# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (October 2007)



## GAP (1 Oct 2007)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (October 2007)*    

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

*Articles found October 1, 2007*

20 Militants Killed in Afghanistan
Oct 1, 2007, 9:23 GMT 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops using airstrikes killed more than 20 suspected militants in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said, days after President Hamid Karzai renewed his offer to hold peace talks with the Taliban.

The joint forces, acting on intelligence reports, were pursuing militants hiding out in the Reg district of volatile Helmand province when they came under attack, the coalition said in a statement. The troops called in airstrikes and fought the militants in a gun battle.

The coalition said more than 20 militants were killed but there were no reports of civilians hurt. It was not immediately possible to verify the death toll independently.

Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,600 people so far this year, most of them insurgents, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Last week alone, more than 270 died in violence, including 165 militants killed in two large battles in the south and 30 people killed in a suicide bombing on an army bus in Kabul.

Within hours after Saturday's suicide attack, Karzai said he would be willing to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and give militants a position in the government in exchange for peace.
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Human rights must be respected, leaders say
BERTRAND MAROTTE From Monday's Globe and Mail September 30, 2007 at 11:45 PM EDT
Article Link

MONTREAL — Afghan authorities should negotiate only with those who respect human rights and set aside violence, Canadian government and opposition leaders agreed Sunday in a cautious response to efforts by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to open a dialogue with the Taliban.

Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Bernier, said it is up to the Afghan government to decide “how and with whom to engage in order to bring sustainable peace” to the country.

But, he added, “We hope that negotiations will only be conducted with individuals and organizations that will respect human rights and renounce violence.”

The Afghan President said this weekend that he would like to meet with leaders of the insurgency. He also said he was open to offering them positions in a future government.

A Taliban spokesman rejected the idea of negotiations while the United States and NATO soldiers remain in the country, but sources told The Globe and Mail's Graeme Smith that leaders of the insurgency are divided on the idea of talks. 

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said in an interview yesterday that negotiating with the Taliban at this stage would be counterproductive.

“It's out of the question to even envisage the possibility of negotiations with the Taliban so long as they continue to talk about terrorism against NATO troops,” he said.

A more productive avenue to pursue, said Mr. Coderre, would be for the Canadian government to put diplomatic pressure on neighbouring Pakistan to harden its notoriously porous border with Afghanistan.

The situation in Afghanistan – with a mission involving 2,500 Canadian troops in Kandahar – is a key divisive issue among the major Canadian political parties.
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Taliban executes Afghan teen for having U.S. money
Updated Mon. Oct. 1 2007 8:49 AM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Taliban insurgents hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had American money in his pocket, stuffing five US$1 bills into his mouth as a warning to other villagers not to use dollars, police said Monday. Elsewhere the Taliban killed eight police. 

The 15-year-old boy was hanged from a tree Sunday in Helmand province, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region. 

"The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars,'' said Wali Mohammad, the district police chief in Sangin. 

Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan alongside the afghani, the local currency, though dollars are more commonly seen in larger cities where international organizations are found. 

The rebels often justify their attacks and executions as a response to U.S. meddling in Afghan affairs. 

The Taliban killed another man in Sangin on Saturday after he sought farm assistance and seeds from an international aid program, Mohammad said. The rebels accused him of being a spy and shot him to death. 

Taliban insurgents in Ghazni province, meanwhile, ambushed a police convoy on Sunday, killing eight officers, said Abdul Khaliq Nikmal, spokesman for the provincial governor. 
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## GAP (1 Oct 2007)

Canadian air drops 'save lives', avoid risky Afghan roads
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007
Article Link

ABOVE GHORAK, Afghanistan - Canada has begun making dramatic air drops from CC-130 Hercules aircraft to troops in hostile territory to spare the lives of convoy crews that would otherwise face a long and perilous land journey to carry out the same mission.

During one such flight last week, a four-engine Hercules turboprop popped over the crest of a spectacularly beautiful mountain range before making a dramatic rock-and-roll lunge down toward a purple smoke marker on the desert floor below. Seemingly defying gravity, the 33-year old pilot, Capt. Aidan Costelloe, forced the nose of his aircraft up at the last possible moment and seven tonnes of urgently needed food, water, fuel and ammo rolled out the back door. Several parachutes that were attached quickly opened and the load floated to the ground.

Not long after getting back to the home airfield at Kandahar, the air crew received word from those on the ground at Ghorak - a small group of Canadian troops mentoring Afghan security forces - that the drop had been a success.
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Five Afghans kidnapped
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Five Afghans linked to international groups working in Afghanistan have been kidnapped, officials said Monday in the latest slew of abductions blamed on Taliban rebels or criminals.

Two workers with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR) were abducted on Sunday in the province of Logar about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kabul, their organisation told AFP here.

The two men had wrapped up a water supply project and were heading home when they went missing, said director Arif Qaraeen.

Later Sunday one of their superiors was called by a man who said, "We have taken your people and you have to pay us some money," Qaraeen said.

"We have called the police, the intelligence, the relevant people, the kidnappers, the elders of the community to try to find a solution," he told AFP.

Logar police said the men had "disappeared." "We are searching for them," provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa said.
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## The Bread Guy (2 Oct 2007)

*Investigation launched after local national killed in southern Afghanistan*
ISAF news release PR# 2007-665, 2 Oct 07
Article link

Kabul, Afghanistan – One local national died and one was injured in an incident in Kandahar today.  At approximately 6:45 a.m., an ISAF patrol in Kandahar experienced an equipment malfunction, which resulted in an accidental discharge from a weapon system.  It was soon apparent that two local nationals had been wounded.  ISAF troops immediately secured the scene, medical assistance was requested and the casualties were transported to a local hospital.  At the hospital one of the two injured, a 35 year old male, was confirmed dead; the other casualty is an 8 year old child.  “This incident is deeply regrettable” said Wg Cdr Antony McCord, a spokesman for Regional Command South. “ISAF will thoroughly investigate the circumstances.”  


*Afghan man killed, child injured in accidental shooting by Canadian troops *
Dene Moore, Canadian Press, 2 Oct 07
Article link - francais

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - An Afghan man was killed and a child injured Tuesday in an accidental shooting by Canadian troops.  A Canadian combat logistics patrol was on a resupply mission to Canada's forward operating base at Ma'sum Ghar when a motorcycle approached the convoy in downtown Kandahar outside the governor's palace.  The driver of the motorcycle, a 35-year-old male, was shot and the passenger, an eight-year-old child, was injured.  It is unclear whether the shooting was a result of an equipment malfunction or human error.  "While the exact cause of the incident is unknown at this time, it is clear that this was an accident and not the result of enemy activity," said Capt. Josee Bilodeau, spokeswoman for Canada's Joint Task Force Afghanistan ....


*Afghan man dies, child hurt after Canadian shooting*
CBC.ca, 2 Oct 07
Article link

An Afghan civilian riding a motorcycle was killed by Canadian gunfire Tuesday morning in Kandahar City and a child was hurt in the same incident, military officials said.  The shooting occurred during a resupply mission in the Afghan capital when a local man riding a motorcycle with a young boy as a passenger drove up to a Canadian armoured convoy.  Either because of a weapons malfunction or an accidental discharge, the Canadian gunshots killed the 35-year-old Afghan man, Canadian military officials said. The eight-year-old boy was injured.  Soldiers immediately administered medical aid and rushed both victims to a local hospital, where the adult was pronounced dead, officials said.  Military spokesman Wing Cmdr. Antony McCord told the Canadian Press that military police are investigating the incident, but that it was not triggered by any enemy action or threat ....


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## GAP (2 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 2, 2007*

Afghan women get education, still threatened with violence from Taliban
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Sofia Nawabi studies hard and dreams of running her own business one day.

Not so long ago, the 21-year-old Afghan woman couldn't even show her face outside her home, as she does today. To go to school, let alone run a business, was unthinkable under the strict Islamic rule of the Taliban.

The classes are free but in this conservative Islamic province - an insurgent stronghold where the Taliban continue to hold much influence despite being ousted from power in late 2001 - there could well be a price to pay for the women who dare go to school.

Ehsan Ullah is the founder of the centre, which opened in March, and its predecessor the Sherzai Institute, and the recipient of one of the Taliban's notorious "night letters," dropped on the doorstep of the institute.

"We will bleed you," it warned.

Teachers have been assassinated and students threatened but Ullah says the doors will remain open.
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US Offers $200,000 to Catch Taliban
By JASON STRAZIUSO 
Article Link

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. military has launched a new "Most Wanted" campaign offering rewards of up to $200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.

Posters and billboards are being put up around eastern Afghanistan with the names and pictures of the 12, with reward amounts ranging from $20,000 to $200,000.

"We're trying to get more visibility on these guys like the FBI did with the mob," said Lt. Col. Rob Pollock, a U.S. officer at the main American base in Bagram. "They operate the same way the mob did, they stay in hiding."

The list does not include internationally known names who already have large price tags on their heads like al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden — who has evaded U.S. capture since 2001 despite a $25 million bounty — or Taliban leader Mullah Omar with a $10 million reward.

Instead the list is filled with local insurgent cell leaders responsible for roadside and suicide bomb attacks.

"We want the people in that area to know who this guy is and know he's a bad guy, and when they spot him to turn that guy in," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a U.S. spokesman.
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Death rate for Afghan police force `staggering'
 TheStar.com October 01, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
Article Link

With 1,150 officers killed in 18 months, replacements can't be trained fast enough

KANDAHAR–In rural Panjwaii and Zhari districts, Afghan cops are being killed faster than they can be replaced, says one of their Canadian mentors. 

That terrifying fact stands as a huge roadblock to Canada's efforts to turn over security in these troubled regions to the fledgling police force.

"The rate at which they're losing policemen can never be replenished, unfortunately," RCMP Cpl. Barry Pitcher said.

In Panjwaii district alone – an insurgent hotbed west of Kandahar – police officers recently had six trucks destroyed in a 20-day period through roadside bombs and ambushes.

In July, 71 police officers were killed in regional command south, a territory that includes Kandahar province. Nationwide, 650 officers were killed from March 2006 to March 2007. Government officials say another 500 have been killed since then.

Just yesterday, two more died trying to defuse a large bomb in the centre of Kandahar city, police said.

"They're in the front lines. They're doing the counter-insurgency warfare. How are we replenishing the ranks? That's a staggering, staggering casualty rate," said Pitcher, one of eight Canadian police officers here helping train the Afghan force.

While serious concerns have been raised about the training and integrity of Afghan police officers, the fatality rate highlights the stark dangers facing this low-paid, ill-trained cadre of officers.

"In places like Panjwaii and Zhari, they're what the military calls soft targets because they're visible, they're not as well armed, they don't have air support and quite often they're hit bad," Pitcher said.

While Canadian soldiers move at night in armoured vehicles with night vision gear and the ability to call in reinforcements, the Afghan police have only Toyota trucks with six officers riding in the back, each armed with an AK-47.

"They're more guerrilla warfare fighters than policemen," said Pitcher, a fraud investigator in St. John's, Nfld., before he accepted a year-long assignment in Kandahar. 

"Policing in a counter-insurgency environment is probably one of the most difficult arenas to enter. You're trying to impart peacetime police training in the middle of a war zone," he said.

In recent weeks, the Canadians have helped Afghans reclaim territory and establish new police substations. Canadian soldiers will remain at the checkpoints until the Afghans are ready to assume responsibility for security.

That comes after complaints that Canadians abandoned the Afghans during the summer, allowing insurgents to overrun the positions.

The danger is just one challenge facing the Afghan police force – and the Canadians who have high hopes of passing over responsibility for security in the rural areas.
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Appeals court asked to reconsider decision on Khadr's case at Guantanamo
Article Link

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr asked a special military appeals court Monday to reconsider its decision to allow legal proceedings against him to resume at Guantanamo Bay.

The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review ruled last month that Khadr could face murder and terrorism charges at a military tribunal at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, overruling an earlier dismissal of the charges.

The trial judge, Col. Peter Brownback, had thrown the case out in June, saying he lacked jurisdiction to try Khadr because the 21-year-old hadn't been declared an "unlawful" enemy combatant as required by Congress.

But the military review panel decided Brownback has the authority to determine whether or not Khadr was legally fighting U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Khadr's lawyers say two e-mails from Brownback to lawyers involved in the case show the determination will be a hasty, sketchy process that's "fundamentally unfair."

That process would bar an appeal about Khadr's status to a regular U.S. court, said Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, and there would be no chance to contest his status until after the military tries him and imposes a sentence.
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1 soldier killed, several wounded in battles with militants in northwestern Pakistan 
The Associated Press Tuesday, October 2, 2007 
Article Link
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Militants with rockets and assault rifles attacked two military posts in northwestern Pakistan before dawn Tuesday, triggering gunbattles that left at least two militants and one soldier dead, officials said.

The first attack happened near the village of Data Khel, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region near Afghanistan, where Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in an effort to flush out remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

One soldier died and three were wounded, while authorities later found the bodies of two militants, a local intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Militants also attacked paramilitary forces in Swat, a scenic valley in North West Frontier Province, where Islamic militants recently have stepped up attacks against security forces.

Six security personnel were wounded, said two other officials who also requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to media. It was not clear whether militants suffered any casualties.

The attacks came a day after a woman detonated explosives hidden under her burqa at a police checkpoint, killing 15 people and wounding 22 in what appeared to be Pakistan's first female suicide attack, officials said.

The blast in the troubled town of Bannu underscored the growing Islamic militant threat in Pakistan, five days before its U.S.-allied president seeks re-election.

The suicide bomber had been riding in a rickshaw when it was pulled over by police at a checkpoint in Bannu, local police chief Ameer Hamza Mahsud said.
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## GAP (3 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 3, 2007*

'No basis' to talk of replacing Hillier: MacKay
Updated Wed. Oct. 3 2007 10:30 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Any talk of the Conservative government replacing Gen. Rick Hillier as chief of defence staff is just speculation, says Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

"There's no basis to this discussion. We're at war with respect to terrorism. Gen. Hillier has shown great leadership and we have tremendous confidence in his ability," MacKay told reporters in Halifax on Wednesday.

"He serves at the pleasure of the prime minister, and the prime minister is pleased with the work he is doing."

CTV News reported Tuesday night that the Conservative government won't extend the charismatic top general's three-year term when it comes up for renewal in February. Some observers told CTV News they thought he wanted to stay on to oversee Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

However, Hillier may have personally decided not to stay on as the Armed Forces' chief of defence staff when his term expires.

Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief who broke the story, said a source told him late Tuesday that Hillier had decided against an extension to his term.

"We'll see if that in fact is the case. All his office will say is that his reappointment is the prerogative of the prime minister," Fife told Canada AM on Wednesday.
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5 Dutch Soldiers Wounded in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants killed two policemen and destroyed a remote government office in central Afghanistan, as five Dutch troops were wounded in a clash in the country's south, officials said Wednesday.

Dozens of militants armed with heavy weapons attacked the Ajristan district center in Ghazni province late Tuesday, burning the building and killing two policemen, Ghazni police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai said. The remaining officers fled into a nearby village, he said.

Police reinforcements, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, were sent to the remote area on Wednesday, Ahmadzai said.

Taliban routinely attack remote police and government offices, but are rarely able to control these buildings for long after police or army reinforcements arrive.

In southern Afghanistan, five Dutch soldiers serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force were wounded Tuesday night in Uruzgan province after militants opened fire on them, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The five wounded troops were transferred to a Dutch hospital in the force's main base near Tirin Kot, Camp Holland. Their injuries ranged from grazes and back injuries to broken bones, the ministry statement said.
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Ten militants, two soldiers killed in Pakistan clash
Article Link

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani security forces killed 10 pro-Taliban militants after an early morning attack on a checkpost near the Afghan border left two soldiers dead, the military said.

The fighting erupted in the troubled tribal region of North Waziristan, where the US military said a day earlier that Al-Qaeda was re-emerging despite the presence of Pakistani troops.

Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said that militants raided the post near the town of Mir Ali before dawn, killing two soldiers and wounding another four.

"Ten miscreants were killed in the clash," Arshad told AFP. "The situation is now quiet."

Security officials in the region said earlier that troops responded with artillery fire after the militants attacked with rockets.

The US military in Afghanistan said on Tuesday it expected Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network to continue its "re-emergence" in the Pakistani tribal areas along the frontier with Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan: Would-Be Suicide Bombers Speak Of Indoctrination, Fear  
October 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) 
Article Link

Akhunzada is a 46-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province.

The father of 10 children, Akhunzada spent years studying Islam in Afghanistan and as a refugee in Pakistan. 

Until early this year, Akhunzada was teaching at a religious boarding school for the poor, a madrasah, in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province. He says he saw two Taliban commanders come to his madrasah repeatedly in order to recruit young students as suicide bombers. 

In February, amid intense pressure from others at the madrasah, Akhunzada says he joined a group of three dozen young men who were recruited by Pakistani militants to become suicide bombers.

"It was in the middle of the night [when we left]," he told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan. "They took us in a specially prepared vehicle when it was dark. [There were no windows but] there were some small holes in the roof [of the vehicle] to allow air for us to breathe. Through those small holes, we could see the sky. They took us from Kuchlagh [a small town in Baluchistan near the city of Quetta]. Then we went to a madrasah in Quetta. But I don't know where they took us after that.

"On the way [to a training camp somewhere near the Pakistan-Afghan border], I was looking at the mountaintops [through the holes in the roof] and I was trying to draw them on paper," Akhunzada says. "I was imagining that these could be mountains in Afghanistan. That's when I began to think that this work was not being done for God's sake. It is against Islam and it is against Afghanistan. That's when I realized that this is absolutely a case of interference [by militants] of Pakistan within Afghanistan."
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Japan may scale down naval mission for Afghanistan
Article Link

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan said Wednesday it may scale down a naval mission supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan to try to resolve a row with the opposition that helped bring down the previous government.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan would consider ending the refuelling of foreign supply ships in the Indian Ocean so that it does not indirectly support military activities outside of Afghanistan.

But Japan would continue to refuel non-supply ships in the Indian Ocean.

"If we can keep the operation that way, it would be one idea," the top government spokesman said.

Under legislation passed after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, Japanese ships refuel and give other logistical support to coalition forces which overthrew Afghanistan's extremist Taliban regime.

But opposition lawmakers have alleged that fuel meant to supply forces in Afghanistan had been diverted to US operations in Iraq.
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Court rejects Canadian's Guantanamo appeal
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A special appeals court refused on Tuesday to reverse its decision to send the case of the only Canadian detainee at the US naval base in Guantanamo back to a military tribunal.

Lawyers for Omar Khadr, a suspected Al-Qaeda member who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, had appealed Monday to the Court of Military Commissions Review to reconsider its September 24 ruling.

But the panel refused to reverse its decision to send the case back to military judge Peter Brownback, who had thrown out the charges against Khadr in June by ruling that he had no jurisdiction.

Colonel Brownback will hold a new hearing on the case on November 8 at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 330 "war on terror" suspects are being held.

In June, Brownback dismissed all charges against Khadr on the grounds that he had only been designated an "enemy combatant," and so failed to meet the standard required for trial by military commission.

Legislation that created standards for the military tribunals in August 2006 says that they are to intended try "alien unlawful enemy combatants."
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Fledgling Afghan police force seen as threat: ambassador
Rob Shaw CanWest News Service Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Article Link

KABUL -- Suicide bombers are increasingly attacking Afghanistan's fledgling national police force because they consider it a significant threat, says Canada's ambassador in Afghanistan.

Although the Afghan National Police force is often criticized as corrupt and poorly motivated, ambassador Arif Lalani said it is making marked improvements with the help of countries such as Canada.

"I think what's happening is a realization on the part of the extremists that they're not as sure and strong as they used to be," he said Tuesday at the Canadian Embassy in Kabul. "They are lashing out at the institution which is obviously threatening them the most, which is obviously law and order."

Recent reports estimate more than 1,000 Afghan police officers have been killed during attacks in the past 18 months.

Lalani's comments came just hours after another suicide bomber killed 13 people -- eight police officers, two children and three adults -- in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The bomber tried to board a bus, but the driver became suspicious and shot the bomber first, an interior ministry spokesperson said. Nonetheless, the wounded man managed to detonate his bomb. The blast ripped the roof and sides off the bus, leaving a bloody and gruesome mess on the street. Parts of seats were flung into nearby trees. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

It was the sixth suicide attack since Muslims began observing Ramadan in mid-September. The Taliban attacks are just the latest challenge to hit the beleaguered police force -- one of the most dangerous jobs in what is already one of the most dangerous combat zones in the world.
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Canadian soldiers cited for bravery under fire
Craig Offman, National Post Published: Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Article Link

Summit was the code name for a treacherous southern Afghan road.

Constructed near the mud-walled town of Pashmul, the five-kilometre highway in the Panjwai district wasn't like the old roads: muddy and narrow and littered with  roadside bombs. Wide and flat, the new highway would make it difficult for Taliban fighters to ambush without being seen. It would also provide better access to the area, bolstering the local economy.

On Oct. 3, 2006, members of the Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group's First Battalion -- also known as the Royal Canadian Dragoons -- were attacked by Taliban forces as they built the road.
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Rebuilding Afghanistan trumps Taliban fight
David Ramsay, Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post  Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Article Link

David Ramsay of the Regina Leader-Post is one of five journalists from newspapers across Canada invited to Afghanistan to see first-hand what is happening in the country.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- There is a concerted push by the federal government to convince Canadians that this country's involvement in Afghanistan is about much more than the sacrifices Canadian soldiers are making in the fight against the Taliban. Yes, security is important, but rebuilding the country is the real story now.

This public relations push comes as Canadians debate the future of Canada's role in Afghanistan -- simply put, should we withdraw our troops and cut our losses, as some argue, or should we stay for the long haul and finish what we started?
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## MarkOttawa (3 Oct 2007)

Comment: out of Iraq, into Afghanistan
_Times Online_, Oct 2, by Michael Evans, Defence Editor of The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2574580.ece



> ...although the announcement by Gordon Brown in Baghdad that “1,000 troops” will be coming home by Christmas, reducing the military presence to 4,500, was made possible because of perceived improved conditions in southern Iraq, two other important factors have been driving the Government’s strategy.
> 
> 
> Obviously, any announcement of troop cuts in Iraq will have positive political repercussions and the timing of Mr Brown’s statement is bound to be beneficial if the Prime Minister decides to go for a snap election.
> ...



NATO, not Dutch, must secure southern Afghanistan
Reuters, Oct. 3
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02417158.htm



> The Dutch government, under pressure to keep its troops in volatile southern Afghanistan, wants NATO to take responsibility for the region's security after its mandate expires at the end of August 2008.
> 
> The Dutch have failed to respond to entreaties from NATO to stay on longer and are even contemplating a pull-out amid international wrangling about how best to shoulder responsibility for security in the country.
> 
> ...



Pakistan Seen Losing Fight Against Taliban And Al-Qaeda
_Washington Post_, Oct. 3
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/02/AR2007100202211.html



> Pakistan's government is losing its war against emboldened insurgent forces, giving al-Qaeda and the Taliban more territory in which to operate and allowing the groups to plot increasingly ambitious attacks, according to Pakistani and Western security officials.
> 
> The depth of the problem has become clear only in recent months, as regional peace deals have collapsed and the government has deferred developing a new strategy to defeat insurgents until Pakistan's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can resolve a political crisis that threatens his presidency.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (4 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 4, 2007*

Comrades remember slain soldier as hero
Updated Thu. Oct. 4 2007 5:29 PM ET The Canadian Press
Article Link

CALGARY -- Cpl. Nathan Hornburg was remembered as a good man and a hero by friends and colleagues at a celebration of his life Thursday. 

The 24-year-old reservist, a member of the King's Own Calgary Regiment, died Sept. 24 while attempting to repair a tank that was under mortar attack. He became the 71st Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

"The time we spent with Nathan Hornburg was time spent in the presence of a hero,'' said fellow reservist Sgt. Pablo Fernandez. "He did what only someone with an iron will could do. In death, as he did in life, Nathan is setting an example.''

Padre Will Hubbard told mourners the name Nathanial means "gift'' in Hebrew. He said Hornburg had the gift of good humour and of being supportive to both his friends and military comrades.

"You will hear good things about him, because Nathan Hornburg was a good man,'' said Hubbard.
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On Institutions, Afghanistan, Cons, Generals and the CF  
Article Link

I spend a lot of time thinking about institutions these days (some foolish university people have recently given me money to do this) in my life outside the intertubes. This got me thinking…

I’ve also heard some rather bizarre and out of character pontificating about red-shirts and Afghanistan from serving rank & file military friends. Some internet comments I’ve seen also back this up (read some of the comments here). This also got me thinking…

Maybe there is a problem with the Canadian Forces and Afghanistan that escapes the popular controversy. Try this.

We have a Chief of Defence Staff attending political rallies (red shirts), holding hands with a government (regardless of issues with the former Defence Minister), using the same propaganda to support a controversial war. This puts the CDS and by extension the CF at an overt political opposition to a large percentage of the Canadian public who do not support the war.

My concern is this practice of overt politicisation of Afghanistan, the consequent attempts at perception management (instead of honest reporting) by military staff, and the de facto open opposition to a large swath of the Canadian public by the CF may become an institutionalised practice. Or, alternatively, the eventual and possibly sudden withdrawal will cause something of an identity crisis in an institution that has so closely internalised the mission.

This politicising of the mission and the CF is a foolish thing for the leadership to not only tolerate, but apparently actively condone, because the Conservatives will not be in power forever and nor will the mission in Afghanistan last. The more psychologically tied - rank & file especially - feel toward the mission or the party, or this particular CDS, the greater the potential for [existentialist] morale problems that may result when the walls come down. The US military had issues post-Vietnam that some members of the military and political arenas have never quite gotten over to the point of spastically hating large parts of their own publics or embarking on repeat adventures in places Iraq. There was something of that in the CF post-Airborne too (I wonder if any studies were done on this). We should try to avoid it here.
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Canada has 'moral' duty to stay in Afghanistan: PM
Mike Blanchfield CanWest News Service Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Canadian troops will likely remain in Afghanistan beyond February, 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday, characterizing the mission as a "moral responsibility" to the Afghan people, Canada's international allies and its own soldiers.

Harper also gave his strongest suggestion to date that he would be willing to fight an election over the continuation of the mission, as he served notice to his political opposition, in particular Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, not to engage in "unwise politics" or "uninformed political sentiment" in the upcoming parliamentary debate on the future of the mission in Afghanistan. 

"We believe we have a moral responsibility," Harper said in a rare formal news conference. "It's not a matter of just playing to the polls."

The prime minister emphasized that fulfilling Canada's international obligations, both to the people it is trying to help in Afghanistan as well as its international partners in NATO, trumps domestic political considerations. But, he conceded: "We've also communicated clearly to our allies that future deployment will be dependent on getting that parliamentary support."

Harper said his government's upcoming speech from the throne will make the mission one of its main priorities.

Canada's national security interests are inherently tied to the fate of the Afghan people in Kandahar, and Canada can't withdraw its troops until the war-torn country can defend itself without international help.

"Can I say that we're ready to leave cold turkey in February, 2009? I think it's hard to imagine," Harper said.

The Liberals and Bloc Quebecois are essentially calling for an end to combat operations in southern Afghanistan by February 2009, while the NDP wants the troops brought home immediately. Canada currently has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
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Combat footage of Dutch troops in Afghanistan released
Commentary by Hans de Vreij, 4 October 2007 04
Article Link

Has Dutch public broadcaster NOS allowed itself to be used as a tool of the 'communications policy' of the country's defence ministry, or was the video material provided by the ministry simply too interesting for the broadcasting organisation to ignore?

Whatever the answer may be, the fact is that public broadcasting's prime-time 8 o'clock news on Wednesday evening was to a large extent filled with footage of Dutch and Afghan troops engaged in real combat with what appear to have been Taliban fighters in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan. A further - and not insignificant - detail regarding this material: it was actually shot in August of this year.

Surprise and consternation were prominent among the reactions to the video footage of a prolonged battle, which took place close to the Afghan village of Chora in Uruzgan province. But the reasons for the surprise and consternation were extremely varied. Never before have such detailed images been shown of real fighting involving Dutch forces in Afghanistan. 
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Canada claims success in latest Afghan offensive
  Matthew Fisher CanWest News Service Wednesday, October 03, 2007
  Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Canada is claiming a major victory over the Taliban with its latest offensive, called Operation Honest Soldier, even though one Canadian soldier was killed by an enemy mortar.

The Taliban "were surprised," Capt. Stephane Masson, operations co-ordinator for Joint Task Force Afghanistan, told a briefing Wednesday. "We tightened the circle and they had to fight. We saw signs of panic."

The recently completed operation aimed to seize land to establish police checkpoints at strategically significant places throughout Panjwaii, an area long infested with insurgents, about 50 kilometres west of Kandahar City.

Operation Honest Soldier involved Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion of the Quebec-based Royal 22nd (Van Doo) Regiment, tanks from the Alberta-based Lord Strathcona's Horse, as well as Afghan army and police. 
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I-Reporter shares firsthand account of suicide bomb attack
Article Link

(CNN) -- Just after 7 a.m. Tuesday in the fifth district of Kabul, Afghanistan, a suicide bomber struck a bus carrying Afghan police and civilians. 

I-Reporter S. Samimi was in his car on his way to work, only 100 meters from where the blast went off.

He jumped from his car, unsure of what had happened. Samimi asked people around him what was going on. Finally, the truth dawned on him.

Samimi, 23, grabbed his camera and made his way to the site of the attack.

He said it was difficult taking pictures because his whole body was shaking. It was the first suicide bombing he had ever witnessed. 

Hands and limbs were scattered about the ground. Within minutes a crowd of hundreds had gathered around the bus, some of them family members of victims.

"People were screaming and crying," Samimi said. "The situation was so bad. So tragic. I am so sad about it."

Samimi said security guards were quickly on the scene and ordered him to stop taking pictures. He said at that point he was ready to leave.
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Pilot said 'this is fun' before fatal Blackwater crash
Article Link

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 2004 crash that killed everyone on board -- three crew members and three U.S. troops -- was caused by pilots from a Blackwater plane taking a low-level run through a mountain canyon in Afghanistan, testimony revealed Tuesday.

 "I swear to God, they wouldn't pay me if they knew how much fun this was," the doomed plane's cockpit voice recorder captured the pilot saying shortly before the November 27, 2004, crash.

The account of the crash emerged during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Blackwater's performance in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

In its November 2006 report on the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Blackwater provided insufficient oversight and guidance of the pilots involved in the 2004 crash. Dispatchers failed to ensure that pilots followed their flight plan and did not adequately track flights in the air.

The NTSB said the military "did not provide adequate oversight of the contract carrier's operations in Afghanistan."

The company's chairman, Erik Prince, appeared before the committee to defend the firm Tuesday.

The twin-engine CASA C-212, a light cargo plane operated by Blackwater sister company Presidential Airways, crashed in a box canyon well off its planned route from Bagram Air Base to the western Afghan town of Shindand.
More on link


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## GAP (5 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 5, 2007*

UK soldier killed in Afghanistan
Blast occured as troops were returning to their base in Kandahar
Kandahar one of major battlegrounds with Talban fighters
Article Link
     
(CNN) -- A British soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a blast in southern Afghanistan, the British Defence Ministry said on Friday.

Troops were returning to their Kandahar Air Base after an operation Thursday "when a vehicle they were traveling in was caught in an explosion about 30 kilometers, or more than 18 miles, west of Kandahar."

Kandahar province, the former heartland of the hardline Taliban militia, is one of the major battlegrounds in southern Afghanistan. Others include Uruzgan and Helmand provinces.

The troops were evacuated by helicopter to a medical facility run by NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The slain soldier was dead on arrival.

NATO earlier reported the casualties but did not list their nationalities or the location of the incident.

This is the 82nd British military member to die in the Afghanistan conflict, according to a CNN count of Defence Ministry figures.

Separately "several non-combatants" were found killed and wounded in a building housing militants who fired on troops in southeastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said.

The casualties came during an operation on Thursday night in the Waza Khawa District of Paktika province intended to "disrupt violent extremist activities in the area."

Afghan and coalition troops found "several adult males, an adult female, and one child dead and two children wounded."

The troops traded fire with militants, armed with semi-automatic weapons and grenades. Several troops were wounded in the fighting, in which the building housing militants was destroyed. There was some damage to other buildings.

Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman, said there had been "no indication" civilians were in the area of the operation
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Big mistake to quit Afghan war, expert says
Vancouver lawyer now fact-finding in Kandahar  
James McNulty The Province Friday, October 05, 2007
Article Link

When Norine MacDonald talks about the war in Afghanistan, Canadians should listen.

The Vancouver lawyer has spent most of the past three years on the ground in the war-ravaged country as president and lead field researcher for the Senlis Council.

In her work for the European-funded think tank, MacDonald ventures from a compound in Kandahar City with armed protectors, dresses like a man, and has packed her own Kalashnikov rifle.

It is a long way from her former life as a Queen's Counsel corporate lawyer in downtown Vancouver.

It also makes MacDonald one of the best-informed Canadians on Afghanistan -- she has vastly more experience there than any member of the House of Commons -- and she doesn't like what she sees.

In an interview at The Province this week before returning to Kandahar via Moscow, MacDonald says NATO is losing the hearts and minds of Afghan citizens with its military-heavy, aid-light approach.
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Afghan minister praises Canada as 'greatest ally'
  Peter Goodspeed and Sarah Boesveld National Post Thursday, October 04, 2007
Article Link

TORONTO -- In a soft voice that quivered with emotion, Afghanistan's Education Minister Mohammed Atmar told a Toronto audience on Thursday that his countrymen want to thank "every Canadian citizen for what you have been doing in Afghanistan."

"You protect our people and advance the basic rights of our people," he said. "Our government is so proud to convey to you that you are our greatest ally -- an ally that we depend upon, an ally to be appreciated, an ally that we will long be grateful to."

Mr. Atmar's words of praise came on the same day Canada pledged $60-million over four years to education in Afghanistan.

Mr. Atmar paid particular tribute to "the brave Canadian men and women in uniform who are literally protecting my kids as they go to school."

What Canada has done in Afghanistan is "something that will be written in golden script in our history books," he said.

Speaking at a public forum sponsored by UNICEF, Mr. Atmar said it's natural the focus of the public debate on Afghanistan in Canada would be on security issues and the Canadian military's fight with elements of the outlawed Taliban.

But he insisted that while the security situation is challenging, there is a great deal of real progress taking place all over Afghanistan.
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Germany's Fischer calls for bigger European role in Afghanistan
Article Link

BERLIN (AFP) — Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer urged Europe to boost its backing for Afghanistan and chided his Greens party for its flagging support for the mission in the war-torn country.

Fischer told a news conference for the launch of his political memoirs, "The Red-Green Years: German Foreign Policy -- From Kosovo to September 11," that it had pained him to see his own party break with what he called one of the key decisions of his seven years in office.

"I believe more needs to be done in Afghanistan -- everything that is possible. That is not intended as criticism of my party -- it has to decide for itself -- but it is my personal view," said Fischer, who had threatened to resign in 2001 if his party did not support the deployment in an international peacekeeping force.

The Greens, a party with pacifist roots, voted at a stormy conference last month against the continued deployment of 3,000 German troops and Tornado surveillance planes in Afghanistan ahead of parliamentary votes on extending the mandates.
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Boy's rape scene delays film release as Hollywood and Afghan culture collide
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles and Declan Walsh in Islamabad Friday October 5, 2007 The Guardian 
Article Link

Studio to take young Kite Runner stars to US before worldwide screenings amid fears for their safety at home 

It is a pivotal moment in a heartbreaking story. A young man looks back on the moment that defined his life. "I became what I am today at the age of 12, on a frigid, overcast, day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek."
The opening words to the best-selling novel The Kite Runner by the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini describe the reaction of a young boy, Amir, as he witnesses the rape of his best friend, Hassan.
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Coderre's Afghan shunning shows petty side of politics
Don Martin, National Post Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007
Article Link

Canada's Afghanistan military operation was authorized by the federal Liberals, the base built by the Liberals and the mission may yet be voted into packing crates by the Liberals. But, for the time being, the Kandahar Air Field flies under a heavily protected Conservative flag.

And that's why a troublesome pit bull of a Liberal defence critic will show up at the front gates of the base next week to find his way blocked by soldiers bearing semi-automatic weapons.

Contrast Denis Coderre's expected cold-shoulder unwelcome with the red-carpeted runway greeting for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who will land in Kandahar in the next few days if he's not there already.
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Afghan education system improving: UNICEF
By The Canadian Press
Article Link

TORONTO — UNICEF says Canada’s military role in Afghanistan is overshadowing the substantial progress made in educating the country’s youth. 
Nigel Fisher of UNICEF says the two-thirds of Afghanistan not beseiged by Taliban insurgents is witnessing real advances. 

Fisher’s comments come as he prepares to greet Afghanistan’s Minister of Education Mohammed Haneef Atmar, who was to speak today in Toronto. 

Canada’s troops are stationed mainly in the volatile south, where Taliban forces often destroy infrastructure, such as schools, built by reconstruction teams. 

Fisher says the relative stability in the other parts of the country has allowed some five million children to enrol in school. 

He says under Taliban rule the education system fell apart and children lucky enough to be educated at home, in secret, numbered only in the tens of thousands. 

“For natural reasons, with our military there, Canada tends to focus on insecurity and it tends, obviously, to focus on the impact of the deaths of our soldiers,” said Fisher. 

“I really believe that if you look back over the last five years, there’s been substantial progress in the country.” 

UNICEF reports the number of teachers in Afghanistan has increased from 20,000 five years ago to 133,000 today — and 40,000 of those teachers are women. 

Still, infrastructure challenges remain. While there’s 8,300 schools registered within the education system, only 2,200 have usable buildings, the agency reports.
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Canadians dividing Taliban forces
Matthew Fisher , CanWest News Service Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Canada has been successful in isolating hardcore, first-tier Taliban guerrillas from less committed insurgents, according to the chief of plans for Canada's Joint Task Force in Afghanistan.

This has been achieved in a joint operation by Canadian and Afghan government forces by "seizing territory" to establish police stations in the hotly contested Panjwaii and Zhari districts, Major Erik Landry said during a meeting with journalists Thursday.

"It separates hardcore fighters ... from second and third tier fighters. This operation has led to a considerable disruption of Taliban movement and of its command and control nodes. (Operational security) was kept throughout and the insurgents didn't know where we were coming from."
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Forever at the Crossroads  
Don't expect too much from NATO. 
by Alan W. Dowd  10/04/2007 12:51:00 PM 
Article Link

LATER THIS MONTH, officials from Canada and the Netherlands plan to lobby their NATO counterparts to do more in Afghanistan. If the past 12 months are any indication, they shouldn't expect much. 

A year ago, then-NATO commander Gen. James Jones reported that alliance members had only contributed 85 percent of the forces they pledged to stabilize Afghanistan's broken and battered landscape, noting that NATO's Afghanistan force needed as many as 2,500 more soldiers. 

Not much has changed. After a closed-door meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this week, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) reported that Gates "expressed his concerns about the issue of resources and that Afghanistan is under-resourced, both in terms of equipment and personnel He wants to see more help from NATO."

Compounding the problem of inadequate resources, NATO allows member states with military forces in Afghanistan to opt out of certain missions. These "caveats," as they are euphemistically called, make it difficult to field a cohesive force--and strike at the very heart of the alliance's effectiveness and credibility. After all, an ally that promises to help only when the guns are quiet, only where the scenery is serene, is not much of an ally. 

Yet that's an accurate description of what some NATO members are doing by steering clear of southern Afghanistan, where Canadian, British, Dutch and American troops have taken heavy casualties. Among the allies who caveat their way out of certain missions are Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
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More Articles available here
MILNEWS.ca

CANinKandahar


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## GAP (5 Oct 2007)

IN AFGHANISTAN: Reconstruction is a delicate balancing act
Fri Oct 5 2007
  Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - "See all the stacks of rocks out there?" 

Captain Barbara Honig points out the window of our armoured truck to a rugged, barren hill, dotted with clusters of large stones. 

"It's a minefield," says the specialist engineer commander for Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, as the hulking RG 31 Nyala, a vehicle typically used to clear mines, lumbers through the Arghandab District of Kandahar. 
The mines in this field -- relics of mujahadeen fighters, Soviets and the Taliban -- are marked with stone piles. But most risks in Kandahar aren't so clearly defined, and that makes redevelopment in the volatile province a careful balancing act for the roughly 350 Canadian soldiers and civilians in the PRT. 

Canada has run the province's reconstruction team since taking over from American troops in 2005, and on this trip we're visiting a development project at Mazara School in the district, specifically, a concrete wall around the school. The wall was designed by Honig's team of engineers, and aimed at offering better security and more privacy, so Afghan parents would let their daughters attend the schools, and teachers would feel safe enough to show up. 

The wall itself is a humble offering, as showpieces go. But the $24,000 structure was built by Afghan contractors after discussions with numerous community leaders, and 560 students now take morning classes at the school. Although it's already afternoon when we arrive, a throng of young children surrounds us, smiling and poking at our digital recorders, experienced enough to know that foreigners often come bearing gifts. 

The PRT has been steadily plugging away at other projects around the province. There are five community police stations either completed or in progress in Kandahar, each worth between $200,000 and $400,000, and 23 temporary vehicle checkpoints have been set up for added security in Kandahar City and Arghandab. These are solid signs of progress, however tentative, and for now at least, they're still standing. 

But then there's the matter of safety, and in Kandahar it's inextricably linked to any new development. Suicide bombings and improved explosive devices, or IEDs, are routine here, and just getting to the PRT camp required the protection of a Light Armoured Vehicle, or LAV, with two gunners sticking out the top, weapons at the ready.   
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## GAP (6 Oct 2007)

*Articles found Sept 6, 2007*

In the seat of a soldier: Small, dark, hot
Small LCD monitor provides only outside view for passengers in armoured vehicles
Rob Shaw, Times Colonist Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Sitting inside one of the Canadian Forces light armoured vehicles is a claustrophobic's worst nightmare.

Small, dark and hot, the passenger compartment of the Forces' LAV-3 is essentially a small windowless metal box in which you hang on for dear life as the vehicle bounces its way across the Afghan desert. Like most types of military transportation, half the battle is just trying to keep your last meal from revisiting you.

Outside, an entire world flies by -- everything from mud brick huts in farming villages to crowded city streets teeming with vendors on the sidewalk. But for those inside, the only way to catch a glimpse of it all is on a small LCD monitor that plays footage captured by a camera mounted on the armoured vehicle's turret.
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Amid ancient Afghan rubble strides the bionic Canuck
Oct 06, 2007 04:30 AM Rick Westhead Staff reporter
Article Link

Before patrolling the dirt roads that snake around their base near Kandahar, Canadian soldiers grab uniforms that feature special dyes and fibres designed to help them blend into the night. They also pack QuikClot, a chemical powder that can be poured into seeping wounds to staunch blood loss.

Troops may soon be able to add yet another high-tech gadget to their growing arsenal: X-ray vision.

Later this month, Canadian Forces officials are scheduled to review a device that promises to allow soldiers to literally see through concrete walls.

"It's a radar for finding people," says Robert Judd, president of Virginia-based Camero Inc. 

The device is called Xaver and it sends and receives radio signals through walls up to a foot thick. Those signals are then converted into rough images on a small video monitor.

In another era, Judd might have had trouble coaxing Canadian Forces personnel to even meet with him. 

These days, however, the military's doors are wide open to defence contractors. In 2005-06, the most recent fiscal year for which statistics are available, Canada's defence-related spending was $14.7 billion, 44 per cent more than the $10.2 billion spent in 1997-98.
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Canada's man about Panjwaii district
 TheStar.com October 06, 2007  Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
Article Link

Captain fights influence of the Taliban with cash for projects, foot patrols, meetings with leaders

BAZAR-E-PANJWAII, Afghanistan–The Afghan contractor arrived at the Canadian compound, intimidated, even a little scared.

In his hand he held two "threat" letters, one found on his door, the other posted in the community mosque. Penned in red ink, the letters were from the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, the name given the country by the Taliban.

The notes delivered a grim message to the young Afghan who had done work for the Canadians in this Panjwaii district town.

"Respected brother are being informed for the last time that you take your hands back from any kind of government job and salaries," said a translated copy of the letter.

"Those who do intelligence for Americans who work in (forward operating bases) should take back soon. We know everybody."

It's no idle warning. Two weeks earlier, an Afghan interpreter with the Canadian provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar city was killed by a suicide bomber.

"He was intimidated," said Capt. Michel Larocque, who met with the contractor and reassured him.

"It gives you an idea of what we're up against," he said.

In the battle for hearts and minds of Afghans, this is Larocque's enemy, the shadowy, influential sway of insurgents. And in this rural district west of Kandahar, insurgents still have a hold over a population that is largely illiterate and easily influenced.
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U.S. soldier dies in Kabul bombing
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and a four Afghan civilians, officials said.

The bombing -- on the sixth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan -- threw several vehicles on their side. Four Afghans were killed and several others wounded, the Interior Ministry said.

The attack was against U.S. troops responsible for training the Afghan military and police. Lt. Col. David Johnson, a U.S. spokesman, said one American soldier died in the blast and one was wounded.

Dozens of shops were damaged.

"There was an enormous explosion, the windows of my shop shattered," said tailor Mohammad Isaq. "When I came out I saw the foreigners' vehicles on fire. I saw two injured Afghans and I ran to help them."

This year has been the most violent of the six-year effort, the result of the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
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Civilians die in Afghanistan raid  [/url]
Article Link
  
A woman and child were among the civilians killed in a raid by a US-led coalition force against a Taleban hideout in Afghanistan, officials say. 
The coalition said its forces responded to an attack by destroying the building in which militants were hiding. 

Troops found the dead woman and child while combing the remains of the compound at the Waza Khwa district in the south-eastern province of Paktika. 

The coalition said it had not known any civilians were nearby at the time. 
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Maxime Bernier, Bev Oda make unannounced trip to Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda are visiting Afghanistan.

They're to meet today with their Afghan counterparts as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

The two ministers will also be touring Canadian-supported development projects in the war-torn country.

This is the two ministers' first visit to Afghanistan since Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled them into their current cabinet posts in August.
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## GAP (7 Oct 2007)

*Articles found Sept 7, 2007*

Tory ministers arrive in Kandahar to spend Thanksgiving with the troops
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- The competing Conservative and Liberal visions about what Canada should be doing to help bring peace to Afghanistan found an unexpected new stage when Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier arrived at the Canadian base here late Saturday -- hours before the expected arrival of Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre.

While saying Mr. Coderre was "always welcome in Afghanistan," Mr. Bernier criticized the former Liberal cabinet minister for not having gone through proper channels to set up his visit as Tory MPs had done when they were in opposition.

"There is a process to be followed with the government here," Mr. Bernier told reporters in Kabul before flying to Kandahar on Saturday. "I question why Mr. Coderre doesn't want to make a safe trip...It is irresponsible for him to come here without contacting us or planning his progress far in advance to assure his security."
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We Will Win Every Fire Fight We Enter 
October 6th, 2007 | By Patrick Pitt 
Article Link

I remember saying that to Matt on the phone about a year ago. 

Think about it. Under what conditions is the premise, that is the title of this post, moot?

Read it again. Out loud if necessary. Because it is a nigh undeniable truth.

We will win every fire fight. 

So what?
***********************************************************************
I THINK it’s a beautiful day here in the great GREAT city of Toronto. I say “I think” - because it’s still too dark this early in the zero-dark-buffalo-stupid-hours of the morning to see for sure.

A lot to discuss this week as usual. 

Woops! Voting is over! Matthew Good for the Canadian Artist Selected By You


The tour continues to make waves across the country! Never a dull moment in these cities. 

NHL has started up - so women everywhere are getting taken out for dinner less. I’m digging this Toskala goalie….Razor it would appear is still on summer vacation.

Fall is in the air - even though it’s getting up to 27 degress this weekend. 

You got the changing colours here in Ontario - I mean it’s absolutely gorgeous. 

If you’re in New Brunswick I recommend hitting Fundy National Park - I spent a Thanksgiving weekend there years ago, and it was outstanding.

General “Ranger” Rick Hillier - the Chief Defense of Staff - potentially on the out? Well not according to sources that know- but something somewhere must’ve been said….stay tuned.
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Canadians fire at two Afghan vehicles in separate incidents
Injuries reported in second shooting
Matthew Fisher , CanWest News Service Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- A Canadian convoy was involved in two shooting incidents late Thursday as it drove to and from a Canadian base in Kandahar City and the airfield that is home to most of Canada's troops in Afghanistan.

The convoy, which was part of Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, first shot at an Afghan truck that had driven too close, a military spokesman said. There were no casualties.

On the return journey, the same convoy shot at a second vehicle that also drove too close, wounding an unknown number of Afghan civilians.

The shootings, which the military described as "escalation of force" incidents, highlighted the confusing and dangerous world that the Canadians enter whenever they leave their heavily fortified bases and take to the roads of Afghanistan where suicide bombers and buried improvised explosive devices often await them. More than 40 of the 71 Canadians who had died in Afghanistan have been killed in such attacks.

The first vehicle that was hit belonged to their allies in the Afghan National Police. The second vehicle belonged to Compass, a private company that provides security for a number of countries with troops and civilians living and working at the Kandahar Airfield.

Seven Afghans later turned up at the main gate to the Kandahar Airfield saying they had been wounded in the second shooting. Four of the seven were admitted to NATO's multi-national hospital for treatment. Three were quickly released. The fourth patient's condition was listed as stable.
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Ottawa to re-evaluate foreign-aid priorities
ALAN FREEMAN  From Saturday's Globe and Mail October 6, 2007 at 1:11 AM EDT
Article Link

OTTAWA — Big changes are coming to Canada's annual $4.1-billion foreign aid budget that will see a significant reduction in the number of countries receiving Canadian assistance.

The new policy, expected by the end of the year, has been quietly under discussion within government for at least six months but non-profit groups working in foreign aid complain that they have been excluded from consultations.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled plans for the new policy during a question and answer session in New York recently, telling foreign policy analysts that a review of foreign aid has “concluded that it's not nearly as effective as it could be” and that an announcement would be made “in the coming weeks.”

“We will be announcing a number of measures to make it more effective in terms of promoting a range of Canadian interests and values,” he added.

Although details are still being worked on, it's believed that the goal is to drastically shrink the number of countries receiving the bulk of bilateral aid from more than 75 currently to fewer than 25.

At the same time, the new focus will highlight assistance to Afghanistan, which emerged as Canada's largest aid recipient over Haiti three years ago, and to the Americas, which Mr. Harper has promised to make a priority for Canadian foreign policy.
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Life in Kandahar
Article Link

 We flew into Kandahar Airfield four days ago, or maybe it’s five.. it’s kind of hard to keep track. Let’s see if I can sort it out… first day we flew into Kandahar Airfield very early in the day, arrived just as the sun was rising over the desert. There’s always a lot of dust in Kandahar, dust and wind… it floats above the camp every day, sometimes more, sometimes less. The airfield itself is massive..  it would take a copule of hours to walk across it. More than 15,000 people live here… it’s actually a small city.. all of it, every bottle of water, every bite of food, shipped in. The planes never stop landing and taking off. You can hear them all night long… trucks passing back and forth, four-wheelers, gators, cranes, bulldozers..  Humvees, LAV IIIs…. every kind of armoured vehicle. At night there are few lights, and did I mention the dust? It’s easy to get lost. You find your way eventually, using a peculiar shape of a peculiar building, or a sign on a door, as your guideposts… Lots of people cough a fair bit, because the dust gets in your nose and in your throat and stays there. Canadian  soldiers sleep in ‘weather havens’… rows of round-roofed tents, on concrete foundations. They’re warm and dry and nowadays the beds have mattresses - 18 months ago there were only cots. But there’s an ever-present smell of sewage. There’s a massive sewage lagoon at one end of the camp, and the wind often carries it over the camp. After a few h ours, though, you don’t smell it any more.

Canadian soldiers used to eat in the U.S. mess, and the food there wasn’t so great. Now our soldiers eat in the British mess, and it’s much better. Early every morning, say 6 a.m., soldiers get up and go about their business.. first thing usually is a shower and shave. After that each goes of to whatever his particular job is. We hear a lot at home about combat, but the majority of the people in KAF (Kandahar Airfield) are non-combatants. They’re trained soldiers, but they’re support people - cooks, clerks, administrators, medics, nurses, military police, engineers, carpenters.. every trade you could imagine is here. The building never stops. Each day we got up at around 6 and worked until 1 or 2 in the morning, then did it again the next day. The thing is, everyone here does that - it’s part of the culture. If you need help with something, no one ever says no. No one complains. They get up, even if it’s very late and they’ve slept only three or four hours, and they do what needs to be done.

It’s hardship duty, but there are also many of the comforts of home. KAF has, as we all now know, a Tim Hortons. It’s on the boardwalk, a wooden boardwalk that serves as KAF’s main street. There you’ll find a pizza hut, a Burger King, and various other shops… KAF has a massive ‘PX’, or camp store, that sells every kind of electronic game imaginable, plus t-shirts, caps, clothing, military accessories (camelback water bottles, leather combat gloves, goggles) , and everything else you might find in a supermarket at home. It’s like a Wal-Mart. There’s a barbershop, and a massage salon (all entirely above board!) where soldiers can go for a massage at a cost of $20 US. The masseusses are Romanian and speak little English but the soldiers don’t seem to mind that.
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Using our soldiers as pawns in new Afghan game
 TheStar.com October 07, 2007 Thomas Walkom
Article Link

Canada's purpose in Afghanistan is changing subtly but significantly. When then-prime minister Paul Martin agreed to send combat troops to Kandahar, his aim was to defeat the Taliban. Now, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai actively lobbies to bring his Taliban adversaries into a coalition government, the role of Canadian and other NATO-led troops is not to destroy the insurgents but to pressure them into talks.

In the real world of power politics, this is classic carrot and stick strategy. The carrot Karzai is offering his adversaries, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is a major role in the country's government. Canada and other NATO countries willing to have their soldiers die for the Afghan regime constitute the stick.

"If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, `President, we want a department in this or in that ministry, or we want a position as deputy minister ... and we don't want to fight any more' ... If there will be a demand and a request like that to me, I will accept it," Karzai said last week.

What he left unsaid was the threat that if Taliban leaders don't compromise, they will continue to come under attack from NATO.
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Liberal Defence critic head to Afghanistan
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TORONTO — Liberal Defence critic Denis Coderre is in Pakistan, preparing to take a United Nations flight to Kandahar on Sunday — the sixth anniversary of the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan. 
The Montreal MP said the Afghan mission is a major priority for Canadians and that he’s doing his duty by going there, even though the trip doesn’t have the approval of the Harper government. Both Defence Minister Peter MacKay and NDP Leader Jack Layton are labelling the trip a stunt. 

Coderre told CTV NewsNet in an interview Saturday he’s been asking for months to go, but repeated calls to the defence minister asking for permission were ignored or rejected. 

he said he decided unilaterally to go on the fact-finding trip and report back to Liberal Leader Stephane Dion in preparation for his own future trip to the war-torn country. 

“I took my responsibility. I have a duty, I have a job to do. I am the critic for... the official Opposition,” he said. It’s important, I would say, to make sure that we fully participate and contribute to the debate. So I’m gonna let them play their petty politics and I’ll do my job,” 

The Liberal MP said it would have shown some class and been easier had he been allowed to accompany Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda, who are currently in Afghanistan. 

“For the sake of democracy it’s important that Parliamentarians should be there. And I’ve been asking for months to go,” said Coderre. 

He said he’s going to show solidarity with Canadian troops on behalf of the official Opposition and meet some non-governmental organizations during his visit. 
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Canadian government announces $25 million in food aid for Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda today announced a $25-million program to help feed people in southern Afghanistan.

The money will be used to fund the purchase of grain and cooking oil in areas hard hit by Taliban militants.

Canadian officials say this year alone 8,700 tonnes of food have been distributed to about 400,000 people.

Oda made the announcement as she and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier continued the second day of their visit to Afghanistan.

Oda says "this renewed partnership will help ensure that vulnerable Afghan children will continue to receive necessary food aid."

Oda and Bernier arrived in Kandahar after a visit to Kabul, where they met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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Coderre's Afghan shunning shows petty side of politics
Don Martin, National Post Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007
Article Link
Canada's Afghanistan military operation was authorized by the federal Liberals, the base built by the Liberals and the mission may yet be voted into packing crates by the Liberals. But, for the time being, the Kandahar Air Field flies under a heavily protected Conservative flag.

And that's why a troublesome pit bull of a Liberal defence critic will show up at the front gates of the base next week to find his way blocked by soldiers bearing semi-automatic weapons.

Contrast Denis Coderre's expected cold-shoulder unwelcome with the red-carpeted runway greeting for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who will land in Kandahar in the next few days if he's not there already.

Mr. Coderre has tried for two months to secure government permission to make a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan ahead of Parliament's return in two weeks. Liberal leader Stephane Dion has his application in the system for a visit in November.  

But Mr. Coderre was stonewalled and his calls to the Defence Minister unreturned until he was finally told to buy his own ticket and catch a commercial flight.  

Why not, he decided. Mr. Coderre's solo adventure started on Thursday, although he called from London to say he'd been officially warned the military base is off limits and that he will be denied protection by the troops.

Gosh. What a difference a party makes.

While Mr. Coderre wanders in the wilderness, Mr. Bernier will land aboard a military plane loaded with support staff and a few media tagalongs. He will be given top-level military briefings, access to convoys backed by heavily armed escorts and sleep in the VIP quarters. No tents or porta-potties for this Quebec rookie.  

Now before getting all indignant at this attempt by control freak Conservatives to preserve Kandahar as their own private photo-op, let the record show Denis Coderre has been a serious pain in the government's butt.

He's fiercely anti-Tory and was so solidly behind Michael Ignatieff's bid for Liberal leader last fall, one suspects even Stephane Dion is relieved to have Mr. Coderre in a faraway war zone while he tries to quell his Quebec uprising.

It should also be noted Mr. Coderre is among the greatest of all parliamentary publicity hogs, a man who would walk through Taliban headquarters wrapped in an American flag if there was a media scrum on the other side.More on link


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## GAP (8 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 8, 2007*

Cdn. pols enjoy day of photo ops in Afghanistan
Updated Sun. Oct. 7 2007 10:32 PM ET The Canadian Press
Article Link

An anticipated photo op with Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and his Liberal shadow Denis Coderre didn't take place in Afghanistan Sunday. 

Coderre, who had insisted on going to Afghanistan without the government's approval, was left waiting in Kabul after missing a flight to Afghanistan. 

The Conservatives have accused Coderre of staging a stunt, while the Liberal MP accuses the government of overplaying successes in Afghanistan. 

"Are they lying? The problem with the... Conservative government is the lack of transparency," Coderre told CTV News on Sunday. "It seems that they always have those rosy glasses." 

CTV's Steve Chao reported from Afghanistan that he now intends to visit the Kandahar base on Monday for his own impromptu visit with the Canadian military. 

The Canadian Commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Guy Laroche, said he welcomes visits from all politicians, adding that it provides an opportunity for them to discuss the mission. 
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Afghan president reconsiders request to spray opium crop
By Kirk Semple and Tim Golden New York Times 10/08/2007 01:33:10 AM PDT
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KABUL, Afghanistan - After the biggest opium harvest in Afghanistan's history, U.S. officials have renewed efforts to persuade the Afghan government to begin spraying herbicide on opium poppies, and they have found some supporters within President Hamid Karzai's administration, officials of both countries said.

Since early this year, Karzai has repeatedly declared his opposition to spraying the poppy fields, whether by crop-dusting airplanes or by eradication teams on the ground.

But Afghan officials said that the Karzai administration was now re-evaluating that stance. Some proponents within the government are pushing a trial program of ground spraying that could begin before the harvest next spring.

The issue has created sharp divisions within the Afghan government, among its Western allies and among U.S. officials of different agencies. The matter is fraught with political danger for Karzai, whose hold on power is weak.

Many spraying advocates, including officials at the White House and the State Department, view herbicides as critical to curbing Afghanistan's poppy crop, officials said. That crop and the opium and heroin it produces have become a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency.

But officials said the skeptics - including the U.S. military and intelligence officials and European diplomats in Afghanistan - fear that any spraying of U.S.-made chemicals over Afghan farms would be a boon to Taliban propagandists. 
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Afghanistan: 16 Militants Killed
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Sixteen militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, an official said Monday.

U.S. forces early Sunday called in the strikes against fighters of Tahir Yuldash, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al-Qaida operational commander, said Nabi Jan Mullahkhail, the provincial police chief of Paktika province.

The U.S. military late last month released a list of 12 Most Wanted militants in Afghanistan, and Yuldash was one of five listed with the top reward of $200,000.

Mullahkhail said one enemy fighter — an Uzbek — was captured during the fighting in the Sorobi district of Paktika and said that the militants from Uzbekistan and Chechnya were fighting under Yuldash.

In nearby Paktia province, U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan soldiers detained four suspected militants in Gardez district, the coalition said.

On Sunday, officials said a bombing and a gunbattle killed four police officers and four militants.
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'War on terror' has been a 'disaster': British think tank
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LONDON (AFP) — The US-led "war on terror" has been a "disaster" and Washington and its allies must change their policy in Iraq and Afghanistan to defeat Al-Qaeda, an independent global security think tank said.

The Oxford Research Group (ORG) said in a report that Western strategy since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States had failed to extinguish the threat from Islamist extremism and even fuelled it.

"Every aspect of the war on terror has been counterproductive in Iraq and Afghanistan, from the loss of civilian life through mass detentions without trial. In short, it has been a disaster," report author Paul Rogers said.

"Western countries simply have to face up to the dangerous mistakes of the past six years and recognise the need for new policies."

Rogers, professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford, northern England, also warned that any military action against Iran over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme would further aggravate the situation.
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Scores Killed in Pakistani Tribal Areas  
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS Published: October 8, 2007
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MIRAM SHAH, Pakistan, Oct. 7 (Agence France-Presse) — At least 58 people, including 16 soldiers, were killed Sunday in two battles between militants and troops in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, the military and local residents said.

Skip to next paragraph 
Times Topics: PakistanSecurity forces attacked militant bases and hide-outs in the North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan, said a military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. He said that at least 20 militants and 6 soldiers were killed, and that 6 soldiers were wounded, according to a military statement.

Local residents said four civilians also died, including three women, although the military could not confirm that report.

The operation against the militants was in retaliation for overnight attacks Friday on two military convoys in the region that killed 2 soldiers and wounded 30, General Arshad said.

In a second battle, militants attacked a convoy in another section of the same region, with the resulting clashes killing 10 soldiers and 18 militants, General Arshad said.
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Foreign Service faces financial, morale crisis; feels muzzled
Article Link

OTTAWA - There's a new breed of diplomat lurking in the country's missions around the world, a timid creature that recoils from the Canadian limelight and spends hours trying to reconcile an ever longer list of duties with a constantly shrinking budget.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is in the grips of a kind of existential crisis, say a range of current and recently retired staff, brought on by major challenges to their daily work. They speak of a chill that has descended on their ranks, thanks to a communications crackdown from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, and the more overarching problem of years of deep budget cuts.

In the meantime, Harper is expected to reiterate in next week's speech from the throne that he wants Canada to cast a longer shadow on the world stage, another in a line of prime ministers who ask more of diplomats while simultaneously cutting their resources.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, Neil Hrab, said Canada's global influence declined under the previous Liberal government because money was "diverted away from the important work of diplomacy and toward extravagant vanity projects."

He said the Harper government is working at restoring Canada's stature in the world through "leadership, rebuilding our international capabilities and effective, focused diplomacy."
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Canada fibs about reason for Afghan mission
By Peter Duffy 
  Article Link

CANADA CHIDED the world this week, calling for more political will to help us stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan.

Appearing before the UN General Assembly, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier lectured about our country’s commitment to the values we hold dear, such as freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

These values, he said, must be protected and defended, especially when they come under attack.

This is all very noble, but does it reflect the real reason why we’re in the Afghan quagmire? 

Are we really over there to spread our wonderful values as globalists or to protect our own national interest?

Are we really so altruistic and "international" that we can preach to the rest of the world?

The fact is, Canada’s motives have been suspect from the start, says Edna Keeble, a political science professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.

The academic notes it was only after 9-11 that we turned our attention to Afghanistan and the Taliban’s repressive rule.

The reality is, we went there to deny terrorism a safe haven, fearing that if we didn’t, it would find its way to our own doorstep.

How else to explain that before 9-11, we didn’t hear the cries for help from grassroots organizations in Afghanistan, especially women’s groups, whose rights were being violated?
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Afghanistan a mission of baby steps
 TheStar.com October 08, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
Article Link

Diplomats and military commanders understand clearly Afghanistan is a nation that won't be rushed

KANDAHAR–Haji Agha Lalai is an elder statesman in Panjwaii district, touted as a possible candidate for the Afghan parliament.

He's an influential man who has seen foreigners come and go in his country. And he has advice for the Canadians in his troubled region: undertake more development projects to help "change the thinking of the local people."

In a mission that has cost the lives of 71 Canadian soldiers and at least $500 million in aid dollars, Canada is still fighting for the hearts and minds of the Afghan population.

Afghans are not indifferent to the Canadians. Soldiers walking down the main street of a Panjwaii district town hear shop owners voice their appreciation for improved security, for pushing back insurgents.

But Afghans know the battle is not won yet and so are reticent about offering their wholehearted support to a foreign force that might not be here in two years.

That's why President Hamid Karzai is keen, desperate even, to ensure Canadian forces stay in Afghanistan after their current commitment expires in February 2009.

"The presence of Canada is needed till Afghanistan is able to defend itself. That day is not going to be in 2009," Karzai told Canadian journalists at a recent news conference clearly staged to deliver a message back home.

"Look around and see that the enemy is not yet finished, not yet defeated."
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Free Afghan mission debate from politics, focus on Afghans, activists say
Article Link

VANCOUVER - Paraphrasing an assassinated U.S. president at the Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Kandahar on Sunday, Canada's foreign affairs minister sought to rally the troops.

"Don't ask the Afghan government what it can do for us in Canada, but what we Canadians can do for the Afghan people," Maxime Bernier said.

It's a question both Afghan and Canadian politicians have been asking for months as they've crisscrossed the world to convince both their nations of the merits of Canada's mission in Kandahar.

But the answer is increasingly wrapped up in political rhetoric, activists say, and ordinary Afghans and Canadians are being left out of the debate.

"This is our generation's war," said Norine MacDonald, president of the Senlis Council, an international think-tank focused in part on counter-narcotics initiatives in opium-laden Afghanistan.
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Fighters for bounty warlord killed
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Sixteen militants, fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head, have been killed in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. Separately, an Afghan child who apparently walked onto a NATO training site has also been killed, officials said Monday.

A roadside bomb killed a soldier in the NATO-led force in Uruzgan province, said Maj. Charles Anthony, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Australian and Dutch troops make up the majority of troops in Uruzgan.

Also in Uruzgan, two Dutch Apache helicopters were hit by enemy fire Monday, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement. Both landed safely and their crews were not injured. The helicopters were supporting ground troops when they were hit in the rotor blades. Dutch forces based in Tirin Kot have five Apache helicopters.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (8 Oct 2007)

Australia suffers first combat death in Afghanistan
Reuters, Oct. 8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100800484.html



> Australia suffered its first combat casualty in Afghanistan or Iraq on Monday since sending troops to the two countries after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
> 
> The Australian defense department said the soldier was one killed and another wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated next to their vehicle in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (9 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 9, 2007*

Canada urged to review private contractors guarding embassies and diplomats
Article Link

OTTAWA - The Foreign Affairs Department quietly relies on a host of private security contractors to protect Canadian embassies and diplomats across the globe - a small army that needs more supervision, say opposition critics and defence experts.

The call for more oversight follows an incident last month involving the U.S. security firm Blackwater, in which 11 Iraqis died.

Canada has only employed the controversial security contractor to train members of the Canadian Forces and has not used Blackwater for embassy or dignitary protection.

However 2006 federal public account records show a handful of other U.S. and British security corporations working in Iraq have separate protection contracts with Canada for work in other countries.

Precisely what kind of service is provided by firms such as the ArmourGroup of the United Kingdom, and subsidiaries of Wackenhut Security Systems, which ran afoul of U.S. lawmakers over private prisons, isn't clear.

There are also questions about a $456,000 contract Canada's former ambassador to Kabul signed last year with Saladin Afghanistan Security Ltd.
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German hostage held in central Afghanistan pleads for help on new videotape  
The Associated Press Monday, October 8, 2007 
Article Link

 KABUL, Afghanistan: A German engineer held by Taliban insurgents since July said he lives with the militants "like family" but pleaded with Germany and Afghanistan to help facilitate his release, according to a new videotape Monday.

A dimly lit video of Rudolf Blechschmidt shows the German in what appears to be a simple mud-brick Afghan home. Blechschmidt says he had been recently released into the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross but was taken back into Taliban custody.

"And this time we (were) with the Red Cross on the way to Kabul, but the Taliban stop us and bring us back to the mountains," Blechschmidt says on the tape obtained by AP Television News. "Now we plea to German government and Afghan government, give us some help and make a deal with the Taliban to release us before the winter time starting."

Four employees with the International Committee of the Red Cross were kidnapped Sept. 27 while trying to facilitate the German's release. The four, taken hostage by the Taliban, were released in good health two days later.

Blechschmidt is one of two German engineers and five Afghans taken hostage on July 18 in Wardak province in central Afghanistan. The other German was found dead of gunshot wounds on July 21, while one of the Afghans apparently managed to escape.
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I'm responsible for troops in Afghanistan: Howard
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Prime Minister John Howard says he keenly feels his decision to send troops to Afghanistan in light of the death of an Australian soldier yesterday.

Forty-one-year-old trooper David Pearce was killed in Afghanistan yesterday when his light armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. 

Mr Howard says Australians will make their own judgements about his decision to send troops overseas.

"I don't seek in any way to abate responsibility for the decision I took to send Australian forces to Afghanistan, or Australian forces to Iraq, or indeed anywhere else," he said. 

"I am more than anybody else responsible for the men and women of our forces being overseas, and I will never run away from that. 

"And I won't seek to shift the responsibility to other people."

Greens Leader Bob Brown has offered his condolences to Mr Pearce's family and says Australian forces should only be deployed to help neighbouring countries. 
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Afghan trip aimed at voters
Matthew Fisher , CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 08, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's whirlwind visit to Afghanistan was mostly a series of photo opportunities, but just before boarding a military aircraft late Sunday for the first leg of the long journey back to Ottawa he made plain why he had travelled nearly 20,000 kilometres in less than five days.

With a federal election looming, and the future of Canada's combat role in Afghanistan the subject of intense debate at home, the purpose of Bernier's sleep-defying odyssey had been to sell the mission to voters by explaining "to Canadians and Quebecers... what I've seen."

The point that Bernier made repeatedly during the limited time he gave to the 20 or so Canadian journalists following him around, was that Afghanistan had become safer and that aid work had begun to take place because of the presence of Canadian combat troops in the province of Kandahar.
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'Draw-down has more to do with Afghanistan - not Iraq'
GERRI PEEV  (gpeev@scotsman.com) 
Article Link

BRITISH troop numbers in Iraq will be cut to only 2,500 next spring, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, announced yesterday, raising the prospect of the UK's final withdrawal from the country. 

But as he tried to reach out to voters who opposed the invasion, critics said he was simply redeploying Britain's forces to fight the Taleban in Afghanistan. The announcement that UK troop numbers in Basra will drop to 4,500 by December and possibly to 2,500 by spring - fewer than half the current 5,500 - cheered Labour MPs alarmed by their party's recent collapse in the opinion polls. 

Yet soldiers, analysts and some MPs predict that the winding down of the UK operation in Basra will coincide with a further intensification of the military campaign in Afghanistan. 

Since Britain first announced it was sending troops to Afghanistan, their numbers and British casualties have steadily risen. The death toll stands at 82. 

In January 2006, John Reid, the then defence secretary, announced British troops in Afghanistan would peak at 5,700. For most of the three-year mission, he said, the force would number about 4,700. 

However, according to the Ministry of Defence's figures, there are now more than 6,000 troops in the country. That will rise to 7,700 in the course of this year. And experts warned it could go even higher next year, with plans for a new offensive that could involve up to 1,400 Scottish troops.
More on link

Coderre affirms Afghanistan pullout by 2009
Liberal Defence Critic; 'Not abandoning Afghan people'
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - No matter what he learns on his two-day "fact-finding mission" to southern Afghanistan, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said yesterday he and his party would insist Canada must end its combat mission here when the current mandate expires in February, 2009.

"We're not abandoning the Afghan people. There might be another way at the military level to help them," Mr. Coderre said during a tour of NATO's main base here that was organized for him by officers from the Canadian contingent. "But we believe about the combat mission that rotation [out of a combat role] is in order."
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Japan PM pleads to be part of 'war on terror'
Article Link

TOKYO (AFP) — Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pleaded with the opposition not to make Japan a bystander in the US-led "war on terror" as he argued to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean.

The opposition won control of one house of parliament in July and has vowed to defeat government proposals to extend the naval mission providing fuel and logistical support to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

The opposition has ignored a government compromise that would stop refuelling operations backing combat troops and restrict support to ships policing the Indian Ocean.

Addressing a parliamentary committee, Fukuda said officially pacifist Japan, the world's second largest economy, needed to contribute to global security.

Saying the international community was united after the September 11 attacks on the United States, Fukuda said: "How can we sit back as a bystander?"

"Japan's withdrawal would give an impression that the country would not cooperate in the event of an emergency," Fukuda said.
More on link

Coderre troubled by Afghan government executions
Updated Tue. Oct. 9 2007 9:08 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre says he is "concerned" by the Afghan government's commitment to continue mass executions after the recent end to a three-year moratorium on the death penalty.

Coderre, who is in Afghanistan as part of a two day fact-finding mission, echoed the United Nations position saying he was troubled by the state-sanctioned execution of 15 Afghan prisoners on Sunday night.

"It is obviously an internal matter, but I'm like the United Nations, I am concerned with that way of proceeding," Coderre told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday from Kandahar.
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Food convoys under escalating attack as security worsens: UN official
Article Link

OTTAWA - Convoys carrying precious food donations are increasingly under attack in southern Afghanistan, says the local director of the United Nations World Food Programme.

"From a security point of view it has gotten worse - there's no doubt about that," Rick Corsino said Monday during a visit to Ottawa.

"We've lost more food in the past 12 months through those attacks than we had in the previous three years."

His comments come on the heels of a whirlwind tour by Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier who declared: "The territory here in Kandahar is safer than one year ago. The number of attacks is diminished. I admit the situation is still difficult, but (it) has greatly improved."

Canada's mission in Afghanistan could be debated intensely this fall amid the prospect of an early federal election. The Conservative drive to extend Canada's combat role past February 2009 runs counter to every opposition leader.

Based in Kabul, Corsino estimates that about 1,000 tonnes of wheat, beans, cooking oil and fortified biscuits have been waylaid or vanished since January. About 30 attacks on local Afghan trucks moving the food between volatile southern districts are blamed on insurgents who resent foreign intervention, or sometimes on bandits who later sell donations meant to sustain the poorest families.
More on link

French jets based in Kandahar close to action
Matthew Fisher , CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 08, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - As recently as four days ago, French fighter jets scrambled in response to a call for close air support from troops from the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment fighting insurgents.

While details of that mission remain secret, it was not the first time France has come to the aid of Canadian ground troops fighting in Kandahar.

"I've helped the Canadians many times," said Lt.- Col. Fabien Mandon, commander of the Kandahar Air Expeditionary Group as he stood in front of one of the first three French Mirage 2000 jets to be based here. "But the nationality is not important. We will do this for everybody here."

Matthew Fisher/CanWest News Service

The French air presence at Kandahar is less than two weeks old. Before that, the Mirages flew missions over Afghanistan from a base in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. But getting to the main battlefields in southern and eastern Afghanistan took more than one hour and required three refuelings from tanker aircraft. Being based in the heart of the war zone means pilots can get their jets over troops in distress in 15 minutes or less.

"I prefer to be here. This really puts us in the fight," Mandon said. "Even if pilots were well aware of what was going on in the operational area, we were too far away. Now we are in the middle of the rockets that fall on this base and we can understand better what is happening."
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Desert queen
Canadian Natalie Simard breaks with tradition as the first female to train Afghan combat soldiers 
By MICHAEL DEN TANDT
Article Link

KABUL -- As recently as a month ago, Natalie Simard lived quietly in Owen Sound, enjoying her friends and her job in the quartermaster's office on the base in Meaford. 

Then the 29-year-old boarded a troop transport and flew to a small coalition camp on the outskirts of war-ravaged Kabul, to carve out a unique spot in Canadian military history. 

Simard, a Quebec City native who moved to Owen Sound two years ago to learn English, is the first woman to join a Kabul-based unit of Canadian troops playing a key role in training the new Afghan National Army. She may even be the first woman to ever be involved in training combat soldiers in this rigidly patriarchal society. 

Clearly, Simard loves a challenge: This is her second Afghan tour, the first having been at Canada's Camp Julien, also in Kabul, in 2004. 

"With the guys I work with, it's great," Simard said at Camp Alamo, a small outpost on the outskirts of the city, where she is posted alongside 300 American and 60 British soldiers, as well as 14 other Canadians. "When I got out with the Afghans, they're always very surprised to see a woman in the army." 

The Afghan National Training Centre, of which Simard is a part, is a linchpin of international and Afghan government plans to stabilize the country. Thirty-four thousand troops are combat-ready now, according to coalition sources, with a longer-term goal of 70,000. The ANTC graduates between 800 and 1,000 trained troopers every month. 
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Afghan base a bustling city in the desert
Kandahar Airfield has comforts of home, but smells of sewage
Rob Shaw, Times Colonist Published: Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- One of the largest, most bustling cities in Afghanistan's Kandahar province isn't actually a city at all.

It's an air base run by Canadians that serves as the launching pad for almost all of the military's operations in southern Afghanistan. Daily life at the Kandahar Airfield is in many ways surreal, as it recreates a piece of North America in the centre of the desert in a war-ravaged country.

Squint as you walk through the large square-shaped commercial boardwalk and you might think you're in a food court in any North American mall. Want a Whopper? Go to the Burger King trailer. Feel like a foot-long Subway? How about a stuffed-crust pizza? Pizza Hut will set you up.
More on link


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## GAP (10 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 10, 2007*

Gunmen attack Afghanistan mosque  
By Alastair Leithead  BBC News, Kabul  
Article Link

Two people have been killed and at least 10 injured in Afghanistan after gunmen opened fire in a mosque during prayers in a province bordering Kabul. 
In a separate incident, also near the capital, a mullah was shot dead. 

The mosque shooting took place in Wardak province which borders Kabul. A police chief said around 10 gunmen entered the building in Abad district. 

They opened fire, killing two people and injuring others including a boy. Police are trying to find a motive. 

Abducted 

But it does not appear to be any kind of tribal or local dispute, and the Taleban are suspected to be responsible. 

In neighbouring Logar province on Tuesday night the Afghan interior ministry said a mullah on his way home from prayers was abducted and then shot a number of times. 

He died of his injuries. 

Attacks on religious figures, especially against those perceived to be pro-government, have increased over the past year. 

But they are still unusual. 

They are also a reminder that the insurgency is not just limited to bombings and fighting in the south and east of the country. 

Assassinations and tactics designed to intimidate local people are being used across Afghanistan and are getting increasingly close to the capital. 
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Japan opposition refuses to budge on Afghan mission8 hours ago
Article Link

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's main opposition leader refused to budge in his bid to end a controversial naval mission supporting US-led troops in Afghanistan, saying Tokyo should not simply follow Washington.

Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan which took control of one house of parliament in July elections, said his party may propose alternative plans on troop deployments overseas.

"After the ruling coalition has submitted its new bill, we may submit our own bill to show our opinions on the matter," Ozawa told reporters.

"Joining a military operation just because the United States tells us, that's not a consensus of the international community nor a consensus of the Japanese people," he said.

The latest opinion poll, however, showed more voters supported extending the mission than ending it and that recently installed Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda enjoyed strong backing.

Japan refuels US and other coalition ships and planes in the Indian Ocean under legislation allowing participation in the "war on terror" passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
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Trooper in Afghanistan 'for daughters'By Jessica Marszalek
October 10, 2007 04:12pm
Article Link

AN Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan was serving overseas to provide a better life for his two daughters, who are now struggling to come to terms with his death, his family says.

Trooper David Pearce, 41, died when his light armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Oruzgan province, in southern Afghanistan, on Monday. 

His brother-in, law Norm Cunningham, said Trooper Pearce was serving overseas to provide financial stability for his daughters Stephanie, 11, and Hannah, 6, after a hard childhood in which he lost his father at a young age. 

"David was a true family man," he said at the Enoggera Army Barracks in Brisbane, where Trooper Pearce was based. 

"His family and particularly his daughters were the centre of his universe. 

"His main motivation for joining the army was to provide long-term financial security for his family while also serving his country. 

"The price he and his family have paid for his sacrifice is high indeed and beyond the comprehension of many people." 
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Taliban free German hostage in Afghanistan
Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:53pm By Jon Hemming
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban rebels freed a German hostage in Afghanistan on Wednesday after more than two months of captivity, Germany's foreign minister said.

"The German citizen ... who was kidnapped in Afghanistan is once again free. We are happy and relieved," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.
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Pakistani Jets Bomb Militants in Border Clash  
  Article Link 

Pakistani jets have bombed Islamic militants near the border with Afghanistan bringing a four-day death toll to 250 people killed in fierce battles. Pakistan has been struggling to control resurging militancy in its volatile tribal areas where the Taleban and al Qaida have a strong base of support. 
In a rare use of heavy firepower, Pakistani jets targeted Islamic militants Tuesday in their hideouts in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. 

About 50 people were killed during the battle. Security officials say since fighting between the two sides broke out Saturday about 200 militants and 45 soldiers have been killed. 

Dozens of civilians are said to be among the casualties and thousands of villagers have fled the area since the fighting began. 

Major General Wahid Arshad is Pakistan's military spokesman. He told Pakistan's Dawn Television Tuesday night he could not confirm the reports of civilian casualties but said there were a number of civilians fleeing the area. 

"There could be collateral damage of course," he said. "Although, I have not got any confirmed reports about that. But, a lot of people have left that place." 

Arshad said the fighting began when militants ambushed security forces Saturday, forcing them to retaliate. 

The fighting between Pakistani security forces and Islamic militants is some of the fiercest since Pakistan made moves to reign in Islamic radicals in 2001 when it partnered with the U.S. against extremists.
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Canadian in Guantanamo prison appeals to US federal court
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Omar Khadr, the sole Canadian held in the Guantanamo "war on terror" prison, has appealed to a US federal court to avoid facing a military tribunal, his lawyers said Tuesday.

Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and held on suspicion of belonging to the Al-Qaeda terror network. He is charged with killing a US soldier with a grenade when he was being arrested.

Khadr's defense attorneys say he is a child soldier and illegally imprisoned.

The military judge handling the case, Colonel Peter Brownback, dismissed all charges against Khadr in June on grounds that his designation as an "enemy combatant" did not meet the standard required for trial by military commission.

But a military review court rejected the ruling on October 2, and Brownback has scheduled a new hearing on the Khadr case on November 8. 
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Canada's moral obligation to Afghans  
Article Link

Matthew Fisher makes explicit in this National Post article thoughts that underlay this post of mine:

What Mr. Coderre -- and to an extent Mr. Bernier --failed to provide in Kandahar was a realistic appraisal of the current security situation, which is not particularly good, and how it would get much worse if Canada were to retreat. Also missing was an appreciation of how Canada's combat role in southern Afghanistan, which was championed by Paul Martin's Liberal government and then mightily embraced by Stephen Harper's Tories, has created an expectation among Afghans that Canada was actually serious about helping this country.

Those who would demand a change in the Canadian mission are ignoring a broad international consensus that little social or economic development can take place here unless there is security and that establishing such security requires years of commitment, not months.

It is also laughable that some Canadian politicians think that after only 19 months of combat their country has already earned a dividend from NATO for fighting the Taliban in Kandahar's Panjwaii and Zhari districts and that somehow Canada now has the right to condemn countries such as Germany that have refused to fight in Afghanistan.

Canadian troops have done very well here, but their courage and their successes do not make up for the fact that for decades Canada neglected its military so badly that it became the laughing stock of NATO. And several generations of Canadian politicians were quite happy to have it that way.

It is only because of what Canada has been doing in Kandahar that it has begun to re-establish its position as a respected member of NATO. Canada's top general, Rick Hillier, has commanded the International Security Assistance Force here. Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard of the Van Doos is to assume command for all combat operations in southern Afghanistan from next February.
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Kandahar is no place for politics
The Gazette Published: 11 hours ago
Article Link

The federal election campaign was in full swing last weekend, but on the other side of the world. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre were both in Kandahar, schmoozing with Canadian soldiers and visiting the celebrated Tim Hortons outlet there. It all felt, CanWest News Service's Matthew Fisher noted, rather like whistle-stop campaign touring. That's too bad, because soldiers should not be anyone's campaign props.

Bernier and International Development Minister Bev Oda were on an official visit: Canadian Forces aircraft; SUV limousines, and use of a U.S. Chinook helicopter to visit forward troops in the dangerous Panjawaii-Zhari district. Coderre, whose trip had not been authorized in advance, never got past the NATO base at Kandahar.

Coderre says he paid for his trip and grumbled, even before he left Canada, about being frozen out by defence officials. Bernier got a chance to hand out Jos. Louis snack cakes, produced in his own riding in the Beauce, to francophone soldiers at a forward operating base. Coderre twiddled his thumbs in Kandahar.
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Report from Afghanistan
Afghan aid dependent on military support, general says 
Published Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007 By Rob Shaw, Times Colonist 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canadian troops are fighting smaller groups of insurgents now than they did last year, but the security situation remains too unstable in southern Afghanistan to allow development and aid officials to work without military protection, says the Canadian general in charge in Afghanistan.

“It depends on where you are,” said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, commander of Task Force Afghanistan, explaining that the areas around the country’s capital city, Kabul, are really the only spots aid workers could venture without security.

“In the southern regions of Afghanistan [where Canadian troops are based], that’s not the case at this time. We hope to get there,” he said.

“But in the Zharey/Panjwai [districts], where we are presently conducting operations, it would not be possible to do any development without having security forces down there.”

Canada has approximately 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, most of them based at Kandahar Airfield. They now typically fight small groups of insurgents, about 10 to 20 people, whereas last year they often faced groups of 300 or more, Laroche said in an interview.

The smaller number of insurgents, plus a better-trained Afghan national army and police force, mean the Canadian troops should make more progress this year over last in securing territory from insurgents.
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Canadian UAV Blues
Article Link

October 10, 2007: Canada has become disenchanted with its Sperwer UAVs. Canada has bought 21 of the Sperwers, including ten second hand ones obtained from Denmark last year. France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, Greece and Canada are all now using the French built Sperwer UAV, which is got its first heavy use during Balkan peacekeeping missions in the 1990s.

The Canadians are using their Sperwers heavily in Afghanistan, and have paid to improve the Sperwer flight control software, to make the UAV more stable when landing under windy conditions. It's often windy in Afghanistan. Still, troops are envious of other UAV types they see in use by other nations.

The $2.6 million Sperwer LE (Long Endurance) weighs 772 pounds, carries a 110 pound payload, is 12 feet long and has an endurance of 12 hours. Sperwer can operate up to 200 kilometers from its ground control unit. But the Sperwer uses a noisy engine (think lawnmower) and flies low enough to be heard. This has not proved to be a problem, as the people below, if they are Taliban, either start shooting at the UAV, or try to run away. The Canadian troops have come to depend on their Sperwers, and would rather have more of them, than another, newer, UAV. The troops have learned that operator experience is a major factor in UAV success, and much of that would be lost if they switched a new model. 

The Sperwer has suffered from the heat, dust and wind that is so abundant in Afghanistan, and there have been several attempts to get an improved UAV to the troops. For a while, Canada was going to buy some Predators, not just because these one ton UAVs are more capable than Sperwer, but because Predator can carry Hellfire missiles. But this became a political issue in Canada, where many politicians did not like the idea of an unmanned aircraft carrying, and using, missiles, even if the actual firing was done by a human operator on the ground. Everyone agreed that a larger UAV would be better, especially one that could carry a laser designator, and be more stable in the wind. While the politicians fussed, the troops fumed, and now everyone says that obtaining a new, and better, UAV, is on the fast track. The troops are unsure exactly where that track is headed
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The Hot Issues for the Foreign-Minded Departments this Fall  
By Lee Berthiaume
Article Link

The Conservative government was elected last year on five key priorities, none of which related to foreign policy. 

Nineteen months later, however, the government has attempted to put its own stamp on Canada's approach to the world in many ways, been forced to deal with a number of key issues, and may actually fall due to the NATO mission in Afghanistan or climate change. If the Conservatives fall on the mission, it will mark the first time since 1963 that a foreign policy issue will have led to a vote of non-confidence in the House. 

Yet Afghanistan is far from Canada's only foreign policy issue, and most will still exist whether an election is held this fall or not. Below is a list of some of the major issues facing Canada: 

AFGHANISTAN  

The big question is: what will Canada's presence in the country look like after February 2009? 

Canada's involvement in Afghanistan has two deadlines. The first is February 2009, when Canada's mission in Kandahar province ends. Canada has about 2,500 soldiers in the south conducting combat patrols, training the Afghan National Army and providing security in other ways. It also has a 330-member Provincial Reconstruction Team there, comprised mainly of military personnel. 

The second, less pressing deadline is 2011, when Canada's commitment to the Afghanistan Compact runs out, as does the more than $1 billion in reconstruction and development funds that was pledged in 2001 over 10 years. There are a variety of other commitments, including a military team that advises Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But the question remains: what will happen to the troops in Kandahar? 

No matter what happens during the throne speech and subsequent session–if there is one–efforts to convince other NATO countries to step up their troop commitments and take more of a role in Afghanistan, including seeking a replacement for Canada in the south, will continue. Member countries will meet in Noordwijk, Netherlands, on Oct. 24-25 to discuss the mission and Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who criticized European NATO members during a trip to Washington last month, is expected to attend. 
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## GAP (10 Oct 2007)

Critics take note, there's progress hereUPDATED: 2007-10-10 03:12:59 MST
By MICHAEL DEN TANDT 
Article Link
  
KANDAHAR CITY -- If Canada's mission to Afghanistan succeeds, it'll be because of this place. 

And if Canadians knew more about what goes on here, the tenor of the Afghan debate in Ottawa might be different. 

This three-acre, white-washed compound -- a former tomato-canning plant turned stronghold for the Soviets, then Taliban, then Americans, and finally Canadians -- is where a small team of Canadian soldiers came in July 2005 to help the Afghans rebuild their country. 

Conditions they met were appalling: poverty, 80% illiteracy, disease, a filthy hospital, and schools burnt by Taliban. 

At the time, the insurgency was just getting started, and Canadian troops were sustaining the first serious injuries and casualties. But the numbers were small and few back home seemed to notice. 

That all changed Jan. 15, 2006, when diplomat Glyn Berry was killed by a suicide blast. The same attack, which happened just a few hundred metres from the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team's main gate, cost Master Cpl. Paul Franklin his legs and injured two other soldiers. 

Suddenly, Canadians and Canadian media were focused on the mission. 


I arrived here a week after the bombing. Members of the PRT and members of other government departments were still in shock. But their work went on just as before. If anything, they worked with greater determination. 

Each day, convoys of armoured jeeps left the razor-wired front gates of the base went through the city to various projects -- an orphanage, a school, a new police station. 

By night, convoys raced up the road to Kandahar Airfield, avoiding the treacherous warrens of downtown. 

City bombings were routine with gunfire nearly every night. Foot patrols slowed to a trickle, then stopped. Canadian jeeps were replaced by heavily armoured LAV III troop carriers. 

When I was here in 2006, I met and interviewed as many Afghans as I could. I heard that ministers received death threats, clinics were burned to the ground, and local farmers were starving because western aid wasn't getting through. 

The police seemed incapable of defending themselves, with convoys of officers frequently blown up. 

I saw the injured and dying as they lay in an unsanitary hospital ward. There were no nurses or doctors, only grieving family members. 

By the time I left Kandahar, I was deeply skeptical any kind of progress could happen. 
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Local soldiers get homecoming welcome today
The Windsor Star Published: Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Article Link

The Windsor Police Services Board and the Department of National Defense are hosting a welcome-home recognition and reception for soldiers with the Essex & Kent Scottish, 21 Service Battalion, and the Royal Canadian Regiment on their recent return from Afghanistan.

Const. Mike Akpata, Warrant Officer Ward Gapp, Sgt. Dwayne Adams, Cpl. Sean Bruce-Hayes and Cpl. Eric Klay are expected to attend this homecoming recognition.

The reception will take place in the Sergeant's Mess, located at The Major F.A. Tilston V.C. Armoury and Police Training Centre, 4007 Sandwich St. beginning at noon.
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Keep your head down, you’re in Kandahar
by Steve FortinDownload article (PDF)
Article Link

Maritime singer-songwriter Matt Minglewood travelled to Camp Mirage in the Persian Gulf region, and on to Afghanistan as part of a tour to entertain the troops in 2005. He came back a changed man. “You can never predict how you’ll react. Personally, the trip opened up my eyes to a lot of things. I learned a lot, especially about the role of the troops.” 

When he’s asked what surprised him the most or what stayed with him from the trip, Mr. Minglewood answers without missing a beat that it’s the conditions the troops have to work in—the dust, the sand, the wind—and how professional and dedicated the soldiers are. “I’ve always been a supporter of the Canadian Forces, as I had uncles who served, some of whom never came back. But it was only during my time in Afghanistan that I really understood the sacrifice made by those who serve their country,” he said. “There’s also the soldiers’ tremendous concern and care for the Afghan people. I came back profoundly touched and changed.”

The trip was also a source of inspiration for Mr. Minglewood, who wrote a very moving song about his experience in Afghanistan. Entitled “Keep your head down”, the song attempts to describe the difficult conditions the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are living in. “The title came from a Kandahar catchword. But the song isn’t preachy or critical; it’s just my way of paying homage to the soldiers serving in all kinds of difficult conditions,” says the songwriter.

The song is very well received wherever the singer performs. Recently in Gagetown, where Minglewood was performing, the song garnered praise from the mostly military audience. The general public’s reaction is also very good. In September, at the Harvest Blues and Jazz Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick, people were extremely enthusiastic. Though it hasn’t yet been recorded, you can listen to the song or an excerpt from it on Mr. Minglewood’s Web site.

Another East Coast performer, J.P. Cormier, a multi-instrumentalist from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, has the same sentiment about the troops and Afghanistan. When asked to join the tour to entertain the troops in May 2007, Mr. Cormier took a few days to reflect, and decided it was simply, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I just had to go. And the experience changed my life forever,” he says. “It’s just awful to see to how little Canadians actually know about the ins and outs of the CF mission in Afghanistan.”

For three weeks, the Maritime musician and his band visited bases in Kandahar and Kabul, performing to the most appreciative audiences, as was seen from the “thank yous” posted by Canadian soldiers to the performer’s guest book on his Web site.

The trip has had a lasting impact on him and inspired him to write a song dedicated to the soldiers. He wants the song to be a testimony to the hard work being done by CF members in Afghanistan. “I wrote the song in the first person so as to give a voice to the soldiers who talk about their day-to-day life and to leave a lasting record of my experience,” says Mr. Cormier. The song obviously touches people because, according to the artist, when he performs the song, a hush falls over the audience and a kind of a communion arises between him and the audience, followed by heartfelt applause and standing ovations.
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Not that I'm Complaining...... 
Article Link

According to a recent article in the NY Times, Georgia — population 5m — has more than doubled its troop levels in Iraq from 850 to 2000. And those troops aren’t lollygagging about in a Halliburton pantry in the Green Zone. These boys are patrolling the Iraq-Iran border.

Now, look at Canada — population 34m — which has hit its limit of 2500 troops for Afghanistan and is considered to be “overstretched.” I know this may not be a fair comparison since I am unsure of how/why Georgians join their military (regardless of the 18 months of obligatory service). Yet somehow I still think that Canada could field a lot more than it is. Compare these stats from the CIA World Factbook:

Georgia manpower fit for military service (2005 est.):

males age 18-49: 827,281 
females age 18-49: 903,791 
Canada manpower fit for military service (2005 est.):

males age 16-49: 6,740,490 
females age 16-49: 6,580,868 
According to the Georgian defence ministry website Georgia has 26,902 soldiers (including 6873 conscripts) to Canada’s 62,000 Regular Force members. So why can’t Canada field more troops? There might be some institutional differences to be considered. For example when a Canadian soldier gets sent off for a 6 month rotation, first they have to go through 1.5 years of pre-deployment training. After deployment they return for 1~2 months of “decompression,” then finally they have to catchup on courses and training etc that was missed while deployed. A lot of planning goes into keeping a constant 2500 Canadians in the ‘Ghan. I wonder what the deployment cycle of the regular Georgian soldier is? I can only imagine… Regardless, I am certain there is some major room for improvement in the Canadian Forces.
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## GAP (11 Oct 2007)

What Canadians thought were secure, stable areas may not be!!

THE DISCOUNT WAR
ISAF Is Failing in Effort to Secure Afghanistan on the Cheap
By Ralf Beste, Konstantin von Hammerstein and Alexander Szandar
Article Link

Germany's parliament votes this Friday on whether to extend Berlin's participation in the military mission in Afghanistan. The country is on the brink of disaster, but German politicians have chosen to ignore Afghanistan's real problems.

Italian Brigadier General Fausto Macor is the ideal star witness to make the situation in Afghanistan dramatically clear to German politicians. The wiry general from the northern Italian city of Turin has been in charge of the Regional Command West of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan since July. He and his men are deployed in what is considered the quietest and safest part of the country.

Macor and his men are barricaded into an area near the airport in Herat, an old trading city of 250,000 inhabitants that has long served as a gateway to nearby Iran. Heavily armed Albanian soldiers guard the entrance to the camp, which is protected against enemy fire by a 1-meter-thick wall of boulders. 

On Tuesday of last week, the general met with Eckart von Klaeden, the foreign policy spokesman of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Von Klaeden had traveled to the city with the German ambassador to Afghanistan, Hans-Ulrich Seidt.


FROM THE MAGAZINE
 Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication. The general is slightly delayed, having attended a memorial service for two Spanish soldiers who were killed the day before in a bomb attack 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south. The service was broadcast live on Italian television to a distressed nation. NATO troops have just liberated two kidnapped Italian intelligence officers from Macor's contingent. One of the Italians suffered serious injuries during the raid.

The commander sits in a chair, his back to the television set, and points to a military map on the wall. "You see," he says, "I am responsible for an area half the size of Italy." Then he rattles off the relevant statistics. Of the 1,800 soldiers under his command, only 270 can go on patrol. If he sends two units out on patrol, they can easily find themselves operating 400 kilometers (249 miles) apart. "It's as if one of them were in Turin and the other in Venice," says the general.

He can expect little support from the Afghan army, which has only 400 armed troops in the western sector. As a result, the general is left to his own resources as far as entire regions are concerned. He has no illusions. There is no power vacuum in Afghanistan: Taliban fundamentalists, armed tribal warlords or criminal gangs control the areas where there are no international troops.

In fact, the rule of law ends only a few hundred meters from Macor's headquarters, where the commander of the Herat airport complains about his situation. Outside, the warm late autumn sun shines on the Italians' gray Hercules transport aircraft. The mustachioed police colonel keeps his office cooled to a chilly 19 degrees Celsius (61 degrees Fahrenheit). The law requires that no armed soldiers be allowed on the airport grounds. The police colonel complains that his men, armed with only 30 old Kalashnikov automatic rifles, are poorly equipped to uphold the law at the airport.

 DER SPIEGEL
Germany is in charge of Regional Command North in Afghanistan.
This isn't nearly enough 
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## GAP (11 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 11, 2007*

The fog of war polls
Thu Oct 11 2007
Article Link

TWO high-ranking federal politicians, one Conservative and one Liberal, were in Afghanistan in the last week, ostensibly to find out what's going on in Canada's part of the war zone there. 
They went for very different reasons, except, of course, that they each hoped to advance the political position of their party as it relates to the Afghan war. Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier went to show the flag and support the troops, as well as to reinforce the Conservative government's position that it will, if it must -- and if it can, given its minority status -- extend the Canadian military mission beyond its February 2009 deadline. That's a message that a lot of Canadians apparently don't want to hear, at least according to the polls, but it is a message that soldiers clearly do. With more than 70 of their comrades killed and dozens more injured, they seem not to want to walk away from a good job that is still only half done. 

On an overlapping visit that was hyped as overcoming almost insurmountable odds thrown in his way by the Conservative military establishment, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre finally arrived in Kandahar to visit the same places, and talk to the same people as Mr. Bernier. Mr. Coderre advanced the political position of his party on the Afghan war, but had quite a different message for Canadians at home and Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Whereas Mr. Bernier went to Kandahar to wave the flag, Mr. Coderre went to lower it. In effect, he offered the Liberal party's promise to forsake the region regardless of the situation by February 2009. Standing on the front lines with troops from the Royal 22nd Regiment, the famed Van Doos from his native province of Quebec, he told the terrorists, we'll be gone soon. 

If there was ever a party driven by the political polls, it is the Dion Liberals on Afghanistan. Which is a curious thing. It would seem to make political sense; Canadians are deeply divided about the war and the country's combat role there, and nowhere more so than in Quebec, Mr. Dion's home province. Yet no matter how high the Liberals ratchet up their opposition -- and it is hard to ratchet it up any higher than Mr. Coderre's announcement on arriving on his self-proclaimed "fact-finding" tour of Afghanistan that no fact he found there would change his or his party's policy -- they get no support for it in the polls. 

Only the Liberals can end our war in Afghanistan by defeating Stephen Harper's Conservative government. The Bloc Québécois and the NDP have already abandoned the Afghan people. But if Afghanistan is genuinely an election issue, rather than just a media talking point, why aren't the polls going the other way for Liberals? Liberals are drooping in English Canada and plummeting in Quebec, running nose to nose with the NDP. The Conservatives are holding steady, creeping up in English Canada, but steadily growing stronger in Quebec. Mr. Dion, his head firmly stuck in his famously academic cloud, may have misread the concerns of Quebec even as he does a disservice to the Canadian war effort.   
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Osprey editor on assignment in Afghanistan
Article Link

This week, Osprey editor and political columnist Michael Den Tandt begins the first in a series of special reports from Afghanistan. 

Two weeks ago Michael was asked by the Canadian military to participate in a 12-day fact-finding trip to Kabul and Kandahar. The trip was offered specifically to smaller regional media who do not on their own have the resources to send reporters abroad. 

Across the Osprey group of newspapers, local news is king. How could we justify sending a columnist to a war zone overseas? 

In the end we decided that the Canadian mission in Afghanistan IS a local story. Each of our communities is home to a reserve unit, most of whom have contributed in some way to the mission. Other Ontario cities are home to major army bases. Our core readership is the heartland of small-town Ontario. Every one of these towns is home to Canadian soldiers who have served in Afghanistan, are serving now, or are training to serve. Every one of our newspapers has published stories about fallen soldiers who were our neighbors. This is a subject we all care about, deeply. 
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Keep pressure on Karzai
 TheStar.com October 11, 2007 
Article Link

Ever since he took power, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made only half-hearted efforts to get Afghanistan to clean up its shoddy human rights record. For the most part, it has been a losing battle, and part of the blame can be placed at the feet of Harper himself.

Last spring, Harper had to be dragged into reacting to reports that Taliban detainees handed over by Canadian troops to Afghan forces had later been beaten, clubbed and shocked while in prison. At first, Harper dismissed those allegations as "rumours," but after weeks of uproar in Parliament, his government grudgingly signed a deal with the Afghans that would allow Canadian officials unrestricted access to detainees to ensure they were not being tortured.

Now comes word that 15 Afghan prisoners, convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape, have been executed by firing squad. The Afghan government says it fully intends to execute more prisoners. 

Ottawa's response? Initially, it said nothing. Later, after pressure from Canadian human rights groups, it issued a tepid, two-line statement that said only that Ottawa expects President Hamid Karzai's government "to live up to its international human rights obligations" and noting that captured prisoners must be spared the death penalty.

Compare that to the strong denunciation of the executions by the Netherlands, which termed the action "extremely unwelcome."

Both Canada and the Netherlands have soldiers in Afghanistan. Both oppose the death penalty. Both oppose torture. But it is clear that the Dutch take human rights violations seriously.

Harper insists part of our role in Afghanistan is to promote human rights in that strife-torn country. But his feeble responses to reports of abuse and now of a mass execution makes a mockery of that claim.

If he is serious about human rights, then Harper should take a page from the Dutch and tell Karzai in words he fully understands that Ottawa expects him to live up to the goal of advancing such rights.
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## GAP (11 Oct 2007)

*Let rebuilders tell the story*
Canadians would be proud of what's done in their name in Afghanistan - if they really knew
Posted By Michael Den Tandt Posted 
Article Link

KANDAHAR — The Afghan war is not one conflict but three: a guerrilla war, a development war and a communications war. Canada is gaining ground in the first and slowly winning the second. 

We’re losing the third. 

The military and the media deserve some measure of blame for this. Mainly though, responsibility falls to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Even as he struggles to sell the Afghan mission to an increasingly uneasy public, his mania for control is stifling the truth about what’s really happening here. 

The tragedy is that this truth is extraordinary. It’s a story of courage and grit and idealism that, if more Canadians only knew it, would make them very proud. But most don’t know it, because the people best positioned to tell it have been gagged. 

I came back to Afghanistan to find answers to two questions. Is Canada’s deployment here still worthwhile, despite the rising toll in lives? And if it is, then why do so many people back home think it isn’t? 

In the past week I’ve spoken to dozens of Canadian soldiers, non-governmental aid workers and Afghans, including some who are very critical of the U.S.-led international effort here and of the Karzai regime. Their message was unanimous: Please, Canada, don’t go. 

Our country has an influence and a reputation here that are vastly disproportionate to the number of troops we have on the ground. 

That’s partly because we are spending money — a great deal of money, $1.2 billion committed over 10 years — on rebuilding and redevelopment. 

Your tax dollars are helping pay for a vast national demining project, led by Canada but in partnership with the United Nations. Every day on a mountain-top in Kabul, Afghans, mentored by Canadians, carry on the painstaking and dangerous work of removing and destroying the thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance that litter this country. Canada’s Department of Foreign affairs is the single largest donor, contributing $20 million anually. 

Your tax dollars are paying for a project that, this year alone, will help 3,000 war widows in Kabul start microbusinesses. In many cases, the aid begins with a single cow or goat, which allows a mother to feed her kids. 

Your tax dollars are paying for the training of a professional Afghan National Army, which is increasingly imposing order in the volatile south. Thirty-four thousand troops are already trained. A thousand new troops a month are graduating from the Afghan National Training Centre in Kabul. Canadian soldiers are in the forefront of the training effort, in Kabul and in the south.

Your tax dollars are paying for 200 small aid projects in Kandahar City, all geared toward stimulating local business and trades and developing a functioning local economy. 

These efforts are not being carried out on your behalf at arms’ length. They’re being led, supported and protected by a Canadian military that has learned, through half a century of peacekeeping, how to properly and modestly engage with a foreign culture. 

You may have heard that, around the world, no one can tell Canadians and Americans apart any longer. That is false. In Afghanistan, everyone knows the difference. Canadians are leaders here in the delicate trick of combining military power with aid. Other nations in the 37-member international coalition come to our Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Kandahar City to study our methods. 

The PRT, Camp Nathan Smith, is a model, an experiment in a new kind of military engagement. The former Liberal government called it the “three-d” approach — defence, diplomacy and development. The Harper government calls it the “whole of government” approach. The two are one and the same: soldiers, working hand in hand with RCMP officers, diplomats, lawyers, doctors, specialists in governance and foreign aid workers, to help the Afghans manage their own affairs, raise their standard of living and establish a functional state. 

You’ve heard about the 71 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat who’ve lost their lives in Afghanistan. 

You’ve heard about the CBC journalist and cameraman whose armoured vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb. 

What you haven’t heard, perhaps, is that the vast majority of the casualties and injuries in this civil war are Afghan. There are four battalions of Afghan soldiers, numbering some 3,000 troops, operating in the south now, mentored and supported by Canadian officers. The Afghans are in the forefront of every combat operation. Eighty-five per cent of the casualties treated for war injuries at Kandahar Airfield, the main coalition base in the south, are Afghan army or Afghan police. 

It follows from this that our deployment here is not an occupation: It’s a support mission. But few people back home appreciate this, because nobody’s covering the Afghan side of the war. The Afghans have no media to speak of, and the Canadian media are focused with laserlike intensity on Canadian casualties. Afghan casualties, even mass casualties, get short shrift in news meetings in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. 

The leading edge of Canada’s humanitarian engagement in this country is the PRT, Camp Nathan Smith. But for reasons that defy explanation, only the soldiers stationed there are allowed to speak publicly about their work. 

The five officials from the department of Foreign Affairs, the 10 RCMP officers engaged in training Afghan police, the head of the CIDA mission in the province (with a budget of $39 million this year alone), are not allowed to speak to the media. They have no coherent communication strategy. This is not their fault. It’s the government’s fault, because, according to multiple sources here, they have been gagged by the Prime Minister’s office. 

Figure that one out, if you can. You have a government under fire nearly every day, based on the notion that there’s no rebuilding going on in Afghanistan. This notion is false. 

Yet the very people who could best spread the word about the good works Canada is carrying out beneath the security umbrella provided by our troops are unable to talk about it. This translates into a distorted portrait of the mission back home, which then feeds more political division. 

If it weren’t so thoroughly stupid and tragic, it would be comical. 

The military can’t get off scot-free either. It has a mandate of public openness, which grew out of the Somalia debacle 14 years ago. Good. But the vast majority of the Canadian army’s communications resources in Kandahar Province are located at the Kandahar Airfield — the centre of combat operations. 

Reporters at the airfield are supported by a satellite and media tents with sophisticated communications equipment. 

At the PRT, there’s a single media tent. It has no reliable, permanent Internet hookups. There’s no satellite for television transmissions. So reporters working there have a difficult time filing stories. As a result, most choose to stay at the airfield, where they don’t hear a lot about development work, because it’s all based at the PRT. 

The media? We’re at fault too. Reporters driven by competition and the demands of editors back home, are hell-bent on covering Canadians in combat. That’s a good thing, as far as it goes. Canadians need a public witness to the exercise of lethal force by their representatives abroad. Combat stories are dramatic and gripping and the tales we hear about soldiers at war can inspire and move us the way few other stories can. 

But let’s face it: The entire mission stands or falls on whether development can succeed. For media organizations to ignore the tangible evidence of progress simply because these stories aren’t as dramatic as combat, beggars belief. But the evidence here suggests this is precisely what’s happening. The irony is that the military itself is supporting the journalists embedded at Kandahar Airfield. 

Here’s why all this matters so much: The Taliban are not fighting a conventional guerrilla war. All their efforts are geared towards forcing Western governments to pull their soldiers out of Afghanistan. So they’re fighting a media war, designed to stimulate anguished coverage in Western capitals, which then creates political pressure for a pullout. 

Every suicide bombing and IED attack must be seen in this light. It’s about hurting Western troops, but it’s even more about causing fear and uncertainty back home. This is why there’s such frustration among soldiers here about the posturing and chest-beating in Ottawa each time a Canadian dies in combat. Each cluster of front-page stories is, in effect, a tactical victory for the insurgents. That’s a hard truth for any journalist to swallow, but it is true nevertheless. 

What happens if we pull out? Some say it would make no difference. The Americans have tens of thousands of troops and they could easily come in and replace us. 

Unfortunately, it’s not nearly that simple. The Afghans don’t trust the Americans. Their approach is different from ours — much more blunt, less culturally sensitive. Canada has an institutional memory now in Kandahar, won by five years of hard work on the ground. Canada has the aid projects, just now beginning to bear fruit. Canada has credibility with the Afghans, won by our soldiers’ willingness to fight and die on their behalf. 

If we pull out in February of 2009, much of that will be lost. The mission will continue, because the United States and NATO have a strategic imperative to insure that it continues. But the setback to it will be huge and Canada’s standing in Afghanistan, and around the world, will suffer immeasurably. 

Can any of this be turned around, at this late date? 

Possibly. But it needs to happen quickly. 

If Stephen Harper hopes to sustain the Afghan mission, he must immediately and unconditionally ungag Canadian diplomats and aid workers and police officers in Kandahar City. Indeed, he should instruct them to speak out, loudly, to anyone who cares to listen. 

He should ensure opposition politicians see what’s being done — Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre arrived in Kandahar Monday, saying his party’s position to end the combat part of the mission is not going to change — but he is not to leave the airfield base or security reasons. 

But Harper should ensure Coderre can go to Kabul and stay for as long as he wants. The military should ferry him to Kandahar and leave him alone at Camp Nathan Smith for a few days to draw his own conclusions. The same goes for Liberal leader Stephane Dion, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP leader Jack Layton. 

Let them talk to the soldiers, the aid workers, the diplomats and police officers. Let them gauge the level of commitment by the looks on soldiers’ faces as they tell their stories. Most of all, let the critics talk to the Afghans themselves — people who have suffered immeasurably, and to whom our country has made a promise of friendship. 

After that, Coderre and company might still come home and vote for a pullout in February of 2009. But I can’t see it happening. 


Michael Den Tandt is editor of the Sun Times in Owen Sound and a national affairs columnist with Osprey Media. He recently returned from an assignment in Afghanistan.


----------



## GAP (12 Oct 2007)

Taliban chief urges Afghanistan's neighbours to help drive out foreign troops
Fri Oct 12 03:05:04 CDT 2007 Fisnik Abrashi, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar called on Afghanistan's neighbours to help his militants oust the government of President Hamid Karzai and force foreign troops out of the country.
Omar's message - the authenticity of which couldn't be immediately confirmed - said "neighbours should help Afghans drive western forces from Afghanistan as they helped them during the Soviet Union invasion."

"They should abandon any kind of support and understand that they (western forces) are a danger to the whole region," said Omar's statement, posted on a website that previously carried militant messages.

It was unclear when it was posted, though it included greetings for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which is expected to start Saturday.

Afghanistan is going through its most violent period since the Taliban's ouster in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. More than 5,100 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year.

The Taliban often compare their struggle to the war against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the'80s, when neighbouring Pakistan and Iran - helped by the United States and Saudi Arabia - armed the anti-communist mujahedeen.   
Some observers accuse rogue elements in Pakistan's security forces of supporting today's Afghan rebels, and U.S. officials recently raised the alarm about Iranian weapons reaching the Taliban.
More on link


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## GAP (12 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 12, 2007*

Texas firm accused of overbilling U.S. government in Afghanistan  
Oct. 11, 2007, 4:31PM By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press Writer © 2007 The Associated Press 
Article Link

HOUSTON — A mom-and-pop Texas company that provides security in Afghanistan is accused of overbilling the U.S. government by charging for nonexistent employees and vehicles, an American security official with close ties to the company told The Associated Press.

Houston-based U.S. Protection and Investigations, which does security work for the U.S. State Department arm USAID, is the latest firm to face scrutiny since private guards allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians.

The overbilling by USPI could add up to millions of dollars, the American security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in Kabul.

Eric Dubelier, USPI's attorney, called the official's allegations "factually incorrect." He said no one has accused the company or any of its employees of wrongdoing. He acknowledged the government is conducting an inquiry into the firm but declined to elaborate.

USPI was founded two decades ago by Barbara and Del Spier of Hempstead, about 50 miles northwest of Houston. The firm is headquartered in Houston but the Spiers reportedly spend much of their time in Afghanistan.

According to its Web site, USPI's five years of work in Afghanistan have included contracts with several international companies and organizations to provide security for mine clearing and the construction of roads and buildings.

In a 2004 interview with the Houston Chronicle, Barbara Spier said helping the United States meet its goals in Afghanistan was worth the sacrifice of working in such a dangerous country.

"I come back here and all I hear is bad, bad, bad," she told the newspaper. "But over there, the people are wonderful. They don't want us to leave. They are afraid the Taliban will take over again."

The company employs more than 3,600 people in the war-torn country, nearly all of whom are Ministry of Interior supplementary troops, its Web site says.
More on link

PM to announce panel on Afghanistan: CTV
Updated Thu. Oct. 11 2007 10:07 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce on Friday a five-person panel of prominent Canadians who will be tasked with coming up with a consensus on Canada's future role in Afghanistan, CTV has learned. 

Insiders told CTV that Harper wants to take the partisanship out of the Afghanistan mission that has divided the country, especially as the death toll has risen over the past two years. 

The panel will come up with options on the role Canada should play in the war-torn nation after the combat mission ends in February 2009. 

The panel of high-profile Canadians is expected to include: 

Former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley 
Derek Burney, Canada's former ambassador to Washington and former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney 
Respected broadcaster Pamela Wallin, who was Canadian consul general in New York 
Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Jake Epp 
Paul Tellier, former Clerk of the Privy Council and former president and CEO of Canadian National Railway and Bombardier 

The panel may consider whether to withdraw or significantly reduce combat troops and replace them with CF-18 fighter jets at Kandahar airfield as the French are doing. 

Other options would be for Canadian troops to solely train the Afghan army or play a role in aid and reconstruction. 
More on link

Germany Renews Afghan NATO Mandate, Defies Voters (Update2)  
By Andreas Cremer
Article Link

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government steered a motion through parliament today extending Germany's military engagement in Afghanistan, defying public opinion that is overwhelmingly against the deployment. 

Members of four of Germany's five main political parties backed an extension of the country's involvement in Afghanistan by another 12 months. That allows German troops, most of them stationed in the relatively peaceful north of the country, to continue to help North Atlantic Treaty Organization efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and combat Taliban insurgents. 

``We can't afford to pull out now as the Taliban are battling on,'' Ruprecht Polenz, head of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee and a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats, said in an interview. ``Any withdrawal would imply an admission of defeat; the international community mustn't let that happen.'' 

The Afghanistan vote takes place after a series of German abductions and mounting Afghan civilian deaths that have taken their toll on public support. While Germany has been criticized by British and Dutch lawmakers for keeping its forces out of Taliban strongholds in the south and east of Afghanistan, NATO is likely to welcome Germany's commitment at a time when other allies are weighing partial or full pullouts. 

NATO `Realist' 

``I'm a realist,'' NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Berlin on Sept. 13, adding that it ``would be unfair'' to criticize Germany. ``I'm following with great interest the debate in the Bundestag,'' or lower house of parliament, and ``I have great faith that the mandates will be approved.'' 

Germany has about 3,500 troops and six Tornado jets used for surveillance purposes in Afghanistan. Twenty-six German soldiers have died on duty in the country, according to the Defense Ministry. NATO has about 41,000 troops in Afghanistan. 
More on link

From Iraq to Afghanistan for Marines?  
By Rick Rogers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER October 12, 2007 
Article Link

CAMP PENDLETON – Marines, including thousands from San Diego County, would trade the urban combat of Iraq for the mountain warfare of Afghanistan under a new concept broached by the Marine Corps. 

The Corps' commandant, Gen. James Conway, and Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who heads the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, have quietly touted for weeks the benefits of having the Marines focus on Afghanistan and the Army concentrate on Iraq. 
Currently, there are no major Marine units in Afghanistan. In Iraq, the Army has taken the combat lead, while the Marines have handled Anbar province, a largely desert region. 

Officials who support the realignment said Afghanistan's environment better suits the Marines' highly mobile forces and versatile combat skills. They also contend that it would allow the Corps and Army to operate more efficiently and thus better maintain troop quotas for two wars that have strained the forces. 
More on link

UK to pay more to wounded troops
Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:05 AM EDT
Article Link

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced an increase in payments for severely wounded soldiers on Thursday, the latest move to provide more support for troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan following public criticism.

The Ministry of Defense said it would now make lump-sum payments of 285,000 pounds ($570,000) to soldiers who received multiple injuries from a single attack in war zones.

Previously, only a fixed amount for the three worst injuries was paid out, leading to a high-profile case in which a soldier hit by a landmine in Afghanistan and left without legs and severe damage to his brain and spine received just $300,000.

"Our armed forces are unique in making a vital contribution to the security of our nation and we have a responsibility to continue to look after them properly when they get injured," Defense Minister Des Browne said in a statement.

"This review will benefit those with the most serious multiple injuries."

The government had come in for sustained criticism from parents of injured soldiers and some veterans' groups for its perceived callousness towards badly wounded troops.

Discrepancies were highlighted by a case in July in which an air force typist at the Ministry of Defense received a payout of $1 million after damaging her wrists from excessive typing, sparking outrage on Ministry of Defense message boards.
More on link

Navy SEAL from NY to receive Medal of Honor from the president
By FRANK ELTMAN | Associated Press Writer 4:45 PM EDT, October 11, 2007 
Article Link

 GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - A Navy SEAL from Long Island who was killed while leading a reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines in Afghanistan will receive the nation's highest military award for valor _ the Medal of Honor, President Bush announced Thursday. 

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, is the first armed forces service member to receive the Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan, the Navy said Thursday. The medal is the nation's highest military award for valor in action against an enemy force. 

Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war: Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was killed in 2004 after covering a grenade with his helmet; and Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who was killed in 2003 after holding off Iraqi forces with a machine gun before he was killed at the Baghdad airport. 
More on link

Canada worried about hungry Afghans, but won't do deliveries
Article Link

OTTAWA - International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda says it's imperative that United Nations food deliveries make it to hungry Afghan villages, but she won't commit Canada to doing more than paying for the parcels.

On a trip to Kandahar last weekend, she announced an additional $25 million would be given to the World Food Program on top of $14 million already doled out to the UN agency over the last year.

But UN officials in the war-torn region say their food convoys have increasingly become targets for Taliban insurgents and drug lords intent on disrupting the reconstruction effort.

Of all the things Oda saw during her whirlwind, 36-hour trip to the war-torn country, the chronic shortage of food made the biggest impression, she said Thursday..

"These people, who have been devastated by years of chaos, they've faced drought, they are desperate for food," she said during a briefing on Afghan mission.

"The minimal amount of food we can distribute to each family is so important to them. I know winter is coming. It's important we provide food, basic food."

The fact that insurgents would use food as weapon seemed to surprise her.
More on link

NATO countries must counter Taliban propaganda, general says
Mike Blanchfield , CanWest News Service Published: Thursday, October 11, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canada and its NATO allies must do more to counter the "beguiling propaganda" of the Taliban if they expect any chance of defeating the insurgency, says the British general who led the alliance during a particularly bloody year of fighting. 

Gen. David Richards, who commanded NATO forces in Afghanistan for nine months until early this year, said Thursday that it is essential that the alliance gains ground in what he called "the information campaign" that the Taliban is waging particularly well these days, in order to convince the taxpayers of member countries that their war efforts are worthwhile. 

Richards made the observation in an interview with CanWest News Service during a Canadian visit that will see him comparing notes on the Afghan campaign with Canada's top generals, including defence chief Gen. Rick Hillier. His visit comes a week before the Conservative government's speech from the throne, which is expected to address Canada's involvement in Afghanistan beyond the current February 2009 commitment. 

"I don't like the term 'propaganda war,'" said Richards, now head of the German-based NATO rapid reaction force. Instead he says he prefers the term "information campaign." 

"Is it coherent enough?" he asked. "Probably not. I think we've got to work harder at it." 

The Taliban, by contrast "are very good at it," he added. 
Richards says that means engaging with the media inside and outside Afghanistan. As the commander of ISAF, the international security assistance force for Afghanistan, Richards was a loquacious and quotable commander on the front lines. 

But it was one year ago this week that Richards, then the commander of the international community's 30,000-plus troops in Afghanistan, uttered a prediction that haunts him still and cuts to the core of the controversy underlying the west's engagement there. At the time, Richards suggested that unless the west noticeably improved the lot of ordinary Afghans within six months, they might turn their allegiance to the Taliban. 
More on link

Young Canadians respond
By PETER WORTHINGTON
Article Link

Want to know how the Canadian military has changed in recent years? 

Look at recruiting ads. 

Back in the 1970s, DND recruiting ads stressed security -- that the military was a great career for young people (mostly men) and after 21 years a handsome pension awaited, with the possibility of a new civilian career. 

That ad wasn't as appealing as some hoped, since financial "security" isn't a prime motivation for young folk contemplating the military. Financial security and pensions concern the middle aged. 

In the 1980s and beyond, with Canadian troops on UN peacekeeping missions around the world (and personnel strained, with equipment ancient and inadequate), the ads switched to the theme: "There's no life like it!" -- young men and women in exotic environments, learning different trades, adventurous surroundings, a great chance to travel. That sort of thing. 

Yes, the slogan inspired satire or mocking when things went wrong in the military and critics could sarcastically quip "there's no life like it -- thank goodness." Still, the ad had appeal. 

Today, with Canadian troops embroiled in Afghanistan as our contribution to the war against terrorism, the demand for more recruits is critical. 

To the dismay of the anti-military movement and the peace-at-any-price proponents, the fact Canadians are getting killed and wounded in combat does not deter recruiting. On the contrary, recruiting is up as danger or risk increases. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (12 Oct 2007)

Reaper UAV Now Flying in Afghanistan
AFPN, Oct. 11
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123071575



> The Air Force announced Oct. 11 that the MQ-9 Reaper, the service's new hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle, is now flying operational missions in Afghanistan. The MQ-9 has completed 12 missions since its inaugural flight there Sept. 25, averaging about one sortie per day.
> 
> Capable of striking enemy targets with on-board weapons, the Reaper has conducted close-air support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
> 
> ...



Topic relating to Canada and Predator/Reaper (not):
http://forums.milnet.ca/forums/threads/64432.0.html

Romania proud to join Afghanistan war 'parade'
CanWest News Service, Oct. 12
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=73b91e8c-37da-43e7-9ccb-2f06e345150c&p=1



> The Canadians and the Dutch may be anguishing over their combat commitments in southern Afghanistan, but the Romanians at this lonely outpost near a major Taliban infiltration route through the mountains from Pakistan have no such worries.
> 
> The men of Romania's elite 33rd Mountain Battalion joke that almost nobody at home is even aware that their military, which is one of NATO's newest members, has been fighting alongside the Canadians, Dutch, British and Americans in southern Afghanistan [while the Poles fight in eastern Afstan]...
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (13 Oct 2007)

*Articles found Sept 13, 2007*

Hawk Watch
Posted by Darcey on October 12, 2007 in Afghanistan, Politicking 
Article Link

Being described as a ‘Hawk’ in even the loosest of terms is portrayed by the media as some sort of handicap and in one case, the CBC came straight out and said so. In today’s news Canada picks Liberal hawk to head Afghan panel:

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper named an advisory panel on Afghanistan on Friday that could make it more difficult for opposition parties to continue to demand a pullout of Canadian troops.

The panel includes former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister John Manley, who said as recently as this month that Afghans want Canadian troops to stay.[…]

Manley took a hawkish line while in government in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and wrote in an article this month that “there can be no meaningful progress on development (in Afghanistan) without an improved security environment.” (Reuters)

Kinda laughable. So because Manley told the truth about Afghans wanting Canadian troops to stay along with we can’t proceed with development while dirty bearded bastards are cutting off heads he somehow transforms into a war monger aligned with George Bush’s America.
More on link

Blast in south Afghanistan kills four police
Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:20 AM EDT
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - An explosion killed four policemen and wounded four more and 10 civilians in a bazaar in southern Afghanistan on Friday, a British military spokesman said.

He said the blast happened in a bazaar close to a mosque in the town of Gereshk in the restive province of Helmand.

It came on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday when many worshippers gather to pray in mosques to mark the end of Ramadan.

British forces in Helmand were preparing to airlift the wounded police by helicopter to a military hospital, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton said.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Taliban insurgents have carried out more than 100 suicide bombings this year in recent months killing more than 200 people.
More on link

Security is Job One in Kandahar
 TheStar.com -October 13, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
Article Link

In a country where insurgents strike at random, the challenge of covering your flank dwarfs virtually every other military activity

KANDAHAR–The sharp crack of a rifle shot breaks the mid-morning quiet and stops Capt. Michel Larocque in mid-sentence as he chats with the headmaster of the school in a Panjwaii district town.

Up the street, a Canadian soldier has fired a warning shot at an Afghan driver who refused his commands to stop. The single shot – and its implied threat of more serious shooting to come – does the trick. The car stops in its tracks

"They are my security," Larocque says, referring to the cordon of troops around him.

On his stroll through the town of Bazar-E-Panjwaii, Larocque, a member of Canada's provincial reconstruction team, is the man in the bubble. Like a prime minister or president, he moves nowhere without a ring of security, in this case provided by soldiers from the Royal 22nd Regiment, the Van Doos.

The soldiers have taken over the street, ahead of and behind Larocque, stopping traffic, watching pedestrians, scanning rooftops for any threats.

Troops in Afghanistan, including Canadians, do more than just chase insurgents and keep the peace. A huge amount of military resources goes into just protecting what they're got on the ground, from camps to convoys. 

In a country where there is no true frontline and insurgents strike at random, the challenge of "force protection" – covering your flank – dwarfs virtually every other military activity on the ground.

The daily task of ensuring security makes life complicated; a commander's trip across town for a hour-long meeting becomes a full-fledged combat patrol, with a convoy of armoured vehicles and a squad of troops and their firepower should things go sour. 

At forward operating bases, set in the middle of areas where insurgents are active, "force protection" is even more important. Troops sleep in revetments dug into the soil and tall, earth-filled containers serve as walls.
More on link

Warlord's death leaves vacuum in Kandahar
Updated Sat. Oct. 13 2007 9:49 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The death of a Kandahar strongman raises doubts about the defence of the city's northern flank, say observers.

Mullah Naqib -- who warned against a pullout of Canadian troops from Afghanistan's Kandahar province in February 2009 -- died Thursday night of a heart attack.

Thousands attended his funeral on Friday.

American author Sarah Chayes, who lives in Kandahar, knew Naqib and visited him the night before his death.

He seemed saddened about the eroding security situation in Kandahar province.

"He could not believe the situation now," she told The Globe and Mail. "He died of a broken heart."

"Mullah Naqib protected Kandahar," Abdul Rahim Jan, a tribal elder from Panjwai, told The Globe and Mail. "This is a big loss. It's like a thousand people died."

Naqib ruled the Arghandab district, which sits between the city and districts to the north that could provide an infiltration path into Kandahar.

Canadian troops are focused on the river valley that leads to Kandahar from the southwest.
More on link

Reaper UAV now flying in Afghanistan  
Friday October 12, 2007 (1833 PST)
Article Link

Washington: The Air Force announced that the MQ-9 Reaper, the service's new hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle, is now flying operational missions in Afghanistan. The Reaper has completed 12 missions since its inaugural flight there Sept. 25, averaging about one sortie per day. 

Capable of striking enemy targets with on-board weapons, the Reaper has conducted close-air support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. 

Operational use of Reaper's advanced capabilities marks a step forward in the evolution of unmanned aerial systems. Air Force quality assurance evaluators gave a "thumbs up" to the aircraft's debut performance and have been pleased with its operation ever since. 

"The Reaper is a significant evolution in capability for the Air Force," said Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff. "We've taken these aircraft from performing mainly as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms to carrying out true hunter-killer missions
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (13 Oct 2007)

Dutch gird reluctantly for renewal of Afghan mission
_Toronto Star_, Oct. 13
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/266451



> Canadians would do well to watch closely as Holland juggles the hot political potato of whether or not to withdraw from Afghanistan. Because the scalding question, according to Dutch military and political insiders, will soon be burning holes in Ottawa's lap.
> 
> Although it is not yet official, it is now clear the Dutch cabinet is girding reluctantly for the renewal of its controversial military deployment to fractious southern Afghanistan. The decision is expected to be made public later this month, sources tell the Toronto Star, despite the widespread misgivings of the Dutch public, only 30 per cent of whom favour the extension.
> 
> ...



Final call will be made in Brussels
Options require support of our NATO allies
_National Post_, Oct. 13, by John Ivison
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=94a0d3d2-1a95-4f27-8264-02501fcd2342



> Mr. Harper provided the panel with a framework of options: One, continue training the Afghan army and police, so that Canada can begin withdrawing forces in February, 2009; two, increasing focus on reconstruction, with another country taking over the security role in Kandahar province; three, shifting security and reconstruction to another (presumably less dangerous) region of Afghanistan; and four, withdrawing all military forces. Notably, extending the current combat role in Kandahar after it runs out in February, 2009 was not one of the options on offer.
> 
> It appears from previous public statements that option one is Mr. Harper's preferred course. That was reinforced this week in comments by U.S. General Dan McNeill, commanding officer of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, who was reported as saying that Canada would be carrying out fewer combat missions and be more involved in mentoring and training Afghan forces.
> 
> ...



As to Brits and Afstan:

'Draw-down has more to do with Afghanistan - not Iraq'
_The Scotsman_, Oct. 9
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1609972007



> BRITISH troop numbers in Iraq will be cut to only 2,500 next spring, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, announced yesterday, raising the prospect of the UK's final withdrawal from the country.
> 
> But as he tried to reach out to voters who opposed the invasion, critics said he was simply redeploying Britain's forces to fight the Taleban in Afghanistan. The announcement that UK troop numbers in Basra will drop to 4,500 by December and possibly to 2,500 by spring - fewer than half the current 5,500 - cheered Labour MPs alarmed by their party's recent collapse in the opinion polls.
> 
> ...



Cdn military hopes for lull in fighting
CP, Oct. 12
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2007/10/12/pf-4571263.html



> Muslims will celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan this weekend, an occasion that often marks a lull in fighting as insurgents hunker down for the harsh Afghan winter.
> 
> If it comes to pass, the lull will be a welcome respite from one of the bloodiest years since the fall of the Taliban six years ago.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (15 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 15, 2007*

Showdown: Harper sets his election trap
 TheStar.com October 14, 2007 Allan Woods Susan Delacourt Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

CONSERVATIVES

Election ready and confident, Stephen Harper has thrown down the throne speech gauntlet 

OTTAWA — Since his first Speech from the Throne 20 months ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made a high art of treading thin political lines and carving off even thinner wedges of territory in which he can plant the Conservative party's flag. 

He has courted ethnic votes across the country, ramped up support for the military, shifted focus on the environment and championed a get-tough approach to criminal justice. This is to say nothing of the many efforts Harper has made to win over Quebec voters.

His second throne speech, which will be delivered Tuesday evening, is expected to trumpet those causes as promises both made and kept, and to build on them in small but meaningful ways. Harper has promised a tax cut, a limit on Ottawa's ability to spend money in provincial jurisdictions, more crime bills and additional initiatives to protect the environment.

But the Prime Minister's framing of the debate that begins with the throne speech also promises to kick off a frantic period of political jousting in the capital. It will ensure that MPs are never more than a phone call away from Parliament Hill. They will be keeping their flashy election signs even closer.

In his search for a stronger hold on power, Harper has laid down an aggressive ultimatum to opposition parties that puts the trigger for an election in their hands, but ensures that he remains the one directing the firing squad.
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Afghan mission takes toll on minds, bodies of soldiers
Matthew Fisher CanWest News Service Sunday, October 14, 2007
Article Link

The heavy toll that the war in Afghanistan has taken on the minds and bodies of Canadian troops has been revealed in data, documents and interviews provided by the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.

Nearly 400 of 2,700 soldiers who have served in the province of Kandahar may have come home with mental health problems, according to a report by the office responsible for the health of deployed troops. 

Other data provided by CEFCOM indicates that in addition to the 63 Canadian soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan since February of 2006, 243 have been wounded.

Of this number, 136 suffered injuries that were serious enough that they were flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Ninety-one casualties were subsequently sent to Canada for further treatment. 

Another 185 troops returned to Canada during their tours in Kandahar for "diseases and non-battle injuries" including family problems and combat stress.

This number spiked during Operation Medusa late last summer when the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group led a fierce offensive against the Taliban in the Panjwaii/Zhari districts. 

Soldiers serving during this RCR battle group's six-month rotation were as much as four times more likely to have been repatriated to Canada for non-combat reasons as during the tours of a later RCR battle group and a battle group from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry that had preceded them, according to the CEFCOM data.

"I would say that it is significant," Dr. Mark Zamorski, who heads the DND office dealing with the health of deployed troops, referring to the number of troops reporting mental health problems based on a questionnaire that 2,700 of 4,700 troops who have already served in Kandahar had answered anonymously between three and six months after their tours ended. 

"About 15 per cent have common mental health problems," Zamorski said in a telephone interview from Ottawa and in several follow up e-mails. 

"About five per cent had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Another five per cent had major depression. Some have more than one condition. This is commensurate with the difficult nature of the operation. It is what was to be expected."

A small number of troops reported that they had suffered panic attacks or had suicidal tendencies since coming home.
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Canadian troops recount suicide bomb attack in Afghan border town
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The suicide bomber who blew himself up at a crowded marketplace in the border town of Spin Boldak on Saturday stuffed ball bearings among the explosives packed into his vest.

It is a crude but effective weapon and an indiscriminating one when it comes to killing, spraying deadly shrapnel in all directions.

Of the eight people who died in the blast, five were civilians celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at a community festival. Three of the dead were Afghan National Border Police officers who are so often targeted by insurgents.

"It's the end of Ramadan, so there are a lot of festivities taking place in Afghanistan," said Maj. Pierre Huet, commanding officer of the Canadian reconnaissance squadron, which set up an emergency triage at Canada's forward operating base in Spin Boldak to treat the victims.

"The market was full. There were lots of games for children, many people in the market. . . ."

Seven people were killed instantly when the bomber blew himself up around 7 p.m. One more victim died en route to the military hospital at Kandahar Airfield.

Two children, ages 8 and 9, were among the survivors treated by Canadian soldiers at Spin Boldak.

"We received about 10 pick-up trucks loaded with injured people, about five to six injured in each truck," Huet told reporters Sunday.

Two doctors were dispatched from Kandahar Airfield but emergency medics with the reconnaissance squadron went immediately to work.

"Within two hours, everyone had been evaluated, treated and evacuated," Huet said.

Twenty-one of 36 survivors were evacuated by air to the multinational military hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Canadian soldiers in Spin Boldak took the rest to the local hospital by armoured vehicle.
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Danish soldier injured in Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Monday, October 15, 2007 
Article Link

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: A Danish soldier was injured during an advance in southern Afghanistan, Denmark's military said Monday.

The soldier, a member of a mechanized infantry company, was evacuated to the Danish base where he received medical treatment, the Army Operational Command said.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jess Rasmussen said the injury was "on the serious end of the scale." He declined to elaborate.

No further details were immediately available.

The Danes currently operate in Upper Geresk Valley in Helmand province which has seen heavy fighting recently.

Denmark has some 600 troops in the volatile Helmand province.
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Families of troops killed in Afghanistan lash out at Chretien’s memoirs    
The Cape Breton Post
Article Link

TORONTO (CP) — Families of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan are angry that former prime minister Jean Chretien is blaming his successor for their deaths.
Chretien says in his memoirs that while he was prime minister, Canada’s involvement was focused in the capital, Kabul, considered more stable than southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban are based.
But Chretien writes that when Paul Martin took over, he couldn’t decide whether to extend Canada’s presence in Afghanistan.
Chretien contends that allowed other NATO countries to take up the less dangerous missions and forcing Canada to “the killing fields around Kandahar.”
In a Globe and Mail report from Winnipeg, Wanda Watkins, whose 20-year-old son Lane was killed by a roadside bomb in July, says she’s tired of political games being played over Afghanistan.  
Warrant Officer Frank Mellish, 38, was killed by Taliban fire in Afghanistan last year. His dad, Barry, says he wasn’t impressed when he saw Chretien’s comments in the local newspaper.
He says Chretien is just trying to get attention with his memoirs and that most Canadians will realize he’s trying to cover up his own failings.
“As far as I’m concerned, the memoirs of Chretien and (former prime minister Brian) Mulroney, they’re just baloney most of the time. Hot air. They’re trying to get attention,” Mellish told the Globe.
“If they want to play their silly little games, let them go ahead. People will recognize it for what it is. I don’t think Canadians put much stock in it. ... I think most Canadians  realize they’re trying to cover up their own failings by blaming other people.”
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Afstan: Dutch putting Canada in a pickle  
Article Link

Looks like the Dutch government will agree to an extension of their mission's combat role in Uruzgan; then diplomatic guns will be turned on Canada:

Canadians would do well to watch closely as Holland juggles the hot political potato of whether or not to withdraw from Afghanistan. Because the scalding question, according to Dutch military and political insiders, will soon be burning holes in Ottawa's lap.

Although it is not yet official, it is now clear the Dutch cabinet is girding reluctantly for the renewal of its controversial military deployment to fractious southern Afghanistan. The decision is expected to be made public later this month, sources tell the Toronto Star, despite the widespread misgivings of the Dutch public, only 30 per cent of whom favour the extension.

The final formula for renewal remains unclear, as Dutch politicians scramble to claim at least symbolic support from NATO allies thus far unwilling to tread the increasingly dangerous Uruzgan sector. But an extension is taking shape – and once the decision is made, Canada is expected to begin feeling the full intensity of international pressure the Netherlands has withstood these past months...

"The Netherlands is in the very unlucky position of being the first that must take the decision on whether or not to extend. And the agony of that is that we realize the question is bigger than Afghanistan itself," said Frank van Kappen, a senior analyst with the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and a security consultant to NATO.

"The fear, the worry, is that the country that is first to walk away will become the scapegoat, with a huge mark on the debit side. Because if Holland leaves, it could trigger a process where Canada pulls out, and then Australia pulls out. And then, in the void, basically NATO fails. And if NATO fails, the United Nations fails," he said.

"Those are the stakes, because we are not talking just about Afghanistan but also about the model for conflicts to come. If this mission fails, you damage the capacity of the international community to deal with the future because the only instruments we have will be seen to have failed."..

Now why doesn't our government make an argument along those lines? After all an essential pillar of Canadian foreign and defence policy is supposed to be collective security.

Should we bug out of combat in 2009 (even under the government's first option), some speculation on who might replace us:

Whatever the panel recommends, Canada's policy will remain a hostage to negotiations with our NATO allies. Options one, two and three all require another country or countries to take over Canada's place on the line in Kandahar.
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MISSION AFGHANISTAN
It’s dangerous, dusty and unpleasant. Dozens of Canadian soldiers have been killed there. Of course I had to go.
Story by CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter Photos by CHRISTIAN LAFORCE Staff Photographer Sun. Oct 14 - 6:40 AM
Article Link

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from the new book On Assignment in Afghanistan: Maritimers at War, published by Nimbus, a collection of stories and photos from The Chronicle Herald’s coverage of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan earlier this year.

OUR DRIVER stops the sport-utility vehicle and steps out onto the dirt road to open a farm gate when the first shots ring out.

Half a dozen armed men in balaclavas run toward the vehicle from all directions, firing pistols into the air.

"Get out of the f-cking car right now," one shouts angrily.

A small group of reporters and photographers packed into the truck start to pile out. I make the mistake of being the last passenger to exit, fumbling with the latch that releases the seat in front of me.

As I step down, one gunman delivers a sharp smack to the back of my head that sends me to the ground. These guys are not messing around.

They swiftly pull black hoods over our heads and lead us off into the woods, prisoners of an unknown enemy.

Welcome to the first day of hostile environment first aid training, a course put on by a group of former Royal Marines who enjoy nothing more than smacking around a few scribblies before getting down to the business of teaching us how to survive a war zone.

Centurion, a British company, offers this week-long course in rural Virginia and the United Kingdom for journalists heading out on potentially dangerous assignments.

We suffer through the initial kidnapping, complete with pistols jammed in the backs of our necks, wedding rings stripped from our fingers and pockets emptied for cash and identification. They even scroll through the contact lists and photos in our cellphones, looking for any damning information or people who might be willing to pay ransoms. Even though I know this kidnapping isn’t real, it’s difficult not to hyperventilate while lying on the forest floor with a hood over my face.

Should I try to run? Is this the point where I ought to put up a fight or risk some sort of sadistic execution that will make its way on to the Internet before my family knows I’m even missing?

The Centurion folks answer those questions and more over the next few hours as they parse our reaction to the violent incident. As it turns out, if kidnappers are wearing masks in the middle of nowhere, they most likely don’t want you to be able to identify them. That means they probably also plan to let you live, should their demands be met.
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Five Afghan wounded remain in Canadian care
Updated Sun. Oct. 14 2007 1:11 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Five Afghan civilians remained in Canadian care at the Kandahar airfield on Sunday, after troops assisted in the rescue and treatment of dozens of civilians wounded in a marketplace suicide attack.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives within a crowded marketplace in Spin Boldak, a town near the Pakistan border. It's believed he was targeting a truck filled with Afghan border guards.

The blast killed three border patrol guards, five civilians and wounded at least 36 others.

Canadian troops had a sleepless night assisting in various rescue operations in the air and on the ground, CTV's Paul Workman said Sunday from Kandahar.

Twenty-one of the wounded, some with severe injuries, were transported by helicopter to the hospital on the Kandahar airfield where they were treated and stabilized. One patient died en route.

The bomber was driving a motorcycle and wearing a vest packed with explosives and ball bearings, which caused "penetrating injuries in different sides of their bodies," Maj. Jocelyn Dodaro, a military doctor, told reporters on Sunday.

Canadians  also transported 15 of the wounded to a local Spin Boldak hospital for treatment. 

The bombing occurred on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. 

"It was a busy Eid celebration night with the end of Ramadan. There were a lot of people out celebrating, families greeting each other and so it may have also been that civilians were targeted," Workman said.
More on link

Legion prepares Christmas gifts for Canadian troops
Updated Sun. Oct. 14 2007 6:54 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

A branch of the Royal Canadian Legion is already preparing Christmas gifts for Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan. 

At the Legion's Roxboro branch in Quebec, Jean Bisson, whose son David is serving in Afghanistan, has been busy preparing care packages. 

"Half his tour is finished. I just want him back home safely," Bisson told CTV Montreal. "We want (the troops) to know we still care about them, we haven't forgotten them." 

Their goal is to fill 3,000 show boxes with essentials, such as deodorant and Kleenex. 

"The portable size," said Bisson, "that they can put in their pockets." 

The packages will also include messages in both French and English "just to thank them," she said. "They're doing a great job. To me, they're our heroes." 

For Sari Bruyere, the motivation for preparing the packages is her late father. 

"I actually have a picture of my dad that was taken, middle of the night when the mail came in," she said. "He's all sleepy-eyed... but he's holding a parcel and (smiling). It was so obvious that this meant so much to get a parcel from home." 
More on link


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## GAP (15 Oct 2007)

White guys with guns: Canada's military in Afghanistan
 by Dave Markland; October 15, 2007
Article Link

The current incarnation of the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan began in February of 2006, and followed earlier military commitments beginning in the fall of 2001. Now operating mainly under NATO command as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the array of Canadian Forces' roles has several notable aspects, some of which overlap: about 1200 troops make up the Canadian battle group headquartered at Kandahar Airfield, along with several hundred support personnel; over 100 soldiers comprise the bulk of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) based out Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City; the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (“omelette”), which embeds with and trains Afghan troops; and the Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) which is embedded with various Afghan government ministries in Kabul. In total, some 2500 personnel make up the conventional forces deployed in Afghanistan. Additionally, an unknown number of JTF-2 special forces work alongside special forces from the US and other countries as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Very little is known about their role.

With a few exceptions, media coverage of the mission has been generally sympathetic to the claims and actions of Canadian military officials. It is the purpose of this essay to shed light on the less-reported aspects of the mission, about which our military and government officials rarely speak.

The spectacle at Kandahar Air Field (KAF) seems reminiscent of the bar scene in Star Wars. An enormous, Russian-built complex, KAF sits on the edge of the vast desert in southern Afghanistan which straddles the border with Pakistan amidst Pashtun territory. Journalists describe a steady of flow of soldiers from several countries, many of whom are off-limits to reporters. American and Canadian special forces, for instance, cannot be interviewed or even mentioned by the press. And those troops may not be the only ones keeping a low profile, as "a senior British officer said there last autumn that he was convinced the Taliban had many spies on the base". 

Apart from the multinational tutoring in special ops and media relations, there may be other important skills being disseminated at KAF. A Norwegian newspaper caused a stir early this year when it reported on sworn testimony by several US interrogators who had worked at the base and described some of the goings-on, including the widespread use of torture. 
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Prince Edward gives medals to P.E.I. soldiers
Updated Sun. Oct. 14 2007 5:31 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Prince Edward honoured five Canadian soldiers on Sunday for their service in Afghanistan, handing the men service medals during a ceremony in Charlottetown. 

Edward is the honorary colonel-in-chief of the Prince Edward Island Regiment. 

He was presented with a pennant signifying his status before he gave medals to Cpl. Roy Good, Cpl. Calvin Arsenault, Cpl. Jerry Landry, Cpl. Anthony MacLean and Cpl. Benjamin Miller. 

Good said the prince took great care to speak with the soldiers and asked them about their experiences in Afghanistan. 

"He asked me if I'd do it again or if it was scary -- normal questions like anyone would ask," Good told CTV Atlantic. 

"I said it was and I'd probably end up going back." 

Good's mother, meanwhile, said she was just happy her son returned home safe. 

"It wasn't too nice," she said of Good's tour of duty. "Terrifying, some sleepless nights, but we got through six, seven months and he's back on safe soil." 

She added that she "can't get much prouder" of her son. 

Edward spent a large part of his time in P.E.I with soldiers from the regiment. On Saturday at a firing range, he asked to have lunch with the troops in a tent, without any officers on hand. 

"It's just very overwhelming because he's the Queen's son," said Master Cpl. Mary Jean Murphy, who attended the lunch. 

"He's very personable, very easy to talk to." 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (15 Oct 2007)

Poland feels strain of Afghan conflict
Top soldier sees his country, Canada in similar roles
_Ottawa Citizen_, Oct. 15
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=f508f8ae-6e8b-43fd-b825-062fa37db490



> Gen. Franciszek Gagor, Poland's top soldier and perhaps NATO's after an upcoming vote to replace Canadian Ray Henault as chairman of the western alliance's military committee, can empathize with Canada's public relations challenge over Afghanistan.
> 
> "Well, it's a challenge for us also," Poland's chief of the general staff said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (16 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 16, 2007*

Update from ISAF HQ
By Lt Col P
Article Link

Our Man "91" on the ISAF staff in Kabul just sent me a note. 

Things are going reasonably well here (At HQ I mean). A few days ago, I gave a brief to the NATO Military Committee. They are the senior national military advisors to NATO. Mostly two and three stars. I talked about the future of the PRTs, but the most interesting comment came from the J2. I can't get in to everything that he said, but the first comment he made was regarding the status of the war. As to who is winning and/or losing, he said that the insurgents are not winning. Someone in the Pentagon asked me the same question a few weeks ago. In my opinion, we are not losing, but to evaluate who is winning or losing is one of thethings that makes a counter-insurgency so difficult to gauge. There is no front line to track, so how do you decide if you're winning? We are killing the enemy by the hundreds when they openly engage us, but we can not be in every village in Afghanistan. So, what happens at night when we are not there? The part time Taliban come out and do their evil and we are seen to be unable to stop that kind of activity. Some places are doing very well - Bamian and Panjshir provinces for example. But there are a lot more that are not. Almost all of RC South and a lot of RC East.

On a positive note, Germany has agreed to extend their mission in Afghanistan. In an interview I did with a group of German reporters [91 is fluent in German] a few weeks ago, they asked if I thought that the German forces should be in southern Afghanistan. While additional forces could do nothing but help,especially in the South, if the Germans leave northern Afghanistan, who will take their place? We, the US, do not have enough forces to takeover the mission in northern Afghanistan, and I would be stunned if anyone else in ISAF was willing to deploy an additional 3000 people to Afghanistan... Even more importantly than the tactical placement of the troops is the strategic impact the German extention will have on the alliance. There are more than a few countries who would leave Afghanistan in a heartbeat if they could come up with a reason. A major coalition partner like Germany withdrawing their forces would provide just such a reason. So, the German decision to stay will hopefully influence the other members of ISAF to stay as well. If Germany, with a population that is ever more opposed to involvement in Afghanistan will stay, then why shouldn't everyone else?

Why not, indeed? I've been pretty hard on the allies that look like they're starting to weasel, but let's be honest. The Germans rucked up on this one. We should all be very very pleased and relieved.

The Torch looks at the same issue from the Canadian point of view. 

To our NATO allies I say, stay on target. Remember what Margaret Thatcher told President Bush in 91-- THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO GO WOBBLY.

And good work, 91. Keep your head down, and keep the updates coming.
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Danish army officer dies after Afghanistan attack
Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:22am EDT
Article Link

COPENHAGEN, Oct 16 (Reuters) 

A Danish army officer wounded in a clash with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Monday has died, the Danish Central Army Command said on Tuesday. The officer, a major, was wounded when his unit came under mortar and rocket grenade fire while recovering an armoured personnel carrier that had been hit by a mine. He died at a field hospital before he could be transported to Denmark.

This month Denmark plans to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan to about 550 from about 400.
End of Article

Afghanistan 'a success story,' World Bank says
ALAN FREEMAN October 16, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Economic and social conditions in Afghanistan have improved dramatically since the fall of the Taliban, despite continuing problems with security, corruption and the drug trade, according to the World Bank's top official responsible for the country.

"This is a success story," Alastair McKechnie, country director for Afghanistan at the World Bank, said in an interview yesterday. "Afghanistan has defied predictions and has achieved a lot in a short period of time."

Mr. McKechnie, in Canada for meetings with officials in Ottawa and a speech in Toronto, pointed to a series of positive indicators, including double-digit economic growth, an expanding road network, a surge in school attendance - particularly by girls - and a drop in infant mortality from 165 per 1,000 live births to 135 in 4½ years.

He said it is easy to get a negative view of Afghanistan if one focuses on the south and east of the country, where the insurgency is strongest. In two-thirds of the country, there is no insurgency and conditions are improving more quickly.
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Would-be suicide bomber kills his mother, 3 siblings in southern Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Monday, October 15, 2007 
Article Link

 KABUL, Afghanistan: A mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home in southern Afghanistan that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings, police said.

he would-be bomber had been studying at a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan, and when he returned to his home in Uruzgan province at the weekend announced he planned a suicide attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said Monday.

Surviving family members told police that the mother had tried to stop her son from carrying out the attack, and that their struggle apparently triggered the suicide vest explosion, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan's police chief. The man's brother and two sisters were also killed.

Relatives said the man gave the family US$3,600 (€2,530) before telling them of his plans to stage an attack, Himat said.

Bashary said the explosion happened on Sunday, but Himat said it occurred on Monday around 11 a.m. (0630GMT). It was not clear why the two accounts differed.

A second would-be bomber told authorities that his handlers in Pakistan told him to launch a suicide attack in Afghanistan's Paktika province because there were "infidels" there. But the bomber saw people praying in a mosque and identified himself to police as a suicide bomber, said Bashary
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Most Canadians want troops to stay in Afghanistan: poll
Juliet O'Neill, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 15, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- A slight majority of Canadians -- 54% -- want Canada's troops to stay in Afghanistan but few want to extend their current combat mission past the February, 2009, scheduled date of withdrawal, according to the findings of a poll released Monday.

Forty-four per cent of Canadians want a full withdrawal of the troops, while 40% would like to see them redeployed to "do something like train Afghan soldiers or police officers."

Just 14% believe the government should "extend our current role and mission as required," says the poll of 1,001 adults conducted by Ipsos-Reid. The results are considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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Japanese divided over extending naval mission to back coalition forces in Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Tuesday, October 16, 2007 
Article Link

 TOKYO: Japanese remain divided over extending their country's naval support for coalition forces in Afghanistan, as the government struggles to win support for a law underwriting the mission, an opinion poll showed Tuesday.

The Asahi, a major daily, reported that 44 percent of respondents opposed extending the mission — under which Japan's navy provides fuel for coalition forces in the Indian Ocean under an anti-terrorism law that expires Nov. 1. The margin was down from 45 percent in a similar poll last month.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they support extending the mission, up from 35 percent, the paper said.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda wants to extend the law and his government is preparing compromise legislation that would place greater restrictions on the refueling and water supply mission. The scope of the Japanese mission is a sensitive issue due to the country's pacifist constitution.

The Cabinet is expected on Wednesday to approve the legislation, which has been opposed by the opposition bloc.
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Canadians caught in border violence
Taliban attacks on southern Afghan town are making life more dangerous for troops and forcing out residents 
OMAR EL AKKAD From Monday's Globe and Mail October 15, 2007 at 5:09 AM EDT
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Canadian troops in the southern Afghan border town of Spin Boldak are in the midst of escalating Taliban violence in an area that, until just a few months ago, saw relatively few suicide bombings.

Three Taliban attacks on Afghan border police in and around the town in the past three months have prompted Canadian troops stationed at the Spin Boldak forward operating base to conduct more joint patrols with their Afghan allies. The increased activity has already shown results: Troops managed to catch a suicide bomber in early September before he was able to blow himself up, although it is not clear whether he intended to use the bomb in Spin Boldak or at another location.

But another suicide bomber struck Saturday, and the escalating violence threatens not only to make life more dangerous for Canadian and Afghan troops in the area, but also to hasten the exodus of residents from the south to Kandahar city, which is already straining under the pressure of current refugees.

Eight people were killed and another 36 injured in Spin Boldak on Saturday, the latest and bloodiest salvo in a battle between the Taliban and an Afghan border police commander determined to crack down on the insurgency group. It's a battle that has turned a popular and porous border crossing into a scene of frequent and escalating violence.
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Poland's top soldier can emphasize with Canada over Afghanistan
Peter O'Neil , CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 15, 2007
Article Link

WARSAW -- Gen. Franciszek Gagor, Poland's top soldier and perhaps NATO's after an upcoming vote to replace Canadian Ray Henault as chairman of the western alliance's military committee, can empathize with Canada's public relations challenge over Afghanistan.

"Well, it's a challenge for us also," Poland's chief of the general staff told CanWest News Service.

Gagor, competing with generals from Spain and Italy to replace Henault in the Nov. 14 vote, would be the first officer from the old Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact alliance to become top soldier in the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He brings to the international table considerable peacekeeping experience in the Middle East and guarded optimism about the Afghanistan mission.

But Gagor cannot claim popular support in his own country for Poland's military role there. One poll this month by the Warsaw-based firm CBOS said 72 per cent of those surveyed were opposed to Poland's decision earlier this year to deploy 1,200 soldiers primarily in the dangerous southeast provinces of Ghazni and Patika. Poland also has elite forces working with Canadians in Kandahar.
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Civilians Die In Nato Fight With Afghanistan Rebels
October 15, 2007 11:12 a.m. EST  Einnor Mendoza - AHN News Writer
Article Link

Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - Nato planes hit insurgents outside Kabul on Sunday, killing three civilians and hurting seven others. 

A senior Afghan police officer said the planes were part of an air support following an ambush of convoy of international peacekeepers by Afghan rebels. 

Deputy chief of police of Wardak province Asif Bandwal said Nato called in air support after militants had ambushed a convoy of international peacekeepers, BBC News reported. Wardak province borders Kabul. 

Bandwal said the Talibans fired rocket-propelled grenade at the convoy vehicles belonging to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) on Sunday. The tragedy occurred in Jalrez district. 

An Isaf spokesman said there were no Nato casualties, BBC News added. 

Five rebels were reported dead, the senior police officer added. 
More on link

Chief of the Defence Staff praises "treasures in uniform"
Bruce Ward , CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 15, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- There are moments of levity for Canadian troops, even in combat situations, Canada's top soldier said Monday.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier described how soldiers downwind of a burning marijuana field in Afghanistan suddenly found themselves craving snacks.

"They couldn't keep up with the orders for munchies," Hillier said Monday in a breakfast speech to the Canadian Medical Association's annual leadership forum.
More on link



Martin unenthusiastic but decisive about Afghan mission: book
Elizabeth Thompson , CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 15, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA - It's not true that Canadian soldiers are deployed to the volatile province of Kandahar, rather than Afghanistan's safer capital of Kabul, because of dithering by former prime minister Paul Martin, a new insider examination of the mission says.

Instead, a book by two experts argues that lobbying by Canada's top general, Rick Hillier, helped overcome Martin's reservations about the mission.

In their book, The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, authors Eugene Lang, a chief of staff to two Liberal defence ministers, and academic Janice Gross Stein, counter charges levelled by Martin's predecessor, Jean Chretien, in a memoir that hit bookstores Monday. 
More on link

More Articles available here
MILNEWS.ca

CANinKandahar


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## MarkOttawa (16 Oct 2007)

Stay the course in Afghanistan, UN envoy warns West
_Ottawa Citizen_, Oct.16
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=d4835c1b-8d49-4d0d-8174-b53f1957cf93



> Echoing former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the United Nations' Afghan envoy has warned Canada and other countries with troops in Afghanistan that "now is not the time to wobble."
> 
> Tom Koenigs, who heads the UN's 1,000-strong political mission in Afghanistan, said yesterday that the Afghan government remains dependent on international forces for its survival.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## The Bread Guy (16 Oct 2007)

*INTEGRATED POLITICAL-MILITARY STRATEGY NEEDED TO OVERCOME VIOLENCE, BRING PEACE TO AFGHANISTAN, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TELLS SECURITY COUNCIL*
UN Security Council news release, 15 Oct 07
News release link

An integrated political-military strategy was needed to overcome increased violence and bring peace to Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, told the Security Council at a briefing this morning.

Coordination of international and Afghan military actors had improved, he said, and there had been significant tactical military success in the south and east since his last briefing in March.  Compared to last year, however, the number of violent incidents was up approximately 30 per cent on a month-to-month basis, with a significant increase in civilian casualties -- at least 1,200 had been killed since January.

He said the Afghan National Army would be at around 47,000 by the end of the year, and the poor standards of the National Police were being addressed.  The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was still crucial to the stability of the country, though, along with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Operation Enduring Freedom, and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)

The key to reducing the violence, however, was greater inclusion of Afghan civilian and military leaders, as well as international civilian actors in planning for both security and development, he said.  It was essential that evidence of government progress be seen on the community level.  He said a just institutional framework, at all levels, must be created.  In addition, comprehensive strategies to stem the burgeoning problem of opium and to begin outreach towards reconciliation were also needed.  Regional initiatives must also be stepped up.

Meanwhile, he said there were welcome signs that the democratic institutions in the country were maturing, with the passing of legislation governing a wide range of areas.  He urged the international community to support election preparations for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary cycles.  The UNAMA would be reinforcing its provincial and regional offices for that purpose and to strengthen its central supporting role in the country.

In the discussion that followed Mr. Koenig’s briefing, most speakers echoed his call for an integrated approach to security, administrative improvement and development in Afghanistan, stressing continued support for international initiatives, while stressing the need for Afghan leadership.  Most also called for greater coordination between international actors, along with further measures to strengthen the rule of law and to fight corruption.  Many, particularly European Union member States, decried the recent executions in the country.

Afghanistan’s representative said that, although his country was no longer a base for international terrorism, it had become the front line from which countries had joined hands in the fight against terrorism.  At the same time, it was making steady progress in consolidating democratic institutions and confronting reconstruction and narcotics eradication.  Heinous terrorist acts would in no way weaken his country’s resolve to make progress in all those areas.

He called for increased support to Afghanistan’s armed forces to improve security, but agreed that addressing terrorism and improving security would not be achieved by military means alone.  Basic services and employment must be improved.  He also stressed the importance of greater coordination between all military units to avoid civilian casualties.  More must also be done to address the regional dimension of the terrorist problem, and to focus on reconciliation to encourage “non-terrorist Taliban” to refrain from subversive activities.

The representative of Pakistan said that a winning strategy in Afghanistan would have to be a comprehensive one, one that combined military, economic, political and administrative measures.  Peace should be won painstakingly, region by region, since circumstances were different in each area.  He voiced hope that the Pakistan/Afghanistan Peace Jirga had contributed to reconciliation.

Pakistan’s cooperation with Afghanistan covered military, intelligence, border control and development cooperation, he said, stressing that:  “ Pakistan has a solemn responsibility not to allow support for the Taliban insurgency or Al-Qaida to flow across from our border region.”  It had, therefore, employed 100,000 troops in the effort, losing 1,000, more than any other country.

Also speaking this morning were the representatives of the United States, Qatar, China, France, Belgium, Peru, Congo, Panama, South Africa, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Russian Federation, Italy, Ghana, Portugal, Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Iran, India and Norway.

The meeting convened at 10:20 a.m. and adjourned at 1:45 p.m.

(....)

Statements

(....)

ZAHIR TANIN ( Afghanistan) said Afghanistan was no longer a base for international terrorism,  Rather, it had become the front line from which countries had joined hands in the fight against terrorism.  It was also making steady progress in consolidating democratic institutions.  At the same time, there were daunting challenges, including security, rule of law and governance, reconstruction and narcotics eradication.  Heinous terrorist acts would in no way weaken his country’s resolve to make progress in all those areas.  Its security forces continued to serve in the most difficult conditions alongside international partners, and had had many strategic successes.

He called for increased support to Afghanistan’s armed forces to improve security, but said it was evident that addressing terrorism and improving security would not be achieved by military means alone.  Basic services and employment must be improved and civilian casualties avoided.  More must also be done to address the regional dimension of the terrorist problem, and to focus on reconciliation to encourage “non-terrorist Taliban” to refrain from subversive activities.

He said that Afghanistan had been taking initiatives to strengthen cooperation with Pakistan to address terrorism and other problems, including through the Jirga, the second session of which would be held in Pakistan in the near future.  Narcotics was another major challenge that required regional initiatives, including a more robust effort from transit and consuming countries.  In regard to the Afghan Compact, he said that it was time to redouble efforts on meeting goals by designated timelines and on improving the effectiveness, accountability and utilization of development assistance.  While expressing gratitude to donors, he stressed the need to ensure delivery of pledges in a timely manner.

In conclusion, he highlighted the importance of national ownership of the reconciliation process, increased coordination and cooperation among all key participants in the Afghan Compact, and expansion of UNAMA’s presence to additional parts of the country.

(....)

JOHN MCNEE ( Canada) applauded the increasing effectiveness of the Afghan National Army in bringing stability to the lives of Afghans.  Although the security situation remained challenging, there was some real progress in key areas.  In Kandahar, where Canadian troops were stationed, the Taliban had been dislodged from some former strongholds.  Tangible progress was also achieved across the country in other areas.  Those achievements contributed to the vision of the future expressed in the Afghanistan Compact.  To succeed, international efforts must be mirrored by the consistent commitment of the Afghan Government.  Activating the Senior Appointments Panel, a key Compact benchmark, would demonstrate the Government’s commitment to anti-corruption.  Consolidation of the rule of law was an essential condition for sustainable development and lasting peace and stability.  A robust police force was a critical element, in that regard.

He said Canada strongly supported the Government’s opposition to legalizing opium production.  The issue was complex and multifaceted.  A comprehensive approach was required, which must include the consolidation of an effective justice system and the provision of sustained economic opportunities.  He welcomed the positive outcome of the cross-border Peace Jirga held in Kabul in August.  The situation in Afghanistan clearly demonstrated the need to address the security, development and governance elements of reconstruction simultaneously.  Achieving the goals in Afghanistan, as set out in the Afghanistan Compact, would require the collective effort, imagination and innovative thinking of everyone involved in the international reconstruction effort.

(....)

MUNIR AKRAM ( Pakistan) said a multitude of problems challenged stability and security in Afghanistan, including governance, drugs, lack of development, as well as insecurity.  Drugs were a grave and present danger to the entire effort in that country.  A comprehensive and fair strategy to combat narcotics must break the link between drugs and financing of terrorism and criminality.  Capacity building of national security institutions and their use for counter-insurgency would be a positive development.  Properly trained, equipped and paid people with good ethics were also necessary.  Economic development and reconstruction remained slow and uneven, especially regarding employment in rural areas.  Non-fulfilment of commitments was a perennial problem.

He said the Secretary-General’s report had noted that, apart from insurgent and terrorist activity, insecurity was also caused by factional infighting, criminal activity and warlords.  It was, therefore, important to resist the temptation to externalize the security challenges in the country.  There was also a rise in extremism and the Taliban.  It should be understood that the Taliban were part of Afghan society and that many could be won over.  He welcomed, in that regard, President Karzai’s offer of dialogue and reconciliation and regretted the rejection of some Taliban leaders.  He hoped that the Pakistan/Afghanistan Peace Jirga would be able to contribute to reconciliation.  A winning strategy in Afghanistan would have to be a comprehensive one, combining military, economic, political and administrative measures.  Peace should be won painstakingly, region by region, since circumstances were different in each area.

Pakistan’s cooperation with Afghanistan covered military, intelligence, border control and development cooperation, he said, which had enabled many of the successes against the Taliban.  “ Pakistan has a solemn responsibility not to allow support for the Taliban insurgency or Al-Qaida to flow across from our border region.”  It had, therefore, employed 100,000 troops, and had lost 1,000 military personnel, more than any other country.  Cross-border activities was a joint responsibility of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the coalition forces.  Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had reached an agreement to close down four Afghan refugee camps close to the border, as they served as a source for cross-border militants.  The closing of the camps was being delayed because of reluctance on the part of a United Nations agency to facilitate the return of the refugees.  The UNAMA had, unfortunately, displayed a certain political insensitivity and lack of impartiality in its reports and actions.

He said there were no two countries that were as close as Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The Peace Jirga would address the common challenges of terrorism and extremism.  Both countries must be conscious of the “machinations of outsiders” that wanted to create “distrust and mischief”, he said.

Mr. KOENIGS, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, thanked the Council for its support to UNAMA, which, he said, faced not only the challenges of a post-conflict mission, but also the resurgence of a conflict.  The priorities were clear:  security and security sector reform, narcotics, governance and reconstruction.  Out of those, governance was most important, because counter-insurgency could only be successful if the legally elected Government increased its legitimacy in the eyes of the people.  Finally, he said that Afghanistan’s efforts and the international community’s efforts in Afghanistan could and should become a peacemaking factor for the region.  Instabilities in the region, however, should not doom efforts for peacebuilding and stability in Afghanistan.



*UN envoy urges sustained support to tackle Afghanistan’s security challenges*
UN News Centre, 15 Oct 07
Article link

Security remains a major challenge for Afghanistan, the United Nations envoy to the strife-torn nation said today, urging troop-contributing countries to resist the temptation to reduce their commitments with the caution that “now is not the time to wobble.”

Tom Koenigs, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, told the Security Council that, although the violence has subsided in the past two months, the number of violent incidents was up 30 per cent from last year.

“The sad result is a significant increase in the numbers of civilian casualties – at least 1,200 have been killed since January this year,” he stated, noted that the UN has recorded 606 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and 133 suicide attacks compared to 88 by this time last year.

Mr. Koenigs, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said it is imperative that the protection of civilians remain at the forefront of efforts in the country, and noted the concrete steps taken by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the United States-led Operation Enduring Freedom on the issue.

“Failure to secure the population’s support will not only protract the conflict causing further devastation, but also hold the country’s development hostage to violence, and undermine the legitimacy of our efforts,” he stated.

Mr. Koenigs emphasized that for the time being ISAF represents the most capable defence of the government against the violent insurgency that has plagued Afghanistan, which has this year witnessed some of the worst violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

While the Afghan National Army is expected to be 70,000 strong by the end of 2008, he warned that “numbers are not a measure of capability” and also cited the “poor standards” of the Afghan National Police. Hampering the Police’s development is resistance in the Ministry of Interior to principles of accountability and transparency, he said.

The Special Representative also stressed the need to address the “twin challenges” of governance and outreach. “Only good governance, led by senior leadership within the Government, and delivered through both the civilian and military arms of the State, will end the culture of corruption and impunity that has dangerously eroded public confidence to date.”

He added that “for the dangers of weak governance, one needs to look no further than the 34 per cent increase in opium production in 2007.”

Against such a challenging backdrop, Mr. Koenigs did point to “clear signs of progress,” including the passage by Parliament in recent weeks of legislation governing political parties, government structure, and property, as well as a new law protecting the independence of the Afghan media.

In addition, the recent formation of two new political parties is “the healthiest indicator yet that Afghans are taking charge of their own destiny,” he said.


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## The Bread Guy (16 Oct 2007)

*Speech from the Throne*
16 Oct 07
Entire speech - security & sovereignty highlights

(....)

Nowhere is Canada making a difference more clearly than in Afghanistan. Canada has joined the United Nations-sanctioned mission in Afghanistan because it is noble and necessary. Canadians understand that development and security go hand in hand. Without security, there can be no humanitarian aid, no reconstruction and no democratic development. Progress will be slow, but our efforts are bearing fruit. There is no better measure of this progress than the four million Afghan boys and two million girls who can dream of a better future because they now go to school.

The Canadian Forces mission has been approved by Parliament until February 2009, and our Government has made clear to Canadians and our allies that any future military deployments must also be supported by a majority of parliamentarians. In the coming session, members will be asked to vote on the future of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. This decision should honour the dedication and sacrifice of Canada’s development workers, diplomats and men and women in uniform. It should ensure that progress in Afghanistan is not lost and that our international commitments and reputation are upheld.

Our Government does not believe that Canada should simply abandon the people of Afghanistan after February 2009. Canada should build on its accomplishments and shift to accelerate the training of the Afghan army and police so that the Afghan government can defend its own sovereignty. This will not be completed by February 2009, but our Government believes this objective should be achievable by 2011, the end of the period covered by the Afghanistan Compact. Our Government has appointed an independent panel to advise Canadians on how best to proceed given these considerations.

(....)

Discours du Trône - Un Canada fier et souverain

(....)

C’est en Afghanistan, plus que partout ailleurs, que les résultats tangibles de notre engagement à agir sont les plus apparents. Le Canada s’est joint à la mission sanctionnée par les Nations Unies en Afghanistan parce qu’elle est noble et nécessaire. Les Canadiennes et les Canadiens comprennent que le développement et la sécurité sont indissociables. Sans la sécurité, ni aide humanitaire, ni reconstruction, ni démocratisation n’est possible. Les progrès sont lents, mais nos efforts portent fruits. Rien ne témoigne davantage des progrès accomplis que les quatre millions de jeunes Afghans et les deux millions de jeunes Afghanes qui peuvent rêver d’un avenir meilleur parce qu’ils vont maintenant à l’école. 

Le Parlement a approuvé la poursuite de la mission des Forces canadiennes jusqu’en février 2009, et notre gouvernement a clairement indiqué à la population canadienne et à nos alliés que tout futur déploiement militaire devrait lui aussi recevoir l’appui de la majorité des députés. Au cours de cette session, le Parlement sera appelé à voter sur l’avenir de la mission canadienne en Afghanistan. La décision prise devrait honorer l’engagement et le sacrifice des travailleurs humanitaires, des diplomates et des militaires canadiens. Elle devrait aussi empêcher l’effondrement des progrès accomplis, et être fidèle à la réputation et aux engagements internationaux du Canada.

Notre gouvernement ne croit pas que le Canada doive simplement abandonner le peuple d’Afghanistan après février 2009. Le Canada doit plutôt bâtir sur ses réalisations et s’attarder à accélérer la formation des forces armées et policières afghanes afin de faire en sorte que le gouvernement afghan soit en mesure de défendre sa souveraineté. Or, cet objectif ne sera pas atteint d’ici février 2009, mais notre gouvernement croit qu’il pourrait l’être d’ici 2011, fin de la période visée par le Pacte pour l’Afghanistan. Notre gouvernement a chargé un groupe d’experts indépendant de faire part aux Canadiens de leurs recommandations sur la meilleure marche à suivre dans ce contexte.

(....)


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## MarkOttawa (17 Oct 2007)

Nato ‘lacking resources to fight Taleban'
_The Times_, Oct. 17
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2674190.ece



> The Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan lacks the troops and the strategy needed to defeat the Taleban and al-Qaeda, a leading foreign affairs think-tank said.
> 
> In its paper released yesterday, Chatham House said that the shortage of troops was becoming a “particularly sensitive” issue in southern Afghanistan, where the majority of British forces are concentrated.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (18 Oct 2007)

*Articles found Sept 18, 2007*

"Bastards" on patrol  
Le Journal de Québec Le Journal de Quebec 
17/10/2007 10h36  October 17, 2007 10:36    
Article Link

This page was automatically translated from French

Ils pourraient s'appeler «Les sympathiques», eux ont choisi «Les salopards». They could be called "friendly", have chosen "bastards." En patrouille dans Sperwan Ghar, cette section du 22e joue de bonne grâce avec une nuée d'enfants qui les suivent pas à pas, mais se frotter aux talibans les amuserait visiblement plus. On patrol in Sperwan Ghar, this section of the 22nd plays with good grace with a swarm of children who follow them step by step, but the Taliban to rub the fun visibly. 

Il fait chaud, très chaud même. It is hot, very hot. 40 degrés au soleil. 40 degrees in the sun. Chaque pas soulève un nuage de poussière fine comme de la farine. Each step raises a cloud of dust as fine flour. 


La section S de la Compagnie C, Section Salopards de la Crazy Company pour les intimes, prend une petite pause à l'ombre d'un muret au coeur d'un village du Panjwahi. Section S of the Company C, Section of the Crazy Salopards Company for intimate, took a short break in the shade of a wall in the heart of a village in Panjwahi. Chargés comme des mules, les soldats ont leur uniforme ruisselant de sueur. Charged as mules, the soldiers had their uniforms dripping with sweat. 


Le soldat Kevin Leblond, de Rivière-du-Loup, est le plus mal loti de la bande. The soldier Kevin Leblond, Loup, is the worst off of the tape. Il transporte près de 75 lb sur lui. It carries about 75 pounds on him. Essentiellement une grosse mitrailleuse C6, un sac à dos rempli de munitions et 4 litres d'eau. Essentially a large machine gun C6, a backpack filled with ammunition and four liters of water. 


«C'est pas mal pesant, mais si on tombe sur un contact [avec l'ennemi], c'est moi qui aurai le plus de fun», dit-il. "It's quite cumbersome, but if it falls on a contact [with the enemy], it is I who will have the most fun," he says. 


Ce petit groupe de soldats est parti depuis une heure d'une base avancée toute proche pour une patrouille de routine. This small group of soldiers went from one to a forward base nearby for a routine patrol. 


«Le but est de leur montrer qu'on est toujours là», a expliqué le sergent Martin Tremblay lors du briefing préliminaire. "The goal is to show them that we are still there," said Sergeant Martin Tremblay at the preliminary briefing. 


Une distraction A distraction  


La tournée des «salopards» ne passe pas inaperçue. The tour of "touch" is not going unnoticed. Au fil des minutes, des enfants surgissent des maisons et des petites ruelles. Over the minutes, children arise houses and narrow alleys. Essentiellement des garçons, et de rares petites filles habillées dans des robes multicolores. Essentially boys, and a few girls dressed in multicolored robes. 


La plupart ont les mains teintes en rouge, car ce sont les festivités de l'Aid marquant la fin du ramadan. Most had their hands dyed red because it is the Aid of festivities marking the end of Ramadan. 


Ils veulent des crayons et du papier. They want pencils and paper. Ils crient Canada, Canada. Whooping Canada, Canada. Répètent chaque mot entendu. Répètent heard every word. Même des «tabarnac». Even "mad". 


Au début, ils lançaient des pierres sur les soldats. At first, they threw stones at the soldiers. Désormais, chaque patrouille est devenue une occasion de distraction. Now, each patrol has become an opportunity for distraction. 


«Tant que les enfants nous suivent, c'est bon signe car les talibans n'attaquent pas encore leur propre population», fait remarquer le caporal Louis-Philippe Brie, technicien médical. "As long as we follow the children, it's a good sign because the Taliban did not attack even their own people," says Corporal Louis Brie, medical technician. 
More on link

 Local Taliban agrees to release abducted soldiers 
Monday September 17, 2007 (0613 PST)
Article Link

WANA: The agreement between Local Taliban and Political Administration has been finalized on Sunday in South Waziristan according to which local Taliban will release more than 250 soldiers. 

According to the agreement made between local Taliban and Political administration, the Taliban will release 250 abducted soldiers. They will be released in phases, Private TV Channel reported. Efforts for the safe release of abducted soldiers were underway since last two weeks. 

In return, the army will leave the area and Frontier Constabulary (FC) will take the responsibility of security. The administration will also release the arrested local Taliban. 

A member who was present during the talks with local Taliban said that the Personnels of security forces were kept in different locations therefore they will be released phase wise. The Process to release them will be started today (Monday), he added. 

When contacted, Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad told Private TV that he has no information about the truce made between Political administration and local Taliban. He said he cannot say anything about the agreement.
More on link


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## GAP (18 Oct 2007)

Manley's per diem up to $1,400
ALAN FREEMAN  Globe and Mail Update October 18, 2007 at 1:07 AM EDT
Article Link

OTTAWA — Nice work if you can get it.

Former deputy prime minister John Manley, who was appointed last week to head a five-member panel of eminent persons investigating the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, will be paid between $1,200 and $1,400 a day by the federal government for his trouble.

According to orders-in-council published by the Privy Council Office, the four other panel members will be getting a per-diem of $850 to $1,000. 

All five have been appointed to the position of “special advisers to the prime minister” as members of what is known officially as the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan.

The panel is to submit its report and recommendations by Jan. 31 although their terms end on March 31. 

There was no indication of how many days a week the panel is expected to meet but if the schedule calls for 15 days of work a month, that would still result in fees for the regular members of $15,000 per month and more for Mr. Manley.

Mr. Manley has been a lawyer for McCarthy Tetrault since retiring from politics. Former diplomat Derek Burney is currently an adviser to law firm Ogilvy Renault, while former energy minister Jake Epp is chairman of Ontario Power Generation. Onetime broadcaster Pamela Wallin, who also served as Canada's consul-general in New York, is currently chancellor of Guelph University. 

The fifth member is Paul Tellier, former head of Canadian National Railway and onetime clerk of the privy council.
More on link


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## GAP (18 Oct 2007)

PM's latest spin plan bit of a coup
 TheStar.com -October 18, 2007  Slinger
Article Link

The Prime Minister has a deep appreciation of the old Ottawa proverb that there's more than one way to skin a journalist.

His goal is simple. He wants to control the message.

This isn't a radical departure. Paul Martin wanted to do it, too, but he didn't have any control. Sadder still, he didn't have a message.

Stephen Harper definitely has a message. It is: "I'm right (and if you don't think so, you're stupid)." And he has a lot of control over it, since 99.9 per cent of the media in the country agree with him. But the few skeptics can hash things up. They can take things out of context. They can disagree with him, something he finds disagreeable and strives to avoid no matter what.

Not talking to the media at all worked pretty well for a while. His plan to build his own press centre died on the drawing board, but it showed his disdain for the National Press Centre, where it was obvious (he tried a press conference there once, and didn't like it) that if the journalists are allowed to run the proceedings, anybody can ask questions, even drunks off the street.

His latest is a bit of a coup.

Say you wanted to take Canada's combat role in Afghanistan off the agenda during the (possibly) upcoming election, and say you wanted to get a widely dubious country to start looking favourably on your idea that Canadian troops should keep fighting there until hell freezes over, or until Afghanistan becomes as prosperous and civilized as Etobicoke?

Then how about appointing a respected commission that will deliberate through the (possibly) upcoming election campaign, effectively taking the issue off the agenda, and that will then recommend Canadian troops keep fighting the good fight until etc., etc.?

What a clever dodge! Except it's not even slightly innovative. And anyway, who's going to believe you're sincere if your commission is partisan?

Harper's twist: John Manley. A former parliamentary adversary, a former top-drawer Liberal minister, a man sincerely confident of his own sincerity and absolutely certain that he can never be swayed by the self-serving opinions of others.

How non-partisan can you get? And leave aside the thought that this description exactly fits the profile of what police consider to be the easiest mark for con men?

That's irrelevant because, by an astonishing coincidence, Manley's personal belief about what should be done in Afghanistan is identical to the PM's. 

Harper must have been delighted when he learned this. It's his idea of an open mind.

And anybody who thinks the other commissioners are no more likely to oppose Harper's Afghanistan position than the Raptors' cheerleaders are to cheer for some other team forgets that this is a free country. They can decide for themselves, even if the Prime Minister happens to think the Raptors' cheerleaders' approach to their task could serve as a useful example to some people in this country whose minds aren't quite so open.

The nice thing for the commissioners – nice and convenient – is that they don't have to wait until after an election, or even until their January deadline, to write their report. They don't have to bore themselves to death listening to experts, or put themselves in harm's way by visiting Afghanistan. They already know what they're going to write. They can do it now and get it out of the way.

The even nicer thing is they don't have to worry that their report will sit on a shelf gathering dust. The Prime Minister's Office is already busy putting their recommendations into effect.
More on link

Slovakia to double its mission to Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Wednesday, October 17, 2007 
Article Link

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia: The Slovak government had approved a plan to almost double its contribution to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan next year, the defense minister said Wednesday.

Slovakia currently has 57 military engineers as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"In 2008, we'll have 111 troops in this mission," Defense Minister Frantisek Kasicky said. The plan still has needs parliamentary approval.

The current Slovak mission serves in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar, where they were moved from Kabul at the request of NATO earlier this year.

Of the new troops, 35 would be deployed as guards alongside Dutch troops in Uruzgan, Kasicky said. The rest would be sent to the mission's headquarters and to the training, medical and reconstruction team.

Slovakia will also increase the number of its troops in the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo by 39 servicemen with two helicopters, Kasicky said. Another five officers will be deployed at the headquarters of the force, known as KFOR, he said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (18 Oct 2007)

Afghan mission in peril, European experts warn
Only more manpower can overcome NATO disunity, poor strategy
_Ottawa Citizen_, Oct. 18
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=1a363fcf-dc07-43e9-8ab0-e044ad5f7114



> As the Conservative government announced plans this week for a military presence in Afghanistan at least two years beyond the current 2009 deadline, an influential British think-tank has warned that NATO needs more manpower to counterbalance a lack of coherent strategy and internal unity.
> 
> The Afghan mission appears locked in a "state of slow deterioration" and Afghan authorities are unprepared to assume core security functions by 2010, said a co-author of the briefing paper released by Chatham House, formally known as the Royal Institute for International Affairs.
> http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/552/
> ...



West won't win Afghan war says ex-UN envoy Ashdown
Reuters, Oct. 17
http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL1758817



> International forces are unlikely to win their battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan, risking a regional conflict that could match the magnitude of previous world wars, a former top U.N. envoy said on Wednesday. Lord Paddy Ashdown -- former United Nations high representative and European Union special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina -- said failure by the NATO-led force would have far wider repercussions than any losses in Iraq.
> 
> He called for the appointment of a high-level coordinator to lead the foreign mission in Afghanistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (18 Oct 2007)

Overhaul of Afghan Police Is New Priority
_NY Times_, Oct. 18
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/asia/18afghan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



> American military officials are carrying out a sweeping $2.5 billion overhaul of Afghanistan’s police force that will include retraining the country’s entire 72,000-member force and embedding 2,350 American and European advisers in police stations across the country.
> Skip to next paragraph
> 
> The new effort is a vast expansion of the current American program and is the third significant attempt to bolster the country’s feeble police force since the American-led invasion in 2001.
> ...



RCMP trying to bring order to a lawless land
_Regina Leader-Post_, Oct. 6
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=eace5664-32bf-468e-862c-13a58e147e00&k=55038



> CAMP NATHAN SMITH, Afghanistan -- Regina is known just about everywhere as the home of the RCMP.
> 
> But in this barren stretch of land in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, the RCMP has a second home that is developing its own reputation.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (19 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 19, 2007*

University honours slain soldier-scholar
By SHANNON VANRAES, SUN MEDIA
Article Link

It wasn't easy to do, but Amanda Anderson felt it was an honour to accept a degree from the University of Manitoba on behalf of her late husband -- a Canadian soldier killer in Afghanistan this summer. 

The university posthumously conferred a bachelor of arts degree in political science to Cpl. Jordan Anderson, of the Edmonton-based Third Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, at its convocation ceremony yesterday. 

"He loved learning ... he always wanted to learn something," Amanda said before the convocation, adding her husband had lofty goals, including becoming an intelligence officer in the Canadian military, which he fully expected to reach. 

"It is with great sorrow we will never see him reach his goals," Amanda said while fighting back tears. 

Although she said closure is a difficult thing to find, the 31-year-old widow was buoyed by the amount of support she has received from the public, the university and her late husband's friends and colleagues, many of whom attended yesterday's ceremony. 

This is the first time the school has posthumously awarded a degree to a serving member of the military killed in wartime. 

"It's pretty rare when this happens," said George MacLean, acting head of the political studies department. 

MacLean added the soldier spoke with university officials about continuing his education the day he was killed by a roadside bomb, along with five other Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter. 

"He was very close to reaching his degree ... basically all of the major components were complete," he said, adding Jordan was an extremely dedicated student who planned on doing post-graduate work. 

A bursary has been set up at the university to honour Jordan's memory. 
More on link

Let all Canadians vote on Afghanistan question
 TheStar.com -October 19, 2007 Sinclair Stevens
Article Link

This week we received a throne speech in Ottawa. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has warned opposition parties that if they defeat it there will be an election.

In fact, if they defeat any legislation contemplated in the speech it may trigger an election.

Last week Harper appointed a five-person panel to report on the future of Canada's presence in Afghanistan after the present 2009 deadline expires.

A review of the group reveals that none appear to have any in-depth knowledge of the Afghan situation. In short, they are well-known, very able Canadians, who have earned their livelihoods in diverse jobs like many other Canadians.

This scenario affords Harper a wonderful opportunity. 

Why does he not expand the group of five to include all Canadians who will have a vote in the national election he would like to trigger?

If there is going to be a general election, what could be more appropriate than to also have a referendum at that time where all 32 million Canadian voters could give their advice to the Prime Minister on this important subject, which for many soldiers could mean life, death or permanent injury.

If it is right to ask five people, who will have to spend the next few months brushing up on the subject, listening to officials in Afghanistan, the generals and of course learning the government's party line, why would it not be right to give all Canadian voters that opportunity?

In 1942, faced with a somewhat similar situation in World War II, our then prime minister Mackenzie King did just that. He called it a plebiscite. 
More on link

Afghans back foreign troops: Poll
 TheStar.com October 19, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau Chief
  Article Link

Only 14 per cent want them to leave country immediately

OTTAWA–A large majority of Afghans believe their lives are better today than five years ago and don't want foreign forces to leave their country in the near future, a groundbreaking new poll reveals.

A survey of nearly 1,600 Afghan residents last month showed that 43 per cent want foreign troops to remain "as long as it takes" to ensure stability and security. Just 14 per cent thought the troops should leave immediately, according to the poll done for CBC News.

But despite the presence of 2,300 Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghans credit the United States and even Germany, which has stayed far from the frontline action, for waging war against Taliban insurgents.

Canadians fare better in the area of reconstruction, with Afghans citing Canada as one of the top nations trying to rebuild their country.

Sixty per cent of those surveyed in Kandahar had a positive attitude towards Canadian soldiers. Almost half thought Canadian soldiers were doing a better job than troops from other nations. Just 12 per cent thought Canada was doing worse, CBC News reported last night.

Those numbers echo the attitudes encountered by Canadian troops on patrol in Kandahar, who are often greeted by grateful shopkeepers and residents thanking them for the job they are doing.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay hailed the results and said the fact that a poll could be done in the troubled country was symbolic of the progress made so far.
More on link

Afghanistan Opinion Poll Silences Cut-and-Run Crowd  
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Article Link

Results from an unprecedented public opinion poll of the Afghan people taken by Environics Research couldn’t have come at a worse time for Canadian Liberal leader Stephane Dion, NDP chief Jack Layton, and all others in Canada calling for our troops to leave Afghanistan post-haste.

With recent losses in key by-elections and the rebelling of his party’s Quebec wing, followed by some deft political moves by massively-underestimated Prime Minister Stephen Harper (this weeks Speech from the Throne should be held up as an example to students of politics everywhere of how to effectively govern a minority government like a majority), the last thing the embattled Grit leader needed was more bad news. 

But things did in fact get worse for Dion. In war-torn Afghanistan, 51% of all those questioned said that they believed their country was ‘headed in the right direction’, compared to 28% who felt the opposite. As well, 43% said that they wanted foreign troops to stay in their country as long as it takes to get the job done. While the bring-them-home crowd will quickly point out that the number is less than half, it should be noted that a measly 15% of Afghanis want foreign troops (read: Canadian soldiers) to leave immediately. 15%! A higher percentage of New Democrats wish for Canadian troops to cut and run than Afghanistan citizens do!

And the man who the federal opposition claims is a ‘puppet’ of the Canadian government, namely Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai? Only a resounding 70% favorable rating. Not bad for a leader seen as weak by some in the outside world.

While the Afghan people equate the American army as the main force fighting the Taliban, the poll showed that when it comes to rebuilding and reconstruction, Canada is the nation thought of by the Afghan people. Even Canadian military personnel are seen as builders as well as fighters. So much for the Opposition charges that the Conservative government is too focused on war and not enough on helping to stabilize the nation’s society. 
More on link

Soldiers think new bomb scanners will save lives
Updated Sun. Oct. 14 2007 10:41 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

A new weapon has landed in Afghanistan, one used to protect Canadian soldiers against the ever-present threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDS).

The RSD Husky is hailed as the most advanced metal detector in the world and has been credited with saving the lives of hundreds of U.S. soldiers already using the vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan....


Soldiers will begin using the multi-million-dollar armoured vehicles within the coming weeks, an addition that is that is a welcome sight for the Canadian military....
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Nine US-led coalition soldiers wounded in Taliban ambush in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - Nine U.S.-led coalition troops were wounded Thursday after the Taliban used heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to ambush a patrol in southern Afghanistan.

A coalition statement says the attack took place near Kandahar city on Wednesday.

The patrol was able to repel the attack using small arms fire.

The statement says none of the injuries are serious and there were no insurgent casualties.

A Canadian military spokesman in Kandahar says it's not believed any Canadian troops were among the wounded.

In the east, police say a roadside bomb on a police vehicle close to the Pakistani border killed an officer and wounded three others.

Taliban attacks against police have increased this year, with over 600 killed in militant attacks.
More on link

US Military: Intercepted Afghan Weapons Came From Iran  
By VOA News 18 October 2007
Article Link

The top commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan says weapons intercepted in the country last month originated in Iran.
U.S. Army General Dan McNeill said Thursday NATO forces stopped a convoy from Iran on September 5 in western Afghanistan. He said the convoy contained a number of advanced technology improvised explosive devices.

McNeill said it is hard to believe that a shipment of hi-tech explosives could have originated in Iran and come to Afghanistan without the knowledge of the Iranian military.

U.S. leaders have accused Iran of arming the Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan, a charge that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied.
More on link

Russian Millionaire Farmer Briefly Held in Afghanistan  
Article Link

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Russian businessman German Sterligov was released after two-day detention by security forces in Afghanistan where he was buying rams for his farm. 

"Local special service officers arrested me two days ago," Sterligov said on Wednesday. "Although we were held at gunpoint with automatic rifles, we were treated cordially, and politely," he said, adding that "Russians are generally treated well here." 

Sterligov was one of the first Russian millionaires in the early 1990s. Prior to opting for reclusive lifestyle in the country, he had several businesses. He previously intended to run for the presidential elections in Russia, but was denied registration. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (19 Oct 2007)

Twice as many [British] shells fired at Taliban as in Iraq invasion
_The Herald_, Oct. 19
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1771549.0.0.php



> The fighting in Afghanistan is so intense that British gunners have fired twice as many artillery shells in Helmand since last June as were used to break resistance round Basra during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, The Herald can reveal.
> 
> The 105mm light gun batteries in the Southern Afghan province have expended 12,000 shells in support of troops fighting the Taliban compared to 6000 in the Gulf conflict and more than two-thirds of the 17,500 rounds fired in the Falklands War in 1982.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (20 Oct 2007)

*Articles found Sept 20, 2007*

Afghans see progress that we ignore
 TheStar.com -October 20, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

Here are but a few stories from Afghanistan that you won't have read in the past couple of months:

New bridge built over the Kokcha River, connecting the only major road in Badakshan.

Dozens of injured civilians transferred by NATO helicopters to military hospitals after a massive suicide bombing in Spin Boldak.

Senior Taliban commander captured in Gereshk.

An orphanage for 200 children, boasting the luxury of running water, opened in Farah province.

Ribbons cut on three skills development centres in Khak-e Jabbar and Bagrami.

Raid of a massive weapons and drugs cache in Uruzgan.

Insurgent mortar position destroyed in Kunar province.

New hospital and separate health clinic completed in Tarin Kowt.

Village medical outreach services provided to civilians by the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Qalat.

Press releases of this nature, from the International Security Assistance Force, drop into my email basket every few days. They never make it into print. But accounts of Western soldiers killed, and most especially our own, are given elegiac cover, understandably so.

Military commanders and grunts on the ground are torn about this. They want sacrifices given proper respect. Yet they fret over how the tragedy of loss is disproportionately depicted, every death exploited in some quarters to undermine the mission.

Canada remains conflicted about the combat deployment to Kandahar, although public opinion appears to be slowly shifting as more people come to understand the complexity of the undertaking, how incremental and fragile the successes, what a long slog the reversal of Afghanistan fortunes is destined to be. As a wedge political issue, Afghanistan has also lost opposition party traction through some finessing of the portfolio by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Afghans are not conflicted.
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NATO displays confidence, doubts about Afghan role
 TheStar.com October 20, 2007 Mitch Potter EUROPE BUREAU
Article Link

Some top brass suggest military role is like riding two horses at once, others compare Taliban to virus

BRUSSELS–There is a new metaphor making the rounds at NATO headquarters here that rings like simplicity itself. When you think of what Canada and its allies are doing in Afghanistan, think not of the ravages of the opium boom, the complexities of Pashtun tribalism, the elusive battle for hearts and minds or the indefatigable challenge of telling friend from foe.

Think instead of two horses.

Two horses upon which NATO now must ride simultaneously to find light at the end of the tunnel and, perhaps in three or four years, the first glimpse of the way out of Afghanistan.

The two-horses scenario is not yet official NATO doctrine for Afghanistan. But even as the alliance undertakes a full structural review of its mission to support the fledgling Afghan government, the metaphor is catching on.
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John Turley-Ewart: Good news about Afghanistan is bad news for Dion  
Article Link

Stéphane Dion can't catch a break these days. He appears to have lost his grip on a large swath of the Liberal Party of Canada, he has certainly failed to win the affection of Quebecers, and has had to swallow his pride after Stephen Harper's Throne Speech stomped all over the Liberal Party's holy Kyoto grail.

Now, it's looking more and more like the Liberals flip-flop on supporting Canada 's mission in Afghanistan will come back to hurt Mr. Dion's political fortunes. Recall that it was Paul Martin's Liberal government that sent our troops into the south of Afghanistan in 2005 on a combat mission against the Taliban. The Liberal Party supported that mission until Mr. Harper became Prime Minister in 2006 and the Grits determined they could possibly make some political hay by cozying up to voters who opposed our presence in Afghanistan when Mr. Harper asked the House of Commons to extend the our mission there till 2009.

Presently, the news out of Afghanistan suggests that Mr. Harper's decision to hold fast to Canada's mission there is the right one. A new poll of Afghanis this week shows majority support for the UN sanctioned NATO mission against the Taliban. Much of that support can be tied directly to the successful reconstruction work NATO and NGOs are doing in that country -- most of it admittedly in the northern half of Afghanistan where the Taliban are weak.

One major obstacle to success in the souther parts of Afghanistan has frankly been the Afghan police, who as Michael Fumento pointed out on our pages sometime ago, are easily corrupted and almost wholly unreliable. That situation may change sooner rather than later.
More on link

NATO Wants Outsourced Air Force for Afghanistan
By Noah Shachtman October 19, 2007
Article Link

So what is an international alliance to do when a war it's committed to has become so unpopular in member states, it can't get their governments to pony up necessary equipment?  The 21st Century answer: outsource it.  The Financial Times Deutschland is reporting that NATO is planning on outsourcing air support for southern Afghanistan, an area of some of the most intense fighting.  The alliance is intending to contract for some twenty helicopters.  

According to the Financial Times Deutschland, air support is being outsourced because of widespread domestic opposition in member countries to the deployment of more troops.  The US has pioneered wide-scale military outsourcing as a force multiplier and for -- well, let's just say it -- plausible deniability in some situations.  However, this is the first time military outsourcing has been used as a workaround to domestic opposition of a military action.  This occurs at a time of broadening US public opposition to military outsourcing.

This summer Germany, France, Turkey, Spain and Greece all declined NATO requests for more helicopters to be sent to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.  Recent polls in Germany have indicated that two thirds of the population are against a renewal of the German commitment to Afghanistan.  (Regardless, the Bundestag renewed the mandate last Friday, although Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung continues to refuse to send German troops to the more dangerous south.)  

Similarly, a majority of the Dutch are against further engagement of their troops in Afghanistan.  (The Netherlands, UK and Canada are active in southern Afghanistan where some of the heaviest fighting has been.)
More on link


Pentagon To Rotate 18,000 National Guard Soldiers Into Afghanistan, Iraq
October 19, 2007 7:32 p.m. EST Matthew Borghese - AHN News Writer
Article Link

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - As the war on terror continues, the U.S. Department of Defense announced on Friday that seven National Guard units will be deployed in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom, while an eighth unit will be sent to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Units from Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Hawaii, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Washington State will head overseas to perform a variety of tasks. 

According to the Pentagon, two brigades will conduct full-spectrum combat operations, four brigades will conduct security force missions and one brigade will carry out detention operations. 

The 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team from North Carolina and the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division from Pennsylvania will be engaged in the combat operations. 

While these troops were notified of the deployment on Friday, they won't be shipped overseas until at least summer, while the majority will be sent in late 2008 and early 2009.
More on link

Manley's panel will visit Afghanistan, but plans no public hearings on mission
ALAN FREEMAN October 20, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The independent panel on the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan will not hold public hearings but does plan to travel to the war-torn country and to consult widely with experts.

The five-member panel, led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, has already rented office space in downtown Ottawa and is expected to have its first meeting this weekend, according to a source close to the panel.

The group was appointed last week by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to make recommendations on the future of the contentious military mission, currently due to end in February of 2009.

The panel has been asked to finish its work by Jan. 31, 2008, giving it about three months to research, deliberate and write its report, although the legal mandate extends to March 31. The panel has recruited a half-dozen federal officials who have been seconded from Foreign Affairs, National Defence and the Canadian International Development Agency.
More on link


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## The Bread Guy (20 Oct 2007)

Original article in Dutch - Permalink in Dutch (.pdf) - REALLY bad BabelFishEnglish translation (.pdf)

*Call for Dutch forces to be reduced*
Radio Netherlands online, 20 Oct 07
Article link

Dick Berlijn, the Chief of Defence Staff in the Netherlands has said that the Dutch mission in the Afghanistan province of Uruzgan must continue with reduced manpower. He made this statement in a secret communication with the Dutch cabinet, a communication that has come into the possession of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Mr Berlijn said that Dutch military forces could stay for two extra years in Afghanistan; however the number of personnel will not exceed 1,200. Currently, more than 1,600 Dutch military personnel are stationed in Uruzgan. The decision over the extension of their stay is expected at the end of November ....



*Dutch defense chief sees Afghan mission renewed*
Reuters (UK), 20 Oct 07
Article link

Dutch military operations in Afghanistan could be extended for two more years after August 2008 but with fewer troops, a Dutch daily reported on Saturday.  Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quoted sources as saying Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn had advised the government that it could keep a maximum of 1,200 soldiers in southern Afghanistan from about 1,600 now.  A spokesman of the Dutch Ministry of defense declined to comment, saying any advice given to the government was private.  The Dutch government, under NATO pressure to keep its troops in the volatile Uruzgan region, is reviewing its mission amid growing public pressure to withdraw as casualties increase.  A Dutch pull-out could see the Canadians follow suit ....  The issue is likely to feature prominently at an informal NATO meeting in the Dutch town of Noordwijk on October 24-25.  The Netherlands should remain the "lead nation" in Uruzgan but help from other countries was necessary in areas such as defending military camps, transport and air support, the Dutch newspaper reported Berlijn's advice as saying ....



*Dutch troops may stay in Afghanistan, army chief says*
DPA (DEU), 20 Oct 07
Article link

A prolongation of the Dutch mission in Afghanistan was likely but on a smaller scale, according to the Chief of the Netherlands Defence Forces, General Dick Berlijn, reports said Saturday.  The current 1,600-strong Dutch contingent would be reduced to 1,200 troops, the general wrote in a confidential report for the government, according to the daily Telegraaf and other media.  The centre-left coalition in The Hague would probably decide in November whether the Dutch contingent, which has been stationed in the Afghan province on Uruzgan since 2006, will remain there as NATO expects.  While Berlijn deems this likely, reducing the contingent would also mean higher expenditure, he wrote according to reports. Apart from that, other nations would have to show a greater commitment in Uruzgan ....



*Dutch general urges extension of Afghan mission: report*
AFP, via Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 20 Oct 07
Article link

A Dutch newspaper reports it has obtained a confidential memo in which the head of the Dutch armed forces advises the government to extend their military mission in Afghanistan for two years.  At the same time, General Dick Berlijn calls for the deployment to be cut to 1,200 to free up troops for other international military operations, De Telegraaf reports.  Some 1,500 Dutch troops have been deployed in the southern Afghan province of Oruzgan since August 2006 as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).  Australia currently has almost 1,000 troops in Oruzgan fighting alongside the Dutch, though Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai told the ABC this week he would welcome an increased commitment.  The Dutch government was due to decide this summer whether to extend their mission beyond August 2008 but delayed the decision to this autumn to allow further discussions with NATO ....


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## MarkOttawa (20 Oct 2007)

Kandahar conundrum
NATO source: Canucks are replaceable at front, but 'it might not be easy'
_Toronto Star_, Oct. 20
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/268724



> Important, yes. Irreplaceable, no. That is NATO's candid assessment of Canada's role in the controversial effort to stabilize Afghanistan.
> 
> In a surprise admission from NATO headquarters in Brussels, a senior military source estimates the cohesion of the Afghan alliance now is sufficiently stable to withstand a Canadian withdrawal.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (21 Oct 2007)

NATO Conflicted Over Afghanistan
As War-Torn Country Backslides, Allies Differ on How to Stabilize It
_Washingon Post_, Oct. 21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/20/AR2007102001253.html



> KABUL -- Four years after NATO began an expanded mission in Afghanistan, members of the 26-nation alliance are divided over anti-drug and reconstruction policies, rising civilian casualties and what some say is heavy-handed U.S. leadership, according to interviews with military officials and diplomats.
> 
> Some allies express frustration with the refusal of others to share the dangerous combat roles being assumed almost exclusively by the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.
> 
> ...



Pentagon chief seeks help in Afghanistan
Reuters, Oct. 21
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071021/pl_nm/ukraine_usa_gates_dc;_ylt=ArCSX7mdPdHa8IMrXBcAAht34T0D



> KIEV (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will ask Ukraine and other eastern European countries this week to send troops to Afghanistan to cover a shortfall in trainers for the Afghan army, a senior U.S. defense official said.
> 
> Gates, who landed in Kiev on Sunday to meet Ukraine's government and attend the Southeast Europe Defense Ministerial, has grown increasingly frustrated by the failure of NATO allies to fulfill promises made to Afghanistan, his aides say.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (21 Oct 2007)

UK troops to fill Nato's boots in Afghanistan
_Daily Telegraph_, Oct. 22
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/22/wafg122.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_22102007



> The Government is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan to make up for the expected withdrawal of other Nato forces, a spokesman for the organisation has said.
> 
> UK troops to fill Nato's boots in Afghanistan
> Gordon Brown has repeatedly said that the reconstruction of Afghanistan is central to British foreign policy
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (22 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 22, 2007*

Forces scramble to fill ranks
But Afghan mission not at risk: general 
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, October 22, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR - With soldiers quitting the army in greater numbers since the Afghan combat mission began and critical shortages in some military trades, it has been a struggle for Canadian commanders to keep generating the forces required for the war against the Taliban.

But the head of Canada's army insists that there will be enough of the right mix of troops through the end of the current combat mandate in early 2009 and that sufficient forces will be available beyond then to handle whatever new mission Parliament chooses.

"It's really tight, by golly," Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie said in an interview at the end of a four-day visit with his troops in southern Afghanistan.

"But I think that we can keep these numbers going for the foreseeable future."

"Attrition is an issue," Lieut.-Gen. Leslie said. "I'm watching it like a hawk, but I am not going to fire a flare and say it is a crisis."

Of particular concern, the general said, was that the number of soldiers leaving the army every year has jumped from 8% to 12% since 2003.

As Canada has a standing army of about 20,000 men and women, that means about 800 more soldiers have been getting out every year than before Paul Martin's Liberal government signed Canada up for combat in the province of Kandahar.

It's not combat duty in Afghanistan that caused the surge in retirements, Lieut.-Gen. Leslie said. More soldiers were leaving because the economy at home had been booming and "in terms of money, being a soldier is not your optimal career choice," he said.

Canada has committed to rotating 11,500 combat and support troops through Afghanistan.

They have been organized in six tours of six months each based 
More on link

Hillier on surprise visit to Kandahar
OMAR EL AKKAD  Globe and Mail Update October 22, 2007 at 8:41 AM EDT
Article Link

KANDAHAR — Canada's top soldier has arrived in Kandahar for a surprise visit, his first since Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment arrived in Afghanistan.

General Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of defence staff, landed in Kandahar airfield on Monday afternoon for a visit of at least four days. Gen. Hillier's trip comes less than a week after the Conservative government's Throne Speech, in which the Tories proposed extending Canada's military mission in Afghanistan until 2011 instead of leaving in 2009.
More on link

Soldiers take part in Terry Fox run in Kandahar  
Updated Sun. Oct. 21 2007 1:36 PM ET Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- There are some things that are just so Canadian that even a hot desert sun and being 11,000 kilometres away from home can't diminish it. 

About 70 soldiers from a variety of NATO countries serving in Afghanistan joined the Terry Fox Run at Kandahar Air Field on Sunday, raising money for cancer research and to honour the memory of Fox, who attempted to run across Canada in his Marathon of Hope in 1979 after losing most of his right leg to cancer two years earlier. 

Heavy military vehicles rumbled down gravel roads, churning up choking clouds of dust, as the participants ran along the 11-kilometre route which included a lap around the airfield's landing strip as helicopters hovered overhead and military jets took off and landed with deafening roars. 

"It takes you back to being in Canada again because it is the Terry Fox run,'' said Master Petty Officer Matt O'Hara, 52, who has been in the service for 30 years and is originally from Edmonton. "It's something truly Canadian. Terry Fox was a Canadian hero.'' 
More on link

Afghan poll not as clear as it seems
 TheStar.com -October 21, 2007 Thomas Walkom
Article Link

Do ordinary Afghans want Canada to stay in Kandahar until the Taliban is defeated? 

Initial reports of an Environics survey released Thursday suggest the answer is a strong yes. "Majority of Afghans want foreign troops to stay and fight" was The Globe and Mail's headline.

Analysts argued that the poll results, based on interviews conducted last month in the war-torn country, would bolster Prime Minister Stephen Harper's efforts to keep Canadian troops fighting in Kandahar past February 2009. 

But when the poll is examined more carefully (it's available at http://erg.environics.net), its findings become far less definitive. Indeed, it is not clear that they provide solace to any of the politicians now debating Canada's Afghan mission.

First, let us be clear about what the survey did not find. It did not find that a majority of Afghans want foreign troops to stay and fight. It did find that a majority of those polled approved of the "presence of foreign countries" in Afghanistan. 

But that term "presence" included everything foreigners are doing in the country, from aid to business to soldiering.
More on link

Looking forward in Afstan  
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Article Link

It looks likely that the Dutch will extend their commitment until 2010, with a somewhat reduced troop presence. If Canada in the next few months decides essentially to remove all our troops from combat in 2009 we will be the first to bug out, with very negative diplomatic and alliance consequences. Not to mention the consequences for the Afghans--but see below regarding possible replacements for us.

I imagine the Dutch, and NATO, expect it will not be too hard to find replacements--perhaps from smaller/newer NATO members--for their 400 troop reduction suggested in the piece just below (hell, that's only around half a battalion).

Surely by 2009 Canada/NATO should be able to drum up replacements for around a quarter of our combat troops. As far as I can determine from the figures here our battle group at Kandahar actually comprises at most near 1,600 of our current total 2,500 CF personnel commitment to ISAF. So with a quarter drawdown the need would--as with the Dutch--be around 400 troops from other countries (very rough reckoning). Indeed, as more is turned over to the Afghan National Army and Police, one might expect that our combat, and support strength, could be drawn down a fair bit. Such a scenario would enable the government to outline a plan to keep the CF in strength at Kanadahar--but a significantly reduced strength, with more support from NATO, and with less combat. Back to the Dutch:

Dutch military operations in Afghanistan could be extended for two more years after August 2008 but with fewer troops, a Dutch daily reported on Saturday.

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quoted sources as saying Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn had advised the government that it could keep a maximum of 1,200 soldiers in southern Afghanistan from about 1,600 now.

A spokesman of the Dutch Ministry of defense declined to comment, saying any advice given to the government was private.

The Dutch government, under NATO pressure to keep its troops in the volatile Uruzgan region, is reviewing its mission amid growing public pressure to withdraw as casualties increase.

A Dutch pull-out could see the Canadians follow suit. They are stationed in Kandahar in the south and must also decide whether to extend their mandate which runs until February 2009.

The issue is likely to feature prominently at an informal NATO meeting in the Dutch town of Noordwijk on October 24-25.
More on link

UK troops to fill Nato's boots in Afghanistan
By Tom Coghlan in Kabul Last Updated: 2:55am BST 22/10/2007
Article Link

The Government is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan to make up for the expected withdrawal of other Nato forces, a spokesman for the organisation has said.

 Britain already has 7,700 soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents in Helmand province, at a time when senior Army officers complain that there is a serious overstretch in the armed forces.

There are fears that the Canadian and Dutch governments may withdraw their forces because of growing political pressure.

James Appathurai, the spokesman for the Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, disclosed that Britain was considering increasing its troop commitment.

He told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "The British are talking in the south not only about keeping what they have, but potentially increasing it."

Mr Appathurai's remarks follow a Government announcement that troop numbers in Iraq are to be nearly halved by next spring.
More on link


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## GAP (22 Oct 2007)

Cultural differences?  
From a Canadian Press article today:
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Article Link

What is less clear is how many of them would be willing to come back if the mission is extended. 

In its recent throne speech, the Conservative government says Canada should stay involved in Afghanistan until at least 2011. 

Ankle-deep in the dust of one of Canada's forward operating bases in Kandahar province, a 17-year veteran of the Canadian Forces says he'll leave the army first. 

It's not the insufferable heat, the time away from his family back at home or even the danger that has convinced him. 

"Things won't change," says the soldier who has served previously in Bosnia and Haiti. He does not want to be identified. 

Citing the corruption in government and the Afghan national police, and the fierce tribal rivalries that divide the country, he believes Afghanistan will fall back into chaos and civil war whether Canada leaves in 18 months, four years or a decade from now. 

"I won't come back here," he says.


Revealing and trumps the "they believe in the mission" line usually spun by military PR people and HarperCons. It also pretty much echoes Gwynne Dyer's take (not to mention anyone else who's glanced at Afghan history):

The current fighting in the south, the Pashtun heartland, which iscausing a steady dribble of American, British and Canadian casualties, willcontinue until the Western countries pull out. (Most other NATO memberssent their troops to various parts of northern Afghanistan, wherenon-Pashtun warlords rule non-Pashtun populations and nobody dares attackthe foreigners.) Then, after the foreigners are gone, the Afghans will makethe traditional inter-ethnic deals and something like peace will return.Until you get to the money quote at the end:


A U.S. marine making a pit stop at a Canadian base brings a totally different perspective. 

"The problem with the Canadians is that they always have to be worried about what people think at home," he says. 

"When the Canadians are attacked they worry about civilian casualties. When we're attacked, we hunt them down and kill them."


So much for hearts and minds. Perhaps the Marine in question should pay attention to the Environics poll, suggesting, in reference to why some Afghans are critical of the foreign troops:

The minority critical of the mission emphasize the killing of innocent people and searching houses without permission.
More on link


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## GAP (22 Oct 2007)

Report: Dutch general advises government to reduce presence in Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Saturday, October 20, 2007 
Article Link

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: The top Dutch military official has advised the government to reduce its presence in the NATO force in Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Friday.

De Telegraaf did not specify its sources. It said armed forces chief Gen. Dick Berlijn advised the Cabinet at a briefing this week to reduce the country's presence from around 1,800 soldiers at present to around 1,200 — closer to the amount originally agreed to when the Netherlands began its participation in August 2006.

Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said no decision has yet been made as to whether the mission in the restive southern province of Uruzgan will be extended past its completion date next summer, or in what form.

"As minister of defense you get a lot of advice, some of it is ripe, and some of it is green," he told Dutch television in response to questions about De Telegraaf report
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INTERVIEW-Afghans promise not to plant poppy -governor
Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:37am EDT By Jon Hemming
Article Link

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Afghan tribal elders and farmers in the world's biggest opium-producing region have promised not to plant poppies this year, the provincial governor said on Monday, only weeks before the time for sowing.

Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's opium this year and more than half of that was grown along a narrow band of fertile land on the banks of the Helmand River that threads its way through the desert.

Profits from opium, worth more than $3 billion a year to the Afghan economy, also fund the insurgency which is at its most virulent in Helmand where Taliban rebels hold a key town and a number of villages. The militants engage mostly British and U.S. troops in almost daily gunbattles.

Asadullah Wafa, appointed governor of Helmand last December after this year's crop was planted, said promises by elders and farmers not to sow poppies in the coming weeks will help Helmand turn the corner and at least reduce its record-breaking opium crop.

"When I came here poppy had already been planted but now the people have given letters of guarantee that they will not grow poppy next year," he told Reuters at his heavily guarded compound in the Helmand provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

"I discussed the bad effects of poppy and that it was illegal according to Islam." Next year, he said the poppy crop "will decrease a lot", but he declined to make any prediction on the size of the reduction.
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Suicide Bomber Hits British Convoy in Afghanistan  
By VOA News 22 October 2007
Article Link

A suicide bomber has rammed his car into a British military convoy in southern Afghanistan, wounding three Afghan civilians who were nearby.

No casualties were reported among the British troops.

The attack happened Monday in Gereshk in the southern province of Helmand. 

Two days earlier, the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops reported killing nearly 30 Taliban militants in Helmand.

Coalition forces said the fighting started when Taliban insurgents attacked a patrol near the town of Musa Qala Saturday.
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3 dozen Taliban killed in southern Afghan battle  
The Associated Press Saturday, October 20, 2007 
Article Link

 KABUL, Afghanistan: U.S.-led coalition soldiers and Afghan forces killed nearly three dozen militants in the second day of major fighting near a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing belt, officials said Saturday.

Taliban forces fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at a combined coalition-Afghan patrol near the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, sparking a battle that lasted several hours and involved the use of military aircraft, the coalition said in a statement.

The battle was the second in two days near Musa Qala. The coalition said it killed more than a dozen insurgents Friday after the militants ambushed a patrol. Attack aircraft helped repel that initial attack, though the fighters tried to reinforce their numbers throughout the engagement, which lasted several hours, the coalition said.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Musa Qala has been in control of Taliban fighters ever since and is in the heart of the world's largest poppy-growing region.

U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the Taliban fund between 20 percent and 40 percent of their militant operations through opium poppies. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the main ingredient in heroin.
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Afghan girl 'killed by ricocheted NATO bullet'
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — A toddler died when she was struck by a gunshot from a NATO soldier while troops killed four dozen Taliban in two days of battles in Afghanistan's top opium-growing area, officials said Saturday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it deeply regretted the death of the child in the southern province of Helmand on Friday.

Helmand provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said the girl was two years old and the incident had happened outside her home.

An ISAF soldier fired a single shot to stop a vehicle from coming too close to a military patrol, the force said in a statement. The bullet allegedly ricocheted and hit the child although the incident was being investigated, it said.

"Sometime later, a family brought a child suffering from a gunshot wound to the head to an ISAF base for medical attention. Unfortunately, the child died," it said.

Several civilians have been killed in Afghanistan this year by warning shots fired to stop people approaching international security force checkpoints and patrols.

Troops are the main target of Taliban suicide bombs, often delivered by car or fixed to a person who launches himself at the soldiers.
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Soldiers debate role in Afghanistan
 TheStar.com - October 21, 2007 Dene Moore THE CANADIAN PRESS
  Article Link

Agree war-torn country needs Canada past 2009, but opinions differ on what mission can achieve

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Parliament is poised for a great deal of debate in the coming months over Canada's role in the war in Afghanistan, but on the dusty battlefields of this central Asian country there is not much doubt over one central question.

Canadian soldiers, who regularly travel the mined roads of Taliban country and sleep with flak vests ready in case a mortar shell whistles in, seem to overwhelmingly believe that Afghanistan will not be ready for them to leave in February 2009.

What is less clear is how many of them would be willing to come back if the mission is extended.

In its recent throne speech, the Conservative government says Canada should stay involved in Afghanistan until at least 2011.

Ankle-deep in the dust of one of Canada's forward operating bases in Kandahar province, a 17-year veteran of the Canadian Forces says he'll leave the army first.

It's not the insufferable heat, the time away from his family back at home or even the danger that has convinced him.

"Things won't change," says the soldier who has served previously in Bosnia and Haiti. He does not want to be identified.

Citing the corruption in government and the Afghan national police, and the fierce tribal rivalries that divide the country, he believes Afghanistan will fall back into chaos and civil war whether Canada leaves in 18 months, four years or a decade from now.

"I won't come back here," he says.

His words are echoed at another base on another day by another soldier.

This soldier is on his second tour in Afghanistan, having served in Kabul in 2004. With 14 years in the Forces, he, too, served in Bosnia and Haiti.
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## GAP (23 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 23, 2007*

*Luck, or lack of it, matters to many Canadian soldiers on battlefield*
Article Link

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WILSON, Afghanistan - At first blush it was a chilling sight: two rows of handmade crosses covered with the gear of Canadian soldiers.

A helmet and flak jacket adorned one of the crosses, while various kinds of military kit, including ammunition and clothing, were on the others. It was reminiscent of the final resting markers granted to many troops during the Second World War.

But here at Forward Operating Base Wilson, about 60 kilometres west of Kandahar City, it is only the sign of military ingenuity.

The crudely constructed crosses were put up to keep helmets, flak jackets and rounds of ammunition out of the thick, heavy dust that blows through this base on a regular basis. They also keep some unwanted visitors out of clothing - including the gargantuan camel spider, mice and even possibly snakes.

Ingenious or not, it's a little chilling for many of the soldiers stationed at the camp.

"I think that's pretty unlucky because it looks like a graveyard," said Pte. Francis Archambault, 23, of Valcartier, Que.

"That's purely a superstition but you see pictures where sometimes the rifle is pointed down and the helmet is on top. This is too much like that."

Instead of hanging up his gear, he is satisfied with keeping his belongings in a wooden box.

"If my gear is hanging on a cross it had better have my name engraved on it," he chuckled with a touch of gallows humour.

Archambault's discomfort with the crosses was shared by his friend Cpl. Christophe Clement.

"I guess I'm superstitious too. I just arrived here one night and there they were. Some of the guys are comfortable with doing it but it is hard to see it as anything else other than gravestones.," said Clement.

"I think keeping things in a box works just fine for me."

Superstition and religion have always been part of life in the foxhole.
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Canada's spending on Defence great morale booster for our troops
Article Link

 According to Canada.com, David ********, the defence expert for CanWest News Service, writes that "... Canada's defence spending has hit its highest level since the Second World War".  Canada presently ranks 6th among the NATO nations in military spending - $18 Billion a year.

This is quite a feat, considering the huge impact of the downsizing which took place under the Liberals when Jean Chretien first took office in the 1990s.  I worked at National Defence when the Chief of Defence Staff first started coming out with orders to elminate some bases, cut staff, cut departments, merge some departments, etc. etc., all in the name of reducing the budget.  These downsizing efforts saw the elimination of a lot of bases all across the country and created nightmare scenarios for department heads who were told to "do more with less".

In BC, for example, Defence mandated the closure of a large base in Chilliwack, leaving Edmonton the closest location of a major Army military force to handle emergencies such as flooding or other disaster relief, and many of the top brass criticized this move, saying that this left the BC coast very vulnerable.  (Of course, we have the large Navy base, Esquimault, south of Victoria, and the Air Force base in Comox).  Since then, only a small contingent of army personnel man the old Chilliwack base.

The downsizing effect on equipment and materiel was especially harsh, with the Navy being particularly blind-sided; many navy vessels in Halifax were sold or disposed of.  Remember the rescue helicopters (Labradors) that were falling out of the sky ? Remember the cancellation of the helicopter contract which cost taxpayers $500 million ? These nightmare scenarios had a huge impact on the morale of the troops.

What a change since PM Harper is in control.  Not only was the need for defence spending great, the sagging morale was in great need of a boost.  Now enrollment in the Canadian Forces is up, as more young men and women are considering the forces as a career.  And in a climate such as Canada's present economic situation where jobs are fairly plentiful, that is saying a lot.  Canadians are very proud of their fine soldiers serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and well they should be.
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Efforts to help Afghan girls generate optimism
 TheStar.com October 23, 2007 Richard Gwyn
Article Link

At times, the Harper government's justification for continuing the mission in Afghanistan has seemed to rest on the mantra of "schools for girls."

Politically, that's an adroit sound bite. The notion that Canadian soldiers are there to help girls get some education and potentially some freedom – and perhaps even some equality – is immensely appealing to the Canadian public.

The sound bite may have an additional, and a more important, quality to it. It just might be right.

In the survey done by Toronto-based Environics and reported last week, Afghans who said they thought things were getting better were asked why this was so.

Seventeen per cent said because security had improved, and 15 per cent said because of reconstruction and rebuilding. 

The most surprising response came in the third largest group: Ten per cent attributed their optimism to the fact that "Schools for girls have opened."

Another 4 per cent cited, "Women have more freedom," while still another 4 per cent said it was because, "Women can now work."

Those three responses, added together, constitute the largest single reason for optimism expressed by ordinary Afghans.
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Security firms must be discreet
The Gazette 
Article Link

An opinion poll of the people of Afghanistan, reported last week, apparently did not ask about private security firms. Perhaps that's just as well, because such firms, while perhaps necessary, are surely not popular.

A report in the Toronto Globe and Mail yesterday pointed out Canada's diplomatic compound in Kabul is protected not by Afghan soldiers or police, nor by Canadian soldiers, but rather by armed patrols of uniformed employees of a British company, Saladin Security. The same company provides security for visiting Canadian VIPs.

With more than 2,000 "indigenous personnel" on the payroll, Saladin is not much smaller than the Canadian force of 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan.

Saladin is registered and operates legally in Afghanistan, and there are no reports of improper activities on the part of Saladin employees. But private security firms have come to have an unsavoury reputation in Afghanistan, as in Iraq.
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Who Are The Taliban?
October 22, 2007 | By PA Pundits |  By Lee (tleeh)
Article Link

In Canada the government has recently struck an independent panel to advise the government on what role Canada should play in Afghanistan after its current combat commitment in Kandahar province expires in February 2009.

I was reading the story on line at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) site, which included a feature that allowed for comments. As I’d spent a year in Afghanistan and a year overseeing Afghan projects as a private contractor it was a subject that greatly interested me. Now for those of you that don’t know, the CBC receives the vast majority of it’s funding from the government of Canada but is an independent organization, it is also known by some of us as the Communist Broadcasting Company.

I expected the comments to largely congratulate the conservative PM for naming a former Liberal cabinet minister as the chair but found not only condemnation for the panel but for the mission too. I can certainly understand the debate about naming independent commissions who write reports at taxpayer expense when we have well paid politicians in place to do the fact finding and to make political decisions but I was completely unprepared for the hate and ignorance of the facts that I found strewn throughout the comment board.

It was mostly aimed at the idea that the big bad US had invaded poor old Afghanistan for no good reason as the Taliban hadn’t done anything to the US and why was Canada participating in this US war anyway. Most of the comments somehow wrapped the war in Afghanistan into the war in Iraq as if they were joined in the reasons they began and almost all seemed to ignore whom the Taliban were and what they represented. 

I also must admit to weighing in with several comment about why this war began, who the Taliban were and what I’d seen going on in Afghanistan during my time there and while working with a client who is heavily involved in reconstruction. Many of the reply’s I received ignored the basic facts and continued to rant about Canadian arrogance (the Russian and British failed how can we win) and being forced by the US into fighting for them. Some asked me to expand on my comments about the dozens of mentoring programs ongoing, the NGO effort, the USAID sponsored reconstruction effort and yes the military efforts to put a nail in the Taliban coffin so I decided to turn to this forum to continue the debate. 
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Afghanistan residents believe security is deteriorating: U.S. survey
By The Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghans believe the security situation in their country has deteriorated, compared with last year, but they say life is better now than under Taliban rule, a U.S.-funded survey released Tuesday found. 
About 46 % of more than 6,200 adults surveyed countrywide feel security is the biggest problem afflicting the country, while 29 % think it is unemployment, according to the survey, which was conducted by the Asia Foundation and paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

“In the 2006 survey, it was unemployment first, followed by security and corruption, and this time around it is security first followed by unemployment and poor economy. This further underlines the deterioration in security in the eyes of the common Afghans,” the survey said. 

Despite the rise in violence, about four in 10 of those responding said they feel the country is headed in the right direction. That’s roughly the same as those who answered the 2006 survey. Half of those surveyed said they were more prosperous today than during Taliban rule in the late 1990s. 

Afghanistan is experiencing its worst bout of violence since the Taliban were removed from power in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001. More than 5,200 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials. 

“Insecurity is the main reason for the people to believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction,” the survey said. 

While lack of security was the top-ranked national issue, those surveyed identified a lack of electricity and water, and unemployment as the main problems on a local level, the survey found. 
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## MarkOttawa (23 Oct 2007)

A turn from artillery to construction in Kandahar
*Globe and Mail*, Oct 23
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20071023/AFGHAN23/International/international/internationalAsiaHeadline/3/3/8/



> FOB WILSON, AFGHANISTAN -- Amid a flurry of construction, one of the most ambitious projects at Forward Operating Base Wilson has little to do with tanks or artillery. It's an unassuming building where Canadians hope to bring representatives from various Afghan emergency agencies together around a desk and a phone to create Kandahar's first 911 service.
> 
> For Canadian troops in Afghanistan, combat missions are increasingly taking a back seat to mentoring and construction projects, a tour of virtually every major forward operating base in the province suggests.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (23 Oct 2007)

Ukraine not to send troops to Afghanistan 
Monday October 22, 2007 (1845 PST)
Article Link

MOSCOW: Ukraine has no plans to send combat units to Afghanistan, Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko announced after a meeting with his US counterpart Robert Gates, as part of the preparations for the council of Southeast Europe's Defense Ministers meeting scheduled for today in Kiev, the Ukrainian Minister's press office reported  Monday.

 Hrytsenko reiterated that Ukraine had one medical officer in Afghanistan due to be replaced by two medics, while another military officer was being trained to join the headquarters staff. 

The US and Ukrainian Defense Ministers also discussed cooperation issues for 2008, with the US's technical assistance in building an international center for peacekeeping and security as a top priority for the partnership. 
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## MarkOttawa (23 Oct 2007)

U.S. prods NATO over Afghan security
Secretary Gates this week is expected to press the alliance to supply more trainers for the Afghan police and Army, a key to countering resurgent violence there. 
_CSM_, Oct. 23
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1023/p02s01-usmi.htm



> The Afghan police and Army are in dire need of more training, and when US Defense Secretary Robert Gates attends a summit of NATO defense chiefs starting Wednesday in the Netherlands, he is expected to demand that member countries send additional trainers to a nation considered crucial in the war on terror.
> 
> As violence rises in parts of Afghanistan, the mission to build a strong security force there is flagging in part because NATO members that had pledged support as recently as last year have yet to fulfill all their commitments, US defense officials say.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (24 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 24, 2007*

Another day, another battle in Afghanistan
Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:43pm EDT By Finbarr O'Reilly
Article Link

HOWZ-E-MADAD, Afghanistan, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The explosion of the shell against a mud wall in a field of grapevines sent the Canadian soldier crouched behind it flying backwards.

Blood spilling from his nose and mouth, the stunned man crawled for shelter through swirling smoke and dust as comrades laid down covering fire and moved towards him.

Under fire from Taliban insurgents, Canadian Master Corporal Frank Flibotte and Major Jean-Sebastien Fortin attended to the wounded soldier, helping him to his feet and supporting him as he staggered into an armoured RG-31 vehicle that had raced to the scene.

Canadian forces from the NATO-led coalition and Afghan National Army troops clashed with Taliban insurgents at Howz-e-Madad in the Zhari district of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Tuesday in a battle typical of the conflict gripping the country's southern region bordering Pakistan.

The Canadian soldier, who did not want his name published, was only lightly wounded. An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier was shot in the shoulder during heavy fighting that lasted several hours and was airlifted by helicopter to Kandahar Air Field for emergency treatment.

There was no confirmation of any Taliban killed or wounded, though three suspected fighters were detained for questioning.

The joint operation between ANA and Canadian forces was meant to be a raid on a mud compound near the main highway.

"The Taliban attack from this place every two days or so, hitting civilian trucks and our supply convoys," said Fortin. 

FAILED TRAP

"What we wanted to do was disrupt them by setting a trap, but we were compromised and took heavy fire and had to pull back."

The Canadians called in armoured support from its Quick reaction Force, consisting of more than a dozen armoured vehicles, while U.S. Humvees and U.S. Rangers also provided back-up. Artillery sent in smoke cover and U.S. Apache helicopters clattered overhead.

Fortin estimated there were between 10 to 15 Taliban fighters.

"They used mounted machineguns, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and 82-millimeter recoilless rifles," said Fortin.

It was the twenty-third such "contact" of the past month, he added.

"It's not finished," he said. "I'm just glad our guy was ok." (Finbarr O'Reilly is a Reuters photographer embedded with Canadian troops)
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Free Mail to Deployed Troops Starts FridayOctober 23, 2007
Article Link

Ottawa - As of October 26th, Canada Post will begin providing free delivery of letters and parcels from family and friends to Canadian troops deployed in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas. While the free parcel service will be for the holiday season only (ending January 11th, 2008), letters will continue to be sent postage-free throughout 2008. 
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and Minister responsible for Canada Post, said he hopes the family and friends of Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas take advantage of this special initiative by sending words of encouragement and support. "Canadian men and women serving our country overseas will find joy, love and support in every delivery they receive, while friends and family members will be able to enjoy the benefit of free delivery."

"At Canada Post we want our troops to know how much we appreciate their dedication to our country" said Moya Greene, president and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Post. "Providing free delivery of letters and parcels from their family and friends reinforces our belief in each and every one of those troop members. For family and friends back in Canada, the opportunity to send the many letters and parcels free of charge by Canada Post, is a small blessing when loved ones are so far away from home" she added.
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Outside the wire
Omar El Akkad, October 23, 2007 at 12:47 PM EDT
Article Link

The soldiers looked weary. Their English wasn’t so great, and my French education, having come to a complete halt 12 years ago, consisted of one phrase: “I am thirteen years old.”
“They are asking if you are a lucky journalist,” one of the soldiers translated for me. 
We were about to find out. 
One of the advantages of travelling with a military convoy is that you get to see soldiers being soldiers – a gunner scanning the road for IEDs doesn’t really have time to worry about public relations. The disadvantage is that you’re under the military’s control, and if you get frustrated at any point, you can’t exactly hop out of the armoured vehicle and call a cab.
I was out with the Canadian forces for most of last week, on a three-day trip stalking a group of high-powered generals and other military types from Ottawa who the enlisted soldiers kept referring to as “the VIPs.” The trip began at a dusty parking lot inside the Kandahar air field, where four light-armored vehicles sat waiting. During the downtime between interviews, I tried to get some of the small stuff down in my notebook.
In many ways, being a passenger in a LAV is an act of faith. I don my awkwardly fitting armour vest and sturdy helmet (which induces an odd, bobblehead effect) and get into what is essentially a very secure box. The door closes, and for the duration of the trip, I have absolutely no control over or idea about what we’re doing, as the convoy rumbles through the sketchy roads of God-Knows-Where, Afghanistan.
The VIPs’ first destination is Camp Nathan Smith, near Kandahar city. Like many Canadian bases here, it’s essentially a collection of temporary buildings housing various government and military departments. We arrive at the camp to the roar of rifle fire. There’s no fighting – some of the soldiers are at the firing range, making a nearby sandbank dance.
I got to fire a standard-issue Canadian forces rifle a few years ago, loaded with harmless blanks. Even then, when the soldier flicked the switch to fully automatic, it was difficult not to degenerate into Tony Montana towards the end of Scarface, firing wildly everywhere. Real bullets are a considerable bit louder, and I emerge from the LAV to a sound like firecrackers in a steel drum.
The sounds of war become normal quickly – plane thunder; rifle fire; the engines of terrible vehicles. For some reason, a war zone isn’t a war zone without lots of old, beat-up civilian vehicles everywhere. 
All these noises, I’ve gotten used to. But big guns are a bit different. Every time one of those goes off, it feels like someone’s popped a balloon inside my head.
We spend a little time at Camp Nathan Smith before moving to the forward operating base at Ma’Sum Gahr. The drive is just as claustrophobic, but as we near our destination a faint sweet smell fills the air. We are driving alongside the marijuana fields, 10-foot-tall blocks of dark green.
From the mountainside base at Ma’Sum Gahr, you can the see the colours of Afghanistan’s earth economy. Dark green is marijuana, light green is grapes. A lot of the farmers around this part of eastern Kandahar fled the fighting over the past few years, but the forward operating bases tend to have a halo effect, and there are signs of life in the immediate vicinity, including a nearby playground. Some of the VIPs carry point-and-shoot cameras, and they take pictures of the children playing.
Our first night in Ma’Sum Gahr, I get a taste of what the soldiers here have had to deal with on an almost daily basis. 
It’s about 6 or 7 at night and I’m walking back from dinner with a couple of soldiers. We’re in a clearing midway between the kitchen and the sleeping tents when we hear a whistling in the air. Instinctively, we drop to the ground. For about two seconds, the whistling grows sharper, and then the rocket tears into something, somewhere in the darkness. An alarm siren begins screaming, and I look up from the ground to see bright lines of red in the sky – tracer rounds from machine guns firing back at whoever launched the rocket. The soldiers and I get up and sprint for cover. Shortly afterwards, they fire off a flare, and for a moment there’s a giant campfire into the sky.
The next day I find out the rocket came nowhere near us – the weapon is notoriously unreliable. Still, whoever is firing these things is deeply determined. With more than 30 attacks on the base in the last two months, soldiers here tend to shrug it off now.
The day after the rocket attack, we head from Ma’Sum Gahr to the base at Sperwen Gahr, which resembles a sort of low-end school building. Near the building’s entrance, four French soldiers surround a foosball table, while a U.S. soldier burns up an elliptical trainer nearby.
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Latest happenings in Kabul
 October 24, 2007
Article Link

Canada is paying Afghan police wages in cash, sidestepping the Afghan government it accuses of corruption, to bolster its own troops'safety in the volatile south, a Canadian daily reported Tuesday. (AP, 9 October 2007)

"The German engineer along with four Afghan hostages were freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners," said Mohammad Naeem, governor of Jaghato district in Wardak province. (AFP, 10 October 2007)

Whatever happened to the Afg gov'ts 'no hostage deal' policy? Read the following article about arranged marriages for girls as young as 3 years old. Upsetting...

When asked about her engagement party this summer, little Sunam glanced blankly at her family, then fiddled with her gold-sequined engagement outfit _ a speechless response not out of shyness, but because she does not yet talk much. Sunam is 3.

The toddler was engaged to her 7-year-old cousin Nieem in June, in a match made by their parents.

Despite the efforts of the government and rights groups, the engagement and marriage of children still persists in this country, especially among poor, uneducated families or in the countryside.

About 16 percent of Afghan children are married under the age of 15, according to recent data from UNICEF. And there is evidence that the poverty of recent years is pushing down the marriage age further in some areas.

The practice can force couples into a miserable union and sometimes expose the girl to violence if she resists.

Sunam's father committed her in marriage as a gift to his sister, Fahima, who does not have a daughter and desperately wants one. Marriage between first cousins is common in Afghanistan because families believe it is better to know their in-laws well. The two families live in the same modest housing compound in Kabul.

"It's a very common problem. I know people in my own family who were engaged this way," said Orzala Ashraf, founder of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan. "The engagement happens before birth in some cases."

In an unhappy forced marriage, the man can take a woman he loves as a second wife in Islamic and Afghan culture. But the girls are trapped.
Some commit suicide _ in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, an 18-year-old girl shot and killed herself because her family would not break off her three-year engagement to a drug addict, Afghanistan's Pajhwok News Agency reported in August.

Others run away, sometimes falling into drugs or prostitution.

"Many girls who want to marry as they wish run away as a threat tactic to their family," Ashraf said. "There is no law that forbids running away, but it is a matter of honor."

The tactic sometimes works. Ashraf helped shelter one 17-year-old girl who ran away from home for a few days, humiliating her parents into letting her marry the man she loved.

The minimum legal age of marriage in Afghanistan is 16 for girls and 18 for boys. Yet child marriages account for 43 percent of all marriages, according to the United Nations. The reasons are often economic: The girl's family gets a "bride price" of double the per capita income for a year or more, according to the World Bank.

In March, the women's ministry and rights group Medica Mondiale started a campaign to encourage marriage registration before a judge, which they hope will cut down on forced and child marriages. Marriage registration is already mandated but rarely practiced.
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## GAP (24 Oct 2007)

Farah Provincial Reconstruction Team Funds $1.7 Million Bridge
American Forces Press Service
Article Link

TOJG VILLAGE, Afghanistan, Oct. 24, 2007 – Construction is under way for a $1.7 million bridge across the Farah Rud River here. The project, funded by the Farah Provisional Reconstruction Team, will employ several hundred Afghans for two years. 
Each year, the Farah Rud River rises about six feet, cutting the people in Tojg off from the main road and their farmlands. The nearest crossing is several hours away, in Farah City. Eight to 10 people drown annually attempting to cross the river. 

The massive masonry and reinforced concrete bridge will span 300 meters and rise 12 meters over the center span. 

The bridge will benefit not only the 10,000 residents of Tojg, but also people from the districts of Shib Koh, Qalay Ka, Lashe Juwain and Farah City. 

Due to the size and duration of the project, several local contractors joined forces to create a joint venture company, pooling resources, equipment and manpower for the bridge construction. These companies include Shir Pir Construction Co., Bradaran Noori, Kheyaban Construction Co., and Meihan Parwar. 

By reducing travel time to the city center, this link will enhance economic activity, improve response times for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, and improve access to social services. The link also will extend the reach of the central government, allowing officials to conduct more frequent assessments of the outer districts. 

“This project is right up there with some of the major projects we have done in Afghanistan. It’s part of the foundation infrastructure, roads and bridges and dams, heavy infrastructure that allows transportation and goods and services to flow. Projects like this are critical for the functioning of the economy,” said Navy Lt. j.g. Stephen Ramsey, an engineer at Farah PRT. 
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## GAP (25 Oct 2007)

Afghan army could need 10 years to rebuild: Hillier
Updated Thu. Oct. 25 2007 7:43 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Afghanistan's army could need 10 years before it's in a position to fend for itself, Canada's top military commander said Thursday. 

Gen. Rick Hillier told reporters that Afghanistan is only about halfway to the 70,000 soldiers it needs to maintain peace in the country. 

He said it could take a decade because of the toll that "25 years of destruction" has taken on Afghanistan. 

"He wasn't necessarily promoting the idea of Canada being in Afghanistan for another decade but he was saying that's quite a possibility, perhaps even more than a decade," CTV's Paul Workman reported from Kandahar. 

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Peter MacKay, met with his NATO counterparts in a town near Amsterdam on Wednesday to push allies for more support in southern Afghanistan. 

In opening Wednesday's meeting, Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop told ministers from 26 member countries that it was necessary to share the combat burden. 

Pressure on Germany and France appeared to bear fruit Wednesday as alliance members made an overall commitment to increase troop strength. 

"I think he (Hillier) saw some positive aspects in the fact that more countries are willing to send more troops into Afghanistan," said Workman. 
More on link


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## GAP (26 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 26, 2007*

Canadian troops get a token from home  
North Yorker's Tim Hortons campaign still going strong 
October 25, 2007 05:00 PM  FANNIE SUNSHINE 
Article Link

When Dave Murphy started a summer campaign to send Tim Hortons gift certificates to Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, the North York resident never imagined just how well the gesture would be embraced. 
The campaign was originally intended to run for the month of July, when residents were encouraged to purchase Tim Hortons gift certificates to send to troops in Kandahar, the only Tim Hortons location in Afghanistan. The gift certificates were either sent to or dropped off at the Military Family Resource Centre in the Allen Road and Sheppard Avenue area, and then shipped overseas.

But the campaign was such a hit and donations have not stopped, Murphy said, adding $3,670 worth of gift certificates have been purchased to date. 

"At first I thought we'd get a few hundred dollars," Murphy said. "I didn't expect this."

Murphy also started an online group on the social networking website Facebook called Tim Hortons For Our Troops, which had more than 17,840 members as of Monday.

"Soldiers have written to me and have said it means a lot to them," Murphy said of the campaign. "They think it's pretty honourable. I started a little movement, I know there are similar campaigns in Calgary and Vancouver. It's crazy."

The campaign will continue for as long as people want to donate, Murphy said, noting the Military Family Resource Centre is no longer sending out the gift certificates and they will have to be mailed to Belleville for shipment and addressed to a specific soldier.

"I thought sending Tim Hortons certificates was an absolutely wonderful idea and knew the troops would be very pleased with them," said Sheila Meadows, who dropped off gift certificates at the Military Family Resource Centre in the summer. "A touch of home seems to be a Tim Hortons coffee."

Meadows said she donated to the campaign to thank the troops for their efforts and to help ease the pain of missing home. 

"Having had many family members involved in the military in many areas of the world, we know that a thought from home goes a long way," she said.
More on link

Dr Who And The War On Terror
 October 25, 2007
Article Link

Remember the predictions of flying cars that we were all supposed to be using at the start of this century? Meal in a pill? How about personal robotic maids that every family would have? Sure, these are all things that may someday come to pass. To date, the predictions made in such eminent magazines and newspapers such as Popular Science and The New York Times haven't been very accurate. Sure, maybe there has been a flourishing civilization on the Moon since 1990, but neither you or I have been shown any such evidence of it.

So what's the point of this particular blog entry?

From a link in National Newswatch: Tories accused of lying about time needed to stabilize Afghanistan

OTTAWA - The Conservative government was accused Thursday of painting a misleadingly rosy portrait of the situation in Afghanistan that contradicts the view of its own military experts.

The Tories say Afghanistan should be stable enough to handle its own security by 2011 - a view reiterated late Thursday by a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

But opposition parties pounced on far less cheerful assessments of the situation from two leading authorities: Canada's top soldier and the head of NATO. 

Gen. Rick Hillier declared it will probably take "10 years or so" for the Afghan army to meet its security demands - and NATO's secretary-general suggested it could take far longer than that.

The opposition accused Harper of ignoring his own military experts and allies because the truth makes him politically uncomfortable. 

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said: "Mr. Hillier is the expert and he knows better. Someone lied there." 

On Afghanistan, the throne speech said Canadian troops should remain deployed for four more years - and then, by 2011, Afghan forces should be able to defend their own sovereignty.

But the NDP wanted to know whether Hillier or Harper was telling the truth.
"This is a very serious matter and I think the Prime Minister needs to respond," NDP Leader Jack Layton said afterwards.

"We got glib responses . . . This is an enormous discrepancy and it does come down to who's telling the truth about this war." 

Now for my point. For years we have been treated to various experts, psychics and seers telling us the future. We don't need politicians doing it. If politicians could successfully see the future results of war then Adolph Hitler probably wouldn't have invaded Poland. Saddam Hussein probably wouldn't have violated 17 U.N. Resolutions. To hear Jack Layton paint a point of view or an opinion on something that may or may not happen as a lie is ludicrous. To take him seriously is even moreso.

It was Winston Churchill who once said "We will never surrender".

I don't recall him ever saying in 1941 that "We'll win by May 8th of 1945; news at 11."
More on link

Opposition blasts Harper over Afghan timeline
Updated Thu. Oct. 25 2007 10:25 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

A significant public policy dispute erupted after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gen. Rick Hillier painted different pictures on the timeline surrounding the training of the Afghan army. 

Hillier, Canada's top military commander, told reporters at the Kandahar airfield on Thursday that Afghanistan's army could need 10 years before it's in a position to fend for itself. 

It was a far different message than Harper's recent throne speech, which said it could be done by 2011. 

"I think most Canadians, living in the incredible country that we have, don't always see all the complexities of trying to rebuild a country and, in some cases, build a country from the 25 years of destruction that took place in Afghanistan," the chief of defence staff said at the end of a three-day visit. 

He said Afghanistan is only about halfway to the 70,000 soldiers it needs to maintain peace in the country. 
More on link

NATO nine offer to boost troops
By MURRAY BREWSTER, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands -- As many as nine countries have offered to increase their troop strength in Afghanistan, NATO officials said yesterday. 

The promise to do more to help defeat the Taliban insurgency includes four countries that have volunteered to send military mentors to help train the fledgling Afghan National Army, said a senior alliance official. 

"All the talk around the table was about increasing the commitment," said the official following the first day of an informal meeting of NATO defence ministers in this seaside community near Amsterdam. 

NO TALK 'ABOUT DECREASING' 

"Nobody was talking about decreasing." 

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wouldn't identify the countries, saying it will be up to individual governments to say what they are prepared to contribute. 

"I've noticed offers from nations, including for the southern part of Afghanistan," he told a news conference. 

The NATO official said four of the nine countries have said their military personnel will go to the unstable south. 

Details will be hammered out at what's called a force-generation conference, where NATO officials will be expecting to see those commitments in writing. 

The conference is expected to take place next month in Belgium
More on link

Troubled police forces now face infiltration by insurgents
OMAR EL AKKAD  October 26, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Afghan insurgents have come up with a simple and effective way to gather information about their Afghan and NATO enemies, according to Canadian soldiers: Pretend to be Afghan police officers, spend some time with the real officers gathering intelligence, and then leave.

The new strategy speaks to the serious and troubling security issues within the Afghan National Police, an organization already rife with corruption, lacking basic equipment and prone to desertion.

None of this would come as a surprise to Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier, who at the tail end of a three-day whirlwind tour of Kandahar province, conceded that the Afghan police force is a long way from legitimacy.

"Yes there are many challenges with the police and there's corruption and there's lack of pay and lack of equipment and lack of clothing and all those things," Gen. Hillier said. "But the fact that we've got to help them address those issues is indicative of progress because if [the police] weren't there, we wouldn't have any of those challenges to have to help them meet."
More on link

Baby steps for NATO on Afstan  
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Article Link

This week's meeting of Defence Ministers has produced indications of small, additional troop commitments to help the Dutch in Uruzgan:

NATO allies rallied yesterday with pledges to assist Dutch troops in war-torn southern Afghanistan in a move widely interpreted as a dose of political courage as the Netherlands approaches a crucial parliamentary debate on its role in the international mission.

Dutch media reports last night named France, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Czech republic as either confirmed, or in the process of confirming modest military deployments to Uruzgan, where 1,700 Dutch soldiers are locked in the thick of fighting one province away from the Canadians in Kandahar.

De Volkskrant newspaper said the French commitment, though initially not expected to exceed more than a few dozen military trainers, was especially important for the Netherlands as public pressure mounts for a withdrawal of troops.

The promises, discussed during a closed-door meeting of NATO defence ministers at the Dutch seaside resort of Noordvijk, included pledges from five other nations to send more military personnel to Afghanistan. But the cumulative numbers are expected to fall far short of the battalion-sized increases sought by U.S. officials...

Dutch military analysts told the Toronto Star that beneath the façade of high tension, the Netherlands is quietly cobbling a pragmatic solution, including symbolic support from other allies, which will enable a one-year extension of the Dutch mandate in Uruzgan...
More on link

Top court to rule on Khadr's right to federal evidence against him
Richard Foot , CanWest News Service Published: Thursday, October 25, 2007
Article Link

The Supreme Court of Canada says it will decide whether lawyers for Omar Khadr, the accused Canadian terrorist imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can have access to the secret files that federal authorities have on him.

Khadr's legal team has been fighting in the Canadian courts for access to a mountain of information about Khadr and his alleged crimes, held by the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

In 2002, at age 15, Khadr was picked up by the United States army in Afghanistan during a shootout with U.S. forces. The only Canadian detained at the U.S. naval station in Guantanamo Bay, Khadr is accused of killing an American soldier and faces special military charges that include murder, spying and support for terrorism. He faces life imprisonment if found guilty by a U.S. military commission.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (27 Oct 2007)

Canadian troops on cutting edge with 'Starship Enterprise' system
Web cameras display battles, troop positions
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service, Oct. 27
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=a97af759-7410-40fa-ad7e-354c53a4dab4&p=1



> Canada's military has leaped into the 21st century, trading radios and maps dotted with pins for ultra-high-tech war rooms where commanders have access to constant data streams, real-time digitized maps, and live video feeds from drones, satellites and web cameras that travel with combat vehicles hunting the Taliban.
> 
> "We may still be in the mud, and the buildings we use may be made of plywood, but what we have now is comparable to a combat battle centre on a frigate -- or the bridge of the Starship Enterprise," said Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie. "This is a huge step forward. In distance, it is light years. In time, we have moved decades with one step. In terms of information, we are right up there with the Americans and British."
> 
> ...



Let’s admit it. As a country we’re impotent
In a range of big foreign policy questions it is time we British embraced the politics of impotence
Matthew Parris, _The Times_, Oct. 27
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article2749023.ece



> ...We should *save our enthusiasms, our money, our international friendships and our soldiers’ lives, for what is doable.
> 
> Afghanistan is not* [emphasis added]. On Monday, November 5, Panorama on BBC One will show Taking on the Taleban: The Soldiers’ Story: not a crusade for or against Britain’s efforts, but a first-hand account of what we’re up against. Watch it and make up your own mind.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (28 Oct 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 28

Attacks turning Afghans against Taliban forces
_Calgary Herald_, Oct. 28
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=714e838f-c894-4dff-9364-a6e026b2eeaa



> SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Capt. Philippe Sauve points to the rocky patch of ground that was covered with wounded Afghans -- sitting up on chairs, lying in stretchers and bleeding with bomb-blast injuries both serious and superficial.
> 
> Two weeks ago, a suicide bomber set off a massive explosion at a market in the border town of Spin Boldak, killing 11 and injuring 36 -- a significant casualty number for a single blast. A fleet of pickup trucks transferred the wounded to Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak for first aid before sending them to Kandahar Airfield or a local hospital.
> 
> ...



Afghan Ex-Militia Leaders Hoard Arms
_NY Times_, Oct. 27
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/world/asia/28weapons.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin



> Many former militia commanders and residents in northern Afghanistan have been hoarding illegal weapons in violation of the country’s disarmament laws, giving the excuse that they face a spreading Taliban insurgency from the south that government forces alone are too frail to stop, Afghan and Western officials say.
> 
> After years of moderate success for government disarmament programs, rumors of widespread defiance in the north have arisen recently among government officials and intelligence agencies in Kabul and elsewhere. Although there is little hard evidence that commanders are greatly enlarging their arsenals, officials say, some have been thwarting government programs, refusing to disarm and possibly even remobilizing militias.
> 
> ...



Cost of Afghan war a "biggie" for Dutch; not so much in Canada: analyst
CP, Oct. 28
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/10/28/pf-4611742.html



> AMSTERDAM - The public debate in both Canada and the Netherlands whether to stay or leave Afghanistan has been weighed in the cost of both lives and treasure.
> 
> But for the Dutch there has been a lot of emphasis on treasure.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (29 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 29, 2007*

Canada: Big military spender
 TheStar.com - October 29, 2007 Carol Goar
Article Link

Compared to the human toll, the financial cost of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan is secondary.

But the money does matter. The way a nation uses its resources is a reflection of its values and priorities.

Canada has spent $7.2 billion in Afghanistan in the past six years. Since the mission began, national military spending has increased by 27 per cent and now stands at its highest level in 55 years.

Steven Staples, director of the Rideau Institute, an Ottawa think-tank that keeps a wary eye on military expenditures, does not think this reflects Canadians' values and priorities. In fact, he doubts the public even knows how much the defence budget has ballooned.

"Canada is the 13th highest military spender in the world," he says. "Yet the popular perception persists that Canada is a low military spender."

To set the record straight, he has written a study for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives entitled More Than The Cold War: Canada's Military Spending 2007-2008. 

Here are its major findings:

This year, Canada's military spending will reach $18.2 billion, an increase of 9 per cent over last year. It is slated to climb by a further $1.2 billion by 2010. 

Military spending (in constant dollars) has now surpassed its 1952 peak, when Canada was at war in Korea and the nuclear arms race was at its height.

Canada ranks 6th in defence expenditures among the 26 members of the NATO alliance. (Staples acknowledges that its ranking drops to 20th if military outlays are calculated as a percentage of the country's gross domestic product.)

Over the course of this decade, military spending will have risen by 37 per cent if Prime Minister Stephen Harper follows through on the commitments in last spring's federal budget.

Defence is receiving unprecedented attention in Parliament and the media, Staples says. "Yet despite this, Canadians probably understand less about what is actually happening within the Canadian Forces than ever before."

The problem is not that Harper is being secretive. The Prime Minister is open about his desire to build a robust, combat-ready military. He is proud of the way his party has boosted defence spending.

What has skewed public perceptions, Staples says, is the rising influence of the pro-defence lobby – right-wing think-tanks, military contractors, hawkish academics and business groups seeking closer ties to the White House – coupled with the sense of vulnerability that has prevailed since the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Canadians have been told repeatedly that their defence spending is shamefully low, that their armed forces are ill-equipped and that Canada is neither pulling its weight in the world nor doing its share to protect North America.

Almost no one, Staples says, has challenged these propositions.

There certainly has been very little debate about the escalation of military spending in Parliament. The Liberals, who began the buildup in 1998-99, aren't offering any resistance and the New Democrats are focusing most of their energy on getting Canadian troops out of Afghanistan.
More on link

Officials: US-led battle kills 80 Taliban in Afghanistan  
Saturday, October 27th 2007, 9:27 PM 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A battle outside a town in southern Afghanistan has left 80 Taliban dead, U.S. military officials said.

The battle near the Taliban-controlled Musa Qala in Helmand — the world's largest poppy growing region — lastted six hours. It began when Taliban fighters attacked a United States and Afghan patrol with rockets and gunfire. An airstrike was called in, which resulted in "almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed," the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.

Several battles have occurred in this region between Taliban forces and U.S. and British forces.
More on link

Two NZ soldiers wounded in AfghanistanMonday, 29 October 2007  
Article Link

Two Kiwi soldiers wounded in Afghanistan when a rifle accidentally fired will be treated at a German military hospital. 
Audio: military press conference 

The accident happened during a routine patrol between Bagram Air Force Base and Kabul. 

The pair was in a group of four servicemen returning from escorting a contingent of foreign nationals. 

New Zealand joint forces commander Major General Rhys Jones said a soldier's Steyr rifle accidentally discharged, injuring his leg and another serviceman's arm 

They were taken to Bagram Air Force Base Medical Centre where they will be assessed and treated before being transferred to Germany. 

Both men have had surgery but none of the injuries are considered life threatening. 

"It is not embarrassing, it is unavoidable in the military," Maj Jones said. "Hostile action only accounts for a small proportion of injuries. There is always the possibility that these accidents happen." 

The two soldiers had been in a Humvee vehicle, returning from Kabul to their base in Bamyan. 
More on link

Special Report: No east or west on Kandahar wards
Even suspected Taliban soldiers get Canadian care 
Sun Oct 28 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR -- After a few nerve-wracking nights of rocket attacks, the sky is mercifully dark above the Kandahar Airfield hospital, but the deep drone of a helicopter signals that new patients are on the way. 
A cluster of Canadian medics waits at the hospital entrance, chatting casually at first, but quieting as an ambulance pulls up. 

Then the group moves into action, quickly unloading a motionless man with a bruised, bloodied face, then an unconscious 12-year-old boy, who lies shirtless on a stretcher, looking thin and fragile. 

The victims, both Afghans, are rushed off to a trauma bay. They were hurt in a motorcycle accident. Maybe it was a run-of-the-mill traffic collision, or perhaps the result of a roadside bomb, a common occurrence in Kandahar province. 

Treating locals is a daily occurrence at the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit, where 85 per cent of patients are not Canadian or even international soldiers, but Afghans. 

"Canadian casualties don't add much to our workload," said Maj. Sandra West, an Ottawa physician working at the hospital. 
More on link

NGOs meet with John Manley panel on Afghanistan
Updated Sat. Oct. 27 2007 10:11 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff 
Article Link

There should be a clear separation in Afghanistan between development work and the military, according to the head of an aid group who met with a government-appointed panel on Canada's mission in the country. 

The panel is headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley and is examining Canada's commitment to Afghanistan. 

Specifically, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has asked the group to look at four options for the mission's future: 

Continue training Afghan troops and police, so they can continue to stabilize the country after Canadian soldiers leave; 
Shift Canada's focus on reconstruction efforts in Kandahar, while another NATO country take over combat duties; 
Leave Kandahar and focus on a different region of Afghanistan; and, 
Withdraw troops by February 2009. 
Gerry Barr, president of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, said there are two additional options the panel needs to consider: ensuring a division between the military and aid groups, and building consensus among Afghanistan's political entities. 

"One of the things going on in Afghanistan that's very troubling to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) is the confusion between the military role and the role of humanitarian actors and aid workers," he told CTV Newsnet. 
More on link

Full text of The Globe and Mail's interview NATO with Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
Globe and Mail Update October 25, 2007 at 4:05 AM EDT
Article Link

Globe and Mail correspondent Alan Freeman: For several months now, you have been pleading for additional troops, equipment and commitments and I think it's fair to say that with some small exceptions — the French sending planes from Dushanbe down to Kandahar or the Slovaks adding some troops — your requests have been largely unsuccessful. Are you losing hope on this score?

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer: It's not correct to say that these requests have not been successful. If you compare the number of troops we have now, 40,000, and the number we had half a year ago, we have seen an important increase in the forces. I think you'll want to hear it in percentage terms. We have filled about 90 per cent of what we need. Nevertheless, that's 90 per cent and we need 100. There I can follow your question. I will continue with my pleas and my calls to fill everything we need. The military at a certain stage advise us that we need so and so many forces, that we need so and so many enablers, as we call helicopters, fixed wing aircraft. I will not be satisfied as secretary-general when the allies will not fill what is required, which is 100 per cent. But 90 per cent is not an alliance in crisis as I have heard in the preparations for this meeting. Of course, it is rather absurd to say that. We need to do more. That is correct.

Mr. Freeman: In terms of numbers of troops, you're close to your target? You have a fixed number?

Mr. de Hoop Scheffer: About 90 per cent. The total force is now at around 40,000, excluding of course the Americans ... . The problems we are faced with, and they are not new, it is in the enabling sphere, helicopters, transport aircraft. And here again, it's one of my ambitions, not only for the informal meeting but for the immediate future. We are running behind schedule as far as the number of training teams. We need more OMLETS (Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams). We call them that in our jargon. There we can and should do much better. Because training the Afghan National Army is absolutely essential to be able to transfer more and more responsibility to the ANA. Do not forget. I think we are now in the most difficult phase in Afghanistan. We came in after the Taliban had been chased out of the nation for which every Afghan will be grateful still. A brutal regime. Human rights violators that the world had seldom seen before. That was the first phase. Now we are in the phase where we have to do two things: reconstruction and development. Also fighting, also combat, particularly in the south. That should develop into what I call a third phase. That why I make such an important point of training. Training, training, training. Training with a capital T. Because the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police — although the police is not the prime NATO responsibility —should be able to take over the responsibility for their own nation at a certain stage.
More on link

How our troops were sent to war
LEVON SEVUNTS, Freelance Published: Saturday, October 27
Article Link

The authors write that the successive, incremental decisions that drew Canada deeper into combat in afghanistan owed more to concerns about Canada-U.S. relations than to any comprehensive analysis of the situation on the ground

In June 2005, after a dizzying flight on a U.S. military transport plane from southeastern Afghanistan and a terrifying taxi ride through

Kabul's chaotic traffic, I arrived at Camp Julien, the Canadian base in the southern part of the city.

It seemed like an oasis of calm.
More on link

Harper makes first trip to CFB Valcartier
  Marianne White CanWest News Service Saturday, October 27, 2007
Article Link

VALCARTIER, Que. - For the first time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Saturday visited Canadian Forces Base Valcartier, home to the Royal 22nd regiment, leading the Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

The famed Quebec regiment, often referred to as the Van Doos, has about 2,300 troops serving in the province of Kandahar for a six-month tour.

Harper paid tribute to the families of the soldiers who he said are doing "a difficult job" in Afghanistan. 

"We are here for you tonight," he told the crowd of 600 that included mostly businessmen, but few families of soldiers. "We don't say it often enough, but the families of the soldiers are heroes as much as the soldiers themselves." 

Harper was speaking at a fundraiser for the Valcartier family centre, which offers help and counselling to the families of soldiers before, during and after their mission.

"Our troops get the strength they need for the hard, dangerous work we ask them to do from the support they get back home. So my job, and our government's job, is to support the families just as much as we support the troops," Harper said in his brief remarks.  

The Prime Minister also hailed the work of
More on link


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## GAP (29 Oct 2007)

*More Articles found October 29, 2007*

Winning The (PR) War In Afghanistan  
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Article Link

I've been writing about this topic a lot lately, but it's because the more I learn about the war we're fighting in Afghanistan, the more convinced I am that any resolve lacking in the public is based on misinformation rather than facts. This seems confirmed by the fact that the media is quick to announce anti-war rallies across Canada, but less forthcoming in news which shows gains being made by coalition forces. I'm not saying the media has a bias against our victory there, but that if we're to make people understand that it's worth staying, it's worth getting all the facts [incidentally, CTV news has an Afghanistan news section I hadn't noticed before].

What is interesting is that debate on the war in Canada has been largely focused on three issues: casualties, detainee treatments, and whether Kandahar is the best place for Canadian troops. It seems that costs [$6.3 billion] for 2002-2009 hasn't really hit the radar [of course, it's slightly easier when you have a neighbour spending slightly more money to the south].

From what we've learned recently, much of the anti-war sentiment is based on information gaps and disinformation from the enemy. As I reported before, NATO now plans to use YouTube to counter the Taliban who use the free internet service to lie to people about civilian casualties. And now, according to the story of two arrested jihadists from Pakistan, they believed NATO was an occupation force in charge of the country.
More on link

What if they gave a protest,...  
Monday, October 29, 2007
Article Link

...and nobody came? I spent this past weekend scouring news sites for reports on advertised cross-Canada anti war protests. I heard on CBC radio Saturday evening a brief clip where they said - in part:

...'demonstrators rallied outside the US Embassy to protest the Canadian troops in Afghanistan."...

Truly, that IS what I heard - my emphasis! Huh? Hello???????????? I missed the rest of whatever they said, but tuned in the next morning for any 'breaking news/updates' on what was supposed to be the BIG story of the day. Nada. Zip. Zilch, and I have been digging for "news" on the huge numbers that turned out. Not even on my local news stations was there a mention. I checked the sites for CBC radio, CBC tv and Global..Not even 'the weather meant fewer numbers than anticipated'. Nope - it was an atypical fall day here. The sun was shining. Perfect day for an anti war protest. I don't know who all showed up, but I only found two sources for any mention of protests in Canada:
More on link

Irregular warfare : After smart weapons, smart soldiers  
October 27, 2007 From The Economist 
Article Link

Irregular warfare may keep Western armies busy for decades. They will have to adapt if they are to overcome the odds that history suggests they are up against

REBELLION is as old as authority itself, and so therefore is the business of putting it down. Nearly 2,000 years ago Jewish militants—known as Zealots, hence the English word—took up arms against the world's greatest power and terrorised those deemed collaborators. The Romans dealt with the revolt in Palestine in familiar fashion, laying waste any town that resisted, prompting many to commit suicide rather than suffer capture and, in 70AD, destroying the great Temple in Jerusalem and taking its treasures. “While the holy house was on fire,” records Josephus, “everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain...children and old men, and profane persons and priests, were all slain in the same manner.”
More on link

Suspected jihadists believed NATO rules Afghanistan  
Article Link

Three self-confessed, 20-something Pakistani jihadists arrested in Afghanistan have an odd story to tell -- assuming it's true.

"They'd followed the call from a religious leader in Pakistan to come in and wage jihad," CTV's Paul Workman told Newsnet on Saturday from Kandahar.

"They were told that the 'infidels' -- the NATO forces -- were running this country now, and they came in to help drive them out."

After their arrest, "they suddenly realize that Afghanistan is not ruled by infidels, that this very much still a Muslim country, and they were proclaiming their naivete," Workman said.

An Afghan security official told a news conference that three suspected Taliban 'trainers' from Pakistan had been arrested as they travelled to Kandahar province.

Security agents picked up the three men on the highway between Uruzgan province and Kandahar to the south, Abdul Qayoom, of the National Directorate for Security, said Saturday in Kandahar City.

Authorities said they believe the men are trainers for the Taliban, who have been trying to recruit more members to become suicide bombers.

"The intelligence services say they knew they were coming and that they are not just naive foot soldiers, that they very much are involving in training people to make and set roadside bombs," Workman said.

The arrests actually happened a week ago but only made public now. However, the Afghan security forces want to show that they are doing their jobs, he said.
More on link

Dutch Tally Cost of Afghanistan
 Murray Brewster, 'Dutch Tally Cost of Afghanistan', Canadian Press, 28 October 2007
Article Link

"It's estimated the two-year deployment of 1,800 troops, fighter aircraft and helicopters will cost the Netherlands $1.4-billion by August 2008, when the current mandate expires. The government is expected to say next month whether the mission to Uruzgan — north of Kandahar — will be extended.

In contrast, it's estimated Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan from 2002 until the expiry of the current mandate in 2009 will be roughly $6.3-billion. An extra $1.2-billion is being spent by the Canadian International Development Agency on reconstruction. There has been hardly a peep in Canada about cost.

Instead, the debate has been more focused on casualties, detainee treatment and whether the country should have taken on such a dangerous assignment in Kandahar in the first place. [Dick Pels, a political commentator and author from the University of Amsterdam] said every Dutch casualty — 11 in all — has been front page news, but it has been tempered by the acceptance that soldiers are fighting a war."
More on link

Canadian troops honour their 'Papa Bear'
Updated Sat. Oct. 27 2007 12:30 PM ET The Canadian Press
Article Link

There is something completely incongruous about a cute, cuddly children's toy strapped to the front of a vehicle capable of dispensing death.

The Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) is a favourite of the Canadian military and sports both a machine-gun and a 25-mm cannon. The Taliban refer to the cannon as the "magic gun'' because once it hits a target the person disappears.

This Canadian base west of Kandahar is literally awash in ankle deep sand. The terrain is flat with the exception of mountains rising above the ever changing landscape in the distance.

A row of LAV's stand at the ready _ identical in nearly every way _ right down to a teddy bears strapped to the front of each vehicle.

The bears are an ongoing tribute to Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier, 43, of the Royal 22nd Regiment - the sergeant major affectionately known to his charges as "Papa Bear.''

A big, burly bear of a man, Mercier used to refer to his men as his `little bear cubs' and his cubs miss him terribly.
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Canadian Forces wage PR war in remote areas of Afghanistan
Kelly Cryderman , CanWest News Service Published: Sunday, October 28, 2007
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - The one-eyed Afghan man stood firm as a dozen soldiers dismounted from three light armoured vehicles and began walking towards his mud huts. Standing beside him, his young son shifted his calloused bare feet nervously on the rocky ground.

Later the man - whose first name was Gulm - told Warrant Officer Michel Paquet he too had been scared when the heavily armed Canadians troops showed up. Speaking through a translator, he said previous military convoys had bypassed his small compound in favour of a larger village further down the road.

However shortly after meeting Paquet, of a reconnaissance squadron from the armoured regiment based in Valcartier, Que., the fear seemed to ease. Gulm spoke excitedly about his unsafe water and complained that village elders next door were profiting off the water pumps paid for by Western countries.
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## MarkOttawa (29 Oct 2007)

Return to Bamiyan
_NY Times_, by ROGER COHEN, Oct. 29
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29cohen.html



> People still speak of the Buddhas as if they were there. The Buddhas are visited and debated. A “Buddha road” just opened. It boasts the first paved surface in Afghanistan’s majestic central highlands and stretches all of a half-mile.
> 
> But the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan are gone, of course, replaced by two gashes in the reddish-brown cliff. They were destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban in their quest to rid the country of the “gods of the infidels.” The fanatical soldiers of Islam blasted the ancient treasures to fragments...
> 
> ...



Before:
http://www.geocities.com/sidneysee/gallery.htm

Then:
http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/research/bamiyan/buddha/destruction.html

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (30 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 30, 2007*

Canadian big guns find mark meeting military's needs in Afghanistan
Article Link

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WILSON, Afghanistan - The inhospitable terrain in Afghanistan poses many challenges for the Canadian military: sand that gets in the way of movement, walled compounds that give cover to an elusive enemy, and mud huts that absorb the punch of gunfire.

Just moving across southern Afghanistan is no small feat. The sand has a consistency that is very close to talcum powder or perhaps dry cement. Foot soldiers are often ankle-deep in it.

Wind-blown sand hangs in the air and makes it hard to breathe. It also makes a hot and windy day seem even hotter. Military vehicles run into all sorts of problems just getting around.

"I've walked across plenty of sand dunes at home in New Brunswick," said Maj. Warren Smith, battery commander, X Battery - Canadian Battle Group. "It was never anything like this."

Smith made the remark while giving a tour of the gun battery at Forward Operating Base Wilson, west of Kandahar city. For the most part, the guns have been silent recently and the silence is music to Smith's ears. It means there has been limited action against the Taliban.

The countryside is dotted with dozens of mud villages, each potentially a mini-fortress and a ready-made bunker for the Taliban, who still have a strong presence in the region.

The infrequent but heavy rains have left nearly impassable ditches. Many of the roads are bordered with chest-high mud and rock fences along fields of marijuana, opium and grape orchards.

The grape-drying huts are nearly inpenetrable, keeping out the heat in summer, the cold in winter and, in most cases, gun and rocket shells as well. The hardened mud works like kevlar vests - it slows down and stops anything that tries to go through it.

Anything, that is, except tanks and shells fired by the new big guns from Canada.

The most powerful artillery in Afghanistan and the Canadian Forces is the towering 155-millimetre M777 howitzer, nicknamed the "Dragon" by the Taliban.

"We've got six of them in theatre. Each projectile is 98 pounds (44.5 kilograms)," Smith said as he pointed to cases of howitzer shells placed near the guns.

"They'll shoot over 18 kilometres - very accurately. These are brand new kit, an ultra lightweight howitzer."

The military has replaced 26-tonne self-propelled howitzer with the M777, which can be towed by a truck or lifted by a medium-lift helicopter.

"You can put it virtually anywhere," Smith said.

"You can move it right behind the infantry and set up fairly close to the infantry during their advance."
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New detainee abuse alleged
 TheStar.com - October 30, 2007 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
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But Ottawa counters newspaper report, saying agreement on Afghan jails is being implemented

OTTAWA–The government is investigating new allegations that Canadian detainees are being tortured in Afghan jails despite new rules designed to ensure prisoner safety.

The probe comes after a report in Montreal's La Presse yesterday that cited interviews with three unnamed prisoners at a Kandahar jail who claimed that they were hit with bricks, given electric shocks and had their fingernails pulled out during interrogation in recent months by Afghanistan's National Security Directorate. A prison guard confirmed they were "tortured" before being brought to the Sarpoza prison, the newspaper reported.

Neil Hrab, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, said that "when allegations of abuse are made, we always follow up immediately."

But in question period yesterday, the Tories brushed off the torture claims as the "standard operating procedure" of the Taliban and cautioned opposition parties about believing the claims of prisoners.

The Canadian and Afghan governments signed a new agreement in May that included 
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Canada to press NATO to share burden
Defence Minister wants commitments for help in dangerous southern province of Kandahar by April
JANE TABER SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER October 29, 2007
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Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he and Prime Minister Stephen Harper want clear commitments from other NATO countries by April for increased troops and equipment in southern Afghanistan.

Between now and the NATO leaders summit in Romania in April, Mr. MacKay said, he and the Prime Minister will be working the phones lobbying their counterparts for help in the more dangerous southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

"There has to be burden-sharing," Mr. MacKay told CTV's Question Period yesterday. "There has to be a recognition ... that Canada is doing more than its fair share along with a handful of others."

Canadian troops, along with the British, Americans, Australians, Danes and Dutch, are fighting in the south. Canada has lost more than 70 troops since the mission began. But other NATO troops, including the Germans and Italians, are serving in less risky areas of the country and there is pressure for them to step up their commitments in the more difficult regions.
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UN urges Afghanistan's warring parties to allow passage of aid
30 Oct 2007, 
  Article Link

UNITED NATIONS: Accusing insurgents and criminals in Afghanistan of killing or abducting 110 aid workers this year, the UN has urged warring factions to allow safe passage of humanitarian relief before the onset of winter cuts off millions in remote parts of the country. 

Insurgents and criminal gangs have killed or abducted 110 aid workers, and 55 humanitarian convoys have been looted this year, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). 

"Those responsible for these attacks are pushing the most vulnerable people outside of our reach," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs. 

"Such attacks are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and they must stop. We need all parties to recognise that the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people must come first, above fighting and above politics." 

"The next six weeks will be crucial for our humanitarian efforts," he said. 
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Coalition soldier killed in Afghanistan
 October 30, 2007 
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A US-led coalition soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside blast killed a regional intelligence chief and three of his bodyguards in the east.

The coalition soldier was killed while conducting combat operations in Sperwan Ghar, in Kandahar province, a statement from the coalition said.

The clash also left another coalition soldier and an Afghan policeman wounded, the statement said. Both were evacuated to a military medical facility for treatment. The nationalities of the killed and wounded coalition troops were not released.

In the east, a roadside blast targeted the intelligence chief of Qarghayi district in Laghman province as he was travelling in his car, said Nezamuddin, a spokesman for Laghman's governor who goes by only one name. The vehicle was destroyed.
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## MarkOttawa (30 Oct 2007)

Key tribal leader on verge of deserting Taliban
_Daily Telegraph_, Oct. 30
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/30/wtaliban130.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox



> The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Afghan government hopes to seal the deal this week with Mullah Abdul Salaam and his Alizai tribe, which has been fighting alongside the Taliban in Helmand province.
> 
> Diplomats confirmed yesterday that Mullah Salaam was expected to change sides within days. He is a former Taliban corps commander and governor of Herat province under the government that fell in 2001.
> 
> ...



Foreign Fighters of Violent Bent Bolster Taliban
_NY Times_, Oct. 30
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/world/asia/30afghan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin



> GARDEZ, Afghanistan — Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near here noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer.
> 
> When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (30 Oct 2007)

Afghan, Coalition Forces Detain Six, Uncover Weapons Cache
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2007 
Article Link

– Afghan and coalition forces detained six suspected insurgents during an operation in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, early this morning. 
Intelligence reports led the forces to a compound suspected of housing the militants. One of the detainees is suspected of being a Taliban improvised-explosive-device facilitator. Also found in the compound were significant amounts of bomb-making material, weapons and ammunition. 

The suspected insurgents were taken to a military detention facility for processing and subsequently handed over to Afghan authorities. Coalition forces believe this arrest will disrupt the flow of explosive-device materials to other insurgents in Kandahar City. 

“Afghan national security forces continue to get stronger and more proficient as they continue to conduct counterinsurgency operations.” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. 

In other operations, coalition forces killed several militants and detained five Oct. 28 in Kunar province in an effort to disrupt al Qaeda foreign fighters and weapons-facilitation networks in the area. 

Coalition forces conducted a search of a compound in the Asadabad district where intelligence reports indicated al Qaeda facilitators were operating. 

Upon reaching the compound, coalition forces called for the occupants to come out. Several militants fled the compound while an unknown number remained in the buildings, threatening the coalition forces. The coalition forces engaged the militants outside the compound area with small-arms fire and conventional munitions, as well as engaging the hostile militants inside the compound with small arms. Several armed militants were killed during the engagements. 

After hostilities ceased, coalition forces searched the buildings on the compound and detained five suspected militants. Coalition forces also recovered several weapons in the compound where they were destroyed in place to prevent further use by militant forces. 
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## GAP (31 Oct 2007)

*Articles found October 31, 2007*

Rick Hillier is revered by troops in Afghanistan, which predictably -- and unfairly -- makes him the target of a shooting gallery at home  
By PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
Article Link

No question about it: They are out to "get" Rick Hillier, the general who has revived Canada's army as a fighting force. 

Who are "they?" 

Well, some are politicians (not all of them in opposition ranks), some are anti-military peace-at-any-pricers, some (these are among the most dangerous) are insiders at DND, and some are unwitting media types who mindlessly regurgitate what they are told. 

The "why" is more difficult to explain. 

Why would anyone want Hillier removed or replaced as chief of defence staff (CDS) when his leadership has effectively raised morale and made the army more like it was when Canadian troops fought in world wars? 

Our military's role and effectiveness in Afghanistan have boosted Canada's reputation and status in the world. It has done Canada and Canadians proud. 

Credit for this isn't all Hillier's, but irrefutably he's the face of our "new" army and he relishes the spotlight -- which in a way is part of his trouble. 
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Soldiers to receive image of home  
By CP
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FREDERICTON -- Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan will soon have a picturesque image of home delivered to their doorstep. 

Soldiers will receive 2008 calendars featuring scenes from Oromocto, N.B., and its surrounding areas. 

The calendars are the result of the efforts of an Oromocto woman, the services of a local photographer, and the generosity of area businesses. 

The calendar is set to come off the press by Remembrance Day and will be delivered to Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick shortly thereafter. 

A large number of the 6,000 bilingual calendars will make their way to Canadian troops in Afghanistan. 

The remainder will be made available to soldiers at home. 

Organizer Kim Gill said local and area businesses have helped make the calendar a reality by purchasing advertising space. 

"It was a gift, but it was a gift for everybody," Gill said. 

"Troops get a gift and the sponsors get their gift seen by 6,000 soldiers. It's all a gift; there's nothing being sold." 
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'Taliban surrounded' outside Kandahar
NOOR KHAN Associated Press October 31, 2007 at 6:48 AM EDT
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ARGHANDAB, AFGHANISTAN — Canadian, Afghan and U.S. troops have surrounded a pocket of some 250 Taliban fighters who have commandeered people's homes in villages just outside Afghanistan's major southern city, officials said Wednesday.

Hundreds of Afghans — their cars and tractors piled high with personal possessions — were fleeing the battleground about 25 kilometres north of Kandahar city.

The provincial police chief said the combined forces have killed some 50 Taliban in three days of fighting. Three police and one Afghan soldier also have died, said Sayed Agha Saqib.
End

Manley Afghanistan panel and liberal stupidity
posted by Cao on Oct 30
Article Link

« “our fear is stronger than our will to be free”hezbollah hamas and the nazis; my personal stalker Shahid »This is devastatingly stupid…

OTTAWA - John Manley’s Afghanistan panel is setting up a website to take written submissions from the public, the head of a Canadian development group said Saturday.

The panel has said it had no plans for public hearings, but Gerry Barr, president of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, said the website will allow for public input.

Barr and representatives of about a dozen other Canadian aid groups met Manley and his panel on Saturday. They were told an Internet site will be running soon and will accept comments and recommendations.

“Plainly, if they put their address on the website and ask for submissions, they’re going to get them from the general public,” Barr said.

Barr said the aid groups had a lively two hours behind closed doors with Manley and his four fellow committee members.

Well isn’t that nice? The NGOs of Canada that are in Afghanistan are meeting to decide the demise of a military presence in Afghanistan…BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

Manley, a former Liberal cabinet minister and one-time leadership contender, was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this month to look at the future of Canada’s commitment in Afghanistan.

Okay now you know some insanity is coming…

At the time, Harper said he wanted the panel to consider four options:

-Keep training Afghan troops and police to be self-sustaining when Canadian troops withdraw.

-Focus on reconstruction in Kandahar with another NATO country taking over security.

-Shift Canadian security and reconstruction to another region of Afghanistan.

-Withdraw the main body of Canada’s troops in February 2009.

Hmmm. Help Afghanistan to take over its own security operations. Shift security and reconstruction to another region, and withdraw Canada’s troops. huh.

Barr said he urged Manley and the panel to look beyond those choices.

“The options . . . that were given to them at the front end all had to do with . . . the Canadian military in Afghanistan,” Barr said. “We were there to say to them that you need to put in your option category actively the search for a political consensus in Afghanistan, a national peace process and how Canada could support that kind of process.”

Watch what happens when you separate the military from reconstruction efforts…if the Afghans see these two things separately; which they don’t now, disaster will surely strike.

Barr also said it’s important to break perceived linkages between the military and development, which can become intertwined in people’s minds.

And why shouldn’t it? Only in the mind of a liberal should you take the sheepdogs away from the flock and expect no wolves to take advantage of the situation.

“If there is a sort of military signature on aid . . . then the projects themselves can become targets in an insurgency war. As projects become targets, citizens and civilians are targeted themselves . . . and we do the opposite of what we intend with aid.

That evil military. We must do away with it in order to advance our ‘peaceful efforts’.

“We have to stop any confusion between the aid and the military effort.”

It seems clear at least to me that one is protecting the other, and in the terrorist environment, I think it’s smart that they’re thought of as synonymous.

He agreed, though, that security can’t be ignored:

“Plainly, security and development do relate to one another. It’s important to have security in order to have development, but that does not mean they are Siamese twins.”

Riiiight.

Aid workers killed in Afghanistan shooting

UN: 34 Aid Workers Killed in Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN: Seven aid workers killed

German Aid Worker Killed in Afghanistan Ambush

When the answer why they’re siamese twins is sitting in front of your nose in the form of headlines, you don’t have to wonder why a policy like this, determined by NGOs raking in the cash for their ‘reconstruction efforts’ will definitely suffer if the military withdrawal takes place.

Plus, as it was said by a commenter, if the two are divided from one another, that makes the military nothing more than oppressors.
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Foreign Affairs confirms reports of abuse
DANIEL LEBLANC From Tuesday's Globe and Mail October 30, 2007 at 4:55 AM EDT
Article Link

OTTAWA — Canadian inspectors heard reports of abuse from Afghan detainees captured by Canadian troops during 11 unscheduled visits conducted after they gained access to the country's jails last spring, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department said yesterday.

However, the government said yesterday that reports those detainees were still being tortured was Taliban propaganda.

"We do expect these kind of allegations from the Taliban," House Leader Peter Van Loan said during Question Period. "I would caution the honourable member against taking them as the word of the truth instantly without penetrating beyond them. As he well knows, we now have in place mechanisms to monitor and follow up Canadian-transferred Taliban prisoners."

The government initially offered the same reaction when The Globe and Mail published a number of stories on the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan this year. However, it was later forced to acknowledge that the Red Cross was not reporting back to Canada as former defence minister Gordon O'Connor had repeatedly claimed. Ottawa then signed a beefed-up agreement in May that gave Canadian officials the right to visit Afghan jails without notice.
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A different view of Afghanistan  
October 31, 2007
Article Link

Richard Johnson's "Postings from Afghanistan".

Complete slide show of the pencil sketches completed by Richard Johnson. Beautiful work.

About this blog and artist: The tradition of war art dates back to before the First World War. Recently Richard Johnson continued that tradition when he spent two months in Kandahar living with Canadian troops and documenting what he saw in words and sketches.

Richard's biggest influences are combat artist Howard Brodie and foreign correspondent Joseph Galloway.

"Brodie was doing it for the humanity of all, and Galloway was doing it so that no one forgot the sacrifices that were being made by young men and women far from home."
End

Perogy Cat deploys to Afghanistan
by Sgt Dennis PowerDownload article (PDF)
Article Link

VICTORIA, British Columbia - Across Canada, supporters of the mission in Afghanistan are becoming more vocal and a growing number are finding unique ways to demonstrate their support.

Gareth Gaudin, a cartoonist and shop owner in Victoria, recently sent 2 000 comic books to the troops in Afghanistan for a little comic relief. The Perogy Cat – For the Troops is a 52-page collection of what he considers to be his best work. It was a special project for soldiers serving in Afghanistan and includes a few strips that are a little too risqué for general circulation.

“The project originally started as a collection of my favourite strips to go into a comic book to sell here at the store,” stated Mr. Gaudin. “As I started pulling my favourites, I realized I can’t give some of them to kids, there’s an adult sense of humour to some of them. So my wife said, ‘Send them to the troops’.”

The special edition is packed with a variety of strips, but features the title’s namesake, the Perogy Cat. The Perogy Cat was created a number of years ago while Mr. Gaudin was attending university and trying to attract the attention of a girl he liked. Since she was a cat owner, his tactic was to create a cartoon character that would warm her heart. The rest is history; he got his girl, they are now happily married, and The Perogy Cat has helped to launch a successful career.

“As a cartoonist, I don’t really have a role in society,” admitted Mr. Gaudin. “I’m not in the Army, I’m not doing any protecting or defending, but my little bit may help entertain the troops who are out there putting their lives on the line, make them a little happier.”

Mr. Gaudin sells his homegrown comics and thousands of other titles at Legends Comics and Books, his shop in downtown Victoria. It’s a large place in a city renowned for its bookstores. Entering his shop is an eye-catching experience, every available centimetre of space from floor to ceiling, front to back, has been cleverly incorporated into one giant display of comics and colour.

“I would love to get a response from the troops, there’s an e-mail address in the book,” noted Mr. Gaudin as he flipped a page. “If I hear back from them, and they like the books, I’d be happy to send more.”
End

Fallen soldier Locke not wearing body armour when attacked
By Nicolas Perpitch October 31, 2007 06:21pm
Article Link

THE body of fallen soldier Matthew Locke was returned to home soil today as it was revealed he was not wearing body armour when fatally shot by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A sombre ceremony honoured the Special Air Service Regiment sergeant as his flag-draped coffin was carried by fellow soldiers from a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft after it landed in Perth. 

Sgt Locke was wounded in the chest by small arms fire while fighting the Taliban last Thursday in Afghanistan's rugged Oruzgan province. 

The Perth-based father of a young son was given first aid by his comrades and evacuated by helicopter to a medical facility, but was pronounced dead on arrival. 

Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic today revealed Sgt Locke had not been wearing body armour during his patrol's battle with Taliban fighters. 

But whether the ceramic plates contained in body armour would have saved Sgt Locke was pure speculation and something the defence force would not engage in, he said. 

"At the time of his death, Sgt Locke was involved in a task that required a high degree of agility, stealth and physical endurance," Brig Nikolic said. 

"The extra weight of ceramic armour plates would have had a significant detrimental effect on his patrol's ability to achieve its assigned task. 

"While (it) provides excellent protection, it does not and never has provided a 100 per cent safeguard. 

"Our commanders make these calculated decisions every day - that is the nature of military operations."
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Australia to Keep Troops' DNA Records
By ROD McGUIRK – 3 hours ago 
Article Link

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian troops' DNA records will be collected to ensure that blast victims can be identified, defense officials said Wednesday as the body of the latest soldier killed in Afghanistan was brought home.

Australia is following its U.S. and British allies in establishing a DNA repository for its 90,000 regular and reserve troops. Australia has almost 1,000 troops in Afghanistan and about 1,600 in Iraq and surrounding regions.

The decision was made "as a result of recent operational experience and a review of current operating procedures," the Defense Department said in a statement.

Giving blood samples for DNA identification will initially be voluntary until the parliament passes laws to ensure that the records cannot be used for other purposes such as criminal investigations, the statement said.

"A voluntary repository will enable rapid positive identification of deceased remains that cannot be identified by traditional forensic methods" such as using dental or fingerprint evidence, the statement said.

The DNA database comes as the government warns that the danger to coalition troops in Afghanistan is escalating from threats such as improvised explosive devices.
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