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30 militants die in Afghan battle near ambush site
By FISNIK ABRASHI and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writers Thu Aug 21, 12:23 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday it had killed more than 30 insurgents in a battle in eastern Afghanistan, fighters an Afghan governor said were responsible for an attack that killed 10 French
Britain 'resolute' in its support of Afghanistan: Brown
KABUL (AFP) - Britain is "utterly resolute" in supporting Afghanistan as it fights a Taliban-led insurgency and pursues democracy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said during a visit to Kabul Thursday.
Brown Presses Karzai to Tackle Afghanistan Corruption (Update1)
By Mark Deen
Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew to Afghanistan for talks with President Hamid Karzai today, calling on the government in Kabul to crack down on corruption and the opium trade
Three Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Taliban attack killed three Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, military officials said on Thursday, bringing to 93 the number of soldiers killed there since Canada sent troops to the war-torn country in 2002.
US general warns of security gap when Marines leave Afghanistan
by Kimberly Johnson Wed Aug 20, 11:27 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Security gains made in southern Afghanistan could suffer if US Marines are pulled out later this year without replacements, the head of the Marine Corps has warned.
Eight troops dead in Afghanistan in 24 hours: military
KABUL (AFP) - Eight international troops including three Poles and three Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, a military source said Thursday.
Afghan civilians said killed in U.S.-led air raid
KABUL, Aug 21 (Reuters) - More than a dozen civilians have been killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman, two provincial officials said on Thursday.
Emergency hotline services facilitate
common Afghans' fight against illegal activities
By Abdul Haleem, Zhang Yunlong
KABUL, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- In a positive step towards post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan, authorities have launched emergency hotline services to facilitate the common Afghans' fight against illegal
Documents: US strike aided bin Laden-Taliban ties
By PAMELA HESS August 20, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. cruise missile strike on an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 1998 was meant to kill Osama bin Laden. But he apparently left shortly before the missiles struck
Asia's new 'great game' is all about pipelines
Secure routes needed to move Central Asia's vast energy resources to international markets
The Toronto Star (Opinion) August 20, 2008 John Foster
The quest for control of energy resources has been dubbed the "new great game" – a rivalry for pipeline routes to access energy resources in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
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30 militants die in Afghan battle near ambush site
By FISNIK ABRASHI and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writers Thu Aug 21, 12:23 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday it had killed more than 30 insurgents in a battle in eastern Afghanistan, fighters an Afghan governor said were responsible for an attack that killed 10 French troops this week. Officials announced the deaths of six NATO soldiers in two attacks.
Lutfullah Mashal, the governor of Laghman province, said coalition bombs targeted fighters on the border of Laghman and Kabul provinces. He said the insurgents were fleeing the valley where Monday's attack on the French took place.
Mashal said Wednesday night's airstrike was not directly in retaliation for the French ambush because the targeted militants also had been involved in "repeated attacks" in the area.
Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, the top spokeswoman for the U.S.-led coalition, said the coalition was not "completely certain" that the militants were directly involved in the attack on the French.
"They were certainly at a minimum complicit," she said. "It doesn't matter if they were or weren't involved in an attack today, yesterday or on Sept. 11, 2001. We seek out terrorists and we will give them the option to be captured or killed or possibly flee."
Coalition troops and Afghan commandos were conducting a search operation in Laghman when militants engaged the troops in a battle Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement. A coalition airstrike destroyed an "enemy fighting position" in the area, it said.
More than 30 militants were killed and one militant was wounded and taken for treatment after the clash, the coalition said. It said 200 civilians fled the area before the airstrike.
Afghan officials said about 20 civilians were wounded in the fighting. Mashal said it was not clear if the coalition bombs wounded the Afghans or if Taliban fighters had.
Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the provincial Health Ministry, said 21 civilians were wounded, including five children. Laghman deputy police chief Najibullah Hotak said one civilian died in the fighting and 20 were wounded.
Afghanistan is experiencing a surge in violence despite ongoing Western efforts to stabilize the country.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the country Wednesday to reassure French troops and the world of its commitment to the cause a day after a massive Taliban assault an hour east of Kabul killed 10 of his country's troops and wounded 21.
Both NATO and French Defense Minister Herve Morin said Thursday there were no signs that French forces were hit by friendly fire in the ensuing fighting, dismissing a report in Le Monde newspaper.
The paper, quoting survivors of the ambush, said it took hours for backup to arrive and that French troops were hit by friendly fire from NATO planes.
"We have no information allowing us to consider that French soldiers were killed under fire of NATO planes," Morin said on RTL radio.
Violence engulfing areas of neighboring Pakistan is also dimming the prospect of the new civilian government there tackling Taliban sanctuaries in its territory.
Three Polish soldiers were killed Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded in the central province of Ghazni, Polish Defense Ministry spokesman Jacek Poplawski said Thursday. A fourth soldier was wounded.
In the southern Kandahar province, meanwhile, a roadside blast Wednesday killed three Canadian soldiers, Canadian officials said.
This year will likely be the deadliest for international troops since the 2001 invasion. Some 184 international soldiers, including about 96 Americans, have died in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count. That pace should far surpass the record 222 international troop deaths in 2007.
In all, more than 3,400 people — mostly militants — have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to figures from Western and Afghan officials.
Warnings from Western commanders in Afghanistan that militant attacks are growing larger and more sophisticated were borne out by Monday's attack on the French, which was the deadliest ground attack by insurgents on foreign troops in the country since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
NATO and Afghan officials blame the surging violence in part on the ease with which militants can cross from safe havens in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas.
On Wednesday evening, missiles destroyed a compound in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region that Pakistani intelligence officials said was frequented by foreign militants.
Between five and 10 people were believed killed, though their identities were not immediately known, the officials said.
It was also unclear who carried out the attack, though similar attacks in the past by U.S. drone aircraft have killed senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders.
Militants are also engaged with Pakistani security forces in at least two regions on that side of the border. Hundreds have reportedly died and tens of thousands have been displaced in that fighting in recent weeks.
Western officials complain that Pakistan is not putting enough pressure on militants in the tribal areas. The Afghan government also has accused Pakistan's spy agencies of secretly supporting the Taliban.
Pakistan denies the charges and insists army troops deployed in the border region as well as peace deals struck by the government with tribal leaders are helping control militancy.
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Britain 'resolute' in its support of Afghanistan: Brown
KABUL (AFP) - Britain is "utterly resolute" in supporting Afghanistan as it fights a Taliban-led insurgency and pursues democracy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said during a visit to Kabul Thursday.
Brown told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai that Britain would increase its contribution to training the Afghan army and police force and towards development, including of the civil service and education.
Even though countries with troops in Afghanistan had suffered losses in recent weeks, "we are utterly resolute in our determination to support this new democracy of Afghanistan," Brown said.
Ten French soldiers were killed in fighting near Kabul on Monday in the deadliest ground battle for international soldiers sent to the country after the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.
"We will not relax from our efforts to support reconstruction of Afghanistan because we understand that, with Afghanistan the frontline against the Taliban, what happens in Afghanistan affects the rest of the world," he said.
Brown, who had earlier visited British troops based in the volatile southern province of Helmand, said Britain would do more to train and mentor the Afghan army and police forces.
Britain would also provide 17 million dollars for a radio station in Helmand and 120 million dollars towards a development fund that would including paying teachers' salaries.
Brown was in Afghanistan en route to China for the Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing.
Britain has about 8,000 troops in the 40-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that is helping Afghanistan fighting an insurgency led by the extremist Islamic Taliban who were in government between 1996 and 2001.
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Brown Presses Karzai to Tackle Afghanistan Corruption (Update1)
By Mark Deen
Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew to Afghanistan for talks with President Hamid Karzai today, calling on the government in Kabul to crack down on corruption and the opium trade that is funding the Taliban insurgency.
The message is ``sort out the government so we have a full attack on corruption and sort out the drug culture,'' Brown told journalists on the way to Afghanistan. ``We want to see on-the- ground delivery of results.''
Britain, the U.S. and other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are in their seventh year of warfare in Afghanistan after ousting the Taliban from power in 2001. Ten French soldiers were killed in an ambush outside Kabul this week and Brown predicted further ``guerrilla attacks.''
Karzai faces criticism from the United Nations for failing to address corruption in his administration and tackle the opium trade that is helping finance the Taliban insurgency. Berlin- based Transparency International, an anti-graft group, said Afghanistan is perceived as one of the 10 most corrupt countries of 180 nations it studied last year.
``We are utterly resolute in our determination to support this new democracy, which is Afghanistan,'' Brown said today in a joint news conference with Karzai in Kabul. ``What happens in Afghanistan affects the rest of the world.''
Aid to Afghanistan
He announced $120 million in additional development aid to the country and said the U.K. will fund a new radio station in Helmand to counter Taliban propaganda.
``We will do more to support the growth of the Afghan army,'' Brown said, adding that he hoped the army would increase from 60,000 to 80,000 and then grow to 120,000 in the next few years. ``We will continue to do what is necessary to have a corruption-free police force,'' Brown said. He also pledged to help build the Afghan civil service.
The Afghan population is becoming increasingly frustrated with the government's failure to tackle corruption and Karzai risks more people backing the insurgency, Seth Jones, an analyst at the Washington-based policy research group Rand Corp. said by telephone today. ``The population is quickly becoming alienated,'' he said. ``It is a fundamental challenge.''
Brown met with U.K. soldiers at the Camp Bastion base in southern Helmand province before flying to Kabul. In Camp Bastion, where about 5,000 British soldiers are based, Brown also met with Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, who is in charge of the force there, as well as the governor of Lashkar Gah.
`Bad Guys'
``Do the U.K. public understand why we're here? Not really,'' Lieutenant Colonel David Reynolds said in an interview at the base. Keeping support for the mission is difficult, he added. ``We're here to make sure the bad guys, al-Qaeda, don't have the ability to take refuge in any shape or form.''
Brown's visit came a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited his own forces in the capital and met with some of the 21 paratroopers who were wounded in the fighting on Aug. 18 and Aug. 19.
Sarkozy told troops their work in Afghanistan was essential for the ``freedom of the world,'' Agence France-Presse reported. ``The best way to be loyal to your comrades is to continue your work, is to raise your heads, to be professional.''
The U.K., whose contingent of more than 7,000 soldiers in Afghanistan is the second biggest behind the U.S., is pressing the governments of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan to work together to contain the Taliban.
`Important' Cooperation
``Afghanistan-Pakistan cooperation is incredibly important,'' Brown said. ``We've had a period of political uncertainty and now we're pressing them to work together,'' he added, referring to President Pervez Musharraf's resignation three days ago that ended a six-month standoff with Pakistan's coalition government.
Tensions are high between the neighboring countries, after Afghanistan said Pakistani intelligence agencies were behind a failed attempt to kill Karzai during a military parade in Kabul in April and that they assisted insurgents in planning the bombing of the Indian Embassy in July. Pakistan denied the allegations.
Pakistan's coalition government, which forced Musharraf's resignation, says it is using a combination of political and economic development and selective military force to combat militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, which the Bush administration says are a haven for terrorists.
Musharraf's Role
Musharraf, regarded as a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, quit to avoid impeachment charges that he illegally came to power in a 1999 coup and violated the constitution when he fired 60 judges last year.
``The strategy is to move to greater Afghan control over their own affairs,'' Brown said. ``We're also working on local economic development to provide an alternative to heroin production.''
Afghanistan provides more than 90 percent of the world's supply of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, and the Taliban will generate at least $100 million from this year's opium crop, according to the UN.
Karzai last month denied allegations by former U.S. counter narcotics official Thomas Schweich that his government is reluctant to prosecute corrupt officials and drug lords for fear of losing political support.
NATO has about 53,000 soldiers in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. The U.S. has more than 19,000 personnel under NATO command and about 16,000 in an American-led counterterrorism force.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Deen in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and Kabul at markdeen@bloomberg.net
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Three Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Taliban attack killed three Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, military officials said on Thursday, bringing to 93 the number of soldiers killed there since Canada sent troops to the war-torn country in 2002.
The three were killed on Wednesday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, where 2,500 Canadians are based as part of a NATO combat mission to fight the Taliban and other militants. A fourth soldier was reported injured in the attack.
The commander of the Canadian forces in Afghanistan said the attack was part of a more aggressive pattern by the Taliban this year.
"I don't know that the Taliban are getting stronger. What I'd say is they're much more aggressive this fighting season than they've been in the past," Brig. Gen. Denis Thompson told reporters in Afghanistan in remarks broadcast in Canada.
"The difference is they're not holding any of the ground they're attacking us on."
(Reporting by Randall Palmer; editing by Rob Wilson)
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US general warns of security gap when Marines leave Afghanistan
by Kimberly Johnson Wed Aug 20, 11:27 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Security gains made in southern Afghanistan could suffer if US Marines are pulled out later this year without replacements, the head of the Marine Corps has warned.
General James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, said the US Marines will be unable to provide more forces until there is a significant draw down of their numbers in Iraq.
No firm plan has been made regarding who will replace the 2,200 Marines in the southern Afghanistan when their tours end in November, Conway told AFP.
Conway made the remarks last week in an interview with a reporter who traveled with him on a visit to Afghanistan, where 3,500 Marines have been deployed, and to Iraq, where 24,000 Marines are stationed.
"Our experience has been -- and it's drawn principally from Iraq -- (that) when you are in an area for a while, people will eventually come to trust you, they rely on your security, they will give you intelligence and expect you to continue to provide that security," said Conway on a stop at the Marine base outside the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
"If you leave those people, the method of the Taliban or of the Al-Qaeda is to come in and exact a punishment," he said.
His warning comes amid rising violence in eastern Afghanistan and around Kabul. The Marines have been credited with helping keep the Taliban forces at bay in southern and western Afghanistan since arriving in March.
Conway cautioned that pulling out without a replacement would make it more difficult for Marines -- or any military force -- when they returned.
"What happens when you come back is that there's not a level of trustworthiness that you've had there among the people because you did this once before," he said.
Marine Lieutenant Benjamin Brewster knows how difficult it is to gain the confidence of Afghan locals.
Brewster leads some 70 Marines based at a small camp outside the village of Gulestan, in Afghanistan's volatile southwestern Farah province. The province borders Iran.
Opium and marijuana crops are king in the region, said Brewster, interviewed at the Gulestan camp. The dusty military outpost of tents and camouflage netting is ringed by dirt-filled barriers and is located some 97 kilometers (60 miles) from the nearest Marine base.
"When we leave, they will either go back to being farmers, or will be killed," said Brewster, whose Marines patrol an area some 15 square kilometers (six square miles) large.
Other forces with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could provide security in the region that had intermittent patrols before Marines arrived, Conway said.
"As long as someone is there -- someone who represents the government or represents security to the people -- I think we'll be OK. The question is who and to what degree," he said.
If the Marines return to Afghanistan after this deployment they will need to come back in much larger numbers, Conway said.
"We are undermanned in order to be able to do all we need to do in the south," he said.
Conway noted that the Marine battalion based in Farah province is responsible for 6,178 square kilometers (16,000 square miles) of territory.
"That's a huge area of responsibility. We can't nearly be every place we need to be in sufficient strength to manage that," he said.
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Eight troops dead in Afghanistan in 24 hours: military
KABUL (AFP) - Eight international troops including three Poles and three Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, a military source said Thursday.
News of the latest casualties came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy conducted a tribute ceremony in Paris for 10 French troops killed in an ambush near Kabul three days before.
The three Canadians were killed in a roadside blast, while doing reconnaissance on Wednesday, its military said in a televised briefing Thursday.
The soldiers were combat engineers on patrol in the Zhari district of southern Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle at 10:30 am (0630 GMT) Wednesday, said Brigadier-General Denis Thompson.
"They were a combat engineer reconnaissance team and they were at that point in time conducting a routine reconnaissance," Thompson said.
"They were on their way to the site where they were going to do the reconnaissance of a route that's going to be used for a future operation."
Another wounded soldier is in serious but stable condition in hospital, Thompson added.
Also Wednesday, three Polish troops also attached to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in similar circumstances in the central province of Ghazni.
One coalition soldier under US command, whose nationality has not been identified, was killed by gunfire in western Afghanistan, also on Wednesday.
The eighth died "outwith combat operations" in the east of the country, the military said.
The deaths bring to 40 the number to have perished during August, with around 184 having died in operations since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally based on military statements.
The majority were victims of roadside or improvised bomb attacks.
The Taliban launched a bloody insurgency after being driven from power at the end of 2001 by a US-led coalition.
Attacks have increased in intensity over the past two years despite the presence of 70,000 foreign soldiers.
The attacks are aimed at Afghan and international troops, who are grouped under ISAF or the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Civilians are as often as not the victims.
Canada maintains a contingent of 2,500 soldiers in the Kandahar region as part of the ISAF contingent. Since the start of the mission in 2002, 93 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died.
Poland's 1,200-strong contingent is due to rise by another 400 over the coming months.
Another 21 French soldiers were wounded in the battle with Taliban rebels earlier this week.
It was the deadliest toll in individual ground fighting for international forces since their arrival in Afghanistan.
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Afghan civilians said killed in U.S.-led air raid
KABUL, Aug 21 (Reuters) - More than a dozen civilians have been killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman, two provincial officials said on Thursday.
But the U.S. military said Wednesday's operation which also involved Afghan forces and air support had killed more than 30 insurgents. A military spokesman said he had no knowledge of non-combatant deaths.
The issue of civilian casualties caused by foreign forces while hunting the Taliban has led to a rift between Afghanistan and its Western backers. President Hamid Karzai said this month that air strikes by foreign forces had only succeeded in killing civilians and not in winning the war.
The reported deaths of civilians and militants came days after the Taliban killed 10 French soldiers in an area close to Laghman, the biggest single loss of foreign forces in direct combat since the militants' removal from power in 2001.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew to the Afghan capital to pay respects to the dead soldiers, said troops must stay on to fight terrorism.
Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence this year as the hardline Islamist Taliban step up their campaign of guerrilla attacks, backed by suicide blasts and roadside bombs, to overthrow the pro-Western Kabul government and drive out foreign troops. In one such attack, three soldiers from the NATO-led force were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Ghazni province to the southwest of Kabul on Wednesday, the alliance said.
The soldiers were travelling in a vehicle when the improvised explosive device went off, it said on Thursday without identifying the victims. Most of the foreign troops in Ghazni are Americans or Polish.
The Taliban could not be reached immediately for comment on the Ghazni or Laghman incidents.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Roger Crabb)
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Emergency hotline services facilitate
common Afghans' fight against illegal activities
By Abdul Haleem, Zhang Yunlong
KABUL, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- In a positive step towards post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan, authorities have launched emergency hotline services to facilitate the common Afghans' fight against illegal activities in the country which has been the scene of escalating violence.
The 119 hotline, an emergency service of the U.S. 911 style and a self-help effort to maintain social safety, was established some seven months ago, allowing residents to contact police all-around-clock to report suspected terrorists or illegal behavior.
"Up to 4,000-4,500 calls concerning ranging from terrorist activities, robbery, catching fire and police malpractice are received daily," an official at the press department of interior ministry told Xinhua but refused to be named.
The service, currently available in the capital city Kabul and the western city Herat, would be extended to the all 34 provinces of the country, the official said.
Militants loyal to Taliban outfit and al-Qaida network are stepping up insurgency against western-backed Afghan government mostly in the shape of roadside bombings and suicide attacks.
More than 8,000 people lost their lives in Afghanistan in 2007,the deadliest one since the collapse of Taliban regime seven years ago. So far this year, over 3,000 people including militants, troops, civilians and aid workers have been killed in spiraling conflicts and violence.
Illegal activities "no doubt" have been reduced and police performances have been improved since the service's launching, the interior ministry official noted. He said behind the service there is a special police unit to provide immediate help to the needy people.
Afghan interior and defense ministries have been asking people through advertisements aired by radio and television to inform police or army whenever they find anyone with suspicious activities or discover explosive ordnances.
Several attempts by terrorists to damage the national properties and kill innocent citizens have been thwarted thanks tothe hotline, according to officials.
"People welcome this move, this progress" said Farid Ahmad, 30 plus, a driver for an international organization in Kabul, adding that the 119 service in a way can bridge the gap between needy people and the newly-trained police, who many believe will be and should be backbone for protecting social security, though there is still much complaint about police corruption.
Under training support from the international community, Afghanistan, with its security forces totally destroyed in decades of factional war, has over the years established a tens of thousands-strong national police force who are new-style and well-equipped compared to their predecessors.
In a latest display of their growing strength and capability, Afghan police in thousands on Aug. 17 went to the street in Kabul to provide tightened security protection ahead of the Independence Day celebrations.
Another hotline service, 102, featuring emergency medical service, became operational in Kabul two years ago and it enables people to take their ill or injured dears and nears to hospitals immediately through government-owned ambulances.
"On average, within 24 hours we receive between 100 to 110 calls and transport the same number needy people to health centers," said Nazir Khan, a staffer at the 102 department, adding that the essential service is free of charge and open for anyone.
The 102 hotline service, now only usable in Kabul, will be expanded to other provinces in future, according to officials.
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Documents: US strike aided bin Laden-Taliban ties
By PAMELA HESS August 20, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. cruise missile strike on an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 1998 was meant to kill Osama bin Laden. But he apparently left shortly before the missiles struck, and newly declassified U.S. documents suggest the attack cemented an alliance with his Taliban protectors.
The State Department documents released Wednesday provide details of the evolving relationship between Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaida chief bin Laden over four month in 1998. The period begins Aug. 21, 1998, one day after the missile attack — retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7 of that year.
Omar said publicly on Aug. 21 he would continue to protect bin Laden. But the next day, he told a State Department employee in private that he would be open to negotiating bin Laden's presence in Afghanistan, giving U.S. officials faint but ultimately false hope the Taliban might hand him over to Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden had been in Afghanistan since he was expelled from Sudan in May 1996.
Those talks took place sporadically over the next few months in 1998, according to documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In the interim, however, bin Laden had traveled south in Afghanistan to Kandahar. There, he would be close to Omar, who wanted to "keep a watch on him," said a secret cable sent from Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan, to U.S. diplomatic and military posts on Sept. 9, 1998.
By the end of that October, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was concerned the tables had turned and Omar was falling under bin Laden's political and philosophical sway. The U.S. once had believed the Taliban's ambitions were confined to turning Afghanistan into a Sunni Muslim theocracy. Now, however, there were signs that Omar's association with bin Laden was driving him toward a greater goal — pan-Islamism, the unification of all Muslims under a single Islamic state.
"I believe that bin Laden has been able to get into the good graces of Omar — who is very poorly educated and unsure of foreign affairs — and to influence him in his way of thinking," according to a cable from Oct. 22. "The potential ramifications of a Mullah Omar who is drifting toward pan-Islamism are grim. First and foremost, it could mean that the Taliban would under no condition expel bin Laden because they see his cause as theirs."
The rest of the documents detail months of unsuccessful U.S. attempts to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Laden.
"Time for a diplomatic solution may be running out. Taliban brush-off of our indictment and other evidence may indicate movement from tolerance" of bin Laden's presence "to more active support," said a Nov. 28 memo for then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Bin Laden remained in Afghanistan until after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he apparently was driven out by the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He is believed to be hiding in western Pakistan's ungoverned border area.
After the bombings of the two American embassies, the U.S. launched 62 Tomahawk cruise missiles at two al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan. It was believed bin Laden was at one of them meeting with several of his top men, but left shortly before the missiles struck.
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Asia's new 'great game' is all about pipelines
Secure routes needed to move Central Asia's vast energy resources to international markets
The Toronto Star (Opinion) August 20, 2008 John Foster
The quest for control of energy resources has been dubbed the "new great game" – a rivalry for pipeline routes to access energy resources in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
It's a geopolitical game that is openly analyzed in U.S. think-tanks, widely reported in the Asian press but rarely commented upon in Canada. It began after the Soviet Union broke up and the five "Stans" of Central Asia became independent.
Recent reports have linked the conflict in Georgia with pipelines that bring oil and gas to Europe but the pipeline rivalry extends far beyond Georgia to the vast oil and gas resources of the Caspian region and Central Asia.
When the countries of Central Asia were part of the Soviet Union, their oil and gas flowed only to the north through Soviet-controlled pipelines. After the Soviet breakup in 1991, however, competing world powers began to explore ways to tap these enormous reserves and move them in other directions.
Pipelines are important today in the same way that railway building was important in the 19th century. They connect trading partners and influence the regional balance of power.
Both Georgia and Afghanistan are seen as energy bridges – transit routes for the export of land-locked hydrocarbons.
Washington has long promoted a gas pipeline south from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. It would pass through Kandahar.
Realistic or not, construction is planned to start in 2010, and Canadian Forces are committed until December 2011. Richard Boucher, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, said last year: "One of our goals is to stabilize Afghanistan," and to link South and Central Asia "so that energy can flow to the south."
Unwittingly or willingly, Canadian forces are supporting American goals.
The BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) oil pipeline and South Caucasus gas pipeline that pass through Georgia to Turkey originate in Azerbaijan. Recently built, they are the jewels in the crown of U.S. strategy to secure energy resources that bypass Russia and reduce European dependence on pipelines from Russia.
Two Central Asian countries are rich in hydrocarbons. According to the International Energy Agency, Turkmenistan has the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas, while Kazakhstan's oil reserves are said to be three times those of the North Sea. Turkmenistan exports virtually all its gas to Russia. Last year, the presidents of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan agreed on a new gas line north to expand the export system. Construction starts this summer.
China is tapping into Central Asia's treasure, too. There is a new pipeline that brings oil from Kazakhstan to China. And a gas pipeline is being built from Turkmenistan through Kazakhstan to China.
The rivalry continues with plans for new gas lines to Central Europe. The Russians plan a line under the Black Sea to Bulgaria called South Stream, and the EU backs a project called Nabucco that would supply gas via Turkey.
As well, Washington is pushing for new pipelines under the Caspian Sea that would link Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan and the pipelines to Europe.
But Russia is blocking these plans. Boucher asserts that European energy security is important to the United States as well as to Europeans and that it "is based on having multiple sources."
The United States expresses great concern about European dependence on oil and gas imports from Russia. But Europe has imported energy from Russia for 40 years. It imports from the Middle East and Africa, too.
Is Russia less reliable? Much is made of Russia's temporary cuts in gas supplies to Ukraine and Belarus, but these countries were enjoying highly subsidized gas (a hangover from the Soviet era) and refusing to pay full European border prices. In similar circumstances, what would Canadian energy suppliers do?
Energy has become an issue of strategic discussions at NATO. At recent NATO summits the United States sought to commit NATO to energy security activities, calling for NATO to guard pipelines and sea lanes.
Last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said energy security required "unprecedented international co-operation, ... protecting and maintaining the world's energy supply system."
NATO proposals could have enormous consequences for Canada. U.S. strategic thinking is to get other NATO countries involved in guarding the world's oil and gas supplies. Canada is in danger of being drawn into long-term military commitments relating to energy.
Recently, Defence Minister Peter MacKay told a Halifax talk show that Canadian troops were not in Afghanistan "specifically" to guard a pipeline, but "if the Taliban are attacking certain projects, then yes we will play a role."
Neither Afghanistan nor Georgia is a member of NATO, but both are transit countries in the new great game.
Energy geopolitics are worthy of public discussion. The rivalry for energy resources is a power game – and militarizing energy is a long-term recipe for disaster.
John Foster is an international energy economist and an expert on the world oil scene. He is the author of "A Pipeline Through A Troubled Land: Afghanistan, Canada, and the New Great Energy Game," Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. www.policyalternatives.ca
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