Afghanistan News March 2, 2006

March 2, 2006

Afghanistan hits back at Pakistan's dismissal of 'terror' intelligence
Thu Mar 2, 2:16 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) -     Afghanistan has hit back at Pakistan's dismissal of its intelligence about Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistani territory, notably information about the whereabouts of the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Afghanistan handed over the information during a visit last month by President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan -- a key ally in the US "war on terror".

Pakistan at first denied in statements to the media that it had received the intelligence and then said most of it was outdated, including about the possible whereabouts of the fugitive Omar.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah questioned Pakistan's attitude.

He told AFP in an interview that Afghanistan would not have handed over information it did not believe in and neighbours were expected to share details of the common threat.

"We wouldn't have given anything to them had we not been sure about its credibility," he said in an interview.

Abdullah said Afghanistan believed most of the "Taliban leaders which are actively instigating terror in Afghanistan" were in Pakistan, with Omar known to have spent time in the border city of Peshawar and in Baluchistan province.

"We have provided evidence of him being outside of Afghanistan, in Quetta in Baluchistan, to our Pakistani friends...

This was not for "one day, not one hour but time and again in Quetta, in Baluchistan."

Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Taliban training camps on its soil and also alleged that some circles in Pakistan support the hardliners.

Pakistan denies the accusations, pointing to the tens of thousands of troops it has had in the region for two years to hunt down the militants. It also claims to have netted two-thirds of the Al-Qaeda leaders in its territory.

On Al-Qaeda leader     Osama bin Laden, Abdullah said: "I hope he will be captured one day, the same way that these two-thirds of Al-Qaeda leaders have been captured."

On Wednesday the Pakistani military said it had killed 40 Al-Qaeda suspects in a ground and air strike on a militant training camp in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with the BBC aired Wednesday, said his country was taking "all possible measures" against militants.

US     President George W. Bush, on a surprise trip to Kabul on Wednesday, said he would discuss cross-border infiltration by militants when he meets Musharraf during his visit to Pakistan starting Friday.

Abdullah said the least that could be expected from Pakistan was that it would go after camps known to be training militants.

"When there are 80,000 troops in those areas, when there is a well-established security service... the least which is expected is that those training camps in the vicinity will be stopped from operating," he said.

The minister said allegations from Islamabad that Afghan intelligence was in collusion with India or that there were factions within Afghanistan that opposed Pakistan were "a paranoia that they should overcome".

"It could be a scenario for an adventure, or a misadventure film, but it cannot happen in Afghanistan," he said.

He admitted there had once been opposition in Afghanistan to Pakistan because of its support for the Taliban government. But this had changed after Islamabad dropped the hardliners following the September 11, 2001 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, which was being sheltered by the Taliban.

Pakistan supported the ultraconservative Taliban regime that took control of most of war-ravaged Afghanistan in 1996, but switched allegiance when the United States decided to oust the government in late 2001 for failing to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Abdullah said Afghanistan needed help as it was "trying to stand up from the ashes of war" but its efforts were being "hampered time and again".

Militant-linked violence was blamed for about 1,600 deaths last year, with many of the attackers killed by Afghan and foreign security forces.

INTERVIEW-Afghanistan slams Musharraf comments before Bush trip
By David Brunnstrom 28 Feb 2006 19:48:15 GMT
KABUL, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Afghan's foreign minister on Tuesday slammed comments by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who dismissed Afghan intelligence on the whereabouts of Islamist militants as "lies" influenced by Indian propaganda.

"We provide intelligence and the reliability of that intelligence is questioned and ridiculed in public," Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told Reuters in an interview.

He called Musharraf's remarks, made in an interview with U.S. TV channel ABC News on Monday, "extremely disappointing".

Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Pakistan earlier in February and urged Islamabad to act against al Qaeda militants and leaders of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime who he said were on Pakistani soil.

Karzai also handed over intelligence, including phone numbers, on the whereabouts of Taliban figures in Pakistan.

In his interview with U.S. television, Musharraf dismissed the bulk of this information as outdated and in some cases "lies" and charged that Indian intelligence had infiltrated Afghan intelligence to spread anti-Pakistani propaganda.

Musharraf rejected as "misperceptions" the idea he was not aggressive enough in pursuit of Taliban fugitives or al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Abdullah said that given Musharraf's claim that Pakistan's intelligence was superior, Afghanistan "expected some action" against militants and their training camps inside Pakistan.

He said he was not 100 percent sure as to the whereabouts of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, but Afghanistan believed he had been in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan and its capital Quetta "time and time again" in the past few months.

In his interview, Musharraf said there had never been any evidence before that Mullah Omar was in Pakistan and said he was "two hundred percent sure" he was in Afghanistan.

The war of words between two of U.S. President George W. Bush's most important allies in his war on terrorism came just as he was about to embark on a tour of the region.

The exchange underscored tensions between the Afghan government which replaced the Taliban regime overthrown in 2001 and Pakistan which supported the Taliban until siding with Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"PR STRATEGY"

Abdullah called Musharraf's comments a "PR strategy" to deflect criticism and said that while Afghanistan had good ties with India, it would not use those against Pakistan.

"We have assured them time and time again that neither has India meant to use Afghanistan against the interest of Pakistan, nor would we allow that sort of situation," he said.

He said Afghanistan and Pakistan had a lot at stake in maintaining good relations and "sincere, serious and consistent efforts against terrorism in all its forms".

While Bush is due to visit Pakistan during his visit to South Asia starting in India on Wednesday, no stop in Afghanistan has been announced, nor has one been ruled out.

"It is possible that he doesn't come here, it is possible, it is likely, that he might come here," Abdullah said.

He said Afghanistan would welcome a visit by Bush, but if he did not come it would not show it was less important for the United States than the other countries he was visiting.

"I am sure that the issue of Afghanistan will be discussed during both visits," he said of the stops in India and Pakistan.

Analysis: Osama Haunts Bush in Afghanistan
Thursday March 2, 5:04 AM AP
What should have been a triumphant moment for President Bush in Afghanistan also served as a vivid reminder of setbacks in his war against terrorism. His visit came at a time of increasing violence and drug trafficking in the country. And Osama bin Laden remains at large, more than four years after Bush demanded his capture, "dead or alive."

Bush, who likes to salute Afghanistan as a beacon for emerging democracies, had to confront that reality at a news conference in Kabul on Wednesday when two of the four questions put to him and Afghan President Hamid Karzai dealt with the fugitive architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"I am confident he will be brought to justice," Bush said with a bravado not shared by many military analysts. Bush suggested the issue was "not a matter of if ... but when."

Bin Laden is widely believed to be in hiding in rugged, remote areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, most likely in Pakistan.

"The problem is, the longer this goes on, the harder it becomes," said Kurt Campbell, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific. "The worst truth is that bin Laden is welcomed in much of Pakistan, and can hide out and be protected by the local community with something close to impunity," he said.

Campbell said Islamic anger toward the West over cartoons published in Europe depicting the prophet Mohammad have helped to build even more sympathy in the region for bin Laden.

Still, Bush's visit was important, particularly at a time when conditions are worsening, because it "helps remind Americans that the job is not done, far from it, in Afghanistan," said Campbell, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Bush's surprise four-hour stopover on his way to India comes as the president is suffering at home from near-record-low approval ratings and fresh questions about his conduct of the war on terrorism, long his strongest issue in public opinion polls.

Violence linked to al-Qaida and other terror groups is increasing both in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the administration is coming under widespread bipartisan attack for its decision _ now under review _ to let a Dubai-owned company based in the United Arab Emirates take over management of some terminals at six of the nation's largest ports.

Analysts suggest that many of the destructive tactics used in Iraq, including suicide bombings and self-made roadside explosives, are being used with increasing frequency in Afghanistan.

More than two dozen suicide attacks in recent months have fueled Afghan suspicions that al-Qaida and Taliban militants are using Pakistan as base for launching terror strikes in Afghanistan.

The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this week that the insurgency was still growing and posed a greater threat to Afghanistan's central government "than at any point since late 2001."

Despite progress on the political front, attacks within Afghanistan were up 20 percent in 2005 from the year before, Maples said. Meanwhile, a thriving narcotics trade is corroding government institutions and helping "the insurgency to operate in regions of southern and northeastern Afghanistan," he said.

A State Department report issued Wednesday said drug trafficking "threatens regional stability" as well as the overall economy. It said production and trafficking of opium _ the main ingredient of heroin _ accounts for a full third of Afghanistan's economy.

Long after a U.S.-led led military invasion overthrew the Taliban government for failing to surrender bin Laden, both bin Laden and former Taliban supreme ruler Mullah Mohammed Omar remain free. From time to time, bin Laden has taunted Bush and threatened America and its allies with taped messages.

In the most recent audio tape, broadcast Jan. 19 on the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, bin Laden vowed never to be captured alive and said the U.S. military had become as "barbaric" as Saddam Hussein. He offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaida terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil.

"I don't think we'll catch bin Laden anytime soon," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution. "If we did, it would be great. But he's likely to be in a part of Pakistan where government resources are quite limited, for both the U.S. and for Pakistan."

"There's at least a decent chance we'll never catch him," O'Hanlon said.

Bush, who seldom mentions bin Laden by name, mentioned him five times at Wednesday's news conference in Kabul.

And the subject seems sure to come up again later this week when Bush meets in Islamabad with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE _ Tom Raum has covered national and international affairs for The Associated Press since 1973.

Trial of Afghan ex-intelligence chief flawed: rights group
Wed Mar 1, 4:50 PM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) - The death sentence passed last weekend in Kabul on a former Afghan intelligence chief followed a trial that violated basic standards of due process, a leading human rights group said.

Asadullah Sarwari was sentenced to death on Saturday after a court found him guilty of systematic killings and other human rights violations during Afghanistan's communist era.

"A notorious human rights abuser has been convicted but his trial was so flawed that it actually represents a setback for the cause of justice in Afghanistan," said Sam Zarifi, Asia division research director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"The court of appeals should throw out this conviction and show that in today's Afghanistan, the rule of law applies, even to the most notorious former leaders," Zarifi said.

Human Rights Watch noted that Sarwari did not have legal counsel at his trial because he could not afford a lawyer, and the court could not find any lawyers willing to represent him.

The trial was summary in nature, taking only one day for the prosecution and defense to present their cases.

Because the proceedings were conducted so quickly, Sarwari did not have adequate time to question witnesses or challenge the evidence against him, the rights watchdog said.

Sarwari was intelligence chief under the communist government of feared president Hafizullah Amin (1978-79), whose secret police were responsible for the summary execution and disappearance of thousands of Afghans.

The period was marked by ruthless communist crackdowns and saw the beginning of a resistance struggle against the communist authorities and later the Soviet occupiers.

Outlook worsens in Afghanistan
via Seattle Times 3/1/06
KABUL, Afghanistan — Fighting between U.S. forces and suspected Taliban rebels on Tuesday killed one American service member and wounded two others in southern Afghanistan, as military officials in Washington and Afghanistan said insurgent attacks rose sharply last year and are likely to worsen in 2006.

A military vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb during the fighting in Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan in which seven suspected Taliban guerrillas were captured. .

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, appearing with Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, said attacks within Afghanistan were up 20 percent between 2004 and 2005, suicide bombings increased "almost fourfold" and makeshift bombs, similar to those used in Iraq, had "more than doubled."

Negroponte, in his prepared remarks, acknowledged that "the volume and geographic scope of attacks increased last year," but he added, "the Taliban and other militants have not been able to stop the democratic process" being undertaken by the central government of President Hamid Karzai.

But Maples warned of a persistent and growing threat from forces loyal to the Taliban regime, which was supported by al-Qaida and allowed the terrorist network to operate training camps in the country before the U.S.-led invasion.

"The Taliban-dominated insurgency remains capable and resilient," Maples said.

Maples' comments about Afghanistan followed numerous attacks and bombings in recent months that have underscored the government's inability to control territory beyond the capital of Kabul, particularly in southern areas that have long been Taliban strongholds.

One of the most disturbing trends has been a surge in the number of suicide bombings, which were rare in Afghanistan before the Taliban regime was toppled. Maples also pointed to a rise in the use of so-called improvised explosive devices, typically roadside bombs that can be detonated remotely.

Compiled from The Associated Press, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times

On the spot: outside Kabul the Government's writ does not run
Times Online, UK March 01, 2006
President Bush visited Afghanistan today, praising the Government's efforts in building democracy. But Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor of The Times, reports from the south that in many areas little has changed since the Taleban fell.

"I think that President Bush couldn't come out to visit India and Pakistan without paying a visit to Afghanistan as well, but the situation in Kabul is far removed from that in other parts of the country.

"I suppose in comparative terms Afghanistan is a success story when you compare it with the disaster unfolding in Iraq. The political process so far has been fairly successful, but there are still huge obstacles to sort out here and the fact remains that, far from being a beaten force, the Taleban appears to be resurgent.

"The number of attacks, suicide bombings, roadside bombs and the campaign of intimidation against schools, government officials and so on, all that is rising. This battle is by no means finished yet.

"The most galling thing of all for the Americans must be that Osama Bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Mullah Omar, the Taleban leader, are still at large. The operation is to be handed over to Nato in the coming weeks and months and yet the American mission is unfinished. Kabul appears pretty peaceful, successful, but much of the rest of the country has changed very little since the Americans arrived in 2001.

"The southern province of Helmand is a case in point. The British will be coming here later this year with a force of around 3,000 troops. This place has been pretty much untouched by foreign hands since the defeat of the Taleban almost five years ago.

"It's virtually lawless; there's a huge poppy-growing area accounting for a quarter of Afghan production, and the border with Pakistan to the south is pretty much open.

"This morning I was with the colonel in charge of the British contingent here, and attended a meeting with a local council. He was there to explain the reasons for the British mission, to help reconstruction and so on, but instead we just heard a long litany of problems.

"There is still no real infrastructure here, the farmers say they have to grow poppies to survive, and al-Qaeda and the suicide bombers are increasingly active.

"There has been more progress further north but the Pashtun areas such as Helmand remain suspicious of foreign intervention. I was in a market today and bought a cassette of songs praising Mullah Omar. That same cassette was being played loudly on a neighbouring stall and no-one minded.

"So whatever George Bush and Hamid Karzai say in Kabul, the truth is that the Government's writ simply doesn't run here."

Pakistan forces kill 45 militants on Afghan border
By Haji Mujtaba Wed Mar 1, 1:54 PM ET
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani helicopter gunships and ground forces killed around 45 mostly foreign fighters in an attack on a militant hideout near the Afghan border on Wednesday, the military said in a statement.

The assault on Danda Saidgai, a village about 15 km (10 miles) north of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region, began soon after daybreak.

But talk of casualties among villagers prompted tribesmen to take up arms against the military, and rocket fire was heard in Miranshah late into the night.

"More than 45 militants, mostly foreigners along with their local facilitators are assessed to have been killed," the Pakistan military statement said.

The leader of the group, believed to have been a Chechen, was killed along with several others trying to flee the area after the strike, it added.

U.S. and Afghan forces along the border are regularly harried by Taliban insurgents, Central Asian Islamist militants and al Qaeda remnants. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan.

The latest Pakistani military operation came hours before U.S. President George W. Bush made a stop in Afghanistan at the start of trip that will also take him to India and Pakistan.

Bush told a news conference in Kabul he planned to raise the issue of militants using Pakistan as a base when he meets President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, in a visit otherwise seen as a gesture of support for the Pakistani general.

"These infiltrations are causing harm to friends and allies and cause harm to U.S. troops," Bush said.

VILLAGERS PLAY DEAD
Officials said the operation was launched after the army received intelligence from the Afghan side of the border that a party of militants had returned to Pakistani territory.

Helicopter gunships struck first and ground troops then closed in on the hideout close to the border. An ammunition dump was also hit and explosions could be heard in Miranshah.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the assault targeted a compound where foreign militants were hiding. One trooper was killed.

Sayed Zaheerul Islam, the top government official in North Waziristan, said Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Afghans were among the dead guerrillas and their leader's codename had been Imam.

Islam described how the militants had been exercising inside their compound and when they saw the helicopters they fled to a hall where they were killed by missiles fired from the planes.

Nek Amal Khan, a tribal elder, said he and two others were driving to Danda Saidgai when a helicopter strafed their van.

He said they jumped out and lay on the ground to play dead, when they saw more helicopters fire on the house of a local Muslim cleric, Mullah Noor Peo Khan, and other nearby houses.

"Then all the troops disembarked from the helicopters and surrounded the village," the tribal elder said, after bringing his two wounded companions to a hospital in Miranshah.

MUSHARRAF ACCUSED

Tribesmen later answered a call to arms from a Muslim cleric, taking up positions on rooftops and surrounding hills to fire on helicopters and the airstrip and fort in Miranshah.

A Reuters journalist in Miranshah saw hundreds of tribesmen, some armed with automatic weapons and rockets, head for Danda Saidgai, enflamed by talk of casualties among villagers.

"We are hearing explosions and rockets and Kalashnikov fire. It happens with gaps of four to five minutes," he said.

A child and a tribesman were killed in the subsequent clashes, according to a military official who requested anonymity. Helicopter gunships dispersed most of the tribesmen, but there was sporadic rocket firing late into the night.

Pashtun tribes are angry over the conduct of the "war on terror" which has resulted in Pakistani deaths and occasional violations of Pakistani territory like the U.S. airstrike on the Bajaur tribal agency that killed 18 people in early January.

Afghan drugs trade still a major threat: US
By Sue Pleming Wed Mar 1, 5:21 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Opium production and trafficking make up a third of     Afghanistan's economy, and security issues and corruption hamper efforts to eradicate the drug, the State Department said on Wednesday.

In its annual worldwide drugs survey, the department said Afghanistan's huge drugs trade severely damaged efforts to rebuild the country's economy and threatened regional stability overall.

"Dangerous security conditions and corruption constrain government and international efforts to combat the drug trade and provide alternative incomes," said the report, released on the same day as     President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan en route to India.

The     International Monetary Fund estimated legal Gross Domestic Product for the Afghan fiscal year ending on March 21, 2005, at $5.9 billion while illicit opium     GDP was about $2.8 billion for the same period. These figures indicate illicit opium GDP accounted for roughly a third of total GDP.

"Criminal financiers and narcotics traffickers exploit the government's weakness and corruption," the report said.

The number of hectares (acres) under poppy cultivation dropped by 48 percent last year but good weather resulted in a better yield than usual, and production dropped by just 10 percent overall to 4,475 metric tonnes in 2005 from 4,950 in 2004.

Senior State Department official Anne Patterson said the drop in opium cultivation last year was also tempered by reports that poppy planting was again on the rise.

CORRUPTION 'AT ALL LEVELS'
Afghanistan produces about 90 percent of the world's opium poppies and is the largest heroin-producing and trafficking country.

"I don't want to underestimate the difficulty of this, because Colombia is paradise next to Afghanistan," said Patterson of the challenge.

Thousands are killed every year and tens of thousands have been displaced by Colombia's 41-year-old guerrilla war, in which guerrillas fight with far-right paramilitary militias over control of lucrative coca-producing land.

The report said efforts to curb drug production were hampered by the insurgency in Afghanistan and drug-related corruption "at all levels of government."

"Corruption ranges from facilitating drug activities to benefiting from revenue streams generated by the drug trade," said the report.

An increasingly large portion of Afghanistan's opium crop was processed into heroin and morphine base by drug labs inside Afghanistan, easing its movement into markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East via     Iran, Pakistan and Central Asia.

Pakistani nationals were playing a more prominent role in all aspects of the drug trade, the report said.

Last year's report was more pessimistic about Afghanistan, saying it was on the verge of becoming a "narcotics state" and pointing out that Afghan poppy cultivation had tripled in 2004 from the previous year.

Patterson said it would take years to tackle Afghanistan's drug problem.

"But it's important to do, not only because of the security of Afghanistan and Afghanistan's democratic institutions. It's also important to do because of the cheap heroin that's spreading into neighboring countries and Europe," she said.

Canadian killed in Afghan crash
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - A Canadian armoured vehicle ran off a road Thursday near Kandahar, killing one soldier and injuring seven - two of them critically, a Canadian military spokesman said.

Four of the soldiers were airlifted from the site to a hospital at a nearby Canadian base, while the remaining four were taken in an ambulance by road. One died upon arrival, two are in critical condition, while the remaining five are in stable condition, said Lieut. Mark MacIntyre.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident. The dead and wounded were not immediately identified.

A spokesman for the Defence Department in Ottawa confirmed eight casualties, but could not confirm that one of the soldiers had died.

The crash appears to be similar to one last November in which a Canadian soldier was killed and four others were wounded. They were travelling in an armoured vehicle that ran off a road near Kandahar.

There are 2,200 Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan, led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser.

Clash leaves 1 soldier dead in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, March 2 (Xinhuanet) -- One Afghan soldier was killed and two others wounded as they came in contact with militants in the troubled southern Helmand province on Wednesday, commander of southern corps said Thursday.

"Clash and exchange of fire between militants and soldiers of Afghanistan National Army (ANA) in Greshk district yesterday afternoon left one ANA soldier dead and wounded two others," General Rahmatullah Raufi told Xinhua.

Few vehicles of ANA were also damaged during the firefight.

Commenting on militants' casualties, the General said that the enemies also received casualties but could not give the exact figure.

Afghan troops in a similar skirmish in the neighboring Zabul province on the same day, Raufi added arrested three rebels.

The incident coincided with the visit of President Bush to Afghanistan where he held talks with President Karzai and assured Washington's firm support to the rebuilding of post-Taliban nation.

About 150 British troops of NATO-led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) just arrived Helmand a month ago for the peace keeping and anti-terrorism operations.

Around 100 people including seven American soldiers have lost their lives in Taliban-linekd insurgency since the beginning of this year.

Only Afghanistan colours can fly
Soldiers angered by rule
Chris Wattie, with files from Mary Vallis National Post Thursday, March 02, 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan have been ordered, under a directive from a U.S. general, to lower the Maple Leaf from flagpoles at their two bases, from over their tents and even from the aerials atop their vehicles.

The order from Major General Benjamin Freakley states that the only flag to fly over coalition bases, facilities or vehicles will be the red, green and black Afghan flag.

"I specifically asked my commanders to think about our flags," Maj.-Gen. Freakley said this week.

"We had a plethora of flags all over the compounds ... I asked us to think about who we're serving and who we're serving with."

There are troops from dozens of different countries under his southern Afghanistan command, including 2,200 Canadians based in Kandahar Air Field and a smaller provincial reconstruction team camp in the city of Kandahar.

The flag order was applied to almost every non-Afghan flag in the Canadian section of the sprawling air field base, including regimental flags hung or flown from the soldiers' barracks, tents or rest areas.

The order has caused some hard feelings in the ranks.

"Sure, we should show the Afghan flag," said one non-commissioned officer, who had to remove a Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry flag from a makeshift patio set up by his platoon. "But this is bull----. What about soldiers' pride? What about regimental pride? No Afghans would ever have seen this where we had it."

Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps military magazine in Ottawa, said national pride is an important reason many soldiers join the Canadian Armed Forces.

"It seems a bit almost silly that they are going to see that flag and then somehow feel kindred to us in such a fractious civilian population as it is. They're all under different warlords. How many of them even recognize or respect the national flag, particularly the ones that we're going to be fighting?" Mr. Taylor asked.

"Our guys didn't join up as Afghan mercenaries.... Our guys take their oath of allegiance to the Queen. And the Governor-General is our commander-in-chief, not [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai."

The flag order also applies to U.S. soldiers, who still make up most of the coalition forces in southern Afghanistan.

Maj.-Gen. Freakley said the idea was to make it clear the foreign soldiers are there to help the Afghan government.

"I don't want us to find reasons to pull back from the people of Afghanistan and not be teammates and get behind national barriers or anything," he said.

"We're trying to make subtle, transitional moves to help the people of Afghanistan fend for themselves. In no way is it intended to suppress any national pride."

He said the soldiers of the coalition still wear their national flags on the sleeves of their uniforms and that ought to be enough.

Brigadier-General David Fraser, the Canadian general who took command of a multinational brigade based in Kandahar this week, said he supported the order.

"It goes back to the cultural sensitivity training that we did back in Canada. This is not Canada, this is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan [and] we've got to respect their cultures and traditions," he said.

"So I think it's only fitting that we fly their flag.... The Afghan flag is what we're going to be flying everywhere we go: that's who we're here to support."

Captain Doug MacNair, a spokesman for Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Ottawa, said Maj.-Gen. Freakley requested that commanders consider taking down their flags "to reinforce the authority of the Afghan government and demonstrate respect for Afghan government institutions." Brig.-Gen. Fraser decided to take large flags down, but Canadian troops still wear the flag on their uniform and vehicles feature sticker flags, he said.

David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said the decision is likely linked to recent attacks on coalition forces.

"The stepped-up attacks may be sensitizing the U.S. command to the need to symbolically show people in the region that they're not there as occupiers or invaders, but as supporters of the government," he said.

Brig.-Gen. Fraser's Canadian troops will be joined by more than 2,000 British soldiers later this month and by a 1,500-strong Dutch battle group in the spring.

The only Canadian flag left flying in the main base is over a recently dedicated monument to the nine Canadians killed in the line of duty since our troops first deployed to this southwest Asian nation in 2002.

It is flying side-by-side with an Afghan flag over a granite and marble memorial.

No plans to visit Afghanistan, Harper says
Mar. 1, 2006. 04:02 PM CANADIAN PRESS Toronto Star, Canada
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he has no plans to visit Afghanistan but adds his government will not waiver in its support for Canada's military and humanitarian missions there.

Harper has been widely reported to be planning a visit to Afghanistan. But on the same day U.S. President George W. Bush dropped in on U.S. troops in the country, the prime minister said he will not be going in the immediate future.

His declaration came as a public opinion poll suggests more than 60 per cent of Canadians question the country's increasingly dangerous role in the war-torn land.

Harper said he takes the issue seriously.

"This is a critical mission; it's important for global security," Harper said in the House of Commons foyer.

He said his Conservative party "strongly supported" the former Liberal government in launching the 2,200-member military mission to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. He added it is important not just for global security but for Canada's role in the world to stay the course.

Harper rejected opposition calls to reconsider Canada's involvement in the southwest Asian country where the Taliban thrived and al-Qaida was trained.

"You do not send men and women into harm's way on a dangerous mission with the support of our party and other Canadians and then decide, once they're over there, that you're not sure you should have sent them," he said.

"That's not the way this government's going to behave. We are fully behind this mission; we are fully behind these troops; we will fulfil — not just our obligations to the international community — we also fulfil the responsibility we have and all Canadians have to strongly support the men and women we have put in a dangerous mission."

Canada's commitment to Afghanistan began with a fighting force deployed for seven months in 2002, then resumed with a series of NATO peacemaking missions in the capital of Kabul beginning the following year.

While special forces troops have been conducting secretive operations against Taliban and al-Qaida forces for some time, the new deployment in the south marks a broad return to more aggressive operations by regular soldiers.

Canadian troops have been attacked on an almost-weekly basis. Several have been wounded by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and in other incidents. Last month, diplomat Glyn Berry was killed and three soldiers seriously wounded by a suicide bomber.

U.S. forces deployed in the south and along the border with Pakistan have been taking it on the chin, too — 17 U.S. soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan last year.

Bush, on an unannounced visit to the country, made similar vows today to stand by what he called an emerging democracy and not ``cut and run" in the face of rising violence.

Bush visited Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul before rallying U.S. troops at Bagram, the main American base north of the capital.

He pledged that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, widely thought to be hiding out in the mountainous, ungoverned border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, will be caught.

Problems with his pasport...
Wed Mar 1, 8:26 AM ET
NICOSIA (Reuters) - You might have the best forgery skills in the world, but it is not much use if you cannot spell.

A Cyprus court jailed Pakistani national Fazal Ur Rehman for eight months for forgery after police spotted spelling mistakes on stamps on an Afghan passport he was carrying -- otherwise it was a near-perfect copy, the Cyprus Mail said Wednesday.

"Ministry" was spelled "Menistry" and the first "n" was missing from government, the newspaper said.

"The passport looked perfect and professionally made ... almost deemed original by forensics," a police officer told a magistrate in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.