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Corruption helps Afghan drug lords evade justice-UN
By Jon Hemming
KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Corruption in Afghanistan is hobbling efforts to combat the booming opium trade with powerful drug lords evading justice by simply making a telephone call to friends in high places
Bamyan to be cleared of all mines
By Homayon Khoram Source: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) July 28, 2008
The historic city of Bamyan will be cleared of landmines by October this year.
Kidnapped French nationals fine: Afghan official
July 28, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - Two French aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan this month are fine and the government is doing all it can to secure their freedom, the interior minister said on Monday.
Bush to press Pakistani PM on extremist attacks
by P. Parameswaran Mon Jul 28, 6:28 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush will meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday in an effort to press Islamabad to take a tougher stance against Pakistani-based
Spy agency confusion in Pakistan
By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Karachi Monday, 28 July 2008
Pakistan's government says it will clarify why it reversed a move to put the most powerful intelligence agency, the ISI, under civilian control.
UN envoy backs Karzai against Pakistan
Canadian the first Western diplomat to publicly support Afghan leader's accusation that Islamabad spies are behind recent attacks
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail (Canada) July 28, 2008
KABUL — Pakistan's intelligence agents are likely responsible for recent attacks in Afghanistan, and the international community should support the Afghan government's complaints about such activity, a senior United Nations envoy says.
Security developments in Afghanistan, July 28
July 28 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 1120 GMT on Monday.
NATO troops kill 2 in Afghanistan
Associated Press Mon Jul 28, 4:32 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says its troops have killed two children in southern Afghanistan by opening fire on a car that they feared was about to attack their convoy.
Private Contractors' Role in Afghanistan
To Grow With Awarding of Latest Contracts
By Walter Pincus The Washington Post Monday, July 28, 2008; A15
With billions of dollars newly available in fiscal 2008 supplemental war funding, the Congressional Research Service last month estimated that the Defense Department is now spending $2.3 billion a month in Afghanistan.
Private Contractors' Role in Afghanistan To Grow With Awarding of Latest Contracts
The Washington Post - Politics By Walter Pincus Monday, July 28, 2008
With billions of dollars newly available in fiscal 2008 supplemental war funding, the Congressional Research Service last month estimated that the Defense Department is now spending $2.3 billion a month in Afghanistan.
Bazaar opens but progress slow in Sangin
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, in Sangin Monday, 28 July 2008
Two years ago British troops were fighting for their lives in the small Afghanistan town of Sangin, defending a compound next to the river which the Taleban were trying to overrun.
Afghanistan: US "battlefield damage aid" helps recovery in Helmand Province
KABUL, 28 July 2008 (IRIN) - About two months after Taliban insurgents were forced out of Garmsir District in Helmand Province, US forces have been helping local people to rebuild their properties and livelihoods.
Iceland Supports Energy Project in Afghanistan
IcelandReview (Iceland) July 28, 2008
The Icelandic Crisis Response Unit, which is based in Afghanistan, is supporting development work in the rural Ghor region through the construction of hydropower plants. Iceland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs finances the entire project.
‘Do more’ chorus harps on
By Gul Jammas Hussain The Tehran Times July 27, 2008
The “do more” phenomenon has set off a conflagration of extremism and terrorism in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan whose flames are threatening to consume most of the country.
Truck drivers block trade between Afghan and Iran
Written by www.quqnoos.com & PAN Sunday, 27 July 2008
Afghan truck drivers demand Iran reduceroad tax from trucks going to Iran
Truck drivers have protested and have blocked the Silk Bridge, which is the border between Afghanistan’s Nimroz province and Iran.
Gunfire blocks Kabul-Jalalabad highway
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 27 July 2008
Police and militants battle for one hour in Sorobi district
Law enforcement officers and militants reportedly exchanged gunfire Saturday morning in Sorobi district, which lies between Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar.
Corruption helps Afghan drug lords evade justice-UN
By Jon Hemming
KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Corruption in Afghanistan is hobbling efforts to combat the booming opium trade with powerful drug lords evading justice by simply making a telephone call to friends in high places, a United Nations official said on Monday.
Opium production in Afghanistan has risen every year since U.S. and Afghan forces ended Taliban rule in 2001, despite millions of dollars spent on trying to eradicate crops, encourage farmers to plant something else and arrest traffickers.
"We talk about those who are not behind bars, but who should be," the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Afghanistan, Christina Oguz, told a news conference. "They are the people who have committed crimes of corruption or who are the brains and profiteers behind trafficking networks.
"They are people with power and people with powerful friends who can use their mobile phones to release a suspect from detention without a fair trial," she said.
The U.S. government's former point man in the fight against the heroin trade in Afghanistan accused Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an article published on Sunday of obstructing counter-narcotics efforts and protecting drug lords.
Karzai strongly denies the charge.
CHEMICAL SMUGGLING
Afghanistan produced some 93 percent of the world's supply of opium last year, most of which is processed to make highly addictive heroin and exported abroad.
The crop is worth some $3 billion a year to the Afghan economy, locking the country into a vicious circle where drug money helps fund the Taliban insurgency, fuels official corruption, both of which weaken government control over parts of the country which are then free to produce more opium.
"It is very dangerous for any society if people believe strongly ... the government is corrupt," said Oguz. "Even if it is not true it is very very dangerous for society because it indicates there is no trust in the government ... I would think the best thing for the government would be to really investigate these allegations."
At a June conference in Paris, the Afghan government made a strong commitment to fight corruption in return for pledges of some $20 billion in aid from international donors.
"What we are waiting for is decisive action to follow up on those words, but at least it's a start," Oguz said.
There was some evidence that a measure of success in stopping industrial chemicals used to process opium into heroin entering Afghanistan had led to something of a shortage, Oguz said.
The chemicals, used to make paint and pharmaceuticals, are legally exported from producer nations in Europe, China, Russia and South Korea to neighbouring countries, but then some are diverted and illegally smuggled to Afghanistan.
Most of the chemicals reach Afghanistan from Pakistan, but significant quantities came also from Iran, the UNODC said. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Bamyan to be cleared of all mines
By Homayon Khoram Source: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) July 28, 2008
The historic city of Bamyan will be cleared of landmines by October this year.
A total of 1800 000 square metres of land contaminated with mines and Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs) will be cleared except for four sites which have been declared as cultural heritage sites by UNESCO and need to be cleared with the cooperation of archaeologists.
The news has been announced by the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA).
486 de-mining personnel, most of them from Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), an Afghan NGO, are working to clear Bamyan from landmines and UXOs. 104 anti-personnel mines and 169 UXOs have been found and destroyed since the beginning of April this year.
‘After receiving authorization from the Ministry of Information and Culture we will start clearing the four cultural heritage sites,’ added Mr. Abdul Qader Qayoumi the head of UNMACA in Bamyan.
Speaking to a group of local journalists Mr. Qayoumi said: ‘Next year the mine action programme of Afghanistan will start de-mining work in the Shibar, Saighan and Kahmard districts of Bamyan province.’
"Mine-related injuries have decreased by 70-80 percent this year thanks to the mine risk education programme being carried out in Bamyan," said Mohammad Rahim Malikzai a mine risk educator. More than 1,200 people have received mine risk education since April this year.
In a ceremony UNMACA handed over the areas surrounding the Sar-e-Asiab village to Government authorities and village elders after the area was cleared of landmines and UXOs. De-mining agencies were asked to clean the area after two children were wounded in the village. De-miners were able to detect and destroy eight anti-personnel mines and 20 UXOs.
‘Now our children can play safely in the village thanks to the de-miners,’ said a village elder.
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Kidnapped French nationals fine: Afghan official
July 28, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - Two French aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan this month are fine and the government is doing all it can to secure their freedom, the interior minister said on Monday.
The two were working for the humanitarian agency, Action Against Hunger, in the central province of Dai Kundi and were kidnapped from their house nearly two weeks ago, according to the aid group.
"They are fine and in Afghanistan. We are working on the subject seriously and there has been progress," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari said.
The government was aware the pair were being held by Sedaqat, a commander of a former armed faction, Bashari said, but declined to give further details.
Sedaqat last week told a Western radio station he had kidnapped the pair due to differences with provincial authorities he said had sidelined him from power.
The warlord, who changed sides several times during Afghanistan's long and bitter civil war, made no demand for freeing the pair at the time.
With the rise of violence in Afghanistan, kidnapping has become all to common in Afghanistan and scores of Afghans and foreigners have been abducted by criminals or Taliban militants in recent years.
The kidnapping of Afghans rarely makes it in the international media. Abduction of Afghans has gone up in various parts of the country, especially in Kabul, in recent months, according to residents. Some of the hostages have been killed for failure to fulfill the demands of the captors.
The development has forced dozens of local businessmen or rich people to flee the country, residents say.
A Chinese worker of a road firm was freed at the weekend, a month after his abduction from an area southwest of Kabul.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Bush to press Pakistani PM on extremist attacks
by P. Parameswaran Mon Jul 28, 6:28 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush will meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday in an effort to press Islamabad to take a tougher stance against Pakistani-based Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, who launch attacks against Afghanistan.
Bush said he was "troubled" by the movement of extremists from Pakistan to Afghanistan and would discuss the threat with Gilani, who is making his first White House visit since he took over the helm in March.
Gilani is well aware of the stakes for the trip, which comes amid mounting fears that the US is prepared to launch military "hot pursuit" raids into Pakistan's troubled tribal belt in pursuit of extremists.
"It is in the interest of Pakistan to curb extremism and terrorism," Gilani told reporters before leaving for the three-day official visit.
But he will be under pressure to explain his government's counterterrorism strategy -- or, as some experts see, the lack of one.
"I think Gilani has his work cut out for him in terms of explaining how his government intends to get a handle on this problem, which is not only a Pakistani problem but a problem for the international community as well," said Lisa Curtis, a former State Department advisor and ex-CIA analyst.
She said Bush would seek an explanation of how Pakistan was dealing with the "burgeoning terrorist safe haven," now extending into settled areas of the North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
"We have not seen a real focused (counterterrorism) strategy by the new government -- a strategy that the US has confidence in," said Curtis, now with the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.
"I think the militants are the ones who are gaining from whatever Pakistan is pursuing at the moment," she said.
Some see Gilani's fledgling democratic government as powerless to act against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, which regrouped inside Pakistan after they were expelled from Afghanistan by the US-led invasion in 2001.
"It will be difficult for Gilani to take up Pakistan's case with American leaders in Washington," Pakistani political analyst Ayaz Amir told AFP in Islamabad.
"How can a person who is not even in command of things at home represent and protect national interests in Washington and absorb more US pressure on the issues of militancy and terrorism?"
Newsweek magazine reported last week that the new Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Kayani "is said to be quietly cutting deal after deal with Al Qaeda-linked militants."
"Bush administration officials are growing steadily more alarmed by Pakistan's instability, and they are at a loss about what to do," the US magazine said.
"Unsurprisingly, the army has been reluctant to take particularly aggressive steps on its own, preferring a more passive role in the context of political uncertainty," said Daniel Markey of the Washington-based Council on Foreign Affairs.
Should Islamabad's drift persist well into 2009, he said, the White House would be "severely handicapped," requiring a fresh strategy by the new US president.
Pressure is on Gilani as well from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has a large number of troops in Afghanistan fighting alongside US forces.
"The bottom line is that the present situation cannot be acceptable for anyone," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Kabul last week.
Scheffer wanted Pakistan to be involved in a "regional" effort to contain the rising militancy problem.
Meanwhile, The New York Times urged President Bush, in an editorial published Monday, to "recast" US-Pakistani relations by "making clear that he is committed to strengthening both Pakistan's democracy and its ability to fight extremism."
"That will require a lot more economic assistance and more carefully monitored military aid," the newspaper pointed out.
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Spy agency confusion in Pakistan
By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Karachi Monday, 28 July 2008
Pakistan's government says it will clarify why it reversed a move to put the most powerful intelligence agency, the ISI, under civilian control.
On Saturday night it said the ISI would be brought under the control of the Interior Ministry.
But the decision was revoked within hours, apparently following intervention from the army.
Western powers believe the ISI has rogue elements helping al-Qaeda and Taleban militants in Afghanistan.
It is also criticised by Pakistani politicians for seeking to monopolise the country's national security policy.
'Immediate effect'
The government issued a formal notification late on Saturday which said: "The Prime Minister has approved the placement of Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) under the administrative, finance and operational control of the [Interior Ministry] with immediate effect... "
But at 0300 on Sunday morning, barely six hours later, the government's Press Information Department issued a statement saying the government had only meant to re-emphasise "coordination between the Ministry of Interior and the ISI in relation to the war on terror and internal security".
Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told the media the army was "not consulted on the notification particularly" about the changes to the ISI, but that "matters for ensuring better coordination between institutions responsible for national security were discussed".
He said it was "illogical" to place the ISI, which provides "strategic intelligence on external security threats", under the Interior Ministry which is responsible for internal security.
'Army's teeth'
The government's backtracking has prompted plenty of comment among politicians and in the Pakistan media.
An ex-army officer and defence analyst, Ikram Sehgal, told the Dawn News TV channel that the government retracted its decision when the army "showed its teeth".
Formally, the ISI currently reports to the prime minister. But many observers believe it is answerable to no one.
"Given the powers that Pakistan's army has enjoyed over successive civilian governments, there is no way the ISI can be made answerable to the prime minister," says Afrasiab Khatak, a top leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), the governing party in the troubled North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December, complained that the ISI kept her out of the loop on several key national security issues and worked at cross purposes with the country's civilian governments.
Observers in Pakistan believe the government could have had two motives for trying to bring the ISI under civilian control.
It either wanted to appease the US at a time when the Pakistani prime minister is in Washington for talks with President Bush. Or it genuinely wanted to rein in the agency which is widely accused of helping al-Qaeda and Taleban militants.
Analyst Ikram Sehgal believes the spur for the government's move possibly may have come from an ISI report that opposed recent negotiations in Mumbai with some Indian firms concerning the funding and exploitation of Pakistan's Thar coal reserves - one of the largest in the world.
"Energy is a sensitive issue, and a precious national asset like Thar coal reserves cannot be opened to Indian businessmen," he said.
But the government's retreat on the matter is likely to embarrass Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ahead of his meeting with Mr Bush.
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UN envoy backs Karzai against Pakistan
Canadian the first Western diplomat to publicly support Afghan leader's accusation that Islamabad spies are behind recent attacks
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail (Canada) July 28, 2008
KABUL — Pakistan's intelligence agents are likely responsible for recent attacks in Afghanistan, and the international community should support the Afghan government's complaints about such activity, a senior United Nations envoy says.
Chris Alexander, a former Canadian ambassador now serving as a UN deputy special representative in Afghanistan, says he believes the Afghan authorities, who say their neighbour's spy service is sending terrorists across the border.
President Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of plotting many spectacular attacks in his country in recent months, including an attempt on his life and an embassy bombing that killed at least 41 people in Kabul.
"We have to ask ourselves, was Karzai right on this point?" Mr. Alexander said in an interview. "I think the answer is yes."
While many foreign officials and analysts have privately endorsed Mr. Karzai's view of the ISI, Mr. Alexander is the first Western diplomat to back the accusation in public.
"If we support him as President of Afghanistan, and we support the cause of peace and security in Afghanistan, we should be prepared to speak lucidly about these issues as well, and not be given pause or forced to back down simply because there's a reaction from someone who, quite frankly, is speaking for the spoilers," Mr. Alexander said.
"Let's have some international courage on this front."
Western diplomats have previously said they tread carefully with Pakistan in part because of the country's fragile politics, its mistrust of foreign pressure and its nuclear arsenal.
When asked how Islamabad might react to blunt accusations of waging a proxy war, Mr. Alexander shrugged. "I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out. The project on which we're embarked - with its high stakes, with its serious investment, with its sacrifices - deserves at least that level of courage with regard to this issue. Otherwise we really are pretending that Niagara Falls doesn't flow."
Islamabad has consistently denied using intelligence services to interfere with its neighbour, but Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani bowed to international pressure on the weekend by removing the ISI from military control and placing it under the Interior Ministry's civilian supervision.
The head of Pakistan's ruling party said the move was intended to deflect criticism of the spy agency and the announcement was timed to coincide with Mr. Gilani's visit to Washington today for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.
But the switch to civilian oversight was only a symbolic gesture and could aggravate the chaotic situation in Pakistan as power brokers struggle for control of the spy agency, according to an assessment published yesterday by Strategic Forecasting Inc., a private intelligence firm.
"Increased civilian say over the affairs of the agency will, in the short term, add to the crisis of governance faced by the state," the assessment says.
After years of excusing rumours of Pakistani involvement as being the work of rogue agents or retired intelligence officials acting on their own, Western leaders have become increasingly blunt with Pakistan in private conversations about the ISI's role in the Afghan war.
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Pakistan this month and confronted his counterparts in a meeting that one diplomat described as stormy. "He lost his temper," the diplomat said.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, who made a whirlwind visit to Kabul on the weekend, was more measured when a reporter asked him about relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Canada does have concerns about the insurgency platform, if you like, that is developing and has developed in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Mr. Emerson said.
" ...We believe that ultimately there has to be a collaborative approach to solving the situation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and look forward to dialogue taking place in the months ahead."
Pakistan's intelligence services are widely believed to have helped create the Taliban in 1994 and to have shepherded the movement toward its takeover of nearly all of Afghanistan. Pakistan formally cut ties with the Taliban in 2001, under U.S. pressure, but rumours of assistance received by Taliban insurgents in the lawless border region have persisted for years.
Mr. Alexander said the message to Pakistan must go beyond pressing the government. Concrete actions should be demanded against the networks of terrorists and insurgents who take shelter in the country's tribal areas, he said.
But assurances must also be given to Pakistan that moving against militants in the border regions will not harm its own national interest, he said, alluding to Pakistan's concerns about India. Members of the military establishment in Pakistan have argued that supporting Islamic militants can give their country a supply of irregular forces if needed against India, and prevent Pakistan from being squeezed on two fronts in the event of war.
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Security developments in Afghanistan, July 28
July 28 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 1120 GMT on Monday.
KANDAHAR - NATO-led soldiers in a convoy opened fire on a vehicle approaching them in a "threatening manner", killing two children and wounding a man in southern Kandahar on Sunday, the alliance said on Monday.
NURISTAN - Three civilians were killed when a rocket fired from an unknown location hit a residential area on Monday in eastern Nuristan, the provincial governor said.
DAI KUNDI - Two French aid workers kidnapped this month from the central province of Dai Kundi are fine and the government is doing all it can to secure their release, an interior ministry spokesman in Kabul said on Monday.
KHOST - Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) is trying to sabotage the construction of a highway by an Indian road firm in the southeastern region, the Afghan intelligence department said on Monday. The ISI has trained between 2,500 to 3,000 militants, most of them foreigners, for "sabotage" activities in the region and for hampering the building of the highway, it added.
(Compiled by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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NATO troops kill 2 in Afghanistan
Associated Press Mon Jul 28, 4:32 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says its troops have killed two children in southern Afghanistan by opening fire on a car that they feared was about to attack their convoy.
The alliance said in a statement issued Monday that the troops opened fire on the car in Kandahar province after its driver ignored repeated signals to keep its distance.
Afghan and U.N. officials have urged international troops to avoid civilian casualties, which threaten to undermine support for the President Hamid Karzai and the presence of foreign forces.
NATO commanders insist they take all reasonable precautions and blame militants for endangering innocents.
Militants regularly use civilian cars loaded with explosives in suicide missions against Afghan and foreign troops.
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Private Contractors' Role in Afghanistan
To Grow With Awarding of Latest Contracts
By Walter Pincus The Washington Post Monday, July 28, 2008; A15
With billions of dollars newly available in fiscal 2008 supplemental war funding, the Congressional Research Service last month estimated that the Defense Department is now spending $2.3 billion a month in Afghanistan. Add $500 million monthly from the State Department and more from other agencies, and the total U.S. outlay in Afghanistan this fiscal year will be about $34 billion.
The war's demands and the availability of that kind of money guarantee a flood of new contracts. A review of the FBO Daily Web site for July contracts shows that the administration, which in Iraq turned to the private sector for tasks once handled by military or government personnel, is stepping up this practice in Afghanistan.
One of the most ambitious efforts is a solicitation from the U.S. Agency for International Development, clarified on July 15, which proposes expansion of an existing program to "increase both the human and physical capacity of the justice sector in Afghanistan."
The work statement says, frankly, that "corruption, local influence, lack of security and insufficient salaries" along with "lack of both physical and human capacity . . . plague and weaken the ability of the formal court system to deliver justice."
To remedy this, USAID is looking for a private contractor to coordinate what it calls "Justice Sector Development," a huge undertaking that would involve working with U.S. and international organizations, as well as with U.S. and NATO military units engaged in rule-of-law issues. The contractor would work with the Afghan Supreme Court to introduce a simplified case-management system and build courthouses around the country. It would advance the development of law schools and promote "access to justice for women and public awareness of rights."
USAID also announced this month that it is looking for a contractor "to increase licit and commercially viable agricultural-based alternatives for rural Afghans" to replace drug production. The target area is the six provinces in southern Afghanistan described as "most insecure and unstable," including Helmand and Kandahar.
The goal of the contract is to significantly reduce and ultimately eradicate poppy production. In developing alternatives, bidders should consider generating income for the Afghans involved as well as promoting "anti-corruption, gender, 'Afghanization' (local project ownership) and local governance," according to the USAID proposal.
Most solicitations were for new contractors in military and intelligence projects. On July 5, the Bagram Regional Contracting Center, located within the giant complex in Afghanistan that U.S. Central Command has described as our long-term base for Central Asia, sought a contractor to supply four human intelligence analysts. They will be required to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week and to be on call 24 hours a day. They also will need clearances to review top-secret and special compartmented information, the highest clearances available.
The four are to work with the Enemy Combatant Review Board, which has been set up in Afghanistan to determine whether detainees should remain in prison. They are, according to the work statement, to serve locally as the "primary military police intelligence adviser and analyst," and as liaisons with local law enforcement and intelligence.
Another notice, posted on July 15, called for a private contractor to design and construct a commercial customs building at a border-crossing point between Afghanistan and Tajikistan at Nizhny Pyandzh, Tajikistan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan will supervise the job, which is expected to cost nearly $10 million and take nine months to complete.
This is not the first project at this border-crossing spot, which at one point was considered an outlet for drugs. In 2006, with $4 million in anti-narcotics money from the Department of Defense, a border-crossing facility was constructed after the area was first cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance. It was built with fencing, guard towers, gates, lights and housing for 30 people.
In addition, U.S. engineers supervised construction of a $37 million bridge across the Oxus River at the Nizhny Pyandzh border, funded by the United States and other countries.
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Private Contractors' Role in Afghanistan To Grow With Awarding of Latest Contracts
The Washington Post - Politics By Walter Pincus Monday, July 28, 2008
With billions of dollars newly available in fiscal 2008 supplemental war funding, the Congressional Research Service last month estimated that the Defense Department is now spending $2.3 billion a month in Afghanistan. Add $500 million monthly from the State Department and more from other agencies, and the total U.S. outlay in Afghanistan this fiscal year will be about $34 billion.
The war's demands and the availability of that kind of money guarantee a flood of new contracts. A review of the FBO Daily Web site for July contracts shows that the administration, which in Iraq turned to the private sector for tasks once handled by military or government personnel, is stepping up this practice in Afghanistan.
One of the most ambitious efforts is a solicitation from the U.S. Agency for International Development, clarified on July 15, which proposes expansion of an existing program to "increase both the human and physical capacity of the justice sector in Afghanistan."
The work statement says, frankly, that "corruption, local influence, lack of security and insufficient salaries" along with "lack of both physical and human capacity plague and weaken the ability of the formal court system to deliver justice."
To remedy this, USAID is looking for a private contractor to coordinate what it calls "Justice Sector Development," a huge undertaking that would involve working with U.S. and international organizations, as well as with U.S. and NATO military units engaged in rule-of-law issues. The contractor would work with the Afghan Supreme Court to introduce a simplified case-management system and build courthouses around the country. It would advance the development of law schools and promote "access to justice for women and public awareness of rights."
USAID also announced this month that it is looking for a contractor "to increase licit and commercially viable agricultural-based alternatives for rural Afghans" to replace drug production. The target area is the six provinces in southern Afghanistan described as "most insecure and unstable," including Helmand and Kandahar.
The goal of the contract is to significantly reduce and ultimately eradicate poppy production. In developing alternatives, bidders should consider generating income for the Afghans involved as well as promoting "anti-corruption, gender, 'Afghanization' (local project ownership) and local governance," according to the USAID proposal.
Most solicitations were for new contractors in military and intelligence projects. On July 5, the Bagram Regional Contracting Center, located within the giant complex in Afghanistan that U.S. Central Command has described as our long-term base for Central Asia, sought a contractor to supply four human intelligence analysts. They will be required to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week and to be on call 24 hours a day. They also will need clearances to review top-secret and special compartmented information, the highest clearances available.
The four are to work with the Enemy Combatant Review Board, which has been set up in Afghanistan to determine whether detainees should remain in prison. They are, according to the work statement, to serve locally as the "primary military police intelligence adviser and analyst," and as liaisons with local law enforcement and intelligence.
Another notice, posted on July 15, called for a private contractor to design and construct a commercial customs building at a border-crossing point between Afghanistan and Tajikistan at Nizhny Pyandzh, Tajikistan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan will supervise the job, which is expected to cost nearly $10 million and take nine months to complete.
This is not the first project at this border-crossing spot, which at one point was considered an outlet for drugs. In 2006, with $4 million in anti-narcotics money from the Department of Defense, a border-crossing facility was constructed after the area was first cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance. It was built with fencing, guard towers, gates, lights and housing for 30 people.
In addition, U.S. engineers supervised construction of a $37 million bridge across the Oxus River at the Nizhny Pyandzh border, funded by the United States and other countries.
National security and intelligence reporter Walter Pincus pores over the speeches, reports, transcripts and other documents that flood Washington and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes headlines -- but should. If you have any items that fit the bill, please send them tofineprint@washpost.com.
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Bazaar opens but progress slow in Sangin
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, in Sangin Monday, 28 July 2008
Two years ago British troops were fighting for their lives in the small Afghanistan town of Sangin, defending a compound next to the river which the Taleban were trying to overrun.
They dropped 500lb (227kg) bombs metres from their own gates and regularly used hand grenades, which says a lot about the close-quarter nature of the fighting.
Today Sangin bazaar is open - you can buy anything in the market - and as we walked down the main street with a patrol of British troops, locals were laying concrete by the road, improving the drains.
They took us to the mosque which is being renovated, the new school which is being built, and we saw police checkpoints being put up to help local security and keep the Taleban at bay.
But the school was badly constructed - it has already been rebuilt once and its roof needs to be redone - and it's unlikely to be open in six weeks when the new school year starts.
The bubble of security in Sangin doesn't stretch much further than the market, and the hard stares of the Afghan traders do not suggest Nato troops are winning hearts or minds.
While on patrol, we heard shooting over the hill - two US Marines were attacked and wounded and an Afghan girl was badly injured in the crossfire.
The day before, six British troops were injured, one seriously, when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb just south of the bazaar, and just a few miles both up and down the valley, the British bases established as buffers to protect the town centre are attacked every day - it's reminiscent of summer 2006.
We spent 24 hours in Forward Operating Base Inkerman, north of Sangin.
At sunset the camp came under rocket and mortar fire - a Taleban missile struck just metres outside the base and they were under attack from three side.
The next morning we were almost caught in a "friendly fire" incident which injured two soldiers when a faulty British mortar bomb landed short, and we left the day before dog handler Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe was killed in an ambush and six other troops were injured.
"It's routine business," said Maj Stuart McDonald, from 3 Para. "For the last 10 to 14 days there has only been one patrol that has not been contacted. It's the routine right now - two or three times a day the camp or the patrols will be attacked."
'Absolute' security
Lt Col Joe O'Sullivan is the commander of 2 Para Battlegroup which is based in Sangin, and he admits progress is slow.
"There's a UK road map plan for this part of Helmand which has a series of objectives which roll out over a period of several years and at the moment our ambition is only to create security in a very small area in the centre of Sangin," he said.
"But that security is very much relative. It just needs to be good enough to allow the development and the institutions to grow - it's not absolute."
Following the road map plan is UK stabilisation officer John Moffat, who took us to meet the mayor of Sangin.
He's the big hope for improving local governance, but Sangin is a complex mishmash of different tribes, some of whom have blood feuds against each other.
Man for change?
The mayor is a tribal outsider here - just understanding and keeping up with the latest local rivalries or new disputes or new alliances is hard enough.
Trying to manage them to bring development and some kind of order is even harder.
A lot of emphasis is being put on one man and in such a complicated local political world how do you know you're backing the right man?
Sangin is not stable - it's a dangerous place where the daily risks are pot shots at the base, small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades, roadside bombs, booby traps and suicide bombers.
The troops are locked in a stalemate with the Taleban in the summer peak of the fighting season.
Plans to create a little bit of space and time are all very well, but when troops are being killed and injured almost daily you have to wonder how much time there is to see this through, before those back home start to think the cost as too high for the mission to continue.
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Afghanistan: US "battlefield damage aid" helps recovery in Helmand Province
KABUL, 28 July 2008 (IRIN) - About two months after Taliban insurgents were forced out of Garmsir District in Helmand Province, US forces have been helping local people to rebuild their properties and livelihoods.
Some 2,400 US marines, backed by Afghan and UK forces, conducted a military operation from late April to early June in which scores of insurgents were killed, thus restoring the government's authority in the district, according to US and Afghan military officials.
To help people rebuild their damaged property, "24.3 million Afghani [over US$480,000] in battlefield damage aid" had been paid out to about 400 claimants by 27 July, according to the US military.
"We are paying what we call battlefield damage aid. There are certain things we don't pay for, such as damage caused by insurgents or damage caused well before we arrived," Capt Kelly Frushour, a public affairs officer for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, told IRIN in Kabul.
"The process is: Someone with property damage goes to the Civil Military Operations Centre. They report the damage to the marines there. The marines will verify the claim - sometimes this requires going to the location. Once the claim is verified, the person is paid," she said.
Aid "largely insufficient" - local official
Thousands of civilians were reportedly displaced from their homes during the military operation. The clashes adversely affected agriculture, the health and education sectors, and the local economy. However, provincial officials said most of the displaced had returned to their homes.
"Some people have received assistance to re-establish their life after the war, but overall the available aid has been largely insufficient," said Mohammad Anwar Khan, head of the provincial council, adding that people in Garmsir were still facing "a variety of very serious problems".
Some local people complained about the damage to water sources and shops, which they said had not been compensated for by the government and international forces.
Taliban insurgents had allegedly left behind landmines and explosive remnants of war which reportedly killed and wounded several people, and impeded access to agricultural land and public places.
"Stable but not secure"
The Afghan Red Crescent in Helmand Province said during and after the military operation over 1,000 battle-affected families had received food aid.
A district hospital, run by a local non-governmental organisation, had also been re-opened and re-stocked with "basic medical supplies" by the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). "There is one doctor, a midwife and two assistants and they see 80-100 patients a day," said Frushour of the US military.
Frushour said nine other projects had also been funded. These included well-digging and the refurbishment of two mosques.
Afghan and US officials said local people in Garmsir District were "very happy" that the insurgents had been driven out. "The few who have not been pleased with our presence begrudgingly accept us because they don't want the insurgents there either, and they do concede that at least we pay them for damage to their property and/or use of their property," said Frushour.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is expected to hand over the security of Garmsir District to the PRT and Afghan forces in the next three months. "Garmsir is stable but not secure. The insurgents are still there; they are just not engaging with marine forces the way they were," Frushour added.
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Iceland Supports Energy Project in Afghanistan
IcelandReview (Iceland) July 28, 2008
The Icelandic Crisis Response Unit, which is based in Afghanistan, is supporting development work in the rural Ghor region through the construction of hydropower plants. Iceland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs finances the entire project.
“Power plants are built in clusters. We work with villages that are located relatively close to each other,” expert in development work Ragnheidur Kolsöe, who is overseeing the project, told Morgunbladid.
Kolsöe said four plants were built in the region last year, eight will be constructed this year and eight more in 2009. Because of the project, many inhabitants in Ghor now have access to electricity for the first time.
“It means that the inhabitants of the Ghor region have light and don’t have to use lanterns in the evenings anymore. That reduces pollution [in an area where] respiratory diseases are very common,” Kolsöe said.
“It makes the day longer so children can do their homework. It can also help people get more work done and thus increase production. It is absolutely clear that [electricity] improves the living conditions of people and their quality of life to a considerable extent,” Kolsöe concluded.
The hydropower project in Ghor is the most extensive project undertaken by the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit in Afghanistan.
Last year the unit made a three-year agreement with the non-governmental organization (NGO) International Assistance Mission (IAM) on the construction of the power plants. Local inhabitants are responsible for constructing the plants under the guidance of professionals.
Ghor has ten counties and the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit and IAM try to focus equally on each county. The region is located in central Afghanistan and the local transport system is of poor condition.
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‘Do more’ chorus harps on
By Gul Jammas Hussain The Tehran Times July 27, 2008
The “do more” phenomenon has set off a conflagration of extremism and terrorism in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan whose flames are threatening to consume most of the country.
But paradoxically, U.S. officials’ “do more” chorus harps on.
Speaking Friday in Australia, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Pakistan needs to do more to prevent Taleban militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan from its territory.
“We understand that it’s difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organize there and to plan there and to engage across the border,” Rice said. “So yes, more needs to be done.”
Sorry, you have got it fairly wrong, Ms. Rice. It would only be easy for Pakistan to “do more” to stop Pashtun fighters intent on engaging U.S. forces from crossing the border if Pakistan’s leaders were willing to destroy their own country for the sake of the United States and its misbegotten plans.
For a thousand years no one has been able to subdue the independent-minded tribal warriors of northwest Pakistan, not even the British Empire at the height of its power when the proverbial sun never set on the Union Jack. Ms. Rice should read Winston Churchill’s war chronicles from his days in the region as a soldier war correspondent to learn what the tribal people did to the invading British troops and their local collaborators.
Perhaps this was the reason why the British devised a special system of political administration to govern the tribal areas.
After independence in 1947, Pakistan approved an article of the Constitution that provided semiautonomous status to the northwest areas of the country, allowed its inhabitants to live according to their own culture and tribal traditions, prohibited the Pakistani army from initiating any kind of military action in the area, and required that local problems be solved through tribal councils. Later constitutions included similar articles that retained these provisions.
Since the U.S.-led coalition forces toppled the Taleban regime, occupied Afghanistan, and arm-twisted Pakistan into sending its army to the tribal areas, Pakistan’s entire Pashtun belt has been ablaze.
However, unbeknownst to the bumbling strategists of the Pentagon, the Pashtun people follow a tribal code which emphasizes living and dying with honor, and revenge is the warp and woof of tribal life.
The numerous civilian causalities in mostly Pashtun areas in neighboring Afghanistan at the beginning of the U.S.-led occupation kindled sentiments of revenge in the hearts of the Pashtun fighters of tribal Pakistan, who are often wrongly identified as Taleban by the Western media, and they started to infiltrate into the country to fight the U.S. troops and their allies.
The first gift a Pashtun child gets from his parents is not a toy but a real gun. And then his next task is to track down an enemy to try out his weapon. When that child becomes a man, he is not allowed to marry until he masters marksmanship. I have been to a Pashtun wedding party where we returned hungry because the bridegroom could not hit the target dangling from a tree over the bride’s home. The whole day the groom kept aiming at the target with his Kalashnikov, but night fell, the wedding was called off, and he was asked to return the next year after perfecting the art of riflery.
Ms. Rice, these are the people the United States has come to fight, for whom it’s a Godsent gift to have the “infidel” forces in their cross hairs. What better enemy could they hope for than invaders who openly call themselves crusaders? Clearly, no one can stop them from crossing the long porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan until the U.S. ends its occupation of the country.
Pakistan’s leaders can only “do more” if they prioritize the United States’ interests over their own country’s, which would be a totally illogical move akin to sati.
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Truck drivers block trade between Afghan and Iran
Written by www.quqnoos.com & PAN Sunday, 27 July 2008
Afghan truck drivers demand Iran reduceroad tax from trucks going to Iran
Truck drivers have protested and have blocked the Silk Bridge, which is the border between Afghanistan’s Nimroz province and Iran.
The protestors number hundreds, blocked the border between Nimroz and Iran for an hour on Saturday morning, and prevented Iranian trucks entering Afghanistan.
The drivers say that Iran has increased road taxes for merchandise entering Afghanistan.
Asad Ullah, one of the truck drivers in Nimroz province, who was importing merchandise such as clothes, car equipments, and Chinese merchandise from Bandar Abas in Iran, said the Iranian authorities were taking $100 road tax from every car which entered their country, but now they are taking a $350 road tax.
Nooruddin, another driver, said Afghanistan has not increased its road tax, but Iran is creating substantial problems for Afghanistan. But head of Iran’s customs near the Silk Bridge, who did not mention his name, said the road tax has increased because the trucks travel a long way from Abas border to Afghanistan.
The source said they were not serious about the road taxes before, but the Iranian government has now decided to increase the tax.
Deputy governor of Nimroz, Malang Rasoli, said they have talked to the drivers’ representatives, and it was decided that their problems will be discussed with the Iranian consulate in Kandahar, and they were confident of finding solution to the problem.
However, the drivers say if the Iranian government does not change its policy concerning the road taxes, and the Afghan government fails to find a solution to this problem, they will block the border between Nimroz and Iran, and won’t allow Iranian vehicles entering Afghanistan.
Silk Bridge is an important commercial port in the south eastern part of the country, and hundreds of cars pass the bridge daily to Iran.
In the meantime, Herat’s customs has received Afg458 million this year, a 27% increase to last year's take.
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Gunfire blocks Kabul-Jalalabad highway
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 27 July 2008
Police and militants battle for one hour in Sorobi district
Law enforcement officers and militants reportedly exchanged gunfire Saturday morning in Sorobi district, which lies between Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The district chief of the capital of Sorobi, Qazi Suliman, said the fighting began at around one o'clock p.m. on Saturday and lasted for one hour.
Mr. Suliman added that one assailant was killed and another wounded in the incident, and that no police officers were injured.
A police officer engaged in the fighting stated on condition of anonymity that the incident blocked the Kabul-Jalalabad highway for over 45 minutes, and that the militants quickly fled the area afterwards.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has a different version of the incident, claiming that Taliban fighters killed four policemen and that only one Taliban fighter was injured.
Violence and militant activities have recently increased along this eastern highway, which is the main link between the capital city of Kabul and the eastern provinces.
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