# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (March 2008)



## GAP (1 Mar 2008)

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

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

*Articles found March 1,2008*

The ugly truth in Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH AND PAUL KORING  From Saturday's Globe and Mail March 1, 2008 at 12:28 AM EST
Article Link

KABUL AND WASHINGTON — When managers from all the major humanitarian agencies in Kandahar gathered in a high-walled compound to swap war stories last month, it wasn't the tales of kidnappings and suicide bombs that caused the most worry. Nor was it the reports of insurgents enforcing their own brutal laws and executing aid workers.

"The scary thing was, no foreigners attended the meeting," a participant said. "Everybody had evacuated."

Most aid organizations quietly withdrew their international staff from Kandahar in recent weeks, the latest sign that the situation here is getting worse. It's now almost impossible to spot a foreigner on the city streets, except for the occasional glimpse of a pale face in a troop carrier or a United Nations armoured vehicle.

At least the foreigners can escape. For many ordinary people the ramshackle city now feels like a prison, with the highways out of town regularly blocked by Taliban or bandits. Residents have even started avoiding their own city streets after dark, as formerly bustling shops switch off their colourful neon lights and pull down the shutters. There is rarely any electricity for the lights anyway, partly because the roads are too dangerous for contractors to risk bringing in a new turbine for a nearby hydroelectric generator.
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Roadside Bomb Kills 3 in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb struck a tractor in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing three people, including a woman and a child, and wounding seven others, an official said.

The blast hit a family as they were traveling between villages in the Ali Sher district of Khost province, said Gul Mohamaddin Mohammadi, a provincial health official.

A woman and 7-year-old child were among those killed, while seven others, including a woman and three children, were wounded in the explosion, Mohammadi said.

The explosion happened on a road used by foreign and Afghan troops. Militants regularly target forces with roadside and suicide bombs, but most of the victims have been civilians.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (1 Mar 2008)

Taliban invisible but for bombs
No Combat
Canwest News Service, March 1
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=344548



> KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN - Fighting has dropped off to zero in the province of Kandahar this year, according to the outgoing commander of the Canadian battle group here.
> 
> "In the past two months, the enemy has not had any direct contact with the coalition and I have no trouble with that," Lieutenant Colonel Alain Gauthier said yesterday while discussing what he described as an improved security situation in Panjwaii and Zahri districts, where most of the fighting with the Taliban has been concentrated since Canadian forces returned to a combat role in Kandahar two years ago.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (1 Mar 2008)

More troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, Defense Department says
An Army general warns of strain on deployed troops.
_CS Monito_r, Feb. 26
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0227/p99s04-duts.html



> The Defense Department says it needs more troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. But an Army general warns that troops already in the fight are under too much strain. The warning comes as violence in Afghanistan – unlike Iraq, where violence is down - is expected to increase.
> 
> The Defense Department announced that by July 2008, it will have more troops on the ground in Iraq than when the "surge was announced last January, while troop levels in Afghanistan will be at their highest since 2001, the Associated Press reports:
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (2 Mar 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND MARCH 2

U.S. Plan Widens Role in Training Pakistani Forces
_NY Times_, March 2
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/world/asia/02military.html?ref=todayspaper



> The United States military is developing a plan to send about 100 American trainers to work with a Pakistani paramilitary force that is the vanguard in the fight against Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, American military officials said.
> 
> Pakistan has ruled out allowing American combat troops to fight Qaeda and Taliban militants in the tribal areas. But Pakistani leaders have privately indicated that they would welcome additional American trainers to help teach new skills to Pakistani soldiers whose army was tailored not for counterinsurgency but to fight a conventional land war against India.
> 
> ...



Bush warns Iran, calls for more NATO troops in Afghanistan
AFP, March 1
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCE0IP2aDdRpHV3U1tf-UYsC1J5w


> ...
> Bush spoke after a two day summit with the Danish prime minister focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, telling reporters he would lobby NATO members to offer more troops to the mission in Afghanistan.
> 
> "My administration has made it abundantly clear we expect people to carry a heavy burden if they are going to be in Afghanistan," Bush said.
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (3 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 3, 2008*

Canadian soldier dies days before tour's end in Kandahar
Convoy struck by Taliban bomb 
GRAEME SMITH AND COLIN FREEZE  From Monday's Globe and Mail March 3, 2008 at 1:09 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR — From inside an army outpost carved into a craggy mountainside this winter, Trooper Michael Hayakaze reflected on the smiles of Afghan children. He said that whenever he saw them, it made him feel optimistic.

“When the kids come running up to the road and they smile, it's the best,” the 25-year-old soldier told a Washington Times reporter in December. 

“When we first showed up, you know, they used to run and hide, or they would throw stones at our tanks,” he explained. 

“And you know they get that from their parents. So if they're not afraid of us, that means it's getting better.”
More on link

Wounded warriors; The U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl has become a crossroad between life and death for soldiers from many nations
Posted By Kathleen Harris 
Article Link

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. 
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Colonel keeps promise, brings all his soldiers home safe
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, March 01, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Before coming to Afghanistan last August, Col. Nicolas Eldouad made a promise to the families of his 450 troops that everything possible would be done to bring all his soldiers home alive.

Against very high odds, Eldouad has achieved that goal. The Van Doo battle group's National Support Element suffered no fatalities during its six months in the province of Kandahar despite having undertaken about 200 combat logistics patrols covering more than 1.2 million kilometres on notoriously dangerous roads seeded with hidden improvised explosives and shared with vehicles sometimes driven by suicide bombers.

"Luck is there, it is foolish to deny that, but we had confidence in each other and in ourselves that came as a result of confidence in our equipment, our training and our leadership," Eldouad said before flying out of Kandahar with many of his troops in the wee hours of Saturday morning. "That was the recipe for success.
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Czech PM wants allies 'more visibly' engaged in Afghanistan
Article Link

Visiting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on Friday urged NATO countries to play a larger role in routing insurgents from Afghanistan, noting his nation is doubling its troop deployment this year. 

"Like Canada, we're calling upon other countries to take their share of responsibility and to participate even more visibly in peacekeeping and peace-building in Afghanistan," Topolanek said following meetings with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several Canadian ministers.

He also indicated that the Czech Republic will double its number of soldiers taking part in the US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan this year to about 550.
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Canadian soldiers accused of beating up expat  
By Andreas Avgousti
Article Link

VIOLENCE unleashed upon the civilian population by foreign soldiers is fast becoming a problem for authorities.

In Paphos on Saturday night, two Canadian army soldiers are accused of beating up Briton James Sanford, 32, a resident of Paphos.

This is the latest of a string of similar events, happening around the island after soldiers hit the town at night. 

Sanford was walking down Ayios Antonios road in Kato Paphos with his wife when the soldiers, in Cyprus for decompression following service in Afghanistan, started to make advances on the woman.

“Two of them crossed the street to where we were, one put his hand around her and spat at her feet.”

Sanford reacted, an exchange of words followed, “and then one of the soldiers hit me on the head with a bottle”, Sanford told the Sunday Mail.

Police eventually appeared on the scene, and Sanford was taken to Paphos General Hospital for treatment.

“I have 12 stitches on my face and my left eye is swollen.

“If my wife wasn’t there to shout for help I don’t know what could have happened to me.”

Canadian military police arrived at the hospital too and, according to Sanford, 

“showed concern and a willingness to do something about it.”
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Making the mission work
 TheStar.com - comment - March 02, 2008 Thomas Axworthy
Article Link

With political consensus reached, Canada must now ensure its efforts in Afghanistan succeed

Parliament is convulsed with the issue of whether Canada should commit to three more years of fighting a war in Afghanistan. A more realistic time frame would be to add 25 years to that perspective.

This sober assessment was the major theme of a conference hosted by Queen's University in Ottawa last week. As Parliament next door debated the government's motion to extend the combat role to 2011, speakers with first-hand experience in Afghanistan debated the realities of what it would actually take to protect Afghanistan from predators and to rebuild this shattered state.

The Manley Report on Afghanistan also addressed this issue. Most commentary focused on the recommendations that NATO provide another 1,000 troops in Kandahar. However, the report also had some very pertinent sections on Afghanistan's challenges in rebuilding. 

Progress has been made but the problems, as the conference speakers reiterated, are vast, and the international community is poorly motivated and poorly organized to meet them
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Now This Is How I Like To See The Troops Return  
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Article Link

All 450 accounted for. An incredible record, as these soldiers finished a six month tour of duty in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan with 12 hour shifts patrolling an area of over 1.2 million kilometres. The Van Doos battle group [Royal Vingt-Deuxième Régiment] were sent on convoys to forward operating bases at all hours of the day and night amid breakdowns and the constant need to check for lethal IEDs. Canadians have seen definite progress in Kandahar since last year, with fighting between Canadian Forces and the Taliban dropping off to nil.

In fact, the only evidence the Canadians have had of a Talban presence in the new year are the IEDs which continue to be a deadly threat to civilians and soldiers alike. Lt.-Col. Gauthier says that this "announces the end of the reign of the Taliban." Citing initiative on the part of the Army, and cutting supply lines, Canadian Forces have effectively quietened the Taliban in Kandahar. The Van Doos have lost 10 soldiers during the six months combat tour, but only one died in direct combat. Seven were killed from planted mines. 

This good news comes amid warnings that the Taliban are undergoing new tactics to fight ISAF troops, using suicide bombings and IEDs as the central part of that strategy. The Taliban destroyed a communications tower in Kandahar yesterday in an attempt to hide their transmissions. The success Canadian soldiers have had in 2008 in Kandahar comes as a contradiction to the gloomy picture the media continues to write:
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Bush seeks troops to aid Canada
  Article Link

Urges NATO nations to do more in Afghanistan 1,000 more fighters needed in south

CRAWFORD, Texas -- U.S. President George W. Bush urged NATO members Saturday to come to Canada's aid in southern Afghanistan, promising to join the effort to convince European allies to meet Ottawa's demand for another 1,000-soldier strong battle group by early 2009.

Following a summit here with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Bush said his main goal at next month's NATO summit in Bucharest will be to press for the deployment of more troops in southern Afghanistan.

"I understand there's certain political constraints on certain countries. And so I am going to go to Bucharest with the notion that we're thankful for the contributions being made, and encourage people to contribute more," Bush said at a news conference on his Texas ranch. "The United States is putting in 3,200 additional Marines. We are trying to help Canada realize her goal of a thousand additional fighters in the southern part of the country."

Bush's remarks could provide Prime Minister Stephen Harper with some added negotiating power with nations like France, which last month signalled its desire to help Canada meet the military goal.
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Most military suicides follow tours abroad
Article Link
By CP
  
MONTREAL -- A Montreal newspaper reports that in the past decade, the Canadian military recorded between 10 and 14 suicides a year among its troops. 

Montreal La Presse reports that 132 Canadian soldiers have committed suicide since 1997. 

At least four cases involved soldiers committing suicide while they were serving in Croatia, Bosnia or Afghanistan. 

The statistics show the majority of the deaths occurred after soldiers returned from missions abroad. 

In the past five years, the numbers also show that the number of Canadian soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has skyrocketed to 6,500 from 102. 

The newspaper obtained the statistics from the Canadian military. 
End

2nd mobile phone tower destroyed in S Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-02 20:54:33   
  Article Link

    KABUL, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Following Taliban outfit's threat to target mobile phone companies' towers in Taliban-held areas, the second boasting tower of ROSHAN mobile phone firm was destroyed in Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province, locals said. 

    "Taliban destroyed the boasting tower of ROSHAN company in Sangin district Saturday night and since then there is no telephone facilities," an elder of the district told Xinhua but refused to be identified. 

    However, Mohammad Hussain Andiwal, the police chief of Helmand province, when approached by Xinhua scribe confirmed the event, and adding "We cannot contact our men in Sangin as ROSHAN tower has been damaged." 

    He did not say if Taliban insurgents were behind the attack. 

    Feda Mohammad, who claims to speak for the Taliban militants in talks with media outlets, claimed responsibility for destroying the mobile company's tower in Sangin district. 
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Suicide Bomb Hits US Base in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, collapsing a guard post with American soldiers inside, an Afghan official said. Three NATO soldiers were wounded, a U.S. military official said.

Two Afghan policemen were wounded in the attack, said Lutfullah Babakarheil, a district chief.

The attacker in the eastern Khost province rammed the explosives-laden car into the gates of the U.S. military base in Yaqoubi district, said Babakarheil.

"There are American soldiers inside the collapsed guard room, but we do not know whether any are wounded or killed," he said.

Sgt. 1st Class Brian Lamar, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said three soldiers serving under a separate command — NATO's International Security Assistance Force — were wounded in the explosion and evacuated for medical care.

Lamar would not disclose the soldiers' nationalities because of strict rules set by NATO. However, the majority of international forces in Khost province are American
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## GAP (4 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 4, 2008*

Canada learning hard lessons in aid to Afghanistan: senior aid official
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Reconstructing Afghanistan is not going exactly as everyone had hoped, a senior Canadian aid official admits.

It's not just the lack of security that poses a problem but the challenge of figuring out what actually works on the ground, said Stephen Wallace, vice-president of the Afghanistan Task Force of the Canadian International Development Agency.

In an exclusive interview Monday with The Canadian Press, Wallace said Canada is learning hard lessons about how to allocate aid funding to rebuild the war-torn country.

"When you do 50 different programs in the country as Canada does, some work really well and some don't work so well," Wallace said in a telephone interview from his Gatineau headquarters.

"What do you do about it? From our standpoint, we will stop and have stopped the stuff that hasn't worked very well and we take the money into the stuff that can scale up and do more."

Canada is spending more than $100 million a year through 2011 on development in Afghanistan.
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PDAC: Afghanistan's mineral wealth awaits
Posted: March 03, 2008, 4:00 PM by DrewHasselback  Mining, PDAC 2008
Article Link

There is no shortage of dangerous places in the world miners are willing to venture to seek natural resources. But one country that may be overlooked by the global investment community is Afghanistan, which has an abundance of mineral resources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Known deposits include everything from metals like copper, iron, nickel, gold and lead, to other interesting targets like sulfur, talc, marble and rubies.

An assessment by the USGS between 2005 and 2007 produced an estimate of nearly 60 million metric tons of known and undiscovered copper in Afghanistan. For known iron ore deposits, the number is a whopping 2.2 billion metric tons. 

The Haji Gak area, which is roughly 100 kilometres west of Kabul, could prove to be home to the biggest iron ore deposit in Asia, according to Kurt Rainer Hengstmann, director of the program management unit of Afghanistan's Sustainable Development of Natural Resources Project.

The Aynak copper deposit just 35 kilometres south of the capital contains an estimated resource of 12.3 million tonnes of copper. Development of the project is awaiting a go-ahead from the government of Afghanistan and two state-run joint venture partners from China by the end of May. Then the rush will be on, since regulations give them only five years before commercial production must begin. 
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US to train Pakistan troops hunting militants
Randeep Ramesh, South Asia correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday March 3 200
Article Link

The United States will send dozens of military advisers to Pakistan to train soldiers who are fighting extremist groups in the country's restive tribal areas, it emerged today, the first meaningful deployment of American troops in the country.

After weeks of negotiations between the US and Pakistan's new army chief of staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a squad of American trainers will arrive later this year to teach soldiers how to handle counter insurgency operations, rather than a conventional land war against India.

The trainers will focus on the Frontier Corps, a force of about 8,500 soldiers, drawn from tribal groups along the Afghan border. The majority of the Pakistani army comes from Punjab and is often regarded as a "foreign force" in the border region, which is dominated by Pashtuns.

Although the original plan sees a deployment that stretches until 2015, the current forecast is that the trainers will be in Pakistan for up to two years. Initially the US military advisers would not be allowed out of their training camps. However, a widely discussed 40-page memo circulating in Washington eventually sees US troops accompanying Pakistani soldiers on missions against the militants
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Fate of Afghan mission decided  
March 13 By The Canadian Press
Article Link

OTTAWA — The minority Conservative government has set aside March 13 as the day Parliament will vote on the fate of Canada’s Afghan mission. 

Tory sources say there will be one more day of debate and a vote prior to the two-week House of Commons Easter break. 

The government’s motion — a compromise with the opposition Liberals — calls for Canadian troops to remain in Afghanistan until July 2011 and withdraw by the end of year. 

The three-year extension hinges on NATO supplying another 1,000 troops specifically for Kandahar and for the Defence Department to quickly acquire battlefield helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft. 
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Fellow soldiers bid farewell to Trooper Hayakaze
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service   Published: Monday, March 03, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- As the sun rose to the mournful skirl of bagpipes, Trooper Michael Yuki Hayakaze was given a solemn farewell by about 3,000 fellow soldiers at a grim memorial today in Afghanistan.

Hayakaze died Sunday when the vehicle he was in struck an improvised explosive device on a road about 45 kilometres west of the Canadian base in Kandahar. He was part of a convoy bringing supplies forward to an Afghan army unit working with the Canadians.

The 25-year-old trooper from the Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) was scheduled to return to Canada in a few days with the last of his unit, which will soon complete its tour of duty in Afghanistan.
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2 NATO Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan
By FISNIK ABRASHI 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide attack on a government office guarded by Afghan and NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan left two alliance soldiers dead and four more wounded, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday.

The bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the gates of the building in the Yaqoubi district of Khost province on Monday, causing a guard post to collapse and trapping soldiers inside, officials said.

Sgt. 1st Class Brian Lamar, a U.S. military spokesman, said two NATO soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the attack. Lamar would not disclose the soldiers' nationalities. The majority of international forces in Khost province are American.

The explosion also killed two Afghan civilians and wounded three Afghan policemen, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub.

The attack happened at an Afghan government building inside a compound that also houses a unit of U.S. soldiers.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (5 Mar 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND MARCH 5

Commander: No spring offensive expected
AP, March 5
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080305/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghanistan;_ylt=AupZ9U8PRSeSnjdgbkn7D8xvaA8F



> The top military commander in the Mideast said Wednesday that he does not expect Taliban forces in Afghanistan to launch a spring offensive this year.
> 
> If anything, he said, he sees the momentum continuing to swing in the direction of coalition forces.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (6 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 6, 2008*

Canada seeks helicopters for Afghanistan transport
The Canadian Press March 5, 2008
Article Link

Ottawa -- Canada is in the final stages of high-level talks with the United States to acquire six battlefield helicopters for operations in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.

Supplying air transport to get soldiers off the bomb-strewn highways of Kandahar was one of the major conditions set down by the Manley panel for Canada's continued military involvement in the war-torn country.

Mr. MacKay said the Defence Department has been pursuing three options -- all of them involving variants of the Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift aircraft: Persuading the U.S. Army to let Canada's air force slip ahead in the production line; leasing older, refurbished Chinooks under a U.S. Army program until an existing Canadian order is filled; or leasing helicopters from another country. 
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Canadian soldiers sentenced for beating British man
Article Link

PAPHOS, Cyprus — A Cyprus court has sentenced two Canadian soldiers for beating up a British man. 

Guillaume Simon, 26, was fined $3,000 today in court in Paphos, Cyprus, after pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm. 

Matthew Louis Pelletier, 31, pleaded guilty to assault and was fined $750. 

The soldiers, who were in Cyprus for decompression following a tour in Afghanistan, beat James Sanford on Saturday night. 

Sanford was out with his wife and says the two soldiers made advances on her. 
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NATO may ask Russians for logistics help in Afghanistan
Peter O’Neil, Canwest News Service  Published: Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Article Link

BRUSSELS -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, meeting today to consider new strategies to bring development and peace to increasingly violent Afghanistan, is looking to its old Cold War rival for help.

NATO is seeking assistance from Russia even though Afghans on both sides of the current struggle have bitter memories of the old Soviet Union's brutal 1979 invasion and decade-long occupation that ended in a humiliating withdrawal of troops by Moscow.

The transatlantic alliance will stop short of asking for Russian troops or the dreaded attack helicopters used in Afghanistan during the 1980s, since that would represent a huge propaganda coup for the Taliban insurgents.

But NATO is interested in Russian help in transporting equipment and troops into Afghanistan through Russian territory, officials said Wednesday
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Care packages finally make it to soldiers
1,700 packages. Roxboro Legion celebrates its efforts
PATRICIA ENBORG, Freelance 
Article Link

Months of planning, soliciting goods and assembling care packages for Canadian troops in Afghanistan have finally paid off for the Roxboro Legion. They've just received confirmation that their 1,700 packages have arrived safely in Kandahar.

Members of the Roxboro Legion, General Vanier Branch 234, had aimed to have the goods arrive in time for Christmas, but in early December, they were informed by the military their packages couldn't be flown overseas due to logistical and security reasons. They were then told the care packages would be sent by container ship instead.

Legion members gathered last Saturday night to pay tribute to the many volunteers and those who contributed to the massive project. It was the idea of Captain Mike Bisson of the Royal Canadian Hussars. He had been the recipient of an unexpected care package from a legion branch in Ontario while serving as a peacekeeper in Bosnia several years ago. So moved by the gesture, he suggested the Roxboro Legion do the same for Quebec soldiers.
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Al Qaeda in Afghanistan calls for foreign recruits
Thu 6 Mar 2008, 12:37 GMT
  Article Link

 DUBAI, March 6 (Reuters) - The leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan has urged more Muslims to join and finance the group's war there, saying Western troops are close to defeat.

"Your brothers in Afghanistan are waiting for you and longing to (welcome) you," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid said in an audio recording posted on an Islamist Web site.

"The time for reaping the fruit of victory and empowerment has come ... The infidel enemy has been badly wounded at the hands of your brothers and is close to its demise so assist your brothers to slaughter him," added the militant leader, speaking with an Egyptian-sounding accent.

U.S. and NATO troops are fighting a fierce insurgency by al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan. A top al Qaeda commander there was killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in neighbouring Pakistan in January.
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Norwegian to be U.N. envoy to Afghanistan-radio
Thu Mar 6, 2008 8:38am EST
Article Link

OSLO, March 6 (Reuters) - A senior Norwegian Foreign Ministry official will be named the U.N.'s new envoy to Afghanistan, Norway's NRK radio said on Thursday.

It said that Kai Eide, a former Norwegian ambassador to NATO who has also worked a special U.N. envoy in the Balkans, would be appointed to the job to coordinate humanitarian work with a NATO-led military campaign.

"Eide will today be named as the new U.N. envoy to Kabul," NRK said in an unsourced report. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry declined comment, saying any announcement about the post would be from the United Nations.
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Taliban surge not expected
Article Link

WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast says he doesn't expect the Taliban to launch a spring offensive this year. 

Admiral William Fallon says that, if anything, he expects the military momentum in Afghanistan to continue to swing in the direction of coalition forces. 

Fallon told the House of Representatives armed services committee that any spring offensive is going to be carried out by coalition forces. Fallon concedes that while the situation in Afghanistan is still not ideal, he says recent improvements have been encouraging. 

The United States plans on sending another 3,200 marines to Afghanistan this year, in part to stave off any uptick in violence that might come with the warmer weather. 
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Taliban destroy mobile phone tower in southern Afghanistan
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban militants have blown up another telecom tower in southern Afghanistan - the fourth such attack since a threat from insurgents to phone companies.

A police official says the militants targeted the electricity generator and equipment base station of an Areeba-owned tower yesterday morning on the main highway in southern Zabul province.

No one was reported hurt in the incident.

The militants believe U.S. and other foreign troops are using mobile phone signals to track insurgents and launch attacks against them. But communications experts say the U.S. military can use satellites and other means to pick up mobile phone signals without the phone company's help.

A Taliban spokesman issued a threat late last month, saying militants would blow up towers across Afghanistan if the companies did not switch off their signals at night.
More on link


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## GAP (7 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 7, 2008*

France warms to plea for help from Canada
 TheStar.com March 07, 2008 Mitch Potter EUROPE BUREAU
Article Link

BRUSSELS–As NATO builds momentum toward a "renewal of vows" for Afghanistan, Canada and France yesterday revealed their foreign ministers will embark on a joint mission to Kabul next month in a move that could presage the announcement of badly needed reinforcements for Kandahar province.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking after what he termed "a rich exchange of views" with his NATO counterparts, hinted anew that France is poised to assume a more robust role in Afghanistan in such a way that, either directly or indirectly, will ease the burden on Canadian soldiers. 

The size and destination of French reinforcements for Afghanistan will be revealed by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the NATO summit April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania. 

Kouchner, who was speaking to reporters after a meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels, then referred vaguely to an upcoming journey with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.

"You never know," said Kouchner, smiling cryptically, "We may end up together in Afghanistan at the beginning of April."
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Military recruiting hundreds to combat PTSD
Updated Thu. Mar. 6 2008 10:36 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The Canadian military's surgeon general went before the House of Commons Defence Committee Thursday to discuss serious mental health problems potentially affecting thousands of soldiers returning from Afghanistan. 

Brig.-Gen. Hilary Jaeger told the committee that she is in the process of recruiting 450 mental health personnel to help Canada's army cope with addiction, depression, and post-traumatic stress (PTSD). 

Psychological problems have become an increasingly important issue for the military in recent years as it has expanded its traditional peacekeeping status into a greater combat role. 
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Czech Republic sends first civilian experts to Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-07 10:50:25     
  Article Link

    PRAGUE, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic Thursday sent first three civilian experts on agriculture, construction and geology to Afghanistan as part of its Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the central Logar province. 

    The experts are expected to stay in Logar for around one year, while the whole Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team will stay there for three to five years. 

    The Czech government planned to send another 50 soldiers to Logar, bringing the number of Czech troops in the province to 139.It also mulls to expand the total number of soldiers dispatched to the war-torn Asian country to 415 this year. 

    After Lithuania and Hungary, the Czech Republic has become the third NATO member with a PRT in Afghanistan. 
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British PM condemns public abuse of military
PETER GRIFFITHS Reuters March 7, 2008 at 6:36 AM EST
Article Link

LONDON — British prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that the armed forces should be free to wear uniforms in public after one airbase banned them following reports of abuse by members of the public over the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“I condemn absolutely any members of the public who show abuse or discrimination to our armed forces,” he said after the station commander at RAF Wittering told staff to dress in civilian clothes when they visit the city of Peterborough.

“They should be thanked for the great job that they're doing, and they should be encouraged to wear the uniform in public.”

The prime minister said the government would support police in taking action to ensure that soldiers can wear their uniform in public.

The reports of insults come as Mr. Brown is trying to foster greater public respect for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, he asked Labour MP Quentin Davies to conduct a review of public attitudes towards the military. Mr. Davies has toured the United States and Canada to see the higher level of support given to soldiers there.
More on link


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## tomahawk6 (7 Mar 2008)

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49202

General Says Infiltration Down in Eastern Afghanistan
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 6, 2008 – 

A number of factors have combined to decrease the level of Taliban infiltration into Afghanistan, the commander of NATO’s Regional Command East said here March 4. 

Army Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez sat down with reporters soon after accompanying Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on a visit to the Korengal Valley, one of the hottest areas in his command. 

Rodriguez said there has been a decrease in Taliban and al Qaeda infiltration into Afghanistan’s eastern provinces, but that it remains a problem the command will deal with. The border with Pakistan is porous, and the mountainous terrain lends itself to smuggling, even during peace. There are also ties of family and tribe across the border. Still, NATO and Afghan security forces are making inroads against Taliban infiltration, the general said. 

“The intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance effort out here is good,” Rodriguez said. “Everyone is helping us bring in more over time. Because of the terrain – it’s mountainous, it’s tough – you couldn’t see everything with any ISR that we have right now. The terrain is so undulating. We do a good job of maximizing the equipment that we do have.” 

The command disrupts infiltration with a combination of forward operating bases, patrolling and of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “None of them alone is going to solve everything. That’s how complex and difficult it is,” he said. 

The troubles in Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas across the border are being felt in Afghanistan. There have been fewer Taliban trying to infiltrate. 

“The Taliban are very opportunistic,” the general said. “They flow and move where the opportunities present themselves. With all of the things going on inside Pakistan right now, that has had an impact in what is going on along the border.” 

But the troubles in Pakistan are only a part of the decrease. “We’ve had some successful significant operations,” he said. “We’ve had more Afghan national security forces than we’ve had as they grow that capacity.” 

NATO is establishing border cooperation centers. Under the concept, Afghan, Pakistani and NATO personnel will share data on infiltration across the border. The first of those goes into operation later this month, the general said. 

The general said the command works mostly with the provincial governments and that the provincial capacity is growing faster than the central government’s capacity. “It takes more to turn a big ship than a small one,” he explained. 

Rodriguez’s command is a NATO force, and he praised the Polish combat team for their work in Regional Command East. The Polish forces, he said, have done everything they’ve been asked to do and more. “There are no caveats,” he said. Some NATO countries restrict how their forces in Afghanistan can be used. 

“When they first came to train with us in the United States, they hadn’t done any counterinsurgency operations,” Rodriguez said. “But they really stepped out here. For their second deployment, they brought more engineers and civil affairs people, which is just what we need.” 

The general also said the New Zealand-led provincial reconstruction team and an Egyptian hospital that treats more than 3,000 Afghans a month are important resources for the command.


----------



## MarkOttawa (7 Mar 2008)

Key Afghan district slow to recover despite 2-year Canadian security effort
CP, March 6
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gIRW5_e7p1nSX4OEGsF9ghsaRdHw



> PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — The sweet smell of life hangs over the bazaar in the centre of Panjwaii, a district that begins about 35 kilometres outside Kandahar city.
> 
> Spices and nuts overflow from fruit and vegetable carts. Donkeys laden with hay clop along the road. Rhinestones twinkle off fabrics waving in the wind.
> 
> ...



Hamid Karzai gets his way as UN appoints low-profile envoy
_The Times_, March 7
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3501174.ece



> The United Nations named a little-known Norwegian diplomat as its special envoy for Afghanistan yesterday, weeks after its preferred candidate, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, was rejected by President Hamid Karzai.
> 
> Kai Eide,
> http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0624832020080306
> ...



(Norway's troops cleared to go to south Afghanistan 
Reuters, Feb. 27
http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSL2762757



> Norway's defence ministry said on Wednesday [Feb. 27] it would allow some of its soldiers stationed in Afghanistan to go to the south of the country where battles against the Taliban and al Qaeda have been the toughest.
> 
> Norway has about 500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission there and has for months resisted pressure from its allies to send its soldiers to the volatile south.
> 
> ...


)

Rice Presses NATO Allies to Expand Afghan Force
NY Times, Feb. 7
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/world/europe/07diplo.html?ref=todayspaper



> BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, tiptoeing through a minefield of European squabbling, on Thursday urged NATO allies to step up troop contributions and other efforts to help defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan...
> 
> ...she...prodded reluctant European allies to bolster the NATO-led international contingent in Afghanistan, which numbers about 40,000. The American force is about 26,000 troops, some of whom serve in the NATO contingent, and the Pentagon will send 3,200 more marines.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (9 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 9, 2008*

Ramp ceremonies never get easier, says military chaplain
Matthew Fisher ,  Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, March 08, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - There are many emotionally draining jobs with the Canadian battle group in Afghanistan. One of the toughest of them all may be that of the military padre who bids farewell to fallen Canadians before they are flown home to their families.

"Do the ramp ceremonies get any easier? No they don't," said Maj. Pierre Bergeron, who has presided at the departure of 13 Canadian soldiers who have died here since last summer. He has also attended at least a dozen memorials for soldiers from other coalition countries who have been killed in action.

The airfield services have been held for for each of the 79 Canadian soldiers who have died here. The established protocol is for sergeants major to marshal as many as 2,500 mourners from all the coalition countries onto the tarmac, gathering them in long rows on both sides of a gap where a slow-moving light armoured vehicle carrying a flag-draped casket stops.
More on link

Patriot love, personal
By RON CORBETT
Article Link

When the snow starts to melt, the Canadian flags will reappear on the front lawn of Claire and Richard Leger. The ones that have faded over winter will be replaced. The others will be straightened and braced. 

They started with four flags embedded in the rock garden in front of their home. The flags represented their son, Marc, and the three soldiers who died with him on April 17, 2002, when American fighter pilot Harry Schmidt dropped a bomb on a Canadian training exercise in southern Afghanistan. 

For a long time, those four flags stood alone. It would be six months before more Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan, and the Legers remember talking at the time -- after the deaths of Cpl.Robbie Beerenfenger and Sgt. Robert Short -- about how their families must be suffering and was there anything they could do to help? The next day they planted two more flags. 

It has gone like that every year since, and if you don't remember the ebbs and flows of the Afghanistan mission, the Legers do. It is as tangible to them as planting a flag in a garden. 

On Thursday, Parliament will vote on extending the Afghan mission for another two years. The debate leading up to this week's vote has been contentious, although it now seems certain the motion will pass
More on link

Afghanistan welcomes Norway's Eide as new U.N. envoy
Sat Mar 8, 2008 By Jon Hemming
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan government on Saturday welcomed Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide as the new U.N. envoy to Afghanistan, a role meant to better coordinate international efforts to bring development and head off a Taliban insurgency.

Eide's appointment, expected to be confirmed by the U.N. Security Council within the next week, brings to an end a tussle between the Afghan government and the United States and other powers that had wanted a heavyweight diplomat to boost coordination between U.N. and NATO forces fighting the Taliban.

"We look forward to working with Mr. Eide," said Afghan presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada.

"He has been the key person in the Norwegian government focusing on Afghanistan, so he has the knowledge of the country, he has the international experience and the backing of the United Nations and all the major players and the Afghan government supports his appointment," he said.
More on link

Khorshied Samad: Upholding a promise to Afghanistan's women
Posted: March 08, 2008, 2:50 PM by Marni Soupcoff Khorshied Samad
Article Link

We must remember that it has been only six years since the Taliban regime was driven from Kabul

International Women’s Day, which we celebrate today, comes at a time when many Western countries, including Canada, are debating their future role in Afghanistan. These nations either have decided, or soon will decide, the direction and focus of that role for some years to come. Many issues have been raised, and arguments presented both pro and con with regard to NATO’s mission. 

However, if we are still striving to help the Afghan people — and, especially, to support women and children in their quest for human security and socio-economic opportunities — we must remember that progress is impossible without a relatively secure and peaceful environment. If this is to be achieved, Canada and its allies have a key role to play in the troubled areas of my war-torn nation.
More on link

Canadian leads huge humanitarian delivery to Afghans
Matthew Fisher ,  Canwest News Service Published: Friday, March 07, 2008
Article Link

ZHARI DASHT, Afghanistan -- A Canadian naval officer who volunteered for a year-long tour of duty in Afghanistan was the unlikely leader of a U.S.-funded relief convoy that brought more than 27 tonnes of aid to what an American officer called "the poorest of the poor" in the heart of Taliban country this week.

Many thousands of internally displaced Afghans on the run since the war against the Red Army ended in the 1980s, converged on a bleak desert plain of yellow sand to greet Cmdr. Michael Burke of Sarnia, Ont., and his American troops. They also fought with each other over rice, beans, bedding, clothing and toys in almost biblical scenes of joy and desperation.

"An extraordinary amount of planning went into this one," said Burke, who was the executive officer of a Canadian warship not long ago before becoming chief of staff to the American army colonel who runs NATO's Afghan Regional Security Integration Command. "The potential for a disaster was huge. It could have been a riot, a suicide bomber, an IED (improvised explosive device)."
More on link

The working wounded
In Afghanistan, Canadian fighters have been sustaining serious injury on a scale not seen since Korea. When they return, what prospects are there for soldiers who can't soldier any more? Siri Agrell investigates 
SIRI AGRELL From Saturday's Globe and Mail March 7, 2008 at 11:22 PM EDT
Article Link

Inside the offices of the Royal Canadian Regiment sniper unit, Master Corporal Jody Mitic spends most of his day alone. Occasionally, other soldiers will poke their heads through the office door to say hello, or to let him know that they've shovelled his driveway.

Sitting at a wooden desk typing e-mails on an outdated PC, he's the only soldier here dressed in civilian clothes. His prosthetic feet rest on the bottom drawer of a dented filing cabinet. The steel rods that now serve as his shins peek out between his worn hiking shoes and the cuffs of his baggy warm-up pants.

On his left forearm a dramatic tattoo displays the Roman numerals I-XI-MMVII — Jan. 11, 2007, the date when, as the leader of an elite sniper team doing reconnaissance in Afghanistan, MCpl. Mitic stepped on a land mine and triggered the explosion that took both his legs from just below the knee. After extensive rehabilitation, the 31-year-old returned to work at CFB Petawawa a year later. 

"I don't know how long I'll be here, because I'm not deployable," he says. "I'm kind of in the way."
More on link

Don Martin: What you didn't hear about this week
Don Martin, National Post  Published: Friday, March 07, 2008
Article Link

It featured another Liberal no-show in the role of Official Opposition, abortion rights alarms, new education tax deductions and the beginning of the end for a Canadian Prairie icon.

Good grief, what a week. Heck, death penalty policy even hit the agenda as the government moved to seek clemency from a beheading sentence imposed on a young Canadian in Saudi Arabia.

So what hogs the headlines and tops the newscasts? A three-year-old bribery allegation from a dead MP and an alleged comment on U.S. political doublespeak that the Prime Minister's chief of staff can't recall saying.

Readers screeching at Parliament's fixation on the Chuck Cadman caper and the unimaginatively christened NAFTA-gate controversy to the exclusion of real issues have a point.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have had cause to gloat on several fronts, yet found himself serving as the goat instead.
More on link

Panel investigating Marine shooting in Afghanistan completes work
Friday, March 7, 2008 By ESTES THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
Article Link

RALEIGH, N.C. - A special panel of Marine officers that heard four weeks of testimony about a Marine shooting that killed up to 19 Afghan civilians delivered its report Friday, but it won't be made public.

The findings of the Court of Inquiry are classified, said Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson. The court, a rarely used administrative hearing, was expected to recommend whether criminal charges be filed against two officers who led the special operations unit accused in the March 2007 incident.

The officers' military attorneys aren't allowed to discuss the case, and their civilian lawyers didn't immediately return messages seeking comment Friday.
More on link

Clearing canals: In Afghanistan simple projects change many lives
Article Link

ZAKAR KALAY, Afghanistan — Drew Gilmour's eyes widened as the van took a turn on the bumpy rural road and suddenly dry dusty land was replaced by soaking wet earth.

"This is just since this week?" he asked, in disbelief. Yes, the Afghan engineer replied proudly. All this, just this week.

What Gilmour was staring at was hundreds of hectares of previously dead farmland now awash in water from a series of irrigation canals finally completed in a village about 18 kilometres from Kandahar city.

Water started running through the first of them this week.

Gilmour's company, Development Works, a private company which receives funding from the Canadian government, is overseeing the clearing of about 26 kilometres of canal altogether in the village.

Eventually, more than 3,600 hectares of farmland will be opened up for use, allowing farmers to increase their harvests by as much as 50 per cent.
More on link

Anti-Taliban vote could be a gain for Canadian troops
Richard Foot, Canwest News Service  Published: Friday, March 07, 2008
Article Link

It may be the best news for Canadian Forces since their arrival in Kandahar in 2005 -- yet it comes neither from inside Afghanistan, nor as a result of Canada's gruelling military efforts there.

In historic elections across Pakistan on Feb. 18, voters in North-West Frontier Province threw out the fundamentalist Islamic parties that have controlled the provincial government -- and provided safe haven to the Taliban -- since 2002.

In their place, voters elected a coalition of moderate, staunchly secular groups including the Awami National Party (ANP), a Pashtun movement remarkable for its dislike of Islamic jihadism and the Taliban.

While the national election results -- and the victory of two opposition parties hostile to President Pervez Musharraf -- dominated headlines in Canada after the election, many experts say the vote in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has huge but little-understood implications for the war in Afghanistan.
More on link


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## GAP (10 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 10, 2008*

Canada's revolving door to Afghanistan
Documentary precedes government vote on extending mission
Maria Kubacki, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, March 09
Article Link

Early in, early out -- that was the plan back in February 2002 when Jean Chretien's Liberal government sent Canadian troops to Afghanistan as part of an international coalition mandated to drive out the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It was supposed to be a short-term mission, but six years later, Canada is still mired in a messy war that's claimed the lives of 79 Canadian soldiers, so far.

A new Global Television documentary examines how Canada ended up digging itself in deeper and deeper in Afghanistan.
More on link

India’s 2008-2009 Military Budget
Article Link

China’s 2008 military budget and its 2-decade string of uninterrupted double-digit budget growth have been attracting a great deal of attention lately. The official figure is now $58.8 billion, but there is no accountability or transparency, and outside estimates place the real figure between $100-180 billion.

India’s democratic, accountable government presents fewer transparency issues, and the simultaneous growth of its economy and of pressures orchestrated by China have resulted in a rising military budget of its own. The rise has been slower, but the recent 2008/09 budget proposes from Rs 960 billion in 2007/08 to Rs 1056 billion in 2008/09 (a 10% hike, from about $24 billion to about $26.6 billion at USD exchange). That’s hike of about 10%; compare to India’s 2007 consumer price inflation index of 5.51% in 2007. 

Of that budgetary total, Rs 480 billion has been earmarked for the purchase of military hardware, as opposed to pay, pensions, maintenance, and the other expenses of running a military. That’s a rather sharper hike of almost 23.3% over 2007/08. The question is whether India will be able to spend it…
More on link

Britain pledges food aid to Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-09 23:44:20   
  Article Link

    LONDON, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Britain has promised an extra 3 million pounds (about 5.9 million U.S. dollars) in new funding to help meet growing food shortages in Afghanistan. 

    The money will be given to a joint United Nations and Afghan government appeal for 40 million pounds in food aid to be used to alleviate malnutrition, particularly among pregnant and breastfeeding women, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced on Sunday. 

    Alexander said "Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and least able to cope with spiraling food prices combined with severe winter weather. Providing an immediate safety net will help avoid a humanitarian crisis and end the immediate suffering." 

    He said that the food shortage is evidence of the impact of rising global food prices hitting the poor hardest. 
More on link

Woman Earns Silver Star in Afghan War
By FISNIK ABRASHI – 
Article Link

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan (AP) — A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown told The Associated Press on Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.

"We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag," Brown said.

She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out.
More on link

A field trip like none other
My surreal memoirs from the USO tour in Afghanistan
Posted: Sunday March 9, 2008 10:50PM; Updated: Sunday March 9, 2008 11:05PM
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- I talked with commissioner Roger Goodell Friday night about my USO trip with NFL players Luis Castillo, Tommie Harris and Mike Rucker, and I probably got a little excited about our week in the middle of the war. "Sounds like a life-changing experience for you,'' Goodell said.

Not exactly, but close. More like the greatest field trip of all time. Quick story. Last Wednesday, we're flying in a C-17 cargo plane from the staging airbase for the war -- in Kyrgyzstan, 400 miles northeast of the Afghanistan border -- and as we approach the border, we're over the most beautiful snowcapped mountain peaks, with an elevation of about 15,000 feet. 

Air Force pilot Matt Jarrett rose from his seat in the cockpit and put on an armored vest and combat helmet. Hmmm. I waited for an explanation. As he fetched the armor plate to put under his seat, the friendly Jarrett said in a cool monotone: "Not that anything's going to happen, but what I'd like you to do when we cross into Afghanistan is to look out your window for us as we go. If you see anything unusual down there, or anything that looks like it's tracking on the plane, in as normal a voice as you can, alert us that something's up out there. OK?''
More on link

Wars to cost $12 billion a month, new book says
BY CHARLES J. HANLEY • ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 10, 2008
Article Link

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost approximately $12 billion a month -- triple the rate of their earliest years -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and coauthor Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

Beyond 2008, working with best case and realistic to moderate scenarios, they project the wars, including long-term U.S. military occupation, will cost between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion by 2017.

Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs alone could add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars.

Variations in such estimates stem from the sliding scales of assumptions, scenarios and budget items that are counted. Whatever the estimate, the cost will be huge, the auditors of the Government Accountability Office say.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (10 Mar 2008)

Marines see re-run in Afghan theatre
_National Post_, March 10, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=364227



> KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -A forward party of 3,200 U.S. Marines is already on the ground preparing to begin combat operations next month. It is not the first time that there have been jarheads at the Kandahar Airfield.
> 
> As the Marines are fond of saying, they were the tip of the spear when the province of Kandahar became the last Taliban and al-Qaeda redoubt to fall to U.S. forces, 11 weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E5D91E3AF934A15752C1A9679C8B63
> ...



Afghanistan: in advance of the vote (Conference of Defence Associations round-up)
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1205175257/

Mark
Ottawa


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## Yrys (11 Mar 2008)

Army medic's Afghan knife drama

BBC, Monday, 10 March 2008



> A Territorial Army medical officer from Caernarfon in Gwynedd helped save the life of a 10-year-old Afghan boy.
> 
> Major Stephen Gallacher was working in a field hospital in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when the boy had a three-inch knife removed from his head.
> Now back working at Ysbyty Gwynedd's A&E department in Bangor, Mr Gallacher has just been awarded three medals for his army work. The father-of-four
> ...




Afghan doctors face legal action

By Pam O'Toole, BBC News, Monday, 10 March 2008



> Doctors in the western Afghan city of Herat have been warned by the government of legal action if they continue with their ongoing strike.
> 
> Several hundred doctors and medical workers started an indefinite strike on Saturday in protest at a recent rise in the number of attacks on medical
> staff. The strike was caused by the kidnapping of the son of a local doctor. He was the latest of a number of doctors or doctors' relatives to be abducted
> over the past year. Kidnappers are reported to have demanded $300,000 (£149,000) for his release.



Rest of article on link


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## GAP (12 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 12, 2008*

Bomb Hits Canadian Troops in Afghanistan
By NOOR KHAN 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing a passing civilian and wounding one soldier.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene in Kandahar said a Humvee vehicle of the convoy was burned and destroyed. NATO troops cordoned off the area, preventing journalists and police getting near the vehicles.

A passing truck driver was killed in the attack, and two civilian passers-by were wounded, said police officer Nematullah Khan.

Capt. Mark Gough, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the south, said one ISAF soldier was lightly wounded in the attack.

Most NATO troops based in Kandahar are Canadian.

Khan had said earlier that two Canadian troops were wounded. The discrepancy in the numbers could not immediately be reconciled because of lack of access to the scene.
More on link

Two Afghan children, two women killed in exchange of fire: ISAF
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Two Afghan women and two children were killed when NATO soldiers were attacked by insurgents in southern Afghanistan and returned fire, the alliance force said Wednesday.

International Security Assistance Force troops were shot at Tuesday and immediately fired back, ISAF said in a statement.

"Tragically, a group of civilians received fire causing the death of two women and two children," the statement said.

A number of the attackers were also killed but no ISAF soldiers were harmed, it said, giving no details.

Ten other civilians were taken to an ISAF base where a wounded child was treated.

The statement did not say in which part of southern Afghanistan the incident had occurred or make clear if the civilians were killed by NATO soldiers or the insurgents.

"No matter the cause, we deeply regret the loss of innocent life and injuries sustained to the civilians," said ISAF spokesman, Brigadier General Carlos Branco. "We will continue to determine what happened."
More on link

Three Edmonton soldiers to receive medals
Jim Farrell, edmontonjournal.com Published: Tuesday, March 11
Article Link

EDMONTON - Three Edmonton soldiers will be travelling to Ottawa to receive medals from Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean for their service in Afghanistan, Rideau Hall announced today.

Warrant Officer Ian Long of 3 Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry will receive the prestigious Meritorious Service Cross for his leadership under fire. Maj. Thomas Bradley of the Edmonton-based 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group will get the Meritorious Service Medal for having developed an organizational framework to secure the Kandahar City Afghan development zone. As chief of operations at Joint Task Force Afghanistan headquarters, Bradley spent eight months developing that strategic plan. It proved successful and subsequently spread to much larger areas, the Governor General's office said in its press release.
More on link

Canadian soldier found dead in Kandahar, not related to combat: military
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An investigation has been launched after a Canadian soldier was found dead at the main military base in Kandahar.

The body of Bombardier Jeremie Ouellet was found Tuesday afternoon in sleeping quarters at the Kandahar Air Field. Ouellet, 22, was with the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Shilo, Man. "The soldier's death is not related to combat, Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche said in a briefing at the air field, 12 hours after Ouellet's body was found.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service will look into the circumstances surrounding the death.

The CFNIS is the major crimes investigative unit of the Canadian military police and probes all incidents involving Canadian military personnel or property at home or abroad.

A statement released by the Department of National Defence said enemy action had been ruled out.

The military released no further information, citing the investigation.
More on link

Laura Secord is bringing the flavours of springtime to members of Canadian Forces stationed in Kandahar  
Article Link

    2,500 famous Secord Eggs are en route to Afghanistan in time for Easter

    MISSISSAUGA, ON, March 11 /CNW/ - Thousands of men and women of the
Canadian Forces serving in Afghanistan are getting a special delivery from
Laura Secord as the Canadian chocolate maker today announced that it has
donated 2,500 of its famous Secord Easter Cream Eggs to soldiers stationed in
Kandahar.
    "Laura Secord is proud of the important contribution and brave efforts
being made by members of the Canadian Forces and our hope is to deliver a
small but traditional taste of Easter to the Canadian personnel serving in
Afghanistan," said company President Jamie Ardrey.
    The Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency (CFPSA) welcomed the special
delivery by Laura Secord.
    "Receiving these Laura Secord Easter treats is great for the morale of
our troops," says Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency Manager, Deployed
Operations, Gordon Wells. "A touch of home around the holiday season means a
great deal to all deployed Canadian Forces members who are away from their
families."
More on link

CITY HONOURS FALLEN SOLDIER 
Article Link

Hundreds of firefighters, police officers and other citizens lined sidewalks last night to salute trooper Michael Hayakaze, who was killed March 2 in Afghanistan. 

Cop cruisers escorted a black hearse carrying the body of the 25-year-old soldier through Chinatown en route to a funeral home. His family will announce funeral details Friday. 

Hayakaze was stationed at CFB Edmonton and was a member of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) Armoured Regiment. 
More on link

Police Kill 4 Suspects in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Police backed by NATO-led troops have killed four suspected criminals in western Afghanistan after a spate of kidnappings and robberies.

Regional police spokesman Rauf Ahmadi says the forces clashed with suspects Tuesday in the Guzara district of Herat province.

Ahmadi says the operation also netted 15 other people suspected of involvement in criminal activities.
More on link

Factories shut in protest at Afghan unrest: official
Article Link

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — Scores of factories shut up shop in Afghanistan's western city of Herat Monday as workers joined doctors and nurses in a strike to demand better security, representatives said.

About 200 health workers in the city stopped working Saturday complaining of a rise in criminality, including kidnappings, as well as attacks linked to an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban movement.

Workers at around 250 small factories at the city's main industrial park joined them on Monday, said the chairman of the city's industrial union, Toryalai Ghawsi.

"We don't have security in this industrial park. Unless the security to ensure our safety is provided, we will not open," he said.

Doctors were meanwhile refusing to go to hospitals and private clinics were closed, expect for emergency cases, said Sayed Hassan Farid, spokesman for the city's doctors' union.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (12 Mar 2008)

Panel says no way to predict end of Canada's Afghan mission
CBC, March 11
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/11/manley-afghanistan.html

Manley panel: Don't expect firm deadline for mission
CTV, March 11
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080311/afghanistan_vote_080311/20080311?hub=TopStories

Don't set date: Panel
Panel says no to fixed exit date on eve of critical vote
_Ottawa Sun_, March 12
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2008/03/12/4976751-sun.html

NATO reluctance in Afghanistan risking lives: US chief
AFP, March 11
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNnHMqwapHDMI0VnorWF6wtVaZrw



> Foot-dragging by European members of NATO in the struggle against Afghanistan's resurgent Taliban is risking the lives of alliance troops, NATO supremo General John Craddock said Tuesday.
> 
> Afghanistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are at a "critical juncture," he said at a hearing of the Senate's foreign relations committee.
> 
> ...



Resignation of Centcom Commander Admiral Fallon--a March 12 e-mail from the Executive Director of the Conference of Defence Associations:
http://www.cda-cdai.ca/english-frame.htm



> Yesterday, Admiral William Fallon, Commander of US Central Command, resigned
> from his post, citing perceived differences between his views and those of
> the US administration.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (12 Mar 2008)

Canada to get help in Kandahar: U.S. commander
Marines will help troops, search still on for more NATO troops
Canwest News Service, March 12, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=370841



> KABUL, Afghanistan -- Canada will get the additional NATO combat forces in Kandahar that Parliament is expected to demand if it approves a motion Thursday to extend the mission there to 2011, according to the White House and the U.S. commander of all 50,000 coalition forces in Afghanistan.
> 
> Gen. Dan McNeill also told Canwest News Service in an exclusive interview Wednesday that U.S. Marines being deployed to southern Afghanistan in April for seven months, would help the Canadian battle group, fighting the war against the Taliban in the province of Kandahar.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (13 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 13, 2008*

Charter does not apply to Afghan detainees: ruling
Updated Wed. Mar. 12 2008 8:24 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Canada's Federal Court has rejected Amnesty International's bid to have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply to Afghan detainees captured by Canadian soldiers. 

Justice Anne McTavish ruled that Afghan detainees do have rights under the Afghan constitution and international law, but they do not have rights under the Canadian Charter. 

"(The court has) accepted the government's arguments. We are obviously very pleased about that," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in question period. 

Amnesty International had hoped to stop Canada from transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities. The move followed reports that some detainees were being tortured by the Afghans. 

A lawyer for the group said troops are complicit in abuse if they know prisoners could be harmed by local authorities. 

"If the Canadian Forces are aware that individuals they are handing over are likely to be tortured, or at risk of being tortured, they are complicit in the act," lawyer Paul Champ told CTV's Mike Duffy Live on Wednesday. 
More on link

A Look at Life and Death in Kandahar  
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Article Link

Opinions are flying these days about Canada’s role in Afghanistan. With today's news of the death of Bombardier Jérémie Ouellet, 22, of Manitoba's Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, the number of Canada's dead reached 81. Maybe the chatter isn’t surprising as Parliament votes tomorrow (March 13) on a motion put forth by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to extend Canada’s mission in the war zone from February 2009 to 2011.

It’s likely the motion will pass… If you want some insight into what that means to those living the life, tune in tonight to Life and Death in Kandahar, Gillian Findlay’s compelling and remarkable report on the fifth estate at 8 PM, or screen it at cbc.ca. It's a 44-minute documentary about the Canadian-run military hospital at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, the largest NATO facility of its type.

Full disclosure: Though I screen all material with a conscious eye to objectivity, I took particular care to check my own reactions to this piece. A career military man and member of the Canadian army medical corps (above, the late Sergeant-Major Michael J. Cunningham) raised me. I thought all kids grew up with somebody who rushed into the street with an army-issued medical kit anytime a kid scraped his knee or bonked her head.

Life and Death in Kandahar is riveting. Findlay and her four-member crew spent four weeks (in January 2008) filming at the trauma hospital at KAF, as the soldiers call it. The fifth estate crew was afforded full cooperation by the military and 24/7 access to the hospital's emergency and critical care bays, where patients classified as "alphas, bravos and charlies" are triaged and treated for things like blast wounds caused by car bombs and other explosives (called IEDs). IEDs have taken more Canadian lives than combat injuries in Afghanistan.

Findlay's piece offers an unflinching and unprecedented look at what war looks like:

It looks like a bloody, critically wounded 24-year-old soldier from Quebec; like army nurse Captain Rhonda Crew, choppering into the field on an evacuation mission; or like a flag-draped coffin being transported by APC to a farewell ramp ceremony. And tragically, it also looks like the horribly scorched face of an eight-year-old Afghan boy wounded by an explosion.
More on link

Memo To The NDP : Wars Are Expensive  
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Article Link

Another reason why Jim Flaherty should not have run us down to the knife's edge in his latest budget is the recent report that Canada is overbudget in Afghanistan. Montreal's La Presse has indicated that the 2007-08 budget for Afghanistan is $1 billion overbudget based on estimates which cannot be confirmed yet. But before we start moaning and crying about the numbers, let's consider for a moment the cost overruns. Documents obtained under Access to Information indicate the mission has only cost $7.5 billion since 2001, and $538 million more over the first half of this fiscal year than expected. Personally, I think that's absolutely cheap. That Canada has managed to effectively participate in a war zone for next to nothing speaks volumes about the strength of our troops. And it's not like the government is buying lollipops and candy canes, for God's sake. For instance:

The Defence Department says the projected budget for the Afghanistan mission through 2009 was $4.5 billion, but was adjusted to $5 billion because of the additional equipment purchased to protect soldiers. It says the increase does not count as a cost overrun.

They can spent $10 billion extra, for all I care, if it means the Army can participate more effectively in the arena of combat, and return with the troops intact. But then again, we're not talking about $10 billion more, we're talking about being $1 billion over-budget. And much of it has to do with the Department of Defense scrambling to shore up the requirements of staying in Afghanistan under the recommended terms of the Manley Report:

"So we can't send the Salvation Army in. We've got to send the Canadian army in and they've got to be equipped and capable and able to do the job, but if that's all we do ... this will not end happily."
More on link

Afghan unrest kills five civilians, NATO soldiers wounded
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — Bomb blasts struck two NATO convoys in Afghanistan Wednesday, wounding four foreign soldiers, while five civilians were killed in separate extremist-linked unrest, officials said.

In an attack claimed by Taliban insurgents, a suicide car bomb struck a Canadian armoured vehicle driving through the southern city of Kandahar, the Canadian military said.

An Afghan man was killed, his body badly burned by the blast, which also set a house alight, and at least one civilian was wounded, witnesses and officials said.

A Canadian soldier with NATO's International Security Assistance Force was also injured, said ISAF spokesman Captain Mark Gough.

"It was a suicide car bomb attack against a Canadian convoy.... One military vehicle was damaged," said another ISAF spokesman, Captain Fraser Clark.
More on link

Women and children killed in Afghanistan by British air strike
By John Bingham Thursday, 13 March 2008 
Article Link

Two women and two children were killed in an air strike called in by British forces in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said. It is understood that the incident in Helmand Province took place after British troops had called in air support to help extricate them from a Taliban ambush at an undisclosed location in the southern part of the war-ravaged province.

The four bodies were found alongside one injured civilian as soldiers went to inspect the area.

The MoD said in a statement yesterday: "We can confirm UK forces were involved in an operation in the south of Helmand Province. We deeply regret that this incident happened and do everything we can to mitigate this from happening. This incident is currently under investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to comment."

The tragedy highlights the responsibility on the shoulders of British forward air controllers – the role filled by Prince Harry until he was forced to return from his posting in Afghanistan less than two weeks ago.
More on link

Troops in Afghanistan bid farewell to comrade
Updated Wed. Mar. 12 2008 5:19 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The remains of another Canadian soldier are on the way home from Afghanistan, though few details have been released about the circumstances of his death. 

Bombardier Jeremie Ouellet, 22, was found dead in his sleeping quarters at Kandahar Airfield on Tuesday, within just weeks of his arrival to Afghanistan. 

On Wednesday during a sombre ramp ceremony his flag-draped coffin was loaded on a Canadian transport flight for the trip home.

Military officials have said Ouellet's death was not combat related, but few other details have been released -- a fact that Maj. Pierre Bergeron, the senior chaplain for soldiers in Afghanistan, touched on during the ceremony. 
More on link

Pakistan army: Shell fired by US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan kills 4 Pakistanis
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani army says an artillery shell fired by U.S.-led coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan has killed four Pakistanis across the border.

An Army spokesman says five artillery shells fired by coalition forces against militants in Afghanistan strayed into Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region Wednesday. One shell hit a house, killing two women and two children.

Pakistan shares a long border with Afghanistan and has protested incidents of coalition fire landing in its territory in the past. 
More on link

41 Taliban Killed in South Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and international forces killed 41 Taliban militants in a battle in southern Afghanistan, and a suicide car bomb attack on a convoy of U.S. troops left six Afghan civilians dead in Kabul, U.S. and Afghan officials said Thursday.

None of the four American troops traveling in the two armored vehicles of the convoy was badly wounded in the Thursday attack, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces. The troops were traveling in one SUV and one truck, he said.

Six Afghan civilians were killed and up to 20 others wounded in the blast, Deputy Interior Minister Munir Mangal said. The attacker was driving a white Toyota Corolla, he said, a favorite among suicide car bombers.

In a mobile phone text message to an Associated Press reporter in Pakistan, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid identified the suicide bomber as Abdullah.

The suicide car bomb turned into a fiery hull that burned on the main airport road long after the attack, which also damaged several other vehicles.

U.S. troops and international security contractors surrounded the area after the blast.
More on link


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## GAP (13 Mar 2008)

Suicide blast kills six in Kabul
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A suicide bomber rammed his sedan into a convoy carrying U.S. troops near the Kabul airport Thursday, killing at least six civilians and wounding 18 others, authorities said.

 Four American troops who were part of the convoy suffered "scratches," in the explosion, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces.

The attack occurred near a bus stop during the morning rush hour, said Kabul Police Chief Salim Asas.

In recent months, Afghanistan has seen a surge in deadly attacks targeting police officials and American and coalition forces.

In January, two suicide bombers and several gunmen in police uniforms attacked a luxury hotel in Kabul. A Norwegian journalist was killed, along with at least seven other people, in the brazen attack on Serena Hotel. Norway's foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, was in the hotel at the time and escaped unhurt.

Afghan officials blame the attacks on the Taliban, the Muslim militia that once ruled most of Afghanistan before the United States invaded the country, routed them and installed a new government six and a half years ago.

Last month the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said a resurgent Taliban has regained control of between 10 and 11 percent of Afghanistan.
More on link


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## Yrys (13 Mar 2008)

Afghan becomes open heart surgeon



> An Afghan doctor has qualified as his war-torn country's first-ever open heart surgeon.
> 
> Dr Hashmatullah Nawabi was trained by French surgeons at the French Medical Institute for Children in Kabul. To mark the occasion,
> Dr Nawabi carried out a relatively simple closed heart operation in front of the media. The doctor, who had previously trained in the
> ...



Article on link


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## GAP (14 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 14, 2008*

Canada Votes to Extend Afghan Mission
By ROB GILLIES 
Article Link

TORONTO (AP) — Parliament voted Thursday to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011, provided NATO supplies more troops and equipment to back up its forces in the volatile south.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been under growing pressure to withdraw Canada's 2,500 troops as the death toll has mounted, now at 80 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat. The mission was set to expire in February 2009.

But the minority Conservative government and opposition Liberals agreed last month to vote together on the motion, which passed 198-77. Liberals backed the extension after Harper promised the mission would increase its focus on training and reconstruction.

Conservatives had declared the motion a confidence vote, which would have triggered early elections if it failed.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins applauded the vote and said the NATO ultimatum is appropriate.

The extension of the mission is conditional on NATO providing 1,000 troops, helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft to back up forces in southern Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold.
More on link

Soldiers from Atlantic Canada to get medal of valour for Afghanistan deeds  
The Cape Breton Post
Article Link

SAINT JOHN, N.B. (CP) — Two soldiers from Atlantic Canada will receive the medal for military valour for  saving the life of a comrade whose military vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive in Afghanistan.
Cpl. Dave Gionet of Pigeon Hill, N.B., and Pte. Shane Aaron Bradley Dolmovic of Cottlesville, N.L., will be presented with medals from Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean.
The April 11 blast in Nalgham flipped a Coyote military vehicle carrying members of the Royal Canadian Dragoons from CFB Petawawa.
Gionet and Dolmovic pulled Cpl. Matthew Dicks of Newfoundland to safety. However, Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, from Miramichi, N.B., and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, from Geary, N.B., died.
More on link

Afghan ruling was the right one
March 14, 2008  THE RECORD
Article Link

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not stretch all the way from Canada to countries where Canadians are toiling -- in particular to Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Justice Anne Mactavish of the Federal Court made this point clearly this week when she ruled that the charter does not apply to prisoners captured in Afghanistan by Canadian troops. Canadian courts do not have the power to set rules on the treatment of Afghan prisoners.

Mactavish's ruling disappointed Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which brought the case to the court's attention. The two groups argued that the charter should protect Afghan prisoners.

It is one thing for a country to have a fundamental set of rules that the courts within that country interpret. It is quite another to expect those rules to cross international borders. The role of Canadian courts is to interpret the law within Canada.

This does not mean prisoners captured by Canadian troops in Afghanistan, or elsewhere for that matter, should be subject to torture or mistreatment. They should not be. They should be treated as well as Canadians would want a Canadian soldier to be treated if that person became a prisoner.
More on link

Coordination sought for success in Afghanistan
By Masood Haider
Article Link

UNITED NATIONS, March 13: Pakistan has said that the key to success in Afghanistan imbroglio lies in pursuing a comprehensive approach with emphasis on building the country’s capacity to assume greater control and ownership on security, governance and development issues.

Addressing the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan, Pakistans Ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram said: “Pakistan has a direct and vital stake in the success of the international community’s efforts in Afghanistan and hopes for a closer coordination and consensus on a strategy for success in Afghanistan.”

Appreciating the secretary general’s latest report on Afghanistan, he observed that “what is most needed is better implementation, enhanced coordination and fulfilment of reciprocal commitments by Afghanistan and its international partners”.

He said that “putting security as a pre-requisite for development and assistance can prove to be counter-productive” and it was important to pursue the development track while the security issue was being addressed.

“We are trying to help reconciliation through the Peace Jirga, whose next meeting will be held in Pakistan.” Mr Akram pointed out that Pakistan was a major contributor in Afghanistans reconstruction and economic development.

Earlier, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, told the council that the insurgency was “more ruthless than we ever imagined,” and that “a massive illegal drug economy thrives in the vacuum of state authority”.
More on link

3 Taliban Killed in Afghanistan Clash
By NOOR KHAN 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and foreign troops clashed with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving three suspected militants dead and two wounded, an official said.

Militants ambushed the security forces in Zabul province before troops returned fire, said district chief Mohammad Younus Akhunzada. No troops were hurt but a police vehicle was damaged.

There has been little let up in fighting by supporters of the former Taliban regime. In the first three months of 2007, some 769 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, including 502 militants, according to figures from Afghan and Western officials tallied by The Associated Press.
More on link

Afghanistan clerics upset as woman makes final of 'Pop Idol'
By Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan 
Article Link

IN A first for post-Taleban Afghanistan, a woman has made it to the final three in the country's version of Pop Idol.
Lima Sahar, from the conservative Pashtun belt, is up against two male contestants tonight for a place in the final sing-off on Afghan Star, which has become one of the nation's most popular television shows.

Conservatives decry the fact that a woman has found success singing on TV, while others – younger Afghans – say the show is helping women progress. 

Under the Taleban regime that was overthrown in 2001, women were not even allowed out of their homes unaccompanied, while music and television were banned.

With her hair tucked under a headscarf, Lima brushes off her critics, saying there can be no progress for women without upsetting the status quo. "No pain, no gain," she told reporters.
More on link


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## tomahawk6 (14 Mar 2008)

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/army_afghanistan_deploy_031408w/
Hood brigade tapped for Afghanistan
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 14, 2008 12:33:00 EDT

The Pentagon has tapped 3,500 1st Infantry Division soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan late this summer as part of the next combat rotation.

The 1st ID’s 3rd Brigade which is based in Fort Hood, Texas, will replace one of the two active brigade combat teams operating in the eastern part of the country, according to a Defense Department press release Friday.

There are currently about 28,000 American troops in Afghanistan. That number will grow to 31,400 by this spring as the Pentagon is in the process of deploying 3,400 Marines to boost combat power in the south, where most of the international coalition is located and where the Taliban have begun regaining strength.

Combined Joint Task Force 82, which is under the headquarters of the 82nd Airborne Division, makes up most of the combat power on the ground in Afghanistan. It includes the 82nd Airborne’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team and several brigade- and battalion-level aviation, logistics and support task forces, provincial reconstruction teams, Special Forces teams and one Polish battle group.

The task force area of operations is more than 30,000 square miles — about the size of South Carolina — 1,507 miles of which are along the border with Pakistan. The population in their area is 10 million, and there are 32 forward operating bases, 27 combat outposts and 29 observation posts.

The DoD rotation announcement also maintained that “Afghan security forces continue to develop capability and assume responsibility for security, and this U.S. force rotation may be tailored based upon changes in the security situation.”


----------



## MarkOttawa (17 Mar 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND MARCH 17

Extending Afghan mission the right choice, troops say
_National Post_, March 17
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=380212&p=1



> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -The decision to extend Canada's Afghan mission until sometime in 2011 was met with neither joy nor sorrow by the men and women that Parliament expects to fulfill this new mandate.
> 
> There was almost universal agreement among those Canadians serving here that the decision was the right one. The news was received quietly, perhaps because victory or defeat still seems very far off.
> 
> ...



NATO allies press France on Afghan deployment
_Toronto Star_, March 17
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/346744



> Canada and its NATO allies, including the United States, have stepped up the pressure on the French government to make up its mind about exactly where it will deploy extra troops headed for Afghanistan.
> 
> In an interview yesterday with The Canadian Press, Defence Minister Peter MacKay confirmed weeks of speculation, saying the Americans have "signalled that they will backstop" Canada with reinforcements in Kandahar after next February if necessary.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (18 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 18, 2008*

Expectations high as marines pour into Kandahar
Commander of U.S. troops points out history of co-operation with Canadians, says he's ready to share idle equipment
OLIVER MOORE  March 18, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- There was no obvious place to put them on this bursting base, so the arriving U.S. Marines claimed a desolate spot on the far side of the runway and started to build at break-neck pace.

In only weeks, the vacant stretch of rock and dirt has been transformed by the sudden appearance of aircraft hangers, vehicle compounds and seemingly endless rows of communal sleeping tents, so new they haven't yet been coated by the swirls of ever-present dust.

A visit yesterday to North Side, as the unnamed encampment has been dubbed, turned up frantic activity. Helicopters were being assembled and empty steel shipping containers stacked into a long row. Boisterous young men milled about and several, already closely shorn, waited their turn for an even more severe shave.

The speed at which these men work is in keeping with the traditions of the United States Marines Corps, a force known for its ability to respond quickly anywhere in the world, and there is an expectation among many on this base that the thousands of marines pouring in will make as fast an impression in the rugged terrain outside the wire.
More on link

Afghan mission extension right choice: troops
Matthew Fisher, National Post  Published: Monday, March 17, 2008
Article Link

The decision to extend Canada's Afghan mission until sometime in 2011 was met with neither joy nor sorrow by the men and women that Parliament expects to fulfill this new mandate.

There was almost universal agreement among those Canadians serving here that the decision was the right one. The news was received quietly, perhaps because victory or defeat still seems very far off.

The political act of extending the mission was the easy part. Sustaining the current high tempo represents a monumental challenge.

Parliament's new chosen end date was as artificial as the one that had Canada leaving Afghanistan next year. Mindful of what needs to be done and the hugely expensive semipermanent infrastructure that Canada is still building in Kandahar, few on the ground here believe that Canada will leave Afghanistan in 2011.

It is impossible to divine the compisiton of the force in 2011 at this point. And not only because three years is a long time to plan ahead in a war against an elusive quarry that appears unbowed by horrendous casualties and regards it as a great victory to simply be able to hang on.
More on link

NATO to offer 1,000 new troops for Afghanistan: Danish minister
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Danish Defense Minister Soren Gade said Friday that NATO members could offer more than 1,000 new troops for Afghanistan at the alliance's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest.

"I think there will be more NATO soldiers in Afghanistan after the summit," Gade told reporters following meetings in Washington with US defense chief Robert Gates and other officials.

"It might be a raise of a thousand-plus," he said.

But Gade called on NATO and the European Union to put up more troops, funds and other support for Afghanistan's security and reconstruction, saying that Europe had forgotten the reason for intervention in Afghanistan -- the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

"People have forgotten 9/11, at least in Europe," he said.
More on link

Afghanistan suicide car bomber killed two Danish and one Czech NATO soldiers
17 March, 2008 
Article Link

Suicide bomb kills seven in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 17 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed two Danish and one Czech NATO soldiers, an interpreter and three civilians in an attack on a convoy from the NATO-led ISAF near the village of Girishk in Helmand province, an ISAF spokesman 
More on link

Poland to send more soldiers to Afghanistan in autumn   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-18 07:19:27    
  Article Link

    WARSAW, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Poland will send more troops to Afghanistan in the autumn, Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said on Monday. 

    Poland's ISAF force currently numbers about 1,200 troops. Their number will go up to 1,600, according to Polish news agency PAP. 

    ISAF's key military tasks include assisting the Afghan government in extending its authority across the country, conducting stability and security operations in coordination with the Afghan national security forces, mentoring and supporting the Afghan national army, and supporting Afghan government programs to disarm illegally armed groups
End

Afghan Woman Voted Off 'Idol' Show
By JASON STRAZIUSO
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan woman who sang her way to the top three of Afghanistan's version of "American Idol" has been voted out.

Lima Sahar was the first Afghan woman to make it to the top three of the country's popular "Afghan Star" television show, which is now in its third year. Conservative critics had taken aim at the 20-year-old woman for singing in public in the conservative Muslim country.

Sahar, who comes from Afghanistan's most conservative tribe — the Pashtuns, thanked everyone who had voted for her. She also reminded the audience that there had been very little music in Afghanistan in the last two decades, which have been mostly consumed with war.

Under the Taliban regime that was overthrown in 2001, women were not even allowed out of their homes unaccompanied, while music and television were banned.

"I am very happy to have come in third place," Sahar said on the show broadcast Friday night. "This is an honor for me that the people voted for me. I really thank them and I also congratulate them."
More on link

Militants destroy another mobile telecom signal tower in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-15 21:09:19   
Article Link

    KABUL, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents fighting the Afghan government have destroyed another mobile phone tower in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, a local official said Saturday. 

    "The enemies of the country raided the room of guards of a mobile phone antenna late Friday night in Daman district of Kandahar and set on fire the switch board of the antenna, power generator and items inside the room," Mohammad Rasoul, police chief of the district, told Xinhua via phone. 

    He said that the militants tied the hands of the guards and abandoned them without harming in the area. 

    It is the 10th mobile phone tower that has been destroyed by the Taliban since the outfit gave ultimatum for mobile telecommunication companies to stop nighttime signals in southern Afghanistan's Taliban-held areas late last month. 
More on link

Sweden to send more troops to Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-15 22:39:30   
  Article Link

    STOCKHOLM, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Sweden will send more soldiers to reinforce its troops in Afghanistan, a senior defense official said Saturday. 

    The Swedish military force in the war-torn Afghanistan is expected to be increased from 350 soldiers to 500 within a year, said lieutenant general Anders Lindstroem, who is currently inspecting the Swedish garrison in Afghanistan. 

    The Swedish government has not yet approved the reinforcements, but Lindstroem is counting on them doing so, the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) reported. 

    Lindstroem hoped that the Swedish forces would stay in Afghanistan for a period of five to 15 years as some European countries usually stationed their troops in the Balkan region for 10-15 years.
More on link


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## GAP (19 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 19, 2008*

Team Canada in Kandahar for ball-hockey rematch  
Updated Wed. Mar. 19 2008 8:47 AM ET The Canadian Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A group of NHL hockey heroes arrived Wednesday in Afghanistan to give Canadian soldiers a battle of a different sort. 

Skating stalwarts like Mark Napier, Chris Nilan and Bob Probert touched down in Kandahar -- some of them for the second time in less than a year -- in hopes of boosting military morale. 

Also on the ground at Kandahar Airfield were country-rock crooners Blue Rodeo, Montreal rocker Jonas Tomalty and Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of defence staff. 

But the true guest of honour, making its second appearance in Afghanistan, was hockey's Holy Grail -- the Stanley Cup. 

"For Canadians, I mean, this symbolizes something that every young boy or girl grows up dreaming about -- playing for the Stanley Cup,'' said Defence Minister Peter MacKay, whose departure after a top-secret three-day visit to Afghanistan coincided with the team's arrival. 
More on link

NATO Says Afghanistan Air Strike Killed Insurgents, Not Civilians  
By VOA News 18 March 2008
   Article Link

NATO is rejecting claims by Afghan residents that several civilians were killed during an air raid in southern Helmand province.

In a statement Tuesday, NATO said it killed an estimated 12 insurgents in an isolated area of Helmand's Sangin district Monday. NATO said it attacked after militants riding in three vehicles fired on coalition forces.

NATO said there was no evidence of civilian casualties.

Local lawmakers and Sangin residents said at least 50 people were killed when NATO jets bombed an area where people were playing games.

They said at least half the victims were civilians.

U.S., NATO and Afghan forces are struggling to contain a bloody Taliban insurgency in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan. 
More on link

Afghan Medium-Lift – Searching for Available  NATO  Mil  Helicopters
Stephen Priestley,  Researcher,  Canadian  American  Strategic  Review  (CASR)
Article Link

 As was widely reported, Poland has promised Canada access to two of  its four  Mi-17 Hip H medium-lift  transport  helicopters  which are soon to deploy to Kandahar. This is a generous offer by Poland and  Canada is fortunate to have access to these two refurbished helicopters (along with the non-exclusive use of the helicopters of other allies in southern Afghanistan – Chinooks from Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, and  the US, plus  Dutch Cougars and US Black Hawks). However, the planned Canadian Chinooks will probably not arrive until 2012. In the meantime, Canada will need still more help from its friends in that medium-lift category.

Attempts by DND and the Minister of National Defence to secure access to the Chinooks of our Western European NATO allies have failed. Germany offered  to lease surplus CH-53 Sea Stallions but this was declined  –  these older helicopters would need upgrades to operate in Afghanistan. That leaves Canada to contemplate the availablity of  Mil Mi-8/17 helicopters in Eastern Europe. The Poles have already stepped up. What of our other Eastern NATO allies?
More on link

Canada rejects interim helicopter fix for Afghanistan
David ******** , Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Article Link

The Defence Department has turned down an offer of six U.S. Blackhawk helicopters for its operations in Kandahar in the hope it can still acquire larger choppers for the Afghanistan mission.

U.S. helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky offered the six Blackhawks, noting that it would be able to deliver the choppers to Kandahar this year.

The Blackhawk, one of the U.S. army's main frontline aircraft, can carry 11 combat troops or haul a 105-mm howitzer plus ammunition. It is currently being used in Afghanistan.
More on link

Father of soldier killed in Afghanistan 'will sue MoD for damages'
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent Last Updated: 2:45am GMT 19/03/2008
Article Link

The father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan vowed last night to take legal action against the Ministry of Defence, demanding that it accepts liability for his son's death.

Tony Philippson announced his plans to sue for damages after a fraught meeting with Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces minister, who told him that he refused to accept a coroner's verdict on the death of Capt Jim Philippson.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (20 Mar 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND MARCH 20

Europe commits to send more trainers into Afghanistan 
_Stars and Stripes_, March 20
http://www.stripes.com/articleprint.asp?section=104&article=53425



> HOHENFELS, Germany — European nations are answering a U.S. call for more trainers to work with the Afghan National Army.
> 
> Gen. John Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that more European trainers were needed.
> 
> ...



Council gives U.N. bigger role in Afghanistan
Reuters, March 20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032001702.html



> The U.N. Security Council agreed on Thursday to give the United Nations a greater role in Afghanistan, where NATO-led forces are struggling to overcome a surprisingly fierce Taliban insurgency.
> 
> All 15 council members voted in favor of a resolution extending for another year the mandate for the U.N. mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). It also called for what U.N. officials describe as a "sharpened" role for the United Nations' envoy.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (20 Mar 2008)

Cheney: Afghanistan Needs NATO Help
AP, March 20
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvsKHCj_jjvCkYgE9lKl3x9xkEvAD8VHCF2G0



> Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed fears that Afghanistan could slide into a failed state, telling troops on Thursday that the U.S. and NATO allies will not allow resurgent extremists to bully their way back into power.
> 
> More than 8,000 people died in Afghanistan last year, making it the most violent year since 2001 when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11 attacks. Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have regrouped, especially in the south, and the job of coordinating aid and NATO troops from scores of nations has proved daunting.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## Panzer Grenadier (22 Mar 2008)

Nicolas Sarkozy to bolster force in Afghanistan with 1,000 extra troops
Times Online, March 22
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3599552.ece



> President Sarkozy of France will tell Gordon Brown next week that France plans to send an extra 1,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to bolster the battle against the Taleban. Senior ministers have told The Times that Mr Sarkozy wants to underline his commitment to the alliance during his state visit to Britain.
> 
> The Ministry of Defence has made a working assumption that President Sarkozy will announce a deployment of “slightly more than 1,000 troops to the eastern region”, one said.
> 
> ...


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## GAP (22 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 22, 2008*

Hillier says no move to extend deployments to Afghanistan
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Canada's chief of the defence staff says there are no plans afoot to extend the six-month tours of duty that most of his troops now spend in Afghanistan.

"We've made no decisions to change where we are at this time," Gen. Rick Hillier said, adding that such issues are constantly examined by military planners. Some U.S. army units spend as much as 15 months in Afghanistan. The Dutch and Germans are deployed for as little as four months here, while the British generally are deployed for six months.
More on link

Treason shocker: Harper sells military to Pentagon, boots and all
Posted: March 21, 2008, 6:00 AM by Kelly McParland 
Article Link

Liberals in on it too

Beware. The Conservative government, stooge of the Bush administration that it is, is not just plotting to hand our water, oil and sovereignty to the U.S. government, but our military too.

It’s true. It’s right here in The Canadian, “Canada’s new socially progressive and cross-cultural national newspaper.”

There’s a photo of Pierre Trudeau on the masthead and plenty of Liberal red splashed all over the page. So it all must be true.

Which is disconcerting. Here’s the current main story, grammar problems and all:

“The Stephen Harper government has endorsed a military Agreement with the U.S. Bush administration, which destroys the independence of Canada’s military. Why do you think that Canada’s armed forces has been forced to fight alongside the U.S. military, in the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan? This is no coincidence. Canada’s military in no longer substantively independent from the U.S. military command structure, thanks to the Stephen Harper government and their confederates. This Agreement also obliges Canada to provide financial and military personnel support to the U.S. in Iraq.”

Holy smack. How come nobody told us this before? Does Hillier know? But wait, there’s more:

“The U.S. Bush administration has accomplished a goal that has alluded U.S. military planners since the War of 1812 that was lost to the Canadians: the military take-over of Canada. This is exactly the kind of process of colonial assimilation, that anti-Free Trade advocates had predicted back in the 1988 Canadian Federal Election.”

This is serious. How did it allude us for so long?
More on link

Windsor soldiers make a difference in Afghanistan
Don Lajoie and Dalson Chen, Windsor Star Published: Friday, March 21, 2008
Article Link

When asked about his most recent deployment to Afghanistan, Cpl. Colin Mio's silences speak more eloquently than his words.

"Is it worthwhile?" the 32-year-old Windsor native repeats the question, pausing several seconds to consider his response before continuing. "Yes... and no.... More yes. But when you see friends die... In your head, it makes you think ... is it worth it?

"But if we don't ... then who else will do it? It makes you think about your buddies still over there."
More on link

Troops dazzle visiting NHLers
By LANCE HORNBY
Article Link

KANDAHAR -- This was the ultimate road trip for NHLers Dave Hutchison, Bob Probert and Mark Napier. 

The trio joined Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. executive vice-president and COO Tom Anselmi to experience a night "outside the wire" of Kandahar Airfield in that part of Afghanistan where Taliban activity is much higher. 

Accompanied by Canadian Forces personnel, they travelled by helicopter to visit several forward operating bases near the hot spots of Taliban activity. 

"Absolutely wild," Hutchison said. "The troops are about as old as my kids, but you can't believe how little our troops have to exist on out there. Our tent had an inch of dust on the ground, yet it was considered the penthouse suite. And all these soldiers came up to us to thank us for coming when it's us who should be thanking them." 

The Taliban scatter whenever the multinational task force brings out its big weaponry, but it's still able to launch crude missles, usually old Soviet ordnance on timed fuses that land harmlessly around KAF. 
More on link

Canada reluctant to support Afghan Islamic schools
Article Link

OTTAWA — Canada plans to build as many as 50 schools in Kandahar province over the next few years, but is hedging on whether it supports a controversial Afghan program to construct a handful of madrassas - schools of Islamic education.

Canadian officials on the ground - both civilian and military - have been quietly pushing Ottawa over the last year to encourage the development of moderate madrassas as long-term strategy to fight extremism.

However Arif Lalani, the Canadian ambassador in Kabul, would only say that the bulk of Ottawa's $60 million contribution toward building the Afghan education system will go to secular, public schools.

"What we will be focusing on in terms of our funding and our programing is going to be the building of the community schools, the type of which we just started building in Kandahar," Lalani said Thursday in a teleconference from Kabul.

Last year, Afghanistan's Education Ministry drew up plans for a $890,000 pilot program for a 16-classroom madrassa, with a dormitory for 300 students, to be located in the vicinity of Kandahar.

Unlike madrassas in northern Pakistan, which Western countries see as breeding grounds for fire-breathing extremism, the Afghan model is based on Hanafi, a less fundamentalist form of Islam.

President Hamid Karzai's government wants to establish as many as four regional religious schools. One of the schools - in the eastern portion of the war-torn country - opened last fall to mixed reviews and some skepticism among Afghans, who questioned whether the instruction was strict enough and could compete with what's offered just across the border.

The country's education minister, Hanif Atmar, is committed to the madrassa program and was quoted recently as saying the marginalization of religious schools in recent decades allowed extremism to flourish.
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A new girls school in Afghanistan part of NATO strategy to be both warriors and well diggers
The Associated PressPublished: March 21, 2008
Article Link

DEH HASSAN, Afghanistan: The little girl flashed a shy smile from under her white headscarf and stepped to the front of the class when the headmaster asked who could find Afghanistan on their new map of the world.

After a little hesitation, 11-year-old Pashtun pointed to her homeland, making a successful start to her first day at school.

Pashtun and her classmates, clearly delighted as the new school opened on Tuesday, are the face of Afghanistan that NATO would like the world to see after months of headlines dominated by the upsurge in violence that made last year the bloodiest since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Thanks to German and Scandinavian troops providing security, German aid workers could move in with funds to build the freshly painted yellow-and-white schoolhouse where 600 girls from Deh Hassan and the surrounding villages can finally get a proper education, seven years after the fall of the Taliban regime, which made it a crime to teach females.

The pursuit of such development projects alongside combat and security operations remains a key task for NATO forces and will likely be part of the discussion at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, April 2-4.
More on link

Afghanistan: New Helmand Governor Confirms Desire For Talks With Taliban  
Article Link

The new governor of an embattled province in southern Afghanistan has confirmed his intention to negotiate with "second- and third-tier" Taliban to achieve greater security.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, Helmand Province Governor Golab Mangal insisted that his call for talks enjoy the support of President Hamid Karzai.

"From the authority point of view, I can say that I'm the representative of President Karzai in the province and the highest-ranking official," Mangal said. "What I do in Helmand is always according to the guidance of President Karzai and the independent regional organ. Under the law, there is no problem regarding [my] authority [to conduct such talks]."

The central government in Kabul has at times struggled to reconcile its stated desire to rehabilitate militants who disavow armed resistance with its effort to counter terrorism and deliver stability to beleaguered regions.

Mangal stressed that the invitation to talks excludes what he called top-tier Taliban, whom he described as "foreign-affiliated" and Al-Qaeda militants.

Helmand is among the country's most violent provinces, and lies in what is frequently referred to as a "poppy belt" that contributes to Afghanistan's massive opium trade. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (22 Mar 2008)

Pakistan to Talk With Militants, New Leaders Say
NY Times, March 22
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/world/asia/22pstan.html?ref=todayspaper



> Faced with a sharp escalation of suicide bombings in urban areas, the leaders of Pakistan’s new coalition government say they will negotiate with the militants believed to be orchestrating the attacks, and will use military force only as a last resort.
> 
> That talk has alarmed American officials, who fear it reflects a softening stance toward the militants just as President Pervez Musharraf has given the Bush administration a freer hand to strike at militants using pilotless Predator drones.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (22 Mar 2008)

Afghan Pop Idol winner declared
BBC, March 21
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7309029.stm



> The grand final of Afghanistan's hit pop music talent show, Afghan Star, has taken place in Kabul.
> 
> Rafi Naabzada, 19, saw off his rival Hameed Sakhizada, 21, to win the contest at a heavily-guarded hotel.
> 
> ...



Afghanistan's Pop Idol breaks barriers
BBC, Feb. 25
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7262967.stm


> ...
> Most of the contestants who've not yet been voted out are men, but there is still one woman left.
> 
> Lima Sahaar is from the southern province of Kandahar and each week she travels up to the studios in Kabul for the show with her mother.
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (24 Mar 2008)

Tories knew 1,000 French troops were pledged before Manley recommended them, MP asserts
_Globe and Mail_, March 24
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080324.AFGHANCANADA24//TPStory/Front



> France will send 1,000 troops to Afghanistan, allowing an equivalent number of Americans to assist Canadian forces in Kandahar, in a deal that was worked out even before the Manley commission recommended such an arrangement, according to a senior Liberal MP...
> 
> ...Denis Coderre, the Liberal defence critic, said the addition of 1,000 NATO troops was already a "done deal," although it is his understanding that the French soldiers will not be sent to Kandahar, the dangerous southern province where the Canadians are stationed.
> 
> ...





AFGHANISTAN: BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR
CBC Documentary, March 23
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/afghanistan/index.html



> For Canada the stakes are unprecedented. More than a billion dollars in aid has been promised to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime. And with more than 80 Canadian soldiers killed, the military mission in the war-torn country has exacted a considerable human toll.
> siblings
> 
> Six years into the mammoth task of rebuilding Afghanistan, it's time to address a contentious question: is all of this effort making a difference to the lives of Afghans?
> ...



Video of the segments is here:
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/afghanistan/video.html

Canadian Forces advisory team adopts Kabul orphanage
Montreal _Gazette_, March 23
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=36778fe2-c65b-4edc-9755-d36138c2fea2&k=51098



> It still is, as Col. Donald Dixon describes it, "a very, very humble" dwelling, in one of the poorest parts of war-torn Kabul.
> 
> The first time he walked into the Mirmon orphanage in 2006, the conditions were sobering. "It was a cement, two-storey house. It was a hollowed-out building on two floors. And it was bare. There was no indoor plumbing. No kitchen facilities to speak of. The walls were cracked, and peeling. The windows were bare."
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (25 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 25, 2008*

Fuel Trucks for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan Destroyed  
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Twenty-five trucks carrying fuel to American-led forces in Afghanistan were destroyed Sunday in a possible bombing on the Pakistani border, local government officials said. 

Dozens of people were injured, they said.

Muhammad Sadiq Khan, a local government official, said that the explosions occurred late Sunday on the Pakistani side of border near the customs checkpoint at Torkham. At least 50 people were injured, eight of them seriously, officials said.

Fida Muhammad, the commander of a paramilitary force that helps provide security at the border crossing, said authorities suspected that the blasts were caused by bombs, but he said that an investigation was under way.

Fuel tankers headed for American and NATO bases in Afghanistan have been repeatedly singled out by militants close to the Pakistani border
More on link

Strike Eagles Help Prince Harry in Afghanistan
 By KENNETH FINE News-Argus of Goldsboro Posted: Mar. 23, 2008 Updated: Mar. 24 10:49 a.m.
Article Link

Goldsboro, N.C. — A call comes in from somewhere in the desert. A joint tactical air controller on the ground in Afghanistan's Helmand province needs air support. He and his comrades are taking fire from a trench line.

Hundreds of miles away, Capt. Ben Donberg can hear the gunshots in his earphones. He is the command pilot on the other end of that call. His F-15E Strike Eagle and another, both assets of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's 4th Fighter Wing, are on their way very, very fast.

Back on the ground, WIDOW 67 waits. He is talking to the Air Force captain. His voice is muffled only by the sound of insurgent fire. Just another JTAC in need of some assistance, Donberg assumes.

"It was just a standard troops-in-contact call, and we checked in with him," he said. "He's got a British accent, but that wasn't at all unusual because we were working with the British a lot over there."

Donberg had no idea that the man behind the call sign WIDOW 76 was third in line to the British throne.
More on link

Younger leadership for Taliban in Afghanistan
Last Updated: 1:57am GMT 25/03/2008
Article Link

The Taliban leadership in southern Afghanistan is passing into the hands of younger, more extreme insurgents as the relentless targeting of traditional commanders by British forces takes its toll.

'Hamid Karzai's diplomat expulsion move halted efforts to split Taliban'
In a week spent in Helmand province, The Daily Telegraph has found widespread evidence that special forces operations are degrading the Taliban's leadership and its ability to co-ordinate operations.

But there are also indications of increasing radicalisation within the Taliban as more extreme fighters, many of them al-Qa'eda-linked foreign militants, fill the gaps left when experienced Taliban leaders are killed. 

Western military officials say privately that approximately 200 medium and high-level Taliban commanders were killed countrywide in targeted bombings or assassinations by American and British special forces last year, and a further 100 captured
More on link

Afghanistan to privatise national telephone firm
23 Mar, 2008, 1830 hrs IST, AGENCIES
Article Link

KABUL: Afghanistan said Sunday it planned to sell up to 80 percent of its telecommunications arm in one of the most ambitious parts of the country's ongoing privatisation programme. 

Bidders must register their interest in purchasing part of Afghan Telecom by April 4 and the tender process was expected to be completed in three months, Telecommunications Minister Amirzai Sangin told reporters. 

The fixed line and wireless system had about 100,000 clients, he said. This compares to about five million for the booming mobile phone sector, which includes four providers and had investment of nearly one billion dollars, Sangin said. 

Afghan Telecom would be worth about 190 million dollars after a network of fibre optic cables is put in place, an improvement which is due by year's end, his ministry said. 

The sell-off is one of "the most ambitious privatisation projects in Afghanistan to date," it said in a statement on its website. 

Asked about Taliban attacks on mobile phone towers, Sangin dismissed the insurgents' claims that cell phones were being used by the military to pinpoint their hideouts. 

The Taliban extremist movement warned nearly a month ago it would target mobile antennae that were not switched off at night because they were being used to trace their bases. 

About a dozen have been attacked since then, most of them in the volatile south where the insurgency is most active. 
More on link

New Zealand wants new multi-prong Afghanistan strategy
The Associated PressPublished: March 25, 2008
Article Link

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Tuesday she wants NATO to implement a "multi-pronged strategy" in Afghanistan to end violence and upgrade development in the war-torn nation.

Clark, who will attend next week's high-level meeting of representatives of the 26 NATO countries in Bucharest, said a military strategy alone is not enough.

New Zealand wants "to ensure that the NATO strategy is a multi-pronged one, because a military strategy on its own doesn't make the difference for Afghanistan," Clark told reporters. "That has to be supplemented by a development strategy."

"You need a strong element of reconciliation as well, which can bring more people into the political process," she said, without elaborating

New Zealand, which is not a NATO member, has 120 troops serving in central Afghanistan as a provincial reconstruction team.
More on link

Nicolas Sarkozy to offer troops in Nato job deal
By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 1:57am GMT 25/03/2008
Article Link

Nicolas Sarkozy will seek Britain's backing for a Frenchman to take one of Nato's top jobs in return for sending 1,000 extra French troops to Afghanistan, aides have revealed on the eve of his state visit to the UK.

Your view: What should Brown say to Sarkozy?
Mr Sarkozy, who will be accompanied by his new wife Carla on the two-day visit, will seek Gordon Brown's help in his drive to win the command of Allied Forces South Europe, based in Naples.

The post has always been filled by a US four-star Flag or General Officer, with an Italian deputy and a British chief-of-staff.

Negotiating the post is part of Mr Sarkozy's drive to rejoin the integrated military structure of the alliance, which Charles de Gaulle left in 1966.

In return, he wants the US to lift its objections to the development of an EU defence policy linked to Nato, and to rethink its overall strategy.
More on link

Army begins using $150,000 artillery shells in Afghanistan
Article Link

OTTAWA — Canadian army gunners in Afghanistan are now cleared to fire GPS-guided artillery shells at Taliban militants - at the cost of $150,000 a round.

The Excalibur shell could very well be the most expensive conventional ammunition ever fired by the military.

Supporters argue that the weapon, which has the ability to correct itself in flight, has pinpoint accuracy. They predict that will cut down on the mounting civilian death toll from air strikes in a war-torn region, where insurgents often hide among the population.

"It lands exactly where you want it to land," said Lt.-Col. Jim Willis, a senior officer in charge of acquiring the munitions.

"It provides more safety."

About 18 months ago, the army announced its intention to buy a handful of the experimental shells to go along with its brand new 155-millimetre M-777 howitzers.

Introducing the weapon to the army's arsenal has been slower than expected because of concerns related to the shell's performance in cold weather and precautions to make sure the GPS signals can't be jammed or scrambled by insurgents.

Willis said battery guns supporting Canada's battle group in Kandahar recently test fired the shell in the desert and the new weapon performed flawlessly. He wouldn't say how many shells were fired.

A U.S. army unit in eastern Afghanistan conducted its own tests late last month and has also cleared the Excalibur for action.
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Five members of mine-removal team are killed in Afghanistan
By Carlotta Gall Published: March 24, 2008
Article Link

KABUL: In one of the bloodiest attacks in months on a nongovernmental organization in Afghanistan, gunmen killed five members of a mine-clearing team and wounded seven more in a relatively peaceful northern province, officials said Monday.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack Sunday, but it was a sign of the continuing lawlessness that plagues the country, including shootings, bombings and kidnappings.

The attackers may have been criminals or supporters of the Taliban. Taliban supporters have attacked nongovernmental organizations in the past to try to deter reconstruction efforts, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

Two members of another mine-removal team were killed in a separate shooting Monday in another northern province, said Dan McNorton, a spokesman at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, which assailed the attacks. He said the shootings took place in a section of northern Afghanistan where the Taliban is not prevalent.

Meanwhile, officials increased the toll of an attack Sunday. Nearly 40 trucks carrying fuel to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in two bomb blasts on the Pakistani border. About 100 people were wounded, a local official said.
More on link

Portrait of the enemy
They're ignorant about the outside world, indifferent to who will lead their country but zealously committed to one objective: ensuring Islamism prevails in Afghanistan. Meet the foot soldiers of the insurgency
GRAEME SMITH gsmith@globeandmail.com March 22, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- e looks like an ordinary Afghan in ragged clothes. He says he's young, 24 or 25 years old, but his eyes seem older. Somebody he knows, or loves, was killed by a bomb dropped from the sky, he says. The government tried to destroy his farm. His tribe has feuded with the government in recent years, and he feels pushed to the edge of a society that ranks among the poorest in the world.

So he lives by the gun. He cradles the weapon in his arms, saying he will follow the tradition of his ancestors who battled foreign armies. He is not only a Taliban foot soldier, he says. He belongs to the mujahedeen, the holy warriors, who fight any infidel who tries to invade Afghanistan.

He does not care where the foreigners come from. Maybe he knows the word Canada, but he cannot point to the country on a map. When he squints down his rifle at Canadian soldiers, he cannot imagine the faraway land that gave birth to those helmeted figures. He only wants to drive them away. He fervently believes that expelling the foreigners will set things right in his troubled country.

This portrait of an average Taliban fighter emerges from groundbreaking research by The Globe and Mail in Kandahar. The newspaper's staff, working with a freelance researcher, gained unprecedented access to insurgent groups in five districts of Kandahar province, and finished the dangerous assignment with 42 video recordings of fighters answering a standardized list of questions.
More on link

British adventurer rescued by Canadian Forces
Jim Farrell, edmontonjournal.com Published: Sunday, March 23
Article Link

EDMONTON - A Canadian Forces rescue helicopter plucked an injured British adventurer off the Arctic ice at 7 a.m. this morning, ending Hannah McKeand's attempt to be the first woman to ski solo to the North Pole.

McKeand left Ward Hunt Island at the north tip of Ellesmere Island earlier this month pulling a sled loaded with 120 kg. of supplies but on Thursday she tumbled off an ice ridge into a crevasse. The tumble wrenched her left leg, hurt her back and injured her left shoulder. After hauling herself out of the hole she used her satellite phone to call her operations manager in England. Steve Jones advised her to set up camp on the ice and see how she felt in the morning.

Come morning she felt even worse so Jones contacted Canadian Emergency Measures.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (26 Mar 2008)

ARTICLES FOUND MARCH 26

'Germany Can Do More'
_Spiegel Online_, March 26
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,543480,00.html



> Canada's defense minister is ratcheting up pressure on his NATO allies in Europe, saying Germany's Bundeswehr and other militaries must join the fight in hotly contested southern Afghanistan. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Peter MacKay argues that Germans should be doing more to stop the Taliban insurgency.
> 
> SPIEGEL: Canadian politicians have been very critical of the German decision not to send more troops into southern Afghanistan. Do you think of the Germans as quitters?
> 
> ...



France pledges Afghanistan troops
BBC, March 26
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7315294.stm



> French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will send more troops to Afghanistan to support Nato's mission.
> 
> Mr Sarkozy, who is on a state visit to Britain, said he would make the offer at next week's Nato summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest...
> 
> ...



Sarkozy seeks Nato strategy

*Financial Times*, March 26
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/26fe545e-fad6-11dc-aa46-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1



> Mr Sarkozy, who begins a state visit to London today, has come under strong diplomatic pressure from Canada to send French troops to the south of Afghanistan to help hard-pressed Canadian forces.
> 
> But it is *understood France's military would prefer to go to the east, where the Nato contingent is under US command* [emphasis added].
> 
> ...



U.S. praises Canucks for securing Kandahar
Winnipeg Free Press, March 26
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/story/4148549p-4738373c.html



> The Canadian Forces are single-handedly responsible for making Kandahar a more secure place, and the United States will make sure they receive the extra 1,000 troops needed to remain there, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Tuesday.
> 
> William Wood lauded Canada's battlefield efforts and acknowledged the Forces have suffered a disproportionate number of deaths.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (26 Mar 2008)

Taliban attacks zap Afghan cellphone service
AP, March 26
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2008/03/26/pf-5110571.html



> Taliban attacks on telecom towers have prompted cellphone companies to shut down service across southern Afghanistan at night, angering a quarter million customers who have no other telephones.
> 
> Even some Taliban fighters now regret the disruptions and are demanding that service be restored by the companies.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (27 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 27, 2008*

Taliban foot soldiers deeply ignorant of the world
Survey reveals Kandahar fighters know next to nothing about Canada or U.S., contradicting view Taliban are sophisticated terrorists
GRAEME SMITH gsmith@globeandmail.com March 27, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The typical Taliban foot soldier battling Canadian troops and their allies in Kandahar is not a global jihadist who dreams of some day waging war on Canadian soil. In fact, he would have trouble finding Canada on a map.

A survey of 42 insurgents in Kandahar province posed a series of questions about the fighters' view of the world, and the results contradicted the oft-repeated perception of the Taliban as sophisticated terrorists who pose a direct threat to Western countries.

Faced with a multiple-choice question about Canada's location, only one of 42 fighters correctly guessed that Canada is located to the north of the United States, meaning the insurgents performed worse than randomly.

None of them could identify Stephen Harper as the Prime Minister of Canada, and they often repeated the syllables of his name - "Stepheh Napper," "Sehn Hahn," "Steng Peng Beng," "Gra Pla Pla" - that reflected their puzzlement over a name they had never heard.
More on link

NATO's unhappy warriors
While the U.S. has been prodding the alliance's first-tier members, newcomers have stepped up in Afghanistan.
By A. Wess Mitchell March 27, 2008 
Article Link

At next week's NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, history will be made when an American president, cowboy hat in hand, literally begs Europe for help in Afghanistan. For weeks, high-ranking U.S. officials have traversed the "old" continent, beseeching its capitals for anything in lace-up boots and camouflage. Spare a tank, Germany? How about a mothballed helicopter, Italy? Say no, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has warned, and NATO will be "effectively destroyed," its members forever consigned to two tiers -- a fighting first and a lazy second.

Fortunately for everyone, Washington will get its reinforcements and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will survive another year. When the conference-room doors close, the pledges will flow in: a battalion here, a commando squad there. With the probable exception of France, however, the new forces are likely to come not from NATO's harassed second-stringers, but from members of its overworked, underappreciated "first" tier, most of whom already have troops at the war's hottest fronts. 

Three of the countries in this group are already well known. For years, the British, Canadians and Dutch have held the line in Afghanistan's casualty-prone southern and eastern provinces. But they are not alone. Alongside them are some of NATO's newest members, the former communist countries of Central Europe. Though rarely mentioned in the media, these nations -- many small, few wealthy -- have often answered NATO calls for help when many larger Western militaries demurred. In the east of Afghanistan, Polish combat teams patrol the Al Qaeda-infested Pakistani border. In the south, Estonian light infantry, Romanian mountain troops and Lithuanian, Polish and Czech special forces have helped repulse Taliban offensives.
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2012 earliest end to Afghan commitment, U.S. commander says
Training Afghan army and police the key to Canada's exit
Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, March 26
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KABUL - International soldiers will be needed in Afghanistan until at least 2012, but troop levels could start dropping by then, the commander of coalition forces here said Wednesday.

Gen. Dan McNeill offered that timeline in an exclusive interview with Canwest News Service, as he expressed optimism that as more Afghan soldiers and policemen are competently trained, it would be fair to begin debating the merits of reducing the number of international troops here.

"I would say, at the rate the Afghan National Army is going, if the police can catch up with that rate, maybe it wouldn't take five years," he said. "But again, all I do is make my best military recommendations and leave it to the policy makers."
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Final goodbye for Manitoba-based soldier killed in Afghanistan
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CFB Shilo, Man. — One week after his body was returned to Canada from Afghanistan Sgt. Jason Boyes was remembered by friends and family as a natural leader with a warrior spirit.

Hundreds of soldiers in their dress uniforms packed a facility at CFB Shilo on Wednesday for the private funeral.

The veteran soldier was killed on Mar. 16 while on patrol in the volatile Panjwaii district of Kandahar province, just days into his third tour of duty in the war-torn country.

Boyes, a section leader in 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, spent most of his nine-year career at the Manitoba military base.

He previously served in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2006.

Boyes, who was born in Napanee, Ont., is survived by his widow Alison and their two-year-old daughter Mackenzie.

During a January interview, Boyes gushed about his daughter. She was only a few months old when he went to Kandahar in 2006 and he watched her grow through e-mailed pictures.

There was a special bond between father and daughter: they shared the same birth date 
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Soldiers humbled by medals of valour for Afghanistan service
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OTTAWA — Facing Taliban militants amid a rain of rockets may have been uncomfortable, but standing in Rideau Hall was downright nerve-racking for some Canadian soldiers who accepted bravery awards Wednesday.

Standing before Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean in their dress uniforms, under the watchful eye of Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, wasn't the problem.

It was all the praise.

The suggestion he was a hero rattled Sgt. Gerald Killam, who received the Military Medal of Valour for leading his platoon safely out of a Taliban ambush last May.

"I have my heroes and my heroes, they don't come home," said Killam, a native of Cole Harbour, N.S., who had friends among the 81 Canadian soldiers who've given their lives in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan: Army Reaches 70,000 Mark, As Taliban Vows New Offensive  
By Ron Synovitz
  Article Link

Officials in Kabul say the Afghan National Army soon will number 70,000 combat-ready soldiers -- the strongest the force has been since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The buildup has come amid urgent calls within NATO for more combat troops to be sent to assist counterterror and stabilization efforts in that country. But the Afghan government says it will be years before Afghan forces are able to provide security throughout the country by themselves -- and the Taliban says it's not worried about the growth of the army.

In early 2002, just weeks after the collapse of the Taliban regime, the transitional government in Kabul announced a bold schedule to build the Afghan National Army from scratch. That schedule called for the recruitment and training of 70,000 Afghan soldiers before the presidential election in the fall of 2004.

But that target proved to be overly optimistic. Until this year, desertions were so high among the fully trained Afghan soldiers that Kabul had difficulty maintaining a force of 30,000 troops. 

Now, six years after the 70,000-soldier announcement, the goal is finally within reach.
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Poland prolongs mission in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2008-03-27 03:20:08    
  Article Link

    WARSAW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Polish President Lech Kaczynski has signed a decision prolonging the stay of Polish forces in Afghanistan, Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said on Wednesday. 

    "As far as I know, the president has signed the decision. In view of this one of the provinces in Afghanistan will become a zone for which we will become responsible," Minister Klich told TVN 24 tv news channel. 

    At present Polish soldiers are located in several military bases, but in the fall they are to move to one region. Unofficially Poles are to take over the responsibility for Ghanzi province. 

    Recently the Polish government decided to increase the number of Polish soldiers from 1,200 to 1,600. Poland is also to send to Afghanistan its own helicopters.
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Danish soldier killed in Afghanistan firefight: ISAF
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KABUL (AFP) — A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded in a firefight with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Thursday.

The Danes were on patrol Wednesday in Helmand province, a hotbed of Taliban activity, when they came under fire in the Gereshk area, said an ISAF spokesman in the province, British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Miller.

"Regrettably as a result of the firefight one Danish soldier was killed and another was wounded," Miller said.

Including the latest death, Denmark has lost 13 soldiers in Afghanistan. Two other Danes were killed March 17 in an attack on an ISAF convoy.

More than 30 international soldiers have been killed this year, most of them in hostile action.
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Pakistan's brutal beneficiaries betray their refuge
Globe survey finds Taliban have only harsh words for nation that allegedly supports them, claiming large parts of it belong to them
GRAEME SMITH gsmith@globeandmail.com March 26, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Despite a long history of using Pakistan as a safe haven, Taliban on the front lines of the insurgency say they have no loyalty to their neighbouring country.

A survey of 42 insurgents in Kandahar found most were critical about Pakistan, where they are reported to have headquarters and supply lines, and most were critical of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, often using the harshest language to describe him.

Some insurgents claimed they want to fight for the seizure of vast swaths of Pakistan's territory in the name of expanding Afghanistan to include the major cities of Quetta and Peshawar. Every fighter asked said those two cities belong inside Afghanistan, and all of them rejected the existing border as a legitimate boundary between the countries.

The Globe and Mail's modest sample of Taliban opinion may only reflect an effort by the insurgents to hide their sources of support in Pakistan, analysts say, or it may point to something more troubling: the growing indications that parts of the insurgency are no longer controlled by anybody.
More on link


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## geo (27 Mar 2008)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/asia/27ammo.html?ex=1364356800&en=746cb3668f576d31&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans 
New York Times 
By C. J. CHIVERS
March 27, 2008 
This article was reported by C. J. Chivers, Eric Schmitt and Nicholas Wood and written by Mr. Chivers. 
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. 
But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur. 
With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces. 
Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed. 
In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking. 
Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American law. The company’s president, Efraim E. Diveroli, was also secretly recorded in a conversation that suggested corruption in his company’s purchase of more than 100 million aging rounds in Albania, according to audio files of the conversation. 
This week, after repeated inquiries about AEY’s performance by The Times, the Army suspended the company from any future federal contracting, citing shipments of Chinese ammunition and claiming that Mr. Diveroli misled the Army by saying the munitions were Hungarian. 
Mr. Diveroli, reached by telephone, said he was unaware of the action. The Army planned to notify his company by certified mail on Thursday, according to internal correspondence provided by a military official. 
But problems with the ammunition were evident last fall in places like Nawa, Afghanistan, an outpost near the Pakistani border, where an Afghan lieutenant colonel surveyed the rifle cartridges on his police station’s dirty floor. Soon after arriving there, the cardboard boxes had split open and their contents spilled out, revealing ammunition manufactured in China in 1966. 
“This is what they give us for the fighting,” said the colonel, Amanuddin, who like many Afghans has only one name. “It makes us worried, because too much of it is junk.” Ammunition as it ages over decades often becomes less powerful, reliable and accurate. 
AEY is one of many previously unknown defense companies to have thrived since 2003, when the Pentagon began dispensing billions of dollars to train and equip indigenous forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its rise from obscurity once seemed to make it a successful example of the Bush administration’s promotion of private contractors as integral elements of war-fighting strategy. 
But an examination of AEY’s background, through interviews in several countries, reviews of confidential government documents and the examination of some of the ammunition, suggests that Army contracting officials, under pressure to arm Afghan troops, allowed an immature company to enter the murky world of international arms dealing on the Pentagon’s behalf — and did so with minimal vetting and through a vaguely written contract with few restrictions. 
In addition to this week’s suspension, AEY is under investigation by the Department of Defense’s inspector general and by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, prompted by complaints about the quality and origins of ammunition it provided, and allegations of corruption. 
Mr. Diveroli, in a brief telephone interview late last year, denied any wrongdoing. “I know that my company does everything 100 percent on the up and up, and that’s all I’m concerned about,” he said. 
He also suggested that his activities should be shielded from public view. “AEY is working on a moderately classified Department of Defense project,” he said. “I really don’t want to talk about the details.” 
He referred questions to a lawyer, Hy Shapiro, who offered a single statement by e-mail. “While AEY continues to work very hard to fulfill its obligations under its contract with the U.S. Army, its representatives are not prepared at this time to sit and discuss the details,” he wrote. 
As part of the suspension, neither Mr. Diveroli nor his company can bid on any further federal work until the Army’s allegations are resolved. But he will be allowed to provide ammunition already on order under the Afghan contract, according to internal military correspondence. 
In January, American officers in Kabul, concerned about munitions from AEY, had contacted the Army’s Rock Island Arsenal, in Illinois, and raised the possibility of terminating the contract. And officials at the Army Sustainment Command, the contracting authority at the arsenal, after meeting with AEY in late February, said they were tightening the packaging standards for munitions shipped to the war. 
And yet after that meeting, AEY sent another shipment of nearly one million cartridges to Afghanistan that the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan regarded as substandard. Lt. Col. David G. Johnson, the command spokesman, said that while there were no reports of ammunition misfiring, some of it was in such poor condition that the military had decided not to issue it. “Our honest answer is that the ammunition is of a quality that is less than desirable; the munitions do not appear to meet the standards that many of us are used to,” Colonel Johnson said. “We are not pleased with the way it was delivered.” 
Several officials said the problems would have been avoided if the Army had written contracts and examined bidders more carefully. 
Public records show that AEY’s contracts since 2004 have potentially been worth more than a third of a billion dollars. Mr. Diveroli set the value higher: he claimed to do $200 million in business each year. 
Several military officers and government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the investigations, questioned how Mr. Diveroli, and a small group of men principally in their 20s and without extensive military or procurement experiences, landed so much vital government work. 
“A lot of us are asking the question,” said a senior State Department official. “How did this guy get all this business?” 
An Ambitious Company 
The intensity of the Afghan insurgency alarmed the Pentagon in 2006, and the American unit that trains and equips Afghan forces placed a huge munitions order through an Army logistics command. 
The order sought 52 types of ammunition: rifle, pistol and machine-gun cartridges, hand grenades, rockets, shotgun slugs, mortar rounds, tank ammunition and more. In all, it covered hundreds of millions of rounds. Afghan forces primarily use weapons developed in the Soviet Union. This meant that most munitions on the list could be bought only overseas. 
AEY was one of 10 companies to bid by the September 2006 deadline. 
Michael Diveroli, Efraim’s father, had incorporated the company in 1999, when Efraim was 13. For several years, a period when the company appeared to have limited activity, Michael Diveroli, who now operates a police supply company down the street from AEY’s office, was listed as the company’s sole executive. 
In 2004, AEY listed Efraim Diveroli, then 18, as an officer with a 1 percent ownership stake. 
The younger Diveroli’s munitions experience appeared to be limited to a short-lived job in Los Angeles for Botach Tactical, a military and police supply company owned by his uncle, Bar-Kochba Botach. 
Mr. Diveroli cut off an interview when asked about Botach Tactical. Mr. Botach, reached by telephone, said that both Michael and Efraim Diveroli had briefly worked for him, but that after seeing the rush of federal contracts available after the wars began, they had struck out on their own. 
“They just left me and took my customer base with them,” he said. “They basically said: ‘Why should we work for Botach? Let’s do it on our own.’ ” 
As Efraim Diveroli arrived in Miami Beach, AEY was transforming itself by aggressively seeking security-related contracts. 
It won a $126,000 award for ammunition for the Special Forces; AEY also provided ammunition or equipment in 2004 to the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the State Department. 
By 2005, when Mr. Diveroli became AEY’s president at age 19, the company was bidding across a spectrum of government agencies and providing paramilitary equipment — weapons, helmets, ballistic vests, bomb suits, batteries and chargers for X-ray machines — for American aid to Pakistan, Bolivia and elsewhere. 
It was also providing supplies to the American military in Iraq, where its business included a $5.7 million contract for rifles for Iraqi forces. 
Two federal officials involved in contracting in Baghdad said AEY quickly developed a bad reputation. “They weren’t reliable, or if they did come through, they did after many excuses,” said one of them, who asked that his name be withheld because he was not authorized to speak with reporters. 
By this time, pressures were emerging in Efraim Diveroli’s life. In November 2005, a young woman sought an order of protection from him in the domestic violence division of Dade County Circuit Court. 
The woman eventually did not appear in court, and her allegations were never ruled on. But in court papers, the woman said that after her relationship with Mr. Diveroli ended, he stalked her and left threatening messages. 
Once, according to the file, his behavior included “shoving her to the ground and refusing to allow her to leave during a verbal dispute.” Other times, she reported, Mr. Diveroli arrived at her home unannounced and intoxicated “going about the exterior, banging on windows and doors.” 
The woman worried that she could not ignore him, court records said, because his behavior frightened her. 
Mr. Diveroli sought court delays on national security grounds. “I am the President and only official employee of my business,” he wrote to the judge on Dec. 8, 2005. “My business is currently of great importance to the country as I am licensed Defense Contractor to the United States Government in the fight against terrorism in Iraq and I am doing my very best to provide our troops with all their equipment needs on pending critical contracts.” 
As AEY’s bid for its largest government contract was being considered, Mr. Diveroli’s personal difficulties continued. On Nov. 26, 2006, the Miami Beach police were called to his condominium during an argument between him and another girlfriend. According to the police report, he had thrown her “clothes out in the hallway and told her to get out.” 
A witness told the police Mr. Diveroli had dragged her back into the apartment. The police found the woman crying; she said she had not been dragged. Mr. Diveroli was not charged. 
On Dec. 21, 2006, the police were called back to the condominium. Mr. Diveroli and AEY’s vice president, David M. Packouz, had just been in a fight with the valet parking attendant. 
The fight began, the police said, after the attendant refused to give Mr. Diveroli his keys and Mr. Diveroli entered the garage to get them himself. A witness said Mr. Diveroli and Mr. Packouz both beat the man; police photographs showed bruises and scrapes on his face and back. 
When the police searched Mr. Diveroli, they found he had a forged driver’s license that added four years to his age and made him appear old enough to buy alcohol as a minor. His birthday had been the day before. 
“I don’t even need that any more,” he told the police, the report said. “I’m 21 years old.” 
Mr. Diveroli was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, and felony possession of a stolen or forged document. 
The second charge placed his business in jeopardy. Mr. Diveroli had a federal firearms license, which was required for his work. With a felony conviction, the license would be nullified. 
(Mr. Packouz was charged with battery and the charge was later dropped; he declined to be interviewed. To avoid a conviction on his record, Mr. Diveroli entered a six-month diversion program for first offenders in May 2007 that spared him from standing trial.) 
A relative paid Mr. Diveroli’s $1,000 bail as his bid for the Afghan contract was in its final review. 
To be accepted, the company had to be, in Army parlance, “a responsible contractor,” which required an examination of its financial soundness, transport capabilities, past performance and compliance with the law and government contracting regulations. 
The week after a relative paid his bail, the Banc of America Investment Services in Miami provided Mr. Diveroli a letter certifying that his company had cash on hand to begin buying munitions on a large scale. It said AEY had $5,469,668.95 in an account. 
AEY was awarded the contract in January 2007. Asked why it chose AEY, the Army Sustainment Command answered in writing: “AEY’s proposal represented the best value to the government.” 
Eastern Bloc Arsenals 
Both the Army and AEY have treated the sources of the ammunition the company purchases as confidential matters, declining to say how and where the company obtained it, the prices paid or the quantities delivered. 
But records provided by an official concerned about the company’s performance, a whistle-blower in the Balkans and an arms-trafficking researcher in Europe, as well as interviews with several people who work in state arsenals in Europe, show that AEY shopped from stocks in the old Eastern bloc, including Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia. 
These stockpiles range from temperature-controlled bunkers to unheated warehouses packed with exposed, decaying ammunition. Some arsenals contain ammunition regarded in munitions circles as high quality. Others are scrap heaps of abandoned Soviet arms. 
The Army’s contract did little to distinguish between the two. 
When the United States or NATO buys munitions for themselves, the process is regulated by quality-assurance standards that cover manufacturing, packaging, storage, testing and transport. 
The standards exist in part because munitions are perishable. As they age, propellants and explosives degrade, and casings are susceptible to weathering. Environmental conditions — humidity, vibration, temperature shifts — accelerate decay, making munitions less reliable. 
NATO rules require ammunition to be tested methodically over its life; samples are fired through braced weapons, and muzzle velocities and accuracy are recorded. 
For rifle cartridges, testing begins at age 10 years, according to Peter Courtney-Green, chief of the Ammunition Support Office of NATO’s Maintenance and Supply Agency. 
The Soviet Union, which designed the ammunition that AEY bought, developed similar tests, which are still in use. But when the Army wrote its Afghan contract, it did not enforce either NATO or Russian standards. It told bidders only that the munitions must be “serviceable and issuable to all units without qualification.” 
What this meant was not defined. An official at the Army Sustainment Command said that because the ammunition was for foreign weapons, and considered “nonstandard,” it only had to fit in weapons it was intended for. 
“There is no specific testing request, and there is no age limit,” said Michael Hutchison, the command’s deputy director for acquisition. “As the ammunition is not standard to the U.S. inventory, the Army doesn’t possess packaging or quality standards for that ammo.” 
When purchasing such munitions, Mr. Hutchison said, the Army Sustainment Command relies on standards from the “customer” — meaning the Army units in Afghanistan. And the customer, he said, did not set age or testing requirements. 
With the vague standards in hand, AEY canvassed the field. One stop was Albania, a fortress state during Soviet times now trying to join NATO. Albania has huge stocks of armaments, much if it provided by China in the 1960s and 1970s. 
The quality of these stockpiles vary widely, said William D. G. Hunt, a retired British ammunition technical officer who assessed the entire stock for Albania’s Ministry of Defense from 1998 to 2002. He said a military planning to use the munitions had reason to worry: at least 90 percent of the stockpile was more than 40 years old. 
“If there was any procurement made for combat purposes from that stockpile, I would be very dubious about it,” he said. “I am not suggesting that all the ammunition would fail. But its performance would tail off rather dramatically. It is substandard, for sure.” 
Problems with Albania’s decaying munitions were apparent earlier this month, when a depot outside Tirana, Albania’s capital, erupted in a chain of explosions, killing at least 22 people, injuring at least 300 others and destroying hundreds of homes. 
Before the Army’s contractors began shopping from such depots, the West’s assessment of Albanian munitions was evident in programs it sponsored to destroy them. Through 2007, the United States had contributed $2 million to destroy excess small-caliber weapons and 2,000 tons of ammunition in Albania, according to the State Department. 
A NATO program that ended last year involved 16 Western nations contributing about $10 million to destroy 8,700 tons of obsolete ammunition. The United States contributed $500,000. Among the items destroyed were 104 million 7.62 millimeter cartridges — exactly the ammunition AEY sought from the Albanian state arms export agency. 
Albania offered to sell tens of millions of cartridges manufactured as long ago as 1950. For tests, a 25-year-old AEY representative was given 1,000 cartridges to fire, according to Ylli Pinari, the director of the arms export agency at the time of the sale. 
No ballistic performance was recorded, he said. The rounds were fired by hand. 
On that basis, AEY bought more than 100 million cartridges for the Pentagon’s order. The cartridges, according to packing lists, dated to the 1960s.


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## MarkOttawa (27 Mar 2008)

U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan
Officials Fear Support From Islamabad Will Wane
_Washington Post_, March 27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032700007.html



> The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that Pakistan's new leaders will insist on scaling back military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials.
> 
> Washington is worried that pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf, who has generally supported the U.S. strikes, will almost certainly have reduced powers in the months ahead, and so it wants to inflict as much damage as it can to al-Qaeda's network now, the officials said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (27 Mar 2008)

Equal Alliance, Unequal Roles
_NY Times_, March 27, by Robert D. Kaplan
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/opinion/27kaplan.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper



> WITH NATO set to hold its annual summit next week in Bucharest, there is concern that the failure of Germany and other members to carry a larger share of the burden in Afghanistan is threatening the alliance’s future. Critics complain that it has become an unequal, two-tiered alliance, with the troops of the United States, Britain, Canada and Holland taking the combat role while Germany, Italy, Spain and other members take refuge in the safe areas, refusing to put their soldiers in danger.
> 
> It certainly isn’t fair. Yet predictions of NATO’s decline hold it to an impossible cold war standard. Then, a direct mortal threat to Central Europe in the form of Red Army divisions led to an all-for-one and one-for-all mentality. Now that the threat is more subtle and diverse, NATO’s mandate, structure and personality need to change accordingly...
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (27 Mar 2008)

A ray of light in the dark defile 
The Western alliance is in trouble in Afghanistan. But France is ready to help take on the Taliban, and others still want to join NATO (look at the charts, read the whole piece)
_The Economist_, March 27
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10919203&fsrc=nwlptwfree



> ANOTHER fighting season beckons in Afghanistan, and the strain is beginning to tell. Many European countries are weary of the war, America is growing tired of reluctant allies and Afghans are becoming disenchanted. Still, NATO says it retains the initiative: the Taliban have been forced to abandon set-piece battles in favour of “asymmetric” suicide-bombs.
> 
> This is brave talk. Last year was the bloodiest yet, with more than 230 Western soldiers killed. Opium-poppy production is at a record high, financing the Taliban and corrupting the government in Kabul. The old truth of counter-insurgency still holds: armies can win every battle, yet lose the will to fight an intractable war.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (31 Mar 2008)

*Articles found March 31, 2008*

Six weeks worth of mail greets Canadian gunners in Afghanistan
Article Link

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — It's a time-honoured tradition that's been around for as long as parents have been watching their children go off to war, and if this week's haul is any indication, it's alive and well.

Six weeks' worth of mail - letters, parcels, care packages and even telephone and utility bills - landed Thursday in the midst of the dusty outpost that's currently home to the gunners of C Troop, B Battery from the 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Shilo, Man.

Within days of their arrival in Afghanistan last month, C Troop's first rotation saw them spirited away to Maywand district, on the edge of the border with Helmand province, to support the Royal Gurkha Rifles, an elite British light infantry regiment.

Before the mail had a chance to catch them up, however, they were moved again, back to the slightly more hospitable confines of a patrol base familiar to Canadian troops, in a part of the province where the Canadians have done the bulk of their work.

On Thursday, their mail finally showed up, piled on the back of a Gator utility vehicle driven by Warrant Officer Shane Clouthier, the troop's sergeant-major.

"After a month and a half of not seeing mail, they start getting a little edgy," Clouthier laughed about the soldiers under his command.
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Mock advance trains reservists
By By ALEX MCCUAIG Mar 31, 2008, 04:26
  Article Link

SUFFIELD — The face of the Canadian Forces reserve units is changing quite literally, as older, more experienced soldiers begin to fill the ranks of the regular army in Afghanistan.
This new breed of soldiers is mostly too young to remember the country’s peacekeeping missions in the Balkans or Somalia but are the first generation of troops who have grown up in the post 9/11 Canada. What was considered the “new normal” after those attacks is their normal. 
Some reserve units are seeing a good chunk of their troops take positions overseas, leaving behind the smooth-skinned teenagers, and young men and women whose faces dominated the landscape of the weekend’s exercises at Canadian Forces Base Suffield.
The war games encompassed the South Alberta Light Horse (SALH), 18th Air Defence, 20th Royal Canadian Artillery, King’s Own Calgary and 15th Field Regiments in an artillery support role of a mock British Forces advance along the Helmand-Kandahar provincial border in Afghanistan.
One commander called the operation, “the little exercise that grew,” after several Alberta units decided to join the 18th and 20th Regiment’s artillery training.
Capt. Scott Payne of the SALH said most of his regiment’s privates are between 16 and 21 years of age, with many of the officers being under the age of 37.
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Tim Hortons franchise in Afghanistan a raging success
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - A newly arrived British soldier actually thought the hugely popular and profitable Department of National Defence-owned Tim Hortons franchise at this noisy airbase was a religious cult.

"Once he got to know us, he realized we clearly were not a church group," said Amy Barbarie of Sault Ste. Marie, who landed what she called 'the best job in the world,' serving thousands of Canadian and NATO troops deployed here to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Of all the troops who crowd the Tim's counter, or queue at the 'walk thru' window outside, Barbarie's personal favourites have been the Royal Gurkhas, the diminutive, but notoriously lethal Nepalese mercenaries who have fought for the British Army for nearly two centuries.
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Canada's soldiers of misfortune
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF 
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Soldiers who lose limbs, sight or hearing to roadside blasts or training accidents deserve more cash, say MPs who are demanding changes to the military amputee and injury compensation program. 

They also want to see parity in compensation for part-time reservists. 

Under 2003 guidelines, most Canadian Forces members are eligible for a maximum lump-sum payment of $250,000 if they lose both feet or hands or suffer another permanent major injury. 

The figure is $125,000 for the loss of a single body part. 

Some classes of reservists on service of less than six months see their claims capped at $100,000 and are eligible for only half or, in some cases, one quarter of the dismemberment claims for regular forces. 
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Visions of family for troops
Free portrait sessions keep soldiers in the picture
Trish Audette, The Edmonton Journal Published: Sunday, March 30
Article Link

When Warrant Officer Dave Shultz goes on tour -- to Bosnia, Kosovo and now to Afghanistan -- the 39-year-old brings a single photo album with him.

The album is the story of his life in pictures, from the days before he married his wife Jennifer through to the arrival of his sons Ethan, 21/2, and Jett, six months.

It was his idea, Jennifer Shultz explained Saturday, for his family to take advantage of "Operation Homefront," providing free family portraits for Edmonton soldiers in Afghanistan
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Tories bar opposition members from NATO summit
Article Link

OTTAWA — Opposition members are furious that the Tory government has rescinded an invitation for them to take part in the NATO leaders summit, where the future of Canada's Afghan mission will be decided.

The Liberal, New Democratic and Bloc Quebecois defence critics were invited to accompany Defence Minister Peter MacKay to the meeting in Bucharest, Romania, next week.

The Department of Defence sent out the invitations, but then revoked them on Wednesday, saying that NATO had limited the size of the Canadian delegation.

A spokesman for the military alliance has denied a cap on delegates has been set.

"The official Opposition has tried at every opportunity to work in a constructive fashion regarding our mission in Afghanistan, but once again we see from this government an unacceptable level of partisanship, going so far as to hide the facts from Canadians," said Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre.
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Canadian gunners in Afghanistan grow frustrated as airstrikes take precedence
Published: Friday, March 28, 2008 | 1:33 PM ET Canadian Press: James Mccarten, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The fighter jet, probably an F-16, came from nowhere, invisible under cover of night as it unleashed a short but deadly burst of gunfire with a sound that seemed to rip a hole in the darkness.

Seconds later, an orange streak of light appeared as the jet fired up its afterburners and beat a hasty retreat, its mission over.

With that, so too was the latest fire mission for the dejected Canadian gunners on the hilltop nearby, mortars in hand and at the ready, firing tubes locked on the very same target.

"Get out of here," one gunner muttered under his breath, half-jokingly, moments earlier amid the distinctive sound of approaching aircraft.

Don't get them wrong: the gunners of C Troop, B Battery, from 1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Shilo, Man., realize they're just one part of a larger objective in Afghanistan.

But they've grown familiar with the sound of incoming "fast air" and what it's likely to mean for the chance that they'll fire their considerable weapons - it's happened several times in recent days.
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Poland expected to offer more Afghan choppers until Canadian Chinooks arrive.
March 30, 2008 - 1:50 pm By: Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS 
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OTTAWA - On the eve of a crucial NATO summit, Poland appears ready to increase its offer of helicopter support for Canadian troops in Afghanistan who are awaiting the arrival of their own transports.

As many as four additional Mi-17 helicopters could be stationed at Kandahar airfield, bringing to six the number of aircraft the Polish government would put at the disposal of Canadians, defence sources told The Canadian Press.

The arrangement could be in place by this summer and last up to a year - long enough for National Defence to purchase and deploy six of its own CH-47D Chinook battlefield helicopters, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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French fume at plan to boost Afghanistan force  
2008/03/28
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PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy came under fire at home yesterday for offering to send more French troops to Afghanistan in an address to the British parliament that was seen as a snub to French lawmakers.

Socialist Segolene Royal and the leader of her party opposed the plan for deepening French military involvement, while several lawmakers called for a full debate in the French National Assembly.

Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen charged that Sarkozy had “offended the nation” by announcing the beefed-up mission in his speech to Westminster on Wednesday, on the first day of his state visit to Britain. France has about 1600 soldiers in Afghanistan. 

Deputy Jacques Myard, a member of Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party, said the decision highlighted France’s “alignment with American positions at a time when Washington’s foreign policy is an almost total failure.” — Sapa-AFP
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Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan
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KABUL (AFP) — Explosions killed two British soldiers and wounded five Dutch troopers in Afghanistan at the weekend while a dozen Taliban were killed in security operations, military forces said Monday.

The violence occurred in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban militants focus their attacks in an insurgency launched after the hardline movement regrouped after being driven from government in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

The Britons, Royal Marines, were killed in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday when an explosion blew up their vehicle, British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Millar told AFP.

They had been on a routine patrol near the remote Kajaki Dam, a vital water and power source for Helmand which the British military has been holding since Taliban were driven out nearly two years ago.

"The actual cause of the explosion is still being investigated," Millar said.

The pair were airlifted to a hospital at the biggest camp in Helmand, the British-run Bastion, where one was pronounced dead on arrival and the other died subsequently.
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Opium Brides on the Rise in Afghanistan as Government Moves to Eradicate Opium Production
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NEW YORK, March 30, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- As Afghanistan steps up its efforts to eradicate poppy crops, many poor farmers who rely on profits from the plants have had to sell their daughters to settle their debts from local traffickers who provide loans in exchange for opium. Many farmers have spent much of their lives raising opium in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains since it is the only reliable cash crop.

In the April 7 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 31), Afghanistan Correspondent Sami Yousafzai and South Asia Bureau Chief Ron Moreau report that the practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to $8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No. 1 opium-growing province. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation -- but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation: "I call on the people [not to] give their daughters for money; they shouldn't give them to old men, and they shouldn't give them in forced marriages."
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Afghanistan adrift in misplaced aid
By Aunohita Mojumdar 
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KABUL - A map of Afghanistan dotted with colorful pins adorned the wall in the office of the aid agency official. Looking with relish at the embellished map, the official stuck in a handful more, noting with a sigh of satisfaction the increase in the number of "projects completed". 

For several years, reconstruction in Afghanistan has been a "drawing board and drawing pin" approach, with aid delivery overwhelmingly focused on numbers, quick delivery, high visibility, meeting benchmarks, a production line approach to the rebuilding of a nation. 

However, the short-term, low-cost approach of the donor community is coming under increasing criticism from development 
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Kiwi patrol hit by roadside bomb in Afghanistan
2:44PM Monday March 31, 2008
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Four New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan were fortunate to escape without injury after a roadside device exploded next to their patrol vehicle today.

A four-vehicle New Zealand Defence Force patrol from the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was travelling to a village near the border of the Baghlan province with a doctor to set up a mobile medical clinic.

An improvised explosive device (IED) went off beside one of the vehicles, damaging the front and smashing the windscreen, but no shrapnel reached the four occupants.

While IEDs are commonly used in Afghanistan it was the first time NZDF personnel had encountered one.

NZDF spokesman Captain Zac Prendergast said the vehicles were not armoured and the occupants said they were lucky to get off with just cosmetic damage.

"The crater it made was 70cm across and 30cm deep. The dirt is quite hard-packed so there's fair whack of an explosion that's gone up.

"It obviously is a major threat to us and that's why there's drills and a high awareness of these."
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