# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread April 2010



## GAP (1 Apr 2010)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread April 2010 *               

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


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## GAP (3 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 3, 2010*

 What would Iggy do on Afghanistan?
Article Link

The opposition Liberals want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to clarify what he plans for Afghanistan. But he is clear. He says he’s bringing Canada’s troops home.

The real puzzle is: What would the Liberals do?

This is not an academic question. By the time Canada’s scheduled troop withdrawal begins next July, we may well have had another election. Should Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals win, it will be up to them to decide how to proceed.

Yet, what exactly do the Liberals have planned for Afghanistan after 2011? We don’t know.

We do know, however, what Harper says he’ll do.

“Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan will end in 2011,” he told the Commons Tuesday. “We will continue ... with a mission on governance, on development and on humanitarian assistance.”

Or, as Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon put it: “After 2011, we’re out.”
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 Canadian army will use BAE thermal weapon sights
April 2, 2010 
Article Link

BAE Systems, a global defense, security, and aerospace company with operations in Lexington, said it will provide second-generation thermal weapon sights to the Canadian army under a $14 million multi-year contract.

The sights are in widely used by the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, BAE Systems said.

"The sights are lighter, quieter, and use less power than the first-generation units, reducing the load on soldiers and enabling them to accurately conduct combat missions in obscured-visibility conditions," BAE Systems said in a press release. "The weapon sights are used on rifles, machine guns, and mounted weapon systems to provide day and night surveillance and target acquisition." 
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 NATO emphasizes ABCs with literacy program for Afghan Army recruits
Article Link
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 2 days ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — NATO is introducing basic literacy programs as part of the training for new Afghan National Army soldiers.

The goal is to bring the majority of recruits up to roughly a Grade 3 level in terms of reading and writing, say senior alliance officials.

Western soldiers mentoring the fledgling army have long had to rely on a form of show and tell to get training done - an often time-consuming and frustrating exercise as Afghan troops repeat the motions.

The fact that 86 per cent of army recruits can't read or write also means that more often than not, Afghans are unable to master some of the more complex, technical trades that are part of a modern army.

"It's not like we can hand them a manual and say, 'Read this,' or, 'Go read these instructions,' because they don't have the capability to do that - 86 per cent of them do not," said U.S. Lt.-Gen. William Caldwell, head of the combined training command in Afghanistan.

The program is similar to instruction being given to Afghan National Police officers, who have an illiteracy rate that's even worse than that of the army.

Recruits are being taught basic letters, the alphabet and numbers. Teachers hope to get soldiers to the point where they can write their own names.

Caldwell said the long-term intent is to push literacy programs out into the entire Afghan army, but coalition commanders on the front lines say those expectations must be tempered.
More on link


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## GAP (4 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 4, 2010*

 Deadly day for Germany in Afghanistan
Three soldiers died Friday in an unusually fierce battle with insurgents in Kunduz, then troops mistakenly killed six Afghan soldiers who were apparently coming to their aid, officials say.
Article Link
 By Laura King - April 4, 2010

By any standard, it was a disastrous day for an important U.S. ally in Afghanistan. First, three German soldiers died in an unusually fierce battle with insurgents, then German troops accidentally killed six Afghan soldiers apparently coming to their aid.

The chaotic chain of events in the northern province of Kunduz, detailed by Afghan and NATO officials Saturday, a day after the fact, could further undermine German public backing for the conflict.

Slipping support by North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies could jeopardize the Obama administration's plan to hit the Taliban hard this year, with the aim of weakening the insurgents to the point that they might be receptive to a negotiated settlement. That in turn is aimed at laying the groundwork for a gradual Western withdrawal beginning in mid-2011.

While the United States rushes troops to Afghanistan's restive south, where a major offensive is planned this spring and summer in Kandahar province, Taliban fighters and their allies are making their presence felt in areas of the country that had been relatively peaceful.

That includes Afghanistan's north, where Germans make up the bulk of the Western troop contingent, supported by smaller numbers of U.S. special forces, together with Afghan soldiers.

Germany claimed the northern mandate in part because of a wish to focus its forces' efforts on reconstruction and peacekeeping rather than engaging in what the military calls "kinetic" encounters -- heavy combat of the sort that U.S., British, Canadian and other troops routinely encounter in the south.
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 Report: Leslie on short list for UN job in Congo
Article Link
Sat. Apr 3 - 4:53 AM

OTTAWA (CP) — A Canadian general may soon become the commander of the United Nations mission in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Globe and Mail reports that Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie is a leading candidate to head the peacekeeping mission in the African nation.

Leslie, whose grandfather led the Canadian army in Second World War Europe, has not been given an appointment since he was replaced as army chief last week.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs says Canada is among the nations asked by the UN to offer a candidate for the position of force commander.

Lisa Monette says officials are currently analyzing the request, "taking into account Canadian capacities." A decision is expected within one or two weeks.

The mission has been in the Congo since 1999. It is the largest in the world with about 16,500 troops and 3,000 civilian staff.
end

Girls’ school defies Taliban terror
Article Link
 April 4, 2010

Two teenage sisters sit huddled in front of an antiquated computer in a chilly classroom, engrossed in an online course on banking and budgeting.

In any other city the scene would not merit a second glance. But this is Kandahar, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban, who banished education for girls before they were driven from power nine years ago and whose fundamentalist views still command support.

“There are people who say we should stay at home, but this war has been going on for 30 years and we can’t sit at home and wait for it to end,” said Raqia Hashimi, 18.

She and her sister Sayida, 19, are students at a school for 1,000 young women aged 15 to 20 that teaches English, business administration and computer skills. 
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## GAP (5 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 5,2010*

 Taliban lays grim traps in Afghanistan
In valley of death, a search for the fallen
Article Link

ARGHANDAB VALLEY, Afghanistan | It is the U.S. Army's most urgent alert and it is now ringing across the Arghandab Valley, from the 82nd Airborne's Battalion Command to the smallest combat outpost: Soldier missing in action.

The alert sounds after a patrol was ambushed by Taliban soldiers operating in this lush and strategically crucial valley on the outskirts of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city and the crucible of Taliban influence. In the heat of the moment, it is unclear whether the soldier had been killed or disappeared.

"The last thing we want is having a soldier kidnapped to an enemy that doesn't take prisoners and beheads its enemies on TV," says Army Maj. William Black, who monitors the unfolding drama from a darkened situation room hung with Afghan, Canadian and U.S. flags and video feeds coming in live from drones hanging over the battle space.

A few miles from the incident, Lt. Jordan Ritenour is having a hard time persuading his Afghan army colleagues to join him on the search mission. As part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's new counterinsurgency doctrine, Lt. Ritenour and his fellow soldiers live with the same Afghan soldiers they mentor in bases close to Taliban-supporting villages.

"We wanted you to come because an American died today," he tells them, his voice choking with frustration and emotion.

Five Afghan soldiers are corralled and the company heads out, moving across the lanes of the mud-walled village of Kuhak before plunging into fields. The Taliban has prepared for its annual spring offensive by sowing bombs and booby traps around the valley's country lanes. Invisible explosives stud walls, ditches and even trees. The soldiers go off-road, betting that the Taliban would not alienate local farmers by booby-trapping their fields. They scramble over orchard walls and wade through irrigation canals.

"We don't do any route twice," says Army Sgt. Jeremiah Mason. "If they catch me on an IED, they'll have really done their homework."

"It's better to have wet legs than no legs," Sgt. John Cook says.

The soldiers reach the shore of the Arghandab River and assume covering positions along one of its banks, across from a complex of mud-walled compounds. A half-dozen helicopters buzz overhead, their pilots straining to locate the missing man. 
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US special forces 'tried to cover-up' botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan
Article Link
 April 5, 2010

US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times.

Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. The precise composition of the force has never been made public.

The claims were made as Nato admitted responsibility for all the deaths for the first time last night. It had initially claimed that the women had been dead for several hours when the assault force discovered their bodies.

“Despite earlier reports we have determined that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Nato spokesman. The coalition continued to deny that there had been a cover-up and said that its legal investigation, which is ongoing, had found no evidence of inappropriate conduct. 
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Afghan president says NATO offensive may not go ahead
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday took another step away from the international coalition supporting him, suggesting NATO’s massive Kandahar province summer offensive may not go ahead.At a fractious “jirga” meeting of about 2,000 tribal elders, politicians and citizens from Kandahar province and neighbouring provinces, Karzai asked those assembled if they were worried about the operation, expected to be NATO’s largest-yet in Afghanistan."We are worried!" many shouted back. Karzai then assured them, "There will be no operation unless you are happy."His administration will engage in further consultation with the province’s people before deciding about the operation, Karzai promised at the meeting in Kandahar City.The president noted that instability in Panjwaii district — where Canadian troops operate from outposts and fortified bases — as well as in other rural areas, can prevent villagers from coming to the city to provide input.“Shura” meetings of local leaders and citizens must be held at the district level, so that "every tribe representative" can give their view on the offensive, said Karzai, who was accompanied to the jirga by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.While Karzai has thrown the offensive’s fate into doubt, NATO nations fighting in Afghanistan are under pressure to ensure it goes ahead, said Walilullah Rahmani, executive director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies."I do think that the offensive will take place," Rahmani said. "The different nations that have troops in Afghanistan need to have support from their people. They want to convince their population that they are doing right in Afghanistan, and that Afghanistan needs their efforts and their soldiers here. This offensive is to give that picture."If the operation goes ahead, it will be based on intelligence rather than wide-ranging sweeps, said Kandahar province Gov. Tooryalai Wesa, a Canadian-Afghan who used to live in British Columbia."Our plan is to be very target-oriented," Wesa said. "We need exact intelligence . . . who to go after. I’m not thinking that we will be bombing villages (or) innocent people. We will try to make sure who is the wrong person in the village or in the area."Karzai on Sunday addressed the domestic perception that Afghanistan is under foreign control because it is accepting military and financial assistance from the international community.
"We will try to show people that this country is free of domination and has its own faith and system," Karzai said.
In discussing the offensive — considered the next phase of the U.S. Marines’ invasion of Marjah in adjacent Helmand province — Canadian and NATO brass consistently emphasize that they are working in partnership with the Afghan government.
"Afghan ownership of the Kandahar phase of the operation has already begun in the form of political outreach from Kabul to encourage dialogue with the province’s community leaders and power brokers," said Canadian Maj. Daryl Morrell.
"The success of the Afghan political-engagement process in Kandahar will determine the level of military involvement needed to separate the insurgents from the population."
Yet it is clear that concrete planning for the offensive is underway.
Canadian Lt.-Col. Simon Bernard said Friday the operation will focus first on bolstering a "ring of stability" around Kandahar City and its densely populated fringes, then push outward toward insurgency "hot spots," such as those just beyond two Canadian bases in Panjwaii."Based on accurate intelligence, of course, we will conduct disruptive operations," Bernard said.
McChrystal said last month he expected insurgents to resist the offensive mostly with improvised-explosive devices "to try to give a sense that Kandahar and the area cannot be secured."
Karzai on Sunday repeated an offer of reconciliation to the Taliban, but said he wouldn’t make peace with al-Qaida, and terrorists and those who kill children and pregnant brides "won’t be forgiven." 
More on link


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## GAP (7 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 7, 2010*

Tories alerted to Afghan secret police legal 'risk'
Article Link

Document warned government about directorate's scope for 'improper methods'
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 | 9:41 PM ET Comments355Recommend249
By Gil Shochat, CBC News

The Conservative government was warned last summer that working with the Afghan secret police would lead to allegations Canada condoned abuse and that Canadians could face legal liability for complicity in torture.

he information, contained in a candid top-level government memo shared with CBC News, shows that officials were worried that Canada's relationship with the Afghan National Directorate of Security was risky — and possibly illegal — even while the government was defending it.

The document warns that the directorate, or NDS, is so secretive, even Canada and its allies are in the dark about much of what it does.

The NDS has wider powers of arrest and detention than most intelligence agencies, the memo says, and as a result, "there is considerable scope for the use of improper methods." Engaging with the NDS "entails a degree of risk to Canadian interests," it adds.

The document doesn't detail those risks specifically, but human rights lawyer Paul Champ said he has an idea of what they are.

Champ is the lawyer at the centre of several investigations into the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees. He said the NDS can't be trusted with detainees transferred into its custody by Canadian soldiers, and the Conservative government is well aware of this.
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 National Post editorial board: We can still contribute in Afghanistan
Posted: April 06, 2010, 8:00 AM by NP Editor
Article Link

Last week, during her visit to Canada, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made official what had long been a known secret — the Obama administration would like Canada to maintain a substantial military presence in Afghanistan beyond Parliament’s declared end-date of July 2011. Ms. Clinton lauded the capabilities of the Canadian Forces and said that while America understands that Canada’s combat mission in Khandahar will be ending on schedule, Washington hopes that we will continue to play a significant role in the effort to defeat the Taliban and develop Afghanistan into a democratic nation capable of defending its citizens’ rights.

While we still have doubts that Afghanistan will ever even partially achieve those goals, Ms. Clinton’s request is a reasonable one. Canadians have tired of war and have paid a heavy price in blood — 141 Canadian soldiers have been lost in that distant land. But certainly, having already come so far and sacrificed so much, Canada can continue to contribute in a demonstrable way to Afghanistan’s security. 
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 Barrel-chested governor Canada's 250-lb political weapon in Kandahar
Article Link
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 16 hours ago

BAZZAR-E-PANJWAII, Afghanistan — Canada has a not-so-secret, 250-pound political weapon deployed in the restive district of Panjwaii, west of Kandahar city.

His name is Haji Shah Baran. Barrel-chested, bearded and often wrapped in a flowing black turban, Baran has become an important figure in the war to stitch together the jumbled collection of rebellious villages that have long-served as a battleground for Canadian troops.

Baran is the Panjwaii district governor, a title he clearly relishes.

But more than a year after taking the post, his combination of bombast, bullying and tearful sentimentality appears to be paying off - albeit ever so slowly.

"Haji is very good at promoting representative government and it surprised me, to be frank," said Lt.-Col. Jerry Walsh, commander of the Canadian battle group, which is scattered across the Panjwaii in clusters with Afghan troops.

His tribal credentials may have something to do with his ability to connect with dubious village elders, who are used to playing both sides of the fence.

Baran is a member of the Noorzai tribe, which has been at the epicentre of the Taliban resurgence in western Kandahar. The most troublesome areas of the Panjwaii are inhabited by members of that tribe.

Seeing one of their own in charge has made a difference.

"They are happy to see someone from their tribe to be a district leader," Baran said in a recent interview.
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 Afghan men with a message
Ben Gilbert - GlobalPost April 6, 2010 Voice of America in Afghanistan
Article Link

ORWARD OPERATING BASE WILSON, Afghanistan — Hamayon, a 24-year-old Afghan interpreter for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan’s dangerous south, worries less about his own life than his 15-month-old daughter and wife in Kabul. One of his fellow interpreters was about his age, with a young daughter, when he was killed last year by a suicide bomber. Hamayon says the interpreter’s family only received $8,000 in compensation from the U.S. military contractor who employed him — not much for a family to live on.

“I think sometimes my kid will be in the same situation,” he said. “It’s the most dangerous job we’re doing here. But we still do it.”

Hamayon makes about $850 a month accompanying the troops of “Dog” Company of the U.S. Army’s 1st battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan’s volatile Kandahar Province. His language skills include English, Dari and Pashtu, making him a valuable asset for the military, and for his large family, who value the income.
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## MarkOttawa (9 Apr 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND APRIL 9

Is Karzai an 'Adequate Strategic Partner?'
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, April 9
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1270830287/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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## George Wallace (11 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 11, 2010*

Natynczyk 'shocked' by Karzai rhetoric
Article Link

11/04/2010 1:22:48 PM

CTV.ca News Staff 

*General Walt Natynczyk says he is "shocked" by recent anti-Western rhetoric from Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- including a threat to join the Taliban -- but maintains Canadian soldiers are more concerned with improving the lives of Afghan civilians. *

"Our men and women in the Canadian Forces are focused on enabling the peace and security of Afghans where they live," Natynczyk told CTV's Question Period on Sunday. 

"We are indeed shocked by what's been said up in Kabul, but at the same time the men and women of the Canadian Forces are working on where Afghans live and enabling the Afghan police, enabling the Afghan Army to provide security for their people." 

Natynczyk was responding to a question of whether NATO has a reliable ally in the Karzai government. 

Karzai angered many Western leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, when he lashed out at both the United Nations and the United States for what he said is excessive meddling in his government's affairs. He also accused both the UN and the U.S. of conspiring to deny him re-election in last year's presidential election. 

Harper condemned the comments as "unacceptable," a sentiment echoed by retired general Rick Hillier, who said the statements were likely born of Karzai's frustration with juggling two problems: reforming his government and accommodating demands from the international community. 

Natynczyk said one of the biggest challenges in Afghanistan today is governance, from the local level right up to Karzai and his cabinet, "and the sooner we have a strong government right from the district level all the way through, the sooner we'll achieve a faster pace of progress in Afghanistan." 

But the chief of defence staff said there are encouraging signs that life is improving for ordinary Afghans, a direct result of the work Canadian soldiers have done to train the Afghan police and Afghan Army. 

"What it's allowed is for Afghans to come back home to their farms, back to their houses and actually start to farm their fields, till their fields," Natynczyk said. On a visit to the country just a few weeks ago, the general said he was buoyed by the sight of Afghan farmers opening their irrigation ditches. 

"It's probably the most progress I've seen in many years of visiting Afghanistan," Natynczyk said. 

But as for recent comments by both the U.S. secretary of state and British foreign secretary suggesting Canadian soldiers should remain in Afghanistan beyond the scheduled 2011 withdrawal date, Natynczyk said the only new Canadian soldiers that will deploy to the country are the 90 extra troops headed there in May to help train Afghan soldiers and police. 

"Just to be clear, we're following through with the Parliamentary motion," Natynczyk said. "And the Parliamentary motion indicates that the Canadian Forces will leave Kandahar province in 2011 and the end of military mission in Afghanistan will occur in 2011." 

When asked if the Canadian Forces would then turn its attention to a UN mission in the Congo, Natynczyk said there are already 10 staff officers and one support personnel on the ground. He said the UN has sent a request to augment the mission to the Foreign Affairs Department, and he would "await wait the government of Canada wishes to do."


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## GAP (12 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 12, 2010*

 A jury of his peers? Hardly
By PETER WORTHINGTON, Toronto Sun April 10, 2010 
Article Link

A concern about the court martial of Capt. Robert Semrau, charged with killing a mortally wounded Taliban insurgent on the battlefield, is that he gets a fair trial.

What makes people like me uneasy, is that the none of the five-member panel comes from the combat arms, or has ever had to make decisions on a battlefield while under fire, as Semrau had to make.

The court martial panel will decide guilt or innocence by majority decision, unlike civilian trials where the jury must reach a unanimous verdict.

Semrau’s panel consists of a commodore, a lieutenant-colonel, two majors and a captain — one navy, two air force, two army — all from logistic or administrative services.

From their individual and service backgrounds, none has understanding or experience with what a patrol or platoon commander requires outside the wire.

Why no one from combat arms was appointed on the panel is puzzling. It causes some to wonder if we are undergoing our own version of a Breaker Morant case, where an Australian soldier in the Boer war was court-martialed and found guilty for political considerations.

Semrau’s defence lawyer is from the judge advocate general’s department, and works for the same boss as JAG prosecutors. 
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MacKay snubs Karzai on Afghan visit
  Article Link
 Monday, April 12, 2010 11:02 AM Jane Taber

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s erratic behavior of late, including suggestions he may join the Taliban, have a “corrosive impact” on Canadian troops, the Defence Minister says.

Just back from Afghanistan, Peter MacKay told The Globe and Mail today that was the message he delivered to two senior Karzai government ministers.

“I called for more constructive and active engagement. People need to see a more visible presence of the Afghan government in Kandahar province,” Mr. MacKay told the Afghan officials, explaining the President’s comments have a “corrosive impact on Canadian soldiers and citizens.”

Raising the topic, he said, was “very uncomfortable for them.” The Defence Minister added that he purposely decided not to meet with Mr. Karzai during his weekend visit. (Mr. MacKay was accompanied by Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose.)

All of this comes amid another combat death in Afghanistan. Private Tyler William Todd was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb southwest of Kandahar. He is Canada’s 142nd casualty since the mission began.

Indeed, Mr. Karzai comments have provoked a debate as to what Canada is doing in Afghanistan, defending a government whose leader behaviour is becoming more and more erratic. 
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 One Canadian soldier killed, one injured in Afghan blast
  Article Link 
By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceApril 12, 2010 

One Canadian soldier was killed and another injured when a blast from an improvised explosive device hit their foot patrol Sunday morning southwest of Kandahar City.

Pte. Tyler William Todd, 26, a member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, 1st Battalion, was the 142nd Canadian soldier to die in the Afghan war. He was killed in an area considered vital terrain for NATO’s upcoming Kandahar province offensive.

“Tyler was a practical joker: he would often hide rocks and candies in other soldiers’ bed spaces,” said Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard. “He never allowed the small things to get to him and was often the rock that other soldiers could depend on. He was a dedicated soldier and excelled in all the positions in which he was employed. His enthusiasm and strong will were inspirational to the platoon.”

The injured soldier was taken for medical assistance, but was reportedly conscious and talking after the explosion.

The blast occurred around 7:30 a.m. local time, within what the Canadian Forces consider to be the “ring of stability” around Kandahar City, a densely populated area where Canada is focused on solidifying NATO and Afghan-government control.
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 Four civilians killed, dozen wounded in bus shooting near Kandahar
   Article Link
By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceApril 12, 2010

NATO troops opened fire on bus carrying civilians before dawn Monday morning, killing at least four people and wounding more than a dozen other. NATO said in a news release that four people were killed, including one female. An injured passenger and the bus driver told Canwest News Service the U.S. military was responsible for the shooting, and claimed five people died.

"An American convoy was ahead and another convoy following us. Suddenly, the Americans opened fire on the bus," said Nida Muhammad, a passenger wounded in the shoulder.

The bus was travelling from Herat, a city in the east near the Iranian border, to Kandahar City on the main highway across the country's south.

Bus driver Muhammad Nabi said he was "following slowly," 60 metres behind a U.S. convoy, and was preparing to pull off the road when another convoy approached in the area of Sanjeray, a town 15 kilometres west of Kandahar City and gunfire hit his vehicle.

Kandahar province Gov. Tooryalai Wesa's spokesman Zalmy Ayoubi said: "We are strongly condemning the action being carried out by NATO forces, and want a thorough investigation of the incident, to find out why it had targeted the civilian bus.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (12 Apr 2010)

'The US Is Taking the Reins Out of Our Hands'
Karzai, McChrystal Declare German Deployment Area a Crisis Zone
_Spiegel Online_, April 12
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,688552,00.html#ref=nlint



> On Sunday, Afghan President Karzai and US chief commander McChyrstal met with tribal leaders in Kunduz. The spontaneous visit came as a surprise to the Germans forces in command of the northern area. Diplomats now believe it will become the site of a major new offensive...
> 
> The visit also indicated to Germany that larger joint missions between the US Army and Afghan units against the Taliban in Kunduz are imminent. Diplomats even expect major offensives to take place around the area where Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, are stationed this summer that are similar in scale to the one launched a few weeks ago in Marja in southern Afghanistan. Karzai didn't officially announce any such plans in Kunduz this time, but he organized similar meetings in Helmand, the province where Marja is located, prior to the operation there in a bid to garner support from tribal leaders...
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (14 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 14, 2010*

 Father, son from different services making a difference in Afghanistan
Posted 4/13/2010   Updated 4/13/2010 by Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson U.S. Air Force Central combat camera
Article Link

4/13/2010 - CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- An Afghan National Army Air Corps C-27A Spartan cargo aircraft took off from Kabul International Airport to conduct an International Security Assistance Force mission transporting weapons and cargo for Afghanistan National Police.

At Camp Bastion, Marine 1st Lt. Benjamin Boera, a 5th Battalion 11th Marines High Mobility Artillery Rocket System Tango Battery platoon commander here, watched the cargo plane land. He swells up with pride because one of the pilots on the mission is his dad, Brig. Gen. Michael R. Boera, a Combined Air Power Transition Force commander and the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing commander.

As the aircraft taxis on the flight-line, General Boera greets his son with a wave and a smile from the cockpit and his son returns the greeting.

As the doors of the C-27 open, Lieutenant Boera enters the aircraft and said what he has uttered a thousand times, "Hey Dad," and his father answered  "How you doing, Ben?" The Boeras are on the frontlines of transition and kinetic operations in Afghanistan.

Since September 2009, General Boera has led a joint and combined organization to mentor, train and assist Afghan National Security Forces aviation units. He conducts strategic-level coordination with U.S. Central Command, NATO International Security Assistance Force and Afghan ministries of Defense and Interior officials to develop the presidential airlift, battlefield mobility, attack, command and control, counter-narcotics, police aviation, security and reconnaissance capabilities of the Afghan air forces.

Lieutenant Boera, deployed from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., in January. His unit has been an active participant in Operation Moshtarek, a NATO-Afghan joint offensive involving 15,000 Afghan, Canadian, American and British troops. His platoon directly supports the 1st Marine Division and provisional rifle companies with artillery.
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 18-Year-Old Afghan Woman Slain In Campaign Of Fear
Article Link
by The Associated Press

A gunman lying in wait shot and killed an 18-year-old woman as she left her job at a U.S.-based development company Tuesday, casting a spotlight on a stepped-up campaign of Taliban intimidation against women in this southern city where U.S. troops plan a major operation in the coming weeks.

Although there was no claim of responsibility and police said the motive for the attack was unclear, Taliban militants have been particularly harsh with women who work for foreign organizations or attend school. Bands of thugs are increasingly harassing women who want jobs, education and their own style of clothing, women and aid workers say.

In Tuesday's attack, the gunman emerged from a hiding place and shot the woman, whose first name was Hossai, after she stepped out of her office building, said deputy police chief Fazle Ahmed Shehzad. Hossai died at the hospital, and the assailant escaped.

Hossai worked for Development Alternatives, Inc., a Washington-based global consulting firm that "provides social and economic development solutions to business, government, and civil society in developing and transitioning countries," according to its Web site.

Eight years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power, fear again dominates the lives of many young women and girls in the violent south, the stronghold of a revived Islamist insurgency that curbed women's rights when it ruled most of the country until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

"Every day the security situation gets worse and worse," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a clean-shaven man who has devoted the last 16 years to educating girls, first in the remote border regions of Pakistan and since 2002 in Kandahar.
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 Afghan city fears greater Taliban presence
Article Link

Kandahar residents have seen a surge in militant violence and fear a planned Western offensive to rout the Taliban will instead boost its presence in their city. Authorities get little cooperation.

Her children tell her they see her dead in their dreams. Friends are afraid to come to her home. She shows a visitor chilling text messages in neat Pashto-language script on her cellphone: Do you want to die? We will kill you for what you've said.

Roona Tahrin, 38, a women's rights activist and mother of six, believes she is in the Taliban's sights. Her predecessor as director of this city's department of women's affairs was killed; in late February, three days after a provincial cultural official was gunned down by assailants on motorbikes, she received a text telling her she was next.

Disciples of the Taliban never abandoned Kandahar, the city they consider their spiritual home. After the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that ended the Islamist movement's harsh five-year reign in Afghanistan, many of its adherents simply melted into this dusty southern metropolis.

These days, though, the insurgents' presence is more keenly felt than at any time in recent memory. Assassinations, threats and kidnappings are rife. Swaths of the city are off limits to the police. At dusk, people glance at their watches and cut short conversations; it is dangerous to be out after dark.

The Western military is planning a massive offensive in Kandahar this spring and summer that will dwarf the campaign led by U.S. Marines this year in neighboring Helmand province, centered on the farming town of Marja.

But many here are afraid that the military operation to secure Kandahar's outlying districts, already in its preliminary stages, will simply drive more insurgents into the city proper and put its 1 million residents in even greater peril.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (14 Apr 2010)

Daily brief: U.S. pulls out of perilous Afghan valley ) lots of further links)
_Foreign Policy_, April 14
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/04/14/daily_brief_us_pulls_out_of_perilous_afghan_valley



> ...
> NATO forces have pulled out of the remote Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, as part of top U.S. and NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal's strategy to focus on population centers in the country (Reuters, Wash Post, WSJ, AP, ISAF, Pajhwok). Gen. McChrystal observed that rather than bringing stability to the area, troops had been "an irritant to the people;" more than 40 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Korengal, and far more Afghans -- U.S. and Afghan officials say the narrow valley is some of the bloodiest ground in Afghanistan.
> 
> Yesterday, survivors of a German-ordered airstrike north of Kunduz's main city last September gathered outside the human rights commission there to demand compensation for those dead and wounded (Reuters). As many as 99 civilians were killed in the airstrike, which targeted fuel trucks north of Kunduz city that NATO troops believed had been hijacked by Taliban fighters. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called civilian casualties in Afghanistan a strategic challenge to the war effort there (WSJ).
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (15 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 15, 2010*

 Found in translation: Pashtu-speaking Canadian disarms Afghans one at a time
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 20 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It only takes a few words for Master Cpl. Shawn Grove to crack the stone-faced expressions that most Afghan villagers save for the foreign troops in their country.

"Salam aleikum," he says - a traditional Middle Eastern greeting that means, "Peace be upon you" - before launching into an effortless stream of what locals say is near-flawless Pashtu.

Grove, a native of Barrhead, Alta., and a veteran of three tours in Afghanistan, has taught himself to speak one of the country's two official languages. Dari is the other, favoured by northern Afghans.

In so doing, even top-ranked military officials acknowledge that Grove has made a valuable connection with the people of Afghanistan - one that the NATO-led coalition, long frustrated in its efforts to win over the Afghan people, can only dream of.

When he's stopping vehicles at a checkpoint, Grove - a veteran of 9 Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton - usually apologizes for having to detain and search the occupants.

"I'd say, 'I'm sorry, I have to check you; it's my duty,' he said. "'Do you mind? Can you come out of the car?' They're always more than happy."

Speaking the local dialect allows Grove to "start off on a different page" with people who are notoriously suspicious, fearful, outright resentful of foreigners.

The baffled expressions that ensue are often hilarious, he added.

At first, Grove is regarded as a curiosity by locals, who don't mind saying they never met a foreigner who can speak their guttural, consonant-rich language so well.
More on link

 IED training class in Afghanistan as real as it gets
Ethan Baron, Canwest News Service  Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Article Link

SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan -- A new Canadian Forces program to teach Afghan soldiers how to counter the pervasive and deadly threat of improvised explosive devices kicked off this week here on the front lines with the Taliban. But the first class was cancelled one day and delayed the next by a bomb find and a near-miss explosion.

On Monday, Afghan soldiers couldn't take the course because they were out cordoning off the area around an improvised explosive device (IED) spotted in a road to the east of the Canadian base at Sperwan Ghar. Their seminar was rescheduled for Tuesday morning, but shortly after dawn the national army troops, accompanied by Canadian soldiers, were on foot looking for a possible IED emplacement in a section of gravel road two kilometres north of here when the device exploded in a culvert. The Afghans were about 100 metres from the explosion and none were injured, but the Canadians behind reported that one Afghan soldier walked away from the blast scene spitting out dirt.

The bomb was detonated from a distance by an insurgent, rather than by the weight of a person stepping on a pressure plate, Canadian Capt. Nathan Bugg told the Afghan troops once the class got underway in the afternoon. Capt. Bugg warned the Afghans through an interpreter that the Taliban observe their movements, and know they conduct daily sweeps of area roads to ensure routes are safe for military and civilian vehicles.
More on link

 Afghanistan: A Tale of Soldiers and a School
Article Link

The Pir Mohammed School was built by Canadians in 2005, in Senjaray, a town just outside the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. It is said that 3,000 students attended, including some girls — although that seems a bit of a stretch, given the size and rudimentary nature of the campus. There are two buildings, a row and a horseshoe of classrooms, separated by a playground in a walled compound. No doubt, the exaggerations about the school's size reflect a deeper truth: most everyone in Senjaray loved the idea that their children were learning to read and write — except the local Taliban. They closed the school in 2007, breaking all the windows and furniture, booby-trapping the place, lacing the surrounding area with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), daring the Canadians to reopen it. But the Canadians were overmatched, and it wasn't until December of 2009, when the Americans came to Senjaray, that people began to talk about reopening the school.

It was, in fact, a no-brainer, a perfect metaphor. The Taliban closed schools; the Americans opened them. That this particular school was located deep in the enemy heartland, in a district — Zhari — that was 80% controlled by the Taliban, an area the Russians called the Heart of Darkness and eventually refused to travel through, in a town that will be strategically crucial when the most important battle of the war in Afghanistan — the battle for Kandahar — is contested this summer, made it all the more perfect.
More on link

Canadian troops killed 'unarmed Afghan' says translator
Article Link

A former translator for Canadian troops in Afghanistan told a parliamentary committee that his former employers had killed an unarmed Afghan and arrested innocent civilians.

Malgarai Ahmadshah alleged that in summer 2007, Canadian soldiers shot an unarmed man whom they believed had been carrying a gun.

"After the Canadian Forces wrongly killed a man, they panicked, they swept through the neighborhood, arresting people for no reason. They arrested over 10 men from about 10 to 90 years old," said the Afghan-Canadian who was codenamed Pacha during his tenure as translator.

Ahmadshah said he had personally interrogated the detained Afghans at the insistence of Canadian troops to determine whether they had any links to the Taliban.

"None did anything wrong except to be at home when the Canadian Forces murdered their neighbor," he said, adding that Canada had transferred "these innocent men" to the Afghan security forces.

"I don't know what happened to them," he added.

The former translator delivered his testimony before a panel looking into claims that Canadian forces transferred detainees to Afghan authorities despite the risk that the prisoners would be tortured.

Ahmadshah said such transfers had taken place and accused the Canadian Forces of "subcontracting torture."

Canada has been roiled by accusations by a former Canadian diplomat in Afghanistan, Richard Colvin, who claims Ottawa ignored reports of torture submitted by prisoners held by Afghan security forces.

Several international human rights treaties prohibit the transfer of individuals to a location or authority if they face a credible risk of torture or other abuse.
end


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## MarkOttawa (15 Apr 2010)

U.S. doubles anti-Taliban special forces
Secretive buildup of elite teams reflects view that time is short to degrade Afghanistan opposition
_LA Times_, April 15
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-fg-secret-surge15-2010apr15,0,5221105.story



> Reporting from Washington
> The Pentagon has increased its use of the military's most elite special operations teams in Afghanistan, more than doubling the number of the highly trained teams assigned to hunt down Taliban leaders, according to senior officials.
> 
> The secretive buildup reflects the view of the Obama administration and senior military leaders that the U.S. has only a limited amount of time to degrade the capabilities of the Taliban. U.S. forces are in the midst of an overall increase that will add 30,000 troops this year and plan to begin reducing the force in mid-2011.
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (16 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 16, 2010*

McChrystal Backtracks on Troop Veto for Kandahar Shuras
Posted by editors on April 15, 2010 Global Geopolitics Gareth Porter*
Article Link

WASHINGTON, Apr 15  (IPS)  – The U.S. military has now officially backtracked from its earlier suggestion that it would seek the consent of local shuras, or consultative conferences with those elders, to carry out the coming military occupation of Kandahar city and nearby districts û contradicting a pledge by Afghan President Hamid Karzai not to carry out the operation without such consent.

Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, told IPS Tuesday that local tribal elders in Kandahar could ”shape the conditions” under which the influx of foreign troops operate during the operation, but would not determine whether or where NATO troops would be deployed in and around the city.

Asked whether the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is committed to getting local approval before introducing more troops into Kandahar and surrounding districts, the McChrystal spokesman said, ”We’re not talking about something as simple as a referendum.”

At a Mar. 29 briefing in Kabul on plans for the Kandahar operation, however, an unnamed senior U.S. military official told reporters that one of the elements of the strategy for gaining control over the Taliban stronghold is to ”shura our way to success” – referring to the Islamic concept of consultative bodies.  In those conferences with local tribal elders, the officials said, ”The people have to ask for the operation… We’re going to have to have a situation where they invite us in.”

Those statements clearly suggested the intention to get the support of local tribal elders before going ahead with the large-scale military operation scheduled to begin in June.

That is what President Karzai said to a shura of between 1,000 and 2,000 Kandahar province tribal elders Apr. 4. Karzai said NATO’s Kandahar operation would not be carried out until the elders themselves were ready to support it, according to a number of press reports.

According to the report by RTA, Afghanistan’s state television service, Karzai actually said, ”I know you are worried about this operation,” before asking their opinion. He also said that the shuras to be organised at the district level were for the purpose of ”getting approval and deciding” on the operation, according to the RTA report.

And the assembled elders made it known that they didn’t want the operation.

That was clearly not what McChrystal, who was sitting behind Karzai at the shura, wanted to hear. 
More on link

 Germany boosts firepower of Afghan troops
Published: April 15, 2010
Article Link

The German government has reacted to criticism of the armament of its troops in Afghanistan by deciding to dispatch heavy firepower there.

German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg said he would "as quickly as possible" send to Afghanistan two models of the Panzerhaubitze 2000, a world-leading self-propelled artillery weapon developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall. While Dutch forces in Afghanistan regularly use the howitzers with a target range of up to 37 miles, the Germans don't have a single one in Afghanistan.

Sending howitzers is a major policy reversal for Berlin, which has shied from deploying heavy attack equipment into Afghanistan out of fear it would point to a war-like mission -- highly unpopular in largely pacifist Germany.

The German troops will also receive TOW anti-tank guided missiles and additional Marder infantry fighting vehicles, German news magazine Der Spiegel reports.

"Those are basic conditions that will be created to meet the mission's challenges," the defense minister said.
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 NATO aims to fight Afghan crooks -- without naming them
Article Link
By Deepa Babington Reuters Thursday, April 15, 2010; 7:24 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - NATO officials in Afghanistan often say the only way they will win the war is to break the grip of "malign actors" -- crooked officials and others who have soured Afghans on their government.

Yet as U.S.-led forces gear up for the biggest offensive of the 8-year-war in the southern city of Kandahar, NATO officials are reluctant to publicly challenge corrupt authorities -- a strategy critics say risks backfiring in the eyes of Afghans.

NATO officials say it is not their responsibility to name and shame those they think are corrupt.

"You can't single out anyone individually," said Jess Dutton, a Canadian who runs NATO's governance and development programs in Kandahar as head of the provincial reconstruction team.

"There are microcosms of power brokers throughout Afghanistan. That's the challenge the formal Afghan government has to deal with." 
More on link

 Canada wants to use Pak bases for Afghan pullout
Article Link
* Request still under consideration by Foreign Office

By Iqbal Choudhry

ISLAMABAD: As NATO countries are planning to leave Afghanistan, the Canadian government has requested Pakistani authorities to allow them the use of Pakistani airbases during the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan, sources told Daily Times on Thursday.

According to the sources, Canadian troops will leave Afghanistan next year and their government wants to use Pakistani airbases for ‘convenience’ during the departure.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told Daily Times that his ministry had received a request from the Canadian government, however, it had not been decided yet if they would be allowed to use the airbases.

Under the set procedure, the Foreign Ministry has to consult the Defence Ministry before giving the final approval. The request, however, is still being considered by the FO.

To a similar question, Fareeha Iftikhar, from the Media and Advocacy Office of the Canadian High Commission, said Canada would end its military mission in Afghanistan in July 2011 and complete the withdrawal of its forces by December.

“We are currently planning to end the mission in Afghanistan but it is too early to provide any details at this time,” she said.

Around 2,800 Canadian Forces personnel are currently deployed in Afghanistan as part of the ISAF forces.

Pakistan is considered as a direct route to Afghanistan, hence it is believed that the countries wishing to leave NATO forces in Afghanistan would prefer Pakistani airbases due to its strategic importance.
More on link

 Foreigners among dead in Afghan bombings

Kandahar attacks come as NATO plans major offensive
 By Ismail Sameem, ReutersApril 16, 2010
Article Link

A suicide car bomber killed at least three foreigners and their Afghan guards in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Thursday.

The blast came hours after another large car bomb in the centre of the city, which has been the scene of numerous attacks in recent weeks, ahead of a major planned offensive by NATO troops expected there in coming months.

"The attack was on a security company. There are some casualties," said Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council. "Some foreigners were injured and killed; some security guards were killed."

Karzai said preliminary reports indicated that at least three foreigners, all of them security personnel, had been killed, and nine more had been wounded.

The death toll among security companies operating in Afghanistan has been rising steadily. More than 150 are estimated to have died since 2006.

Thursday's attack came hours after another car bomb exploded near a hotel, destroying shops and cars. Police said six people were wounded in the first attack.
More on link

 Investigating Afghan prison torture not job of Canadian military: Officer
  Article Link 
By Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News ServiceApril 15, 2010

Torture "absolutely" has taken place in Afghan prisons but it was not the responsibility of Canada's military police to document, investigate it or stop it, Lt.-Col. Douglas Boot told a public hearing Thursday.

He testified at the Canadian Military Police Complaints Commission that "an array" of other government departments were responsible and listed Correctional Services Canada, Foreign Affairs and the RCMP.

Boot said it was the Canadian military handling of detainees before they were transferred — not what happened to them after they were in Afghan custody — that was the focus of attention during his August 2006-July 2007 tenure helping oversee their operations.

He said the "Damocles sword of Somalia" hung over them, a reference to the beating death of a Somalian teen in Canadian custody on a military mission more than a decade ago.

The commission is holding a public interest hearing into complaints by Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association that military police "aided and abetted" the torture of detainees transferred to Afghan custody because they knew or should have known there was a risk they would be tortured.

"We are not an occupying force in Afghanistan," Booth said. "We turn Afghanis over to Afghans in accordance with doctrine and international law.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (16 Apr 2010)

Karzai and the US softer line
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, April 16
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1271433897/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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## Dog Walker (16 Apr 2010)

Insurgents Kill 4 German Soldiers in Northern Afghanistan

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Insurgents-Kill-4-German-Soldiers-in-Northern-Afghanistan-90950274.html

15 April 2010
Afghan insurgents have killed four German soldiers and wounded five others in an ambush in the northern province of Baghlan.

Germany's Defense Ministry says militants attacked the German soldiers' patrol Thursday with rockets. The deaths raise the number of German troops killed in Afghanistan to at least 43 since 2002.

In other violence, Afghan officials say a car bomb exploded near a hotel in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding at least six people. The officials say the blast shattered windows of the hotel and destroyed several nearby vehicles. No other details were immediately available.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says roadside bombs used by Taliban insurgents have killed an increasing number of Afghan civilians this year.

An ICRC report released Thursday says the number of civilians treated for roadside bomb wounds at a hospital in Kandahar city jumped 40 percent in the first two months of this year, from the same period a year ago. 

More on link…


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## GAP (17 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 17, 2010*

 Afghan withdrawal could pass through Pakistan
Article Link

Canada wants to use Pakistani airbases to withdraw from Afghanistan next year, a development that provides the first hard glimpse of the military’s pullout plans and signals to both the pro-war and anti-war segments of the country that an end to Canada’s decade-long war is at hand.

A spokesman with Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed to the Daily Times newspaper Friday that a formal request had been received from Ottawa but Islamabad is still considering whether to grant its approval.

The foreign office must first consult Pakistan’s powerful defence ministry before giving the green light to Canada’s massive logistical undertaking.

The request to use Pakistan’s military facilities for the pullout suggests there are problems using Camp Mirage, Canada’s secret airbase located near Dubai, which is the transit point for Canadian troops and supplies entering and leaving the Afghan battlefield.

And experts say moving through Pakistan is less-than-ideal from a security standpoint. The country has a weak government compared to the United Arab Emirates, many Pakistanis have built-up resentment toward western countries and there is a strong force of insurgent fighters and Taliban sympathizers who are relatively free to plan and carry out attacks from Pakistan’s tribal regions, said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel and logistics expert.
More on link

 Canadian troops did not murder unarmed Afghan in 2007: defence chief
By: Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS 17/04/2010
  Article Link

Canada's top military commander says his soldiers did not unlawfully shoot an unarmed Afghan during a night raid in Kandahar almost three years ago.

Gen. Walter Natynczyk, in a letter released late Friday night in Ottawa, rejected the troubling allegations made by a former military translator this week in testimony to a special House of Commons committee on Afghanistan.

Ahmadshah Malgarai testified Canadian soldiers shot a 17-year-old in the back of the head during a raid and then tried to cover up the death. He also said the army often deliberately handed over detainees to torture in order to get more information out of them.

But the chief of defence staff says the June 18-19, 2007 raid did not happen the way the translator described and that the events were well documented.

"The compound was suspected to be a staging area for rocket attacks against Kandahar airfield as well as improvised explosive device attacks against Canadian and coalition soldiers," he stated in the letter, distributed to The Canadian Press in Kandahar.

The compound had been under surveillance for almost a year before the raid.

"During the mission an armed individual posed a direct and imminent threat to Canadian Forces soldiers as they entered the compound," Natynczyk wrote to committee chair Kevin Sorenson.

"A shooter who was providing support to the operation identified the individual and assessed that he was a threat, and shot the individual. The acts of the shooter were an appropriate application of the rules of engagement and saved the lives of a number of Canadian Forces members that night."

Malgarai conceded in his testimony that his information was second-hand.

Ten prisoners were taken during the raid and two of them made allegations that coalition troops planted a weapon on the body.

"It is worth noting that one of the two individuals later retracted his allegation," the general said.

All 10 prisoners were later transferred to the custody of the Afghan intelligence service.

The military will not release records related to the incident, saying they are classified and contain sensitive information about tactics and techniques.
More on link

 Taliban targets U.S. contractors working on projects in Afghanistan
Article Link

The Taliban has begun regularly targeting U.S. government contractors in southern Afghanistan, stepping up use of a tactic that is rattling participating firms and could undermine development projects intended to stem the insurgency, according to U.S. officials.

Within the past month, there have been at least five attacks in Helmand and Kandahar provinces against employees of U.S. Agency for International Development contractors who are running agricultural projects, building roads, maintaining power plants and working with local officials.

The USAID "implementing partners," as they are known, employ mainly Afghans, who are overseen by foreigners. The companies' role is becoming increasingly important as more aid money floods into southern Afghanistan as part of a dual effort to generate goodwill and bolster the Kabul government.

A suicide car bomb that exploded Thursday evening outside a compound used by Western contractors in Kandahar City was the latest and deadliest attack. The 9:30 p.m. blast killed at least four Afghan security guards and wounded 16 other people, including at least two Americans, along with South African and Nepalese employees. The compound houses USAID contractors, including Chemonics International, the Louis Berger Group and the Central Asia Development Group, according to U.S. officials.

Three buildings in the compound, which sits within five miles of the Canadian-run Provincial Reconstruction Team base, were damaged, U.S. officials said. At least one company working in Kandahar, Bethesda-based DAI, evacuated some employees to Kabul after the attack, the officials said. 
More on link

 Blasts rock Kandahar city
Two die in second car bomb attack of day
By MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press Fri. Apr 16 
Article Link

A set of powerful explosions, one of them aimed at an American-funded community support group, rocked Kandahar city Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring 20 more.

Afghan officials initially reported that as many as six people were dead, but revised the figure after a search of the ruins of Afghanistan Stabilization Initiative compound.

Zulmai Ayoubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor’s office, said the blast was so big it collapsed some nearby buildings and the death toll could rise.

One Afghan bystander and a security guard at the compound were killed.

Officials at the Mirwais hospital say 16 of the injured have been treated for minor injuries, including one foreign worker whose nationality has not been confirmed. Another four patients are listed in critical condition.

Afghan police say a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle inside the compound of the Afghanistan Stabilization Initiative after local security guards opened the gate and allowed him to pass.

The group organizes small community improvement projects in collaboration with the Afghan government.

The attack followed a car bomb earlier in the day on a busy downtown street in Kandahar’s bustling commercial district.
More on link

  Focus was on own troops: Military police commander
Posted By LAURA PAYTON, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU
Posted 23 hours ago
Article Link 

OTTAWA -- The ghost of the Somalia inquiry was haunting hearings into Afghan detainee abuse allegations Thursday.

A former commander of Canada's military police testified his main focus was the risk of detainee abuse by Canadian soldiers, not by Afghans.

His comments came as opposition MPs demanded the government investigate allegations by a former military interpreter that Canadian Forces members routinely handed over detainees for torture by Afghan authorities.

Lt.-Col. Douglas Boot, who was provost marshal to the military police from August 2006 until July 2007, said a 1993 scandal where Canadian Forces members beat to death a Somali teen during a mission in the country was on his mind.

"My job was not to worry about Afghanistan. My job is to worry about (Canadian) soldiers," Boot told the Military Police Complaints Commission.

"Somalia was the overarching thing. I was worried about how we, the Canadian Forces, handled detainees while they were in our custody."

Boot admitted it's illegal for the military to knowingly transfer detainees to torture, that one of the roles of the military police is to investigate criminal acts by the Canadian Forces and that he knew of media reports that Canadian-transferred detainees were abused. When pressed about what his role should have been in probing those allegations, he said he expected Canadian corrections staff, who were working in the prisons, to go to him with specific information. 
More on link

 Quick Afghanistan withdrawal out of character for Canada: Experts
  Article Link
 By Tobi Cohen, Canwest News ServiceApril 16, 2010

The recent withdrawal of the last of Canada's troops from Bosnia after 19 years is raising questions about the impending retreat of soldiers in Afghanistan who have been serving in the far more volatile region for half as long.

While the Canadian mission in Bosnia ended with just five officers and one non-commissioned officer serving at NATO headquarters in Sarajevo, there were once as many as 3,000 troops patrolling the Balkans. Over the years, there were 40,000 Canadian deployments and 23 soldiers killed on the job.

A handful of Canadian soldiers will remain in Pristina until 2012 to support the Kosovo Security Force, yet if the rhetoric holds true, all 2,800 Canadian troops in Afghanistan will be home by July 2011.

It's an inconsistency lost on few military experts who suggest the massive withdrawal from Afghanistan, which remains far from secure, is both a bad idea and completely out of character for Canada.

Queen's University defence policy expert Douglas Bland calls it "bizarre" given Canada is still in places such as Cyprus and the Golan Heights 46 and 56 years after the fact, respectively.
More on link


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## GAP (19 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 19, 2010*

 Canada Transfers 163 Prisoners in Afghanistan
Article Link
Josh Pringle Sunday, April 18, 2010

The number of prisoners Canadian troops handed over to Afghan authorities in 2009 was nearly double the total of its allies.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission says Canada transferred 163 prisoners in the first nine months of 2009, compared with 93 confirmed transfers by Britain and 10 by the Netherlands.

The Federal Government refused to release the figures, citing operational security and the safety of troops.

The commission complains it is frustrated by attempts to check on prisoners handed over to Afghanistan’s intelligence service.

The United States has its own system for dealing with captured Taliban fighters
More on link

 Small Canadian medic takes on big role in Afghanistan
 By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceApril 17, 2010
Article Link


SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan - Master Cpl. Mike Cuevas caught sight of his company's new combat medic, and he had doubts.

He'd fought in Afghanistan's heat, climbed over head-high mud walls, leaped water-filled ditches, scrambled to firing positions under incoming rounds, all carrying upwards of 40 kilograms of gear.

The woman standing in front of him stood five feet, one-half-inch. She weighed about the same as his battle kit.

Cpl. Marnie Musson had turned up in Shilo, Man., in 2008 for training exercises with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry - fresh off the boat after almost five years posted to the Canadian navy.

Cuevas knew that as a medic on patrol in Afghanistan, she'd be bearing nearly her own weight through extreme terrain and temperatures.

``Normally I don't judge people, but . . . I thought she was really tiny for her job,'' Cuevas says. ``She looks like a little kid.''

Charlie Company's commander had similar qualms. ``When I met her I thought her equipment would weigh more than she would and I was somewhat concerned,'' says Maj. Wade Rutland.

Musson, 26, says she herself had doubts she'd be selected to work as a medic attached to the "dismounted" foot patrols usually made up of strapping young men.

"I was very shocked when I got the job. I'm not your typical dismount," Musson says.
More on link

 Fear dominates lives of many Afghan women
Article Link
18-year-old slain outside office building

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan ---- A gunman lying in wait shot and killed an 18-year-old woman as she left her job at a U.S.-based development company last week, casting a spotlight on a stepped-up campaign of Taliban intimidation against women in this southern city where U.S. troops plan a major operation in the coming weeks.

Although there was no claim of responsibility and police said the motive for the attack was unclear, Taliban militants have been particularly harsh with women who work for foreign organizations or attend school. Bands of thugs are increasingly harassing women who want jobs, education and their own style of clothing, women and aid workers say.

In Tuesday's attack, the gunman emerged from a hiding place and shot the woman, whose first name was Hossai, after she stepped out of her office building, said deputy police chief Fazle Ahmed Shehzad. Hossai died at the hospital, and the assailant escaped.

Hossai worked for Development Alternatives Inc., a Washington-based global consulting firm that "provides social and economic development solutions to business, government, and civil society in developing and transitioning countries," according to its Web site.

Eight years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power, fear again dominates the lives of many young women and girls in the violent south, the stronghold of a revived Islamist insurgency that curbed women's rights when it ruled most of the country until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

"Every day the security situation gets worse and worse," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a clean-shaven man who has devoted the last 16 years to educating girls, first in the remote border regions of Pakistan and since 2002 in Kandahar.

Ehsan is head of the Afghan Canadian Community Center, which provides vocational training and schooling to men and women. He says each day brings another story of threats against his female students. While many of the threats come from the Taliban, others are from criminals and even police.

Harassment of women comes against the backdrop of a general deterioration of law and order in Kandahar, a city of nearly a half million people.
More on link

 Troops continue Kandahar preparations with wary locals
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes Online Edition, Saturday, April 17, 2010
Article Link

SHUYENE WUSA, Afghanistan

The local mullah was angry. Despite his warm welcome earlier in the day, he insisted that U.S. and Afghan forces could not stay in his village overnight.

“You don’t need to be here. I’ve already told you that security is good,” Hashim Maulawi told Capt. Jimmy Razuri, commander of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. “But since you don’t believe me, I’m not coming to the shura tomorrow.”

Keen not to antagonize the old man further, Razuri ordered his men and the Afghan forces with them to pack up and go. They spent the night at a compound on the outskirts.

It was wise to keep the mullah happy. The district governor was coming the next morning. It would be the first time an Afghan official would visit Shuyene Wusa in nine years, and a crucial first step in re-establishing government authority over the village. If the religious leader refused to attend, other elders would likely stay away, too, and the troops’ mission would fail.

As coalition forces prepare for a large offensive in Kandahar this summer, much of the groundwork is being laid in the Arghandab River Valley and other outlying districts where U.S. soldiers and other forces are working to wrest control from shadowy networks of Taliban guerrillas and reconnect villagers with the provincial government.

U.S. and other NATO officials hope the Kandahar campaign will prove decisive in turning the tide against the insurgency in southern Afghanistan, a key goal in the war. The clock is ticking on President Barack Obama’s promise to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan starting in July 2011 and the coalition is already fraying. Dutch troops will leave by the end of this year, and Canada will end its combat role next year.

But here in the Arghandab River Valley, the soldiers are battling a long history of government neglect and corruption, and trying to win over local leaders who are used to playing all sides.

The two-day operation into Shuyene Wusa, a village of about 800 residents, launched April 10, was based on intelligence that Taliban fighters were using the village as a safe area from which to plan and stage attacks.
More on link


 Taliban leader said ready for peace talks
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 18 (UPI) -- Supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar indicated he might be willing to have peace talks with Western politicians, The Sunday Times of London reported.

In an interview, the newspaper said, two of the Taliban's senior Islamic scholars said they have passed on a message from the Quetta shura, the Taliban's ruling council, that Omar wants "sincere and honest talks" with Western leaders.

The newspaper also quotes the scholars as saying Omar no longer seeks to rule Afghanistan.

A senior U.S. military source said the remarks suggested a "breakthrough" was possible. "There is evidence from many intelligence sources the Taliban are ready for some kind of peace process," the source said.

In an interview in Taliban-controlled territory, two leaders of the group said their military campaign sought the return of Islamic law, expulsion of foreigners and restoration of security.

"(Omar) is no longer interested in being involved in politics or government," said Mullah Abdul Rashid, the elder of the two commanders, who used a pseudonym to protect his identity.

"All the mujahedin seek is to expel the foreigners, these invaders, from our country and then to repair the country's constitution. We are not interested in running the country as long as these things are achieved."

He said the Taliban had become too entwined in politics and lacked the ability to govern the country.
More on link

 Canada's Afghan prisoner tally nearly double its allies'
Article Link
Updated: Sun Apr. 18 2010 6:00:56 PM The Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada outstripped its NATO allies almost two-to-one in the number of prisoners it turned over to Afghan authorities in the first nine months of last year, figures prepared for the Afghan government show.

The statistics were compiled by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and made available to The Canadian Press. Ottawa does not release them.

More ominously, the commission complained in its latest annual report that it is still frustrated in attempts to check on prisoners handed over to the country's notorious intelligence service -- the National Directorate of Security.

The commission, which relies heavily on Canadian government funding and mentorship, says between January and the end of September 2009, it was notified that 267 suspected insurgents were transferred by Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark. The United States has its own separate system for dealing with captured Taliban.

Among NATO allies, the Canadian army was way out in front with 163 prisoners. Britain followed with 93 confirmed transfers; the Netherlands 10 and Denmark 1.

Unlike those countries, who make these numbers publicly available, Ottawa refuses to release its figures, citing operational security and the safety of troops as the reason. Before the U.S. surge, the explanation was that giving away the number of captured with so small a Canadian force on the ground would help the Taliban track where their people might be.

The Canadian numbers, however, are available for the asking in this country. 
More on link


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## GAP (20 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 20, 2010*

Michael Yon:UNHINGED. Milbloggers Intervention
Article Link
 Monday, April 19, 2010

As of yesterday Michael Yon is still lying & laying FALSE blame on BG Menard for something that BG Ben Hodges acknowledged was HIS responsibility

    They were under command of BG Menard. Their battalion (2-508th Infantry Parac...hute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne) remains in one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan, under command of BG Menard
    This battalion should not be under command of a general who allows a strategic bridge to be blown up.

Then he writes this piece of insanity on the same day he gets dis - embedded ( translation he was kicked out of his embed and denied future embeds) for what is NOW the 4th time in his short lived career:

    "Is there an Afghan Patriot? A Leader who cares more about Afghanistan than himself? Karzai's Afghanistan is not worthy of western support. If Afghanistan wants our support, they need to get rid of this guy. Karzai is an obstacle to progress." 

According to Bruce over at FLIT,

    Yon apparently can't see why enabling that sort of unique perspective of his would be a problem for American commanders right now.
    Instead, he blames COMISAF personally, and goes on a bit of a tear. Apparently the American 4-star should be fired, too. Or executed. I'm not clear which:

        McChrystal's crew has spoken: Embed is ended. This comes from McChrystal's own spokesman (through one CPT Jane Campbell USN cc RADM Greg Smith and COL Wayne Shanks USA). This lends confirmation to ideas that the disembed came from McChrystal's crew. (If not before, 100% now.) McChrystal cannot be trusted to tell the truth about this war. Packing my bags.

And then more lies as Yon slips closer to self destruction:

    The disembed from McChrytal’s top staff (meaning from McChrystal himself) is a very bad sign. Sends chills that McChrystal himself thinks we are losing the war. McChrystal has a history of covering up. This causes concern that McChrystal might be misleading SecDef and President.
    Are they getting the facts?

Followed by this insanity, proving to many that Michael Yon has officially become UNHINGED

    Life was good before I went to Iraq. But after three friends were killed during the GWOT, and my growing mistrust for the media and for the US Government/Military, I quit traveling the world and went to war. The United States was in peril. I am American. Today, I do not trust McChrystal anymore than some people trust the New York Times, Obama or Bush. If McChrystal could be trusted, I would go back to my better life. McChrystal is a great killer but this war is above his head. He must be watched..

Words Fail!

But today there are plenty of words from the Milblog community that has FINALLY decided to go public with an 'intervention' in the hopes that Yon might see the light.

Got to wonder where they all were when Yon spent a month lying about BG Menard and Canadian Troops. Their silence back then was deafening.

While Matt (Blackfive) may not have been aware of the bridge incident and the lies Yon spewed about Menard, the idea that NO ONE else that writes for B5 or comments over there, had ANY idea about Yon's well publicized lies ----which not only appeared on Yon's Facebook page for over two weeks, but made the Canadian and UK papers, went viral on twitter and was discussed on several major Canadian Military website forums, andseveral well respected Canadian milblogs, even his his alleged apology appeared on Breitbart's website --- is a bridge too far for me to cross.
More on link


 Detainee-torture allegations spread to Britain 
Article Link
Doug Saunders

London — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Apr. 19, 2010 9:04PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2010 7:49AM EDT

Allegations that Afghan detainees were routinely handed over to Afghan authorities for torture – up to now a largely Canadian scandal – are poised to envelop fellow NATO countries with a London court case that claims Britain exposed hundreds of prisoners to abuse in similar circumstances.

A team of human-rights lawyers presented judges in a London court Monday with thousands of pages of documents it says provide detailed proof that Britain knowingly handed detainees to special prisons run by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, the intelligence agency that is widely believed to use torture as a routine part of its interrogations.

“We’ve got first-hand evidence of systematic torture,” said Michael Fordham QC, the chief lawyer for the human-rights activists bringing the case against the British government. They are in court this week to seek a judicial review of their claims.

If proven, the case would show the British government and military in stark contravention of repeated guarantees that they would not allow prisoners to be mistreated. The lawyers are arguing that Britain broke European human-rights laws in Afghanistan.

Those allegations, which the British government rejects, are nearly identical to those facing the Harper government in Canada and cover a similar time period. 
More on link

 Ardsley man sentenced to more than 10 years in terrorism sting
By Timothy O'Connor • tpoconnor@lohud.com • April 19, 2010 
Article Link

A former Ardsley businessman was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison today for trying to help finance terrorists and for wire fraud.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 57, pleaded guilty to the charges in September in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Alishtari was nabbed by FBI agents in February 2007 as part of an undercover sting operation. He thought he was wiring $152,500 to a Canadian bank account with the money earmarked to buy night vision goggles for terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Federal prosecutors said Alishtari admitted he had been told specifically by the undercover operative that the money was going to terrorist training camps. Alishtari was to receive $15,000 for assisting in the plot.

In addition to the terrorism charge, Alishtari also admitted to wire fraud in connection with an investment scheme that federal prosecutors said was an $18 million fraud.
More on link

 Cohn: Why trade Kandahar for Kinshasa?
Article Link

Michaëlle Jean's African trip this week may be providing cover for what military planners call a probing operation.

The Governor General's presumed mission: soften up any opposition to a Canadian deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo during her African tour this week.

Her target audience, however, is not so much Congo as it is Canada, where her visit is being closely scrutinized to see if she is tipping Ottawa's hand about an expanded peacekeeping mission. Canada's military and political circles are abuzz about what to do with our battle-hardened soldiers, who by next year will be all kitted up with nowhere to go. With a rapidly approaching mid-2011 deadline set by Parliament to start pulling out of Afghanistan, an exit strategy is slowly firming up while a redeployment strategy would move some of those troops to Congo.

For politicians mindful of eroding public support, there may be good reasons for cutting our losses in Afghanistan. Canadians have lost their stomach for the mission. It hasn't gone according to plan, President Hamid Karzai comes across as a crook and the Taliban refuse to die.
More on link

 Canada to oversee training of Afghan teachers
Article Link

Canada’s role will shift from the war room to the classroom after troops leave Afghanistan next year.

A decade-long involvement in Afghanistan will last up to another 10 years as Canada oversees the training of Afghan teachers.

The Canadian International Development Agency is seeking firms to help Afghanistan certify its teachers and the schools that prepare them.

Contained in the recent call for proposals are hints at how Canada’s function in Afghanistan will change after its soldiers come home in 2011.

Chalkboards and classrooms and curricula will replace the bombs and bullets and bloodshed of Kandahar province, where the bulk of Canada’s 2,800 troops are based.

“The project intends to provide Canadian value-added that will foster a long-term institutional partnership with the (ministry of education) teacher-training institutions and other appropriate partners in Afghanistan,” a CIDA contract document says.

The teacher-training contract is worth as much as $10 million over 10 years.

CIDA will pay the winning firm up to $1 million to design the program, but the work and pay can be extended if the federal government decides to go ahead with the project.

“It is envisioned that the actual project activities will be about three to five years,” the document says.
More on link

 Canada not aiming to win, just not lose
Article Link
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. Apr 19 - 4:53 AM

ON MY FIRST unembedded trip into Afghanistan in January 2007, I had the good fortune to meet up with a former U.S. navy SEAL named "Chet."

This ex-special forces operative had been attached to the Northern Alliance during the early phases of the U.S. intervention to oust the Taliban in 2001. Along with a handful of other Americans, Chet had been deployed as an adviser to assist the ruthless Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Supported by U.S. airpower and with their Afghan militia sprinkled with American commandos, Dostum and the other alliance warlords quickly crushed the Taliban field forces and toppled their rogue regime.

Believing that the collapse of the Taliban signalled a victory of sorts in Afghanistan — albeit the stated goal of capturing Osama bin Laden remains unfulfilled — the Pentagon switched their sights onto Iraq instead.

As the U.S. propaganda machine whipped lame duck Iraqi President Saddam Hussein into a "clear and present danger" due to his fictitious weapons of mass destruction, Chet decided to pursue a different line of work.

Shedding his SEAL uniform, he went into business as a nightclub owner in Kabul.

Catering strictly to the international community, Chet opened the Bayou Blues jazz bar complete with Cajun-style cuisine. A mutual friend who knew that I was intending to interview Dostum had brought me to the Bayou Blues in order to meet Chet.

Initially, like most former special forces types, Chet was reluctant to discuss his wartime activities. At that particular juncture, there was a lot of noise being made in the western media about alleged war crimes involving Dostum’s handling of Taliban prisoners.
More on link

 Rising death toll for its soldiers in Afghanistan forces Germany to say: it’s war
David Crossland, Foreign Correspondent April 19. 2010 11:04PM UAE /
Article Link

Germany is rushing heavy artillery and armoured vehicles to Afghanistan after a sharp rise in casualties that has sparked fears about the combat readiness of its military and has forced the government to admit a fact it had long denied – that its troops are at war.

The new equipment includes two state-of-the-art PzH 2000 howitzers, capable of firing shells up to 40km, to reinforce the troops based in northern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents killed seven German soldiers in ambushes on April 2 and last Thursday.

The casualties bring the number of German soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 43 since 2001. The rising death toll prompted the defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, to break a taboo and refer to the Afghan mission as war, ending the government’s longheld insistence that German forces were on a “stabilisation mission” in the country.

The attacks have reignited an anguished debate about the purpose of the mission. Public opposition to the deployment has been growing across Europe, but is particularly strong in Germany, which is still imbued with pacifism as a result of the Second World War.

“This government and the German media and public did not want to acknowledge how serious the situation in Afghanistan is. The arming up of German forces is part of a reality check,” Sebastian Schulte, a military analyst at Jane’s Defence Weekly, said in an interview.
More on link

 Afghan Detainees Not On The Radar Of Afghans
April 19, 2010 — Adrian MacNair
Article Link

I wrote an article for the National Post that appeared in the Friday edition about Afghan detainees. Due to constraints of space, they obviously could not print the full version. Here is that version now, for those who have wondered how the detainee issue plays in the minds of Afghans. Thanks to Terry Glavin for his assistance in this article.

The Canadian media has switched its focus on Afghanistan in recent months from what is happening overseas to what is happening right here at home involving government documents on Canada’s mission in Kandahar. The buzz word has been the alleged “torture” of suspected insurgents captured by Canadian Forces, precipitating the so-called “Afghan detainee abuse scandal.”

An EKOS poll released last week, however, indicates that Canadians haven’t been paying very close attention to the details of the scandal. When asked how closely they have been following how the federal government has handled the Canadian military’s transfer of detainees to Afghan authorities, 43 per cent of those surveyed said “not at all”, while 40 per cent said they have followed it “somewhat closely.”

The reason most widely cited for Stephen Harper’s prorogation of Parliament last December is that he was dodging politically damaging questions from the opposition about the handling of Afghan detainees. The subject has thoroughly dominated agenda of the House of Commons’ Special Committee on Afghanistan in recent months.

But while Canadians have been polled and questioned on how they feel about the mission in Afghanistan, there has been far less reporting on what actual Afghans themselves are saying about the so-called “scandal”, or whether it is resonating with any force over there.

Najia Haneefi is the founder of the Afghan Women Political Participation Committee in Kabul, moving to Canada from Afghanistan in 2007. Canada has already paid too much attention to the detainee issue, she said in a telephone interview from her home in Ottawa.
More on link


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## George Wallace (20 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 20, 2010*

 Kandahar vice-mayor killed in mosque
Article Link
20/04/2010 8:20:15 AM
CBC News 


*Insurgents killed the vice-mayor of the Afghan city of Kandahar as he prayed in a mosque, an official said Tuesday.*

Azizullah Yarmal was shot while he and dozens of others were praying during Monday night services, said Zalmai Ayubi, a spokesman for Kandahar province.

The assailants escaped and no arrests have been made. Mosques in the region typically have low security, making them vulnerable.

"That's a man who's trying to serve the people of Afghanistan and he was killed deliberately by the insurgents in what is no less than a terrorist attack," said NATO's senior civilian representative, Mark Sedwill.

The attack is the latest in a string of killings of Afghan government workers in the southern part of the country.

"This is the work of the enemies of Afghanistan," Ayubi said. "They don't want these honest people to serve the Afghan people and work in government institutions."

The slaying also comes as soldiers prepare to launch an assault against insurgents in the region.

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan to support the planned push against insurgents in Kandahar. The move against the Taliban will come ahead of a planned parliamentary election in September.

With files from The Associated Press


----------



## GAP (21 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 21, 2010*

'Model' Canadian village handed over to U.S. in Afghanistan
 By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceApril 20, 2010
Article Link

DEH-E-BAGH, Afghanistan — Canada's highly praised "model village" in Dand district is being handed over to U.S. army control, as Canadian combat troops move to volatile Panjwaii district.

The American surge of thousands more soldiers into Afghanistan is enabling Canadian battle troops to leave Dand for Panjwaii, where the Taliban are firmly entrenched just west of the Canadian front lines and NATO's upcoming Kandahar province offensive is expected to be especially violent.

"The influx of troops is allowing Canada to better concentrate its forces to really saturate one district," said Canadian Forces Maj. Mark Popov, commander of the outgoing soldiers in Deh-e-Bagh and the handful of other Dand outposts. "There are still a lot of areas in Panjwaii where the insurgents operate freely. And there are areas of Panjwaii where unfortunately some pretty hard combat operations will be needed to clear them out."

In Dand, development and governance-building work by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Foreign Affairs Department will continue under U.S. protection after the combat soldiers leave.

"The civilian contributions to the stabilization effort in Dand remain the same," said Ben Rowswell, the Representative of Canada in Kandahar.

The Canadian military's civil-military co-operation officers, construction corps and police trainers will also continue to operate in Dand.
More on link


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## GAP (22 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 22, 2010*

 War-zone ethics
Article Link
 April 21, 2010  - Posted by Dana Lacey  

AP war correspondent Christopher Torchia, in Afghanistan, writes about fears, thrills and the ethics of embedded reporting. 

Torchia wrote a long, personal note about his experiences--and the ethical questions that arise in the day-to-day dangers of life with the military.

"All around, men roared and rifles thudded. Sprawled in the earth in an open field, an American soldier to the left handed me a wounded man's ammunition belt. Even as Taliban bullets whipped overhead, I thought about professional codes of conduct. Carry the belt? Or not?

I was a journalist, not a soldier. My job was to observe without bias, not take part. Yet surely it was a time for instincts rather than circumspection; a time for decisions geared to survival.
In four weeks of reporting on the war in Afghanistan as a journalist embedded with the U.S. military, I found many such troubling questions about my role — and about why I was there in the first place.

So raw and instantaneous, combat inspires introspection. The premise that war exposes the essential nature of people is hard to dispute, once you have witnessed it. Centuries of literature attest to its magnetism. Combat is the most elemental act, and the most intricate. For all its spectacular horrors, it will never lack an audience.

Most spectators feed their fascination from a safe perch — in front of a television screen, or in a movie theater, or with books and games. For journalists, the questions begin with the decision to leave home and head into a combat zone. They have the choice, unlike many soldiers who accept grave risk as the institutional trade-off in a military career that can provide education, stability and adventure.

"Are you thrill-seekers?" a military medic asked Associated Press photographer Pier Paolo Cito and me after we climbed into a Stryker infantry vehicle for the first time.
More on link

 Safety of our troops should top prisoner rights
  Article Link 
By Stanley Taube, Special to The ProvinceApril 22, 2010

For several months, the federal Conservative government has come under criticism for the treatment of Afghans who are captured or "detained" by Canadian Forces.

These detainees are usually handed over to Afghan authorities. The allegations are that we are careless and have little or no regard as to how the detainees are subsequently treated. Many have apparently been treated poorly.

For some, this seems like an Alice in Wonderland scenario. We have sent military forces to Afghanistan to wage war on terrorists. Surely the object of waging war is to win the war. You don't go to war to reinforce national standards of morality or decency.

Naturally, it would be preferable to conduct war on a level of impeccable morality. Who wouldn't like it to be that way? Stretching back to the late 1800s, there have been treaties and protocols collectively called the Geneva Convention, which set out rules for the conduct of war. But the growing scale and changing nature of war have made following those rules difficult, if not impossible.

The two major world wars of the last century represented the breakdown of wartime morality.
More on link
 
 Canadians encouraged Afghan Army to take prisoners: Semrau court martial
  Article Link 
By Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa CitizenApril 19, 2010

Canadian soldiers embedded with Afghan National Army forces encouraged them to take possession of their own detainees rather than put them in Canadian control, a court martial has heard.

Warrant Officer Merlin Longaphie said that members of the Canadian Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) were not ordered to avoid taking prisoners.

“But we were to encourage the Afghan National Army to take possession of them, rather than us,” he testified Monday.

The Canadian mentoring teams were too small to handle Afghan detainees, he said, but would make an exception if it involved a high value target.

Longaphie was part of a four-man mentoring team led by Captain Robert Semrau, 36, who faces court martial for second-degree murder.

The prosecution alleges that Semrau shot and killed a severely wounded Taliban fighter during an operation in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province on Oct. 19, 2008.

Semrau, a father of two young children, has pleaded not guilty to four charges stemming from the incident.

It is the prosecution’s theory that Semrau shot the disarmed Taliban insurgent as a battlefield mercy killing.
More on link

  Too obese for battle?
Article Link
A group of retired military officers says 27 percent of young Americans are too fat to serve. Are lousy school lunches threatening our national security?
posted on April 21, 2010, at 1:31 PM

How serious is this problem?
According to military recruiters, 48,000 would-be enlistees were rejected solely for being overweight between 2005 and 2009. Also, about 12,000 soldiers leave the U.S. military prematurely each year because they can't pass the annual physical fitness test. Retired Navy Rear Adm. James Barnett Jr., a Mission: Readiness spokesperson, says that our national security in 2030 is dependent on reversing childhood obesity trends now.

What does Mission: Readiness propose we do?
The organization wants Congress to improve school lunches and pull all junk food and soft drinks out of schools. (Their report cites studies showing that students get 40 percent of their calories at school, and that 80 percent of kids who are overweight at ages 10 to 15 are obese by age 25.)

How much would that cost?
Mission: Readiness is backing a Senate nutrition bill that would allocate $4.5 billion over 10 years to improving school cuisine.

Is this the first time the military has been up in arms about school lunches?
Ironically, no. Military leaders pushed Congress to create the national school lunch program in 1946, "as a measure of national security," because so many soldiers in World War II were rejected due to stunted growth or other problems tied to undernourishment. 
More on link

 NATO looks for a few good militiamen in Kandahar; hoping to convert to cops
Article Link
By: Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS 21/04/2010

NATO commanders in Kandahar are hoping to lure a handful of tribal militias into the Afghan National Police as a way of further cementing law and order in the region, says a senior officer.

But the plan is not without critics, who describe the notorious corrupt police force as a "broken institution."

A defence source said Wednesday one of the more prominent targets of negotiations is expected to be Gen. Razik, who has built his own militia around the Adozai, a prominent branch of the Achakzai tribe in the border region on Spin Boldak. There are other smaller community-type tribal militias in Kandahar, whom the coalition would like to persuade to join the police.

Canadian Brig.-Gen. Craig King, director of future plans for NATO's regional command south, would not name the tribal militias being considered, but said you can't have multiple police-type forces running around the countryside.

"There's a couple around right now and we're in delicate stages, trying to build the force and bring them in," King said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

He estimated about 100 militia members might be brought in during the initial stage. But they would have to agree to be screened and trained just like the thousands of other police recruits who are the subject of intense mentoring.

King also made a clear distinction between tribal militias - or village constabularies - and private security forces for local powerbrokers.

"We're not talking the same sort of thing as warlords, private armies (that) operate outside the authority of the government," he said.

They would have to have "a certain degree of authority within the tribal framework."
More on link

 Security Brief: The difficulties of training Afghan police
Article Link

Yar Mohammed is a police chief in Kandahar and his "in-tray" is overflowing. Besides commanding fledgling recruits to the force - and trying to convince more to join, he is a prime target, as is anyone in a position of authority - for the Taliban. And he has to deal with the perennial curse of corruption within his own force.

He tells visiting U.S. soldiers that when he sends new recruits to submit their paperwork, they often have to pay a fee - in cash. There should not be any fee, but this is Afghanistan.

Tales of corruption abound - Afghans going through the Western training courses tell their trainers how they never get their full salary because their senior officers take a cut first.

The latest program to improve the professionalism of Afghan police is an eight-week course overseen by international trainers. It's basic - after all, while many express a desire to protect their people, some recruits are illiterate.

"So, in the classroom, we have to teach them by rote, and when they're tested it has to be all verbal," one official said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (22 Apr 2010)

Partnering in Afghanistan
New McChrystal Approach Means Greater Danger for German Forces (usual copyright disclaimer)
Spiegel Online, April 22
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,690526,00.html



> During his much-anticipated visit to Berlin, US General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, refrained from making any demands for additional German troops. But McChrystal's new "partnering" strategy means the Bundeswehr will have to get involved in highly dangerous operations...
> 
> McChrystal wants to explain what he has in mind. He believes that NATO can succeed in Afghanistan, he says. And no matter how hard the journalists press him, he does not mention a single demand. "I am not asking for more troops," McChrystal said. Instead, he said, he is *putting the 5,000 additional American troops that are being deployed to northern Afghanistan unconditionally under German command* [emphasis added].
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (23 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 23, 2010*

 Afghan detainee monitoring not undermined by offer of advance notice, Ottawa insists 
Article Link
Posted on23 April 2010. 

 Canada offered to give Afghan jailers advance notice of detainee monitoring visits but Ottawa insists the proposal of 14 months ago was a blunder by a senior diplomat that never undermined the way this country inspects for torture.

The Harper government regularly boasts of its stringent efforts to safeguard prisoners that Canadian soldiers hand over to Afghanistan’s torture-prone intelligence service. Since 2007, these include surprise visits so that Afghan jailers can’t hide evidence of abuse.

“Our officials can visit prisons unannounced at any time. These are great improvements from the previous arrangement we inherited,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the Commons last December.

But on Feb. 11, 2009, Canada signed a letter along with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands that proposed what would be a big change in how monitoring takes place.

It appears to have been an effort to coax the Afghan National Directorate of Security to reopen detention facilities to the three countries after the notorious intelligence agency stopped allowing check-up visits to at least some locations.
More on link

 Nato sets out plans to transfer control in Afghanistan 
Article Link

Nato is preparing to hand control of parts of Afghanistan to the Afghan people this year, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasumussen has said.

Nato foreign ministers, and their partners in the international coalition in Afghanistan, have been meeting in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

They endorsed a plan to gradually transfer security and governance powers to Afghan authorities.

The US and Nato have 126,000 troops there, rising to 150,000 by August.

US President Barack Obama has said that the US aims to begin pulling troops out of Afghanistan in 2011.

But at the heart of Nato's strategy is creating the right conditions to allow the Afghan government to take full control.

July summit

"As of today, we have a road map which will lead towards transition to Afghan lead [control], starting this year," Mr Rasmussen said. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (23 Apr 2010)

Bombs, bullets and boredom: Charlie Company saw it all
CP, April 23
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9016148.html



> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Many of them came charging into Kandahar last fall with visions in their minds of gun battles and light armoured vehicles laying down cannon fire across the desert.
> 
> But for members of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, theirs turned out to be a very different war.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (23 Apr 2010)

"More Reason for Optimism"
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up (lots more than Afstan--Congo, Iran), April 23
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1272051554/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (24 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 24, 2010*

 Allies to turn blind eye to corruption as Afghan exit strategy agreed
Article Link
Troops will remain in place 'for decades' after handover to support local forces
By Kim Sengupta, in Tallinn

Nato has agreed on its long-awaited road map for the future of Afghanistan
amid warnings that the process risks tolerating corruption and the power of the warlords for the sake of security
.

The Alliance's summit in the Estonian capital ended last night without the details of the framework for a handover of security to President Hamid Karzai's forces being made public. The Independent has learned, however, that an area will be deemed ready for transfer if serious violence has been in abeyance for a period of time, if there is access to power by different ethnic and tribal elements and if the conditions are present for development projects taking place in relative safety.

According to senior diplomatic sources, clusters of provinces, rather than individual ones, will be transferred to "provide critical mass" able to withstand the Taliban. The decisions on the locations for handover and the timeframe involved will be made at a Nato conference later this year after talks between Western and Afghan government officials.
Related articles

    * Attacks against contractors surging in Afghanistan
    * Search the news archive for more stories

The start of the handover will not, however, mean that troops can start to withdraw, Nato officials stressed. British troops in particular will have to wait before pulling out as the areas in the south where they are based – the main battleground with the Taliban --– will be among the last to be transferred to Afghan control. Gordon Brown had stated that the handover process will start this year, allowing UK forces to begin returning home.

The Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, warned: "The future of this mission is clear and visible: more Afghan capability and more Afghan leadership... But it will not be a pullout. It will not be a run for the exit... Our soldiers will move into a more supportive role. So it will be a gradual process. This is conditions-based and not calendar-driven.''

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
said: "We believe that with sufficient training and mentoring, the Afghans themselves are perfectly capable of defending themselves against insurgents. Does this mean it will be smooth sailing? I don't think so, just look at Iraq. A lot of progress has been made there but there are still problems with terrorism."

Mrs Clinton said she appreciated that there was a shortfall of staff to train the Afghan security forces. However, she added: "We have a gap that we're still working to fill. I'm convinced we'll get that filled. For me, the glass is way more than half full." 
More on link

 Detainee-monitoring changes never implemented: Cannon
  Article Link 
By JULIET O'NEILL, Canwest News ServiceApril 24, 2010

A Canadian diplomat's offer to Afghan authorities to both conduct joint-detainee monitoring with British and Dutch officials and to give advance notice of detention centre visits was never implemented, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said yesterday.

Cannon told the House of Commons the offers - which had been expressed in a joint letter with diplomats from Britain and the Netherlands - had "neither standing nor effect" and that Canada has never swerved from a May 3, 2007 policy of unannounced visits to Afghan detention facilities to check detainees transferred by Canadian armed forces.

The February 2009 letter to Amrullah Saleh, head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), has been cited in a British court case on alleged torture of British-transferred detainees as an attempt "to pander to the NDS" at a time when it appeared to be limiting access, stalling investigations of prisoner abuse and moving prisoners without notice.

The letter also said the British, Dutch and Canadians "assure you of our commitment to help build a new NDS detention facility in Kabul."

The signing of the letter by Ben Rowswell, Canada's then-embassy chargé d'affaires, was described as "a misstep from the embassy" in testimony by Ron Hoffman, the Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan in 2008-2009, at a Commons committee hearing earlier this week.

"The provisions of the letter had neither standing nor effect," Cannon said. "The chargé d'affaires did sign the letter, but the contents of the letter were never implemented.

"Immediately after reviewing the letter, ambassador Hoffmann reiterated Canada's long-standing new transfer policy to the NDS, that officials would conduct unannounced visits with considerable frequency, and the NDS did know that."
More on link

 Violence, greed and poverty stall aid
 A tale of two villages. Canadian reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan receive mixed reception
 By ETHAN BARON, Canwest News ServiceApril 24, 2010
Article Link

Violence, greed and poverty: the trio of ills hampering development efforts in Afghanistan confronted a Canadian Forces patrol this week in two villages that sit beside each other but remain worlds apart.

For these soldiers from the military's construction, civilian-co-operation and combat groups, the journey through West Teymurian and Angurian, 10 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, is an exercise in frustration, a struggle for compassion and further evidence that success here is measured in tiny steps.

They leave just after sunrise - led by two Afghan policemen to put a government face on the mission - marching from a tiny fortified outpost by the Tarnak River, past green fields of ripening wheat sprinkled with pot plants. At the outskirts of West Teymurian, a large white dog approaches, barking ferociously but showing enough sense to keep its distance from soldiers and officers bristling with guns, rockets and grenades.

Inside the village, a toddler sits on a dirt road, her feet in a Canadian-built concrete gutter clotted with sewage, mud and trash. She looks at the soldiers and starts to cry. An older boy scoops her up and runs into a compound. Other children greet the soldiers in Pashto and follow behind.

At a large pit in a dirt clearing, Chief Warrant Officer Fred Denninger talks to the Afghan manager of a Canadian-funded playground project. The military's Construction Management Organization (CMO) is paying local men and boys to fill the pit so the Civil-Military Co-operation section can build the playground. The villagers are paid $10 to work half the day, so "they can work in their fields for their other half, grow their marijuana or whatever," Denninger says.

Corrupt contractors exploit Canada's focus on village development, Denninger says. "They are overbidding because they know that's what our main interest is. If we want to get stuff done, we have to work with them. The contractors are definitely getting rich."
More on link

 Canadian battle group saw bullets, boredom in Kandahar
Article Link

The Canadian Press

Date: Friday Apr. 23, 2010 2:43 PM ET

KANDAHAR — Many of them came charging into Kandahar last fall with visions in their minds of gun battles and light armoured vehicles laying down cannon fire across the desert.

But for members of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, theirs turned out to be a very different war.

The battle group's commanding officer, Lt.-Col. Jerry Walsh, seemed fond of quoting some of his soldiers, whom he said described their tour as "living like rats" in the tiny, spartan patrol bases that dot the Panjwaii district outside Kandahar city.

Even for the veterans of Charlie Company, the last six months have seemed a little bit unreal.

The unit, among the most storied in today's Canadian army, has seen two tours of this region. It was among the first companies to be bloodied by the Taliban as violence spiralled out of control in the spring of 2006.

There are many fresh faces in the ranks, some of them young kids who joined up in 2007 watching the images of Charlie Company's battles on the television news.

But that was then. That was back in a time when Canada was defending virtually the entire province and soldiers were running between battles.

"We were firefighters back then," the veterans like to say.

The influx of thousands of U.S. troops was marked the other day by the handover of Canada's so-called model village project in Deh-e-Bagh, in nearby Dand district, to an American unit.

The reinforcements have radically changed the face of this conflict. 
More on link

Afghanistan: US wants British troops to leave Helmand
Senior British military figures have held talks with top US commanders about moving UK troops from the country's Helmand province to the Kandahar region.
Article Link
By Toby Harnden, Thomas Harding and Damien McElroy Published: 10:00PM BST 23 Apr 2010 

Discussions over have taken place between Gen David Petraeus and Army officers following months of pressure from the American military.

The move would be highly-controversial as more than 252 of the 281 British troops to die in Afghanistan have been killed in Helmand. 

A switch to Kandahar would risk undermining public support but a refusal to do so would risk alienating the Americans.

The issue is likely to be one of the first and most difficult decisions to be taken by the next Prime Minister following the May 6 election.

US commanders believe command arrangements would be greatly simplified if US Marines controlled the whole of Helmand and are keen to get on with the job.

Senior British figures have resisted the idea for some time but generals and senior diplomats are increasingly warming to the idea that they should "declare victory" in Helmand and move west to the city of Kandahar.

Foreign Office sources in London said that the relocation was now becoming an "assumption" in some quarters rather than a mere option.

Lt Gen Sir Nick Parker, deputy commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, and Maj Gen Nick Carter, commander of Nato forces in southern Afghanistan, are understood to have advocated the switch on the grounds of coherence of command and in the interests of maintaining relations with the Marine Expeditionary Force.

Gen Petraeus, senior American commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, and Gen Stanley McChrystal, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, are strongly in favour. 
More on link


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## GAP (25 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 25, 2010*

 Forged in the fire of Afghanistan
Article Link
Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau

The maiden mission of the Afghan war for Canada’s elite JTF2 commandos almost killed them.

Over Pakistan, returning from a daring raid on an enemy compound, six of the members of the secretive team narrowly avoided a crash when their helicopter nearly ran out of fuel as it spirited them to safety.

They escaped with their lives – and with their hands on their prize.

Also on that flight in late 2001 were six United States Green Berets and a computer hard drive that would help greatly in the hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders.

That hard drive was the ultimate quarry of the Canadian mission, part of Task Force K-Bar, the name given the unit of special forces soldiers which arrived in Afghanistan from seven countries. It included Canada’s JTF2.

The inside story of that mission can now be told for the first time following a Toronto Star investigation into the top-secret operations that would cement Canada's reputation as one of the top special forces teams in the world.

The international task force has been credited with killing more than 100 top level Taliban and al Qaeda leaders and the JTF2 stalks the enemy in Afghanistan to this day. But the distance of time has now shed light on that initial six-month deployment of Canada’s most secretive soldiers.
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 Injured captain returns to duty: 'If I can do it, why wouldn't I?'
  Article Link
Officer inspires others to overcome staggering odds and keep working
 Edmonton JournalApril 25, 2010 3:04 AM

Capt. Simon Mailloux had to be told six times that he'd lost half his left leg.

The first five times, he completely forgot.

Every time he fell asleep, he'd forget what he'd learned while awake. Again and again, he woke in an unfamiliar bed, surrounded by doctors he didn't recognize and was told a roadside bomb in Afghanistan had left him an amputee.

"That was the worst time of all of it," the Quebec-based soldier remembers, "being helpless in that bed."

Days earlier, on Sept. 16, 2007, Mailloux was a platoon commander in a mission to open a police sub-station in southern Afghanistan. Basically, to try some law and order in a region that had little.

On a Zhari district road, his light armoured vehicle was struck by a massive IED blast that killed two Canadian soldiers, including a medic, and an Afghan interpreter.

"There was a big shock wave of heat in my face," the 26-year-old remembers. "It was like an oven that was punching me in the face. My leg couldn't move, my jaw was fractured on the right side and I had other facial injuries. I was out of it, I was trying to look around. I tried to reach my weapon to defend myself, because that's the training. Really, though, I was helpless."

Mailloux was rescued by his uninjured driver. As he was carried on a stretcher onto a helicopter for the ride to the Kandahar Airfield hospital, Mailloux grabbed the arm of his major.

"I remember telling him, 'Just wait for me. I'll be back in a couple weeks, I'll be back.' I didn't know how bad my injury was and it actually meant I was really out of there. I wanted to come back at that point, and it's been inside me since then."

Even wounded, he felt guilty for leaving as the chopper lifted into the air.

The next time he woke, he was in Germany with a spotty memory and a leg amputated through the knee.
More on link

 RCMP ready for beefed-up Afghan role: chief
Last Updated: Saturday, April 24, 2010
Article Link

Canadian combat troops are slated to leave Afghanistan next summer, but RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said Saturday he expects his personnel will have to stay behind to undertake the "huge challenge" of training police officers.

About 50 RCMP and other civilian Canadian police are posted to Afghanistan as part of a mission to train the Afghan National Police. The ANP, as it's known, has had a reputation for roadside shakedowns and graft that Canadian officials hope mentoring, training and supervision will eradicate.

Elliott, who visited Kandahar this weekend to review the Mounties' operations there, said he's seen "indications from the government" that it wants the training to plow on once combat soldiers ship out starting in July 2011.

"I expect that that will continue," he said of the police mission.

"I don't know what the future will bring," the commissioner added. "We're at the beginning of looking at options, but there are a lot more questions than answers at the moment."

One question is whether the Tories will seek to send more police to Afghanistan to fill the void left by the withdrawal of the Canadian Forces. The federal government has been pressured by the United States to maintain a large presence in the central Asian country past 2011.

Elliott assured that if Ottawa wants to beef up its constabulary presence as it draws down the military one, "we'll be able carry out whatever task the government of Canada gives us here."
Recruits substandard, RCMP chief says

Those tasks aren't easy. As foreign mentors try to cleanse the Afghan National Police of its venal tendencies — officers have been known to routinely hit up the subjects of their investigations for a payoff and are widely distrusted by the populace — they've had to adapt their teaching methods for the different calibre of the force's cadets.
More on link

  Political failure in Afghanistan
Posted By GRANT LAFLECHE
Article Link

I cannot help but wonder if all the effort, the spilled blood and lost soldiers in Afghanistan have been worth it.

Our troops have put a consistent beating on Taliban forces. You really have to look at Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks in 1988 to find another beating this complete -- that was when pre-crazy-tattooed Tyson put poor Spinks through the ropes in 91 seconds of the first round. The Taliban is the Michael Spinks of military combat.

But how much has Afghanistan changed? We've lost more than 140 soldiers since the mission began. Yet the country is still run by Hamid Karzai, a corrupt ex-Taliban who, after finally getting some political pressure from the West to clean up his act, is threatening to join his old buddies.

Yes, there have been some elections, but they were marred by fraud. Schools have been built, but girls still face the real risk of having battery acid thrown in their faces for having the gall to want an education. Women are still murdered if they dare decline the privilege of being covered from head to toe in heavy cloth. Karazi's government has a ministry to enforce Sharia law. The tradition of bacha bazi, a pedophilia black market where little boys are bought and sold as sex slaves for men, continues unabated and even involves Afghan military and police! (Check out the recent PBS Frontline expose on the issue called The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan.)

This is what Canadian troops are dying to protect? It's hard to look at the Afghanistan mission in 2010 without adding the word "failure."

To be clear, this is not a military failure. For the most part Taliban troops are a disorganized gaggle of lunatics who need a stiff belt of homegrown opium to work up the courage to face a modern military like ours. So the best these idiots can do is harass allied forces with roadside bombs. The explosions can be tragic, but they won't ever win a war. 
More on link
  
Afghan spy chief: 'I told MI5 that prisoners were being tortured'
Article Link
UK forces are accused of handing over Taliban detainees to Kandahar interrogators despite claims of ill-treatment

Fresh claims have emerged that MI5 was aware of allegations that Afghan detainees were being mistreated by the country's security service during the period UK forces were handing prisoners over to the Afghan authorities.

Last week the high court heard details of torture allegedly suffered by prisoners handed over to the Afghan domestic security service. A memo, seen by the Observer, reveals that the head of Afghanistan's intelligence agency indicated to UK officials in March 2007 that he was aware of ill-treatment claims involving prisoners.

In the document, marked confidential, Amrullah Saleh, chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), admits he is "aware of allegations of mistreatment" relating to detainees in Kandahar province.

Human rights lawyers allege that no action appears to have been taken by UK forces as a result and that British troops handed over detainees to the NDS Kandahar facility in 2007.

The memo coincides with a judicial review in the high court, being brought by anti-war activist Maya Evans against Britain's policy of transferring suspected insurgents.

The court heard how six Afghan detainees – Taliban suspects – handed over by British troops to NDS prisons were allegedly deprived of sleep, whipped with rubber cables and subjected to electric shocks. Backed by law firm Public Interest Lawyers, Evans argues Britain has breached the Human Rights Act by handing over prisoners to a country known to participate in torture. The lawyers claim the NDS had a notorious reputation for mistreating prisoners and British officers should have known of the risks.

Saleh's admission is contained in a memo written a month before allegations surfaced in the Canadian press that the country's soldiers deliberately transferred prisoners to be tortured. The allegations provoked uproar in Canada with pressure still building on the government to launch a public inquiry into the claims.
More on link

 B.C. centre will help veterans return to normal life
Article Link

The Canadian Press

Date: Saturday Apr. 24, 2010 6:32 PM PT

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — When Tony Spiess came back from Canada's peacekeeping mission in Croatia in 1993, he came back with a lot of baggage.

He'd borne witness to genocide and hatred, and ultimately ended up in a fire fight with heavily armed Croatian troops in the battle of Medak Pocket. He was suffering from post-traumatic stress and didn't find much in the way of help.

"Coming home from Croatia, there was absolutely nothing. I was fighting, and then a week later I was walking the streets of Vancouver," said Spiess, who was a member of the Seaforth Highlanders.

"We're talking experiencing and witnessing and fighting genocide, ethnic cleansing and all this stuff, and a week later, here I am walking the streets. And not just me -- I'm talking about a battalion of men."

Then, when he left the forces in 1997, there were not a lot of job postings for machine gunners. He didn't know what to do next.

Spiess came across the Veterans Transition Program, funded by the Royal Canadian Legion with help from the University of British Columbia. Through the intensive program aimed at reintegrating soldiers into civilian life, he began to deal with his psychological scars and set off on a new life outside the military.

Now 40 and a professional firefighter, Spiess was there on Saturday when ground was broken for Honour House, a unique transition house that will offer respite and help for soldiers and first-responders such as police, firefighters and paramedics.

"It was just fantastic to actually walk through the house and see it and know a lot of soldiers and first-responders are going to be using this and a lot of families are going to benefit," he said afterwards.

The 10-bedroom, 10-bath home in New Westminster will undergo a major renovation in the next few months to become a first-of-its-kind retreat.

Honour House has been described as a Ronald McDonald House for soldiers and first-responders. They and their families will be able to stay free in the home while they or a member of their families are seeking medical or psychological treatment.

And the Veterans Transition Program, the intensive 14-day program that helped Spiess get back on his feet, will be run out of Honour House. 
More on link

 More questions than answers in post-2011 Afghan cop training: RCMP boss 
Article Link
Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The RCMP has started looking at how to continue the police training mission in Afghanistan after the Canadian military pulls out next year, the Mounties' top man said Saturday.

But Commissioner William Elliot noted there are a number of details and variables to be worked out, among them, who would protect and transport the police trainers as they go about their business in the volatile country.

"We're at the beginning of looking at options, but there are a lot more questions than answers at the moment," Elliot told reporters after wrapping up a brief visit to Kandahar.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay dropped a broad hint a few weeks ago that Canada's continued involvement here would likely revolve around police training, but he gave few specifics.

Elliot said the RCMP is prepared to carry on, but will need the participation of municipal forces across the country, in much the same way it has for other international missions.

"Working with all of the police community in Canada, we'll be able to carry out whatever task the government of Canada gives us in Afghanistan," he said.

There are 48 Canadian police trainers at the joint Canadian and American provincial reconstruction base in Kandahar. But they rely heavily on the Canadian army for protection and movement throughout the city, and the rural areas.

There is the possibility that members from the U.S. army's 97th Military Police Battalion which is already located at the reconstruction base, could step in to the role vacated by the army, said Elliot.

"I think there are a lot of specifics to be worked out," he added.

The RCMP commissioner's comments are only the latest question mark to be raised about what happens in Kandahar, starting next year.

Recently the civilian in charge of Canadian reconstruction, Ben Rowswell, said that diplomats and development staff have not been given any marching orders on what happens after the army goes.

"We're awaiting direction from our ministers in Ottawa," Rowswell told reporters April 11.

"We know that we're committed to delivering development projects beyond 2011, but there are many ways you can deliver development projects, depending on how you do it. You either have civilians on the ground - or you don't."

Ottawa has been under mounting international pressure to stay beyond the 2011 deadline, but the Conservative government has been steadfast in its determination to end the military mission. Federal cabinet ministers have mused about continued diplomacy and development, but have been largely silent on how that will happen without soldiers. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (25 Apr 2010)

Friends and foes in an Afghan shooting gallery
_Toronto Star_, April 24
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/800301--friends-and-foes-in-an-afghan-shooting-gallery



> It was easy to see the enemy everywhere in the wild west, early days of the Afghanistan invasion.
> 
> The country, some military officials later recalled, was a commando “shooting gallery” and the top secret missions amounted to little more than man-hunting.
> 
> ...



A tale of two villages: Stark differences between neighbouring Afghan towns.
Canwest News, April 24
http://www.canada.com/tale+villages+Stark+differences+between+neighbouring+Afghan+towns/2943785/story.html



> WEST TEYMURIAN, Afghanistan - Violence, greed and poverty: the trio of ills hampering development efforts in Afghanistan confronted a Canadian Forces patrol this week in two villages that sit beside each other but remain worlds apart.
> 
> For these soldiers from the military's construction, civilian-co-operation and combat groups, the journey through West Teymurian and Angurian, 10 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, is an exercise in frustration, a struggle for compassion and further evidence that success here is measured in tiny steps.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (26 Apr 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND APRIL 26

Elite U.S. Units Step Up Effort in Afghan City Before Attack
_NY Times_, April 25
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/world/asia/26kandahar.html?ref=world



> Small bands of elite American Special Operations forces have been operating with increased intensity for several weeks in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan’s largest city, picking up or picking off insurgent leaders to weaken the Taliban in advance of major operations, senior administration and military officials say...
> 
> Instead of the quick punch that opened the Marja offensive, the operation in Kandahar, a sprawling urban area, is designed to be a slowly rising tide of military action. That is why the opening salvos of the offensive are being carried out in the shadows by Special Operations forces.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (27 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 27, 2010*

 U.N. shuts mission in Afghanistan's Kandahar
Article Link
By Ismail Sameem Reuters Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 4:36 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it had temporarily withdrawn foreign staff and shut its mission in Kandahar, the Afghan city where security has deteriorated ahead of a major military offensive.

U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel said some foreign staff in the Kandahar office had been moved to the capital Kabul for their safety, and Afghan staff there had been told to stay home.

She would not say how many international staff had been withdrawn and how many had stayed behind or whether a specific threat was behind the decision.

"The security situation has gotten to the point where we needed to withdraw them yesterday," she said. "We hope people can go back and keep doing what they have been doing. We see it as a very temporary measure."

NATO forces are planning the biggest military offensive of the nearly nine-year-old war in coming months in and around Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and heartland of the Taliban movement. 
More on link

Liberals press government on Kandahar push
Last Updated: Monday, April 26, 2010 CBC News
Article Link

A looming U.S.-led offensive in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar led Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to press the Conservative government Monday on what role Canadian troops might play.

The U.S. has signalled the Kandahar push will come this summer. Kandahar has about half a million residents and is the birthplace of the Taliban, who still have support there.

Reports says the aim of the U.S. military move is to push Taliban fighters out of the area and overwhelm warlords who allow insurgents to slip back into the city.
More on link

 Cellphone video of alleged Afghan victim shown to murder court martial
Article Link
By: THE CANADIAN PRESS 26/04/2010

A cellphone video of the victim of an alleged battlefield execution in Afghanistan was shown at an unprecedented court martial of a Canadian soldier.

The 10-minute video, shot by a soldier in the Afghan National Army, shows a bearded, motionless man covered up to his chest in a light blue blanket.

When an Afghan soldier partially pulls back the blanket, one of the victim's legs is seen to be all but severed above the ankle, although no other wounds are visible.

Capt. Robert Semrau, 36, is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly firing two shots into the man from close range shortly after the video was taken in October 2008.

The grainy images show no signs of life from the alleged victim, nor do they show any efforts at medical care, nor Afghan soldiers kicking sand on him as has been testified in court.

The video also calls into dispute testimony that a fierce firefight was underway at the time, as Afghan and Canadian soldiers are seen standing upright in an open field seemingly at ease for several minutes.

Cpl. Steven Fournier, one of the key prosecution witnesses, is set to testify about the events surrounding the video and what he saw take place after the camera was shut off.

Fournier was Semrau's junior partner in their four-man Operation Mentor Liaison Team, which was helping guide the Afghan National Army troops during an operation in Helmand province.

Earlier Monday at the court martial, Fournier had testified about the field medicine course he had taken in preparation for working on the liaison team, and the way it applied to the Canadian Forces' code of conduct. The injured were to be treated starting with the most badly wounded first, regardless of whether friend or foe.

"It was very clear cut," Fournier told the court martial. "It didn't matter who it was, you treat him the same as everybody else."

Fournier also described a relationship with Semrau, his superior officer, that went beyond the purely professional.
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 British military split over plan to move troops to Kandahar
Article Link
Sceptics oppose Washington strategy to replace Canadian and Dutch forces
By Kim Sengupta in Tallinn Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Controversial plans under which British troops would move from Helmand province, their main centre of operation, to the Taliban heartland of Kandahar and neighbouring Uruzgan have caused divisions within the UK's military  and diplomatic hierarchy.

The planned redeployment is a key plank of the strategy of General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, to achieve a military victory before talks get under way with elements of the Taliban.

The Independent has learned that although the two most senior British commanders in Afghanistan are backing the proposed transfer, the head of the military, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, believes it will be a mistake. So keen are the Americans for the British force to make the switch that Washington has offered to underwrite a sizeable part of the substantial costs involved.

General Sir David Richards, the highly influential head of the Army, is said to be "keeping an open mind" on the matter. He is keen to ensure that the Kandahar mission is not summarily ruled out and would like a feasibility study to be undertaken so that various options can be presented to whoever is in 10 Downing Street after the 6 May election

The proposal was discussed privately among officials who attended a Nato foreign ministers meeting in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, at the end of last week. However, the political sensitivities involved, namely the impending UK election, has meant that no official comment has been made.

In another prong of Gen McChrystal's strategy, defence sources have revealed that the general is considering sending US forces to the Kunduz region in the north to counter a growing insurgency, despite the presence of 4,300 German troops.
More on link

 Afghan court jails Briton on bribery charges 
Article Link

A British manager of a firm providing security to the UK embassy in Kabul has been jailed for two years after being found guilty of bribery charges.

Ex-army officer Bill Shaw was tried by the Afghan anti-corruption court, partly funded by the UK government.

He was also fined $25,000 (£16,185). Reports say his lawyers will appeal against his conviction.

Shaw admitted paying for the release of two armoured cars - impounded by the Afghan authorities last October.

But his defence lawyer insisted Shaw thought he was making an official release payment rather than handing over a bribe.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says his trial was one of the first cases heard by an anti-corruption court which was set up to help the Afghan government crack down on corruption.

But there are suggestions that Shaw's conviction is an attempt by the Afghan government to prove its claim that foreigners are responsible for most of the country's corruption, our correspondent adds. 
More on link

 Blackwater trained Canadian troops
Article Link
Defence spent more than $6-million at controversial U.S. security firm
Tom Blackwell, National Post  Published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 

The National Defence Department has spent more than $6-million having its troops trained by the controversial Blackwater security company, whose own employees have been accused of needlessly killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, documents show.

The department sent a succession of personnel to Blackwater's Moyock, N.C., training compound from 2005 to as recently as April2009, some of them learning tactics for working in dangerous settings, records obtained through access-to-information legislation indicate.

The work continued even after the U.S. State Department cancelled its pricey security contract with the company in Iraq amid mounting criticism of Blackwater's actions.

The training courses included defensive driving and "close protection" in hostile environments, as well as specialized weapons use, a DND spokesman said.

The U.S. firm was judged to be the best bidder in tenders put out for the work, and controversy associated with other aspects of its business would not have come into play,

Major Vance White said.
More on link


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## The Bread Guy (27 Apr 2010)

A bit from from Ignatieff & Co. from the House of Commons yesterday:


> _Mr. Michael Ignatieff (Leader of the Opposition, Lib.):_  Mr. Speaker, according to U.S. military officials, major new combat operations are planned for Kandahar in the coming weeks. The New York Times even talked about the decisive battle for Kandahar, yet our government will not tell us anything.  I have two questions. Are the Canadian Forces taking part in these operations? Why is the government keeping Canadians in the dark?
> 
> _Mr. Laurie Hawn (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, CPC):_  Mr. Speaker, the fact is we work with all of our allies. The Americans are our principal ally in Afghanistan. Operations are planned with them. We participate at a level that is commensurate with our obligations in Afghanistan and to the Afghan people.  I cannot comment on that particular operation. It would be premature at this time.
> 
> ...


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## MarkOttawa (27 Apr 2010)

U.S. training Afghan villagers to fight the Taliban
_Washington Post_, April 27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042604215.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead



> ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN -- Taliban fighters used to swagger with impunity through this farming village, threatening to assassinate government collaborators. They seeded the main thoroughfare, a dirt road with moonlike craters, with land mines. They paid local men to attack U.S. and Afghan troops.
> 
> Then, beginning in late February, a small detachment of U.S. Special Forces soldiers organized nearly two dozen villagers into an armed Afghan-style neighborhood watch group.
> 
> ...



Cricket's most heart-warming story
BBC blog, Oliver Brett, April 27
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/oliverbrett/2010/04/crickets_most_heartwarming_sto.html#more



> At one level, the ICC World Twenty20, which begins in Guyana on Friday, is just another opportunity for cricket's 10 elite Test nations to squabble over yet another trophy.
> 
> Out of dozens of associate and affiliate nations keen for a crack at the big time, there is room for just two additional qualifiers. But one of them, remarkably, is war-torn Afghanistan. The ultimate underdogs, in sport as in any walk of life, they only became recognised as a cricketing nation in 2001.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (28 Apr 2010)

ARTICLES FOUND APRIL 28

U.S. Troops Fill NATO Training Gap In Afghanistan
NPR/KPCV, April 27
http://scpr.org/news/2010/04/27/us-troops-fill-nato-training-gap-in-afghanistan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+893KpccSouthernCaliforniaNews+%28KPCC%3A+News%29



> _The Pentagon is sending 800 more American soldiers to Afghanistan in the coming weeks to help train Afghan security forces. That's because other NATO countries still haven't fulfilled their pledges to send their own troops to train the Afghan army and police._
> ...
> A battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division will be heading to Afghanistan in the coming weeks. The soldiers will work as trainers for at least several months. The unit is beyond the 30,000 additional troops that President Obama already approved for Afghanistan this year.
> 
> ...



Mark
OttAawa


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## GAP (28 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 28, 2010*

Beef jerky now secret part of Canadian military rations
   Article Link
By Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen

Combat troops in Afghanistan will soon be biting into more than the Taliban threat.

An Ottawa-area company has a $301,200 federal contract to supply 150,600 snack packs of beef jerky for shots of energy during combat operations.

Hero Bros. Beef Jerky will go into the Light Meal Combat packs of ready-to-eat field rations Canadian troops chow down on when more substantial Individual Meal Packs or fresh food aren't available.

But Hero Bros., citing national security, won't talk about its beef jerky.

"Canada is at war and this is part of the supply line and very sensitive," said J.D. Gustus, head of the company, run from a small office in Hammond, 35 kilometres outside downtown Ottawa.

"Somebody from the other side would look at this as part of our supply line. If you can cut off the supply lines, especially food, you can cripple the enemy.

"Where it's being made, where it's being assembled, all that kind of stuff is really sensitive." he said. "This is what the boys eat when they're under fire. If somebody was to be able to access them and poison them, you know? I'd love (the publicity) until al-Qaida shows up at my doorstep."

Hero Bros. has supplied the military with beef jerky and pepperoni sticks since 1988. Its latest contract is the first time government has required proof its supply plants have adequate security measures, said Gustus.

Details of his contract and several other recent ration deals totalling $1.98 million were posted on MERX, the government's public-tendering database. So are dozens of other military procurements, from guns and ammunition to spare mechanical parts and bottled water.
More on link

 Paying the Enemy
Article Link

Amanda Lang investigates whether private security firms are using NATO money to bribe the Taliban.

Recent reports have suggested that some private security firms may be bribing the Taliban and other insurgents not to attack NATO personnel on Afghanistan's notoriously dangerous highways. Amanda Lang travels to Dubai to speak with Rateb Popal, an Afghan businessman whose security company has contracts with NATO and has also been linked to stories of bribery, about the allegations, and the industry.
Video links in article

 Our Afghan comrades speak out
Article Link
POTTER: What Afghan-Canadians think of our role in Afghanistan
by Andrew Potter on Tuesday, April 27, 2010

To what extent should questions of honour, duty, and friendship enter into Canada’s foreign policy? It’s the old problem of principle versus realism, and every country needs to find its own balance between the two. It helps, though, if that balance is understood by your international partners, especially the ones you are supposedly trying to help.

The question was raised anew last weekend at the Taj Banquet Hall, a weddings/parties/everything venue attached to a Kia dealership in north Toronto where 250 or so people, most of whom were Afghan Canadians, had gathered to listen to a debate on the future of Canada’s mission to Afghanistan.

The event was organized by the Canada Afghanistan Solidarity Committee, and I was there to moderate a panel that included Bob Rae, Canada’s former ambassador to Afghanistan (and now federal Conservative nominee) Chris Alexander, and the B.C. journalist and CASC co-founder Terry Glavin. The keynote address was given by Jawed Ludin, the Afghan ambassador to Canada.

The discussion was pegged to a new paper, written by Alexander, called “Ending The Agony: Seven Moves To Stabilize Afghanistan.” In the paper, Alexander lays out what he sees as the international priorities for success in Afghanistan, which include ensuring fair elections, renewing the public service, and doing a better job coordinating the civilian and military missions.

It’s fairly obvious stuff, which is why the question at issue was not what should be done over there, but what role Canada should play. After all, while there is a parliamentary resolution requiring the termination of only our combat mission in Kandahar province, every political party in Ottawa has encouraged the widespread perception that it demands the end of our entire military mission. Meanwhile, despite various trial balloons flown from NATO headquarters and explicit requests from the Americans that we consider staying in Kandahar or maybe moving to a different province, the government has shut down the beginnings of any debate.
More on link

 U.S. troops take a pounding in territory vacated by Canadians
Published On Tue Apr 27 2010 
Article Link

New figures show U.S. troops have been taking serious casualties fighting in territory vacated by Canadian troops in Kandahar.

Statistics released to The Canadian Press indicate that 19 American soldiers have been killed and another 51 wounded since early December 2009.

Nine Canadian soldiers and one civilian died during the same period.

The U.S. deaths, which occurred under the command of a Canadian general, went largely unnoticed in Canada, but caught the attention of worried NATO commanders preparing for a summer offensive in Kandahar.

The U.S. has a different reporting system for casualties, one that sees news of combat deaths released days after the incidents.

Capt. Duke Reim, the commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 12th U.S. Infantry Regiment, calls the last few months a roller-coaster fight in Zhari district, home to some of Canada’s biggest battles.
end

 Key detainee documents still stashed in shipping containers in Afghanistan
By: Steve Rennie, THE CANADIAN PRESS 27/04/2010
Article Link

Stashed away in metal shipping containers somewhere at Kandahar Airfield are documents that could shed light on the Afghan detainee affair, an inquiry heard Tuesday.

But more than two years after public hearings were called into the prisoner controversy, the military has yet to find the paperwork and ship it back to Canada.

Instead, stacks of detainee transfer orders are "all thrown together in a storage bin, a sea container" at the military base, Maj. Denis Gagnon told the Military Police Complaints Commission.

Those transfer orders could reveal if Canadian military commanders in Afghanistan weighed the risk of torture before turning over prisoners to Afghan authorities.

Gagnon could not say precisely when the inquiry might see the transfer orders.

"The documents in theatre are far more difficult to find because of the constant rotation of our personnel," he said.

"Plus ... with the current tempo of our operation, they don't have the ability to ... dedicate the proper troops to task in order to properly identify all those documents that may be co-located with many other documents."

Word of the documents' existence emerged as Paul Champ, a lawyer for two civil-rights groups, grilled Gagnon and Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette.

Gagnon told the commission the military has dispatched a team to Kandahar Airfield to determine how long it will take to find the transfer orders and other detainee documents.

Acting commission chair Glenn Stannard asked why the transfer orders weren't included in the paperwork that has already been turned over to the inquiry.

"I don't have an answer for you, sir," Gagnon said.

The transfer orders are just some of the documents caught in a bureaucratic paper jam that threatens to sideline the inquiry.
More on link


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## GAP (29 Apr 2010)

*Articles found April 29, 2010*

 Canadian troops rotate in advance of summer offensive
  Article Link 
By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceApril 28, 2010

SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan — Canada's new command group for the front-line combat base arrived in Afghanistan Wednesday, as troops from the Royal Canadian Regiment of Petawawa, Ont., take over from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry of Edmonton.

The new rotation of soldiers arrived in advance of NATO's upcoming summer Kandahar province offensive, planned to be the largest-ever in the war.

C Company from the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), posted to the fortified hill base here, is expected to be charged with pushing the Taliban from west Panjwaii district, a key insurgent stronghold.

"Our company is very well prepared, very well trained," said Capt. Stephen Good, second in command of the RCR's C Company.

In his previous tour, Good moved around several volatile districts.

Now, Canadian combat troops are working almost exclusively in Panjwaii, attempting to secure population centres by keeping a solid presence in a more limited area.

"In 2007, it was all kinetic operations, all disruption — we never held the ground, and we never stayed with the population. We didn't have enough manpower," said Good, originally from Coquitlam, B.C.

Outgoing Princess Patricia's troops engaged in frequent fighting in the first part of their seven-to-eight-month tour, then endured an escalating threat from improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

"It's time to go home," said Sgt. Mark Courtney, originally from Sydney, N.S., and posted to Edmonton for 10 years. "You get excited. It's almost like Christmas."

Courtney also fought with C Company in 2006, when Canadian combat troops were highly mobile, operating from the field and from scattered encampments.

"They were really two different missions. There are a lot more troops on the ground now. The insurgents aren't as willing to fight us," he said. "In 2006, we were something new and they wanted to have their go at us. Now they're a bit more cautious."

The Taliban are increasingly using IEDs against Canadian foot patrols, putting them in paths, walls and trees, in addition to planting them in roads to target vehicles, said Courtney.

He, along with three other soldiers, narrowly escaped a blast of shrapnel from a remote-detonated IED. "It went between two of us."

Princess Patricia's C Company arrived in Afghanistan in October, and moved in December to this base in west Panjwaii — a few hundred metres from a broad Taliban-held zone with what soldiers call "the heart of darkness" at its centre: the town of Zangabad.
More on link

 Canadian Forces launch probe after Afghan family claims slain teen was unarmed
By Murray Brewster (CP) – 17 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canadian military police have launched a formal investigation into allegations by family members that a 17-year-old Afghan boy was unarmed when he was shot and killed by soldiers during a night-time raid three years ago.

Maj. Cindy Tessier, a spokeswoman for Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk, confirmed Wednesday that the military is conducting a "thorough and detailed" examination of claims that the boy had no weapon when he was shot in the back of the head during a June 2007 raid outside of Kandahar city.

Two of the victim's brothers, who say they witnessed the shooting, told The Canadian Press how their frightened sibling was running away from foreign troops was he was gunned down during what they described as a botched hunt for insurgents.

Baryalai, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, said they were sleeping on the roof of their compound in the village of Hazaragi Baba, northwest of Kandahar city, on a warm summer night in June 2007 when soldiers burst in.

The noise and the yelling spooked 17-year-old Janan, who ran.

"He got up (and) was too nervous because of the situation," Baryalai said through a translator. "He was getting downstairs (and) before they ask any question(s), they shot him."

The investigation marks a stunning reversal for Natynczyk, whose letter to a special House of Commons committee denied the allegations of Ahmadshah Malgarai, who served as a cultural adviser to the general in charge of Task Force Kandahar in 2007.
More on link

Opium harvest a no-win situation for Canadian troops in Afghanistan
  Article Link 
By Ethan Baron, Canwest News ServiceApril 25, 2010

KHAIRO KALA, Afghanistan — Opium harvesting has just begun in the area where the Canadian Forces operate in Afghanistan, with boys and men collecting the drug that has become a primary revenue source for the Taliban.

“We know that in some of the areas, the profit does make its way into insurgent hands,” said Canadian Forces Maj. Wade Niven, whose area of command in eastern Panjwaii district contains two villages where poppies make up a third to a half of the cropland.

“The Canadian national policy prevents us from doing too much about it.”

The harvest begins about two weeks after the pink-and-white or crimson petals have fallen from the bulbous seed pods. Workers slit the swollen pods, and once the milky opium sap has bled out and congealed overnight into a sticky brown paste, they scrape it off with a tool resembling a short ladle with a sharp edge. Smears and blobs of the paste on the workers’ hands are diligently scraped into the tool’s reservoir. Pods are scored and scraped repeatedly over several days.

“It is the hard truth that as the Taliban becomes more well equipped and funded through the opiate industry . . . stabilization will become increasingly difficult and casualties will rise for NATO troops, Afghan civilians, police and military,” said a 2009 Atlantic Council of Canada report.

Afghanistan produces 90 per cent of the world’s opium, and the Taliban and other insurgent groups reap $90 million to $160 million a year from taxing poppy farmers and importers of chemicals used to refine the drug, and imposing fees on laboratory processors and transporters, the United Nations has reported.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (29 Apr 2010)

Pentagon says instability in Afghanistan has 'leveled off'
_Washington Post_, April 29
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/AR2010042805747.html



> The Afghan government can count on popular support only in a quarter of the main urban areas and other districts that are considered key to winning the war with the Taliban and other insurgents, the Pentagon said in a report delivered to Congress on Wednesday.
> 
> In the status report on the war in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said that years of rising instability had "leveled off" since January and that the number of Afghans who see their government heading in the right direction has increased.
> 
> ...



Afghan Taliban getting stronger, Pentagon says
A Pentagon assessment, while expressing confidence in U.S. strategy, says the movement has flourished despite repeated assaults.
_LA Times_, April 29
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-fg-0429-us-afghan-20100429,0,2848935.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29



> A Pentagon report presented a sobering new assessment Wednesday of the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, saying that its abilities are expanding and its operations are increasing in sophistication, despite recent major offensives by U.S. forces in the militants' heartland.
> 
> The report, requested by Congress, portrays an insurgency with deep roots and broad reach, able to withstand repeated U.S. onslaughts and to reestablish its influence, while discrediting and undermining the country's Western-backed government.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (30 Apr 2010)

“Cautiously Optimistic"- the Pentagon Report
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, April 30
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1272653072/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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