Afghanistan News April 10, 2005

April 10, 2005

Afghan city mourns its lost children, looks back to Taliban
Sunday April 10, 11:34 AM AFP
In the photograph, 12-year-old Mohammed Tahir looks barely conscious. A bloodied rag covers his left hand, where the kidnappers hacked off his finger and sent it, along with the picture, to his family.

"We are not Muslims. We don't know God, so don't ask us for sympathy. Just send us money," the ransom note read.

His family begged and borrowed the 10,000 dollars the kidnappers asked for, but two days after they left the money in an abandoned school in the southern city of Kandahar, his battered body was found nearby.

In another incident blamed on the same gang, 13-year-old Nakibullah's body was unrecognisable when he was found nine days after his family paid kidnappers the same amount for a ransom.

Wild animals had destroyed his face and right arm, and only the missing finger on his left hand showed who he was.

"When we went there and I saw my son, whatever my feelings only I know, my heart knows and my God knows," said the boy's father Haji Bismillah, sitting in a room he has barely left since his son was found dead last month.

The boys were among six children kidnapped since the new year in Kandahar, once the spiritual heartland of the fundamentalist Taliban regime, according to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

The disappearances have sparked a political firestorm in the deeply conservative city. Many people have begun to feel life was better under the harsh Islamic law of the Taliban, because they could at least guarantee the safety of their children.

On March 7 more than 3,000 people took to the streets of Kandahar demanding the resignation of the governor and the police chief, accusing police of collusion with the kidnappers and demanding a restoration of law and order.

The protest turned violent. Three people were shot and another 15 were injured according to security sources and hospital doctors in the city.

Demonstrators have in part achieved their ends. On March 16, President Hamid Karzai ordered a sweeping shake-up of provincial police leaders and sent Kandahar's police chief Khan Mohammed to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Karzai is right to be worried. The Taliban came to power in Kandahar after a similar spate of child kidnappings, when the now fugitive leader of the movement intervened to stop a fight between two militia commanders who were battling in the streets over a boy they wanted to sodomise.

According to one of the many urban legends surrounding the regime, the Taliban soldiers freed the boy and were welcomed by residents of the city.

But now people are worried about their children again.

"Three of the boys were abused and then murdered in the most violent ways. Two of them had been raped," Shamsuddin Tanrir, director of the Children's Rights Section at the AIHRC said about the latest spree of abductions.

According to Tanrir's records a further nine boys were kidnapped last year, and he suspects many more children were snatched but their parents have kept quiet after their offspring were returned once they had paid a ransom.

"A lot of children go missing. And Kuchi or Baluchi children whose parents are nomads and not part of the system are probably never traced," a western security source in Kandahar told AFP.

Afghan Independent Radio, which broadcasts a program in Kandahar city, reports that missing children declarations are the most commonly placed adverts on the show.

"We get about four or five missing children a month. About 20 percent of them are found before we hit the air," said Ismael Tahir, director of radio programming at the station.

However, others are taken for child labour, or abuse, or are runaways, Tahir said, adding that the station is planning to log their names and addresses to help with investigations.

The radio station is at the front line of the search for missing children because public confidence in the police has sunk so low. Even the newly appointed police chief, Lieutenant General Mohammed Ayoub Salangi, concedes that there was probably official corruption behind the kidnappings.

"It seems as if local militia or tribal commanders were involved," he told AFP.

For Mohammed Tahir's family their nightmare had only just begun when they lost their son. Police arrested two of the child's uncles, keeping one of them, Abdul Zahir, for 18 days and torturing him to try and force him to admit to the crime.

"I couldn't admit it because I haven't done anything, but now our whole family wants to leave Kandahar because we think there were powerful people involved," he said.

No police investigators have been to look at the pictures the kidnappers sent to try to find out who might be behind the killings, he added.

"It should be possible to work out where this was developed and try to trace the kidnappers that way," he said holding out a picture of his dead nephew.

Salangi said that police were still investigating the case, but while a handful of people were arrested and later released, no one has been charged.

"One of the biggest problems we face here is police corruption and judicial corruption. If the police can't find the real killer they will often arrest an innocent man and try and get him to confess," said AIHRC's Tanrir.

Abdul Zahir said he hopes things will improve under the new police chief Salangi, who is a Tajik from northern Afghanistan, rather than an ethnic Pashtun like the majority in Kandahar.

"We don't care if he's Pashtun, Tajik or an animal. We just want him to bring security," he said.

Bodies of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan chopper crash recovered
Saturday April 9, 4:59 PM AFP
The bodies of 18 Americans killed in the worst helicopter crash in the US-led operation in Afghanistan have been recovered and will be repatriated for identification, the US military said.

Three of those killed in Wednesday's crash were civilians while the remaining were US service members, said Lieutenant Cindy Moore, spokeswoman for the 18,000-strong US-led coalition here.

The Chinook helicopter crashed in bad weather in Ghazni province, around 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of the capital Kabul.

The remains of the 18 dead have been removed from the wreckage and taken to the Bagram air base near Kabul from where they would be flown to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for identification, the US military said in a statement.

A US team was due in Afghanistan on Saturday to investigate the cause of the crash.

Members of the hardline Islamic Taliban, waging an insurgency in the war-torn country since the US-led coalition removed them from power in late 2001, have said they shot the helicopter down.

But the US military has said there was no indication it was brought down by hostile fire.

Chinooks are a mainstay of the US-led coalition force in rugged Afghanistan, where they are used for transport duties. They have also been employed for relief work during recent spring floods.

Moore said the helicopter was one of two Chinooks returning from a patrol in southern Afghanistan. The second helicopter returned safely to Bagram, the main US air base just north of Kabul.

Around 18,000 US-led coalition troops are hunting down remnants of the Taliban regime and their Al-Qaeda allies in Afghanistan. They are also helping with anti-drug operations.

The crash was the worst since the US military toppled the Taliban in 2001 after the fundamentalist regime refused to surrender the Osama Bin Laden, the architect of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

US forces flying missions above Afghanistan's difficult, mountainous terrain have suffered eight helicopter crashes since the end of 2001, Moore said.

The seven crashes before the one on Wednesday claimed 21 lives, she said. The last victim was the pilot of a Black Hawk helicopter which came down near the western city of Herat in October.

Six people -- three US military personnel and three American civilians -- were killed last November when their rented civilian transport plane crashed in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan province.

Taliban Insurgents Kill Senior Afghan Official
Sat Apr 9, 8:57 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Ousted Taliban remnants have killed a senior Afghan provincial official several days after kidnapping him, a Taliban spokesman said on Saturday.

Sarajuddin, chief of Zabul's power and water department, was killed after a group of Taliban seized him two days ago outside the town of Qalat, Zabul's provincial capital, the spokesman said.

The murder was confirmed by a local police official.

His killing is the third such murder of a local official in less than a week in the restive south, the former bastion of the Taliban.

Taliban guerrillas fatally wounded General Geranai, former deputy head of the army corps for the south in neighboring Kandahar province on Thursday, a day after killing a security official of adjacent Helmand province.

The number of attacks by the radical Islamists fell over the winter after they failed to make good on a vow to derail landmark presidential elections in October.

But with the onset of spring, low-scale violence linked to Taliban rebels has broken out in several southern and eastern areas of the country.

The rebels killed five Afghan policemen in a firefight in Zabul province on Thursday.

Revival of the Taliban
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online April 9, 2005
KARACHI - Two types of Taliban have left their leader Mullah Omar to join with Kabul: first, those organized by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Peshawar soon after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and second, those who were arrested in Afghanistan and subsequently cultivated. Except for a few, all are mullahs.

The vast majority of Taliban commanders retreated to Pakistan or adopted a low-profile private life in Afghan villages pending Mullah Omar finalizing a new guerrilla strategy similar to that adopted by the Iraqi resistance. The results of this are expected to manifest themselves within a few months.

Asia Times Online was the first publication to write about the Taliban's new strategy (see Osama adds weight to Afghan resistance, September 11, 2004), which was the brainchild of a few Taliban who were sent to northern Iraq before the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Oriented with the Ansarul Islam in northern Iraq by al-Qaeda-linked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, they were taught the guerrilla tactics then being successfully applied in various Iraqi cities - and which still are. The group returned to Afghanistan some time ago. One of the members was Mehmood Haq Yar, an expert in guerrilla and urban warfare.

Asia Times Online has learned that this Iraq-style resistance is to be activated in Afghanistan. The central command of the Iraqi resistance has been eliminated and various groups, mostly Islamists, are engaged in guerrilla activity on an independent basis. This decentralization is the guarantee of their security and successful clandestine operations.

An identical tactic has been adopted in Afghanistan. On the advice of Haq Yar, all prominent commanders have withdrawn from the battlefield. The most prominent ones, such as Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, Saifullah Mansoor and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, took refuge in tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan, while the rest were asked to stay with the local population.

This caused a lull in the resistance, which was the aim. A new generation of mujahideen not known in Afghanistan, including Arabs, Pakistanis, Afghans and others, was selected and kept at remote positions. They are all familiar with the latest guerrilla tactics and oriented only for specific missions.

For instance, a small group was assigned to disrupt oil supplies in Spin Boldak. They were specifically launched to hit that target, and when they achieved their goal they scattered to await the next assignment. Similarly, a group were assigned to blow up a helicopter in Ghazni. They were given maps, flight routines etc, and once they achieved their mission, they dispersed.

Thus, unlike in the past, the Taliban movement is now target-oriented rather than reliant on the random attacks it previously adopted. Asia Times Online sources say that there are only a few hundred of these small teams. Their initial targets are Khost, Ghazni, Kandahar and Jalalabad, with June earmarked for attacks in Kabul.

Previously, the Taliban's unorganized approach and lack of communication and proper planning resulted in heavy casualties, and exposure of its network. Thousands of youths have been killed or captured in the past three and a half years.

The new strategy is much more secure and highly clandestine, and the teams are unknown, thus they have the element of surprise on their side.

Taliban 'sellouts'?

Those Taliban who have approached Kabul are mostly those organized by the ISI under the name of Jamiatul Furqan or Jamiatul Khudamul Koran. They include small provincial ministers and mullahs who were pitched in Peshawar as moderate Taliban. Pakistan sought to promote them to regain influence in the country. Initially, the US did not entertain the idea as they were considered an insignificant bunch of mullahs.

However, as US efforts in Afghanistan faltered, with the help of the ISI, Washington accepted the idea and invited the Taliban to Kabul, mindful of their show-case value for the world media as "good" Taliban who could join President Hamid Karzai's government.

The other batch of Taliban included such people as Mullah Jalil and Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi. Jalil was once the right-hand man of Mullah Omar and was arrested in Pakistan. Rocketi was a powerful commander who was captured in Afghanistan. Apparently, Rocketi is doing his level best to show his moderate face to the US and get an important slot in the government. In the presidential elections last October he was seen in Zabul with bags full of money to woo people to vote for Karzai.

For the mullahs who have "turned", they probably saw that they had little chance of survival if they did not go along with the ISI and subsequent US plans. Commanders such as Rocketi were captured and also had little option but to play along.

But it is clear that once the Taliban start getting some success in their next phase - primarily aimed at the foreign forces in the country - mass mobilization will be the next step. Past experience suggests that it will start from the Pakistani border town of Chaman, where thousands are already waiting, and very much like the past, those who have been compelled, like Rocketi, to change sides, will be the first new rebels.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online.

U.S. Soldier Injured By Landmine Near Bagram
Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)April 8, 2005
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – A U.S. Soldier was injured by a landmine April 5 near Bagram Airfield during a security patrol. A member of the 164th Military Police Company sustained injuries to both legs when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine during a patrol in a local village. A squad from the company was seeking information on a recent rocket attack against Bagram Airfield. The Soldier was taken to Bagram Airfield’s Lacy Hospital for treatment. He was then flown to Landstuhl Medical Facility in Germany. There is no indication of anti-Coalition involvement in this incident.

NATO Sees U.S. Military Changing Strategy
Fri Apr 8, 9:08 PM ET By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press
STUTTGART, Germany - U.S. forces stationed in Europe will increasingly shift their stance toward Africa and the former communist countries in eastern Europe as they move to counter terror threats in those areas, the top European commander said.

Marine Gen. James. L. Jones, who serves as NATO supreme commander and the head of the U.S. European Command, outlined changes to transform the 60-year U.S. military presence on the continent during an interview Friday with the Associated Press.

"The difference between the EUCOM of the 20th century — which I regard as the Cold War century — and the EUCOM of the 21st century is the family of threats that it faces, ranging from terrorism to radical fundamentalism to narcoterrorism to illegal trafficking of all sorts," Jones said at EUCOM headquarters in Stuttgart.

European Command, or EUCOM, isn't directly involved in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but plans to consolidate forces and shift them further south and east are in direct response to the threats developing from those conflicts.

Many of the changes, like consolidating different Army headquarters under one roof in Wiesbaden, are simply a continuation of post-Cold War cutback that began in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But deeper changes are on the way, as the U.S. looks less to large, fixed bases like those it has had for decades in Germany, to smaller, more bare-bones installations where troops could be moved quickly for training or to deal with a crisis.

Of the currently 112,000 military personnel stationed in Europe, only about 40 percent are expected to remain on five main bases, most of them in Germany.

The large air bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem, as well the nearby support community of Kaiserslautern, will remain hubs. The Army will concentrate on existing posts in Wiesbaden and Grafenwoehr. EUCOM headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, while both the Army and Air Force will remain in Aviano, Italy.

But increasingly the focus is shifting toward Africa, seen as a potential haven for Islamic extremists who have been ousted from places like Afghanistan.

Already five such agreements exist with countries in Africa, including the predominantly Muslim nations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

In Europe, the focus in increasingly turning to the new NATO members of the former Warsaw Pact. A special Eastern Europe Task Force would involve rotating troops on a regular basis for training exercises, including some with local militaries.

Bases in Bulgaria and Romania, both of which hosted the U.S. military during the Iraq war, have been earmarked to host forces, but would differ from those in Germany in that they would offer only skeletal infrastructure and no families would accompany troops there on their tours of duty.

Soldiers from 10th Mountain Division going to Afghanistan
April 9, 2005, 2:47 PM EDT Newsday, NY
FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- About 8,000 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division will deploy to Afghanistan next, which will leave few at Fort Drum in northern New York, according to garrison commander Col. Emory Helton.

"Things are going to be pretty quiet around town for a while," Helton said Friday at a meeting of the Army base's regional liaison organization.

The 10th Mountain Division's headquarters, 3rd Brigade and portions of its aviation and support brigades will go to Afghanistan, along with the 4th Brigade based in Fort Polk, La., he said.

Post spokesman Benjamin Abel said troops are scheduled to leave in February and March. "They will have responsibility for the entirety of the country," he said, similar to their role in 2001-2002.

The 10th Mountain Division was among the Army's first units in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. and fought against Taliban forces. The threat to American troops now is from Taliban-led insurgents.

The division's 2nd Brigade is in Iraq and will be replaced there by the 1st Brigade this summer. The 2nd Brigade won't be part of the Afghanistan deployment, and the 1st Brigade is expected to stay in Iraq for about a year, Abel said.

Afghanistan provided 10 ambulances
By Our Correspondent Dawn
QUETTA, April 9: Pakistan has handed over 10 ambulances to an Afghan diplomat, which will be used by different hospitals in Afghanistan and further strengthen ties between the neighbouring countries.

Director-General of Afghan Trade Development Cell Mohammad Anwar handed over the ambulances to Afghan Consul Ahmed Ali Babak in a function near the Askari Park on the Airport Road here on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Anwar stated that Pakistan was keenly interested in assisting Afghanistan in its rehabilitation process and provision of the ambulances was aimed at solving problems of Afghan hospitals.

He further said that Islamabad had assured the Afghan government of providing it with 45 ambulances and 100 buses in different phases and today's grant of ambulances was a part of that package.

Expressing gratitude on behalf of his government, the Afghan diplomat said that Pakistan had been helping them in the reconstruction programme and supply of the ambulances would resolve problems in health sector.

Mr Babak said that grant of the ambulances would further cement the brotherly relations between the neighbouring states.

Exports to Kabul rise to $422.5m
By Mohiuddin Aazim Dawn
KARACHI, April 9: Pakistan's exports to Afghanistan rose to $422.5 million in July-February 2004-05, from $223.8 million in a year-ago period.

This nearly 89 per cent increase has raised hopes that the full year export earning from the neighbouring country may reach $600 million. The Export Promotion Bureau had set the initial target for exports to Afghanistan at $500 million. "But I am sure we will exceed the target," said Minister of State and EPB Chairman Tariq Ikram when reached by Dawn over telephone.

He did not give his own estimate, but shared exporters' view that exports to Kabul may reach $600 million during this fiscal year ending in June, up from $390 million in the last fiscal year.

Export data compiled by the EPB show that exports of a large number of items to the neighbouring land-locked country have risen substantially during the first eight months of the current fiscal year. "Notably, the exports of construction materials and petroleum products have shown great progress," said Ikram citing regeneration of economic activity and reconstruction of infrastructure projects in Afghanistan as a key reason for this.

During July-February 2004-05, Pakistan exported $75 million worth of crude oil from petroleum and Bituminous minerals; $35 million worth of cement and $29 million worth of paints and varnishes. In the comparable period of the last fiscal year, exports of these items to Afghanistan had fetched $23 million, $17 million and $415,000 only.

Besides, as the war-torn country is limping back to normalcy with an elected government trying to establish its writ, demand for almost all items of daily use has increased in Afghanistan. And, Pakistan takes the lead in meeting this demand. According to an Asian Development Bank report, Afghanistan's total imports during fiscal year 2004 (ending on March 20, 2005) were estimated at $3.4 billion.

The EPB data show that Pakistan exported a vast variety of items of industrial and household use to Kabul during the first eight months of this fiscal year. Export of animal or vegetable fats and oils, for example, fetched $37.7 million followed by sugar ($28.8m); tableware and other household articles ($19.7m); plastic goods ($17.8m); soyabean oil ($10.7m); pumps for liquids, liquid elevators ($10.1m); milk and cream ($10m).

With eight months' exports to Afghanistan totalling $422.5 million, the country ranks sixth among Pakistan's largest export destinations. On the top is the USA, followed by the UK; the UAE; Germany and Hong Kong.

Exports to these six countries totalled $4.711 billion, which was more than 53 per cent of the total exports of $8.849 billion during July-February 2004-05.

Individually, exports to the USA totalled $2.039 billion, followed by the UK ($721.2m), UAE ($657.2m), Germany($442.7m), Hong Kong $428.7m and Afghanistan ($422.5m).

The EPB chairman claims that growth in exports to Afghanistan is an outcome of the EPB strategy designed in 2001 aimed at increasing exports to Islamic countries - clubbed together as countries with which Pakistan has special relations.

He also says that the decision taken in this year's trade policy of allowing Afghan importers to open letters of credit both in dollars as well as in Pakistani rupee has also played a key role in increasing exports to Kabul. "Besides, with Pakistani banks now operating in Kabul, trade facilitation has become a bit easier."

"Previously we focussed only on border trade with Kabul with hardly three dozen parties based in Peshawar being active but now traders from Karachi, Lahore and several other cities have also established business contacts in Kabul and are exporting their goods there."

In July-February 2004-05, Pakistan's total exports stood at $8.49bn. Exports to Kabul at $422.5m constituted about five per cent of the total.

Pakistan’s Taliban reincarnation
The News International, Pakistan
The reincarnation of the Taliban has begun in Pakistan. The events of the last few weeks, in which MMA activists unleashed brutal force against civil liberties and law are proof of this. These are not just random abnormal occurrences, but a forewarning of a dreadful situation developing in Pakistan, especially in the NWFP. These events have confirmed the series of dire predictions about the effects of the Hasba Act and the formation of the Hasba force in the NWFP by the MMA government.

The rise of the unlawful private force of religious zealots has produced a wave of panic among people who had expected that, with "modernisation" on the top of President Musharraf’s agenda, Pakistan would become a more enlightened and less repressive society. Instead, they are witnessing the growth of forces which seek an even more restrictive society, one which forces women back into purdah, uses terror to crush civil rights and free thought, and threatens to inflict the most barbaric punishments on those who defy its edicts. This is a form of fascism, not Islam.

Religious fanatics in the NWFP have such a free hand because of MMA support that opposition members of the provincial assembly are threatened of dire consequences if they oppose the unlawful acts of the fanatics. The opposition leader in the NWFP assembly, Shehzada Mohammad Gushtasip Khan, has himself received death threats. He dared to raise his voice against the MMA’s atrocities and oppression, and against the increasing lawlessness the alliance is promoting in Mansehra district through militants belonging to banned jihadi outfits, as well its own regular activists. Mr Gushtasip has been exposing the unlawful activities of the Mansehra amir of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, so the amir threatened him with death — at a press conference. This is not worrisome for Mr Gushtasip and his family alone; it is a greater source of concern for ordinary people, who are in a far weaker position than the leader of the opposition.

On March 25, MMA-backed militants of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen besieged the district courts in Mansehra over the cancellation of the bail before arrest of one of their local leaders, who subsequently threatened Mr Gushtasip with death. Wielding clubs and iron bars, these militants used malicious language against the judiciary and denounced the presence of woman judges in the Mansehra district courts as "un-Islamic." Surprisingly, the law was not applied against the militants.

The religious militants are against women playing any role outside the home. They stand for ancient laws and traditions that deprive women of their most basic civil rights. They are essentially anti-women. The hooliganism promoted by an MMA MNA against girls’ participation in the Gujranwala marathon is the latest exposure of the terror tactics applied by the religious alliance.

The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan began in the 1980s. On the one hand, General Zia-ul-Haq used religion to justify his rule, since he was "Islamising" the laws and thereby Pakistani society. On the other, he turned Pakistan into a base for forces opposing the Afghan revolution. Thousands of Pakistani guerrillas entered Afghanistan, and at the same time Pakistan became a corridor for 25,000 militants from other Muslim countries who participated in the US-funded proxy-war in that country. After the end of the Afghan war, the military started using these guerrilla forces to fight a proxy war in Kashmir, which is still going on.

However, the activities of the fanatics did not remain restricted to Kashmir. Since the fanatics are motivated to fight against all "infidels," they have now turned their attention to liberal values in Pakistan, to pose a big challenge to this country’s civil society. They are flexing their muscle with the encouragement of the MMA, which is determined to "Talibanise" Pakistani society.

Should this religious militancy be allowed to continue unchecked? No, it needs to be challenged with determination. The cancer has to be treated now because it can spread further.

The writer is a freelance contributor based in the NWFP

Afghanistan tourism promotes its virgin peaks to climbers
Sunday Herald, UK
Despite the landmines and bandits, mountaineers are eager to conquer the Hindu Kush, writes Nick Meo in Kabul

Afghanistan’s mountain ranges are littered with landmines, wrecked tanks and helicopters … and the bones of foreign soldiers who came to fight its guerrilla armies.
Soon the mountains will be subject to a new, and this time peaceful, invasion: from mountaineers in search of adventure among the world’s last unclimbed peaks.

The formidable spine of towering ranges that make up the Hindu Kush across the country’s centre and the icy Pamirs in the far north represent the last frontier for climbers bored with the Alps or the Himalayas and craving new challenges.

Last year, a European team supported by Sir Chris Bonington scaled Afghanistan’s highest mountain, the first major expedition to venture into the country since the Soviet invasion in 1979, and a few brave adventurers set out on small-scale DIY climbs.

Afghanistan’s new tourism minister has promised the dawn of a new age. Professor Nasrullah Stanakzai wants to develop the country’s mountaineering potential by setting up a school for training guides and providing armed escorts against the threat of bandits.

He said: “We have fantastic mountains in Afghanistan, and we are ready to accept anybody who wants to come.

“If they are nervous about security, they shouldn’t worry. We will provide them with an armed police escort.”

The tourism ministry, which for years operated out of an old shed near the airport, is helping to set up an Italian-funded mountaineering centre and training 12 former guerrilla fighters to become alpine guides.

It even plans to open a camp for curious tourists and adventurers near Osama bin Laden’s old headquarters at Tora Bora, in the Spin Ghar mountains.

Stanakzai insisted the Taliban-wracked area near the Pakistan border was also safe for mountaineers, despite the cat-and-mouse conflicts between al-Qaeda fighters and US Special Forces. The minister has also promised to ensure that development is environmentally sensitive and wants to learn from mistakes in areas of Nepal where too many trekkers have wrecked once-pristine areas.

Campaign group Mountain Wilderness International launched the first big expedition last year up Afghanistan’s highest peak Noshaq, a 7492-metre giant of rock and ice on the border with Tajikistan.

Afghanistan offers hundreds of virgin peaks for climbers wanting to be first to the summit. Unlike Nepal, India and Pakistan, there is no expensive licence system for expeditions yet, cutting expenses considerably to attract climbers.

Sir Chris Bonington said: “Provided it is safe, people will certainly want to go. Afghan istan has some wonderful mountains.

“There are lots of unclimbed peaks around 6000 metres, and for young climbers in Britain that is very exciting. If they can ensure security, things could really take off.”

One of the country’s great draws is Mir Samir, made famous by travel writer Eric Newby’s failed attempt to climb it, and memorably described in Newby’s travel classic A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush. Newby recorded his colourful experiences as a novice mountaineer dealing with the locals and the harsh environment, reading how-to books about mountain climbing while making the ascent.

Australian climber Ash Sweeting and British Everest veteran Mark James last year reached a virgin summit above the Panjshir valley, north of Kabul and once the scene of epic battles with the Soviets.

Sweeting said: “You do worry about landmines, but we checked with a landmine clearance agency in Kabul and with villagers and the route seemed OK.

“You have to stay away from the old smugglers’ trails. That’s where the Soviet helicopters dropped lots of mines. We thought about going armed but decided not to. We had a letter from a local leader and that was enough protection.

“It was tough going but the mountains are truly fantastic. There is a real buzz in getting to the top – you’re somewhere reached by no other mountaineers and there’s hardly anywhere else in the world you can say that now.”

Mountain climbing is not the only adventure activity on offer.

Some of Kabul’s expat aid workers and entrepreneurs have experimented with off-piste skiing and snowboarding near the Salang Pass north of Kabul, in the 1970s the site of Afghanistan’s only ski resort.

British telecommunications worker James Howlett said: “It’s a fantastic way to blow off some steam after a hard week of working in Kabul.

“We’re on areas that have hopefully been cleared of landmines. But the powder is several feet thick so you should be OK if you skim over the top of one.”

More conventional tourism also looks set to take off, with a trickle of backpackers already making their way to Kabul where they stay in the Mustapha Hotel, made famous for its association with US bounty hunter Jack Idema.

Apart from seeing the sights – or the ruins of the sights – they can enjoy Kabul’s crazy nightlife in the Elbow Room bar, where tourists rub shoulders with South African security men and veteran aid workers and drink Tora Bora Sunrise cocktails.

Some backpackers have even tried to hitchhike on Afghanistan’s risky roads. A stark reminder of the dangers of Afghanistan came last year when two young Europeans were found murdered in Kabul, apparently after being tricked by criminals over a gems deal. A young Briton who attempted a horseback adventure in the mountainous northeast was given up for lost when he failed to appear back in Kabul for weeks. He finally turned up and explained that he was robbed at gunpoint, then his horse ran off leaving him to trudge all the way back to the capital.

But most adventures seem to pass successfully. Briton Matthew Leeming runs tour parties to the desolate Wakhan Corridor in the far north on the China border. Last year many of his enterprising guests were elderly folk. Leeming said: “I thought it would attract rich yuppies looking for bragging rights at dinner parties.

“But most of them are people who are seriously interested in Afghanistan’s culture. They want to see somewhere truly unique.”
10 April 2005

If the moon could talk, Intelligence Deception since Afghanistan!
by Maher osseiran NYC Independent Media Center, NY 09 Apr 2005
Investigative article that sheds new light on the confession of Osama Bin Laden on tape to 9/11 and supports the possibility that it was produced by western intelligence. It also vindicates those who coined the term "Synthetic Terrorism".
While the controversy in England about the advice of the Attorney General on the legality of the Iraq war rages on and fuels requests for its publication in full, in America, George W. Bush is luckier and has survived the Valerie Plame issue, WMD’s, and the scathing report on the failure of intelligence prior to 9/11, the question is, how would both deal with the issue brought up in this article that potentially dwarfs all other issues.

The issue is Bin Laden confessionals to his guilt of 9/11 on video tapes; yes plural, it is not a typo. One British supposedly acquired through intelligence, and one American explained as the product of an amateur videographer. Could those two tapes be just one and could it be as reported by the Observer the “result of a sophisticated sting operation”?

We have all seen the “American video”, a video tape acquired by US soldiers in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and, provided by the Pentagon to the media and the general public in its raw form after intelligence services dissected it, analyzed it, and authenticated it. On the tape aired Dec 13, 2001, Osama Bin Laden, through a conversation with a visiting sheikh, later identified as Khaled al-Harbi, admits to 9/11, or in the least shows prior knowledge of it.

Many of you might have forgotten or never even heard that there is also a “British video”. On On Nov. 14, 2001, Tony Blair addressed parliament and informed the audience that the British Government published transcript excerpts of the “video” in which it says Bin Laden admitted taking his campaign to the United States. The article quotes bin Laden as saying: "It is what we instigated for a while, in self-defence. If avenging the killing of our people is terrorism, let history be a witness that we are terrorists. The battle has been moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle, or die in the cause and meet our maker."

Now since Jalalabad fell on Nov. 14, the same day Mr. Blair uttered that quote in parliament, and, the president of the United States first exposure to the “American video” recovered in Jalalabad was not until Nov. 29, one has to assume that the “video” Mr. Blair is referring to is a different “video”. After all, if it is the same “video”, how could Mr. Blair have knowledge of something that has not yet existed?

On Nov 11, The British video makes it debut introduce by David Bamber of the Sunday Telegraph in London. Mr. Bamber informs us that the Telegraph had access to it and reports it this way: "The footage, to which the Telegraph obtained access in the Middle East yesterday, was not made for public release via the al-Jazeera television network used by bin Laden for propaganda purposes in the past. It is believed to be intended as a rallying call to al-Qa'eda members. He also tells us: “The video will form the centrepiece of Britain and America's new evidence against bin Laden, to be released this Wednesday.”

On Nov 14, three days later, the tape commits a disappearing act and this is how T.R. Reid, the Washington Post Foreign Service correspondent, reports from London on its official introduction in Parliament by Tony Blair; he writes: "The British government did not release the video or a full transcript, saying it does not have a copy of the video but has information about it from intelligence sources." In the same article, he also reports that there was an interviewer on the tape.

Now you see it, now you don't !!!

This is how the Washington Post describes on Dec. 9 Mr. Blair’s video in the article that unveiled the “American video” and I quote: “The new videotape is not the one described last month by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Intelligence sources had obtained only a transcript of that tape, not the actual video.”

It is a fact that the “British video” Tony Blair referred to on Nov 14, has never been provided to the public and his quotes of Nov 14, which are hearsay, are nowhere in the transcript of the “American video” recovered in Jalalabad and aired on Dec. 13, 2001. It is also a fact that through the various newspaper reports, we are asked to believe that only the Telegraph had access to the video while British and American intelligence had no chance to see it, vet it, or authenticate its transcript. Also, we are asked to believe that there are two “videos”, and that confessionals by “video” are a standard Osama Bin Laden business practice with copies distributed to heads of state.

Logic dictates that we not believe, and dictates that we ask Tony Blair and the Telegraph, to release the video immediately. Also, since the analysis that follows increases the credibility of a report that the tape is the result of a sophisticated sting operation run by intelligence services, urgency is warranted.

The following came to light while I was researching inconsistencies in intelligence that sent us to war in Iraq. The “American video” released by the Pentagon, even though not specifically related to the war in Iraq, stayed in my mind ever since it was aired and warranted a revisit as part of my research.

While viewing the “American video”, both historic and technical inconsistencies were found. Granted, the tape is the most analyzed tape in the world, still, most of the analysis was centered on the looks of Bin Laden, his voice quality, his words, and none reported an investigative analysis that considered post-taping edits. Due to limited technical capabilities, we could only report that the tape was a fourth generation edit (copy or otherwise), that there are both VHS and digital drops on the tape, which is unusual, and that there was unwarranted editing that might have happened post-taping. Also, and most importantly, that certain camera angles and motions seemed too similar to a hat camera that football umpires wear. Those who are better equipped to conduct further evaluation are encouraged to do so. (click here for hints to those interested in conducting further technical analysis)

In terms of the historic inconsistencies, the timeline inconsistencies that follow are of a serious nature and clear enough that the Pentagon analysts should have easily picked them out. The failure to detect them and report them should weigh negatively against those who released the video.

The first anchor for the timeline analysis is what Ari Fliescher, the White House press secretary, informed us through his press briefings. Mr. Fliescher told us that the tape was found in Jalalabad, in an abandoned house, that the tape did not seem to be planted, and that the occupiers of the house seem to have left in a hurry. Mr. Fleischer also tells us that the tape seems to have been made on November 9, 2001, since that is what the time stamp on it is. He also goes on to say in one of his answers: “I can tell you, the President was first informed of it on November 29th. He first viewed portions of it on November 30th.” Again, for the record, Jalalabad fell on Nov. 14.

Now let us use the transcript of the tape that the Pentagon provided.

In the transcript, the visiting sheikh to whom Bin Laden confessed is reported to have said: “We came from Kabul….. We asked the driver to take us, it was a night with a full moon, thanks be to Allah.” On the tape itself, the sheikh actually infers prominent moon, which I interpret as 3 to 4 days before and after a full moon. He is later reported to have said: “Allah has bestowed on us...honor on us...and he will give us blessing and more victory during this holy month of Ramadan.” In the tape he never uses the word Ramadan, he actually says: ”…….victory during this Moubarak (meaning blessed) month and the month after.” The translators decided to interpret “Moubarak month” as Ramadan since the word Moubarak is usually used to describe the month of Ramadan and totally omitted the fact that he said: “and the month after”.

If Ramadan were the month the taping took place, Ramadan in 2001 starts like every other Ramadan with a new moon, as black as the night can get, and was on Nov. 16, while a full moon is not until Nov. 30, which means a prominent moon is between Nov. 26 and Dec. 4. The taping could not have happened during a prominent moon in the month of Ramadan since Kabul, the town the sheikh traveled through, had fallen on Nov. 12, Jalalabad, where it was found, on Nov.14, and Kandahar, where supposedly it was taped, was surrounded by anti-Taliban forces during that period and fell towards the end of it.

Now that we have established that the taping could not have taken place during Ramadan and that the reported date stamp of Nov. 9 on the tape could have been a programming error on the part of the camera operator, we need to go back in time and examine the previous periods of a prominent moon which are: Oct. 27 through Nov. 4, and, Sept. 28 through Oct. 6.

Going back to the transcript released by the Pentagon we find no mention of carpet bombings, coalition operations, or travel difficulties due to the military operations that officially started on Oct 6, 2001. I find it incredible that, over a period of 40 minutes of tape, there was no mention of military activities by the coalition or their effects on travel, considering the magnitude of such activities and the chattiness of the sheikh, which puts the period of Oct. 27 through Nov. 4 in doubt.

The second anchors for the timeline analysis are statements by Tony Blair, that of Nov. 14 and the following two:

On Oct 4, 2001, in a speech, he states that a Government document is to be released and I quote the document: “There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of Bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release.” The operative words are “very specific”.

On Sept. 30, 2001, in a BBC interview, Tony Blair states that he has evidence from intelligence services of Bin Laden’s guilt and that the evidence was "powerful and incontrovertible". I had to look up incontrovertible in the dictionary, it means; not open to question or dispute; indisputable, as in, absolute and incontrovertible truth. This was only 4 days prior to Oct. 4, is he talking about the same “very specific” evidence. Very likely as it takes governments about 4 days to vet and publish.

When we combine all three statements, we can deduce that the incontrovertible evidence was available as early as Sept. 30, that it was acquired by intelligence, and that it is a “video” since the only incontrovertible evidence, even though hearsay, Blair put forth was his quote of Nov. 14.

Again, logic dictates that we ask Tony Blair to release his video.

Going back to the timeline analysis. If we now take the period of Sept. 28 through Oct. 6, into consideration, we have to consider a fact that strongly favors this period, it is the fact that the visiting sheikh is a paraplegic and needs considerable help during travel. I would think a handicapped person would travel into Afghanistan during the relative calm of this period while he could still get the support and cooperation of the Taliban in his trek to locate and meet Bin Laden. Oddly enough, this time period also fits perfectly with Tony Blair’s statements of Sept. 30 and Oct. 4 and begs the conclusion that the video was produced around Sept. 28.

The only inconsistency with the Sept. 28 through Oct. 6 period is where Ramadan is deduced by the translators but never mentioned by name by the sheikh. Again, let us review what the sheikh said: “…….victory during this Moubarak month and the month after.” One can wonder if his usage of the word Moubarak was strictly out of piety, if it is, then there is no inconsistency. But, since the mention of the prominent moon in the video was a normal statement and stating a fact that should be known to all present, giving it more prominence as the truth, and the use of the word Moubarak is not only proven out of chronological context but would also have raised eye brows if he had not followed it with “and the month after”, one has to consider the possibility that the word Moubarak was inserted intentionally, which adds credibility to the following paragraph.

Ed Voliami and Jason Burke reported in the Observer on December 16, 2001 and I quote: “This weekend, as the debate the tape has provoked continued across the Islamic world, several intelligence sources have suggested to The Observer that the tape, although absolutely genuine, is the result of a sophisticated sting operation run by the CIA through a second intelligence service, possibly Saudi or Pakistani.”

If Voliami and Burke are correct in their reporting, and our timeline on target, the sting operation that did the taping of the video could have been the sting operation that did the capturing or elimination of Bin Laden which would also have averted the Afghanistan war and significantly contained terrorism, not to mention preventing the loss of life on both sides.

Another very serious consequence of airing a tape that is a product of a sting operation is the effect it would have on its subject, Bin Laden, when viewing it. By airing it, the producers of the tape tipped their hand and exposed the fact that they were mere feet from him; his paranoia and security concerns could only have increased and made him harder to locate.

Considering all these serious questions that have been raised, strictly through the use of logic and public domain information, it is imperative that we ask Tony Blair and the Telegraph to release their tape.

The implications that arise if both tapes, American and British, are the same are beyond comprehension, and the words needed to comfort those who have lost loved ones in 9/11 and in the war or terror are beyond imagination.

If only the moon could talk!