Mohyiddin Balouch told AFP.

When asked who could be behind the supply of weapons he replied: "It is the Iran government." He added: "We have intelligence reports that these mines had recently entered Farah from Iran."

He said: "We know that there is a government in Iran which has controls over the borders. Without the knowledge of the Iranian government it is difficult to send weapons out."
More on link

Charter covers prisoners, court told
PAUL KORING From Saturday's Globe and Mail January 25, 2008 at 11:57 PM EST
Article Link

OTTAWA — When Canadian troops marched into southern Afghanistan to wage war on the Taliban, they carried the constitutional embrace of the Charter with them, and its protections extend to prisoners they capture on distant battlefields, groups fighting the government in Federal Court argued yesterday.

At issue in the case, which is likely to be decided eventually by the Supreme Court, is whether prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers overseas have the right of recourse to Canadian courts to prevent, for example, their transfer to those who would torture or kill them. 

The government argues that detainees are protected by international law and that it, not the Charter, governs whether generals running the war decide to transfer detainees.

Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, seeking judicial review, claim that the Charter's reach extends to those held in prison camps and detention facilities run by the Canadian Forces.
More on link

Prisoner transfer resume once Canada sees 'improvements' in Afghan jails: MacKay
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canada will resume handing over captured Taliban fighters to Afghan authorities as soon as the army is confident there is no risk of torture, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Saturday.

The agreement signed with President Hamid Karzai's government last May will be honoured, MacKay insisted at the end of a closed-door strategy session by the government caucus.

The handovers will recommence once "we see there are improvements... in the Afghan prison," he told reporters.

But MacKay was adamant that military commanders on the ground will make the determination as to whether conditions in Afghan jails are good enough to allow for transfers.

He threw a blanket of operational security around what criteria field commanders will use to make their decision.

"We are not going to give the Taliban our playbook," he said. "We are not going to discuss the things we are doing operationally."
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (26 Jan 2008)

Kabul vetoes Ashdown envoy role
BBC, Jan. 26
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7211453.stm



> Afghanistan has made it clear it does not want Paddy Ashdown to be the new United Nations envoy to the country.
> 
> The British peer served as the UN's High Representative and EU envoy to Bosnia from 2002 to 2005.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (27 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 27, 2008*

Canada volunteered for tougher Afghan duty  
Article Link

MONTREAL -- Canada volunteered to lead NATO in the dangerous Afghan province of Kandahar, according to members of a panel that weighed in on the mission's future. 

Panel leader John Manley told Montreal newspaper Le Devoir that British soldiers were originally set to deploy in the provinces of Kandahar and neighbouring Helmand. 

But the former Liberal foreign affairs minister says Canada insisted on taking the reins in the volatile province and NATO accepted. 

The report says the former Liberal government elected to transfer Canadian troops from the capital of Kabul to Kandahar in 2005. 

Fellow panel member Paul Tellier told the newspaper that NATO allies suggested Canada take on a security role in a safer province. 
More on link

Ashdown pulls out of Afghan envoy contest
Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:50am GMT  
  Article Link

LONDON (Reuters) - Paddy Ashdown on Sunday withdrew from the contest to be United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan after Kabul said it favoured a British NATO commander for the post.

Violence in Afghanistan over the past two years has been the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces ousted the Islamist Taliban and there have been calls for a high-level envoy to coordinate with the Afghan government, and bodies such as NATO and the EU.

However diplomats say Afghan President Hamid Karzai is wary that a powerful "super-envoy", particularly one from former colonial power Britain, might make his government appear weaker than it already is.

"This job can only be done successfully on the basis of a consensus within the international community and the clear support of the government of Afghanistan," Ashdown said in a statement on Sunday.

"It is clear to me that, in Afghanistan at least, the support necessary to do the job effectively does not exist."

On Saturday, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations Zahir Tanin said Kabul wanted a British NATO commander, General John McColl, to become the U.N. envoy rather than Ashdown.
More on link

Threat to Indians in Afghanistan
27 Jan 2008, 1604 hrs IST,PTI
Article Link

NEW DELHI: In the wake of recent terror attack on a convoy of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) workers in Afghanistan, the security of Indians engaged in reconstruction work in the trouble-torn country is being beefed up. 

The security measures are being intensified by the Afghan government after a fresh assessment suggested increased threat to the Indians, particularly those engaged in construction of a crucial highway from Delaram to Zaranj. 

The assessment of the threat was carried out by a two-member team of senior officials of External Affairs Ministry which went to Afghanistan. 

The team, led by Joint Secretary (Afghanistan) T C A Raghavan, was sent in the backdrop of a suicide attack on a BRO convoy in South West Afghanistan earlier this month, in which two ITBP jawans guarding them were killed and five injured. 

The team held detailed discussions with the officials of Afghan Foreign and Internal Security Ministries during which it came to be known that the threat to Indian workers was high, the sources said. 
More on link

Playing chicken with NATO
Manley’s prescription for Canada’s Afghan mission is to force European allies to step up
By MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press Sun. Jan 27 - 7:13 AM
Article Link

THE UNITED STATES may be called on to help meet conditions set down by a blue-ribbon panel for Canada’s continued involvement in the Afghan war, but international observers say the government shouldn’t let European allies off the hook.

"It’s not very hard for NATO to come up with another 1,000 (troops) — it’s always been a question of political will, not capacity," said Paul Heinbecker, a former diplomat who represented Canada at the United Nations.

The panel, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, recommended the Conservative government give its military partners until February next year to come up with another battle group — roughly 1,000 soldiers — to reinforce hard-pressed Kandahar province.

If such an assurance isn’t forthcoming, then the federal government should issue notice that Canada’s troops will be withdrawn.

"We need to be very direct with NATO," said Manley, who once served as foreign affairs minister.
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It's Ban Ki-moon's war  
A letter of mine in the Globe and Mail (the title is theirs; mine was the one for this post):
By MARK COLLINS Saturday, January 26, 2008 – Page A22
Article Link

Pay heed to Mr. UN

Ottawa -- I find it curious that you chose to publish United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's article Being In Afghanistan Is Dangerous, Not Being In Afghanistan Is More Dangerous (Jan. 24) in the online edition only. Your general readership surely would have been interested in these words of his: "Our collective success depends on the continuing presence of the International Security Assistance Force, commanded by NATO and helping local governments in nearly every province to maintain security and carry out reconstruction projects."

In any event, Canadian politicians such as Jack Layton and Elizabeth May - who advocate having the UN take over the international military presence in Afghanistan - should pay close attention to the words of the UN's own Secretary-General. Though I doubt they will.
More on link

Soldier Psychology  
January 26th, 2008 
Article Link

It’s freezing here in the great city of Toronto. When I lived in Manitoba, -10 would’ve seemed balmy, but I guess my pussification continues the deeper I get into my retirement.

Condolences from all of us to those survived by Cpl. Étienne Gonthier, a soldier who joined the 5ième régiment du Génie de Combat in Quebec in 2004, who died earlier this week.

The 21-year-old combat engineer was supposed to be headed back to Canada from Afghanistan on Friday morning. He is Canada’s 78th soldier killed in the operation in Afghanistan.

Nobody Asked Me But…
Why is it whenever there’s another casualty in Afghanistan we as a public are fed the same line over and over again that “the troops believe in the mission”?

Perhaps Alfred Lord Tennyson said it best in his poem The Charge of the Light Brigade: “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.”

Nobody blamed those gallant troopers for riding straight into the Russian cannons in a barren valley thousands of miles from England on the Crimean peninsula. That was the responsibility of their government, which had given the generals the task of achieving a goal believed to be in the national interest of Great Britain.

Somewhere along the line, our politicians, their cheerleaders and the Canadian media who relay their comments have forgotten that the role of soldiers is simply to do their duty. 

I’ve mentioned it on this site before that a soldier doesn’t believe in the meaning of quit - so you’ll never get a sound bite that says - “Well after 78 casualties we think it’s pretty much time to conduct a maneuver I like to call the advance in reverse and get out of here.”

For soldiers, it will always suffice to explain their deployment in harm’s way by saying: “Because we’re here, lad.” That is because in order to do their job, they must firmly believe that the country whom they loyally serve have their interests at heart.
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Top Agents in Secret Trip to Pakistan
By PAMELA HESS
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top two U.S. intelligence officials made a secret visit to Pakistan in early January to seek permission from President Pervez Musharraf for greater involvement of American forces in trying to ferret out al-Qaida and other militant groups active in the tribal regions along the Afghanistan border, a senior U.S. official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity given the secret nature of the talks, declined to disclose what was said, but Musharraf was quoted two days after the Jan. 9 meeting as saying U.S. troops would be regarded as invaders if they crossed into Pakistan to hunt al-Qaida militants.

The New York Times — which first reported on the secret visit by CIA Director Michael Hayden and Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence — said Musharraf rebuffed an expansion of an American presence in Pakistan at the meeting, either through overt CIA. missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces.

Pakistan has been under growing U.S. pressure to crack down on militants in its tribal regions close to the Afghan border, a rugged area long considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, as well as an operating ground for Taliban militants planning attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Several U.S. presidential candidates have hinted they would support unilateral action in the area.
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Fort Bragg soldier dies in Afghanistan
A staff report
Article Link

A Green Beret stationed at Fort Bragg died Friday after being struck by small-arms fire in Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, 24, was killed near Barikowt, Afghanistan. He was part of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Airborne Group.

The Department of Defense said Miller died while conducting a combat operation. An airstrike using guided bombs helped eliminate the enemy, according to the Air Force.

He was born Oct. 14, 1983, in Harrisburg, Pa., but considered Iowa his home. He enlisted in the Army on Aug. 14, 2003, just after completing one year of college at the University of Iowa, his mother told The Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

Miller became a Special Forces soldier in 2005. 

He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal with Valor and was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant after he deployed in 2006.

He also was awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, two Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbons, NATO Medal, Parachutists Badge, Ranger Tab and Special Forces Tab.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (27 Jan 2008)

A CONVERSATION WITH HAMID KARZAI
_washingtonpost.com_, Jan. 27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012502782_pf.html



> With Taliban violence on the rise in Afghanistan and reports of government corruption marring his government's image, Afghan President Hamid Karzai finds himself embattled and on the defensive. Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he spoke with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth about the Taliban and Pakistan, his government's challenges and its ties with Iran. Excerpts:
> 
> Q. How are the Taliban affecting you in Afghanistan?
> 
> ...



An Afghan Province Points the Way
_Washington Post_, Jan. 27, by David Ignatius
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012502594.html



> JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Air Force Lt. Col. Gordon Phillips has logged 5,000 hours in AWACS surveillance planes, one of the high-tech weapons systems that made America such a dominant power against conventional adversaries. But these days, Phillips is very much down on the ground, heading a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) here that's working with villagers to build dams, roads and schools.
> 
> Phillips's unlikely role illustrates the dilemma facing the U.S. military: The conventional wars it's good at fighting aren't the ones it's encountering in Iraq, Afghanistan and other unstable areas. The ideal modern warrior has to be something between a Peace Corps volunteer and a Special Forces commando.
> 
> ...



Ex-Pakistani Official Says Policy on Taliban Is Failing
_NY Times_, Jan. 27
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/world/asia/27sherpao.html?ref=todayspaper



> SHERPAO, Pakistan — In the walled courtyard of the modest whitewashed mosque, a suicide bomber worked his way into in the middle of a packed congregation and unleashed his explosives during prayers last month, killing 53 villagers and wounding 143 others.
> 
> The target of the attack, the former interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao (pronounced Share-POW), whose ancestral village sits at the foothills of the tribal region where the Taliban and their partners in Al Qaeda roam largely unfettered, was left unscathed.
> 
> ...



Pakistan Rebuffs Secret U.S. Plea for C.I.A. Buildup
_NY Times_, Jan. 27
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/world/asia/27pakistan.html?ref=todayspaper



> The top two American intelligence officials traveled secretly to Pakistan early this month to press President Pervez Musharraf to allow the Central Intelligence Agency greater latitude to operate in the tribal territories where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups are all active, according to several officials who have been briefed on the visit.
> 
> But in the unannounced meetings on Jan. 9 with the two American officials — Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director — Mr. Musharraf rebuffed proposals to expand any American combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert C.I.A. missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces.
> 
> ...



Pakistan says its nuclear weapons are secure
A top official says there is no way a bomb could fall into the hands of extremists.
_LA Times_, Jan. 27
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nukes27jan27,0,1554801.story?track=ntothtml



> Facing mounting international concern over how Pakistan safeguards its nuclear arsenal, military officials Saturday insisted that their system was fail-safe and that the weapons would never fall into the hands of extremists.
> 
> Retired Lt. Gen. Khalid Kidwai said his nation's nuclear security apparatus is "second to none," with a strictly controlled military chain of command, checks and balances, and monitoring of scientists and others with sensitive knowledge.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (27 Jan 2008)

US Official: Modern Afghan Air Force Is Years Away
Voice of America, Jan. 24
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-01-24-voa59.cfm



> The American officer responsible for helping develop an Afghan Air Force says the small corps is growing steadily, but will not be ready to even begin participating in combat operations for about five years. The officer, Brigadier General Jay Lindell, spoke from Kabul to reporters at the Pentagon Thursday, and VOA's Al Pessin reports.
> 
> The aircraft are all old Soviet-or Russian-made models, and the Afghan military pilots are old, too, as pilots go. General Lindell reports their average age is 43. He says they are very experienced on the aircraft they fly, but they do not fly at night or in bad weather, and he says many of the 180 Afghan Army pilots have not flown for years, some for more than a decade.
> 
> ...



General Shares Successes, Challenges of Afghan Air Corps
Armed Forces Press Service, Jan. 24
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48757


> ...
> The air corps now has four Antonov fixed-wing transport planes and 16 Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters. The general said the force will receive 16 more Mi-17, six more Mi-35 helicopters, and four more Antonovs in the next six months. *The air corps also will buy 20 C-27A Spartan aircraft, with the first set to arrive in June 2009* [emphasis added]...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (28 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 28, 2008*

It's called War
Article Link

We’ve watched “Flags of Our Fathers” this weekend that has been disturbing me since. I’ve been thinking about the reason why. Besides the obvious reason of not understanding so much hatred towards people (because of religious beliefs, colour etc.) I realised that what was bugging me was something else. 

One of the things I hate about a lot of people nowadays is the fact that they don’t take responsibilities for their actions. A lot of us expect the government, our officials, or even society in general to “think” for us. We relinquish our powers, our ability to think and to do something. Granted, it is much easier to deal with, than having to think for ourselves. A while back I had seen this reportage about parents of military guys. They had interviewed this mother who was all pro-war, and about how wonderful the army had been for her son. The reporter went back a few months later, after her son had been killed in the Middle East. By then she had turned anti-Bush, anti-war, and the army was the worst thing ever. I don’t get that. I really don’t. The army didn’t change. Their weapons have, the way they fight as well, but the fact remains the same; in a war people die.

I don’t want to offend anybody, nor do I want to diminish in anyway what’s happening but I have to say it. Last week there were a lot of newscasts about this military guy, from the Valcartier base who died in Afghanistan. It was all over the news. His death brought the total number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002 to 77. We are in a war, and 77 soldiers are dead. Seventy-seven. Why are we making such a big deal about this? Those men were volunteers; they didn’t joined because they had to but because they chose to. When I think about all the men who died during WWII, not by choice, but because their country told them to… I can’t help to wonder if during those years if every single death created such turmoil… I have my doubts about that. Don’t get me wrong; I’m thankful there are men & women out there willing to do this for my, our protection. This weekend I couldn’t help to feel as if the lives of all those fallen before weren’t as “valuable” as those of today’s soldiers. That seriously bothers me. I’ve been to Pearl Harbour and was moved. There was something there that I had not felt before. I’m happy I went and paid my respect to those valiant, courageous people. They deserve as much respect and “publicity” as today’s soldiers.

When I think of Normandie or even Iwo Jima, I can't help to think of the carnage those guys ran into, and yet...I can't hep to think that it is amazing that since 2002 only 77 soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan. Are we that naïve that we don’t expect our soldiers to get shot at nor to die? Why is it that we, as a nation, find ourselves at war, and expect no casualties? Why is that?
More on link

Sifting out the Afghan 'bad guys'
Taliban not sole danger to leader
Brian Hutchinson, National Post  Published: Monday, January 28, 2008
Article Link

ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan - They come at him from all directions.

Agents of the Taliban, who would not hesitate to kill him, if they could get close enough. Tribal rivals who openly defy his authority, or pretend to curry favour while undermining his authority. Villagers begging for his assistance, an indulgence or a command.

Today, inside a walled compound protected by rifle-toting guards, Kalimullah Naqibi, 26, is besieged by angry elders. They are visibly upset that 50 of their local men were arrested last week on suspicion of insurgent activity and hauled off to a police station for interrogation.

The new leader of Arghandab district, which lies just to the north of Kandahar city, Mr. Naqibi fiddles with a string of yellow worry beads and listens politely before gently shooing away the elders.

"It is sad a thing," he said after they have left. "But one of our police commanders said it would be a good idea to round up these 50 suspects. So I agreed. We are trying to find the bad guys. We are being cautious."

With good reason. Mr. Naqibi is still stinging from deadly attacks by Taliban insurgents, launched soon after his famous predecessor -- his father, Mullah Naqib -- died of a heart attack in October.

Seeking to exploit Mullah Naqib's passing and seize an important route from the fertile Arghandab valley south to Kandahar city, 300 Taliban fighters with 300 reinforcements poured into the district. There was little resistance. The Arghandab was theirs.
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So now what do we do with prisoners?
Jan 27, 2008 04:30 AM Michelle Shephard National Security Reporter
Article Link

Since 9/11, questions about torture and who's doing it have been deftly sidestepped and hotly debated. Recent events have dragged Canada deeper into the fray

At a rally in Iowa last year, U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani told voters that he supported "aggressive questioning" of terrorism suspects and "using means that are a little tougher." 

What about waterboarding, the process whereby CIA agents have simulated drowning by pouring water over the hooded head of a terrorism suspect to get them to talk, someone asked? Wasn't that torture?

Giuliani wasn't sure. "I'd have to see what the real – what they really are doing. Not the way some of these liberal newspapers have exaggerated it."

Then, without pausing, he continued: "Now the question of torture. We should not torture. America should not stand for torture. America should not allow torture."

The voters clapped. 
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8 Taliban killed in clash with police in southern Afghanistan
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A clash between police and the Taliban in a mountainous area of southern Afghanistan left eight militants dead and three officers wounded, a police chief said Monday.

The battle in Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province started Saturday and carried over into Sunday, said Juma Gul Himat, a provincial police chief. The authorities recovered the bodies of the dead militants alongside their weapons, Himat said.
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UN, NATO co-ordinator may not be magic bullet
 TheStar.com - January 28, 2008 Olivia Ward FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER
  Article Link

Strong hand needed in Afghanistan, but whose?

The Manley report on Canada's future in Afghanistan focuses on our national debate over Canadian troops in the war-torn country. 

But it also points to the United Nations' crucial but often disorganized role in helping Afghanistan survive, rebuild and evolve as a society. What's needed, the report says, is a new kind of "high-level representative to lead and co-ordinate both the UN and NATO commitments" for better links between the two international pillars.

And, panel chair John Manley told the Star, "we see a lot of meetings being held and nothing happens. Actions may be well intentioned, but they're not achieving success."

Case in point would be Britain's Lord Paddy Ashdown, known in Bosnia as "Paddy Crashdown," for his zeal in clearing out corrupt, seditious and obstructive officials.

Ashdown had been wooed by the UN to fill the job recently vacated by German special representative Tom Koenigs. 

But news of the mooted appointment unsettled Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who knew Ashdown's reputation for hands-on management.

Ashdown said he accepted the job in mid-January after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked him to be overall co-ordinator of international aid, government and political efforts in Afghanistan.
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Harper must do more for Canadian forces and their families
Article Link

Conservatives focusing more on military hardware and length of the mission to Afghanistan than on the welfare of troops and their loved ones at home

Ottawa (28 Jan. 2008) - The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) says the Harper government must provide more support for Canadian forces in Afghanistan and take steps to improve the quality of life for their families back home.

National Union President James Clancy has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging the government to change its priorities in the wake of revelations by outgoing military ombudsmen Yves Côté and recommendations contained in the report from the advisory committee led by John Manley.

"The National Union agrees with Messrs. Côté and Manley that our troops deserve the best in material and social support that our country can offer them. It is no small matter to choose to serve in our military and we must commit to seeing that they are treated well," Clancy writes.

"Unfortunately, as both Messrs. Côté and Manley have indicated, our government has not adequately provided necessary support to our troops or their families. 

"Mr. Côté has reported that his office has dealt with far too many families who have faced too much opposition when dealing with either the death or injury of a loved one or when accessing necessary support services. Our country must do better."

Clancy said the Harper Conservatives have established a pattern of allocating money "quickly and easily" for military hardware, and for lengthening the mission in Afghanistan, but they tend to support forces and their families only when embarrassed into doing so.

The National Union remains critical of the continuing presence of Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

"The National Union disagrees with the report from the Manley advisory panel on the necessity of Canadian troops staying in Afghanistan," Clancy says.
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Aid worker's captors still unknown
Article Link

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of an American aid worker who was snatched from her car on the outskirts of Kandahar Saturday morning, officials with her aid organization in Afghanistan said Sunday.

Cyd Mizell was snatched from a residential area of Kandahar while on her way to work.

 Gunmen grabbed Cyd Mizell and her Afghan driver from a residential neighborhood in the southern Afghanistan province.

Her captors have not yet contacted her employer, Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, the group said on its Web site.

"This is a first for our organization and we're really praying for a quick resolution," said Jeff Palmer, international director for the foundation.

A spate of kidnappings have gripped Afghanistan recently, including the abduction of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers and a German woman last year.

To protect themselves, many foreigners have taken to driving around Kandahar with armed guards. Mizell, however, was not being escorted by private or government security, said Zmarai Bashiri, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

She "trusted the Afghan nation and respected them," Asadullah Khalid, Kandahar's provincial governor, is quoted as saying on the foundation's Web site. "That's why she was traveling without security guards and actually she didn't ask for security."
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Minn. soldier dies in Afghanistan after possible friendly fire  
The Associated Press - Monday, January 28, 2008 MINNEAPOLIS
Article Link

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Ryan Kahler decided he would be a soldier when he was just 10 years old, and he was on his third tour of duty when he was killed in Afghanistan, his father said.

The 29-year-old Granite Falls native died Saturday from possible friendly fire. The U.S. Department of Defense said Sunday that Kahler died in FOB Fenty, Afghanistan, after being shot in Waygul, Afghanistan.

According to the department, an Afghan guard allied with U.S. forces possibly mistook Kahler as an enemy combatant and engaged with small arms fire. The incident was being investigated.

Kahler was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy.
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## MarkOttawa (28 Jan 2008)

Don't Open a Third Front in Pakistan
_washingtonpost.com_, Jan. 28, by William Arkin
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2008/01/dont_open_a_third_front_in_pak.html#more



> U.S. intelligence and national security officials now readily admit that al Qaeda is back, and that it together with a growing fundamental Taliban movement is flourishing in parts of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. The simple explanation is that the growth is the result of the Iraq war and its drain on our resources, military and intellectual. The solution most favored inside and outside government in Washington is a shift in resources back to the original post 9/11 battlefield, and indeed we are already witnessing new deals being made with the government in Islamabad to bolster the counter-terror effort.
> 
> If conventional wisdom takes hold that the Pakistan resurgence is purely the product of an ill-conceived Iraq war, we will not only set ourselves on a faulty course for fighting in the future, but we will fail to understand the actual mistakes we have made in Iraq and Afghanistan, mistakes we could now repeat in Pakistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottaw


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## GAP (29 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 29, 2008*

Detainee fallout: take few, free quickly
Details of new policy – and top soldier's outrage – emerge as government ministers refuse comment, citing operational secrecy 
MICHAEL VALPY From Tuesday's Globe and Mail January 29, 2008 at 2:00 AM EST
Article Link

The Canadian Forces are holding insurgent detainees at their Kandahar Air Force base rather than turning them over to Afghan authorities, are taking fewer prisoners and are quickly releasing some of them.

The information, provided to The Globe and Mail by sources, answers questions about Canada's new policy for handling detainees that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other ministers repeatedly refused to provide Monday, citing the need for combat operational secrecy.

Reports have also emerged that General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, was furious with the Prime Minister's Office's handling of the military's new policy and angrily telephoned Mr. Harper Friday night after letting it be known he was “tired of being used” in political controversy.

After the revelation last week that Canadians ceased turning detainees over to the Afghan authorities in early November after discovering credible evidence of torture, the Prime Minister's Office initially said it hadn't been informed of this by senior officers.
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Tearful goodbyes as latest group of soldiers get ready to head to Afghanistan
January 28, 2008 - 18:41 By: Martin Ouellet, THE CANADIAN PRESS 
Article Link

CFB VALCARTIER, Que. - Karine Duchaine clutched her seven-month-old infant and looked longingly at her husband Monday, knowing he'll soon be heading to Afghanistan for six months.

"I don't find it easy," Duchaine said. "Nobody wants to see their partner go away for six months but when you live with someone who's in the Forces, you have to expect this kind of thing."

Her husband, Mathieu Gagnon, is one of about 100 soldiers from CFB Valcartier, near Quebec City, who will go to the wartorn country in mid-February to help colleagues based in Shilo, Man., and Edmonton.

Their mission will be to take over from 2,300 Valcartier-based soldiers whose tour of duty is ending.

Marie-Eve Loof, whose husband Yannick Hebert will also be on the mission, said she is confident he will return safely.

"They've been trained and they know the proper techniques to use," Loof said.

"What happens happens but I'm confident. There is a lot of support here to help us."

Provincial Health Minister Philippe Couillard and Quebec City Mayor Regis Labaume attended Monday's ceremony.
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Harper Accepts Manley Panel Report  
Josh Pringle Monday, January 28, 2008 
Article Link

The Federal Government is set to press NATO for more help for Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced the Federal Conservatives accept the Manley panel's "specific recommendation of extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan if, and I must emphasize if, certain conditions are met." 

The five member panel headed by former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister John Manley recommended that Canada extend the mission in Afghanistan past the current February 2009 expiry date, if two conditions are met. 

The report calls on NATO to find one-thousand soldiers to help Canadian soldiers in the Kandahar region, and the military must expedite the purchase of battlefield helicopters and surveillance aircraft. 

Harper told reporters in Ottawa "Canada has done what it said it would do and more. We now say we need help. If NATO can't come through with that help, then frankly I think NATO's own reputation and future will be in grave jeopardy." 

The Prime Minister says government officials will launch a diplomatic effort before the NATO meetings in April to meet the conditions in the report. 
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NATO Needs More Intel on Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR and ROBERT BURNS – 16 hours ago 
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military commanders are looking for more surveillance and other intelligence gathering systems to help aid the fight in Afghanistan, the top NATO commander said Monday.

Gen. John Craddock, who also is chief of U.S. European Command, said that while the U.S. currently provides much of the eye-in-the-sky capabilities — which include unmanned aircraft — other allied nations could also contribute needed sensors and other technologies.

"There is an increased requirement for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities," Craddock said during an interview with The Associated Press.

Craddock's comments come as commanders begin to put together their list of troop and equipment needs from the allies in advance of a NATO meeting next month. Last year Craddock presented NATO ministers with a plan that called for several thousand additional troops, as well as helicopters and other equipment needs.

This year, he said the updated request likely would include surveillance capabilities, as well as some troop shifts on the battlefield, which he did not detail.

The problem, Craddock said, is the ongoing competition for what he called the "unblinking eye" — often provided by unmanned aircraft such as Global Hawks and Predators.
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Iraq aid boost to follow troop withdrawal
Anne Davies, Washington January 29, 2008 - 8:59AM
Article Link

Australia will step up its civilian commitments of aid and expertise to help with the reconstruction of both Iraq and Afghanistan while winding back its military presence in Iraq, Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith has announced.

Mr Smith made the announcement to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Vice President Dick Cheney on his first official visit to Washington since the Rudd Government's election last year.

High on his agenda was explaining Australia's decision to withdraw its combat troops from Iraq, which he said would be achieved by mid year.

But Mr Smith told Ms Rice Australia was willing to increase its efforts when when it came to helping reconstruction in the two war-torn countries, whether that be through rebuilding infrastructure, increasing aid or providing expertise to help fortify the institutions of government.

"We came to office in November last year with our longstanding commitment that we would withdraw our combat troops from Iraq by the middle of this year," he said at a press briefing after the meeting.
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Kabul residents 'on edge'    
By  Zeina Khodr in Kabul 
   Article Link

The attack on the Serena hotel in Kabul has raised security concerns in the Afghan capital [EPA] 

Kabul, the Afghan capital, has changed over the past two weeks since the Taliban penetrated the heavily guarded Serena hotel and killed up to eight people, including a Norwegian journalist.

While the attack hasn't led to an exodus, Westerners who are living in this city and didn't have many security worries are now on edge.

"We aren't panicking but we are watching to see if the situation deteriorates further," Anna Woodiwiss of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, an international non-governmental organisation, told Al Jazeera.

"Of course, as foreigners, we are thinking much more about where we travel ... where we are staying ... and we are trying to be pragmatic and cautious about our security."
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Afghanistan's Die-Hard Governor
Key U.S. Ally In Border Region Has Defied Assassins 3 Times, But They'll Be Back
KHOST, Eastern Afghanistan, Jan. 29, 2008
Article Link

(CBS) This story was written by CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick, embedded with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia and Khost provinces. 

The U.S. military's key ally in Afghanistan's Khost Province is the Taliban's number one target. 

"The Governor? That guys needs to watch his back," laughs a soldier who is helping provide protection for Khost Gov. Arsala Jamal at a ribbon cutting for a new power grid. 

Security is very tight. 

Afghan police snipers man the roofs of nearby buildings, nearby roads have been closed off to traffic and American and Afghan soldiers surround the building where the ceremony will take place. They search it thoroughly before anyone is allowed inside. 

Last year, a suicide bomber in a lab coat penetrated security at the dedication for a new hospital wing in Khost, a province along eastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. 

Gov. Jamal arrives at the last minute, rushed in by a convoy of SUVs. His Afghan security personnel prevent anyone from getting close to him as he enters the building. 
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10 militants killed in Pakistan
Mark Tran and agencies Tuesday January 29, 2008 Guardian Unlimited 
Article Link

At least 10 suspected militants were killed when a missile struck a house in north-west Pakistan, officials said today.
The attack took place after midnight in Torkhali, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, near the town of Mir Ali.

An intelligence official said six of the dead were Pakistani militants and four were foreigners. Violence has intensified in north-west Pakistan in recent weeks. Most of the fighting has been in South Waziristan, which also lies along the Afghan border.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (29 Jan 2008)

Facing reality of counterinsurgency war print this article
The struggle in Afghanistan will take a long time, and 'victory' isn't guaranteed
_hfxnews.ca_, Jan. 29, by Brian Flemming
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=102821&sc=93



> Getting into a counterinsurgency war - as opposed to a conventional one, such as the Second World War - is like becoming involved in an illicit love affair: easy to get into but difficult to get out of...
> 
> Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's most popular chief of the defence staff in eons, is a truth teller - when his political masters allow him to be one. He once said the Afghan struggle would take a very long time, probably decades.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## observor 69 (29 Jan 2008)

Report showing Afghan National Army, Canadians and Gurkhas in action. 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/photogalleries/frontline/ 
--


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## MarkOttawa (29 Jan 2008)

NATO Asks Germany to Send Combat Troops to Afghanistan
_Spiegel Online_, Jan. 29
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,531841,00.html



> NATO has formally asked Germany to provide combat troops to replace the Norwegian Quick Reaction Force in northern Afghanistan. With Canada warning it will pull out if there is not more support from its NATO allies, the German military may see its role in the country change significantly.
> 
> Germany may have managed to avoid the most dangerous fighting in Afghanistan so far, but with NATO asking it to send in combat troops and Canada threatening to withdraw if more allies don't come south, that may not be for long.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (29 Jan 2008)

New US Base in Afghanistan for CIA Pak Raids?
Rick Moran January 29, 2008 
Article Link

 The Asia Times is reporting that a new US military base near the Pakistan-Afghan border will be used to carry out lightening raids into Pakistan to take out al-Qaeda and Taliban targets - without the express approval of President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani government:


Pakistani intelligence quarters have confirmed to Asia Times Online that the base, on a mountain top in Ghakhi Pass overlooking Pakistan, is now operational. (This correspondent visited the area last July and could clearly see construction underway.) 

The new US base is expected to serve as the center of clandestine special forces' operations in the border region. The George W Bush administration is itching to take more positive action - including inside Pakistan - against Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda militants increasingly active in the area and bolstering the insurgency in Afghanistan. 
Intelligence chief Mike McConnell and CIA Director Hayden visited Pakistan this month to meet with Musharraf. It's a safe bet that these cross border operations came up in the conversation. Musharraf has fiercely resisted such operations in the past and for good reason; if it became known that he was sanctioning this activity, he would be a gone goose. However, what Musharraf doesn't know won't hurt him - at least that's the theory: 
More on link


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## GAP (29 Jan 2008)

Afghan tab at $7-billion and counting
Opposition says not enough spent on development
Tim Naumetz, Canwest News Service  Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Canada's military mission in Afghanistan cost $3.1-billion as of last September, with more than half of that spent after Canadian troops established a combat toehold in Kandahar two years ago, a government report to the Commons says.

An outline of all direct spending on the Afghan mission tabled by Defence Minister Peter MacKay shows Canada contributed $670-million on development aid for Afghan citizens during the same period, nearly half of it since April 2005.

The military expenditures do not include at least $1.2-billion more to be spent borrowing, buying and maintaining a total of 120 used tanks from Germany and the Netherlands, and $2.7-billion to buy and maintain a fleet of 16 Chinook helicopters for carrying troops.

The tank and helicopter acquisitions are a reaction to combat casualties the Canadians suffered after the current Kandahar mission began in February, 2005, bringing Canada's total war cost to at least $7-billion so far.

Mr. MacKay tabled the latest spending outline in response to a written question from Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, who, with a Commons vote on Canada's Afghan mission looming, said the ratio of military to aid spending must change.

"It's not balanced," Mr. Duceppe said. "We have to propose another mission with a more balanced approach, because no one in Quebec or Canada is against helping the people of Afghanistan."

Liberal MP Denis Coderre, whose party has said it will wait until it sees a government motion on the mission before deciding its position, agreed. 

But he added Canadians must also be confident increased spending on development assistance will be distributed effectively.
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Legion votes to fly flag at half-mast
Cheryl Cornacchia, Montreal Gazette Published: 2 hours ago
Article Link

Outside the Royal Canadian Legion in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, the Canadian flag is once again flying at half-mast in honour of another Canadian military casualty in Afghanistan. 

The branch's 365 members voted unanimously to lower the flag for each Canadian soldier who dies in overseas combat and leave it at half-mast until his or her body is returned to Canada, repatriated and buried, usually in about 10 days.

But at the Legion branch in N.D.G., the Canadian flag remains at full-staff. 
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NATO asks for rapid reaction force in Afghanistan
Article Link

BERLIN: NATO has formally asked Germany to deploy a rapid reaction force in northern Afghanistan to replace a Norwegian contingent, a defence ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
The German government has been expecting the request and officials in Berlin suggested last week that the country would comply, despite strong opposition among the German public to its five-year-old military mission in Afghanistan.
According to NATO sources, the alliance is asking Germany to prepare a contingent of 250 troops who will be stationed at Mazar-e-Sharif, replacing the Norwegian force, which will withdraw in the summer.
Germany has some 3,200 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the 37-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The overwhelming majority of the troops are stationed in the relatively calm north of Afghanistan and Berlin has resisted mounting pressure to deploy troops in the south to help its NATO partners fight a tenacious Taliban insurgency. Government officials have in recent weeks denied that supplying a rapid reaction force would amount to sending men into combat.
They pointed out that the force was designed to provide emergency support to other troops in the north and that though its brief includes hunting “terrorists” and dealing with kidnappings this is not its main task.
Senior German defence official Thomas Kossendey said last week that Germany would not need a new, wider parliamentary mandate to deploy the rapid reaction force and that it would “remain in northern Afghanistan”.
The current mandate limits the German force in Afghanistan to 3,500 soldiers.
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Assignment Kandahar: Into Panjwaii
Posted: January 29, 2008, 11:11 AM by Brian Hutchinson Assignment Kandahar
Article Link

This is where it happened, and where it continues. Where it never seems to end. 

Operation Medusa was staged in and around this Taliban sanctuary in September 2006. Canadian soldiers from 1 RCR took the fight to insurgents and claimed victory after several days of intense fighting. Two generations of Canadian soldiers came of age during Op Medusa; tragically, some never returned home. Others did but may never fight again.

More clearing operations soon became necessary because the Taliban did not capitulate; Panjwaii, west of Kandahar city, is still their base in southern Afghanistan, their spiritual homeland, it is often said.

The Canadian military is again on the move here, the Vandoos of Valcartier this time, and they are deployed with many more Afghan National Army forces than before. Together they have pushed further west into places such as Talukan and Mushan, agrarian clusters that have seen appalling crimes committed by insurgents: summary executions of civilians, beheadings, the display of dismembered corpses in village centres, macabre threats to those who might think of collaborating with Coalition members. 

Tuesday I was flown deep into Panjwaii. I’m now with Canadian and Afghan soldiers who have been mounting long foot patrols during daylight. The stories I’m hearing are chilling: IED attacks, Taliban ambushes, firefights.  

Their nerves shot, some soldiers have already left Panjwaii ahead of schedule. More about that and what I see in the coming days, here, in the National Post and other Canwest newspapers
More on link


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## GAP (30 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 30, 2008*

Signals soldiers depart for Afghanistan
Posted By LYNN REES LAMBERT
Article Link

They loaded a truck with their army-issue gear, bid goodbye to families and buddies and then boarded a bus for the first leg of a long journey from CFB Kingston to the battleground of Afghanistan. 

And every single one of them — all 27 members from the Joint Signals Regiment — was eager to get going. 

“Every one of these soldiers wants to bea part of this mission,” said Lt.-Col. François Chagnon moments before he shook hands with his troops in the Friday morning departure from CFB Kingston. 

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National Post Editorial Board: The Bizarre Ms. May
Posted: January 29, 2008, 12:25 PM by Yoni Goldstein Editorial
Article Link

 Green party leader Elizabeth May has done as much as she could to extricate herself from the controversy she touched off last week when she stated in a press release about Afghanistan that “forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a ‘Jihad.’ ” She is still trying to blame the Conservative party and the press corps for her failure to make it clear that her use of the phrase “Christian/Crusader heritage” was what the Romans called oratio obliqua. Apparently, she has reached the age of 53, and spent an entire career in advocacy and public service, without learning the intricacies of that handy-dandy device known as the quotation mark. 

It would be one thing if a Muslim political candidate had allowed those words to go out under his name, but Ms. May is studying for the Anglican priesthood — an unusual vocation for someone at the head of a political party in the Western world. Given this, the correct presumption in her case might be that she meant to refer to the “Christian/Crusader heritage” of Canadian troops without any irony or derisive connotation at all. 
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Helicopter shortage still hovers over forces
Mike Blanchfield and David ********, Canwest News Service  
Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Canada has been quietly, and unsuccessfully, scrambling to secure a handful of desperately needed medium-lift helicopters for Afghanistan, Canwest News has learned. 

In recent weeks, the federal government has approached European allies and major U.S. manufacturers for four to six aircraft, on a lease or loan basis, but has had no luck. 

The government plans later this year to award a sole-sourced contract for 16 new CH-47 Chinook helicopters to the U.S. defence contractor Boeing, but because the first of those helicopters is not due to arrive until 2011, the military wants a temporary solution to the lack of air support in order to lessen the exposure of Canadian troops to deadly roadside bombs. 

The Manley commission has called on the government to secure medium-lift helicopters by next year as a condition for continuing the Canadian Forces combat mission in Afghanistan. 
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Harper seeks Dion support on mission
January 29, 2008 at 9:53 pm ·Jan 29, 2008 04:30 AM  Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009 only if NATO is able to find an additional 1,000 soldiers to fight with the Canadians in Kandahar – and he reached out to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion for his support.

Reacting to the report by former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley on the future of the Afghan mission, Harper also said he would work to secure transport helicopters and unmanned surveillance craft, or he would end the combat mission when the current commitment wraps up in February 2009.

Harper said he spoke to Dion on Sunday and will talk to him again in a few days.
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Killing Canadians 'best way': student
Web posts spark RCMP probe, free speech debate
Stewart Bell, National Post; National Post  Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Article Link

TORONTO - A Toronto-area man has been posting messages on the Internet supporting attacks against Canadian soldiers on Canadian soil, drawing the attention of RCMP national security investigators.

Police have advised the Bangladeshi-Canadian that he is under investigation for incitement and facilitating terrorism after he repeatedly called the killing of Canadian troops in Canada "legitimate" and "well deserved."
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Tories mount failed search for choppers Desperately Needed
Mike Blanchfield and david ********, Canwest News Service  Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canada has been quietly, and unsuccessfully, scrambling to secure a handful of desperately needed medium-lift helicopters for Afghanistan, Canwest News has learned.

In recent weeks, the federal government has approached European allies and major U.S. manufacturers for four to six aircraft, on a lease or loan basis, but has had no luck.

The government plans later this year to award a sole-sourced contract for 16 new CH-47 Chinook helicopters to the U.S. defence contractor Boeing Co., but because the first of those helicopters is not due to arrive until 2011, the military wants a temporary solution to the lack of air support in order to lessen the exposure of Canadian troops to deadly roadside bombs.
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Time for the government to dispel the information fog
ROBERT MARLEAU Special to Globe and Mail Update January 29, 2008 at 6:56 PM EST
Article Link

It is often said that "No news is good news." It is beginning to seem as if the government has added to that adage, "Good news is no news."

A recent editorial in The Globe and Mail spoke of "the fog that has settled over the [Afghan] detainees": It was referring to the revelation that Canada had stopped turning over prisoners to the Afghan government in November, but had not disclosed this to Parliament or the public.

Since becoming Information Commissioner a year ago, it is my experience that it is not only the situation with detainees in Afghanistan that has become obscured. Indeed, a fog over information, even when the news is positive, has crept, little by little, over the government's activities.

As Information Commissioner, my job is to receive and investigate complaints by people who have requested access to information that is under the control of government institutions and are not satisfied with the response they have received. My staff of investigators is kept more than busy responding to these: Our caseload of complaints has doubled in the past year. But providing information in this way, under the Access to Information Act, is not the only, or necessarily the best, way for the government to communicate with its citizens.
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Military can disclose fate of detainees, PM says
BRODIE FENLON AND MICHAEL VALPY  Globe and Mail Update January 29, 2008 at 4:24 PM EST
Article Link

In an apparent policy twist, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it's up to the Canadian military to decide if and when it will disclose information about the handling of insurgent detainees captured in Afghanistan.

“These are operational matters of the Canadian military,” Mr. Harper said as opposition MPs hammered the government for a second day in Question Period with accusations of excessive secrecy and mismanagement of the Afghan mission.

“If the Canadian military chooses to reveal that information that's their decision, but the government certainly isn't going to reveal it on their behalf,” the Prime Minister told the House of Commons.

NDP Leader Jack Layton rhymed off numbers of detainees handled by British, Dutch and American forces and asked why Canada can't be as open as its allies. 
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Gen. Hillier reported ‘furious’ with Harper about Afghan detainee issue  
The Cape Breton Post
Article Link

TORONTO  (CP) — The Globe and Mail said Tuesday that Canada’s top soldier is ‘furious’ with Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his handling of the Afghan detainee issue.
The Globe says Gen. Rick Hillier angrily phoned Harper on Friday and told him he is “tired of being used” in political controversy.
At issue is the Harper government’s refusal to answer questions about the Canadian military’s new policy on handling prisoners in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister’s Office said last week it wasn’t told of the change in policy by senior military officers.
The Globe said Hillier was “absolutely” livid about that assertion.
The Globe says sources tell it Canadian Forces are now holding detainees at the Kandahar air base, rather than handing them over to Afghan authorities and are taking fewer prisoners and quickly releasing some of them.
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Dutch don't expect Canada to leave Afghanistan  
Published: Tuesday 29 January 2008 18:28 UTC Last updated: Wednesday 30 January 2008 13:42 UTC 
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The Hague - Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop says he does not expect Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in one year.

The minister says that the Canadians have the political will to stay.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that the mission to Afghanistan would not be extended unless other NATO member states deploy more than 1,000 additional soldiers and more material.

Canada has 2,500 troops stationed in the southern province of Kandahar.

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10 militants killed in Pakistan
Mark Tran and agencies Tuesday January 29, 2008 Guardian Unlimited 
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At least 10 suspected militants were killed when a missile struck a house in north-west Pakistan, officials said today.
The attack took place after midnight in Torkhali, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, near the town of Mir Ali.

An intelligence official said six of the dead were Pakistani militants and four were foreigners. Violence has intensified in north-west Pakistan in recent weeks. Most of the fighting has been in South Waziristan, which also lies along the Afghan border.
The Pakistani government this month launched an offensive against Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader based in South Waziristan. He is blamed for the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month, and for other attacks against Pakistani forces. More than 150 militants and more than 20 soldiers have died in the fighting.
In a separate incident, gunmen took up to 250 schoolchildren hostage in the town of Bannu in North West Frontier province yesterday, but released them unharmed after negotiations with tribal elders.
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Canada takes fewer prisoners in Afghanistan: report
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OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's military in Afghanistan has been taking fewer prisoners and releasing them quicker after it stopped turning them over to Afghan authorities following torture allegations, The Globe and Mail said Tuesday.

Unidentified sources told The Globe and Mail that Canadian military were holding insurgents captured in Afghanistan at Kandahar Air Force base, "rather than turning them over to the Afghan authorities."

The Canadian military "are taking fewer prisonners and are quickly releasing some of them," the daily added.

Prisoner transfers ended in November after "a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility," the Justice Ministry wrote to civil right groups last week.
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U.S. aid worker's abduction spurs protest in Afghanistan
About 500 women urged the release of the American, saying she had provided help.
By Noor Khan Associated Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - About 500 Afghan women gathered in a rare mass protest yesterday against the kidnapping of a U.S. aid worker. The women, many of them veiled, called on officials to find the captive American and urged the kidnappers to release her. 
Officials said they had no suspects in the abduction of Cyd Mizell, 49, and her Afghan driver, Abdul Hadi. Gunmen abducted the two Saturday in a residential neighborhood of Kandahar.

The demonstration by so many women in the conservative southern province was a rare public display of their wishes. The 90-minute meeting was filled with prayers and speeches calling on government leaders to act.
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Copper project tests Afghanistan's resources
von Jon Boone (Kabul)
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The war-battered country might not be able to handle a huge but potentially lucrative deal.

The debris left over from previous attempts to extract some of Afghanistan's colossal mineral wealth can be found just 35km south-east of Kabul. 

All that remains from Soviet attempts in the 1970s to assess one of the world's biggest copper reserves is exploratory drill holes. But in five years, if all goes to plan, the landscape in the Aynak exploration area will finally be changed into one of the world's largest opencast mines, thanks to a $3bn (Pfund1.5bn) investment by the China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC). 

In November, the Chinese state-owned company beat eight other leading mining groups, including Phelps Dodge of the US, Hunter Dickinson of Canada and London-based Kazakhmys, to become the government's preferred bidder. 

If contract negotiations are successfully concluded, MCC will have access to a reserve that, with copper prices running high, could be worth $42bn, according to one estimate. 

By international standards, it is a huge project, involving the second-largest unexploited deposit in the world. By Afghan standards, it is gargantuan. 

And therein lies both the potential reward and risk for a war-battered country that desperately needs the money such a deal could bring but which experts say is unprepared for regulating the sort of mega-projects that have caused social, political and economic catastrophes in other developing nations. 

Lorenzo Delesgues, executive director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an independent research organisation that last month published a report on Aynak, says Afghanistan is not evenly matched with the company. "This is a multi-national company that is far bigger financially than Afghanistan. It's like David and Goliath, only David doesn't have any laws or regulatory framework to help him." 
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## MarkOttawa (30 Jan 2008)

Afghanistan: informing an important debate 
Conference of Defence Associations round-up, Jan. 30
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1201721315/


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## MarkOttawa (30 Jan 2008)

'Germany Should Not Change its Basic Afghanistan Strategy'
Spiegel Online, Jan, 30 (*note that date!*)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,532035,00.html



> A day after NATO formerly requested that Germany send combat troops to Afghanistan and two days after Canada warned it would leave if more help didn't come south, Germans are debating whether sending more troops means more danger...
> 
> The German media on Wednesday looked at the implications of the NATO request, which could see Germany further embroiled in Afghanistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (31 Jan 2008)

*Articles found January 31, 2008*

Afghanistan needs Aussie troops till 2023: report
Peter Veness | February 1, 2008 - 5:42AM
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Afghanistan will be struggling to secure its southern regions 15 years from now, with Australian troops still needed to combat terrorism, a leading think-tank says.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says Taliban militants and others seeking to disrupt the democratic government in Kabul will still be conducting bombings and irregular insurgencies in southern and eastern provinces in 2023.

"In 15 years time, Afghanistan is likely to be divided geographically," the institute said in a paper published yesterday.

"An optimistic vision sees the government in Kabul with a tangible writ across the north and west.

"Provincial leaders will respond to central directives because Kabul is delivering the benefits of international assistance.

"In the south and east, Pashtun provincial leaders will take part in national governance and several provinces will be passive. However, areas of Kandahar, Helmand and the eastern provinces that border Pakistan will suffer from insurgency."
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$30,000 gift took 'a bit of slugging'
Canadian group buys 5,000 soccer balls for Afghans
Melissa Leong, National Post, With Files From Global National  Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
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Canadian troops have given 5,000 soccer balls to Afghan children, thanks to a donation of $30,000 from a group of Canadian philanthropists.

Vahan Kololian, a Toronto businessman, co-ordinated the donations and arranged to have the balls delivered to Kandahar from a manufacturer in Pakistan.

"Small gestures go a long way," Mr. Kololian said yesterday. "The message of development and reconstruction in the Afghan mission is not being trumpeted and not being heard both internationally and within Canada.... By handing out soccer balls to the children of Afghanistan, it reinforces that message in a very tangible and on the ground level."

Soldiers presented the balls to the director of sport and the director of education in Kandahar on Tuesday. They will be distributed to schools and various soccer leagues
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MacKay raised prisoner abuse claims
 TheStar.com - January 30, 2008 THE CANADIAN PRESS
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OTTAWA–Defence Minister Peter MacKay expressed Canada's outrage and dismay directly to Kandahar's governor within hours of diplomats discovering a clear case of prisoner abuse last fall.

The revelation raises fresh questions about why the public was kept in the dark about the suspension of Afghan detainee transfers for almost three months.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper alluded to the conversation between MacKay and the governor while facing a third straight day of opposition attacks in the House of Commons about the secret suspension of transfers.

"The minister of defence tells me he has met recently with the governor and has discussed these issues," the prime minister said answering a question from NDP Leader Jack Layton.

MacKay was in Kandahar on Nov. 6 visiting troops when the Canadian army decided to halt the handover of captured Taliban fighters to Afghan authorities.

The fact that the government kept the decision secret has infuriated opposition MPs.
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