The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2010

[GAP]

Articles found December 15, 2010

Afghanistan: A gruelling campaign, a tender tribute and moments of humour
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Dec 14 2010 by Lisa Jones, Western Mail

A new book depicts life at the front line for hundreds of Welsh troops fighting in Afghanistan. Lisa Jones reports

IT WAS the largest aviation assault since the first Gulf War, followed by the fiercest fighting a battalion of Welsh soldiers has seen in recent memory.

From high-tempo, kinetic shaping operations, to rebuilding villages, members of the Royal Welsh Battle Group spearheaded a mission to flush out insurgents and establish security in a region known as Area 31.

Incorporating Afghan, French, Estonian, Canadian and American troops, this 1,600-strong international force – known as Combined Force 31 – sought to dominate the ground in the Nad-e-Ali and Babaji districts, which made up Area 31 and was bisected by the vital supply road, Route 603/Dorset.

Area 31 is also known as the Char-e-Anjir Triangle (CAT) and the Babaji “Pear”.
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Former U.S. envoy in Afghanistan worried about insurgent havens in Pakistan
Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer December 13, 2010; 10:59 PM
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After serving as the senior U.S. diplomat responsible for Kandahar, Bill Harris is convinced that American forces have made "staggering progress" against insurgents this fall in areas around Afghanistan's second-largest city.
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Canadians taught Aussies to fly drones in Afghanistan, but faced turbulence
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By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press Posted: 13/12/2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian aircrew played a significant, largely unheralded role in helping Australia get its unmanned aerial vehicle program off the ground in Afghanistan, federal documents show.

The assistance, which continued for more than a year, involved teaching Australian pilots how to fly the Israeli-built Heron drones.

The fact it went unheralded may not be a bad thing, considering the number of accidents the Aussies have had with their remote-controlled aircraft: two of them have crashed, while a third was damaged when its landing gear failed.

Reports from the Australian defence ministry suggest one of the incidents forced the private Canadian company that leases the unmanned aircraft to both countries to temporarily suspend flights for two days early last month.

Operations resumed once MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), the B.C.-based defence contractor, checked the gear problem with the manufacturer.

The Australians said the suspension had minimal impact on their operations.

The Royal Australian Air Force was put under a tight timeline in the spring of 2009 by the government of the day and told to field a drone capability by the end of July of last year. The country has about 1,500 troops in Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

The urgency called for help from someone already in Afghanistan with extensive experience flying UAVs, which meant Canada.

"Australian mission success for UAV operations in Afghanistan is dependent upon support from Canada," said a May 21, 2009 briefing note prepared for Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk.
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[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND DEC. 16

NATO Push Deals Taliban a Setback in Kandahar
NY Times, Dec. 15
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/asia/16south.html?ref=todayspaper

KABUL, Afghanistan — As the Obama administration reviews its strategy in Afghanistan, residents and even a Taliban commander say the surge of American troops this year has begun to set back the Taliban in parts of their southern heartland and to turn people against the insurgency — at least for now.

The stepped-up operations in Kandahar Province have left many in the Taliban demoralized, reluctant to fight and struggling to recruit, a Taliban commander said in an interview this week. Afghans with contacts in the Taliban confirmed his description. They pointed out that this was the first time in four years that the Taliban had given up their hold of all the districts around the city of Kandahar, an important staging ground for the insurgency and the focus of the 30,000 American troops whom President Obama ordered to be sent to Afghanistan last December.

“To tell you the truth, the government has the upper hand now” in and around Kandahar, the Taliban member said. A midlevel commander who has been with the movement since its founding in 1994 and knows it well, he was interviewed by telephone on the condition that his name not be used.

NATO commanders cautioned that progress on the battlefield remained tentative. It will not be clear until next summer if the government and the military can hold on to those gains, they said. Much will depend on resolving two problems: improving ineffectual local governments and strengthening Afghan troops to fight in NATO’s place.

The Taliban commander said the insurgents had made a tactical retreat and would re-emerge in the spring as American forces began to withdraw.

But in a dozen interviews, Afghan landowners, tribal elders and villagers said they believed that the Taliban could find it hard to return if American troops remained…

Taliban Extend Reach to North, Where Armed Groups Reign
NY Times, Dec. 15
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/asia/16kunduz.html?ref=asia

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — This city, once a crossroads in the country’s northeast, is increasingly besieged. The airport closed months ago to commercial flights. The roads heading south to Kabul and east to Tajikistan as well as north and west are no longer safe for Afghans, let alone Westerners.

Although the numbers of American and German troops in the north have more than doubled since last year, insecurity has spread, the Taliban are expanding their reach, and armed groups that purportedly support the government are terrorizing local people and hampering aid organizations, according to international aid workers, Afghan government officials, local residents and diplomats.

The growing fragility of the north highlights the limitations of the American effort here, hampered by waning political support at home and a fixed number of troops. The Pentagon’s year-end review will emphasize hard-won progress in the south, the heartland of the insurgency, where the military has concentrated most troops. But those advances have come at the expense of security in the north and east, with some questioning the wisdom of the focus on the south and whether the coalition can control the entire country.

“The situation in the north has become much more difficult, a much stronger insurgency than we had before,” said a senior Western diplomat, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. “We have to get these better under control.”..

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found December 16, 2010

Stephen Harper’s religion clouds aid in Afghanistan
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By Travis Lupick, December 16, 2010

The former head of Canada’s aid program in Afghanistan has expressed concern that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s religious beliefs are hampering humanitarian efforts.

Speaking to the Straight from Kabul, Nipa Banerjee noted that Harper is a born-again Christian, and she argued that his religious beliefs could be adversely affecting the Canadian International Development Agency’s efforts to help Afghan women.

“It has been said that reproductive health would not be a part of the government and CIDA’s aid programs,” said Banerjee, who led CIDA’s mission in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006. “And the reproductive-health issue is a major problem in the context of Afghanistan because the maternal mortality rate is very high.”

A 2009 United Nations release stated that if you were a woman giving birth in Afghanistan that year, you had a one in eight chance of dying. The following year, a Lancet report on maternal health found that a primary factor in the global decline in maternal deaths in recent decades is decreasing fertility rates.

“It is important to make contraception available, whereas our government’s policy is not to include reproductive health in any kind of maternal-health program,” Banerjee said. “That I consider to be a major drawback.”

Banerjee, who worked for CIDA for more than three decades, isn’t the first to suggest that the religious beliefs of senior Conservative politicians could be affecting Canadian foreign policy. In her book The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, veteran journalist Marci McDonald argued that the Harper government’s unwavering support for Israel is a manifestation of evangelical “dispensationalist” theology.

McDonald also wrote that upon moving to Ottawa in 2003, Harper began attending the East Gate Alliance Church, successfully muting his evangelical ties until outed almost three years later by a correspondent for a Christian news service.
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Afghan Prison Guards Targeted On and Off the Job
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15 December 2010

Afghanistan Afghanistan's Sarpoza Prison Prepares for Possible Problems from Outside Its Walls, Montreal Gazette, 7 December 2010

EXCERPT: "A Sarpoza prison guard's life away from the job is exceedingly dangerous. One of the warden's top lieutenants was assassinated in November, two other guards have been targeted and killed in recent months, and night letters and other threats are common. It's why the warden is praising a Canadian initiative that has now led to his staff getting better pay in recognition of the risks members take just showing up for work. The threats and the fear were having a debilitating effect on Sarpoza's staffing levels at a time when Correctional Services Canada mentors are preparing to exit Kandahar in the new year with Canada's departing soldiers. [...] After a roadside bomb attack last spring on a vehicle filled with guards returning from a training session with their Canadian mentors left one dead and the 11 others injured, Sarpoza saw close to 80 per cent of its guards resign in fear. [...] That's when the Canadians began bringing boxes of Afghan cash into Sarpoza to top up the guards' wages."
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[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND DEC. 17

The Year Ahead...
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Dec. 17
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1292606449/0#0

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND DEC. 21

NATO fails to deliver half of trainers promised for Afghanistan
Globe and Mail, Dec. 21
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/nato-fails-to-deliver-half-of-trainers-promised-for-afghanistan/article1845370/

NATO is not meeting its target for assembling specialized trainers to build up Afghanistan’s army and police forces, the key that would open the way to a withdrawal of coalition troops beginning next year.

An internal progress report from the training mission headquarters here warned that it “does not have the required number of trainers, which threatens our ability to sustain momentum through the summer of 2011 to develop and professionalize the Afghan national security force.”

The Dec. 12 report, obtained by The Globe and Mail, said NATO member countries have so far pledged to fill just half of the 819 “critical” trainer slots that need to be filled if Afghanistan is to begin to assume responsibility next year for its own security.

Some nations that have made offers, including Canada, have yet to confirm their pledges or decide what kinds of skills and capabilities their trainers would bring...

NATO has set a goal of deploying 2,800 multinational trainers working with the Afghan army and police by March of 2012. Included in that number are the “priority” trainers – including air force instructors, military doctors, counterinsurgency specialists and signal school teachers – that commanders say are needed now to build a self-sufficient Afghan security force.

Those priority slots have been particularly difficult to fill. In November, for example, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic and Croatia pledged 104 trainers to the NATO mission, according to the report by the international security co-operation arm of the training command.

Of those, only 35 would fill the critical-needs slots. Other specialists that have been promised by coalition countries have not arrived in Afghanistan. For example, the report said, 108 trainers that were due to arrive in Afghanistan this fall are 30 to 90 days late

“Converting pledges into deployed trainers is now critical,” the report added, noting that Canada’s pledge last month to send 750 trainers has yet to be either confirmed or clarified [emphasis added]...

A further complication is that some contributing countries, including Canada, have placed restrictions on how and where their trainers can be used in Afghanistan [emphasis added].

The pledge of Canadian trainers last month came with the caveat that they not be used outside the Kabul area or “outside the wire,” such as in mentoring roles that would put them in the field with Afghan soldiers or police officers.

Although the makeup of the Canadian training force has yet to be announced, the limitation sets a domino effect into motion. To find places for them, NATO commanders will likely have to move trainers from other countries out of bases and schools in the Afghan capital [emphasis added]...

Foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan top 700 in 2010: site
AFP, Dec. 21
http://www.france24.com/en/20101221-foreign-troop-deaths-afghanistan-top-700-2010-site-1

The number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year, already by far the deadliest in the nine-year campaign against the Taliban, has passed 700, an independent website said Tuesday.

The number of coalition forces killed fighting the Taliban in 2010 stood at 701, around a third higher than last year, iCasualties.org said, days after US President Barack Obama said the war strategy was "on track"...

The total international troop death toll last year stood at 521 while for 2008 the number was 295, according to iCasualties...

The United Nations said in August that the number of civilian casualties in the conflict rose by a third in the first six months of this year to 1,271.

It said insurgents killed seven times more civilians than NATO-led troops, with the rising numbers linked to a near-doubling of the number of civilian assassinations and more frequent home-made bomb attacks.

The latest figures came as The New York Times reported that senior US military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing to expand special operations ground raids across the border in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

But the story was denied by a spokesman for ISAF, who said there was "absolutely no truth" to any suggestion that ground operations into Pakistan were planned [emphasis added].

U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan
NY Times, Dec. 20
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/asia/21intel.html

WASHINGTON — Senior American military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground raids across the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas, a risky strategy reflecting the growing frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out militants there.

The proposal, described by American officials in Washington and Afghanistan, would escalate military activities inside Pakistan, where the movement of American forces has been largely prohibited because of fears of provoking a backlash.

The plan has not yet been approved, but military and political leaders say a renewed sense of urgency has taken hold, as the deadline approaches for the Obama administration to begin withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan. Even with the risks, military commanders say that using American Special Operations troops could bring an intelligence windfall, if militants were captured, brought back across the border into Afghanistan and interrogated.

The Americans are known to have made no more than a handful of forays across the border into Pakistan, in operations that have infuriated Pakistani officials. Now, American military officers appear confident that a shift in policy could allow for more routine incursions.

America’s clandestine war in Pakistan has for the most part been carried out by armed drones operated by the C.I.A.

Additionally, in recent years, Afghan militias backed by the C.I.A. have carried out a number of secret missions into Pakistan’s tribal areas. These operations in Pakistan by Afghan operatives, known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams, have been previously reported as solely intelligence-gathering operations. But interviews in recent weeks revealed that on at least one occasion, the Afghans went on the offensive and destroyed a militant weapons cache.

The decision to expand American military activity in Pakistan, which would almost certainly have to be approved by President Obama himself, would amount to the opening of a new front in the nine-year-old war, which has grown increasingly unpopular among Americans. It would run the risk of angering a Pakistani government that has been an uneasy ally in the war in Afghanistan, particularly if it leads to civilian casualties or highly public confrontations.

Still, one senior American officer said, “We’ve never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across [emphasis added].”..

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found December 21, 2010

NATO fails to deliver half of trainers promised for Afghanistan
SUSAN SACHS KABUL— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010
Article Link

NATO is not meeting its target for assembling specialized trainers to build up Afghanistan’s army and police forces, the key that would open the way to a withdrawal of coalition troops beginning next year.

An internal progress report from the training mission headquarters here warned that it “does not have the required number of trainers, which threatens our ability to sustain momentum through the summer of 2011 to develop and professionalize the Afghan national security force.”

he Dec. 12 report, obtained by The Globe and Mail, said NATO member countries have so far pledged to fill just half of the 819 “critical” trainer slots that need to be filled if Afghanistan is to begin to assume responsibility next year for its own security.
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From Kandahar to Kabul
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Transition marks Canada's biggest military wind-down since the Korean War
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, QMI Agency December 21, 2010

OTTAWA — 2011 will be a year of massive transition for Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, as troops close out the mission as combat warriors in Kandahar to open a new chapter as trainers in Kabul.

After years of gruelling, costly and deadly warfare, the military will pull combat soldiers from the field. But the mission will continue — with up to 950 soldiers based around the Afghan capital - in a training and development capacity.

Conservative Sen. Pamela Wallin, chair of the Senate defence committee that urged the government to maintain a role in Afghanistan post-2011, said the impact would have been "quite profound" had Canada completely withdrawn.

"It would have been a loss for the world," she told QMI Agency. "It would have been a loss for NATO, it would have been a loss for the Afghans and I think it would have been a loss for Canadians if we hadn't agreed to stay to finish what we set out to do."

While not huge in numbers, Canadians have punched above their weight in Afghanistan because they are extremely well-trained in everything from combat to humanitarian work, Wallin said, adding Canada's military role has enhanced our country's reputation and place on the world stage.

But despite the move from Kandahar to the relatively safer region of Kabul, Wallin warned the entire country remains a war zone and Canada could still suffer casualties.

"They're certainly not in the horrifically dangerous places they've been before, but the whole point about counter-insurgency and asymmetric warfare is that there are not good guys on one side and bad guys on the other and a line over which neither crosses," she said. "It is ever present and it is everywhere."

National defence department spokeswoman Katie Williams said the overarching objective in the move from Kandahar to Kabul is to ensure a "smooth and seamless transfer" to allies while shutting down the massive field operation.
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Canada's gender role in Afghanistan
  Article Link
Senate standing committee calls for training on legal issues with respect to women's rights and Islamic law

By Mobina Jaffer, Special to the Sun December 21, 2010

On Dec. 15, the Senate standing committee on human rights tabled a report entitled Training in Afghanistan: Include Women. This report acknowledges the urgency for Afghan women to be present during political negotiations and peace-building initiatives. In addition, the report also discusses Canada's commitment to establishing a secure and stable Afghanistan over the long term. Since our government has identified the training of Afghan National Security Forces as one if its main priorities, the committee's report focuses on the content of this training. More specifically, it calls for training that is gender sensitive and that is mindful of the issues Afghan women are confronted with.

This report sheds light on the fact that women living in Afghanistan are routinely robbed of the most basic and fundamental human rights. These include access to education, access to health care and skills development. As a result of being denied access to these services, women and girls are not able to walk to school safely, they are not able to access justice when they are raped nor are they able to live out their dreams of being doctors, lawyers and engineers. We must remain mindful of the fact that these are not Western values but rather universal values. As Canadians we have not only a right but an obligation to ensure that Afghan women are provided with the same rights that we so often take for granted.

Ensuring that women are at the table in peace negotiations, are well represented in the police force and are politically engaged is of the utmost importance. However, what is equally important is the need to make sure that police forces receive training that is gender sensitive. Afghan police forces receive half an hour of training on women's rights. This is inadequate. Gender priorities and gender perspectives must be integrated in courses given to Canadian military and police so that they are better equipped to train foreign military and police forces. To reach these objectives, the report emphasizes four main points.

- First, it calls for training on legal rights and obligations with respect to women's rights including constitutional, Islamic law and civil and international law.
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Canada is training an Afghan army that will likely explode
  Article Link
By Ethan Baron, Postmedia News December 19, 2010

For the first time, a Canadian politician has come close to publicly identifying the elephant in the room of Canada’s planned training mission in Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly, it was federal NDP leader Jack Layton, a steadfast opponent of Canada’s combat role and also of a training mission. But he didn’t quite manage to nail the issue.

“I think a lot of people, as they see the level of corruption in Kabul and Kandahar, are asking themselves more and more, what are we doing there with our troops?” Layton told Postmedia News last week.

Layton failed to take the next step along that path of reasoning, a step that leads to a question that’s been absent from the public debate about the post-2011 mission: Why are we training an army that will probably explode?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff sealed a deal last month to extend Canada’s military operations in Afghanistan. Our combat operations will end, but Canada will provide about 1,000 soldiers to train the Afghan National Army until 2014.

The training mission — conceived under significant pressure from the U.S. — has been presented by the government as a way for Canada to help get Afghanistan on its feet while putting Canadian soldiers at minimal risk.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 22, 2010

Taliban show reach, kill 13 Afghan troops
By Associated Press ,December 22, 2010
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Insurgents struck Afghan security forces in Kabul and the north Sunday, killing 13 soldiers and policemen in attacks that show the Taliban's capability to strike far from their southern strongholds.

The attacks, both claimed by the Taliban, began at daybreak in the northern city of Kunduz, when four militants stormed an army recruitment center. At least two of the insurgents detonated suicide vests, and the remaining fighters battled security forces in a daylong firefight that left four Afghan army soldiers and four police dead, Kunduz deputy police chief Abdul Rahman Aqtash said.

The city, a major agricultural and marketing center that controls one of the main highways into neighboring Tajikistan, virtually shut down, with shops, the bazaar and administrative offices closing as the gunbattle raged, said Moeen Marastial, a parliament member from Kunduz.

The city was the last major urban center held by the Taliban in 2001, and militants began stepping up attacks there after NATO began using supply routes through former Soviet states bordering northern Afghanistan as alternatives to routes through Pakistan, where NATO convoys have come under frequent attack.
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[GAP]

Articles found December , 2010

The 3rd Bn of the 5th Marines spend Christmas on the Battlefield
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The 3rd Battalion of the 5th Marines are presently serving in Helman Province in Afghanistan. Those are the troops doing the heavey slugging and taking the fight to the Taliban. While most of us in North America are celebrating Christmas, these Marines are spending their Christmas on the battlefield.

FOX News took the opportunity to accompany the Marine Corps Commandant into the forward area and interviewed some of these Marines. During the interview it became abundantly clear that these Marine believe in their mission and are convinced that they are making a difference. A company commander remarked that they are making a difference. Marjah is behind them and they are now pressing forward to clear out the remaining Taliban in an area, where British troops had done the heavy slugging prior to the Marines arrival.

The Captain remarked that they see what the enemy Taliban fighters do on a daily basis. The abuse of the population, denying basic human rights, primarily to women and children, and the use of Afghans as human shields.

This is often the untold story of Afghanistan. Despite widespread corruption and lack of good governance, NATO has improved the lives of Afghans throughout the country and are now bringing the improvement to to Kandahar and Helmand province. Whether or not the surge and the Afghan Strategy is working, remains to be seen.
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It's Christmas - Afghan style
Heroes take fire for the holiday
By ANNIE KARNI December 26, 2010

While many New Yorkers celebrated Christmas morning by tearing open presents, American soldiers stationed in one of the most dangerous combat zones in Afghanistan awoke to a hail of gunfire from a Taliban attack.

As these dramatic photographs show, one US platoon stationed on the front line in Badel -- a treacherous enclave near the Pakistan border -- spent the day exchanging heavy gunfire with terrorist forces.

The Christmas Day confrontation resulted in no casualties -- but it dampened the holiday spirit for families of the brave troops deployed to a post that has come under attack on a daily basis.
AROSE SUCH A CLATTER: Pfc. Nikolai Starr returns fire on Taliban thugs yesterday and is flanked by Spcs.
Photos: Rafiq Maqbool/AP

"I'm feeling kind of numb today," Heidi Hilgers-Heymann, whose son, Spc. Andrew Vanderhaeghen, 21, was part of the firefight, told The Post.

The Taliban opened fire twice yesterday, shooting at the Platoon Bravo Company 2-327 from the surrounding hills.

"I'm afraid to think about it too much," Hilgers-Heymann said.

"We'll talk about him and laugh about him, and I just think when I touch him again, I'll probably have a heart attack. I just want to touch him and know he's OK."

Hilgers-Heymann, 44, said she'd last heard from her son a week ago, when he opened up to her about the high-stress post.

"The way he put it, a bullet missed his dome by about an inch," she said of an attack earlier this week.

"He said the gunner was new and he froze and Andrew had to pull him off the post and start shooting.

"Normally, he doesn't tell me stuff like that. He's a soldier to the nines. It's what he was meant to do. But he's always in the back of my head, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
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[a_majoor]

Iranian influence in Afg:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8223431/Iranian-soldier-captured-in-Afghanistan.html

Iranian soldier captured in Afghanistan
A member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been captured supplying weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan for attacks on British and American troops.

The capture of the officer confirms that Iran is directly supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The officer, from the elite al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, was captured by US special forces on December 18, a Nato spokesman said. Described as "a key Taliban weapons facilitator", he was arrested in Kandahar province.

"The joint security team specifically targeted the individual for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz province," a Nato statement said.

It is the first reported instance of the capture of an al-Quds officer in Afghanistan. Several Iranian soldiers and operatives were caught in Iraq between 2006 and 2008.

The Iranian government is also reportedly releasing al-Qaeda terrorists from prisons to join the fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan. An intelligence official stated that three members of Osama bin Laden's family were also among those released.

In October President Hamid Karzai acknowledged that his chief of staff had received "bags of money" from Iran but insisted it was a form of aid like that received from other countries.

At the time Bill Burton, the White House deputy spokesman, said America had "every reason to be concerned" about Iranian influence in Afghanistan

 

[GAP]

Articles found December 27, 2010

Suicide blast kills three Afghan police
By Reuters
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KANDAHAR -- A suicide car bomber killed at least three Afghan police officers on Monday as they lined up outside a bank to collect their salaries in the southern city of Kandahar, authorities said.

Fourteen police were wounded and eight were missing after the bomber detonated the explosives in the vehicle parked near the bank, authorities said.

"We have three police dead and 14 wounded," said Shafiqullah, a doctor at the main hospital in Kandahar.
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NATO disputes Afghan authorities over deadly raid
By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
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KABUL - The NATO-led force in Afghanistan disputed on Monday an accusation by the Afghan government that foreign forces had violated a security deal by conducting a night raid in Kabul that killed two guards last week.

Under the 2008 deal, Afghan authorities have to approve and lead all security operations in the Afghan capital. The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said the rules had been ignored by foreign forces and that two senior Afghan policemen have been suspended over Friday's raid.

But Brigadier General Josef Blotz, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said ISAF troops had coordinated with Afghan security forces.

"ISAF coordinated with Afghan security forces to move on an area of interest, so we followed the usual procedures and the operation was partnered," Blotz said.

"The cooperation with MOD (Ministry of Defence) and MOI is actually magnificent, the cooperation has improved over time," he told a news conference on Monday.

ISAF said on Friday the raid in downtown Kabul followed a "credible threat" to attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. The coalition said it had coordinated with Afghan security forces.
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Six months after Pakistan floods, seven million remain without shelter
Graeme Smith BAHRAIN, PAKISTAN— From Monday's Globe and Mail Sunday, Dec. 26, 2010
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Several hours north into the flood zone of the Swat Valley, past the ruined buildings that stand like crippled giants, past the doorways that lead nowhere, men heave rocks out of the riverbed and stack them in orderly rows.

It looks impossible for a small group of thin-limbed workers to undo so much destruction with their bare hands. The biggest disaster in Pakistan’s history inflicted its deadliest wrath in these northern reaches, as summer monsoons ripped down the valleys, devouring land, people and entire villages. The brown torrent killed almost 2,000 people, but that number hardly begins to encompass the months of misery that followed, those who died of malnutrition or disease as they fled the rising water.
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Canadians, Afghans confront Taliban legacy of fear in small village
  Article Link
By Doug Schmidt, Postmedia News December 26, 2010

KHENJAKAK VILLAGE, Afghanistan — "Taliban! Taliban!" the boy cried out as a Canadian/Afghan patrol was about to exit Khenjakak, a small village of mud-walled compounds that had been firmly in the hands of the insurgents for years.

Under a heavy load of weapons and other gear, Master Cpl. Alex Ahier of B Company 1R22R battle group reeled around as a couple of "fighting-aged males" bowed their heads and quickly scurried off from the rear of a crowd gathered to gawk at the passing soldiers.

It was Dec. 22, the sun was low and dusk was setting in as the small, thinly spread military patrol cautiously picked its way through a labyrinth of narrow, dusty pathways winding between tall mud walls. The soldiers had to retreat back to the safety of their hilltop command post overlooking Khenjakak before dark.

Chasing down a fleeing insurgent under similar circumstances got a Canadian officer killed a year ago when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED). These types of patrols move forward cautiously.

This time the Taliban escaped, but the child's shouted alert is just one of several positive developments on the second day of a recent clearing operation designed to end Khenjakak's role as a safe haven for the bombmakers of the insurgency. For their first 30 hours on the ground, the soldiers saw none of the usual curious kids in the streets nor farmers out on their plots preparing the wheat fields. The military — which knows the local malik, or leader, is an ex-Taliban fighter and pro-insurgency — looks for such "pattern of life" behaviour to gauge how welcoming the locals might be.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 28, 2010


Military sets out to trim all but essential civilian staff
COLIN FREEZE  Tuesday's Globe and Mail  Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010
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Canada’s military has 3,500 more civilian employees – 14 per cent – than it is supposed to, according to documents that say the critical overstaffing needs to be fixed through “zero growth” and attrition.

“The civilian work force at DND is currently approximately 28,500 [full-time-equivalents], which exceeds the mandated target [of 25,000] and must be rigorously managed,” say Defence Department memos obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The memos contemplate slowly rolling back some of the staffing levels added during the decade-long Afghanistan deployment, during which civilians were hired to support troops in Canada and in-theatre. The Canadian combat mission is to be scaled down in coming months, with a rump of troops staying behind to take on a new mission training Afghan security forces.

With a budget of nearly $20-billion, the Department of National Defence is the Canadian government’s largest bureaucracy by far. Its civilian ranks include everyone from cooks to cryptographers, psychologists to procurement officials.
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NATO bullish, Canadians wary of Afghan warlord Raziq
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The Associated Press

Date: Monday Dec. 27, 2010 12:22 PM ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — He reportedly makes no apologies for killing his "enemies" on sight and has been instrumental in NATO's attempt this fall to pacify Kandahar one brutal step at a time.

There are those in Afghanistan who have labelled Col. Abdul Raziq a "butcher" in the past, and some have accused him of profiting from the burgeoning illegal drug trade.

Yet others in the provincial government and western armies hail him as a hero who is helping to bring stability to a troubled land, with a series of lightning-style raids deep in Taliban enclaves.

There is no doubt the prominent Achakzai border police commander's influence has been significant in wrestling key pieces of the province away from insurgent influence.

It began with a raid in Mehlajat, on the outskirts of the provincial capital last summer, but Raziq's operations have taken on a life of their own.

He has been all over the war-wasted province this fall to the enthusiastic applause of American commanders who regard him as "tremendously respected among the Afghans" and "a great partner" for NATO.

Knowing his history, Canadian officers are more circumspect.
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Why there's no Canadian Holbrooke
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We see little movement between the public sector and diplomatic corps, depriving Canada of the talent to wield our influence
By Eugene Lang And Eric Morse, Citizen Special December 28, 2010

Richard Holbrooke, one of the most important and independent-minded U.S. diplomats of the past three decades, passed away this month at the age of 69. There are few diplomats who have had the respect and influence of Holbrooke. He was a "force of nature."

A big question for Canadian foreign policy-makers should be: Can we produce a Canadian version of a Richard Holbrooke today -- a diplomat who could command global respect in the pursuit of some of his country's defining international interests?

Holbrooke met his challenges as an American proconsul, a central reason for his achievements in Bosnia in the 1990s. But even by American standards -- a country known for producing mavericks -- Holbrooke was a power unto himself.

However, differences in the way the U.S. and Canada make use of their best men and women in the second tier of public life play a big role here as well.

Most of the top echelon of the U.S. public service is drawn from the senior ranks of corporations, universities and think tanks. American public servants are used to rotating in and out of government under different administrations. The promotion process in American society is still far more openly personal and "political" than would be tolerated here.

In Canada, one normally makes a decision at a relatively young age to enter the civil service and become a career, non-partisan official. This is particularly the case in the Canadian foreign service. Conflict-of-interest requirements -- which have taken on a draconian character in recent years -- make transitions between public and private sectors, with the broadening of outlook that implies, very difficult and even suspect in the eyes of some.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 29, 2010

Militia ties undercut security steps in Afghanistan
By Megan McCloskey Stars and Stripes  December 28, 2010
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DAND, Afghanistan -- Coalition forces have put the militias of two prominent warlords into Afghan police uniforms and on the official payroll, but the men still do the bidding of their militia bosses, creating a sanctioned power structure outside the legitimate government.

As a result, those warlords essentially have their own Afghan National Police fiefdoms in Dand, a district in Kandahar province, undercutting both the coalition’s stated goal of connecting the people to the government and the progress made by the local police chief.

The U.S. military says rolling the militiamen into the ANP was a baby step toward legitimizing forces that roamed a big swath of the district.

The largely symbolic move, though, is emblematic of just how much rightful leaders are undermined by behind-the-scenes operators in Kandahar.

The militiamen largely disregard the chief of police.

He can’t fire them, assign their leadership or even order them to move to a different checkpoint.

The men still fall in line behind their old militia bosses, who call the shots for two-thirds of the district.

The police chief “is getting pushed around by a lot of people more powerful than him,” said Maj. Ned Ash, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 71st Cavalry Regiment, which operates in Dand.
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'Got a problem? Blow it up'
By Doug Schmidt, Windsor Star December 29, 2010
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"Hey, journalist, do not go there," the Pashto interpreter says in a calm, almost bored voice as my boot is about to land in the centre of a square made of four nondescript clumps of dirt on a dusty road.

"The mine detector found something there," he adds.

Somebody thought those little lumps of dirt would suffice to warn others of potential deadly harm. (I) must spend less time soaking in the scenery and more time with eyes on the ground.

This village, long considered a safe haven for Taliban bomb makers and passing insurgents, is littered with hidden bombs, mines, rockets, grenades, mortar shells, jugs of high explosives and all the other stuff that goes into manufacturing the roadside bombs that kill so many Canadian soldiers (including Cpl. Steve Martin 10 days ago).

BCompanyof the1R22RCanadian battle group, partnered with a kandak company of the Afghan National Army, targeted Khenjakak for action last week to clear out one of the last remaining Taliban redoubts in the area.

The best place, strategically, to oversee the operation on the ground was the village's cemetery, atop a 30-metre steep bluff. So that's where we were based for four days and three very cold nights, sleeping among the mostly simple earthen mounds of the dead under the full-moon open sky.
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U.S. Officials Find Afghan Network Undermining Government, Aiding Taliban
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Published December 29, 2010 | The Wall Street Journal

KABUL—U.S. officials in Afghanistan have spent thousands of hours over the past few years charting what they call "Malign Actor Networks"—webs of connections between members of President Hamid Karzai's family, businessmen, corrupt officials, drug traffickers and Taliban commanders.

Using intelligence drawn in part from informants and a powerful wiretapping system, these officials say they have found an economic and political order—underwritten by billions of dollars in aid, reconstruction and logistics funds from the West—that is undermining the Afghan government from within and aiding a Taliban insurgency that is trying to topple it from without.

The officials and their Afghan allies have had less success, however, breaking these bonds.

The futile attempts so far at prosecuting one individual—a banker named Haji Muhammad Rafi Azimi—illustrate the depth the problem.

Mr. Azimi has bribed senior officials, moved money for drug traffickers and kept the Taliban flush with cash, say several current and former Afghan and U.S. officials who described what they say are hours of wiretaps, information provided by informers and financial documents connected with the bank where Mr. Azimi works.

In an interview, Mr. Azimi denied any wrongdoing.

Click here to read more on this story from The Wall Street Journal.
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Our soldiers’ lives are price paid to prop up Karzai’s hated regime
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By SCOTT TAYLOR | ON TARGET Wed, Dec 29

Just one week before Christmas, as shopping malls across North America were blaring carols exhorting us to enjoy peace on Earth and goodwill toward men, the news came that yet another Canadian soldier had been killed in Afghanistan.

Two days shy of his 25th birthday, Cpl. Steve Martin became the 154th Canadian Forces fatality since we first deployed troops into that war-torn country in February 2002. Added to that butcher’s bill are the approximately 1,500 Canadian soldiers who have suffered some form of physical wound or injury while deployed to Afghanistan, with an estimated 850 designated as Very Severely Injured who will never fully recover.

Among the pro-war pundits and their media cheerleaders, the current choice is to point to the slight reduction in the recent rate of Canadian casualties as some sort of proof that the NATO forces are close to an ultimate victory.

They correctly point out that Martin is the first death suffered by our contingent since August, making that the longest fatality-free stretch since our troops deployed south from Kabul to Kandahar in 2006. What they neglect to mention is that, due to the recent surge of U.S. troops into southern Afghanistan, our soldiers have been withdrawn from many of the most hotly contested regions. As a result, the Americans have experienced a tremendous spike in the number of casualties, particularly around Kandahar.

With the deployment level of international troops peaking last year at around 170,000, 2010 also saw a significant increase of about 17 per cent of NATO soldiers killed in action. Go figure.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 30, 2010

Canadians look on as power struggle brews in district
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The Associated Press Wednesday Dec. 29, 2010

ZALAKHAN, Afghanistan — An influential tribal leader with close ties to the Afghan president has returned to a key area of operations for Canadian troops in Kandahar.

All eyes are now on the restive Panjwaii district, where a power struggle is already playing out.

The re-emregence of Hajji Fazluddin Agha threatens to upset the balance of power there.

Agha is one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's most important political allies in Kandahar.

The fallout from the turf war between Agha and the current local leader, Hajji Baran, could have profound ramifications on NATO's push into the horn-shaped hotbed of the insurgency.

NATO troops are pushing deep into the area to root out Taliban fighters, and the Canadian military is heralding Agha's return as a sign that the insurgency's presence in the Panjwaii is waning.
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Afghanistan Reconstruction: Billions Spent, But No One Knows Just How
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Waste, fraud, and corruption are endemic to government projects. At least projects that take place close to home, however, can be monitored and the corruption exposed. Imagine how much worse such projects must be when carried out in foreign countries, far from the watchful eye of the taxpayers funding them.

In Iraq, for example, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found over $5 billion had been wasted on various projects, including hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects such as a $40 million prison, a $5.7 million convention center, and a roughly $100 million wastewater treatment plant. In addition, the special inspector general discovered that the Pentagon could not account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi funds set aside for reconstruction.

To no one’s great surprise, the situation in Afghanistan, site of another undeclared U.S. war, is no better. David Francis of the Fiscal Times reports:

In its bid to win the hearts and minds of Afghanistan’s teeming population, the United States has spent more than $55 billion to rebuild and bolster the war-ravaged country. That money was meant to cover everything from the construction of government buildings and economic development projects to the salaries of U.S. government employees working closely with Afghans.

Yet no one can say with any authority or precision how that money was spent and who profited from it. Most of the funds were funneled to a vast array of U.S. and foreign contractors. But according to a recent audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), there is no way of knowing whether the money went for the intended purposes.

“The audit shows that navigating the confusing labyrinth of government contracting is difficult, at best,” SIGAR said in releasing the audit. “USAID, the State Department and the Pentagon are unable to readily report on how much money they spend on contracting for reconstruction activities in Afghanistan.”

The reason for these agencies’ inability to say where taxpayers’ money is going is simply that the government hasn’t demanded any sort of accountability from its recipients. “The money,” Francis writes, “flows from Washington to Afghanistan, with little oversight and accountability, and at every step along the way someone else takes a cut.”

It doesn’t help that much of the work being performed in Afghanistan under the auspices of the U.S. government is actually being contracted out. Private contractors make up 57 percent of the workforce employed by the Department of Defense in that country, “the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States,” according to a July Congressional Research Service report. With only 14 percent of those contractors being U.S. citizens, holding them accountable for their expenditures of American dollars is extremely difficult. The result, according to Francis:
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Manitoban reservist, paramedic honoured for work overseas
Global News: Wednesday, December 29, 2010
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The Canadian Armed Forces said thank you to a young Manitoba reservist and her employer.

Corporal Tanya Woroniuk is a paramedic in the Interlake and a part time soldier. She was deployed in November 2009 and served as a medic in Afghanistan.

Her employer, the Interlake Regional Health Authority, granted her an 18-month leave of absence to allow her to help soldiers in need of emergency medical care overseas.

"We knew that when she came back she was going to bring back a lot of skills and experiences which are going to enhance her capabilities here as a paramedic," says Drew Christenson, Emergency Medical Services Manager with the West St. Paul EMS station.

Corporal Woroniuk, 24, spent seven months providing trauma care to soldiers, villagers, and far too often, children.
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Glass Tiger isn't shy about waving the flag
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By Barbara Woolsey, Special to The Leader-Post December 30, 2010

They may not stitch Maple Leafs to their equipment cases, but there's no denying the members of Canadian pop band Glass Tiger are patriotic.

Earlier this year, keyboardist Sam Reid and vocalist Alan Frew of the iconic band -- thanks to well-known chart-topping singles like "Someday" and "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" -- travelled to Afghanistan to perform for the Canadian troops.

Frew and Reid found themselves holding an impromptu show under the same tarp where the soldiers would take their meals. With nowhere to plug in, they sang "bare bones" -- accompanied by only a small electric keyboard and the syncopation of the desert wind.

"We were given the chance to go up close and into combat zones," said Reid. "They took us off the main base and we spent the evening inside a tent with a small group of around 50 soldiers on the hillside."
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