 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
5 NATO soldiers wounded in Afghanistan
Significant increase in attacks in Afghanistan from across Pak-border: Gates
More evidence of Taliban leader hiding in Pakistan
Pace says Colombia model for Afghanistan
Defence minister tells troops Afghan mission will continue until progress secure
China pledges help in Afghan reconstruction
China thanks Afghanistan for support in fighting terrorism
Pakistan says planes used in raid
French troops to stay in Tajikistan until Afghanistan stable: deputy
Afghan actresses risk reputation to follow thespian dreams
Afghan refugees in Karachi feel alienated
Italian leftists threaten to vote against Afghan
Interview: NATO commander confident of victory against Taliban
Aid failures are killing UK soldiers in Afghanistan, think tank claims
Putting out the fire in Waziristan
Chairman Afghan Jirga Commission hold talk with Sherpao
Canadians deliver supplies to dilapidated school within sight of NATO base
Khan's border line
Book on Pakistan’s role in ‘war on terror’ to hit stands this week
No Omar, please
Professor says America seeks Afghanistan Oil Deal
EC vows more help for Afghanistan
5 NATO soldiers wounded in Afghanistan
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A car bomb exploded near a NATO convoy in a volatile area of southern Afghanistan, wounding five soldiers, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Saturday.
Squadron Leader David Marsh said the Taliban rebels also opened fire on their convoy in the Uruzgan province shortly after Friday's bomb attack.
He did not give the names or nationalities of the wounded soldiers, and only said they were being treated at a NATO-run hospital in Kandahar.
The soldiers from ISAF were on a routine patrol when the attack happened, he said, adding that they then called for air assistance. ISAF helicopter gunships bombed the enemy position, Marsh said.
However, Marsh said ISAF was still checking if the rebels had sustained any damage.
On Saturday, another alliance convoy was targeted with a roadside bomb in Zhari district in Kandahar province, Marsh said. One ISAF vehicle was damaged but no troops were injured in that blast, he said.
Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, meanwhile, said that Afghan authorities have detained two men suspected of planning suicide attacks on Afghan and foreign troops in southern Afghanistan.
The two were from Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, he said.
Back to Top
Significant increase in attacks in Afghanistan from across Pak-border: Gates
By ANI Saturday January 20, 01:42 PM
Washington, Jan 20 (ANI): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said there had been a significant increase in the attacks in Afghanistan from across the bordering country Pakistan.
He also said that the US would work with Pakistan to solve the problem of infiltrators crossing into Afghanistan.
"There's no question that there has been a significant increase in attacks from across the border, in particular from North and South Waziristan, and it is a problem," the Dawn quoted Gates as saying in an interview with American Forces Press Service.
Gates said this while on a visit to the US Forward Base Tillman in Afghanistan on Thursday.
He said that the US could not ignore Pakistan in the fight against terror. "Pakistan is one of America's strongest allies in the war on terror, and we will continue working with the Pakistanis to see if there is a way that we can begin to reduce the violence coming from that side of the border," he added.
Recently, press reports quoted the US and Afghan forces claiming to have killed around 130 Taliban fighters trying to infiltrate into Afghanistan from the Waziristan area. (ANI)
Back to Top
More evidence of Taliban leader hiding in Pakistan
A captured spokesman says Pakistan is harboring Mullah Omar, stirring international uproar.
By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the January 19, 2007 edition
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Mullah Muhammed Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed leader, eluded capture when American bombs ended his fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan in 2001. But a new report of his location is stirring an international uproar.
A captured Taliban spokesman says Mr. Omar is hiding in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan Province, under the protection of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Abul Haq Haqiq, also known as Dr. Mohammad Hanif, made the statements in a video-taped interrogation released by Afghan intelligence on Wednesday, following his arrest while crossing from Pakistan into the Afghan province of Nangarhar.
Hanif's claims are the latest in a stream of international criticism of Pakistan. Afghanistan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, have accused Pakistan of harboring Omar, and news of his whereabouts – credible or not – is amplifying questions about Pakistan's commitment to the war on terror, analysts say.
Hanif's remarks come after the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion removed the Taliban from power in 2001. Some 4,000 people died in insurgent-related violence in 2006. During a visit to Kabul Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would consider sending more US troops to bolster the 22,500 already posted in Afghanistan.
Omar carries a $10 million bounty on his head and, like Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding somewhere in the remote areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Hanif also told Afghan interrogators that the Taliban, with help from the ISI, were responsible for more than 100 suicide attacks that left 270 civilians and 17 international soldiers dead.
"It's extremely important news. When we add all these accusations together, they pose a real problem for Pakistan's credibility, that it is playing a double game," says Rasul Bahksh Rais, a political analyst at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Omar has barely been heard from since he disappeared, leading many to wonder if he is dead or inactive.
But before he was arrested, Hanif told the Monitor in mid-December that Omar remains a central pillar in Taliban operations. He is not always present at meetings of the upper leadership, but all decisions are conveyed to him for approval, Hanif claimed.
"Without Mullah Omar we would not be able to reorganize and have this intensity of our attacks," Hanif said by telephone last month from an undisclosed location.
Earlier this month, Omar was heard from for the first time in years when he told Reuters, through Hanif, that he hadn't seen Osama bin Laden since 2001.
If true, Hanif's taped confession would constitute the highest level official statement from the Taliban that Omar is in Quetta. It would also verify that the operational center of the movement is in Pakistan. Many have long claimed this, chief among them Mr. Karzai, who last February delivered a series of dossiers to Islamabad detailing the addresses of Taliban leaders in Quetta.
Pakistan rejected the validity of those files, just as they immediately rejected Hanif's claims, calling it another salvo in Afghanistan's escalating blame game.
"This is the most absurd statement that can come out," says Maj. Gen. Shaukut Sultan, the spokesman for the Pakistani military. "Pakistan is fully committed to fighting terrorism."
Hanif's accusations against Afghan intelligence officials may have been coerced, some observers say. They also directly contradict statements Hanif made earlier to the Monitor.
"Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan and all [Taliban] leaders, too. There is no Taliban in Quetta," Hanif said at the time.
But Quetta has long been considered a logical place for Omar to seek refuge. The city lies near the border with Afghanistan, and has historical ties to Kandahar, Omar's home and the birthplace of the Taliban. International media reports have repeatedly highlighted the presence of Taliban fighters in the city.
Residents of Quetta remain divided over Hanif's statement. "This is completely propaganda," says Maulana Nur Mohammed, a parliament member from Jamiat-Ulema-Islami, a hard-line Islamist party that openly supports the ideology of the Taliban. "Because of all the intelligence agencies present here, it is not possible for the Taliban to stay in Quetta."
Others in Pakistan hailed Hanif's claim as proof of an open secret. "As the captured person said, [the Taliban] are in the protection of the ISI. In Quetta city, anybody can see that [the Taliban] are living here," says Akram Shah Khan, general secretary of the Pashtunkhwa Mili Awami Party, a Pashtun nationalist party in Quetta.
Many have also suspected that when he fled, Omar sought protection from the ISI, once his closest ally. In the mid-'90s, the ISI provided Omar's fledgling movement with the operational prowess needed to seize power, but denied doing so to American authorities.
Speaking to the Monitor last month, Hanif dismissed reports that Pakistan is providing aid to the Taliban. "Pakistan is not helping. We don't want their help either. Basically the Afghan people help, themselves," he said.
But he contradicted himself again in Thursday's taped interrogation, claiming that a former ISI chief, Hamid Gul, was providing financial and logistical support to the Taliban, principally in the form of suicide bombers.
Mr. Gul, who ran the ISI during the Afghan war against Russian forces in the 1980s, is known to have cultivated support for the Taliban in their early days. But he denies any involvement with them now.
"This is nonsense. Afghan intelligence is totally groping in the dark," says Gul, who is retired and living in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan's capital. "The real cause is that America is failing in Afghanistan and therefore putting pressure on Karzai...."
On Saturday, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, a top US commander, said that Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Taliban commander, was orchestrating large-scale attacks against Afghanistan from a base in Pakistan's tribal zone. His remarks came days after NATO forces killed 150 Taliban militants infiltrating Afghanistan from Pakistan, one of the single largest such engagements in the conflict.
• Suzanne Koster contributed to this report from Islamabad.
Back to Top
Pace says Colombia model for Afghanistan
By JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 19, 10:46 PM ET
BOGOTA, Colombia - The United States' top military official said Friday that American-backed anti-drug and counterinsurgent operations in Colombia — the world's largest producer of cocaine — could serve as a template for Afghan efforts to fight drug production.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Colombia's campaign to "rid certain areas of terrorists," followed by relief and jobs programs for the poor, was a "good model for (Afghan) President Hamid Karzai to consider as he looks at how to reduce the amount of drug trafficking in his country."
Afghanistan has been plagued by skyrocketing heroin production. But critics say it would be a mistake for the country to duplicate Colombia's model, which they say has been ineffective.
Pace's comments, at the end of a two-day visit, were made in the presence of William Wood, who on Thursday was nominated by the White House to become its next ambassador in Afghanistan. Wood has served as U.S. ambassador to Bogota since 2003.
Pace also thanked the government of President Alvaro Uribe — Washington's staunchest ally in Latin America — for the way "he has reached out to Karzai and his government to provide experience and teams of experts" in combatting drugs.
Colombia, at the urging of the United States, has sent police and anti-drug experts to train Afghan police and advise Kabul. Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's opium production, although Colombia is the main supplier of heroin to the United States.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have financed their four-decade-old leftist insurgency through the drug trade, while in Afghanistan rising poppy production is blamed for fueling an increase in Taliban-led attacks against U.S. troops.
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Colombia "was more than willing to continue and increase" counter-narcotic cooperation with U.S., British and Afghan officials.
Since 2000, the U.S. government has provided Colombia with more than $700 million in annual military aid to chemically eradicate fields of coca — the base ingredient of cocaine — and train troops fighting the FARC. Another $125 million is devoted to humanitarian relief and programs to encourage poor farmers to switch to growing legal crops.
Back to Top
Defence minister tells troops Afghan mission will continue until progress secure
Fri Jan 19, 5:01 PM By Chris Morris
OROMOCTO, N.B. (CP) - Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Canada's military leaders gave the latest wave of troops headed for Afghanistan an emotional send-off Friday.
About 1,000 soldiers and their families gathered at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown for a patriotic pep rally that celebrated the military and its efforts in Afghanistan, where Canada has pledged to stay and fight until 2009.
O'Connor said the government has yet to decide whether Canada's contribution to the NATO mission will be extended beyond 2009.
"It depends on how much success we determine we've had there, whether there are other missions to do and the state of the Armed Forces," O'Connor said.
"We have to look at a whole lot of factors."
Of the roughly 2,500 troops heading to Afghanistan later this month for the latest rotation, close to 1,200 are coming from Atlantic Canadian units. Most of those soldiers will be from CFB Gagetown.
Gen. Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff, said the soldiers
face clear danger as it is widely anticipated the Taliban leaders are planning a spring offensive.
"They (the Taliban) will still come after us with suicide bombers and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) but we don't believe they will use the conventional tactics they used last summer," Hillier said, adding those tactics caused heavy casualties for the Taliban.
"They will probably try to use more ambush and hit-and-run tactics."
Hillier and O'Connor said that while the threat to Canada's soldiers remains constant, they are clearly making prograss in terms of improving life in the war-torn country.
"We will support this mission until progress in Afghanistan becomes irreversible," the defence minister told the troops.
O'Connor said that by 2009, fighting the Afghan war will have cost Canada close to $4 billion.
But he rejected suggestions that the cost of the engagement is depleting the military's coffers to the extent that it cannot afford other important commitments.
Earlier this week, the navy's Atlantic branch cancelled a scheduled fisheries patrol and suspended overtime, certain types of travel and professional development because it had run out of money at the close of the fiscal year.
Although money was later found for the patrol, it raised questions about the military's financial footing.
O'Connor denied any such problems, adding the defence budget in Canada this year is $16 billion and will grow by another $1 billion next year.
"It's internal money management," he said.
"Every service, every element of the Armed Forces, got an increase . . . It's managing money. Everyone has a responsibility to manage money and if at some stage you make a decision that may not be appropriate, there are ways to solve the problem. You go to your boss and ask for more money."
The Gagetown rally was the latest in a series of special farewells for the troops, all of them accompanied by strong expressions of patriotism and support for the Afghan mission.
Earlier in the day, more than 2,000 people gathered on a field at the New Brunswick base, held up red placards and with a background of freshly fallen white snow, formed a huge Canadian flag.
Base officials say it was the largest Canadian flag in history.
Back to Top
China pledges help in Afghan reconstruction
via China Economic Net 2007-01-20 10:08
on Friday reiterated its consistent stand on participating in Afghanistan's reconstruction process while expressing thanks for the neighboring country's support in helping fight the "East Turkistan" terrorists in western China.
"China appreciates Afghanistan's valuable support in such issues concerning China's core interests as Taiwan, human rights and fighting 'East Turkistan' terrorists," said Chinese top advisor Jia Qinglin.
Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks while meeting with Sibgatullah Mojaddedi, president of Afghanistan's upper house House of Elders.
China will as always respect Afghanistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, respect the development path chosen by the Afghan government and people, support and actively participate in Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction and support Afghanistan playing a bigger role in regional and international affairs, said Jia.
Jia said the CPPCC, Chinese parliament's advisory body, will work closely with the House of Elders to facilitate China-Afghanistan relations.
Peace, stability and development constitute the common aspiration of the international community and comply with the interests of all sides, said Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo in a separate meeting with Mojaddedi on Friday.
Wu described the year of 2006 as "an important year in China-Afghanistan relations", saying the good-neighborly treaty signed between the two countries will lift bilateral comprehensive partnership to a new level and create new opportunities for deepening bilateral relations.
China's top legislature in October ratified the Good-neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Afghanistan, which was signed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Beijing in June.
The treaty will consolidate China-Afghanistan ties, and be helpful in maintaining peace in Afghanistan and to fight "East Turkistan" terrorists in western China, analysts said.
Source:Xinhuanet
Back to Top
China thanks Afghanistan for support in fighting terrorism
New Kerala - Jan 19 10:25 PM
Beijing, Jan 19: China today pledged to support Afghanistan's reconstruction process and thanked Kabul for its support in fighting the "East Turkistan" terrorists in the restive Xinjiang in north-western China.
"China appreciates Afghanistan's valuable support in such issues concerning China's core interests as Taiwan, human rights and fighting 'East Turkistan' terrorists," Chinese top advisor Jia Qinglin said here.
Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top advisory body, made the remarks while meeting with Sibgatullah Mojaddedi, president of Afghanistan's upper house.
China will as always respect Afghanistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, respect the development path chosen by its government and people, support and actively participate in its peaceful reconstruction and support Afghanistan playing a bigger role in regional and international affairs, Jia was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
Jia said the CPPCC will work closely with the House of Elders to facilitate China-Afghanistan relations.
Peace, stability and development constitute the common aspiration of the international community and comply with the interests of all sides, said Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo in a separate meeting with Mojaddedi today.
Wu described the year of 2006 as "an important year in China-Afghanistan relations", saying the good-neighbourly treaty signed between the two countries will lift bilateral comprehensive partnership to a new level and create new opportunities for deepening bilateral relations.
--- PTI
Back to Top
Pakistan says planes used in raid
Friday, 19 January 2007, 17:59 GMT BBC News
The Pakistan military has admitted for the first time using aircraft in raids along the Afghan border.
Officials confirmed that jets were used in an attack on an alleged al-Qaeda base in South Waziristan on Tuesday.
The announcement came after visiting journalists saw an unexploded missile at the site of the attack, which the military said killed 20 militants.
The attack threatens a peace deal between the military and pro-Taleban militants in the area.
Bomb
Reporters invited by the militants to the scene of the attack saw a 500lb unexploded device when they reached the area.
Later, military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan confirmed that fighter planes had been used to fire laser-guided missiles and bombs at the suspected hideout.
An earlier military statement only mentioned using helicopters.
Local people also told the journalists that eight people had been killed in the early morning raid and none of them were foreign nationals.
Tribal leaders have called for revenge and want the peace deal signed last year reconsidered.
Waziristan saw a decline in conflict between pro-Taleban and government forces after the peace deal.
Back to Top
French troops to stay in Tajikistan until Afghanistan stable: deputy
People's Daily - Jan 19 6:14 PM
A senior Tajik official said on Friday that the French troops will stay in the country until stability is restored in neighbouring Afghanistan, according to reports from the Tajik capital Dushanbe.
Saimumin Yatimov, Tajikistan's first deputy foreign minister, said that the French troops could keep on using the airport of Dushanbe, and the length of their deployment will depend on the stability of Afghanistan.
France has deployed an air force contingent in Tajikistan since 2001 to back the NATO-led operations in Afghanistan. The Central Asian country currently hosts about 350 French troops and several aircrafts, including four French Mirage fighter jets.
Last December, France agreed to give Tajikistan 24 million euros to help renovate the Dushanbe airport.
Source: Xinhua
Back to Top
Afghan actresses risk reputation to follow thespian dreams
by Sylvie Briand Fri Jan 19, 10:10 PM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - In the western Afghan city of Herat, where there are no cinemas and women only venture outside wearing head-to-toe veils, Rahima, Rita, Mariam and Monirah are women of ill repute.
But in following their dreams to become actresses in a country where just five years ago film and theatre were banned under the Taliban government, the women are mavericks trying to bring culture to their war-ravaged homeland.
"To be an actress in Afghanistan doesn't bring you anything but a bad reputation," says Rita Hosseini.
"But someone has to do it. What is a country without culture, without stories to make us dream, without cinema?" asks the widow who tints her hair and lines her almond eyes with dark khol.
Hosseini, who is raising two young children alone, makes her living as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Acting, she says, is just for fun.
"Cinema is for art and for pleasure," she says.
It is a pleasure that few women enjoy, even at the theatres operating in the capital, Kabul.
And for these actresses, it is a pleasure that sometimes carries a high price.
In the cramped office of the local production house of the government's Afghan Film, Mariam Hachemi says she once attempted suicide to avoid being forced to give up acting and marry a man she considered "too poor".
"Some cousins and a brother have cut all relations with me," she says.
The director of Afghan Film in Herat, Fridoon Faghery, said: "The problem is our government which does not give any importance to culture.
"Movies, culture, these are the best way to advance mindsets and to change the way men look at women. But we do not have the money and have to work with outdated equipment."
The office has in the past two years produced about 20 films for television, Faghery says.
Sitting on a sagging sofa among a group of actors and actresses, he deplores that this city, "at the peak of culture for centuries," now does not even have a single cinema.
The one that did exist was destroyed, like most across the country, during the 1992-1996 civil war between ethnic factions headed by warlords who were sometimes as conservative as the notoriously repressive Taliban militia.
Once they had control, the Taliban banned television and cinema, and generally terrorised the majority of Afghan people with an ultra-purist set of rules that were violently imposed until the hardliners were forced out by a US-led coalition in 2001.
Afghans have since taken to cinema once again, with Indian "Bollywood" musicals constantly broadcast on television and shown in the cinemas of Kabul, with the Hindi language widely understood.
In Herat, a city of 250,000 people on the border with Iran, it is Iranian cinema that inspires Monirah Hachemi.
She encountered it as a child in a refugee camp in the neighbouring country.
"I returned in 2004. I don't regret it. Conditions for women are better in Iran, but only for Iranian women," laughs the 21-year-old, who heads the Cinematographic Association of Women in Herat, the only one of its kind in Afghanistan.
The association, which is part of Afghan Film, was established a year ago to nurture Afghan actresses and has 31 members, she says.
"It is seen as very bad to be an actress in Afghanistan. It is considered bad for a woman but I believe what I do is pure. And I am lucky because my parents support me," Monirah says.
She also has ambitions to become a director.
Specifically, she dreams of putting into film the story of a friend who committed suicide at the age of 15 because her parents tried to force her to marry a man 30 years her senior.
Back to Top
Afghan refugees in Karachi feel alienated
Saturday, 20 January, 2007, 09:58 AM Doha Time
KARACHI: The registration of Karachi’s Afghan refugee population with Pakistan’s National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) is proving to be a more tedious exercise than either had imagined.
With a few days to go before the registration process ends, the refugees are feeling alienated while government officials say it is a thankless task.
According to Naqibullah, a resident of Sohrab Goth’s populous Al Asif Square, who fled Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion, "I and my family members were called several times to the registration office but they failed to locate our names. I didn’t know whom to approach. Finally, when I kicked up a fuss; they found our names and issued Proof of Registration cards."
This isn’t the only instance of names not being found in the registration centres set up by Nadra. There are many more Afghans whose future in this country hangs in balance if their names are not found in the database and the POR cards are not made.
"I know I will be forced to leave if the card is not made before the registration process ends," laments an Afghan day labourer and a student living in Mohajir Camp on the outskirts of the city and who wishes to remain anonymous.
He said: "Nadra officials call me several times, due to which my livelihood gets affected. I will leave Pakistan if my card is not made and the authorities force me to leave. I have no choice." A source at Nadra admits that there have been faults in the registration process that is based on a census of Afghan refugees conducted by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, last year.
He says that it is for the first time that a mass campaign to register 2.5mn refugees is being conducted and that Nadra officials are doing their best to accommodate everyone.
As far as not finding names is concerned, he feels that most people with this complaint had either not taken part in the census or had registered with fake names.
"This makes it extremely difficult to locate names in the database. Besides, most people have similar names and this too hampers the registration process," he concedes.
This is of little comfort to people like 28-year-old Javed, who is employed by a local company.
"My whole family took part in the census. Yet, when we came to register ourselves, our names could not be found on the database. Finally, they found the names of male members of our family, but they have been unable to find those of the women." Javed fears for his mother and sisters if their cards are not made before registrations close. He expects the government to understand that the women can’t go back without their families. But this may not be possible.
According to the Nadra official, "The government of Pakistan will send back all who do not have a registration card that legalises their stay in the country for three years."
According to Babar Baloch, UNHCR’s public information officer in Islamabad, a massive campaign was held to inform Afghans in the country about the registration process. Besides making frequent radio announcements, shura meetings were held and leaflets in Pashto and Dari were distributed among the refugee population.
A section of refugees refutes this, saying that the government did not make any special efforts to inform people about the process and that those living outside refugee settlements in Karachi were unaware of it. – Internews
Back to Top
Italian leftists threaten to vote against Afghan
The News International (Pakistan) January 19, 2007
ROME: Lawmakers from the far left in Italy’s governing coalition have threatened to vote against refinancing the country’s mission in Afghanistan, two days after denouncing the government’s acceptance of a US request to expand a military base in northern Italy.
The rebellion within Premier Romano Prodi’s coalition could put him in a tough spot: his government relies on a slim parliamentary majority to pass legislation, and Prodi is vulnerable to opposition allegations that he does not have support from his own allies.
Prodi has agreed to keep Italy’s 1,800-strong contingent in Afghanistan, resisting calls by Communists and other hard-line leftist allies to pull out the troops, though also resisting Nato’s request to increase the contingent. But with an upcoming vote to refinance the mission for 2007, the date of which should be set next week _ politicians in Italy’s two Communist parties and the Green party said they would vote against it. A vote against the measure could leave the mission without funds and force a troop pullout. The measure could pass without leftist support, however, if opposition politicians backed the mission refinancing.
Such a result would deepen the rift within the coalition, however, and could make Prodi vulnerable to accusations from the right that he cannot govern effectively with allies that range from extreme leftists to centrists close to the Vatican.
“As we have reiterated over the past few months, we are available to vote in favour of a proposal that includes an exit strategy on Afghanistan,” Greens leader Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said in a statement posted late Wednesday on his Web site. “We are not going to vote in favour of a simple refinancing.” A letter by a group of Greens and Communist legislators, urging a change of course on Afghanistan, was sent to every legislator in Prodi’s coalition, La Repubblica daily reported Thursday.
The letter also criticised US policies, including military strikes in Somalia and the plan to send more American troops to Iraq, according to excerpts printed in Thursday’s edition of the daily. On Tuesday, Prodi also announced he would not oppose the expansion of a US military base in the northern city of Vicenza, despite fierce opposition from left-wing allies.
Area residents have also objected to the expansion, due to concerns about traffic, the use of local resources including water and gas and the threat of a terror attack.
Prodi said his government had no reason to halt the US base expansion, which was approved by Vicenza’s city
Back to Top
Interview: NATO commander confident of victory against Taliban
Zubair Babakarkhail & Daud Khan
KABUL, Jan 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan Lt General David Richards has expressed the confidence that they would soon defeat the Taliban as they were heading towards the ultimate victory.
"I don't say that we have won the war, but I can say that we have secured the conditions for winning the war against the Taliban," said the top NATO commander in an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News.
He said Taliban had been given a decisive blow during the Operation Medusa in the south-west of Kandahar last year and the militants had yet to recover from that blow. The operation was concluded last year in the two troubled districts of Panjwayee and Zherai of the southern Kandahar province and the NATO forces claimed killing more than 500 of Taliban in the battle.
He admitted the year 2006 was worse than 2005 as for as insurgency in Afghanistan is concerned, but said there was a significant drop in militants' attack after the month of August.
In this connection, the commander said, the media, especially the international media was far behind the facts in their analysis about what is happening in Afghanistan.
Expressing confidence in his men and the international community, whom he said were fully committed to the restoration of peace in Afghanistan, General Richards said Taliban had failed to materialise the claims they had made so far.
"We frustrated all their efforts regarding their violence campaigns across the country, particularly in Kabul," said the NATO commander, adding they (Taliban) were unable to defeat the NATO or Afghan army; however, their propaganda was "brilliant."
Due to the brilliant security measures adopted by the NATO troops, there had not been a rocket attack in Kabul since June last year, he said.
General Richards said NATO's effective action against the Taliban in the southern region had removed all the scepticism shown earlier that the alliance force would not face the Taliban. "But that is not the case today. We are sure we can beat the Taliban."
Regarding deal in Musa Qala district of the southern Helmand province, the commander described it a victory of the NATO forces. The Taliban leadership was opposed to the deal in the early stage, but when they find that the elders were determined to hold it, they had to withdraw their opposition.
It was a success for the NATO and the people of the area because reconstruction and welfare projects were underway in Musa Qala. Children were going to schools and mosques were being built, said Richards. "That is not a bad achievement and credit goes to the local elders for standing against the Taliban."
On the political front, he said President Hamid Karzai had got a great achievement by establishment of the Policy Action Group, which included all his key ministers and representatives of the international community. The group had the mechanism to ensure resolution of all key issues through consensus.
He said the other reason of his optimism about the future of this "wonderful" country was the result of the recently-held polls which showed that 95 per cent population was in favour of the Afghan government and the international community.
On the economic front, he said jobs were being created for Afghan people due to the rapid economic growth achieved by this country. Huge increase was recorded in the GDP last year and the benefits of the progress would trickle down to the common man with the passage of time. "The conditions are ripe for a complete victory," he opined.
He said there were four major targets before them to achieve the victory. Those are the reconstruction of the country; its development; improvement in governance and improvement in relations with Pakistan. "I'm optimistic about achievement of those goals," he added.
Regarding the worries expressed by certain quarters about the Taliban's preparation for the upcoming spring offensive, the NATO commander said the Taliban had failed in all their claims made by them so far.
He asked the media, especially the international media, to stop publishing reports to worry the people. The NATO and Afghan security forces have their own spring offensive against the militants. At the same time, he said, NATO was not complacent. They had effective plans with solid determination.
To a question about the increasing insurgency, he said 50 per cent of the total insurgency existed only in four provinces in the southern region.
About the capability of the Afghan security forces to tackle with the Taliban-related insurgency, the commander said the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) would be a very capable fighting force by the end of the year 2007.
To a question about the recent statement of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates asking for more efforts to curb the militancy, he clarified that Gates did not meant a defeat. He meant to "win and win quickly", said the commander.
Regarding relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the role of Pakistan army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the fight against terrorists, the NATO commander said there was close cooperation between Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF and that cooperation could be seen in the holding of regular meetings of the tripartite commission.
He said Pakistan army was fully cooperating and doing more to prevent cross-border activity. "It is no longer the policy of Pakistan government to see the Taliban in Afghanistan."
He said whatever the history might be, President Pervez Musharraf and the government of Pakistan were more determined to help Afghanistan and see it prosper.
Regarding the role of ISI, he said they were cooperating. He referred to the recent killing of Taliban top commander Mulla Akhtar Mohammad Osmani and said the ISAF got the commander killed with the indirect cooperation of that agency.
He said Osmani fled to Afghanistan after arrest of his two brothers by the ISI. "He knew he was the next and he fled into Afghanistan."
Regarding the role of the Pakistan army, he said there was good cooperation at the military level. In this connection, he referred to the recent targeting of three compounds used by militants in North Waziristan by the Pakistan army.
At the same time, he said a Joint Intelligence Operation Centre (JIOC) would be in place in Kabul in a few days, which would have officers from the Pakistani and Afghan military and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). They would work together on prevention of cross-border movement and terrorism.
He said the next step was to include political leaders in the process. He said President Karzai's recent speech in the southeastern Khost province was very constructive, and such steps could build confidence and further improve the situation. "My desire is to see the two countries come together and I'm optimistic about that."
Regarding the fencing of the border, the NATO commander said it was a political issue. "However, in a typical military sense, barrier is not helpful unless you are observing."
Admitting the problems involved in observations, keeping the 2,500-kilometre length of the border and its rugged nature, the commander said fencing could work as long as there was observation.
About the peace deal between the government of Pakistan and the local Taliban in Waziristan, David Richards said it was not in the whole Waziristan. The deal was restricted to a part of the tribal agency.
Asked about the civilian casualties in NATO operations, he said it was the Taliban who use civilians as human shield by hiding in the civilian areas and targeting the NATO forces from there.
He said they were trying to avoid losses to civilians in military operations. Only six such cases have been reported since September 2006. He said NATO carried out investigations into the cases and then apologised for it.
Lt General David Richards had assumed the command of the NATO forces in southern Afghanistan in July 2006.
Back to Top
Aid failures are killing UK soldiers in Afghanistan, think tank claims
GERRI PEEV POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT The Scotsman - Jan 19 5:49 PM
BRITISH troops are dying in Afghanistan because the government's aid department is failing to get food to the poor in the southern provinces, an international security and development think tank claims.
Angry Afghans are turning to the Taleban for support, said the Senlis Council, a French think tank which has staff in the volatile Helmand province.
Its founder told The Scotsman it spent its research budget on food after it found thousands starving in refugee camps and in the province's hospital.
Norine MacDonald said: "The international community has abandoned its military and it is abandoning the people of Afghanistan."
The United States plans to strengthen its poppy eradication programme by spraying large swathes of the countryside, but Senlis warned that stamping out the livelihood of farmers will fuel further violence.
Ms MacDonald's accusations raise questions about how the Department for International Development (DfID) has spent £390 million in Afghanistan.
Ms MacDonald said the Taleban was winning the battle for hearts and minds in southern Afghanistan where the British and Canadian governments and their development agencies had "abandoned their troops".
"The failure of USAID, the Canadian International Development Agency and DfID to provide effective development programmes has substantially contributed to the hostile environment in which the troops are fighting," Ms MacDonald said. "These agencies are therefore responsible for the significant number of military deaths." Up to 70 per cent of the population in the south was facing food shortages.
Ms MacDonald said she was appalled at the lack of a visible presence of DfID in Afghanistan on her latest visit.
"When I saw the extreme starvation, we started using our research operation budget to take them food."
Ms MacDonald said the modest food aid in Kandahar and Helmand stopped last March. "So far we have found no explanation for this, but it has certainly had an extreme impact on the situation. "Seventy per cent of the population is suffering from a lack of food - and hunger leads to anger."
She called for the resignation of Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary. "It's like the development community has been given an assignment and they don't like the difficulties of the situation so they decide not to do it."
Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "DfID and the Ministry of Defence (Mod) are at complete loggerheads out there.
"The DfID and the NGOs are taking the view it is not really safe enough out there to operate. This is hampering the ability of the military to make headway in winning the campaign."
DfID has defended its efforts in Afghanistan, saying it is the country's second biggest donor. It has 18 staff there.
A spokesman for the department said
: "DfID is committing considerable resources to make a real difference in the lives of Afghan people. As the country's second largest bilateral donor, we have spent over £390 million on reconstruction and development since 2001."
The spokesman said just £5 million had been committed for projects in Helmand this year.
Back to Top
Putting out the fire in Waziristan
By Rahimullah Yusufzai The News International (Pakistan) January 19, 2007 OPINION
First it was South Waziristan and then the violence shifted to neighbouring North Waziristan. Military operations during 2004-2006 were invariably followed by jirgas and peace agreements which somehow stabilised the two troubled tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. But the latest round of airstrikes in both North Waziristan and South Waziristan could lead to the collapse of the peace accords and plunge the tribal borderlands into another round of death and destruction.
The airstrikes, which the Pakistan Army is claiming to have unleashed against hideouts of suspected militants, have predictably triggered controversy. The government's credibility in view of its track record is so low that most people don't believe its claim that Pakistan Army's gunship helicopters were responsible for the airstrikes in Gurwek in North Waziristan and then on January 16 in Salamat village in Shak Toi area of South Waziristan. The common belief is that the US military using its pilotless, CIA-operated Predator planes fired the missiles that hit targets inside Pakistani territory. That impression was first created on January 13 when two Hellfire missiles fired by a US drone targeted Damadola village in Bajaur tribal agency and killed 13 civilians, including women and children, in their sleep in three mud-brick houses. This image is now etched in the memory of a large number of Pakistanis after being reinforced by another US missile strike at a madressah in Chingai village in Bajaur on October 30 last year. This attack was the most devastating since the launch of the misguided, imperialism-driven US ‘war on terror' in our part of the world as it killed 80 young and innocent students and some of their teachers.
As was the case in the past, we are once again hearing conflicting versions of the incident in the remote Shak Toi mountainous area in South Waziristan. There is such a wide discrepancy in the stories being put out by different stakeholders that it is almost impossible to find the truth. The absence of independent sources of information makes the task even more difficult to piece together a believable sequence of events. The difficulties facing the media to gain access to the targeted place due to its remoteness and on account of unannounced official curbs remain a hurdle in getting to know the real situation on the ground. Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan was as usual sure that up to 30 ‘miscreants' including foreign militants had been killed by taking out three of their five compounds. The next day he came up with the statement that security forces were hunting a handful of ‘Al Qaeda fighters' who were wounded in the airstrikes and were reportedly shifted by their companions to some secret place. As happened in similar attacks in the past, the government was unable to put troops on the ground to secure the area after the bombings and obtain evidence to establish that it indeed had hit the right target. Rather, one may well ask as to why the military cannot drop troops as it has been doing in past military operations in Waziristan and lay siege to suspected hideouts of militants to nab them instead of carrying out airstrikes that are often inaccurate and kill innocent people.
Reports from Salamat village told a different story. Villagers said only eight people were killed and all were civilians. Among them were three Pakistani tribesmen, including a 10-year-old boy, and five Afghans, all powindahs or nomads who are a familiar sight in the NWFP and in Afghanistan as they walk with their caravans of camels to spend winters in the plains and summers in mountainous areas. The names of the dead men, their fathers and sub-tribe were provided to make the information authentic. It was explained that all the victims, including the 10 who were injured in the attack, were working in the nearby forest logging wood and making charcoal for sale in the markets down country. It was difficult not to believe them because they belong to the area and apparently were not involved in any kind of politics.
Protests invariably followed, starting with Tank which serves as the gateway to South Waziristan. It is home to a large number of Mahsud and Wazir tribal families who have migrated to Tank to do business or spend the winter in relatively warmer weather compared to their snow-bound villages in South Waziristan. Protests have broken out elsewhere also and statements condemning the government's action have been put forth by leaders of both the clergy-led MMA and others belonging to secular and nationalist parties. Political parties in such instances react along party lines and, therefore, it becomes impossible to get a more objective understanding and analysis of the situation.
Sections of the western media, including Sky News, have reported that the latest airstrikes in South Waziristan were launched by the US military with the help of its Predator plane. One report claimed that the US government allowed Pakistan to take credit for the airstrikes. If true, it is a continuation of last year's missile strikes in Bajaur that too were fired from US drones. There is no guarantee that such attacks will not be repeated in future even though President General Pervez Musharraf said last year that the US authorities had assured him after the Damadola airstrikes that it won't happen again. He was justifiably angry that he wasn't taken into confidence about the Damadola attack despite risking his life by taking on Al Qaeda and the Taliban and doing so much to make the US and its allied countries safer. The US has given itself the right to launch pre-emptive strikes anywhere in the world to protect its interests and it seems objections by Pakistan or other weaker nations to this policy don't count much in President Bush's scheme of things. It is another matter that such airstrikes cause so much ‘collateral damage' that America makes more enemies than it can kill after each such attack.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, it is time the Musharraf government defined the limits and parameters of its cooperation with the US in the so-called ‘war on terror.' Its policy of open-ended support to the US has polarised our society and alienated large sections of the population, particularly in the NWFP, Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The strategy of making peace accords with the tribes and the militants was the right thing to do even if it is criticised by western governments, the media and think-tanks as a policy of appeasement. Such accords were signed as a necessity to reduce losses to the military and our people by employing traditional peacemaking methods such as jirgas. Pakistan has to look after its own interest first instead of bombing villages on the basis of incomplete and faulty intelligence supplied by the US and NATO.
However, the peace agreements need to be implemented in letter and spirit and regularly monitored and reviewed. The country cannot afford its territory to be used for launching attacks across the Durand Line border in Afghanistan. The peace accords specifically mentioned this point but there are credible reports that cross-border infiltration hasn't stopped. In fact, pro-Taliban commanders such as Baitullah Mahsud and Haji Omar, who concluded peace deals with the government in South Waziristan in 2005, have publicly stated that they will continue to wage their ‘jihad' against the US-led coalition in Afghanistan. This cannot be allowed at any cost because involvement of Pakistani fighters in the fighting between the Afghan government and Taliban is drawing Islamabad into the conflict and jeopardising the country's security. Any sanctuaries for Taliban on Pakistan's soil too must be removed. At the same time, the Afghan government and all those countries with soldiers in Afghanistan must also realise that military tactics alone will not end the insurgency. They will have to seek reconciliation with the Taliban and their allies and provide them incentives to stop fighting and join the political mainstream.
The writer is an executive editor of The News International based in Peshawar.
Back to Top
Chairman Afghan Jirga Commission hold talk with Sherpao
Associated Press Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Jan 18 (APP): A visiting chairman of the Afghan Jirga Commission, Pir Syed Ahmed Gilani held talks with Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Chairman of Pakistani Jirga Commission, and here on Thursday.
The two leaders discussed bilateral relations and agreed to chalk out such a strategy which is acceptable to Pakistan and Afghanistan so that objectives of establishing the Jirga Commission could be achieved.
Aftab Sherpao said that Pakistan give importance to its relations with Afghanistan and wants durable peace in the neighboring country.
He said that Pakistan is working in collaboration with UNHCR for honorable repatriation of Afghan refugees.
Back to Top
Canadians deliver supplies to dilapidated school within sight of NATO base
Thursday, January 18, 2007 - Canadian Press
A Canadian Army truck loaded with school supplies is overrun by children at Camp Shirzai, which is home to the families of Afghan soldiers on Thursday.
CAMP SHIRZAI, Afghanistan (CP) - It sits within the shadow of one of the biggest, most sophisticated military bases in Afghanistan, yet the dilapidated school at Camp Shirzai has a partially caved-in roof, no toilets, and only enough electricity and running water for an hour a day.
If NATO commanders, who've been pushing reconstruction projects in the lull between fighting Taliban militants, are looking for a challenge, they need only look just a few kilometres down the road from Kandahar Airfield.
Canadian troops have been making regular school supply drops at the camp, where Afghan National Army troops and their families live, most of them in rundown Soviet-style apartment buildings dating back to the occupation of the 1980s.
One of those humanitarian runs happened Thursday, but the Canadians brought along French engineers to inspect the condition of the school, which operates from one-third of a partially collapsed apartment complex.
"If you want to help our school, just bring one big generator for this building," said Kaleemulah, a student, in almost perfect English.
Unlike his friends, who swarmed over the Canadian army truck of school supplies like frantic bees, the serious-looking 14-year-old wasn't asking for sports equipment or electronics. His concern was more basic.
"Our big problem is just electricity," he said with a handful of his friends encouraging him in his native tongue, Farsi.
"If we don't have electricity, then we don't have water because of the machine for the water." Mohammed Isa, the school's tired-looking, but no nonsense head master, agreed with the boy's assessment.
In speaking with the engineers, he asked them to encourage the Afghan government to link the camp, which sits back a fair distance from Highway 4, to the same electrical grid that services Kandahar city.
Failing that, he asked that NATO provide a couple of generators to at least keep the pumps operating in order to draw water from nearby irrigation wells.
"They have already helped our school and our students and we hope they will help this time," said Isa, whose comments were punctuated by the sound of artillery practice going on elsewhere at the camp.
The school is situated at the far end of a series of rundown sun-bleached apartment buildings, all of which showed chinks and gouges of having been peppered with gunfire throughout the last two decades of conflict in this country.
To call them dreary would be charitable since all of the buildings sit in a dirt compound that rain early Thursday morning turned into a morass of garbage-strewn mud. The children's playground, which backs on to bombed out, mud-walled compounds was equipped with a solitary slide, but had an upturned, discarded sink thrown in for character.
The list of defects and structural problems at the school would be the stuff of nightmares for municipal building inspectors back in Canada.
The engineers found inadequate electrical sockets, which have the potential to start a fire if portable heaters are pulled in and wooden window frames that need to be totally replaced because of the cold air they allow in. There were further structural and insulation concerns about the partially collapsed roof.
The absence of any whatsoever washroom was also noted by Capt. Pierre Le Prado, who questioned whether the building was safe.
"If you think of it in European or Western standards, it's not," he said, "but they are used to living in such conditions. They carry on with (classes). What we can try to do is improve their living conditions."
For the moment, Canadian troops will continue with the supply runs of pencils, notebooks and gifts while NATO commanders examine a report on the building's condition.
Le Prado said they've made no promises. Maj. Paul Pickering, the Canadian officer who's been organizing the supply drives, hopes to convince the allied chain of command to take action.
The biggest issue facing them is whether the school can be effectively refurbished, or whether it's better to start over. "There's definitely money available," said the Guelph, Ont. reservist.
One of the quickest and easiest steps would be to bring in Canadian engineers with heavy tractors, stationed at the nearby airfield, to level the land around the buildings so at least a proper playground can be build, said Pickering.
Back to Top
Khan's border line
From Friday's Globe and Mail editorial
Even as Ottawa gives money to the Palestinians, it has been reported that Wajid Khan, the floor-crossing MP, was prepared to give them still more by happily agreeing to push Israel back to the pre-1967 borders. Israel hasn't been an angel of late -- it's planning to intensify a settlement on occupied lands -- but it doesn't deserve Mr. Khan.
Stephen Harper, when in opposition, said it would be impractical to demand that Israel return all the land it seized in the 1967 war. He said there would have to be compromises from both Israel and the Palestinians that reflected the "realities of the situation on the ground." That is not a radical position. It is shared by the U.S. administration. The second phase of the road map for peace endorsed by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations calls for a Palestinian state within provisional borders with final borders subject to negotiation.
While the road map called for a freeze in Israeli settlement expansion -- something Israel recently defied by unhelpfully publishing plans to build new homes in its largest West Bank settlement -- there are very good security reasons for Israel to retain some occupied lands, and any final peace agreement would almost certainly see a change in the 1967 borders.
Mr. Harper's pre-election statements are consistent with his later support for Israel during its fight with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. His government is committed to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but not at any cost in terms of Israel's security. At least, that's what we have been led to believe.
Which is why the statements attributed to Mr. Khan, his special adviser on the Middle East, are so troubling. They imply that the government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. According to the Ramallah-based newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida, Mr. Khan, during his extensive tour of the region last fall, "stressed that Canada has no objection as regards the Arab Peace Initiative." This sends a dangerous message that can only fuel the intransigence of those Palestinians who cling to the terms of the controversial plan, long ago rejected by Israel, that would see it forced back within its pre-1967 borders.
Canada is donating $15-million to a fund to aid Palestinians, its first contribution since the international boycott of the Palestinian Authority that followed the election of the radical Hamas. The Canadian money will not find its way into the hands of the Hamas-controlled government, but rather will be overseen by an agency run by the European Commission and World Bank. By contrast, Mr. Khan's reported statements play directly into the hands of hard-line Palestinians. They suggest a fissure between Israel's allies, and, indeed, within the Canadian government.
Mr. Khan is apparently embarking on another trip, this time to Pakistan and Afghanistan. We trust the backbench Conservative MP isn't planning any concessions to the Taliban.
Back to Top
Book on Pakistan’s role in ‘war on terror’ to hit stands this week
DAWN - ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Noted Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussain has turned author of international fame with his book Frontline Pakistan — the struggle with militant Islam, already having hit the stands in Britain and a number of other countries, and expected to be available in the country later this week.
Zahid Hussain is senior editor of the Pakistani news magazine Newsline, the Pakistan correspondent for The Times and US news magazine Newsweek.
The book, published in Britain by I.B. Tauris, is the latest in a series of books written on the subject of Islamist militancy and terrorism, including the internationally acclaimed book Taliban by another well-known Pakistani journalist and author, Ahmed Rashid.
Mr Hussain’s book mainly revolves round Pakistan’s crucial role in the post-September 11, 2001 world, and how and why President Gen Pervez Musharraf took some of the most important and somewhat controversial decisions in support of the US-led “war on terror”.
Spread over 220 pages, the book has eleven chapters and a detailed prologue, which are largely based on thorough investigation, thoughtful interviews with key players, and numerous field trips to the conflict zone.
The way the book has been structured and written it is bound to generate more debate and controversy on one of the most talked-about topic in the world — the so-called “war on terror.”
The few details given on the jacket of the cover provide some flavour of the way Mr Hussain has presented the story about Pakistan’s role in war against Al-Qaeda and its local and foreign allies. The author has described for the first time in detail “the incestuous relationship between Pakistan’s jihadis and its all-powerful military intelligence agency — the ISI. It goes on to say, “in the 1980s, the ISI exploited the fanaticism of the jihadi warriors to fight Pakistan’s proxy wars for it in Afghanistan, and later in Kashmir. In pursuing this strategy, the military acted as midwife, to the birth of a murderous jihadi culture which went on to consume it”.
Based on exclusive interviews with key players, Mr Hussain reveals “how Musharraf took the momentous decision to support America’s war against the Taliban, whom Pakistani intelligence had helped to power in the first place”.
The book has already been praised by a number of seasoned writers and analysts like Seymour Hersh, Ahmed Rashid and Sir Hilary Synnott of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Describing the book as important and informative about the military and religious politics in Pakistan, Mr Hersh says, “it is also a history of our times, as seen through the eyes of George W. Bush’s Washington and Pervez Musharraf’s Islamabad. The future is now, and it is very worrisome”
Back to Top
No Omar, please
The News International (Pakistan) Editorial
One really has to wonder how many times Pakistan has to deny that the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is not living under government protection in Quetta. Both the interior minister and a Foreign Office spokesperson have denied Afghanistan's latest charge on this issue as "totally baseless". As well as being baseless, however, the accusation is ridiculous. And the fact that it coincided with US defence secretary Robert Gates' visit to Afghanistan makes it very suspect. The government of President Hamid Karzai has always insisted that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan. It was Mr Karzai who last year started the Mullah Omar refrain claiming that he was in the Balochistan capital. Not long before his resignation as Afghan foreign minister early last year, Abdullah Abdullah often claimed that Ayman Al Zawahiri and the now-dead leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were in Pakistan too. However, the Afghan government has presented no proof, as such, other than the "revelations" made under interrogation to Afghan intelligence agents by the purported spokesman of the Taliban, Mohammad Hanif. A captive would say almost anything under interrogation, especially if it were conducted at a camp inside Afghanistan, especially Bagram. The airbase near Kabul has become almost as notorious as Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, for the unspeakably brutal torture to which the Taliban and other suspects have been subjected to there by American forces. Now -- to take a step further its charges that Pakistan is "not doing enough" in the fight against terrorism -- Karzai's administration is building up the implausible words of an intimidated man -- who said on camera "he [Mullah Omar] lives in Quetta" into convincing proof that Mullah Omar is indeed holed up in the capital of Balochistan.
Behind this is the Bush administration's ambivalence towards Pakistan. On the one hand, it praises this country as an important ally in the war on terror, and on the other, goes along with the Karzai government's charge that Pakistan is not doing enough in the struggle, which is as critical to Pakistan's security as to Afghanistan's. Washington needs to tell Kabul -- publicly -- to start pulling its own weight, and to stop making allegations that can only worsen relations with Islamabad, and thereby harm the fight against terrorism and extremism. The latter is in Pakistan's own interest as well and has cost it the lives of several hundred of its soldiers and at least two failed assassination attempts on the life of its president.
Back to Top
Professor says America seeks Afghanistan Oil Deal
Is Stephen Harper's Conservative minority government supporting another Oil War? This would yield enormous profits for greed-driven investors, and the atmosphere will continue to dangerously heat from the increasing use of those fossil
by David Michael Smith Canadian National Newspaper January 19, 2007
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush declared that the United States would launch a "War on Terrorism." In early October, U.S. airplanes began bombing Afghanistan and providing assistance to the Northern Alliance and other groups opposed to the Taliban regime. Within a few months, U.S. troops and their Afghan allies had succeeded in ousting the Taliban and installing a new regime. Although Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants apparently escaped, U.S. officials proclaimed that a significant blow had been dealt to the al-Qa'ida network.
Traumatized and outraged by the horrific events of September 11, the majority of Americans supported the war in Afghanistan. Most people believed the U.S. Commander-in-Chief when he said that the replacement of the Taliban regime was required to safeguard our country against another catastrophic attack by al-Qa'ida forces. Even Princeton Professor Richard Falk, a longtime anti-war activist, wrote in The Nation ("Defining a Just War," Oct. 29, 2001) that the war in Afghanistan was "the first truly just war since World War II." But was it?
Since last October, thousands of people have participated in anti-war rallies, marches, and teach-ins in New York City, Washington, San Francisco, Houston, and other cities. People opposed to the war have made clear that they condemn the atrocity of September 11. But they also condemn the U.S. role in the deaths of thousands of Afghan people who had nothing to do with the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In the British Guardian ("The innocent dead in a coward's war," Dec. 20, 2001), journalist Seumas Milne estimated that about ten thousand Afghan soldiers may have died in the war and cited University of New Hampshire Professor Marc Herold's estimate that about four thousand civilians have also died.
Moreover, anti-war activists and progressive writers argue that the war in Afghanistan has been, in large part, another "oil war." The September 11 attacks provided a compelling pretext for military action against the al-Qa'ida forces in Afghanistan. But a growing body of research by journalists and scholars reveals that the Bush Administration's decision in favour of a regime change and all-out war in Afghanistan was significantly influenced by the desire to install a new government that would be more sympathetic to U.S. economic interests in Central Asia.
Although Afghanistan itself has no significant oil or natural gas reserves, it is strategically located in a region which does. As Eric Margolis observed in the Toronto Sun ("The U.S. is Determined to Dominate the World's Richest New Source," Jan. 13, 2002), Central Asia's Caspian Basin, over which sit the former Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, is the world's "richest new source of oil." In the Jurist ("The Deadly Pipeline War," Dec. 8, 2001), Marjorie Cohn noted that some analysts have estimated the potential value of Caspian oil and natural gas reserves at four trillion dollars. Phil Gasper recalled in the Socialist Worker ("The Politics of Oil," Jan. 25, 2002) that the Middle East Economic Digest editors have described Central Asia as "the Middle East of the twenty-first century."
Even if this latter projection proves overly optimistic, Martha Hamilton concluded in a Washington Post article ("The Last Great Race For Oil Reserves," April 26, 1998) that the "largely untapped subterranean treasure" in the Caspian Basin may be "the third-largest reserve in the world, after the Persian Gulf and Siberia."
As Hamilton wrote, "The possibility of bringing those huge energy reserves to market has touched off a scramble by international oil and gas companies to get in on what may be one of the world's last great energy plays." As Cohn pointed out in "The Deadly Pipeline War," Dick Cheney, then chief executive officer of the energy company Halliburton, told a meeting of oil industry leaders in 1998: "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."
U.S. government officials and energy company executives have been anxious to exploit what Daniel Yergin, renowned energy expert and author of The Prize (1993), has called "the number-one prize in world oil." However, the transportation of oil and natural gas extracted from the region has posed a serious challenge for them. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, led by the Chevron Corporation, opened a new oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to Russia in October, 2001. But, as George Monbiot reported in the Guardian ("America's pipe dream," Oct. 23, 2001), policymakers in Washington have generally opposed the construction of pipelines through Russia or Iran. This is why U.S. energy companies and government officials have been so interested in Afghanistan. As Ahmed Rashid explained in his book, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (2001), U.S. policy toward Afghanistan during the past decade has been largely driven by corporate interests in the region's resources. Rashid noted that in 1995, the California-based UNOCAL Corporation began negotiating with the government of Turkmenistan to build oil and gas pipelines from that country through Afghanistan to Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea. Soon after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 1996, UNOCAL executives initiated discussions with them in order to secure the pipeline agreement.
According to Rashid, the Taliban's religious fundamentalism and harsh repression precluded normal diplomatic relations at the time but did not pose an insurmountable obstacle to a potential business deal. Strikingly, neither did the relocation of Osama bin Laden and numerous al-Qa'ida fighters to Afghanistan in 1996 and 1997. As Rashid recounted, UNOCAL Vice President Marty Miller and other company executives even wined and dined Taliban representatives in Houston in November 1997. Mullah Mohammed Ghaus and his Afghan colleagues stayed at an expensive hotel and visited the Houston Zoo and the NASA Space Center during their visit. Miller offered the Taliban representatives a lucrative contract and thought a formal agreement was imminent.
The Clinton Administration quietly supported UNOCAL's efforts, but these negotiations eventually failed. Taliban leaders finally decided against the pipeline deal, and Washington's willingness to do business with them ended after the al-Qa'ida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. President Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks on al-Qa'ida training camps in Afghanistan and even authorized efforts to assassinate bin Laden. At the same time, the U.S. tried to persuade Taliban officials to surrender bin Laden. As Monbiot has noted, notwithstanding these developments, U.S. business executives and government officials remained deeply interested in the potential of oil and gas pipelines through Afghanistan.
In May 2001, the mainstream media widely reported that the new U.S. Bush Administration had awarded the Taliban regime forty-two million dollars to support the eradication of opium production in Afghanistan. Less well known is the fact that, shortly after taking office, the Bush Administration had quietly resumed negotiations with the Taliban. In an important new book, Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth (2001), French authors Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie have revealed that the Bush Administration worked long and hard to "decouple" bin Laden from the Taliban and lay the foundations for U.S. diplomatic recognition and pipelines for oil and natural gas.
Brisard and Dasquie have drawn on numerous sources, including discussions with John O'Neill, the former FBI Deputy Director who retired in July 2001. Ironically, O'Neill then became security director for the World Trade Center, where he died in the September 11 attacks. According to the authors, O'Neill resigned from the FBI because the State Department had continually blocked his investigation into al-Qa'ida's roots in Saudi Arabia. The authors report that O'Neill bitterly complained about the ability of the U.S. oil companies and their State Department allies to thwart an investigation that might offend the Saudi royal family and jeopardize U.S. economic interests in that country.
Brisard and Dasquie's account of the negotiations between the Bush Administration and the Taliban between February and August 2001, provides a helpful framework for understanding the eventual U.S. decision to topple the Afghan regime after the tragedy of September 11. The authors have explained that Washington saw the Taliban as a potential partner who could provide stability in Afghanistan and benefit from the construction of pipelines by U.S. corporations. But, in a series of meetings in Washington, Islamabad, and Berlin, U.S. officials demanded that the Taliban surrender bin Laden and invite other Afghan political forces to join their government.
When the Taliban equivocated over and eventually refused these demands, U.S. officials threatened to take military action against them. As Brisard revealed in an interview in Paris, at one point in the negotiations, these officials told the Taliban, "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." As Jonathan Steele and his colleagues reported in the Guardian ("Threat of US strikes passed to Taliban weeks before NY attack," Sept. 22, 2001), U.S. representatives told Russian, Iranian, and Pakistani diplomats at a mid-July meeting in Berlin that Washington was seriously contemplating this option. Although these U.S. officials have since denied making such a threat, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Niaz Naik, who was present at the meeting, confirmed their remarks in an interview with the Guardian reporters. Is it a coincidence that the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history occurred just several weeks after negotiations with the Taliban broke down? Perhaps. But Brisard and Dasquie have speculated that the prospect of U.S. military action against Afghanistan may have led bin Laden to approve the massive assault on New York City and Washington. Similarly, Steele and his colleagues have raised the possibility that bin Laden "was launching a preemptive strike in response to what he saw as U.S. threats." Other analysts have suggested that bin Laden may have authorized such a "preemptive strike" because he feared that the Taliban might finally accede to Washington's demands and try to force him to leave Afghanistan.
Although such speculation cannot be confirmed, it seems clear that long-standing U.S. economic interests in pipeline construction played a major role in the U.S. government's decision in favor of a regime change and all-out war in Afghanistan. Notably, as Shaun Casey emphasized in the Boston Globe ("Ethics of This War Have Yet to be Spelled Out," Oct. 11, 2001) and Stephen Zunes pointed out in the San Jose Mercury News (" U.S. Military Response is Wrong -- And It Won't Work," Oct. 12, 2001), there has never been any evidence of the Taliban regime's involvement in the attacks on the U.S. As John Pilger remarked in the British Daily Mirror ("Hidden Agenda Behind War on Terror," Oct. 29, 2001), the Bush Administration knew well before the Pentagon's first bombs began falling on Afghanistan that the attacks of September 11 were planned in Britain and the United States, and that none of the actual perpetrators were Afghan nationals.
As Howard Zinn observed in The Progressive ("A Just Cause, Not a Just War," December 2001), the U.S. government rejected the alternative of turning to international law, diplomacy, and limited multinational military action in order to bring al-Qa'ida forces to justice. As Zinn has noted, the U.S. government also rejected the Taliban regime's offer to surrender bin Laden for trial in a third country after receiving evidence of his involvement in the September 11 atrocity. As Phil Gasper wrote in the International Socialist Review ("Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden, and the Taliban," November-December 2001), the Bush Administration's refusal to seriously consider these options revealed that the overthrow of the Taliban and the installation of a new, more business-friendly regime had already been designated as primary objectives of the impending war. In his book Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict (2002), Professor Michael Klare of Hampshire College has acknowledged that one purpose of "Operation Enduring Freedom" was to "capture and punish those responsible for the September 11 attacks." But Klare has explained that a second objective was "to consolidate U.S. power in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea area, and to ensure continued flow of oil." As Klare has emphasized, while this latter objective "may get far less public attention than the first, this does not mean it is any less important."
In a report released just days before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the U.S. Energy Information Administration described Afghanistan as a significant "potential transit route for oil and natural gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea." However, the report noted that the potential construction of oil and natural gas pipelines has "been undermined by Afghanistan's instability." As Monbiot has written, "Given that the U.S. government is dominated by former oil industry executives, we would be foolish to suppose that such plans no longer figure in its strategic thinking." Indeed, the way in which the Bush Administration sought to "capture and punish" the al-Qa'ida forces in Afghanistan was significantly influenced by its commitment to promoting U.S. economic interests and power in the region.
Gore Vidal argues in his book entitled, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (2002), that the drive for profits and power are central to the Bush Administration's so-called "War on Terrorism." Vidal writes, "We need Afghanistan because it's the gateway to Central Asia, which is full of oil and natural gas... That's what it's all about. We are establishing our control over Central Asia."
Many Americans may not want to believe that such economic motives could play so important a role in U.S. foreign policy. But developments in the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan make it difficult to deny journalists Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer's observation that "War is politics by other means, and politics is business, and oil is very big business."
As Hightower and Frazer concluded in their book The Hightower Lowdown (January, 2002), the tragedy of September 11 and the subsequent war in Afghanistan "put the U.S. pipeline plans back on track." Hightower and Frazer cited a remarkable article in the Pakistani Frontier Post (Oct. 10, 2001). This article reported that, though the U.S. war against the Taliban had barely begun, U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain had already informed the Pakistan government that, "in view of recent geopolitical developments," the negotiations for a pipeline through Afghanistan would be revived.
After the Taliban regime collapsed, the Bush Administration hand-picked Hamid Karzai to head the new Afghan government and named Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-American, as its new special envoy to the Karzai government. As Richard Neville pointed out in the Australian Sydney Morning Herald ("Beyond Good and Evil," April 15, 2002), both Karzai and Khalilzad are former consultants to UNOCAL. Eric Margolis has disclosed in the Toronto Sun ("America's New War: A Progress Report," Dec. 9, 2001) that Karzai is also a former "asset" for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. As Salim Muwakkil wrote in the Chicago Tribune ("Pipeline Politics Taint U.S. War," March 18, 2002), the "rise to power" of these two former UNOCAL employees will "make things even smoother" for the resumption of the pipeline project in Afghanistan. As Daniel Fisher reported in Forbes Magazine (Feb. 4, 2002), "It has been called the pipeline from hell, to hell, through hell" but "now, with the collapse of the Taliban, oil executives are suddenly talking again about building it." To be sure, the giant U.S. energy corporations are unlikely to make major investments in the project until the new Afghan regime proves able to suppress the outbreaks of violence among the various warlords' forces and any military challenge from resurgent Taliban fighters. This is certainly one reason why U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan are struggling to piece together a viable Afghan national army that can defend the new regime.
In the meantime, Karzai has already made clear that his government fully intends to work closely with neighboring countries and U.S. oil companies to reap the immense profits from the transport of Caspian Basin oil and natural gas. On Feb. 8, 2002, Karzai visited Pakistan and joined with General Pervez Musharraf in pledging "mutual brotherly relations" and cooperation "in all spheres of activity." As the Irish Times reported on Feb. 11, 2002, Karzai announced that he and Musharraf had discussed the proposed Central Asian pipeline project "and agreed that it was in the interest of both countries."
The mounting U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries may enable Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, UNOCAL, and other giant corporations to lay claim to "the number-one prize in world oil." But the extension of U.S. military power and economic domination into this region comes with very grave risks. As hundreds of millions of people in Central Asia and the Middle East watch their oil and natural gas being extracted and transported for the profit of Western companies, the prospects for a massive, violent backlash against the U.S. and its client regimes are likely to grow. As horrific as the September 11 attacks were, they may only be the beginning.
About the Author: David Michael Smith is a professor of government at the College of the Mainland in Texas City, Texas , in the United States.
Back to Top
EC vows more help for Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): German ambassador and the head of the European Commission (EC) Thursday vowed continuation of help for Afghanistan.
Dr Hans Ulrich Seidt said Germany had taken the leadership of EC in Afghanistan that would pay more attention to the development of war-battered country. EU leadership changes after each six months and before Germany Finland was the leader of the union. Seidt said the EU had donated 3.7 billion Euros to Afghanistan during last five years.
He said his country was one of the financially supporters of Afghanistan.
Dr Hansjorg Kretschmer, head of the EC, said the commission would continue its support to Afghanistan unless the country becomes self sufficient. He said EC had played vital role in helping Afghanistan. Kretschmer said without cooperation of EC the development of the landlocked country was not possible.
He said the EC had supported Afghanistan in various fields like reconstruction and health. He said their assistance for Afghanistan had increased by 80 per cent as compared with the past five years. Kretschmer said there were still security problems in Afghanistan. He said the presidential and parliamentary elections as well as the constitution of Loya Jirga were big achievements. As many as 3,000 German soldiers are deployed under ISAF forces in Afghanistan.
Lailuma Sadid
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).