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August 19, 2010 

Afghanistan marks independence day
by Sardar Ahmad Thu Aug 19, 5:28 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan marked independence day Thursday as the Taliban-led insurgency drags on, with foreign troop deaths at record highs and the government under pressure to honour pledges on corruption and security.

Taliban attack road crew in south Afghanistan
By Amir Shah And Mirwais Khan, Associated Press Writers
KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban fighters attacked a road construction crew Thursday in southern Afghanistan and several people were killed and wounded, officials and witnesses said.

Human rights group knocks 'abusive' Taliban officials
By the CNN Wire Staff August 19, 2010
(CNN) -- "Abusive" Taliban officials, like the one who ordered the stoning of a young man and woman in northern Afghanistan, shouldn't have positions of authority after a peace deal, a Human Rights Watch official said Thursday.

Afghanistan marks National Pavilion Day at Shanghai World Expo
SHANGHAI, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- With the sound of stringed instruments, drumbeats and the melody of folk singers, Afghanistan celebrated its National Pavilion Day -- on its 91st Independence Day -- at the World Expo Thursday.

WikiLeaks says Pentagon ready to discuss Afghan files
US denies report, wants papers back
Associated Press By Karl Ritter August 19, 2010
STOCKHOLM - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said yesterday that the Pentagon has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistle-blower’s request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians.

How the war has changed Afghanistan
BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- On the 7th of October 2001, US-led military forces launched large-scale attacks on Afghanistan after the then ruling Taliban refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Massive information leak shakes Washington over Afghan war
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Questioning and dissenting voices have been mounting over the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan since the website WikiLeaks disclosed late last month a multitude of secret military records on the nine-year-old warfare.

Afghanistan to Have 150 Military Planes in 5 Years
Tamim Hamid Tolo news August 19, 2010
Officials in the Ministry of Defence say the international community has agreed to donate 150 airplanes to Afghanistan's air-force in the next 5 years

Central, South Asian Leaders Meet in Russia
August 18, 2010 VOA News
Russia is hosting the presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan in a summit aimed at coordinating efforts to battle terrorism and counter regional drug trafficking.

US service member killed in southern Afghanistan
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 19, 6:11 am ET
KABUL, Afghanistan – A U.S. service member died in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan where fighting is escalating as Afghan and international forces push into areas long held by Taliban insurgents, the international military coalition said Thursday.

Afghanistan, Africa most at risk for food shortage, UN says
By the CNN Wire Staff August 19, 2010
(CNN) -- Afghanistan and several African nations are the most at risk to have a food shortage, an organization that works with the United Nations said in a report Thursday.

Petraeus uses media to press patience on Afghanistan war
By Robert H. Reid Associated Press via The Washington Times Wednesday, August 18, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan | A weekend media blitz by the Army's public relations master sent a clear message: It's not time to hit the panic button in Afghanistan, but success in the nearly 9-year-old war won't come quickly.

Afghanistan Opening First Shariah-Based Banks: Islamic Finance
August 19, 2010, 4:59 AM EDT By Khalid Qayum and Eltaf Najafizada
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan plans to issue licenses for three Islamic banks, the first to offer a range of services that comply with religious law in a country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim.

Can an Assassination Campaign Turn the Tide in Afghanistan?
By Robert Baer time.com Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010
The Obama Administrations new military strategy in Afghanistan may be a sign of desperation — a Hail Mary pass — but it may just work. The President's counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan describes it as giving up the 'hammer' for the 'scalpel.' The military,

Afghan Vote Spurs Fears of Violence
The Wall Street Journal - Today's Paper - Europe By MARIA ABI-HABIB AUGUST 17, 2010
KABUL - Next month's Afghan parliamentary elections, which President Hamid Karzai hopes will produce a more compliant legislature, are prompting fears of further violence and fraud, diplomats and international observers say.

Canada calls for end to attacks on aid workers
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 19 of its staff and aid workers were attacked in the first six months of this year, 63 were abducted and seven killed
Kandahar, Afghanistan — The Canadian Press Dene Moore Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 10:17AM EDT
Canada and the United Nations marked World Humanitarian Day on Thursday with an appeal for all sides to allow aid workers to do their work in Afghanistan unmolested.

Helicopter Makes Hard Landing in Afghanistan, Eight Personnel Are Injured
By Mike Harrison - Bloomberg Aug 19, 2010 12:11 PM GMT+0430
An International Security Assistance Force helicopter with 19 people on board made a hard landing in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province today, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in an e-mailed statement.

Afghan women, children turn to drugs
CNN August 18, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan - The 18 women sit cross-legged on metal beds, wearing long, loose dresses and nightgowns, their heads completely covered with shawls. They do not want us to see them. Some of them are holding babies in their laps.
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Afghanistan marks independence day
by Sardar Ahmad Thu Aug 19, 5:28 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan marked independence day Thursday as the Taliban-led insurgency drags on, with foreign troop deaths at record highs and the government under pressure to honour pledges on corruption and security.

August 19 commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919, which granted Afghanistan full independence from Britain -- though the country was never part of the British empire -- after three bloody wars.

The day was traditionally marked by a military parade and other public events, but these were scaled down after a Taliban attack in 2008 that was seen as an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai on Thursday attended a low-profile event in Kabul, placing a floral wreath at the base of the marble independence memorial near his palace.

The ceremony was attended by Western dignitaries including the commander of foreign forces, US General David Petraeus, who watched Karzai inspect a guard of honour.

The Taliban, who were ousted in a 2001 US-led invasion and are the main militant group behind a growing insurgency, also marked the day, vowing to defeat the NATO force and calling them "invaders".

"Indeed, the invasion by the British was not the only one, Afghanistan has suffered many attacks and invasions prior to the British invasion and afterwards," a statement by the Taliban "leadership council" said.

"The Afghan nation has never tolerated the occupation of their country before and will never tolerate it in the future at all."

Karzai returned to the capital late on Wednesday after attending a rare summit with his Pakistani and Russian counterparts, at which they agreed to pursue joint economic projects to help bring stability to the volatile region.

The summit, which also involved Tajikistan, adopted a joint declaration supporting the intentions by business leaders from Russia, Pakistan and Tajikistan to help Afghanistan rebuild its war-battered infrastructure, including in the energy and transportation sectors.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Karzai, Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and Tajikistan's Emomaly Rahmon in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Afghanistan's current war cycle, which has lasted 30 years, began with a Soviet invasion in December 1979 that sparked a decade-long war that spilled into civil war and was followed by the Taliban's brutal 1996-2001 regime.

Karzai has been increasingly turning to his neighbours -- which also include Iran and China -- as pressure intensifies from his Western backers to make progress on pledges to improve governance.

Led by the United States, Karzai's allies are concerned that his government is not honouring commitments on touchstone issues such as corruption and security, potentially threatening their plans to begin troop withdrawals.

The United States and NATO have 141,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban-led insurgency that has so far this year claimed 437 foreign soldiers.

On beginning his second five-year term last year -- after an election tainted by massive fraud, mostly in his favour -- Karzai promised to deal with rampant graft and take on greater responsibility for national security.

US Senator John Kerry, whose presence this week in Afghanistan is coming to signal the depth of Washington's concern, described corruption as "one of the most significant challenges facing Afghanistan".

"I think in the next days the government of Afghanistan's response to anti-corruption efforts are a key test of its ability to regain the confidence of the people and provide the kind of governance that the American people are prepared to support with hard-earned tax dollars and most importantly with the treasure of our country, the lives of young men and women," Kerry said.

"I believe President Karzai wants to do that but my belief that he wants to do it is not going to be enough. It's going to have to be done."

Benchmarks would be set but he declined to go into detail.

Kerry also visited US troops in the south, where the Taliban-led insurgency is concentrated.

NATO said that one of its soldiers was killed Wednesday in the south after at attack with an improvised bomb, the hallmark of the Taliban.

In a separate statement, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said planes Wednesday pounded insurgent strongholds near Kabul, killing two dozen rebels.
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Taliban attack road crew in south Afghanistan
By Amir Shah And Mirwais Khan, Associated Press Writers
KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban fighters attacked a road construction crew Thursday in southern Afghanistan and several people were killed and wounded, officials and witnesses said.

Also Thursday, the U.S. command said an American service member was killed the day before in fighting in the south, where Afghan and international forces were pushing into areas long held by Taliban insurgents. The death brought to at least 17 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this month. Sixty-six American troops died in July — the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly 9-year-old war.

The attack on the road crew occurred in the Sangin district of Helmand province, according to a company employee, Salam Khan Durrani. He said several people had been killed or wounded but he had no precise figures because fighting was still raging.

Provincial spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said the crew and its security guards called for help from Afghan security forces but he had no other details.

The crew was working on the main road from Sangin to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. Sangin has been the scene of bloody fighting between the Taliban and coalition forces.

In neighboring Kandahar province, eight NATO service members were injured when their helicopter made a hard landing during a joint Afghan and coalition operation. According to initial reports, the aircraft was not taking enemy fire. An investigation is under way.

In the east, two Afghan civilians were killed and 14 wounded Thursday when a fuel truck exploded in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province, the coalition said. The blast also destroyed three civilian vehicles and caused damage to shops nearby. The incident was being investigated, but initial reports indicated an explosive device was the cause, NATO said.

Also, a joint Afghan and NATO force killed 12 insurgents Wednesday in Puli Alam district of Logar province, the coalition said. Among those killed was Qari Muir, who had held several Taliban positions, including deputy shadow governor, military commander and the insurgent group's intelligence chief for Logar, NATO said.

The insurgents were observed preparing an attack on coalition forces and were killed in airstrikes, the coalition said. A weapons cache, which included rockets, mines, ammunition and bomb-making equipment also was destroyed.

Also in eastern Afghanistan, coalition and Afghan forces killed three insurgents who were members of the fundamentalist Islamic group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, NATO said. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a Pakistan-based group that is believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India blames for the 2009 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

It was unclear whether the dead were Pakistanis or from an Afghan wing.

The insurgents, who were killed in fighting in Pech district of Kunar province, were members of a network linked to two rocket-propelled grenade attacks that killed two U.S. service members and wounded several others, plus various other attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.

NATO also reported that technical problems forced one of its unmanned aerial vehicles to make an emergency landing Wednesday in Kunduz province. The vehicle is a lightweight, medium-range reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft that is not armed.
__

Khan reported from Kandahar.
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Human rights group knocks 'abusive' Taliban officials
By the CNN Wire Staff August 19, 2010
(CNN) -- "Abusive" Taliban officials, like the one who ordered the stoning of a young man and woman in northern Afghanistan, shouldn't have positions of authority after a peace deal, a Human Rights Watch official said Thursday.

In considering negotiations between the Taliban and coalition and Afghan government officials to end the conflict there, authorities have been amenable to the idea of reconciliation with low-level Taliban, but not all of them -- especially those who've committed violent acts. The question remains of how much sacrifice should be made for the sake of peace.

"The Afghan government has said there will be negotiations with the Taliban. The U.S. government supports that ultimately because we all know that that's the only way to end the war," Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said on CNN's "American Morning."

"When all is said and done, the question is, think about the stoning case up in Kunduz. Can we live with the deal in which the man who ordered the stoning becomes the mayor of that town?

"The question is not whether there will be negotiations, but what the terms of the final deal will be. Will we be able to live with allowing these most abusive Taliban commanders to get positions of authority in the country, and I think that's what needs to be ruled out -- not just because it's wrong but because I think a deal like that won't last, it won't be sustainable. We won't get peace from a deal like that."

The Taliban stoned to death a man and a woman in northern Afghanistan for allegedly having an affair, officials said Monday, an execution President Hamid Karzai called "unforgivable."

The stoning took place Sunday in Dasht-e-Archi district, in the Taliban-dominated village of Mullah Qali in Kunduz province. The pair was accused of having an illicit sexual relationship, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor said.

The woman was about 20 years old and the man was about 27, said Mohammed Ayoub, district governor of Amam Sahib, which is also in Kunduz province. The woman was engaged, and the man was married to another woman. The two had been held by the Taliban for about a week, Ayoub said.

Malinowski there's been "a lot more brazen behavior by the Taliban in the parts of the country that they pretty much control, such as executions of people regarded, for example, as collaborators or against women who try to go to school.

"This is the first time they've actually publicly executed somebody in front of a crowd of people," Malinowski said. "It tells me there are a lot of parts of Afghanistan where the government is just absent. There's no government there. There's no U.S. military there. There's no formal justice system there, and so the Taliban can fill the vacuum -- and when they do, this is what they do."
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Afghanistan marks National Pavilion Day at Shanghai World Expo
SHANGHAI, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- With the sound of stringed instruments, drumbeats and the melody of folk singers, Afghanistan celebrated its National Pavilion Day -- on its 91st Independence Day -- at the World Expo Thursday.

Afghan Commerce and Trade Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady spoke at the ceremony, saying that as Afghanistan had experienced conflict and suffered various security, economic and social problems, the country viewed being at the World Expo as a great achievement.

It was the first time that the land-locked and often worn-torn country has participated in the World Expo. Ahady said it was exciting to see the Afghan flag flying with more than 200 other national flags above the Expo Garden.

Ahady said the Afghanistan Pavilion, with the theme "Heart of Asia, Land of Opportunities & Resources," received about 50,000 visitors daily.

The pavilion is a reconstruction of the famous Blue Mosque of Herat in northwestern Afghanistan. It displays nomad tents, antique rugs and textiles, traditional silver jewellery and corals, and also has a bazaar selling handicrafts.

Ahady said his country's participation in the Expo aimed to promote Afghan culture and boost trade between Afghanistan and China. He encouraged Chinese businessmen to invest in the country, as "the return of investing in Afghanistan is very high."

Afghanistan established diplomatic ties with China 55 years ago. The country won independence from Britain in 1919.
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WikiLeaks says Pentagon ready to discuss Afghan files
US denies report, wants papers back
Associated Press By Karl Ritter August 19, 2010
STOCKHOLM - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said yesterday that the Pentagon has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistle-blower’s request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians.

“This week, we received contact through our lawyers that the general counsel’’ of the Pentagon “says now that they want to discuss the issue,’’ Assange said in a phone interview.

The Pentagon denied it was willing to collaborate with the group but acknowledged that it had arranged for a phone call last Sunday between its general counsel and a person claiming to be a lawyer for WikiLeaks.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the lawyer, Timothy Matusheski, was a no show for the call.

The Pentagon followed up with a letter to Matusheski Monday, demanding that WikiLeaks return the war files.

“The Defense Department will not negotiate some ‘minimized’ or ‘sanitized’ version of the release by WikiLeaks of additional US government classified documents,’’ wrote Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer.

Whitman had initially told reporters there had been no direct contact between the Defense Department and WikiLeaks.

He said he still stands by that assessment, because the phone call between Johnson and Matusheski never took place.

In a brief phone call, Matusheski said yesterday that he had received a fax from the Defense Department. He did not answer any other questions.

Assange said yesterday that “contact has been established’’ but said it was not clear whether and how the US military would assist WikiLeaks.

“It is always positive for parties to talk to each other,’’ Assange said. “We welcome their engagement.’’

He reiterated that WikiLeaks plans to release its second batch of secret Afghan war documents within two weeks to a month.

The first files in its “Afghan War Diary’’ laid bare classified military documents covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.

The release angered US officials, energized critics of the NATO-led campaign, and drew the attention of the Taliban, which has promised to use the material to track down people it considers traitors.

Nongovernmental organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog based in Paris, have criticized WikiLeaks as being irresponsible.

WikiLeaks describes itself as a public service organization for whistle-blowers, journalists, and activists.
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How the war has changed Afghanistan
BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- On the 7th of October 2001, US-led military forces launched large-scale attacks on Afghanistan after the then ruling Taliban refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

He was the mastermind behind the September 11 terrorist attacks. Ten years on, and with the Taliban forced from power, let's look at how the war has brought tremendous change to Afghan society and its people.

Even though they had no idea, life for ordinary Afghans was about to change in the blink of an eye. (shot: twin towers being hit on Sep 11, 2001)

On the 7th of October 2001, the US launched "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. Two months later, the Taliban abandoned its last stronghold of Kandahar. At the end of 2001, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as head of a 30-member interim government. Three years later, Karzai's is now the war-torn country's President.

But, a new president and functional parliament doesn't equal social security and a country's prosperity.

In 2003, the Afghan government began to disarm local forces with help from the UN and other Western countries. By 2006, more than 2000 illegal armed forces were still at large. Some of them even out-equipped government troops. What's worse,the conflict between anti-government troops and pro-government forces, have caused a large civilian death toll.

The UN recorded more than one-thousand civilian deaths in the first six months of 2009. That was an increase of almost 25 percent compared to the same period in 2008.

The deteriorating security situation is hampering Afghanistan's domestic economy. Some people have lost their jobs and reduced to poverty. The Afghan government's statistics show the current unemployment rate stands at 33%.

However, there is some good news. In recent years, beauty parlors, female music bands, even female Taekwondo teams have emerged in Afghan society, bringing fresh choices to people 's life.

A fund of 45 million US dollars has been set-up to help the country's war widows. It provides them with vocational training and other support programs.

(Source: cntv.cn)
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Massive information leak shakes Washington over Afghan war
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Questioning and dissenting voices have been mounting over the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan since the website WikiLeaks disclosed late last month a multitude of secret military records on the nine-year-old warfare.

The 77,000 classified documents painted a gloomy picture of the fighting in Afghanistan, with some pointing to cover-ups of deaths of innocent civilians at the hands of the U.S. and allied forces.

The leaked information also cast a thick shadow over the reliability of America's key ally in the Afghan war, namely Pakistan, whose spies allegedly colluded with the Taliban.

More bombshells are expected to be among the around 15,000 documents the whistleblowing website said it was about to release. Some observers said WikiLeaks might use them to leverage possible countermeasures from the U.S. government.

The website Cryptome, similar to WikiLeaks, also claimed that these new files might have been "pre-positioned for public release" in case WikiLeaks is "taken down" by the U.S. government or anything happens to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

White House and Pentagon officials have so far refused to specify how to tame the information spillage, while lining up to condemn what National Security Advisor James Jones called an "irresponsible" move that could endanger the lives of the U.S. and other foreign troops on the ground and threaten America's national security.

The Pentagon on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of negotiating a "sanitized" release of the remaining documents, demanding that "nothing further be released by WikiLeaks."

The latest leak is reminiscent of the 1971 disclosure of some 7,000 pages of classified military information by military expert Daniel Ellsberg, which triggered waves of nationwide anti-war protests and prompted the then U.S. government to end the Vietnam War.

Likewise, the Afghan war has come under increasingly heavy controversy and tight scrutiny. Many analysts said that what was poised to bear the brunt of the massive leak was the support for the protracted war, both on Capitol Hill and among the public.

According to Ellsberg, dubbed "the most dangerous man in America" by former president Richard Nixon, the WikiLeaks leak worsened the already strong doubt over the war.

On the one hand, the war has so far cost the United States about 300 billion U.S. dollars, but on the other, the opponents are becoming even stronger, Ellsberg said on TV days after the leaking.

The war in Afghanistan also involves "almost criminal political back dealings," Bradley Manning allegedly wrote in an e-mail. The U.S. army intelligence analyst has been detained as a "person of interest" in an official investigation on the Wikileaks leak.

He allegedly provided as many as 260,000 sensitive documents to WikiLeaks, whose revelation he claimed would make U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and thousands of diplomats across the world suffer a heart attack.

All these accusations and allegations, together with stubborn difficulties and mounting casualties on the battlefield, have also eroded the support coming from President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats.

When the U.S. House of Representatives approved late last month tens of billions of dollars to continue funding the war in Afghanistan, 102 Democrats voted against the measure.

In defense and damage control following the WikiLeaks disclosure, Obama said that the leaked reports "point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall."

The Obama administration significantly adjusted its policy on the Afghan war in the autumn last year, authorizing 100,000 troops in the restive Asian country, triple the level from 2008.

The revised guideline also indicates that Washington would back the Afghan government's efforts to reconcile with those Taliban members who agree to denounce violence, resist al-QaIda and uphold the Afghan constitution.

However, the recent killing of eight international aid workers, including six Americans, by Taliban has subjected the new U.S. policy to serious doubt.

In addition, some experts with local think tanks have warned that the low efficiency of the Afghan government, the allegedly cozy relationship between Pakistani forces and the Taliban and the "extremely unwise" schedule set by Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan would inevitably hinder the counter-insurgency efforts on the ground.

Admitting the challenges, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, David Petraeus, said earlier this week that "it's a gradual effort. It's a deliberate effort."

Yet apparently, the U.S. public's patience is wearing away. "The prolonged unending war has become a major drain on the morale of the U.S. armed forces and undermined civilian support in the U.S.," said James Petras, a professor emeritus of sociology at Binghamton University, New York.

With huge military expenditures and out-of-control budget deficit, the Afghan war would eventually ruin America and end Obama's "shameful presidency," he said in an article published in June.
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Afghanistan to Have 150 Military Planes in 5 Years
Tamim Hamid Tolo news August 19, 2010
Officials in the Ministry of Defence say the international community has agreed to donate 150 airplanes to Afghanistan's air-force in the next 5 years

The Ministry adds that the training of personnel for Afghanistan's air-force will take a long time.

The Afghan National Army (ANA)'s helicopters have to fly to different parts of the country daily.

Jalalabad military airbase is one of the bases in the country in which a large number of Afghan forces are deployed.

The international community is now committed to strengthen Afghanistan's air-force, while less attention has been paid before.

"The training of ground forces is easy, but the training of air force will take years," said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defence.

ANA's current airplanes are ready to respond to any threats by the anti-government forces.

In recent reports published by the WikiLeaks website, it is revealed now that the anti-government forces in Afghanistan are able to destroy any airplanes.

Air forces are the prime needs of an army.

Air forces in any army can act alone in any military operations, since military airplanes can use different weapons.
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Central, South Asian Leaders Meet in Russia
August 18, 2010 VOA News
Russia is hosting the presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan in a summit aimed at coordinating efforts to battle terrorism and counter regional drug trafficking.

Ahead of Wednesday's summit, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev met separately with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, whose country borders Afghanistan, was also participating.

The summit features a rare direct encounter between Mr. Zardari and Mr. Karzai, whose Kabul government has repeatedly accused Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency of supporting the Taliban. Pakistan has adamantly denied the allegations.

NATO has urged Russia to provide military hardware and training for Afghan forces, and Moscow has said it is willing to help. However, Russia has made clear it has no plans to send troops to Afghanistan, where the Soviet Union waged a decade-long war in the 1980s before withdrawing.

Earlier Wednesday, a Russian presidential aide said the four leaders would also discuss efforts to boost cooperation in the trade, energy, investment and transportation sectors.

Russia is also expected to offer further aid to flood-hit Pakistan at the summit. Moscow has already sent a planeload of emergency supplies for flood victims.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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US service member killed in southern Afghanistan
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 19, 6:11 am ET
KABUL, Afghanistan – A U.S. service member died in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan where fighting is escalating as Afghan and international forces push into areas long held by Taliban insurgents, the international military coalition said Thursday.

NATO did not release details about the service member's death on Wednesday, which brought to at least 17 the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan so far this month. Sixty-six American troops died in July — the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly 9-year-old war.

In Kandahar province in the south, eight NATO service members were injured when their helicopter made a hard landing during a joint Afghan and coalition operation. According to initial reports, the aircraft was not taking enemy fire. An investigation is under way.

In the east, a joint Afghan and NATO force killed 12 insurgents Wednesday in Puli Alam district of Logar province, the coalition said. Among those killed was Qari Muir, who had held several Taliban positions, including deputy shadow governor, military commander and the insurgent group's intelligence chief for Logar, NATO said.

The insurgents were observed preparing an attack on coalition forces and were killed in airstrikes, the coalition said. A weapons cache, which included rockets, mines, ammunition and bomb-making equipment also was destroyed.

Also in eastern Afghanistan, coalition and Afghan forces killed three insurgents who were members of the fundamentalist Islamic group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, NATO said. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a Pakistan-based group that is believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India blames for the 2009 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

The insurgents, who were killed in fighting in Pech district of Kunar province, were members of a network linked to two rocket-propelled grenade attacks that killed two U.S. service members and wounded several others, plus various other attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.

NATO also reported that technical problems forced one of its unmanned aerial vehicles to make an emergency landing Wednesday in Kunduz province. The vehicle is a lightweight, medium-range reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft that is not armed.
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Afghanistan, Africa most at risk for food shortage, UN says
By the CNN Wire Staff August 19, 2010
(CNN) -- Afghanistan and several African nations are the most at risk to have a food shortage, an organization that works with the United Nations said in a report Thursday.

Afghanistan was named as the country with the most vulnerable food supply, according to the study by Maplecroft, a British-based research agency.

After Afghanistan, African nations were on the rest of the top 10 list. In order, the next were the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola, Liberia, Chad and Zimbabwe.

In all, African nations were 36 of the top 50 on the list.

"Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable to food insecurity because of the frequency of extreme weather events, high rates of poverty and failing infrastructures," the organization said.

Maplecroft said it worked with the U.N.'s World Food Programme to develop the criteria to judge 163 countries. The group came up with 12 categories to help make evaluations.

Those categories included the nutritional and health status of populations, cereal production and imports, Gross Domestic Product per capita, natural disasters, conflict and the effectiveness of government, the group said.

The United States was ranked No. 158. Finland got the best rank and was considered least at risk.
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Petraeus uses media to press patience on Afghanistan war
By Robert H. Reid Associated Press via The Washington Times Wednesday, August 18, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan | A weekend media blitz by the Army's public relations master sent a clear message: It's not time to hit the panic button in Afghanistan, but success in the nearly 9-year-old war won't come quickly.

The appeal for patience by ArmyGen. David H. Petraeus, made in a series of media interviews Sunday, also suggests that he may propose that only a few troops begin leaving in July, as President Obama has promised.

That could force the White House to choose between the professional advice of a respected commander who is widely credited with turning around the Iraq war and pressure from some Democrats for significant withdrawals and an end to the unpopular Afghanistan conflict.

Congressional support for the Afghanistan war is wavering. Last month, House Democratic leaders had to rely on Republican support to pass a nearly $59 billion measure to fund Mr. Obama's additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan and other programs. Twelve Republicans and 102 Democrats opposed the measure.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat, said he was torn between his obligation to bring the bill to the floor and his "profound skepticism" that the money would lead to a successful end to the war.

To bolster congressional confidence, the media-savvy Gen. Petraeus delivered his message through news organizations with significant audiences in Washington — NBC's "Meet the Press,"the New York Times and The Washington Post.

"We are doing everything we can to achieve progress as rapidly as we can without rushing to failure," Gen. Petraeus told The Post. "We're keenly aware that this has been ongoing for approaching nine years. We fully appreciate the impatience in some quarters."

During the interviews, Gen. Petraeus said his six weeks at the helm of the NATO and U.S. mission had convinced him that the counterinsurgency strategy he devised with his predecessor, ArmyGen. Stanley A. McChrystal, was fundamentally sound and just needed time to succeed.

He also spelled out a goal for the war — not to transform Afghanistan into a Western-style democracy but to keep al Qaeda and other extremist groups at bay while the Afghan government has a chance to take control and win the trust of the Afghan people.

"We're here so that Afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists the way it was when al Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks in the Kandahar area," Gen. Petraeus told "Meet the Press" in an interview in Kabul.

Stephen Biddle, a defense policy analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said the American public's chief worry is that the U.S. may be engaged in a fight in Afghanistan that it cannot win.

Part of the job of Gen. Petraeus and other administration officials is to "make the case the war is winnable and we're in the process of winning it," Mr. Biddle said.

To convince skeptics that he's not coaching a losing team, Gen. Petraeus said he sees early signs of progress in routing the Taliban from some of their southern strongholds, reforming the Afghan government and training and equipping thousands of Afghan soldiers and police.

He also cited a new initiative to create Afghan community defense forces — similar to those he used with success in Iraq — and nascent steps to reintegrate low-level insurgents who want to stop fighting.

Gen. Petraeus acknowledged growing frustration with an increasingly violent war, in which the usual benchmarks of success — capturing territory or killing large numbers of the enemy — are difficult to measure.

But he also insisted that the military has only recently been given the resources it needs — 30,000 American reinforcements who are still arriving as well as more trained Afghan soldiers.

U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan stands at nearly 100,000 — three times as many as at the beginning of 2009.

In ordering more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in December, Mr. Obama pledged to begin withdrawing forces starting in July 2011, a sign to a war-weary U.S. public as well as a weak Afghan government that the American commitment to the war was limited. Mr. Obama also has said the pace of the withdrawal would depend on security conditions.

During the "Meet the Press" interview, host David Gregory asked whether the general might recommend that the drawdown be delayed if conditions were not right.

"Certainly, yes," Gen. Petraeus replied, saying Mr. Obama had "expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice."

A recommendation from one of the best-known U.S. generals, with prestige in Congress, would be difficult for the president to reject — even at the risk of trouble within his own Democratic Party. Gen. Petraeus is the third commander to lead the U.S. and NATO mission since Mr. Obama took office.

Yet measuring progress in Afghanistan is difficult. The coalition has achieved some success against the Taliban in the Nawa district of Helmand province but is struggling to gain full control in Marjah, a town captured in February that was supposed to become a model for the strategy of winning public support through effective local government.

Violence is increasing in parts of the north, including the provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan, far removed from longtime Taliban strongholds. Afghan commanders say insurgent infiltration from Pakistan is on the rise in eastern Afghanistan while NATO's attention is riveted on the south.

Still, Gen. Petraeus must find a way by the end of the year to convince Congress and the American public that the U.S. and its allies are gaining ground, or all the interviews and rosy predictions will come to naught.
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Afghanistan Opening First Shariah-Based Banks: Islamic Finance
August 19, 2010, 4:59 AM EDT By Khalid Qayum and Eltaf Najafizada
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan plans to issue licenses for three Islamic banks, the first to offer a range of services that comply with religious law in a country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim.

Afghan United Bank, Ghazanfar Bank and Maiwand Bank are seeking permission to provide products that meet Shariah principles, said Aimal Hashoor, a central bank spokesman in Kabul. Now, seven local banks can offer Islamic services through dedicated tellers at branches, he said. The products are limited to Islamic loans, said Sayed Mahmood-ul-Hassan, chief executive officer of Afghan United Bank.

The government wants to expand Islamic finance to draw more assets into the financial system and help reduce the nation’s reliance on overseas aid for reconstruction following 30 years of war and insurgency, according to Hashoor. The country has received more than $32 billion in international aid since U.S.- led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, he said.

“Afghanistan is a Muslim society and many people don’t want to use conventional banking,” Hashoor said in an interview on Aug. 15. “We want to bring all of the money that we have in businesses and with individuals into the economic cycle.”

The $23 billion economy has expanded an average 11.3 percent annually since 2004, according to the U.S. Department of State. Islamic finance would be popular with Afghans, who are “very religious” and often prefer cash transactions to interest-based banking, holding back the development of local businesses, according to Al Baraka Islamic Bank.

“Islamic banks can fill the vacuum as conventional banking is not fully developed in Afghanistan,” Kaleem Iqbal, a senior executive vice president at Al Baraka Islamic, a unit of Bahrain-based Al-Baraka Banking Group, said in an interview yesterday in Islamabad. “The government would be looking forward to participation by banks in its plans to sell sukuk.”

Sukuk Plan

Afghanistan’s government is limited to using short-term bills and international aid to finance development. The central bank has about 12 billion Afghanis ($261 million) of bills due in 12 months or less outstanding, Rahimullah Zaker, general director of the market operation’s department, said in an interview on Aug. 16.

A government sale of Islamic bonds is planned for the future once full Islamic banking has started and services expand, according to Hashoor. The nation may issue non-Islamic long-term notes next year, he said, without being more specific.

Global sales of sukuk fell 25 percent to $8.3 billion so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Issuance totaled $20.2 billion last year, up from $14.1 billion in 2008, and reached a record $31 billion in 2007. The debt is based on asset returns rather than interest to meet Shariah guidelines.

Debt Returns

The difference between average yields on Islamic bonds and the London interbank offered rate narrowed four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 381 yesterday, according to the HSBC/NASDAQ Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index.

Shariah-compliant bonds returned 10 percent this year, according to the HSBC/NASDAQ Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index, while debt in developing markets gained 13 percent, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Diversified Index shows.

Malaysia’s 3.928 percent Islamic note yields due June 2015 fell three basis points to 2.73 percent today, according to prices from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

Afghanistan, with a population of 29 million, is the poorest country in the Asia-Pacific region, with 42 percent of people living on less than $1.25 a day, according to a report on the Manila-based Asian Development Bank’s website.

‘Good Growth’

The government announced a five-year plan to build its finance industry and reduce reliance on aid in 2009. President Barack Obama told Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Aug. 13 that the U.S. is committed to helping Afghanistan become a “stable, secure and prosperous” nation.

The three likely license winners are already among seven lenders providing limited Islamic services such as deposit accounts and loans, said the central bank’s Hashoor.

“Once the banking regulations are in place, the banks can offer a wide range of advanced products such as project financing, mortgages and credit and debit cards,” he said. “The customers will also feel comfortable doing Islamic banking with lenders as they will know that these services are regulated under law.”

The parliament needs to approve Islamic banking laws before the central bank issues licenses to start Shariah-compliant services, Hashoor said. Afghan United plans to offer Islamic credit cards once the bank wins its license, Hassan said.

“We will have good growth of Islamic banking in the future as this is where Muslims prefer to invest their money,” Rama Raju, president of Maiwand Bank, the first lender to provide Islamic loans in Afghanistan, said in an Aug. 15 interview from Kabul. “We are looking forward to the sukuk auction.”

--Editors: Simon Harvey, Shanthy Nambiar

To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Singapore kqayum@bloomberg.net; Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net.
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Can an Assassination Campaign Turn the Tide in Afghanistan?
By Robert Baer time.com Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010
The Obama Administrations new military strategy in Afghanistan may be a sign of desperation — a Hail Mary pass — but it may just work. The President's counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan describes it as giving up the 'hammer' for the 'scalpel.' The military, as we know from classified military documents put on the Internet by WikiLeaks last month, prefers the term 'kinetic strike'. I've heard the Pentagon use the term 'eliminating command nodes'. But I'll go ahead and call it by its everyday name: assassination.

The tactic is familiar in the war on terror, of course, its template being the CIA's unmanned aerial vehicle strikes on al-Qaeda operatives in the tribal areas of Pakistan, another form of assassination. Putting aside questions of the long-term wisdom of firing area weapons into small villages, no one has convincingly disputed the fact that these strikes have badly hurt al-Qaeda, with its remnants either hiding in caves or fleeing to places like Yemen. Not surprisingly, the military has asked, Why can't we do the same in Afghanistan?

An official back from Washington told me I'd be surprised at the extent to which my former colleagues in the CIA are caught up in this new Afghan strategy, the agency having turned itself into a paramilitary operation at the service of the military. The CIA in Afghanistan wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night thinking about how it can better guide Brennan's scalpel. It has even adopted a new term for officers helping the military — targeters. But the flaw in the new strategy remains the availability of good, solid intelligence.

The first assassination I ever looked into in depth was that of Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's Christian president-elect who was killed along with 26 others by a bomb attack on his Phalange party's headquarters September 14, 1982. What was apparent from the beginning was that the assassins had fantastic intelligence. They not only had people continuously watching Gemayel right up until the moment they detonated their bomb, they also had unimpeded access to the building in which Gemayel was killed. The assassins did not intend to miss, because for them assassination is a form of intimidation — a message to Gemayel's party that if it continued cooperating with the Israelis, who had invaded Lebanon, the rest of the party's leadership would meet the same fate. It worked. Gemayel's brother Amine, who succeeded him, gave up any idea of cooperating with Israel.

That's pretty much what we'd like to do in Afghanistan: decimate the Taliban's leadership, and force the survivors to put down their arms. But Afghanistan isn't Lebanon. For a start, there is no single leader of the Taliban. How many Taliban commanders would we have to kill before the Taliban was intimidated? Fifty? A hundred? We don't know the Taliban well enough to put a number on it. Second, what's clear in Afghanistan is that while our military is more than capable of wielding a scalpel, we don't have the intelligence to point out where to strike. We saw evidence of this in the Wikileak documents on the failed assassination of al-Qaeda operative Abu Laith al-Libi in Afghanistan. It underscores the problem that the Taliban is possibly the most elusive military force in the world. Unlike the Gemayel assassination, there simply is no way for us to keep our eyes on a target right up until the assassination, let alone get access to wherever he's hiding.

Like any Hail Mary pass, we'll just have to wait and see whether the play works.

Baer, a former Middle East CIA field officer, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.
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Afghan Vote Spurs Fears of Violence
The Wall Street Journal - Today's Paper - Europe By MARIA ABI-HABIB AUGUST 17, 2010
KABUL - Next month's Afghan parliamentary elections, which President Hamid Karzai hopes will produce a more compliant legislature, are prompting fears of further violence and fraud, diplomats and international observers say.

With Afghanistan's security situation worse than last year during August's disputed presidential vote, the possibility for fraud is greater this time, say Western embassy officials monitoring the campaign.

Last year, a United Nations-led watchdog threw out as fraudulent more than a million ballots cast for Mr. Karzai, discrediting his presidency in the eyes of many Afghans and lawmakers and damaging relations between the Afghan leader and the international community.

Since then, parliament has become a center of defiance against Mr. Karzai. Lawmakers have rejected dozens of his ministerial appointees and voted against his proposed changes, ultimately implemented through presidential decree, to electoral law.

Mr. Karzai "has had a very unpleasant experience with the previous parliament that challenged him. He wants a more obedient parliament to be elected," said Daud Sultanzoy, an independent lawmaker who is running for re-election.

Some lawmakers say Mr. Karzai hopes a new parliament will support his nominations for the remaining seven cabinet ministerial slots and the Supreme Court's chief justice, a vacancy that opened up this month. Mr. Karzai hasn't sought approval from the current parliament for the postings in order to avoid further deadlock.

Unlike previous elections, which were co-managed with the U.N., Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission is overseeing these elections alone. Under the new rules that Mr. Karzai decreed last fall, the U.N. no longer appoints the majority of commissioners at the Electoral Complaints Commission, the watchdog that disqualified so many votes last year; Mr. Karzai now makes these appointments.

Afghan election officials say they believe next month's vote won't be as problematic as last year's. "We've learned from our mistakes," Fazel Ahmad Manawi, chairman of the IEC, said in an interview. "Fraud is a concern, but it won't be to the extent of the presidential election."

Independent observers aren't so certain. "There are still issues of competency, quality and the trustworthiness of the IEC staff," said Glenn Cowan, a co-founder of Democracy International, a U.S. organization that plans to oversee the September elections. "Many local administrators were in place last year, and whether or not they will allow the same massive level of fraud is a question."

The U.N. considers some 40% of Afghanistan's districts unsafe for unarmed government officials. Coalition military officials say more territory has succumbed to the insurgents since August 2009, with once-peaceful provinces in the north now infiltrated by the Taliban. So far, aAt least three parliamentary candidates have been killed, dozens threatened and several kidnapped, IEC and interior ministry officials say.

"We all know that security challenges will be a significant obstacle," said the U.N. special representative in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura. "We must ensure that poor security in parts of the country is not used to manipulate the votes of the people."

More than 2,500 candidates are running for 249 slots in the Wolesi Jirga, or the lower house of Afghanistan's parliament, in the Sept. 18 election. One-quarter of the seats are reserved for women.

Afghanistan's electoral system distributes votes for individual candidates rather than political parties. Coupled with typically low voter turnouts of 30%, the setup often allows candidates to win with no more than 10% of the vote.

By handing out bags of rice or cooking oil, candidates can win over a voting station or even an entire village, which is often all that is needed to secure a parliament seat in some parts of the country, said Mr. Cowan from Democracy International.

The competition is most intense in Kabul, where campaigning is relatively safe and colorful election banners plaster the streets. Posters of warlords sporting turbans and bushy mustaches with pictures of assassinated family members in the background hang alongside posters of candidates in drab-colored suits, sitting in leather chairs. For Afghanistan's mostly illiterate population, each candidate has a symbol so voters can spot their candidate on the ballot. Roses, horses and stacks of money are among thousands of symbols being used.

In the more volatile provinces of Afghanistan, especially in the south and the east, there is little public sign of the campaign. Candidates there live in fear of the Taliban and campaign secretly or in absentia.

Hossai Andar, a 45-year-old woman with an easy smile, is running for a seat in the eastern Ghazni province mostly from her home in Kabul. Ms. Andar travels secretly to the violence-racked province a few days a week, organizing covert campaign sessions at relatives' houses.

Although her headscarf easily slips off her hair in Kabul, she doesn't come to Ghazni without the all-encompassing burqa, fearing she will be recognized and killed by the insurgents.

One of the candidates whom the Taliban allegedly tried to kill is Mohammad Naeem Lalay, a first-time candidate running for a seat in southern Kandahar city, the Taliban's birthplace.

Winding down a dusty street in Kandahar one early morning in July, Mr. Lalay said he was hurrying to a meeting with tribal elders. As his car snaked through the streets an explosion ripped through the air, killing a young girl nearby and shaking his car violently.

He returned home, slightly injured. Then the phone calls from unknown numbers started coming.

"A man told me to step back from my campaign or 'this time we'll kill you,'" Mr. Lalay said. "Every day I receive five to 10 phone calls threatening my life," which he said are from Taliban insurgents or rival candidates. Other candidates are reporting the same intimidation tactics.

According to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, "The Taliban are totally against elections in Afghanistan, and people have been asked to not participate because it will extend the occupation of our country." The insurgents, he added, "will not spare any effort to disrupt the upcoming election."

With a month to go, Afghan officials haven't decided yet how many polling stations will open across the country. Security officials are monitoring the Taliban's activity for indications of which areas are safe enough to open voting stations, said Zemarai Bashary, a spokesman for the interior ministry.
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Canada calls for end to attacks on aid workers
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 19 of its staff and aid workers were attacked in the first six months of this year, 63 were abducted and seven killed
Kandahar, Afghanistan — The Canadian Press Dene Moore Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 10:17AM EDT
Canada and the United Nations marked World Humanitarian Day on Thursday with an appeal for all sides to allow aid workers to do their work in Afghanistan unmolested.

This year has been one of the bloodiest of the nine-year war.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 19 of its staff and aid workers were attacked in the first six months of this year, 63 were abducted and seven killed.

That toll doesn't include 10 members of a charitable medical team killed by militants on Aug. 5 as they returned from providing health care to villagers in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.

“Canada strongly condemns acts that threaten the safety of humanitarian workers,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said in an emailed statement Thursday.

“Afghanistan is a very difficult and dangerous environment in which to deliver aid and we commend our partners who work to improve the lives of the Afghan people.

“Canada continues to call for unhindered access for humanitarian workers and encourages all parties to promote the safety of aid workers.”

Robert Watkins, UN humanitarian co-ordinator and deputy special representative of the UN secretary general, called on all parties to allow humanitarian work to be carried out.

“Aid workers operate on the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. Humanitarian workers must be protected — not targeted,” Watkins said in a statement.

“They must have the space to operate without fear in Afghanistan in order to assist the most vulnerable people in this country.”

A massive increase in the number of troops on the ground has translated into an increase in the number of soldiers killed, and a UN study released last week found a 21 per cent increase in the number of civilian deaths in the first half of 2010.

The recent murders of members of the International Assistance Mission medical team in Badakhshan province prompted a revised travel warning from the U.S. government, reiterating that no area of Afghanistan is safe.

In addition to thousands of soldiers deployed in Kandahar, there are about 120 civilians in the country working for the government of Canada and many others working for aid organizations.

Foreign Affairs has not revised its travel warning for Canadians, but reiterated that “the security situation in Afghanistan remains extremely volatile and unpredictable.”

“The threat to foreign nationals, including Canadians, from terrorist and criminal violence is high,” the department said in an email response to The Canadian Press.

“The Government of Canada is not in a position to provide protection to individuals travelling independently in Afghanistan. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada continues to advise against all travel to Afghanistan.”

Officials said there are regular reviews of security in place for Canadian civilian staff in Kabul and Kandahar.

“The current measures that we have in place are sound,” said the email.

The Canadian Forces provides training to all Canadian government workers deploying outside Canada, it said, including people working for Foreign Affairs, the Canadian International Development Agency, Correctional Service Canada and RCMP.

In addition to the 151 soldiers and one journalist who have been killed in Afghanistan, Canadian humanitarian workers Jacqueline Kirk and Shirley Case were killed in an ambush in August 2008, and diplomat Glyn Berry was killed in a suicide bombing near Kandahar city in January 2006.

Canada continues to advise against all travel to Afghanistan.

“Canadians undertaking travel despite this warning take serious risks. Canadians already in Afghanistan should leave. The security situation remains extremely volatile and unpredictable.”
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Helicopter Makes Hard Landing in Afghanistan, Eight Personnel Are Injured
By Mike Harrison - Bloomberg Aug 19, 2010 12:11 PM GMT+0430
An International Security Assistance Force helicopter with 19 people on board made a hard landing in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province today, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in an e-mailed statement.

“The helicopter was involved in a joint Afghan and coalition operation when it made the landing,” the statement said. “There were 19 people on the aircraft and all have been safely recovered. Eight coalition members were injured and are being treated at an ISAF medical facility.”
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Afghan women, children turn to drugs
CNN August 18, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan - The 18 women sit cross-legged on metal beds, wearing long, loose dresses and nightgowns, their heads completely covered with shawls. They do not want us to see them. Some of them are holding babies in their laps.

They are addicted to heroin and opium, products of Afghanistan's richest and cruelest crop, poppies. Some of their infants are addicted too.

We are in a treatment center hidden away in a back street of Kabul. It is administered by the Afghan government and funded by the U.S. State Department, through the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The U.S. is the primary and largest donor for drug treatment programs in Afghanistan.

The physician in charge, Dr. Latifa Hamidi, tells me that most of these women got hooked because their husbands smoked heroin. Injecting heroin is not as common here in Afghanistan as it is in the West.

The children, the staff tells us, became addicted when their mothers blew heroin smoke at them to calm them down when they cried. "Because all their family members are addicted, their child also gets addicted," the doctor says. "When their child is in pain the family doesn't give them medicine, they use the narcotics."

Children as young as two are hooked. It's the youngest drug-addicted group ever identified worldwide, according to the U.S. State Department. There are no established protocols for treating children this young.

I talk with 22-year-old Zainab. She nervously shifts her scarf so I can barely see her eyes. She tells me she got hooked when she and her husband were refugees in Iran. "My husband got me addicted," she says, "When I was feeling pain or had a cough I would smoke."

It's a story counselors are hearing more and more. The U.S. State Department calls the prevalence of drug use in Afghanistan "alarming." It quotes tribal chiefs who, in some cases, report that half the population of their villages consumes opiates.

Heroin and opium are cheap and readily available in Afghanistan, a country that produces 94 percent of the world's opiates. The United Nations estimates there are close to a million drug addicts in the country, more than seven percent of the population. Yet there are only 40 residential drug treatment centers in the entire country, helping a little more than 10,000 users per year.

The women in this center go through a 45-day program which the physicians are considering increasing to 90 days. It's voluntary; counselors and social workers go into the community, promoting an awareness campaign about the dangers of narcotics.

They encourage women who are addicted to enter the treatment program. Some must go through detox; the doctors say they do not use Methadone, only drugs that might be needed to help someone suffering from the pains of physical withdrawal such as vomiting.

Detox lasts for 10 days and then the patient moves on to Rehab. Children who are addicted are treated in an adjoining child care center.

Prior to U.S.-funded treatment centers, the relapse rate was close to 100 percent, the State Department says. The doctors say the rate at this center is relatively low. The goal of U.S.-funded programs is to cut relapse rates in half over the next two years so that 50 percent of all clients will be drug-free.

Zainab peeks out through a slit in her scarf. She tells me she is feeling better, that the doctors are helping her. I ask her what she is hoping for, what will happen to her when she finishes treatment and goes home?

"I won't go back to smoking heroin," she tells me. "I want to start a new and better life."
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