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Bomb kills 7 Afghan security guards
Sat Feb 23, 6:37 AM ET Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Seven Afghan security guards died Saturday when their car hit a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, while a gunman killed a district police chief in the region, police said.
Taliban sees Canada vulnerable for now: general
By Randall Palmer Fri Feb 22, 5:24 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Taliban may have mounted suicide attacks on Canadian troops this week expressly to dissuade Parliament from extending the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, Canada's outspoken top soldier said on Friday.
Afghan police sentenced for sex abuse of boy, father
By NOOR KHAN,Associated Press Writer AP - Sunday, February 24
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A judge on Saturday sentenced three Afghan policemen to 10 years in prison for the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy and his father, a rare accounting of crimes by Afghan police
A suicide bomber targets Afghan soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, no casualties
AP - Saturday, February 23
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up next to an Afghan army patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, an official said. No soldiers were hurt in the blast.
Fact check: Obama's Afghanistan claim
Sat Feb 23, 6:14 AM ET Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama says the war in Iraq, which he opposes, has pulled troops away from Afghanistan and left soldiers there without proper equipment.
Iran Raises the Heat in Afghanistan
By Brian Bennett/Washington Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 Time Magazine
"We haven't chosen these neighbors," joked Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S., Said Tayeb Jawad, as he shined the red dot of a laser around the edges of a map of his homeland. He was addressing a room full
Australia May Boost Its Civilian Role in Afghanistan
By Ken Fireman
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his country will consider beefing up its non-military support for Afghanistan's embattled government while ruling out any increase in troops there.
Afghans can crush opium in six years if Nato helps
The Scotsman 22 Feb 08 - By Jerome Starkey
AFGHANISTAN could be poppy-free in just six years, the government's drugs czar claimed yesterday – but only if Nato risks more soldiers' lives to support eradication efforts.
Poppy cultivation
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan remains missing
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-23 21:59:37
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin has gone missing for 13 days but the government believes the missing diplomat is safe and alive, foreign office spokesman said Saturday.
Afghan man with two sisters arrested for bringing heroin
21 Feb 2008, 1943 hrs IST,PTI Times of India
NEW DELHI: An Afghan national and his two sisters were arrested from the airport here for allegedly smuggling in high-quality heroin, valued at about Rs 10 crore in the international market.
Two Winnable Wars
By Anthony H. Cordesman The Washington Post Sunday, February 24, 2008; Page B07
No one can return from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, as I recently did, without believing that these are wars that can still be won. They are also clearly wars that can still be lost, but visits to the battlefield show that these
Canadians to quit Afghanistan
Telegraph – UK, By Thomas Harding Last Updated: 2:02am GMT 22/02/2008
NATO's unity in Afghanistan was unraveling last night as Canada announced the date it is to withdraw its troops.
Game brings a moment of peace to Afghanistan
Brian Hutchinson , Canwest News Service Friday, February 22, 2008
KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan - Violence, poverty and myriad forms of serious crime plague this city, among the world's most dangerous, but there is one means of escape that doesn't involve AK-47s or drugs: the beautiful game.
Bridging the gap on Afghan role
Feb 23, 2008 04:30 AM Toronto Star, Canada
Canadian troops patrolled dusty Kandahar yesterday, buying time for President Hamid Karzai's elected government to rebuild the nation after Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban misrule and terror.
Switzerland ends military mission in Afghanistan
February 23, 2008 - 11:37 AM Swissinfo, Switzerland
The last Swiss staff officers serving in Afghanistan have returned to Switzerland, ending the country's four years of cooperation with the Nato-led international force.
Wanted for empty prison: some convicted Afghan drug barons
The Times (UK) February 23, 2008
On the outskirts of Kabul stands probably the nicest prison wing between Warsaw and Tokyo — complete with security cameras, electronic locks, shaded visiting areas and UN-approved levels of natural light.
NATO winning battles, losing Afghanistan
Asia Times 2/21/2008 By Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - "Make no mistake", begins a new issue brief from non-partisan think-tank the Atlantic Council of the United States, "NATO is not winning in Afghanistan".
France ponders grand engagement in Afghanistan, experts say
Peter O'Neil , Canwest News Service Friday, February 22, 2008
PARIS -- Canada's search here for a military partner in Afghanistan will have to contend with France's historic quest to display grandeur, or greatness, on the world stage.
Afghan nationals held at city airport
Chennai (PTI): Two Afghan nationals have been held at the city airport for trying to fly to Paris using fake Indian passports.
Canada urged to double troop strength
In absence of NATO reinforcements, Canadian commander seeks brigade of 5,000 to keep Taliban at bay in Kandahar province
GRAEME SMITH From Saturday's Globe and Mail February 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
KHAKREZ, Afghanistan — Canada needs as many as 5,000 professional NATO soldiers — double its current force — to hold Kandahar's key districts, a senior commander says, suggesting that previous demands for extra
We're there because we're there
Globe and Mail, Canada RICK SALUTIN February 22, 2008
Here are some thoughts for the coming parliamentary debate on Afghanistan. Consider it the unManley report.
Afghanistan: Bread price hike affects millions
KABUL, 21 February 2008 (IRIN) - A sharp rise in the price of bread over the past three months is affecting the lives of millions of impoverished Afghans.
Uzbek strongman scorns AG orders as unlawful
Pajhwak 02/22/2008
KABUL -Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, chief of staff to the supreme commander of the Afghan National Army (ANA), Tuesday scorned Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabits orders suspending him from government job as unlawful.
Karzai has no role in Dostum suspension
Pajhwak By Najib Khilwatgar 02/22/2008
KABUL-President Hamid Karzai was not involved in the suspension of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum as chief of staff to the commander-in-chief of the Afghan National Army, a senior presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.
Average life expectancy in Afghanistan 45 years
Pajhwak By Mustafa Basharat 02/22/2008
KABUL -The Afghan health minister has rejected as inaccurate an Al-Jazeera TV report about the average life expectancy of an Afghan. He claimed the figure given by the news channel was lower.
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Bomb kills 7 Afghan security guards
Sat Feb 23, 6:37 AM ET Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Seven Afghan security guards died Saturday when their car hit a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, while a gunman killed a district police chief in the region, police said.
The guards, who worked for a road construction company, hit the bomb in the Sarkano district of Kunar province, a mountainous area close to the border with Pakistan, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Jalal.
Also in Kunar, a gunman shot and killed the police chief of Chawkey district Friday night, Jalal said. One man was arrested in connection with the case, he said.
Last year was Afghanistan's most violent since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. More than 6,500 people died in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on official figures.
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Taliban sees Canada vulnerable for now: general
By Randall Palmer Fri Feb 22, 5:24 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Taliban may have mounted suicide attacks on Canadian troops this week expressly to dissuade Parliament from extending the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, Canada's outspoken top soldier said on Friday.
Chief of the defense staff Gen. Rick Hillier also said it was important for the Canadian Forces to be given a clear mandate for its future role in Afghanistan as soon as possible.
"We are, in the eyes of the Taliban, in a window of extreme vulnerability. The longer we go without that clarity, with the issue in doubt, the more the Taliban will target us as a perceived weak link," Hillier said in a speech.
He said he could not exclude the idea that Taliban strikes this past week were designed to frighten Canada out of prolonging its 2,500-strong mission beyond the current expiry date of February 2009.
"Certainly there's a perception out there that the Taliban will try to take advantage of the debate back here and will try to prevent a cohesive mission," he said.
All three opposition parties had opposed an extension of a combat mission in the violent southern part of the country, but the minority Conservative government has now reached a deal with the main opposition Liberal Party to set a fixed end date of July 2011.
However, Parliament will not vote on that compromise until next month. It is theoretically possible that the government could fall in the meantime over the federal budget it will introduce on February 26.
With little Liberal appetite for triggering an election, that scenario looks increasingly unlikely but if the government were to fall, this would prevent parliamentary approval of the Afghan extension and it would then become an election issue.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion made clear on Friday that he did not want to topple the government over whatever small differences he might have with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the Afghan motion.
"I would prefer not to have Afghanistan as a trigger for an election," he told reporters in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Harper wants to be able to present a final decision on Canada's role in Afghanistan to NATO's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest.
Canada is making any extension conditional on NATO securing a battle group of about 1,000 troops to work alongside Canadians in Kandahar.
That appears likely to be secured, according to the head of NATO's military committee, Canadian Gen. Ray Henault.
"I can tell you here today that I am confident that NATO nations will come to the assistance of Canada, will source the additional personnel requirements that Canada has called for in the south," Henault said in a separate speech to the Conference of Defence Associations.
A further Canadian condition that its troops get helicopter and unmanned aerial support by next February also appeared likely to be met.
"Within days, I think you'll hear about it," Hillier told reporters.
The helicopters at least will be on a temporary basis. Hillier voiced a preference for Boeing Co Chinooks, since they would mesh with longer-term government plans to take permanent delivery of 16 Chinooks.
Poland also announced this month it would make two helicopters available to Canadian troops in Kandahar.
(Editing by Peter Galloway)
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Afghan police sentenced for sex abuse of boy, father
By NOOR KHAN,Associated Press Writer AP - Sunday, February 24
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A judge on Saturday sentenced three Afghan policemen to 10 years in prison for the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy and his father, a rare accounting of crimes by Afghan police, many of whom are poorly paid and susceptible to corruption.
At the trial, the 55-year-old father testified that police accused him of stealing US$400. When the father protested that he had not carried out any crime, the officers took him and his 12-year-old son to a police outpost where the two were sexually abused, he told the court.
Judge Gen. Mohammad Yousef found three police officers guilty and sentenced them to 10 years in prison. A fourth officer accused of the crimes had fled. The cases can be appealed.
The Associated Press is not identifying the father and son because they were victims of sexual abuse.
The trial, held inside Kandahar province's police headquarters and attended by about 60 police officers, was a rare accounting for abuses carried out by Afghan police, who are paid little _ some only US$100 a month _ and are often accused of corruption.
A U.S. military official who helps train Afghan police, Lt. Col. Thomas Ritz, praised the trial as "police policing their own."
Ritz said he saw the trial as a step forward for Afghanistan's police.
"They're trying to get rid of corruption, they're trying to do the right thing," he said.
Sexual abuse of boys by those in power in Afghanistan _ by police or warlords, for example _ is said to be rampant, though such crimes are rarely talked about publicly and rarely brought to trial.
Gen. Nasarullah Zarifi, the chief of the police training academy in Kandahar, said that most police in the southern province are not properly trained and instead come from existing militias and are simply given a police uniform.
"It's a good thing to have an open trial like this. After this, those bad police characters will not do these things," he said.
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A suicide bomber targets Afghan soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, no casualties
AP - Saturday, February 23
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up next to an Afghan army patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, an official said. No soldiers were hurt in the blast.
The bomber died in the attack in Khost province, said police Gen. Mohammad Ayub.
The soldiers were driving from their base toward the provincial capital when the bomber tried to ram their convoy, Ayub said.
Taliban militants are increasingly using powerful bombs in their suicide and roadside attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. Most of the victims of such attacks this year have been civilians.
On Sunday, a suicide attack at a dog fighting competition in the southern Kandahar province killed 100 people.
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Fact check: Obama's Afghanistan claim
Sat Feb 23, 6:14 AM ET Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama says the war in Iraq, which he opposes, has pulled troops away from Afghanistan and left soldiers there without proper equipment.
He underscored his point in the Democratic debate Thursday by telling a story about a rifle platoon in Afghanistan that allegedly didn't have enough soldiers or weapons to do its job, leaving the platoon to scrounge for weapons from the Taliban.
His source was an anonymous Army captain, whom his campaign refused to identify Friday.
___
THE SPIN:
"You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon," Obama said. "Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq,"
"And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.
___
THE FACTS:
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to release the name of the captain, citing the soldier's privacy, and pointed to an ABC News account as verification of the story. Obama learned about the captain's allegation from a staffer who had spoken with the captain, according to Vietor.
ABC News said it talked to the unidentified captain, whose account of shortages in Afghanistan was for the most part accurately summarized by Obama, although not verified.
The captain said, however, that the unit did not go after the Taliban for the purpose of getting their weapons, but sometimes used those weapons when some were captured.
The Pentagon has acknowledged forces are stretched, but spokesman Bryan Whitman said that without knowing more, he could not comment on the veracity of Obama's claim, except to say: "I find that account pretty hard to imagine."
Whitman contended "all of our units and service members that go into harm's way are properly trained, equipped and with the leadership to be successful for the mission that they've been given."
Obama said the platoon was supposed to have 39 soldiers. A platoon does not have to consist of 39, but can have between 16 to 40 soldiers, according to standard Army unit organization. It is also commanded by a lieutenant and not a captain.
According to the ABC report, the captain was a lieutenant when he took command of the rifle platoon.
Sen. John Warner, a supporter of likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain, sent Obama a letter Friday asking for details about the platoon and the name and whereabouts of the captain, so he can tell military officials about it at an upcoming hearing. Warner is ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
In response to the Warner letter, Vietor said, "Senator Obama is glad that this issue is getting the attention it deserves, and looks forward to working on a bipartisan basis to ensure that our troops have the training and resources they need."
___
By Ann Sanner
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Iran Raises the Heat in Afghanistan
By Brian Bennett/Washington Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 Time Magazine
"We haven't chosen these neighbors," joked Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S., Said Tayeb Jawad, as he shined the red dot of a laser around the edges of a map of his homeland. He was addressing a room full of government analysts, scholars and journalists Wednesday, and when asked about Iran's current influence in Afghanistan, the joking stopped. "Iran has become a more and more hostile power," he said.
Afghanistan is in a tough spot. The country is reliant on the U.S. and NATO for its security and, at the same time, shares its longest land border with Iran. Afghanistan has long pleaded with the U.S. and Iran not to carry out their longstanding strategic rivalry on its soil. And for several years that request has been largely honored. Iran, a long-time supporter of the Northern Alliance, was instrumental in bringing about the fall of the Taliban. Iran has also helped more than any other neighbor with the reconstruction of the country. Since 2002, Tehran has pumped millions of dollars into Afghanistan's western provinces to build roads, electrical grids, schools and health clinics. On top of this, Iranian agents are dumping bags of cash in the laps of tribal leaders in Afghanistan's west, a State Department official tells TIME, "clearly intended to purchase influence and remind them: The Americans may be here for 10 or 20 years, but we will be here forever."
In the past six months, however, Iran's actions have taken a more sinister turn. U.S. and NATO troops have intercepted shipments of Iranian-made arms in Afghanistan, including mortars, plastic explosives and explosively formed penetrators that have been used to deadly effect against armored vehicles in Iraq. U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood said on January 31, "There is no question that elements of insurgency have received weapons from Iran." The discovery of the first caches of Iranian-made weapons in Afghanistan in April, says a State Department official, "sent shock waves through the system." Iran was doing more than just bringing western Afghanistan into its sphere of influence.
Then, as if to remind the government of President Hamid Karzai just how much chaos its big neighbor to the west could create, Iran began deporting over 130,000 Afghan refugees back into Afghanistan, sparking a food and housing shortage just as the harsh winter months set in. After two decades of war, there are over 1 million Afghan refugees currently living in Iran. Afghanistan doesn't have the resources to reintegrate them in large numbers. After Karzai made a direct appeal to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran shut off the spigot. But it is unclear what price Iran might have extracted for its largesse. The repatriation, said the U.S. official, was "clearly designed to send a message to Afghans of displeasure of their relationship with the U.S."
Iran's recent actions have played right into the hands of the hawks in Washington looking to underscore Iran's malevolent intentions in the region. The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute released a report Tuesday detailing Iran's increasing influence in the Middle East and Central Asia. Iran, the report read, "is almost certainly providing some military support for the Taliban in Afghanistan."
All of this leaves Afghanistan caught in the middle. The country needs Iran's help developing its infrastructure in the eastern provinces and has a long-term interest in maintaining friendly relations, but Kabul knows it can't be at the cost of distancing itself from the U.S. and NATO. The last thing Karzai wants is to be forced into making a choice between Iran and the U.S. "Iran has played both a constructive and destructive role in Afghanistan," said ambassador Jawad. By playing it both ways, Iran is trying to back Kabul into a corner. That's not neighborly.
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Australia May Boost Its Civilian Role in Afghanistan
By Ken Fireman
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his country will consider beefing up its non-military support for Afghanistan's embattled government while ruling out any increase in troops there.
After a day of talks in Canberra with two visiting U.S. officials, Smith said Australia may be prepared to take on additional ``capacity-building responsibilities,'' including training Afghan police, judges and administrators and building new roads, hospitals and schools.
Smith said his country will maintain its current force of nearly 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. He defended Australia's role in the NATO-led effort against Taliban insurgents, saying its troops were fighting in ``some of the toughest areas'' of the country, and said it compared favorably to that of other nations.
``I make no bones about saying that there are other nation- states whose contribution is not nearly as profound,'' Smith said at a joint news conference with Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
Smith didn't elaborate. Other nations fighting in Afghanistan, including the U.S., have complained that some members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, such as Germany, have restricted their troops to areas where there's little combat.
Fitzgibbon said his country, which isn't a NATO member, would like better access to NATO policy documents and strategy forums about Afghanistan.
Australia's Role
Australia would also consider a greater non-military role in Iraq, where the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is following through on an election promise to withdraw about one-third of the 1,500 Australian troops currently there, Smith said.
Gates and Negroponte both said that pullout won't affect the historically close ties between Australia and the U.S.
``Our friendship endures across generations and across administrations,'' Gates said. ``The U.S. has no better partner and no stronger ally than Australia.''
Gates and Negroponte are the first senior U.S. officials to visit Australia since Rudd replaced former Prime Minister John Howard in December. Howard had a close personal relationship with President George W. Bush and was a strong supporter of the U.S. war effort in Iraq.
The officials said their talks included regional Asian issues and defense cooperation between the two nations.
F-22 Jets
Asked whether Australia would like to buy F-22 stealth fighter jets from the U.S. -- something currently prohibited by American law -- Fitzgibbon said his country would at least like to have that option.
The U.S. Congress has banned any foreign sales of the F-22, which is made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp.
The defense minister said his country's possible interest in the F-22 shouldn't be interpreted as a response to China's military modernization program.
Fitzgibbon was also asked if the successful U.S. shootdown of a malfunctioning spy satellite earlier this week made Australia more interested in participating in a joint missile defense system with the U.S. and Japan.
Fitzgibbon declined to discuss the missile defense talks, while adding that Australian officials had watched the shootdown with ``great interest.''
He then turned to Gates and added, ``Can I say, Bob, nice shot.''
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Afghans can crush opium in six years if Nato helps
The Scotsman 22 Feb 08 - By Jerome Starkey
AFGHANISTAN could be poppy-free in just six years, the government's drugs czar claimed yesterday – but only if Nato risks more soldiers' lives to support eradication efforts.
Poppy cultivation has more than doubled since 2001, when Britain took responsibility for trying to eradicate the crop. But so far Nato has refused to commit ground troops to support dangerous eradication missions.
General Khodaidad, the counter-narcotics minister, said: "Six years would be the earliest to get Afghanistan completely poppy-free. But we need more help.
"Politically, it is very important that Nato is supporting the Afghan eradication force, especially in the provinces where there is violence."
His comments come amid ongoing Nato strains over the role of each country's troops inside Afghanistan. US General Dan McNeill, the commander of the Nato-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), promised to push his mandate "to the limit" this year, to target drugs smugglers linked to the Taleban. But technically the coalition's remit does not cover drug-eradication operations.
To date, only small bands of Special Forces have helped Afghan commandos target drug lords and heroin factories in Helmand province.
Britain has 7,800 soldiers in the country, mostly based in Helmand, where poppy cultivation soared 48 per cent last year.
UK commanders are reluctant to support or encourage eradication missions because they are afraid of driving the farmers into the arms of the insurgents.
Gen Khodaidad, an experienced military commander, said ISAF had agreed to provide air support, logistics, and medical evacuation helicopters, but he said they refused to put soldiers on the ground to protect the Afghan eradication teams.
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Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan remains missing
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-23 21:59:37
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin has gone missing for 13 days but the government believes the missing diplomat is safe and alive, foreign office spokesman said Saturday.
Tariq Azizuddin went missing on Feb. 11 in Khyber tribal agency, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border.
Tariq Azizuddin was traveling to Kabul from Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, by road in his car with a driver and body guard when the local administration lost contact with them.
Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said security forces were actively searching the missing official in the area. Expressing his confidence that the ambassador was safe and alive, Sadiq said all measures would be taken to trace him.
Last week local media reported that local Taliban had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and said Tariq would be released in exchange for the release of their detained leader Mulla Mansoor Dadullah.
However, the government rejected any such claim and made it clear that no body had contacted them on the abduction nor made any demand.
Editor: Sun Yunlong
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Afghan man with two sisters arrested for bringing heroin
21 Feb 2008, 1943 hrs IST,PTI Times of India
NEW DELHI: An Afghan national and his two sisters were arrested from the airport here for allegedly smuggling in high-quality heroin, valued at about Rs 10 crore in the international market.
The women had concealed five kg each of the contraband in their waist belt and this was detected during a search when they arrived in the national capital on Wednesday in a flight from Kabul, Additional Commissioner of Customs Sanjay Kumar told reporters here.
The arrested were identified as Sakhi Dad and his two sisters Afghan Gul and Khanom Gul, who were sent to 14 days judicial remand.
This is for the first time that women from Afghanistan were being caught in drug trafficking case at the airport.
The Customs personnel zeroed in on the trio when the women were passing through Green Channel as their movement aroused suspicion.
During subsequent checking, the contraband was seized and the three were arrested, Kumar said.
In his statement, Sakhi Dad told the officials that he asked his sisters to wear the belt and put a 'Burkha' so that no one can detect the belts, Kumar claimed.
The contraband was stuffed in the cavity of the belt which was provided to Sakhi Dad by one Mirza, who lives in Kabul and promised them USD 3,000 in lieu of transporting the drugs. The contraband was to be delivered to some person at a hotel in south Delhi's Jungpura locality.
The trio had received USD 800 in advance and the same was recovered from them, Kumar said, adding USD 700 was recovered from both the women and USD 100 from Dad.
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Two Winnable Wars
By Anthony H. Cordesman The Washington Post Sunday, February 24, 2008; Page B07
No one can return from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, as I recently did, without believing that these are wars that can still be won. They are also clearly wars that can still be lost, but visits to the battlefield show that these conflicts are very different from the wars being described in American political campaigns and most of the debates outside the United States.
These conflicts involve far more than combat between the United States and its allies against insurgent movements such as al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Taliban. Meaningful victory can come only if tactical military victories end in ideological and political victories and in successful governance and development. Dollars are as important as bullets, and so are political accommodation, effective government services and clear demonstrations that there is a future that does not need to be built on Islamist extremism.
The military situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are very different. The United States and its allies are winning virtually every tactical clash in both countries. In Iraq, however, al-Qaeda is clearly losing in every province. It is being reduced to a losing struggle for control of Nineveh and Mosul. There is a very real prospect of coalition forces bringing a reasonable degree of security if decisions such as Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's announcement Friday to extend his militia's cease-fire six months continue over a period of years.
Military victory is far more marginal in Afghanistan. NATO and international troops can still win tactically, but the Taliban is sharply expanding its support areas as well as its political and economic influence and control in Afghanistan. It has scored major gains in Pakistan, which is clearly the more important prize for al-Qaeda and has more Pashtuns than Afghanistan. U.S. commanders privately warn that victory cannot be attained without more troops, without all members of NATO and the International Security Assistance Force fully committing their troops to combat, and without a much stronger and consistent effort by the Pakistani army in both the federally administered tribal areas in western Pakistan and the Baluchi area in the south.
What the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan have in common is that it will take a major and consistent U.S. effort throughout the next administration at least to win either war. Any American political debate that ignores or denies the fact that these are long wars is dishonest and will ensure defeat. There are good reasons that the briefing slides in U.S. military and aid presentations for both battlefields don't end in 2008 or with some aid compact that expires in 2009. They go well beyond 2012 and often to 2020.
If the next president, Congress and the American people cannot face this reality, we will lose. Years of false promises about the speed with which we can create effective army, police and criminal justice capabilities in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot disguise the fact that mature, effective local forces and structures will not be available until 2012 and probably well beyond. This does not mean that U.S. and allied force levels cannot be cut over time, but a serious military and advisory presence will probably be needed for at least that long, and rushed reductions in forces or providing inadequate forces will lead to a collapse at the military level.
The most serious problems, however, are governance and development. Both countries face critical internal divisions and levels of poverty and unemployment that will require patience. These troubles can be worked out, but only over a period of years. Both central governments are corrupt and ineffective, and they cannot bring development and services without years of additional aid at far higher levels than the Bush administration now budgets. Blaming weak governments or trying to rush them into effective action by threatening to leave will undercut them long before they are strong enough to act.
Any American political leader who cannot face these realities, now or in the future, will ensure defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Any Congress that insists on instant victory or success will do the same. We either need long-term commitments, effective long-term resources and strategic patience -- or we do not need enemies. We will defeat ourselves.
The writer holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He recently returned from the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Canadians to quit Afghanistan
Telegraph – UK, By Thomas Harding Last Updated: 2:02am GMT 22/02/2008
NATO's unity in Afghanistan was unraveling last night as Canada announced the date it is to withdraw its troops.
After months of failing to get other nations to share the burden of intense combat in southern Afghanistan, Ottawa announced that all its troops would be out by 2011. Stephen Harper, the prime minister, has grown increasingly frustrated that Canada's 2,500 troops take the brunt of the fighting and that his country's death toll of 78 is the third highest after those of Britain and America.
His minority Conservative government finally bowed to a key Liberal opposition demand yesterday to confirm that "our commitment is not open-ended".
The decision came after Lord Robertson, the former Nato secretary general who took the organisation into Afghanistan, warned it was developing into a two-tier alliance. "There cannot be one tier for those to carry burdens and the bloody sacrifice and a tier for those who benefit from that contribution. Collective security is what it means - collective," he told a Chatham House conference.
It is thought that France is considering a plan to send a battalion to Kandahar province to assist Canada. But its decision, if it comes, seems too late to prevent the Canadian withdrawal.
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Game brings a moment of peace to Afghanistan
Brian Hutchinson , Canwest News Service Friday, February 22, 2008
KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan - Violence, poverty and myriad forms of serious crime plague this city, among the world's most dangerous, but there is one means of escape that doesn't involve AK-47s or drugs: the beautiful game.
Soccer is resurgent in Kandahar, thanks to an assist from Canadian soldiers and philanthropists back home.
Soccer balls-5,000 of them, paid for in Canada and shipped here recently from Pakistan - are kicking around everywhere, and putting smiles on faces too often plastered with grief.
Diversions are welcome, especially this week. Two suicide bombings in Kandahar province killed at least 135 people. One of the attacks occurred just outside the city, at a dog-fighting rally. And a car bombing in the city Tuesday left one civilian dead and injured three others.
"The violence affects us negatively, of course," says Abdul Rahman, 22, limbering up on a local pitch with mates from his men's league team, Breshna (the Pashto word for electricity). "It's impossible to avoid."
Soccer, he adds, "gives us a break from all our misery." He takes a new ball, balances it on his forehead, lets it drop the ground and then boots it. "At least now we can do this, whenever we like."
It wasn't always the case.
People here never quit the game, but for years they played under difficult, if not impossible, circumstances. Secretly, sometimes.
Equipment was scarce; so were playing fields. But the biggest problem was politics and a perverse take on religion. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, its theocratic leadership issued directives from an armed camp in Kandahar. Preposterous rules were applied to many activities, including the game.
Girls were forbidden to play. Males also faced severe restrictions.
They were not to wear pants hemmed above their knees. Players in violation of this dress code were subject to arrest and humiliation by Taliban agents. A visiting squad from Pakistan once violated the knee ban: The players' heads were shaved clean.
Unbridled expressions of joy on the pitch - after, say, a pretty goal - were frowned upon. Play was confined to certain areas. And kicking a ball after four p.m., anywhere, was expressly forbidden.
None of his players look back on those days with fondness or nostalgia, says Breshna's gregarious coach, Aman Kamran. But the general situation in today's Kandahar may be even worse.
Unemployment, a lack of security and basic services, and rising discontent all spell gloom.
It's a sad thing, he says, when his players "have kind of accepted this way of life. It's been going on for 30 years. It's not a new phenomenon."
A native of Kandahar, Kamran worked for years in New York and became an American citizen. He returned to Kandahar a few years ago, expecting to build a thriving business and something like a normal life. That hasn't happened.
But, he has managed to nurture his love for sport, soccer in particular. He volunteered to coach Breshna three years ago and helped move the team from a lower form to the city's top division.
This week, a day after the latest bombing, he assembled his players on a large grass field on the edge of the city. The air was still. No dust, no noise, no anxiety. It was a peaceful scene, and to these eyes, at least, quite unfamiliar.
Kamran put his players through their paces. Blasting away on his whistle, he had them sprint up and down the grass surface, recently upgraded from a miserable dirt patch. "We put down one foot of soil and made quite a proper field," he says, proudly. Kamran contributed his own money to the cause.
His team received 30 off the 5,000 new soccer balls that arrived last month in Kandahar. The donation, valued at $30,000, was the brainchild of Vahan Kololian a Toronto businessman and chairman of the Mosaic Institute, an organization devoted to diversity, international peace and development.
Canada Company, a group committed to supporting the military, was also involved. Canadian soldiers distributed the balls to various organizations and leagues in Kandahar. Children received most of them.
Kamran blew his whistle. His players formed a cluster. Time for knee bends and more stretching. "Look at their faces," says Kamran. "You see? They are smiling. But underneath I know there are frustrations."
They aren't world-beaters, but Kamran says the players inspire him.
"They have hard lives. Just getting out to practice can be dangerous.
But, they're here. It says something about the guts of these people.
They still have spirit. And they won't surrender to terrorism."
National Post
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Bridging the gap on Afghan role
Feb 23, 2008 04:30 AM Toronto Star, Canada
Canadian troops patrolled dusty Kandahar yesterday, buying time for President Hamid Karzai's elected government to rebuild the nation after Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban misrule and terror.
Canadian public opinion, however, is deeply split on that mission. A recent Angus Reid poll found 51 per cent support for maintaining our combat role in Kandahar past 2009, but that still left 41 per cent opposed. Many doubt "success" is possible; some would draw the line at peacekeeping, not fighting; many feel let down by our allies.
Given this split, the 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan deserve clear direction from Ottawa on the nature of their task, how long it will last and how much help we can get from allies. Now, thanks to a bipartisan show of leadership from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, building on proposals by John Manley's panel, a healthy consensus is emerging in Parliament on all this. Harper and Dion both deserve credit for finding common ground.
Dion showed the greater political courage, by agreeing to extend our combat-plus-training-plus-aid role in Kandahar though 2011 after initially demanding a pullout by 2009. Compared to Harper, Dion went the further distance. And he had a divided caucus to drag along.
But Harper deserves credit, too, for giving up his preference for an open-ended mission and agreeing to a fixed exit date.
This sets the stage for Parliament's debate this coming week on a fresh Conservative motion to extend the mission. The new motion will honour Canada's pledge to help Afghanistan, rotate our forces out of Kandahar by December 2011, and shift their focus to training the Afghan army and police, providing security, and assisting development. It also requires our allies to provide 1,000 troops. The Liberals may seek clarity on a few fudged issues – the combat/security balance and detainees – but mostly they have what they wanted. What gap remains isn't worth fighting an election over.
Despite this Conservative-Liberal rapprochement, Jack Layton's New Democrats are still pushing for an immediate pullout, and Gilles Duceppe's Bloc Québécois wants one by next February.
The NDP and Bloc stances will appeal to potential Liberal voters who oppose the mission. That might cost Dion and benefit Harper. Still, Dion appears to have chosen principle over partisan calculations.
Canadians are bound to remain conflicted about this war. But the Angus Reid poll found that a solid majority – 59 per cent to 27 per cent – believe the Afghan people are "clearly benefiting" from our presence. A poll of Afghans for the British Broadcasting Corp. confirmed that: Some 70 per cent endorse the presence of foreign troops.
Canadians promised the Afghan people help in mending their broken nation. They want us there. It would be wrong to let them down by withdrawing prematurely.
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Switzerland ends military mission in Afghanistan
February 23, 2008 - 11:37 AM Swissinfo, Switzerland
The last Swiss staff officers serving in Afghanistan have returned to Switzerland, ending the country's four years of cooperation with the Nato-led international force.
The Swiss defence ministry said on Saturday that the last two officers had come home from the northeastern Kunduz province two weeks ago, in accordance with the plan announced by Defence Minister Samuel Schmid in November.
"The two Swiss officers could no longer carry out their mission effectively because of the measures taken by the troops for their own protection," the ministry said in a press release.
"In areas where the Taliban have stepped up their presence, it has become practically impossible to carry out reconstruction work," it explained.
The officers had been working with a German team. The mission was part of the International Security Assistance Force which operates under a UN mandate to help the Afghan government extend its influence in order to create the necessary conditions for stabilisation and reconstruction.
The Swiss military mission in Afghanistan started in 2003. Since then a total of 31 officers, including three doctors, have worked in the Hindu Kush.
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Wanted for empty prison: some convicted Afghan drug barons
The Times (UK) February 23, 2008
On the outskirts of Kabul stands probably the nicest prison wing between Warsaw and Tokyo — complete with security cameras, electronic locks, shaded visiting areas and UN-approved levels of natural light.
Built by the United Nations with mostly British money, the “secure wing” of Kabul's Pol-i-Charki prison was designed to hold 96 of the top Afghan drug barons whose business helps to fund a Taleban insurgency.
The idea was that it would be impossible for them to escape.
But 18 months after it opened, the problem is getting anyone inside. British and UN officials have told The Times that the wing, built by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with British funding of £1.1 million, stands empty. The reason, they say, is that it is not yet finished — although it was nearing completion when The Times visited in April 2006 and was declared open later that year.
Antonio Maria Costa, the UNODC chief, said in September 2006: “It has 100 beds. We want these beds to be taken up in the next few months.”
The problem now appears to be that the UN insisted on the highest Western standards without appreciating that the elecricity grid could not provide a stable power supply to heat the place and run the cameras, locks and gates. Christina Oguz, UNODC's Afghanistan representative, said: “It would have been irresponsible to hand over the secure wing of the prison to the Ministry of Justice before it was functional. We very much regret the delay.”
The wing is now due to be handed over on April 1 — complete with its own generators. But even if it is, Afghan authorities have yet to arrest, and let alone convict, any of the “high-value” targets for whom it was built, according to British officials.
“High-value” targets are the ringleaders of the 30 large networks thought to run the drugs trade in Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the world's illegal opium.
The empty prison wing is a telling symbol of the international community's failure to curb Afghanistan's drugs industry, which is expected to earn the Taleban about £50 million this year.
The UNODC predicted this month that Afghanistan's opium production would drop only slightly this year, after a 34 per cent rise last year, and would increase in the insurgency-racked south.
Afghan officials blame the international community for not providing security and economic alternatives — and for wasting money on things such as a world-class prison. General Abdullah Azizi, of the Justice Ministry's prison department, told The Times: “We could make four or five prisons for that money, but it was the UNODC's decision. We don't know why.” He said Afghanistan's 35 prisons were so overcrowded that the ministry rented ten houses to use as jails.
Western officials, however, say a big part of the problem is corruption in the Afghan police, judicial and prison systems, which allows many drug traffickers and Taleban fighters to buy their freedom.
One official said: “It's reached a point where the police, rather than providing security, are seen as a major security threat. People are just paying their way out of jail.”
Mullah Naqibullah, a senior Taleban commander, boasted last month that he had escaped custody for the third time in three years after paying a bribe of $15,000 (£7,600) to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. Lower-level Taleban fighters say they have bought their freedom for as little as $1,000 each. Last year, a man sentenced to death for kidnapping an Italian aid worker escaped while being transferred from Pol-i-Charki's old wing to the execution ground.
British officials say the picture is not as bleak as the empty prison suggests. They point to the success of two British-funded outfits — the 1,700-strong Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan and the Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF), which includes investigators, prosecutors and judges.
Last year the CJTF processed 331 cases, convicting 278 people and acquitting 102. Among those convicted were five border police sentenced to 16-18 years each in October for transporting 123kg (270lb) of pure crystal heroin in an official vehicle.
“I don't want to sound victorious but we're starting to get there,” said one counter-narcotics official. “We're seeing more medium-value targets picked up.” “Medium-value” targets are the ringleaders' lieutenants while “low-value” targets are the “mules” who transport the drugs.
The problem, though, is that the few who are convicted are still being housed in Afghanistan's ordinary prisons, whose population has swollen from 600 in 2001 to 10,400 last year. “The older and more crowded the prisons are, obviously the higher the risk of a security breach,” said one official involved in the new wing.
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NATO winning battles, losing Afghanistan
Asia Times 2/21/2008 By Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - "Make no mistake", begins a new issue brief from non-partisan think-tank the Atlantic Council of the United States, "NATO is not winning in Afghanistan".
That brief, called "Saving Afghanistan: An Appeal and Plan for Urgent Action", was released on Wednesday at an event on Capitol Hill, along with two other reports that call on the international community and the US to "re-energize their faltering effort" in Afghanistan.
The speakers at the release of the reports all showed equal concern that, despite overwhelming US and international military might, things are going badly awry in Afghanistan and that a comprehensive reworking of international strategy there was needed.
"The fatal consequence, all too familiar to those of who lived through Vietnam, is that you can win every battle, but fail to win the war," said Senator John Kerry in his introductory remarks. "Absent a new focus and a transformed strategy, many of us fear that may be happening again."
Though removed from power early in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan seven years ago, the Taliban resurged last year, leaving experts worried that a weak central government and misguided international efforts could lead to a failed state that would become a safe haven for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
"Strategy relates to priorities and resources. And it relates to upsetting the opponents' center of gravity," said David Abshire, the head of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and a former US ambassador to NATO. "The center of gravity of all this started with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. And we've gotten our eye too much off that ball in terms of our finishing the job."
The Center for the Study of the Presidency established the Afghanistan Study Group to assess new ideas in a manner similar to the Iraq Study Group, whose 2006 findings fundamentally challenged the way that the George W Bush administration was waging the war there, and called for a greater push in Afghanistan to complement the Iraq war.
But the authors of the reports released on Wednesday all emphasized a separation of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite their coexistence under the banner of the Bush administration's "war on terror".
"We ought to decouple - up here [on Capitol Hill], and in the minds of the executive branch, and I hope in the minds of the American people and our European allies - Iraq and Afghanistan," said Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a co-chair of the Afghanistan Study Group.
"Afghanistan has hovered too long under the shadow of Iraq. It has its own strategic importance," he said. "If things go bad there the region is affected. Beyond the region, Europe and the United States will be affected. A new homeland for the Taliban is the last thing in the world we want to see."
The Afghanistan Study Group report said that the current separation was insufficient and that there was "an emerging view that Afghanistan and its long-term problems would be better addressed by decoupling funding and related programmes from those for Iraq".
Both the Afghanistan Study Group and the Atlantic Council's reports also called for an overhaul of the bureaucratic systems that run the military and civil society efforts in Afghanistan.
On an international level, the groups both called for the appointment of a high commissioner at the United Nations to oversee international aid, reconstruction and civil society improvements.
Much to the disappointment of those in attendance Wednesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed reservations about British statesman Paddy Ashdown's appointment to the post last week at the World Economic Form in Davos, Switzerland. Ashdown - who had previously been the UN high representative for Bosnia - withdrew his candidacy, citing a lack of Afghan support.
Similar to the international recommendation, the reports called for the consolidation of US aims with the creation of a special envoy to Afghanistan - referred to as the Afghanistan czar - who would be responsible for coordinating military and civilian operations as well as maintaining ties to the international efforts of the UN, NATO and Europe.
Another issue that loomed large in the reports was the re-emergence of the opium trade in Afghanistan. Current figures put the Afghan share of the world opium market at over 90% - accounting for an estimated 60% of the impoverished nation's gross domestic product.
"Narcotics, in my view, is the cancer that is eating Afghanistan inside and out," said retired General James L Jones, a former NATO commander who worked on both of the broader reports. "It criminalizes the society. It provides the economic incentive for weapons purchases that come back and kill our soldiers. And it defies, so far, any strategic solution that we've seen."
Several proposed solution were discussed at the meeting - including buying up and destroying opium crops - where a National Defence University paper called "Winning the Invisible War" on a proposed comprehensive agricultural plan for Afghanistan was released.
"It was absolutely clear for somebody who had been in war and in war zones that while NATO and coalition was never going to lose on the military side, military force could not win," said Harlan Ullman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the lead author of the NDU paper. "It was really the civil sector that needed great repair."
The plan hopes that, using practices from the US agricultural markets such as efficient means of exporting goods, Afghan farmers will be able to turn away from the steady income stream of opium production and towards legitimate agriculture.
Always a hot topic in the region, Afghanistan's relations with its neighbors was also discussed.
The most contentious issue, at the moment, is the problem with Pakistan. The border region between the two countries is difficult to police and is known as a staging ground from which the Taliban has launched its insurgency. But a slower-burning issue exists in Afghan relations with Iran.
Iran - which Bush once labeled as part of the "axis of evil" - enjoys what Karzai last week called "a particularly good relationship" with Afghanistan. The distinction as a US enemy doesn't seem to bother Karzai, and critics of the Bush strategy in the Middle East point to this as another example of a time when the US should be positively engaging Iran.
"The present US stance of not speaking with Tehran about Afghanistan risks increasing the likelihood that Iran will step up its covert interference as a way of hurting the United States," said the Afghanistan Study Group Report, adding that if the US couldn't talk directly, it should do so through NATO or other international means.
Iran, under a religiously conservative government, is a natural ally in the battle against the opium trade.
"One of the reasons the administration was put off [by the Iraq Study Group] was because it said open up communication. That doesn't mean negotiation," said ambassador Abshire. "I'm for communication because of the different elements that you want to reach out to," he said, noting that the Iranian population and even politicians have a wide variety of views about the US.
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France ponders grand engagement in Afghanistan, experts say
Peter O'Neil , Canwest News Service Friday, February 22, 2008
PARIS -- Canada's search here for a military partner in Afghanistan will have to contend with France's historic quest to display grandeur, or greatness, on the world stage.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who spoke of his "taste" for French greatness Friday in a speech to launch a museum devoted to famed grandeur adherent Charles de Gaulle, is expected to announce France's plans in April to assume a more muscular role in Afghanistan.
But some observers wonder if the idea of French troops playing second fiddle to a middle power like Canada would be enough to feed his objective of making a major international splash as France tries to re-establishes itself in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
France's grandeur obsession, which has influenced everything from Paris's spectacular architecture to de Gaulle's acquisition of nuclear arms and partial withdrawal from NATO in the 1960s, is sure to be at the forefront of Sarkozy's decision-making, according to one France-watcher.
"He wants to be seen as a great French leader," said former U.S. diplomat Dan Hamilton. "I don't think being a junior partner (to Canada) would help him do that."
Hamilton, now a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., said Sarkozy may indeed contribute a modest number of troops for Kandahar in order to improve tense trans-Atlantic tensions over the burden-sharing issue in Afghanistan.
But he said Sarkozy has greater ambitions and is hoping to host the 2009 NATO summit, where he could work with a new and more popular U.S. president to re-establish France as a powerful American ally.
The French media, which have barely mentioned Canada's aggressive push for French aid in Afghanistan, have reported that Sarkozy is weighing four options. Only one involves putting more troops in Kandahar, even though Prime Minister Stephen Harper has threatened to withdraw Canada's 2,500 soldiers if NATO doesn't come up with 1,000 more troops to help fight the Taliban there.
Charles Hauss, author of the 2007 book Politics in France, said that, if France helps Canada, it would only be incidental to a grander strategy.
"I think that (Canada's diplomatic effort) is like a sub-, sub-, subplot," Hauss said. "This is almost purely a France thing, and Sarkozy trying to work better with the U.S. If he happens to help Canada in the process, that would be good, but it's not the objective."
Grandeur mythology relates to the country's perceived historic role, dating back to the French Revolution, as a cradle of civilization, culture and human rights.
"I think they have a sense they've always been a great power with a universal mission, like the United States," said Hamilton, the diplomat.
Canadian authors Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, in a 2003 book on France's unique character, devote an entire chapter to the French obsession with grandeur in areas such as education, politics, the media, entertainment and architecture.
They highlight the spectacular Hotel de Ville, the massive Paris city hall, featuring "a succession of offices, ballrooms and halls, each more gigantic and ornately decorated than the last, with mirrors, statues, gold trim, velvet tapestry, enormous wall murals, oil paintings and more."
They write that grandeur, a concept that evokes French "power, glory and moral and intellectual elevation," is a "fundamental characteristic" of French culture. Ordinary French citizens won't blink at the idea of politicians spending vast sums on themselves and others to promote French prestige.
De Gaulle, the Second World War hero general and later president, espoused France's grandeur in both domestic and international politics as he tried to restore French pride following the nation's humiliating defeat and occupation by the Nazis.
But he frequently asserted France's independence by thumbing his nose at allies, pulling French troops from NATO's command structure and famously siding with Quebec separatists in his "Vive le Quebec libre" speech in Montreal in 1967.
Sarkozy, whose predecessor, Jacques Chirac, also infuriated Americans during the lead-up to the Iraq war, is seeking to assert France's grandeur in a different way.
"De Gaulle was concerned about France's lack of influence on the world scene. Sarkozy is trying to re-shape that influence in the post 9-11 world," Hauss said.
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Afghan nationals held at city airport
Chennai (PTI): Two Afghan nationals have been held at the city airport for trying to fly to Paris using fake Indian passports.
According to airport sources, Daulat Samiullah(26) and Kasib Mohammad (19), both residents of Kabul, were trying to fly to Paris via Colombo using the fake passports on Thursday nightwhen immigration officials nabbed them.
They had come to Delhi on proper travel documents, including Afghan passports. But later, they procured fake Indian passports from there.
The duo were handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) by the city police.
Meanwhile, the departure of international flights from the airport was delayed by 4-5 hours due to the closure of the second runway for renovation work.
The renovation work which started yesterday, was expected to continue till February 29, sources said.
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Canada urged to double troop strength
In absence of NATO reinforcements, Canadian commander seeks brigade of 5,000 to keep Taliban at bay in Kandahar province
GRAEME SMITH From Saturday's Globe and Mail February 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
KHAKREZ, Afghanistan — Canada needs as many as 5,000 professional NATO soldiers — double its current force — to hold Kandahar's key districts, a senior commander says, suggesting that previous demands for extra troops are not enough for basic security in the province.
"If countries like Germany and France were not so afraid of committing forces, this problem would be solved readily," Major Richard Moffet, deputy commander of Canada's battle group, said in an interview.
He listed five Kandahar districts and suggested Canada needs to double its current troop strength of 2,500 to keep the Taliban away from those important areas.
"Easily you could have a brigade of 5,000 Canadians here just for Zhari, Panjwai, Arghandab, Shah Wali Kot and Khakrez, because to be honest, we haven't been to a few places in Panjwai yet," he said.
Military officials have spoken more bluntly about their lack of numbers recently, in private conversations and even publicly at meetings with Afghans.
Tribal elders from the mountainous district of Khakrez complained last week that NATO has failed to prevent the Taliban from running amok in the northern part of the province.
Nodding his head gravely, a Canadian officer told the elders they're right.
"We don't have enough troops," Colonel Christian Juneau said.
The frustration among elders in Khakrez district is only the latest symptom of what appears to be a sharp deterioration in security in the outlying parts of the province in the past year, as the overstretched Canadian forces have drawn back into core districts.
The military says Taliban ambushes have decreased in four of 17 districts in Kandahar city, the key zone where the Canadians focused their operations during the latest rotation of troops. But the military has so far refused to give statistics for all types of insurgent activity, including ambushes, and has kept the numbers for the entire province a secret.
A hint of the military's view of the province came during an interview this week with Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Linteau, commander of the Joint Provincial Co-ordination Centre, a liaison hub between security forces.
"The number of incidents has doubled, if not more, in Kandahar," he told The Globe and Mail, suggesting that this estimate applies to the period since September of 2006.
Asked for clarification of the figures, however, Lt.-Col. Linteau later sent an e-mail saying the military cannot give details.
An average increase in attacks across the province would suggest a markedly worse situation in the villages and suburbs, because most analysts agree that downtown Kandahar enjoyed some relief in 2007 from the onslaught of insurgent strikes that terrorized urban areas in the previous year.
Anecdotes from beyond the city limits seem to confirm the trend; soon after Canadian and Afghan officials climbed out of their helicopters and crunched across the snow to the chilly cement building that serves as the Khakrez administrative centre, they heard a litany of bad news.
"As soon as the snow leaves the ground, the Taliban will come and force people to join them," said Shah Wali, a member of the Achakzai tribe, which usually supports the government. "What should we do?"
The 45-year-old with deep creases in his face said he took a risk by travelling from his village to meet the Canadian delegation, and he will be forced to invent a story to conceal the reason for his visit to the district centre. The Taliban might kill him for merely speaking with representatives of the Kabul government, he said.
The district has also grown dangerous for Malim Akbar Khan Khakrezwal, a former intelligence chief for Kandahar and now a leading tribal elder. His connections with the government have marked him, he said, and it's been impossible to visit the district for the past eight months.
"Six years ago we had only a few Taliban supporters in Khakrez," the retired major-general said. "Now we have a great number of them."
Pointing to white-capped mountains northeast of the town, he declared that the Taliban have camps in that direction where they're preparing insurgents for the next fighting season.
In the same direction, amid the same mountains about 70 kilometres north of Kandahar city, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry established an outpost known as the Gumbad Platoon House in the spring of 2006. They spent several months patrolling the craggy northern reaches of the province, but Canada's regular forces abandoned the place later that summer as all available troops returned to the heart of the province for a battle with Taliban on the outskirts of Kandahar city.
No regular troops have returned to set up outposts in the area. In the meantime, the Taliban are believed to have gained stronger influence in the district, and the local inhabitants seem to have grown deeply skeptical about the government. When the provincial police chief stood in front of the assembled elders and declared they should support the "free and independent Muslim government," there was an uneasy rustling in the crowd, as people coughed and spit, and several men sitting near the front murmured, "No, no, no."
After the police chief's speech, Col. Juneau took the microphone and tried to explain why the district hasn't seen many troops for the past two years.
"The province of Kandahar is very big," the deputy commander of all Canadian forces in Afghanistan said. "We cannot provide security over the whole province at once."
But expanding the NATO presence into districts such as Khakrez will require a dramatic increase in the number of troops, military officials say.
Even more than 5,000 NATO troops may be required for the province, Major Moffet said, because beyond the troops needed for the core districts, NATO would also require forces to intercept the Taliban's supply routes in outlying areas.
Emphasizing that the assessment was only his personal opinion, Major Moffet said he would prefer to see the extra soldiers come from a single major country, rather than piecemeal from several contributors.
Continued increases in Afghan troops levels are also important, he added.
The problem with contributions from smaller NATO countries is that each group of soldiers would come with its own logistics personnel, the deputy commander said.
"If any country says, 'Okay we're going to provide 300 soldiers,' well, okay, how many fighters? A hundred and fifty? No, no, no. Send a battle group."
Germany has thousands of troops in northern Afghanistan but so far refuses to send them into the southern war. France is reportedly considering a major contribution of troops to Kandahar, however, and in recent weeks French soldiers have been increasingly conspicuous at Kandahar Air Field.
Canada has demanded an extra 1,000 NATO soldiers in Kandahar as the price for the extension of the Canadian operation, but the need for additional forces described by Major Moffet and other military officials goes far beyond that request.
More soldiers would mean fewer NATO casualties and less reliance on air strikes, Major Moffet said; air power can help the foreign troops when they're outnumbered by insurgents, but aerial bombings are frequently blamed for civilian casualties.
Having led some of Canada's biggest operations against the Taliban over the past six months, Major Moffet said he's convinced that his call for more troops does not resemble the ill-fated demands for troop increases of the Vietnam War.
"Honestly, I don't have the feeling that we're losing," he said. "All we need is a bit more cohesion at the NATO level and this problem would be solved."
The Department of National Defence was unavailable for comment.
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We're there because we're there
Globe and Mail, Canada RICK SALUTIN February 22, 2008
Here are some thoughts for the coming parliamentary debate on Afghanistan. Consider it the unManley report.
Why are we there? Tom Axworthy, summing up the Manley panel's reasons for Canada's military mission, says: "The Taliban's return would threaten regional peace and security; the UN has sanctified the mission; NATO is committed; and Canada should help failed states." Those are sentences, not reasons. Here's panel member Derek Burney: "Canada is a G8 member and, as such, is expected to engage internationally, serving global organizations to which we belong in a manner befitting our responsibility ..."
It's sheer pomposity: "sanctified," "befitting." Why are we there? We're there because we're there. That's it. We went for various reasons. Now the heavy hitters want us to stay. Because we're already there.
But won't NATO come apart if it doesn't pull this off? So what? Why shouldn't NATO go back to the North Atlantic, where it's from, and be a defence alliance, which it was? If that no longer makes sense, let it disband. Why look for work in places like Kosovo and Afghanistan? What about saving failed states? This is one of those phrases (like civil society) that entered public discourse suddenly, and has made mischief ever since. All states fail to some degree. Why is it our task to grade this one and get its marks up? If there's a specific problem, like incubating terror cells, then take some useful half-measures. Pursue and isolate the terrorists, cordon off the hot spots and don't think you can solve everything. There's an arrogance in "nation-building," another dicey phrase. Send the NATO forces home and let them nation-build there. Life is mostly half-measures.
"Without security, there can be no development": Wrong, but I know it sounds right. The problem is, security in this case means occupation by foreign troops, which doesn't work well anywhere, especially Afghanistan. First "we" invade and depose their government, which had at least provided security. Then we impose a government that "invites" us in (where we already are) and survives only with our support. Our presence inspires resistance and recruitment to the Taliban or al-Qaeda, which revive. (Al-Qaeda in Iraq didn't exist till the U.S. invasion; now it exports to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.) The more resistance, the more we the occupiers have to fight, and opposition grows. This week, bombs killed many civilians in the "Canadian" area. A district leader said it was the worst day of his life: "What was secure has now become insecure." This kind of security creates insecurity. Aid, in turn, is stymied. A recent UN report says general indicators such as human development and poverty have worsened since 2004.
What about helping women? Isn't that a good idea? Well, the situation for women was astronomically better under the Soviet-backed government in the 1980s before "our side" created the mujahedeen, who threw out the Soviets, assailed women and were, in turn, ousted by the Taliban, who we then defeated, installing warlords and clerics in their place. No lasting developmental good has come from foreign occupation; people there have learned this. They aren't irrational, they're observant.
Can anything be done? Possibly. But it would take a local political peace, brokered by regional powers such as Pakistan, India and Iran - not Lithuanians and Canadians. Then the well-meaning Canadians, including the military, could do their good works, rather than inspire rebellion.
Those dumb voters: Despite the Harper taunt that Canadians don't cut and run, and the Manley plea not to shirk our noble international blah blah, 61 per cent still think our troops should leave. Why lecture them about why they're wrong, instead of assuming they know what they want? Stéphane Dion says nobody wants an election on Afghanistan. Count me out. I'd love it.
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Afghanistan: Bread price hike affects millions
KABUL, 21 February 2008 (IRIN) - A sharp rise in the price of bread over the past three months is affecting the lives of millions of impoverished Afghans.
Unleavened bread is a staple of the Afghan diet, with the average person consuming at least two oval-shaped flatbreads per day.
"The price is too high. There are nine people in my family," Sardar Jan, a 40-year-old carpenter, told IRIN in Kabul.
"I need 15 loaves a day (for my family). How can we afford this?" asked Ghulum Dawood, 56, another Kabul resident.
And while business at one of the busier bakeries along Kabul's Kolola Pushta Street remained brisk, selling about 2,500 loaves daily, even the proprietor had noticed a difference: "Business is good, but I know some people are having trouble," Baryalai Ghafory said.
"I receive four `naans' (flatbreads) free of charge from the baker a day," 65-year-old Amina, one of 300,000 widows in Kabul said. "Thank God for their generosity."
A large number of Kabul residents have resorted to buying flour and baking bread at home to cut down on costs.
Living on one dollar a day now more difficult
Since November 2007, the price of bread in Afghanistan has risen from 11 US cents to 21 US cents, an increase of over 90 percent. Though more or less in line with global wheat price increases in the same period, that is a significant jump for Afghanistan where over half the country's 25 million inhabitants survive on less than $1 a day, according to Afghanistan's National Human Development Report for 2007.
Such price hikes increase the risk of food insecurity, hunger and vulnerability to other shocks, according to a January 2008 appeal by the UN and the Afghan government.
At least 1.4 million people in rural areas and 1.14 million in urban areas have been pushed into high-risk food insecurity, the UN says.
A family of seven can earn around $1.14 a day in Kabul, if the head of the family is fortunate enough to have a job. It would need $0.63 to buy 21 loaves of bread. In many cases over 60 percent of a family's income is now being spent on bread alone, the appeal said.
Regional disparities
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), from January 2007 to January 2008, the price of wheat nationwide increased by 67.3 percent.
In southern and central regions, wheat flour prices rose by 71.4 and 79.4 percent over the last year, while in the east, primarily due to the prices in Nooristan Province, that figure increased by over 143 percent, according to MAIL.
Pakistan, suffering from its own shortage of wheat flour, recently banned flour exports to Afghanistan, exacerbating the situation.
The Afghan government has limited capacity to import wheat or wheat flour and does not maintain grain reserves that might be used to help offset higher prices.
On 17 January, the UN World Food Programme launched an appeal for 89,000 metric tonnes of food (wheat, pulses, cooking oil and iodized salt) to assist over 2.5 million Afghans.
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Uzbek strongman scorns AG orders as unlawful
Pajhwak 02/22/2008
KABUL -Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, chief of staff to the supreme commander of the Afghan National Army (ANA), Tuesday scorned Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabits orders suspending him from government job as unlawful.
A day earlier the AG ordered the suspension of the Uzbek strongman for refusing to cooperate with an ongoing investigation of an armed attack on the residence of an opponent of the ex-militia commander.
Summoned to appear before the attorneys probing the attack on Turkmen leader Akbar Bais house, which took place 16 days back, the warlord defied the AG orders. Jabar Sabit moved to suspend for his failure to answer queries from a team of investigators.
While disregarding his suspension by the top law officer, Dostum insisted the AG was not authorised to take such action that he rejected as illegal. The defiant Uzbek maintained he continued to hold his official position.
In a statement emailed to Pajhwok Afghan News, Dostum asserted his respect for law, but dismissed the AGs allegations against him as unfounded. Under the law, the AG has no authority to place me under suspension as chief of staff to the ANA supreme commander.
He alleged there were political motives behind the orders that sought to please extremists at a time when Afghanistan was mire in a difficult political situation and tribal feuds. Such a provocative action would trigger unwanted consequences, he warned.
Dostum argued the AGs decision that could irk a big tribe would deepen the existing social problems. He urged President Karzai to intervene in the matter and veto Sabits instructions.
Rehmatullah Nazari, a senior officer at the AG office, said on Monday Dostum's case was being handled by a special committee of attorneys. "The AG will order his arrest, if necessary, just the way he has been suspended," Nazari assured.
On February 3, police ringed the Kabul residence of Dostum and secured the release of his foe. Scores of his armed supporters stormed Akbar Bai's house in the posh locality of Wazir Akbar Khan and took him hostage.
Dostum loyalists also injured two bodyguards of Bai, a former commander of the Jumbish-i-Milli, who later parted ways with the dreaded general after developing differences with him.
The warlord's home was kept under siege for several hours as police tried to arrest the attackers hiding inside. The nine-hour siege was lifted in compliance with instructions from senior government functionaries, but not before case against Dostum was sent to the attorney-general's office.
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Karzai has no role in Dostum suspension
Pajhwak By Najib Khilwatgar 02/22/2008
KABUL-President Hamid Karzai was not involved in the suspension of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum as chief of staff to the commander-in-chief of the Afghan National Army, a senior presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.
Addressing a news conference here, Hamayun Hamidzada said the action against the former Jumbish-i-Milli leader had been ordered by the attorney-general, not by the president.
Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabit told Pajhwok Afghan News a day earlier the action was based on Dostum's refusal to obey orders to turn up and answer queries from officials looking into an assault on the residence of political opponent.
Rehmatullah Nazari, a senior officer at the AG office, said Dostum's case was being handled by a special committee of attorneys. "The AG will order his arrest, if necessary, just the way he has been suspended," Nazari assured.
A fortnight ago, police ringed the Kabul residence of Dostum and secured the release of his foe. Scores of his armed supporters stormed Akbar Bai's house in the posh locality of Wazir Akbar Khan and took him hostage.
Dostum loyalists also injured two bodyguards of Bai, a former commander of the Jumbish-i-Milli, who later parted ways with the dreaded general after developing differences with him.
The warlord's home was kept under siege for several hours as police tried to arrest the attackers hiding inside. The nine-hour siege was lifted in compliance with instructions from senior government functionaries, but not before case against Dostum was sent to the attorney-general's office.
In response to a query, Hamidzada argued that the executive was empowered to enforce and apply the law of the land to all citizens equally. Police would have to comply with orders from the AG office, which was tracking the former Uzbek strongmans case, he said.
The spokesman described President Karzais two-day visit to Qatar at the head of a high-powered delegations as positive. Qatari entrepreneurs evinced a keen interest in investments in Afghanistans transport, hotel and mine exploration sectors, he said.
An official delegation has been named to visit the brotherly Muslim country to provide the prospective investors information they need regarding the relevant laws and procedures, according to the presidential aide.
Translated & edited by S. Mudassir Ali Shah
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Average life expectancy in Afghanistan 45 years
Pajhwak By Mustafa Basharat 02/22/2008
KABUL -The Afghan health minister has rejected as inaccurate an Al-Jazeera TV report about the average life expectancy of an Afghan. He claimed the figure given by the news channel was lower.
Dr. Muhammad Amin Fatemi said on Tuesday that Al- Jazeera TV put the average age of an Afghan at 42 years in a report broadcast this week. The Afghan government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) considered the report as wrong, he added.
According to the Ministry of Public Health and WHO, the minister added, the average age in Afghanistan was 45 years. He said Al-Jazeera used information of 30 years back which was not acceptable to Afghan government.
Fatemi recalled that a survey - jointly conducted by MoPH and WHO in 1972 - found the average life expectancy at 42 years. But a fall in the mother mortality rate and better access to health services, he continued, saw the average age of an Afghan go up to 45 years.
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