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Taliban release video on Afghan base attackers
By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban published a video Monday they say shows insurgents preparing for the brazen attack on a major NATO base earlier this month, just as NATO forces released data showing that insurgent attacks decreased in August.
Afghan lawmakers back lodging UN complaint against Pakistan
KABUL, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Members of Wolesi Jirga or lower house of Afghan parliament have backed the country's foreign minister for lodging complaint with the United Nations Security Council over the alleged cross-border artillery shelling from Pakistan, local media reported Sunday.
Election Delay Will Be Catastrophic: Political Parties
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Sunday, 23 September 2012
A newly established coalition of Afghanistan's political parties released a document on Sunday warning that any delay in the presidential election in 2014 will cause an "unaffordable crisis".
Pakistani Press Banned In Afghanistan Over 'Propaganda'
September 23, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghanistan has banned all newspapers from Pakistan in a move the Interior Ministry says is aimed to block the Taliban from influencing public opinion through the press.
Pak, U.S. meet to focus on ways to encourage Afghan Taliban for peace talks
By ANI
Islamabad, Sept. 24 (ANI): Senior officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, are scheduled to meet this week in New York, to review efforts that seek to bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table.
General criticises Australia's Afghan 'experiment'
By By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen | ABC
Australia's former top commander in Afghanistan has described the war effort there as an "experiment" that will not end well.
Afghan, NATO forces keep on pressing militants
by Farid Behbud, Chen Xin
KABUL, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Afghan army, police and the NATO- led coalition forces have been stepping up pressure on the Taliban and other militant groups across the insurgency-hit country.
Northern Irish politicians to advise Afghan government on peace talks
Jeffrey Donaldson and Denis Haughey fly to Kabul to help kickstart Taliban talks and share experience of peace process
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins, defence and security correspondent Sunday 23 September 2012
Two prominent Irish politicians have flown to Afghanistan to offer advice to Hamid Karzai's government that could help to kickstart a formal process of peace talks with the Taliban.
200 graduates join Afghan National Police in western province
HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Up to 200 newly- graduated officers joined the Afghan National Police (ANP) after completion of training in the country's western province of Herat, an official said on Monday.
Afghan female factory workers facing the sack
More than 200 workers at a rare women-only factory in Kabul face the sack and destitution after the Afghan government withdrew a Nato contract to make military uniforms.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 23 Sep 2012
Kabul - Managers at the factory have been told they will lose the £22 million-a-year contract when responsibility for supplying the new Afghan security forces switches from Nato to the Kabul government.
Iraq, Afghanistan Iran? We’ve Been Here Before
New York Times By ALBERT R. HUNT September 23, 2012
WASHINGTON - Ten years ago, President George W. Bush and top officials in his administration assured Americans that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that an American invasion of that country was justified and wouldn’t be that difficult.
28 Taliban militants killed, 54 arrested in Afghanistan within day
Xinhua Sept. 24, 2012
KABUL - About 28 Taliban militants were killed and 54 others detained in different Afghan provinces within the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Monday morning.
Afghanistan to Reinforce Eastern Border Police
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry, Saleha Soadat Sunday, 23 September 2012
Newly-appointed Minister of Interior Mujtaba Patang said Sunday that he will reinforce security forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border as a means to prevent further shelling into Afghanistan's eastern provinces.
Students Protest Rabbani University Name Change
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Sunday, 23 September 2012
University students in Kabul protested Sunday against the change of their university's name to Martyr of Peace Burhanuddin Rabbani University, saying the name is controversial.
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Taliban release video on Afghan base attackers
By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban published a video Monday they say shows insurgents preparing for the brazen attack on a major NATO base earlier this month, just as NATO forces released data showing that insurgent attacks decreased in August.
The twin releases are a reminder of the escalating battle for public opinion between the insurgency and the international military as U.S. and allied troops draw down. The Taliban continue to contend that they are fighting at full force while the international alliance says that they have been weakened.
In the Sept. 14 attack on Camp Bastion in Helmand province, 15 insurgents dressed in U.S. Army uniforms breached the base's perimeter fence then used automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers to fire on planes and people around the base's airstrip. They managed to kill two Marines and destroy six fighter jets costing tens of millions each before they were stopped. All but one of the assailants were killed in the fighting.
The Taliban video shows men wearing U.S. Army uniforms as they practice cutting through a chain-link fence and charging through the opening. One man indicates targets with a pointer and a whiteboard showing drawings of planes and fortifications. He speaks Pashtun, a major language in southern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. Words on the whiteboard are written in Urdu, a language more common in Pakistan.
A Taliban spokesman emailed the link to the video to the media but it was not possible to verify the authenticity of the footage. Nothing in the video indicates when or where it was filmed.
The NATO statistics showed that insurgent attacks decreased 9 percent in August, compared with the same month last year — continuing a falloff that started in July after a spike in attacks in May and June.
NATO said the shortened poppy harvest in the spring meant that the usual summer fighting season started earlier. Regionally, attacks decreased in the east and south, but increased in the west and north, according to the data.
Overall, NATO's figures show insurgent attacks are down 5 percent for the year so far, compared with the same period of 2011.
Australian Army Brig. Gen. Roger Noble, deputy to the deputy chief of staff for operations of the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul earlier this month that fighting in the south — the Taliban strongholds of Kandahar and Helmand provinces — has moved away from the bigger towns and cities.
"If you think back to 2010, people were talking about central Helmand being the center of fighting, but it's been pushed out and away from most of the major population centers," he said. "But there is still plenty of fighting and it is dangerous and having a direct effect in casualties on the coalition and also, increasingly, on the Afghan security forces."
Nearly two years after President Barack Obama announced that he was sending another 33,000 troops to take on the Taliban, those reinforcements have just completed their return to the United States. That leaves about 68,000 American troops, along with their NATO allies and Afghan partners, to carry out an ambitious plan to put the Afghans fully in the combat lead as early as next year.
____
Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report from Kabul.
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Afghan lawmakers back lodging UN complaint against Pakistan
KABUL, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Members of Wolesi Jirga or lower house of Afghan parliament have backed the country's foreign minister for lodging complaint with the United Nations Security Council over the alleged cross-border artillery shelling from Pakistan, local media reported Sunday.
Some lawmakers in Saturday's session appreciated Afghan foreign minister Zalmai Rasoul for complaining the alleged Pakistani artillery shelling on the eastern Afghan border areas at the UN Security Council, according to the Daily Outlook newspaper.
Pakistan have been occasionally shelling on the border areas in the eastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces, forcing locals to flee their houses for shelters, a claim rejected by Pakistan.
"The national assembly would support every effort convincing the UNSC into taking stern action against Pakistan," Daily Outlook quoted legislator Naqibullah Fayed as saying.
Another lawmaker Shukria Barakzai also asked the UNSC to come hard on Pakistan for continuously shelling Afghan border villages and put pressure on Islamabad to stop the incursions.
Zalmai Rasoul said in his speech at the UN Security Council on September 20 that cross-border shelling would damage the relations between Kabul and Islamabad, according to a statement of foreign ministry.
"The cross-border shelling of areas of Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan from across the Durand Line, has led to unprecedented anger and frustration among Afghans from all walks of life. We reiterate our call for an immediate and complete end to these acts, which have taken the lives of dozens of Afghans, mainly civilians, while leaving many more wounded. We remain in close contact with the Government of Pakistan to address this issue, holistically and resolutely," Rasoul said.
"Failure to end such attacks risks jeopardizing Afghanistan- Pakistan bilateral relations, with potential negative consequences for necessary bilateral cooperation for peace, security and economic development in our two countries and the wider region," he said, adding Afghanistan desires close and fruitful relations with Pakistan, a neighbor with whom we share historical, cultural and traditional ties.
The alleged artillery shelling from Pakistan have claimed scores of lives over the past couple of months, according to provincial governor of Kunar, Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi.
Tamim Nuristani, governor of the neighboring Nuristan province, in an interview with the Daily Mandegar, accused Pakistan of incursion, saying the joint attack of Pakistani army and Taliban militants on Kamdish district, Nuristan province has been repulsed.
The Afghan Interior Ministry in the latest move has ordered police to check the import and distribution of Pakistani newspapers in the eastern provinces of Kunar, Nuristan and Nangarhar, according to the Daily Mandegar.
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Election Delay Will Be Catastrophic: Political Parties
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Sunday, 23 September 2012
A newly established coalition of Afghanistan's political parties released a document on Sunday warning that any delay in the presidential election in 2014 will cause an "unaffordable crisis".
The Cooperation Council of Political Parties and Coalitions, comprised of around 20 political parties, insisted upon election reforms to secure a maximum turnout of voters and build confidence in the election process.
"The elections should take place on time," Hamidullah Farooqi, a member of the leadership council of Right and Justice Party said in a news conference after the Sunday event.
"If the Afghan government or anyone else wants to bring a change or delays the election time, they are ignoring the catastrophic consequences it may cause."
It was the first such gathering of the political parties in the country. The council was formed three months ago and has formulated the document Charter of Democracy.
The council includes key parties such as Abdullah Abdullah's National Coalition, the National Front and the Junbish-e Milli of Afghanistan party.
The Charter focuses not only on elections, but stresses the "non-negotiable democratic values" such as women's rights and human rights. The council also calls for a unified peace approach and fighting against corruption, among other things.
They also called for a stronger role of the political parties in the government.
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Pakistani Press Banned In Afghanistan Over 'Propaganda'
September 23, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghanistan has banned all newspapers from Pakistan in a move the Interior Ministry says is aimed to block the Taliban from influencing public opinion through the press.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said Afghan border police have swept shops in the eastern provinces of Nuristan, Kunar, and Nangarhar near the Pakistan border to seize copies of Pakistani papers.
"The Afghan Interior Ministry has banned the entry of some Pakistani papers in the east of Afghanistan," Afghan Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Muhammad Najib Danish said on September 23 in Kabul. "After an inspection and monitoring by the Afghan Interior Ministry, we found that there were some stories against freedom of speech and also there was a story against the Afghan security forces in Pakistani newspapers."
Ordinary Afghans, speaking to Reuters, largely agreed with the ban.
"We appreciate the decision made by the Afghan Interior Ministry regarding the banning of Pakistani newspapers," said Kabul resident Muhammad Naiem. "It is the right decision because the Pakistani papers were publishing propaganda and antigovernment stories."
Newspaper vendor Muhammad Samim also welcomed the ban.
"We are so delighted that the Afghan Interior Ministry banned the entry of Pakistani papers into Afghanistan," he said. "We welcome this decision."
The Afghan ban will likely add to tensions between the neighboring countries.
Ties have been strained by months of crossborder shelling that Afghan officials have blamed on Pakistan's military.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to cope with antigovernment militants operating from hideouts on the Afghan side of the border.
With reporting by Reuters and the BBC
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Pak, U.S. meet to focus on ways to encourage Afghan Taliban for peace talks
By ANI
Islamabad, Sept. 24 (ANI): Senior officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, are scheduled to meet this week in New York, to review efforts that seek to bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table.
According to a senior foreign ministry official, the meeting of what is known as the 'core group' will discuss, among other things, the de-listing of certain Taliban commanders from the United Nations terror list, reports The Express Tribune.
The meeting will be attended by Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Ludin.
A Pakistani official said "certain progress" has been made to seek a peaceful end to the Afghan conflict.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had a very productive discussion with U.S. officials on the Afghan situation, the official added.
"The crux of those discussions were: the U.S. wants to achieve reconciliation with Afghan elements and for the first time there is an acknowledgement that no process can succeed without the direct involvement of Pakistan," he said.
It is believed that the two countries have covered some ground to bridge their differences on how to move forward on the peace-making efforts with the Taliban.
U.S. media reports have suggested that Islamabad and Washington are set to establish a 'joint commission' that would help vet candidates who can play a positive role in the Afghan reconciliation process.
A senior military official said the U.S. had finally realized that "the road to success only comes through meaningful and broad based reconciliation".
"Pakistan will do whatever it can to ensure peace in Afghanistan but no one should expect that the Taliban or any other Afghan group is in our pocket," the official added.
Islamabad also considers the latest developments as an attempt to appease the American audience at a time when US President Obama is seeking a second-term in office. (ANI)
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General criticises Australia's Afghan 'experiment'
By By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen | ABC
Australia's former top commander in Afghanistan has described the war effort there as an "experiment" that will not end well.
Retired Major General John Cantwell has also criticised how politicians are portraying Australia's role and success in Afghanistan, describing the comments as "misleading".
about the problems with the war in Afghanistan and has questioned whether it has been worth the lives lost.
His latest criticism of the war comes as Australia prepares to begin handing over control for local security in Uruzgan province to Afghan forces.
"I think it's a very noble and brave and courageous experiment, but I think it's also not going to end well," Mr Cantwell told ABC Radio National.
"Afghanistan is a deeply divided country in so many ways; it's riven by tribal enmities and hatreds, it's divided geographically, it's divided by economy, it's divided by politics, it is a mess and it's a mess which will be in the same terrible condition for decades to come.
"We are deluding ourselves if we think we're going to turn Afghanistan into some little democracy, some gleaming bastion of Westernised ideas in that part of the world.
"It's just not going to happen."
Mr Cantwell has described Australia's mission in Afghanistan as "elastic", given that troops are now involved in a "nation-building" program which is not what they were originally sent there for.
And despite the wonderful work being done by the troops, Mr Cantwell says their role and success has been overstated by politicians back home.
"It is a little over-egging the pie, the politicians - our minister and others - talking about what we're doing in Afghanistan," Mr Cantwell said.
"We're not doing anything in Afghanistan in the whole, we're doing something in a small part of it - an important part, but nonetheless, a minor process."
Australia's war effort in Afghanistan has strong bipartisan support, although the Greens have repeatedly called for the troops to be brought home.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has described Mr Cantwell as a "very impressive man", adding that no-one wants Australian troops in Afghanistan for a moment longer than necessary.
"I think everyone associated with the commitment of our armed forces in Afghanistan... is constantly asking himself or herself 'are we doing the right thing?'," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra.
"Now my judgment is that we are doing the right thing."
Psychological effects
Mr Cantwell, who has written a soon-to-be-released book on his experiences as a soldier, has detailed some of the trauma he experienced after coming home from his first deployment during the Gulf War.
"When I came home and I suddenly found myself constantly plagued by nightmares and flashbacks and irrational behaviour, it started to dawn on me that I'd brought home more than just a few memories," he said.
"I'd brought home very, very painful recollections and, as it turned out, an affliction that would plague me for another two decades."
After retiring from the Army in February, he says he spent a week in a mental health facility because of the accumulated psychological effects of war.
Mr Cantwell says he decided to write about it to encourage other soldiers to seek professional help.
"I was very, very reluctant to be as open as I have been, but I did so for a single purpose and that is to draw attention to the mental and emotional toll that is being imposed upon our service men and women through contemporary operations."
"It is an insidious, deadly and difficult problem to deal with, post traumatic stress disorder.
"But it's something we must confront and the first ones who need to confront it are those who are suffering because almost all deny they've got a problem."
Mr Cantwell says he is now recovering, thanks to the support of his wife and the professional help he has received.
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Afghan, NATO forces keep on pressing militants
by Farid Behbud, Chen Xin
KABUL, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Afghan army, police and the NATO- led coalition forces have been stepping up pressure on the Taliban and other militant groups across the insurgency-hit country.
In the latest raids on insurgents, the Afghan forces, backed by the NATO-led coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops, have eliminated 28 Taliban militants within a 24- hour period ending Monday morning, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan army and NDS or intelligence agency, supported by the coalition forces, launched nine joint clean-up operations in Nangarhar, Baghlan, Kandahar, Zabul, Wardak, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand and Nimroz provinces, killing 28 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 54 others during the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates to media.
They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
The counter-insurgency operations, aiming to dismantle the insurgency's mid-level command structure and its supply line, have been stepped up particularly since early May this year when Taliban launched an annual rebel offensive to target security forces.
In another development, two armed Taliban militants were captured following a search operation by the ANP in Nahrin district in northern Baghlan province late Sunday.
"The raid was launched to find and arrest Taliban local commanders who have been involved in a string of attacks against government interest in Nahrin and neighboring districts," a senior police official Ghayor Andarabi told Xinhua Monday morning.
Meanwhile, another setback for the Taliban insurgent group was the loss of several local leaders and commanders in southern Helmand and eastern Kunar province on Sunday.
Two insurgents, including a Taliban commander, were killed as aircraft of the coalition forces struck a Taliban hideout in Marawara district of Kunar province 185 km east of capital Kabul on Sunday morning.
"The air raid took place at 09:00 a.m. local time Sunday in Chinar village of Marawara district killing Taliban commander Mullah Bajawar and injuring his deputy namely Hizbullah," police spokesman in the province, Shir Wali told Xinhua.
Another big blow for the militants were killing seven local leaders in another airstrike in Helmand province 555 km south of Kabul also Sunday.
"Based on tips, a warplane with the NATO-led coalition forces carried out an airstrike against a Taliban hideout in Trikh Nawar area of Naway-i- Barakzai district in the wee hours Sunday, killing seven insurgents' leaders, including Mullah Hazrat and Mullah Yasin," police spokesman Farid Ahmad Farhang told Xinhua.
He said the joint forces launched a post-strike assessment operation, detaining the Taliban shadowy governor for the district named Mullah Ahmad Mubarak, who got injured in the attack.
In addition, an Afghan and coalition security forces arrested two militants suspected of being involved in the so-called "green on blue" insider attacks in eastern Logar province on Friday, the ISAF forces confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
Up to 51 U.S. and NATO service members have lost their lives in the insider attacks since beginning this year, in the attacks when Afghan soldiers or gunmen in their uniform turned their weapons against foreign soldiers with the coalition forces.
"The detained insurgents were known insider attack - or 'green on blue' - facilitators, and planned several operations throughout Logar province. At the time of their arrest, the attack planners were in the advanced stages of preparing for a strike against a coalition base, which included the construction of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), recruitment of insurgent fighters, and the attempted infiltration of Afghan security forces. The security force also detained one suspected insurgent as a result of the operation," the ISAF statement said.
Meantime, the joint forces during launched several operations finding and defusing seven IEDs in eastern provinces within the past 24 hours, the coalition's Regional Command-East confirmed in a statement earlier Monday.
However, the Taliban insurgents, who have been waging a fierce insurgency since their regime was toppled in a U.S.-led incursion in late 2001, have responded by massive suicide attacks and IED blasts and roadside bombings in the war-ravaged country.
A civilian was killed and three other civilians were wounded when a suicide bomber attempting to launch a suicide bombing against a police unit was shot by police in Shahjoy district of southern Zabul province Sunday afternoon, police chief of the district Sardar Hotak told Xinhua on Monday.
The recent setbacks on militants came as the last of 33,000 U.S. additional forces, which were deployed to Afghanistan in early 2010 with the aim of pushing back the Taliban- led insurgency, have withdrawn from Afghanistan, the U.S. military announced on Friday.
The pull out would not affect the counter-insurgency campaign against the Taliban and other militants across the country, citing Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zhair Azimi local Afghan media reported earlier in the day.
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Northern Irish politicians to advise Afghan government on peace talks
Jeffrey Donaldson and Denis Haughey fly to Kabul to help kickstart Taliban talks and share experience of peace process
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins, defence and security correspondent Sunday 23 September 2012
Two prominent Irish politicians have flown to Afghanistan to offer advice to Hamid Karzai's government that could help to kickstart a formal process of peace talks with the Taliban.
The unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson and the nationalist Denis Haughey are in Kabul as part of a UK-led initiative to give impetus to reconciliation and reintegration with the insurgents.
With the Taliban seemingly inching towards talks to end the conflict, it is hoped the experiences of the Irish peace process will give Afghans the belief that a political solution is possible, despite years of bloodshed and bitter ethnic rivalry.
Sir Richard Stagg, the UK ambassador to Afghanistan, told the Guardian he hoped "the visit should bring home to people that you can change things, just as France and Germany did in 1945. However ghastly, however bloody, however deep the feuds, the hatreds, a moment can come, does come, when they can be addressed."
Speaking in Kabul on the first day of talks with members of Afghanistan's High Peace Council – the body set up by Karzai, the Afghan president, to reach out to the Taliban – Donaldson said he would talk to the insurgents directly, if that was what was needed, and he underlined that both sides would have to get used to dealing with people who had "blood on their hands".
"You don't make peace with your friends. You have to be able to talk to the Taliban. In Northern Ireland, I lost members of my family. I don't come to this from the perspective of some high-minded theoretical approach about peace building. You have to take hard decisions. I hope we will be speaking to people who will have the ear of the Taliban to communicate to them what we have said."
Donaldson added: "We haven't come here to tell the Afghans what to do. We don't have a template with Northern Ireland stamped on it. We are here sharing our experience of peace building with Afghanistan and we hope to show even the most intractable conflicts can be resolved if there is the willingness and leadership required. You need a process. Peace is not an event, and in Northern Ireland it is still ongoing."
The discussions he had had so far revealed that the Afghans were keen to start a formal process but unsure how to start it, Donaldson said. And they wanted the international community to support, but not interfere, with any talks before the withdrawal of Nato's combat troops at the end of 2014, he added.
Stagg said the visit of the two Irish politicians might help to show Afghans that "even those who are deeply embroiled in a very violent and bloody feud which looks insoluble can actually, if they are willing to make some big choices themselves, find a way to a better environment, a more stable and peaceful one.
"I hope not to try to 'teach lessons' on the basis of our Northern Ireland experience, but more to talk through what happened and allow the lessons to emerge naturally. Despite some awful things happening, we have ended up with people on both sides sharing power in government. There is a message there.
"They aren't easy and even when you think they are all done, there may be eruptions from the past, and the answer to that is to address those rather than to fall back to your positions before the agreement."
The visit has been arranged and funded by the British government, and Donaldson and Haughey are both involved in a newly formed NGO, the Causeway Institute for Peace-building and Conflict Resolution.
It comes amid ongoing violence, including a series of "green on blue" attacks – where members of the Afghan security forces have turned their guns on troops working for Nato's International Security and Assistance Force.
When David Cameron went to Kabul in July, he mentioned that Northern Ireland might be able to offer Afghanistan some help in any peace process.
"I have seen it in my own country in Northern Ireland, where people who were involved in trying to kill, maim and bomb civilians, police officers, army personnel and even politicians have actually become politicians themselves and are now involved in the governance of that country."
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200 graduates join Afghan National Police in western province
HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Up to 200 newly- graduated officers joined the Afghan National Police (ANP) after completion of training in the country's western province of Herat, an official said on Monday.
"A total of 200 newly trained police officers were commissioned to the ANP after completion of four-month training period in Adraskan police training center on Monday morning," Fazil Ahmad Khalili commander of the training center told Xinhua.
The determined police officers will be deployed in Herat province, 640 km west of capital Kabul and neighbouring provinces to serve their people, Khalili said, adding "These policemen have been put through a curriculum, which is practical in nature and covers a police skill which has been very important in law enforcement mission in this critical period of time in the country as Afghan police and army are taking the lead in providing security for the country,"
The Afghan government and NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as NATO-led ISAF forces have handed over the security responsibilities of areas where more than 50 percent of the population lives, parts of a process which will run through 2014 when Afghanistan takes over the full leadership of its own security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
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Afghan female factory workers facing the sack
More than 200 workers at a rare women-only factory in Kabul face the sack and destitution after the Afghan government withdrew a Nato contract to make military uniforms.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 23 Sep 2012
Kabul - Managers at the factory have been told they will lose the £22 million-a-year contract when responsibility for supplying the new Afghan security forces switches from Nato to the Kabul government.
Government officials have said they can buy the uniforms more cheaply from China or Pakistan, but the factory's managers believe their fate has been decided by their refusal to pay hefty kickbacks to ministry staff.
Unless the Sarco Abad factory can find replacement orders, it will have to lay off 230 female workers within a fortnight.
"We have told the workers we are trying to do everything we can to keep the factory going, but I am afraid the women will slowly lose hope," said Angela Sidiqi, deputy managing director.
Many of the employees said they were the sole breadwinner in their household and had never held a job, or had any economic independence, before. Their monthly wages, ranging from £80 to £104, fed their families.
Pushton, a widowed mother of eight, said: "If I lose the job I will not be able to feed my children."
The factory's plight is shared by many other Afghan businesses which fear the scaling back of aid and withdrawal of troops ahead of 2014 will devastate an economy almost totally reliant on foreign money.
World Bank forecasts suggest the country's GDP growth will nearly halve in the next few years.
Sarco Abad was started two years ago by Fazel Jalil, who had previously worked with a charity to run underground girls' schools during the Taliban government.
He said few families would let their women work outside the home unaccompanied and his biggest obstacle at first had been persuading families he was running a respectable factory and not a brothel.
"No one trusted us at first, they didn't know whether we were bringing them here to work, or for something else," he said.
"We brought the male members of the family so that they could see what's going on and that nothing else is happening."
He said the job had allowed many of the women to send their children to school, rather than sending them onto the streets to beg, or forage for scrap to sell.
Nato awarded the five year contract to Sarco Abad as part of its Afghan First scheme to use procurement contracts to boost the local economy. The workers have since produced clothing for the police and army.
However the contract has now been handed over to the Afghan government and Sarco Abad completes its last order at the end of September.
As the handover to the ministries of interior and defence has approached, negotiation over the lucrative contracts has been beset with allegations of bribery and kickbacks. Ministers have denied any corruption in the process.
Mr Jalil said: "I have already approached the Afghan government, but there's a lot of corruption. They are trying to fund their own relatives."
Spokesmen for the Ministries of Defence and Interior declined to comment on the contract.
A spokesman for the Nato training mission said 11 Afghan firms had been given contracts to supply equipment to the Afghan forces in recent years. All contracts would be overseen by the Afghan government from October 1.
As Afghanistan is a sovereign nation, we are confident our Afghan partners are making decisions in the best interest of Afghanistan," she said.
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Iraq, Afghanistan Iran? We’ve Been Here Before
New York Times By ALBERT R. HUNT September 23, 2012
WASHINGTON - Ten years ago, President George W. Bush and top officials in his administration assured Americans that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that an American invasion of that country was justified and wouldn’t be that difficult.
“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised,” he told Americans on the eve of the invasion.
The day before, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that American troops would “be greeted as liberators.” When Tim Russert, the host of Meet the Press, asked if, instead, there was resistance, were Americans prepared “for a long, costly and bloody battle with significant American casualties,” Mr. Cheney dismissed that possibility.
When Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, said in congressional testimony that “it would take on the order of several hundred thousand troops” to occupy Iraq, Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary and an architect of the war, dismissed that idea as “outlandish.” General Shinseki was soon shown the door by the administration.
Mr. Wolfowitz later acknowledged that weapons of mass destruction were simply the easiest rationale to justify the war, saying, “For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue.”
It was a long and costly war with significant casualties, and no weapons of mass destruction were found.
Four years ago Barack Obama, while not as off, made Afghanistan seem like it would be easier than it has proven to be.
“I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority it should be,” he said. “This is a war that we have to win.”
The administration has decimated Al Qaeda and killed Osama bin Laden, but few say it’s a war America has won. And Afghanistan has not produced a victory against the Taliban as the president prepares for a gradual withdrawal within two years.
In my latest Letter from Washington, I explain that now neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney is talking about how much attacking Iran, or not attacking it, would cost in money, lives and reputation.
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28 Taliban militants killed, 54 arrested in Afghanistan within day
Xinhua Sept. 24, 2012
KABUL - About 28 Taliban militants were killed and 54 others detained in different Afghan provinces within the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Monday morning.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan army and NDS or intelligence agency supported by the NATO-led coalition forces, launched nine joint clearance operations in Nangarhar, Baghlan, Kandahar, Zabul, Wardak, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand and Nimroz provinces, killing 28 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 54 others during the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.
They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
In addition, the ANP also discovered and defused one anti- vehicle mine and 100 kilograms of explosives as a result of separate security operations in eastern provinces of Parwan and Khost on Sunday, according to the statement.
The Taliban insurgent group has yet to make any comments.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched an annual spring offensive dubbed "Al-Farooq" from May 3 against Afghan and some 100,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country.
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Afghanistan to Reinforce Eastern Border Police
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry, Saleha Soadat Sunday, 23 September 2012
Newly-appointed Minister of Interior Mujtaba Patang said Sunday that he will reinforce security forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border as a means to prevent further shelling into Afghanistan's eastern provinces.
"We have planned to reinforce the border police to prevent these attacks," Patang said.
Patang's predecessor Bismillah Mohammadi was dismissed by the Afghan parliament early August mainly for his apparent inaction over the shelling.
Afghan senators on Sunday urged the United Nations Security Council to take the shelling seriously.
The Senate called on the UN Security Council to step up pressure on Pakistan's military to prevent the attacks.
"The international community should pressure Pakistan to stop these attacks – the international community is obliged to do this to help Afghanistan as per their strategic agreements," head of Senate Fazel Hadi Muslimyar said.
"This problem should be solved. It has been two years since the continuation of these rocket attacks," Senator Gul Ahmad Azimi said.
The shelling into Afghanistan's eastern regions, particularly Kunar province, has been intermittent but ongoing for the last two years with hundreds of people displaced and at least a dozen killed.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan military claims that insurgents have safe havens in the eastern region of Afghanistan and are crossing the border to launch attacks on the Pakistan security forces.
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Students Protest Rabbani University Name Change
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Sunday, 23 September 2012
University students in Kabul protested Sunday against the change of their university's name to Martyr of Peace Burhanuddin Rabbani University, saying the name is controversial.
On the first anniversary of Burhanuddin Rabbani's assassination last week, the Council of Ministers announced it was renaming Polytechnic University Road and the Education University after him for the peaceful efforts he had accomplished.
However, students argued that Rabbani's legacy has raised political questions.
"If they really want to appreciate the legacy of all these martyrs they should build a new university and name that after them," one student said.
They warned that if the original name is not restored to the road and the university, they will stage a much larger and less peaceful demonstration.
"We grew up in a generation of war, fire. Instead of a pen in our hand, we grew up with a rocket," a student warned.
"We don't want this action imposed on us and we will fight until out last breath against this," another student told TOLOnews.
Meanwhile, MP Ramazan Bashar Dost asked the students not to act in violence during the demonstrations, respecting the Afghanistan's Constitution.
Rabbani was assassinated on September 19 2011 by a Taliban suicide bomber posing as a peace envoy. He was head of the Afghan High Peace Council at the time, and has served as the country's President.
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