The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread November 2010

[MarkOttawa]

Alliance Commitment for Afghanistan-2014
Conference of Defence Associatons' media round-up, Nov. 26
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290795959/0#0

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND NOV. 28

Treasury Board rules could heighten risk in Afghanistan
Postmedia News, Nov. 26, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Treasury+Board+rules+could+heighten+risk+Afghanistan/3890134/story.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The lives of Canadian soldiers could be put at greater risk because of Treasury Board regulations that prevent Task Force Kandahar from continuing to employ its best cultural advisers.

About half a dozen of Canada’s top advisers, who are ethnic Afghans with Canadian citizenship, have been told that they cannot be rehired when their current contracts expire. They are being let go because of government rules that state that if they work for more than three years for any federal department they must be offered permanent employment in the public service.

The often highly educated advisers attend top level meetings between NATO, Canadian and Afghan officials and regularly accompany Canadian troops on dangerous combat missions to provide on-the-spot political and cultural guidance.

The issue has not only infuriated the advisers, who want to continue working with Canadian troops, but has frustrated the officers whose soldiers work with the cultural advisers alongside Afghan forces…

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found November 28, 2010

UK-based Taliban spend months fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan
Article Link
Taliban fighter reveals he lives for most of year in London and heads to Afghanistan for combat
* Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and Jon Boone    * guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 November 2010
Special report: Taliban troop with a London cab driver

British-based men of Afghan origin are spending months at a time in Afghanistan fighting Nato forces before returning to the UK, the Guardian has learned. They also send money to the Taliban.

A Taliban fighter in Dhani-Ghorri in northern Afghanistan last month told the Guardian he lived most of the time in east London, but came to Afghanistan for three months of the year for combat.

"I work as a minicab driver," said the man, who has the rank of a mid-level Taliban commander. "I make good money there [in the UK], you know. But these people are my friends and my family and it's my duty to come to fight the jihad with them."

"There are many people like me in London," he added. "We collect money for the jihad all year and come and fight if we can."

His older brother, a senior cleric or mawlawi who also fought in Dhani-Ghorri, lives in London as well.

Intelligence officials have long suspected that British Muslims travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan each year to train with extremist groups.

Last year it was reported that RAF spy planes operating in Helmand in southern Afghanistan had detected strong Yorkshire and Birmingham accents on fighters using radios and telephones. They apparently spoke the main Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, but lapsed into English when they were lost for the right words. The threat was deemed sufficiently serious that spy planes have patrolled British skies in the hope of picking up the same voice signatures of the fighters after their return to the UK.

The dead body of an insurgent who had an Aston Villa tattoo has also been discovered in southern Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan Arrests 9 in Probe of Election
Article Link

BY MATTHEW ROSENBERG AND HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL

KABUL—Afghan authorities arrested nine private citizens and are seeking the arrest of four election officials on allegations of fraud in September's parliamentary vote, a top prosecutor said, deepening Afghanistan's political uncertainty at a crucial juncture in the fight against the Taliban.

Authorities are also looking into a person who works at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, said Deputy Attorney General Rahmatullah Nazari without elaborating. The U.N. said it was looking into the matter.

The Attorney General's investigation sets up a potentially destabilizing confrontation that pits the administration of President Hamid Karzai against election officials and possibly even the international community
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Diplomats may cut back the paper trail
  Article Link
WikiLeaks documents dump will encourage officials to keep reports verbal

By Juliet O'Neil, Postmedia News November 27, 2010

WikiLeaks could put a chill on the way diplomats perform their basic function of keeping their masters in the loop with blunt written assessments of the players and politics in the nations where they're posted.

The release by WikiLeaks of reams of potentially embarrassing American diplomatic cables may mean more verbal reporting and fewer paper trails in the future, says Queen's University expert Kim Nossal.

Governments will likely be less inclined to have their diplomats produce a written record of observations and recommendations about the players and politics wherever they're stationed if it's likely to be revealed while everyone is still in place
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Green found everywhere
Article Link
Soldiers in Afghanistan show their Rider Pride

By Jeremy Warren, The StarPhoenix November 27, 2010

Colby Hogemann made sure to pack a Saskatchewan Roughrider's flag for his first tour of duty in Afghanistan.

In June, Hogemann and three other soldiers from his squadron unfurled the flag at a Canadian military forward operational base in the Khandar region and posed in front of a tank.

"We're all Rider fans," said Hogemann on Friday, less than a week after he finished his eight-month stint in Afghanistan. "Where ever we go, we're always Roughrider fans, even overseas."

Hogemann, a 23-year-old tank driver, is stationed at CFB Edmonton, but he grew up on farm south of St. Gregor, a small town east of Humboldt.

He arrived in Afghanistan in April. CFL games were made available to soldiers, although the feed was delayed by several hours.

"We watched them anyway even though we knew the outcome," Hogemann said.
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Afghan-Canadian doctor opens Afghanistan’s first heart clinic
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News November 27, 2010

An Afghan-Canadian doctor has taken a drastic cut in pay to return to his homeland and open Afghanistan’s first heart clinic.

"I feel that the nicest people in the world are Canadians, but I felt a duty to return to my homeland," said Asmat Naebkhill, the director of the Alli Abad Cardiac Research Centre in Kabul.

"I was not comfortable in Canada knowing how my people were suffering.”

Naebkhill was living in Windsor, Ont., before relocating to Kabul.

"Once upon a time, Afghanistan was such a nice place,” he said. “There were no guns, no bombs, no explosions. Because of the war, everything is volatile, and that includes medicine. There is no law today in Afghanistan. People can do what they want. What I am trying to do is bring a Canadian standard of medicine to Afghanistan."

Naebkhill finished medical school in Kabul and became a cardiologist in India before emigrating to Canada during the Soviet war in the 1980s. After passing the Canadian medical exam in Kitchener, Ont., he worked as a cardiologist in Regina, Saskatoon, Toronto and Windsor before returning to the country of his birth last year.

"The first few months I was alone. I even had to do the cleaning," the soft-spoken doctor said in precise, lyrical English.
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[GAP]

Articles found November 29, 2010

Karzai's brother 'corrupt drugs baron' US says: WikiLeaks
Article Link
By Claire Truscott (AFP) – 16 hours ago

KABUL — Leaked US documents on Monday painted President Hamid Karzai's controversial younger brother as a corrupt drugs baron, exposing deep US concerns about graft undermining the war against the Afghan Taliban.

Internet whistleblower WikiLeaks has started to release quarter of a million confidential US diplomatic cables, detailing embarrassing and inflammatory episodes in what the White House has condemned as a "reckless and dangerous action".

Ahmed Wali Karzai has long been dogged by allegations of unsavoury links to Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade and private security firms.

But as a powerful figure in Kandahar, where US forces are leading the fight to break a nine-year Taliban insurgency, Western officials have kept quiet in public on the president's younger half brother's tainted record.

Leaked cables from the US embassy in Kabul now reveal their true feelings in moves that could complicate already strained relations between Washington and Karzai at a key juncture in the war.

"While we must deal with AWK (Ahmed Wali Karzai) as the head of the provincial council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker," said one note that followed a meeting between the president's brother and US envoy Frank Ruggiero in September 2009.
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Canadians may end up training some enemies
  Article Link
Ottawa Citizen November 29, 2010

Re: Remind me why we're fighting in Afghanistan, Nov. 24.

In his insightful column, Dan Gardner looks for Canada's goals in Afghanistan. Canadian taxpayers must be wondering about the same thing.

The Canadian military will end its combat mission soon but continue a smaller presence there for training the Afghan armed forces.

And on the same page in the Citizen, former British MP George Galloway ( "As I was about to say ..." Nov. 23) wrote that "yet at least a quarter of the army, according to the latest U.S. figures, disappears every year and pops up, trained perhaps, in the ranks of the Talibans."

I would think that the Canadian military may now be engaged in training some potential members of its own enemy. Even those trainees who remain in the Afghan army may not do their job according to Canadian standards or NATO expectations.

The U.S. and its NATO allies have invested heavily in training and also equipping the Iraqi army for the past several years. However, since the partial U.S. withdrawal, the sectarian fights and violence in various parts of Iraq continues with considerable loss of life and property.

As it is the case in Iraq, members of Afghanistan's security forces also have much stronger allegiance to their own families and tribes. They put their tribal and sectarian benefits way ahead of their national interest. Fighting for Canadian or NATO goals cannot be their top priority.

President Hamid Karzai provided a good example of such corrupt practices by publicly confessing that his government accepts regularly bundles of cash from Iran. One must wonder how many other countries and/or interested parties are filling his pockets with cash in return for favours.
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[GAP]

Video thought to show American held in Afghanistan
By Associated Press Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - Added 36 minutes ago
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A new video released by the Taliban shows a man believed to be the only known American serviceman held captive in Afghanistan, a group that tracks militant websites said Wednesday.

Spc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, has been held by the Taliban since June 30, 2009, when he disappeared in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.

The U.S.-based IntelCenter said that along with Berghdal, another man in the video appeared to be the Taliban commander who had once threatened to kill the U.S. soldier.

The video, which also shows militant attacks in Afghanistan, was released by Manba al-Jihad, a video production group affiliated with the Taliban. The man believed to be Bergdahl appears only briefly in the video and is not the main focus of the release.

Bergdahl appeared in three videos the Taliban released prior to this latest: on July 18, 2009; Dec. 25, 2009; and on April 7.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 11, 2010

Charles Company commander causes a stir in Afghanistan
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News December 11, 2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Maj. Eleanor Taylor caused quite a stir when she deployed to a remote outpost deep in the Taliban heartland of western Kandahar last spring.

When the 34-year-old soldier from Antigonish, N.S., took off her blast goggles and helmet, Afghan elders in Panjwaii were taken aback, meeting the first woman to command a Canadian infantry company in combat.

"I would be disingenuous if I did not acknowledge that they were often very surprised," Taylor said during an exclusive interview with Postmedia News at the end of her seven-month tour. "There was shock on their faces and they would exchange a couple of words among themselves. I know the word for women in Pushto and I heard that word."

But these rural Pushtoons from what may be the most conservative Islamic society in the world were always respectful as well as curious, as were the soldiers from two Afghan army companies her unit was partnered with, so it turned out "not to be a handicap at all."

"I honestly think that notion that Afghan men won't deal with western women is a myth. Or that has been my experience, anyway," the commander of Charles Company said.

"Certainly if an Afghan woman were to come and ask them the things that I asked of them, they would receive an entirely different response. But as a western woman, they see me as foreign and if they hold prejudice towards women, and I certainly suspect some may, they don't show it. In fact, I have found they have been more open with me — certainly much more than I expected — than with some of my male counterparts."

Locals provided Taylor with a logical, if slightly bizarre explanation for their solicitous behaviour.
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Mountie helps Afghan Border Police
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By KATHLEEN HARRIS, QMI Agency December 11, 2010

OTTAWA — It’s a wild and bloody 5,000-kilometre stretch that goes from Himalayan-type mountains to Sahara-style deserts and waters wide as the Mississippi River.

RCMP Supt. John Brewer has spent the last nine months helping Afghan Border Police secure this perilous, porous border that touches six neighbouring countries. As part of an international NATO team, Brewer has helped locals intercept insurgents and organized criminals running drugs, weapons and explosives along the loosely-defined “front line.”

"In peace time, this would be difficult enough. But in times of fighting an insurgency, that of course makes it even more difficult," Brewer told QMI Agency in an interview from Kabul.

Working to overcome cultural, religious, literacy and gender challenges that come with building a 21,000-strong force of Afghan border security officials, Brewer has travelled through 17 provinces and inspected dozens of crossing points and airports.

Despite the dangers, Brewer calls it a "phenomenal" experience that is among the highlights of his career.

Before heading off from his home base in B.C., Brewer had 13 weeks of training in Kingston, Ont., and Ottawa and another three weeks in California, brushing up on everything from military tactics to cultural sensitivity. His experience working in a vast country with remote outposts and First Nations communities was an asset to his role in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Border Police is growing fast — a primarily young male force that now includes 125 women. Along with the insurgency and organized crime, they battle another enemy — harsh mountainous terrain and winter weather conditions that can block transport of food and supplies.
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Soldiers surrounded by oceans of opium
  Article Link
By ALEX ROSLIN, BILBO POYNTER, The Gazette December 11, 2010

Say you're a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan surrounded by oceans of opium poppies and piles of easily accessed heroin. How do you cope?

Some reports suggest there could be a problem. In 2007, a Canadian military police report on Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan said there had been "13 investigations including importation of heroin" involving Canadian Forces personnel.

"One area of concern, which will continue to be a focal point for criminal intelligence resources, is the accessibility to illicit drugs," the report said.

Canadian soldiers have also been hit with greater rates of criminal charges related to drugs since Canada's large-scale deployment to Afghanistan started in 2003.

- ¦Charges for conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline relating to drugs and alcohol shot up from an average of 75 per year during the four years prior to the Afghan mission to 99 per year since 2003, according to data from the Defence Department's judge advocate general's office.
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Complementing Air Support?
Tanks In Afghanistan: Supplementing or Augmenting Air Power Via Direct Fire Support
By Murielle Delaporte [email protected]
Article Link

12/09/2010 – M1A1 Abrams vs Leopard 2A6M?
If the Canadians and the Danes regularly use their tanks in the Afghan theatre – respectively since 2006 and  2007 — the U.S. military leadership has always been reticent to imitate its allies out of fear to replay the scenario of the Soviet intervention in the eighties in the minds of the Afghan population. The Canadians were the very first ISAF members to deploy seventeen Leopards 1C2, which they had to replace because of increasingly high maintenance costs and the looming risks of lacking spares by 2012. They therefore deployed as early as 2007 twenty Leopards 2A6M. The Danes have been using fifteen Leopards 2A5DK since 2007.

Repeated tactical successes of the German-made Leopard seem to have demonstrated the key role of the tank in operations: sixteen tanks M1A1 thus will supplement the arsenal of the Marines and will be deployed in the Helmand Province in the spring of 2011. Such an initiative seems intended less as an “escalation” than a mean to replace the Canadian tanks,  on which American forces have been regularly relying for support (it was the case no later than last month during the offensive of Panjwaii). Canadian armed forces must indeed leave Afghanistan in July 2011, leaving behind only a thousand advisers [1]. If figures are correct and add up, the overall number of tanks within the Coalition in Afghanistan would in actual fact go down from thirty five to thirty one as of this summer.

    Such an initiative seems intended less as an “escalation” than a mean to replace the Canadian tanks,  on which American forces have been regularly relying for support (it was the case no later than last month during the offensive of Panjwaii). Canadian armed forces must indeed leave Afghanistan in July 2011.
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Heroin glut hits home
Treatment centres are struggling to cope with the surge of addicts hooked on the heroin that is pouring into Canada from war-torn Afghanistan
By ALEX ROSLIN and BILBO POYNTER, Montreal Gazette December 11, 2010
Article Link

It's just before 1 p.m. on a cool, sunny Monday afternoon in late November. On a quiet residential street in Montreal's east end, half a dozen heroin addicts are waiting by office phones and cellphones in the Méta d'Âme drop-in centre and residence for opiate users and recovering addicts.

Their fingers are poised to hit the speed dial button. At precisely 1 p.m. each Monday, the phone lines open at the city's main opiate addiction treatment centre, the Centre de recherche et d'aide pour narcomanes.

CRAN is so overwhelmed with demand, only the first caller to get through each week gets a coveted treatment spot.

For everyone else, the wait will continue another week. CRAN is the only provincially funded opiate treatment centre in the city where heroin users even have a shot at help any time soon. At other centres, the waiting lists are six to 12 months long.

"We have to come up with all kinds of tricks to help our clients (work the system)," says Guy-Pierre Lévesque, Méta d'Âme's director and a former heroin user himself.

The city's treatment centres are struggling to cope with a surge of addicts - many younger than ever before - who are hooked on a rising tide of heroin pouring into Canada from war-torn Afghanistan.
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Suffering of Afghan women and children remains widespread: report
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By: Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press Posted: 10/12/2010

OTTAWA - Afghanistan's women and children continue to live a mainly wretched existence, despite a decade of well-intentioned, international intervention, says a new report obtained by The Canadian Press.

Mothers die in childbirth at alarming rates, aspiring female politicians face death threats and most school-age girls never see the inside of a classroom.

That portrait emerges from a 2009 Foreign Affairs report, the department's most recent human-rights audit of the war-torn country. It contrasts sharply with the Harper government's usual, upbeat talking points on the pace of progress in Afghanistan — particularly the educational gains of girls.

With Canada withdrawing combat troops next year in favour of a military training mission, the report underscores the formidable challenges that remain for Afghanistan's most vulnerable.

"Afghan women and children continued to suffer amid ongoing insecurity, sexual violence, pervasive poverty and socio-cultural and economic exclusion," says the 38-page report, obtained under Access to Information.

"Child labour was prevalent and social discrimination of some minorities continued," it says. "Malnutrition remained high and health conditions of women and children were considered among the worst in the world."
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Camp Pendleton Marines beat back insurgents
As casualties taper, commanders send in tanks in Sangin river valley in Afghanistan
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By Gretel C. Kovach Friday, December 10, 2010

Camp Pendleton Marines made advances in recent weeks in their campaign to beat back insurgents in the hard-fought Sangin river valley — the Taliban’s last major stronghold in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, their commanding general said.

To help the infantrymen build on those gains, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is getting an infusion of tanks, troops and counter-explosive equipment, said Maj. Gen. Richard P. Mills, head of Marine forces in Afghanistan and NATO’s southwestern regional command.

Sangin is now the deadliest area for the Marines. The battalion has suffered heavy casualties, including the loss of at least 20 Marines in a little more than two months, since it moved into the fertile redoubt of poppy growers and Taliban fighters in October.

But Mills said casualties tapered in recent weeks even as the unit pushed up a strategic road toward the Kajaki dam, expanded security beyond the district center and held peace talks with village elders.

“The reason casualties are going down is because they are winning, plain and simple,” Mills said, in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune from his Camp Leatherneck headquarters in Helmand province. The 3/5 Marines have not backed down, they “have gotten more aggressive; they have taken the fight harder to the enemy.”
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An education for Afghan schoolgirl, thanks to Star readers
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VANCOUVER—Generous Canadian spirit has revived an Afghan schoolgirl’s dying dream.

Roya Shams, 16, had her heart set on continuing her education over an Internet link from Kandahar, in insurgency-wracked southern Afghanistan, to Canada. But funding ran out after she completed a course in civics and passed the exam.

She had sailed over the first hurdle on the rough road to a career in politics, only to stumble because she couldn’t find $500 for tuition and books.

When the Toronto Star’s Insight section reported last month that Roya’s dream was fading fast, dozens of readers rallied to help her stay in school.

Almost 100 donors gave more than $7,000 to the Canadian International Learning Foundation, which supports Roya and hundreds more Afghan students, said agency president Ryan Aldred.

Several others offered to pitch in as volunteers, he said.

“The response was overwhelming, and was a huge boost for both the staff and students of the Afghan-Canadian Community Center (ACCC) and the volunteers at the foundation,” Aldred said from Ottawa.

Roya is one of about 1,900 Afghan students, mostly women and girls, who defy insurgent threats and attend the centre’s classes.
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15 dead, 24 injured in Afghan bombings
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By Borzou Daragahi Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 11, 2010

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan —
Civilians bore the brunt of insurgent violence in a series of attacks Friday and Saturday that killed at least 15 people and injured 24, Afghan officials said.

The bombings took place in the south and the northern province of Kunduz, both home to the Pashtun plurality fueling the Taliban insurgency against NATO troops and the Afghan government.

In the most deadly attack, a roadside bomb struck a pickup truck loaded with Afghan men Friday morning in a rural stretch of Helmand province, killing 15, Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor, disclosed Saturday.

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A car bomb explosion set off early Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of the Information and Culture directorate in the southern provincial capital of Kandahar injured four police officers and two youths, said Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 12, 2010

Bases going to the dogs - and cats
By Jon Rabiroff Stars and Stripes  December 11, 2010
Article Link

ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan — U.S. soldiers and Marines are smuggling them onto bases across the country.

The military leadership seems to turn a blind eye, though regulations specifically prohibit them.

They go by names like Smoke, Bacon, Mickey Blue Eyes and Butterscotch, and they can be coerced with as little as a pat on the head, a scratch behind the ears or a tasty treat.

They are the stray dogs and cats of Afghanistan who, at many — if not most — U.S. bases here are adopted by soldiers and Marines individually, by squad or platoon, and spoiled as much as any mutts or felines in suburban America.

While no one will say so officially, it appears commanders recognize the value that pet dogs and cats bring to the morale of a base, so they look the other way as long as the animals do not interfere with the mission or present health concerns.

You might call it a policy of don’t bark, don’t smell.

“It is common in both Iraq and Afghanistan for units to adopt local dogs and cats,” said SPCA International spokeswoman Stephanie Scott. “We have been told time and time again that these dogs and cats can be of great comfort and a little piece of home to our troops.”

Spc. Jimmy Labbee, of the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment’s Company B, based in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, said: “I can honestly speak for everybody else — it definitely boosts our morale and gives us another bit of responsibility. It keeps our energy positive, playing with them and spending time with them.”
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Taliban by conviction or convenience; Afghan hearts and minds not easily swayed
  Article Link
By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press 11/12/2010

ZANGABAD, Afghanistan - The man in the white cloak and turquoise striped turban didn't want to be photographed, and pleaded that his name remain a secret.

That's always a sign around here, but not necessarily a good one.

"If you write my name, by the evening my throat will be slit," the villager with anxious eyes said through an interpreter. A young boy of about 10 stood at his elbow.

"Not only me, but they will kill my family. The Taliban know my face."

Just moments earlier, the man had stood shoulder to shoulder with the governor of Panjwaii district in an interview with a western journalist. He'd given his name and offered his support to Haji Baran, who'd come to put the Afghan government's stamp on this enmeshed little corner of Kandahar province.

He was introduced by the district chief as a supporter of the Taliban with two sons active in the insurgency, prompting nearby Canadian military officers to scribble furiously in their notebooks. The man — in his 40s and well-dressed, compared with his companions — said he believed in his heart the future was with the government.

"I have 100 per cent confidence in Haji Baran, the district leader, that he will support me and keep the promise he has made," the man said.

Whether the man was Taliban by conviction or convenience wasn't clear.
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Last of a dying breed: The Canadian peacekeeper
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KINGSTON—Unlike most other Canadian soldiers, Lt.-Col. Dalton Cote doesn’t carry a gun. He is a peacekeeper, one of 27 left in a military that used to be defined by that role.

For the past six months, while his comrades in arms were patrolling through Kandahar and sidestepping IEDs, Cote left his guns at home, donned a blue beret, climbed into a UN truck and negotiated his way through checkpoints in an effort to observe troop movements, monitor weapon stashes and investigate violent attacks on both sides of the makeshift border that could next month become the official partition between north and south Sudan.

As the leader of 20 Canadian peacekeepers sprinkled across the Sudanese countryside, Cote, a 45-year-old father of two, was, until five weeks ago, leading the largest Canadian peacekeeping contingent currently deployed.
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Canada backs blacklisted Afghan firm
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WASHINGTON—Canada is standing by a controversial Afghan security firm that’s controlled by Afghanistan’s ruling Karzai family despite a U.S. military decision to sever ties with it, The Star has learned.

The Watan Group, which safeguards Canada’s signature Dahla Dam restoration project in Kandahar, was blacklisted this week as part of a U.S. effort to stop aid dollars slipping into the hands of corrupt officials and Taliban commanders.

But Watan Risk Management, the specific subsidiary facing intense American scrutiny, will remain Canada’s security partner on the ground, according to Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, the lead partner in the project.

“For the moment, we have no plans to replace Watan. Until or unless we have evidence that these contractors have done something illegal we will continue to employ them,” SNC-Lavalin spokesman Leslie Quintan confirmed in an email to The Star.

“Our primary concern is, as always, the safety and security of our people and we will do nothing to put them in jeopardy.”

The U.S. move to ban Watan from future contracts follows a Congressional report in June that determined the firm engaged in widespread bribery of Afghan officials and regional strongmen to ensure safe passage along NATO supply routes.

Watan denies any wrongdoing and intends to appeal the U.S. debarment, the firm’s managing director, Simon Hilliard, told the Associated Press.

Canadian concerns over Watan were exposed earlier this year in a Star investigation into setbacks surrounding the $50 million Dahla Dam project, which stands as Canada’s last chance for a lasting legacy in Afghanistan.
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Afghan police crisis threatens British withdrawal as thousands quit force
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Former Army commander says 2015 departure could be delayed if Afghanistan is unable to police itself
Rajeev Syal The Observer, Sunday 12 December 2010

Afghanistan's police force, whose success and stability is crucial to allowing the government to withdraw British troops, is losing nearly one in five recruits every year, new figures reveal.

Foreign Office statistics show that more than 20,000 officers from the Afghan National Police (ANP), the country's main law enforcement agency, have left over the past year. The Foreign Office figures will cause concern in the armed forces, where the success of the police is seen as the basis for handing control to an Afghan government in 2014 and British troop withdrawal in 2015.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said the figures were "worryingly high" and could play a significant role in determining when Britain can leave.

"In order to get into the condition where we can hand over the country to the Afghans themselves, to manage the security of the country, we need not only a capable army, we need a strong police force," he said. "We are a long way from there. The Afghan national army has still got a long way to go even if it is improving, and the police are some way behind that."

Kemp, who was responsible for training Afghan forces, including the ANP, in 2003, said that the figures would be key in defining when British forces can leave. "Numbers are still important. If we are not getting to where we need to be in terms of either quality or numbers, that is a major concern in terms of being able to hand over to the Afghans in 2014 as is our aspiration," he told the Observer.
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Afghan Nato attack: 'Six US soldiers' die near Kandahar
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12 December 2010 Last updated at 10:16 ET

Six US soldiers have been killed in an attack near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, military sources say.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said earlier six of its troops had been killed, but did not provide their nationalities.

A senior Afghan army officer told the BBC a suicide car bomber had targeted a checkpoint outside a base manned by Afghan and US troops in Zari district.

It is at the heart of a months-long Nato offensive against the Taliban.

Fighting has intensified in the south of the country as US troops have tried to push Taliban militants out of their strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

American commanders there are confident that they have been making progress in and around Kandahar, says the BBC's Paul Wood in southern Afghanistan, but clearly the Taliban are still present in the area.

None of the US officers to whom our correspondent has spoken are under any illusion that the Taliban can be completely defeated.

But they do hope to weaken the insurgency sufficiently that the Afghan forces will be able to deal with the Taliban on their own once the US troops start to withdraw next year, adds our correspondent.
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The Rules
December 10, 2010
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The war in Afghanistan you don't hear much about is the culture clash. Afghanistan is largely defined by a tribal culture, not a national, elected, government. Individually, Afghans want to get ahead in life, to have more comforts and the respect of family and friends. But when it comes to government, the only thing most Afghans trust are family, clan and tribe (usually in that order). A cousin who is a murderous bandit is more trusted than foreigners who come in and build schools and clinics and drill new water wells. The thing is, cousin Ali and his bandit ways will be around for a long time, while the foreigners are strangers that will soon leave.

The old American saying that; "all politics is local," applies everywhere, and certainly in Afghanistan. But the politics is tribal and the tribes do not trust a national government. Moreover, it's traditional to view all strangers (including Afghans from another tribe, or even clan) as potential victims. Stealing from "others" is an ancient custom in Afghanistan, and those who can grab the most from foreigners gain lots of stature. This even applies to the current situation, where government officials are stealing billions of dollars of foreign aid. Yes, Afghans resent that these thefts often hurt them personally. But, as an Afghan, you gotta admire the guy. And if the big thief is a member of your tribe, you can pay him a respectful visit and ask for a handout. By custom, your newly wealthy fellow tribesman is expected to take care of his own. It's part of the cultural game. We all play one of those, but the Afghans play by rules that died out in the West centuries ago.

There's also a problem with the lack of educated Afghans. With one of the lowest literacy rates on the planet, along with a miniscule number of college educated professionals, all these billions in aid are being given to people who don't really know how to handle it. There are not enough Afghan planners, accountants, lawyers, engineers and construction managers to make the most of the money. So many Afghans do the next best thing, and grab as much of the money for themselves and their families. What really annoys the generous foreigners is that Afghans are hostile to the idea of foreign technical experts helping with the efficient spending of the aid bonanza. For all their strutting and bravado, Afghans are intimidated by their backwardness, and the numerous skills, and  technology, possessed by the foreigners. Even the foreign soldiers regularly kick the crap out of Afghan warriors. Since paranoia has long been recognized as a useful survival skill in Afghanistan, the foreigners should not be surprised that it is being directed at them.
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[GAP]

NATO targets Kandahar assassin squads; mayor warns not all are Taliban
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By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press  12/12/2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO has given itself a licence to kill those who are murdering government workers in Kandahar, but the mayor of this embattled city says those lurking under the assassin's masks are not all Taliban.

The general commanding Canadian troops in the war-wasted region calls hunting down insurgent assassination squads "an absolute focus."

"I have some very capable intelligence resources linked in with the Americans, linked in with the international community; (and) we have these guys on the run," said Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. "We are targeting these guys nightly. We're going after them."

American and other NATO commanders have long been frustrated by the wave of assassinations that's gripped Kandahar over the past few years.

Two deputy mayors — or emirs — were murdered this year, crimes that brought about a spate of mass resignations by municipal employees.

Since 2004, at least 300 tribal elders, moderate mullahs, advisers and government employees have been shot or blown up by roadside bombs.

A remote-controlled car bomb exploded outside police headquarters Saturday, wounding four police officers and two children.

The targeted violence and the panic it induced was so intense that in the spring of 2009 provincial council members fled the city, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information laws.

"It is the only line (of operation) where insurgents have won a clear victory," said a NATO officer speaking on background recently.

The knee-jerk reflex in this city is to blame the Taliban whenever there is mischief, mayhem or murder, and many Kandaharis joke about it in a bit of black humour amid the chaos.

But there is a darker, even more sinister reality lurking in the tangled web of Afghan politics, corruption and drug dealing.

Mayor Ghulam Hayder Hamidi, who was the target of a failed assassination attempt in March 2009, said instability and a weak government benefits more than just hardline Islamists.

"Believe me, I not thinking that Taliban or al-Qaeda put the bomb for my car, to kill me," he said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. "I don't believe my two emirs were killed by Taliban. The corrupt people, which are the warlords, which are the drug dealers, the powerbrokers are the ones responsible."

Hamidi is careful not to name names, but held up the attempt on his life as an example.

The bomb blast happened in the city's so-called Green Zone, a highly secured, often patrolled area of government buildings and offices in downtown Kandahar.

The remote-controlled detonation happened 500 metres from his office, near an Afghan National Police checkpoint.

"How are they coming here?" Hamidi asked rhetorically.

Since assuming the mayor's chair almost four years ago, Hamidi has waged a lonely, sometimes one-man war against the corruption and nepotism that greases Kandahar politics. He's fired unqualified engineers, railed against shady contract deals and battled powerful land speculators.

"Because they are my enemy and I am their enemy with these corrupt people," said Hamidi, who spent 30 years as an accountant in Arlington, Va.

"I am fighting. I am doing jihad with these corrupt people, which there are not more than 50 or maximum 100 people in Kandahar city."

But his war has had collateral damage.

The Kandahar municipal office in 2007 had 76 employees, including six or seven engineers. With Canadian support, officials set a goal of 119 workers.

There are now only 44 employees in the aftermath of the murder of Deputy Mayor Noor Ahmad Nazari, 55, who was shot by two attackers riding on motorbikes Oct. 4. His death, while on the way home from work, came six month after his predecessor Azizullah Yarmal was killed by gunman as he prayed in a mosque.

In both cases local police blamed the killing on "enemies of Afghanistan" — a coded reference to the Taliban.

All of the bloodshed has staggered the ability of the government to deliver basic services.

"It is not possible to manage a city of 300 square kilometres with 800,000 citizens to serve it by 45 people," Hamidi said.

"The municipality office (over) the last four years started fighting corruption. Now (the powerbrokers) want to destroy the organization of the municipal office (and) to not serve the people. These (powerful) people will do anything they want."

NATO officials privately acknowledge "other interests" are a big part of the mayhem which has gripped the city.

"We're very concerned about threats to government officials," said one NATO officer speaking on background.

"If you look at threats to stability and prioritize those; the assassination networks within Kandahar city is a top priority; it only takes one decisive blow with the right person to significantly set back progress."

Military commanders claim success in their campaign to wipe out the death squads, but refused to provide specific numbers or the names of those targeted.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 18, 2010

In Afghanistan, all roads lead to Pakistan
by Andrew Potter on Thursday, December 16, 2010 1:15pm - 8 Comments
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Today’s summary of the president’s report on the war strategy is getting tons of press, and while the picture being shown is positive, the truth is that on virtually every measure, the overall situation is very complicated. For every story you read about things getting better, there is one about how they are getting worse somewhere else.

And so even as the coalition is claiming some sort of tactical victory in the South and talking about it turning into permanent gains, a large group of Afghan analysts and observers are arguing that the security situation is worse than ever, and that it is time to sit down and negotiate with the Taliban leadership. This “open letter to Obama” came out last week, and while it hasn’t received a lot of attention, I think it does a useful job of highlighting just why the situation in Afghanistan is so frustrating.

To some extent, the letter simply repeats the tension that has bedeviled all previous calls to negotiate. On the one hand,  the authors acknowledge that a military victory is not possible, the costs of the military mission are unsustainable, and that the presence of international troops must eventually come to an end. On the other hand, they’re pressing for serious negotiations with the Taliban. As many people have repeatedly pointed out, the Taliban won’t have an incentive to negotiate seriously unless there is strong, sustainable and lasting Western military presence — and till now, the Taliban have said they won’t negotiate until foreign troops leave.

But I actually think the key passage in the letter is this one:

    The Taliban’s leadership has indicated its willingness to negotiate, and it is in our interests to talk to them. In fact, the Taliban are primarily concerned about the future of Afghanistan and not – contrary to what some may think — a broader global Islamic jihad. Their links with Al-Qaeda – which is not, in any case, in Afghanistan any more — are weak. We need to at least try to seriously explore the possibility of a political settlement in which the Taliban are part of the Afghan political system. The negotiations with the insurgents could be extended to all groups in Afghanistan and regional powers.

I’m an amateur observer when it comes to all things Afghanistan, but this strikes me as a plausible idea in one respect, and somewhat naïve in another.  The central problem with this is that there is no single, organized “Taliban leadership” with which to negotiate. As far as I can tell, there are at least three distinct insurgencies going on. There are the former Kandahar Taliban, who lost their jobs when the Americans invaded in 2001, and are now based in Quetta. Then there is the Haqqani network, based in North Waziristan, which is officially susbsumed under the Quetta Shura, but which is in many ways an operationally, politically, and ideologically distinct organization. And then there are the loosely organized (or not) former mujahideen commanders, warlords, power brokers, and plain old gangsters who taking advantage of the chaos in the country to assert their control over some piece of the pie.
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Terrorism rulings an early Christmas present from our justice system
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD Saturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Dec. 17, 2010
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As someone smarter than me remarked upon reading the slew of newly released terrorism judgments from the Ontario Court of Appeal, this young country just did a whole lot of growing up.

In a series of six linked decisions, the highest court in the province dramatically upped the sentences for three convicted Canadian terrorists (to life in prison, in the case of Ottawa’s Momin Khawaja) and urged judges to ditch their “business as usual” approach with terrorists.

More than that, the decisions in total reflect a hardnosed realpolitik remarkable in a country where sentences rarely match the judicial thunder that often precedes them.

“Terrorism, in our view, is in a special category of crime and must be treated as such,” Justices David Doherty, Michael Moldaver and Eleanore Cronk wrote in the Khawaja case.

With terrorism offences, they said, “sentences exceeding 20 years, up to and including life imprisonment, should not be viewed as exceptional.

“That may not be the traditional approach to sentencing,” the court said, “but it is the approach we believe must be taken to repudiate and deter terrorism and denounce it for the insidious crime it is.”

The judges noted that though Canada’s “sentencing and correctional philosophy also places a premium on the notion of individual dignity and it accepts redemption and rehabilitation as desired and achievable goals,” these hallmarks of the justice system “may be seen by those who reject democracy and individual freedom as signs of weakness.

“Terrorists, in particular, may view Canada as an attractive place from which to pursue their heinous activities.
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Collateral damage in Afghanistan much on mind of Canadian top gun
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By Doug Schmidt, Postmedia News December 18, 2010

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Avoiding civilian deaths is top of mind for a Canadian pilot currently flying an arsenal-laden fighter jet over hostile Taliban territory.

"We're not in the business of collateral damage — it doesn't take a lot of that to change the war," said Calgary's Capt. Jameel Janjua. A CF-18 Hornet pilot back home, Janjua is a top-gun pilot flying combat missions here in a British Tornado GR4 while on exchange with the Royal Air Force.

Civilian casualties from the international battle against the Afghan insurgents, particularly from errant airstrikes by NATO aircraft, have fuelled tension between allied leaders and Afghans, including President Hamid Karzai, who has protested against air attacks, period. Wedding parties and innocent women and children have been among the unintended victims of airstrikes on insurgent positions.

Before each mission — unless there's no time because of a scramble alert — Janjua said it's drilled into each pilot the importance of being absolutely sure before making that decision to release deadly ordnance.

"We talk incessantly about Roe's (rules of engagement). As someone at the pointy edge of the sword, we know that tactical decisions have significant strategic consequences if you get it wrong," said Janjua.

In counter-insurgency warfare, harming an innocent is a sure way to bolster the enemy's cause. Janjua said pilots rely on their years of training, as well as daily briefings and reminders, to do the right thing.

"At the end of the day, when you're on your own, you have to make a decision like THAT," Janjua said, snapping his finger on the last word. "We're the last guys with the finger on the button," he added.
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Mozhdah: The Oprah of Afghanistan
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Vancouver-raised Mozhdah is revolutionizing her society one fearless talk show at a time
by Nancy Macdonald on Friday, December 17, 2010

On the face of it, the taping of the The Mozhdah Show looks like that of any other U.S. talk show. Green lights dim as the house band—Afghanistan’s only known rock group—starts up. A white spotlight sweeps the audience. Whistles and cheers erupt as the host, Mozhdah Jamalzadah, emerges, hopping gracefully onto the bright-pink set. “Salaam!” says the charismatic, Canadian-raised star, whose nine-month-old TV program has taken Afghanistan by storm. “Salaam!” she says again, smiling, her adoring crowd refusing to return to their seats.

Mozhdah, who like Beyoncé is known by her first name, and is mobbed whenever she leaves her Kabul home, has been labelled the Oprah of Afghanistan. The comparison is of course imperfect. Oprah doesn’t sleep with a gun. She doesn’t ride in bulletproof cars or travel with guards armed with AK-47s. Death threats don’t flood her inbox. Mozhdah, whose first thought on entering a new building is how she might escape, is gutsy in a way Oprah doesn’t need to be. Her black leather leggings, six-inch heels and silver hoop earrings wouldn’t get a second glance in Vancouver, where she’s spent all but five of her 26 years, but this is Afghanistan. Until a few years ago, the bare ankles alone could have earned her a public whipping.

Her clothes aren’t the only thing raising eyebrows in the ultra-conservative country. There is the unapologetically frank content of the show. Should women have to wear the veil? Should the marriage of a 10-year-old girl be allowed? If a woman is willing to set herself alight to escape the violence of a marriage—a common form of suicide in much of Afghanistan—why aren’t we talking about divorce? Conversations like these, she says, are raised in hushed voices in Afghanistan, when at all. She’s taking them to the airwaves, and into the homes of millions of viewers, an astonishing change.

That Afghans are watching TV at all is a meaningful shift. Under the Taliban, watching television and listening to music was a crime; the Talib mouthpiece, Radio Shariat, was the country’s lone radio station. Dancing was punishable by execution. But with the lifting of these restrictions in 2004, some 20 networks have rushed to fill the void. In a country with an illiteracy rate as high as 80 per cent, the tube’s popularity is soaring. Afghan Star, the local take on American Idol, draws as many as a third of the country’s population of 32 million. The impact, especially in cities and on the new generation—the 60 per cent of Afghans under 25—is dramatic.
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Rain Maker takes business to Afghan war zone

By Cassandra Kyle, Postmedia News December 17, 2010
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SASKATOON — Boyd Derdall and his co-workers have been to the Middle East before to install irrigation systems, but until November, they had never been to a war zone and they'd never worked at a former al-Qaida training site — especially one where Osama bin Laden once gave lessons on militant activities.

Derdall, the president and founder of Rain Maker Irrigation Development Ltd., along with three of his staff members, spent three weeks in Afghanistan doing their part to contribute to the Canadian International Development Agency's $50-million restoration of an irrigation system near Kandahar City.

From Nov. 13 to Dec. 3 the four-man crew resided at Kandahar Airfield and wore flak jackets and helmets on their "commute" to work in bulletproof vehicles complete with armed guards.

"This was a war zone," Derdall said. "I felt very responsible. It was Rain Maker Irrigation and taking these three people over who had wives and kids . . . ."

Luckily, the irrigation expert says, the group never once felt threatened.

"We left at different times. We never got on the road at nine o'clock in the morning — sometimes it was 8:30 sometimes it was 9:30, sometimes it was quarter-to-nine. . . . Even driving through the field we never went on the same trail."

Working under the Afghanistan sun where temperatures averaged 27 C, the Rain Maker crew installed two irrigation sprinklers, known in the farming sector as Zimmatic centre pivots, which can each cover 12.2 hectares of arid, desert land.

Two Cadman Travellers, which carry irrigation hose, were also installed.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 19, 2010

Bystanders dead after Kandahar district leader target of botched assassination
By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press 18/12/2010
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A vehicle packed with explosives blew up near the car of a district governor south of Kandahar city on Saturday, killing two people, including one child.

The attack happened in Dand District, a relatively quiet sector within the Canadian area of operation.

Governor Hamdullah Nazik was unharmed.

He was travelling home when the suicide car bomber tried to ram his vehicle, but missed and exploded among bystanders, said witnesses.

A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said 11 children were also wounded in the bombing.

Young and refined, Nazik is considered to be one of the leading lights in terms of governance in the corruption-riddled province.

The area, which is settled by the tribe that supports Afghan President Hamid Karzai, is often held out as an example of what the war-wasted country could become in terms of development.

The suicide bombing caps a week of escalating violence after a period of relative calm.

Three children were killed Thursday in Kandahar city when a parked car filled with explosives detonated outside a pilgrimage office, a centre where Afghans gather and return from their trips to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Also on Thursday, Noor Mohammed, the leader of the shura, or council, in Zhari District, was killed as he headed home from a mosque.
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NATO General Visits Kandahar’s first ANP Officer Candidate Class
Sunday, 19 December 2010
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KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - At a Police Training Center within Camp Nathan Smith located in Kandahar City, Afghan National Police cadets are eager to impress.

They proudly salute, scream and practice their drill sharply in front of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan’s Brig. Gen. John McGuiness, deputy commanding general for regional support, during a Dec. 15 visit to the class.

An infantry officer with a background of supporting the warfighter, McGuiness has previously helped manage the U.S. Army’s mortar and Bradley Fighting Vehicle programs and was the project manager for Soldier’s equipment.

In Afghanistan, the general oversees six regional support commands, one for each region of Afghanistan, and tries to visit each once a month. The RSCs play the critical role of training, sustaining, maintaining and equipping Afghan National Security Forces at training sites and fielded units throughout Afghanistan.

On his visits he assesses NTM-A programs and addresses issues faced by NATO advisors and Afghan instructors on the ground. Today he is curious about what the students are learning and their attitude, as well as the attitudes of the Afghan communities they come from. He knows these students are the future leaders of Afghanistan and will play a key role in the victory over the Afghan insurgency.

“What did they learn today?” he asks the instructors.

Challenges
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[GAP]

Articles found December 24, 2010

Coalition troops clear Taliban staging area in Afghanistan
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Steve Rennie The Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Hundreds of Canadian, American and Afghan troops pushed deep into Taliban country this week as part of an operation to rout the insurgents from an area in Kandahar they use to stage their attacks.

The coalition said its forces faced little resistance from the enemy fighters during the three-day mission, called Operation Khenkakak after a village in the area, southwest of Kandahar city.

No one fired on the Canadians and no one found any improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, said Maj. Luc Aubin, a senior operations officer with Canada’s mentoring team. He added the Americans did encounter some of the makeshift bombs.

But despite the apparent lack of action, Aubin said the mission was a success in that it was primarily planned and carried out by Afghan commanders on the ground.

“It’s harsh to say that because we didn’t find as much as expected that the whole operation was not successful,” he said.

Two Afghan battalions, called kandaks, were inserted into the eastern and western flanks of the village of Khenkakak, supported by engineers.

They worked their way down to another village, Yaru Kalay, which sits on the opposite banks of the Tarnak river.
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Troops having a holly, jolly Afghan Christmas
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By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau December 24, 2010

OTTAWA — The holiday spirit is "alive and well" among Canadian troops in Afghanistan, according to one solider deployed there during for Christmas.

And Cpt. Jamie Donovan says a lot of the yuletide cheer is thanks to people back home.

"The efforts by both the CF and especially the extension of good will of so many Canadians through packages and Christmas wishes sent is really quite something," he said from Kandahar this week. "In all honesty, with the flood of support and good will in appreciation for those in uniform, if I have to be away from home this Christmas there's likely no other place I'd rather be.

"Still, being away from family and my children at Christmas will be difficult, for sure."

Chief among the Canadian Forces Christmas traditions — since 1991 anyway — is Operation Santa Claus, which sends care packages to all deployed Canadian troops.

The packages include things such as playing cards, travel games, razors, toothbrushes, nuts and hard candy, ball caps, T-shirts, CDs, books, and Christmas cards from children across the country. This year, more than 3,000 Tim Hortons gift cards loaded with a cup of coffee were also sent out.

High-ranking military officers will also switch places — and in some cases uniforms — with their subordinates and serve the troops Christmas dinner.

Also, soldiers lining up for coffee at the Tim Hortons at the Kandahar Airfield can read Christmas cards sent to them from school children across the country.

"A hand-written card from a child is small and simple gesture, but a very heart-warming one," said Lt. Kelly Rozenberg-Payne, a spokeswoman for the Canadian military. "Tokens of appreciation like this are prevalent within Canadian lines."
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Afghan guards killed in NATO raid
By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
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KABUL - Foreign troops raided a compound belonging to a private security firm in Afghanistan's capital, killing two Afghan guards and seizing weapons, an Afghan government spokesman said on Friday.

The raid took place overnight and involved a unit from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemari Bashary.

ISAF declined to comment on the raid and directed inquiries to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, whose head reports directly to President Hamid Karzai. The directorate also declined to comment.

Bashary said two Afghan guards were killed and three wounded in the raid, which he said was not coordinated with Afghan troops. He said the incident was being investigated, but did not provide further details.

The use of "night raids" on private homes by foreign troops hunting insurgents has long angered Afghan officials.

Rules governing their use were tightened in 2009 and again this year but it is far less common for raids to be carried out by foreign troops on private security companies.

Under new rules, raids must be cleared by Afghan authorities first and must involve Afghan troops.
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[GAP]

Articles found December 25, 2010

Soldiers' homecoming 'the perfect Christmas gift'
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By David Gonczol, Ottawa Citizen December 25, 2010

CFB Petawawa -- CFB Petawawa's Afghan war finally came to a fitting end Friday in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.

The sprawling base, west of Ottawa, welcomed home the last 50 of its fighting soldiers sent to the "sandbox" of Afghanistan in a combat role. Some 40 soldiers from the base have perished over the years while serving in Afghanistan, a war that has taken a total of 154 Canadian lives. About 150 personnel from the base remain at headquarters in Kandahar while soldiers from CFB Val Cartier carry on the combat operations passed to them by soldiers from CFB Petawawa.

The base at Petawawa is currently not preparing any personnel for future assignments to Afghanistan as Canada's role will move in 2011 from fighting the Taliban insurgency to training the Afghan National Army to do the fighting.

Col. Wayne Eyre, commander of 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group at CFB Petawawa, said he was pleased the military managed to return all of his 1,800 strong force from Afghanistan in time for Christmas.

"This is great. It's a great Christmas present for many families," said Col. Eyre. But he was quick to point out there are still 150 of his soldiers serving in Kandahar.

He said it was important that "our thoughts and prayers" are with them as they are away from their families and still in "harms way" over the holidays.

Families waited on the base well into the early hours of Friday morning at building Y101 for a bus to return their loved ones safely home after a seven-month tour of duty.
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Pakistan border clashes leave 11 soldiers, 24 insurgents dead
Anwarullah Khan Khar, Pakistan— The Associated Press Friday, Dec. 24, 2010
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Some 150 militants attacked five security posts in Pakistan's tribal area near the Afghan border overnight, sparking a clash that killed 11 soldiers and 24 insurgents, officials said Friday.

The fighting in the Mohmand tribal area shows that insurgents in the region retain significant ability to coordinate and mount complex assaults, despite multiple military offensives against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Pakistan's northwest.
Saeed Shah, 39, lives with his sons Saeed Awais Ali Shah, 13, and Abdul Haseeb Shah, 3. in Suwan, a village which has lost half its population in the years after the 2005 earthquake as many residents moved away.

The top government official in Mohmand, Amjad Ali Khan, said 11 soldiers died in the fighting, while a dozen were wounded.

The troops called in helicopter gunships to help push back the militant fighters, said Maj. Fazl Ur Rehman, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps security force.

The fighting ended by morning. Information from Pakistan's tribal regions is nearly impossible to verify independently because access is restricted and the conflict zones are dangerous.

Mohmand has been a trouble spot for years and the focus of multiple army operations. Its border location makes it a valuable transit point for insurgents seeking to travel to Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting.
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Iranian Officer Captured In Afghanistan: NATO
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Katherine Haddon (AFP)
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Friday, December 24, 2010

(NSI News Source Info) KABUL, Afghanistan - December 24, 2010: A member of the elite al-Quds force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been captured in southern Afghanistan accused of cross-border weapons smuggling, international forces said Friday.

The man, described as a "key Taliban weapons facilitator", was captured Saturday in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, a volatile district targeted in recent coalition offensives.

He was targeted "for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz province," a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

It is thought he was connected to smuggling small arms between the countries.

"The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province," the ISAF spokesman added in a statement.

The news again spotlights the complex relationship between Afghanistan, Iran and the United States, whose troops make up roughly two-thirds of the coalition force.

Kabul has insisted that Iran, as a neighbouring country, has a legitimate concern in helping the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan.

But some in Iran's arch foe the US are concerned that Tehran could be funding insurgents or trying to play on anti-Western sentiment in Karzai's government.

British newspaper The Times reported Friday that Iran has released a string of senior Al-Qaeda militants from custody so they can help the network rebuild in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas.

The newspaper quoted anonymous Pakistani and Middle Eastern officials accusing Iran of giving covert support to the Islamist militants, often through the Revolutionary Guards.
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NATO fails to deliver half of trainers promised for Afghanistan
SUSAN SACHS KABUL— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010
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NATO is not meeting its target for assembling specialized trainers to build up Afghanistan’s army and police forces, the key that would open the way to a withdrawal of coalition troops beginning next year.

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

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

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

“It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle,” said a senior NATO officer in Kabul. “Some countries can confirm their pledges right away. Others say they need time to resolve political and budgetary issues.”
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Pakistan suicide bombing kills dozens
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25 December 2010 Last updated at 09:47 ET

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool says victims are among the most vulnerable people in the north-west

A female suicide bomber has killed at least 43 people in an attack on a large crowd receiving aid in north-west Pakistan, officials say.

The blast took place in the town of Khar in the Bajaur region, in tribal areas close to the Afghan border - a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold.

People displaced by fighting had been getting food at a distribution centre.

Reports say at least another 100 people were injured and there are fears the death toll could rise.

The attack came as Pakistan's military took action against militants in Mohmand, an adjacent tribal region, killing an estimated 40 rebels.
'Safe' area

Saturday's bombing in Bajaur was the latest in a string of recent attacks in Pakistan's north-west.

Pakistan's Taliban said they were responsible for the attack on the distribution centre, which is used by the World Food Programme and other aid agencies.

Those in the crowd were displaced members of the Salarzai tribe, which has supported the army's operations against the Taliban.

Claiming responsibility, a Taliban spokesman said the rebels had targeted the local people because of their support for the Pakistani military.

An estimated 300 people were queuing for food at the time of the blast.
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