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27 militants, 10 civilians said killed in Afghanistan: US forces
October 9, 2008
KABUL (AFP) - At least 27 Islamic militants were killed in military operations across insurgency-hit Afghanistan, authorities said Thursday, while villagers reported that 10 civilians died in rebel gunfire.
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct. 9 09
Oct 9 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1100 GMT on Thursday:
Afghanistan conflict rapidly worsening: US report
October 9, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US administration has launched an urgent review of policy in Afghanistan as intelligence officials warn of a "downward spiral" in efforts to stabilize the country, US newspapers reported Thursday.
U.S. Study Is Said to Warn of Crisis in Afghanistan
New York Times By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT 09 October 2008
WASHINGTON- A draft report by American intelligence agencies concludes that Afghanistan is in a “downward spiral” and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem
French Gen.: no victory in Afghanistan
Press TV (Iran) Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:07:12 GMT
French military chief, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin says there will be no victory in Afghanistan, echoing the remarks by British officials.
Taliban wake-up call for India
By M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online October 9, 2008
For the bulk of the Indian strategic community, the unthinkable is happening - the prospect of an Afghan settlement involving the Taliban is increasing.
Don't talk to the Taliban
The Guardian Massoumeh Torfeh October 09, 2008
Negotiating with the Taliban is an insult to the Afghan people. Has the world forgotten what they are like?
Afghanistan mission to cost $28B, group says
CTV.ca News / October 8, 2008
On the eve of a parliamentary report on the financial cost of the Afghanistan mission for Canada, an independent group has released their own answer on the subject: $28 billion.
NATO allies consider direct Taliban talks U.S. military officials open to possibility
The Associated Press By GREGORY KATZ October 09, 2008
When NATO defense ministers meet in Budapest today, they will face a worsening situation in Afghanistan and vexing questions about whether the war can be won.
No Afghan-Taliban peace talks, for now
Christian Science Monitor, MA By Anand Gopal October 9, 2008
Kabul may have tried to reach out to current insurgents by meeting with former Taliban in Saudi Arabia late last month.
Ministry warns of severe food shortage
KABUL, 9 October 2008 (IRIN) - Afghanistan faces a deficit of two million tonnes of staple food - primarily wheat flour and rice - to feed millions of vulnerable people in the coming six months, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has said.
IFC signs agreement with the First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan
(Media-Newswire.com) - Kabul, Afghanistan, October 8, 2008—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, signed an agreement with the First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan to help strengthen the bank’s
Afghanistan make it four in four
October 8, 2008
DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — Afghanistan made it four wins out of four when they defeated Hong Kong by four wickets in the World Cricket League.
Afghans reopen road despite threat to heritage site
HERAT, Afghanistan Oct 8 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghans forcibly reopened a road in the western city of Herat on Wednesday that had been shut to protect a 15th century heritage site after a promised alternate route was not provided.
Ex-Talib minister wants inmates' assets unfrozen
www.quqnoos.com Written by Noorullah Rahmani Wednesday, 08 October 2008
US should 'release detainees before peace-talks with Afghan government begin'
THE TALIBAN’S former foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, has said the US should release Taliban suspects from Guantanemo prison and unfreeze their assets if the Afghan governemnt is serious about holding peace-talks with the rebel group.
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27 militants, 10 civilians said killed in Afghanistan: US forces
October 9, 2008
KABUL (AFP) - At least 27 Islamic militants were killed in military operations across insurgency-hit Afghanistan, authorities said Thursday, while villagers reported that 10 civilians died in rebel gunfire.
The bloodshed in clashes on Wednesday underscored a deterioration in security this year that has led to new emphasis on a political solution to a Taliban-led insurgency launched after the extremist regime was toppled in 2001.
The claim of the heavy civilian death toll in Uruzgan province on Wednesday could not be independently verified because of the remoteness of the area.
Afghan and international troops were on patrol when they were attacked with guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), a statement from the US Forces in Afghanistan said.
"ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) and coalition forces responded to the attack with small-arms, RPG and supporting fire, killing 12 militants," it stated.
"Local Afghan villagers told ANSF and coalition forces that militant fire killed 10 Afghan civilians in a nearby village."
Provincial governor Assadullah Hamdam, however, quoted a lower toll of six and said victims died when a rocket aimed at the troops missed its target and hit a civilian house.
"As our combined troops were passing by the area the enemies fired a rocket at it. The rocket missed the troops and hit a home, killing six civilians including women and children," he told AFP.
Several other people were injured in the attack in the province's Shahid-i-Ihsas district, he said, without being able to give an exact figure. The governor said his information had came from "local officials."
The coalition statement said three women and six children were taken to an international military hospital for treatment for injuries from the rebel attack.
No casualties to the troops were reported, it added.
In separate unrest, troops killed nine rebels in the southern province of Helmand, a stronghold for the Taliban militia which has been fighting to make a come-back since being driven from government in 2001.
"ANSF and coalition forces manoeuvred on the enemy position and returned fire using small arms, RPG (rocket-propelled grenades) and close air support, killing nine militants," the US-led coalition said in a statement.
The Afghan defence ministry, meanwhile, said combined forces had killed six militants in an operation in Farah province's Bakwa district.
In another incident, a "terrorist" died when a mine he was planting exploded on a road in Khost province on the border with Pakistan, the ministry said.
Afghanistan violence -- rooted in the insurgency, extremism, crime and the drugs trade -- has climbed steadily since the October 7, 2001 launch of the US-led invasion that drove the Taliban from government.
The United Nations says security has "deteriorated markedly" in Afghanistan in recent months. More than 3,800 lives were lost in insurgency-related violence to the end of July, with a third of the dead civilians, it says.
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FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct. 9 09
Oct 9 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1100 GMT on Thursday:
URUZGAN - U.S.-led and Afghan forces killed 12 Taliban militants in Shahid Hassas district of southern Uruzgan province on Wednesday, some 380 km (238 miles) southwest of Kabul, while insurgents killed 10 civilians nearby, the U.S. military said.
WARDAK - Ten Taliban insurgents were killed when a rocket they were trying to launch exploded in the Jalrez district some 55 km (35 miles) southwest of Kabul on Wednesday, provincial governor's spokesman Adam Khan Seerat said.
FARAH - Afghan and foreign troops killed as many as six Taliban militants during a sweep in Bakwa district, some 650 km (400 miles) west of Kabul on Wednesday, a statement from Afghan Defence Ministry said.
HELMAND - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces backed by airpower killed nine militants in Nahr Surkh district in Helmand province, some 500 km (300 miles) southwest of Kabul, after a joint patrol came under attack, the U.S. military said.
KHOST - U.S.-led coalition forces killed one militant and detained two during an operation to target the Haqqani network in Khost province, about 150 km (90 miles) east of Kabul, on Wednesday, a U.S. military statement said.
KHOST - One insurgent was killed and one Afghan soldier was wounded while a roadside bomb the rebel was trying to plant exploded in the Zani Khail district of Khost province, 150 km (90 kms) east of Kabul, on Wednesday. (Compiled by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Afghanistan conflict rapidly worsening: US report
October 9, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US administration has launched an urgent review of policy in Afghanistan as intelligence officials warn of a "downward spiral" in efforts to stabilize the country, US newspapers reported Thursday.
Officials familiar with a draft National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, said it casts doubt on the ability of the Kabul government to stem the resurgence of Taliban, the New York Times said.
The report combining analyses of 16 US intelligence agencies is due for completion after the US presidential election in November.
"The classified report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan," the Times said.
The report says heroin trade "by some estimates" accounts for 50 percent of Afghanistan's economy, the Times said.
According to The Washington Post, "analysts have concluded that reconstituted elements of Al-Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban are collaborating with an expanding network of militant groups, making the counterinsurgency war infinitely more complicated."
"As the US presidential election approaches, senior officials have expressed worry that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is so tenuous that it may fall apart while a new set of US policymakers settles in," the Post said.
Spurred by the report, the White House has launched a review of Afghanistan policy "fast-tracked for completion in the next several weeks," the Post said.
It said President George W. Bush's senior advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, had instructed Pentagon and State Department officials to "return to the basic questions" such as "what are our objectives" and "what can we hope to achieve" in Afghanistan.
Lute is heading to Afghanistan with a team of specialists to assess the situation there, according to the New York Times.
The National Intelligence Estimate describes a Pakistan-based extremist network with three elements: Pakistani extremists allied with Kashmiri militants; Afghan Taliban; and traditional tribal groups in western Pakistan that assist the other groups, the Post said.
"Al-Qaeda, composed largely of Arabs, and increasingly, Uzbeks, Chechens and other Central Asians, is described as sitting atop the structure, providing money and training to the others in exchange for sanctuary," the Post said.
A US counterterrorism official told the daily there is competition between the groups but their interests increasingly overlap and "they understand the need to support one another."
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U.S. Study Is Said to Warn of Crisis in Afghanistan
New York Times By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT 09 October 2008
WASHINGTON- A draft report by American intelligence agencies concludes that Afghanistan is in a “downward spiral” and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban’s influence there, according to American officials familiar with the document.
The classified report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan.
The report, a nearly completed version of a National Intelligence Estimate, is set to be finished after the November elections and will be the most comprehensive American assessment in years on the situation in Afghanistan. Its conclusions represent a harsh verdict on decision-making in the Bush administration, which in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made Afghanistan the central focus of a global campaign against terrorism.
Beyond the cross-border attacks launched by militants in neighboring Pakistan, the intelligence report asserts that many of Afghanistan’s most vexing problems are of the country’s own making, the officials said.
The report cites gains in the building of Afghanistan’s national army, the officials said. But they said it also laid out in stark terms what it described as the destabilizing impact of the booming heroin trade, which by some estimates accounts for 50 percent of Afghanistan’s economy.
The Bush administration has initiated a major review of its Afghanistan policy and has decided to send additional troops to the country. The downward slide in the security situation in Afghanistan has also become an issue in the presidential campaign, along with questions about whether the White House emphasis in recent years on the war in Iraq has been misplaced.
Inside the government, reports issued by the Central Intelligence Agency for more than two years have chronicled the worsening violence and rampant corruption inside Afghanistan, and some in the agency say they believe that it has taken the White House too long to respond to the warnings.
Henry A. Crumpton, a career C.I.A. officer who last year stepped down as the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, attributed some of Afghanistan’s problems to a “lack of leadership” both at the White House and in European capitals where commitments to rebuild Afghanistan after 2001 have never been met.
Mr. Crumpton, who was in charge of the C.I.A. teams that entered Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks but who said he had not seen the draft report, said that Afghanistan was “bad and getting worse” and that officials in Washington were just beginning to wake up to the problem.
“It’s taken them a long time to realize it, but now they know it’s pretty grim,” he said.
A National Intelligence Estimate is a formal document that reflects the consensus judgments of all 16 American intelligence agencies. Although the Bush administration has made public the crucial findings from some recent N.I.E.’s on Iraq and terrorism, most remain classified. The assessment on Afghanistan is the first since the Taliban regained strength there beginning in 2006 and launched an offensive that has allowed them to seize large swaths of territory.
The draft intelligence report was described by more than a half dozen current government officials who had read its conclusions. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the report remains classified and has not been completed.
Richard Willing, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which produces the national intelligence assessments, declined to comment for this article. A White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, also declined to comment on the report’s conclusions but said: “Everyone understands that the current situation in Afghanistan is a tough one. That’s why the president ordered additional troops there. That’s why we’re increasing the size of the Afghanistan Army.”
Both major presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, have called for American troop increases in Afghanistan even beyond those the White House has ordered. Mr. Obama has accused the White House of paying too little attention to Afghanistan as it poured the vast bulk of American military resources into the war in Iraq, while Mr. McCain has defended the administration’s decision, saying that Iraq remains the more important front in the battle against terrorism.
In Tuesday’s presidential debate, Mr. Obama said he told Mr. Karzai during a visit to Afghanistan in July that the Afghan leader had “to do better by your people in order for us to gain the popular support that’s necessary.”
“We have to have a government that is responsive to the Afghan people, and frankly it’s just not responsive right now,” Mr. Obama said.
American officials said that intelligence agencies were also working to produce an assessment on Pakistan, and that both were to be completed after next month’s elections. They said the draft findings had already begun to influence the recommendations of the White House-led review of Afghanistan policy, which was scheduled to be completed this month but has now been postponed several weeks.
The administration is considering whether the United States should devote more effort to working directly with tribal leaders in far-flung provinces, and possibly arming tribal militias, to fight the Taliban in places where Afghanistan’s army and police forces have been ineffective.
The Bush administration had long resisted making tribal elders a centerpiece of American strategy in Afghanistan. American officials had hoped instead that strong national institutions like the Afghan Army could protect the Afghan population, but the escalating violence this year has forced a reassessment of the value of the tribal system for counterinsurgency operations.
“In order to have an effective counterinsurgency strategy, you need to have strong local governance in the districts and the provinces,” said a senior State Department official who has been briefed on the report’s broad conclusions, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In a sign of the seriousness of the administration’s policy review, the White House’s top coordinator for Afghanistan policy, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute of the Army, will lead a team of specialists who will go there to assess the situation, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Administration officials say the review is examining how and where the nearly $6 billion in annual American assistance to Afghanistan is being spent; how to improve the effectiveness of small teams of American and European civilians and troops seeded throughout the Afghan provinces to spur economic growth; and how to strike the right balance between taking military action against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan and providing more development aid to that country.
Senior American commanders have recently been blunt in their assessment of the security trends in the country. “In large parts of Afghanistan, we don’t see progress,” Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top American officer in Afghanistan, told reporters last week. “We’re into a very tough counterinsurgency fight and will be for some time.”
It is not just American officials who offer a grim prognosis. A French diplomatic cable leaked to a French newspaper last week quoted the British ambassador to Afghanistan as forecasting that the NATO-led mission there would fail.
“The current situation is bad, the security situation is getting worse, so is corruption, and the government has lost all trust,” the British envoy, Sherard Cowper-Coles, was quoted as telling the French deputy ambassador to Kabul, who wrote the cable.
British officials have said the comments attributed to Sir Sherard were distorted and do not reflect official British policy.
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French Gen.: no victory in Afghanistan
Press TV (Iran) Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:07:12 GMT
French military chief, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin says there will be no victory in Afghanistan, echoing the remarks by British officials.
A British officer "was saying that one cannot win this war militarily, that there is no military solution to the Afghan crisis and I totally share this feeling," Georglin told French television channel Public Senat.
"The strategy of NATO, as it has been redefined in Bucharest (at the start of April) does not say anything else," he said.
Georgelin's remarks just a few days after British Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the country's top military officer in Afghanistan, told the Sunday Times that people should "lower their expectations" about how the conflict there would end.
"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he told the newspaper.
Carleton-Smith said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008" but said it would be "unrealistic and probably incredible" to think that the multinational forces in Afghanistan could rid the country of armed bands.
"We may well leave with there still being low but steady ebb of rural insurgency... I don't think we should expect that when we go there won't be roaming bands of armed men in this part of the world," he said.
Georgelin said that all initiatives "aimed at encouraging reconciliation among Afghans are good and should be encouraged."
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Taliban wake-up call for India
By M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online October 9, 2008
For the bulk of the Indian strategic community, the unthinkable is happening - the prospect of an Afghan settlement involving the Taliban is increasing.
A sensational expose by an investigative journalist, based on highly sensitive cable traffic last month between the French Embassy in Kabul and Quai d'Orsay in Paris, has thrown light on the Afghan war. For India, it is especially helpful in spotting the war, otherwise hidden behind the global banking meltdown and the India-United States civilian nuclear deal.
Claude Angeli, veteran journalist of Le Canard Enchaine, got hold of a copy of a coded cable by the French deputy chief of mission in Kabul, Francois Fitou, based on a briefing by the heavyweight British diplomat, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who serves as ambassador to Afghanistan. What Sir Sherard told Fitou in confidence is worth recalling:
"The current situation [in Afghanistan] is bad; the security situation is getting worse; so is corruption and the government [of President Hamid Karzai] has lost all trust."
- "The foreign forces are ensuring the survival of a regime which would collapse without them ... They are slowing down and complicating an eventual exit from the crisis, which will probably be dramatic."
- "We [NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies] should tell them [United States] that we want to be part of a winning strategy, not a losing one. In the short term, we should dissuade the American presidential candidates from getting more bogged down in Afghanistan ... The American strategy is doomed to fail."
- Britain aimed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 2010.
- The only realistic outlook for Afghanistan would be the installation of "an acceptable dictator" and the public opinion should be primed for this.
For the bulk of the Indian strategic community, the unthinkable is happening - the prospect of an Afghan settlement involving the Taliban. From all accounts, the Taliban appear edging closer to the Afghan capital and tightening their control in the provinces ringing Kabul.
Unsurprisingly, Karzai has appealed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to mediate with the Taliban. To request the Saudi king to stake his prestige is serious business. Karzai couldn't have acted alone. Alongside there are reports that the British intelligence has been talking to Taliban envoys in London.
The influential Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that senior Taliban functionaries who travelled to Saudi Arabia in the recent days have put forward 11 conditions, which include the withdrawal of foreign forces, political accommodation of the Taliban in key ministries and the drawing up of a new constitution that affirms Afghanistan as an Islamic state.
Indian policymakers, who have been bogged down in the labyrinthine passage of the Indo-US nuclear deal, need to take note that the ground is dramatically shifting. Regional security is set to transform. Several factors call for reckoning. First, there is cause to worry about Washington's attention span in the period ahead to press ahead with the Afghan war.
The big issue in America is the bailout of the economy. As well-known columnist Alexander Cockburn summed up, the Americans are indifferent to whether vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is capable of waging a nuclear war or frying "Afghan terrorists". Their sole concern today is that in the political tier in Washington, they have someone "who sounds somewhat like a human being with the same concerns as them, starting with the fear that their local bank will lock its doors in the morning".
That is truly an extraordinary recalibration of national priorities for a world power. Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, during their debate on September 26, paid lip service to Afghanistan but were preoccupied with the new priorities. Both took the easy way out, agreeing that they would take troops out of Iraq and put them in the Hindu Kush. But is it that simple? Surely, there is a vague sense of bipartisan enthusiasm in the US for an Afghan "surge". The new US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, says he could do with three additional brigades to the one promised by the Pentagon, which will add at least 15,000 troops to the current 35,000.
But the total allied force level in Afghanistan stands at just above 70,000, including the US troops. The NATO allies are reluctant to commit more troops. After much US persuasion, French President Nicolas Sarkozy chose to be helpful, adding a measly 100 troops to the French contingent, while opinion polls show that two out of every three French citizens disapprove of the war. The outgoing NATO commander estimated that 400,000 troops were needed to defeat the Taliban. An optimal troop level is impossible to be met. The US and its NATO allies simply do not have the capacity to deploy the troops necessary to force a military settlement or to pacify and occupy Afghanistan.
Even with additional troops, to quote the new head of the US Central Command, David Petraeus, "wresting control of certain areas from the Taliban will be very difficult".
Petraeus' approach is to repeat his tactic in Iraq, to bribe the Pashtun tribesmen and to turn them against the pro-Taliban groups - in other words, hire Pashtun mercenaries to fight the war. Given the Pashtun character and tribal ethos, the strong likelihood is that the tribal belt will become anarchic and the war will spread to Pakistan. Its effect on Pakistan will be catastrophic, but the expansion of the war is unlikely to stem the tide within Afghanistan, which has gone badly wrong for Western forces.
The Taliban today operate in virtually every Afghan province. They have the capacity to mount sustained offensives. It has created a parallel government structure. Pamela Constable, correspondent of The Washington Post and old hand on the South Asia beat, wrote recently: "In many districts a short drive from the capital, some of them considered safe even six months ago, residents and officials said the Taliban now control roads and villages, patrolling in trucks and recruiting new fighters."
Meanwhile, a new dimension has appeared. The incoming US administration in January may not consider doubling down in Afghanistan as an option at a time when its attention is riveted on putting together a rescue package for the American economy. How would this scenario play out in the tangled Afghan mountains - precisely, how would the protagonists of the Afghan resistance view Washington's difficulty in financially sustaining the open-ended war effort?
'Deep, rich chuckle'
Irrepressible British columnist Neil Lyndon obviously made a point when he wrote last week: "Whenever the wind stops howling over the mountains of Tora Bora, a deep, rich chuckle can presumably be heard echoing down the valleys. If he is still alive, nobody will be enjoying the plight of America more than Osama bin Laden. The anarchic carnage in the American financial and political system brings in sight a humiliating withdrawal and defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq. It even raises the possibility of the final collapse of the evil empire which Osama forecast."
Gloomy, but entirely plausible. A perception is growing that with the US government taking responsibility for $5 trillion in liabilities in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and under compulsion to pledge billions to support the financial system, there is bound to be difficulty in bearing the combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the US Congressional Budget Office estimated could total $2.4 trillion over the coming decade. No wonder, a feeling is gaining ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan that it is a matter of time before Washington makes a deal with the Taliban for a coalition government.
The interplay of these various factors will accelerate as Afghanistan gears up for the presidential election in 2009. The election year will be highly divisive. There is a challenge to Karzai from other Afghan groups. His political base in the Pashtun areas remains fragile. The US and its allies are yet to decide whether Karzai is their best choice to hold the reins of power for another five years. Britain, in particular, has had public spats with Karzai. The failure of the war is blamed on him.
But the failure of the war is not personal. A US-style presidential system does not suit Afghanistan. The country needs a decentralized system of power-sharing and a constant search for intra-Afghan compromise. Most certainly, it means bringing the Taliban into the political process. The cardinal mistake has been that the Taliban movement is entirely conflated with al-Qaeda, whereas, to quote Tariq Ali, "If NATO and the US were to leave Afghanistan, their [the Taliban's] political evolution would most likely parallel that of Pakistan's domesticated Islamists."
Tariq Ali didn't mention Maulana Fazlur Rahman, but New Delhi knows how farcical it would be to remain in the grip of paroxysms of nervousness about the redoubtable Islamist leader. India's apprehensions withered away once the Maulana, variously described as the "Father of the Taliban", began visiting India. Equally, India needs to do some "out-of-the-box" thinking about the Taliban.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
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Don't talk to the Taliban
The Guardian Massoumeh Torfeh October 09, 2008
Negotiating with the Taliban is an insult to the Afghan people. Has the world forgotten what they are like?
The international community entered Afghanistan with Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 to oust the Taliban. It promised reconstruction and democracy. Seven years on it is negotiating with the Taliban.
Details of the negotiations were revealed by Jason Burke in the Observer last month. The talks are said to have been initiated by the Afghan government and led by the national security adviser, Zalmei Rassul, approved by the French, MI6, the British Foreign Office and the Saudi king before being implemented by a man as yet unnamed.
Later, a French weekly reported comments attributed to the British ambassador in Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, advocating "an acceptable dictator" to rule Afghanistan. Then reports confirmed that the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide of Norway, is also backing the idea of negotiations with the Taiban and advocating their taking up cabinet posts. The Taliban obviously have the upper hand and have put forward 11 demands, including having their members in cabinet posts.
These steps will have devastating consequences for Afghanistan and will discredit the international community beyond repair. The suggestion being voiced by some of our top international advocates of democracy is disrespectful to the people of Afghanistan. Imagine if you told Americans that the US wants to negotiate with al-Qaida and have a few of them in high-ranking posts in the administration. Would anyone dare to say that in the US? If not, then how is it that the interntional community permits itself to play that scenario for Afghanistan?
Has the world forgotten what the Taliban and their allies did to Afghanistan in the space of six years? They devastated the country, humiliated the nation, punished, tortured and killed Afghan men and women and tormented the young. Are we saying that the most powerful armies of the world were unable to defeat a few thousand tribal fighters? Are the top international men of peace running out of ideas? You cannot advocate "good governance" and then support an Afghan cabinet with Taliban members in key posts.
One of the main mediators in the negotiations with the Taliban is the notorious warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. For more than 10 years he was one of the main culprits in the wars that raged in Afghanistan. He entered into hundreds of loose alliances, inflaming an already desperate situation. He was at the time responsible for the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. And now he is aiding their entry to Kabul for a second time. He has already placed in the Afghan cabinet one of his loyal supporters and the Taliban are asking for several more ministerial posts. There will be no end to these demands and there will be no reciprocal action.
Continuing high levels of unemployment and severe poverty are among the main reasons why young men join the Taliban. A lucrative narcotics business is also continuing to fund the Taliban's terrorist activity. So would it not be more appropriate if the international community focused on creating jobs, eradicating poverty and fighting the production of narcotics?
The International Crisis Group reported in July that the Taliban have created a "sophisticated communications apparatus that projects an increasingly confident movement". It said the Taliban are using a full range of media, "successfully tapping into strains of Afghan nationalism and exploiting policy failures by the Kabul government and its international backers". Is the international community doing anything to counter that propaganda?
Leaders of the latest brands of Taliban, recently interviewed by international media have openly confessed they work for the Taliban because their "pay and conditions" are far better than any other work they can find in Afghanistan. People are desperate due to unemployment and poverty. Are these the Taliban that the international community is referring to as "moderate" Taliban? If not who are these "moderate" Taliban? Why are their names not announced? Are they the ones who destroyed the statutes of Buddha in Bamyan, or those killing hundreds of international forces in southern Afghanistan, or perhaps the ones taking people hostage and placing roadside bombs in main highways? Or it might be their other new major partner, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is based in Waziristan in the tribal areas.
The people of Afghanistan have been watching with horror the return of the Taliban since 2003, not only to the southern and eastern provinces but also to new areas to the north and, worst of all, to Kabul. They will be even more shocked when they find out the Taliban are in the so-called democratically elected government of Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan mission to cost $28B, group says
CTV.ca News / October 8, 2008
On the eve of a parliamentary report on the financial cost of the Afghanistan mission for Canada, an independent group has released their own answer on the subject: $28 billion.
The Rideau Institute, an advocacy group and think tank that largely opposes Canada's military participation in Afghanistan, said the mission will cost the government $20.7 billion by 2011.
In addition, the Institute said the direct and indirect costs to the Canadian economy due to soldiers' deaths and injuries will be about $7.6 billion.
Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page will release his report Thursday morning at 11 a.m. ET. The report was due to be released last month, but concerns of interfering with the election led Page to delay the release -- although Canadians will head to the polls on Tuesday.
The Conservatives have pegged the cost of the Afghanistan mission from 2002 to 2008 at about $8 billion. A significantly higher cost could be a political problem for Harper.
Support for the mission is lowest in Quebec, where the Tories are struggling to gain seats in the election.
Steven Staples, president of the Rideau Institute and co-author of the report, said he may be taking it a step further than Page's estimate, but obviously won't know until Thursday.
"We took it a second step further by also looking at the loss to the economy of the wounded and killed soldiers," he told CTV.ca.
He said he based his estimate on some American studies that looked at the financial cost of the Iraq war, and included the price to health care. One such study was authored by Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. In 2006, he suggested the Iraq war had cost the U.S. $2 trillion, about 10 times the amount previously thought.
Staples said the war in Afghanistan has also come at the cost of Canada's contribution to UN peacekeeping missions.
"We've given up so much in this war, not just in terms of government costs but also the lost contributions of all these young men and women that have died, and also internationally -- we're contributing a lot less to UN peacekeeping where we used to do a lot more," Staples said.
"We used to be Number One in the early 1990s. We had more than 1,000 troops involved in UN peacekeeping. Now we're down to something like 160. In fact, we send more police for UN peacekeeping than soldiers, so when you count the number of soldiers involved it's roughly 50 or 60."
Another report on the cost of the Afghan mission by David Perry, a former deputy director of Dalhousie University's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies pegged the bill at $22 billion.
In light of the global economic downturn and a diminishing budget surplus, Staples suggested the Afghanistan mission could put significant stress on government coffers.
"It's clear that the government's budgetary and foreign policy hands will be tied if it intends to keep our troops in Afghanistan through December 2011," Staples said earlier Wednesday in a news release.
There are about 2,000 Canadian soldiers based in Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province.
Since the mission began in 2002, 97 Canadian solders and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan.
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NATO allies consider direct Taliban talks U.S. military officials open to possibility
The Associated Press By GREGORY KATZ October 09, 2008
When NATO defense ministers meet in Budapest today, they will face a worsening situation in Afghanistan and vexing questions about whether the war can be won.
Increasingly, military commanders and political leaders are asking: Is it time to talk to the Taliban?
With U.S. and NATO forces suffering their deadliest year so far in Afghanistan, a rising chorus of voices, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the incoming head of U.S. Central Command, have endorsed efforts to reach out to members of the Taliban considered willing to seek an accommodation with President Hamid Karzai's government.
"That is one of the key long-term solutions in Afghanistan, just as it has been in Iraq," Gates told reporters Monday. "Part of the solution is reconciliation with people who are willing to work with the Afghan government going forward."
Gen. David Petraeus, who will become responsible for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan as head of U.S. Central Command on Oct. 31, agreed.
"I do think you have to talk to enemies," Petraeus said yesterday at an appearance at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, when asked about potential dialogue with the Taliban.
"You've got to set things up. You've got to know who you're talking to. You've got to have your objectives straight," he said. "But I mean, what we did do in Iraq ultimately was sit down with some of those that were shooting at us. What we tried to do was identify those who might be reconcilable."
In terms of Afghanistan, he said: "The key there is making sure that all of that is done in complete coordination with complete support of the Afghan government - and with President Karzai."
But entering negotiations with the Taliban raises difficult issues.
It is not clear whether there is a unified Taliban command structure that could engage in serious talks, and the group still embraces the hard-line ideology that made them pariahs in the West until their ouster from power in 2001.
During its 1996-2001 rule, Afghan women and girls were barred from attending school or holding jobs, music and television were banned, men were compelled to wear beards, and artwork or statues deemed idolatrous or anti-Muslim were destroyed.
In an assault that provoked an international outcry, Taliban fighters blew up two giant statues of Buddha that had graced the ancient Silk Road town of Bamiyan for some 1,500 years.
Seven years after the U.S. invasion, what was originally considered a quick military success has turned into an increasingly violent counterinsurgency fight.
An unprecedented number of U.S. troops - about 32,000 - are in Afghanistan today, and the Pentagon plans to send several thousand more in the coming months. At least 131 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan this year, surpassing the previous annual high of 111 in 2007.
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No Afghan-Taliban peace talks, for now
Christian Science Monitor, MA By Anand Gopal October 9, 2008
Kabul may have tried to reach out to current insurgents by meeting with former Taliban in Saudi Arabia late last month.
Kabul, Afghanistan - The Taliban are not engaged in peace talks with the Afghan government, despite recent reports to the contrary, say sources close to the insurgents and the government.
Instead, meetings held last month in Saudi Arabia – which brought former Taliban officials together with members of the Afghan and Saudi governments – may be an attempt by Kabul to start negotiations with the current Taliban.
"The meetings signal that the Afghan government is weak and is desperate for a solution," says Waheed Muzhda, a political analyst in Kabul and former official in the Taliban government.
They've come at a time when the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan is reaching unprecedented heights, causing some analysts to doubt that the militants will be interested in making peace.
Moreover, the former Taliban members who participated in the Mecca meetings may not have much sway in persuading current militants to come to the table. "These people don't represent the Taliban," Mr. Muzhda says. "Most of the people have almost no standing with the current Taliban leadership."
No current Taliban attended the meeting
Up to 17 Afghans met with Saudi leader King Abdullah and other Saudi officials over the course of four days in late September, according to sources who either attended or are familiar with the meeting. Attendees included: Mullah Muhammad Ghaus, former foreign minister under the Taliban government, which ruled Afghanistan until 2001, who currently lives in Quetta, Pakistan; Abdel Hakim Mujahed, former unofficial Taliban representative in the United Nations; and Abdul Salaam Hashimi, former director of finance for the insurgent group Hizb-i-Islami, which is currently aligned with the Taliban.
None of the attendees currently belongs to the Taliban, according to one former Taliban official who attended the meetings. Some of the attendees – such as Maulavi Arsala Rahmani, a former deputy minister and currently senator – didn't wield much influence in the former Taliban government. Others, such as former Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, have since fallen out of favor with the leadership. On the Afghan side, attendees included parliamentarian Arif Noorzai and National Security Adviser Zalmay Rasul.
Both the Afghan government and the Taliban deny that the Saudi meetings could be construed as peace talks. A statement issued late last month by fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar said that "a handful of former Taliban officials who are under house arrest or who have surrendered do not represent the Islamic Emirate," referring to the Taliban.
Nonetheless, officials in Kabul may be intending to use the former Taliban members as intermediaries between them and the current Taliban, says Waliullah Rahmani, director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies. "Some of these former Taliban have ties to current Taliban, especially some junior members of the movement," he explains.
For example, Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaif, former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, who attendted the Mecca meetings, is widely respected within Taliban circles. Abdullah Zakari, an early ally of Mullah Omar who has since left politics, and former foreign minister Mullah Muhammad Ghaus also attended the talks and are said to still have friendly relations with the Taliban leadership.
The Taliban, however, are unlikely to come to the table as their position in Afghanistan strengthens. "[T]he Taliban will never formally negotiate with Karzai," says Hamid Gul, a former chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency, known for his close historical relationship with the Taliban. "They won't budge an inch especially at a time when America is seen as losing the war."
Outside interest in talks
Yet many outside Afghanistan would like to see peace talks begin. Sources familiar with last month's meetings sayPrince Turki Faisal, former head of the Saudi intelligence agency, also attended. Mr. Faisal is said to have a close relationship with the Taliban and often acted as an intermediary between the Saudi government, Pakistan, and the Islamic insurgents in the 1980s.
Saudi authorities may have been prompted to host the talks out of concern for the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Officials in Riyadh may see a stable Pakistan as a counterweight to longtime rival Iran. In addition, the Saudis' similar religious outlook to the Taliban and their close ties to the group – Saudi Arabia was one of three countries to recognize the regime when it was in power – may make them an ideal candidate to eventually start a peace process.
Media reports suggest former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also present at the meetings. While Mr. Sharif has not confirmed this, he has a history of attempting to bring warring parties in Afghanistan together. During the height of the Afghan civil war in the 1990s, Sharif tried to broker a deal among leading warlords. Later, as prime minister, he cultivated close ties with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Western officials – who in a series of recent statements have suggested that the Afghan war cannot be won militarily – may be hoping that these meetings can initiate a process by which moderate Taliban peel away from extremists. "The US would certainly like to drive a wedge between Al Qaeda and the bulk of the Taliban," says political analyst Mr. Rahmani.
On the ground, however, news of the Mecca meetings may have only strengthened the Taliban's resolve. "These so-called negotiations are a joke, but it shows that the Afghan government and their friends are failing and losing this war," says a Taliban commander from the province of Ghazni. "It tells us that even the government realizes that they are a failure."
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Ministry warns of severe food shortage
KABUL, 9 October 2008 (IRIN) - Afghanistan faces a deficit of two million tonnes of staple food - primarily wheat flour and rice - to feed millions of vulnerable people in the coming six months, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has said.
The huge food shortfall has occurred largely due to crop failure resulting from a severe drought, officials said. Drought has led to the failure of up to 90 percent of rain-fed agriculture and also damaged irrigated land, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
High prices have affected food imports.
"We need two million tonnes of food for over six million vulnerable people," Mohammad Sharif Sharif, deputy minister of the MAIL, told IRIN.
Officials said food convoys needed to reach some vulnerable areas quickly because the roads leading to them become inaccessible in winter.
Heavy snow and extremely cold weather killed dozens of people and blocked roads all over the country last winter.
"We are trying to dispatch and pre-position food items in Ghor and Badakhshan provinces in the very near future," Sharif said.
Spiraling food prices and drought have pushed over five million Afghans into high-risk food-insecurity over the past 18 months, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported in July.
Massive food imports
To meet the food requirements of five million most vulnerable people, UN agencies and the government launched in July a joint appeal for US$404 million.
The appeal, which has received about 40 percent of its requested funding so far, is expected to bring in 230,000 tonnes of mixed food aid.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pledged $8.65 million to the appeal, according to WFP, and Afghan government officials have called on other oil-rich Arab countries to make similar generous contributions.
"We call on Gulf States and rich Arab countries to help their Muslim brothers and sisters in Afghanistan," Sharif said.
The government said about 150,000 tonnes of wheat would be bought and imported from Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan before the onset of winter.
"The remaining deficit will be met through private sector imports from neighbouring and regional markets," Sharif said.
Pakistan - a traditional major food supplier to Afghanistan - has imposed a strict ban on food exports, but making up the shortfall by importing over 1.5 million tonnes of food in a limited period of time is unrealistic, several food merchants in Kabul said.
Crisis approaching?
Aid agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Oxfam international have already warned about a possible humanitarian crisis this winter in some parts of the country.
"Hundreds of thousands of Afghans may have to leave their homes this winter because of drought, insecurity and rising food prices in the north," the ICRC said in a statement on 6 October.
The food situation of vulnerable people elsewhere in the country is also bleak and food aid is needed, aid workers said.
"It [the situation] is alarming… the next 4-5 months are crucial," Franz Rauchenstein, head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, told IRIN.
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IFC signs agreement with the First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan
(Media-Newswire.com) - Kabul, Afghanistan, October 8, 2008—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, signed an agreement with the First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan to help strengthen the bank’s capacity to introduce a product line that will address the housing needs of low- and middle-income Afghans.
Most microfinance institutions in Afghanistan do not offer housing loans, and traditional housing finance is limited because the legal and regulatory infrastructure does not support mortgage lending. To bridge this gap, IFC and the bank will join forces to ensure that low- and middle-income families and individuals have access to affordable housing loans. IFC plans to recruit an advisor to work closely with the bank to develop sound operational policies and guidelines necessary for building a sustainable housing portfolio.
Muslim-ul-Haq, CEO of First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan, said, “We are confident that with IFC’s advisory services we can offer products that help meet the housing needs of the majority of Afghanis who currently do not have access to housing finance.”
Syed Farhan Fasihuddin, IFC Manager for Housing Finance Advisory Services in Middle East and North Africa, said: “Our aim is to improve the living standards of people in Afghanistan’s economically challenged communities. We hope to build on our long-term relationship with the First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan in our effort to achieve this objective.”
In 2007, IFC conducted a study of Afghanistan’s housing sector, in collaboration with the World Bank, and recommended expanding the availability of mortgages and microfinance loans for housing.
IFC helped establish First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan in 2002, through an equity investment of $1 million. Recently, IFC furthered the relationship with the bank by extending a long-term loan of $4.5 million to support its expansion activities in microfinance, housing finance, and lending to small and medium enterprises.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development, mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled $16.2 billion in fiscal 2008, a 34 percent increase over the previous year. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About First MicrofinanceBank of Afghanistan
The First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan is a limited-liability company in Afghanistan. It is the country’s leading financial-services provider. The bank contributes to poverty alleviation and economic development by providing sustainable financial services that targets micro and small businesses and individual households.
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Afghanistan make it four in four
October 8, 2008
DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — Afghanistan made it four wins out of four when they defeated Hong Kong by four wickets in the World Cricket League.
A fine all-round performance from Mohammad Nabi helped Afghanistan secure their latest win which puts them well on the way to promotion to Division Three and a step closer to the final qualifier for the 2011 World Cup to be held next year.
Nabi took 5 for 32 before cracking 70 runs.
Hong Kong were cruising to 152 for 2 from 40 overs, until Nabi tied them down to restrict their last ten overs.
Zain Abbas top scored with 69 and, together with Roy Lamsam (35), the pair added 84 for the third wicket. Nabi had other ideas, however, rattling through Hong Kong's middle and lower order to restrict Afghanistan's target to 207.
Afghanistan were 48 for 3 before Nowroz Mangal and Nabi turned the match on its head with a decisive 105-run fourth-wicket partnership.
Mangal fell shortly after notching his fifty, but Nabi continued with three sixes in a sparkling 78-ball 70.
Jersey got their first win of the tournament with a 79-run win over Fiji while the clash between Tanzania and Italy was abandoned due to rain and will be played on Thursday.
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Afghans reopen road despite threat to heritage site
HERAT, Afghanistan Oct 8 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghans forcibly reopened a road in the western city of Herat on Wednesday that had been shut to protect a 15th century heritage site after a promised alternate route was not provided.
The Musallah complex in the western city of Herat was built during the Timurid empire founded by the legendary conqueror Tamerlane and today consists of six minarets and two domed chambers.
A century ago, more than a dozen minarets stood but most have toppled during decades of war and neglect. This year the road passing by the minarets was shut because traffic vibrations threatened their foundations.
"The central government promised to build an alternative road for the traffic but they failed," provincial governor Sayed Hussain Anwari told Reuters.
"The residents had to reopen the road because it was creating a huge traffic jam for them everyday," he said.
Hundreds of people gathered near the road, removed the barriers and began driving through.
The Ministry of Information and Culture in Kabul issued a statement condemning the reopening.
"The Ministry of Information and Culture strongly condemns this act and asks for the help of the noble people of Herat and the Interior Ministry and other local administrations and provincial officials to close this road promptly," it said.
Five of the camel-coloured, mud brick minarets tower more than 30 metres (98 ft) above the ground and were once sheathed in sparkling blue, green, black and white mosaic tiles. Only the stump of a sixth minaret remains.
Herat is an ancient city with many historic sites including a citadel built by Alexander the Great.
(Reporting by Sharafuddin Sharafiyaar, Writing by Hamid Shalizi, editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Ex-Talib minister wants inmates' assets unfrozen
www.quqnoos.com Written by Noorullah Rahmani Wednesday, 08 October 2008
US should 'release detainees before peace-talks with Afghan government begin'
THE TALIBAN’S former foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, has said the US should release Taliban suspects from Guantanemo prison and unfreeze their assets if the Afghan governemnt is serious about holding peace-talks with the rebel group.
Also on Wednesday, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, denied that his trip to Saudi Arabia was part of an attempt to broker a peace-deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
Zaeef said he travelled to Saudi Arabia at the request of the country’s king.
He visited Mecca, but did not talk about politics with King Abdullah nor did he discuss a possible peace-deal, Zaeef said.
The ex-ambassador, now living in a house in Kabul, said the international community had failed in its commitment to the Afghan people.
He said security and the economy had not improved since Taliban times, nor had poverty been reduced.
But he urged the warring factions to step up to the negotiating table, which he said was the only way of ending violence in the country.
Some parts of the domestic and foreign media have reported that negotiations between the government and the Taliban have already begun to take place, with former Taliban members shuttling backwards and forwards between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
President Karzai’s spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, denied any peace-talks had taken place.
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