Articles found 6th & 7th January, 2007
UK ’at odds with NATO allies’ in Afghanistan
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LONDON: Nato diplomats are alarmed that British policy in Afghanistan is seriously damaging Western efforts against the Taliban, according to a UK newspaper on Saturday.
The Daily Telegraph said it had been told by officials from the US and European members of NATO that Britain is increasingly at odds with its coalition partners over its policy of making arbitrary peace deals with the Taliban.
At the same time, the UK was declining to put pressure on Pakistan to stop providing sanctuary to the Taliban leadership," the diplomats in Kabul and Islamabad were also quoted saying.
The warnings also included that Britain’s "go it alone policies" were threatening military preparations for a major Taliban offensive expected next month.
Western officials have already been strongly critical of a peace deal in Musa Qala, Helmand, where thousands of British fought daily battles with a resurgent Taliban.
British commanders have insisted that the deal was struck with tribal elders, but it has been claimed that the agreement was actually made with the Taliban, who controlled the town.
Even though the truce is now reported to be breaking down with large numbers of heavily-armed Taliban returning to Musa Qala, Britain was said to be wanting more such deals, but the idea has been rejected by the US and some Nato allies.
Lt Gen David Richards, the British commander of the 32,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan is being replaced next month by Lt Gen Dan MacNeil from the US, who according to the diplomats, is expected to cancel all such agreements.
Europe’s alarm was said to also relate to Britain’s close relations with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at a time when NATO is trying to put pressure on the country to end sanctuary provided to Taliban by elements within Pakistan’s intelligence services.
The Telegraph said the issue is of critical importance in the next few weeks as the Taliban are expected to recruit thousands of men and collect armaments and other supplies for their spring offensive.
But Britain was reported to be resisting such pressure after Tony Blair lavished praise on Musharraf when he visited Islamabad last November.
The diplomats said the reason was because of the co-operation between the UK’s MI6 and Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence (ISI) agency on Britain’s domestic terrorist threat from British- born extremists of Pakistani origin.
"Even though British troops in Helmand are facing attacks from Pakistan-based Taliban, London is willing to sacrifice that issue in exchange for getting ISI help on its home-based terrorist problems," one senior European official was quoted saying.
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Exodus a warning of attack on Canadians
Sat Jan 6 2007 By Bill Graveland
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LACOOKHAL, Afghanistan -- The long line of vehicles heading north from the area around this tiny village in Panjwaii district was a dead giveaway that something was not right.
Two hours later, a barrage of rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars rained down upon Canadian and Afghan troops here, who had been going from compound to compound looking for the Taliban. On this day they found them.
"The locals knew something was up and that the Taliban were here," said Capt. Josh Major, 31, of Chelmsford, Ont. "They know what is going on," he added.
Major and other members of OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liason Team) had been on patrol with the Afghan National Army. After combing through a number of the vast mud compounds that dot this region came word that seven armed men had been spotted to the south.
As the troops moved further south, walking through the deep, dusty ditches of grape fields, the sound of a large explosion could be heard. Moments later, a plume of black smoke was on the horizon.
A series of rockets and rocket-propelled grenades whistled overhead, landing and exploding in a cloud of smoke and dust about 250 metres away. A mortar landed 50 metres away causing Canadian soldiers to duck for cover while their Afghan allies seemed undaunted by the noise and confusion. The deep, throaty rat-a-tat-tat of the machine-guns on the Afghan trucks replied after every salvo.
"No problem. It's cool," said one Afghan soldier flashing a grin as he walked by, a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
The attack came to a standstill once air support was called in. Once the drone of the F-16 was heard overhead, the Taliban stopped firing and headed west on foot.
An air strike wasn't possible because there were still civilians in the area. But the plane flew low through the valley, firing off some flares in a show of force.
Operation Baaz Tsuka is in its third and final stage and is seeking to clear out pockets of Taliban in this region
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MacKay makes surprise two-day Afghanistan visit
Updated Sun. Jan. 7 2007 9:25 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is in Kabul, Afghanistan, on a surprise two-day visit to assess and highlight Canadian efforts in the country.
He paid an earlier visit to Afghanistan in May of last year.
MacKay met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, then visited newly established vocational training institutes in Kabul.
During a teleconference from Kabul, MacKay said the purpose of his trip is to highlight progress that is being made in the country. He mentioned areas such as infrastructure, micro-credit projects for small businesses, wells being dug and the construction of new schools as tangible proof that efforts are moving ahead.
MacKay countered claims that Afghanistan is sliding into chaos, and said the opposite is happening. He argued that the military is playing a key role by providing a shield, but the centrepiece of the mission is the development work that is happenning around the country.
"There's a lot of on the ground advancement that is often overlooked," MacKay said.
"All this shows the Afghan people and the government have moved ahead considerably and the pace is only going to increase, in my opinion, as we're able to bring about greater stability."
During his one-hour meeting with Karzai, MacKay said he urged the president to focus on strengthening the Afghan National Army and police force.
He planned to meet with aid workers and Canadian troops during his visit, which he said was evidence of Canada's continued support for the work in Afghanistan.
CTV's Murray Oliver, reporting from Kandahar, said there is a close link between development in Afghanistan and a successful conclusion to the mission.
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Two babies, two women killed in roadside blast in eastern Afghanistan
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KABUL, Afghanistan In Afganistan, a roadside bombing has claimed family members of three generations.
An official says the explosion ripped through a vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing a woman, her two newborn babies and the children's grandmother.
The father of the twins and the vehicle's driver also were wounded in the blast.
The official says the twins were born on Saturday and the family was taking them back to their village.
It was not immediately clear why the vehicle was targeted. Militants usually use roadside bombs to attack Afghan and foreign troops on patrol.
Meanwhile, in southern Afghanistan today, two assailants on a motorbike gunned down a high school principal.
Taliban militants have warned teachers that they will be killed if they continue to work for the government of President Hamid Karzai (HAH'-mihd KAHR'-zeye). Some 20 teachers were killed in 2006.
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Canadian soldier wounded in Afghanistan attack
Updated Sat. Jan. 6 2007 12:12 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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A Canadian is among five NATO soldiers to be injured in two attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday.
The Canadian, whose identity has not yet been released, was wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near the soldier's convoy in southern Afghanistan, said CTV's Murray Oliver, reporting from Kandahar.
"What I can tell you is that a Canadian soldier has been wounded in a roadside bomb attack about three kilometres west of the town of Howz-e Madad. If that name sounds at all familiar it's because it was the objective of Canadian forces during the early stages of Operation Baaz Tsuka," Oliver told CTV Newsnet.
The town was taken easily by NATO forces during the campaign late last year, also known as Operation Falcon's Summit, without a shot being fired. Since then, however, the area around the town has become somewhat of a "hot zone," Oliver said.
On Friday about 20 Taliban members attacked Canadian and Afghan troops, and a 45 minute firefight ensued, with no Canadian casualties.
The Canadian soldier wounded on Saturday is a member of Quebec's Vandoos regiment.
"These were soldiers travelling in a convoy actually on a dirt track, not even on a highway, and these soldiers were in a Bison armoured vehicle which is one of the more heavily armoured vehicles in the Canadian Forces here, when this roadside bomb exploded and injured this fellow," Oliver said.
The soldier is being flown to Germany for treatment at the U.S. military hospital but is considered to be in stable condition, Oliver reported.
Four more injuries
Also on Saturday, in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber drove his car into a NATO convoy, wounding four soldiers, said Mohammad Akram Akhpelwak, governor of the province.
It was a mixed convoy that included both NATO and Afghan forces, the governor said.
A NATO spokesman wouldn't confirm the number of soldiers injured, but did acknowledge the attack had occurred and that some soldiers were wounded.
The troops stationed in the Bermel region where the suicide bombing took place are mostly American.
The area borders Pakistan, and it is thought that militants often cross the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan, targeting Afghan and NATO troops.
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Overhauling our mission to Afghanistan
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OTTAWA: Prime Minister Harper’s Christmas message was, don’t expect any improvement on the ground in Afghanistan over the next year, and expect that our troops will be in the country longer than promised. This is not welcome news.
Indeed the territory controlled by the Taliban has increased. Support for the NATO mission within Afghanistan has decreased. President Karzai’s government is widely seen as corrupt. The insurgency coming from outside Afghanistan is increasing and becoming more violent.
The poorly paid and ill-trained Afghan police are resorting to thuggish tactics against their own people in order to survive and are seen to be as much of a problem on the ground as the Taliban.
The border with Pakistan is porous and arms shipments are flowing into the country unimpeded. The poppy crop, which fuels the Taliban and Al Qaeda, is larger now than ever and is these groups’ number one source of revenue. Previously quiet areas in the north and east are now seeing an upsurge in violence
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Canadian Forces Operations in Afghanistan - Why Are we There?
Backgrounder Canadian Forces Operations in Afghanistan
BG–07.009 - January 5, 2007
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Why are we there?
Canada is in Afghanistan at the request of the democratically elected government, along with 36 other nations, and as part of a UN-sanctioned mission to help build a stable, democratic, and self-sufficient society.
About 2500 members of the Canadian Forces (CF) are currently serving as part of Joint Task Force Afghanistan (JTF AFG). They play a key role in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission whose goal is to improve the security situation in Afghanistan and assist in rebuilding the country.
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Afghan mission 'doomed to fail'
Report says military action can't solve country's woes; more economic aid, help from Pakistan needed
Richard Foot, The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, January 06, 2007
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As Canadian soldiers traded fire with Taliban insurgents west of Kandahar yesterday, a new article in the prestigious international journal Foreign Affairs warned that Afghanistan is "sliding into chaos" and that the NATO-led coalition is doomed to fail without a dramatic change in strategy.
Author Barnett Rubin, a respected global authority on Afghanistan, says no amount of military sacrifice by NATO countries can produce dividends in Afghanistan without a substantial and co-ordinated infusion of economic aid and a willingness to dismantle Taliban command centres in Pakistan.
Mr. Rubin says fighting battles against the Taliban will achieve nothing in the long run unless the NATO coalition can solve the problems of Afghan poverty, corruption and meddling by Pakistan, Afghanistan's neighbour to the east.
"Even as Afghan and international forces have defeated insurgents in engagement after engagement," Mr. Rubin writes in the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs, "the weakness of the government and the reconstruction effort -- and the continued sanctuary provided to Taliban leaders in Pakistan -- has prevented real victory."
Mr. Rubin is a professor of political science at New York University. In 2001, he served as special adviser to the United Nations during the talks that led to the Bonn Agreement, which re-established the Afghan state following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
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He travelled to Afghanistan four times in 2006, and was there last summer, when Canadian soldiers spearheaded a bloody campaign to rout Taliban forces in Panjwaii. Altogether, 36 Canadian soldiers died and nearly 100 were wounded in Afghanistan last year, mostly in fighting around Panjwaii.
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In a telephone interview, Mr. Rubin praised the "sacrifices" of Canadian troops and of diplomat Glyn Berry, whom he met before Mr. Berry was killed by a Taliban bomb last year.
Mr. Rubin credits Canada's military for turning back "a frontal offensive by the Taliban" in Panjwaii last summer and for rescuing Afghanistan from what he considers "a tipping point."
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Dion crafting strategy for Afghanistan
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU January 6, 2007
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OTTAWA -- Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is crafting a proposal to revamp Canada's mission in Afghanistan so it can lend military help to other hot spots around the world.
Dion said the current mission is off the rails, with the bulk of Afghanistan's economy based on the illegal poppy trade.
Details of his plan are still in the works, but he said it will rest between the "blinded" approach by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the "dishonourable" one of NDP Leader Jack Layton.
"If a state is not functional and half the economy is illicit ... no matter how many soldiers you have, whatever the money you put in, I think it will be mistaken," he said in an interview with Sun Media.
"You need to work with the world. If we are stuck in Afghanistan, we are unable to be as helpful as we may be elsewhere. So Canada will do its share, but our share as a partner of a problem that is beyond Afghanistan."
Dion recalled recent comments from Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, who insisted Canada's forces are too tapped out to fulfill any further deployments.
But despite dropping heavy criticism on Harper's leadership, Dion said he would not be "comfortable" toppling the Conservative government over the mission.
"To put this government out of a job ... and to start an election on Afghanistan is not a healthy situation," he said.
Dion accused Harper of "blackmailing" the MPs' vote on a two-year extension, a move that politicized the issue and polarized the nation.
The Liberal strategy will be to build a secure Afghanistan state so Canada can assist in other regions, like Somalia, Haiti and Lebanon.
Dion said he is also working on a proposal on Darfur.
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'Kabul Express' banned in Afghanistan
Reuters Saturday, January 06, 2007 19:41 IST
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KABUL: Afghanistan has banned the Bollywood film 'Kabul Express' about journalists in the war-ravaged country because parts of it were deemed offensive to one of Afghanistan's ethnic minorities, a government official said on Saturday.
'Kabul Express' charts a 48-hour journey by three journalists in post-Taliban Afghanistan. It opened to mixed reviews in India last month.
"The film has some sentences which were very offensive towards one of Afghanistan's ethnicities, namely the Hazara," said Minister of Culture adviser Najib Manalai.
"For this reason it has been banned."
Hazara people are believed to make up about 10 per cent of the Afghan population. A Shi'ite Muslim minority, Hazaras are thought to be descended from remnants of Genghis Khan's invading army and have at times faced persecution.
'Kabul Express' was filmed on location in 45 days under heavy security provided by the Afghan government. It was inspired by director Kabir Khan's numerous trips to the country after the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001.
Some Indian critics called it a muddled political documentary while others welcomed its insights into post-Taliban Afghan society.
Afghans involved in the film including the actors who uttered the sentences deemed offensive would be questioned by a prosecutor, Manalai said.
The prosecutor would decide if further action would be taken. The producers of the film had apologised, he said.
"Even if it's fiction, some phrases are hurtful to some people. It's playing with people's feelings and pride," he said.
Very few people in Afghanistan have seen the film. Bootleg film sellers in the Afghan capital said authorities had confiscated their copies.
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Bombs target NATO convoys in Afghanistan, 5 troops wounded
Canadian Press Saturday, January 06, 2007
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A roadside bomb struck a NATO vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, wounding one soldier, while a suicide car bomber wounded four soldiers in the country's east, officials said.
The roadside bomb hit the NATO vehicle in Zhari district in Kandahar province, wounding one soldier, said Capt. Andre Salloum, a spokesman for the NATO-led force. He did not disclose the nationality of the wounded soldier.
A suicide bomber, meanwhile, plowed his car into a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province on Friday, wounding four soldiers, said Mohammad Akram Akhpelwak, the province's governor.
The bomber struck the convoy, which also included Afghan security forces, in Bermel district, he said.
A NATO spokesman confirmed the blast and said some soldiers were wounded but he did not disclose the number. Most of the troops in that region are American.
The Bermel region borders Pakistan, and a U.S. base there sees frequent rocket attacks. Afghan and Western officials say that militants cross the border to launch attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the country.
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NATO-led soldiers wounded in attacks in Afghanistan
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KABUL: Bombings targeted at NATO troops in Afghanistan wounded a number of soldiers in the latest insurgency-linked unrest while gunmen shot dead an Afghan intelligence officer Saturday, officials said.
Winter has seen a scaling down in attacks linked to a Taliban-led insurgency, but there is still regular violence blamed on the militants who were driven from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
A suicide attacker exploded a bomb-filled car he was in near International Security Assistance Force soldiers in the eastern province of Paktika Friday, wounding a number of the troops, an ISAF spokesman said.
Major Dominic Whyte would not confirm the provincial governor's report that four of the soldiers were hurt.
"A number of ISAF soldiers were wounded," he said without being able to immediately provide more details. Governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak said the attacker, who struck in the volatile Barmal district, detonated bombs in a pick-up truck as he approached an ISAF vehicle.
"Four NATO soldiers were slightly wounded. The attack took place close to an Afghan army military post," he said while talking to an international news agency.
In another attack on the NATO-led foreign soldiers, a roadside bomb exploded and struck an ISAF convoy on Saturday in the southern province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement in the early 1990s, a spokesman said.
One soldier was slightly wounded. The attack was in the Zahri area, not far from the city and was included in some of the most intense anti-Taliban action last year.
In the eastern province of Khost meanwhile an investigation chief in the provincial intelligence branch was shot dead on his way to work Saturday, the department's deputy director, Mirajan, said.
The officer, Mursal Mangal, was killed by gunmen on a motorbike, he said, adding that the motive appeared to have been criminal. Taliban-linked militants have been blamed for many similar assassinations.
The insurgency was its deadliest last year with 4,000 people said to have been killed in the violence, most of them insurgents.
The usual upsurge of violence in the spring in a few months time is expected to be at least as intense as it was last year.
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Ariz. Bushmasters off to Afghanistan
Erin Zlomek The Arizona Republic Jan. 6, 2007 12:00 AM
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It has been 65 years since the Bushmasters shipped out to the Philippines during World War II, but the storied unit is leaving again today, this time for eventual deployment to Afghanistan.
More than 600 members of the Arizona National Guard's 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment are departing Sky Harbor International Airport this morning for Fort Bragg, N.C., in preparation for a year's overseas deployment.
"It is the largest single deployment from the Arizona National Guard unit since World War II," Guard spokesman Maj. Paul Aguirre said
The men are from units in and around Maricopa County and are joined in their mission by about 450 Guard troops from the Marana unit who left for Fort Hood, Texas, on Tuesday.
The group likely will land in Afghanistan sometime in the spring, said Command Sgt. Maj. John Bauer.
When that happens, there will be more Arizona Guard troops, both Army and Air Guard, stationed in Afghanistan than in Iraq.
"Most of our unit strength has gone to the Iraq operation up until now," Aguirre said.
With the Dec. 30 execution of Saddam Hussein, Bauer said, many civilians have recently focused on U.S. operations in Iraq. Statewide, that may soon change, he said.
"With the number of soldiers we have from the Arizona National Guard . . . I think, locally, people will probably shift their attention to Afghanistan," Bauer said.
The Guard's primary mission will be to rehabilitate some of the Afghani communities that are trying to adjust to a new government amid ongoing violence, he said.
Since 2005, violence in Afghanistan has increased, according to the Defense Department.
Arizona's deploying soldiers will replace the Connecticut National Guard and help maintain the total of 22,000 service men and women in Afghanistan.
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Strong, stable Afghanistan in interest of its people, Pakistan: Shaukat Aziz
06 January, 2007 by admin
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Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday said that a strong and stable Afghanistan is in the best interest of its people, Pakistan and the region.He was talking to Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Jadoon, Minister for Privatization Zahid Hamid, Parliamentary Secretary for Defense Maj (Retd) Tanveer Hussain Syed and MNA Javaid Mumtaz Joiya who called on him at the Prime Minister’s House.
The Prime Minister said that his visit to Kabul was very useful and productive as it provided the opportunity for exchanging views with the Afghan leadership.
He said the agreement between the two countries for the return of the Afghan refugees will prove to be highly beneficial for both the countries.
The Prime Minister said that during his visit he also announced 50 million dollar assistance for Afghanistan to accelerate the process of economic development there.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan has announced formation of a jirga commission to finalise the modalities of convening jirga process with Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan will also be hosting a conference for Afghanistan’s assistance in Islamabad to arrange necessary funds to contribute to the ongoing reconstruction process in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, he said, believes that Afghanistan needs a Marshall type plan to bring about a socio-economic transformation in the country. Pakistan fully supports its efforts to improve its economic and human development.
The Prime Minister said that the agreement to connect Chaman with Spin Boldak by rail will facilitate the transportation of goods to Afghanistan and help add to the economic activities in that country.
Turning to developments in the country, the Prime Minister said that the PML and its coalition are resolved in promoting democratic values in the country and participate in next general election on the basis of unprecedented political and economic stability achieved by the government in the last seven years, especially the empowerment of women and minorities.
The Federal Ministers and MNA appreciated the unprecedented development programme undertaken by the PML government for provision of gas, roads, electricity, and clean drinking water in urban and rural areas.
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War to free Afghanistan will continue, says Mullah Omar
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NEW YORK: In possibly his first interview since his ouster in 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar told the US daily that he has not seen Osama bin Laden in five years, and vowed to continue fighting to free Afghanistan from foreign troops.
"I have neither seen him nor have made any effort to do so, but I pray for his health and safety," Omar said of the Al-Qaeda leader with whom he said he shares the "common goal" of driving US troops from Afghanistan.
In the interview published Friday, Omar said he had not seen or contacted bin Laden since he left Kandahar in December 2001 fleeing a US-led coalition that avenged Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
In answer to questions sent through a Taliban spokesman , Omar said he had no regrets in having harbored the terrorist mastermind in Afghanistan.
"Our stand to grant refuge to Osama bin Laden was based on principles," he said.
"If there were people who were opposed to us giving refuge to him, they should have done so with logic and reason, and not using bullying or threats," Omar said referring to the US-led coalition that deposed the Taliban.
He denied reports that his Taliban fighters were receiving assistance and safe haven from Pakistan.
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South/Central Asia: Think Tank Says U.S. Aid Helped Afghanistan, Not Uzbekistan
By Golnaz Esfandiari
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January 5, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The RAND Corp., a leading U.S. think tank, says in a report that Washington's security assistance to states that are transitioning from conflict to democratic systems -- like Afghanistan -- has been more effective than assistance to governments that remain repressive, such as Uzbekistan.
The RAND study evaluates U.S. assistance to security forces in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and El Salvador since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, examining if human rights and police performance improved. RFE/RL spoke to Olga Oliker, a senior international policy analyst at RAND and one of the authors of the report.
RFE/RL: In your report you evaluated U.S. security assistance to four countries, including Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Could you first briefly tell us about the main conclusions of the report?
Oliker: What we were trying to do with study is begin the process of evaluating the extent to which U.S. assistance -- specifically to internal security forces in countries that are undergoing transitions or that are repressive -- is effective in improving the capacity of these structures to respond to the security threats facing these countries, and also the capacity of these structures to become more accountable, to become more respectful of human rights. One of the things that we found is that these are interlinked; that improving accountability, transparency, respect [for] the people actually does make the security structure -- we feel -- more effective against a variety of security threats in the broad, long-term sense. What we found is that the current programs that are under way are not terribly effective, A, and B, what we found is that oversight of these programs may be insufficient, that we are not doing enough to measure and assess and determine what works and what doesn't work and, as a result, we are potentially not improving these programs or potentially not ending things that don't work, we are potentially overlooking possibilities to make this effort more effective because we're continuing a program that may not be working.
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Change needed to address Afghanistan corruption
By Vern Faulkner Esquimalt News Jan 05 2007
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Aid — both resources and money — is vital to effect change in Afghanistan, NDP MP Denise Savoie (Victoria) said.
Yet what little money going to Afghanistan is largely pocketed by a corrupt regime and warlords, charged Zoya, a representative of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan [RAWA] — a group trying to secure peace and women’s rights in the war-torn country.
In October, Zoya told a gathering in Los Angeles that “democracy cannot be practiced in a country infected by the germ of fundamentalist terrorists.
“By compromising with infamous fundamentalist warlords, and appointing them to high governmental posts,” she said, the current regime has failed to bring about change.
“Now we have a parliament full of warlords,” Zoya charged.
Those warlords, she suggested, have their own agenda: and the promulgation of continued violence serves those private agendas very well. Therefore, NATO forces can expect little support from Afghanistan’s fractured and corrupt leadership, Zoya argued.
Indeed, more than 30 seats in Afghanistan’s parliament are held by Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (the Islamic Party of Afghanistan or HIA), a group directly linked to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar — a man ranking highly on the U.S. terrorist list.
Savoie has no problem believing the charges of rampant corruption in Afghanistan, and said the corruption is a major obstacle to brokering change in the war-torn nation.
“I think they’re more than allegations — there’s lots of indications that’s happening, the aid isn’t getting to the people it’s intended for.”
Similar laments from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai support charges of internal corruption from those like RAWA, Savoie said.
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