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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (January 2007)

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Commons defence committee confined to Kandahar Airfield
Doug Schmidt, CanWest News Service,  23 Jan 07
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A group of MPs charged with overseeing Canada’s mission in Afghanistan landed at Kandahar Airfield Tuesday to measure what progress is being made but was promptly told by its military hosts its three-day visit would be spent closeted inside the NATO base.  The eight members of the all-party Commons defence committee were told that, for security reasons, they wouldn’t be visiting any troops in the field, they couldn’t see first-hand any of the reconstruction efforts underway "outside the wire," and there were no plans for them to meet with any locals.  Instead, there would be plenty of in-camp briefings.  "The limitations of where they can go have been directed by the minister," said their host, Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, who is the commander of the 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan ....


Commons defence committee to assess successes, failures in Afghan mission
MURRAY BREWSTER, Canadian Press, 23 Jan 07
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Parliamentarians, replete with flak jackets and helmets, stepped off a military transport Tuesday looking as though they were ready for battle, but theirs will be the battle of the briefing room.  Eight members of the all-party Commons defence committee, charged with examining Canada's role in this war-torn country, are not expected to meet any local Afghan officials, nor set foot off Kandahar Airfield to view reconstruction projects.  Their assessment of the Conservative government's deepening involvement in this nasty guerrilla war, which could shape party positions in an anticipated spring election, will largely be based on a barrage of prearranged briefings and PowerPoint presentations from Canadian military and government officials.  They will, however, tour various facilities at the NATO base, including a recreational boardwalk, a cement factory, a newly installed banking machine and the hangout of soldiers, dubbed Canada House.  "We're not going to see much, but maybe that will change," New Democrat defence critic Dawn Black said of the itinerary.  Black, whose party has called for Canadian troops to be withdrawn from fighting militant Taliban forces, has asked to meet with Afghan officials.  "It's not on the itinerary, but we'll see," she said as she wrestled to get out of her bulletproof vest. "I've got a number of questions to ask them."  ....


Canadian MPs miffed at Afghan travel curbs; minister says it's for safety
MURRAY BREWSTER, Canadian Press, 23 Jan 07
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....  Brig.-Gen Tim Grant, commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor made the decision about travel arrangements for the group in Afghanistan. "The movements of the party, the limitations on where they can go, have been directed by the minister," he said.  O'Connor had informed committee members before they left Canada that any travel outside Kandahar Airfield must be by air because road transport is too dangerous, said Isabelle Bouchard, the minister's spokeswoman. She mentioned roadside bombs as one of the dangers.  "The people on the ground, they must request helicopter support because Canada does not own this kind of helicopter in theatre," she said in a telephone interview.  At the moment, none of the allies could provide helicopter transport because of operational factors, she said. "Maybe the opposition members would support our procurement in this process" so that Canada could get its own helicopters, she added.  She denied that the minister was blocking committee members from seeing Afghanistan. "On the contrary, the minister wants them alive and well, back next week in the House."  "We were surprise to hear" their complaints, she said, "because they were well aware of what they were getting into." ....



Pakistani soldier dies during engagement with insurgents on Paktika border
ISAF news release #2007-066, 23 Jan 07
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On the afternoon of 22 January, a Pakistani soldier died during an engagement with insurgents in Bermal district, Paktika, on the Pakistani border. ISAF deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained by Pakistani forces, although the cause of these casualties, and who is responsible, is as yet unclear.  The incident happened following an insurgent rocket attack near an ISAF operating base in Bermel district, Paktika province. Shortly afterwards a group of insurgents was identified moving east towards the Pakistan border.  ISAF called in close air support (CAS) which tracked the insurgents and engaged them. ISAF believes that all ordnance fired landed on the target and one insurgent was killed and another injured.  The Pakistani authorities report, in addition, that one Pakistani soldier was killed and two others were injured during events associated with this incident.  A joint investigation into the incident, involving ISAF and the Pakistan military, has now been convened. ISAF very much appreciates Pakistan’s continued cooperation and assistance on the border.



Joint Intelligence Operations Centre Opens Thursday
ISAF Media Advisory #2007-MA12, 23 Jan 07
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (23 January) - Media are invited to attend the opening ceremony for the new Joint Intelligence Operations Centre (JIOC) at HQ ISAF on Thursday at 2:15 p.m.  The JIOC will facilitate joint intelligence operations between ISAF and the Pakistani and Afghan armies. It will be opened by Gen. David Richards, COMISAF, in the presence of senior representatives from the Pakistani and Afghan armies. The ceremony will be followed by a short tour of the facility and a press conference with COMISAF.  Media must confirm attendance to this event, as space is limited. To confirm attendance, please contact the ISAF Public Information Office.  On Thursday, media must arrive at the HQ ISAF main gate by 2:15 p.m. for a security check prior to being escorted to the JIOC.  Media arriving with cell phones and laptops will be asked to hand them in for the duration of the visit to the camp. All media must hold a valid ISAF press pass. Registration is held each Monday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. Registration requirements are posted on the lower right side of the ISAF Web site ....



NOTE:  This story has not appeared in any other MSM outlet as of 24 Jan 07, so take with grain of salt!

Taliban kill 4 Dutch soldiers in Uruzgan
Pak Tribune, 24 Jan 07
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Four NATO soldiers were killed in a clash between Taliban and NATO forces at a village near Tirinkot in Uruzgan province of Southern Afghanistan.  Taliban Spokesman, Qari Yousaf told Radio Tehran by telephone that four NATO-led Dutch soldiers were killed when they clashed with the Taliban fighters at a village near Tirinkot in Uruzgan province.  Qari Yousaf further claimed that five Afghan National Army, ANA's soldiers were either killed or wounded when they were attacked by their fighters in Bakwah
district ....



Fugitive warlord claims U.S. facing Soviet-style defeat in Afghanistan
Associated Press, 23 Jan 07
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The United States faces a Soviet-style humiliation in Afghanistan, a fugitive Afghan warlord claimed in a video message while taunting Pakistan for aiding U.S.-led counterterrorism operations.  In a recording obtained by The Associated Press in Pakistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar also accused Washington of fomenting conflict among Afghan ethnic groups on a scale comparable with the strife in Iraq.  "Everyone knows that the American aggressors are faced with defeat in every part of the country," Hekmatyar said. "They were unable to achieve their goals by bombing innocent Afghans, their villages and homes. They are preparing to leave like the Soviet troops." ....



German Soldiers Admit They Guarded US Prison in Afghanistan
As part of the investigation into the alleged abuse of terrorist suspects by German soldiers in Afghanistan, officers from the German Special Forces (KSK) are for the first time making official statements -- and they admit that they helped US soldiers guard detainees.  German Special Forces (KSK) soldiers are being investigating for the alleged mistreatment of Murat Kurnaz in Afghanistan. 

Holger Stark, Der Spiegel (DEU), 22 Jan 07
Article Link


Kandahar, January, 2002: It was so cold that the drinking water had frozen in its plastic containers. The German Special Forces (KSK) soldiers were dressed in desert uniforms and woolen hats and were armed with G36 rifles equipped with laser sights. Their mission? To help the US "accompany prisoners from the airplane to the American army prison camp."  The camp was flooded with light as military planes landed on the runway with more detainees, who were to be transported to the camp. "The prisoners were masked and tied together," recalls Master Sergeant L., who took part in the operation. He helped the American GIs lead the prisoners through the gate into the camp, past the clay outer wall and guardhouses. They were then put into one of the four wire cages, which only had a provisional awning for a roof. After transferring all the suspects into the camp, L. patroled up and down between the barbed wire fences ....



Afghans determined to rebuild, no matter the obstacles
UNICEF’s External Relations Officer Roshan Khadivi offers personal reflections on the progress she has seen for children in Afghanistan since her first assignment there more than five years ago.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), via Reliefweb.net, 23 Jan 07
Article Link

Prior to my first trip to Afghanistan in 2001, I remember a time when the horrible pictures of group killings of people in Kabul football stadiums reached the rest of the world. News reports spoke of oppressive restrictions and daily torture of innocent people. Worldwide, many wondered how things would turn out here.  I came to this country in late 2001 on a short assessment mission, followed by a two-year assignment in 2002. I have been back in Afghanistan for about month, and this most recent visit has been a real opportunity to see how things have changed ....



Bridge to be built in Uruzgan
Saeed Zabuli and Zubair Babakarkhel, Pajhwok Afghan News, 22 Jan 07
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Australian military will build a bridge in Tirinkot, capital of the southern Uruzgan to link three districts of the province.  The gubernatorial spokesman Gul Qayoom Qayoomi told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday the project worth $400,000 would connect Khas Uruzgan, Gezab and Chora districts with Tirinkot.  He said the governor Abdul Hakim Munib inaugurated the bridge during a ceremony held here. Tribal elders, local officials and other notable people attended the ceremony. He said the bridge would have 68 metres width. He said the project would be completed in three months.  Australian ambassador to Kabul Brett Hackett said the project was very useful and important for local people. He told this news agency: "Local residents will take part in construction work of the bridge that will also help in creating job opportunities." Task forces of the Australian based in Uruzgan have implemented the project ....



Wardak PRT supports province’s religious schools
ISAF news release #2007-061, 22 Jan 07
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BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (22 January) – Since the Eid al Adha, the Wardak Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) has launched a humanitarian assistance programme for the province’s religious schools.  So far, 16 religious schools and approximately 2,000 students have received food and winter supplies in Maidan Shair, Nerkh, Jalrez and Saidabad districts. The PRT is working in coordination with the local administration and Provincial Education Department. The PRT is focusing on delivering supplies most in need such as food, firewood, blankets, teaching materials and holy books.  Wardak PRT teams, headed by civilian coordinator Abaci, stress the importance of religious education during their visits, as well as the correct teaching of Islam and the crucial role played by the religious scholars.  The PRT has also asked scholars of the unregistered schools to apply for registry with the education department so they may obtain salary and other state benefits. The religious school representatives have expressed appreciation for the visits and the assistance provided during the difficult winter months.



- edited to include warning on reports of Dutch fatalities -
 
Articles found 24 January, 2007

Three suspected Taliban killed in Afghanistan
Updated Wed. Jan. 24 2007 6:29 AM ET Associated Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan police clashed with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killings three fighters and detaining four, a police official said.

The militants were killed and captured between the provinces of Kandahar and Uruzgan, where nine border policemen were killed in a militant ambush on Tuesday, said Matiullah Khan, an officer with border police.

Afghan and NATO-led forces also battled suspected militants for nearly five hours in Uruzgan province on Tuesday, leaving 12 Taliban and nine policemen dead, Uruzgan's police chief, Gen. Mohammad Qasem, said. Four militants and 10 Afghan troops also were wounded, he said.

The southern clashes came after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of labourers outside a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing as many as 10 people in the deadliest suicide attack in four months.

The suicide bomber struck as hundreds of Afghan workers lined up to enter the base, known as Camp Salerno, outside the city of Khost, said provincial Gov. Jamal Arsalah, who visited the scene shortly after the explosion.

Meanwhile, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord whose fighters operate in eastern Afghanistan's mountains alongside the Taliban and al-Qaida, said the U.S. faces a Soviet-style humiliation in the country.

In a recording obtained by The Associated Press in Pakistan, Hekmatyar also accused Washington of fomenting conflict among Afghan ethnic groups on a scale comparable with the strife in Iraq.

"Everyone knows that the American aggressors are faced with defeat in every part of the country,'' Hekmatyar said. "They were unable to achieve their goals by bombing innocent Afghans, their villages and homes. They are preparing to leave like the Soviet troops.''
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An older link, but an excellent read
We went because we wanted to go, and we're glad we went
Why would four young men give up comfortable lives in the Lower Mainland to serve in the army in Afghanistan?
Michael Scott Vancouver Sun Saturday, November 11, 2006
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Every six weeks or so, during the hellish, death-defying months that Bombardier Daniel Mazurek was dodging rocket-propelled grenades in the lawless wastes west of Kandahar, a package would arrive from his girlfriend back home in Canada.

In it there would be a pound of ground Starbucks coffee. Mazurek, a resourceful six-footer, would pull a battered hiking stove and a little Italian espresso pot from some hidey-hole in his armoured vehicle, blow the dust and spiders out of them, and brew a proper cup of coffee for himself and his buddies.

People loved Mazurek's field coffee. They loved it because it reminded all those dirty, dog-tired Canadian soldiers of home; and they loved it because Mazurek knew exactly what he was doing. Before he became a soldier manning a 105-millimetre howitzer, Dan Mazurek, who is 24 and grew up in White Rock, was a barista at Starbucks.

This morning, members of the Canadian Forces standing at cenotaphs across the country remembering fallen comrades won't all be silver-haired and thinking about Dieppe, Ortona and Juno Beach. A new generation of Canadian veterans, young people like Dan Mazurek, still in their 20s, have risked everything in the service of their country, and are returning from Afghanistan to our orderly world of Robson Street shopping and Kitsilano sunsets, forever changed.

This is the story of four young men who traded comfortable Lower Mainland lives for the duty and danger of military deployment in Afghanistan. Death was a daily possibility, but each of them says he would go back. They too will be at cenotaphs today, remembering their own fallen comrades.
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More British diplomats for Afghanistan
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LONDON, Jan 24 (KUNA) -- The British Government is to send up to 35 extra diplomatic staff to Afghanistan, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The deployment will make the country one of the UK Foreign Office's biggest overseas postings.

Government sources said the move is an attempt to prevent the country suffering the same level of chaos and violence as Iraq.

Officials said staff will focus on tackling drug production and corruption as well as building institutions.

Currently there are between 50 and 100 UK-based diplomats in Afghanistan, including counter-narcotics specialists.

The new staff are expected to be deployed to the British Embassy in Kabul and to Lashkar Garh in the south of the country over the coming months.

Foreign Office officials say the priorities will be to combat corruption, help build government institutions in the south and to tackle the production of opium.

The newly enlarged embassy staff will be headed by one of Britain's highest profile diplomats Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who is currently ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

A fluent Arabist, he was previously ambassador in Tel Aviv.
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New irrigation canal opens in Nangarhar
Tuesday January 23, 2007 (0134 PST)
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BAGRAM AIRFIELD: A new irrigation canal opened in Goshta district, Nangarhar province.
The opening ceremony was attended by the district's police chief, elders from the community, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and the Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) commander, Lt. Col. David Naisbitt.

The project took eight months to complete and provided jobs to more than 150 local Afghans. The Goshta elders said the project was a great benefit to the district as many more farmers in the area will benefit from the water in the irrigation canal.

The farmers were also appreciative of the Nangarhar Irrigation Department and the PRT's efforts. Prior to the opening ceremony, ANA soldiers along with the ANP helped the PRT's soldiers donate rice, cooking oil, beans, blankets, coats and other winter supplies.

They were provided to the Goshta sub-governor and will be provided to the most needy people in the area.
End

Taliban kill 4 Dutch soldiers in Uruzgan
Wednesday January 24, 2007 (0035 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Four NATO soldiers were killed in a clash between Taliban and NATO forces at a village near Tirinkot in Uruzgan province of Southern Afghanistan.
Taliban Spokesman, Qari Yousaf told Radio Tehran by telephone that four NATO-led Dutch soldiers were killed when they clashed with the Taliban fighters at a village near Tirinkot in Uruzgan province.

Qari Yousaf further claimed that five Afghan National Army, ANA's soldiers were either killed or wounded when they were attacked by their fighters in Bakwah district.

He added that a NATO military tank was targeted in an overnight attack Sunday night at Shawandad in Kandahar province.
End

ANP instructors complete law-enforcement course
Tuesday January 23, 2007 (0134 PST)
Article Link

BAGRAM AIRFIELD: Nine Afghan National Police (ANP) field training instructors graduated on from a Mehtar Lam Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) sponsored police course in Laghman province.
During the week long course, security forces personnel from the PRT's Police Training and Assessment Team (PTAT) instructed the officers about police tactics, procedures and professionalism.

The training is designed to better contribute to the security reforms being implemented by the Afghan government. "What we learned here was good because it coincided with the teachings of Islam," said Nawabdin, an ANP officer who graduated the course with distinguished honours.

"The main thing this course stressed was being honest and honorable. We will pass on the lessons learned here to our fellow police officers back in the ANP compound," he said.

That's exactly what the PTAT instructors hope the students will do with their training, said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. David Pacheco, Mehtar Lam PTAT non-commissioned officer in charge. "We ask them to apply the material and knowledge they have received and continuously share that with Afghan National Police (ANP) throughout Laghman province," he said.
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Most Italians want to withdraw troops form Afghanistan
January 24, 2007         
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The majority of Italians are in favor of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, according to a new poll published on Tuesday.

Some 56 percent of those interviewed in the poll said they wanted Italian forces to be pulled out of the central Asian country. The percentage was even higher, 64 percent, among people who voted for Prodi's center-left alliance last year.

The poll, carried out by IPR Marketing for the La Repubblica newspaper's website, highlighted a political problem that the premier has been grappling with in recent days.

Three pacifist allies, the Communist Refoundation Party, the Italian Communists' Party and the Greens, have been pressuring Prodi to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Prodi held a meeting on Sunday evening with the three parties. He emerged confirming the troop presence but promising not to send in more soldiers.

Almost 2,000 Italian troops are serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led ISAF peacekeeping mission there.

The IPR poll found that 48 percent of center-right opposition voters favored continuing the mission while 45 percent wanted a pullout.
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Zawahiri mocks Bush over Iraq in new video  
Article Link
 
DUBAI: Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri on Tuesday mocked US President George W Bush’s plan to send extra troops to Iraq, saying he should send his entire army to be annihilated. In an online video message, the al-Qaeda second-in-command also accused the United States of being behind the deployment of Ethiopian troops in Somalia and vowed that Islamist forces would “break the back” of the Ethiopians.

“In his latest speech, Bush said in his ramblings that he would send 20,000 of his soldiers to Iraq. I ask him: why send only 20,000 soldiers? Why don’t you send 50,000 or 100,000?” Zawahiri said in the 15-minute recording. “Don’t you know that the dogs of Iraq are impatient to devour the carcasses of your soldiers?” taunted Zawahiri, regarded as the ideological powerhouse of al-Qaeda who carries a 25-million dollar US bounty on his head.

“On the contrary, you must send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahedeen so that the whole world will be rid of your wickedness.”

Bush, facing mounting criticism of the nearly four-year war in Iraq, announced on January 10 that he would send an additional 21,500 troops in a bid to quell deadly sectarian violence in the war-wracked country. The US president has waged an aggressive public relations campaign over the past week to warn against pulling out of Iraq hastily, and Iraq is expected to be the focus of his annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

But US forces have suffered heavy casualties in Iraq this month, with 49 dead including 12 troops killed in a helicopter crash which the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda claimed in an Internet statement Monday.

Zawahiri repeatedly poked fun at Bush’s plan for Iraq, as well as the US-led mission to rid Afghanistan of remnants of the extremist Taliban movement. “Iraq, the country of the caliphate and of jihad, is capable of being a tomb for 10 of your armies,” the Egyptian-born surgeon said in the video, wearing his trademark white turban and black cloak.
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Afghanistan: NATO Downplays 'Conventional' Threat In South
By Ahto Lobjakas
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KANDAHAR/KABUL, January 23, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- NATO-led forces in south and central Afghanistan say that despite fears of increased violence, Taliban militants are in no position to mount conventional attacks in large groups.


Officials with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) based in Kandahar and Kabul credit counterinsurgency offensives in late 2006 for curbing Taliban activities -- and options. They predict insurgent attacks are likely to be limited primarily to dispersed tactics like suicide bombings, improvised roadside explosives, and intimidation.
 
NATO now says that in the movement's heartland around Kandahar, the nature of that threat has been irreversibly changed.
 
Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, the spokesman for ISAF's Regional Command South, based at the Kandahar airfield, told RFE/RL on January 22 that ISAF operations in September and December -- known as Medusa and Baaz Tsuka, respectively -- have eliminated the Taliban as a "conventional threat" -- that is, a force capable of carrying out large-scale military operations.
 
"What we've moved on from, from September to now, is from is a conventional threat that's been destroyed down to an insurgency where [insurgents] must target weak points," Marsh said.
 
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said recently at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Taliban attacks in 2007 are likely to be worse than 2006. That warning was repeated on January 22 by the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neuman.
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MPs in Afghanistan may get off base O’Connor
MARTIN O’HANLON, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 25 Jan 07
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Visiting Canadian MPs confined to base in Afghanistan might be about to get a weekend pass.  Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor has relented a bit and announced that eight MPs visiting Kandahar may be allowed to leave the NATO base — provided the military can ensure their safety.  "The minister is supportive of every effort to maximize opportunities for members of Parliament to garner a better understanding of what Canadian soldiers, development workers, police representatives, and diplomats are doing for Canada in Afghanistan," spokeswoman Isabelle Bouchard said in an e-mail.  "Therefore, the minister has asked military authorities to see whether the Canadian Forces can safely support MP requests to see CF operations outside of Kandahar Airfield."  The MPs arrived in Kandahar on Tuesday to review the progress in the war against the Taliban.  But O’Connor barred them from leaving the base, citing security reasons — a decision that didn’t sit well with opposition MPs who noted that other dignitaries have been escorted outside.  Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh, one of the visiting members, accused O’Connor of trying to hamstring the committee ....



Probe Afghan role, Dion urges
Liberals will push to have Commons hearings on how reconstruction, military are faring

Sean Gordon & Les Whittington , Toronto Star, 25 Jan 07
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With Afghanistan looming as a major issue in the next federal election, Liberals are trying to carve out a position that allows them to be sharply critical of the government's conduct of the war. But at the same time, party leader Stéphane Dion wants to avoid being painted as an advocate of pulling out Canadian troops.  Dion announced yesterday that the Liberals will push for a probe by the Commons foreign affairs committee to shed new light on Canada's role in the Afghan conflict and to hold Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor to account.  "We want hearings about the situation in Afghanistan," Dion told a news conference wrapping up a three-day caucus retreat here.  The opposition has "no confidence at all in the capacity of this (Conservative) government" to construct a mission that balances military security with the need to rebuild Afghanistan, Dion said.  It's deplorable that Canada spent only $10 million in aid for the reconstruction effort last year, he said, especially when exactly how the money was spent is not known.  Liberals stressed their unified stance in demanding a full investigation of the conduct of the war ....


Dion urges Afghanistan hearings
Wants public discussion: 'What is really happening,' asks Liberal leader

Philip Authier, CanWest News Service, 25 Jan 07
Article Link

The federal Liberals yesterday called on the Harper government to hold public hearings into Canada's role in the war in Afghanistan, maintaining they still do not have enough information about the mission.  Liberal leader Stephane Dion said recent visits by members of the Commons permanent committee on defence -- the members were not allowed off the military base at Kandahar for security reasons -- were not sufficient for the Liberals and Canadian public to get a clear idea of what Canada is doing in the region.  The party has questions about what Canada's troops and aid agency workers are doing.  "We are not in Afghanistan for reprisals," Mr. Dion said in reference to recent controversial comments by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor. "We are in Afghanistan to help the population live more securely and to give it, over the coming years, a functional government.  That is why we are there. To do that we have to know if the mission is working well. What is really happening? We want hearings from the Foreign Affairs committee to know how we can improve this mission." ....



Afghan, Pak, NATO armies to open first intel hub
Agence France Presse, via Khaleej Times (UAE), 25 Jan 07
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The first Afghan, Pakistan and NATO intelligence sharing centre is due to open formally in Kabul Thursday in a drive to improve coordination in the protracted fight against the Taleban and other extremists.  The joint intelligence and operation centre is staffed by six intelligence agents from each of the Afghan, Pakistan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) militaries—all fighting the resurgent Taleban.  “The centre will allow the sharing of information and reports to be able to better coordinate military operations,” Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.  “Now how useful and significant it will be — we will wait for the results. Lots has been discussed in the past, lots of commissions and meetings were formed. We will wait and see if this will be useful,” he said.  Commanders of the three militaries already meet every two months in a Tripartite Commission ....



Chief cracks down on Kandahar police
Officer arrested, probe launched after rampage against civilians

Graeme Smith, Globe & Mail, 24 Jan 07
Article Link

Kandahar's crusading new police chief has arrested one of his own officers and launched an investigation into a shooting that killed a civilian in a highly unusual step aimed at showing that police are not above the law.  Police are looking into complaints from city residents that officers went on a rampage Friday morning, beating civilians and fatally shooting a bystander in the aftermath of an attack at a checkpoint.  It's the first time in recent memory that a Kandahar police officer has faced such serious consequences for his actions, according to local politicians and residents.  "The message for police is that they should be honest, work for our nation and respect people," said General Asmatullah Alizai, the police chief.  Jamal Udin, 43, a pharmacist, describes his encounter last week with rampaging police officers. The city's police chief has personally apologized for their behaviour.  The details of what happened remain unclear, Gen. Alizai said, and it's far too early to determine whether the officer was at fault ....



Despite U.S. pressure, Afghan government won't spray heroin-producing poppies
JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press, 25 Jan 07
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Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppies will not be sprayed with herbicide this year despite a record crop in 2006 and U.S. pressure for President Hamid Karzai to allow the drug-fighting tactic, a spokesman said Thursday.  Karzai's cabinet decided on Sunday to hold off on using chemicals for now, according to Said Mohammad Azam, spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics. "There will be no ground spraying this year," Azam told The Associated Press.  However, Karzai told foreign and Afghan officials this week that if Afghanistan's poppy crop is not reduced this year he would allow spraying in 2008, according to a western official who requested anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.  He said there would be more pressure to destroy poppy crops with "traditional" techniques - typically sending teams of labourers into fields to batter down or plow in the plants before they can be harvested.  "If it works, that is fine," Azam said. "If it does not, next year ground spraying will be in the list of options." ....



Bush Plans New Focus On Afghan Recovery
Extra $7 Billion Would Go to Security, Roads

Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post, 25 Jan 07
Article Link

After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion, the Bush administration is preparing a series of new military, economic and political initiatives aimed partly at preempting an expected offensive this spring by Taliban insurgents, according to senior U.S. officials.  Even as it trumpeted a change of course in Iraq this month, the White House has completed a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package, officials said.  That would represent a sizable increase in the U.S. commitment to the strife-torn country; since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, the United States has provided a little more than $14 billion in assistance for Afghanistan, the State Department says.  The U.S. military said yesterday that about 3,500 soldiers in the Army's 10th Mountain Division will have their tours in Afghanistan extended by four months, as part of an effort to beef up U.S. troop strength. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with other NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday to discuss Afghanistan, part of a new diplomatic offensive U.S. officials say is aimed at securing more international support for the government of President Hamid Karzai ....


U.S. to urge allies to boost Afghan support

Mark John, Reuters, 24 Jan 07
Article Link

The United States will urge European allies to match it in injecting more development funds into Afghanistan at high-level talks set for Friday, a senior U.S. official said.  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will tell NATO and EU counterparts that 2007 could emerge as a key year in efforts to subdue the stubbornly resistant Taliban-led insurgency and push forward with often patchy reconstruction work.  "We've got to kick up our investment. The U.S. is going to do that and we'd like to see our allies do that. 2007 is a year in which we can make a profound difference," the official, who requested anonymity, told reporters on Wednesday.  "We've made a lot of promises to Afghans and a lot of promises to ourselves."  The push reflects a U.S. policy review that concluded Afghanistan needs more resources from the United States and others both to fight the Taliban and to win local support with tangible benefits like roads, schools and electricity ....



Pakistani Premier Faults Afghans for Taliban Woes on Border
KATRIN BENNHOLD and MARK LANDLER, New York Times, 25 Jan 07
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Pakistan’s prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, acknowledged Wednesday that people sympathetic to the Taliban were active in the frontier regions near the border with Afghanistan. But he insisted that the root of the problem was the Afghan government’s weak authority, not Pakistani support of the Taliban.  “We believe the core of the problem is in Afghanistan,” Mr. Aziz said, in an interview at the World Economic Forum here in Davos.  Mr. Aziz also said three million Afghan refugees were crowded into Quetta, Peshawar and other Pakistani cities close to the 1,700 mile-border between the countries. Despite what he described as stepped-up Pakistani efforts to root out extremists, the refugee population remains a recruiting pool for the Taliban insurgency, Mr. Aziz said. But he dismissed allegations that his country was supporting the militants.  “This notion that Pakistan may be in some way or other supporting these people or giving them safe haven is ridiculous,” he said ....



Conference on the Relationship Between State and Non-State Justice Systems in Afghanistan
Project on the Role of Non-State Justice Systems in Fostering the Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies
December 10-14, 2006 | Kabul, Afghanistan

Posted to US Institute of Peace Site, 24 Jan 07
Article Link - Agenda

The Ministry of Justice of Afghanistan and the United States Institute of Peace, together with its partners the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) convened a conference on the relationship between state and non-state justice systems in Afghanistan on December 10-14, 2006. The conference brought together actors from the informal system, civil society, and the aid community, including representatives from 20 of Afghanistan's provinces ....

 
Articles found 25 January, 2007

The Waziristan Factor
by Abid Jan  January 24, 2007 at 21:36:21
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Pakistan is in a mess along with its troubled spots, including Waziristan. Only Pakistan military can clean up the mess which has created it in the first place with the ability to put together the extraordinary combination of arrogant but scared leadership and total lack of judgment which went into its making.

Those who claim that there is a militant problem in Pakistan must look into the history of this region and Pakistan. Oppression never goes without an equal and opposite reaction. The sledgehammer hasn't worked in Iraq. It isn't working in Afghanistan. And it has suffered serious reverses in Pakistan with more than 3000 Pakistani soldiers killed in two years.

The Waziristani tribes have stood guard on the Frontier for over fifty years. They went to Kashmir in 1947 and what we have of Kashmir we owe largely to their enterprise and valour. Before jumping the bandwagon of justifying all crimes with the Taliban boggy, we need a period of reflection and understanding the root causes of the problem before making the culprits accountable.

From the following analysis we should learn to do our own thinking for brining Musharraf and his cronies to justice and be able to tell the Americans where to get off.
Background:

• Since 1947 to 1979, there was no problem of militancy and rebellion in the tribal areas despite their martial and semi-autonomous status. Despite presence of strong pockets of pro-Afghan communists like ANP who constantly demanded "Pashtunistan", the tribals never saw any cause to rise in an uprising against any Pakistani government. Globally, the U.S. and its allies were engaged in undermining the former Soviet Union and had no time to exaggerate the threat of Muslim movements. There was an absence of mass media like VCR, audio tapes, multiple TV channels, Cable and internet were also not present.
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Afghanistan won't spray poppies
JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press
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KABUL — Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppies will not be sprayed with herbicide this year despite a record crop in 2006 and U.S. pressure for President Hamid Karzai to allow the drug-fighting tactic, a spokesman said Thursday.

However, Mr. Karzai told foreign and Afghan officials this week that if Afghanistan's poppy crop isn't reduced this year he would allow spraying in 2008, according to a Western official who requested anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.

Mr. Karzai's cabinet decided Sunday to hold off on using chemicals for now, according to Said Mohammad Azam, spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics.

“There will be no ground spraying this year,” Mr. Azam told The Associated Press.

He said there would be more pressure to destroy poppy crops with “traditional” techniques — typically sending teams of labourers into fields to batter down or plow in the plants before they can be harvested.

“If it works, that is fine,” Mr. Azam said. “If it does not, next year ground spraying will be in the list of options.”

Fuelled by the Taliban, a powerful drug mafia and the need for a profitable crop that can overcome drought, opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 per cent to 6,700 tons — enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. That's more than 90 per cent of the world's supply and more than the world's addicts consume in a year.
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Chief cracks down on Kandahar police
Officer arrested, probe launched after rampage against civilians
GRAEME SMITH From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Kandahar's crusading new police chief has arrested one of his own officers and launched an investigation into a shooting that killed a civilian in a highly unusual step aimed at showing that police are not above the law.

Police are looking into complaints from city residents that officers went on a rampage Friday morning, beating civilians and fatally shooting a bystander in the aftermath of an attack at a checkpoint.

It's the first time in recent memory that a Kandahar police officer has faced such serious consequences for his actions, according to local politicians and residents.

"The message for police is that they should be honest, work for our nation and respect people," said General Asmatullah Alizai, the police chief.
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Pentagon says 3,200 soldiers face extended tour in Afghanistan
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WASHINGTON A Fort Drum spokesman confirms that the combat tour of 32-hundred soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade will be extended for four months in hopes of quelling violence in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon's decision comes a week after Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with commanders in Afghanistan and heard a request for more troops.

Already, President Bush's plan to send more than 21-thousand additional troops to Iraq is running into criticism on Capitol Hill.

The decision further stresses a military straining to wage major wars on two fronts. There are about 24-thousand U-S troops in Afghanistan, the most since the war began in October 2001.
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U.S. preparing new offensive in Afghanistan
MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ The Washington Post Thu, Jan. 25, 2007
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WASHINGTON - After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion, the Bush administration is preparing a series of new military, economic and political initiatives aimed partly at pre-empting an expected offensive this spring by Taliban insurgents, according to senior U.S. officials.

Even as it trumpeted a change of course in Iraq this month, the White House has also completed a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package, officials said.

That would represent a sizable increase in the U.S. commitment to the strife-torn country; since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, the United States has provided a little more than $14 billion in assistance for Afghanistan, the State Department says.
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Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, cloud picture on US budget deficit, congressman says
The Associated Press Wednesday, January 24, 2007 WASHINGTON
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Newly released U.S. budget estimates showed some improvement in the deficit but gave little solace to Democrats struggling to match President George W. Bush's promise to balance the budget.

The new forecast released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office put the deficit for the current budget year reaching about $200 billion (€153.8 billion) after factoring in Iraq war costs. Last year's deficit was $248 billion (€190.7 billion).

Both the White House and the top Democratic budget writers welcomed the improved outlook, but difficult disagreements remain over how to close the gap.

The CBO, a nonpartisan agency that provides lawmakers with estimates of the budget and the costs of legislation, said the budget could run a $170 billion (€130.7 billion) surplus in the 2012 fiscal year.

That figure, however, assumes the U.S. Congress will let Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010, effectively raising taxes on income, inheritances, married couples and parents.

The Bush administration releases its budget Feb. 5 and promises it will be balanced by 2012 without any such tax increases.

White House budget director Rob Portman met on Capitol Hill with a group of moderate House Democrats and claimed such lawmakers as allies in the president's effort.

"This notion that you have to raise taxes to achieve balance ... is no longer the environment or the scenario," Portman told reporters.

He said Bush's budget would achieve balance with improved but still "cautious" estimates of tax revenues. They probably will be more optimistic than the CBO's estimates.
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3 ‘Taliban’ killed, 4 held in southern Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR: Afghan police clashed with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killings three fighters and detaining four, a police official said.

The militants were killed and captured between the provinces of Kandahar and Uruzgan, where nine border policemen were killed in a militant ambush on Tuesday, said Matiullah Khan, an officer with border police.

Afghan and NATO-led forces also battled suspected militants for nearly five hours in Uruzgan province on Tuesday, leaving 12 Taliban and nine policemen dead, Uruzgan’s police chief, Gen Mohammad Qasem, said. Four militants and 10 Afghan troops also were wounded, he said.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Defence Minister Phil Goff assured NATO that his country was committed to the alliance’s mission in Afghanistan and was considering extending the participation of its around 140 soldiers and police officers beyond the scheduled end of the deployment in September.

Goff on Tuesday made his first visit to NATO headquarters since October when New Zealand placed its troops in Afghanistan under the command of the alliance’s 32,000-strong force.

NATO officials praised the role of the New Zealand troops based in the central province of Bamiyan for combining their security role with reconstruction work to help the economy and efforts to build up the local police. “Security is necessary for development, but development is equally necessary for security,” Goff said. “If we can make people’s lives better, that provides the greatest prospect of winning hearts and minds.”
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ADB fund for Pak, Afghanistan to buy electricity from Central Asia
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Islamabad, Jan 24 (ANI): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a three million dollar technical assistance grant to Pakistan and Afghanistan for facilitating the export of 1,000 megawatts of electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to overcome their growing energy shortages.

The fund will be utilised for conducting a feasibility study on the project, including assessment of power, availability and demand in the countries, possible transmission routes, economic and financial costs, and environmental and social safeguard assessments.

The bank's Multi-Country Working Group will deal with the financial and technical aspects of the proposed project, the ADB said in a statement.

According to the Dawn, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank along with bilateral and private sector stakeholders are also participating and assisting the Multi-Country Working Group in the proposed project.
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- edited 260653EST Jan to add link to ISAF Fact Sheet on new Joint Intelligence Ops Ctr -

Commons defence committee wraps Afghan trip with call for more diplomacy
Canadian Press, 25 Jan 07
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Members of the House of Commons all-party defence committee say more diplomacy has to be injected into Canada's mission in Afghanistan, but they disagree on where the focus of that effort should be.  New Democrat defence critic Dawn Black says Canada's role in the war-torn country is supposed to be what's called a three-D approach - defence, development and diplomacy.  She says they haven't heard anything about diplomacy in their visit to Kandahar, particularly when it comes to dealing with Pakistan, which provides safe haven to Taliban militants.  The committee chair, Tory MP Rick Casson, defended the government by saying Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has been actively engaging countries in the region, but if there's to be diplomacy it should be aimed at convincing NATO allies to meet repeated calls for additions troops.  His sentiment was shared by Liberal Ujjal Dossanjh, who says the Conservatives need to be tougher with the alliance so they "cough up more resources, particularly more troops."  Dossanjh says Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have done that before Parliament voted to extend the mission by two years ....


Afghans can't say enough about Canada: McGuire
CBC Online, 25 Jan 07
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A delegation of Canadian MPs to Afghanistan is hearing a lot about the good work Canadians are doing in that country, Egmont MP Joe McGuire says.  The Liberal MP representing western P.E.I. is part of a group of MPs from the House of Commons defence committee visiting Canadian forces in Afghanistan. The group left the Canadian base in Kandahar Thursday. They didn't go far, but McGuire said they saw and heard a lot about what Canadian soldiers are doing in the region.  "We talked to a person who has been living in Kandahar the last five years and they said without the Canadians and what they're doing, there would be absolutely no economic development going on, and no community development going on, no hospitals being built," McGuire told CBC News in a phone call from Kandahar Thursday.  "They're really, really pleased with the role our soldiers have done here. And they can't express it really with enough enthusiasm." ....



Duceppe calls for open debate on Afghanistan
CBC Online, 25 Jan 07
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Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe called Thursday for an open debate in Parliament on the role of Canada's troops in Afghanistan, one day after Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion made a similar plea.  Duceppe, speaking at a luncheon in Montreal, accused the Conservative government of not allowing an open discussion on the mission.  Every time any members of Parliament criticize the mission, they are shut down by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Duceppe said.  Harper replies to criticism with one answer, he said.  "He says, and I quote, 'We will not cut and run,' as if debating that question meant being a coward," Duceppe said. "Whenever there was a criticism, he said we don't support the military.  Of course we support the military." ....


Gilles Duceppe wants Harper government to change focus of Afghanistan mission
Peter Rakobowchuk, Canadian Press, 25 Jan 07
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Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe says the Harper government should adjust the focus of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan to reconstruction.  Duceppe reiterated his support for the international intervention in the war-torn country, saying on Thursday that even a sovereign Quebec would take part in such a mission.  “I’ve got a lot of admiration for the men and women who are ready to risk their lives to serve their country and help others,” he said. “It’s for this reason we have to act responsibly and with a lot of determination to pursue our objectives of reconstruction.  “We’re asking for changes in the attitude of the Canadian government, so that it will propose a re-balancing of the mission,” he said.  Duceppe said Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper should recognize there’s an urgency to act because the situation is deteriorating.  “Afghanistan is not another Iraq and we will do everything we can so that Afghanistan does not become another Iraq,” Duceppe said during a speech to the Montreal Council on International Relations ....



NATO readies combat brigade for Afghanistan
Brian Knowlton and Helene Cooper, International Herald Tribune, 25 Jan 07
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Ahead of a feared springtime offensive by a resurgent Taliban, NATO is sending an additional combat brigade to Afghanistan and the United States plans to extend the tours of more than 3,000 troops while sharply increasing financial aid to the country, officials said Thursday.  In Brussels, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration would ask Congress for an additional $10.6 billion in security and reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan, which in 2006 experienced its bloodiest year since the 2001 invasion ousted the Taliban.  "The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to, and we should, redouble our efforts," Rice said aboard her flight to Brussels.  U.S. assistance to Afghanistan has totaled $14 billion since the 2001 invasion, so the new package marks a substantial increase, meant partly to reassure allies that the United States remains heavily committed to success in Afghanistan, despite its problems in Iraq.  Rice, who flew to Brussels to confer Friday with other NATO officials on ways to stabilize Afghanistan, said that $8.6 billion of the total would go to training and equipping Afghan forces. It will help increase the national army by 70,000 and local police forces by 82,000, a senior U.S. official said.  An additional $2 billion would be spent on reconstruction projects, like building roads, laying electric power lines, developing rural areas and fighting the opium trade, administration officials said ....

DoD Announces Afghanistan Force Adjustment
DefenseLink (USA) news release No. 088-07, 25 Jan 07
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The Department of Defense announced today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates approved a request from commanders to extend for up to 120 additional days 3,200 soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division currently operating in Afghanistan.  This extension will provide military capability for NATO to maintain the initiative and build upon the success achieved in promoting stability and security, while denying safe haven for the Taliban.  Force levels in Afghanistan continue to be conditions-based and will be determined in consultation with the Afghan government and NATO.  The United States remains committed to leading the counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, training and equipping the Afghan national security forces and assisting with reconstruction.  The United States continues to be NATO-International Security Assistance Force’s largest troop contributor.  This request for forces by U.S. commanders as part of NATO’s forces in Afghanistan was endorsed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe as a commitment to the NATO-ISAF mission in Afghanistan as NATO continues to identify capabilities needed to meet enduring requirements.  The Secretary and department recognize the additional sacrifice and continued contributions of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team and their family members.  Army leadership is diligently working with service members and their families to provide support and resources to meet their needs.



Afghanistan, Pakistan, NATO Open First Intelligence Hub

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 25 Jan 07
Article Link - http://tinyurl.com/3399ccISAF Fact Sheet on Joint Int Ops Ctr (MS Word doc)

Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO today formally opened the first joint intelligence sharing center today in Kabul to boost cooperation against Taliban and other extremists.  The commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), General David Richards, said the launch of the Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) represents "a historic day...in the war on terror and against the insurgents."  Richards also commented on additional NATO troops expected in Afghanistan.  "More ISAF troops are being committed to this campaign (Operation Enduring Freedom)," Richards said. "You will hear very good news formally very shortly on that. I anticipate at least another brigade of combat troops from ISAF nations coming here shortly, and more after that."  The center is staffed by six intelligence and operational officers from each of the Afghan and Pakistani armies and 12 ISAF staff members.



Outgoing commander says U.S. commitment will live on in Afghanistan
COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN news release # 070121-001, 21 Jan 07
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KABUL, Afghanistan – The outgoing commander of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan said the United States is committed to NATO’s success in Afghanistan and will remain the single largest contributor of troops to the mission.  “The U.S. is a member of NATO.  NATO’s success is the U.S.’s success, which is Afghanistan’s success,” said Army Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, commander of the U.S.-led Coalition since May 2005.  More than 23,000 service members are in Afghanistan, the highest level since Operation Enduring Freedom began in Afghanistan in October 2001.  NATO’s International Security Assistance Force has responsibility for security operations of international military forces throughout the country.  Twenty six NATO countries and 11 other nations are “fully committed to making Afghanistan a viable, self-sustaining country free from international terror,” Eikenberry said.  Eikenberry left today after a ceremony in which the command and its accomplishments were honored.  Eikenberry has been nominated to serve as the deputy chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium.  The Coalition headquarters of CFC-A is expected to inactivate sometime in the coming weeks.  The Combined Joint Task Force 76, a two-star U.S. command headquartered at Bagram Airfield, will assume responsibility as the National Command Element for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.  Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, or CSTC-A, the other two-star U.S. command, is charged with training and mentoring the Afghan National Security Forces.  Army Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. Central Command commander, presented CFC-A with the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, its third since the command was created in October 2003.  CSTC-A also received the JMUA.  The honor is one of which “all of us can be justifiably proud. But the mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan continues,” Eikenberry said.  That mission includes conducting counter-terrorism operations, continuing to help train the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, and executing billions of dollars in reconstruction projects.  “We are fighting a very different war,” he explained.  “In this war, we are trying to build schools and clinics, we are trying to build roads, and we are trying to help the Afghan people reclaim their middle ground of civil society.  What do we need most to succeed here?  We need more time, more patience, and more commitment.”  Some of these successes include building more than 11,000 kilometers of roads, more than 700 clinics, and hundreds of schools for more than 6 million children.  To view a comprehensive list of progress made in Afghanistan since 2002, visit the Defense Link special report “Five-year Afghanistan Report” here




Cabinet approves refinancing of Italy's mission in Afghanistan

Associated Press, 25 Jan 07
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Italy's government on Thursday approved financing for the country's military mission in Afghanistan despite calls for a pullout by far-left parties in Premier Romano Prodi's coalition.  A Cabinet meeting approved a decree refinancing the mission, but three ministers from far-left parties left the room when the vote was called, Prodi spokesman Silvio Sircana said.  The decree includes financing for all of Italy's military missions abroad, from the Balkans to Lebanon, and must be approved by parliament within 60 days to remain in effect. The measure also allocates money for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, Prodi said at a news conference after the meeting.  Greens and communist lawmakers in the center-left have threatened to vote against more financing for Italy's 1,800-strong contingent in Afghanistan. They were further angered after Prodi said his government would not oppose a U.S. request to expand a military base in northern Italy.  A rebellion against the Afghanistan mission could put Prodi in a tight spot as his government relies on a slim parliamentary majority to pass legislation ....



ISAF air strike targets insurgent command post
ISAF news release #2007-071, 25 Jan 07
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Today, ISAF conducted a successful precision air strike on a known insurgent command post in Helmand province.  The precision-guided munitions impacted on target, completely destroying the compound but causing no damage to the surrounding area. A senior Taliban leader and his deputies are believed to have been killed in this strike.  This successful air strike took place in the vicinity of Musa Qala but was outside of the area of the agreement between the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) and local elders. This is the latest in a series of operations, involving air strikes and arrests of senior Taliban commanders designed to bring security and stability to the inhabitants of the Musa Qala area.  “The message has been consistent and clear; the Taliban leaders have nowhere to hide and those who follow them should return to their villages and enter the reconciliation programme,” said Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, spokesperson for ISAF’s Regional Command-South.



CENTAF releases airpower summary for Jan. 25
Air Force News, 25 Jan 07
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U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials have released the airpower summary for Jan. 25.  In Afghanistan Jan. 24, an Air Force B-1B Lancer provided close-air support for International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, troops in contact with enemy forces near Musa Qal'eh. The B-1B expended guided bomb unit-38s and a GBU-31 on enemy positions.  A B-1B and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers provided close-air support to ISAF troops in contact with enemy forces near Qurya. The B-1B expended GBU-38s on enemy positions. The GR-7s expended 1000-pound bombs and enhanced Paveway II munitions on enemy positions.  In total, 27 close-air-support missions were flown in support of ISAF and Afghan troops, reconstruction activities and route patrols.  Additionally, four Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Afghanistan ....



 
Articles found 26 January, 2007


Welcome to Pretendahar
It's not Kabul, but the 'suicide bombers' of this local training centre seem terrifyingly real
Melissa Leong in Toronto National Post Thursday, January 25, 2007
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The Canadian soldiers are shopping in a marketplace under the shade of green tarps, speaking to vendors at tables cluttered with books, tires, clothes and strips of carpet.

The troops are approached by women peddling tiny socks and jumpers outside the local school. "Canada great," a woman veiled by a green scarf says repeatedly.

The appearance of a man carrying a box and walking into a nearby intersection goes unnoticed by civilians. He heads for a police officer at a checkpoint in the centre of the roundabout, ignoring orders to stop.

Pulling out sticks of explosives, he lobs them at the officer before detonating a bomb strapped to himself. They both disappear in a cloud of smoke.

The chaos of women wailing and locals fleeing is all part of a drill the soldiers are practising inside a new training facility in Toronto -- a local brigade's latest response to the changing way Canadian troops are fighting overseas.

This is Pretendahar: The Indoor Urban Operations Training Centre, which officially opens today inside one of the original aircraft hangars of the old CFB Toronto. It is designed to prepare Canadian troops for overseas deployment with actors, a mock "set" of a Kabul suburb and simulated gunfights and explosions.

Critics outside the military have charged that Canadian soldiers have not been sufficiently prepared for what military officials call the three-block war -- where peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts coincide with a high-intensity battle in which the enemy is often hidden within the local population.

However, Colonel Gerry Mann, commander of the 32 Canadian Brigade Group based in the Greater Toronto Area, said, "For years, we were incongruent with the kinds of things that we've been asking our soldiers to do. Our history has really not been war fighting. Where we've been going is assisting in failing states where humanitarian assistance is needed, where we've got a government that needs some form of assistance to provide stability."

For soldiers, that often means immersing themselves in the area, interacting with inhabitants while watching for insurgents.

"All of our training in our past has been about force on force," said Sergeant David Williams. "There was always a cut-and-dry good guy/bad guy scenario, and we had very little to do with the public or residents in the towns that we were operating in. What's going on overseas now demands that the guys [interact] with locals."
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Suicide blast near US-funded aid office in Afghanistan
Kandahar, Jan 26
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A suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday outside a US-funded aid office here while the NATO-led force said it may have killed a senior Taliban leader in an airstrike.

Separately, police said 10 Taliban rebels and a policeman died in a battle near the border with Pakistan, which Afghan officials blame for fostering an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency.

The violence came as the United States announced an extra USD 10.6 billion of funding for Afghanistan as part of a fresh war strategy to counter fears of a surge in Taliban-led fighting as the weather warms.

Police in Lashkar Gah, the capital of insurgency-hit Helmand province, were following the suicide attacker after a tip-off and asked him to surrender, provincial police chief General Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhail said.

"The police called on him to stop and shot him after he refused. He detonated explosives strapped to his body after being wounded," Mullahkhail said.

The blast happened close to the offices of the alternative livelihoods programme, a non-governmental organisation funded by the US Agency for International Development (Usaid), officials said.

One of the policemen who confronted the bomber was wounded in the incident "but we luckily managed to prevent him from his evil attempts," the police chief said.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an unknown location.
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Karzai becomes first-time father
POSTED: 1157 GMT (1957 HKT), January 26, 2007
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KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has become a father for the first time at the age of 49, palace officials said on Friday.

Karzai's wife, Zeenat, who he married in 1999 in exile in Pakistan, gave birth to their son on Thursday night in a Kabul hospital.

"The baby is named as Mirwais, after an old hero of Afghanistan," Karzai spokesman Karim Rahimi said.

"The president is very happy."

Officials said mother and son were healthy.

Zeenat Karzai was working as a doctor with Afghan refugees in Pakistan when the couple married. She rarely appears in public or at official functions because of conservative Afghan Islamic tradition.
End

ISAF in Afghanistan using some Pak airbases for emergency 
Islamabad, Jan 26
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The Nato coalition forces in Afghanistan are using some Pakistani airbases for standby operations in the ongoing war on terror, the military said.

The coalition forces had used different airbases of the country after the 9/11 terror attacks with the approval of the Pakistani government, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Tariq Wasim Ghazi said here yesterday during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee.

The International Assistance Security Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan are still using some of the bases in emergency situations and standby operations, he was quoted as saying by the online news agency said.

Nonetheless, he said the bases were under the control of Pakistan.
end

NATO Attacks Taliban Post in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH KABUL, Afghanistan Jan 26, 2007
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A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday, while 10 rebel fighters died in a clash with police in the east.

An undisclosed number of the militant leader's deputies also were killed in Thursday's airstrike in Musa Qala district of southern Helmand province, a NATO statement said. It did not disclose the name of the leader killed.

Later Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the offices of an aid group in the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah. A policeman and two civilians were wounded, police said.

NATO has claimed a string of successes against Taliban leaders including the killing last month of a top lieutenant of the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Omar after a year of bitter fighting that has left thousands dead.

The airstrike happened outside the town of Musa Qala, where a deal signed between local elders and the Helmand governor, with the support of the British task force based in the province, turned over security responsibilities to local leaders. The deal also prevents NATO-led troops from entering the town.

Before the deal, which has been criticized by some Western officials as putting the area outside government control, the town was a center of fierce clashes between the British troops and resurgent Taliban militants.

NATO said the airstrike did not violate the pact.
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Afghanistan needs to fix the home from within: Shaukat Aziz         
Written by pub    Friday, 26 January 2007 
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      ISLAMABAD, Jan 25 (APP): Pakistan's prime minister,  Shaukat Aziz, insisted Wednesday that the problem of Afghanistan  came from the lack of control of its own side of the border.

      "We believe the core of the problem is in Afghanistan," International herald tribune reported him  as saying.   
      The Prime Minister dismissed allegations that his country  was giving sanctuary to militants. "This notion that Pakistan may be  in some way or other supporting these people or giving them safe  haven is ridiculous," he said.
 
      As for suspicions that elements  in Pakistan's  intelligence service might be acting independently  in support of the Taliban, he said: "That's equally ridiculous."
 
      "The Pakistani intelligence service is a disciplined service  and they act in line with the government," he said.

In a wide-ranging interview at the World Economic Forum in  Davos, the Prime Minister also said, the Pakistani government did  not know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda leader, or  of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban. But he said: "Certainly they  are not in Pakistan."

      The overall theme of World Economic Forum, is 'The  Shifting Power Equation. But climate change will take the  centre-stage, with as many as 17 sessions on environmental  issues, including the economic and security implications of  global  warming.
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Afghanistan role questioned
Fri, January 26, 2007 By MURRAY BREWSTER, CP
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The PM should use a diplomatic offensive, MPs on a Commons committee say.

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Members of the all-party Commons defence committee say Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government should engage in a diplomatic offensive over Afghanistan, targeting Pakistan and NATO allies.

Canada's role in the war-torn country is supposed to be what's called a Three-D approach -- defence, development and diplomacy, said New Democrat defence critic Dawn Black.

"We haven't heard much about diplomacy," Black said yesterday about the briefings laid on by the army since the eight Canadian MPs arrived at the coalition base at Kandahar Airfield Tuesday.

The parliamentarians are reviewing Canada's mission in southern Afghanistan, but it appears their views will be shaded along party lines.

Conservative committee Rick Casson defended the government's diplomat efforts, noting Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay's recent protest over the possibility of mines being placed along the Afghan border with Pakistan.

But Casson conceded more has to be done to engage Pakistan, where Taliban militants seek rest and refuge.
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Bloc wants shift in focus in Afghanistan
By CP January 26, 2007
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MONTREAL -- Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe says the Harper government should adjust the focus of Canada's mission in Afghanistan to reconstruction.

Duceppe reiterated his support for the international intervention in the war-torn country, saying even a sovereign Quebec would take part in such a mission.

"I've got a lot of admiration for the men and women who are ready to risk their lives to serve their country and help others," he said. "It's for this reason we have to act responsibly and with a lot of determination to pursue our objectives of reconstruction.

"We're asking for changes in the attitude of the Canadian government, so that it will propose a re-balancing of the mission."

Duceppe said Prime Minister Stephen Harper should recognize there's an urgency to act because the situation is deteriorating.

"Afghanistan is not another Iraq and we will do everything we can so that Afghanistan does not become another Iraq," Duceppe said.
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AFGHANISTAN'S HIGHWAY TO HELL
Softly, softly in the Taliban's den
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Jan 27, 2007 
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KABUL - In five years, US military might, from daisy-cutter bombs to high-tech weaponry, could not smoke out the Taliban, who retreated to the mountains of Afghanistan after being forced from power in 2001.

They emerged last year of their own volition after being welcomed back into the community by various tribal groups, many of which are ready to join in a mass uprising planned for the spring.

Seasoned British officers assigned in southern Afghanistan to clean up the mess created by the Americans can sense that big trouble is simmering, but they are convinced that any aggressive policy will aggravate the situation.

They realize that they have to accept the Taliban's existence as a reality, strike peace deals with them and allow them into the political power-sharing apparatus. This, they argue, can be done through extensive reconstruction, which is the only way to isolate hardline insurgents. Military might, therefore, is to be used only for the security of the people, not for aggressive armed campaigns
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MD denied insurance for Afghan mission
Reservist wants full-time coverage because of wife, young daughters
DAWN WALTON From Friday's Globe and Mail
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CALGARY — Andrew Kirkpatrick served as a general duty medical officer with the Canadian Forces in Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. He was the camp surgeon in Kabul in 2004 when he served as a reservist mending both Canadian troops and Afghan people.

Now, the 43-year-old trauma surgeon from Calgary is thinking of heading back to Afghanistan, this time to Kandahar, to once again lend a hand in the fight against terrorism.

But with a young family at home -- a wife and two daughters -- he also started thinking about life insurance and recently applied for coverage.

"We just wanted to make provisions in case the unthinkable happens," Dr. Kirkpatrick said.
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Bombing at hotel in Pakistan kills 1
Updated Fri. Jan. 26 2007 6:34 AM ET Associated Press
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A man blew himself up outside the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital on Friday, killing at least one other person and wounding seven in what appeared to be a suicide attack, officials said.

The Marriott is frequented by Islamabad's expatriate community, but it wasn't clear if any foreigners were among the casualties.

Although Pakistan has suffered numerous bombings in recent years, often the work of Islamic militants angered by the government's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism, attacks are rare in Islamabad.

Rana Najam, a housekeeping manager for the hotel, said witnesses told him that they saw a man running toward a side entrance, where he was stopped by a security guard. The man then detonated explosives, killing himself and the guard, he said.

Police cordoned off the scene in downtown Islamabad, near Parliament and the president's office. The blast badly damaged the hotel around a side entrance that leads to the nightclub.
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Winning the peace in Afghanistan
With the war with the Taliban bogging down, Pakistan appears receptive to new ideas
January 26, 2007 Jonathan Power
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ISLAMABAD–Pervez Musharraf, president and military strongman of Pakistan, opened his eyes wide, sat bolt upright on his sofa, and said, "I never thought of that." He repeated the phrase and looked, I dare to suggest, a little bewildered. In many years of interviewing top leaders I have never before felt the sensation of catching someone totally off balance. Yet all I had asked was:

"Why don't you talk to your enemies, the Taliban and Al Qaeda?"

In two hours of conversation there was no effort, as is usual with senior Pakistani officials, to persuade me that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were being defeated or that the war in Afghanistan was going well. Indeed, there was an absence of bravado and a receptivity to new, unconsidered, ideas.

Pakistan is the hub of the Anglo-American/NATO war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The British have here their largest embassy in the world. The city is full to the brim with American secret agents and senior military people.

But the truth is the war in Afghanistan is going badly. The Taliban is gaining the upper hand, financially fuelled by proceeds from poppy growing, which they now encourage in a reverse of policy when they were in power, when they ruled that it was unIslamic. Al Qaeda, too, high up in the mountains of Pakistan, is rebuilding its strength.

In different ways both the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan are besieged.

President Hamid Karzai appears to realize that the Western forces are losing ground to the Taliban and that he is unable to do much about the infiltration of fresh warriors from Pakistan.

Musharraf, for his part, is throwing some 80,000 troops into the frontier areas.

But with the militants finding it all too easy to hide in the refugee camps on Pakistani soil, where 2.5 million mainly Pashtun Afghan refugees live, and with both Afghanistan and the West pouring scorn on his suggestion that he mine and fence the border, the battle is uphill with heavy losses on the Pakistani side.
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EDITORIAL TheStar.com - opinion -
Bungling O'Connor shackles MPs
January 26, 2007
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It is ironic that a war ostensibly being fought for freedom of the Afghan people is taking on the appearance increasingly in Canada of a cover-up.

Since becoming defence minister, Gordon O'Connor has stumbled from one blunder to another. If it wasn't the attempt to ban media from reporting on ceremonies for the repatriation of dead soldiers, it was the issuing of military contracts outside the regular bidding process or – more recently and ominously – ordering that MPs on a visiting Commons committee be prevented from seeing what's happening in Afghanistan.

It is as if O'Connor, a retired general, considers Canada's military to be his personal militia. He couldn't do more to sow distrust among Canadians if he were taking his cues from the Taliban.

Canadians learned this week that the all-party parliamentary defence committee, making its first appearance in Afghanistan since Canada sent troops in 2001, would not be allowed off the base in Kandahar.

The eight MPs had been planning this trip for months and budgeted an estimated $156,000 for it. In response, O'Connor told MPs that they would be restricted to the base during their brief visit.

The minister's interference is no small thing.

Canadians are concerned that the federal government is ignoring Canada's responsibility to help Afghanistan become self-sufficient. Proof of the value of this mission only can be found off the base, in meetings with locals and those involved with reconstruction teams.

While there may be a credible risk to anyone who leaves the safety of the military compound, it should be up to the individual parliamentarians and soldiers there to determine what risk is acceptable. After all, there's an offsetting risk that Canadians will become even more concerned about the viability of a mission that can't even provide enough security to allow their elected officials to see what is going on.

And it's clear that O'Connor is much more confident about allowing off-base trips for those he considers political allies who support the mission.

In November, when the situation around Kandahar was more unstable than it is now, he authorized an open trip for retired general Lewis MacKenzie, a former Conservative candidate who has supported the war, retired colonel Alain Pellerin, head of a leading military lobby group, and Alex Morrison, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studi
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NATO sending more troops to Afghanistan, may ease Canada’s burden: general
Murray Brewster, Canadian Press, 26 Jan 07
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More NATO military muscle is expected on the ground in southern Afghanistan this spring, including backup for battle-weary Canadians in Kandahar, the top alliance commander in the country said Friday.  The surge in allied troops follows a recent warning from U.S. generals that Taliban militants are poised to unleash a bloody spring offensive across the southern half of Afghanistan.  British Gen. David Richards downplayed the gloomy assessment even though three Kandahar-area police commanders were murdered by militants late Thursday and early Friday. Instead, Richards painted an upbeat picture of the war-weary province as he met with subordinates, Canadian parliamentarians and reporters.  “We’ve now got a stabilized (situation),” said Richards, who steps down as commander of the NATO force in Afghanistan on Feb. 4. “I’m not saying we’ve won. We have a stabilized security situation across the south and in the east. We have a lot more to do but we’ve set the conditions for that.” ....


NATO troops may ease Canada's burden: general
CTV.ca, 26 Jan 07
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More NATO troops will be on the ground in southern Afghanistan, including backup expected to ease Canada's burden in Kandahar, says the top alliance commander in the war-torn nation.  "We've now got a stabilized (situation),'' said British Gen. David Richards, who steps down as commander of the NATO force in Afghanistan on Feb. 4.  "I'm not saying we've won. We have a stabilized security situation across the south and in the east. We have a lot more to do but we've set the conditions for that.''  Richards also said it was "fantastic news" that NATO plans to deploy a mixed brigade of as many as 3,500 combat troops.  The boost in allied troops comes amid a recent warning from U.S. generals that Taliban insurgents are prepared to launch a spring offensive in southern Afghanistan.  Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced it was extending tours of 3,200 troops in Afghanistan.  At least one battalion, approximately 650 troops, of that group will form a so-called theatre reserve, said Richards.  Based in Kandahar, the soldiers will be called upon to respond to emergencies throughout the region.  In theory, this would allow Canadians to focus their attention on security and reconstruction ....



Two police officers gunned down in Kandahar
Ahmad Farzan, Pajhwok Afghan News, 26 Jan 07
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Unidentified armed men gunned down two senior police officers in Popal market of this southern city Friday afternoon.  Nani Agha, head of the ninth police station, and his brother Haji Ahmad, security in charge of foreign NGOs in the province, were sitting at a shop when two armed men opened fire at them.  Kandahar police chief Esmatullah Alizai told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident happened in the Charsoo square area around 1:30pm. Owner of the shop was also killed in the attack, the police chief added.  Alizai said the two slain officials were brothers of Haji Gulali, former intelligence chief of the province. He said one of the assailants was injured in firing from policemen, but the two managed to escape the scene ....



Bloc wants rethink on Afghan poppies
New strategy for opium farmers necessary for support of mission, Duceppe warns

DANIEL LEBLANC, Globe & Mail, 26 Jan 07
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The Canadian government has to work on an international strategy to purchase poppy crops from farmers in Afghanistan in order to stop the heroin trade and end the fighting in the war-ravaged country, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said yesterday.  In a speech in Montreal, Mr. Duceppe said a new strategy on opium is mandatory if the Canadian government wishes to continue enjoying the Bloc's support for the military mission in Afghanistan.  He said 80 per cent of Afghans live off agriculture, and a strategy has to be put in place to replace opium production with legal crops.  "For a transition period, we have to purchase the poppy crops directly from farmers and use it for medical purposes, to produce codeine or morphine," Mr. Duceppe said. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he added, "can only count on the Bloc's support if he firmly moves in the direction that I have laid out."  The Department of Foreign Affairs was asked yesterday for its current position on the eradication of poppy crops, and had not responded by the end of the day ....



NATO to step up assistance to Afghanistan
NATO News, 26 Jan 07
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On 26 January, NATO Foreign Ministers agreed to increase civilian and military assistance to Afghanistan, as part of a comprehensive strategy to reinforce gains made.  The United States, Denmark and several other NATO member countries gave indications of their intention to send additional troops, but also to increase aid and civilian personnel to boost reconstruction and development efforts.  Ministers, including from non-NATO countries that contribute to NATO’s operation in Afghanistan, also called for increased coordination between civilian and military efforts in the country, and among the civilian agencies involved in reconstruction.  “The international community intends to keep the initiative in Afghanistan,” said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, "that means more reconstruction, more support for the government, the Afghan national army, the security forces and the Afghan national police.” ....  Afghanistan was the focus of an informal meeting of Alliance Foreign Ministers at NATO Headquarters.  It was followed by a special meeting of the 37 countries that contribute to NATO’s Afghanistan operation, Afghan authorities, as well as the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank, on ways of better coordinating international assistance.  “There was a call around the table that we do need a more concerted approach,” Mr. De Hoop Scheffer emphasized, “and the fact that we saw so many actors sitting around the table is already a key message.”  Priorities will include boosting reconstruction efforts, stepping up training assistance to the Afghan army, police and administration ....


NATO Pledges To Boost Afghan Operations
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 26 Jan 07
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NATO foreign ministers, meeting today in Brussels, pledged to increase efforts to confront an expected Taliban offensive in Afghanistan.  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to the meeting in Brussels with pledges of extra U.S. help for Afghanistan. On January 25, she said the new initiative would boost U.S. aid to Afghanistan by an extra $10.6 billion -- mostly for security, but including $2 billion for reconstruction.  Separately, the Pentagon said 3,200 troops already in Afghanistan have had their tours extended for four more months.  So when Rice arrived in Brussels for talks with her fellow NATO foreign ministers, she was expected to carry a clear message -- that Washington's European partners should do more, too.  Ahead of today's meeting, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said this year would be key for the alliance's mission in Afghanistan. "To achieve results, the international community needs to provide both the necessary civilian and military resources, and I think you will agree with me that 2007 will be a very important year," he said ....


U.S. says restrictions on NATO troops in Afghanistan are being eased
Associated Press, via International Herald Tribune, 27 Jan 07
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The United States has been making progress with NATO allies in a "continuing battle" over restrictions on their troop deployments in Afghanistan, a top State Department official said Friday.  Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said troops from Canada, Britain and the Netherlands, along with the United States, have been doing most of the fighting in Afghanistan, and he said it is time for the other 22 allied countries to do more.  "It is right for us to ask the other allies to make a greater effort to remove the military restrictions so that everybody can be called upon to make the kind of sacrifices that need to be made," Burns told reporters.  He welcomed indications at Friday's NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels that some allies are willing to end or at least ease restrictions on their troops in Afghanistan.  Burns noted that the parliaments of some countries, Germany included, have placed "very detailed conditions" on their troop deployments.  "What we're saying is there should be no caveats, no restrictions whatsoever on the use, the tactical use, of NATO forces inside Afghanistan," he said ....


Europe resists US pressure to boost presence in Afghanistan
Ian Traynor, The Guardian (UK), 27 Jan 07
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Europe appeared last night to be resisting pressure from Washington to pour more money and troops into Afghanistan in expectation of a major campaign in the spring.  As the European commission announced it was cutting aid to Kabul, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, used a special meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels to demand greater input from the Europeans.  Her demand came after the unveiling of a muscular new policy in Washington, with the administration asking Congress to earmark more than $10bn for Afghanistan ....  European officials are to meet Afghan government figures in Berlin on Monday to discuss bigger aid pledges, but it looked last night as if Ms Rice would be disappointed by the response in Europe.  As well as pressing for more money, the Americans are looking to European Nato members "to share more of the burden" in the military missions in Afghanistan, with Nato planning a major spring offensive against a resurgent Taliban. There are fears the insurgents are also planning a big campaign.  The shift in US strategy, apparently based on the conviction the west cannot be seen to "lose" Afghanistan the way it has lost Iraq, was initiated a couple of months ago at a Nato summit.  With Britain and Canada fighting with the US mainly in Taliban strongholds in the south, there are calls for other European Nato members to make a more useful contribution ....


NATO Allies Wary Of Bush's Afghanistan Proposal
Free Internet Press (alternative media), 26 Jan 07
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America’s European allies remained noncommittal about sending additional troops to Afghanistan Friday, even as the Bush administration sought to inject new energy into the NATO mission against the Taliban by offering more American soldiers and money.  Officially, the language at a NATO meeting in Brussels, Belgium, reflected resolve and commitment on Afghanistan. NATO “is stepping up its game in Afghanistan on all fronts,” the alliance’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, of the Netherlands, said. “The fact that you saw so many people from the international community sitting around the table is a strong message itself.”  But beyond the sound bytes, the realities that have troubled the NATO mission in Afghanistan since the 26-member trans-Atlantic alliance took command last year remained on display. France and Germany continued to limit their combat role; both countries have refused to deploy troops in the south of the country, where Taliban forces are strongest. Germany’s Parliament has yet to approve a proposal to send six Tornado reconnaissance jets to southern Afghanistan ....


Q&A on Afghanistan: Analyst Discusses Increased U.S. Effort
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 26 Jan 07
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The United States will seek $10.6 billion for reconstruction and security in Afghanistan, a significant increase in funding, given that Washington has spent a little more than $14 billion for that country in the more than six years since the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban government. In the meantime, the U.S. administration is ordering 3,200 troops already in Afghanistan to stay there for at least four more months. The moves follow a year of increased fighting between NATO forces and a resurgent Taliban, and as allied forces await an expected Taliban offensive in the spring. RFE/RL spoke about U.S. policy on Afghanistan with James Phillips, a veteran foreign policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank ....



Kabul Intel Center a Diplomatic Effort Amid War
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, National Public Radio, 26 Jan 07
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A NATO-led "joint intelligence center" opens in Kabul, aimed at curbing the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Afghan and Pakistani army officials will staff the center amid mistrust over Pakistan's stance on the Taliban ....


Pak-Afghan-NATO joint intelligence centre opened
Najib Khelwatgar, Pajhwok Afghan News, 26 Jan 07
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The joint Pak-Afghan-NATO intelligence centre was opened in Kabul on Thursday to share information and better coordinate efforts in the war against terror.  Lieutenant General David Richards, commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the centre was important in the ongoing fight against militants as it would enhance sharing of intelligence from the three sides.  This is one of the useful steps during the combat against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, he said at the opening ceremony of the joint centre.  He added NATO member countries had recently pledged sending more troops to Afghanistan and that the Untied States had also promised to assist the Afghan government in formation of the national army.  Press office of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul told Pajhwok Afghan News the centre would be staffed by six military officers from each side.  It further said the three sides would be sharing intelligence on daily basis.



Gunman kills Afghan MP in Kabul
BBC News, 26 Jan 07
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An unidentified gunman has shot dead a member of Afghanistan's National Assembly in the capital, Kabul.  Mohammad Islam Mohammadi was on his way to Friday prayers at a city mosque when he came under fire, officials said.  One of his bodyguards was injured in the shooting. No one has admitted carrying out the attack.  Mr Mohammadi was the governor of Bamiyan province when the Taleban destroyed two giant Buddhas there in 2001, sparking international outrage ....


Politician gunned down
News.com.au (AUS), 27 Jan 07
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AN unidentified man shot dead a member of Afghanistan's national assembly in Kabul today, a government spokesman said.  Mohammad Islam Mohammadi, a governor of Bamiyan province during the Taliban's rule, was killed walking to a mosque in an upmarket neighbourhood, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.  His bodyguard was also wounded in the attack.  "We do not know the motive behind this killing," Mr Bashary said, adding an investigation was underway.  There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack ....



AFGHANISTAN: Returnees need urgent assistance
UN News Centre, 25 Jan 07
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PANJWAYI, 25 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Thousands of Afghans uprooted by the war against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan have begun to return home, although many returnees find life in their devastated villages very hard.  According to the United Nations, 90,000 people fled Panjwayi and Zhari districts in Kandahar province in September 2006 when NATO-led forces launched a military operation against Taliban fighters. Afghan authorities say in recent weeks about 28,000 people have returned to the two districts.  Said Mohammad, 53, and his 17-member family were forced to flee Lakanai village in Panjwayi district, 30 km west of Kandahar city, when heavy fighting erupted. “I have lost everything, including a garden [full] of grape [vines], which was the only source of income for supporting my family, during the fighting,” Mohammad told IRIN in Panjwayi.  “We have received very little food and have a few blankets from the government which is not enough for us. We need shelter and more food [to survive on] until our houses and farming land are rehabilitated.”  Mohammad returned home after he heard from other villagers that the fighting was over and the government had started several relief and development projects for local people ....

 
PM appoints point man for Afghan mission
Foreign affairs adviser takes on new role

CAMPBELL CLARK, Globe & Mail, 27 Jan 07
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper is moving his foreign-policy adviser into a job as point man for Canada's initiatives in Afghanistan, signalling a shift in the tone of Canada's efforts in the country toward aid and diplomacy efforts.  David Mulroney, a career diplomat, was appointed yesterday as the No. 2 bureaucrat in the Foreign Affairs Department, but also handed responsibility for co-ordinating the Afghan initiatives of all government departments.  Analysts said that the unusual appointment of a senior foreign affairs official with Mr. Harper's imprimatur to lead Afghanistan initiatives clearly places diplomats at the forefront of an Afghanistan policy that had until now been led by the Department of National Defence.  "There has only been a single-pillar approach to Afghanistan up to now, and that had been through the Department of National Defence," said Fen Hampson, the director of Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.  He said that while much of the focus has been on the role of Canadian troops based in Kandahar, the appointment of Mr. Mulroney will send a signal inside Ottawa that greater attention is being paid "to both the development and the diplomatic-political side of it as well." ....



Soldiers leave for Afghanistan
MICHAEL STAPLES, Fredericton Daily Gleaner, 27 Jan 07
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There were no marching bands, balloons or fireworks at the Greater Fredericton Airport on Friday as the first major movement of troops from this area left for Afghanistan.  There were just yellow buses that transported more than 120 soldiers directly onto the airport's tarmac, where they boarded a charter aircraft.  Most were members of India Company from The Second Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (2RCR), part of the overall battle group which numbers 1,150.  Prior to that, there had been a private gathering at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown for the departing soldiers and their families.  "The hardest thing is leaving my family behind," said Cpl. Vincent Wilcox, 30, a member of the 2RCR. "I have three little girls - one who was born on Dec. 30." ....



US troops to form flexible Afghanistan force
Reuters, 26 Jan 07
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U.S. troops in Afghanistan whose tour of duty has been extended will form a long-sought NATO backup force which can be deployed anywhere in the country, a top U.S. commander said on Friday.  The Pentagon announced on Thursday that the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, would stay in Afghanistan for up to four months longer than planned as part of a U.S. drive to combat an expected spring offensive by Taliban militants.  Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley said some of those troops would form a "theater tactical reserve" -- a flexible battalion regularly requested by the commander of the country's NATO security force.  "It is in direct support of the commanding general of the (NATO) International Security Assistance Force," Freakley told Pentagon reporters by video link from Afghanistan.  "It will be used and employed where he best wants to make a difference in Afghanistan -- his force, his choice for where he employs it," said Freakley, the commander of the 10th Mountain Division.  A U.S. infantry battalion normally has around 1,200 troops.  The current commander of the NATO force, British Army Gen. David Richards, has said that such a reserve force was top of his list of priorities but alliance member nations did not come forward with the necessary troops ....



Nato falls in behind US to step up aid to Afghanistan
Devika Bhat. Times Online (UK), 26 Jan 07
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Nato members promised today to step up their military and economic aid to Afghanistan after the United States led the way by pledging $10.6bn to the campaign and urged its allies to assist with a fresh offensive against an emboldened Taleban.  Speaking at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, insisted that it was essential for Nato forces to pre-empt a likely attack from insurgents this spring by seizing the initiative and driving fighters out of their sanctuaries.  She added that Washington may also send more troops to Afghanistan, having already pledged to extend by four months the combat tour of 3,200 soldiers currently in the country.  "If there is to be a ’spring offensive’, it must be our offensive," she told the ministers. "It must be a political campaign, an economic campaign, a diplomatic campaign, and yes, a military campaign.  All of us will share the benefits of Afghanistan’s success, so we must also share the burdens of effort," Ms Rice added in a written statement. "Nations that have made pledges of support should follow through and deliver." ....


Progress Quietly Proceeds in Afghanistan, General Says
John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service, 26 Jan 07
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More Afghan adults are employed; more of their children are attending school; and the Afghan government is expanding, the senior U.S. military commander in Afghanistan said today.  “The Taliban have not achieved any of their objectives in the last year,” Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76 and commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division, told reporters in the Pentagon via satellite connection from Afghanistan.  “By contrast, over the past year, U.S. forces and coalition partners have made great progress in the creation of a stable, secure and viable nation state in Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s attempt to impede that progress,” he said.  During a briefing on Afghanistan operations, Freakley discussed recent changes in the organizational structure of security operations. “In the past few months, we’ve experienced significant changes in Afghanistan,” he said. “On Oct. 6, Afghanistan completed its transition from the U.S.-led coalition to a NATO-led coalition headed by the International Security Assistance Force.  “Over the last two years, ISAF has assumed responsibility for security operations in five different provinces or regional commands: Center, North, West, South and now Regional Command East, which we command, which has 14 different provinces,” he said. “We now have 26 NATO countries and 11 other nations that have staked their national reputation to the outcome in Afghanistan,” he said.  Recent command changes will enlarge ISAF’s and the international community’s role in security operations, Freakley said.  In addition to expanded international effort, 3,200 U.S. Army soldiers with 10th Mountain Division have had their deployments extended to help continue progress in Afghanistan, Freakley added ....


US cash brings hope to Afghanistan
Alastair Leithead, BBC News Online, 26 Jan 07
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However committed the international community is to Afghanistan's future, it has to keep a firm eye on an exit strategy.  It will, of course, take years to bring stability after decades of war, and the primary concern is security - how hard international forces can hit the insurgents this year and how well Afghanistan's own police and army perform.  The announcement of new American money will certainly give the fledgling forces a serious leg-up.  The pledge of $8.6bn (£4.39bn/ Cdn $10.2B ) over just two years to build the Afghan security services is more than twice the entire budget America has come up with in the last five post-Taleban years.  It will buy arms and equipment, mentoring and training, and will attempt to create a force capable of securing Afghanistan itself, but that is a big ask ...


Aid effort fails to impress war-weary Afghans
Michael Evans, Tahir Luddin and Tim Albone, Times Online (UK), 27 Jan 07
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It is easier to buy a goat at the Friday market in Lashkar Gah than to sell Britain’s hearts and minds policy.  None of the locals in the provincial capital of Helmand seemed aware that the tin roofs protecting some of the stalls from the weather had been provided by British taxpayers.  All they wanted to know was why the British bombed their homes and killed their relatives. One death in the extended family caused by, or believed to have been caused by, bombers flown by a foreign power can undermine all the substantial efforts of Lashkar Gah’s British provincal reconstruction team (PRT).  This town is relatively safe compared with some parts of Helmand. But yesterday, soon after Nick Kay, head of the PRT, had said that there had been “only” seven suicide bombings in nine months, another attacker detonated a bomb near the Helmand governor’s house in the centre of town, killing himself and injuring several Afghans.  Amir Muhammad, 65, a farmer from Bolan in Helmand, was no supporter of the Taleban and blamed the insurgents as well as the British for “bringing fighting” to his area. But he claimed to have lost members of his family to British bombing. “I don’t care if they [the British troops] stay or leave but I just want to live in a safe area. A lot of innocent people are getting killed.”  He seemed unsure whether the British or the Government of President Karzai in Kabul could improve his life ....



Taliban threatens bloody summer
Reuters, via Al Jazeera, 27 Jan 07
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Taliban forces are gearing up for a massive summer offensive, with more than 2,000 suicide bombers ready for action and even more preparing, a senior commander has said.  The warning came a day after a US diplomat said Afghanistan was in for a dangerous spring after the bloodiest year since the Taliban was ousted by US-led forces in 2001.  Mullah Hayat Khan, the commander, said: "The Taliban will intensify their guerrilla and suicide strikes this summer. This will be a bloodiest year for foreign troops.  "Our war preparations have been completed to a large extent and we're waiting for summer to set in."  He said 2,000 suicide bombers were ready - about 40 per cent of the total suicide force - and that numbers were so high it was sometimes hard to find enough explosives and targets ....



Is Pakistan serious about Taliban fight?
Musharraf disparages Canadian troop losses and denies his country is backing Afghan militants while deadly cross-border attacks continue

BILL GRIMSHAW, Toronto Star, 27 Jan 07
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This month, two Canadian politicians have arrived in Pakistan for high-profile talks ranging from trade to the Taliban.  Premier Dalton McGuinty is the latest visitor, welcomed with spectacular hospitality a few days after an appearance by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. Both hailed the friendly ties between the two countries.  But, as the Taliban insurgents continue to weave their way across Pakistan's steep mountain passes to southern Afghanistan, attacking Canadian and other NATO troops, some critics are asking whether the politicians are pussyfooting while their soldiers are marching into danger.  They question whether President Pervez Musharraf, who disparaged Canadian losses in Afghanistan – saying "we have suffered 500 casualties. Canadians may have suffered four or five" – is taking seriously Ottawa's message that the Taliban network must be dismantled in Pakistan.  The doubts have deepened as reports emerge alleging that Pakistan's intelligence agency is actively backing the Taliban. The latest, from Afghanistan, claims Taliban kingpin Mullah Omar is living in the Pakistani town of Quetta, protected by the agency. Pakistan fiercely denies the allegations ....



Pakistan probes Taliban link to Marriott bombing
Agence France Presse, 27 Jan 07
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Investigators probing a suicide blast at a top hotel in Pakistan's capital have said they were looking at possible links to pro-Taliban extremists fighting government forces near the Afghan border.  Police said they were examining the head, a leg and an arm of the bomber who detonated explosives strapped to his body when he was prevented from entering the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Friday, killing a security guard.  "Experts are examining the few remains of the bomber's body in a bid to identify him," said the interior ministry crisis management chief Brigadier Javed Cheema.  Officials said a sketch of the bomber could not be prepared as no witnesses had so far come forward, nor had hotel security cameras filmed the attacker.  Interior ministry officials said no group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack.  "We suspect (the attack) could be by militants opposed to the government's drive against Taliban elements in the tribal regions," a senior security official said on condition of anonymity.  The official said the bomber appeared to be ill-trained and poorly briefed, which suggested he was from the northwestern tribal belt rather than affiliated to better-funded sectarian groups ....



Animal VC for Sadie, the heroine of Kabul
Thomas Harding, The Telegraph (UK), 27 Jan 07
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A black Labrador who saved the lives of dozens of soldiers in Afghanistan by detecting a bomb has been awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.  Sadie will become only the 25th canine recipient when she receives the medal from Princess Alexandra at a ceremony next week.  The bomb had been planted underneath sandbags, yards from where a suicide car bombing had earlier killed a German soldier outside the United Nations headquarters in Kabul in November 2005.  Leaving a second bomb is a classic terrorist tactic, and about 200 people, including British, American, German and Greek soldiers, were within range of the device.  However, the booby-trap was discovered when Sadie suddenly "showed intention" by wagging her tail as her handler, L/Cpl Karen Yardley, took her on a search of the UN car park.  Bomb disposal experts then used a robot to make the device safe ....

 
More US troops for Afghanistan
Daily Telegraph, Jan. 26
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/26/wafghan26.xml

The 3,500-strong 10th Mountain Division, currently deployed along the eastern border with Pakistan, is to have its tour of duty extended by four months [emphasis added].

The unit, on its third tour of the country since 2001, was due to have been replaced next month by men from the 82nd Airborne division, who will still be deployed...

NATO Allies Wary of Sending More Troops to Afghanistan
NY Times, Jan. 27
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/world/asia/27afghan.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

America’s European allies on Friday remained noncommittal about sending additional troops to Afghanistan, even as the Bush administration sought to inject new energy into the NATO mission against the Taliban by offering more American soldiers and money...

...the realities that have troubled the NATO mission in Afghanistan since the 26-member trans-Atlantic alliance took command last year remained on display. France and Germany continued to limit their combat role; both countries have refused to deploy troops in the south of the country, where Taliban forces are strongest. Germany’s Parliament has yet to approve a proposal to send six Tornado reconnaissance jets to the south...

...While Mr. Prodi’s government passed a measure on Friday to renew financing for Italy’s troops in Afghanistan, it did so without the support of all of Mr. Prodi’s coalition partners, and Italian officials said it was unlikely that Mr. Prodi could rally support for any increase in troops...

Nato falls in behind US to step up aid to Afghanistan
The Times, Jan. 26
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2567780_1,00.html

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato Secretary-General, said that the issue of extra troops was likely to be discussed at a meeting of defence ministers in Seville, Spain on February 8. "The message has been clear that the international community intends to keep up the initiative in Afghanistan..."

British commander in Afghanistan says reinforcements on the way
CanWest, Jan. 27
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=e24d2dc6-c7c5-454e-9341-a9837a27714b&k=26127

Thousands more international troops will soon pour into Afghanistan and many of them will come to Kandahar province to bolster Canada's military, British Gen. David Richards, the outgoing head of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, announced Friday.

The bulk of the troops look like they will come from the New York-based 10th Mountain Division and have only been pledged for the short term, however [emphasis added].

The 10th was scheduled to leave Afghanistan next month, but the U.S. Defence Department extended the tour for its 3,200 soldiers for four months, to cover the crucial spring period when the Taliban are expected to mount a new offensive...

Richards, who hands over command of ISAF to U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill on Feb. 4, said an additional NATO brigade will come to Afghanistan, but he would not say what countries contributed to it or when it will arrive [emphasis added]...

Poland is expected to be a major contributor to the expanded ISAF and the London media has reported that an additional 600 British soldiers may be deployed...

US Says Troop Coordination Critical to NATO, Afghanistan Mission
VOA, Jan. 26
http://origin.www.voanews.com/english/2007-01-26-voa80.cfm

A top US State Department official warned Friday that NATO's future may hinge on alliance members dropping conditions they have placed on their troops' service in Afghanistan. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns says the so-called "caveats" on what various contingents may do in that country are an "existential" issue for NATO [emphasis added]...

[US Defense Secretary]Gates said if things go as anticipated, it will not be necessary [emphasis added] to further extend the tours of U.S. troops.

He has said in recent days that he would be receptive to increasing the overall U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan if that is the recommendation of field commanders.

NATO slow to respond on Afghan force level
International Herald Tribune, Jan. 26
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/26/news/afghan.php

...[Secretary of State] Rice added that in addition to extending the tours, Defense Secretary Robert Gates would expand the number of U.S. troops, "partly through extra forces [emphasis added]."..

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found 28 January, 2007


Worry follows soldiers to Afghanistan
Jennifer Taplin CanWest News Service; The Daily News Sunday, January 28, 2007
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HALIFAX -- As the next contingent of Canadian soldiers leaves for Afghanistan Monday, the ones they leave behind worry for their safety.

While fighting has come to a lull in that war-torn nation, experts predict a spring offensive by the Taliban is inevitable.

Some of the 2,500 soldiers have already started their journey to Afghanistan to relieve their comrades, who are ready to come home after six months of duty. The staggered flights will continue throughout the next six weeks.

Since Canada sent troops to Afghanistan in 2002, 44 soldiers and one Canadian diplomat have been killed in the country. The Canadians are currently stationed in the south, which has seen much more Taliban unrest than other regions of the country.

On Monday, 120 soldiers will leave from CFB Gagetown near Fredericton, N.B., mostly from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment battle group.

But before they go, the families of the soldiers have much to prepare for.

Sometimes those preparations involve trying to reconcile differences in political beliefs with wanting to support a loved one, said Bernie Mullin-Splude, who works in deployment services at the Military Family Resource Centre in Halifax.
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The will, and the time, to win
January 28, 2007 KABUL
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Afghanistan | It is among the poorest countries in the world, with little infrastructure and widespread illiteracy. It has never known democracy, unity or stability. And on its forbidding ground, a desperate battle is being waged against poverty, corruption, the Taliban . . . and time. Will Canada and its NATO allies have the will to persist in a struggle that could last more than a generation? And will Afghans' patience with the presence of outsiders last equally long? Oakland Ross analyzes the volatile present and daunting future of this troubled land
It is winter on the steppes of Central Asia, and the war on terror – a war that last year claimed 4,000 lives in Afghanistan alone – has lately been taking its annual respite from carnage and woe.

If you can call it a respite.

Pauses in this conflict are never complete and death continues to taint the cold January air, even as a shroud of snow steadily thickens over the ramshackle, war-weary streets of Kabul.

This past Sunday, a car-borne suicide bomber – the first to detonate successfully in the capital in some weeks – rammed his vehicle into a NATO military convoy, managing to blow himself up, if no one else.

And several officials of the Afghan insurgent movement known as the Taliban were reported killed in a NATO air strike in the south of the country on Friday.

It was one more clash in a long and convoluted war, a contest that has no front lines, no clear territorial divisions, no easily defined measure of victory and little likelihood of concluding soon, if ever.

With some 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, based mainly in the volatile southern province of Kandahar, Canada is as deeply immersed in this drama as almost any country and bears more responsibility than most for the eventual outcome of a war that seems fated to exceed the lifespan of anyone currently waging it.
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Inside Afghanistan: The battle for Kajaki
By Kim Sengupta in Kajaki, Afghanistan Published: 28 January 2007
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The war in the open spaces of Afghanistan is very different from the one being waged by the Americans in the streets of Baghdad. But for British Royal Marines engaged in daily firefights with the Taliban, it is no less dangerous

Royal Marine Andy Mason, on Sparrow Hawk ridge, sighted his heat-seeking Javelin anti-tank missile and squeezed the trigger. Eight seconds later it smashed into the target, a large house from which Taliban insurgents were firing at British forces.

Half a dozen insurgent fighters jumped off the first-storey balcony just before it disintegrated. Others in the compound were trying to flee when air strikes were called in. A Tornado GR7 dropped a 1,000lb bomb, leaving the building a pile of rubble and billowing smoke.

This encounter took place on Friday night in Kajaki, one of the most ruggedly beautiful parts of Afghanistan, but also the most dangerous, with daily fighting between Royal Marines and insurgents. Just before our helicopter landed from Camp Bastion, the main British base in southern Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province, the Taliban had begun shooting at the British position, starting a firefight that went on into the night.

While violence has ebbed away at other flashpoints in northern Helmand such as Sangin and Now Zad, and a truce of sorts holds at Musa Qala, it has escalated at Kajaki. Flanked by mountains and a deep-water lake, the area has become a symbolic and logistical prize for both sides. At its heart is the Kajaki dam, the biggest United States aid project in Afghanistan, which, when fully operational, will supply power to the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.
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Army probes wide-ranging contractor fraud
January 28, 2007 By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press
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WASHINGTON -- From high-dollar fraud to conspiracy to bribery and bid rigging, Army investigators have opened up to 50 criminal probes involving battlefield contractors in the war in Iraq and the U.S. fight against terrorism, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior contracting officials, government employees, residents of other countries and, in some cases, U.S. military personnel have been implicated in millions of dollars of fraud allegations.

''All of these involve operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait,'' Chris Grey, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, confirmed Saturday to the AP.

''CID agents will pursue leads and the truth wherever it may take us,'' Grey said. ''We take this very seriously.''

Battlefield contractors have been implicated in allegations of fraud and abuse since the war in Iraq began in spring 2003. A special inspector general office that focused solely on reconstruction spending in Iraq developed cases that led to four criminal convictions.

The problems stem in part from the Pentagon's struggle to get a handle on the unprecedented number of contractors now helping run the nation's wars. Contractors are used in battle zones to do nearly everything but fight. They run cafeterias and laundries for troops, move supplies, run communication systems and repair weapons systems.

Special agents from the Army's major procurement fraud unit recently were dispatched to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, where they are ''working closely and sharing information with other law enforcement agencies in the region,'' Grey said.
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Iraq, Afghanistan trouble U.S. 
Sunday, January 28, 2007
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A troubling congruity lingers over the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as American efforts escalate on both fronts.
In both nations, central in the fight against militant Islamists, the U.S. intervention leans for support on two unreliable allies. Success for the policy of committing 21,500 more combat troops in Iraq depends on the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki confronting its own sectarian militias and transforming itself into a regime of national conciliation.
   
In Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been resurgent in the past year, an enlarged campaign is expected in the spring. While the U.S. gears up to send $10 billion in additional aid for reconstruction, it is becoming increasingly evident that the aggressiveness of the once-defeated Taliban is abetted by intelligence operatives and officials of Pakistan, America's much supported ally.

Both Iraq's and Pakistan's leadership say all the correct things about their commitments. But their actions indicate either duplicity on their part or inability to execute -- perhaps, a bit of both in the snarled and conflicted political realities in which they function.
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Italians Assess Participation in Afghanistan
January 28, 2007
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(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in Italy have a clear idea of what their country’s role in Afghanistan entails, according to a poll by Arnaldo Ferrari Nasi published in Il Giornale. 53.8 per cent of respondents think their troops are taking part in a peace mission.

Afghanistan has been the main battleground in the war on terrorism. The conflict began in October 2001, after the Taliban regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Italian voters renewed the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in April 2006. The Union of centre-left parties, led by Romano Prodi, secured 348 seats in the lower house and 158 seats in the upper house. The victory put an end to a centre-right government headed by Silvio Berlusconi.

In May 2006, Prodi was formally appointed as prime minister. The Union leader had previously served as head of government from May 1996 to October 1998.
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US working for "win" in Afghanistan: Burns
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WASHINGTON: One of the major problems is of Taliban coming from Pakistan, attacking inside Afghanistan and then slipping back, a senior US official said the objective of the Bush administration is a "win" in that country.

"The Taliban increased its insurgency in 2006. It is a real problem. There is a problem of forces coming from Pakistan into Afghanistan to attack and then to return to Pakistan to seek refuge and refitting," Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said.

He said his government will be seeking nearly USD 11 billions from Congress in increased aid to Afghanistan over a two year period; over and above the USD 14 billions that has been given to that country over the last five years.

Burns said Washington was in close consultation with Islamabad ensuring that Pakistani forces will "do more" and strike terrorist training camps in the tribal areas.

"We are working very closely with President (Pervez) Musharraf and with the Pakistani military and the Pakistani intelligence services to see that Pakistan will do more and make a concerted effort to strike at those terrorist training camps in North and South Waziristan and in Balochistan.
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Tornados forming in Germany - for Afghanistan?
This post was written by Clarsonimus on 27 January, 2007 (12:48) | European News, Germany News, The War on Terror, Humor
Article Link]http://www.bloggernews.net/14180]Article Link

No one has actually begun trying to drag them in kicking and screaming yet, but Nato Chief de Hoop Scheffer and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have repeated their request for Germany to send six Tornado surveillance jets to southern Afghanistan.

“Six,” said de Hoop Scheffer, holding up six fingers to journalists. “S-i-x as in five plus one? Here, let me write that down for you to avoid any further confusion.” “Planes,” added Condi as she wildly flapped her arms about like a big skinny bird, which she actually is. “Tornado surveillance-type jet planes, got it? Sie verstehen mich already?”
The two made their comments during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday. It was also announced here that NATO commanders are now planning an offensive against the Taliban in the coming weeks and that many of these military experts believe having a few of these German high-tech Wunderwaffen wonders would be “a way cool and wonderful thing.”
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Afghanistan: NATO Begins Fund For Civilian War Victims
January 26, 2007 (RFE/RL)
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Millions of dollars in cash and relief aid have been given by the U.S. government in recent years as compensation to relatives of civilians accidentally killed by U.S. military strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan. But since NATO took command of operations in Afghanistan last October, far less compensation has been given for innocent civilians killed in combat-weary provinces like Helmand and Kandahar.

British forces recently called for air strikes at a village in the Garmser district of Afghanistan's Helmand's Province when they discovered Taliban fighters were sheltering there.

An RFE/RL correspondent who visited the village in mid-January found a man in shock after the battle

Collateral Damage

"We lost six people in my family," he said. "They killed three cows, destroyed two houses and my car. This is a village and they are bombing the village -- even mosques and people's houses."

Other villagers in the district say they have yet to see compensation or promised reconstruction aid. Their complaints are taking on a political tone, with residents openly wondering whether life was better for them under the Taliban.
"I lost eight members of my family," said another. "[NATO forces] didn't come for reconstruction. If [Hamid] Karzai is president, how can we be in this miserable situation?"

Brigadier Richard Nugee, NATO's chief spokesman in Afghanistan, admits that the death of innocent civilians is hurting efforts by the alliance to win the support of the local population in provinces like Helmand and Kandahar.

"I believe the single thing that [NATO's ISAF has] done wrong [in 2006] -- and we are striving extremely hard to improve on next year -- is [accidentally] killing innocent civilians," he said.

Those remarks have been welcomed by nongovernmental organizations like Human Rights Watch and the U.S.-based Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC).
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Afghanistan: More Women Operating Their Own Businesses
By Golnaz Esfandiari January 25, 2007 (RFE/RL)
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Women in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif have recently begun running their own businesses. The project is strongly supported by the country's Ministry of Women's Affairs, which hopes to get women into an area currently dominated by men and make them financially independent.

In Mazar-e Sharif in recent weeks, several women have begun operating their own shops and selling handicrafts, cosmetics, and clothing.

A New Beginning

It is an unusual sight for Afghanistan -- where for years women were barred from public life -- and it is also a small step in bringing them into spheres previously considered to be reserved for men.

Among the new shopkeepers is Bibi Roghya, who has a small stall at a busy market. She sells traditional clothing that has been made by other Afghan women.

She says while there is some disapproval of her and her fellow women's work, most people hail the new trend.

"Maybe 10 percent of people don't agree with women being shopkeepers but the rest of the people, 90 percent, welcome us," she said. "A lot of women have expressed their happiness, they say they want a big market for women selling stuff."
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Denmark pledges USD10 m. additional aid for Afghanistan
POL-AFGHANISTAN-DENMARK-AID KABUL, Jan 27 (KUNA)
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A statement released from the Embassy of Denmark on Saturday said the government of Denmark would give an additional USD 10 million in assistance to Afghanistan.

Denmark has so far given USD 29 million in aid to Afghanistan for reconstruction and other welfare activities.

The announcement was made by Denmark Development Cooperation Minister Ulla Toernaes during the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Saturday, said the embassy statement.

The fresh amount pledged for Afghanistan by the Danish government would be spent on reconstruction and humanitarian relief activities in this landlocked country.

Quoting the Danish minister, the statement said: "It is not sufficient to send more soldiers. We need to accelerate the development process or Afghanistan will never achieve stability. Denmark would assist the Afghan government in showing that democracy was better than Taliban." The statement said Denmark assistance to Afghanistan was already amount to USD 29 million in 2007. It is mainly supporting the education sector, development in rural areas, human rights and public sector reforms.
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Afghanistan: Karzai just says no —to glyphosate
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 01/26/2007 - 21:33.
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The Pentagon recently posed Colombia as a "good model" for the war on opium in Afghanistan. But Hamid Karzai, to his credit, is displaying greater concern for the health of his own land and people than top US Latin American ally Alvaro Uribe. From Reuters, Jan. 26:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country's heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday.

The decision, reportedly made Sunday, dashes U.S. hopes for mounting a campaign using ground sprayers to poison poppy plants to help combat Afghanistan's opium trade after a record crop in 2006.

Karzai instead "made a very strong commitment" to lead other eradication efforts this year and said if that didn't cut production he would allow spraying in 2008, a Western official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The spokesman for Afghan-istan's Ministry of Counternarcotics, Said Mohammad Azam, said this year's effort will rely on "traditional techniques" - sending laborers into fields to trample or plow under opium poppies before they can be harvested. A similar campaign during 2006 failed.

Fueled by the Taliban, a powerful drug mafia and poor farmers' need for a profitable crop that can overcome drought, opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons - enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. That is more than 90 percent of the world's supply and more than the world's addicts consume in a year.

The booming drug economy, and the involvement of government officials and police in the illicit trade, compounds the many problems facing Afghanistan's fledgling democracy as it struggles with stepped-up attacks by insurgents loyal to the former Taliban regime.

Top Cabinet members - including the agriculture, defense and rural redevelopment ministers - pressured Karzai to reject the spraying plan, saying herbicide would contaminate water, hurt humans, farm animals and legitimate produce, officials said.

The ministers also feared a violent backlash from rural Afghans, the Western official said.
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EDITORIAL: Finally, turning to a thoroughly ruined Afghanistan
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The Bush Administration is going to ask the US Congress for an additional $10.6 billion in security and reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan in the next two years. Since 2001, when the invasion started, the US has spent less than two billion dollars a year in Afghanistan, mostly on maintaining its troops. In Iraq, it is spending $10 billion a month, but that is a different matter. The troops are paid out of the money and nearly 100,000 American contractors who serve the troops also take their share of it. In Afghanistan, there are other states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and they normally don’t spend money on wars they don’t want to fight.

After 2006 became the worst year of fighting in Afghanistan, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, thinks more effort should be made to “counter the Taliban resurgence in the country”. Over five years of neglect and lack of coordination among the NATO allies has done a lot of damage; Pakistan has been lumped with most of the blame for what has gone wrong. The US allies don’t want to put their troops in harm’s way and have attached many conditions to their engagement in battle. Last year’s summit of the NATO allies made it quite clear that Afghanistan was doomed as an operation which the world approved after 9/11.
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Pakistan boosts patrols after deadly bombing
Updated Sun. Jan. 28 2007 7:58 AM ET Associated Press
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Heavily armed police and security forces patrolled streets in Shiite-dominated areas Sunday following a suicide bomb attack near a Shiite mosque that killed 15 people.

The Saturday attack that wounded more than 30 others came as Pakistan's Shiites began ceremonies in connection with their most important annual festival, Ashoura, which often has been a target of anti-Shiite violence.

Akram Durrani, the chief minister of North West Frontier Province, asked people to demonstrate "patience and maintain religious discipline," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion will likely fall on Sunni extremists.

Most Muslims from the majority Sunni and minority Shiite sects coexist peacefully in Pakistan, but militant groups on both sides are blamed for sectarian attacks that claim scores of lives every year
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Christian Ministries Combat Afghanistan's Biggest Killer
Sun, Jan. 28, 2007 Posted: 10:15:47 AM EST
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In a land foremost known for harboring Taliban terrorists and suffering under almost continuous conflict since 1979, not many people know that Afghanistan has the second-worst infant mortality rate in the world.

In a land foremost known for harboring Taliban terrorists and suffering under almost continuous conflict since 1979, not many people know that Afghanistan has the second-worst infant mortality rate in the world.

"When World Vision asked me to go to Afghanistan, it was like God saying, 'Go to Nineveh,'” said Tim Pylate, a World Vision staff who recently completed his assignment in Afghanistan.

Stories of women cutting the umbilical cord with a dirty knife and babies dying due to diarrhea and dehydration are common.

Christian groups, some which have been in the country for decades, are helping to combat this avoidable problem by training local midwives and providing healthcare services to Afghan women. The international Christian humanitarian organizations World Vision and Interserve are among the groups working to overcome Afghanistan’s biggest killer. CURE International, a Christian ministry offering physical and spiritual healing to disabled children in the developing world, is also working to overcome Afghanistan’s high infant mortality rate through its CURE Hospital.

According to a UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) 2006 statistic, Afghanistan has 165 deaths for every 1,000 live birth. In other words, one in six babies dies before their first birthday. Moreover, six out of every 100 mothers die during childbirth. Afghanistan also has one of the world’s highest child mortality rates – one in four Afghan children die before they reach five years old.

WV is providing a program at the Institute of Health Sciences in Herat in western Afghanistan to help combat the high death rates from the birth process.

The two-year program allows young women from outside the cities to train as midwives to return and help their towns and villages. The students vary in age and background from single women in their early 20’s to older women who may be widowed.
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Afghan leader Karzai calls for talks with Taliban to end bloodshed
Associated Press, 29 Jan 07
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed his call Monday for talks with the Taliban and other groups battling his government.  "While we are fighting for our honor and dignity against an enemy who wants our destruction and wants us to bleed, once again we want to open a way for negotiations," Karzai told thousands gathered at the main Shiite Muslim mosque in Kabul.  Karzai's call for talks with the resurgent Taliban militants comes at a time when U.S., NATO and other Western officials warn of a Taliban spring offensive, following the bloodiest year since the former hard-line regime was removed from power in 2001 by a U.S.-led force ....


Karzai offers talks with Taliban
Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters, 29 Jan 07
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KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday offered peace talks with a resurgent Taliban after the bloodiest year since the hardline Islamists were ousted in 2001 and amid warnings of a violent spring offensive.  More than 4,000 people, including about 170 foreign soldiers, died in fighting last year, a year that saw a dramatic jump in suicide bombings as the Taliban and other militants copy tactics from insurgents in Iraq.  Karzai made the offer while speaking at a religious gathering in Kabul on one of the holiest days of the Shia Islamic calendar, but he did not specifically name the Taliban.  "While we are fighting for our honour, we still open the door for talks and negotiations with our enemy who is after our annihilation and is shedding our blood," he told the crowd at the main Shia religious compound in the capital.  Karzai also said he prayed for the "guidance" of those who plotted against Afghanistan, referring to neighbouring Pakistan where the Taliban and their Islamic allies have sanctuaries.  Karzai two years ago offered amnesty to those Taliban he and others regard as moderate, but on Monday made no such distinction.  No senior Taliban commander or leader has surrendered or joined the government as part of past efforts to bring them into the mainstream and senior rebel leaders have ridiculed such calls as a sign of weakness.  The Taliban have vowed to drive out foreign troops and overthrow Karzai and his government ....



Document outlines Canada's military plans in Afghanistan
CBC Online, 28 Jan 07
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The Canadian military effort in Afghanistan will be complete when Afghan security forces are established and the Afghan government gains full control of the area, says a new document from the military's chief of defence staff.  The document — authored by Gen. Rick Hillier and obtained recently by CBC News —stated that the military's job in Afghanistan is considered successful and completed:
    * when new Afghan security forces "are established" and "fully controlled" by the Afghan government.
    * when those forces are trained and can conduct their own "counter-insurgency operations."
    * when the forces can defend against foreign fighters and "effectively control borders."
    * and when "terrorist groups are denied sanctuary within Afghanistan."
The military plan is achievable, but not in the short term, said Rob Huebert, a military analyst at the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies ....



Canadian troops ready for Taliban spring offensive, says defence minister
Canadian Press, via Canada.com, 28 Jan 07
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As more Canadian soldiers prepare to leave for Afghanistan, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor says the forces are ready for any new offensive launched by the Taliban.  “Traditionally the Taliban who are based in Pakistan come over the mountains in the spring and do their various insurgency activities,” O’Connor said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period.  “We can’t predict whether it’s going to be a large offensive or a small offensive this year (but) we’re well prepared to receive them.”  O’Connor welcomed news that at least one of a potential three extra battalions the United States plans to deploy to Afghanistan will be baased in Kandahar, a move that will likely take some pressure off Canadian troops in the region.  The minister said he discussed the Afghan situation last week at a meeting in Washington with Robert Gates, the new U.S. defence secretary ....



Canadian aid and reconstruction arrives faster than UN help in rural Kandahar
Murray Brewster, Canadian Press, 28 Jan 07
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It has become an all-too-common refrain these days in the parched pasture land west of Kandahar when farmers, driven from their homes by fighting last fall, are asked what aid they need most.  They tell you: tents, food and, in this arid region, water.  What they are getting at the moment in this small enclave of Zhari district - a former Taliban stronghold - are 12 wells, drilled by Afghan contractors and paid for by Canadian taxpayers.  "It's really important, we appreciate who did that," Ataullah, 35, a local wheat farmer, said through a translator.  With his home sitting in the shadow of a Canadian forward base, fighting last fall ebbed and flowed across his land and that of his neighbours. Ataullah, along with 12 members of his immediate family, packed up what belongings they could and fled, joining thousands of others in a rural swath west of Kandahar.  "We need everything (because) we moved with our families to escape to the city, but the robbers, the thieves came into our house and stole everything," he said.  "Now we need tents, food and water."  This scene has been repeated all across the Zhari and Panjwaii districts .....



US team visits Kabul as Washington boost troops
Reuters, 28 Jan 07
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New U.S. House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi met senior Afghan leaders on Sunday, days after Washington announced a major boost in troops and money to bring peace after the bloodiest year since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.  Pelosi met President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, as well as other officials and U.S. military commanders.  She did not speak to journalists.  Pelosi led a seven-member House delegation on a visit to South Asia that included Pakistan, which Afghanistan accuses of supporting a resurgent Taliban. Islamabad denies the charges ....


Pelosi, Karzai Discuss Troop Increases
Associated Press, 29 Jan 07
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The Afghan president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that his security forces need to be stronger as the two discussed possible U.S. troop increases on Sunday, days after the Pentagon extended the tour of 3,200 soldiers, an Afghan official said.  President Hamid Karzai stressed his desire for increased training and equipment for Afghanistan's fledgling army and police forces, the Afghan official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information publicly.  Pelosi, D-Calif., and Karzai discussed plans announced last week by the Bush administration to ask Congress for $10.6 billion for Afghanistan, a major increase aimed at rebuilding the country and strengthening government security forces still fighting the Taliban five years after the U.S.-led invasion ....


US Speaker Pelosi meets Afghan president
Agence France Presse, 28 Jan 07
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The new Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), met President Hamid Karzai on a short fact-finding tour of Afghanistan focused on efforts to defeat the Taliban.  Pelosi, who arrived from Pakistan where she met President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday after earlier visiting Iraq, also met members of the cabinet, parliamentarians and commanders of the US-led coalition that toppled the Taliban in 2001, the US embassy said.  The Speaker and her delegation of other senior Democratic lawmakers would meet the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) before leaving Afghanistan Sunday, spokesman Joe Mellot told AFP.  "She came to see what is happening on the ground," Mellot said. Her visit was in the context of discussions about a new US strategy in Afghanistan, he said ....


US House Speaker Pelosi Meets Afghan President Karzai
Voice of America News, 28 Ja 07
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The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday while on a short visit to Afghanistan.  Earlier in the day, Pelosi and a delegation of other Democratic Party lawmakers ate breakfast with American troops at the Bagram airbase.  The Bush administration said recently it will ask Congress for more than ten and a half billion dollars in new spending for Afghanistan, with most of the money designated to help build up Afghan security forces.  Last week, the U.S. military said it is extending the tour of 3000 American troops in Afghanistan by four months to help fight a resurgent Taleban.  Pelosi went to Afghanistan a day after she met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.  Their talks focused on the war on terrorism and the situation in Afghanistan ....



Pride, grief and anger at a Taliban recruiting area in Pakistan
Associated Press. 28 Jan 07
Article Link

SHABQADAR, Pakistan: Near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, pride mixes with grief and anger over dozens of young men lost to a stepped-up recruiting drive for the Taliban.  Like the anti-Soviet rebels of the 1980s and the pre-Sept. 11 Taliban, the recruiters of today have turned to this cluster of about 25 ethnic Pashtun villages in search of volunteers.  The father of one dead enlistee says he feels honored, but with many of Shabqadar's young men dead or feared missing on the battlefield, mujaheddin recruiters are no longer welcome here.  A shopkeeper says 100 or more young men have gone missing, including his cousin, a high school student, who mysteriously left home during the summer vacation and is believed to have gone to fight.  People here are religious, and recruiters play on that sentiment, "recruiting the youth with raw minds," he said.  The shopkeeper, like many others interviewed, requested anonymity for his own safety.  Pressure from residents and the shooting and wounding of a local newspaperman who reported about the "martyrs" of Shabqadar compelled authorities in November to shut a local office of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, an outlawed Pakistani militant group. It had circulated jihadist literature and CDs and recruited mostly jobless young men to go to Afghanistan — like their fathers who fought the Soviet occupation of that country two decades ago ....



Dam holds back force of the Taliban
An Afghan reservoir built by the Russians carries hopes of reconstructing a nation, but standing in the way are the ever-evolving enemy

Jason Burke, The Observer (UK), 28 Jan 07
Article Link

High in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, above a plunging gorge ringed by sharp, bleached peaks, is a dam. On a spur overlooking its sparkling blue reservoir are the Royal Marines. 'Could be quite a nice area, this,' says Rob Case, from Taunton, Somerset, standing next to his mortar. 'I might come back for a holiday. In about 50 years.'  Many hope progress in Afghanistan might come more rapidly - and Kajaki dam, a Cold War creation built in 1955 by the Russians and upgraded to a major hydroelectric plant by the Americans in 1973, is key. Few have heard of the vast project, but they soon will. The bid to secure the area around Kajaki dam so that reconstruction can start is becoming a symbol of the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, of its strengths... and of its weaknesses ....



US Taliban-bill sword hangs over Pervez
K.P. NAYAR, The Telegraph (Calcutta), 28 Jan 07
Article Link

Five years and four months after Pervez Musharraf abandoned the Taliban and tricked the Americans into enlisting him as a partner in the fight against terrorism, the wily general’s day of reckoning in Washington may be around the corner.  The new Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives has passed a bill which requires America’s President to certify that “the government of Pakistan is making all possible efforts to prevent the Taliban from operating in areas under its sovereign control”. Failure to do so will stop all US aid, including military assistance. The House wants the restriction to take effect from the 2008-09 financial year.  Yesterday, Musharraf protested against the new legislation at a meeting in Islamabad with the new House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, the chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, Tom Lantos, and five other powerful Congressmen, including the chairmen of the House armed services committee and permanent select committee on intelligence ....



Reader, she married an Afghan warlord
Christina Lamb, Times Online (UK), 28 Jan 07
Article Link

“HONEY, don’t come home now, we’ve got warlords in the living room,” is hardly your typical excuse for a husband who fears his wife interrupting a night in with the lads. But for Debbie Rodriguez it has become such a common refrain that she has set up Kabul’s first coffee bar as somewhere to wait.  The crimson-haired hairdresser from America’s Midwest who came to Afghanistan to train its women in highlights and Brazilian waxing, has ended up married to a key commander for one of the country’s most brutal warlords in the unlikeliest of post-Taliban alliances.  The “I’m a D girl” slogan emblazoned across her tight black T-shirt refers not to an ample breast but to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the boss of her husband Sher. The whisky-drinking Uzbek warlord from northern Afghanistan is best known for running over his enemies with tanks, and his men were accused of suffocating hundreds of Taliban prisoners in shipping containers in 2001.  “The general has always been kind, gentle and sweet to me,” said Rodriguez, 46, brushing the Kabul mud and snow off her jeans and warming her hands on a latte in her cafe ....



- last edited 290738EST Jan 07 to add two lead items -
 
Major article in LA Times:

Afghan war takes a toll on Canada
By Laura King and Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writers
January 29
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afcanada29jan29,0,7564605,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

In the wind-scoured high desert that was once the heartland of the Taliban movement, the will and determination of a little-heralded American ally have been undergoing a harsh test.

For the last six months, the task of confronting insurgents in volatile Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan has largely fallen to Canada, whose troops have participated in myriad peacekeeping missions in recent years but had not seen high-intensity combat since the Korean War.

Although its nearly 3,000 troops account for less than 10% of the allied forces in Afghanistan, Canada absorbed nearly 20% of the coalition's combat deaths last year, losing 36 soldiers.

A Canadian diplomat also was killed, by a suicide bomber.

The disproportionate casualty count in a region that Taliban commanders have pledged to seize this spring has triggered debate at home about whether Canada is finding itself in a quagmire of American making.

The deployment is a strain for military families. Moreover, the Canadian mission points up the stresses and strains caused by unequal burden-sharing within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Already, alliance unity has been frayed by what commanders describe as an insufficient overall troop commitment and rules that sharply limit the combat capabilities of some participants.

"Would I be happy if there were more nations in the south? Yes," said Lt. Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander of Canada's expeditionary forces, who toured Canadian outposts in Afghanistan in mid-January.

"Would I be happy if there were fewer caveats?" he added, referring to rules that limited the combat missions of many NATO troops to emergency sorties to aid other alliance forces. "Yes."

A NATO meeting in Brussels on Friday brought a pledge from the U.S. for more troops and an additional $10 billion over two years, but only vague promises from other alliance members.

Canadian military officers in Afghanistan sidestep questions about the safer tasks given to French troops in the capital, Kabul, or to the German deployment in the relatively calm north.

They point instead to others in the line of fire: American troops' front-line engagement with insurgents in the east, the battles that British forces have waged to the west in Helmand province, or other contingents serving alongside Canadians in Kandahar, including Dutch troops.

Even so, Canadian forces who arrived in August were stunned by their initial encounter, a full-blown battle with thousands of insurgents.

Canadian troops took the lead in NATO's Operation Medusa, a September confrontation with Taliban fighters who had entrenched themselves in and around the Panjwayi district, southwest of the city of Kandahar.

"Everyone here has seen someone die," said Cpl. Luke Winnicki, a 26-year-old combat engineer in the Royal Canadian Regiment, gesturing toward dozens of troops in a drafty tent at Masumghar, a hillside outpost about 15 miles southwest of Kandahar....

But the Conservative government is not, as the article later says, a "coalition".


Document outlines Canada's military plans in Afghanistan
Last Updated: Monday, January 29, 2007 | 7:49 AM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/28/military-objectives.html

The Canadian military effort in Afghanistan will be complete when Afghan security forces are established and the Afghan government gains full control of the area, says a new document from the military's chief of defence staff.

The document — authored by Gen. Rick Hillier and obtained recently by CBC News —stated that the military's job in Afghanistan is considered successful and completed:

    * when new Afghan security forces "are established" and "fully controlled" by the Afghan government.
    * when those forces are trained and can conduct their own "counter-insurgency operations."
    * when the forces can defend against foreign fighters and "effectively control borders."
    * and when "terrorist groups are denied sanctuary within Afghanistan."

The military plan is achievable, but not in the short term, said Rob Huebert, a military analyst at the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.

"The Taliban-al-Qaeda threat has not been entirely neutralized, and the big problem we have right now is the Pakistani border provides refuge," Huebert said. "Once that border gets sealed, then you can start dealing with the problem more effectively."

The military objectives also outline how the Canadian Forces will accomplish their goals using air and ground combat operations against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other armed grounds within Afghanistan.

To date, Canada has yet to deploy any combat aircraft, but it has 2,500 Canadian soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.
Continue Article

There are still many questions, said Denis Coderre, the Liberal defence critic, adding that if the government wants to meet its military goals, it will have to extend the mission.

"When you look at the end state of that paper, long term means exactly that," Coderre said.

The prime minister's office concurred with Coderre's comments, indicating success in Afghanistan will take time.

Thirty-six soldiers and one diplomat have been killed since their the deployment 14 months ago.

Earlier this weekend, two more groups of soldiers left Canada for a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan as part of a troop rotation that will see their counterparts in the country's war zone return home over the next two months.

(The document is dated, I think, May 2006 from what I saw in the television story but the date is not mentioned in the online version.)

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found 29 January, 2007


Circus comes to Afghan schoolchildren
POSTED: 0423 GMT (1223 HKT), January 28, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- In a fantastical little school in Kabul, girls and boys leave behind their impoverished, war-torn world and enter a utopia where they laugh and sing, and learn how to juggle and ride unicycles.

More than 100 children mix regular schooling with art and acrobatics at the Mobile Mini Circus for Children, set up by a Danish performance artist to bring fun and color to the lives of youngsters more used to poverty and violence.

"Nothing negative should come here. We try to cut off the misery," said David Mason, 42, who moved to Kabul and founded the school in June 2002, just months after the fall of the Taliban. "The circus makes children enjoy life. It shocks them, moves them and makes them see how life can be."

The school's bright-colored buildings are a contrast to the drab, brown mudbrick of the Afghan capital, where menacing armored convoys travel the streets, and women and children often beg to survive.

Visitors with guns -- including foreign soldiers and Afghans with armed bodyguards -- are strictly forbidden, as are their donations. The circus school, which provides free classes, survives on money raised from its performances and donations from 15 countries.

Seventeen Afghan teachers give instruction in subjects like math, English and religion as well as theater, painting and circus tricks. There are about 120 permanent students, ages 4 to 13, but the number swells to 350 when state schools close for winter holiday.

One schoolroom -- a circular glass greenhouse -- is filled with a gaggle of girls, juggling tennis balls and bowling pins. In another room, boys stand on their hands and do acrobatic flips. Children sing to the accompaniment of teachers playing the harmonium and tabla drums.
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Afghan elders speak of war, not peace
GRAEME SMITH From Monday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

Rhetoric reveals tough nature of mending fences with Pakistan, GRAEME SMITH reports

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Hundreds of tribal elders gathered in Kandahar on the weekend, summoned to a cavernous hall with flickering electricity for what the government hoped would be a major step toward peace in this volatile region.

The idea sounded simple enough when described by Afghan President Hamid Karzai five months ago as he dined with his Pakistani counterpart, General Pervez Musharraf. They invoked the traditional concept of a peace jirga -- a tribal assembly of elders that takes decisions by consensus -- suggesting a group of respected people from both sides of the border should sit down to discuss ways of ending Taliban attacks.

At the Kandahar peace jirga Saturday, in preparation for the larger cross-border assembly to come, shouting, fist-waving and bitter words revealed the huge difficulties theprocess faces.

Almost every public figure in Afghanistan believes Pakistan is fomenting the insurgency in their country. Despite the government staffers handing out glossy posters featuring white doves and symbols of cross-border friendship, the Kandahar peace jirga sounded, at times, like a council of war.
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Planned projects will help children in war-torn nations like Afghanistanr
By GEOFF NIXON The Canadian Press
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TORONTO — The United Nations children’s agency says it needs $635 million to fund its emergency humanitarian programs this year.

In a document to be released today, UNICEF calls on member countries and individuals to donate money for its planned projects, which are expected to provide children in 33 countries with access to health care, education and clean water.

UNICEF receives no annual funding from UN member dues and must raise its finances through private donations and contributions by governments.

Among the nations listed in greatest need are Afghanistan and Sudan — two places that have been dealing with warring and unstable conditions for years, their children growing up in the crosshairs of conflict.

Afghanistan has been in a state of civil war since UN forces ousted the ruling Taliban party in November 2001.

Canada has about 2,500 troops on rotation in Afghanistan and has maintained a presence there since the war began.

According to UN indicators, the country is one of the worst — if not the worst — places to live in the world.

Nigel Fisher, president of UNICEF Canada, said although Afghans face a grim reality, there are also signs that things are getting better
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Opposition keen to debate Afghanistan, military purchases
The Conservatives? Not so ...
David ********, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen Published: Monday, January 29, 2007
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News about Afghanistan may no longer be front page or top of newscasts, but opposition politicians will make debate about the mission front and centre when Parliament returns.

MPs on both sides of the Commons are preparing for a political fight and positioning themselves in the public-relations battle.

In an attempt to boost support for Canada's Afghanistan mission, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has been out giving speeches that highlight the role Canadian soldiers are playing in road building, the construction of schools and improving health care for Afghans.
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Germans may restrict airborne data sharing in Afghanistan
Jan 29, 2007, 13:15 GMT
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Berlin - Germany would impose 'rules' on its sharing of aerial reconnaissance data with allies fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, according to a German Defence Ministry spokesman in Berlin on Monday.

Berlin is still mulling a NATO request for help from six German Tornado jets packed with cameras and intelligence-gathering equipment. Germany has deployed peacekeepers to Afghanistan, but insists they remain in relatively safe Kabul and the north.

The ministry said that under existing international rules, the Germans were allowed to pass data to the NATO allies in the south, but he added that such transfers would be 'regulated restrictively.'

Ulrich Wilhelm, the German government spokesman, said the German cabinet would decide at its meeting this week or next on the NATO request, while a vote would be taken in the German parliament at the end of February or the start of March on such a deployment.
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Taliban recruiters look to Pakistan
By RIAZ KHAN; and MATTHEW PENNINGTON The Associated Press
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SHABQADAR, Pakistan -- Near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, pride mixes with grief and anger over dozens of young men lost to a stepped-up recruiting drive for the Taliban.

Like the anti-Soviet rebels of the 1980s and the pre-Sept. 11 Taliban, the recruiters of today have turned to this cluster of about 25 ethnic Pashtun villages in search of volunteers.

The father of one dead enlistee says he feels honored, but with many of Shabqadar's young men dead or feared missing on the battlefield, mujahedeen recruiters are no longer welcome here.

A shopkeeper says 100 or more young men have gone missing, including his cousin, a 10th-grade student, who mysteriously left home during the summer vacation and is believed to have gone to fight.

People here are religious, and recruiters play on that sentiment, "recruiting the youth with raw minds," he said.

The shopkeeper, like many others interviewed, requested anonymity for his own safety.
More on link

Washington sending mobile taskforce for Afghanistan
* Force to arrive as NATO commander ends tenure Daily Times Monitor
Article Link

LAHORE: The US is sending to Afghanistan a mobile taskforce that the outgoing British commander of Nato forces, General David Richards, has been pleading for throughout his nine-month tenure, writes Christina Lamb.

According to The Sunday Times newspaper, the so-called theatre taskforce, which arrives as Richards ends his command next Sunday, will be based partly at Kandahar airport and partly in the east as a rapid reaction unit that can mobilise when troops are in difficulties.

“It’s bittersweet,” said a senior British officer. “We’d been pleading for one all year and now an American general is taking command, they send one.”

Last week has seen a flurry of activity from Washington, which has decided to focus its energies on what is being referred to as a “winnable war” in contrast to Iraq.

Aside from the theatre taskforce, the newspaper reports, the Pentagon has instructed a brigade of 3,200 men from the 10th Mountain Division to stay on in Afghanistan. Their tour of duty was due to end next month.
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Articles found 30 January, 2007

Extreme heat in army tanks endangers troops
TORONTO
Article Link

Canadian Press — The Canadian government is urgently seeking a cooling system for Leopard tanks stationed in Afghanistan to protect troops from the sweltering heat, CBC's The National reported Monday.

Summer temperatures can reach 50 C, and inside the tanks, which have no air conditioning, they can reach 65 C.

Government documents warn that the summer heat could not only cook the tanks and the soldiers, but also cause electronic and hydraulic failure.

“Without a cooling system, it will endanger the crew,” said Maj. Trevor Cadieu. “And I'm confident the leadership right now are looking at a solution to that. I think they've identified that as one of the critical requirements.”
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Increased attacks feared in Afghanistan
By AP January 30, 2007
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FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan -- The incoming commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan said yesterday he expects Taliban militants to launch more suicide attacks this year than in 2006, when militants set off a record 139 such bombings.

Maj.-Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said military leaders expect an increase in all kinds of attacks as the weather gets warmer.

"We're expecting an increase in the suicide bombers and some of the other tactics that they have believed are successful," he said. "So we expect to see that as well as the normal standoff-type attacks and harassing kind of attacks on Afghan government officials, Afghan nationals, security forces, as well as coalition forces."

Rodriguez, who takes command from Maj.-Gen. Benjamin Freakley on Friday, travelled to the eastern province of Paktika next to the Pakistan border yesterday to be briefed by military leaders and the provincial governor.

Paktika Gov. Mohammed Akram Akhpelwak told Rodriguez that Taliban militants had bases across the border in Pakistan and that he hoped U.S. forces could help stop the flow of fighters crossing into Paktika.

"If we just focus on one side of the border, we won't be successful," Akhpelwak told U.S. leaders.

Rodriguez called the border situation "harmful" to both Afghanistan and Pakistan. "We will continue to strengthen the security on the border, which is an important issue because of all the infiltration that occurs," he told the governor.

The Taliban last year launched a record number of attacks, and some 4,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
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Bring daughter home from Afghanistan
Kerri Drylie posted January 30, 2007
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of six other congressional Democrats showed up in Afghanistan this week to speak with President Hamid Karzai about plans for his country. This includes lots of money and more troops.

My daughter is among the 3,200 soldiers with the 10th Mountain, Third Brigade being kept an additional four months in Afghanistan. It was time for my daughter to come home. Her year was up. She is tired, physically and mentally. She misses her family. Because she was stationed in South Korea her previous tour, by the time she does get home -- safely, we pray -- she would not have seen her younger brother and sister in almost two years.

I hope Pelosi and other members of the House and Senate and, yes, even all of the citizens of this great country, appreciate the sacrifice my daughter and our family are making. I know my daughter is very proud of her country and is willing to serve -- even if that means being sent to Iraq. If my daughter needs to stay four more months to help reach our goals in Afghanistan, so be it. I have many, many pictures of the people, especially children, of Afghanistan, she has sent me over the past year. She says the country is beautiful, as are the people.

But after these four months, I want her back in the United States. I do not want her to go to Iraq.

Please, Ms. Pelosi, do what you can do to keep any more troops from going there -- especially those who have already served in Afghanistan.
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Dutch troops won't participate in destruction of poppy crops in Afghanistan
January 30, 2007
Article Link

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Dutch soldiers serving in the NATO force in Afghanistan will not take part in the destruction of opium crops because it is counterproductive to efforts to build public support for reconstruction, a government minister said.

The minister of development, Agnes van Ardenne, said late Monday that the ultimate purpose of Dutch participation in the NATO stabilization force in Afghanistan is to promote reconstruction.

"That's only possible if the population is working with us, but the population won't do that if people see that we, as it were, are playing along with the game of destroying the income stream, the only income stream of very many farmers," Van Ardenne said on the television program Nova.

The cultivation of opium poppies reached record levels in Afghanistan in 2006, and U.S. officials have focused attention on plans to destroy the crop. Opium sales are believed to help fund the Taliban.

Opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 per cent to more than 6,000 tonnes, enough to supply 90 per cent of the world's heroin.

In a blow to the U.S. anti-drug plan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said earlier this month he would not allow a Colombian-style spraying program to eradicate the poppies, ordering them plowed under instead.

Afghan officials said the cabinet was concerned about the impact of herbicides on humans, legitimate crops and animals.
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Suicide bomber targets Afghan army convoy in western Afghanistan, 5 wounded
The Associated Press Tuesday, January 30, 2007  KABUL, Afghanistan
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A suicide car bomber attacked an Afghan army convoy in western Afghanistan Tuesday, wounding three soldiers and two civilians, officials said.

The bomber blew himself up next to a bus carrying the soldiers near the airport in the western city of Herat, said Gen. Fazludin Sayar, deputy corps commander in western Afghanistan.

Three soldiers and two civilians were wounded, Sayar said. The bomber died in the blast.

Suicide bombings have so far been rare in western Afghanistan. Militants have mostly launched their suicide attacks in the country's south and east.

The new commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan warned Monday that militants are likely to launch a greater number of suicide attacks this year.
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Afghanistan Will Get 600 Million Euro EU Aid Package (Update2)
By Ed Johnson
Article Link


Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union pledged 600 million euros ($777 million) during the next four years to tackle opium production in Afghanistan, overhaul the country's judiciary and improve health care.

The package, presented at a meeting of the so-called EU ministerial troika yesterday in Berlin, followed the White House's pledge last week to seek $10.6 billion from Congress to train and equip Afghan soldiers and rebuild the nation.

``The EU stands by Afghanistan,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the EU presidency, said after yesterday's talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also attended the meeting.
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Latest wave of troops leave N.B. for Afghanistan
Updated Mon. Jan. 29 2007 11:11 PM ET Canadian Press
Article Link

CFB GAGETOWN, N.B. -- Relatives of the latest group of soldiers heading to Afghanistan say they're proud of their loved ones, but they are deeply concerned about what awaits them in the war-weary country.

There were tears and hugs as 120 troops gathered in a drill hall at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown on Monday for a last goodbye before starting their six-month tour of duty. Some 1,200 soldiers from the New Brunswick base will be part of the current troop rotation, involving close to 2,500 soldiers.

Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters told reporters they support the mission to restore peace and stability to the Central Asian country, but they are afraid for the soldiers' safety.

"He knows we love him, we're proud of him and to stay safe," said Faith Sharpe, whose 21-year-old son, Pte. Joel Trickey, is among the latest wave of troops to deploy to Afghanistan.

"We're praying for him."

Her husband, Cpl. Earl Sharpe, who is also a member of the military, said he is "concerned but proud" about his stepson's mission.

Sharpe said he's confident the troops have been well trained.

"They should be fine," he said.
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New JTF2 site part of military overhaul
Revamped commando units to fight terror by land, sea and air
David ******** The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Article Link

The military will move its Ottawa-based Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit to Trenton, Ont., as it prepares to launch a further expansion of the country's special forces.

Besides moving the 600-member unit from its current location in Dwyer Hill, near Richmond, the military will position special forces equipment at sites around the country to allow for a quicker response to a terror attack.

It will also further expand the recently formed special forces regiment based at CFB Petawawa, as well as create a new Marine Commando Regiment to be based at Comox, B.C.

The plans will be announced when the Harper government releases its long-awaited "Canada First" defence strategy. No date has been set for its release.

JTF2 will complete the move to its new home at CFB Trenton by 2010. Until then, it will continue using its 80-hectare Dwyer Hill installation.

Positioning JTF2 at one of the country's main airbases allows it immediate access to aircraft for domestic and overseas missions, military officers say.
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Extended Afghan mission planned, critics say
Opposition cites plans as proof troops will stay until 2011
GLORIA GALLOWAY
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs say documents generated by the Department of National Defence prove that the government intends to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan long after the current commitment to the NATO-led force ends in 2009.

A communications plan drawn up by General Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, in May of last year outlines Canada's "five-year information strategy" for Afghanistan.

The opposition charges that the duration of the strategy indicates an intent to maintain a Canadian presence in the war-torn country until 2011.

And while Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said "we never leave until our work is done," briefing notes supplied to Defence Minister Dennis O'Connor suggest that the job won't be finished until late 2010.
More on link
 
The big Afghanistan push comes to shove
January 30, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/0,,2001620,00.html

Overshadowed by President George Bush's controversial, last-chance bid to salvage American honour in Iraq, the US is mounting a parallel military and reconstruction "surge" in Afghanistan ahead of an anticipated Taliban spring offensive. But Washington is also encountering some familiar Iraq-style obstacles: reluctant allies, meddlesome neighbours, a weak central government and the realisation that time is not on its side.

The US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice underscored the administration's newfound sense of urgency at a hastily convened Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels last Friday. "Every one of us must take a hard look at what more we can do to help the Afghan people and to support one another," Ms Rice said.

"We need greater commitments to reconstruction, to development, to fight the poppy economy. We need additional forces on the ground - ready to fight. And we need to provide greater support for the development of Afghan institutions, especially security forces ... If there is to be a spring offensive, it must be our offensive," Ms Rice said.

It would be as much a diplomatic and economic campaign as a military assault directed at Islamist extremists.

Reversing a recent trend towards disengagement, the US has pledged an additional $8.6bn (£4.3bn) for police and army training, plus $2bn more for road-building, electricity and counter-narcotics efforts. And some of the 3,200 US Mountain Division troops whose tour has been extended will form the go-anywhere "theatre tactical reserve" long demanded by the Nato force commander, British general David Richards. "It will be used where he best wants to make a difference - his force, his choice where he employs it," said US major-general Benjamin Freakley.

Washington's Afghan surge is a bid to head off a Taliban campaign, backed by al-Qaida, Pakistani and other foreign fighters, that claims to have 4,000 suicide bombers primed to attack - and comes after escalating violence last year. But it also draws on the Iraq experience and a resulting determination not to "lose" Afghanistan too...

The American attempt in Brussels to squeeze more help out of the European Nato allies, like a similar US-British effort at last November's Riga summit, appears to have little immediate impact. Lithuania has answered the call. Peer pressure is growing on France, Germany, Italy and Spain, who are accused of falling short in war-fighting and aid.

Ms Rice hinted after the meeting that more European cash and the easing of national caveats on in-country troop deployments might be forthcoming. Talks were held in Berlin yesterday on future EU-wide funding. But there is still no sign of the 6,000 reinforcements Nato is estimated to need...

Discarding An Afghan Opportunity
By Selig S. Harrison, Washington Post, Jan. 30
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901448.html

The British Raj learned the hard way a century ago that the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest and historically dominant ethnic group, will unite to fight a foreign occupation force simply because it is foreign. Applying this lesson to the Afghan crisis today, British generals have been attempting in vain to change a high-profile U.S.-NATO military strategy that is helping the Taliban consolidate Pashtun support in southern Afghanistan...

The British model for a new approach to defusing the Taliban insurgency has unfolded recently in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. Following bitter clashes last summer between British and Taliban forces, the Musa Qala tribal council, acting with British approval and backed by Helmand's governor, Mohammed Daud, negotiated a cease-fire in early September that led to a 15-point peace agreement. The accord provided for an end to the Taliban offensive, the withdrawal of British forces and the creation of a local militia that would replace the ineffectual central government police and army units in the district. After peace prevailed for 35 days, the British pulled out on Oct. 17.

Peace still prevails. Nevertheless, Karzai, under intense U.S. pressure, fired Daud and appointed a new governor who disowned the accord as a sellout to the Taliban.

The British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan stands by the agreement, but U.S. spokesmen say that his American successor will order British forces to resume fighting in Musa Qala when he takes over shortly.

Attacking the peace deal, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann declared that "if you have an area that is under the Afghan government flag but is not under the actual authority of the Afghan government, then you are losing in a very big way." Other critics emphasize that Taliban fighters were not dThe British model for a new approach to defusing the Taliban insurgency has unfolded recently in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. Following bitter clashes last summer between British and Taliban forces, the Musa Qala tribal council, acting with British approval and backed by Helmand's governor, Mohammed Daud, negotiated a cease-fire in early September that led to a 15-point peace agreement. The accord provided for an end to the Taliban offensive, the withdrawal of British forces and the creation of a local militia that would replace the ineffectual central government police and army units in the district. After peace prevailed for 35 days, the British pulled out on Oct. 17.

Peace still prevails. Nevertheless, Karzai, under intense U.S. pressure, fired Daud and appointed a new governor who disowned the accord as a sellout to the Taliban.

The British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan stands by the agreement, but U.S. spokesmen say that his American successor will order British forces to resume fighting in Musa Qala when he takes over shortly.

Attacking the peace deal, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann declared that "if you have an area that is under the Afghan government flag but is not under the actual authority of the Afghan government, then you are losing in a very big way." Other critics emphasize that Taliban fighters were not dThe British model for a new approach to defusing the Taliban insurgency has unfolded recently in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. Following bitter clashes last summer between British and Taliban forces, the Musa Qala tribal council, acting with British approval and backed by Helmand's governor, Mohammed Daud, negotiated a cease-fire in early September that led to a 15-point peace agreement. The accord provided for an end to the Taliban offensive, the withdrawal of British forces and the creation of a local militia that would replace the ineffectual central government police and army units in the district. After peace prevailed for 35 days, the British pulled out on Oct. 17.

Peace still prevails. Nevertheless, Karzai, under intense U.S. pressure, fired Daud and appointed a new governor who disowned the accord as a sellout to the Taliban.

The British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan stands by the agreement, but U.S. spokesmen say that his American successor will order British forces to resume fighting in Musa Qala when he takes over shortly.

Attacking the peace deal, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann declared that "if you have an area that is under the Afghan government flag but is not under the actual authority of the Afghan government, then you are losing in a very big way." Other critics emphasize that Taliban fighters were not disarmed under the agreement...

For three centuries the Afghan state has been just barely a state, and ethnic and tribal communities paid obeisance to Kabul only if it accorded them autonomy. The communist regime installed by Moscow in 1978 aroused bitter opposition by attempting to centralize overnight. Now the U.S.-backed Karzai government is making a similar mistake by rushing to create a centralized regime instead of keying the process to the gradual development of a national economic infrastructure.

The central government has a critical role to play in combating the Taliban, but primarily through more effective economic assistance, with less accompanying corruption, not through military intervention that bypasses the tribal structure. The fledgling national police and army have a role in areas where tribal leaders want their help. But they are tainted in the eyes of many Pashtuns by their identification with a Kabul regime dominated by non-Pashtun ethnic rivals.

In 2001 the United States lined up with the Tajik ethnic minority, whose small military force, the Northern Alliance, helped dislodge the Pashtun-based Taliban and has subsequently dominated the Karzai government. Tajik generals and their proxies still control the army as well as key secret police and intelligence agencies hated by the Pashtuns. Karzai, a Pashtun, has attempted to soften Tajik domination with Pashtun appointments to top security jobs, but the real power remains in the hands of a U.S.-backed Tajik clique.

The Taliban is effectively exploiting Pashtun dissatisfaction with Kabul, recruiting many of its fighters from disaffected tribes in the Ghilzai branch of the Pashtuns, who resent the favoritism Karzai has shown to higher-status tribes such as his own Durranis. Mullah Omar, the key Taliban leader, is a Ghilzai...

Canadian Afghanistan update you didn't read
Flit, Jan. 29
http://www.snappingturtle.net/flit/archives/2007_01_29.html#006049

In the "News you didn't read in your weekend papers" column, it has been over two months since the last Canadian fatality in Afghanistan.
http://www.icasualties.org/oef/byNationality.aspx?hndQry=Canada

No, it's not going to last forever. Let's hope it lasts as long as possible, though.

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found 31 January, 2007

'We have to act faster,' CIDA says
Officials concede Canadian aid flows slowly in Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

BAZAAR-E-PANJWAI, AFGHANISTAN — At a dusty camp outside Kandahar city, a team from the Senlis Council, a European group, spent a recent afternoon handing out emergency rations. They didn't have enough to feed all the displaced people, and young men chased their truck as it pulled away, the ragged crowd scrabbling for food.

"Look at this," said Edward McCormick, 47, an epidemiologist from British Columbia. "Where is CIDA?"

The question comes up frequently. Last spring, the Canadian International Development Agency promised to spend $100-million a year in Afghanistan, making the country the biggest recipient of Canada's foreign aid. But until recently, little of that money was visible in Kandahar.

The assistance was slowed by violence in the south, officials say, and CIDA was forced to move cautiously as the agency set up programs in the midst of a war, with Afghan partners who are notoriously unreliable.
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Bin Laden's brother-in-law killed
POSTED: 1246 GMT (2046 HKT), January 31, 2007
Article Link

The brother-in-law and former best friend of Osama bin Laden was killed while on a business trip to Madagascar, family members have told CNN.

Jamal Khalifa's family told CNN they were not sure of the details of the Saudi businessman's death but said all his possessions had been stolen.

Khalifa had arranged the trip in order to straighten out his affairs regarding a heavy plant equipment business he owned on the Indian Ocean island.

He had not visited Madagascar in five or six years and was concerned his equipment had been taken without payment, his family said.

Khalifa had also at one time worked to free a Madagascan friend from internment at Guantanamo Bay.

Khalifa's family told CNN they did not believe Saudi claims he had been killed by locals.

The Associated Press, quoting a telephone interview with Khalifa's brother, Malek Khalifa, said 25-30 armed men had broken into his house and killed him as he slept.

CNN's Nic Robertson said Khalifa's death raised questions over whether it happened as reported by Saudi officials, or, as his family feared, through more sinister means.

"Was he killed by bin Laden's associates for speaking out against the al Qaeda leader or, equally feasibly, by an international intelligence agency settling an old score?" said Robertson.

Khalifa had recently denied claims that he funded the Philippine-based Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf.
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Germany calls on Afghanistan to step up responsibility
Article Link

BEIJING, Jan. 31 -- The German Foreign Minister has called on Afghanistan to step up and take "ownership" of its challenges, and future. The remarks came at an international conference for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in Berlin.

    Speaking at the two-day conference, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on participants to do everything possible to encourage Afghan responsibility.

    Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Foreign Minister, said, "I believe we must do everything -- even more so than in the past -- to encourage Afghan responsibility, 'Afghan Ownership'. In my view, the 2002 Bonn agreement on the reconstruction of Afghanistan remains as important today as it was at the beginning of our discussions."

    The Bonn Agreement was endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1154. It set the course for Afghanistan's post-war recovery.

    The German foreign minister also urged Afghanistan's neighbors to contribute more to the country's stability.
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CIDA pumps millions into Afghanistan
But just how much is unclear
By MURRAY BREWSTER, CP
Article Link

KANDAHAR -- The Canadian International Development Agency opened the floodgates of funding yesterday, pumping millions of dollars into irrigation and canal reconstruction programs in rural Kandahar province.

But precisely how much the federal development office is contributing became a matter of confusion yesterday.

$31.8M

At a contract-signing ceremony with village leaders, Afghanistan's minister of rural rehabilitation and development, Mohammad Ehsan Zia, thanked Canada and the U.S. for contributing what he said was $31.8 million and $5.9 million respectively.

But later, a CIDA representative contradicted the minister, saying the Canadian contribution would be $3.1 million. "It is just a matter of language," CIDA officer Helene Kadi said. "It was a typo."

The Americans -- through USAID -- would provide $500,000, she said.

NOT INVITED

No representatives of the Canadian government, CIDA or otherwise, were present at the announcement. They weren't invited, Kadi said.

The slip-up is another illustration of the befuddlement that seems to be gripping the reconstruction effort.

CIDA claims it has -- or is about to -- spend as much as $65 million on redevelopment initiatives. Yet until lately there have been very few visible signs of that investment, almost one year after Canadian troops deployed to the volatile southern region.
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Warrants Issued for 13 CIA Operatives in Germany Kidnapping
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, January 31, 2007; 6:38 AM
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BERLIN, Jan. 31 -- German prosecutors on Wednesday said they have issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA operatives suspected of kidnapping a German citizen in the Balkans in 2004 and taking him to a secret prison in Afghanistan before realizing several months later that they had the wrong person.

The German arrest warrants, filed in Munich, are the second case in which prosecutors have filed criminal charges against CIA employees involved in counterterrorism operations in Europe. European investigators acknowledge that it is highly unlikely the U.S. spies -- most of whom worked undercover or using false identities -- would ever be handed over to face trial. But the prosecutions have strained U.S.-European relations and underscored deep differences over how to fight terrorism.
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Americans Reconsider Afghanistan Mission
January 31, 2007
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A majority now opposes the conflict almost everyone deemed sensible.

Mario Canseco - In the days that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an evident outpouring of goodwill towards the United States grasped many countries, exemplified mostly by unnamed persons carefully leaving flowers and drawings on the steps of American embassies and consulates. U.S. president George W. Bush’s approval rating experienced one of the most dramatic shifts ever recorded, as the country’s armed forces prepared to enter Afghanistan. Before Sept. 11, the country had been featured in the news mostly because of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan.

From the start, most Americans supported their federal administration’s decision to wage conflict against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. This month, for the first time since the campaign against terrorism began, a majority of Americans expressed opposition to the war in Afghanistan. Clearly, the Bush administration has kept its primary foreign policy focus on Iraq—from the controversial conclusions of the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group to Bush’s recent call for an increase in troop levels—and spent little time discussing its goals and achievements in Afghanistan.
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Troops Lacked Equipment for Iraq, Afghanistan, Inspector Says
By Tony Capaccio
Article Link

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced shortages of body armor, armored vehicles, electronic jammers and heavy machine guns because of flaws in the way the Defense Department deploys personnel, according to the Pentagon Inspector General.

``Service members were not always equipped to effectively complete their missions,'' Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble said in the unclassified summary of a classified report to Congress released today. ``Service members performed missions without the proper equipment, used informal procedures to obtain equipment and canceled or postponed missions while waiting to receive equipment,'' the summary said.

The report verifies claims made since late 2002 by many Democratic lawmakers, some soldiers and parents that U.S. troops on occasion were poorly equipped to counter the insurgency in Iraq. The debate began in late 2003 with complaints of body armor shortages that evolved in 2004 to complaints about armored vehicle shortages and devices to jam improvised roadside bombs.

Lawmakers this week, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Senator Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat, expressed concern that the 21,500 additional and Marines to be sent to Baghdad and Al-Anbar province might not have adequate equipment.
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]Article Link
Aussie police to be sent to Afghanistan
January 31, 2007 - 9:49AM

Australian Federal Police officers are to be based in Afghanistan to assist local police over the next two years.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison said two officers would be stationed in the capital Kabul to mentor senior police and act as high-level advisers to the Afghan National Police (ANP).

Another two AFP agents will work in advisory roles with the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) in Jalalabad, in the country's east.

Afghanistan is now a major source of heroin.

"These positions are advisory roles, and form part of the Australian government's overall response to multinational efforts to improve the stability and security in the country," Senator Ellison said in a statement.

Australia currently has some 500 troops based in south-central Afghanistan assisting with reconstruction.
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NATO doubts Taliban can mount major offensive
RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press
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KABUL — Taliban militants are expected to step up their attacks in Afghanistan soon, but the militia has lost strength and does not have the capability to launch a “spring offensive,” a NATO spokesman said Wednesday.

Instead, it will be NATO troops who will be launching the real offensive, Brig. Gen. Richard Nugee said, referring to upcoming military operations but giving no details.

“We do not believe that there will be a spring offensive by the Taliban,” Gen. Nugee said. “There will be an upward surge in violence as the weather gets better ... I don't think it will amount to an offensive. An offensive is a very symbolic phrase, it means a huge upsurge in a very short amount of time. We just don't think that will happen.”

Last year, the Taliban launched a record number of attacks, and some 4,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence, according to a tally by The Associated Press based on reports from Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led coalition officials. Militants also launched a record 139 suicide attacks in 2006, according to the U.S. military.
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Reinforcing NATO mission
Article Link


DUE TO the single-minded focus of the national media on our troops and their activities, Canadians might be forgiven for thinking they have been left holding the bag in Afghanistan.

We don’t hear much about what our NATO allies are doing, so it is perhaps easy to conclude that "not much" is the answer. Some Canadians are also under the mistaken impression that the Americans have largely abandoned Afghanistan militarily to their allies, while they send their soldiers to fight in Iraq.

But the truth is the U.S. has 24,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan – 10 times more than Canada, and more than all other NATO partners combined. That’s not about to change. Fears – echoed by Canadian Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor – that President George W. Bush’s recently announced troop surge in Iraq would translate into a reduction in the U.S. Afghan commitment have proven unfounded.

Late last week, at a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, the U.S. signalled it was redoubling its efforts in Afghanistan – pledging $8.6 billion more on security, including $2 billion towards reconstruction.

This is a significant boost, considering the U.S. has spent a total of $14 billion in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban five years ago.

Furthermore, 3,200 alpine-trained U.S. soldiers are seeing their tour of duty in Afghanistan extended by four months. Based in Kandahar along with the Canadian contingent, these combat-experienced forces are tasked with responding to military emergencies such as Taliban incursions, which should free up their Canadian counterparts to do more in the way of policing and reconstruction.
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Heightened security in Afghanistan ahead of Ashura holy
Tuesday January 30, 2007 (0110 PST)
Article Link

HERAT: Security was tight in Afghanistan's cities, particularly in Herat, ahead of the Islamic sacred day of Ashura to prevent a repeat of clashes between Sunnis and Shiites that left six dead last year.
The capital Kabul also had extra police and soldiers on the streets on Sunday, on top of the already heavy security in place to prevent attacks by militants linked to the insurgent Islamic Taliban movement, police said.

In Herat, in the west of the country, patrols were stepped up, about 500 extra policemen were ready for deployment Monday and religious leaders were asked to control their followers, authorities said.

Banners that might inflame tensions had been pulled down after similar ones sparked last year's street battles, and public gatherings had been banned, they said.
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Forces want to scrap gear, save for new
Aircraft, destroyer, refuelling ships to be eliminated under defence plan
David ********, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Article Link

The Canadian Forces is recommending getting rid of ships, surveillance aircraft and up to 25 per cent of its Griffon helicopter fleet to help pay for new equipment in the future, according to the Conservative government's defence strategy obtained by the Citizen.

The cuts would include six Aurora maritime patrol aircraft, one destroyer and the navy's two aging refuelling and resupply ships. The elimination of the resupply vessels will mean the navy is going to face at least a two-year period in which it will not have its own means to refuel vessels at sea.

The government's "Canada First" defence strategy also highlights the previously announced plans to buy medium-lift helicopters, tactical and strategic airlift planes, aerial drones, search and rescue and northern utility aircraft.

The military will also look at the replacement of the CF-18 fighter, according to the strategy, which is not yet public.

But those new purchases come at a cost.

"To make these much needed investments possible, the Canadian Forces will reduce a number of platforms, including Aurora surveillance aircraft and Griffon utility aircraft," according to the strategy.

In the document, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says the erosion of military capabilities is "far worse" than originally anticipated.

"Reversing this decline will take time and involve a number of difficult decisions," writes Mr. O'Connor. "Moreover, we must consider the pressing needs of the military against other government priorities."

The first of the Griffon helicopters will be removed from the flight line starting this year. The 20- to 25-per-cent reduction of the 85 Griffons will free personnel and money to support the purchase of Boeing Chinook helicopters.

As it gets rid of the Auroras, the air force will purchase approximately 12 aerial drones to be located at Canadian Forces Base Comox in British Columbia and CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia for domestic surveillance and overseas operations. The first of those will be in operation starting in 2008. The purchase of longer-range drones would be considered in the future.

Work will be stopped on the ongoing $900-million modernization program for the Aurora.

Another air force plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on a structural life extension for the aging Auroras will also be cancelled. The remaining Auroras will be re-assigned to Arctic sovereignty patrols.
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Afghanistan's local insurgency
Seth G. Jones Published: January 31, 2007
Article Link

WASHINGTON: The rising violence and the near certainty of a Taliban spring offensive have triggered calls for an increase in U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. But a military strategy is not likely to succeed. Counterinsurgencies are almost always won by establishing a viable and legitimate government at the local level that can win popular support.

In Afghanistan, all politics is local. The country's history is littered with empires that failed to understand this reality, from Alexander the Great more than 2,000 ago to the British and Soviet empires more recently.

The Taliban and its allies certainly understand the importance of local politics. They have successfully re-emerged by co-opting or threatening local villagers, and promising better governance and security than the current Afghan government. On my most recent trip to southern Afghanistan in January, I saw that the message of the Taliban clearly resonated with a growing number of locals in southern and eastern parts of the country.

Afghans are frustrated by the lack of development over the past five years, and unhappy with widespread government corruption. This makes the Taliban's threat real and significant. The Taliban and its allies have a strong presence in local villages throughout such provinces as Kandahar and Helmand, and are preparing sustained operations.

It is telling that the Taliban's primary target is not U.S. or NATO forces, but local Afghans. This reflects the understanding that the local population represents the center of gravity, as Mao Zedong famously wrote.
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Afghan Contractor Killed in Attack on Forward Operating Base
American Forces Press Service
Article Link

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2007 – Taliban insurgents attacked Forward Operating Base Bari Kowt in Afghanistan’s Kunar province early Jan. 27, killing one civilian contractor and injuring three others.
Coalition forces took rocket and small-arms fire from two nearby ridges and returned fire with 120 mm mortars and 155 mm artillery. The base received minimal damage from the attack, although two tents were destroyed.

During the attack, Taliban insurgents killed one Afghan contractor. Three Afghan contractors received superficial wounds and were taken to a coalition hospital for medical treatment.

No coalition or Afghan military forces were injured during the attack.
End

ROUNDUP: Afghan, NATO Forces Kill 30 Taliban In Southern Afghanistan
Article Link

Afghan and NATO forces attacked a hideout for the Taliban in volatile southern Helmand province, killing 30 insurgents including their commander, officials said Wednesday.

The offensive took place in Kajaki district on Tuesday morning after the forces got information about the whereabouts of the insurgents, provincial police Chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhil told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Afghan police and NATO ground forces attacked a compound with small arms fire and heavy artillery while NATO aircraft were pounding the compound from the air," Mullahkhail said.

He said the ten-hour clash left 30 Taliban dead, including their district level commander, Mullah Sher Agha. No Afghan or NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops were hurt in the battle.

The ISAF spokesman in Kabul confirmed that there was a engagement with insurgents in the district in which close air support was also called in.

The spokesman said that there were some casualties inflicted on the Taliban but he could not provide a death toll number.
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From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE AFGHANISTAN COMPACT


January 31, 2007
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement on the first anniversary of the adoption of the Afghanistan Compact in London, England on January 31, 2006:

"Today marks the first anniversary of the Afghanistan Compact, a milestone agreement between the United Nations (UN), the Government of Afghanistan and the international community.

“Backed by the UN Security Council and based on the priorities and needs of the Afghan government, this five-year plan sets clear goals and timelines in key areas of security, governance and development. Canadians can be proud that our important work in Afghanistan is guided by this international agreement.

“We have joined with the international community to help the people of Afghanistan build a better future. Through programs that improve access to schools, healthcare, infrastructure and small loans to start new businesses, to name a few, we are ensuring that the Afghan people have the tools and capacity to bring about long-term and sustainable progress.

“Rebuilding Afghanistan after decades of war and oppression takes time. We must remember that development cannot occur in the absence of stability and security. Our brave men and women of the Canadian Forces are working alongside our development workers and diplomats to ensure that progress can continue.

“The results of our efforts thus far are very encouraging and demonstrate a tremendous commitment by the people of Afghanistan and the international community to succeed. On this important one-year anniversary we reaffirm our commitment to the people of Afghanistan and stand proud of our achievements to date.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Prime Minister’s Office - Communications
[
 
NATO's shame in Afghanistan
Globe and Mail, by LEWIS MACKENZIE, January 31
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20070131/CONATO31/Comment/comment/comment/2/2/2/

For the past month, the news media have been replete with forecasts of a looming spring offensive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Open sources have guesstimated that as many as 15,000 of them are mobilizing just over the Pakistani border. Many are "tier one" (really dedicated in the jihad against the rest of us) and the remainder "tier two" (in it for the money). NATO is deemed to be "preparing" for this offensive and continues to call for a modest injection of additional troops to deal with the increased threat.

There was rejoicing on the weekend over the news that a 3,500-strong brigade of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division (headquartered just across the St. Lawrence from Kingston) will stay in Afghanistan for an additional four months. One of the brigade's combat battalions of 650 soldiers is to be relocated to Kandahar airfield as a rapid-reaction force. The other two can also be deployed to the south if necessary. There was also talk of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization providing a mixed international brigade of as many as 3,500 troops to help out in the south, but no countries have yet stepped forward to volunteer their soldiers

So, we have 650 additional troops from the 10th Mountain Division. We have about 2,500 additional Mountain Division troops standing by in other parts of Afghanistan who, in the event of a Taliban offensive, will find themselves unable to redeploy to the south as a result of modest Taliban diversionary attacks aimed at freezing U.S. soldiers in place. And we have a phantom NATO brigade of 3,500 troops from various countries yet to be identified, who have not trained together and presumably employ different tactics (assuming that some ex-Soviet satellite countries and recent NATO members would be involved). Conclusion? NATO has found 650 extra soldiers to help thwart the Taliban's spring "offensive."

As an armchair general nearly 10 time zones away from Kandahar and with no inside access to military intelligence, I find the response from NATO's political headquarters to the so-called Taliban spring offensive deplorable and a threat to NATO's very survival as the world's leading military alliance. No military commander sits around and waits for the enemy to take the offensive. When you are invited to a knife fight, you show up at the back door with a gun...

There are about 800,000 troops available within the expanded NATO membership. About 4 per cent of them are in Afghanistan, and the alliance is "concerned" and "preparing" for a Taliban spring offensive! Will someone please give me a break -- if anyone is going on the offensive, it should be NATO, and it shouldn't be waiting for spring.

Unfortunately, thanks to a lot of talk and empty promises by most NATO members at the political level, the military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan have little choice. The time for diplomatic niceties is long past. If we are serious about rebuilding Afghanistan, we have to eliminate the security threat that stands in the way of that undertaking. That won't be achieved with 650 additional troops and handing the initiative to the enemy.

Mark
Ottawa
 
Kandahar PRT holds change of command
ISAF news release # 2007-077, 29 Jan 07
Article Link

During a change of command yesterday at the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) at Camp Nathan Smith, Lt. Col. Bob Chamberlain assumed command of the PRT from Lt. Col. Simon Hetherington, who has led the PRT since July.

“I am very proud to be taking command of this world class PRT,” said Chamberlain. “I am looking forward to building on the momentum that the previous rotation has gained and taking the reconstruction of Afghanistan to a new level.”

During the past six months, the PRT has assisted with:

    * 9 village medical outreach patrols that treated more than 2,500 patients
    * repairing 16 schools, re-opening 2 schools, and repairing 2 playgrounds
    * awarding nearly $3.7 million in contracts for Civil-Military Cooperation and engineering projects
    * providing training to 195 Afghan National Police and 835 Afghan National Auxiliary Police
    * 329 patrols in Kandahar Province
    * 31 assists from the PRT’s Quick Reaction Force, reacting to everything from suicide bombings to vehicle recovery calls



Committee says pressure on army reserves likely to create a problem in 2009
Bill Graveland, Canadian Press, 1 Feb 07
Article Link

A continued reliance on army reserve units to fill a growing need for fresh troops in Afghanistan could create a shortfall if Canada's mission is extended through 2009, the Senate committee on national security and defence was told Thursday.  Col. Art Wriedt, commander of the 41 Canadian Bridge Group, said as many as 220 soldiers are already in line to be rotated into Afghanistan in the first part of 2008, but 2009 "is going to be very problematic." He said that makes recruiting new reservists key.  There is no formal program for that, and the job has been primarily left to individual units. But since going to Afghanistan is voluntary for reservists, a continuation of the war could result in a dwindling supply of those willing to go.  It could also create training problems, said Lt.-Col. Tom Manley, commanding officer of the Calgary Highlanders, a reserve infantry regiment that is scheduled to send 90 of its 230 members to Afghanistan in 2008.  "With so many people leaving I have few people staying behind," Manley told the committee. "I will have almost no sergeants or warrant officers left behind and very few master corporals.  It will be very difficult indeed to train my regiment to generate forces for the next operation (in 2009). I don't know what the answer is." ....



Plenty of Afghan reconstruction info on internet: minister
CBC online, 1 Feb 07
Article Link

Canada has pledged to spend about $100 million to help Afghanistan rebuild itself and the federal government website is the best place for details, the minister in charge of international development said Thursday.  Josée Verner, minister of international co-operation, said in question period in Ottawa that the government is being accountable for funding it has announced for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.  Michael Ignatieff, a Toronto Liberal MP, asked Verner how the government is tracking its reconstruction money in the troubled country.  "Canada has earmarked millions of dollars for development [in] Afghanistan but we are completely in the dark about how that money is being spent," Ignatieff said in French.  "Can the minister of international co-operation tell us what accountability measures are in place to ensure that the money invested in reconstruction is properly spent and getting to the Afghan people?" he asked.  Verner said the answer is a few clicks away.  "As you know, the Canadian government has made a commitment to helping with reconstruction in Afghanistan," she said.  "I would invite the member to consult the internet site to see what we are doing to help Afghanistan and you will see the results that we have obtained." ....



CARE Canada may establish humanitarian presence in Kandahar
Doug Schmidt, CanWest News Service, 31 Jan 07
Article Link

CARE Canada, one of the most vocal domestic critics of Canada's current military mission to fight insurgents and deliver direct aid to Afghans, is sending its own delegation in the spring to investigate establishing a humanitarian presence in Kandahar Province, where most of Canada's soldiers are deployed.  CARE Canada president and CEO A. John Watson, whose organization funds a half-billion dollars annually in projects aimed at the poor in 70 countries, wants to gauge the possibility of launching an Afghan "pro-poor investment fund" similar to those in other countries.  The program funds small rural enterprises that would bolster the country's ability to feed itself as well as re-establish former export markets.  "I don't know if it will be possible for us to operate in Kandahar, independent of what the military is doing," said Watson, who has been outspoken in suggesting the danger posed for humanitarian workers when blurring the line between those who fight and those who deliver aid.  What Canada is doing now in Kandahar, with material aid being brought by armed soldiers directly to villagers, "breaks all the rules," he said ....



Britain to send 800 more troops to southern Afghanistan
CBC online, 1 Feb 07
Article Link

Britain will increase its military presence in southern Afghanistan by about 800 troops to 5,800 this summer, Defence Secretary Des Browne said Thursday.  But Britain's overall deployment in Afghanistan will only increase by 300 since the military also will reduce its manpower in Kabul, the capital, by 500, he said.  The Taliban and other insurgents are expected to resume heavier attacks on Afghan and foreign troops this spring to undermine Afghan President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government.  To prepare for that, the United States is donating equipment and weapons to the Afghan army to improve its ability to defend the country on its own and to one day allow NATO-led forces to pull back.  Browne said Britain's military commitment to southern Afghanistan will be increased by about 800 troops by the end of this summer, bringing the total British deployment in Helmand province to 5,800. British soldiers have faced fierce resistance from Taliban militia in Helmand, where most of Britain's 46 fatalities in Afghanistan have occurred ....



Afghan Parliament Grants Immunity To War Criminals
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1 Feb 07
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Afghanistan's parliament has granted immunity to all Afghans involved in the country's conflicts during the last quarter century despite calls by human rights groups for war crimes trials, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports.  The immunity is part of a national stability plan that says that "all those political and belligerent sides who were involved one way or the other during the 2 1/2 decades of war will not be prosecuted legally and judicially."  Both critics and supporters of the move say it covers fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar -- who now heads his own militant group.  Mohammad Mohaqeq -- a former mujahedin leader and one of the key legislators behind the amnesty -- told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan today that it is an attempt to bring peace and reconciliation to Afghan society.  "This was approved [on January 31] with an absolute majority of votes," said Mohaqeq, who finished third among 18 names on the Afghan presidential ballot in 2004. "It mainly says that all of those who were involved in the 2 1/2 decades of war, should [work] together and join the national reconciliation."  But human rights groups say bringing war criminals to justice -- including some members of parliament and senior government officials -- is vital for peace ....



Royal Engineers prepare for vital Afghan dam upgrade
New Civil Engineer web page, 2 Feb 07
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British Army engineers in Afghanistan are preparing to deliver a desperately needed upgrade to the vital Kajaki Dam, the main source of power and water for the Helmland province.  The dam is buried in the Sangin Valley, nicknamed "the heart of darkness" because of its Taliban occupancy – the dam has been transformed into a major battlefield as the Taliban and coalition forces fight to keep control of it. The current turbine that regulates flow of collected rainfall will be repaired and a second turbine fitted to boost the electricity output that accounts for 50% of Helmand’s power.  “Better turbines allow adjustment of the flow of water through the dam. That dam collects all the water over the rainy season, which is about four months, keeps it there and then releases it on a regular basis to provide regular irrigation and keep the turbines running,” said Major Jeremy Holman ....



Pakistan forces turn 'blind eye' to Taliban: president
Radio Australia, 2 Feb 07
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Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has conceded some members of the country's security forces have not stopped Taliban militants launching attacks against neighbouring Afghanistan.  He has told journalists "a blind eye was being turned" at some border checkpoints.  But the president has also rejected as "preposterous" allegations, by Afghanistan in particular, that Pakistan's intelligence services or the army are collaborating with the insurgents.  General Musharraf says it is up to NATO and US forces based in Afghanistan to do more to tackle the cross-border movement of militants, adding that Pakistan can't win the fight against militancy on its own.

 
Articles found 2 February, 2007

After the fighting and dying, the Taleban return as British depart
By Anthony Loyd and Tahir Luddin 
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AMONG the many battles in his life, Nafaz Khan recalls the long fight for Musa Qala as one of special significance. As the former chief of police and militia commander in the northern Helmand town it was there that he fought alongside British troops against the Taleban.
“I loved those British soldiers,” he said. “They were great fighters and knew each of my men by name. Together we killed many, many Taleban.”

Soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment, who were withdrawn from Musa Qala this month as part of a deal with Afghan tribal elders after more than two months of heavy fighting, remember the experience as one of violence, dirt, heat and lack of water. For Mr Khan, though, it held particular deprivation.

“Shrapnel from a Taleban mortar blew off one of my testicles soon after the fighting started,” he said while waiting to petition the governor of Helmand in Lashkar Gah for more men and munitions to attack a Taleban headquarters elsewhere. “But I stayed in Musa Qala with the British and fought on for another two and a half months until we were ordered to leave. The pain was terrible, but there were Talebs to kill.”

But when asked whether the deal to withdraw from Musa Qala had left the town free of Taleban influence, as Nato and Afghan government officials claim, Mr Khan’s face clouded as if in greater discomfort.
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Headless corpse of accused U.S. spy found
By BASHIRULLAH KHAN February 2, 2007
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MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan (AP) - Suspected militants beheaded a man and dumped his body in a tribal region near the Afghan border, leaving a note on the corpse accusing him of spying for the United States, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday.

Villagers found the man's decapitated body in a ditch at the side of a road near Ghulam Khan, a frontier town in the North Waziristan tribal area and alerted authorities, the official said. He requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job.

A note written in the locally spoken Pashto language found with the body identified the slain man by a single name, Ghafoor, and as a resident of Tanai village in Afghanistan's neighbouring Khost province, the official said.

"Those who spy for America will meet this fate," he quoted the note as saying.

Militants have executed scores of tribesmen accused of being spies or of collaborating with Pakistani and U.S. authorities hunting al-Qaida and Taliban militants believed to operate along the remote border.

Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and suspected militants also have died in the tribal belt in military operations designed to root out the foreign fighters and pressure Pashtun tribes in the area to stop offering them sanctuary.
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National Reconciliation stands behind a terror-free Afghanistan         
Ehsan Azari  Friday, 02 February 2007 
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Spring in Afghanistan has turned now into a season of doom and gloom, for it brings recurring bloody battle into bloom. While NATO and the American military commanders are talking about inflicting a lasting blow to the remnants of the Taliban, the latter brag about crushing the Americans like Russians in 1980s.

Amidst such a cacophony of pretensions, innocent Afghan civilians are helplessly awaiting the end of war through a political dialogue that can end tragedy in their country. President Karzai has announced negotiation with the Taliban this past week.

Six years on, since the fall of the Taliban, NATO and the US-led coalition forces, have achieved little by solely emphasising on military strategy in this country. Several military operations code-named: Jawbreaker, Mountain Loin, Screaming Eagles, Anaconda, Operation Snipe, Dragon’s Fury, and so on have failed to capture the highest al-qaida or Taliban hierarchy. The only thing achieved was the resurgence of the Taliban and reorganisation of al-qaida in safe hideouts in Pakistan.

Adding to the anxiety, al-Qaida and Taliban have large swaths of the Pakistani north-western tribal areas under control, where they feel safe and free to promote their ideology and terrorist operations against the West. Al-Qaida is “cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leader’s secure hideout in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe,” said the outgoing Director of the US National Intelligence, Mr John Negroponte recently in a testimony to the Senate.
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8 Taliban militants killed in E. Afghanistan
February 02, 2007         
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Eight Taliban insurgents were killed in Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan, the provincial governor Akram Khapalwak told Xinhua on Thursday.

Some Taliban militants attacked a position of Afghan soldiers in Orgon district on Wednesday night, Khapalwak said, adding the soldiers fought back and NATO troops provided immediate aid support.

As a result, eight Taliban rebels were killed, he said, adding there were no casualties of Afghan soldiers.

Paktika and several other eastern provinces have been hotbeds of Taliban militants, who clash with foreign and government forces frequently. Over 300 persons, mostly Taliban insurgents, have been killed in violence in Afghanistan this year.

Source: Xinhua
End

AFGHANISTAN: Rebuilding 'not on track'
01 Feb 2007 15:29:11 GMT Source: IRIN
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KABUL, 1 February (IRIN) - The international community pledged billions of dollars for the recovery of Afghanistan in 2006, and in return, the Afghan government promised to introduce policy reforms to improve its people's lives. Out of this was born the Afghanistan Compact, which established targets and benchmarks to be met by the Afghan authorities over five years.

In February 2006, 64 countries and 11 international organisations meeting in London agreed to contribute US$10.5 billion towards the reconstruction of Afghanistan until the end of 2010. They identified security, governance and economic development as the three key areas that the government needed to focus on to ensure stability and progress.

One year on, analysts say the Afghan government is behind in meeting even the most basic targets. In a report released in New York on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Afghan government is failing to meet the basic security and human rights needs of its citizens. 

"Afghanistan hasn't really met any of the benchmarks, particularly those addressing the wellbeing of the Afghan people," said Sam Zarifi, Asia research director at HRW.  "Kabul and its international backers have made little progress in providing basic needs like security, food, electricity, water and healthcare."
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EDITORIAL: NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Friday, February 02, 2007
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Four top commanders of the Afghanistan-based North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and devise a new strategy on the war against Talibanism and terrorism with President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani military high command.

NATO commanders have steadily accused Pakistan of sheltering the Taliban raiders who attack across the border to destabilise the Kabul government. They are confronted with an increasingly shrill Karzai government that rebukes them for not tackling the real cause of trouble in Islamabad which allegedly nurses Islamic extremism and then sends it across the Durand Line. The media in the United States that play a crucial rule in forming American opinion has also been pointing the accusing finger at Pakistan.

Pakistan denies that it shelters the Taliban despite reports appearing in the Pakistani press that, in addition to the Taliban finding safe haven in the Pakistani tribal belt, Pakistani boys are increasingly being recruited to fight across the Durand Line and often act as suicide-bombers. But when Pakistan says it can only ensure a complete stoppage of cross-border movement by erecting a mined fence on the Durand Line no one likes the idea. However, when the Pakistan army risks internal rifts and operates against the Taliban-Al Qaeda elements inside Pakistani territory, the act is often ignored or passed off as mere pretence.
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82nd Airborne Accepts Responsibility for Afghanistan Task Force
By Pfc. Anna K. Perry, USA Special to American Forces Press Service
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BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Feb. 2, 2007 – The 82nd Airborne Division accepted responsibility for Combined Joint Task Force 76 from the 10th Mountain Division in a transfer-of-authority ceremony here today. 

The task force supports NATO operations in eastern Afghanistan.

The 10th Mountain Division has been in Afghanistan for about a year, conducting missions such as Operation Mountain Lion, Operation Mountain Thrust, Operation Mountain Fury and Operation Mountain Eagle.

“This has been a noble endeavor for the 10th Mountain Division, and we are honored to have been a part of this … As we depart, we leave behind 3,200 battle-hardened soldiers to serve with the 201st and 203rd Corps under the great command of the 82nd Airborne Division,” said Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commanding general for CJTF 76 and the 10th Mountain Division. “We know that they will work hard to continue the efforts that have been put forward over the past five years.”

However, those efforts did not come without a significant price, the general noted. The Afghan and coalition servicemembers who gave their lives for the freedom of Afghanistan will forever be remembered and honored for their great sacrifice, Freakley said
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Added protection in Afghanistan
Navy dockyard building extra armour for army’s military vehicles
By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter
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When Al Giles helps construct extra protection for the army’s light armoured vehicles at HMC Dockyard, he isn’t just protecting soldiers he has never met. The work could save his nephew’s life one day.

Mr. Giles, a plater at Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott, feels good knowing the exposed crew protection kits under construction in his shop could save Canadian soldiers from roadside attacks in Afghanistan. He also knows his 35-year-old nephew, who is in the army, could be one of them.

"He’s in Gagetown, so he could be going at any time," Mr. Giles said Thursday.

The military is hoping the 270-kilogram brackets now being built in a warehouse at the navy facility in Halifax help protect sentries riding in the back of the eight-wheeled vehicles from injuries caused by bomb blasts, flying shrapnel and gunfire.

"The last two people that were killed were killed because they didn’t have these," Mr. Giles said.

Forty-four soldiers, including seven Nova Scotians, and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002.

The project to add extra armour to the vehicles is expected to cost under $5 million.

It started soon after the Jan. 15, 2006, suicide bomb attack that cost Halifax-born Master Cpl. Paul Franklin both his legs and killed Dalhousie University-educated diplomat Glyn Berry.

"We feel that it will save lives in the future," said Col. Karen Ritchie, director of the mounted soldier survivability project.

The vehicles are already prone to rollovers.
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