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Afghan vote delay may help Taliban, US warns
by Lynne O'donnell
KABUL (AFP) – The United States on Friday warned that a long delay in resolving Afghanistan's fraud-tainted polls would benefit the Taliban and Al-Qaeda while Britain refused to "be party to any whitewash".
Challenger demands investigation of Afghan vote
By Douglas Birch, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – The chief challenger to President Hamid Karzai on Friday called for a full investigation of hundreds of reports of fraud in Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential contest, while a top U.S. diplomat asked critics
Pakistan casts wary eye on Afghan election dispute
By Munir Ahmad And Nahal Toosi, Associated Press Writers – Fri Sep 11, 5:38 am ET
ISLAMABAD – Some Pakistani lawmakers are urging other candidates to concede to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in last month's elections, amid worries that a drawn-out dispute over the results could destabilize both countries.
Congress wary of more U.S. Afghanistan troops: Pelosi
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There is little support in Congress for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives said on Thursday, indicating possible trouble ahead for President Barack Obama.
Spain to send more troops to Afghanistan
By Daniel Woolls, Associated Press Writer
MADRID – Spain's government agreed Friday to send 220 more troops to Afghanistan, raising the total to about 1,000 and moving to help a hard-pressed allied coalition fighting the resurgent Taliban.
Sept. 11 galvanizes US troops in Afghanistan
By Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The Sept. 11 attacks were both a tragedy and a call to arms for many of the soldiers at this sprawling military air base — although few would have guessed that eight years on
Obama Faces Doubts From Democrats on Afghanistan
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER September 11, 2009 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces.
Pakistan: Swat Taliban spokesman, 4 others held
By Munir Ahmad, Associated Press Writer – Fri Sep 11, 7:11 am ET
ISLAMABAD – Pakistani soldiers arrested the spokesman for the Taliban in the Swat Valley and four other commanders, the military announced Friday, striking its first direct blow against the leadership of the insurgency in the one-time tourist resort.
Pakistan envoy: No regrets over Taliban death
By Catherine Tsai, Associated Press Writer – Fri Sep 11, 1:17 am ET
DENVER – Pakistan's ambassador to the United States said Thursday he doesn't regret the missile strike that killed a Taliban leader, but maintained his country's opposition to U.S. attacks inside its border.
Peace in Afghanistan best tribute to 9/11 victims: US
KABUL (AFP) – Peace in Afghanistan would be the best tribute to those killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US ambassador to Kabul said Friday as the nation faces the worst violence in an eight-year war.
Afghan Ministry Denies Claims About Weapons Distribution
September 11, 2009 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
KABUL -- The Afghan Interior Ministry has rejected claims by the governor of northern Balkh Province that the ministry has given guns to some groups there, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports.
Afghanistan's 'weekend jihadis'
Friday, 11 September 2009 BBC News By Kate Clark Radio 4, The World Tonight
In the villages of Afghanistan, many young men are working for the government during the week, but fighting for the Taliban at weekends.
To Save Afghanistan, Look to Its Past
By ANSAR RAHEL and JON KRAKAUER September 11, 2009 The New York Times Op-Ed Contributors
NO matter who is ultimately certified as the winner of Afghanistan’s presidential election, the vote was plagued by so much fraud and violence, and had such low turnout, that it is inconceivable the Afghan people
Cousin had to retrieve Afghan reporter's body after raid
By Hal Bernton, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Thu Sep 10, 7:07 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi intended to head back to Germany this fall to study public policy and push his career in a new direction. Instead, he was buried this week in an arid cemetery on the north side of Kabul .
Controversy deepens over Afghan hostage rescue
by Waheedullah Massoud – Fri Sep 11, 5:48 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Recriminations over a bloody raid that freed a New York Times reporter from Taliban captors in Afghanistan deepened on Friday with both Britain and the newspaper defending their actions.
Killing Of Afghan Journalist Raises More Uncomfortable Questions
September 11, 2009 By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Criticism and anger are mounting over the rescue of a Western journalist from Taliban militants.
Afghan warlord General Atta Mohammad Nur warning raises fear of election violence
The Times By Jerome Starkey and James Hider 09/11/2009
Kabul - One of Afghanistan’s most powerful warlords has defended the popular right to protest against the presidential election results, raising fears that the country could be engulfed by violence if supporters of the losing candidates reject the poll as being rigged.
Explosion wounds 9 Afghan civilians in East
KABUL, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Explosion in eastern Afghanistan's khost province Friday wounded nine persons, all of them civilians, officials said.
McChrystal: No major al-Qaida signs in Afghanistan
By Mike Corder, Associated Press Writer
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan said Friday he sees no signs of a major al-Qaida presence in the country, but says the terror group still maintains close links to insurgents.
Whistleblower sues Afghanistan security contractor
By Charley Keyes September 11, 2009
(CNN) -- A former manager for the private contractor that provides guards for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan said he tried to blow the whistle more than a year ago about inadequate staffing and improper
9/9 in Afghanistan
Seattle Times - Hal Bernton
Kabul -- Abdullah was 16 years old when Ahmed Shah Massoud first came to his family's wheat-farming village in the northern province of Takhar.
Afghan 'Indiana Jones' hunts lost Bamiyan statue
Lyse Doucet BBC Newsnight, Bamiyan Thursday, 10 September 2009
Dr Zemaryalai Tarzi is an Afghan with a big dream. To be exact, this archaeologist dreams of a giant - a 1,000ft (300 metre) sleeping Buddha.
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul
By Joseph Attias Thursday, September 10, 2009 The Commentator
Today we think of Afghanistan as a war-torn, culturally oppressive, and intolerant nation. While there may very well be good reason for this view, Afghanistan possesses a little-known history as rich and complete
Indonesia detains 56 Afghan migrants heading to Australia
JAKARTA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian Navy has detained 56 illegal Aghan migrants suspected to enter Australia in eastern Indonesia, navy spokesman Iskandar Sitompul said Friday.
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Afghan vote delay may help Taliban, US warns
by Lynne O'donnell
KABUL (AFP) – The United States on Friday warned that a long delay in resolving Afghanistan's fraud-tainted polls would benefit the Taliban and Al-Qaeda while Britain refused to "be party to any whitewash".
Afghans went to the polls last month to elect a president for only the second time, eight years after the US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power following the September 11, 2001 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda.
But the August 20 presidential and provincial council elections have been overshadowed by allegations of vote-rigging and mass fraud, and marred by low turnout due to Taliban intimidation and record levels of violence.
The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has ordered thousands of votes thrown out from 83 polling stations in three provinces due to fraud, but there is no timescale for investigations across the rest of the country.
Richard Holbrooke, who is President Barack Obama's pointman for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was asked by the BBC whether it could create an unstable environment if counting from the presidential election took months.
"I don't think you're going to have a process that's drawn out that long, at least I hope not," Holbrooke told the BBC in an interview.
"The beneficiary of that would be the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and I need to underscore that... the beneficiary of any delays of the sort you're talking about would be the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and everybody understands that."
The US State Department said it could take months to determine the results and probe the alleged irregularities.
President Hamid Karzai, whose relationship with his Western backers has faltered during a seven-year rule marred by corruption and insecurity, is on track to win with more than 54 percent of the votes released so far.
His main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah trails with less than 30 percent and has alleged massive state-engineered fraud in favour of a second five-year term for Karzai.
Preliminary results are due on Saturday, with the international community urging officials to ensure a clean process that gives legitimacy to the victor and brings an end to the political uncertainty.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he had "concerns" about serious allegations of fraud.
"We will not be party to any whitewash when it comes to the elections," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC.
"That's why the United Nations established the electoral complaints commission, it's why they've dismissed the results from 83 polling stations, so of course we have concerns about very serious allegations of fraud."
Official results are due after September 17, but international observers have urged that no winner be declared until the fraud claims are resolved.
Holbrooke said scrapping the election was "out of the question".
"A re-run of the whole election? Ain't going to happen," he said.
A leading think tank expressed concern about the dangers of a power vacuum should the election be unresolved for months.
London-based policy research group, the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) released a map showing that a resurgent Taliban now has a significant presence across virtually all Afghanistan.
It warned that any potential run-off could be delayed until spring because of harsh winter conditions, leaving Afghanistan in a constitutional vacuum.
"This raises the possibility of both a lack of legal authority in the presidency and resulting political instability and government paralysis dragging on for many months," said ICOS president Norine MacDonald.
ICOS said the Taliban had widened its nationwide reach since last year and now had a "permanent presence" in 80 percent of the country with its influence spreading in once relatively peaceful regions in the west and the north.
On Friday, NATO announced the killing of another US soldier in eastern Afghanistan, where Taliban-linked violence has soared.
In southern Kandahar province, another Taliban flashpoint, a suicide attack wounded six policemen and three civilians, the governor's office said.
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Challenger demands investigation of Afghan vote
By Douglas Birch, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – The chief challenger to President Hamid Karzai on Friday called for a full investigation of hundreds of reports of fraud in Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential contest, while a top U.S. diplomat asked critics to withold judgment about the election's credibility.
Both statements came after a U.N.-backed commission on Thursday threw out thousands of ballots from dozens of polling stations and ordered recounts in parts of three Afghan provinces.
In an interview with the BBC Thursday, Richard Holbrooke said critics should not judge Afghanistan's presidential contest until the count is finished and all investigations are completed.
"Let's see what happens before we jump to any conclusions," said Holbrooke, envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The U.N.-backed Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission, which is investigating fraud allegations, has the power to order a complete rerun of the election, with all challengers participating.
Holbrooke doubted that would happen. "That doesn't strike me as a very viable option," he said.
But Karzai's lead in the presidential vote appears to be shrinking as the U.N.-backed commission tosses out tainted ballots, making a runoff with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah more likely.
Abdul Star Murad, Abdullah's campaign chief in Kabul, called for a full investigation into all allegations of cheating.
"It is very important that the nation continues to trust the political process," he said. "The nation has the right to know who got the most votes in every area."
If that doesn't happen, he said, "the nation and the people will lose their trust in the system."
Afghanistan's presidential contest was marred by allegations of ballot stuffing, phantom polling stations and turnout at some polls that exceeded 100 percent of registered voters.
A spokesman for the Karzai-appointed Independent Elections Commission, which is counting the ballots, told reporters earlier this week that a complete tally of returns would be released Saturday.
But election officials said Friday that announcement could be delayed.
So far the elections commission has counted ballots from 92 percent of the country's polling stations. Those returns show Karzai with 54 percent of the vote, more than the 50 percent plus one he needs to avoid a runoff with Abdullah, who has 28 percent.
But most of the ballots thrown out so far were cast in southern and eastern Afghanistan, Karzai's political base.
If enough Karzai votes are ruled invalid, that could push the incumbent's total below 50 percent and force a runoff.
Decisions by this fraud commission are final under Afghanistan's electoral law. The group — comprised of one American, one Canadian, one Dutch, and two Afghans — is releasing decisions from each province as its investigations finish.
On Thursday, the commission threw out ballots from 51 polling stations in Kandahar province, 27 in Ghazni and five in Paktika.
Although it did not say how many ballots were invalidated, thousands are likely involved. It ordered election officials to recount votes in hundreds of other voting centers across the three districts in the presence of observers, commission members and representatives of the candidates.
All three provinces are dominated by voters who, like Karzai, are ethnic Pashtuns and form the president's political base.
Britain's Foreign Secretary said Friday the U.K. won't accept any cover-up in investigations into allegations of electoral fraud.
David Miliband told BBC radio that Britain "will not be party to any whitewash in respect of this election."
He also said that the elections did not meet international standards for a free and fair poll, but added that he still believed "the new government can be a legitimate and credible expression of the will of the Afghan people." He said that no one should be under the illusion that Afghanistan is a Western-style democracy.
Meanwhile Friday, NATO said two of its troops had been killed in eastern Afghanistan. One was a U.S. service member killed in an attack on a patrol. Another service member was killed after coming under fire. Both died Thursday.
The military alliance did not immediately identify the second casualty's nationality or provide other information, but Poland's Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers was killed and four others injured in an exchange of fire with the Taliban in Afghanistan on Thursday in eastern Ghazni province.
___
Associated Press reporters Kay Johnson and Heidi Vogt contributed to this report.
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Pakistan casts wary eye on Afghan election dispute
By Munir Ahmad And Nahal Toosi, Associated Press Writers – Fri Sep 11, 5:38 am ET
ISLAMABAD – Some Pakistani lawmakers are urging other candidates to concede to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in last month's elections, amid worries that a drawn-out dispute over the results could destabilize both countries.
Pakistan has a history of troubled and complex relations with neighboring Afghanistan, and the U.S. sees their security as linked — and central to quashing the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist threat.
"Whatever is happening there is affecting us, too," said Syed Haider Ali Shah, a Pakistani lawmaker from the Awami National Party, which governs the militant-riddled North West Frontier Province near the Afghan border.
"There has already been a lot of election-related bloodshed in Afghanistan, and the opponents of Hamid Karzai should accept their defeat by accepting the public mandate," he said.
Votes are still being tallied from Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election. Results from 92 percent of the polling stations show that Karzai has crossed the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. But a U.N.-backed commission is investigating widespread fraud allegations and could throw out enough votes to drop Karzai back below 50 percent.
Pakistanis are not enamored of Karzai, but he is Pashtun, a major ethnic group in their country and one that dominates the northwest region bordering Afghanistan. Shah's Awami party is a moderate Pashtun nationalist party. Many Pakistanis believe having a Pashtun in power could give Islamabad influence in Kabul.
They also are suspicious of his top rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who has had links to India, a longtime rival of Pakistan. Abdullah is half Tajik, half Pashtun, but has stronger ties to Afghanistan's Tajik community.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signaled support for Karzai in a BBC interview posted online Wednesday. "I'll be there to be with him when he is sworn in because he was here when I was sworn in," he said.
He played down allegations of a tainted vote, saying "the judgment is still out on that."
Zardari's statements and those by lawmakers could provoke resentment in Kabul, where Pakistan's history of interference in Afghan affairs rankles many.
"I would ... advise our Pakistani friends to resist the urge and to stop making comments on our elections," said Abdul Satar Murad, Abdullah's campaign chief in Kabul.
Pakistan supported the Taliban government that took power in Kabul in the mid-1990s but severed ties with the Islamists under U.S. pressure after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It saw the Taliban as a way to influence Afghanistan and use it as a bulwark against India.
Abdullah was part of the Northern Alliance, a group of Afghan warlords and politicians who helped oust the Taliban after Sept. 11. The Northern Alliance had good relations with India, with whom Pakistan has fought three wars over the past 62 years.
Lal Muhammad Khan, a lawmaker from Zardari's ruling party who hails from northwest Pakistan, described Abdullah as "from the Indian lobby."
Analyst Moonis Ahmar said Karzai's weak record in government isn't enough to overshadow concerns about Abdullah.
"Karzai, despite all his vulnerabilities and fragile position and whatever, is considered a lesser evil," he said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan often blame each other for failing to deal with militants on their respective sides of the border, and Karzai clashed frequently with former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on this issue.
While differences remain, the Afghan leader has had cordial relations with Zardari since he succeeded Musharraf a year ago. The two countries have pledged to work together to calm the region — cooperation the U.S. says is essential to the fight against militancy.
One Pakistani lawmaker said Karzai's opponents should think about the greater interest.
"No one will serve the cause of peace by making the results of the Afghan elections controversial," said Aftab Khan Sherpao, a former interior minister.
Stratfor, a U.S.-based global intelligence firm, noted in a recent report that the Taliban could make gains if their opponents — including Abdullah and Karzai — are fighting over who's in charge.
"Washington needs coherence among the anti-Taliban forces and whatever stability it can get in Kabul to push ahead with its counterinsurgency efforts," it said.
The United States has appealed to Karzai not to claim victory and let reviews of fraud allegations take place.
___
Associated Press Writer Kay Johnson contributed to this report from Kabul.
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Congress wary of more U.S. Afghanistan troops: Pelosi
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There is little support in Congress for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives said on Thursday, indicating possible trouble ahead for President Barack Obama.
Obama may decide in the coming weeks whether to expand the size of the U.S. military force in Afghanistan to counter insurgent violence that has reached its highest level since the Taliban was ousted from power in late 2001.
But U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said deploying more U.S. troops could be a tough sell.
"I don't think there's a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan, in the country or in the Congress," Pelosi said at a news conference.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, said in a New York Times interview he was not ruling out sending more troops eventually, but insisted that the United States first expand and accelerate the training of Afghan forces.
"I just think we should hold off on a commitment to send more combat troops until these additional steps to strengthen the Afghan security forces are put in motion," Levin said.
Levin raised concerns about the U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in meetings this week with the secretaries of Defense and State and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Times said. Levin intends to propose improvements in a speech in the Senate on Friday.
A troop increase could make U.S. congressional Democrats nervous at a time when many of them already face tough prospects in next year's midterm elections.
The U.S. Congress has a full plate of difficult legislative business even before possible decisions on U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, including legislation aimed at overhauling the U.S. healthcare system and a complicated climate-change bill.
A formal assessment of the war from U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, is widely expected to set the stage for a request by the military for more troops.
Pelosi said she had not yet seen this assessment, which was sent to the Pentagon last week.
"I hope that we will be briefed on the McChrystal (report) when the president receives it," she said. "Perhaps next week we will see that."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama had not yet made a decision on whether to commit additional U.S. troops.
"The president will make a decision based on what he thinks is in the best national security interests of this country," Gibbs said.
The United States is on track nearly to double its troop presence in Afghanistan to 68,000 by the end of this year. Other nations, mainly NATO allies, have another 38,000 troops in Afghanistan and have been reluctant to send more.
Some analysts believe the Afghan war effort requires a further boost of up to 45,000 military forces along with additional diplomats and other resources.
But with U.S. casualties mounting, unease about the war is growing in Obama's Democratic Party.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and JoAnne Allen)
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Spain to send more troops to Afghanistan
By Daniel Woolls, Associated Press Writer
MADRID – Spain's government agreed Friday to send 220 more troops to Afghanistan, raising the total to about 1,000 and moving to help a hard-pressed allied coalition fighting the resurgent Taliban.
The decision now goes to parliament, which is expected to approve it.
Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Spain wants to further contribute to the NATO-led mission to bring peace to Afghanistan. The U.S. has been urging its allies to send more soldiers.
Spain has had troops in Afghanistan since 2002. There are now about 1,200 Spanish soldiers in the west of the country, but 450 of them were sent to provide security for last month's presidential election and are due to come home when the results are known.
The government, eager for strong ties with President Barack Obama, had been hinting for months it might send more troops for the long-term. But the idea seemed to take on more urgency last week with a series of attacks on Spanish troops, including an ambush that prompted a five-hour firefight in which Spanish forces killed 13 insurgents while they had no casualties of their own.
Fernandez de la Vega said the new troops are tasked in part with providing more security for the ones already there, many of whom are involved in reconstruction efforts. She said they are going at a particularly important time because the presidential elections will be followed next year by legislative and local ones.
"In line with its international commitment, Spain is contributing to the reinforcement of the peacekeeping mission, which as you NATO is carrying out with a mandate from the United Nations," she said.
That remark shows how sensitive foreign troop deployments are in this country.
Right after taking office in 2004, the Socialist government brought home peacekeepers that the previous, conservative, pro-U.S. government had sent to Iraq. It argued that their continued presence would endorse what the government considered an illegal invasion. It later enacted a law under which all overseas troop deployments must be approved by parliament.
Now the government always takes pains to stress the Afghanistan mission is a legitimate one with an international mandate. Spain first sent soldiers when the conservative Popular Party was in power. But the Socialists have continued it.
The Popular Party is expected to go along with the new deployment, albeit begrudgingly.
Stung by Socialist criticism of Spain's involvement in Iraq under the conservatives, the Popular Party is always pressing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to acknowledge that the Spanish troops in Afghanistan are in the middle of a war, not keeping the peace.
A total of 87 Spaniards have died in connection with the Afghanistan mission, most of them in a plane crash in Turkey in May 2003 while returning home and in a helicopter crash in August 2005.
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Sept. 11 galvanizes US troops in Afghanistan
By Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The Sept. 11 attacks were both a tragedy and a call to arms for many of the soldiers at this sprawling military air base — although few would have guessed that eight years on, the war in Afghanistan would still be raging.
Many of the troops now fighting here were high school students at the time. Some saw the attacks on TV during class, and vowed to sign up when they were old enough.
Army Sgt. Joshua Applegate of Springfield, Miss., was in high school when the planes hit the towers, and enlisted two years later though he said he had wanted to do it right away.
"I like my country too much not to," said Applegate, who arrived in Afghanistan in April and now facilitates transport and other logistics at Bagram, the main U.S. base in the country, located just north of the capital, Kabul.
It's nearly eight years since U.S. forces invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, who remains at large. Now soldiers like Applegate are fighting a war that is shifting its focus amid waning public support.
Many troops called Friday's anniversary a galvanizing event, and said marking the day reminds them that the U.S. mission here is important.
"It's still one of the reasons why we're here. Sept. 11 is part of it. For those of us who see the repercussions of fighting, it's still there every day," said Air Force Capt. Christopher Dupuis, 26, of Lacey, Wash.
The remembrances started at dawn Friday, with Dupuis and more than 1,000 other service members donning shorts and sneakers to run exactly 9.11 kilometers (about 5.5 miles) to commemorate the day and remember troops who have died in the fighting since.
But the number of those killed and wounded are a reminder of how much has changed. Afghanistan is no longer an operation of targeted strikes to rout the Taliban and ferret out al-Qaida leaders. It is a full-court press, with more than 21,000 troops added this year by President Barack Obama and potentially more to come.
The added forces have meant more contact with the enemy. August was the deadliest month for U.S. troops so far, with 51 killed. And 2009 has been the deadliest year of the conflict for American forces.
The U.S. and its allies first invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering al-Qaida leaders who planned the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The Taliban were quickly routed, but the militants regrouped and have mounted an increasingly strong insurgency over the past three years that threatens Afghanistan's struggling democracy.
Organizers of Friday's race said similar races were also was held at Combat Outpost Najil and Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam, both in the restive eastern province of Laghman.
They said it was an example of progress made.
"Our soldiers are running in the heart of Taliban territory, where the attacks on America were planned," a military statement said.
But if Afghanistan has changed, so have U.S. goals here.
Soldiers at the early morning run at Bagram said their mission has grown beyond those autumn days of 2001 when priority No. 1 was to get bin Laden.
"It's more about establishing Afghanistan's government and the freedom of the Afghan people," said Army Capt. Jeremy McHugh, 38, of Petersham, Mass. He says he's still fighting terrorism, though indirectly.
As soldiers snacked on oranges and sports drinks after the race, they talked about getting medical supplies out to nearby villages or training Afghan counterparts or improving the government.
It's unclear if bin Laden is even in Afghanistan — many suspect he could be hiding in the tribal regions of neighboring Pakistan — and few of the soldiers say they'll be ready to declare "mission accomplished" even if he's caught.
Recent opinion polls in the U.S. suggest Americans may be tiring of a conflict that some say is unwinnable and now seems far removed from the effort to find bin Laden.
In mid-July, an AP poll indicated that 53 percent of Americans opposed the Afghanistan war and 44 percent supported it. In August, an ABC News-Washington Post poll found that 51 percent said the war was not worth fighting, while 47 percent said it was worth it.
"I feel that a lot of people have forgotten. I would have them replay the video from that day," said Air Force Technical Sgt. Shawn Merchant, 33, of Ellsworth, Maine.
Merchant, who helps maintain fighter planes at Bagram, just started his second tour in Afghanistan. He says he sees some changes since 2007: everything at Bagram is bigger and more permanent.
Meanwhile, the planes are dropping fewer bombs. Directives issued by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan have called for more caution with air strikes. Recent strikes that have killed civilians have been used as propaganda tools by Taliban militants.
Back in 2001, Merchant was stationed in Alaska and watched footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center on base.
"It became what Pearl Harbor was in World War II: now we step up," Merchant said.
A memorial service was planned at Bagram later in the day, timed to coincide with the moment when the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York.
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Obama Faces Doubts From Democrats on Afghanistan
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER September 11, 2009 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces.
The comments by the senator, Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, illustrate the growing skepticism President Obama is facing in his own party as the White House decides whether to commit more deeply to a war that has begun losing public support, even as American commanders acknowledge that the situation on the ground has deteriorated.
Senator Levin’s comments, made in an interview and in the draft of a speech he will deliver Friday, are significant because his stature on military matters gives him the ability to sway fellow lawmakers, and his pivotal committee position provides a platform for vetting Mr. Obama’s major decisions on troops.
Underscoring the increasing unease, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said earlier on Thursday that the president would face opposition if he sought to fulfill an expected request from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, for more American combat troops.
“I don’t think there is a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in Congress,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters, emphasizing that she was eager to see a report due from the White House in two weeks on benchmarks to measure the success of the administration’s six-month-old strategy.
The White House has begun to indicate that it could be weeks or perhaps much longer before Mr. Obama decides whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Administration officials say they want to do a complete review of the effectiveness of the last troop increase, which will put the American presence at 68,000 troops by year’s end, an all-time high. They are also digesting a strategic assessment of the Afghan mission that General McChrystal has submitted.
A delay on deciding whether to increase American troop levels would also have the political advantage of pushing down the road a split within Mr. Obama’s party while he is trying to build coalitions for overhauling the health care system.
In the telephone interview on Thursday, Mr. Levin said he was not ruling out sending more troops eventually, but rather insisted that the United States try again on a years-old project: finding a way to expand and accelerate the training of the Afghan security forces.
“I just think we should hold off on a commitment to send more combat troops until these additional steps to strengthen the Afghan security forces are put in motion,” he said.
Mr. Levin, who returned from a trip to Afghanistan just last week, said that the Afghan national army should be increased to 240,000 troops by 2012 from a current goal of 134,000 by next year, and that Afghan national police forces should grow to 160,000 officers from 96,800 in the same period. These troop goals are consistent with General McChrystal’s planning but would be reached a year earlier, the senator said.
Mr. Levin acknowledged that more American trainers would be needed to meet that goal, but he said that he did not know how many. In the most recent deployment of 21,000 American troops, about 4,000 were trainers. The last of those forces will not be in place until November.
In counterinsurgency operations, there are sometimes few distinctions between trainers, support troops and combat forces, a fact that Mr. Levin said he recognized.
He said the United States should send Afghan forces more equipment — including rifles, bullets and trucks — and shift more equipment to Afghanistan from stocks now in Iraq.
Finally, Mr. Levin said the administration needed to adopt a plan to separate low- and midlevel insurgents from hard-core Taliban fighters and commanders. He said the current American efforts to do this had been tentative and halfhearted.
Mr. Levin, who said he intended to outline his proposal in a speech on the Senate floor on Friday, said he explained his concerns in meetings on Wednesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Mr. Gates has indicated that he is willing to consider a request for more forces. Separate from any troop request forwarded by the commanders in Afghanistan, Mr. Gates has said he will press for more troops and equipment to protect American, allied and Afghan forces from improvised explosive devices, which are the roadside bombs that have been the leading cause of death and injuries in Afghanistan.
Troops for the mission to counter roadside bombs, which potentially could number in the thousands, would include route- clearance teams and ordnance-disposal units — some of the most dangerous jobs in the military — as well as intelligence analysts and medical personnel. They would be in addition to a substantial increase in the number of armored troop transport vehicles sent to Afghanistan.
While Mr. Levin traveled to Afghanistan last week with two other colleagues, the lawmakers did not agree on all positions.
Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in an interview that he agreed with the need to speed the training and equipping of the Afghan security forces and to reintegrate any Taliban fighters willing to recognize the Afghan government.
Mr. Reed said he was waiting for the analysis by General McChrystal on possible troop increases before making up his mind. “What the president has to do is continually point to the fact that Al Qaeda is operating in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said. “Given the chance to reconstitute themselves and operate in those border spaces, they’ll pose a threat to the United States.”
Representative Adam Smith, a Washington State Democrat on the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees who traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past week, said he also wanted more information before deciding. “But my general position is we have to give General McChrystal what he needs to get the job done,” he said.
Other Democrats said Mr. Obama and his military commanders needed to make a more persuasive case to sell the administration’s Afghanistan strategy.
“They have a relatively short period of time to show that we’re on a path that’s going to demonstrate positive results,” said Representative Earl Pomeroy, a North Dakota Democrat who visited Afghanistan last week. “This is our last best chance to change things around.”
Thom Shanker contributed reporting.
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Pakistan: Swat Taliban spokesman, 4 others held
By Munir Ahmad, Associated Press Writer – Fri Sep 11, 7:11 am ET
ISLAMABAD – Pakistani soldiers arrested the spokesman for the Taliban in the Swat Valley and four other commanders, the military announced Friday, striking its first direct blow against the leadership of the insurgency in the one-time tourist resort.
The army did not say when the men were arrested but described their detention as the result of a "successful operation" in Swat. A local newspaper quoted a militant as saying some of the men were engaged in secret peace talks with the army when they were detained. The military and the interior minister denied that.
The announcement of the arrests, coming on the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., will likely please American officials who have been encouraged by recent Pakistani military gains against the Taliban.
The army launched an offensive in the scenic valley in May after the Taliban seized control of the region following a two-year reign of terror. The area lies close to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where al-Qaida and Taliban have long held sway.
The military claims to have killed more than 1,800 insurgents in operations praised by the West, which had been concerned nuclear-armed Pakistan lacked the will to take on militants also blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
But the failure to capture or kill Swat militant leaders had led to fears the insurgents could stage a comeback.
An army statement said Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan and commanders Mahmood Khan, Fazle Ghaffar, Abdul Rehman and Sartaj Ali had been arrested in the suburbs of Mingora, the Swat Valley's main city.
The first two had bounties of 10 million rupees ($121,000) on their head, the army said.
The detainees were being interrogated and security forces were already "conducting operations" based on information the detainees had given during the questioning, the army statement said, without giving details.
Muslim Khan, who spent several years in the United States, frequently called media outlets to claim responsibility for attacks. In an interview with The Associated Press in April, he said that Osama bin Laden was welcome to stay in the valley. Since the offensive, he has rarely been quoted by the media.
The News, a major English-language daily, reported that some of the arrested men were negotiating with the military. It quoted a militant named Salman as saying the Swat Taliban had lost telephone contact with five men in a delegation that was negotiating in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
The military statement and Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied any negotiations were taking place. Malik suggested other militant commanders surrender.
"This has been our policy from day one when we started the operation that there will be no negotiations with the terrorists," Malik said. "They have no other option. Either they get killed or get arrested."
Past Pakistani attempts to strike peace deals with militant groups have usually collapsed, spurring Western criticism that the pacts give the insurgents time to re-arm and regroup. The latest Swat offensive began after the militants refused to disarm even after a peace deal agreed to their demands to impose Islamic law in the valley.
The Taliban's top commander in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, is still on the run, though in July the army claimed to have wounded him in an airstrike. There were also unconfirmed reports in June that another senior commander, Shah Doran, had been killed.
The Swat offensive has somewhat reassured the West that Pakistan is committed to fighting militancy rampant in parts of its northwest.
Last month, the head of Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Meshsud, was killed in a CIA missile strike close to the Afghan border. That group's spokesman was arrested several weeks later.
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Pakistan envoy: No regrets over Taliban death
By Catherine Tsai, Associated Press Writer – Fri Sep 11, 1:17 am ET
DENVER – Pakistan's ambassador to the United States said Thursday he doesn't regret the missile strike that killed a Taliban leader, but maintained his country's opposition to U.S. attacks inside its border.
Pakistan's military has been intensifying its fight against the Taliban even as the U.S. has continued its use of unmanned drones to fire dozens of missiles against insurgents.
Ambassador Husain Haqqani said that his country maintains that action on its side of the border with Afghanistan should be taken with Pakistani participation and that the U.S. should provide the country with its own drones.
An August missile strike killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, the latest of several top al-Qaida and Taliban commanders killed in similar attacks.
"We are concerned about the impact that unilateral U.S. strikes can sometimes have, the effect on public opinion. That is our official position," Haqqani said. "But we are not going to express any regret that Mr. Mehsud was eliminated as a result of the strike."
He did not directly answer a question over whether Pakistan is quietly cooperating with the U.S. on military strikes as some observers have speculated.
Haqqani was in Denver for a question-and-answer session hosted by the counterterrorism institute The CELL. The discussion on the global fight on terrorism came on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — which put Pakistan in the forefront of the global anti-terror fight.
Haqqani said al-Qaida has lost some support in the Muslim world, and counterterrorism forces are learning of more planned attacks before they are executed. Still, terrorist recruitment needs to fall further, and countries with weak governance need to be strengthened so that they cannot be havens for al-Qaida, he said.
Haqqani also spoke of the need for education and humanitarian aid in Pakistan.
Congress is considering a bill to provide up to $1.5 billion per year for five years in humanitarian and economic aid to Pakistan, with the idea that a literate society with health care, infrastructure and more stable economy would lessen the appeal of extremism.
"Give us the fishing rod so we can fish for ourselves," Haqqani said.
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Peace in Afghanistan best tribute to 9/11 victims: US
KABUL (AFP) – Peace in Afghanistan would be the best tribute to those killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US ambassador to Kabul said Friday as the nation faces the worst violence in an eight-year war.
There are more than 100,000 US and NATO troops now in Afghanistan. The 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime for sheltering Al-Qaeda leaders blamed for the attacks, but there is little end in sight to the conflict.
The Taliban regrouped and are waging a bloody insurgency to topple the new Western-backed Afghan government and oust foreign troops. Violence and instability are hobbling attempts to rebuild the impoverished country.
The United States marked the September 11, 2001 anniversary with ceremonies at military bases in Afghanistan and their Kabul embassy, where ambassador Karl Eikenberry presided over a brief ceremony.
"The greatest tribute possible to the men, women and children who died on September 11 and in the years since would be for Afghanistan, with our help and the rest of the international community, to achieve lasting stability and peace that has eluded it for decades," Eikenberry said.
"This is what we strive towards every day in this mission -- an Afghanistan that can never again be used by violent extremists to plot attacks against American and other citizens of the world."
Three Marines raised the US flag on the embassy lawn, saluted and lowered it to half mast. During a minute's silence, embassy staff bowed their heads and shed tears as the national anthem played to end the memorial.
The anniversary comes with foreign troops suffering record fatalities. Another US soldier was reported killed on Friday, taking the foreign death toll in September to more than 21.
This year has already been the deadliest for foreign troops in Afghanistan since 2001, with at least 330 killed this year, according to the icasualties website that tracks deaths in the conflict.
The United Nations said more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict during the first six months of 2009, an increase of nearly a quarter over the same period last year.
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Afghan Ministry Denies Claims About Weapons Distribution
September 11, 2009 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
KABUL -- The Afghan Interior Ministry has rejected claims by the governor of northern Balkh Province that the ministry has given guns to some groups there, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports.
Balkh Governor Ata Mohammad Noor -- a supporter of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah -- said on September 9 that the Interior Ministry had distributed guns to some groups in the province's northern districts, a move he said could "destabilize" Afghanistan.
Noor, a prominent leader of local mujahedin, was speaking at a ceremony marking the 2001 death of mujahedin leader Ahmad Shah Masud.
Noor also said there was a high level of fraud in last month's presidential elections, adding that "no internal or foreign force can crack down on the demands of the independent Afghan nation."
Noor accused Interior Minister Hanif Atmar of filing "poisonous" and baseless reports about the provincial government to the National Security Council (NSC), President Hamid Karzai, and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said that Noor's comments create disorder and are politically self-serving. The ministry said it has sent the case to the NSC and the General-Prosecutor's Office for consideration.
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Afghanistan's 'weekend jihadis'
Friday, 11 September 2009 BBC News By Kate Clark Radio 4, The World Tonight
In the villages of Afghanistan, many young men are working for the government during the week, but fighting for the Taliban at weekends.
"We don't get paid," says Gul Mohammad.
"It's voluntary - all for the sake of God. We even buy fuel for the operations ourselves. And our own ammunition and bullets."
Gul Mohammad (his name changed to protect his identity) is not what you might think of as a typical Taliban fighter.
He is educated, in his 20s, married with children and, during the week, he works in a government office.
"I'm a civil servant - that's how I support my family, with my salary and by growing wheat, here in the village.
"At the same time, I work for the Islamic Emirate (the name the Taliban use for their regime in Afghanistan). I've been fighting for the Taliban for about two years."
Gul Mohammad is one of an unknown number of Afghans who work in a government office during the week and commute home to their village at weekends to see their children and fight for the Taliban.
He lives in Wardak Province, which lies just to the west of Kabul. Its capital, Maidan Shah, is a 20-minute drive from Kabul. He says he has no trouble combining office work and Taliban duties.
Split loyalties
The phenomenon of weekend jihadis raises many questions - not just about how to maintain the security of Kabul and provincial capitals, but also how the insurgency will reach an end.
Most Taliban fighters in his area are young men, says Mohsin (name changed to protect identity), who is also from the district of Wardak. He says many are civil servants.
"People working in Kabul or the provincial capital, who have land and families in the villages, need to show they support the Taliban.
"They provide manpower or contribute in other ways like giving top-up cards for mobile phones or financial assistance. They need to be able to keep commuting from village to work."
According to Mohsin, it is not just individuals who split their loyalties in order to survive what feels like a civil war.
"It's a secret in the village - there are people who are seniors in the Taliban and their brothers are seniors in the Afghan administration - they are aware of each others' activities and their involvement, and this is accepted as a matter of fact."
Motives for joining the insurgency vary, he says, from religious fervour to national honour to an eye for making money from kidnapping, or looting from the enemy.
Genuine support
In some places, villagers are intimidated and threatened into helping the Taliban, but in his area, Mohsin says support is genuine and has grown because of specific local grievances.
"After 2001, people were very optimistic that peace and stability would come - that we would see a proper government that would attend to the needs of people," he said.
"In the first year or two, people were waiting, but it didn't happen. Taliban had reappeared in the area - trying to reorganise their old comrades, but people didn't support them.
"Then, as they saw the government becoming more inefficient, corrupt and indifferent, they started tending towards the Taliban."
Both Gul Mohommad and Mohsin claimed endemic corruption in government is behind popular discontent, but Mohsin said the spark for the insurgency was the appointment of a particularly predatory police chief to the district.
"Imagine - during the day, the police are police and at night, they are robbers. They plunder people's houses, they loot the bazaar and kill innocent people.
"People became very angry. They stood against him and his group. And the Taliban grabbed this opportunity. They attacked the district headquarters and, until now, it's under Taliban control."
Foreign anger
The governor of Wardak, Abdul Haleem Fedaee, who was appointed a year ago, says he cannot reject or confirm the existence of Taliban elements in the state.
"But we have intelligence agencies who monitor the civil service and we have other people - elders and clerics - who would also identify anyone who was fighting with the Taliban," he said.
He said some civil servants may support the Taliban with money or mobile phone cards, but said they tend to be intimidated and terrorised into helping.
Fighting in Wardak has been fierce this year.
The US' counter-insurgency strategy is to take areas from the Taliban by force, protecting civilians from the insurgents and allowing the Afghan government to expand into the newly "liberated" zones.
Mohsin says American action has just led to more anger.
"In our area, Americans have made their base in people's houses. They have blocked the road for 5,000 houses and they have blocked water for an irrigation system that serves a large agricultural area and water for the mosque.
"They have started to cut trees on both sides of the road to stop ambushes. People used to think foreign forces were here to ease life and help them - but now their presence is problematic."
Gul Mohammad says he had not seen a waning of popular support for the weekend jihadi.
"The people are helping us from the bottom of their hearts. During the fighting, they give us food. They help us with economic and technical problems."
He says he will keep fighting during his spare time until the foreigners leave.
"We will win - not because of planes and soldiers, but by the will of God."
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To Save Afghanistan, Look to Its Past
By ANSAR RAHEL and JON KRAKAUER September 11, 2009 The New York Times Op-Ed Contributors
NO matter who is ultimately certified as the winner of Afghanistan’s presidential election, the vote was plagued by so much fraud and violence, and had such low turnout, that it is inconceivable the Afghan people will regard the victor as a legitimate leader. And if a majority of Afghans do not consider the president and his government to be legitimate, the military campaign now being waged by the United States and its allies is doomed to fail, regardless of the number of troops deployed.
Current discussions about cobbling together mistrustful factions into a new power-sharing government will produce neither enduring democracy nor short-term peace. The slate must be wiped clean. Afghans need to start again from scratch and choose their leader by a fresh process that restores legitimacy to the national government.
Fortunately, such a process already exists — one that is both highly respected by the Afghan people and recognized in the Afghan Constitution: the convening of an emergency loya jirga, or grand assembly. The loya jirga has been called in times of national crisis in Afghanistan for centuries. In 1747, such an assembly in Kandahar selected Ahmad Shah Durrani as the first king of Afghanistan, uniting a patchwork of contentious tribal entities into the modern Afghan state. The loya jirga, moreover, is not only deeply rooted in Pashtun tradition, but is also consistent with notions of Western representative democracy.
Afghan society remains predominantly illiterate, agrarian and tribal. Indeed, the last king of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah, often referred to himself as the “chief of all tribes.” Local disputes are routinely resolved by tribal elders seated on the ground in a circle, a gathering known as a jirga (or a shura in non-Pashtun regions). A loya jirga is, essentially, the same process on a much grander scale: an immense assembly of esteemed tribal leaders designated to debate issues of utmost national importance. Unlike presidential elections, which strike most Afghans as alien and fundamentally suspect, jirgas of all sizes are trusted and utterly familiar institutions.
According to the Constitution (which was itself ratified by a loya jirga in 2004), such a council can be convened “to decide on issues related to independence, national sovereignty, territorial integrity as well as supreme national interests.” Doing so does not depend on the support of any particular individual or group, including the president. While historically it was the king who most often initiated the process, the House of People, one of the two houses of Parliament, can directly convene a loya jirga at any time.
The Constitution further states that neither the president nor his ministers nor members of the Supreme Court have voting rights in a loya jirga; those are reserved for members of both houses of the Parliament and the provincial and district leaders. While in session, it trumps all other bodies of government. As the Afghan Constitution unambiguously declares: “The loya jirga is the highest manifestation of the will of the people of Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan faces a number of crises, any one of which would alone justify convening a loya jirga as soon as possible. But the most compelling reason for doing so is to have Afghans from disparate tribes, regions and ethnicities come together, outside the acting government, to select a president who will be considered legitimate by the people. No other process — not a presidential decree, a special commission, a court ruling, an elections committee, an act of Parliament or an internationally sponsored conference — could accomplish this.
Certainly, a loya jirga is no panacea. The emphasis on achieving consensus can cause discussions to drag on interminably. The process may not be immune from political intimidation or even violence. During the loya jirga that considered the Constitution, ethnic factions argued so vehemently that some Westerners feared the nation would splinter. In the end, however, such worries proved groundless. The Constitution was ratified. The loya jirga worked.
The debacle of last month’s election underscores a basic flaw in the efforts by the United States and other Western nations to solve Afghanistan’s problems: the country is simply not ready for direct presidential elections or a presidential system of government transplanted from a Western model of democracy.
A political structure like India’s, with a prime minister, would be a much better fit. And the proper mechanism for converting the Afghan government along these or any other lines is the loya jirga, rather than ad hoc political appointments (like anointing a chief executive to serve under the president), as some have suggested.
Because it is a unifying, time-honored and uniquely Afghan mechanism, a loya jirga offers the best hope for hitting the reset button and rapidly transforming Afghanistan’s political landscape. This would give the Afghan people a badly needed dose of optimism about the future of their beautiful, ravaged country.
Ansar Rahel, a lawyer, advised King Mohammad Zahir Shah’s loya jirga committee. Jon Krakauer is the author of “Into Thin Air” and the forthcoming “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.”
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Cousin had to retrieve Afghan reporter's body after raid
By Hal Bernton, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Thu Sep 10, 7:07 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi intended to head back to Germany this fall to study public policy and push his career in a new direction. Instead, he was buried this week in an arid cemetery on the north side of Kabul .
Munadi, a 34-year-old Afghan employee of The New York Times , died Wednesday morning in a volley of bullets as British commandos sought to free him and his colleague, Stephen Farrell , from insurgent kidnappers in Kunduz Province .
Farrell survived the firefight, but a British commando died, as did Munadi, whose body was left behind, according to friends and family members.
Munadi's death was a source of anguish for the burgeoning Afghan press corps that's emerged in the eight years since Taliban rule ended. Dozens of them assembled Thursday around the grave, and praise Munadi as one of the most brave and talented of his generation of journalists.
The circumstances of his death were a source of anger, with journalists demanding an investigation into whether the Taliban or British commandos killed Munadi and why his body was left behind after the raid. They alleged a double standard, that valued Western lives above Afghan ones.
"There is no justification for the international forces to rescue their own national and retrieve the dead body of their own soldier killed in action, and leave behind the dead body of Sultan Munadi," said Farad Paikar, an Afghan journalist reading a statement prepared by the Media Club of Afghanistan .
Alam, a cousin of Munadi who goes by a single name, said he drove north to Kunduz province after the family received a call from the Taliban . Alam left early Wednesday morning, venturing close to the village where Munadi and Farrell had been held captive. Then, he said, village elders met him with Munadi's body. Muslim tradition calls for a swift burial, so he drove home in time for funeral services Wednesday evening.
On Thursday, several hundred Afghan journalists assembled in front of The New York Times bureau, then formed a caravan of cars to pay their respects to Munadi's family, and drove to the gravesite.
Under the Taliban , the Afghan government had stifled independent reporting as they sought to imposed their version of Islamic rule on this nation. After their ouster, newspapers, television and radio station were launched, and many Afghan journalists also found work with McClatchy and other international media organizations.
Munadi is the fifth Afghan journalist to lose his life while on assignment in recent years. The anger over his death prompted President Hamid Karzai to meet Wednesday with Afghan journalists. The next day, a presidential spokesman, Hamid Elmi , showed up at the memorial service, and said there'd be a government investigation into Munadi's death.
"As far as we know, the Afghan Ministry of Defense , somehow they were involved in this operation, but we are waiting for a full investigation," Elmi said.
"He was a journalist," said Faroud Samin, an Afghan friend and colleague. "People call us fixers or translators. But these are the ears, eyes and tongues of these foreign journalists who are coming. They are the ones passing the reality of Afghanistan to the world."
Munadi had returned in August from his studies in Germany to share Ramadan with his wife, two young children and other family members. As the presidential campaign and its aftermath drew heavy attention across the world, however, he decided while on this summer break to do a temporary stint with his old employer, The Times, friends said.
In fact, Munadi had already decided to change careers. In his blog for The New York Times , he wrote: "Being a journalist is not enough; it will not solve the problems of Afghanistan . I want to work for the education of the country, because the majority of people are illiterate.
(Bernton reports for the Seattle Times . Special correspondent Hashim Shukoor contributed to this article.)
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Controversy deepens over Afghan hostage rescue
by Waheedullah Massoud – Fri Sep 11, 5:48 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Recriminations over a bloody raid that freed a New York Times reporter from Taliban captors in Afghanistan deepened on Friday with both Britain and the newspaper defending their actions.
British-Irish journalist Stephen Farrell escaped unharmed in Wednesday's dramatic commando operation, but his Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi was killed in the crossfire along with a British soldier, and an Afghan woman and child.
Munadi's brother said negotiators were on the brink of winning their release and slammed the raid as "thoughtless" despite insistence from British Foreign Secretary David Miliband that it was "the only way" to secure their freedom.
"There was no need for this operation at all," Munadi's brother Mohammad Osman told AFP ahead of a Kabul memorial service for the Afghan reporter.
"The ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross), the United Nations, tribal elders were all involved in optimistic negotiations for their release, when all of sudden this raid took place," he added.
"This was a totally thoughtless raid resulting in the martyrdom of Sultan."
Interviewed by the BBC, Miliband refused to confirm that negotiations were well advanced with the Taliban.
Farrell and Munadi were snatched on Saturday in the northern province of Kunduz as they interviewed residents about a NATO air strike that Afghan officials say killed and wounded civilians.
"We looked at all the options -- and I stress all the options. We had full information in front of us from when we were first briefed on this at the weekend," Miliband said.
"We came to the conclusion that the only way in which we could secure the successful release of both hostages was through the military action that was taken," he told the BBC.
Colleagues of the well-respected Munadi are outraged that his bullet-riddled body was abandoned at the scene.
"I am confused, lost and upset about the way the Western people sometimes value us. It's like our blood is not red," said Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary, formerly with the BBC World Service, in an email.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend a prayer ceremony at a Kabul mosque later Friday to pay their respects to Munadi.
His father Karban Mohammed said Munadi telephoned him 90 minutes before he was shot to say he was confident they would soon be freed.
"Sultan was sure of that. My son's words brought me so much happiness I felt maybe I could sleep for the first time in many nights," Mohammed told Britain's Independent newspaper. "Yes, I feel very angry about what happened."
Reaction to Farrell's release mirrored anger that many Afghans expressed over the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist in 2007. His interpreter was beheaded and his driver killed.
"I cannot blame one particular person for this," said Munadi's brother.
"It is everyone -- the government, the New York Times, Taliban and finally the main responsibility for his death lies with British forces who launched this unnecessary operation."
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller hit back at "simplistic" criticism that the reckless pursuit of news by Farrell caused the kidnapping.
"That Sultan and the soldier lost their lives in this episode is heartbreaking, and it's human nature to look for someone to blame, but to blame the journalist is simplistic at best," Keller said in an email to AFP.
"Steve consulted with American and Afghan colleagues and, like other journalists who made the same trip, concluded that it could be done safely.
"It was an important story -- a report of scores of dead innocents at a very sensitive period in the politics of Afghanistan -- that could not be verified by phone calls or the Afghan rumour mill.
"It called out for on-the-scene reporting if possible," he wrote.
Farrell and Munadi were the second New York Times team kidnapped in Afghanistan in less than a year.
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Killing Of Afghan Journalist Raises More Uncomfortable Questions
September 11, 2009 By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Criticism and anger are mounting over the rescue of a Western journalist from Taliban militants.
The September 9 pre-dawn raid in a remote corner of northern Afghanistan rescued "The New York Times" correspondent Stephen Farrell. But four people died in the shoot-out, including Farrell's Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi and a British commando.
Afghan journalists are holding remembrance ceremonies and have staged protests across the country blaming international troops for Munadi's death. They have also criticized NATO commandos for leaving Munadi's body behind after the raid.
Angry Afghan journalists want this incident to be thoroughly investigated. They claim it is emblematic of a larger problem, when such operations often result in freeing Western hostages while caring little for Afghan nationals.
In Britain, media outlets are questioning whether military force should have been used, as negotiations with the hostage-takers appeared to be making progress.
The two were kidnapped in northern Konduz Province while reporting on the recent controversial NATO bombing of two hijacked fuel tankers, which killed scores of people.
In a telephone interview with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan from Paris, Reza Moini, a regional researcher with Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres), joined the call for a thorough investigation.
"Our efforts will not be limited to conveying condolences and expressing our sympathies," he says.
"What is important for us is that Munadi's killing happened under circumstances that have raised many questions. That's why our [formal] statement demanded an investigation into this incident. And we want the troops involved in this rescue operation to answer our questions."
Major Rethink
The raid was the second major incident this month which has brought the West's military role in Afghanistan into the spotlight.
According to Afghan officials, an earlier NATO air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers on September 4 killed scores of people, including many civilians. The incident has created rifts among NATO allies and fueled Afghan concerns about the West's military effort in the country.
A quest for a major rethink on Afghanistan is increasingly obvious in Western capitals.
Last week Britain, Germany, and France jointly called for a United Nations-led conference on Afghanistan to develop a plan for transferring more security responsibilities to the Afghan authorities.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the initiative at a news conference in Berlin on September 6, saying they were launching it together with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Many hopes had been pinned on the August 20 Afghan presidential election, which had been expected to deliver a new administration that would work with its international partners to deliver improved governance and play its role in defeating the Taliban insurgency.
Instead, the elections results have been marred by allegations and investigations of fraud as the Afghan political elite splits into increasingly hostile camps.
In a week of bad news for the country, the London-based International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) issued a report on September 11 saying that the Taliban and other militants now have a "permanent presence" in 80 percent of Afghanistan. Another 17 percent of the country, according to the report, has "substantial" Taliban or militant activity.
Training Locals
Nobody seems to have clear answers to the troubling question of what happens next in Afghanistan.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, the new Canadian Ambassador in Kabul, William Crosbie, remained cautiously optimistic that despite the deteriorating security situation in southern Afghanistan, where 3,000 Canadians are battling Taliban insurgents, greater training of the Afghan forces could still help in improving the situation:
"We have been working closely in the [Kandahar] Province and the national government to train policemen and to train the Afghan national army to assume a greater role in providing security," Crosbie says.
"But I think the security situation in Kandahar reflects the deterioration in security in various parts of the country, which is of concern to us. The additional resources which ISAF will be bringing into Afghanistan, the increased training, the increased number of Afghan national security forces -- those will be critical to turn around the security situation."
But experts suggest that training Afghan security forces cannot happen in a political vacuum as clouds of uncertainty hang over the Afghan election.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, has urged critics of the poll not to "jump to conclusions."
Meanwhile, despite an expected request for more troops for Afghanistan by top U.S. and NATO Commander General Stanley McChrystal, senior leaders in America's Democratic Party are now publicly questioning the logic of sending additional soldiers in harm's way.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and the chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, is expected to oppose more troops for Afghanistan in a speech on September 11. This comes a day after the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said that she sees little support among U.S. legislators for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
Such comments put President Barack Obama in an uneasy position.
Pelosi is the highest-ranking Democrat to signal that any White House or Pentagon push for more troops will be resisted in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, meanwhile, said he is urging Democrats to withhold judgment until Obama decides what to do.
Earlier this year, Obama ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which would bring the total number of U.S. forces there to 68,000 by the end of 2009.
RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Jawad Mujahid and Sharifa Esmatullah contributed to this report
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Afghan warlord General Atta Mohammad Nur warning raises fear of election violence
The Times By Jerome Starkey and James Hider 09/11/2009
Kabul - One of Afghanistan’s most powerful warlords has defended the popular right to protest against the presidential election results, raising fears that the country could be engulfed by violence if supporters of the losing candidates reject the poll as being rigged.
General Atta Mohammad Nur, who broke ranks with the Government to support President Karzai’s main election rival, insisted: “It is the right of our people to defend their votes. Demonstrations, gatherings, strikes and protests against fraud being carried out by the current system are the absolute right of the people.”
Speaking on national television, he accused the country’s Interior Minister, Hanif Atmar, of “forcing people to keep silent”.
The two men fought on opposite sides during the Soviet occupation: General Atta was a Mujahidin commander, while Mr Atmar lost part of his leg fighting for the communists.
“They are threatening people from whose blood they have gained positions and powers,” General Atta, the Governor of Balkh province in the north, added. “No internal or external power can oppress our free people.”
His comments follow threats from the Interior Ministry to “break the teeth” of anyone who demonstrates.
The main opposition leader, Abdullah Abdullah — who has 28 per cent of the vote compared with Mr Karzai’s 54 per cent, with almost all the votes counted — warned yesterday that the fraud was a “recipe for instability”. He has vowed to use every legal means possible to challenge the results but his supporters have warned of Iran-style protests — with Kalashnikovs — if Mr Karzai wins outright in the first round, insisting he could only do so by cheating. Diplomats fear the country could be split along ethnic lines.
“Most people don’t realise how dangerous the situation is,” said an Afghan businessman. “They underestimate the opposition, and most people overestimate the Government’s ability to calm things down.”
The price of Kalashnikovs has almost doubled in recent weeks, prompting speculation that people are rearming in the post-election chaos despite years of international efforts to reduce the number of weapons in circulation.
The UN-sponsored Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) ruled 83 polling stations out of the count yesterday, citing fraud in at least three provinces. The commission did not say how many overall votes were nullified. On Tuesday they ordered a partial recount in some areas amid fears that the Independent Election Commission (IEC), responsible for tallying the votes, was caving in to pressure from the President to ignore blatant irregularities.
Mr Karzai needs 50 per cent plus one vote to avoid a second round. But the ECC has the authority to annul suspect ballots. While Mr Karzai has welcomed the results, UN officials said that as many as one in five votes may have been cast illegally.
Western diplomats are pressuring the IEC to exclude suspect ballots. But the published results show that officials have already ignored clear evidence of fraud. At one polling station in Torzai, Kandahar, Mr Karzai won 100 per cent of the 4,049 votes. Four of the eight booths collected exactly 500 votes. Grant Kippen, the Canadian head of the ECC, said that the audit and recount orders applied across the country, not just to southern provinces where monitors have already started sifting through ballot boxes for evidence of fraud. Asked if the IEC had been seriously compromised by fraud, he replied: “We [the ECC] are the safety valve in that respect. It’s good that we are here, and we have the ability to respond to this.”
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Explosion wounds 9 Afghan civilians in East
KABUL, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Explosion in eastern Afghanistan's khost province Friday wounded nine persons, all of them civilians, officials said.
"Nine wounded people, eight children and one adult, have been hospitalized," director of health department in Khost city Abdul Majid told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, provincial police chief Gul Dad also confirmed the incident, saying the blast that occurred at 12:40 p.m. local time (GMT 2010) also damaged a shop.
Khost has been the scene of a series of bomb attacks over the past couple of months.
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McChrystal: No major al-Qaida signs in Afghanistan
By Mike Corder, Associated Press Writer
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan said Friday he sees no signs of a major al-Qaida presence in the country, but says the terror group still maintains close links to insurgents.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal spoke on the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al-Qaida that prompted the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The invasion quickly toppled the Taliban regime that had sheltered al-Qaida leaders who plotted the 9/11 attacks, but has since bogged down amid a deadly insurgency.
"I do not see indications of a large al-Qaida presence in Afghanistan now," McChrystal told reporters at the Dutch Defense Ministry, where he met military officials.
But he warned that Osama bin Laden's network still maintains contact with insurgents and seeks to use areas of Afghanistan they control as bases.
"I do believe that al-Qaida intends to retain those relationships because they believe it is symbiotic ... where the Taliban has success, that provides a sanctuary from which al-Qaida can operate transnationally," he added.
The specter of al-Qaida terrorists being harbored by insurgents in lawless areas of Afghanistan serves as a reminder to America and its allies of why the increasingly unpopular war started.
Last month, McChrystal sent a "strategic assessment" of the war to U.S. and NATO leaders. He has not revealed its contents publicly, but said at the time that success in Afghanistan "is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort."
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which will bring the total number of U.S. forces there to 68,000 by the end of the year.
McChrystal is expected to ask for more troops soon, but would not elaborate on numbers Friday.
"My position here is a little bit like a mechanic. We've got a situation with a vehicle and I've been asked to look at it and tell the owner what the situation is and what it will cost to make the vehicle run correctly and I will provide that," he said.
"Now I understand that the vehicle owner then has to make a decision on what the car is worth, how much longer he intends to drive it," he added. "Whether he wants it to look good or just run."
McChrystal can expect the U.S. Congress to take a long look at any cost estimate he sends them.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat in Congress, said this week she did not think "there's a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in the Congress."
But while skepticism about the war in Afghanistan grows, McChrystal said allied troops there likely prevented other terror attacks since 9/11.
"We have not been struck again in the United States, and I think the strikes that would have hit across the world — not just in Europe or the United States but I think also in much of the Muslim world — I think have been prevented," he told The Associated Press. "I can't prove that because you can't prove a negative, but I certainly strongly believe that is the case."
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Whistleblower sues Afghanistan security contractor
By Charley Keyes September 11, 2009
(CNN) -- A former manager for the private contractor that provides guards for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan said he tried to blow the whistle more than a year ago about inadequate staffing and improper behavior by guards, including going to brothels and sex trafficking.
James Gordon filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Thursday claiming he was forced from his job illegally in February 2008 by ArmorGroup, North America (AGNA) -- a security contractor owned by Wackenhut Services Inc. Gordon said he asked the company and the U.S. State Department in investigate activities in Kabul by the company's guards, but there was no follow-up investigation.
Gordon's suit, which seeks back pay and unspecified punitive damages, follows separate reports last week by a watchdog group that the contractor allowed mistreatment, sexual activity and intimidation within the ranks of private guards hired to protect the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.
A spokeswoman for Wackenhut at its Florida headquarters released a statement saying Gordon had resigned voluntarily and that his departure was not tied to whistleblowing nor was there retaliation by the company.
"We found that Mr. Gordon's factual allegations and legal claims were overstated, ill-founded, not based on any personal knowledge, or otherwise lacking in legal merit. We chose not to accede to the demands of Mr. Gordon and his lawyers and instead to let them present their case in court if they chose to do so," the Wackenhut statement said.
Gordon spoke to a Washington news conference by telephone Thursday, saying he is working for another security firm in Kabul but declining to give any further details.
Explaining his lawsuit, Gordon said, "I set out two years ago to see to it that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was protected. I am hoping that the public airing of this lawsuit will bring us closer to that goal."
Last week a watchdog group, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), released photographs showing raucous partying and sexual hazing by private embassy guards. POGO sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and briefed reporters on its findings, which it said were based on e-mails and interviews with more than a dozen guards who have worked at the U.S. compound in Kabul.
In the wake of POGO's actions, the State Department said the behavior shown in the photos was "disgusting" and launched several investigations and said it had removed some of the private guards from the country.
Meanwhile the same company continues to guard the U.S. Embassy, a contract worth more than $180 million a year.
State Department Spokesman P.J Crowley said in his daily briefing in Washington that the department had "aggressively overseen" the contract for embassy guards and had issued nine so-called "cure notices" to correct specific deficiencies since the contract began in 2007.
"At no time was the security of the embassy ever threatened or compromised," Crowley said.
But Gordon called the assertion "ludicrous."
"If you hire a guard force that is placing you at risk because of their behavior, and is also inadequate with regard to the fact of language difficulty between elements of the guard force, I don't see how anyone can say the government is getting what they are paying for and it doesn't compromise the integrity of the embassy itself," Gordon said, referring to reports that some of the private guards hired by the contractor were non-English-speaking Gurkhas from Nepal.
"If the guards can't communicate with each other, how are they going to communicate in a disaster? How are you going be able to properly respond to a scenario if you have to use pantomime to properly convey a message to a member of the security force? It is ludicrous for anyone to say that is a safe environment and an effective security force," Gordon said.
Crowley said State Department officials had interviewed more than 150 guards since pictures were released last week by the watchdog group, and that a total of 16 people had been kicked out of the country.
But Crowley would not comment on the new claims that private guards had patronized brothels and allegedly been involved in sex trafficking, with Crowley saying he would not discuss any matters that might be under litigation.
In his lawsuit Gordon said one employee "had to be forcibly removed from a brothel in Kabul during working hours."
Gordon said he tried to have that person dismissed but found other ArmorGroup personnel, including "the AGNA medic and the program manager himself had frequented the brothels with him."
"On the heels of this incident I learned that there had been an outbreak of sexually transmitted disease among AGNA guards in 2007 that had never been reported as required to the State Department, and that the guard force routinely frequented brothels," Gordon said Thursday.
Gordon said the company resisted "with outright hostility" his efforts as a manager to impose a no-brothel policy. And Gordon said he asked both the company and the State Department to investigate whether guards were personally involved in sex trafficking, and that to his knowledge nothing was done.
"United States law, known as the Trafficking in Victims Protection Act, prohibits contractors from procuring commercial sex while working on the contract," Gordon said in a statement. "Many of the prostitutes in Kabul are young Chinese girls who were taken against their will to Kabul for sexual exploitation."
Gordon said a trainee had boasted that he could purchase a girl for $20,000 and turn a profit after a month.
"I immediately notified both the State Department and AGNA's president, and urged the company to thoroughly investigate whether sex trafficking was occurring among the guard force ... To my knowledge neither AGNA nor the State Department conducted a follow-up investigation," Gordon said.
Another former manager of guards in Afghanistan spoke with Gordon during the news conference. The second manager, John Gorman, is not involved in Gordon's lawsuit but said he wanted to highlight what he called fraud, deception and incompetence, as well as what he called "sexually deviant behavior" exhibited by people hired as guards in 2007.
Gorman, who said he is a former U.S. Marine, also said he was forced out after he tried to spread the alarm about embassy security.
"Knowing full well that our jobs were on the line, we went to the embassy out of a sense of duty and patriotism," Gorman said. He said he went to the embassy to report problems after first complaining to ArmorGroup North America about what he called the company's "inability to provide for the security and safety of the U.S. personnel."
"In any interaction I have had with corporate officials from AGNA, no one -- no one -- ever mentioned or indicated a concern for the actual safety of the embassy. The greatest and only concerns were the profit margin," Gorman said.
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9/9 in Afghanistan
Seattle Times - Hal Bernton
Kabul -- Abdullah was 16 years old when Ahmed Shah Massoud first came to his family's wheat-farming village in the northern province of Takhar.
Massoud needed mujahedeen fighters to battle the Soviets, and Abdullah's parents, who were helping feed the troops, were proud for him to join in this jihad.
For more than two decades, Abdullah served under the man considered one of the great military strategists of the 20th century as he battled the Soviets, and then the Taliban, from a base in the rugged Panjshir valley north of Kabul.
Early on, Abdullah lost a leg fighting the Soviets. But he got a prosthetic and somehow kept fighting until he retired in his early 40s, after the toppling of the Taliban.
"From the day we started jihad, he was our leader, a good man, and I was proud of him," said Abdullah.
Abdullah has retired back to his village. There is no government pension for his years of service but he makes a living farming wheat. This week, he and his friends journeyed south to Kabul to join hundreds that gathered in a huge tent on Tuesday to honor Massoud on the anniversary of his death --- Sept. 9, 2001.
Massoud was slain by two assassins. The killers posed as Arab journalists, then exploded a bomb during an interview.
In America, the assassination of Massoud is often remembered as a kind of warning shot fired across the bow in the run-up to 9/11, when Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida attacked the United States with hijacked airplanes.
Here in Afghanistan, 9/9 - not 9/11 - is the national day of mourning. The day honors a man that the government promotes as a kind of founding father of the new Afghan nation.
In this divided nation, there are plenty of people who don't accept that image - especially the Pashtuns in the east and the south of Afghanistan.
But in Kabul, this capital city, images of Massoud are hard to escape. His soulful face stares from posters plastered all over town. There is a Massoud Square that features a tower of resistance. And though the CIA often balked at supporting Massoud, the U.S. Embassy is now located on the Great Massoud Road.
The ceremony to honor Massoud was held in the same huge tent that was the site of a 2002 Loya Jirga gathering to establish the new government. Security was tight, and my camera, as well as all my other electronic equipment, got special scrutiny before we were allowed inside.
I sat towards the back and could barely see all the way to the front, which was bathed in spot lights. The speakers included two of Massoud's brothers and plenty of politicians. They spoke in the rhythmic cadences of Dari. Every once in a while, someone would stand up in the audience and recite some poetry in Massoud's honor or lead the crowd to yell "Allah Akbar" or "God is Great."
There was plenty of talk about Massoud. How he lived a spartan life and never separated himself from his people, how he didn't flee the country when times got tough.
The word jihad was repeated often, denoting a proud tradition of fighting the Soviets that was followed by the resistance effort against the Taliban. The scars from all that fighting were easy to spot in this crowd.
Next to Abdullah, the graying warrior who lost his leg fighting the Soviets, sat another man who had lost his leg fighting theTaliban. A few seats down, I met an 18-year-old who lost his leg when he accidentally stepped on a mine when he was 10.
Through all those years, Massoud endured, shifting alliances and hunkering down in his rugged valley. The speakers heaped praise on him as a leader who shared hardships with his people rather trying to get rich.
"The years I spent with him with were the best of my life, even though we had money problems," said Abdullah Abdullah, who served for years as a Massoud emissary to the West and now seeks to become president of Afghanistan.
Many of Massoud's associates have prospered in recent years, their associations helping them to wield power in government and business. But among some of the speakers Tuesday, there was a sulky tone.
They chafed at the disrespect they felt is shown today to mujahedeen fighters, especially from Western officials. They had driven out the Soviets and helped end the Cold War. Yet now some of these leaders were dismissed as "war lords," said Abdul Rab Rasool Sayaf , who heads a political party called the Islamic Unity Movement.
After the memorial service ended, I drove back to the guest house. Being a holiday, there wasn't much traffic on the street. The open streets allowed Massoud supporters to race about town in long caravans of cars and trucks. They put his picture on their car windshields, and played music in homage to their fallen leader.
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Afghan 'Indiana Jones' hunts lost Bamiyan statue
Lyse Doucet BBC Newsnight, Bamiyan Thursday, 10 September 2009
Dr Zemaryalai Tarzi is an Afghan with a big dream. To be exact, this archaeologist dreams of a giant - a 1,000ft (300 metre) sleeping Buddha.
Try to imagine a stone statue reclining across the length of three football fields.
But it is more than a dream. Dr Tarzi is trying to make it a reality.
"At first, people told me I must be mad," he recounted, barely concealing a smile, as we stood at his excavation in the midst of potato fields in the ancient Afghan city of Bamiyan.
"An archaeologist needs proof. We need to keep searching."
Dr Tarzi, who has been mapping the landscape of Bamiyan for 40 years, is renowned world-wide for his knowledge of the Buddhist civilisation that flourished centuries ago in the central highlands of Afghanistan.
Bamiyan was a storied destination for travellers journeying on the Silk Road between East and West.
Ancient text
In the 7th Century, a Chinese pilgrim, Xuan Zang, marvelled at a colossal reclining statue: "To the east of the city there is a monastery in which there is a figure of Buddha lying in a sleeping position, as when he attained nirvana. The figure is in length about 1,000 feet."
His detailed journal piqued Dr Tarzi's curiosity.
It read like tantalising proof because Xuan Zang also wrote with passion, and precision, of two magnificent stone Buddhas which stood guard over the valley.
The Taliban smashed those statues, the world's largest standing Buddhas, in 2001, denouncing them as un-Islamic idols.
That gave further fuel to Dr Tarzi's drive to find the third Buddha. It was an archaeologist's revenge.
"A country's history cannot be destroyed," he fumed.
I first visited Dr Tarzi in 2005, during the summer months he spends at the dig.
It was hard not to find myself willing him to succeed. He confessed, his voice breaking, he still could not bear to look at the gaping niches in the stone cliffs towering over the place where he was working.
Stunning finds
He is still there, looking for all the world like an Afghan Indiana Jones of the epic films, with his chino apparel, floppy hat, and air of scholarly adventure.
The earthen cavities are hives of activity. Afghan archaeologists trained by Dr Tarzi and French colleagues from Strasbourg University gently tap picks and trowels in the dust and dirt, backed up by a small legion of labourers.
His team's diligent search for hidden treasures has yielded a stunning array of stone remnants from the remains of Buddhist monasteries - small feet from statues, chiselled folds of monastic robes, sacred stupas.
Then, last November, a cry of excitement rang out across this verdant valley. At last, a sleeping Buddha had surfaced.
But it was not the fabled giant. Their persistent digging had uncovered fragments of a reclining figure estimated to be 62 feet (19 metres) long. One hand protruded visibly, without a thumb. The head was destroyed.
Bigger prize
It was still hard for a novice to visualise.
Dr Tarzi gave it his best, stretching himself sideways along a flat hard surface, one hand tucked neatly under his head. Indiana Jones could have done no better.
I ask whether this smaller statue may be all there is. It is, after all, a wonderful find.
"I will persist," the sprightly 70-year-old declared with a firm shake of his head. He guided us to another area running along the foot of the sandstone cliffs where he believes a much bigger Buddha still lies sleeping.
Dr Tarzi does not want this remarkable history to be forgotten.
In the middle of the day, when a hot sun blazes in the sky, he teaches a master class for young Afghans training to be tour guides at an eco-tourism centre set up with the help of the Aga Khan Foundation.
Bamiyan is one of the few places in Afghanistan now safe enough to dream of tourists too.
Playing the role of a would be tourist, I asked enthusiastic students to convince me to visit.
"Welcome to Bamiyan, historical place, safe for tourists," was the practised but heartfelt reply of an earnest bespectacled woman.
An older male student shouted from the back row, "Bamiyan is exceptional in Afghanistan".
All the students nodded in agreement.
When darkness descended, Dr Tarzi was honoured at a musical evening attended by a gathering of Bamiyan residents who wish him every success. A trio of musicians sang of destroyed Buddhas that are still very much alive.
The legend of a giant still lives in Bamiyan. He has slept through centuries of conquest, a quarter century of war, and the end of Taliban rule.
If he ever wakes, it would be a dream come true for Dr Tarzi, and countless other Afghans with their own dreams of a lost past and a brighter better future.
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Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul
By Joseph Attias Thursday, September 10, 2009 The Commentator
Today we think of Afghanistan as a war-torn, culturally oppressive, and intolerant nation. While there may very well be good reason for this view, Afghanistan possesses a little-known history as rich and complete with wonder as any other. Millennia before the Taliban, Islam, and even Christianity, settlers, attracted by the natural resources of the region (gold, tin and lapis lazuli) began to settle in the area presently called Afghanistan. These early settlements can be traced back over 7000 years, and by the Bronze Age, the area had developed an urban center that displayed early contact with Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Met’s exhibit draws on artwork from four primary sites. The Bronze Age settlement of Teppe Fullol; the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai Khanum established by the successors of Alexander the Great; the second century trade settlement of Belgram, which prospered as part of the Silk Road; as well as a funerary site of a wealthy warrior and his five princesses discovered beneath ancient temple ruins.
What makes this particular exhibit noteworthy is the fusion of cultures observable through the displayed artwork. Due to the Hellenism that permeated the region with the attempted conquest of Alexander the Great, Greco-Roman statues and bronzes can be observed in all their grandeur, and bear testimony to the Hellenizing of a region we might have otherwise thought quite dull. Works of art include depictions of Aphrodite, Eros and Dionysius, as well as Gorgons and other Classical motifs. But Western art is far from the only style to be seen in this exhibit. Due to contact with Mesopotamia, India and China, there is a wealth of stylistic variation among the pieces. Intricate reliefs depicting birth scenes of Buddah, as well as Mesopotamian bearded bulls, reveal the Eastern stamp that was also left on the region.
But due to Afghanistan’s privileged position at the crossroads of the Silk Road, what can be viewed is more than just a collection of Eastern and Western artwork. Craftsmen from Bactria (Northern Afghanistan) were privy to such a multitude of diversity that they fused East and West together to produce some of the most startling examples of artistic amalgamation from the ancient world. The most fascinating example of the synthesis between East and West is the solid gold statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, bearing an Indian spot on her forehead. This combination of Greece and India, Homer and the Vedas, is an indication of the mastery of cultures the craftsmen possessed and the artistic brilliance they poured into their respective works. Other examples include Indian style gold pieces inlaid with turquoise, depicting a Greek mythological scene including the gods Nike and Dionysius atop what may very well be the deeply symbolic lion of Hinduism. There is even a monument brought by Greek philosophers as a gift to the head of one of the towns. The philosophers came due to their curiosity about Eastern religion, and brought as their gift the monument inscribed with maxims from the Oracle of Delphi.
This fascinating display brings together the meticulous genius of Bactrian craftsmen who, deriving influence from opposing traditions, splendidly blended them together to create eye-popping spectacles. The exhibit abounds with gold and turquoise and is a fantastic demonstration of creative brilliance. The litterateur of the Helens united with the Sanskrit tradition comes alive in works of art that shine and glitter behind their glass cases as if they were crafted only yesterday.
Present-day Afghanistan is a region that has received visits and attempted conquests from Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the British, the Soviets, and most recently the United States. It is mistakenly thought of as void of any culture and history; as just another dry spot in the complex of states that make up this scorched region. While presently the region may be headed by a culturally suppressive force which does its utmost to obliterate evidence of their past, as evidenced by the Taliban’s blowing up the massive 1500-year-old statue of Buddha, if we merely scratch the surface, we can uncover one of the most captivating examples of cultural synthesis in world history.
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Indonesia detains 56 Afghan migrants heading to Australia
JAKARTA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian Navy has detained 56 illegal Aghan migrants suspected to enter Australia in eastern Indonesia, navy spokesman Iskandar Sitompul said Friday.
The spokesman said that the migrants were arrested on Thursday night when they were sailing by wooden boat on waters off West Nusa Tenggra.
"The 56 Afghan migrants now being detained in the navy base in West Nusa Tenggra, they were suspsected to enter Austrlia," he told Xinhua over phone.
Indonesia has been a favorable transit spot for illegal migrants from Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia and other countries, who attempt to enter Australia for better life.
In March, Indonesian Police arrested 59 Afghan and Pakistani migrants in eastern parts of Indonesia, who was travelling to Australia.
Indonesia and Australia have cooperated in handling the human trafficking.
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