# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2012



## The Bread Guy (29 Nov 2012)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2012 *               

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


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## GAP (9 Dec 2012)

*Articles found Dec 9, 2012*

 US doctor rescued from Taliban, US-led coalition says
Article Link
Published December 09, 2012 FoxNews.com

KABUL, Afghanistan –  An American doctor abducted by the Taliban five days ago was rescued Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led military coalition said.

Dr. Dilip Joseph, along with an Afghan doctor and driver, were captured by Taliban insurgents Wednesday outside the Afghan capital, in the Sarobi district of Kabul province, according to a Stars and Stripes report.

Joseph, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was returning from a visit to a medical clinic he had been overseeing when he was captured, according to a press release issued by his employer, Morning Star Development, a Colorado-based non-governmental organization.

He was rescued in an early morning operation, which was ordered when intelligence showed that Joseph was in imminent danger of injury or death.

The Afghan doctor and driver were reportedly released before the raid and taken to a police station, according to the Morning Star and Stars and Stripes reports. Their identities were not released.

Joseph has worked for Morning Star for three years and has been serving as a medical adviser, traveling frequently to Afghanistan, the organization's news release states.

Following the rescue operation, Joseph was transported to Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, where he was reported to be in good condition, according to Morning Star.

"This was a combined operation of U.S. and Afghan forces," said 1st Lt. Joseph Alonso, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "Information was collected through multiple intelligence sources, which allowed Afghan and coalition forces to identify the location of Joseph and the criminals responsible for his captivity."
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 For Afghan forces, retaking ‘Road of Martyrs’ from Taliban was priority
Article Link
 By Laura Rauch Stars and Stripes December 9, 2012

KHIG, Afghanistan — The road held little strategic value for coalition forces; isolated and barren, it led to nowhere useful in the fight against the Taliban. For their Afghan partners, however, the road was hallowed ground, worth dying for.

As Afghan security forces take the lead with the drawdown of coalition troops, they are increasingly able to choose their missions, and this one had been a long time coming.

For 10 years, the Taliban controlled a 10-mile stretch of red earth known as the “Road of Martyrs” in northwestern Kandahar province. By fortifying the road with seven bands of improvised explosive devices, they denied all but a few Afghans access to the site of the Battle of Maiwand, graveyard to 3,000 Afghans, and the nearby Shrine to Malalai.

Nearly 1,000 British troops were killed before their army was defeated in the Battle of Maiwand in July 1880, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

Last week, a team of Afghan National Security Forces and their U.S. partners with 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment seized control of the road, thus ending the Taliban reign over route Sheyhedan.

Eight insurgents were killed and 57 IEDs were cleared during the four-day operation, which yielded no coalition or Afghan casualties.

“It’s a great day for our people, for our communities,” District Gov. Saleh Mohammad said while visiting new checkpoints on the road. “The whole world knows Malalai — especially the British.”

“This battlefield is as important to the Afghans as Gettysburg is to us,” the 4-23’s commander, Lt. Col. Greg Harkins, said.
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## GAP (19 Dec 2012)

*Articles found Dec 19, 2012*

 Military soul-searching as Afghan training mission winds down amid tight budgets 
  Article Link
By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press December 17, 2012

OTTAWA - Canada's long-standing military contribution to Afghanistan enters its last full year in 2013, giving way to a serious bout of soul-searching in a restless, battle-hardened military that's been thrust into an era of fiscal austerity.

Senior commanders appearing before parliamentary committees have often faced the same question from MPs and senators: How do you keep troops engaged and interested after a five-year guerilla war in Kandahar?

It is, in some respects, an age-old question for post-war nations, but it's one Canada hasn't confronted since the Korean War thundered to an inconclusive end nearly 60 years ago.

Canada's training mission in Kabul is scheduled to wrap up in March 2014.

There is no shortage of turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, but leaks regarding modest roles on the sidelines of Syria's civil war suggest the Harper government has learned Afghanistan's hard political lesson: boots on the ground are an extreme last resort.

The establishment of a quasi-al-Qaida state in northern Mali, the west African country where Canadian interests run deep, is actively debated, at least in academic circles, as the next Afghanistan.
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Pakistan killings near Peshawar disrupt polio campaign
Article Link
  19 December 2012

wo polio vaccination workers have been killed in north-western Pakistan in the latest of a spate of deadly attacks.

The shootings in the Peshawar region left a vaccination supervisor and her driver dead, and injured a volunteer.

The deaths brought to eight the number of health workers killed in this week's anti-polio drive. The three-day drive is now over.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have issued threats against the UN's anti-polio efforts.

The militants have accused health workers of working as US spies and say the vaccine makes children sterile.

Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic.

Coming after five deaths on Tuesday, and one on Monday, the UN children's agency Unicef and the World Health Organisation halted work in Sindh province in the south and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north-west on Tuesday. The suspension was extended nationwide on Wednesday.

The UN provides technical and financial support to employees and volunteers of the local health departments who administer the polio drops.
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## GAP (24 Dec 2012)

*Articles found Dec 24, 2012*

Afghan 'rogue' attacks kill US aide and five police
Article Link
  24 December 2012

An Afghan policewoman has killed a US civilian aide at the police headquarters in Kabul.

It is believed to be the first such insider attack carried out by a woman. She is now in custody.

In a separate incident, at least five local policemen were killed by another officer in northern Afghanistan.

There has been a rise in incidents in which Afghan security forces members have shot dead either foreign personnel or their own colleagues.

In Monday's attack in Kabul, Afghan officials said the 33-year-old officer, who they named only as Nargis, arrived at the HQ looking for the police chief, the governor of Kabul or the head of the criminal investigation department.

When she was unable to locate them she went to the canteen and fired one bullet at the aide. She then fired at officers who tried to arrest her.

Afghan officials said the woman was married to an officer with the criminal investigation department and has three children.
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“Underground railroad” brings dogs out of Afghanistan
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Sunday December 23, 2012  Jessica McDiarmid

When Jodi McMurray met Rabies, the stray dog had posted himself outside the gates of the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, mooching food and belly rubs off the soldiers and diplomats.

Named by the guards at the gates, the feisty dog was “King of the Street,” said McMurray, who was in Kabul on a short trip in 2010.

Later that year, the Canadian diplomat was posted to Kabul. She arrived on Christmas Eve. “There was Rabies,” she said. “Of course, my heart just melts.”

In a country where dogs are seen more as vermin than pets, and frequently harassed, tortured, killed or used for fighting, McMurray grew more attached.

“A large part of the population can’t feed themselves and their children, let alone animals,” said McMurray. “I had this voice inside of me saying, ‘You’ve got to get him out of here.’ ”

Enter retired lieutenant-commander Albert Wong, who now runs a communications firm in Toronto.

Wong brought a dog, Wutan, home after a posting to Afghanistan in 2005-06 and ever since, has been helping others do the same. He calls it the Wutan Project.

McMurray changed Rabies’ name to Leo, figuring clearing customs might be difficult with a pet named after a deadly disease, she said with a laugh. After much red tape, Leo was on a plane bound for Pearson airport, where Wong picked him up.

Leo is one of 12 dogs Wong has helped bring to Canada from Afghanistan.

The first was Wutan, who had been used for sniffing out mines and explosives. Wong wanted to take him back.

“When we were rotating out, we felt we shouldn’t be leaving him behind,” said Wong
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 Goods donated to Afghan interpreters settling in Ottawa
Canadian soldiers delivered boxes of gifts to interpreters and their families Tuesday night
CBC News  Dec 19, 2012
Article Link

Some Canadian soldiers delivered donated goods to 14 immigrant families on Tuesday night in an effort to help settle them into Canada and the Christmas tradition.

Over the past several months, 14 Afghan interpreters and their families have settled in Ottawa. They all worked for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, and their dangerous work allowed them to be fast tracked to Canada for their own safety.

Lt.-Col. Steve Nolan and others arrived in two minivans packed with presents.

"It's going to be great. There's toys, the legion did gift baskets for each family, 14 families," Nolan said.

John Majboor arrived in May. He hopes he can bring his family to Canada someday.

"When I was in Afghanistan I feel really, really danger. My life was at … greatest risk, but now I feel free, now I'm really happy here. I have a job and I'm going to college and I have a good life here," Majboor said.
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## GAP (29 Dec 2012)

*Articles found Dec 29, 2012*

  Vast sums of aid continue to be stolen in Afghanistan
Article Link
Despite years of supposed effort to stop money laundering out of Kabul airport, billions continue to flow from the country unchecked.
By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / December 11, 2012 

In the summer of 2010, the US decided to do something about the enormous sucking sound being generated by the bulk cash shipments funneling through Afghanistan's Kabul airport and on to Dubai, Zurich, and London – every point of the compass, really.

With Afghanistan's two principal cash crops being opium and slicing chunks off the top of international aid, there were no prizes for guessing where the tens of billions of dollars transferred from Afghanistan since the US-led war began in 2002 came from, or how the luxury villas of so many Afghan officials in the United Arab Emirates had been paid for.

So, the US embassy in Kabul created a "bulk cash flow action plan" and the Karzai government said it was on board. The results since? Well, around $4.5 billion flowed out of Afghanistan in 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service, the vast majority of it unmonitored and unregistered. That's about 22 percent of gross domestic product, an astonishing amount of capital flight.

How is the plan doing this year? About the same as last year, according to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a US government auditor, released today.

The failure so far is a reminder that nice-seeming US plans in Afghanistan rarely achieve their desired results, and that the Afghan government's will to rein in corruption has consistently ended with empty promises made across conference tables for a decade now.

What happened?
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  Pakistan Taliban chief says TTP will negotiate, but not disarm
Article Link
'We believe in dialogue but it should not be frivolous,' Pakistan Taliban chief, Hakimullah Mehsud said in a 40 minute video. 'Asking us to lay down arms is a joke.'
By Saud Mehsud, Reuters / December 28, 2012 

The head of Pakistan's Taliban said his militia is willing to negotiate with the government but not disarm, a message delivered in a video given to Reuters on Friday.

The release of the 40-minute video follows three high-profile Taliban attacks in the northern city of Peshawar this month: an attack by multiple suicide bombers on the airport, the killing of a senior politician and eight others in a bombing, and the kidnap of 22 paramilitary forces on Thursday.

The attacks underline the Taliban's ability to strike high-profile, well-protected targets even as the amount of territory it controls has shrunk and its leaders are picked off by US drones.

"We believe in dialogue but it should not be frivolous," Hakimullah Mehsud said. "Asking us to lay down arms is a joke."

In the video, Mehsud sits cradling a rifle next to his deputy, Wali ur-Rehman. Military officials say there has been a split between the two men but Mehsud said that was propaganda.

"Wali ur-Rehman is sitting with me here and we will be together until death," said Mehsud, pointing at his companion.

Pakistani officials did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

The Taliban said in a letter released Thursday that they wanted Pakistan to rewite its laws and constitution to conform with Islamic law, break its alliance with the United States and stop interfering in the war in Afghanistan and focus on India instead.
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 Five women shot dead in Pakistan for fighting polio
Article Link
Five female health workers vaccinating children against polio have been shot dead in Pakistan as Islamic militants raise suspicions about immunization efforts.
By Saba Imtiaz, Contributor / December 18, 2012 

Karachi, Pakistan

Five female health workers involved in Pakistan's polio eradication efforts were gunned down Tuesday in two of the country's main cities amid militant resistance to immunization campaigns.

Unidentified gunmen killed four of the women in Karachi and a fifth in Peshawar. Two male volunteers were also injured in Tuesday's attacks, according to Sindh's health department. As a result, an ongoing polio vaccination campaign has been suspended throughout Sindh Province, according to the department. 

Tuesday’s violence highlights a new trend of deadly attacks targeting women, who had previously been avoided unless they were members of religious minorities, says Jameel Yusuf, the former head of Karachi’s Citizens-Police Liaison Committee.

“This calls for serious measures. It is now time for clerics to come out openly. They seem more scared of terrorists than anyone else,” he says by phone. “It is a national issue, in which the health of the people, the children – our future generation – is at stake.” 
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