Topic: The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread January 2012

[milnews.ca]

The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread January 2012              
 
News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 01, 2011
 
 NATO death in noncombat incident in Afghanistan
  Article Link

The Associated Press

Date: Saturday Dec. 31, 2011 10:18 PM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO says one of its service members has died in an incident that did not involve combat.

The statement said the incident occurred on Saturday, but provided no further details.

The death, the 28th in December, brought to 544 the number of NATO troops who died in Afghanistan in 2011.

The yearly total is considerably lower than for 2010, when more than 700 troops died. The numbers of wounded have remained consistently high, dipping only slightly from last year's total of more than 5,000 service members.

Despite the drop in the numbers of deaths, 2011 is the second-deadliest for NATO troops in the 10-year war.
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 Afghan president welcomes U.S. remarks on Taliban
Article Link

The Associated Press

Date: Saturday Dec. 31, 2011 10:48 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday welcomed remarks from the Obama administration that the Taliban were not necessarily America's enemies.

Earlier this month, Vice-President Joe Biden said in an interview with Newsweek magazine that the Islamist militants did not represent a threat to U.S. interests unless they continued to shelter al Qaeda.

"Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That's critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests," Biden was quoted as saying by Newsweek.

The Obama administration and other governments are trying to establish a peace process with the Taliban to help end the 10-year war.

"I am very happy that the American government has announced that the Taliban are not their enemies," Karzai said in a speech to the Afghan Academy of Sciences. "We hope that this message will help the Afghans reach peace and stability."
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[GAP]

Articles found January 2, 2011
 
Base spent much of 2011 preparing for '12 mission
Published Saturday December 31st, 2011
 Article Link

Early next year, 450 personnel from The Second Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (2RCR) will be joined by another 100 from the Land Force Atlantic Area in deploying to Afghanistan.

The mission, part of the Canadian Forces contribution to the NATO training effort in that country, consists of up to 950 personnel in total.

Other soldiers will be brought in from across the country to bring battle group numbers above the 900 level. They will advise Afghan trainers and leaders.

Preparations for the mission have been a large part of life at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in 2011 - dominating conversation at work and at home.

The last time troops from Gagetown deployed in such numbers was in 2007. That mission was a particularly tough one: 18 soldiers from the battle group, including five from the battalion stationed at CFB Gagetown, were killed during the six-month tour.

During the height of Kandahar mission, more than 2,800 Canadian soldiers were in Afghanistan.

Col. Simon Hetherington, commander of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (2CMBG) out of CFB Petawawa, Ont., the military parent of the 2RCR, said the biggest difference this time around is things have turned from combat to training, he said.

"This is a huge departure from what we have been doing traditionally in Afghanistan since we moved to Kandahar in 2005," Hetherington said in an interview.

"We've transitioned from our combat role in southern Afghanistan to the training piece in Kabul."

"It's going to be a personal challenge for many but also a professional one that, I think, many are looking forward to because it is different," he said.

Having recently visited 2RCR at CFB Gagetown, Hetherington said he sensed optimism within the troops - a feeling of adventure in embarking on the mission because it's so dissimilar.

"They are going into a new environment and a new job with a new type of Afghan people that they are going to be working with. Really, (there's) a grand gambit of differences between the two missions."

Lt.-Col. Alex Ruff, commander of 2RCR, said preparation for the 2012 deployment has taken up a huge chunk of 2011. The 2RCR troops will leave in February and March.

"The uniqueness of this mission, in that this is only the second rotation going out the door as part of Op Attention, makes it its own little challenge," he said. "But in the end, it is well within our capabilities. It's been a busy time frame."

Ruff said everything has come together the way he wanted it to.
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 Report on deadly Pakistan border skirmish highlights lack of trust, communication
Postmedia News  Dec 30, 2011
Article Link

By Lee Berthiaume

Canada’s contribution to Afghan-Pakistan peace is being questioned after a recent investigation found distrust and long-standing disputes were at the root of a cross-border airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

The joint U.S.-NATO study recommends a number of actions to be taken to prevent another such incident — actions Canada has been trying to undertake for four years, with mixed results.

The Durand Line, as the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is called, stretches across more than 2,500 kilometres of some of the most rugged, impassable terrain in the world. It has become a major flashpoint in the region as insurgents slip back and forth largely at will while coalition troops are unable to chase them.

On the night of Nov. 25, 100 Afghan and 14 American soldiers were patrolling near the border when they came under fire. It was only after they had called in several airstrikes that they realized the shooting was from Pakistani troops, 24 of whom had been killed.

The U.S. military and NATO each launched investigations, the latter led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. Mike Jorgensen. Their joint findings, released on Dec. 22, blamed the U.S. military officials for failing to notify Pakistan of the operation beforehand, and criticized Pakistani officials for refusing to provide locations of border posts and checkpoints.

The investigators made seven recommendations. Several related to U.S. and coalition forces ensuring they have proper information before operating near the border, and ironing out procedures for identifying Pakistani units. However, a number related to the need to build “mutual trust” along the border.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 3, 2012
 
Canadian special forces and families severed from social support
MURRAY BREWSTER OTTAWA— The Canadian Press Monday, Jan. 02, 2012
 Article Link

Canada’s elite troops and their families have faced a “disjointed” level of social support from the military – and in some cases implemented their own programs to cope with the hardship and uncertainty of their lives.

The findings are contained in a survey conducted by the army’s special forces operations regiment, which includes the highly trained JTF-2 counter-terrorism unit.

The survey found some units were “doing their own thing” to provide outreach to families.

“With the stand up [Special Operations Forces] units it has become apparent that there is a requirement to provide support to not only the unit itself but to the families,” says a briefing note prepared for the regiment’s former commander, Major-General Mike Day.

The document, which provides a rare glimpse of the travails of the country’s most exclusive military formation, was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The review was initiated by special forces, but the Director of Military Family Services, which manages and funds social program in the defence community, joined.

It quickly became apparent the ultra-secrecy that surrounds the regiment and its missions was paralyzing its soldiers and their families. Over the years, many were afraid to ask for social services – or seek help – for fear of inadvertently violating operational security.
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Taliban back Western proposal to open Qatar office
 Article Link
 3 January 2012 Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Kabul

The Taliban say they have reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office, possibly in Qatar, as part of Western plans to end the war.

A statement confirmed the move, which has been backed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Both the US and Germany have been pushing for such a representation in an effort to kick-start negotiations.

The office is seen by some as a key step towards ending the 10-year-long conflict in Afghanistan.

The move was welcomed by the Afghan High Peace Council, which is seeking a negotiated end to the war, as "a gesture of good faith".

But it still remains unclear if the insurgents, who claim to be winning the war, are prepared to engage in truly meaningful peace talks - and whether they could take place while international forces continue to kill Taliban fighters and commanders, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul.

Importance of address
In their statement, the insurgents said Afghanistan's "current problem" began with the US-led invasion of 2001 and "the two main sides which were involved in this are the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [Taliban] and on the other side is the United States and their foreign allies".

The establishment of an office is thought by some to be a critical step in reaching a political settlement to the 10-year long conflict. It would give the group an address where negotiators could meet. Establishing the authenticity of would-be negotiators from the Taliban has been a problem in the past.

It is the US and Germany that have been pushing for this. Earlier preconditions that the insurgents would have to lay down arms before any such representation appear to have been dropped. The push for a peace process, with a reluctant President Karzai falling in line, appears to be under way.

Some senior military commanders here say that the Bonn conference, where the international community gave a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, was a wake-up call for the insurgents. They face the prospect of growing old, as exiles, in the Pakistani city of Quetta, commented one senior Isaf commander.

But it is far from certain that the Taliban truly want to negotiate. They know foreign troops are leaving in 2014. And there will be reluctance from some within the group's leadership to sit down and talk with representatives from countries who are killing Taliban soldiers and commanders.

It said the Taliban movement "always tries to solve the issue or the problem with the opposite side through talks" and warned the Western coalition that they would "never force the Afghans to obey them by force".
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[GAP]

Articles found January 4, 2012
 
 Face to Face with Afghanistan’s Opium Brides
January 3, 2012
 Article Link

From investigating the sexual abuse of young boys to embedding with a group of insurgents allied with Al Qaeda, veteran Afghan reporter Najibullah Quraishi takes FRONTLINE cameras where few Western journalists can go.

Today Quraishi spoke with The World‘s Marco Werman about his latest journey — airing on FRONTLINE tonight — deep into remote Afghan countryside to investigate a horrifying sex trade: young girls kidnapped or traded to smugglers to meet the debts of impoverished opium farmers whose crops have been destroyed by the government.

Quraishi met several girls who were taken from their families, an existing problem that he says has increased as a result of poppy eradication programs. The girls “are only nine, 10, 11 [or] 12 and used for manufacturing heroin, or immediately married to traffickers or sold in other countries, like Iran.”

The smugglers are “very powerful and stronger than the Taliban and the government,” Quraishi tells Werman.
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 Video: More Underreported Stories from Inside Afghanistan
January 3, 2012
 Article Link

Treacherous territory, hostility to foreigners and high personal risk keep most Western journalists from working from the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan. But veteran Afghan journalist and FRONTLINE correspondent Najibullah Quraishi has repeatedly sought out underreported stories in these parts, often traversing dangerous terrain deep inside Taliban territory to expose them.  From an investigation of the sexual abuse of young boys to embedding with a group of insurgents allied with Al Qaeda, watch some his other recent reports for FRONTLINE:

The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan [2010]
It’s an ancient practice, secretly revived — young boys sold by families to “entertain” wealthy merchants and warlords. FRONTLINE and Quraishi go undercover to investigate this illicit sex trade.
Behind Taliban Lines [2010]
Revisit Quraishi’s extraordinary 10 days living and filming with an insurgent cell allied with Al Qaeda as it plans to sabotage a key U.S./NATO supply route.
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Pakistani troops kill dangerous Taliban commander
By BILL ROGGIOJanuary 2, 2012
Article Link

The Pakistani military killed a dangerous Taliban commander who was responsible for the murders of scores of Pakistani soldiers, policemen, and civilians.

Qari Kamran, a senior Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander in the northwestern district of Nowshera, was killed along with 11 fighters yesterday during a military operation in the tribal agency of Khyber. The Taliban have been fighting the Pakistani military as well as the rival Islamist terror group Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber.

Kamran was involved in some of the most deadly suicide attacks and ambushes in northwestern Pakistan over the past several years. The most devastating attack took place on May 13, 2011, when a suicide bomber detonated among a crowd of newly trained troops of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps at a training center in Shabqadar in the neighboring district of Charsadda. The suicide attack was followed by a car bomb. More than 80 Pakistani troops and civilians were killed in the twin blasts.
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 Why Eradication Won’t Solve Afghanistan’s Poppy Problem
January 3, 2012,
Article Link

Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s illicit opium, bringing billions of dollars a year into the country’s economy, fueling the global heroin trade, funding both the Taliban and government-linked warlords, and exacerbating government corruption. But international attempts to suppress opium production have often been ineffective and even counterproductive to “other objectives of peace, state-building and economic reconstruction.”

FRONTLINE talked to Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a leading expert on drug interdiction efforts and counterinsurgency, to learn more about the widespread effects of opium production in Afghanistan and the outcome of efforts to curb it.

How did Afghanistan become the supplier of 90 percent of the world’s opium?
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First ISAF soldier killed in 2012
 Article Link

Kabul—An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier died in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, marking the first foreign troops’ casualty in 2012, the alliance said on Tuesday. The service member died following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, the Taliban’s weapon of choice on Monday, the NATO-led troops said in a brief statement. In line with its policy, ISAF neither revealed the soldier’s nationality nor the exact location of the incident.

Mostly, US, British and Canadian soldiers are deployed to the volatile south—the heartland of the Taliban insurgency. It was the first international soldier killed in Afghanistan this year. 566 foreign soldiers, including 417 Americans and 45 Britons, were killed in the war-torn country in 2011.
end
 
 Afghan Taliban strike peace deal
by The Canadian Press - Story: 69239
Jan 3, 2012
 Article Link

The Afghan Taliban said Tuesday they have reached a preliminary deal with the Gulf state of Qatar to open a liaison office there, in what could be a step toward formal, substantive peace talks to end more than a decade of war.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid indicated the liaison office will conduct negotiations with the international community but not with the Afghan government — a condition that President Hamid Karzai has indicated he would reject. Mujahid did not say when it would open.

For the United States and its allies, the idea of a Taliban political office in the Qatari capital of Doha has become the central element in efforts to draw the insurgents into peace talks.
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[GAP]

Cost of Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan could climb due to blocked Pakistan border
Postmedia News  Jan 4, 2012
Article Link
By Jeff Davis

Hundreds of cargo containers of Canadian war supplies are stranded in volatile southern Afghanistan, thanks to an ongoing Pakistani blockade of routes exiting the landlocked country.

And with Pakistani officials preparing to impose steep tariffs on all NATO shipments transiting the country, the cost of Canada’s withdrawal from Afghanistan could increase by more than a half million dollars.

The Canadian Forces are trying to bring home thousands of tonnes of war equipment used during the nearly 10-year combat mission. Packed into some 446 sea containers, most of this cargo is currently stored at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.

High priority items — such as all armoured vehicles and ammunition — have already been flown out of Afghanistan on Canada’s giant CC-177 Globemaster transport aircraft.

Nevertheless, much of the army’s gear remains stuck in Afghanistan, Lt.-Col. John Nethercott told Postmedia News. He said the remaining items are “low priority in nature,” and include tools, tents, forklifts, barbed wire and engineering equipment.

The Department of National Defence has granted a contract to move the containers from Afghanistan to Pakistan to A.J. Maritime, a Montreal-based freight forwarding firm.

It is believed the remaining 446 containers were supposed to exit Afghanistan’s southeastern border post at Spin Boldak, then cross the deserts of Balochistan to the port of Karachi. Once at the port, the containers would be loaded onto ships for the sail home to Canada.

But Imran Ali, Pakistan’s deputy consul general in Toronto, told Postmedia News Wednesday that the Afghan-Pakistan border is shut tight for now.

“No containers are passing as of today,” he said. “There is a total sealing of the border.”

Ali said this problem began when United States forces bombed two Pakistani border posts in late November, leaving 24 soldiers dead and 13 wounded. After a day of frenzied meetings about the “unprovoked attack,” Pakistani officials announced they would take steps to disrupt NATO supply lines in and out of the Afghan theatre.

“The (Defence Committee of Cabinet) has decided to close with immediate effect the NATO/ISAF logistics supply lines,” said a Nov. 26 statement by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

Following the closure of the border, Pakistan began a comprehensive policy review of its relations with NATO. Ali said the national security committee of the Pakistani parliament is “in the final stages of drawing out a policy” that will be published within three to four days.

Ali said Pakistan is considering levying a tax on all NATO containers passing through the country, and that officials have discussed a US$1,500 charge per shipping container.

“Customs officials, along with foreign policy officials in Pakistan, are discussing the amount of levy to enforce,” Ali said.

Such a tariff, applied to 446 containers, would cost Canada some US$660,000.

With Iran to the west, China to the east and the volatile and landlocked Central Asian republics to the north, there are few safe exit routes from Afghanistan.

If Pakistan keeps the border closed for long, Nethercott said, Canada could start shopping around for alternative routes.

“Significant delays will potentially require re-evaluation of how the (Canadian Forces) will repatriate the remaining materiel back to Canada in an effective and cost-efficient manner,” he wrote in an email.

An undisclosed number of Canada’s low-priority containers completed the journey to Karachi before the border was closed. There have been reports of severe congestion at the port there, and that more than 3,600 military vehicles and 1,700 sea containers are stranded at dockside.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 05, 2011
 
15 Kidnapped Pakistani Soldiers Executed by the Taliban in a Retaliatory Gesture
 Article Link
By SALMAN MASOOD and ISMAIL KHAN  January 5, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban insurgents executed 15 security soldiers who had been recently kidnapped and dumped their bodies on a hilltop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, in retaliation for the killing of a militant commander by government forces, government and military officials said.

The soldiers were kidnapped Dec. 23 after dozens of Taliban insurgents overran a fort in one of the restive tribal regions straddling the border with Afghanistan. Officials said they had tried but failed to secure the captives’ release.

The executions followed the death of a high-ranking Taliban commander on Sunday and came just days after local news media reported that several factions of the Taliban had vowed not to attack the Pakistani military.

The bullet-ridden bodies of the soldiers, members of the Frontier Constabulary, were spotted by local tribesmen on Thursday morning after they were dumped in Mir Ali, a subdistrict in the North Waziristan tribal region. The Frontier Constabulary, run by the Pakistani police authorities, has about 70,000 paramilitary soldiers who operate checkpoints in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and provide security at foreign embassies and consulates in major cities across Pakistan.
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Karzai Calls for Coalition to Cede Control of Afghan Prisoners
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG  January 5, 2012
 Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai abruptly demanded on Thursday that the American-led coalition hand over all Afghan prisoners in its custody and cede control of its main prison in Afghanistan within a month. He said that his government had evidence that Afghan law and prisoners’ human rights were being violated at the prison.

The demand stunned the coalition leaders, who were not consulted before the announcement, according to American and European officials in Kabul.

The coalition has longstanding plans to turn over the prison to Afghan authorities, along with control over all detainees, but the timing has remained uncertain because of delays in training Afghan guards to run the facility and because of concerns about widespread torture and other abuses in Afghan-run prisons.

In contrast, independent Afghan and Western human rights advocates have documented relatively humane conditions at the American prison since it opened in late 2009, replacing an older facility that was plagued by abuses. Even so, there have been persistent complaints about arbitrary detentions and a lack of due process at the new prison — problems that are pervasive in the Afghan prison system as well.

Mr. Karzai said in his statement on Thursday that a report by a commission of senior Afghan officials, all of them political appointees, found “many cases of violations of the Afghan Constitution and other applicable laws of the country, the relevant international conventions and human rights” at the American prison.

The statement gave no details. Mr. Karzai called for all Afghan prisoners to be transferred to the control of the Afghan authorities within a month, so that further breaches of “Afghan sovereignty can be avoided.”
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Afghanistan Closes Firm Providing Security
By GRAHAM BOWLEY January 5, 2012
 Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government said Thursday that it was shutting down the operations of one of the largest foreign security companies operating in the country after detaining two of its contractors on suspicion of gun smuggling.

After months of growing tension between the government and foreign security contractors, the decision marks a sharp escalation into public action by the Afghan authorities.

President Hamid Karzai is in the midst of replacing foreign security contractors with Afghan guards.

The Interior Ministry said it was immediately withdrawing the company’s license, although the company, GardaWorld, a private Canadian security outfit, said it was in discussions with the government and hoped to be able to continue to operate.

The Interior Ministry said that the contractors, two Britons, who were detained on Tuesday after being found with an arsenal of unlicensed AK-47 assault rifles in their sport utility vehicle, were among the 341 Afghan guards and 35 foreign contractors employed by GardaWorld in Afghanistan.

At a news conference in Kabul, the authorities put on display the two Britons as well two Afghans who were detained — their driver and their interpreter. Seddiq Seddiqi, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the rifles had been found wrapped in blankets inside a metal box in the trunk of the vehicle. The rifles, which the government said had their serial numbers scratched off, were also shown to reporters at the news conference.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 6, 2012
 
 Kiss My Shrapnel
Posted: 1/5/12
Article Link

If actors learn to avoid children for their tendency to upstage their professional elders, soldiers -- and the photographers following them -- learn to avoid donkeys and chickens for a similar but much more dangerous tendency: to make noise when humans pass them by. On a sunny day in Afghanistan in 2010, while out with a squad of Canadian soldiers, the renowned photographer Anja Niedringhaus learned this particular lesson the hard way. Moving along a pathway sandwiched between 10-foot walls, the squad came upon a chicken, which one soldier kicked out of the way. In an instant Niedringhaus captured the moment: the sunshine and dust, the chicken tumbling feet over head, the soldier's leg locked straight with boot mid-air, his fellow squad-members grinning behind him. But the squawking chicken had alerted others and seconds later, a grenade was thrown over the wall, hitting the soldier on the helmet before falling to the ground and exploding, its shrapnel catching both the soldier and the photographer. Niedringhaus, injured in the rear hip area, was evacuated to a military hospital in Kandahar. A few days later, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographer flew to India for another assignment.

"You have to get back on the horse," she says with a knowing smile, adding that she was jealous of the injured soldier who was able to return to his unit after a couple of days. Getting to know a unit is important and helpful, and the Canadian Regiment would leave Afghanistan before she could return to them. Niedringhaus was also missed: She later received a t-shirt from the squad reading "Kiss My Shrapnel."
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China wins $700 million Afghan oil and gas deal. Why didn't the US bid?
China’s National Petroleum Corporation became the first foreign company today to tap into Afghanistan’s oil and gas reserves. Officials estimate that the deal could be worth more than $700 million.
 Article Link
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / December 28, 2011

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
In a deal finalized on Wednesday, China’s National Petroleum Corporation became the first foreign company to tap into Afghanistan’s oil and gas reserves. Chinese officials have estimated that the deal could be worth at least $700 million, but some say China could earn up to 10 times that.

China has not participated in the war effort, but it has managed to gain the biggest stake in Afghan minerals. In 2007, China inked a $3 billion deal securing access to copper mines in Mes Aynak, south of Kabul.

The latest Sino-Afghan agreement strengthens the Asian nation’s foothold here and could benefit the economic development of Afghanistan. With few viable industries in Afghanistan, Western forces here looking for a way to restore economic independence and stability have long touted the country’s mineral resources.

The United States and other Western nations that have borne the brunt of the cost of the Afghan war have been conspicuously absent from the bidding process on Afghanistan’s mineral deposits, leaving it to mostly to regional powers.

India is the only other nation to make a significant agreement to access Afghan minerals. In November, it won a bid granting Indian firms access to 1.8 billion metric tons of iron-ore, one of the largest untapped deposits in Asia.
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[milnews.ca]

Articles found January 05, 2011

(....)

Afghanistan Closes Firm Providing Security
By GRAHAM BOWLEY January 5, 2012
 Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government said Thursday that it was shutting down the operations of one of the largest foreign security companies operating in the country after detaining two of its contractors on suspicion of gun smuggling.

After months of growing tension between the government and foreign security contractors, the decision marks a sharp escalation into public action by the Afghan authorities.

President Hamid Karzai is in the midst of replacing foreign security contractors with Afghan guards.

The Interior Ministry said it was immediately withdrawing the company’s license, although the company, GardaWorld, a private Canadian security outfit, said it was in discussions with the government and hoped to be able to continue to operate.

The Interior Ministry said that the contractors, two Britons, who were detained on Tuesday after being found with an arsenal of unlicensed AK-47 assault rifles in their sport utility vehicle, were among the 341 Afghan guards and 35 foreign contractors employed by GardaWorld in Afghanistan.

At a news conference in Kabul, the authorities put on display the two Britons as well two Afghans who were detained — their driver and their interpreter. Seddiq Seddiqi, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the rifles had been found wrapped in blankets inside a metal box in the trunk of the vehicle. The rifles, which the government said had their serial numbers scratched off, were also shown to reporters at the news conference.
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More on this:

The arrest of four workers hired by a Montreal security firm in Afghanistan will expand President Hamid Karzai's "monopoly over violence," says a security expert. While Afghan politicians accuse foreign firms of flouting local laws and undermining security, observers in Canada suggest Karzai has an ulterior motive for his crackdown - power and influence. The men arrested Tuesday worked for GardaWorld, which provides bodyguard services in hotspots such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti. Afghan authorities paraded the men out for reporters in Kabul and displayed an array of weapons. They say Julian Steele, James Davis and two Afghan colleagues were caught at a checkpoint with 30 AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition. Government spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told the news conference that most of the guns had serial numbers removed. Sediqqi says GardaWorld's operations in Afghanistan will be dissolved - part of a plan by Karzai to shut down all foreign security firms in the war-torn country by March. Royal Military College political science professor Christian Leuprecht says Karzai will soon have total control over the lucrative security market. "In these places, the people with the guns, the people with the money and the people with the power are all the same," said Leuprecht, who specializes in security and defence studies. "This essentially is a means of consolidating the use of force and the monopoly over violence in the hands of a few people at the top." ....

QMI/Sun Media, 6 Jan 12

[GAP]

Articles found January 08, 2012
 
Lull in Strikes by U.S. Drones Aids Militants
 Article Link
By ERIC SCHMITT  January 7, 2012

WASHINGTON — A nearly two-month lull in American drone strikes in Pakistan has helped embolden Al Qaeda and several Pakistani militant factions to regroup, increase attacks against Pakistani security forces and threaten intensified strikes against allied forces in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials say.
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8 NATO Service Members Killed in Afghan Attacks
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and SHARIFULLAH SAHAK  January 6, 2012
 Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO said eight of its service members died in three attacks in southern Afghanistan, and an Afghan official on Friday identified four of the dead as American soldiers.

The attacks on Thursday and Friday struck at the heart of Afghanistan’s turbulent south. They come just as the American-led NATO command is gradually handing over security responsibility to the Afghan government after a decade of war. And the Taliban this week said they were ready to open a political office in Qatar, apparently a signal that they may be ready for formal peace talks.

Southern Afghanistan was the focus of the Obama administration’s troop “surge” in 2010, and American forces have made significant gains against the Taliban in many districts that had been thick with insurgents.
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[milnews.ca]

Afghan government: cease-fire before Taliban talks
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press
Article link

Taliban insurgents must agree to a cease-fire before formal peace negotiations can begin in Qatar, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday

Presidential spokesman Emal Faizi insisted that the government will never give up territory to the insurgents.

Faizi laid out the government's terms days after the Taliban's announcement it would open a political office in Doha, Qatar, a key precursor to peace talks and the insurgents' first public move toward a political settlement to the 10-year-long war.

"When the talks start, there should be a cease-fire and the violence against the Afghan people must stop," Faizi said Monday on Tolo television news.

He dismissed as "baseless" speculation in Afghan media that the government might hand over predominantly Pashtun southern provinces to the Taliban in exchange for an end to the fighting.

"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will never accept such suggestion from any side," he said

Faizi also said it is too soon to send a delegation to Qatar to discuss future talks.

Afghan High Peace Council member Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar said earlier Monday that the panel has asked the government to send a delegation to Doha "as soon as possible," but Faizi said the government has no immediate plans for such a trip ....
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US out to secure ceasefire with Taliban
Maqbool Malik, The Nation (Pakistan), January 09, 2012
Article link

The United States has geared up its efforts to engage Afghan Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, to secure a ceasefire with various resistance groups to bring the conflict to end, diplomatic sources told TheNation on Sunday.

The sources privy to these developments said that the Obama Administration was giving deep thoughts to proposals seeking pulling out troops ahead of 2014, the timeline set out last year by the US President.

The sources were of the view that Obama’s Afghan war was adversely impacting his plans seeking second term in the US elections starting from November this year, Obama Administration was seriously considering plans to pull out US troops much ahead of the 2014 timeline.

“The US is making desperate efforts to establish lines of communications with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of Afghanistan-led by Mullah Omer,” the sources said, adding that was the purpose to establish a Taliban office in Doha, capital of Qatar. The sources said that the proposed office to be manned by some old Taliban including former Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil would be funded by the US and its key NATO allies Turkey and Germany, to serve as a mere postal address to reach out to Mullah Omer.

“It is just a fishing plan hatched by three countries and supported reluctantly by Afghan President Hamid Karzai,” the sources said believing the move was doomed to non-starter ....
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[GAP]

Articles found January 9, 2012
 
Afghan recruits proudly graduate from gruelling course
  Article Link
BY CPL. JENNIFER SCOTT, EDMONTON JOURNAL JANUARY 8, 2012

Since the last time I wrote, another Basic Warrior Training (BWT) course has been completed at the Afghan National Army's Regional Military Training Centre - North near Mazar-e-Sharif, and another has started. To me it seems like Afghan National Army BWT courses go by very quickly, but I am sure the recruits would disagree. Basic Warrior Training is tough, but the faces of graduates show their satisfaction at the end of the training.

It is interesting to watch ANA recruits arrive at the training centre. Some arrive with sandals and no winter clothes despite the snow on the ground and the wind that makes your hair stand on end. The recruits are able to handle the elements better after ANA staff is-sue them appropriate clothing and personal equipment. Usually, our team of training advisers will stand for a moment and gaze across at the faces of the people staring right back at us. As I said in a previous article, some ANA recruits have never seen a Caucasian before, so they are curious about our appearance.

Some of the recruits look very young and others look very old, and they all have their own reasons for joining the ANA. For the eight weeks of training they will be family to each other and begin to forge the intricate bonds that make an army strong.
 Article Link

[GAP]

Articles found January 11, 2012
 
Pakistan bombing kills dozens in insurgent-heavy region
Reuters  Jan 10, 2012
 Article Link
By Jibran Ahmad

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A bomb killed at least 29 people and wounded 37 on Tuesday when it exploded near a fuel station in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber region, one of the restive tribal areas where insurgents are battling government forces, regional officials said.

“It was a huge blast and caused damage to a number of vehicles at [a] bus terminal,” said Khyber tribesman Khan Zaman from the Jamrud bazaar, around 25 km west of the city of Peshawar.

Government officials in the area said 29 people were killed and 37 wounded, at least 20 of whom are in critical condition.
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 Exiled former Pakistani president Musharraf to return, run for office despite dangers
Reuters  Jan 9, 2012
 Article Link
By Faisal Aziz

KARACHI — Exiled former president Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday he would return to Pakistan later this month to lead his recently formed party in campaigning for a parliamentary election, despite the possibility of his arrest and concern over his security.

“There are efforts to scare me, but these people don’t know that I’m not among the afraid,” Musharraf told a rally of about 8,000 supporters in the commercial centre Karachi via video link from Dubai.

The former general said he would return between January 27 and 30 and dismissed concern about his security. “I have fought wars. I am not scared of danger.”
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Pakistan army warns PM Gilani over criticisms
 Article Link
11 January 2012

Pakistan's military has publicly rebuked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over an escalating row.

The army warned of "serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences" after the PM criticised military leaders in a media interview.

Meanwhile, Mr Gilani has sacked his defence secretary, who is seen as having close ties to the military.

Tensions have been rising in recent months between Pakistan's civilian government and military leaders.

The latest row is a serious source of instability in Pakistan, where the military has ruled for more than half the country's history after seizing power in a series of coups.

'Unconstitutional'

On Monday Mr Gilani was quoted telling China's People's Daily Online that Pakistan's army chief and head of intelligence acted unconstitutionally by making submissions to a Supreme Court inquiry which has been rocking the government.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 12, 2012
 

Daily Brief: Pakistani PM sacks Defense Minister
By Jennifer Rowland   Wednesday, January 11, 2012
 Article Link

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani relieved Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi of his duties as Defense Secretary on Wednesday, following Lodhi's statement to the Supreme Court last month in its investigation of the "Memogate" scandal that the Ministry of Defense has no control over the Army or the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) (ET, AP, Dawn, Reuters). The Pakistani military's Directorate of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on its website that Prime Minister Gilani's recent statements to a Chinese newspaper that the country's military leaders had violated the constitution are false and could have "very serious ramifications" (ET, Dawn). And on Tuesday, the lawyer for the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani challenged the Supreme Court's legal authority to form a commission to investigate "Memogate" (AFP, Dawn).

Four suspected militants were killed Wednesday on the outskirts of Miran Shah in the first U.S. drone strike in Pakistan since the November 26 NATO airstrikes that hit a border check point, killing 24 Pakistani troops (AP, AFP, Reuters, Tel, NYT). Pakistani security forces killed a further 11 suspected militants in the tribal agency of Orakzai on Wednesday (Dawn). The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the United States gave a $36,607 grant in 2009 to Pakistan's Sunni Ittehad Council, which recently organized a rally in celebration of Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated the opinionated liberal politician Salman Taseer last year (AP). A U.S. diplomat insisted that it was a one-time grant intended to support the group's organization of anti-Taliban rallies, and that no further funds will be given.

Pakistan's civilian leadership scrambled Tuesday to formulate a response to the Supreme Court's threat to dismiss Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani if he refuses to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, and eventually decided to call an early session of parliament on January 12 (ET, Dawn). The leaders hope to find a solution to the political turmoil through inclusive negotiations, as Prime Minister Gilani has so far refused to fulfill the court's demands. A spokesman for the ISPR on Wednesday denied reports in a British tabloid, The Sun, that Pakistani authorities plan to demolish the compound in which Osama bin Laden was found and killed by the United States (ET).
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 Canada opposes Afghan demand for control of prison
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 BY JEFF DAVIS, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 11, 2012

OTTAWA — Canada has chastised the Afghan government for attempting to take control of an important prison outside Kabul, a move many say puts the safety of Canadian-captured security detainees in serious jeopardy.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded last week that American forces relinquish control of the Detention Facility in Parwan, located near the Bagram Air Base, within a month. The detention facility, which holds some 3,000 Afghan security detainees, was scheduled for turnover to Afghan authorities in 2014.

"Canada demarched the Afghan government on this issue," a spokesman for Foreign Minister John Baird told Postmedia News.

"Our diplomats have expressed in the strongest terms Canada's disappointment with the government of Afghanistan's handling of this matter," Joseph Lavoie said. "We also underscored that transitioning full security responsibility to Afghan control is an important process that must be carefully managed, with effective co-ordination among (International Security Assistance Force) partners."
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 Secretary’s Ouster in Pakistan Adds to Tension With Army
By SALMAN MASOOD Published: January 11, 2012
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani fired his defense secretary, a retired general and confidant of Pakistan’s army chief, on Wednesday as the civilian government appeared headed for a collision with the country’s powerful military leadership

Mr. Gilani accused the dismissed secretary of defense, Naeem Khalid Lodhi, a former general and corps commander, of “gross misconduct and illegal action” and of “creating misunderstanding between the state institutions.” He replaced Mr. Lodhi with a civilian aide, Nargis Sethi.

Military officials warned on Wednesday evening that the army would be likely to refuse to work with Ms. Sethi, signaling the possibility of a serious rupture between the army and the civilian government. “The army will not react violently, but it will not cooperate with the new secretary of defense,” said a military officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation.
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Pakistan's Zardari 'flies to Dubai for wedding'
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 2 January 2012

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has left for Dubai on a private visit, reports say.

His departure comes amid a deepening political crisis with the military.

Mr Zardari had heart treatment in Dubai last month. Officials say he is returning for a wedding and will be back in Pakistan on Friday.

Recent tensions between the government and the armed forces have raised fears for the stability of the country, which has a history of military coups.

On Wednesday the military publicly rebuked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, warning of "serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences" after he criticised military leaders in a media interview.

Mr Gilani sacked his defence secretary, who is seen as having close ties to the military, in a move likely to heighten frictions with military leaders.

But in a move seen by analysts as a sign of easing tensions, Mr Gilani called a meeting of the cabinet's defence committee for Saturday.
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Pentagon chief 'deplores' US Marines 'urination' video
 Article Link
 12 January 2012

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta says a video which appears to show US Marines urinating on the corpses of Afghans is "utterly deplorable".

Those who had taken part in the incident would be held accountable "to the fullest extent", he said.

The video, which was posted online, purports to show four US Marines standing over the bodies of several Taliban fighters, at least one of whom is covered in blood.

The origin of the video is not known.

Mr Panetta has ordered the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, to investigate the incident.

In a statement, Mr Panetta said he had seen the footage.

"I find the behaviour depicted in it utterly deplorable. This conduct is entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military."
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[GAP]

Articles found January 15, 2012
 
Pakistan bomb kills more than a dozen
CBC News Jan 15, 2012
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More than a dozen people have been killed and some 20 injured after a bomb attack on a religious procession in the Pakistani city of Khanpur.

Reports say between 13 and 18 people died in the central city as hundreds of Shia gathered to mark the 40th day of mourning of the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussain, a highly revered figure from the 7th century.

District Police Chief Sohail Chatta said the blast went off just as a procession of people headed out of a mosque. No one has claimed responsibility yet for the explosion.

In the past, the Taliban or Sunni extremist groups have claimed responsibility for such attacks. Thousands of Pakistani troops and civilians have been killed in the past five years as militant Islamic groups seek to de-stabilize the government.
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Afghanistan's poor face difficult decisions amid winter cold
Seasonal hardship is nothing new for Afghans, but a combination of factors is making this winter harder to bear as the number of displaced soars in Kabul.
 Article Link

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times January 9, 2012
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan—

In the gray light of each cold dawn, the parents of 10-month-old Shoaib hold their own breath as they listen for the rasp of his, waiting to see whether their coughing, feverish little boy has survived another night.

Winter's chill has settled over the Afghan capital, and with it, privation is sharpening, especially among the city's poor. Nighttime temperatures regularly fall into the teens, or even lower. The season's first snow is on the ground, the open sewage ditches are crusted over with ice, and in shantytowns such as the one where Shoaib's family lives, survival turns on a series of cruelly simple calculations.

"If I buy food, I can't afford to buy firewood. And if I buy firewood, I can't buy food," said Shoaib's father, Faida Mohammed, a 40-year-old laborer who lives with his family of 12 in a two-room lean-to alongside one of Kabul's busier traffic circles. "If we eat lunch, we won't have dinner. If we eat dinner, there's nothing for breakfast in the morning. All the time, you have to choose."
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 Afghanistan's future
With a stalemate in the war, the surest road to peace and stability is through talks with the Taliban.
 Article Link
January 13, 2012

It takes a lot for the grinding conflict in Afghanistan to make bigger headlines than the Republican presidential contest, but recent news about that country has made even the Romney-Gingrich slugfest pale in importance. First, and most dramatically, a new National Intelligence Estimate suggests that little progress has been made over the last year in improving security or boosting the country's government or military capabilities. Just as disheartening was the release of a video that appears to show four U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of slain Taliban fighters. Finally, word has emerged of a recent diplomatic shift that could lead to the renewal of peace talks with the Taliban.

The first two of these stories show why the third is so vital.

Most U.S. and international forces are slated to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. They will leave behind either a central government that's strong enough to sustain itself, or a weak and insular cabal beset on all sides by Islamist militants, leading to the high probability of a collapse that would negate the gains from 13 years of effort, billions of dollars in expenditures and more than 1,800 American lives. The best way to prevent the latter outcome is to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Taliban.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 16, 2012
 
Pakistan PM Gilani faces Supreme Court contempt order
Article Link
 16 January 2012

Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued a contempt order against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, raising the prospect of his prosecution.

The court has been considering what to do about the government's refusal to reopen corruption cases against the president and other political figures.

Mr Gilani has been ordered to appear in person at the court on 19 January.

It comes on a day of several crucial challenges for the government amid ongoing tensions with the army.

A key vote of confidence in Pakistan's political leadership is scheduled to be held later in parliament.

And another court hearing into a controversial anonymous memo which asked for US help to avert an army coup in Pakistan, in the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, has also resumed.
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 US drone aims at Taliban leader
by The Canadian Press Jan 15, 2012
Article Link

Intercepted militant radio communications indicate the leader of the Pakistani Taliban may have been killed in a recent U.S. drone strike, Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday. A Taliban official denied that.

The report coincided with sectarian violence, a bomb blast in eastern Pakistan that killed 14 people in a Shiite religious procession.

The claim that the Pakistani Taliban chief was killed came from officials who said they intercepted a number of Taliban radio conversations.

In about a half a dozen intercepts, the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on Jan. 12 in the North Waziristan tribal area.

Some militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, and one criticized others for talking about the issue over the radio.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Asimullah Mehsud denied the group's leader was killed and said he was not in the area where the drone strike occurred.

In early 2010, both Pakistani and American officials said they believed a missile strike had killed Hakimullah Mehsud along the border of North and South Waziristan. They were proved wrong when videos appeared showing him still alive.

The Pakistani Taliban is linked to attacks against U.S. targets. They trained the Pakistani-American who tried to detonate a car bomb in New York City's Times Square in 2010 and is tied to a suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents at an Afghan base in 2009.

There was no claim of responsibility for Sunday's bombing that killed 14 people during a Shiite observance in Punjab province in the east, the latest of a series of sectarian attacks in volatile Pakistan.
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Marksmanship OK ... technique needs some work
  Article Link
Computer simulation aids precise shooting
 BY DAVE COOPER, EDMONTON JOURNAL JANUARY 15, 2012

simulator, at the Jefferson Armoury small arms training room on Saturday.

If this were real, I'd be dead, overwhelmed by enemy troops who seemed to come out of nowhere through a blinding snowstorm.

When I headed to the Loyal Edmonton Regiment's armoury on Saturday to take part in a media computer-simulation shooting competition, I assumed it would be a serious version of Call of Duty. Wrong.

The Fire Arms Training System is used by Canada's military to learn the basics, practise team exercises and "drop the bad habits" before soldiers go out and fire the real thing - C7 automatic rifles, heavy machine guns or anti-armour weapons.

The range rifles are C7s that have been modified with carbon dioxide propulsion and an array of sensors to tell the computer exactly what people are doing wrong.

Mistakes include incorrect trigger-squeeze pressure and using the wrong barrel angle and target tracking.

An invisible laser beam emitted by the gun marks the "hits."

"This system is very efficient and speeds up training, because we only have the reserve soldiers with us for 37-1/2 days per year," said Lt.-Col. Chris Chodan, the Loyal Eddies' commander.

On the range, the C7 is unforgiving. You only get as many shots as a real gun, then you have to change the magazine and **** it while the enemy can fire at you.

At higher levels, troops use maps with terrain duplicated on the range display screen, and can call in supporting artillery fire to hit precise points.

But today we stick with firing rifles.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 17, 2012
 
 Canadian troops ambushed by Taliban fighters on Patrol w/ firefight (Kandahar,Afghanistan)
 Article Link
Clip of a Canadian foot patrol being ambushed in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. (3rd Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment, Oscar Company, 8PL.Salavat), Panjwaii District, Kandahar province.

These guys worked this very well. Bravo team held position and laid down suppressive fire while Alpha ran around to flank the enemy.

My respects too our Canadian brothers.
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Fisher: Canada loses a key friend in Afghanistan
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BY MATTHEW FISHER, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 16, 2012

One of Canada's best Afghan friends was assassinated in Kandahar last Thursday.

Haji Fazluddin Agha, the governor of Panjwaii District, was killed when his car was struck by a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber on a road funded and paved with Canadian help and protection. Two of Agha's sons, two policemen and a civilian, also died in the blast.

A charismatic bear of a man with a booming voice and a lush black beard, Agha was a deeply pious Muslim. He detested Islamist zealots and was a fierce opponent of the Taliban and al-Qaida. The former mujahedeen had come home to Panjwaii early last year at the behest of President Hamid Karzai who valued his political acumen and his ability to convince some hardcore Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.

Agha "was considered an ally of Canada and will be remembered for his tireless work to bring peace and prosperity to his district and the entire country," Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement after the governor's death.
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Pakistan Court Orders Prime Minister to Testify
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By DECLAN WALSH  January 16, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s highest court escalated its clash with the government on Monday by initiating contempt-of-court proceedings against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for failing to pursue corruption charges against his boss, President Asif Ali Zardari

The Supreme Court was clearly infuriated after the government’s lawyer said that the government had given no instructions on how to respond to the court’s demands.

Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk ordered Mr. Gilani to appear on Thursday to explain why he should not be charged with contempt, a count that could open the door to his dismissal from office.

“We are left with no option,” Justice Mulk told a courtroom packed with lawyers, journalists and politicians.

Hours later, Prime Minister Gilani promised to obey the judicial order. “I will personally appear before the courts,” he told Parliament during a late-evening debate. “They called me on the 19th, and I am going to show up. Can there be any greater respect than this?”
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[GAP]

Articles found January 19, 2012
 
 Afghan air force learns to fly — and fix aircraft
January 18, 2012
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Twenty years ago, Afghan Air Force pilot Maj. Abdul Aziz was streaking across the sky in the Soviet Union’s deadliest fighter-bomber.

Now 45, his new task is less dramatic or flamboyant, yet perhaps even more important: Help build and train a new skilled air force that can keep the planes and helicopters in the air after Western mentors go home.

The challenge of forging a modern, technically proficient air force in a country at war is an immense but essential element in the West’s exit strategy. The target date for having an Afghan Air Force able to operate fully independently, with about 8,000 trained personnel and 145 aircraft, is 2016.
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Afghan girl arrives in Canada to attend school
Published On Wed Jan 18 2012
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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Kneeling in rocky dirt at her father's graveside, Roya Shams whispered her farewells through the cloth mesh of her burqa's veil.

Just 17, a petite schoolgirl with a voice as soft as a puff of desert breeze, she dared to enter a poor Taliban stronghold to pray for the hero who taught her she was any man's equal.

Roya was packed and ready to fly to Canada to continue her high school education in safety at Ottawa's Ashbury College.

It is one of the country's leading private schools, which prides itself on a progressive and caring learning environment.
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Government-wide Afghan Task Force mandate runs out in April
Top bureaucrat to become CIDA brass; dwindling task force working on last report to Parliament.
By Carl Meyer  January, 19, 2012
 Article Link
   
The government-wide task force overseeing Canada's mission in Afghanistan is still working on a final report to Parliament until at least April, even as it loses another leader to the top floors of Canada's aid agency.

Greta Bossenmaier, currently the deputy minister of the Privy Council Office's Afghanistan Task Force, is moving across the Ottawa River to become the senior executive vice president at the Canadian International Development Agency, the government announced Jan. 12.

The PCO has not yet said who will replace Ms. Bossenmaier.

The task force's former assistant deputy minister, Sara Hradecky, left to become Canada's ambassador to Mexico in October and was never replaced. Nor was former task force director general Steve Hallihan, who is now Canada's high commissioner to Jamaica.

But even though these senior positions are empty, the task force is still alive and kicking—at least until April.

"The mandate of the Task Force...extends to the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year," wrote PCO director of corporate and media affairs Raymond Rivet in an email.

The coterie of Afghanistan-focused bureaucrats must still finish a final report to Parliament on Canada's engagement in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2011, he noted.

"It provides a final look," he wrote, "at the status of Canada's benchmarks and targets that were announced by the government of Canada in 2008. The report will be tabled in due course."
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Pakistan Taliban admit killing reporter MK Atif
 Article Link
 18 January 2012

The Taliban in Pakistan have said they killed a journalist while he was praying in a mosque near the city of Peshawar on Tuesday.

Mukarram Khan Atif - who worked for the Voice of America broadcasting service - was shot in the head by attackers on a motorcycle who fled from the scene.

His death has been condemned by his employers and by campaigning groups.

The Reporters Without Borders campaign group say Pakistan was the deadliest country for journalists in 2011.

Last year, 10 journalists were killed there as a result of their work, the group says.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 20, 2012
 
Allies see day of heavy loss in Afghanistan
CNN Wire Staff  January 20, 2012
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Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Allied forces have suffered a day of heavy losses in Afghanistan in a helicopter crash that killed 6 U.S. Marines and an attack that killed four French service members and raised the prospect of France withdrawing its troops early.

The Marines died after their CH 53 helicopter crashed in Helmand province, a U.S. military official said. The NATO-led force reported no enemy activity in the area, but the Taliban claimed credit for bringing down the copter.

Separately, an Afghan soldier killed four French service members and injured 15 others, one critically, in eastern Afghanistan, French officials said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was suspending French training operations and combat help as a result.

"The French army is not in Afghanistan to be shot at by Afghan soldiers," he said.
NATO helicopter crash kills six

France could bring its troops back early from Afghanistan if the necessary security is not restored, Sarkozy said. France has 3,935 troops in Afghanistan, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Sarkozy will send French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet to Afghanistan, he said.

"It was during a training session inside the base that a shooter killed four of our soldiers. This is unacceptable and demands a full investigation," Longuet said.

A French official told CNN the French troops were unarmed as they were inside their base, conducting normal training operations with their Afghan partners.
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Four French soldiers die in Afghanistan shooting
Article Link
 20 January 2012

Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire, officials say.

Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously, in the incident in Kapisa province.

An official told the BBC that an Afghan non-commissioned officer got into a "verbal clash" and opened fire.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack.

He was sending his defence minister, Gerard Longuet, to the country "immediately," he said.
'Murdered'

Mr Sarkozy said that the question of an early French withdrawal from Afghanistan would arise if security conditions were not re-established.

It was "unacceptable" for French troops to be fired on by their allies, he said.

Mr Longuet said that the French soldiers shot dead were unarmed and were "literally murdered".
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[GAP]

Articles found January 23, 2012
 
Can Afghanistan be saved?
REVIEWED BY PAULA NEWBERG Globe and Mail Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
 Article Link

Afghanistan is a gift to writers. Stunning and tragic, at once victim of violence and instigator of terror, hotly debated and often ignored, Afghanistan is the place everyone chronicles and no one seems fully to understand. Come from the Shadows is a collection of sympathetic anecdotes, and an argument for continued Western engagement in a place, journalist Terry Glavin suggests, where “madness, politics and war are often parts of the same conversation.”
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Military policies deliver defeat
 Article Link
 BY PETER WORTHINGTON    ,QMI AGENCY SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

TORONTO - Regardless of one’s outlook, it’s pretty hard to see anything emerging from Afghanistan or the Middle East that doesn’t represent defeat for America’s foreign and military policy.

Afghanistan today is mindful of Vietnam when the U.S. decided to quit the war and sacrifice the south to the north. It tried to camouflage defeat by declaring “peace with honour.”

Afghanistan hasn’t reached that stage ... yet. But Iraq, now that U.S. combat troops have mostly gone, seems to be disintegrating into sectarian warfare.

One of the signs of unease — if not panic — about Afghanistan, is the hullabaloo over videotapes (taken a year ago) of U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban, killed in fighting.

No question that urinating on enemy dead is offensive, and shouldn’t be tolerated. What it reveals is weakness in command — of platoon officers and NCOs. But it is not a war crime. The bodies are dead. War crimes or torture involve the living.

One can remember the fuss when Canadian snipers in Afghanistan were accused of mocking and amputating the fingers of Taliban they killed — sort of keepsake trophies. This accusation went nowhere, but was a reminder that snipers have their own foibles.
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 Roadside bomb injures 5 Afghan police
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At least five Afghan policemen have been injured in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost, officials say.

The blast took place on Monday morning when a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Mando Zayi district near the Khost city.

Official said that the injured policemen were transferred to a hospital in the city for treatment.

Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the five policemen were killed during the attack.
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Faint glimmers on Afghan horizon
 Article Link
By Haroon Siddiqui Editorial Page

It’s a heartwarming story — that of Roya Shams, the 17-year-old Afghan girl, who has come to Canada on a student visa with the help of the Star’s veteran foreign correspondent Paul Watson and our editor-in-chief Michael Cooke. After her studies here, she hopes to return home to be a politician. Especially admirable is her courage, standing up to the Taliban who do not want girls going to school and who killed her father, a police officer, last year.

The story illustrates the nature of the antediluvian Taliban.

It is also a stark reminder that they are holding significant pockets of the Afghan population hostage — right under NATO’s nose.

Propaganda aside, the Afghan mission, into its 11th year and destined to go for at least two more, has been an unmitigated disaster — for the U.S., for Canada, for other allies and, especially, the Afghan people.
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 Afghan schoolgirl Roya faced down police in Kandahar airport
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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—We were two foreign men travelling with an Afghan schoolgirl, trying to ignore the death stares from other passengers in Kandahar airport, when two policemen swaggered up and sat down.

Star editor Michael Cooke and I were close to completing a sometimes perilous mission to get Roya Shams, 17, out of Afghanistan and to Canada so she could continue her education free from war and oppression.

For five months, a small but growing community of people who shared Roya’s dream has joined the Star’s effort to get Roya to Ottawa, where she will attend Ashbury College, a prestigious private school, with students from more than 30 countries.

The Afghan police at Kandahar airport had other ideas.

To fulfill the wish of her father, a former district police chief killed by the Taliban during a July raid in Kandahar city, Roya is working to become a politician, to wage a peaceful struggle for basic rights and democracy.

The cops wanted to block her escape to freedom this week, but she handled them with such poise that Roya looked like a political veteran in a country where threats and violence come with the job.

I recognized one of the policemen from a previous visit when my flight out of Kandahar had been cancelled and I couldn’t call for a ride back to the guesthouse because my cell phone wasn’t working.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 24, 2012
 
Officials say demolition video was of ammunition cache not Afghan home
CAMPBELL CLARK  AND GRAEME SMITH OTTAWA AND ISTANBUL
Published Monday, Jan. 23, 2012
 Article Link
 
An internet video showing Canadian soldiers laughing as they blow up an Afghan house is an intentional twisting of the truth, the army says: In fact, it shows the demolition of an ammunition cache.

The circulation of the video, posted on YouTube and some other websites, shows the delicate nature of efforts to win the “hearts and minds” of the people caught in a long-running war where Western troops have wielded heavy firepower.

he video appears on YouTube alongside comments like, “Who is watching the so-called protectors?” An Iranian state-media site asserted it shows Canadians “blowing up the house of an Afghan villager only to entertain themselves.”

That, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Christian Lemay, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces, is a deliberate misrepresentation. The size of the blast when the mud building explodes shows it’s the demolition of an ammunition cache, not an ordinary home, he said.
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 Afghan soldiers schooled
Sergeant Will Kelsey Op Attention / NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan
 Article Link

Candidates of the Afghan National Army Basic Warrior Training course begin their days taking literacy classes at the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC). More than 200 Canadian Forces advisors and support staff serve at KMTC as part of the Canadian Fo
Photo by Photo by MCpl Chris Ward, Canadian Forces

As you read this article, you probably don't stop to consider when and how you learned to read. Reading is second nature to you, and you can barely remember when it wasn't.

But what if you had to learn to read and write now?

Learning to read and write as an adult is a challenge that the vast majority of Afghan National Army (ANA) recruits face.

Thirty-five recruits sit quietly in a tent at the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC), a vast military base and training area located in the eastern fringes of Afghanistan's capital city. With keen interest, the recruits track every move of the man at the front of the tent, an Afghan civilian teacher � proud and skilled in his craft � who methodically works through the day's lesson.

Today, the recruits are learning the first letters in the alphabet.

There are 39 other tents just like this one, all lined up in neat rows as you would expect in an army camp, accommodating 1,400 more ANA army recruits in different phases of their literacy training. Nearly 9,000 ANA recruits are enrolled in basic training at KMTC, and almost all of them begin with learning to read, write, count and calculate.
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Why They Fight
 Article Link
January 23, 2012

 There has been an increase in Taliban groups surrendering. Local groups, numbering up to several dozen men, complete with weapons and their leader, will give up and accept amnesty benefits. In the middle of Winter and with the threat of NATO raids, this is a good move. Come Spring, the Taliban will be hiring again, as the drug gangs had a good year and have a lot of cash to arm and pay anyone who will help keep the police and soldiers away from heroin production and smuggling. Nevertheless, in the last two years, life has become more difficult for the drug gangs and especially their hired guns (who are often Taliban members). There are a lot more police and army checkpoints on the few roads. These guys will sometimes refuse a bribe, or demand more than you can pay. The foreign troops can't be bribed at all. Then there are the damn UAVs and jet fighters whose pilots can see everything on the ground. And if they do see a bunch of guys with guns, the next thing you know, there's a convoy of foreign troops coming into your valley, or a helicopter delivering a couple dozen soldiers on a nearby ridge. Or maybe just a smart bomb, which is the worst outcome. You can't surrender to a smart bomb. Fortunately, arrest, not smart bombs, seems to be the favorite NATO tactic this last year. The foreign troops are supposed to be gone in two years, but some days it seems like the average Taliban gunman won’t be around to enjoy that happy day. 
Last year, over 30,000 Afghans applied for asylum worldwide. That does not include the illegal migrants who did not reveal themselves. The number of legal asylum seekers was up 25 percent over 2010. The Afghans getting to foreign countries are those with money. It costs over $10,000 per person to get smuggled to a Western nation. A lot more than 30,000 Afghans a year would like to leave, but you have to be one of the few with a way to make a lot of money. That explains why so many Afghans are always hustling, willing to do anything for a buck. Get your hands on enough cash, and you can get out. A lot of Afghans are not fighting to save Afghanistan, but to get out of Afghanistan. It's increasingly been that way over the last half century as more Afghans became aware of the outside world. At first they were incredulous. After centuries of just getting by in mountain valleys, you are suddenly confronted with movies, and then videos (now available on cell phones) showing a better life, a life that is not available in violent, tribal Afghanistan. That is followed by stories from Afghans who have made it to the West, where economic opportunity and peace are abundant. It's not just the foreign troops who are fed up with Afghanistan.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 26, 2012
 
 Kidnapped US aid contractor reportedly held by militants in Pakistan
 Article Link
Some five months after Warren Weinstein was kidnapped, the US aid contractor is reported to be in the custody of a Pakistani Al Qaeda affiliate, McClatchy Newspapers reports.

By Tom Hussain, McClatchy Newspapers / January 25, 2012

A kidnapped American aid contractor is alive and in good health, being held by a Pakistani Al Qaeda affiliate that's likely to use him as a bargaining chip, according to militants, security officials, and analysts.

Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped in August from his home in Lahore, Pakistan, is in the custody of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants in North Waziristan, a ranking Pakistani militant told McClatchy. The militant said he'd seen Mr. Weinstein last month and at that point "his health was fine."

"He is being provided all available medical treatment, including regular checkups by a doctor and the medicines prescribed for him before he was plucked," the militant, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said last week in an interview.

Little has been revealed publicly about Weinstein's status since December, when Ayman al Zawahiri, the head of Al Qaeda, said in a video that the terrorist network was holding him.
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Fears Lurk in a Post-Transition Afghanistan
By GRAHAM BOWLEY
 Article Link

Over the mountains from frigid Kabul, Mihtarlam is one place where American-led forces have transferred authority to the Afghans.

Out here in post-transition Afghanistan, among the orange groves, fear lurks. American soldiers are still in position, but the Afghan Army is taking the lead. And Afghan officials – from the provincial governor to the mayor to the police — assert confidently that security is under control.

But not everyone is convinced — and some are really nervous.

“They say the security is going well, but that is not the reality,” said a judge in the provincial court whose name is being withheld because he has received Taliban death threats.

He added, “Whenever I am working on a case and send someone to jail, I am concerned that the family of the criminal will do something to me.”

The judge is a precise, quiet man with a trimmed beard, who was dressed one recent morning in a brown jacket over a neat white tunic.

Like most people in Afghanistan, he said he was anxious about what would happen when the Americans and their allies leave. What will remain of the economy, the security, the civil society constructed so delicately since the Taliban’s ouster?

“I have been threatened by the Taliban on my cellphone,” he said. “They are telling me to quit this job otherwise we will kill you.”
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The next few articles are from earlier posts/articles, but are interesting in regards to Afghanistan.....
 
A Firsthand Look at Firefights in Marja
By C.J. CHIVERS Af-Pak
 Article Link
 April 19, 2010
During the initial American-led assault earlier this year into Marja, the last large Taliban-dominated population center in Helmand Province, Marines in several companies encountered something unusual in the American experience of the Afghan war – insurgent snipers.

For several days, and in several places, competent and deliberate marksmen fired on Marine patrols. A video today presents one such event, a firefight between the Marines of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, and Taliban fighters, including at least one Taliban gunman the Marines considered to be a sniper. The footage shows the effects of incoming gunfire that is much different from the normal experience of Afghan shooting.

The Ineffectiveness of Taliban Riflery

Now and then over the years, there have been reports of well-trained Taliban marksmen in different parts of the country. But credible reports have been few. Taliban rifle fire, in the main, has been largely ineffective.

How ineffective? Through April 3, the number of American troops killed by gunshot wounds in the entire war in Afghanistan, according to the casualty summaries compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center, had reached 188. That includes wounds caused not just by rifle fire, but also by the more powerful PK machine guns and any other firearm present in the war.
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The Weakness of Taliban Marksmanship
By C.J. CHIVERS  April 2, 2010
 Article Link

Last week, At War opened a conversation about Afghan marksmanship by publishing rough data from several dozen recent firefights between the Taliban and three Marine rifle companies in and near Marja, the location of the recent offensive in Helmand Province. The data showed that while the Taliban can be canny and brave in combat their rifle fire is often remarkably ineffective.

We plan more posts about the nature of the fighting in Afghanistan, and how this influences the experience of the war. Today this blog discusses visible factors that, individually and together, predict poor shooting results when Taliban gunmen get behind their rifles.

It’s worth noting that many survivors of multiple small-arms engagements in Afghanistan have had experiences similar to those described last week. After emerging unscathed from ambushes, including ambushes within ranges at which the Taliban’s AK-47 knock-offs should have been effective, they wonder: how did so much Taliban fire miss?
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Arming Both Sides: The Perils of Ammunition Leakage in the Afghan War
By C.J. CHIVERS  February 22, 2010
 Article Link

In a previous post, and an article last year, The New York Times examined the question of how Taliban fighters obtain their small-arms ammunition. The limited data available – gleaned from captured Taliban weapons and magazines, or from spent casings collected from Taliban firing positions after firefights – pointed to Afghan security forces as a significant source.

A newly captured PK machine gun, seized on Feb. 18 by the Marines of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, further supports this view.

The weapon was picked up by the company’s First Platoon after a  firefight of several hours, during which the Marines and Taliban fighters fired at each other across agricultural fields, ditches and irrigation canals. Both sides were bounding between small mud-walled compounds. After Taliban fighters were contained in a compound, a Reaper drone fired a Hellfire guided missile into its northern wall.

The Marines entered the grounds and found the mangled remains of an Afghan man wrapped around a machine gun, which had been heavily damaged by shrapnel and the blast. They carried the weapon and its ammunition back to the company outpost.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 27, 2012
 
Afghanistan women: 'Give us a seat at the peace table'
 Article Link
Given the Taliban's history, women say it's critical that they're at the table to make sure concessions aren't made at their expense.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / January 26, 2012

Kabul, Afghanistan

During the past year, the US and its NATO allies have placed increasing emphasis on bringing an end to the war in Afghanistan through negotiations. With the Taliban on the verge of getting a political office in Qatar, substantive talks now appear closer than ever before.

Women have taken on an increasingly active role in Afghan society in recent years – holding elected offices, working outside the house, and sometimes running their own organizations. But many Afghan women see a potential peace deal with the Taliban as representing anything but a ray of hope. Current negotiation efforts have mostly excluded women, and without a voice at the table many women worry how well the Afghan government can protect women’s rights if the Taliban is reincorporated into the political system.
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Fears Lurk in a Post-Transition Afghanistan
By GRAHAM BOWLEY  January 25, 2012
 Article Link

Over the mountains from frigid Kabul, Mihtarlam is one place where American-led forces have transferred authority to the Afghans.

Out here in post-transition Afghanistan, among the orange groves, fear lurks. American soldiers are still in position, but the Afghan Army is taking the lead. And Afghan officials – from the provincial governor to the mayor to the police — assert confidently that security is under control.

But not everyone is convinced — and some are really nervous.

“They say the security is going well, but that is not the reality,” said a judge in the provincial court whose name is being withheld because he has received Taliban death threats.

He added, “Whenever I am working on a case and send someone to jail, I am concerned that the family of the criminal will do something to me.”

The judge is a precise, quiet man with a trimmed beard, who was dressed one recent morning in a brown jacket over a neat white tunic.

Like most people in Afghanistan, he said he was anxious about what would happen when the Americans and their allies leave. What will remain of the economy, the security, the civil society constructed so delicately since the Taliban’s ouster?

“I have been threatened by the Taliban on my cellphone,” he said. “They are telling me to quit this job otherwise we will kill you.”
More on link
 
Iran border guards 'kill six Pakistanis'
Article Link
 7 January 2012

t least six Pakistanis have been shot dead and two others wounded by Iranian border guards after they crossed the border, Pakistani officials say.

Officials say the incident occurred on Thursday on the Iranian side of the border close to Pakistan's south-western Balochistan province.

The wounded men and the corpses of the six others are yet to be handed over to the Pakistani authorities.

Reports say the men were livestock traders.

"Six of them were killed in firing by Iranian border forces and two others were wounded," local police official, Mujeebur Rehman, in the port town of Gwadar told the AFP news agency.

Earlier this month, Pakistani police detained three Iranian border guards after they allegedly crossed the border, and opened fire, killing one Pakistani man in a car they had been chasing.
end
 
 The Other Guy's Endgame - Part I
 Article Link

Intro: At Peace with War?

If countries were books, then airports would be their covers. Till the tarmac, Kabul's airport compares in size and dreariness levels with Quetta's. But once inside the terminal, elements of the decade-long war machine begin to glint and grind. The premise of Afghanistan's long conflict and the promise of a lingering peace reveal themselves simultaneously. At war with itself and others, Afghanistan greets its visitors not as an uncomplicated country.

Unclear is whether the Afghans are perfectly comfortable with perpetual bellicosity or seething under occupation. One sees the hoarding for a hotel that promises blast-resistant windows and doors - always a good sign of adaptable hospitality, or hospitable adaptability. Also lurking is the prodigal son, a returned-from-Dubai immigrant lugging two flat-screen TVs, trimmed by his snazzy sunglasses and white imitation-snakeskin shoes. Most of the other passengers on the Safi Air flight are NGO types, but there are a few soldier/spy variants, though in civvies but still sporting their West Point and Annapolis rings. The police guards are randomly placed, shabbily uniformed and ill tempered. The transport C-130 spin-offs on the tarmac have their own coterie of better looking and fear inspiring protectors: armed contractors with blond manes, desert tans tans and angry tattoos that match their weaponry. The immigration officer is not amused by my Pakistani passport, but he's not interested to investigate much. Outside, kids are exchanging dollars and dinars out of hand-carried display cases. Some US Army, in battle fatigues but not wearing armour, are hanging by a Humvee smoking as they wait for a pick up, probably a buddy from their unit. I'm trying to capture everything, suppressing the panic of my lost luggage that a Safi staffer, in fractured Urdu, has promised will be on the next flight, when I make first contact.
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[GAP]

Articles found January 28, 2012
 
Leon Panetta concern over Bin Laden 'informer' Shikal Afridi
 Article Link
 28 January 2012

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said he is "very concerned" about a Pakistani doctor arrested for providing intelligence for the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden last year.

Dr Shikal Afridi is accused of running a CIA-run programme in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed. A Pakistan panel says he should be tried for treason.

Mr Panetta told the CBS TV network the arrest had been "a real mistake".

Dr Afridi provided "very helpful" information for the raid, he added.

He was arrested shortly after the operation, carried out by US special forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on 2 May last year.

Pakistan was deeply embarrassed by the raid, and condemned it as a violation of sovereignty.

'Phoney programme'
In an interview with the CBS programme 60 Minutes to be aired on Sunday, Mr Panetta said: "I'm very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual."

He added that his action "was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan".

"As a matter of fact Pakistan and the United States have a common cause here against terrorism and for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part," Mr Panetta said.

Last October, a Pakistani commission investigating the raid recommended that Dr Afridi should be tried for high treason.

In the aftermath of the operation, reports emerged that the CIA had recruited the doctor to organise a phoney vaccination programme in Abbottabad.

The aim of the programme was allegedly to confirm Bin Laden's presence in the city by obtaining a DNA sample from residents.
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 Rebuffed Afghan combat interpreter wrongly accused of taking story to the media
Article Link

By Paul Watson
Star Columnist

EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to a technical error, an earlier version of this story was published erroneously.

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—A Canadian Army commander and senior diplomat decided a highly praised Afghan combat interpreter didn’t need safe refuge in Canada, faulting him for complaining publicly about delays, an internal document shows.

The former head of Canada’s elite special forces, and our deputy ambassador to Afghanistan, turned down Sayed Shah Sharifi’s visa application last fall, just weeks after he spoke to the Toronto Star in July.

They didn’t believe Sharifi’s claims that the Taliban want to kill him for aiding Canadian combat troops, an essential qualification for a visa under a special program.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced in 2009 that he wanted to protect Afghans who could show “individual risk” because they had worked with Canadians in Kandahar province, the Taliban heartland.

Canadian Army Colonel J.P. Davis, a former special forces commander in Afghanistan, and Shelley Whiting, Canada’s deputy ambassador in Kabul, signed the immigration form rejecting Sharifi’s application on October 5, 2011.

The form tersely declares Sharifi: “Ineligible.”
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[GAP]

Articles found January 29, 2012
 
Changes in Kabul Classrooms
By JAALA A. THIBAULT
 Article Link
January 27, 2012, 12:57 PM

Eleven years ago, if you walked into a classroom in Kabul, this is what you might have seen: all boys; Korans resting on every desk; men leading prayers and study; only religious subjects being taught at every school and university in the country; students wearing uniforms of payraan tumbaan (long shirts over baggy pants) and turbans; empty chairs pushed to the back of the classrooms where girls once sat.

And if you closed your eyes, you heard only the low drone of the boys’ voices raised in unison, repeating Koranic verses over and over again.

You would not have seen women teaching or girls attending lessons. Women were secretly teaching girls in hidden basements, only to be punished severely when discovered. During that time, women were barred from schools and universities, their places in society cemented in their homes. They had no choice but to teach and learn incognito.

In 2001, in a classroom in Kabul, you wouldn’t have heard the voices of women and girls giggling, laughing and teasing one another. You would have squinted in the darkness of a mud-brick building, glancing at the silhouettes of empty chairs in the back of the room, wondering where the pupils had gone.

Though I did not see these things with my own eyes, I might as well have had. Through photographs, books and the stories I have heard from friends, colleagues and students, these images are now so clear I almost feel like I was there.

Eleven years ago, I was definitely not squinting in the darkness of a classroom in Kabul; I was standing at the head of a bright, clean classroom full of sixth graders in the United States, teaching for the first time.

Though I always knew I’d become a teacher, I never planned to use my ability to educate as a tool for building nations.

But then the attacks of Sept. 11 happened – and just as they changed many lives, they changed my life, too.
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Photographing Afghan Girls
By ADAM FERGUSON
 Article Link  January 14, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — As the light splashed through the windows and down the corridors, I paused in my viewfinder. It’s not often as a male photographer in Afghanistan that one is granted the opportunity to peer into a female world, and here I was standing amid streams of young girls, their faces peering from white head scarves, as they ducked from one room to another collecting exam results and sharing them with friends.

There were constant but fleeting glances that exchanged both excitement and disappointment, and some huddled in groups studying for exams that were still to come. The students were so absorbed in the crowd and nervous buzz of exam time that — apart from a few smiles and hellos that allowed the girls to practice their English — I went barely noticed and was left uninterrupted to explore with my camera.

I dived into the flow of the crowd and began moving with it, making exposures, following a group of girls through cathedral-like light, watching faces be illuminated and then dropped into shadow. It was one of those moments as a photographer in Afghanistan when there was no man to tell me I couldn’t photograph the girls, no gatekeeper, and in their numbers the girls seemed to be free of taboos.

The Marefat High School in Dasht-i-Barchi has approximately 2,500 students who are predominantly Hazara, one of Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities that now make up more than a quarter of Kabul’s population. Predominantly Shiite, many Hazara are less conservative than Afghanistan’s Pashtun population, which constitutes the majority of Afghanistan’s insurgency. Even so, Hazara women in Kabul mostly wear burqas, and young girls are reserved, ducking through doorways or covering their faces, especially with a foreign man present.

On the first floor of the building, girls were taking an exam in rows of wooden chairs that stretched for 80 meters, the entire length along a rubble-strewn floor. The building was not finished, the stairwells had no rails, the walls were unpainted, and windowpanes still wore concrete splashes from the construction. Despite the rugged nature of the building, school went on, and there was a concentrated silence and studiousness.

From the girls’ section I walked 50 meters down the muddy alley to the boys’ section. Boys lined up and were strip-searched before entering a classroom an exam. Not for security reasons, I was told, but to make sure no one had material to cheat. In the exam room an array of historical figures hung on the wall. There was the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Lincoln, Einstein and Rosa Parks, civil rights activist.

The Hazara share a background of oppression; under the Taliban they were massacred, and in Kabul today many of the low-ranking jobs such as cart-pulling and garbage collection are done by Hazara people. Ms. Parks symbolized both struggle and redemption in the minds of these schoolchildren. The more I thought about it, the more her portrait made sense.
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No Refuge From Fear in Afghanistan, Even at Prayer
By SHARIFULLAH SAHAK
Article Link
 February 16, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — People of Afghanistan are very religious, but nowadays a lot of them are afraid of their own mosques and religious leaders.

On Feb. 3, the authorities announced that they had found more than 24 bombs inside a mosque in the Taimani neighborhood of Kabul, and arrested Mullah Abdul Rahman. That was not the only case. In January, Mullah Kamal Nasir was arrested in his mosque in eastern Kabul for consorting with terrorists and keeping the suicide bombers in his house. And this month, the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, arrested two young suicide bombers who said they were recruited while attending madrassas, the Muslim religious schools.

“Enemies of peace and stability are now using holy places such as mosques and madrassas for their terrorist activities, hiding their explosive materials and for planning their attacks,” said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the security agency.

Like most Muslims in Afghanistan, I don’t believe it is right to use our mosques and other holy places for carrying out attacks or hiding weapons. These are places to practice our religion and not to use for terrorist attacks or military purposes. They did this in Takhar Province, when a suicide bomber killed at least 14 people including the governor of Kunduz Province, Muhammad Omar, while he was offering Friday Prayers. In Khost in 2010, a parliamentary candidate was killed at a mosque as he was kneeling to pray. Many times, insurgents have also entered mosques to use as a place of cover during fighting, which makes these holy places a target. And then the people protest against the damage to the mosque.

Many of the bombers who were arrested alive, or whose identities were established after the fact, turned out to have been teenage boys who had been studying in mosques and madrassas under the guidance of mullahs, who should be offering prayer five times a day and teaching religion to the young, but instead some of the religious leaders are acting as recruiters for insurgents and terrorists.
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 Armed forces 'on the brink' warn former military top brass
7 July 2011 | UK
 Article Link

The Government is being warned by armed services chiefs that the armed forces could be "on the brink" because of planned reforms and “morally indefensible" redundancies.

Four former chiefs of the defence staff and one former head of the army all criticised the Government as peers gave an unopposed second reading to the Armed Forces Bill, which enshrines the principles of the military covenant into law.

Former Army general Lord Walker of Aldringham, Chief of the Defence Staff from 2003 to 2006, described redundancies for people who had been on active service in Afghanistan as "morally indefensible".

The former head of the Army Lord Dannatt, who advised David Cameron when he was leader of the opposition, said many people thought the forces were "on the brink" and there was a risk they could go into "freefall" and he also hit out at the "stultifying bureaucracy" of the Ministry of Defence.

Admiral Lord Boyce, Chief of the Defence Staff from 2001 to 2003, said a report on how the Government was meeting the current expectations of the armed forces would make "pretty depressing reading".

And fellow ex-forces heads Air Chief Marshal Lord Stirrup and Marshal of the RAF Lord Craig of Radley called for the Government to toughen up its plans on the covenant.

Lord Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009, said the military covenant had always existed in un-written form, but warned of the dangers of breaking it.

"It is that hitherto unspoken and unspecified balance, on the one hand between the legitimate work demanded of the armed forces by the elected government of the day on behalf of the nation and on the other hand the nation's ability through the government of the day to look after and meet the legitimate individual needs of our sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines, their families and our veterans."
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[GAP]

Articles found January 30, 2012
 
Canadian Forces Officer To Face Court Martial For Accidental Discharge in Kabul
January 30, 2012  Article Link

ANDREW DUFFY of the Ottawa Citizen has the latest on this court martial:

A Canadian Forces lieutenant-colonel will face a court martial in Gatineau next month in connection with the accidental firing of a rifle at Kabul International Airport.
Lt.-Col. Gilles Fortin is the second senior officer to be charged with mishandling a firearm while in Afghanistan.

In March 2010, then Brig.-Gen. Daniel Ménard accidentally fired his C8 assault rifle twice into the ground as he was about to board a Blackhawk helicopter at Kandahar Airfield with his boss, Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff.

Ménard was commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan at the time of the incident, which occurred as he was loading his carbine.

Ménard — he later resigned from the military after being recalled from Afghanistan due to a sex scandal — was fined $3,500 for the negligent handling of his weapon.

It was the largest fine ever imposed on a soldier for such an offence.

Lt.-Col. Fortin, a signals officer, was in Kabul last September as part of his work with NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre. A member of the centre’s joint training division, Fortin helped prepare incoming staff officers to take over jobs at ISAF headquarters in Kabul.
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Deportation to Afghanistan likely once jail sentences are served
 Article Link
 BY ROB TRIPP, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE JANUARY 30, 2012 9:06 AM

KINGSTON, Ont. - Once the Shafias, who are permanent residents and not Canadian citizens, complete their prison sentences, they are likely to be deported to Afghanistan, according to a lawyer and former Canadian immigration officer.

Raj Sharma, who practises in a large Calgary law firm that specializes in immigration cases, said the Canadian government temporarily suspends removals to some countries where there are natural disasters or war that put people at risk, but those provisions don't apply to the Shafias.

"They would be removed to Afghanistan," Sharma said, in a telephone interview from Calgary. "The temporary suspension of removals doesn't help them."
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Doubts raised about future of Afghan army funding
Article Link
The Canadian Press Date: Sunday Jan. 29, 2012 5:27 PM ET

OTTAWA — The commander of the Canadian army says he doubts the international community will have the cash or the political stomach after 2014 to sustain the sprawling Afghan security force being trained by NATO allies.

Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin, the chief of land staff, recently returned from Kabul where roughly 950 Canadians have settled in for a three-year stint under the newly-established training mission.

Some of the questions on his mind during a round of meetings with NATO commanders involved whether the Afghan government will have the means of paying for an army and a police force that is expected to top out at 352,000 members. Devlin also wondered if the perceived threat from Taliban insurgents required building a force of that size.

Current estimates from the country's defence minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, see the Afghans spending over $6.2 billion a year to pay and equip their forces. That's in a country where the budget of the entire federal treasury is $4 billion much of that foreign aid.

Devlin, who commanded NATO's multi-national brigade in Kabul in 2003-04, said the shortfall needs to be recognized.

"Is the international community willing to pay for that?" he asked, rhetorically, in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. "And I'm unsure they will be able to pay for that ... It's my sense.
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Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl'
By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul 30 January 2012
Article Link
 
A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter.

The murdered woman's husband, a member of a local militia, is also suspected of involvement but he has since fled.

The murder took place two days ago in Kunduz province. The baby girl, who is now two months old, was not hurt.

The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden.

Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country.

Late last year a horrifying video emerged of the injuries suffered by a 15-year-old child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband.
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