# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread May 2009



## GAP (1 May 2009)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread May 2009 *               

*Everyone is welcome to post interesting/related articles about the current mission in Afghanistan and surrounding countries in this thread, but let's leave the commentary in the normal threads. 

Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!

*


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## GAP (1 May 2009)

*Articles found May 1, 2009*

PTSD in Afghanistan
By PETER WORTHINGTON Last Updated: 1st May 2009, 4:38am Article Link

 A recent front page report in the Toronto Star wondered why 20% of soldiers who serve in Afghanistan come down with various forms of stress disorder. 

Theories range from repeated long-term missions causing psychological problems, to the possibility that quick diagnoses gives the impression of increased PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). 

In varying degrees, all of the above may be true. But the real cause of mental and emotional trauma linked with service in Afghanistan is IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that are a threat whenever a vehicle ventures outside the confines of the Canadian base. 

There is no foolproof defence against roadside bombs, which cause huge craters and wreck tanks. The threat of explosive devices is always there -- some planted on the return trip of a supposedly safe route. 

For a soldier, the uncertainty and never knowing causes greater anxiety than being on patrol, or attacking an enemy position where dangers are obvious. It's part of the job he/she is trained and is conditioned to accept. A curious fatalism takes hold. 

Being shot at is less worrisome than the possibility of unexpectedly being blown up. 

In the trenches of the First World War, where casualties were abysmally high by today's standards, soldiers became fatalistic that somewhere there was a bullet with their name on it; nothing could prevent what was fated to happen. 

It's not contact with the Taliban enemy that stresses Canadian soldiers today. It's the not knowing, the unpredictability, the random chance that being in a vehicle runs the risk of a roadside bomb. 

How can that reality not cause stress in normal people? 

It's a different world today. In the First World War, "shell shock" was the euphemistic description for acute stress disorder. Among the Allies, only Australia seemed to understand that when men broke down in the trenches, it wasn't cowardice or shirking, but the mind rebelling against what the body had to endure. 

EXECUTION BY FIRING SQUAD 

On occasion, the British, French and Canadians executed by firing squad soldiers who deserted the front, or were believed to be cowards when in fact they were mental and emotional casualties. 

The Aussies decided a soldier in their volunteer army who broke down and could take no more, should not be executed for his frailty, as was the British army's custom. 

In the between wars period, "shell shock" evolved into LMF (lack of moral fibre) which carried a cruel stigma. In the Second World War, LMF was replaced with the more acceptable "battle fatigue" which, in itself, was misleading and implied the sufferer had seen more action than most. 

Today, there is little stigma in PTSD, whose poster boy is retired Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, now a Liberal Senator, and remembered as the failed commander of UN troops in Rwanda whose warnings of impending genocide were ignored. 
More on link

 As it leaves Iraq, Britain looks warily to Afghanistan
British politicians called for an investigation into intelligence mistakes that led the country into the Iraq war.
By Tom A. Peter posted May 01, 2009
Article Link

The British combat mission in Iraq has come to an end after six years in a war that The Guardian called the "most controversial military operation since the Suez crisis more than 50 years ago." 

On Thursday, British Forces handed over their airbase to a US brigade, having completed their mission to train two Iraqi Army divisions. Almost all 4,000 British troops will leave Iraq by May 31, with 400 British servicemen remaining in Basra's port city of Umm Qasr to continue training Iraqi forces. 

Now that the final chapter of the United Kingdom's time in Iraq has officially come to a close, many British citizens and government officials are reflecting on their involvement in the largely unpopular war and looking warily ahead at the escalating conflict in Afghanistan. 

"The road to success has been long and, at times, painful," said Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, according to The Guardian newspaper. "As in any operation of this nature and complexity, things did not always develop as we might have expected. It is therefore critical that we, as an army and within defence as a whole, learn from our experiences in Iraq and implement those lessons for current and future operations." 

Despite significant security improvements in Basra, many British newspapers highlighted the fact that, rather than handing the airbase over to Iraqi forces, an American brigade slightly larger than the outgoing British forces will take over the base. 
More on link

 Dozens of Taliban killed in crackdown
Pakistan military says at least 55 Taliban militants killed in last 24 hours

Pakistani army has been waging a week-long crackdown on Taliban

Afghan, coalition forces in Afghanistan kill 15 militants, wound 12 others
April 29, 2009 
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military killed at least 55 militants over the past 24 hours as part of its week-long crackdown on Taliban militants, an army spokesman said Friday.

 This week's military operation resulted in more than 230 militant casualties since Sunday, while the military suffered two deaths and eight injuries, according to spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

He has said he hopes the operation will be completed by the end of the week.

The operation is part of the Pakistani army's intensified drive against the Taliban in its restive tribal regions.

The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, which have rankled relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Afghan and coalition forces in southern Afghanistan killed 15 militants and wounded 12 others, the U.S. military reported.
More on link

 U.S. soldiers sue over garbage 'burn pits'
Published: April 29, 2009 
Article Link

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- Garbage burning on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan caused health problems for soldiers and others exposed to toxic fumes, lawsuits allege.

A series of six lawsuits filed Tuesday and three more to be filed Wednesday against defense contractor KBR and former parent company Halliburton allege they caused the deaths of men who were exposed to the fumes from "burn pits" on U.S. military bases, CNN reported.

Other military personnel and private contractors, the suits allege, were sickened by the garbage burning at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq and elsewhere. U.S. military officials have said their investigation found there were no serious health risks for people exposed to the burn pits for a year or less.

The open pit at Balad was used to burn food and medical waste and plastics with jet fuel used as an accelerant at times, CNN said. One plaintiff reportedly claims "thick black smoke and toxic fumes from a burn pit" caused him severe chest pain, diarrhea, asthma, sleep apnea and debilitating migraine headaches.
More on link 

Official: Ospreys Heading to Afghanistan, New Trucks Not Heading Anywhere
By Nathan Hodge  April 30, 2009  
Article Link

In a briefing yesterday at the Pentagon, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said the controversial V-22 Osprey will soon be deployed to Afghanistan.

The Osprey, Conway said, “is purposefully headed towards Afghanistan.”

As we reported here previously, the gradual winding down of the mission in Iraq may free up the Osprey for an Afghanistan deployment. The V-22 made its combat debut in Iraq, where it served primarily as a troop transport. Conway praised the Osprey — which takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter, but flies with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft — for its ability to “shrink the battlespace” in Iraq.  “One of my commanders in Iraq compared it — being able to turn Texas into a place the size of Rhode Island,” he said.
More on link

 Insitu receives SUAV contract from Canadian Government
30 April 2009
Article Link

Insitu has received a US$30 million contract from the Canadian government to provide small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) services to support the Canadian Forces’ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations in Afghanistan.
The award comes after Insitu’s carbon fibre composites SUAV ScanEagle was deployed on the battlefield in support of Canadian troops in Afghanistan under an interim contract. The new contract includes in-theater flight operations, on-demand payload reconfiguration and aircraft maintenance.

The carbon fibre aircraft is 1.2 m (4 ft) long with a 3 m (10 ft) wingspan platform and weighs 15 kg (33 lbs). Launched by pneumatic catapult, its two-stroke engine can fly the craft for up to 15 hours and has a range of 1500 miles. A new four-stroke engine extends flight time to 60 hours and the range to 5000 miles.

The initial one-year contract includes two additional one-year options.
More on link

 Wounded soldier’s mom wants EI  
By MICHAEL TUTTON The Canadian Press Thu. Apr 30 - 4:46 AM
Article Link

The mother of a Canadian soldier wounded in Afghanistan says the federal government is treating her unfairly by refusing to provide employment insurance for two of the four weeks she spent by her son’s bedside in an Ottawa hospital.

Kyle Ricketts, 22, suffered broken feet and ankles and a broken jaw in Afghanistan during a roadside bombing March 8.

His mother, Sadie, works seasonally at a shrimp processing plant in Newfoundland while his father, Maurice, was laid off recently from his job in Fort McMurray, Alta.

The couple travelled to Ottawa on March 14 from their home in Pollard’s Point, N.L., to care for their son.
More on link

 Military readiness: Canada can’t rely on luck to survive  
By COLIN KENNY Thu. Apr 30 - 6:26 AM
Article Link

There is one overwhelmingly existential argument in favour of governments spending money on military readiness. Unfortunately for Canadians, there are three countervailing arguments that keep ganging up on it and slapping it in handcuffs.

Here’s the big argument in favour of military readiness: The primary duty of any national government is to protect its citizens and advance their interests, and no country can do that with its mouth alone. Too bad, but those are just the facts. Countries need muscle – enough muscle to defend, and enough muscle to join with allies to snuff out global threats.

The weaker Canada’s defences, the greater the possibility that Canadians will be damaged physically, economically, culturally and socially. History tells us that. Canada and its allies were ill equipped to go to war against Adolf Hitler in 1939, and his master plan for world domination nearly prevailed as a result.

This is a pretty big, basic argument. It should be enough to ensure adequate funding to the Canadian Forces. But that hasn’t been the case for a long time. Why?

Here are the undermining arguments that keep politicians from doing the right thing in maintaining the military personnel and equipment to enable the Canadian Forces to defend us.

Many Canadians see Canada as the peaceable alternative to our southern neighbours, who always seem to be trying to bash someone, somewhere. That’s a good attitude, to a point. We Canadians should be choosy about where we deploy our military. 

But when a meaningful mission comes along, we need to be ready. Furthermore, those not fond of the Americans should not be counting on them to defend us and our interests.

There is very little political payoff for looking into the future and ensuring that our children and grandchildren will have a military capable of defending them. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (1 May 2009)

Military loses battle over Afghanistan troop boost
_The Times_, April 30
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6194873.ece



> [Prime Minister] Gordon Brown has rejected the advice of both his Defence Secretary and military chiefs by refusing to send 2,000 more troops to Afghanistan to boost the permanent British presence in Helmand province to more than 10,000.
> 
> Despite pleas from commanders in southern Afghanistan for more “boots on the ground” to help to hold territory won against the Taleban, the Prime Minister has sided with the Treasury and has ruled that the total force must remain at the present level of 8,300.
> 
> ...



In Remote Afghan Province, Mullen Finds Daunting Need
Joint Chiefs Leader Assesses War U.S. Is Reshaping
_Washington Post_, May 1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043004234.html



> ZABOL, Afghanistan -- In this impoverished province on the Pakistani border, the U.S. military's most senior officer came face to face with the consequences of nearly eight years of American indifference and neglect in Afghanistan.
> 
> Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, sat across from Gov. Mohammad Ashraf Naseri, who nervously stroked his salt-and-pepper beard and ran through his problems. Taliban fighters regularly pass unmolested across Zabol's border with Pakistan. In recent months, they have launched a campaign to blow up the region's roads and force teachers to shut down local schools. This spring, they sliced off the ears of a defiant teacher.
> 
> ...



Gates Pushes Congress To Boost Pakistan Aid
_Washington Post_, May 1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043004067.html



> The Obama administration is lobbying Congress to give U.S. military commanders the same unfettered authority to back Pakistan's war against Taliban insurgents as commanders have in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
> 
> Seeking to inject the debate over military aid to Pakistan with a sense of wartime urgency, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged lawmakers yesterday to approve the Pentagon request for $400 million this year for the new Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, with an additional $700 million to be requested for 2010. Overall, the administration is seeking as much as $3 billion over the next five years in funding for Pakistan's military.
> 
> ...



Afghanistan, Pakistan, other policy challenges
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, May 1
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1241191499

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (2 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 2

Gates reluctant to bolster U.S. Afghan force further
Reuters, May 1
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5406IO20090501



> U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it could be difficult for the United States to add troops in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000 already approved, despite a top commander's call for a further 10,000 troops next year.
> 
> "It would be a hard sell. There's no question about it," Gates said in a CNN interview to be aired on Sunday, excerpts of which were released on Friday.
> 
> ...



Battle rages over our tragic failure in Afghanistan
There is a fierce conflict between the MoD, determined to conceal how far its strategy is failing in Afghanistan, and other Government players who realise our policy must be completely rethought, says Christopher Booker.
_Daily Telegraph_, May 2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5263569/Battle-rages-over-our-tragic-failure-in-Afghanistan.html



> In recent days, while the penny has been dropping as to what a tragic mess our politicians and senior generals made of our occupation of southern Iraq, there have been two remarkable twists to the story of our commitment in Afghanistan. One of these is highly alarming, the other possibly more hopeful.
> 
> Almost wholly unreported until yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, there has been a dramatic change in Taliban tactics in Helmand, where some 8,500 British troops are stationed, with their headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. On four occasions since April 21, including three in the past week, US air power has had to be called in to take out heavy machine guns, ZPU-1s and ZPU-2s, that the Taliban were installing around the town. Their purpose, as the British in Lashkar Gah are painfully aware, was all too obvious – *to bring down the Chinook helicopters* [emphasis added] on which the British rely for transport and re-supply.
> 
> ...


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## GAP (2 May 2009)

*Articles found May 2, 2009*

 REBUILDING KANDAHAR
 Fighting season is fast approaching, but for the time being, Kandahar is preoccupied with water, food and crops
 By Brian Hutchinson, National PostMay 1, 2009
Article Link

ARGHANDAB VALLEY, Afghanistan — Fighting season is fast approaching, but for the time being, Kandahar is preoccupied with water, food and crops.

All along the Arghandab River valley north of Kandahar city lie fields of wheat. Thousands of pomegranate trees are in blossom; their compact orange flowers scent the air. This is Kandahar at its best, and its most traditional.

Insurgent activity has slowed while young men of fighting age work in local orchards and fields.

Further to the west, in the volatile Panjwaii district, people are consumed with the poppy harvest: Scraping pods that ooze dark opium paste.

The poppy economy remains vexing.

Insurgents will buy the opium paste from local farmers, then sell it in underground markets and use the profits to arm themselves and lure the same men who collect it to their fight.

It's a vicious cycle and one that can be broken, people say, if more legal alternatives to the poppy could develop and flourish. Crucial to that solution is the efficient supply and distribution of the world's most precious resource — water.

That's where Canada comes in.

Canada's civilian component to the large NATO-led mission in Kandahar is often overlooked, thanks in part to the much larger, controversial military deployment here. But it's no less important to solving problems on the ground. And it's ramping up.

After two years of planning, Canada's single largest foreign-aid project in a generation is underway in the Arghandab. The $50-million Arghandab Irrigation Rehabilitation Project is revitalizing an ailing, 57-year-old dam and irrigation system that once allowed this desert province to lay claim as Afghanistan's breadbasket.

Kandahar once produced enough wheat to feed the entire country. The Soviet invasion, civil war and drought changed everything.

Rebuilding the agro-economy is an essential but hugely ambitious task. Fixing the water system is key. The 50-metre high Dahla dam is in relatively stable condition, but its reservoir capacity has shrunk by about 30 per cent from the original 480-million cubic metres, thanks to gradual siltification.

The Canadian plan is not to increase the dam's present capacity, since that would require far more money, but rather to enhance existing infrastructure. It's still a significant investment and it demonstrates Canada is punching above its weight; the United States, for example, is to spend $250 million for agriculture projects in all of Afghanistan.
More on link

 A Popular Afghan Governor Leaves the Presidential Race  
By ABDUL WAHEED and CARLOTTA GALL Published: May 2, 2009 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Removing one of the toughest potential obstacles to President Hamid Karzai’s re-election campaign, the popular governor of Nangarhar Province, Gul Agha Shirzai, announced Saturday that he would pull out of the race.

Mr. Shirzai was widely perceived to be a strong contender. Just a day earlier, a spokesman for the governor’s campaign, Khaled Pashtun, said that the current vice president, Ahmed Zia Masood, who had already said he would not run again with Mr. Karzai, would join Mr. Shirzai’s ticket.

But on Saturday, Mr. Shirzai told journalists that after a four-hour meeting with President Karzai on Friday night, he had decided to withdraw from the race entirely, Tolo TV, an independent news channel, reported. 

Mr. Shirzai gave no details about his reasons, but he confirmed that he had been far along in the campaign-planning process, including working with Mr. Masood and recruiting a Shiite leader, Sayed Hossein Anwari, to be his second vice president.
More on link

 FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan
Sat May 2, 2009 8:39am 
Article Link

(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported by 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT) on Saturday.

HERAT - A roadside bomb killed the district police chief of Farsi, Herat province around 590 km (365 miles) southwest of Kabul. His bodyguard also died and six other policemen were wounded, the interior ministry said.

HELMAND - Afghan and U.S.-led forces on Friday killed five militants in Helmand province's Nahr Surkh district, 530 km (330 miles) southwest of Kabul, U.S. forces said in a statement. The force was attacked from several compounds when on a reconnaissance patrol, and returned fire, killing five.

They secured the area and destroyed a small weapons cache.

KANDAHAR - A NATO-led air strike in Maywand district of Kandahar province, 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Kabul, killed a local insurgent commander and six of his associates, a detective police officer for the province told Reuters.
More on link

 Candidate spokesman: Afghan VP switches to rival   
Associated Press 2009-05-01 11:54 PM    
  Article Link

A spokesman says Afghanistan's vice president is breaking away from the president to join a competing ticket in August's presidential election. 
Gul Khalid Pushtoon, a lawmaker serving as spokesman for former warlord Gul Agha Sherzai, says First Vice President Ahmad Zia Masood will be Sherzai's top deputy in his run against President Hamid Karzai. Pushtoon says they plan to file official papers on Saturday. 

A government spokesman says he has not been informed of Masood's decision but that the president would not attempt to block a move that would be within constitutional rights. Spokesmen for Masood could not immediately be reached for comment. 
More on link

 Ashraf Ghani Takes On Karzai
Article Link

I sat down for coffee last week with Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s finance minister from 2002 to 2004. He’s about to throw his hat into the ring of Afghan politics and challenge his former boss, Hamid Karzai, in the presidential election scheduled for August 18th. Ghani is a slight, balding man with a gentle voice and a keen mind; his background is in social sciences (he has a PhD in anthropology from Columbia) and the World Bank. He’s the technocratic alternative to the politics of warlordism and corruption, and he’s deeply fluent in the language of international development: words like “stakeholder” and “governance sector” come easily to his tongue. Ghani’s account of what’s gone wrong in Afghanistan is relatively simple, and it overlaps on several counts with the views of the Obama Administration: the Taliban was in retreat until the Bush Administration took its eye off of Afghanistan and invaded Iraq. Since then, Karzai has been held to Iraq’s low standard of security and competence, by which he’s been wrongly judged to have done relatively well. Ghani resigned as finance minister at the end of 2004 because he saw that Karzai was unwilling to take on power brokers that were the sources of corruption and government failure. Since then, the Taliban has made a spectacular comeback, largely due to these failures, and only a change of government will reverse the deterioration.

“When people suddenly come to office from exile, without any previous history, sycophancy becomes a very high component, because they’re dependent on relationships,” Ghani said when I asked what had gone wrong with Karzai. “No one has a constituency, and the person at the top is bombarded with praise—‘You’re the greatest thing since sliced cheese’—and human beings being human beings, if they hear they’re great, and only a few people are saying no, who are they going to believe? Shakespeare is the best guide to Afghanistan.”
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (5 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 5

Afghan Effort Is Mullen's Top Focus (usual copyright disclaimer)
_Washington Post_, May 5
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050402656.html



> Afghanistan is now the U.S. military's top priority for assigning troops, equipment and other resources, the nation's most senior military officer said for the first time yesterday.
> 
> Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, designated the war in Afghanistan as the military's "main effort" -- or most important combat mission -- while acknowledging that fighting "isn't over" in Iraq, where 136,000 U.S. troops still serve.
> 
> ...



Black Watch in air assault on Taleban supply route
_The Scotsman_, May 5
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Black-Watch-in-air-assault.5233358.jp



> SCOTTISH soldiers have carried out a major operation to improve security in southern Afghanistan.
> 
> Troops from The Black Watch 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, recovered explosives during Operation Sarak 1 in the Maywand district of Kandahar. The five-day mission involved 525 soldiers and a *rifle company of the Afghanistan National Army* [emphasis added].
> 
> ...



IN PICTURES: Black Watch conduct first major Afghan operation
MoD, May 1
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/InPicturesBlackWatchConductFirstMajorAfghanOperation.htm


> ...
> For their deployment in Afghanistan 3 SCOTS will be based within *Camp Roberts* [emphasis added]
> http://www.pinetreeweb.com/roberts-bio.htm
> in Kandahar Airfield and will work directly to the Dutch-led divisional headquarters known as Regional Command (South), part of the NATO International Security Assistance Force.
> ...



Porous Pakistani Border Could Hinder U.S. Troops 
_NY Times_, May 4
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/world/asia/05fighter.html?ref=todayspaper



> PESHAWAR, Pakistan — President Obama is pouring more than 20,000 new troops into Afghanistan this year for a fighting season that the United States military has called a make-or-break test of the allied campaign in Afghanistan.
> 
> But if Taliban strategists have their way, those forces will face a stiff challenge, not least because of one distinct Taliban advantage: the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan barely exists for the Taliban, who are counting on the fact that American forces cannot reach them in their sanctuaries in Pakistan.
> 
> ...



The Taliban Tightens Hold In Pakistan's Swat Region
_Washington Post_, May 5
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050400189.html



> ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 4 -- Taliban forces tightened their grip on Pakistan's Swat region Monday and continued resisting the military's efforts to dislodge them from neighboring Buner, bringing a fragile peace accord closer to collapse and the volatile northwest region nearer to full-fledged conflict.
> 
> Yet even as the Taliban continued its rampage and rejected the government's latest concession to its demands -- the appointment of Islamic-law judges in Swat -- Pakistan's military leaders clung to hopes for a nonviolent solution, saying that security forces were "still exercising restraint to honor the peace agreement."
> 
> ...



What the Pakistani people would tell Obama
'Everyday people' interviewed on the street cite deadly drone attacks and the struggles of the poor as their top concerns. Obama is to meet with the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan this week.
_LA Times_, May 5
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-summit5-2009may05,0,3463308.story



> Many Pakistanis welcomed the election of President Obama as an opportunity for some fresh thinking about their troubled region.
> 
> But the honeymoon hasn't lasted long. As Obama prepares to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week in Washington, Pakistanis from different walks of life say they'd give the U.S. leader an earful if they, rather than their president, had a seat at the White House table.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (7 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 7

Afghanistan, Pakistan: fighting back
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, May 7 
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1241719739

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (9 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 9



> 'Taliban hate our guts,' top soldier says
> Withdrawal from strong point has improved conditions: Natynczyk
> 
> _Ottawa Citizen_, May 9
> ...



Karzai in move to share power with warlord wanted by US
Extremist on America's list of most-wanted terrorists is to hold talks with the Afghan government in coming weeks
_Sunday Times_, May 10
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6256675.ece



> ONE of Afghanistan’s most wanted terrorists is to be offered a power-sharing deal by the government of President Hamid Karzai as the country’s warlords extend their grip on power.
> 
> Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is on America’s “most wanted” terrorist list, is to hold talks with the Kabul government within the next few weeks.
> 
> ...


. 

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (11 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 11

Afghan's Karzai demands U.S. halt air strikes: report
Reuters, May 9
http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE5475R820090509



> Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday called on the United States to halt air strikes in his country, following attacks this week that Afghan officials said killed 147 people.
> 
> "We demand an end to these operations ... an end to air strikes," Karzai said in Washington in an interview with CNN.
> 
> Farah Province deputy governor Yunus Rasooli told Reuters on Friday that residents of two villages hit this week by U.S. warplanes had produced lists with the names of 147 people killed in the attacks...



More Airstrikes Against Taliban Possible, Says U.S. Official
_Washington Post_, May 11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051002180.html



> National security adviser James L. Jones said yesterday that the U.S. military should keep open the option of airstrikes against Taliban forces in western Afghanistan, but he acknowledged warnings by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that civilian deaths from such attacks are damaging both governments' moral standing and support.
> 
> The Afghan government says as many as 130 civilians were killed last Monday and Tuesday by U.S. bombs. Such a toll would rank as the deadliest incident since U.S. forces began fighting in Afghanistan in 2001, but U.S. officials called the number of casualties "extremely overexaggerated."
> 
> ...



Fear and Worry Pervade Refugee Camps As Pakistanis Flee Assault on Taliban
_Washington Post_, May 11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051002241.html



> MARDAN, Pakistan, May 10 -- As they waited in rows of empty white tents, refugees from fighting in the Swat Valley said Sunday that they had been repeating a Koranic verse from the sayings of the prophet Muhammad.
> 
> "He who recites this will receive my blessing and protection," one woman read from a pamphlet in Arabic. "If he is hungry, he will find plentiful food. . . . If he has fear of a cruel ruler or enemy . . . the fear will be gone."
> 
> ...



Video of interviews with Pakistani president Zardari and Afghan president Karzai (latter at "Length 31:41")
NBC, _Meet the Press_, May 10
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30668913#30668913

Transcript here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30658135/

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (11 May 2009)

*Articles found May 11, 2009*

 Second girls' school poisoning in Afghanistan
Mon May 11, 2009
Article Link

By Hamid Shalizi

CHARIKAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Nearly 50 teenagers were admitted to hospital after a suspected mass poisoning at an Afghan girls' school, a doctor said on Monday, in the second such incident in a month.

The headmaster rushed his students out of their classrooms in the northern town of Charikar after they smelt an unusual odour and started feeling nauseous and dizzy, a 17-year-old victim told Reuters from her hospital bed.

"I am pretty sure whoever has done this is against education for girls, but I strongly ask the parents not to be discouraged by such brutal action and send their children to school," said Noor Jahan, a ninth grader at Ura Jalili Girls' High School.

In another room a mother sat beside her unconscious daughter's bed, crying and rubbing the girl's forehead. Around her lay several dazed and pale schoolmates.

"I was in a lesson when suddenly two classmates lost consciousness and collapsed," said Nabila, a 21-year-old in one of the beds. Years of war and unrest mean children often finish school late in Afghanistan.

She said the room had filled with an odour like insecticide at around 11 a.m., and some girls started vomiting.

Police declined to comment.

The incident comes barely two weeks after a mystery poisoning at another girls' school in the same town, which produced similar symptoms, although victims of the first incident said they did not remember an unusual smell.
More on link

Lawyer: Gitmo prisoner slashed wrist, hurled blood
By BEN FOX – 1 hour ago 
Article Link

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A Yemeni held at Guantanamo slashed his wrist and hurled the blood at his lawyer during a meeting at the prison, the attorney said Monday, describing the incident as a suicide attempt by a psychologically troubled man who should be returned home immediately for treatment.

Adnan Latif used a piece of veneer from a table to saw through a vein in his wrist, holding his arms down beneath the table to disguise his actions from the attorney, an interpreter and guards watching the meeting Sunday over a video monitoring system, lawyer David Remes said.

After Latif threw the blood, guards rushed in and subdued and treated the prisoner, said Remes, of the Washington-based human rights law firm Appeal for Justice, which represents a number of prisoners from Yemen.

The lawyer said Latif is apparently recovering but details of his condition were not known. The detention center's spokesman, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Latif, who is about 33, was captured by Pakistani forces after leaving Afghanistan and was turned over to the United States. Military authorities say he is a suspected member of al-Qaida who fought with the Taliban, but he says he is a victim of mistaken identity and only went to Afghanistan for medical treatment.
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 Journalists soldier on
By PETER WORTHINGTON Last Updated: 11th May 
Article Link

Embedded" is a relatively new word in journalism, applicable to reporters attached to American, British or Canadian troops in Afghanistan and/or Iraq. 

At the beginning of the latest Iraq war, the CBC opted not to have reporters embedded with the American troops on grounds that the journalists would be subjected to military "spin" and thus risk losing their objectivity. Nonsense and insulting, but it stigmatized the idea of "embedded" journalists. 

Instead, the CBC used videos from embedded networks and put their own interpretation ("spin") on the war footage. That's honest journalism? 

Scott Taylor, publisher of the magazine Esprit de Corps, titles his recent memoir, Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting which, he says "is gleaned from first hand observation ... about challenging the official position. Seeing through the other guy's eyes is the key to any success." 

Again, this implies that being embedded with the military is an impediment to objective, balanced or fair reporting. 

In a long career that involved coverage of a lot of wars, revolutions, coups, etc., I was mostly "unembedded" in that I had no support system or firm base, or sanctuary. Nor did most journalists who covered crises. 

In the days of UN peacekeeping, it wasn't necessary to be "embedded." 

CROSSING LINES 

In Cyprus, for instance, Turks and Greeks had no argument with journalists who criss-crossed the lines. In Algeria's war for independence, the French didn't much like journalists but tolerated them, while Algerian nationalists relished a generally sympathetic foreign press. In the Congo warring elements ignored or sought to use foreign journalists. 

But in the Biafran war, if you weren't "embedded" with one side, you couldn't report from that side. If Nigerians captured a journalist with the Biafran forces, he'd be shot as a mercenary. The same with UNITA insurgents in Angola. In the Eritrean war, if a journalist with the rebels was caught by Ethiopian soldiers -- again he'd be shot as a mercenary. 

In Afghanistan, unless a journalist is "embedded" with the Canadians, Canada's story won't be told. The trouble is, some reporters embedded with the Canadians also try to tell the Taliban story -- as Taylor says, "seeing through the other guy's eyes." 
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 Pakistan's success could help Canadian forces, says Natynczyk
GLORIA GALLOWAY May 11, 2009
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Canada's Chief of Defence Staff says the confrontation between Pakistan and its Taliban insurgency is "worrisome," but Pakistani forces have both motivation and might - and a victory could help the government in neighbouring Afghanistan.

General Walter Natynczyk, who recently returned from Afghanistan, which shares both a border and the Taliban problem with Pakistan, told CTV's Question Period yesterday that defence officials inside Pakistan are beginning to understand the problems they are facing.

"The situation in Pakistan is very worrisome. It has been for a while. The Taliban are in the western frontier area, in the FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and in the Swat [Valley]. And they have been operating from those areas into Afghanistan for some time," Gen. Natynczyk said.

In Pakistan, on the other hand, the insurgency has been taking on the military in a serious way for just a few months, he said.
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Military contractor killed prisoner to avenge colleague's death
Article Link
 Monday, May 11, 2009

The defendant here is a man named Don M. Ayala, a bodyguard working with a Human Terrain Team in Afghanistan. The HTT is a group of social scientists who try to help the Army understand different cultures, customs, etc. One of Ayala's colleagues was an anthropologist named Paula Loyd.

During one mission, Loyd was attacked by an Afghani man who threw a pitcher of gasoline at her and set her on fire. Ayala shot the man in the head after he learned how severe Loyd's injuries were. (She later died.)

Ayala has pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge, but is getting probation -- no prison time, contrary to prosecutors' wishes. The judge decided that, while the shooting of a prisoner wasn't OK, the level of provocation was extreme for Ayala.
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## GAP (12 May 2009)

*Articles found May 12, 2009*

 Pakistan drops commandos into Taliban stronghold
Updated Tue. May. 12 2009 8:29 AM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

MARDAN, Pakistan -- Pakistani commandos dropped from helicopters behind Taliban lines in the Swat Valley on Tuesday in a widening offensive that the military said has lifted the number of refugees in the northwest to 1.3 million. 

Further south, a suspected U.S. missile attack flattened a house and killed at least eight people in another militant stronghold near the Afghan border. 

Choppers inserted troops into the remote Piochar area in the upper reaches of the Swat Valley, an army statement said. Officials identified it as the rear-base of an estimated 4,000 Taliban militants also entrenched in Swat's main towns. It is seen as possible hiding place of Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah. 

A military spokesman declined to give details of the Piochar assault, but a senior government official expressed optimism that the battle for Swat might prove short. 

"The way they (militants) are being beaten, the way their recruits are fleeing, and the way the Pakistan army is using its strategy, God willing the operation will be completed very soon," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. 

Pakistani authorities launched a full-scale assault on Swat and surrounding districts last week after the Taliban pushed out from the valley on the back of a now-defunct peace deal and extended their control to areas just 100 kilometres from the capital, Islamabad. 
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 Gun battles rage in Afghan city of Khost
Updated Tue. May. 12 2009 8:43 AM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL -- Running gun battles are reported in the eastern Afghan city of Khost after teams of suicide bombers and other insurgents attacked government buildings. 

Officials say the rebels have also taken a number of government workers hostage in Tuesday's attacks. 

A doctor says at least four members of the Afghan security forces, two civilians and an unknown number of insurgents have been killed. 

An American quick-reaction force was ambushed by the rebels and one U.S. soldier was wounded. 

The attacks started around 10 a.m. and raged for hours. 

Officials said the multi-pronged attack caused mass confusion, and a doctor said the fighting was preventing medical workers from reaching a number of bodies in the streets. 

The attack began when a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Khost governor's compound, the Interior Ministry said. 

Three bombers detonated their explosives while other militants took city employees hostage, an the Interior Ministry official said. 

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed that 30 suicide bombers had attacked the government buildings. 
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 Afghan villagers get payments for battle that killed civilians
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 
4:29 AM PDT, May 12, 2009 
Article Link

A government commission concluded that 140 civilians died, more than twice the figure cited by the United States.

Reporting from Farah City, Afghanistan -- FARAH CITY, Afghanistan -- Turbaned elders and weather-beaten farmers trekked to this provincial capital today to accept reparation payments from a government commission that concluded 140 civilians were killed in a fierce battle last week between Taliban fighters and coalition troops.

If the figure arrived at by the commission is correct, it would make last week's fatalities in rural Farah province the worst single episode of civilian casualties since the U.S.-led invasion more than seven years ago.

"This was an accident, and we offer condolences," provincial Gov. Rosul Amin told the somber, ragged assemblage of villagers. Relatives received about $2,000 for family members killed and $1,000 for those injured.
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 Afghanistan vet is new overseas commander
The Canadian Press May 12, 2009
Article Link

Ottawa -- Canada has a new commander for overseas operations.

Lieutenant-General Marc Lessard, a veteran of Afghanistan, was sworn in yesterday as the officer in charge of the Canadian Expeditionary Force command.

The Ottawa-based headquarters runs the Kandahar operation - with its nearly 3,000 troops and aircrew - and all other deployments, including the naval mission fighting pirates off the Horn of Africa.

Gen. Lessard, who spent nine months commanding NATO forces in southern Afghanistan last year, said the arrival of thousands of fresh U.S. troops eans the territory covered by Canadian soldiers will be reduced.
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 'Drone kills eight in Pakistan'  
Article Link

Missiles fired by a suspected US drone have flattened a house and killed at least eight people in Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, officials say. 

The attack took place in Sra Khawra village in the troubled South Waziristan district. 

The area is the stronghold of Pakistani Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud. 

There have been three dozen alleged US strikes since August - killing about 340 people - most in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions. 

Critical 

"It was a drone strike on a compound where militants used to stay before crossing the border or after coming back from Afghanistan," news agency AFP quoted a Pakistani security official as saying. 

It quoted another official as saying that two missiles were fired at the house, which is around 25km (16 miles) from Wana, South Waziristan's main town, and just a few kilometres from the Afghan border. 

"Foreigners and local Taleban were assembled there. It was a compound - like a house in the mountains," the official said. 

The attack comes as the Pakistani military is involved in a major offensive against Taleban militants in the Swat valley to the north. 

Pakistan has been publicly critical of the drone attacks, arguing that they kill civilians and fuel support for militants. 

Earlier this year, US President Barack Obama said his government would consult Pakistan on the attacks. 
More on link


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## GAP (13 May 2009)

*Articles found May 13, 2009*


 Driving school: Afghan army troops learn how to handle a Humvee
19 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan soldiers accustomed to travelling the bomb-littered roads and battlefields of their war-weary country in little more than flimsy pickup trucks will be trading up for some new heavy-duty wheels when they start hitting the road this weekend.

The Afghan troops have been undergoing training to learn the finer points of a forthcoming fleet of new camo-coloured Humvees - a modern-day symbol of American military might - as part of a program that includes Canadian Forces personnel.

On Tuesday, the training ground in Kandahar rattled with the thunder of heavy-calibre arms fire as soldiers manned their rear-mounted machine guns and blasted away at a distant row of targets.

"Do not keep your finger on the trigger," one American instructor yelled at his Afghan protege in an attempt to simulate the stress of combat conditions. "Put the safety on."

The Afghan paid attention, reloading his weapon before firing another burst of bullets at silhouettes 300 metres away.

The members of the Afghan National Army's 205 Corps, who are now winding up their eight-week training course, are also learning to drive and maintain the massive, all-terrain vehicles - responsibilities that include mundane chores like oil changes and tune-ups.
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 Bomber kills 7 near U.S. base in Afghanistan
May 13, 2009 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A car bomber targeted a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven people Wednesday, a day after Taliban militants attacked many locations in the city of Khost, U.S. military officials said.

The suicide bomber drove his vehicle near the entrance of Camp Salerno, near Khost, on Wednesday morning. The explosion killed mostly Afghan civilians and injured 21 others, law enforcement said.

Authorities had no information about whether there were U.S. casualties.

U.S. military and local officials also reported fighting in the southeastern province of Paktika on Tuesday morning.

Taliban fighters attacked Afghan security forces, and U.S. forces joined the battle. Six Taliban fighters and two civilians were killed.

Also on Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomb squad disguised as regular Afghan army troops stormed the strategic city of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan Tuesday, prompting a fierce six-hour battle with U.S. troops, local officials and the U.S. military said.

The insurgents attacked a municipal building in the center of the city, a U.
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 Canadian helicopters make military history in Afghanistan, experts ponder future
18 hours ago
Article Link

EDMONTON — To look at the fatigue etched in Maj. Rodger Lerminiaux's face you would never guess the Griffon helicopter pilot is part of a unit that just made military history.

A few days ago Lerminiaux returned home from Afghanistan where the Canadian Helicopter Force completed its first deployment of choppers in a combat zone.

In a few months the force of CH-47 Chinooks, escorted by CH-146 Griffons, transported more than 6,000 troops and thousands of tonnes of supplies, deftly flying over routes that could have been sown with the roadside bombs that have killed more than half of the Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan.

"It absolutely saved lives," said Lerminiaux, who added the aircraft were sometimes shot at by insurgents.

"Any time you can decrease the amount of people who are on those roads, when you can ferry them by air, you are cutting back the risk."

The thump-thump-thump of rotor blades has also been a reassuring sound to troops on patrol, because it lets them know that Canadian crews in Canadian helicopters are watching over them.

Soldiers at forward operating bases and at the main base at Kandahar have made a point of telling the aircrew how pleased they are that Canada finally has its own helicopters after relying on NATO aircraft for years, he said.
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 Trucks torched at NATO supply terminal in Pakistan
By RIAZ KHAN – 7 hours ago 
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected Taliban stormed a depot in northwest Pakistan handling supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan on Wednesday and torched eight trucks, as the Pakistani army battled militants elsewhere in the region in an offensive that has sent hundreds of thousands fleeing.

Attacks on terminals and trucks rolling through the Khyber Pass toward Afghanistan have intensified since last year, adding to concern that more regions along the Afghan border are slipping from government control and into the hands of Taliban and al-Qaida.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Wednesday that the threat militants pose to both countries was very real.

"Terrorists and extremists are extending their reach in whole areas of our countries," Karzai told a regional economic conference in the capital, Islamabad.

Wednesday's depot attack saw dozens of militants pour into the transport terminal near the northwest city of Peshawar and set the trucks ablaze before fleeing, police official Ghafoor Khan Afridi said. Most of the terminals have few if any guards.

Firefighters quickly doused the flames, and metal shipping containers holding NATO supplies were unscathed, he said.
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## GAP (14 May 2009)

*Articles found May 14, 2009*

 Military says it's prepared if swine flu strikes in Afghanistan
16 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada's military says it will be prepared if swine flu strikes soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Canadian military personnel have put in place testing procedures at the hospital inside the base at Kandahar Airfield.

"Part of our plan is to screen all incoming passengers into the area of responsibility here in Kandahar, so all of the personnel that we have are screened before they arrive," said Lt.-Col. Ron Wojtyk, a Canadian military surgeon and the head physician at the base's NATO hospital.

He said every new arrival is required to fill out a brief questionnaire.

The newcomers are asked if they have a cold, a fever or any muscle aches or pains. They are also asked if they have been to Mexico and if they have come into contact with anyone who has had an influenza-like illness.

"If they say 'Yes' to any of those then they have to see a medical person," Wojtyk said.

In the next few months, 21,000 American soldiers will be deployed in the Kandahar area where they will join more than 1,000 Canadian military personnel.
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 There’s more going on in Afghanistan than meets the eye
May 13, 2009 
Article Link

Re: Canada should put its own house in order, letter to the editor, Huntsville Forester, April 22.

I find the letter very insulting to those men and women in the military and their families as you clearly believe that they are nothing more than a flock of sheep with no capabilities of making decisions, choices or having opinions of their own. Don’t think for one second that my opinion isn’t my own regardless of my husband’s profession. 

Why don’t you ask yourself why so many reservists choose to go to Afghanistan when they don’t have to? Why do the families of the soldiers support the mission? I’ll tell you why. Unfortunately, it’s because we are all more informed than the general public and all you have to go on is the predominately negative biased opinions of so many reporters. You might want to take a look at the “Canada’s Engagement in Afghanistan” website for some actual information on the mission. 

 We did not go to Afghanistan because George Bush told us to but because it was the consensus of all of the nations we are allied to around the world, that the Taliban’s support for violent terrorist groups was a threat to the people of most of the world.

The combat mission we are on is a fighting mission but we are not at war with the Afghan people, as Mr. Wahl implied. We are there in support of the democratically elected government. (We tend to forget that over 75 per cent of eligible Afghans voted, and over 80 per cent voted for President Karzai, a far cry from the pitiful turnout in our elections). We have always known that we would not achieve a decisive military victory in Afghanistan, but rather a political and social one by the Afghans themselves. All the military forces can do is to make things secure enough so that Afghans can make their own choices without fear for their lives. 

Canada is in no way trying to make them something they’re not. Believe it or not, we are one of the few nations thoroughly trained in their culture and beliefs; we are in no way trying to make them into a western society. 
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In-flight reading: Canada's counter-insurgency manual
Colin Freeze, May 13, 2009 at 3:06 PM EDT
Article Link

It's hardly  En Route magazine, but the Canadian government's new manual on “Counter-insurgency Operations”can make for some scintillating – and sobering -- in-flight reading.  

Especially if you're flying to Afghanistan. 

This morning, for the second time in 18 months, I touched down at Kandahar Air Field. The job is to work as an embedded reporter with the military and, to that end, I had brought along the manual, less as a “must read” than a “maybe” read.

But I was surprised to find Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie's treatise on “Counter-Insurgency Operations” was a page turner. It gripped me from the takeoff, until I saw a familiar dun desert landscape come into focus through the descending plane's windows. 

As the plane landed, it struck me that someone had supersized the NATO military base in my absence. Since my last visit it has gotten much bigger, and more fortified. The vehicles appear to be more heavily armoured. One of my fellow passengers quipped I was lucky to even find a bed— given the influx of soldiers, mostly American, of late. 

Though larger, the base seems more an outpost than ever. The stepped-up military presence is meant to keep pace with the growing Taliban-led insurgency that now lurks just outside the gates. This, nearly eight years after Mullah Omar and his minions beat a hasty retreat, on motorcycles, from Kandahar -- and were thought to have been vanquished by U.S.-led forces for good. 

So how did we – the West, NATO, the Canadian Forces contingent -- all get it so wrong? How did we get back here today?

Gen. Leslie, who helped lead Canada's early forays into Afghanistan, seems to have some insights. Now the head of Land Forces for the Canadian military, he wrote the Canadian Force's manual on counterinsurgency, which became a public document early this year.  
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 August 2008 Post
Loans needed to stop poppy crops 
By Scott Deveau, National PostAugust 29, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- An old man waits with his two sons outside a United Nation’s distribution centre on a scorching hot August day in Kandahar City.

They have been lured from the Arghandab district west of the city by the promise of a single bag of wheat to bring back to their impoverished family. He says he arrived here at 8 a.m., but four hours later he, along with dozens of others, still doesn’t have his wheat and he’s losing his patience.

“This seed is not for growing,” he explains, “It’s for eating.”

While he grows corn on his farm, he says he hasn’t produced enough to feed his family. 

So it’s not really surprising when he admits he has grown poppies to help supplement his income.

“If my children fill their stomachs, I don’t care about the poppy,” he says, asking not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic.

Not only are poppies difficult to grow, requiring much weeding and watering, but it is illegal to grow them here and drug use runs counter to his Muslim beliefs, he says. 
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 U.S. military contract boosts revenue at Canadian Helicopters fund
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 CBC News 
Article Link

Canadian Helicopters Income Fund said Wednesday its revenues rose by almost six per cent in the first quarter, partly due to a flying contract with the U.S. Department of Defence in Afghanistan.

The fund's revenue hit $26.5 million, up from $25 million a year ago. The fund said its support contract for the U.S. Department of Defence offset weaker resource-based activity.

Montreal-based Canadian Helicopters said its revenue-flying hours declined 11.1 per cent to 9,422 hours, but a more favourable mix of helicopter transportation services produced stronger revenue.

The contract with the U.S. military involves three fully crewed Bell 212 aircraft for the shipment of supplies and passengers in Afghanistan. The deal is for a one-year base period with four one-year extensions at the military's option. Total revenue to the fund is expected to exceed $120 million US over five years, assuming all the options are exercised and expected hours are flown.

The fund, which says it is the largest helicopter transportation services company operating in Canada, said it produced a loss of $405,872, or a loss of four cents per unit. That compared to a loss of $1.1 million, or 11 cents a unit, a year earlier.
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 Helicopter force 'absolutely saved lives' in Afghanistan
 By Keith Gerein, The Edmonton JournalMay 13, 2009
Article Link

More than 2,400 hours in the air. Some 6,000 passengers ferried. Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cargo moved.

Such are the numerical achievements of the Canadian Helicopter Force that recently completed its first five-month tour in Afghanistan.

But in the mind of a recently returned deputy commander, the real success of the aircraft lies in a number that can't be counted -- Canadian soldiers spared by taking them off the deadly roads of Kandahar Province.

"It absolutely saved lives," said Maj. Rodger Lerminiaux of the Edmonton-based 408 ("Goose") Tactical Helicopter Squadron.

"If that equipment and those people hadn't been moved by us, they would have had to go by road. Everybody is aware of the (improvised explosive device) threat over there, so taking those people off the roads is a huge benefit to the battle group and the mission itself."

Lerminiaux, who served as both a pilot and deputy commanding 
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 Ask politicians where aid money goes  
BARB STEGEMANN CULTURE SHIFT Wed. May 13 
Article Link

WE’VE ALL discussed it at a book club or over dinner with friends. We’ve all reflected about it after reading about world hunger. We’ve all wondered:

How can we end poverty?

How can we end suffering of the impoverished at home and abroad?

Is it a topic that’s too big to think about?

Not at all.

By exercising our voting and our buying power, we can affect big change. 

The next time a federal election happens ask your candidates how they are going to change policy to ensure that aid going to developing countries is not spent on running bureaucracies, but feeds the impoverished and empowers land ownership.

Demand this of your elected representative every time they knock on your door, until you get a firm answer.

Better yet, why wait until an election — ask them now.

If every country pushed harder to ensure that foreign aid was spent on microcredit and literacy, we would see big change.

Poverty is the root of war.

As citizens, we do not have to wait for government. There are things we can do right now in the comfort of our homes.

Kiva, founded by Jessica Jackley, is the world’s first peer-to-peer, online, microlending website ( www.kiva.org). The site enables people around the world to make small loans, as little as $25, to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
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## MarkOttawa (16 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 16

Afghanistan: new commander, enduring challenges
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, May 14
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1242324654

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (19 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 19

Gates: Afghan army could take lead in 2 to 4 Years
American Forces Press Service, May 18
http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/05/18/21229-gates-afghan-army-could-take-lead-in-2-to-4-years/



> The Afghan national army could lead operations in Afghanistan in two to four years, with the U.S. playing a support role, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a May 8 interview, portions of which aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday.
> 
> As the handover of responsibilities to national forces in Afghanistan develops, it is likely to mirror security progress that unfolded in Iraq following the surge of U.S. troops there, Gates said during the interview, conducted with Katie Couric in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul.
> 
> ...



Bob Gates, America's Secretary Of War
60 Minutes: Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates Talks About Iraq, Afghanistan And His Job
CBS _60 Minutes_, May 17
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/14/60minutes/main5014588.shtml

Video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5021174n

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (20 May 2009)

*Articles found May 20, 2009*

 Military burns unsolicited Bibles sent to Afghanistan  
May 20, 2009 -
Article Link

Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday

The unsolicited Bibles sent by a church in the United States were confiscated about a year ago at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan because military rules forbid troops of any religion from proselytizing while deployed there, Lt. Col. Mark Wright said.

Such religious outreach can endanger American troops and civilians in the devoutly Muslim nation, Wright said.

"The decision was made that it was a 'force protection' measure to throw them away, because, if they did get out, it could be perceived by Afghans that the U.S. government or the U.S. military was trying to convert Muslims," Wright told CNN on Tuesday.

Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said.

The Bibles were written in the languages Pashto and Dari.

This decision came to light recently, after the Al Jazeera English network aired video of a group prayer service and chapel sermon that a reporter said suggested U.S. troops were being encouraged to spread Christianity.
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 Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands  
Article Link

KABUL — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces. 

Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces, according to an examination of ammunition markings by The New York Times and interviews with American officers and arms dealers.

The presence of this ammunition among the dead in the Korangal Valley, an area of often fierce fighting near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, strongly suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops.

The scope of that diversion remains unknown, and the 30 magazines represented a single sampling of fewer than 1,000 cartridges. But military officials, arms analysts and dealers say it points to a worrisome possibility: With only spotty American and Afghan controls on the vast inventory of weapons and ammunition sent into Afghanistan during an eight-year conflict, poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied.
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Afghan dies after incident with contractors, U.S. military says  
May 19, 2009 
Article Link

One of three Afghan civilians wounded when U.S. contractors shot at them in an incident in early May died of his wounds Sunday, according to U.S. military officials in Afghanistan.

A second Afghan civilian remains in serious condition, and the third person wounded was treated and released from a Kabul hospital, according to the U.S. military in Kabul.

The incident, which happened in Kabul on May 5, remains under investigation by the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, three of the four contractors involved in the shooting have left the country, according to the California lawyer who says he represents them. Two are back in the United States already.

The attorney, Dan Callahan from Callahan & Blaine law firm, told CNN that his clients were transporting interpreters when the incident happened.

While he has not spoken to the other two contractors in a few days, Callahan said he believes they, too, have left. 

After the shooting, the men claimed they were being held against their will by their former employer, Paravant, in Kabul. Paravant's parent company, Xe, said the men were not being held against their will. It said the U.S. military told the company to instruct the men to stay as the investigation progressed.

The U.S. military denied the men were being asked to stay because of the investigation, and the contractor's lawyer said his repeated request for clarification from the military yielded no answer, so he told his clients they could leave the country.

"All I got from the government is that there is an investigation ongoing," Callahan said. "I take that to mean there are no charges or orders to stay."

The contractors were working for Paravant to train Afghan national army soldiers on weapons, according to the U.S. military. Paravant is affiliated with Xe, the new company name for the security contractor Blackwater Worldwide.
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 U.S. gives Pakistan aid for those fleeing Swat Valley  
(2009-05-19) By Robert Birsel and Arshad Mohammed
Article Link

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday offered Pakistan $110 million to help people driven from their homes by fighting in the Swat Valley and said it was trying to redress 30 years of "incoherent" U.S. policy toward the nuclear-armed country.

Pakistani soldiers battled Taliban militants in towns in the picturesque valley, which is about 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, as authorities scrambled to get food to thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting.

The government has said the offensive, launched this month as international alarm grew over an intensifying insurgency, is making progress and every effort would be made to help the more than 1 million people displaced by the conflict.

Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged over the past two years, raising doubts about its stability and alarming the United States, which needs Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.

Though Pakistani politicians and members of the public broadly back the offensive in the Taliban's Swat bastion, support will quickly evaporate if many civilians are killed or if the displaced languish in misery.
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Shades of Iraq, millions spent in Afghanistan lack adequate oversight
The inspector general finds too few watchdogs keeping an eye on how US reconstruction funds are spent.
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 
from the May 19, 2009 edition
Article Link

Washington - The person responsible for a $404 million reconstruction contract in Afghanistan sits nine time zones away in suburban Maryland and is unable to provide adequate oversight as to where all the money is going, according to a new government report. 

The audit suggests that the US is confronting the same kinds of problems in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq, where billions of dollars were unaccounted for during six years of reconstruction there, and has little plan yet to address the problems. 

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its first audit of reconstruction work in Afghanistan, focusing on a single, $404 million contract let by the American command responsible for training Afghan security forces. 

The auditors discovered the sole person overseeing the massive contract – just one of an untold number of contracts let under the training command – cannot provide the proper oversight because the individual is not in Afghanistan but instead works an Army contracting center in Maryland. 

Recognizing the problems inherent in overseeing such a massive contract far away from where the work was actually being done, the contracting officer hired a subordinate to work in-country. But that person has limited contracting experience and is not able to visit many of the actual work sites where the work is performed under the contract. 

"Because of other duties, this official does not have time to make field visits," according to the five-page report.

Meanwhile, two prominent senators say the US must significantly expand the size of the Afghan security forces, potentially expanding the scope of work under the $404 million contract. 

The US has spent more than $32 billion on reconstruction, stabilization, and development 
More on link

 Pentagon Has Video of Afghan Civilian Casualty Incident   
By Al Pessin Pentagon 19 May 2009 
Article Link

The Pentagon says it has video of the incident in Afghanistan's Farah Province two weeks ago, in which a U.S. air strike apparently killed some Afghan civilians.  But U.S. officials dispute the Afghan government claim that as many as 140 civilians were killed.  

At a news conference Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell acknowledged that the video exists, and is part of the continuing investigation, but he would not provide details. 

"We do have gun camera video that's being analyzed," said Geoff Morrell. "I'm not going to get into descriptions of it beyond what I have said here."

Pessin: "Were bombs put on houses that the Taliban had fled into?"

Morrell: "I'm not going to go beyond where I've gone at this point."
More on link

 US mil: Afghan contractors violated gun policy
By HEIDI VOGT – 1 day ago 
Article Link

KABUL (AP) — Four U.S. contractors for the company formerly known as Blackwater were not authorized to carry weapons when they were involved in a deadly shooting in Afghanistan this month, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The men — accused of opening fire on a vehicle in the capital on May 5 — have charged that their employer, now called Xe, issued them guns in breech of the company's contract with the military. One Afghan was killed in the shooting, and two others wounded.

Xe has said its employees are not generally banned from carrying weapons in Afghanistan, though the authorization depends on the duties of the contractors. It has not commented on the terms of this specific contract or said if it issued guns to the men.

But the military told The Associated Press that the contract did not allow the men to keep guns on them.

"By the terms of the contract, they were not authorized to carry weapons," said Lt. Col. Chris Kubik, a U.S. military spokesman. Kubik said the military had not given guns to the men, but said he did not know if the weapons were issued by Xe or privately owned.

Blackwater was involved in a 2007 shooting in a busy square in Baghdad that left as many as 17 Iraqi civilians dead and led to the end of its Baghdad operations this month.

The men were contracted to provide military training and as such "were authorized to handle weapons in the course of their duties," but were not allowed to have weapons with them at other times, Kubik said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (20 May 2009)

Canada resumes military training program with Pakistan: MacKay
CP, May 19
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090519/national/mackay_pakistan_5



> Canada will resume an officer-training program with Pakistan's military that has been suspended for more than a decade, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Tuesday.
> 
> Canada severed its military-to-military relations with Pakistan in 1998 when the South Asian country conducted its first nuclear tests. MacKay said the program may resume by fall.
> 
> ...



Canada eyes arms sales to Pakistan  
MacKay talks of lifting embargo on military gear as war on Taliban overshadows nuclear misdeeds
_Toronto Star_, May 20
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/636699



> Canada is considering ending its 11-year embargo on the sale of military technology to a nuclear-armed Pakistan, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.
> 
> The development comes as Pakistan's army prepares to take its fight against Taliban militants into the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (21 May 2009)

*Articles found May 21, 2009*

U.S. Pullout a Condition in Afghan Peace Talks  
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Leaders of the Taliban and other armed groups battling the Afghan government are talking to intermediaries about a potential peace agreement, with initial demands focused on a timetable for a withdrawal of American troops, according to Afghan leaders here and in Pakistan.

Talks have been held with representatives of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord. 
The talks, if not the withdrawal proposals, are being supported by the Afghan government. The Obama administration, which has publicly declared its desire to coax “moderate” Taliban fighters away from armed struggle, says it is not involved in the discussions and will not be until the Taliban agree to lay down their arms. But nor is it trying to stop the talks, and Afghan officials believe they have tacit support from the Americans.

The discussions have so far produced no agreements, since the insurgents appear to be insisting that any deal include an American promise to pull out — at the very time that the Obama administration is sending more combat troops to help reverse the deteriorating situation on the battlefield. Indeed, with 20,000 additional troops on the way, American commanders seem determined to inflict greater pain on the Taliban first, to push them into negotiations and extract better terms. And most of the initial demands are nonstarters for the Americans in any case.

Even so, the talks are significant because they suggest how a political settlement may be able to end the eight-year-old war, and how such negotiations may proceed. They also raise the prospect of potentially difficult decisions by President Hamid Karzai and President Obama, who may have to consider making deals with groups like the Taliban that are anathema to many Americans, and other leaders with brutal and bloody pasts. Some of the leaders in the current talks have been involved with Al Qaeda.  
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (22 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 22

Afghanistan: extended commitments
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, May 22
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1243008432

Gardening tips (links in original)
_Defence of the Realm_, May 21
http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/2009/05/gardening-tips.html



> Keeping us fully up-to-date with events, the MoD website is offering a piece on a "healing garden" winning a medal a Chelsea Flower Show.
> 
> If that is not to your taste, you can read how 2 Rifles' Sangin base gets a new healthcare centre. Then, hot news on the MoD Afghanistan blog is a heart warming story about how ISAF has provided "humanitarian aid to flood victims".
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (22 May 2009)

*Articles found May 22, 2009*

Female Air Force Academy graduate dies in Afghanistan
Article Link

 -- The U.S. Air Force Academy is mourning its first female graduate to be killed by enemy forces in Afghanistan or Iraq.


First Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, 25, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2006.

 First Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, 25, died Wednesday near Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack.

She was an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations officer assigned to the 613th Air and Space Operations Center, the Air Force said Friday in a news release.

Schulte was deployed to Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. She was traveling in a convoy to Bagram Airfield to participate in an intelligence sharing conference. 

"Losing Lt. Schulte has been a tragedy felt by everyone here and across the Air Force," said Col. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, 613th AOC commander. "Our deepest sympathies and prayers are with the family of this heroic airman."

Schulte's fellow airmen "will be forever proud of her," he added.

Schulte graduated from the academy in 2006. She is the 10th graduate to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the academy said.
More on link

 Photo of US soldier in pink boxers turns iconic
By DAVID BAUDER – 4 hours ago 
Article Link

NEW YORK (AP) — An Associated Press picture of a soldier in his pink boxers has become an iconic image of the war in Afghanistan, but at the moment it was taken, wardrobe was the last thing on the minds of the fighter and photographer.

"Like them, I was thinking about the situation — where was it safe and where was it safe to work," said David Guttenfelder, photographer for the AP, who was embedded with a U.S. Army unit in the Korengal Valley when a firefight broke out on May 11.

U.S. Army Specialist Zachary Boyd leapt from his sleeping quarters and grabbed his helmet, vest and rifle — but not his pants — and took his station behind sandbags.

Guttenfelder's photo made newspaper front pages the next day, including The New York Times and Boyd's hometown Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas. It elicited an immediate smile, but also symbolized the dedication of those fighting in Afghanistan. It put a human face, or backside, on what can seem an anonymous conflict.

At least initially, the soldiers were worried the photo would make them look bad, Guttenfelder said. But Firebase Restrepo, on a steep mountainside where soldiers are on constant lookout for Taliban fighters, isn't a place for formality: Uniforms have holes in them, and some men wear flea collars because of bugs in their beds, he said.

Boyd called his parents at 12:30 a.m., Fort Worth time, to warn them about the photo. He was legitimately worried about losing his job, said his mother, Sheree Boyd.
More on link

 AP Interview: Insurgents crossing into Pakistan
By FISNIK ABRASHI – 5 hours ago 
Article Link

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. general in eastern Afghanistan said Friday he saw "some very interesting movement" of insurgents across the border into Pakistan this spring, possibly to join Taliban militants battling government troops. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser's comments come amid concern in Washington and Islamabad that the buildup of 21,000 additional U.S. forces in Afghanistan may push Taliban militants into Pakistan, further destabilizing the border region in that country.

The Obama administration has declared eliminating militant havens in Pakistan vital to its goals of defeating al-Qaida and winning the war in Afghanistan.

Fighters have historically moved back and forth across the border to back Taliban insurgencies in both countries.

But Schloesser's remarks in an interview with The Associated Press suggested a larger transfer into Pakistan than has been seen previously, as the fighting between Pakistan's troops and the Taliban has intensified.

He suggested that most of the movement in the past has been from Pakistan into Afghanistan, calling the new development "an interesting movement backward."

He did not provide details or numbers of those heading toward Pakistan.
More on link

 NATO chopper makes emergency landing in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2009-05-22 19:42:21  
  Article Link

    KABUL, May 22 (Xinhua) -- One helicopter with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) made an emergency landing Friday in the riot southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, said a statement of the alliance. 

    The helicopter due to mechanical problems made a force landing in Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan province and ISAF has secured the scene, it said. 

    It noted that the landing was not caused by insurgent action as a recovery operation is currently underway, and the incident is being investigated
end

 US troop surge in Afghanistan 'could push Taliban into Pakistan'
Joint chiefs of staff chairman concedes risk but tells US Senate that troop increase is the right move
Matthew Weaver and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 May 2009 
Article Link

The buildup of US troops in Afghanistan could force more Taliban fighters into neighbouring Pakistan, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff conceded last night.

Admiral Mike Mullen told the US Senate's foreign relations committee: "We can't deny that our success may only push them [the Taliban] deeper into Pakistan."

Mullen said military planning was under way to overcome that risk. He said the increase of 21,000 US forces in Afghanistan was "about right" for the new strategy of trying to quell the insurgency and speed up training of Afghan security forces.

"Can I [be] 100% certain that won't destabilise Pakistan? I don't know the answer to that," Mullen told the committee.

He was responding to Senator Russ Feingold, a Democrat who said he was concerned the buildup might push militants into already troubled Pakistani regions and "end up further destabilising Pakistan without providing substantial, lasting" improvement in Afghanistan.

"I share your concern," Mullen said. "Your point about insurgents going particularly into Baluchistan, but particularly across that border ... we all share the concern for that," Mullen said.

"Where I'm comfortable is at least planning for it and having some expectation [that] will allow us to address that," Mullen said.

"Pakistan is further away from being totally destabilised than a lot of people realise."
More on link


 US Senate Approves Funding For Afghanistan, Iraq Wars   
By Deborah Tate Capitol Hill 22 May 2009
   Article Link

The U.S. Senate has approved a $91 billion package that will continue funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and provide assistance to Pakistan by a vote 86-3 late Thursday. The measure will have to be reconciled with a House-passed version before a final bill is sent to President Barack Obama for his signature. 

Most of the funds are to help pay for continued U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some $400 million are to go toward training Pakistan's counterinsurgency forces, while $500 million are to be spent on economic aid to Pakistan.

The bill also includes funding for peacekeeping operations in Somalia, security programs along the U.S.-Mexico border and for the global fight against AIDS.

Senator Inouye praises bill

The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, praised the bill.

"This is a good bill, and it is necessary to deal with a myriad of problems," he said.
More on link

Article Link

More on link


----------



## GAP (24 May 2009)

*Articles found May 24, 2009*

 Taliban attack district in NE Afghanistan    
www.chinaview.cn  2009-05-24 19:10:29     
  Article Link

    KABUL, May 24 (Xinhua)-- Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan government stormed a district in Takhar province northeast Afghanistan in the wee hours of Sunday, police said. 

    "It was around 1:00 a.m. this morning that Taliban rebels attacked Baharak district but police encountered forcing them to flee," provincial police chief Ziaudin Mahmoudi told Xinhua. 

    He also added that police inflicted casualties on Taliban insurgents but did not give exact figure. 

    Meantime, a Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid from unknown location told media that four police were killed in the firefight lasting for a while. 

    This is the first time that Taliban insurgents carried out attack against a district in the northern part of Afghanistan. 
More on link

 Pakistan hunts French tourist's kidnappers
1 hour ago
Article Link

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistani police hunted Sunday for a French tourist kidnapped in the country's restive southwest but an officer said they still did not know who was behind the abduction.

Gunmen on Saturday snatched the 41-year-old man from a group of French nationals travelling in Baluchistan province -- on the border with both Afghanistan and Iran.

He was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baluch separatist groups and Islamist fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Afghan frontier.

"We have sent different teams to locate the kidnappers and recover the French tourist," local police officer Meerullah, who goes by one name, told AFP from the town of Dal Bandin, near the site of the abduction.

"We don't know who the kidnappers are, what their motive is. We have not yet received any demand. We have really no idea about the kidnappers."

Meerullah said police, the paramilitary Frontier Corps and an anti-terrorism unit had been deployed to look for the Frenchman.

"We are quite hopeful the abductors will be traced and the hostage will be released," he added.
More on link

 'Record' Afghanistan drugs bust   
  Article Link

Opium trafficking provides the Taliban with much of its income 
International and Afghan troops have killed 60 militants and made a record drugs haul in an operation in southern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

Its statement said the four-day attack targeted the town of Marja in Helmand province - a Taliban stronghold. 

The troops seized 92 tonnes of opium poppy seeds and other drugs, "severely disrupting" a key narcotics centre and command hub of the insurgency. 

The US denied reports that civilians were killed during the operation. 

However, a spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry told the BBC that it was investigating the reports. 

Taliban militants have so far not commented on the US statement
More on link

 Slow start for ‘urgent' project  
Canada's reconstruction showpiece, the Dahla dam, remains in the preliminary stages
Article Link

Canada's “urgent” infrastructure project in Afghanistan is getting off to a slow start. Nearly one year after the $50-million Dahla dam reconstruction plan was announced by the Conservative government, only the preliminary groundwork has been done. 

“With all projects, there is always some change in the schedule,” project manager Ismail Najjar said in a telephone interview from Montreal yesterday. He said he hopes to adhere to Ottawa's schedule, but the job will be a challenge. 

“Security? We can't do much about it,” he said. “It is what it is.” 

Canadian Forces engineers have lately been trying to smooth the project's progress with road work, since getting contractors safely to and from the site will be a job in itself. 

A lake-sized reservoir hemmed in by a decrepit 60-year-old dam sustains Afghanistan's Arghandab valley. The river water flows 35 kilometres from the Dahla dam toward Kandahar city, feeding a maze of irrigation canals along the way. 
More on link


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## Yrys (24 May 2009)

Article found May 24, 2009

Hunting for Afghan emeralds in the Panjshir valley, Sunday, 24 May 2009 00:52 UK

Dynamite sticks and gem stones






_Hundreds work in the gloom, enduring poor air quality_


It all felt a bit ominous. With a rucksack packed with five litres of water I was struggling 
my way up the Hindu Kush mountain range, thousands of feet above sea-level. Behind me 
was a man carrying a yellow sack - a yellow sack packed with explosives, that is. And 
then on the way up the narrow path, I spotted three or four green Islamic flags marking 
a gravestone.

What happened there, I wondered. Well, it seemed that someone had been taking a rest - 
his last as it turned out - when he was struck by a rock fall. But the reason for all the 
pain and high-altitude panting was simple: we were heading to the emerald mines.

*Flying stones*

The journey had started three hours earlier in the village of Kheng. It was the kind of 
place that seemed strange even by Afghan standards. Most of the shops were a neat-
row of shipping containers. And almost everyone seemed to have slips of white paper 
they would unwrap for you to reveal emeralds.

The stones weren't dazzling; in fact, they looked like dull shards of glass. They only 
shine after they are cut and polished. But for the few hundred villagers of Kheng - it 
meant money - and lots of it.

The source of that wealth, the mines, was above the snowline.

At first, there wasn't a lot to look at - apart from flying stones that hurtled their way 
down the slopes. But once you had caught your breath, and looked closer, you saw it 
for what it was: a frontier post perched high on a mountain. Parts of the mountain 
were like Swiss cheese - burrowed with mineshafts.

About 300 men worked up here - living in caves, or, if they were lucky, in mud houses. 
Some stayed up here for weeks on end. They worked in teams - miners, diggers, 
explosive experts, cooks, and suppliers. They shared the profits of any emeralds that 
were found.

*'Need luck'*

You could buy in as part of a syndicate - and provide, say, a donkey-load of rice which 
would guarantee you a share. But you needed luck in this place if you wanted to get rich.

Mohammed, the manager of one of the mines, told me that he had seen people work for 
10 years and find absolutely nothing. And then he had seen people mining for two weeks 
walking away with a haul of the precious stones. More worryingly, Mohammed told me that 
30 miners had been killed or seriously injured by explosions or fumes in the mineshafts in 
the past 10 years.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn't a great deal of science or safety considerations when it came 
to mining here. At the entrance to one of the operational mines, four miners, looking like 
sooty moles, appeared to be enjoying the daylight after hours of darkness.

Armed only with a torch, I walked into their gloom. I was forced to scramble up steep inclines. 
The air quality got worse and worse the further I went. It felt like walking into a smoker's lung.
After walking for a few minutes, the noise of a drill started echoing through the rough-cut tunnel.
There were two young men. They packed the drilled hole with explosives scooped out of a plastic 
bag. And then fitted it with a charge.

*Hasty turn*

I didn't fancy hanging about to see the explosion going off.

So I made the hastiest turn of my life and half-stumbled down the mineshaft, trying to mind my 
head and trying not to drop my torch. I then shouted at Mahfouz - the BBC's ever-patient producer - 
that we needed to stick together - it's very dangerous! We can't be messing about at times like this. 
A few seconds later he arrived - face puffing - and calmly said: "Martin you're going the wrong way."

When the explosions went off - I wasn't actually out of the mine. Instead, I was at a so-called "safe" 
distance. I didn't really hear very much - it was so loud - I just felt a rush of dust passing over my 
face and then my ears popped. After the dust and my nerves started to settle, I asked one of the 
miners how he felt when he saw an emerald. He told me that he forgot the hardship and fatigue of 
a year's work.

He then motioned to go back up the shaft to see whether the explosion had hit a seam of emeralds.
But I decided not to take him up on the offer.

To be perfectly honest, I'd had enough for one day - emeralds or no emeralds.


----------



## MarkOttawa (26 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 26

Gates Says Taliban Have Momentum in Afghanistan 
_Wall St. Journal_, May 26
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329472631452687.html



> American public support for the Afghan war will dissipate in less than a year unless the Obama administration achieves "a perceptible shift in momentum," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview.
> 
> Mr. Gates said the momentum in Afghanistan is with the Taliban, who are inflicting heavy U.S. casualties and hold de facto control of swaths of the country.
> 
> ...



Stalemate
A single company of U.S. Marines is slugging it out with the Taliban in Afghanistan’s toughest ghost town. The battle shows how limited troop numbers have hurt the war—and why the U.S. is changing its strategy.
_Wall St. Journal_, May 23
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574179672963946120.html



> _NOW ZAD, Afghanistan_
> 
> In a war over hearts and minds, Now Zad has neither.
> 
> ...



Pakistani Refugee Crisis Poses Peril
Amid Army Offensive, Extremists Are Filling Needs That the Government Can't
_Washington Post_, May 25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/05/24/ST2009052403007.html?sid=ST2009052403007



> MARDAN, Pakistan -- Bacha Zab, a 32-year-old fruit salesman, dodged army shelling and Taliban sniper fire to escape his native Swat Valley. But when he reached the safety of a government-run refugee camp in this northwestern Pakistani city, he was told there was no more room.
> 
> Instead, for the past 16 days, Zab, his wife and their four children have been in the care of a private Islamic charity with close ties to a banned militant organization. "We are asking for help from the government, but they won't give it," Zab said. "In the government camps, there are only problems."
> 
> ...



Pakistan's Struggle for Modernity
The country's voters have never endorsed religious extremism.
_Wall St. Journal_, May 26
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329222810852389.html



> The drama of the Swat Valley -- its cynical abandonment to the mercy of the Taliban, the terror unleashed on it by the militants, then the recognition that the concession to the forces of darkness had not worked -- is of a piece with the larger history of religious extremism in the world of Islam. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was the latest in a long line of secularists who cut deals with the zealots, only to discover that for the believers in political Islam these deals are at best a breathing spell before the fight for their utopia is taken up again.
> 
> The decision by Pakistan to retrieve the ground it had ceded to the Taliban was long overdue. We should not underestimate the strength of the Pakistani state, and of the consensus that underpins it. The army is a huge institution, and its mandate is like that of the Turkish army, which sees itself as a defender of secular politics.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (26 May 2009)

*Articles found May 26, 2009*

 Stalemate  
A single company of U.S. Marines is slugging it out with the Taliban in Afghanistan’s toughest ghost town. The battle shows how limited troop numbers have hurt the war—and why the U.S. is changing its strategy.
Article Link

By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS 
NOW ZAD, Afghanistan 

In a war over hearts and minds, Now Zad has neither.

Abandoned by its residents, this mud-brick ghost town is a corner of Afghanistan that might be forever Flanders. There are no schools being painted, no roads paved, no clinics built. There is no Afghan army, no Afghan government at all. In Now Zad, there is just one company of U.S. Marines slugging it out across no man’s land with equally determined militants. From their entrenched lines, neither side is strong enough to prevail.

On patrol this month, Sgt. Tucker Strom, a 26-year-old squad leader from Tallahassee, Fla., lifted his head just high enough above a mud wall to glimpse the Taliban front line across 500 yards of neglected pomegranate orchards. “They’re right there,” Sgt. Strom told a newly arrived Marine. “This is what it turns into—us watching them, them watching us.”
More on link

 More drones needed for `dull, dirty and dangerous' missions: military.
 By Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News ServiceMay 25, 2009
   Article Link

OTTAWA - The Canadian military plans to acquire a ``family'' of aerial drones over the next decade to complete ``dull, dirty and dangerous'' missions against a range of threats at home and abroad, including terrorism and failed or failing states, newly released documents show.

In the near term, the military remains focused on deploying unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly known as drones, to provide surveillance support for Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Senior commanders also foresee a growing role for drones in Canada, especially along the country's coastlines and in the Arctic.

``UAVs offer persistent surveillance capabilities without putting personnel in harm's way and are well suited for `dull, dirty and dangerous' missions,'' states the ``UAV campaign plan,'' which lays out the Canadian Forces' strategy for employing drones over the next decade.

``In the future, UAVs will be growing in number, sophistication, and significance and will figure predominantly in defence planning. The CF must be in a position to exploit new UAV capabilities when it is in its interest to do so.''

According to the plan, obtained by Canwest News Service under the Access to Information Act, military planners see the increasing use of drones as an important part of a long-term strategy to transform the Canadian Forces into a ``more relevant, responsive, and effective military force.''

Drones will replace manned aircraft in ``selected activities, thereby achieving safer and more cost-effective realization of effective missions,'' states the plan, which was completed in March 2007. The plan was to be reviewed annually but, in response to a request for more information, the Defence Department's media branch said it needed more time.

The plan says the military will require the capability to deploy and sustain ``a force anywhere in Canada or in the world''.
More on link

 One in 7 who leave Guantanamo involved in terrorism
Tue May 26, 2009 
Article Link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-four, or one out of every seven, terrorism suspects formerly held at the U.S. detention site at Guantanamo Bay are confirmed or suspected of having returned to terrorism, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Of more than 530 detainees transferred from the U.S. base in Cuba, 27 are confirmed and 47 suspected of "reengaging in terrorist activity," according to a written Pentagon summary.

The total of 74 has more than doubled since May 2007, when the Pentagon said about 30 had gone back to terrorist activity, and increased slightly since January, when the figure stood at 61.

The Pentagon offered no specific reason for the increase.

"I don't know that I could put any one particular reason to it," spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The figures were released amid intense debate in Washington over the prison opened by the Bush administration, which has been strongly criticized by many nations, including U.S. allies, and rights groups.

Human rights groups have voiced skepticism about previous Defense Department statements on former Guantanamo detainees taking part in terrorism. Some have suggested they are intended to stoke fear among Americans about its closing.

In one of his first acts after taking office in January, President Barack Obama ordered the Guantanamo detention center shut within a year.

Administration officials have said harsh treatment of detainees there and the detention of suspects for years without trial have tarnished America's image and acted as a recruitment tool for terrorists.
More on link

 3 Americans and a Civilian Die in Afghanistan Attack  
By ADAM B. ELLICK and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA Published: May 26, 2009 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomber plowed into a NATO convoy on a main road north of Kabul on Tuesday morning, killing three American soldiers and three Afghan civilians, according to Afghan and American military officials.

Separately, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission released its assessment of an American aerial attack in the western province of Farah on May 4, saying American forces demonstrated “a disproportionate use of force” that may have killed up to 97 civilians, most of them children. 

That number is lower than the Afghan government’s figure of 140 civilians killed, but higher than the American military assessment of 20 to 30 civilian deaths in an attack it said targeted Taliban fighters. 

The rising number of civilian causalities has increasingly alienated the Afghan population from the international security forces, and has incited harsh criticism from Afghan leaders, especially President Hamid Karzai.

The attack on the NATO convoy on Tuesday was in Kapisa Province, a relatively peaceful area of strategic importance near the Bagram Air Base. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants are known to use several districts in Kapisa to plan attacks in Kabul, the capital. However, the Sayad district, where the attack occurred, rarely sees such violence.
More on link


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## GAP (28 May 2009)

*Articles found May 28, 2009*

 Shades of Iraq, millions spent in Afghanistan lack adequate oversight
Posted: May 21, 2009 11:32 AM CDT 
Article Link

Washington -- The person responsible for a $404 million reconstruction contract in Afghanistan sits nine time zones away in suburban Maryland and is unable to provide adequate oversight as to where all the money is going, according to a new government report. 

The audit suggests that the US is confronting the same kinds of problems in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq, where billions of dollars were unaccounted for during six years of reconstruction there, and has little plan yet to address the problems. 

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its first audit of reconstruction work in Afghanistan, focusing on a single, $404 million contract let by the American command responsible for training Afghan security forces. 

The auditors discovered the sole person overseeing the massive contract -- just one of an untold number of contracts let under the training command -- cannot provide the proper oversight because the individual is not in Afghanistan but instead works an Army contracting center in Maryland
More on link

 29 Militants Killed in Afghanistan  
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — American and Afghan forces backed by airstrikes engaged in a “fierce firefight” with Taliban insurgents in a remote and mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 29 militants in an effort to capture one of their leaders, according to a joint military statement.

American military officials said the leader in question, known as Mullah Sangeen, is a “fairly significant” commander of the Haqqani network, a radical group headed by Taliban commander Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani that is believed to be behind some of the largest attacks in recent years. Unconfirmed reports surfaced in 2007 and in 2008 that Mullah Sangeen was killed, but both proved untrue.

The battle was part of a widening effort by the Obama administration to crush Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The intensifying conflict has led to Afghan claims that civilian casualties caused by American airstrikes are undermining public support for the war. 

The joint statement on Thursday insisted that “no noncombatants were injured during this operation” and said that the 29 dead were all militants. They included six insurgents who blew themselves up with suicide vests without causing coalition fatalities, the statement said.
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 A question of protection in Afghanistan  
Envoy says safety of Canadian reconstruction workers up to private security, U.S. military after Canada's soldiers leave in 2011
COLIN FREEZE KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — From Thursday's Globe and Mail, Thursday, May. 28, 2009 03:50AM 
Article Link

U.S. soldiers and private contractors are expected to provide security for Canadian development teams in Afghanistan after Canadian troops pull out, according to Ottawa's top envoy to Afghanistan.

"We know Canada will be in this country well beyond 2011," Ambassador Ron Hoffmann told reporters in a briefing yesterday. Soldiers or no soldiers, he said, a "robust" civilian contingent will remain on the ground.

Parliament has yet to provide any guidance on the Canadian mission beyond the military pullout scheduled two years hence. This has left diplomats struggling to figure out how to keep delivering aid amid an insurgency that's growing more dangerous.

Hundreds of Canadian Forces soldiers now guard dozens of Canadian government officials attached to Kandahar's Provincial Reconstruction Team. When these civilians venture outside protected bases, they usually do so in heavily armoured vehicles and escorted by soldiers carrying assault rifles.

It is unclear how many Canadian soldiers, if any, could legally remain in Afghanistan to keep providing this protection after 2011.

Ottawa has promised to make its mark on Afghanistan with aid projects - by training Afghan security forces, building schools and rebuilding infrastructure - but some of these programs may not be completed before the military pullout.
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 Lewis MacKenzie
We can't answer the battle cry  
Our infantry ranks are so diminished that Canada's combat role in Afghanistan has to end
Article Link

There has been much speculation in the Canadian news media that U.S. President Barack Obama will put pressure on NATO members to increase their troop contributions to the war in Afghanistan.

This should come as no surprise, as the United States provides more combat power to the 42-nation International Security Assistance Force than all the other countries combined and is in the process of adding 21,000 troops, with a further 10,000 earmarked for future deployment.

This United Nations-sanctioned mission has exposed a serious lack of commitment within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and by default the United States has been forced, as usual, to boost its participation to compensate for European complacency. Sound familiar?

The speculation regarding Mr. Obama's call for more international support for the Afghan mission has once again raised the issue of the Canadian parliamentary deadline dictating that we withdraw from our combat role in 2011. Some say it will be difficult, if not impossible, to say no to this clarion call for help from our next-door neighbour and “closest friend” and, like it or not, the pressure to maintain our battle group in the theatre beyond 2011 will be overwhelming.

For those unfamiliar with army terminology, a battle group, as organized for the Afghan mission, is about 1,200 strong and home to a large infantry component supported by tanks, armoured reconnaissance, artillery, combat engineers and signals and logistics support personnel. Although the other approximately 1,600 personnel making up the Canadian military footprint in Afghanistan are at risk and have suffered fatalities while on convoy duty, mentoring Afghan forces or commanding and controlling military operations, it is the battle group that fills the “combat role” and is scheduled to withdraw in 2011. With its departure, many of the military support personnel inside the wire could also be withdrawn.

What should be front and centre in any debate regarding Canada's ability to continue its combat role in Afghanistan beyond 2011 is the regrettable fact that it would be impossible for us to do so properly if the order were given.
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## MarkOttawa (28 May 2009)

Exploding bombs and renewing forces
Confernce of Defence Associations' media round-up, May 28
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1243522258

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (29 May 2009)

*Articles found May 29, 2009*

 Lessons put into practice here  
Fri, May 29, 2009 AFGHANISTAN By JOHN MINER 
Article Link

Canadian physicians operating on the war-wounded in Afghanistan have learned lessons that will allow them to do a better job back home, says a London surgeon who has served two tours. 

"We don't see too many gunshot wounds here in London but we are seeing more and more. We've learned how to deal with complex injuries from bullets and other what we call penetrating injuries," said Vivian McAlister, a general surgeon at London Health Sciences Centre and professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. 

McAlister, who worked at the Canadian-run hospital in Kandahar, is setting up a course in catastrophic surgery that will be offered at the Canadian Surgery Forum in Victoria. B.C., in September. 

One of the lessons from treating combat wounds is to not try to do everything at once. 

"What we discovered is it is better to do stop-gap measures to keep them alive, then send them to ICU, fix them up in ICU, and then bring them back to the operating room to do some of those things that are not completely finished," said McAlister. 
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 BAE's Lightweight Howitzer Wins $118M in Further Orders
By tim mahon Published: 28 May 2009 17:56  
Article Link

The U.S. Army, Marine Corps and Canadian Forces have ordered additional BAE Systems M777 155mm lightweight howitzers, taking the company's order book for the type to 800 guns, BAE announced May 28. 

The three orders' total value is about $118 million, and the program is now worth in excess of $1.6 billion to the company. The United States is buying 38 more weapons, while Canada is ordering another 25 to add to the 12 already in service.

U.S. and Canadian forces both operate the type in Afghanistan, where its ability to be transported by tactical helicopter makes it particularly useful in the difficult terrain faced by coalition forces.

M777s are manufactured in BAE's Global Combat Systems plant at Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom, and final integration and testing takes place at the company's Hattiesburg, Miss., facility.

The weapon can fire the M982 Excalibur smart munition, jointly developed by Raytheon Missile Systems and BAE, to a range of up to 40 kilometers with a high degree of accuracy.

The circular error probability requirement is for less than 10 meters, and "the system has consistently demonstrated an ability to meet and exceed that requirement," said James Shields, program manager for the weapon at Picatinny Arsenal, speaking on the occasion of the delivery of the 500th M777 to U.S. forces in April.

Even firing conventional ammunition, however, the M777's accuracy has met and exceeded expectations. Feedback from U.S. forces employing the weapon during operations in Afghanistan has revealed "shifts of only 50-60 meters after the first round - and that's just awesome," according to Col. James Matthies, TRADOC capabilities manager at Fort Sill, Okla.
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 Editor embedded with the Canadian Forces
   Melissa VaseyMelissa Vasey - Editor-in-Chief From the May 27 Updated: Today at 11:23 AM
Article Link

An explosion blasts in the distance. Several more blasts detonate, and then four insurgent men sprint back to our base camp. 

Lt. Ian Nash stands beside me and practically buzzes with excitement as he informs me that the tanks perched on the hill can see my face clear as day, and they’ve got a problem: I’m a civilian.

On that day, I was one of nine other student journalists embedded with the Canadian Armed Forces, participating in a military training exercise at CFB Suffield. The exercise is just one step in the lengthy preparation process for the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, who are scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan in September.

My peers and I are here on scholarship but instead of the stereotypical pomp and circumstance, we’ve been thrown into intense academic training and non-stop networking.

The night before, we sat with Reserve soldiers in their officer’s mess, discussing the personal realities of war in Afghanistan. (Too-soon wedding proposals to girlfriends back home are one common phenomenon.) As the night went on and the beer bottles emptied, one thing became apparent: every soldier there was aching to go back.
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 Two British soldiers die after separate attacks in Afghanistan  
Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 May 2009 22.45 BST 
Article Link

Two British servicemen died within hours of each other after being wounded in separate incidents in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today. A Royal Marine, seriously injured when an explosion hit his Viking armoured vehicle last week, died in Selly Oak hospital, Birmingham, on Wednesday. A soldier from 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment was killed today. Neither was named. The deaths take the number of British service personnel who have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001 to 163. Ten have died this month.
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## MarkOttawa (30 May 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 30

SAS take on Taleban in Afghanistan after defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq
_The Times_, May 30
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6391239.ece



> The British Army’s SAS Regiment, which played a vital role in defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq, is now arriving in Afghanistan in one of the biggest deployments of UK special forces since the Second World War.
> 
> Two squadrons from 22 SAS are being sent to Afghanistan now that Britain’s combat role in Iraq has been wound up, to carry out clandestine operations against the Taleban.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (30 May 2009)

Pakistan Says It Has Reclaimed Key City From Taliban
_Washington Post_, May 30 (maps)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053001090.html?wprss=rss_world



> The Pakistani military announced Saturday that it had retaken from the Taliban the largest city in the Swat Valley, although a significant number of insurgents are believed to have retreated into the nearby hills.
> 
> The army's victory comes nearly a month after it launched a massive offensive aimed at reclaiming Swat from Taliban fighters who had commandeered the picturesque region and enforced their rigid brand of Islamic law. The army started the operation under heavy pressure from the U.S. government, and the Obama administration has been closely watching its progress for signs that Pakistan is serious about its commitment to battle rising militancy here.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## Yrys (1 Jun 2009)

Articles found May 31, 2009

U.S. and Taliban to Redouble Afghan Efforts

KABUL, Afghanistan — A spike in violence in recent weeks may be only a harbinger of the war to come 
as both the Taliban and American military officials vowed Sunday to intensify their efforts before the 
presidential elections in August. With the official start of the campaign season just two weeks away, both 
sides see the election as crucial to the country’s future. The election is “the most important governance 
event of the year, and perhaps in years to come,” Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the NATO spokesman, 
said Sunday.

The American-led military coalition is determined to ensure the election proceeds as safely and 
democratically as possible, while the Taliban are equally committed to sabotaging it. Afghan and NATO 
forces have doubled the number of military operations in the past 10 days compared with this time last year,
part of a new campaign to win over Taliban-controlled areas in the south before the elections.

About 3,500 American troops have recently been deployed to rural parts of Kandahar Province, and 10,000 
Marines are expected to assume posts in rural Helmand Province over the next six weeks. The Afghan 
National Army will contribute an additional 5,000 troops in the south.
...



Afghan Valley Offers Test for Obama Strategy

JALREZ BAZAAR, Afghanistan — A year ago, the Taliban were tormenting this lush valley just miles from 
the Afghan capital, kidnapping people and blocking the road. All that changed when American troops arrived
in February. They dropped from helicopters and set up three camps where there had been none, expecting 
a fight. Instead, the Taliban put up almost no resistance and left for other areas. Now trucks travel freely 
and merchants no longer fear for their lives.

“Compared with last year, it’s 100 percent different,” said Muhamed Zaker, an apple farmer from the area.

The Jalrez Valley is a test case, the first area in Afghanistan where President Obama’s strategy of increasing 
troop levels has been applied, and it is a promising early indicator. But in Afghanistan, a complex patchwork 
of tribes, ethnicities and rivalries, it remains unclear whether the early success in this area can be replicated.
 In the painstaking business of counterinsurgency, security requires more than just extra troops. It means 
giving Afghans reasons to reject the insurgents by providing the basic trappings of a state — an effective 
police force, enough government services, and economic opportunity so they can work rather than fight.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said the troops here have about a year to show they can turn around
the momentum of the war, before Afghan and American patience runs out. But Afghanistan is a country where
only a third of the population can read and even the most rudimentary infrastructure is lacking, and 
commanders on the ground say rushing the process would be a mistake.

“It’s construction, not reconstruction,” one American officer said, comparing the task with that in Iraq, where 
the American effort was referred to as reconstruction. 
...


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## MarkOttawa (1 Jun 2009)

Extra U.S. troops in Afghanistan by mid-July
Reuters, May 31
http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSISL412184



> The majority of the 17,000 extra U.S. troops being sent to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency in southern and western Afghanistan should be on the ground by mid-July, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
> 
> A further 4,000 troops are arriving to train Afghan security forces and they will be deployed by August.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (15 Jun 2009)

*Articles found June 15, 2009*

 Afghan economy should not be tied to foreign troops  
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. Jun 15 - 4:46 AM 
Article Link 

LAST WEEK, we had news of yet another Canadian soldier killed in Kandahar, and once again the military authorities announced that Pte. Alexandre Péloquin of the Royal 22nd Regiment had not died in vain.

Like the 118 who fell before him, Canadians were assured that Péloquin believed in the mission and that the international community is making a difference in Afghanistan.

The growing death count is admittedly discouraging; therefore people are anxious to hear something positive about our efforts to rebuild this failed state.

While few in number, there is a small group of Canadians working with non-governmental organizations on initiatives to improve life for the average Afghan. 

At least one of these projects was founded on the premise that the 50,000-plus international troops deployed into Afghanistan are a cash-rich and extremely consumptive market. 

The NGOs’ goal is to establish Afghan farmers and merchants as the primary source of supply to the NATO forces. Their rationale is that these foreign soldiers are spending a huge amount of money to import food and beverages that, over the course of time and with minimal investment, could be produced locally at a fraction of the cost.

On the surface, this plan is astonishingly brilliant. Afghans can sell their wares and foodstuff at far higher than Kabul market prices, and the international troops could save a fortune in their current deployment costs. 

However, before we hand out the Order of Canada to the architects of this scheme, let’s ask the obvious question: And then what?

Developing an Afghan industry whose primary clientele is international security forces is akin to sewing one’s head to a carpet. Making ambitious Afghan merchants’ livelihood dependant upon the continued presence of our wealthy armies will only ensure that an insecure environment persists in perpetuity.
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 Canadian International Development Agency - CIDA
Jun 14, 2009 16:11 ET
Article Link

Minister Steven Fletcher Opens Afghanistan Exhibit at the Red River Exhibition
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA--(Marketwire - June 14, 2009) - Today, Minister of Democratic Reform and Member of Parliament for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia, Steven Fletcher, officially opened Afghanistan360, the Government of Canada's new multimedia exhibit on Canada's combined total civilian and military work in Afghanistan, currently on display at the Red River Exhibition-the first public stop in its cross Canada tour. In the company of civilians and Canadian Forces soldiers who have served in Afghanistan, Minister Fletcher toured the exhibit, which also features the ability to record short video messages to currently serving civilians and soldiers.

"Our government made a commitment to communicate more frequently on Afghanistan. This exhibit, which is traveling across Canada, shows the courageous work being done by our civilians and soldiers in Afghanistan," said Minister Steven Fletcher. "All Canadians can take pride in the work their fellow citizens are doing to make a difference in the lives of Afghans. I invite all Manitobans to come out to the Red River Exhibition to visit the Afghanistan360 exhibit," continued Minister Fletcher.

The exhibit offers Canadians the opportunity to learn about progress in the six focused areas in which Canada is providing assistance in Afghanistan: training Afghan National Security Forces, assisting the Government of Afghanistan in providing basic services to its population, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance, enhancing border security, facilitating political reconciliation, and helping the Afghan government to increase the capacity for democratic governance and national institutions.

The exhibit also showcases Canada's three signature projects in Afghanistan-the rehabilitation of the second largest source of water for agricultural irrigation, the Dahla Dam, the rebuilding or construction of 50 schools in key districts of Kandahar province, and our effort, along with international health partners and other donor countries to work to eradicate polio from Afghanistan.
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 New US commander takes charge in Afghanistan
Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:04am EDT
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, a veteran commander of top-secret special operations, takes charge of the nearly 90,000 U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan Monday. Here are some facts about the new commander.

WHAT IS MCCHRYSTAL'S BACKGROUND?

McChrystal has spent most of the past six years commanding JSOC, the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command, the most elite and secretive branch of its special forces, consisting of Army Delta Force and Navy Seal units tasked with hunting down "high value targets" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His men are believed to have helped capture fugitive Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, kill both of Saddam's sons and kill Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Nevertheless, he says he understands the limits of targeted killings in fighting an insurgency.

"Since 9/11, I have watched as America tried to first put out this fire with a hammer, and it doesn't work," he told the Wall Street Journal this month. "Decapitation strategies don't work."

Asked if his background would make it difficult for him to run a culturally sensitive counter insurgency campaign, he told the Journal: "I don't think so, but it's a fair question."

WHAT FORCE WILL HE COMMAND?

McChrystal arrives midway through a massive build-up that will see the number of U.S. troops more than double from 32,000 at the end of 2008 to an anticipated 68,000 by the end of this year. He also commands about 30,000 troops from other NATO countries under the International Security Assistance Force

(ISAF).
More on link


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