Afghanistan News and Discussions

[sob]

NATO Airstrike Reported to Kill 7 Afghan Soldiers

The Afghan Defense Ministry and local officials in Badghis Province said on Saturday that seven members of the Afghan security forces had been killed in a NATO airstrike the day before that was part of an effort to aid a beleaguered Afghan and NATO operation against the Taliban.

Skip to next paragraph
Related
Brown Warns Afghan Leader on Corruption (November 7, 2009)
Prospect of More U.S. Troops Worries Afghan Public (November 7, 2009) A NATO spokesman confirmed that the seven Afghan officers had been killed, as well as an Afghan civilian working with the Afghan forces. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is investigating whether its close air support was responsible for the casualties. According to NATO, five American soldiers were wounded in the operation against the militants, along with 15 Afghan soldiers, two Afghan police officers and one Afghan civilian working with the troops.

If NATO close air support is responsible for the casualties, it would be one of the worst cases of friendly fire in the course of the eight-year war.

The troops were in rural Badghis Province in the country’s far northwest, in a relatively flat area, traversed by the Morghab River. They were searching for two American soldiers who had been missing since Wednesday. The Americans had vanished while on a resupply mission.

Local officials in Badghis Province said the two soldiers, who are paratroopers from the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, had gone to pick up food supplies from an airdrop.

There are conflicting stories about what happened to them. Some local people said that the supplies were dropped inadvertently into the river and that as the men tried to retrieve them they were swept away in the swift current. But Maulvi Ghulam Farouk, a Taliban leader in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis Province who was present during the fighting, said that the soldiers fought with the Taliban and that the Taliban had killed one of them. However, he said, a couple of the Taliban were wounded during the fight and retreated.

On both Thursday and Friday, the joint NATO and Afghan force arrived to search for the missing soldiers. On Friday, the Taliban attacked the joint force and a fierce fight ensued.

“On Friday, they came with Afghan forces, looking again for their dead soldiers. It was afternoon when they came, and there was fighting for half an hour or maybe even one hour,” said Mr. Farouk, the Taliban commander.

“Then the aircraft came,” he continued. “And when the aircraft came, we Taliban dispersed and they bombed where the Afghans and their NATO soldiers had been fighting. There were many casualties.”

Another Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said that during the fighting three Taliban were killed and five were wounded.

The Bala Murghab district governor, Mohammed Amin Achik, also confirmed the NATO bombing. “Yesterday there was a clash between the Taliban and the government; there are casualties among the Afghan security forces. I do confirm there was bombardment yesterday at the site of the fighting,” he said on Saturday.

“We are saddened by the loss of life and injuries sustained during this very important mission,” said Capt. Jane Campbell of the United States Navy, a spokeswoman for the international forces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/world/asia/08afghan.html

 

[sob]

The biggest challenge facing Hamid Karzai are the corruption charges, which though unproved have stuck to him like burrs. In the first interview after his confirmation as the President Karzai hits out at the corruption allegations levelled at him.

Karzai hits out at corruption allegations

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview airing on Monday he is taking steps to root out corruption in his government, but he also said foreign money was making the problem worse.

In addition to what he called ‘the usual corruption in any government,’ Karzai said he is dealing with a kind of corruption that is foreign to his country.

‘We also mean corruption of a different kind which is a lot more serious, which is new to Afghanistan, which is with the arrival of a lot of money to Afghanistan,’ Karzai said in an interview with the PBS program ‘The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.’

Without providing specific examples, Karzai listed contractual mechanisms, a lack of transparency in awarding contracts and corruption in implementing projects among the ‘new’ and more serious corruption problem.

‘The stigma falls mainly on Afghanistan because that’s where it happens, and that’s why we should address it first and also hopefully that our partners in the international community will also recognize problems on their side and try to correct them with us,’ he said in the interview taped for broadcast on Monday.

Washington has long called for a stronger and more accountable Afghan government to fight a Taliban insurgency which is at its deadliest since the Islamists were forced from power in 2001.

Since being re-elected in a controversial poll in which a fraud investigation rejected more than a million of his votes, Karzai has been under intense pressure from his Western backers to introduce swift anti-corruption reforms.

US President Barack Obama, who is considering whether to send an additional 40,000 US troops to Afghanistan, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are pressing Karzai to act decisively to fight corruption.

Karzai said in the interview he already was addressing corruption in his government.

‘Where we have found facts on corrupt practices by senior government officials, we have acted, they have gone to prison,’ he said.

He urged his allies to respect Afghanistan’s judicial system, but also backed a statement by his Foreign Ministry, calling on them to respect his country’s sovereignty.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...ai-hits-out-at-corruption-allegations--il--05

 

[GokuInd]

Hear hear who is talking:

Afghanistan is under influence of Indian intelligence: Musharraf - US - World - The Times of India

Afghanistan is under influence of Indian intelligence: Musharraf
PTI 9 November 2009, 09:50am IST

WASHINGTON: Acknowledging that there is "an ingress of the ISI in every terrorist group", former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has alleged
Afghanistan is under influence of Indian intelligence agencies and he has documentary evidence against it.

"Afghan intelligence, Afghan President, Afghan Government. Don't talk of them. I know what they do. They are, by design, they mislead the world. They talk against Pakistan, because they are under the influence of Indian intelligence, all of them," Musharraf told CNN in an interview yesterday.

"The Afghan intelligence (is) entirely under the influence of Indian intelligence. We know that," Musharraf said when asked that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is in the Quetta city of Pakistan.

"Whatever I am saying, I am not saying it here (for the first time). I have given documentary evidence of all this to everyone. There is the documentary evidence. And we know the involvement of Indian intelligence, in India, with their intelligence," Musharraf, currently in London, charged.

"I have given documentary evidence to everyone from top to bottom. Everyone knows it. And we have the documentary evidence," the former Pakistan Army chief said.

Musharraf denied reports and statements coming from the US leaders that ISI still has contacts with the terrorists.

"They (ISI) will not support it (terrorists). That was not the government policy. That was not the military policy. However, there was ingress," he said.

"Always, in every group, there is an ingress of the ISI. And that is the efficiency, the effectiveness of the ISI. You must have ingress, so that you can influence all organisations. And it is this ingress of theirs, which doesn't mean that they are supporting them, but they have ingress. They have some contacts, which can be used for their own advantage," Musharraf said.

He said foreign troops are not welcome in Afghanistan, but now since they are there, they should win the battle against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

"Foreign troops are not welcome there (in Afghanistan). But now that they are there, we have to win. And quitting is not an option at all," he said.

"Anyone who is talking of quitting doesn't understand the ramifications of quitting. He must sit down and analyse what will happen if he were to quit there without a solution.

We have to defeat the al-Qaida, we have to dominate the Taliban, and we have to introduce a credible, legitimate government in Afghanistan. But we cannot leave before that," he said.

 

[F-14]

the Normal Pakistani dilouge I have given documentary evidence of all this to everyone. There is the documentary evidence. And we know the involvement of Indian intelligence, in India, with their intelligence,"

 

[RPK]

^^^ Pakistan forget about that Afganistan is a sovereign nation. pakistan thinks that Afganistan is one of their state.

 

[sob]

the Normal Pakistani dilouge I have given documentary evidence of all this to everyone. There is the documentary evidence. And we know the involvement of Indian intelligence, in India, with their intelligence,"

Unfortunately for them the documentary evidence is printed in the same press which is busy printing fake Indian currency.

 

[sob]

Japanese Aid to Afgansitan

The new Japanese Govt. has promised a substantial amount of aid US $ 5 Billion over the next 5 years. ( this is almost equal to the aid offered by the US to Pakistan)

Along with this the new Govt. has also decided to withdraw the refuelling support to the US Navy for the WOT in Agfanistan.

Japan offers aid to Afghanistan

Japan's Government has pledged $5bn (£3bn) in new aid to Afghanistan over the next five years.

The decision comes days before US President Barack Obama visits Tokyo.

Japan's centre-left government has said it will end a naval refuelling mission in support of US led efforts in Afghanistan.

Since coming to power in September the government also said it was working on a plan to would offer more civilian aid instead.

Japan's Government has been working on a plan to offer more aid to Afghanistan since announcing it would end a mission by the Maritime Self Defence Force to supply fuel to assist US-led operations in the country.

Now there is a figure - $5bn (£3bn) over the next five years.

It is likely to be used for job training, helping former Taliban fighters to reintegrate with society, and for agriculture and infrastructure development.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is expected to discuss details of the scheme with US President Barack Obama when he visits Japan on Friday.

Mr Hatoyama took power in September after winning a landslide in a general election which ended more than half a century of almost unbroken power for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

His Democratic Party of Japan wants a more equal relationship with the United States.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan offers aid to Afghanistan

 

[sob]

The US administration is tightening the screws on Hamid Karzai. The americans are desprate to retreive the political situation in Afgansitan. They have puch too many lives and other resources to give up so soon.

US will give Karzai measures to end corruption

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that Washington will give Afghan President Hamid Karzai a set of measures to root out the corruption undermining allied efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.

Clinton signalled the Obama administration's growing impatience with Karzai, declared the victor of a fraud-marred election, when she said the steps are needed to leave "no doubt" as to what Washington expects from the relationship.

Speaking at festivities for the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall, Clinton won Germany's support when new Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Kabul must "adhere to the yardsticks that underlie good governance."

Massive fraud uncovered after the August 20 presidential election highlighted the scale of corruption in Afghanistan's government and has led to enormous international pressure on Karzai to clean up graft.

With the stakes mounting for the international alliance in Afghanistan, the chief US diplomat made it clear that President Barack Obama's administration would seek specific action, not just promises, to end corruption.

AFP: US will give Karzai measures to end corruption

 

[Rage]

Interesting....


Kazakhstan and France Forge Energy and Military Deals

Tuesday, October 06, 2009


ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan agreed Tuesday to allow military hardware for French forces fighting in Afghanistan to pass through its territory, and it signed a series of energy deals during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Facing criticism over its human rights record, Kazakhstan won a measure of support from Sarkozy, who said he discussed the issue with President Nursultan Nazarbayev but did not come to "give lessons."

France is among the Western nations courting Kazakhstan, a giant ex-Soviet republic with rich oil and gas resources and a strategic location bordering China and Russia -- long the dominant regional force -- north of Afghanistan.

Nazarbayev said the transit agreement signed Tuesday governs the movement of military hardware and personnel to supply French forces serving with NATO in nearby Afghanistan. Kazakhstan lies between Russia and three smaller Central Asian nations that border Afghanistan.

"We need Kazakhstan to resolve the crisis in Afghanistan and in Iran, and to establish new relations with our friends in Russia in the fight against extremism," Sarkozy said.

In energy, a deal worth an estimated $1 billion was signed to formalize the acquisition by French companies Total and GDF Suez of a 25 percent stake in the Khvalynskoye offshore natural gas field project in the Caspian Sea. The field is now being developed by Russian oil giant, Lukoil, and is expected to start operations in 2016 and produce up to 9 billion cubic meters of oil per year.

Kazakhstan also awarded a consortium of French companies a deal to take part in building a crucial $2 billion oil pipeline linking the vast Kashagan oil field to the Caspian. Energy supplies through the route will be transported across the inland sea by tanker to Azerbaijan and westward to Europe, circumventing Russia.

Both Western and Central Asian nations are eager to decrease Russia's control over oil and gas export routes from th region.

"This is an extremely important project that will become the main artery to transport Kazakh oil to Europe," Nazarbayev told reporters.

Other commercial accords included an agreement to create a joint venture between the two countries' state-owned nuclear power companies to produce and marketing fuel for nuclear power plants.

Kazakhstan is on the cusp of becoming the world's largest supplier of uranium, but it has in recent years reached out to commercial partners in Russia, Japan and China in a bid to ensure in can take part in all stages of the nuclear fuel production cycle.

France's Thales signed a $150 million contract to supply radios to the Kazakh army that the company hopes will lead to a bigger, $3 billion project to supply communication equipment to the Kazakh military -- a market dominated by Russian suppliers.

"All these deals are in the strategic interests of both our nations," Nazarbayev told a gathering of officials and investors.

Sarkozy's visit came as Kazakhstan has faced mounting criticism over its human rights record ahead of its 2010 chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a leading trans-Atlantic security and democracy body.

Human Rights Watch said this week that Kazakhstan has repeatedly flouted basic democratic freedoms and has been slow to implement reforms in line with its commitments to the OSCE.

But Sarkozy, the first French leader to visit the former Soviet nation since 1993, mounted a robust defense of Kazakhstan's upcoming chairmanship of the OSCE.

"When you come to this part of the world, you cannot make presuppositions, but you should try understand what is happening," Sarkozy said. "The optimal way of solving problems -- and there are problems, which I have discussed with the president -- is not necessarily to come and give lessons."

Nazarbayev dismissed criticism of his country's rights and democracy record.

"Our main aim is to strengthen our independence, raise our economy, improve people's lives and gradually become closer to the civilized world by adopting all the values of freedom and democracy that exist in the Western world," Nazarbayev said.


Kazakhstan and France Forge Energy and Military Deals - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News - FOXNews.com

 

[sob]

Timetable for Afgan Withdrawl

Brown plans Afghan handover talks

Gordon Brown plans to host talks in the new year to discuss timing for handing over the campaign in Afghanistan to the Afghan government.The prime minister said he wanted the Nato meeting to "set a timetable" for transfer starting in 2010.

He called for a "district by district" process of passing the responsibility for security to Afghan forces.Downing Street said the London event would not be an "exit" summit - just an opportunity to discuss future strategy.

ANALYSIS

By James Robbins, diplomatic correspondent, BBC News
Gordon Brown must hope that his clearest pointer so far to an eventual way out of Afghanistan for Britain's frontline forces will quieten calls for an immediate pull-out.

The prime minister very deliberately made clear his hope that the process of handing security control in Afghanistan to the country's own security forces should begin in 2010, with crucial decisions to be taken at an international conference he wants to host early in the new year.

But the prime minister also made clear that he regards Britain's military presence as vital to protect ordinary people at home from plots hatched in Pakistan by al-Qaeda extremists, who would spread back into Afghanistan if allowed the opportunity to do so.

The prime minister said the security services in Britain were reporting to him that there was now an opportunity to inflict significant and long-lasting damage on al-Qaeda. "It should identify a process for transferring district by district to Afghan control, and if at all possible we should set a timetable for transferring districts starting in 2010."

Mr Brown has acknowledged that al-Qaeda is not currently operating in Afghanistan.

But in his speech he cautioned that it continued to recruit and train.

"Al-Qaeda rely on a permissive environment in the tribal areas of Pakistan and - if they can re-establish one - in Afghanistan," Mr Brown warned.

He said there were "several hundred" foreign fighters still based in the tribal areas of northern Pakistan, attending training camps to learn bomb-making and weapons skills.

The group continued to operate "an extensive recruitment network across Africa, the Middle East, western Europe - and in the UK", he added.

"Al-Qaeda had links to the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban before 2001; we must deny terrorists the room to operate which the Taliban regime allowed the 9/11 attackers," he argued.

"We are in Afghanistan because we judge that, if the Taliban regained power, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups would once more have an environment in which they could operate.

"We are there because action in Afghanistan is not an alternative to action in Pakistan, but an inseparable support to it."

He warned that al-Qaeda was the "greatest current risk to UK lives" - and that this year's fighting had had the greatest impact on the group of any 12-month period since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Brown plans Afghan handover talks

Looks like there is begining of some domestic pressure on Gordon Brown to recall the troops home. But his approach seems to very pragmatic.

 

[sob]

Afgan Market Attack

Afghan market attack 'kills 10'

At least 10 people are reported to have been killed in a rocket attack on a market in north-eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan police blamed the attack on Taliban insurgents and said at least 28 people had been wounded.

A spokesman said at least two Chinese-made rockets struck the crowded market in the Tagab valley, north of Kabul.

The attack took place as the head of French forces was holding a meeting with tribal elders nearby, French officials said.

Gen Marcel Druart had been attending a "shura" of tribal elders 300m away, the French news agency AFP reported.

"French and American medical teams with helicopters evacuated six of the wounded to military hospitals in Kabul, while armoured vehicles took others to the French base in Tagab," armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck told reporters in Paris.

He added: "The insurgents seize these opportunities to try and hurt us. But as in this case, with their cynicism and their usual violence, it's not the soldiers who got hit but the Afghan civilian population."

French officials said none of the casualties were Nato troops.

Tagab is in Kapisa province, about 75km (45 miles) north east of the capital.

Targets may be the ISAF but the civilian casualty keeps on mounting.

The report mentions that the rockets were Chinese make. Wonder what is the source of these rockets, via Pakistan maybe.

 

[sob]

First steps against corruption by President Karzai

The pressure from President seems to be working in Afganistan. Following the election fiasco the Western Govts. had put it very bluntly to Karzai that he must tackle corruption on war footing.

There is a positive flow on this issue but whether President Karzai will be able to follow up on this or not, only time will tell.

Karzai, Under Pressure, Adopts Antigraft Measures

Afghan authorities announced new anticorruption measures in response to pressure from Washington and its allies, unveiling a special task force that will investigate graft by senior officials.

"This force will make sure no high-ranking official who is involved in corruption will go unpunished," said Interior Minister Hanif Atmar, accompanied by the U.S. and British ambassadors to Kabul. The new body will get training and support from the European Union and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials said.

Afghan police officers search cars entering Kabul on Monday. In response to calls from the international community to do more to fight graft, drugs and cronyism, officials in the government of President Hamid Karzai unveiled a special task force that will investigate graft by senior officials.
The task force, which began operating in recent days, has netted three high-ranking government officials and charged them with stealing money meant for the families of policemen killed in the line of duty, said Amrullah Saleh, chief of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. He didn't identify the detained men beyond saying that one of them was a general.
As Washington debates injecting more troops into the country, a critical question is whether the U.S.-led coalition will have a credible partner in the Afghan government. President Barack Obama has said continuing American support for Kabul will depend on how seriously Mr. Karzai cracks down on corruption.
Separately, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that he wants to agree on a timetable for international withdrawal from Afghanistan, and suggested a London conference to set that timetable. The U.K. is the second-biggest NATO contributor to the war after the U.S. and the government is under pressure to find an exit strategy. Mr. Brown said the conference should identify a process for "transferring district by district to full Afghan control" starting as soon as 2010.

Widespread government graft in Afghanistan has fueled popular discontent in recent years, invigorating the Taliban's resurgence. Independent watchdog Transparency International has ranked the nation as the fourth most corrupt of the 180 countries in its recent survey.

Police officers and other public servants often demand bribes for basic services, while senior officials are often accused of misappropriating public funds.
Anticorruption groups have alleged that several high-ranking Afghan officials close to President Hamid Karzai, including his brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, chief of the provincial council in Kandahar, control organized-crime networks. Ahmad Wali Karzai has denied such accusations.

In recent weeks, U.S., European and United Nations officials issued blunt warnings on graft to President Karzai, who won a fraud-marred election in August and is scheduled to be inaugurated on Thursday.

It isn't clear how willing the newly established government anticorruption task force will be to go after senior-level fraud, analysts caution. "If they want to fight corruption, they should establish an independent commission," said Waheed Muzjda, a political commentator. "So many of these ministers and other officials associated with Karzai have questions of credibility as well."

While Mr. Karzai has acknowledged problems with graft, he and other officials also have accused foreign companies and aid groups of fostering corruption.

Karzai, Under Pressure, Adopts Antigraft Measures - WSJ.com

 

[gokulakannan]

Hamid Karzai sworn in as Afghan president

Hamid Karzai sworn in as Afghan president - South Asia - World - The Times of India

KABUL: Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term as Afghanistan's president on Thursday, flanked by his controversial vice presidents at a ceremony attended by foreign dignitaries.

Karzai, who was named president after a fraud-tainted election on August 20, took the oath of office at the presidential palace in central Kabul in front of 800 guests, including 300 foreign dignitaries.

Guests, including US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton, sat in the cavernous palace as an honour guard of Afghanistan's security forces stood to attention outside.

"I swear that I will obey and safeguard the sacred religion of Islam," Karzai said as he stood at the front of the palace with his hand on a Koran.

He pledged to implement the constitution, defend Afghanistan's territorial integrity and independence and improve the lives of ordinary Afghans.

 

[sob]

Suicide Bombings

The Taliban have responded by a number of suicide bombings following the swearing in ceremony of President Karzai.

Motorcycle Blast Kills 15 in Afghanistan

Afghan police say a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle has blown himself up in southwestern Afghanistan, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more.

The bomb exploded Friday in a busy area of Farah city, the capital of Farah province. The provincial governor told reporters the blast occurred not far from his compound.

Police officials say at least one of the dead was a police officer and many others were civilians. Officials say the death toll may rise as many of the wounded are in critical condition.

Separately, police officials said a roadside bomb killed three civilians in eastern Khost province.

The attacks come one day after Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term as president. During the inauguration ceremony Mr. Karzai stressed security will be a priority for his administration and said he will work to to transfer the leading role for security from international forces to the Afghan army within five years.

That day, following the tightly-guarded inauguration ceremony in Kabul, Afghan officials said a suicide bomber in the south of the country killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 others. A separate bombing killed two U.S. soldiers in eastern Zabul province.

Motorcycle Blast Kills 15 in Afghanistan | Asia | English

 

[RAM]

Afghanistan is world's most dangerous place to be born in: UN

Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world — 257 deaths per 1,000 live births, and 70 percent of the population lacks access to clean water, the agency said. As Taliban insurgents increase their presence across the country, growing insecurity is also making it hard to carry out vital vaccination campaigns against polio, a crippling disease still endemic in the country, and measles that can kill children.

Afghanistan is world's most dangerous place to be born in: UN - South Asia - World - The Times of India

"Afghanistan today is without a doubt the most dangerous place to be born," Daniel Toole, Unicef regional director for South Asia, told a news briefing. A Taliban-led insurgency and militant attack on an international guesthouse in Kabul that killed five UN foreign staff last month prompted the world body to evacuate hundreds of international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks.

Some 43 percent of the country is now virtually off-limits to aid agencies due to insecurity, according to Toole. The Taliban have been building their forces in their traditional southern and eastern Afghanistan stronghold and are increasing attacks in the north and west.

Teaching girls is one of the practices they forbid. Some 317 schools in Afghanistan were attacked in the past year, killing 124 and wounding another 290, Toole said. "We have seen a drop in the number of children who are attending schools and particularly young girls," he added. School enrolment in Afghanistan had risen to five million, including two million girls, against one million with virtually no girls in 2001 when the Taliban were ousted from power, he said.

"In Afghanistan and Pakistan we've made some progress but we're starting to worry about back-tracking on that progress given the high rates of insecurity and the ongoing conflict," Toole said. Meanwhile, Unicef has urged the world to help the one billion children still deprived of food, shelter, clean water or health care — and the hundreds of millions more threatened by violence.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...lace-to-be-born-in-UN/articleshow/5251826.cms

 

[sob]

Unholy Madness

Came across this interesting article from the BBC correspondent Hugh Sykes on the strange war being fought in Pakistan and Afganistan. There are wheels within wheels. This is another article which underscores the games being played by Pakistan.

Why Afghanistan's politics are stranger than fiction

The plot is a bit far-fetched. There is this force of Islamic fundamentalist fighters called the Taliban. They have two branches - one in Pakistan, the other in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan Army is trying to defeat the local Taliban, who have been killing hundreds of people in Pakistani cities with suicide bombers and assaults by armed insurgents.

The Americans and the British have weighed in to help the fight against the Pakistan Taliban.

Meanwhile across the border to the west, the Afghan Taliban are killing American and British troops and they are supplied with weapons, vehicles and mobile phones from across the border in Pakistan, where the Afghan Taliban leadership is based. So the Americans and the British are supporting a country, Pakistan, which has elements who are supporting the movement that is killing British and American troops.

You could not make it up. And all I actually made up was the title, Unholy Madness.

The Afghan Taliban leadership are in Pakistan. Pakistan has failed to act against them. And they do kill British and American troops. And the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan.

From the point of view of an American or British soldier, though, that is pretty much the same as saying that the US is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the country that is supporting the enemy that is killing them.

This strange, convoluted scenario comes sharply into focus if you look at a map.The main fighting areas in Afghanistan are in the south - near and around the city of Kandahar.

Just across the mountains, along a proper road, there is the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban ruling council, the Shura, are thought to spend much of their time - directing and supplying their war effort against the Americans and the British from a safe distance.

And Quetta is not in the ambiguous "tribal areas" - it is proper Pakistan; it is the capital of the fully-fledged Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

It would be entirely rational for Pakistan to support the Afghan Taliban - they have to hedge their bets.

The Taliban might rule Afghanistan again one day, and they need to have a good relationship with them, as they did before, when the Taliban were in power in Kabul.

Pakistan was one of the few countries to recognise the Taliban government - there was a Taliban embassy in Islamabad.

But it does mean American and British troops are being killed because Pakistan, in effect, has failed to shut down the Afghan Taliban supply lines from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

And looking at the map highlights another point - Afghanistan is landlocked.

The Americans and the British and the rest of ISAF - the International Stabilisation Assistance Force - get most of their supplies by road.

For years, lorries lumbering across the Khyber Pass with food, bottled water and groceries for the Western forces were attacked by the Taliban.Now many more of those lorries are getting through untouched because security firms hired by the Americans and the British are paying the Taliban huge sums in protection money to let the lorries through.

And what do the Taliban do with the cash? They probably do not take holidays at beach hotels in Dubai. So again, American and British soldiers are being killed with ammunition paid for, indirectly, with American and British money.

You could not make it up.

BBC News - Why Afghanistan's politics are stranger than fiction

 

[Rage]

Big increase in German military spending in Afghanistan

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:10:20 GMT


Berlin - Germany is planning a big increase in its military spending in Afghanistan, according to budget data Wednesday. The Defence Ministry said the reason was an increase in personnel, running and purchasing costs as well as the need to improve a military airfield at Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, the main German base.

The government request to the Bundestag parliament shows Berlin wants to spend 785 million euros (1.2 billion dollars) in 2010 on its contingent in the NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

That would be 215 million euros more than 570 million euros appropriated this year.

The Bundestag was to debate on Thursday an authorization bill allowing the force to serve a further year in Afghanistan. Its current authorization runs out December 13. There are no plans yet to increase the manpower authorization beyond 4,500 persons.

Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has said the force numbers would not be reviewed until after an international conference on Afghanistan at the end of January.

The deployment does not enjoy any broad support from the German public.


Copyright DPA


Big increase in German military spending in Afghanistan : Europe World

 

[sob]

Message from Mullah Omar

With the entire Taliban Shura settled safely in Quetta and with full support of the establishment in Pakistan, there will be no early solution for the Afgani mess.

The latest is the statement from the reculsive Mullah Omar.

Afghanistan: A Taliban Message

The reclusive leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban has ruled out talks with President Hamid Karzai and called on Afghans to break off relations with his “stooge” administration. In a statement, the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, also insisted that foreign troops were losing the war in Afghanistan. His message, issued Wednesday, came a week after Mr. Karzai reached out to the Taliban during his second inaugural address, saying it was important to include in the government former Taliban members who were ready to renounce terrorism. The Taliban have long refused to negotiate with the Karzai government or join what they consider a puppet administration. The statement was posted on a Web site used by the Taliban, and it was e-mailed to journalists from an address often used to send out Taliban statements. Mullah Omar led the Taliban government that was toppled by the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He has not been seen in public since. Afghan officials claim that he is in hiding in Pakistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/asia/26briefs-mullah.html

 

[sob]

Fallout of the German Airstrike on Tankers

Germany's top soldier quits over Afghanistan raid

Germany's top soldier has resigned over a Nato air strike in Afghanistan in which civilians are thought to have died, the defence minister said.

Wolfgang Schneiderhan stood down over the 4 September attack in Kunduz on fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban.

His decision followed reports that information about the strike - ordered by a German commander - was withheld, the defence minister said.

The strike is thought to have killed dozens of civilians collecting fuel.

Taliban fighters had seized the two tankers while they were being driven from Tajikistan to supply Nato forces in Kabul.

Reports said that villagers were taking fuel from the tankers when the strike happened.

According to the independent Afghanistan Rights Monitor group, up to 70 civilians died

Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told parliament that Gen Schneiderhan had failed to provide proper information about the incident.

BBC News - Germany's top soldier quits over Afghanistan raid

 

[sob]

Seven Soldiers Killed in Afganistan

US and Afghan soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Seven soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the past 24 hours - four of them American and three Afghan.

Nato said three of the US soldiers died in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and the other in a bomb explosion on Monday in the east of the country.

This has been the deadliest year for foreign troops since the 2001 invasion.

President Barack Obama held two hours of talks with his war advisers on US troop levels, possibly his last meeting before taking a decision on the issue.

He is weighing a request from his top commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, for 40,000 more US troops to support the war effort.

Among the officials attending the evening meeting were Vice-President Joe Biden, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the White House said.

BBC News - US and Afghan soldiers killed in Afghanistan