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Ethnic tension a factor in Afghan vote: envoy
By Adam Entous Adam Entous
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his chief rival, who have both claimed election victory, have assured U.S. officials they will respect the outcome despite fears of ethnic unrest, Washington's top envoy said on Saturday.
Afghan polling 'marked by fraud'
Saturday, 22 August 2009 BBC News
A leading group of election observers say there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation during Thursday's presidential election in Afghanistan.
Abdullah accuses Karzai of 'rigging' Afghan vote
By Jason Straziuso And Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – President Hamid Karzai's leading challenger accused him of using the Afghan state to "rig" this week's election and detailed allegations of cheating by government officials in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press.
Abdullah prepares for election results, challenges, uproar
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
KABUL — The main challenger to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai accused the president Saturday of encouraging efforts to steal this week's election, but Abdullah Abdullah said he would prevent supporters from taking to the streets if he ultimately loses.
Abdullah: 'We have a lot of complaints'
USA Today
USA Today's Jim Michaels secured a one-on-one interview on Saturday with Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai in the Afghanistan election.
Is The Taliban The Main Loser Of Afghanistan's Elections?
August 21, 2009 By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Taliban warned for days that voters' ink-stained fingers would be chopped off to punish them for participating in Afghanistan's August 20 elections. But millions of Afghans took the risk anyway.
British PM meets Petraeus for Afghanistan talks
Sat Aug 22, 2:21 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held private talks on Afghanistan with top US military commander General David Petraeus on Friday, Brown's office said.
Taliban cut off fingers of 2 Afghan voters
By Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 22, 8:07 am ET
KABUL – Taliban militants cut off the ink-stained fingers of two Afghan voters in the militant south during the presidential election, the country's top election monitoring group said Saturday.
Intimidation and Fraud Observed in Afghan Election
By CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — Turnout by female voters in Afghanistan’s presidential election on Thursday was notably low, and women were disproportionately affected by the violence and intimidation, a number of election observer organizations said Saturday.
Afghan election fair, but not free: EU
By Adam Entous And Hamid Shalizi – Sat Aug 22, 9:17 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's presidential election was generally fair but not entirely free because of Taliban intimidation and violence that kept turnout low in the south, European monitors said on Saturday.
Observers say Afghanistan elections had serious flaws
Calcutta News.Net Saturday 22nd August, 2009
International monitors are praising Afghanistan for this week's elections, but say it is too soon to determine whether the process was free and fair.
Why a Contested Afghan Election Result Could Help the U.S.
Time By TONY KARON 20 Aug 2009
It may be days before the results are known, but it's already clear that whomever emerges victorious from Afghanistan's election will face a legitimacy problem. Both incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his lead rival, Abdullah Abdullah,
CIA Conducted Mock Executions of Detainees
Interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, officials say.
FOXNews.com Saturday, August 22, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The CIA's internal investigator found that agency interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, FOX News has confirmed.
Germany's Steinmeier proposes Afghan pull-out talks
Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:51am EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is bidding to oust Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany in an election next month, said he wanted a timetable for a military pull-out from Afghanistan.
Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share power with Merkel's conservatives, said once it became clear who would lead Afghanistan after last Thursday's election there, talks should begin over how long foreign troops should stay.
Slain soldier oldest to die in Afghanistan
Aug. 22, 2009 at 8:07 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A 59-year-old soldier from Washington state has become the oldest U.S. service member to die in Afghanistan, military officials say.
Pakistani Taliban say new leader chosen
By Anwarullah Khan, Associated Press Writer
KHAR, Pakistan – Hakimullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander behind several serious attacks including a deadly attempt to take the Sri Lankan cricket team hostage, has been appointed the new head of the militant group
The Taliban diversify into tobacco
Ayesha Nasir The National (UAE) August 21, 2009
LAHORE // The smuggling of tobacco is helping to fuel the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan, according to analysts and officials. While the poppy trade still contributes nearly half of the funds funnelled to the Taliban
Democracy and occupation don't mix
The Independent By Patrick Cockburn 08/21/2009
Afghans and Iraqis see their governments as rackets run by political gangsters
'Afghan Star': documenting history with a musical beat
"Afghan Star" reveals the emerging spirit of a troubled country through the lens of an "American Idol" television show.
By Michael Upchurch Seattle Times arts writer
Small windows can sometimes open onto the widest vistas.
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Ethnic tension a factor in Afghan vote: envoy
By Adam Entous Adam Entous
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his chief rival, who have both claimed election victory, have assured U.S. officials they will respect the outcome despite fears of ethnic unrest, Washington's top envoy said on Saturday.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke met Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul on Friday, a day after presidential elections went ahead amid sporadic violence and despite Taliban threats to disrupt the vote.
Both camps said on Friday they were on track to win enough votes for an outright majority of more than 50 percent to avoid a potentially destabilizing second round run-off vote in October.
The election is a major test for Karzai after eight years in office, as well as for President Barack Obama's new regional strategy of pouring in thousands of extra troops to defeat the Taliban and its Islamist allies and stabilize Afghanistan.
Asked if he feared the leading candidates would incite their followers if the result was disputed, Holbrooke said "they said they wouldn't."
"They're all putting their own views but they all said they would respect the process," Holbrooke told reporters traveling with him in Kabul. He reiterated that Washington does not have a preferred candidate or favored outcome.
Official preliminary results are not due for two weeks.
Election observers say a second round between Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, and Abdullah, who draws support from Tajiks in the north, risked dividing the country along ethnic lines, and that disagreement over the outcome could lead to civil unrest.
"Everybody understands there is an ethnic issue in the country," Holbrooke said.
"It's a factor, it's not a concern. Is it a factor that gives us heartburn? No, but it is a factor," he said.
VIOLENCE, INTIMIDATION
In Washington, Obama praised the vote as a move in the right direction. But he warned that Taliban violence may continue as official results are finalized.
"Over the last few days, particularly yesterday, we've seen acts of violence and intimidation by the Taliban, and there ... may be more in the days to come," he said at the White House.
Polls conducted before the election showed Karzai in the lead but not by enough to avoid a run-off.
Afghan and U.S. officials breathed a sigh of relief after the relatively peaceful election, after a dramatic escalation in violence in the weeks leading up to the vote.
Counting began after polls closed on Thursday and Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) has urged patience as the process proceeds, saying only the IEC was in a position to release official results.
The claims made by Karzai's camp and Abdullah are based on unofficial observations by thousands of campaign workers at the 6,200 polling stations.
Preliminary official results are due on September 3, with the final result set to be released by the IEC two weeks later, although there are indications the result could be delayed by at least another week.
Independent election observers like election monitoring group Democracy International urged a quick end to the counting.
"I think it is unfortunate that the IEC has decided to withhold the vote count as long as they apparently intend to," said Glenn Cowan, a Democracy International governance expert.
"While we understand this is a difficult environment in which to hold an election, at the same time the political environment is uncertain," he said in comments emailed to Reuters, adding an early release of results would help relieve pressure.
Afghan and international observers have said the poll had been marked by serious problems but had so far been credible.
The IEC has said preliminary figures showed overall turnout at around 40-50 percent, roughly in line with Western diplomats pre-poll estimates, compared with about 70 percent of registered voters in the 2004 presidential poll.
Much is likely to depend on turnout in Pashtun areas in the south, such as Karzai's home province of Kandahar, where the president draws his strongest support but where voters faced the brunt of Taliban attacks and intimidation.
U.S. combat casualties have risen sharply as the extra troops were being sent to Afghanistan, and opinion polls have shown weakening American backing for the war.
(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Afghan polling 'marked by fraud'
Saturday, 22 August 2009 BBC News
A leading group of election observers say there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation during Thursday's presidential election in Afghanistan.
Stuffed ballot boxes, illiterate voters being told who to vote for and biased officials were cited by Afghanistan's Free and Fair Election Foundation.
However EU monitors said that despite widespread intimidation and violence, the vote was generally good and fair.
There have been rival claims of victory but no winner has been announced.
The chief EU observer said it was still early days in assessing the election.
The Free and Fair Election Foundation's provisional report also details accounts of multiple voting, underage voting and election officials being ejected from polling stations by representatives of candidates.
The group said militants had sliced a finger off two voters in southern Kandahar province.
"Our observers saw two voters whose fingers, with the ink [a fraud prevention measure], was cut off in Kandahar. This was on election day," the foundation's chairman Nader Nadery was quoted as saying.
Threats of violence against voters came from local powerbrokers, the Taliban and rival political camps according to the foundation, which sent about 7,000 observers around the country.
Election officials have estimated turnout at between 40 and 50% which, if confirmed, would be well down on the 70% who voted in the first presidential election, in 2004.
Thursday's voting passed off relatively peacefully amid threats of Taliban attacks. The EU election observer mission said the election was well organised and was a victory for the Afghan people.
As official returns are collated, the leading contenders have said they will not incite street protests if they lose.
The incumbent Hamid Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah gave the assurance to the US special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke.
Both men have claimed victory.
Pre-election opinion polls suggested Hamid Karzai was leading the field of candidates but might face a run-off with Mr Abdullah.
Partial, preliminary results are expected on Tuesday and final results are due to be released in September.
If neither candidate wins an outright majority of 50%, then the vote goes to a second round in October.
One of the other 31 contenders and the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, Mirwais Yassini, told the BBC he believes both main camps practised widespread electoral fraud.
He has lodged 31 complaints with Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC).
COUNTING THE VOTES
Counting began after polls closed at 1700 local time on Thursday
Votes counted by hand at each of the 6,200 polling stations
Polling stations are required to post their results immediately, to prevent fraud
Candidates' representatives are also given immediate access to results
The counting appeared to be completed by Friday lunchtime, with official returns due over the weekend
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Abdullah accuses Karzai of 'rigging' Afghan vote
By Jason Straziuso And Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – President Hamid Karzai's leading challenger accused him of using the Afghan state to "rig" this week's election and detailed allegations of cheating by government officials in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press.
Abdullah Abdullah, once Karzai's foreign minister, said he was in contact with other campaigns to explore the possibility of a coalition candidacy in case none of the 36 candidates won enough votes in last Thursday's ballot to avoid a runoff, probably in October.
The accusations, which Karzai's spokesman denied, are the most direct Abdullah has made against the incumbent in a contest that likely has weeks to go before a winner is proclaimed. Both Abdullah and Karzai claim they are in the lead based on reports from campaign pollwatchers monitoring the count.
Officials of Abdullah's campaign have alleged fraud in several southern provinces where the insurgency is strongest and Karzai had been expected to run strong.
"He uses the state apparatus in order to rig an election," Abdullah said in the interview. "That is something which is not expected."
Abdullah said it "doesn't make the slightest difference" whether Karzai or his supporters ordered the alleged fraud.
"All this happens under his eyes and under his leadership," Abdullah said. "This is under his leadership that all these things are happening, and all those people which are responsible for this fraud in parts of the country are appointed by him. And I'm sure he has all those reports, so he knows all of this. This should have been stopped and could have been stopped by him."
If Abdullah supporters believe the election was stolen, it could lead to the type of street violence that marred Iran's presidential election in June. Abdullah has called for calm and says grievances should be resolved through the country's Electoral Complaints Commission.
Abdullah said during the interview that government officials in Kandahar and Ghazni provinces, including a provincial police chief and a No. 2 provincial election official, stuffed ballot boxes in Karzai's favor in six districts. He also said his monitors were prevented from entering several voting sites.
Karzai's campaign spokesman Waheed Omar dismissed Abdullah's allegations and claimed the president's camp had submitted reports of fraud allegedly committed by Abdullah's followers to the election complaint commission.
"These are not new allegations. These were made even before the election took place," Omar said. "We have documented violations that were made by Abdullah's campaign team. But we believe our job is to report to the elections complaint commission ... We do not want to make a media propaganda campaign out of the violations we have documented."
Omar said losing candidates often claim fraud to "try to justify their loss."
Millions of Afghans voted in the country's second-ever direct presidential election, although Taliban threats and attacks appeared to hold down the turnout, especially in the south where Karzai was expected to run strong among his fellow Pashtuns. Election observers have said the voting process was mostly credible, but are cataloging instances of fraud and violence.
Abdullah said he was not claiming victory but "in these early days and early preliminary results I'm very happy."
U.S., U.N. and Afghan officials said they had not expected a fraud-free election, but hoped that cheating would be on a small enough scale that the vote was seen as credible.
An Afghan monitoring group, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, said Saturday that its observers saw widespread problems from election officials who were not impartial and were pressuring people to vote for certain candidates. Election monitors also reported seeing voters carrying boxes of voter cards — so that multiple votes could be cast — to polling sites and saw many underage voters, according to the foundation head Nader Nadery.
The National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based democratic group, said Saturday the vote "involved serious flaws" and pointed to the fact that members of the Independent Election Commission are appointed by Karzai, suggesting a likelihood of bias.
Preliminary results will not be released until Tuesday, but final certified results won't come until next month. If neither Karzai or Abdullah gets 50 percent of the vote among a field of some three dozen candidates, then the two will go to a run-off.
Anticipating that likelihood, Abdullah said he has been in contact "either directly or indirectly" with most of the presidential candidates — aside from Karzai — over the possibility of a coalition candidacy in round two.
If Abdullah could persuade supporters of Ramazan Bashardost and Ashraf Ghani — the other top candidates — to endorse him, the extra support could be enough to defeat Karzai in a second round.
Taliban militants carried out dozens of attacks on election day, violence that killed 26 Afghan civilians and security forces. Abdullah said he had expected better security and more competence from the election authorities.
In a harrowing attack on voting day, Taliban militants cut off the ink-stained fingers of two voters in Kandahar province shortly after casting ballots, said Nadery. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
Rumors that militants would sever voters' ink-stained fingers spread before the vote. A Taliban spokesman had said militants would not carry out such attacks, but the Taliban is a loose organization of individual commanders who could make good the threat on their own.
Also Saturday, the U.S. command reported that an American service member died of a noncombat injury in eastern Afghanistan. No further details were released. The death brought to 35 the number of U.S. service members to die in Afghanistan this month.
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Abdullah prepares for election results, challenges, uproar
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
KABUL — The main challenger to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai accused the president Saturday of encouraging efforts to steal this week's election, but Abdullah Abdullah said he would prevent supporters from taking to the streets if he ultimately loses.
Abdullah said he would challenge the results vigorously for the next several weeks as votes are counted, virtually ensuring a period of political uncertainty here. After that he said he would accept results and would tell supporters to do so as well.
"I will not go beyond that," he said. "Life will go on," he said.
Abdullah's remarks Saturday were some of the strongest allegations he has made since Thursday's vote. He spoke for about 40 minutes with USA TODAY in his Kabul villa, occasionally jabbing the air with his finger, which was still marked with the indelible purple ink used in marking people who voted. Dressed in dark slacks and a white shirt, he appeared relaxed as laid out his case in a quiet voice.
Voters went to the polls amid widespread reports of fraud and violence. Turnout in the south, where American forces are engaged in intensive fighting with Taliban militants, was particularly low. Karzai's biggest support comes from the south.
Abdullah said government officials took over the voting process in some districts and his observers were beaten and harrassed. He stopped short of saying the president ordered it. "He allowed widespread rigging to take place," Abdullah said, referring to Karzai. "I think this is happening under his eyes. He knows it very well."
The Independent Election Commission is scheduled to release preliminary election results this Tuesday, but complete tallies are not expected for at least two weeks after that. Abdullah said he would use that time to press his case that Karzai's administration pressured voters and stuffed ballot boxes.
Abdullah's strategy of challenging results could mean weeks of uncertainty in a country already under pressure from a growing insurgency.
If no candidate gets a majority in this week's election, the two top voters would go to a runoff.
Karzai has denied allegations of vote tampering and his aides have said he has enough votes to win in the first round.
Abdullah and Karzai met after the election with Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Abdullah said he expressed his concerns about the fraud, but said he would ensure his supporters accepted the final results.
"I will accept that," he said. "Otherwise this country could go into turmoil.
"I understand that they (Americans) are very wary of the fragility of the situation," Abdullah said. "They know that I am a responsible person."
Karzai was installed as president with Bush administration backing after the Taliban were ousted by a U.S.-led offensive in 2001. He won the country's first presidential election in 2004.
Thursday's election, however, was the country's first competitive race. The candidates participated in a televised debate before the election and traveled the country, holding massive rallies and giving speeches.
Abdullah, a former foreign minister in Karzai's government, ran a particularly active campaign, accusing Karzai's government of corruption and failing to capitalize on the opportunities after the Taliban were ousted and billions of foreign aid poured into the country.
During campaign swings Abdullah made frequent references to his time in Pansjir Valley as an aide to Ahmad Shah Massood, a legendary guerrilla leader who fought the Soviets in the 1980s. Massood, who is still revered in many parts of Afghanistan, was killed two days before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Karzai has said the country has made progress in education and health care and he is best suited to continue building on those achievements.
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Abdullah: 'We have a lot of complaints'
USA Today
USA Today's Jim Michaels secured a one-on-one interview on Saturday with Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai in the Afghanistan election.
Abdullah spoke from his villa in Kabul, the capital, criticizing Karzai's handling of the election, and promising to challenge the results. Here are excerpts from that interview:
Q. What are your plans?
(Complete) results will be announced in three weeks time … The announcement should come from the Independent Elections Commission…. Before that, these complaints have to be processed …. We have a lot of complaints …. Finally, if that happens — our complaints were dealt with and we're satisfied with the conduct of the … commission and so on, he (Karzai) announces he has won, I'll say, 'Congratulations.'
AFGHAN ELECTION: Abdullah prepares for results, uproar
What I wouldn't congratulate him on is the fact that he allowed widespread rigging to take place. I put it mildly: I should have said that he ordered, but he allowed it.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Afghanistan | Kabul | Independent | Hamid Karzai | Richard Holbrooke | Abdul Rashid Dostum
Q. Did he order it?
I think this is happening under his eyes. He knows it very well. He is well aware of what is going on with his … brother in Kandahar and the other people (who) are doing this. It is so widespread... In this he hasn't done a service, neither to himself, nor to the country, nor to the people. This will be my disappointment. Other than that, life will go on. I already campaigned vigorously. I already led a national movement which crossed ethnic lines, factional lines, religious lines … .
If he was able to bring people around him it was based on the deals. He sacrificed their governments. He sacrificed many things in this country by making those deals … I started in my parents house, my campaign, and then I took it to the whole country and now the whole country is hopeful that there will be a change.
There are areas where the turnout has been unfortunately very low, like in (the south) … By all estimates they say it's 5% to 10% in Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgon, Paktya, Paktika, Khost, Ghazni. If in the calculation we see that the turnout in these areas is showing like 30% then this is a big question … .
I think he, by appointing those people which he knew what they would do and asked them to, 'Get me elected. Get me elected,' he released drug traffickers in this process. He made deals like the final deals with Gen. Dostum (a warlord who returned to Afghanistan from exile) … The people who he appointed in charge of his campaign, the government officials which are still ministers but they are also in charge of campaign … .
The Bush administration made a big blunder by just not listening to the people of Afghanistan, just as if he's an innocent person surrounded by bad people. This is not the case …. Our monitors were stopped by the government officials. One person, which is the second in charge of the Border Guard, he took charge of the whole election process in six districts in Kandahar …. Everything happened under his supervision, not under the IEC supervision in six districts …. In Ghazni until this morning … boxes were being stuffed. Stuffing the boxes has been widespread in Paktya, Paktika, Kandahar … .
Q. Are you going to tell your people, 'Stay out of the streets' ?
I will, I will. Unfortunately, I will. I know how fragile this situation is.
Do you think there will be a runoff?
If even today in the morning the people are stuffing the boxes it's very difficult to guess. It should have been stopped the day before yesterday.
Q. What happens if President Karzai comes out with 51% after the end of this process?
I know what has happened. I will accept that. … This is what it is. Otherwise this country could go into turmoil. If I continue to challenge this up to the end, which is something one has to do in democratic systems, until you're satisfied it is legitimate. You lose an illegitimate process that's not a loss. It's not just you: millions of people in the country. But here one has to accept that finally. I will not go beyond that.
Q. What was your message to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke?
I expressed my broad concerns. I am assuring everybody of my commitment to the national interests. At the same time my concerns about the process and how important it is to the credibility to the process. He assured me of the support for the process. This is different from what was happening in the last round of elections in 2004. That one was in support of President Karzai. Supporting the process is the right thing to do by the United States and the international community. Let the people of Afghanistan make their judgment.
I explained to him what was going on. I expressed my concerns about it and I assured him that my position will be a responsible position throughout. I could swallow my emotions and feelings and so forth … I know it will have a lasting damage on the country. … Here there was a golden opportunity. President Karzai turned it into a disastrous situation, including what we are talking about … He will be able to cover it with his charm … but what happens to the country? What happens to the country? We cannot recover from this. The United States, the international community, is paying for the failures of a national leader. … More troops, more resources, more advisers will not be a substitute for the failure of a national leader.
Q. Will there be a runoff?
A runoff is a good possibility. In a runoff he will lose. He has used all ammunition he has, making deals.
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Is The Taliban The Main Loser Of Afghanistan's Elections?
August 21, 2009 By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Taliban warned for days that voters' ink-stained fingers would be chopped off to punish them for participating in Afghanistan's August 20 elections. But millions of Afghans took the risk anyway.
One place where the risks were highest was the southern Helmand Province, an area that was under total Taliban control just months ago, and where some voters had to dodge live bullets to get to polling stations despite a months-long push by U.S. forces to establish security.
"People continued voting even when the elections staff had to move the ballot boxes from one corner of the polling station to another because of incoming Taliban bullets," says Abdul Ahad Helmandwal, a Pashtun tribal leader who heads the local tribal shura, or council, in the province's Nad Ali district.
"So during the day the ballot boxes were moved many times, but still people expressed their resolve and tenacity and came out to vote."
Helmandwal says that when the dust settled, some 7,000 votes had been cast in the vast desert district, despite the fact that the Taliban controls more than 85 percent of Nad Ali.
Failure To Stop Voting
Those numbers represent a huge blow to the insurgency, which is seen to lack popular backing but which manages to maintain influence through threats and intimidation.
And the defiance shown by voters in Nad Ali was not unique. While Taliban threats did succeed in keeping vote counts down in many areas, voter turnout in remote districts of some of Afghanistan's most restive provinces is being taken by some observers as an example of how the Taliban ultimately lost its effort to derail the country's elections through violence and intimidation.
Mohammad Yunos Fakur, an Afghan analyst from the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the elections dealt a heavy blow to the "physical and psychological" war perpetrated against the Afghan people by the Taliban.
He adds that in the eyes of Afghans and people across the region, the Taliban's preelection propaganda and accelerated violent campaign on election day both failed.
Fakur says that with the holding of these elections, "we can say that Afghanistan's young state and democracy have emerged successfully from this test and trial. The Taliban has been defeated in the psychological war."
...Or Did Afghans Voters Lose?
Wahid Muzda, an independent Kabul-based analyst who lived for years in the capital when it was under Taliban control, doesn't go that far. Pointing to the low turnout in the southern Pashtun heartland, he notes that the Taliban effort did find some success.
"It's true that the Taliban were unable to completely disrupt the elections, but they have largely been able to prevent elections that could have delivered a clear result," Muzda says. "When you look at the situation now, the front-runner and his rivals are compelled to strike a compromise."
Muzda claims that the Taliban initially supported the election process by allowing people to register to vote. In some cases, even Taliban members received voter-registration cards.
Muzda says the surge of U.S. troops this spring and summer and talk of taking back Taliban-controlled regions essentially turned the election process into a battleground between the Taliban and the U.S. led coalition.
And in that battle, Muzda says, there were no winners and one clear loser.
"This was a military contest and the election process turned into a battlefield," he says. "In the end neither the Americans nor the Taliban could win it, but the Afghan people were the main losers because they were deprived of freely choosing their leader with a clear majority."
Twenty-six civilians and security-force personnel were killed as a result of election-day attacks, according to Afghan security officials, who also claimed to have prevented dozens of attacks, including potential suicide bombings of polling stations.
Seeing Signs Of Progress
But despite the violence, the Afghan government and international observers declared the contest a success.
"There were attacks in 15 Afghan provinces. On the basis of reports from our Interior Ministry there were 73 [violent] incidents," President Hamid Karzai, the incumbent president who was favored to win a second term, said on August 20.
"But nowhere did our people turn their backs on the election, and they participated in increased numbers."
Many independent Afghan experts agree. Kabul University professor Nasrullah Stanekzai closely watched the elections and says that, considering the circumstances, the poll marked a step forward for the country.
"Naturally in a country where fighting continues, where democracy is a new phenomenon, there were serious problems in this process," Stanekzai says. "But my overall prognosis is positive."
Back in Helmand Province, tribal leader Helmandwal echoes popular Afghan sentiment for peace and development -- and hope that people's participation in the democratic exercise will be rewarded.
"Our nation wants to live in peace, so that now-closed school doors can be reopened for our children," he says.
Experts suggest that by participating in the elections, the majority of Afghans exhibited their readiness to take part in the establishment of the new democratic order.
But they warn that the onus will be now on the new Afghan administration and its international partners to deliver that peace and key services, to cement the Afghan people's continued participation in the fledgling political order.
RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Asmatullah Sarwan, Zarif Nazar and Saliha Khalliqie contributed to this report
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British PM meets Petraeus for Afghanistan talks
Sat Aug 22, 2:21 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held private talks on Afghanistan with top US military commander General David Petraeus on Friday, Brown's office said.
Brown held a private meeting at his home in Scotland with the US central command chief, Downing Street said. The pair discussed Thursday's Afghan presidential elections.
Brown is spending his summer holiday at his constituency home in North Queensferry, near Edinburgh.
"The prime minister welcomed General Petraeus back to the UK earlier today," a spokesman said.
"They had a good meeting and discussed a wide range of issues including the latest situation in Afghanistan and in particular the elections.
"General Petraeus took the opportunity to praise the role UK forces are playing in Afghanistan."
Petraeus said: "British troops have been in a very tough place and they have done exceedingly well.
"It is enormously important we achieve our objective in Afghanistan, and ensure it does not again become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and other extremists," he told The Sun newspaper.
Britain's Ministry of Defence announced earlier that two British soldiers were killed in an explosion while on a routine foot patrol in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
The deaths take the number of British fatalities since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to 206.
British losses have increased sharply since the start of July when elements of Britain's 9,150-strong force joined with Afghan counterparts to launch an operation against Taliban insurgents in Helmand.
The bodies of four soldiers were returned to Britain on Friday.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband praised the "enormous bravery" of Afghans who defied Taliban threats and voted.
"We were all braced for the worst after the very difficult six weeks in the run-up to the election," he told BBC radio.
"The worst did not happen but we don't yet know how good it was in terms of the ability of Afghans to come out and vote.
"What's vital is that there is a credible Afghan government to which Afghans can commit their loyalty."
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Taliban cut off fingers of 2 Afghan voters
By Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 22, 8:07 am ET
KABUL – Taliban militants cut off the ink-stained fingers of two Afghan voters in the militant south during the presidential election, the country's top election monitoring group said Saturday.
Two voters who had dipped their index fingers in purple ink — a fraud prevention measure — were attacked in Kandahar province shortly after voting Thursday, said Nader Nadery, the head of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
Rumors that militants would cut off voters' ink-stained fingers spread before the vote. A Taliban spokesman had said militants would not carry out such attacks, but the Taliban is a loose organization of individual commanders who could carry out the threat on their own.
Millions of Afghans voted in the country's second-ever direct presidential election, although Taliban threats and attacks appeared to hold down the turnout, especially in the south where President Hamid Karzai was expected to run strongly among his fellow Pashtuns. At least 26 Afghan civilians and security forces died in dozens of militant attacks.
If results show that vastly more people voted in the north than the south, "then we will have an issue," Nadery said.
Fewer votes in the south would harm the chances of Karzai to win a second five-year term, and increase the chances that his top challenger, former Foreign Minster Abdullah Abdullah, could pull off an upset.
If neither candidate gets 50 percent in the first round, they will go to a second round runoff. Initial preliminary results won't be announced until Tuesday, and final results won't be certified until mid-September.
Nadery said his group saw widespread problems of election officials who were not impartial and were pressuring people to vote for certain candidates. Election monitors also saw voters carrying boxes of voter cards — so many votes could be cast — to polling sites and saw many underage voters, he said.
On Saturday, one of the longshot presidential candidates displayed torn and mangled ballot papers that he said had been cast for him and tossed away by election workers who support Karzai.
Mirwais Yasini, a parliamentarian, stood behind a table piled with ballot papers that he said his supporters had found ditched outside Spin Boldak city in southern Kandahar province. The ballots bore the stamp of the Independent Election Commission, which is applied only after they are used for voting.
"Thousands of them were burned," he said.
Both Karzai and Abdullah claimed to be ahead in early vote counting. Karzai's campaign insisted Friday he would have enough votes to avoid a runoff. Abdullah countered that he was leading but suspected there would be a runoff.
Election officials called on the candidates to refrain from such claims, which could delay the formation of a new government.
Officials of Afghan and international monitoring teams agreed it was too early to say who won or to know whether fraud was extensive enough to affect the outcome. Fraud complaints are being filed with a commission that will rule on all allegations.
Though monitors with the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan were present in all 34 provinces, international monitoring groups were restricted by security concerns. The Washington, D.C.-based National Democratic Institute only had observers in 19 provinces, passing over many violent areas of the south and east.
European Union observers had difficulty getting to polling stations in southern Kandahar province because of rocket attacks, said Sandra Khadhouri, a spokeswoman for the delegation. The EU had observers in 17 provinces.
"That elections took place at all is a notable achievement," the EU said in a statement. The delegation said threats and violence meant that voting could not be considered free "in some parts of the territory" but that the process so far appeared "good and fair."
The National Democratic Institute also said it saw orderly voting, but said the vote also "involved serious flaws that must be addressed in order to build greater confidence in the integrity of future elections."
The group pointed to the lack of a voters' list and the fact that members of the Independent Election Commission are appointed by the incumbent, suggesting a likelihood of bias.
It said violence disrupted voting in the south and southeast, which appeared to repress turnout, especially among women.
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Associated Press writer Amir Shah contributed to this report.
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Intimidation and Fraud Observed in Afghan Election
By CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — Turnout by female voters in Afghanistan’s presidential election on Thursday was notably low, and women were disproportionately affected by the violence and intimidation, a number of election observer organizations said Saturday.
Observers also noted widespread reports of problems with the election, including evidence of a lack of impartiality among some local election staffers, proxy voting, underage voting and stuffing of ballot boxes, as well as intimidation by the Taliban and also by some powerful candidates, in particular local candidates running for provincial council seats. But election officials said all the reports needed to be investigated, and that it was too early to draw broad conclusions about the overall validity of the vote.
Hundreds of polling stations for women did not even open in some areas where Taliban influence is high, but women also suffered discrimination and intimidation in some places in central and northern Afghanistan. Female candidates received threats and were largely ignored in news coverage of the elections, the observers said.
“The disproportionate effects of poor security conditions, widespread cultural opposition to women in public life and a number of attacks clearly aimed at deterring women’s activities all created significant obstacles,” The European Union observer mission said in its preliminary statement on Saturday.
Women are already restricted by the conservative culture in many parts of rural Afghanistan, but the growing instability has further consolidated the opinions of many families and communities that it is not appropriate for women to be active outside the home, the statement said.
At least 650 women’s polling centers planned did not open on the day, according to FEFA, the largest Afghan observer organization. In the southern province of Oruzgan, of 36 centers for women planned, only 6 opened, said Nader Naderi, director of FEFA, whose name is an acronym for Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan. In certain polling centers in the south and southeast of the country almost no women voted, the National Democratic Institute said.
The insecurity also led to greater proxy voting, where male members of the family vote for the women, further robbing women of their rights, observers said.
Afghan women have been granted equal rights under the new Constitution, and can run for office — and there is a quota system that provides a minimum 25 percent representation of women in provincial councils. Two women entered the presidential race this year and 333 the provincial council elections, roughly 10 percent of the total field of council candidates. There was a slight increase nationwide of women’s participation as candidates, but in nearly half the provinces, women’s participation decreased, the European Union observation mission reported.
Female candidates complained that the insecurity made it impossible in some places to campaign. Assassinations of women working in government positions in provinces like Kandahar have undoubtedly deterred others from coming forward. Only three women entered the election for four reserved female seats on Kandahar’s provincial council, and none of the three candidates were living in Kandahar during most of the campaign.
But it was not just the violence that hampered women in the election. Women received almost no coverage in news reporting, and topics concerning women’s rights were virtually never featured in news coverage of the electoral campaign, the European Union mission said.
Lack of female election staff forced the election commission to use male staff members, which certainly deterred women from voting in areas, the National Democratic Institute said. A lack of women in the Election Complaints Commission, and the location and attitude of some of its staff members, also made it difficult for some people, particularly women, to make use of the complaints process.
The passing of a new family law for the Shiite minority just before the election has also been widely criticized by human rights organizations and observers, since it has been suggested that President Hamid Karzai signed it in return for political support from powerful conservatives.
In addition to the problems listed by FEFA, which had 7,000 observers out on election day, more than 4,000 of them women, the European Union observer mission also criticized the appointment of election officials, unbalanced news media coverage during the campaign, and irregularities in voter registration that increased the potential for fraud.
The National Democratic Institute also criticized the problem of multiple registration of voters and subsequent fraud, as well as the misuse of state resources in campaigning, and proxy voting.
A hundred complaints have been lodged with the election complaints commission, and all the observers called for the complaints commission and election commission to work seriously on the complaints to ensure the credibility of the election.
Mr. Naderi said that the general participation — estimated at 40 to 50 percent of voters by some Western officials — indicated that Afghans did support the development of democratic institutions in the country. But he warned, as did all the observers, that the credibility of the election would depend on the thorough investigation of the irregularities.
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Afghan election fair, but not free: EU
By Adam Entous And Hamid Shalizi – Sat Aug 22, 9:17 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's presidential election was generally fair but not entirely free because of Taliban intimidation and violence that kept turnout low in the south, European monitors said on Saturday.
With the outcome still unpublished and both sides claiming victory, Washington's envoy to the region Richard Holbrooke said President Hamid Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah had promised to respect the result and avoid any violence.
Diplomats say they expect Karzai to win the first round, but it is too close to say whether the president could earn an outright majority or would have to face Abdullah in a runoff.
Western and Afghan officials have breathed a sigh of relief that violence did not wreck Thursday's election altogether, after Taliban militants vowed to disrupt it and launched sporadic attacks across the country on the morning of the poll.
Attacks and threats did scare many people away, however, especially in the Taliban's southern heartland. Since voters in the south were expected to back Karzai, poor turnout there increases the chance of a run-off.
The election had been "fair generally", said General Philippe Morillon, chief observer of a European Union election mission, but "free was not the case in some parts of the country due to the terror".
The EU, like other western groups that observed the poll, had few staff able to access the violent southern provinces.
At least nine Afghan civilians and 14 members of the security forces were killed on election day, when rockets rained down on towns, mainly in the south.
The biggest domestic election observer group, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), has said its observers saw some instances of fraud and irregularities.
Describing one notable instance of intimidation, FEFA head Jandad Spinghar said fighters had cut off two people's fingers in the rural Arghandab district of Kandahar province because the fingers were stained with ink that proved the people had voted. District officials could not be reached to confirm the report.
FRAUD ALLEGATIONS
Abdullah has also complained of fraud. Election authorities say they investigate all formal complaints and have elaborate measures in place to determine if ballots are genuine and exclude fake ones, one of the reasons the result is taking so long.
The election is a major test for Karzai after eight years in office, as well as for U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy of pouring in thousands of extra troops to defeat the Taliban and its Islamist allies and stabilize Afghanistan.
Karzai is a Pashtun from the south, while Abdullah -- half Pashtun and half Tajik -- draws much of his support from the Tajik minority in the north.
The prospect of an election dispute has led to fears of unrest, especially if it takes on an ethnic or regional character in a country where competing groups have often taken up arms.
So far, Western officials have played down the prospect of violence as a result of a contested election. Holbrooke met Karzai and Abdullah in Kabul on Friday. Asked if he feared the candidates would incite their followers if the result was disputed, Holbrooke said: "they said they wouldn't."
"They're all putting their own views but they all said they would respect the process."
Ethnic tension is a factor in Afghanistan, he said: "Is it a factor that gives us heartburn? No, but it is a factor."
Official preliminary results are not due for two weeks, although the Independent Election Commission said it could be able to put out its first partial figures on Tuesday Aug 25.
In Washington, Obama praised the vote as a move in the right direction. But he warned that Taliban violence may continue as official results are finalized. (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by David Fox)
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Observers say Afghanistan elections had serious flaws
Calcutta News.Net Saturday 22nd August, 2009
International monitors are praising Afghanistan for this week's elections, but say it is too soon to determine whether the process was free and fair.
Observers with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) said Saturday the presidential and provincial elections were held "in accordance with democratic principles" even though there were serious flaws.
The European Union Election Observation Mission to Afghanistan called the election process "largely positive" while voicing concern about the level of violence.
At least one group says the Taliban fulfilled their threat to target voters.
Nader Nadery with the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan tells VOA his observers saw the Taliban cut off the so-called "ink" fingers of two voters in Kandahar province on Thursday, the day of the election.
Afghan voters dipped their fingers in purple ink in order to prevent fraud.
National Democratic Institute monitor Gary Hart, a former U.S. senator, said Saturday he did not know of any other country where voter turnout would have been as high as it was in Afghanistan, given the threat of violence.
Officials in Afghanistan and around the world had been worried that the threat of violence and retaliation by the Taliban would keep many Afghans from voting.
NDI monitors said turnout was "fairly light" with fewer women going to the polls than expected.
Earlier, the U.S.-funded International Republican Institute called the Afghan election "credible," despite reports of serious irregularities, including ballot-stuffing and faulty voting equipment.
Both top candidates -- incumbent President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah -- say they have enough votes to win without a runoff. But preliminary results are not expected until early next week.
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has urged presidential candidates to wait for official results before declaring victory in Thursday's vote.
U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Afghans on Friday for voting despite threats from extremists. Mr. Obama said the election is an "important step forward."
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Why a Contested Afghan Election Result Could Help the U.S.
Time By TONY KARON 20 Aug 2009
It may be days before the results are known, but it's already clear that whomever emerges victorious from Afghanistan's election will face a legitimacy problem. Both incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his lead rival, Abdullah Abdullah, claimed Friday to have won a majority in the first round, and Abdullah filed complaints accusing the Karzai camp of rigging the vote. None of this is surprising, of course; allegations of vote-rigging had emerged even before voting day. Abdullah said Thursday that he would abide by the result despite his complaints - although a tight election outcome might change his calculations.
The danger of an Iran-type contested election outcome is not the only legitimacy problem facing the next government. Early indications are that less than 50% of registered voters showed up at the polls amid widespread fear of violence by the resurgent Taliban, which had warned it would attack voting booths. Sporadic violence occurred on election day, but the specter of retribution from an insurgent force that is able to operate in as much as half of the country clearly had a dampening effect on turnout. Should the result that emerges in the coming days give no candidate a clear majority and force the top two contenders, expected to be Karzai and Abdullah, into a runoff race, political tensions are likely to escalate sharply.
However, an inconclusive poll that fails to clearly legitimize the next government may not be a setback for the Obama Administration's Afghanistan strategy. On the contrary, it could offer an important opportunity to remake a system of government so dysfunctional that it has enabled a massive Taliban resurgence.
When a broken bone heals badly, it often leaves doctors no option but to re-break and reset the limb in order to allow the bone to properly do its job. Long before Thursday's election, U.S. officials had identified the Afghan political system - not simply the Karzai government, but the very manner in which the Afghan system created after the U.S. invasion is organized, and allocates power and resources - as an obstacle to the goal of defeating the Taliban. The key to the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is to create security and development at the local level, establishing a system of governance that Afghans believe is worth fighting for. Plainly, nothing like that has happened on Karzai's watch, and few had much confidence that a change of personality in the presidential palace would be enough to change the dynamic.
U.S. advisers had made clear that regardless of who won the election, Washington planned to use the leverage derived from the dependency of any Afghan on Western military and financial support to reorganize the way the country is governed - strengthening the capability of ministries to deliver services to the citizenry; eliminating corruption and cronyism; and reallocating power and resources away from the central government and towards provincial and local level administrators capable of promoting development and winning the hearts and minds of the population. Assuming that Karzai would likely emerge as the winner, there had been talk of persuading him to accept Ashraf Gani, one of his key challengers, in a kind of chief executive or prime minister-type role to run the government. Gani is a favorite with the West for the competence he displayed during his tenure as Afghanistan's finance minister. It had also been suggested that the U.S. would encourage Karzai to draw his most popular rival candidates into a national unity government.
The last thing the U.S. counterinsurgency effort needs is for Karzai to be returned on a winner-takes-all basis, owing countless political favors to local level warlords whose interests run counter to good governance - and using a popular mandate as a basis to resist U.S. efforts to weed out corruption and cronyism. An election outcome that puts a question-mark over the legitimacy of the next president could, paradoxically, actually suit the U.S. purpose. That's because Afghanistan's current system of government, in U.S. thinking, requires the proverbial re-break and reset in order to create a regime sufficiently responsive and accountable to its own citizenry to give the counterinsurgency campaign a better chance of defeating the Taliban.
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CIA Conducted Mock Executions of Detainees
Interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, officials say.
FOXNews.com Saturday, August 22, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The CIA's internal investigator found that agency interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, FOX News has confirmed.
The disclosures are contained in a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general, which has been kept secret and is to be released next week, a source confirmed to FOX News.
The report's findings were first reported by Newsweek on its Web site Friday night.
In one case, interrogators brought a gun and power drill into a session with suspected Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the report says. The homicide bombing of the warship USS Cole killed 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen in 2000.
In another episode, a gunshot was fired in a room next to a detainee to make the prisoner believe another suspect had been killed, according to the report, which a federal judge has ordered to be made public Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Nashiri was one of three CIA prisoners subjected to waterboarding, a brutal interrogation technique that simulates drowning that was among 10 techniques approved by the Bush administration's Justice Department in 2002. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have denounced waterboarding as torture.
"The CIA in no way endorsed behavior-- no matter how infrequent-- that went beyond formal guidance," said agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano. He declined to comment on the contents of the IG report.
Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.
Holder is considering whether to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's interrogation practices, a controversial move that would run counter to President Barack Obama's wishes to leave the issue in the past.
Gimigliano said the career prosecutors at the Justice Department have reviewed the report to determine if any laws were broken and whether the interrogators should be prosecuted.
"Professionals in the Department of Justice decided if and when to pursue prosecution," he said.
"That's how the system was supposed to work, and that's how it did work."
Just one CIA contract interrogator, David Passaro, has been prosecuted. He was found guilty in 2007 in the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan.
The Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 9 that a CIA operative brought a gun into an interrogation booth to force a detainee to talk. One of the congressional officials told the AP that referred to the interrogation of the USS Cole suspect.
The IG review was completed in May 2004. The ACLU has sought its release since then. It was expected to be released earlier this year but was delayed by government request.
The IG review cast doubt on the effectiveness of the harsh interrogation methods employed by CIA interrogators, according to quotes from the report that were contained in Bush-era Justice Department memos declassified this spring. It says no attacks were averted by information obtained using harsh interrogation methods.
The CIA detained and interrogated 94 terrorist suspects; 28 were subjected to harsh methods. Of those three were waterboarded, according to government documents made public earlier this year.
But former CIA Director Michael Hayden said this week at a panel discussion in Washington that the review also credits the harsh interrogation with yielding information on Al Qaeda's basic infrastrucutre, which in turn allowed the CIA to fight the organization behind the 9/11 hijackings.
John L. Helgerson, the now-retired CIA inspector who spearheaded the investigation, told the AP in June that the report is a comprehensive review of everything the CIA did in the secret detention and interrogation program begun in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The investigation was undertaken in response to concerns expressed by agency employees about the program, he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Germany's Steinmeier proposes Afghan pull-out talks
Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:51am EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is bidding to oust Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany in an election next month, said he wanted a timetable for a military pull-out from Afghanistan.
Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share power with Merkel's conservatives, said once it became clear who would lead Afghanistan after last Thursday's election there, talks should begin over how long foreign troops should stay.
"We need to agree with the new Afghan president...how long international troops should remain in Afghanistan," he said at the sidelines of an election event in Dortmund on Saturday.
Merkel this week tried to quash a public debate about pulling troops out of Afghanistan that has grown louder as violence surged.
Although the issue has so far not played a big part in the run-up to Germany's September 27 federal election, polls show most voters want the 4,200 German troops in Afghanistan as part of a six-year-old NATO mission to return home.
The ruling coalition agreed last October to extend a parliamentary mandate for participation in the NATO mission by 14 months instead of the usual 12 in the hope of preventing debate over the deployment from coloring the election race.
Recent violence has prompted prominent political voices in Germany, including a former defense minister from Merkel's party, to press the government for a pull-out plan.
Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, a party ally of Merkel's, said on Thursday that he expected German troops to stay in Afghanistan for another five to 10 years and dismissed calls for troop cuts once the Afghan election was over.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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Slain soldier oldest to die in Afghanistan
Aug. 22, 2009 at 8:07 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A 59-year-old soldier from Washington state has become the oldest U.S. service member to die in Afghanistan, military officials say.
First Sgt. Jose San Nicolas Crisostomo of Spanaway died Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Kabul, CNN reported.
Crisostomo's body was flown to the United States Thursday, the U.S. broadcaster said, adding he was a Vietnam War veteran and two-time Bronze Star winner who had volunteered to return to the Army and serve in Afghanistan. CNN said Crisostomo's honors also included the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat and the Kuwait Liberation Medal for serving in the Gulf War.
Crisostomo decided to re-enlist after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Patricia, his wife of 39 years, told KING-TV, Seattle.
"He insisted going back and serving his country," she said. "That was his passion, his life."
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Pakistani Taliban say new leader chosen
By Anwarullah Khan, Associated Press Writer
KHAR, Pakistan – Hakimullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander behind several serious attacks including a deadly attempt to take the Sri Lankan cricket team hostage, has been appointed the new head of the militant group, the aide to another commander said Saturday.
Bakht Zada, a close aide to commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, told The Associated Press a 42-member Taliban council, or shura, appointed a new head because Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was ill.
Washington and Islamabad have said Mehsud was almost certainly killed by an Aug. 5 CIA missile strike, but top Taliban commanders deny that although they have provided no proof he is still alive.
A captured Taliban spokesman reportedly acknowledged to authorities earlier this week that Baitullah was dead.
Pakistan's Taliban is a loose alliance of disparate groups and tribal factions, and government and intelligence officials have said they are embroiled in a bitter leadership struggle which could lead them to deny their leader is dead until a firm replacement is found.
"I do confirm that a shura held Friday ... has elected Hakimullah Mehsud the new chief of the Taliban," Zada said, adding that it was a unanimous decision. "Now all these talks of differences should end. There have not been any differences ever."
Zada said the shura had spoken by phone to Faqir Mohammad and Maulana Fazlullah, the notorious commander of the Taliban in Pakistan's northern Swat Valley, to offer them the slot, but that they both refused citing personal reasons. He said the two, who are believed to be in their 50s, said they were not young enough to assume the leadership of the militants. Mohammad is believed to be in his 50s, and Fazlullah between 35 and 40, while Hakimullah is 28 years old.
Another close Mohammad aide, Sher Zamin, also confirmed that Hakimullah had been elected as the new Taliban chief.
"It is a consensus among all Taliban that Hakimullah Mehsud is the best choice," he told The Associated Press.
On Wednesday, Mohammad told The Associated Press he himself had assumed the role of acting head of the Taliban until the shura could appoint a new leader, because Baitullah was too ill to lead.
Zada said Baitullah wanted to appoint someone else to lead the Taliban because of his ill health. He said the shura was held in Orakzai Agency in northwestern Pakistan's lawless tribal area, along the border with Afghanistan.
Members of the Mehsud tribe use the same last name.
Hakimullah Mehsud, the military chief of Baitullah's Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistani Taliban Movement, commanded three tribal regions and has a reputation as Baitullah's most ruthless deputy. He had been considered one of the top contenders to take over.
Authorities have said he has been behind threats to foreign embassies in Islamabad, and there is a 10 million rupee ($120,000) bounty on his head. His men have been blamed for attacking U.S. and NATO supply convoys. He claimed responsibility for the June 9 bombing of the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier this year.
He met journalists for the first time in November 2008, when he offered to take them on a ride in a U.S. Humvee taken from a supply truck heading to Afghanistan. He threatened suicide bombings in Pakistani cities in retaliation for a recent army offensive in the Swat Valley.
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The Taliban diversify into tobacco
Ayesha Nasir The National (UAE) August 21, 2009
LAHORE // The smuggling of tobacco is helping to fuel the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan, according to analysts and officials. While the poppy trade still contributes nearly half of the funds funnelled to the Taliban – both in Afghanistan and Pakistan – officials now believe the militants are increasingly turning to other sources, including tobacco sales and smuggling, kidnappings, logging and mining.
“We believe tobacco has been second only to drugs as a source of finance to the Pakistani Taliban,” David Kaplan, the editorial director of the US-based Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC, said in a report last month.
With the US and Pakistan both engaged in fighting the Taliban, there is a growing consensus among officials that the only way to defeat the militants is to hit them where it hurts the most – their pockets.
But that is becoming increasingly difficult as the Taliban appear adept at switching sources of financing.
Reports by US intelligence and the Afghan government estimate the total funding reaching the Taliban on both sides of the border is about US$300 million (Dh1.1 billion) a year, out of which about half is through drug trafficking.
But with efforts by the US to wipe out poppy farming in Afghanistan showing some success, and sanctions by the Pakistani government on charitable donations, the Taliban have been forced to look elsewhere for financial support.
According to the World Health Organization, cigarette and tobacco smuggling provides about $40bn a year to extremist groups, including the Taliban. Analysts inside Pakistan estimate the group receives about 20 per cent of its funding from counterfeit cigarette production and smuggling.
According to the CPI, factories churning out millions of counterfeit cigarettes every month have been set up across the lawless parts of northern and western Pakistan where the Taliban operate and the government has little sway. The Taliban take taxes and provide protection for the shipment of cigarettes across the country for sale in Central Asia, according to the CPI.
“It’s my understanding that tobacco smuggling is a major source of financing for the Taliban and the reason it has become so is because the government has been ignoring this issue for some years,” said Hassan Askari, a political analyst. “Now they have finally turned their attention to this issue so hopefully it should improve.”
But while the government has been slow to address tobacco smuggling, it has already started to clamp down on the other criminal activities that are also providing financial assistance to the Taliban. Thousands of kilometres from the Taliban stronghold in North-West Frontier Province is Karachi – the country’s bustling financial centre – where a number of criminals suspected of financially supporting the Taliban have recently been arrested.
Karachi police say they have made several arrests over the past few months for bank theft, robbery and kidnapping for ransom, all of which they say can be linked to the Taliban.
“There are four or five major sources of income for the Taliban,” said Brig Mahmood Shah, a political analyst. “One of the principal ones is kidnapping for ransom whereby these Taliban or one of the criminals who support them abduct businessmen and extort money from their families.”
Brig Shah said the Taliban were still holding at least 20 people.
“There is a system to how they work,” said a Peshawar-based journalist, Jehangir Shahzad. “Their gangs identify a well-off businessman and then abduct him. The person is taken to the tribal agencies and handed over to the Taliban for a fee. The Taliban then take the abductee to the Pakistan-Afghan border and hold him there while they make contact with the family. They dictate a certain amount and receive the payment in the tribal agency before releasing the person.”
Shahzad said a number of prominent businessmen had been abducted. “They kidnapped a man with multiple real estate holdings, held him for six months and received 2.5 million Pakistani rupees (Dh190,000) from his family.”
The surrounding tribal agencies also cough up other sources of funding in the form of illegal tax collection and mines.
In a television interview, Taliban commander Mangal Bagh admitted they charged a “protection tax” in the area.
“They way it works is that when smuggled goods are brought in from Afghanistan and the lorries move through tribal agencies, there is a high possibility of the goods being attacked. We take money from the drivers and ensure that the lorry will receive safe passage.”
Bagh said they usually charged between 5,000 to 10,000 rupees but Brig Shah said it was much higher. “The Taliban take taxes on everything ranging from flour and other food items to arms and ammunition passing through the tribal agencies,” he said. “And the amounts vary depending on the value of the cargo.”
Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, a former interior minister of the NWFP, said the Taliban were collecting money from wherever they could. In April last year, the Taliban took over a marble mine in a corner of the Mohmand tribal agency, and charged a tax on every lorry that ferried marble from the quarry.
“Mines are a somewhat recent source of income for them,” said Mr Sherpao. “When they had control of Swat, they took over emerald mines in the area and made approximately $6-$7 million. They still have control over the marble mines in Mohmand Agency where they receive taxes on every marble load heading out.”
Environmental protection agencies have also blamed the Taliban for illegal logging.
“When they had control of Malakand, they would make money off timber,” Mr Sherpao said. “Now they can only log timber in Dir and Bajaur agencies. They also impose a tax on timber coming from Afghanistan and through Waziristan.”
The flexibility of the Taliban in developing new sources of income shows the government needed to be one step ahead of them, Mr Sherpao said. “We need to move faster than them, and once we have dried up their funding, we can claim to have truly defeated them.”
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Democracy and occupation don't mix
The Independent By Patrick Cockburn 08/21/2009
Afghans and Iraqis see their governments as rackets run by political gangsters
In Iraq and Afghanistan, American and British forces became participants in civil wars which their own presence has exacerbated and prolonged. The US and UK governments persistently ignore the extent to which foreign military occupation has destabilised both countries.
The reason for this should be obvious: foreign occupations have seldom been popular throughout history. The occupier consults his own political, military and economic interests before that of the allied government which he is supposedly supporting. This has de-legitimised the Baghdad and Kabul governments and enabled their opponents to pose as patriotic opposition. In addition, foreign military armies, whatever their declared intentions, enforce their authority by violence, invariably producing friction with the local population.
The very fact that the election in Afghanistan took place at all this week is being lauded as a triumph for democracy conducted under the wise supervision of soldiers from the US, Britain and Nato. But Afghans are more interested in who really holds power and what they do with it.
President Hamid Karzai is not particularly popular, but as the incumbent he is in a strong position, through networks of patronage, to get the support of local and regional king-makers such as warlords, chiefs of police, shuras (local councils), religious, tribal and ethnic leaders. What foreign reporting of elections in both Afghanistan and Iraq miss out is the extent to which ordinary Afghans and Iraqis regard their governments as rackets run by political gangsters for their own ends.
A common reason, which I've heard expressed in both Baghdad and Kabul, for supporting the incumbent leadership is that it will have already stolen so much that its members have no need to steal more, while a new government will be equally rapacious but far hungrier. The only way of judging the extent of such extreme cynicism in Afghanistan is the extent of the turnout, currently estimated to be 40 to 50 per cent.
Will the Afghan election bring the end of the war closer or noticeably strengthen the government in Kabul? Mr Karzai, if he wins, will be able to say that he was chosen as leader in a real election. But otherwise the poll will only reconfirm the power of the men, often labelled warlords, who emerged the surprise winners from a civil war between the Taliban, almost entirely drawn from the Pashtun community (42 per cent of Afghans), and the largely non-Pashtun Northern Alliance.
Just before 9/11, the Northern Alliance forces had been squeezed into a corner of north-east Afghanistan and seemed to be close to final defeat. But within a few months of the US deciding to drive out the Taliban as hosts of al-Qa'ida, the Northern Alliance was able to take over the whole of Afghanistan thanks to US air- power and money. Most Afghans were glad to see the apparent end of the Taliban, whose victories were won with the support of Pakistani military intelligence and Saudi cash.
But opposing the Taliban was never quite the same as supporting the Northern Alliance, whose leaders turned out to be ravenous for the perks of office and power. I spent several months in the Northern Alliance stronghold in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul in 2001, and, going back to Afghanistan earlier this year, I was astonished to find so many of the warlords I knew then are still monopolising jobs, contracts and money-making positions in Kabul.
It is absurd for foreign governments to lament Mr Karzai's promotion as his running mates of the Tajik warlord Muhammad Fahim and his Hazara equivalent Karim Khalili, both of whom are accused of human rights abuses. Mr Karzai is simply recognising the strength of established, if unsavoury, power brokers in the non-Pashto communities. This may be a very messy and highly corrupt political power structure, but it is one which the US and Britain are fighting to keep in place.
They will find it a long war. Foreign military presence was originally acceptable to Afghans in a way that it never was in Iraq. This was partly because Iraq was occupied outside Kurdistan, but most of Afghanistan was not. But while only 25 per cent of all Afghans say they support attacks on US or Nato/Isaf forces, this figure jumps to 44 per cent where people report shelling or air strikes in their areas, according to an ABC News/BBC/ARD poll. Contrary to Washington's plans, just 18 per cent of Afghans say they want foreign forces in Afghanistan increased and 44 per cent want them decreased. The Taliban, once vilified as Pakistani puppets, are having some success in re-branding themselves as Afghan nationalists.
One of the many depressing aspects of the American and British campaign in Afghanistan is that so few of the lessons of Iraq have been learned. One is that foreign military occupation is unpopular and tends to get more so. Iraq and Afghanistan are both countries with deep ethnic and sectarian divisions and foreign occupiers end up, willy-nilly, on one side or the other in civil strife.
So little has been learned in Iraq because propaganda is being taken as a guide to what happened there and what should be done in Afghanistan. This week there was some mindless debate in the wake of bombs in Baghdad, which killed over 100 people, about whether or not the American military withdrawalfrom the cities might have come too early. In reality, there have been few US patrols in Baghdad since the end of last year, and, even when the Americans were in military control of the city, they could not stop the explosion of vehicles packed with explosives driven by suicide bombers.
The main American success in Iraq was that, having backed the Shia and the Kurds against the Sunni, the US military did a side-deal with the Sunni insurgents to turn on al-Qa'ida. The Sunni needed an agreement with the Americans because they were getting the worse of a civil war with the Shia. The recent bombings were probably Sunni parties, using al-Qa'ida as their messenger, brutally demonstrating to the Iraqi government that they will not be marginalised.
The idea popular in some Washington think tanks that a few obvious tactical innovations won the war in Iraq, and can do so again in Afghanistan, is wholly misleading and will lure the US and Britain further into the morass.
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'Afghan Star': documenting history with a musical beat
"Afghan Star" reveals the emerging spirit of a troubled country through the lens of an "American Idol" television show.
By Michael Upchurch Seattle Times arts writer
Small windows can sometimes open onto the widest vistas.
That's the case with "Afghan Star," an informative documentary revealing how decades of war and years of Taliban repression have fallen to the wayside, however briefly, as Kabul's answer to "American Idol" seduces a violence-weary Afghanistan.
British filmmaker Havana Marking and her crew keep their focus on the song contest, which is as cheesy and glitzy as any of its Western counterparts. But they're also alert to every detail of the country's cities, streets, mosques, homes and people.
The show's political significance is quickly established. For many young Afghans, we learn, "Afghan Star" is their first encounter with democracy as they vote for favorite singers on their cellphones. These are kids who experienced the Taliban's 1996-2004 ban on music, dancing and TV, and they've clearly had enough of it.
The film zeroes in on four contestants: two men and two women, each from a different part of the country and different ethnic background. While all are concerned about their safety, the women are under particular threat — especially Setara, after she dares to dance on TV.
Her mildly exuberant moves trigger vigilante reactions among some Afghan males, even in Herat, her hometown. "She brought shame to the Herati people," one young man says. "She deserves to be killed."
The show's producer, Daoud Sediqi, a dapper can-do personality determined to "move people from the gun to the music," isn't about to let anyone put a lid on "Afghan Star." And where Setara's performance might seem as foolish as it is brave, Daoud's nervy resolve seems a better bet for longterm social change.
That resolve, he reveals, comes from his experience under Taliban rule, when he operated a secret workshop repairing illegal TVs and VCRs. As he takes the filmmakers on a tour past the bomb sites of Kabul, including a favorite movie house, his love of his hometown is palpable: "I could not believe that this city and its beauty would be ruined."
TV and music may have been legalized in Afghanistan, but they're still in danger. Nevertheless, the show's fans — one third of the country's population — keep watching and championing their favorites.
This is history with a beat to it.
Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com
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