# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (February 2008)



## GAP (1 Feb 2008)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (February 2008)*         

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

*Articles found February 1, 2008*

Prosecute man for Web posts, says Senator
Toronto-area man supported attacks against Canadian soldiers
Stewart Bell, National Post  Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
Article Link

A Mississauga man who has been posting messages online supporting attacks against military targets in Canada should "absolutely" be prosecuted, the chairman of the Senate National Security and Defence Committee said Thursday.

Comparing the comments to "shouting fire in a theatre," Senator Colin Kenny said if Crown prosecutors are unable to convict the Bangladeshi-Canadian for condoning the killing of Canadian soldiers, the law should be revisited.

"I don't think that any free speech case is going to be a slam dunk and I am surprised that the Crown is setting that high a standard before they will undertake a prosecution," said the Senator, also a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

The Liberal Senator made the comments after reading a sample of the Internet postings of a University of Toronto at Mississauga student who is under RCMP investigation for calling attacks against soldiers in Canada a "legitimate" way to force Ottawa to withdraw from Afghanistan.
More on link

Canadians holding prisoners at Kandahar base: Afghan official
Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
Article Link

Afghan prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers are being held at Canada's air base in Kandahar, an Afghan human rights official told CBC Radio Thursday. 

In an interview with As it Happens, Sareed Hamady from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said Canadian officials have told his office they are holding 18 to 20 prisoners at the base, all captured since Canada stopped handing over detainees to the Afghans in November.

The Conservative government has been under constant pressure to reveal the whereabouts of their Afghan detainees since news of the change in Canadian policy was revealed in court documents last week.
More on link

Other Afghanistan developments  
Fri, February 1, 2008 By SUN MEDIA NEWS SERVICES 
Article Link

RETURNING SOLDIERS CAN BE HELPED MORE, OFFICERS SAY 

OTTAWA -- The chief of personnel and the surgeon-general of the Canadian Forces say the military can do significantly better when it comes to helping soldiers who return from Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Maj.-Gen. Walter Semianiw told a House of Commons committee that great strides have been in military health care since Canadian troops first deployed to Afghanistan in 2002. His comments come as the military ombudsman examines how stress casualties have been treated once they return from the battlefields of Kandahar. "We've done a hell'uva lot to . . . get this thing better," was Semianiw's response to questions from the Liberals about the quality of care afforded soldiers. "We've got a hell'uva way to go, but we're on the way to getting it right." 

AL-QAIDA COMMANDER DIES IN AIR STRIKE IN PAKISTAN 

CAIRO, Egypt -- Abu Laith al-Libi, a top al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan blamed for bombing a military base while U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney was visiting last year, was killed in Pakistan by an air strike late Monday or early Tuesday, a U.S. government official said. The strike was conducted by a Predator unmanned drone, the official said. It was carried out against a facility in north Waziristan, the lawless tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The Predator is an unmanned aircraft developed by the CIA that can be armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles. The U.S. spy agency first used the remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft as a strike plane in November 2002 against six alleged al-Qaida members travelling in a vehicle in Yemen. The U.S. says al-Libi -- whose name means "the Libyan" in Arabic -- was likely behind the February 2007 bombing at the U.S. base at Bagram in Afghanistan during a visit by Cheney. The attack killed 23 people, but Cheney, deep inside the base, was not hurt. 
More on link

Senior Afghanistan Qaeda leader Libi killed
Thu 31 Jan 2008, 23:27 GMt  By Randall Mikkelsen
Article Link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, described by Western authorities as one of Osama bin Laden's top six lieutenants, has been killed, U.S. officials and an al-Qaeda-linked Web site said on Thursday.

The Web site said Abu Laith al-Libi had been killed in Pakistan, suggesting he may have died in a suspected U.S. missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan border area this week.
More on link

French defense minister gives no ground on US Afghanistan combat requests  
The Associated Press Thursday, January 31, 2008 
Article Link

WASHINGTON: France's defense minister met with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday and gave no ground to Gates' campaign to get more combat help in Afghanistan from French and other NATO troops.

Herve Morin said in his first visit to Washington that the United States and France share the same goals as far as helping get "Afghanistan back on its feet."

As Gates looked on, Morin said: "The problem in Afghanistan is not only a military problem. We need a comprehensive solution. This comprehensive solution is a political, economic solution; for instance, the possibility for the Afghans to start new crops, different from opium, which is, right now, the main product in Afghanistan."

Gates has been trying to persuade NATO allies to contribute more troops and equipment to the fight, with little success. France, Germany, Italy and Turkey have troops with the coalition forces in Afghanistan but refuse to send significant numbers of combat troops to the main combat area, in southern Afghanistan.

Still, Gates offered an upbeat assessment of his discussion with Morin, France's defense minister for the past eight months.
More on link

Afghanistan a second home for Canadian soldiers as war reshapes Forces
Article Link

OTTAWA - In the three years he's been married, Maj. Jay Adair has been either in Afghanistan or getting ready to travel to or from Afghanistan.

When he's not there, he's thinking about it. He keeps track of the soldiers and local people whom he befriended in Afghanistan. Around home in Shilo, Man., Adair and his wife, Capt. Leslie Adair, an air force pilot, often talk about Afghanistan.

Adair, 32, has read voraciously about the country, devouring book after book until it became too much even for him. He's decided to quit cold turkey.

"Yeah, that's gonna stop," he said.

Neatly sealed in a plastic pouch and placed atop his duffle bag is stack of John Steinbeck novels that he hopes to read when he is overseas again.

Best of luck.

As battle group operations officer for the new rotation going into Kandahar in February, Adair will likely have little spare time on his third tour of Afghanistan since 2002. The last time he was there, he was the deputy commander of a rifle company that saw some of the bloodiest fighting.
More on link


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## GAP (1 Feb 2008)

Another Day, Another Scandal: Kandahar Governor Personally Tortures  
Friday, February 01, 2008
Article Link

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, when do we stand up and say:

"Not in my name!"?

The Globe & Mail is reporting that way back in April 2007, Canada had strong indications that the Governor of Kandahar Province was personally involved in the torture and mistreatment of detainees.

Ottawa kept abuse charges against ally secret
Kandahar governor accused of beating and using electric shocks on detainees in secret Afghan prisons 
PAUL KORING 

From Friday's Globe and Mail

February 1, 2008 at 2:00 AM EST

The Harper government knew, but tried to keep secret since last spring, allegations that the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in torture and abuse of detainees.

The allegations against Governor Asadullah Khalid, appointed directly by President Hamid Karzai and a key political partner to Canada's nation-building efforts in southern Afghanistan, were regarded as sufficiently credible that senior officials in Ottawa were immediately informed and Canadian diplomats secretly reported them to the International Red Cross and Afghanistan's main human-rights group.

Government documents detailing the accusations were heavily censored by the government which, claiming national security, blacked out the references to “the governor.” But multiple sources, both inside and outside the government, confirm that the words “the governor” have been censored as have whole passages referring to secret cells allegedly run by Mr. Khalid outside the official prison system.

Rumours have long linked Mr. Khalid to secret prisons. That he had close ties with U.S. intelligence agents and special forces had been known since Canadian troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in early 2006. But Ottawa didn't confront an accusation of the governor's direct involvement in the interrogation and torture of prisoners until it sent diplomats to inspect the main secret police prison in Kandahar on April 25, 2007.
(More...)
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (1 Feb 2008)

Colin Kenny . On our own in Kandahar
_Ottawa Citizen_, Feb. 1
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=8737a590-c504-4a45-8aa1-bee1271c5d87


> ...
> ...Not only did Mr. Harper say his government would "never" answer questions about how many prisoners Canadian troops take or what is done with them, he "misspoke" by saying vital pieces of equipment are on order when they are not...
> 
> ...the only major flaws I can find in the Manley report are first that the 1,000 additional troops it deems to be needed in Afghanistan aren't nearly enough, and second, it doesn't go far enough in connecting Canada's precarious situation in Kandahar to inadequate political will and defence funding in Ottawa.
> ...



Harper warns Britain on Afghanistan
Second day in a row ally pressed to supply troops
_National Post_, Feb. 1
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=278448



> Prime Minister Stephen Harper escalated diplomatic pressure on Canada's NATO allies yesterday, warning Britain's Gordon Brown that Canada will end its combat mission in Afghanistan next year unless the military alliance supplies 1,000 more troops for southern Afghanistan.
> 
> For the second consecutive day, Mr. Harper pressed a major Canadian ally to step up cooperation, calling the British Prime Minister the day after he delivered the same message to U.S. President George W. Bush in a 20-minute telephone call.
> 
> ...



_Washington prête main-forte à Ottawa_ (Google translation, amended by me)
Le Devoir, Feb. 1
http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/02/01/174206.html



> The United States has put its weight on the side of Canada in its diplomatic battle to persuade another country to come and lend a hand to Canadian soldiers in Kandahar. Yesterday, Washington sent unequivocal messages to France and Germany, urging them to do more to support Canada in southern Afghanistan.
> 
> In Berlin, German Minister of Defense Franz Josef Jung, received from his American counterpart, Robert Gates, a letter in an "unusually harsh tone," according to sources of the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. This page and a half missive asks Germany to contribute to the efforts of the United States, Canada and Britain in the south of Afghanistan, the most unstable region of the country.
> 
> ...



US Demands More German Troops at Taliban Front
_Spiegel Online_, Feb. 1
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,532476,00.html



> US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has sent a letter to his German counterpart demanding more German engagement in Afghanistan. Berlin has long resisted such demands, but the pressure to fight is mounting...
> 
> When the NATO defense ministers meet in Vilnius, Lithuania next Thursday, Afghanistan promises to be number one on the agenda. Specifically, the demands made by the US and Canada that Germany send combat soldiers to the southern part of the country.
> 
> ...



U.S. raises alarms over mission
Greatest threat is abandonment, international community told
_National Post_, Feb. 1
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=278445



> The United States expressed concern yesterday [Jan. 31] that the international community would abandon Afghanistan, cautioning that success in the insurgency-wracked nation was "not assured."
> 
> "The greatest threat to Afghanistan's future is abandonment by the international community," Richard Boucher, the State Department's top official for Afghanistan, told a Senate hearing on the turmoil in Afghanistan.
> 
> ...



Drawn and Quartered
NY Times, Feb 1, By SELIG S. HARRISON
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/opinion/01harrison.html?ref=todayspaper



> ...as matters stand, the Punjabi-dominated regime of Pervez Musharraf is headed for a bloody confrontation with the country’s Pashtun, Baluch and Sindhi minorities that could well lead to the breakup of Pakistan into three sovereign entities.
> 
> In that event, the Pashtuns, concentrated in the northwestern tribal areas, would join with their ethnic brethren across the Afghan border (some 40 million of them combined) to form an independent “Pashtunistan.” The Sindhis in the southeast, numbering 23 million, would unite with the six million Baluch tribesmen in the southwest to establish a federation along the Arabian Sea from India to Iran. “Pakistan” would then be a nuclear-armed Punjabi rump state.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (4 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February  4, 2008*

Rebuilding Afghanistan Impossible Without Combat: Gen. Hillier  
Friday, February 01, 2008
Article Link

Canada's top soldier says an Afghan governor accused of personally torturing prisoners has done some "phenomenal work" and that allegations against him have yet to be proven as fact. 

Hope the Leftists are listening this time. They've been listening so far when they found what he said to be convenient to their agenda. Will the Leftists still have an open mind now?

"Allegations are just that -- allegations obviously," Hillier told reporters.

Too bad the reporters seem to forget that allegations are only allegations and then proceed to make a big, incessant stink over allegations as if they were damning, proven facts.

Hillier also commented Friday on Canada's role in Kandahar. He said that Canadian soldiers cannot stay in the province and be expected to avoid combat. 

"Certainly if you're in Kandahar you're going to be in combat operations,'' Hillier told reporters after delivering a speech at an Arctic conference. 

"If you're there, you're going to be in the middle of a firefight some way or another.'' 
More on link

Lorne Gunter on Censoring Salman Hossain: The right to be loathsome
Posted: February 01, 2008, 1:00 PM by Dan Goldbloom  Lorne Gunter
Article Link

The tough thing about free speech is that the only true test of one’s belief in it comes from defending those one most vehemently opposes — not merely those one agrees with. The case of Salman Hossain, a Bangladeshi-Canadian university student from Mississauga, Ont., illustrates my point.

This past Monday, I penned a column castigating Canada’s politically correct bureaucrats, politicians and human rights investigators for abandoning the free-speech tenets of Western civilization in the face of a few loud complaints made by radical Islamists against writers they felt had slighted their faith. Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn are two prominent victims of this “suicide by tolerance,” whereby governments and human rights commissions permit the desire of favoured interest groups not to be offended to trump our ancient and immutable right to free speech.
More on link

Canadian takes command of 12,000 NATO troops
Updated Sat. Feb. 2 2008 10:08 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Dignitaries, politicians, and military officials attended a handover ceremony in Afghanistan Saturday where a Canadian has taken command of NATO troops in the country's southern region. 

Canadian Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard will lead 12,000 NATO soldiers that are part of the Regional Command South, which covers six Afghan provinces. 

Lessard will be in charge of the Taliban stronghold for the next nine months. The general admits the insurgents are gaining in strength. 

"The truth is there has been a 50 per cent increase in incidents," Lessard said. 

He's calling for aggressive war-fighting to combat the rising tide of violence. 

"In every occasion the Taliban were blocked, they didn't achieve any real success. So, what we are doing? We blocked in 2007. In 2008, we are going on the offensive," he said. 

Defence Minister Peter MacKay issued a statement saying that Lessard's new command "clearly demonstrates Canada's leadership role within NATO and the international community in bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan." 

Battling the Taliban, however, will likely lead to more Canadian and NATO casualties. That could make things difficult for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is lobbying NATO leaders to dispatch another 1,000 combat troops to the frontlines
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What he said...  
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Article Link

The inimitable Chris Taylor thought this too political to cross-post to The Torch. I disagree: we call bullshit on politicians all the time, as required. And right now, Rae requires it.

* * *

Rae to Hillier: STFU killbot, we know what we're doing

A lot of folks are incapable of hearing the truth, particularly if they are politicians or those whose livelihood depends on politicians.


OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's top soldier, in a move sure to be appreciated by the minority Conservative government, dismissed on Friday proposals made by the main opposition party that the military mission in Afghanistan refrain from combat operations next year.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants Canada's 2,500 troops in the southern city of Kandahar to stay in Afghanistan beyond the scheduled end of their mission in February 2009.

The opposition Liberals -- who are keeping the government alive in Parliament -- say they will only back an extension if the troops focus solely on training Afghan troops. So far 78 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan.

General Rick Hillier, the blunt-spoken chief of the defense staff, told reporters there was no chance of the soldiers being able to avoid clashes with Taliban militants.

"If you're in Kandahar, you're going to be in combat operations ... the Afghan army is not yet capable enough to be able to handle security by itself," he said when asked about the Liberals' position.
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Military turns to technology to fight deadly roadside bombs
 TheStar.com - Canada - February 01, 2008 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
  Article Link

Allocates $5 million to deal with deadly threat

OTTAWA–The military has set aside $5 million to commission new technologies to help locate roadside bombs in Afghanistan. The forces are also in the market for two "neutralization vehicles" that can detect and dismantle landmines to clear the way for soldiers.

The "urgent" search for new methods to combat the scourge of improvised explosive devices comes after a month in which the Taliban's weapon of choice has killed four Canadian soldiers in Kandahar province. 

Since 2005, when the Canadian Forces were sent to southern Afghanistan, there have been 34 successful attacks by roadside bombs. Twenty-eight soldiers have been killed and 72 have been wounded, according to statistics published on the Canadian American Strategic Review website.

The search for new ways to detect hidden explosives has been put on a fast track so that proposals from both industry and academia will be given the green light by mid-April. Defence Research Development Canada, the new-technology wing of the Canadian Forces, is specifically seeking new ways to predict the threat of bombs through intelligence gathering, behavioural analysis and "psychological operations."
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Afghan-Canadians say their insights on homeland largely untapped by Ottawa
Article Link

When Waheed Soroor sings of Afghanistan, it's of a country of peace, of celebration and of love.

The Toronto-based musician performs mostly for fellow Afghan-Canadians. But as politicians debate and soldiers fight over the future of his homeland, Soroor wishes he could sing to them of what he wishes for Afghanistan.

He and other Afghan-Canadians say the government hasn't tapped the skills, experience and insight of the Afghan diaspora in Canada, potentially losing out on a vast store of knowledge that could benefit Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

"There's a lot of intellectuals, a lot of people that we have that I don't believe are involved in this process," Soroor said.

He points to his parents as an example. Both were active members of Kabul's arts community until the family fled the country in 1982. They still maintain close ties with people there.

Soroor said the government has never asked for their input on what their fellow citizens might need and want from Canadians.
More on link

Top soldier praises Kandahar governor
BRIAN LAGHI , CAMPBELL CLARK and PAUL KORING February 2, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA, WASHINGTON -- Canada's top soldier says the governor of Kandahar province is doing "phenomenal work," and that allegations of torture against him are up to Afghans to investigate.

And while the opposition asked why Canadians weren't informed about the allegations 10 months ago, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the prisoner who made the charges against Governor Asadullah Khalid was not handed over by Canadians and that it's an issue for Kabul to deal with.

The two men made their remarks as opposition members demanded that the Harper government put pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to investigate the allegations. They also wanted to know what the Department of Foreign Affairs did with the information and why it has taken this long for it to emerge.

General Rick Hillier confirmed he was aware of allegations against the governor, but said it is up to the Afghan government to deal with them. He also praised Mr. Khalid for the work he has done in Kandahar.
More on link

J.L. Granatstein on Canada's Role Abroad: Mike Pearson's true heir: Stephen Harper
Posted: February 02, 2008, 1:30 PM by Dan Goldbloom 
Article Link

In many of the recent interviews he gave after the report of his Afghanistan Panel appeared, John Manley made crystal-clear that Canada’s mission in Kandahar serves to uphold the United Nations Charter. As a card-carrying Liberal, he did not hesitate to add that, “Lester Pearson’s fingerprints are all over the charter.”

He was right. Pearson’s hand was evident in all the decisions and policies that established the fundamental Canadian foreign-policy values that we cherish. They are liberal values, and they have been Liberal values, too.

We need to remember that Mike Pearson served in the Great War in a hospital unit and as a trainee pilot. He saw the death of his generation, the loss of many close friends. He joined the Department of External Affairs late in the 1920s, and he watched the failure of appeasement during the Great Depression. As a senior diplomat in London, Ottawa and Washington during the Second World War, he was one of the Canadians who helped to hold together the Allied coalition that defeated Hitler.

And he drew the lessons of the Second World War properly. Collective security was the answer, and the United Nations Charter called for the nations of the world to unite to crush aggressors.
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Warsaw antes up
Poland's foreign minister pledges air support for Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan
Michael Petrou | Feb 4, 2008 | 12:19 am EST
Article Link

Also at Macleans.ca: Paul Wells follows rumblings that French paratroopers may soon join Canadian troops in Kandahar
Poland is putting two of the eight helicopters it is sending to Afghanistan "at the disposal of Canada," the country’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, disclosed Sunday in an interview with Maclean’s.
The pledge goes some way toward meeting the conditions Prime Minister Stephen Harper has placed on extending Canada’s military mission in Kandahar province beyond February 2009. Harper accepted the recommendations of an independent panel chaired by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley, which argued that Canadian soldiers should stay in Kandahar on two conditions–that they are joined by another battle group of about 1,000 soldiers and that they secure the use of helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.
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Afghan mission tough PR sell
 Insider, critics, Manley all say tight-lipped style is failing Canadians
Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa bureau chief
Article Link

OTTAWA–Several times a week, senior federal officials gather by phone to plot strategy for pitching the controversial Afghan mission to Canadians.

They dial in from defence headquarters, foreign affairs, the RCMP and the Canadian International Development Agency. Sandra Buckler, the prime minister's director of communications, is an occasional participant.

Moderated by David Mulroney, the foreign affairs official who leads the Afghanistan task force, the phone calls are a key part of Ottawa's public relations campaign for handling the issues and problems that surround the mission.
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'Our hearts are breaking with them'
Canada's top general speaks on coping with loss and the military's good work in Afghanistan
Donna Jacobs, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Monday, February 04, 2008
Article Link

In an interview for last week's column, Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff, answered the controversial question: Why are Canadian troops at war in Afghanistan?

A soldier's wife responded: "My spouse and his son are both military and both would follow him to hell and back. General Rick speaks for the troops as much as he does himself and calls the situation as he and they see it.

"Duty, courage and honour are traits clearly embodied in both. The responsibilities of being a citizen -- not only of Canada but of the world -- are as great and onerous as the rights and freedoms are benefits.
More on link

Analysts fear government creating "fog over information"
Norma Greenaway, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, February 03
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Since getting a tongue-lashing from the Manley panel, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has offered a mea culpa of sorts for not being open enough with the Canadian public about what's going on in Afghanistan, and he has promised to try to do better.

Well, don't hold your breath, government analysts advise. 

Robert Marleau, the information commissioner of Canada, says that contrary to Harper's election pledge to make transparency a hallmark of his administration, a "fog over information" has crept across the government's activities.
More on link


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## GAP (5 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 5, 2008*

Freedom for sale in Afghanistan jails
Posted in Governance by afghandevnews on February 5th, 2008 
Article Link

 Report says bribes for Taliban detainees vary from a few hundred dollars to more than $10,000
* Bribes do not work with US troops and Afghan National Army 

LAHORE: Corrupt Afghan policemen, judges and jail authorities are sabotaging the war on terror in Afghanistan by releasing captured Taliban militants from jails in exchange for bribery, according to a recent Newsweek report. 

It says that hundreds of captured militants every year appear to be buying their way out of official custody. 

The magazine quotes National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman Saeed Ansari as denying the charges that the directorate has ever taken payment for releasing prisoners. 

The NDS is controlled by a powerful and nearly untouchable political clique from the Panjshir valley, and runs its own secret court system, according to the report. 

Canadian troops in Afghanistan stopped transferring captured Taliban to the directorate three months ago, because of allegations of NDS torture and corruption, the report says. 

Abdul Bari, a Taliban field officer, tells the magazine about how he bought his way out of an Afghan jail. According to Bari, he was arrested a little more than a year ago while visiting his relatives in Kabul. The police was only able to seize a handbook from him on which he had scribbled his will. That evening, the city’s deputy police chief paraded handcuffed Bari on television, and called him the leader of a suicide bombers’ squad who was aiming to target the capital. The next day Bari was handed over to the NDS. He was expecting more than a decade in the prison – if he survived torture in NDS jails. 

Newsweek quotes the Taliban militant as saying that his cousin, a female in her 20s, managed to visit him in the jail after bribing officers to stop torturing Bari. “Instead of being hauled before a clandestine NDS court and sentenced, Bari was back in the field with Taliban forces after 52 days of his arrest. The price, he says, was $1,100 in bribes to NDS officers,” the report says. 

Bari also tells the magazine that main conversation topic among Taliban inmates is how to arrange bribes for their release, adding that 60 to 70 percent of the Taliban detained by the local police are freed as soon as payoffs can take place. 

The report also quotes a senior government official as saying that his forces have sent “a significant number” of Taliban detainees to Kabul with “strong evidence”. 
More on link

Christopher Sands on counter-insurgency: Lessons from Baghdad
Posted: February 04, 2008, 1:30 PM by Dan Goldbloom  Christopher Sands
Article Link

U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, unlike his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld, is known as someone with good manners (he was an Eagle Scout, after all) and the quiet manner of a consummate Washington insider (he was a CIA agent, National Security Council staffer and eventually director of the CIA).

It surprised a lot of people then, when he gave a Jan. 16 interview to the Los Angeles Times in which he criticized the level of training of non-U.S. NATO forces deployed in southern Afghanistan — a contingent that includes more than 2,500 Canadians taking part in the United Nations-sanctioned and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Canada’s commitment to the ISAF in Afghanistan is scheduled to end on Feb. 1, 2009 — just 12 days after the next U.S. president is sworn in. That’s before any cabinet secretaries will be in place, including Gates’ successor, who will face a serious challenge when it comes to replacing the Canadians. Unlike some NATO countries, Canada has been willing to send troops to engage in combat operations, and not just for guard duty in relatively safe parts of the country.

Public criticism is a poor reward for any ally willing to put its young soldiers in harm’s way — what was Gates thinking?

It turns out that Gates — who has since apologized, calling Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay personally to reassure him that Canada’s sacrifices were much appreciated — was reflecting a growing consensus among Washington military strategists.

The new U.S. counter-insurgency strategy developed by General David Petraeus began showing remarkable results in Iraq in 2007, and it won broad respect among U.S. military planners. Before long, there was a clamour to bring this approach to Afghanistan and the Pakistan border region, where al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are reputedly hiding.
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Dion to meet with Harper over Afghan mission
Juliet O'Neill ,  Canwest News Service Published: Monday, February 04, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA - Stephane Dion, whose Liberal party likely will have the deciding vote on Canada's future military role in Afghanistan, appeared to leave little room for negotiation when he takes part in a rare meeting Tuesday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss government plans for the combat mission.

Dion told reporters Monday he is firm in his position that Canada's combat mission in Kandahar should be ended as scheduled in February, 2009, and he "obviously" will not allow a free vote by Liberal MPs on a government motion that is expected to seek an extension.

Dion shot down a call last week by Keith Martin, Liberal Development critic, for a free vote. On Friday, a Dion official said it was premature to decide until Parliament knows exactly what Harper is going to propose. Monday, Liberal Defence critic Denis Coderre said: "We will vote as a party." 
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Canadian prison makes sense
The Gazette Published: 7 hours ago
Article Link

Canada is reported to be considering building a prison for its own use inside the enormous Afghan prison in Kabul. The Kabul prison, Pul-e-Charkhi, currently holds 3,200 prisoners, some political, others ordinary criminals. Pul-e-Charkhi is a compound, made up of a number of buildings, most in an advanced state of disrepair.

A prison within a prison, administered by Canadians and holding prisoners captured by Canadian forces, might make a kind of bizarre sense, but only temporarily. It will take a good two years before the Afghan prison system will be well enough administered to be free of abuse, the Afghanistan Compact has estimated. (The compact is a framework for co-operation negotiated by Afghanistan, the United Nations and the international community.)
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Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul Monday, 4 February 2008 
Article Link

Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.

The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the Taliban without permission from the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, despite Gordon Brown's pledge that Britain will not negotiate. The Prime Minister told Parliament on 12 December: "Our objective is to defeat the insurgency by isolating and eliminating their leaders. We will not enter into any negotiations with these people."

The British insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents
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Army depleted by long-term sick and injured: report
Article Link

LONDON (AFP) — The manpower strength of the army has been markedly depleted by sickness and injury, The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday.

According to figures it obtained from the Ministry of Defence, of the 10 battalions that recently deployed to, or are currently in, Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 400 soldiers were left behind because they were "unfit to deploy".

That works out to around one in every 14 of the soldiers that were sent to the two countries.

The report comes after a parliamentary committee warned a week ago that pressure on Britain's military to meet its commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq has battered morale and spurred experienced officers to leave.

There are currently 7,700 British troops in Afghanistan, with a further 4,500 in Iraq.

According to the Telegraph, among the battalions that had to leave soldiers behind were the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, currently in Afghanistan's restive southern Helmand province, which had 50 long-term sick troops.

The 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery also had to leave behind nearly a tenth of its 388 soldiers.
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Women, children killed in southern Afghanistan raids
Article Link

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — Raids by Afghan and NATO troops against Taliban insurgents in southern and southwestern Afghanistan killed several civilians, among them children, local officials said Monday.

Ten people were killed in southwestern Farah province and two others were killed in southern Helmand province, they said. Authorities from Farah gave conflicting figures for the number of civilians killed.

The strike in Farah late Sunday, involving ground and air forces, took place in Bakwa district, which has seen a series of attacks by fighters with the Taliban movement, in government between 1996 and 2001.

The governor of Bakwa district said that two women and three children were among the dead and only one Taliban fighter was killed.

"A Taliban commander had been invited to the house," said Khan Agha. "In the operation nine people were killed, which includes two women and three kids." The rest were men.

But provincial governor Ghulam Mohaidun Balouch said that out of 10 people killed in the raid on a Taliban "cell" most were rebels.
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Japan mulls providing another $110 mln in aid to Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-05 17:34:39     
Article Link

    TOKYO, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government is ready to provide 110 million U.S. dollars in fresh aid to Afghanistan to assist the nation's reconstruction process, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday. 

    Among the sum of assistance, about 90 million dollars will be implemented for projects around the Afghan borders with Pakistan and Iran, the foreign minister said in his speech at the opening session of a two-day Afghanistan reconstruction international conference. 

    Japan also intends to implement assistance of about 13 million dollars for enhancement of literacy through UNESCO and of about 9 million dollars for enhancement of border management through Afghanistan government, Komura said. 

    Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta in his part expressed gratitude for the international community's assistance to his country and called for continuous support for Afghanistan's reconstruction and development. 
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## MarkOttawa (6 Feb 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB.6

Afghanistan: time for a decision
Conference of Defence Associations' media roundup, Feb. 6
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1202328505

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (6 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 6, 2008*

Manitoba launches yellow ribbon drive
 TheStar.com - February 05, 2008 THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

WINNIPEG–Manitoba's NDP government is endorsing a campaign by two retired soldiers to send hundreds of yellow ribbons to Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan.

Premier Gary Doer says it's important to show support to the soldiers for their bravery, and to the troops' families for their sacrifice.

About 800 Manitoba-based soldiers will be heading to Afghanistan over the next few weeks.

Ribbons will be located at Winnipeg malls and several legions across southern Manitoba, making it easy for people to support the soldiers, says retired lieutenant-colonel Joe Greenberg, one of the campaign's organizers.

Organizers hope to collect 10,000 signatures.

The ribbons will be sent to Kandahar sometime in the spring, along with flags from Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg.
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A certain Afghan seems to be confusing...  
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Article Link

...special forces operations with Petraeus-style counterinsurgency:

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- As the most powerful Afghan official in the troubled southern province of Kandahar, Ahmed Wali Karzai says he knows just how to tame the shadowy Taliban campaign of suicide bombs and assassinations that have raised the specter of a country sliding toward anarchy. 

He wants more American soldiers on the ground."The Canadians are fine, but Americans are Americans -- the mentality is different," said Karzai, chairman of the provincial council in Kandahar where the Canadian-led military mission has struggled to contain the regrouped Taliban.

Amid the recent deluge of discouraging reports citing declining security in swaths of southern Afghanistan, Karzai's is a rare voice of optimism, claiming that U.S. special forces already have begun to turn the tide in Kandahar with targeted strikes against individual commanders of the fundamentalist group, which was ousted from power six years ago.
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Kandahar police shoot it out with new foe – themselves
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail February 6, 2008 at 4:44 AM EST
Article Link

For the third time in recent months a gunfight erupts within the ranks of area security forces, leaving three officers dead 
GRAEME SMITH 

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The biggest firefight in Kandahar city over the past few weeks was not a battle against insurgents but a squabble among Afghan police, the provincial police chief has confirmed.

Local radio initially reported that gunfire heard in Kandahar's northern slums on Sunday afternoon was a skirmish between police and Taliban, but witnesses later said the fighting erupted after local police caught a group of fellow officers trying to buy opium.

Three police were killed and five wounded and a civilian was injured in the crossfire, Police Chief Sayed Agha Saqib said.

It's at least the third time in the past eight months that deadly gunfights have erupted within the ranks of Kandahar's security forces, even after Canada has focused attention on training the police and Canadian politicians describe Afghan forces as taking greater responsibility for local security.
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Canada won't build, run Afghan jails, Bernier says
 TheStar.com - February 05, 2008 THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

OTTAWA–Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier says Canada won't build a detention facility in Afghanistan or participate in the management of its prisons, despite suggestions that doing so might keep local authorities from abusing enemy captives.

"We will not be building a prison in Afghanistan; we will not manage a prison in Afghanistan," he told the House of Commons during question period on Tuesday.

"We are there to help the Afghan government and people to achieve prosperity and security in their country."

One way to protect enemy prisoners from abuse at the hands of Afghan authorities is to have Canadian and NATO officials help manage jails, lawyers for a pair of human-rights groups said in a court document filed last week.

Attorneys for Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association made the suggestion in a Federal Court document as part of their effort to block transfers of prisoners to Afghan control.

"Co-management of detention facilities by Afghan authorities and Canadian, NATO or other international officials could be one option that provides substantive safeguards against torture until Afghan officials have developed the capacity and training to reliably meet international standards," they said.
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Senior Khadr found Canada boring: book
New Biography; Extremist did not stay long in 'dirty swamp'
Stewart Bell, National Post  Published: Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Article Link

The late extremist Ahmed Khadr found Canada boring and only returned to the "dirty swamp" of Canada for medical treatment and money, says a new biography by al-Qaeda sympathizers.

The patriarch of the Khadr family, whose son Omar is before a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal this week, is one of 120 dead terrorists featured in a book published online by the Al-Fajr Media Center.

The flowery tribute portrays the Egyptian-born Khadr as little more than a Canadian of convenience, who retreated here only to collect money and have his war wounds treated. It also provides a glimpse of the disdainful way extremists view Canada.

"After much hesitation he [Khadr] decided to go to Canada, the country of money and business, and there he roamed the alleys of false civilization," it says, but he joined the Muslim Brotherhood and moved to Pakistan in 1985.

"And after staying a long time, the philanthropist went back 
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## MarkOttawa (6 Feb 2008)

Vote on Afghan mission could come in late March
Canwest News Service, Feb. 6
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=387293ff-472c-4fe1-a98c-40ad11b9d769&k=34216



> The Harper government will set the stage for a possible spring election on Canada's role in the Afghanistan war by tabling a motion as early as Thursday calling for an extension of the mission in line with last month's Manley report.
> 
> Debate on the motion is expected to begin next week, but it is not clear when a vote will come. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office suggested Wednesday the debate could last for weeks.
> 
> ...



NATO defence ministers to confront Afghan divisions
Canwest News Service, Feb. 6
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=a736b670-233c-4c10-a9ac-07752626ea78&k=91755



> VILNIUS, Lithuania - Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay heads today into a potentially acrimonious meeting of western allies deeply divided over the war against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
> 
> NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is expected to urge the alliance's 26 members to show greater solidarity and end the public finger-pointing.
> 
> ...



France could answer Canada's call for troops in Kandahar
Canwest News Service, Feb. 6
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=c6bd897d-636e-4bcb-976e-6d3f6e2cdc81



> OTTAWA - France is seriously considering a military contribution to southern Afghanistan, fuelling optimism NATO won't have to do without Canadian troops in volatile Kandahar.
> 
> French President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to be seriously considering Canada's position that it would withdraw its 2,500 combat troops from Kandahar next year unless another NATO country can supply an additional 1,000 troops.
> 
> ...



Germany Sending Small Combat Unit to Afghanistan
_Spiegel Online_, Feb. 6
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,533574,00.html



> The German government said on Wednesday it will send a unit of combat troops to northern Afghanistan as part of a NATO Quick Reaction Force to replace a Norwegian unit of 250 soldiers. But it reiterated its rejection of US and NATO calls to deploy troops to help its allies fight the Taliban in the south.
> 
> The German government on Wednesday rejected accusations from NATO allies that it wasn't bearing its fair share of the burden in Afghanistan and reiterated its refusal of a US request for German troops to be deployed from the relatively peaceful north to help fight a Taliban insurgency in the south.
> 
> ...



No retreat from the War on Terror
If the West backs out of Afghanistan the consequences would be plainly catastrophic
_The Times_, Feb. 5, by David Aaronovitch 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/article3308248.ece



> In recent days, and unsurprisingly, it has become common to hear the mournless rites being read for liberal interventionism. If anyone has opined publicly about Afghanistan in the last week - and plenty did - it was to regret our presence there and to wish us away. If ever an argument was being won by default this was it, especially since those making the case for quitting were far too exuberant to want to slow up and allow for the possible objections to their reasoning...
> 
> In the current circumstances of the failure of the opium strategy, the bloody fighting in Helmand, the row inside Nato and the argument about Paddy Ashdown's unacceptability to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, much of this pessimism seems appropriate. But if we are to follow its dictates, its proponents should do a better job of spelling out what it means. Anyone who still favours a military presence is easily decorated with the order of the armchair commentator, but let us see what other commentators are prepared to sit through.
> 
> ...



Mark 
Ottawa


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## GAP (7 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February  7, 2008*

Pakistan's Taliban offers truce, Army demurs
Militants in the country's tribal belt seem to be maneuvering for time and space, analysts say.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the February 7, 2008 edition
Article Link

New Delhi - In a curious development highlighting the confusion in Pakistan's tribal areas, the Taliban announced Wednesday it had declared a cease-fire with Pakistani forces. But Pakistani forces promptly denied it. 

It appears that the militants in the tribal belt are maneuvering for time and space. Taliban leader Mullah Omar has recently been trying to turn the Taliban's attentions toward Afghanistan, not Pakistan. This cease-fire claim could represent an effort to call off Pakistan operations so that the Taliban can refocus and regroup. 

If so, the Taliban are seeking to continue a trend that has played out repeatedly since Sept. 11, 2001: When the military has stepped in to contain unruly militants, the militants have reached cease-fires with the Army. 

"In the past, these cease-fires have resulted in militants being able to bide more time, build up resources, and then make much more effective attacks," says Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban." 

Most notably, the Army pulled out of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) entirely after a 2006 cease-fire in exchange for a promise from tribal chiefs to expel militants. The deal is seen as a failure that allowed the number of Mmilitants to grow tremendously. 

Instead of withdrawal, experts say, a cease-fire should lead to greater Pakistani engagement with tribes in FATA, which have ruled themselves with little state interference for a century. But since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have crossed from Afghanistan into the tribal areas and supplanted local tribal chiefs. They have killed many who opposed them; most moderate tribal leaders have fled to Peshawar or Lahore. 
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France mulls troops for mission in south
NATO defence ministers meet
Mike Blanchfield and peter O'neil,  Canwest News Service  Published: Thursday, February 07, 2008
Article Link

France is seriously considering a military contribution to southern Afghanistan, fuelling optimism NATO won't have to do without Canadian troops in volatile Kandahar.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to be giving thought to Canada's position that it would withdraw its 2,500 combat troops from Kandahar next year unless another NATO country can supply an additional 1,000 troops.

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, spoke to Mr. Sarkozy on Tuesday by telephone and relayed the core demand of the report by the independent panel headed by former Liberal Cabinet minister John Manley: that Canadian troops would not stay in southern Afghanistan past February, 2009, unless the extra troops were found.

In Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO defence begins two days of meetings, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is expected to urge the alliance's 26 members to show greater solidarity and end the public finger-pointing.

There are fears the public spat could bury recent good news, from NATO's perspective, such as Belgium's commitment of four fighter jets and an extra 140 soldiers this year.
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NATO talks might get nasty
 TheStar.com - February 07, 2008 Mitch Potter EUROPE BUREAU
  Article Link

Canadian arm-twisting for more troops will coincide with pressure on some allies to step up

VILNIUS, Lithuania–A final flurry of diplomatic shrapnel flew in all directions yesterday as embattled NATO leaders gathered for the first in a series of crucial meetings that could determine Canada's fate in Afghanistan.

Defence ministers of the 26-nation alliance, including Canada's Peter MacKay, sit down today in the Lithuanian capital ostensibly to lay the groundwork for what promises to be a decisive NATO spring summit in Bucharest.

But even before the sessions began, the already fractious alliance was scolded anew by fresh broadsides from the United States and Britain aimed at overcoming European reluctance to increase its military footprint in Afghanistan.

In Washington, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the disproportionately heavy duties carried by Canadians, British, Australians, Dutch and Danes "put a cloud over the future of the alliance."

"I worry a great deal about the alliance evolving into a two-tiered (NATO), in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect peoples' security and others who are not," Gates said during U.S. Senate defence spending hearings.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament "we need a proper burden sharing" in Afghanistan. In a separate meeting, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the U.K. would maintain but not increase the 7,700 soldiers it commands in the southern province of Helmand.

"I do think the alliance is facing a real test here," Rice told reporters. "Our populations need to understand this is not a peacekeeping mission," but rather a long-term counter-insurgency, she said.
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CIDA minister says 'PR' Afghan aid project not in the cards
Mike Blanchfield ,  Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canada does not need a "signature" aid project in Afghanistan, says the federal minister whose department was the subject of scathing criticism by the Manley report.

Commenting publicly for the first time since the criticism, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda poured cold water on the recommendation for "at least one 'signature' project (a hospital, for example, or a major irrigation project) identified with Canada and led by Canadians."

Oda said the Canadian International Development Agency doesn't do projects "for purely PR purposes."

"Just to do a signature project for the sake of it certainly is not what motivates our decision-making," Oda said, before admitting that CIDA would be looking at ways to increase the visibility of Canada's much-maligned aid delivery in southern Afghanistan.

"When you say signature, you know, do you expect the Canadian flag there? You have to actually try to determine what you mean by signature project?"

Former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley called on CIDA to refocus its delivery of aid in Afghanistan, including picking a "signature" project to show a tangible gain in helping rebuild Afghanistan.

Manley criticized the management of CIDA's few staff on the ground in Afghanistan as a cloistered group, hamstrung by rules and procedures back in Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper later said he wanted Canada's aid projects to have a "higher profile."
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Few can meet Canada's Afghan troop demand: MacKay
CAMPBELL CLARK  Globe and Mail Update February 7, 2008 at 8:10 AM EST
Article Link

VILNIUS — Canada is hoping to find a single country willing to send 1,000 troops to Kandahar, but Defence Minister Peter MacKay conceded today it might come down to cobbling together smaller contingents from several countries.

On the first day of a meeting of NATO defence ministers, Mr. MacKay noted there are a few countries that might be able to meet Canada's demand for 1,000 reinforcements – including the U.S. and Britain, which already have troops in southern Afghanistan, or possibly France – but noted that last year the Dutch had to rely on smaller deployments from several allies.

“The Dutch were able to – I don't mean to sound derogatory – cobble together a combination of countries to fit the bill,” Mr. MacKay told reporters. “Our preference would be a single commitment.”
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Kabul officials sent to monitor detainees
Move designed to assuage Canadian fears 
GRAEME SMITH From Thursday's Globe and Mail February 7, 2008 at 3:50 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Under pressure from Canada to act on allegations of abuse, the Afghan government has dispatched two senior intelligence officers to Kandahar in recent days to inspect detention cells and oversee the treatment of detainees.

The move was revealed by a member of Afghanistan's feared intelligence service at a meeting in Kabul yesterday with Canadian and NATO officials, and reflects the Afghan government's strong desire to persuade Canada it is safe to resume transferring detainees to local authorities.

It's part of Kabul's response to Canadian concerns about torture and mistreatment in Afghan custody, said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, who participated in the meeting.

"We hope it will pave the way for transfer of detainees," said Mr. Hakim, whose agency has been pushing for a resumption of the transfers that Canada halted in early November after finding evidence of abuse at the Kandahar National Directorate of Security.
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Canadians fired almost five million bullets in Afghanistan in two years
David ********, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA  -- Canadian troops fired more than 4.7 million bullets at insurgents over the last 20 months in Afghanistan, according to new statistics released by the military.

In an abrupt reversal tonight, the Defence Department issued the figures requested by the Ottawa Citizen two weeks ago. 

The request was made after U.S and British governments provided similar figures to the public.

But a top general warns Taliban insurgents based in the mountains around Kandahar are reading articles in the Ottawa newspaper on a regular basis and that the military has to be careful about what details it releases.

According to an e-mail from the Defence Department, for the period between April 2006 and December 2007, troops fired more than 2.9 million rounds of 5.56-mm ammunition, the standard bullet used in Canadian rifles. 

Troops fired more than 1.6 million rounds of 7.62-mm machine-gun bullets and more than 115,000 rounds of .50-calibre machine-gun ammunition during the same time frame. 
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Afghanistan to slash poppy production   
February 07 2008 at 06:24AM  
  Article Link

Tokyo - Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said on Wednesday that his country, the world's top source of opium, is determined to slash poppy production by 25 percent this year.

"Afghanistan believes we have only one choice," Spanta said. "Poppy can destroy us or we destroy the poppy. We don't have any other choice."

"We believe this year we can reduce 25 percent of poppy production in Afghanistan," said Spanta, who was in Tokyo to attend talks among the war-torn country's donors.

Afghanistan grows about 90 percent of the world's illicit opium with production hitting a new high last year.

A United Nations survey released earlier in the day said opium production may drop slightly this year from a record spike but that world-high cannabis output is likely to rise.
More on link


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## GAP (8 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 8, 2008*

France ready to help Canada in Afghanistan  
TheStar.com -  February 08, 2008  Mitch Potter EUROPE BUREAU
Article Link

VILNIUS, Lithuania–Canada throttled up the pressure on its NATO allies behind closed doors here yesterday, and France stepped up to give the strongest public signal yet that it stands ready to "help the Canadians."

As defence ministers gathered for a critical meeting on how alliance members are sharing the burden of fighting in southern Afghanistan, Canada's Peter MacKay delivered an ultimatum to some of the world's most powerful military leaders and reluctant NATO counterparts. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was to introduce a motion in the House of Commons today that would extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan beyond the scheduled pullout date of February 2009 if more NATO troops and equipment are sent to Kandahar to help. 

France's defence minister, Hervé Morin, was among those listening to MacKay's pitch and when he emerged from the closed-door meeting he announced that his country was ready to respond – significantly, and shortly.

"I said we would help the Canadians," Morin told reporters. But the details would have to wait until a final decision from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is leading a discussion within his government about its Afghanistan strategy.

"Give it a few more days and it necessarily wouldn't be a bad thing," Morin added.

Sources told The Canadian Press in Ottawa that Canadian officials were heading to Paris – and potentially to other locations – to thrash out the issue.

In France, Sarkozy's spokesperson David Martinon said no decision has been reached yet, but details emerged yesterday of intensive talks between officials from the two countries in the wake of a telephone conversation he had with Harper on Tuesday. 
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Numbers of wounded dropped sharply in 2007, military reports
GLORIA GALLOWAY  February 8, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The number of Canadian soldiers wounded in battle dropped significantly last year as direct gun battles with the Taliban appeared to decrease.

The Canadian Forces decided last fall that, for operational reasons, it would provide annual, rather than weekly, reports on military personnel hurt on overseas deployment.

The report made public yesterday showed that in 2006, 180 Canadian soldiers received medical treatment for wounds directly attributable to combat - including those who were injured by improvised explosive devices or hit by friendly fire, and people suffering from acute psychological trauma. In 2007, that number fell to 84.

The military did not explain the decline. But Stephen Staples, the director of the Rideau Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank on international affairs, said there is a general understanding that the Canadian military is doing less direct combat.
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Longer troop deployments urged
 TheStar.com -February 08, 2008 Mitch Potter EUROPE BUREAU 
Article Link

NATO commander says 6-month tours undertaken by Canadians in Kandahar too short to get job done

VILNIUS, Lithuania–Last month, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates frayed tender NATO nerves by suggesting some allied troops in southern Afghanistan come up short in the battle against insurgents. 

Now the senior U.S. commander on the ground in Afghanistan has elaborated on the theme, saying that six-month deployments such as those undertaken by Canadian soldiers lack the longevity to get the job done American-style.

In a blunt assessment of the alliance's shortcomings in Afghanistan, top NATO commander Gen. Dan McNeill told reporters at the Pentagon he is hamstrung by "a minimalist force" too few in number and too burdened by political and military obstacles to match the counter-insurgency efforts of U.S. troops.

Praising the "absolutely amazing" progress in U.S.-controlled sectors of eastern Afghanistan against the struggles encountered by Dutch, British and Canadian troops in the south, McNeill contrasted the elongated 15-month rotations of American troops against the six-month rotations that are the norm for Canadian soldiers.

"What does 15 months mean? The American soldier ... develops a relationship with the terrain, with the indigenous people and their leadership, and with the enemy. And they have sufficient time to exploit that relationship to their advantage," McNeill said. "Secondly, ... Congress well endows the commanders in the U.S. sector with reconstruction money, bureaucratically unencumbered, more or less, so that they can apply those monies in a pure and comprehensive way in counter-insurgency operations, and they can see to immediate and genuine needs, not just once."

Asked to contrast that approach against other nations involved in the fractious south, where most of Canada's 2,500 troops are deployed, McNeill said: "Most of the other forces are typically on a six-month tour length. They probably are not as well-endowed by their governments as U.S. soldiers are. Some of them don't have the same level of pre-deployment training."
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NATO chief says Afghan government must improve
Article Link

VILNIUS (AFP) — The NATO chief on Friday called on Afghanistan to improve its government and boost support for its security forces to step up the fight against the Taliban.

Speaking at a NATO defence ministers meeting dominated by the conflict in Afghanistan, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned that "governance must visibly improve."

The ministers set aside a dispute over foreign troop levels in the country to discuss international aid for Afghanistan with representatives of the United Nations, European Union, World Bank and Afghanistan's Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

"Governance must visibly improve, so that the Afghan people have trust in their leaders," the NATO chief told the meeting.

"The police need robust support to develop and they need it now. The narco-economy must be replaced by a legal, sustainable economy. And the Afghan army must get more support from NATO nations and from partners, to stand on its own feet and defend its own country," he added.

Scheffer said "NATO will play its part -- but NATO and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) are only part of the answer."
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Diplomat with 'encyclopedic knowledge' to lead civilian efforts in Kandahar
DANIEL LEBLANC From Friday's Globe and Mail February 8, 2008 at 5:00 AM EST
Article Link

OTTAWA — Ottawa is putting a new face at the top of its team in Kandahar, nominating diplomat Elissa Golberg to oversee Canada's mission in a province that needs aid and development to emerge from decades of war.

Ms. Golberg was named this week to the new position of representative of Canada in Kandahar, after having served as executive director of the Manley panel on the country's future role in Afghanistan.

In fact, her nomination is seen as part of the federal response to last month's Manley report, which urged the government to revamp its aid efforts and offer assistance that addresses the "immediate, practical needs of the Afghan people."

In previous years, the most visible elements of Canada's presence in Kandahar were the 2,500 soldiers in the province. But the internal announcement of Ms. Golberg's nomination made it clear that she will be at the top of the ladder in Kandahar, giving more prominence to Canada's civilian presence.
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Judge blasts Ottawa on Afghan detainees
Though court won't block transfers, human-rights groups hail ruling as proof existing safeguards cannot prevent prisoner abuse
PAUL KORING February 8, 2008
Article Link

A Federal Court judge has refused to block detainee transfers, but lambasted the Harper government for failing to put adequate safeguards in place to prevent prisoners from being tortured in the hands of Afghanistan's security forces.

In a ruling released yesterday, Madam Justice Anne Mactavish said she had "very real concerns as to the effectiveness of the steps that have been taken thus far to ensure that detainees transferred by the Canadian Forces to the custody of Afghan authorities are not mistreated."

However, she refused a request by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association for an injunction blocking all transfers. But she says those concerns are not an issue, at least for now.

"It is not clear at this point when, and indeed if, detainee transfers will ever resume," Judge Mactavish wrote.
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Pakistan's woes may be helping NATO in Afghanistan
Fri Feb 8, 2008 4:59am IST By Kristin Roberts and David Morgan
Article Link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political turmoil in Pakistan may have stemmed the flow of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters into neighboring Afghanistan, as militants shift their focus to the government of President Pervez Musharraf, U.S. officials say.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress this week that the Pentagon is trying to determine whether a drop in the number of fighters crossing into Afghanistan is a by-product of a suicide bombing campaign in Pakistan run by al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

"They (militants) are now facing the other direction and sending some resources to try and attack, to try and undermine Pakistani stability," Gates told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

The top commander of NATO troops in the eastern region of Afghanistan that borders Pakistan agreed, saying the number of fighters crossing into his area was down due in part to increasing security problems in Pakistan.

"Right now, as far as the infiltration, it's actually been a little bit down lately," Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez said.

"That's due to several reasons. One, of course, is the instability and what's going on in Pakistan and some of the challenges that are going over there, going over in Pakistan."

The reduced flow of fighters -- down as much as 40 percent since November, according to U.S. officials -- could mark a significant opening for the Afghan government, some officials said.
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Suicide car bomber kills three in Afghanistan
Fri Feb 8, 2008 5:27am EST
Article Link

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Feb 8 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber targeting an army convoy killed three people on Friday in Afghanistan, witnesses said.

The Afghan army convoy was passing along a road in Ghazni town which lies southwest of capital Kabul, they said.

Two civilians and one soldier were killed in the attack, which also wounded five more soldiers, they added.
More on link


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## GAP (9 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 9,2008*

'Never easy to leave your children'
By Sun Media
Article Link

There was hardly a dry eye in the house at Edmonton Garrison this morning as the first of 1,300 Edmonton-based soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. 

It was one of several deployments that will continue almost daily through February, as local soldiers rotate into Kandahar to relieve the Quebec-based troops currently stationed there. 

Today's group totaled 139 men and women from various units, including 3 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and 1 Service Battalion. 

Dubbed Task Force 1-08, the group represents the largest contingent of Edmonton-based troops to enter Afghanistan since a similar rotation in February, 2006. 

The lecture hall where the soldiers gathered to bid farewell to loved ones was filled with optimism, although dozens of spouses and children lost the battle to hold back their tears. 

"We're excited to be going, we've learned a lot since our last rotation and things are getting better for us over there," said Cpl. David Lefebvre, who leaves a wife and three children in Edmonton during his six-month tour. 
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'My men don't want to come back after 2009'
Much remains to be done in Kandahar, soldiers and civilians agree
Brian Hutchinson, Canwest News Service  Published: Friday, February 08, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- "My men don't want to come back after 2009," said the captain, a grizzled army veteran. A bold comment. Sitting across from him at the breakfast table, at a Canadian forward operating base in volatile Panjwaii district, was a full colonel.

The captain continued. "You know why? Because they're scared. It's f---ing dangerous out here." The colonel looked at him and said nothing.

But the remarks were notable.

They came as politicians in Canada prepare to debate the possible extension of the military's combat role in Kandahar beyond February, 2009. A motion to lengthen the mission was tabled inside the House of Commons in Ottawa on Friday.

In Kandahar, there is no clear consensus. Some, like the captain's troops in Panjwaii, are not keen on returning. Others are already steeling themselves mentally for another tour.
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Liberals reject Tory motion on Afghanistan
 TheStar.com -Feb. 9, 2008. February 09, 2008 ALLAN WOODS and bruce campion-smith in ottawa Petti Fong in vancouver
Article Link

 OTTAWA—Canadian troops would cut back on their combat role and focus on training Afghan security forces under a Conservative proposal to extend Canada’s military role in Kandahar to 2011.

But in a political standoff that could spark an election, the federal Liberals yesterday rejected the motion on extending the Afghan mission introduced yesterday by the Tories. The Liberals announced they’re planning their own “very detailed” recommendations for Canada’s Afghan mission that rule out combat altogether.

“We have a motion that we cannot accept today. We will come with our own proposal (next) week,” Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told reporters in Vancouver.

“If the government is intransigent and the government wants an election at any cost, we will have an election and we will win,” Dion said. “You ask me if an election is possible, everyone in Canada knows it’s possible.”

Dion even accused the minority Conservatives of deliberately setting up their own political demise on the issue to force an election.

“It is very difficult to keep alive a government that does not want to live,” he said. “The government is willing to go to an election and willing to go to any device to go to an election.”
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Pakistan military strikes ceasefire deal with Taliban
U.S. Caught Off-Guard 
Peter Goodspeed, National Post  Published: Saturday, February 09, 2008
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Desperate for a violence-free election on Feb. 18, the Pakistan military has orchestrated a ceasefire with the very Taliban leader they accused of ordering the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The deal was struck on Wednesday, after secret talks between Islamist fighters, tribal elders and Pakistan's military, but Islamabad officials would not confirm the pact.

While members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban group, led by al-Qaeda-linked commander Baitullah Mehsud, proclaimed a unilateral ceasefire, Hamid Nawaz, Pakistan's Interior Minister, insisted the government was simply ready for "dialogue" with the insurgents.
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Cold snap kills 760 in Afghanistan: authority
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KABUL (AFP) — More than 750 people have died in the harshest winter to have hit Afghanistan in decades, the disaster authority said Saturday.

More than 500 homes, mostly traditional mud brick houses, have been destroyed and tens of thousands damaged by the heaviest snowfalls in 30 years, said Ahmad Shkeb Hamraz, an official at the National Disaster Management Authority.

Nearly half the villages in the poverty-stricken country were still cut off from major cities, he told AFP.

"According to the latest figures, about 760 people have died since the start of the winter across the country," Hamraz said. "The figures are likely to increase as more information and data are being collected," he added.
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Much remains to be done in Kandahar
Brian Hutchinson ,  Canwest News Service Published: Friday, February 08, 2008
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-"My men don't want to come back after 2009," said the captain, a grizzled army veteran. A bold comment. Sitting across from him at the breakfast table, at a Canadian forward operating base in volatile Panjwaii district, was a full colonel.

The captain continued. "You know why? Because they're scared. It's f-ing dangerous out here." The colonel looked at him and said nothing.

But the remarks were notable.
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## GAP (11 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 11, 2008*

Canadians 'winning' in Kandahar, general says
Detailed assessment by top commander shows decrease in ambushes in key districts 
GRAEME SMITH From Monday's Globe and Mail February 11, 2008 at 4:51 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Secret military statistics show that Taliban attacks have decreased in Kandahar's core districts in the past year, illustrating the success of Canada's new strategy of pulling back its troops into the heart of the province, a top military commander says.

Insurgent ambushes have fallen in four of Kandahar's 17 districts as the latest rotation of troops has focused on protecting the vital zone around the provincial capital, said Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, although he did not give specific numbers.

The assertion that Canadian forces have created a bright spot amid the darkening security picture in southern Afghanistan represents the military's first detailed response to several academic reports in recent months that have described NATO as losing the war.

Gen. Gauthier, commander of all Canadian forces overseas, invited reporters for an unusually open discussion in Kandahar during the weekend, taking questions for nearly an hour in an attempt to show that his troops are making progress.
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Afghanistan: A Canadian soldier's second home  
Unfulfilled promise to expand Canada's military means individual soldiers return to war zone more often
OTTAWA MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press
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In the three years he's been married, Maj. Jay Adair has been either in Afghanistan or getting ready to travel to or from Afghanistan.

When he's not there, he's thinking about it. He keeps track of the soldiers and local people whom he befriended in Afghanistan.

Around home in Shilo, Man., Adair and his wife, Capt. Leslie Adair, an air force pilot, often talk about Afghanistan.
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An election call over Afghanistan? Bring it on
 TheStar.com - February 10, 2008 Thomas Walkom
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Stéphane Dion's Liberals wanted to avoid an election focused on Afghanistan. They will not get that chance. 

The resolution tabled in the Commons two days ago by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's governing Conservatives is blunt and to the point. Subject to conditions that now seem likely to be met, it calls for Canadians troops to stay on fighting in Kandahar until at least the end of 2011. 

It essentially says that those who don't support the government are sissies. And it dares the opposition to defy it.
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Back to Afghanistan
First group of local troops returns to Kandahar
By BROOKES MERRITT, SUN MEDIA 
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The local soldiers who began deploying to Afghanistan yesterday will wage a different war than the one they fought two years ago, their commanding officer said in a recent interview with Sun Media. 

This is the second mass rotation of Edmonton troops to Kandahar since 2006, and for the first time they will be embedding with the Afghan National Army and battalions, and Afghan police. 

They will do so under the guise of Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams (OMLT) - which the military affectionately calls "omelettes." 

Their job is to teach the skills needed to one day reclaim the country and maintain security without help from NATO. 

"There has been a lot of progress since our rotation in 2006 and we're excited to get back to Afghanistan," said Col. Jon Vance, commander of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group at Edmonton Garrison. 
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Afghan Debate Gets Ugly
Toronto Globe and Mail February 9, 2008 By Brian Laghi and Bill Curry, Globe and Mail
Ottawa seeks to extend mission as barbs fly in the Commons
Article Link

OTTAWA — The federal government moved yesterday to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan to 2011, prompting both the Conservatives and the Opposition Liberals to descend into political posturing that could define a coming election campaign.
If left unresolved, the gulf between the political parties could lead to a federal election campaign in the coming weeks, as the government declared that its parliamentary motion on the Afghan mission would be considered a vote of confidence.
Although both the Tories and the Liberals pledged an interest in co-operating on the issue, it took only a few hours before MPs began trading abrasive rhetoric.
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan accused the Liberals of sympathizing with the Taliban when he was asked about the policy of Canadian soldiers transferring captured prisoners into Afghan hands.
"What we will not do is what the agent for the Taliban intelligence agency wants us to do over here, which is release to them information on detailed operations in the field," he said in the House of Commons.
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Canadian Forces ads combining action with compassion more likely to appeal: study
Don Butler ,  Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, February 10, 2008
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OTTAWA - Recruiting ads that convey the excitement of a military career as well as the potential for helping others are most likely to appeal to Canadians. 

So says a study that pre-tested a new round of television and print ads being prepared as part of the Canadian Forces' ongoing "fight" recruitment campaign. The Decima report, dated Nov. 13, 2007, was recently posted on a government website. 

Decima tested five scenarios for TV ads and three print ads with 10 focus groups across Canada last fall to determine which were most effective. Another goal was to help the Department of National Defence understand the "values, motivators and reservations" that influence those considering a career in the military. Another conclusion was that many Canadians have "quite vague impressions" of what it's like to work in the Canadian Forces. The clearer their impression, though, the more positive it is. 

The research suggests there are two "primary drivers" that stimulate interest in a military career - excitement and risk, and helping others. Among parents, long-term career opportunities, financial support for education and helping people are major drivers. 

The drawbacks of a military career cited by participants include the risk of harm or death, being far from family and friends, discipline and rules, basic training and the possibility of having to harm another person. 

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Dion's ploy will get soldiers killed
 TheStar.com - February 11, 2008 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

Number of Canadian troops killed in combat in Afghanistan last year: 0.

This would be the combat component of the mission that Liberal leader Stéphane Dion wants ended by next February and upon which he seems prepared to trigger a national election that Canadians don't want.

Number of Canadian troops killed by improvised explosive devises in Afghanistan in 2007: 12.

Number of Canadian troops killed by roadside bombs and land mines in 2007: 11.

The last Canadian casualty in conventional combat – died fighting – came during the latter stages of Operation Medusa, four servicemen perishing during a ground offensive on Sept. 3, 2006.

Since that time, there have been deaths in rollovers, helicopter crashes, suicide bombings and accidents but none from aggressively engaging the enemy.

If Liberals are trying to spare Canadian lives – by venturing passively, ducking into calmer territory and promoting reconstruction in the absence of a secure environment – an anti-combat insistence is utterly without merit.
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French Rafale jets take off from Afghan base for first time
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KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AFP) — Two French Rafale fighter jets took off from the main NATO air base in southern Afghanistan for the first time Monday in support of international efforts against extremists.

The multi-purpose jets, which arrived at the base in the volatile southern province of Kandahar last week, set off on an air patrol with French Mirages also stationed at the Kandahar Air Field, an AFP correspondent said.

Rafale aircraft, in service for two years, took part last year in a four-month mission in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) but were then based in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.More on link

Have charter, won't travel
National Post  Published: Monday, February 11, 2008
Article Link

Thursday's federal court ruling on the treatment of Afghan war detainees made for a good news/bad news sort of occasion. The good news is that federal court Justice Anne Mactavish refused to order our soldiers to stop transferring enemy prisoners into the custody of the Afghan government. The bad news is that she based her judgment not on the merits of the case, but on the fact that Canada's recent decision to suspend such transfers temporarily has rendered the issue moot. Judge Mactavish's judgment leaves the door open for judicial intervention if circumstances require our soldiers to resume prisoner transfers at some future date.
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Afghan injured after vehicle fails to stop for Canadian convoy
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The military is investigating another shooting incident involving soldiers and Afghan civilians in Kandahar.

One person was injured Sunday after Canadian soldiers fired on a Toyota that ignored warnings to stop as it approached a convoy.

The convoy had been leaving the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team base on the outskirts of the city.

A military spokeswoman said a passenger in the vehicle was wounded and immediately taken inside the base for treatment. His injuries were described as superficial and he was released.

"It's always regrettable," Capt. Josee Bilodeau said of the incident. The military has launched an internal investigation.

Despite an increased public awareness campaign aimed at keeping Afghans away from military convoys, it's the second such reported incident in the last two weeks.

On Jan. 30, soldiers fired into the engine block of a car that approached a convoy moments after it had been the failed target of a suicide attack.
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Road paving in southern Afghanistan helps the living, honours the dead
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PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan - Roads are for the living but the Canadian military has begun a massive road-building project that will also honour the dead in one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

The $4.5 million project to pave 6.5 kilometres of road that a local elder called the "Spine of the Panjwaii" is a two-year undertaking that will give jobs to more than 400 Afghans.

It also demonstrates the Canadian military's efforts to stabilize the region west of Kandahar city.

Years of war, roadside bombs and the punishing extremes of weather have laid siege to the main route passing through Panjwaii district, the heartland of Kandahar province and birthplace of the Taliban.

Chunks of pavement are interspersed with gravel and sand, perfect hiding spots for the dozens of IEDs - improvised explosive devices - that have been sown along the road in the last two years.

"There's not a day where we don't hear about an IED on that road or find an IED on that road," said a Canadian soldier who works with the Afghan military.
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Report: Norway evacuates embassy in Afghanistan  
Article Link

Oslo (AP): Norway has evacuated all personnel from its embassy in the Afghan capital and sent them to secret locations after closing it because of terror threats, the Dagbladet newspaper reported Monday. 

The embassy was closed Sunday because of unspecified threats nearly four weeks after a suicide attack on a Kabul hotel killed eight people, including a Norwegian journalist. Norway's foreign minister was also there at the time, but was not injured. 

It was not clear how long the embassy would remain closed. 

A foreign ministry official said that the embassy had been evacuated, but refused to give any details, according to Dagbladet. 

``I will not comment on where the staff from the embassy are now staying,'' foreign ministry spokeswoman Kristin Melsom was quoted as saying. 

The ministry's duty spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. 
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3 policemen injured in bombing targeting provincial official in S Afghanistan  
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-11 18:34:15    
  Article Link

    KABUL, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Three policemen were injured when a convoy of governor hit mine planted by militants in Shah Wali Kot district of southern Afghan province of Kandahar Monday morning, said a statement from the governor house of Kandahar. 

    Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, was escorted to join a development project and deliver speech in Shah Wali Kot district when his convoy were struck by remote mines on the way, the statement said. 

    "Three policemen were injured, but Asadullah Khalid didn't get hurt," it said, " two suspected person have been arrested so far." 
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## GAP (11 Feb 2008)

Canada seeks refurbished U.S. army helicopters for use in Afghanistan
Article Link

LONDON - Canada's Defence Department has approached the Pentagon about obtaining as many as six refurbished U.S. army battlefield helicopters for use in Afghanistan, defence sources tell The Canadian Press.

The request for information was made as part of a worldwide search for medium-lift transport to get Canadian soldiers off the dangerous highways and biways of Kandahar.

Almost two years ago, Canada's air force was offered, but turned down access to used Chinooks under a program called Cargo Helicopter Alternate Procurement Strategy, or CHAPS.

With the Manley commission laying down helicopters as a requirement for extending Canada's mission, defence officials are scrambling to fill the order.

The helicopters said to be under consideration are 'D' model CH-47 Chinooks, a slightly older variety of the 'F' model Canada's air force hopes to buy, said a NATO source.

The aircraft would be refurbished by Boeing and would be available for delivery well within the one-year time frame set out by the independent commission.

"There's not a lot of time, but its doable," said a defence source.
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Australia kept in the dark on Afghanistan plans: Fitzgibbon
Posted Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:48am AEDT 
Article Link

Federal Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has accused the previous Coalition government of sending Australian soldiers to war in Afghanistan without seeing key planning documents.

Mr Fitzgibbon has returned from NATO talks in Lithuania and is confident a new strategy for defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan will emerge at the next summit in April.

But he says he is shocked that up until now, Australia has not had access to crucial information on NATO strategy.

"I'm frankly very surprised and disappointed that the former government was making decisions to send our men and women to war, and to keep them at war, without having a seat at the decision-making table - basically doing so on a no-questions-asked basis," he told ABC Radio's AM program.

"A government can't make informed decisions about whether to send our people to war and to lead them in the battlefield if it doesn't have information about the strategy and therefore can't make an assessment about the prospect of success."

Mr Fitzgibbon says he "made it clear" that from now on Australia would expect to have a say in NATO's decision-making on Afghanistan strategy.

And he says he received a personal assurance from NATO's secretary-general that he would do "all he can to address the situation".

Asked if AustraIia could realistically expect to have an influence on NATO decision-making he said: "I firmly believe we can".

"We have a lot to offer in this regard and as a country, making such a significant contribution relative to our size, and as a non-NATO country, we are entitled to have our say and I expect that we will get that opportunity in the future.
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Training IS combat  
Monday, February 11, 2008
Article Link

As the debate around the future of the Afghan mission heats-up, I've been reading from my previously mentioned media friends how the Conservatives’ proposed motion extending the mission is designed to give Stephane Dion and the Liberals an out. I don't buy it.

There is enough in the wording for Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion to bend from his implacable position that combat operations must cease by February 2009, while still not losing face -- or more importantly, to not appear to be a weak, indecisive leader.

The Conservative motion calls for an extension of Canada's military commitment to Afghanistan to the end of 2011, under certain conditions. It calls for a gradual drawing down of combat and aspires to more emphasis on training.
While all of this appears to fall short of Dion's core position -- stop shooting at the Taliban exactly one year from now -- there is enough in the wording for Dion to hang his political hat on.

No, there’s really not. The fact is, training can’t be spun as not combat, because training IS combat. Manley commission member Pamela Wallin said as much during a recent speech at the University of Toronto (paraphrased form my notes):

*They want us to train them, and that’s a large part of what we’re doing there. But training is fighting, there’s no place to go shoot practice rounds. We train them while they fight with us, and them we start to move into the background as they take over.
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Afghanistan's forgotten war  
By Osama Al Sharif, Special to Gulf News Published: February 10, 2008, 00:45
  Article Link

With media and public opinion attention focused almost exclusively on Iraq, it is sometimes easy to forget that there is another war going on in Afghanistan. And in recent weeks it appeared that America and its Nato allies are not sure of how to bring their seven-year campaign in that country to a satisfactory closure. 

But it is in that derelict country that the war on terrorism was launched following the attacks on America in September 2001. Coalition bombing and a land invasion by the Northern Alliance toppled the Taliban government and drove its fleeing supporters deep into Pashtun areas along the Pakistan borders. 

By mid-November 2001 it appeared that the Taliban movement was wiped out although its leader Mullah Omar and Al Qaida's Osama Bin Laden and most of his lieutenants remained at large. 

From there on the task of aiding the transitional government of President Hamid Karzai was handed over to the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), which is a Nato-led force whose initial mission was to secure Kabul against attacks by Taliban and Al Qaida. Today that force is more than 40,000 strong and its mandate has been expanded to cover the entire country. 
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Kandahar governor survives bomb attack  
Updated Mon. Feb. 11 2008 6:54 AM ET The Associated Press
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- The governor of an important and volatile southern province in Afghanistan escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded by his vehicle convoy, officials said.

The bomb, aimed at the convoy of Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid, wounded three civilians, Khalid's office said in a statement. Khalid was not wounded.

Kandahar is the former stronghold of the Taliban movement and is a major producer of opium poppies. The province has seen fierce fighting involving U.S., NATO and Taliban forces the last two years.

The blast against Khalid's convoy follows a suicide bomb attack that killed the deputy governor of neighbouring Helmand province late last month as he was praying inside a mosque in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.

Militants have often attacked governors and other officials affiliated with President Hamid Karzai's government in an attempt to weaken the government's command over the country. Khalid has survived previous assassination attempts.
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## MarkOttawa (11 Feb 2008)

Two Myths About Afghanistan (first part is about President Karzai)
_Washington Post_, Feb. 11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021001972.html


> ...
> Today, most Afghans are living in the best conditions they have ever known, slowly growing their country out of poverty. Most of the north and west is peaceful. Much of the east is, too, except some areas that are very undeveloped and very remote or directly border Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. American estimates for the 14 provinces and 158 districts of Regional Command East show that 58 percent of the kinetic activity there last year (direct fire, indirect fire and detonations of improvised explosive devices) occurred in three provinces (Konar, Paktika and Ghazni). Fifty-two percent occurred in 12 of the 158 districts, and about 75 percent took place in 30 of the districts.
> 
> The American war in Afghanistan is not a shooting war; most of our casualties are the result of IEDs, which insurgents use because they can't capture and hold territory, or prevail in firefights with American troops or the Afghan National Army (ANA). The numbers are not what many might think: In 2007, there were 89 suicide bombings and 94 car bombings..
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (12 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 12, 2008*

Canada boosts chopper firepower in Afghanistan
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Article Link

The Canadian military is looking at sending as many as six Griffon helicopters to Afghanistan to provide additional firepower and surveillance for troops.
Liberal Senator Colin Kenny said he has been told the Griffons will be used in an attack helicopter role and will be equipped with weapons and sensors needed to strike at enemy formations. The deployment of the choppers would be done as soon as possible, he said.
"It can't happen soon enough," said Mr. Kenny, chairman of the Senate defence committee. He has been pushing for the deployment of the Griffons to Afghanistan as a way to further protect Canadian troops and cut down on casualties. Canada does not have its own helicopters in Afghan-istan. Military officials, however, said a decision on the choppers has yet to be made, but planning on the option is advanced.
The idea of basing a "Griffon six-pack" in Kandahar is being proposed as one option for the Harper government, which has yet to approve the chopper deployment.
In addition, Public Works and Government Services Canada announced that it intends to award a sole-source contract to a U.S. firm for the purchase of three high-speed mini-guns to be installed on helicopters. The electrically-driven Gatling guns can fire up to 3,000 bullets a minute and the purchase includes the equipment to mount the weapons on to helicopters such as the Griffon.
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Dion camp stands united on Afghanistan
MPs overcome divisions to accept Liberal Leader's position on role of troops 
JANE TABER From Tuesday's Globe and Mail February 12, 2008 at 4:38 AM EST
Article Link

Liberal MPs overcame divisions and united behind Stéphane Dion's position that Canadian troops should stay in Afghanistan past 2009 in a "defensive-security" role, bringing the party a step closer to a compromise with the Conservatives.

The Conservatives have introduced a motion in the House of Commons to extend the combat mission to 2011. The vote on the motion, based on recommendations from a panel chaired by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley, will be considered one of confidence in the government.

Last night, the Liberal caucus agreed on an amendment to the motion that offers support for a military presence in the Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan to February, 2011, but makes no mention of a combat role. Instead, a source said, Canadian Forces would train the Afghan army and provide "defensive security" - in other words, militarily engage hostile forces only to protect themselves, civilians and development.
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Ambassador goes missing in Afghanistan
By Danny Kemp February 12, 2008 04:19pm Article from: Agence France-Presse
Article Link

PAKISTANI authorities are searching for the country's missing ambassador to Afghanistan after he was feared abducted in a troubled tribal area where Taliban militants are active.

The diplomat's disappearance yesterday highlighted the spiralling insecurity ahead of crucial elections next week in the nuclear-armed nation, a key ally in US efforts against Islamic extremism. 

The envoy, Tariq Azizuddin, was heading to the Afghan capital Kabul with his driver when they disappeared in the Khyber tribal district, a lawless northwestern region bordering Afghanistan, the foreign office said. 

"He has gone missing, we are confirming he is missing but at this stage I cannot give you any more details," foreign office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said. 
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Answer to Afghanistan question more complex than adding troops
 TheStar.com - February 12, 2008 James Travers Ottawa 
Article Link

Just weeks ago, John Manley's report was part of the Afghanistan solution. Now it's part of the problem. Instead of informing a complex debate, its pivotal recommendation is being used to force a simplistic political choice and perhaps a federal election.

To the beat of campaign drums, Stephen Harper is demanding a yes-or-no answer to a public policy question Manley panellist and former top mandarin Paul Tellier calls the most difficult in memory. Clever as ever, the Prime Minister is remanufacturing Manley's minimum condition for continuing the Kandahar mission into a vital component for Afghanistan success. 

Adding 1,000 NATO troops and more air support won't fix what's wrong with this attempted rescue of a failing state. As Manley found and studies warn, unco-ordinated strategies countering the insurgency, corruption and the booming opium business aren't working and demand hurried reconsideration.

That's not happening here. Neither the government's motion to stay the course at least until 2011 nor opposition objections come close to the heart of a matter costing lives and billions. What matters most is not how long the military stays or if its primary purpose is to fight, train, or reconstruct; it's what can reasonably be achieved.
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The Afghanistan question isn’t one for partisan political manoeuvering  
IRISHTOWN, BAY OF ISLANDS PAUL WILSON  The Western Star
Article Link

First, just a few facts. NATO forces entered Afghanistan late in 2001. In the final months of that year some 12 coalition troops died. In 2002 a further 69 died. In 2003 and 2004, 57 and 58 died. In 2005 130 died. In 2006, 191 died and in 2007, 232 died. 

You may rightly wonder just how effective the NATO occupation has been given the spiralling number of troop deaths.

The stated purpose of the coalition occupation of Afghanistan was to capture Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda fighters, and to replace the Taliban government with a stable pro-Western government. Neither of these objectives has been achieved.  Bin Laden is still free, and there is no stable government.  The Karzai government is largely ineffectual outside of Kabul and totally ineffectual in the southern parts of the vast country.

The occupation of Afghanistan was “justified” as a response to the bombing of the World Trade Centre — no Afghans were involved in the attack. Just fewer than 3000 people died in the 9/11 attack in New York. Many times that number of Afghan civilians have since died as a direct result of the occupation by NATO.   It is very difficult to get accurate figures, but many have died as a result of NATO air strikes against suspected Taliban or al Qaeda positions. For example, between 50 and 80 Afghan civilians were killed by NATO air strikes on the village of Hyderabad in southern Afghanistan on June 29, 2007.
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## MarkOttawa (13 Feb 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 13
Pause in Iraq Doesn't Harm Afghanistan War
_Washington Post_, Feb. 12, by William Arkin
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2008/02/pause_in_iraq_doesnt_harm_afgh_1.html?nav=rss_blog



> Lurking behind the many expressions of disappointment over Defense Secretary Robert Gates's decision to pause troop withdrawals from Iraq is not just politics and concern for the troops but also Afghanistan. For months, Iraq war opponents have been positing the second-class war as more central to the fight against terrorism, and there have been many voices in favor of the magic of a "surge" there to turn things around...
> 
> The Iraq versus Afghanistan contest seems all the more fitting given Gates' criticism of NATO allies for not doing more. Last week he called the alliance increasingly "two-tiered" and questioned why some were "ready to fight and die in order to protect people's security and others ... are not."..
> 
> ...



NATO's Afghan Stumbles
_Washington Post_, Feb. 13, by Michael Gerson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/12/AR2008021202000.html


> ...
> For two decades, NATO's main purpose has not been "to fight" but to earnestly debate its own role and relevance. And it does have an important role. The prospect of NATO expansion provides incentives for reform from the Balkans to Ukraine. And it seems wise to maintain a military alliance of democracies in Europe, with Russia increasingly convinced that one Cold War was not enough.
> 
> But by Gates's standard -- a willingness to share military burdens and sacrifice in a common cause -- NATO hardly exists. During the past 15 years, Europe has taken a peace dividend so massive that the slightest military exertion leaves it bent and gasping for air. And public support for the Afghan mission is shallow across Europe. More than 50 percent of Germans believe their nation should withdraw from Afghanistan. German authorities seem proud of resisting that pressure by maintaining a contribution of 3,200 troops -- a rather pathetic boast from a wealthy nation of 80 million people. Administration arm-twisting is likely to result in the contribution of few thousand additional troops by Germany and France. But no one believes this would mark a turning point in the Afghan war.
> ...



French decision on Kandahar still weeks away 
CP, Feb. 13
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2008/02/13/4843439-sun.html



> A fog of uncertainty could hover over Canadian politics for weeks as parties vote on the future of the Afghan mission and possibly even fight an election on it -- without being aware of one critical detail.
> 
> It's far from certain they will know whether Canada's NATO allies will provide the 1,000 troops the Conservatives have declared a key condition for continued involvement in Kandahar.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (14 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 14, 2008*

Germany may increase Afghanistan troops: The Frankfurter Rundschau
 Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Article Link

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition plans to discuss raising the upper limit on the number of troops Germany can send to Afghanistan under its parliamentary mandate, a paper reported on Thursday.
The Frankfurter Rundschau cited unnamed coalition sources as saying an increase of at least 500 troops was expected and that Germany's parliamentary mandate would definitely be changed.
The existing mandate, which expires in mid-October allows Germany to send up to 3,500 soldiers to Afghanistan.
The paper said a meeting to discuss the increase would include senior figures in Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), with whom she shares power.
The paper gave no further details.
Germany is under mounting pressure from its NATO allies to boost the number of soldiers it has in Afghanistan and to send them to the more dangerous southern part of the country.
The government denied a magazine report at the weekend which said it was planning to expand the number of soldiers it could send to Afghanistan by 1,000 to 4,500 and broaden their base of operations from the north to the west.
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Afghan vote may have to take place without assurance of French help
Article Link

OTTAWA - A fog of uncertainty could hover over Canadian politics for weeks as parties vote on the future of the Afghan mission and possibly even fight an election on it - without being aware of one critical detail.

It's far from certain they will know whether Canada's NATO allies will provide the 1,000 troops that the Conservatives have declared a key condition for continued involvement in Kandahar.

One of those key allies said Tuesday that it will be another seven weeks before it announces whether it will send reinforcements for Canadian troops in Kandahar.

French diplomats say they are weighing a handful of options - including sending soldiers to the volatile southern region where they would work with the Canadians.

They say French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a decision and announce it only at an April NATO summit in Bucharest.
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Insurgents killed, 9 armed individuals detained in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-14 16:50:41    
  Article Link

    KABUL, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led Coalition forces have killed several insurgents and detained nine armed individuals in southern Afghan provinces of Uruzgan and Zabul during two separate operations, the military said Thursday. 

    The forces using aerial-delivered munitions attacked a group of insurgents on motorcycles in Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan province Wednesday, killing "a number of insurgents," said a Coalition statement released here. 

    It added that the militants were associated with a Taliban leader responsible for conducting anti-government activities in the area. 

    In a follow-on search of compounds in the district targeting the local-based Taliban leader and his followers, the Coalition said they killed "a number of armed insurgents" and detained three armed individuals. 

    "Several AK-47s, ammunition vests and grenades were recovered," the statement noted. 

    In neighboring Zabul province, Afghan and Coalition forces 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (14 Feb 2008)

Diplomats assigned to troop search
CanWest News Service, Feb. 14
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=306644



> Canada and its allies must do a better job of co-ordinating security and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, and that means finding a new United Nations super envoy, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said yesterday.
> 
> In an interview, Mr. Bernier echoed the dire assessment of British politician Paddy Ashdown, the man Afghanistan recently rejected for the job of super envoy. Yesterday, Mr. Ashdown wrote the West faced "a real possibility" of defeat in Afghanistan unless it rises above its "disconnected collection of unco-ordinated tactics" in the country.
> 
> ...



Afghan war being botched: minister
_Sydney Morning Herald_, Feb. 15
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/afghan-war-botched/2008/02/14/1202760494395.html



> THE Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, has denounced the handling of the war in Afghanistan and says the allies are disunited, lack a clear plan and have failed to deal with the drug trade.
> 
> In a scathing assessment of the progress of the war, Mr Fitzgibbon yesterday laid out a string of failures and warned that a new strategy was required to ensure the Australian contribution was not "for nil".
> 
> ...



A strategy to save Afghanistan
_Financial Times_, Feb. 12, by Paddy Ashdown
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4bcf9d26-d96e-11dc-bd4d-0000779fd2ac.html



> The great sixth century BC military strategist Sun Tzu wrote: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
> 
> With fighting in Afghanistan now entering its seventh year, no agreed international strategy, public support on both sides of the Atlantic crumbling, Nato in disarray and widening insecurity in Afghanistan, defeat is now a real possibility. The consequences for both Afghanistan and its allies would be appalling: global terrorism would have won back its old haven and created a new one over the border in a mortally weakened Pakistan; our domestic security threat would be gravely increased and a new instability would be added to the world’s most unstable region.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (15 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 15, 2008*

Canadian troops face highest risk fighting in Afghanistan
 Friday, February 15, 2008
Article Link

Canadian soldiers fighting in southern Afghanistan are three times as likely to be killed as British troops and four times more likely to die than American GIs, according to a report by the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent think-tank.
The claim has also been supported by a separate study for Canada's Department for National Defence, which said its country's servicemen were "at significantly higher risk" in Kandahar than UK troops in neighbouring Helmand or US forces along the Pakistan border to the north-east.
The casualty toll has now become a major political issue which could topple Canada's minority government. Ottawa has threatened to end its military involvement in Afghanistan from next January unless other Nato countries deploy at least 1000 combat troops and transport helicopters.
Ottawa has a 2500-strong contingent in the Taliban heartland, but only 1000 of them are fighting soldiers, with the others in supporting and supply-chain roles.
Canada's military death toll stands at 78 from its front-line units, compared with 87 British soldiers from a "bayonet strength" of more than 3000 and a total garrison of 7800. The Americans have lost 415 soldiers from a total of 28,000.
Since the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban regime in 2001, a total of 698 Nato, US and allied soldiers have died.
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Ottawa to hold weekly Afghan briefings, but keep tight lid on information
Article Link

OTTAWA - The Conservative government threw open the doors to weekly briefings on the Afghan mission Thursday, only to have the Canadian Forces warn it will still have to keep plenty of secrets.

The general in charge of all of Canada's overseas military operations says they're doing their best to balance the public's right to know with the need to safeguard operations and lives.

Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, head of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, said there is a recognition that both the positive achievements and the "challenges" need to be disclosed.

The Manley panel report on the future of the Afghan mission criticized the Conservative government for not providing the public with enough information about the war - an appraisal Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he accepted. The government recently announced update briefings on the mission would be held weekly, instead of monthly.

Opposition parties have long complained that here has been too much secrecy, especially around the issue of handling prisoners.
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Canadian public servants in Afghanistan to get danger pay
Last Updated: Thursday, February 14, 2008 | 5:43 PM ET CBC News 
Article Link

A special "risk and hardship" premium of up to $10,015 will be paid to Canadian federal public servants on assignment in war-torn Afghanistan.

It is the first time such danger pay has been offered to federal public servants in a war zone, confirmed Pierre-Alain Bujold, spokesman for the Treasury Board of Canada, in an e-mail Thursday.

"The current challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified employees is particularly felt in areas where employees are confronted by a high level of risk and hardship," he said. "This incentive will support Canada's objectives in Afghanistan while these conditions persist."

The Treasury Board approved the premium on Jan. 18. Paid monthly, it will be worth:

$8,585 a year for those working in Kabul. 
$10,015 a year for those working in Kandahar. 
Canadian soldiers get $12,000 a year in premiums while in Afghanistan.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, about 60 federal employees are currently serving in Afghanistan. Most are diplomats at the Canadian embassy in Kabul, but some are corrections, justice, RCMP, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) employees.
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Love is tough in Afghanistan 
Article Link


KABUL (AFP) — Five young Afghan women slipped out to lunch in an upmarket Kabul eatery on Valentine's Day, each wearing a red scarf in a wink to the day of love -- a difficult pursuit in Afghanistan.

"It was fun. We also bought a cake," said one of them, a 26-year-old employee of an international nongovernment organisation who asked to be called Jamila to hide her identity. 

The red scarves were a sign known only to this group of friends whose brush with foreigners introduced them to Valentine's Day -- an event largely unknown in Afghanistan, where love outside of marriage is taboo.

Three of them even have boyfriends but it would be a scandal if their parents found out.

They had bought the guys gifts to be handed over at an early dinner, Jamila said. "But, of course, it is a secret occasion that no one is meant to know about except us."

Sharifa, another modern Kabuli girl, told her relatives she was having lunch with her best girlfriend. "She is trusted by our family," the 23-year-old said the day before February 14. "Instead I will go out with my boyfriend."

Her lunch was a daring breach of cultural and religion in a society where rigid custom means unrelated girls and boys rarely mix and marriages are fixed by parents
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Kerala to serve as model for Afghanistan  
Staff Reporter 
Article Link

KASARAGOD: Watershed development projects in Kerala will serve as a model for the rural reconstruction programmes being implemented in Afghanistan, Abdul Manan Azizi, technical advisor, Afghanistan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, has said.

He was speaking to The Hindu here on Thursday after visiting the Swajaladhara project at Kayyur-Cheemeni panchayat and the Jalanidhi project at Kodom Belur panchayat in the district. Mr. Azizi is part of an eight-member team of engineers working in various projects of the World Bank in Afghanistan who are now on a visit to India.

Mr. Azizi said his country was facing shortage of water. Rural people had to walk on foot several kilometres every day to bring drinking water to their homes. In the context, the focus on rural reconstruction was ensuring supply of potable water to all, Mr. Azizi said.

Mr. Azizi said he was impressed by the functioning of local bodies in Kerala and the decentralisation of power here. “Local bodies named Shouras function in Afghanistan and elections are being held to them,” he said. They looked after rural reconstruction and awarded development projects to various agencies, Mr. Azizi added.
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4 Afghan policemen killed in clash in southwest Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents ambushed a police vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan and the three-hour gunbattle that followed left four policemen dead.

Two other police officers were wounded in Thursday's clash in Nimroz province, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub Badakhshi, the provincial police chief. Reinforcements were sent to assist but the insurgents escaped, Badakhshi said.

Afghanistan has seen a massive spike in insurgency-related violence, with more than 6,500 people dead in 2007, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and western officials.
More on link

Web warning issued for soldiers in Afghanistan
 TheStar.com -February 15, 2008 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau 
Article Link

Innocent photos and reports to families can provide information to insurgents, general says

OTTAWA–The Internet poses a major security threat to Canadian soldiers fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a ranking Canadian military official says.

Brig.-Gen. Peter Atkinson, a top strategic adviser to Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, says sites like Facebook are an "invaluable tool" for deployed soldiers to keep in touch with their families. But he warned that seemingly innocuous photos, videos and news reports can be the source for as much as 80 per cent of the intelligence that insurgents routinely gather on operations.

YouTube and personal Web logs are uncensored and can pose a threat, but Wikipedia is among the most dangerous of the public-access websites, he said. Wikipedia is an online public encyclopedia that allows individuals to submit entries on a wide range of subjects.

"Due to its collaborative content contribution, anybody can add to the content, providing a compilation of details on a specific incident, like the descriptions of a casualty, photos, locations and news articles contributed by several sources," Atkinson told reporters.

He said Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders use such information to determine the accuracy of their attacks.

"Because of the speed and capacity of today's technology, we are virtually providing the enemy with his battle damage assessment instantly," he said. "We need to make their collection efforts as difficult as possible by denying them 80 per cent of the solution. This will make it difficult for groups like Al Qaeda to plan their operations."

His warning came in a briefing to journalists on the Afghan mission, part of the government's attempt to avoid criticism that it is being too secretive about its part in the NATO operation.
More on link


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## GAP (16 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 16,2008*

UK Soldiers Seize Ton of Opium, Heroin Haul in Afghanistan  
Thursday February 14, 2008 (0843 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: British and Afghan troops seized a ton of opium and 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of heroin powder as part of an effort to cut off funding for Taliban insurgents. 
The bust, made north of the town of Sagin in the southern Helmand province, came after soldiers fought with a ``large number’’ of insurgents, who tried to protect the drug lab with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said in an e-mailed statement. 

Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s opium, and is set for a near-record crop in 2008 that will add at least $100 million to the militant Islamist movement’s war chest, the United Nations said Feb. 6. 

``We know that drug production is closely linked to insurgent activity,’’ Lieutenant Colonel Simon Millar said in a statement from Helmand. ``Not only does it hold the local Afghan people down under oppression, but it directly funds the violence that, together with the government of Afghanistan, we are committed to stop.’’ 

The fighting and seizure took place three days ago, the ministry said. The British and the Afghan army suffered no casualties. 
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Bomb Kills 40 in Pakistan
Azhar Masood, Arab News 
  Article Link

ISLAMABAD — Forty people were killed and more than 90 wounded in a suicide car bomb blast outside the election office of Riyaz Hussain Shah, a Pakistan People’s Party candidate, in the tribal district of Parachinar near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan yesterday, the last day of campaigning for elections.

Talking to the media later, Shah said that though he was present in the office at the time of the blast, he escaped unhurt. 

Separately, police in the south of the country said they had foiled another attack planned for polling day tomorrow.

Campaigning for the elections to a new parliament and provincial assemblies has been overshadowed by security fears, especially since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27. Opposition politicians have also complained of vote rigging.
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Troops will fight Taliban without vital Chinooks
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondant Last Updated: 12:04am GMT 17/02/2008
Article Link

British troops serving in southern Afghanistan have been warned that no extra Chinook helicopters will be made available for at least 12 months, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

The delay has frustrated Army commanders and could undermine operations against the Taliban, who are expected to launch a full-scale spring offensive against British and Nato forces.

The helicopter shortage will force more troops to travel by armoured vehicle, rendering them vulnerable to attack with bombs and mines, which have been responsible for many deaths in the past 18 months.

Commanders had hoped eight Chinooks, originally acquired from Boeing in the United States in 1995, would be made available to counter any spring offensive.
More on link

Afghanistan establishes Disease Early Warning System  
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-16 22:00:58      Print 
Article Link

    KABUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan has established Disease Early Warning System (DEWS) to further improve the country's health sector, said a statement of Afghan Public Health Ministry released here Saturday. 

    The system was established in mid December 2006 and so far has formed 126 reporting sites nationwide, it said. 

    Nearly three decades of war, inadequate housing and poor environmental conditions are blamed for diseases in Afghanistan. 

    Diarrhea, Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), particularly pneumonia and influenza, meningococcal diseases, viral hepatitis, measles, typhoid, hemorrhagic fever, tuberculosis, cholera and malaria are common among the poor people, according to the health ministry. 

    DEWS stresses detecting outbreaks of diseases very early and responding to them on time and efficiently, it said. 
More on link

Put Afghanistan facts on table and have a real debate
Article Link

In the late evening last Thursday, the Harper government released figures for 2006 and 2007 of the number of Canadian soldiers injured in Afghanistan. In 2006, according to the government, 180 soldiers were wounded and in 2007 the figure was 84 soldiers wounded. The reduction in the number of casualties is welcome news but it appears that the figures for 2006 published by the Harper government do not correspond with the figures of the commanding general. 

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser commanded the NATO troops in Afghanistan for the period Jan. 15, 2006 to Nov. 27, 2006. Upon his return to Canada he spoke to the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, wherein he told his audience that during his tour of duty 36 soldiers were killed and more than 200 were wounded. 

In the same speech Brig.-Gen. Fraser stated the debate over Canada's role in Afghanistan has been ill informed and bereft of facts. Prior to the speech by the brigadier general, then Minister of Defence Gordon O'Connor, speaking to NATO members in November, conceded the Harper government had not done well in it's message to Canadians as to the role of Canada in that region. 
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Rodeo game for troops
By CHRIS STEVENSON, SUN MEDIA
Article Link 

Blue Rodeo is heading to Afghanistan to entertain the Canadian troops -- and they're bringing some muscle with them. 

One of Canada's most popular bands passed through Ottawa Thursday night on their latest tour. After the show, band members said they're looking forward to travelling to Afghanistan next month with a posse of former NHLers, including tough guys Bob Probert and Chris Nilan. 

Prior to shows in Montreal, Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor told reporters: "We'll do a show and play a ball hockey game (against Canadian soldiers). Those guys better watch out. I know they've survived the Taliban, but they are going to lose a few teeth when we arrive." 

Keelor is a former goaltender, who once had a tryout with the junior Toronto Marlies. He said after Thursday's show here at Scotiabank Place -- in which he offered up a stark rendition of Dark Angel that was a highlight of the gig -- that he hasn't played hockey since then. 

BITE PUTS BASS ON ICE 

Senators rookie Cody Bass had surgery to deal for a skate bite, in which the laces cut into the skin on the foot. Senators coach John Paddock said Bass will be lost to the club for up to six weeks. 
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Unit drills for roadside hazards of Afghanistan
Canadians train in desert
El Paso Times Staff Article Launched: 02/16/2008 12:00:00 AM MST
Article Link

McGREGOR RANGE, N.M. -- A mound of sand the size of a small loaf of bread blended into a McGregor Range road on Friday, looking to the untrained eye like every other wave and ridge along the well-trodden path.

As about 20 soldiers from the Third Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, marched by, boots landed on one side and then the other until one hit directly on it.

A loud bang came from the side of the road and a starburst of sparks shot into the sky.

In Afghanistan, where the soldiers are headed in September, there would have been casualties, said Sgt. Juan Santana, an instructor with the 5th Armored Brigade, 1st Army Division West, which runs the range's training operations. The simulated roadside bomb was what the Army calls a "victim-operated improvised explosive device."

About 3,000 Canadian soldiers with the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group traveled to Fort Bliss and began a month-long training routine on Thursday. The Canadians transported about 500 pieces of equipment, including tanks and light armored vehicles, or LAVs, the rough equivalent of a U.S. Stryker vehicle and the Canadian Army's workhorse.

About 2,500 of those soldiers will deploy to Kandahar, where they will form small teams to embed with and train Afghan istan security forces. "IEDs are the biggest problem we have 

in Afghanistan," said Lt. Andrew Hennessy, the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group spokesman. 
More on link

Man guilty of helping to supply terror equipment
Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent The Guardian, Saturday February 16 2008 Article history · 
Article Link

This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday February 16 2008 on p4 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 00:02 on February 16 2008. A man was yesterday convicted of being part of a cell whose leader planned to kidnap and behead a British soldier.

Zahoor Iqbal, 30, of Perry Barr, Birmingham, was found guilty at Leicester crown court of one count of helping Parviz Khan supply equipment to terrorists in Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, to aid attacks on coalition forces. He was cleared of possessing a document or record likely to be useful to a terrorist: a computer disk entitled Encyclopaedia Jihad. 

Khan has admitted four charges linked to the kidnapping plot and other offences. He was the only defendant charged over the plan to murder a soldier. 

During the trial, Iqbal denied prosecution claims that he helped Khan send the illegal cargoes to terrorists, saying he thought their trips to wholesalers were to buy relief aid for the victims of the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. 

The defendant, a school attendance and mentoring officer, told jurors he believed the invasion of Iraq "was the right thing to do". He did not subscribe to Khan's extremist views, he said, and had no sympathy with the July 7 London bombers. He was remanded in custody for sentencing
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Canada's mission in Afghanistan just and right says Romeo Dallaire
Posted By TINA PEPLINSKIE
Article Link

As a leading middle power in the world, Canada's responsibility to humanity extends far beyond its borders, according to the retired general who led the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda. 

Retired Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, now a senator, was in Pembroke Thursday to speak to a capacity crowd at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 72 at a fundraising lunch for candidate Carole Devine, sponsored by the Federal Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke Liberal Riding Association. 

Afghan mission just and right 

Senator Dallaire sees Canada's role in Afghanistan as establishing rule of law, good governance and human rights. He feels it is a just and right mission that Canada should be involved in. 

"It's an essential role based on a very solid UN (United Nations) resolution," he said to a group of reporters before the lunch, responding to the question of whether Canada should pull out of Afghanistan. 

Although he doesn't know when Canada's commitment should end, he believes NATO should remain in Afghanistan until 2011 and that other NATO countries should take on more responsibility in the mission. 

In this new era, we are responsible to protect and assist nations where the government is abusing the human rights of its people, he said. 
More on link


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## GAP (17 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 17,2008*

More than 55 killed in Kandahar blast
  Brian Hutchinson Canwest News Service Sunday, February 17, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suicide bombing in the Arghandab district north of Kandahar city Sunday morning killed at least 55 Afghan civilians and left another 80 wounded, many critically, according to official sources here.

It is by far the worst single day of bloodshed for civilians in Kandahar province since Canadian forces deployed here early in 2006, and appears to be the worst in all of Afghanistan since the Taliban were removed from power in 2001.

The blast occurred at 10 a.m. local time, at a traditional dog fighting festival in the village of Baghi Polmanda. Some 5,000 people had formed a large circle outdoors to watch the dog fights.

Abdul Hakim Jan, a senior Afghan National Auxiliary Police commander, was participating in the festival and had just released one of his fighting dogs into the ring when a suicide bomber approached and detonated his explosives, witnesses say.

Jan was long despised by the Taliban. He opposed their authoritarian rule in the late 1990s, even as he served as a provincial police chief.
More on link

Wounded warriors
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU
Article Link

Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, this expansive U.S. military hospital has become a crossroad between lifeand death for soldiers frommany nations

LANDSTUHL, GERMANY -- Every day, they arrive by the busload -- broken, bandaged and bloodied from war. 

They are American, Canadian and from many other nations -- "wounded warriors" delivered from Iraq and Afghanistan with blown-off limbs, severe burns and battle fatigue. 

Some arrive fresh from conflict with blood still on their boots. Some come with less visible injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic back pain or severe headaches. Others need medical treatment or tests they can't get in the field. 

When Canadian soldiers are injured in combat, they are evacuated here to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a sprawling, fast-paced American military hospital that is the biggest medical facility outside the U.S. For Canadian troops, it is the gateway between Kandahar and Canada, and a crossroads between the brink of death and life. 

Shell-shocked troops confront the grim reality of a future as an amputee, or grapple with the guilt of survival as their comrades return to Canada in flag-draped caskets. 

Since the war on terror spawned two major conflict zones, Landstuhl's story has become one of the brutality of war, of survival, and of resilience. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (17 Feb 2008)

Australia now in on Afghan plans
_The Age_, Feb. 18
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/australia-now-in-on-afghan-plans/2008/02/17/1203190653142.html



> NATO has assured Australia it will be given access to top-level intelligence and a copy of a document setting out a new strategy for fighting the war in Afghanistan.
> 
> The organisation's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, rang Joel Fitzgibbon on Friday in response to the new Defence Minister's strong criticism of the running of the war, in Parliament and in the media, over the past fortnight.
> 
> ...



Germans plead Second World War hangover
_Sunday Telegraph_, Feb. 16
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/17/wafghan217.xml



> Germany's role in the Second World War has made it difficult to win public support for military action in Afghanistan, the German ambassador to Britain has admitted.
> 
> Wolfgang Ischinger said Germans had so often been told that their military had done "many awful things" it was hard to persuade them they should get involved in another conflict.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (18 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 18, 2008*

Relief in Kandahar is key
Reducing Canadian casualties means another NATO country taking a turn on southern 'front'
By GREG WESTON
Article Link

Attending an international military gathering in Munich this past week, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates publicly put the boots to European NATO allies he accused of being the layabouts of the Afghanistan war. 

"We must not -- we cannot -- become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not," he said. 

Evidently, Gates had been not briefed on Stephane Dion's innovative third tier - those who pretend not to be willing to fight. 

Until this week, the Liberal leader's position on Afghanistan was clear: Canada absolutely must withdraw from any combat role within a year. 

Canadian forces would remain in Kandahar, but their efforts would be limited to training the Afghan army and police, helping on reconstruction and development projects, and providing security for those endeavours. 

The basic flaw in this strategy is what it has always been: The Kandahar region is one of the most dangerous war zones in Afghanistan. 

As a friend in the aid biz once said, you can't build a school with someone shooting at you. 

Fact is, Canadian troops stationed there are already devoted to training, reconstruction and security. 

The problem is the minute they venture out to do anything in the Kandahar region -- whether to pave a road, train Afghan soldiers, or engage the enemy in combat -- our troops have a good chance of being killed by Taliban roadmines and suicide bombers. 

If the point of changing our role in Afghanistan is to reduce the casualty rate of Canadian soldiers, the Liberal proposal to "end the combat mission" isn't likely to achieve much. 

ROADSIDE BOMBS 

A review of Canadian casualties shows that of the 34 soldiers who died in the past year, almost all of them were killed by roadside bombs. 

Not one was involved in the Liberal definition of a "combat mission" -- that is, seeking out and engaging the enemy in firefight. 

Taken to its illogical conclusion, the Liberal plan would have our troops sitting safely inside the Kandahar military compound, letting other NATO soldiers get blown up until the Taliban are defeated and Canada could safely begin building schools without "combat." 

Good luck with that. 
More on link

Merkel says no plan to change German missions in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-18 00:02:42    
  Article Link

    BERLIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that Germany is not planning to change or expand its mission in Afghanistan despite mounting pressures from NATO allies. 

    "I see with a certain measure of concern some debates within NATO," she told reporters. 

    Merkel rejected accusations that Germany has failed to share military burdens in Afghanistan by deploying its troops only in the relatively peaceful north region. 

    Germany was taking on much the same role as its partners in the country, she said. 

    There could be no reconstruction without security, but there could also be no security without reconstruction, she said. 

    Germany has bluntly rejected a NATO request to send extra troops to the more volatile southern Afghanistan as an increasing number of Germans have become skeptical about the military missions. 

    U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this month in a key security meeting in Munich that some nations are "forcing other allies to bear disproportionate share of fighting and dying," alluding to Germany. 
More on link

British NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan
Article Link

LONDON (AFP) — A British soldier has been killed and another injured while serving with NATO-led forces in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said Monday.

The soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment died on Sunday, it said in a statement, adding that the injuries of the other casualty were "not life-threatening."

"Just before 9 pm local time soldiers ...were taking part in a foot patrol with 40 Commando Royal Marines near Kajaki, Helmand Province when they were caught in an explosion," it said.

"Medical treatment was administered at the scene and both soldiers were evacuated to Camp Bastion by emergency response helicopter. Sadly one of the soldiers was pronounced dead on arrival.

Next of kin have been informed, it added.

The new casualty took to 88 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in October 2001, following the September 11 terror attacks.

It also took to 16 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. Most of them have been US nationals but the toll includes Canadian, British, Dutch and Italian troops.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (18 Feb 2008)

NATO's two-tiered mission
_National Post_, Feb. 18, by Fred Kaplan
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=316001&p=2



> ...it's worth recalling how NATO got involved in this war to begin with. What's happening now should be no surprise whatsoever.
> 
> In early 2006, NATO made plans to relieve the United States of command over operations in Afghanistan. The mission was seen as vital, above all, to NATO. It was a test of whether, in the post-Cold War era, the alliance had any role to play as a unified expeditionary force. To get all the nations involved, "caveats" were negotiated. Some nations would send troops, but only if they didn't have to fight; others would fight, but not at night; and so forth. Troops under NATO command, in general, could engage in "proactive self-defence," a deliberately vague term that permitted commanders to fire when fired upon and go after insurgents if they were spotted nearby. But they could not initiate offensive operations. (For that reason, the United States would keep 13,000 troops, mainly airmen, under its own command -- in addition to the 7,000 it was placing under NATO's -- so that somebody could continue to go after Taliban forces on the Pakistan border.)
> 
> ...



On patrol in Afghanistan's suicide-bombing capital
_The Independent_, Feb. 18
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/on-patrol-in-afghanistans-suicidebombing-capital-783556.html



> The raid came in the half-light of dawn. British, Nato and Afghan soldiers descended on a suspected Taliban stronghold in Gereshk, the suicide bombing capital of Afghanistan.
> 
> This is the town in Helmand province where the Taliban started its Iraq-style campaign of suicide bombing and even as Western forces attempt to establish control over this important strategic juncture, the unprecedented level of suicide attacks has continued.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (19 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 19, 2008*

Norwegian troops in Afghanistan for seven more years
Article Link

Defence Minister Anne-Grete Stroem Erichsen does not believe that Norwegian troops can be pulled out of Afghanistan for another seven years, at the earliest.

This is the first time the Defence Minister gives a concrete estimate of when the Norwegian military engagement in Afghanistan may be terminated. 
Speaking to the newspaper Dagsavisen, she said that NATO can't pull out until the Afghan army is functioning well. 

The Afghan army today numbers around 40,000 men, and Stroem-Erichsen estimates that at least double that number is needed. 

Norway has currently 500 special forces in Afghanistan. 
More on link

Angela Merkel rules out Afghan combat role
Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 19/02/2008
Article Link

Chancellor Angela Merkel has defied Germany's Nato allies by refusing to commit troops to combat zones in Afghanistan.

Despite intense pressure from the United States and warnings that the dispute could lead to an irreparable split in the trans-Atlantic alliance, Mrs Merkel said that her government would not reconsider the terms of the mandate under which German soldiers are stationed in the country.

Her comments came as three Canadian soldiers were reported to be among up to 40 people killed in the second suicide bombing in two days in the perilous south of the country, where German soldiers do not operate.

Germany's Afghan mission is governed by a parliamentary mandate that is due for renewal in the autumn. 

It caps the number of troops at 3,500 and limits them to peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts in the relatively calm north.
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## MarkOttawa (19 Feb 2008)

Troops don't deserve rebuke
_Toronto Star_, Feb. 19 by Rosie DiManno
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/304778



> In the gush of blood spilled over 24 hours in Kandahar province, Canadian troops were barely smeared.
> 
> Four lightly wounded, two treated in hospital and released, one kept overnight.
> 
> ...



Pakistan's ruling party concedes defeat
AP, Feb. 19
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_election;_ylt=AiO4TUjLPTw.eaLH0vF8LuZ34T0D



> Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday after opposition parties routed allies of President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of America's close ally in the war on terror.
> ADVERTISEMENT
> 
> Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in Musharraf's 1999 coup, suggested that the Pakistani president should listen to the "verdict" of the people in the Monday balloting and step down.
> ...



HUNTING AL-QAEDA
Unilateral Strike Called a Model For U.S. Operations in Pakistan
_Washington Post_, Feb. 19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021802500.html?hpid=topnews



> In the predawn hours of Jan. 29, a CIA Predator aircraft flew in a slow arc above the Pakistani town of Mir Ali. The drone's operator, relying on information secretly passed to the CIA by local informants, clicked a computer mouse and sent the first of two Hellfire missiles hurtling toward a cluster of mud-brick buildings a few miles from the town center.
> 
> The missiles killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda commander and a man who had repeatedly eluded the CIA's dragnet. It was the first successful strike against al-Qaeda's core leadership in two years, and it involved, U.S. officials say, an unusual degree of autonomy by the CIA inside Pakistan.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (20 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 20, 2008*

Prime Minister Stephen Harper confers with Karzai over Afghanistan mission
 Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA, Feb 19, 2008 (AFP) — Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper conferred with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday about the future of NATO's Afghanistan mission, his spokeswoman said.
Speaking by telephone, Harper told Karzai that Canada wishes to extend its deployment of 2,500 troops in battle-scarred Kandahar province to 2011, but only if NATO allies send reinforcements.
To that end, Harper has in recent weeks urged the heads of France, Germany and Australia to boost their troop deployments in southern Afghanistan.
Defense Minister Peter MacKay told NATO defense ministers Ottawa's demand for an extra 1,000 troops in Kandahar to fight alongside Canadian soldiers against insurgents was "not a negotiable item."
Otherwise, Canada would withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of its current mandate in February 2009, said Harper.
Canada's parliament is expected to vote next month on whether to extend its combat mission in the volatile south.
In his discussion with Karzai, Harper "confirmed that he is in contact with NATO allies regarding additional troops and expressed his hope that Parliament will support a motion that would see an extension of Canada's mission to Afghanistan," his spokeswoman Sandra Buckler said in an email.
"President Karzai reconfirmed his support for the Canadian mission, a message he will carry to NATO in the coming weeks," she added.
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Militants abduct 2 staff of education department in W Afghanistan    
www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-20 15:11:41      Print 
  Article Link

    KABUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Militants have abducted two staff of education department in Afghanistan's western Farah province, said a press release of Afghan Interior Ministry received here Wednesday. 

    Two supervisors of the Education Department of Farah province, busy in visiting schools in Bakwa district, was kidnapped by armed men of militant leader Mullah Ibrahim, on Feb. 18, the ministry said. 

    Targeting schools and murdering students and teachers are the acts of the enemies of Afghanistan and must be checked, it further said. 

    The ministry said Afghan police would do its best to ensure the safe release of the two abductees. 

    Over 140 pupils and teachers have been killed by Taliban insurgents over the past 10 months, according to latest education ministry statistics.
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CTV freelancer detained at U.S. base in Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH From Wednesday's Globe and Mail February 20, 2008 at 5:06 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — A journalist who brought news to Canadian television has been detained without charge at a U.S. base in Afghanistan for almost four months, his employer says, calling for his immediate release.

Javed Yazamy, 22, earned the nickname Jojo while serving as a translator for the U.S. forces but spent the past two years working primarily for CTV News in Kandahar. He went missing in October when an unknown caller summoned him to Kandahar Air Field and foreign soldiers captured him in the dusty parking lot just outside the main gate.

Quiet diplomacy has failed to produce any official confirmation of his whereabouts or any explanation for his detention, said Robert Hurst, president of CTV News.

"As the weeks pass, our concern has grown," Mr. Hurst said.
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Kandahar governor says he warned troops
Published: Feb. 19, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The governor of Kandahar blamed Canadian soldiers for a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan, saying they ignored his warning of a bomber.

Gov. Asadullah Khalid told reporters he forwarded information that a suicide bomber was in the area on the Afghan-Pakistani border to Canadian and NATO officers, Canwest News Service reported.

The bombing in the Spin Boldak area killed at least 30 Afghanis, many of them shoppers or fruit and vegetable sellers at a street market, and wounded four Canadian soldiers. It was aimed at an armored convoy making a routine patrol 65 miles southeast of Kandahar.

Lt. Commander Pierre Babinsky, a spokesman for the Canadian military in Kandahar, said the military must operate freely, especially when warnings are so common.
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Czech prime minister to visit Ottawa for talks on Afghanistan
Article Link

OTTAWA - The prime minister of the Czech Republic will be in Ottawa next week to talk about the war in Afghanistan with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Mirek Topolanek will be bringing along his defence minister for the Feb. 28-29 visit, which will also include a stop in Toronto.

In a statement, Harper said Canada and the Czech Republic enjoy a strong bilateral relationship, including co-operation in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

"I look forward to continuing to strengthen the friendship between our two countries," said the prime minister.

The Czech Republic has made a modest contribution to the mission in Afghanistan since 2002, deploying 200 personnel to operate a military field hospital and special forces soldiers operating in Kandahar.

Harper has been canvassing NATO allies looking for an extra 1,000 combat troops to bolster the Canadian army in Kandahar - and warning that Canada will withdraw unless reinforcements are forthcoming.

A Harper spokeswoman said Topolanek's visit was planned before an independent panel on the future of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan delivered its report last month.
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Troops don't deserve rebuke
 TheStar.com February 19, 2008 Rosie DiManno Columnist
Article Link

In the gush of blood spilled over 24 hours in Kandahar province, Canadian troops were barely smeared.

Four lightly wounded, two treated in hospital and released, one kept overnight.

But they'll get blamed, on the ground, for not preventing the unpreventable, because Kandahar is primarily a Canadian custodianship. And their "failure" to protect citizens – upwards of 200 casualties in a brace of suicide bombings – will be cited as further proof of the mission's irrelevancy; indeed, as provocation for merciless attacks on the innocent.

Governor Asadullah Khalid wasted little time in chastising Canadian Forces for all but – he implied – inciting the suicide attack yesterday that claimed at least 38 Afghan lives at a marketplace in Spin Boldak, a deranged district capital, Taliban stronghold and bristling armaments clearing house a stone's throw from the suicide-bombers-enter-here Pakistan border.

Canadians maintain a forward operating base there, established because the need clearly existed to buckle down in that region and throw at least some obstacles in the way of insurgents headed for Kandahar city, which is the prize most coveted by the neo-Taliban and their foreign recruits.

A Canadian convoy was in the crosshairs of the blast although, as usual, ordinary Afghans paid the colossal price.

"We informed the Canadian Forces to avoid patrolling the border areas because our intelligence units had information that suicide attackers were in the area and wanted to target Canadian or government forces," Khalid complained. "Despite informing the Canadians, they went to those areas anyway."
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Charge or release Afghan journalist, CTV tells U.S.
 TheStar.com - February 20, 2008 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
  Article Link

Network worried about man detained for months near Kabul

OTTAWA–The United States should either charge or release an Afghan journalist employed by CTV News who has been in military detention since October, says the president of the network.

Robert Hurst said the news organization has been speaking with government officials in Canada and the U.S., as well as military officials at NATO, since last fall in an attempt to obtain the release of Jawed Ahmad. 

The 22-year-old was arrested in Kandahar last fall after allegations that he had improper contact with the Taliban, his brother told the Associated Press. Siddique Ahmad said his brother was found to have telephone numbers for Taliban officials and video of insurgent materials. The journalist is being held at Bagram Airbase, the U.S. facility 50 kilometres north of Kabul, and has been visited by the Red Cross.

"We're extraordinarily concerned about it," Hurst said in an interview.

He said CTV lawyers and officials have been working daily on Ahmad's case, trying to quietly work back-channel sources rather than cause a major fuss. But the inability to further the case of their Kandahar-based journalist four months after his arrest prompted the decision to go public yesterday in conjunction with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Anything we can do to now get attention to this (is welcome) because all of the channels that we have been pursuing have been absolutely dry," Hurst said. 
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Canada to buy old German tanks as spare parts for Afghan mission.
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canada plans to buy a handful of older, surplus German tanks to cannibalize for spare parts to keep its combat forces on the move in Afghanistan.

The undisclosed purchase is apparently part of the $1.3-billion tank modernization program announced last year by former defence minister Gordon O'Connor.

The current minister, Peter MacKay, says the purchase was necessary.

"Our loaned Leopard 2 tanks are an invaluable asset to commanders in Afghanistan," MacKay said in a statement late Tuesday.

"The procurement of surplus German vehicles will provide the Canadian Forces with valuable platforms for training, testing and, where applicable, spare parts."

This acquisition fills the short term needs of the military, he said while on a trade mission in India.

Defence industry sources said the plan involves 15 Leopard 2A4s, which have already been taken out of service by the Bundeswehr.

A request for proposals is expected to go out to contractors next week, asking for detailed plans to disassemble the 60-tonne iron monsters and catalogue their parts
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Mood swings hurt Dion's credibility
The Liberal leader's threats to defeat the government are wearing thin
L. IAN MACDONALD, Freelance Published: 14 hours ago
Article Link

This just in: Stéphane Dion threatens not to bring down the government over the budget.

First he brandished the possibility of defeating the government on next week's budget, even though he hadn't seen it yet.

Then, on Monday in Quebec City, Dion climbed down, saying the Liberals would allow the budget to pass in the March 4 vote provided it's "not too harmful" for the economy.

"It won't be a Liberal budget," Dion allowed. "Unfortunately the ideas I have put forward won't be in the budget. But we also have to respect the decision of the voters in 2006.

"Therefore, if it's a budget that appears to us as being acceptable or at least not too harmful for the Canadian economy, we could let it pass and avoid $350 million in expenses for an election."
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Manley denies Canada proposing him as UN envoy in Afghanistan
Article Link

OTTAWA (AFP) — Former Canadian deputy prime minister John Manley denied Wednesday media reports suggesting the government is proposing him as the new UN envoy to coordinate aid and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Earlier, the daily Globe and Mail, citing unnamed sources, said the Conservative government is floating the name of Manley, of the opposition Liberal Party, as a replacement for British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, whose nomination to the UN post was rejected by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

However, Manley told AFP through his law offices: "I am not a candidate and I have not consented to my government advocating for me to take on this responsibility."

Manley recently headed a panel of experts who recommended that Canada prolong its 2,500-strong military mission in Afghanistan beyond February 2009 only if NATO deploys 1,000 troop reinforcements, helicopters and drones.

The Globe and Mail said Manley's nomination would make it more difficult for Canada to withdraw its troops, saying it would be "a humiliation for a country that has one of its own as the special representative."

The Liberal Party would also be hard pressed to oppose the mission if one of their members held the UN post, the Canadian newspaper said.
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Afghanistan: New Party To Focus On Women's Rights  
By Farangis Najibullah
Article Link

For nearly three decades, Afghans have endured war and foreign occupation, extreme poverty, and the Taliban. Yet some suffer more than others. Not all Afghans are created equal. Fatima Nazari wants to change that.

Nazari, an Afghan parliamentarian, is the driving force behind the country's first political party dedicated to women's rights and issues. She launched National Need on February 19 at a ceremony in Kabul, saying the party hopes to put women's rights at the forefront of the national political debate. It intends to run in the next parliamentary elections, likely in three years' time.

"I believe women understand their own problems better than men would," she says, adding that National Need will seek to increase women's participation in politics and business. "We want to campaign for democracy, not only talk about democracy. In this way, we want to work with our brothers and the rest of Afghan society."

Some of Nazari's fellow deputies and officials in Kabul welcomed the creation of the country's first-ever women's political party. Some called it a step forward toward greater democracy and recognition of women's rights. Interestingly, the Afghan parliament already boasts fairly high representation by women: Twenty-three of 100 members in the upper house and 68 of 249 deputies in the lower house are women
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Afghanistan's 'Hidden' Art Treasures on Exhibit in Amsterdam  
By Lauren Comiteau Amsterdam 19 February 2008
   Article Link

The Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001 was the most dramatic expression of their mission to obliterate all "idolatrous" images from Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past. Along with the Buddhas, the Taliban destroyed 2,500 other cultural gems from Kabul's National Museum of Afghanistan. But thanks to the heroic efforts of the museum's curators, not all was destroyed. A traveling exhibit that recently opened in Amsterdam has brought some of what has survived under one roof. Lauren Comiteau visited the exhibit at Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk - or New Church - and files this report.

As one enters the Hidden Afghanistan exhibit, a banner headline reads: "A Nation Stays Alive When Its Culture Stays Alive." A glimpse of that culture - and how it survived invasion, civil war, and even the Taliban - is what this exhibit is all about. 

"I believe this exhibit is going to go and show the world that Afghanistan is not what they hear in the West, that it's Taliban and war and this and that," says Omar Sultan, Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Information and Culture. "But that we have a cultural heritage that is not only belong to Afghanistan but it belongs to the world."
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## GAP (21 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 21, 2008*

Afghans say their government as much to blame for bombings as Canadians
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The little girl looked up at the helicopter buzzing over the refugee camp she's called home for the last six months.

She pointed at it and said: "I don't understand those birds. Did you bring them with you? What are they for? They scare me." After three days of bombings that left more than 100 people dead in Kandahar province, the little girl's query reflects a question Afghans ask often after major security incidents.

What are Canadian soldiers doing in their country if they can't keep them safe?

While it may be easy to blame Canadians, Afghans are growing increasingly disillusioned with their own government as well for the continuing instability in the province.

"The people who are responsible for insecurity and destruction in Kandahar province are the provincial authority of Kandahar," reads one article that circulated on an Afghan news website recently.

"They are the ones who are responsible for facing people of Kandahar with no choice but death and destruction."

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid suggested after Monday's bombing in Spin Boldak that the 38 civilian deaths there could have been avoided if Canadian troops heeded warnings to stay away, because suicide bombers were known to be present.

Yes, say some Afghans, but whose job is it to arrest the suicide attackers?

"It is the responsibility of our government to stop it," said Hafiz Afgha, 42.
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Harper to unveil new compromise motion to extend Afghan mission
Article Link

OTTAWA - The Harper government will unveil a new motion Thursday aimed at bridging the remaining gap between the Conservatives and Liberals over the fate of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.

Among other things, the motion is expected to spell out more clearly that the mission will end in 2011, a government source said.

If the Liberals are sufficiently mollified by the new wording to support the motion, that will remove at least one of several possible triggers for a spring election.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the vote on extending the Afghan mission, to be held next month, will be a matter of confidence. Both the Bloc Quebecois and NDP are adamantly opposed to any extension of the mission, currently scheduled to end next February, leaving the fate of the mission - and the minority Tory government - in the hands of Stephane Dion's Liberals.

The government's original motion called for the combat mission in the volatile Kandahar region to be extended to the end of 2011, provided that Canadian soldiers are reinforced by an additional 1,000 NATO troops as well as some heavy-lift helicopters and unmanned aerial drones for surveillance. The motion did not rule out a further extension of the mission, specifying only that there would be a parliamentary review in 2011.
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Canadian TV Network Seeks Release of Afghan  
By IAN AUSTEN February 21, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA — Canada’s largest commercial television network is asking for the immediate release of an Afghan employee who it has been told is being detained by the United States military.

Robert Hurst, the president of CTV News, said Javed Yazamy, who performed a variety of reporting and support duties for the network in Afghanistan beginning about two years ago, disappeared in the city of Kandahar last October. Mr. Hurst said the International Committee of the Red Cross subsequently confirmed that Mr. Yazamy, 22, was in the Bagram Detention Center at an American air base near Kabul.

“Our issue here is that we’ve been told nothing by governments or NATO,” Mr. Hurst said. NATO forces are responsible for security in much of Afghanistan. “It’s been four months now that we’ve been working quietly through back channels with absolutely no results. Now we’re making an appeal: Release him or else explain why he’s being detained and proceed with due process.”

From family members, Mr. Hurst said, the network learned that Mr. Yazamy had traveled to a military base in Kandahar, where Canadian troops are the main combat force, just before his disappearance. Mr. Hurst added that the trip was not made at the broadcaster’s request.

Several weeks ago CTV formally asked the Canadian Embassy in Kabul to investigate Mr. Yazamy’s case, but Mr. Hurst said the broadcaster had not received a reply. Neil Hrab, spokesman for the foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier, said in an e-mail message that the government was “aware of the situation and the Canadian Embassy in Kabul is working closely with CTV to get further information.”
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Ottawa seeking helicopters, drones to extend Afghan mission
Last Updated: Thursday, February 21, 2008 | 7:49 AM ET CBC News 
Article Link

The federal government is currently in negotiations to acquire large helicopters and unmanned surveillance drones in an attempt to satisfy two conditions set out in the Manley report for extending the Afghanistan mission, CBC News has learned.

The government is trying to secure a deal with at least two American helicopter manufacturers to either lease or buy helicopters that would provide transport for Canadian troops in Kandahar, CBC News has learned.

Earlier this week, the government released a tender for the surveillance drones.

The Manley report recommended that the government extend its mission in Afghanistan past the February 2009 deadline, but only if NATO was able to provide an additional 1,000 troops to bolster Canadian forces fighting in the south.

The Manley panel also demanded the government find access to unmanned surveillance drones and large helicopters to ferry Canadian troops around the region.

CBC News has learned the government intends to meet both of these requirements on its own, which would take pressure off its NATO allies, allowing them to focus on finding the additional troops the Manley panel recommended.
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Marine killed in Afghanistan
Article Link

A Royal Marine has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan.

The soldier, who has not been named, was taking part in a patrol to disrupt Taliban activity in the southern province of Helmand when the blast took place.

Another marine injured in the attack was taken to the British base at Camp Bastion for treatment for minor injuries, the Ministry of Defence said.

The next of kin have been informed.

The marines were patrolling in Viking armoured all-terrain vehicles north of the town of Sangin when the explosion happened.

The death brings the number of British military fatalities in Afghanistan since the start of operations in November 2001 to 89.

Earlier this week, members of the same regiment helped save the lives of two Afghan children injured in a random rocket attack.

The children were badly hurt in the attack by enemy insurgents in Sangin, and commandos from Bravo Company 40 Commando RM had them airlifted to Camp Bastion for treatment.

The marines of 40 Commando are halfway through their six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
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IMF Gives Afghanistan Mixed Economic Review  
By Barry Wood Washington 20 February 2008
Article Link

The International Monetary Fund Wednesday gave Afghanistan a mixed economic report card, saying the country's overall reforms are on track but corruption and a dramatic rise in opium production pose significant problems. VOA's Barry Wood has more.

The IMF says opium production has risen by 4,000 percent since 2001 and earns Afghan farmers about $1 billion a year. An estimated 93 percent of the world's heroin, made from opium, comes from Afghanistan. Analysts say the Taliban insurgency derives much of its revenue from the illegal opium trade.

The IMF says a mounting anti-government insurgency, instability in neighboring Pakistan and rampant corruption have slowed the inflow of foreign direct investment. 

Economic growth, the IMF reports, slowed to six percent in 2007, mainly due to drought, but is expected to more than double to over 13 percent this year. The political environment is described as increasingly complex with the government confronted by multiple and competing demands. Jobs remain scarce and living standards have been slow to rise. 

The IMF says foreign aid accounts for a whopping two-thirds of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.
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Afghanistan sitting on a gold mine: minister
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan is sitting on a wealth of mineral reserves -- perhaps the richest in the region -- that offer hope for a country mired in poverty after decades of war, the mining minister says.

Significant deposits of copper, iron, gold, oil and gas, and coal -- as well as precious gems such as emeralds and rubies -- are largely untapped and still being mapped, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel told AFP.

And they promise prosperity for one of the world's poorest countries, the minister said, dismissing concerns that a Taliban-led insurgency may thwart efforts to unearth this treasure.

Already in the pipeline is the exploitation of a massive copper deposit -- one of the biggest in the world -- about 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Kabul.

"There has not been such a big project in the history of Afghanistan," Adel said.

A 30-year lease for the Aynak copper mine was in November offered to the China Metallurgical Group Corporation and the contract is being finalised.

"It is estimated that the Aynak deposit has more than 11 million tonnes (of copper)," he said, citing 1960s surveys by the Soviet Union and a new study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

"With today's prices, it contains an 88-billion-dollar deposit," he said.

The mine is expected to bring the government 400 million dollars annually in fees and taxes, Adel said.
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7 militants arrested in Afghanistan's Kandahar    
www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-21 15:18:07  
  Article Link

    KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security men during overnight raids arrested seven "terrorists" and suicide attackers from southern Afghanistan's Kandahar city, which has seen two consecutive bombing attacks during past five days, provincial governor said Thursday. 

    Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid told Xinhua via phone that these militants, with their leader involved, were suspectedly behind the recent two explosions which rocked Kandahar city, the provincial capital. 

    Explosives, four machine guns and some "documents" were also found from the belongings of the militants, the governor added. 

    Taliban militants in a remote-controlled car bomb blast killed one person and injured four others, all of them civilians, in Kandahar city on Tuesday. 

    On Sunday, a suicide blast rocked a dog-fighting contest in the city, leaving over 100 people dead and dozens wounded, for which there has been no responsibility claim but officials blamed the Taliban.
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Tories' motion to offer Liberals a compromise on Afghanistan
Troops would withdraw in 2011, sources say
CAMPBELL CLARK With a report from Brian Laghi February 21, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The Conservative minority government will move today to unveil a new motion on extending the mission in Afghanistan in a bid to close a compromise deal with the opposition Liberals that would allow Canadian soldiers to stay another two years, sources say.

The new motion is expected to spell out more clearly that the government intends to end the mission in Kandahar in 2011, and include some efforts to bridge Liberal demands - but the details may be key to a deal.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to outline the new proposal in a speech today to the Conference of Defence Associations in Ottawa. The government has set two days for debate on Afghanistan starting Monday, and the motion must be issued by today.

A vote on Afghanistan is not expected until next month - although it would be delayed if the government is defeated on the budget to be tabled next week.
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## GAP (22 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 22, 2008*

Australia pledges to keep troops in Afghanistan for long-term   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-22 16:38:07   
  Article Link

    CANBERRA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Australia on Friday stated that it will keep its troops in Afghanistan for a long term, despite its decision to withdraw forces from Iraq, according to Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. 

    "We've made it very, very clear that our commitment in Afghanistan is a long-standing one," the defense minister told reporters. 

    "I said in the parliament just this week what a tragedy it would be if all that we'd done in Afghanistan so far was in the end all for naught. So our commitment is a long-term one." 

    Australia has deployed about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, a former Taliban stronghold. 

    Australia's previous government had sent 2,000 troops to support U.S. and British forces in the Iraq invasion. But the new Australian government, elected in November last year, promised to pull out the country's combat troops from Iraq by mid-2008. 

    On Wednesday, Australia Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston 
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Canada's combat training role could take years, military insists
By STEPHANIE LEVITZ, CP
  Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Canadian troops will have no choice but to remain in combat even if their focus in Afghanistan after 2009 is solely on training the Afghan National Army, two Canadian military officers said. 

The Afghan army isn't ready to conduct combat operations on its own and won't be for some time, say both the incoming and outgoing commanders of the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team, OMLT, the group of Canadian soldiers working alongside the Afghan security force. 

Canadians will need to be with them every step of the way. 

"We are in combat with them, let there be no mistake," said Col. Francois Riffou, who assumed command of the team at a ceremony in Kandahar yesterday. 

"We're just not going to be out front, we're not going to take the lead on Afghan army operations. We are there to support them." 

Debate rages in Ottawa over what role the Canadians in Afghanistan should have once the current combat mission expires in 2009. 

Yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a new motion saying the mission will focus on training and reconstruction. It also says all Canadian troops will be out of the volatile Kandahar region by December 2011. 

The opposition Liberals insisted on both those points in return for their support of the motion, which Harper has declared a confidence matter. 

But as wind from a storm whipped dust around him in Kandahar, Col. Stephane Lafaut, the outgoing head of the OMLT, said it's impossible to put a timeline on when the Afghan army will be able to stand on its own. 
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Helicopter with 3 senators aboard makes emergency landing in Afghanistan
Article Link

A helicopter with three U.S. senators aboard -- including former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts -- has made an emergency landing in Afghanistan, the Associated Press is reporting.

Also on board: two-time Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of Delaware and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. We'll provide more details as they become available.

Update at 3:33 p.m. ET: CNN says a Kerry spokesman has told the network that the helicopter landed because of impending bad weather, that none of the three are hurt -- and that all three now are out of Afghanistan.
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NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan: ISAF
Article Link

KABUL: A soldier with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan was killed and another wounded when an explosion struck their patrol, the alliance force said Thursday. 

"An ISAF soldier was killed and one was injured in an explosion during their patrol in southern Afghanistan," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said. 

The incident took place on Wednesday, ISAF said, after initially announcing it had happened on Thursday. 

The British defence ministry issued a separate statement, saying the soldiers were Royal Marines on an "outreach patrol" in troubled Helmand province. 

It said the marines’ next of kin had been informed. 

The latest death took to 17 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. Most of them have been US nationals but the toll includes British, Canadian, Dutch and Italian troops. 

There are around 43,000 soldiers in the 40-nation force which is deployed to Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate. Besides assisting Afghan troops and fighting the Taliban, ISAF also runs 25 reconstruction teams around the country
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Expelled EU diplomat defends Taleban dialogue
Article Link

LONDON: An Irish diplomat who was expelled from Afghanistan for talking to Taleban-linked insurgents defended his actions on Saturday, insisting that dialogue could persuade militants to abandon violence. 

"There is a critical difference between what is discreet and what is covert," Michael Semple, who was the second most senior European Union official in Afghanistan, told British newspaper The Guardian in an interview. 

"What we were doing was simply discreet because that was what was required. But it was totally in line with official policy to bring people in from the cold." 

Semple was expelled late last year with Briton Mervyn Patterson, a UN political adviser, for threatening national security by contacting the Taleban in the volatile southern province of Helmand. 

A February 4 Financial Times report from Kabul said discovery of the contact - and a secret British plan to train former Taleban fighters who wanted to switch sides - had worsened relations between Kabul and London. 

Britain has denied being "engaged" with the Taleban and Semple told The Guardian that they had not opened any such channel with Al Qaeda-linked Taleban. 

"We were victims of local politics initially and being seen to take on the foreigners - in this case us - is seen as very popular in many places in Afghanistan," he added. 

A local political leader feared for his power base if ex-Taleban and former insurgents were brought into the peace process led by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said Semple. 
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Afghan health sector on the mend, says US surgeon
Article Link

NEW YORK: Impressed by improvement in the health care sector, a top US army health care official said Afghanistan had moved a step closer to being an independent, self-sufficient nation. I’m impressed by the dedication and the heroics of many of the Afghans, who are willing to put their lives at stake in order to be able to improve their health care system, said a commander surgeon with the Combined Joint Task Force-82. 

Colonel Jeffery Johnson told Pentagon reporters through teleconference: As the Afghans take the lead and we purposefully put ourselves into a supporting role, we continue to see incredible progress that is, importantly, culturally appropriate, fiscally responsible and really long-term-focused. 

Responsible for the health services provided to the US contingent in Afghanistan. Johnson acknowledged there was a long way to go, because there was much work that still had to be done in Afghanistan. 

Focus on the human intellectual development, capacity building and the empowerment of the Afghan health sector was critical to the overall progress of the country, the colonel pointed out. 

Also critical is the collaborative work with all of the other partners that remain essential to leveraging their synergistic skills and resources, as well as ensuring that the expertise that is there allows the Afghans to lead their international approach to their future, he added. Responding to a question, he said Taliban would obviously seek to intimidate doctors and women who providing health care to the people. 

The provision of health was something directly tied back into the government. But I think what I’ve also seen is some very heroic Afghans who are willing to stand up and say "Enough is enough. It’s now time for us to take our country back. It’s now time for us to be able to understand what our local people want, what they need. And we’re willing to take some risks" -- this is the Afghan health care providers -- "We’re willing to take some risks in order to make sure that we can reestablish the basic needs for our people." 
More on link


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## Penny (23 Feb 2008)

Pentagon responds to claims made by Obama during debate.  Link to video of the debate being referred to :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjZmA4YXFNo&eurl

Today’s response (Feb 22, 2008) from Reuters
Link to news article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22583581.htm

Pentagon doubts Obama account of equipment problem

22 Feb 2008 18:26:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Friday cast doubt on an account of military equipment shortages mentioned by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during a debate with rival Hillary Clinton.

During the face-to-face encounter on Thursday evening, Obama said he had heard from an Army captain whose unit had served in Afghanistan without enough ammunition or vehicles.

Obama said it was easier for the troops to capture weapons from Taliban militants than it was "to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief," President George W. Bush.

"I find that account pretty hard to imagine," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

"Despite the stress that we readily acknowledge on the force, one of the things that we do is make sure that all of our units and service members that are going into harm's way are properly trained, equipped and with the leadership to be successful," he said.

Whitman's remarks were unusual as the Pentagon often declines to talk about comments from political campaigns.

Obama said the captain was the head of a rifle platoon, which should have had 39 members -- but 15 were sent to Iraq so the unit deployed to Afghanistan had 24 soldiers.

Several Army officers said a platoon is normally commanded by a 2nd lieutenant -- two ranks below a captain -- but the size of a platoon would indeed be around 40 soldiers.

Military equipment shortages have been a big U.S. political issue, particularly in the early years of the Iraq war.

A U.S. soldier confronted then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the topic in Kuwait in 2004, complaining that troops were forced to dig up scrap metal to protect their vehicles because the military did not have enough armor.

Rumsfeld famously replied that "you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time" -- a remark that drew widespread criticism. (Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Eric Walsh)


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## MarkOttawa (24 Feb 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 24

Thrust into action
Canadian soldiers fine-tune tactics critical in fight against Taliban insurgents
_Ottawa Sun_, Feb. 24
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2008/02/24/4872029-sun.html



> The moonlight cuts silhouettes of soldiers and army tanks as the Canadian battle group prepares for a surprise assault.
> 
> Hours after the day dawns, the convoy makes its sluggish launch, picking up speed as the rolling sandy
> dunes flatten to tougher desert terrain. In single file, the army of LAVs, tanks and roughly 150 combat troops, including an Afghan contingent, make a 12-km trek to the "objective" of the attack.
> ...



Sharpe shooters to bolster war on Taliban
_Sunday Times_, Feb. 24
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3423413.ece



> THE elite infantry unit made famous by the television series Sharpe, which starred Sean Bean, is to be deployed to fight the Taliban on the front line in Afghanistan.
> 
> Military commanders say that the battalion, 1 Rifles, consisting of 450 crack troops and support, will be deployed alongside 3 Commando Brigade of the Royal Marines in September.
> 
> ...



Battle Company Is Out There (A major and gloomy article that should be read; one just wonders how typical this one unit's experiences are.)
_NY Times Magazine_, Feb. 24
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/magazine/24afghanistan-t.html?ref=todayspaper



> WE TUMBLED OUT of two Black Hawks onto a shrub-dusted mountainside. It was a windy, cold October evening. A half-moon illuminated the tall pines and peaks. Through night-vision goggles the soldiers and landscape glowed in a blurry green-and-white static. Just across the valley, lights flickered from a few homes nestled in the terraced farmlands of Yaka China, a notorious village in the Korengal River valley in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar. Yaka China was just a few villages south and around a bend in the river from the Americans’ small mountain outposts, but the area’s reputation among the soldiers was mythic. It was a known safe haven for insurgents. American troops have tended to avoid the place since a nasty fight a year or so earlier. And as Halloween approached, the soldiers I was with, under the command of 26-year-old Capt. Dan Kearney, were predicting their own Yaka China doom.
> 
> Company Man Capt. Dan Kearney (left foreground) with members of his unit at the Korengal Outpost command center in northeastern Afghanistan. More Photos »
> 
> ...



The Candidates
Choosing Which War to Fight 
_NY Times_, Feb. 24
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/weekinreview/24cooper.html?ref=todayspaper



> TWO weeks ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise trip to Afghanistan that was so cloaked in extra security and secrecy that reporters traveling with her weren’t told where they were going until her plane had taken off from London.
> 
> Arriving in Kabul, Ms. Rice’s entourage was immediately hustled across the runway to a gray C-17 military transport plane for a one-hour trip to Kandahar, where she stayed for less than three hours, never venturing off the airfield where NATO forces have their headquarters. Then it was back to Kabul for lunch with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, in his barricaded palace. A mere eight hours after landing in Afghanistan, Ms. Rice was gone. She had spent, all told, only six hours on the ground; her plane, with its distinct blue and white United States of America logo, made a swift, steep ascent, disappearing from rocket range within minutes.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (25 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 25, 2008*

U.S. military urges Canada to maintain combat role
Training, reconstruction, fighting are linked, leader of U.S. Central Command says
OMAR EL AKKAD February 25, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- A top U.S. military official cautioned yesterday, on the eve of a parliamentary debate on Canada's military mission to Afghanistan, that soldiers cannot separate the jobs of fighting Taliban insurgents, training Afghan soldiers and reconstructing the country.

Admiral William Fallon, head of U.S. Central Command and the officer responsible for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, would not say whether Canada's target of withdrawing from Afghanistan by 2011 was realistic. He did caution that the Taliban "pays close attention" to what happens in countries that supply troops to Afghanistan and gain confidence "if they perceive there's little commitment - or it's words and not a lot of action to back it up."
More on link


Taliban Threaten Phone Companies
By NOOR KHAN
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants threatened Monday to blow up telecom towers across Afghanistan if mobile phone companies do not switch off their signals for 10 hours starting at dusk.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said the U.S. and other foreign troops in the country are using mobile phone signals to track down the insurgents and launch attacks against them.

The Taliban have "decided to give a three-day deadline to all mobile phone companies to stop their signals from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. in order to stop the enemies from getting intelligence through mobile phones and to stop Taliban and civilian casualties," Mujaheed told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"If those companies do not stop their signal within three days, the Taliban will target their towers and their offices," he said.

There are four mobile phone operators in Afghanistan, but employees at the companies would not immediately comment.

Mobile phones were introduced to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. They have become the principal means of communication and one of the fastest-growing and most profitable sectors in the country's economy.
More on link

New Zealand likely to extend troops' stay in Afghanistan
Published: Monday, February 25, 2008 | 1:46 AM ET Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

WELLINGTON, N.Z. - There is "a strong likelihood" New Zealand will extend its commitment of troops in Afghanistan until September 2010, the defence minister said Monday.

Defence Minister Phil Goff said he told Habiba Sarabi, the governor of Afghanistan's central Bamiyan province, New Zealand has no immediate plans to pull out of the region.

"We are currently committed through to September 2009 with a strong likelihood that later this year that commitment will again be rolled over" for an additional year, Goff said after talks with Sarabi.
More on link

Bridging the gap on Afghan role
 TheStar.com - comment - February 23, 2008 
Article Link

Canadian troops patrolled dusty Kandahar yesterday, buying time for President Hamid Karzai's elected government to rebuild the nation after Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban misrule and terror.

Canadian public opinion, however, is deeply split on that mission. A recent Angus Reid poll found 51 per cent support for maintaining our combat role in Kandahar past 2009, but that still left 41 per cent opposed. Many doubt "success" is possible; some would draw the line at peacekeeping, not fighting; many feel let down by our allies.

Given this split, the 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan deserve clear direction from Ottawa on the nature of their task, how long it will last and how much help we can get from allies. Now, thanks to a bipartisan show of leadership from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, building on proposals by John Manley's panel, a healthy consensus is emerging in Parliament on all this. Harper and Dion both deserve credit for finding common ground.

Dion showed the greater political courage, by agreeing to extend our combat-plus-training-plus-aid role in Kandahar though 2011 after initially demanding a pullout by 2009. Compared to Harper, Dion went the further distance. And he had a divided caucus to drag along.
More on link

Questions on the Unarmed Captain and His Platoon
by Major Garrett 
Article Link

Continuing FOX News’ investigaton of the anecdote Sen. Barack Obama told about an Army captain who served in Afghanistan but suffered from an under-mannered platoon and inadequate equipment and was forced to cannibalize a confiscated Taliban weapon to carry out their mission, I put a series of questions to Obama’s campaign — many of them prompted by conversations I had via e-mail with Ollie North.

North suggested FOX News inquire when Obama first learned of the anecdote and if, as would be typical, if his Senate office filed a congressional inquiry with the Army liaison office on Capitol Hill and, if so, what the dispositionof that inquiry was.

The Obama campaign, through a spokesman and a senior adviser, informed FOX News of the following facts:

First, the Army captain met with Obama in the summer of 2007. It was a one-on-one meeting but the captain did not discuss the anecdote about his experience in Afghanistan and the shortage of men, equipment and parts in his mission against the Taliban.
More on link

U.S. admiral echoes Gen. Hillier's concerns
Updated Sun. Feb. 24 2008 3:54 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The Canadian debate over the Afghanistan mission can boost confidence among the Taliban, says a top US military leader. 

Admiral William Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, told CTV's Question Period that he sees political debate as a normal part of the process. 

But he seemed to agree with Gen. Rick Hillier that the insurgents can use any perceived lack of commitment to gain strength. 

"They're very clever, and they take advantage of information technology, both in gathering information and trying to use that for their purposes," Fallon said. "If they perceive that there's little commitment, or it's words and not a lot of action to back it up, they're going to gain confidence." 

On Friday, Hillier said that the Taliban are watching the political debate in Canada about the mission for signs of weakness. 
More on link

US Marines prepare for 'different kind of fight' in Afghanistan
Article Link

CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina (AFP) — For the 2,200 US Marines being deployed to southern Afghanistan next month, training for a mission fighting Taliban insurgents has meant adapting to a different type of enemy.

Having tried but failed to convince its allies to commit more troops to Afghanistan, the Pentagon last month ordered the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to deploy in March.

They are due to arrive ahead of an expected spring offensive by the Taliban, who make use of very different tactics and terrain to the insurgents in Iraq.

"We are expecting a different kind of fight" than the type of attacks combat troops are used to dealing with in Iraq, said Captain David Lee, part of a reconnaissance unit attached to the Marines.

"In Iraq, the enemy was engaging us through IEDs (improvised explosive devices), they would run and hide," said Lee. "In Afghanistan, the Taliban will come and shoot at us, get into a gunfight. We didn't get a lot of that last time I was in Iraq."

He said that basic training for patrolling and shooting was the same for both theaters but that the Afghan deployment had required some fine-tuning.
More on link

Canadian soldiers hold memorial for blast victims
Updated Sun. Feb. 24 2008 12:14 PM ET The Canadian Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A mullah's sombre voice echoed through a sunlit room in Kandahar Sunday as Canadians and Afghans closed their eyes together in prayer.

One week after a deadly bombing in the Arghandab claimed more than 100 Afghan lives, the Canadian military wanted to pay tribute to their families and invited them to a condolence ceremony and to lunch outside the PRT.

"Just like back home in Canada, when something of this magnitude happens, of such tragedy, it's normal that when we have a connection with people we want to share their tragedy,'' said Maj. James Allen, the officer commanding the Civil Military Co-operation Team in Kandahar.

"We want to show them that we feel their pain and we understand.''
More on link

Thrust into action
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU
Article Link 
  
CAMP DONA ANA, FORT BLISS, New Mexico -- The moonlight cuts silhouettes of soldiers and army tanks as the Canadian battle group prepares for a surprise assault. 

Hours after the day dawns, the convoy makes its sluggish launch, picking up speed as the rolling sandy dunes flatten to tougher desert terrain. In single file, the army of LAVs, tanks and roughly 150 combat troops, including an Afghan contingent, make a 12-km trek to the "objective" of the attack. 

This massive mock exercise, staged to train Canadian soldiers bound for Kandahar, uses a recreated "typical" Afghan village and live fire, jets, tanks and vehicles transported from Canada. The location, a sprawling U.S. army base that straddles Texas and New Mexico, closely resembles the mountains and desert terrain of Afghanistan. 

After the main platoons arrive at the operational battle line, reinforcements move in from the west. Rocket-propelled grenades are hurled from the village and improvised explosive devices are detected -- both confirming intelligence reports that the area is held by enemy Taliban insurgents
More on link


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## GAP (25 Feb 2008)

*More Articles found February 25, 2008*

US warns of more terror in Afghanistan 
February 24, 2008 - 5:41PM
Article Link

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday tipped more terrorist attacks and bombings and fewer all-out battles as Afghanistan moves into its annual summer campaign season.

Mr Gates said on every occasion the Taliban stood and fought, they lost.

But the problem remained there were too few coalition and Afghan government forces to hold territory and maintain security against insurgents to allow economic development.

He said the key to long-term success was clearly building up Afghanistan's army and police
More on link

Deadly Roadside Bomb Attack in Afghanistan  
By VOA News 23 February 2008
   Article Link

Afghan officials say seven people were killed in eastern Afghanistan Saturday when the vehicle they were driving hit a roadside bomb

The blast occurred in the eastern province of Kunar near the Pakistani border. The victims were security guards working for a road construction company. 

Authorities do not know who was behind the attacks. Taliban militants waging an insurgent campaign against the government in Kabul have been blamed for similar incidents in the past.

Also today, a suicide bomber blew himself up in an attempted attack in the western Farah province. Officials say there were no other casualties.
More on link

Assignment Kandahar: Are we mentoring thugs?
Posted: February 23, 2008, 11:46 AM by Brian Hutchinson 
Article Link

An exceptionally grim story coming out of Kandahar city on Saturday. 

Here’s the lede on a story I filed earlier:

“Three Afghan National Police officers were sent to prison Saturday after being found guilty of gang raping a 12-year-old boy and his father.”

The rest of the story can be found here.

I’ve been writing a lot about the ANP, most of it negative, unfortunately. I didn’t think anything could top a piece I filed last week, about child abductions in Kandahar city and alleged police involvement. But the latest news is just appalling. 

One further anecdote about the ANP, whom Canadian troops are busy “mentoring” in Kandahar province. 

I was visiting a police substation on the western fringe of Panjwaii district recently, and watched as a Canadian supply truck pulled up with a load of cooking oil, flour, and other goods for the ANP living there. 
More on link

 Switzerland ends military mission in Afghanistan
February 23, 2008 - 11:37 AM  
Article Link

The last Swiss staff officers serving in Afghanistan have returned to Switzerland, ending the country's four years of cooperation with the Nato-led international force.
The Swiss defence ministry said on Saturday that the last two officers had come home from the northeastern Kunduz province two weeks ago, in accordance with the plan announced by Defence Minister Samuel Schmid in November.

"The two Swiss officers could no longer carry out their mission effectively because of the measures taken by the troops for their own protection," the ministry said in a press release.

"In areas where the Taliban have stepped up their presence, it has become practically impossible to carry out reconstruction work," it explained.

The officers had been working with a German team. The mission was part of the International Security Assistance Force which operates under a UN mandate to help the Afghan government extend its influence in order to create the necessary conditions for stabilisation and reconstruction.

The Swiss military mission in Afghanistan started in 2003. Since then a total of 31 officers, including three doctors, have worked in the Hindu Kush.
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Granny get your gun
Legal beagle among Canadians training for Afghan mission
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU
Article Link
  
CAMP DONA ANA, FORT BLISS, New Mexico -- She is a mother of six, a top military lawyer and a grandmother who packs a gun. 

Cmdr. Bonita Thornton, an assistant judge advocate based in Toronto, dispenses legal advice to senior commanders on everything from disciplinary charges, military contracts, Crown claims and internal grievances. 

On her first deployment to Afghanistan in a few months, she will also advise the Canadian commander on international laws of armed conflict, operations and mentoring. 

Thornton expects the mission will be the professional highlight of her life, but admits to a few personal butterflies. 

DEADLY DEVICES 

"On days like this, you think, hmmm ..." she said, after a day of training to detect deadly improvised explosive devices. "It's not a walk in the park. It's not like going to Cyprus for six months and doing peacekeeping." 

One of Thornton's daughters, 26-year-old Sonya Haskell of Ottawa, is serving in Afghanistan, and their tours will overlap for three months. Thornton's husband, a civilian lawyer, will be doubly worried but will have only one period to deal with the distance. 
More on link

Afghanistan debate makes soldiers targets: Hillier
General's comments inappropriate, says NDP MP
Jack Aubry and Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service  Published: Friday, February 22, 2008
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Canadian parliamentarians shouldn't drag out the debate on the country's military mission in Afghanistan since troops are currently vulnerable to attacks from the Taliban who wish to influence the decision, Canada's top soldier said Friday in a speech to the Conference of Defence Associations.

Gen. Rick Hillier, the outspoken chief of the defence staff, also raised the possibility Friday that this week's deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan, which targeted a Canadian convoy, was meant to sway opinions in the Canadian debate.
More on link

Iran Raises the Heat in Afghanistan
Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 By BRIAN BENNETT/WASHINGTON 
Article Link

"We haven't chosen these neighbors," joked Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S., Said Tayeb Jawad, as he shined the red dot of a laser around the edges of a map of his homeland. He was addressing a roomful of government analysts, scholars and journalists Wednesday, and when asked about Iran's current influence in Afghanistan, the joking stopped. "Iran has become a more and more hostile power," he said. 
More on link

France ponders grand engagement in Afghanistan, experts say
Peter O'Neil ,  Canwest News Service Published: Friday, February 22, 2008
Article Link

PARIS -- Canada's search here for a military partner in Afghanistan will have to contend with France's historic quest to display grandeur, or greatness, on the world stage.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who spoke of his "taste" for French greatness Friday in a speech to launch a museum devoted to famed grandeur adherent Charles de Gaulle, is expected to announce France's plans in April to assume a more muscular role in Afghanistan.

But some observers wonder if the idea of French troops playing second fiddle to a middle power like Canada would be enough to feed his objective of making a major international splash as France tries to re-establishes itself in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
More on link

Powerful blast rocks Afghanistan's Kandahar
Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:46am EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A strong explosion shook Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar on Monday, but it was not immediately clear what caused it and if there were any casualties, residents and the interior ministry said.

The blast occurred to the west of the city of Kandahar, where more than 100 people, most of them civilians, were killed in a suspected suicide attack last week.

An official at the interior ministry in Kabul confirmed the blast, but said there were no further details on its cause or casualties. (Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Alex Richardson) 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (26 Feb 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND FEB. 26

France to send troops into Afghan combat: Le Monde
Reuters, Feb. 26
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080226.wafghanistan0226/BNStory/International/home



> France may send hundreds of ground troops *to eastern Afghanistan* [emphasis added] where NATO-led forces are fighting al-Qaeda-backed insurgents, Le Monde newspaper reported on Tuesday.
> 
> It said the move would be part of a new Afghan policy being worked out by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisers.
> 
> ...



Military 'musical chairs' could aid Harper's Afghan plan
France expected to deploy 700 soldiers to volatile Pakistan border region
CBC, Feb. 26
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/02/26/france-troops.html



> A possible plan to send French troops to eastern Afghanistan could provide Ottawa with the extra NATO support it's demanding as a condition to extend the Canadian mission in the region.
> 
> Canadian officials had been hoping that France would deploy a large number of soldiers to southern Afghanistan's Kandahar region, where 2,500 Canadian troops are already stationed...
> 
> ...



From the _Le Monde_ story:
http://www.lemonde.fr/asie-pacifique/article/2008/02/26/la-france-va-accroitre-son-effort-militaire-en-afghanistan_1015693_3216.html



> ...L'option d'un déploiement français dans l'Est de l'Afghanistan aurait, selon Paris, l'avantage de faciliter la cohésion du dispositif militaire français, puisque c'est dans ces régions que sont déjà déployées quatre équipes françaises d'instructeurs militaires (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams, OMLT), chacune comportant 50 soldats insérés dans des unités de l'armée afghane...



NATO Confronts Surprisingly Fierce Taliban
Militia Undermines Rebuilding Efforts in Southern Province of Uruzgan [major article]
_Washington Post_, Feb. 26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022503089.html



> TARIN KOT, Afghanistan -- Lt. Col. Wilfred Rietdijk, a 6-foot-7 blond Dutchman, took command of his military's reconstruction team in the southern Afghan district of Deh Rawood in September. Tranquil and welcoming, it seemed like the perfect place for the Netherlands' mission to help rebuild this country.
> 
> Intelligence reports indicated that the district was free of the Taliban, allowing the soldiers greater freedom of movement than elsewhere in Uruzgan province.
> 
> ...



Taliban Jack: How the NDP lost its way on the Afghan war
_Vancouver Sun_, Feb. 26, by Terry Glavin
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=7f644573-dd8c-4e31-99fe-2ea0489031fc



> Sidelined again, his party stuck in the same mid-teens doldrums it's been in since the last election, Jack Layton cannot be a very happy man these days.
> 
> For a while there, it looked like we'd be going to the polls over Afghanistan, so everyone was suddenly paying attention. But nothing Layton had to say made any sense. The Liberals and Conservatives hammered out a kind of combat-role rapprochement, and then the world moved on.
> 
> ...



A related post by Mr Glavin at his blog:

Into the Abyss: Afghanistan, Jack Layton, and the Fall of the New Democratic Party
http://transmontanus.blogspot.com/2008/02/into-abyss-afghanistan-jack-layton-and.html

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (27 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 27, 2008*

NATO may follow if Canada exits Afghanistan
Article Link

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's defense minister urged parliament to keep its 2,500 troops in Afghanistan until 2011, warning that an earlier withdrawal could lead its NATO allies to abandon the shaky nation too.

"This is perhaps the most important debate facing our parliament and our nation today," Defense Minister Peter MacKay said at the start of a parliamentary debate on whether to extend the military mission or exit.

"The consequences of pulling Canada's military out of Afghanistan could have a far-reaching effect or a domino effect on others," he said. "If we were to pack up and leave Afghanistan, why wouldn't other nations follow suit?"

"How would history judge us if Canada walked away from Afghanistan?"

Previously, the main opposition Liberals agreed with the ruling Conservatives on the need to maintain troops in Afghanistan to 2011 only if NATO allies send reinforcements soon.

But they differed on whether Canadian soldiers should continue hunting insurgents beyond their current mandate of February 2009, or stick to a non-combat role in Kandahar province.
More on link

4 police, 1 child killed in roadside bomb in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-26 15:09:02     
  Article Link

    KABUL, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Four police and a child were killed as a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Afghanistan's eastern khost province Tuesday, an official at the Interior Ministry said.

    "It was at around 08:30 a.m. local time when a mine planted byenemies hit the vehicle of police killing all its five occupants in Yaqubi district,"the official told Xinhua but refused to be identified, adding a press release would soon be released. 

    However, he added that the victims include four policemen and one child accompanied his father at the van. 
More on link

Norway to send troops to southern Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-26 18:26:29      
Article Link

    STOCKHOLM, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Norway's Defense Minister Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen said her country will send more troops to the troubled southern Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, according to reports reaching here Tuesday. 

    The fresh troops, including 50 Norwegian officers and soldiers, will be sent to Afghanistan in October to help training the Afghan troops, the minister told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. 

    "They will go with the Afghan force, wherever they are sent. This may mean that they will be engaged in fighting in all parts of Afghanistan, also in the south," the minister said. 

    The missions will last for up to three months, she added. 

    Last October, Stroem-Erichsen rejected NATO demand for deployment of Norwegian soldiers in southern Afghanistan, saying that her country should concentrate its troops in north of the war-torn country. 
More on link

Berlin Willing to Expand Police Mission in Afghanistan  
Article Link

Germany said it would double the number of police instructors in Afghanistan, but only if other EU countries were prepared to follow suit. If participating nations take part, the mission would increase to 400 officers.

Berlin's offer comes against a background of ongoing criticism that Germany had reneged on its earlier promises to the trouble-torn country, and international calls upon Germany to increase its commitments in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble expressed Germany's willingness to increase the number of trainers from 60 to 120 in a joint commentary published Sunday, Feb. 24, in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
More on link

Taliban threaten cellphone firms in Afghanistan 
By Taimoor Shah Monday, February 25, 2008 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: The Taliban have demanded that all four cellphone companies in Afghanistan cease operating during night hours or face attacks on their offices and communication towers, according to a statement issued Monday to journalists.

The statement, issued by a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, complained that NATO and American forces in Afghanistan, which it called "occupying forces," were tracking the whereabouts of militants through their mobile phones and also conducting espionage through cellphones.

"It has caused heavy casualties to Taliban and sometimes to civilians," the statement said.

U.S. counterterrorism forces have tracked insurgents and Taliban commanders in Afghanistan using satellite and cellphone signals, and have conducted airstrikes and raids based on such information. In addition, the Taliban have often accused villagers of alerting counterterrorism forces of their movements.

The Taliban said they had already contacted the companies but without result. Some companies had said they were not able to stop foreign forces tracing their signal, the statement said.
More on link

Roadside bomb kills 2 Polish soldiers in eastern Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb blast has killed two Polish soldiers in eastern Afghanistan.

The explosion hit the Polish troops Tuesday in the Sharan district of Paktika province. They were returning from a humanitarian aid meeting in a village when their Humvee drove over a roadside mine.

One soldier was also wounded. Poland has about 1,200 troops in Afghanistan.

Paktika borders Pakistan's lawless tribal region, which is used by militants as a base to plan and launch attacks inside Afghanistan.

NATO also announced the seizure of 1.5 tonnes of opium worth $400 million in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province.
More on link

Diggers clash with Taliban in Afghanistan
Article Link

Australian troops responded aggressively with armoured vehicles, mortar fire and follow up patrols. (Australian Defence Force)
The Defence Department says Australian soldiers have fought off a number of Taliban attacks over the past few days in southern Afghanistan.

The Department says extremists used rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire to attack the troops while they were working on a construction site near Tarin Kowt.

In audio supplied by the Defence Force, Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Right describes the attack.

"It's obvious the Taliban do not want us here, they attacked one of our security positions just on dusk with RPGs and small arms fire," he says.
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Aussies turn big guns on Taliban
By Peter Veness February 27, 2008 06:45pm
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AUSTRALIAN troops have been forced to use some of their heaviest firepower to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan during a series of recent skirmishes, the Department of Defence says.

The soldiers have been using 81mm mortars, which can hit targets kilometres away but which have not been widely used by Australia since the Vietnam war.

No Australian soldiers were killed or injured in the fighting and it was not clear if any Taliban had been hit.

The Taliban have launched multiple simultaneous attacks during the past fortnight.

The raids have been aimed at a security post that soldiers from the Reconstruction Task Force (RTF) have been building about 15km from Tarin Kowt, in the Afghan province of Oruzgan
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Canada is a lucky nation to have men like this
By Ezra Levant on February 26, 2008 12:23 PM
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I sometimes get e-mails from Canadian Forces troops in Afghanistan, who are always thoughtful about the larger purpose of their mission. It's clear to me that they think and talk a lot about the moral importance of their mission. I believe they are true idealists. Of course they are: in a time of war, with a near-certainty of deployment to the front lines, it takes a very special and selfless person to volunteer to join the army.

If my correspondents are any indication, our troops truly believe in spreading our Canadian ideals of liberty, rule of law, democracy and peace. I don't think the media tells us about that heartening phenomenon enough, other than a few exceptional reporters like Christie Blatchford. (Here is one of her all-time best from Afghanistan.)

I received an e-mail yesterday from a soldier in Afghanistan. After I wrote back to thank him, he wrote to me again encouraging me to post it on my blog.

How does one repay such generosity? I'm not just talking about his financial generosity -- I'm talking about his generosity of spirit, his deeply-held belief in freedom and the personal sacrifices needed to sustain it.

He is far too kind to suggest that what I'm doing, from the warmth and safety of Canada, is in any way comparable to what he's doing, in real danger and discomfort, daily. I was stunned when I received his note. Here it is. Good God we're a lucky nation to have men and women like this. I don't deserve such praise. I hope as a nation we can live up to his standards.
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## MarkOttawa (27 Feb 2008)

Latest Afstan roundup from the Conference of Defence Associations (links given for full CPAC video coverage of the CDA's Feb. 21-22 meeting):

Afghanistan: continuing the effort
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1204135170

It includes this letter from Jack Granatstein to the Globe and Mail, on CDS General Hillier's speech to last week's CDA meeting, published today but only available to subscribers:



> There's nothing improper about educating Canadians on defence
> J.L. GRANATSTEIN
> From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
> February 27, 2008 at 3:27 AM EST
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (27 Feb 2008)

Europeans ponder the 'how' of dealing with Afghanistan
Draft documents circulating among NATO allies ahead of April summit call for revamped strategy
Toronto Star, Feb. 27
http://www.thestar.com/World/Columnist/article/307260



> PARIS–A bleak recurring theme is emerging in the answers of European government insiders when pressed on the question of how far they might be willing to go to help Canada in the battle for volatile southern Afghanistan.
> 
> No matter whether you ask in French, German, Spanish or Italian, the pat response is to turn aside the question itself. And to ask a series of more difficult questions instead. Such was the case yesterday, when a senior French government source told the Star:
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (28 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 28, 2008*

Canadian Forces: Exercise Southern Bear Ends Successfully
CAMP DONA ANA, FORT BLISS, TEXAS--(Marketwire - Feb. 28, 2008) 
Article Link

 Today, after almost a month in desert-like training at Fort Bliss, Texas, Exercise Southern Bear has officially ended. The approximately 3,000 soldiers who took part in the exercise will soon be heading back to Canada.

During this month long exercise soldiers conducted Combat Team attacks, convoy training, IED training and specific training pertaining to their tasks in Afghanistan.

"I am very pleased with everything that we accomplished during our short time here," said Colonel Dean Milner, Commander of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (2 CMBG). "The exceptional facilities at Fort Bliss allowed us to train in an environment that is similar to Afghanistan."

The completion of the exercise marks another major milestone on the road to Afghanistan that began last August for many of the soldiers from Petawawa's 2 CMBG. Aside from the Joint Task Force Afghanistan Headquarters that is scheduled to depart at the end of April, most of the soldiers training for the deployment will leave for Afghanistan during September.

"This exercise allowed us to bring together all of the Task Force elements that will deploy to Afghanistan. It helped us prepare them for the next major training event in Wainwright, Alberta during May called Exercise Maple Guardian." added Colonel Milner. "We have done everything to make sure that the soldiers are prepared for success at Wainwright and later on in Afghanistan."

The training at Fort Bliss was necessary to replicate the terrain in and around Kandahar Province, where these soldiers will be operating once they deploy to Afghanistan.
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Prince Harry serving in Afghanistan, British officials confirm
Last Updated: Thursday, February 28, 2008 | 3:00 PM ET  CBC News 
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Prince Harry has been serving on the front lines in Afghanistan since December, calling in air strikes and going on foot patrols, Britain's Defence Ministry confirmed Thursday.

The confirmation came shortly after the news was leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper, as well as the U.S. news site Drudge Report.

Prince Harry patrols the Afghan town of Garmisir on Jan. 2. His presence in Afghanistan was supposed to be kept a secret by the media.
(John Stillwell/Associated Press) The prince, who is third in line to the British throne, has been in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province for 10 weeks and was to have remained until mid-April.
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Afghan CTV journalist declared enemy combatant
 Feb 27, 2008 05:21 PM Alisa Tang THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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KABUL–The U.S. military said today a journalist working for Canada's CTV television network, who has been held for four months without being charged, has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant.

Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan who is also known as Jojo Yazemi, was allowed to make a statement before an enemy combatant review board, which determined there was credible information to detain him because he was dangerous to foreign troops and the Afghan government, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
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Toronto gun deaths outnumber troop losses in Afghanistan
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With this week's agreement to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan until 2011, Jack Layton can no longer threaten their forced return to perhaps clean snow from the streets of Toronto. Our troops are safer in Afghanistan. For the past six years more people have been killed annually in Toronto (mostly from gangs with handguns) than have died in the engagement with terrorists in that war-torn country. This is supposed to change when Premier Dalton McGuinty and his federal Liberal cousins complete their ban on handguns. 

Had Jean Chretien not spent $500 million taxpayer dollars getting out of the purchase of helicopters back in 1993 many of the 78 casualties not from gunfire but roadside bombs would probably have been averted. 

Removal of troops replaced with well-intentioned civilians will only allow the terrorists to intercept our relief supplies, sell them on the open market and buy more guns and material for roadside bombs. 

Perhaps our politicians should leave the running of the war to the generals. Our politicians are much more entertaining as they play Perry Mason wannabes figuring out whether Schreiber is a better liar than Mulroney. Like the Liberal sponsorship scandal the airbus affair was conducted by individuals all paid in cash only under the table with no legs. There are no prisoners and no paper trails from these transactions. 
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Combat will sometimes be part of mission: MacKay
 Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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OTTAWA -- There will be times after 2009 when Canadian troops will have to be engaged in combat in Afghanistan and the timing of such decisions are best left to commanders on the ground, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

The possibility of Canadian troops continuing to carry the fight to the Taliban is at the heart of a debate over whether the federal Liberals will support the Conservative government's motion to extend deployment in Kandahar up to July 2011.

In opening debate on the motion Monday, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion made it clear his party wants other NATO troops to take over the lead combat role, leaving Canadian soldiers to focus on reconstruction, security and training Afghan forces.

But MacKay says he believes the Liberals are realistic and have come to the conclusion that there are times when fighting will be necessary.
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A look at recent kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan
The Associated PressPublished: February 27, 2008
Article Link

Recent kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan:

AMERICAN AID WORKER: Gunmen kidnapped American aid worker Cyd Mizell and her driver, Abdul Hadi, in a residential neighborhood of Kandahar on Jan. 26, 2008. Mizell, who was wearing the all-encompassing burqa that many Afghan women wear when she was taken, worked on aid projects for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation. After a month in captivity ARLDF said they were both feared dead.

RED CROSS WORKERS: Four ICRC employees — a national from Myanmar, one from Macedonia and two from Afghanistan — were seized Sept. 26, 2007, in the central province of Ghazni while trying to secure the release of a German captive abducted in July
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American Missing in Afghanistan Is Feared Dead  
By THE NEW YORK TIMES February 28, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An American woman and her Afghan driver who were abducted at gunpoint on Jan. 26 are feared dead, the administrator of her aid organization said Wednesday.

The woman, Cyd Mizell, 50, a native of Eureka, Calif., worked for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation starting in 2005. She taught English and ran educational and agricultural assistance programs in this southern city. Her driver was Muhammad Hadi, a father of five.

“We have received information through two police sources that they had been killed,” said Micah Berry, the financial administrator for the foundation. “We don’t know whether it is true or not.”

The provincial governor, Asadullah Khalid, said he could not confirm the report. The foundation said it was working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to find the two, Mr. Berry said. 
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29 Militants Killed in South Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A militant ambush of an opium poppy eradication force sparked clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, a provincial police chief said Thursday. Four other militants died when a bomb went off.

Insurgents ambushed the drug eradication force Wednesday in Marja district of Helmand province — the world's largest opium producing region — killing one police officer and wounding two, said Gen. Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief.

Police attacked the militants afterward, killing 25 Taliban fighters, Andiwal said.

Separately, four militants died and another was wounded Thursday when the roadside bomb they were planting on a main road in Helmand exploded prematurely, Andiwal said.
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Missile strike on Pakistan militant hideout kills 13: officials
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A suspected US missile strike destroyed an Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideout in a Pakistani region, killing 13 alleged militants including several Arabs, security officials said Thursday.

Residents of Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan told AFP that a house was blown up by a missile fired from a pilotless drone and the loud blast was heard miles (kilometres) away in the rugged valley.

US drones have launched several strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border targeting members of Osama bin Laden's network, although Islamabad never confirms such attacks due to issues of national sovereignty.

The attack comes a month after Bin Laden's operational number three, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed in a missile strike on January 29 in the neighbouring Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.

"A house used as a den by Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban militants was hit by a missile. Thirteen people were killed and around 10 were wounded," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
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## MarkOttawa (28 Feb 2008)

Karzai only controls 1/3 of Afghanistan
AP, Feb. 28
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_go_ot/terrorist_threats;_ylt=AhdfzWCELZ9CkvUCqryKbi134T0D



> More than six years after the U.S. invaded to establish a stable central regime in Afghanistan, the Kabul government under President Hamid Karzai controls just 30 percent of the country, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.
> 
> National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the resurgent Taliban controls 10 percent to 11 percent of the country and Karzai's government controls 30 percent to 31 percent. The majority of Afghanistan's population and territory remains under local tribal control, he said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (29 Feb 2008)

*Articles found February 29, 2008 - (it's a leap year!!)*

Prince Harry in Afghanistan bravery saluted
By Colonel Richard Kemp CBE, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan
Last Updated: 8:30am GMT 29/02/2008
Article Link

Everybody who joins a military combat arm - such as the Household Cavalry Regiment - does so in order to fight. Prince Harry is no exception and he was bitterly disappointed when he was not allowed to go to Iraq with his regiment last May.

His deployment in December - as for every soldier on his first active operation - would have been a time of great excitement, tempered with a degree of apprehension.

 Of course he is no ordinary Army officer - as third in line to the throne he couldn't be. But Prince Harry has built up a formidable reputation as a fine and competent officer since joining his regiment, and that has been further strengthened in Afghanistan.

Based in a forward operating base near the Pakistan border on the main Taliban transit route up into Helmand, the Prince has had no special treatment. 

There isn't room for anything like that in the confined and rudimentary living quarters of a wind-swept combat outpost. He has been 'mucking-in' with every other soldier, cooking his own rations, taking his turn making brews for himself and his mates, cleaning his rifle and equipment.

He has been receiving the respect due to any commissioned officer - though for junior lieutenants such as the Prince, that is usually dispensed sparingly! He will have ribbed his fellow-soldiers, and been ripped into himself in the often vicious but always vital humour that the Army survives on both in and out of barracks
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Our troops deserve better
 TheStar.com - comment - February 29, 2008 
Re:Canada's military-industrial complex
Article Link
Column, Feb. 26

After years of neglect, Canada's armed forces are finally getting equipment of current vintage. When Canadian troops entered Afghanistan, they did not have enough armoured helmets to provide for troops rotating in and out of the theatre. These had to be exchanged between those troops leaving and those troops entering Afghanistan.

Need I mention that Canadian troops first arrived there with forest-green uniforms and had to wait close to a year before having suitable desert camouflage uniforms? Similar circumstances repeated themselves in regard to air transport, ground support armour and artillery, and Canada is still wanting in basic helicopter transport and air support.

The present federal government is the only one in decades that has recognized the strategic vulnerability of Canada's North. Yet Linda McQuaig gainsays relatively minimal military spending – a 0.5 per cent spending increase – when Greece, for instance, has recently been spending in the area of 4 per cent of its gross domestic product annually.

Australia, with a population of 20.4 million people, spends more than Canada, with a population of 31 million.

Canada comes 60th in members of the armed forces, after such countries as Chile, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia. We make do with diesel submarines, while Brazil is prepared to build a nuclear submarine.

Isn't it about time Canada had some means and a slight hope of sustaining her own sovereignty?
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Missile strike on militant hideout in SWA kills 10
Article Link

 Residents say dead include Punjabi, Afghan militants
* Army says blast due to explosive material stored in house

PESHAWAR: At least 10 suspected militants were killed in a missile strike on a house in South Waziristan early on Thursday, residents and officials said.

The dead were believed to be of Pakistani and foreign origins, they said.

The attack happened at about 2am in Kaloosha Village, 10 kilometres west of Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency.

“Nine militants were killed instantly while a wounded Punjabi militant passed away hours later in a local hospital,” the residents said. Security officials also put the toll at 10. However, local news agencies reported that 13 people were killed in the attack and several others injured. 

It is the second such attack in the area after militant commander Nek Muhammad was killed in a missile attack in June 2004. 

Resident Sharifullah said three missiles hit the house of Afghan national Sheroo.

Sheroo hailed from Zalikhel tribe, which was notorious for harbouring foreign and local militants, the residents added.

Afghans, Punjabis: They said the dead included Afghans and Punjabis whereas security officials pointed out the presence of Arab militants in the house. 

“There was no immediate information about the presence of any high-value target,” an official told AFP.
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Taliban Blow Up Afghan Phone Tower
By NOOR KHAN – 2 hours ago 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants blew up a telecommunications tower Friday in southern Afghanistan following a warning to phone companies to shut down the towers at night or face attack.

The militants fear U.S. and other foreign troops are using mobile phone signals to track insurgents and launch attacks against them. A Taliban spokesman on Monday said militants would blow up towers across Afghanistan if the companies did not switch off their signals overnight.

Insurgents made good on that threat Friday, destroying a tower along the main highway in the Zhari district of Kandahar province, said Niaz Mohammad Serhadi, the top district official.

The tower was owned by Areeba, one of four cellular companies in Afghanistan. Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Phone companies moved into remote areas of Afghanistan after talks with tribal elders, who asked for the towers to be built, said Abdul Hadi Hadi, spokesman for the Telecommunications Ministry.

"When they destroy any tower, it shows direct enmity to the people of that area. I don't think the destruction of the towers has any direct effect on the government. It is the people who suffer," he said.
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Parents respond to word that kidnapped US aid worker feared dead
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An American aid worker's parents, who live in Washington state, say they are heartbroken to receive "credible reports" that their daughter and her Afghan driver, kidnapped in southern Afghanistan a month ago, are feared dead.

"While these reports remain unconfirmed, we are beginning to accept that the hoped-for outcome may no longer be possible," George and Peggy Mizell of DuPont, Wash., said Thursday in a statement.

Cyd Mizell, 50, and driver Abdul Hadi were kidnapped in a residential neighborhood of Kandahar on Jan. 26. Mizell worked on aid projects for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, or ARLDF.

"Although we have no confirmation of their deaths, we have received information over the past few days indicating that our two aid workers have been killed," said a statement posted on the group's Web site Tuesday.

Afghan and U.S. officials said Wednesday they could not confirm the report.
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Canada resumes Afghan detainee transfers
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update February 29, 2008 at 8:44 AM EST
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KABUL — Canada has resumed transfers of detainees to Afghan custody, officials announced today, saying they're satisfied with local authorities' new safeguards against torture.

Many details of the handovers were kept secret as Canadian officials spoke with reporters via teleconference.

They declined to say when the transfers resumed, how many have been transferred, or whether Canada has now emptied the makeshift prison facility at Kandahar Air Field that held a growing number of detainees for almost four months.

The transfers halted on Nov. 6, one day after Canadian officials discovered first-hand evidence of torture inside a detention facility operated by the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's feared intelligence service.
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## GAP (29 Feb 2008)

Governor of volatile Afghan province removed from post  
The Associated Press Friday, February 29, 2008 
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KABUL, Afghanistan: The governor of volatile Helmand province was removed from his post Friday after a year of record opium production and insurgency-related violence in the province.

Asadullah Wafa, who was appointed in December 2006 amid hope that he would be able to stabilize the province, said President Hamid Karzai issued a decree Friday releasing him from the Helmand post.

His removal leaves the country's key area in the battle against insurgents and narcotics without direct government representation, and comes after a series of confrontations between Wafa and British officials in the province over counterinsurgency strategy and the crackdown on drug production.

Wafa claimed that he wanted to be removed from his post and complained that he was dissatisfied with poppy eradication forces working in the province. Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment about the decision to remove Wafa.

His successor has not yet been announced, Wafa said. Wafa will continue his work as the ministerial adviser for tribal affairs.
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