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Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul, U.S. Officials Say
By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times August 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.
Pakistan denies ISI behind Indian embassy attack
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press Fri Aug 1, 3:22 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Friday angrily denied a newspaper report that its intelligence service helped plan a bombing of India's embassy in Kabul that killed at least 41 people, amid mounting allegations the secretive agency is aiding Islamic militants.
5 NATO troops killed; groups warn about Afghan aid
By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Roadside bombs killed five NATO soldiers and a civilian in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, while a coalition of aid groups warned that violence is spreading to once-stable regions and forcing them to scale back humanitarian work.
U.S. says Pakistani spies forewarn al Qaeda allies
Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD, July 31 (Reuters) - The United States has accused members of Pakistan's main spy agency of tipping off al Qaeda-linked militants before U.S. missile attacks on targets in Pakistani tribal lands, Pakistan's defence minister said.
Record Afghan unrest hampering aid: NGOs
Fri Aug 1, 6:27 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan have hit record highs this year with hundreds of civilians killed, including 19 aid workers, and spreading insecurity cutting back relief work, aid groups said Friday.
AFGHANISTAN: Some 1,000 civilians killed since January - NGO body
KABUL, 1 August 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 1,000 civilians are among the 2,500 killed in armed conflict so far in 2008, a network of 100 national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said.
Afghan al-Qaeda leader 'killed'
Friday, 1 August 2008 BBC News
Al-Qaeda says one of its commanders in Afghanistan, Abu Abdullah al-Shami, has been killed in a US air strike.
Canadian ambassador says civilian deaths in Afghanistan are decreasing
The Canadian Press
KABUL — The accidental shooting deaths of two Afghan children by Canadian troops and threats of revenge from their father are unfortunate but such incidents are becoming increasingly rare, says Canada's outgoing ambassador to Afghanistan.
Obama Afghanistan policy criticised
By Edward Luce and Stephanie Kirchgaessner The Financial Times August 1 2008
The US should avoid suggesting that the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will be followed by a surge of troops in Afghanistan, according to Jim Webb, the Democratic senator for Virginia.
BAE Systems profits boosted by Iraq, Afghanistan conflicts
Fri Aug 1, 5:16 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Defence equipment firm BAE Systems said Friday that net profit rose 14 percent in the first half, boosted by demand for vehicles used during the ongoing US-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: The Other Illegal War
By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted August 1, 2008
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was every bit as illegal as the invasion of Iraq. Why, then, do so many Americans see it as justifiable?
Kill Canadians, grieving Afghan father says
Aug 01, 2008 06:45 AM THE CANADIAN PRESS
The CBC is reporting that the father of two children shot to death by Canadian troops in Afghanistan says he would "kill the Canadians" if he gets the chance.
FEATURE-Kabul book-seller wants to spur reading habit
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Shah Muhammad Rais is the biggest book-seller in Afghanistan, but while business is good, he still has another mission in mind: to get his countrymen interested in reading again.
NI Troubles play on Afghan tour
By Natalie Lindo BBC News Friday, 1 August 2008 12:52 UK
It was written to explore ways of dealing with Northern Ireland's troubled past, now the same play has travelled thousand of miles to Afghanistan where it is being used to examine the legacy of the warn-torn country's own conflict.
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Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul, U.S. Officials Say
By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times August 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.
The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.
The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Concerns about the role played by Pakistani intelligence not only has strained relations between the United States and Pakistan, a longtime ally, but also has fanned tensions between Pakistan and its archrival, India. Within days of the bombings, Indian officials accused the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, of helping to orchestrate the attack in Kabul, which killed 54, including an Indian defense attaché.
This week, Pakistani troops clashed with Indian forces in the contested region of Kashmir, threatening to fray an uneasy cease-fire that has held since November 2003.
The New York Times reported this week that a top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled to Pakistan this month to confront senior Pakistani officials with information about support provided by members of the ISI to militant groups. It had not been known that American intelligence agencies concluded that elements of Pakistani intelligence provided direct support for the attack in Kabul.
American officials said that the communications were intercepted before the July 7 bombing, and that the C.I.A. emissary, Stephen R. Kappes, the agency’s deputy director, had been ordered to Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, even before the attack. The intercepts were not detailed enough to warn of any specific attack.
The government officials were guarded in describing the new evidence and would not say specifically what kind of assistance the ISI officers provided to the militants. They said that the ISI officers had not been renegades, indicating that their actions might have been authorized by superiors.
“It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held,” one State Department official with knowledge of Afghanistan issues said of the intercepted communications. “It was sort of this ‘aha’ moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof.”
The information linking the ISI to the bombing of the Indian Embassy was described in interviews by several American officials with knowledge of the intelligence. Some of the officials expressed anger that elements of Pakistan’s government seemed to be directly aiding violence in Afghanistan that had included attacks on American troops.
Some American officials have begun to suggest that Pakistan is no longer a fully reliable American partner and to advocate some unilateral American action against militants based in the tribal areas.
The ISI has long maintained ties to militant groups in the tribal areas, in part to court allies it can use to contain Afghanistan’s power. In recent years, Pakistan’s government has also been concerned about India’s growing influence inside Afghanistan, including New Delhi’s close ties to the government of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.
American officials say they believe that the embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose alliance with Al Qaeda and its affiliates has allowed the terrorist network to rebuild in the tribal areas.
American and Pakistani officials have now acknowledged that President Bush on Monday confronted Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, about the divided loyalties of the ISI.
Pakistan’s defense minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, told a Pakistani television network on Wednesday that Mr. Bush asked senior Pakistani officials this week, “ ‘Who is in control of ISI?’ ” and asked about leaked information that tipped militants to surveillance efforts by Western intelligence services.
Pakistan’s new civilian government is wrestling with these very issues, and there is concern in Washington that the civilian leaders will be unable to end a longstanding relationship between members of the ISI and militants associated with Al Qaeda.
Spokesmen for the White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment for this article. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, did not return a call seeking comment.
Further underscoring the tension between Pakistan and its Western allies, Britain’s senior military officer said in Washington on Thursday that an American and British program to help train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in the tribal areas had been delayed while Pakistan’s military and civilian officials sorted out details about the program’s goals.
Britain and the United States had each offered to send about two dozen military trainers to Pakistan later this summer to train Pakistani Army officers who in turn would instruct the Frontier Corps paramilitary forces.
But the British officer, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said the program had been temporarily delayed. “We don’t yet have a firm start date,” he told a small group of reporters. “We’re ready to go.”
The bombing of the Indian Embassy helped to set off a new deterioration in relations between India and Pakistan.
This week, Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at each other across the Kashmir frontier for more than 12 hours overnight Monday, in what the Indian Army called the most serious violation of a five-year-old cease-fire agreement. The nightlong battle came after one Indian soldier and four Pakistanis were killed along the border between sections of Kashmir that are controlled by India and by Pakistan.
Indian officials say they are equally worried about what is happening on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border because they say the insurgents who are facing off with India in Kashmir and those who target Afghanistan are related and can keep both borders burning at the same time.
India and Afghanistan share close political, cultural and economic ties, and India maintains an active intelligence network in Afghanistan, all of which has drawn suspicion from Pakistani officials.
When asked Thursday about whether the ISI and Pakistani military remained loyal to the country’s civilian government, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sidestepped the question. “That’s probably something the government of Pakistan ought to speak to,” Admiral Mullen told reporters at the Pentagon.
Jalaluddin Haqqani, the militia commander, battled Soviet troops during the 1980s and has had a long and complicated relationship with the C.I.A. He was among a group of fighters who received arms and millions of dollars from the C.I.A. during that period, but his allegiance with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda during the following decade led the United States to sever the relationship.
Mr. Haqqani and his sons now run a network that Western intelligence services say they believe is responsible for a campaign of violence throughout Afghanistan, including the Indian Embassy bombing and an attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul earlier this year.
David Rohde contributed reporting from New York, and Somini Sengupta from New Delhi.
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Pakistan denies ISI behind Indian embassy attack
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press Fri Aug 1, 3:22 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Friday angrily denied a newspaper report that its intelligence service helped plan a bombing of India's embassy in Kabul that killed at least 41 people, amid mounting allegations the secretive agency is aiding Islamic militants.
The New York Times reported that American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence were involved in the July 7 attack in the Afghan capital.
The report cited unnamed U.S. government officials. It said the conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq described the report as "total rubbish," saying there was no evidence of ISI involvement.
"The foreign newspapers keep writing such things against ISI, and we reject these allegations," he said by telephone from a summit of South Asian leaders in Sri Lanka.
Afghanistan has long accused the ISI of backing the Taliban-led insurgency wracking the country, despite Pakistan's support of the U.S.-led war on terror. The embassy bombing was the deadliest in Kabul since the 2001 ouster of the Islamist regime in a U.S. invasion.
Last week, India accused "elements of Pakistan" of being behind the blast and said it had put the four-year-old peace process between historic rivals India and Pakistan — who have fought three wars since they won independence from Britain 60 years ago — "under stress."
The latest accusations came as South Asian leaders — including those from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan — gathered for a meeting on regional cooperation in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Thursday the South Asian countries were expected to sign a pact to work together to fight terrorism and to freeze funds used for terror attacks.
A Bush administration official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies suspect rogue elements in ISI of giving militants sensitive information that helps them launch more effective attacks from Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
The official said that top CIA and U.S. military officials, including CIA Deputy Director Steve R. Kappes, traveled to Pakistan five days after the Indian Embassy attack to press their misgivings about apparent ties between militants and some mid-level ISI officials, amid mounting evidence initially collected by the United States and then corroborated by Indian intelligence.
A U.S. counterterror official said some Pakistani intelligence officers' support for the Jalaluddin Haqqani network, associated with both the Taliban and al-Qaida, is of particular and long-standing concern.
The New York Times report cited American officials as saying the embassy attack was probably carried out by members of the Haqqani network.
The report did not specify what kind of assistance the ISI officers allegedly provided to the militants, but said they had not been renegades, indicating that their actions might have been authorized by superiors.
This week, President Bush publicly praised visiting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as a strong ally against terrorism. But according to a report in Pakistan's The News daily, Bush expressed concern over ISI elements leaking information to militants and asked Gilani who was controlling the spy agency.
The report quoted Pakistan's Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.
ISI, which has been an important partner of the U.S. in capturing top al-Qaida suspects since 2001 — including 9/11 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — is formally under the control of Pakistan's prime minister, but all its senior officials are army officers.
On the eve of Gilani's visit to Washington, the government announced the powerful agency would now report to the interior minister — the top civilian security official — only to backtrack hours later. That confusion had led to pointed criticism of the government, which has struggled to define a coherent strategy for combating Islamic militancy since it took office after defeating supporters of President Pervez Musharraf in February elections.
The government has pursued peace deals with militants and tribes in Pakistan's volatile northwest. NATO and U.S. military complain that the talks and accompanying cease-fires have freed up militants to mount attacks across the border into Afghanistan.
American officials also worry that the lack of military pressure on militants inside Pakistan will only allow them to build their strength and give al-Qaida a chance to plot another 9/11-style strike in the West.
_____
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Pamela Hess in Washington contributed to this report.
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5 NATO troops killed; groups warn about Afghan aid
By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Roadside bombs killed five NATO soldiers and a civilian in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, while a coalition of aid groups warned that violence is spreading to once-stable regions and forcing them to scale back humanitarian work.
The soldiers' deaths marked a bloody start to the month in what has already been a deadly year for the separate U.S.-led coalition and NATO mission in Afghanistan, where an insurgency is raging nearly seven years after the fundamentalist Taliban regime was ousted.
Four of the NATO soldiers and a civilian died in Kunar province and the fifth soldier was killed in Khost, the alliance said in a statement. It did not release the nationalities of the soldiers, but most troops in those eastern areas are American.
The number of insurgent attacks in eastern Afghanistan have increased 40 percent this year compared to the same period in 2007. Afghan officials contend most of the militants fighting in the east use Pakistan's tribal areas across the border as a base.
A suicide bomber, meanwhile, blew himself up while being chased by police in the southwestern town of Zaranj in Nimroz province, and the blast killed three civilians, including two young girls, and wounded five others, Afghan authorities said.
Militants regularly use suicide bombing in attacks aimed at Afghan and foreign security forces, but the majority of victims are civilians.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been particularly strong in the south and east, but the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief noted Friday that violence is now reaching other provinces, even those bordering the capital, Kabul, such as Logar and Wardak.
"Insecurity has spread to areas which were previously relatively stable in parts of north, northwest and central Afghanistan," the umbrella organization for 100 aid groups said in a statement.
Drawing on other recent reports, it said that "aid organizations and their staff have been subject to increasing attacks, threats and intimidation, by both insurgent and criminal groups."
A group advising aid agencies on security tallied 2,056 insurgent attacks in the six months through June, a 52 percent increase from the same period of 2007. The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office said 19 aid workers have been killed so far this year, compared to 15 during all of 2007.
The coordinating body said initial estimates suggest more than 260 Afghan civilians were killed in July alone, higher than any other month in the last six years.
An Associated Press count based on accounts from Afghan and Western officials indicates more than 2,700 people — most of them militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year.
The aid groups' statement said violence in southern Afghanistan has forced the closure of a large number of schools and health facilities and "has caused significant levels of internal displacement."
On top of the violence, it noted, parts of Afghanistan are experiencing "severe drought" and food prices are rising in the country, adding to the hardships of an already impoverished population.
"Increasing and spreading insecurity is jeopardizing the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance to these people and threatening their lives and livelihoods," the statement said.
Aleem Siddique, a top U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan, agreed that "the humanitarian challenge in Afghanistan continues to grow" but said he hoped that won't drive away aid agencies, whose support is needed "if we are to prevent further suffering."
"It is imperative that they remain committed to Afghanistan," Siddique said. "The needs of its people cannot be met by the government and the U.N. alone."
The groups involved in the aid coordinating body also expressed concern about the impact of violence on civilians and noted that airstrikes by international forces were adding to the civilian casualty toll.
A U.S. military spokesman, 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, responded Friday by reiterating the U.S. and NATO position. "Coalition forces make every effort to minimize the risk of any damage, injury or loss of life to noncombatants," he said.
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U.S. says Pakistani spies forewarn al Qaeda allies
Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD, July 31 (Reuters) - The United States has accused members of Pakistan's main spy agency of tipping off al Qaeda-linked militants before U.S. missile attacks on targets in Pakistani tribal lands, Pakistan's defence minister said.
Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar openly acknowledged American mistrust of Pakistan's main military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in remarks aired on Thursday on Pakistani television.
"They think that there are some elements in the ISI at some level that when the government of Pakistan is informed of targets, then leak it to them (militants) at some level," Mukhtar told Geo in Washington, having accompanied Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on a maiden visit to the United States.
"This is an issue on which they were a bit annoyed."
The disclosure of American displeasure by a minister in the four-month-old civilian government of American could embarrass President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani military, and reawaken concern about the stability of the nuclear armed state.
The U.S. no longer gives Pakistan advance notice when it targets militants in tribal areas.
The News, a Pakistani daily from the same media group as Geo, reported that Bush had asked who was controlling the ISI.
The ISI is the main intelligence arm of the military, which directs its operations, though under the law it reports to the prime minister.
Pakistan's security apparatus consists of the ISI, and Military Intelligence, which deals solely with military matters, and their civilian cousins, the Intelligence Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency, and the police Special Branch.
Pakistan is going through a transition to civilian rule after 8 years of military-led government, and the new leaders want to streamline reporting lines.
Last Saturday the government issued a decree saying the ISI and the Intelligence Bureau would be placed under the Interior Ministry, but backtracked the next day with a clarification that raised doubts in sections of the media about its own competence.
The coalition government has still to find its feet, and is fraught with internal tensions while also dealing with a economic and energy crisis, and analysts say it would be unwise to get into a confrontation with the military.
Past civilian rulers, including Nawaz Sharif and the late Benazir Bhutto, appointed men of their choice as head of ISI, but each time it led to differences with the army, which has led the Muslim nation for more than half the 61 years since it was carved out of the partition of India.
U.S. ally Musharraf stepped down as army chief last November, and promoted General Ashfaq Kayani, who had been head of the ISI, to succeed himself, and also chose the current ISI chief, Lieutenant-General Nadeem Taj.
After abandoning support for the Taliban government in Afghanistan after al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, Musharraf ordered a clear out of the ISI's Afghan desk dealing with the Islamist militia, but has has defend the agency from periodic criticism that it retains links.
Gilani, whose Pakistan People's Party has its own history of mistrust with the army, spoke up for the ISI calling it a "great institution" and saying he found reports that some members of the ISI were sympathetic to the militants to be unbelievable.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that a top Central Intelligence Agency official confronted Pakistani officials earlier this month with evidence of ISI ties to militants, and involvement in a suicide car bomb attack outside the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed 58 people, including two senior Indian diplomats. (Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by David Fox)
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Record Afghan unrest hampering aid: NGOs
Fri Aug 1, 6:27 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan have hit record highs this year with hundreds of civilians killed, including 19 aid workers, and spreading insecurity cutting back relief work, aid groups said Friday.
Unrest had spread to once stable areas and welfare agencies were forced to scale back aid delivery even as drought and food price hikes put millions of people in difficulty, the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief said.
"So far this year the number of insurgent attacks, bombings and other violent incidents is up by approximately 50 percent on the same period last year," said ACBAR, a grouping of about 100 Afghan and international non-governmental organisations.
There were 463 insurgent attacks in May and 569 in June, it said in a statement, citing figures from a range of sources including the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office.
This was "greater than the number of such attacks in any other month since the end of major hostilities following the international intervention in 2001," it said.
"This year 2,500 people have reportedly lost their lives in the conflict and whilst exact figures are not yet available, this could include up to 1,000 civilians," the group added.
Initial estimates were that more than 260 civilians were killed in July, which was higher than any other month in the past six years, it said.
July saw some of the worst violence of an insurgency by Islamic extremists launched after the Taliban were ousted from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
A suicide bomb at the Indian embassy in Kabul killed around 60 people and other attacks left dozens more dead. Military action, mostly air strikes on insurgents, killed nearly 80 civilians, according to Afghan and military officials.
ACBAR said two-thirds of reported civilian casualties could be attributed to insurgent activities, especially suicide bombings and the use of civilian property to launch attacks.
But the growing number of air strikes by international military forces, up by about 40 percent on last year, had also contributed.
In addition, "Aid organisations and their staff have been subject to increasing attacks, threats and intimidation, by both insurgent and criminal groups," ACBAR said.
"This year there have been over 84 such incidents, including 21 in June, more than in any other month in the last six years.
"So far this year 19 NGO staff have been killed, which already exceeds the total number of NGO workers killed last year."
Violence had forced the closure of schools and health facilities in the south, it said. It was also hindering vital development projects.
Drought and higher food prices meanwhile put more than four million Afghans in "extremely difficult circumstances", especially young children and breastfeeding or pregnant woman.
"Increasing and spreading insecurity is jeopardising the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance to these people and threatening their lives and livelihoods."
ACBAR called on all parties in the conflict to prioritise the safety of civilians and observe "fundamental standards of humanity" and "the established international laws of armed conflict."
This included distinguishing between civilians and combatants; never using civilians as a shield; and not attacking humanitarian, development and medical personnel or supplies.
The United Nations said in reaction to the group's statement that growing insecurity was also affecting its work, with 12 UN humanitarian convoys attacked by criminal gangs in the past six months.
"Without a doubt the humanitarian challenge in Afghanistan continues to grow, insurgent and criminal attacks have prevented us from reaching some the country's most vulnerable communities," spokesman Aleem Siddique said.
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AFGHANISTAN: Some 1,000 civilians killed since January - NGO body
KABUL, 1 August 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 1,000 civilians are among the 2,500 killed in armed conflict so far in 2008, a network of 100 national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said.
The NGO network (Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief – ACBAR http://www.acbar.org/) said in a statement: "There has been a surge in the number of civilian casualties caused by all sides [in the conflict], a spread of insecurity to previously stable areas, and increasing attacks on aid agencies and their staff."
Armed clashes and conflict-related violence have increased by about 50 percent in 2008 compared to last year, aid agencies warned.
"The number of insurgent attacks for each of the months of May (463), June (569) and July is greater than the number of such attacks in any other months since the end of major hostilities following the international intervention in 2001," the NGO statement said.
July was reportedly the worst month for Afghan civilians in the past six years, with 260 civilian casualties recorded, the statement added.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) attributed two-thirds of the reported civilian causalities to Taliban insurgents whose tactics include the use of suicide bombers and roadside explosions which tend to kill or maim civilians.
Aerial strikes by US-led international forces have also caused civilian casualties, the AIHRC said.
Insecurity and violence have rapidly spread to parts of the country previously considered relatively stable, thus affecting development and humanitarian activities. Tens of thousands of people, mostly in the volatile south and southeast, have also been forced out of their homes, aid agencies said.
Increased number of deaths among aid agency staff
"Aid organisations and their staff have been subject to increasing attacks, threats and intimidation, by both insurgent and criminal groups," the ACBAR statement said.
The Afghanistan NGOs Safety Office reported 84 security incidents involving NGOs from January to July 2008 leading to the deaths of 19 NGO staff, more than the total number of aid workers killed last year.
"This situation has forced many aid agencies to restrict the scale and scope of their development and humanitarian operations," the NGOs statement said.
Amid increasing needs for relief - resulting from high food prices, severe drought and conflict-related displacements - the inability of aid agencies to reach and assist needy people could prompt a humanitarian crisis, aid workers have warned.
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Afghan al-Qaeda leader 'killed'
Friday, 1 August 2008 BBC News
Al-Qaeda says one of its commanders in Afghanistan, Abu Abdullah al-Shami, has been killed in a US air strike.
Al-Shami was one of four al-Qaeda men who escaped from the US prison at Bagram, north of Kabul, in 2005.
A statement posted on an Islamist website did not give any details of when or where he was killed.
The statement, dated 14 July, was posted on the internet on Thursday. It was signed by al-Qaeda's top commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed.
Al-Qaeda is blamed for the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US and other attacks around the world.
Many analysts believe the group's leader Osama Bin Laden and other senior operatives are hiding near the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Afghanistan: Poppy destruction aiding Taliban, says think-tank
London, 1 August (AKI) - The forced eradication of poppy crops in Afghanistan is fuelling support for the Taliban and the insurgency, according to an international policy think-tank.
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Canadian ambassador says civilian deaths in Afghanistan are decreasing
The Canadian Press
KABUL — The accidental shooting deaths of two Afghan children by Canadian troops and threats of revenge from their father are unfortunate but such incidents are becoming increasingly rare, says Canada's outgoing ambassador to Afghanistan.
With his mandate slated to end this week, Arif Lalani reflected on his 15 months at the helm of Canada's diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan during an interview with The Canadian Press.
He noted that civilian deaths were a hot topic when he first took office in April 2007.
Human Rights Watch says 434 civilians were killed in Afghanistan by coalition air strikes and ground fire in 2007. In the same year, 950 civilians were killed by insurgents, according to the New York-based organization.
But Lalani says NATO has taken remedial steps.
"If you look at the last three to six months, you will see that NATO forces have reviewed their procedures as they constantly do and you see that the issue has become less of an issue," Lalani said in his heavily guarded office in the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.
The young children were killed Monday when Canadian troops opened fire on a car they feared was about to attack their convoy. Their grieving father told reporters in Kandahar city on Thursday that he would "kill Canadians" if he gets the chance.
"When you lose a loved one, it's natural to be angry, to be resentful, to blame someone," Lalani said.
"But the evidence is also pretty clear: one, we've had progress on civilian casualties; and two, by and large, people have responded very well when we have these rare incidents, particularly in the Canadian case."
Calling it the "toughest job he's every done," Lalani said being Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan has also been "one of the most satisfying."
Despite a recent escalation of violence in the south where Canadian troops are based, Lalani said he's confident Afghan forces will be able to stand on their own when Canada's military commitment in Kandahar ends in 2011.
A six-point plan unveiled in Ottawa in June aimed at building Afghan security forces and local governance, improving essential services like water by repairing the Dalha Dam in Arghandab district - one of Canada's "signature projects" - boosting development and addressing violence along the Pakistan-Afghan border.
These are key to Canada's exit strategy, he said.
"By the time our mission ends in 2011, will Afghan forces be able to maintain the status quo? I think they will from what I've been seeing," he said.
"What we have is I think a very strong, very focused strategy working backwards from 2011."
He said Canada has made significant strides in training the Afghan army and police, and that Canada has become a major diplomatic player in Afghanistan.
Canada has been vigilant in its efforts to ensure rigorous monitoring of detainees turned over to Afghan forces by Canadian troops following allegations of abuse, he said. It was a controversy he had to deal with early on in his mandate.
The ambassador said a focus on development has meant more children are in school, the economy is growing and infrastructure is improving.
"We also know that there's a long way to go and the challenges here are large and the solutions aren't going to be overnight," he said.
"I think what we need to look at is that we are we heading in the right direction, and I think we are."
The 40-year-old diplomat, whose previous postings took him to Jordan and Iraq, will head next to England to study at the London School of Economics. His final week's agenda is packed with last-minute farewell meetings and dinners.
On a table inside his office sit several wrapped goodbye presents he plans to give to colleagues, and he proudly pulls out a medal for distinguished service presented to him Thursday by Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a private ceremony at his palace.
"I think personally you always wish you could do more, but I think we've done pretty well here," he said.
While he refused to say who will replace him as Canada's new ambassador to Afghanistan, Lalani did offer some advice.
"Build on the collective success of our troops and civilians," he said, adding the job can be frustrating at times as the pace of change can be slow.
"Don't lose faith. Take the long view and don't forget that we are real leaders here."
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Obama Afghanistan policy criticised
By Edward Luce and Stephanie Kirchgaessner The Financial Times August 1 2008
The US should avoid suggesting that the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will be followed by a surge of troops in Afghanistan, according to Jim Webb, the Democratic senator for Virginia.
Fresh from ruling himself out as a possible running mate for Barack Obama, Mr Webb's comments come as an implied criticism of the Democratic party's orthodoxy on Iraq and Afghanistan - including Mr Obama's own stance.
Following his recent trip to Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr Obama welcomed growing support for his plan to set a timeline for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq and said the US "should seize the moment" to build up its presence in Afghanistan.
"The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan," he said.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Webb politely disagreed, without mentioning Mr Obama or other Democratic colleagues by name. "We should be very careful from making it sound like we are withdrawing from Iraq because we have to build up in Afghanistan," he said. "You're starting to see people say this when they weren't saying it before.
"We tend to be country-specific when we talk about how to defeat international terrorism rather than looking at the whole dynamic. The dynamic is that terrorism works the seams of international law. We can't create stable societies in places like Afghanistan . . . that can't be our objective."
A former secretary of the navy in the Reagan administration and a decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr Webb's views on defence are taken seriously by colleagues. His son, a US marine, has just returned from Iraq. Although he supports withdrawal from Iraq, he has not offered a timeline. He believes withdrawal should only take place after a new administration has launched a "diplomatic surge" in the region, as suggested almost two years ago by James Baker and Lee Hamilton in their report on Iraq.
He said that the US could be about to make the same mistake in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq. "You have to have an articulable end-point," he said. "We've got to clearly understand what it is that the US wants to do in Afghanistan and understand what we can do."
But it is Mr Webb's background as a "Reagan Democrat" - the group of working-class Democratic supporters who switched to the Republicans in the aftermath of the Vietnam war - that gives him the most clout with his Democratic colleagues.
The 62-year-old senator believes that the conservative revolution that was fuelled by the switch of voters from his own Scots-Irish background to the Republicans in the 1970s and 1980s is drawing to a close. He said that the Democrats now had a "historic opportunity" to win back those voters and change the contours of American politics.
"One thing that I said when I decided to run for the Senate in 2006 was that if you take this bellwether [Scots-Irish working class] group, this is a test to see whether it can come back to its natural populist roots in the Democratic party and if you do that you will have a redefinition of the two parties," he said.
As he stated in his book Born Fighting , which argues that the Scots-Irish Protestants are the most important and overlooked ethnic group in the US, Mr Webb rejects the view that they are racially motivated. "The story of the American South was never white against black. It was always a small minority of whites setting whites against blacks, and if those two cultures can get together at the same place on the table they can remake American politics."
Given that Mr Obama is African-American, Mr Webb's thesis is about to receive the ultimate test. Mr Webb says that the Democrats alienated working-class voters by following the dictates of "special interest groups". In contrast, the Republicans tailored specific social conservative appeals to win their support. "Karl Rove [George W. Bush's electoral maestro] knows this culture inside out and the Democrats don't even know it exists," he said.
In order to win back states such as Virginia for the Democrats in November and take the White House, Mr Obama will need to show a cultural affinity with them, says Mr Webb.
"They want to know he [Mr Obama] understands them and is like them in the way he approaches the issues they face - it is an affinity issue," he said. "He's got a pretty good shot. The day after the primaries were resolved he started off in Bristol, Virginia, which is the birthplace of country music, so that was a very good gesture."
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BAE Systems profits boosted by Iraq, Afghanistan conflicts
Fri Aug 1, 5:16 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Defence equipment firm BAE Systems said Friday that net profit rose 14 percent in the first half, boosted by demand for vehicles used during the ongoing US-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Profit after tax grew to 586 million pounds during the six months to June 30 compared with net profit of 515 million pounds in the same period a year earlier, BAE said in an earnings statement.
Revenue grew by 12.5 percent to 7.751 billion pounds.
"Building on the first half performance, the previously anticipated growth outlook for 2008 as a whole is expected to benefit further from the current high demand for armoured wheeled vehicles to meet operational requirements," the company said.
BAE added that its Land and Armaments unit "continues to benefit from operational requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the wheeled vehicle market."
The share price of BAE Systems rose 2.44 percent to 461 pence in early trading on London's FTSE 100 index, which was down by about half a percent.
BAE published its results two days after the Serious Fraud Office won a legal appeal against a ruling that it acted unlawfully by stopping a corruption probe into a huge arms deal between the company and Saudi Arabia.
The House of Lords, on Wednesday overturned an earlier High Court finding over the investigation into the Al-Yamamah arms deal in 1985, worth 43 billion pounds.
The Serious Fraud Office had investigated claims that BAE Systems, one of the world's biggest arms makers, ran a 60-million-pound slush fund for Saudi officials in a bid to attract contracts.
But it ditched its investigation in 2006, with then prime minister Tony Blair explaining that the investigation could threaten intelligence links at a key point in the "war on terror."
The decision to shelve the probe was strongly criticised by anti-corruption campaigners and the press, which accused the government of bowing to pressure from Riyadh.
Britain and Saudi Arabia have close ties and last year signed a 4.43-billion-pound deal to supply 72 Eurofighter planes to Riyadh in one of London's largest ever export orders.
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Afghanistan: The Other Illegal War
By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted August 1, 2008
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was every bit as illegal as the invasion of Iraq. Why, then, do so many Americans see it as justifiable?
So far, President Bush's plan to maintain a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq has been stymied by resistance from the Iraqi government. Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawal of American troops evidently has the backing of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush has mentioned a "time horizon," and John McCain has waffled. Yet Obama favors leaving between 35,000 and 80,000 U.S. occupation troops there indefinitely to train Iraqi security forces and carry out "counterinsurgency operations." That would not end the occupation. We must call for bringing home -- not redeploying -- all U.S. troops and mercenaries, closing all U.S. military bases and relinquishing all efforts to control Iraqi oil.
In light of stepped-up violence in Afghanistan, and for political reasons -- following Obama's lead -- Bush will be moving troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Although the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was as illegal as the invasion of Iraq, many Americans see it as a justifiable response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the casualties in that war have been lower than those in Iraq -- so far. Practically no one in the United States is currently questioning the legality or propriety of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. The cover of Time magazine calls it "The Right War."
The U.N. Charter provides that all member states must settle their international disputes by peaceful means, and no nation can use military force except in self-defense or when authorized by the Security Council. After the 9/11 attacks, the council passed two resolutions, neither of which authorized the use of military force in Afghanistan. Resolutions 1368 and 1373 condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and ordered the freezing of assets; the criminalizing of terrorist activity; the prevention of the commission of and support for terrorist attacks; and the taking of necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorist activity, including the sharing of information. In addition, it urged ratification and enforcement of the international conventions against terrorism.
The invasion of Afghanistan was not legitimate self-defense under article 51 of the charter because the attacks on Sept. 11 were criminal attacks, not "armed attacks" by another country. Afghanistan did not attack the United States. In fact, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, there was not an imminent threat of an armed attack on the United States after Sept. 11, or Bush would not have waited three weeks before initiating his October 2001 bombing campaign. The necessity for self-defense must be "instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation." This classic principle of self-defense in international law has been affirmed by the Nuremberg Tribunal and the U.N. General Assembly.
Bush's justification for attacking Afghanistan was that it was harboring Osama bin Laden and training terrorists. Iranians could have made the same argument to attack the United States after they overthrew the vicious Shah Reza Pahlavi in 1979 and he was given safe haven in the United States. The people in Latin American countries whose dictators were trained in torture techniques at the School of the Americas could likewise have attacked the torture training facility in Fort Benning, Ga., under that specious rationale. Those who conspired to hijack airplanes and kill thousands of people on 9/11 are guilty of crimes against humanity. They must be identified and brought to justice in accordance with the law. But retaliation by invading Afghanistan is not the answer and will only lead to the deaths of more of our troops and Afghans.
The hatred that fueled 19 people to blow themselves up and take 3,000 innocents with them has its genesis in a history of the U.S. government's exploitation of people in oil-rich nations around the world. Bush accused the terrorists of targeting our freedom and democracy. But it was not the Statue of Liberty that was attacked. It was the World Trade Center, the symbol of the U.S.-led global economic system; and the Pentagon, the heart of the U.S. military, that took the hits. Those who committed these heinous crimes were attacking American foreign policy. That policy has resulted in the deaths of 2 million Iraqis -- from both Bill Clinton's punishing sanctions and George W. Bush's war. It has led to uncritical support of Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian lands, and it has stationed more than 700 U.S. military bases in foreign countries.
Conspicuously absent from the national discourse is a political analysis of why the tragedy of 9/11 occurred and a comprehensive strategy to overhaul U.S. foreign policy to inoculate us from the wrath of those who despise American imperialism. The "Global War on Terror" has been uncritically accepted by most in this country. But terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy. You cannot declare war on a tactic. The way to combat terrorism is by identifying and targeting its root causes, including poverty, lack of education and foreign occupation.
There are already 60,000 foreign troops, including 36,000 Americans, in Afghanistan. Large increases in U.S. troops during the past year have failed to stabilize the situation there. Most American forces operate in the eastern part of the country; yet by July 2008, attacks there were up by 40 percent. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser for Jimmy Carter, is skeptical that the answer for Afghanistan is more troops. He warns that the United States will, like the Soviet Union, be seen as the invader, especially as we conduct military operations "with little regard for civilian casualties." Brzezinski advocates Europeans bribing Afghan farmers not to cultivate poppies for heroin, as well as the bribery of tribal warlords to isolate al-Qaeda from a Taliban that is "not a united force, not a world-oriented terrorist movement, but a real Afghan phenomenon."
We might heed Canada's warning that a broader mission, under the auspices of the United Nations instead of NATO, would be more effective. Our policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan should emphasize economic assistance for reconstruction, development and education, not for more weapons. The United States must refrain from further Predator missile strikes in Pakistan and pursue diplomacy, not occupation.
Nor should we be threatening war against Iran, which would also be illegal and result in an unmitigated disaster. The U.N. Charter forbids any country to use, or threaten to use, military force against another country except in self-defense or when the Security Council has given its blessing. In spite of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's conclusion that there is no evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons, the White House, Congress and Israel have continued to rattle the sabers in Iran's direction. Nevertheless, the anti-war movement has so far fended off passage of HR362 in the House of Representatives, a bill that is tantamount to a call for a naval blockade against Iran -- considered an act of war under international law. Credit goes to United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, Peace Action and dozens of other organizations that pressured Congress to think twice before taking that dangerous step.
We should pursue diplomacy, not war, with Iran; end the U.S. occupation of Iraq; and withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.
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Kill Canadians, grieving Afghan father says
Aug 01, 2008 06:45 AM THE CANADIAN PRESS
The CBC is reporting that the father of two children shot to death by Canadian troops in Afghanistan says he would "kill the Canadians" if he gets the chance.
Rozi Mohammed, who lives in the town of Chalaghor, southwest of Kandahar City, made the comments Thursday while being interviewed about Sunday's incident.
His daughter Mulkia, 5, and son Thor Jan, 2, died when Canadian troops opened fire on a car they feared was about to attack their convoy.
The military said the taxi did not slow down and ignored repeated signals to keep a safe distance away.
But Mohammed says the car they were riding in pulled out after the second car of the Canadian convoy had passed and the third vehicle then opened fire.
He says the Canadian government should "avoid shooting innocent people."
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FEATURE-Kabul book-seller wants to spur reading habit
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Shah Muhammad Rais is the biggest book-seller in Afghanistan, but while business is good, he still has another mission in mind: to get his countrymen interested in reading again.
Having failed to reach all the far-flung corners of war-torn Afghanistan with a mobile book shop on a bus, the 54-year-old Rais has now launched a Web site (www.shahmbookco.com) to reach those who have access to the Internet and order books on-line.
He claims to have the world's largest collection of books on Afghanistan in key international languages.
"I would say they are unique," Rais said in his store in the heart of Kabul as his staff dusted off a pile of books, part of the nearly 1 million he owns.
"With regret and unfortunately, I have to say that I am the main book-seller in Afghanistan. There will be a crisis of books if something happens to us or if we collapse. So, it is very important that we have others involved in this too," he said.
Rais, who has an engineering degree, has been involved in the book trade for 35 years and is well known to many expatriates in Kabul as well as Afghan book lovers.
A visiting Norwegian journalist wrote a book about Rais months after the Taliban's fall in 2001.
"The Bookseller of Kabul", portraying Rais as tough and brutal with his family, became a worldwide hit with sales of more than a million copies.
Rais, who hosted the author, Asne Seierstad, rejects the book and at one stage was planning to take legal action against her. His worst experience as a book-seller during the past three decades of war was being thrown behind bars for two years by the communist government of the 1980s for selling "imperialistic books" and copies of the newspapers of Western-backed Afghan factions opposing the regime.
BOOKS SOLVE PROBLEMS
In 2002, he began to work on a project to sell books from a bus to remote parts of Afghanistan.
After failing to get support from foreign NGOs involved in educational or cultural projects, he bought a bus himself.
The bus took some 20,000 books to a number of northern provinces in 2006, but violence and insecurity in the south and east blocked his efforts to reach the rest of the country.
"That way, a student would have saved money and time by not travelling all the way from Kunduz or Takhar to Kabul to buy a book," he said referring to two northern provinces.
"There was a big rush and enthusiasm, but I had to drop the project for I did not receive support from the government and the NGOs. Of course, business was and is part of my agenda, but people would have benefitted more from it," he said.
The cost of a book on the bus tour would not have been higher that what Rais sells in his store in Kabul now, he says.
Now, the broad-shouldered and neatly bearded Rais has created a website containing the books he has for sale and their prices. But buyers have to pay and arrange for their own private transport to receive the books.
The spirit of book reading has suffered in Afghan culture due to three decades of war which hurt education and literacy rates in Afghanistan, once the birth place of many important and Asian scholars, scientists and poets.
"Through books, our kids would know about their culture, history and understand the world. Books are like seas. You have to dive into the sea to get the pearl. You have to read books to know how to solve your country's problems," Rais said.
"Unless, we reintroduce the habit of book reading, we will have more illiterates and more trouble," he said.
Rais is working on a personal memoir of the last three decades and also wants to expand his current business by building a "massive book shop, library and a publishing house to have direct contacts with the world's libraries," he said. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
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NI Troubles play on Afghan tour
By Natalie Lindo BBC News Friday, 1 August 2008 12:52 UK
It was written to explore ways of dealing with Northern Ireland's troubled past, now the same play has travelled thousand of miles to Afghanistan where it is being used to examine the legacy of the warn-torn country's own conflict.
'AH 6905' was written by Londonderry-man Dave Duggan and following an adaption, is currently on a tour across Afghanistan.
Dave explains that the play is written as a hospital visit, AH stand for Altnagelvin hospital and the numbers representing the years 1969 to 2005.
"We meet Danny and he's about to have an operation. Everything that's happened between 1969 and 2005 is in his body," said the playwright.
"It's in his arm, legs, back, kidneys - all the horrific incidents - and he's going to get the truth cut out of him and all those horrible incidents."
"He's visited by ghosts of the dead, he's possessed by them - manifestations of people killed in the conflicts during that time."
In the play, the central character is desperate to know what the ghosts want.
The backdrop to the play moves from Derry to literally what's left of the Bamiyan Buddha caves, which were destroyed by the Taleban in 2001.
"In Afghanistan they have adapted it to their own circumstances - they have Taleban members, ordinary citizens, Russian soldiers, all represented by ghosts in the play," said Dave Duggan.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the United Nations backed the touring theatre project.
Playwright Dave Duggan, who is based in Derry, sent some of his scripts to a friend in Afghanistan, who was very interested in AH 6905 in particular.
"There were various conversations by e-mail about how it would be adapted and if it would be useful," he said.
"I signed the rights to a production for Afghanistan and they've done it in Dari and Pashtu, two of the biggest language groups in Afghanistan and they're running it all over."
Mr Duggan said the main focus of the play was "how we deal with post-conflict situations".
"But when is the right time for this when, like in Afghanistan, the conflict is still ongoing?" he asked
"If they were to wait for the 'conflict' to be over, they would be waiting a long time.
"It could be argued a bit like the Irish conflict that war and a peace process often go hand in hand."
Just like the audiences in Northern Ireland, those in the open-air theatre in Afghanistan know the pain of losing husbands and fathers - when the Taleban came to Bamiyan they were brutal and ruthless.
Qureish, for example, lost six close family members to the Taleban and had to drag the bodies into a makeshift grave on her own, as her male relatives had been killed.
The huge war cemetery is so close to the village that it is a constant reminder of what they have been through.
"People lost hope," she said. "Everyone was mentally affected, everyone has been left traumatised and depressed."
Like Qureish many people in the audience are struggling to have their voices heard.
Dave argues that the primary focus is one of entertainment, but if people are engaged or moved then something more could be achieved.
"It's not politics it's theatre," he said. "Conflict can be seen as a darkened room, it will be politics that will illuminate it, but at the same time theatre can open a window and let some light in."
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