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Afghanistan accusing Pakistan of aiding insurgents
By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press August 6, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's spy agency alleged on Wednesday that a member of Pakistan's consulate in the country's south helped a Taliban commander in his attempts to weaken the government.
Some Afghan MPs back Taliban, drugs trade -official
KABUL, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A senior Afghan intelligence official has accused a number of parliamentarians of supporting Taliban insurgents, Afghan newspapers said on Wednesday.
Pakistan must rein in 'out of control' elements: Afghan minister
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan is keen to work with Pakistan to fight Islamic extremism, but Islamabad must rein in elements in the government that are "out of control," the Afghan foreign minister said Wednesday.
Mystery of Siddiqui disappearance
By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Islamabad Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Aafia Siddiqui, whom the US accuses of al-Qaeda links, vanished in Karachi with her three children on 30 March 2003.
Pakistani Scientist Charged with Trying to Kill US Authorities in Afghanistan
Voice of America By Scott Stearns Washington 05 August 2008
A Pakistani scientist is charged with trying to kill U.S. military and civilian authorities in Afghanistan. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, human rights groups say the U.S. government secretly detained
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 6
Aug 6 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1300 GMT on Wednesday:
INTERVIEW-Some Afghan security better, despite UK troop deaths
06 Aug 2008 13:19:05 GMT By Jonathon Burch
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug 6 (Reuters) - British troop casualties and increased Taliban bomb attacks belie some improvements in security in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a senior British commander said.
US Marine dies in Afghanistan
Associated Press August 6, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. marine died of wounds sustained when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday.
Berlin confirms abduction of German national in Afghanistan
Berlin, Aug 6, IRNA
A German national of Afghan origin is believed to have been abducted in Afghanistan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner told journalists here Wednesday.
Three German Soliders Injured in Afghanistan Suicide Attack
Deutsche Welle, Germany
Three members of the NATO-led German forces in Afghanistan were wounded when a bomber detonated his explosives-laden motorbike near their convoy in the north of the country, officials said Wednesday.
NATO troops prevent car bombing attempts in central Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-06 19:15:00
KABUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have prevented the use of two vehicle-borne IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device)
Reid headed to Afghanistan
Las Vegas Review-Journal
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., traveled into Afghanistan today as part of a weeklong trip to central Asia and Germany, his office announced this morning.
Afghans return from Pakistan cross 200,000 mark: UNHCR
Islamabad, Aug 6, IRNA
The UN refugee agency-assisted voluntary return of registered Afghans from Pakistan crossed the 200,000 mark for the current year over the weekend, with majority of Afghans going home from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Can Pakistan clean up its intelligence agency?
The US, India, and Afghanistan are pressuring the government to root out pro-Taliban agents.
By Shahan Mufti | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the August 6, 2008 edition
As Pakistan faces mounting pressure from its neighbors and the United States to clear pro-Taliban elements from its intelligence service, its weak government is struggling to respond in a convincing way.
Elders angered by 'broken promises'
www.quqnoos.com Written by Noorullah Rahmani Tuesday, 05 August 2008
Tribal council says Karzai has failed to fulfil opium promise
TRIBAL elders in the eastern province of Nangarhar have lashed out at the government for failing to uphold its promise to kick start development projects in the region.
A Ragtag Pursuit of the Taliban
U.S. Effort to Train Afghans as Counterinsurgency Force Is Far From Finished
Washington Post - World By Candace Rondeaux Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, August 6, 2008
CHAHAR DARREH, Afghanistan-Lt. Col. Abdul Hamid, a new police commander, was having trouble doing the math. When he took control of this district in the country's north in early July
Afghanistan's future is female
On the ground, small but significant networks are pressing for legislative reform, despite western intervention and state politics
Guardian Unlimited - Politics - Comment Conor Foley guardian.co.uk Tuesday August 05 2008
Teenage suicide bomber surrenders to police
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 05 August 2008
Taliban told boy his bomb would 'throw flowers' at soldiers
A 15-year-old boy, accused of trying to blow up an army barracks in Kapisa, has handed himself in to police.
New Yorkers on the Afghan Steppe
By Candace Rondeaux Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, August 5, 2008; 8:07 PM
CHAHAR DARREH, Afghanistan -- The night before the team of National Guardsmen headed out on a mission, their base commander launched into a short soliloquy. "Be a hard target," Lt. Col. John Weber
AFGHANISTAN: Can saffron replace poppy?
PASHTON ZARGON, 6 August 2008 (IRIN) - Mohammad Tahir was dubious about not growing poppy on his one-acre plot of land in Pashton Zargon District, Herat Province, western Afghanistan this year, but has now made a decision.
Main characters of Benazir’s assassination are in Afghanistan: IG Police Punjab
Pakistani Newspaper
MULTAN, Aug 6 (Online): IG Police Punjab, Shaukat Javed has said that PPP and Government has full trust in Punjab Police performance however the main characters of the assassination are in Afghanistan that’s wh
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Afghanistan accusing Pakistan of aiding insurgents
By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press August 6, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's spy agency alleged on Wednesday that a member of Pakistan's consulate in the country's south helped a Taliban commander in his attempts to weaken the government.
The allegation will likely further strain the acrimonious relations between the two key U.S. allies in the region.
Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said in a statement that a diplomat at the consulate in the southern Kandahar province gave "orders and money" to Mullah Rahmatullah, a Taliban militant in the region.
Rahmatullah was captured by Afghan intelligence agents on Tuesday in Kandahar city, and the information linking the official with the militants was gleaned during the questioning, the NDS said in a statement, which did not name the diplomat.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq declined to comment, saying he had not seen the report.
Rahmatullah was responsible for kidnappings of influential elders in the province, extortion, "guerrilla attacks and some other terroristic activities," the statement said.
"Mullah Rahmatullah tried to show that the (Afghan) Government is weak in Kandahar," the statement said.
"After the arrest, Mullah Rahmatullah confessed to his crimes and said he received orders and money for all terroristic activities and for the kidnappings from one of the members of Pakistan's consulate in Kandahar," the statement said.
Afghanistan has long accused the Pakistan spy agency of backing the Taliban-led insurgency. It also has complained repeatedly that Pakistan-based militants are crossing the border to launch terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan _ and, reportedly, the United States _ believe Pakistan's powerful spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, orchestrated the July 7 bombing outside India's Embassy in Kabul that killed over 60 people, in an effort to undermine growing ties between the two countries.
Pakistan, which is suspicious of India's growing role in Afghanistan, denied the accusations.
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Some Afghan MPs back Taliban, drugs trade -official
KABUL, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A senior Afghan intelligence official has accused a number of parliamentarians of supporting Taliban insurgents, Afghan newspapers said on Wednesday.
Afghan and foreign troops are struggling to contain the growing Taliban insurgency while President Hamid Karzai's government is also coming under increasing international pressure to rein in rampant corruption fed by the booming drugs trade.
The deputy head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Dr. Abdullah, told parliament on Tuesday that a "number of delegates" in the parliament "supported drug traffickers and terrorists", several newspapers reported on Wednesday.
Abdullah, who uses only one name, did not elaborate and did not name any politicians.
Such allegations have been made in the past by ordinary Afghans and Western officials, but it is the first time a senior official has accused lawmakers of helping the Taliban.
A spokesman for the NDS confirmed Abdullah's remarks, but declined to comment further.
An official for the lower house of parliament rejected Abdullah's comments and said they were aimed at covering up the government's failure to tackle the insurgency and drugs problem.
Some 2,500 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, up to 1,000 of them civilians, aid agencies say, and the number of violent incidents has risen to its highest level since U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.
Afghanistan produced some 93 percent of the world's opium last year, bringing some $3 billion of illicit funds into the economy, fuelling corruption as well as funding the Taliban.
Afghanistan's upper and lower houses of parliament are dominated by a motley collection of former anti-Soviet mujahideen leaders, ex-Communist officials and some members of the Taliban government overthrown by U.S.-led and Afghan forces in 2001.
In recent years, key former mujahideen leaders have complained of being sidelined from power. Some even say privately foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military in Afghanistan are no different from the Soviet occupiers of the 1980s.
In an article published last month the U.S. government's former point man in the fight against the Afghanistan heroin trade accused Karzai and his government of obstructing counter-narcotics efforts and protecting drug lords.
Karzai strongly denies the charge.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Pakistan must rein in 'out of control' elements: Afghan minister
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan is keen to work with Pakistan to fight Islamic extremism, but Islamabad must rein in elements in the government that are "out of control," the Afghan foreign minister said Wednesday.
Relations between the neighbours plummeted last month when Afghanistan directly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of involvement in a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed more than 60 people.
A meeting Sunday between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in which the leaders agreed to "re-engage" to fight extremism, would pave the way for more collaboration, the minister said.
But that did not mean Afghanistan was stepping back from "our strong position in the war on terror and that secret organisations in Pakistan are supporting terrorism," Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told reporters.
This appeared to be a reference to circles in the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which Karzai and US officials allege are fomenting unrest in Afghanistan. Pakistan has also been hit by a wave of extremist violence.
"The elected government of Pakistan is in a very difficult position... in some countries there are governments within the government which are out of the control of the legitimate institutions," Spanta said.
While Kabul could trust Pakistan's civilian authority, groups that were "using terrorism as a tool" and "interfering in others' affairs must be fought and we don't trust such groups," he said.
"We hope the civilian government of Pakistan, which has been elected by the will of the people, is able to bring under control those who are acting outside the laws of Pakistan."
Afghanistan has been experiencing growing insurgent attacks since the 1996-2001 Taliban regime was removed from power in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders are said to have fled across the border into Pakistan's semi-autonomous areas, where they have regrouped.
Kabul wants these "roots" of the insurgency to be dealt with instead of the US-led "war on terror" being fought in Afghanistan, already ruined by decades of war.
Spanta said Pakistan should not be alarmed by Afghanistan's strong relationship with Islamabad's rival, India.
"Afghanistan's soil is never going to be used by one country against the security of another country. Our friendship with India... is not a coalition against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan," he said.
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Mystery of Siddiqui disappearance
By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Islamabad Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Aafia Siddiqui, whom the US accuses of al-Qaeda links, vanished in Karachi with her three children on 30 March 2003.
The next day it was reported in local newspapers that a woman had been taken into custody on terrorism charges.
Initially, confirmation came from a Pakistan interior ministry spokesman.
But a couple of days later, both the Pakistan government and the FBI publicly denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
Two days after Aafia Siddiqui went missing, "a man wearing a motor-bike helmet" arrived at the Siddiqui home in Karachi, her mother told the BBC.
"He did not take off the helmet, but told me that if I ever wanted to see my daughter and grandchildren again, I should keep quiet," Ms Siddiqui's mother told me over the phone in 2003.
The mother, who has since died, also related the affair to other newspapers.
But the government continued to deny having anything to do with her daughter's disappearance.
This is despite the fact that Mrs Siddiqui's other daughter, Fauzia, says she was told by then Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat in 2004 that her sister had been released and would return home shortly.
Research at the time refused to turn up anything on the status of Aafia Siddiqui - she was not listed as wanted by any federal or Pakistani agency.
At that point, it seemed she had vanished off the face of the earth.
Islamic activities
Aafia Siddiqui is the youngest of three children of a British-trained doctor.
Her brother is an architect based in Houston, while Fauzia is a neurologist who used to work at Mount Sinai hospital in New York.
Aafia Siddiqui went to school in Karachi and graduated with a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
It was during this time that she got actively involved in on-campus Islamic activities.
A fellow Pakistani student recalls her as being one of the "hello, brother" types.
"They were the ones with scarves who used to get after us to come to the association meetings," the student, Hamza, told the BBC.
"I remember Aafia as being sweet, mildly irritating but harmless. You would run into her now and then distributing pamphlets."
After graduation, Aafia Siddiqui married Muhammad Amjad Khan, a young Pakistani doctor in Boston.
She continued with her studies, enrolling in Brandeis University near Boston for a PhD in neuro-cognitive science. Her degree has often been misreported as being in microbiology or genetics.
US discrimination
At that time, her main problems arose from married life. She and her husband argued over where to bring up their children.
"Aafia wanted them to be brought up in the US and receive a Western education, but Amjad was against it," her mother said in 2003.
The 11 September 2001 attacks in the US changed everything. Her husband was detained by the FBI for questioning.
The reason was his purchase of night vision goggles, body armour and military manuals.
He is said to have told the FBI it was for big-game hunting.
Aafia Siddiqui was also questioned briefly, but later released, as was her husband.
Soon, they decided to return to Pakistan, citing the increasing discrimination against Muslims in the US following the 9/11 attacks.
In Pakistan, the already estranged couple soon separated, and they divorced in 2002, while she was pregnant with their third child.
Following the birth, Aafia Siddiqui worked briefly in Baltimore, US, before returning to Pakistan in December 2002, where she disappeared months later.
Mounting charges
Various theories about her disappearance started to appear in international and local publications.
The first of these was on 23 June 2003 - three months after her disappearance - in Newsweek.
An investigative report, calling her a micro-biologist, said she and her husband were part of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell.
In Baltimore, she is alleged to have opened a mailbox for a suspected al-Qaeda operative now in Guantanamo Bay.
Majid Khan has been accused of planning to blow up petrol stations across the US.
The charges started to mount.
In 2004 then-FBI director Robert Mueller announced at a press conference that Aafia Siddiqui was wanted for questioning.
She was later named as part of an alleged al-Qaeda diamond smuggling operation in Liberia.
Publications such as Newsweek quoted the FBI as saying this was to finance al-Qaeda's biological and chemical weapons programme.
After that, her name remained on the list of disappeared - until she surfaced last month in Afghanistan in US military custody.
Sister speaks out
Aafia Siddiqui is now in the US facing charges of assaulting and attempting to kill US personnel while in detention in Afghanistan.
The FBI has been unable to make any of the other charges stick.
"It is always believed one is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way round," her sister, Fauzia, told reporters in Karachi on Tuesday.
She added that every time she had met US officials, they had said they had never formally accused Aafia Siddiqui of being a terrorist.
Ex-security officials also point out that if Ms Siddiqui was detained for being a terror suspect, her ex-husband, who is free, should have been too.
Why, then, would Aafia Siddiqui have been arrested and kept in secret confinement for so long?
The answer may lie in her relationship with the family of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Aafia Siddiqui is said to have married Ali Abd'al Aziz Ali, one of his nephews following her divorce.
Although her family denies this, the BBC has been able to confirm it from security sources and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family.
It is an open secret in Karachi, that any member of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family deemed to be "a 1% threat to US security" is in American custody.
That may be the only "crime" that Aafia Siddiqui has committed.
In the eyes of US and Pakistani security officials, it was apparently too big to ignore.
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Pakistani Scientist Charged with Trying to Kill US Authorities in Afghanistan
Voice of America By Scott Stearns Washington 05 August 2008
A Pakistani scientist is charged with trying to kill U.S. military and civilian authorities in Afghanistan. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, human rights groups say the U.S. government secretly detained Aafia Siddiqui for five years before bringing the charges.
The 36-year-old neuroscientist was arraigned before a federal judge in New York City, Tuesday, on charges of attempted murder and assault. She faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge if convicted.
Siddiqui did not enter a plea at her arraingment. A bail hearing is set for Monday.
Siddiqui was shot and wounded in Afghanistan last month during a confrontation with U.S. intelligence officials who wanted to question her about alleged ties to the terrorist group al-Qaida.
The federal indictment against Siddiqui says she was stopped outside the provincial governor's compound in the central Ghanzi province on July 17. Prosecutors say Afghan police found chemical liquids and gels in her handbag along with recipes for explosives and chemical weapons as well as documents describing various landmarks in the United States, including New York City.
As U.S. military and civilian investigators prepared to question her the following day, the criminal complaint says Siddiqui grabbed a rifle and pointed it at a U.S. soldier. An interpreter pushed the rifle aside as she fired at least twice, but no one was hit. A U.S. officer returned fire with a handgun, hitting her at least once in the torso.
The indictment says that despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with officials trying to subdue her, hitting and kicking them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans.
Siddiqui's family and the human rights group Amnesty International believe the American-educated biologist was secretly detained by U.S. forces at the Bagram Air Base shortly after she disappeared in 2003 while visiting her parents' home in Karachi with her three children.
Iqbal Haider is the Secretary General of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. He told a news conference in Karachi that U.S. officials have brought what he calls "idiotic charges" against innocent, educated people.
"This is [a] mockery of justice," said Iqbal Haider. "This is absolutely outright victimization."
Haider also believes Siddiqui was secretly detained by U.S. forces and questions why it took five years to bring charges against her.
"My contention is very simple," he said. "If this was a case that Aafia Siddiqui possessed so many chemical weapons, then why this delay of five years."
U.S. President George Bush has confirmed the existence of secret detention facilities outside the United States. But a senior U.S. intelligence official told the New York Times that Siddiqui was not previously in U.S. custody.
Shortly after her 2003 disappearance, the FBI issued an alert saying her whereabouts were unknown. The agency said it wanted to question her though it had no information connecting her to specific terrorist activities.
A year later, the FBI accused Siddiqui of assisting al-Qaida operatives sent to the United States by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
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FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 6
Aug 6 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1300 GMT on Wednesday:
FARAH - An improvised explosive device (IED) killed a U.S. Marine on patrol in western Farah province on Monday, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
MAIDAN WARDAK - The NATO-led force killed and wounded "some" insurgents and destroyed two vehicle-borne IEDs in air strikes in Wardak province on Tuesday, the NATO force said on Wednesday.
FARAH - The Afghan national army killed four Taliban militants on Wednesday in Farah, the Defence Ministry said.
MAIDAN WARDAK - Insurgents ambushed soldiers from NATO-led forces on a road in Maidan Wardak province on Tuesday, the alliance said, and a suicide car bomber hit a vehicle of the force during the attack. There were no alliance casualties from either incident, the alliance said.
KAPISA - U.S.-led coalition forces killed several insurgents in an operation on Tuesday in Kapisa province which lies to the northeast of Kabul, the U.S. military said.
HELMAND - Taliban insurgents have suffered "heavy casualties" in a clash with Afghan troops in southern Helmand province during the past 24 hours, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. It did not give any figure, adding the clash occurred after the insurgents ambushed the troops. Two government soldiers were wounded, it said.
(Compiled by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox)
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INTERVIEW-Some Afghan security better, despite UK troop deaths
06 Aug 2008 13:19:05 GMT By Jonathon Burch
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug 6 (Reuters) - British troop casualties and increased Taliban bomb attacks belie some improvements in security in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a senior British commander said.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year with the number of incidents greater in all the last three months than any other month since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Some 2,500 people have been killed in the conflict this year, up to 1,000 of them civilians, aid agencies say.
British troop deaths have also peaked with 16 soldiers killed in combat in Helmand since the beginning of June.
"There is a perception among some local nationals and certainly the perception in Kabul and amongst the international community that security has become worse," acting British commander in Helmand, Colonel Neil Hutton, told Reuters.
"But when you look at where that violence is taking place, by and large, it seems to be taking place in areas outside the main population centres," he said in an interview this week.
Some 3,000 British soldiers moved into the vast largely desert province of Helmand in 2006 and quickly became engaged in some the fiercest fighting seen since the Korean war in the 1950s. Troops at times had to call in air strikes just outside their own perimeter to fend off Taliban attacks.
While U.S. troops in the east complain attacks are up by 40 percent this year due to increased cross-border infiltration from Pakistan, the British appear quietly confident they are making some progress in their counter-insurgency campaign in Helmand.
The British are concentrating their efforts to bring a measure of security to a string of towns on the lush fertile banks of the Helmand River where most of the population lives.
But progress is slow and any improvement in security is relative to the dire state the province was in two years ago.
Now at least though, the Taliban have been largely pushed out of the towns. While town centres are by no means "sanitised" and the "odd bomb" was still going off, Hutton said, major attacks were no longer disrupting daily life.
"I think where we find ourselves now compared to 2006, security has vastly improved in my opinion," Hutton said.
Most British casualties are now from suicide and roadside bombs reflecting a shift in Taliban tactics but also the success of Afghan and foreign forces, he said, as the insurgents were increasingly unable to launch conventional attacks.
"There are still a degree of conventional attacks on us when the conditions suit them but by and large I think they have learnt that when they take us on conventionally they tend to die," Hutton said.
PRETTY LETHAL
Asked about the reason for the high number of British troops killed in the last two months, Hutton said it was due to a combination of factors.
"A bit of bad luck, increased troop density and a greater amount of operations being conducted," he said.
"Yes, to a degree the enemy is getting more lethal, but it is also more inefficient. He is having to mount a far greater number of attacks to achieve casualties," he said. "But when they do go off they are pretty lethal."
Some 2,000 U.S. Marines arrived to bolster British troops in Helmand in April and have managed to quell large scale violence in the former Taliban stronghold of Garmsir. But the Taliban may be simply lying low till the Marines leave later this year.
Afghan and British forces would replace the Marines in Garmsir, Hutton said, and any gains made would not be lost.
"I'm quite confident that with the numbers I'm talking about we will not see any significant changes to the security down there," Hutton told Reuters.
"If they (Taliban) think they're going to hang around waiting for any sign of weakness once the Marines have gone, then they're mistaken," Hutton said.
More troops, however, would always be welcome, he said.
"Any increases would be most welcome, no question about it," Hutton said. "I think for tens of years there will be some sort of British military presence here." (Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Editing by David Fox)
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US Marine dies in Afghanistan
Associated Press August 6, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. marine died of wounds sustained when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday.
The marine was patrolling in the southwestern Farah province at the time of the blast on Monday evening, the statement said.
The victim was assigned to the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Corps Special Operations Command, it said.
Separately, another coalition unit killed "several militants" and detained two others while searching the compound of a militant commander in the northern Kapisa province on Tuesday.
"Several armed militants engaged the force who responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants," another coalition statement said.
The troops discovered bomb making materials and "barricade-type prepared fighting positions inside the compound," it said.
More than 2,700 people have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.
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Berlin confirms abduction of German national in Afghanistan
Berlin, Aug 6, IRNA
A German national of Afghan origin is believed to have been abducted in Afghanistan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner told journalists here Wednesday.
He pointed out that the crisis staff of the foreign ministry was informed of the kidnapping on July 29.
The German citizen who has a dual nationality and works in Afghanistan, appeared to have been the victim of a "criminal kidnapping," Ploetner added.
Afghanistan has been the scene of at least six German abduction cases over the past 18 months.
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Three German Soliders Injured in Afghanistan Suicide Attack
Deutsche Welle, Germany
Three members of the NATO-led German forces in Afghanistan were wounded when a bomber detonated his explosives-laden motorbike near their convoy in the north of the country, officials said Wednesday.
The forces had stopped to repair a broken military vehicle in Jarikhushk area in Baghlan Markazi district in northern Baghlan province, when a bomber detonated himself near their convoy, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman SayedKhail told German news agency, DPA.
"The bomber was torn to pieces and three German soldiers were wounded," the police chief said.
A spokesman for the Taliban Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. He claimed that 12 foreign soldiers were killed and three of their military jeeps were destroyed in the bombing.
Sharp surge in violence
Around 3,500 German soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan as part of more than 50,000 NATO forces.
German soldiers are based in the northern provinces which are relatively peaceful compared to southern and eastern regions, where a Taliban-led insurgency is on the rise.
Taliban militants, who lost power in a US military invasion in late 2001, have recently heavily relied on the use of suicide and roadside attacks, both tactics widely believed to have been copied from Iraqi insurgents.
Afghanistan has witnessed a sharp surge in Taliban attacks as the weather has become warmer in the border regions of the country neighboring Pakistan where Afghan and western military officials claim that the militants are given safe havens.
More US soldiers were killed in action in the country during the months of May and June, compared to the US military death toll in Iraq.
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NATO troops prevent car bombing attempts in central Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-06 19:15:00
KABUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have prevented the use of two vehicle-borne IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) on Tuesday in central Afghan province of Wardak, said an ISAF statement released here on Wednesday.
ISAF received information that insurgents were making two vehicle-borne IEDs in the Maydan Shahr district of Wardak, the statement said.
After obtaining positive identification of the IEDs and insurgents, ISAF conducted airstrikes, destroying the IEDs, killing and wounding some insurgents, it added.
Afghanistan has witnessed the surge of Taliban attacks on international and Afghan troops during past weeks when the anti-government militants continue to demonstrate their strength through suicide and roadside bombings.
Escalating insurgency and violent incidents have left more than2,500 people dead with over 700 civilians since January this year in the war-torn country.
Editor: Sun Yunlong
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Reid headed to Afghanistan
Las Vegas Review-Journal
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., traveled into Afghanistan today as part of a weeklong trip to central Asia and Germany, his office announced this morning.
Reid, the Senate majority leader, and four other senators were scheduled to meet in the capital of Kabul with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, and with U.S. generals leading operations in the nation where al-Qaida and Taliban forces have been resurgent.
Blair Hinderliter, a Reid spokesman in Washington, said the senators were returning to Kyrgyzstan, and from there were scheduled to travel to Kazakhstan.
The trip to Afghanistan was planned amid tight security, Reid's office said, and so was not disclosed in advance. Reid had scheduled a press call for later today to discuss the trip.
Other senators on the trip were Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Bob Menendez , D-N.J.
The group left Washington on Sunday and were expected to return at the end of the upcoming weekend.
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Afghans return from Pakistan cross 200,000 mark: UNHCR
Islamabad, Aug 6, IRNA
The UN refugee agency-assisted voluntary return of registered Afghans from Pakistan crossed the 200,000 mark for the current year over the weekend, with majority of Afghans going home from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
This year's total of 202,774 returns includes 173,910 from NWFP, around 12,000 from southwest Balochistan, 3,729 from southern Sindh and some 13,200 from eastern Punjab, a UNHCR statement said.
Around 65 percent of Afghans returned from urban centres in Pakistan, while the rest went home from refugee villages.
On Sunday, UNHCR staff processed some 2,300 registered Afghans through the UNHCR Voluntary Repatriation Centres (VRC) in Peshawar, and Quetta, that included the 200,000th Afghan returnee. Monday saw some 1,512 registered Afghans returning home.
"The two UNHCR voluntary repatriation centres began processing registered Afghans in March and will continue to do so till the regular winter break in November. Currently more than 1,000 Afghans are leaving for home from these centres," said Ms. Guenet
Guebre-Christos, UNHCR Representative in Pakistan.
"For the last three decades Pakistan has been a gracious host for millions of their Afghan brethren, who are fleeing a life-threatening situation inside Afghanistan. In return Afghans have immense gratitude to the people and the government of Pakistan for this unmatched hospitality."
The Afghan voluntary repatriation from Pakistan is governed by a tripartite agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR based on principles of voluntary, gradual and dignified return. Since 2002, more than 3.4 million Afghans have returned home under this arrangement.
Pakistan is currently home to some 1.8 million registered Afghans mostly originating from Afghanistan's conflict-affected south and eastern regions or the drought-affected north.
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Can Pakistan clean up its intelligence agency?
The US, India, and Afghanistan are pressuring the government to root out pro-Taliban agents.
By Shahan Mufti | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the August 6, 2008 edition
As Pakistan faces mounting pressure from its neighbors and the United States to clear pro-Taliban elements from its intelligence service, its weak government is struggling to respond in a convincing way.
Last week, American officials alleged that members of Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had helped plan the bombing of the Indian consulate in Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. The claim echoed those lodged by both affected neighbors, India and Afghanistan.
On top of these accusations came reports that a top CIA official had confronted Pakistani leaders with evidence of the ISI's support for militants that the Pakistani Army has been battling in the country's restive northwest tribal areas.
The timing of the allegations against the ISI is weighing heavily on Pakistan, which has struggled to assuage its neighbors' and the US's complaints.
While it denies its intelligence agents' involvement in the July bombing, it has acknowledged that the ISI still includes agents who sympathize with Islamic militants.
To defuse escalating diplomatic tensions, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani met last weekend with Afghan and Indian leaders on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit to reiterate Pakistan's commitment to fighting terror.
In talks Saturday with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, Mr. Gilani promised to investigate the ISI's alleged role in the Kabul bombing. The next day, in a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he also agreed to work towards "developing a common strategy" to overcome the challenges terrorism poses to the stability of both of their countries.
The reports from the US surfaced just as Gilani was completing his first visit to Washington, where he met with President Bush. The tour was widely criticized for its failure to ease US growing concerns about Pakistan's role in the war on terror. A column in the Daily Times, a national English-language newspaper, called the trip an "unmitigated disaster."
Even before Gilani's visit to the US, the Pakistani government appeared to be taking action to rein in the pro-militant influence in its intelligence service. In a surprising move one day before Gilani arrived in the US, it issued a proclamation that sought to bring the ISI and another secret-service agency under the control of a government ministry.
But the hurried decision proved ineffective, signaling how much of an uphill battle the government faces. The ISI balked, and the proposal was withdrawn that same day.
Through this move, "the government may have wanted to impress on the Americans that they have a firm control over the military and intelligence agencies," says Hassan Askari Rizvi, the author of "Military, State, and Society in Pakistan." "But it was a major miscalculation, and it backfired badly," he adds.
Former Army general and security analyst Talat Masood says the retraction showed "where the real power still is."
Local media reported soon after that President Musharraf called the ISI "the first defense line of Pakistan," and suggested that any attempt to curtail its powers was a conspiracy to weaken Pakistan.
Officially, the ISI is answerable directly to the civilian government, but experts say that the agency has always followed the lead of the Pakistan Army.
While the precise chain of command and the limits of the agency's influence are debated, the history of close cooperation between the ISI and the Taliban is long and well documented.
The ISI and the CIA worked closely with Afghan mujahideen during the 1980s and armed many of the groups that later joined together to form the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
While the CIA receded after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan continued to support the Taliban regime until 2001, when the US asked Pakistan to stop. Pakistan did so officially, but elements in its security establishment are believed to have continued their support for some Taliban leaders.
"It's possible that there are certain individuals in the agencies who have developed ideological sympathies with the Islamic militants," says Professor Rizvi, "but there is more likely a real strategic calculation being made by the agencies and military here." These agencies, he says, might support the Taliban more as a way to counter longtime rival India's growing influence in Afghanistan.
But now that Pakistan is in the global spotlight of the war on terror and militants are stepping up attacks within its borders, a policy of supporting militancy is being increasingly debated at home. This week at least 136 militants, soldiers, and civilians have died in battles between security personnel and self-proclaimed Taliban in northwestern Pakistan, which has seen intermittent fighting and a number of failed cease-fires.
"One can assume," warned an editorial in Dawn, the country's largest English daily, "that the ISI understands the country's strategic and political interests well enough to refrain from undertaking such unwise adventures," as supporting the Taliban militancy.
"The fact that the ISI remains so nontransparent is adding to suspicion of the organization at home and abroad," says Mr. Masood. But as long as this government doesn't stand up and start taking responsibility, it will never be able to exert control."
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Elders angered by 'broken promises'
www.quqnoos.com Written by Noorullah Rahmani Tuesday, 05 August 2008
Tribal council says Karzai has failed to fulfil opium promise
TRIBAL elders in the eastern province of Nangarhar have lashed out at the government for failing to uphold its promise to kick start development projects in the region.
Elders and religious scholars from the four bordering districts of Khogiani, Hisarak, Pacheragam said on Monday that the government had broken its pledge to build schools and hospitals once the province eradicated its opium crop.
They also complained about large-scale unemployment in the province.
In a joint statement released after the meeting, the group said: "The government had promised to build us schools and health centers, but the government did not fulfill any of its promises.
"But still we promise that we will not allow anyone to cross the border to carry out destructive attacks and create problems for the security of the province."
The deputy governor of Nangarhar said: "The projects which the people want to be implemented, we are ready to help them. We will do our best. This can only be possible with the people’s help. The government and the people need each other. The government cannot do anything by itself."
The districts’ tribal elders and religious scholars promised to clamp down on cross-border attacks from Pakistan.
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A Ragtag Pursuit of the Taliban
U.S. Effort to Train Afghans as Counterinsurgency Force Is Far From Finished
Washington Post - World By Candace Rondeaux Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, August 6, 2008
CHAHAR DARREH, Afghanistan-Lt. Col. Abdul Hamid, a new police commander, was having trouble doing the math. When he took control of this district in the country's north in early July, he had 54 officers. Since then, some had been transferred; others had disappeared.
How many were left?
The commander looked up at the bare light bulb hanging from his office ceiling. Nearby, Maj. Vincent Heintz, a barrel-chested National Guardsman and onetime New York prosecutor, put his palm to his temple and leaned toward Hamid. "Sir, would it be fair to say you don't know how many officers you have working here?" Heintz boomed.
Hamid, reed thin and swimming in his oversize police uniform, smiled affably while the question was translated. He nodded. "No, I don't know how many officers work here," he said.
It was another summer day in the district of Chahar Darreh, where Heintz, 40, and his team of U.S. military advisers are experiencing firsthand the challenges of turning a few dozen Afghans into a frontline counterinsurgency force.
The United States has spent about $6.2 billion since 2002 to transform Afghanistan's national police into a bulwark against the Taliban and other Islamist fighters. About 730 American military advisers have been deployed to help train and equip the force. But as of this spring, not a single one of the 433 police units that have received the training has been judged fully capable of handling its mission or the Taliban threat, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Across Afghanistan, meanwhile, roadside bombs have become more frequent and firefights have grown fiercer. In May and June, more foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Seven years after the United States began its fight against the Taliban, the insurgency is proving more resilient.
While U.S. officials say the Afghan army has improved markedly since the war began, the poorly trained, ill-equipped national police have lagged behind. About 50 officers a month have been killed this year. From January 2007 to last month, 991 police officers were killed in action, according to U.S. military statistics.
Maj. Gen. Robert W. Cone, commander of the U.S. military division charged with training Afghan police, said casualties have dropped sharply in districts where police have received focused training and mentoring. But the program, he said, is short of trainers: An additional 2,300 are needed to have a lasting impact in each of the country's police districts.
Here in Chahar Darreh, Heintz and the other U.S. advisers -- most from the New York National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment (Light) -- have a daunting mission: to teach about three dozen men, who earn about $100 a month, how to breach the door of a house like SWAT team commandos; show them how to patrol their beats, interact with residents and gather intelligence; and inspire them to pursue the Taliban, village by village.
The U.S. soldiers who came here are firefighters, paramedics, police officers, civil engineers and information technology consultants, most from New York City. They were seasoned by years in the National Guard and a tour in Iraq. Many of them had walked through the rubble left by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Lower Manhattan. Now this tightknit crew of New Yorkers is in Afghanistan as part of what its members consider a very personal war.
Back in Hamid's office at police headquarters, Heintz stared at Hamid a long minute.
"Whether you work out here as police commander or not, we have to get this force back up to speed because the insurgency is getting stronger in your district, sir, and your police force is getting smaller," Heintz said. "We have to fix this now. This is an emergency."
The New Commander
Chahar Darreh is located in Kunduz province in a vast stretch of remote steppe and rural valleys in northeastern Afghanistan. While the Taliban is most active in the country's south and east, the threat posed by insurgents is growing here.
A week before Hamid arrived, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle made an unsuccessful run at a German convoy. Later, insurgents opened fire with guns and rocket-propelled grenades on two police substations. Then, in the village of Isa Khel, residents began receiving threatening letters from the Taliban, warning them not to send their daughters to the local girls' school. A few days later, the school was temporarily closed.
For decades, Afghan civilians have had no faith in turning to the police for security. Nepotism, bribery, kickbacks and conspiracy have long been the trademarks of policing in Afghanistan. Other than a brief experiment in the 1960s, there has been little concerted effort to weed out corruption. During the Taliban era, policing mainly consisted of enforcing strictly interpreted Islamic laws.
Hamid, an 18-year police veteran, is the third commander to be assigned to Chahar Darreh in nearly five months. When he arrived in the district from the western province of Herat, he brought an entourage: a brother who served as his driver and another relative who acted as Hamid's personal bodyguard.
Heintz, who helped convict New York mob boss John Gotti Jr. for racketeering, had little patience for Hamid's methods. This is not the best way for the new commander to win the hearts and minds of the locals or inspire the confidence of his men, Heintz told Hamid. A few days after his first meeting with the new commander, Heintz advised Hamid to drop his brother as his driver. Ditto the personal bodyguard. And no more burning up scarce government fuel resources on nightly trips home in the government-owned patrol truck, Heintz told Hamid.
Heinz, a blunt-spoken New Yorker who during his tour in Iraq also helped prosecute Saddam Hussein, said he wanted Hamid to get down to the real business of policing his district.
"My question to you, sir, is what is your plan to defend this district?" Heintz asked.
Hamid seemed bewildered. He looked to one of the Afghan officers sitting next to him. Silence.
"My plan is to enforce the law," said Hamid, 42. "I'm not very familiar with the villages or which villages are vulnerable, and I don't have a plan. But I think we should ambush the Taliban."
Walking the Beat
Hamid did not have a premier fighting force under his command. His officers wore an assortment of hand-me-down combat boots and black vinyl shoes. The old Soviet-era machine weaponry they hauled around was caked with dirt. The men chafed under the weight of the heavy body armor the U.S. soldiers ordered them to wear.
Most were, at best, semiliterate. Many were poor marksmen. Only some knew how to communicate on the standard police radios donated by Western nations. Several wondered whether they should join the dozens of other police officers who had recently walked off the job after learning they would go unpaid for a second month straight.
Police Sgt. Obaidullah, 20, had decided to stay. Six months earlier, Obaidullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name, was living at his family home in Kabul. Now, he found himself taking advice from American soldiers wearing dark sunglasses and carrying rifles that cost the equivalent of six months of his police salary.
The other day, Obaidullah, three other Afghan police officers and a small team of U.S. soldiers walked for about a half-hour along irrigation dikes, dirt roads and row upon row of rice paddies. Long-legged and broad-shouldered, Obaidullah strode toward a group of men squatting in a rice paddy a few dozen yards from where a bomb had recently been found. He questioned the men a few minutes. The interrogation produced no information.
Obaidullah walked on to the next village, and then the next. He shook hands, shyly introducing himself to shopkeepers and elders along the way. This was the way the U.S. advisers had taught him to patrol.
Like many people in this rural northeastern corner of Afghanistan, Obaidullah suspects locals aren't the only ones responsible for violence in his country. He believes that Pakistan is aiding the Taliban insurgency. "The Taliban were bad people," Obaidullah said with a shrug as his patrol began walking toward the next village. "They destroyed this country. They're not Afghan. They're Pakistani. No Afghan would do that to his own country."
Afghan and NATO officials agree that there has been a sharp increase in the number of foreign fighters in Afghanistan. The majority of the fighters, they say, come from Pakistan, after having received training in refugee camps or Taliban bases in the tribal areas between the two countries.
About a mile down the road, an old man picnicking with his family near a small mosque waved Obaidullah over. He complained in a cracking voice about the Taliban in the district. Everyone, he said, knows who is behind all the trouble here.
"Our enemy is obvious; it's Pakistan. Every Afghan is trying to rebuild this country. Look at this road," the man said, flinging his arm out in frustration. "Look at the clinic and the shape it's in. The only reason it remains this way is because of Pakistan. I know who my friends are and who my enemies are."
Every Jungle Has Its Fox
At the U.S. forward operating base in Kunduz, New York Guard Capt. Brian Higgins, 30, stared at a map in the communications center. The map was studded with clusters of red pushpins that marked the spots where roadside bombs had either exploded or been uncovered in recent months. Tiny mug shots of various bearded men with turbans were also pasted to the map.
Back in the United States, Higgins works a plainclothes street crimes detail with the New York City police. Much of what he learned about developing a counterinsurgency he picked up from 10 years in the National Guard and six years of working the police beat. Just like civilian criminals in the United States, the insurgents here aren't always easy to identify, Higgins said.
"At a certain point, it becomes detective work," Higgins said. "The enemy is moving among the people."
For U.S. police trainers such as Heintz, part of the job entails teaching Afghan police to recognize and confront insurgent elements in their midst. Alliances forged in wars past have made for strange bedfellows in post-Taliban Afghanistan. As in the rest of the country, few people in Chahar Darreh's small power elite are what they really seem. Many carry with them a complex history of deals done, lives lost, trusts betrayed. For Afghan police, defeating the insurgency means first unmasking the enemy.
Taliban commanders and other warlords used to run this province. Many of them remain in the area. Some are now businessmen; some are landowners; some are criminal defense lawyers. Hasta Khan, a former commander who fought under the infamous warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is all three.
Heintz had learned from a local shopkeeper that a threatening letter -- signed by the Taliban in Khan's name -- had been circulating in Chahar Darreh. If the shopkeeper didn't vacate a tract of land that, according to the letter, belonged to Khan, the shopkeeper would be hearing from the Taliban, the letter read. Khan, Heintz said, would have to be dealt with diplomatically.
A few minutes after Heintz and his convoy pulled into the police headquarters at Chahar Darreh on a recent day, Khan arrived. Thin and elegant in his gray turban, white salwar kameez and closely trimmed salt-and-pepper beard, Khan swept into the commander's office with a flourish. He briskly shook hands with everyone in the room. Then he flashed Heintz a Cheshire grin.
"Welcome, you are most welcome here in Afghanistan. We are happy that you are here to help us rebuild our destroyed district of Chahar Darreh," said Khan, 54, although he had met Heintz several times before.
Khan, a tribal elder in the nearby village of Nawabad and a landowner, is something of a chameleon, Heintz and local Afghan officials said. One minute he defends the rights of common criminals and insurgent fighters. The next he is cozying up to the police and local investigators with Afghanistan's national intelligence agency.
"I'm sure you're going to help our country. There are people coming here from Pakistan and Iran who want to destroy our country. There's been 30 years of war," Khan said. He grinned again as he settled into a rickety chair in the corner of the police commander's office. "I get calls from people in Pakistan all the time, telling me not to work with the Americans. But I know that's not right."
Heintz cut Khan off. Voice booming, the American squared his shoulders. His hands chopped the air as he talked. The tension in the room was palpable.
"Thank you, sir. I'm sure you'll understand then when I tell you that I am concerned because we are hearing reports that people are using your name to threaten people in this district, saying that they are the Taliban," Heintz said, stabbing a finger in Khan's direction. "I want you to listen to me, Mr. Khan. I can tell you right now that if any of these people in this district are harmed in any way, Mr. Khan, you are going to be the first person I'm going to look at to blame."
"It's a conspiracy against me. They're making it up," Khan protested.
"Well, I hope you'll forgive me for having my suspicions, Mr. Khan. But as a wise man once told me here in Chahar Darreh I believe it was you who told me, 'Every jungle has its fox,' " Heintz said.
Khan chuckled, waved his hand dismissively and got up to leave.
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Afghanistan's future is female
On the ground, small but significant networks are pressing for legislative reform, despite western intervention and state politics
Guardian Unlimited - Politics - Comment Conor Foley guardian.co.uk Tuesday August 05 2008
I met Zakia in the restaurant of the UN compound in Kabul, partly because it was convenient and partly because there are still not that many public places for a western man to sit and talk to an Afghan woman alone.
Zakia (not her real name) is a former director of an Afghan non-governmental organisation (NGO) the Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children in Afghanistan (HAWCA), established in January 1999. It started as a simple humanitarian assistance group, helping vulnerable women and children, but now lists its objectives as "promoting the role of women in society" and "supporting the reconstruction of the country." If Afghanistan has a future, it will be due to the efforts of people like Zakia who form part of a small but emerging civil society, determined to challenge the warlords and fundamentalists who still dominate the country's official politics.
"We need peace," says Zakia. "The American's bombs are not the answer. The two sides will have to sit down and talk some day, so the only question is how many of us have to get killed before that happens." I press her about whether she would accept a role for the Taliban in government and she pauses before replying:
Yes, this would be a big price to pay, but if they lay down their guns and accept the constitution, why not? After all, people with the same attitudes are already in the government. What is happening at the moment is worse because while the conflict continues our whole society is being Talibanised and corrupted.
HAWCA lobbied actively during the debates that led up to the adoption of Afghanistan's constitution of 2002 (pdf). Zakia says that the outcome was "a mix that could go in either direction." Articles two and three of the constitution state: "The religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam" and "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam." Yet article seven states: "The state shall abide by the UN charter, international treaties, international conventions that Afghanistan has signed, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Zakia has worked with a network of Afghan women's groups and human rights organisations to press for legislative reforms, such as a law on ending violence against women. Along with the Afghan independent human rights commission, she was involved in a conference that drew on the experiences of a number of other countries with sharia legal systems to look at best practices for a new law on family relations. She also lobbied against a proposal in a draft penal procedure code that would have introduced a lower age of criminal responsibility for girls than for boys. After a meeting with President Karzai, he refused to sign these discriminatory proceedings into law.
HAWCA has also helped to establish refuge centres for women escaping domestic violence – an enormously controversial issue in Afghanistan, where many judges and prosecutors still consider "running away from home" a criminal offence. It also participates in the Afghan women's network and a network of women parliamentarians.
It runs education projects as well as health and childcare, counselling and protection, emergency response operations and support for income-generating activities. As well as its main office in Kabul, it also operates in seven other provinces in Afghanistan and with refugee groups across the Pakistan border in Peshawar.
Voices like Zakia's are still comparatively isolated, but they are beginning to make themselves heard. In a country where girls are only beginning to receive an education again, it is not surprising that there are so few women professionals, opinion-formers and decision-makers. This will take time to change and social attitudes will take even longer.
Afghanistan is a proud country, hospitable to guests, but has seen off many foreign invaders. Its people are as unlikely to be subdued by western bombs as they are to accept the imposition of what they as alien values. Zakia stresses that she is a Muslim and a patriot who is as sickened at the corruption of true Islamic values by the fundamentalists as she is by the continuing destruction of her country by foreign forces.
Many western liberals seem to have a particular problem understanding people like Zakia, but the views that she expressed are representative of hundreds of conversations that I have had with Afghan friends and colleagues over the years. These express relief at the overthrow of the Taliban – and real gratitude to the international community for its initial intervention – tempered by frustration that the opportunity was not used to break the grip of the warlords and gangsters who have consolidated their position over the last six years. More recently I have also felt a growing anger at the ineffectiveness of the international community's assistance strategy and the inept and brutal conduct of its military campaign. There is still a window of opportunity to change the broad direction of western policy towards the country, but it is getting smaller by the day.
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Teenage suicide bomber surrenders to police
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 05 August 2008
Taliban told boy his bomb would 'throw flowers' at soldiers
A 15-year-old boy, accused of trying to blow up an army barracks in Kapisa, has handed himself in to police.
The boy, named Zikirullah, had been trained to carry out the attack by the "government’s enemies" – a term the government use to describe the Taliban or Al-Qaeda –, the Ministry of Defence said on Monday.
Zikirullah, a resident of the Nowroz Khel village in the province, said in a press conference on Sunday that Taliban member Moulawi Izharullah also planned to blow himself up in the barracks.
He said: "Izharullah, the brother of our Koran teacher, encouraged me to commit the suicide attack and he told me that if I do so I will go to paradise.
"The Taliban walk freely in the Nowroz Abad village of Tagab district and there are three or four young men like me who are encouraged by the Taliban to commit suicide, and they are ready to do so."
Head of the national army brigade in the province, General Zimarai Mustaqar, said Zikirullah had handed himself over to the government four days ago.
He said: "The government enemies also encouraged another 15-year-old boy a few days ago to commit suicide attacks, but after the boy refused to do so, they killed him."
The young boy said the Taliban had told him that detonating his suicide vest would throw flowers on the soldiers.
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New Yorkers on the Afghan Steppe
By Candace Rondeaux Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, August 5, 2008; 8:07 PM
CHAHAR DARREH, Afghanistan -- The night before the team of National Guardsmen headed out on a mission, their base commander launched into a short soliloquy. "Be a hard target," Lt. Col. John Weber said as he looked around the room full of soldiers. He gave me a sideways glance. "Don't give the bad guys an in. Don't make it easy for them. Show them that you're a hard target."
I was traveling with the soldiers for a story about U.S. military efforts to train the Afghan police force. The soldiers were mostly from New York, where I had lived for nearly 10 years. One of the them had lived only a short distance from my old apartment in Queens. He and I used to eat at the same neighborhood pizza place.
Some of the soldiers were cops and firefighters. And after Sept. 11, 2001, some had put in time with the guard in "the Pit," the gaping hole that had been the World Trade Center, searching for fallen comrades.
We marveled at the weird coincidences of that day. I told them how I had just quit my summer job at the towers two weeks earlier, only to find myself helping to report on the attacks in my first stint as a cub reporter for a local paper there. We talked about the Yankees and the Mets and the New York that was before the United States went to war in Afghanistan. I felt very at home with them.
The morning after Weber delivered his injunction to stay sharp, our convoy of Humvees rumbled over the rocky ground through the gates of the Kunduz forward operating base, located in Afghanistan's northeast. We rolled past the charred detritus of three decades of war: rusted hulks of Soviet T-55 tanks, bombed-out armored personnel carriers, mounds of gnarled barbed wire strewn across the dusty beige steppe.
I was riding with three New York guardsmen from the 69th Light Infantry Regiment and an Afghan interpreter. The sun had barely risen, but it felt like high noon inside the Humvees. In mine, the semi-functional air conditioner behind the gunner's feet blew hot, dusty 120-degree air. I slumped down beneath the weight of my body armor and helmet, and tried fight the sleep-inducing heat.
Our convoy bounced over the dilapidated Soviet-era bridge that spanned the Kunduz River and fed onto the main road into Chahar Darreh. When we arrived at the squat yellow cement brick building that served as the district's temporary headquarters, there were only four officers waiting to greet us. The new police commander, Lt. Col. Abdul Hamid, had been on the job a week but hadn't really set up shop yet. There were four Afghan soldiers charged with defending a sprawling patch of land that was teeming with Taliban insurgents and bandits.
A few hours later, after we set our things inside the mud-brick walls of the nearby district jail, we returned to police headquarters. Dusk was just falling as we sat down to talk with the avuncular outgoing commander, Col. Abdul Halim. Halim, a hulking Afghan warhorse who once spent time in Moscow, chatted with me in Russian about his fears that his men might mutiny. He looked around the room, then said softly, "Sometimes I worry that my own troops will shoot me in the back."
"Many are undisciplined. Some are compromised, working for the enemy," Halim said. "You have no way of knowing if they've had secret connections with the Taliban."
Not long after that Hamid appeared. It was dark and the power in the police headquarters had just gone out. That's when we heard about the illegal checkpoints. A police officer sat across from Hamid in the darkness, pressing his cellphone hard to his ear as another officer at the other end of the line related what had happened. Armed men in masks were on the road nearby. The men had stopped a family on their way to a funeral service. Dressed in blue-green Afghan National Police uniforms, the masked men rifled through the travelers' things, then let them continue on their way.
Under the dim glow of a flashlight, Hamid looked across the room at Maj. Vince Heintz, the commander of the National Guard team training Afghan police in Chahar Darreh. He wanted some sense of direction. Heintz shrugged his shoulders.
"I can't tell you what to do, sir. But as your adviser, I can tell you what I would do. I would send some men out there to find out what's going on and I'd do it sooner rather than later," Heintz said. After some hesitation, Hamid slapped his knees with resolve and left with Halim to investigate.
"Seems a little weird," said 1st Sgt. Michael O'Brien, who is also a New York City police officer.
Heintz snorted and shook his head. "For all we know it could be a set up. The whole story -- it sounds to me like it could be made up to make the Afghan National Police and U.S. forces drive down there into an ambush," Heintz said.
The story of the fake checkpoint turned out to be just that -- fake. A few hours, after Hamid and Halim returned with their men, they reported that no one suspicious was found on the road. Soon afterward, Heintz, O'Brien and the other U.S. soldiers stretched out on army cots inside the jail compound.
There was no gunfire. There were no explosions. The only sound was of wild dogs baying at the half moon.
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AFGHANISTAN: Can saffron replace poppy?
PASHTON ZARGON, 6 August 2008 (IRIN) - Mohammad Tahir was dubious about not growing poppy on his one-acre plot of land in Pashton Zargon District, Herat Province, western Afghanistan this year, but has now made a decision.
"I will not cultivate opium this year. I will only grow saffron this time," the young farmer, who feeds an extended family, told IRIN.
"It [saffron] is a legitimate crop and also the profit is 'halal' [in accordance with Islamic law]," he said.
Tahir has been tempted to grow saffron crocuses having seen fellow farmers earn handsomely from their saffron fields last year.
Afghanistan accounts for 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin - the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has reported, and much of the money fuels armed insurgency and organised crime, experts say.
In a bid to eradicate opium production, international donors have been supporting the Afghan government with money and technical assistance: programmes have been funded to promote alternative livelihoods, uproot poppies and apprehend drug smugglers.
However these measures have not stopped Afghanistan achieving record-levels of opium production, officials say.
Demand increasing
Demand for saffron bulbs has soared among farmers in Herat and neighbouring provinces over the past two years, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (DAIL).
"We plan to distribute 49 tonnes of saffron bulbs to farmers in Herat and 11 other provinces this year," said DAIL official Bashir Ahmad Ahmadi, adding that the number of farmers requesting the bulbs had increased to over 1,000.
Farmers cultivate saffron bulbs in late August and reap the purple flowers in mid October. The red filaments of saffron - the aromatic thread-like substances globally used for a variety of purposes, including herbal medicine, colour dyes, perfume and food seasoning - are then collected from each flower by hand, often by women at home.
One hectare of land can produce about 12kg of saffron and each kilogram fetches US$1,500 in Herat's main bazaar, according to Ahmadi.
According to Wikipedia, saffron prices at wholesale and retail rates range from $1,100 to $11,000 per kilo. In Western countries, the average retail price is $2,200 per kilo [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron].
Donors such as the UK's Department for International Development have funded projects to promote saffron production in Afghanistan. A handful of entrepreneurs have also invested in the packaging, branding and export of Afghan-made saffron to regional and European markets.
Afghanistan's western neighbour, Iran, is a leading saffron exporter.
"Strong potential"
"Saffron is not only a legitimate crop but also a very lucrative one, which has strong potential to replace poppy cultivation," Zalmai Afzali, a spokesman for the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN), told IRIN.
The MCN, in collaboration with some donors and non-governmental organisations, has tried to introduce and promote saffron and other highly profitable crops in poppy cultivating provinces such as Helmand, Nangarhar and Kandahar, Afzali said.
Experts at the Ministry of Agriculture in Kabul said saffron was compatible with the climate and soil of southern, eastern and western parts of the country and its cultivation did not require highly advanced irrigation, which the country lacks.
However, insecurity and narcotics gangs have hindered government efforts to replace poppy with licit crops, Afzali said: "Criminal groups and anti-government elements who earn big profits from illicit poppy cultivation oppose and impede saffron cultivation by forcing farmers to grow poppy."
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Main characters of Benazir’s assassination are in Afghanistan: IG Police Punjab
Pakistani Newspaper
MULTAN, Aug 6 (Online): IG Police Punjab, Shaukat Javed has said that PPP and Government has full trust in Punjab Police performance however the main characters of the assassination are in Afghanistan that’s why Government is approaching UN for the further inquiry of the matter.
IG Shaukat Javed was addressing at a press conference here in Circuit House Multan. He said that he had a sharp eye over the law and order situation in the whole province and that’s why he had been visiting all regional headquarters of police and instructing the officers to counter the crime.
" The reason behind a high graph of street crime is over population and social and economical reasons, now no SP, DSP or SHO will be punished over high crime rate yet they can be questioned over the registered cases. All the SHOs are ordered to listen public complaints for three hours a day in their stations", IG said.
While answering a question he said that till now department had arrested 80% of wanted criminals involved in kidnapping scenes and a committee was organized under the supervision of Provincial Ministers according to Chief Minister’s special orders to keep supervising registered cases.
IG Shaukat Javed told that after the new recruitments, the shift system would be introduced for a better law and order situation.
"There were some defects in the Law Order 2002 so we have reported the national police Management Board to update the Law Order according to the recent requirements and law for investigation needs some changes yet all the investigation crew will follow the orders of SHO", he said.
He told that Punjab Police would be provided modern equipments and new vehicles soon to face the recent challenges.
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