# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2011



## The Bread Guy (29 Sep 2011)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2011  *               

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


----------



## GAP (1 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 1, 2011*

Karzai abandons peace talks with the Taliban
Article Link
 30 September 2011 Last updated at 20:12 ET

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said his government will no longer hold peace talks with the Taliban.

He said the killing of Burhanuddin Rabbani had convinced him to focus on dialogue with Pakistan.

Former Afghan President Rabbani was negotiating with the Taliban but was killed by a suicide bomber purporting to be a Taliban peace emissary.

US President Barack Obama has renewed calls for Pakistani action against militants of the Haqqani network.

Mr Karzai, speaking to a group of religious leaders, said there were no partners for dialogue among the Taliban. It was not possible to find the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, he added.
More on link

Afghanistan Haqqani militant Haji Mali Khan captured
Article Link
 1 October 2011 Last updated at 09:19 ET

A senior leader of the militant Haqqani network, Haji Mali Khan, has been captured in Afghanistan, the Nato-led international force Isaf has said.

He was detained during an operation by Afghan and coalition forces in Paktia province on Tuesday, Isaf said.

He was heavily armed but did not resist, it added.

Haji Mali Khan is the senior commander in Afghanistan for the Haqqani network, blamed for some recent Afghan attacks and accused of links to Pakistan.

He is also a revered elder of the clan, the uncle of the network's leader, Siraj Haqqani, and served as an emissary between the Haqqanis and Baitullah Mehsud, the former head of the Pakistani Taliban who was killed in a suspected US missile attack in 2009.

He is accused of setting up bases in Paktia and coordinating the transfer of money for militant operations.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says Afghan officials describe him as the brain of the network.
More on link

Obama: Anwar Al-Awlaki death is major blow for al-Qaeda
Article Link
 30 September 2011 Last updated at 17:10 ET

US President Barack Obama has said the death of senior US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen is a "major blow" to the organisation.

Yemen said Awlaki was killed in Jawf province, along with several of his associates - US officials said US drones had carried out the attack.

Awlaki, who was of Yemeni descent, was a key figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

He is believed to have been behind a number of attempts to attack the US.

Mr Obama said that as a leading AQAP figure, Awlaki had taken the lead in "planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans" and was also "directly responsible for the death of many Yemeni citizens".

He said Awlaki had directed attempts to blow up US planes and had "repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda". 
More on link

 Terry passes Kandahar reins to the 82nd Airborne
By Laura Rauch Stars and Stripes September 30, 2011
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Sitting in his office at the headquarters of Regional Command-South, the commander pondered what was toughest about his year in charge. The answer came neither quickly, nor lightly.

“Taking care of hard challenges, I think, is our business. So it’s not like any one stands out. It’s just what you do,” said Maj. Gen. James Terry, who on Saturday transfers authority of RC-South to Maj. Gen. James Huggins of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Having overseen much of President Obama’s surge strategy in southern Afghanistan, where many of the additional troops and resources have been allocated, Terry has dealt with his share of the hard stuff.

During the last year, coalition forces in the south have taken control of large swaths of land in the Taliban stronghold of the Arghandab River Valley, including Sangsar, hometown of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and considered the birthplace of the movement.

“You now have Afghan National Security Forces, with coalition forces, sitting and holding the terrain,” noting that in previous years, Canadian troops cleared the area but couldn’t hold it, “simply because they didn’t have the density of forces that they needed.

“Even if you go back 30 years, the Russians didn’t kick the mujahedeen out of Zhari and Panjwai,” Terry said.
More on link


----------



## GAP (3 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 3, 2011*

Good reasons for troops to be in Afghanistan 29
Article Link
By Joe Warmington ,Toronto Sun  Sunday, October 02

LASHKAR GAH, AFGHANISTAN - Sneaky and skilled insurgency, drug smuggling, improvised explosive devices, religion, refugees, murder, terror and poverty.

In Afghanistan while you will see all of the above in abundance, there is hope backed up by effort for people building homes, roads, schools, businesses and dreams.

There are no guarantees all the lives lost will be rewarded with the distinction of helping ensure this country moves forward peacefully. The skeptics (and you clearly can see why there are many) feel what is happening here now is nothing more than a propped up state, which upon the end of cash influx from abroad will succumb to organized crime and radical religious fronts, just buying their time until its appropriate to move back in.

The optimists (there are many of those on the ground, too, both in uniform and locals) talk about Rome not being built in a day and point to just how much has been done here in the ten years since NATO intervened.

It’s a robust and constant debate here.
More on link

 Father of slain Canadian soldier to ‘make a difference’ in Afghanistan
  Article Link 
By Matt McClure, Postmedia News October 2, 2011

CALGARY — Tim Goddard says his mission to Afghanistan next month is about completing a job his daughter started and would have wanted him to finish.

Five years after his daughter became the first female soldier from Canada to be killed in action, the education professor is joining an effort to improve teacher training and accreditation in the war-ravaged country.

“I hope I can make a difference in a place where she was trying to make a difference,” Goddard said in an interview.

“Now that Canadian Forces have done what they done and withdrawn from a combat role, I should be able to go and do what I do.”

An artillery captain, Nichola Goddard was fatally wounded in May 2006 when the armoured vehicle she was commanding was hit by rocket-propelled grenades during a battle with Taliban fighters on Kandahar’s outskirts.
More on link

 Pentagon Hails Canada's 'Tremendous' Afghan Work
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 1 Oct 2011
Article Link

WASHINGTON - U.S. defense chief Leon Panetta paid tribute Sept. 30 to Canada's "tremendous work" in Afghanistan, acknowledging the sacrifices made by America's northern neighbor in the 10-year war.

Canada, which once had about 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, officially ended its combat mission there in July, after losing 157 lives and spending more than $11 billion since 2002.

The war also killed one of its diplomats, two aid workers and a journalist.

A separate Canadian training mission involving 950 troops is working in northern Afghanistan to help build the fragile Afghan security forces. Canada will also continue to give aid to Afghanistan, with its overall involvement between now and the end of 2014 expected to cost around $700 million a year.

"In Afghanistan, the Canadians are doing tremendous work, providing trainers, they have a presence in Kandahar," Panetta said after meeting at the Pentagon with his Canadian counterpart Peter MacKay for an hour.

"Canada is one of the NATO countries that suffered the most in terms of those who lost their life. And we pay tremendous respect to Canada for the sacrifice that they've made."

He also saluted Ottawa's partnership with the United States in Libya as part of a NATO campaign against the regime of long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi.
More on link

 In Pakistan, a pattern of disappearances
Article Link

By Karin Brulliard, Published: October 2

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — In between hearings on an employment dispute and a property crime, a lawyer stood in Courtroom 3 on a recent morning to recount what seemed a terrifying offense. Fourteen months ago, he said, civil servant Adil Shah was buying vegetables when he was detained by about 10 men in military and police uniforms, and his family had not seen or heard from him since.

The judge barely blinked. There was no gasp from the wooden benches of the gallery. So routine are the grim cases of enforced disappearances in Pakistan — referred to here as missing persons — that they are now discussed like other chronic woes, such as power cuts and inflation. This northwestern city’s High Court hears five cases a day.

The disappearances are growing, according to international and Pakistani human rights organizations, which estimate that thousands of people have been kidnapped and detained incommunicado in secret prisons in the past decade. Some have been killed, they say. Exact numbers are unknown, in part because many people are afraid to report the abductions, according to Human Rights Watch.

Most of the disappeared are believed to be suspected of ties to Islamist militants or separatist movements viewed as threats by Pakistan’s potent security establishment, in particular the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, rights advocates and Pakistani officials said.
More on link


----------



## GAP (4 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 4, 2011*

 Oxfam: Give Afghan women a voice
Article Link
By MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press Mon, Oct 3 

OTTAWA — Two new reports from the international aid group Oxfam paint an unnerving portrait of human rights in Afghanistan and warn the international community, including Canada, not to trade women or justice in order to achieve peace.

The pair of studies urge western governments to pay more attention to what the Karzai government is doing in the areas of women’s equality and accountability for security forces before international troops are pulled out in 2014.

One study, released Sunday, demands that women be given a voice in the peace process and even a seat at the negotiating table.

"Afghan women, no less than their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers, want peace. But they also fear that their rights will be traded off for the sake of peace at any price," said the report, entitled A Place at the Table.

"There are no short cuts to peace in Afghanistan."
More on link

Karzai accuses Pakistan of 'double game' over militants
Article Link
 3 October 2011 Last updated at 16:29 ET

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in a thinly veiled attack on Pakistan, has said a "double game" is being played in the fight against militants.

Mr Karzai said Pakistan had not co-operated on security issues "which is disappointing for us", but insisted talks with Islamabad should continue.

He said he would convene a loya jirga (Afghan assembly) following the killing of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Afghan investigators say Rabbani's killer was a Pakistani.

They have laid the blame on the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and also accused Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, of involvement - a charge Islamabad denies.

Rabbani had been tasked with negotiating with the Taliban, but was killed by a suicide bomber claiming to be a peace envoy from the insurgents.

After the killing on 20 September, Mr Karzai said Kabul would no longer hold peace talks with the Taliban but would instead focus on dialogue with Pakistan.
More on link

Pakistan: Thirteen killed in attack on bus near Quetta
  Article Link
4 October 2011 Last updated at 09:42 ET

 Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying Shia Muslims in south-western Pakistan, killing 13 people and injuring six others, police say.

The attack took place near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.

Police said the attackers forced the passengers to stand in a line and fired at them. Eleven of the dead and four of the injured were Shias, say reports.

In recent years, there have been a number of bomb blasts and shootings targeting the minority Shia community.

The BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says that it was a merciless and chilling attack in the morning rush hour and the second sectarian strike in Pakistan in recent weeks.
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (4 Oct 2011)

*Working for peace in Afghanistan*
Article link
By Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun, 3 Oct 11

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - “It will be looked back upon that the Canadians got it right,” — ISAF Gen. Carsten Jacobson, of Germany.

Who says Canada is no longer contributing in Afghanistan?

Many assume that just because Canada has pulled out combat troops our work has been completed.

It’s not what I witnessed.

In fact, Canadians are everywhere and making a difference.

It’s a training mission now and it’s this one that will determine if this war will have a lasting peace or, like past history in Afghanistan, will succumb to a new autocratic regime.

Time will tell.

But the one thing I can report is there are people from 49 nations as part of the NATO commitment and — through the International Security Assistance Force — giving it their all to give the people of Afghanistan a fighting chance.

Canadian men and women are at the heart of it.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Afghan people to decide what they want. They have been given a tremendous leg up in terms of finances, security and training assistance.

And many Afghans are buying in, getting trained, learning about what it takes to have a free and democratic society.

Many, though, are also working full tilt to derail it.

But that definition of many is now far less than 100,000 people, involved in networks like the Taliban and several others.

I saw some of these alleged Taliban myself. I was in to take a look at the counter narcotics centre near Lashkar Gah and saw a bunch of young men in a caged area. They were charged in the drug smuggling ring in Helmand province and Lt.-Col. Abdul Qadir Zahir said some of them are part of the Taliban.

It’s difficult to tell the difference but many of them get involved for economic reasons and are called the $10 Taliban. But there are reintegration programs — with 3,000 members — where this kind of person can trade in those former sympathies and learn to read and perhaps have a future where death and destruction are part of the past.

The Canadian military here has taken a lead role in training and mentoring. I talked to a lot of people — from Lt.-Col Ralph Sears to Lt.-Col. Don Mulders to Capt. Bruce Beswick — and they talked optimistically about how committed and enthusiastic young Afghans are about the transition.
More on link

Caption for attached photo:  Leading Seaman Paul O’Neil (left), Capt. Bruce Beswick and a soldier who only identified himself as Clp. Samson at a police training base near Kabul. (JOE WARMINGTON, Toronto Sun)


----------



## GAP (5 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 5, 2011*

Afghans say Karzai assassination plot foiled
Article Link
 5 October 2011 Last updated at 09:45 ET

Afghan intelligence officials say they have arrested six people who were planning to assassinate President Hamid Karzai.

The alleged plotters had recruited one of Mr Karzai's bodyguards, the officials said.

Those arrested were linked to the militant Haqqani network, they told reporters.

Militants have killed a string of high-profile figures in Afghanistan in recent months.

"A dangerous and educated group including, teachers and students wanted to assassinate President Hamid Karzai," National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

"Unfortunately they infiltrated the presidential protection system and recruited one of the president's bodyguards."

Mr Mashal said those arrested had ties with a member of al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network based in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan.

President Karzai has been the target of at least three assassination attempts since becoming Afghan leader in 2002.
More on link

 Aid group pleads for medical supplies in Afghanistan
  Article Link 
By Carmen Chai, Postmedia News October 4, 2011

On most days, Julia Wight sees more than 800 kids with their mothers visiting a children's hospital situated in the heart of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Most patients have travelled to the Afghan capital from remote rural areas, hoping to cure illnesses that were too severe to treat at their local hospitals.

But Wight said that basic medicine, such as antibiotics, antiseptics and IV injectables, would be sufficient to help the hundreds of sick patients filing into doctors' offices across the impoverished, war-ravaged country.

The problem is that only 10 per cent of Afghan hospitals have access to limited supplies of medicine.

"Every time I come, there's news of less and less medicine getting to the hospitals. We're not talking about complicated medicine but basic things we take for granted at home but are necessities (in Afghanistan)," said Wight in a telephone interview from Kabul.

She and her aid work colleagues with the Capacity Building and Access to Medicines project are appealing to Canadian pharmaceutical companies to help by donating medical supplies to Afghanistan, where total expenditure on health care per capita is a meagre $29.
More on link

 Pakistan questions bin Laden widows, daughters
   Article Link
 Agence France-Presse October 5, 2011

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani commission investigating how Osama bin Laden lived undetected for years in the country has interviewed the al-Qaida leader's widows and daughters for the first time, it said Wednesday.

The "exhaustive interview" of bin Laden's three widows and two of his daughters took place on Tuesday, the commission announced in a brief statement.

Officials refused to divulge any further details.
end

 New Brunswick soldiers prepare for Afghanistan
Published Friday September 30th, 2011 
Article Link

Efforts are continuing to prepare hundreds of soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown for duty early next year in Afghanistan.

Approximately 450 personnel from The Second Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (2RCR) will be joined by another 100 from the greater Land Force Atlantic Area in deploying to the war-torn region for an eight-month training mission.

The first group of soldiers will depart Gagetown in mid-February with the process continuing until mid-March.

It's expected to take about a month to get everyone into the Kabul theatre of operations.

"Our soldiers will be completely ready to do anything," Lt.-Col. Alex Ruff, the commander of 2RCR, said in an interview. "We are in some ways not over training them but making sure we're ready for the worst in those cases where, for whatever reason, we are attacked. At the same time, we are extremely well prepared for just the advisory role, which is our primary mission."

Local troops will be travelling to Afghanistan as part of Operation Attention.
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (6 Oct 2011)

Canadian military vehicles going home but worries persist
Article link
By Poly Pentelides, _Cyprus Mail_, Published on October 6, 2011

THE CANADIAN forces have cleaned up the last set of military vehicles from Afghanistan which should be shipped back to Canada in ten days, the Green party said yesterday. 

Homebound Canadian forces have been using the island to clean their military vehicles, which were deployed in Afghanistan.

Canadian authorities wanted to purge the vehicles of any dangerous bacteria and organisms which could cause a potential threat to Canadian agriculture by introducing plant diseases, the Green’s Giorgos Perdikis said. 

Perdikis yesterday had a meeting with the Cyprus Port Authority (CPA) head Chrysis Prentzas and Larnaca harbourmaster Pampis Vassiliou.

The meeting followed “strong complaints and worries” by residents close to the port about the cleaning methods, Perdikis said.  

The Greens had previously said that Canadian tanks and vehicles could contain traces of depleted uranium or dangerous organisms.

Perdikis said that they were given assurances from the Foreign Ministry and other relevant authorities that there was no danger. 

“However, (the containers) were sealed. They were checked by others but not the CPA or Larnaca Port,” Perdikis said. 

The CPA’s Prentzas said all safety procedures had been followed and the situation was under control.
More on link


----------



## GAP (6 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 6, 2011*

 Don't depend on US for bail-outs: Panetta tells Nato allies
Agence France-Presse Brussels, October 05, 2011
Article Link

The US defence chief warned NATO allies on Wednesday that they can no longer depend on the United States to make up for the type of military shortfalls witnessed in the Libyan and Afghan wars.
   
With the US military facing its own major budget cuts, defence secretary Leon
Panetta called on European and Canadian allies to work closely to pool resources at a time of austerity biting on both sides of the Atlantic.
   
"As for the United States, many might assume that the United States defence budget is so large it can absorb and cover alliance shortcomings - but make no mistake about it, we are facing dramatic cuts with real implications for alliance capability," he said in a speech in Brussels.
   
Panetta delivered his warning just ahead of talks with NATO counterparts, centred on the missions in Libya and Afghanistan as well as the weaknesses the alliance experienced in the conflicts.
   
Although US defence spending far exceeds European budgets, Panetta said American military leaders were facing $450 billion in cuts over 10 years, which he called tough but "manageable".
   
But if the US Congress fails to tackle the country's deficit this year, the Pentagon "could face additional cuts in defense ... (that) would be devastating to our national security and to yours as well."
  
The cuts contemplated by the Pentagon would reduce the size of the force and curtail some weapons programmes, but the gargantuan US defence budget -- at nearly $700 billion -- still dwarfs that of the 27 other NATO members combined.
   
NATO defence ministers agreed to focus on multinational cooperation to make better use of resources and the alliance will identify projects at a summit in Chicago next year, said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
More on link

 JTF-2  Afghan troops ‘applying the lessons learned’
sonia verma  Globe and Mail Wednesday, Oct. 05, 2011 
Article Link

As the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban is marked on Friday, war continues to rage in Afghanistan as Western troops begin to draw down.

Building Afghanistan’s national security forces to the point where they can effectively protect the population has become the key measure by which NATO’s victory will be judged.

Canadian Major-General Michael Day is leading NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan as Deputy Commander Army, overseeing the recruitment and training of the Afghan National Army.

The former commander of Joint Task Force 2, Canada's elite special operations team, spoke about how the Afghan security forces are shaping up to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s ambitious goal of Afghanistan assuming sole responsibility for its security by 2014, when Western forces are set to leave.

Will the Afghan National Security Forces be able to protect the Afghan population by the deadline of 2014?
More on link

 Rasmussen: Libya, Afghan missions demonstrate that NATO remains ‘indispensable alliance’
Article Link

By Associated Press, Published: October 5

BRUSSELS — NATO’s chief says ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Libya demonstrate that the alliance plays an “indispensable” role in dealing with current and future security challenges.

“In Libya we and our allies have been remarkably successful — we have saved countless lives and helped the Libyan people take their destiny into their own hands,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday.

“In Afghanistan ... transition is on track and the insurgents will not be allowed to derail it,” he said at the opening of a meeting of defense ministers.

The meeting, the first in a series of conferences of foreign and defense ministers ahead of the alliance’s summit in May in Chicago, is aimed at exploring ways to end the aerial campaign in Libya and train Afghan security forces for a larger role in their country’s war.

In a speech before the meeting, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged NATO member states to cooperate more closely and pool their resources in order to make up for the shortfalls that have plagued the alliance’s operations in Libya and Afghanistan.
More on link


 The shattering of U.S.-Pakistani links
DEREK BURNEY Globe and Mail Update Thursday, Oct. 06, 2011
Article Link

One of the most disturbing revelations during the Manley panel’s visit to Afghanistan in 2007 was that Taliban attacks in Kandahar were being directed from sanctuaries in Pakistan. The open border provided an all-too-easy escape route. At that time, suggestions of Pakistani complicity in this subterfuge were common but muted. Given recent testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing by Admiral Mike Mullen, who stepped down as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff last month, the assumed concerns are now openly acknowledged.

Adm. Mullen declared that “the Haqqani network … acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.” Cellphones seized during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s home and after the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul provided evidence of direct ties between the ISI and the Haqqani foot soldiers. Moreover, the fact that Osama bin Laden had been safely ensconced for several years in a villa some 30 kilometres from Pakistan’s version of West Point obviously shook the confidence of those in the U.S. military, notably Adm. Mullen, who had regarded Pakistan as a trusted ally. That strategic link has been shattered, and the consequences could be traumatic for the region.

As members of John Manley’s Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan, we wondered just how difficult it must be for Canadian soldiers to battle an enemy that had unfettered movement across the Afghan-Pakistani border. We were told that action against the Taliban inside Pakistan was precluded because of Washington’s strategic ties to Islamabad, including the importance of Pakistan as a transit point for U.S. and NATO supplies being shipped to Afghanistan, along with the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state.
More on link

 Education key to mentorship program
  Article Link 
By Kerry Benjoe, Leader-Post October 6, 2011

 Saskatchewan has made an Afghan connection.

A small group of Afghan women are in the province to learn more about Saskatchewan's health and education systems in hopes of improving things in their own country.

Betty-Ann Heggie, president of Canadians in support of Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), is hosting a group of Afghan women for a few weeks, including AIL founder Sakena Yacoobi.

Heggie first met Yacoobi two years ago while the pair were in Italy speaking at a conference. Both women were on a panel called gender equity for greater world harmony.

"She spoke about the importance of education and I spoke about the importance of mentorship," said Heggie, who founded the Womentorship Program at the University of Saskatchewan.

The two began talking and came up with an idea to bring Canadian and Afghan women together in a type of mentorship program.

"I said OK," said Heggie. "I thought it would be kind of easy. I thought I would raise the money and that I would assign some people to help me with programming and we would just apply for visas and we would get them."

After two years of hard work, Heggie and Yacoobi were finally able to make the program possible.
More on link


----------



## GAP (7 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 7, 2011*

 US and Nato 'far from goals' in Afghanistan 
Article Link
 7 October 2011 Last updated at 02:39 ET

After 10 years of fighting in Afghanistan, US and Nato allies remain far from reaching their goals, a former commander of coalition forces has said.

Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal said the US began the war with a "frighteningly simplistic" view and still lacked the knowledge to achieve a successful end.

"Operation Enduring Freedom" aimed to track down Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 and eliminate the Taliban. The UN says more than 10,000 civilians have died in the past five years alone.

More than 2,500 international troops have been killed - most of them American.

The conflict has already surpassed Vietnam to become the longest war in US history.
More on link

Hamid Karzai admits Afghanistan 'security failure'
Article Link
 7 October 2011 Last updated at 07:00 ET

President Karzai: "We should provide a more predictable, secure, environment for Afghan citizens"

President Hamid Karzai has said his government and Nato have failed to provide Afghans with security, 10 years after the Taliban were otherthrown.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Karzai also accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgency, saying sanctuaries there still needed to be tackled.

He vowed to step down in 2014 and said he was working on the succession.

His comments come as the ex-commander of coalition forces said Nato allies remain far from reaching their goals.

After a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, retired Army General Stanley McChrystal estimated that the coalition was "a little better than" half way to achieving its military ambitions, adding that the US began the war with a "frighteningly simplistic" view. 
More on link

Afghans Mark a Decade of War 
Article Link
 October 07, 2011

Friday marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, which ousted the Taliban.  The assault was launched less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S.

NATO says its plans to hand over security responsibility to Afghan government remain on track.  The coalition has begun to relinquish security duties to Afghanistan's army and police in a gradual process that will see all foreign combat troops leave the country by the end of 2014.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he believes the transition process will "not be derailed."  But since the process began earlier this year, insurgents have carried out a number of high-profile attacks and targeted killings. 
More on link

 And Live Islamically Ever After
October 3, 2011
Article Link

 NATO operations in the last year have greatly reduced the fighting strength of the Taliban and the drug gangs, leaving the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network as the most powerful Islamic terror group in the region. Haqqani has been around since the 1980s, and has survived because of the strong leadership of the Haqqani clan. It's basically a family business, and most of the business is criminal. Kidnapping, extortion, smuggling and whatever else is available has kept the organization going. During the 1980s war with the Russians, Haqqani adopted the "Islamic warrior" tag and never abandoned it. Like most anti-Russian Afghan groups, Haqqani received money, instructions and protection from Pakistan (largely from ISI, the Pakistani version of the CIA). When the ISI needed a terror attack, kidnapping or assassination carried out, Haqqani was often used. Haqqani was reliable and effective and that was important for the generals running ISI. But this year, Haqqani has been under unprecedented attack by NATO forces. That means over 1,600 suspected Haqqani men (including 300 local leaders) have been arrested during over 500 raids this year. These operations killed or captured dozens of known Haqqani officials, often key people who were difficult to replace.
More on link

 Bringing Afghanistan’s democrats out of the shadows
by Michael Petrou on Thursday, October 6, 2011 
Article Link

It is fitting that Terry Glavin begins his book Come from the Shadows: the Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan with a quote from George Orwell — who once said it is not enough to oppose fascism; one must stand against totalitarianism in all its forms.

Orwell, a far-left anti-fascist who took a bullet in the throat while fighting Franco’s brutes during the Spanish Civil War, was angered by the inability of too many of his fellow leftists to counter dictatorial thuggery in those with whom they shared a common enemy. Stalinists got a free pass because, ostensibly, they opposed fascism; they didn’t deserve it.

Glavin, also of the left, is frustrated by the limits of his supposed comrades’ solidarity and internationalism. Afghanistan’s democrats — its students, human rights activists, women, socialists and secularists — should, by rights, be championed and supported by the western left. They are, after all, fighting for the same things liberals in Canada struggled for and earned over the last century. What’s more, they’re fighting for these rights against an explicitly fascistic strain of religious and ethnic extremism embodied in the Taliban.

Instead, much of the left over the last decade has preferred to rally against make-believe fascism and imperialism in the United States or Britain, rather than recognizing its real mutations in places like Baghdad, Tehran, and Kandahar. The NDP, for one, has distinguished itself only by the degree to which it has counseled abandoning those Afghans most deserving of our friendship. “Support our troops; bring ‘em home,” the party declared, aping an isolationism that Glavin rightly derides as “paleoconservative.”
More on link

The Afghan-Pakistan militant nexus
Article Link
 6 October 2011 Last updated at 11:17 ET

Kabul's writ has never run strong in the remote southern plains of Helmand province which is why it emerged as the most significant Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan immediately after the US-led invasion of 2001. Further south, across the border in Pakistan, lies the equally remote Noshki-Chaghai region of Balochistan province.

Since 9/11 this region has been in turmoil. In the Baramcha area on the Afghan side of the border, the Taliban have until recently maintained a major base, with IED (improvised explosive device) factories, weapons caches and residential camps. From there they have been controlling militant activities as far afield as Nimroz and Farah provinces in the west, Uruzgan in the centre of the country and parts of Kandahar province. They also link up with groups based in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.

In the past, the Taliban from Baramcha region have been moving freely across the border, and often take their injured to hospitals in the Pakistani town of Dalbandin in Chaghai.

The Helmand Taliban have been able to capture territory and hold it, mostly in the south, but also in some northern parts of the province. They have constantly threatened traffic on the highway that connects Kandahar with Herat.

But since US President Barack Obama's 2010 decision to launch a troop surge, Western forces were able to carry out a mostly successful sweeping operation in areas as far south as Baramcha to destroy the militant infrastructure.
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (10 Oct 2011)

*Canadian team takes over RMTC-N, adds unique perspective to training*
Article link
2011/10/10, By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mike Andriacco, Regional Support Command-North/NTM-A Public Affairs

CAMP MIKE SPANN, Afghanistan – A team of Canadian soldiers has nearly completed its first month in command of training operations at the Afghan National Army’s Regional Military Training Center at Camp Shaheen, near Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

The team took formal command of training operations Sept. 9, and while Canada has been a staunch Coalition member of International Security Assistance Force, this is the first Canadian contingent to become a part of Regional Support Command – North.

“I see this as a huge opportunity both personally and professionally,” said Canadian Army Lt. Col. Derek Chenette, the RMTC-N commander for the Coalition. “Canada has been down in the south in Kandahar fighting against the insurgency since 2002. This is an opportunity for Canada and the Coalition to finish what it started.”

RMTC-N sends approximately 2,000 ANA soldiers through its courses approximately every eight weeks. The largest course is the regional basic warrior training course, with a capacity of 1,400 basic military trainees.

 Additionally, RMTC-N houses a variety of basic and advanced training courses covering subjects from literacy to medicine, and noncommissioned officer and officer courses. While the majority of soldiers will remain in the north, graduates may be sent to fill needed positions anywhere in the country.

The RSC-N Canadian contingent is staffed by 39 soldiers who fill training and advisory roles as well as support functions for the group. The team attended a robust training program prior to their deployment to get them ready for the mission and is made up of mostly noncommissioned and commissioned officers by design.

“They bring the teams together and go through a full gamut of pre-deployment training,” Chenette said. “Due to the nature of the mission, it’s very rank-heavy. To provide that level of mentorship, there are lot of senior NCOs and officers that are involved in that training mission.”

Chenette added that the team also went through some training on cultural concerns and mentorship to prepare them to sit across the room and relate with the students. He also says that the multicultural citizenry of Canada, as well as the country’s rugged terrain, helped the team prepare.

 “Building that rapport is probably the most important thing you can do when you first get on the ground,” he said. “I just think that it’s a natural fit and we can play an important part in helping Afghanistan get back on its feet and provide for its own security.”

 Each soldier works advising a different team of ANA instructors across the course offerings of RMTC-N. Canadian Army Master Cpl. Jonathan Drew advises the instructors of four platoons of recruit. This is his second deployment to the country, the first was in Kandahar. He said he’s so far been impressed by the focus and initiative shown by the students ....
More on link


----------



## GAP (11 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 11, 2011*

 Setting the record straight on the war in Afghanistan
LAWRENCE MARTIN Globe and Mail Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011
Article Link

Early in his book The Savage War, Murray Brewster says war and the blood spilled in it are too important “to be left to a cyclone of spin.”

Mr. Brewster, a Canadian journalist who regularly reported from Afghanistan, then proceeds to yank away the propaganda cover. His book is an attempt to set the record straight – straighter at least than we’ve seen up to now. On war, governments everywhere tend to engage in sugar-coating. With Mr. Brewster’s riveting, close-up reportage, we discover the extraordinary extent of that sugar-coating.
More on link

 Delta firm's portable diesel bladder fuels mining exploration
  Article Link
Device provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional metal barrels
 By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun October 11, 2011

A Delta company has developed a cost-saving method of transporting fuel to remote northern resource camps that has the potential to reduce the use of oil barrels and the environmental problems associated with their disposal.

SEI Industries, the company whose bright orange Bambi Bucket dangling from a helicopter revolutionized wildfire fighting, has developed a huge double-walled bladder that can be transported by air and hold the equivalent of 40 drums of diesel or aviation fuel.

It's called the BATT, which stands for bulk aviation transport tank and SEI general manager Mark Tayler believes it's a lower-priced way of getting fuel to the north by air, eliminating the need for oil drums in the process.

The BATT was approved for use in Canada this year by Transport Canada. Charter airline, Yukon-based Alkan Air, began using them this summer delivering fuel to power the mining boom that is sweeping northern Canada.

Hugh Kitchen, one of the owners of Alkan Air, said in an interview from Whitehorse that the bladders have replaced old aluminum tanks in two of the company's aircraft.

"The tanks would take up the whole cabin, you would have no more space. These bladders are transportable, you can carry them out to the job in a duffel," he said. "It has given us, and the customers, real flexibility."
More on link


----------



## GAP (11 Oct 2011)

Pakistani child expelled for ‘blasphemous’ spelling error
Article Link
Mon Oct 10 2011 By Rick Westhead South Asia Bureau

There’s no shortage of reminders nowadays of how dangerous Pakistan has become.

Kidnappings are rampant, suicide bombers strike crowded markets, and sectarian violence is commonplace.

Even sitting for a school exam comes with risks.

In the Pakistani village of Havelian, a Christian Grade 8 student named Faryal Bhatti has been accused of blasphemy after making a spelling mistake on a test, a miscue that has had drastic and life-changing consequences for her whole family.

Bhatti’s case is the latest in a string of incidents that highlight the growing influence of radical Islamists in Pakistan, and it also serves as a reminder of the government’s frequent inability or unwillingness to curb them.

“We live in dangerous times,” one Lahore-based scholar told the Star recently. “The threat of someone accusing you of blasphemy is like the Salem witch trials. They kill you first and ask if you’re guilty later.”

In January, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab state, was assassinated by his bodyguard — shot 27 times in the back — after Taseer promised to repeal or at least tone down the country’s blasphemy laws.

His killer, a police officer named Mumtaz Qadri, was recently sentenced to death by hanging. “My dream has come true,” Qadri reportedly said with a smile as the verdict was announced.

He took time to thank his judge, who, immediately after reading the verdict, took an indefinite leave of absence from his position and went into hiding.

That may sound like a good plan to the 13-year-old Bhatti.

School authorities say Bhatti recently misspelled a word in Urdu in a poem written to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad. Instead of the word “Naat,” which meant a poem of praise, Bhatti misplaced a letter with a dot and instead wrote the word “Laanat,” which means curse.

Bhatti’s teacher reportedly beat her in front of her class and then referred the case to the school’s principal.

As news of Bhatti’s infraction spread through the village, close to Abbottabad, the city north of Islamabad where Osama bin Laden hid in plain sight for years, religious clerics rallied locals to protest in the streets.

Bhatti should be expelled, they demanded, and her family evicted from their home. Protestors chanted slogans against the student, her family, and Christianity, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Her case was a “conspiracy against Islam,” clerics said in Friday sermons, according to the newspaper.

At a packed meeting of clerics, school staff and scholars, Bhatti apologized and said there was no malice in her mistake.

“I am still unclear of Faryal Bhatti’s intentions,” Maulana Syed Ejaz Ali, a cleric from the Jamia Masjid reportedly told the meeting. “The eyes filled with tears show her innocence, but her dot made the word derogatory and this is a good enough reason for a consequence and she should never in her life dare to think anything against Islam.”

Bhatti was expelled. But clerics weren’t done.

Local government administrators agreed to have Bhatti’s mother transferred from her government job as a nurse and the family evicted from their home in a cantonment area populated by public servants.
More on link

Afghan opium production 'rises by 61%' compared with 2010
Article Link
 1 October 2011 Last updated at 07:08 ET

Opium production in Afghanistan rose by 61% this year compared with 2010, according to a UN report.

The increase has been attributed to rising opium prices that have driven farmers to expand cultivation of the illicit opium poppy by 7% in 2011.

Last year opium production halved largely due to a plant infection which drastically reduced yields.

Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium - 5,800 tonnes this year - the main ingredient of heroin.

Analysts say that revenue from the drug has helped fund the Taliban insurgency.

Farmers who responded to the survey described economic hardship and lucrative prices as the main reasons for the increase.

Nearly 80% of the opium grown in Afghanistan is being produced in provinces in the south, including Helmand and Kandahar, which are among the most volatile in the country.

The UN says this demonstrates that there is a clear link between insecurity and opium cultivation. 
More on link


----------



## GAP (12 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 12, 2011*

 Pakistan-born activist denied entry to Canada
Article Link
Published On Tue Oct 11 2011

OTTAWA—Moazzam Begg spends much of his life these days in airports and on flights, travelling the world speaking about civil rights and his experience as a Guantanamo detainee.

Travelling nearly everywhere — except for Canada.

The 42-year-old Pakistan-born Brit was denied entry to Canada at Montreal’s airport Sunday on the grounds that his name is on a U.S. no-fly list and because he has admitted to being a former member of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. However, he claims he made those admissions only because he was tortured.

It was the second time in six months that Begg, director of a British civil rights group, Cageprisoners, has attempted to come to Canada.

Air Canada stopped him from boarding a flight from London bound for Toronto in May because of concerns the flight could be diverted to the U.S., he was told.

However, Begg says he’d heard later there wasn’t a problem from Canada’s end, and so he tried again, with the intention of conducting some speaking events, consulting on Omar Khadr’s anticipated return from Guantanamo, and speaking to Canadian politicians about his experiences and insights.

On Sunday, with an online-issued boarding pass in hand, Begg — fresh off travels to Norway, Tunisia and Libya — was able to board an Air France flight in Paris, and fly to Montreal. But he was escorted off the flight upon landing by three Canadian border guards who said he would not be permitted to enter.

Begg, who did not apply for a special ministerial permit to enter believing it wasn’t necessary, boarded a flight back to London later that night.
More on link

 Afghanistan: Op Veritas ten years on
11 October 2011
Article Link

Following the tenth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, Anthony Tucker-Jones asks if the UK is beating the IED threat

Friday 7 October 2011 marked the tenth anniversary of Britain's involvement in the war on terror in Afghanistan.

Ten years ago, our commitment to Operation Enduring Freedom seemed the right thing to do. The Taliban had refused to hand over Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America and Afghanistan was a safe haven for a vast array of terror groups.

Within the space of a month British and American air power brought the Taliban to their knees and facilitated the Northern Alliance's capture of Kabul.

While the Taliban were swiftly ousted, Bin Laden was to slip the net for ten long years. Additionally, the West optimistically assumed it could impose democracy on what is essentially a failed state that has never functioned under an effective unitary authority.

Historically, Afghanistan's competing interests only pay lip service to whoever is sitting in Kabul, as the Russians were to discover during their decade-long involvement with the country in the 1980s.

In the years following the fall of the Taliban, Britain's Operation Veritas turned into a rolling commitment known as Operation Herrick. Since then, under the command and control of NATO, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has slowly expanded its area of control out from Kabul, bringing with it the authority of President Hamid Karzai's government.

The British public really woke up to the UK's involvement in 2006 when the 3 Para Battle Group deployed to Helmand province to help the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) bring security and stability. Sending just 3,000 men, of whom only a third were fighters, supported by six heavy lift helicopters always seemed over-optimistic, and this force would eventually expand threefold.
More on link

 Fleeing Kandahar, an Afghan family builds a new life
susan sachs KABUL— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011
Article Link

It was an ordinary morning, or as ordinary as a morning can be in southern Afghanistan, but it was the day that decided the future for Yelda Mahmood.

Five weeks ago, she walked into her office in a government agency in Kandahar to a tumult of screams and sobs. Yet another of her colleagues, the third in four months, had been killed on the way to work by a Taliban gunman on a motorcycle.

“It was a girl, younger than me,” said Ms. Mahmood, who is 21. “Her name was Nadeem.”

That night, Ms. Mahmood got another of the anonymous calls that had become chillingly frequent.

“We killed Nadeem,” a man on the other end said, “and we will kill you and all of your co-workers.”

The next day, Ms. Mahmood’s parents made the decision they had dreaded but expected for months. They packed up their clothes, mementos and the two fluffy stuffed animals that always sat on the living room couch and fled Kandahar for the relative safety of Kabul, another family of ordinary Afghans whose daily dance with violent death has spun them away from their dreams.

Ms. Mahmood was a star pupil at the Afghan-Canadian Community Centre in Kandahar, where young women study English, business management and other subjects, before joining an Afghan government agency that helps women apply for business-development loans.

Those pursuits made her a marked woman.
More on link


----------



## The Bread Guy (13 Oct 2011)

*Canadians lead the way to sustainable medical system in Afghanistan*
Article link
Major Domenico Belcastro, CEFCOM feature story, 12 Oct 11

Operation ATTENTION began in April 2011 with the arrival in the Kabul area of the first of some 950 Canadian Forces members who will deploy with the Canadian Contingent Training Mission–Afghanistan, Canada’s contribution to the NATO Training Mission–Afghanistan. Their mission is to work with the training cadre of the Afghan National Army (ANA) to build a force capable of meeting Afghanistan’s security needs after 2014.

In July 2011, a group of Canadian Forces health-care providers deployed on Op ATTENTION with a Training Development Officer to serve as advisor-mentors to their Afghan counterparts at the Armed Forces Academy of Medical Sciences (AFAMS) in Kabul. The immediate focus of their work is the development and implementation of a standardized individual education and training system for medical personnel of the Afghan national security forces. Their long-range objective is to establish AFAMS as Afghanistan’s centre of excellence in military medical education and training.

A dedicated group of ANA medical personnel under the direction of the Commander AFAMS, Lieutenant-General Ahmadi, is making progress toward achievement of this vision.

As mentor to the Commander AFAMS, Captain (Navy) Rebecca Patterson leads the AFAMS Advisory Embedded Training Team, the combined Canadian-U.S. team that works closely with the institution’s Afghan instructors to deliver training programs for nurses, physician assistants, biomedical technicians and dental technicians. The medical and dental experts of the AFAMS Advisory Embedded Training Team provide advice and guidance and deliver occasional lectures to AFAMS students, who include members of the Afghan National Police as well as the ANA.
More on link


----------



## GAP (14 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 14, 2011*

 Canada Post to provide free delivery of holiday letters and parcels to deployed troops
Article Link

CNW — For the sixth year in a row, friends and families of Canadian troops deployed overseas will be able to send holiday letters and parcels for free via Canada Post.

The program, which started in 2006, has delivered close to 90,000 parcels to members of the Canadian Forces serving overseas in war zones.

That includes members of the Canadian Forces serving, for example, in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sudan, Sinai, Jerusalem, etc. Troops serving on any of the deployed Her Majesty's Canadian Ships are also included in the program.

Canada Post will accept regular parcels free of charge to designated Canadian Forces Bases overseas from Oct. 17, 2011 until Jan. 13, 2012. Lettermail weighing up to 500 grams to deployed troops can be sent free of charge until Dec. 31, 2012.

Parcels and letters must be addressed to a specific soldier, and include rank and mission information. They must also be directed to the appropriate ship and/or Canadian Forces Base. Once delivered to the designated base, the Canadian Forces Postal Service will take charge of the items and ensure delivery overseas. Senders can purchase additional options for their parcels, such as coverage for loss or damage and signature.
More on link

 Edmonton-based soldiers leave for Afghanistan
Article Link
Oct. 13 2011 16:59:29 Julia Parrish, ctvedmonton.ca

Months after the combat mission in Afghanistan wrapped up; hundreds of Canadian troops are on their way to take part in the next phase of the NATO mission.

Two hundred soldiers from the Edmonton area left on their mission Wednesday night.

Many were in good spirits just before boarding their plane to leave – looking forward to the months ahead.

"I'm actually quite excited," Lieutenant Colonel Alan Markewicz said. "It's a change in mission and it's different from what we have been doing for a number of years."

Markewicz is one of two hundred troops deployed on Wednesday night are only a part of the more than 500 Canadian soldiers being sent to Kabul this month.

They are to take part in the NATO training mission in Afghanistan under "Operation Attention", the Canadian contribution.

"We're helping to build their capability and their capacity to run their country on their own," Markewicz said. "So when we do leave in a few years from now, we've left a stronger and better country."

The Canadian troops will work to train and develop security forces of Afghanistan, to prepare for a transition by the end of 2014.

Many were looking forward to the upcoming mission.
More on link

The timeless intractability of Afghanistan
JEFFREY SIMPSON  Globe and Mail Friday, Oct. 14, 2011
Article Link

Whom are we kidding in Afghanistan? Ourselves, it would appear.

Before the Taliban briefly ran Afghanistan, opium poppy production ranged from 54,000 to 91,000 hectares. Today, a decade or so after the Taliban’s forcible removal from power, opium poppy production covers 131,000 hectares. In the province of Kandahar, where Canadian forces were stationed, cultivation doubled from 2006 to 2010. 

Profits from opium poppies fuel the insurgency and criminal networks. Despite all sorts of eradication efforts, production remains high. It grew by 7 per cent from 2010 to 2011.

Afghanistan, the principal source for Canadian aid, remains the world’s leading narco-state. The farm-gate value of opium, according to the United Nations, represents 9 per cent of the country’s economy. But the share would be far higher if the black market were included. 
More on link

 Afghanistan left in much better shape, says general
  Article Link 
By Meghan Potkins, Calgary Herald October 13, 2011

Canadian troops leave southern Afghanistan in much better shape than when they arrived, says a top commander for the last rotation of Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar.

In some of his first public comments since returning from Afghanistan in July, Brigadier-General Richard Giguere, deputy commander for the last rotation of Canadian troops to fight in Afghanistan, described conditions as tentatively improving in the country’s war-torn southern province.

“What I’ve seen in Kandahar in the last year was a lot of progress,” said Giguere. “But I’m not saying the situation is perfect because this is a huge task to do.”

Speaking at a Herald editorial board Thursday, Giguere spoke about the challenges for Afghanistan going ahead, including how the country will fare without the help of coalition forces.
More on link


----------



## GAP (17 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 17, 2011*

 The Taliban in Afghanistan’s once impregnable Panjshir Valley
ahmad shah massoud 
Article Link

Last month driving up Afghanistan’s magnificent Panjshir valley, you couldn’t help thinking if the resurgent Taliban would ever be able to break its defences, both natural and from the Tajik-dominated populace. With its jagged cliffs and plunging valleys, Panjshir has been largely out of bounds  for the  Taliban, whether during the civil war or in the past 10 years when it has expanded a deadly insurgency against western and Afghan forces across the country. But on Saturday, the insurgents struck, carrying out a suicide bombing at a provincial reconstruction team base housing U.S. and Afghan troops and officials.

They were halted outside the base, but according to the provincial deputy governor they succeeded in  killing two civilians and wounding two guards when they detonated their explosives. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the first suicide bombing in a decade was a message to Western forces that they were not secure anywhere in the country. They said the  bombers came from within Panjshir, which if true  would worry people even more  because that would suggest the penetration was deeper and there could be more attacks.
More on link

 Afghan Security Forces Learn to Protect, Serve 
Article Link
06:27 GMT, October 17, 2011 

WASHINGTON | Two years of intense education and training have turned members of the Afghan army and police into a national security force that is learning to protect and serve and that is producing a new breed of leaders, the NATO Training Mission commander said Oct. 13.

Army Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell, who also commands Combined Security Transition Command in Afghanistan, spoke with reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels about the training program that seeks to support a lasting transition in Afghanistan.

“In November 2009, there really were some reasons to be skeptical about what was going on inside Afghanistan. We saw that firsthand when we stood up this training mission,” Caldwell said.

“But today, … you will find a security force that is being well trained, that is being properly equipped, [and] where leaders are being identified and put through a rigorous program,” he added.

In the last 12 months, the last of 12 specialty schools opened to train members of the army and police force in human resources, maintenance, logistics and other skills “that are absolutely essential for any enduring police force or army,” the general said.

“We’re bringing on more of the institutions and systems,” Caldwell said, “like the logistics system and the maintenance system -- not developed yet, but coming online -- that will be critical to the long-term sustainability of these two forces.”
More on link

 Afghanistan’s lessons weren’t just military
david bercuson AND j.l. granatstein From Monday's Globe and Mail Published Monday, Oct. 17, 2011
Article Link

Canadian troops fought in Afghanistan for a decade, and the Canadian Forces suffered substantial casualties. The country’s military and political leadership learned on the job about the costs of war, the intractability of counterinsurgency warfare and the difficulties of managing an increasingly unpopular conflict through a prolonged period of domestic political turmoil. But what did Canadians learn?
More on link

 Fewer Canadians interested in troops remaining in Afghanistan, poll finds
  Article Link
 By Jordan Press, Postmedia News October 16, 2011

OTTAWA — Fewer Canadians are interested in troops remaining in Afghanistan, seeing the mission as “no longer worth it,” according to the results of government-commissioned public opinion research.

The same poll also found that many Canadians felt that Arctic sovereignty wasn’t as great of a priority as the government says it is.

The annual poll on public perceptions of the Canadian Forces showed declining interest in and knowledge of the Afghan mission with many participants describing the mission as “dangerous,” “expensive,” a “failure,” “underfunded” and “endless.”

The poll found 60 per cent support the mission in Afghanistan, a decline from a peak of 67 per cent in 2008. About two-thirds knew of Canada’s changing role in Afghanistan, while about one-quarter believed Canada should pull all troops out this year.
More on link


----------



## GAP (19 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 19, 2011*

Survey in a War Zone
More than Half of Afghans See NATO as Occupiers
Article Link
 10/18/2011

Fully 60 percent of Afghans fear that the country will descend into civil war once NATO forces leave, but over half see the Western alliance as occupiers. A new survey carried out be the Konrad Adenauer Foundation has found that the mood in Afghanistan is worsening.
Info

The troops are there, according to the mission statement, to "provide a secure environment for sustainable stability." But 10 years after NATO entered Afghanistan to drive out al-Qaida and beat back the Taliban, a majority of the local population has come to see the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) as little more than occupiers.

According to a survey published on Tuesday by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, 56 percent of Afghans now see the foreign troop contingent as an occupying force. Furthermore, only 39 percent of those surveyed said they saw ISAF as a guarantee for security, well down from the 45 percent result found in the same survey in 2010. Fully 60 percent think that the country will descend into civil war once NATO forces withdraw.

Babak Khalatbari, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Afghanistan office, said on Tuesday that the results were "a matter of concern."

The survey has been completed each year since 2008 and is carried out in conjunction with the National Centre for Policy Research at the University of Kabul. Some 5,000 Afghans were interviewed in five provinces in late September. Though the Konrad Adenauer Foundation warns that the poll is not strictly representative, the results are broadly consistent with the impression most in the West have about Afghanistan: The situation appears to be worsening.

Far from Subdued

"The survey results show that in Afghanistan, there appears to be an increasing amount of anxiety and fear rather than hope," Khalatbari said.

With a decade having elapsed since the US and NATO marched into Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, many in the West have begun to see the mission as a failure. Security in the country is perceived as fragile and the Taliban are far from subdued. 
More on link

Training Concerns Hover Over Delivery of Afghan Equipment
By JACK HEALY   October 18, 2011, 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Can a fledgling Afghan Army plagued by corruption, illiteracy and years of atrophy maintain a $500 million fleet of sophisticated armored vehicles provided by American taxpayers?

NATO forces, who are handing over the keys, are about to find out.

The fleet of mobile strike force vehicles, burly and beige, each 19 tons with a gun turret and two layers of armor, was shown off by Afghan forces on Tuesday, part of a hugely expensive armada now being delivered here as American forces place increasing emphasis on equipping and training the growing ranks of Afghan soldiers and police officers.

The United States has provided more than $11 billion for equipment and transportation for the Afghan police and soldiers over the last five years, according to a June report to Congress by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. And more high-priced, high-tech hardware is on the way, arriving along with questions about whether the Afghan forces will be able to keep it up and running as American troops leave and American money dries up.

NATO forces have delivered 2,400 armored vehicles for the Afghan police, and 2,200 more are being shipped. It is supplying the Afghan National Army with 21 Mi-17 V5 helicopters at a cost of $380 million, and expects to spend another $500 million for light-attack support aircraft.
More on link

Intelligence Sharing Has Room for Improvement
Article Link
 Tue, 18 October, 2011 By Peter B. de Selding

    SAN ANTONIO — Sharing of satellite and other intelligence information among coalition partners fighting in Afghanistan has improved in the past two years but still falls short of what is needed to permit them to work and fight as effectively as possible, U.S., British, Canadian and Australian military officials said Oct. 18.

    The problem, they said, is not just on the U.S. side. Other coalition partners have stove-piped information flows, effectively prohibiting information from being shared among solders fighting shoulder to shoulder.

    Despite a decade of fighting in Afghanistan and eight years in Iraq, coalition partners’ classification practices are still an obstacle that hobbles the effort — so much so that field commanders are sometimes forced to sidestep their military procedures in the interest of getting things done.

    “Intelligence sharing is one of the top two requests all the time,” said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, assistant director of national intelligence for partner engagement in the office of the director of national intelligence. To get approval for release of data, requests need to be made to the U.S. National Security Agency or the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which own the data, he said.

    “We are causing people in the field to bend the laws,” Flynn said here during the Geoint 2011 symposium. “We have to make adjustments. ... We cannot win unilaterally, so just get over it.” 
More on link

 Bureaucrats shoot holes in military's effectiveness
  Article Link 
By Barry Cooper, Calgary Herald October 19, 2011

Last Monday, the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute released a paper called Lessons Learned? What Canada Should Learn from Afghanistan. It was written by Canada's best two military historians, Jack Granatstein and David Bercuson, with the assistance of Nancy Pearson-Mackie. It is no secret that the authors are friends of mine, but that happenstance fades into irrelevance beside the significance of the content of their argument and the evidence adduced to support it.

They tell a story of a bureaucratic guerrilla war fought by the striped pants brigade in Foreign Affairs against the military. They detail how NATO is becoming as useless as the UN was a decade ago. They make it clear that no one making decisions in Ottawa had a clue what Canadian soldiers would be facing when they were sent to Kandahar. Those who had noticed, for example, that from the Taliban perspective, there was no border with Pakistan or that the Taliban and the Pakistan intelligence apparatus were intimate, were ignored.

In military terms, the tactical successes of Canadian soldiers were unguided by strategy. The real purpose of the mission was to show our allies that we were no longer free riders. But at the same time that the army was fighting set-piece battles, Canadians were told it was all about human rights and sending girls to school. This is a recipe for defeat because tactical successes without strategy are incoherent and lack political direction.
More on link

Pakistan warns US over unilateral military action
Article Link
 19 October 2011 Last updated at 06:24 ET

Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Kayani has warned the US that it will have to think "10 times" before taking any unilateral action in North Waziristan.

He said that the US should focus on stabilising Afghanistan instead of pushing Pakistan to attack militant groups in the crucial border region.

Washington has for many years urged Islamabad to deal with militants in the area, especially the Haqqani network.

It has been blamed for a series of recent attacks in Afghanistan.

"If someone convinced me that all problems will be solved by taking action in North Waziristan, I'd do it tomorrow," a parliamentarian who attended a briefing given by Gen Kayani quoted him as saying.

"If we need to take action, we will do it on our schedule and according to our capacity."

Gen Kayani told the closed-door parliamentary defence committee meeting in Rawalpindi that any withdrawal of American assistance would not affect Pakistan's defence capabilities.
'Very focused'

The Haqqani network - believed to be linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda - is accused of carrying out last month's 19-hour siege of the US embassy in Kabul.
More on link


----------



## GAP (20 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 20, 2011*

France begins withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
Article Link
 19 October 2011 Last updated at 06:51 ET

France is set to pull out nearly 200 troops from Afghanistan in a few hours, kickstarting withdrawals announced three months ago by Paris.

Another 200 soldiers are due to return home before Christmas as part of Nato's plan to end combat mission by 2014.

France has some 4,000 troops in Afghanistan and 75 of its soldiers have died in the country since 2001.

Several countries, including, the US, the UK, Canada and Belgium, have also announced plans to withdraw troops.

Some US and Canadian troops have already headed home, handing over responsibilities for security to Afghan forces.

The US plans to withdraw 33,000 soldiers by the end of 2012.

Most French soldiers are deployed in the district of Surobi and in the neighbouring province of Kapisa.

"We are carrying out a proportional withdrawal," French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told France Inter radio ahead of Wednesday's withdrawal.

"The zones that we are in charge of will be handed over to the Afghan army."

President Sarkozy announced plans to withdraw French troops during his visit to Afghanistan in July.
end

Clinton warns Taliban of 'continuing assault'
20 October 2011 Last updated at 06:22 ET
Article Link

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged the Taliban to be part of a peaceful future in Afghanistan or "face continuing assault".

She also kept up the pressure on Pakistan to deny militants sanctuary in tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Mrs Clinton was speaking in Kabul after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. She is due to travel on to Pakistan.

Relations between the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan are currently strained.

Mr Karzai has expressed frustration at the process to engage the Taliban after the assassinations of several key Afghan leaders.

"We are increasing the pressure on the Taliban," Mrs Clinton said.

She added that militants could be part of a peaceful future for Afghanistan or "face continuing assault".
More on link


----------



## GAP (26 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 26, 2011*

 Canadian Chinooks complete duty in Afghanistan
Friday, 21 October 2011
Article Link

As the last Chinook helicopter auxiliary power unit shut off on July 30, 2011, Kandahar Airfield’s X-Ray ramp fell silent, marking the end of the Canadian Helicopter Force Afghanistan’s (CHFA) operations, and the retirement of Canada’s D-model Chinooks.

The X-Ray ramp is the name of the ramp that the CHFA operated out of at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. The CHFA was known as either Task Force Freedom or Task Force Faucon, depending on which squadron was fulfilling the role.

As part of the interim medium lift capability, six D-model CH-147 Chinooks were purchased from the U.S. Army in 2008 for operations in Afghanistan, thereby overcoming the lack of aviation support available to Canadian troops in theatre and mitigating the risk from threats such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) routinely placed on roads by insurgents.

As Canada had not operated the Chinook since the early 1990s, an ambitious training program was required before operations in Afghanistan began. Initial qualification training was conducted by the U.S. Army in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, and completed at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Aircraft maintainers were trained at the Boeing plant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
More on link

 Daily Brief: Anti-Taliban militia leader targeted in Pakistan
By Jennifer Rowland Tuesday, October 25, 2011 
Article Link

Reprisal attack

The leader of an anti-Taliban militia, Aziz ur-Rehman, was killed Tuesday along with has 12-year-old son and two others in a remote-detonated roadside bomb attack in Pakistan's northwestern Lower Dir District (CNN, AFP, BBC). In the nearby Khyber Agency, at least 18,000 people have fled their homes following a Pakistan Army directive to leave because of ongoing operations against militants in the area (ET, Dawn). And ten people were killed in 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday in violence in Karachi (Dawn).

The Post's Joshua Partlow reports that following U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the region this weekend, the U.S. military's second-in-command in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, is looking to rebuild ties between the Pakistan and U.S. militaries, too (Post). After the May 2 U.S. raid in Abbottabad that killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Lt. Gen. Scaparrotti says the two countries' forces ceased conducting coordinated operations to "squeeze" Taliban militants based along the Afghan-Pakistan border. 
More on link

 Highway of Heroes coin to be launched
By Ernst Kuglin 15 hours ago Trentonian
Article Link

Since the start of the Afghanistan war, thousands of Canadians have stood on bridges and lined streets to watch motorcades head west on the Highway of Heroes.

The motorcades include hearses carrying the remains of Canada's war dead. Family members ride in other vehicles.

To commemorate those ultimate sacrifices and the groundswell of public tribute, the Royal Canadian Mint has struck a commemorative coin.

The mint will unveil the Highways of Heroes silver commemorative coin at a ceremony next Monday at Quinte West city hall in Trenton.

The coin was the brainchild of QMI photojournalist Pete Fisher. He's also the author of the recently released book Highway of Heroes, True Patriot Love.

Fisher put forward his idea to the mint back in 2010. At first officials with the federal agency appeared to like the idea of striking a coin.

Then Fisher was notified via e-mail the mint had a change of heart.

"They basically said while sentiment behind the coin was an honourable idea, illustrating the Highway of Heroes would prove to be too difficult," said Fisher.
More on link


 Saving child labourers is big business
by Murtaza Haider on October 26th, 2011
Article Link

Campaigning on behalf of destitute children in Pakistan can earn millions for NGOs in the west. However, those millions are often spent to support lavish lifestyles of a few in the west while the destitute in Pakistan continue to suffer.

Each year, Canadians donate millions of dollars to not-for-profit organisations who are helping impoverished children in low-income countries. While many organisations receiving millions in donations for the poor in Pakistan help the needy, others have used the money to build small real estate fortunes while subsidising extravagant lifestyle of their founders.

One such organisation is Free the Children, a not-for-profit started in Toronto by Craig and Marc Kielburger while they were only teenagers.  Free the Children and its sister organisations campaign against child labour and create opportunities for the youth to help other youths in need.  While Kielburgers’ hard work and commitment is commendable, one is dismayed at the way Free the Children has been using a false story about the murder of a child labourer in Pakistan to further its cause over the past 16 years.

It all started in April 1995 when Craig Kielburger reportedly read a story in The Toronto Star about Iqbal Masih, a child labourer who was sold into bonded labour by his parents. According to the story, Iqbal worked for years as a slave labourer until he was freed with the help of Ehsanullah Khan, who then headed the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) in Pakistan. The Toronto Star story claimed that the “carpet mafia” in Pakistan orchestrated Masih’s murder.
More on link

 Women filled 8.3% of Canada’s combat positions in Afghanistan: study
Article Link
Stewart Bell  Oct 25, 2011 – 10:52 PM ET

The women of the Canadian Forces played a much bigger combat role in Afghanistan than they did in earlier overseas missions, according to a research paper to be presented this week.

The study found 310 Canadian women were deployed to Afghanistan in combat positions such as infantry in 2001-11, more than triple the number that had frontline fighting roles in the 1990s.

“So they are making a significant contribution, for example, to the Afghan mission, more so I think than the public is aware,” said Krystel Carrier-Sabourin, a doctoral student at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont.
More on link


----------



## GAP (27 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 27, 2011*

 Spies should share more info with diplomats, report says
CSIS review committee asks for more powers
By Laura Payton, CBC News Posted: Oct 26, 2011
Article Link

Canada's spy agency needs to share more information with the Department of Foreign Affairs so the department is better prepared for negative reactions to Canadian intelligence work overseas, a report says.

The Security Intelligence Review Committee, which reports to Parliament on the work of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, found the organization had "limited exchanges" with Canada's diplomats on its operations.

"SIRC recommended that CSIS adopt a broader interpretation of its disclosure commitments to DFAIT, to allow the department to prepare itself in the event of an adverse development arising from CSIS's foreign operations," according to the latest report, released Wednesday.

It also asks for "retooled" powers to assess national security beyond CSIS, including related departments and agencies. It would take a slight adjustment to its mandate, the report says. SIRC could also take on a review of other agencies at the request of the public safety minister if there was a minor amendment to the CSIS Act.

The SIRC report refers to its review of CSIS's role in interviewing Afghan detainees, arguing it could have reviewed the actions of other involved departments, meaning a "more comprehensive examination," it says.

In terms of the work of Canadian spies in Afghanistan, SIRC said it took almost five years before CSIS added proper caveats to information it shared to warn partners that the information could have been learned through torture.

The report also notes operatives didn't keep thorough records of their interviews with Afghan detainees.

The report also says CSIS should be more cautious in how much information operatives collect and keep about youth and their online activities.
More on link

 Drone Strike in Pakistan Kills Brother of Militant Commander
By SALMAN MASOOD Published: October 27, 2011 
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An American drone strike on Thursday killed the brother of a top Pakistani Taliban commander and three other aides, officials said, in the latest targeting of militants based in the country’s northwestern region. 

Two missiles hit a vehicle at 9 a.m. in Tura Gula village in the Azam Warsak district in South Waziristan, according to a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The strike killed Hazrat Umar, a 20-year-old brother of the commander, Maulvi Nazir Nazir, and Khan Muhammad, another top commander in the group.
More on link


----------



## GAP (27 Oct 2011)

Insurgents attack two foreign bases in Afghan south
Thu Oct 27, 2011 
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as a suicide car bomber, attacked two bases used by foreign troops in southern Afghanistan Thursday, the U.S. embassy and NATO-led coalition officials said.

An attack on a military and civilian provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban, was still going several hours after it began, and there were some unconfirmed reports of casualties.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"The attack included RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) and small arms fire and is still ongoing at this time," the U.S. embassy in Kabul said in a statement Thursday evening.

"Afghan and coalition forces have responded to the incident. All PRT chief of mission personnel are safe and accounted for, but there are unconfirmed reports of a number of other injuries," it said.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said soldiers also found a car suspected to contain explosives, and sealed off the area while inspecting the vehicle for bombs.

Earlier, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said no ISAF troops had been killed in the Kandahar PRT attack.

Also Thursday, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside an ISAF base in Kandahar province's Panjwai district. There were no ISAF casualties and the perimeter of the base was not breached, the coalition said.

Kandahar city, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, and surrounding districts remain some of the most insecure areas of Afghanistan despite more than a year of offensives by NATO and Afghan troops.   Continued...
More on link


----------



## GAP (30 Oct 2011)

*Articles found October 30, 2011*

Baad justice haunts Afghanistan
Article Link
 Saturday October 29, 2011

In Kandahar, Canadian troops are taking their base apart now that their combat role is over in Afghanistan.  

Afghans meanwhile, are still putting together the framework for justice and governance to keep the country together once western troops depart. 

Millions have already been spent training judges and building courthouses. 

But ten years after the war began, many Afghans still resort to old traditions which have cruel consequences for women, as we hear from Canadian journalist Laura Lynch at the jail where many wind up.  
More on link

 Afghan lockdown after Australians killed
Article Link
Simon Cullen, agencies  Sun, 30 Oct 2011 

Hundreds of Afghan troops have been disarmed and confined to barracks after three Australian soldiers were shot dead on morning parade.

Seven Australian soldiers were wounded in the parade-ground attack at Forward Operating Base Sorkh Bed, in Kandahar province.

All were gunned down dead by an Afghankistan army soldier they had been helping to train.

The Chief of the Australian Defence Force, General David Hurley, says the attacker was immediately killed. But he conceded it will affect how Australian troops work with their Afghan colleagues.

Apprehensive
"People are apprehensive about what the working relationship is like. I think that would be quite natural," he said.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has paid tribute to the soldiers - "Fine Australian professionals, fine Defence Force personnel and very brave men."
More on link

 Commonwealth government leaders commit to stepping up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide
By Associated Press, Published: October 28
Article Link

PERTH, Australia — Commonwealth government leaders meeting in Australia agreed Saturday to step up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, despite the Afghanistan war setting back vaccination efforts there and in neighboring Pakistan.

Leaders of Britain, Canada, Australia and Nigeria, as well as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, committed tens of millions of dollars in additional funding toward the World Health Organization’s campaign to wipe out the disabling disease from the four countries where it remains endemic — India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
More on link


----------



## GAP (5 Nov 2011)

*Articles found November 5, 2011*

US General Peter Fuller fired as Afghan training chief
Article Link
 4 November 2011 Last updated at 22:20 ET

A senior US commander has been dismissed after he made disparaging comments about Afghanistan's leaders.

Maj Gen Peter Fuller, deputy commander of Nato's Afghan training mission, said in an interview with Politico the country's leadership was "isolated from reality".

It is not clear whether Gen Fuller will be reassigned or will retire.

The head of US forces in Afghanistan says Gen Fuller's comments do not represent the US-Afghan relationship.

Gen John Allen described the two countries as "solid", adding: "The Afghan people are an honourable people, and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission - bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan."

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was aware of the remarks but said that Gen Fuller had been speaking for himself and not the Department of Defense.
'Poke me in the eye'

Speaking while visiting Washington, Gen Fuller told Politico on Thursday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was an unimpressive public speaker.

"When they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that's more articulate in public," he said.
More on link

How solving the mystery of shell shock might help us all
Published On Fri Nov 04 2011
Article Link

In Afghanistan, a buried IED, crude and lethal, awaits pressure from a human foot — or maybe an armoured vehicle — to trigger its violent eruption among Canadian military troops.

In Toronto, a lab rat’s white matter spills proteins — and reveals secrets of bomb blasts — under the eyepiece of a Toronto microscope.

The link: soldiers’ brains, physically altered by supersonic shock waves driven through their skulls. Survivors often have no hint of inner trauma. But it’s there.

As Remembrance Day approaches, the state of our troops’ battered heads is an emerging issue on two fronts. It is a source of worry for the wounded and a trove of medical clues for scientists.

“I’ve had a headache since 2007,” says Michael Blois, a retired master corporal from Exeter, Ont.

Blois, 29, suffered a mild traumatic brain injury during a four-hour firefight in Afghanistan while serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. Headache was the first of his physical symptoms. Dizziness, nausea, fatigue and short-term memory loss took hold shortly after.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), commonly called concussions in this hockey nation, are dubbed by Americans the “signature injury” of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts over the past decade. No other wartime period has produced this volume of documented military TBIs.

How many in Canada? Hard to know. Only 278 Canadian Forces personnel have qualified to receive payments for TBI since 2004, according to Office of the Veterans Ombudsman figures released to the Star’s Allan Woods. Brain injury experts believe the number is much higher, since 38,558 regular and reserve troops have served in the Afghanistan mission.

The Canadian head-injury figure is dwarfed by the 220,000 diagnosed TBI cases (and counting) of nearly 2 million U.S. troops cycled through Iraq and Afghanistan.
More on link

 Suffering soldiers, four-legged saviours
kim mackrael Saturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Nov. 04, 2011 
Article Link

Dave Desjardins says he’s convinced a Rottweiler named Maggie helped save his life.

The 41-year-old retired soldier was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder in 2005, a few months after he returned from Afghanistan. When he first met the dog last year, he was addicted to morphine and afraid to leave his home for anything more than a quick cigarette in the backyard.

He said it was his relationship with Maggie, who leans in to nuzzle him when she senses he’s nervous and helps pull him up hills in his wheelchair, that brought him out of the depths of anxiety and depression.

“I can honestly say Maggie has saved my life,” he said. “She was an absolute godsend.”

He met the dog through an Ottawa-based program called Courageous Companions and says he wants to see more veterans who are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder gain access to animals trained to help them manage their symptoms.

It’s a move both Veterans Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence say they’re considering, but with restricted budgets and limited Canadian research on the program, neither department says it has immediate plans to step in.

“There are a lot of Canadians that have good ideas and good programs outside the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, that want to provide support to military members,” said Commander Marie-France Langlois. “We’re doing as much as we can in supporting that, but we treat [those programs] with caution as well.”

She said the Canadian Forces are examining the Courageous Companions program now, and are aware of several other Canadian groups that offer training for dogs to help veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
More on link

Bhutto murder: Pakistan police and Taliban charged
Article Link
 5 November 2011 Last updated at 08:04 ET

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has charged two senior police officers over the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

They were charged with security breaches and failure to protect her, prosecutors said.

Five alleged Taliban militants have also been charged with criminal conspiracy over Bhutto's death.

She died in a gun and bomb attack while campaigning for election. The accused deny the charges.

One of the police officers charged was Saud Aziz, the chief of police at the time in Rawalpindi, where Ms Bhutto was killed.

He and the other police officer were arrested nearly a year ago.

Prosecutor Mohammad Azhar said they were accused of "changing the security plan for BB [Bhutto]," Reuters news agency said.
Musharraf 'fugitive'

Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan at the time, has also been implicated in Ms Bhutto's murder.

The anti-terrorism court issued an arrest warrant for him in February over what it said was his failure to provide her with adequate security.
More on link


----------

