# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (November 2007)



## GAP (1 Nov 2007)

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

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


*Articles found November 01, 2007*

Third day of Afghanistan clashes  
Article Link

Afghan police and Taleban fighters have clashed outside the southern city of Kandahar in a battle that has now been going for three days, officials say. 
It is the closest the Taleban have got to their former stronghold since late 2001, when their government fell to the international military operation. 

Scores of local people have fled the area and taken refuge in Kandahar city. 

The Taleban began their advance into Arghandab district after the death two weeks ago of a local leader. 

He supported the Afghan government. 

For the past three days, Afghan army and police, fighting alongside troops from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) force, have been pushing them back. 


Fifty Taleban have been killed, according to Afghan police, and 40 injured, although those figures are impossible to confirm independently. 

The police also said one Afghan soldier and three police officers were killed. 

Dozens of people in Arghandab district have fled their homes since the fighting began, taking refuge some 12km (eight miles) away in Kandahar city. 

"What's very telling is that the Afghan National Army (ANA) is showing a great deal of competence in military engagement," an Isaf spokesman said. 

He praised what he said was the high level of co-operation between Isaf and Afghan forces. 

Correspondents say that fighting in Afghanistan is the heaviest since the fall of the Taleban six years ago, and civilians are increasingly among the casualties. 

On Monday Nato denied claims by an official in the province of Wardak that 13 Afghan civilians were killed in a Nato air strike near Kabul. 

It said that a "thorough investigation" had been conducted into the allegations, which had concluded they were "completely without merit". 

Story from BBC NEWS:
More on link

Canada taking over war memorial  
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The federal government will take over and maintain a run-down Canadian war memorial in England 
The Department of Veteran's Affairs announced Wednesday it would invest about $250,000 to acquire the memorial in downtown London as well as about $100,000 a year for management and maintenance costs.

The granite-and-bronze monument, designed by the late Montreal sculptor Pierre Granche, sits in Green Park opposite Buckingham Palace.

It was the brainchild of former media tycoon Conrad Black, who was co-chair of the design selection committee and was present when the Queen and then-prime minister Jean Chretien inaugurated the memorial in 1994. 

It was envisioned as a commemoration of the hundreds of thousands of Canadian soldiers who fought alongside Britons in the First and Second World Wars.

But is been decaying for months while its actual ownership could be determined.
  
The memorial features inclined planes of red granite inset with bronze maple leaves, with water running across the tilted surface, making it seem like the leaves are afloat in a stream. 

But the complex pumping and piping system has been turned off for months. The memorial plaques are grimy and it has become, for some, a play surface for children and dogs. 

There are reports that the Daily Telegraph newspaper, when Black owned it, paid for maintenance. But he is long gone from the owner's office and those funds have dried up. 
More on link

Taliban overrun another Afghan district
Article Link

Taliban rebels have overrun a district centre in western Afghanistan as fighting took place in a nearby area captured earlier this week, a provincial official says.

The Taliban have massed in unusually large numbers in the last week in the west and near the main southern city of Kandahar, challenging assertions by Afghan government and foreign troops that they can rout the rebels in any direct engagement.

A Taliban leader vowed to press on with the campaign to overthrow the Afghan government and eject the 50,000 foreign troops with the same intensity through the harsh Afghan winter.

Some 400 Taliban fighters took over the district centre of Gulistan in the western province of Farah on Monday. While Afghan and NATO-led forces were battling to take it back, the insurgents took over the neighbouring district centre of Bakwa.

"Bakwa district centre fell into the hands of the Taliban in an attack yesterday afternoon," said Maolavi Yahya, the district chief of neighbouring Delaram.
More on link

Portugal to slash troops in Afghanistan to just 15
From correspondents in Lisbon November 01, 2007 10:03am Article from: Agence France-Presse 
Article Link

PORTUGAL will cut its military presence in Afghanistan by more than 90 percent from August 2008, Defense Minister Nuno Severiano Teixeria told parliament, according to Lusa news agency.

Portugal will reduce its contribution to NATO's International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) from 162 soldiers to a single C-130 transport plane and 15 soldiers to train members of the Afghan army, the defence minister said during a parliamentary commission meeting. 

Mr Teixeira later told journalists that "the principles of rotation and the needs" of NATO were behind the planned troop reduction. 

"States which are engaged in the most difficult zones (of Afghanistan), such as Portugal, can make changes to troop numbers," he said. 
More on link

WITNESS: Ambushed by the Taliban in Afghanistan
Thu Nov 1, 2007 8:14am EDT
Article Link

Finbarr O'Reilly is embedded with Canadian troops in Afghanistan. In this story, he recounts a narrow escape during an attack by Taliban fighters on October 23. Finbarr's pictures from the incident are a dramatic visual narrative of soldiers in combat. Finbarr, who holds British and Canadian nationality, is a 36-year-old photographer for Reuters who is based in West Africa. Finbarr won the World Press Photo of The Year Award in 2006.

By Finbarr O'Reilly

HOWZ-E-MADAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The first Taliban shell struck just as Canadian and Afghan troops retreated across a dusty field in southern Afghanistan.

It exploded about 5 meters (yards) from four Canadian soldiers who were training their Afghan National Army counterparts as part of NATO's mission here.

As a photographer embedded with the Canadians, I was caught in the blast and enveloped by a cloud of dust and smoke. We scrambled for cover behind a mud wall shielding us from Taliban positions on the opposite side of the field.

The unit I was with had earlier abandoned a planned dawn ambush of Taliban fighters. It responded quickly to the attack.

I focused on taking pictures of an Afghan army soldier shooting a heavy mounted machine gun from a nearby ditch.

A shell from an 82-millimeter recoilless rifle exploded in front of him and he disappeared in the flash of light. Sand blasted me and the shockwave knocked me over.
More on link

Tone it down, Ottawa tells top soldier
'Marching orders' issued over Hillier's controversial remarks 
BRIAN LAGHI From Thursday's Globe and Mail November 1, 2007 at 2:00 AM EDT
Article Link

OTTAWA — Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff, Rick Hillier, has been told to tone down his political interventions after he spoke out last week on the direction of the Afghanistan military mission, sources have told The Globe and Mail.

“He got his marching orders,” a senior government official said Wednesday. “He was reminded what his role is. His role is not to be the chief spokesperson for the mission.”

Gen. Hillier sparked controversy last week by saying it will be at least a decade before Afghanistan is able to field a professional military capable of managing its security. He also called on European countries to take a bigger role in the violent Kandahar region of Afghanistan, where Canada has committed 2,500 troops. Earlier in the week, the government's Speech from the Throne said Afghans will be able to defend their sovereignty by 2011.

The general immediately went to the airwaves to say he wasn't disagreeing with the government.
More on link

City honours soldiers; Giant ribbon to adorn tower
Posted By Jordan Press
Article Link

Yellow ribbons abound across the country, each a statement of support for Canadian soldiers and veterans. 

Next week, City Hall will make a big statement of its own - and it will be visible to the men and women in uniform at CFB Kingston, across the Lasalle Causeway. 

An enormous ribbon will be strung around the tower of City Hall just before Remembrance Day. 

It will remain there until January, by which time a large contingent of soldiers from CFB Kingston will have left for the battleground of Afghanistan. 

"It shows the City of Kingston actually supports our military. That's what it's all about," said former base commander Gerry Coady, who has been actively organizing a public show of appreciation for the troops. 

The City Hall banner is part of festivities and ceremonies for Remembrance Day weekend. On Nov. 11, veterans, soldiers and residents will gather to remember and mourn Canadian soldiers lost in combat and in the line of duty. 

On Friday, Nov. 9, City Hall staff will place the 40.5-metre ribbon around the base of the tower over the buildings front entrance. It will be high enough and bright enough that those with clear sightlines from across the Cataraqui River will be able to see it. 

Ribbons to support the soldiers have already been a part of the City Hall landscape. Earlier this year, ribbons were placed trees around Market Square, including a large one around the Christmas Tree in the southwest corner of the square. 

"This is just an extension of that and a more visible sign of support," said the city's corporate services commissioner, Denis Leger. 
More on link

Aide denies report Hillier leashed by Ottawa  
Updated Thu. Nov. 1 2007 7:38 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

An aide to Gen. Rick Hillier is denying reports that Canada's top soldier has been leashed by Ottawa following comments he made about Afghanistan last week. 

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Hillier had been told to tone down his political comments on the mission. 

"He got his marching orders," a senior government official told the newspaper on Wednesday. "He was reminded what his role is. His role is not to be the chief spokesperson for the mission." 

Hillier spoke out last week on the direction of the Afghanistan mission, telling reporters that it could be 10 years before the country's army is in a position to fend for itself. 

The comments seemed to contradict what Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the throne speech -- that the objective could be accomplished by 2011. 

Hillier then backed away from the controversy telling CTV's Mike Duffy Live that he was on the exact "same sheet of paper" with Harper. 

"What I talked about was building the total Afghan national army, which is not our responsibility. Our piece is in Kandahar province itself," Hillier said. 

"Our piece in Kandahar province, the speech from the throne was pretty clear on what the government is looking towards. I believe that's eminently doable." 

Hillier was not available for comment Wednesday but an aide told The Globe that Hillier was never reprimanded. 

"He has received no direction to change his course on his public comments," said Major Holly Apostoliuk, the general's public affairs officer. 

"There is no need because he and the government of Canada are of one view and of one approach re the mission." 

Apostoliuk would not comment on whether Hillier had spoken to government officials about the situation. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (1 Nov 2007)

Japan orders ships home from Afghanistan
Reuters, Nov. 1
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071101.wjapanafghan1101/BNStory/Afghanistan/home



> Japan ordered its naval ships to withdraw from a mission backing U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan as a deadline to extend the activities was set to expire on Thursday.
> 
> Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has been struggling against a resurgent opposition to enact a new bill to allow Japan's navy to keep providing free fuel for U.S. and other ships patrolling the Indian Ocean, a mission seen as vital by close ally Washington.
> 
> ...



Cdn frigate leaves Halifax harbour for six-month deployment in Persian Gulf
CP, Nov. 1
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/071101/n110132A.html



> A Canadian warship steamed out of Halifax harbour on Thursday to resume patrols in the Persian Gulf and gain intelligence on potential terrorist activity in the volatile region.
> 
> Hundreds of weeping family members lined the military dock as HMCS Charlottetown made its way out to sea to begin a six-month mission involving surveillance, boarding suspicious vessels and ensuring the safety of a waterway that's key to the international trade of oil.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (2 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 2, 2007*

Infighting among NATO members snarls Afghan mission, ex-commander says
DOUG SAUNDERS From Friday's Globe and Mail November 2, 2007 at 4:35 AM EDT
Article Link

LONDON — Chaos and competing goals among NATO nations involved in Afghanistan are preventing progress there, according to the British general who commanded the Afghan mission until February.

"The nations contributing to [the NATO mission in Afghanistan], together with the Afghan government, have yet to agree, and to start efficiently implementing, a coherent strategy," Sir David Richards told a conference of leaders yesterday organized by the Canadian government in London.

Gen. Richards was frank about the reason for this deterioration: "General Dan McNeill, the ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] commander, has too few troops to conduct the operation in a manner that meets the basic rules of a counterinsurgency campaign."

One senior official experienced with the war said that "we need at least a doubling of ISAF presence - and probably a lot more than that - if we are to achieve the minimum goals of the campaign." There are currently more than 41,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan.
More on link

Kandahar deal breakers: The Afghan poll is not a blank cheque
TAYLOR OWEN AND DAVID EAVES Special to Globe and Mail Update November 2, 2007 at 1:03 AM EDT
Article Link

The results of the poll of Afghans by Environics on behalf of The Globe and Mail, the CBC and La Presse were surprising to many. Afghans are broadly content with their government, happy that Canada is in Afghanistan, and believe the work being done is beneficial and effective. Canadians should be proud. We are making a difference.

What is potentially worrying, however, is the fervour with which the poll was greeted in Canada by some of the mission's supporters. While a useful reminder of why we are in Afghanistan, this poll is not a blank cheque for any and all future engagement.

Future actions, by us or our allies, could alter the political conditions in Afghanistan, negatively shifting indigenous public opinion. Consequently, this poll should reaffirm the necessity of debating how we engage, and under what conditions we walk away.

Two looming scenarios could derail the mission.
More on link

Canadians, Afghans celebrate Taliban retreat
ANA takes lead role in battle that returns control of area north of Kandahar to government with apparent lack of civilian casualties 
GRAEME SMITH From Friday's Globe and Mail November 2, 2007 at 5:14 AM EDT
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The Canadian military and their Afghan allies congratulated each other, even holding a triumphant tour of the battlefield, just hours after the Taliban retreated from the heart of a key district north of Kandahar city.

Insurgents started falling back from their positions on the north bank of the Arghandab river in the early hours yesterday morning, police officials said. Eager to reassure the villagers fleeing the district, and reduce the public-relations damage caused by the Taliban's bold attack near the city, local authorities organized a well-publicized visit to the front lines.

That's how Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Chamberlain, commander of Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, found himself taking off his helmet and sitting among Afghan elders for a meeting in the village of Chahar Ghulba, the scene of heavy fighting over the past three days.

The Canadian commander was joined by several politicians, including Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid, who brought a group of Afghan journalists to record the fact that his government was back in control of the district.
More on link

Sears teams up with military to help Canadians send wishes to troops overseas  
    QUEBEC CITY, Nov. 1 /CNW/ - 
Article Link

Thousands of Canadian soldiers serving
overseas will be away from their families this Holiday season. Sears Canada is
calling on all Canadians to show their support for the troops by signing one
of the three 4'x5' giant greeting cards that will be touring Quebec City and
Montreal area Sears stores from November 1st through November 11th.
    "We began Operation Wish last year as a way of providing our soldiers
stationed abroad with a connection to their families back home," said Dene
Rogers, President and CEO, Sears Canada. "It has proven to be a great success
and we have formed a great alliance with the Canadian Forces Personnel Support
Agency who has been invaluable in helping us to connect with deployed troops
and their families at home. We have been overwhelmed with support from our
customers and associates for this initiative and we wanted to send their
thoughts and best wishes directly to the soldiers overseas. We decided to
start the project in Quebec in honour of the large contingent of soldiers who
just left from there."
    Similar cards will be placed in various cities across the country in
early December.
    Sears launched Operation Wish in 2006 in co-ordination with the Canadian
Forces Personnel Support Agency (CFPSA). Operation Wish allows Canadian troops
stationed abroad to place a customized order from the Sears Wish Book online.
Copies of the catalogue were sent to Canadian soldiers, sailors and air force
personnel posted to operational missions in Afghanistan, Africa, the Balkans,
the Caribbean, the Middle East, Southwest Asia and the Arabian Gulf region, as
well as those serving on HMCS Ottawa.
    All three cards will be toured and on display at nine Sears stores in the
province to enable Sears associates, customers and members of the community to
sign the cards. Stores include Place Laurier, La Capitale, Place Fleur de Lys,
Place du Saguenay, Fairview Pointe-Claire, Centre Les Rivières, Carrefour de
L'Estrie, Place Vertu and Mail Champlain in Brossard.
    On November 14, 2007 at CFB Trenton, Ont., the first unveiling of the
cards, containing well-wishes from Canadians, will occur at the dress
rehearsal of CFPSA's biannual show tour heading out to Afghanistan and other
Canadian missions to entertain the troops. The cards will then be shipped out
by CFB Trenton to the Canadian military base in Afghanistan.
    Once in Afghanistan, the cards will be officially unveiled during the
CFPSA's entertainment show for the troops featuring 11 francophone performers.
This show will kick off with comedian Pascal Babin and include rock and dance
numbers.
    "Receiving good wishes from people back home means a great deal to our
deployed troops," said Jim Peverley, CFPSA, Director of Deployment Support.
"Canadians thoughts and support are also very meaningful to all military
families, whether their loved ones are deployed or not."
More on link

Martin: Security can disappear in a flash in Afghanistan
Taliban seem to return far too quickly
  Don Martin National Post Thursday, November 01, 2007
Article Link

Wide-eyed nine-year-old Fila kept sneaking farther back in a lineup of brothers and sisters waiting for a hepatitis B vaccine, hoping they would run out of needles before it was her turn. 

Her father spotted the stall tactic, cuffed her wincingly hard on the head and shoved her toward Senlis Council aid workers visiting the river camp of perhaps 100 dirt-poor Afghans in the Arghandab district, which at the time -- just two months ago -- was free of Taliban influence. 

I had my interpreter tell the cowering Fila that if she didn't cry while getting the injection, I'd get her picture in the paper and she could keep my pen and spare notebook as a reward. The needle slipped into her upper arm. She gasped, started to tear up, looked straight into my lens -- and smiled.

Her smile haunts me still, particularly with news that the camp where her family and dozen others huddled under riverbank-hugging tents fell to the Taliban a few weeks ago before being reclaimed by a dual military onslaught of Afghan and NATO troops this week.

How a dozen-member goat-herding family without a car or a horse could flee the battle over the steep hills separating their besieged home from the relative safety of Kandahar is beyond me. 

But there's also notable Canadian military significance to the Taliban's reoccupation of a settlement on Kandahar City's doorstep. 

The city is a beacon of economic hope for southern Afghanistan, filled with bustling markets, recycling operations, new building construction and even a three-star hotel. Free enterprise appears to operate without the constant threat of insurgency attack. 
More on link

Still much work to do in Afghanistan
 TheStar.com -November 02, 2007 Allan Woods OTTAWA BUREAU
Article Link

OTTAWA–With an insurgency on the rise and an increased perception of insecurity among locals, the international community should not "pretend" that stable progress is being made in Afghanistan, a top European diplomat said yesterday.

Francesc Vendrell, the European Union's special representative for Afghanistan, said an increasing number of Afghans fear for their safety, the Taliban is more active than at any time since 2001 and there are strong links between the Taliban, organized crime and government officials.

"Why are we at this point?" he asked at an Ottawa conference. "I don't think we should try and pretend that everything is all right."

Vendrell was one of a number of speakers yesterday discussing the successes and drawbacks that coalition forces are having bringing peace and security to the country.

Jonathan Parish, a senior NATO policy adviser, said: "As long as the Taliban can take sanctuary across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area ... the task for NATO members, particularly in the south and east of Afghanistan, will remain difficult if not impossible.

"That is why encouraging a more effective contribution from Pakistan is important."

All agreed that one of the bright spots in international efforts to rehabilitate Afghanistan was the training of the Afghan National Army. The force stands just shy of 40,000 troops but is rapidly expanding. 

A recent spat between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, focused on just how long it would take for Canada to train the Afghan army. The Conservative throne speech last month asserted it was "achievable" by 2011, allowing for a Canadian withdrawal from the country after that. Hillier later said that it would take about 10 years. He was quickly forced to clarify his comments.

Both Parish, a Briton, and Vendrell, a Spaniard, gave a cautious endorsement of the 2011 target date for the Afghan army.

"I'm less worried about whether we will meet the date than whether we will meet the actual substance of the agreement we arrived at in London (where the Afghanistan Compact was signed)," Vendrell said.

Parish said that 49 NATO training teams are currently working with the ANA and that number is set to jump to 70 by this time next year.

One major outstanding problem is the Afghan police, said Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, head of the Canadian army.

He noted the Afghan army has evolved into a "thoroughly professional, hard-hitting and well-respected institution ... The same cannot be said for the auxiliary police forces."

But even that is changing, he said. On a trip to Afghanistan about 10 days ago, Leslie said, he spent an evening with an Afghan police patrol in Kandahar's Panjwaii district. It was uneventful, he said.

"Three to four months ago that certainly would have been fatal." 
More on link


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## tomahawk6 (2 Nov 2007)

Coalition soldier killed in southern Afghanistan

Updated Fri. Nov. 2 2007 3:52 PM ET

The Associated Press

KABUL -- A U.S.-led coalition soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed Friday in clashes with insurgents in southern Afghanistan, a coalition statement said. 

Both soldiers died during combat operations in Uruzgan province, the statement said, without giving other details, such as the coalition soldier's nationality. 

Afghan security forces, meanwhile, killed a senior militant commander as he attempted to cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the coalition said in a statement Friday. 

Malawi Abdul Manan and several other insurgents were killed in an ambush set up by Afghan security forces in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, as they attempted to cross from neighboring Pakistan, the statement said. 

Manan's death is "a tremendous blow for the enemy," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. 

"His death will seriously hamper the enemy's organization and operations as there is no known successor," the coalition said. "In addition to leading a large contingent of militants, Manan was also responsible for the movement of both insurgent fighters and weapons smuggling across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border." 

The coalition compared Manan's role in the militants' movement to that of the ruthless one-legged Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed by foreign troops in May. 

"(Manan's) death is huge setback which will send the enemy into a tailspin," the statement said.


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## MarkOttawa (2 Nov 2007)

Afghan mission may fail, general warns
CanWest, Nov. 2
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=ff3d0deb-22f6-4fce-bb76-8d10c53b5681



> One of Britain's most outspoken military officers issued stark warnings about the potential for failure in Afghanistan at a forum hosted by the Canadian high commission Thursday.
> 
> Lt.-Gen. David Richards, who commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from May 2006 to February 2007, said he remains optimistic western allies will ultimately stabilize the war-ravaged country and keep it out of Taliban hands.
> 
> ...



NATO beats back Taliban
_Calgary Herald_, Nov. 2
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=960eeac1-dbed-4e7a-b341-855b07fca666



> The Taliban is on the run north of Kandahar city after a joint counter-attack by Afghan and NATO forces, Canadian officials say.
> 
> Following three days of intense fighting, about 200 to 300 insurgents have been killed, injured, arrested or are headed back to districts further north...
> 
> ...



Taliban Retreat Is Seen After an Advance Near Kandahar (no mention of Canadians)
_NY Times_, Nov. 2
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?ref=todayspaper



> ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 — Afghan officials said on Thursday that several hundred Taliban fighters had withdrawn from a strategic area near Kandahar, southern Afghanistan’s largest city, ending two days of clashes just outside it.
> 
> Local officials showed journalists what they said were abandoned Taliban positions several miles inside the area, the Arghandab district, but blocked them from venturing alone farther into it. No gunfire was heard in the area on Thursday, and *villagers said Taliban fighters withdrew on Wednesday night, telling the villagers that they had come to the area to spread their views* [emphasis added].
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (3 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOVEMBER 3

Kabul comeback
_Globe and Mail_, Nov. 3
http://www.theglobeandmail.com//servlet/story/RTGAM.20071102.wgarden1102/BNStory/Business/columnists



> Does beauty matter in a country torn by war?
> 
> That question confronted conservationists when they started rebuilding the renowned Babur Garden in Afghanistan's scruffy capital city...
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (3 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 3, 2007*

Canadian soldier hurt by blast in Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH  November 3, 2007
Article Link

Kandahar, Afghanistan -- A Canadian soldier was injured yesterday when an explosion rocked a Leopard tank in Arghandab district, a region north of Kandahar city where Canadian and Afghan forces pushed back a major Taliban offensive this week.

The soldier's injuries were not serious: He was listed in fair condition last night at a military hospital on Kandahar Air Field.

Conscious and talking, he was able to call his family and notify them himself about the incident.

The bomb went off shortly after 7 p.m. local time during a patrol about 30 kilometres north of the city, a military spokesman said. It was believed to be an improvised explosive device, the kind often used by Taliban insurgents. 
More on link

Australian soldier hurt by bomb in Afghanistan
Article from: Sunday Herald Sun Lincoln - Wright November 04, 2007 12:00am
Article Link

AN Australian soldier has been seriously hurt in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb that exploded as he tried to defuse it.

The incident happened on the same day as the funeral of SAS Regiment's Sgt Matthew Locke, killed by Taliban fighters in the southern province of Oruzgan on October 25. 

Trooper David Pearce was killed by a roadside bomb in the same area on October 8. 

The latest casualty, Sgt Michael Lyddiard, was flown from the blast scene, about 25km from the Australian base, to a field hospital at Tarin Kowt where he was in a serious but stable condition yesterday, a Department of Defence spokesman said. 

Sgt Lyddiard is a qualified explosive ordnance disposal operator serving with the Reconstruction Task Force. 

Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said Sgt Lyddiard would probably be transferred to a Coalition hospital outside Afghanistan. 

Sgt Lyddiard was part of a team involved in route clearance. No other soldiers were wounded in the Friday night incident. 

Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said taskforce members immediately secured the scene and provided medical help. 
More on link

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Visits Afghanistan (Update4)  
By Simeon Bennett and Rainer Buergin
Article Link

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, three weeks after the parliament she leads voted to extend Germany's military engagement there in defiance of public opinion. 

Merkel arrived today in Kabul for a one-day trip, pledging more German funding for the buildup of Afghanistan's security forces, the chancellor's press office said in an e-mailed statement. Afghanistan must be helped to take its security increasingly in its own hands, the office cited Merkel as saying. 

Merkel was on her first trip to Afghanistan since becoming chancellor two years ago. She will seek another parliamentary mandate later this month to extend Germany's commitment to combating Taliban insurgents, an operation distinct from its peace-keeping role.
More on link

New mullah in Arghandab district wants Canada to stay in Afghanistan
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - When it comes to his views on Canada's presence in Afghanistan, it's like father like son for the new mullah in the Arghandab district north of Kandahar city.

Arghandab has been the site of heavy fighting involving Canadian and Afghan security troops as the Taliban sought to gain a foothold in the area with the death last month of Mullah Naqib, a former warlord who was an enemy of the Taliban.

"With what's going on right now in the district of Arghandab is not good and in this situation the Canadians must stay right here for a long time," said Kareemullah Naqibi, recently named by President Hamid Karzai as his father's successor.

"And with the acute situation in Kandahar city, I think that the Canadians should stay a long time too," said Naqibi, speaking through an interpreter to reporters in Arbhandab. "I do not say the exact time whether it's one month, two months or three months. They must stay because the security situation is not good right now."

A force of about 300 Taliban tried last month to gain control of Arghandab, lush farmland of grape and pomegranate orchards which would have provided the group with easy access to its former stronghold.
More on link

Canadian Forces in fierce battle near Kandahar City
Kelly Cryderman, CanWest News Service KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan 
Article Link

Canadian and Afghan forces are in the midst of a key battle to secure Kandahar and to keep the Taliban from taking advantage of a perceived power vacuum just outside the city. 

Arghandab district in Kandahar province, to the immediate north of Kandahar City, has seen heavy fighting over the past two days. Maj. Eric Landry, chief plans officer for Canada’s Joint Task Force Afghanistan, said Wednesday evening that about 50 insurgents have been killed and 50 injured. 

He wouldn’t say how many Canadians are involved in the fighting, but said there are “appropriate forces” in place in Arghandab. 

“This might be a vital ground for the insurgents. It’s also a vital ground for us,” Landry told reporters. 

The Taliban thrust is a threat to the provincial capital, and is further extending Canadian Forces at a time when all of the country’s designated combat troops are working in the volatile Panjwaii and Zhari districts, located to the south and west of the city. Those areas remain active fights. 
More on link

Dutch NATO soldier killed in southern Afghanistan
Article Link

THE HAGUE (AFP) — A 21-year-old Dutch soldier with the NATO-led deployment confronting Taliban and other extremists in southern Afghanistan was killed in a bomb strike, the Dutch army said.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had earlier announced that one NATO soldier died and two were wounded in an incident caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Two other Dutch ISAF soldiers were hurt in the attack and they are being treated on the Dutch base Tarin Kowt, Dutch army chief Dick Berlijn told a press conference.

The new death takes to 192 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, around the same toll for the whole of 2006. Most of them have been killed in hostile action, with a Taliban-led insurgency intensifying.

Corporal Ronald Groen is the 12th Dutch soldier killed in Afghanistan, either accidentally or in combat.
More on link

Germany to extend support in S Afghanistan if needed   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-03 19:54:15  
Article Link

KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday her government would extend support to Afghanistan's volatile southern region if need arises. 

    "If there is need for the south, Germany would assist it," she told newsmen at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. 

    However, she did not say what kind of assistance her government would extend to the militancy-plagued southern provinces of Afghanistan. 

    More than 3,000 German troops serving in the post-Taliban Afghanistan have been stationed in the country's relatively peaceful northern provinces. 

    NATO-member states who have troops in Afghanistan to fight Taliban and associated insurgents have been asking Germany to contribute troops in the south, but Berlin is resisting the plea. 

    Merkel, who paid her first but unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Saturday, held meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest including the war on terror and boosting economic cooperation. 

    Karzai thanked Germany for its contribution in the reconstruction process of Afghanistan
More on link



Two Afghans found beheaded in central Afghanistan  　  
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-03 16:35:39      Print 
Article Link

    KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Beheaded bodies of two Afghans, who were abducted by suspected militants days ago, have been found in Rashidan district of central Afghanistan's Ghazni province, the provincial police chief said Saturday. 

    "A man and a woman were abducted by suspected militants about three days ago in Rashidan district and their bodies were found Friday afternoon in the area," Alishah Ahmadzai, police chief of Ghazni province, told Xinhua via telephone. "They were beheaded." 

    No one or group claimed responsibility for the killings yet. 

    It might be Taliban militants who have committed the crime, Ahmadzai said, adding that around 20 local tribal elders with suspected connection with foreign troops have been killed by the Taliban over the past three months in the province. 

    The Taliban has yet to make any comment upon this incident. 

    This year has witnessed a sharp increase of violence in Afghanistan and various violent incidents and conflicts have left over 5,400 people dead in the war-torn country since January.
More on link


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## GAP (4 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November  4, 2007*

Afghan-Canadian co-operation 'shut door' to Taliban inroad
Kelly Cryderman CanWest News Service Sunday, November 04, 2007
Article Linkhttp://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=ec565e79-5a94-4286-a8bc-e4f9de443584&k=69779

The sights and sounds of combat along the north side of the Arghandab River have faded. The leafy banks, unusually green for southern Afghanistan, now appear tranquil.

As Kalimullah Khan Naqibi stands at the district centre on a hill overlooking the valley, he reflects on last week's battle in Arghandab and acknowledges a crucial misstep.

Naqibi, 25, is the baby-faced son of an influential tribal leader and foe of the Taliban named Mullah Naqib, whose death last month precipitated an insurgent offensive into Arghandab - embroiling Afghan and Canadian forces in three days of fierce fighting.

The Taliban have long wanted to make inroads in this district, which Naqibi calls a gateway to the main southern city of Kandahar.

The mullah's death gave the insurgents an opportunity.

Naqibi, now appointed his father's successor, said he was so busy immediately following his father's fatal heart attack that he set aside talks with elders.

"At that time I was very busy and I did not make a shura (tribal council) with the people, so the people forgot me and I forgot the people," he said yesterday. "That was our mistake." Sensing at least a temporary vacuum in Arghandab's leadership, the Taliban attacked the relatively peaceful district.

But Naqibi's "mistake" and the Taliban thrust were turned into a key test for Afghan and Canadian forces.

In what military leaders say was a quick and organized response, the Afghan police and army, alongside 300 Canadian soldiers, fought off the attack, killing about 50 insurgents.

The Afghans and Canadians, aided by more than 30 U.S. police mentors, saw few casualties.
More on link

Pakistan emergency rule troubles ally US
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's calling of emergency rule Saturday drew strong censure from the United States, pointing to limits in Washington's power over a key ally in its fight against extremism.

"This action is very disappointing," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement.

"President Musharraf needs to stand by his pledges to have free and fair elections in January and step down as chief of army staff before retaking the presidential oath of office."

Musharraf's dramatic move apparently did not drive Washington to cut military support for its key south Asian ally, however. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said there was no plan to suspend military aid to Pakistan.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in reaction to the move insisted that Pakistan must push ahead with general elections due in January.

"Anything that is extra-constitutional, anything that takes Pakistan off the democratic path, off the path of civilian rule, is a very big problem," she said in an interview with CNN news.

Musharraf declared a state of emergency earlier Saturday, sacking the nation's top judge -- the chief justice of the Supreme Court -- and blaming judicial interference in government and a wave of Islamic militant attacks.
More on link

I guess deaths on UN-run missions are more noble...  
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Article Link

...than those on the Security Council-mandated NATO mission in Afstan. That seems to be the sub-text of what a professor is saying:

The annual death toll for soldiers in UN peacekeeping operations has steadily declined since the end of the Cold War, but Canada has secured second spot in the world for number of fatalities, a new study has found.

The report by Walter Dorn, professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College in Toronto [?!?--actually at the Canadian Forces College, Toronto, too, amazing reportorial and editorial ignorance, or maybe not]...

"I think the UN is learning how to deal with conflicting parties and how to deal with counter-insurgencies," he told Sun Media in an interview. "They have had horrendous times in the past, when you think of Somalia, Bosnia, Cambodia and Sierra Leone. In all of those cases there were insurgents fighting the government and the UN has taken a wiser, more inclusive approach -- it takes longer, it takes more patience, but it isn't as aggressive."

Other tactics such as convincing insurgents to switch sides or turn themselves in have proven better for longer-term success, he said.
More on link

Most of what is covered here and more is to be found here CANinKandahar

CANinKandahar Link


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## GAP (5 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 5, 2007*

Taliban stealthily sought warlord's weapons cache
GRAEME SMITH From Monday's Globe and Mail November 5, 2007 at 4:56 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — A secret objective of the Taliban's spectacular attack on Arghandab district last week was a brazen raid on a property owned by a former warlord, where the insurgents may have stolen cash, guns, or even Stinger missiles, Afghan officials say.

In the chaos of the insurgents' first major offensive on the northern approaches to Kandahar city, Taliban fighters seized control of Chahar Ghulba, a village about 10 kilometres north of the provincial capital.

The symbolism was immediately obvious: The village had been home to Mullah Naqib, a legendary warrior whose reign as the district's leading tribal elder had ensured the relative peace in Arghandab.

Mr. Naqib died of a heart attack last month, and the Taliban's occupation of his village emphasized how badly the district's security had deteriorated without him.
More on link

Pakistan woes underline MacKay visit to Afghanistan
Kelly Cryderman, CanWest News Service
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Defence Minister Peter MacKay swooped in for a visit to Kandahar Sunday, quickly touting Canadian successes in Afghanistan and condemning the declaration of emergency rule in neighbouring Pakistan. 

“It’s very unsettling to see what is happening there,” MacKay said of Pakistan, speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Kandahar Airfield. 

“We condemn anything that would undermine the progress that we hoped we would see towards free and fair elections,” he said. “And as a country that espouses very strongly democratic values, our respect for rule of law, and respect for human rights, we see this very much as a step in the wrong direction.” 

On Saturday, General Pervez Musharraf filled Pakistan’s streets with police, shut down TV stations and declared a state of emergency. The Pakistani leader, who is also president, said he is acting to address an increasing terrorist threat in the country. 

However critics say Musharraf is simply clinging to power in the face of growing opposition, and they predict he will cancel upcoming elections. 
More on link

Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south
After a week of battle, Afghan and international forces pushed the resurgent Taliban out of a key district north of Kandahar.
By Jon Boone | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor from the November 5, 2007 edition
Article Link

Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghans affected by an outbreak of Taliban fighting in a strategic district bordering the southern city of Kandahar have returned to their villages after a week of crisis sparked by the death of a tribal strongman. 

Local authorities said Sunday that life was returning to normal following successful operations by Afghan security forces and Canadian troops to dislodge Taliban fighters from the lush agricultural lands of Afghandab district. 

The insurgents were apparently intent on capitalizing on the death of Mullah Naqib, the former mujahideen warrior who led the Alokozai tribe of the district, north of Kandahar city. 

For years, Mullah Naqib had kept the Taliban out of a district that offers a perfect route for attacking Kandahar city, the spiritual home of the hardline Sunni movement from its emergence in 1996 through its removal from power by US-led forces in 2001. 

But up to 300 Taliban fighters entered the district last week, less than three weeks after Mullah Naqib's death created a political vacuum in one of southern Afghanistan's most important tribes. 

The fighters, who local sources say were all in their mid-20s, remained for two days and came within 15 miles of the provincial capital. They occupied and trashed Naqib's ancestral home before being expelled by more than 600 Afghan and international forces. 

The swift collapse of political authority in the province highlights the reliance of overstretched international forces on friendly power brokers remaining loyal to the government of President Hamid Karzai. 

Rising insecurity, official corruption, and the widespread belief that the government has failed to deliver basic public services have all undermined popular support, according to a European diplomat who spoke anonymously. 
More on link

News About Afghanistan  
This is a blog for news items and reports about Afghanistan
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Article Link

Security Incidents on November 3, 2007 

A 21-year old Dutch soldier was killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan and two others were wounded in the incident, the Dutch military said. The soldiers were on a patrol in the province of Uruzgan when an improvised device exploded. The wounded are in stable condition, the military said.

One Coalition and one Afghan National Army servicemember were killed around 5:30 p.m. today while conducting combat operations in northwest Uruzgan Province. 

A Canadian soldier was wounded in an explosion Friday as he patrolled a district north of Kandahar City, where heavy fighting has been seen in recent days. 

Suspected Taliban militants killed a women they accused of spying for the Afghan government and foreign troops in Ghazni province.

Two Afghans found beheaded in Rashidan district of Ghazni province. They were abducted several days ago.

Security Incidents on November 4, 2007 

At least 25 Taliban reported killed Saturday in Afghanistan. This happened in Uruzgan province. "The bodies of the dead were left at the battlefield," it said, adding that a Taliban commander was seriously hurt. 

A roadside bomb blast killed four Afghan police in Ghazni provinced. Two more were wounded in this attack. 
More on link

White House ponders greater legal rights for Guantanamo detainees
Sheldon Alberts, CanWest News Service Published: Sunday, November 04, 2007
Article Link

WASHINGTON -- When it comes to forecasting the ultimate legal fate of Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr, the increasingly logical approach is to abandon reason for pure conjecture. 

In the past year, officials in the Bush administration have publicly speculated Khadr could be detained for life at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, even if he is acquitted on murder and other terror-related charges. It was also suggested Khadr might serve a future sentence in an Afghan prison if he is convicted.

And then his case was dismissed altogether last summer by a U.S. Marine Corps judge, a decision overturned two months ago by a military appeals court that reinstated the charges.
More on link

Germany's Merkel resists calls to deploy troops to south Afghanistan
by Waheedullah Massoud November 3, 2007
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday Germany would continue to focus its military efforts on northern Afghanistan, despite calls for its forces to move into the insurgency-hit south. 

Germany is, however, ready to help out in the south if necessary, where other countries are under pressure, Merkel said during a surprise one-day visit. 

It is her first trip to Afghanistan, where Germany has 3,000 troops in the international effort to fight extremists such as the Taliban. 

"Germany has taken over responsibility in the north of Afghanistan and I think the most important (thing) is to pursue the efforts we have begun," Merkel told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. 

The country is also contributing Tornado planes to carry out reconnaissance work in Afghanistan, she said. 

And "whenever troops will need help in the south, we will of course provide help for the south," Merkel said, without making it clear what degree of assistance she meant. 

"But I strongly believe that we should stick to our concept that has been worked out in order not to weaken our forces in the north," she said. 

Germany has been criticised for keeping the bulk of its forces in the north while countries such as Britain, Canada and the United States face some of the most intense fighting in decades in the south. 

Southern Afghanistan sees the worst of an insurgency led by the hardline Taliban movement that was driven from government in late 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. 

Violence has grown in the north but the area is free from the daily violence gripping the south and east. 
More on link

U.S. returns 11 Guantanamo detainees to Afghanistan and Jordan
Article Link

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Eleven detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay - eight Afghans and three Jordanians - have been transferred to the custody of their home countries, the Pentagon announced Sunday.

The men were flown out of the U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba after a military review was conducted at Guantanamo gauging whether the prisoners have intelligence value or pose a threat to the United States. The military does not provide details about individual cases.

Roughly 320 detainees remain at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban, including 80 who have been deemed eligible for transfer or release, according to the Department of Defence. The vast majority of the detainees have been held for years without being charged.
More on link

S Korea announces to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan  
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-05 17:00:57      Print 
  Article Link

    SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean Defense Ministry said on Monday that it will complete the withdrawal of all the 210South Korean troops in Afghanistan by mid-December. 

    "The soldiers will be withdrawn before the Dec. 19 presidential election," officials of the Defense Ministry told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. 

    The South Korean government pledged to pull out all its troops from the country earlier in return for the release of 23 South Koreans kidnapped by Taliban militants in July. 

    South Korea deploys about 60 medics and 150 engineers in Afghanistan. 

    Local media said South Korea is to complete the withdrawal of the troops on Dec. 14. Instead of the troops, Seoul will send 20 civilians and government officials to Afghanistan as part of a regional reconstruction team, local reports said. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (5 Nov 2007)

Pakistan's domino effect
_Toronto Star_, Nov. 5
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/273568



> OTTAWA–The imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan this weekend could turn the difficult task of fighting Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency into an impossible mission, military and diplomatic analysts warned yesterday.
> 
> "The Taliban and the rest of that gangster crew is going to have an easier time in Pakistan, which in turn means that the situation in Afghanistan may continue to be unstable," said Alex Morrison, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. "The equation is that the more Pakistan is unsettled, the more Afghanistan is unsettled."..
> 
> ...



U.S. military aid to Pakistan misses its Al Qaeda target
The Frontier Corps battling the militants is outgunned and poorly trained, officials say. Funding instead goes to equipment more suited for conventional warfare with India.
_LA Times_, Nov, 5
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-uspakistan5nov05,0,1609686.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntothtml



> Despite billions of dollars in U.S. military payments to Pakistan over the last six years, the paramilitary force leading the pursuit of Al Qaeda militants remains underfunded, poorly trained and overwhelmingly outgunned, U.S. military and intelligence officials said.
> 
> Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cited the rising militant threat in declaring a state of emergency on Saturday and suspending the constitution.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (5 Nov 2007)

Afghan 'soft target' getting tougher
Matthew Fisher, National Post Published: Monday, November 05, 2007
Article Link

The predominately Push-toon province of Maidan-Wardak, which guards the southern approaches to Kabul, has a warrior tradition going back centuries. But it has been an oasis of calm the past few years, as the Taliban have been off fighting Afghan government forces and their American, Canadian, British and Dutch allies in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan.

All that suddenly changed at the beginning of the long, blazing Afghan summer. Decimated by heavy battlefield losses elsewhere, the Taliban arrived in Maidan-Wardak, which had no Afghan army or NATO military presence to speak of, and began blowing things up. As the province is only 35 kilometres from the capital, the Taliban instantly succeeded in shaking confidence in President Hamid Karzai's government.

"We have problems with roadside IEDs. We have problems on the main highway at night," said Jabar Naeemi, the youthful governor of this province, which is home to 800,000 Afghans and a road that connects to a dozen other provinces including Naeemi's hometown, Kandahar City, where Canadian troops are based. "In the name of religion, terrorists and thieves have been working together looting and kidnapping women and exporting drugs and we must fight all of this at once.
More on link


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## GAP (6 Nov 2007)

Taliban bikers storm Afghan region
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Sixty Taliban militants on motorbikes and pickup trucks overran a district center in central Afghanistan overnight, firing on the town from a mountain outlook, pushing out the police and cutting off the town's main road, officials said Tuesday.

The district, in Day Kundi province, is the third that militants have overrun in the last week. Two districts in the western province of Farah are also in Taliban hands.

Day Kundi's governor, Sultan Ali Uruzgani, said police retreated from Kajran district late Monday night when 60 Taliban on motorbikes and trucks stormed the town. One militant was killed and one policeman wounded in fighting, he said.

Fighting broke out around Kajran five days ago, he said. Since then, the Taliban have been firing artillery into the town from a mountain overlook and on Monday blocked the main road, Uruzgani said.

Uruzgani said he asked the Afghan government and NATO for reinforcements but that the area hasn't received any such support yet. The district borders Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, which have both seen heavy fighting this year.

Taliban militants within the last week also overran Bakwal and Gulistan districts in Farah province. An attempt to take a third Farah district was stopped Monday, said Farah police spokesman Bariyalai Khan. He said troops would soon take back the other two districts.

The Taliban claimed a propaganda victory by overtaking a district center -- typically a regional government office and police headquarters, often in remote areas -- by calling it a sign of the government's weakness. Often the militants control the centers only for a few hours or days, and NATO and U.S. commander dismiss the attacks as inconsequential.
More on link


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## GAP (6 Nov 2007)

Bombs targeting Afghan lawmakers kill at least 64
Updated Tue. Nov. 6 2007 9:22 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Two bomb blasts targeting a delegation of lawmakers north of Kabul killed at least 64 people Tuesday, in the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. 

There were conflicting numbers on the number of victims.

A government minister, under the condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that five parliamentarians were among the 64 people killed. 

Meanwhile, Baghlan hospital director Dr. Khalilullah told Reuters that 90 people were killed and 50 wounded. 

"The bodies of 90 people have been brought to the hospital so far and 50 people have been wounded," said Khalilullah. 

A major television station in Afghanistan, Tolo TV, is reporting more than 100 people were killed by the bombs. 

The bombs exploded outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to enter the facility for a tour. 

School children, Afghan elders and government officials waiting to meet the delegation were also hit by the blasts. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (6 Nov 2007)

Norway pledges more troops for Afghanistan
AP, Nov. 6
http://www.theglobeandmail.com//servlet/story/RTGAM.20071106.wafghannorway1106/BNStory/Afghanistan/home



> Norway will send an additional 250 troops, including special forces, and helicopters to bolster NATO-led forces in Afghanistan next year, the defence minister announced Tuesday.
> 
> Defence Minister Anne-Grethe Stroem-Erichsen said the force will include 150 special forces troops based in the Kabul region for 18 months beginning around March, 2008.
> 
> ...



color=yellow]A Detour From a Battle Against Terror[/color]
_NY Times_, Nov. 6
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/world/asia/06musharraf.html?ref=todayspaper



> While Gen. Pervez Musharraf justified his emergency rule decree as helping him combat terrorism, it could end up weakening his ability to rein in the Qaeda militants who ultimately threaten American interests.
> 
> In fact, Western diplomats here said, each step the president takes to strengthen his hold on power in the name of stability generates instability of its own.
> 
> ...



NATO’s looming existential challenge
ChronicleHerald.ca, Nov. 6, by PAUL SCHNEIDEREIT
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/976857.html



> ...Many Europeans say that the solution in Afghanistan cannot be a military one. That’s fine, but success won’t happen without a military component. With insufficient security, attempts to build infrastructure or institutions are dangerous, frustrating and ultimately unproductive. The Taliban have shown, through kidnappings of aid workers and attacks on teachers, students and new school buildings, that halting reconstruction is as important as killing infidel soldiers. The Europeans know this, but use rhetoric to try to excuse their failure to do their share as NATO members.
> 
> But Canada and the Dutch cannot be expected to keep carrying the heaviest burden, in terms of fighting, ad infinitum. Resolving matters in Afghanistan clearly remains a long-term challenge for NATO, made even more complicated by the political crisis now engulfing neighbouring Pakistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (8 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 8

Afghan army leader says poor weapons putting his soldiers at risk
CP, Nov. 8
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/11/08/pf-4640789.html



> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The buildup of the Afghan National Army, considered an integral part of Canada's 'exit strategy,' will continue at a snail's pace unless NATO provides better weaponry, a senior Afghan military commander says.
> 
> There currently are about 38,000 soldiers in the Afghan army, about half the number believed necessary to keep the Taliban at bay on its own.
> 
> ...



THE 'TALIBANIZATION' OF PAKISTAN
Islamists Destroy Buddhist Statue
_Spiegel Online_, Nov. 8
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,515958,00.html



> When the Taliban destroyed two Buddhist statues in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001,
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29cohen.html
> 
> there was an international outcry. But similar incidents are now occurring in northwest Pakistan, where radical Islamists recently blew up a sculpture of Buddha in broad daylight.
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (9 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 9, 2007*

Canadian soldiers approaching Nov. 11 as participants instead of onlookers
Article Link

SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan - They've all worn the poppies, marched in the parades and observed a moment of silence on past Remembrance Days.

But this year, many soldiers are seeing something different about Nov. 11. They are living the experience as participants and not just as observers.

At every small Canadian outpost in the Panjwaii, Zhari and Kandahar districts, the soldiers will mark the day of remembrance this Sunday. The biggest event will be at Kandahar Air Field where a permanent memorial bears the names and likenesses of the 71 Canadians who have lost their lives since this conflict began five years ago.

"This time, it's a lot more poignant. I've got reason for it. I've just been in several actions where I consider myself to be a veteran now," said Sgt. Scott Schall of Medicine Hat, Alta.

"Beforehand, I'd never been in anything remotely dangerous."

"You're sort of one of the people they're remembering now and it sort of has a different meaning to be on the other side of the fence. You can't think or fathom what those other people went through until you go through it yourself," he added speaking from atop his tank at Forward Operating Base Sperwan Ghar.
More on link

Afghan army leader says poor weapons putting his soldiers at risk
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The buildup of the Afghan National Army, considered an integral part of Canada's 'exit strategy,' will continue at a snail's pace unless NATO provides better weaponry, a senior Afghan military commander says.

There currently are about 38,000 soldiers in the Afghan army, about half the number believed necessary to keep the Taliban at bay on its own.

Canadian commanders have nothing but praise for the bravery of Afghan troops, who only earn about US$100 a month.

But after years of work and training, there are still only about two battalions of Afghan soldiers in Kandahar province where most Canadian soldiers are based.

The matter was raised when Gen. Rick Hillier, the Chief of Defence Staff, visited Afghanistan last month.

"An army is what's required to allow them to keep their security, so that's a long-term project," Hillier told reporters.

"It's going to take 10 years or so just to work through and build an army to whatever the final number that Afghanistan will have, and make them professional and let them meet their security demands here," he said.

Bravery aside, Afghan soldiers are in dire need of better weapons, said the commander of the Kandak 21 battalion, which has been working with the Canadian Operational Mentoring Liaison Team.

Most Afghan troops are armed with old Soviet AK-47s and covet the same kinds of firearms being used by Canadian and American troops.

"We are still having the same old weapons. The same complaints exist," Lt.-Col. Shirin Shah Kowbandi told The Canadian Press.

"The Canadian teams, when they first arrived for the training, said they would try and provide us with the good weapons but unfortunately we have not received any (such) weapons yet," he noted. "The old weapons are still misfiring."
More on link

Pakistan instability could endanger Canada's troops
Updated Thu. Nov. 8 2007 11:07 AM ET Andy Johnson, CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The ongoing political instability in Pakistan could have a direct impact on Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan if the situation continues to erode, according to experts on the region. 

Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule on Sunday, suspending the country's constitution ahead of a decision from the Supreme Court that could have floored his re-election as president. He also fired independent-minded judges, muzzled the media and beefed up law enforcement powers, resulting in hundreds of arrests. 

Canadian troops serving in nearby Afghanistan could soon be affected if the situation continues to spiral downwards, says Eric Margolis, an expert on the region and author of "War at the Top of the World." 

"It's gravely worrying for Canadian forces in Afghanistan," Margolis tells CTV.ca. 

That's because Pakistan, the United States' closest ally in the region, is home to three U.S. air bases that provide a whopping 85 per cent of air cover to Canadians fighting on the ground in Afghanistan .

And 75 per cent of military supplies used by NATO troops in Afghanistan come into the country from Pakistan -- much of it over land, by truck. 
More on link

Past and present: Canadian soldiers remember  
Remembrance Day this Sunday 
 by Elyse Amend 
Article Link

With Veteran’s Week getting underway this past Monday, more and more red poppies will be pinned to lapels in the days leading up to Remembrance Day. While people of all ages and backgrounds wear this symbol of commemoration around Nov. 11, war may seem like a distant subject. 

“A lot of the Remembrance Days over our lifetime have been about our grandparents and World War Two. Now, it’s getting to be a little closer to home for a lot of people” said Sgt. Chuck O’Donnell, 31, referring to the Canadian soldiers that are in Afghanistan “It’s really touching home for a lot of people a lot more. It’s no longer just our grandparents. It’s a lot more realistic for us now.” 

O’Donnell, a Beaconsfield native, has been a reservist with the Royal Canadian Hussars regiment on Cote des Neiges for 12 years. About a year and a half ago, he decided to sign up for the Afghanistan mission. 

“It’s just something I wanted to do. It’s being a proud Canadian and wanting to give back,” O’Donnell said. He was sent to Kandahar this past July, where he works as a military escort and performs gate security, verifying all employees and vehicles that pass in and out of the base. 

So far, the ride has not been an easy one: on Aug. 12, an armored vehicle carrying O’Donnell and four other soldiers drove over an improvised explosive device (IED). While the vehicle was severely damaged, the five sustained only minor injuries, with the most severe being a broken leg. 

Following a three-week leave, O’Donnell left on Saturday to return to the National Support Element in Kandahar. He will spend about three more months in Afghanistan before returning to his Ile Perrot home and his wife and two children at the end of January or beginning of February 2008. While leaving his family is not easy, O’Donnell said he is looking forward to seeing his fellow soldiers again. 
More on link

59 Schoolchildren Died in Afghan Blast
By FISNIK ABRASHI – 4 hours ago 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's deadliest suicide attack since the Taliban regime's ouster killed 59 schoolchildren, while 96 other students were wounded in the blast, the Education Ministry spokesman said Friday.

The attack in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday killed at least 75 people. The dead children were ages eight to 18, said Zahoor Afghan, an Education Ministry spokesman.

Five teachers were also among those killed in the attack, the worst in the country since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban militant movement from power. Six lawmakers also died.

The death toll among children was released as violence continued in the beleaguered country. NATO-led troops and Afghan forces captured a remote district in western Afghanistan, as militants ambushed and killed a district chief in the volatile south, officials said.

The schoolchildren were lined up to greet a group of lawmakers visiting a sugar factory when a suicide bomber detonated explosives, officials said. Witnesses have said some victims may have been killed or wounded by guards who opened fire after the blast.

"The education minister have ordered that no children should be ever again be used in these sort of events," Afghan said.
More on link

Afghan police detain two over big bomb attack
Fri Nov 9, 2007 3:15am EST
Article Link

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Afghan police have detained two men on suspicion of involvement in a suicide bomb attack this week that killed more than 50 people in the north of the country, the provincial governor said on Friday.

Tuesday's blast, in the relatively peaceful north, shook public confidence in the ability of the government and the 50,000 foreign troops in the country to provide security more than six years after the Taliban were ousted from power.

Taliban insurgents have carried out more than 130 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, but denied responsibility for the attack in the northern town of Baghlan that killed six opposition parliamentarians and a large number of schoolchildren.

The insurgent denial has sparked widespread speculation and conspiracy theories over who might be responsible amid a general atmosphere of fear and suspicion.

Police arrested two men in Baghlan -- one a mosque prayer leader, the other a resident of the industrial part of the town where the blast took place -- provincial governor Mohammad Alam Ishaaqzai told Reuters.

"The initial investigation shows these men may have had a hand in this attack," he said, but declined to say whether the men were affiliated to any insurgent or political group.
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Norwegian fatality in Afghanistan
Article Link

A road bomb was remotely detonated in Afghanistan on Thursday evening, destroying a vehicle carrying Norwegian soldiers.
An earlier road bomb attack on a Norwegian vehicle in Afghanistan - this one from early October did 

The two servicemen were in the front seats of a Toyota Landcruiser when the attack occurred, with two colleagues in the same type of vehicle directly behind them.

"The rear vehicle was still roadworthy after the attack, so the soldiers in that car took the injured soldier in the forward car back to base," said Major General Roar Sundseth, second in command at the Joint Defense Headquarters in Jåtta, said at a press conference on Thursday night.

The injured soldier was reportedly in serious but stable condition after received surgical attention from a team of German and Norwegian medical personnel.

Sundseth said that the incident would not influence operations currently underway in Afghanistan, and admitted that the situation in the area where Norwegian forces are in action have become more hazardous.

"We must be prepared for losses. We will now take the necessary security measures to keep our forces safe," Sundseth said.
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Colonel feels Canadian soldiers doing good job in Afghanistan  
FRANK GALE The Western Star
Article Link

STEPHENVILLE  — Col. Richard Alexander was amazed with different presentations and performances delivered in honour of Remembrance Day by the staff and students of Stephenville High School.

“The drama presentation is very realistic to me after being in World War 2, the Korean War and later doing peacekeeping duties,” he said.

Alexander said he went into the army at age 16 by running away from home and has been in and out of the service since 1942. He said it was during two weeks of leave in London, England — while the bombing was at its highest in the Second World War — that he remembers people coming up from underground shelters to see their homes were not there anymore.

“What I remember most of war is the useless killing of human beings, especially women and children,” he said. “It was different with soldiers as they knew what they were going in for.”

He said visits to gravesites in France and Belgium in recent years really had an effect on him. He said to look at the crosses and see those of unknown soldiers, as well as remember friends he had lost during the wars, is devastating.

“Nobody wins in a war and everybody suffers, but unfortunately we are here involved in another one in Afghanistan,” he said. 
More on link

This is the Canada I believe in.
Article Link

I received a link to this article in an email today. It's a little old, and sadly some of the facts are now outdated thanks to the current administration, but I think the message still rings true. 

Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON

Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada’s historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.

Almost 10% of Canada’s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (11 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 11

Canada hands over Afghan base
Strategic area was tough gain for Canadian troops, civilians
Reuters, Nov. 10
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=86c7bc4d-008f-4df1-b23b-340627dfc634



> Canadian troops handed control of a strategic base to the Afghan army on Friday, a first step in a long-term exit strategy for foreign forces helping Afghanistan battle the Taliban in the volatile south.
> 
> Ghundey Ghar patrol base in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district, just west of the key southern city of Kandahar, was a tough gain for Canadian forces who fought a fierce 18-hour battle to win the position on Aug. 22 this year.
> 
> ...



British forces stretched to the limit by the fight against the Taliban
Afghan soldiers are being trained rapidly, but the burden still falls mainly on Britain and its Nato allies
_Independent on Sunday_, Nov. 11
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3150042.ece



> On a hillside outside Kabul, Warrant Officer Harising Gurung of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, is putting Afghan officer candidates through their paces. "How do you show your men where to aim their fire?" he bellows, an interpreter echoing him. "That's right: you point your rifle at the target!"
> 
> The men have been selected purely for their ability to read and write, and acceptable physical fitness. So early in their training there is no indication whether they are suited to lead soldiers into battle against the Taliban. The trainers accept that of each intake of 120 officer recruits, at least a sixth are unlikely to complete the 23-week course, either because they are rejected as unsuitable or they walk away. As we join WO1 Gurung, his commanding officer, Major Mark Dommett, learns that the first candidate has dropped out.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (12 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 12, 2007*

Hillier can't hide grin as crowd applauds rabbi who says 'We love our troops'
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canadians laid wreaths to honour those slain on battlefields and during peacekeeping missions at Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country Sunday, but a thunderous response to a call to show support for soldiers currently serving injected some energy into what is normally a sombre occasion.

A smattering of applause snowballed after Rabbi Reuven Bulka, the honorary chaplain for the Dominion Command, urged thousands gathered at Ottawa's National War Memorial to chant "We love our troops."

Canada's top soldier couldn't contain a broad grin as the crowd applauded the country's men and women in uniform.

When asked later if he'd ever seen such an outpouring of support, Gen. Rick Hillier replied, "Not in this country, that's for sure."

"I think today, in particular, is going to be remembered for that line, which signifies in my view a coming awareness, a growing, increasing and now culminating awareness by Canadians of what their men and women in uniform do in service for them," he said in an interview.

Hillier, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined a host of dignitaries and veterans at the ceremonies across the street from the Parliament Buildings.

Both Jean and Harper, flanked by their families, laid wreathes before the estimated throng of 30,000 onlookers gathered under sunny skies, which included one woman who held up a small sign with the words "thank you."

Members of the Ottawa Children's Choir, all dressed in red, sang "O Canada."

In his prayer, the military's Chaplain General, Brig.-Gen. Stanley Johnstone, noted Canada has been shaped by the sacrifices Canadians made in battles like Vimy Ridge in the First World War and Dieppe and Normandy in the Second World War.
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For fallen soldiers, past and present
Ceremony hits home for those who lost loved ones in Afghanistan
Chris Zdeb, The Edmonton Journal Published: 1:07 am
Article Link

Dan Latendresse has been attending Remembrance Day services since he was 11 years old, but this is the first year it brought a tear to his eye. This year, Remembrance Day was personal.

As he stood among the 5,000 people gathered at the University of Alberta Butterdome on Sunday to honour Canada's war dead, Latendresse, a corporal with the Canadian Armed Forces in Edmonton, thought of his friend Pte. Joel Wiebe, one of three soldiers killed five months ago when their unarmoured Gator transport vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Kandahar.

Latendresse hadn't seen Wiebe since 2004, when he bumped into him in Afghanistan. The two spoke briefly and made plans to grab a coffee in a couple of days.
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Service, sacrifice honoured
38 Brigade on parade across city
By ROB NAY, SUN MEDIA
Article Link

Remembrance Day services yesterday honoured Canadian soldiers, ranging from those who served in the First World War to those serving today. 

Members of the 38 Canadian Brigade Group, Western Canada's largest army reserve brigade, paraded at three locations across the city to honour troops. 

At a service at the Minto Armoury, the sacrifices made by soldiers in both world wars were remembered in speeches and prayers. 

Canada's role in Afghanistan was also touched on. 

"We fully expect success in that mission too," commanding officer Col. Robert Poirier said in an address to soldiers. 

Members of the public gathered in the stands as brigade members stood at attention during the service. A prayer was given for those who have served. Speakers recounted the role of Canadian troops in pursuing peace and the need to defend those who cannot defend themselves. 

The Last Post was also played by a lone bugler prior to two minutes of silence. 

After the moment of silence, military members marched inside the armoury. Bands, featuring bagpipes and drums, played as the units strode in unison, drawing applause from the public. 

To Afghanistan  

Some of the military members in attendance are in the process of getting ready to head to Afghanistan in a few months. 
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Attacks in Afghanistan Kill 3 Policemen and a Soldier  
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 12, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 11 (AP) — Attacks against United States and coalition forces and the Afghan police continued unabated throughout the country, killing three policemen and a soldier in separate explosions and raids, officials said Sunday.

The soldier died after a battle on Saturday about 40 miles northeast of Kabul, the capital, the coalition said Sunday. It did not disclose the soldier’s nationality.

In Helmand Province, Afghanistan’s center for opium poppy production, a suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives near a NATO convoy, killing three bystanders, said the Helmand police chief, Muhammad Hussain Andiwal.

Elsewhere in the country, the Afghan police came under attack by a land-mine blast, an ambush and an assault on a checkpoint. Three policemen died, one was missing and three were wounded in the scattered attacks.

The latest violence came after the United States military announced Saturday that six soldiers were killed Friday in eastern Nuristan Province, in eastern Afghanistan — the most lethal attack in a year that has been the deadliest for American forces since the 2001 invasion. Three Afghan soldiers were also killed in the attack. 
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Fitting salute, too little fanfare
 TheStar.com - comment -November 12, 2007 Carol Goar
Article Link

Although it wasn't billed as a Remembrance Day tribute, it was a fitting salute to a fallen war hero.

Last week, the government disclosed that it was establishing a "Democratic Transitions Fund" in memory of Glyn Berry, the senior diplomat killed by a suicide bomber last year in Afghanistan. 

He was the first leader of Canada's rebuilding team in the high-risk Kandahar region.

Berry was 59. He had relinquished a choice posting in New York to tackle the dangerous task of shoring up one of the world's most fragile democracies.

His friend, Brigadier Nigel Hall, called him a "soldier of peace."

His boss, Peter Harder, called him an example to all foreign service officers that "our individual efforts can add up to something worthwhile, something noble, something that changes life for the better."

His colleague, Ambassador David Sproule, called him a man who died "doing what he wanted to do."

The new fund, designed to bolster peace building in war-shattered societies, is not the only tribute to Berry. Shortly after his death, his colleagues in New York named a meeting room at Canada's United Nations mission after him. In April, Dalhousie University, where the Welsh-born diplomat earned his doctorate, set up a scholarship in international studies in his name. And last August, the Department of Foreign Affairs renamed its human security program the "Glyn Berry Program." 

But this latest act of remembrance comes at a time when Canadians are debating the price of the Afghan campaign anew. It is a reminder of why Canada is there. It underscores the fact that today's conflicts – with their shadowy enemies and terrorist tactics – claim diplomats and humanitarian workers, not just soldiers.

It is unfortunate that the government didn't announce this initiative with pride.
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A Helping Hand
Updated Sat. Nov. 10 2007 7:15 PM ET W-FIVE
Article Link

A group of extraordinary Canadian physicians and surgeons traveled to Afghanistan. 

Extraordinary not just for their medical skills, but, for their willingness to risk their lives in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. They're volunteers who left the safety of Canada to work with military doctors at the Canadian trauma hospital in Kandahar.

Civilian doctors like, Thunder Bay's Dave Puskas, volunteer for a six-week stint to work alongside the military in the most unusual of circumstances. He says working here is a crash course in injuries and environmental issues you'd never see at home.

Framed in plywood, the tiny hospital is tucked away in the corner of the sprawling Canadian base in Kandahar. It may not look like one you'd find in Canada, but it does house the sophisticated medical equipment needed in modern medicine but it also maintains a very military flavour. Nurses wear side-arms and those in military pants stand shoulder to shoulder with those in surgical scrubs. And while the Canadians run the hospital, they also work alongside American and Dutch personnel.

It may look calm in the operating room. But Dr. Puskas, an orthopedic surgeon from who has pioneered new techniques in hip and spine surgeries, says "They come in horrendously injured with parts missing and parts of other people. I heard this phase recently biologic shrapnel, another person's body part as a that was something that was new to me." 

When W-FIVE asked Dr.Puskas why he felt the need to come to Afghanistan, he replied, "I sort of ended up having to convince myself why I wasn't doing this. I knew that there was a need for my particular surgical skill set there and we had members of our community that were fighting there as soldiers."
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The Canadian Forces in Afghanistan have been left exposed  
by SOPnewswire Posted 20 hours, 35 minutes ago
Article Link

The Canadian Forces in Afghanistan have been left exposed at a critical point of their mission, but not due to a lack of public support – it’s the Harper government that’s absent without leave. While the Forces can point to significant, if painful, gains in flashpoints such as Panjwai and Zhari districts, as well as Kandahar City, the prime minister and his team can boast of not a single clear policy gain, especially not where diplomatic intervention is needed most: pressuring the Taliban leadership in their safe havens in Pakistan, and rehabilitating the Karzai regime in Kabul.

The Harper government continues to acquiesce to the Bush administration’s results-barren command of an aid and security mission that is international in name only. Washington’s blunders have compromised a force whose success is crucial to Canada’s hopes for an eventual end to its combat obligations: the Afghan National Army, or ANA.

At issue is a web of political influence, backed by enormous sums of US military and humanitarian aid dollars, extending from the White House through an array of government officials, neo-conservative outriders and avaricious Afghan-American businessmen. Afghans and foreign observers who’ve witnessed the web’s growth describe it as a network of aggressive political adventurers, hungry for influence and lucrative development contracts.

“These people have hijacked a weak system,” says a senior member of President Hamid Karzai’s staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “People here initially welcomed diaspora Afghans with open arms and looked to them for guidance. But that’s changed. It’s clear that too many Afghan-Americans paraded their patriotism only to promote their careers, or to advance ethnic agendas, or just to fill their pockets. On top of that, their scheming has distorted policy in Washington, a lot like Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress at the start of the Iraq war.

“It doesn’t matter who Karzai appoints as Interior Minister or Attorney General,” the source says. “That’s just the visible surface. What really matters is who’s making deals behind the scenes, at the US Embassy or over a cosy meal at the Presidential Palace.” Member of Parliament Ramazan Bashar Dost says: “The United States and other western countries are not following their own laws. It is obvious to everyone that the contracts go to a minister's son or brother. You cannot get a contract unless you have connections.”

Across town from parliament stands an institution that attests to that charge: the Karzai regime’s Ministry of Defence. Ask to meet the minister, Rahim Wardak, and you’ll be referred to a public affairs desk at the American Embassy. Ask to meet the beneficiaries of the Afghan army building boom, and you’ll be invited to leave. But regime insiders will happily recite the names - with Minister Wardak’s son, Hamed, at the top of the list.
*    *    *
For Canada and Canadians, the raising of a capable Afghan army is not only vital to stability in southwest Asia. Until the ANA can stand its own ground, Canada and its NATO partners will be forced to maintain combat forces to hold off the Taliban. Yet successive Canadian governments have done little to address the failings of the US-financed army project. Incompetence, conflict of interest, nepotism and corruption has led to chronic shortfalls in troop training targets. Instead of tackling the problem, US and NATO officials have concealed it by padding statistics.

Since 2001, the Bush administration has committed $12 billion to Afghanistan’s security forces. A 70,000-man army was called for, but only 25,000 soldiers can be proven to exist today. Of these, perhaps 18,000 are combat-ready. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has admitted to Congress that its investigators are probing criminal misconduct related to $6 billion worth of equipment and service contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan. Keeping track of dollars and troops can’t have been easy, given the proclivity of Washington’s generals to massage the numbers.

By the end of 2003, only 9,000 army recruits had gone through basic training. Half of these promptly deserted. At the time, US Gen. Peter Pace brushed criticism aside, claiming that the ANA would have 12,500 men in arms by the summer of 2004. That seemed laughable by the Berlin Conference in April, 2004, where the record revealed only 5,721 trained men, with 3,056 recruits in the system. Yet only four months later, Donald Rumsfeld insisted that the ANA was up to 13,000 troops. In January of 2005, US officials claimed 17,800 Afghan soldiers trained, with 3,400 more in the works. By January of 2007, Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin declared: “Currently 36,000 strong, the ANA is on its way to an end state of 70,000 combat and combat support soldiers skilled in counterinsurgency operations.”
More on link


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## GAP (12 Nov 2007)

Pray they can hold Ghundey Ghar
November 10, 2007 at 11:36 am | In Afghanistan, Taliban | 
Article Link

National Post - Canadian troops handed control of a strategic base to the Afghan army on Friday, a first step in a long-term exit strategy for foreign forces helping Afghanistan battle the Taliban in the volatile south. Ghundey Ghar patrol base in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district, just west of the key southern city of Kandahar, was a tough gain for Canadian forces who fought a fierce 18-hour battle to win the position on August 22 this year. Previous Canadian troop rotations have twice handed Ghundey Ghar over to Afghan National Police (ANP), only to see it quickly overrun by Taliban. “Last time, they lasted a week,” said Mr. Abboud of the poorly trained and lightly armed ANP.

This time, the base is in the hands of an experienced ANA platoon of some 40 men, supported by several Canadian soldiers working as mentors who can call in NATO air support, artillery, supplies and emergency medical care. Canadian Warrant Officer Andre Lamarre made his final tour of the hilltop on Friday, pointing out sleeping quarters, observation points and Taliban positions to his Afghan replacements. “After 80 days here, I’m ready to go,” said Mr. Lamarre. “It’s all theirs.” His replacement as commander of the base, ANA Captain Gais Atei, said he needed Canadian support and muscle to back his fighters, but vowed this time the base would not fall back into Taliban hands. “Never can they take this place from us,” he said.
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6 NATO troops, 3 Afghans killed in ambush
  Article Link

Six NATO and two Afghan troops were killed in northeast Afghanistan (Nuristan) after being ambushed while walking back from a meeting with village elders. Four Afghan and eight NATO soldiers were wounded.
Most of the foreign troops in the northeast are US nationals. The deaths in Nuristan province took the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to 200.

"It was not a combat patrol. It was a mission to meet villagers to discuss development, governance and security," he told AFP.
The group were ambushed from several sides while returning from the village meeting to their base.  It was not clear if they were killed in the ambush or subsequent fighting, he said.

Besides air crashes, it was also one of the deadliest incidents involving international and Afghan soldiers.
            Six Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed in a bomb blast in July; six other Canadians died in a similar blast in April.
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A family of fighters
ERIN ANDERSSEN From Saturday's Globe and Mail November 10, 2007 at 2:03 AM EST
Article Link

From the Spanish-American War of 1898 to Afghanistan today, relatives of Quebec's Voyer clan have been involved in military service for generations. Their saga provides a glimpse of how soldiering changes, yet war remains the same, and how it can shape a family forever. 

Everyone has their own reasons for becoming a soldier, but that's not what matters when you're kneeling on the ground in the dark by a broken-down truck during an enemy ambush in a dusty village. It doesn't matter that you have wanted to wear a uniform since you were 5, building Lego tanks in your bedroom. Or that being a soldier is in your blood, all the way back to your great-grandfather. You just want to finish your mission and see your men home. You want to live.

And all those noble thoughts of duty and patriotism and why you chose to come here, to “drive around with a big, red target on your back,” in one of the most dangerous jobs in Afghanistan, only clutter up a clear mind.

This is the soldier's life and, three months into his first combat tour, Captain Yvon Voyer, a brawny 25-year-old from Brigham, Que., now understands it better than he ever could from stories passed down in his family. His job is protecting the convoys that carry essential supplies to troops outside Kandahar. Every time he leaves the base, he becomes a target. “Going through training everything seems so simple,” he writes in an e-mail. “When you are here, though, nothing is simple. … Everything and anything can happen, regardless of the limits of one's imagination.”

Karen and Gilbert Voyer understand what he's experiencing better than most parents with sons and daughters in Afghanistan: They are a military family, familiar with the risks and hushed hurry of top-secret missions. 
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## MarkOttawa (12 Nov 2007)

British forces to capitalise on Taliban split
_Daily Telegraph_, Nov. 13
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/13/wtaliban113.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_13112007



> British commanders have pushed an armoured column deep into Taliban-held territory in southern Afghanistan, threatening the stronghold of Musa Qala as commanders seek to capitalise on a rift within enemy ranks.
> 
> Senior British officers told The Daily Telegraph that the convoy of more than 50 armoured vehicles from the Scots Guards is designed to "disrupt and confuse" the Taliban.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (13 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 13, 2007*

Canada has bought itself a classic moral obligation
 TheStar.com - comment - November 13, 2007 Eric Morse
Article Link

It became known last month that the Canadian military contingent in Kandahar Province has begun paying the salaries of some Afghan National Police (ANP) units in their area of operations. 

In the circumstances, this makes perfect sense. The ANP are notoriously corrupt and very little of an ANP constable's salary finds its way into his pocket, let alone on time. The incentive to take bribes from the insurgents and drug lords and to extort from local villagers is almost irresistible, and direct payment from Canadian hands ensures reasonable discipline and attention to duty. An effective police presence in the countryside is vital and this goes some way toward providing it. 

There is another side though. By the simple act of providing regular pay, we have created bonds that go well beyond economic relationships. We may not realize it, coming from a culture which has come to view the employer-employee relationship as a marriage of convenience for both sides. But things are far otherwise in a traditional society like Afghanistan. Relationships are much more solemn and personal. By doing what we have done, we have created a classic patron-client relationship, with the Afghan clients almost certainly making assumptions about the patron's obligations which the Canadian command and government may not have entirely thought through or bought into. 

Nasty words like "mercenaries" or "camp followers" do not enter into it. Any time an army sets down anywhere, it has an effect on the local population, benign or otherwise and usually both. When the Canadian NATO brigade in West Germany moved from Soest in the north to Lahr in the south, many of the German people who had made a living serving their needs followed them. By then, many were already members of Canadian families. The Canadians picked up a similar following in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s as they moved about the country. 

The process is even more visible in countries like Korea, where massive U.S. bases have existed for more than half a century. In South Vietnam during the Vietnam War it reached an apogee – and provided a horrific example of consequences at the bitter end. 

The trouble begins when it is time to go home, especially if the departure is from a place where there is still a strong enemy in the field. The locals have placed their bets irrevocably; if the other side wins, they and their families have very poor prospects or life expectancy. Those suspected of having served the former regime in uniform or out are in the worst position of all. The haunting image is that of the last helicopter departing the U.S. embassy roof as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, dangling a trail of desperate and doomed Vietnamese abandoned to their fate by their erstwhile employers. 
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Rate of wounded on rise
108 soldiers sent home for treatment in first eight months of 2007 
GLORIA GALLOWAY From Tuesday's Globe and Mail November 13, 2007 at 4:41 AM EST
Article Link

OTTAWA — The number of Canadian soldiers who are so badly wounded in Afghanistan that they must be returned to Canada for treatment is on a trajectory to far exceed last year's toll.

During the first eight months of this year, 108 members of the Canadian Forces became eligible for the allowance that is given to wounded military personnel who lose their danger pay because their injuries require them to be removed from the war zone. 

When the danger-pay substitute, called the Allowance for Loss of Operational Allowance, was introduced on Dec. 15, 2006, then-defence-minister Gordon O'Connor said he expected 115 soldiers would receive it as a result of injuries in 2006. 

So the 2007 tally of 108 by Sept. 1 - obtained by The Globe and Mail using Access to Information legislation - was just seven shy of the number reached in mid-December of last year. And published reports suggest many have been injured since the end of August.
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The Rebirth of the Canadian military  
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Article Link

Canada's Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier, who I mentioned here earlier, isn't too popular with the elites in his country, stemming from an age-old malady of actually being good at his job. Some in the country would rather their military forces return to being "shock troops" for UN peacekeeping missions, as is Canada's tradition, but others disagree including Christie Blatchford:


Consider what Colonel George Petrolekas, a veteran soldier now on unpaid leave who is also a friend of Gen. Hillier's (and fiercely loyal), has to say about one of the missions ... Bosnia.Col. Petrolekas was there in 1993 as part of the United Nations' protection force.

"The mission was for the delivery of humanitarian aid to villages," he says, "and thus the rules did not allow the international force to stop abuses of humanity that can only be termed aberrant.

"Early in my tour in 1993, a village of 280 [this was the village of Vares] was butchered and not a word was said, not a thing was done. There were so many such events that I saw soldiers cry at the frustration of not being able to do the right thing."

She ends with this description of Gen. Hillier:

The truth is, Gen. Hillier has presided over what amounts to the rebirth of the Canadian military. I don't speak purely in terms of budgets, armaments and missions, either; what he has really done is make it respectable again to be a soldier in this country. Under his leadership, there has been something of a cultural shift such that soldiers are no longer made to feel vaguely ashamed for being soldiers.

I posted this because I see many similarities in our own country over the proper role of the armed forces in the 21st Century. Some would have us return to a deterrent strategy, with the threat of force taking place of the actual use of military power to take out rogue regimes and terrorist groups, sort of "speak loudly and carry a small stick". I saw this in the Navy's recent Maritime Strategy and consider it a dangerous mindset not based on the reality of the times, and which won't keep us safe from a recurring 9/11 or worse. Some though, like Canada's Hillier, and those currently defeating the radicals in Iraq and Afghanistan, rightly see the need of going into the nests of the enemies of Civilization and actually killing them, before they spread their oppressive ideology to free nations.
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Talk about spinning for some of our allies in Afstan  
Article Link

Scott Taylor is truly being economical with the truth:

...Step forward, NATO slackers.

That’s right: As Canada "punches above its weight" in Kandahar, we are not achieving complete success because other NATO countries are failing to do their bit for the alliance. The latest rallying cry of the Canadian tub-thumpers is that Afghanistan is NATO’s Waterloo and that if our partners don’t step up to the plate to win, we should consider cutting short our own commitment.

Two of the most maligned NATO countries accused of shirking their martial responsibilities are France and Germany. What is ironic about Canadians criticizing these particular allies is that as well as contributing significant contingents to Afghanistan (50 per cent more than Canada, in Germany’s case), they are both still heavily engaged in providing security forces in Bosnia and Kosovo [now that's a rich verbal twist: "security forces", implying something like the CF at Kanadahar when in fact the forces in the Balkans are doing traditional peacekeeping without combat--though the clouds are darkening - MC].

While Canada has rushed from flavour-of-the-month conflicts over the past decade, many of our NATO allies have been left manning the less newsworthy but still simmering hot spots.

Canada has chosen to place its military eggs into the one Afghan basket, but we should not be so quick to point fingers and denigrate those countries whose ongoing commitments elsewhere allow us the dubious luxury of being in the front-line spotlight [what tosh, Mr Taylor: those commitments elsewhere in no way preclude those countries from giving their troops a "front-line" role in Afstan].
More on link

Canadian soldiers playing crucial role in rebuilding of Afghanistan, says officer  
SHERRY MARTELL The Truro Daily News
Article Link

TATAMAGOUCHE – Each time a soldier dies fighting the war on terror in Afghanistan Canadians become painfully aware of the mission there.
One of Canada’s highest ranking military officers said loss of life is only one side of the story unfolding there, as our soldiers play a major role in rebuilding the nation scarred by years under control of a terrorist regime.
“There’s a lot of good news,” said Brig.-Gen. David Fraser speaking to about 80 people at an evening banquette at the Tatamagouche Royal Canadian Legion on Remembrance Day.
“Our Canadians are making a difference overseas but we have to temper our expectations.”
Fraser assumed command of the Multi-National Brigade as Canadian Commander  in Afghanistan in February 2006 and held the position for nine months as part of the ongoing international commitment to the development and stability of the region.  
Fraser said Canadians have engineered many positive changes since  2001 with advances in several areas including education, infrastructure development and health care.
“It’s not about fighting. It’s about jobs and education and by doing that we defeat the Taliban,” said the General.
“It’s about when a child asks you for a pencil, nothing else, just a pencil and why? Because they want to learn.”
Canadians have helped construct more than 190 kilometres of new road,  canals have been restored, 120 water wells have been repaired and more than six million children are now attending school; about 50 per cent are girls. 
Fraser said there has also been a change in how Canadians feel about their troops at home since the conflict began, with people walking up to soldiers on the street and shaking their hand while saying “Thank you.”
“Twenty years ago that didn’t happen,” said Fraser.

smartell.news@ns.sympatico.ca  

13/11/07  
More on link


BAE's Bunker Finder
Article Link

Related stories: Contracts - Awards, New Systems Tech, Americas - USA, Air Reconnaissance, R&D - Contracted, BAE, Sensors & Guidance, Design Innovations 

"Found a bunker!"
(click to view full)BAE Systems Electronics and Integrated Solutions, Inc. of Washington DC received an $8.2 million contract for the ATAEM program. Their goal is to design, build and demonstrate a proof-of-concept system that can find and possibly map underground facilities from an airborne platform, using active electromagnetic techniques. At this time $2.8 million has been obligated. Det 1 of the AFRL at Wright-Patterson Air Force 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (13 Nov 2007)

Afghanistan rich with mineral resources: report
CTV, Nov. 13
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071113/afghan_resources_071113/20071113?hub=TopStories



> Afghanistan has significant amounts of undiscovered non-fuel mineral resources that could present a great source of wealth for the country, says the U.S. Geological Survey.
> 
> A 2007 preliminary assessment by the USGS,
> http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1819
> ...


  

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (14 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 14, 2007*

Is Canada failing Afghan captives?
 TheStar.com - comment - November 14, 2007 
Article Link

Have Canada's troops in Afghanistan turned over 40 captured insurgents to the sometimes abusive authorities there? Or 200? Or even more? Canadians don't know, and the military won't say.

Have many been tortured, or worse? Canadians don't know. 

Are Canada's vaunted agreements with the Afghanistan government working, in order to ensure that the Afghan security services respect detainees' rights under the Geneva Convention and to ensure we can monitor them? Again, Canadians just don't know.

While Canada's prisoner-transfer policy purports to make sure prisoners aren't ill-treated, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has cloaked our handling of detainees in such secrecy that there is no way to tell whether or not it is working as advertised. 

That damning allegation from Amnesty International, the respected international rights group, applies to other allies as well, notably the British, Dutch, Norwegians and Belgians. While North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials insist there is "no evidence of torture of detainees" who have been transferred, Amnesty warns that existing monitoring protocols leave prisoners "at substantial risk of torture." 

In Canada's case, despite troubling reports of abuses and efforts by Ottawa to improve tracking and monitoring of prisoners, officials have downplayed the number of transfers and have censored or suppressed documents involving detainees. That makes it impossible for the public to know whether claims of abuse are true or false. 

As international and domestic concern grows, so must Parliament's oversight. The House of Commons committees on foreign affairs, national defence and security must hold the government to account.

In interviews with 15 people handed over by Canadian troops, Amnesty says six said they were tortured or abused. The claims are not easy to dismiss, given that the United Nations, Canadian diplomats and the Afghan human rights monitor have heard reports that the National Directorate for Security tortures prisoners.
More on link

From Minor Power to the Major Leagues  
Article Link

Some 100 years ago, the British Royal Navy constructed the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought, which also allowed other navies to start from scratch and play catchup, as the Germans, Japanese, and Americans proceeded to do. America's current monopoly on high technology has given it unprecedented military and international prestige, but such easily accessible weaponry can also fuel the imperial desires of other powers, whether friend or foe. Most Western states are struggling to replace or at least maintain old Cold War style inventories, most notably in the news have been Germany, Australia, and Canada. For simplicities sake we will focus on Canada's armed forces.

Like most small powers, Canada is a mirror of the US armed forces in miniature. It maintains the three standard arms: air force, navy, and army. By clinging to this industrial age establishment, she finds it increasingly difficult to replace Cold War era weaponry, including aircraft, helicopters, armored vehicles, and ships. She is also failing to take advantage of the New Warfare of the Digital Age .

A case in point is her navy. Canada currently maintains a destroyer/frigate force, a handful of submarines, and a few logistics ships, while planning to build an amphibious type warship in the near future. Perhaps by focusing on maintaining the most potent of these, her submarines, she could carry out the bulk of her maritime missions at far less expense and with less procurement headaches. By arming them with cruise missiles, the submarine can be considered on par with and a threat to the most powerful of warships. To a small navy, the modern undersea boat can be considered a capital ship, cruiser, destroyer, anti submarine vessel, and patrol ship.
More on link

France weighs expanding role on the ground
DOUG SAUNDERS Globe and Mail Update November 13, 2007 at 8:20 AM EST
Article Link

PARIS — Among Canadian officials and NATO leaders worried about an Afghanistan war that is falling short of soldiers, France has become a last great hope.

Because the Netherlands and Canada, two of the four countries holding down the conflict-scarred south of Afghanistan, are suffering large-scale casualties and are considering withdrawing their soldiers from the United Nations-mandated North Atlantic Treaty Alliance war in Afghanistan, pressure has fallen on the French to make up the loss -- and to provide a military partner that might encourage those countries to stay involved.

Since conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president in June, the French have entered a heated discussion on the possibility of building their role in Afghanistan, and military and diplomatic officials have taken this as a signal that France might provide much-needed extra forces in the war. In expectation, Canada has recently given its embassy in Paris a role in Afghanistan-related matters.

It could be a difficult mission. In interviews, senior French government officials say that a larger military role might be possible -- but it won't likely happen soon, and it will probably be part of a larger strategy to remake NATO and European military forces to be less reliant on the United States.
More on link

Polish soldiers detained for civilian deaths in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-14 11:21:16    
Article Link

    WARSAW, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Seven soldiers of the Polish Military Contingent in Afghanistan were detained Tuesday in connection with an incident in which several Afghan civilians were killed, the Polish Defense Ministry said. 

    The soldiers were detained on the orders of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor said charges would be presented Wednesday. 

    The soldiers were accused of breaking international law, especially the Hague and Geneva Conventions ratified by Poland, the ministry said in a statement. 

    On Aug. 16, two days after the first Polish soldier was killed in an ambush near the Afghan border with Pakistan, the Polish troops from the Wazi-Khwa base were attacked while on patrol by the Taliban, who then went into hiding among civilians. The Polish soldiers fired mortars in the direction of the attackers, killing and wounding several civilians. 
More on link


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## midget-boyd91 (14 Nov 2007)

ISAF soldier killed in explosion

http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/pressreleases/2007/11-november/pr071114-710.html



> One ISAF soldier killed in IED explosion in southern Afghanistan
> KABUL, Afghanistan – One ISAF soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan today when he was caught in an IED explosion during a routine patrol.
> A local interpreter was also injured and is being treated at an ISAF medical facility.
> 
> ...


----------



## GAP (15 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 15, 2007*

The Ruxted Group’s Submission to the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan
Wednesday, November 14. 2007
Article Link

The Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan invited public submission because, it said: "An important contribution to their analysis is input from the public." The Ruxted Group made a submission. Here it is:
The Ruxted Group’s Submission to the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan

The Ruxted Group1 consists of people with interest in and knowledge of foreign policy, national security and defence issues. The Group has a distinctly military flavour, many of its members having had lengthy military careers. Membership is voluntary and by invitation only. The Ruxted Group is totally self-supporting; members provide all the required effort and resources (mainly a presence on the World Wide Web). The Ruxted Group aims to add its informed opinions to the national debates about foreign policy, national security and defence issues.

The Ruxted Group believes Canada’s ongoing mission in Afghanistan must be seen in a broader context of Canadian vital interests.
More on link

Police corruption remains a drag on Afghan mission for Canadian troops
Article Link

ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan - Some things are a given in Afghanistan. The sun is nearly always shining and its overwhelming brightness tends to give everything a bleached out look.

There will always be the dust and the desert and, if you are an Afghan civilian travelling through an area manned by the police, you will likely be shaken down for cash.

Corruption from the highest echelons down to the lowest has been a serious problem in this country for decades and one the government is attempting to stamp out. But something that is so ingrained is not easily removed.

When a police officer makes just US$77 a month and even then his pay doesn't always arrive, he looks for other ways of improving his lot.

That is something that members of the Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Team (POMLT) are trying to tackle as they work with Afghan National Police manning police substations here in the volatile Zhari and nearby Panjwaii districts.

"They've got a lot of corruption, those guys. I talk to the local population here and with the amount of corruption it's hard," sighed Sgt. Sylvain Latulippe, one of the mentors.
More on link

Counting the injured   
The Telegram
Article Link

The story itself was buried on the bottom of page A4 in Monday’s Globe and Mail, well back behind the latest wall-to-wall coverage of the fallout of KarlHeinz Schrieber’s alleged dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
But even though it’s at the bottom of the page, the story in question is one that a number of people in this province might want to consider, especially those with family serving in the Canadian Forces overseas.
The story, based on information the newspaper obtained through the federal access to information legislation, suggests that Canadian soldiers are being seriously injured in Afghanistan at an increasing rate. The newspaper bases its information on an analysis of the number of soldiers who are being evacuated to Canada for medical treatment — a number the newspaper got by asking for the number of injured soldiers receiving a payment equal to the danger pay they would get in Afghanistan.
The payment, called the Allowance for Loss of Operational Allowance, was put into place when Canadian soldiers revealed that, when they were seriously injured and evacuated to Canada, they actually got a pay cut on top of everything else — hardly the sort of thanks you’d expect from a grateful nation if you are injured on their behalf.
During the first eight months of this year, 108 Canadian soldiers became eligible for the new payment.
For all of 2006, there were only 115 who became eligible.
That is serious enough news — what’s more serious is that the federal government has flatly refused to comment in any way about what those numbers mean, and what sorts and number of injuries are actually occurring in Afghanistan.
At least one estimate, by Esprit de Corps magazine, suggests the number of Canadian soldiers killed and wounded in Afghanistan now tops 600 — a number the Department of National Defence also refuses to discuss, clarify or even comment on.
Their reticence is inexcusable, and the only possible interpretation to put on the deliberate withholding of such information is that National Defence has deliberately chosen to keep the full picture on Canadian casualties from being known.
There is, to put it bluntly, absolutely no operational reason to keep casualty numbers secret. After all, most of the other countries with soldiers fighting in Afghanistan regularly release those figures.
More on link

'Credible' case of torture found in Afghanistan
 TheStar.com - November 15, 2007 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

Taliban fighter beaten after being handed over to Afghanistan authorities, Foreign Affairs says

OTTAWA–Canadian officials have uncovered a "credible" case of torture involving a Taliban fighter whom Canadian forces had turned over to Afghan authorities.

The admission that Canadian detainees are being mistreated in Afghan prisons by local authorities is the first of its kind from the Conservative government. It came just before the foreign affairs department released about 1,000 pages of files late last night that suggests widespread abuse of prisoners – including those captured by Canadian soldiers – continues to occur in Afghanistan. 

"The allegation has come to light because we have a good agreement with the Afghan government," Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said in the Commons.

He also said Canadian officials have conducted 32 interviews with prisoners who had been captured by Canadian troops.

In one case, on April 25, an individual detained by Canadian soldiers and later interviewed by Corrections Canada officials in prison reported having his toes burned, and being kicked and beaten while blindfolded. Another reported receiving electrical shocks, having hands and feet bound and being made to stand for 10 straight days. 
More on link

Soldiers don't forget their fallen comrades  
By WES KELLER Freelance Reporter 
Article Link

Remembrance Day 2007 in Orangeville might have differed from all others, as serving members of Corporal Mathew McCully's regular forces army unit came from CFB Petawawa to pay their respects at the Royal Canadian Legion's service, and then at the Sunset ceremony that followed. 

Although Orangeville, along with the rest of Dufferin County, had lost scores of brave sons between 1914 and 2007, Sunday was the first time in local history that serving members of any military formation had come as a group to honour a comrade who had been killed in action. 

Also, possibly for the first time, a wreath was placed at the Cenotaph in memory and honour of all First Nations citizens who served, and many of whom died, in action. There was a moment of exceptional interest as Orangeville resident Donna Koutsourdais held aloft an Eagle feather - a tribal symbol. 

It might have been the most appropriate day on which to introduce what might become an annual tradition, as some of the Natives in the Second World War served in signals, communicating in their Native language - a "code" that the enemy could not decipher. 

Cpl. McCully, who died on active duty in Afghanistan last May 25, was a member of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, part of the 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade. A vanguard of 11 his Signals comrades arrived Saturday from Petawawa, and more came from CFB Borden and elsewhere Sunday. 
More on link

Italy's Di Paola to Succeed Canadian as Top NATO Military Aide  
By James G. Neuger
Article Link

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola was named the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's next chief military adviser, taking on a key role in crafting alliance strategy in Afghanistan and Kosovo. 

Di Paola, 63, will become head of the committee of NATO defense chiefs in June 2008 when the current chairman, Canadian General Ray Henault, ends his three-year term. Di Paola beat a Polish and Spanish rival in a vote today in Brussels, NATO said. 

Di Paola, chief of the Italian military staff since 2004, will take on a post first held by U.S. General Omar Bradley in 1949. The job's role is to provide consensus military advice to NATO's civilian leadership. 

``General Henault's leadership has guided us through some significant changes in NATO's history, and it is my firm intention to continue to build on this reform and transformation agenda,'' Di Paola said in an e-mailed NATO statement. 
More on link

More Foreign Fighters Reported Aiding Taliban in Afghanistan  
By Bill Rodgers Washington 14 November 2007
  Article Link

There are signs that more foreign fighters are joining the Taliban in Afghanistan. These foreign militants are believed responsible for the upsurge in suicide bombings -- and some experts say they have strengthened the Taliban insurgency. More from VOA's Bill Rodgers. 

The Taliban always had foreigners in its ranks, but experts say a new surge is bolstering the insurgency. 

Most are Pakistani militants, who slip across the border into Afghanistan to join the Taliban. But there are other nationalities as well -- says Seth Jones, a specialist on Afghanistan at the Rand Corporation. "Small numbers are Arabs, especially Saudis, Libyans, Egyptians. A small number also of Uzbeks, Chechens and some other Central Asians. But the bulk of these are Pakistanis, including Pakistani Pashtuns."

A suspected fighter from Siberia was featured in a recent New York Times article -- his capture an indication of how foreigners are coming to the region to fight alongside the Taliban. 

As in the 1980s when foreigners came to Afghanistan to fight against occupying Soviet forces, the motivation for this new generation of foreign militants is holy war. 
More on link

Afghans Expanding Pomegranate Exports
By NOOR KHAN – 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Farm hands place mounds of bright red pomegranates into shipping boxes stamped "Product of Afghanistan." The price and quality of the sweet fruit are up, and the farmers are happy that a new storage facility has extended their selling season.

The advances in the pomegranate trade are a sliver of good news from a region of Afghanistan known more for Taliban attacks and a thriving opium trade.

Ubaidullah Jan, a 50-year-old farmer from the Arghandab area just north of Kandahar, said the price his pomegranates command has doubled this year to about 54 cents a pound, due to the new cold storage facility and quality control programs implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"The goods we are selling with the help of USAID and being able to keep them in cold storage have brought a tremendous change in our business," Jan said, adding that his goods are sent to Dubai, Pakistan, India and Singapore.

Scarred by an almost perpetual state of conflict since 1980, Afghanistan has only one truly successful export: opium and the heroin that is made from it.

The country produced 8,200 tons of opium in 2007, up 34 percent from last year's record harvest. Farmers this year can make $2,000 on an acre of opium poppies, while wheat yields about $220.
More on link

English Teacher Killed in Afghanistan
By ALISA TANG –
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban insurgents killed a man teaching English courses in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a clash that left two suspected militants and two policemen dead, an official said Thursday.

U.S.-led coalition forces, meanwhile, killed several suspected militants in the south of the country.

In eastern Paktika province, the Taliban on Wednesday killed an Afghan who was teaching English language classes, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor.

The Taliban frequently target civilians for activities they consider sympathetic to foreign countries, international aid groups or forces.

In southern Helmand province, coalition forces were searching compounds Wednesday when a gunfight broke out between troops and militants holed up in several buildings and hiding among trees, the coalition said in a statement. The forces responded with gunfire and airstrikes that they said killed "several militants."

The raids also led to the detention of seven people suspected of links to foreign fighters and weapons suppliers in the area, the statement said. One of the suspects was wounded while resisting arrest. The troops recovered and destroyed a weapons and ammunition cache.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (15 Nov 2007)

German Parliament Extends Afghan Anti - Terror Mandate
Reuters, Nov. 15
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-afghan-germany.html



> Germany's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to renew its option to participate in U.S. counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan, despite widespread public opposition.
> 
> The Bundestag said there were 413 votes in favor, 145 against and 15 abstentions.
> 
> ...



Horn of Africa is mainly German Navy:
http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2007/06/5th-fleet-focus-horn-of-africa.html
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/may2007/a052307sj3.html

Beleaguered NATO holding back Afghan progress
AP, Nov. 15
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/11/14/4655988-ap.html



> Canadian Gen. Ray Henault, NATO's top soldier, says recent efforts to overcome shortfalls in the alliance's force in Afghanistan have made only limited progress, holding back efforts to improve security in the country.
> 
> "We have seen modest progress on force generation," said Henault, chairman of NATO's military committee, after talks with chiefs of staff from the 26 allied countries.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (15 Nov 2007)

France denies preparing new Afghanistan troop boost
Reuters, Nov. 15
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071115/ts_nm/france_afghan_troops_dc;_ylt=AhsuTVWKx1iv4Ohs1b3JylN34T0D



> France on Thursday denied a report that it is setting aside roughly 1,000 troops for possible deployment in Afghanistan, a move that would be a boon to the United States, which wants NATO countries to do more there.
> 
> Weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reported on Wednesday that President Nicolas Sarkozy had asked the head of the armed forces to keep a batallion of about 1,000 men at NATO's disposal so that they could be dispatched to Afghanistan if needed.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (16 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 16

How Royal Anglians killed 1,000 Taliban
_Daily Telegraph_, Nov. 16
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/16/wanglians116.xml



> The intensity of combat in Afghanistan has been laid bare as one Army regiment revealed that it had fired one million rounds, killed 1,028 Taliban and lost nine men in a six-month tour of duty.
> 
> At times, fighting saw 1Bn of the Royal Anglians having to "winkle out the Taliban at the point of a bayonet", said Lt Col Stuart Carver, the commanding officer, at the battalion's medal ceremony.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (16 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 16, 2007*

Fingers on triggers, then split-second decisions
Detailed records show Canadian troops open fire about once a week on approaching people or vehicles they consider dangerous 
PAUL KORING From Thursday's Globe and Mail November 15, 2007 at 3:57 AM EST
Article Link

WASHINGTON — Facing ever-present and deadly threats from suicide bombers, Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan open fire almost weekly at Afghans getting too close to convoys or approaching checkpoints at high speed, according to the most complete public accounting to date of such incidents.

The exhaustively compiled summary shows at least nine Afghans have been killed and 22 injured in more than two dozen shootings when Canadian soldiers fired on approaching individuals or vehicles since Canadian troops deployed to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar province in the spring of last year.

Every so-called "escalation of force incident" is investigated by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, an independent military police unit with a mandate to investigate serious and sensitive matters.

All Canadian soldiers involved in the 61 completed investigations have been cleared. Three shootings, including the killing last month of a motorcyclist and the wounding of his 12-year-old brother, remain under investigation. Another 11 completed investigations determined that Canadian soldiers weren't involved.
More on link

Age taking toll on air force: commander
  Jeff Holubitsky CanWest News Service; Edmonton Journal Thursday, November 15, 2007
Article Link

EDMONTON -- Canada's air force is trying to replace aging members, aging infrastructure and aging vehicles, its commander says.

"The main challenge I have is age, but not my age," Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt, the chief of air staff with the Canadian Forces, said in an interview Wednesday.

"We have a relatively old workforce in the air force," he said.

The average age of the force is 36, with non-commissioned officers at 37 and officers at 38 years old.

"We are a young person's business, so it is a challenge for me to recruit enough young people to keep rejuvenating the ranks to keep that average age coming down," he said.

Watt was in Edmonton as the keynote speaker at the closing banquet of an aviation trade show.

The air force, which currently has about 350 members in Afghanistan providing mostly transport duties, is also struggling to maintain its aging facilities such as hangars, control towers and runways.

"I have 13 wings, 10 of which have infrastructure and the replacement cost of that infrastructure is $6.5 billion," he said. "Fifty per cent of that infrastructure is 50 years old or older."
More on link

Missing pay has Afghan police threatening to walk off the job
Article Link

PASHMUL, Afghanistan - It isn't the Taliban, poor training or lack of recruits that is putting the Canadian military's fledgling police mentoring program at risk: it's a lack of cold, hard cash.

Six-member teams of Canadian military police and infantrymen recently began mentoring Afghan police around the clock at six police substations in the dangerous Zhari and Panjwaii districts of Kandahar province. U.S., Dutch and French forces are also involved in the mentoring program.

The teams are showing some promise but the whole system could derail because the police are not being paid regularly.

"I have good policemen," said Sgt. Jean-Pierre Dion, who is in charge at the police substation in Pashmul.

But one of them gave him an ultimatum. "If he doesn't receive his salary by Sunday he will quit. All the team will quit."

"I hope my chain of command makes something for this but I'm worried."

Dion, who started working with the nine members of the Afghan National Police in Pashmul in the middle of September, says they have received only one of the three months of pay they are due.
More on link

Challenging gender barriers, teen girls in Afghanistan enter the boxing ring  
The Associated Press Thursday, November 15, 2007 
Article Link

 KABUL, Afghanistan: A group of teenage girls is taking up fisticuffs to challenge Afghanistan's gender barriers.

"Move, move, move," coach Saber Sharifi shouted as the 20-odd girls sparred recently. "Steady, watch your left shoulder."

The boxers belong to a new generation of Afghan youth, challenging stereotypes that persist five years after the fall of the Taliban. They train in a room in Kabul's main sports stadium, a venue for public executions during Taliban rule in the late 1990s. Boxing is helping them gain confidence and self-respect, the girls say. Their goal: to be Afghanistan's first women's boxing team.

"Many people are trying to stop us from participating in sports by saying it is not good for women," said 15-year-old Shabnam, who uses only one name. "But I think if you are interested in doing something, you should avoid listening to what people think about you. Sports is a way out of violence for Afghanistan."

The girls — who also include Shabnam's sisters, Fatima, 17 and Sadaf, 14 — practice separately from boys and wear warm-up suits. Some cover their heads with scarves or bandanas.

Their effort is a brave one in this male-dominated country, where females start wearing the powder blue burqa, which covers them from head to toe, in public at puberty.
More on link


25 suspected Taliban, 6 police killed in clashes, bombing in southern Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Friday, November 16, 2007 
Article Link

 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: Afghan and foreign forces clashed with Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, leaving 25 suspected insurgents and two policemen dead, officials said Friday.

In southern Kandahar province, meanwhile, a roadside bomb hit a police patrol vehicle Friday, killing four policemen, said Zhari district chief Niaz Mohammad Serhadi.

The southern provinces have been the arena of the heaviest fighting between insurgents and international forces in recent months.

During an operation in the Derawud district of Uruzgan province, Afghan and foreign troops battled militants Thursday night, killing 20 suspected Taliban, said Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Himat. Two policemen were also killed in the fighting.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it was aware of ongoing fighting in the area, but did not have any details.

A separate group of Taliban insurgents poured into the nearby district of Naish, and police surrounded the area on Thursday, triggering a two-hour gun battle that left five suspected militants dead and two policemen wounded, Himat said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (17 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 17

The Talibanization of Pakistan
As the Musharraf-Bhutto showdown continues, Islamic militants are expanding their grip on territory on both sides of the Afghan border
_Toronto Star_, Nov.17
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/277306



> One glib assessment offered to the _Toronto Star_ this week at a gathering of Pashtun tribal leaders in Kabul described Pakistan as "an entity made entirely of Saudi religion, Indian culture and Afghan land. Take any one of those things away and you don't even have a country. It ceases to be."
> 
> But if the laughter that followed was hearty, it came with nervous undercurrents – acknowledgement that the joke may yet blow back across the porous border in the form of increased Taliban militancy that continues to bedevil NATO-led efforts to stabilize Afghanistan...
> 
> ...



The _Asia Times_ articles:

RISE OF THE NEO-TALIBAN, Part 2 [emirate material]
'Pain has become the remedy'
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IK14Df04.html

RISE OF THE NEO-TALIBAN, Part 1
Death by the light of a silvery moon
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IK13Df01.html

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (18 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 18, 2007*

Death of two Canadian soldiers a 'heartbreak'  
Updated Sat. Nov. 17 2007 10:09 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Two Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed after their Light Armoured Vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Kandahar. 

Three other Canadian soldiers were wounded in Saturday's incident and were transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. 

The dead have been identified as Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier and Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, of 3rd Battalion, the Royal 22nd Regiment -- popularly known as the Van Doos. 

Levesque's parents live in Riviere-Rouge in the Laurentians, about 200 kilometres northwest of Montreal. Their neighbor and friend Lisa Roy spent time Saturday consoling the family. Roy says Levesque was a longtime friend of her son, who is also a soldier. 

"He was really a nice little boy,'' Roy said. 

"It's not because he's dead that we're saying nice things about him. Michel was really a nice little boy.'' 

Riviere-Rouge Mayor Deborah Belanger gave Levesque the town's flag before he left for Afghanistan. 
More on link

Afghanistan's Thug Caste Gets Tortured And It's Our Fault?  
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Article Link

I've been ranting on this for some time now, but recent complaints in the blogging community has turned my attention toward it more deeply. I wrote what I consider to be an impassioned argument against torture, and what I consider to be a morally abased view that torture of terrorists is justified. In short, everything I say in this article is tempered by the fact that I know torture is immoral, and that I do not agree with it, in any context. But in light of the rising anger over the treatment of Taliban detainees in Afghanistan, I have found my own outrage bubbling to the surface over what I call the "defense of the thug caste of Afghanistan".

I may not be a paid writer for a news organization, nor a journalist [which I suppose might have been a good career move ten years ago], but I am going to attempt to use whatever skill I have as a writer to make my position here known and clear. That position is that I strongly support my government in choosing to intervene in Afghanistan, and that I strongly support the troops who serve there. The reasons become more evident every day that we remain in the country.

The partisan attacks on Prime Minister Stephen Harper are nothing short of insulting. This is a mission which not only is a multilateral mission, but has been endorsed and supported by the European Union and United Nations since day one. This is a mission which has broad support from Afghanis themselves, and is widely seen as a morally virtuous campaign. This is an intervention in a country which had been plunged into decades of darkness under Soviet and Islamic Fundamentalist control.

The Taliban prisoners who are being captured by Canadian troops were not found sleeping in their homes. They were not found walking with their children in a park. They were found trying to plant IED devices, shoot at Canadian soldiers, and attack Afghan women and children. The people who seethe with rage over the treatment of the Taliban were deafeningly silent during the reign of the Taliban when they had a free hand at torturing anybody they pleased. Any day. Every day.

This is a regime who executed people for sport in a football stadium. Who destroyed "unIslamic" statues which had stood for thousands of years. These are the same kind of people who torture or execute women for the misfortune of being gangraped. This is the thug caste of military soldiers who would imprison women for being unaccompanied by a man, and mercilessly beat her in the streets. A group of people for whom women were considered cattle, and the men who did not treat them like cattle were summarily executed.

These scum bastards are the people for whom the progressive left cry for? The theological oligarchy which controlled the Islamic state of Afghanistan has been crushed by a multilateral force of national governments, and all we can do is lament the rumours of Taliban detainees with leg irons clamped too tightly. No, it's not a justification for torture, but a glimpse into the eyes of millions of Afghanis might help the progressives understand.
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Taliban Execute 5 Afghan Police
By NOOR KHAN – 2 hours ago 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants tortured five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and then hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to villagers against working with the government, officials said Sunday.

The discovery of the bodies came as officials said that recent violence and clashes had left at least 63 other people dead across Afghanistan.

The officers had been abducted two months ago from their checkpoint in southern Uruzgan province, said Juma Gul Himat, the provincial police chief. The Taliban slashed their hands and legs and hung the bodies on trees Saturday in Gazak village of Derawud district, he said.

"The Taliban told the people that whoever works with the government will suffer the same fate as these policemen," Himat said. "This village is under Taliban control. There are more than 100 Taliban in this village."

Two tribal elders received the bodies of the policemen on Sunday, he said.

Insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan has soared this year, killing more than 6,000 people, a record number, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

The executions followed several days of violence in the country's south which left at least 63 people dead, including 58 militants and two Canadian soldiers.
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Suicide attack on NATO convoy kills bomber himself in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-18 15:40:16      Print 
Article Link

    KABUL, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden car targeted a convoy of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan's restive Helmand province Sunday, killing himself and damaging a military vehicle, police said. 

    "It was 10:30 a.m. local time when the bomber blew his car up next to the NATO convoy in Gereshk district, killing himself and damaging an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) of the troops," provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal told Xinhua. 

    However, he said there were no casualties on the ISAF side. Also no civilians were killed or injured in the attack. 

    No group or individuals have claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban militants who have staged a violent comeback three years ago often carry out such attacks. 

    Over 5,700 people have been killed in violence and conflicts so far this year in the war-torn Afghanistan. 
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Philippine government lifts ban on worker deployment in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-18 17:31:20   
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   　MANILA, Nov. 18 Xinhua -- The Philippine government has lifted its travel ban to Afghanistan, Lebanon and Nigeria and is now allowing a fresh batch of Filipino workers to seek employment in these countries, said the Department of Labor on Sunday. 

    However, travel ban to strife-torn Iraq will continue to be enforced, the Department of Labor said. 

    Manila has imposed the ban on Iraq following the kidnapping of two Filipinos in 2004 and 2005. 

    Angelo de la Cruz, who was threatened to be beheaded by his captors, in July 2004, was released when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo capitulated to the demand of the kidnappers to withdraw a small Philippine contingent in Iraq. 

    Another Filipino, accountant Robert Tarongoy, was also abducted by militants and later freed in June 2005 after eight months of captivity. 
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Afghan-Based British Soldiers Bound for Canadian Ski Resort
Published by skirebel on November 17, 2007 in News, Ski Canada, Ski North America and Ski UK. 
Article Link

The British Army’s Light Dragoons, a reconnaissance cavalry regiment that has just returned from an operational tour in Afghanistan, will be heading for British Columbia this winter.

“Downhill ski racing is one of the most popular and most important sporting activities that we participate in,” says Lieutenant Ollie Blake of the Light Dragoons. “In previous years, we’ve conducted our training camps in Switzerland, and this year for the first time we’re heading to Silver Star Mountain Resort in North America.”

Skiing has an illustrious history in the British Army and is part of the Adventurous Training programme. The Army Winter Sports Association describes it thus: “To encourage young men and women to participate in winter sports, to develop their skills in their chosen discipline, and to test themselves in demanding conditions - thereby fostering self discipline, physical courage and team work.”

The Light Dragoons have been in Afghanistan for the past year as part of Operation Herrick 6 and have seen action in the Helmand Province and throughout Southern Afghanistan. 

Blake continues, “The team consists of a mixture of officers and soldiers.
We will live together and train together for three weeks in Canada before returning to the UK for five days over Christmas, then out to Verbier, Switzerland and Serre Chevalier, France for the Royal Armoured Corps, Divisional and Army championships. We are also hoping to meet up with the officers of the South Alberta Light Horse, our sister Regiment in Canada.
With the present demands on the British Army, it involves a lot of work trying to fit everything in if we want to ski!”
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Gunfire Hit Most of Afghan Bomb Victims
By ALISA TANG JASON STRAZIUSO and FISNIK ABRASHI 
Article Link

BAGHLANI-JADID, Afghanistan (AP) — Up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and 100 wounded in a suicide bombing last week were hit by bullets from visiting lawmakers' panicked bodyguards, who fired on a crowd of mostly schoolchildren for up to five minutes, a preliminary U.N. report says.

Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says only a "small number" of the victims were hit by gunfire, but an Afghan official in Baghlan province told The Associated Press that bodyguards were "raining bullets" on the crowd.

The suicide bomb contained ball bearings, the Interior Ministry said, which may have caused wounds that look like bullet holes.

An Afghan doctor who treated patients after the Nov. 6 blast, meanwhile, told the AP that a high-ranking government official told him not to publicly reveal the number of gunfire victims, suggesting a possible government cover-up.

Separate teams of U.N. investigators have uncovered conflicting information about the number of people hit by gunfire and are trying to reconcile the differences, according to two Western officials who have seen the internal reports. The two spoke to the AP on condition they not be identified talking about preliminary findings.

But at least one of those reports — based on interviews with witnesses and medical authorities and a reconstruction of the bomb scene — says that of the roughly 77 people killed and 100 wounded, up to two-thirds were hit by the three to five minutes of gunfire the bodyguards fired into the crowd, one official said.
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Conflict claims civilians' life in S Afghanistan    
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-18 15:00:49   
Article Link 

    KABUL, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Continued conflicts between government troops and Taliban militants in Garmsir district of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province have left several civilians dead since Thursday, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said Sunday. 

    "A number of civilians have been killed in the fighting going on in Garmsir district," Andiwal told Xinhua, but he failed to give exact figure. 

    Meantime, a purported spokesman of Taliban outfit Qari Yusuf Ahmadi told media from an unknown location that 17 civilians had been killed in the clash between the two sides. 

    No independent source was immediately available to verify the claim. 

    Helmand's police chief Andiwal also said that two Taliban commanders had lost their lives in the battle while Ahmadi confirmed the dead of one commander of the insurgents. 

    In the operation launched Thursday, according to a statement released by the U.S. led Coalition forces Saturday, 23 militants had been killed and 11 others made captive. 
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News of Quebec soldier's death in Afghanistan shakes small village
Article Link

MONTREAL - The death of a Quebec soldier in Afghanistan on Saturday has sent shockwaves through his hometown of Riviere-Rouge, a small village in the Laurentians.

Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, of the Royal 22nd Regiment was killed when the light armoured vehicle he was riding in hit a roadside bomb.

Cpl. Nicholas Raymond Beauchamp of the 5th Field Ambulance and an Afghan interpreter also died in the blast. Three other soldiers were injured.

Lise Roy says Levesque was a longtime friend of her son, Eric. Roy, who lives two doors from Levesque's parents in Riviere-Rouge, says he was always a "nice little boy."

Last summer, the village of 4,500 held a going away party for Levesque and another local soldier, Kevin Chartrand, before they shipped out to Afghanistan.

Chartrand's father, Charles, says Levesque's death is very sad, but believes the soldiers are working for a good cause in Afghanistan that will produce results.

Riviere-Rouge Mayor Deborah Belanger says Levesque was a dynamic man and his death is a great loss for the town. She says he recently announced he was engaged to be married.
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Canadian Military to Dazzle their Enemies with Brilliance
 Saturday, November 17, 2007
Article Link

Razzle and Dazzling our enemies will not include our troops dressed in sequins and rhinestones breaking into Las Vegas showtunes on the battlefield, nor pulling rabbits out of combat helmet tophats and other magic tricks.   It is reported these Dazzlers come in many sizes and purposes, Though I would think dazzling an approaching enemy driving a vehicle may result  in many head on crashes.  As a public service I have also posted additional photos of past Dazzlers, though not Military Dazzler, it is certain they would confuse and  befuddle our enemies if ever seen riding on top of a leopard tank.

The Canadian Forces is looking at buying laser weapons designed to temporarily blind individuals as part of its efforts to reduce the number of innocent Afghans killed or wounded by troops for failing to heed warnings not to approach military convoys.

The systems, generally referred to as laser dazzlers, are capable of "disrupting" the vision of a person 50 to 500 metres away, depending on the specific type of model used.

The military wants to mount the dazzlers on rifles and vehicles, mainly for use in protecting convoys. It's hoped the systems might reduce the number of Afghan civilians killed or injured by soldiers after failing to heed commands to stop at checkpoints or not approach convoys.
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France turns down Canada's entreaties to send more troops to Afghanistan
SUSAN SACHS Special to The Globe and Mail November 17, 2007
Article Link

PARIS -- France recognizes Canada's "sacrifices" in Afghanistan but is not yet prepared to increase its troop levels or humanitarian assistance there, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday.

But he stressed that France had no intention of pulling out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military mission, as some French commentators have suggested. "There is no question of our leaving Afghanistan," Mr. Kouchner said.

He made his comments after a two-hour meeting here with Maxime Bernier, his Canadian counterpart.

Canada, which has so far lost 71 soldiers in the Afghanistan war, is seeking commitments from its NATO allies to step up with extra ground troops or otherwise boost their military involvement in the battle with Taliban militants.
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Remarks follow claims of abuse in Afghan jails
November 17, 2007 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

OTTAWA–Setting up separate NATO-run jails to hold battlefield detainees who might otherwise be tortured is out of the question, the alliance's military chief says.

Gen. Ray Henault, the Canadian chair of NATO's military committee, said creating detention facilities that are run by the International Security Assistance Force would put too much demand on the already difficult Afghanistan mission and undermine the Afghan government, which has responsibility for its own penal system.

"We consider this to be something done in concert with international standards. That's the way we intend to continue doing business," Henault said.

The Canadian policy of transferring detainees to Afghan prisons is being challenged in court by Amnesty International, which is seeking an end to all handovers until the country's jails are free of abuse.

The federal government released thousands of pages of files this week showing Canadian officials have been aware of the deplorable state of Afghanistan's prisons for some time, and are currently investigating seven allegations that Canadian detainees were tortured in Afghan custody. 

The most recent allegation came to light in the first week of November and was verified by local authorities who are now deciding whether to lay criminal charges.
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## MarkOttawa (18 Nov 2007)

For us ze war is over by tea time, ja
_Sunday Times_, Nov. 18
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2890985.ece



> THEY are on the front line of the war on terror, but German pilots facing the Taliban are insisting they stop at tea time every day to comply with health and safety regulations.
> 
> The helicopter pilots, who provide medical back-up to Nato ground troops, set off for their base by mid-afternoon so they can be grounded by sundown.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (19 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 19, 2007*

Troops capture Taliban's birthplace
Two Canadians slain in fierce battle that drove insurgents – some of whom used children as shields – from their historic enclave 
GRAEME SMITH From Monday's Globe and Mail November 19, 2007 at 1:19 AM EST
Article Link

SANGISAR, AFGHANISTAN — Canadian troops pushed the Taliban out of their birthplace in a storm of artillery shells and rockets on the weekend, during a major operation that killed two Canadian soldiers and an interpreter.

The smoke and dust of explosions hung over the dry fields of Sangisar, a stubborn enclave of insurgents where the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, founded the armed movement in 1994.

The same cluster of villages, about 40 kilometres west of Kandahar city, still served as a hideout for Taliban who raided the highway in recent weeks despite repeated military sweeps into the mud-walled warren during the past six years.

None of the previous operations left lasting security in Sangisar, however, so the Canadians decided to tackle a more difficult task: seizing a strategic point among the hostile villages and building a new police station. They attempted the first phase with only three platoons of infantry, five teams of snipers and reconnaissance specialists, and a small contingent of Afghan soldiers, in a zone where locals have reported hundreds of insurgents.
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Ramp ceremony held for fallen Canadian soldiers
Last Updated: Sunday, November 18, 2007 | 11:13 AM ET CBC News 
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Hundreds of soldiers attended a twilight ramp ceremony Sunday at Kandahar airfield to pay tribute to two Canadian soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, and Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, were riding in a light armoured vehicle that drove over a large improvised explosive device early Saturday.

Cpl. Dolores Crampton walks behind the casket of her husband, Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp, who along with Pte. Michel Levesque was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. 
(Bill Graveland/Canadian Press) The blast, 40 kilometres west of Kandahar, also claimed the life of an Afghan interpreter and injured three Canadian soldiers.

Maj. Pierre Bergeron, who serves as padre at the Kandahar base, spoke to Canadian, U.S., Dutch and British soldiers who lined the tarmac.

"Courage is not manifested in easy circumstances, but is found in tragic and difficult circumstances," he said.

The two fallen soldiers, he said, chose to serve in Afghanistan and their fellow soldiers should not become "victims of this tragedy, but survivors."
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Army faced bureaucratic battle to get tank purchase approved
Article Link

OTTAWA - The decision to borrow 20 Leopard A6M battle tanks from the Germans and purchase 100 slightly-used models from the Dutch was a hotly debated and ultimately last-minute decision for the Conservative government and Canada's Defence Department.

The debate was so intense it almost cost the army its most senior commander, political and defence sources say.

Records released under access to information laws also show that the army was conducting research tests as late as last February on its Leopard C1s to determine whether the older tanks could withstand the rigours of duty in Afghanistan.

The results of those tests - showing the old tanks were not suited for the searing Afghan summer - touched off an intense debate within National Defence and the wider bureaucracy.

Although contingency plans were prepared, former defence minister Gordon O'Connor faced push-back, particularly in the Privy Council Office which was deeply skeptical about replacing the army's inventory of antique Leopards with newer Dutch models, said the defence sources.

No one questioned the need to borrow up to 20 modern, mine-resistant battle tanks from Germany for the current mission in Kandahar, said the sourc
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Gallery: Finbarr O'Reilly's photography from Afghanistan  
Article Link

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Cookies from home a comfort for soldiers in Afghanistan
Jeff Bell, Times Colonist Published: Monday, November 19, 2007
Article Link

Eunice Fiss decided a chance meeting late last year with a Canadian soldier was a perfect reason to do something for all of the country's troops.

Fiss said she was inspired by a friendly conversation with Capt. Chris Lindsay when he was home from Afghanistan, and knew almost right away she had to turn that feeling into a project to help soldiers. She said she recalled the story of an American woman who had a successful drive to collect Silly String for soldiers in Iraq -- the playful substance is useful for revealing trip wires around bombs -- and was convinced she could come up with an initiative of her own.

"An entire planeload of Silly String went over," Fiss said. "So I said 'Is there anything we can do as just ordinary citizens for you, Chris?' "
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New Zealand continues deployments to Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-19 12:25:47  
Article Link

    WELLINGTON, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday her government has made decisions on continue military and police deployments to Afghanistan and the Gulf region for the period up until September 2009. 

    The deployments cover the continuation of: the Provincial Reconstruction Team based in Bamyan Province of Afghanistan; two military personnel helping to train the Afghan National Army; up to five military officers serving with the International Security Assistance Force Headquarters; one military officer serving with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan; up to two medical specialists serving with Canadian forces in the south of Afghanistan; and three Police officers helping to train the Afghan National Police. 

    "As well the Government has decided that there will be a deployment of a Navy frigate to the Gulf region prior to September2009," said Clark. 

    New Zealand Defense Minister Phil Goff said New Zealand has made substantial military, police, and aid contributions in Afghanistan since 2001, and the Provincial Reconstruction Team has been deployed since 2003.
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Challenging gender barriers, teen girls in Afghanistan enter the boxing ring
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - A group of teenage girls is taking up fisticuffs to challenge Afghanistan's gender barriers.

"Move, move, move," coach Saber Sharifi shouted as the 20-odd girls sparred recently. "Steady, watch your left shoulder."

The boxers belong to a new generation of Afghan youth, challenging stereotypes that persist five years after the fall of the Taliban. They train in a room in Kabul's main sports stadium, a venue for public executions during Taliban rule in the late 1990s.

Boxing is helping them gain confidence and self-respect, the girls say. Their goal: to be Afghanistan's first women's boxing team.

"Many people are trying to stop us from participating in sports by saying it is not good for women," said 15-year-old Shabnam, who uses only one name. "But I think if you are interested in doing something, you should avoid listening to what people think about you. Sports is a way out of violence for Afghanistan."

The girls - who also include Shabnam's sisters, Fatima, 17 and Sadaf, 14 - practise separately from boys and wear warm-up suits. Some cover their heads with scarves or bandanas.
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## GAP (20 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 20, 2007*

Hearts and minds
November 19th, 2007
Article Link

Taliban-style:

Taliban militants slashed the hands and legs of five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to villagers against working with the government, officials said yesterday…

“The Taliban told the people that whoever works with the government will suffer the same fate as these policemen,” Himat said. “This village is under Taliban control. There are more than 100 Taliban in this village.” Two tribal elders received the bodies of the policemen yesterday, he said.

The policemen have been held hostage by the Talibs for over two months - why now the sudden brutality?

Might be that they’re “lashing out“:

The executions occurred after several days of violence in the country’s south that left at least 63 people dead, including 58 militants and two Canadian soldiers.

Twenty-three Taliban militants were killed during a U.S.-led coalition operation aimed at disrupting a weapons transfer in southern Afghanistan, NATO said Saturday.

A truck apparently full of Taliban weapons exploded during the operation in Helmand province’s Garmsir district on Thursday. Coalition troops detained 11 people suspected of being part of a weapons running operation.

Also in Uruzgan, police shot and killed two suspected Taliban militants yesterday as they approached a police checkpoint on a motorbike, Himat said.

In Zabul province, the Taliban ambushed and clashed with an army patrol Saturday night, leaving 11 suspected insurgents dead and four soldiers wounded, said Qasem Khan, a provincial police official.

Authorities recovered the bodies of the 11 militants killed alongside their weapons, Khan said.

With great sympathy for the losses suffered by our Canadian allies, they are kicking some serious bad guy bootie west of Kanduhar. And the actions of the Taliban don’t seem to me calculated to be the kind that’s going to make them many friends on the ground.
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I mean, how about a little perspective, eh?  
November 19, 2007
Article Link

(CC News) - In a surprising development today, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day downplayed the Taser-related death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, calling it "tragic" but wondering why people weren't similarly outraged over impaired driving deaths in Canada.

"Well, sure, that was a bummer," said Day, "but come on, it was just one guy. Last year, more than a thousand people died in Canada because of drunk driving. I mean, really, one, one thousand, do the math, it's not hard."

Continued Day, "And I've been getting a lot of flak lately about how many Canadian troops have died in Afghanistan, too. But that's like what, 70? Whoop de doo. I mean, you folks really need to chill out. Talk about making a big deal out of it. Sometimes you people can be such whiners."
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Local woman gives Canadian troops a Merry Christmas
Tb News Source Web Posted: 11/19/2007 4:22:50 PM  
Article Link

  A local woman is taking an initiative city-wide to help Canadian troops in Afghanistan have a Merry Christmas. Last year, Galaxina Renaud collected non-perishable items from the community, to send to the Canadians serving overseas. And this year, she's expanding the campaign across the city.

Operation Overseas was launched Monday at Quality Market, which is acting as one of the drop off sites for those who wish to donate items. Last year, Renaud sent over 30 boxes to Afghanistan and over 4-hundred letters from different organizations and individuals. She says she was inspired to do this for the troops, after a local soldier was killed over a year ago while serving overseas.

Renaud says the community can donate anything that would give the troops a sense of home...like travel size games, candy, books or razors. Items can dropped off at either Quality Market location until December 7th. The boxes will be shipped out on the 12th.  
End

Welcome to the quagmire
By MINDELLE JACOBS
Article Link

Afghanistan has a long way to go before it can be described as a country that is not only stable, but adheres to the rule of law. 

But Amnesty International seems to think Canada and the rest of the international community can magically convince Afghanistan's feared intelligence service to embrace the concept of human rights. 

In a report last week, AI accused Canada and the other countries in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of exposing detainees to torture and other maltreatment by Afghan authorities. 

The international human rights group has demanded that detainee transfers be suspended and ISAF countries keep such individuals in their custody until effective safeguards are in place. 

It recommends that Canada and other ISAF nations promote the reform of the Afghan detention system and suggests that international staff be placed in Afghan detention facilities to monitor and train local hires. Yeah, there's an easy hurdle. 

As AI points out in its report, the Afghanistan security and justice sectors suffer from "severe and systematic flaws." No kidding. 

Transforming Afghanistan from thuggery to democracy will take decades, if it's even possible. What's Canada supposed to do with the Taliban terrorists and all the other blood-thirsty insurgents our soldiers catch in the meantime? Set up POW camps in Canada? Build our own jails in Afghanistan, run by Canadian officials to western standards? Heck, the terrorists might never want to leave. 

There's no doubt that the agreement between Canada and Afghanistan on detainee transfers has been a political, humanitarian and ethical quagmire. 

Earlier this year, AI and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association launched legal action, alleging that the detainee agreement violates the Charter because it doesn't adequately protect the prisoners from the likelihood of torture. 
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Video footage proves Khadr a child soldier, lawyers say
COLIN FREEZE November 20, 2007
Article Link

Lawyers for Omar Khadr say an incriminating video broadcast on U.S. television buttresses a key defence argument: If the young Canadian was helping to build bombs at 15, he was under the tutelage of elders who exploited him. 

"The 60 Minutes piece confirms that if Omar did all he is alleged to have done, he is a child soldier," said U.S. Lieutenant-Commander William Kuebler in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. The military-appointed defence lawyer added: "This is what the government has been dying to get out - and it shows nothing more than a 15-year-old kid taping a couple of wires together."

The few minutes of footage that aired on CBS on Sunday was from a 20-minute videotape that U.S. soldiers seized from a bombed Afghan compound where militants had apparently filmed one another as they prepared for a U.S. assault. 

Mr. Khadr, now 21 and a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was captured in the compound after a deadly battle with U.S. soldiers in 2002.
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Afghanistan deployments rolled over
Tuesday, 20 November 2007  
Article Link

The Government has rolled over the deployment of a provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan for another year.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government had made decisions about military and police deployments to Afghanistan and the Gulf region up until September 2009.

This included the provisional reconstruction team (PRT) in Bamyan Province in Afghanistan the New Zealand Defence Force personnel had been helping rebuild

Last month, 61 troops returned after a six-month deployment to Afghanistan in what was the 10th rotation of the provincial reconstruction team.

They were involved in building and road construction, education projects, explosive ordnance disposal, security patrols, training of Afghan national police and providing aid and humanitarian assistance to the local people.

Miss Clark said the provincial reconstructions teams had been very successful and the Government had decided this deployment should continue.

New Zealand's first PRT went to Afghanistan in 2003.

Other deployments to continue were:

- Two military personnel helping to train the Afghan National Army;

- Up to five military officer serving with the International Security Assistance Force Headquarters;

- One military officer serving with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan;

- Up to two medical specialists serving with Canadian forces in the south of Afghanistan;

- Three police officers helping train the Afghan National Police.

Also, a Navy frigate would be deployed to the Gulf region prior to September 2009.

That had been done on several occasions before. The details of how long the frigate would be in the region was yet to be determined, Miss Clark said.
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Drones to Replace Human Squadron in Afghanistan?
Article Link

By Sharon Weinberger November 19, 2007 | 11:07:41 AMCategories: Drones, Planes, Planes, Copters, Blimps   
The Air Force is touting the success of its newest armed drones flying over Afghanistan, saying that the the MQ-9 Reapers will even take over eventually for manned aircraft squadron, reports Defense Daily 

As a sign of the Reapers' potential significance to the U.S. Air Force, Lt. Gen. Gary North, the Air Force's top general in the region, said last week, as more Air Force MQ-9s arrive, they will eventually supplant a U.S. squadron of manned attack aircraft. But he offered no timeline on when this will happen... [He's made similar promises before -- ed.]  

The MQ-9 has got almost all of the tenets of a manned airplane currently deployed, with some advantages, said North. It can stay up longer on a sortie than a manned counterpart like the A-10 ground-attack aircraft or F-15E and F-16 fighter jets.

Further, it doesn't cost as much gas to fly them, the general said. And I have got the persistent stare capability.

However, it does not carry a gun like its manned counterparts, he said.
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US to aid Pakistani frontier force against militants
20 Nov 2007, 0500 hrs IST,REUTERS
Article Link

WASHINGTON: The United States has set up a program to train and equip a Pakistani paramilitary force recruited from tribal areas to try to counter Islamist militants, the Pentagon said on Monday. 

Washington would supply equipment like helmets and flak vests to the tribal force, known as the Frontier Corps, but would not provide weapons or ammunition, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. The plan also calls for the involvement of US Army trainers. 

He said the United States government believed that the tribal force was best-suited to fight militants who are believed to be behind a surge in violence in Pakistan's lawless mountainous regions bordering on Afghanistan. "They are locally recruited and have local knowledge, language skills and most of all credibility with the people who live in those areas," he said. 

Asked about concerns that tribal fighters may not be reliable allies and may have ties to militants, Morrell said: "I don't think we would be proceeding with a plan of this nature, of this cost, unless we had some degree of confidence that it would be fruitful." 

He said that the corps was a legitimate part of Pakistan's security forces and the Pakistani government fully supported the plan. The United States has criticised President Pervez Musharraf for imposing emergency rule on Nov 3 and has put US aid to Pakistan under review. But officials have said they will be careful not to undermine counterterrorism efforts. 
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Suicide Attack in Afghanistan Kills 7 but Spares Governor 
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA Published: November 20, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 19 — A provincial governor in southwestern Afghanistan narrowly escaped a suicide attack on Monday, but his 25-year-old son and five of his bodyguards were killed in the blast. A civilian bystander was also killed, and 14 others were wounded, the police said. 

The bomber approached the governor’s compound on foot on Monday morning just 10 minutes after the governor, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, had entered his office in the town of Zaranj, in Nimruz Province. He detonated his charge at the entrance to the compound, where the governor’s son was standing among a group of people, according to the provincial police chief, Muhammad Dawood Askaryar. Chief Askaryar said that of the wounded, six were policemen, three were employees of the governor’s office and three were civilians. 

Zaranj lies on the border with Iran and has been relatively free of insurgent attacks and the strong Taliban presence seen in the rest of the south and southeast of the country. 
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Taliban captures 10 alleged security guards in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-20 16:32:02      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents have captured around 10 people allegedly belonging to a private security company in Garmser district of southern Afghan Helmand province, police said Tuesday. 

    The incident occurred on Monday night and the people had been providing protection service for a foreign building company working on a road linking southern province Kandahar to western Herat, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told Xinhua. 

    Andiwal did not identify the nationality of the security service company. 

    Talking to Xinhua via phone from an unknown location, a Taliban commander Mullah Mohmmad Hashim however said the Taliban had abducted six policemen and beheaded another one who was trying to defend himself during the action. 
More on link

Seoul to Send Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan 
 By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter
Article Link

The government decided Tuesday to send a provincial reconstruction team comprised of private experts to Afghanistan when it pulls out Korean troops there by the end of this year.

The team consisting of 30 doctors, nurses and pharmacists will take over the Dongui Medical Unit, which has conducted medical services since September 2002.

The government has submitted the plan to the National Assembly.

``At the request of the Afghan government to keep helping in the reconstruction of the war-devastated nation, we decided to send the provincial reconstruction team,'' a government official said on condition of anonymity. ``The first members of the team will leave for Afghanistan next month to take over the Dongui Medical Unit.''

The official further said that while the currently envisioned team is comprised of 20 to 30 people, the number of personnel can be increased, depending on the local situation.
More on link

Oxfam says too much aid to Afghanistan wasted
Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:58am GMT By Jon Hemming
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - Too much aid to Afghanistan is wasted -- soaked up in contractors' profits, spent on expensive expatriate consultants or squandered on small-scale, quick-fix projects, leading charity Oxfam said on Tuesday.

Despite more than $15 billion (7.3 billion pounds) of aid pumped into Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, many Afghans still suffer levels of poverty rarely seen outside sub-Saharan Africa.

"The development process has to date been too centralised, top-heavy and insufficient," said a report by Oxfam.

By far the biggest donor, the United States approved a further $6.4 billion in Afghan aid this year, but the funds are spent in ways that are "ineffective or inefficient", Oxfam said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) allocates close to half its funds to the five largest U.S. contractors in Afghanistan.

"Too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies and sub-contractors, on non-Afghan resources and on high expatriate salaries and living costs," the report said.
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Testing needed on laser weapons, military observers say
David ******** , CanWest News Service Published: Monday, November 19, 2007
Article Link

Canada should hold off equipping its soldiers in Afghanistan with laser weapons until the systems can be tested to ensure they can't inadvertently blind civilians or harm the troops using them, says an Ottawa-based think-tank.

The Canadian military is looking at purchasing the systems, known as laser dazzlers, for use against Afghans who would get too close to military convoys. The devices are capable of temporarily blinding people, serving as a warning not to approach military checkpoints or vehicles. 

The Canadian Forces hope the use of dazzlers would reduce the number of times troops have to fire upon vehicles whose drivers have failed to heed warnings to stop or not to come any closer.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (20 Nov 2007)

Arbour calls Afghan civilian casualties 'alarming'
AP, Nov. 20
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/11/20/4671079-ap.html



> KABUL - The UN's top human rights officer says civilian casualties in Afghanistan have reached "alarming levels."
> 
> Louise Arbour blames both the insurgents and NATO-led forces for the high rate of civilian deaths. But Arbour says international forces need to pay particular attention to the problem.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (21 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 21, 2007*

Canadian support workers freeing up troops for military operations
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - You could call them the troops behind the troops in Afghanistan.

A small army of red-shirted workers beavering away at Kandahar Air Field performing many of the duties that in the past were the purview of the military. Among their jobs: providing communications and information systems support; transport, accommodations and vehicle and equipment maintenance.

It's all part of the Canadian Forces Contractor Augmentation Program, or CANCAP for short.

SNC-Lavalin Profac has the CANCAP contract and 204 personnel at the base. Strangely enough, filling the open spots each year is easier for Afghanistan than it is at home in Canada.

"It does continuously surprise me that we have more difficulty recruiting for Fort McMurray (Alta.) than we do here," chuckled Don Chynoweth of Calgary, senior vice-president of Defence Programs.

"I think that shows the interest that Canadians have in helping the Canadians over here and the adventure of it," he said.
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Harper downplays incidence of detainee abuse
Globe and Mail Update November 20, 2007 at 4:25 PM EST
Article Link

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons Tuesday there has been just one credible allegation of prisoners facing torture in Afghanistan.

His remark came in response to questioning from Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion on federal court documents released last week that opposition politicians say confirm the government knew of appalling conditions in Afghan prisons at the same time that ministers were reassuring the public that they knew nothing.

“We've said repeatedly that there has been no evidence of any abuse involving the transfer of Canadian prisoners until one case recently in the past two weeks,” Mr. Harper said Tuesday. “We do have a process in place with the Afghan government to monitor this and to ensure there is an investigation. Those are the facts.”

Canadian officials said last week they had evidence that a Taliban detainee in an Afghan prison showed signs of physical abuse. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier told the House last week an investigation is under way into the latest case, the seventh since Canada began systematically visiting Afghan detention facilities in May.
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Weapons' costs hike kept quiet
Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda, Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service
Article Link

OTTAWA - While the Conservative government tried earlier this year to divert the public spotlight from combat to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the military was buying quietly a record supply of guns and ammunition, CanWest News Service has learned.

Between February and June, the Defence Department spent almost $54 million on small arms, big guns, ammunition, explosives, grenades and other weapons. That's more than the combined total of all of 2006 ($18.4 million) and 2005 ($32.3 million), the year the Canadian Forces began their current deployment to Kandahar.

For every dollar spent on a gun, at least $20 were shelled out for ammunition.
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Mishandled-weapon cases alarm military's top judge
 TheStar.com - November 21, 2007 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

Sees 40 per cent jump in number of trials for negligent gunfire

OTTAWA–Canada's top military judge has expressed concern about the increased frequency of soldiers carelessly firing weapons, at a time when two soldiers face charges in the shooting deaths of colleagues in Afghanistan.

Brig.-Gen. Ken Watkin, Canada's judge advocate general, says 383 summary trials in the past year involved negligent discharge of a weapon by Canadian soldiers, up 40 per cent from 2005-'06.

Charges of negligent discharge of a weapon are applied when a gun is fired but no one is hit. 

He has recommended the Canadian Forces take a harder look at what's causing the jump in cases and what can be done to stop it. But his annual report to Parliament suggests it could reflect war realities in Afghanistan, where Canadians on Kandahar missions are required to carry weapons at all times, with increased handling of weapons possibly leading to more mishandling.

"There are a number of factors ... including the CF's enhanced operational tempo, increased weapons handling and training by CF members, and perhaps the use of summary trials as a mechanism to deter further negligent discharges," he wrote.

"... Whether this increase is an anomaly or the beginning of a trend, the office of the (judge advocate general) will further analyze the statistics and continue to monitor the numbers during the 2007-08 period."

Negligence is also a factor linked to separate tragedies in Afghanistan, when soldiers are alleged to have accidentally fired weapons that killed Master-Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh, 33, and Cpl. Ronald Kevin Megeney, 25.

Master Cpl. Robbie Fraser is alleged to have fatally shot Walsh Aug. 9, 2006, as they travelled along a bumpy road inside an armoured Mercedes G-Wagon on patrol outside Kandahar. 

Fraser is charged with manslaughter and negligent performance of duty.

Less than a year later, on March 6, Megeney allegedly died of a shot from Cpl. Matthew Wilcox's 9-mm handgun while the friends were in a tent. 

Wilcox is charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death, and negligent performance of duty.
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Blatchford feels obliged to tell soldiers' stories
Embedded in Afghanistan Richard Helm The Edmonton Journal Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Article Link

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD'S FIFTEEN DAYS

When: Thursday night at 7:30

Where: Transalta Arts Barns, 10330 84th Ave.

Tickets: Available at Audreys Books, 10702 Jasper Ave.; $10 adults, $7 students and members of the military. A few tickets may be available at the door.

EDMONTON - Journalist Christie Blatchford loves her soldier boys and she's not afraid to say so. She's likely to see some of that affection returned when she comes here Thursday to launch Fifteen Days, her new book on the Canadian military experience in Afghanistan.

The book is subtitled Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army. It spotlights 15 significant days that stuck with Blatchford while she was embedded with our troops on three separate tours of Afghanistan since Canada took over the major security role in Kandahar province in 2006. The veteran Globe and Mail columnist also made four trips to Edmonton through March of this year working on the book.

The soldiers and families of Canadian Forces Base Edmonton figure large in Fifteen Days, most notably those from the locally based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Close to half of Canada's 74 casualties in Afghanistan have been suffered by the PPCLI, and most of those soldiers were stationed in Edmonton. Blatchford expects to see several familiar faces at her local book launch.

"I hope to see lots of Patricias, that's for sure. That's certainly where my heart is," she said in a telephone interview from her Toronto home. "Thirteen of my 15 days in the book were Patricia days."

Blatchford was back in Afghanistan for a fourth tour in August and September with the Van Doos from Canadian Forces Base Valcartier, and has now been embedded with all three major Canadian regiments. Summoning up the nerve to fly back into that war zone is never easy, Blatchford says, but she feels a duty to return as long as Canadian soldiers are over there.

"As a journalist it's a compelling place to be and these are compelling guys to write about, but actually the reason I go back is because I just feel obliged," said Blatchford, whose late father was a Royal Air Force navigator who flew escort squadrons over the North Atlantic during the Second World War.
More on link

Canada, delete Saudi Arabia from your Facebook friends 
Article Link

The Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday defended a court verdict that sentenced a 19-year-old victim of a gang rape to six months in jail and 200 lashes because she was with an unrelated male when they were attacked.

Well, that’s not exactly true - it was actually the Saudi judiciary that was passing judgment on the 19-year old Saudi woman. It sometimes helps to get a perspective on international news by looking at it from a local perspective, though.

Is there any particular reason why Canada has diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia while Canadian troops are fighting medieval religious thugs in Afghanistan (who were educated in Saudi-funded fundamentalist madrassas in Pakistan)?

Of course, most Canadians have already probably forgotten the name William Sampson.
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The Liberals are pushing their luck - it will run out.  
Article Link

Nov 21Tories hit it out of the park in yesterday’s QP.

I’ll post the best lines of today’s Question Period once Hansard makes them available, but I have to be honest here, the Liberal party is really, really scrambling to make a valid point.

 We have Stephane Dion, Michael Ignatieff and a select few members of the Bloc trying to claim that our troops are committing war crimes in Afghanistan.  While the left continues to trash the military (as it has since the days of Trudeau), the Conservative government continues to defend it.  Even former U.S. President Bill Clinton says Canada should stay the course!

While Canadian soldiers are being buried, the Liberal Party especially uses the opportunity to accuse them of violating the Geneva Convention.  Let them do it OUTSIDE the house!

On another note, Robert Thibault stood up with his usual advice for the government when dealing with the Airbus affair. However, he was a lot more timid when asking this time than he was PRIOR to the $2 million lawsuit.  That being said, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said it best when he informed the Member for West Nova that the last people the government will take advice from is the Liberal Party of Canada since they think it’s perfectly acceptable to make tax records of Canadian citizens public.

I’ll have to wait for the Hansard in order to post the one liner Peter Van Loan threw at the mouthpiece from Ajax-Pickering.

The point of all of this?  The Liberals are running out of steam. They have nothing valuable to say and are really destroying their credibility as a decent opposing party. 

They run their mouths off without the facts in the House and choose to say nothing outside the House to substantiate their claims. Instead, they continue to abstain their votes to keep the Tory government alive.
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Afghan Development and Governance Cash-Starved  
By Lee Berthiaume November 21st, 2007
Article Link

The international community must place more emphasis on development and governance efforts in Afghanistan, including more funding, and better co-ordinate all aspects of the international intervention there if it is to succeed, NATO military committee chairman Gen. Ray Henault said last week. 

"The amount of funding applied to the military component is appropriate to what the military is doing there," Gen. Henault told Embassy in an interview on Nov. 16. 

"My perspective would be that more spending has to be done in the other pillars. Does it necessarily have to match the military spending? I don't know the answer to that, but what we should probably see is an increase in the commitment to those other components, with this thought that ultimately there will be a rebalancing and then a move ahead on those fronts." 

Gen. Henault, a former Canadian chief of defence staff, was in Ottawa on Friday to accept an award from the Conference of Defence Associations Institute. He has held his current position since 2005 and is due to retire in July. 

The Afghanistan mission has dominated NATO throughout his tenure, including challenges in getting countries to contribute more troops, dropping restrictions on what their military forces can do in the country, and convincing them to take over difficult regions. 

There have been suggestions that if the Afghanistan mission, NATO's first operation outside Europe, fails, the alliance's credibility and ability to intervene in other parts of the world in the future will take a significant hit. 

Critics have accused the international community, including Canada, of placing much more emphasis on the military aspect of the mission than development. While the Canadian government has pledged $1.2 billion over 10 years ending in 2011 for development and reconstruction, critics repeatedly cite a nine-to-one ratio between development and military spending, with the military coming out way ahead. In addition, while there are more than 2,500 military personnel in the country, Canadian officials say only between 40 and 50 non-military personnel are on the ground in Afghanistan. 
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Afghan clash toll soaring
AGENCIES, KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN, OTTAWA AND LONDON Monday, Nov 19, 2007, Page 4 
Article Link

KANDAHAR PROVINCE: NATO and Afghan troops have killed scores of insurgents in two days of fighting. Two Canadians and their interpreter were also killed 

Combined Afghan, Canadian and other troops backed by gunship helicopters killed or wounded about 100 Taliban in raids on a stronghold in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday

The operation, launched Saturday in Kandahar Province, also cost the lives of two Canadian troops and their interpreter, as well as an Afghan soldier.

The Canadian Defense Ministry confirmed the identity of the soldiers as Corporal Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, and Private Michel Levesque, 25, both from Quebec.

Three other Canadian soldiers were also injured when the team's light-armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device about 40km west of Kandahar, the ministry said in a statement.

The three wounded soldiers were taken by helicopter to the Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield for treatment.

Meanwhile, Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb said "100 Taliban have been killed and wounded" over the weekend. 

"Twenty-five Taliban have been buried in one location," he said
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Canada violating Geneva treaty, MPs say
Opposition accuses government of hiding reports, presses demand for immediate end to detainee transfers
ALAN FREEMAN November 17, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs have called on the government to order the Canadian Forces to halt the transfer of detainees to the Afghan government, alleging that Canada has violated the Geneva Conventions by permitting prisoner abuse to continue.

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre alleged in the House of Commons yesterday that government documents released this week prove that the government knew that torture was taking place in Afghan prisons and did nothing.

"For months, the government tried to hide specific reports on torture," Mr. Coderre said during Question Period. "These reports of torture are now confirmed. Canada must stop the transfer of detainees or it will continue to violate the Geneva Conventions."

NDP MP Paul Dewar said the documents, released on Wednesday, confirm that the government knew of appalling conditions in Afghan prisons at the same time that ministers were reassuring the public that they knew nothing. He also alleged that Canada is unable to track the prisoners it has handed over to the Afghans and that its detainee agreement is not being respected.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (22 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 22

Dutch troops to stay in Afghanistan
_The Australian_, Nov.23 (yes)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22807814-12377,00.html



> DUTCH government parties have agreed to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan by around two years, public broadcaster NOS reported overnight, citing well-informed sources.
> 
> Dutch and Australian troops make up the bulk of the force in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (23 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 23, 2007*

Australian commando killed in Afghan fight
Article Link

(CNN) -- One Australian soldier, three civilians and Taliban militants were killed early Friday during heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan, according to information from Australian and NATO officials.

The incident occurred in Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province, where Taliban militants killed an Australian commando, the Australian Defence Ministry said.

The 26-year-old commando -- Pvt. Luke Worsley of Sydney -- served with the Special Operations Task Group. This is the fourth Australian troop to die in the Afghan conflict.

"The action in which Private Worsley died only concluded in the last few hours and was characterized by heavy, close quarter fighting. The SOTG was conducting an operation to clear an identified Taliban bomb making facility in Uruzgan province, when the soldier was hit by small arms fire," Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said "a significant number of Taliban insurgents were killed or captured as part of the operation. Taliban insurgents initiated the firefight which lasted several hours."

Gen. Carlos Branco, ISAF spokesman, said it is not known how the civilians, two women and a child, died.
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Opposition says military too optimistic
Canadian Forces accused of maintaining 'culture of secrecy' after Commons address
GLORIA GALLOWAY November 23, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The Canadian military was accused by opposition MPs yesterday of providing a deceptively rosy picture of the situation in Afghanistan and maintaining a "culture of secrecy" about Taliban gains.

The allegations came after Brigadier-General Peter Atkinson, the Director General of Operations, Strategic Joint Staff for the Canadian Forces, appeared before the Commons defence committee to provide an update on the Afghan operation.

"The success of last month's operations increased the stability and security throughout the Zhari and Panjwai areas, resulting in good progression of the government of Canada governance and development objectives," he told the committee.

Brig.-Gen. Atkinson talked about the increasing effectiveness of the Afghan police, the opening of roads, and the enhanced safety of Canadian troops and their Afghan allies. He also pointed to signs of progress like a trade show in Kandahar city that showcased the work of local artisans and the construction of a causeway that is creating jobs and confidence.
More on link

Saying no to Iraq war was victory, Chretien says
Updated Thu. Nov. 22 2007 12:10 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Former prime minister Jean Chretien says one of the major victories in his career was standing up against pressure to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

During an exclusive interview with Canada AM's Beverly Thomson, Chretien says he doesn't worry about what kind of legacy he has left, saying that's up to other people to decide.

"People always talk about legacy -- what do you want as a legacy? But people should not worry too much about it because there's no control you can have over that. You do your best and at the end of the day the people will conclude certain things," he says.
More on link

CFB Valcartier honours memory of fallen soldiers
Updated Thu. Nov. 22 2007 8:27 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Soldiers at CFB Valcartier in Quebec are steeling themselves to move on after the recent deaths of their two comrades in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier and Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, of 3rd Battalion, the Royal 22nd Regiment were killed Saturday when their Light Armoured Vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Kandahar. 

Maj. Pierre Voyer told Canada AM on Thursday that morale on the base, which is located 25 kilometres north of Quebec City, remains "very good."

Voyer described Beauchamp as a supportive soldier who was always there for the troops on the front lines. 

"As a medical personnel, he was with them at the front to be sure they were well supported," Voyer said. 

"He was doing a really good job."
More on link

New roles for troops in Afghanistan 
  Article Link

LAKOKHEL (Agencies): Canadian troops arriving in Afghanistan in the future will find a rapidly changing military landscape, says the new commander of the Canadian Forces mentoring program. Col. Francois Riffou said troops will have to adjust to these changes, which will mean problems for both those arriving in the Afghan theatre for the first time and for those who have been away for least a year. While soldiers in a previous rotation may have been largely in a combat role, that is changing with the growing competency of the Afghan National Army, Riffou said. Troops are also being used to mentor the Afghan National Police. Combat-tuned soldiers may therefore not like where they eventually end up, said Riffou, who takes over the mentoring program when the next rotation of troops arrive in February. "There's a lot of education to be done inside the army for those coming back," said Riffou. Newcomers will still have to learn to work with security personnel who often don't understand English and whose culture is much different. There are efforts to simulate the conditions in Afghanistan before deployment, with training sites such as the one in Wainwright. But, Riffou said even this kind of advance training can't fully prepare soldiers for the hottest days of the Afghan summer. "It's hard country," he said. 
More on link

Dutch very likely to stay in Afstan until 2010   
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Article Link

Very good news--which will sure put the screws on us. Note also the countries reported to be pitching in the help the Dutch. I wonder what our opposition parties will have to say about our leaving our militaristic Dutch (and Aussie) comrades rather in the lurch if Canada end its combat mission at Kandahar, immediately south of them.

DUTCH government parties have agreed to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan by around two years, public broadcaster NOS reported overnight, citing well-informed sources.

Dutch and Australian troops make up the bulk of the force in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan.

According to the NOS, the parties in the centre-left coalition government have agreed to extend the mandate of the Dutch troops in the Uruzgan province, which expires in August 2008, until 2010.

The Dutch cabinet will discuss the extension tomorrow and thrash out the details. The NOS said one point that remains to be determined is exactly how long the soldiers will stay, but it is expected to be around two years.

The government of Christian Democrats, Labour and protestant Christian Union is expected to officially announce its decision on Saturday next week.
More on link

Prime Minister rallies Canadian troops in Afghanistan
NEWS RELEASE 13 March 2006 Ottawa, Ontario
Article Link
   
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today spoke to Canadian troops serving with Task Force Afghanistan at Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan.

“On behalf of all Canadians, I want to tell you how proud I am of the work you are doing. You have put yourselves on the line to defend our national interests, ensure Canadian leadership in world affairs, and help Afghanistan rebuild into a free, democratic and peaceful country,” said Prime Minister Harper.

“Your work, serving in this UN-mandated, Canadian-led security operation, follows in the proud Canadian tradition of providing leadership on global issues and protecting our national interests,” said Prime Minister Harper.

“Already, great progress has been made. Your contributions have enhanced the security of the Afghan people so they can rebuild their country and make a better life for themselves and their children,” said Prime Minister Harper.

“Standing up for these core Canadian values may not always be easy. But you have our full support. Your government is behind you. And most importantly, the Canadian people are behind you,” said Prime Minister Harper.
More on link

Drop-off holiday cards for Canadian troops at fire stations  
By SHANNON VANRAES, SUN MEDIA November 21, 2007 
Article Link 
  
Winnipeg Emergency Medical Services and the Winnipeg Fire Department have joined forces to collect cards and letters for Canadian troops in Afghanistan, which will be sent overseas in time for Christmas. 

Fire and Paramedic chief Jim Brennan encourages members of the public to drop off holiday cards and letters of support for Canadian troops, at local Fire Paramedic Stations by Nov. 28. 

Service personel, fire fighters and paramedics launched the initiative today at No. 1 Station, in central Winnipeg. 
More on link

Merchants of death...  
Article Link

...assisted by an implicitly nefarious distraction effort by the government. Or so these editorialists, posing as reporters, (and no doubt seeing themselves as the fearless counterparts of Woodward and Bernstein) would have readers think. Babbling has already very well fisked Mr Blanchfield of the Ottawa Citizen. I'll have a go at him and his co-editorialist Andrew Mayeda.

As a start why would anyone think the fact that, during a combat mission, an army expends an awful lot of rounds, warrants a full page story in the paper? The headline:

Locked, loaded and lucrative
Overlooked in the cost of rebuilding Afghanistan is the cost of the bullets

The money shot:

An analysis of Defence Department data shows that while Colt has sold $2.4 million worth of guns, spare parts and maintenance to the military so far this year, those numbers are dwarfed by the $46 million worth of bullets and mortars that General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada sold to the Canadian Forces during just five months in 2007.

I'm shocked, just shocked to learn that the Canadian Forces are spending money on bullets and mortar rounds when in combat.

Distraction and cover-up:

Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan are making record use of guns and bullets as they face some of their heaviest fighting since the Korean War. The Conservative government has tried to soften the rhetoric surrounding the war in Afghanistan this year, pressing messages of reconstruction and development, while downplaying the combat role of the military.
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AFGHANS VS. CANADA AT UN
Opposed Canadian censure of Iran
Steven Edwards, CanWest News Service Published: Thursday, November 22, 2007
Article Link

UNITED NATIONS - Afghanistan effectively snubbed Canada in United Nations votes affecting a Canadian-led censure of Iran's human rights record, an analysis of the voting lineup shows.

Canada had been desperate for support on the measure in order to avoid international embarrassment. With Afghanistan's help, Iran came within two votes of defeating it.

In a pair of back-to-back votes on Tuesday, Afghanistan supported an Iranian bid to have the Canadian resolution thrown out, then voted against Canada when the resolution eventually came before the assembly
More on link

Private sector to train armyRoadside bomb investigators to get outside help  
November 20, 2007 By The Canadian Press
Article Link 

OTTAWA — The Canadian army is turning to the private sector to better train soldiers who investigate roadside bombings in Afghanistan. 
The majority of Canadian casualties in the war-torn country, including two soldiers killed last weekend, are the result of often-crudely constructed explosives. 

The army says better investigative techniques will allow it to track down individual bomb-makers and the ad-hoc factories where the devices are assembled. 

Lt.-Col. Jeremy Mansfield says it benefits not only Canadian soldiers, but civilians who’ve suffered more than anyone else from IEDs. 

Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier, Que., and Pte. Michel Levesque of Riviere-Rouge, Que., were killed just after midnight Saturday when their light armoured vehicle struck a large bomb. 

Their deaths bring to 73 the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. 

The Defence Department recently posted a tender, looking for a civilian company to help train explosive disposal teams in “post blast investigation techniques, evidence collection, analysis and device reconstruction.” 
More on link

Notorious Taliban stronghold subdued in Kandahar
Tue, 20/11/2007 - 21:38 — matt Source: Afgha.com 
Article Link

A notorious Taliban stronghold in the southern province of Kandahar has been invaded and secured by a joint Afghan and Canadian infantry unit. Heavy clashes erupted Saturday after the joint Afghan-Canadian unit came under attack while trying to secure a vital check point in the Sangisar (Sangi Hisar) village. Two Canadian soldiers and their interpreter were killed during the operation when their LAV-III vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. Three other soldiers suffered serious injuries from the blast and were rushed to Kandahar airfield’s medical facility, according to a Canadian Defence statement.

Untold scores of Taliban fighters have also been killed in the fighting. Helicopter gunships, snipers, and French Mirage jest bombarded entrenched Taliban positions for nearly two days before the engagement finally subsided. Estimates vary between 12 and 100 Taliban fighters dead and wounded since the fighting began. Taliban spokesman ‘Yousuf Ahmadi’ has denied his group sustained more than four casualties. 

Sangisar village is the intended location of a proposed Afghan National Police (ANP) station that is being built with help from ISAF soldiers, namely Canadian forces. Previous attempts to stabilize the village has faltered as local support for the Taliban remains strong and the undermanned and ill-equipped ANP force has failed to provide adequate security. According to Canadian press reports, Sangisar is the village where the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, started the Taliban movement in 1994.
More on link

Artist's work pictures of compassion  
By MEGAN GILLIS, SUN MEDIA November 21, 2007 
Article Link 

When artist Karen Bailey flew to Afghanistan to document Canadian Forces medical personnel at work in a war zone, she expected to watch them treating wounded soldiers. 

Instead, she saw them bring healing and hope to injured Afghans, many of them children -- a view of Canadians at war she hopes to turn into a series of paintings. 

The first day that she stepped off the plane at the dusty, scorching and rubble-strewn Kandahar Air Field Base and entered the hospital -- a plywood shack next to a runway -- she saw a four-year-old boy being treated for gunshot wounds to his back. 

"I was a little bit weak at the knees outside the door of the operating theatre," Bailey remembers. 

"I have this lasting image of little Aziz, with his little matchstick arms. 

"I remember the children, the Afghan children, in the hospital. There were no Canadian soldiers in the hospital. It was all Afghans." 

MEDICS FORGOTTEN 

Bailey, 47, went to Kandahar as a volunteer with the Canadian War Artists Program aiming to document medical personnel at work because they're often forgotten in the focus on front-line troops. 

"I hope my art is able to capture the humanity inside those medical personnel and the caring," she said. 
More on link

Burka-wearing medical helpers reach out to Afghan women
Kelly Cryderman , CanWest News Service Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A brigade of burka-wearing medical helpers took to Kandahar's neighbourhoods Wednesday, armed with condoms, iron supplements and advice on difficult pregnancies in a new program designed to boost women's health in the restless provincial capital.

The Canadian-funded community health worker program saw 260 city women graduate from a short training course where they were instructed in basic health care and midwifery skills.

In a city where doctors are hard to come by - and many husbands don't want to their wives to see male physicians - the workers will go back to one of the city's 10 sectors and volunteer at their local clinics or at other women's homes.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (23 Nov 2007)

Forces limit information to protect Afghan lives
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/letters/story.html?id=3c7c3cd7-7756-449c-9e7c-6e8e0d7a261c
_The Ottawa Citizen_
Published: Friday, November 23, 2007



> Re: Secrecy surrounds Afghan contracts, Nov. 19.
> http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=d0cb8021-7168-4368-af2b-00b106391ea0
> 
> The article misrepresents the actions and motives of the Canadian Forces on the subject of disclosure of contracting information. The publishers should also be aware that some of the information in the article may put at risk the lives of some Afghan contractors.
> ...



He kept us out of war
_Daimnation!_, Nov. 23
http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/010413.html



> Well, not in the way M. Chrétien (and most of our media) like to play the Iraq story,
> http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071122/chretien_interview_071122/20071122?hub=Canada
> having forgotten the facts of only four and three quarter years ago.
> 
> ...



Battle for Sangisar
_Globe and Mail_, Nov. 18
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/video/vs?id=RTGAM.20071118.wvafghanbattle1118&ids=RTGAM.20071118.wvafghanbattle1118&hub=search



> Exclusive footage from Canadian reconnaissance squadron, which led weekend battle in Sangisar. Video courtesy of Cpl. Philippe Lemieux



Fighting a war in a digital age
Soldiers taking pictures and easy Internet access raise new set of challenges over security for military
_Toronto Star_, Nov. 23
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/279210



> The gritty video captures the crackle of machine-gun fire, the boom of explosions and the whoosh of shrapnel passing dangerously close overhead.
> 
> But this compelling glimpse of Canadians under fire during a patrol west of Kandahar wasn't shot by a journalist travelling with the troops. Rather it was taken by a soldier himself.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (23 Nov 2007)

Canadian army paints upbeat picture of Afghanistan, contradicts Senlis Council
CP, Nov. 22
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2007/11/21/pf-4673818.html



> A senior [!?!] Canadian general painted an upbeat picture of the war in Afghanistan to a House of Commons committee Thursday, contradicting an international think-tank.
> 
> But *Brig.-Gen* [emphasis addea]. Peter Atkinson wasn't prepared to dismiss Wednesday's Senlis Council report as quickly as Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who called the agency's ideas "not credible."
> 
> ...



Hillier bucks Pakistan push
General: Canada, NATO’s focus on southern Afghanistan
_ChronicleHerald.ca_, Nov. 23
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/993800.html



> The country’s top soldier isn’t quibbling with one aspect of a recent report that calls for increasing the number of NATO troops in Afghanistan.
> 
> But Gen. Rick Hiller doesn’t agree with the Senlis Council’s suggestion that the International Security Assistance Force should attack insurgent training areas in northern Pakistan.
> 
> ...



'There is reason for optimism,' NATO chief says
_Globe and Mail_, Nov. 23
http://199.246.67.249/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20071123/AFGHAN23/Front/frontpage/frontInternational/2/2/4/



> KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A panel on the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan will hear today from NATO's chief, who says he intends to deliver a message that the situation isn't all "gloom and doom."
> 
> Development work in the districts around Kandahar serves as an example of continued progress despite the rising violence, said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, arguing against those who warn of looming disaster for the international effort.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (24 Nov 2007)

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 24

FACTBOX: Key policy themes for Australia's Labor
Reuters, Nov. 24
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSYD31991820071124


> ...
> FOREIGN POLICY
> 
> - Withdraw few hundred combat troops from Iraq, look to transfer Australia's training of Iraqi security forces to another country, *keep and possibly increase troop numbers in Afghanistan* [emphasis added].
> ...



Taliban claim credit for police 'slaughter'
Seven killed in attack on police checkpoint
_Calgary Herald_, Nov. 24
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=afd6a56b-4f75-4045-af4e-f72e7dc544a7



> The Taliban have attacked an Afghan police checkpoint, killing at least seven men -- all members of the Afghan police force -- in a district where Canadian and Afghan forces won a victory against insurgents just three weeks ago.
> 
> In *Arghandab, a region immediately north of Kandahar city* [emphasis added], the Taliban attacked the Charghulba area checkpoint at about 3 a.m. yesterday. Besides those police officers killed, another seven also have gone missing, said police commander Abdul Hakim Jan.
> 
> ...



Taliban behead 7 cops, kill Oz soldier in clash
AP, Nov, 24
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2007/11/24/4681649-sun.html



> Taliban militants beheaded seven policemen yesterday after overrunning their checkpoints in southern Afghanistan, officials said.
> 
> An Australian soldier and three civilians were killed in a separate clash.
> 
> ...



Suicide bomber kills six Afghan civilians
AP, Nov. 24
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071124/afghan_violence_071124/20071124?hub=TopStories



> A suicide bomber *targeting Italian soldiers* [emphasis added] building a bridge Saturday instead killed six Afghans, including three children who had gathered to watch the construction work, officials and witnesses said.
> 
> The midmorning attack wounded at least nine people, including three of the soldiers, who were building *a bridge about 10 kilometres west of Kabul* [emphasis added], said Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (25 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 25, 2007*

Graveyard of damaged vehicles set aside at Kandahar Air Field
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - You could call them the other casualties of war.

In a remote corner of the base here at Kandahar Air Field there is an area set aside for the initial victims of rocket attacks, RPG's, roadside bombs and suicide bombers.

Damaged vehicles of all shapes and sizes are sitting there: Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs), transport trucks, Bison personnel carriers, the South African built Nyala RG-31 and even some armoured vehicles not in current use.

All have been damaged in one way or another in fighting over the last five years against the Taliban.

The vehicles are eventually destined to return home, but transport space is often limited and getting them back to Canada or their original manufacturers is not a priority.

When a vehicle is damaged, it's a bit like CSI Kandahar for Capt. Bruce Gilchrist, the technical liaison officer between the equipment people in Ottawa and the troops in Afghanistan.

"Someone told me they would call it forensic engineering," said Gilchrist, 48, of Moose Jaw, Sask.

"When vehicles are damaged through battle damage, if it gets brought back here for repair or, if it stays out in one of the FOB's (forward operating bases), I go out and have a look and take pictures and try and assess how badly it was damaged and what caused it," he said.
More on link

Swiss pull military staff out of Afghanistan
 November 21, 2007 - 7:57 PM 
Article Link

Switzerland is ending four years' cooperation with the Nato-led International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan by recalling its military personnel.
Defence Ministry Samuel Schmid said he had taken the decision for security reasons. Two army officers, currently working with a German team in the northeastern Kunduz province, will return home by March next year.

The Isaf mission had become a peace enforcement operation rather than a peacekeeping duty, Schmid said.

"The Swiss officers haven't been going into the city of Kunduz for months," he told a news conference on Wednesday.

A continued Swiss military presence in Afghanistan – although "rather symbolic" - was impossible because it goes against the spirit of the constitution and is not in line with the law, according to Schmid.

 The decision comes a few weeks after a meeting of Nato defence ministers to boost efforts to provide security in Afghanistan.

 Switzerland, which is not a member of Nato but joined its Partnership for Peace programme, has participated in Isaf since 2003. Parliament approved the deployment of a contingent of four officers on the basis of a United Nations resolution.

"No-go areas"

However the nature of Isaf's engagement has changed since 2005. But its mission has progressively turned into a campaign against insurgents, the defence ministry said. 

Even in the regions where warlords and fighters only carry out sporadic activity, the mission has faced difficulties because of the need for troops to resort to self-protection measures.

In areas of the country where the Taliban have regained strength, reconstruction work has become practically impossible, the Swiss authorities said.
More on link

Military stocks up on weapons as PM talks of peace in Afghanistan
Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda , CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- While the Conservative government tried earlier this year to divert the public spotlight from combat to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the military was quietly buying a record supply of guns and ammunition, CanWest News Service has learned.

Between February and June, the Defence Department spent almost $54 million on small arms, big guns, ammunition, explosives, grenades and other weapons. That's more than the combined total of all of 2006 ($18.4 million) and 2005 ($32.3 million), the year the Canadian Forces began their current deployment to Kandahar.

For every dollar spent on a gun, at least $20 were shelled out for ammunition.

The weapons expenditures should come as no surprise for a country with 2,500 troops deployed to the heart of the anti-western insurgency ravaging southern Afghanistan. 

But the sharp spending hike came at time when the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was trying to shift the focus of Canadians away from the combat role of their soldiers, towards development and reconstruction.

In late February, Harper announced with great fanfare that Canada would increase its development spending in Afghanistan by $200 million to $1.2 billion over a 10-year period.

Declaring that a "fragile peace" now extended across Afghanistan, including large parts of Kandahar province, the prime minister told a gathering of Afghan diplomats, United Nations officials, military brass and other dignitaries on Parliament Hill that it was "time to consolidate those security gains on the ground and use them to advance reconstruction because the long-suffering Afghan people desperately need hope for a better future for their families and communities."

At the time, polls showed that Canadians remained ambivalent about having their troops on the front lines of fighting. The death toll in Afghanistan has since climbed to 73 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat since 2002.

In May and June, the Defence Department purchased $2.1 million worth of guns from Kitchener, Ont.-based Colt Canada, the main supplier of the C7 assault rifle, the standard issue weapon for Canadian soldiers. The military also signed a $360,000 contract in late May with Colt to perform maintenance and repair work. 

Colt's sales director said the government is spending money on an essential tool that keeps Canadian soldiers safe.

"Whenever you see a soldier with a rifle or carbine, it's ours," said Francis Bleeker. "People's lives depend on our product. If the value of the life of your soldier is high, you give the best possible product."

Between February and May, the military also bought more than $2.2 million worth of artillery and smaller arms from BAE Systems' Bofors division and Belgium's FN Herstal, as well as $430,000 worth of small-arms ammunition through Quebec's R. Nicholls Distributors.

But by far the biggest share of spending went to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada, a munitions manufacturer based in Le Gardeur, Que. It sold $46 million worth of ammunition in 10 orders June 6-27.
More on link

Karzai: Contact With Taliban Increasing
By RAHIM FAIEZ 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that his government has had increasing contact with Taliban insurgents this year, including several talks this week with militant leaders living in exile.

Karzai said militants in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have increasingly approached the government in the last eight months, even as the country goes through its most violent phase since the ouster of the Taliban after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

"Only this week I've had more than five or six major contacts, approaches, by the leadership of the Taliban trying to find out if they can come back to Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters in Kabul after meeting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Karzai did not specify which leaders he had spoken to or where the discussions took place.

"We are willing to talk. Those of the Taliban who are not part of al-Qaida or the terrorist networks, who do not want to be violent against the Afghan people ... those elements are welcome," he said.
More on link

All private security firms must close: Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Authorities in Afghanistan want to close down all private security firms operating in the country, many of them illegally, President Hamid Karzai's office said.

About nine unlicensed companies have already been shut down in a crackdown that has been under way in Kabul for weeks, according to city police.

Under the constitution "only the Afghan government has the right of having and handling weapons, so private companies are against the constitution," the president's spokesman Siamak Hirawi told AFP late Wednesday.

A cabinet meeting Monday argued that the dozens of private security firms were illegal and a source of criminality.

"The session decided that in the long term all private companies should be shut down," he said.

"But for the time being a small number of private companies which can prepare themselves to meet the regulations put in place by the ministry of interior will be allowed temporary licences."

Only a "handful" of such companies would be allowed to operate mainly for the use of international organisations and the United Nations, he said
More on link

Canadian army paints upbeat picture of Afghanistan, contradicts Senlis Council
Article Link

OTTAWA - A senior Canadian general painted an upbeat picture of the war in Afghanistan to a House of Commons committee Thursday, contradicting an international think-tank.

But Brig.-Gen. Peter Atkinson wasn't prepared to dismiss Wednesday's Senlis Council report as quickly as Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who called the agency's ideas "not credible."

The analysis will be studied, he said.

"There were a lot of issues brought up in the report, a very important report, one which NATO and Canada will read very carefully as we are looking at the future of the mission," Atkinson told the all-party defence committee.

"It's probably too early to comment directly on what is in there. ... We're taking a hard look at it."

The Senlis Council suggested the Taliban insurgency was getting stronger and exercised influence over half of Afghanistan's land mass. In a startling declaration, the group, better known for its development and aid research, also advocated attacks on insurgent training areas in northern Pakistan.
More on link

Dutch troops to stay in Afghanistan   
From correspondents in The Hague | November 23, 2007 
Article Link

DUTCH government parties have agreed to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan by around two years, public broadcaster NOS reported overnight, citing well-informed sources.

Dutch and Australian troops make up the bulk of the force in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan. 

According to the NOS, the parties in the centre-left coalition government have agreed to extend the mandate of the Dutch troops in the Uruzgan province, which expires in August 2008, until 2010. 

The Dutch cabinet will discuss the extension tomorrow and thrash out the details. The NOS said one point that remains to be determined is exactly how long the soldiers will stay, but it is expected to be around two years.

The government of Christian Democrats, Labour and protestant Christian Union is expected to officially announce its decision on Saturday next week. 

The NOS reported that the Dutch mission in Uruzgan will be slimmed down as NATO partners France, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have agreed to help out with troops. 

Currently there are some 1650 Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan.
More on link

Military hires former Afghan fighters as security guards
  Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda CanWest News Service Thursday, November 22, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan -- The Canadian Forces have hired a former Afghan warlord to provide private security guards at one of Canada's remote forward operating bases deep in the heart of Taliban country, CanWest News Service has learned.

Military officials say the government employs private security contractors to protect its forward operating bases in Kandahar province, but they refuse to identify the contractors or the bases they protect.

However, an analysis of publicly available contract records and documents, obtained under the Access to Information Act, has determined that one of the contractors is Gen. Gulalai, a former warlord aligned with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

In January, the Defence Department awarded a $168,150 contract to a vendor identified as "General Gulalai" to provide security guards at an undisclosed forward operating base.

Gulalai was one of several southern Afghanistan warlords who helped drive the Taliban from their Kandahar stronghold in 2001, enabling Karzai to consolidate power in Kabul.
More on link

Afghan police receive first-aid training in effort to reduce mortality rate
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - With the Afghan National Police beginning to take a more central role in providing security in Afghanistan a group of Canadian military and police trainers are hoping to improve their chances of surviving the hazards of the job.

At first blush the mortality rate for police officers in this war-torn and violent country almost seems to be unbelievable. For every Afghan soldier killed in battles with the Taliban - 27 Afghan National Police officers die.

For that reason alone members of CIV-POL - the civilian policing team - began emergency first aid courses for 15 Afghan police officers Thursday at Camp Nathan Smith - the home of Canada's provincial reconstruction team.

"Last year alone we had over 650 policemen killed. So they're on the front lines. They're doing counter-insurgency, they're getting wounded and killed and maimed and there's nothing there for them to be able to fix themselves," explained RCMP Cpl. Barry Pitcher from St. John's, N.L.

"So today we're just giving them another tool for the toolbelt," Pitcher said.

The students on this two-day course were learning battlefield basics including how to control blood flow, how to use tourniquets and how to prioritize.
More on link

Firefight video at the Globe and Mail...  
Friday, November 23, 2007
Article Link

...did not get the soldier who shot it in trouble in this case. But over the long run personal videos, and internet access in general, will be increasingly hot potatoes:

The gritty video captures the crackle of machine-gun fire, the boom of explosions and the whoosh of shrapnel passing dangerously close overhead.

But this compelling glimpse of Canadians under fire during a patrol west of Kandahar wasn't shot by a journalist travelling with the troops. Rather it was taken by a soldier himself.

When Cpl. Philippe Lemieux's reconnaissance unit was ambushed by insurgents Saturday morning, the 26-year-old soldier pulled out his personal camera, caught the action and gave a copy to The Globe and Mail.

By Monday, his video was on the newspaper's website – and Lemieux's commanders were asking questions about this soldier-turned-videographer. Back at defence headquarters in Ottawa, military policy-makers were again wrestling with the challenges of fighting a war in the digital age.

Lt.-Cmdr. Pierre Babinsky, a military spokesperson, said commanders were surprised to see the video online.

"Yes we were and funnily enough, so was Cpl. Lemieux when he found out how quickly the video had ended up on the Web," Babinsky said in an interview from Afghanistan.
More on link

7 Police Beheaded in Afghanistan
By NOOR KHAN 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants beheaded seven policemen Friday after overrunning their checkpoints in southern Afghanistan, officials said, while in a separate clash, an Australian soldier and three civilians were killed.

Six other police officers were missing after the Taliban attacked police checkpoints in Arghandab district, in Kandahar province, said Abdul Hakim Jan, a police officer.

The attack in the strategic area of Arghandab, 15 miles north of Kandahar city, came weeks after Afghan and foreign troops forced Taliban militants to relinquish control of the town, which they had briefly captured.

During Friday's attack, the militants ambushed police checkpoints set up to keep the Taliban fighters away from the town and beheaded the policemen, said Mullah Mohammad Nabi, a purported Taliban commander in the area.

In neighboring Uruzgan province, an Australian soldier and three civilians were killed in an attack on Taliban bomb-makers in the provincial capital of Tirin Kot, Australia's defense chief said.

It was Australia's third combat death in the conflict, all in the past two months.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said Pvt. Luke Worsley, 26, was killed while participating in a planned attack "against Taliban leaders and bomb-makers
More on link


----------



## MarkOttawa (25 Nov 2007)

MacKay warns on lack of resolve
_Edmonton Journal_, Nov. 25
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=ec5b7168-dc48-45af-a4c1-99b1f98eea58



> Defence Minister Peter MacKay again called on Canadians to stay the course and show their support for Canada's mission in Afghanistan during a Saturday morning symposium at West Edmonton's Mayfair Hotel.
> 
> Support has plunged for the mission in recent years. MacKay warned that a further lack of resolve will only result in further attacks on Canadian troops and more casualties and deaths.
> 
> ...



U.S. Notes Limited Progress in Afghan War
Strategic Goals Unmet, White House Concludes
_Washington Post_, Nov. 25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/24/AR2007112401333.html



> A White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan has concluded that wide-ranging strategic goals that the Bush administration set for 2007 have not been met, even as U.S. and NATO forces have scored significant combat successes against resurgent Taliban fighters, according to U.S. officials.
> 
> The evaluation this month by the National Security Council followed an in-depth review in late 2006 that laid out a series of projected improvements for this year, including progress in security, governance and the economy. But the latest assessment concluded that only "the kinetic piece" -- individual battles against Taliban fighters -- has shown substantial progress, while improvements in the other areas continue to lag, a senior administration official said.
> 
> ...



Armed Forces face 'failure' in Afghanistan
_Sunday Telegraph_, Nov. 25
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TPD5KMXZCUCQBQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/11/25/narmy125.xml



> British troops are facing "operational failure" in Afghanistan due to years of chronic Government under-funding, according to former heads of the armed forces.
> 
> The lives of hundreds of soldiers could be lost unless the Government starts to fund the military properly, they argue.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (25 Nov 2007)

*More Articles found November 25, 2007*


Corruption, bribes and trafficking: a cancer that is engulfing Afghanistan
November 24, 2007
Article Link

The general made an elementary mistake. Told by his superiors that his new posting as chief of police in a drug-rich northern province would cost him “one hundred and fifty thousand”, he assumed the bribe to be in Afghan currency. 

He paid the money to a go-between at a rendezvous in Kabul’s Najib Zarab carpet market. For two days he was lorded in the office of General Azzam, then Chief of Staff to the Interior Minister, helping himself to chocolate and biscuits. “I must have eaten a pound of the stuff,” he recalled. 

But on the third day he received a different welcome. “Get this mother****** out of my office,” Azzam screamed, said the general. Hustled outside, he quickly discovered his error. He should have paid $150,000 (£73,000) rather than a paltry 150,000 Afghanis for the bung. 

Now living in disgruntled internal exile in northern Afghanistan, his verdict on his former employers is succinct. 

“Everyone in the Ministry of Interior is corrupt,” he told The Times. “They wouldn’t sleep with their wives without wanting a backhander first.” 

He never, though, expressed surprise. Governmental corruption in Afghanistan has become endemic and bribes to secure police and administrative positions along provincial drug routes is an established procedure. 
More on link

Taliban attack police checkpoint in contested region
At least seven dead
Kelly Cryderman ,  CanWest News Service  Published: Friday, November 23, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- The Taliban have attacked an Afghan police checkpoint, killing at least seven men -- all members of the Afghan police force -- in a district where Canadian and Afghan forces won a victory against insurgents just three weeks ago. 

In Arghandab, a region immediately north of Kandahar city, the Taliban assailed the Charghulba area checkpoint at about 3 a.m. Friday. Besides those police officers killed another seven also have gone missing, said police commander Abdul Hakim Jan. 

A Canadian Forces spokesman would not comment on the details of the attack. However, Capt. Sylvain Chalifour said Friday International Security Assistance Force members are investigating. 

This news comes a day after Brig.-Gen. Peter Atkinson, the director general of operations, strategic joint staff for the Canadian Forces, gave a House of Commons defence committee meeting a positive assessment of ongoing operations in Afghanistan. 
More on link

Suicide bomber kills 9 Afghans and Italian soldier
Sat 24 Nov 2007, 17:47 GMT By Samar Zwak
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed nine civilians, six of them children, and an Italian soldier on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, NATO said.

The hardline Islamist Taliban have killed at least 200 civilians in more than 140 suicide attacks this year in a campaign to oust the pro-Western Afghan government and eject more than 50,000 foreign troops from the country.

Troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were opening a newly built bridge over a river to the west of Kabul and many people had gathered to watch.

The ISAF said in a statement that the attacker, wearing civilian clothing, was spotted at the scene, adding: "Once spotted, ISAF personnel moved in to question the individual when the insurgent detonated himself
More on link

What Keeps Us There Longer?  
November 24th, 2007 | By Patrick Pitt 
Article Link

Sorry about the hiatus, I’ve been stuck on an algorithm that will explain my ridiculous loyalty to the Maple Leafs…

It’s a beautiful day here in Toronto. It’s cold, even for the Aki Berg of authors, but I like that, and seeing as how I’ll be in Brandon Manitoba in less than a week, I better get used to it. 

Brandon, my old stomping grounds. The Wheat Kings, Houston’s, and ….hmmmm….that’s about it kids.

Let’s get right to it.

Nobody asked me but…

If the proposed extension to the missions in Afghanistan could take as long as up to 2021, should we try to isolate what it is that is delaying or even preventing “success”?

A few weeks ago I wrote about what were the reasons and by who’s leadership that we should be in Afghanistan. 

But those characters are long gone, and in some cases shirking responsibility for the decision.

So if we are no longer dancing with the one that brought us, who’s keeping us past curfew at the high school prom?

The current mission, or at least the combat element of it, has been often criticized as lacking a clearly defined if not unrealistic end-state.

How do those that defend the war parry such accusations.
More on link

Suicide attack targets U.S.-led forces in E Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-24 22:39:26    
Article Link

    KABUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber, driving a motorcycle, exploded himself near a patrol of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in Afghanistan's eastern province Khost on Saturday, causing no casualties to the troops, police said. 

    Wazir Badsha, a police spokesman in Khost province, told Xinhua that the attack took place in Gorbaz district of Khost, in which only one local civilian was injured. 

    However, other sources said the civilian was not injured by the blast but by the Coalition forces' firing which followed the explosion. 

    There was no immediate responsibility claim for the incident but the Taliban usually carried out such suicide attacks. 
More on link

Afghanistan: China's Winning Bid For Copper Rights Includes Power Plant, Railroad  
By Ron Synovitz November 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) 
Article Link

 Afghanistan has awarded a state-owned company in China with the right to develop a large copper field to the south of Kabul, following two years of bidding.

China Metallurgical Group agreed to invest billions of dollars in the project and related infrastructure development -- including the construction of a coal-fired electrical power plant and what would be Afghanistan's first freight railway. 

By the estimates of some geologists, deposits at Afghanistan's Aynak copper field in Logar Province make it the world's largest undeveloped copper field.

The deal gives China Metallurgical Group the right to extract high-quality copper from the area south of Kabul. 

Developing Infrastructure

But the Aynak copper field has neither the electrical power nor access to the transportation links needed to fully develop the area as a copper mine.

Afghan Mining Minister Ibrahim Adel says the Chinese company has agreed to invest nearly $3 billion in order to set up mining operations and overcome the lack of basic infrastructure.
More on link

Canadian cargo pilots encounter different kind of enemy during Afghan mission
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - Maj. Paul Anderson has probably seen more of Afghanistan than most people in the country, although he usually sees it from 6,400 metres above the ground.

"That is the main and only highway between Kandahar and Kabul," he says, pointing at the tiny line of cars and trucks barely visible from the cockpit of his Hercules C-130 transport plane.

The view out the window closely resembles a giant, coloured three-dimensional map. There is little to break up the monotony of sand and mountains except patches of green in some of the deeper valleys, the occasional silver thread of a river and a rare expanse of white cloud.

"I think Canada's north will eventually look like this if they continue with all the mining that is going up there right now," he noted.

While ground forces get the lion's share of attention in Canada's military mission here, the job done above the ground can be equally important and just as dangerous.

The hulking C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop cargo aircraft and the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. You could almost consider it a semi-trailer with wings. There are more than 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 50 countries.
More on link

U.S. Army recruiting anthropologists
 TheStar.com - November 25, 2007 Andrew Chung Staff reporter
Article Link

A young officer on his rookie tour bracing against the Afghan dust storms and worried about a suicide attack – would he be able to untangle the nuances of a tribal land dispute? Would he know to let a certain village elder take credit for a new well in order to gain a powerful ally?

The intricacies of culture are becoming increasingly essential in the Middle East, where two countries are under foreign occupation and Western armies are trying desperately to gain the upper hand against stubborn and deadly insurgencies, where close combat among civilians is the norm and the terrain is fraught with roadside mines and bomb-adorned kamikazes.

As Canada presses other countries to take on larger combat roles in Afghanistan – another two Canadian soldiers died there last week bringing the total to 73 – our role may focus more on development, and experts say winning the support of locals will become even more important. 

This is why anthropology, the study of the cultural origins and social practices of humans, has suddenly shot to the forefront of military awareness – and become embroiled in a bitter dispute shaking the core of the discipline itself. 

In the United States, a controversial new military program called the Human Terrain System (HTS) embeds anthropologists with combat brigades in Iraq and eastern Afghanistan. Their job is to study local customs and help commanders reduce the use of force.

Proponents feel it's a way to lessen bloodshed. Others say it can only undermine the primary responsibility of anthropologists to, above all, do no harm to those whom they're studying.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (25 Nov 2007)

In Afghanistan, Hunt for Arms and Militants Can Be a Slog
_NY Times_, Nov. 25
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/world/asia/25airborne.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin



> ESPANDI, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 — First Lt. Aaron W. Childers stood before a doorway inside a mud-walled compound while an Afghan and American patrol searched behind him. Paratroopers swept metal detectors over the dusty ground, looking for buried weapons and ammunition...
> 
> Lieutenant Childers is a platoon commander with the 82nd Airborne Division, engaged in the long, slow counterinsurgency campaign that the Afghan government and the United States hope will marginalize the Taliban and make Afghanistan capable of self rule.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (26 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 26, 2007*

A Mullah Dies, and War Comes Knocking
By Sarah Chayes Special to The Washington Post Article Last Updated: 11/25/2007 04:56:27 PM MST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Wednesday, Oct. 31: I woke to the sound of artillery thudding - like the beat of a heavy heart. It was Afghan army batteries firing into Arghandab, at new Taliban positions there. Through several nights, I had been listening, my ears pricking like a dog's, to the faint popping of gunfire, the clattering of helicopters, the whine of personnel carriers speeding along the roads, falling asleep only when the morning call to prayer rang out in the pre-dawn chill. 
    I can't explain how this felt, the penetration of war to this crucial part of Kandahar, where I have lived for six years. Arghandab district, with its riot of tangled fruit trees, is the lung of Kandahar province; its meandering, stone-studded river is the artery of the whole region. Arghandab is shade and water, and mud-walled orchards, and mulberries and apricots, and pomegranates the size of grapefruits hanging from the willowy branches. 
    This magical land was first given to the fighting Alokozai tribe by Nadir Shah, who brought down the Safavid empire of Persia with its help in 1738. The latest in the line of Alokozai leaders was the gentle, jocular military genius Mullah Naqib, who died of a heart attack in mid-October. Mullah Naqib fought the Soviets from his base in Arghandab; they were never able to dislodge the mujahideen from this place. 
    As the Taliban gathered strength and insolence recently, they would contact the mullah from time to time, trying to strike a deal, telling him that they wished him no ill, but just to pass through Arghandab. He would bellow his retort. He would get on the radio and vow by God that if they dared set foot inside his Arghandab, the whole population would rise up. And thus he held his fractious, disgruntled tribesmen firm against them. 
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Italy to remain in Afghanistan, but Prodi says long-term strategy needed  
The Associated Press Sunday, November 25, 2007 
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ROME: Premier Romano Prodi repeated Sunday that Italy will not withdraw troops from Afghanistan following the death of an Italian soldier — but said officials must reflect on a long-term political strategy for Italy's future presence there, reports said.

Prodi faced fresh calls from radical leftists in his coalition to withdraw Italy's 2,000-strong contingent following the death Saturday of Marshall Daniele Paladini. A suicide bomber targeting Italian soldiers building a bridge killed Paladini and six Afghans and wounded three other Italian soldiers.

"We're staying, but all the countries that remain need to reflect on the long-term strategy for the country," the Apcom news agency quoted Prodi as saying during a visit to Abu Dhabi.

"It's not a problem that started yesterday, but a problem that we've been working on for some time," he said. "Regardless, our solidarity with the mission is not up for discussion."
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Burn unit seeing too many young victims
Kelly Cryderman , CanWest News Service Published: Sunday, November 25, 2007
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HERAT, Afghanistan -- The new building is only six weeks old, but already the burn unit in Herat is firmly ensconced with the dizzying smell of antiseptic and charred human flesh.

A customs holdup is keeping a French medical shipment from reaching Herat, meaning the unit has been short of morphine and codeine for weeks. A single gruesome scream is heard from a side room as nurses change a woman's bandages. Other patients occasionally cry out "Allah" as they stare up at the ceiling. 

Beside a sunny window in the women's section lies Afsana, 16, who says she was burned when kerosene splashed out of a lamp she was passing to her sister-in-law. Her burns are so deep they have damaged her nerve endings.
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Afghans don’t have option of ignoring Iranian neighbours
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. Nov 26 - 5:29 AM
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LAST THURSDAY there was a small news item out of New York insinuating that Afghanistan was snubbing Canada by voting against one of our proposed resolutions at the United Nations. While this minor event failed to create much of a stir in the national media, it certainly served to illustrate both the naivety and imperialistic arrogance with which Canada approaches our mission in Afghanistan.

First, a little background on the political posturing that transpired at the UN. For the past five years Canadian diplomats have been pushing to censure Iran for human rights violations. This initiative was sparked by the 2003 death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi while she was in custody in Tehran. The Iranians pushed back, not only asking why they were being singled out, but also publishing a 70-page document detailing recent human rights abuses in Canada. 

No doubt they made the most of such things as extrajudicial execution of natives in Saskatchewan and British Columbia and the Tasering of a confused airline passenger. When this finger-pointing came to a climax, the Iranians tabled a "no action" motion on Canada’s censure. In this first round, Afghanistan took Iran’s side and very nearly turned the tables. The Iranian "no action" was defeated by a tally of just 79 to 78. The Canadian censure was subsequently approved by a vote of 72 to 50 (with an additional 31 countries choosing to abstain). Afghanistan, however, once more openly chose to vote in favour of the Iranians. The very cheek of the so-called democratically elected independent Afghanistan government choosing to oppose our initiative caused our diplomats to harrumph and cry foul.

The numbers were trotted out and regurgitated by equally incensed Canadian journalists. The fact that we are contributing 2,500 troops through February 2009 (and debating an extension to 2011); the fact that to date 73 soldiers, a diplomat and a civilian have been killed and another 570 soldiers have been wounded and injured; and the fact we’ve committed up to $1.2 billion toward the reconstruction of Afghanistan were presented as being significant enough to warrant absolute obedience from our Afghan benefactors. This pious attitude was best summed up by Steven Edwards at the National Post: "One interpretation of Afghanistan’s view is that the government of President Hamid Karzai cares more about its relations with Iran than with Canada, despite Canada’s massive commitment to Afghan deconstruction and the cost in Canadian lives
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Tanter on Rudd and Australian Security Policy  
Monday, November 26, 2007
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Professor Richard Tanter of the Nautilus Institute at RMIT in Melbourne writes from Australia:

'A small note on your comment on Kevin Rudd's election in Australia. 

On the question of security policy, this is what I think will happen in the next half year: 

1. Iraq: Rudd is committed to removing Australian troops from Iraq, and that is a popular position. In practice I think this will mean 

a. Removing the Operation Overwatch Battle Group from Dhi Qar.

b. Retaining the ADF training group, mainly at Ali Base. For reasons I'll explain below it may even be boosted.

c. Retaining the RAN naval and RAAF air deployments in the Persian Gulf

d. It is not clear what will happen to the Australian components in the MNC command centres in Baghdad and Basra. My guess would be the latter will go, but the some elements former will stay. However, most of the Australian National Headquarters Middle East Area of Operations in Baghdad will transfer to Afghanistan (see below).

2. Rudd is very much persuaded of the "bad war, Iraq; good war, Afghanistan" position. Australia now has 1,000 troops in Afghanistan. [see Australia in Afghanistan, Nautilus Institute. There will be a redeployment of combat and support forces from one theatre to the other. Australian Afghanistan operations are now taking more casualties, though still nothing like US or Canadian levels. But they have increased sharply recently and this trend will continue. In April this year the Australian Special Operations Task group (SAS and other Army special forces) was somewhat hurriedly deployed back to Uruzgan less than 8 months after they were pulled out. Pulling out of Iraq would allow them and the protective group of the Reconstruction task Force at Tarin Kowt to be rotated more easily. (remember the ADF also has a big deployment [for its small size] in East Tiimor.) 
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Former Parry Sounder returns to Afghanistan
By Tim Shamess
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From his very early beginnings growing up in Parry Sound and serving with the 295 Parry Sound Air Cadet Squadron, it was apparent that Parry Chrysler had the Canadian Forces flowing through his veins. Those early beginnings saw Parry rise to be the only chief warrant offficer to serve with the 295 Squadron and set the stage for a successful career in the military. Now with 22 years serving this country under his belt and the sergeant’s chevron gracing his shoulder, Parry has recently returned to Afghanistan for his fifth tour of duty in the war-ravaged country. 

In those many years serving with the Forces, Parry has been all over the world working in both combat and humanitarian efforts, gaining experiences and seeing things many of us could barely imagine. In 1999 when Turkey was shaken by earthquakes, Parry answered the call and served with the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). During two tours of duty in Bosnia, Parry not only served as a member of the Canadian Forces, he also worked directly with the people of Bosnia and was instrumental in establishing the fire services the area was lacking. 

“When I returned for my second tour, firefighters I worked with remembered me and made me their ?training officer,” Parry says proudly. 

As chief loadmaster scheduler, Parry is spending his working hours in Afghanistan flying in the back of a Hercules aircraft ensuring the troops on the ground have everything from food, water and medical supplies to ammunition and other related equipment. Though Parry downplays the role he plays in the war effort, it is no doubt an essential service the soldiers on the ground could not do without. 
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NATO Accelerates Search For More Helicopters For Afghanistan Operations
Nov 25, 2007 By Joris Janssen Lok  
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NATO is desperately short of attack and transport helicopters that can support its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, senior sources in NATO Headquarters say. In recent weeks, the alliance has been examining multiple options to correct the shortfall.

Proposals on the table range from improved training and logistic support for deployed helicopters, to a commonly funded modernization of 20-odd Russian-built, Czech-owned Mil Mi-8 Hip transport helos that could then be used to form a multinational transport pool for Afghanistan-type operations.

Representatives from several NATO nations will be discussing these options at a seminar in Brussels, a senior European diplomat in NATO Headquarters tells Aviation Week & Space Technology.

“I believe the U.S. will also shortly come forward with specific proposals to help solve this problem,” he adds.

The helicopter shortage is the “single biggest operational problem” that is hampering the day-to-day operations of ISAF, a 41,000-strong multinational mission led by NATO and comprising troops from 38 nations, including 14 that are not members of the alliance.

“We’re beseeching, begging, doing everything we can to convince nations to contribute more rotary-wing aviation assets, both transport helicopters and attack helicopters,” a Canadian NATO official says.

“It’s not that NATO nations don’t have helicopters. The problem is that they’re very expensive to ship to Afghanistan and to operate and maintain them there. I think there are several nations that prefer to keep their helicopters at home for this reason.”

At the Shephard Heli-Power conference in The Hague, operational commanders stressed that ISAF is struggling with a “constant imbalance of demand versus availability of both attack and transport helicopters.”

“Without helicopters, operations in southern Afghanistan are not possible. There’s a lack of road infrastructure and a high threat of improvised explosive devices and ambushes by Taliban and other opposing militant forces,” says Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon of the Royal Netherlands Army. He returned from Kandahar earlier this year after having commanded ISAF’s Regional Command (RC) South.

“If we don’t have the helicopters, we must admit defeat. It is unacceptable that a soldier dies because the medevac helicopter and its attack helicopter escort are not available. Several times, we came very close to not getting this right because we were stretched,” van Loon told the conference.

The 11,600-strong RC South includes the troubled provinces of Helmand (where British forces provide the bulk of the ISAF presence), Kandahar (Canadian forces) and Uruzgan (Dutch and Australian forces). Fighting has been on the increase in recent months.

Aviation assets available to RC South are primarily British, Dutch and U.S., with the British typically having eight Chinook HC2 transport helicopters, eight Longbow Apache attack helicopters and five Lynx Mk. 7 battlefield support helicopters divided between Kandahar Air Field and the main forward operating base in Helmand, Camp Bastion.

The Dutch have three CH-47D Chinooks at Kandahar plus five AH-64D Apaches forward-deployed at Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan.

U.S. Army Aviation has about 100 helicopters in country (including 24 Apaches, 25 Chinooks and 50 UH-60 Black Hawks), but many of these are assigned to the 13,900-strong Regional Command East, where most of the 15,100 U.S. troops are based.

At times, other nations, notably Australia, contribute a couple of Chinooks to RC South that are normally based at Kandahar, while there are also some Mi-8 Hips used by Afghan special forces.
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## GAP (27 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 27, 2007*

Government blames negligent officials for high casualties in Afghan atrocity  
The Associated Press Monday, November 26, 2007 
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 KABUL, Afghanistan: An Afghan government investigation into a deadly suicide bomb attack and ensuing gunfire accused local officials of negligence, as villagers demanded their children's bodies be exhumed for autopsies, the interior minister said Tuesday.

The Nov. 6 suicide attack on visiting lawmakers and subsequent shooting by bodyguards in the northern Baghlan province left 77 people dead, including 61 students and six lawmakers.

Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbal said the government team investigating the blast blamed negligent local officials for forcing hundreds of students to greet a group of a dozen lawmakers visiting a sugar factory.

"This caused high casualty numbers from the incident," Muqbal told a news conference after presenting the findings to President Hamid Karzai. "Some of these officials will be dismissed, some replaced and others will face justice."

He said hospital records in Baghlan indicated that only three people were wounded by bullets, but he did not give any further details.

Following Muslim tradition, a majority of the victims were buried shortly after the blast.
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MoD probes 'friendly fire' claim  
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The Ministry of Defence is probing claims that British forces killed two Danish soldiers in Afghanistan in a "friendly fire" incident. 
The soldiers died when heat-seeking missiles were fired at a Danish military unit on 26 September. 

A spokesman for the MoD said it is working alongside the Danish government to try to find out what happened. 

The deaths of the Danish personnel were initially reported to have come in a firefight with the Taleban. 

However, several days later the Danish army said the casualties may have been the result of British so-called friendly fire in the southern province of Helmand. 

A Danish eyewitness told a journalist from TV2 television UK forces were firing across the Helmand river at the Taleban for at least an hour. 

It was said during that time two British missiles hit a Danish compound. 

Nato force 

An MoD spokesman said: "We are working closely with the Danish government to establish the details and the causes of this incident, and there is a Board of Inquiry into it, ongoing. 

"It would not be appropriate to comment further before the Board of Inquiry is complete." 
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Afghan police destroy heroin factory in NE Afghanistan   
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-27 16:20:21      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- During an anti-narcotics operation, Afghan police have destroyed a heroin factory in Tashkan district of northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, said a statement issued by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday. 

    Afghan police Monday attacked a heroin lab belonging to two military commanders in the area and entered the factory following a two-hour fighting, the statement said. 

    Some 32 kg opium and weapons were confiscated and one person from the suspected drug smugglers gang was arrested, it said, adding that the two military commanders escaped. 

    The post-Taliban Afghanistan with an estimated output of 8,200 tons of opium poppy in 2007 once again topped poppy growing nations in the world. 
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## GAP (29 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 29, 2007*

Three Canadians injured in Afghanistan
Kelly Cryderman CanWest News Service  Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Three Canadian soldiers were injured Tuesday morning when their light armoured vehicle hit a suspected homemade bomb just outside Kandahar city.

The improvised explosive device (IED) went off at about 10 a.m., 40 kilometres west of the provincial capital near the village of Sperwan Ghar in Panjwaii district.

"They're all in stable condition," said Lt.-Cmdr. Pierre Babinsky, a Canadian Forces spokesman.

All three soldiers were evacuated to the multinational medical unit at Kandahar Airfield, where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries, Babinsky said. All families have now been notified.

Speaking to local reporters, Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack.

Panjwaii and Zhari districts have been the site of dozens of Canadian deaths. It is a volatile area thick with insurgents who continually fight to reclaim ground taken by Canadian and Afghan forces.

Since Canada's work in Afghanistan began in 2002, 73 soldiers and one diplomat have been killed. Hundreds more soldiers have been injured.

The last Canadian deaths were Nov. 17, when a vehicle Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp and Pte. Michel Levesque were travelling in hit an IED.

Citing the privacy concerns of soldiers and their families, the military does not release the names of injured troops.
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Governor says NATO air-strike kills 12 Afghan civilians
Wed 28 Nov 2007, 9:53 GMT
  Article Link

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - NATO air-strikes killed 12 civilian road workers in eastern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said on Wednesday, an incident bound to fuel Afghan resentment against the presence of international forces.

NATO has tightened procedures for launching air-strikes after Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned of rising anger over mounting civilian casualties, but military commanders say some civilian deaths are almost inevitable in any conflict.

Foreign forces have a limited time to weaken Taliban rebels and allow development to undercut the insurgency before Afghans turn against the international presence and Western public opinion demands troops be brought home, security analysts say.
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Afghans: US Bombs Kill Road Workers
By AMIR SHAH  
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S.-led coalition troops killed 22 road construction workers in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan after receiving faulty intelligence, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

The coalition said only that it was looking into the incident.

The engineers and laborers had been building a road for the U.S. military in mountainous Nuristan province, and were sleeping in two tents in the remote area when they were killed Monday night, said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of the Kabul-based road construction company Amerifa. There were no survivors, he said.

"All of our poor workers have been killed," Jalili said. "I don't think the Americans were targeting our people. I'm sure it's the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information."

The company has requested that the U.S. military investigate the source of its information, Jalili said.

Nuristan Gov. Tamim Nuristani said the coalition conducted airstrikes after receiving reports that "the enemy" was in the area, and hit the road construction workers as they were sleeping. Afghan officials often refer to the Taliban and other militants as "the enemy."
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John Manley's panel heads home after holding hearings in Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The reality of war was front and centre this week as John Manley wrapped up a visit to Afghanistan as part of his panel's report on the future of Canada's mission in this war-torn country.

Three Canadian soldiers were sent to hospital Tuesday morning after their light armoured vehicle drove over an improvised explosive device.

"They were evacuated to the multi-national medical unit at Kandahar Air Field where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries," said Lt.-Cmdr. Pierre Babinsky.

The blast occurred on a narrow stretch of road near Sperwan Ghar, a route often referred to by members of the military as "IED alley."

Less than two weeks ago, Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp and Pte. Michel Levesque were killed and three other Canadian soldiers wounded in a similar incident in the same region, which is a favourite haunt of the Taliban.

Manley and his panel have been holding meetings in Afghanistan against a backdrop of growing violence that has left 73 Canadian soldiers dead and hundreds wounded since the mission began in 2002.
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Saudis: 208 Arrested in Different Plots
By ABDULLAH SHIHRI  
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — More than 200 al-Qaida-linked suspects involved in different plots against the kingdom have been arrested in recent months in Saudi Arabia's largest anti-terrorism sweep to date, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry first reported the arrest of eight men, said to be linked to al-Qaida and allegedly planning to attack oil installations in the kingdom.

An Interior Ministry statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency, said the eight were part of a terrorist cell led by a non-Saudi man, who was one of those arrested. The planned attacks were to take place in the eastern region of the country, which is home to Saudi's main oil resources.

The arrest of the eight "pre-empted an imminent attack on an oil installation," the statement said without naming the target or providing more details.

The ministry also said 22 other suspects were arrested for allegedly supporting the al-Qaida terror network. This group plotted to assassinate the country's religious leaders and security officials, it said.

The ministry also gave the following breakdown of other arrests:
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Habib urged to help attack on AustraliaTom Allard National Security Editor
November 30, 2007
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MAMDOUH HABIB told ASIO officers he was asked by men in Afghanistan to transport an unidentified liquid back to Australia that was going to be used in an attack here following the September 11 bombings in the United States, a court has heard.

The startling claim was made during a long interrogation at Guantanamo Bay in August 2002 and revealed in a transcript released by the Supreme Court considering an appeal against a successful defamation action by Mr Habib against the News Limited columnist Piers Akerman.

The transcript also confirms that Mr Habib had heard talk of an attack in the days leading up to September 11, 2001, while he was in Afghanistan.

According to the ASIO officers, the men were al-Qaeda figures, including senior members.

Mr Habib said he met the men when he was giving a man a massage in Kabul. They were talking about what would happen if the US invaded Afghanistan following the attacks, telling him they had "connections" in Australia.
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An Afghanistan War-Crimes Case Tests Poland’s Commitment to Foreign Missions 
Article Link
 By NICHOLAS KULISH Published: November 29, 2007

WARSAW, Nov. 28 — Poland is facing a rare war-crimes prosecution at a crucial juncture for both the newly elected government’s commitment to overseas military engagements and the effort to overhaul the nation’s armed forces.

Seven Polish soldiers sit in a military jail in Poznan, accused of killing six Afghan civilians, including women and children, in the village of Nangarkhel in August. Whether the mortar rounds that killed the Afghans were a result of bad aim, bad orders or bad intentions remains to be determined.

The charges against the soldiers have led the country into uncharted legal, moral and political territory. The case has become a test of the public’s stomach for sending soldiers into faraway battle in support of allies.

The issue is especially troubling to a country with a strong attachment to its military, a result of centuries of division and domination by foreign powers. Poland also tends to view itself as an underdog fighting on the side of right, typified by the mythic charge of Polish cavalry against Nazi tanks in World War II.

“We were convinced that our contribution was not only stable and militarily significant, but also that we stand for international law and humanitarian needs,” said Bogdan Klich, the defense minister. “From that point of view, what happened in Afghanistan is a shock for Polish public opinion.”
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Musharraf gives up his military uniform
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 In the continuing saga of the controversial Pakistani elections, CNN's "Your World Today" showed President Musharraf in full uniform for the last time, doing a walk-past of his troops while they played his favorite melody, Auld Lang Syne.  He surrendered the baton, a symbol of power, to General Ashfaq Kiyani, who will be taking over as head of the armed forces.  The ceremony was broadcast live on Pakistani TV, as Musharraf stated:

"After being in uniform for over 40 years, I am bidding it good'bye" ... "This army is my life. This army is my passion. I have loved this army", Musharraf said emotionally.

Tomorrow Musharraf will be sworn in as the head of government - as a civilian.  One local commented that this was good news, it would give the people confidence, and restore democracy.  However, President Bush was quick to interject that Musharraf needed to lift emergency rule which is still in effect.

The other contenders for the leadership, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, threatened to boycott the poll if emergency rule was not lifted.

These elections are a significant event that has the attention of world leaders, because Pakistan, especially the northern Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, is most likely the "safe house" of the Taliban and Al Qaeda (although their whereabouts are still very secretive).  This is where they can re-group, train, and get some respite from the fighting.  
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Canadian unmanned aerial vehicle essential for hunting down Taliban
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The five men, rocket-propelled grenade launchers slung casually over their shoulders, were clearly visible as they walked down a narrow road in a small, dusty mud compound west of Kandahar city. Apparently they were unaware they had just become the hunted.

Forty kilometres away at Kandahar Air Field, their every move was being watched by a group of Canadian soldiers assigned to operate a tactical unmanned aerial vehicle or TUAV.

The TUAV is an important tool for Canadian forces searching for the Taliban in the volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts. The area is a hotbed of insurgent activity and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

Any thoughts that the Taliban are no longer a force in the area was clearly disputed by the information on the computer screens inside the tracking trailer here.

About a dozen numbered spots on a large computer map are marked, each one of them registered as a Taliban hangout. This particular collection of mud houses and structures was believed to hide dozens of Taliban fighters.

The view from 1,200 metres above the ground is remarkably clear. The men's turbans, beards and weapons were easy to see as they walked, their heads close together in conversation
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## GAP (30 Nov 2007)

*Articles found November 29, 2007*

Afghan mission costs up sharply, MacKay says
ALAN FREEMAN From Friday's Globe and Mail November 30, 2007 at 5:16 AM EST
Article Link

OTTAWA — The incremental cost to National Defence of the Afghan military mission is rising steeply and has reached a total of $3.1-billion from its start in 2001, according to Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Mr. MacKay made the disclosure as he appeared before the House of Commons defence committee, which is studying supplementary spending estimates of $875-million for the department for the current fiscal year.

In May, Mr. MacKay's predecessor, Gordon O'Connor, told the Commons that the incremental cost of the mission was $2.6-billion. A spokesman for Mr. MacKay said yesterday that the extra costs are due mainly to additional tanks and force protection expenses.

Mr. MacKay and Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier insisted that progress continues to be made in Afghanistan, despite reports to the contrary by external groups such as the Senlis Council and Oxfam.
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Australian combat troops to be out of Iraq by mid-2008
ROHAN SULLIVAN Associated Press November 30, 2007 at 4:15 AM EST
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SYDNEY — Australia's new leader said Friday that he would pull his country's combat troops out of Iraq by mid-2008 — making good on an election promise that is likely to disappoint the U.S. government.

Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd swept to power at elections last Saturday that ended more than 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard, who had strong personal ties with U.S. President George W. Bush and was one of Washington's few staunch allies in Iraq.

“The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around about the middle of next year,” prime minister-elect Rudd told a radio station in the southern city of Melbourne.

Mr. Rudd went to the polls with a policy of withdrawing Australia's 550 combat forces in Iraq, while leaving several hundred other troops there in supporting roles such as guarding diplomats. Australia also has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, a deployment Mr. Rudd supports and has no plans to reduce.

Mr. Bush was the first foreign leader to phone Mr. Rudd to congratulate him on his election victory, and the Australian leader said he would visit Washington early next year, with Iraq certain to be at the top of the agenda.

Mr. Rudd said Friday that his government had not begun discussions with U.S. officials about the withdrawal plan, and that a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Robert McCallum would be arranged soon.

Earlier this week, Mr. McCallum said U.S. officials looked forward to talking the plan over, and noted that it did not mean all Australian troops would be leaving Iraq.

“It's a situation ... where Australia is determining how it's going to reposition its forces, how it's going to deploy its resources in a new and different way, and we are looking forward to working with Mr. Rudd in achieving it,” Mr. McCallum told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
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Iran's Taliban Connection
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German deputy interior minister believes that the Iranian regime's talking to Taliban. And Taliban is the prime force that is responsible for killing coalition (mostly Canadian) soldiers in southern Afghanistan:

"I believe that the Iranians have an influence on the situation in Afghanistan, above all in the border regions," he said."

That's the same regime that is currently killing American, Canadian and other coalition troops in Iraq & Afghanistan and yet western countries think they could negotiate with the mullahs over almost any thing.

"Hanning said he believed the Iranians were smuggling weapons into Afghanistan, where some 3,000 German soldiers are deployed in NATO peacekeeping operations to help rebuild the country and fend off an increasingly tough Taliban insurgency."

When will the western world realize the grave danger posed by this current regime in Tehran? Tomorrow will be late...
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German leader appeals to Canada on Afghanistan
Peter O'Neil, Europe Bureau , CanWest News Service Published: Friday, November 30, 2007
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BERLIN -- The western alliance could collapse unless Canada remains committed to rebuilding Afghanistan and doesn't abandon efforts to convince reluctant European allies to send troops to that country's most dangerous areas, according to one of Germany's most prominent politicians.

Hans-Ulrich Klose urged Canadian leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to increase trips to Germany and other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to press for a stronger effort to develop Afghanistan and fight the Taliban insurgency.

The Harper government has said it will require Parliament's endorsement on Canada's role in Afghanistan after its commitment in Kandahar, where most of Canada's 2,500 soldiers are based, expires in February 2009.
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Behind the frontlines
Date: 2007-11-30 By Lindsey Cole
Article Link

Children play with rocketed-propelled grenades. 
One explodes.
Catastrophe begins.
Reality sets in as Major Lee-Anne Quinn spurs into action. 
She must stop the bleeding. 
One child is dead. Another has lost his legs. 
The Peterborough native, a nurse practitioner with the Canadian military, not only saves soldiers, but civilians and children in the Afghanistan city of Kandahar.
But, it's the children that get to her.
"The unfortunate part of this is the number of children injured,” she explains.
"That's what hard to take. In Canada we tell kids not to play with matches. We're telling them in Afghanistan don't play with rocket-propelled grenades. If our hospital wasn't there to stop the bleeding and repair the limbs they would be dead.”
While these images linger, working alongside Canadian troops remind her why she's there.
But today Maj. Quinn is in Peterborough, until Dec. 15, celebrating an early Christmas before heading back to that other home.
In the military for 20 years, Maj. Quinn left on this, her final tour, July 5. It's the most difficult yet rewarding place she has travelled to.
"Once you get to Kandahar, there is nothing that will prepare you for the injuries you see. It's quite overwhelming initially, but then you put your trauma hat on and save as many people as you can.”
As she twists the red and white thread bracelet, she explains she loves her job, but now it's time to rest. 
That rest will come June 13 when she retires from military life and comes back to Peterborough.
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Afghan chieftains get ultimatum
 TheStar.com - November 30, 2007  Mitch Potter Toronto Star
  Article Link

Canadian military officials try to persuade tribal elders to side with NATO. At a remarkable sitdown, three Canadian officers tell tribal elders to decide which side they're on

PANJWAII, Afghanistan–It was 40 unhappy Pashtoon tribal elders versus three tough-talking Canadian army officers with a rather large carrot and an even bigger stick – a stick they had never before shown.

Align with us against the Taliban, the Canadians told the chieftains, and the people of embattled Panjwaii will reap untold rewards, starting with a large stack of Ottawa-and-Washington-backed development dollars poised for the first whisper of actual security.

Remain mere observers to lawless insurgency and – here comes the stick – Panjwaii will be forgotten. Unless the elders soon seize their tribal entitlement to power and influence and take a stand, the spoils of stability will go to a more hospitable patch of Kandahar province.

Though the ultimatum came without a deadline, there was an unmistakable urgency in the Canadian message yesterday to a rare full quorum of the Panjwaii tribal council. Repeated separately by three different officers, the or-else scenario was clear. Just how deeply the warning registered with the Afghan elders, less so.

Invited to the shura by the Afghans, the Toronto Star was given a fly-on-the-wall glimpse of the political gap that the Canadians on the frontlines say they must close if the Taliban threat in Panjwaii is to be neutralized.

"I know how it has to work here. For people to survive they have to hold hands with both sides," said Maj. Patrick Robichaud, commander of the Canadian forward operating base at nearby Sperwan Ghar.

"But I'm telling you we are approaching a crossroads. We are coming to that intersection where you have to let one hand go or Panjwaii will be forgotten. There are millions of Afghanis at stake, and if we cannot attain security those millions will go elsewhere. I can't do this alone. Everyone must contribute."
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Success breeds its own problems for Canadian-led Haitian police
Steven Edwards , CanWest News Service Published: Thursday, November 29, 2007
Article Link

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti - His hand grasping a wad of banknotes, the red-shirted "major" barks at prisoners whose families have just brought them food.

"You want to eat, you must pay," he snaps.

Anyone lacking cash for the shakedown has to make do with prison fare - watery oatmeal for breakfast, and meagre portions of cornmeal, kidney  beans and meat scraps later in the day - while the man in red makes off with the home-cooked meals.
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Aid as a Combat Tool is a Very Bad Idea  
By Gerry Barr and Kevin McCort Embassy, November 28th, 2007 OPED
Article Link

The Senlis Council's proposal, in its latest report, that the international military should take over the administration of aid in war-ravaged southern Afghanistan is a disturbing and dangerous idea. Disturbing, because it militarizes aid and undermines its main purposes: to provide life-saving assistance and reduce poverty. Dangerous, because associating armed military actors with aid workers turns these aid workers, the aid, and the civilians who desperately need assistance into war targets. 

The objectives of humanitarian action are to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. Seventeen countries, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and European nations, have jointly endorsed these goals under the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative. They have recognized the primacy of civilian organizations in humanitarian assistance and the importance of maintaining separate roles between the military and humanitarian personnel. 

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs have also endorsed a code of conduct to guide their behaviour in responding to disasters. This states that organizations will not knowingly, or through negligence, condone themselves or employees to be used for political purposes. 

Life-saving humanitarian assistance is not an instrument of foreign or military policy, and it certainly isn't a tool of war. The Senlis Council's call to synchronize aid with counterinsurgency efforts, and to establish a "Combat CIDA/DFID," where Canadian and British militaries assist in aid delivery and control development agency war-zone budgets, will only worsen the current serious blurring of the lines between military and humanitarian objectives. Conflating the military tactic of winning "hearts and minds" with humanitarian and development assistance has already cost too many lives. 
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Car bomb in Kabul kills 2 near Canadian EmbassyReuters
Published: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Article Link

KABUL - A suicide car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed two civilians today, a senior police official said.

Several people were also wounded by the blast outside a Defence Ministry building and close to the British, Canadian and Pakistani embassies.

Two white armoured Toyota Land Cruisers belonging to the U.S. force that trains Afghan troops were damaged by the blast.
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Europeans should leave Afghanistan - Osama  
 November 30 2007 at 12:05AM  By Firouz Sedarat
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Dubai - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged European countries to end their military co-operation with United States forces in Afghanistan, in an audio tape aired by Al Jazeera television on Thursday.

He said American power was waning and it would be wise for the Europeans to quickly end their role in Afghanistan, where many European countries contribute to the 50 000-strong Nato and US-led coalition forces fighting his Taliban allies.

"With the grace of God... The American tide is receding and they would eventually return to their home across the Atlantic... It is in your interest to force the hand of your politicians (away from) the White House," said a speaker in the recording who sounded like Bin Laden.
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## MarkOttawa (30 Nov 2007)

Larger NATO Force Needed in Afghanistan
AFP, Nov. 30
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,157284,00.html



> NATO-led forces in Afghanistan do not have the means to secure the country in the face of a barrage of insurgent attacks, a senior French general with the force has warned.
> 
> "The 41,OOO soldiers in ISAF are largely insufficient to ensure security," said Brigadier General Vincent Lafontaine, the chief of planning for the International Security Assistance Force deployed here under a UN mandate.
> 
> ...



2 Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan
AP, Nov. 29
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/29/europe/EU-GEN-Denmark-Afghanistan.php



> Two Danish soldiers were killed Thursday in a gunbattle with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, the Scandinavian country's military said.
> 
> The soldiers were part of a Danish reconnaissance unit that came under fire in Gereshk Valley in Helmand Province, the Army Operational Command said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (30 Nov 2007)

Dutch troops to stay in Afghanistan until 2010: government
AFP, Nov. 30
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gdjqMjiCwLqMk0C902Jqi7HiC9wA



> Dutch troops will stay in Afghanistan with the multinational NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for another two years until 2010, the government said Friday.
> 
> In a widely anticipated announcement the centre-left coalition government said it would extend the mandate of the Dutch troops in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan until December 2010.
> 
> ...



Afghan stories: Danish tanks arrive in Afghanistan (video via ISAF)
Nov. 21
http://www.nato.int/multi/2007/071121b-afghan-stories/video/071121b-01.wmv

The ISAF video site--just came across it--don't seem to any pieces featuring CF:
http://www.nato.int/isaf/media/video/2007/index.html

Mark 
Ottawa


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