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AFGHANISTAN: Attacks force aid agencies to scale down operations
KABUL, 16 October 2008 (IRIN) - Security incidents involving non-governmental organisations (NGOs) all over Afghanistan have reached unprecedented levels and some aid agencies have been forced
Afghan, Pakistan and NATO discuss security issues
KABUL, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Top military officials from Afghansitan, Pakistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Wednesday discussed security issues along
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct 16
Oct 16 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1300 GMT on Thursday:
What Kind of Negotiations Should There Be Between Karzai and The Taliban?
The Washington Independent, 10/15/2008 By Spencer Ackerman
Peter Bergen asks a great question: Since we’re seeing movement toward Karzai-Taliban negotiations, what kind of negotiations should there be?
Afghanistan: Pakistan's ex-spymaster outlines Taliban demands
AKI - Adnkronos International
Islamabad, 15 Oct. (AKI) - By Marco Liconti - The Taliban will agree to peace talks if they are recognised as a political force, if a date is set for the withdrawal of international forces, and if Taliban prisoners
Pakistani clerics say suicide bombing is 'un-Islamic'
Written by www.quqnoos.com foreign desk Thursday, 16 October 2008
Council of clerics condemns one of the main weapons in the rebels' arsenal
A COUNCIL of Muslim clerics in Pakistan has decreed that suicide bombings are "un-Islamic".
How deeply is the U.S. involved in the Afghan Drug Trade?
Huffington Post, NY Special for the Huffington Post By Eric Margolis October 15, 2008
Afghanistan is in a `downward spiral,' the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, admitted last week, giving the most negative view of that conflict heard in Washington.
Is The War Really In Afghanistan As Obama Repeatedly Insists?
Strategy Page - 10/13/2008
Obama and Democrat critics of our invasion of Iraq claim, I believe falsely, that there is no good reason for our having gone into Iraq.
British soldier killed in Afghanistan to be named
Thu Oct 16, 3:20 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier who died in an explosion while serving with NATO-led troops in Afghanistan is expected to be named on Thursday.
Afghan ally Haqqani is now a foe
Charlie Wilson's friend turns into elusive enemy against U.S.
The Washington Times - National Security James Rupert BLOOMBERG NEWS Thursday, October 16, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - When Jalaluddin Haqqani fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the U.S. showered him with praise, guns and money. The congressman celebrated in
Feds: Missing Afghan scholars from UW found in Canada
The Associated Press By Seattle Times staff 16 October 2008
Five scholars from Afghanistan who went missing from the University of Washington have been found in Canada.
NATO Modifies Airstrike Policy In Afghanistan Commanders Told to Consider Alternatives
Washington Post Foreign Service By Candace Rondeaux Thursday, October 16, 2008
KABUL - Oct. 15 -- In a bow to public outrage over a recent spate of U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan that resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths, NATO officials have ordered commanders
Five Afghans quit studies in U.S., flee to Canada
JOSH WINGROVE Globe and Mail (Canada) October 16, 2008
Five Afghan students studying in Washington have fled to Canada, U.S. customs officials said yesterday.
Upper House fears growing violence
www.quqnoos.com Written by Abdulwali Arian Thursday, 16 October 2008
Interior Minsitry says special force has been formed to tackle highway violence
MEMBERS of the Upper House have expressed their concern at deteriorating security in the country, which a leaked US report said had spiralled downwards this year.
AIT and Balkh University, Afghanistan launch project office in Thailand
Lanka Everything (UK) October 15, 2008
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has solidified its effort to assist the development of higher education in Afghanistan, opening a permanent office to manage its partnership with Balkh University (BU) located in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.
'Humble and shy' Bin Laden floated into camp
The Australian, Australia By Milanda Rout October 16, 2008
OSAMA bin Laden was a shy and humble man who "floated across the floor" when he visited an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2001 where a Melbourne Muslim convert trained, a court heard yesterday.
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AFGHANISTAN: Attacks force aid agencies to scale down operations
KABUL, 16 October 2008 (IRIN) - Security incidents involving non-governmental organisations (NGOs) all over Afghanistan have reached unprecedented levels and some aid agencies have been forced to scale down programmes, according to an aid groups' safety organisation.
At least 146 security incidents were reported from January to the end of September in which 28 people (five foreign and 23 national staff) were killed and 72 abducted, according to a quarterly report by the Afghanistan NGOs Safety Office (ANSO) (not available on the internet).
"Throughout July, August and September NGOs have reported the highest incident rates since ANSO records began in 2002," the report said, pointing out that 71 incidents were reported in the quarter.
The general conflict in Afghanistan has escalated by "velocity and geography" and attacks have gone up 400 percent over the past 33 months, it said.
ANSO only monitors and reports on the security of NGOs, but the UN has also warned about deteriorating security and its impact on civilians and aid work.
Kai Eide, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, on 14 October told the Security Council: "The insurgency now extended to provinces around Kabul; attacks had become more deadly, and there were more attacks against humanitarian targets… the situation was challenging and complex."
Scaled down operations
Insecurity has increasingly diminished operating space for aid work and has impeded service delivery to large and vulnerable swaths of the country, aid workers say.
Unlike insurgency-related violence which has largely been confined to southern and eastern regions, attacks on NGOs have been reported in 29 of the country's 34 provinces.
Up to 50 percent of Afghanistan is inaccessible to UN aid activities, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, reported in September.
Despite huge security challenges and movement restrictions, no aid organisation has left the country for security reasons, except for the December 2004 withdrawal of Médicins Sans Frontières.
However, many NGOs "have withdrawn staff and resources from difficult areas", ANSO director Nic Lee told IRIN.
Lex Kassenberg, director of CARE International in Kabul, said expat personnel were taking flights to the provinces because roads were insecure.
"We've scaled down the intensity of our programmes in some provinces," Kassenberg told IRIN, adding that his organisation was very concerned about staff security.
ANSO advice to NGOs: demonstrate your independence
Over 60 percent of the attacks on NGOs have been perpetrated by opposition groups (Taliban insurgents and fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), while 33 percent have been committed by armed criminal groups, the ANSO report said.
Attacks on NGOs have increased because of "the escalation in conflict and the fact that NGOs are often the only organisations present at the village level," ANSO's Lee said.
To mitigate the impact of insecurity, ANSO's recommendation to NGOs is to demonstrate their independence.
"ANSO is advising NGOs to prepare for a multi-polar security environment by strongly reinforcing their independence and moving away from political and military actors," the report said.
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Afghan, Pakistan and NATO discuss security issues
KABUL, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Top military officials from Afghansitan, Pakistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Wednesday discussed security issues along the border between the two neighboring states in a tripartite meeting held in Pakistan, an ISAF statement released here Thursday said.
This was the 24th Commission Meeting held in Islamabad where chief of Army Staff of Afghanistan General Bismullah, his Pakistani counterpart General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the ISAF commander General David McKiernan, were present at the talks, the statement further noted.
"They met to discuss areas of mutual interest and to foster cooperation in providing security to the peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly in the tribal border areas between the two countries," the statement added.
"Forums like these are invaluable as listening to our colleagues' points of view leads to better understanding, which ultimately leads to better cooperation and coordination," the statement quoted McKiernan as saying.
Established nearly sex years ago with an objective to reduce militancy and check militants' movement along the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Tripartite Commission often holds regular meetings either in Kabul or Islamabad to review the war on terror and bring more coordination in military operations against insurgents.
Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have been facing increasing militancy as Taliban-linked insurgents and al-Qaida operatives often target interests of both the countries by carrying suicide attacks and bombings.
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FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct 16
Oct 16 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1300 GMT on Thursday:
PAKTIKA - An Afghan policeman shot dead a U.S. soldier in Bermel district of eastern Paktika province on Thursday, some 200 km (125 miles) south of Kabul, a provincial official and the U.S. military said.
The policeman opened fire and threw a grenade at a foot patrol from a watchtower, the troops returned fire killing the policeman, the U.S. military said in a statement.
HELMAND - Insurgents fired rockets at a residential area in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, some 550 km (340 miles) southwest of Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding five more, the provincial governor's spokesman, Dawood Ahmadi said.
EASTERN AFGHANISTAN - A U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed and several wounded by suspected friendly mortar fire in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.
The troops were responding to several small arms attacks when they called for mortar fire to kill the insurgents, it said. HELMAND - A British soldier serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed during routine patrol in Helmand province on Wednesday, the British Defence Ministry said.
KHOST - A suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of the administrative centre in the Ali Sher district of Khost, some 150 km (95) miles east of Kabul, a local official said. One Afghan soldier and a civilian were wounded in the attack.
KUNAR - A foreign forces air strike killed five Taliban insurgents in the Khas Kunar district of Kunar province, some 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Kabul, on Wednesday, provincial police chief Jalal Jalal said.
KANDAHAR - A roadside bomb wounded three Canadian soldiers, one seriously, in the Zhari district of Kandahar province, some 500 km (310 miles) south of Kabul, on Wednesday, a local official said. (Compiled by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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What Kind of Negotiations Should There Be Between Karzai and The Taliban?
The Washington Independent, 10/15/2008 By Spencer Ackerman
Peter Bergen asks a great question: Since we’re seeing movement toward Karzai-Taliban negotiations, what kind of negotiations should there be?
Should everything be on the table? Who should be brought in and who should be left out?
Nir Rosen: “A lot of these former Taliban and Hekmatyar commanders say use local mullahs” as intermediators with the Karzai government. “You have to use someone respected by both sides… everyone seems to believe that local tribes, local mullahs… and the Saudis should have” a role as brokers as well.
Seth Jones of RAND: So many components to the insurgency. “I think the better response is what’s been historical in Afghanistan: negotiating with local power.” Tribes, jirgas, etc. It’s difficult, “but if anyone has the ability to enforce agreements on the ground, it’s these sorts of institutions.”
Christine Fair: Pakistani negotiations with the Taliban have been “ratifications of defeat on the ground.” Without “any ability to verify” Taliban compliance. They were a joke, a separate peace, legitimizing Taliban leaders. In the tribal areas, “the so-called jirgas often held up as a pathway to peace have been fundamentally eviscerated” and replaced by religious and Taliban figures. “I’m dubious, especially in the tribal areas,” that negotiating with the Taliban in Pakistan could be productive, “since their goals are antithetical to the state.”
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Afghanistan: Pakistan's ex-spymaster outlines Taliban demands
AKI - Adnkronos International
Islamabad, 15 Oct. (AKI) - By Marco Liconti - The Taliban will agree to peace talks if they are recognised as a political force, if a date is set for the withdrawal of international forces, and if Taliban prisoners are released, according to Pakistan's former spy chief, Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul.
Gul a former head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said he believes negotations need to be taken forward with Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
"Pakistan has to be brought on board too," he told Adnkronos International (AKI) and a small group of Western news organisations at a briefing in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
"I know the Taliban, I have worked with them for a long time, and can say they would never talk to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, they consider him a mere traitor and puppet," Gul said.
Taliban would be prepared to parley with the Americans but only on certain conditions, he said. First, that such talks are held publicly; that the US recognise the Taliban are not terrorists but fighters who are defending their country; that the US and NATO give a date for the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan; and that all Taliban prisoners are freed.
The US presidential election campaign is among various obstacles to any peace talks with the Taliban, according to Gul.
"Barrack Obama is wanting to outdo his rival, and that is not a good sign," Gul said, referring respectively to the Democratic Party's presidential candidate his Republican Party rival John McCain.
"That means they want to continue following the same line of action that they have during the last seven years. And I am afraid this is going to bring disaster," Gul continued.
Pakistan, wracked by terrorism and a deep economic crisis, an environment in which anti-Americanism is thriving, is facing collapse, Gul warned.
The implications of this situation for the fight against terrorism and the security of the country's nuclear arsenal, are dire, he said.
"The risk is real, there could be a civil war, even a revolution along the lines of the Iranian one. Personally, I hope for a revoultion but a soft one, like that the one born in America during the Vietnam war or like pacifist movements in Europe against the war in Iraq, " Gul stated.
Something along these lines has occurred in Pakistan recently, with the lawyers movement and the judges who marched for a return to democracy, he said.
Musharraf committed the inexcusable error of aligning himself with the US's 'war on terror', Gul said. But he also had criticism for the fledgling government of Musharraf's successor, Asif Ali Zardari, the widow of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Gul described Zardari as a "civilian dictator" who he claimed has adopted the same policies and autocratic leadership style as Musharraf. "It is very necessary that Parliament should call the shots, as a collective body, as a sovereign body under the democratic system," Gul stated.
"His role as President of Pakistan is as the constitutional head. Everything else should be given to the parliament and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet," Gul stressed.
Discussing anti-Taliban operations in northwest Pakistan, Gul said it was hard to say exactly how many Taliban were in area along the border with Afghanistan, but the figure could be between 15,000 and 20,000.
The more the Americans step up their cross-border operations, the more the Afghans will identify with the Taliban, Gul warned.
Many villagers in northwest Pakistan, especially in North and South Wazaristan tribal areas have a lot of sympathy for the Taliban's cause and believe it is their duty to help them - on the Pakistani and Afghan sides of the border, Gul noted.
"The nation does not look upon this as Pakistan's war," he said.
He advised NATO forces in Afghanistan, including Italian troops, to withdraw, and urged them to start planning this immediately, ahead of a fresh Taliban campaign next Spring when fighting resumes after the winter lull.
"The reconstruction of the country is impossible without peace. Peace has to come first," Gul concluded.
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Pakistani clerics say suicide bombing is 'un-Islamic'
Written by www.quqnoos.com foreign desk Thursday, 16 October 2008
Council of clerics condemns one of the main weapons in the rebels' arsenal
A COUNCIL of Muslim clerics in Pakistan has decreed that suicide bombings are "un-Islamic".
The group, the Muttahida Ulema Council, also called on the Pakistani government to end its offensive in the tribal regions and to negotiate with residents to end Islamic militancy in Pakistan, which is blamed for soaring violence across the border in Afghanistan.
The remarks were made during a meeting of clerics in the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday.
Militants have carried out a number of suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks, including the bombing of a major hotel in Islamabad that killed at least 55 people.
Pro-Taliban leaders have claimed the attacks are in retaliation for the military's offensive against militants in the tribal region, including Bajaur.
The military says it has killed at least 1,000 militants in Bajaur since August. In the latest fighting along the Afghan border.
Almost 190,000 Pakistanis and Afghans have fled their homes to escape the violence, the UN says, citing official Pakistani statistics.
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How deeply is the U.S. involved in the Afghan Drug Trade?
Huffington Post, NY Special for the Huffington Post By Eric Margolis October 15, 2008
Afghanistan is in a `downward spiral,' the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, admitted last week, giving the most negative view of that conflict heard in Washington.
Military men are programmed to always be optimistic, so Admiral Mullen's grim words were particularly noteworthy. They also flatly contradicted the rosy claims of `progress' in Afghanistan made by the Bush administration and its increasingly dispirited allies in Canada, France, Germany, Italy and other NATO nations that were dragooned into this deeply unpopular war.
Most Europeans see the Afghan conflict as a 19th-century style colonial war for regional domination and resources. By contrast, Americans are still being misled by their corporate media and posturing politicians of both parties into believing the seven-year U.S. occupation of Afghanistan is a noble `anti-terrorism' mission that is defending women's rights and rebuilding a ravage nation instead of another brutal grab for energy, this time from the Caspian Basin.
In a troubling example of Vietnam-style 'mission creep,' the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, is calling for 15,000 more American troops on top of the 8,000 now slated to arrive in January 2009. His predecessor told Congress that 400,000 U.S. troops would be needed to pacify Afghanistan.
But McKiernan also called for talks with Afghan nationalists resisting western occupation collectively known as Taliban. Days earlier, it was revealed that senior British officers and diplomats in Afghanistan had called the US-led war `un-winnable' and advocated peace talks with Taliban.
Admiral Mullen also ordered U.S. and NATO forces to begin targeting Afghanistan's opium and heroin dealers. Under American tutelage, Afghanistan has become the world's leading narco-state, surpassing even Colombia, and now producing 90% of the world's heroin. Well over half of the nation's GDP consists of drug money. Considering this, Admiral Mullen's 'shoot on sight' orders seem rather overdue.
The 64,000 rupee question that arises from Admiral Mullen's new anti-drug policy is: Why was it not done seven years ago when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan? Why did Washington turn a blind eye to the Afghan drug trade and is only now taking some action?
The answer is simple and dismaying. America's local allies in Afghanistan, the politicians and warlords who overthrew Taliban in 2001, are up to their turbans in the heroin trade. Drug money is the blood that courses through Afghanistan's veins and keeps the economy limping along. The U.S.-installed Karzai regime in Kabul propped up by US and NATO bayonets has only two sources of income: cash handouts from Washington, and the proceeds of drug dealing.
When Taliban ruled 90% of Afghanistan from 1996-2001, it almost totally stamped out poppy cultivation as un-Islamic. The UN's drug control agency has confirmed this fact. The only remaining source of drug dealing was in the remote northeast of Afghanistan controlled by the Russian and Iranian-backed Northern Alliance, made up of Tajik Panshiri tribesmen, brutal Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostam, and the remains of the old Afghan Communist Party.
In 2001, the U.S. overthrew Taliban and put the drug-dealing Northern Alliance and Communists in power. Since then, Afghanistan's drug production has spread across the nation and exports have soared by 60-70%, making Afghanistan the source of nearly all the world's supply of heroin.
Washington called off efforts by the Drug Enforcement Agency to combat the Afghan drug trade for fear of endangering the power base of its former CIA `asset,' President Hamid Karzai. Starting with Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali, the U.S.-installed regime's most important supporters are all involved in varying degrees with the heroin trade. As this writer has seen himself, almost every important warlord gets revenue from the drug trade. The Northern Alliance warlords are considered the biggest of the nation's narco-dealers. Ahmed Karzai denies involvement.
Moving against the drug warlords would have meant undermining Karzai's sole domestic support. So Washington held its nose and let the drug trade flourish in order to sustain the occupation. The faux `war on terror' and lust for Caspian energy trumped the old war on drugs.
Experience in Indochina and Central America suggests that CIA, the principal paymaster for U.S.-backed Afghan warlords, may be more deeply involved in the drug trade than we yet know.
Author Alfred McCoy's wrote a brilliant study in his ground-breaking `The Politics of Heroin' in which he documents how first French, then American intelligence was drawn into the heroin trade in Laos and Vietnam as a way of supporting anti-Communist guerilla fighters. The same thing happened in Central America where CIA collaborated with cocaine-dealing members of the anti-Communist Contras.
In both cases, drugs served as a currency and became more important than paper money. French and American spies even ended up transporting heroin for their local allies. The same may be happening in Afghanistan.
Equally disturbing, there is no way that simple Afghan farmers or Taliban fighters are running the drug trade, as Washington claims. Poppy sap is collected and converted into opium tar. Then it is smuggled to secret labs in Pakistan to be transformed into first morphine base, and then purified into heroin. None of these drugs would move south into Pakistan or be processed with imported chemicals without the full cooperation and assistance of the Afghan government, its supporting warlords, and local Pakistani officials. The drugs are then smuggled out of the port of Karachi, again under at protection by port and local officials. Pakistan is a key U.S. ally.
The Karzai regime has been totally corrupted by the drug trade, and so has parts of Pakistan's establishment. But the United States has also become corrupted in the sense that it has done nothing to combat this scourge and has collaborated with Afghanistan's drug barons by at minimum turning blind eye.
When the history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is written, Washington's sordid involvement in the heroin trade and its alliance with drug lords and war criminals of the Afghan Communist Party will be one of the most shameful chapters.
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Is The War Really In Afghanistan As Obama Repeatedly Insists?
Strategy Page - 10/13/2008
Obama and Democrat critics of our invasion of Iraq claim, I believe falsely, that there is no good reason for our having gone into Iraq.
They claim that the "war" is in Afghanistan" but they don't explain why that is. They state a half truth and expect us to automatically fill in what's missing to make their sophistry sounding statement seem reasonable.
But how can it be true that Afghanistan is the sole locus of the war on terror? Not one 9/11 hijacker was an Afghani. 15 were from Saudi Arabia, 2 were from the Emirates, one was from Egypt and one was from Lebanon.
9/11 was planned and executed by Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda become involved in Afghanistan through the Soviet occupation. The war isn't against Afghani religious extremists, it is against Al Qaeda which is international.
The "war" was in Saudi Arabia for Al Qaeda after 1991 and not in Afghanistan, yet Al Qaeda was in Afghanistan in force after the Soviets left and still was when it pulled off 9/11. So Al Qaeda itself doesn't operate according to Democratic Party USA reasoning.
Our enemy after 9/11 was Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda was international, drawing support over time from Arab countries, Western Europe and elsewhere.
Shouldn't we have invaded Saudi Arabia? That was the where Al Qaeda's core of support was. Shouldn't we have invaded Egypt where Ata came from? How about Sudan? How about the UK or Syria or Jordan? How about Pakistan?
Obama doesn't say we should go where Al Qaeda is, he just says the "war" is in Afghanistan.
He does, with dubious credibility, say he will go after Bin Laden in Pakistan. But how do we know where Bin Laden actually is? Considering our intelligence community's past performance, I would not assume Bin Laden is in Pakistan and not in, say, some Paris suburb.
Of course he says he will go after Bin Laden in Pakistan, but that will either be a 1993 "Blackhawk down" military operation or a deputation of Democrat lawyers.
There was not central locus of Al Qaeda after we kicked the Taliban out of Afghanistan.
Our invasion of Iraq rid the world of a dangerous man who was corrupting the UN. Our invasion shattered the myth of Arab invinciblity in the person of Saddam Hussein. Our invasion of Iraq set up the possibilty of a self governing, stable and prosperous Iraq.
Our invasion of Iraq issued a challenge to Al Qaeda that Al Qaeda could not ignore without losing credibility in the Islamic world.
In order to further prosecute the war on terror after January 2002, Iraq for us was the choice that addressed a number of problems. It was probably the optimal choice.
Someone needs to call Obama on his sophistry or big lie. The war is in Afghanistan no more than it is in any country where Al Qaeda has active support.
No one (in a position of responsibility) is going to advocate our invading Saudi under any circumstances. No one is going to advocate our invading Egypt or Sudan, or Yemen, or Syria or Jordan or the UK's Muslim neighborhoods or Pakistan.
As costly as it has been, our invasion of Iraq has been the best proactive response to the Islamist threat available. Obama will never achieve any foreign policy goal approaching that.
We were told that Afghanistan was a quagmire. We were told that the Arab street would "erupt" if we invaded Iraq. We were told that we were going to get bogged down against Saddam's army. We were that Iraq was another Vietnam. We were told that Iraq was a civil war and we were in a quagmire. All this has proved untrue however unfinished a work Iraq might be.
We were told there were WMDs in Iraq. We knew Saddam had used poison gas already. But besides stockpiles of chemically weaponized artillary shells, we did not reportedly find the expected WMDs.
Although that does not mean they never existed, Bush's critics, not satisfied with just asking what happened to them, jumped to the conclusion the WMDs never existed. This shows they are not interested in the truth of the matter.
In their rush to slime Bush, Democrats neglect the imposing reality that surfaced as a result of our not finding the expected WMDs.
That reality is that we cannot believe what our intelligence agencies and the intelligence agencies of other countries tell us.
IMHO, we need a CIA that has a reputation for dramatically enhanced black ops capabilities. That's because if people around the world really feared the CIA, the quality of the CIA's human intelligence would probably improve dramatically.
There is a lot to be said for assassination, terrorization and disinformation as a method of dealing with the bad guys when it avoids collateral civilian death and damage and avoids getting our military people killed in some unfriendly place as well.
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British soldier killed in Afghanistan to be named
Thu Oct 16, 3:20 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier who died in an explosion while serving with NATO-led troops in Afghanistan is expected to be named on Thursday.
The soldier, from D Squadron Household Cavalry Regiment, was killed while on routine patrol about 23 kilometres (14 miles) north of Forward Operating Base Delhi in Helmand province, in the south of the country on Wednesday.
He was the 121st British fatality in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001, the ministry said.
"We are deeply saddened by this loss and our thoughts are with his family and his Unit at this tragic time," said forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Woody Page, adding that the soldier's next of kin had been informed.
Helmand, the main source of Afghanistan's opium output, is in the grip of a Taliban-insurgency launched after it was toppled from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
Britain has 7,800 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US-led operations.
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Afghan ally Haqqani is now a foe
Charlie Wilson's friend turns into elusive enemy against U.S.
The Washington Times - National Security James Rupert BLOOMBERG NEWS Thursday, October 16, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - When Jalaluddin Haqqani fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the U.S. showered him with praise, guns and money. The congressman celebrated in "Charlie Wilson's War," the movie and book about that conflict, called him "goodness personified."
Now the U.S. is trying to kill Mr. Haqqani, who commands a Taliban guerrilla force fighting Americans in five Afghan provinces from his base in western Pakistan.
Mr. Haqqani has eluded his pursuers, former U.S. officials say, with help from the intelligence services of Pakistan's military, which the U.S. also has showered with guns and money.
The Afghan tribal chief illustrates one reason the U.S. has failed to win the war on terrorism: Its enemies are sheltered by its friends.
"Haqqani is the biggest threat in eastern Afghanistan," said Peter Tomsen, a retired U.S. ambassador who knows him personally from the Soviet war. Pakistan's military intelligence agencies "know where Haqqani is, but they're protecting him. They know he's sending people across the border to kill Americans and Afghans."
Estimated by news reports to be in his 60s or 70s, Mr. Haqqani appeared frail in a video his organization released early this year. His network's military operations now are run by his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, 28, said the News, an English-language newspaper in Pakistan.
The elder Mr. Haqqani was born on the Afghan side of the border and in about 1974 settled 10 miles inside Pakistan, in Miramshah, said Mohammed Yaqub Sharafat, director of Afghan Islamic Press, a news agency specializing in that country's wars. From there, he began organizing forces against the Afghan government, Mr. Sharafat said.
Pakistan's military for decades has backed guerrilla groups in Afghanistan and India to maintain leverage against its neighbors, according to Ahmed Rashid, a Lahore-based author who wrote about the U.S.-led war on terror in the June 2008 book "Descent Into Chaos."
After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Mr. Haqqani became a commander in the mujahideen resistance movement, receiving weapons from the CIA and the Pakistan military's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).
When Mr. Wilson, Texas Democrat who pushed covert mujahideen funding through Congress, secretly visited Afghanistan in 1987, the ISI escorted him to meet Mr. Haqqani. Mr. Wilson, now 75, recounted the story to George Crile, the author of "Charlie Wilson's War."
Mr. Wilson, who retired from Congress in 1996, didn't respond to e-mail and phone messages to his Texas home.
The mujahideen drove the Soviets out in 1989. When the Islamist Taliban movement arose in the 1990s, Pakistan's military helped it consolidate power in Afghanistan. As Taliban fighters swept toward Kabul, Mr. Haqqani allied with them, later becoming the Taliban government's tribal affairs minister.
In 2001, the U.S. pressed Pakistan's military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, to cut support for the Taliban because their leaders had sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants as they planned the Sept. 11 attacks.
Then Gen. Musharraf replaced his Islamist ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, 26 days after those attacks. He also purged the army and the ISI of many but not all of their militant Islamist officers. Some officers remain committed to supporting the Taliban, according to Mr. Rashid, the analyst.
After Western forces led by the U.S. and Afghan warlords toppled the Taliban government in November 2001, Mr. Haqqani helped rebuild the movement in Pakistan's largely ungoverned northwestern borderlands.
Since then, the ISI has helped U.S. agencies capture al Qaeda leaders as Mr. Musharraf, who retired from the military and became a civilian president last year, declared Pakistan an ally in the fight against terrorism.
In exchange, the U.S. gave Pakistan $10 billion in aid, according to a 2007 study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Yet the ISI has continued to protect the Taliban, including Mr. Haqqani, in hopes of again using them to influence Afghanistan once U.S. forces leave, said Mr. Tomsen, the retired U.S. ambassador.
In 2005, a Pakistani intelligence officer tipped off Mr. Haqqani to a CIA plan to kill or capture him, said a retired CIA officer who served recently on counterterrorism assignments in Pakistan.
The next year, the CIA asked Pakistan's military to approve a new Haqqani assassination plan but got no response, the retired officer said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the information.
VISUAL NEWS/GETTY IMAGES Afghan tribal chief and former U.S. ally Jalaluddin Haqqani is now a Taliban guerrilla leader. He has eluded U.S. efforts to capture or kill him, in part because of warnings from Pakistan's intelligence services.
Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's former counterterrorism chief and now a private consultant, said "current contacts in the business" have told him that Pakistani intelligence officials alerted Mr. Haqqani to the planned 2005 raid.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said: "The agency does not as a rule comment on these kinds of allegations."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS/GETTY IMAGES Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani (center) is shown in 1991 at his Pakistani base in Miram Shah with two guerrilla commanders. He is now estimated in news reports to be in his 60s or 70s, and he appears frail in a video his organization released early this year.
Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there was no need to respond to the allegations because they were not an "official complaint."
Pakistan blamed the Taliban for last month's bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, which killed 53. Afghanistan's government accuses the ISI and Mr. Haqqani's network of organizing an April assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and the July 7 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
Pakistani officials deny the charge.
On Sept. 8, American Predator drones fired missiles into Mr. Haqqani's mud-walled family compound in Miramshah, according to Pakistani news reports citing residents and officials.
The strike killed members of Mr. Haqqani's family and at least three Arab al Qaeda guerrillas, Pakistani newspapers reported. The News quoted unnamed family members as saying the Haqqani men were mostly in Afghanistan at the time.
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Feds: Missing Afghan scholars from UW found in Canada
The Associated Press By Seattle Times staff 16 October 2008
Five scholars from Afghanistan who went missing from the University of Washington have been found in Canada.
Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said today that her agency worked with the Canadian Border Services Agency to confirm their whereabouts.
Beyond that, Dankers didn't have much to say, except that they're not in the United States, so they're not in violation of U.S. immigration law.
The scholars were visiting the University of Washington to work on their master's theses, and university officials announced Tuesday that the group had failed to show up for a week of training sessions.
In all, seven Afghan scholars have vanished from the UW this year. Two scholars from an initial spring group of 15 may have fled to Canada, too.
The missing students, all men aged 30 and younger, were visiting the UW as part of a three-month program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). By disappearing, the students weren't breaking any laws but were violating the terms of their student visas, Arkans said.
Who the students are
All the students speak good English and have at least a bachelor's degree - and in some cases, a master's - said Sanjeev Khagram, a UW associate professor of public affairs and international studies who led the first group of students.
Many of the students hold prominent government positions dealing with schooling, water, infrastructure and other vital programs, while others work for agencies such as the United Nations.
"There is always going to be attrition. Afghanistan is collapsing. As a refugee from Uganda myself, I can understand the incredible pressures they are under from being in the line of fire every day," Khagram said. "I'd be very saddened if a program such as this stopped just because a few go awry."
Leslie Breitner, a UW public affairs lecturer who is helping oversee the curriculum for the latest group, agreed.
"Life is one big cost-benefit analysis," she said. "The benefit to the people of Afghanistan ... is worth more than the cost of a couple of people taking liberties with being in this country."
Breitner said there is no extra security for the remaining 33 students, who are living at the Extended Stay America hotel in Bellevue.
"With their hearts, they have told us that they are really committed to doing this," Breitner said. "They are not children. We don't lock them in at night; we don't put ankle bracelets on them. It's up to the [U.S.] government to do the due diligence and provide them permission to be here."
Previous disappearances
The first two students who went missing back in spring never returned to Afghanistan, Arkans said.
One student e-mailed UW officials to tell them he had left the program to care for an ailing relative in Los Angeles, according to a UW Police report. He e-mailed later to say the relative had passed away and he would be helping to transport the body back to Kabul. He e-mailed the UW a final time on April 30 to say he'd arrived back in Afghanistan, according to police reports.
But UW officials were unable to contact the man in Afghanistan or verify with authorities that he'd arrived.
The student had mentioned Canada several times in his e-mails, which were eventually traced to a Canadian Internet service provider, according to police reports.
In the case of the second student, a UW representative showed up at the Extended Stay to drive him to the airport in mid-May, according to police reports. The student told the representative "he was going to stay behind a week or so before heading back." The UW representative "thought this to be common practice among some exchange students, so did not think much about it," according to police reports.
In a subsequent e-mail in late May, the second student asked the UW representative to cancel his ticket, as he was in Canada and would make his own way back to Afghanistan. That was the last the UW heard from him.
Khagram said USAID provided a grant of about $500,000 for the first group of students, much of it to pay for travel and accommodation. The students met with local community leaders, politicians and business people while in Seattle, he said.
Khagram said the students described the conditions in Afghanistan - how they had to put on bulletproof vests every day and faced constant danger. In winter, they worked in offices without heat and were constantly dealing with violence, corruption and dysfunctional infrastructure, he said.
"It was heartbreaking to listen to them," said Khagram, who said he was 4 years old when his own family was expelled from Uganda by then-dictator Idi Amin. His family was legally sponsored to come to the U.S. under political asylum, he added.
"We have hosted international scholars and fellows for over 20 years and something like this is highly unusual," said Sandra O. Archibald, dean of the UW's Evans School of Public Affairs, in a release.
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NATO Modifies Airstrike Policy In Afghanistan Commanders Told to Consider Alternatives
Washington Post Foreign Service By Candace Rondeaux Thursday, October 16, 2008
KABUL - Oct. 15 -- In a bow to public outrage over a recent spate of U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan that resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths, NATO officials have ordered commanders to try to lessen their reliance on air power in battles with insurgents, NATO and Afghan officials said Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, NATO's chief spokesman in Afghanistan, said commanders are now under orders to consider a "tactical withdrawal" when faced with the choice of calling in air support during clashes in areas where civilians are believed to be present. The goal of the order is to minimize civilian casualties, encourage better coordination with Afghan troops and discourage overreliance on air power to repel insurgent attacks, Blanchette said.
"We'll do anything we can to prevent unnecessary casualties, and we'll ensure that we'll have safe use of force. That includes not only airstrikes but ground operations," Blanchette said.
Confusion and controversy over airstrikes have bedeviled the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan in recent months. This summer, three U.S. airstrikes in separate parts of the country that killed more than 100 Afghan civilians provoked sharp criticism from Afghan government officials, the United Nations and international humanitarian groups.
According to the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, more than 1,400 Afghan civilians were killed in the first eight months of this year. Of those, 395 were killed in airstrikes by Western forces. The number of civilians killed by U.S.- and NATO-led airstrikes has risen by 21 percent this year, a recent U.N. report said.
U.S. Gen. David D. McKiernan, top commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, issued the new order early last month. The revised approach came only days after U.N. officials said an investigation into an Aug. 21 airstrike on the town of Azizabad, in the western province of Herat, had revealed that at least 90 civilians were killed when U.S. jets bombarded a suspected Taliban compound there. The U.N. allegations conflicted with accounts initially given by U.S. military officials in Afghanistan, who said their investigation found only five civilians had been killed.
U.S. military officials reversed course, however, after McKiernan called for a reinvestigation of the incident when new evidence emerged. A subsequent independent probe conducted by a top U.S. general concluded that at least 30 civilians were killed in the strike.
The Azizabad attack prompted widespread outrage in Afghanistan and led Afghan President Hamid Karzai to call for a review of the rules of conduct for foreign troops operating in the country.
There are currently about 65,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including about 33,000 U.S. troops. NATO and U.S. military officials have repeatedly said more troops are needed on the ground to cope with the resurgence of Taliban forces across the country, and McKiernan has pointed to the shortage as one reason for the heavy reliance on air power.
The rising civilian death toll associated with the airstrikes has evolved into a major political issue for Karzai, who is expected to run for a second term next year. He and other top Afghan officials have become increasingly vocal in pressuring foreign forces to use more restraint. At the urging of Defense Minister Rahim Wardak, for example, the revised policy includes a directive that only Afghans can conduct the first sweep in house searches.
"In our meeting with NATO in Budapest, we asked that all possible ways and tactics be used to eliminate civilian casualties and for better coordination between Afghan forces and NATO on intelligence," Wardak said Tuesday.
Blanchette said the new order on airstrikes is meant, in part, to address concerns that NATO and U.S. troops are using disproportionate force in response to attacks from Taliban insurgents. Troops will maintain the right to defend themselves against attacks by insurgents, Blanchette said, but would be encouraged to consider a tactical withdrawal whenever possible to spare civilian lives.
"If you can achieve the effect you're looking for without using a 2,000-pound bomb, if you can achieve the same effect you're looking for with a different kind of weapon, then that's your responsibility as a commander on the ground," Blanchette said. "It's a question of requisite restraint."
Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.
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Five Afghans quit studies in U.S., flee to Canada
JOSH WINGROVE Globe and Mail (Canada) October 16, 2008
Five Afghan students studying in Washington have fled to Canada, U.S. customs officials said yesterday.
The five men, aged 30 or younger, are in the masters of public administration program at Kabul University and were on a three-month study visa to complete their theses at the University of Washington. Most had previously worked for the Afghan government.
They arrived in late September, and went missing two weekends ago with nearly all of their belongings, university associate vice-president Norm Arkans said in an interview. When the men hadn't returned in the middle of last week, the university reported them missing to U.S. customs officials.
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency confirmed yesterday morning that all five had fled to Canada.
"We started looking into it and we worked with our counterparts at CBSA [the Canada Border Services Agency]," said Lorie Dankers, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We were able to determine that the five individuals in question were, in fact, in Canada."
Because they fled the university, the five men's U.S. visas are now invalid. They would not be able to re-enter the United States, so the U.S. investigators have closed the case, Ms. Dankers said.
Faith St. John, a spokeswoman for the CBSA, said last night the agency "will not confirm or deny the entry of any individual into Canada." It's not known where in Canada the men are, but it's believed they crossed into British Columbia.
A total of 38 students from Afghanistan came for the three-month study program, Mr. Arkans said. Each was investigated and found not to be a security risk to the United States, he said.
"Thirty-three of them are doing just fine. They're engaged, doing their work, going to the library and their training sessions," he said. "Apparently these five decided it was an opportunity to seek a better life."
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Upper House fears growing violence
www.quqnoos.com Written by Abdulwali Arian Thursday, 16 October 2008
Interior Minsitry says special force has been formed to tackle highway violence
MEMBERS of the Upper House have expressed their concern at deteriorating security in the country, which a leaked US report said had spiralled downwards this year.
The parliamentary complaints commission called officials from the Interior Ministry to face questions before Parliament on Wednesday.
Officials said the Defence Ministry, the National Security Directorate (NDS) and the Interior Ministry had created a joint special force to combat rising violence on the country’s highways.
Centres where the two ministries can share information with the NDS have been set up in all 33 provinces, the officials said, and a joint special force has been created to lower violence in the country.
The ministry also said it would clamp down on officials who release prisoners early.
Head of the parliamentary complaints commission blamed the recklessness of foreign troops on the highway and their lack of co-ordination with the national police and army for the rising violence on the country’s main roads.
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AIT and Balkh University, Afghanistan launch project office in Thailand
Lanka Everything (UK) October 15, 2008
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has solidified its effort to assist the development of higher education in Afghanistan, opening a permanent office to manage its partnership with Balkh University (BU) located in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.
The newly launched office, situated on the campus of AIT in Pathum Thani, will support its US$ 1.5 million AIT-BU Partnership Project, an initiative funded by the World Bank and spearheaded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Afghanistan.
The 30-month partnership aims to apply AIT's expertise and experience in curriculum, institutional and human resources development to Balkh University, located in northern Afghanistan. BU is one of six universities in Afghanistan receiving World Bank support to strengthen higher education in the war-ravaged nation.
At an opening ceremony on 10 October, Prof. Dr. Said Irandoust, president of AIT, noted the significance of the formal tie-up, calling it a pioneering partnership for both partners. "AIT is extremely proud and pleased to partner with the Ministry of Higher Education of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to strengthen the overall capacity of the Faculty of Engineering of Balkh University. This office embodies our ambition to support higher learning in Afghanistan and its launch is an historic day for AIT," President Irandoust said.
The Faculty Development Plan (FDP) for the AIT-BU Partnership Project includes a doctoral degree program, master's degree program, short course in administration and management, certificate courses in computer science, English-language, and various other subjects including laboratory management and library management. All educational activities carried out at AIT are administered through the new office. In addition to these programs, special training programs are also planned to be conducted at Balkh University, through the previously established AIT Project Office located in Mazar-i-Sharif. Currently, five BU faculty members are enrolled at AIT under the new program, including the Chancellor of Balkh University.
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'Humble and shy' Bin Laden floated into camp
The Australian, Australia By Milanda Rout October 16, 2008
OSAMA bin Laden was a shy and humble man who "floated across the floor" when he visited an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2001 where a Melbourne Muslim convert trained, a court heard yesterday.
Joseph Terrence Thomas told the Victorian Supreme Court that members of the camp would set off explosions and fire bullets into the night in celebration of bin Laden's arrival.
He also spoke of how the terrorist leader warned the camp that "something big" was about to happen prior to the September 11 bombings in New York.
In an unusual courtroom scene, an image of Mr Thomas spoke directly to the jury - and himself in the dock - about his experiences in Afghanistan via the airing of a 2 1/2-hour ABC interview he did in 2005, The Australian reports.
A bearded, happier-looking Mr Thomas appeared on a wide-screen television and proceeded to detail his experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan leading up to his arrest in January 2003.
It was a strong contrast to the clean-shaven, sombre-looking 35-year-old who sat in the court dock and watched himself during the interview, often holding his head in his hands, looking down or covering his ears.
Mr Thomas has pleaded not guilty to one charge of knowingly receiving funds from a terrorist organisation and one charge of falsifying an Australian passport.
Prosecutors allege Mr Thomas accepted $US3500 and an airline ticket from senior al-Qaida member Khaled bin Attash in Pakistan in January 2003 and Mr Thomas knew he was from the global terrorist organisation.
But defence lawyers have told the court he was desperate to get home and believed the money was a donation from Taliban-sympathetic families in Pakistan.
Mr Thomas told Four Corners journalist Sally Neighbour in the interview that he went to an al-Qa'ida training camp in Afghanistan but did not know it was a terrorist camp at the time.
He said he wanted to train at a Kurdish camp so he could fight with the Taliban on the "front line" but was directed to the training camp called al-Farouk.
"I didn't think for a second I was in a terrorist camp," he said. "(I) later found out the camp to be an al-Qaida camp."
The court heard that bin Laden visited the camp on at least three occasions. "He (bin Laden) was very polite and humble and shy," Mr Thomas said. "He seemed to float across the floor."
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