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August 16, 2007 

Documents spotlight U.S.-Pakistan ties
By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Newly declassified intelligence documents reveal the depth of U.S. officials' concern that Pakistan was providing funds, arms — and even combat troops — to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for years before the Sept. 11 attacks.

They also show rising frustration at what U.S. officials called Pakistan's "resistance and/or duplicity" toward Washington's repeated requests for help in getting the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden. A top official at one point said hauling Pakistan before the U.N. Security Council should be considered.

The documents, released under a Freedom of Information Act request by George Washington University's National Security Archive and posted on its Web site, add detail to what is already generally known about U.S. intelligence on Pakistan's links with the Taliban as it surged to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.

The cables and letters between senior U.S. officials — most of them stamped "confidential" and heavily redacted for public release — lay out those concerns in language stripped of diplomatic niceties.

All but one of the 35 documents deal with the period between December 1994 and September 2000. Sensitive details, including what appear to be names, have been blacked out in many places.

They show that U.S. officials as early as 1994 believed Pakistan's intelligence services were deeply involved with the Taliban and its takeover that year of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. It was the first major victory for the then-obscure religious militia that went on to capture the capital, Kabul, in September 1996 and then gain control of almost all of Afghanistan by mid-1997.

Responding to the new documents, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam reiterated Pakistan's previous strong denials that the country ever gave military support to the Taliban. She also denied Pakistan ignored U.S. requests to use its influence to persuade the Taliban to surrender bin Laden.

In 1996, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Pakistan's Interservice Intelligence was more involved with the Taliban than Pakistani officials had been telling American diplomats. An Oct. 22 cable to Washington said the service was supplying the Taliban with food and fuel, adding that "munitions convoys depart Pakistan late in the evening hours and are concealed to reveal their true contents."

Two weeks later, another cable to Washington said large numbers of Pakistan's Frontier Corps were being "utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary — combat" in Afghanistan. The Frontier Corps were comprised mostly of ethnic Pashtuns, who would not stand out among the Taliban, who were also mostly Pashtuns.

Aslam denied the cable's claims. "That's absolutely baseless. Our troops have never been involved inside Afghanistan," she said.

The Taliban regime imposed a version of Islamic rule that was among the world's strictest — subjugating women, banning music and chopping off the hands of thieves. But the Taliban won support inside and outside Afghanistan because its rise quelled fighting among regional warlords whose battle over power after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 killed countless civilians.

"There was a time when everyone supported them, because after the civil war everyone thought that they would bring stability and peace to Afghanistan and they might unify the nation," Aslam said. Pakistan gave diplomatic recognition to Taliban rule in May 1997; recognition followed from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Bin Laden moved to Afghanistan — from Sudan where diplomatic pressure had forced him out — in the chaotic years before the Taliban came to power, and began setting up terrorist training camps. The warlords who let bin Laden in later combined into the Northern Alliance, which with U.S. military support ousted the Taliban in late 2001.

Among the Taliban's early backers was Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun leader asked by the Taliban to become their U.N. representative before he became disillusioned with their extremism. Washington later supported Karzai as Afghanistan's post-Taliban president, a post he still holds.

In March 1999, Karl F. Inderfurth, Washington's senior diplomat for South Asia, wrote to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in pessimistic terms about the prospects of peace in Afghanistan. Washington, he wrote, "may have to consider the Taliban to be an intrinsic enemy of the United States and (Afghanistan to be) a new international pariah state."

Concerns about the Taliban included its links to opium crops, rights abuses and protection of bin Laden, who at the time was wanted in the United States in connection with the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya that killed more than 200 people.

"Pakistan has not been responsive to our requests that it use its full influence on the Taliban surrender of bin Laden," Inderfurth wrote. "We should demand that Pakistan help us meet our core goals in Afghanistan and foster a political settlement compatible with Pakistan's own long-term interests."

If not, the United States should consider taking Pakistan before the U.N. Security Council, where military action could be among the options, Inderfurth wrote.

"If we see continued Pakistani resistance and/or duplicity, we should begin to seriously consider seeking Security Council backing ... to ensure that Pakistan and the outside players abide with pledges to cease outside support," he said.

Aslam said the idea that Pakistan did not respond to U.S. requests on bin Laden was a "baseless allegation."

"We tried out best," she said. "I think the U.S. intelligence agencies have exaggerated Pakistan's influence, in their own interests."

Washington had stepped up efforts to get bin Laden after the African embassy bombings, posting a $5 million reward for the terrorist leader. In 1999, President Clinton met Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who soon afterward began talking of withdrawing Pakistan's support for the Taliban unless bin Laden was handed over or expelled from Afghanistan, according to reports at the time.

Cooperation between Islamabad and Washington on bin Laden lapsed after Musharraf ousted Sharif in a coup in October 1999.

Musharraf made an abrupt shift in policy after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S., withdrawing support for the Taliban and becoming a key U.S. ally in the Afghan war by providing logistical support and launching military action in the lawless border region to root out militants.

Bin Laden and top Taliban leaders escaped the U.S.-led war, and U.S. intelligence officials warned last month that al-Qaida might be regrouping in tribal zone on the border. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have stepped up attacks in the past two years trying to destabilize Karzai's government and reassert themselves as a force in the country.

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On the Net:

George Washington University's National Security Archive: http://www.gwu.edu/nsarchiv
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US documents show Pakistan gave Taliban military aid
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor / Thursday August 16, 2007 The Guardian (UK)
The Pakistani government gave substantial military support to the Taliban in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks, sending arms and soldiers to fight alongside the militant Afghan movement, according to newly released US official documents.

Islamabad has acknowledged diplomatic and economic links with the Taliban but has denied direct military support. The US intelligence and state department documents, released under the country's freedom of information act, show that Washington believed otherwise.

The suspicion has lingered that some elements of Pakistani intelligence are still protecting the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in the autonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border. US officials have warned they might take direct military action without Islamabad's approval.

Among the documents acquired by the National Security Archive, an independent group pressing for government transparency, is a confidential memo sent in November 1996, from intelligence report from Islamabad to the Defence Intelligence Agency in Washington, describing how Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps was operating across the border.

The Frontier Corps are recruited from the Pashtun population in the tribal areas, but commanded by officers from the regular Pakistani army.

"For Pakistan, a Taliban-based government in Kabul would be as good as it can get in Afghanistan," a state department briefing paper, dated January 1997, said, adding: "Many Pakistanis claim they detest the Taliban brand of Islam, noting that it might infect Pakistan, but this apparently is a problem for another day."

Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, is under intense pressure from the spread of Taliban extremist influence in his own country, and admitted on Sunday that the movement had support from his side of the border.

"The documents illustrate that throughout the 1990's the ISI [Pakistani intelligence] considered Islamic extremists to be foreign policy assets," Barbara Elias, a National Security Archive researcher, said. "But they succeeded ultimately in creating a Pakistani Taliban. Those years of fuelling insurgents created something that now directly threatens Islamabad."

No one was available for comment at the Pakistani embassy in London yesterday. Privately, Pakistani officials concede that the ISI was instrumental in turning the Taliban into an organised force before 2001, but claim that the committed Islamists in the ISI's ranks have been purged.

Those claims are being viewed increasingly critically in Washington, due to Islamabad's failure to uproot Taliban and al-Qaida militants in tribal regions, like Waziristan. Bush administration hawks and the Democratic presidential contender, Barack Obama, have called for direct US military action in the region.
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US, Afghan troops attack old bin Laden hideout
KABUL (AFP) - US and Afghan troops pressed an air and ground assault against Al-Qaeda militants grouped in the Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the last known hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

Up to 250 families had fled the area near the Pakistan border as the attack pushed into a fourth day, Afghan officials said.

Pakistan's military said it had reinforced its border to stop any militants escaping across the rugged frontier.

In Afghanistan, the US military and the Afghan defence ministry Thursday would provide no details of the operation as it was still under way.

US military spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman told AFP it was intended to disrupt Al-Qaeda and other militants who were massing in the region.

Intelligence indicated the fighters had gathered in dug-in fighting positions, she said.

Bowman said Wednesday, when the US military announced the assault, that the remote region provided an "ideal" environment for concealing militant support bases and training camps, as well as planning attacks.

The assault was using precision munitions to avoid civilian casualties, she said.

The area, a complex of caves 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the eastern city of Jalalabad, is known as the last stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden and fighters from Arab countries built the caves during the 1980s during the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Between 200 to 250 families had fled the Tora Bora valley to other villages, said Mohammad Ali, governor of Nangarhar province's Pachir Wa Agam district, which includes the targeted area.

Afghan media reports said some 50 Taliban had been killed but the governor said: "These are only rumours at this stage."

Pakistan's chief military spokesman General Waheed Arshad told AFP extra forces were deployed to the area facing Tora Bora because "we do not want any militants to cross over to our side."

Al-Qaeda was sheltered by the 1996-2001 Taliban government in Afghanistan and allowed to operate training camps there until the hardline Islamic regime was driven out in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda chief behind the September 11, 2001 suicide plane attacks in the United States that triggered the invasion, was last seen in the Tora Bora mountains in December that year when US and Afghan forces tried but failed to capture him.

It is widely believed he escaped into the northern tribal areas of Pakistan where intelligence agencies believe he is currently hiding.

The US-led coalition here and Afghan officials have reported the emergence of a new anti-government outfit in the area called the Tora Bora Front.

The shadowy group is believed to be an Al-Qaeda-linked unit set up by the son of Younus Khali, a key commander in the Afghan resistance to the Soviets, who later joined forces with the Taliban.

Since its ouster the Taliban has regrouped and is now carrying out daily attacks on allies of the Afghan government, including officials and troops.

In one of the latest incidents, two German police officers and a German foreign ministry employee were killed in a Taliban bombing in Kabul on Wednesday.

There were also new clashes in the southern province of Helmand where Taliban fighters are said to have teamed with illegal opium producers who help finance the insurgency.

Four insurgents were killed on Wednesday when coalition war planes bombed compounds and trenches from which militants had ambushed troops near the volatile Sangin area, a coalition statement said. No soldiers were hurt.

Nearly 50,000 international troops are working with Afghan security forces to defeat the Taliban's Al-Qaeda-backed insurgency, with the violence sharply escalating this year.
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South Korean team meets Taliban again over 19 hostages
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban resumed talks with a South Korean delegation trying to free 19 aid workers held by the hardliners for almost a month, a Red Cross official said.

The negotiations are the first since Monday's release of two of a total of 23 South Korean aid workers seized by the Taliban on July 19. Two of the hostages have already been shot dead.

"The parties are discussing, the meeting has started," the deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation, Franz Rauchenstein, told AFP.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed the talks in the small town of Ghazni, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) south of Kabul, had started mid-afternoon.

The two women freed Monday -- Kim Gin-A, 32, and Kim Kyung-Ja, 37 -- were meanwhile due to leave Thursday afternoon, the South Korean embassy in Kabul said, refusing to give a precise time for their expected departure.

The Taliban handed the women to tribal elders, who then passed them on to the Red Cross. Since then the women were to have undergone medical checks at the US military base at Bagram, north of Kabul, an official in Seoul said.

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun this week urged a redoubling of efforts to release the remaining 19 hostages, to build on Monday's release which was announced after four face-to-face meetings between the delegation and rebels.

"The government has to make greater efforts to have them released. We shouldn't relax until the last moment," Roh said Tuesday.

The militia abducted the Christian aid workers, including 16 women, as they travelled by bus through insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.

The men in the group were murdered after the Afghan government refused a demand to release Taliban from jail.

On Monday the kidnappers released the two women in what they said was a "gesture of goodwill".

South Korea has said it understands the difficulties facing the Afghan administration as it tries to tackle an insurgency launched by the Taliban soon after they were driven from government in 2001.

The US-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was heavily criticised, notably by Washington, after it freed five Taliban in March in exchange for an Italian journalist.

The Taliban beheaded the journalist's Afghan driver and a translator, giving rise to accusations that Kabul put more value on the lives of foreign nationals than Afghans.

Karzai said no more deals would be done, and officials have said agreeing to the extremists' demands would encourage abductions by the Taliban and criminal groups alike.

The Taliban, influenced by Al-Qaeda, are also holding a 62-year-old German engineer kidnapped near Kabul a day before the South Koreans.

The hardliners say talks with the Afghan and German governments to free him are going nowhere, while officials say they are doing what they can.
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No progress in Taliban-SKorea talks
By AMIR SHAH Associated Press Thursday, August 16, 2007
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Taliban militants held a second round of face-to-face talks with South Korean officials on the fate of 19 captive church volunteers Thursday but there was no word of a breakthrough.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the South Korean delegation told militant negotiators they cannot free eight Taliban prisoners held by Afghan authorities — a key Taliban demand.

Ahmadi said that Taliban leadership would soon decide whether to continue with the negotiations.

South Korean officials were not immediately available for comment.

The two sides talked for three hours at the offices of Afghan Red Crescent in Ghazni. The International Committee of the Red Cross helped facilitate the talks.

The Taliban left after the talks on ICRC vehicles, without speaking to reporters.

The talks come after the release on Monday of two women who were among 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the militants on July 19 as they were traveling by bus from Kabul to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The kidnappers have killed two male hostages. Fourteen women and five men are still being held.

Two militant representatives held two rounds of face-to-face talks with South Korean officials Friday and Saturday at the Red Crescent office after the Afghan government agreed to guarantee the safety of the militant delegation.

The Taliban want South Korean officials to pressure the Afghan government to free the imprisoned militants and will not harm the rest of the hostages while the talks are ongoing, Ahmadi said.

The Afghan government was heavily criticized in March for freeing five Taliban prisoners to win the release of an Italian journalist, and have ruled out any further such deals, saying they would encourage more kidnappings.

Ahmadi said the release of the two women was a show of goodwill. South Korean officials have called for the unconditional release of the rest of the hostages, while also calling on Afghan authorities to show flexibility.
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Associated Press writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
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Report: South Korea thanks US over release of 2 hostages in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Thursday, August 16, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea's defense minister thanked the top U.S. general for America's help in achieving the recent release of two South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, a news report said Thursday.

Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo made the comments to visiting Gen. Peter Pace, outgoing chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yonhap news agency said, citing an unnamed ministry official. It did not say how the U.S. had helped in the release.

Pace said Washington's help was natural, considering South Korea's troop deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Yonhap said. Seoul plans to bring home its soldiers by the end of the year.

The Defense Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the reported comments.

The Taliban released two women earlier this week who were among 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the militants on July 19 in southern Afghanistan. The kidnappers have killed two male hostages, and 14 women and five men are still being held.

Some South Korean politicians and citizens have called on the United States to do more to help end the hostage standoff, such as being more flexible in its policy of not negotiating with terrorists. The Taliban have demanded the release of insurgent prisoners in exchange for the hostages' freedom.

Separately, Pace received a medal from South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun for his contribution to promoting the alliance between Seoul and Washington, Roh's office said.

The U.S. keeps about 28,000 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.
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Afghan Officials Say Eight Arrested In Foiled Abduction
August 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's National Security Office says eight Taliban-linked militants have been detained, thwarting their plans to abduct a group of Indian diplomats and engineers, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

National Security Office spokesman Sayed Ansari says the eight militants were arrested on August 6 in Kabul. He said they also planned to carry out rocket attacks in Kabul last week during an assembly of Afghan and Pakistani tribal elders.

Ansari said the leader of the group is Mohammad Talib, a former Taliban district chief in Kabul and former intelligence officer for the Islamist movement.

Ansari alleged that Talib was receiving orders directly from an officer in Pakistan's military intelligence.
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How to be a jihadi: Taliban's training secrets
The Telegraph (UK) / August 16, 2007 By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad and Ashraf Ali in Peshawar
The Taliban has published its first military field manual detailing how to spring ambushes, run spies and conduct an insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

At 144 pages, Military Teachings - for the Preparation of Mujahideen, is a minutely detailed "how to" book on subjects ranging from tactics and weapons to building training camps and spycraft.

The guide, which is similar in its aims to British and American military field manuals, was obtained by The Daily Telegraph from a source in Pakistan who claimed to be close to the Taliban. Its cover bears the image of two crossed swords and the Koran, the arms of the Taliban's ousted government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The book, written in the Pashto language, "will soon be made available to the commanders in Afghanistan as well as its adjacent tribal areas in Pakistan", the source said. He added that copies of the manual had been circulated to the Pakistani tribal area of Bajaur. Its publication highlights the extent of the Taliban's revival six years after it was deposed by a US-led invasion.

"This is the first of its kind and shows a significant level of organisation," said Brigadier Mahmood Shah, a retired military intelligence officer who was in charge of security in the tribal areas.

Brig Shah said "soft" Pakistani government policy towards the pro-Taliban militants had allowed them to flourish in the lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal areas that straddle the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Maulana Nek Zaman, an MP from North Waziristan, where security forces and local pro-Taliban militants are engaged in daily skirmishes, said the manual had a potentially large readership. "It is not a case of just Taliban who are fighting but all the tribes are resisting because they have been attacked," he said.

Last year the Taliban published a pocket-sized code of conduct which described suicide bombers as "Omar's missiles", referring to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar. It laid out the rules of daily life including a ban on relations with young boys - an activity favoured by some Afghan fighters.

The military manual is divided into 10 chapters and appears to be the result of a collaboration between religious scholars and specialists in terrorist, logistical and intelligence tactics. It is illustrated with simple formulas for the preparation of explosives, pictures and diagrams of light and heavy weaponry, ammunition and communication equipment.

The bulk of the manual details basic military skills such as firing positions and how to use different weapons. It advises on how to carry out remotely controlled attacks on enemy vehicles, and shows how to strike aircraft and armoured vehicles by targeting weak points.

It shows with diagrams how to target vehicles passing through rough terrain at low speed and how telegraph poles and trees can be used to range in on a target.

It also explores methods of blowing up bridges, railway tracks and power and telephone lines.

Its preface sets out the Taliban's justification for war: "In a situation where infidels and their crooks are ruling the world, it is the prime duty of all the Muslims to take arms and crush those who are bent upon crushing the Muslims throughout the world.

"This is the best time to take on the usurpers and occupants of our holy land. They should be killed, slaughtered and destroyed."

It sets out to convince women and children to join the Taliban with verses from the Koran.

"In this situation the children are not bound to seek the permission of their parents; a woman should go to jihad without the permission of her husband, a slave without the permission of his master, a student without the permission of his teacher, could go to jihad. And this is totally applicable in the prevailing situation where the infidels have occupied the land of the Muslims in Afghanistan," it states.

It addresses the question of prosecuting jihad without one's ruler's permission, making a veiled reference to Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. "Islam does not allow a person, group or an entity to announce jihad, without the permission of the ruler of the day (Khalifa)." However, it states "if a Khalifa is a puppet of the infidels, then there is no need to seek his permission for jihad."

The manual also plays on the heightened Pashtun sense of virility. "Jihad is a man's job. Those lacking qualities of being a man cannot do jihad."

Military students are advised to run spy networks drawn from political prisoners, "criminals, especially murderers", beggars, hairdressers and "international visitors - players, filmmakers, artists etc".

"Is it fair to slaughter enemy spies?" it asks. The answer it gives, perhaps unsurprisingly, is yes.
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Pakistani tribal chiefs threatened over Kabul talks
Thu Aug 16, 2:17 AM ET
KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani tribal elders have been threatened with reprisals for attending last week's talks in Kabul aimed at ending support for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, officials said.

The landmark tribal council or jirga, involving tribes from both sides of the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border, pledged to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in their respective tribal regions.

But an anonymous letter sent to elders in the Bajaur tribal area threatened unspecified "action" against them for taking part.

"Your participation at the jirga was not a good decision," officials quoted the letter as saying. "Action will be taken against you," it warned.

Local security official Adalat Khan said at least four tribal elders in a remote town in the region had received the warnings.

Bajaur district is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in volatile northwest Pakistan.

Islamic militancy is spreading in conservative northwestern Pakistan, where militants, emulating the ultra-orthodox Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, are trying to impose their own strict brand of Islam.
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Delegates treated like royals at Pak-Afghan jirga
By Iqbal Khattak Daily Times, Pakistan
KABUL: Pakistani delegates to the Pak-Afghan jirga were more than satisfied with the warm welcome they received in Kabul, with every luxury provided to them by the hosts.

The delegates praised the Afghan government’s arrangements and delegation leader Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told the hosts during his speech on the last day of the jirga that their hospitality “is so warm that it makes one want to stay here for good”.

Security for the delegates was extremely tight and none were allowed out without a guard. Many streets and roads were closed to traffic in order to ensure safe movement of jirga members.

Muhammad Nasir Sabawoon, who supervised catering, repeatedly asked delegates whether they needed anything else, and said that he wanted the delegates to make the jirga a success. “You make the jirga successful and I will serve you forever,” he said.

At the jirga venue, all facilities were aplenty. One corner of a tent where the working committee meetings took place was devoted to refreshments including coffee, green and black tea, soft drinks and juices, without restrictions.

Special arrangements were made for naswar for the delegates, and luxury transport was at their disposal throughout their stay. Afghan sources said that around some $6 million was approved for the jirga, but did not say who provided the money.

Former Mujahideen leaders Abdur Rab Rasool Sayyaf and Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani said that Pakistan and Afghanistan should make arrangements between themselves similar to European Union countries, which had abolished visas and adopted one currency.

Former NWFP chief secretary Khalid Aziz said, “To their credit, all opposition leaders acted as a team and we felt proud. No matter what our internal differences, when it came to defending the state, all stood as one. There may be a lesson in all this for our leaders.”
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British mission in Afghanistan at turning point: minister
Thu Aug 16, 2:02 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Defence Secretary Des Browne said in an interview published Thursday that Britain's mission in Afghanistan could be at a turning point to bringing increased stability there.

Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Browne also said there was evidence of links between the Taliban and Iran, whom he described as "backing every horse in the race" in Afghanistan.

Asked by the newspaper whether he thought southern Afghanistan had reached a turning point, Browne replied: "I think the honest answer is yes, it could be."

Browne said that he was "genuinely surprised" by the amount of progress made by Britain in promoting stability in southern Afghanistan.

He added, responding to a question about whether there would still be thousands of British troops in Afghanistan in 10 years, that: "I do not envisage we will be in anything like the same profile on the present scale."

"I think it's too early to put a time on that."

Britain currently has about 7,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, most of whom are in the restive southern Helmand province, as part of the UN-sanctioned, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

On links between Afghanistan and Iran, Browne said: "I have no doubt -- because we have uncovered evidence -- of weapons coming in through narco-trafficking routes, supplying weapons to the Taliban."

"I have reason to believe the Taliban go to Tehran for training."

Browne noted, however, that Afghanistan could not be stable in the long run unless "it is in conjunction with Iran and Pakistan."

Regarding Iraq, Browne said that he expected to be able to hand over responsibility for the southern city of Basra to Iraqi forces "in a matter of months."

He added, though, that any lowering of the number of British troops in Iraq from the 5,000 that will remain by the end of the year will only occur after discussions with the United States.
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British military ramps up in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press Thursday, August 16, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan - As Britain's military winds down its efforts in Iraq, the United Kingdom is pouring more soldiers and aid money into Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban and booming drug trade it says pose a direct threat to the nation.

Britain's ambassador in Kabul said the government began increasing its focus on Afghanistan shortly before the end of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's tenure in June, and made it even more of a priority under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Afghanistan "matters to us because a high proportion of the terrorism investigations in the U.K. can be traced back to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area," Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles told The Associated Press in an interview this week.

"It matters to us because 90 percent of the heroin on British streets comes from Afghanistan, and it matters to us because it is desperately poor, and we have a commitment through the International Development Act of tackling poverty around the world," he said.

During a visit to the United States late last month, Brown called Afghanistan "the front line against terrorism," in contrast to President Bush's common refrain that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror.

Britain will increase its troop strength in Afghanistan to 7,700 by the year's end, up from 7,000 today and 3,600 a year ago, in what Cowper-Coles labeled a "sensible tactical adjustment" based on commanders' advice.

In Iraq, Britain has handed over two of its three bases in Basra to the Iraqi government, and in the coming weeks its force level will drop to 5,000, down from 40,000 after the March 2003 invasion.

"I think there is a general feeling in the United Kingdom concerning Iraq, as far as the U.K.'s efforts are concerned, that there is not much more than can be done with military force, so we can logically shift more focus to Afghanistan," said Christopher Langton, a former British colonel who is an analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Britain's move to Afghanistan, where the United States has 25,000 soldiers, "is proof that we're not leaving the United States in the lurch, and although I'm quite sure they'd rather we stay in Iraq they also know we don't have endless resources," Langton said.

David Miliband, Britain's new foreign secretary, chose Afghanistan as his first overseas trip.

Afterward, he wrote in the British magazine The Spectator that "most British terrorism investigations trace back to the training camps just across the border, in western Pakistan."

Police said two of the suspects in the London subway and bus bombings on July 7, 2005, had attended training camps in Pakistan, as did the ringleader of failed attacks two weeks later.

"There's a real concern among ministers that, first of all, Afghanistan is one of our top foreign policy priorities and secondly that we need to get it right," Cowper-Coles said.

British troops are responsible for Helmand province in southern Afghanistan — scene of some of the heaviest fighting over the last two years and the largest opium poppy-growing region in the world.

Cowper-Coles said NATO's International Security Assistance Force, including British troops, will "really raise its game on counternarcotics" next growing season.

"You're going to see increased disruption of traffickers. You're going to see some serious targeted, non-negotiated eradication (of poppy fields)," he said. "In short the big traffickers are going to start feeling the heat."

Heroin accounted for nearly a third of the total number of drug-related deaths in Britain in 2005, the last year for which statistics are available, according to the government.

Drugscope, a British drug information charity, says heroin use has leveled off, however, in part because that segment of the population is aging and fewer young people are taking up the drug. The charity estimates heroin had a street value of $100 per gram in Britain in 2005.

On the aid front, Britain's Department for International Development will spend more than $200 million in Afghanistan this year — one of Britain's top aid commitments per capita anywhere in the world.

"We very much believe that there is no military solution. Equally there is no entirely nonmilitary solution," Cowper-Coles said. "We've got to keep up the military pressure on the Taliban, but at the same time we've got to use the other strands in our strategy to try to contain and gradually bring down the insurgency."

Cowper-Coles said Britain doesn't have any significant policy differences in Afghanistan with the United States, although Britain does not back Washington's interest in launching a Colombia-style aerial spraying campaign to eradicate opium poppies.

"There are occasionally differences of emphasis," he said. "We're both agreed that there's no case for aerial spraying unless the government of Afghanistan agrees to it. And as I understand it, the government of Afghanistan does not favor spraying, so there may be an academic debate about it, but it's just that — academic."

On the military front, a report in The New York Times last week quoted an unidentified British military officer as saying he had asked U.S. special forces to leave his area of operations because they were causing civilian deaths.

Cowper-Coles said there was "no truth to the suggestion" that anyone asked the U.S. forces to leave the officer's area, but added, "as in any war ... when troops are fighting alongside each other, there are occasional tensions below the surface, and somebody under pressure spouts off."

"But overall my impression from Helmand is that U.S. and U.K. forces are working extremely well together," he said.
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British losing faith as Afghan toll climbs
BRETT POPPLEWELL - From Thursday's Globe and Mail August 16, 2007
LONDON — The British government is under attack over the war in Afghanistan as the rising troop toll is drawing the kind of negative attention previously given to the deeply unpopular efforts in Iraq.

Reports from Afghanistan - such as the ones detailing 12 soldiers' deaths in the past month - have raised questions about whether Britain's involvement is any more justified than its war effort in Iraq.

The government, however, is having none of it. "We can overmatch [the Taliban] ... we can face them down and we can drive them out of communities," Defence Secretary Des Browne said yesterday.

Earlier this week, war-death statistics published in a number of British papers indicated that front-line troops in Afghanistan's Helmand province were being killed at a rate of one in every 36 - compared with one in every 46 for U.S. servicemen in the Vietnam War.

The Daily Telegraph produced an even grimmer revelation yesterday: The overall casualty rate among front-line units in Afghanistan is higher than the casualties averaged by Commonwealth troops in the Second World War.

Britain has about 6,000 troops in Afghanistan, 500 more than it does in Iraq. The largest group of British troops in Afghanistan are training Afghan security forces, helping with reconstruction and providing security, while also combatting the country's growing opium trade.

Of its total forces in Afghanistan, only 1,500 are classified as front-line troops. It's these troops that have been taking a heavy pounding from Taliban insurgents in Helmand, which neighbours Kandahar province where Canadian forces took heavy casualties last year.

The hardest hit have been the Royal Anglians Regiment, which has lost a fifth of its troops to battle wounds, injuries and disease as 131 soldiers out of a 650-strong force have fallen out of combat duty.

These losses are comparable with those suffered by Commonwealth troops during the Second World War, when 11 per cent of the 11 million troops mobilized were either killed, wounded or declared missing in action.

These recent revelations, though based on math that is not entirely scientific as the past few weeks have seen a higher death rate in Afghanistan than previous weeks and the comparison is between front-line troops in Afghanistan, and all Second World War troops, have cast a shadow over a war effort that many Britons seem no longer to support.

On Monday, opposition parties called on the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to urgently review his policy in Afghanistan.

"These statistics are deeply saddening, above all, because they represent personal tragedies for hundreds of British families. But they are also an indictment of a government which has no clear idea how to get British Forces home without further heavy loss of life," Sir Menzies Campbell, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said.

But it doesn't look as though troops will be coming home any time soon. Brigadier John Lorimer, Britain's top soldier in Helmand, predicted yesterday that British troops would be in Afghanistan for as long as they were in Northern Ireland - 38 years.

A YouGov poll published this weekend found only 6 per cent of voters felt Britain was winning in Afghanistan while 15 per cent felt British troops were making Basra a safer place for its residents.

However, 74 per cent of those polled said they wanted the troops brought home from Iraq immediately or within the next year while 65 per cent said the same thing for Afghanistan.

At the heart of the debate in Parliament is the government's recent decision to disband three British battalions, a move critics say has increased the burden of the remaining battalions, which have to serve longer and more frequent rotations in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Special to The Globe and Mail
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Iran meddling in Afghanistan: US lawmaker
Lalit K. Jha
NEW YORK, Aug 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): An influential US lawmaker has accused Iran of meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan by allegedly supplying arms and equipment to Taliban and al-Qaeda.

"I'm gravely concerned about the increase in both the quantity and quality of Iranian arms shipments and technological expertise to Taliban and other terrorist organisations," Republican Congresswoman from Florida Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said after her two-day trip to Afghanistan early this week.

Considered to be a friend of Afghanistan at the Capitol Hill, Ros-Lehtinen has been, in the past, instrumental in the passage of several key Afghan-related legislations from the Congress including the Afghan Freedom Act, which was recently passed by the House of Representatives.

The statement coming from Ros-Lehtinen, only a day after the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Kabul on Tuesday carries significance as the Congresswoman is considered close to President George Bush, who has been levying such a charge against Iran for the quite some time now.

During his visit to Kabul, Iranian President denied allegations that his government was supplying arms to Taliban. "I doubt if there is any truth in it," Ahmadinejad told a questioner.

The US Congresswoman also expressed concern over the increase in poppy cultivation and narcotics trade in Afghanistan, which accounts for more than 93 per cent of the world's illicit opium supply.

"Unless we act soon, the drug kingpins and drug cartels allied with terrorists will erode all of the progress that has been made in Afghanistan," she warned.
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Afghanistan medal petition set up
Thursday, 16 August 2007, 10:30 GMT 11:30 UK BBC News
A Shropshire man has set up an online petition calling for a special medal to be awarded to British forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Andy Myers, of Shrewsbury, has started a petition on the Number 10 website.

Campaigners complain the Ministry of Defence still offers soldiers the same medal as it did to those involved in peacekeeping duties in 2002.

Mr Myers said the new award would recognise the extra intensity of the armed conflict in Helmand province.

Mr Myers said the current medal was designed to recognize "peacekeeping role and is the same medal as was awarded to troops immediately after the Taliban were deposed".

'Deserves recognition'

He added: "The current campaign can be considered to be anything but a peacekeeping role with our troops currently facing a 1 in 36 chance of dying during a 6 month deployment in Helmand province.

"Their bravery and loyalty deserves recognition above and beyond that awarded in general and individual acts of bravery."

Seventy UK troops have been killed while on operations in Afghanistan since 2001.

But the Ministry of Defence has rejected calls for a new medal to be awarded, saying the current award is not for peacekeeping but general operational service.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said earlier this week there "should be no doubt that our people are getting the recognition they deserve", adding that it was the Army commanders that decided "whether a medal is deserved".

Mr Myers' petition has been signed by 46 people since it was set up on Tuesday.
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Ambassador backs focus on Afghanistan
The Scotsman - Aug 16 4:40 AM
BRITAIN'S ambassador in Kabul has backed the increasing military focus on fighting a resurgent Taliban and a booming drug trade in Afghanistan.

With Britain winding down efforts in Iraq since Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister, more soldiers and aid money is now being poured into the country.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said: "[Afghanistan] matters to us because a high proportion of the terrorism investigations in the UK can be traced back to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

"It matters to us because 90 per cent of the heroin on British streets comes from Afghanistan, and it matters to us because it is desperately poor, and we have a commitment through the international development act of tackling poverty around the world."

During a visit to the United States late last month, Mr Brown called Afghanistan "the front-line against terrorism".

Britain will increase its troop strength in Afghanistan to 7700 by the year's end, up from 7000 today and 3600 a year ago.
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Germany to continue mission in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle
The German government has said it will continue with its policy of supporting the Afghan government on the ground. However, German Major General Bruno Kasdorf, at ISAF headquarters in Afghanistan, has called for more peacekeeping troops in the country. This follows Wednesday's roadside bomb attack which killed three German police officers just outside of Kabul. The officers were there to protect the German embassy. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for that attack. Meanwhile, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has denied a NATO request to send military transport helicopters to the strife-torn southern region. He pointed out that Germany already had six military helicopters in the north, where about 3,000 German troops are serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
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DynCorp wins portion of $1.8B contract for work in Afghanistan
Washington Business Journal Thursday, August 16, 2007 by Erin Killian Staff Reporter
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DynCorp International Inc. was one of five winners of a contract worth up to $1.8 billion from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do construction in Afghanistan.

The one-year contact with two option years has a ceiling of $600 million per year.

 
The Falls Church-based government contractor DynCorp (NYSE: DCP) will now compete with the other four winners for individual task orders with values ranging from $5 million to $25 million.

"We are very gratified to continue our construction work in Afghanistan under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers," said chief executive Herbert Lanese.

The company, which earned $12 million on $548 million in revenue in the second quarter ended June 29, was also one of three companies to win a contract in June from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command to provide logistics support in the Middle East. The contract, up to 10 years, boost the company's gross revenue by $5 billion.
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Putin calls for anti money-laundering zone around Afghanistan
12:33 | 16/ 08/ 2007
BISHKEK, August 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's president proposed to Asian leaders Thursday setting up financial security belts around Afghanistan to counter money laundering, and holding a special security conference on the country.

Vladimir Putin is currently on a visit to Kyrgyzstan, which hosted Thursday a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and has Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia as observers.

"It is essential to continue forming anti-drug security belts around Afghanistan, which could be complemented with financial security belts supervised by SCO financial monitors," Putin said. "This will improve the effectiveness of measures to counter both drug trafficking and money laundering."

He said that since all SCO member states were interested in ensuring stability in Afghanistan, a special conference should be held to discuss means of helping the volatile country. He proposed that SCO countries' foreign ministers make corresponding preparations.

According to the World Drug Report, Afghanistan accounts for more than 90% of the world's illegal opium production, which is used to produce heroin. The country's president, Hamid Karzai, who is attending the summit as a guest, called on the organization to prioritize measures against drug-trafficking, a major financial source of terrorism.

"We understand well enough the negative effect of the drugs problem on all countries in the region... It is necessary to work out a specific regional plan to fight the problem," Karzai said.

He said his country, where attacks on security forces by Taliban insurgents have escalated in recent months, was ready to step up cooperation in countering narcotics and terrorism.
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Kazakhstan interested in stability in Afghanistan -- Nazarbayev
15.08.2007, 22.48
BISHKEK, August 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Kazakhstan is interested in stabilising the situation in Afghanistan, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Wednesday.

In a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Bishkek, Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan is developing a special support programme for Afghanistan, which provides for the training of specialists in various fields, the construction of facilities, and humanitarian assistance.

The president also said that Kazakhstani businessmen are wiling to invest in mutually advantageous projects in Afghanistan.
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Karzai asks SCO members to focus on fight against drugs
KABUL, Aug 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai Thursday urged upon regional countries to focus on fighting drugs and smuggling.

The president was addressing the one-day summit of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Deliberating on the root causes of instability in Afghanistan, the president said terrorism and drugs were the two major factors posing threat to peace and stability in his country.

He said the two were not only posing threat to Afghanistan but the region and the world at large. He said terrorists were killing innocent citizens, burning schools, targeting health clinics and destroying other welfare projects in Afghanistan.

"These two major menaces are not only halting our journey towards progress and prosperity, but also endangering the peace, stability and progress of the region."

Referring to the fight against narcotics, Karzai said rooting out drugs from the society required full commitment from the international community.

In his speech, Karzai also highlighted the role and presence of international forces in his war-devastated country. "Presence of the international community in Afghanistan is not only in favour of that country but the whole region," said the Afghan leader.

Karzai said Afghanistan was most affected by the scourge of terrorism than its neighbours or countries of the region. This was why, he said, Afghanistan had the heavier responsibility in the fight against terror. 

Pointing to the ongoing war against terrorism, Karzai said the world was still facing the threat despite six years of global fight against the menace.

He also highlighted the economic progress of his country and said that Afghanistan had become member of SAARC last year. He said his country was eager to establish stronger ties with SCO members.

"Destinies of countries of the regional are intertwined. Therefore, their economic development and peace and stability could not be separated from each other," Karzai argued.

He said economic progress and stability of the region was directly linked to peace and stability in Afghanistan. A strong and stable Afghanistan was in favour of its neighbours and the region, he added.
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Chinese president pledges support for Afghan reconstruction
Source: Xinhua August 16, 2007
China attaches great importance to developing relations with Afghanistan and supports its reconstruction efforts, Chinese President Hu Jintao said on Wednesday in Bishkek during a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.

China supports the Afghan government and people in choosing their country's own political system and model of development, said Hu, who was currently on a state visit to Kyrgyzstan and will later attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Central Asian country.

Since the formation of the new Afghan government under the leadership of President Karzai, cooperation between China and Afghanistan has grown steadily and bilateral ties have shown a good momentum, said Hu.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to developing the partnership of all-round cooperation with Afghanistan and is willing to remain Afghanistan's good neighbor, friend and partner forever, he said.

To help the reconstruction in the war-torn country, China will again provide 80 million yuan (about 10.53 million U.S. dollars) in assistance, and will carry on existing aid projects on hydro-power and medical facilities, according to Hu.

China also supports the Afghan efforts to enhance regional cooperation and is ready to continue its cooperation with Afghanistan within the framework of the SCO, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) and other organizations, the Chinese president said.

China is following closely the situation in Afghanistan and it is China's sincere hope that the country will realize peace and embark on the path of reconstruction, which will serve the fundamental interests of the Afghan people and will be conducive to peace and stability in the region and the world as a whole, Hu said.

Karzai, who was here to attend the SCO summit as a special guest of the summit host Kyrgyzstan, thanked China for its assistance and voiced his country's readiness to promote good-neighborly relations with China and carry out cooperation in economy, trade and security.

Afghanistan is also committed to developing cooperation with the SCO, SAARC and other regional organizations, Karzai said.

The Afghan government firmly adheres to the one-China policy, Karzai stressed.

The SCO, a regional organization founded in June 2001, now groups China, Russia and Central Asia's Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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Afghanistan: UN highlights conflict's impact on civilians
KABUL, 16 August 2007 (IRIN) - Armed conflict in Afghanistan has not only caused hundreds of civilian deaths but has also had a negative impact on many aspects of people's lives, according to a senior UN official.

"Beyond civilian casualties, people have lost their houses, children have been deprived of education, livelihoods have been damaged, and displaced families face many problems," Walter Kalin, representative of the UN Secretary-General for the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), told IRIN on 15 August.

Since April, over 1,060 civilians have died in armed conflicts between Taliban insurgents and Afghan security forces backed by international troops, according to a confidential report prepared by Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior.

The number of people dying in conflict-related violence has doubled in the last two years, the UN said.

Taliban fighters have been condemned for consistently and systematically violating international humanitarian laws in their hit-and-run insurgency, since 2002.

However, civilian deaths in military operations conducted by international forces - particularly US troops operating outside NATO writ - and their Afghan allies have roughly balanced that of the Taliban.

About 80,000 IDPs

While many volatile areas in Afghanistan remain inaccessible to international aid organisations, the UN estimates that some 80,000 people have been displaced by insecurity, predominantly in the south, southwest and east of the country.

Kalin, the UN representative for the human rights of IDPs, who was unable to visit IDP camps in the south of Afghanistan due to insecurity, has asked the world body and the government of Afghanistan to do more to assist people displaced in the conflict.

"There is lack of a comprehensive strategy with different instruments in place that can meet the needs of IDPs," Kalin said.

At a three day UN-sponsored workshop on the protection of civilians in Kabul, held on 13-15 August, representatives of families affected in the war complained about the problems they face during and after displacements.

"People live in disastrous conditions at IDP camps in Helmand and Kandahar provinces," said Qasim Agha, adding that IDPs lack drinking water, and jobs, and face food insecurity and poor access to health and education services.

Compensation

Neither the US-NATO forces in Afghanistan nor the Taliban compensate those affected in the fighting. The government of Afghanistan, however, often makes ad hoc condolence and sympathy payments to families who lose members in conflicts and natural disasters.

A spokesman of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) told IRIN it had asked the country's Supreme Court to issue a 'fatwa' - an Islamic edict - in which the issue of `diyat' (compensatory payment for the death or loss of any part of a human body) would be made obligatory for all warring parties.

People in conflict-affected provinces have also demanded compensation for their houses and property damaged in military operations, according to the AIHRC.

"IDPs have rights and among those rights is property protection. People who had to flee in a conflict should have the right of voluntary return. to have their houses reconstructed and compensation paid in cases of damage," said Kalin.

Meanwhile, Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of an "alarming increase" in violence, Tom Keonigs, special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, told participants of a workshop on civilian protection.
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A stumble over the 'W' word in Afghanistan
By Tarique Niazi Asia Times - Aug 16 3:40 AM
A group of tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan have called for talks with the Taliban. These leaders convened in Kabul from August 9-12 in a US-brokered peace jirga, a traditional council akin to a parliament of elders. At the Kabul meeting, the jirga formed a 50-member tribal council, made up of 25 members each from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to begin the dialogue.

The call does not spell out the talks' schedule, scope, substance

or venue. Meanwhile, the Taliban have rejected the jirga as a "US-sponsored farce". They are opposed to the US-backed Northern Alliance government in Kabul and want troops led by the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to leave Afghanistan.

This issue of foreign troop withdrawal was controversial at the jirga. Although carefully screened by their respective governments, a smattering of jirga members did manage to articulate their support for the Taliban's call for foreign troops to leave, which they wished to replace with those of Islamic countries.

Many obstacles remain in the path of opening talks with the Taliban. The peace jirga in Kabul is subject to conflicts between the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as pressures from the great powers. For all its shortcomings, though, the jirga's call for greater dialogue and its wide representation from both sides of the border suggest that it could serve as a key mechanism for resolving the swath of conflicts across Southwest Asia.

Call to replace foreign troops
The key conflict at the peace jirga was the issue of foreign troops and Pakistan's behind-the-scenes support for withdrawal. On April 8, London's Daily Telegraph reported that Pakistan had urged the United Kingdom and the United States to pull out of Afghanistan. The suggestion, according to the newspaper, "reflects the growing belief in Islamabad that NATO is as much to blame for the endurance of the Islamic rebel army as Pakistan".

In public, however, Pakistan is more circumspect. A day before the Telegraph's report, Khurshid Kasuri, Pakistan's foreign minister, said: "NATO should consider holding talks with Taliban leaders." He added, "Britain in particular should know the limitations of a purely military approach in Afghanistan." This nuanced caution refers to Britain's three failed military campaigns in Afghanistan since the beginning of the 20th century.

Britain, however, taps into a different history of its conflicts to determine the length of its stay in Afghanistan. Drawing on his country's military campaign against the Irish Republican Army, a senior British commander estimates that the UK will need "38 years" to pacify the Taliban in Afghanistan. Minority ethnic communities in Afghanistan, especially Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, would welcome Britain's long-term commitment. The Taliban, who are predominantly drawn from the majority ethnic group the Pashtuns, oppose such resolve. Also, neighboring countries would likely resist British intent.

Pakistan wants to see foreign troops leave, as their presence has increased its arch-rival India's influence with Kabul while diminishing its own. If foreign troops depart from Afghanistan, the 35,000-strong Afghan National Army will be hard put to hold back the Taliban. Absent external forces, they are bound to reclaim Kabul, and with it restore Islamabad's traditional strategic advantage.

At a still larger scale, China and Russia are also getting impatient with the foreign presence in Afghanistan. In 2005, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China and Russia as members, asked that the United States and NATO give a timetable for withdrawal of their forces. The jirga's call for replacing NATO-US troops with Islamic forces resonates in these larger circles.

Karzai-Musharraf bickering
Kabul has long accused President General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, of harboring Taliban leadership in southwestern Pakistan, which borders southern Afghanistan. In a Newsweek interview last September, Afghan President Hamid Karzai faulted Musharraf for failing to act against senior Taliban leaders. "Mullah Omar is, for sure, in Quetta, Pakistan, and he [Musharraf] knows that. We have given him the GPS [Global Positioning System] numbers of his house and the telephone number."

Musharraf dismissed the charge as "baseless". In a CNN interview, he retaliated by saying that Karzai "is behaving like an ostrich". Later, he sardonically counseled the Afghan leader to "put your own house in order", a veiled reference to Kabul's and NATO-US troops' failure to end violence in the country.

This bickering between the two persuaded US President George W Bush to move quickly to calm passions on both sides. Last September, he hosted an Iftar dinner breaking the fast of Ramadan at the White House for Karzai and Musharraf. By then both had grown so far apart that they had stopped speaking to each other, except for trading barbs of criticism. At the dinner, Bush pleaded with both to end their acrimony and join forces in the common cause of fighting terrorism.

For a time, his persuasion seemed to work. A hopeful signal came from Karzai, who proposed that Afghanistan and Pakistan convene a joint jirga of the tribal leaders who live on both sides of the Durand Line that divides his country from Pakistan, to enlist their support against terrorism. The proposal froze Musharraf in his tracks. Yet Bush warmed to the idea, which eventually pushed Musharraf also to tag along.

Musharraf's indifference
Musharraf's reluctance to the call for a jirga sprang from his non-existent influence with this institution. In contrast, Karzai, who commands immense popularity with the tribal leaders of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, wanted to engage them in peace efforts to end the violence in Pashtun territories.

Karzai considers tribal leaders to be the foundation of Pashtun culture and believes in their primacy over all other cultural and political institutions to resolve internecine conflicts. Since 2002, when he came to power in Afghanistan, Karzai has attempted to revive this institution, which earned him many critics among the international community and beyond. Despite growing detractors of his approach, he continues to stick to his conviction that the jirga is the most effective tool in Pashtun society for conflict resolution.

Karzai is unhappy that Musharraf has contributed to "destroying Afghan culture" and its hallmark institution of the jirga. Musharraf, who was born in India and migrated as a child to Pakistan, lacks any ethnic base in the country. Viewing the general as a rootless carpetbagger, the tribal leaders don't treat him as their equal. In volatile northwestern Pakistan, especially North and South Waziristan, hundreds of Pashtun tribal leaders instead pledge their allegiance to Afghanistan and the Afghan president.

Musharraf has been ambivalent about the success of the proposed jirga from the very outset and has spared no effort to undermine its authority. First, he delayed convening it for 10 months. Second, he let the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, name the delegates, including a substantial number of ISI agents themselves. Third, he failed to name even a single delegate from North and South Waziristan, where the United States suspects al-Qaeda is regrouping. As a result, all of the 70 tribal leaders of Waziristan agencies stayed away from the jirga.

Finally, Musharraf pulled out of the event only a day before it opened on August 9, citing "pressing commitments" in Islamabad, which turned out to be his plan to impose emergency rule in Pakistan, which he later dropped. The Bush administration was baffled by his last-minute walkout. It took a telephone call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the early hours of August 9 to change his mind on both emergency rule in Pakistan and abstaining from the jirga. By August 9, however, only 175 of the planned 350 Pakistani delegates attended.

Success or failure?
If the jirga was not a complete success, it was not a failure, either. After all, it was the grandest gathering of Pashtun leaders since the Durand Line was drawn in 1893 to divide Pashtun territories between Afghanistan and the British Raj.

The lineup included pre-eminent Pashtun leaders who tower over even Karzai and Musharraf: Senator Asfandyar Wali Khan, who leads the Awami National Party, and Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who heads the Pashtun Milli Awami Party. Both scorn Musharraf for dumping Arab and non-Arab al-Qaeda members into Pashtun tribal areas and then committing what they call genocide against Pashtuns by ruthlessly bombing them.

The jirga, which represented the 50 million Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line, further bolstered the standing of Karzai as a Pashtun leader. His embrace by the leading lights of the Pashtun nation sends a strong message to the Taliban that they do not have a monopoly on Pashtun nationalism.

Finally, from the US standpoint, the jirga was a success for its unequivocal commitment to end terrorism and eliminate al-Qaeda from Pashtun territories. Since September 11, 2001, no such commitment was ever made at such a grand forum of Pashtun leaders. The jirga's call shatters the vogue idiom of "Pashtun terrorists", "tribal badlands", and "lawless tribal areas" that cast Pashtuns in bad light. At the jirga, Pashtuns demonstrated their stake in peace within and between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Yet the jirga was "long on generalities and short on specifics". US and NATO leaders should engage this institution to supply the missing "specifics" to foster peace. It is deceptively simple to dub the Afghan resistance "Taliban militancy" or "al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism".

Although Pashtuns reject al-Qaeda and its terrorism, as the Kabul jirga resoundingly demonstrated, they are resentful of their loss of power in Kabul, which they held for 200 years, to the ethnic-minority-dominated and US-backed Northern Alliance. The Taliban, who are predominantly Pashtuns, are drawing on this sense of exclusion among the majority community to sustain their struggle. An ethnic balance to the current distribution of power, therefore, would help drain the Afghan resistance of energy and serve as well the long-term security interests of the Northern Alliance.

Karzai, aided by the 50-member Tribal Council, is best placed to pull off this feat. He is a devout Muslim, a former cabinet officer of the Taliban government, a member of the Pashtun royalty, a nominee of the ruling Northern Alliance, and the only hope for the international community to bring peace in Afghanistan.

He already has been in discreet talks with the Taliban and with Hizb-i-Islami leader and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. His outreach is, however, unsupported by the international community, especially the Bush administration. Now that Asfandyar Wali Khan and Mehmood Achakzai - the two most influential Pashtun leaders who are pro-Afghanistan, pro-Karzai secular nationalists - have added their voices to the call for talks with the Afghan resistance, the international community and especially the Bush administration should take notice.

Tarique Niazi is an environmental sociologist at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire (niazit@uwec.edu) and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.
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Afghan women footballers kick off
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kabul Thursday, 16 August 2007, 13:09 GMT 14:09 UK
The Afghanistan women's international football team is travelling abroad for the first time to join Pakistani teams in a series of friendly matches.

Like many other sports in Afghanistan, football has regained a popularity which was dampened during the five years of Taleban rule.

It is a sport which has thrived among women, alongside other games including boxing and tae-kwondo.

But now the game is being played with enthusiasm all over the country.

"When I was a child I always wanted to be a good football player," the 18-year-old captain of the team, Shamila Khostani, told the BBC's World Today programme.

"But, unfortunately under the period of the Taleban I couldn't play football or any sport... when the Taleban went I found the opportunity and started playing soccer."

"We wanted to show that girls can also play football like boys," she said.

Conservative society

Team member, Palwasha Daud, also played football as a child growing up in Pakistan.

"When I returned home to Afghanistan," she told the BBC, "I played football during school sports classes."

"After that, when football teams were created, I wanted to register."

Later still, she was introduced to the country's Olympic Committee and chosen for the national team.

Twenty players are travelling, along with two female coaches and the male chief coach, Abdul Saboor Walizadah.

Although there are now 500 registered women players across Afghanistan, the game has had to develop in a cautious way given the conservative society here.

Coach Abdul Saboor Walizadah says: "At the beginning we had lots of problems. Most families didn't want their daughters to play football."

"We kept being in contact with the parents to try to convince them there was nothing wrong with it."

Now, says the coach, all these players' families are quite comfortable with what their daughters are doing.

The only problem the Afghan women's team has is that it lacks a suitable venue for regular football training.

A Pakistani Football Federation spokesman has said these matches will be great for the relationship between the two countries.

The teams will be taking part in a friendly tournament in Islamabad, involving 15 Pakistani teams and lasting a week.
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Govt plans to arrest poppy growers
KABUL, Aug 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government is planning to arrest landlords who are cultivating poppies on their farms.

Gen. Dawood Dawood, Deputy Interior Minister, Thursday told a news conference that action would be initiated against landowners who were encouraging poppy cultivation on their farms through tenants or other means. 

He said the plan was part of the ministry's efforts to eliminate poppies in the country. "I reject the assumption that most of farmers grow poppies due to widespread poverty in the country."

The minister said not a single plant was grown in the country's poorest provinces of Maidan-Wardak, Kapisa, Panjshir, Paktia and Paktika this year.

Instead, he said, those people were growing poppies who wanted to become rich overnight. "We planned to arrest those landlords who plant poppies on their farms to get greater and rapid income."

The fresh warning by the minister came on the heel of a statement by Christina Oguz of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) who informed about substantial increase in poppy production in Afghanistan this year.

Addressing the news conference, UNODC official Christina Oguz blamed police for taking money from drug traffickers. Terrorists were taking advantage of the drug income, she observed.
Ahmad Khalid Moahid
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British citizen shot dead in Kabul
KABUL, Aug 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A British man working with a private security firm was shot dead by unidentified armed men in this capital city Wednesday afternoon.

Employee of the ArmourGroup security firm, the man was attacked in the Makro Rayan area around 3:45pm.

Crime investigation chief Gen. Alishah Paktiawal told Pajhwok Afghan News the British citizen was in his car when unidentified armed men, riding in another car, opened fire at him.

Haseeb Arian, in charge of the ninth police station, said the British man received a bullet in the neck. He was rushed to hospital for treatment. However, he succumbed to his injuries soon after reaching there.

Arian said the slain had withdrawn some cash from a bank in the area and was on way back when came under attack. The assailants decamped with the money. The officer would not say how much amount it was.  

Arian said driver of the deceased, who is a local, did not hurt in the attack. The officer was unable to explain if it was a dacoity or incident of terrorism.

Alishah Pakiawal said two people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack.
Dost/Daud
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AG orders arrest of senior Interior Ministry official
KABUL, Aug 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Sabit has ordered the arrest of a senior official of the Interior Ministry on charges of embezzlement on Wednesday. 

Addressing a news conference, Sabit accused Sakhi Ahmad Bayani, director of administrative affairs at the Interior Ministry, of large-scale embezzlement.

He said Bayani was heading a five-member group to distribute five million afghanis to police as bonus. He alleged the official distributed four million while there was no record of the remaining one million.

The AG said police chief of Zabul province and five policemen had already been taken into custody on charges of getting their share from Bamyani while five other staffers of the ministry were under investigations.

Sabit told journalists that he was threatened and intimidated by some influentials, including MPs, to force him not to take action against the administrative director. He said some MPs even threatened him inside his office.

He said Bamyani had gone underground since the issuance of his arrest orders and police was searching him. He said border police had also been ordered not to allow the man to go out of the country.

Sabit said he would tell some hidden facts about the Interior Ministry if it failed to arrest Bamyani. Sabit also said that police had detained father of Sanga Amaaj, a private TV anchor, on suspicion of involvement in the killing of his daughter.
Habib Rahman Ibrahimi
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Spanta to visit China
KABUL, Aug 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Foreign Minister Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta will leave for a three-day visit to China after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on Thursday.

The Foreign Minister is accompanying President Hamid Karzai to the one-day summit of the four-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). He will leave for China from Bishkek, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Bahin.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Bahin said the FM was visiting that country on special invitation from his Chinese counterpart. During his stay in China, Spanta would sign agreements in health and mining sectors and discuss strategic cooperation between the two countries with his counterpart.

The two ministers would also discuss bilateral ties, terrorism, narcotics and role of China in reconstruction of Afghanistan, said the spokesman. Spanta would also call on Chinese vice president and deliver a speech at the Strategic Studies Centre there.

Najib Khelwatgar
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100 bicycles donated to Traffic Dept
KABUL, Aug 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Bayyat Foundation has handed over 100 bicycles to traffic department on Thursday.

Eng. Ihsanullah Bayyat, head of the Bayyat Foundation, told Pajhwok Afghan News the bicycles would help traffic police in arriving at their duty stations in time and going back to their homes.

Brig. General Nooruddin, chief of the traffic police department, appreciated the assistance and said the bicycles would be handed to those personnel who deserve them the most.

School inaugurated

Foundation stone of a high school was laid in Shiberghan, capital of northern Jawzjan province on Thursday. The school will be constructed with $0.3 financial assistance from Turkey.

The school building will accommodate 3,000 students who are presently studying in tents and under trees.

Yar Nazar, head of the education department, told Pajhwok Afghan News the building would have 16 classrooms and eight more rooms for staff and administration.

Meanwhile, officials in the central Bamyan province complained against non-availability of textbooks, buildings for schools and professional teachers.

Muhammad Raza Ada, director of the education department, said the problems were pointed out by officials from various districts during their meeting with the provincial officials.

He said more than 85 percent students did not have books despite the fifth month of the academic year. 

Mustafa Basharat, Zabi ullah Ehsas, Hadi Ghafari
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