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CIA Adding Bases in Afghanistan as Taliban Gains, Panetta Says
By Jeff Bliss
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The growing strength of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan prompted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to establish more bases there, the agency’s director said.
U.S. Afghanistan commander's troops request ready
By Peter Graff – Sat Sep 19, 2:01 pm ET
KABUL (Reuters) – The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has drawn up a long-awaited and detailed request for additional troops but has not yet sent it to Washington, a spokesman said on Saturday.
Taliban leader Omar says foreign troops face defeat
by Lynne O'donnell – Sat Sep 19, 2:07 pm ET
HONG KONG (AFP) – The shadowy leader of the Islamist Taliban movement issued a warning Saturday to Western troops in Afghanistan that their "unequivocal defeat" is imminent and they should learn the lessons of history.
Secret talks aim to heal Afghan political splits
FT.com By Mathew Green in Kabul 09/18/2009
Afghan politicians, power-brokers and diplomats are playing a game of intrigue that could broker a compromise to bury the divisive legacy of last month's disputed presidential election.
New evidence of widespread fraud in Afghanistan election uncovered
Exclusive footage obtained by the Guardian of ballot papers pre-marked for Hamid Karzai that were seized by monitors. The ballots appear to be stamped with the monitors' seal and ready to cast. The monitors filmed then destroyed the papers to stop them being used
guardian.co.uk Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Gardez Friday 18 September 2009
The shaky footage shows two election monitors inspecting
Afghanistan election: Hamid Karzai admits officials were 'partial' towards him
Hamid Karzai has admitted that government officials showed bias in his favour in Afghanistan's fraud-riddled presidential election.
By Julius Cavendish in Kabul 6:21PM BST 17 Sep 2009 Telegraph (UK)
In his first public acknowledgement that there was fraud in last month's polls, he conceded that "there were some government officials who were partial toward me".
India welcomes Afghan poll results
New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) India today welcomed the declaration of preliminary results of Afghan polls in which President Hamid Karzai has emerged as the leading candidate and vowed to strengthen its strategic partnership with that country.
Ballots for Afghan elections were pre-marked for Karzai: The Guardian
[ANI] - Kabul, Sep 19 : Some ready-to-cast ballot papers for Afghanistan's presidential election were pre-marked for Hamid Karzai, footage obtained by the Guardian has revealed.
CIA Chief: Karzai Apparent Afghan Election Winner
By Gary Thomas VOA News Dearborn, Michigan 18 September 2009
Official preliminary final totals in Afghanistan's recent presidential election have incumbent president Hamid Karzai the winner, but the election was marred by allegations of massive vote fraud. A U.N. electoral
Plight Of Afghan, Tajik Prisoners Brought To Light, Thanks To 'Gadfly' Media
September 19, 2009 By Charles Recknagel Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
It is easy for people imprisoned in a foreign land to be forgotten. They are of little interest to their government and even their relatives may find them too far away to visit.
Why Anti-Taliban Efforts Have Failed
By Tim McGirk / Kabul Time Magazine - Fri Sep 18, 4:24 am ET
Why has it been nearly impossible to coax Taliban fighters into turning in their weapons and cooperating with the Afghan government? The story of Mullah A stands as an all-too-common example.
5 civilians killed in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Five Afghan civilians were killed and two others sustained injures as unidentified armed men attacked the crowd in Jawzjan province, north of Afghanistan Friday night, said a statement of Interior Ministry issued here on Saturday.
Explosion kills 2 children in W Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two children were killed and three others wounded Saturday as the explosive vest of a suicide bomber went off prematurely in Herat province of western Afghanistan, a senior police official said.
Danish soldier killed in Afghanistan
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Danish soldier was killed and another slightly injured in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the Danish military said in a statement.
Taliban put their heads together
Asia Times By Syed Saleem Shahzad 09/18/2009
ISLAMABAB - Accusations and counter-accusations between President Hamid Karzai and his opponents over the August 20 Afghan presidential elections could drag on for months, placing at risk a stable post-election phase
Japan mulls Afghan role after dropping naval mission
September 19, 2009
(AFP) – TOKYO — The Japanese government is considering a new role in Afghanistan, after dropping a naval refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean, a media report said Saturday.
Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die
Middle East Online September 19, 2009
The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks,
'Kite Runner' Author's Trip to Afghanistan Kept Under Wraps
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 19, 2009 2:34 PM
KABUL -- A convoy of big white Land Cruisers roared into a dusty lane on the outskirts of Kabul last weekend. Chickens scattered, children gawked. A slight man in jeans stepped out, trailed by a film crew and several
Media Outrage Over Coalition Killing of Reporter
By Killid Correspondents IPS-Inter Press Service
KABUL, Sep 19 (IPS) - For many Afghans, slain Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi has become a symbol for all that is wrong with the United States-led war in Afghanistan.
Danish soldier killed in southern Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News - Sep 19 3:15 AM
COPENHAGEN – A Danish soldier was killed and another injured after they came under fire during a patrol in southern Afghanistan, the Danish military said Saturday.
Battle for Balkh
By P.J. Tobia IPS-Inter Press Service
KABUL, Sep 18 (IPS) - Events currently unfolding in Afghanistan’s northern province of Balkh may be a preview for the future.
Balkh Businessmen in Panic Over Abductions
Several kidnappings during elections prompt many to suspend trade and take their money out of the country.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Ahmad Kawoosh in Balkh (ARR No. 337, 17-Sep-09)
Engineer Ismail is still too terrified to talk about it. But his body betrays the violent nature of his abduction. His eyelids were sewn together, he was beaten and his arms were bound tightly with a cord. The imprint is still visible on his wrists.
Tragic Fate of Afghan Bomb Survivor
A year after her family died in an airstrike, a young girl still lives in the same village, alone and constantly in fear.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mustafa Saber in Azizabad (ARR No. 337, 17-Sep-09)
Seven-year-old Zahra looks like a typical Afghan girl in her traditional long dress and scarf, her short black hair peeking out from her head covering. She sticks close to home, seldom venturing far from her house. But it is not tradition that keeps her home but fear.
German commander calls for more troops, vehicles in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle - Sep 19 8:27 AM
A lack of troops and necessary equipment is a cause for concern for German forces in Afghanistan, says the German commander in the northern region. The 155-point list addresses problems from bullets to air conditioning.
Afghanistan: Looking For the Way Ahead
By SIMON ROBINSON London – Time.com via Yahoo! News - Sep 18 10:50 PM
In an election campaign that has been interminably dull, even by German standards, the Sept. 4 missile strike on two oil tankers hijacked by Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan was always going to grab attention.
Canada will withdraw Afghanistan troops in ‘11
09/15/2009 06:23:12 AM PDT
TORONTO (AP) -- Canada will not extend its mission in Afghanistan even if President Barack Obama asks him to when the countries’ leaders meet this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office said Monday.
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CIA Adding Bases in Afghanistan as Taliban Gains, Panetta Says
By Jeff Bliss
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The growing strength of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan prompted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to establish more bases there, the agency’s director said.
The extra CIA operatives are supporting the 17,000 additional troops President Barack Obama authorized soon after taking office this year, as well as the civilian government employees helping to rebuild the country after years of war, CIA Director Leon Panetta said in an interview.
“We are increasing our presence” because the Taliban’s “capabilities have improved a great deal” in Afghanistan, he said. “The result is that I think everyone, our military and civilian operations, demand better intelligence.”
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the security situation in Afghanistan is “serious” and “deteriorating.” He told lawmakers on Sept. 15 that it’s likely more troops will be needed to defeat the Taliban. The CIA buildup, which Panetta said is “going on as we speak,” reflects how fast the insurgency is gaining ground.
In the interview yesterday at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Panetta touched upon a range of security issues facing the agency.
He said he has asked senior CIA officials to develop a plan in case countries with weak or non-existent governments such as Yemen and Somalia descend into anarchy and become havens for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
North Korea
Panetta also said the U.S. may get the opportunity to negotiate with North Korea to scale back its nuclear and missile programs.
The U.S. is ready to engage directly with North Korea in an effort to bring the nuclear-armed regime back to multinational talks on disarmament, Philip J. Crowley, the top State Department spokesman, said in an interview Sept. 11.
The U.S. and North Korea “are discussing the ability to try to talk with one another,” Panetta said. “We’re in a honeymoon situation right now.” He credited former President Bill Clinton’s visit to the Stalinist state last month with opening up dialogue.
North Korea in May detonated a nuclear device, prompting United Nations sanctions and escalating military tension on the peninsula. Relations began to thaw after Clinton traveled to Pyongyang and returned with two detained U.S. journalists on Aug. 5.
Warming Trends
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s release of the Americans was followed by his regime freeing a detained Hyundai Group worker and four South Korean fishermen. A delegation from the North traveled to the South to pay respects after the death of former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, and the two Koreas this month settled a wage dispute at a jointly run industrial complex.
Kim said yesterday that he’s prepared to return to bilateral and multilateral talks on dismantling his nuclear program, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported, citing envoy Dai Bingguo.
On Afghanistan, Panetta said he thought the U.S. can be successful by relying on the experience of U.S. and NATO troops in the region and the counterinsurgency tactics championed by Army General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in the country.
While the Taliban “are clearly increasing their threat, we at the same time are learning a lot more about how we deal with them,” he said. “That gives me at least some hope that we can direct this in the right way.”
McChrystal’s Assessment
McChrystal has submitted his assessment of the security situation in Afghanistan and will also offer an analysis of how many additional U.S. forces may be needed. As American public opinion becomes more wary of the war, administration officials are under pressure to limit requests for more troops.
Al-Qaeda, which was based in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., is seeking other havens. They and the Taliban set up bases in neighboring Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, drawing missile attacks from CIA-directed Predator drones.
“Our operations in Pakistan, directed at al-Qaeda, have been very successful in disrupting al-Qaeda as far as their operations and their planning,” Panetta said.
If Yemen or other vulnerable nations become failed states, the CIA must be ready to “interdict” al-Qaeda agents before they can set up cells there, Panetta said.
“There is an al-Qaeda presence in most of these areas now,” he said. “But our concern is that it could develop into a base of operations,” he said.
Yemen
Yemen, at the southern tip of the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula, is fighting Shiite Muslim insurgents in the north on the Saudi border, a separatist movement in the south and a resurgent al-Qaeda. A militant tried to assassinate the top anti-terrorist official in Saudi Arabia in an attack on Aug. 27 for which al-Qaeda’s Yemeni-based organization took credit.
Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war and hasn’t had a functioning central administration since the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former dictator, in 1991.
Islamist groups including al-Shabaab and the Hisb-ul-Islam movement have gained control of most of southern and central Somalia in their bid to oust President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month during a visit to Kenya that Sharif’s government represents the “best hope” for a return to stability in the country.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net.
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U.S. Afghanistan commander's troops request ready
By Peter Graff – Sat Sep 19, 2:01 pm ET
KABUL (Reuters) – The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has drawn up a long-awaited and detailed request for additional troops but has not yet sent it to Washington, a spokesman said on Saturday.
He said General Stanley McChrystal completed the document this week, setting out exactly how many U.S. and NATO troops, Afghan security force members and civilians he thinks he needs.
"We're working with Washington as well as the other NATO participants about how it's best to submit this," said the spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, declining to give details of the contents.
He said it might be "a few weeks" before McChrystal sent his request to Washington or NATO's Brussels headquarters.
The announcement that McChrystal has already determined how many troops he wants comes just three days after President Barack Obama said he would not rush to make a decision.
"There is no immediate decision pending on resources," Obama said. "You have to get the strategy right and then make the determination about resources."
McChrystal commands more than 100,000 troops, rising to about 110,000 by the end of this year, two-thirds of them American.
The Pentagon has already doubled the size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan this year under an escalation strategy begun under President George W. Bush and ramped up under Obama.
McChrystal sent a review of the situation in the country to Washington and NATO last month, but was ordered to keep his advice on future force requirements out of that document and submit any requests for troops separately.
TOUGH DECISION
Obama's decision on whether to continue escalating the eight-year-old war could determine the fate of his key foreign policy issue.
Support for the mission has begun to flag in the United States, U.S. troops are dying in combat at the highest rate of the war and Obama faces skepticism from within his own Democratic Party about the need for more troops.
European NATO allies are showing even greater signs of weariness. Britain, Germany and France have jointly called for an international conference this year to begin to set timetables for Afghanistan to assume a greater role in its own security.
Meanwhile, Republicans have said Obama should quickly send McChrystal the troops he wants. They accuse the president of putting troops in danger by delaying the decision.
McChrystal took command of the U.S. and NATO forces in June, promising a new strategy that emphasizes protecting civilians, based on tactics from Iraq that need many troops with a presence in communities.
He may seek additional combat brigades to secure populous areas such as Kandahar in the south, and more troops to work as trainers, a role that involves combat forces embedding in small teams among Afghan security forces.
McChrystal will want to see an expansion of Afghanistan's own army and police, which are funded by Western donors.
Sholtis declined to say how the general would respond if Obama refused his request for more troops.
"General McChrystal has said in the past that if he did not feel that this mission was doable, he would tell the president that. He does feel that it's doable," he said.
"At this point, he is comfortable with where we're at."
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Taliban leader Omar says foreign troops face defeat
by Lynne O'donnell – Sat Sep 19, 2:07 pm ET
HONG KONG (AFP) – The shadowy leader of the Islamist Taliban movement issued a warning Saturday to Western troops in Afghanistan that their "unequivocal defeat" is imminent and they should learn the lessons of history.
Weeks before the eighth anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime, Mullah Omar painted Afghanistan as a graveyard for "colonial" troops.
In a statement issued to mark the Muslim festival of Eid, he referred to "huge casualties and sagging morale" among the more than 100,000 NATO and US-led troops in Afghanistan fighting Taliban-linked insurgents.
"The more the enemy resorts to increasing forces, the more they will face an unequivocal defeat in Afghanistan," the statement said.
Taliban-linked rebels have been resurgent in recent months, retreating from the battlefield as they intensify use of roadside bombs, particularly in the south.
This year more than 350 foreign troops have been killed, making it the deadliest year since the invasion on October 7, 2001.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Saturday a soldier -- whose nationality was not given -- was killed in a firefight in the south.
On Thursday six Italian troops and at least 10 Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul.
The attack led to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saying Italy now wanted to reduce its deployment in Afghanistan but only with agreement from NATO partners.
"We are keen to bring our boys home as soon as possible," Berlusconi said.
Omar is a founder of the Taliban and is often referred to as its "supreme commander." He is believed to be in Pakistan.
In his statement, he said that by maintaining their troops in Afghanistan the international community "will only prolong the current crisis but will never solve it."
"The invaders should study the history of Afghanistan from the time of the aggression of Alexander, to the Ganges of the yore and to this very day and should receive lesson from it," the English version of the statement said.
While public opinion in the US and Britain turns against deployment in Afghanistan, political and military leaders remain committed to eradicating the Taliban, and the US is expected to boost troop numbers in coming months.
Omar said Afghans should "avoid being tricked by the empty bluffs" of Western leaders who reiterate their commitment to Afghanistan.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the public of the West not to be deceived by the assertions of (President Barack) Obama, who says the war in Afghanistan is a war of necessity," he said.
"The West does not have to wage this war," he said, adding that assertions that the war in Afghanistan will keep the West safe from terrorism were "baseless utterances."
He lambasted as "corrupt" and "tyrannical" the government of President Hamid Karzai, backed by the international community and currently embroiled in controversy over a fraud-tainted August 20 election.
Karzai is ahead in preliminary results, with almost 55 percent of the vote, though hundreds of thousands of ballots may be recounted and could force him into a run-off against his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, on 27.8 percent.
"The rampant corruption in the surrogate Kabul administration, the embezzlement, drug trafficking, the existence of mafia networks, the tyranny and high-handedness of the warlords... are part of the colonial... plans," he said.
Calling Karzai's government "a corrupt and stooge administration" Omar said the election was "fraught with fraud and lies" and was "categorically rejected by the people," a reference to low turnout amid Taliban intimidation.
The Taliban was "wrongly depicted" as opposed to education and women's rights, he said, making no reference to the repression that kept women covered by burkas, banned from schools, and confined indoors unless accompanied by a male relative during the movement's five-year regime.
"Our goal is to gain independence... and establish a just Islamic system," he said.
"We can consider any option that could lead to the achievement of this goal," he said, adding: "However, this will only be feasible when the country is free from the trampling steps of the invading forces and has gained independence."
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Secret talks aim to heal Afghan political splits
FT.com By Mathew Green in Kabul 09/18/2009
Afghan politicians, power-brokers and diplomats are playing a game of intrigue that could broker a compromise to bury the divisive legacy of last month's disputed presidential election.
Western missions in Kabul say the country's destiny will be decided by a recount of hundreds of thousands of suspect votes that could overturn the lead of Hamid Karzai, the incumbent president.
Behind closed doors, however, opposition leaders and foreign envoys are in talks that could boost the influence of technocrats and trim presidential powers.
Yet the participants will have to juggle such an array of ethnic, regional and political factors that any unity government might be less capable of confronting a Taliban insurgency than its predecessor.
“Just imagine that you're taking birds from different species and forcing them to live together in a cage,” says Waheed Mojda, a political analyst. “They are only staying in the cage because they fear the cat – the Taliban.”
The west's worry is that disputed polls will trigger a prolonged power struggle while Barack Obama, the US president, is battling to convince Congress to back a counter-insurgency strategy aimed at winning Afghan support.
Evidence of fraud has prompted a UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission to order a partial recount that could invalidate an existing tally that gives Mr Karzai outright victory over Abdullah Abdullah, his main rival.
Yet a second-round run-off might not be feasible before winter snows melt, raising the risk of a vacuum that could be exploited by insurgents behind bombings in Kabul, including an attack on Thursday that killed six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians.
There is a chance that a second round might be held sooner than expected. An official at the Independent Election Commission said staff were told on Thursday to ensure they had supplies in case they had to stage a run-off. Mr Abdullah and Mr Karzai have both said they believe the complaints process must take its course, although the president has played down prospects for a second round, saying reports of rigging are exaggerated.
Mr Abdullah, who served Mr Karzai as foreign minister before they fell out, said on Thursday he would not join a coalition. “My point right from the beginning was not to get a post in the government, but rather to bring change ,” he said.
The impasse has encouraged manoeuvring by other presidential hopefuls. Sarwar Ahmedzai, who has a strong following in parts of the Pashtun south, says he made a proposal to UN and US diplomats under which Mr Karzai would remain president but create new posts to allow technocrats to oversee security, economic and foreign policy.
Any compromise would need to balance competing ethnic interests in the face of growing alienation in the Pashtun areas, the main theatre of the Taliban insurgency, and discontent among northern minorities who back Mr Abdullah.
Analysts say Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank executive who also ran against Mr Karzai, might be a natural choice to try to rally Pashtuns. “Ghani and Karzai are holding private meetings to make sure Pashtuns don't lose power,” said a senior member of Mr Karzai's campaign team. The insider said there had been no direct contact between Mr Karzai and Mr Abdullah.
Appeasing northern sentiment will also be complex. Analysts say figures such as Ata Mohammed Nur, governor of Balkh province, might wield even more influence than Mr Abdullah, whose friends in Iran and Russia will want a say. With relations between Mr Karzai and western allies strained, and foreign diplomats divided over strategy, it is unclear how much influence Europe and Washington will be able to exert.
But for Afghans, who braved Taliban rockets and threats of mutilation to vote, the spectacle of flawed elections giving way to a messy compromise might undermine support for democracy.
“We have to have a fair outcome,” says Mohammed Qasim Akhgar, editor of Hashte-e-Sobh, a daily newspaper. “Otherwise we'll have to to hold a funeral to bid farewell to democracy.”
Additional reporting by Fazel Reshad
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New evidence of widespread fraud in Afghanistan election uncovered
Exclusive footage obtained by the Guardian of ballot papers pre-marked for Hamid Karzai that were seized by monitors. The ballots appear to be stamped with the monitors' seal and ready to cast. The monitors filmed then destroyed the papers to stop them being used
guardian.co.uk Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Gardez Friday 18 September 2009
The shaky footage shows two election monitors inspecting a book of 100 ballot papers that are still stitched together, as they were intended to arrive at the polling station in rural Afghanistan. But something is wrong; instead of being pristine, ready for the voter to make his or her mark, each paper bears a large blue tick next to the name of one candidate: Hamid Karzai.
As the monitors flick through the pad, the back of the ballots clearly show the authorisation stamp of election monitors, validating them as votes ready to be put in the ballot box and counted.
"We found it the day after the elections," one of the monitors in the footage told me. "They were trying to put it in one of the [ballot] boxes but didn't have time, so we took it home and filmed it. If we had given it back to the election committee they would have used it again, so we burned it, but filmed it to protect ourselves if they come and threaten us."
The video footage is just part of a picture of widespread fraud in the Afghan election uncovered by the Guardian.
On Thursday, President Karzai told a news conference: "I believe firmly, firmly in the integrity of the election and the integrity of the Afghan people, and the integrity of the government in that process." But evidence given by a number of officials and voters tells a very different story, one in which the selling of votes to presidential candidates was common and the idea of the election being fair was laughable.
I met a different official outside a Kabul juice bar, where he sat on the kerb with a look of defeat on his face, clutching a glass of squeezed pomegranate and wrapped by the blue fumes of kebab stalls and passing cars.
He showed me a series of photographs taken inside a brown cardboard voting booth in a village in Paktiya province of Afghanistan. One shows a man marking a big pile of ballot papers in the name of Hamid Karzai. Another shows a pile of election ID cards spread in front of an unidentified man wearing black shoes. "This man brought 120 cards and he used each of them to vote three times," said the official.
He had intended to hand his photographs to his superiors, he said, but as election day unfolded it became obvious that his superiors were themselves taking part in the fraud. "I thought I would give the pictures to the election committee. But they were all working for Karzai." Fearing he had been spotted taking the pictures, he fled to Kabul.
"Everyone was cheating in my polling station. Only 10% voted, but they registered 100% turnout. One man brought five books of ballots, each containing 100 votes, and stuffed them in the boxes after the elections were over."
The election official came from the district of Ahmad Aba in Paktiya, an area of dusty hills framed by high, ragged mountains and typical Afghan hamlets with mud-walled compounds, cornfields and orchards.
I sat there with half a dozen men on an embankment in the shadow of willow and apple trees. They were waiting for the Ramadan fast to pass, fumbling with their plastic prayer beads. Boys sat in a bigger circle behind the men and behind them shoes, a prosthetic leg and flip-flops were stacked.
Haggling
As the men relaxed and smilingly described the election day, it became clear that what would constitute large-scale fraud in western context meant little more to them than the usual haggling over chicken or vegetables in a market.
"Election day was very good and very peaceful here," said one villager. "The security was very good. It was a like a feast day."
"Personally on polling day I put in 10 ballots," said another. "I took my voting card and the cards of the women in my family and went to the polling station. No one said anything to me. All the women's votes were cast in this way."
Behind the embankment, the women and girls stood in a stream, washing clothes. Another three were scrubbing the metal gate of a nearby compound, preparing for the end of Ramadan.
A man with a shiny black turban joined the circle. Told what we were discussing, he laughed. "On polling day the people who did the cheating were the officials," he said. "They worked for the candidates." His family had voted, he said, but the women hadn't gone to the polling station. Their ballots were sold to the candidates' representatives. "Only four old women cast their votes."
The vote had come down to a battle of budgets, with agents for both Karzai and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, giving money in exchange for votes.
"The big tribal elders took lots of money from Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah. They were supposed to distribute it, but they didn't give much to us, only 1,000 Afghani ($20), or a mobile phone card. The elders took all the money."
The black turbaned man squinted mischievously. "Election day was a good day," he said. "We hope there is election every year." The men laughed.
In a nearby hamlet I met a fresh-faced election monitor who said he was 25 but looked younger. We squatted on the edge of a dusty field while he described how the fraud had worked in his village.
"It was all cheating on election day," he said. "Each candidate had his men cheating for him in the polling station and they all knew the others were cheating. Even I cheated," he said. "I didn't want to, but when I saw everyone cheating, I put 20 ballots in for Ashraf Ghani [a former finance minister], and then I called all my friends in other villages and we collected more ballots for him.
"In the beginning I thought of selling my 20 cards to Karzai or Abdullah, but then I said no, they have enough votes." He showed me three identical voting cards with his name and picture. "It was so easy to get those," he said.
"Karzai and Abdullah had their men in the polling station, but there was no one for [Ghani], so we cheated for him. He is a very educated man and with good strategy for Afghanistan. Also we are all from his tribe in this area. I tried to put my extra ballots in our polling station, but I had some enemies who tried to take my picture so I went to another polling station and no one asked to ink my finger or anything, they just said bring cards and put them in the box. It was a very happy day.
"Karzai's men were paying 1,000 Afghani per family and Abdullah's were paying 1,500 Afghani. But many people took money from Abdullah and voted for Karzai anyway."
The election monitor insisted it was a "democratic" area, meaning only that they were not hostile to government. They were educated and many worked in the government, but they had also worked in all previous governments.
Like many differences in Afghanistan, the cheating had run along ethnic lines. In the villages, where people were predominantly Pashtun, they had generally cheated for Karzai, but in the provincial capital, Gardez, the mostly Tajik people had cheated for Abdullah Abdullah.
Violations
I drove into Gardez to meet a third election monitor.
Shots rang out in the distance as we talked. The Taliban and Afghan security forces were fighting on the outskirts, but in the market life was normal. Street sellers shouted and trucks honked.
"I was offered $2,500 by Abdullah's team to work for them on election day, but I didn't," he said, describing a range of violations, from police ferrying voters so they could vote Karzai, to officials stuffing hundreds of ballots.
At Karzai's election headquarters in Gardez, he saw the head of a group of Pashtun tribes who he knew had taken money from Karzai's people. The village elders each took between $8,000 and $10,000, he said. "The election committee workers were very weak, so the representatives of each candidate took their 'own' boxes and started counting them."
There was a commotion, and a green police truck pulled up, parading the spoils of a rare victory: the dusty, bloody bodies of two dead Talibs.
We stood and watched as soldiers posed in front of them, their colleagues snapping pictures with mobile phones. A crowd gathered, and an Afghan officer in wraparound sunglasses began an impromptu victory speech.
We left them, and drove back to Kabul.
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Afghanistan election: Hamid Karzai admits officials were 'partial' towards him
Hamid Karzai has admitted that government officials showed bias in his favour in Afghanistan's fraud-riddled presidential election.
By Julius Cavendish in Kabul 6:21PM BST 17 Sep 2009 Telegraph (UK)
In his first public acknowledgement that there was fraud in last month's polls, he conceded that "there were some government officials who were partial toward me".
But he insisted that the issues of ballot box stuffing had been overblown and that such allegations feature in elections all over the world.
He stopped short of implicating members of the Independent Election Commission, all of whom are Karzai appointees and some of whom admitted that they broke their own rules by counting suspicious ballots during the tally.
Instead President Karzai dismissed allegations of widespread fraud as media exaggeration, insisting that the vote was still valid.
"Like other elections of the world ... there were problems and sensitivities in the Afghanistan elections, but it has not been to the extent which the media speak of," he said. "If there was fraud, it was small - it happens all over the world."
Mr Karzai added that he had so far only seen concrete evidence that 1,200 ballots were faked. Hee said that if some government officials had been overzealous in their support for him, then others had favoured his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
"That's something that we understand and we must accept for now until Afghanistan grows further into a more stable state structure, into a more bureaucratised civil service and into a more apolitical institutionalised civil and military service in the country," he said.
Complete but uncertified results released on Wednesday showed Mr Karzai winning the election in a single round with 54.6 per cent of the vote. Dr Abdullah trailed on 27.8 per cent.
Mr Karzai also accused journalists of misreporting what had happened on election day, by concentrating on the allegations that hundreds of thousands of ballots might be fake and not paying proper respect for the bravery of the Afghan people to turn out and vote.
"Almost half of the country was under attack, hundreds of rockets came on election sites all over the country, but people even then came out and voted," he said.
European Union election observers announced earlier in the week that 1.1 million votes cast for Mr Karzai were suspect, compared with about 300,000 for Dr Abdullah. The UN-backed watchdog investigating complaints of fraud has annulled about 200,000 ballots and ordered a recount of 10 per cent of votes.
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India welcomes Afghan poll results
New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) India today welcomed the declaration of preliminary results of Afghan polls in which President Hamid Karzai has emerged as the leading candidate and vowed to strengthen its strategic partnership with that country.
External Affairs Ministry said India appreciates the determination of the Afghan people who participated in the election process despite threats and attacks meant to disrupt the elections.
"India welcomed the successful holding of the Presidential and Provincial Council elections in Afghanistan on August 20," the MEA said in a statement.
"We welcome the announcement of the preliminary results, of all the votes counted by Independent Election Commission in which President Hamid Karzai has emerged as the leading candidate having secured 54.62 per cent," it said.
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Ballots for Afghan elections were pre-marked for Karzai: The Guardian
[ANI] - Kabul, Sep 19 : Some ready-to-cast ballot papers for Afghanistan's presidential election were pre-marked for Hamid Karzai, footage obtained by the Guardian has revealed.
Ballot papers pre-marked for Hamid Karzai that were seized by monitors. The ballots appear to be stamped with the monitors'' seal and ready to cast. The monitors filmed then destroyed the papers to stop them being used.
The footage was taken by two election monitors who inspected a book of 100 ballot papers, which were still stitched together, as they were intended to arrive at the polling station in rural Afghanistan.
“But, instead of being pristine, ready for the voter to make his or her mark, each paper bears a large blue tick next to the name of one candidate: Hamid Karzai,” the report says.
"We found it the day after the elections. They were trying to put it in one of the [ballot] boxes but didn''t have time, so we took it home and filmed it. If we had given it back to the election committee they would have used it again, so we burned it,” the paper quoted one monitor, as saying.
Numerous other evidences have surfaced not only in support of the vote-rigging theory, but also to suggest that the idea of the election being fair was laughable in Afghanistan.
An election official showed a photograph of a man marking a big pile of ballot papers in the name of Hamid Karzai. Another picture shows a pile of election ID cards spread in front of an unidentified man wearing black shoes, the report says.
"This man brought 120 cards and he used each of them to vote three times. I thought I would give the pictures to the election committee. But they were all working for Karzai,” said the official, who fled to Kabul fearing that he might have been caught taking pictures.
"Everyone was cheating in my polling station. Only 10 per cent voted, but they registered 100 per cent turnout. One man brought five books of ballots, each containing 100 votes, and stuffed them in the boxes after the elections were over," he added.
According to the paper, the vote had come down to a battle of budgets, with agents for both Karzai and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, giving money in exchange for votes.
"Karzai''s men were paying 1,000 Afghani per family and Abdullah's were paying 1,500 Afghani," villagers of Ahmad Aba district in Paktiya region said.
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CIA Chief: Karzai Apparent Afghan Election Winner
By Gary Thomas VOA News Dearborn, Michigan 18 September 2009
Official preliminary final totals in Afghanistan's recent presidential election have incumbent president Hamid Karzai the winner, but the election was marred by allegations of massive vote fraud. A U.N. electoral oversight group has ordered a partial recount. But the head of the Central Intelligence Agency believes that will not make much of a difference.
In an exclusive VOA interview, CIA director Leon Panetta says that even if suspect ballots are discounted, President Hamid Karzai will in all likelihood win re-election.
"It's clear that there was some degree of corruption and fraud involved in the election," Panetta said. "It's being viewed now by the commissions involved in counting those votes. I think what appears to be the case is that even after they eliminate some of the votes that resulted because of fraud, that Karzai will still - still looks like the individual who's going to be able to win that election."
The preliminary final results have Mr. Karzai with enough votes to avoid a runoff with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. Mr. Karzai has angrily denied major fraud and denounced the media for what he says are exaggerated reports of electoral corruption.
The election comes at a crucial time as the U.S. ponders its strategy in Afghanistan and whether more troops are needed. The Taliban has expanded its influence and ratcheted up attacks on NATO troops.
CIA chief Panetta says that the Taliban fighters of 2009 are not necessarily the same as the Taliban of 2001, and that in fact there is no single Taliban. He says there are different groups, usually along tribal lines, fighting for different reasons.
"It's a mixed bag. You don't have just one brand of Taliban," Panetta noted. "The ones that we're most concerned with, however, are those that are obviously engaging in military action, are taking American lives, and are operating in a way that we see as much more effective and much more efficient in terms of warfare. And that's what concerns us, it concerns the president of the United States."
Panetta says the Taliban attacking NATO troops are still getting help from across the border in Pakistan.
"Well, we think that they continue to receive encouragement from al-Qaida in Pakistan, and they continue to receive encouragement from the terrorists who are located in Pakistan, and that because of that relationship we view them very much as a threat to peace in Afghanistan," Panetta said.
The CIA has come under fire for using rough interrogation techniques on al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. The so-called enhanced interrogation techniques were ordered by senior officials in the Bush administration. Speaking to agency employees in April, President Obama initially promised not to investigate or prosecute CIA officers after Justice Department memos disclosing the rough methods surfaced. But in August Attorney General Eric Holder ordered an investigation of CIA officers for alleged abuse of detainees. Panetta, who is a political appointee to the CIA job, vehemently opposed the action.
Asked what he says to angry CIA officers who feel betrayed by the Obama administration's action, he says he tells them to stay focused.
"I think that if we get trapped by the politics of the past it'll take away our future and impact on our ability to do our jobs. So my message to the people at the CIA is, let's do our job, let's stick together," Panetta said. "If we do, I think we can deal with whatever takes place politically in Washington because in the end what Washington needs and what this country needs is a CIA that is focused on doing its job."
The probe is expected to cover both direct CIA employees and contractors. Despite his opposition, Panetta says he and the agency will cooperate with the inquiry.
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Plight Of Afghan, Tajik Prisoners Brought To Light, Thanks To 'Gadfly' Media
September 19, 2009 By Charles Recknagel Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
It is easy for people imprisoned in a foreign land to be forgotten. They are of little interest to their government and even their relatives may find them too far away to visit.
For Afghans imprisoned in jails in Tajikistan, that is particularly true. Some have spent years in prison on charges of crossing the border illegally or drug trafficking and during that time they have had little or no contact with home.
This is despite the fact that Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed a treaty more than a year ago on prisoner exchanges so that inmates could serve out their sentences in their own countries.
But the situation looks set to change, after the prisoners’ plight was brought to the attention of both governments with a little help from the media.
As it does, the experience is providing a glimpse into how Afghans have come to expect the media to play the kind of gadfly role in their society that it plays in other countries with a much longer tradition of a free press.
'Thanks. Abdullah'
The story begins with a recorded telephone message in July from a prisoner to RFE/RL Radio Free Afghanistan’s talk show “Liberty and Listeners.”
“Hello, all Radio employees! I am speaking on behalf of all Afghan prisoners in Tajikistan’s prisons," the man says. "According to an agreement signed between Afghanistan and Tajikistan on June 20, 2008, all Afghan prisoners were supposed to be transferred to Afghanistan to serve the rest of their terms in Afghan prisons. Unfortunately, no step has been taken in this regard so far. Thanks. Abdullah.”
Following up the case, “Liberty and Listeners” confirmed that there was, indeed, a prisoner exchange agreement between the two countries. But the agreement had yet to be implemented because it had fallen into a bureaucratic limbo.
The moderator of “Liberty and Listeners,” Zarif Nazar, discovered that no one had yet taken the final steps needed to conclude the deal after making calls to Afghanistan's Interior, Foreign, and Justice ministries.
In each case, a ministry spokesman or official confirmed the agreement’s existence and offered some detailed information about it. But as to when prisoners might be exchanged, and under what conditions, there seemed to be nothing but confusion.
“None of them gave us complete information, and one said it is not our job, you should contact the Foreign Ministry," Nazar says. "But in fact all three ministries had important roles to play in the matter.”
'Watchdog And Advocate'
As each ministry claimed to be waiting for missing pieces from the other before the agreement could move forward, it became clear that without a gadfly the agreement might never move forward at all.
“We saw clearly why people need to have a free press that can play the role of a watchdog and advocate," Nazar says. "And people all over Afghanistan began listening with real interest to see where this effort to be a gadfly was going to end in the face of the kind of bureaucratic indifference that every Afghan knows so well from personal experience.”
With the topic coming up weekly, Afghan government officials also appeared to be listening closely.
In early August, “Liberty and Listeners” received a call from Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dodfar Spanta. He said he had heard what the spokesman from the various ministries had said and he was ready to try to explain himself where the agreement stood.
“I listened to your interview with a spokesman of the Afghan Foreign Ministry – my own spokesman – and the deputy justice minister, and I feel there is a need to provide more concrete information," Spanta said.
"With the initiative of the Afghan Foreign Ministry, an agreement on prisoners’ exchange has been signed between us and Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry. The agreement has been approved by both chambers of the Afghan parliament and signed by the president.”
Spanta said the hang-up in the agreement was that Dushanbe had requested some additional special conditions and wanted a letter from Kabul confirming acceptance of them. One of the conditions was not to free the to-be-repatriated prisoners until the time of their full sentence was served.
Surprise Announcement
And then the Afghan foreign minister produced a surprise announcement. He said he had just received a letter from the Justice Ministry confirming Afghanistan’s acceptance and he had forwarded the letter to the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe.
For the next weekly program, on September 11, “Liberty and Listeners” called Afghanistan’s ambassador to Tajikistan to see if he had yet received the necessary letter.
The ambassador, Sayid Mohammad Khairkhoh, said he had. And he, too, had a surprise announcement. The embassy had prepared all the necessary documents for establishing a joint Tajik-Afghan commission needed to oversee the exchange, and implementation of the agreement was now being discussed with the Tajik government.
“Now the ball is on the Tajik side,” he said.
Were any of the Afghan officials that “Liberty and Listeners” phoned surprised to be getting a call from the press on behalf of some prisoners forgotten in a neighboring country?
“They were surprised," Nazar says, "but we also were surprised by their reaction. They took it seriously and that gives us hope that they understand this is the proper role of the press, no matter whether the people are prisoners or from other walks of life.”
It is too soon to know when a prisoner exchange will actually take place. But “Liberty and Listeners” plans to keep watching the progress. And, with thousands of people listening to the program each week doing the same, Nazar hopes the result will be a well-learned civic lesson for everyone.
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Why Anti-Taliban Efforts Have Failed
By Tim McGirk / Kabul Time Magazine - Fri Sep 18, 4:24 am ET
Why has it been nearly impossible to coax Taliban fighters into turning in their weapons and cooperating with the Afghan government? The story of Mullah A stands as an all-too-common example.
A few years back, the Taliban commander thought his personal war with the Americans was over when he surrendered his Toyota Land Cruiser, a stack of rocket-propelled grenades and his personal weapons to the police chief in Kandahar. Mullah A, who prefers not to be identified, was exhausted. In late 2001, when U.S.-backed forces were pushing into northern Afghanistan, the commander saw most of his men wiped out by heavy American bombardment. He was one of the few survivors, and he fled south, back home to Kandahar, convinced that his fighting days had come to an end.
As part of the surrender, Kandahar's police chief gave Mullah A a letter of protection. But the would-be ex-guerrilla fighter soon realized the paper was worthless. Like so many other Taliban who tried to lay down arms, the commander had a complex history, interwoven with tribal rivalries and greed. The CIA was offering $100,000 for the return of Stinger antiaircraft missiles, and the local intelligence chief, who belongs to the enemy Achakzai tribe (allied to President Hamid Karzai's Popalzai tribe), was convinced that he could make good money if he shook down Mullah A to see if he was holding back a few Stingers. "I told him I didn't have any," Mullah A informed TIME by telephone. That resulted, the Taliban commander alleges, in the Achakzai intelligence chief arresting and torturing Mullah A's brother and cousin. "My cousin was strangled to death," the commander says.
Out of rage and also out of fear for his own life, Mullah A rejoined the Taliban. Nowadays, he and his men ambush U.S.-led coalition targets in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, and he brags to TIME that recently his outfit blasted a dozen rocket-propelled grenades into the NATO base at Kandahar.
Greed. Mutual suspicion between Karzai and his Western allies. Pro-Karzai tribesmen elevated to government posts only to take revenge against their ancient rivals. These factors contribute to the catastrophic failure of attempts to wean the guerrillas away from fighting. And unless the situation changes — rapidly — it is unlikely that the next government of Afghanistan will fare any better at winning over the Taliban. Indeed, the next government will probably be led by Karzai, who will lack credibility after the pervasive claims of vote-rigging in the presidential election. Given that everyone from President Obama on down to his military commanders and Karzai now say that the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, retooling efforts to reconcile with the Taliban may be the last chance for a durable peace in Afghanistan.
Where did it go wrong? First, the U.S. and Karzai had different goals. The Afghan President wanted an amnesty extended to all Taliban, from their leader Mullah Omar down to the lowliest turbaned jihadi. "The Americans said 'No way. We don't deal with terrorists,' and they excluded the leadership," one senior Afghan official explained to TIME. One tactic that worked well in Iraq has not been used in Afghanistan. The U.S. forces in Mesopotamia were able to buy off the Sunni insurgency there by offering a monthly wage of $300 for each of 90,000 fighters. No such incentive has been offered to the Taliban.
One Western official, closely connected to efforts to reach out to the Taliban, blamed the failure squarely on President Karzai. In Kandahar and Helmand, which are now major Taliban strongholds, the official says, Karzai personally appointed many "violent and predatory" district officials and police chiefs from his own extended tribe. "When the police started robbing and pillaging," the Western official says, "the villagers had no choice but to turn to the local [Taliban] commanders for protection."
In early 2008, Karzai set up a Peace and National Reconciliation program headed by his old mentor, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a religious scholar and former President. The U.S. and other donors put up $3 million, but refused to contribute more after they learned that Mojaddedi, 83, spent a large chunk of the money on salaries for his family and loyal retainers. "Mojaddedi's people say they had 5,000 Taliban hand over their guns," says one angry Afghan official, "but I asked them if they had any big commanders among them, and they couldn't name a single one."
The cutoff in new Western funds to the program has crippled whatever chances the amnesty project had of coaxing in Taliban fighters. The Kandahar office says it now operates with a budget of $700 a month and has only reeled in 537 disaffected Taliban in nearly two years. "We can only offer them $20 for their weapon. They can get far more than that in the bazaar," says Kandahar director Haji Agha Lalai. "We should be able to give them a job, rent money, but we can't." This paltry offering cannot compete with the wages and benefits that a Taliban fighter collects from his commanders who, Afghan officials allege, are bankrolled by Pakistani intelligence services covertly helping the Taliban regain ground.
Many returning Taliban are also hounded by other Taliban, who see them as traitors. Their old foes too have not ceased to pursue longstanding feuds. An ex-Taliban commander, who goes by the single name of Gargari, says he has been afraid to return to his home in the northern province of Mazar-e-Sharif because he says that the warlord Mohammed Atta is threatening to kill him to settle old scores.
In Helmand, where coalition forces have encountered fierce Taliban resistance, British officials rightly concluded that many of the Taliban fighters were local tribesmen with grievances against Karzai's personally appointed officials, many of whom were shaking down villagers for bribes. In 2007, A British-led program to rehabilitate Taliban fighters and give them job training was abruptly shut down by Karzai himself, who accused the British of colluding with the Taliban. The situation is complicated by a century and a half of suspicions about Britain's colonial legacy in Afghanistan.
The few attempts by Karzai to reach out to Taliban leaders fizzled largely because the Taliban wanted a third-party to act as go-between. The President either sent his brother or a few Taliban defectors who were distrusted by their former jihadi comrades. Mullah Omar broke off talks through Saudi Arabia several months ago, saying that the Taliban would only talk with Karzai once all foreign troops had agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan. Taliban experts say that, if anything, the fraud-tainted elections have damaged Karzai's standing so badly that the Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan no longer see the need for peace talks. In other words, says Taliban commander Mullah A, "We believe we will win."
— With reporting by Shah Mahmoud Barakzai / Kabul and Muhib Habibi / Kandahar
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5 civilians killed in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Five Afghan civilians were killed and two others sustained injures as unidentified armed men attacked the crowd in Jawzjan province, north of Afghanistan Friday night, said a statement of Interior Ministry issued here on Saturday.
"Unknown gun men opened fire at people who were praying in Bati Zadran Mosque of Haqcha district Friday night, as a result, five people were killed and two more injured," the statement added.
Interior Ministry has launched a full investigation, it said.
It added that Afghan National Police has arrested six suspects with links in the incident.
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Explosion kills 2 children in W Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two children were killed and three others wounded Saturday as the explosive vest of a suicide bomber went off prematurely in Herat province of western Afghanistan, a senior police official said.
"A suicide bomber, apparently going to target police and international forces, was killed as his explosive vest went off prematurely in a lane near a local market," police commander in western region Ekramuddin Yawor told Xinhua.
"Two children passing the scene were killed and three others including a woman and two children got injured in the blast, " the police official said.
No groups or individuals have yet to claim the responsibly while Taliban militants often blamed for such kind of attacks.
A suicide bombing against Italian troops in the capital of Kabul left 16 people, including six Italian soldiers, dead and over 50 others injured on Thursday.
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Danish soldier killed in Afghanistan
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Danish soldier was killed and another slightly injured in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the Danish military said in a statement.
The Danish troops came under attack from insurgents during a foot patrol in Helmand province and one of them was killed, the statement said.
The injured soldier was transported by helicopter to a field hospital for treatment.
A total of 25 Danish soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far.
Denmark, a NATO member, has about 700 troops in Afghanistan, mostly stationed in Helmand province as part of NATO's International Assistance and Security Force.
Helmand is one of the most dangerous provinces, a major drug-producing base where the Taliban militia is active.
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Taliban put their heads together
Asia Times By Syed Saleem Shahzad 09/18/2009
ISLAMABAB - Accusations and counter-accusations between President Hamid Karzai and his opponents over the August 20 Afghan presidential elections could drag on for months, placing at risk a stable post-election phase that was to have seen the opening of dialogue with the Taliban.
At the same time, regional armed groups have buried their differences in an effort to develop a counter to Washington's AfPak strategy that has seen a surge in the number of troops - and deaths - in Afghanistan, while also striking some telling blows against militants in Pakistan.
In Pakistan, United States Predator drone missile attacks have caused havoc with the command structure of the Pakistani Taliban-al-Qaeda nexus. Key Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in August, while the low-profile Ilyas Kashmiri, a Kashmiri veteran commander who joined al-Qaeda and changed the dynamics of the regional war theater, was killed recently.
In addition, ongoing military operations in Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan have gone a long way to breaking the militant networks that had been built up since 2002 and which fed into the insurgency in Afghanistan.
Decision-makers in Washington and London have adopted a twofold approach under which they would on the one hand escalate military operations against the Taliban, while also offering political deals to those Taliban commanders they believed could be isolated from extremist elements.
In this way, a broad-based consensus government that included the Taliban would be set up in Kabul, and Western forces would finally be able to exit the country they invaded in 2001 to topple the Taliban regime.
The contested Afghan election has derailed this idea. A second round of voting will take place if Karzai's share of the total vote - which currently stands at 54% - drops under 50%. With 10% of the ballots cast in the polls being rigorously investigated after complaints by the main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, this is possible, and it could take months.
While there is discord and disunity in Afghanistan, in an unexpected development, four strange bedfellows from regional armed groups gathered in the Afghan province of Khost about 10 days ago for prolonged discussions on the course of the regional resistance against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Pakistani security forces.
These leaders included Sirajuddin Haqqani, who commands the largest Taliban group; the newly appointed chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud; his rival Mullah Nazir, a Taliban commander from Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area who commands the biggest Taliban fighting network in the neighboring Afghan province of Paktia; and Gul Bahadur, a Taliban commander in North Waziristan.
Sources familiar with the meeting told Asia Times Online that it had been convened at the personal initiative of Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose emphasis was on immediate reconciliation between all Taliban factions - the Taliban are divided in the Pakistani tribal areas along tribal lines.
Although they all pledge allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and his resistance against foreign forces in Afghanistan, in their own constituencies they remain divided. For example, Mullah Nazir and Gul Bahadur are from the Wazir tribe and have always been at odds with Mehsud tribesmen. At times, they have supported the government's military operations against one another.
One of the main issues addressed at the meeting was the military operations in Pakistan as these have devastated the Taliban's supply lines into Afghanistan. In past years, the Taliban have launched thousands of men annually across the border; this number has now been severely reduced.
The leaders agreed that all Taliban groups, whether they were rivals or not, would maintain close coordination and also develop joint operations when required. Such coordination among assorted armed groups has worked in Afghanistan, but this is the first time it has happened at a regional level.
Cooperation between different anti-coalition groups, especially in north Afghanistan, has brought unexpected success. The attack on Italian paratroopers in a NATO convoy in Kabul on Thursday is a case in point.
The suicide attack, which claimed the lives of six soldiers and 10 civilians, according to official reports, was the result of coordination between a number of anti-coalition groups, even including the local administration.
A senior commander who is not authorized by the Taliban to issue statements did, however, talk to Asia Times Online. He called himself a jihadi with the name of Abu Abdullah.
"The [Kabul] operation was planned by Sirajuddin Haqqani, and about two dozen people were sent from Khost to Kabul at different times. They stayed at different locations in the Taliban's safe houses. One person was then picked for the suicide mission. The others are waiting for further operations in coming days," Abu Abdullah said.
According to Abul Abdullah, the operation was coordinated with local pro-Taliban people in Kabul who have deep penetration in the local administration and who track the movements of NATO convoys. An observation post was set up with the help of local sympathizers in the administration who alerted the attacker to three vehicles approaching through a main artery. The bomber's car then rammed smack into one of the vehicles.
Abu Abdullah claimed that all three vehicles had been destroyed and that 25 NATO soldiers had been killed.
"This is one of several successful attacks on NATO troops which has been actively supported by the masses, like the masses supported the resistance against the Soviets [in the 1980s]. If God is willing, we will carry out similar actions in the future," Abu Abdullah said.
In addition to such attacks, the Taliban are expected to concentrate on disrupting NATO's supply lines through Pakistan as well as those from Central Asian countries going into northern Afghanistan. Further clashes with the Pakistani security forces are also inevitable.
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Japan mulls Afghan role after dropping naval mission
September 19, 2009
(AFP) – TOKYO — The Japanese government is considering a new role in Afghanistan, after dropping a naval refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean, a media report said Saturday.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is keen to offer agricultural aid and other assistance aimed at stabilising the economic and social situation in the violence-torn nation, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
Hatoyama took office on Wednesday after his centre-left Democratic Party of Japan scored a massive election victory, ousting the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.
Hatoyama, who formed a coalition with two smaller parties, campaigned on a promise of sweeping change, including stopping Japan's Indian Ocean mission providing fuel to US-led forces operating in Afghanistan.
Washington has asked Japan to propose alternatives to the mission by November, when President Barack Obama visits Japan, the Yomiuri said, citing unnamed sources.
Tokyo is mulling non-military assistance, the newspaper said.
Hatoyama and other senior DPJ members have expressed their will to support efforts by the international community to help Afghanistan, but have not publicly discussed specifics.
The leader of the Social Democratic Party, the DPJ's coalition partner which has a long-standing objections to the mission, said Saturday Japan should help Afghanistan's nation-building efforts.
"Police, schools, hospitals... Japan should demonstrate its full ability in offering help in peaceful areas... nation-building and social areas," said Mizuho Fukushima, who also serves as consumer affairs minister in the Hatoyama government.
Visiting US envoy Kurt Campbell, US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, told the Asahi Shimbun that the Obama government would welcome Japanese aid for Afghanistan in whatever form.
The refuelling mission was controversial in Japan and has long been opposed by the DPJ, which said Japan should not take part in "America's war."
Conservatives and experts however have said it was a small price to ensure the Japan-US alliance.
The mission worried pacifists as the nation's constitution limits the use of military force to self defense.
Some 100,000 US and NATO-led forces are in Afghanistan helping the government battle the Taliban, whose hardline regime was overthrown in a US-backed invasion in late 2001.
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Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die
Middle East Online September 19, 2009
The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan, says Dahr Jamail.
On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men's and women's wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters.
Soldiers demanded that hospital administrators inform the military of any incoming patients who might be insurgents, after which the military would then decide if said patients would be admitted or not. Fange called the incident "not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict, but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement" between nongovernmental organizations and international forces.
Fange said that US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff.
Impeding operations at medical facilities in Afghanistan directly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the obstruction of medical operations during wartime.
Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer for the US Navy, confirmed the raid, and told The Associated Press, "Complaints like this are rare."
Despite Sidenstricker's claim that "complaints like this" are rare in Afghanistan, they are, in fact, common. Just as they are in Iraq, the other occupation. A desperate conventional military, when losing a guerilla war, tends to toss international law out the window. Yet even more so when the entire occupation itself is a violation of international law.
Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and also a Truthout contributor, is very clear about the overall illegality of the invasion and ongoing occupation of Afghanistan by the United States.
"The UN Charter is a treaty ratified by the United States and thus part of US law," Cohn, who is also a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and recently co-authored the book "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent" said, "Under the charter, a country can use armed force against another country only in self-defense or when the Security Council approves. Neither of those conditions was met before the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. Nineteen men - 15 from Saudi Arabia - did, and there was no imminent threat that Afghanistan would attack the US or another UN member country. The council did not authorize the United States or any other country to use military force against Afghanistan. The US war in Afghanistan is illegal."
Thus, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, along with the ongoing slaughter of Afghan civilians and raiding hospitals, are in violation of international law as well as the US Constitution.
And of course the same applies for Iraq.
Let us recall November 8, 2004, when the US military launched its siege of Fallujah. The first thing done by the US military was to invade and occupy Fallujah General Hospital. Then, too, like this recent incident in Afghanistan, doctors, patients and visitors alike had their hands tied and they were laid on the ground, oftentimes face down, and held at gunpoint.
During my first four trips to Iraq, I commonly encountered hospital staff who reported US military raids on their facilities. US soldiers regularly entered hospitals to search for wounded resistance fighters.
Doctors from Fallujah General Hospital, as well as others who worked in clinics throughout the city during both US sieges of Fallujah in 2004, reported that US Marines obstructed their services and that US snipers intentionally targeted their clinics and ambulances.
"The Marines have said they didn't close the hospital, but essentially they did," Dr. Abdulla, an orthopedic surgeon at Fallujah General Hospital who spoke on condition of using a different name, told Truthout in May 2004 of his experiences in the hospital. "They closed the bridge which connects us to the city [and] closed our road ... the area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and vehicles."
He added that this prevented countless patients who desperately needed medical care from receiving medical care. "Who knows how many of them died that we could have saved," said Dr. Abdulla. He also blamed the military for shooting at civilian ambulances, as well as shooting near the clinic at which he worked. "Some days we couldn't leave, or even go near the door because of the snipers," he said, "They were shooting at the front door of the clinic!"
Dr. Abdulla also said that US snipers shot and killed one of the ambulance drivers of the clinic where he worked during the fighting.
Dr. Ahmed, who also asked that only his first name be used because he feared US military reprisals, said, "The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital. They prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much-needed medications." He also stated that several times Marines kept the physicians in the residence building, thereby intentionally prohibiting them from entering the hospital to treat patients.
"All the time they came in, searched rooms and wandered around," said Dr. Ahmed, while explaining how US troops often entered the hospital in order to search for resistance fighters. Both he and Dr. Abdulla said the US troops never offered any medicine or supplies to assist the hospital when they carried out their incursions. Describing a situation that has occurred in other hospitals, he added, "Most of our patients left the hospital because they were afraid."
Dr. Abdulla said that one of their ambulance drivers was shot and killed by US snipers while he was attempting to collect the wounded near another clinic inside the city.
"The major problem we found were the American snipers," said Dr. Rashid, who worked at another clinic in the Jumaria Quarter of Falluja. "We saw them on top of the buildings near the mayor's office."
Dr. Rashid told of another incident in which a US sniper shot an ambulance driver in the leg. The ambulance driver survived, but a man who came to his rescue was shot by a US sniper and died on the operating table after Dr. Rashid and others had worked to save him. "He was a volunteer working on the ambulance to help collect the wounded," Dr. Rashid said sadly.
During Truthout's visit to the hospital in May 2004, two ambulances in the parking lot sat with bullet holes in their windshields, while others had bullet holes in their back doors and sides.
"I remember once we sent an ambulance to evacuate a family that was bombed by an aircraft," said Dr. Abdulla while continuing to speak about the US snipers, "The ambulance was sniped - one of the family died, and three were injured by the firing."
Neither Dr. Abdulla nor Dr. Rashid said they knew of any medical aid being provided to their hospital or clinics by the US military. On this topic, Dr. Rashid said flatly, "They send only bombs, not medicine."
Chuwader General Hospital in Sadr City also reported similar findings to Truthout, as did other hospitals throughout Baghdad.
Dr. Abdul Ali, the ex-chief surgeon at Al-Noman Hospital, admitted that US soldiers had come to the hospital asking for information about resistance fighters. To this he said, "My policy is not to give my patients to the Americans. I deny information for the sake of the patient."
During an interview in April 2004, he admitted this intrusion occurred fairly regularly and interfered with patients receiving medical treatment. He noted, "Ten days ago this happened - this occurred after people began to come in from Fallujah, even though most of them were children, women and elderly."
A doctor at Al-Kerkh Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared a similar experience of the problem that appears to be rampant throughout much of the country: "We hear of Americans removing wounded Iraqis from hospitals. They are always coming here and asking us if we have injured fighters."
Speaking about the US military raid of the hospital in Afghanistan, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said he was not aware of the details of the particular incident, but that international law requires the military to avoid operations in medical facilities.
"The rules are that medical facilities are not combat areas. It's unacceptable for a medical facility to become an area of active combat operations," he said. "The only exception to that under the Geneva Conventions is if a risk is being posed to people."
"There is the Hippocratic oath," Fange added, "If anyone is wounded, sick or in need of treatment ... if they are a human being, then they are received and treated as they should be by international law."
These are all indications of a US Empire in decline. Another recent sign of US desperation in Afghanistan was the bombing of two fuel tanker trucks that the Taliban had captured from NATO. US warplanes bombed the vehicles, from which impoverished local villagers were taking free gas, incinerating as many as 150 civilians, according to reports from villagers.
The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan.
And today, the US Empire is on the fast track of its demise. A recent article by Tom Englehardt provides us more key indicators of this:
• In 2002 there were 5,200 US soldiers in Afghanistan. By December of this year, there will be 68,000.
• Compared to the same period in 2008, Taliban attacks on coalition forces using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) has risen 114 percent.
• Compared to the same period in 2008, coalition deaths from IED attacks have increased sixfold.
• Overall Taliban attacks on coalition forces in the first five months of 2009, compared to the same period last year, have increased 59 percent.
Genghis Khan could not hold onto Afghanistan.
Neither will the United States, particularly when in its desperation to continue its illegal occupation, it tosses aside international law, along with its own Constitution.
Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist, is the author of The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Independent Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Haymarket Books, 2007). Jamail reported from occupied Iraq for nine months as well as from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey over the last five years. His website is Dahrjamailiraq.com.
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'Kite Runner' Author's Trip to Afghanistan Kept Under Wraps
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 19, 2009 2:34 PM
KABUL -- A convoy of big white Land Cruisers roared into a dusty lane on the outskirts of Kabul last weekend. Chickens scattered, children gawked. A slight man in jeans stepped out, trailed by a film crew and several policemen with rifles. After hurried consultations, elders were produced and the visitor was ushered into a mud hut.
"Man namaindai shobe audat mohajirin astam," he said, politely but vaguely, in perfect Afghan Dari. "I am a representative from office of refugee assistance."
The elders did not know his name, but they knew an opportunity when they saw it, and they posed obligingly for the cameras as they poured out litanies of fear, frustration and despair.
They were mostly two-time refugees, Afghans who had returned after years of Soviet occupation and civil war, only to find their villages ravaged by a new conflict involving Taliban insurgents, foreign troops and predatory ethnic militia bosses. Once more they had left their crops and flocks, this time fleeing to an impoverished capital that offered neither land nor work.
The elders complained to the visitor that American and NATO forces had barged into their homes, insulted their women, even bombed their villages. Yet they also begged him not to let the foreign troops leave. Their worst fear, they said, was that the law would collapse and their country would once more erupt into terrible ethnic conflict.
"Vale, vale, fomidam," the visitor said over and over, frowning sympathetically. "I understand. I understand."
All last weekend, he listened to families living in tents and huts and abandoned schools who expressed similar fears -- not of a foreign enemy, but of the bad blood and stubborn tribal enmities that still divide this multi-ethnic Muslim nation and could easily tear it apart.
What Khaled Hosseini could not tell the refugees was that he really did understand. He could not tell them that he had written a book called "The Kite Runner" about the historic ethnic tensions in Afghanistan, and had been excoriated for it by some as a sensationalistic slanderer of his native land. He could not tell them that the movie version of his book had been banned by the Kabul government last year as too sensitive to show to Afghan audiences, because it was too close to the truth.
Hosseini, a longtime California resident and best-selling author in the West, was here as the goodwill ambassador to Afghanistan from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. His mission was to raise awareness of the plight of Afghans among donors in Europe and the United States, to many of whom his name is a household word.
But precisely because of that high profile, Hosseini's U.N. hosts and handlers felt he was so vulnerable to attack here that his visit had to be virtually incognito. Each of his stops was unannounced, and he was never introduced by name. All trips outside the capital were nixed, and the Afghan press was not notified of his visit. There were no literary gatherings, no receptions, no public events. It was not only the Taliban the U.N. feared, it was public opinion.
If the goodwill envoy chafed at being kept under wraps, if the homecoming novelist winced at the sad irony of his position, Hosseini did not admit it. Instead, he played his anonymous assigned role with obliging graciousness, perhaps even a little relieved to be away from the international whirlwind.
"I have not come here as a writer from the West, I have come here to listen to the stories of voiceless people and to make sure they are not forgotten in the greater narrative of Afghanistan today, the narrative of drugs and elections and insurgency," Hosseini, 44, said during a break in the high-walled compound of the U.N. refugee agency here.
He was not especially eager to talk about "The Kite Runner" or the storm of controversy it aroused among Afghans here and abroad, with its dark theme of ethnic prejudice and its searing, pivotal scene of a boy from the subservient ethnic Hazara minority being raped in a Kabul alley by a group of ethnically Pashtun youths. "My book came out six years ago, and I have been talking about it ad nauseam ever since," Hosseini said a bit wearily. "I have moved beyond that, and I am wearing a different hat now that I hope can be meaningful. I am here to parlay a message to people outside, who read my work and who may want to help. I am not here to preach to the Afghans, and if they think I am an anonymous U.N. worker, that's fine with me."
And yet it seems clear that Hosseini has still not fully come to terms with his Afghan identity. He has lived abroad ever since he was 11, and he readily acknowledges that he leads a "charmed life" in a very different universe. He keeps coming back, keeps wanting to connect. But he has few friends here, and he compares himself to a character in "The Kite Runner" who says, "I feel like a tourist in my own country."
During his weekend tour, Hosseini grew increasingly depressed by the anguished stories he heard, the squalid conditions he encountered and the knowledge that the people pouring out their woes hoped that somehow, this stranger who had appeared with the Land Cruisers and the video crew could save them.
In one mud hut, a jobless returnee said he wished he could take his family back to Pakistan, but that it too was now overrun with insurgent violence. "We are trapped between two fires," he said helplessly. In a dusty ally, an elderly man told Hosseini that if the NATO forces left, he would have no choice but to pick up his gun and go back to war. In a tent colony, a nomad leader said the displaced families there would not survive the winter.
"He told me, 'If you do not help us and we die, our blood will be on your hands,' " Hosseini said grimly.
He was also taken aback by the marked deterioration in security since his last visit for the U.N. in 2007. At the time, he was able to travel by road to several other cities and stroll in refurbished shrines and parks. Today, with suicide bombers lurking, Kabul has become a maze of roadblocks and blast walls, and sightseeing would be an unthinkable risk for a foreign VIP -- even an émigré who speaks like a native.
The hardest part, though, is that Hosseini -- whose novels have humanized Afghanistan's problems to millions of readers abroad, and have tried to address the historical ethnic hatreds now bubbling up during a tense and fraud-plagued presidential election -- may not be safe among his own countrymen.
Even though DVDs of "The Kite Runner" film sell briskly at a few upscale city markets, the anger that swept through the global Afghan grapevine after its release in 2007 was so fierce that its child actors had to leave the country. If enough Afghans knew the author were in the capital, he could easily be torn apart by a mob.
"The purpose of a novel is precisely to talk about things that people don't want to talk about, to create a debate rather than to sweep unpleasant truths under a rug," Hosseini said. "I wish the Afghanistan of today were an open society where I could walk the streets and talk unhampered. I hope that day will come, but unfortunately it is not yet a reality."
Instead, the organizers of his visit manufactured a secure, controlled substitute for a public event: an invitation-only kite-flying contest on a hill overlooking the capital. U.N. workers handed out blue kites decorated with peace doves, and young boys whooped with glee as they ran them aloft. None knew the identity of the slim man in a U.N.-logo shirt who stood there, talking to a few foreign journalists with their video cameras aimed at the iconic blue objects swooping behind him.
"Khaled, could we have one more shot of you looking up at the kites?" a cameraman asked. Hosseini smiled, let a paper kite fly upwards from his hands, and looked up dutifully as it trailed away into space.
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Media Outrage Over Coalition Killing of Reporter
By Killid Correspondents IPS-Inter Press Service
KABUL, Sep 19 (IPS) - For many Afghans, slain Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi has become a symbol for all that is wrong with the United States-led war in Afghanistan.
One thousand and thirteen Afghan civilians died due to the conflict in the first six months of this year, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, a 24 percent increase over the same period in 2008, when 818 civilians were killed.
This figure does not reflect the possibly thousands more who perished due to forced displacement and ruined crops caused by the war.
Munadi, an accomplished and respected reporter in his own right, was working as a translator and guide for New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, a Briton, on a story about possible civilian casualties.
On Sep. 8, the pair travelled to Kunduz, where U.S. bombers called in by German commander Col. Georg Klein laid waste a fuel tanker that had been hijacked by insurgent fighters.
A NATO fact-finding team estimated that about 125 people were killed in the bombing, while a delegation of the Ministry of Interior was sent to gather details about the civilian casualties. A full investigation is still being undertaken. The investigation faces the grim challenge of distinguishing between civilian and insurgent remains, as all were equally turned into ashes.
The two reporters travelled north to survey the damage and interview witnesses. According to Farrell's account of the ordeal, posted on a Times blog, he and Munadi visited the site of the ruined tanker on the second day of their reporting trip to Kunduz. They spent at least a half-hour there, talking to local residents.
Then the Taliban showed up.
The two were immediately taken into custody and for four days whisked from hideout to hideout, in an effort to avoid detection. However, coalition forces were monitoring their cell-phone conversations and a helicopter-borne rescue operation was soon mounted by British commandos.
The commandos stormed the hideout and Munadi, dressed in Afghan clothes, came out shouting "Journalist, Journalist." He was immediately shot.
One of the commandos was also killed in the raid.
The British spirited their countryman away from the scene, but left Munadi's body behind to the dust and vermin.
The fact that he was killed by foreign forces while Farrell survived the attack, gives many Afghans the feeling that the coalition doesn't place too high a value on Afghan lives.
At a press conference held at Kabul's Central Hotel last week by the Civil Society and Human Rights Network, Afghan journalists and Munadi's father vented their frustration at what they view as a cavalier attitude of the coalition towards Afghan lives and deaths. "This is a national disaster for Afghanistan," said one speaker.
A statement released prior to the event said, "International forces must respect the human rights of Afghan citizens equally to those of their own citizens… NATO and ISAF forces should treat Afghan citizens, especially victims captured by Taliban, without discrimination during their operations."
Munadi's father was more plainspoken.
"Coalition forces never respect the Afghan people," said the white bearded, stooped senior citizen. "They behave like animals. They deliberately killed my son. I ask the assembled Afghan media to stand up and show strength against the government and foreign forces. Ask them why they behave in this way."
While the assembled journalists nodded in agreement at the elder Munadi's harsh words for the foreigners, there was plenty of scorn left over for the Afghan government.
"The government has done nothing to get to the bottom of this killing, or the killings of many other journalists, as they promised to do," said one newspaper editor.
"Why hasn't the government shown a serious response to civilian deaths?" asked another Afghan journalist. "They never do a thing."
In a telephone interview with Radio Free Afghanistan, Reza Moini, a researcher at Reporters Without Borders, also demanded a thorough investigation. "What is important for us is that Munadi's killing happened under circumstances that have raised many questions. That's why our statement demanded an investigation into this incident …"
The outrage over Munadi's death is compounded by the fact that he is only the latest in a long line of professional reporters killed at the hands of foreigners or insurgents.
Shayima Rezaee, Zakiye Zaki, Sange Amaj, Ajmal Naqshbandi, Rohani and Jawid, were all working diligently to bring news to the Afghan people when their lives were brutally ended by one side or another of this conflict.
Afghan media professionals pledged to work together to get to the bottom of Sultan's slaying.
"Only we can fully investigate this issue," said one journalist. "It is our voices that will shake the world." (Killid is an independent Afghan media group. IPS and Killid have been partners since 2004.) (END/2009)
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Danish soldier killed in southern Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News - Sep 19 3:15 AM
COPENHAGEN – A Danish soldier was killed and another injured after they came under fire during a patrol in southern Afghanistan, the Danish military said Saturday.
Kim Grunberger of The Army Operational Command said the troops were patrolling on foot in Afghanistan's Helmand province when they came under attack from insurgents.
The wounded soldier was flown to a field hospital for treatment.
Denmark has now lost 25 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the U.S.-led coalition in 2002.
The Nordic country has about 700 troops serving in the NATO force in Afghanistan. Most of them are based in the volatile southern Helmand province.
Separately, the Hungarian defense ministry said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle into a Hungarian convoy on Saturday morning in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri.
The vehicle exploded beside the convoy. There were no casualties in the convoy but one military vehicle was damaged. The bomber was killed.
The Hungarians, who are part of a reconstruction unit, were able to return to their camp safely.
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Battle for Balkh
By P.J. Tobia IPS-Inter Press Service
KABUL, Sep 18 (IPS) - Events currently unfolding in Afghanistan’s northern province of Balkh may be a preview for the future.
Balkh's governor, Atta Mohammad Noor, has accused the Ministry of Interior of distributing weapons to powerful warlords in Balkh in an attempt to undermine his power in the region because of his support to rival presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah against incumbent President Hamid Karzai.
At a Martyrs Week ceremony this month, he told the gathering: "Our people are aware of the distribution of weapons to local commanders. The responsibility for any violence and conflict in Balkh [falls on] the people who distributed these illegal weapons."
In a conversation with Killid Weekly, Noor's spokesman, Munir Farhad elaborated on the charges, saying that the warlords are using the weapons to intimidate the residents of Balkh.
"This is against the Afghan constitution and the central government doesn't have the right to distribute weapons to these people who are illiterate, unprofessional and unqualified. These armed commanders are using weapons supplied by the government against Afghan national solidarity and interests. These are not professional security organs," Farhad said. "They are warlords."
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Interior denied that there was a government effort to arm warlords in Balkh and emphasised that Noor's complaint has been referred to the Attorney General's office and National Security Council for investigation.
Fazel Ahmad Faqir Yar, deputy and acting attorney general, said that "a mixed commission should be assigned to evaluate whether [these allegations are] true or not. If it is true, clearly there will be an investigation."
But political observers say that if these warlords are being armed by the Karzai government, there is a much broader political purpose behind the action.
Noor supported Abdullah over Karzai in the Aug. 20 presidential election. A government programme that disrupts security in Balkh could be an attempt to make Noor's position in the province untenable and force the governor's resignation.
"This is politics," said Farhad. "It has a deep root in political issues. The government is not working for security, their goal is political."
But some analysts say that it is Noor, an ethnic Tajik, who has created extra-legal power in Balkh. "Ata Muhammad Noor has established a small kingdom," said Fazal Rahman Oria, a Kabul-based political observer. "He follows his own rules and principles and does not obey the central government."
Rohulla Samun, spokesperson for Governor Juma Khan Hamdard of Paktia Province (and the former governor of Balkh) said that there is no weapons distribution programme and that Noor is, "just using this as an excuse to kill Pashtun tribal leaders he doesn't like."
It is rumored that Karzai once offered Noor a position in his cabinet in exchange for Noor's abandoning support for Abdullah, an offer that Noor declined. Marshal Mohammad Fahim, a Northern Alliance comrade of both Abdullah and governor Noor, accepted a similar offer and is now Karzai's running mate. That defection led to a blood-feud between the candidates and resulted in numerous incidents of violence on the campaign trail.
The latest accusations from the Balkh governor come amid a backdrop of tension as Afghans await results of the presidential election.
As the outcome hangs in limbo, Karzai has manoeuvred behind the scenes to try and prevent a possible runoff vote. It is rumored that he has offered Abdullah 12 ministry chairs, to be filled by him and his supporters, in exchange for a withdrawal of the challenger's candidacy. It is unclear whether Abdullah will accept the offer, though in public statements he has stridently rejected any such compromise.
Regardless, the current situation in Balkh shows the weakness of the central government to maintain security through constitutional means.
"The [statements] of the Interior Ministry show the weakness of Afghan police, that police do not have the ability to enforce the law," said the analyst Oria Rahman. He added that the very fact that the allegations had to be referred to an authority outside the Interior Ministry shows the weakness of that body.
Local police commander General Mujtaba Patang rejected this sentiment at a press conference, both denying that weapons were being distributed in his area and asserting that his men had security well in hand
"Weapons haven't been distributed in north of Afghanistan, we are the government and we are armed. I assure you that no one has the ability [to act outside] the government's authority," he said.
Meanwhile, people in Balkh are caught between a governor who does not appear to have the confidence of the president and increasingly well armed warlords. All sides have called for calm and expressed hope that the situation will not further escalate into actual armed conflict.
"The governor has asked the people to remain calm," said Noor's spokesperson Farhad. "Let the security organs deal with the armed warlords. Do not take matters into your own hands."
Still, he lamented, "This will make the situation worse across Afghanistan and not just in Balkh. This will create problems for Afghan civilians." (*Published under an agreement with The Killid Group. This independent Afghan media group and IPS have been partners since 2004.) (END/2009)
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Balkh Businessmen in Panic Over Abductions
Several kidnappings during elections prompt many to suspend trade and take their money out of the country.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Ahmad Kawoosh in Balkh (ARR No. 337, 17-Sep-09)
Engineer Ismail is still too terrified to talk about it. But his body betrays the violent nature of his abduction. His eyelids were sewn together, he was beaten and his arms were bound tightly with a cord. The imprint is still visible on his wrists.
The owner of the Jamshidi filling station in the northern city Hairatan was abducted on August 19, one day before the presidential and provincial council elections. Two days later, a money-changer was kidnapped in Mazar-e-Sharif, also in northern Afghanistan.
It is not clear whether the abductions are directly tied to the elections. But tension has ratcheted up sharply during the campaign and post-election period, and many people are convinced that the two are related.
As a result, dozens of businessmen have decided to halt trade at least temporarily. Once the dust settles from the chaotic and uncertain elections, they will decide what to do next, they say.
In Balkh, the memories are still fresh of the wave of armed robberies and abductions of businessmen two years ago. At the time, many business people stopped investing in Mazar-e-Sharif, and shifted their money to the United Arabic Emirates, China and Pakistan.
Then the police took action. They killed several alleged criminals at their base in Mazar-e-Sharif, a house from which they are said to have launched their various operations, and where it is claimed they held people they had abducted. Another band of alleged kidnappers was also apprehended.
The fear among the population subsided, and people got back down to business. In other parts of Afghanistan, like Kabul, kidnapping for money happens frequently. Statistics are hard to come by, but anecdotal evidence suggests that several people are abducted and held for money every month. Many wealthy people do not leave their houses without bodyguards.
In Balkh, it had been quiet for a while. But, earlier this year, unidentified gunmen abducted Gul Khan Ahmadi, the deputy chief of Hairatan’s petroleum department. His body was found on the bank of the Shulgara River. Government officials said that he was murdered because of personal disputes. The police did not appear to make any noticeable effort to find and prosecute the murderers.
Then, right around the elections, two more businessmen were abducted.
According to Ismail, on his way home to Kart-e-Lagan, he was stopped by gunmen who fired on his driver, injuring him. Ismail said he was blindfolded and taken to a house in the city, where he was held and tortured for several days.
After threats by the kidnappers not to involve the police, Ismail said his family paid a ransom of 200,000 US dollars in Kabul. He revealed that originally the abductors had asked that the family transfer two million dollars into a bank account in Russia. After the much smaller sum was paid, Ismail said he was released during the night in the Dasht-e-Shoor area of Mazar-e-Sharif.
There is still no news about the money-changer who was kidnapped one day after Ismail.
The relatives of those abducted try to keep the police out of it. They don’t trust them, saying that in other places in Afghanistan, like Kabul, they often just made things worse, with the abductors eventually killing their victims.
Meanwhile in Mazar-e-Sharif, a standoff between the powerful governor of Balkh, Atta Mohammad Noor, and the central government, has left the population worried that violence could break out at any moment.
Atta openly supported Dr Abdullah Abdullah in the elections, a direct challenge to the incumbent, President Hamed Karzai. The president tried several times to isolate and remove Atta, but so far has not been successful.
It could be the open tension in the air, as much as the two abductions, that has set the business community on edge. A month after the elections, the results are still not certain. Karzai has a comfortable lead according to preliminary results, but allegations of fraud are so widespread that the president may yet be deprived of a first-round victory.
While the accusations and hand-wringing over the elections continue in Kabul, the situation in Balkh is rapidly spinning out of control.
Few believe Shirkhan Durani, spokesperson for the Balkh security authorities, when he says that the police will soon arrest the abductors as they did in the past.
The business community is beset with rumours and theories, ranging from the far-fetched to the downright absurd.
“In two cases the abductors only wanted money, which makes you think that perhaps there were candidates behind it who lost in the elections and want to get some money back that they spent on their campaign,” said one trader, who wants to remain anonymous. “Or they might have been common criminals, who want to throw the suspicion on the candidates who lost.”
But Sayed Taher Roshanzada, chief of Balkh chamber of commerce, said, “I don’t think that those who have nominated themselves to serve the interests of the people and to develop democracy and the rule of law could be involved in such activities.”
Be that as it may, the businessmen prefer not to take any risks.
“A lot of traders have taken out their money of Afghanistan and will not import again until the result of the elections is announced,” said Ghulam Nabi, representative of the Construction Materials Importing Companies. “Balkh businessmen have stopped their cargos at the border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. They are afraid because of the increase in abductions and because of the threat from some candidates that they will not accept the results of the elections if they don’t win.”
Abdullah and his team have said openly that, while they do not advocate violence, they may not be able to control their supporters if a fraudulent Karzai victory is forced on the population. With Atta so clearly on Abdullah’s side, there is ample cause for concern, and will be until the elections are finally settled. But, given the current state of affairs, this could take months.
Ahmad Kawoosh is an IWPR trainee in Balkh.
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Tragic Fate of Afghan Bomb Survivor
A year after her family died in an airstrike, a young girl still lives in the same village, alone and constantly in fear.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mustafa Saber in Azizabad (ARR No. 337, 17-Sep-09)
Seven-year-old Zahra looks like a typical Afghan girl in her traditional long dress and scarf, her short black hair peeking out from her head covering. She sticks close to home, seldom venturing far from her house. But it is not tradition that keeps her home but fear.
On the night of August 22 2008, all of Zahra’s immediate family was killed by American bombs. In pursuit of Taleban commander Mullah Siddiq, United States Special Forces and the Afghan army launched an airstrike on the village of Azizabad in Shindand district of Herat. An investigation by the United Nations said that 90 people, 60 children and 30 adults, died.
The American military initially denied that any civilians were harmed in the attack. Only after prolonged pressure, in October of last year, did they acknowledge that the strike killed 33 civilians.
Zahra’s father, mother, sister and two brothers died that night. She is the only survivor, together with her grandmother, Maryam, known in the village as Pori. One year later the two traumatised females, one seven years old the other 75, are still living in Azizabad, in a small, dirty, three-room house donated to them by a kind-hearted neighbour.
The house the pair inhabit has no doors and no windows. Inside it is dark and dusty – the floor is carpeted with old sacks. It looks more like a dirty storeroom than a place where people live. There are some teacups, two buckets full of water, three small pots and three threadbare blankets. Every day Zahra cleans and arranges the few items they possess.
The rest of the time she sits alone, staring into the void.
“I loved my family very much,” she said, tears in her dark eyes. “Every moment I hear the voices of my mother, father, sister and brothers calling me, but I can’t see them. We had a good life. I used to play with my brothers and sister on the street. My father was Abdurrashid, my mother was Khumari, my sister was Huma and my brothers were Halim and Salim. The Americans killed them and now I am alone.”
Suddenly bitter, she adds, “The American killed everyone in the village. They killed my friends and other children. I hate them.”
She recalls the events of that terrifying day. “Explosions woke me up in the night. I ran to the desert, where I drifted off to sleep again. When I awoke, I ran home and I saw parts of human bodies scattered all around, and heard the cries of survivors,” she said.
“I don’t remember who told me that my family were all dead dead. At first I didn’t believe it, so I went to see if it was really true. Then I saw their bodies, all mixed with blood and dirt. When they took all the martyrs to the graveyard to be buried, I was all alone and neighbours took me to their home. Then my grandmother learned of what happened, and now I am with her.”
Now every time a plane passes Zahra cries and throws herself into her grandmother’s arms.
“I love my granddaughter,” Maryam said. “I see my son in her soul. But when a plane passes overhead, she clings to me so tightly, and her body shakes so much, that I am afraid one day she will die. Then I will lose the last race of my son.”
But Maryam may not be able to give Zahra the support that she needs. The older woman seems mentally unstable, constantly murmuring to herself and repeating everything she says many times.
Maryam, though, is resisting attempts by an aid organisation to relocate her and her granddaughter to Herat city.
Soraya Pakzad from Neda-e-Zan, an organization that assists Afghan women in trouble, says that they had arranged accommodations for both Zahra and Maryam, but the latter refuses to leave Shindand.
“She does not want to leave the place where her son lived,” Pakzad said. “When we showed them the accomodation we had prepared for them, the grandmother tried to get away as soon as possible, saying, ‘The government wants to imprison us’.”
She added that Zahra clung to her grandmother, fearful of strangers and crying easily, “Both Zahra and her grandmother are unstable.”
Pakzad is worried about the Zahra’s future and is trying to raise money from other national and international charity organisations. “We are concerned that the grandmother will marry her off to somebody at a young age, and thereby make things even worse for Zahra,” she said.
Zahra is not alone. Abdurrashid, 45, a resident of Azizabad, told IWPR that the people of Shindand district would never forget the events of August 22, 2008.
“The Americans massacred our people and then said that we were all taleban,” he said bitterly. “This inhuman act will always be remembered, by people in our area and all over the country.”
In the meantime, he and others try to help Zahra and Maryam as much as possible.
Others have also offered assistance. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she would help the girl after she heard about her plight on Radio Liberty. Also a politician who was thinking of running for president, Dr Dawood Mirakai, looked up Zahra during a visit to Azizabad and gave her some money.
But for now Zahra is still living in her broken house, in the same village, relying on occasional assistance from neighbours. She has two friends, Amina and Hangama, with whom she goes to school. She doesn’t learn much, she says.
“Other children have parents who help them. I have no parents,” said Zahra. Then she began to cry. “I cannot talk any more,” she said. “I must go now.”
Mustafa Saber is an IWPR trainee in Herat.
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German commander calls for more troops, vehicles in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle - Sep 19 8:27 AM
A lack of troops and necessary equipment is a cause for concern for German forces in Afghanistan, says the German commander in the northern region. The 155-point list addresses problems from bullets to air conditioning.
The outgoing commander of the German Bundeswehr in Afghanistan has outlined troop and equipment shortcomings hampering German efforts to stabilize the region. Parts of his report were quoted in the German magazine Focus and the Bild newspaper.
According to statements in Focus, General Joerg Vollmer says at least one additional infantry company is necessary in the Kunduz region.
The current number of troops "cannot achieve the immediate and wide-reaching improvement of the circumstances in the greater Kunduz region," Vollmer is quoted as saying.
Equipment shortages
Additionally, the Bild newspaper reports that Vollmer advises for more armored vehicles for German troops in the area. He says that of 38 armored vehicles that have been taken out of service between January and June, none have been replaced.
Vollmer adds that some of the equipment that is already available does not fulfil the needs of the troops. For example, the helicopters in service are "effectively limited only to support operations," Vollmer told Focus.
According to the commander, the lack of air conditioning in the German Marder tanks leads to blistering internal temperatures of 80 degrees Celcius (176 degrees Fahrenheit), and the type of munitions supplied for certain machine guns are not appropriate for the tasks the soldiers are doing.
In a separate article published in Focus, Foreign Minister and candidate for chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier however insisted that German forces in northern Afghanistan are in good shape, and also spoke against spreading German troops into other regions of the country.
"The civilian organizations and the Bundeswehr troops are networked really well, they know the political figures and the tribal structure," Steinmeier said in Focus. "It would be absurd to give up this position and spread into other regions."
Mistakes by German officer in tanker bombing?
German magazine Spiegel meanwhile on Saturday alleged that serious mistakes were made by a German officer regarding the controversial tanker bombing earlier in the month in Afghanistan.
Taliban militants had hijacked the tankers from NATO forces. Estimates by Afghan officials claim 99 dead in the attack, including 30 civilians.
According to the Spiegel article, German colonel Georg Klein opted against a fly-by of F-15 airplanes before the actual bombing began. Had a fly-by been ordered, it could have given civilians near the tanker the chance to flee before the bombing began.
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Afghanistan: Looking For the Way Ahead
By SIMON ROBINSON London – Time.com via Yahoo! News - Sep 18 10:50 PM
In an election campaign that has been interminably dull, even by German standards, the Sept. 4 missile strike on two oil tankers hijacked by Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan was always going to grab attention. The U.S. strike, called in by a German commander worried about the security of his troops, allegedly killed some 90 people, including dozens of civilians. It also reminded German voters that the distinction between supporting a combat mission - which is what they like to think their soldiers are doing - and tackling bad guys directly can blur pretty quickly in the Hindu Kush.
The polite posturing of Germany's election campaign captures the mood in most European capitals at the moment. Both Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats of Frank-Walter Steinmeier remain committed to Berlin's 4,000-strong troop deployment in Afghanistan as part of the multinational force there. But Die Linke, a smaller, left-wing party, has won support by campaigning on an immediate withdrawal, and as public support for the Afghanistan mission falls even the mainstream leaders are having to take notice. Steinmeier has recently hinted that he would pull troops out by 2013, though in a pre-election debate with Merkel he hedged his bets, saying that he merely wanted to "create the conditions" by 2013 so a "withdrawal could begin." Unsurprisingly, Merkel herself has suggested it might be time to draw up a timetable for a pullout.
Not a quick one, mind you. European leaders regularly argue that a hasty withdrawal would spell disaster for Afghanistan, neighboring Pakistan and for their own countries. French Defense Minister HervÉ Morin has warned of "absolute chaos" if France pulled out and opened the door to a rush of other withdrawals. "When the security of our country is at stake," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a speech earlier this month, "we cannot walk away."
But that argument is getting harder to make. In most of Europe, Afghanistan has always been the good war, compared with the bad invasion of Iraq. After the attacks against the U.S. in September 2001, almost 6 in 10 French voters supported sending troops to Afghanistan. Italians and Spaniards backed troop deployments in similar numbers; Britons were even more enthusiastic.
Back then the mission seemed clear-cut and justified: to rid Afghanistan of a cruel, women-hating regime whose control over the country created a safe haven for a terrorist group that threatened the West. Even when they squabbled with Washington over Iraq, countries such as France and Germany stayed firm on Afghanistan. But public support has fallen over the years, and especially in the past 12 months. An August poll by French daily Le Figaro found that just 36% backed France's military's presence in Afghanistan. In July, a Forsa poll for German magazine Stern found that 61% of Germans want the country's military involvement to end. In Britain, which has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan - the second largest deployment after the U.S. - a recent survey for the National Army Museum found that only 25% favored the mission, compared with 53% opposing it. Even in the U.S. support for the war has slipped, as President Obama contemplates sending more troops. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey this month, just 39% of Americans support the war, down from 53% in April.
Battle fatigue - or its equivalent among those safe at home - is inevitable, especially after eight years fighting the same war. Things might be different if people had a sense that Afghanistan was making progress. Instead, this summer saw an escalation in violence and a steady stream of fatalities. The number of European soldiers lost - 35 Germans, 31 French, 15 Italians - may not be big in comparison to the 830 Americans killed. But as a proportion of numbers deployed, casualties have been significant. An incident like that in August last year, when 10 French soldiers were killed in a single Taliban attack, has a profound impact on the home front. "We cannot continue to remain ... where the [local] population is suffering and where we count our dead without asking ... what is France's role and interest," Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said this month, a day after France lost two more soldiers. "In 2001, then in 2003, France joined NATO troops to continue taking out the Taliban, but above all to reconstruct the country. [But France] now finds our troops alongside the American army essentially in an antiterrorism struggle. This wasn't the NATO mandate, and it wasn't France's choice."
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who supports Obama's call for more European troops in Afghanistan, says it's important to tell the "true stories of what's going on. Both the setbacks and the achievements." As Prime Minister of Denmark until last April, Rasmussen went out of his way to explain the reasons Danish troops were in Afghanistan. As a consequence, he says, support for the mission has held up better in Denmark than elsewhere. The British might learn a lesson from that. Gordon Brown has frequently tried to explain the Afghanistan mission. But David Davis, a prominent opposition MP and a former Foreign Office minister, argues that public support has dropped because of a "lack of clarity about what we're trying to achieve." Davis claims that "the aims of the war have been changing week by week" and that Brown falls back on a "grotesque oversimplification that there will be a direct reflection on the streets of London and our other cities if we don't defeat the Taliban ... which is plainly not true."
Mission Creep
Nowhere is the task less clear to the average voter than in Germany. Successive German leaders have sold the country's troop deployment as nation-building, not combat. But as the oil-tanker episode proved, mission creep is hard to avoid when the enemy starts attacking you. German involvement in Afghanistan was snuck "past people," Jurgen Trittin, the foreign policy spokesman for the Greens, recently argued. Now, with the Taliban moving into the once peaceful north, where most of Germany's troops are stationed, Germans have to face the fact that their military - a force that saw no action between the end of World War II and 1999, when it joined the coalition to force Serbia out of Kosovo - is fighting a war.
The allegations of vote-rigging and electoral fraud following last month's Afghan elections haven't helped. President Hamid Karzai was once the West's great hope for Afghanistan - stylish and urbane, deeply versed in Afghan politics but not completely part of it, he seemed the perfect man to lead his country out of its darkest days. But Western capitals have found him an unreliable and often frustrating partner. The election has "raised a question in people's minds," says Colonel Christopher Langton, senior fellow for Conflict and Defence Diplomacy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "Why should we be supporting such an individual and helping him to re-establish authority - using British lives - if he is so corrupt?"
There's no quick or easy answer to that question. Violence will ebb over the winter, and perhaps a political accommodation between the government and main opposition party - or indeed with the Taliban - will help in Kabul. But as fighting starts to heat up again next spring, and the U.S. leans on its allies in Europe for more troops, opposition to the Afghanistan campaign is likely to grow. The consequences of a withdrawal could be awful. But the clamor for it is getting louder.
- Reported by William Boston / Berlin, Leo Cendrowicz / Brussels, Bruce Crumley / Paris and Catherine Mayer / London
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Canada will withdraw Afghanistan troops in ‘11
09/15/2009 06:23:12 AM PDT
TORONTO (AP) -- Canada will not extend its mission in Afghanistan even if President Barack Obama asks him to when the countries’ leaders meet this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office said Monday.
Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas reiterated in a briefing Monday that Canada will withdraw its troops in 2011.
One hundred and thirty Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan, where Canada has 2,500 troops.
Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the United States and increased its deployment after declining a U.S. request to dispatch troops to Iraq.
Although Canada has usually served in more of a peacekeeping role in overseas missions after World War II, Harper has been a steadfast ally in the post-Sept. 11 fight against al-Qaida.
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