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November 13, 2007 

Corruption rife in Afghanistan: President
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL (Reuters) - Corruption among Afghan officials is rife and government must be reformed to help end 30 years of war, misery and oppression, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday in an unusually frank assessment of his country's woes.

Large profits from Afghanistan's $3-billion opium crop, funds skimmed from aid and reconstruction contracts and bribes for services fuel official corruption, weaken public faith in the government and increase support for hardline Taliban insurgents.

"We have seen a lot of misery in this country, but still we have not learned a lesson from our mistakes. The luxurious houses and buildings either belong to government staff or members of parliament," Karzai told a meeting of village elders in Kabul.

The capital Kabul and other cities are currently undergoing a building boom with gaudy villas springing up in wealthier neighborhoods while the poor live in mud huts with no running water or electricity.

After Karzai spoke, an old man rose to his feet.

"There is something I can't tell you, but if I don't tell you I will feel guilty inside," he told the president who urged him to speak his mind.

"The government and cabinet members are sucking the blood of innocent people, we can't tolerate the corruption in every government office," he said.

"Yes, you are absolutely right," replied Karzai. "I appeal to all Afghans, especially those in power, to work hand-in-hand to build, to serve this country without deceiving and exploiting it."

"ALLAH SAVE US"
Afghanistan is ranked 172 out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption perception index.

Official graft is one of the factors that has allowed opium production to rise to record-breaking levels, the United Nations says, it also weakens the grip of government on many regions -- both factors which boost the insurgency.

More than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban for refusing to give up al Qaeda leaders in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Afghanistan is still suffering from daily violence and a spreading Taliban insurgency.

"The number of martyrs is increasing every day, and at least one person from every family has been martyred in the past 30 years," said Karzai.

Afghanistan has been in a more or less constant state of war since a 1978 communist coup.

"May Allah save us from this misery. We have no patience with the current situation in Afghanistan. We have no patience with further enmity and atrocities in this nation. May Allah may save us from this internal and external oppression."

"We haven't learned a lesson yet. There is deceit, misuse and playing with this land," he said. "The system of this government must be reformed."

Karzai has led Afghanistan since shortly after the 2001 fall of the Taliban and has tried to balance influence between competing factions and ethnic groups.

While Karzai is widely seen as honest, Western countries have long urged him to take tough action against officials and some of those close to him who are alleged to be corrupt.

(Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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US seeks concrete reform steps from Afghan leader Karzai
by P. Parameswaran Tue Nov 13, 2:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has expressed concern over "unacceptable" levels of corruption and deteriorating security in Afghanistan and sought concrete reform steps from President Hamid Karzai.

"There is serious problem of governance in Afghanistan," said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy to the United Nations, on Monday.

"At the national level, corruption exists at unacceptable levels. At the provincial and district levels, especially in contested areas, government, particularly police, too often is weak, ineffective, sometimes non-existent and sometimes even predatory," he told an American-Afghan business conference.

Karzai, an Afghan-American and former envoy to Kabul, said security, particularly in the south, had been deteriorating, and escalation of Taliban attacks had made much more of the countryside insecure, leading to reduction in reconstruction and economic development.

He listed other problems, including "too much polarization" among Afghan political leaders, the growing illegal opium economy, high unemployment and the lackluster pace of reconstruction.

Key reforms, Khalilzad said, should include making appointments based on merit, countering corruption, implementing program for institutionalizing the rule of law and working systematically to stamp state authority and good governance at the provincial and district levels.

"President Karzai has committed himself to this objective, he has promised to direct his government to advance these goals. We look forward to seeing the concrete steps that are needed to realizing this vision, and now," he said.

Karzai also sought greater international commitment to support Afghanistan's development and "improve the regional context for stabilizing" the nation under threat from Taliban militants.

"The stakes for the international community are enormous in Afghanistan," he said. "The sucess of Afghanistan is crucial for the wider efforts to stablize and create progress in the broader Middle East," he said.

The NATO-led 37-nation ISAF and a separate US-led coalition, totaling about 55,000 foreign soldiers, are fighting with Afghan security forces to block the return to power of the hardline Taliban Islamic militia ousted in 2001.

The United States has criticized some NATO members for being unwilling to deploy troops to the volatile south and east of Afghanistan.

Khalilzad said restoring security in Afghanistan was "a test of the ability of NATO to prevail in a key theatre in the defining challenge of our time."

On the problem of "political polarization," he said Afghan leaders should unite behind their "national interest.

"There is nothing wrong in debating different perspectives or with political competition, provided that this takes place within a framework of national unity that serves the nation's interest and does not harm Afghanistan's long term interest," he said.

"Leaders should be concernd about all Afghan people regardless of their ethnic or sectarian background and should reject the approach of seeking to divide Afghans because of ethnic and sectarian issues," he said.
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Amnesty urges NATO to end Afghan prisoner transfers amid torture fears
Tue Nov 13, 1:27 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Human rights watchdog Amnesty International urged NATO-led forces in Afghanistan Tuesday to stop transferring prisoners to the Afghan authorities, saying it feared they could be tortured.

In a new report, Amnesty said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could be exposing detainees to abuse, including whipping, beatings, exposure to extreme cold and food deprivation.

It singled out Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) as a major offender and said the agency "currently poses a serious threat to those in its custody".

Amnesty said Britain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway had signed "memorandums of understanding" and other accords on prisoner transfers with the Afghan authorities, and that Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden may do so too.

The agreements, it said, "do not fulfil the absolute and non-derogable legal obligation not to put anyone in a situation where they are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment."

ISAF, which comprises some 40,000 troops from 37 nations, is trying to spread the influence of President Hamid Karzai's weak central government across the strife-torn country, but is battling a tenacious Taliban-led insurgency.

Amnesty urged ISAF to "immediately declare a moratorium on any further transfers of detainees to the Afghan authorities and take responsibility for the custody of such detainees until effective safeguards against torture and other ill-treatment are introduced in the Afghan detention system."

It called on them not to rely on memorandums of understanding as a guarantee that prisoners would not be tortured once they are handed over, and help train prison staff and reform the prison system.

It urged Afghanistan to reform the NDS and allow independent monitors into all detention facilities.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the military alliance had no evidence that any prisoners were being abused and did not plan to build its own jails just in case.

"NATO has no proof of ill-treatment or of torture of detainees that its forces have transferred to the Afghans," he said.

"It's true there are concerns. This is precisely why the allies have invested, and a lot, in the reform of the Afghan institutions, including the NDS. It's the only appropriate and acceptable way to improve the situation."

But "Afghanistan is a sovereign country", he said. "It's not up to NATO to put a parallel detention system in place on Afghan territory.
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Japan lower house OKs navy mission
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 13, 12:54 AM ET
TOKYO - Japan's lower house of parliament approved a resumption of the country's anti-terrorism naval mission in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, defying opposition lawmakers who had forced a halt in the operation.

The legislation, which now goes to the upper house, would limit Japanese ships to refueling and supplying water to ships used in monitoring and inspecting vessels suspected of links to terrorism or arms smuggling.

Japanese warships had refueled vessels the U.S.-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan since 2001, but withdrew on Nov. 1 when the opposition blocked an extension of the operation, saying it violated Japan's pacifist constitution.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's ruling Liberal Democratic Party argued that Japan would be shirking its responsibilities as a leading nation if it left the mission halted indefinitely. The United States also has been pushing for a resumption.

"How can Japan be the only one to drop out when our fight against terrorism is only half way through and other countries are cooperating?" asked LDP lawmaker Yasutoshi Nishimura during the debate leading up to the vote.

The move came ahead of Fukuda's visit to Washington later this week, where he is expected to offer assurances to President Bush about Japan's support of U.S. foreign policy.

The scaled-back mission was introduced by the LDP as a compromise intended to show the public its flexibility, though it has failed to win opposition support. Public opinion is divided, though polls show more Japanese favor it than oppose it.

The opposition, led by the Democratic Party of Japan, controls the upper house, but the ruling coalition has enough votes in the lower house to overrule the other chamber.

The bill, however, must still be debated in upper house, meaning it likely will be held up for weeks. In another move to delay passage, the DPJ has submitted legislation in the upper house to scrap the mission.

During Tuesday's debate, opposition lawmakers said there is no guarantee that the oil provided by Japan in the mission would not be used in attacks on Afghanistan.

"Obviously, the bill allows Japan to refuel U.S. warships, which are usually on multiple military missions," said Seiken Akamine, a communist. "Depending on how the U.S. military uses it, we end up supporting all kinds of attacks, including air raids on Afghanistan."

During its six-year mission, Japan provided about 126 million gallons of fuel to coalition warships in the Indian Ocean from seven countries, including those from the U.S., Britain and Pakistan, according to the Defense Ministry.

Fukuda will leave for Washington on Thursday on a three-day visit, his first overseas trip since taking office in September.
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Hidden costs double Iraq, Afghanistan war costs: Democrats
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The cost of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are nearly twice what the government of President George W. Bush says they are, according to a report by opposition Democrats on Capitol Hill.

The Washington Post on Tuesday obtained a draft of the 21-page report, which is to be presented in Congress later in the day.

The "hidden" economic costs, which include higher oil prices, money to treat wounded veterans and interest payments on war loans, amount to about 1.5 trillion dollars, the Post reported, citing the study.

That is nearly double the 804 billion dollars the Bush administration has spent or requested to spend on the wars through 2008.

The report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," says the two wars have thus far cost the average US family of four more than 20,000 dollars.

The report was written by Democratic staff members of the Congress's Joint Economic Committee, the Post reported.
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Iran demarcates borders with Afghanistan 
Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA - Iran has recently started largest and major demarcation project at its long border lines with Afghanistan in east of the country, it was reported on Tuesday.

The project is being carried out by geographical organization of Iran's Defense Ministry, the ministry's Public Relations Office said.

The project, to be launched along the 949 km of Iran-Afghanistan border areas, will demarcate 709 km of land and 236 km of sea border between the two neighboring states.

This is the first time that Iran and Afghanistan border areas are being demarcated over the past 100 years.

The project which has security, economic and development applications, is estimated to cost over rls 30bn ($3M).

After completion, the project would be registered at the United Nations, the report added.
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Afghan Governor Has Big Plans for Lonely Province
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR
Morning Edition, November 13, 2007 · There are a lot of things that make Nuristan unique among Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

Many of its jagged mountains are blanketed in fir trees, making this northeastern province look more like Montana than a place in Afghanistan. And its people, scattered among isolated villages, have their own language.

But perhaps most unusual in Nuristan these days is its governor, Tamim Nuristani.

Plans for Parun

Parun is the provincial capital of Nuristan, but there's not much to see. At least not yet. Workers hammer away at a new police barracks next to a new mosque with a tin dome. A few wood-and-stone structures along Parun's lone road house a restaurant and small stores.

But Gov. Nuristani — one of the few people who live in Parun — sees a lot more happening here than meets the eye.

"We are right now working … to have a small city built on the other side with everything — and maybe about 20,000 people, houses and apartments to support the government side," Nuristani says. "They are working on the plan. Maybe few months it's going to be ready."

The 50-year-old governor says Parun — the first city in Nuristan — is only the beginning for a province where residents farm and raise goats to survive. His five-year goal is for Nuristan to be a destination for Afghan and foreign tourists.

Nuristani says visitors will be able to go white-water rafting during the summer months. In the winter, they would ski at the resorts he wants to build. Rounding out his dream for Nuristan is a boom in local businesses dealing in the region's famous wood carvings and gemstones.

"But right now, we have to build all the roads, and first sector (sic) power and telecommunication to get the people here. And security is important for us — to have security," he says.

Securing the Area a Difficult Task

Security is not easy to come by in this province that shares an under-patrolled border with Pakistan. A border official says it is used by militants.

Last week, an American platoon was ambushed by the Taliban near the border. Six U.S. and three Afghan soldiers were killed. More were wounded.

Nuristani says he has tried unsuccessfully to get his government to send an Afghan battalion here to secure the province.

He has been more successful in persuading Americans to spend millions of dollars to develop his province. They relate well to the Afghan governor — a governor who also happens to be an American.

"He was raised very much in the Nuristan tradition, but he also has been imbued with all of the Western values and he has real good sense of the possible," says Navy Cdr. Sam Paparo, who heads the U.S.-led provincial reconstruction team in Nuristan. "For what this government of Afghanistan is looking to achieve, I think he is uniquely qualified."

A Life in Politics

Born to a prominent family, Nuristani says he grew up around politics.

His father was a mayor of Kabul. But the communists overthrew Afghanistan's government in 1978 and threw his father in prison. Nuristani and the rest of the family fled to New Jersey in 1980.

Nuristani says he drove a cab in New York for a while and opened a fried chicken restaurant in Brooklyn. In 1996, he moved to Sacramento, where he opened a chain of pizza parlors.

He says he visited Nuristan secretly, and frequently, when the mujahedeen fought against the Russians in Afghanistan. He returned after the Taliban fell with plans to run for parliament. But President Hamid Karzai asked him to serve as Nuristan's governor instead.

Not everyone was happy with the arrangement.

Lawmaker Dad Mohammed Nuristani, who is no relation to the governor, accuses him of playing tribal politics and contributing to insecurity.

He also accuses the governor of associating with known militants. Specifically, the governor's distant cousin — Haji Ghafour — who the military says is active in warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's militant faction.

Gov. Nuristani dismisses such talk as squabbling by political rivals. He admits he has talked to Haji Ghafour, but only to try to get him to turn himself in.
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Poland detains seven soldiers over Afghan deaths
13 Nov 2007 13:27:54 GMT
WARSAW, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Polish authorities have detained seven soldiers in connection with an incident in which Afghan civilians were killed, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.

Military prosecutors ordered the detentions accusing the soldiers of breaking the Hague and Geneva Conventions, which deal with war crimes and the treatment of non-combatants and prisoners of war, the ministry said in a statement.

"Seven soldiers ... who were part of the international ISAF mission in Afghanistan have been detained," the statement said.

The prosecutor dealing with the case said charges would be presented on Wednesday. The soldiers were detained in Poland.

A spokesman for the ministry told Polish television the soldiers were involved in an incident earlier this year when Polish troops killed several Afghan citizens in a clash with insurgents. "The soldiers have been detained in connection with August's incident," Jaroslaw Rybak, the ministry's spokesman, told Polish television.

Civilian deaths are a sensitive issue for foreign forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. More than 370 civilians have been killed this year, aid workers and Afghan officials' estimates show.

Afghan and Western officials accuse the Taliban of deliberately courting civilian deaths by launching attacks from ordinary homes and carrying out indiscriminate bomb attacks.

Poland has more than 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Natalia Reiter)
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6 suspected militants detained in central Afghanistan raid
The Associated Press November 13, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: U.S.-led and Afghan troops searching for suspected Taliban raided compounds in central Afghanistan, detaining six militants, the coalition said Tuesday.

The Monday raid took place in the Nerkh district of Wardak province, which has recently seen an increase in Taliban activity and attacks against foreign and Afghan forces.

Detainees will be questioned about "their involvement in facilitating operations as well as other extremist activities," coalition said in a statement.

Some buildings were damaged during the operation, it said.
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Afghan soil not to be used for attack on Iran
Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA Iran-Afghanistan-Territory
An Afghan government spokesman said on Tuesday hat his country will not be used for any attack against Iran.

Mohammad-Homayoun Hamidzadeh made the remark in his weekly press briefing.

Responding to a question posed by a western reporter on the US threats against Iran, he said that Afghanistan will never allow any country to use its soil for military operation against other states, particularly Iran.

The Afghan official also underlined that his country enjoys very good relations with Iran, and that Tehran has always supported Afghanistan.

Iran and Afghanistan have 930 kilometers of joint border, and their political ties are at the highest level.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has hosted more than three million Afghan refugees during 25 years of civil war in Afghanistan.
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Military starts using drug dogs to search troops' bags in Afghanistan
The Canadian Press - Nov 11, 2007
OTTAWA - Canadian military police have started using drug dogs to search troops' bags at Kandahar Air Field after being tipped about soldiers suspected of using heroin, hash and pot, say newly released documents.

Although there were no drug seizures reported, a briefing note says illegal drugs are readily available in Afghanistan and present a "temptation for Canadian troops in the form of personal use and in the form of importation for the purpose of trafficking."

The documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, indicate there were at least five targeted and random searches of soldiers' belongings in June and July at Kandahar Air Field.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, an independent military police unit, used dogs trained to sniff out drugs to search about 90 soldiers and more than 100 barrack boxes.

Military police took the names of soldiers in a convoy that was searched following a tip in July.

The briefing note says that search didn't produce enough evidence to justify charges, but military police were to check their records "for any other indication of illicit drug use/trafficking" among those in the convoy.

It's unclear why military police did the background checks because an e-mail outlining the incident was partly censored.

Defence Department spokeswoman Capt. Julie Roberge said she wouldn't comment on specific searches.

She said the military uses the dogs if it has a "reasonable doubt" there may be drugs at Kandahar Air Field or at one of the forward operating bases.

"As soon as there's a doubt ... of course there's going to be a follow up," Roberge said.

She said the dogs are a "NATO asset" shared among coalition forces. The Canadian military is field-testing its own drug-sniffing dogs in Canada with the intent of eventually using them in Afghanistan, she added.

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, who travelled to Afghanistan last month on an unofficial fact-finding trip, said he saw no evidence of drugs nor did he witness any dog searches.

The briefing note raised questions about whether the searches violated soldiers' Charter rights, particularly their expectation of privacy and the right to be secure against unreasonable searches.

But it concludes that targeted and random searches of convoys are an "effective and efficient method" of deterring troops from using or trafficking drugs without negatively affecting operations.

Word of the Kandahar searches follows charges laid last week against an Ottawa-based soldier for allegedly trafficking pot and hashish after an 11-month undercover sting operation by the military police unit.

Master Cpl. Steven Pearson was charged with five counts related to the alleged trafficking and possession of marijuana and hashish dating back to January 2006.

There have been several other high-profile incidents in recent years of alleged drug trafficking within the military.

Four crew members of HMCS Saskatoon were charged this year after a military police unit launched an undercover sting operation targeting the small coastal patrol ship in early 2006.

A court martial for one officer charged with trafficking cocaine and disgraceful behaviour under the National Defence Act has been adjourned until next year.

Two other crew members pleaded guilty and were given suspended sentences and fines, while the third was cleared of one charge and had a second one stayed.

Last year, five soldiers were charged at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B., under the National Defence Act with trafficking in cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana.
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Afghanistan/Pakistan: UN Report Says Suicide Bombers Get Support in both Countries
11/12/07 By Ron Synovitz A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
Pakistani and Afghan authorities have repeatedly accused each other of failing to provide adequate security to prevent cross-border suicide attacks by Taliban-linked militants.

Until recently, however, little publicly available research has been conducted to understand or explain the way suicide bombings have been proliferating in Afghanistan since 2005.

But a recent report by United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) suggests that people in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are in a state of denial about the problem.

"The important big picture is that Afghans like to tell you that [suicide attacks] are a Pakistani phenomenon. Pakistan has been long saying that this not just [Pakistan]. And this is exactly what the report said," says Christine Fair, the coordinator and main author of the UN report.

"There certainly is a Pakistani component, and it is a very important component," she adds. "But even if Pakistan went away, you’d still have a largely Afghan-driven insurgency. Obviously, Pakistan has an impact upon that. But taking away Pakistan, the insurgency doesn’t go away."

Fair says suicide bombings in both Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas appear to be a cross-border phenomenon. And she says the problem is not going to be resolved as long as Afghan and Pakistani officials keep assigning the blame to each other.

"The report was the first [report] to actually say that this is truly a problem where the solution resides in both Afghanistan as well as Pakistan," Fair says. "The Pakistanis were apparently outraged by the report, with the argument that [it] overestimates the Pakistani involvement. I was rather shocked by that, because, from my point of view, the report’s useful intervention was that it actually drove home to Afghans that they have to stop putting the blame for this squarely on Pakistan’s shoulders -- because, clearly, Afghans have got issues which need to be fixed domestically as well."

The tactic was rarely seen in Afghanistan until 2005. Since then, suicide attacks have become increasingly common in Afghanistan, running at a rate of about three to four per week.

Debunking Myths About Afghan Role

The report is based upon several types of data. Fair first used a UN database that provided reliable information about the locations of suicide bombings and the number of people killed. She also was given access and allowed to interview 25 would-be suicide bombers who had failed or refused to carry out attacks they had been trained for. All of those would-be bombers were Afghans who, with few exceptions, had spent time in Pakistan. Fair also was allowed to interview Afghan police and intelligence officers about how they had reached their official conclusions about the backgrounds of suicide bombers.

The report notes that suicide attacks were very rare in Afghanistan until 2005 but have become increasingly commonplace since then. It says the increase in suicide attacks may suggest that more attackers and explosive materials are readily available, that planning takes place continuously, or that a series of attacks are planned where local coordinators have the power within a "mission command" structure to order attacks when they are prepared. But Fair stresses that Afghan authorities must start admitting to their own people that the majority of the suicide attacks in Afghanistan are carried out with help from Afghans.

"As we all know, there is Pakistani involvement," she says. "There is recruitment across the border in the tribal areas, and madrasahs pre-figure prominently. We all know this. There is nothing to debate on this issue. But there is a larger point that most Afghans are not familiar with: there are Afghans who are involved, not only in the capacity of suicide attackers, but they are also involved obviously in safe houses. They are obviously involved in the production of bombs. They are involved in getting bombers to targets. At every point in the provision of suicide attacks, an Afghan is necessary. This is [a finding] that the Afghans need to embrace and they need to deal with."

Significantly, Fair says the report contradicts some media reports and assessments that expertise from insurgents in Iraq is being imported directly into Afghanistan by Taliban-linked militants. "There is all this speculation that these guys are learning lessons from Iraq. We don’t see any evidence for it. It differs hugely," Fair says.

"We are not seeing the technical innovation that is often talked about in the media," she continues. "The bombs are not getting any better. Afghan [militants] are continuing to use what has worked for them. We just do not see any evidence that this is an Iraqi phenomenon imported to Afghanistan."

Fair adds that the "best parallel is actually across the border in Pakistan. At about the same time that suicide bombing was being developed and deployed against security forces in Afghanistan, it was also being developed and deployed in Pakistan along the tribal area. And suicide bombing was being used in Pakistan long before it came to be used in Iraq."

’Wishful Thinking’

Fair says one of the most frustrating aspects of her work in Afghanistan on the report was to discover how quick Afghan police and security officials are to announce after a suicide attack that the bomber was a foreigner. Fair questioned those Afghan authorities about many suicide bombings and says she discovered that the backgrounds of most suicide bombers in Afghanistan are not adequately investigated.

"I was told repeatedly that these attackers are not Afghans -- that they are Pakistanis, 18 to 24 years old, from [the] Waziristan [tribal areas of Pakistan]," Fair says. "And I would repeatedly ask how [they had reached such a conclusion.] And they -- be it a chief of police or be it an [officer in Afghanistan’s] National Directorate for Security -- would repeatedly tell me they knew this because ’the [bomber’s] feet survived and the feet are brown. Our feet aren’t as brown as this. These are clearly Pakistani.’ Or similar claims would advanced about remains of the head.

"None of these people are forensic anthropologists. There is absolutely no way you can distinguish an Afghan foot from a Pakistani foot. This is called wishful thinking. So until the Afghans really take seriously the investigations into these attackers, as do other countries that confront suicide bombings, this facilitates the collective imagination [among Afghans] that these [suicide bombers] are all Pakistanis."

Fair says Afghan suicide bombers often appear to be less educated and poorer than suicide bombers elsewhere in the world. She says there is only anecdotal evidence about this, because of the failure of Afghan authorities to adequately investigate the background of suicide bombers. But she says evidence also suggests that many Afghans recruited as suicide attackers tend to be social rejects -- people who are mentally ill, alcoholics, or even drug addicts -- who see a suicide attack as a way to redeem themselves and restore honor to their family.

But Fair concludes that the lack of video wills by Afghanistan’s suicide bombers suggests that ordinary Afghans are still not willing to glorify suicide bombers as martyrs.
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Rate of wounded on rise
108 soldiers sent home for treatment in first eight months of 2007
GLORIA GALLOWAY From Tuesday's Globe and Mail November 13, 2007 at 4:41 AM EST
OTTAWA — The number of Canadian soldiers who are so badly wounded in Afghanistan that they must be returned to Canada for treatment is on a trajectory to far exceed last year's toll.

During the first eight months of this year, 108 members of the Canadian Forces became eligible for the allowance that is given to wounded military personnel who lose their danger pay because their injuries require them to be removed from the war zone.

When the danger-pay substitute, called the Allowance for Loss of Operational Allowance, was introduced on Dec. 15, 2006, then-defence-minister Gordon O'Connor said he expected 115 soldiers would receive it as a result of injuries in 2006.

So the 2007 tally of 108 by Sept. 1 - obtained by The Globe and Mail using Access to Information legislation - was just seven shy of the number reached in mid-December of last year. And published reports suggest many have been injured since the end of August.

Defence officials refused to explain the increase despite requests over a number of days for clarification.

Although other countries are open about the number of wounded returning from the conflict, Canadian officials are tight lipped.

That means defence analysts are unable to verify the escalation. But some said yesterday it is not improbable that more are wounded because the Taliban has relied heavily this year on bombs and missiles rather than direct combat, which are less precise and could lead to more injuries.

There are also inconsistencies in the way the number of wounded are reported. The Canadian military magazine Esprit de Corps recently reported that, when the military has released numbers of injured, the count has included only those "wounded in action."

When injuries in incidents not directly related to the conflict - such as a truck rollover or an accidental discharge from a firearm - are taken into account, the magazine says the list of Canadians wounded or killed since 2001 tops 600.

The military will not clarify whether the figures released to The Globe include those wounded in action and non-conflict injuries.

"I think it's appalling," said Stephen Staples, president of the Rideau Institute, an Ottawa-based policy group. "The government should be making every effort to have the full cost of this war explained to Canadians. And the casualty rate due to injuries is another human cost of the war."

The number of NATO fatalities across Afghanistan has hit 214 so far this year, 23 more than the total for last year.

There were 38 Canadians soldiers killed last year, compared with 27 so far in 2007.

But the number of injuries has apparently grown.

"There is a hint here that there is more wounded than meets the eye or they don't have an actual picture that they are dealing with. And I think either one of those demonstrates a most serious lapse in judgment," said Dan McTeague, the Liberal MP who successfully campaigned for the introduction of the allowance to replace danger pay.

"I am deeply concerned by the discrepancy and the lack of precision by the Department of National Defence."

Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic, is equally concerned by the Canadian Forces' unwillingness to be clear about the number of wounded.

"I think the issue is, why the lack of transparency, what's to hide here?" Ms. Black asked. "Canada is involved in a combat mission. We know that Canadian Forces personnel are getting injured in this mission. Why would you be hiding what the numbers are?"
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France weighs expanding role on the ground
DOUG SAUNDERS Globe and Mail November 13, 2007 at 8:20 AM EST
PARIS — Among Canadian officials and NATO leaders worried about an Afghanistan war that is falling short of soldiers, France has become a last great hope.

Because the Netherlands and Canada, two of the four countries holding down the conflict-scarred south of Afghanistan, are suffering large-scale casualties and are considering withdrawing their soldiers from the United Nations-mandated North Atlantic Treaty Alliance war in Afghanistan, pressure has fallen on the French to make up the loss -- and to provide a military partner that might encourage those countries to stay involved.

Since conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president in June, the French have entered a heated discussion on the possibility of building their role in Afghanistan, and military and diplomatic officials have taken this as a signal that France might provide much-needed extra forces in the war. In expectation, Canada has recently given its embassy in Paris a role in Afghanistan-related matters.

It could be a difficult mission. In interviews, senior French government officials say that a larger military role might be possible -- but it won't likely happen soon, and it will probably be part of a larger strategy to remake NATO and European military forces to be less reliant on the United States.

"There is a willingness, and we're very clear on that, to have a stronger involvement in Afghanistan,"said Eric Chevalier, a senior adviser to foreign minister Bernard Kouchner. "But the question of having more troops is only one piece of a stronger involvement, and we're looking at it …. We are also pushing for a more coherent approach from the international community on Afghanistan."

France currently has about 1,100 of the 40,000 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them in command of the region of Kabul, the capital. By agreement, none of them are to be involved in combat operations. In addition, since Mr. Sarkozy came to power, it has committed a group of fighter-bombers to support ground troops in Afghanistan, and has added 50 troops to train Afghan counterinsurgency forces.

While this is small compared to the 2,500 Canadian or 3,500 British NATO troops fighting there, France already has large NATO and UN military commitments in Kosovo, Lebanon, the Ivory Coast and elsewhere. And Mr. Sarkozy's government is torn between its pledge to renew NATO and its equally strong desire to build a European Union defence force independent of NATO.

Since the late 1960s, France has not been part of NATO's military command, which it has seen as being unduly influenced by the U.S. Officials have also raised hopes that it will fully rejoin the organization.

In Washington last week, Mr. Sarkozy raised expectations that France might play a larger role in Afghanistan during a speech to both U.S. houses of Congress in which he spoke of closer ties between the countries.

"France will remain engaged in Afghanistan as long as it takes, because what's at stake in that country is the future of our values and that of the Atlantic alliance," he said, contradicting an election promise to withdraw France's troops from Afghanistan.

Mr. Sarkozy also suggested that France might soon be playing a full role in NATO: "The more successful we are in the establishment of a European defence, the more France will be resolved to resume its full role in NATO."

Within NATO, these remarks were taken to mean that France will increase its forces in Afghanistan, and perhaps enter active combat, assisting the Canadian, Dutch, British and U.S. troops who are currently holding down the country's conflict-ridden south.

But some French observers said that such an expectation would be unrealistic, and that it might be enough for France simply to stay in Afghanistan.

"My interpretation is that 'greater commitment' means that in the recent past there was a temptation to withdraw French forces from Afghanistan, and now there is the realization that we should maintain some troops in Afghanistan," said Yves Boyer, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, a military think tank.

"But not, probably, in the south like the Dutch or the Canadians or the British -- in political terms, you will find it very difficult to sell in France the idea that we should increase our presence in Afghanistan. We are already very committed in Africa, we are committed in Lebanon and in Kosovo, and we are really at the limit of what we can do as far as extending troops there."

Members of Mr. Sarkozy's government seem divided between those who would rather build an independent EU defence force first, and those who see a stronger, less U.S.-dominated NATO as a greater priority.

Mr. Sarkozy has walked the fence, suggesting in late August that "the two go hand in hand, an independent European defence and an Atlantic organization in which we would assume our full role."

However, a report on France's military role commissioned by Mr. Sarkozy and written by former foreign minister Hubert Vedrine suggests that the country should not rejoin the NATO command or increase its troop commitments unless the organization were reformed to have largely European command, with less US influence.

"France's rejoining a NATO which has been reformed thanks to its own skillful management of its availability for rapprochement would look very different from, and would mean something other than a 'return to NATO'," he wrote.

But Bernard Kouchner, the Socialist defence minister, has been an outspoken proponent of a greater French role in NATO.

However, he told a French TV interviewer last week that France ought not to increase its role in NATO until next summer at the earliest, because this might seem like submission to the US.

"First, we'll have to discuss this. I think there'll be a real debate, otherwise it would be seen as a political gesture of submission to the United States, and that's not at all the case," he said.

Stretched too thin?

France has balked at making a greater contribution to the NATO mission to Afghanistan, although Canada has almost three times the troop commitment abroad for the size of its force than France.

CURRENT DEPLOYMENTS

CANADA:

1 Afghanistan: 2,545
2 Bosnia-Herzegovina: 8
3 Haiti: 4
4 Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea: 250
5 Golan Heights: 2
6 Sinai: 28
7 Jerusalem: 8
8 Cyprus: 1
9 At sea: 211
10 Democratic Republic of the Congo: 10
11 Sudan: 45
12 Sierre Leone: 11

FRANCE:

1 Kosovo: 2,000
2 Bosnia: 300
3 Ivory Coast: 2,600
4 Gulf of Guinea: 100
5 Lebanon: 1,750
6 Chad: 1,100
7 Central African Republic: 400
8 Afghanistan: 1,900
9 Sinai: 20
10 Sudan: 2
11 Ethiopia-Eritrea: 15
12 Cameroon: 50
13 Democratic Republic of Congo: 30
14 Haiti: 40

SOURCE: CANADIAN DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE, DEFENCE MINISTRY OF FRANCE

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The Problem of Musa Qala: Afghanistan's Terror University Town
November 12, 2007 12:30 AM www.pajamasmedia.com
PJM Kabul: British forces are trying to figure out how to clear the Taliban out of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan, looking to replicate the success of US commanders in Iraq’s western province to split Sunni tribal leaders from al-Qaeda. Nasim Ferkat examines whether their approach will work, or whether they are walking too softly and not carrying a big enough stick.

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by Nasim Ferkat

The spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defense, Zahir Azimi, recently said that Musa Qala, located in the Helmand district is a center for foreign terrorists who receive training and instructions for attacks against international forces. In his speech, Azimi said the terrorists, mostly Al Qaeda members who cross the Afghan-Pakistan border come from a variety of countries and regions.

The open and porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is one of the most important reasons Helmand became a center for terrorism was the, according to a report by Abdulwahid Karezwal, member of the Afghan senate representing the Helmand region.

He also charged that local authorities and influential figures actively helped permit terrorists start their activities. The Karzai government has, with the help of British troops, only five kilometers under its control among the thirteen districts of the Helmand province.

Negotiations between British troops and local figures raised hopes the problem would be solved, but the drawn-out negotiations have also given the Taliban time and opportunity to reinforce and increase their forces on various fronts. The Times Online reported on the agreement in October, 2006.

Over the past two months British soldiers have come under sustained attack defending a remote mud-walled government outpost in the town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Eight have been killed there. It has now been agreed the troops will quietly pull out of Musa Qala in return for the Taliban doing the same. …
Although soldiers on the ground may welcome the agreement, it is likely to raise new questions about troop deployment. Last month Sir Richard Dannatt, the new head of the British Army, warned that soldiers in Afghanistan were fighting at the limit of their capacity and could only “just” cope with the demands.

Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of the British taskforce, flew into Musa Qala 18 days ago, guarded only by his military police close-protection team, to attend a shura, or council of town elders, to negotiate a withdrawal. Butler was taken in a convoy to the shura in the desert southeast of Musa Qala where the carefully formulated proposals were made. The British commander said that he was prepared to back a “cessation of fighting” if they could guarantee that the Taliban would also leave. … there are concerns that the Taliban could simply use the “cessation of fighting” to regroup and attack again next year.

By October 30, 2007 it was clear the “cessation of fighting” had not taken place. Fighting broke out anew as the Taliban returned to Musa Qala. Afgha.com reported:

The Musa Qala dilemma has been ongoing since this time last year, after the British and Danish contingent stationed in the district center handed security over to local tribal elders in exchange for a ceasefire with local Taliban units. By early 2007, the Coalition hammered the Taliban leadership in northern Helmand, killing four regional commanders within as many weeks.
The Taliban responded by seizing the district headquarters, Musa Qala City, and laid down the law with an iron fist. Spies were ‘tried’ by a Taliban court and found guilty of providing intelligence to the western forces operating in the region. At least 3 such ‘spies’ were summarily executed in April. Heavy taxes and ardent rules were imposed on the locals. Taliban sympathizers welcomed the reinstalled Taliban government while others remained adamantly against it.

Nine months after the Taliban took the district, Coalition forces are moving deeper into the district … five major engagements have occurred in the district since September, leaving an estimated 250 militants killed. Most of the recent fighting has been several kilometers south of the city in a rugged valley known as the Musa Qala Wadi.

The latest attack, however, occurred on the outskirts of the Musa Qala city itself. Coalition and Afghan forces have encircled the city leaving the densely populated town fearful of an imminent assault by US, British and Afghan forces.

The city center is still thought to be heavily booby-trapped, something the Taliban rigged up after storming the city back in February. Afghan army officials are in contact with local elders trying to persuade them to have the Taliban surrender or flee. Local officials also indicate foreign fighters are operating suicide bomb training camps in and around Musa Qala; and that Pakistani, Arab, Chechen and Central Asian fighters are thought to make up this core of mercenaries.

Although developments in Helmand were criticized at the time of the British-negotiated “cessation of fighting” nobody expected the area to become a central training ground for terrorists.

Nine months after the agreement between British troops and Taliban, the spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defense raised the question of who was to blame for the situation of the Helmand province that turned it into a foreign terrorist’s center. At the center of the debate is the policy toward the Taliban, questions which intensified when the British defense minister backed comprehensive negotiations with the Taliban. The Guardian reported on Oct 15, 2007:

British officials have concluded that the Taliban is too deep-rooted to be eradicated by military means. Following a wide-ranging policy review accompanying Gordon Brown’s arrival in Downing Street, a decision was taken to put a much greater focus on courting “moderate” Taliban leaders as well as “tier two” footsoldiers, who fight more for money and out of a sense of tribal obligation than for the Taliban’s ideology. Such a shift has put Britain and the Karzai government at odds with hawks in Washington, who are wary of Whitehall’s enthusiasm for talks with what they see as a monolithic terrorist group. But a British official said: “Some Americans are coming around to our way of seeing this.”
Despite the setbacks the advocates of negotiated settlement have not give up hope. The Daily Telegraph reported:

Diplomats confirmed yesterday that Mullah Salaam was expected to change sides within days. He is a former Taliban corps commander and governor of Herat province under the government that fell in 2001. Military sources said British forces in the province are “observing with interest” the potential deal in north Helmand, which echoes the efforts of US commanders in Iraq’s western province to split Sunni tribal leaders from their al-Qaeda allies.
The Afghan deal would see members of the Alizai tribe around the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala quit the insurgency and pledge support to the Afghan government. It would be the first time that the Kabul government and its Western allies have been able exploit tribal divisions that exist within the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Whether that approach works any better than the earlier “cessation of fighting” remains to be seen.
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Bush all praise for Germany's role in Afghanistan
NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): US President George W. Bush Saturday appreciated the role played by Germany in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and supporting the young democracy in the post-Taliban era.

Germanys presence and its future role in Afghanistan featured prominently at a meeting between the US president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Bush ranch in Crawford in Texas on Friday and Saturday.

We discussed Afghanistan. I do want to thank the German people for their strong support of this young democracy. I appreciate German troops who are far from home, who are helping people realise the blessings of liberty, Bush said after the meeting.

Bush also applauded Merkels efforts in Afghanistan, where the German chancellor recently went on an unannounced visit. She shared her experience with Bush.

Giving details of the talks, Merkel said: Together with the Afghan government, we need to do more in order to help them continue to build up the police and the army there, improve that and go on with the training that we have already embarked on.

Briefing the media, US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said the two leaders discussed how to help the people and government of Afghanistan in establishing a stable democracy and help them deal with the Taliban and al-Qaeda threat.

In the months ahead (we) are going to make an assessment of where we are in Afghanistan, what progress we're making, and what we need to do individually and collectively to enhance those -- our prospects for success, Hadley added. 

In response to a question if the issue of curbs imposed on German troops in Afghanistan did come up for discussion between the two leaders, Hadley said: There was no specific discussion about what particularly the German troops will be doing going forward."

Hadley said this would be a decision for the chancellor to make in consultation with her government and parliament. But there obviously is going to be a need for some adjustments going forward, he stressed.

At the same time, Hadley continued, caveats imposed by various governments on the movement of their respective armed forces would be taken up by the US. I'm sure that there will be discussions that the United States will be having with all contributing countries on that issue.

Referring to a recent operation of German forces against Taliban and al-Qaeda, the advisor said: In some sense, I would have to say that the German troops are already in the fight to try and safeguard -- and secure a better future for Afghanistan.

We are all looking at, going forward, what is the proper role of our forces and what are the contributions that we can make towards a common enterprise, which is to establish a stable democracy in Afghanistan, and help them deal with the Taliban and al-Qaeda threat.
Lalit K. Jha
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US won't abandon Afghanistan, Pakistan: Rice
NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday the United States would not commit the mistake of abandoning Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did after withdrawal of Soviet troops from the war-hit country.

The past mistake of abandoning the two key South Asian nations resulted in the rise of extremism, the price of which the world was still paying today, Rice said in an interview to the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board.

We made the mistake a number of years ago after the Afghan war, after the Soviets had left Afghanistan, of disengaging from both Pakistan and Afghanistan. We paid with a failed state in Afghanistan and with a greater extremist presence in Pakistan, she admitted.

Rice, who took a tough stand, after President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency in his country, said: We don't want to make that mistake again because this is not about President Musharraf or the Pakistani government; it is engagement with the Pakistani people.

Referring to the various plans funded by the US in Pakistan, she pointed out: We have programmes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which have never been governed, frankly, to try to bring economic assistance, economic development, there.

She referred to the reconstruction opportunity zones on the Afghan-Pak border to try to use trade promotion to bring about a better atmosphere in which people could prosper and terrorism would not flourish. 

In Afghanistan, we tried kind of dividing up the responsibilities between different countries, so the Germans got the police, the Italians got the judiciary system and somebody got this and, well, that didn't work so well, she said in response to a question.
Lalit K Jha
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Construction of $4m German-funded road to begin Tuesday
KABUL, Nov 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Construction of a German-funded road linking the Afghan-Iranian frontier to new border facilities will be begin later this week with a ceremony to be held in Islam Qala.

A representative of the German Embassy and commanders of the Islam Qala Border Police and the 6th Brigade of the Border Police will celebrate the kick-off of the multi-lane road project worth four million dollars at the most important border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran.

The US Army Corps of Engineers would build the road, expected to boost economic relations between the two neighbouring countries and contribute to improving security in the entire region, the German Embassy here said on Sunday.

"The project underlines the cordial and long-standing relationship between Afghanistan and Germany and flags the strong German commitment to contribute substantially to Afghanistans reconstruction and development," the embassy added.

The road construction is a contribution to rebuilding and supporting the Afghan Border Police, according to a pres release from the embassy, which said a ceremony would take place on Tuesday (November 13) at the construction site between the existing Afghan-Iranian border points.

During the function a signpost will be uncovered in the presence of the guests of honour and representatives of the German police project. The ceremony will be followed by a visit to the construction site.
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