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Roadside bomb kills 9 civilians traveling in eastern Afghanistan
By Associated Press, November 12
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb destroyed a car in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, killing nine civilians, including a woman and a child, officials said.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, which took place outside Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman province.
Faizanullah Patan, a spokesman for the provincial governor, put the death toll at nine and said the blast destroyed the vehicle.
NATO said one of its service members was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. It provided no other information. The death raised to 496 the number of coalition troops killed in the country so far this year.
Also in the south, gunmen shot and killed a village elder in the Khash Rod district of Nimroz province, regional chief Hashim Norizia said.
Nimroz has been recommended for transition from NATO to Afghan security control later this year. The city of Mehterlam went to Afghan control in July.
A bicycle bomb in western Herat province’s Injil district wounded two police officers and two civilians, the Interior Ministry said.
Many Afghan militants have traditionally had their strongholds in the south, but also carry out numerous attacks along the eastern border with Pakistan.
Ambassador Peter Tomsen says U.S. must 'get tough' with Pakistan
Examiner.com By Michael Hughes , Afghanistan Headlines Examiner November 11, 2011
The international community should work to reestablish Afghanistan as a buffer state, former U.S. Ambassador Peter Tomsen told an audience at the World Affairs Council on Wednesday in Seattle. However, Tomsen also made clear that peace will remain elusive as long as Pakistan provides sanctuary for insurgent groups.
As he promoted his new book The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers, Tomsen called upon the Obama administration to adopt a tougher policy with Pakistan by escalating diplomatic pressure and conditioning aid packages.
The ambassador also advised the U.S. to collaborate with regional stakeholders on developing a geostrategic mechanism to protect Afghan territorial integrity.
Tomsen, who served as special envoy to the Afghan resistance from 1989 to 1992, minced no words when it came to Pakistan’s duplicitous strategy - one that has been at odds with U.S. interests for decades, despite Pakistani claims of being a staunch ally in the war on terror.
The ambassador accused Pakistan of establishing a robust jihadist infrastructure while its spy agency, the ISI, essentially gave birth to the Taliban and a slew of other militant groups.
Pakistan’s dual strategy backfired, Tomsen explained, because eventually militant groups turned on and began attacking the Pakistani state. Raising cobras is a difficult business, Tomsen asserted, given the fact you can’t really train them on whom not to bite.
He did notice that after decades of silence U.S. leaders were finally calling out Pakistan in public for its continual support of terrorists, specifically applauding Admiral Mullen for recently describing the Haqqani Network as a “veritable arm” of the ISI.
The ambassador took the participants back to a defining moment in U.S.-Pakistani relations after the U.S. had pumped billions into ISI coffers to train and arm the mujahideen, who fought a 10-year war against the Soviets and expelled the Red Army in 1989.
During the Soviet withdrawal Tomsen detected a “pivot” in Pakistani policy. Instead of containing Moscow’s expansive reach, Pakistan had begun trying to extend its own sphere of influence in Afghanistan. In just a few words in his book Tomsen captures the essence of Pakistan's nascent strategy:
Although cloaked in a veil of a covert proxy war and messianic Islamic ideology, the strategy amounted to an invasion of one sovereign country by a larger one.
Tomsen recounted how the Clinton administration outsourced its regional policy to Pakistan as an “unholy alliance” was forged between the ISI, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in the mid-1990s.
After Pakistan tried and failed to install the virulently anti-American Islamic radical Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as Afghan head of state, the ISI unleashed a band of violent, semi-literate madrassa students onto the world stage. With ISI support the Taliban took Kabul and ruled Afghanistan until 2001.
In the wake of the post-9/11 Taliban takedown Tomsen said the U.S. neglected to build adequate security forces and, as a result, the Taliban reemerged from their Pakistani havens as early as 2003.
The U.S. also made the tragic error of inserting Hamid Karzai as puppet-king despite the fact three-fourths of the delegates at the 2002 Loya Jirga voted for Zahir Shah. U.S. leaders basically overrode the collective will of the Afghan people to ensure their favored candidate became president. Not unlike Pakistan's forced install of the Taliban - same result, different means.
Afghan resistance hero Abdul Haq (who, incidentally, was assassinated by the ISI in October of 2001) once told Tomsen that foreigners should never try to choose Afghan leaders. It didn’t work when the British imposed Shah Shuja on the Afghans in the 19th century nor did it work when the Russians tried to prop up a communist regime during the 1980s.
Hence, Tomsen was adamant that the U.S. avoid stepping into Afghanistan’s "political cauldron" and should focus efforts on deterring Pakistan.
Although the ambassador was correct in stating that foreign powers who meddle in Afghan affairs inevitably get burnt, the Afghan people are the ones – not the interveners – who end up suffering the most.
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For more articles on Afghanistan, Pakistan and U.S. Foreign Policy by Michael Hughes visit www.michaelhughesassoc.com
New opposition coalition formed to challenge Karzai gov't
KABUL, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A new political coalition called " National Front of Afghanistan" came into being on Friday to challenge the present administration run by President Hamid Karzai in the war-torn Afghanistan, local media reported Saturday.
"The formation of the new political coalition consisting of prominent political figures and their parties was announced yesterday (on Friday) in Kabul," the Daily Outlook reported in its front page on Saturday.
Leadership of the platform, teamed by former Vice President Ahmad Zia Masoud, legislator and leader of the People's Unity Party of Afghanistan Hajji Mohammad Mohaqiq, former strongman of the north and head of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan General Abdul Rashid Dustam, former spy agency chief Amrullah Saleh and tribal leader Hajji Aman Khairi from eastern Nangahar province, had criticized the Karzai government for what they described "a failed administration" and advocated for the decentralization of power.
"It is the time for an effective leadership which could unite the country. The present government has lost its credibility among Afghans and the international community," the newspaper quoted Zia Masoud as saying.
"Our political system needs fundamental changes and the present status quo is leading Afghanistan towards even deeper crisis," the Outlook quoted Zia Masoud as saying.
Afghanistan's current political system is a U.S.-like presidential system and the president is elected for a five-year term.
Many opposition figures have been advocating for a parliamentary system and having the prime minister to run the government.
Mohammad Mohaqiq said the formation ceremony of the new political coalition lashed at President Karzai's administration, adding that "Mismanagement, and government performances according to personal whim and flawed system are the core reasons behind the present deadlock," according to the newspaper.
In part of his speech, according to the Outlook newspaper, Mohaqiq appreciated the presence of the NATO-led troops in Afghanistan by saying, "We appreciate the cooperation of the International community and the ISAF led by the United States" but noted, "the presence of the international coalition against the terrorism is required in this country as long as the threat of terrorism persists."
He also insisted that "matters concerning this cooperation should be discussed and approved by the parliament."
The spokesman of General Dustam at the meeting Azizullah Kargar said "The decentralization of power and elected governors will provide a comprehensive basis for national participation in power. "
It is the second political opposition front that has been formed to challenge the Karzai government.
The first political coalition titled "Coalition for Hope and Change" established a couple of years ago and is headed by President Karzai's main challenger in the previous presidential election Abdullah Abdullah. It has also been advocating for parliamentary system.
Eight Afghan Civilians Killed By Roadside Bomb
November 12, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say eight civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan today.
Laghman provincial spokesman Faizanullah Patan says the eight people, including a woman, a child, and a groom were killed when the roadside bomb hit a civilian car in the Alingar district of the province.
Laghman Province is located in volatile eastern Afghanistan toward the border with Pakistan.
compiled from agency reports
Afghan, NATO forces keeping up pressure on Haqqani Network
By Farid Behbud, Zhang Jianhua
KABUL, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been keeping up mounting pressure on the Haqqani Network -- a militant group affiliated with the Taliban.
In the latest wave of search and cleanup operations on the group, a joint Afghan and NATO forces detained a group of suspected insurgents in the eastern Paktia province on Friday, the military alliance confirmed in a statement on Saturday.
"In Zarghun Shahr district, Paktia province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force detained multiple suspected insurgents during an operation in search of a Haqqani network leader yesterday," ISAF said in the statement here in Afghan capital Kabul.
The leader directs an insurgent cell in the district and is responsible for numerous direct fire and rocket attacks against Afghan and coalition security forces in the region, according to the statement.
The Haqqani group is the military wing of Taliban fighters headed by Sarhajuddin Haqqani, son of Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought against former Soviet Union forces in the 1980s.
Founded by Mawlawi Jalaludin Haqqani, the father of Sarhajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani network has been operating in eastern Afghan provinces along the border with Pakistan's tribal areas and capital city of Kabul.
The majority of the search and cleanup operations against the Haqqani group have been registered in Paktia and the neighboring Khost and Paktika provinces.
According to media reports, Jalaluddin, who is in his 80s and suffering an illness, has been a close aide to Taliban's fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Separately, joint forces, at a traffic control point in the eastern Laghman province, have captured a known Haqqani facilitator named Rashid Ahmad Arshad earlier this month, the ISAF said in a statement on Nov. 5.
"Arshad aided Haqqani by moving weapons and contraband throughout eastern Afghanistan," said the ISAF statement, adding Arshad and two other insurgents were detained on Nov. 3 in Laghman province with Mehtarlam as its capital some 90 km east of Kabul.
"Arshad and two other individuals were taken into coalition custody of forces after they were positively identified as insurgents wanted for questioning," it said.
The network has been blamed for a string of attacks, including the around-20-hour raid against the U.S. embassy and the ISAF headquarters in Afghan capital Kabul on Sept. 13 that left some 16 people dead and injured over 35 others including six ISAF soldiers.
The Afghan army and ISAF forces have captured over 1,400 Haqqani network militants in different provinces so far this year, ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told reporters in a press conference on Oct. 10.
"Haqqani is a mixture of insurgents and criminals in its network and finances itself out of all types of criminal activities including drugs," said Jacobson.
The Haqqani network has also been accused by U.S. and Afghan military officials for carrying out a suicide track bomb in Wardak province west of Kabul on Sept. 10 that left five Afghans dead and injured 77 U.S. troops with ISAF and 25 Afghans.
Meanwhile, another setback for the militia was capturing of another Haqqani senior leader namely Haji Mali Khan on late September this year.
"Security forces detained Haji Mali Khan, the uncle of Siraj and Badruddin Haqqani and the senior Haqqani commander in Afghanistan. He was one of the highest ranking members of the Haqqani network and a revered elder of the Haqqani clan," ISAF said in a statement released in Kabul on early October.
Mali Khan, according to the statement, moved forces from Pakistan to Afghanistan to conduct terrorist activity. Jalaluddin Haqqani consistently placed Mali Khan in positions of high importance.
In the past year, Haji Mali Khan established a militant camp in Mangal tribal lands in Paktia province, coordinated the transfer of money for insurgents operations, and facilitated the acquisition of supplies, the statement asserted.
Paktika, Khost and Paktia provinces along the border with Pakistan's lawless tribal areas have been regarded as the Taliban, including Haqqani Network's hotbed in eastern Afghanistan.
Taliban target mobile phone masts to prevent tipoffs from Afghan civilians
The mobile phone industry – often cited as one of the country's biggest post-2001 successes – is reporting crippling damage
Guardian.co.uk By Jon Boone Friday 11 November 2011
Kabul - Afghanistan's communications infrastructure has become the latest casualty of the intensified war between Nato and the Taliban, with mobile phone companies reporting crippling attacks on their network of transmission masts.
The onslaught came in the wake of a decree by Hamid Karzai ordering phone companies to defy insurgent demands to shut down transmission networks in large parts of the country during the night.
The mobile phone networks are a key battleground in the war on the Taliban as the vast majority of anti-insurgent tipoffs from Afghan civilians are made at night, through phone calls.
The phone industry says the damage has been so great that the numbers of hours of coverage available to all phone users has fallen significantly – the first time there has been such a fall.
After a decade of explosive growth in public access to phones, which are now part of everyday life for millions of Afghans, the falloff is an extraordinary change of fortunes for an industry that is often cited as one of the country's biggest post-2001 success stories.
The Taliban began attacking transmission masts in 2007, but the damage was limited and the attacks were often aimed only at extorting money from companies.
But since mid-summer attacks have soared, with up to 30 towers being destroyed or damaged in one 20-day period. Previously a loss of five would be considered a bad month.
Insurgents have also become much more destructive.
"They used to just blow up our fuel tanks," a senior executive of an Afghan telecoms company said. "Now they put fuel inside the control room with all the equipment, absolutely destroying everything."
Some masts have even been blown completely out of the ground by insurgents wiring them up with huge quantities of explosives.
And they have focused many attacks on critical hub relay towers, which has the effect of bringing down services in many other locations. In some cases entire provinces have lost all phone services for days on end.
"We have heard that the Taliban now have telecom engineers advising them on how they should attack our sites," said another executive from one of the country's main phone providers.
By forcing a night-time communications blackout the Taliban demonstrate the continued weakness of the Afghan government, western officials say.
But it is stopping anti-insurgent tipoffs that is really key.
"If the masts are off Afghans can't report anything," said Beth Bierden, the US military director of Telecommunication Advisory Team, based at Nato's headquarters in Kabul. "If you see an insurgent you can't call the police to say check this out."
Special forces' night-time kill and capture operations also substantially rely on intelligence gleaned from tipoffs and phone intercepts.
Not surprisingly the US has made several efforts to drag the telecom companies into the war effort, even to the extent of spending tens of millions of dollars on a largely unused parallel phone system.
But after 12 July the Afghan government also joined the campaign to force the country's mobile phone companies to defy the Taliban after Karzai, sitting in his presidential palace in Kabul, was unable to call friends, allies and government officials in the key southern city of Kandahar.
Earlier that same day the president's powerbroking brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, had been shot dead by his own bodyguard and the president was frantically working out how to retain his family's grip on Kandahar.
Furious, Karzai then issued a decree ordering the phone companies to turn on their masts or risk losing their licenses.
Kandahar City has enjoyed 24-hour coverage ever since, but the Taliban responded by ratcheting up their attacks.
Despite US and government pressure the phone companies have still not completely complied, fearing even more attacks on their masts, offices and staff if they agree.
"We're not going to turn on our masts and become part of the army of the Afghan government," said an executive. "I'm not going to switch on my sites because my towers are being attacked, my people are being attacked and the government is not doing anything to help me."
The US has spent millions of dollars finding other ways to bring round-the-clock phone calls to the insurgency's heartlands.
One $68m initiative involved building 20 masts on secured Nato bases deep inside Taliban territory in the Helmand river valley and along the southern portion of Highway One. They hoped villagers would then roam on to the US-provided network after the main carriers turned off their masts in the evening.
But all four major phone companies refused to co-operate, fearing the rest of their network would be attacked, not just in insecure areas, but also in more stable parts of the country.
Even clever technical fixes to conceal the identity of the phone company carrying the calls were rejected.
"They said it was going to be anonymous, but some Talib sitting in Sangin can't read English anyway," the tower provider said. "He is not going to know which company it is, but he'll attack them all the same."
The industry's rejection of the plan means that although all 20 masts are on, almost no one is using them. Calls can only be made with a US-military-provided sim card, and callers can only make emergency calls to the police and army within the same tiny network.
In the words of one telecoms expert, the US-built network is almost certainly "the most expensive phone network in the world" on a per user basis.
The industry is also appalled by the huge price tag put on a barely used network, with one executive calculating that for $68m most companies could have built almost 300 masts.
Bierden conceded that the project was not gaining as many callers as they wanted, but insisted the programme would be expanded.
Future plans include an additional 23 district capitals receiving the US-provided phone masts.
The hope is the US towers will eventually be handed over to Afghan Telecom, a state-owned company that does not have its own GSM network.
"By putting these networks out there, we can help solve that security problem," Bierden said. "By allowing people to talk to each other the insurgents don't have the upper hand."
13 killed, 4 injured in traffic accident in S. Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Altogether 13 people were killed and four injured in a traffic accident in south Afghan Helmand province on Saturday, local government confirmed.
"A passenger bus, travelling from western Herat city to Kabul, lost control and collided with a car and two motorbikes in Gereshk district at about 12:00 noon (0730 GMT)," Sahdi Khan, police chief of Gereshk district, told Xinhua.
"Four people has been killed while a man, a women and a child driving motorcycle crashed with a Corolla car. Driver of the car and the three were killed at the moment" in Gereshk district of Helmand province, some 555 km south of Afghan capital of Kabul, Helmond Governor's Media Center said in a news release on Saturday afternoon.
During accident, other two vehicle, a bus and another Corolla car, hit with the crashed motorcycles and corolla. "In result, four children, a woman, and four men were killed and four wounded and later was taken to hospital," the news release said, adding " 13 people were killed and four wounded in this accident."
Office of the Helmand provincial governor expressed deep sadness over hearing the tragic news and requested drivers to be careful and take care of rules and law of driving to prevent such accidents.
Sahdi Khan also blamed the reckless driving for the incident, saying carelessness of the driver might led to the bloody road accident and claimed the lives of innocent commuters.
Reckless driving on congested roads and highways is the main cause of road accidents in Afghanistan.
A total of 34 people were killed and 24 others injured when a passenger bus turned turtle in neighboring Kandahar province in August this year.
Pakistan terms summit with Afghanistan cordial
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Saturday said that the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the sideline of the regional summit in the Maldives was held in a cordial atmosphere and provided a good opportunity for a frank and in-depth exchange of views.
The two leaders had been in the Maldives to attend the meeting of the heads of governments of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani recounted Pakistan's consistent efforts to have the best of relations with Afghanistan and several initiatives having been taken in this regard.
On matters relating to reconciliation and peace, the prime minister said that it was for Afghanistan to specify and lead the process. "Professor Rabbani's tragic assassination constituted a setback to the process. Professor Rabbani was highly respected and a good friend of Pakistan," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said President Karzai affirmed the importance that Afghanistan attached to its relations with Pakistan."Both sides agreed that the decisions reached at the recent Istanbul Trilateral Summit should be implemented."
The Spokesperson added that Pakistan had always demonstrated goodwill towards Afghanistan and believed that reinvigoration of a cooperative approach was important.
"The Maldives bilateral meeting was a step in that direction," said the spokesperson.
Afghanistan, Pakistan Attempt to Repair Ties Damaged after Rabbani Killing
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 12 November 2011
Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, and Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday met in the Shangri-La resort hotel on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in an attempt to repair ties damaged in the aftermath of the killing of Afghan Peace Council Chief, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
According to reports, the Afghan president has refused to move forward until "Islamabad fully cooperates in the Burhanuddin Rabbani murder probe and takes practical steps to stop violence in his country".
There have been allegations in Afghanistan that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the killing of the former Afghan president and that the suicide bomber was a Pakistani citizen linked with the so-called ‘Quetta Shura'.
A Pakistani official has described the talks the talks, that lasted over an hour, as tense as both sides blamed each other for the current ‘impasse' in the relationship.
"The prime minister began his discussion by expressing regret over the blame game initiated by Afghanistan following the assassination of Rabbani," said the official, who chose to remain anonymous. "It is unfair that you accuse us publicly," the official quoted Gilani as telling Karzai.
The official has said that Gilani told Karzai that Pakistan would cooperate in the investigation about Rabbani's assassination under the mechanism that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey agreed at the Istanbul conference.
Relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan started going frosty recently after Afghan Peace Council Chief and former president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated in a terrorist attack at his home, carried out by a person posing as Taliban messenger.
Afghan Hindus, Sikhs Seek To Reclaim Their 'House Of Love'
RFE/RL By Abubakar Siddique November 11, 2011
Shankar Lal, at age 63, wants to reclaim his native "House of Love" after living in exile in India for 20 years.
The Hindu patriarch is from Prem Nagar, Hindi for House of Love, a once-prosperous Hindu village in southeastern Afghanistan that over the years has been absorbed by the neighboring city of Khost.
For the past two weeks Lal and other leaders from Khost's once-vibrant Hindu and Sikh communities have been petitioning provincial authorities to force local strongmen from properties they vacated amid the civil war in the early 1990s.
Support promised by local officials and tribal elders has Lal looking forward to a day when his grandchildren can return to Khost. "I want them to relive my childhood in our hometown," he says.
From afar, Lal and others from the community have kept close watch on developments in their home country.
"Whenever we heard some good news about Afghanistan, we would celebrate it like a festival," Lal says. "If we heard or watched any bad news from the radio or over the television, it would also upset us because it is our homeland -- the homeland of our ancestors."
Traders Return Hundreds of Hindu and Sikh families living near New Delhi are now ready to return, and have sent Lal and other elders to make preparations. The immediate goal is to reclaim Prem Nagar, now part of eastern Khost, where they plan to rebuild a grand temple to mark their return.
Next they hope to restore the pieces of a once-thriving trading community in Khost by opening pharmacies, grocery stores, and textile shops in the booming border town.
Lal, a pharmacist by profession, has returned every few years since fighting forced him to move first to Kabul and then to India in the early 1990s. But this time he wants to stay put and live to see his grandchildren make friends with local Pashtuns.
Prem Nagar, known to local Pashtun Muslims as Hindu Qala, enjoyed a cordial relationship with surrounding communities. Some 150 Hindu and Sikh families lived in the 25-hectare village, which was enclosed by massive mud walls in line with local Pashtun architecture.
Memories Of Friendlier Times
Former residents still remember the peaceful prewar days with nostalgia. Charan Singh, a 48-year-old Hindu, recalls the two minorities living like brothers with Muslims.
When the war reached Khost and surrounding areas, most local Hindus and Sikhs headed for Kabul, and later for India. But Singh set up a pharmacy in Kabul and never left, allowing him to keep in close contact with friends from home.
He says that his community can rebuild their harmonious life with the local Pashtuns, but they first need to rebuild their utterly devastated village.
"None of our families now live in Prem Nagar. And there is nothing that can sustain life in it," Singh says. "The whole village has been destroyed completely. It's all in ruins now. Our sacred temple was destroyed by tank fire, artillery, and explosives. Our houses, too, were similarly destroyed."At 80, Sudhal Singh is old enough to remember how Prem Nagar came to be a regional Hindu center. The former shopkeeper, who is part of the visiting delegation from India, can recall the days seven decades ago when a local government official convinced elders to live in one community near Khost rather than being scattered in remote mountain villages.
He says that the development of Prem Nagar improved communal life and brought prosperity to the Hindus and Sikhs who owned most of the businesses there.
Rebuilding A Future
Things have changed drastically. Now Pashtun tribesmen, whose ancestors abhorred trading, are the dominant shopkeepers, with an estimated 15,000 shops in Khost.
But Singh's visits with old friends have convinced him that the return of Hindus and Sikhs would be welcomed, and that there is plenty of opportunity despite the new competition.
For him, it just feels like home. "If I tell you the truth, I feel better after returning to Khost," Singh says. "I suffer from ailments because of my old age. But once in Khost they subside. I feel great and my soul is happy here."
If all goes as promised, Prem Nagar will be handed over to the community represented by the delegation by the end of the month, and Lal is optimistic that everything will work out.
"The situation is improving compared to the past," Lal says. "We are very hopeful that we can see the village of Prem Nagar being built again. Personally, I am very hopeful."
German Drawdown in Afghanistan Is a 'Disappointment'
Spiegel Online 11/11/2011
The German government has announced plans to reduce the number of soldiers taking part in the Bundeswehr's controversial mission in Afghanistan. But the drawdown falls short of expectations. German commentators say the move is only to ensure that the annual mandate gets renewed.
The participation of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, in the NATO mission in Afghanistan has always been a political hot potato, especially as the government in Berlin needs to renew its mandate every year. And with Germany's ruling coalition looking for support for the next mandate renewal in January, the news that the number of German troops stationed in Afghanistan will be reduced by nearly 1,000 by the beginning of 2013, ahead of the planned full withdrawal by 2014, has come as no surprise.
In Afghanistan, Bundeswehr soldiers have seen heavy combat action for the first time since World War II. Based in northern Afghanistan, German forces have been increasingly involved in offensive operations to tackle insurgents after their rules of engagement were relaxed.
But now, according to the announcement from the Foreign and Defense Ministries, the German contingent of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will be reduced from 5,350 to 4,900 from February, and then again to 4,400 by 2013. Most of the soldiers being withdrawn early next year will come from the ranks of troops kept in a so-called flexible reserve in Afghanistan.
The plans, which were laid out in a letter from Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to members of the German parliament, the Bundestag, said the reduction would take place "consistent with the evolving security situation and the progress of the transition." The letter also reiterated the intention for a complete pull-out from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Westerwelle labelled the planned troop reduction "responsible" while Defense Ministry spokesman Stefan Paris said it was "militarily justifiable" and politically expedient.
'Another Important Milestone'
In addition, Westerwelle said that a mandate would shortly be submitted to the Bundestag which for the first time contained a responsible reduction in troop levels. "The apex of our engagement has been achieved," he told the newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
While the opposition center-left Social Democrats have signalled their support for the drawdown, many in the other opposition parties, the Greens and the far-left Left Party, have criticised the plans as not going far enough. SPD floor leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the reduction was "another important milestone on the way to handing over responsibility to the Afghan security forces," while Gernot Erler, deputy chairman of the SPD's Bundestag group, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that the reduction was significant and not merely symbolic.
But Frithjof Schmidt, his opposite number in the Greens, criticised the announced drawdown. "The government's plans are a sham," he told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. And the Greens' defense expert Omid Nouripour said: "This is disappointing news. So much more would have been possible -- a genuine withdrawal does not look like this."
For the Left Party, the only party in the Bundestag opposed to Germany's involvement in Afghanistan, senior official Wolfgang Gehrcke said every soldier leaving Afghanistan was welcome. "But the problem remains that the Afghanistan people resist foreign troops as an occupying force," he said. "This will continue to remain the case."
German commentators Friday were generally not convinced by the sincerity of the drawdown plans, but were divided over whether they were worthwhile or not.
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:
"Now it's official: The Bundeswehr will reduce its contingent in the Afghanistan mission by around 1,000 soldiers by 2013. Nearly a fifth less soldiers -- that sounds like a real step towards withdrawal. But in reality, the government's announcement on Thursday is a disappointment."
"Because at first, almost nothing will happen. In the first step, by early 2012, only 450 soldiers are affected by the announcement. And most of those -- 350 people -- belong to the flexible reserve. It is all supposed to look good on paper for the minister responsible."
"In terms of the number of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, however, this changes nothing. The 100 remaining AWACS (surveillance planes) soldiers will be withdrawn. Behind this there is also a sham: The Afghans' own ground radar system is going into operation next year; the AWACS surveillance staff will then no longer be needed anyway. As a consequence, within the next 12 months, in all probability not a single soldier who is not redundant anyway will be withdrawn from Afghanistan."
"That, not to put too fine a point on it, is a bit rich. Only at the beginning of this year, the German government received many votes for the annual extension of the mandate in Afghanistan from opposition parties -- solely because of a commitment to begin reducing force numbers in the current year. It seems more than uncertain whether the government would have attained such a majority if it had been known in advance just what that meant."
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"The Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan will be reduced in the next year. What is surprising is the timing of the announcement and the extent of the reduction. The fact that the Bundeswehr, in step with Germany's NATO's partners, primarily the US, would be cutting back its contingent, has been known for a long time. It was foreseeable that this promise would be met in view of the next mandate at the beginning of January. In this respect, the message has come unexpectedly. It fits, however, with the inclination of the defense minister to make his decisions where possible without public fuss. And the foreign minister is trying, one way or another, to sell the agreement as his success."
"The reduction is politically desirable. The Defense Ministry says the troop reductions are 'still' militarily responsible. This formulation shows the fears of the Bundeswehr leadership in the face of massive doubts among the troops that developments in Afghanistan will actually allow the current cutbacks and the full withdrawal in 2014 to take place. De Maizière is aware of his responsibility towards the soldiers. He will not allow anything that might endanger their safety."
The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:
"At least they kept their word. The German government will maintain around 500 fewer soldiers in Afghanistan than before. These are numbers which -- with the obvious exception of the Left Party -- will make it very difficult for the opposition to fail to agree in the Bundestag to extend the mission. But they are also just the numbers which were expected. Because if, as agreed, the international military mission in Afghanistan is over by the end of 2014, then the reduction in troops must begin at some point."
"But these numbers, which will be enthusiastically marketed for domestic political reasons, reveal nothing about the future of Afghanistan. It's not as if the planned reduction is due to a significant improvement in the country's security situation. The Germans are tired of the Afghanistan conflict, and the government is following this feeling. And these numbers certainly do not reveal that Germany must remain massively engaged in Afghanistan after 2015, in order to prevent an outbreak of civil war there. That is supposed to be achieved through non-military means. But the government has not yet said exactly how that will work."
-- David Knight
Closing the Gap Between the United States and Pakistan
The Huffington Post By Rizwan Ladha Master's degree candidate, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy 11/11/2011
The Obama administration's announcement two weeks ago to negotiate with "reconcilable" members of the Haqqani network continues its prudent and sensible policy of engaging Pakistan to combat terrorism and rebuild Afghanistan. But the Pakistanis do not see things quite the same way, and this evolution in U.S. strategy may actually drive a wedge further between Washington and Islamabad. Before implementing any new policies, U.S. and Pakistan government officials should take great care to align their strategic interests, and should clarify what exactly they want to achieve in Afghanistan.
At the end of October, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Kayani announced that after a meeting between American and Pakistani officials, they were "90 to 95 percent" in agreement on how to achieve common objectives regarding Afghanistan and the Haqqani network. What those common objectives actually are, however, remain unclear.
First, while both countries do want to see a generally stable and independent Afghanistan, differences arise over who Afghanistan's primary partner would be. As Howard and Teresita Schaffer write in Foreign Policy, Pakistan does not have quite the same vision for post-war Afghanistan as the United States -- what is more important to Islamabad is to have in place an Afghan government that is immune to Indian influence (it certainly doesn't help that Kabul and New Delhi recently signed a security agreement). Therefore, one of the ways to prevent this outcome is to use organizations like the Haqqani network to ensure that after NATO forces pull out, the people in charge of governing Afghanistan are pro-Pakistan.
This creates a second difference in perspective between Pakistan and the United States. While Pakistan would be quite content to give the Haqqani network space to wear down NATO troops and the Afghan National Army through relentless attacks, Washington clearly intends to crack down on and dismantle the organization -- Secretary Clinton recently sent a clear message "to the insurgents on both sides of the border that we are going to fight you, and we are going to seek you in your safe havens, whether you're on the Afghan side or the Pakistani side."
And in turn, this brings up difficult questions on whether Pakistan is a trusted partner of the United States in combating terrorism. Earlier in September, outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen was unequivocal in his choice of language, calling the Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency. To his credit, General Kayani indicated in October that his troops could take some action to constrain the "space" in North Waziristan where the Haqqani group operates and moves with virtual impunity. But this is a proposed baby step at a time when leaps and bounds are needed.
These differences get to the fundamental problem of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. Over the past decade, Islamabad has successfully convinced the United States that it is a willing and cooperative partner in the U.S. campaign against terrorism in the region, but at the same time, it has fostered, either directly or indirectly, the growth of terrorist and insurgent networks on its soil. As a result, the likelihood that Pakistani officials would now crack down militarily on the Haqqani network is slim - indeed, two weeks ago they expressed enthusiasm for engaging Haqqani members in negotiations, but have not guaranteed the U.S. they will participate in further military operations in the tribal areas.
This means that if Secretary Clinton and General Kayani's statement that they are "90 to 95 percent" in agreement is true, the remaining five to ten percent needs to be addressed right away. Before the Obama administration decides to go ahead with its idea of sitting down at the table with "reconcilable" members of the Haqqani network, it should clarify with Pakistan how to address the challenges described above.
As a part of the Obama administration's larger "fight, talk, build" strategy to reconstruct a stable, secure Afghanistan, the decision to involve Haqqani members in negotiations is a forward-looking and sound idea. But the difference in ends and means between the United States and Pakistan is sufficiently large that any attempt at Afghan reconciliation that doesn't first get Islamabad and Washington on the same page will surely fail.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Associated Press, November 12
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb destroyed a car in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, killing nine civilians, including a woman and a child, officials said.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, which took place outside Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman province.
Faizanullah Patan, a spokesman for the provincial governor, put the death toll at nine and said the blast destroyed the vehicle.
NATO said one of its service members was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. It provided no other information. The death raised to 496 the number of coalition troops killed in the country so far this year.
Also in the south, gunmen shot and killed a village elder in the Khash Rod district of Nimroz province, regional chief Hashim Norizia said.
Nimroz has been recommended for transition from NATO to Afghan security control later this year. The city of Mehterlam went to Afghan control in July.
A bicycle bomb in western Herat province’s Injil district wounded two police officers and two civilians, the Interior Ministry said.
Many Afghan militants have traditionally had their strongholds in the south, but also carry out numerous attacks along the eastern border with Pakistan.
Ambassador Peter Tomsen says U.S. must 'get tough' with Pakistan
Examiner.com By Michael Hughes , Afghanistan Headlines Examiner November 11, 2011
The international community should work to reestablish Afghanistan as a buffer state, former U.S. Ambassador Peter Tomsen told an audience at the World Affairs Council on Wednesday in Seattle. However, Tomsen also made clear that peace will remain elusive as long as Pakistan provides sanctuary for insurgent groups.
As he promoted his new book The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers, Tomsen called upon the Obama administration to adopt a tougher policy with Pakistan by escalating diplomatic pressure and conditioning aid packages.
The ambassador also advised the U.S. to collaborate with regional stakeholders on developing a geostrategic mechanism to protect Afghan territorial integrity.
Tomsen, who served as special envoy to the Afghan resistance from 1989 to 1992, minced no words when it came to Pakistan’s duplicitous strategy - one that has been at odds with U.S. interests for decades, despite Pakistani claims of being a staunch ally in the war on terror.
The ambassador accused Pakistan of establishing a robust jihadist infrastructure while its spy agency, the ISI, essentially gave birth to the Taliban and a slew of other militant groups.
Pakistan’s dual strategy backfired, Tomsen explained, because eventually militant groups turned on and began attacking the Pakistani state. Raising cobras is a difficult business, Tomsen asserted, given the fact you can’t really train them on whom not to bite.
He did notice that after decades of silence U.S. leaders were finally calling out Pakistan in public for its continual support of terrorists, specifically applauding Admiral Mullen for recently describing the Haqqani Network as a “veritable arm” of the ISI.
The ambassador took the participants back to a defining moment in U.S.-Pakistani relations after the U.S. had pumped billions into ISI coffers to train and arm the mujahideen, who fought a 10-year war against the Soviets and expelled the Red Army in 1989.
During the Soviet withdrawal Tomsen detected a “pivot” in Pakistani policy. Instead of containing Moscow’s expansive reach, Pakistan had begun trying to extend its own sphere of influence in Afghanistan. In just a few words in his book Tomsen captures the essence of Pakistan's nascent strategy:
Although cloaked in a veil of a covert proxy war and messianic Islamic ideology, the strategy amounted to an invasion of one sovereign country by a larger one.
Tomsen recounted how the Clinton administration outsourced its regional policy to Pakistan as an “unholy alliance” was forged between the ISI, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in the mid-1990s.
After Pakistan tried and failed to install the virulently anti-American Islamic radical Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as Afghan head of state, the ISI unleashed a band of violent, semi-literate madrassa students onto the world stage. With ISI support the Taliban took Kabul and ruled Afghanistan until 2001.
In the wake of the post-9/11 Taliban takedown Tomsen said the U.S. neglected to build adequate security forces and, as a result, the Taliban reemerged from their Pakistani havens as early as 2003.
The U.S. also made the tragic error of inserting Hamid Karzai as puppet-king despite the fact three-fourths of the delegates at the 2002 Loya Jirga voted for Zahir Shah. U.S. leaders basically overrode the collective will of the Afghan people to ensure their favored candidate became president. Not unlike Pakistan's forced install of the Taliban - same result, different means.
Afghan resistance hero Abdul Haq (who, incidentally, was assassinated by the ISI in October of 2001) once told Tomsen that foreigners should never try to choose Afghan leaders. It didn’t work when the British imposed Shah Shuja on the Afghans in the 19th century nor did it work when the Russians tried to prop up a communist regime during the 1980s.
Hence, Tomsen was adamant that the U.S. avoid stepping into Afghanistan’s "political cauldron" and should focus efforts on deterring Pakistan.
Although the ambassador was correct in stating that foreign powers who meddle in Afghan affairs inevitably get burnt, the Afghan people are the ones – not the interveners – who end up suffering the most.
==
For more articles on Afghanistan, Pakistan and U.S. Foreign Policy by Michael Hughes visit www.michaelhughesassoc.com
New opposition coalition formed to challenge Karzai gov't
KABUL, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A new political coalition called " National Front of Afghanistan" came into being on Friday to challenge the present administration run by President Hamid Karzai in the war-torn Afghanistan, local media reported Saturday.
"The formation of the new political coalition consisting of prominent political figures and their parties was announced yesterday (on Friday) in Kabul," the Daily Outlook reported in its front page on Saturday.
Leadership of the platform, teamed by former Vice President Ahmad Zia Masoud, legislator and leader of the People's Unity Party of Afghanistan Hajji Mohammad Mohaqiq, former strongman of the north and head of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan General Abdul Rashid Dustam, former spy agency chief Amrullah Saleh and tribal leader Hajji Aman Khairi from eastern Nangahar province, had criticized the Karzai government for what they described "a failed administration" and advocated for the decentralization of power.
"It is the time for an effective leadership which could unite the country. The present government has lost its credibility among Afghans and the international community," the newspaper quoted Zia Masoud as saying.
"Our political system needs fundamental changes and the present status quo is leading Afghanistan towards even deeper crisis," the Outlook quoted Zia Masoud as saying.
Afghanistan's current political system is a U.S.-like presidential system and the president is elected for a five-year term.
Many opposition figures have been advocating for a parliamentary system and having the prime minister to run the government.
Mohammad Mohaqiq said the formation ceremony of the new political coalition lashed at President Karzai's administration, adding that "Mismanagement, and government performances according to personal whim and flawed system are the core reasons behind the present deadlock," according to the newspaper.
In part of his speech, according to the Outlook newspaper, Mohaqiq appreciated the presence of the NATO-led troops in Afghanistan by saying, "We appreciate the cooperation of the International community and the ISAF led by the United States" but noted, "the presence of the international coalition against the terrorism is required in this country as long as the threat of terrorism persists."
He also insisted that "matters concerning this cooperation should be discussed and approved by the parliament."
The spokesman of General Dustam at the meeting Azizullah Kargar said "The decentralization of power and elected governors will provide a comprehensive basis for national participation in power. "
It is the second political opposition front that has been formed to challenge the Karzai government.
The first political coalition titled "Coalition for Hope and Change" established a couple of years ago and is headed by President Karzai's main challenger in the previous presidential election Abdullah Abdullah. It has also been advocating for parliamentary system.
Eight Afghan Civilians Killed By Roadside Bomb
November 12, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say eight civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan today.
Laghman provincial spokesman Faizanullah Patan says the eight people, including a woman, a child, and a groom were killed when the roadside bomb hit a civilian car in the Alingar district of the province.
Laghman Province is located in volatile eastern Afghanistan toward the border with Pakistan.
compiled from agency reports
Afghan, NATO forces keeping up pressure on Haqqani Network
By Farid Behbud, Zhang Jianhua
KABUL, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been keeping up mounting pressure on the Haqqani Network -- a militant group affiliated with the Taliban.
In the latest wave of search and cleanup operations on the group, a joint Afghan and NATO forces detained a group of suspected insurgents in the eastern Paktia province on Friday, the military alliance confirmed in a statement on Saturday.
"In Zarghun Shahr district, Paktia province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force detained multiple suspected insurgents during an operation in search of a Haqqani network leader yesterday," ISAF said in the statement here in Afghan capital Kabul.
The leader directs an insurgent cell in the district and is responsible for numerous direct fire and rocket attacks against Afghan and coalition security forces in the region, according to the statement.
The Haqqani group is the military wing of Taliban fighters headed by Sarhajuddin Haqqani, son of Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought against former Soviet Union forces in the 1980s.
Founded by Mawlawi Jalaludin Haqqani, the father of Sarhajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani network has been operating in eastern Afghan provinces along the border with Pakistan's tribal areas and capital city of Kabul.
The majority of the search and cleanup operations against the Haqqani group have been registered in Paktia and the neighboring Khost and Paktika provinces.
According to media reports, Jalaluddin, who is in his 80s and suffering an illness, has been a close aide to Taliban's fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Separately, joint forces, at a traffic control point in the eastern Laghman province, have captured a known Haqqani facilitator named Rashid Ahmad Arshad earlier this month, the ISAF said in a statement on Nov. 5.
"Arshad aided Haqqani by moving weapons and contraband throughout eastern Afghanistan," said the ISAF statement, adding Arshad and two other insurgents were detained on Nov. 3 in Laghman province with Mehtarlam as its capital some 90 km east of Kabul.
"Arshad and two other individuals were taken into coalition custody of forces after they were positively identified as insurgents wanted for questioning," it said.
The network has been blamed for a string of attacks, including the around-20-hour raid against the U.S. embassy and the ISAF headquarters in Afghan capital Kabul on Sept. 13 that left some 16 people dead and injured over 35 others including six ISAF soldiers.
The Afghan army and ISAF forces have captured over 1,400 Haqqani network militants in different provinces so far this year, ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told reporters in a press conference on Oct. 10.
"Haqqani is a mixture of insurgents and criminals in its network and finances itself out of all types of criminal activities including drugs," said Jacobson.
The Haqqani network has also been accused by U.S. and Afghan military officials for carrying out a suicide track bomb in Wardak province west of Kabul on Sept. 10 that left five Afghans dead and injured 77 U.S. troops with ISAF and 25 Afghans.
Meanwhile, another setback for the militia was capturing of another Haqqani senior leader namely Haji Mali Khan on late September this year.
"Security forces detained Haji Mali Khan, the uncle of Siraj and Badruddin Haqqani and the senior Haqqani commander in Afghanistan. He was one of the highest ranking members of the Haqqani network and a revered elder of the Haqqani clan," ISAF said in a statement released in Kabul on early October.
Mali Khan, according to the statement, moved forces from Pakistan to Afghanistan to conduct terrorist activity. Jalaluddin Haqqani consistently placed Mali Khan in positions of high importance.
In the past year, Haji Mali Khan established a militant camp in Mangal tribal lands in Paktia province, coordinated the transfer of money for insurgents operations, and facilitated the acquisition of supplies, the statement asserted.
Paktika, Khost and Paktia provinces along the border with Pakistan's lawless tribal areas have been regarded as the Taliban, including Haqqani Network's hotbed in eastern Afghanistan.
Taliban target mobile phone masts to prevent tipoffs from Afghan civilians
The mobile phone industry – often cited as one of the country's biggest post-2001 successes – is reporting crippling damage
Guardian.co.uk By Jon Boone Friday 11 November 2011
Kabul - Afghanistan's communications infrastructure has become the latest casualty of the intensified war between Nato and the Taliban, with mobile phone companies reporting crippling attacks on their network of transmission masts.
The onslaught came in the wake of a decree by Hamid Karzai ordering phone companies to defy insurgent demands to shut down transmission networks in large parts of the country during the night.
The mobile phone networks are a key battleground in the war on the Taliban as the vast majority of anti-insurgent tipoffs from Afghan civilians are made at night, through phone calls.
The phone industry says the damage has been so great that the numbers of hours of coverage available to all phone users has fallen significantly – the first time there has been such a fall.
After a decade of explosive growth in public access to phones, which are now part of everyday life for millions of Afghans, the falloff is an extraordinary change of fortunes for an industry that is often cited as one of the country's biggest post-2001 success stories.
The Taliban began attacking transmission masts in 2007, but the damage was limited and the attacks were often aimed only at extorting money from companies.
But since mid-summer attacks have soared, with up to 30 towers being destroyed or damaged in one 20-day period. Previously a loss of five would be considered a bad month.
Insurgents have also become much more destructive.
"They used to just blow up our fuel tanks," a senior executive of an Afghan telecoms company said. "Now they put fuel inside the control room with all the equipment, absolutely destroying everything."
Some masts have even been blown completely out of the ground by insurgents wiring them up with huge quantities of explosives.
And they have focused many attacks on critical hub relay towers, which has the effect of bringing down services in many other locations. In some cases entire provinces have lost all phone services for days on end.
"We have heard that the Taliban now have telecom engineers advising them on how they should attack our sites," said another executive from one of the country's main phone providers.
By forcing a night-time communications blackout the Taliban demonstrate the continued weakness of the Afghan government, western officials say.
But it is stopping anti-insurgent tipoffs that is really key.
"If the masts are off Afghans can't report anything," said Beth Bierden, the US military director of Telecommunication Advisory Team, based at Nato's headquarters in Kabul. "If you see an insurgent you can't call the police to say check this out."
Special forces' night-time kill and capture operations also substantially rely on intelligence gleaned from tipoffs and phone intercepts.
Not surprisingly the US has made several efforts to drag the telecom companies into the war effort, even to the extent of spending tens of millions of dollars on a largely unused parallel phone system.
But after 12 July the Afghan government also joined the campaign to force the country's mobile phone companies to defy the Taliban after Karzai, sitting in his presidential palace in Kabul, was unable to call friends, allies and government officials in the key southern city of Kandahar.
Earlier that same day the president's powerbroking brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, had been shot dead by his own bodyguard and the president was frantically working out how to retain his family's grip on Kandahar.
Furious, Karzai then issued a decree ordering the phone companies to turn on their masts or risk losing their licenses.
Kandahar City has enjoyed 24-hour coverage ever since, but the Taliban responded by ratcheting up their attacks.
Despite US and government pressure the phone companies have still not completely complied, fearing even more attacks on their masts, offices and staff if they agree.
"We're not going to turn on our masts and become part of the army of the Afghan government," said an executive. "I'm not going to switch on my sites because my towers are being attacked, my people are being attacked and the government is not doing anything to help me."
The US has spent millions of dollars finding other ways to bring round-the-clock phone calls to the insurgency's heartlands.
One $68m initiative involved building 20 masts on secured Nato bases deep inside Taliban territory in the Helmand river valley and along the southern portion of Highway One. They hoped villagers would then roam on to the US-provided network after the main carriers turned off their masts in the evening.
But all four major phone companies refused to co-operate, fearing the rest of their network would be attacked, not just in insecure areas, but also in more stable parts of the country.
Even clever technical fixes to conceal the identity of the phone company carrying the calls were rejected.
"They said it was going to be anonymous, but some Talib sitting in Sangin can't read English anyway," the tower provider said. "He is not going to know which company it is, but he'll attack them all the same."
The industry's rejection of the plan means that although all 20 masts are on, almost no one is using them. Calls can only be made with a US-military-provided sim card, and callers can only make emergency calls to the police and army within the same tiny network.
In the words of one telecoms expert, the US-built network is almost certainly "the most expensive phone network in the world" on a per user basis.
The industry is also appalled by the huge price tag put on a barely used network, with one executive calculating that for $68m most companies could have built almost 300 masts.
Bierden conceded that the project was not gaining as many callers as they wanted, but insisted the programme would be expanded.
Future plans include an additional 23 district capitals receiving the US-provided phone masts.
The hope is the US towers will eventually be handed over to Afghan Telecom, a state-owned company that does not have its own GSM network.
"By putting these networks out there, we can help solve that security problem," Bierden said. "By allowing people to talk to each other the insurgents don't have the upper hand."
13 killed, 4 injured in traffic accident in S. Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Altogether 13 people were killed and four injured in a traffic accident in south Afghan Helmand province on Saturday, local government confirmed.
"A passenger bus, travelling from western Herat city to Kabul, lost control and collided with a car and two motorbikes in Gereshk district at about 12:00 noon (0730 GMT)," Sahdi Khan, police chief of Gereshk district, told Xinhua.
"Four people has been killed while a man, a women and a child driving motorcycle crashed with a Corolla car. Driver of the car and the three were killed at the moment" in Gereshk district of Helmand province, some 555 km south of Afghan capital of Kabul, Helmond Governor's Media Center said in a news release on Saturday afternoon.
During accident, other two vehicle, a bus and another Corolla car, hit with the crashed motorcycles and corolla. "In result, four children, a woman, and four men were killed and four wounded and later was taken to hospital," the news release said, adding " 13 people were killed and four wounded in this accident."
Office of the Helmand provincial governor expressed deep sadness over hearing the tragic news and requested drivers to be careful and take care of rules and law of driving to prevent such accidents.
Sahdi Khan also blamed the reckless driving for the incident, saying carelessness of the driver might led to the bloody road accident and claimed the lives of innocent commuters.
Reckless driving on congested roads and highways is the main cause of road accidents in Afghanistan.
A total of 34 people were killed and 24 others injured when a passenger bus turned turtle in neighboring Kandahar province in August this year.
Pakistan terms summit with Afghanistan cordial
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Saturday said that the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the sideline of the regional summit in the Maldives was held in a cordial atmosphere and provided a good opportunity for a frank and in-depth exchange of views.
The two leaders had been in the Maldives to attend the meeting of the heads of governments of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani recounted Pakistan's consistent efforts to have the best of relations with Afghanistan and several initiatives having been taken in this regard.
On matters relating to reconciliation and peace, the prime minister said that it was for Afghanistan to specify and lead the process. "Professor Rabbani's tragic assassination constituted a setback to the process. Professor Rabbani was highly respected and a good friend of Pakistan," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said President Karzai affirmed the importance that Afghanistan attached to its relations with Pakistan."Both sides agreed that the decisions reached at the recent Istanbul Trilateral Summit should be implemented."
The Spokesperson added that Pakistan had always demonstrated goodwill towards Afghanistan and believed that reinvigoration of a cooperative approach was important.
"The Maldives bilateral meeting was a step in that direction," said the spokesperson.
Afghanistan, Pakistan Attempt to Repair Ties Damaged after Rabbani Killing
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 12 November 2011
Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, and Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday met in the Shangri-La resort hotel on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in an attempt to repair ties damaged in the aftermath of the killing of Afghan Peace Council Chief, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
According to reports, the Afghan president has refused to move forward until "Islamabad fully cooperates in the Burhanuddin Rabbani murder probe and takes practical steps to stop violence in his country".
There have been allegations in Afghanistan that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the killing of the former Afghan president and that the suicide bomber was a Pakistani citizen linked with the so-called ‘Quetta Shura'.
A Pakistani official has described the talks the talks, that lasted over an hour, as tense as both sides blamed each other for the current ‘impasse' in the relationship.
"The prime minister began his discussion by expressing regret over the blame game initiated by Afghanistan following the assassination of Rabbani," said the official, who chose to remain anonymous. "It is unfair that you accuse us publicly," the official quoted Gilani as telling Karzai.
The official has said that Gilani told Karzai that Pakistan would cooperate in the investigation about Rabbani's assassination under the mechanism that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey agreed at the Istanbul conference.
Relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan started going frosty recently after Afghan Peace Council Chief and former president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated in a terrorist attack at his home, carried out by a person posing as Taliban messenger.
Afghan Hindus, Sikhs Seek To Reclaim Their 'House Of Love'
RFE/RL By Abubakar Siddique November 11, 2011
Shankar Lal, at age 63, wants to reclaim his native "House of Love" after living in exile in India for 20 years.
The Hindu patriarch is from Prem Nagar, Hindi for House of Love, a once-prosperous Hindu village in southeastern Afghanistan that over the years has been absorbed by the neighboring city of Khost.
For the past two weeks Lal and other leaders from Khost's once-vibrant Hindu and Sikh communities have been petitioning provincial authorities to force local strongmen from properties they vacated amid the civil war in the early 1990s.
Support promised by local officials and tribal elders has Lal looking forward to a day when his grandchildren can return to Khost. "I want them to relive my childhood in our hometown," he says.
From afar, Lal and others from the community have kept close watch on developments in their home country.
"Whenever we heard some good news about Afghanistan, we would celebrate it like a festival," Lal says. "If we heard or watched any bad news from the radio or over the television, it would also upset us because it is our homeland -- the homeland of our ancestors."
Traders Return Hundreds of Hindu and Sikh families living near New Delhi are now ready to return, and have sent Lal and other elders to make preparations. The immediate goal is to reclaim Prem Nagar, now part of eastern Khost, where they plan to rebuild a grand temple to mark their return.
Next they hope to restore the pieces of a once-thriving trading community in Khost by opening pharmacies, grocery stores, and textile shops in the booming border town.
Lal, a pharmacist by profession, has returned every few years since fighting forced him to move first to Kabul and then to India in the early 1990s. But this time he wants to stay put and live to see his grandchildren make friends with local Pashtuns.
Prem Nagar, known to local Pashtun Muslims as Hindu Qala, enjoyed a cordial relationship with surrounding communities. Some 150 Hindu and Sikh families lived in the 25-hectare village, which was enclosed by massive mud walls in line with local Pashtun architecture.
Memories Of Friendlier Times
Former residents still remember the peaceful prewar days with nostalgia. Charan Singh, a 48-year-old Hindu, recalls the two minorities living like brothers with Muslims.
When the war reached Khost and surrounding areas, most local Hindus and Sikhs headed for Kabul, and later for India. But Singh set up a pharmacy in Kabul and never left, allowing him to keep in close contact with friends from home.
He says that his community can rebuild their harmonious life with the local Pashtuns, but they first need to rebuild their utterly devastated village.
"None of our families now live in Prem Nagar. And there is nothing that can sustain life in it," Singh says. "The whole village has been destroyed completely. It's all in ruins now. Our sacred temple was destroyed by tank fire, artillery, and explosives. Our houses, too, were similarly destroyed."At 80, Sudhal Singh is old enough to remember how Prem Nagar came to be a regional Hindu center. The former shopkeeper, who is part of the visiting delegation from India, can recall the days seven decades ago when a local government official convinced elders to live in one community near Khost rather than being scattered in remote mountain villages.
He says that the development of Prem Nagar improved communal life and brought prosperity to the Hindus and Sikhs who owned most of the businesses there.
Rebuilding A Future
Things have changed drastically. Now Pashtun tribesmen, whose ancestors abhorred trading, are the dominant shopkeepers, with an estimated 15,000 shops in Khost.
But Singh's visits with old friends have convinced him that the return of Hindus and Sikhs would be welcomed, and that there is plenty of opportunity despite the new competition.
For him, it just feels like home. "If I tell you the truth, I feel better after returning to Khost," Singh says. "I suffer from ailments because of my old age. But once in Khost they subside. I feel great and my soul is happy here."
If all goes as promised, Prem Nagar will be handed over to the community represented by the delegation by the end of the month, and Lal is optimistic that everything will work out.
"The situation is improving compared to the past," Lal says. "We are very hopeful that we can see the village of Prem Nagar being built again. Personally, I am very hopeful."
German Drawdown in Afghanistan Is a 'Disappointment'
Spiegel Online 11/11/2011
The German government has announced plans to reduce the number of soldiers taking part in the Bundeswehr's controversial mission in Afghanistan. But the drawdown falls short of expectations. German commentators say the move is only to ensure that the annual mandate gets renewed.
The participation of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, in the NATO mission in Afghanistan has always been a political hot potato, especially as the government in Berlin needs to renew its mandate every year. And with Germany's ruling coalition looking for support for the next mandate renewal in January, the news that the number of German troops stationed in Afghanistan will be reduced by nearly 1,000 by the beginning of 2013, ahead of the planned full withdrawal by 2014, has come as no surprise.
In Afghanistan, Bundeswehr soldiers have seen heavy combat action for the first time since World War II. Based in northern Afghanistan, German forces have been increasingly involved in offensive operations to tackle insurgents after their rules of engagement were relaxed.
But now, according to the announcement from the Foreign and Defense Ministries, the German contingent of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will be reduced from 5,350 to 4,900 from February, and then again to 4,400 by 2013. Most of the soldiers being withdrawn early next year will come from the ranks of troops kept in a so-called flexible reserve in Afghanistan.
The plans, which were laid out in a letter from Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to members of the German parliament, the Bundestag, said the reduction would take place "consistent with the evolving security situation and the progress of the transition." The letter also reiterated the intention for a complete pull-out from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Westerwelle labelled the planned troop reduction "responsible" while Defense Ministry spokesman Stefan Paris said it was "militarily justifiable" and politically expedient.
'Another Important Milestone'
In addition, Westerwelle said that a mandate would shortly be submitted to the Bundestag which for the first time contained a responsible reduction in troop levels. "The apex of our engagement has been achieved," he told the newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
While the opposition center-left Social Democrats have signalled their support for the drawdown, many in the other opposition parties, the Greens and the far-left Left Party, have criticised the plans as not going far enough. SPD floor leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the reduction was "another important milestone on the way to handing over responsibility to the Afghan security forces," while Gernot Erler, deputy chairman of the SPD's Bundestag group, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that the reduction was significant and not merely symbolic.
But Frithjof Schmidt, his opposite number in the Greens, criticised the announced drawdown. "The government's plans are a sham," he told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. And the Greens' defense expert Omid Nouripour said: "This is disappointing news. So much more would have been possible -- a genuine withdrawal does not look like this."
For the Left Party, the only party in the Bundestag opposed to Germany's involvement in Afghanistan, senior official Wolfgang Gehrcke said every soldier leaving Afghanistan was welcome. "But the problem remains that the Afghanistan people resist foreign troops as an occupying force," he said. "This will continue to remain the case."
German commentators Friday were generally not convinced by the sincerity of the drawdown plans, but were divided over whether they were worthwhile or not.
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:
"Now it's official: The Bundeswehr will reduce its contingent in the Afghanistan mission by around 1,000 soldiers by 2013. Nearly a fifth less soldiers -- that sounds like a real step towards withdrawal. But in reality, the government's announcement on Thursday is a disappointment."
"Because at first, almost nothing will happen. In the first step, by early 2012, only 450 soldiers are affected by the announcement. And most of those -- 350 people -- belong to the flexible reserve. It is all supposed to look good on paper for the minister responsible."
"In terms of the number of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, however, this changes nothing. The 100 remaining AWACS (surveillance planes) soldiers will be withdrawn. Behind this there is also a sham: The Afghans' own ground radar system is going into operation next year; the AWACS surveillance staff will then no longer be needed anyway. As a consequence, within the next 12 months, in all probability not a single soldier who is not redundant anyway will be withdrawn from Afghanistan."
"That, not to put too fine a point on it, is a bit rich. Only at the beginning of this year, the German government received many votes for the annual extension of the mandate in Afghanistan from opposition parties -- solely because of a commitment to begin reducing force numbers in the current year. It seems more than uncertain whether the government would have attained such a majority if it had been known in advance just what that meant."
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"The Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan will be reduced in the next year. What is surprising is the timing of the announcement and the extent of the reduction. The fact that the Bundeswehr, in step with Germany's NATO's partners, primarily the US, would be cutting back its contingent, has been known for a long time. It was foreseeable that this promise would be met in view of the next mandate at the beginning of January. In this respect, the message has come unexpectedly. It fits, however, with the inclination of the defense minister to make his decisions where possible without public fuss. And the foreign minister is trying, one way or another, to sell the agreement as his success."
"The reduction is politically desirable. The Defense Ministry says the troop reductions are 'still' militarily responsible. This formulation shows the fears of the Bundeswehr leadership in the face of massive doubts among the troops that developments in Afghanistan will actually allow the current cutbacks and the full withdrawal in 2014 to take place. De Maizière is aware of his responsibility towards the soldiers. He will not allow anything that might endanger their safety."
The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:
"At least they kept their word. The German government will maintain around 500 fewer soldiers in Afghanistan than before. These are numbers which -- with the obvious exception of the Left Party -- will make it very difficult for the opposition to fail to agree in the Bundestag to extend the mission. But they are also just the numbers which were expected. Because if, as agreed, the international military mission in Afghanistan is over by the end of 2014, then the reduction in troops must begin at some point."
"But these numbers, which will be enthusiastically marketed for domestic political reasons, reveal nothing about the future of Afghanistan. It's not as if the planned reduction is due to a significant improvement in the country's security situation. The Germans are tired of the Afghanistan conflict, and the government is following this feeling. And these numbers certainly do not reveal that Germany must remain massively engaged in Afghanistan after 2015, in order to prevent an outbreak of civil war there. That is supposed to be achieved through non-military means. But the government has not yet said exactly how that will work."
-- David Knight
Closing the Gap Between the United States and Pakistan
The Huffington Post By Rizwan Ladha Master's degree candidate, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy 11/11/2011
The Obama administration's announcement two weeks ago to negotiate with "reconcilable" members of the Haqqani network continues its prudent and sensible policy of engaging Pakistan to combat terrorism and rebuild Afghanistan. But the Pakistanis do not see things quite the same way, and this evolution in U.S. strategy may actually drive a wedge further between Washington and Islamabad. Before implementing any new policies, U.S. and Pakistan government officials should take great care to align their strategic interests, and should clarify what exactly they want to achieve in Afghanistan.
At the end of October, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Kayani announced that after a meeting between American and Pakistani officials, they were "90 to 95 percent" in agreement on how to achieve common objectives regarding Afghanistan and the Haqqani network. What those common objectives actually are, however, remain unclear.
First, while both countries do want to see a generally stable and independent Afghanistan, differences arise over who Afghanistan's primary partner would be. As Howard and Teresita Schaffer write in Foreign Policy, Pakistan does not have quite the same vision for post-war Afghanistan as the United States -- what is more important to Islamabad is to have in place an Afghan government that is immune to Indian influence (it certainly doesn't help that Kabul and New Delhi recently signed a security agreement). Therefore, one of the ways to prevent this outcome is to use organizations like the Haqqani network to ensure that after NATO forces pull out, the people in charge of governing Afghanistan are pro-Pakistan.
This creates a second difference in perspective between Pakistan and the United States. While Pakistan would be quite content to give the Haqqani network space to wear down NATO troops and the Afghan National Army through relentless attacks, Washington clearly intends to crack down on and dismantle the organization -- Secretary Clinton recently sent a clear message "to the insurgents on both sides of the border that we are going to fight you, and we are going to seek you in your safe havens, whether you're on the Afghan side or the Pakistani side."
And in turn, this brings up difficult questions on whether Pakistan is a trusted partner of the United States in combating terrorism. Earlier in September, outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen was unequivocal in his choice of language, calling the Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency. To his credit, General Kayani indicated in October that his troops could take some action to constrain the "space" in North Waziristan where the Haqqani group operates and moves with virtual impunity. But this is a proposed baby step at a time when leaps and bounds are needed.
These differences get to the fundamental problem of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. Over the past decade, Islamabad has successfully convinced the United States that it is a willing and cooperative partner in the U.S. campaign against terrorism in the region, but at the same time, it has fostered, either directly or indirectly, the growth of terrorist and insurgent networks on its soil. As a result, the likelihood that Pakistani officials would now crack down militarily on the Haqqani network is slim - indeed, two weeks ago they expressed enthusiasm for engaging Haqqani members in negotiations, but have not guaranteed the U.S. they will participate in further military operations in the tribal areas.
This means that if Secretary Clinton and General Kayani's statement that they are "90 to 95 percent" in agreement is true, the remaining five to ten percent needs to be addressed right away. Before the Obama administration decides to go ahead with its idea of sitting down at the table with "reconcilable" members of the Haqqani network, it should clarify with Pakistan how to address the challenges described above.
As a part of the Obama administration's larger "fight, talk, build" strategy to reconstruct a stable, secure Afghanistan, the decision to involve Haqqani members in negotiations is a forward-looking and sound idea. But the difference in ends and means between the United States and Pakistan is sufficiently large that any attempt at Afghan reconciliation that doesn't first get Islamabad and Washington on the same page will surely fail.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com