Afghanistan

Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Wed Oct 06, 2010 8:39 pm

It's go-for-broke time on 9th anniversary of war

The war in Afghanistan enters its 10th year Thursday with key players hedging their bets, uncertain whether the Obama administration is prepared to stay for the long haul, move quickly to exit an increasingly unpopular conflict, or something in between.

Fearing that his Western allies may in the end abandon him, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has started to prepare his nation for a withdrawal of international forces by shoring up relations with neighboring Pakistan and reaching out to insurgents interested in reconciliation.

There have been other important junctures, but this ninth anniversary is proving decisive. It's go-for-broke time in Afghanistan.


Source: AP
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Wed Oct 13, 2010 7:10 pm

Afghan firms "pay off Taliban with foreign cash"

KABUL (Reuters) - Cash from the U.S. military and international donors destined for construction and welfare projects in restive parts of Afghanistan is ending up in the hands of insurgents, a contractor and village elders said.

However with violence spreading and the insurgency bloodier than ever, some construction firms and workers on development projects say they are having to hand over some of their earnings to insurgents to protect their personnel, projects or equipment.

Mohammad Ehsan said he was forced to pay insurgents a substantial part of a $1.2 million contract he won from the U.S. military two months ago to repair a road in Logar province south of Kabul, after they kidnapped his brother and demanded the cash.

"You know we need this American money to help us fund our Jihad," Ehsan quoted them saying when he eventually spent over $200,000 of the project money to secure his brother's freedom.

Ehsan said the insurgents also demanded the cash be changed out of dollars into Afghan or Pakistani currency, saying greenbacks are "Haram" or forbidden for Muslims.

"The Provincial Reconstruction Team gave me 500,000 Afghanis ($10,000) to clean sewers in my village but I was forced to pay 200,000 of it to the Taliban," said Aslam Jan from Logar's Baraki Barak district.

"I pay the Taliban not to attack my goods, and I don't care what they do with the money," he said laughing. "If you don't, the next day your property is attacked and destroyed."



http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... ningdigest
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby LenaHuat » Mon Nov 15, 2010 4:54 pm

China's MMC made this astounding discovery of a Buddhist monastery whilst mining for copper :-
A copper load buried with 2,600 Buddhist monastery
Please be forewarned that you are reading a post by an otiose housewife. ImageImage**Image**Image@@ImageImageImage
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby profittaker » Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:19 pm

Fascinating discovery! Glad that someone is trying to preserve the site.
learning to swim. Welcome to comment on my Options trading journal
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:53 pm

:roll: :roll: :roll:

Karzai pardons criminals, drug dealers: WikiLeaks

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of numerous dangerous criminals and drug traffickers detained by US-led coalition forces, leaked American diplomatic cables revealed Tuesday.

American officials said they repeatedly rebuked the president and Afghan attorney general Muhammad Ishaq Alko, for authorising the release of detainees over a three-year period.

"Both authorize the release of detainees pre-trial and allow dangerous individuals to go free or re-enter the battlefield without ever facing an Afghan court," said a cable dated August 2009 and classified as "secret" by US deputy ambassador to Afghanistan Francis Ricciardone.

"Despite our complaints and expressions of concern to the GIRoA (Afghan government), pre-trial releases continue," it said.

Internet whistleblower WikiLeaks has begun releasing a quarter of a million confidential US diplomatic cables, detailing embarrassing and inflammatory episodes in what the White House called a "reckless and dangerous action".

In the August 2009 cable, American officials said that since 2009, 150 of the 629 detainees transferred from coalition to Afghan custody had been released without trial.

It said Karzai had pardoned five border policemen in April 2009 who were caught with 124 kilograms (273 pounds) of heroin in their police vehicle and had been sentenced to terms of 16 to 18 years in prison.

They were pardoned "on the grounds that they were distantly related to two individuals who had been martyred during the civil war," the cable noted.

The document said Karzai also intervened in a narcotics case involving the son of a wealthy businessman and one of his supporters.

The president ordered a second investigation "without any constitutional authority" it said, which found the defendant had been framed.

On Monday, Afghanistan said its relations with the United States would not be affected by earlier leaked cables portraying Karzai as weak and paranoid, and his brother as a corrupt drugs baron.

But the latest cable strikes at the heart of Western fears that high-level corruption within the Afghan government is undermining the nine-year war against the Taliban.

Source: AFP American Edition
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:49 pm

Governor says NATO and Afghan forces kill 64 civilians by Rohullah Anwari

ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Joint operations by Afghan forces and NATO-led foreign troops have killed 64 civilians in eastern Kunar province, including many women women and children, over the past four days, the provincial governor said.

Wahidi said 20 of the dead were women, 29 were children or young adults aged 7 to 20, and the remaining 15 were adult men.

A United Nations report late last year found that civilian casualties in Afghanistan rose 20 percent in the first 10 months of 2010 compared with 2009, with more than three-quarters killed or wounded by insurgents.

The report found that there were 6,215 civilian casualties in the period, including 2,412 deaths. Those caused by Afghan and foreign "pro-government" forces accounted for 12 percent of the total, an 18 percent drop.

Source: Reuters US Online Report World News
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:43 pm

US apologizes for more Afghan 'kill team' photos

The US military apologized again Monday after Rolling Stone published more photos and videos of members of an alleged rogue army unit "kill team" accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport.

A week after one soldier was jailed after striking a plea bargain to testify against the alleged ringleader, the weekly magazine published a series of graphic images and a long story including extensive detail of the allegations.

"The photos published by Rolling Stone are disturbing and in striking contrast to the standards and values of the United States Army," said a Pentagon statement.

"Like those published by Der Spiegel, the Army apologizes for the distress these latest photos cause," it said, referring to an initial set of less graphic pictures published by the German magazine last week.

The Rolling Stone pictures, under the headline "the Kill Team," included unblurred versions of photos published by Der Spiegel showing soldiers posing with the bloodied body of an Afghan youth, holding the head up to the camera.

Battling to avoid a repetition of the Abu Ghraib scandal triggered by release of pictures of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the Pentagon apologized after Der Spiegel's publication of images last week.

The new pictures were accompanied by two videos, including one set to a heavy rock soundtrack -- and reportedly shared round among soldiers -- showing two men being killed after allegedly planting a roadside bomb.

The accompanying story related how the youth shown in the still pictures, identified later as Gul Mudin, a farm worker, was picked out on January 15 last year as the first victim of the so-called "kill team."

Corporal Jeremy Morlock -- who was jailed for 24 years last week -- and Private Andrew Holmes initially threw a grenade at the teenager before gunning him down, and pretending he had attacked them with the grenade.

The little finger of the boy's right hand is missing, allegedly cut off as a trophy.

In the following months they and others staged a number of such killings, according to the Rolling Stone account, citing other witnesses questioned after the killings were revealed by a fellow soldier.

Morlock, one of five soldiers charged with murder and tried in a military court south of Seattle, is expected to be the star witness in the court martial of the alleged ringleader, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs.

Source: AFP American Edition
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:49 am

Cause & Effect. There are always consequences to our actions ..

Anyway, I'm waiting to see what will happen to these idiots that burnt the Koran. Lightning ? Hurricane ? A simple car accident ? A slow painful disease ? Frankly, I dont think it would be Lightning or Hurricane as it's too fast. I think it would be a slow and painful suffering ...

When the Taliban destroyed those giant Buddha statues, we saw the consequences...


=====================================


Ten dead on second day of Afghan Koran burning protests

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 2 (Reuters) - At least 10 people have been killed and 83 wounded in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said on Saturday, on a second day of violent protests over the burning of a Koran by a radical fundamentalist Christian in the United States.

A suicide attack also hit a NATO military base in the capital Kabul, the day after protesters over-ran a UN mission in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and killed seven foreign staff, in the deadliest attack on the UN in Afghanistan.

Some protesters in Kandahar carried white Taliban flags and shouted slogans including "long live the Taliban" and "death to America." In rioting that lasted hours, they smashed shops, burned tires and vandalized a girl's high school.

Two of the dead were Afghan policemen, an official said.

The violence is the worst in Afghanistan for months, and comes as the country gears up for the first stage of a years-long security handover to Afghan troops, and after the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, delivered an optimistic assessment of progress in the war.


Source: AFP
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Sat Apr 30, 2011 3:01 pm

Afgan Taliban declares start to spring offensive

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban declared the start of a spring offensive on Saturday, warning they planned to target foreign troops in Afghanistan as well as Afghan security forces and government officials in a wave of attacks across the country.

In a statement, the hardline Islamists warned Afghan civilians to stay away from public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as Afghan government centers, as these would be the focus of attacks.

The Taliban statement comes a day after senior military officials and Western diplomats warned they expected a surge in militant attacks around the country over the next week.

Source: Reuters US Online Report World News
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Re: Afghanistan

Postby winston » Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:34 am

President Barack Obama announces 33,000 additional U.S. troops he sent to Afghanistan will be home within 15 months.

Source: CNN International
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