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Terrorist attack foiled in S. Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- A terror attack was thwarted in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the provincial government said on Sunday.
"A car bomb was found and defused by personnel of National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Saturday on a compound in Nawa district," the provincial government said in a press release.
The terrorists intended to attack an official ceremony in Nawa district during which security responsibilities of the district were handed over from NATO-led coalition troops to Afghan security forces, it said.
"Once again the determined workforce of NDS or intelligence agency hindered a coward attack designed by enemies of peace and stability," said the release.
Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah, 555 km south of capital Kabul, was among the seven areas where Afghan army and police took full control of security from NATO and U.S. forces in July this year.
NATO and U.S. forces handed over security responsibilities of Helmand's Nawa, Nad Ali and Marja districts to Afghan forces on Saturday, parts of a process which will run through 2014 when Afghanistan will take over the full leadership of its own security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
Explosion rocks Kandahar, Afghanistan, no casualties
KABUL, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- A blast rocked Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Sunday morning, causing no casualties, police said.
"There was a blast in Sanzarai area of Zhari district in the wee hours Sunday but it was a controlled explosion" a police official in Kandahar city told Xinhua.
The police official said Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) security forces discovered and detonated a handful of explosives at around 8:30 a.m. local time Sunday, but no one was injured.
Erlier local media reported that a blast rocked Kandahar city, however, the police source said there was no explosion in city, some 450 km south of capital city of Kabul.
"The explosive were planted by suspected insurgents to target Afghan and foreign forces in the area but their vicious plan have been foiled," the source said.
Afghan people are war-weary and any big bang caused panic among them.
A total of 10 Afghan local policemen were killed and another injured when their vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in neighboring Helmand province on Thursday.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for Thursday attack that occurred in Helmand's Nad Ali district in the province, some 555 km south of Kabul.
380 insurgents lay down arms in Afghan's Badghis province in 2011
KABUL, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- About 380 anti-government insurgents have laid down arms and joined the government-backed peace process in Afghanistan's Badghis province, 555 km northwest of capital Kabul, last year, local media reported Sunday.
"Twenty anti-government armed opposition groups composed of 380 people have given up fighting and laid down their arms in Badghis province over the past year," Tolo television quoted spy agency spokesman Lutfullah Mashal as saying.
Several commanders were among those who handed over their weapons to the authorities in Badghis province, Mashal added.
According to Afghan and NATO-led forces, more than 3,000 anti- government militants have given up fighting and joined the government-initiated national reconciliation and peace process over the past year in the war-torn country.
However, the Taliban outfit fighting Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has rejected the claim as baseless.
National Front Accuses Afghan Govt of Supporting Taliban
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 31 December 2011
Head of the National Front of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zia Massoud on Saturday said that the government is trying to merge the Taliban into political structure of the government.
Speaking at a gathering in Kapisa province, Mr Massoud accused the government of supporting the Taliban.
"The government is somehow supporting the Taliban and is trying to merge the group in the political structure of the government," Ahmad Zia Massoud said. "The government is working against the interests of all Afghans, but considers every tiny interest of the Taliban."
He called the political role of Jihadis symbolic in the government and said that Afghanistan is in a bad situation.
"Those Mujahiddin working in the government have a symbolic role," he said. "They have no power and have to work in the interest of the current government."
He emphasised on basic reforms in the political structure of the government and said that Afghanistan should have a parliamentary regime.
"The National Front of Afghanistan believes that a responsible government should rule the county," Mr Massoud said. "It should be responsible to the parliament, it means a parliamentarian regime should rule the country, so, the coalition believes that a parliamentary regime will lead to economical and social development."
The comments come as some Afghan experts believe that most members of the National Front of Afghanistan allies are currently close supporters of President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban mastering modern technology to circulate message
The National By Zeeshan Haider Jan 1, 2012
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - The Taliban is aggressively employing sophisticated communication techniques ranging from the internet and text messages to social media such as Facebook and Twitter to spread their message.
"We are using modern techniques of communication because we want our voice to be heard all over," Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said in email. "You can't win war without this. It's key to victory."
The militants, operating on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, have launched robust public-relations campaigns in both countries, which is making it difficult for two governments and their international allies to win the war of words with the Taliban.
As soon as a militant attack takes place in either of the two countries, Mr Mujahid or his Pakistani counterpart, Ehsanullah Ehsan, call journalists to claim responsibility.
Details of the attacks are sent by text messages, emails and faxes to media organisations. Mr Mujahid also posts comments on Twitter.
Perhaps the most effective propaganda tools for the militants are the video films and statements recorded on CDs and DVDs, some of which make their way to the militant websites and are posted on YouTube.
They include emotional speeches, pro-Taliban poems and songs in Pashto, Urdu and Arabic and footage of destruction caused by foreign forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani forces on their side of the border.
The videos often show images of civilians, including children and women, said to have been killed in air strikes or missile strikes by US drones in Pakistan.
Some videos have also shown decapitated bodies of suspected spies in an effort to intimidate local adversaries.
A few weeks ago video footage was uploaded on YouTube that showed how militants were terrorising people in Pakistan's North Waziristan, a major sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The video shows members of a hit squad in black hoods roaming in a town. They pick up a man they say is US spy and throw him into a van as seemingly terrified bystanders look on. Another man is shown as he is being forced into a pickup truck. In another YouTube posting both men are shown being blown up by explosives put at their feet.
The Pakistani Taliban have set up an independent media house, Umar Studios, in Waziristan where they produce thousands of DVDs and CDs containing militant propaganda every month, according to militant sources.
A Taliban source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cameramen are sent to the battle zones to film the fighting scenes. The footage is then submitted in the offices of Umar Studios where they are edited and produced. About 50 mujahideen are affiliated with the media cell of the Taliban. the source said.
"We have highly trained mujahideen who dub jihadi songs and poems on this footage. Some of these were uploaded on YouTube while the rest are recorded on DVDs and CDs and also sent through mobile phones to our fighters to keep their morale high," he added.
Sajjad Mohmand, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban in Mohmand, a tribal region on the Afghan border where 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in late November in a cross-border Nato stike, said they had named their media cell "Ahya-e-Khilafat", or revival of Islamic Caliphate.
He said the media cell also puts out a quarterly magazine Khilafat.
Mr Mohmand said they run an FM radio station in the region that broadcasts militant propaganda for two hours a day.
The Taliban had banned television when they were in power in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
"Our clerics have forbidden still pictures but they have allowed movie films as it is an effective tool to counter enemies' propaganda," Mr Mujahid said.
Analysts say the militant movement on both sides of the border is now dominated by young Taliban recruits who are more educated and tech-savvy than their seniors. Many of the Taliban members who graduated from Quranic schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan have also learnt modern media techniques from their Al Qaeda-linked comrades in western countries.
"The generational change has forced them to change their propaganda tactics. Now a new breed of Taliban is emerging which is embracing modern techniques," Rahimullah Yusufzai, a senior Pakistani journalist and an expert on militant affairs, said.
Despite the extensive use of modern technology, the militants still rely heavily on traditional methods of disseminating information, such as handouts, flyers and leaflets thrown on to the streets at night with warnings in areas where internet is not available.
"The situation is quite alarming for both Pakistan and Afghanistan as militants are using all available means to spread their message but the governments' response is slow and ineffective," Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace studies said. "So far, I haven't seen any coordinated and effective strategy by the two governments to counter it."
Orphans’ Defender Jostles With Afghan Corruption
New York Times By ROD NORDLAND December 31, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a country desperately in need of a hero, Sayyid Abdullah Hashemi would like to apply for the job.
It would be hard to find a more wretched place to go to work on that goal than at the National Directorate of Orphanages in Afghanistan’s Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and the Disabled, where Mr. Hashemi became the director seven months ago. He wasted little time shaking things up at an agency that had become infamous for orphanages where caregivers stole food out of children’s mouths and mattresses from under their bodies.
Whether he was motivated by altruism, ambition or some mix of the two may matter little given the importance of his work. But how Mr. Hashemi fares over the long term may be an important sign of whether a reform ethic stands any chance against the corruption so deeply embedded here.
First, Mr. Hashemi focused his energy on the two major government-run orphanages in Kabul, nightmarishly run-down places with dismal reputations. One, the Tahya-e-Maskan Orphanage, was notable for having poisoned its children en masse, serving them milk so far past its expiration date that it nearly killed several of them.
Now, the Tahya-e-Maskan Orphanage is a tidy and obviously well-maintained place. It offers computer science and English classes, with 36 graduates sitting for university entrance exams this year and 44 children on scholarships for study abroad.
“In the 12 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a director like him,” said Wahidullah Hamid, an orphan who at age 17 speaks English so well that Mr. Hashemi hired him as an English teacher as soon as he graduated from the orphanage’s high school.
Mr. Hashemi is a lean, short man, wiry and restless, with a dark beard that makes him look older than his 29 years. He has a sense of self-esteem that seems to come easily to many called Sayyid, a name that identifies its bearer as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad’s family. It is not difficult to read his confidence as arrogance, and his detractors do, accusing him of high-handedness and being driven by personal ambition.
Whatever the source of his confidence, it is mixed with a large measure of righteous indignation. He is an orphan himself; his father was killed fighting the Soviets during the occupation in the 1980s.
“I understand what orphans are suffering,” he said.
His early efforts drew the attention of a venerable Afghan charity, Parsa. Best known for its physical rehabilitation work with the war wounded, Parsa has for the past six years also been running an orphanages program. Unlike most charities in that field, which tend to focus on private, foreign-managed orphanages, “we wanted to work within the government system,” said the group’s executive director, Marnie Gustavson. It proved to be six years of “beating our heads against a wall,” she said.
Then came Mr. Hashemi, whom she described as “someone we could believe in.”
For years, Parsa had been buying items like blankets and warm clothing and delivering them to government orphanages, only to have the management sell them on the open market as soon as the aid workers left town.
Parsa offered to raise some money if Mr. Hashemi would make sure it was spent honestly at some of the 33 orphanages in the provinces, many of them quite remote. In turn, Mr. Hashemi decided to do something that Ms. Gustavson called unprecedented: he actually traveled beyond the capital to visit the orphanages for which his directorate is responsible.
Early in December, Mr. Hashemi turned up unannounced at the orphanage in Faizabad, in the remote northwestern province of Badakhshan, at supper time. There, 150 boys lived in a rental house, sharing 10 rooms and sleeping on boards. That was bad enough, but it was their food that really got his attention.
“We send them 75 Afghanis a day per child, and it’s not enough; but if spent properly, it is at least enough for adequate, decent quality food,” Mr. Hashemi said. That is about $1.50 a day, enough to make sure, for example, that each child gets a ration of at least seven ounces of beans, he said.
But when he arrived, he found the children eating a thin soup that contained maybe an ounce of beans for each of them, plus half a piece of bread. It was clear that even the paltry daily stipend was being siphoned off by the adults at the orphanage.
“The children were emaciated; some of them had hair falling out from malnutrition, skin diseases,” Mr. Hashemi said.
What happened next is a matter of some dispute, though it is certainly an example of how complex making real change here can be.
Mr. Hashemi recounts it simply: “It is our duty not to take the food from our orphans, so I threw a bowl of food in the director’s face and fired him and the cook.”
Parsa’s national director, Yasin Farid, who was present, confirmed that account. But the orphanage’s director, Sayyid Abdul Wahab, remembered it differently during a telephone interview. “We had a quarrel, but it was not very serious,” Mr. Wahab said. “He had a bowl with him, but he did not throw it at me intentionally. He just spilled it at me.”
Mr. Wahab also insisted that he still had his job. “I’m not aware of being dismissed or fired,” he said.
Or as he put it to Mr. Hashemi at the time, according to the accounts of witnesses, “ ‘You can’t fire me, I have too many friends in the police, and my relative is the governor.’ ”
That governor, Shah Wali Adeeb, of Badakhshan Province, is well connected with the influential Jamiat-e-Islami party of the Northern Alliance.
One official familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said that Mr. Hashemi had to accept that he did not have the power to remove Mr. Wahab. “When he found out that the director had political support, he changed his tactics,” the official said.
Mr. Hashemi’s response was to make sure the children were fed, buying them food before he left. Then he left them money for extra food and firewood, and arranged a way for them to contact him regularly to report on how it was being spent and how they were being treated.
He did the same at each of the four orphanages he visited in Badakhshan, Takhar, Parwan and Kunduz Provinces. At the orphanage in Takhar Province, he visited on a Friday, the normal day off, and found no staff members looking after 40 boys younger than 10, he said. They had a 13 pound sack of potatoes, their only food for the day, which they had to prepare themselves.
Later, the director threatened to expel the children from the orphanage if they did not swear to Mr. Hashemi that they had had a big breakfast of eggs and milk that day, which they duly did. Mr. Hashemi’s videographer, however, surreptitiously recorded the entire encounter.
In Parwan, Mr. Hashemi barged into the orphanage at 1 a.m. and inspected the beds. “Sheets are supposed to be washed and changed every two weeks,” he said. “These had not been washed for three years and smelled like it.”
He returned to Kabul, having left a trail of firings in his wake, but he repeatedly ran into the same political problems he had experienced at the first orphanage. It soon became apparent that most of the directors he had dismissed were still holding on to their jobs. It is a measure of how weak Afghanistan’s central government is: while Kabul appropriates the orphanage funds, the money is disbursed through the local governors’ offices, so it is the governors who control the jobs.
“For me, they are fired,” Mr. Hashemi said. “If they still insist on coming to work, I will have to talk to the minister about doing something.”
There are still 29 orphanages he has yet to inspect. “These ones I visited were in the secure areas,” he said. “Imagine what they’re like in insecure areas.”
U.S. Increases Extremist Fight in Pakistan
Associated Press December 31, 2011
OKARA, Pakistan - Sultan Mehmood Gujar was a solid supporter of Islamist militants fighting in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India and even donated money to them, until he attended an innovative 40-day lecture series by a moderate cleric aimed at countering violent extremism.
The course, given to the public at an Islamic school in a hotbed of militancy in Pakistan, had a profound effect on the 46-year-old property dealer, convincing him the militants were wrong to claim they were waging holy war, or jihad, justified by the Quran, the religion's holy book.
"I was shocked to discover that what the militants were doing was against Islam," said Gujar, sitting on the floor at the madrasa in Okara city where the lectures were delivered. "Now I call them terrorists, not jihadis."
Fazal ur Rehman, the cleric who runs the 400-student madrasa, recorded each of the 2-hour lectures he and others gave this past summer and would like to distribute the DVDs to reach a wider audience. But he lacks the money.
The U.S. has created a new unit in Pakistan that aims to leverage such grassroots efforts by working with local moderates to counter violent extremism -- the first of its kind set up by an American embassy anywhere in the world, according to U.S. officials here. The existence of the unit has never before been reported.
Rehman and other clerics attempting to challenge extremism in Pakistan recently met with U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter in Islamabad, though the 50-year-old Rehman says he has not yet received support from the Americans.
Okara has special significance because it is near the village of Ajmal Kasab, home of the only surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed over 160 people.
The U.S. chose Pakistan as the site for its new venture because it is home to a vast network of Islamist militants who have been fighting U.S.-led troops in neighboring Afghanistan for over a decade and have even organized attacks on American soil.
The three-person unit in the U.S. Embassy public affairs section was established in July. It plans to work with local partners, including moderate religious leaders, to project their counter-extremist messages and push back against the militants' extensive propaganda machine, said U.S. officials.
It will use TV shows, documentaries, radio programs and posters. It also intends to ramp up exchange programs for religious leaders and public outreach to conservative Muslims who previously had little contact with American officials.
"There are a lot of courageous voices speaking out against extremism here in Pakistan," said Tom Miller, head of public affairs at the U.S. Embassy. "Our job is to find out how we can amplify those narratives."
The unit is just now ramping up operations, said officials. It was funded with an initial budget of $5 million that officials hope will grow. Officials declined to provide details on specific programs they are funding or plan to fund, for fear that publicly acknowledging U.S. involvement would discredit their partners.
That's a major worry in this country where anti-American sentiment is rampant. Any cleric known to be taking U.S. help is likely to be shunned by many. There are other challenges as well. Many among clerics and the public who are considered moderates have mixed views -- they often oppose the killing of innocent civilians in Pakistan, but support jihad against U.S. forces in Afghanistan or against neighboring India. Further complicating the situation is alleged Pakistani government support for some militant groups.
Also, the militants are likely to strike back, as indicated by a recent trip the U.S. ambassador made to a madrasa in Faisalabad city to attend a meeting of moderate religious leaders who denounced suicide bombings and other forms of violence.
Militants responded the next day by calling the Muslim cleric who hosted the event, Yasin Zafar, and warning he could be killed. The call was from a member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely believed to be a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, an anti-India militant organization, said Zafar.
"I was taunted for becoming a U.S. supporter," said Zafar. "I was told that I should be cautious because I may have provoked the Taliban."
The ambassador's visit to the 900-student Jaamia Salafia was unusual because the madrasa teaches a puritanical strain of Islam followed by some Pakistani militant organizations, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, although Zafar said he does not support the group.
The meeting's participants railed against American drone strikes, which are very unpopular in Pakistan, said Zafar.
The anger illustrated one of the difficulties for the U.S. in working with Muslim leaders who have the local networks to counter extremists.
"They might disagree with how the U.S. is conducting some aspects of its foreign policy, but there is a huge opportunity to partner with these groups because of the mutual goal of stopping the Taliban," said Mehreen Farooq, who recently studied grassroots counter-extremism efforts in Pakistan for the U.S.-based World Organization for Resource Development and Education.
The most intensive component of the new U.S. initiative will be a media campaign focused on raising awareness about civilians harmed by militant attacks, said Miller, the embassy public affairs chief.
"We are trying to discredit these acts and take away the narrative that the militants are some kind of ideological heroes," said Miller.
Surveys have shown that despite varying levels of support for militant groups within Pakistan, a majority of citizens oppose attacks that target civilians. Militants in Pakistan often deny responsibility for civilian casualties.
The militants have an extensive propaganda network of newspapers, magazines and Internet videos -- an effort that in some cases has been enabled by decades of support from the Pakistani government.
The government spent millions of dollars on a media campaign in 2009 trying to dent some of the support for militancy it had built up over the years. The successful initiative aimed to foster public backing for military operations against the Pakistani Taliban, a homegrown insurgent group seeking to topple the government and responsible for killing thousands in suicide attacks.
But the campaign was careful not to single out groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Afghan Taliban, which have received support from the government in the past and many believe still do, said a former government official who worked on counter-extremism programs. The program has since fizzled out, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Islamic clerics who have met with the U.S. ambassador recently expressed hope they could steer Pakistanis away from militancy by explaining when holy war is justified. But they also disagreed on when that's the case.
Zafar, the cleric who hosted the ambassador, said the insurgencies inside Pakistan and in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir were unjustified. But he backs the Taliban's fight against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, a common sentiment inside Pakistan.
"Afghanistan was invaded, and the Taliban are waging jihad to protect their homeland, their freedom and their rights, so I recognize that as jihad," said Zafar.
Rehman, the cleric who conducted the 40 days of lectures, opposes the Afghan Taliban's fight but said he was powerless to compete with the extremists.
"The militants have arms, are trained and have the resources to distribute their literature in bulk quantities," said Rehman. "We are very limited in our ability to distribute material to counter it."
Afghan woman cuts off father-in-law's penis
AFP Saturday, Dec 31, 2011
KABUL - An Afghan woman cut off her father-in-law's penis with a knife after he tried to have sex with her, a doctor in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province said Saturday.
"One day when the husband was away from home he attempted to have sex with his daughter-in-law and she cut off his penis with a knife," the doctor from a private hospital in Ghazni said on condition of anonymity.
The man went for treatment at the private hospital but was sent on to the capital Kabul for specialist treatment, he added. The incident took place two weeks ago but has only just come to light.
According to figures in an Oxfam report in October, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- A terror attack was thwarted in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the provincial government said on Sunday.
"A car bomb was found and defused by personnel of National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Saturday on a compound in Nawa district," the provincial government said in a press release.
The terrorists intended to attack an official ceremony in Nawa district during which security responsibilities of the district were handed over from NATO-led coalition troops to Afghan security forces, it said.
"Once again the determined workforce of NDS or intelligence agency hindered a coward attack designed by enemies of peace and stability," said the release.
Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah, 555 km south of capital Kabul, was among the seven areas where Afghan army and police took full control of security from NATO and U.S. forces in July this year.
NATO and U.S. forces handed over security responsibilities of Helmand's Nawa, Nad Ali and Marja districts to Afghan forces on Saturday, parts of a process which will run through 2014 when Afghanistan will take over the full leadership of its own security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
Explosion rocks Kandahar, Afghanistan, no casualties
KABUL, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- A blast rocked Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Sunday morning, causing no casualties, police said.
"There was a blast in Sanzarai area of Zhari district in the wee hours Sunday but it was a controlled explosion" a police official in Kandahar city told Xinhua.
The police official said Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) security forces discovered and detonated a handful of explosives at around 8:30 a.m. local time Sunday, but no one was injured.
Erlier local media reported that a blast rocked Kandahar city, however, the police source said there was no explosion in city, some 450 km south of capital city of Kabul.
"The explosive were planted by suspected insurgents to target Afghan and foreign forces in the area but their vicious plan have been foiled," the source said.
Afghan people are war-weary and any big bang caused panic among them.
A total of 10 Afghan local policemen were killed and another injured when their vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in neighboring Helmand province on Thursday.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for Thursday attack that occurred in Helmand's Nad Ali district in the province, some 555 km south of Kabul.
380 insurgents lay down arms in Afghan's Badghis province in 2011
KABUL, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- About 380 anti-government insurgents have laid down arms and joined the government-backed peace process in Afghanistan's Badghis province, 555 km northwest of capital Kabul, last year, local media reported Sunday.
"Twenty anti-government armed opposition groups composed of 380 people have given up fighting and laid down their arms in Badghis province over the past year," Tolo television quoted spy agency spokesman Lutfullah Mashal as saying.
Several commanders were among those who handed over their weapons to the authorities in Badghis province, Mashal added.
According to Afghan and NATO-led forces, more than 3,000 anti- government militants have given up fighting and joined the government-initiated national reconciliation and peace process over the past year in the war-torn country.
However, the Taliban outfit fighting Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has rejected the claim as baseless.
National Front Accuses Afghan Govt of Supporting Taliban
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 31 December 2011
Head of the National Front of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zia Massoud on Saturday said that the government is trying to merge the Taliban into political structure of the government.
Speaking at a gathering in Kapisa province, Mr Massoud accused the government of supporting the Taliban.
"The government is somehow supporting the Taliban and is trying to merge the group in the political structure of the government," Ahmad Zia Massoud said. "The government is working against the interests of all Afghans, but considers every tiny interest of the Taliban."
He called the political role of Jihadis symbolic in the government and said that Afghanistan is in a bad situation.
"Those Mujahiddin working in the government have a symbolic role," he said. "They have no power and have to work in the interest of the current government."
He emphasised on basic reforms in the political structure of the government and said that Afghanistan should have a parliamentary regime.
"The National Front of Afghanistan believes that a responsible government should rule the county," Mr Massoud said. "It should be responsible to the parliament, it means a parliamentarian regime should rule the country, so, the coalition believes that a parliamentary regime will lead to economical and social development."
The comments come as some Afghan experts believe that most members of the National Front of Afghanistan allies are currently close supporters of President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban mastering modern technology to circulate message
The National By Zeeshan Haider Jan 1, 2012
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - The Taliban is aggressively employing sophisticated communication techniques ranging from the internet and text messages to social media such as Facebook and Twitter to spread their message.
"We are using modern techniques of communication because we want our voice to be heard all over," Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said in email. "You can't win war without this. It's key to victory."
The militants, operating on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, have launched robust public-relations campaigns in both countries, which is making it difficult for two governments and their international allies to win the war of words with the Taliban.
As soon as a militant attack takes place in either of the two countries, Mr Mujahid or his Pakistani counterpart, Ehsanullah Ehsan, call journalists to claim responsibility.
Details of the attacks are sent by text messages, emails and faxes to media organisations. Mr Mujahid also posts comments on Twitter.
Perhaps the most effective propaganda tools for the militants are the video films and statements recorded on CDs and DVDs, some of which make their way to the militant websites and are posted on YouTube.
They include emotional speeches, pro-Taliban poems and songs in Pashto, Urdu and Arabic and footage of destruction caused by foreign forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani forces on their side of the border.
The videos often show images of civilians, including children and women, said to have been killed in air strikes or missile strikes by US drones in Pakistan.
Some videos have also shown decapitated bodies of suspected spies in an effort to intimidate local adversaries.
A few weeks ago video footage was uploaded on YouTube that showed how militants were terrorising people in Pakistan's North Waziristan, a major sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The video shows members of a hit squad in black hoods roaming in a town. They pick up a man they say is US spy and throw him into a van as seemingly terrified bystanders look on. Another man is shown as he is being forced into a pickup truck. In another YouTube posting both men are shown being blown up by explosives put at their feet.
The Pakistani Taliban have set up an independent media house, Umar Studios, in Waziristan where they produce thousands of DVDs and CDs containing militant propaganda every month, according to militant sources.
A Taliban source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cameramen are sent to the battle zones to film the fighting scenes. The footage is then submitted in the offices of Umar Studios where they are edited and produced. About 50 mujahideen are affiliated with the media cell of the Taliban. the source said.
"We have highly trained mujahideen who dub jihadi songs and poems on this footage. Some of these were uploaded on YouTube while the rest are recorded on DVDs and CDs and also sent through mobile phones to our fighters to keep their morale high," he added.
Sajjad Mohmand, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban in Mohmand, a tribal region on the Afghan border where 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in late November in a cross-border Nato stike, said they had named their media cell "Ahya-e-Khilafat", or revival of Islamic Caliphate.
He said the media cell also puts out a quarterly magazine Khilafat.
Mr Mohmand said they run an FM radio station in the region that broadcasts militant propaganda for two hours a day.
The Taliban had banned television when they were in power in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
"Our clerics have forbidden still pictures but they have allowed movie films as it is an effective tool to counter enemies' propaganda," Mr Mujahid said.
Analysts say the militant movement on both sides of the border is now dominated by young Taliban recruits who are more educated and tech-savvy than their seniors. Many of the Taliban members who graduated from Quranic schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan have also learnt modern media techniques from their Al Qaeda-linked comrades in western countries.
"The generational change has forced them to change their propaganda tactics. Now a new breed of Taliban is emerging which is embracing modern techniques," Rahimullah Yusufzai, a senior Pakistani journalist and an expert on militant affairs, said.
Despite the extensive use of modern technology, the militants still rely heavily on traditional methods of disseminating information, such as handouts, flyers and leaflets thrown on to the streets at night with warnings in areas where internet is not available.
"The situation is quite alarming for both Pakistan and Afghanistan as militants are using all available means to spread their message but the governments' response is slow and ineffective," Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace studies said. "So far, I haven't seen any coordinated and effective strategy by the two governments to counter it."
Orphans’ Defender Jostles With Afghan Corruption
New York Times By ROD NORDLAND December 31, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a country desperately in need of a hero, Sayyid Abdullah Hashemi would like to apply for the job.
It would be hard to find a more wretched place to go to work on that goal than at the National Directorate of Orphanages in Afghanistan’s Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and the Disabled, where Mr. Hashemi became the director seven months ago. He wasted little time shaking things up at an agency that had become infamous for orphanages where caregivers stole food out of children’s mouths and mattresses from under their bodies.
Whether he was motivated by altruism, ambition or some mix of the two may matter little given the importance of his work. But how Mr. Hashemi fares over the long term may be an important sign of whether a reform ethic stands any chance against the corruption so deeply embedded here.
First, Mr. Hashemi focused his energy on the two major government-run orphanages in Kabul, nightmarishly run-down places with dismal reputations. One, the Tahya-e-Maskan Orphanage, was notable for having poisoned its children en masse, serving them milk so far past its expiration date that it nearly killed several of them.
Now, the Tahya-e-Maskan Orphanage is a tidy and obviously well-maintained place. It offers computer science and English classes, with 36 graduates sitting for university entrance exams this year and 44 children on scholarships for study abroad.
“In the 12 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a director like him,” said Wahidullah Hamid, an orphan who at age 17 speaks English so well that Mr. Hashemi hired him as an English teacher as soon as he graduated from the orphanage’s high school.
Mr. Hashemi is a lean, short man, wiry and restless, with a dark beard that makes him look older than his 29 years. He has a sense of self-esteem that seems to come easily to many called Sayyid, a name that identifies its bearer as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad’s family. It is not difficult to read his confidence as arrogance, and his detractors do, accusing him of high-handedness and being driven by personal ambition.
Whatever the source of his confidence, it is mixed with a large measure of righteous indignation. He is an orphan himself; his father was killed fighting the Soviets during the occupation in the 1980s.
“I understand what orphans are suffering,” he said.
His early efforts drew the attention of a venerable Afghan charity, Parsa. Best known for its physical rehabilitation work with the war wounded, Parsa has for the past six years also been running an orphanages program. Unlike most charities in that field, which tend to focus on private, foreign-managed orphanages, “we wanted to work within the government system,” said the group’s executive director, Marnie Gustavson. It proved to be six years of “beating our heads against a wall,” she said.
Then came Mr. Hashemi, whom she described as “someone we could believe in.”
For years, Parsa had been buying items like blankets and warm clothing and delivering them to government orphanages, only to have the management sell them on the open market as soon as the aid workers left town.
Parsa offered to raise some money if Mr. Hashemi would make sure it was spent honestly at some of the 33 orphanages in the provinces, many of them quite remote. In turn, Mr. Hashemi decided to do something that Ms. Gustavson called unprecedented: he actually traveled beyond the capital to visit the orphanages for which his directorate is responsible.
Early in December, Mr. Hashemi turned up unannounced at the orphanage in Faizabad, in the remote northwestern province of Badakhshan, at supper time. There, 150 boys lived in a rental house, sharing 10 rooms and sleeping on boards. That was bad enough, but it was their food that really got his attention.
“We send them 75 Afghanis a day per child, and it’s not enough; but if spent properly, it is at least enough for adequate, decent quality food,” Mr. Hashemi said. That is about $1.50 a day, enough to make sure, for example, that each child gets a ration of at least seven ounces of beans, he said.
But when he arrived, he found the children eating a thin soup that contained maybe an ounce of beans for each of them, plus half a piece of bread. It was clear that even the paltry daily stipend was being siphoned off by the adults at the orphanage.
“The children were emaciated; some of them had hair falling out from malnutrition, skin diseases,” Mr. Hashemi said.
What happened next is a matter of some dispute, though it is certainly an example of how complex making real change here can be.
Mr. Hashemi recounts it simply: “It is our duty not to take the food from our orphans, so I threw a bowl of food in the director’s face and fired him and the cook.”
Parsa’s national director, Yasin Farid, who was present, confirmed that account. But the orphanage’s director, Sayyid Abdul Wahab, remembered it differently during a telephone interview. “We had a quarrel, but it was not very serious,” Mr. Wahab said. “He had a bowl with him, but he did not throw it at me intentionally. He just spilled it at me.”
Mr. Wahab also insisted that he still had his job. “I’m not aware of being dismissed or fired,” he said.
Or as he put it to Mr. Hashemi at the time, according to the accounts of witnesses, “ ‘You can’t fire me, I have too many friends in the police, and my relative is the governor.’ ”
That governor, Shah Wali Adeeb, of Badakhshan Province, is well connected with the influential Jamiat-e-Islami party of the Northern Alliance.
One official familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said that Mr. Hashemi had to accept that he did not have the power to remove Mr. Wahab. “When he found out that the director had political support, he changed his tactics,” the official said.
Mr. Hashemi’s response was to make sure the children were fed, buying them food before he left. Then he left them money for extra food and firewood, and arranged a way for them to contact him regularly to report on how it was being spent and how they were being treated.
He did the same at each of the four orphanages he visited in Badakhshan, Takhar, Parwan and Kunduz Provinces. At the orphanage in Takhar Province, he visited on a Friday, the normal day off, and found no staff members looking after 40 boys younger than 10, he said. They had a 13 pound sack of potatoes, their only food for the day, which they had to prepare themselves.
Later, the director threatened to expel the children from the orphanage if they did not swear to Mr. Hashemi that they had had a big breakfast of eggs and milk that day, which they duly did. Mr. Hashemi’s videographer, however, surreptitiously recorded the entire encounter.
In Parwan, Mr. Hashemi barged into the orphanage at 1 a.m. and inspected the beds. “Sheets are supposed to be washed and changed every two weeks,” he said. “These had not been washed for three years and smelled like it.”
He returned to Kabul, having left a trail of firings in his wake, but he repeatedly ran into the same political problems he had experienced at the first orphanage. It soon became apparent that most of the directors he had dismissed were still holding on to their jobs. It is a measure of how weak Afghanistan’s central government is: while Kabul appropriates the orphanage funds, the money is disbursed through the local governors’ offices, so it is the governors who control the jobs.
“For me, they are fired,” Mr. Hashemi said. “If they still insist on coming to work, I will have to talk to the minister about doing something.”
There are still 29 orphanages he has yet to inspect. “These ones I visited were in the secure areas,” he said. “Imagine what they’re like in insecure areas.”
U.S. Increases Extremist Fight in Pakistan
Associated Press December 31, 2011
OKARA, Pakistan - Sultan Mehmood Gujar was a solid supporter of Islamist militants fighting in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India and even donated money to them, until he attended an innovative 40-day lecture series by a moderate cleric aimed at countering violent extremism.
The course, given to the public at an Islamic school in a hotbed of militancy in Pakistan, had a profound effect on the 46-year-old property dealer, convincing him the militants were wrong to claim they were waging holy war, or jihad, justified by the Quran, the religion's holy book.
"I was shocked to discover that what the militants were doing was against Islam," said Gujar, sitting on the floor at the madrasa in Okara city where the lectures were delivered. "Now I call them terrorists, not jihadis."
Fazal ur Rehman, the cleric who runs the 400-student madrasa, recorded each of the 2-hour lectures he and others gave this past summer and would like to distribute the DVDs to reach a wider audience. But he lacks the money.
The U.S. has created a new unit in Pakistan that aims to leverage such grassroots efforts by working with local moderates to counter violent extremism -- the first of its kind set up by an American embassy anywhere in the world, according to U.S. officials here. The existence of the unit has never before been reported.
Rehman and other clerics attempting to challenge extremism in Pakistan recently met with U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter in Islamabad, though the 50-year-old Rehman says he has not yet received support from the Americans.
Okara has special significance because it is near the village of Ajmal Kasab, home of the only surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed over 160 people.
The U.S. chose Pakistan as the site for its new venture because it is home to a vast network of Islamist militants who have been fighting U.S.-led troops in neighboring Afghanistan for over a decade and have even organized attacks on American soil.
The three-person unit in the U.S. Embassy public affairs section was established in July. It plans to work with local partners, including moderate religious leaders, to project their counter-extremist messages and push back against the militants' extensive propaganda machine, said U.S. officials.
It will use TV shows, documentaries, radio programs and posters. It also intends to ramp up exchange programs for religious leaders and public outreach to conservative Muslims who previously had little contact with American officials.
"There are a lot of courageous voices speaking out against extremism here in Pakistan," said Tom Miller, head of public affairs at the U.S. Embassy. "Our job is to find out how we can amplify those narratives."
The unit is just now ramping up operations, said officials. It was funded with an initial budget of $5 million that officials hope will grow. Officials declined to provide details on specific programs they are funding or plan to fund, for fear that publicly acknowledging U.S. involvement would discredit their partners.
That's a major worry in this country where anti-American sentiment is rampant. Any cleric known to be taking U.S. help is likely to be shunned by many. There are other challenges as well. Many among clerics and the public who are considered moderates have mixed views -- they often oppose the killing of innocent civilians in Pakistan, but support jihad against U.S. forces in Afghanistan or against neighboring India. Further complicating the situation is alleged Pakistani government support for some militant groups.
Also, the militants are likely to strike back, as indicated by a recent trip the U.S. ambassador made to a madrasa in Faisalabad city to attend a meeting of moderate religious leaders who denounced suicide bombings and other forms of violence.
Militants responded the next day by calling the Muslim cleric who hosted the event, Yasin Zafar, and warning he could be killed. The call was from a member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely believed to be a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, an anti-India militant organization, said Zafar.
"I was taunted for becoming a U.S. supporter," said Zafar. "I was told that I should be cautious because I may have provoked the Taliban."
The ambassador's visit to the 900-student Jaamia Salafia was unusual because the madrasa teaches a puritanical strain of Islam followed by some Pakistani militant organizations, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, although Zafar said he does not support the group.
The meeting's participants railed against American drone strikes, which are very unpopular in Pakistan, said Zafar.
The anger illustrated one of the difficulties for the U.S. in working with Muslim leaders who have the local networks to counter extremists.
"They might disagree with how the U.S. is conducting some aspects of its foreign policy, but there is a huge opportunity to partner with these groups because of the mutual goal of stopping the Taliban," said Mehreen Farooq, who recently studied grassroots counter-extremism efforts in Pakistan for the U.S.-based World Organization for Resource Development and Education.
The most intensive component of the new U.S. initiative will be a media campaign focused on raising awareness about civilians harmed by militant attacks, said Miller, the embassy public affairs chief.
"We are trying to discredit these acts and take away the narrative that the militants are some kind of ideological heroes," said Miller.
Surveys have shown that despite varying levels of support for militant groups within Pakistan, a majority of citizens oppose attacks that target civilians. Militants in Pakistan often deny responsibility for civilian casualties.
The militants have an extensive propaganda network of newspapers, magazines and Internet videos -- an effort that in some cases has been enabled by decades of support from the Pakistani government.
The government spent millions of dollars on a media campaign in 2009 trying to dent some of the support for militancy it had built up over the years. The successful initiative aimed to foster public backing for military operations against the Pakistani Taliban, a homegrown insurgent group seeking to topple the government and responsible for killing thousands in suicide attacks.
But the campaign was careful not to single out groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Afghan Taliban, which have received support from the government in the past and many believe still do, said a former government official who worked on counter-extremism programs. The program has since fizzled out, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Islamic clerics who have met with the U.S. ambassador recently expressed hope they could steer Pakistanis away from militancy by explaining when holy war is justified. But they also disagreed on when that's the case.
Zafar, the cleric who hosted the ambassador, said the insurgencies inside Pakistan and in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir were unjustified. But he backs the Taliban's fight against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, a common sentiment inside Pakistan.
"Afghanistan was invaded, and the Taliban are waging jihad to protect their homeland, their freedom and their rights, so I recognize that as jihad," said Zafar.
Rehman, the cleric who conducted the 40 days of lectures, opposes the Afghan Taliban's fight but said he was powerless to compete with the extremists.
"The militants have arms, are trained and have the resources to distribute their literature in bulk quantities," said Rehman. "We are very limited in our ability to distribute material to counter it."
Afghan woman cuts off father-in-law's penis
AFP Saturday, Dec 31, 2011
KABUL - An Afghan woman cut off her father-in-law's penis with a knife after he tried to have sex with her, a doctor in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province said Saturday.
"One day when the husband was away from home he attempted to have sex with his daughter-in-law and she cut off his penis with a knife," the doctor from a private hospital in Ghazni said on condition of anonymity.
The man went for treatment at the private hospital but was sent on to the capital Kabul for specialist treatment, he added. The incident took place two weeks ago but has only just come to light.
According to figures in an Oxfam report in October, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com