# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2009



## GAP (1 Dec 2009)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2009 *               

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


----------



## MarkOttawa (1 Dec 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND DEC. 1

Afghanistan: additional troops
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1259679584
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Dec. 1

Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (2 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 2, 2009*

Supreme Court Overturns Decision on Detainee Photos
By ADAM LIPTAK  December 1, 2009
Article Link

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court ruling that would have required the government to release photographs showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision was three sentences long and unsigned, and it followed the enactment of a law in October allowing the secretary of defense to block the pictures’ release. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, for further consideration in light of the new law.

The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, which makes disclosure of information in the hands of the executive branch mandatory unless an exemption applies. The Second Circuit ordered the photos released last year, and the Justice Department initially recommended against an appeal to the Supreme Court.

But President Obama overruled his lawyers, saying his national security advisers had persuaded him that releasing the photos would inflame anti-American sentiment abroad and endanger American troops. Some of the pictures, according to a government brief, 
showed “soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees,” a soldier who appears to be striking a detainee with the butt of a rifle, and a soldier holding a broom “as if sticking its end” into a prisoner’s rectum.
More on link

 The home comforts of the US's war in Afghanistan
By Josh Rushing  November 30th, 2009
Article Link

Barack Obama, the US president, will this week announce a new strategy for Afghanistan that is expected to involve more troops and a greater effort to turn responsibility over to Afghans. This, of course, should sound familiar to anyone who has followed the war in Afghanistan. Just last summer, Obama sent thousands of US Marines into Helmand province to provide security for the impending national elections. I embedded with those Marines. 

Embedding clearly has its challenges. I have done it a number of times, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. You only see what the military allows you to see and if things get difficult - and they usually do - you depend on those you are covering to provide for your safety and well-being. That dynamic creates something similar to the Stockholm syndrome. In other words, it may be hard to report critically on the guys that may have to save your life and who are providing you food and water.

And yet, I still believe embedding is worthwhile. Without embedding one part of the story would not be told, it is as simple as that. Living up to Al Jazeera’s brand of "Every angle, every side" would be impossible without showing the perspective of the troops, conquerors, defenders or occupiers, whatever one chooses to call them.
More on link

 New strategy alters Canada's area of responsibility
Article Link
PATRICK WHITE

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Dec. 02, 2009 12:00AM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Dec. 02, 2009 2:39AM EST

Canadian military commanders are taking control of a restive district northwest of Kandahar as NATO tinkers with the country's area of responsibility in Afghanistan.

A U.S. battalion under Canadian command will arrive in the region within three weeks, according to U.S. Brigadier-General Frederick Hodges, director of operations for ISAF's southern command.

The move comes as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to send several thousand U.S. troops to secure the outskirts of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city and the focal point of an area that has come under increasing Taliban control since Canadian Forces took responsibility in 2006.

Canadian Forces were in charge of Arghandab until July, when responsibility was handed to an American Stryker battalion.

"The Canadians were just stretched too far up there," Gen. Hodges said.
More on link

 Australia in Afghanistan for long haul: Rudd
* France, Poland likely to increase troops
Article Link

WASHINGTON: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged Monday to send more police trainers and civilian aid experts to Afghanistan, saying his country was in it “for the long haul.”

But Rudd, who met in Washington with US President Barack Obama on the eve of his roll-out of a revamped Afghanistan strategy, did not offer more troops beyond 1,550 Australia has already committed. He said Obama “fully accepts” that Australia has already boosted its troop levels in Afghanistan by 40 percent, making it among the top ten contributors of forces to the war.

But he told reporters that his discussions with General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, persuaded him that more had to be done to boost the civilian and police efforts there. “We have to lift our collective game on the training of police. It is a core part of the overall security equation,” he said. Rudd said the additional police trainers would go to Oruzgan province and to the national police headquarters in Kabul. He would not put a number on the increase, saying, “We’re working through that at the moment.”
More on link

 France may boost training in Afghanistan-paper
Tue Dec 1, 2009
Article Link

PARIS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - France is considering sending more men to Afghanistan, possibly to train Afghan security forces, in response to a request from U.S. President Barack Obama, the newspaper Le Monde said on Tuesday.

Obama is expected to announce later on Tuesday that he will send about 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and Pentagon officials hope other NATO members will supplement the surge with up to 10,000 more troops. [ID:nN30459822]

"We are not saying no to Obama," Le Monde quoted a source close to French President Nicolas Sarkozy as saying. It said Obama would ask France for 1,500 more soldiers.

Le Monde said France was not considering sending more combat troops as it estimated that it had enough men in the areas where it is in charge. But it could make other contributions as a gesture of support.
More on link

 Pakistan Says Drone Attacks Spoil Efforts to Isolate Militants
By Anwar Shakir and Paul Tighe
Article Link

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. drone attacks are ruining Pakistan’s efforts to isolate militants sheltering with tribes in the border region with Afghanistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

“Our top government and military people are very successful in driving wedges between the militants and the local tribes,” Gilani said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan. “But after every drone attack they close ranks again.”

Pakistan says the attacks targeting terrorist leaders have killed civilians, making it harder to win the support of the tribes for the fight against terrorism. The government has called on the U.S. to provide technology so it is able to use remote-controlled aircraft against militant bases.

Pakistan’s army is engaged in its biggest offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the South Waziristan tribal region. The operation has provoked retaliatory attacks and suicide bombings that have killed more than 300 people since mid-October in towns and cities, including the capital, Islamabad. 
More on link


----------



## GAP (3 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 3, 2009*

 Marines to be First in Afghan Surge
December 01, 2009
Article Link

President Obama's Afghan surge of 30,000 additional U.S. troops will include an immediate infusion of California-based Marines, with the first elements set to be on the ground in southern Afghanistan around Christmas.

The Leathernecks will bolster a force of about 8,000 Marines who deployed to the region in July to knock back Taliban gains in Helmand and Kandahar provinces where insurgents linked to Mullah Mohammed Omar threaten Afghanistan's second largest city.

"The first troops out of the door are going to be Marines," said Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway, according to the Washington Post. "We've been leaning forward in anticipation of a decision. And we've got some pretty stiff fighting coming."

Sources also tell Military.com that the Army will likely send three additional Infantry Brigade Combat Teams, or about 9,000 more combat forces and 5,000 support troops -- including police and military trainers, bomb squads and engineers -- as well as around 7,000 headquarters staffers to manage the war more effectively.
More on link

 Canadian troops to form 'ring of stability' 
Article Link
Patrick White Kandahar, Afghanistan — Globe and Mail  Wednesday, Dec. 02, 2009 9:24AM EST 

Over the coming months, hundreds of Canadian soldiers will start bedding down in Taliban-infested towns and breaking bread with Afghan soldiers on the outskirts of Kandahar city as the troops implement the counterinsurgency tactics of NATO's commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal.

In fact, Canadian troops have been employing their own counterinsurgency tactics for some time. But the effort will accelerate as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shrinks Canada's theatre of operations to focus on securing Kandahar city, and U.S. troops flood the country under the surge announced by U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

With U.S. battalions making up the northern rim, Canadian troops will deploy south of Kandahar to create a “ring of stability” around the city, said Brigadier-General Daniel Ménard, the Canadian commander in Afghanistan. It is a change in strategy that will see the troops shift their attention from the countryside to suburban areas of Kandahar and nearby towns controlled by the insurgents.
More on link

 Italy 'to send 1,000 extra troops' to Afghanistan
Article Link

The move comes two days after US President Barack Obama announced that America was sending 30,000 more forces to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.

Mr Obama has asked Nato allies to increase their deployments in Afghanistan, but several European nations are reluctant to do so.

The alliance's foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels for two days of talks set to focus on the US request.

In an interview published on Thursday, Italy's Defence Minister, Ignazio La Russa, confirmed reports that Rome would send about 1,000 extra soldiers to the country.

Mr La Russa told the Corriere della Sera newspaper suggestions in the media that 1,500 soldiers could be sent were "just a hypothesis".

He said the figure was "a maximum quota which we would never reach", reported Reuters news agency. 
More on link

 US not seeking Afghanistan civil coordinator: Rice
(AFP) – 16 hours ago
Article Link

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is not seeking a civilian coordinator for Afghanistan, the US ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday, apparently contradicting the State Department.

"This is not an American proposal," Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters at the United Nations about the alleged plans to appoint an official tasked with helping Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government improve the country's security and economy.

"We are not advocating, at this stage, the appointment of a high representative."

Her comments came a day after the US State Department said the United States both favored the idea and was seeking support from NATO allies.

"It's a way for us to better support the efforts of Afghanistan to provide for its own security and... provide a better economic future for the Afghan people," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

Kelly added that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would discuss the coordinator's role during a meeting in Brussels on Friday with fellow foreign ministers from the transatlantic military alliance and other countries involved in the mission to stabilize Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, Rice appeared to step away from that position, though she acknowledged that "there needs to be improvement and urgently so in the coordination of the civilian component of this mission and the civilian assistance resources."
More on link

 Afghan officials fear talk of exit strategy
By DEB RIECHMANN (AP) – 2 days ago
Article Link

KABUL — Afghan officials hope President Barack Obama's address on Afghanistan won't be weighted too heavily on an exit strategy — even though that's the message many Americans and Democrats in Congress want to hear.

If he talks extensively in his speech Tuesday night about winding down the war, Afghans fear the Taliban will simply bide their time until the Americans abandon the country much as Washington did after the Soviets left 20 years ago. That move plunged the nation into civil war and paved the way for al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Similarly, in neighboring Pakistan, too much talk of a finite U.S. troop presence gives commanders little reason to help fight Afghan militants — the very people they might eventually need to embrace as allies if the international community fails to secure Afghanistan and the Taliban retake Kabul.

From the Pakistani side of the volatile border, the fear is that a premature U.S. pullout would leave Pakistan vulnerable to an unchecked threat from Islamic extremists, who now control significant areas of the northwest.

"If the Americans leave the war unfinished — without stabilizing Afghanistan — it is bad for Pakistan," Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for Pakistan's tribal areas, said Monday. "Obama should announce a change of strategy that moves away from force to stabilization ... so that people will stop going to the Taliban in search of security."
More on link

Gordon Brown sparks anger by revealing SAS role in Afghanistan
Gordon Brown surprised MPs and caused consternation among senior military figures yesterday by revealing there were 500 special forces troops in Afghanistan.
Article Link

By Andrew Porter, Thomas Harding and Alex Spillius
Published: 10:00PM GMT 30 Nov 2009

It came as the Prime Minister announced the deployment of another 500 British soldiers to the war-torn country. They will leave for Helmand province within days.

Mr Brown said the latest deployment meant Britain’s military presence in Afghanistan was now officially 10,000 - when the 500 special forces in the region were taken into account. It is the first time that Mr Brown has publicly acknowledged their presence. 

Defending his decision to disclose the extent of the involvement of Britain's elite troops, he said people should know the role that “our highly professional widely respected and extraordinarily brave special forces” were playing.

He said they were working alongside regular forces and taking the fight to the Taliban.

In a Commons statement Mr Brown said: “Taking into account these special forces, the supporting troops and the increases announced today, our total military effort in Afghanistan will be in excess of 10,000 troops." 
More on link


----------



## GAP (7 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 7, 2009*

 150 Maine soldiers headed to Afghanistan
By Associated Press Monday, December 7, 2009
Article Link

About 150 Maine National Guard soldiers are being given a send off for a one-year mission in Afghanistan.

Monday’s deployment ceremony for B company of the third battalion of the 172nd Mountain Infantry regiment at the University of Maine will be attended by Gov. John Baldacci and Maj. Gen. John W. Libby, the adjutant general of the Maine National Guard.

By early next year the Maine Guard will have deployed nearly half its strength to Afghanistan and Iraq.
More on link

  Taliban key commander killed in NW Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-07 21:09:17 	  	
Article Link

    KABUL, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Police eliminated Taliban key commander Mullah Amrudin and three others in a fierce clash with Taliban insurgents in Northwest Badghis province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Monday.

    According to a press release of the ministry, the clash erupted in Taliban hotbed Ghormach district on Sunday, in which the Taliban command and three insurgents were killed.

    The clash also claimed the lives of four policemen, the press release added.

    Mullah Amrudin had been involved in kidnapping government employees, organizing roadside bombings and targeting security forces over the past two years, the press release said.

    Taliban militants have not yet made any comment. 
More on link

 Millions' worth of gear left in Iraq
PENTAGON EASES RULES
Officers air concerns, citing Afghan effort
Article Link
By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, December 7, 2009

BAGHDAD -- Even as the U.S. military scrambles to support a troop surge in Afghanistan, it is donating passenger vehicles, generators and other equipment worth tens of millions of dollars to the Iraqi government. 

Under new authority granted by the Pentagon, U.S. commanders in Iraq may now donate to the Iraqis up to $30 million worth of equipment from each facility they leave, up from the $2 million cap established when the guidelines were first set in 2005. The new cap applies at scores of posts that the U.S. military is expected to leave in coming months as it scales back its presence from about 280 facilities to six large bases and a few small ones by the end of next summer.

Some of the items that commanders may now leave behind, including passenger vehicles and generators, are among what commanders in Afghanistan need most urgently, according to Pentagon memos.

Officials involved say the approach has triggered arguments in the Pentagon over whether the effort to leave Iraqis adequately equipped is hurting the buildup in Afghanistan. Officials in the U.S. Central Command, which oversees both wars, have balked at some proposed handovers, and previously rejected an approach that would have granted base commanders even greater leeway. 
More on link


----------



## GAP (13 Dec 2009)

*Articles found December 13, 2009*

 Canadian soldier on leave from Afghanistan charged with sex assault in Australia
(CP) – 21 hours ago
Article Link

EDMONTON — A Canadian soldier who was on leave from duty in Afghanistan has been charged with sexual assault in Australia.

Sapper David Langlois-Fequet was arrested earlier this week in Byron Bay on Australia's east coast.

The charges stem from an alleged encounter at a hostel Dec. 8.

The military says it's a civilian matter because the Edmonton-based soldier was on leave.
More on link

 Five Americans in Pakistani custody moved to Lahore, police say
December 13, 2009 
Article Link

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN)  -- The five Americans arrested in Pakistan amid suspicion that they were plotting terrorist attacks were transferred on Saturday from the small town where they were seized to a more secure location in a larger city, police said.

The U.S. citizens were taken from the town of Sargodha, where they were arrested at a home on Wednesday, to Lahore. A police interrogation report dated Thursday focused on one of the suspects, identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni, a 20-year-old born in Virginia.

The report said he regularly goes online to watch attacks on the U.S. military in Afghanistan and that he left comments praising the actions. That caught the attention of militants, and he was eventually contacted by a person named Saifullah, the report said.

After contact had been made, a Yahoo! e-mail account was set up so the men and militants could communicate, the report says. E-mails were never sent from the account, but people would leave messages in the draft sections of the e-mail account and delete them after reading them, the Pakistani police report said.
More on link

 British PM bunks with troops in Afghanistan
December 13, 2009 
Article Link

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)  -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spent the night among troops in Afghanistan, the first time he has stayed overnight in the war-torn nation.

Brown flew in Saturday night and slept at military quarters at the Kandahar air base, a spokesman in his office said.

Until now, Brown -- like his predecessor, Tony Blair -- would fly into the country for daylong visits and then fly out.

On Sunday, Brown talked with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who flew to Kandahar. Brown also met with troops, was debriefed by army leaders, and inspected new military equipment.

The Taliban rose to power in Kandahar province before it was toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. However, the militant group has resurged in recent years, and coalition troops have been fighting ever since to contain the threat.

Brown's unannounced visit follows the British government's pledge of 500 extra troops to complement President Obama's decision to send 3,000 additional American troops.
More on link

 CIA cancels Blackwater drone missile-loading contract 
Article Link

The CIA has cancelled a contract with US private security firm Blackwater for its operatives to load bombs onto drone aircraft in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

CIA Director Leon Panetta wanted such work to be done by the organisation's own employees only, officials said.

The New York Times revealed the existence of the secret contract with Blackwater, renamed Xe, in August.

On Thursday, the paper also reported that Xe employees had been involved in "snatch-and-grab operations" in Iraq.

Xe, based in North Carolina, changed its name from Blackwater after several of its employees were accused of killing 17 civilians in a shooting incident in Baghdad in September 2007. 
More on link

 US Marines train illiterate farmers to be police
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT (AP) – 2 days ago
Article Link

KHAN NESHIN, Afghanistan — The U.S. Marines were tense looking for bombs buried near a mud compound in this remote farming town in southern Afghanistan. Their new Afghan police colleagues were little help, joking around and sucking on lollipops meant for local kids.

The government had sent the new group of 13 police to live and train the Marines just a few days earlier. Most were illiterate young farmers with no formal training who had been plucked off the streets only weeks before.

Building a capable police force is one of the keys to President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Tuesday to discuss how to recruit more Afghan police to meet Washington's goal of expanding the force from about 94,000 today to 160,000 by 2013.

The Marines' experience in Khan Neshin, once a key Taliban stronghold in volatile Helmand province, shows just how difficult the task will be.
More on link


----------



## GAP (14 Dec 2009)

*Articles found December 14, 2009*

 When bricks trump bullets
Patrick White
  Article Link

Dand District, Afghanistan — From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009 9:58PM EST Last updated on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 2:25AM EST

Eight months after bombers blew his office to pieces, Hamdullah Nazik stared across the walnut expanse of his new desk.

“It's beautiful, isn't it,” he said, beaming at a crowd of local elders gathered around its shiny veneer during the grand opening of the Dand District Centre last month. “Come on, come on. I'll show you some more.”

Mr. Nazik, who claims to be the youngest district leader in Afghanistan at 31 years old, grabbed General Jonathan Vance, then commander of all Canadian troops in the country, and dragged him through a series of rooms like a child showing his uncle a new toy.

“This is the most important project in the most important district in Afghanistan, and you, the Canadians, are responsible,” he said.

Last spring, this site was a mound of torn flesh and busted brick. Once the tallest building for kilometres around, its ruins were a potent local symbol of the Taliban's supremacy over one of Afghanistan's most important districts. But in a triumph of bricks over bullets, a Canadian-led construction project has turned local opinion back in favour of the fledgling government – at least while it remains standing.
More on link

 Insurgents Kill 8 Police In Northern Afghanistan
By REUTERS Published: December 14, 2009 
Article Link

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Insurgents allied to the Taliban attacked a police post in northern Afghanistan killing eight policemen, provincial officials said on Monday, in one of the bloodiest raids on Afghan security forces in the area.

The attack happened overnight on the outskirts of the provincial capital of northern Baghlan province, said Zalmai Mangal, a senior provincial official.

Mangal said the raid was carried out by loyalists of Hezb-i-Islami, an Islamist group led by former fugitive prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

"The attack on the post happened on a road in Baghlan in which eight police and two members of Hezb-i-Islami were killed," Mangal told Reuters. He had no further details.

Another provincial official said the militants used small arms and rocket propelled grenades in the attack. No one guarding the post survived, said the official who also put the police deaths to eight.
More on link

 Taliban blow up school in NW Pakistan: official
(AFP) – 9 hours ago
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Taliban militants blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district Monday, officials said, as two soldiers and seven insurgents were killed in clashes in the northwest tribal belt.

The pre-dawn school attack took place in Saddokhel town in northwest Khyber tribal district, where militants detonated explosives planted around the building, destroying all five school rooms but causing no injuries.

"They are Taliban. They are the same people who do not want children to get an education," senior administration official Rahim Gul Khattak told AFP.

Islamist militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years as they wage a fierce insurgency to enforce Sharia law.

Pakistani troops launched an offensive in Khyber district in September to try and flush out both the Taliban and homegrown militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), led by feared warlord Mangal Bagh.

The fabled Khyber tribal region is the main land bridge to neighbouring Afghanistan and is also close to the northwest provincial capital Peshawar, which has been hit by a series of suicide bombings in recent months.
More on link

 Canada spending more on military since Cold War

Defence costs at $21B are now at a 60-year high
 By David Akin and Allison Cross, Canwest News ServiceDecember 10, 2009
Article Link


The war in Afghanistan has helped push federal government spending in this country to a 60-year-high, says a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The centre calculates that, for the fiscal year that ends in March, Canada will have spent just over $21 billion on national defence. That's nearly 10% of all federal government spending.

The centre, a think-tank often associated with causes favoured by the political left, argues that military spending in Canada is disproportionately high and that it sucks up money that could be used for other government programs, such as environmental spending or foreign aid.
More on link

 Fresh U.S. troops allow Canadian commander in Afghanistan to think 'big'
By Colin Perkel (CP) – 19 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard is thinking big.

As the top soldier in Kandahar province, the Canadian commander exudes an optimism that goes well beyond the dewy-eyed enthusiasm of a man new to the job.

The reason for his confidence is the influx of American soldiers that has almost doubled the number of troops under his direct control.

Finally, Menard told The Canadian Press, he has the boots on the ground and resources his predecessors could only wish for.

"I'm in a position to tackle more than one district at a time," Menard said in his first sit-down interview since taking charge of Task Force Kandahar less than a month ago.

"Not only one village, or go small, I'm actually going big."

With about 2,000 fresh American soldiers now reporting to him - part of U.S. President Obama's Afghan surge - Menard's troop strength has gone from 2,800 soldiers to about the 5,000 mark.

Three American battalions are now attached to the Canadian brigade.
More on link


----------



## GAP (16 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 16, 2009*

 Germany must pay Afghan victims of NATO raid: Lawyer
Article Link

On September 4, a U.S. fighter jet called in by German troops struck two fuel trucks that NATO said at the time had been hijacked by Taliban insurgents.

Germany's defense minister at the time has since stepped down because of the incident, which the Afghan government said killed 99 people including 30 civilians. Independent rights groups estimate between 60 and 70 civilians were killed.

Karim Popal, an Afghan-born German lawyer from Bremen who has taken on the case of 165 Afghans in Kunduz and who lost relatives in the airstrike, said what they needed was not money, but a guarantee from the German government that it would build the homes, schools and clinics they need to continue their lives.

"In Kunduz, a large number of young people have lost fathers and whole families. There are a large number of widows now. It is the responsibility of the German government to help them," Popal told Reuters.
More on link

 U.S. steps up special operations mission in Afghanistan
Under the shift in strategy, the teams now focus on targeting key Taliban figures rather than mainly hunting Al Qaeda leaders and have increased the number of raids they conduct, officials say.
Article Link

Reporting from Washington - The U.S. military command has quietly shifted and intensified the mission of clandestine special operations forces in Afghanistan, senior officials said, targeting key figures within the Taliban, rather than almost exclusively hunting Al Qaeda leaders.

As a result of orders from Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and allied commander in Afghanistan, the special operations teams are focusing more on killing militants, capturing them or, whenever possible, persuading them to turn against the Taliban-led insurgency.

The number of raids carried out by such units as the Army's Delta Force and Navy's SEAL Team Six in Afghanistan has more than quadrupled in recent months. The teams carried out 90 raids in November, U.S. officials said, compared with 20 in May. U.S. special operations forces primarily conduct missions in eastern and southern Afghanistan.

The numbers reflect the evolving strategy and increased pressure on U.S. military leaders to show swift results against the Taliban.
More on link

 Terror monitor: Tape of captured US soldier due
By DEB RIECHMANN (AP) – 2 hours ago
Article Link

KABUL — The Taliban have announced they will release a new video of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan, a U.S-based terrorism monitoring group said Wednesday.

SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorist tracking organization, said the media arm of the Afghan Taliban made the announcement Wednesday on their Web site.

The video is said to be titled, "One of Their People Testified." The Taliban did not name the American.

The only U.S. soldier known to be in captivity is Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, who disappeared more than five months ago in Afghanistan.

Bergdahl, 23, was captured June 30 in the eastern province of Paktika province near the Pakistan border. His Taliban captors released a propaganda video of him about two weeks later. In the July 19 video, Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened. No subsequent videos have been released.
More on link

 
Britain Cuts Defense Jobs to Boost Equipment for Afghanistan
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Kitty Donaldson and Sabine Pirone
Article Link

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Britain pledged a 900 million-pound ($1.46 billion) equipment boost for troops fighting in Afghanistan, saying cuts in other defense budgets will be needed to pay for it.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the government has ordered 22 Boeing Co. Chinook helicopters and a C-17 Globemaster military transport plane, also made by the U.S.-based company. It cut its fleet of Harrier fighter jets and Tornado jets, for which BAE Systems Plc provides maintenance.

“The pressure on public finances means that we need to prioritize carefully within our own resources,” Ainsworth said in Parliament in London today. “We need to make reductions in lower priority areas to fund these enhancements.”

Criticized for starving the war effort of funding and facing a general election by June, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is rebalancing the 40 billion-pound defense budget to deploy extra resources to Afghanistan. Whichever party wins the election, most departments face deep spending cuts as Britain seeks to narrow its biggest budget deficit since World War II. 
More on link


----------



## GAP (18 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 18, 2009*


Officials Say Iraq Fighters Intercepted Drone Video
By SCOTT SHANE and CHRISTOPHER DREW
December 18, 2009  Article Link

WASHINGTON — Insurgents in Iraq have occasionally intercepted video images sent from American military drones to troops in the field, causing the Defense Department to increase its use of encryption over the last year, military and intelligence officials said Thursday.

The military has made extensive use of the remotely piloted drones for surveillance in Iraq and Afghanistan, using live video images to track insurgents, to catch them burying roadside bombs or to identify their houses or weapons caches. Most of that data is highly encrypted, and it has been critical to guiding attacks on the insurgents, often with missiles fired from the drones themselves or from helicopters.

But The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Iraqi insurgents had used a $26 commercial software package called Sky Grabber, designed to use a satellite dish to intercept transmissions of movies and music, to capture some of the video feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles.

Military officials confirmed that they had become aware of the intercepts last year. But they said that the vulnerability applied only to a subset of transmissions that had been left unencrypted, and that they had no indication that insurgents had gained much. 
More on link

  Car blast kills militant, wounds 4 soldiers in E Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-17 17:22:02 	  	
Article Link

    KHOST, Afghanistan, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- An explosive-laden car detonated by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's eastern province Khost Wednesday night leaving one Taliban fighter dead and four soldiers injured, a senior Afghan military officer in the province General Mohammad Israr said Thursday.

    "Acting upon intelligence report, a joint unit of Afghan and U.S. forces were searching for an explosive-laden car in Sabari district but Taliban militants detonated it by a remote-control killing a rebel on the spot and slightly wounding one Afghan and three U.S. soldiers," Israr told Xinhua.

    One Taliban insurgent was also killed at the site of the blast, he further said. 
More on link


 US drones in Pakistan kill at least 20 in barrage of attacks

US drones launched missiles into North Waziristan in Pakistan in a barrage of attacks Thursday and Friday. It was one of the largest such attacks in the controversial program the Obama administration has continued and intensified.
Article Link

 By David Montero  Correspondent / December 18, 2009

A fleet of US predator drones fired a barrage of missiles inside Pakistan’s main Al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold on Thursday and Friday, killing at least 20 people in total. The third strike, on Friday, killed at least three militants. A top Al Qaeda operative and seven foreign militants were said to be among Thursday's dead.

The missile barrage that began Thursday constitutes one of the single largest such strikes since the Obama administration opted to continue – and intensify – a controversial program initiated by the Bush administration. And it comes amid sharply rising tensions between Washington and Islamabad over the use of the drones.

The Associated Press said Friday's drone attack shot three missiles at a home and killed at least three militants and injured two.
More on link
 
 McCaskill calls for increased oversight of contract work in Afghanistan
Article Link

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 18, 2009

The chairman of a Senate investigative subcommittee called Thursday for stepped-up government oversight of contract work in Afghanistan, saying Pentagon auditors have already challenged nearly $1 billion in charges by military contractors. 

"What additional controls and government oversight are needed to make sure that these contracts don't result in the waste, fraud and abuse we saw in Iraq?" Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked a panel of witnesses from the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Defense Departmen
More on link

 Tim Hortons gift cards program for Canadian troops in Afghanistan a success, Toronto EMS says
Richard Southern and 680News staff Dec 17, 2009 
Article Link

drive to send Tim Hortons gift cards to Canadian troops in Afghanistan has been a success, according to Toronto EMS.

At the end of October, EMS teams asked people for their help in sending these Christmas "thank you" gifts to the troops, and 680News listeners came through.

EMS had a great idea they called "Share a Cup With a Brave Canuck." They asked people to buy a $10 Tim Hortons gift card, write a message of thanks on it and then send it to EMS, who would ship them to Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, who have a Tim's on base.
More on link

 U.S. sends elite brigade to assist Canada

Kandahar City; 4,000 troops will arrive between March and May

Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service  Published: Friday, December 18, 2009
  Article Link

The U.S. army is to send an elite combat brigade from the 101st Airborne to assist Canadian Forces to create a security noose around Kandahar City, a further indication that NATO war planners believe the war against the Taliban may be won or lost in the coming year in the southern province.

The move, which Canadians commanders in Kandahar have been quietly waiting for since last month, was discussed by Lt.-Gen. David Rodriguez in an interview published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.

About 4,000 paratroopers from the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based division are to arrive in Kandahar between March and May of next year, said Lt.-Gen. Rodriguez who, as No. 2 to U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has operational command of more than 100,000 NATO forces already in Afghanistan or preparing to the head there.
More on link


----------



## GAP (21 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 21, 2009*

 National police Canada's problem in Afghanistan
Progress is slow as Canadian officers in Kandahar work to change culture of corruption and brutality
Article Link

From a rocky slope above a village in southern Afghanistan last February, Canadian Forces engineer Matt Austin watched a Taliban suspect scramble for safety with troops in hot pursuit.

"He had been hiding in a culvert and he ditched his weapons and ran," Austin said. "They managed to get him, and he had his arms tied behind his back."

What happened next shocked the 24-year-old corporal: "The Afghan National Police commander came up and started punching him in the face."

The attack didn't stop, Austin said, until a Canadian officer intervened.
More on link

 Afghan troops kill Taliban attackers, official says
Article Link

The Taliban attack in the town of Gardez, 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Kabul, showed the Afghan insurgency had not abated despite a gradual resolution of a long political impasse following a fraud-tainted presidential poll in August.

The militants, some wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, attacked a key police building in Gardez before they were surrounded in a market, a local official and residents said.

"The fighting is over. All of the assailants have been killed," Rohullah Samoon, a spokesman for the governor of Paktia province, said by telephone without indicating how many attackers there had been.

Earlier he said at least three had been killed.

A Taliban provincial commander said five of the Islamist group's fighters, equipped with suicide vests and heavy weapons, had launched the assault.
More on link

 Canadian-mentored Afghan soldiers sweep dangerous village
Article Link
By Colin Perkel (CP) – 20 hours ago

CHAHAR BAGH, Afghanistan — The harsh sound of the national anthem blasting over the countryside on the weekend left little doubt that a new battle for one of the most dangerous districts of southern Afghanistan had been joined in earnest.

As Canadian soldiers turned up the volume on the portable speaker and two American Kiowa helicopters twisted and turned overhead, Canadian-mentored Afghan soldiers swept through the village of Chahar Bagh.

Scores of freshly arrived U.S. troops - ultimately under Canadian command - provided firepower support.

Without subtlety, Operation Eagle had landed in the Arghandab district village, marking several firsts.

The daylong sweep of Chahar Bagh was the first time the Canadian-mentored battalion of Afghan soldiers - known as 3rd Kandak - had planned and executed a major operation.

It was also the first time the 2-508 unit of the U.S. 82nd Airborne had deployed in Canada's new area of operations.

Arghandab is prized by the Taliban insurgency as a key entrance to Kandahar city just to the south.
More on link

 Despite aid, hunger still stalks Afghan children
  Article Link
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU (AP) – 21 hours ago

AQCHA, Afghanistan — While international forces in Afghanistan battle militants hiding in the mountains, aid agencies are fighting an even more elusive enemy: malnutrition.

The World Food Program and UNICEF have launched a project to feed thousands of mothers and children — some too weak to cry. Aid workers hope a high-protein diet distributed through a network of village clinics can help them through the winter.

Despite the billions spent in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, the country is still comparable to the worst humanitarian crisis zones in Africa. Afghanistan has the world's highest maternal mortality rate and the second-highest child mortality rate — and hunger is a major reason why, the United Nations says. This year, centers across the country will feed 100,000 children and 35,000 pregnant or breast-feeding women.

Dozens of mothers, many clad in full burqa body veils, crouched in the clinic in Aqcha waiting for rations. The room was eerily silent except for gusts of wind that howled through the open door. Dozens of toddlers in their arms didn't make a sound.

"Most of the children are too tired and hungry, they don't have the energy to cry," said Dr. Nasrullah Sulfane, who oversees the program here.
More on link


----------



## GAP (23 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 23, 2009*


 Military police dismiss allegations of abuse by Canadian troops in Afghanistan
Article Link
(CP) – 22 hours ago

OTTAWA — Military police have dismissed three more claims alleging abuse of detainees by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

In a year-end report released today, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service says three allegations of detainee abuse filed in 2009 were unfounded.

The report says investigators determined that soldiers acted appropriately toward the detainees.

The investigation is completely separate from the recent political furor over the abuse of detainees by Afghan authorities and why Canada continued to hand over detainees in 2006-07 despite reports of torture.

Since 2006, the military police have looked into a dozen claims of abuse by Canadian soldiers and found all but one were unfounded.
More on link


  Over 10 suspected Taliban militants killed, wounded in N. Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-23 19:21:11 	 
Article Link

    BAGHLAN, Afghanistan, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- In a joint operation carried out by Afghan National Army (ANA) and police in northern Baghlan province, over 10 Taliban militants were killed and wounded, provincial governor Mohammad Akbar Barikzai said on Wednesday.

    "ANA and Afghan National Police killed and wounded more than 10 suspected Taliban militants in a cleanup operation conducted in Baghlan-e-Markazi district on Tuesday," Barikzai told reporters at a press conference.

    A local Taliban commander Mullah Zulmai was among the injured militants, he added.

    He did not give the exact figure of Taliban causalities, but admitted four police officers were also killed in the firefight. 
More on link

 Afghan senator killed at police checkpoint
Article Link
(AFP) – 8 hours ago

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — An Afghan senator was killed when he drove through a police ambush set for Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said.

Mohammad Younus -- also known as Shirin Agha, or Dear Sir -- was going home in the early hours when the incident occurred in Puli Khumri, capital of troubled northern Baghlan province, Mohammad Akbar Barikzai told AFP.

Barikzai said Younus, a member of Afghanistan's upper house of parliament representing Baghlan, failed to stop at a police checkpoint set up as part of a planned ambush of Taliban militants.

"They continued to drive after being ordered by police to stop so the police opened fire," an interior ministry statement said.
More on link

 Pakistan Taliban say fighters going to Afghanistan
Article Link
By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD (AP) – 7 hours ago

SHAKTOI, Pakistan — A top Pakistani Taliban commander says he has sent thousands of insurgents to neighboring Afghanistan to rebuff incoming U.S. troops.

The claim comes as an army offensive has apparently pushed many of his fighters to flee their main redoubt.

Waliur Rehman told The Associated Press in an exclusive face to face interview Monday that the Pakistani Taliban are still waging a guerrilla war against the army in South Waziristan tribal region.

Rehman is the main deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

His claims were nearly impossible to independently verify.
More on link

 NATO troops wound two civilians in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Troops with NATO-led International Security Assistance force (ISAF) shot and injured two civilians in Afghanistan's western Herat province on Tuesday.

    Both victims were taken to the Herat hospital for treatment, with one of them receiving five bullets while the other two, said surgeon Barakatullah Mohammadi.

    Maryam, mother of the brothers, blamed the international troops for the atrocity. " Foreign soldiers shot and wounded my sons," she told Xinhua by telephone.

    Locals, however, said that the troops signaled them to keep clear but the two brothers ignored and continued driving on motorbike prompting the troops to open
More on link

 British soldier killed in Afghanistan
(AFP) – 1 day ago
Article Link

LONDON — A British soldier has been shot and killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said Monday, in what officials said could have been the result of friendly fire.

The soldier from The Royal Military Police "was killed as a result of small arms fire that happened in the Sangin area, in central Helmand province, during the evening of December 20, 2009", the ministry said.

A later statement added that "there is a possibility that the latest death in Afghanistan was caused as a result of friendly fire", and an investigation was underway. No conclusion would be reached until after the inquest, it said.
More on link


----------



## GAP (28 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 28, 2009*

 Afghans to hold parliament vote by late May: official
By Jonathon Burch Reuters Saturday, December 26, 2009; 9:22 AM
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan aims to hold a vote for the lower house of parliament by late May although fraud, security and funding could all be problems, he said.

Corruption, violence and voter intimidation seriously marred last August's presidential vote and critics say a May poll date does not leave enough time to guarantee the safeguards and institutional reforms needed to prevent another flawed result.

But Zekria Barakzai, deputy head of the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC) of Afghanistan, told Reuters the president, chief justice and speakers of both houses of parliament had met and agreed elections should go ahead then.

Under Afghanistan's constitution, a new lower house must be in place by June 22 and elections held a minimum 30 days before this. Barakzai said the IEC would announce a firm date by Jan 3.

"The only problem we have right now is how it will be funded. We are talking to the finance ministry to see if it can be funded from the Afghan budget," Barakzai said.

The presidential election cost Western governments over $220 million, and while the parliament vote might be slightly cheaper, none seem keen to foot a bill that would still run into millions.

"There is nobody, I mean nobody, stepping up to the plate to fund elections without root and branch reform of the electoral system. Our public back home simply won't accept it," said one Western diplomat who asked not to be named. 
More on link

 Bin Laden's daughter free to leave Tehran: Iran FM
(AFP) – 3 days ago
Article Link

TEHRAN — Osama bin Laden's daughter who has taken refuge at the Saudi mission in Tehran is free to leave Iran once her identity is confirmed, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying on Friday.

"A while ago the Saudi embassy here said the one of bin Laden's daughters is in the compound, so the foreign ministry told the embassy that based on international conventions if her identity is confirmed she can leave Iran with passage documents," ISNA quoted Mottaki as telling state television late Thursday.

"We were not able to confirm her identity but the embassy says she is" the daughter of bin Laden, he added.

Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper earlier this week quoted Omar bin Laden, the fourth son of the Al-Qaeda chief, that one of his siblings, Iman, 17, had recently sought asylum at the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Fuad Qassas, the Saudi charge d'affairs at the kingdom's embassy in Tehran, confirmed Iman was staying there, according to the newspaper, which said she has been seeking permission to leave Iran, so far without success.
More on link

 U.S., Afghanistan officials say they need more female police
Posted Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009
Article Link
By HEIDI VOGT The Associated Press

KABUL — The young Afghan woman leaves home every morning with her face and figure hidden by a burqa. At her office, she dons a police uniform, grabs a pistol and starts knocking in doors, looking for drug dealers and Taliban sympathizers.

Gulbesha, 22, is one of about 500 active-duty policewomen in Afghanistan, compared with about 92,500 policemen. She is also one of a few dozen who serve in the volatile south, where Taliban influence is strongest.

At a time when the U.S. is sending 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials say they need more policewomen for tasks men cannot do.

Afghans are deeply offended when male soldiers or police officers search homes where women are present. Gulbesha is always the first one in the door, followed by male officers.

And male officers cannot search women for concealed weapons and other contraband.

Plans call for adding thousands more women in the next five years — a formidable goal.

The force has not filled the 650 slots reserved for policewomen.
More on link

UK medics keep wounded troops alive in Afghanistan's Desert of Death

More and more British troops are being saved at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan as Taliban steps up its assaults
Article Link

They are known by the medics at Camp Bastion as "Holy Shit Sundays", the darkest day of the week when the Taliban are most likely to strike. A popular theory going round the British forces' headquarters in Afghanistan holds that the Taliban stop for Friday prayers, plan their attacks on Saturday and carry them out the following day. And they are doing so with increasing regularity.

Traditionally at this time of year, there is a lull in the fighting as temperatures fall well below zero at night and the tree-lined "green zone" that runs like a spinal cord through Helmand province is replaced by mud, stripping the Taliban of cover. But despite the onset of winter recent Sundays have seen an increase in attacks on British forces in Afghanistan's most notorious province.

As winter rain turns the dust coating Camp Bastion into a treacly yellow sludge, festive cheer is in short supply. The best Christmas gift the medical teams can hope for is a lack of work.

"Any day we're sitting on our arses getting bored stiff is a good one," said Captain Simon Cook, who works with the resuscitation team at the camp. Sipping tea in a storage room-turned-canteen in the surgery unit, he adds: "It means our guys aren't getting hurt."
More on link


----------



## GAP (30 Dec 2009)

*Articles found November 30, 2009*

 War takes grim toll on Afghan civilians, but military caused deaths declining
By Colin Perkel (CP) – 22 hours ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The insurgent war has taken a devastating toll on Afghan civilians this year, but the proportion of deaths caused by the international military coalition declined, latest United Nations figures show.

The numbers suggest efforts by coalition forces to minimize non-combatant casualties - a key Taliban propaganda tool - are paying off.

In the first 10 months of this year, a total of 2,038 Afghan civilians died in the ongoing conflict - almost 11 per cent more than in the same period last year, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

About four times as many civilians were killed this year than coalition troops. Twenty-eight Canadian soldiers died in 2009.

It was not immediately clear if Canadian forces were responsible for any of the deaths.

"The impact the conflict is having on the Afghan people is increasing year by year," Aleem Siddique, chief UN spokesman in the war-wracked country, said in an interview from Kabul on Tuesday.

"The numbers speak to the difficult security situation and the increase in violence."
More on link

Girls’ school blown up in Peshawar
Article Link

PESHAWAR/QUETTA: The Taliban blew up a girls’ school in Peshawar on Monday, police said. The five-room government primary girls school in Shabqadar town was destroyed when two bombs planted by the Taliban exploded, senior police official Muhammad Riaz Khan said. A nearby house was also damaged but there were no casualties, Khan said. Taliban, opposed to female education, have destroyed hundreds of girls’ schools in the NWFP in recent years. The Pakistan Army is carrying out offensives against the Taliban across much of the region, including the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, a region branded by the US as the most dangerous place on earth. About 30,000 troops poured into South Waziristan Agency in mid October to try and dismantle the strongholds of the Taliban leadership, enraging the Taliban who have responded with a surge in bomb blasts and attacks. Meanwhile, according to APP, a rocket fired from an unidentified location damaged the building of a private school at Killi Bangulzai, Sabzal Road in Quetta late on Tuesday. According to local police officials, the rocket hit the building directly. The local police cordoned off the area for investigation. agencies
end

 Forces Capture Taliban Commanders in Afghanistan
Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs RSS
Date: 12.29.2009
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and international security forces captured some Taliban commanders and other suspected militants and seized weapons yesterday in Kandahar and Khowst, Afghanistan, military officials reported.

The forces captured a Taliban commander believed to be responsible for homemade bomb attacks during a series of raids in Kandahar. They also detained three other suspects.

Also in Kandahar, a combined force captured another Taliban commander and a small group of militants believed to be responsible for supplying weapons to insurgents.

In Khowst, a combined force detained suspected militants while searching for a Haqqani terrorist network commander.

No Afghan civilians were harmed and no shots were fired in these operations.

Yesterday in southern Afghanistan, International Security Assistance Force members seized about 1,200 pounds of opium after two people in a car stopped and fled from a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan. The opium was destroyed.
More on link

 Bulgaria Sending More Troops to Afghanistan
Article Link

Bulgaria says it will send 30 more troops to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan early next year.

The government said in a statement Wednesday the troops will join a Bulgarian unit guarding the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Bulgaria currently has 497 troops in Afghanistan, with 270 of them guarding the Kandahar airport, which has been plagued by insurgent attacks.

Defense Minister Nikolai Mladenov says that another 70 troops could be sent to Kandahar by the end of 2010.
More on link


----------



## GAP (31 Dec 2009)

*Articles found December 31, 2009*

 A journalist's dark hours of fear and raw nerves 
Article Link
Graeme Smith From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009 9:53PM EST Last updated on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009 8:50AM EST

You take a deep breath before climbing into an armoured vehicle in Kandahar. You have to think about why you travel the battlefields of southern Afghanistan, and whether the task is worth the risk.

It's impossible to know what Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang was thinking as she embarked on her fateful trip out with the troops, but most journalists who cover the front lines have experienced these moments, or something similar: the dark hours of confronting fear.

It starts before your alarm goes off in the morning, when you wake in your sleeping bag with the sound of helicopters in the distance. Were you woken by the sound of a fighter jet, or a bad dream? Or maybe it's your own nervousness that got you up, that animal instinct to face trouble on your feet. 
More on link

CIA workers killed by 'Afghan soldier'
Article Link

Eight Americans working for the CIA have died in a bomb attack in Afghanistan, the worst against US intelligence officials since 1983.

A bomber wearing an explosive vest entered Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost Province, near Pakistan.

A Taliban spokesman said a member of the group working for the Afghan army had carried out the attack.

It has raised questions about the coalition's ability to protect itself against infiltrators, analysts say. 
More on link

  7 civilians killed in S. Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-31 19:47:11 	
Article Link

    KABUL, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province said Thursday that a military operation on Taliban has claimed the lives of seven civilians in the province.

    "NATO-led troops carried out air strike outside Helmand's provincial capital Lashkargah on Wednesday, killing seven civilians and wounding two others," spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi told Xinhua.

    The attack, he added, took place when some elders in Walizai village were discussing on the irrigation system in their area.

    The spokesman said the provincial administration has sent a delegation to investigate and assist the victims' families. 
More on link

 U.N. Pulls Part of Staff From Pakistan on Safety Concerns 
Article Link

The United Nations is temporarily pulling about a third of its international staff from Pakistan because of the deteriorating security situation, despite Pakistani objections to the move, U.N. and Pakistani officials said.

U.N. officials said only "nonessential" staff were being moved out and the withdrawal would not affect operations to aid people displaced by fighting between Pakistan's army and the Taliban in the country's northwestern mountains, and refugees who have fled three decades of conflict in Afghanistan.

"Our main priority is to continue all critical operations and to ensure that all our staff in Pakistan can operate in a safe manner," U.N. headquarters in New York said in a written response to questions about the withdrawal. "We are also in the process of relocating a limited number of international staff for an interim period, many of whom will continue to support our operations in Pakistan from other locations."
More on link

 Pak asks coalition not to leave Afghanistan in haste
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
Article Link

ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani government warned foreign forces on Thursday not to leave Afghanistan "in haste", saying Islamabad was committed to its role as a US partner in the battle against extremists.

Washington is urging Pakistan to crack down on militant strongholds along its border, but US President Barack Obama unnerved many officials by vowing to begin drawing down US forces in Afghanistan in July 2011.

"The decision to leave Afghanistan should be taken when it is able to look after itself effectively," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a press briefing.

"Stability and peace in Afghanistan is in our strategic interest... We are therefore engaged with the US in ensuring that the new US Afghanistan policy delivers," Basit added.

"Coalition forces should not leave Afghanistan in haste."

Islamabad has expressed concern that Obama's new war strategy, announced in December, could destabilise the region if forces leave before Afghanistan is able to counter a virulent Taliban insurgency alone.
More on link

 US sharply steps up military, economic aid to Yemen
By Lachlan Carmichael (AFP) – 19 hours ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — The United States is sharply increasing military and economic aid to Yemen, as it has been doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to fight a growing threat from Al-Qaeda, officials said Wednesday.

The threat has been highlighted by the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bomb maker in Yemen for his alleged mission to blow up a US-bound jet over Detroit.

"To a certain extent you can argue that the airline incident on Christmas day brought attention, public attention to Yemen," a senior State Department official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

But "certainly within this government and certainly other governments around the world... we have been quite sensitive to what's happening in Yemen," the official said.

"Over the last year or so, there has been a renewed focus on what can we do, how can we really speed up the (aid) process," the official said.

In the 2010 fiscal year, US development and security assistance to Yemen is expected to rise to 63 million dollars from a total of 40.3 million dollars in the 2009 fiscal year, said Darby Holladay, a State Department spokesman.

"This amount represents a 56 percent increase over FY-2009 and a 225 percent increase over FY-2008 levels," Holladay told AFP.
More on link


----------

