 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Algorithms to stop fraud in medieval Afghanistan
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – In a largely illiterate country where donkeys delivered ballots to remote areas, Afghan officials say they are confident that algorithms, double-blind computer entries and other modern methods will catch 90 percent of the fraud from last week's presidential election.
Afghan finance minister says Karzai wins election
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's finance minister claimed victory on Monday for President Hamid Karzai in last week's presidential election but, with no official figures released, the claim was rejected by his main rival's campaign.
Tensions Rise in Post-Election Afghanistan
By Jason Motlagh time.com Kabul Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
In the days since millions of Afghans braved Taliban threats at the polls, President Hamid Karzai and his leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, have waged their own offensive, trading accusations of fraud and impending victory.
Afghan voters coerced at gunpoint -- Ghani
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Long shot Afghan presidential contender Ashraf Ghani joined his counterparts claiming widespread fraud and intimidation in the Thursday vote.
Afghanistan poses tough choices for Obama
By Richard Lardner, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 6:21 am ET
WASHINGTON – With the nation's top military officer calling the situation in Afghanistan dire, President Barack Obama soon may face two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops to beat back a resilient enemy
U.S. Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient
By HELENE COOPER The New York Times August 24, 2009
BAGRAM, Afghanistan — American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job
3 NATO troops killed in southern Afghanistan
By Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 12:32 pm ET
KABUL – Three NATO troops — two from Estonia and one from the United States — were killed in attacks in southern Afghanistan as fraud charges continued to pour in Monday from last week's turbulent presidential vote.
Afghan journalist shot dead in NW Pakistan: officials
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Gunmen on Monday shot dead an Afghan journalist in northwest Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, branded one of the most dangerous spots in the world for media, officials and colleagues said.
AFGHANISTAN: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ESSENTIAL FOR LEGITIMIZING KABUL GOVERNMENT
Richard Weitz 8/21/09 EURASIA INSIGHT
Initial tallies suggest that incumbent Hamid Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah are in a tight race in Afghanistan’s presidential election.
RAF Merlins train for Afghanistan
Monday, 24 August 2009 17:32 UK BBC News
British Merlin helicopter crews have started four months of intense training in the United States ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan.
No timetable for German pullout from Afghanistan, says Merkel
Deutsche Welle
Chancellor Angela Merkel says German troops will stay in Afghanistan until their goals are achieved, but her foreign minister - and challenger in the upcoming elections - has suggested he'll be seeking an exit strategy.
Casey meets with leaders in Afghanistan
Monday, August 24, 2009 By Daniel Malloy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. will wrap up a three-day trip to the Middle East tomorrow, leading a congressional delegation that is meeting with officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After visit, Brown criticizes Afghan government
Monday, August 24, 2009 3:27 PM By Jack Torry THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
WASHINGTON -- After his first visit to Afghanistan, Sen. Sherrod Brown warned today that "American patience will not last forever'' and urged the Afghan government to root out corruption, build up its military and curb the country's production of poppies.
Mullen: Afghanistan 'vulnerable' to Taliban
Tom LoBianco The Washington Times Monday, August 24, 2009
A pending assessment from the top military official in Afghanistan is likely to call for more troop deployments to address the deteriorating security conditions in Afghanistan, but the Republican Party's most-visible
Young Guantanamo prisoner back in Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A Guantanamo prisoner once charged with wounding two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter was back home in Afghanistan Monday, months after a war crimes case against him unraveled when
Pakistan Taliban commander vows Afghan fight
By Ishtiaq Mahsud, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 12:50 am ET
MAKEEN, Pakistan – Pakistani Taliban fighters are committed to helping the fight in Afghanistan and consider Barack Obama their "No. 1 enemy," a top commander said amid uncertainty about whether a new leader has been appointed to head the movement.
Back to Top
Algorithms to stop fraud in medieval Afghanistan
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – In a largely illiterate country where donkeys delivered ballots to remote areas, Afghan officials say they are confident that algorithms, double-blind computer entries and other modern methods will catch 90 percent of the fraud from last week's presidential election.
Accusations of ballot box stuffing and voter intimidation have streamed in to the independent Electoral Complaints Commission since Thursday's vote — most of them filed by President Hamid Karzai's main rival, ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
Forty-five of the complaints are serious enough that they could affect the election outcome, said Grant Kippen, the head of the U.N.-backed body.
Nevertheless, Ajmal Amin Rabmal, one of three experts overseeing the commission's computer monitoring, said he's confident his team can spot fraud cases, using techniques that hardly fit the image of a country where ballots were marked with the candidates' faces and symbols to help the 75 percent of Afghans who can't read and write.
"Ninety percent (of fraud) we are going to catch," Rabmal said Monday.
The mounting questions over the election's credibility are threatening to undermine President Barack Obama's Afghan strategy, at a time when casualties are rising and the top U.S. military officer acknowledges the situation is deteriorating.
U.S., U.N. and European Union officials have urged candidates to show patience as the commission investigates fraud claims, fearing that the increasingly strident rhetoric could trigger street protests and poison the political atmosphere at a time when the country needs unity.
"There's a process to deal with these fraud allegations and we need to wait patiently while that process moves forward," said Timothy Michael Carney, a retired U.S. ambassador in charge of the U.S. election team.
The commission uses computer programs that spot questionable figures.
For example, if Karzai were to receive 10 percent of the vote in three of four polling stations in the same area but 95 percent in a fourth station, the computers will flag the return as suspicious, Rabmal said.
Tamperproof bags that carry ballots back to Kabul are coded with serial numbers and will prevent people without proper training from slipping fake ballots into the system, Rabmal said. Ballot boxes with too many votes will also be thrown out, he said.
Ballot tabulation will be done using a double blind entry system. If one computer programmer tries to pad a candidate's return, a second programmer would have to enter the same number — or an alarm is triggered. Because the process is blind, programmers cannot collaborate, Rabmal said.
Of the first 29 boxes of ballots to be processed, two were flagged for potential violations, Rabmal said.
Zekria Barakzai, the deputy chief electoral officer, said the counting for this year's vote is far more advanced than in 2004 — the last presidential election.
The Electoral Complaints Commission — a separate body from the Independent Election Commission — has opened an investigation into allegations of ballot box stuffing in the Spin Boldak region of Kandahar, potential fraud cited by Abdullah at a news conference Sunday.
Though millions of Afghans went to the polls, Taliban threats dampened turnout in the south. Those who voted did so amid rocket attacks in the south, a gunbattle in the capital, and fighting that trapped people inside stations in the east.
Election officials said they will release preliminary returns from the vote on Tuesday, although the final result will not be known for weeks.
Both the Karzai and Abdullah campaigns have said preliminary reports suggest their candidate is ahead, raising concern that the release of partial figures could stoke tension and generate even more accusations of manipulation from the disappointed camp.
All that could lead to a protracted period of claims and counterclaims that could delay formation of a new administration and poison the political atmosphere at a time when the United States and its NATO partners are trying to bring together ethnic, political and social groups opposed to the Taliban in order to roll back the insurgency.
___
Associated Press reporter Heidi Vogt in Kabul contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan finance minister says Karzai wins election
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's finance minister claimed victory on Monday for President Hamid Karzai in last week's presidential election but, with no official figures released, the claim was rejected by his main rival's campaign.
Electoral authorities have so far published no results and have urged the candidates not to make claims until the figures are vetted and released. Partial figures are due to be released by election officials on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters over dinner in Kabul, Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal said the president's vote included support across the country, including in the north. Zakhilwal said this made the result impervious to a challenge of fraud.
Zakhilwal did not make clear where the figures came from but said they had been made available to him as a member of the government. They were based on a tally of about 4.5 million votes counted so far, out of a total of about 5 million votes cast, he said.
Karzai had received about 68 percent, or more than 3 million, while his main opponent, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, had received more than 1 million.
"We can say: 'You can leave out Kandahar, you can leave out Uruzgan, you can leave out Zabul'," he said, referring to provinces in the south where voter turnout was low after threats of Taliban violence and where widespread fraud has been alleged.
"Still the president has got more than 50.1 percent," Zakhilwal said.
Former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost had received 3-4 percent and other candidates had only marginal totals, he said.
Asked about Zakhilwal's figures, Abdullah's spokesman Fazl Sangcharaki said: "It is not true. We should wait until the election commission's results."
(Reporting by Peter Graff and Jonathon Burch)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Tensions Rise in Post-Election Afghanistan
By Jason Motlagh time.com Kabul Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
In the days since millions of Afghans braved Taliban threats at the polls, President Hamid Karzai and his leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, have waged their own offensive, trading accusations of fraud and impending victory. It may look like politics as usual. But against a volatile backdrop of resurgent militancy and ethnic faultlines, the consequences for Afghanistan's fragile democracy are harder to predict.
Initial results are due to be made public Tuesday, though a final total won't be known until two weeks later. Mr. Karzai is expected to come out ahead, but it appears unlikely he'll carry the 50% of the vote plus one needed to avoid a run-off in October. Should a run-off happen, analysts agree the country will retreat to ethnic and regional divisions, with the majority of Pashtuns across the south backing Karzai; and Tajiks, the second-largest ethnic group, rallying in the north behind Abdullah, the son of a Pashtun father and Tajik mother. Abdullah is also more closely identified with the Northern Alliance that ousted the Taliban, a largely Pashtun movement, from power in late 2001).
Abdullah struck early the day after elections with charges that Karzai supporters were guilty of ballot stuffing, intimidation and widespread irregularities. He expanded his case on Aug. 23 with claims that pro-Karzai ballots were still coming in from parts of violent southern provinces where turnout was said to be low to non-existent. A spokesman for Karzai levied similar charges of fraud-related violations while asserting that the former foreign minister was acting out of desperation. However, the head of the electoral complaints commission has since said his group has received 35 allegations of "high priority" misconduct that are "material to election results" and could potentially sway the outcome.
As expectations of both candidates' victories swell, some fear heavy disappointment in Abdullah's strongholds may yield protests. While no one yet foresees the kind of unrest that followed the disputed Iranian elections in June, each candidate's lack of an "organized mechanism" to cope with masses of angered, loosely knit partisans could allow the situation to boil over with time, says Haroun Mir, director of the Afghan Center for Research and Policy Studies. "If one group feels left out, it will create problems for everybody." Indeed, Abdullah's campaign manager told an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper last month as predicting street violence if Abdullah didn't win. (Abdullah, in damage-control mode, said his manager was misquoted.)
Then there is the militant menace, which already succeeded in diminishing voter turnout in much of the south. In at least two instances, promises to cut off fingers of those who voter were made good on. The extra time and mounting pressure of a run-off would create a climate that could be readily exploited, according to Mir, by the Taliban or "neighbors who like to meddle Afghan affairs" — a less than subtle reference to Pakistan. "If someone wants to make trouble, it's a good time."
In a bid to ease tensions, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, met with the leading candidates on Aug. 21, the day after elections, in Kabul, urging against hasty claims that might spell trouble later. Both men offered assurances, and so far, both men have directed their grievances to the complaint commission, whose fraud investigations seem to have temporarily appeased the rival camps.
Some see an opportunity in the nation's current political divisions. Presuming Abdullah loses upfront or in a second round, Nasrullah Stanikzai, a law and politics professor at Kabul University, says a strong opposition is healthy to help raise the legitimacy of the Karzai government, which lately has enjoyed little public faith. "This would be good for Karzai, good for Afghanistan," he says. With U.S. mediation, political analyst Waheed Muzhda believes that a bargain might eventually be worked out between Karzai and Abdullah that "everyone can live with."
But for most Pashtuns, there is only one acceptable outcome. Gholam Mohammad, 24, a taxi driver in the capital who voted for Karzai, says Afghanistan's leaders have historically been Pashtuns like him, a tradition that should never change. Still, he approves of Karzai's choices of Mohammad Fahim, a Tajik, and Karim Khalili, a Hazara, as his two vice presidents, a choice he thinks will help ensure some cohesion among the different groups around the country. And what if Karzai somehow lost and a non-Pashtun took his place? "It would not be good."
Such sentiments are standard in the Pashtun-dominated south. "The Pashtun people are the owners of this country, no one else," says Abdul Khan, 63, a tribal elder from Kandahar city. Another local Pashtun man said he would rather vote for a Hindu before Abdullah, a fellow Muslim. A second vote for Mr. Karzai would suffice, if the Taliban threats and voting controversy don't get in the way.
— With reporting from Homayoun Shoaib in Kandahar
This article was reported with a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan voters coerced at gunpoint -- Ghani
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Long shot Afghan presidential contender Ashraf Ghani joined his counterparts claiming widespread fraud and intimidation in the Thursday vote.
Afghan voters trickled to the polls Thursday to take part in the second-ever election against the backdrop of a massive international troop presence meant to control a vibrant Taliban insurgency.
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his closest rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, issued rival claims of victory Friday. Abdullah later emerged with challenges to the validity of the vote, pointing to widespread discrepancies in the south, where Karzai was expected to have a strong showing.
Ghani, a former finance minister and World Bank executive, released his own list of more than 30 complaints filed with Afghan election officials.
In the northern province of Balkh, Ghani says supporters of Abdullah forced voters to cast their ballots for the former foreign minister at gunpoint. Similar complaints were filed against Karzai supporters in Herat province, with additional challenges of ballot-stuffing.
The Independent Election Commission in Afghanistan said it would certify the final results in mid-September after all complains have been investigated.
The vote will go to a runoff in October if no candidate emerges with at least a 50 percent plus 1 majority.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan poses tough choices for Obama
By Richard Lardner, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 6:21 am ET
WASHINGTON – With the nation's top military officer calling the situation in Afghanistan dire, President Barack Obama soon may face two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops to beat back a resilient enemy, or stick with the 68,000 already committed and risk the political fallout if that's not enough.
Adm. Mike Mullen on Sunday described the situation in Afghanistan as "serious and deteriorating," but refused to say whether additional forces would be needed.
"Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of (the) Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don't think that threat's going to go away," he said.
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is completing an assessment of what he needs to win the fight there. That review, however, won't specifically address force levels, according to Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But military officials privately believe McChrystal may ask for as many as 20,000 additional forces to get an increasingly difficult security situation in Afghanistan under control. And one leading Republican is already saying McChrystal will be pressured to ask for fewer troops than he requires.
"I think there are great pressures on General McChrystal to reduce those estimates," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I don't think it's necessarily from the president. I think it's from the people around him and others that I think don't want to see a significant increase in our troops' presence there."
Mullen also expressed concern about diminishing support among a war-weary American public as the U.S. and NATO enter their ninth year of combat and reconstruction operations.
In joint TV interviews, Mullen and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said last week's presidential election in Afghanistan was historic, given the threats of intimidation voters faced as they headed to polling stations. It could be several weeks, however, before it's known whether incumbent Hamid Karzai or one of his challengers won.
Charges of fraud in the election are extensive enough to possibly sway the final result, and the number of allegations is likely to grow, according to the independent Electoral Complaints Commission, the U.N.-backed body investigating the complaints.
Obama's strategy for defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida is a work in progress as more U.S. troops are sent there, Mullen said.
Three years ago, the U.S. had about 20,000 forces in the country. Today, it has triple that, on the way to 68,000 by year's end when all the extra 17,000 troops that Obama announced in March are in place. An additional 4,000 troops will help train Afghan forces.
Mullen said the security situation in Afghanistan needs to be reversed in the next 12 to 18 months.
"I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I've said that over the last couple of years, that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated," he said.
Just over 50 percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released this past week said the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.
Mullen, a Vietnam veteran, said he's aware that public support for the war is critical. "Certainly the numbers are of concern," he said.
"We're just getting the pieces in place from the president's new strategy on the ground now," he said. "I don't see this as a mission of endless drift. I think we know what to do."
McChrystal's orders from Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were "to go out, assess where you are, and then tell us what you need," Mullen said.
"And we'll get to that point. And I want to, I guess, assure you or reassure you that he hasn't asked for any additional troops up until this point in time," he said.
Mullen and Eikenberry appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CNN's "State of the Union."
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.S. Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient
By HELENE COOPER The New York Times August 24, 2009
BAGRAM, Afghanistan — American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.
The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies.
The possibility that more troops will be needed in Afghanistan presents the Obama administration with another problem in dealing with a nearly eight-year war that has lost popularity at home, compounded by new questions over the credibility of the Afghan government, which has just held an as-yet inconclusive presidential election beset by complaints of fraud.
The assessments come as the top American commander in the country, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has been working to complete a major war strategy review, and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, described a worsening situation in Afghanistan despite the recent addition of 17,000 American troops ordered by the Obama administration and the extra security efforts surrounding the presidential election.
“I think it is serious and it is deteriorating,” Admiral Mullen said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “The Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated, in their tactics.” He added that General McChrystal was still completing his review and had not yet requested additional troops on top of the those added by Mr. Obama.
The American commanders in Afghanistan spoke this weekend with Richard C. Holbrooke, Mr. Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Over the past two days, Mr. Holbrooke visited all four regional command centers in Afghanistan, and the message from all four followed similar lines: while the additional American troops, along with smaller increases from other NATO members, have had some benefit in the south, the numbers remain below what commanders need. The total number of American soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan is now about 57,000. It was unclear whether the commanders told Mr. Holbrooke exactly how many additional troops might be required.
Eastern Afghanistan, in particular, has been a trouble spot. On Sunday, during Mr. Holbrooke’s stop at the Bagram military base, Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the United States and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan, told him and visiting reporters that the Haqqani network was expanding its reach. “We’ve seen that expansion, and that’s part of what we’re fighting,” he said. American commanders believe that the network, whose leaders Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin have been linked to Al Qaeda, are using sanctuaries in Pakistan to launch attacks against American and Afghan forces.
The problems in Afghanistan have been aggravated by what the American commanders call the Pakistani military’s limited response to the threat of militants based there. Although General Scaparrotti said that cooperation by Pakistan and the United States against the militants had improved recently, he stressed that it was important for the Pakistanis to keep up the pressure, particularly after the reported killing of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud.
That echoed concerns from Obama administration officials who worry that with the absence of Mr. Mehsud, who was the Pakistani government’s enemy No. 1, the military would shift its emphasis away from the tribal areas where the Taliban and Al Qaeda operate. “They think it’s ‘game over,’ ” one senior administration official said. “It’s more like, ‘game over, next level.’ ”
The White House has been concerned about declining support for the war among the American public. After recent polls illustrating the decline, Admiral Mullen and Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired general who is the ambassador to Afghanistan, went on Sunday talk shows to discuss the direction of the mission.
“I’m certainly aware of the criticality of support of the American people for this war and in fact, any war,” Admiral Mullen said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so certainly the numbers are of concern. That said, the president’s given me and the American military a mission, and that focuses on a new strategy, new leadership, and we’re moving very much in that direction.”
He said, “I believe we’ve got to start to turn this thing around from a security standpoint in the next 12 to 18 months.”
Mr. Holbrooke visited regional command centers in Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Bagram on Saturday and Sunday. Speaking to Afghan reporters at the NATO base in Mazar-i-Sharif, Mr. Holbrooke said that part of the new strategy would include reaching out to members of the Taliban who show a willingness to lay down their arms. Many Taliban fighters, Mr. Holbrooke said, “fight because they’re misguided, or because they want a job.”
“Anyone who renounces Al Qaeda and comes back to work peacefully in the Afghan system,” he continued, “will be welcome.”
American lawmakers intensified their criticism of President Hamid Karzai, saying his government had not done enough to crack down on corruption and the drug trade that fuels the insurgency. Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, told reporters at a dinner on Sunday at the American Embassy in Kabul that he had told Mr. Karzai, “There’s going to come a time when the patience of Americans will run out.” Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who was also at the dinner, said: “Time is not running out next week, but they have to show results. It’s the last chance.”
Concerns about fraud in the election have brought more complaints to Afghan officials. Mr. Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, told a news conference in Kabul on Sunday that the number of suspected irregularities had been “alarming.”
Afghanistan’s Election Complaints Commission said Sunday that it had made a priority of investigating 35 complaints, including allegations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and violence. The commission, jointly led by Western and Afghan officials, said it had received 225 complaints of irregularities.
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Eric Schmitt and Brian Knowlton from Washington.
Back to Top
Back to Top
3 NATO troops killed in southern Afghanistan
By Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 12:32 pm ET
KABUL – Three NATO troops — two from Estonia and one from the United States — were killed in attacks in southern Afghanistan as fraud charges continued to pour in Monday from last week's turbulent presidential vote.
On Monday night, NATO jets fired on targets near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar, which also serves as major NATO base. Witnesses reported seeing a half dozen aircraft firing at targets to the southwest of the main runway.
The American service member died in an insurgent attack Sunday, the U.S. military said without providing details. Estonia's Defense Ministry said two soldiers were killed after their unit stumbled on a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province.
It was the 37th death for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since the beginning of August, a month that has seen a jump in attacks and violence as the country prepared for its second-ever direct presidential election last week.
Though millions of Afghans went to the polls, turnout was dampened by Taliban threats leading up to the balloting. Those who voted did so amid rocket attacks in the south, a gunbattle in the capital, and fighting that trapped people inside stations in the east.
Allegations of fraud and intimidation have streamed in since election day. The independent Electoral Complaints Commission said Monday that it has so far received about 45 complaints that could affect the outcome of the election if proved valid.
The most common was ballot-box stuffing. Both President Hamid Karzai and leading challenger former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah have accused each other of fraud.
The United Nations urged candidates and the Afghan people to wait for fraud charges to be investigated before doubting the legitimacy of the election.
"There's no doubt that there have been irregularities during the polling day," said Kai Eide, the U.N.'s top official in Afghanistan.
"I appeal to the candidates and to their campaigns, and also to the voters, to demonstrate the patience and calm that is required" while independent monitors investigate allegations, he said.
Eide also responded to reports that the U.N. had called the election a success by reiterating his statement that it was "an important achievement" for the people of Afghanistan.
"It is too early to use words that go beyond that," Eide said.
U.S. commanders predicted a deadly summer after President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban and shift the focus in the fight against Islamist extremism from Iraq.
July was the deadliest month for American forces in Afghanistan since the beginning of the conflict, with 44 dead. Estonia has 289 soldiers in Afghanistan and the recent deaths mean the small European country has lost six soldiers there.
With the security situation in Afghanistan appearing increasingly difficult, many are suggesting that U.S. commanders may request thousands more troops.
On Sunday, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the situation in Afghanistan as "serious and deteriorating," but refused to say whether additional forces would be needed.
"Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of (the) Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don't think that threat's going to go away," he said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan journalist shot dead in NW Pakistan: officials
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Gunmen on Monday shot dead an Afghan journalist in northwest Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, branded one of the most dangerous spots in the world for media, officials and colleagues said.
Janullah Hashimzada, 40, was returning from Afghanistan in a passenger coach when militants ambushed the vehicle near Jamrud town of Khyber tribal district, a known stronghold of Taliban militants.
"Unidentified gunmen stopped his coach, pulled him out and shot him dead," Rehan Gul Khatok, assistant administrative agent in Jamrud, told AFP.
He gave no motive for the killing of Hashimzada, who worked for the Afghan television channel Shamshad and a host of other Afghan, Pakistani and international media organisations.
However the head of the local press club said Hashimzada had been targeted because his reporting had upset key players in the region.
"This was purely a targeted killing," Shamim Shahid, president of the Peshawar Press Club, told the International Press Institute (IPI).
"(Hashimzada) was very critical of the Taliban, and some of his reporting was unacceptable both to Pakistani and Afghan governments and intelligence agencies," IPI quoted Shahid as saying in a statement.
"He had too much information regarding the militants, the Taliban and the intelligence agencies," Shahid added.
Six journalists have been killed in the northwest in the past two years, according to the Vienna-based IPI which has branded the region one of the world's most dangerous for journalists.
"The Pakistani government must bring to justice the perpetrators of this murder so that the killers of journalists understand that they cannot operate with impunity," IPI director David Dadge said in a statement.
Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas have been beset by violence after hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels sought refuge there following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
At least two Pakistani journalists have been killed this year alone in the region, which is also the location of frequent bomb attacks.
In its 2009 report, Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders said more journalists had been killed in Pakistan this year than any other country, with local journalists facing threats from both the Taliban and security forces.
Back to Top
Back to Top
AFGHANISTAN: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ESSENTIAL FOR LEGITIMIZING KABUL GOVERNMENT
Richard Weitz 8/21/09 EURASIA INSIGHT
Initial tallies suggest that incumbent Hamid Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah are in a tight race in Afghanistan’s presidential election.
At this very early point in the ballot-counting process, no candidate appeared close to gathering more than 50 percent of the vote. If that remains the case, a run-off round of voting will be necessary. In all, there were over 6,000 polling stations open for the August 20 presidential voting, meaning the preliminary results may be weeks away.
The early results represent such a small percentage of the overall vote that they cannot be used to project the final tally with any accuracy. But that hasn’t stopped both Karzai and Abdullah from proclaiming victory. On August 21, Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, called for restraint, saying time and patience were needed for the ballot-counting process to function smoothly. "We always knew it would be a disputed election," Holbrooke said during a news conference in Kabul.
At an August 12 panel, sponsored by the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, Holbrooke emphasized that the election’s outcome was likely to be ambiguous and open to conflicting interpretations. He also said that this election was essential for giving the Afghan government legitimacy. Unlike the Afghan presidential ballot five years ago, Afghan officials are administering the elections on this occasion, with the international community providing security, as well as some election observers.
"Many issues that we would like to focus on -- anti-corruption; a national reintegration amnesty program; improving the governance at the sub-central level . . . we’re working on them. But until the election legitimizes the government, whoever wins, we have had to focus on that," Holbrooke stated.
When asked to shed some light on the administration’s long-awaited metrics for evaluating the reconstruction process, Holbrooke would only volunteer that, "I would say this about defining success in Afghanistan and Pakistan: . . . We’ll know it when we see it."
Many of the Afghan presidential contenders, or their supporters, are likely to dispute the results. "There’ll be disputes, as there are in American elections," Holbrooke observed, reminding the Washington crowd that Minnesota only confirmed the November election of its new Democratic senator, Al Franken, a few weeks ago. He anticipated it could take weeks before the estimated 15 million ballots could be counted. Electoral challenges could extend the timeline much further.
When asked who would assess the legitimacy of the elections, Holbrooke replied that "it ends up being the media. . . . The truth is that all of what happens in any distant place is in the end reduced to the simple headlines of media." Citing the cases of Iran, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, "No one knows what actually happened there. What we know is what you think you know, thanks to the media," Holbrooke added.
In addressing the issue of when US operations in Afghanistan would end, Holbrooke insisted that the "the military part of this struggle with American troops is not an open-ended event, but our civilian assistance is going to continue for a long time."
At the Washington, DC, event, senior Holbrooke adviser Barnett Rubin opined that, "I don’t think it’s accurate to say that we are committed to waging a war in Afghanistan until Afghanistan is a perfect democracy."
Although Holbrooke declined to offer a specific timeline for withdrawal, he acknowledged that his diplomatic team was already feeling pressure from "the American public and the Congress, which legitimately wants to see progress."
"I am not here today to tell you we’re winning or we’re losing," he added. "We’re here to tell you that we’re in this fight in a different way with a determination to succeed under direct personal supervision of the president, secretary of state, and the rest of the cabinet."
Editor's Note: Richard Weitz is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.
Back to Top
Back to Top
RAF Merlins train for Afghanistan
Monday, 24 August 2009 17:32 UK BBC News
British Merlin helicopter crews have started four months of intense training in the United States ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan.
The Merlins, from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, will increase helicopter support in Afghanistan by 25%.
The exercise in San Diego will train crews for the "hot and high" conditions and constant threats they will face on a daily basis.
The Merlin Helicopter Force is expected to be deployed at the end of the year.
Temperatures at the Naval Air Facility El Centro (Nafec) in San Diego can reach 50C and rarely drop below 35C at night.
The high temperatures means the environment allows the Merlin to operate to the limit of its capabilities.
RAF Flt Sgt John Stone, a Merlin crewman on the training, development and standards flight, said: "To train effectively for survival aspects in theatre we need to be operating with all the same equipment that we would have on operations.
"From a tactics point of view, I believe that the combination of live firing ranges, to practice self-defence, and representative terrain have enabled us to put together a comprehensive and realistic package of pre-deployment training."
RAF Sqn Ldr Dave Morris, Officer Commanding B Flight, 78 Squadron, said: "The environmental conditions are representative of Afghanistan.
"The effect of training in this unique location will be to increase the confidence and ability of the crews to a level where they are ready to deploy."
Back to Top
Back to Top
No timetable for German pullout from Afghanistan, says Merkel
Deutsche Welle
Chancellor Angela Merkel says German troops will stay in Afghanistan until their goals are achieved, but her foreign minister - and challenger in the upcoming elections - has suggested he'll be seeking an exit strategy.
Merkel told public television on Sunday that she wanted to bring the German soldiers home "as soon as possible" but not until their mission was complete. According to the chancellor, Berlin's goal was self-sustained security for Afghanistan.
Questions over the German troop presence in Afghanistan had been raised by Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier on Saturday.
Steinmeier's Social Democrats (SPD) are currently sharing power in an uncomfortable grand coalition with Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), but the foreign minister hopes to unseat Germany's first female chancellor in the upcoming Sept. 27 elections.
Steinmeier said that he would prepare a timetable for a German pullout if his party wins next month's election. As chancellor, he said, he would "press for clear perspectives with the new Afghan government for the end of military involvement."
Competing for voters
Participation in the NATO mission is rather unpopular with voters and Steinmeier's suggestions for a "withdrawal scenario" are likely to have been made with a keen eye on opinion polls which for the last weeks gave Merkel a substantial lead over her rival.
Steinmeier, however, did not name a concrete date for a German pullout.
Last month, German Defense Minister and Merkel's party colleague Franz Josef Jung said that German troops could be in Afghanistan for up to 10 more years.
Germany has around 4,000 soldiers as part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. The troops deployed in Kunduz region of the country are mostly involved in training local police and supporting civil infrastructure projects.
A parliamentary mandate, which allows Germany to contribute up to 4,500 troops to the NATO mission, expires in December and must be renewed if the troops are to remain in Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Casey meets with leaders in Afghanistan
Monday, August 24, 2009 By Daniel Malloy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. will wrap up a three-day trip to the Middle East tomorrow, leading a congressional delegation that is meeting with officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Pennsylvania Democrat briefed reporters via conference call from Islamabad today, where he was joined by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio.
The delegation was in Afghanistan yesterday and today, where it spent time in Kabul and in southern provinces where the fighting has been most harsh. Mr. Casey said he told President Hamid Karzai that he must respect any result that comes out of last week's elections, the results of which might not be known for some time.
Mr. Casey acknowledged accusations of voter fraud, but said there are no answers yet about who won or if the results are legitimate.
"We'll just have to wait and see how those results play out," Mr. Casey said.
The delegation also met with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, whom Mr. Casey said was impressive.
Mr. Casey said the delegation plans to meet with various government and military officials in Pakistan and will address security in the country's militant-thick northwest as well as citizens displaced by the fighting there.
Mr. Casey is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Central Asian Affairs, which covers Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
After visit, Brown criticizes Afghan government
Monday, August 24, 2009 3:27 PM By Jack Torry THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
WASHINGTON -- After his first visit to Afghanistan, Sen. Sherrod Brown warned today that "American patience will not last forever'' and urged the Afghan government to root out corruption, build up its military and curb the country's production of poppies.
In a conference call from Pakistan with Ohio reporters, the Ohio Democrat said he is "concerned that this war not last a whole lot longer.'' While Brown would not set a deadline for U.S. forces to leave, he insisted "we've got to begin seeing changes. . . . We don't stay forever if they don't meet the goals they need to meet.''
"The corruption has got to stop, especially at the top,'' Brown said. "There's much evidence of corruption starting at the top and that's not acceptable and that has got to change if the American commitment is going to continue.''
Brown spent two days in Afghanistan as part of a congressional delegation made up of himself, Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. The three lawmakers met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai; U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry; Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan; and Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Brown declined to indicate whether he would support sending more U.S. forces to Afghanistan, saying, "The jury is still out on whether we need more troops . . . I don't know if (more troops) are the right answer.''
The New York Times reported on its Web site today that McChrystal has told the Obama administration he does not have enough U.S. soldiers to defeat the Taliban rebels, who control large chunks of the country. Currently, 57,000 American soldiers serve in Afghanistan.
Brown acknowledged that "there are encouraging signs,'' citing the presidential election this week where millions of Afghans -- "particularly women'' -- showed up to vote despite Taliban threats.
"There clearly were irregularities (in the election), but one of the exciting things is they conducted an election in the middle of a war,'' Brown said.
Karzai and former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah were the main candidates in the election, the results of which may not be known for weeks.
But while saying he did not have a preference in the election, Brown assailed Karzai, charging that he has tolerated corruption throughout the Afghan government.
"There has been no question that there has been corruption at the top in this country,'' Brown said.
In addition to corruption, Brown urged Afghan officials to encourage farmers to end production of poppies, which are used for heroin, and instead focus on planting wheat, grapes, fruit trees, nuts and almonds.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Mullen: Afghanistan 'vulnerable' to Taliban
Tom LoBianco The Washington Times Monday, August 24, 2009
A pending assessment from the top military official in Afghanistan is likely to call for more troop deployments to address the deteriorating security conditions in Afghanistan, but the Republican Party's most-visible national security spokesman said he suspects the books may be cooked.
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is expected to present an assessment of the Afghanistan war to President Obama that could politically trap the president, already reeling in polls over the health care debate, between the military he commands and the antiwar base of his party.
Asked about the pending report on Sunday's political talk shows, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not say whether the U.S. military would request additional combat forces, but said the situation was deteriorating and would not improve soon.
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said he thinks some people around Mr. Obama are pushing Gen. McChrystal not to request the troops he needs.
"I think there are great pressures on General McChrystal to reduce those estimates," Mr. McCain said in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I don't think it's necessarily from the president. I think it's from the people around him and others that I think don't want to see a significant increase in our troops' presence there."
Reports in The Washington Times and elsewhere have estimated that the report would call for more than 20,000 additional troops. There are currently 62,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with 6,000 more expected to arrive by the end of the year.
The expected assessment would come as comparisons between Mr. Obama's involvement in Afghanistan and the Vietnam War grow, causing some to fear "mission creep," a term from the Vietnam War-era, could keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan indefinitely - a point possibly underscored by Adm. Mullen's words Sunday that the threat of a Taliban takeover is not going away soon.
"Afghanistan is very vulnerable, in terms of Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don't think that threat's going to go away," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I've said that over the last couple of years, that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated," he said in his other appearance Sunday, on CNN's "State of the Union." "Their tactics just in my recent visits out there and talking with our troops certainly indicate that."
Mr. McCain, who lost the presidential bid to Mr. Obama in November, said any call for more troop deployments should be made public, debated thoroughly by Congress and based on military needs, not political ones - citing the success Gen. David H. Petraeus had with the 2007 troop surge in Iraq.
"I think that [General McChrystal] ought to do what General Petraeus did, and that's decide on exactly the number he needs, and then we debate it, and the president makes the ultimate decision," Mr. McCain said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Adm. Mullen downplayed the possibility of political finagling, saying on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "I've had this conversation with the president, who understands that whatever the mission is, it needs to be resourced correctly."
Support for the war in Afghanistan, which is about to enter its ninth year, has waned among the American public, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll, which found that more than 50 percent of respondents don't think the war is worth fighting.
"I recognize that we've been there over eight years," he said. "But this is the first time we've really resourced a strategy on both the civilian and military sides. So in certain ways, we're starting anew."
In three years, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan already has tripled, from about 20,000.
Adm. Mullen, who mentioned his service in the Vietnam War in answering the question, said in his NBC appearance that he was aware of those numbers and called them a matter "of concern."
The comparison to Vietnam-era "mission creep" came after Adm. Mullen said the United States has to help Afghanistan "develop governance, so then we can develop an economy, and they can take over their own destiny."
At that point, "Meet the Press" host David Gregory asked: "We're rebuilding this nation?" Adm. Mullen agreed: "To a certain degree, there is some of that."
Mr. Gregory then asked "in the Vietnam era, it was talk about mission creep; the idea of, you know, gradually surging up forces, having nation-building goals and - and running into challenges all along the way," which he said would require many more troops in Afghanistan.
Adm. Mullen responded: "The focus on the people certainly is going to come by way of having, creating security for them, so their future can be brighter than it is right now. But it isn't just that. I mean, part of the president's strategy is to bring in a significant civilian capacity."
He also denied that the United States would simply stay in Afghanistan for the sake of staying in Afghanistan.
"I don't see this as a mission of endless drift. I think we know what to do," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Young Guantanamo prisoner back in Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A Guantanamo prisoner once charged with wounding two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter was back home in Afghanistan Monday, months after a war crimes case against him unraveled when a military judge ruled his confession was coerced.
Mohammed Jawad, one of the youngest people held at Guantanamo, was flown from the U.S. base in Cuba over the weekend and released to his family by Afghan authorities, said Air Force Maj. David Frakt, one of the military lawyers appointed by the Pentagon to defend the prisoner.
Frakt told The Associated Press that Jawad, now about 21, hopes to go to school and "make up for lost time" after nearly seven years in custody.
The U.S. Department of Justice later issued a statement confirming the release, which was ordered by a federal judge in July.
Justice Department officials have said the criminal investigation of Jawad is still open but his transfer back to Afghanistan makes prosecution increasingly unlikely. The judge who ordered him released said the government's case was an "outrage" and "full of holes."
Jawad had been charged with attempted murder before the special military tribunals at Guantanamo, accused of throwing a grenade into a jeep carrying the two U.S. Special Forces soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul in December 2002. The wounded soldiers had dozens of operations, and the interpreter lost sight in one eye as a result of the attack, authorities have said.
The case was first complicated by doubts about Jawad's age. His attorneys say family accounts suggest he was about 12 when he was arrested. The Pentagon said a bone scan shows Jawad was about 17.
Last October, a military judge at Guantanamo threw out a confession by Jawad following his arrest. The judge found that Jawad initially denied throwing the grenade and only said he had done it after Afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family if he didn't confess.
U.S. authorities said they would pursue a criminal investigation of Jawad but U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled in July that he was being held illegally and must be released.
There are now more than 200 prisoners at Guantanamo, which President Barack Obama has pledged to close in January.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan Taliban commander vows Afghan fight
By Ishtiaq Mahsud, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 12:50 am ET
MAKEEN, Pakistan – Pakistani Taliban fighters are committed to helping the fight in Afghanistan and consider Barack Obama their "No. 1 enemy," a top commander said amid uncertainty about whether a new leader has been appointed to head the movement.
Waliur Rehman made the remarks in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press at a time of intense speculation over the next leader of the al-Qaida-allied group. A CIA missile strike on Aug. 5 is believed to have killed former chief Baitullah Mehsud. Rehman, a cousin of Baitullah, is seen as a strong candidate for the post.
Rehman said on Saturday that Baitullah had given him full control over the network and that a new leader "would be chosen within five days." Rehman made no reference to Hakimullah Mehsud, whose aides said separately later Saturday that he had been chosen as new leader during a meeting Friday.
Rehman's comments cast doubt on whether Hakimullah's appointment had been agreed by all top Taliban members, and could indicate splits over succession within the movement of up to 25,000 fighters.
Rehman met the AP in a forest near Makeen village in the heart of the semiautonomous lands close to the Afghan border where al-Qaida and the Taliban hold sway. Looking healthy and dressed in clean, ironed clothes, he was accompanied by five armed guards.
American officials are watching closely to see who succeeds Baitullah, in particular whether the new leader will direct more fighters across the border where U.S. and NATO forces are facing soaring attacks by insurgents. Baitullah was believed to have mainly concentrated on attacking Pakistani targets.
"We are with Afghan Taliban. We will keep on helping them until America and its allies are expelled," he said, adding this did not mean an end to attacks in Pakistan. "American President Obama and his allies are our enemy No. 1," he said. "We will sacrifices our bodies, hearts and money to fight them."
Like most other members of the Taliban network, he insisted Baitullah was alive but sick, hence the need for a new chief. U.S. and Pakistani officials are almost certain he is dead, especially since the Taliban have provided no proof he is alive.
Two close aides to another commander, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, told The Associated Press on Saturday a 42-member Taliban council, or shura, had appointed Hakimullah their new leader in an unanimous decision on Friday.
"Now all these talks of differences should end," said one of the aides, Bakht Zada. "There have not been any differences ever."
Mohammed Amir Rana, an expert on Pakistani militant groups, said he believed the Taliban had not agreed on a replacement.
"Maulvi Faqir Mohammad is trying to manipulate the race by announcing to the press that Hakimullah is the head," he said. "Until now there is no consensus," he said, adding that supporters of Waliur Rehman, did not accept him.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government had received intelligence reports about Hakimullah's appointment "as the chief terrorist" but there was no official confirmation. The Dawn newspaper quoted one unidentified intelligence officer as saying the announcement "was a ruse" as part of the ongoing power struggle.
Malik also said he had received reports that the Taliban had kidnapped and killed Baitullah Mehsud's father-in-law and other relatives because they believed the relatives may have betrayed his location, leading to the U.S. missile strike that killed him, the state news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported late Sunday.
Earlier this month, Malik had claimed Rehman and Hakimullah had been killed in a shootout between rival factions over who should take over the Taliban and its arms and cash.
"There was no truth in those claims of mine or his death," Rehman said. "It is futile propaganda by enemies."
Since Aug. 5, Pakistani officials have been eager to portray the Taliban as in disarray, saying commanders and the rank-and-file were fighting among themselves. At one point, Mohammad — who comes from a different part of the tribal region — claimed to have taken over the leadership.
Hakimullah comes from the same tribe as Baitullah and had been seen as a likely replacement.
As military chief of Baitullah's Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistani Taliban Movement, Hakimullah commanded three tribal regions and had a reputation as Baitullah's most ruthless deputy. He first appeared in public to journalists in November 2008, when he offered to take reporters on a ride in a U.S. Humvee taken from a supply truck heading to Afghanistan.
Authorities say he was behind threats to foreign embassies in Islamabad, and there was a 10 million rupee ($120,000) bounty on his head. Hakimullah claimed responsibility for the June 9 bombing of the Pearl Continental hotel in the northwestern city of Peshawar, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier this year.
Rehman was among Baitullah's closest advisers and deputies. Mehsud reportedly said during a shura that Rehman should be his successor if something happened to him.
___
Associated Press writer Chris Brummitt contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).