The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2010

[MarkOttawa]

Taliban border haven in U.S. sights
Some officials urge military action on Pakistani soil to curb the flow of fighters and bomb-making materials into southern Afghanistan.
LA Times, Oct. 11
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/11/world/la-fg-afghan-assess-20101012

Reporting from Washington — U.S. military officials racing to make progress in Afghanistan are pressing new tactics to choke off the flow of Taliban fighters and bomb-making materials from Pakistan into key battlefields of the south, with some even advocating cross-border attacks, according to several U.S. civilian and military officials.

Two senior officers from the staff of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. general who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan, are scheduled to meet with Pakistani counterparts this week, a senior NATO official said, in part to present intelligence about Taliban operations in Baluchistan [emphasis added], a Pakistani province along Afghanistan's southern border.

The focus on southern Afghanistan is a response to the difficulties the U.S. has encountered this year in Kandahar and neighboring Helmand province, to which the U.S. has sent tens of thousands of additional troops.

Offensives in the region, the heartland of the Taliban movement, have struggled to clear guerrilla fighters who melt into the local population. U.S. and Afghan officials have in many areas not been able to establish stable government and improve services, priorities in the effort to win the support of Afghan civilians.

Petraeus is facing a deadline from the White House to show progress in the war by July, and officials said he is pushing the Pakistani military to confront the Taliban.

"We're going to take this fight to the edge," said one official. "We're not going to back off from the fight."..

In Afghanistan, the first hints of success
Washington Post, Oct. 12, by Michael Gerson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101104272.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

Success in Afghanistan is beginning to come in the first muddy trickles after a long drought.

Small groups of Taliban fighters -- sometimes a dozen with a leader -- are approaching local Afghan government officials, asking what kind of deal they might get. "First, they want to be taken off any list, so they are not targeted," explains a NATO official in Afghanistan. "Second, they want protection from the insurgency. Third, some kind of economic opportunity."

In counterinsurgency doctrine, this is known as "reintegration." The official admits it is "spotty" in Afghanistan but spreading in all regions. "It is happening in small numbers -- drip, drip, drip. It has not yet changed the battle space. . . . It is not a tipping point, at this point." The goal is to push these numbers much higher, with more insurgents driven to negotiation and exhaustion, so they "put down their weapons and go home."

Many Americans ask: What would victory look like in Afghanistan? It would look like this -- except more of it.

Eighteen months ago, Afghan insurgents had the morale that comes from momentum. But the surge in NATO operations, particularly Special Operations, has started to change the psychological battlefield. Special Forces now go after eight to 10 major objectives each night -- perhaps three-quarters of these raids result in the death or capture of an insurgent leader. Two Taliban shadow governors -- a key position in the leadership structure -- were killed in the last week. Such roles are quickly refilled, but replacements tend to be less seasoned and more frightened...

In a national settlement, some kind of power-sharing arrangement is probably inevitable. But sharing power in a united government is very different from the concession of Taliban control over any portion of Afghanistan's territory. This would incite ethnic conflict and re-create the conditions that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. It is the definition of American defeat.

Political reconciliation is the objective. But it is conceivable only if momentum toward reintegration continues and gathers -- and this, in large part, is a military task. Many have argued that an acceptable outcome in Afghanistan will not be achieved by military force alone. True. But an acceptable outcome is enabled by military pressure.

That pressure is being undermined by a Taliban argument. President Obama's July 2011 deadline for the beginning of American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan is being used, according to the NATO official, as "an opportunity for propaganda."..

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 13, 2010

Insurgent grenade causes NATO chopper blast
1 dead, 8 hurt aboard Chinook; Taliban claim responsibility
updated 10/12/2010
Article Link

A rocket-propelled grenade caused an explosion aboard a NATO helicopter that killed one and wounded eight shortly after the aircraft landed in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter "had just landed and was off-loading through the rear ramp when an insurgent RPG was fired into the cargo bay," ISAF said in a statement.

The blast, at an outpost in Kunar province, killed one Afghan interpreter and wounded seven ISAF troops and one Afghan Border Police officer. Twenty-six people had been on board the chopper.

NBC News reported that the Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident. The claim could not immediately be verified but the Taliban often say they are behind incidents which they have not caused.
More on link

UAE allows Canada to resume use of base
Article Link

Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News · Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The United Arab Emirates is once again permitting Canadian Forces flights to and from Afghanistan to use an air base in Dubai, military sources in Kandahar and Ottawa confirmed yesterday.

"It looks like it was just a 'one off,' " a senior military officer in Ottawa said, a day after Monday's forced diversion of a C-17 flight carrying Defence Minister Peter Mac-Kay, Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn and General Walter Natynczyk, the chief of defence staff.

But barring a last-minute deal regarding the use of Camp Mirage -- which looks far less likely after Monday's refusal to allow top defence brass to land there -- Canada must still have all its military personnel and kit out of the base in Dubai by Nov. 2.

To meet that deadline, the Canadian military will probably move tonnes of military gear from Mirage to Kandahar by air for repatriation to Canada later, another senior officer in Ottawa said. A formal contingency plan regarding that and what else will be done if the November deadline holds, is expected to be ready for approval within the next 48 hours.

"There will be a significant dollar figure to do this business differently, but if we have to, we will move some of the [logistics] tail to Kandahar," the second officer said.
More on link

Italy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan
By Ben Farmer in Kabul,
Published: 6:17PM BST 12 Oct 2010
Article Link

ranco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister said its 3,400 troops will have left the country by 2014.

The Italian decision follows the withdrawal of Dutch troops earlier this year and the Canadian decision to leave next year, as commanders struggle to sure up an alliance which is still short of troops.

Nato commanders have found it increasingly difficult to persuade members to stay in Afghanistan in the face of mounting death tolls and domestic opposition.

Mr Frattini spoke as Italy mourned four Italian soldiers killed at the weekend when their convoy was blown up in western Afghanistan.

He said: "To the families of our soldiers who died a heroic death I want to confirm that there's a political plan for Afghanistan, that their loved ones have not been sent to certain defeat in an impossible mission."
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

The Battle of Shahabuddin
Under Fire in Afghanistan's Baghlan Province
Spiegel Online, Oct. 13
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,722605,00.html#ref=nlint

One German officer fights the Taliban alongside Afghan soldiers he can't always count on, risking his life for a peace few Germans believe is possible. Germans have seen the largest battles since World War II in Baghlan Province, and their leader is more optimistic than most about the war.

When Michael Andritzky talks about the battle of Shahabuddin, his voice is calm and unwavering. His most salient memory is of a moment of silence. After a B-1 bomber dropped its payload, he says, there was a loud explosion and the earth shook. Then it was quiet. Andritzky looked around, searching for the enemy between fruit trees and submerged rice fields. There was only a plume of smoke where a row of trees had been. "The enemy was destroyed," Andritzky thought.

That was in late September, and it was the most serious battle German soldiers have experienced since World War II. About 250 German and Afghan soldiers were under Andritzky's command. The firefights lasted four days, during which five Afghan soldiers, the Germans' most important allies in the region, lost their lives. One of the dead was a good friend of Andritzky's -- a man he used to hold hands with.

But the enemy wasn't destroyed. In fact, the Taliban struck back last Thursday, when a suicide bomber killed a German soldier, a 26-year-old staff sergeant from Seedorf in northern Germany, and wounded 14 others.

Andritzky is also calm when he talks about the recent attack. The soldier's death was a high price to pay, but things have to go on, he says. He remains optimistic. He has spent the last six months risking his life, and he is determined to make sure that it was worth it.

A Death Trap for the Bundeswehr
...
Andritzky has been back in Germany since Monday. In Afghanistan he commanded the second company of the Bundeswehr's Quick Reaction Force, which consisted of 126 soldiers, including mountain troopers from Bad Reichenhall and armored infantrymen from Oberviechtach, both in Bavaria. For six months Andritzky fought the insurgents in Baghlan, a Taliban stronghold. He never lost his optimism...

"I look the Afghans in the eyes every day. We have taken on a responsibility here," says Andritzky, who has grown a beard for the mission. The Afghans like it, he says. He wears a checkered scarf around his neck, a gift from an Afghan soldier. "We can't let the Afghans down, or else it'll all have been in vain [emphasis added]."..

A few days earlier, Andritzky spoke with German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg at a barbecue in Mazar-i-Sharif, during a brief excursion into civilization for Andritzky. There is little evidence of the war at the Bundeswehr's largest base in Afghanistan, which has recycling services and even a carwash...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 14

French General Mixes Formula for a Bit of Afghan Calm
NY Times, Oct. 13
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/world/asia/14general.html?ref=todayspaper

    FORWARD OPERATING BASE TORA, Afghanistan — Just east of Kabul lies a stark mountain moonscape that for centuries was home to gunmen who preyed on travelers and harassed invaders in the narrow mountain passes. As recently as last year, ambushes of NATO troops were not uncommon.

    Now, the French soldiers responsible for the area say they believe that the situation has calmed so much that by next summer or even earlier, they would be comfortable handing primary responsibility for this district, Sarobi, in eastern Kabul Province, to Afghan troops.

    “Of course this is a political decision, but the district of Sarobi could be transferred to Afghan control not later than the summer of 2011; I think even by February it could be ready,” said Brig. Gen. Pierre Chavancy, the commander of Task Force Lafayette [actually La Fayette
http://www.defense.gouv.fr/operations/afghanistan/actualites/afghanistan-le-comisaf-inspecte-la-task-force-la-fayette/%28language%29/fre-FR ],
the French brigade in Afghanistan with 2,500 soldiers…

    The French battalion commander in charge of Sarobi, Col. Jerome Goisque, whose Forward Operating Base Tora looks out across the mountains and whose soldiers patrol its valleys, is more reserved. He said it would probably not be possible for a foreign civilian to travel on the roads. “It is quiet, but sometimes you have ambushes or exchanges of fire,” he said. “But if we were not there it would be worse.”..

Brigade linked to Afghan civilian deaths had aggressive, divergent war strategy
Washington Post, Oct. 14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/13/AR2010101306280.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

When the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade arrived in Afghanistan, its leader, Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV, openly sneered at the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy. The old-school commander barred his officers from even mentioning the term and told shocked U.S. and NATO officials that he was uninterested in winning the trust of the Afghan people.

Instead, he said, his soldiers would simply hunt and kill as many Taliban fighters as possible, as dictated by the brigade's motto, "Strike and Destroy."

What resulted was a year of tough fighting in territory fiercely defended by the Taliban and a casualty rate so high that it triggered alarms at the Pentagon. By the time the 3,800-member brigade returned in July to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., it had paid a steep price: 35 soldiers were killed in combat, six were dead from accidents and other causes, and 239 were wounded.

The brigade also carried home a dark legacy that threatens to overshadow its hard-won victories and sacrifices on the battlefield. In some of the gravest war-crime charges to arise from the Afghan conflict, five soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed Afghan men, apparently for sport, and desecrating their corpses. Seven other platoon members have been charged with other crimes, including smoking hashish - which some soldiers said happened almost daily - and gang-assaulting an informant...

The 5th Stryker Brigade - named for the Army's eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles - had trained for more than a year under the assumption that it would go to Iraq. In February 2009, however, it learned that it would go to Afghanistan instead.

That month, the brigade was undergoing mission rehearsal exercises at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Evaluators warned Tunnell that his disdain for counterinsurgency would cause trouble in Afghanistan, but the brigade commander ignored them, said Richard Demaree, a retired lieutenant colonel who served as a battalion commander for the 5th Stryker Brigade...

Tunnell's mind-set also alarmed NATO and U.S. officials shortly after the 5th Stryker Brigade arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to a State Department official who was present in Kandahar. At the time, military and civilian leaders in NATO's Regional Command South had embraced counterinsurgency.

"We all said: 'This is going to be a disaster. This is the exact opposite of what we need,' " said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because agency rules forbid him from giving unauthorized interviews.

U.S., Dutch and Canadian officials asked Army Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, then the deputy commander of Regional Command South, to intervene with Tunnell [emphasis added]. Nicholson agreed to talk to the brigade commander, but the chat had little effect, the State Department official said. Nicholson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

"Tunnell was just apparently totally unimpressed by what he was told," the official said. "He spoke to us and said, 'Some of you might think I'm here to play this COIN game and just pussyfoot with the enemy. But that's not what I'm doing.' "..

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 15, 2010

Logistics and time the enemy in Canada's Afghan pullout
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN—Sending Canadian troops to war in Afghanistan was a cinch compared to what it will take to bring the last ones home.

Canada’s military pullout isn’t set to begin until next summer, but a small team started planning the complex operation in July.

Working against a tight deadline to have the last Canadian forces, their weapons and other equipment out of Afghanistan by the end of 2011, the military’s movers have already started shipping out some items that aren’t essential to the war effort.

Soldiers know it as ‘asset optimization.’ In plain language, it’s use it or lose it.
More on link

Pak receptive to Canadian request for base
Akhtar Jamal
Article Link

Islamabad—Pakistan is receptive to a Canadian Government request for an air base to be used for phased-withdrawal of Canadian troops and military hardware from Afghanistan. In the past Pakistan had offered its airspace and airports to a number of Western states for emergency landing and logistic support.

According to reliable sources Canada made the request last month at the highest level and Pakistan was conditionally sympathetic to the request but a final accord has not yet been reached.

Canadian request was made following warning by the leaders of the United Arab Emirates to closed down a military base known as “Camp Mirage” by first week of November.

Canadian media reports claimed that the Canadian military was being evicted from its logistical base in Dubai following a dispute with the United Arab Emirates over landing rights for UAE airlines.

“Camp Mirage” was established some time back apparently to play a key transit point for conclusive operation in Afghanistan. Canada which has played a key role in at least one Afghan province now plans to wind up its military engagements there and plan a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan as of July 2011.

A senior Pakistani official speaking on condition of not being named said that “Pakistan was ready to consider the request but with certain conditions so that national security is not compromised.” Informed sources also say that Canada has not yet close the UAE Base issue and that negotiations for an extension of “Camp Mirage” accord was still on.
More on link

Seven Nato soldiers die in separate Afghanistan attacks
Article Link
  14 October 2010 Last updated at 11:00 ET

Isaf soldier in Afghanistan Isaf did not give details of the nationalities of those killed

At least seven Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in separate attacks, a day after six coalition troops died in a number of attacks.

Four soldiers were killed in attacks in south and east Afghanistan, while three others were killed in the west.

The killings mean the last two days have been among the bloodiest for international forces in recent months.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has denied it has had unofficial contacts with the Afghan government.

In the latest incident on Thursday, two soldiers were killed in a "insurgent attack" in the south.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has not given details of the nationalities of the dead soldiers.

In the east, it is mainly the US soldiers while US, British, Danish, Australian and Canadian troops are based in the south.
More on link

Calls for greater transparency in Afghan aid expenditure
Article Link
By Alexandra Kirk Posted 8 hours 46 minutes ago

Aid agencies want the Federal Government to apply much more scrutiny to Australia's aid to Afghanistan.

The parliamentary debate on the war in Afghanistan is a legacy of the Greens' deal to support a Labor minority government.

In the lead up to next week's debate, the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has written to all MP's and senators calling for greater transparency and accountability of Australia's civilian and military assistance.

Afghanistan's combined aid budget is worth about $1.2 billion a year and the peak body for non-government aid groups says it wants to ensure that the money is being spent where it is most needed.

ACFID is also calling on the Government to commit to a 10-year humanitarian and development program, as well as a Senate inquiry into Australia's future role in the country.
More on link

Canada starts planning for Afghanistan withdrawl
Article Link

The colossal logistical operation to return tens of thousands of tonnes of Canadian gear and war material from Afghanistan has already begun.

The first “baby steps” to meet an end-of-2011 deadline for everything Canadian to be gone from Kandahar has started with the repatriation of badly broken or damaged vehicles that would have proved too costly or taken too much time to repair in-theatre before the end of the combat mission next July.

The military, which employs jargon or acronyms for almost everything, calls this process “asset optimization.”

“That kind of, colloquially, ‘thinning out’ should be ongoing all the time,” said Lt.-Col. Steve Moritsugu of Richmond Hill, Ont.

The signals officer, who holds three graduate degrees, heads the small advance team for the pullout that is preceding a much larger advance team. The larger team is expected to arrive next April to begin final preparations for what will be Canada’s biggest logistical operation in a war zone since the Korean conflict.

“The purpose of our team is to be the eyes and ears of the people back in Canada who are making the plans, to make sure the policies and procedures they are drafting make sense here on the ground,” said the colonel, who is one-third of the way through a nine-month tour.
More on link

Helping Afghan women
Barry McDivitt, CHBC News: Thursday, October 14, 2010
Article Link

Public support for Canada’s presence in Afghanistan has been steadily decreasing for years, but organizers of a workshop held in Kelowna on Thursday want to send the message that Canadians should not lose hope in the mission.

International aid workers and members of the Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, an organization dedicated to improving educational opportunities for Afghan women, held the workshop for grade 6 students to teach them how they can help improve educational opportunities for girls in the war-torn country.

Under the rule of the Taliban, girls were not allowed to attend school.

However, tens of thousands of Afghan girls are now getting an education.

Mohammad Isaq Faizi, a human rights activist from Afghanistan, says the number of girls in school has increased thanks to people who have helped and support education in the country.

Many students at the workshop have been involved in raising funds for Afghan schools.
More on link

Woman on a mission to build Afghan classrooms
Article Link
By JASMINE FRANKLIN, Edmonton Sun  October 14, 2010

What started as inspiration from a book has led a 23-year-old Lacombe-area woman on a nationwide mission to get everyone involved in the construction of 100 Afghanistan classrooms.

“I was really inspired by the idea that there’s this need that could be filled now,” said Azalea Lehndorff, A Better World project development co-ordinator. “Strong leaders will emerge from that country if we give them the opportunity.”

So far, the former student of Canadian University College (CUC) in Lacombe has raised $97,000 in partner with A Better World (ABW) — a Central Alberta-based international development organization — to help build classrooms that will educate women in the Taliban-ridden Afghanistan.

“Because of the Taliban era, women have been very marginalized and 90% of them are illiterate,” said Lehndorff, 23. “Education is the first step to fight extremism and inequality.”

Lehndorff and ABW have already started two schools in Afghanistan since fundraising began in May. She traveled to Afghanistan last summer with ABW and CUC students to ensure her dreams were reasonable.

“It’s people, us and the government working together who, for their future, want education in their country,” said Lehndorff. “Book and teachers’ pay is all funded by their government.”

One of the school’s the team has opened educates 2,000 girls and the other consists of students who study outside on blankets until classrooms can be built.

But the goal is all the same — to educate not only women in the poverty-stricken country but also to those in Canada about the situation.

“I met a girl in Afghanistan who studied throughout the Taliban era. Her teacher agreed to teach her out of her home which could have gotten both of them and their families killed,” she said. “She graduated high school and went to university and now wants to come to Canada to study law and go back to Afghanistan to educate.

“It’s people like that, that you see rising out of the country itself.”
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

Afstan: Talkin’ to the Talibs/Dutch military return?
Unambiguously Ambidextous, Oct. 15
http://unambig.com/afstan-talkin-to-the-talibsdutch-military-return/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[old medic]

Translation below

Svensk soldat dödad i Afghanistan
Publicerad: 17 oktober 2010, 01.10. Senast ändrad: 17 oktober 2010, 01.13
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/svensk-soldat-dodad-i-afghanistan_5521289.svd

En 22-årig soldat från Stockholmsområdet dödades på lördagen i Afghanistan. Soldatens pansarterrängfordon sprängdes av en hemmagjord bomb.

Två svenska soldater skadades.

Attacken inträffade vid 16-tiden svensk tid. Det svenska förbandet befann sig i området väster om Mazar-i-Sharif i norra Afghanistan.

Swedish Soldier killed in Afghanistan.
17 October 2010 - 0110 CET. last updated 0113 CET

A 22-year-old soldier from the Stockholm area was killed on Saturday in Afghanistan. The soldier's armoured all-terrain vehicle was blown up by an IED.

Two Swedish soldiers were injured.

The attack occurred at 16 o'clock Swedish time. The Swedish unit was in the area west of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

 

[The Bread Guy]

In Afghan South, U.S. Faces Frustrated Residents
Carlotta Gall, New York Times, 17 Oct 10
Article link

As American troops mount a critical operation this weekend in the campaign to regain control in Kandahar, they face not only the Taliban but also a frustrated and disillusioned population whose land has been devastated by five years of fighting.

While most villagers have fled the area, those who remain complain that they are trapped between insurgents and the foreign forces, often suffering damages for which they remain uncompensated.

One of those who left is Abdul Hamid, once a prosperous grape farmer and the owner of two houses, a raisin barn and 900 vines. He lived in a hamlet called Lora in Panjwai, a fertile farming district southwest of Kandahar where others who recently left say there has been heavy shooting and bombardment.

Three years ago, Canadian troops built a temporary post near Lora. When they immediately came under fire from insurgents, they bulldozed much of the hamlet, flattening houses, water pumps and surrounding orchards, the villagers and local elders say.

"There were 10 families who had houses there that were totally destroyed, and mulberry trees were taken out by their roots," Mr. Hamid said in a recent interview in Kandahar city. "They destroyed all these things, and we are unable to replace them."

Press officers for Canadian forces, who have led operations in Kandahar Province for the past four years, and the Afghan district administration said they could not confirm the destruction. But a provincial councilor, landowners and farmers from the area said at least half the hamlet was demolished. A year later the Canadians dismantled the post and left, but the village remains deserted, the villagers said.

The experience has left a bad taste for many villagers. "Fighting brings no result for us because when they are fighting, we get caught under their feet," said Ghulam Haidin, a butcher who fled the hamlet of Garaj for a second time recently.

The case of Lora, and two neighboring hamlets, Garaj and Ghilzan, which were also destroyed, would seem to be a lesson in the mistakes that NATO forces have made in southern Afghanistan, and what should not be repeated ....

 

[MarkOttawa]

Top U.S. military, civilian officials assert gains in Afghan war
Washington Post, Oct. 17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/16/AR2010101603171.html

KABUL - With a year-end report card coming due, top U.S. military and civilian officials in Afghanistan have begun to assert that they see concrete progress in the war against the Taliban, a sharp departure from earlier assessments that the insurgency had the momentum.

Despite growing numbers of Taliban attacks and American casualties, U.S. officials are building their case for why they are on the right track, ahead of the December war review ordered by President Obama. They describe an aggressive campaign that has killed or captured hundreds of Taliban leaders and more than 3,000 fighters around the country in recent months, and has pressured insurgents into exploring talks with the Afghan government. At the same time, they say, the Afghan army is bigger and better-trained than it has ever been.

Officials point in particular to the southern province of Helmand, where U.S. troops are most densely concentrated. They say pockets of relative security are spreading where the Taliban once held sway, noting bustling bazaars and new schools.

"Compared to where we were a year ago, we're seeing some positive trends emerging," said U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry, who last year had warned that it would be risky to send new troops to Afghanistan given the Kabul government's unreliability.

"I want to be clear: There are areas with significant insecurity," he said in an interview last week. But, he added, the expanding operations of NATO and Afghan forces "are starting to have a cumulative effect."..

Yet even as U.S. officials here echo Gates's assessment, they have offered relatively little evidence to back up their claims of progress, and many still hesitate to say that successes against the Taliban in certain pockets add up to the war's pendulum swinging their way. Indeed, one week last month broke the nine-year war's record for violence, as the Taliban sought to ambush parliamentary elections: NATO forces logged more than 1,600 attacks nationwide, 500 more than in the previous worst week...

U.S. military officials say their pursuit of insurgent commanders has crippled some key factions, particularly the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, which operates in eastern Afghanistan and has been responsible for many of the deadliest bombings in Kabul. The military estimates the Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked group has about 2,500 members...

The Taliban and other insurgent groups have shown a remarkable ability to regenerate, often replacing slain commanders and shadow governors quickly. Afghan officials tend to be more pessimistic about the effectiveness of killing insurgents, particularly when their top leaders remain protected in neighboring Pakistan.

"Their casualties are high, but so are our casualties," Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said in an interview.

Competing evidence

Asked for specific instances of progress, NATO spokeswoman Maj. Sunset Belinsky cited Marja, the district in Kandahar where Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal sent troops in January with the hopes of a quick victory that could build momentum for a broader push in the province. The Taliban proved resilient in Marja, and Afghan governance was slow to take hold, but Belinsky pointed out that the district now has 300 trained policemen where there were none five months ago, as well as four new schools, including a high school that reopened after more than six years...   

U.S. military officials who say they see progress in the war also praise the development of the Afghan security forces, particularly the army, which has already surpassed its target of 134,000 members by the end of this month. In Kandahar, Afghan troops outnumber NATO forces for the first time, according to Wardak, the defense minister.

"We are practically in the lead of the operation," he said.

At the same time, Wardak, a former mujaheddin commander, said his troops are hampered by a lack of "enablers," such as enough aircraft support, medevac capability and intelligence-gathering technology, as well as firepower to conduct more independent operations...

Opinions vary wildly on whether Kandahar is safer
CP, Oct. 16
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20101016/kandahar-safer-101016/

KANDAHAR — Security in Kandahar is definitely improving, unless it is obviously getting worse.

Perhaps like at no other time in this nine-year war, there are wildly contradicting opinions, studies and statistics about just which way security is trending in the southern province, the area of operations for Canada's 2,800-soldier strong NATO force.

Among Canadian military officers and their NATO allies, the message is uniform: Hamkari, the multi-phased military operation to defeat the insurgency in Kandahar, is working.

"I would stylize where we are in that I think we now have some momentum," Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the head of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said Friday.

"I think the insurgency no longer has the initiative in the south."

There is, however, no shortage of evidence that suggests otherwise.

A record number of Americans have been killed this year, with more than two months to go. Violent civilian deaths were up by nearly a third for the first half of 2010, according the United Nations. And the Pentagon has recorded a 30 per cent rise in the planting of improvised explosive devices compared with last year.

Several non-governmental agencies working in Kandahar have also recently released studies that make the military's optimists seem like daydreamers...

But amid the overlapping explanations, there appears a consensus, however narrow it may be. All parties seem to agree that recently there has been a decline in violence in parts of Kandahar...

So is Kandahar getting safer, or isn't it? For all their costly reports, high-tech machinery and complicated ideas, the experts are divided.

But then again, so is the average Kandahari.

"As I understand the security of Kandahar, it is not very good and is not very bad," said Mateen Agha, a taxi driver in the city.

"It is actually 50-50."

 

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 18

Canadians work to corral Taliban as major operation begins
U.S., Afghan forces launch air assault in Horn of Panjwaii stronghold
Postmedia News, Oct. 18 by Matthew Fisher
http://www.globalnews.ca/world/story.html?id=3686216

The Royal Canadian Regiment battle group established blocking screens to try to trap the Taliban this weekend as U.S. and Afghan forces swooped down on the Horn of Panjwaii, which has been one of insurgents' last strongholds in Kandahar.

The long-anticipated air assault to clear the Horn, where many Canadians have lost their lives in recent years, is part of a much larger operation that has been evolving for weeks. The crucial part of the campaign in western Panjwaii was declared to have officially begun Saturday, with about 800 Afghan troops supported by a much smaller number of Americans, the New York Times
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/16/MN5T1FTPVU.DTL
quoted Maj.-Gen Nick Carter, NATO's commander in the South, as saying.

To support the operation, Canadian engineers have recently built trenches, berms and other barriers on the eastern margins of the Horn. They are designed to funnel travellers into checkpoints manned by Afghan and Canadian forces. Other Canadian soldiers have taken up key ground near the Horn to deter insurgents from trying to run this gauntlet.

"(The Canadian) job is primarily to enable the operations in the Horn of Panjwaii by stopping uncontrolled movement to the east," said Lt.-Col. Doug Claggett, Task Force Kandahar's chief of staff...

Should the campaign in the Horn and others that have taken place in the Canadian sector in Panjwaii finally result in an enduring Afghan and NATO presence, "if they (insurgents) come back in the spring, it is going to be a lot harder for them to establish a foothold," Cotton said.

This weekend's assault involved far more troops than Canada and the Afghans were able to devote to this task in the past. The effort has been enormously helped by the recent arrival of more than 10,000 U.S. combat troops in Kandahar as well as a big increase in the number of Afghan soldiers available.

Since the U.S. troop surge and the arrival of additional Afghan forces, Canada's task force has been able to concentrate almost its entire focus on the Panjwaii and Dand districts.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found September 18, 2010

Afghan election panel disqualifies 10 percent of ballots
Article Link

About 10 percent of votes cast in last month's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan have been disqualified due to suspected fraud, a spokesman for the Independent Election Commission said Monday.

Ballots from 571 polling centers have been tossed and another 1,177 polling stations are under scrutiny, said spokesman Noor Ahmad Noor.

Noor said 242 of the total 5,442 polling centers had not yet completed counting and entered results into the system.

The commission again delayed its announcement of preliminary results until Wednesday. They were supposed to have been released at the beginning of October and were then postponed to Sunday.

Many Afghans were denied the right to vote in parliamentary elections because the country is too dangerous and because of logistical failures, an independent election watchdog has said.

The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan said millions of Afghans cast ballots bravely "against the backdrop of a violent campaign season. In some areas, gunmen disrupted voting and seized ballot boxes, and observers themselves were threatened.
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8 private security guards die in Afghan clash
From Matiullah Mati, CNN October 18, 2010
Article Link

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight guards of a private security company were killed and three wounded in a clash between insurgents and the private security company Sunday night, officials said.

The clash took place in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the province's governor.

The company was providing security for a private firm that is working on the Kandahar-Herat highway, Ahmadi said.

President Hamid Karzai's administration has called for the dissolution of all private security firms operating in the country, a process that was already under way.

On Sunday, the Afghan government clarified the exceptions to the ban, stating that those firms offering protection to embassies and foreign diplomats will be allowed to continue to operate.

Karzai's office said that other private security companies not engaged in this work "are a strong threat for the national security and national sovereignty of the country," and that their dissolution will continue as planned.
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Canada seeking replacement for UAE military base: MacKay
  Article Link
By Jen Gerson, Calgary Herald October 18, 2010

T he Canadian government is negotiating with several countries to find a new base for Canadian troops heading into Afghanistan.

The military has been given one month to leave the Dubai-based Camp Mirage after a row between the United Arab Emirates and the government escalated over Canadian commercial air rights.

The base has been a major hub for the military since the onset of the Afghan war.

"There are negotiations happening right now between planners and my department, as well as Foreign Affairs, to secure an alternate locations," said Defence Minister Peter MacKay during a funding announcement in Calgary on Sunday.
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NATO pushes into troubled Afghan region, but can they keep it?
Article Link

PANJWAI DISRTICT, AFGHANISTAN—For too long, the horn of Panjwai has stabbed at allied troops fighting to take the Taliban’s southern strongholds away from the insurgents.

The strip of land, some 30 kilometres long and 10 kilometres deep, tapers to a point where the Arghandab and Dori Rivers converge on the edge of a vast desert. Shaped like a rhino horn, it has been one of the insurgents’ most lethal weapons.

Canadian soldiers pulled out of forward operating bases in the horn around two years ago, leaving insurgents largely unchallenged in their main base of operations against Kandahar city, which NATO sees as “the centre of gravity” in the conflict.

As the virtual government in western Panjwai, the Taliban were free to regroup, plot and train for attacks. They killed any elders who got in the way. The fortunate got the message and left before they could be assassinated.
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[GAP]

Articles found October 20, 2010

The Leopards Went Over The Mountain
October 19, 2010
Article Link

Canadian use of Leopard 2 tanks in Afghanistan convinced the brass that these Cold War era vehicles are valuable weapons for irregular warfare. Immune to most enemy weapons and possessing enormous firepower, the heavy tanks were very useful. In light of this experience with the Leopard 2s in Afghanistan, Canada has bought 100 Leopard 2A6s from the Netherlands and another 20 2A4s from Germany. The last twenty were modified for operations in Afghanistan (better protection against mines and roadside bombs).

It was three years ago that Canada bought the hundred second hand Leopard 2 tanks from the Netherlands, to provide their troops in Afghanistan with some additional combat power. First, they leased 20 German Leopard 2s and sent them to Afghanistan to replace the older Leopard 1s. Initially, crews for the Leopard 2s trained on the elderly Leopard 1s in Canada, before going Afghanistan. There, they have to quickly familiarize themselves with the slightly different Leopard 2s. But now there are sufficient Leopard 2s in Canada for training.

It was four years ago that Canada sent 17 of its Leopard 1 tanks to Afghanistan, to give Canadian troops there some extra firepower against the Taliban. But during the Spring and Summer, the lack of air conditioning became a major problem for the crews. The age of the tanks was a factor as well, so Canada has made arrangements with Germany, the manufacturer of the Leopard, to lease twenty of the most modern version of the tank, the Leopard 2A6M (which had enough room inside to install air conditioning).
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Canada must protect Afghan women post-combat: report
  Article Link
By Juliet O'Neill, Postmedia News October 20, 2010

In an effort to kick-start public debate on Canada's post-combat mission in Afghanistan, CARE Canada recommends the government become an international champion for Afghan women.

Canada should focus on preserving and enhancing gains made by Afghan women, among the poorest and least powerful in the world, after troops withdraw by the end of next year, the non-government aid agency says in a report released Wednesday.

"With the reconciliation and reintegration process underway and donor nations in addition to Canada planning for the end of their own military missions in Afghanistan, the situation for Afghan women has reached a critical crossroads," CARE says.

"Major gains have been made over the last decade which stand precariously close to being lost."
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[The Bread Guy]

Focus of CARE Canada report referenced above (attached):

.... Key recommendations for developing leadership in the donor community, creating coherence, and supporting the work here at home include:
• Plan, implement, and measure Canada’s overall engagement in Afghanistan through the lens
of its contribution to improved human rights – and women’s rights in particular ....

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 21

Coalition Forces Routing Taliban in Key Afghan Region
NY Times, Oct. 20, by Carlotta Gall
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/world/asia/21kandahar.html?_r=1

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — American and Afghan forces have been routing the Taliban in much of Kandahar Province in recent weeks, forcing many hardened fighters, faced with the buildup of American forces, to flee strongholds they have held for years, NATO commanders, local Afghan officials and residents of the region said.

A series of civilian and military operations around the strategic southern province, made possible after a force of 12,000 American and NATO troops reached full strength here in the late summer, has persuaded Afghan and Western officials that the Taliban will have a hard time returning to areas they had controlled in the province that was their base.

Some of the gains seem to have come from a new mobile rocket that has pinpoint accuracy — like a small cruise missile — and has been used against the hideouts of insurgent commanders around Kandahar. That has forced many of them to retreat across the border into Pakistan. Disruption of their supply lines has made it harder for them to stage retaliatory strikes or suicide bombings, at least for the moment, officials and residents said.

NATO commanders are careful not to overstate their successes — they acknowledge they made that mistake earlier in the year when they undertook a high-profile operation against Marja that did not produce lasting gains. But they say they are making “deliberate progress” and have seized the initiative from the insurgents.

Western and Afghan civilian officials are more outspoken, saying that heavy losses for the Taliban have sapped the momentum the insurgency had in the area. Unlike the Marja operation, they say, the one in Kandahar is a comprehensive civil and military effort that is changing the public mood as well as improving security...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 21, 2010

All assault reports are investigated
  Article Link
By Col. Tim Grubb, Times Colonist October 21, 2010

Re: "Honour Goddard with rape investigation," Oct. 14.

While Janet Bagnall states that the statistics provided by the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal regarding the number of sexual assaults investigations are "implausible," as head of an independent policing agency that operates at arm's length from the military chain of command, the statistics stand for themselves.

The fact remains that to date, five allegations of sexual assault have been reported to the military police serving in Afghanistan since 2004. It must be remembered, however, that Canada is not alone in its efforts in Afghanistan, and that Kandahar Airfield is home to tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians from many nations.
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Russia ready to help us leave Afghanistan
Article Link
John Ivison, National Post · Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010

The decision by the government of the United Arab Emirates to kick Canada out of its Camp Mirage air base near Dubai has led to speculation about how this country's military will bring soldiers and cargo in and out of Afghanistan when we withdraw in 2011.

One option being negotiated currently, according to diplomatic and military sources, is to ship "sensitive" equipment such as tanks through bases in Russia, likely using rented Russian and Ukrainian cargo planes.

This is a somewhat surprising development, given the overheated rhetoric we have heard of late from Canadian politicians such as Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who boasted about how Russian bombers on training missions in the Arctic would be met by CF-18 fighter jets "every time." That rhetoric is likely to be toned down in future by the hard reality that Canada may need Russia's help with the mammoth logistical operation of repatriating equipment and troops from Afghanistan after the 2011 deadline.

Recent reports have suggested a German airbase in Uzbekistan or an American base in Kyrgyzstan could be used as a short-term fix for the loss of Mirage, but those suggestions have been downplayed by people familiar with the situation. Much more likely, Afghan-bound soldiers will fly through a existing base in Cyprus, while cargo will be routed via the U.S. base at Sprangdahlem in southern Germany after Camp Mirage closes next month.
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[MarkOttawa]

Canadian cordon around restive Panjwaii
CP, Oct. 20
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/101020/national/afghan_cda_panjwaii

NAKHONAY, Afghanistan - Canadian troops are tightening their grip on eastern Panjwaii as coalition allies move against insurgents in the western edge of the strategically important district near Kandahar city.

U.S. and Afghan forces have begun long-awaited operations in what’s known as the Horn of Panjwaii, where the Taliban have had free reign in recent years.

It is expected to be a central part of the third phase of Operation Hamkari, the latest push by NATO to secure the restive southern province of Kandahar.

Military officials say that following earlier phases of the operation, which focused on Kandahar city and Arghandab district to the north, several hundred insurgents retreated to the Horn and neighbouring Zhari.

“In terms of the capacity of the insurgency to interfere with Kandahar city clearly this is an important area,” Maj.-Gen. Nick Carter, who heads NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, told reporters recently.

Carter said he hopes NATO have established an effective cordon around the Horn. Blocking the insurgent access to Kandahar city is a series of checkpoints set up under the command of Canadian troops, but for the most part staffed by Afghan National Army soldiers...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 22

The Globe and Mail’s different Afghan world/Good Star reporting Update
Unambiguously Ambidextrous, Oct. 22
http://unambig.com/the-globe-and-mails-different-afghan-world/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 23, 2010

Salvaging the Afghan mission
  Article Link
By Susan Riley, The Ottawa Citizen October 23, 2010 7:08 AM

One of the government's favourite, and most compelling, arguments for going to war in Afghanistan was to advance the rights of Afghan girls and women. Nine years later, those fragile gains are "perilously close to being lost" in the search for a political compromise that will end the fighting.

In a detailed report this week, CARE Canada -- a major player with 50 years of experience in Afghanistan -- is calling on Canada to lead an international effort to make sure tenuous progress isn't undone in President Hamid Karzai's effort to bring violent warlords and Taliban hard-liners into the peace process.

Canada, it argues, already a leading champion of women in Afghanistan, is ideally placed to lead a renewed (perhaps last-ditch) campaign for gender equality -- a campaign that could, incidentally, help the Harper government win friends among women voters, otherwise ambivalent about the war.
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Afghanistan: Where success can bring failure
Article Link

A medical clinic stands abandoned in a village on the edge of town, desert wind blowing dust through gaps in bricked up windows and empty doorways, the doctor too afraid to come anywhere near.

Taliban threats scared him off months ago. The Afghan government won’t send a replacement unless local elders make security guarantees. They refuse.

The Canadian military has made repeated offers of aid to repair the place, to repaint the two-room building’s peeling, whitewashed walls, to install doors and window panes, maybe even provide electricity and lights.

If the Canadians reopened the clinic, it would provide health care to more than 4,000 Afghans, mostly the desperately poor families of landless tenant farmers.

But their elders’ reply to overtures from Capt. Robert Goldstein, a Toronto reservist, is always the same: They change the subject.

They’ve shrugged off projects to channel raw sewage away from their streets, to dig wells for clean drinking water and almost anything else Goldstein and his team propose.

Saying yes to foreign help to save lives could get them killed by insurgents who survive on deprivation and the instability it breeds.
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NATO, UN urged to stand up to U.A.E. eviction notice
  Article Link
By Juliet O'Neill, Postmedia News October 22, 2010

The NATO military alliance and the United Nations should step in and pressure the United Arab Emirates to back down from evicting Canada from a military supply base near Dubai for Canadian troops in Afghanistan, says defence management expert Douglas Bland.

Far from being a mere commercial row over airline access or a mere inconvenience to the military, Bland said the Gulf emirate's action against Camp Mirage is an affront to the efforts of Canadian and tens of thousands of troops from dozens of other countries — including about 15 from the U.A.E. itself — fighting in Afghanistan in a NATO-led, UN-sanctioned war.

Camp Mirage is the Canadian military code name for the staging operations near Dubai, a hub for supplies and troops for many years. Only Canada has been told to leave the facility, that is reportedly also used by forces from Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

"It dismays me that a nation in that part of the world that is implicitly at least gaining security from our operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban and other terrorists would throw a roadblock in front of those efforts," Bland said in an interview. "It's incomprehensible that they would let a commercial deal between two airlines get in the way of such an important thing . . . One is a transport contract and one is a war."
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Canadian soldiers prepared to escort Taliban to peace talks
Article Link

If asked, Canadian troops stand ready to assist Afghanistan’s fledgling peace process by providing safe passage for Taliban leaders who wish to meet with Afghan officials, says the leader of Task Force Kandahar.

“This is an excellent initiative,” Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner said Friday of preliminary discussions that are said to have recently begun, not-so-secretly, in Kabul.

“If we were tasked by our chain of command, absolutely” Canadian troops would help to facilitate such talks, the general said, “but it has not gone that far yet.”

The remarks come as Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged on Friday Canada’s continuing support for the peace negotiations.

Speaking to reporters in Switzerland on Friday, Mr. Harper said Canada has always supported “attempts at political reconciliation.”
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New York Times photographer seriously injured by mine in southern Afghanistan
Article Link
By: The Associated Press  23/10/2010

A photographer for The New York Times has been seriously injured in southern Afghanistan where international forces are pushing into Taliban strongholds to try to turn the tide of the war.

The newspaper said in a statement that 44-year-old Joao Silva sustained leg injuries Saturday when he stepped on a mine while accompanying American soldiers on a patrol in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province. Silva was evacuated to Kandahar Air Field where he is receiving treatment.

No U.S. soldiers were wounded in the explosion.
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[GAP]

Articles found October 24, 2010

Bombers dressed in burkas hit U.N. base in Afghanistan
By Sharafuddin Sharafyar, Reuters
Article Link

HERAT, Afghanistan - Four Taliban suicide bombers dressed as police and women attacked the main United Nations compound in western Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, but there were no casualties among U.N. staff.

The attack with rockets, machine guns and bombers hit the U.N. compound in Herat, a commercial hub and the largest city in the country's west where Taliban and other Islamist insurgents are usually less active than in other areas.

Afghan forces and U.N. security guards at the compound repelled the insurgents. Two attackers, including a car bomber, blew themselves up at the entrance and another detonated his bomb just inside, while a fourth was shot and killed, police, government and U.N. officials said.

It was the highest profile attack on the United Nations since last year and will raise questions about security in a city that NATO officials believe could be among the first to see Afghan forces take responsibility for security from NATO troops.
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A Tour Of Kandahar Airfield: Part I
October 23, 2010 — Adrian MacNair
Article Link

As readers are no doubt aware, I’ve been too busy to write lately because of journalism school. I haven’t even had time to put together some thoughts about my whirlwind tour of Afghanistan from September 27 to October 8. What I’ve decided to do instead is use this opportunity to share my photo album, accompanied by what I think is the relevant explanation of the scene. I’m relatively new to photoshop, so if some of the photos seem overly manipulated it’s because I’ve been experimenting with the settings.
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[GAP]

Articles found October 25, 2010

Loophole for security firms on offer in Afghanistan
Article Link
Mon Oct 25, 12:03 AM

KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai signalled his willingness to backtrack on a blanket ban on all private security firms, asking the foreign community for a list of projects needing protection.

His order that all private security companies be disbanded by the end of the year has caused widespread concern that aid and development projects would be unable to continue without adequate protection in the war-torn country.

The Afghan government had already partially rolled back the ban, allowing private protection to continue for diplomats and foreign military bases.

Private security firms in Afghanistan are employed by US and NATO forces, the Pentagon, the United Nations, aid and non-governmental organisations, embassies and foreign media.

They employ about 26,000 registered personnel, though experts say the real number could be as high as 40,000.

Karzai has been under intense pressure to extend the January 1 deadline to enable foreign organisations to find an alternative, with many aid organisations and foreign companies prepared to leave the country otherwise.

In a meeting with representatives of the foreign community -- including the UN's representative Staffan de Mistura, NATO's civilian representative Mark Sedwill and commander of foreign forces US General David Petraeus -- Karzai appears to have offered a compromise.
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Heeding the call: Medevac crews in Afghanistan
Article Link
Crews carry out a vital mission, often under enemy fire
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 25, 2010 8:47:24 EDT

Kandahar, Afghanistan — As a Black Hawk helicopter bearing a red cross lands, medics, pilots and crew members surge forward to glimpse a shard of shrapnel sparkling in the sun near a tiny puddle of blood.

“What happened?” yells a pilot as soon as the blades stop spinning.

Spc. Charles Williams, cheeks gray with a sheen of dust and sweat, grins from the back of the bird.

Adrenaline makes Williams’ hands shake as he starts to tell his story. It was his first hot landing zone on his second day on the job, and telling the story was his first lesson in putting the pieces in order in his mind so they wouldn’t come back to haunt him.

It’s that moment — culled from hundreds of other moments playing cards, training and honing a morbid sense of humor — that defines everything for a medevac crew.
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Canada Helps Turn Deserted Taliban Outpost into Agricultural Site
Article Link
Monday, October 25, 2010

Deserted Taliban post re-established as agricultural development site

ISAF Joint Command  10.23.2010 KABUL, Afghanistan - The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, in cooperation with the Canadian International Development Agency, is creating the Kandahar Regional Agriculture and Rural Development Institute at Tarnak Farms, located in Dand District in southern Afghanistan.

Tarnak Farms, a deserted al Qaeda training outpost just outside Kandahar Airfield,
is scheduled to become the hub of agricultural development for Kandahar province.

The project, as requested by the local community and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, will focus on a wide range of activities to include the development of agriculture and infrastructure.

The Kandahar Regional Agriculture & Rural Development Institute is being created under the Integrated Alternative Livelihood Program - a $12 million program focused on helping create new livelihood opportunities for Afghans.
end

Military investigates farmer's damage claims
  Article Link

Panjwaii man says he hasn't received compensation for Canadian forces bulldozing his land to protect base
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News October 25, 2010

The Canadian military has launched an investigation into claims by an Afghan farmer that troops "totally destroyed" as many as 10 mud-walled homes three years ago in a hamlet in the Horn of Panjwaii in order to protect a small firebase.

In a recent article, the New York Times said that when Canadians "immediately came under fire from insurgents," after establishing the base, in Lora in western Panjwaii, "they bulldozed much of the hamlet, flattening houses, water pumps and surrounding orchards."

Canadian officials, while admitting there may have been some damage in the area, questioned the extent that was described in the report.

"It is possible that some damage to property did occur while preparing various sites in Panjwaii for a series of four police substations in 2007," the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) said in a written response to questions.

"However, we were unable to account for an incident that mirrors the extent of damage discussed in the New York Times article." CEFCOM added that "after further investigation, it may be possible that in order to enhance the force protection of one of the police substations ... land may have been cleared and some buildings may have been damaged."

The allegations were made to the Times last week by Abdul Hamid. Hamid said the Canadians had accepted his compensation claim through the district governor's office for the losses he had suffered, but that the money never reached him.
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Karzai confirms report of cash payments from Iran
Article Link
25 October 2010 Last updated at 07:51 ET

Mr Karzai said the cash was used to maintain the presidential palace and run his office

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has acknowledged that his office has received cash from Iran, but insists it was part of a "transparent" process.

Mr Karzai was responding to a report in the New York Times that Tehran had been passing bags stuffed full of cash to Mr Karzai's aides.

The cash was intended to promote Iran's interests in Kabul, the report said.

However, Mr Karzai said the money was not for an individual but to help run the president's office.

Speaking at a news conference, he said many countries had given money to Afghanistan in this way, including the US.

"The government of Iran has been assisting us with five or six or seven hundred thousand euros once or twice every year, that is an official aid," he told reporters, according to the AFP agency.

He said his chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, "is receiving the money on my instructions".
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Game show offers relief to Afghans
By Patrick Markey, Reuters
Article Link

KABUL - His country might be at war, but Afghan gameshow host Rahim Mirzad reckons his daily helping of fun and laughs is just the relief his audience needs - and the chance to become a millionaire doesn't hurt.

In a rundown warehouse studio on Kabul's dusty outskirts, Mirzad presents the "Treasure" - "Ganjina" in Afghanistan's Dari language - gameshow, where prize money of up to one million afghanis ($21,000) is on offer, a fortune in one of the world's poorest countries.

"In Afghanistan after 30 years of war, we had no gameshows, no big television programs like this. This is fun," said Mirzad, a former journalist. "When they see how emotional people are and how they react, it lets them forget everything."

Producers say the show is popular but risque for Afghanistan, where conservative Muslim clerics have in the past sought to ban foreign soap operas seen as a corrupting influence running against Islamic principles.

Just like a similar Western gameshow, Ganjina contestants choose one of 20 boxes representing an amount of cash from one to one million afghanis. Contestants eliminate boxes one by one and take home the amount in the last box.

The program came back on air on local TOLO TV two weeks ago after it was banned briefly by the government because of complaints it depicted gambling.
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