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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (MAY 2007)

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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (May 2007)

News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
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Articles found

Articles found May 1, 2007

]Article Link
It's all about the bang and thunder
TheStar.com May 01, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

SPERWAN GHAR–Heavy metal Guns N' Roses music is blasting from the big gunners' hooch.

Naturally.

It's all about the bang and the thunder for D Battery, B Troop, 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which is a quaint regimental anachronism.

They laid down some 700 rounds of mortar in Helmand province during the last month in support of British, American and Dutch infantry operations against a hardcore Taliban redoubt in the strategic Sangin River valley, fiercely contested for its water, hydropower source and the skein of supply routes that crisscross the district.

Just soothing their ears now with a dose of primordial rock licks, back at base, in preparation for the next howitzers-hither summons.

"Napoleon said artillery wins wars, infantry holds ground," quotes Bombardier Michael Hobb, a ridiculously cherubic-looking 20-year-old from Yarmouth, N.S. "Napoleon was in the artillery, you know."

He continues to wax rapturously about his particular component of Task Force Afghanistan, the sheer orgiastic thrust of firing cannons that, while technologically advanced to the point of pin-sharp precision, still pretty much resemble – to an untutored eye – the lumbering contraptions dragged into the field by Napoleon's forces a couple of centuries ago.

"Big guns, big boom."

"A ruuuuush," offers Gunner Adam Hannaford, 23, of Hamilton, drawing out the word so that it sounds like a rocket hiss.

Or, as described by Gunner Robert Kelly, 25: "Hours of boredom and then an intense moment of adrenaline." Adding: "All elbows and a--holes." As in elbows cocked to pull the lanyards and sphincters clenched in the heat of battle.

One fellow compares the subliminally percussive sensation to sex; another says it's as sweetly satisfying as chocolate.
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New NATO commander takes over in southern Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update May 1, 2007 at 5:43 AM EDT
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The incoming commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan says one of his biggest concerns is improving the quality of Afghan security forces.

Major-General Jacko Page, a British officer with experience in Sarajevo and Iraq, formally took control of troops in the southern region -- including Canadian forces based in Kandahar -- at a ceremony on the back of a flatbed truck this morning.

“A lot has already been achieved, but there is, of course, a lot more to do,” Maj.-Gen. Page said, in a speech. “One of my priorities will be contributing the building of the Afghan national security forces.”

The behaviour of Afghan forces is now under scrutiny from Canadian investigators, as they try to determine whether suspected Taliban insurgents are tortured in Afghan custody.
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Letter outlines torture allegations in Afghanistan
Opposition continues to call for O'Connor's resignation
Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, May 01, 2007
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OTTAWA -- The Conservative government continued to deny the existence of torture in Afghan prisons despite the emergence Monday of a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay last year that asked NATO to curb such abuses.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch gave copies to MacKay and other NATO foreign ministers of a letter dated Nov. 28, 2006, on the eve of the alliance's summit at Riga, Latvia, that cited "credible reports" of torture and abuse in Afghan prisons.

The letter identified Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, or NDS, which Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said last week had agreed to grant full access to Canadian officials to monitor the well-being of detainees transferred there by Canadian troops. O'Connor's announcement of the NDS "arrangement" turned out to be premature; it caught MacKay off guard, and was later found to be a deal that was still being negotiated.
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Prisoners told Canadians of torture, Day says
CAMPBELL CLARK  From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 1, 2007 at 4:39 AM EDT
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OTTAWA — Correctional Service Canada officials tasked with helping improve Afghanistan's jails were told by two prisoners that they had been tortured, Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.

It remains unclear whether the two were among those handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan officials or when the prisoners made the allegations of torture.

But a spokeswoman for Mr. Day said the minister was informed of the reports last week. He has made no previous mention of their existence despite repeated questions following a furor that erupted after The Globe and Mail's reports on detainee abuse were published.

Mr. Day said: "They've actually talked to detainees about the possibility, if they were tortured or not. We've actually had a couple of incidents where detainees said they were."
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(Carried over from April topic.)

British Maj. Gen. Jacko Page takes helm of ISAF's southern command
CP, May 1
http://www.news1130.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w050129A

Training and building up local military and security forces will remain a central priority for coalition forces in Afghanistan, the new leader of NATO's southern command said Tuesday as he formally took the helm from his Dutch predecessor.

To the strains of the Afghan national anthem, Maj.-Gen. Jacko Page - a 25-year veteran of the British military - was formally installed as the new commander of the southern command of the International Security Assistance Force, known as RC South.

From a podium atop a flatbed military truck, Page said the continued training and building of Afghanistan's local army and police forces - considered a vital component of the effort to rebuild the war-ravaged country - would remain a top priority for coalition forces.

"They have already shown themselves to be a courageous and potent force," Page said. "Their bravery on the battlefield has the respect and admiration of every ISAF soldier."

Page, who will spend the next six months in command of RC South, said the coalition will remain focused on providing the security necessary for development in the region to continue.

He cited in particular the current coalition effort to flush the Taliban out of the Sangin River valley, which includes Operation Silicon, a British-led offensive which began in Helmand province on Monday. Part of the goal is to allow reconstruction work to continue on the valuable Kajaki hydroelectric dam, Page said.

"Whether it be roads, better water supplies or electricity, development can only happen if the security conditions are right," Page said. "All, therefore, have an interest in security."

In his outgoing speech, Maj.-Gen. Ton van Loon, who took over command of RC South from Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, borrowed a metaphor from his predecessor as he compared the rebuilding effort in Afghanistan to a river made of "many single drops." Van Loon said the people of southern Afghanistan are slowly growing more confident as they emerge from beneath the waning influence of the Taliban, and some are feeling more free to speak out against the insurgency...

Some informative stuff here:

DoD Press Briefing with Royal Netherlands Army Maj. Gen. Van Loon from the Pentagon
DoD News Transcript, April 30
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3952

Canada listening in on Taliban exchanges
National Post, May 1
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=b68ad20e-ac56-4b2c-a000-0724984bfc62

Canada's ultra-secret electronic spy agency revealed yesterday it has been heavily involved in Afghanistan and has deployed a team to the country.

The Communications Security Establishment acknowledged its role in Afghanistan for the first time in testimony to the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence.

CSE chief John Adams gave few details but the agency is believed to have sent officers to Afghanistan to eavesdrop on the Taliban and other militant groups...

An intelligence expert said the CSE officers in Afghanistan had likely set up secret listening posts to pick up the Taliban's walkie-talkie and satellite telephone communications.

The information gleaned from the intercepted calls would be used to alert Canadian troops of Taliban attack plans, or passed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Canadian International Development Agency.

In a measure of the CSE's involvement in Afghanistan, Mr. Adams said more than a quarter of the intelligence reports produced by the agency in the past year were related to the mission.

"While I cannot discuss details, I can say that CSE information has, for example, helped to advance the interests of Canada and its closest allies and has been directly responsible for protecting Canadian troops in combat."..

Professor Martin Rudner, who has written extensively on the CSE, said he was not surprised by the agency's disclosure that it had been busy in Afghanistan.

Of particular interest would be conversations between Taliban commanders and their forces in the field, he said. The CSE would also be monitoring calls between Taliban headquarters in Pakistan, field commanders in Afghanistan and outside actors in such places as Iraq.

"The only way you can communicate with Taliban headquarters in Pakistan, given where they are, is by telecommunication. They're in extremely remote country," said Prof. Rudner, Director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Carleton University.

"We would want to intercept those communications. So we could be literally privy to their strategic plans and intentions, sources of supply, manpower recruitment, logistics, operational experience, for example, roadside bombs in Iraq.

"All this has to be communicated electronically by the adversary. We want to be privy to that information so we can take appropriate corrective action."..

Biography of Maj. Gen. (ret'd) Adams:
http://myschool.gc.ca/events/archives/Armchair/arm_descrip06_e.html

Prior to his appointment as Chief, CSE, Mr. Adams served from 2003 to June 2005 as Associate Deputy Minister and Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, and from 1998 to 2003 as Assistant Deputy Minister, Marine Services and Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard. Both positions were held within Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Before joining the Canadian Coast Guard, Mr. Adams enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the Canadian Armed Forces, from 1967 until retiring as Major General in 1993. His early career culminated with command of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment in Chilliwack, British Columbia. The second phase of his career included numerous staff assignments including several postings to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. This phase culminated in promotion to Brigadier General in 1987 and secondment to the Defence and Foreign Policy Secretariat of the Privy Council Office for two years prior to assuming command of the Special Service Force and Canadian Forces Base Petawawa in 1989. His military career culminated in promotion to Major General and appointment as Chief of Construction and Properties for the Canadian Forces - the senior serving Canadian Military Engineer. Upon retiring from the Canadian Forces in 1993 he was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Environment, for National Defence, a position he held until 1998.

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found May 2, 2007

Troops upset at focus on detainees: Hillier
Updated Wed. May. 2 2007 3:05 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The attention on allegations over the torture of Afghan detainees has "pissed off" some Canadian soldiers who feel its detracting attention from the overall mission, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier said Wednesday.

"Let me just come out very frankly here: I met a variety of soldiers who are pissed off," Hillier told reporters. "They're angry that these allegations have detracted from the overall mission here."

Hillier said the sentiments didn't apply to him because he never gets "pissed off."

He addressed the issue after arriving in Kandahar with a group of former NHL players and the Stanley Cup in a show of support for Canadian troops.

Hillier remains at the centre of controversy over a prisoner handover agreement he signed back in 2005.

The agreement has been criticized because it has no clause to allow Canada to follow up on the treatment of detainees handed over to the Afghan government.

On Wednesday, The Globe and Mail reported that Hillier did not consult with the Department of Foreign Affairs before striking the deal.

"We were not consulted," one senior government source told the paper.

Another senior foreign-service officer told The Globe that "Hillier went to Kabul thinking of them (the detainees) as 'scumbags' and made the deal. Hillier wanted to sign it; he insisted on signing it," he said. "Defence took the file and messed it up."

Hillier said Wednesday that he doesn't respond to articles that use unnamed sources but explained the circumstances surrounded the agreement in question
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Detainee plan ‘right thing' to do: Hillier
TENILLE BONOGUORE Globe and Mail Update May 2, 2007 at 4:09 PM EDT
Article Link

The Chief of Defence Staff says he believed he was doing the right thing by signing a detainee transfer agreement that did not allow Canadians to verify the safe treatment of prisoners once they were put in Afghan custody.

Speaking from Kandahar, Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier said the agreement would have been made regardless of his involvement back in 2005.

“I signed it, in the presence of the ambassador who would have signed it had I not been here,” Gen. Hillier said.

“Truly at the time we thought that was the right thing to do, that it was the right approach. Obviously we'll reassess that as allegations come out that perhaps that was not sufficient.”
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Hillier pushed flawed detainee plan
Foreign Affairs shunted aside when Canada's top soldier insisted on signing 2005 deal that left no follow-up role for Ottawa
PAUL KORING , BRIAN LAGHI and CAMPBELL CLARK
Article Link

WASHINGTON, OTTAWA -- The Department of Foreign Affairs was pushed to the sidelines when Canada struck its detainee-transfer deal in Afghanistan, two senior government sources have told The Globe and Mail.

"We were not consulted," said one, adding that Foreign Affairs was shunted aside by the Department of National Defence and Canada's top soldier, Rick Hillier, when he signed the accord in 2005. The deal has become mired in controversy because it includes no follow-up role for Canada on the fate of detainees in Afghanistan's notoriously brutal prison system.

Another senior foreign-service officer gave a longer explanation: "Hillier went to Kabul thinking of them [the detainees] as 'scumbags' and made the deal. Hillier wanted to sign it; he insisted on signing it," he said. "Defence took the file and messed it up."

The comment played off a remark General Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, made in July, 2005, when he set off a national debate by referring to the Taliban as "detestable murderers and scumbags."
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Hillier in Kandahar with Stanley Cup and ex-NHLers
Updated Wed. May. 2 2007 6:50 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier arrived in Afghanistan today with 19 former NHL players and the Stanley Cup in a show of support for Canadian troops.

The group of players includes enforcers Bob Probert and Dave (Tiger) Williams, goaltender Ron Tugnutt and former Montreal Canadiens stars Rejean Houle and Yvon Lambert.

The players also brought along the Stanley Cup for troops to take pictures with and even laced up for a little old-time hockey.

Last month, Canadian troops received another taste of home when they were visited by Eugene Melnyk -- owner of the Ottawa Senators.

Melnyk came to the base in Kandahar to deliver $50,000 worth of hockey equipment and 2,500 Tim Hortons gift certificates.

The troops, many of whom play ball hockey as a pastime, received new goalie equipment, hockey sticks, inline skates, balls and NHL and Team Canada jerseys.
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Afghanistan to Recruit More Police to Counter Taliban (Update1)
By Ed Johnson May 2 (Bloomberg)
Article Link

Afghanistan will recruit about 19,000 more police officers to help tackle the Taliban insurgency, the international body tasked with overseeing the country's reconstruction said in a statement.

``There have been some unexpected challenges from insecurity in the south and southeast of the country,'' said Ishaq Nadiri, senior economic adviser to President Hamid Karzai and co-chairman of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board.

The number of Afghan National Police will be increased to 82,000, the board said in a statement yesterday after meeting in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The police force currently stands at about 63,000 officers, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks over the past year in the south and east in an attempt to destabilize Karzai's government. The rebels have about 3,000 fighters, Major General David Rodriguez, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said earlier this month, compared with about 37,000 NATO personnel, 10,000 U.S. soldiers carrying out anti-terrorism operations and 35,000 trained and equipped soldiers in the Afghan National Army.
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Dutch transfer authority to British in Afghanistan
May 2, 2007, 8:59 GMT
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The Hague - Dutch Army General Ton van Loon on Tuesday transferred authority over the ISAF NATO mission in Afghanistan to his British colleague Jacko Page, a spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Defence said.

Van Loon, located at the international military base in Kandahar, commanded the 11,000 ISAF troops stationed in six provinces of Afghanistan, including the province of Uruzgan, which is controlled by Dutch troops.

It was the first time a Dutchman held such a high position in the NATO's ISAF mission.

The highest position of the security and stabilization troops in Afghanistan rotates every six months to a general of another participating NATO country.
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Over tea, Afghan prisoners describe torture
TheStar.com May 02, 2007  Rosie DiManno
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Warden keeps watchful eye as Taliban operatives speak

KANDAHAR–They've been to hell and survived it. Now they're in prison purgatory and blessedly thankful for it.

In this purgatory – Sarposa Provincial Prison, the largest and central detention facility in Kandahar province – there's even tea with the warden in his office and candy in a crystal goblet, a pleasant if suspiciously contrived tableau.

A damn sight better than whippings with electric cables and hanging upside down from metal hooks in the ceiling, limbs bound, or trussed and shackled in cages so constrictive a grown man couldn't stand upright – all torture allegedly inflicted during an earlier period of incarceration in the notorious National Directorate of Security headquarters across town.

These two inmates, both convicted as Taliban operatives – completely innocent, they each insist – have been summoned here to be interviewed by the Star, which was provided unrestricted access to the jail yesterday afternoon by the chief warden, Col. Abdul Qadar.

Mohammed Nadar, 43, is serving a seven-year sentence; Amadullah, 35, is down for 14 years.

They're wearing traditional Afghan garb rather than prison uniforms. Neither exhibits any outward sign of injury. Those scars have healed, they say, since being transferred to Sarposa from the widely feared NDS, this country's intelligence police agency, usually mentioned only in whispers.

"I never saw any injuries when they got here," Qadar is quick to interject.

"If they were hurt, they would have received medical attention immediately. They didn't need it."

Unlike some detainees – by no means the majority – Nadar and Amadullah never passed through Canadian hands on their way to NDS interrogation. But others at the prison did – and there are 136 men in the cells who are NDS transfers, political prisoners, out of a jail population of about 800. By law, the NDS can keep detainees for only 72 hours after which they must apply to the Ministry of the Attorney General for permission to extend that custody where warranted. Ultimately, all the prisoners are transferred to Sarposa.

The alleged torment of detainees at the un-tender mercies of the NDS has triggered a firestorm in Ottawa, with accusations that Canada is complicit in their abuse because they were turned over by Canadian troops as per a transfer agreement signed with Afghanistan in 2005.
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Troops 'kill five in Afghanistan' 
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
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US-led coalition forces and Afghan police have shot dead five militants in a clash in southern Helmand province, a coalition statement says.
Three vehicles came speeding towards the checkpoint in Zara Kalay village and failed to stop, the statement said.

Eight militants came out of the cars and started firing - troops returned fire, killing five, it said.

Violence has surged in recent weeks. About 4,000 people were killed in Afghanistan last year.

Protests

The south of the country is a stronghold of the Taleban and has seen an increasing number of attacks by insurgents over the past year.

The US-led coalition statement said the three remaining militants in the Helmand clash managed to escape.
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Villagers return after 75 suspected insurgents killed by NATO offensive in Afghanistan .
By Fisnik Abrashi ASSOCIATED PRESS 5:34 p.m. May 1, 2007
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SANGIN VALLEY, Afghanistan – Villagers trickled back to their damaged farms, descending from the hills with their belongings in bundles or on donkeys Tuesday after a NATO operation in their valley killed some 75 suspected Taliban fighters.
The latest salvo in the alliance's campaign to win control of southern Afghanistan chalked up a clear military victory. But the outcome of the tougher battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans remained unclear.

The suspected militants were killed Monday when heavily armed British, Danish and Afghan soldiers fought their way up the Sangin Valley in Helmand province – Afghanistan's most volatile, and the source of most of the world's opium and heroin.
Maj. Dominic Biddick, who led a company of British troops in the operation, told The Associated Press that some of those killed Monday were local men whose deaths could turn their relatives against the NATO troops. Afghan troops were meeting with residents about how to bury the remains.

Biddick said NATO troops also captured several militants and discovered an arms cache during “a full day of fighting” among the valley's walled compounds and opium poppy fields.
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UN-BACKED BODY SAYS RECONSTRUCTION PLAN FOR AFGHANISTAN ON TRACK
Press Release - UN News Center May 1 2007
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The high-level United Nations-backed body tasked with overseeing the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year reconstruction blueprint for the war-ravaged country, said today that since its inaugural meeting last year, the implementation of the plan - which aims to bolster security, economic development and counter-narcotics efforts - is on track.

However, the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) also noted that while the Compact is capitalizing on momentum to meet both short and long-term goals, it is necessary to translate these efforts into meaningful changes for a majority of Afghans.

"Last year was successful," said Ishaq Nadiri, JDMB co-chair, professor and senior economic adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, referring to the problem-solving mechanism established and implemented. "We are glad that there is progress to report, but we must focus more energy on implementation to ensure that this progress soon becomes more evident on the ground."

He added that the Compact's success was challenged unexpectedly by the unstable security situation in the south and south-east of the country.

Meeting at the Afghan capital Kabul, the body welcomed increased commitments to meet the country's most pressing needs. The number of Afghanistan National Police officers has been raised temporarily to 82,000, and enhanced coordination on energy issues has yielded beneficial results. In addition, the Government and its partners have made progress in attaining the benchmarks of the Compact, which was adopted last January.

In terms of short-term targets, successes include the functionality of the National Assembly, the start of Government discussions with its partners on investment in natural resource harvesting and the coming into effect of four key laws regarding investment and the private sector.

Regarding longer-term benchmarks, the JCMB reported that school enrolment has surged 12 per cent to 5.4 million students, of whom 35 per cent are girls. Over 80 per cent of Afghans now have access to basic health services, while 132 million square metres of land has been cleared of mines since last March.
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Global terror report: steep hike in Iraq, Afghanistan
US intelligence analysis shows sharp increase in 2006 attacks and casualties, with Iran as chief sponsor.
By Jesse Nunes | csmonitor.com May 01, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. EDT
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An annual US Department of State report on terrorism indicates that Iraq and Afghanistan saw huge jumps in terrorist attacks in 2006, and an even larger increase in the number of civilians injured or killed in those attacks.

The report, released Monday on the State Department website, is titled "Country Reports on Terrorism 2006," and includes statistics gathered from the National Counterterrorism Center. Although the report shows that overall incidents of terrorism worldwide increased by 25 percent over 2005, the jump was much higher in Iraq and Afghanistan, which together accounted for more than half of the 14,338 reported terrorist incidents worldwide in 2006.

According to the report, Afghanistan saw nearly 750 terror incidents last year, a 53 percent increase, while there were nearly 3,000 such attacks in Iraq, an increase of 91 percent. In both countries, the number of people "killed, injured, or kidnapped" rose significantly: by 91 percent (to 6,630) in Afghanistan, and by 88 percent (to 38,813) in Iraq. [Editor's Note: The original version had the incorrect percentages for Iraq's increase in attacks and casualties.]
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Czech diplomat attacked in Afghanistan; 2 guards wounded
The Associated Press Tuesday, May 1, 2007
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KABUL, Afghanistan: Insurgents opened fire on a vehicle carrying a Czech diplomat traveling Tuesday in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan, wounding two diplomatic guards, officials said.

The Czech charge d'affaires, Filip Velach, was not hurt in the daytime attack, which occurred about 100 kilometers (63 miles) south of Kabul, Czech Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova said.

Velach sought refuge in a villager's home and was rescued by Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces, officials said.

The two Czech guards were slightly hurt, Opletalova said.

"This stupid guy went there with two bodyguards, who were wounded. The Taliban attacked them, and he ran into a village to hide," said Paktia province Gov. Rahmatullah Rahmat.

The U.S.-led coalition sent a patrol to the area, secured the site, and evacuated the people to a U.S. base in Paktia, said coalition spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch.
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Corporal speaks of his recovery from deadly blast
Updated Wed. May. 2 2007 6:41 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Cpl. Shaun Fevens said when a roadside bomb ripped through the light-armoured vehicle he was riding in west of Kandahar City, it felt like he was surrounded by water.

"When the blast hit, I didn't go unconscious," said Fevens, who described his recovery from the Easter Sunday blast that killed six of his fellow soldiers.

"The pressure of the blast was like jumping into a deep pool of water. It was bright, so I couldn't see anything, and psychologically my ears had shut off. You can hear stuff, but it's not clear."

Fevens returned to Nova Scotia on April 13, five days after the blast, but spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday at an informal news conference in Halifax. He waited, he said, out of respect for the families of the other soldiers.

Fevens was the most seriously injured of the four soldiers who survived, suffering a broken ankle and leg, burns, and shrapnel wounds in his wrist.

With great composure and with his girlfriend at his side, Fevens recounted the events of April 8.

"As we were rolling, we just came across an obstacle we normally come across everyday. This time we crossed it and we just didn't have as much good luck as we normally do. We struck the IED and that's what caused the destruction."

Cpl. Brent Poland, Master Cpl. Christopher Stannix, Sgt. Don Lucas, Cpl. Aaron Williams, Pte. Kevin Kennedy and Pte. David Greenslade were killed instantly.
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Afghanistan asks Iran not to force out Afghan refugees
Tuesday May 01, 2007 (0231 PST)
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KABUL: Afghanistan called on neighbouring Iran to stop repatriating tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, saying the destitute country could not afford to resettle them.
More than 25,000 Afghans have been sent back by Iranian authorities since April 21, and more are being forced out, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"We would like to ask Iran to not repatriate Afghan refugees. Our capacity is very limited to receive a big number of refugees," foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said.

"Taking into consideration our good relations with Iran and international laws for refugees, we expect the Iranian government not to force out refugees in big numbers. It would create lots of problems for us here," Baheen said.
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85 Killed in 2006 Afghan school attacks
Tuesday May 01, 2007 (0231 PST)
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KABUL: At least 85 students and teachers were killed last year in attacks blamed on insurgents who oppose education for girls and teaching boys anything other than religion, Afghanistan's education minister said.
Insurgents also burned down 187 schools, while 350 closed because of security concerns, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said.

The enemy of our nation ... has targeted our education system through destruction and inhumanity," Atmar told thousands of students at a stadium in Kabul in a speech marking Education Day. Militants are "killing our innocent teachers and students and burning our schools."
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Lalani new Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan
Tuesday May 01, 2007 (0231 PST)
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KABUL: The Canadian government has announced the appointment of Arif Lalani as its new ambassador to Afghanistan.
About the appointment, taking immediate effect, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay said: Mr. Lalani brings a wealth of experience and a track record of leadership to his new post."

According to a statement from the Canadian embassy here, MacKay hoped Lalani, a graduate from the University of British Columbia, would ensure that Canada continued to make an important contribution to helping the government and people of Afghanistan rebuild their country.

Lalani succeeds David Sproule, who MacKay thanked for his outstanding dedication as Canadas ambassador to Afghanistan since 2005. Sproule will now serve in an advisory capacity to the associate deputy minister of foreign affairs and interdepartmental coordinator for Afghanistan.
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British Death Toll Hits 200
Thursday May 03, 2007 (0426 PST)
Article Link

LONDON: BRITISH military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan reached the bloody milestone of 200 yesterday.
Troops in Iraq have come under increasing fire and, in Afghanistan, they have begun a huge push against the Taliban.

In both war zones, UK forces are facing a sophisticated and reinforced enemy.

Yesterday, the death toll in Iraq reached 147 after a Royal Signals soldier was killed when his bicycle was struck by a coach in Basra.

A probe is being carried out into his "non-battle" death.

In Afghanistan, the grim total since the 2001 "toppling" of the Taliban has hit 53.
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Afghan insecurity putting pressure on NGOs
Wednesday May 02, 2007 (0220 PST)
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KABUL: Amid kidnappings, assassinations, bombings and all-out battles, aid groups say Afghanistan's violence is forcing them to cut back on efforts to help the destitute country's neediest people.
Worryingly, the security threat is growing in areas outside the southern stomping grounds of insurgents and the drugs mafia, where the non-governmental organisations which are sticking it out are already taking precautions, one analyst said.

The Taliban's demand for France to pull out its troops or for Kabul to free prisoners in return for the release of one French and three Afghan aid workers has raised concerns about a trend in kidnappings for political reasons rather than financial gain.

A French woman being held with them was freed Saturday.

The government's release in March of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian hostage has had an "encouraging effect on these kinds of problems," said Handicap International country director Arnaud Quemin.
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Over tea, Afghan prisoners describe torture
TheStar.com May 02, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

Warden keeps watchful eye as Taliban operatives speak

KANDAHAR–They've been to hell and survived it. Now they're in prison purgatory and blessedly thankful for it.

In this purgatory – Sarposa Provincial Prison, the largest and central detention facility in Kandahar province – there's even tea with the warden in his office and candy in a crystal goblet, a pleasant if suspiciously contrived tableau.

A damn sight better than whippings with electric cables and hanging upside down from metal hooks in the ceiling, limbs bound, or trussed and shackled in cages so constrictive a grown man couldn't stand upright – all torture allegedly inflicted during an earlier period of incarceration in the notorious National Directorate of Security headquarters across town.

These two inmates, both convicted as Taliban operatives – completely innocent, they each insist – have been summoned here to be interviewed by the Star, which was provided unrestricted access to the jail yesterday afternoon by the chief warden, Col. Abdul Qadar.

Mohammed Nadar, 43, is serving a seven-year sentence; Amadullah, 35, is down for 14 years.

They're wearing traditional Afghan garb rather than prison uniforms. Neither exhibits any outward sign of injury. Those scars have healed, they say, since being transferred to Sarposa from the widely feared NDS, this country's intelligence police agency, usually mentioned only in whispers.
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Hockey day in Kandahar
TheStar.com May 03, 2007 Rosie DiManno Columnist
Article Link

KANDAHAR – Violence in hockey. Or maybe hockey in violence.

It is a war zone, after all, just beyond the wire.

Either way, the late-game, not-entirely-pseudo-fight between Tiger Williams, ex-NHL pugilist, and Michael Loder, current Canadian soldier, was the crowd-pleasing highlight of yesterday's opening game here between old farts and young Turks.

Well, not all so very young on Team Task Force. Goalie Steve Bassindale – that's Major Bassindale off the ball hockey court – is a silver-haired 43, up there in Eddie Belfour territory, and victimized on all the goals in a 7-1 loss to Team Canada alumni.

Less lopsided than the score would suggest, the game was lively and hugely entertaining, with several hundred spectators – Canadians, Americans, Dutch, Brits, a few Jordanians and some very puzzled Afghans – looking on as the game was contested under a brutal morning sun, just off the boardwalk at Kandahar Airfield.

"We were going at each other all
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New Afghan prisoner deal
TheStar.com May 03, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau
Article Link

OTTAWA – The federal government – facing a daily firestorm over Afghanistan’s treatment of prisoners – today signed a new deal giving Canadians full access to prisoners as well as Afghan detention facilities.
The existence of the new deal was announced not in Kabul where it was signed but rather in an Ottawa courtroom, where human rights advocates were seeking an injunction to bar the transfers of prisoners by Canadian troops into the hands of Afghan authorities.

Federal Court Justice Michael Kelen called the new agreement a “major development” and said it’s likely the possibility of a court injunction forced the government’s hand.

“It probably wouldn’t have happened if this court case hadn’t been happening,” he told a packed courtroom.

He said government lawyers filed a new affidavit, containing news of the deal, at 9.30 a.m., just as the urgent application for the injunction was about to be heard.

Federal officials have long insisted that the original prisoner transfer agreement signed in late 2005 –when the previous Liberal government was in charge – was adequate to protect detainees, even though it lacked safeguards like the right to follow-up visits secured by other allied countries, such as Britain and The Netherlands.

Even this week, Conservative cabinet ministers were digging in their heels, downplaying the reports of torture and suggesting the allegations were Taliban lies.

But today, the federal Conservatives decided to act, apparently keen to dampen the political furor that has created confusion and chaos among cabinet ministers scrambling to deal with the fallout.
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British Death Toll Hits 200
Thursday May 03, 2007 (0426 PST)
Article Link

LONDON: BRITISH military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan reached the bloody milestone of 200 yesterday.
Troops in Iraq have come under increasing fire and, in Afghanistan, they have begun a huge push against the Taliban.

In both war zones, UK forces are facing a sophisticated and reinforced enemy.

Yesterday, the death toll in Iraq reached 147 after a Royal Signals soldier was killed when his bicycle was struck by a coach in Basra.

A probe is being carried out into his "non-battle" death.
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Former PM approved detainee deal: papers
Martin gave nod 2 years ago to negotiate agreement
Thu May 3 2007 By Andrew Mayeda and Mike Blanchfield
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OTTAWA -- Former prime minister Paul Martin gave approval almost two years ago to then-defence minister Bill Graham to negotiate a detainee transfer agreement with the Afghanistan government, government documents obtained by CanWest News Service show.
The revelation, contained in cabinet correspondence and Defence Department briefing notes, comes as the Harper government continues to face heavy criticism over allegations Afghan detainees were abused after being transferred to Afghan authorities.

The documents show that Martin, now an ordinary Liberal MP who has yet to speak publicly on the controversy, was briefed on the outlines of the agreement more than six months before it was signed.

In a May 27, 2005 letter from Graham to Martin, the former prime minister was told that Canada planned to negotiate an agreement with the Afghan government that would spell out "explicit undertakings" on how the detainees would be treated.

The same day as the letter, Graham "authorized the Canadian Forces to seek arrangements with relevant authorities on the transfer of detainees," according to a Defence Department briefing note.

"The Prime Minister concurred with this approach on 10 June 2005," the note states.   
The documents appear to undermine an increasingly popular view in Ottawa's corridors of power that says Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, acted without proper government authority when he signed the detainee deal on behalf of the Canadian government in Kabul on Dec. 18, 2005.
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Articles found May 4, 2007

Spain rules out sending more troops in Afghanistan
MADRID, May 4, 2007 (AFP)
Article Link

Spain will not send more troops to Afghanistan to reinforce the 700 soldiers it already has deployed in the NATO-led force in the country, Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said Friday.

"We do not plan to augment our troops and it is not necessary," he told a joint news conference with his visiting Portuguese counterpart Nuno Severiano Teixeira.

Spain will, however, send two teams of some 50 soldiers to Afghanistan at the end of May or in early June to help train the Afghan military, he said.

The minister was reacting to comments made by a Spanish military commander in Afghanistan who said Thursday that Madrid should send reinforcements to the west of the country to help put out growing Taliban violence there.

"The greater the military presence, the easier it will be to guarantee security," Colonel Miguel Garcia de las Hijas, chief of general staff of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in western Afghanistan, told daily newspaper El Pais.
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1 Czech soldier dies in road accident in northern Afghanistan
The Associated Press Friday, May 4, 2007
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PRAGUE, Czech Republic: A mudslide in northern Afghanistan swept a Czech military vehicle off a road, killing one soldier and seriously injuring another, Czech officials said Friday.

The accident happened Thursday during a heavy thunderstorm while the troops were on a routine patrol, Defense Ministry spokesman Andrej Cirtek said. Four servicemen were injured slightly in the incident, the ministry said later in a statement.

The Czech Republic opened a diplomatic representation office in Kabul last month. It has about 150 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, and has plans to increase the total to about 225 later this year.
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British soldier killed in Afghanistan
8.58, Thu May 3 2007
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A British soldier has been shot dead by militants in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The soldier, a member of Number 3 Company of the Grenadier Guards, was killed when the checkpoint he was manning near the town of Garmsir in Helmand Province came under attack from a force of between eight and ten Taliban fighters.

An MoD spokeswoman said: "The Grenadiers returned fire with small arms and during the ensuing gun battle, the soldier, who was manning a general purpose machine gun, sustained a gunshot wound."

"As the fire fight intensified, with the Taliban using rocket propelled grenades as well as small arms, ISAF forces called in support from British artillery."
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U.S. Military Probes Reports Of Afghan Civilian Deaths
May 4, 2007 (RFE/RL)
Article Link

The U.S. military has opened an investigation into allegations that scores of civilians were killed recently in fighting between U.S. and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

The reports coincide with mounting public pressure on President Hamid Karzai and his international allies over noncombatant deaths as a violent insurgency continues.

The U.S. investigation was triggered by reports that at least 40 civilians died in western Afghanistan this week after U.S. special forces called in air strikes and an AC-130 gunship attack on Taliban positions.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeil, said initial evidence suggested that "only firing insurgents were targeted" by his forces.

"The New York Times" quoted McNeil acknowledging the "allegations of civilian casualties" and saying it is "regrettable" if there have been such deaths.
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Aussie soldier wounded in Afghanistan
04 May 2007
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An Australian soldier was wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up next to NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan, while a British soldier was killed fighting militants, officials said.

The suicide attack happened four kilometres north-east of Camp Holland, the main Dutch base in southern Oruzgan province, and appeared to target Australian reconstruction workers, said Lieutenant Colonel Robin Middel, a Dutch defence ministry spokesman.

Australia's Department of Defence confirmed the injured Australian soldier was a member of the reconstruction task force serving in Afghanistan.

After the attack the soldier, who suffered minor wounds, was taken to the provincial capital for treatment.

"An Afghan national, identified as the attacker, was killed during the incident," a defence spokesman said in a statement.
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Danish army reports death of fourth soldier in Afghanistan
May 04, 2007         
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A Danish soldier has died after he was injured in a battle in Afghanistan, bringing the number of Danish soldiers to die in Afghanistan to four, the Danish army said Thursday.

The soldier, 24, was shot in the neck last Sunday when the Danish troops were attacked near Denmark's Camp Bastion in the southern Helmand province in Afghanistan, Danish Army head Maj. Gen. Poul Kiaerskou said in a statement.

Seriously injured, the soldier was sent to a field hospital and then transferred to the Copenhagen University hospital.

It is the fourth death of Danish soldiers since they were sent to Afghanistan on mission in January 2002.

A spokesman for the Danish army said that it was the first time that a Danish soldier had been killed in combat in Afghanistan.

In March 2002, three Danish soldiers were killed in an explosion when they were defusing missiles in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.
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Afstan: More Bulgarians, fewer Romanians
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/05/afstan-more-bulgarians-fewer-romanians.html

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found April 5, 2007

Canadian troops attempting to block Taliban
Updated Sat. May. 5 2007 8:17 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- Canadian soldiers are setting up camp in the south of Kandahar province in hopes of deterring Taliban activity in the area.

A convoy of trucks, LAV-IIIs and Coyote armoured vehicles rolled into town to reclaim part of an old forward operating base just six kilometres from the Pakistan border.

Master Warrant Officer Bill Richards of the Royal Canadian Dragoons says the last time Canadians were here was about seven months ago.

He says Canada is 'coming in heavy' in an effort to discourage Taliban insurgents from operating in the Spin Boldak district.

There's not much on the base except for a few abandoned structures, but Richards says that won't be a problem for his troops
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Rights groups balk over Ottawa`s Afghan prisoner deal by
Saturday May 05, 2007 (0339 PST)
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OTTAWA: Rights groups were blindsided in court by a deal that would allow Ottawa to monitor Taliban prisoners transferred into Afghan custody, amid allegations that some of the inmates have been tortured.

For months, the rights groups and opposition parties have sparred with the government over the treatment of Afghan prisoners, once handed over to Afghan authorities.

But the government has repeatedly denied allegations of torture by Kabul, and insisted safeguards were put in place to prevent such.

The squabble ended up in court Thursday with rights group seeking an injunction to halt the transfers.
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Bomb attack on Afghan army bus in capital kills one, injures 29
Friday May 04, 2007 (0720 PST)
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KABUL: A remote-control bomb hit an Afghan army bus in the capital Thursday, killing the driver and wounding 29 people, including 22 soldiers, officials said.
The bomb was placed in a cart on the side of the road and exploded when the bus passed by, said Ali Riza, an Afghan National Army officer at the scene. The driver of the bus was killed and 22 soldiers were wounded, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a Defence Ministry spokesman.

Seven civilians also were wounded, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, the Kabul police director of criminal investigation. He said the army was the target.
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U.S. raid kills 13 Afghans [Spin Boldak again]
Edmonton Sun, May 5
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2007/05/05/4155901-sun.html

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- A bombing raid by U.S.-led forces battling the Taliban killed at least 13 civilians, raising to 70 the number of civilian deaths reported this week, an Afghan official said.

The rising toll of civilian casualties will put further pressure on President Hamid Karzai, who warned this week of serious consequences if the bloodshed did not stop.

The civilians were killed in bombing on Tuesday in the Maroof district of southern Kandahar province, near the border with Pakistan, Janan Gulzai said yesterday...

They were travelling in three cars along the same stretch of road as coalition troops near the town of Spin Boldak when the troops came under Taliban fire, area resident Ghulam Farooq said.

Coalition warplanes were called in to bomb the area. The Taliban escaped.

If deaths spike, we should retreat: Poll
48% question Conservative government's handling of mission

Edmonton Sun, May 6
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/05/06/4157643-sun.html

Nearly half of Canadians think the Conservative government is fumbling the war effort in Afghanistan and a majority want to bring the troops home if the death toll continues to mount.

A new SES Research-Sun Media poll finds 54.6% of Canadians want a withdrawal if casualties climb, compared to 39.3% who see fallen soldiers as an unfortunate but necessary part of the mission.

"Canadians look at what the trade-offs are in terms of whether the mission can succeed -- not just the financial cost of the mission but the human cost," said SES President Nik Nanos. "I think it's pretty clear that a majority of Canadians think if the casualties continue, then we should have a pull-out."

The difference of opinion is most stark with Conservative voters, who are much more likely than Liberal, NDP, Bloc Quebecois or Green supporters to accept blood in the war zone. But Nanos said it's not even a slam-dunk for committed Tories, since nearly 40% would call for a troop withdrawal if casualties continue.

Nanos said the numbers suggest a major incident with a high death count could smash the foundation of support for the mission and escalate the issue politically for the Conservatives...

...Just more than 48% saying they disagree or somewhat disagree with the government's course and almost 44% say they agree or somewhat agree with how the operation has been handled...

The poll also reveals a whopping 67% of Canadians believe Canada's presence in Afghanistan is actually making our country more vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has consistently sold the mission as a way to bring democracy to Afghans while keeping the terrorist threat at bay, yet only 17.9% of Canadians believe our military might is cutting Canada's risk of an attack at home...

The poll also reveals that 54.6% don't think Canada and NATO have deployed the necessary resources in Afghanistan to succeed.

Pressure rises on PM over war
Toronto Sun, May 6, by Lorrie Goldstien
http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Commentary/2007/05/06/4157792-sun.html

Anyway you look at it, today's SES Research/Sun Media poll on the attitude of Canadians to our military mission in Afghanistan is bad news for Prime Minister Stephen Harper...

Of course, "cutting and running," as Harper has dismissively described it, isn't an option.

Not if the PM is a leader worthy of the name who believes in what he says.

But he does need a new defence minister who can effectively explain to Canadians why we're in Kandahar.

After 15 months in office, highlighted by his recent incompetent performance over allegations that detainees handed over by our soldiers to Afghan authorities were tortured, it's obvious Gordon O'Connor isn't that minister. But simply putting in someone with better communication skills won't do any good unless he or she has a better message to communicate.

Canadians are rightly concerned about the disproportionate burden placed on our soldiers in Kandahar, while other NATO countries shirk their responsibilities. Right now, it looks as if NATO either doesn't know how to make this mission work, or doesn't care if it succeeds. Harper must deliver that message forcefully to our allies.

Realistically, there's no easy or quick way to change the views of the two-thirds of Canadians who believe our mission in Afghanistan makes us more vulnerable to terrorism at home. That said, deciding the best way to defend Canada's security is the PM's responsibility alone [I thought it was the Cabinet's under the Westminster system but things do seem to have changed - MC], and it's more important that he be right rather than popular...

A loud warning shot
Canadians losing their stomach for a war many see as futile will be bad news for Harper in an election

Toronto Sun, May 6, By GREG WESTON
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2007/05/06/4157975-sun.html

If a federal election were underway today, Afghanistan would almost certainly be a major battleground of the campaign, and could easily become a political killing field for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

That is the overwhelming political message of the exclusive SES Research-Sun Media poll taken over the past 10 days and released today.

For the Conservative minority government, the survey should be a loud warning shot that public support for Canada's continuing military role in the Afghan conflict is going south, and could head into full retreat in the face of mounting casualties among our troops.

Nowhere is the Afghanistan war more unpopular than in Quebec, the seat-rich province that Harper has consistently tried to court as the key to a Conservative majority government.

Among Quebecers polled by SES, 56% said Canada should pull out of Afghanistan if the death toll among our troops keeps rising, anti-war sentiments certain to intensify after troops of the Van Doos regiment from that province are deployed to Kandahar later this summer.

As for the opposition Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois, the shifting public opinion is bound to bolster their calls for a Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan.

SES pollster Nik Nanos says the survey suggests public opinion on Afghanistan could put the Conservatives' quest for a majority squarely in the crosshairs of an election campaign.

"The message could be, 'If you are uncomfortable with Afghanistan, do you really want to give Stephen Harper and the Conservatives a majority mandate to run the war?' "..

Throwing more money, guns and tanks at the conflict isn't likely to change the views of most Quebecers, either...

...Afghanistan is looming ever larger as the Conservatives' worst nightmare.
 

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found May 6, 2007

Roadside bomb kills 13 police in Afghanistan
Updated Sun. May. 6 2007 7:24 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A roadside bomb killed five police and wounded two others on

Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, while a clash in the west left eight police and at

least four suspected militants dead, officials said.

The latest violence comes amid an escalation in spring attacks and military

operations after a winter lull.

A remote-controlled mine blew up as a police convoy was passing, killing five

officers and wounding two others in the Chola district of eastern Ghazni province,

said deputy governor Qazim Allayar.

In western Farah province, insurgents ambushed a police convoy on Saturday in Bakwa

district, and the ensuing six-hour gun battle left eight police and at least four

suspected militants dead, said police chief Gen. Sayed Aqa Saqib.

Intelligence reports indicate that 17 suspected militants were killed or wounded in

the clash, but only four bodies of the insurgents remained at the scene after the

gun battle, while others were removed by the attackers, Saqib said. Two other

policemen were wounded, he said.
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Cdn. peacekeeper among nine dead in Sinai crash
Updated Sun. May. 6 2007 7:28 AM ET Associated Press
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CAIRO, Egypt -- Nine foreign peacekeepers, including French and Canadian soldiers,

were killed Sunday when a French plane attached to the Sinai's multinational

peacekeeping force crashed in a remote, mountainous area of the desert, the force's

spokesman and police said.

Force spokesman Normand St. Pierre said as many as eight of the dead were French,

but did not have exact figures. He said a "higher than normal" load of passengers

and crew were aboard the aircraft at the time of the crash because it was on a

training mission.

Capt. Mohammed Badr, a police officer in Sinai, said the nine who were killed

included a mix of French and Canadian soldiers, but could not provide an exact

breakdown. He said one of the plane's wings hit a car on its way down, but the

driver escaped unharmed.

The crash occurred in the middle of the vast Sinai Peninsula near the village of

el-Thamad, about 50 miles southeast of a town called Nakhl, said Badr.

Ahmed Fadhel, the press officer at the French Embassy in Cairo, had no immediate

comment. The Defense Ministry in Paris also had no immediate comment.
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DND issues clarification on Afghan abuse story
Updated Sat. May. 5 2007 7:45 PM ET Canadian Press
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The Canadian Forces has released more details about an incident in which

soldiers in Afghanistan intervened to save a civilian who was being abused.

Reports of the June 2006 incident, taken from court transcripts, caused an uproar in

the Commons on Friday.

Lt.-Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, said Saturday that

the way the incident has been portrayed is inaccurate.

In cross-examination involving a lawsuit by Amnesty International, Col. Mike Noonan

described an incident in which Canadian soldiers had to take custody of an Afghan

man whom they suspected of being beaten by Afghan National Police officers. It was

initially suggested the man had been captured by Canadian soldiers.

But Natynczyk said that's not the case and the individual had simply been questioned

by soldiers in the village of Zangabad, 50 kilometres southwest of Kandahar.

The incident was used as illustration by Opposition parties that Canadian soldiers

had handed prisoners over to abusive Afghan authorities, contrary to assurances by

the Conservative government that no such incident had taken place.

Natynczyk said the Afghan man was later picked up by police, and Canadian soldiers,

who later came across him, noticed he had been injured.
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Why NATO misreads the Afghan rulebook
Article Link

In an essay adapted from her new memoir, Hamida Ghafour draws on her family history

to explain what's gone wrong with Canada's mission in her ancestral homeland
HAMIDA GHAFOUR

When I hear about the latest battles between Pashtun insurgents and NATO soldiers in

Afghanistan, I recall an old family tale.

Before the Afghan monarchy was abolished in 1973, the royal family enjoyed hunting

trips to the eastern regions of Nuristan and Kunar to stalk deer and shoot red-eyed

partridges.

But these hunting trips were also diplomatic missions to the blue-eyed tribes that

lived in the high valleys. Kabul relied on their powerful tribal aristocracy to keep

the kingdom at peace.

My ancestors were among those families. My great-grandfather Pacha Sahib was a

revered Sufi mystic who converted the pagans of the area to Islam in the late 19th

century. Later he mediated between the warring Pashtun tribes and ensured they did

not rise up against Kabul.
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Canadians growing weary of war
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA NATIONAL BUREAU
Article Link

An SES-Sun Media survey shows support for Canada's role is falling as troop

casualties mount.

OTTAWA -- Nearly half of Canadians think the Conservative government is fumbling the

war effort in Afghanistan and a majority want to bring our troops home if the death

toll continues to mount.

A new SES Research-Sun Media poll finds 54.6 per cent of Canadians want a withdrawal

if casualties climb, compared to 39.3 per cent who see fallen soldiers as an

unfortunate but necessary part of the mission.

"Canadians look at what the tradeoffs are in terms of whether the mission can

succeed -- not just the financial cost of the mission, but the human cost," said

pollster Nik Nanos, SES president. "It's pretty clear that a majority of Canadians

think if the casualties continue, then we should have a pullout."

Since Canada's Afghanistan mission began in 2002, one diplomat and 54 soldiers --

including six from Southwestern Ontario -- have died.

In the SES survey, the difference of opinion in support for the Afghanistan mission

is most stark with Conservative voters -- much more likely than Liberal, NDP, Bloc

Quebecois or Green supporters to accept bloodshed in the war zone.

But Nanos said it's not even a slam-dunk for committed Tories, since nearly 40 per

cent would call for a troop withdrawal if casualties continue.

He said the numbers suggest a major incident with a high death count could smash the

foundation of support for the mission and escalate the issue politically.

As the controversy rages over reports of torture and abuse of detainees in Kandahar,

Canadians are divided on how well the government is managing the mission. Slightly

more than 48 per cent say they disagree or somewhat disagree with the government's

course and almost 44 per cent say they agree or somewhat agree with how the

operation has been handled.
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Canadian soldiers walk fine line on Afghanistan's poppy crops
Sat May 5 12:10:10 CDT 2007 JAMES MCCARTEN AND A.R. KHAN
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Nearly a century since the humble poppy first blossomed as an enduring symbol of military sacrifice, Canada's soldiers find themselves shoulder-deep in flowers of a very different colour, striking a delicate diplomatic balance between policy and practicality.
The opium poppies that blanket Afghanistan in spring are far different and a great deal more treacherous than the red Remembrance Day variety that bloom on city streets in November.

As Canadian soldiers patrol the vibrant pink opium fields of southern Afghanistan, they walk a narrow bridge of neutral territory that divides the Afghan government's U.S.-backed program to rid the country of poppies from the interests of dirt-poor growers whose help keeps coalition soldiers alive.

"We walk through fields all the time; every time we were patrolling through the towns, we'd walk through all kinds of (opium) poppy fields, everywhere," said Maj. Steve Graham, a squadron commander with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, just back from two months in the volatile Zhari district west of Kandahar.

Graham and his soldiers took pains to distance themselves from the poppy-eradication teams of President Hamid Karzai, even as they worked alongside members of the Afghan National Police - the same agency that provides security for the crews tasked with destroying the crops.
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Articles found May 7, 2007

Artillery arrives for Canadians in Afghanistan
Updated Mon. May. 7 2007 7:41 AM ET Canadian Press
Article Link

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- Some heavy artillery has arrived in this southern border town to lend support to Canadian soldiers on patrol.

Two Canadian M777 Howitzer cannons made a dramatic arrival by helicopter at the forward operating base just six kilometres from the Pakistan border.

A pair of Chinook helicopters thundered into view over the horizon, the guns dangling below, before dropping their cargo off in the desert.

Soldiers from the 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery were on hand to secure the cannons and tow them into the base.

Over the past three days, the base at Spin Boldak -- all but abandoned when Canadians began arriving on Saturday -- has turned into a hive of activity.

Master Warrant Officer Bill Richards of the Royal Canadian Dragoons says it's nice to have more boots on the ground as the Canadians prepare for their patrols in the area.
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Spain rules out sending more troops in Afghanistan
Sunday May 06, 2007 (0916 PST)
Article Link

MADRID: Spain will not send more troops to Afghanistan to reinforce the 700 soldiers it already has deployed in the NATO-led force in the country, Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.
"We do not plan to augment our troops and it is not necessary," he told a joint news conference with his visiting Portuguese counterpart Nuno Severiano Teixeira.

Spain will, however, send two teams of some 50 soldiers to Afghanistan at the end of May or in early June to help train the Afghan military, he said.

The minister was reacting to comments made by a Spanish military commander in Afghanistan who said Thursday that Madrid should send reinforcements to the west of the country to help put out growing Taliban violence there.

"The greater the military presence, the easier it will be to guarantee security," Colonel Miguel Garcia de las Hijas, chief of general staff of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in western Afghanistan, told daily newspaper El Pais.
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Why the disabled do Taliban's deadly work
By SONYA FATAH  Monday, May 7, 2007 – Page A1
Article Link

With so few rehabilitation services available, suicide attacks can offer easy escape

KABUL -- The suicide bombing at a Kabul Internet café drew attention for a number of reasons: It was one of the first in the Afghan capital after the fall of the Taliban; it struck a spot popular with foreigners; and a UN worker was among those who died along with the attacker, Qari Samiullah.

But a little-known fact about that 2005 blast offers a clue into the workings of the insurgents who recruit suicide bombers, and what, apart from religious propaganda, has motivated about 200 men to blow themselves up: In addition to being a deeply religious man, Mr. Samiullah was disabled.

His disability didn't come as a surprise. As the insurgency in Afghanistan gathers urgency, the Taliban and other forces are recruiting marginalized and vulnerable groups to carry out suicide attacks while men from their own ranks keep up the ground offensive.

The pool of the disenchanted and hopeless is large in Afghanistan -- people left on the fringes by their economic, physical or mental circumstances -- and there are few services to rehabilitate them after three decades of war.

"Almost 90 per cent of [suicide bombers] are people with some form of disability," forensic expert Yusuf Yadgari said.
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No word on motive for killings of two U-S soldiers in Afghanistan
May 07, 2007 02:12 EDT
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Two American soldiers working as mentors to Afghan troops have been shot dead and two others wounded. U-S officials say the gunman was an Afghan soldier.

The shooter was posted outside a prison being revamped to house Afghans transferred from Guantanamo Bay. He was shot to death by other Afghan troops.

The shootings took place Sunday at a prison some 20 miles east of Kabul.

No word on a motive for the attack.

The revamp is supposed to improve security at the jail, which is infamous among Afghans for tales of torture and appalling conditions dating back to communist rule in the 1970s. Since the U-S-led invasion in 2001 that topped the Taliban, hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban suspects have been incarcerated there.
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Attacks claim 15 cops’ lives in Afghanistan
Monday, 7 May, 2007, 08:49 AM Doha Time
Article Link

HERAT: New attacks reported in Afghanistan yesterday took to 15 the number of police killed in a weekend of violence, including in the country’s west which has seen a surge in unrest.
Eight policemen were killed in a six-hour battle in the western province of Farah on Saturday when Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol, the provincial police chief said yesterday.
A US-led coalition statement said 17 rebels were killed in the fighting, but Sayed Agha Saqeb said only four of their bodies were recovered from the battlefield.
Another policeman was missing, Saqeb said. “The fighting ceased when we sent reinforcements,” he added.
The attack occurred near the centre of Bakwa district, which was overrun by Taliban late February.  The militants were in control for less than a day before Afghan security forces drove them out.
The coalition said it assisted the police with close air support and sent forces to secure the district centre. Four police vehicles were burned by insurgents, it said.
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Afghanistan: Six wounded in Kabul rocket attack
By ASSOCIATED PRESS May. 7, 2007 8:18
Article Link

A rocket slammed outside a building in the Afghan capital Monday, wounding six people including a small boy, officials said.

The missile struck in a street outside a building complex in Kabul's east, said Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal, the Kabul police director of criminal investigation.

One young boy was seriously wounded and was taken to the hospital, said Hasib Arian, a local police chief
end



Taliban extend deadline again for French aid worker
07 May 2007 07:02:35 GMT Source: Reuters
Article Link

KABUL, May 7 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban extended again on Monday the deadline for a deal to release a kidnapped French aid worker, saying French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy had pressing domestic issues to deal with.

"Since it is a new government, that has to pick its cabinet and deal with the sort out the problems it has (at home), we give them more time about this," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters from an undisclosed location.

"We expect them to get in touch with us."

The Taliban had previously extended the deadline until after Sunday's French election run-off and said Eric Damfreville and three Afghans from Terre d'Enfance, an agency helping children in southern Afghanistan, would be freed if at least one demand was met.
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Afghanistan trying to curb news media
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 7 (UPI)
Article Link

Afghanistan's government is attempting to curb the nation's independent news media, which have flourished since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
For the past year, The New York Times reported, the Afghan government has been trying to quell the growth of the independent news media, as government officials try to fend off accusations of corruption and ineffectiveness. Because of government worries, Parliament is considering amendments that critics say would undo much of the press freedom that has been achieved since the Taliban's fall.

Aqa Fazil Sancharaki -- director of the Afghanistan National Journalists' Union, which has been fighting the amendments -- said he was not optimistic. He said one of his main concerns is the possible establishment of a media commission under strong government control.

"The government does not want to see and hear about its corruption and weaknesses on the media," said Shukria Barakzai, a member of Parliament and a former journalist
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Japan mulls offering military help to Afghanistan
(AFP) 5 May 2007
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TOKYO - Japan will consider enacting a new law to allow the deployment of troops to Afghanistan to help with reconstruction efforts, Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma was Saturday reported as saying.

In a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels, Kyuma suggested Japan was willing to study the possibility of sending troops there, Kyodo News said.

The minister also told reporters that Tokyo would study revising the special anti-terrorism law as an alternative to enable Japanese troops to provide such help, Kyodo said.

The government “would like to conduct a study as to whether we can draw up a law to enable a broad range of activities such as those for enabling the Self Defense Force to go to help a country rebuild itself,” Kyuma said, according to Kyodo.
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Taliban reap rewards of Afghanistan's poppy harvest
Jonathan Fowlie, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, May 05, 2007
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With Afghan officials predicting a 'dark future,' many poor farmers are faced with little choice but to tend their crops of opium poppies that fuels the insurgency, writes Jonathan Fowlie in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The fields of southern Afghanistan are once again alive with poppies and, once again, the forces charged with keeping the controversial crop out of the ground can't seem to do a thing about it.

Millions of brilliant red, white and yellow flowers bob in the gentle spring wind, promising a bumper crop of heroin -- possibly Afghanistan's largest -- will be ready for sale on the streets of Europe and North America by fall.

In a report finalized this week, and obtained by CanWest News Service, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that while poppy eradication in Afghanistan has increased threefold over this time last year, the amount of crop left in the villages for harvest after eradication is also notably on the rise.
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Legislator wants to stop VA bonuses
By ASSOCIATED PRESS Published May 5, 2007
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WASHINGTON - The chairman of a House panel wants to stop hefty bonus payments to senior Veterans Affairs officials until they reduce a severe backlog of veterans waiting for disability benefits.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., said Friday he was introducing legislation to place a hold on this year's bonuses after reports that senior VA officials involved in a budget foul-up, which jeopardized veterans' health care, received performance bonuses ranging up to $33, 000.

Under the measure, 2007 bonuses could not be released until the VA pares its backlog to under 100, 000 cases - a feat the VA has said could take many months, if not years. Currently, the backlog of claims ranges from 400, 000 to more than 600, 000, with delays averaging 177 days.
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Defence orders patrol vehicles in secret [emphasis added] deal
Five Buffalos, five Cougars to be used in action in Afghanistan

ChronicleHerald.ca, May 7
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/833830.html

The Defence Department has quietly signed a deal with a U.S. defence contractor to acquire 10 heavily armoured patrol vehicles.

The US $8.8-million deal was announced by Force Protection Inc. of Charleston, S.C., on its website late last week.
http://www.forceprotection.net/news/news_article.html?id=177

The company will manufacture 10 Buffalo and Cougar mine-protected vehicles — five each — for the Canadian expeditionary force command.

The trucks, which have a V-shaped hull meant to deflect the blasts of roadside bombs, are expected to be delivered in August and are destined for duty in Afghanistan.

"This initial, urgent order will go . . . for immediate deployment," Damon Walsh, a vice-president at Force Protection, said in a statement.

"Based on past performance, we know it will save Canadian lives."

Defence has not commented on the purchase, nor explained why the vehicles are necessary after last year’s acquisition of 75 RG-31 Nyalas from a South African subsidiary of British-owned BAE Systems Inc.

The Nyala, although loved by the troops for the protection that it affords from improvised explosives, went through a series of teething pains.

The vehicle, which has seen service all over the world, was specially modified for Canada’s needs in Afghanistan. Rather being fielded tested to work out the bugs, the Nyalas went straight from the South African assembly line on to the explosive-strewn streets of Kandahar.

Last summer, at the height of fierce fighting with the Taliban, more than a quarter of the fleet was in the shop with maintenance problems, army records show...

Adaptation key in Afghanistan
ChronicleHerald.ca, May 7, by Scott Taylor
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/833933.html

LAST MONTH, there was a report released that indicated the new Canadian armoured vehicles were not making the grade in Kandahar.

The Defence Department documents, released under the Access to Information Act, revealed that more than 25 per cent of the new Nyala RG-31 personnel vehicles had been in maintenance workshops during the heavy combat operations of the Canadian battle group last summer.

One of the common faults with these vehicles was electrical and software malfunctions on the remote-controlled machine gun. Another factor that kept the new Nyala fleet hors de combat was the failure of the Canadian military to acquire enough spare parts for an entire fleet. To keep the maximum number of vehicles in action, some others had to be cannibalized for parts.

At first glance, this would appear to be another case of the Canadian defence procurement system failing to provide our soldiers with the equipment they need when they need it.

While that situation has certainly been the worm over the past two decades, the Nyala project is — albeit not without some teething troubles — a success story...

...it must be pointed out that the Canadian military now averages well over a decade to procure any major piece of equipment. By fielding new vehicles in such a hasty manner, there are bound to be some hiccups.

Furthermore, the estimate of spare parts required would be most likely based on similar vehicles fleets during peacetime training exercises.

One other common weakness of the Nyalas was the necessity to replace the front axles. At least 10 of the new armoured personnel vehicles had to have new axles installed at a cost of some $500,000.

Again, taken at face value, new vehicles of any design should not need major parts replaced after an average of just 550 kilometres of driving. However, when you factor in the circumstances under which our troops are utilizing the Nyalas, it begins to make a little more sense.

Having observed that NATO convoys routinely slowed down at the traffic speed bumps along the Kandahar roadways, the insurgents began using those traffic impediments as the primary sites for their remotely controlled IEDs. Adapting to the Taliban tactics, Canadian drivers now race their 16-ton Nyalas over the speed bumps at 70 kilometres an hour or more.

Naturally enough, the odd axle breaks under such unforeseen impact.

The rapid-pace acquisition of these Nyalas may have resulted in some sensational maintenance-plagued statistics but that should not give the procurement bureaucrats reason to revert to their normally ponderous procedures.

The conflict in Kandahar is one of adaptation. As the insurgents build bigger IEDs, we will continue to employ additional defensive mechanisms and add more armour.

Instead of looking at mistakes made in purchasing the Nyalas, our top brass need to be encouraging their staff to begin an equally swift purchase of their successors.

Artillery arrives to support Canadians
Winnipeg Free Press, May 7
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/3960364p-4572953c.html

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) — Some heavy artillery has arrived in this southern border town to lend support to Canadian soldiers on patrol.

Two Canadian M777 Howitzer cannons made a dramatic arrival by helicopter at the forward operating base just six kilometres from the Pakistan border.

A pair of Chinook helicopters thundered into view over the horizon, the guns dangling below, before dropping their cargo off in the desert.

Soldiers from the 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery were on hand to secure the cannons and tow them into the base.

Over the past three days, the base at Spin Boldak — all but abandoned when Canadians began arriving on Saturday — has turned into a hive of activity.

Master Warrant Officer Bill Richards of the Royal Canadian Dragoons says it’s nice to have more boots on the ground as the Canadians prepare for their patrols in the area.

Beatings of detainees part of Afghan life
Calgary Sun, May 7, by Licia Corbella and Sheila Copps
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Corbella_Licia/2007/05/07/4159848-sun.html

CORBELLA: I thought Liberal party members were supposed to be culturally sensitive? Then why the outrage about Taliban prisoners getting beaten by Afghan authorities? Like it or not, beatings are the Afghan way. I know this because I have been to Afghanistan and witnessed people getting beaten there daily -- children, women, men.

COPPS: The whole point of our presence in Afghanistan is that we are not the Taliban. By your logic any intervention outside Canada should ignore the rules of natural justice and throw the Geneva Convention out the window. George W. may cherry pick parts of the convention he ignores but thankfully most Americans now have his number. If Stephen Harper thinks this is just a liberal issue he is heading down the same solitary road. Unlike George W., Harper can actually run again. But not on his Taliban platform...

CORBELLA: Ah, so Canada does have "values?" You just proved my point. Canada has a dominant culture worth defending and democracy is part of that. It is a shame Taliban prisoners are being beaten by Afghan authorities once Canadians turn them over. The feds are trying to remedy that. Our troops are trying, in part, to teach them "our" values. When I was in Afghanistan, I saw children and women getting beaten, often for no apparent reason. Most Afghans live, at least by our standards, in squalid conditions. No indoor plumbing or heat and not enough food. Those I met said they were far better off than during the Taliban. These are the same complaints being made by some prisoners. To expect prisoners would be treated better than the general populace is admirable, but it will take time. It's a process, Sheila, and like it or not, we are exporting our culture because our culture is better. That is a statement most people in your party have trouble acknowledging. Do you deny this?

COPPS: You would be hard pressed to find any Afghan or Canadian for that matter who would prefer someone else's culture to their own. But you are mixing culture with human rights. There is no single dominant better culture than another. They are simply different. Just pick up a copy of the Newfoundland dictionary and you will see the distinctiveness of their culture. The history and geography of Alberta create a uniqueness that is not better or worse, only different. And as for Quebec, vive la difference. Many cultures make a great country. Afghan people have many deep cultural roots and differences. We are helping build on their culture, not destroy it. Cultural imperialism means certain failure here or there.

CORBELLA: That's what I was hoping you'd say and again, you're proving my point. Your comment: "There is no single dominant better culture than another," is relativistic nonsense. If you really believe that then you would have to agree that suttee -- the Hindu practice of throwing widows on their husband's funeral pyre -- is OK. After all, according to you, that's neither worse nor better, just "different." I agree many cultures make for a great Canada, as long as newcomers embrace and accept -- as most newcomers to Canada do -- the main tenets of our Canadian culture -- freedom, democracy, equality -- all founded on Judeo-Christian principles and British rule of law. People clamour to come here because of those values, not suttee or Sharia. Ultimately, you have defeated your own argument. If we were truly culturally sensitive then prison beatings in Afghanistan wouldn't be a big deal. Beatings are a part of Afghan life. We think they're a big deal because we are exporting our values -- which include the Geneva Convention -- to Afghanistan. But it takes time. It is not something you turn on like a light switch.

COPPS: No culture is above the law and if a Christian man beats his wife, is he doing it as a faith-based act? Obviously not. Culture is not synonymous with thuggery.

CORBELLA: No culture is above the law? The point is, different cultures have different laws. Some cultures would throw both you and me in jail simply for being outspoken or driving our cars. We have the best laws because we have the best culture and that's why we have the best country. It's all linked. Official multiculturalism is great when limited to food, dance, different peoples and other pleasantries, but leave our Canadian values alone. The time has come for Canada to define its culture and refuse to bend on it as your party so often insists it do. To do otherwise will be the ruin of Canada.

Why Canada should stay
Al Qaeda poses a threat to this country that will not decrease if we withdraw troops from Kandahar, says Seth G. Jones

Toronto Star, May 7
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/210617

There is a growing movement in Canada to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, illustrated by such newspaper headlines as: "Is it time to go?" and "Canada must leave Afghanistan." Such a move would be a tragic mistake. Withdrawing would be a severe blow to NATO's efforts in Afghanistan and would ultimately undermine Canada's own security.

There are at least three myths in the Canadian media that need to be dispelled.

The first myth is that Canada has no significant national security interests in Afghanistan. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Pakistan-Afghanistan front is the headquarters of Al Qaeda, which is a more competent international terrorist organization than it was on Sept. 11, 2001. It has close links with the Taliban and is led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, who have been pivotal in the rise of suicide attacks against NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda possesses a robust strategic, logistics and public relations network in Pakistan, especially in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. This infrastructure has enabled it to play an important role in orchestrating international terrorist attacks. Canadian cities are also threatened. As an October 2006 Al Qaeda statement warned, Canada faces "an operation similar to New York, Madrid, London and their sisters, with the help of Allah."..

The second myth is that Canada should withdraw because other NATO countries are not pulling their weight. It is certainly true that several NATO countries have severely restricted the ability of their conventional forces to fight. The result is that a few countries – such as Canada, Britain and the U.S. – share a disproportionate amount of the risks in Afghanistan.

But this is not a reason to withdraw. It brings Canada into a small group of countries that speak with their actions. For better or worse, coalition operations always include a wide variation in the competence and commitment of participating countries...

The third myth is that Afghanistan is largely hopeless. To be fair, NATO operations in Afghanistan have been mixed. The Taliban and other groups have engineered a competent insurgency from bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The insurgency will ultimately be won or lost in the rural areas of Afghanistan, not in the cities. NATO countries have struggled to secure and rebuild rural areas in the south and east. Part of the reason has been too few international forces and poor Afghan governance. The ability of insurgent groups to establish a sanctuary in Pashtun areas of Pakistan has also been critical to their survival.

But there are clear successes. The security situation in western, central and northern Afghanistan is relatively benign. Afghans overwhelmingly support the NATO military presence.

It would be a mistake to sugarcoat NATO's efforts in Afghanistan. But the failure to eliminate Al Qaeda and other groups should not be viewed as a reason to pull out. A RAND Corporation study I conducted of all counter-insurgencies since 1945 indicates that it takes an average of 14 years for governments to defeat insurgents. Greater patience and resolve are required.

Canada's role in Afghanistan is critical to defeating Al Qaeda and radical Islam more broadly. Success will take time and sufficient resources. It would be a tragedy if the naysayers in Canada succeeded in reducing their country's commitment.

Seth G. Jones is a political scientist at the RAND Corporation and adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Mark
Ottawa





 
Articles found May 8, 2007

Disfiguring skin disease plagues Afghanistan
Tue May 8, 2007 2:29PM BST By Robert Birsel
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - The 10-year-old Afghan girl has big eyes, a shy smile and a dark lesion speckled with blood on her right cheek.

The girl has leishmaniasis, a disease caused by a parasite transmitted by a tiny sandfly that can lead to severe scarring, often on the face.

The girl, Sahima, wearing a purple tunic and trousers and pale blue shoes, answers "no" softly when asked if the sore hurts.

But her father is worried about the lesion, the size of a big coin.

"Of course, this doesn't look good," the father, Najibullah, said at a leishmaniasis clinic crowded with children with sores in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Najibullah said he first noticed a mark on his daughter's face two months ago. "It was a very small dot but it grew and grew. If it grows any more it will cover her whole face."

Leishmaniasis isn't a priority for the government and its aid donors, grappling with shocking rates of infant mortality, tuberculosis, malaria and trauma.

The most common form of the disease is not fatal but it causes untold misery. Victims with scarring on their faces are stigmatised: children are excluded at school and girls often won't be able to find husbands.

Long-neglected by the rich world, the disease is attracting a bit more attention in the West, if not more funds.

Some foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have also been bitten by the sandflies and have developed the disease. NATO saw about 150 cases in Afghanistan in 2005 and about 12 last year, a force spokeswoman said.
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Living with an eerie silence
At a base near Kandahar City, does the quiet mean the Taliban are gone? Or lying in wait?
GRAEME SMITH From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 8, 2007 at 2:19 AM EDT
Article Link

Sperwan, Afghanistan — Last year, the biggest secret in Canada's artillery regiments was their shortage of ammunition. The heavy guns west of Kandahar city pounded Taliban bunkers with so many shells that their supply lines couldn't keep up with the demand, and soldiers asked reporters not to reveal how dangerously low they were running.

But this year, things are very different. Posing beside their silent hulking gun, the troops ask a photographer to overlook the fact that the weapon hasn't fired at enemies since they arrived at this hilltop a few months ago.

“Don't tell them we aren't doing any shooting,” a soldier said. “It's just embarrassing.”

The artillery isn't the only thing that's quiet here at Sperwan Ghar, a forward base in the heart of Panjwai District, southwest of Kandahar city. Some of the infantry platoons that patrol the fields and villages around this base haven't fired a single shot. Even the dog seems tired, lolling in the shade beside a neatly constructed dog house.
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Soldier's lawyer wants charges dropped
Last Updated: Monday, May 7, 2007 | 10:28 AM AT CBC News
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There should be no trial for Master Cpl. Robbie Fraser, who is charged with manslaughter in the death of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan, says his lawyer.

Saul Simmonds said his client, who is based at CFB Shilo in Manitoba and grew up on P.E.I., has suffered enough.

Fraser is facing charges of manslaughter and negligent performance of duty under the National Defence Act. Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh died in August 2006 when Fraser's gun allegedly went off while he was travelling in a military vehicle along a bumpy road outside Kandahar.

Simmonds, who is also based in Manitoba, said manslaughter is a wilful act, and there was no wilful act in this case.

He is hoping a Defence Department review of the case will see the charges dropped.
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O'Connor should stay, poll majority says
Canadians give defence minister benefit of doubt in alleged mistreatment of detainees: pollster
Jack Aubry, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Monday, May 07, 2007
Article Link

The majority of Canadians believe Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor should hang on to his cabinet post despite the furore over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, partly because the minister should not be expected to know everything that happens to prisoners after they are handed over to Afghan officials.

A new Ipsos Reid poll, conducted exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global National, found 53 per cent of Canadians believe it is unfair for opposition parties to call for Mr. O'Connor to step down as they have been doing almost every day recently in the House of Commons. On the other hand, 36 per cent of Canadians believe Mr. O'Connor has been negligent and should have been monitoring what was happening to the detainees after they were turned over to Afghan officials.

The Harper government has been under steady siege in the Commons since allegations surfaced in late April that as many as 30 prisoners transferred by Canadians may have been abused.
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Afghanistan: Two U.S. soldiers shot dead at prison
Mon. May 07, 2007 02:58 pm.- By Zainab Osman.
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(SomaliNet) A rogue Afghan soldier shot dead two U.S. soldiers at the high-security Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, the U.S. military said.

The Taliban said it was behind the shooting, saying the attacker was one of its fighters who had infiltrated the Afghan army.

The soldier shot at vehicles leaving the prison on Sunday, and was then shot by other Afghan soldiers at the jail, U.S. coalition forces said in a statement. It said two American soldiers were wounded in the attack while the Taliban said six were killed.

"A large number of our Taliban mujahid (holy warriors) have infiltrated the U.S.-puppet Afghan government to find good targets," Taliban commander Mullah Hayatallah Khan told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

The dead soldiers were military trainers working with Afghans at Pul-i-Charkhi prison, which is being upgraded by U.S.

forces to house suspected Taliban prisoners being returned from U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo in Cuba.

"We're helping build the facility and we're helping to train the guard force," U.S. military spokesman Major Sheldon Smith said. The first 12 U.S.-held Taliban were returned to Afghan authorities last month, to be held in a newly refurbished wing.

Pul-i-Charkhi has been notorious since the 1970s when a hardline communist regime threw large numbers of military rivals, clergy and other political prisoners into the jail, with executions held daily.

Since 2001, Taliban prisoners captured by Afghan forces have staged at least two revolts at the prison and several have escaped.

The prison also holds Jonathan "Jack" Idema, an American jailed in 2004 for running a private jail and illegally detaining and torturing people in a freelance hunt for Osama bin Laden. Two others convicted in that case have been released.
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‘Abuse happens, unfortunately’: local soldier back from Afghanistan
By ANDREA HOUSTON Local News - Monday, May 07, 2007 Updated @ 11:58:53 PM
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With snapshots and stories from his time in Afghanistan, Maj. Ross Cossar spoke proudly yesterday about his role in reshaping the country, even if it's interacting with one person at a time.

The Norwood area man's presentation — Rebuilding Afghanistan: People Helping People — made at yesterday's Peterborough Rotary Club meeting, documented his recent seven-month tour of duty in the war-ravaged country with pictures of Afghan children, Afghan military and shots of the cities and countryside.

"Fifty years from now, the history books will tell us if we did good work there or not," Cossar said. "War fighting is not what were all about over there."

After the presentation, Cossar spoke to The Examiner on allegations raised by the Globe and Mail recently that Taliban prisoners picked up by Canadian soldiers were turned over to Afghan authorities and tortured.

"Abuse happens, unfortunately. But you have to remember, we're talking about people who are trying to kill us," Cossar said.
"But for the military, part of the process (with prisoners) is to hand them over.

"We were invited there to help them."

In the Globe and Mail report, 30 Afghan men said they had been beaten, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric shocks while in Afghan custody.

"Definitely, when we try to teach and educate," Cossar said, "we need to make sure that the message is clear that prisoners need to be treated with respect and dignity."
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Canadian engineers detonate IED in southern Afghanistan; nobody hurt
Canadian Press Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian engineers have safely detonated an improvised explosive device at the side of a dirt road near Spin Boldak in southern Afghanistan.

The device, a rusty bucket packed with explosives and wired to a battery box, erupted in a huge cloud of flame and smoke as soldiers watched from the safety of their armoured vehicles. The controlled explosion came after engineers spent several hours poking and prodding the bomb with a remote-control robot.

The roadside bomb, which was found exposed at the side of the road, was later fitted with explosives and detonated remotely.

Soldiers say it's unusual to see such a device out in the open, and suspect insurgents were preparing to set it up when it was spotted.
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Taliban may not listen to 'Pakistan-Afghanistan jirga
Malaysia Sun Tuesday 8th May, 2007  (ANI)
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Islamabad, May 8 : A member of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Peace Jirga Commission has said that the commission might not succeed in pacifying a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Daily Times quoted Rustam Shah Mohmand, an adviser to Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan and the heads the Pakistani commission in the jirga, as saying that "I do not have much hope for success."

The meeting appears to have hit snags before it has even started, as the Taliban ruled out their participation, rejecting the move as an 'attempt by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to prolong' his rule.

The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on May 4 to hold their first joint jirga in the first week of August in Afghanistan, which would be followed by another one in Pakistan.

The two countries recently decided to try using the traditional tribal system to combat the Taliban.

President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed to the idea during their joint meeting with US President George W Bush in September last year.
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Graveyard shift for Afghan med students
TheStar.com May 08, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

KANDAHAR–They want to heal the sick. But first they have to steal the dead.

Some medical students at Kandahar University have been turned into grave robbers at a faculty that doesn't permit dissemination or dissection of cadavers.

On this campus, as apparently at all others in Afghanistan, no one is allowed to open up and scrutinize the human corpse, forbidden under the local interpretation of Islamic law.

"I have heard about this being done but I haven't stolen from graves myself,'' says Farhad Shinwari, now entering his seventh and final year of study at Kandahar U.

Yet the smile on the 28-year-old's face suggests he's not quite telling the truth about his involvement in the macabre business of enlightenment by disinterment, which has become wink-wink common out of necessity, the mother of invention. And these are bright young Afghans.

It's widely understood, as well, that instructors at the medical faculty adhere to their own policy of "don't ask, don't tell.''

"I know that it's a sin to dissect cadavers,'' Shinwari continues, picking his words carefully. "But how else are we to learn? We cannot only look at pictures in books.''

For many years, during the Taliban era, medical students were not even allowed that, with anatomy books burned, so much of their education deemed un-Islamic because the study of physiology and biology clashed head-on with what was most hysterically taboo to the "Talibs'' – the human body.

At first, religious authorities declared that studying with skeletons was all right but then reversed themselves making Dr. Bones persona non grata. Further, there has been historical disagreement on whether dissection can be practised on the remains of non-Muslims, who don't count.
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Canadian antiwar activists mingle with terror groups at Cairo conference
Representatives of four groups on Canada's list of terrorist organizations at recent gathering
Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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OTTAWA - Canadian activists were out in force at a recent conference in Cairo that sought to forge closer links between the international antiwar movement and Islamic resistance groups, including several on Canada's terrorism list.

About 20 Canadians attended the March 29-April 1 Cairo Conference, the largest delegation from Canada in the event's five-year history.

According to one report, it was also one of the largest delegations from outside the Middle East. In total, as many as 1,500 delegates from the Middle East, Europe, South Korea and the Americas attended.

Many of the Canadian delegates were from the Canadian Peace Alliance, the country's largest umbrella peace organization, and some of its 150 affiliated groups, said peace alliance co-ordinator Sid Lacombe, who attended the conference.
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NATO convoy ambushed in Afghanistan
5/8/2007, 9:50 a.m. EDT By NOOR KHAN  The Associated Press   
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan early Tuesday, and a gunshot victim said soldiers fleeing the scene shot him and killed a man in a bakery.

NATO said one civilian was killed and two wounded in the cross-fire after militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and guns as the convoy passed through a civilian area. NATO said soldiers returned fire, but did not specify if the casualties were caused by militants or soldiers.

Afghan officials have pleaded repeatedly with international troops to exercise caution to prevent civilian casualties, which has fueled distrust of international forces and the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
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UN staff member shot dead in Afghanistan
From correspondents in Kabul, Afghanistan, 8 May 2007 - (www.indiaenews.com)
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A UN staff member was shot dead Tuesday in volatile Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan, a statement of the UN Assistance Mission said.

Sadequllah, 38, who was a driver for the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, was killed apparently by gunmen on a motorbike at around 7 a.m. on his way to his office in Kandahar, the statement said.

'The safety and well-being of those Afghan and international staff who work for the UN in Afghanistan is a matter of paramount importance to us,' said Tom Koenigs, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan.

On April 17 four Nepalese security guards and an Afghan driver working for a UN agency were killed in a roadside bomb in Kandahar.
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NATO paces Afghan offensive
Washington Times, May 8 [VE DAY]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20070507-115823-8325r

NATO officers and diplomats say they are selectively securing some areas of southern Afghanistan ahead of others, hoping the contrast between Taliban and government rule will gradually undermine support for the Islamist insurgents.

Officers responsible for "Operation Achilles," the spring offensive being undertaken by U.S., British and Canadian forces, say they are in no hurry to drive the Taliban from some of the strongholds they captured in northern Helmand province last year.

"We will move into these Taliban areas at a time of our choosing," British Lt. Col. Charlie Mayo said, when asked why NATO forces had not yet challenged the hard-line Islamist organization's grip on Musa Qala, a major town in this key battleground province.

NATO is trying to set examples of development and stability in enclaves already under Afghan government control, Col. Mayo said.

"Word of mouth spreads quickly, and we want to set the conditions for a return to stability across the province. It is a process of getting the elders to see what happens and having them say, 'We want a bit of that.' "

The Taliban, meanwhile, is taking advantage of a bumper harvest of opium poppies in its own drive to win public support. During a recent drive over some of the province's freshly paved roads, unarmed Taliban fighters were seen in the fields helping villagers to scrape the oozing opium paste from the poppy buds.

In return, according to the owners of poppy fields just outside the ancient city of Lashkar Gah, they will exact a heavy "zakat," or religious tax, which will be used to finance the movement and purchase arms...

Suicide attacks and guerrilla actions are commonplace across southern Afghanistan, even as Taliban leaders and fighters are preoccupied with the poppy harvest. Government officials say they think as many as six would-be suicide bombers are lurking in Lashkar Gah alone, searching for targets...

The situation in Musa Qala has been particularly divisive among Afghan political leaders. Late last year, British forces ceded the district capital to local elders, who promised that they would keep Taliban fighters well away from their city center. But the deal collapsed, and the Taliban moved in almost as soon as the British forces left the area.

Despite U.S.- and British-led military operations elsewhere in the province, which have included seizures of district centers, Musa Qala has remained firmly in Taliban hands. Residents and officials said the Taliban successfully presents itself as a "protection force" for the drug trade.

The movement has also gone to considerable lengths to present a "kinder and gentler" face to the population. Though Taliban beheadings of accused "spies" are still commonplace, strict rules that once required all men to grow beards and banned music and television have been relaxed, residents said.

Mark
Ottawa

 
Articles found May 9, 2007

'A good day' for bomb squadEngineers neutralize one more deadly IED
By CP Wed, May 9, 2007
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- Canadian military engineers fought fire with fire yesterday as they safely detonated a crude roadside bomb in a cloud of flame and smoke near this border town in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers of Engineer Squadron, attached to the Royal Canadian Dragoons, tried in vain to use a remote-controlled robot to split apart the device -- a rusty bucket packed with explosives and wired to a black battery box.

After severing the wires from a distance, the engineers and a team of explosive experts dispatched from Kandahar Airfield used their own high-powered explosive to reduce the device to little more than bits of rubble.

When it was over, all that was left was a hot, blackened crater in the middle of a parched, barren tract of land just a few kilometres from the Pakistan border.

As soldiers examined the charred hole, section commander Sgt. Dave Camp beamed with the satisfaction of a job well done.
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color=yellow]Canadian troops engage Taliban for second day[/color]
Updated Tue. May. 8 2007 9:02 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Canadian soldiers fought a fierce battle against the Taliban on Tuesday for the second day in a row, alongside soldiers from the Afghan National Army.

In Nalgham, about 35 kilometres south-west of Kandahar city, members of Hotel company made their way over mud walls and through waist-high water, as militants shot at them with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.

The company's commander, Maj. Alex Ruff, told CTV News the battle has gone well.

"Well, so far, and keep your fingers crossed, we haven't lost anybody and there are a lot less Taliban running around," he said.

Initial estimates suggested 23 militants were killed in the firefight.

But Ruff has reason to be cautious. On April 8, he lost six soldiers to an improvised explosive device: Cpl. Brent Poland, Master Cpl. Christopher Stannix, Sgt. Don Lucas, Cpl. Aaron Williams, Pte. Kevin Kennedy and Pte. David Greenslade.

Soldiers are trying to train Afghan troops so they can eventually take up the war against the Taliban, allowing Canadians to focus on a supporting role when engaging the enemy.

On Tuesday, Afghan army members fought on the front line in Nalgham, using similar weapons as the Taliban and with the same expert knowledge of the landscape.

The Taliban are now using poppy fields to their advantage. It's near the end of Afghanistan's poppy harvesting season, and insurgents are using the long stems to hide from coalition forces.

But Canadian soldiers, far better trained, are using the Taliban's tactics against them.
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Canadian soldiers guard Afghan-Pakistani border as two governments meet
Canadian Press  Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian soldiers stood guard at the Pakistan border Wednesday as Afghan government and security officials met to discuss border issues with their Pakistani neighbours.

The two sides get together every few months to discuss security and other issues that come up along their shared boundary.

Soldiers closed the border for nearly two hours as they waited for the delegation to arrive.

It includes Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, who is representing coalition forces at the meeting.

Canada has established a significant military presence in this district of southern Kandahar province in an effort to stem the flow of Taliban insurgents across the border.

An estimated 12,000 people cross the border every day at Spin Boldak, about 70 kilometres southeast of Kandahar city.
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NATO troops not leaving Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 8 (UPI)
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NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Pakistan Tuesday the military alliance has no plans to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.
Scheffer was in Pakistan to discuss regional security with its leaders because of the growing terrorist violence along the border and inside Afghanistan.

"My answer always is -- and let me repeat it here -- that my expectation is that NATO forces will be there for the foreseeable future," said Scheffer, Voice of American reported.

The force, led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has about 35,000 troops in Afghanistan. The troops have been conducting a major offensive in southern Afghanistan to put down Taliban violence, the report said.

Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Scheffer praised Pakistan's efforts but said more needs to be done in the region.

Officials in Afghanistan and the United States say Taliban militants have set up a number of safe havens inside Pakistan, from where they mount attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan has denied the claim.
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Britain says Iran may be helping Taliban forces in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Tuesday May 8th, 2007 
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LONDON (AP) - Britain's defense minister said Tuesday there was some indication that Iran may be helping Taliban forces fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Des Browne said that, in other respects, Iran was playing a positive role in the region.

Britain and the United States have accused elements within the Iranian regime of aiding insurgents in Iraq, and Browne told the House of Commons Defense Committee that Tehran might be playing a similar role in Afghanistan.

"Demonstrably they have sought confrontation by proxy with us and the United States and other NATO members elsewhere in the region, and there is some indication that they are doing the same in Afghanistan," he said, without elaborating.

Browne said that, in other ways, Iran was playing a positive role, providing investment and sealing its border with Afghanistan to cut off the flow of illegal drugs.

"This is a complex environment," he said. "Regionally, an Afghanistan which is not a failed state and has a reduced drugs economy is in the strategic interest of all these countries."

Britain has several thousand troops in Afghanistan, most based in the volatile southern province of Helmand. Earlier this year, Browne announced plans to boost troop levels in Afghanistan to around 7,700 while reducing the number in Iraq from 7,000 to about 5,500.
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Force 'cannot solve Afghanistan'
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Nato head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said he believes there is no military solution to the Afghan situation.
Mr Scheffer was speaking during talks in Pakistan on ways of containing the Taleban insurgency on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Violence in Afghanistan has returned to levels not seen since the Taleban were ousted in 2001.

More than 4,000 people were killed last year in fighting between militants and international-led forces.

'Nation-building'

"It is my strong opinion that the final answer in Afghanistan will not be a military one and cannot be a military one," the Nato secretary general told a joint news conference after talks with President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.

"The final answer in Afghanistan is called reconstruction, development and nation-building."

Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Kasuri, said his country had deployed more troops and suffered more casualties than international forces in its attempts to secure the border.

"The onus for border control cannot be placed on Pakistan alone," he told the news conference.

"We expect a matching response from Afghanistan as each side must play its due role to combat the menace of terrorism."
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'Afghanistan attacks Iran link'
By MICHAEL LEA May 09, 2007
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BRITISH troops in Afghanistan are being targeted by weapons supplied by IRAN, Defence Secretary Des Browne has said.

Militant elements of Iran’s regime have been behind deadly attacks on UK forces in Iraq, supplying mortars, rockets and roadside bombs to insurgents around Basra.

Now evidence suggests they are also operating secretly in Afghanistan.

Mr Browne told the Commons Defence Committee: “They have sought confrontation by proxy with us, the US and other Nato members elsewhere in the region.

“There is some indication they are doing the same in Afghanistan.” 
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Guard unit begins journey to Afghanistan
By CHUCK CRUMBO ccrumbo@thestate.com  CAMP SHELBY, Miss.
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As the S.C. National Guard soldiers started to climb the airplane’s steps Tuesday, Chaplain Roy Butler offered each a small silver cross and a hug.

“It’s kind of a tough thing, putting those guys on the plane even though you know you’re going to follow them,” said Butler, pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Columbia, who will join the troops later.

Tuesday’s departure of 218th Brigade Combat Team members from Gulfport marked the first in a succession of flights that will take them on a 7,000-mile trek to the Afghanistan war.

Including Tuesday’s planeload of troops, about half of the 1,400 soldiers in the 218th now have left Camp Shelby, where they have been training since Feb. 1.

All but two dozen of the troops here are expected to be on their way to the war-torn southwestern Asian country by the weekend. Those staying behind must pack office equipment and gear before their flight leaves in June.

The brigade has an additional 200 soldiers training at Fort Riley, Kan. They will be leaving for Afghanistan next week.

In the interim, commanders are trying to keep the troops focused, said Lt. Col. Ken Braddock of Columbia, the brigade’s executive officer. “This is the time that scares me.”

Someone could get hurt if the soldiers aren’t alert when they reach Afghanistan, he said.

“It is not a safe place. There are people there who don’t like us. The time you let your guard down is when bad things happen.”

After being at Camp Shelby for three months, the soldiers are ready to go, said Lt. Col. Bob Bradshaw of Goose Creek, commander of the brigade’s security forces.

Getting there will be a challenge. From Mississippi, it takes three to seven days to reach Kabul, Afghanistan, where the brigade will take over command of Task Force Phoenix, charged with training the Afghan army and police.

Lengthy delays can occur after the troops reach the Persian Gulf because the area is in the midst of its sandstorm season.

Tuesday’s departure to Afghanistan contrasted sharply with the emotional send-offs the troops received from South Carolina.
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Study: VA must update how it handles PTSD
More veterans make mental health claims than before
By Rick Rogers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER May 9, 2007
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A federal study released yesterday urges the most sweeping changes since World War II on how veterans are diagnosed with and compensated for post traumatic stress disorder.
 
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to replace its narrowly defined and unevenly applied criteria for PTSD screening with broader standards based on the latest knowledge about psychiatry, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council said in their joint report. The agencies also called on the VA to jettison its current rating scale for disability payments and establish a system of fixed, long-term benefits.

“As the increasing number of claims to the VA shows, PTSD has become a very significant public-health problem,” said Nancy Andreasen, who led the committee of mental-health experts that conducted the yearlong study. “Comprehensive revision is needed.”
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Canadian soldiers guard Afghan-Pakistani border as two governments meet
Canadian Press  Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian soldiers stood guard at the Pakistan border Wednesday as Afghan government and security officials met to discuss border issues with their Pakistani neighbours.

The two sides get together every few months to discuss security and other issues that come up along their shared boundary.

Soldiers closed the border for nearly two hours as they waited for the delegation to arrive.

It includes Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, who is representing coalition forces at the meeting.

Canada has established a significant military presence in this district of southern Kandahar province in an effort to stem the flow of Taliban insurgents across the border.

An estimated 12,000 people cross the border every day at Spin Boldak, about 70 kilometres southeast of Kandahar city.
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Afghan deployment 'beyond 2009'
BBC, May 8
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6636113.stm

UK forces will remain [not exactly what is said later - MC] in Afghanistan beyond 2009, Defence Secretary Des Browne has told a committee of MPs.

He said February's announcement of a troops boost, with forces committed to 2009, was "for planning purposes only".

"My own view is that we will have to...stay with the Afghans for beyond 2009 but exactly how long and in what way it is too early to tell," he said.

Mr Browne told the defence committee it could "take decades" for Afghanistan "to stand on their own two feet".

British troop numbers are due to increase by 1,400 to 7,700, with most of the new contingent being deployed this summer to the volatile province of Helmand, where UK forces have been fighting the Taleban.

'Decades' of support

Mr Browne said the timeframe for British troop involvement was uncertain, but reminded the committee that in 2006 the international community had agreed with the Afghan government to a further five years of support.

The British government also made a bilateral agreement with Afghanistan for 10 years of support.

"I realise that that doesn't mean that we...committed to a military presence for either of those two periods," Mr Browne said on Tuesday.

"I believe that this country (Afghanistan), having been 30 years in conflict or more, will take decades to get to the stage where they will be able to stand on their own two feet and that the international community will have to support them for a considerable period of time."..

Official: 21 Afghan Civilians Killed
AP, May 9
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6619855,00.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Airstrikes called in by U.S. Special Forces soldiers fighting with insurgents in southern Afghanistan killed at least 21 civilians, officials said Wednesday. One coalition soldier was also killed.

Helmand provincial Gov. Assadullah Wafa said Taliban fighters sought shelter in villagers' homes during the fighting in the Sangin district Tuesday evening, and that subsequent airstrikes killed 21 civilians, including several women and children.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said more must be done to prevent civilian casualties during military operations. He warned last week, after reports that 51 civilians were killed in the west, that Afghanistan ``can no longer accept civilian casualties they way they occur.''

The U.S.-led coalition said militants fired guns, rocket propelled grenades and mortars at U.S. Special Forces and Afghan soldiers on patrol 15 miles north of Sangin.

Maj. William Mitchell, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said troops killed a ``significant'' number of militants.

``We don't have any report of civilian casualties. There are enemy casualties - I think the number is significant,'' Mitchell said without releasing an exact figure.

A resident of the area, Mohammad Asif, said five homes in the village of Soro were bombed during the battle, killing 38 people and wounding more than 20. He said Western troops and Afghan forces had blocked people from entering the area...

The battle left one coalition soldier dead, the U.S. military said. The military did not release the soldier's nationality, but it was likely an American Special Forces soldier...

69 Afghans' Families Get a U.S. Apology
Marines Killed 19 Civilians in March

Washington Post, May 9
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801360.html

A U.S. Army brigade commander in Afghanistan yesterday told the families of 69 civilians who were killed or wounded by members of an elite Marine Special Forces unit in March that he is "deeply, deeply ashamed" about the incident, describing the series of shootings along a civilian thoroughfare as a "terrible, terrible mistake."

Col. John Nicholson said he apologized to a group of Afghan people in the eastern Nangahar province on behalf of the U.S. government and delivered solatia payments of approximately $2,000 to the families of 19 innocent civilians who died as a result of the March 4 attacks. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon via a video feed from Afghanistan yesterday, Nicholson said the payments were "essentially a symbol of our sympathy to them" and "a way of expressing our genuine condolences over the incident occurring."

U.S. commanders have said that the incident began when a suicide bomber drove a small van filled with explosives into a Marine Corps Forces Special Operations convoy that was on its way to a base in Jalalabad. The Marines then fired on people nearby and along several miles of their ensuing route through a crowded roadway, according to early investigative findings and an Afghan government human rights group.

Early estimates showed that about a dozen civilians were killed; Nicholson said yesterday that the death toll has been confirmed to be 19, with 50 wounded.

The incident -- which resulted in the largest number of civilian deaths from a single U.S. action in the country since the war began -- raised significant ire within Afghan communities in the region. U.S. commanders quickly removed the Marine company from Afghanistan after the incident because of the tensions it could have caused among the local population...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found May 10, 2007

Do we remember why our troops are in Afghanistan?
Sault Star Editorial - Thursday, May 10, 2007 @ 09:00
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A recent poll suggests 54.6 per cent of Canadians would want the country's troops pulled out of Afghanistan if casualties climb. That compares to 39.3 per cent who consider casualties an unfortunate but necessary part of the military mission.

At the risk of being flippant about a topic as serious as war and casualties, we doubt our soldiers are the type who want to run when the going gets tough.

A better question to ask is whether Canadians understand the mission in Afghanistan and how it helps that country develop and how it's part of the war on terror.

Another question we can ask is at what point do we declare our mission a success and bring our troops home? Unlike The Second World War, success of the Afghan mission is tougher to define. It's easier for Canadians to become skeptical and dismissive of the fight.

Fiascos such as the recent controversy over torture and the lacklustre support of some NATO nations chips away at public support.

The disastrous campaign in Iraq doesn't help either because people are tempted to equate the two conflicts.

And just what is the Afghan mission?

In case we've forgotten, at one time a group of thugs called the Taliban ran the country. Not only did they trample on most basic human rights, but they also provided a safe haven for al-Qaida which was responsible for terror attacks around the world, including 9/11. The mission in Afghanistan is to make sure the Taliban never regain power. We do this through humanitarian assistance, and through force if necessary.

It is a noble mission supported by NATO and the United Nations. Since Canada joined the NATO-led mission in 2002, 54 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed. We pray that no more will die, but understand that this won't likely be the case.
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Cdn troops spread goodwill among remote Afghan villagers
May 10, 2007 SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP)
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Canadian soldiers were on patrol Thursday along the edge of the sprawling Registan Desert in southeastern Afghanistan.

The convoy barrelled down dry riverbeds and across barren plains, stopping to talk with goat herders and villagers.

It soon reached the desert, which resembles a massive mountain range of hot, reddish sand.

Several of the soldiers, members of Recce Squadron from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, tested their endurance by climbing up the steep 40-metre incline.

Later, soldiers with the Provincial Reconstruction Team met with a group of local farmers.

They handed out toys to children and shared tea and candies with village leaders, letting them know they would be looking out for their safety.
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1,000 Polish troops more to Afghanistan 
Posted : Thu, 10 May 2007
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WARSAW, Poland, May 10 Poland plans to sent 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan to join NATO forces fighting Taliban and al-Qaida rebels, Poland Radio reported Thursday.

Polish troops already in Afghanistan number about 500, of whom 100 were deployed last year and 400 earlier this year.

Abdul Haider, Afghan ambassador to Poland, said Warsaw's efforts to beef up its contigent symbolize the strength of strong links between the two countries.

Krzysztof Bobinski of the Polish Institute of International Affairs said dispatching additional troops to Afghanistan "will be a hard pill to swallow for plenty of Poles." Bobinski said firing rockets and guns is not the way to win the war. He suggested government reform and economic development as more effective tools.
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Rules wanted for terror suspects caught at sea: sources
May 9, 2007  By MURRAY BREWSTER
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OTTAWA (CP) - Canada and the United States held talks last fall to set formal rules for the handover of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters captured by Canadian warships at sea.

The talks began with a visit to Washington last October by two senior members of the Defence Department's judicial branch, one of them a naval commander, and the exchange continued with at least one follow-up visit last winter, defence sources told The Canadian Press.

The revelation comes amid the uproar over allegations of torture and abuse of militants transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers.

Officials at both the Defence Department and Foreign Affairs declined to discuss the negotiations.

"The government of Canada regularly engages on a number of levels on many issues with our allies and partners," Tanya Barnes, a Defence spokeswoman, said in a terse e-mail.

"Obviously, such consultations on operational questions are not made public."'

Late Wednesday, Defence Department spokesman Marc Raider said no agreement has yet been struck with the Americans.

New Democrats recently tabled in the Commons a heavily censored memo, dated Oct. 12, 2006, to Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor which referred to the handling of detainees at sea.
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Canadians won't fire if women, children present: officer
'We're very much reflective of canadian society'
Tom Blackwell National Post Thursday, May 10, 2007
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Canadian troops take pains to avoid civilian casualties even if it means not firing on Taliban fighters when they hide among women and children, a key combat officer said yesterday.

Canada's contingent tried hard to distance itself from fresh controversy over sometimes deadly collateral damage inflicted by international operations in Afghanistan.

A U.S. bombing that reportedly killed more than 20 civilians and shootings by British soldiers in which a Kandahar man died have revived feelings among some Afghans that the foreign troops pay little heed to innocents caught in the crossfire.

But Major Alex Ruff, whose unit was involved in two days of intense fighting this week, said Canadian soldiers take the issue seriously.

"Canadians conduct our business as we conduct it and we're very much reflective of Canadian society," he said. "We had a couple of incidents where the Taliban were hiding amongst women and children inside compounds, but we won't engage them. It's not what we do.

"We know there are civilians in and about the area, and we won't engage where they're at."

Maj. Ruff heads the Hotel combat team, which was attacked by the Taliban this week, forcing it into firefights that resulted in more than 20 insurgents being killed.

He said some Taliban hid among civilians as they fled, but were not firing at Canadians at the time. Although the Canadians did not go after them, they continue to be under surveillance by "higher assets."

At least 21 civilians, including women and children, were reportedly killed after U.S. special forces called in airstrikes against Taliban fighters in the Sangin district of neighbouring Helmand province .
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Kabul police showcase key terror suspect
Charged with assassinating former afghan PM
Tom Blackwell National Post Thursday, May 10, 2007
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KABUL - The Kabul police captured a key terrorism suspect yesterday, and went to unusual lengths to tout their coup.

As a journalist arrived for a meeting on a different matter, the head of criminal investigations proudly revealed the arrest of Sher Ahmad on charges of assassinating a former Afghan prime minister last week -- and then offered up the suspect for a photograph.

Two doors down, the journalist and a translator were ushered into a room where a neatly dressed Mr. Ahmad sat on a well-stuffed sofa, being quietly interrogated by two officers.

He seemed unfazed by the flashing of a camera as he spoke animatedly to detectives. Finally, another officer shooed the visitors out of the room.

Mr. Ahmad is charged with killing Abdul Sabur Farid Kuhestani, a conservative Afghan senator who was prime minister for a few weeks in 1992.

Farid, as he is known, was shot dead last Wednesday by assailants who had set up an ambush for him as he left his home to drive to a mosque, police and media sources said at the time.
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[Senior U.S. Commander Apologizes For Marine Shooting In Afghanistan
Thursday May 10, 2007 (0314 PST)
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Kabul: A senior military commander in Afghanistan has apologized for the conduct of U.S. Marines who fired on civilians near Jalalabad, killing 19 people, including women and children.
A U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, Army Colonel John Nicholson, says, "Today we met with the families of those victims... and we made official apologies on the part of the U.S. government and on the part of the coalition."

Colonel Nicholson read to reporters the apology he delivered to the families, which says, "I stand before you today deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people."
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Pentagon to Fortify Force in Afghanistan
Thursday May 10, 2007 1:01 AM AP Photo RYR102 By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon said Wednesday that it will maintain a heightened level of U.S. troops in Afghanistan well into 2008 by sending elements of the 101st Airborne Division as a replacement force.

The 101st Airborne's commanding general and his headquarters staff, plus the division's 4th Brigade, will deploy early next year, the Pentagon said. They will replace the 82nd Airborne Division's headquarters and its 4th Brigade.

Extra combat troops are in Afghanistan in anticipation of a tougher fight in coming months against the Taliban militants who have demonstrated a more organized, better trained resistance, particularly in the southern part of the country.

The Pentagon did not say how long the new units would stay in Afghanistan, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said all units in Afghanistan and Iraq would deploy for up to 15 months instead of the normal 12 months.

While President Bush's troop increase in Iraq has aroused widespread public and congressional opposition, there has been little dissent over efforts to intensify U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Both conflicts, however, are continuing to put severe strains on a military that is constantly scrambling to find fresh troops and equipment to send to the war zones.
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At the breaking point in Afghanistan
Experts say local Pashtuns offer more support to Taliban than to NATO troops.
Dateline: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 by Paul Weinberg
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While the explosive detainee torture scandal continues to monopolize the front pages, a growing chorus of defence experts are declaring NATO's Afghanistan mission to be on the razor's edge of stinging humiliation.

Last month saw a new round of devastating critiques on the course of the war in the Pashtun south. One of them comes from University of Victoria professor Gordon Smith, a supporter of the mission, who urges a stepped-up NATO presence along with his trenchant dissection of current strategies.

In a report for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, Smith doesn't mince words. While the goal of self-sustaining peace is worthy, he argues, current NATO policies are "not on course to achieve that objective, even within a period of 10 years."

  Current policies "producing as many enemies as we are killing."

The Taliban — a "fluid coalition" not to be confused with the centrally controlled organization pre-2001 — may not be popular with many Pashtuns, he says, but they recognize it as an anti-colonial force with more loyalty to country than transient NATO.

And his punch line: failure to negotiate with this expression of Pashtun localism "will almost surely cede the field to them. We do not believe that the Taliban can be defeated or eliminated as a political entity in any meaningful time frame by Western armies using military measures."

Says Smith, in an interview, "I hear General Rick Hillier's optimism, but he is not the only general in charge of armed forces who has been optimistic. In the end, no matter how good the troops and how good the will, [victory] couldn't be pulled off."

So, too, in March, Walter Dorn — a professor at the Canadian Forces College — bluntly observed in a submission to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, that the current NATO strategy is "unworkable and fatally flawed" and is "producing as many enemies as we are killing." NATO, he complains, has not even started talking or negotiating with its opponents, who, he says, "are motivated by the defence of their country, not love for the Taliban" and who "long to live and die like the heroes of their folklore."
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Bulgaria to increase Afghanistan contingent to 400 by June
May 10, 2007         
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Bulgaria will increase sharply its contingent in Afghanistan, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Veselin Bliznakov revealed Thursday at the country's second seaside city Burgas.

The minister released the news at a wreath-laying ceremony on the occasion of the Victory Day of the Second World War.

The service members of the Bulgarian peace-keeping contingent will increase from the present 83 to a total of 400, said the minister.

He explained that at the end of 2006, NATO's Riga Summit adopted a decision on an increase of the participation of all member states so as to stabilize Afghanistan.

The Bulgarian soldiers will be sent to Kabul and Kandahar, where they will guard the airports, Bliznakov added.
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Local villagers kill three Taliban in southern Afghanistan 
Posted : Thu, 10 May 2007 
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Kabul - Local villagers fought a group of Taliban militants who were trying to attack a governmental police post in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three, including a local commander, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Local residents in Sangin district of southern Helmand province fought a group of insurgents who attempted to attack a security post in the district, an Interior Ministry statement said.

Three rebels, including their local commander, were killed during the firefight, it said.

The gunbattle came a day after over 20 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the center of the district in a US military air raid against Taliban militants who had initially fired upon Afghan and coalition forces in the area.
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Kuwait backs Afghanistan in war against terrorism
Tuesday May 08, 2007 (0155 PST)
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KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said, "There is an international responsibility to support Afghanistan in fighting terrorism and Kuwait is part of that effort."
He further said, "We in Kuwait have supported our brothers in Afghanistan and we will continue to do so."

Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who met with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohamed Al-Sabah along with Sheikh Mohamed, was in Kuwait for a three-day visit to discuss bilateral relations, Afghani government efforts to achieve peace within its borders, what Afghanistan needs from the international community and conversely, what Afghanistan can offer the international community.

Sheikh Mohamed said, "There is a real effort for development that is needed by Afghanistan and the Afghan people." He further said that Afghanistan is a Muslim brother country and "we are obliged to come to their aid".

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New French govt must withdraw troops: Taleban
Wednesday May 09, 2007 (0741 PST)
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KABUL: A new French government must pull troops out of Afghanistan, the Taleban said after France's presidential election, and offered to extend a deadline over the release of a French hostage.
A spokesman said the insurgent movement is ready to extend the deadline for its demands to be met for the release of the Terre d'Enfance (A World For Our Children) aid worker if the Afghan and French governments make contact.

"We ask the new French government to secure the national interests of France and Afghanistan," Yousuf Ahmadi said hours after rightwinger Nicolas Sarkozy won the election.

"It mustn't sacrifice its national interests for the interests and strategies of the Americans. It is also not fair that the French youth or the Afghan youth die in fighting.

"Our first demand from the new government of France is that before anything else they must present an exact timetable for the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan."
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A good Clip with a full clip
Toronto Star, May 11, by Rosie DiManno
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/212833

KANDAHAR–Taxi!!!

Well, maybe not quite.

But the "Clip'' is as close to livery service as it gets in Kandahar.

That's actually CLP, as in Combat Logistical Patrol, the convoy that moves through the night, resupplying Canada's forward operating bases as troops push outward from Kandahar Airfield in radiating toeholds of NATO presence.

From Panjwaii in the west to the newly occupied Spin Boldak in the east, the forward operating bases and power points are nearly entirely dependent on the Clip for water and food, ammunition and equipment, pretty much whatever soldiers weren't able to carry on their backs going in.

"Beans 'n' bullets'' is how Warrant Officer Chris Saunders, 36, of Halifax describes the consignment...

Most nights, the Clip musters come sunset at Kandahar Airfield, its actual transportation components – troop-ferrying Bisons, 10-tonne supply trucks, flatbeds – supplemented, looked after, by a close protection escort of light-armoured Nyalas and LAV-IIIs, the arm-around chaperones.

Because this is risky business.

"We do the fightin' if we have to,'' says Sgt. Richard Aston, chain-smoking escort crew commander, as he crouches over a giant military map, his finger tracing tonight's route. "Hopefully, it's more of a deterrent than anything else but the job is to make sure that we get everybody out there safely and intact.

"Under cover of darkness, it is dangerous because that's when the enemy comes out. The enemy uses the night to their advantage and also the villages because they know moving among civilians nullifies our weapons, which is unfortunate for us.''

This is Aston's 21st Clip excursion and nothing has gone seriously wrong yet, beyond blown tires, fried engines, hitting something in the middle of the road last week "which wasn't supposed to be there," and vehicles disabled in hostile terrain...

The Clip tries to vary its schedule and routes but options are few when going from Point A to Point B and Point C and back. Off-road forays are unwise and generally impossible, given the lumbering supply trucks in tow.

"They must know our routes," points out Cpl. Brent Ward, 23, driver of the lead escort vehicle, which means his Nyala is most vulnerable to improvised explosive devises. The previous platoon hit two of those and was ambushed once.

"They know we take the same routes all the time and that we're coming."

What's surprising is that the Clip isn't targeted more often as a predictable target.

Technically, there's an 11 p.m. curfew in Kandahar province for civilian vehicles but that's a joke and a half. Jingle trucks, mostly from Pakistan, endlessly ply Afghanistan's highways, hauling goods...

Abducted aid worker freed by Taliban
AP, May 11

KABUL, Afghanistan --A French aid worker kidnapped by the Taliban five weeks ago was freed Friday, and the militant group credited the release to comments by France's president-elect that French troops would eventually leave Afghanistan.
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The release of Eric Damfreville was confirmed by the international Red Cross, which said its workers had taken custody of the Frenchman, who was abducted along with a female colleague and three Afghans on April 3.

The Taliban released the woman, Celine Cordelier, on April 28. There was no word on the fate of the three Afghans, though France's foreign minister said officials would continue to push for their release.

After taking the group captive, the Taliban demanded the withdrawal of all remaining French troops from Afghanistan. France pulled 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan late last year and still has about 1,000 troops stationed in the country.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the militants, told an Associated Press reporter via telephone that Taliban leaders in coordination with tribal leaders decided to release Damfreville after a speech by French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy in which he said French troops cannot stay in Afghanistan indefinitely [emphasis added].

"The Taliban is expecting the French president to keep this promise," Ahmadi said. "The Taliban in the future want to have good relations with the French government and people."

French President Jacques Chirac said he was "delighted" to learn of Damfreville's liberation and called for the release of the three Afghans.

"I would like to tell you that French authorities remain mobilized, strongly mobilized, to obtain the liberation of the three Afghan hostages," said French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy..

Terre d'Enfance [the aid group] said Damfreville's release was a "great joy" for members of the aid group. It also called for the three Afghans' release.

"We will only be completely relieved once Rasul, Azrat and Hashim have been released and returned to their families," the aid group said. "We ask that the mobilization of French and Afghan authorities -- which led to these first releases -- be continued until there's a happy outcome for everyone...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found May 12, 2007

Pakistan Army fenced part of the border with Afghanistan
Tariq Iqbal | May 11, 2007, 21:33
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Pakistan has completed part of the first phase of fencing which will prevent Talibans and other militants crossing the 1,500 mile porous border with Afghanistan.

The decision to fence off and mine parts of the western borders occurred after American and Afghan officials accused Pakistan of not doing much in stopping the militants from crossing the border and conducting raids.

It is widely known that those accusations were released in order to make Pakistan to do more on the War on Terror and increase the troops presence in those areas.

Analysists believe that comments came even after knowing that it is impossible to stop the militants from crossing 1,500 mile porous border.

A military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, said that the first phase would be a stretch about 20 miles long in the North Waziristan region and that the fencing for the first 12 miles had been completed.

Afghanistan opposes the fence because of a longstanding territorial dispute, saying it would penalize Pashtun tribal communities living on both sides of the frontier, or Durand Line, named after the 19th-century colonial administrator who drew the border.

However, it is in the interest of the both countries to fence off the border in order to stop the attacks by Taliban in parts of both countries which is the main reason of instability in Afghanistan and causing Pakistan to go on the war on terror.

Pakistan acknowledges cross-border raids by the militants, but urges Western and Afghan forces to tighten border controls on their side.

On 19 April, Afghan and Pakistani troops clashed briefly when the Afghans destroyed a part of another section of the fence being erected between the Shkin and Barmal areas along the border in South Waziristan.

Pakistan confirmed the clash, but denied that it was erecting a fence there. The authorities have held off plans to mine the border.

Musharraf has challenged Afghan and foreign forces to match Pakistan's effort to seal the border, which officials say include the deployment of 90,000 troops and the establishment of 110 border posts.

Pakistan is a leading major non-NATO ally of the United States, fighting on the war on terror.
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Canadian detained in Afghanistan receives consular visit
24-year-old reportedly detained on suspicion of al-Qaeda ties
The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, May 12, 2007
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Foreign Affairs has verified the well-being of a Canadian being detained in Afghanistan, a department spokeswoman said yesterday.

Citing the Privacy Act, Ambra Dickie was unable to confirm a media report suggesting the person under arrest is a 24-year-old former Calgary resident of Pakistani origin, suspected of being involved with militants of the former Taliban regime.

In Halifax, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the man was receiving consular services from the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.

"At this point in time, for privacy reasons, we're not at liberty to say a lot about this case, but it is somewhat unusual."

A newspaper report yesterday said the man was detained on suspicion of attending a training camp in Waziristan, a Pakistan-Afghanistan border region which contains hideouts and training grounds for Taliban insurgents and al-Qaeda fighters.

The man was carrying a Canadian passport at the time of his arrest.
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Sweet opposes deadline for leaving Afghanistan
Kevin Werner, Ancaster (May 11, 2007)
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Canada is rebuilding a devastated Afghan society and withdrawing Canadian soldiers would upset the nation-building the country has begun, says an area Conservative MP.

David Sweet (Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale) says he opposes setting a deadline to pull Canada's soldiers out of war-ravaged Afghanistan because their job isn't over.

"We are trying to nurse this country and those kinds of things you can't put a time limit on," said Mr. Sweet.

Canadian soldiers, he said, are in Afghanistan with 36 other countries as part of a United Nations mandate to rebuild a devastated country, while at the same time fight the continuing war on terrorism.
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Feature: Afghanistan fights flower power
By Farhad Peikar
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Baghlan, Afghanistan (dpa) - Neatly attired in a dark blue suit, Shah Mohammad Poya deftly wields a long stick as he and 30 other men hack clumps of pink, red and white flowers from the poppy bushes - the crops Afghanistan's government has banned.

But Poya is not harvesting, he is destroying the abundance under a new drive to curb the booming narcotics trade that has fed insecurity inside his country and earned it a bad name around the globe.

One of several new policemen who have received special training, he recently returned from a counter-narcotics course in Egypt and now heads a poppy eradication department in the northern province of Baghlan.

"With this last plot in this village, I can say with certainty that we have completely eradicated the poppy lands in two districts of the province," Poya says, hands on hips and exuding satisfaction as he surveys the stripped field in the village of Zorabi, 40 kilometres south of the provincial capital of Pul-i-Khumri.

During a nine-hour search operation the previous day, his team had discovered the intact poppy crop in Dooshi district and, after collecting their sticks, returned to shred it to the last bush.

Making a 30-minute trek across rough terrain and several small rivers because of the inaccessibility of Zorabi by road, the officers then awaited Poya's order as they stood before the bright swathes of flowers that are just a few weeks from harvest. Within an hour they have decimated about a hectare of the crop.
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Afghan women's lives on the line in struggle for equality
POSTED: 11:25 a.m. EDT, May 11, 2007 From Nic Robertson and Sarah Sultoon CNN
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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Bibi Kuku, a 19-year-old Afghan woman, wanted to die. Forced to marry and soon pregnant, she set herself on fire in an extreme act of self-harm, she told the nurses who treated her.

She denies that happened now, saying the burns on her belly came from an accident with an oil lamp. Kuku and her baby survived, but her scars will always remain.

Human rights activists and officials say Kuku's case is not uncommon in Afghanistan. Although strides have been made for women's rights in the post-Taliban era, many women are still made to feel like second-class citizens. (Watch the brutal reality of life for Afghan women )

Afghan laws stipulate that men and women have equal rights, these experts say, but they are just not recognized.

"There is a thinking of men in my country that women are not real, not complete humans," said Homa Sultani, an Afghan woman and human rights activist.

"That is why they think that if they are not complete humans, then they do not have the right to go to the doctor or the other rights, to get education."

The culture allows Afghan men to go even further, she said.
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No signs of torture
Cages, ceiling chains not found as officials look to disprove torture claims

Ottawa Sun, May 12, by Scott Taylor
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/2007/05/12/4173858-sun.html

'We don't do anything that is against the law'
Afghan officials grant Citizen access to controversial detainee holding facilities

Ottawa Citizen, May 12, by a certain reporter
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d760255b-18d5-4777-9341-bdae2b6a64cc&k=33986

(As for the reporter...)

Citizen writers win National Newspaper Awards
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=0bbfa528-54e8-4b34-a4af-9ee2abc7338e

Mark
Ottawa
 
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