Topic: The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread February 2012

[milnews.ca]

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

Taliban will rule Afghanistan again, says leaked US military report

The Taliban have secured Pakistan's support for a return to power in Afghanistan as well as toning down their severe brand of Islamism, according to reports citing a leaked US military assessment. Photograph: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
The Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after Nato-led forces withdraw from the country, according to reports citing a classifed assessment by US forces.

The Times described the report as secret and "highly classified", saying it was put together by the US military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top Nato officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.

"Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the report was quoted as saying. "Once Isaf (Nato-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/01/taliban-rule-afghanistan-leaked-report

[GAP]

Articles found February 2, 2012
 
Canadian general warns Afghans not to count on foreign funding for army
Article Link
 Wed Feb 01 2012

There’s nothing like the prospect of a cash crunch to focus minds.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai may be counting on getting the Americans and other donors to shell out $6 billion a year indefinitely to bankroll his army after foreign troops pull out in 2014. But as Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin, the head of Canada’s army, has just warned, Afghan officials may be in for a shock.

Given budget woes in the United States and Europe, “I’m unsure they will be able to pay for that,” Devlin told Canadian Press. He’s right. The U.S. alone has been paying $12 billion a year to train and equip Afghan security forces. American diplomats warn this is “unsustainable.” There’s talk of sharply cutting the planned Afghan forces from 350,000 in 2014 to 230,000 by 2017, which would trim the bill to a more manageable $3 billion or $4 billion. And there’s no consensus to guarantee even that.

This fiscal reality check couldn’t be more timely, given that both the U.S. and Afghans are trying to strike up a peace dialogue with the Taliban. Bad-faith bargaining could prove costly not only to the Karzai administration, but to the Taliban as well.

Karzai, who presides over a tiny federal budget of $6 billion a year, much of it foreign aid, has now been put on notice that he may face the Taliban with a far weaker security force than he had expected, once American, Canadian and other troops and trainers leave. That gives him added incentive to bring the Taliban inside the political tent rather than face an energized insurgency with fewer troops.
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Canada committed to long-term Afghan support
Publish Date: Jan 31, 2012
 Article Link

KABUL – Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin received Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Morris Rosenberg, at the Foreign Ministry this afternoon.

Ludin expressed the gratitude of the Afghan government and people for Canada’s support to Afghanistan’s security and development over the past decade.

“There is an intimate appreciation of Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan over the past ten years among our people and government,” Ludin said. “And this has come at the cost of great Canadian sacrifices for the security and the generous assistance of Canada for the development of Afghanistan.”

Rosenberg reiterated Canada’s most recent commitment from the International Afghanistan Conference in Bonn to long-term engagement with Afghanistan and continued development support to the country.

“This is a deep and multi-faceted relationship. The sacrifices that Canada has borne here speak to our past and present commitment to Afghanistan,” Rosenberg said. “We’ll be here after 2014.”
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Over 2,000 Canadians were wounded in Afghan mission: report
Postmedia News  Feb 1, 2012
Article Link
By Lee Berthiaume

OTTAWA • Defence department figures released Wednesday put the final, official tally on the number of Canadian soldiers wounded during the 10-year Afghanistan combat mission at more than 2,000.

Twenty soldiers were wounded in action in 2011, the fewest since Canada took over responsibility of Kandahar in 2005. A further 168 received “non-battle injuries.”

That brings the total number of Canadian soldiers wounded in action during the mission (April 2002 to December 2011) at 635; another 1,412 suffered non-battle injuries.
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Two Britons charged with carrying 30 unlicensed AK47 guns
Two British security contractors have been charged by the Afghan government after being found carrying 30 unlicensed assault rifles in their vehicle.
 Article Link

By Ben Farmer, Kabul2:13PM GMT 31 Jan 2012
Julian Steele and James Davis were working in Kabul for the Canadian firm Garda World when they were arrested at a checkpoint with two Afghans working as driver and translator.

The men said they were carrying the weapons to a firing range to test them before buying them from an authorised dealer.

Supporters of the men claim their arrest was politically motivated and marked the latest attempt by Hamid Karzai's government to intimidate an industry he has repeatedly threatened to close down.
Kim Motley, their lawyer, confirmed the men had been charged after being held for nearly four weeks.
She said the Afghan attorney general's office had not made it clear if they were accused of possession or trafficking.
More on link

[GAP]

Articles found February 3, 2012
 
 Canadian flag comes down in Afghanistan
Published Thursday, Feb. 02, 2012
Article Link

The Maple Leaf flag comes down in Kandahar, six months after Canada quietly ends combat operations; the first time the nation's military has quit fighting an unfinished war. In the strife-torn province, where there were rarely more than 500 Canadian solders 'outside the wire,' a surge of more than 10,000 U.S. “boots on the ground” takes on the effort to win Afghan hearts and minds.

Canadian troops return home in the summer of 2011 without fanfare as the nation's attention is focused on another conflict - NATO's successful air war backing Libyan rebels who eventually topple Col.

Moammar Gadhafi's regime. But Canada's military role - albeit diminished - continues in Afghanistan where as 1,000 'trainers' deploy to help prepare the Afghan military and police for when most foreign troops pull out in 2014.
end
 
 Canadians move into Kabul
Globe and Mail Thursday, Feb. 02, 2012
Article Link

By 2003 Canada’s role in Afghanistan has shifted to Kabul and to a, seemingly, more-familiar role; peacekeeping. Canadian troops patroled the mostly-peaceful Afghan capital; an embassy was opened and Ottawa announces a triad approach of “defence, development and diplomacy.”

There are security operations but mostly as back-up to Kabul’s fledgling police force. NATO operations are limited to Kabul, leaving the rest of the country to warlords and a relatively small number of U.S. special forces. In October, two Canadians were killed when their open Iltis jeep is destroyed by a buried bomb just outside Kabul. For the rest of the decade, ever-heavier vehicles, first armoured Mercedes jeeps, then armoured personal carriers, then specially-build mine-resistant vehicles and tanks would be sent to Afghanistan in an escalating effort to protect soldiers from more powerful roadside bombs.
end
 
Weymouth soldier’s actions earn Medal of Military Valour
 Article Link
By Karla Kelly FOR THE DIGBY COURIER

Master Corporal Paul Douglas Mitchell of Weymouth was among seven members of the Canadian Forces presented the Medal of Military Valour from Gov-Gen. David Johnston in a Jan. 26 ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
Created in 1993, the Medal of Military Valour is awarded to members of the Canadian Forces who have shown or carried out distinct acts of bravery or devotion to duty in the face of enemy hostility. It is the third highest award given to Canadian service personnel.
Mitchell received the honour for acts of bravery during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2010.
On June 5 that year while Mitchell and the rest of a reconnaissance platoon were patrolling a small village, an improvised explosive device, also known as a roadside bomb, exploded near the soldiers.
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Our noble Afghan failure
Article Link

Jonathan Kay, National Post · Feb. 3, 2012 | Last Updated: Feb. 3, 2012 3:10 AM ET

This was a bad week for Afghanistan optimists. First, the British media leaked a classified U.S. report - based on thousands of interrogations - concluding that the Taliban are set to retake Afghanistan with Pakistan's assistance; and that the Westernbacked government of Hamid Karzai is widely mocked and distrusted. Most Afghans despise the murderous methods used by the Taliban. But they despise official Afghan corruption even more.

Then, on Wednesday, U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta announced the United States will accelerate the end of combat operations in Afghanistan - possibly to as early as mid-2013. No serious observer can even pretend that U.S. troops will be coming home as victors. Instead, the job will be left to the Afghan military, which is decently trained and equipped, but has low morale and is shot through with Taliban sympathizers. Without ongoing and active NATO support, Afghanistan's nominal government will shrink into a few scattered urban mayoralities. If Karzai sticks it out, he may well end up like the last non-Taliban Afghan leader - Mohammad Najibullah, who was hauled out of a UN compound in 1996, castrated, dragged through the streets behind a truck, and hung from a traffic light (though I expect Karzai is too smart for that, and will instead end up in London or the UAE, giving occasional interviews to the BBC and al-Jazeera).
More on link

[GAP]

Articles found February 4, 2012
 
Shafia crimes horrify Afghan community
LES PERREAUX  AND COLIN FREEZE
MONTREAL AND TORONTO— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 03, 2012
 Article Link

The man fixing an old VCR at the suburban Montreal electronics shop throws up his hands at the mere mention of the word “Shafia.” But instead of signalling a reluctance to talk, the gesture sets off a torrent of words.

“Do you know we are a calm people, in reality?” says Amin Ashpari, a Kabul-born father of four Quebec-born daughters, ages 8 to 14.

The premeditated murder of four women at the hands of family patriarch Mohammed Shafia, along with his accomplice wife and son, has Canada’s Afghan community as bewildered and outraged as the rest of the country. The trial that ended last weekend has left many Afghans feeling that they, too, are being judged.

Mr. Ashpari, 49, says he has never raised a finger against his children. He doesn’t drink booze like some Muslim believers, but sees no veils in the girls’ future. His grandmother and two mothers didn’t cover their faces when he grew up in Kabul in the 1970s. Why would his daughters?

That isn’t to say an Afghan father does not have a major adjustment to make when he arrives in a far more permissive land. Mr. Ashpari admits he struggles to understand why his 14-year-old wouldn't rather only have girls as friends, and he doesn't want her dating. (He recalls that even in liberal 1970s Kabul, eye contact with a girl was taboo.) And negotiating a curfew somewhere between “stay home” and midnight is a weekly challenge.

Still, Mr. Ashpari points out, is there a father in Canada who would not prefer his teenage daughter to dress properly, avoid getting drunk, delay sex and concentrate on studies? “There are a lot of Afghan families suffering with these issues. But it causes normal family conflict – not Shafia,” he says. “You give them a good start by giving them more love, by adjusting, by giving them trust and freedom. Not handcuffs.”
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Gagetown soldiers prep for new Afghan role
CBC News Posted: Feb 3, 2012
 Article Link

Soldiers from CFB Gagetown are once again preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, but this time it won't be in a combat role.

The soldiers will be training soldiers and police with the National Afghan Security Forces.

“Many of these guys are great warriors, they have fought for years against the Soviets and others,” said Col. Greg Smith, deputy commander of the Canadian Training Mission in Afghanistan.

“Now we are just trying to develop their institutions.”

“It’s more about how do you run things and be able to plan long-term,” added Lt.-Col. Alex Ruff, the commanding officer of 2RCR. “Logistics is a challenge for them, their ability to plan for future.”

Still, the mission is not without danger. Just last week, four French soldiers working with Afghan National Security forces were killed by an Afghan soldier.

A recent report commissioned by the U.S. military suggests it’s a growing problem.

“There's always a possibility,” said Ruff. “But in the end, our soldiers are well prepared and the Afghan themselves have set up the necessary security measures to keep the areas as secure as you possibly can.”

The 450 soldiers have been training for their new mission by learning the most widely-used language in Kabul, Dari, and taking lessons about the culture.

They will be in Kabul for eight months.
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NATO allies eye China in Afghan security cash crunch
CAMPBELL CLARK Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update Friday, Feb. 03, 2012
 Article Link

ATO allies are debating how big an Afghan military they can afford, paring down targets, and looking to countries like China to pony up some of the cash, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.

The Canadian Forces are now playing a sizable role in efforts to train an expanded Afghan army, with 950 trainers posted in Kabul and some other centres until 2014.

But the question of who will pick up the bill for a multi-billion-dollar security force that Afghans can’t afford has led NATO to plans to pare down the planned size. The U.S. is proposing the goal of creating an army and police force totalling 350,000 by 2014 be trimmed to about 305,000, while France has suggested 230,000.

“I can tell you this, it will be somewhere between the aspirational goal that they set of 350,000, and the number that is being floated, that is 230,000,” Mr. MacKay said in a telephone interview from a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.

NATO defence ministers had an extensive discussion on how big an Afghan force should be, attended by Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, and a briefing on the issue from the allied commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine General John Allen, Mr. MacKay said. Mr. MacKay said he expects no final pronouncement on the target figure will be made until leaders of NATO countries meet at a summit in Chicago in May.

The expansion is aimed at making the Afghan forces big enough to take over the lead of combat operations from NATO and other international troops by 2014. But the big targets set for bulking up the Afghan forces are running into the era of austerity in western nations, who are balking at picking up the tab, which is roughly the size of the entire budget of Afghanistan’s government.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 5, 2012
 
Afghanistan lessons: Building trust leads to success  Article Link
 BY CPL. JENNIFER SCOTT, EDMONTON JOURNAL FEBRUARY 5, 2012

As the current course of Afghan National Army recruits approaches the end of their eight-week training cycle at Regional Military Training Centre - North, the Canadian advisers here near Mazar-e-Sharif are approaching the end of our tour.

When we arrived last August and became part of the NATO training mission to help the ANA build a more professional army, we knew there would be challenges. After almost seven months of working closely with ANA trainers, our team has learned that first impressions in Afghanistan count for a lot.

During our work-up training in Canada, we were told that this would be the case, but we did not fully appreciate it until after we arrived and began working with ANA training staff. We worked very hard in the early stages to learn all we could about Afghan culture and individual ANA instructors on a personal level. This is a critical step - it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for an adviser to start making suggestions without first building friendship and trust with their ANA counterpart.

One of the most important qualities of a successful mentor is patience. The ANA is growing quickly and there are challenges, but if we simply step in and do things for them, they will not learn anything from us.
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[E.R. Campbell]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/was-it-worth-it-canadians-reflect-on-the-war-in-afghanistan/article2326272/

Was it worth it? Canadians reflect on the war in Afghanistan

PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Feb. 06, 2012

Reflections on what we were fighting for in Afghanistan from a handful of Canadians who actually waged the war or led the battles over issues of principle and peace

Chris Alexander – former Canadian ambassador to Kabul, then the UN’s deputy special representative to Afghanistan until 2009 and now a Conservative MP.

WAS THE WAR WORTH THE COST? – The mission was worth the cost because it toppled a repressive regime, removed a major terrorist threat, helped Afghans begin rebuilding their lives and institutions after decades of war. Canada played a leadership role in education, rural development, as well as in a major, UN-mandated NATO mission. Canada and the world are safer for it.

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED? – Nine million children are now in school – more than four times the number pre-2001; GDP has quintupled; in most provinces of Afghanistan, terrorists, warlords and drug traffickers no longer call the shots. Most importantly, there is now a genuine focus on the need to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan and help both Kabul and Islamabad overcome decades of mutual suspicion.



Amir Attaran – law professor at University of Ottawa and leading critic of Canada’s treatment of Afghan detainees, including its controversial transfer to Afghan security agencies with a known history or torture.

WAS THE WAR WORTH THE COST? – Canada and NATO lost the armed conflict to the insurgency, just as the Soviets before us did. The remaining historical question is whether Canadians acquired new knowledge or humility from this misadventure and defeat – in other words, are we gracious losers, or just plain losers?

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED? – It was great success to oust the Taliban government for harbouring Osama Bin Laden in 2001. Since then, violence is up, opium and heroin exports are up, corruption is boundless, development is flagging, and rape is quasi-legalized. The most lasting consequence, tragically, may be Canadian veterans afflicted with mental and physical scars and that Canada’s reputation has been sullied by deliberately transferring detainees to known torturers.



Nipa Banerjee – a 30-year veteran of Canada’s foreign aid efforts, she led the development and aid effort in Afghanistan during the middle of the decade. She currently teaches international development at the University of Ottawa

WAS THE WAR WORTH THE COST? – In terms of worthwhile or lasting results and despite billions spent on development and security and the losses in blood and sweat of Canadian armed forces, the decade of effort wasn't cost effective. Canada's temporary recognition by other NATO nations for its commitments to a difficult mission was tempered by inadequate troop strength.

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED? – Canada's early and effective national-level effort in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2006 won praise but that waned as Canada shifted its focus to Kandahar, taking military command of the province and launching half-a-dozen ill conceived Canadian signature projects. They proved dysfunctional in the most dangerous and violent region of the country. The Kandahar effort was basically a failure. There is little to show for Canada's work on poverty reduction, security enhancement, or state stabilization



Michel Gauthier – retired Canadian general responsible for all Canadian Forces operations overseas, including Afghanistan, for several years. Made numerous visits to Afghanistan.

WAS THE WAR WORTH THE COST? – It will not have been unless the international community and Afghans finish what they undertook to achieve in 2001. But without question, Canadian soldiers and their families answered their nation's call and they did so in a way too few will fully understand and for which so many around the world should be grateful.

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED? – Too early to judge as the mission is far from over. But at a most critical juncture, Canadian soldiers, and police, diplomats, and aid workers gave Afghans hope and set the conditions for an international force 10 times their size to follow in their footsteps and begin to succeed.



Pat Stogran – retired colonel, who led the first Canadian combat contingent in Afghanistan in 2002 and later served as Canada's first Veterans Ombudsman where he was a tireless champion of better treatment for wounded soldiers

WAS THE WAR WORTH THE COST? – Despite the heroic efforts of Canadian Forces men and women, and the great respect they deservedly won for our nation, our mission in Kandahar was definitely not worth the cost of over 150 Canadian lives lost and countless others destroyed by the fallout of war, let alone the tens of thousands of Afghan people and other coalition forces who have also been killed.

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED? – Claims by ministers and mandarins of great accomplishments are impossible to verify. At best there is a thin veneer of progress concealing an Afghan society still tormented by smuggling, extortion, murder, intimidation and the narcotics trade. Kandahar will undoubtedly fall back into the hands of the Taliban. And because we demonized the Taliban as “murderers and scumbags,” Canada likely alienated itself from moderate factions and lost any credibility to possibly influence a peaceful transition to a more moderate form of government.

[GAP]

Articles found February 6, 2012
 
Obama administration’s Afghanistan endgame gets off to bumpy start
 Article Link
By Karen DeYoung, Published: February 5

With war fatigue growing and an election looming, the Obama administration has bumpily embarked on its endgame in Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, closed-door strategizing over Taliban peace talks, the pace of NATO’s combat handover and withdrawal, and the future of U.S. relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan have suddenly become part of the public and political debate.

But revelations about plans already in motion have emerged sooner than the administration has been prepared to explain them, complicating efforts to turn them into a coherent whole and build support.

“There are people at every piece of this — the Taliban, Islamabad, Kabul and Washington” — who object to or are trying to influence elements of the emerging strategy, a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk more candidly. “They use leaking as a tool.”

Last week, days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed transitioning combat responsibilities to Afghan forces a full year ahead of NATO’s schedule, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters that the administration anticipated doing just that.
More on link
 
 New to Pakistan's Taliban-heavy tribal areas: political campaigns
Pakistani President Zardari lifted a 64-year ban on political party activity in the federally administered tribal areas, saying the reforms would help defeat the 'militant mindset' there.
 Article Link
By Tom Hussain, McClatchy Newspapers / January 31, 2012

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
For the first time ever, political parties have started campaigning for votes in the militant-infested tribal areas of Pakistan that border Afghanistan, ahead of a general election likely within the next 12 months.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in August lifted a 64-year ban on political party activity in the seven federally administered tribal areas, saying the reforms would help defeat the "militant mindset" there.

However, the politicians leading party campaigns in the tribal areas fear that intimidation by the Taliban and human rights abuses by Pakistani security authorities could make a free and fair election virtually impossible.

In the tribal areas, "there is no political government, but one run by the security authorities ... who are responsible for the widespread disappearances of residents suspected of involvement in the insurgency," said Maulana Rahat Hussain, a former senator.

"As long as power remains delegated to them, the democratic process won't work," he said.
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 U.S. to elevate Special Operations forces’ role in Afghanistan
Article Link
By Greg Jaffe, Published: February 5

The U.S. military is planning to elevate the role of Special Operations forces in Afghanistan as it shifts away from a combat focus to a mission that places greater emphasis on advising Afghan forces and raids to kill top insurgent leaders, senior U.S. officials said.

Initial steps in that direction are likely to take place in the next few months, when the Pentagon is expected to create a new two-star command that would oversee the entire Special Operations effort in Afghanistan. The new command would be led by Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the deputy commander of the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the military’s elite counterterrorism forces around the world.
More on link

[GAP]

Articles found February 7, 2012
 
Afghan interpreters to get second chance to come to Canada
 Article Link
Mon Feb 06 2012 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau chief

OTTAWA—More than 100 Afghan citizens who put their lives on the line to help Canada’s Afghanistan mission are getting a second chance to resettle here.

The Prime Minister’s Office has quietly ordered the federal immigration department to review the cases of Afghan citizens who helped Canadian diplomats and soldiers in Kandahar and Kabul — often at great personal risk — but were snubbed in their bids to come to Canada, the Star has learned.

The news could mean that Sayed Shah Sharifi, an interpreter whose story has been featured in the Star, could get another shot at coming to Canada. His initial application had been rejected, even though his service to the Canadian military won him accolades.

The surprise review comes amidst criticism that the Conservative government had betrayed a promise of Canadian citizenship to Afghans who had worked alongside Canadians on the battlefield.

As well, Harper’s office has removed one contentious criterion that had been seen as a roadblock to many Afghans seeking to make a new life in Canada, according to a source familiar with the file.

No longer will applicants have to demonstrate they face “extraordinary and individualized risk and serious injury” because of their service to Canadian troops, a subjective evaluation that prevented two-thirds of the candidates from qualifying.

While the resettlement program had dangled the promise of Canadian citizenship for Afghans who aided Canadians troops and diplomats during their Kandahar mission, many of those applications in fact had been rejected out of hand.
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 Audio: Col. Wayne Eyre talks to Graham Thomson
  Article Link
edmontonjournal.com February 6, 2012

EDMONTON - For Col. Wayne Eyre "coming home" meant leaving home, again. But this time, not to a war zone. And, this time, his foreign posting means sitting in a classroom, not in an armoured vehicle.

Eyre has been selected as the Canadian International Fellow at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania where he's studying for a masters degree in strategic studies.

Tall and lanky with a moustache and shaved head, Eyre, 45, is every inch a professional soldier whose military career has also taken him to Cyprus, Croatia (the Medak Pocket) and Bosnia. A history buff, Eyre read every relevant book he could get his hands on before deploying to Afghanistan in 2007 where he commanded a 64-person squad of Canadian troops training the Afghan Army.


After Afghanistan, he was transferred from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Edmonton to command the Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Petawawa, Ontario -- and was promoted to a full colonel.
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Afghanistan Field Guide: Don't wear sunglasses and eight other essential tips
 Article Link

Planning on going to Afghanistan as a soldier, consultant, diplomat, journalist, or aid worker? Or maybe you’re just curious about how a person navigates this war-torn country that’s so often in the news?

Journalist Edward Girardet, who has been reporting on Afghanistan for more than 30 years – including for the Monitor – edits “The Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan.” Written by on-the-ground experts, it includes essays and travel and security tips that could save a visitor’s life.

For instance, don’t wear sunglasses. Showing your eyes makes you more human to Afghans. And above all:  Remember you are a guest in the country. So act like one.

Here, he gives eight sample "essentials" for getting around Afghanistan.

1. Be met at the airport

The changes at Kabul airport over the past decade have been dramatic. Things actually run quite smoothly now, with luggage arriving on the conveyor belt and a relatively efficient immigration service, all computerized, dealing with your entry.

But you don’t want to be standing outside the airport alone. Make sure your guest house or office has sent a car to pick you up. Or catch a ride from one of the Western aid workers or journalists on the plane with you.

2. To move around Kabul, walk

Many internationals never get out and about, which means they have little contact with the actual country. And if they do get out, their security details require that they travel by car.

City traffic has become so horrendous that you’re better off walking. Not losing touch with Afghanistan is vital, so we regularly stroll from our guesthouses or homes to visit the bazaar or go to meetings, but we vary the time and routes. Pay attention to passersby or lingering vehicles.

OPINION: Would you risk your life to take business classes?

Remain alert and get to know Afghans in your neighborhood, such as local shopkeepers or street kids. They’re your best protection, so strike up conversations with them. Or have a shave at the local barbershop. That’s another good way to talk. On several occasions, our street friends have warned us about suspicious strangers.

You might take a taxi at night. Several taxi services in Kabul specialize in quality transportation for foreigners. They’re reliable and can come in a matter of minutes. Some of us prefer to walk back at night by changing routes, and keeping in the shadows. We feel safer than traveling in a vehicle with armed guards.

3. Drink tea with the locals

Explain who you are, what you are doing, and why you wish to work with this particular village or district. Don’t hesitate to overdo the greetings, including raising your right hand to your heart, a gesture of affinity and peace. And be prepared to drink lots of tea. Eventually, if you make a positive impact, these will be the people who will watch your back. And you will be surprised how fast word travels.

4. Money isn't everything

Money doesn’t imply value. Don’t throw money at a project or base your success on the amount of funds you can spend. Otherwise, you will be perceived as a sucker’s source for new wealth. Strive to be a partner instead and be frugal about your budget.

Too many Afghans, particularly those with privileged contacts, regard the international community as a gravy train to be exploited while it lasts. Focus on those Afghans who are serious about really helping their communities. Pay attention, too, to their ethnic or tribal background, family ties, and so on. It’s important to understand who is who.

5. Road trip! But be careful

While many foreigners working in Afghanistan seek to fly whenever possible, there is nothing like a road trip to keep in touch with one’s surroundings.

Some routes are simply too dangerous to travel, such as the road from Kabul to Kandahar, in the south. If you’re planning to head out on a safer route, take precautions.

Never tell anyone outside your circle what time you plan to leave. Be vague, yet keep those you trust informed, and confirm safe arrival. Leave early in the morning, when there is the most traffic. Take a battered-looking vehicle. Make sure your driver is trusted and, if possible, a relative of any Afghans you work with. This places the responsibility for your security on their families. Don’t linger along the way. Don’t take the bus.

6. Use a combo mobile/satellite phone

Mobile phones cover almost 90 percent of the country and are transforming cultural habits. For security purposes, it is worthwhile having a Thuraya satellite phone, which can switch from mobile to satellite uplinks depending on signals. You don’t want to be stuck in a mountainous or desert part of the country without any form of phone access.

If you come with an American or European phone, be prepared to pay exorbitant roaming charges.

Even the poorest Afghan seems to have a phone these days. Text messaging is the most popular form of communication because it’s cheap, and to save money, many wait to be called. Every self-respecting Afghan has an email address even if no actual computer. Internet cafes exist in most towns.

7. Soldiers and mercenaries take note

The sad reality is that NATO-led coalition troops (and increasingly aid workers, too) are broadly perceived as the new occupiers by Afghans, even by those who initially welcomed the US-led intervention in 2001.

Make an effort to better understand Afghanistan. Read about the place. Try to learn the Afghans’ language and eat their food. Try not to talk about the “enemy” as if the armed opposition were all one and the same. Some are foreign-backed insurgents, but most are ordinary Afghans who oppose the international forces for diverse reasons, such as the killing of a family member.

Improve basic behavior. Don’t “bead” rifles on civilians while in convoy, shout verbal abuse, or aim guns at crowds while shoving forward in traffic. And lose the shades. Showing your eyes makes you more human.

8. Dress regs for women

Life has improved in many ways for women, particularly in urban centers. They can walk around public areas without cover, although almost always with at least a discreet head shawl. Nevertheless, male bastions of tradition more hardline than the Taliban remain in many parts of the government. Some advice:

Do not try to be too “Afghan” or you may be treated accordingly. Dress conservatively, but look recognizably Western. Avoid wearing figure-hugging or revealing clothes. Ordinary loose-fitting Western dresses and below-the-knee skirts can be worn with loose trousers underneath to cover legs, calves, and ankles.

In public, cover your head and chest discreetly with a long shawl or chador, but there is no need to overdo it. In general, dress more conservatively in rural areas. You can dress more Western in the “international” spaces of Kabul and other towns.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 8, 2012
 
After 10 years in Afghanistan, success depends on where you’re standing
graeme smith
Istanbul— Globe and Mail Update  February 7, 2012
 Article Link

One of the most-discussed items on The Globe and Mail’s website yesterday was my colleague Paul Koring’s thoughtful look at the last decade of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

I’ve been asked to write some thoughts about this milestone, 10 years after Canadian troops landed in Kandahar, and in some ways my own opinion feels about as worthy as any of the several hundreds comments on Mr. Koring's analysis. War and violence have a way of splintering our understanding of events into countless shards of individual experience; any reporter covering the police beat will tell you that every witness at the scene of a shooting has a different take on the incident.
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Khyber Club’s bartender had front-row seat to history in Pakistan
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By Karin Brulliard, Published: February 7

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — As U.S.-funded Afghan jihadists battled the Soviets in the late 1980s, the unassuming American-run bar in this ancient frontier city bulged with gossiping foreigners. Today, with another Afghan conflict winding down, the watering hole practically echoes with emptiness.

Through it all, Khan Afsar, the Khyber Club’s unlikely bartender, had a front-row seat.
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High time to get out of Afghanistan
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By MICHAEL DEN TANDT, The Gazette February 8, 2012

Canada should cut short what remains of its Afghan mission and get our troops - all of them - home, now. To argue otherwise in 2012 is to be wilfully blind.

The public debate over Canada's military role in Afghanistan is, for all intents and purposes, over. That's because the so-called combat mission, which divided public opinion from 2005 onward, ended last summer. About 900 troops are now embarked on a "training" mission, ostensibly in relative safety, inside the wire in Kabul.

With support from Bob Rae's Liberals, the Harper government deemed this a fitting conclusion to Canada's Afghan involvement and also a suitable token of loyalty to our allies. Our stated goal, as always, is to "help the Afghan people rebuild their nation as a stable, democratic, self-sufficient society." So says the DND website.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 9, 2012
 
Key al-Qaeda militant 'killed in US drone attack'
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 9 February 2012

One of the most senior al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Badar Mansoor, has been killed in a US drone strike, local officials say.

The attack took place in Miranshah in North Waziristan tribal area, close to the border with Afghanistan.

Badar Mansoor is suspected of killing dozens of people in attacks in Pakistan and further afield.

If confirmed, his death would be seen by the US as a vindication of its drone programme, correspondents say.

Al-Qaeda has so far not publicly commented on the claim, but AFP news agency has quoted one Mansoor loyalist confirming the death.

Pakistani officials say he was among at least four militants killed in the pre-dawn strike.

Badar Mansoor had moved between the militant groups of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the Pakistani Taleban and al-Qaeda where he became a key figure, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says.

He is thought to have trained new fighters and planned numerous suicide attacks, including one against Pakistan's Ahmadi Muslim minority in Lahore in which about 90 people died, our correspondent adds.
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 In Grip of Cold, Afghan Family Buries 8th Child
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KABUL, Afghanistan — The war refugee Sayid Mohammad lost his last son on Wednesday, 3-month-old Khan, who became the 24th child to die of exposure in camps here in the past month.

“After we had dinner he was crying all night of the cold,” Mr. Mohammad said. The family had no wood and was husbanding a small portion of paper and plastic that his daughter had scavenged that day. He said the boy had seemed healthy and was breast-feeding normally, though the family’s dinner consisted only of tea and bread. But he kept crying. “Finally we started a fire, but it wasn’t enough,” Mr. Mohammad said. By 1 a.m. the boy was stiff and lifeless, he said.

Even by the standards of destitution in these camps, Mr. Mohammad’s story is a hard-luck one; Khan was the eighth of his nine children to die. Back home in the Gereshk district of Helmand Province, six died of disease, he said. Three years ago they fled the fighting in that area for the Nasaji Bagrami Camp here, where a 3-year-old son froze to death last winter, he said. Like most of Kabul’s 35,000 internal refugees, he fled the country’s war zones only to find a life of squalor sometimes as deadly, even in the capital of a country that has received more than $60 billion in nonmilitary aid over 10 years.
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The Hard Way Out of Afghanistan
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By LUKE MOGELSON February 1, 2012

For years, in the village of Juz Ghoray, at the remote fringes of the Musa Qala District in northern Helmand Province, the Taliban enjoyed free rein, collecting taxes from local poppy farmers and staging attacks on any foreign patrol that moved within shooting range of an abrupt desert prominence called Ugly Hill. After a Marine unit found nine I.E.D.’s hidden beneath Ugly Hill’s scarred and caverned faces last year, coalition forces seldom ventured near it. Until one night this October, when members of Echo Company, from the Second Battalion, Fourth Marines — known since Vietnam as the Magnificent Bastards — quietly sneaked into Juz Ghoray and posted signs on people’s doors and windows. Their idea was to co-opt the infamous Taliban practice of intimidating government sympathizers with night letters threatening execution. The Marines’ signs were bordered with the nation’s colors, and in Pashto and Dari they announced: “The Afghan National Security Forces are coming.” Two weeks later, about 60 members of Echo Company, along with 30 Afghan National Army soldiers, traveled on foot through the night and took Ugly Hill without a shot. At dawn, as villagers emerged from their homes, they found laborers stacking bastions to fortify a new Afghan police post. And something else, which many residents of Juz Ghoray had never seen before: an Afghan flag raised on a wooden pole.
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Behind the Cover Story: Luke Mogelson on the U.S. Endgame in Afghanistan
By RACHEL NOLAN
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 February 6, 2012, 11:33 am

Luke Mogelson is a contributing writer for the magazine based in Kabul. He wrote this week’s cover story on the endgame for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Previously for the magazine he has written about Afghan civilians killed by U.S. soldiers and the Afghan National Police.

How did you first get in touch with Echo Company?

I originally went down to Helmand to check out Marja, which was said to have become very quiet and stable since the big operation there in early 2010. Marja is indeed very quiet and stable. While there, though, I heard that a lot of fighting was still happening in the province’s northern districts — Musa Qala, Kajaki and Sangin. So I went there.

Can you tell me a little more about the relationship between the Afghan National Security Forces and U.S. Marines? You say that in one particular unit, relations were unusually close and the two groups even ate together, and maybe naïvely it surprised me that this was so unusual. In general you say the Americans regard Afghans as lazy or prone to complaining. Did you get a sense of how Afghan soldiers viewed U.S. Marines?

It really varies dramatically from unit to unit. On one end of the spectrum, you have marines and Afghans who genuinely respect and like one another. They make an effort to learn a few words from their respective languages, invite each other to share M.R.E.’s or kabuli palau, trade pinches of Copenhagen for pinches of naswa, and just generally embrace the unique camaraderie that naturally arises among fighting men confronting a common enemy. On the other end, the marines feel mainly contempt for the Afghans, who respond, predictably, by living up to the worst expectations of them: refusing to carry their own radios, blatantly smoking hash, abandoning any semblance of discipline, taking naps while on patrol. Mostly, you get something in between these two extremes.

You write that the only way to keep the Taliban from retaking control after we leave is 1) to leave behind a proficient national security force and 2) to “win them breathing room.” The extent of the second is a matter of how many operations can be accomplished in how much time. How close are we to the first?

It’s very relative. You can’t judge the Afghan National Security Forces by the same standard that you would an American military unit. You can’t expect them to fight like Americans. To me, the interesting question isn’t whether the individual soldiering skills of the men in the field will be up to the task — some will, others won’t — but whether the National Army and Police, as institutions in an incredibly corrupt government, will be capable of adequately supporting them. In Musa Qala, Lieut. Vincent Young, the leader of Echo Company’s embedded training team, which mentors the Afghan soldiers there, told me he had been trying very hard to reduce the Afghans’ reliance on the Marines. But when the Marines stopped giving them fuel, food and ammunition, Young said: “It got to the point where it was affecting operations. They couldn’t go on patrol, they couldn’t go on convoys, they couldn’t get food. So we’d refuel their vehicles and give them a barrel for the generators.” He added: “In Delaram, where their logistics hub is, the motor pool is stocked with vehicles, Rangers, Humvees. And they just sit there. They hoard all this stuff, and yet here we have to push our trucks to start them. The commander will come down, these guys will ask for parts and he’ll say, ‘Not my problem,’ then leave. No vehicle that’s been sent up to be repaired has made its way back.”

I also asked Young whether he thought the Afghans would be able to continue patrolling remoter areas, like Juz Ghoray, beyond district centers — places the Marines are going into now. He said: “They may try to patrol a little outside the security bubble. They feel comfortable now going out on their own. But I think it’s partly because they know we have tanks, trucks, a quick-reaction force. We have the ability to find them and help them, even push air support if they need it. And once we leave, that’s all gone. They’re on their own.”
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[GAP]

Articles found February 10, 2012
 
Back to Afghanistan for troops from CFB Petawawa
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By Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen February 9, 2012

OTTAWA — For the first time since Canada’s combat mission ended, a contingent of troops from CFB Petawawa is preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, this time to assist Canada’s training mission there.

About 110 soldiers from the upper Ottawa Valley base will support members of the Royal Canadian Regiment’s second battalion, out of CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, when they take over Operation Attention — the mission to mentor and train Afghan troops in and around Kabul — beginning in March.

CFB Gagetown will supply most of the mission’s 950 soldiers, but troops from Petawawa and elsewhere are assisting because the specialized services required aren’t all centralized in a single location.

Because the Petawawa-based troops will split up and deploy in cycles between now and the end of the month, CFB Petawawa staged a departure ceremony Thursday.

Dressed in their tan desert combat uniforms, they got a sendoff from fellow soldiers at the base’s cavernous Dundonald Hall before marching off to munch on burgers a farewell barbecue.

For many, it will be their first tour in Afghanistan. One of the first-timers, Pte. Tim Hohmann, said he was excited and nervous. But the emotions were less ambiguous for his wife Laura, who attended the ceremony with their eight-month-old son Jonathan.
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Afghan soldiers to conduct night raids without Nato
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26 January 2012

Night raids and home searches conducted by Nato forces in Afghanistan have been heavily criticised by locals and the government as being too aggressive and resulting in too many civilian casualties.

Last year President Karzai refused to finalise an agreement on the presence of US soldiers in the country after 2014 unless Nato stopped these operations.

Since the raids are considered extremely important in the fight against insurgents, a special unit of Afghan soldiers is now being trained for this specific task.
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Bomb kills Afghan government official and his 2 sons
From Masoud Popalzai, CNN  January 12, 2012
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Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A terrorist attack in Afghanistan Thursday killed five people, including a government official and his two sons, officials said.

Haji Fazeludin Agha, chief of Panjwai district in southern Kandahar province, was killed, along with his two sons, ages 16 and 4, and two police officers, according to a statement by the presidential palace.

Another nine people were wounded, the statement said.

A bomber blew himself up in the attack on the Kandahar-Herat highway, the statement said.
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 Afghan Air War Hits 3-Year Low
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Peace talks with the Taliban are just getting started. But one major component of the Afghanistan conflict — the air war — is rapidly winding down on its own.

In December, NATO planes flew 133 missions in which they fired off their weapons. That’s the lowest monthly total in three years, and more than a 50% drop from last December’s tally. And the air war shows no sign of picking up in 2012. In the first week of the year, the coalition launched just 18 strike sorties.

Afghan officials — especially president Hamid Karzai — have been calling for years for NATO to cut back on its bombing runs, arguing that errant attacks only turn the population against the government. The alliance’s generals didn’t always heed his wishes. From August to December of 2010, for example, then-Afghan War commander Gen. David Petraeus oversaw 3,336 air attack missions. In contrast, Gen. John Allen, who took the reins of the war effort in the middle of last July, launched 2,074 such sorties during the last five months of 2011.
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U.S. war veteran returns home — to southern Ontario
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By Julie Kotsis, Postmedia News February 9, 2012

WINDSOR, Ont. — Eleven-year-old Justin Desjardins received a huge surprise Thursday from a man he's very proud of — his father.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Mike Desjardins returned from a year's deployment in Afghanistan and walked into the arms of his shocked son.

"He's a really awesome dad," Justin said. "And going to Afghanistan makes him more awesome.

"I'm really proud of him. It took real courage to do that."

The reunion took place during an assembly at St. John the Baptist school, just outside Windsor, Ont., where Justin is a Grade 6 student.

"When my dad walked in, it was a really great surprise," Justin said. "It made me feel really, really happy.

"I didn't expect my dad was going to be coming back today."

Desjardins already had surprised his daughter Tiana, 16, during a stop at her high school.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 12, 2012
 
Risks of Afghan war shift from soldiers to contractors
Most die unheralded and uncounted — and, in some cases, with survivors uncompensated
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By ROD NORDLAND 2/12/2012
 
KABUL, Afghanistan — Even dying is being outsourced here.

This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.

American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted — and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.

“By continuing to outsource high-risk jobs that were previously performed by soldiers, the military, in effect, is privatizing the ultimate sacrifice,” said Steven L. Schooner, a law professor at George Washington University who has studied the civilian casualties issue.

Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according to data provided by the American Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part from the United States Department of Labor.

By comparison, 418 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that monitors war deaths.
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Afghan roadside bomb kills five policemen
At least five people killed in and other wounded in roadside bomb targeting policemen in Afghanistan
AFP , Saturday 11 Feb 2012
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A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol in southern Afghanistan, leaving five policemen dead and one wounded, a senior police official said Saturday.

The bomb hit the pickup truck in Trin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, late on Friday, senior provincial police officer Gulab Khan told AFP.

"Five policemen were killed and one wounded," he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but roadside bombs are frequently planted by Taliban insurgents fighting a decade-long war against NATO-led foreign troops and Afghan government forces.

Afghan police are particular targets for the insurgents, as the country prepares to take over full responsibility for security from some 130,000 foreign troops by 2014.
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Gunmen kill Afghan judge and his niece
KABUL— The Associated Press  Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012
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Gunmen burst into a family home of a provincial judge in eastern Afghanistan, killing him and his niece in the latest assassination of an Afghan government official, authorities said Sunday.

Mohammad Nasir, the head of the appeals court for Kunar province, was visiting family in neighbouring Nangarhar province Saturday night when gunmen stormed into his sister-in-law’s house and opened fire, said Mohammad Asan, the administrator of Khogyani district in Nangarhar.
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[GAP]

Actually, Special-Ops ‘Night Raids’ Are Rather Gentle
By Spencer Ackerman  June 28, 2011
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Anyone who came to the Senate Armed Services Committee to hear Vice Adm. William McRaven deliver the inside account of how his forces killed Osama bin Laden left disappointed. But under a cloud of vagueness, McRaven shed some light on how his shadowy forces wage the stealthy, lethal side of the war on terrorism. To hear him tell it, they’re not always the violent affair you’d imagine.

Soon to be the next leader of the U.S. Special Operations Command, McRaven is leaving his post atop the terrorist hunters of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) on what you might call a high note. Sen. John McCain said McRaven’s plan to kill bin Laden assured him an “enduring place in American military history.” McRaven (pictured above, center) preferred to focus on his team’s contribution to the Afghanistan war, where they’re most famous for the controversial “night raids” on the houses of suspected terrorists.

Night raids have drawn the ire of President Hamid Karzai for their intrusiveness and the civilian casualties they’ve caused. (One of them prompted McRaven to deliver two sheep to an Afghan family as recompense.) But according to McRaven, they’re far from the shoot-’em-ups that the media portrays.
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Will The U.S. Military Concede East Afghanistan to The Taliban?
By Spencer Ackerman  June 27, 2011
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John Allen better be a mathematical genius. The three-star Marine general tapped to helm the Afghanistan war has one hell of a battlefield geometry problem on his hands. Not only does Allen have to hold U.S. gains in southern Afghanistan, he’s got to tamp down the volatile east, all while losing 33,000 troops by next September. “I can’t figure out how to do the math,” says John Nagl, president of the influential Center for a New American Security.

Allen may have to have a preliminary answer by Tuesday morning. That’s when he goes before the Senate Armed Services Committee for a bout of questions on the end of the surge. While senators are sure to use Allen as a political football over the impending drawdown, the real question surrounding his impending command is what he can do to stop eastern Afghanistan’s downward spiral.

Since 2009, President Obama’s troop surges focused on the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, leaving the east, on the border with Pakistan, with 7,000 fewer troops. The military thought that was just Phase One. Rep. Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, tells Danger Room he thought Phase Two was going to be a surge eastward, to take territory away from the Taliban and the Haqqani Network along the Pakistan border.

“If you only have limited forces, and we’ve really got the south under control, then it seems logical to release some forces to go into the north and east and do the same thing there,” McKeon says.

But as Danger Room first reported, the Obama team nixed that idea, for fear of expanding a war it wants to wind down. “We don’t anticipate replicating what we did in the south in the east,” a senior administration official said last week. Instead, 10,000 troops will depart Afghanistan this year, before another 23,000 leave by September 2012.
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Commandos Hold Afghan Detainees in Secret Jails
By Spencer Ackerman April 8, 2011
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Under President Obama, the CIA is barred from holding terrorism detainees in secret prisons. That’s the Joint Special Operations Command’s job now.

The Associated Press’ star intelligence reporter, Kimberly Dozier, has a mammoth piece out describing a constellation of 20 detention centers run by the elite unit in Afghanistan. JSOC can keep an insurgent inside them for up to nine weeks for interrogation without either turning him over to the main U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan or obtaining a waiver from “either the defense secretary or the president himself” to hold him longer, in the hopes of learning Taliban secrets.

I toured the Detention Facility at Parwan — the big prison abutting Bagram Air Field — last year. Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, then the deputy commander of detention operations, told me point blank that no off-the-books jails exist there. Dozier reports otherwise: the “most secretive” is “a short drive” away, at Bagram. That’s for interrogating people “suspected of top roles in the Taliban, al-Qaida or other militant groups.”

Human rights groups have been sounding the alarm about these detention centers since 2009. Detainees who claim to have gone through the sites have told them about abuses inside the so-called “Black Jails” ranging from sleep deprivation to punching. Human Rights First’s Daphne Eviatar (disclosure: a former colleague of mine at the Washington Independent) tells Dozier that inmates at the JSOC sites are “forced to strip naked, then kept in solitary confinement in windowless, often cold cells with lights on 24 hours a day.” All of that is supposed to be banned under Obama’s January 2009 executive order on interrogations.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 14, 2012
 
 Energizer Bunnies they ain't; Military looks to lighten troops' battery load
By: Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press  02/13/2012
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OTTAWA - The Energizer Bunny may keep going and going on a single battery, but Canadian troops need a lot more juice.
Soldiers on patrol lug dozens of batteries for their night-vision goggles, radios and other electronic gear. The batteries weigh down a soldier's already heavy burden.
Now the military wants to lighten the load.
A notice posted recently on a website that advertises government contracts seeks firms to design a wearable power supply that soldiers can plug their equipment into.
"It is (the Department of National Defence's) vision that the new, more holistic approach success resides in the ability to develop a low-weight, energy-efficient backbone for data and power exchange upon which soldiers can easily plug in mission specific devices," the document says.
The notice says dismounted soldiers carry up to 45 batteries to power their portable devices, weighing about 11 pounds, which adds to "increased fatigue and reduced mobility of dismounted soldiers."
Often only about a third to half a battery's life is used before it is thrown away as a precautionary measure, a contract document says.
"The early disposal of batteries is also a financial and ecological waste," it says.
"This waste places an unnecessary strain on the expeditionary force logistics support. As technology evolves, the future energy demands will increase as capabilities are added to soldier portable devices. The energy demand and its associated weight penalty will be very difficult to sustain using the current approach."
The government plans to spend up to $3.9 million to develop the power suits, the document says.
The British Ministry of Defence is doing similar research. One idea under consideration in Britain is using nylon yarns coated in silver to make bullet-proof vests that connect to a central battery pack.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 15, 2012
 
Why Afghan Officers Prefer Heroin
February 14, 2012
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 In the last decade, the U.S. has spent over $27 billion to train an Afghan army and national police force. The biggest problems has been recruiting and training officers. Most of the Afghans who would make good officers are either trying to emigrate, or have safer and better paying jobs in the commercial or government sector. For those who are capable and big risk takers, there are opportunities to become very rich in the drug (opium and heroin) business. As a result, most army and police units are poorly led. Corruption is common, as it is everywhere else in the country.

U.S. and NATO trainers have succeeded at introducing some useful reforms. Many innovative concepts had been tried, but most failed to motivate Afghans to become first rate officers and soldiers. Some efforts worked very well. For example, the pay of soldiers has been made it competitive with what the drug gangs and the Taliban pay. Experienced trainers have long been calling for pay to be kept competitive with what the enemy offers. That's because it's an Afghan tradition for young men to follow leaders who can provide for them. Often these are traditional tribal leaders, but anyone who has the cash can attract an armed following this way. That's how the drug gangs and the Taliban operate. These pay increases began showing up three years ago, and when, in the last two years, drug gang losses cut income for the Taliban, the army actually became the first choice of young men looking for a good paying job. Plus, the army has benefits (like some medical care) that actually work. But for men capable enough to be officers, the drug gangs offered much higher pay and bonuses.

Another change was even more innovative. Recruits undergoing training must now learn how to read and write, before they can undergo weapons training. Only about a third of the Afghan Army recruits are literate. The illiterate ones felt that handling a gun was more important than learning how to read. The new policy provided some attitude adjustment, along with an incentive to become literate, or at least literate enough to be effective soldiers. The U.S. developed a special literacy course for Afghan troops, which could be completed quickly. All these literacy efforts sometimes backfire, and increase the desertion rate by causing newly literate Afghans to take better paying civilian jobs. But those recruits who stay will be better qualified to complete, and use, their training.

Added to the higher pay and literacy was the introduction of a banking system, using cell phones, for the troops. This approach requires some basic literacy, and thus provides another incentive for recruits to be, if not literate, a little less illiterate. This makes them more effective soldiers, better able to communicate with each other and their superiors, as well as quicker to learn new skills.

The army has been more effective. Afghan troops are doing more fighting, and now suffer more casualties than foreign troops. Currently, the Afghan Army has about the same number of troops in combat zones as the foreign forces. Afghan troops are also causing fewer civilian casualties. Opinion polls among Afghans have 70 percent of them grading the Afghan Army as "capable". NATO advisors now rate most Afghan infantry battalions as combat ready, but only about 30 of them can operate on their own. There simply aren't enough trained and experienced officers and NCOs in Afghan units.
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The Road to Nowhere in Afghanistan
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As the American involvement in Afghanistan winds down in advance of the planned 2014 U.S. troop pullout, road-building efforts are indicative of limited progress made over the past decade.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 16, 2012
 
Long Neglected, Camps in Kabul Get a Deluge of Aid
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By ROD NORDLAND February 12, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — The 6,000 refugees living in the Charahi Qambar camp did not object when American soldiers came by Saturday to deliver 1,100 blankets for the families there. Nor did they mention that the day before, an Afghan aid group, Aschiana, had also made a delivery of blankets, and was planning to come back on Sunday with clothing — at least the third such donation in a few days, the others coming from businessmen.
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Driven Away by a War, Now Stalked by Winter’s Cold
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By ROD NORDLAND February 3, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — The following children froze to death in Kabul over the past three weeks after their families had fled war zones in Afghanistan for refugee camps here:

¶ Mirwais, son of Hayatullah Haideri. He was 1 ½ years old and had just started to learn how to walk, holding unsteadily to the poles of the family tent before flopping onto the frozen ridges of the muddy floor.

¶ Abdul Hadi, son of Abdul Ghani. He was not even a year old and was already trying to stand, although his father said that during those last few days he seemed more shaky than normal.

¶ Naghma and Nazia, the twin daughters of Musa Jan. They were only 3 months old and just starting to roll over.

¶ Ismail, the son of Juma Gul. “He was never warm in his entire life,” Mr. Gul said. “Not once.”

It was a short life, 30 days long.

These children are among at least 22 who have died in the past month, a time of unseasonably fierce cold and snowstorms. The latest two victims died on Thursday.
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In Soviet-Era Afghan Assessment, an Old, or Enduring, Truth?
By SCOTT SHANE  February 14, 2012
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Many years into the war in Afghanistan, an officer declares that the fight is going badly, that Afghan soldiers are not up to the job and that top military and political leaders are sugar-coating a grim situation.

That could describe Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis of the Army, who returned from his second Afghan deployment and set off an intense debate last week by declaring in an article in Armed Forces Journal that he had “witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level” and calling on top commanders to begin “telling the truth.” Colonel Davis also wrote a longer unclassified report elaborating on his views and delivered it to members of Congress and the Defense Department’s inspector general.

But the description might also apply to a Soviet colonel, Kim Tsagolov, who in August 1987 expressed strikingly parallel views about the faltering Soviet occupation, then eight years old. Colonel Tsagolov, who had earned a doctorate, expressed himself in the cautious, stilted jargon of Marxism-Leninism. He did not make his critique public; rather, he sent a long letter to the Soviet defense minister, Dmitry Yazov. (He would speak publicly the next year in an interview with magazine Ogonyok and be expelled from the army as a result.)

Many American military officials reject facile parallels between the Soviet and American experiences in Afghanistan, saying the Soviet goal was the brutal imposition of a Marxist puppet state, while the American aim has been to build and support a democratic order. But both superpowers found themselves mired in a fight against guerrilla forces who claimed to be devout Muslims fighting infidel invaders; some of the old-timers in today’s Taliban fought as young men with the anti-Soviet mujahedeen of the 1980s. And it is hard to miss the similarities in the complaints of Colonel Tsagolov and Colonel Davis.
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 After a Reassessment, NATO Resumes Sending Detainees to Afghanistan Jails
By ALISSA J. RUBIN  February 15, 2012
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KABUL, Afghanistan — A moratorium by NATO on transferring detainees to some of the Afghan government’s detention facilities has been lifted and transfers have resumed, NATO officials said Wednesday.

Last fall, the transfers were suspended in the wake of a devastating report from the United Nations that found evidence of routine human rights abuses and torture at 16 detention centers, including eight operated by the National Directorate of Security and eight operated by the police.

The United Nations report, which covered 47 detention facilities in 22 provinces, found that in some of them detainees were beaten with rubber hoses and hung from hooks, and that their genitals were twisted to extract confessions. The NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John R. Allen, immediately halted detainee transfers to all Afghan facilities where the United Nations found abuses and put in place a remediation program.

Over the past four months NATO officials have assessed each of the jails named in the report and instituted a retraining program for the Afghan leadership at them, as well as the interrogators and guards. The Ministry of Interior and the National Directorate of Security, which run Afghan detainee operations, have cooperated, NATO officials said.

NATO said that it had resumed transferring detainees to 12 of the 16 detention centers, but that for four of them it was conditional, meaning that NATO could reverse that decision after further checks. Four places, including three where detainees reported routine abuse and in some cases torture, have not yet been certified for transfers.

The United Nations Convention Against Torture prohibits the transfer of a detained person to the custody of a state where there are substantial grounds for believing that the detainee is at risk of torture. There is also a United States law that prohibits assistance or training to the security forces of a foreign country if there is evidence of torture. Financing and assistance can continue, however, if serious remedial action is taken.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 17, 2012
 
 Afghans worry about when NATO leaves
 Article Link
BY MATTHEW FISHER, POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Like a balloon with a slow leak, the U.S.-led war against the Taliban is gradually running out of air.

The Obama administration's somewhat mixed message about accelerating the drawdown of U.S. combat forces in Afghanistan while keeping Special Forces here has had an effect on some of the American troops who, from my talks with them, have figuratively packed their bags and in their minds are already halfway home.

As a fearless Canadian woman who has worked closely with Afghans for many years grimly put it to me during a chance meeting Thursday near the Canadian Embassy: "It's over, isn't it?"

That's certainly the way many of my friends in Kabul feel about the war. The first and only question these Average Joes were asking was: "Is Obama really serious about ending combat operations next year?"

When I in turn asked them what would happen if this were to come to pass, the universal answer was: "We're doomed."

Maj.-Gen. Mike Day, the charismatic head of Canada's training contingent and the NATO officer responsible for building up Afghan security forces, said that there is no chance that the alliance will leave Afghanistan any time soon.

"We are going to continue post-2014, there are no ifs, ands, ors or buts about that," Day said. "I read in the press, and it's frustrating, idiotic really, to say we are out of here by the end of 2014. That has never been the case and never will be the case. We will continue. What is true is that the mission will change and we have to prepare for that."

Support for NATO forces remaining here is high among Afghans.

This is fed to a large degree by a morbid consensus that the Karzai government isn't capable of much and that the country will fracture into civil war that would pit Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and liberal Pashtuns against deeply conservative pro-Taliban Pashtuns.

An Afghan army colonel I met earlier this week at a training base on Kabul's eastern outskirts expressed strong doubts that Afghan security forces will be ready to defend their country if NATO further accelerates its drawdown of combat forces or if other countries join France in speeding up the withdrawal of trainers and advisers.

My first hint of what has informed this relatively new mindset came during a brief visit to Kandahar last November. A few soldiers there told me the operational tempo was slowing. Poorly paid and overworked men and women from Kosovo, India, Nepal and the Philippines who have kept the Kandahar Airfield running for NATO said they had been warned that many of their jobs will end during the next year or so. Having read all this, you might conclude that Canada's military training mission here is running out of air, too.
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Canadians remain upbeat in face of Kabul sense of unease
  BY MATTHEW FISHER, THE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 17, 2012
 Article Link
 
Like a balloon with a slow leak, the U.S.-led war against the Taliban is gradually running out of air.

The Obama administration's somewhat mixed message about accelerating the drawdown of U.S. combat forces in Afghanistan while keeping Special Forces here has had an effect on some of the American troops who, from my talks with them, have figuratively packed their bags and in their minds are already halfway home.

As a fearless Canadian woman who has worked closely with Afghans for many years grimly put it to me during a chance meeting Thursday near the Canadian Embassy: "It's over, isn't it?"

That's certainly the way many of my friends in Kabul feel about the war. The first and only question these Average Joes were asking was: "Is Obama really serious about ending combat operations next year?"

When I in turn asked them what would happen if this were to come to pass, the universal answer was: "We're doomed."

Maj.-Gen. Mike Day, the charismatic head of Canada's training contingent and the NATO officer responsible for building up Afghan security forces, said that there is no chance that the alliance will leave Afghanistan any time soon.
More on link

[GAP]

Articles found February 18, 2012
 
For Punishment of Elder’s Misdeeds, Afghan Girl Pays the Price
 Article Link
By ALISSA J. RUBIN  February 16, 2012 

ASADABAD, Afghanistan — Shakila, 8 at the time, was drifting off to sleep when a group of men carrying AK-47s barged in through the door. She recalls that they complained, as they dragged her off into the darkness, about how their family had been dishonored and about how they had not been paid.

It turns out that Shakila, who was abducted along with her cousin as part of a traditional Afghan form of justice known as “baad,” was the payment.

Although baad (also known as baadi) is illegal under Afghan and, most religious scholars say, Islamic law, the taking of girls as payment for misdeeds committed by their elders still appears to be flourishing. Shakila, because one of her uncles had run away with the wife of a district strongman, was taken and held for about a year. It was the district leader, furious at the dishonor that had been done to him, who sent his men to abduct her.

Shakila’s case is unusual both because she managed to escape and because she and her family agreed to share their plight with an outsider. The reaction of the girl’s father to the abduction also illustrates the difficulty in trying to change such a deeply rooted cultural practice: he expressed fury that she was abducted because, he said, he had already promised her in marriage to someone else.

“We did not know what was happening,” said Shakila, now about 10, who spoke softly as she repeated over and over her memory of being dragged from her family home. “They put us in a dark room with stone walls; it was dirty and they kept beating us with sticks and saying, ‘Your uncle ran away with our wife and dishonored us, and we will beat you in retaliation.’ ”

Despite being denounced by the United Nations as a “harmful traditional practice,” baad is pervasive in rural southern and eastern Afghanistan, areas that are heavily Pashtun, according to human rights workers, women’s advocates and aid experts. Baad involves giving away a young woman, often a child, into slavery and forced marriage. It is largely hidden because the girls are given to compensate for “shameful” crimes like murder and adultery and acts forbidden by custom, like elopement, say elders and women’s rights advocates.

The strength of the traditional justice system and the continuing use of baad is a sign both of Afghans’ lack of faith in the government’s justice system, which they say is corrupt, and their extreme sense of insecurity. Baad is most common in areas where it is dangerous for people to seek out government institutions. Instead of turning to the courts, they go to jirgas, assemblies of tribal elders, that use tribal law, which allows the exchange of women.

“There are two reasons people refuse the courts — first, the corrupt administration, which openly demands money for every single case, and second, instability,” said Hajji Mohammed Nader Khan, an elder from Helmand Province who often participates in judging cases that involve baad. “Also, in places where there are Taliban, they won’t allow people to go to courts and solve their problems.”

Advocates for women fear that progress made recently against baad will fade as NATO troops pull out and money for public awareness programs dwindles.
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In Struggle With Taliban, on Guard for Charlatans
By ROD NORDLAND and ALISSA J. RUBIN Published: February 18, 2012
 Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — In an insurgency, everyone is an imposter. The enemy wears no uniform and carries no identity card.

Just so with a mullah in Kandahar named Noorul Aziz. After trading his job as a Taliban commander for a cushy post as an Afghan government official, the story goes, he was taken last month by the military coalition on a tour of his old bases, where he made speeches to persuade the locals not to support the insurgency.

Except the locals say they never heard of him.

Then there was the Afghan “senator” who instead may have been a Taliban operative. In January, he conned his way into getting a V.I.P. tour of some of the most strategic locations in Kandahar, with briefings from the American-backed provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa, the local head of the Afghan intelligence service and the governor of the strategic district of Dand.

He did not even bother to adopt a real senator’s name. “There was no senator by that name in the entire senate,” said Bismillah Afghanmal, who is a real senator, from Kandahar.

These are hardly isolated cases. In September, a man posing as a Taliban peace envoy traveled from Kandahar to Kabul to meet the head of the High Peace Council, and used a bomb hidden in his turban to assassinate him. The year before, a scammer who persuaded the Americans that he was a high-ranking Taliban official who wanted to talk peace was flown in by a NATO helicopter to meet with President Hamid Karzai, and paid handsomely for his time. In late 2009, a CIA informer who turned out to be a Qaeda plant killed eight people in a suicide attack at an agency outpost.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 19, 2012
 
Afghanistan arrests preteen would-be bombers months after pardon
Afghan police arrest two 10-year-old would-be bombers. The boys were pardoned in previous attempts, but mullahs in Pakistan told them to try again, officials say.
 Article Link
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times February 13, 2012

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan—
Six months ago, in a moving ceremony during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Hamid Karzai went on Afghan television to pardon about two dozen young boys, the youngest only 8 years old, who had been caught trying to carry out suicide attacks.

On Monday, authorities in Kandahar province reported that two of the children, 10-year-olds, had been rearrested last week, apparently intending again to carry out bombings.

Provincial spokesman Zalmay Ayubi said the boys each had a vest full of explosives when they were detained along with three adults suspected of being militants, and that they told intelligence officers they had been recruited for suicide missions.

A statement from provincial officials quoted one of the boys, named Azizullah, as saying the pair had undergone training at a madrasa, or religious school, in Pakistan. The mullahs there told the boys they would be unharmed when they set off their bombs, Azizullah reportedly said.
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The Crooks Strike Back
February 19, 2012
 Article Link

 A long-banned anti-American group; "The Defense of Pakistan Council" has been revived. The group has been holding large anti-American demonstrations. This is apparently in response to U.S. threats to halt the billions of dollars in economic and military aid for Pakistan. Many Pakistanis are angered by this threat, and are responding with hostility. But the big change in Pakistan is the enormous shift in attitude against the army and intelligence services (ISI). This has been growing for years, but last year's American raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden changed everything. The revelations that bin Laden had been living in a military town for years, despite constant army insistence that they did not know where bin Laden was. Years of growing hostility against military lies and corruption now had convincing confirmation. The generals and spymasters were on the defensive. The Supreme Court, which had long backed the coups and tolerated the corruption and illegal behavior of the army and ISI, has stopped ignoring the bad behavior.  Some generals urged the army to take over the government again, but the army and ISI leadership backed away from that, fearing even more backlash. It's not that the army might change their minds in the future, but for the moment the army and ISI are on the defensive. The courts are forcing the generals and intel officials to defend bad behavior. Civilian leaders are also feeling the heat. The Supreme Court has revived corruption charges against the current president. Corruption is widespread among politicians and senior military officers. Corruption has long been a popular complaint of voters, politicians and the media. But now something is being done about it and everyone is waiting to see how effectively all those powerful and corrupt officials will push back. They will push back, they always do, and often they win.
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Meeting in Pakistan Reveals Tensions Over Afghan Talks
 Article Link
By DECLAN WALSH Published: February 17, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan over potential Taliban peace talks spilled into the open on Friday, with Pakistan’s foreign minister saying it was “preposterous” for Afghanistan to demand that her country deliver the insurgent leadership to the negotiating table.

“If that is the expectation, there is no reality check,” said the foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar. “It is not only unrealistic, but preposterous.”

Ms. Khar was speaking at the conclusion of a two-day trilateral meeting among the leaders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, that was supposed to focus on regional cooperation but was overshadowed by a tentative American-driven initiative to start peace talks with the Afghan Taliban.

Her comments are significant because the Taliban leadership — and many of its fighters — are believed to be hiding in Pakistan or using Pakistan’s tribal areas as a base to attack Western and Afghan forces.

Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders have repeatedly stressed their support for an Afghan-led peace process. They insist that they have little direct control over the Taliban fighters on their soil — a position that infuriates the Afghan government, which has accused Pakistan of orchestrating the insurgency.
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[GAP]

Afghan drawdown has some feeling 'doomed'
 Article Link
 BY MATTHEW FISHER, POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 19, 2012
 
Like a balloon with a slow leak, the U.S.-led war against the Taliban is gradually running out of air.

The Obama administration's somewhat mixed message about accelerating the drawdown of U.S. combat forces in Afghanistan while keeping special forces here has had an effect on some of the American troops who, from my talks with them, have figuratively packed their bags and in their minds are already halfway home.

As one Canadian woman who has worked closely with Afghans for many years grimly put it to me during a meeting Thursday: "It's over, isn't it?"

That's certainly the way many of my friends in Kabul feel about the war. The first and only question these average joes were asking was: "Is Obama really serious about ending combat operations next year?"

When I, in turn, asked them what would happen if this were to come to pass, the universal answer was: "We're doomed."

Maj.-Gen. Mike Day, the charismatic head of Canada's training contingent and the NATO officer responsible for building up Afghan security forces, said that there is no chance that the alliance will leave Afghanistan any time soon.

"We are going to continue post-2014 - there are no ifs, ands, ors or buts about that," Day said.

"I read in the press, and it's frustrating, idiotic really, to say we are out of here by the end of 2014. That has never been the case and never will be the case.

"We will continue. What is true is that the mission will change and we have to prepare for that."

Support for NATO forces remaining here is high among Afghans. This is fed to a large degree by a morbid consensus that the Karzai government isn't capable of much and that the country will fracture into civil war that would pit Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and liberal Pashtuns against deeply conservative pro- Taliban Pashtuns.

An Afghan army colonel I met last week at a training base on Kabul's eastern outskirts expressed strong doubts that Afghan security forces will be ready to defend their country if NATO further accelerates its drawdown of combat forces or if other countries join France in speeding up the withdrawal of trainers and advisers.

My first hint of what has informed this relatively new mindset came during a brief visit to Kandahar last November.

A few soldiers there told me the operational tempo was slowing. Poorly paid and overworked men and women from Kosovo, India, Nepal and the Philippines who have kept the Kandahar Airfield running for NATO said they had been warned that many of their jobs will end during the next year or so.

You might conclude that Canada's military training mission here is running out of air, too.
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 Soldiers embrace new role in Afghanistan
  Article Link
Troops committed to fostering growth of national army
 BY MATTHEW FISHER, OTTAWA CITIZEN FEBRUARY 19, 2012
 
Unbeknownst to many Canadians who think their government's war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda ended when its combat forces left Kandahar, Afghanistan, last summer, Canada still has more than 900 almost-forgotten troops serving in this war-weary country.

Tucked behind a wall of snowcapped mountains, 650 kilometres southwest of Kabul and less than an hour's drive from the Iranian border, the most isolated of these forgotten 911 Canadians are 12 soldiers and four sailors, who quietly have been overseeing the work of Afghan army instructors conducting basic training for thousands of recruits.

The trainers deployed last year are on what Canada calls OP Attention.

I was the first journalist to travel to the remote rock-strewn moonscape that they share with Americans, Italians, Slovenes, Ecuadorans and, of course, Afghans, beside a road that is one of the leading routes used to smuggle opium into Iran.

"I knew I was coming to Herat and I was pretty stoked," said Master Cpl. Mark Bailey of Kingston, a communications specialist who served three combat tours in Kandahar.

"I believe that you are more effective when you are in a smaller group. There is more work for the individual soldier. You have to pick up your game."

Capt. John Miller of Melville, Sask., who was a sheriff before becoming an infantry officer, said that because the hand-picked group he leads were the first soldiers to wear the Maple Leaf in this corner of Afghanistan, "our reputation in this region rests on the shoulders of a small group, so it is vital that my team constantly emits professionalism, initiative and an aptitude for the job."
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Afghanistan stands by bidding process for Hajigak mine
JON STEPHENSON McClatchy Newspapers
 Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines on Saturday rejected allegations of problems in the bidding for one of the country's largest mines, calling it "a fair and transparent process."

In a letter to McClatchy, the ministry's director-general for policy and promotion, A. Jalil Jumriany, said that the selection of bids for four blocks of the Hajigak iron ore mine in central Afghanistan was overseen by a team of Afghan government experts, and that a panel of international advisers found that the process was "conducted according to international standards."

However, Jumriany's letter did not challenge the main points in a McClatchy report published Friday, which raised allegations of flaws in the bidding process and that the winning bidders — a state-led Indian consortium and a Canadian firm — hadn't demonstrated that they could meet production targets.

Among the charges raised by Acatco — an Afghan-American firm that was short-listed for the contracts but failed to win mining rights — was that the winning firms hadn't shown that they'd secured adequate funding for extracting iron ore from Hajigak, often described as the jewel of Afghanistan's mining sector.

Acatco also charged that its bid was rejected despite offering clearer dates for starting production and higher royalty payments to the Afghan government. A complaints commission of the Afghan parliament has taken up the matter and summoned Afghanistan's minister of mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, who failed to appear at a hearing Saturday because he was traveling, according to a spokesman.

In its letter to McClatchy, the ministry accused Acatco's president, Nasir Shansab, of disclosing confidential information and trying to interfere in the bid evaluation process. Shansab denied the allegations.

The ministry said that the contracts to the Steel Authority of India, or SAIL, and Kilo Goldmines, the Canadian firm, hadn't yet been ratified by the Cabinet and that negotiations were ongoing. In announcing the two firms' winning bids on Nov. 28, the ministry said that the projects in Hajigak would "bring billions of dollars in mining investment and thousands of new jobs to Afghanistan."
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[GAP]

Articles found February 20, 2012
 
Canadian soldier praised for bravery in Taliban attack
  Article Link
Tyler Latta, 28, 'seized the moment' in repelling assault on NATO headquarters in Kabul, colonel says
 By Matthew Fisher, Ottawa Citizen February 20, 2012

Kandahar combat veteran Master Cpl. Tyler Latta of Edmonton and St. Thomas, Ont., has been praised by senior Canadian commanders for the heroic role he played last September in Kabul in helping to repel the Taliban's biggest coordinated attack since they were ousted from power in 2001.

"It was a quintessentially Canadian moment with Latta leading the charge," said Col.

Pete Dawe, who commands more than 900 Canadian trainers tasked since late last spring with advising the Afghan army. "He could have hunkered down in a bunker but he risked rushing to the wall because nobody else was there and when he got there he fired and controlled the orders."

Latta is 28 years old, on his third Afghan tour and "wise beyond his years," his colonel said. "He seized the moment and shone. Other coalition forces looked to him for classic combat leadership."

Latta was the crew commander of a group of six Canadians who happened by chance to be at NATO headquarters when the insurgents launched an audacious surprise attack on the alliance's heavily fortified main compound and the U.S. Embassy from a partially built 14-floor office tower. Eleven Afghan civilians including children, and five policemen died during what became a 20-hour firefight.
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Troops to get pelvic armor
With IED explosions increasing, new precautions are needed.
 Article Link
By Jeremy Schwartz, Cox News Service Updated 8:34 AM Monday, February 20, 2012

As the number of catastrophic injuries from improvised explosive devices continues to climb in Afghanistan, officials are working to bring better pelvic protection to American troops.

In December, the Department of Defense’s Joint IED Defeat Organization made an emergency $19 million shipment of 45,000 ballistic overgarments and another 165,000 antimicrobial boxers to troops in Afghanistan.

But American efforts trail those of the British military, whose troops have been using pelvic protection units since the end of 2010.

U.S. Marine units fighting alongside British troops last year were among the first Americans to adopt the protective units and then made an urgent request for the British protective undergarments, saying that at least 18 injuries could have been prevented with the body armor.

“The Commanders have determined that it is an unacceptable risk to leave soldiers and Marines exposed when an interim solution exists,” the Marine request said. “Every day that a soldier or Marine patrols without this protection, he or she is at a greater risk of injury and death than if they had this protection.”

One British manufacturer of so-called blast boxers said it has received numerous orders from family members who intended to ship them to American troops — an echo of the early years of the Iraq War, when worried families sent bullet-resistant vests to service members.
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[GAP]

Articles found February 21, 2012
 
Afghanistan's coldest winter in years
by The Canadian Press Feb 20, 2012 / 7:05 am
 Article Link

More than 40 people, most of them children, have frozen to death in what has been Afghanistan's coldest winter in years, an Afghan health official said Monday.

The government has recorded 41 deaths from freezing in three provinces — Kabul, Ghor and Badakhshan, said Health Ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar.

All but three or four of those deaths were children, he said. Twenty-four of the deaths were in the capital of Kabul, mostly in camps for people who have fled fighting elsewhere in the country.

Kabul has been experiencing its worst cold snap and heaviest snowfall in 15 years, according to the National Weather Center. It said the weather was to improve by the end of the week.

Heavy snowfall in Day Kundi province caused an avalanche late Sunday in the Sang-i-Takht district that damaged three dozen homes and shops. The avalanche caused no injuries, said Nasrullah Sadiqizada, a member of parliament from the central province.
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  Canadians still have a role in Afghanistan
  Article Link
Troops have adjusted to their new job as advisers to instructors for the Afghan army
 By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News February 20, 2012

Unbeknownst to many Canadians who think their government's war against the Taliban and al-Qaida ended when its combat forces left Kandahar last summer, Canada still has more than 900 almost-forgotten troops serving in this war-weary country.

Tucked behind a wall of snow-capped mountains, 650 km southwest of Kabul and less than an hour's drive from the Iranian border, the most isolated of these forgotten 911 Canadians are 12 soldiers and four sailors, who quietly have been overseeing the work of Afghan army instructors con-ducting basic training for thou-sands of recruits.

The trainers deployed last year are on what Canada calls OP Attention. I was the first journalist to travel to the remote rock-strewn moonscape that they share with Americans, Italians, Slovenes, Ecuadorans and, of course, Afghans, beside a road that is one of the leading routes used to smuggle opium into Iran.

"I knew I was coming to Herat and I was pretty stoked," said Master Cpl. Mark Bailey of Kingston, Ont., a communications specialist who served three combat tours in Kandahar. "I believe that you are more effective when you are in a smaller group. There is more work for the individual soldier. You have to pick up your game."
More on link

Nato apologises for Afghan Koran 'disposal'
Article Link
 21 February 2012

The US commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan has apologised over reports that foreign troops had "improperly disposed" of copies of the Koran.

In a statement, Gen John R Allen ordered a full investigation.

"When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them," he said.

Rumours that a Koran had been burnt led to a large protest outside the US air base at Bagram about 60km (40 miles) north of Kabul.

Police told the BBC that at least 1,000 people took part in the demonstration, which has now ended, and that some elders went into the base to talk to Nato officials.

Afghan officials told the AP news agency that the Korans were in rubbish that two soldiers with the US-led coalition transported in a lorry late on Monday night to a pit on the base where waste is burned.

When five Afghans working at the pit noticed the religious books in the rubbish, they stopped the disposal process.
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Jonathan Kay: The Pakistan problem isn’t just the government. It’s the people
 Article Link
Jonathan Kay  Feb 18, 2012

Since the Taliban resurgence began gaining force in 2005, a common refrain in the West has been that Pakistan must “do more” to rein in the jihadis who are drawing support from bases in the borderlands of Balochistan and Waziristan. American officials have made countless visits to Pakistan to deliver variations on this message — with nothing to show for it.

Earlier this year, the BBC disclosed a secret NATO report, based on 27,000 interrogations with captured Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees, concluding that jihadis operating in Afghanistan continue to receive support and instruction from Pakistani military handlers. One interrogated al-Qaeda detainee quoted in the report declared: “Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can’t [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching.”

The usual Sunday-Morning-talk-show explanation for this is that Pakistan is hedging its strategic bets: Pakistani military leaders doubt the United States military can tame Afghanistan before American combat forces’ scheduled exit in 2013. And rather than see the country degenerate into absolute chaos (as occurred in the early 1990s, in the wake of the Soviet departure), Pakistani military leaders want to be in position to turn Afghanistan into a semi-orderly Pashtun-dominated client state that provides Islamabad with “strategic depth” against India. And the only way for them to do this is to co-opt the Taliban.

This elaborate Great Game theorizing all makes sense. But there is another, simpler explanation: Most ordinary Pakistanis loathe America — indeed, not only America, but the whole of the non-Muslim world — and are only too happy to support jihad against the NATO forces next door in Afghanistan.
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[jollyjacktar]

Qur'an burning riots kill 2 NATO soldiers
Taliban encourages attacks on U.S. base as retaliation
The Associated Press Posted: Feb 23, 2012 4:05 AM ET

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/02/23/quran-protests-day-three.html

[GAP]

Articles found February  25, 2012
 
Afghan attacks haven't shaken Canadian Forces: Natynczyk
February 24th, 2012
 Article Link
Kristy Kirkup | QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA - Canada's top general insists Canadian trainers in Afghanistan are on the "same footing" as they were before burned Qur'ans were found at a NATO base north of Kabul, which prompted violent riots and deadly attacks on NATO troops.

The burned Muslim holy books were found Tuesday. The attacks have reportedly killed two American soldiers and more than 20 others.

Muslims consider the Qur'an to be the word of God and desecration of the book is considered one of the worst forms of sacrilege.

Gen. Walter Natynczyk, Canada's chief of defence staff, says the recent attacks haven't raised the level of anxiety for Canadian Forces members on the ground in the war-torn country.

"We are vigilant as ever," Natynczyk said. "Even before this very, very unfortunate situation that has occurred recently, our people - very vigilant. The reports that I have received is that we are on the same footing as before."
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Nato pulls out of Afghan ministries after Kabul attack
 Article Link
 25 February 2012 Last updated at 14:23 ET

Nato has withdrawn all its personnel from Afghan ministries after two senior US officers were shot dead in the interior ministry building in Kabul.

Nato said an "individual" had turned his gun on the officers, believed to be a colonel and major, and had not yet been identified or caught.

Nato commander Gen John Allen condemned the attack as "cowardly".

The shootings come amid five days of deadly protests over the burning of copies of the Koran by US soldiers.
Taliban statement

The interior ministry was put in lock-down after the shootings, officials said.

The BBC's Orla Guerin in Kabul says eight shots were reported inside the building, which should be one of the safest in the capital, and that any Afghan who carried out the attack would have had the highest clearance.

Local media reports said the gunman was an Afghan policeman but this has not been confirmed.
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Afghanistan Nato officers shot dead in Kabul ministry
 Article Link
 25 February 2012 Last updated at 10:28 ET

Two Nato officers have been killed in the interior ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul, coalition officials say.

Nato said an "individual" had turned his gun on the officers but denied earlier reports he was a Westerner.

Afghan security officials said those killed were an American colonel and major. Local media reports suggest the incident followed a "verbal clash".

Nato commander Gen John Allen said all Nato personnel were being recalled from Afghan ministries on security grounds.

A UK embassy spokesperson had earlier said all British civilians were being withdrawn from the ministries in what was hoped would be a temporary measure.

The shootings come amid five days of deadly protests over the burning of copies of the Koran by US soldiers.
Taliban statement

The interior ministry was put in lock-down after the shootings, officials said.
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Osama Bin Laden compound being demolished in Pakistan
 Article Link
 25 February 2012

Pakistan has begun to demolish the compound where US forces killed Osama Bin Laden, in the city of Abbottabad, residents and police say.

The al-Qaeda leader was shot dead at the compound in the north-western city near the capital Islamabad in May 2011.

Bulldozers arrived after dark to demolish the outer walls, and have been working through the night.

There is heavy security around the compound, which served as Bin Laden's hideout for more than five years.

Residents say an unannounced curfew has been placed in the area, and residents have been asked not to leave their homes, the BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad reports.

The site is a large compound with high walls built around the actual house.
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