[Afghan News] March 30, 2012

[یاسمینه]

Afghan Militia Member Drugs and Kills Colleagues
By FAROOQ JAN MANGAL and MATTHEW ROSENBERG The New York Times March 30, 2012
KHOST, Afghanistan — A member of an Afghan militia promoted by the American military to protect rural villages drugged his colleagues and killed at least nine of them as they slept on Friday, the third deadly episode involving the irregular guard force in March.
The killings added to concerns about the militia, known as the Afghan Local Police. Touted by American military commanders as a way to give Afghans a larger stake in battling the insurgency, the local police program has been assailed by rights advocates and many Afghans as bringing former Taliban and criminal elements into positions of armed authority.
Friday’s killings took place at a small local police command post in Paktika Province, an area of eastern Afghanistan thick with Taliban and allied insurgents.
The assailant, identified as Assadullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name, had on Thursday night laced food being served at the post with crushed sleeping pills, said Dawlat Khan Zadran, the police chief of Paktika. The assailant then waited a few hours for the drugs to kick in, and sometime after midnight turned his AK-47 assault rifle on his fellow local police.
At least nine Afghan local police were killed at the post in the remote Yahyakhel district of the province, Mr. Zadran said. The suspect escaped in a Toyota Ranger pickup truck with most of the weapons from the post.
Offices from the national police force have since arrested two of the suspect’s brothers and the man who recommended Assadullah be recruited into the local police, Mr. Zadran said.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Assadullah had rejoined the insurgency’ ranks after infiltrating the command post a few days ago. He referred to the assailant by what appeared to be a nom de guerre, Mujahid Sanaullah.
The Taliban often take credit for attacks by members of the Afghan security forces, especially when coalition service members are slain. American and Afghan officials say they do not believe most attacks by on the coalition by Afghan army and national police are the work of Taliban infiltrators.
But there is less certainty about Taliban infiltration in the local police forces, among other problems. An American military report released in December found some members of the force have engaged in illegal taxation, carried weapons outside their villages and committed assault. The report was a response to a highly critical study of program by Human Rights Watch.
Still, the December report concluded that the American military leadership thinks the Afghan local police have generally been effective.
But problems with the local police have continued. Another Afghan local policeman allowed Taliban to enter his guard post on March 7 and kill nine of his fellow Afghan local police in the southern province of Oruzgan.
On Monday, an Afghan local policeman shot and killed a coalition soldier in Paktika Province, the same province where Friday’s killings took place. The province borders Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, a hub for Islamist militancy in South Asia.
Coalition losses, meanwhile, continued to mount, with NATO saying on Friday that one of its service members was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan and another in an insurgent attack. NATO provided no additional details. The number of coalition deaths here this year stands at 94, according to icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dozens of Taliban killed fighting in west Afghanistan
KABUL (Reuters) - Dozens of Taliban fighters were killed in U.S. air strikes and a gun battle in western Afghanistan after an insurgent attack on an Afghan army patrol, NATO and Afghan officials said on Friday.
A spokesman of the International Security Assistance Force said the patrol came under attack in Gulistan district in western Farah province on Wednesday, prompting a call for air support.
"Numerous insurgents were killed, and several motorbikes were damaged or destroyed" following two strikes by coalition aircraft, he said.
Abdul Raoof Ahmadi, a police spokesman in western Afghanistan, said 30 Taliban were killed and another 15 wounded in the fighting in the remote area.
Officials have warned of a hard summer ahead as the fighting season resumes and Afghan national forces assume responsibility of security in more parts of the country from NATO combat forces set to leave by the end of 2014.
Taliban are active in parts of Farah including Gulistan, which falls on a desert highway connecting both Kabul and Kandahar to the western city of Heart.
Mohammed Yunus Rasouli, the deputy governor for Farah, said five vehicles of the Afghan national army came under attack when they were crossing Gulistan and three soldiers were burnt inside the vehicle.
"In response, ISAF, the national army and police started a joint operation which still continues," he said, adding he could not give a number of the militants killed.
A Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said in a text message to reporters that its fighters had killed 40 guards in the attack in Gulistan which he said was carried out on a convoy carrying supplies for foreign troops.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani and Sharafuddin Sharafyar; Editing by Michael Perry)

U.S. Blames Senior Afghan in Deaths
Americans Say They Have Proof Provincial Power Broker Ordered Attack That Killed 2 Troops; Karzai Says Case Closed
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB March 29, 2012
KABUL - American officials are pressing the Afghan government to prosecute a former governor for what U.S. investigators say is involvement in the killings of an American lieutenant colonel and a U.S. servicewoman, as well as other alleged crimes.
President Hamid Karzai's administration has rejected requests to prosecute Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr for the killings and for alleged corruption, saying evidence is lacking. Mr. Abu Bakr, who remains a power broker in his province of Kapisa just north of Kabul, has denied the U.S. allegations.
Mr. Karzai, who appointed Mr. Abu Bakr as governor in 2007 and removed him three years later, has declared the Abu Bakr case to be closed.
The U.S. still considers pursuing the former governor a priority for Afghan law enforcement, U.S. officials say. "As far as we are concerned, the case is still open," a senior U.S. official says.
Relations between Mr. Karzai's administration and its U.S. backers have been increasingly acrimonious after a spate of shooting attacks by Afghan troops on their U.S. allies and the March massacre of civilians allegedly perpetrated by a U.S. soldier in Kandahar province.
Details of U.S. findings about Mr. Abu Bakr haven't been previously disclosed. U.S. investigators allege Mr. Abu Bakr ordered the May 2009 suicide bombing that killed Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Stratton, 39 years old, and Senior Airman Ashton Goodman, a 21-year-old servicewoman working with him, according to a summary of the investigation, shown to The Wall Street Journal by the investigators.
The report also alleges that Mr. Abu Bakr plotted to kill U.S., French and British ambassadors that November, and that he was involved in acts of extortion and corruption.
Mr. Abu Bakr denies the allegations and doesn't wish to speak to the media, said his son-in-law, Mohammed Iqbal Safi, a member of Afghanistan's parliament. Mr. Safi said rival government officials were trying to frame his father-in-law, and have "poisoned the Americans' minds."
Appointed as governor by Mr. Karzai in 2007, Mr. Abu Bakr is a former mujahedeen commander affiliated with the Hezb-i-Islami movement founded by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Mr. Abu Bakr has met regularly with senior Hezb-i-Islami insurgent commanders in Kapisa, providing them with weapons, police vehicles and lists of people cooperating with coalition troops, according to investigators.
Many prominent members of Hezb-i-Islami have chosen to join Mr. Karzai's administration, saying they have split from the insurgent wing of the group. And on Thursday, Hezb-i-Islami suspended talks with the U.S. and Afghan governments, as the Taliban did this month, in another set back to the U.S.-led coalition's exit strategy.
"Abu Bakr is being protected because he is connected with the political parties that represent power—in this case, Hezb-i-Islami," says Jean d'Amécourt, the former ambassador of France, which oversees security in Kapisa.
Mr. Karzai's chief spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said Mr. Abu Bakr "is not protected by anyone in the Afghan government," adding that "we find such allegations and accusations baseless."
U.S. investigators allege that witness statements, other documents and wiretaps show Mr. Abu Bakr has been routinely extorting from contractors a share of the funds they received from the U.S. military.
In early 2009, as corruption allegations against Mr. Abu Bakr mounted, the Provincial Reconstruction Team, a U.S. military unit overseeing the development projects, broke off almost all contact with him, a decision that would direct aid money to rivals.
Mr. Abu Bakr subsequently invited the American PRT commander for Kapisa to an unscheduled security meeting on May 26, U.S. officials say.
By coincidence, the convoy of Col. Stratton, commander of the PRT in neighboring Panjshir province, was traveling that morning on the same road.
Col. Stratton and Airman Goodman were weeks away from the end of their deployments. Their families say they were both passionate about development work—which included helping to build a road through the Panjshir valley.
"This road is probably the single greatest thing I have accomplished in my career," Col. Stratton wrote home in an email 11 days before his death.
As the convoy was traveling through an intersection, a suicide bomber slammed his explosives-laden Toyota Corolla into the Humvee that carried Col. Stratton and Airman Goodman.
Col. Stratton, a native of Alabama, left behind his wife and three small children. Airman Goodman, from Indianapolis, was unmarried.
Shortly after the blast, according to the report, Hezb-i-Islami issued a statement taking responsibility for killing the PRT commander for Kapisa, who wasn't in the vicinity of the attack.
The statement gave "every impression it was a targeted murder" that claimed the wrong victim, U.S. findings say.
Sources told the investigators that the bombing was planned by senior police commanders in Kapisa and carried out by Hezb-i-Islami insurgents on Mr. Abu Bakr's orders, according to the findings. Police supervisors told a Kapisa police officer probing the attack to drop his inquiry, the findings said.
A few months after the strike on the PRT convoy, another attack was in the works. The U.S., French and U.K. ambassadors to Kabul were supposed to visit Kapisa, accompanied by government ministers, in November 2009. According to U.S. investigation findings, Mr. Abu Bakr's associates armed local insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and informed them about the time and location of the meeting. This time, the coalition got wind of the plot in time.
At about 11 p.m. the night before the planned visit, Mr. d'Amecourt, the former French ambassador, says he received calls from U.S. and British intelligence representatives warning him that an ambush was being prepared. He said he had seen no evidence Mr. Abu Bakr was personally responsible.
U.S. officials say they have wiretaps and statements by over a dozen well-placed sources in the Afghan government and law enforcement agencies that prove their allegations against Mr. Abu Bakr.
In February 2010, the Major Crimes Task Force, which includes carefully vetted Afghan investigators and coalition advisers, began a formal investigation into allegations against Mr. Abu Bakr. The then commander of coalition forces, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, handed the file outlining these allegations to Mr. Karzai during a meeting in Kabul that summer, U.S. officials said.
In August 2010, following that meeting, Mr. Karzai suspended Mr. Abu Bakr from his governor's job.
But the Afghan government has repeatedly rejected American calls to prosecute the former governor. Last year, Afghan prosecutors were removed from the case and sent to outlying provinces, U.S. officials said.
Witnesses, meanwhile, were pressured by Mr. Abu Bakr's associates to change their statements, U.S. investigators say, according to the summary of findings.
Afghan Deputy Attorney General Rahmatullah Nazari said the case was shut down last year due to lack of evidence. He said there was no government effort to cover up evidence.
Mr. Karzai, asked about Mr. Abu Bakr in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, said the matter was closed.
"The issue has been going on for almost two years now," he explained. "When the U.S. military came to me repeatedly I called a meeting of the judicial law enforcement body, the entire body, the anticorruption department, the judiciary, the justice department, the Attorney Generalthey all told me unanimously that the U.S. has not provided any evidence other than tape recordings."
Asked whether he shouldn't have fired Mr. Abu Bakr after all, Mr. Karzai said: "Well, that's a different issue."
Wiretaps aren't usually admissible as evidence under Afghan law. U.S. officials say they have plenty of additional evidence that would be admissible in court, and that they won't give up on efforts to bring Mr. Abu Bakr to justice.
"We have very long memories," a U.S. official says.
—Yaroslav Trofimov and Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article. Accused
Ex-governor shadowed by allegations
• 2007 President Hamid Karzai names Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr, left, an affiliate of insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami, governor of Kapisa province
• Early 2009 Citing corruption, U.S. development team in Kapisa breaks off work with Abu Bakr
• May 26 Abu Bakr calls meeting with PRT commander. After suicide bomber attacks a U.S. convoy, killing 2 Americans, Hezb-i-Islami says it killed Kapisa PRT commander—but he was far from the blast, and uninjured
• November Coalition gets wind of plot to attack ambassadors on visit to Kapisa. U.S. later blames plot on Abu Bakr and associates
• February 2010 Major Crimes Task Force opens investigation
• Summer 2010 Gen. David Petraeus gives Karzai a file of allegations against Abu Bakr. In August, Karzai removes Abu Bakr from governorship
• 2011 Afghan attorney general says Abu Bakr case is closed
WSJ research; U.S. investigators
Write to Maria Abi-Habib at maria.habib@dowjones.com

Second Afghan Insurgent Group Suspends Peace Talks
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and ROD NORDLAND The New York Times March 29, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan — Stalled peace efforts in Afghanistan suffered another setback on Thursday when a second insurgent faction — one that has squared off against both the American-led coalition and the Taliban — announced it was suspending formal peace negotiations with the Afghan government, as the Taliban did earlier this month.
The group, Hezb-i-Islami, or Islamic Party, has been an increasingly minor presence on the battlefield in recent years, pressured by coalition forces and chased from strongholds in central and eastern Afghanistan by its Taliban rivals. Its military weakness left it far more willing to talk with the United States and the government of President Hamid Karzai, which includes many members of a breakaway political wing of the group.
The militant wing of Hezb-i-Islami said Thursday that it would continue unofficial talks. But the fact that a group whose current relevance stems largely from its willingness to engage has decided to distance itself from formal negotiations underscored the fragility of the peace effort in Afghanistan. Unlike the Taliban, who have yet to engage in any substantial talks, Hezb-i-Islami delegations have repeatedly traveled from havens in Pakistan to Kabul since 2010. Hezb-i-Islami representatives also met American officials in Afghanistan in recent months.
But on Thursday, Qaribur Rahman Saeed, a representative of Hezb-i-Islami in Europe, said his group was suspending formal talks because neither Afghan nor American officials would seriously consider the group’s 15-point peace proposal. The plan calls for the withdrawal of coalition forces in six months, holding new elections and possibly rewriting the Afghan Constitution. Hezb-i-Islami calls it the National Rescue Agreement.
It is a nonstarter for Kabul and Washington.
For now, that means Hezb-i-Islami’s leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, once a powerful warlord and a former Afghan prime minister, is not willing to take part in formal talks, Mr. Saeed said in a telephone interview from Norway, where he is based.
Because the Afghan and American governments “don’t have any practical and acceptable approaches for the solution of the crisis, the negotiation is going to be suspended,” Mr. Hekmatyar was quoted as saying in a rambling essay written by Mr. Saeed, who provided a copy of the document and asked to be identified as the “head of the Afghan Nation Peace Council” in the European Union.
The critique offered by Mr. Hekmatyar — in essence, that neither the Afghan government nor the American leadership was ready to make the compromises needed to end the insurgency — was similar to the one voiced by the Taliban when it announced this month that it was suspending its nascent talks with the Americans.
Mr. Hekmatyar rose to prominence as a mujahedeen leader during the fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. He was a particular favorite of Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which managed the insurgency against the Soviets.
After Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government collapsed in the early 1990s, Mr. Hekmatyar went on to become prime minister. He then gained notoriety for bombarding his own capital as the country descended into civil war.
Now he operates from Pakistan, where his insurgent faction is based. Although he is fighting the American-led coalition, his faction has repeatedly clashed with the more powerful Taliban in recent years, losing ground to them.
Despite its military weakness, Hezb-i-Islami remains an intriguing peace partner for both Mr. Karzai and the Americans. The group’s political wing includes Mr. Karzai’s chief of staff, a number of cabinet ministers and numerous members of parliament. American officials say bringing Hezb-i-Islami’s militant wing into the fold would signal to Taliban moderates that giving up the fight is a viable option.
Less clear is whether Mr. Hekmatyar would personally be welcomed back to Afghanistan, where he is despised by many for the destruction wrought by his forces during the civil war.
In Kabul on Thursday, Afghan officials said a NATO supply convoy had come under heavy attack by Taliban insurgents in western Afghanistan, with 37 dead reported in the firefight and NATO airstrikes that ensued.
The victims included seven private security guards with two companies guarding the convoy, according to an official at one of the companies. Two Afghan National Army soldiers and numerous Taliban fighters were also among the dead.
Fayaz Jailani, the regional operations manager for GFI Security, said the convoy was attacked Wednesday by 70 to 80 insurgents with heavy machine guns and other weapons. The attackers killed one guard from his company and six from a second company, Aria Security, Mr. Jailani said. The victims were all Afghans, he said.
The attack took place in the Gulistani District of Farah Province, and the convoy was en route from Herat Province to a NATO base in Helmand Province, Mr. Jailani said.
The head of security for the Farah provincial police, Muhammad Ghus Mayaar, said the fighting began Wednesday afternoon and continued for eight hours, with 28 Taliban attackers killed by the time it ended.
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, Master Sgt. Russell Bertke, said that the coalition had made two airstrikes against the attacking Taliban in support of Afghan forces, but that no civilians had been killed. “Numerous insurgents were killed, and several vehicles and motorbikes were damaged or destroyed,” Sergeant Bertke said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed that only five Taliban fighters had been killed by airstrikes, and that the insurgents had killed 40 guards and Afghan soldiers guarding the convoy.
In other violence, two people were assassinated on Wednesday because of government connections by unknown gunmen in Kandahar City, according to Zalmai Ayoubi, the spokesman for the governor of Kandahar Province. One was an official of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, and the other was the father of a security guard in the governor’s office, Mr. Ayoubi said.
Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

NATO Says Two Troops Killed In Southern Afghanistan
March 30, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
NATO said two of its soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan -- one in a roadside bomb explosion, the other in a suspected militant attack.
A statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the roadside bomb killed the service member on March 30.
It said the attack that killed the second soldier occurred on March 29.
No further details were given.
So far this year, at least 88 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan.
At least 17 of these deaths -- including at least seven Americans and five French trainers -- have been blamed on attacks by Afghans who have been serving in the security forces or wearing a military uniform.
Based on reporting by AP and AFP

SCO pledges further support to Afghanistan
BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is worried about the security situation in Afghanistan, and will continue its support to the reconstruction of the war-torn country, according to a high-level meeting of SCO.
During the vice-foreign-minister-level meeting held Friday in Beijing all sides discussed the current regional security situation and vowed to improve cooperation.
The participants included delegates from SCO members states, observer states and Afghanistan, said a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Founded in 2001, the SCO groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Observer countries include Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran and India while Belarus and Sri Lanka are dialogue partners.

U.S. Wants To Avoid Ban on Afghan Night Missions
By John T. Bennett | U.S.News & World Report LP
Thousands of times last year, long after night fell over Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan troops stormed houses in hot pursuit of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Of the 2,200 night missions in 2011, 83 percent result in the capture of an enemy lieutenant or senior leader. During those raids, rarely was a single shot ever fired.
Pentagon brass and top military analysts call night raids crucial to the Obama administration's strategy of dismantling and defeating the Taliban and its terrorist network allies. Now, U.S. officials are scurrying to keep ownership of the night time hours, and are in sensitive talks with Afghan leaders, who say the raids trample on Muslim culture and traditions--and Afghan sovereignty.
U.S. Special Operations Command chief Adm. William McRaven has said the attacks are "very valuable." Earlier this month, McRaven explained to a Senate panel that U.S. and NATO commanders use the attacks to nab high-value enemy leaders who "generally bed down" at night, making them easier to capture.
For Washington, an Afghan government ban would be what John Nagl, an Iraq war vet and Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, would call "a very clear red line," meaning a reason to end the decade-long war.
Matthew Irvine, Research Associate at the Center for a New American Security, labels night raids as the U.S. military's "biggest tactical and intelligence advantages" in Afghanistan.
Nagl says it is "impossible to overstate how crucial night raids are to U.S. operations."
U.S. officials contend their Afghan partners have been given unprecedented roles in the raids. But Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government see it much differently.
"The fight against terrorism in our country has led to some activities which are against our national sovereignty," Karzai said last Thursday during a speech to a graduating class of Afghan army cadets.
"We are working now to halt night raids in Afghan houses," Karzai said. "The security of Afghanistan must be provided by the sons of Afghanistan, according to the constitution."
U.S. military and Obama administration officials are hesitant to discuss the issue with reporters, or even in front of congressional panels,
because talks about the missions have reached "a pretty delicate moment," according to Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces.
"The Afghan National Security Forces have been taking over a greater lead in their own security operations and we will continue to encourage and assist them do so in this area," says U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a NATO spokesman in Kabul.
To that end, McRaven told numerous senators that Afghan commandos now are always "the first forces through the door."
NATO is in the midst of creating a dozen "Afghan strike forces," Cummings tells U.S. News & World Report. "Just in the last three months, we have come a very long way in creating greater capacity amongst the Afghans to conduct night operations in a very credible way."
U.S. officials and analysts acknowledge publicly that the night time missions do not sit well among indigenous leaders and citizens. But, they argue the raids limit civilian casualties.
"The high success rate of getting the target and low-risk percentages of civilian casualties, one would argue for the power of night operations, again preserving life and reducing civilian casualties in all other kinds of operations," Cummings says.
For instance, targeting individuals at night with commando missions means NATO commanders can rely less on drone missile strikes. "And drone strikes," Nagl says, "do generate civilian casualties."
Several sources say the two nations are likely to announce a deal soon.
"I believe there is a way to finesse this through the use of warrants and the Afghan courts," Nagl says.
The coming deal likely will give Afghan judges a role in determining which missions get the green light, as well as more sway to indigenous forces the actual raids. That appears likely, with Cummings saying Afghanistan's constitution will "be a big part of the future of night operations."
In typical U.S. military can-do fashion, Cummings predicts "we will get this right," though he warns "it will take some time."
"The outcome will be night operations that continue to contribute to this campaign with Afghans taking an increasingly leading role in the process, which is completely appropriate," he says.

Pakistani MPs oppose NATO arms transportation via its territory
ISLAMABAD, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistani parliament Friday formally opened the debate on whether or not to reopen the supply line for the U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan and the majority of lawmakers urged the government not to allow transportation of arms and ammunition to foreign forces.
All parliamentarians who took part in the debate demanded the United States to stop drone attacks and respect Pakistan's sovereignty.
The U.S. has so far rejected Pakistani calls to halt drone strikes and even fired missiles into North Waziristan tribal region on Friday and killed at least four people.
The opposition members of parliament also called for a mechanism to search all NATO trucks to check what the vehicles are carrying for NATO forces via Pakistan.
Pakistan closed the supply line in November 2011 after the U.S. fighter jets raided two of its border posts and killed 24 soldiers.
The government called for a parliamentary review of relationship with the U.S. and also to decide on the NATO supply line.
Deputies from the Islamic groups strongly opposed the reopening of the NATO supply line while members of the treasury benches said that only food items could be allowed for foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Mushahid Hussain Sayyed, a senator from the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) party taking part in the debate said that the U.S. drone attacks should not be allowed at any cost and Pakistan should take responsibility for its territory.
About supply to foreign forces in Afghanistan, he categorically said that supply of ammunitions through NATO containers should be strictly banned while Pakistan should talk to the United States regarding supply of other things to the NATO.
He criticized what he called the U.S "double standard" regarding establishment of peace in Afghanistan while bombing Pakistan's territory and preparing itself to fight with Iran.
He said Pakistan would strongly oppose the U.S. use of force against Iran. "We have to ensure that our relations with our neighbors, particularly Afghanistan and Iran are not spoiled," he said.
Maulana Abdul Malik, a member of the National Assembly from the tribal region, said that NATO supply should be halted at any cost.
Maulana Khan Muhammad Sheerani, a lawmaker from Balochistan province, said that the concept of terrorism was introduced by imperialist forces to achieve their hidden agenda. He said that the so-called war on terrorism has created more conflict zones in the world and promote violence. He also opposed restoration of the NATO supply line.
Taking part in the discussion, Senator Saeed Ghani of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party said that it is the first government in the democratic history of the country which brings foreign policy in the parliament in order to frame it according to aspirations of the people.
The parliamentarians were unanimous in calling on the government to adopt an independent foreign policy, resist foreign pressure on issues of national interests and cement relations with all neighbors.

Dreams Of A Mining Future On Hold In Afghanistan
NPR By Quil Lawrence March 29, 2012
Afghanistan faces the daunting prospect of a drastic reduction in foreign aid, which currently makes up about 90 percent of the country's revenue. Some have seen an economic life raft in geological surveys that indicate huge deposits of copper, iron, uranium and lithium in various parts of the country. But multinational mining firms have been slow to invest in Afghanistan — not least because of questions about stability after American troops draw down.
Mullah Mira Jan, the tribal leader of Ainak village, says he was promised a job mining copper on this hillside in eastern Afghanistan — but that was about 40 years ago. Mira Jan takes out a faded ID card with a picture stapled in and points to the line for occupation.
"That was my picture when I was 14 years old," he says. "I'm listed as a day-laborer." That's how long the villagers here in Ainak have been waiting for the hilltop next to their village to start producing jobs and wealth. Mira Jan now wears a long white beard and a turban. He gestures to the copper tinted hillside behind him, which he said used to be covered with trees. That was under president Daud Khan, in the mid-1970s.
"Daud was the only president we trusted, and then he was assassinated," Mira Jan says. "The soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and they kicked us out of our village, but war prevented them from ever exploiting the mine."
Now a Chinese state company, MCC, has won the copper concession here. The Afghan government has relocated residents from Ainak to make way for the development of the mine. And once again there is the promise of jobs.
But five years after MCC won the contract, there is no sign of the railroad the company pledged to build to get the copper out.
"It will obviously be built before 2014, because they have to start commercial production somewhere in 2014," says Tamim Asey, director of public affairs for the Afghan ministry of mines. He says that by 2014 the Chinese company will have built not one, but two railway lines, as guaranteed in the contract. But the fact is the Chinese contract has not been made public. A secret U.S. embassy cable published by WikiLeaks quotes Chinese officials as calling the promise to build railways "flexible." Mining experts in Afghanistan are wondering what else in the contract might be flexible, says Haseeb Humayoon, a partner at QARA Consulting in Kabul.
"We're looking at at least a 10 to 15-year window," Humayoon says. "The point here is when will they actually be able to extract and turn them into revenue sources both for this country as well as for companies that invest in there."
Humayoon says the Afghan government has already auctioned off two mega-mines: the copper in Ainak, and a massive iron mine in central Bamiyan province. In both cases the government looked only for the highest payer of royalties, which gave an advantage to state-run consortiums. The Indian and Chinese state companies that won those contracts can afford to bid well over market value, because they are securing the minerals for national strategic reasons. But Afghanistan also has a strategy, says Humayoon.
"By bringing in investors from the region such as India and China and others, you could create buy-in into the stability of this country," Humayoon says.
Having big players like India and China back the Afghan mining industry is comforting, but it's not clear that the Afghan government can enforce promises made by such big players – such as the two railroads. The Chinese Embassy in Kabul declined to comment for this story.
There is work going on. In the valley below, a huge land mine removal team is starting their work after a long winter hiatus. Nearly 700 police have moved into the tiny valley to protect the operation from the Taliban and other armed groups in the province.
Miran Jan says he's hoping the mine will be developed this time. As for saving Afghanistan's economy, he's got his doubts. Corruption, he says, is the problem — billions of dollars have come to this country, he says, and it's all disappeared.

Afghanistan, the election and the end game
BBC News By Mark Mardell North America editor 29 March 2012
Congressman Walter Jones is that rare thing, a politician suffering remorse.
He's very public about his regrets over America's recent wars. In his office on Capitol Hill, where every wall is covered with surrounded by military memorabilia from veterans' organisations, he tells me he was duped by Bush and Blair.
A Republican, like his friend Ron Paul, he wants an end to the wars.
He's the man who pushed for the Congress restaurant to rename its French fries "freedom fries". He's rather shame-faced about this as well.
But it is the suffering of the bereaved and wounded that haunts him. He has signed 10,000 letters of condolence. He tells me he recently went to see a marine who had lost a leg. The marine had a question.
"Can you tell me something, Congressman?"
"Anything."
"Why are we still in Afghanistan?" 'We've won the war'
Congressman Jones says he has no answer to that, because he is campaigning for all the troops to come out now.
"After the death of Bin Laden the president should have announced that we've won the war, the war is over and we are going to start bringing our troops home."
He's contemptuous of the argument that they need to stay to train Afghans.
"They've had 10 years. They say they're trying to train the Afghans to be soldiers and police. Give me 10 years and I could train a monkey to ride a tricycle."
If the president did turn around and announce a total pullout it would delight not only Congressman Jones, not only Democrats but, according to polls, the majority of voters. But he's not going to do it.
The Republicans would attack him for cutting and running. The military would agree. And so would most foreign policy experts.
Ahmed Rashid, possibly the most perceptive observer of the conflict, has a new book out.
It makes depressing reading and laments Mr Obama's lack of grip on the war. He told me it was a mistake to set a deadline for a pullout.
"Certainly it was a very big mistake when he announced it when the surge first happened back in 2008/9, and he has to live with this albatross around his neck.
"But now there is talk of bringing the date forward and the troops could be out by next year," the Pakistani journalist said.
"I think that could be a huge mistake. One problem with President Obama has been that his policies have generally been supported, but none of them have been followed through with consistency. We don't want to be fumbling around with new dates.
"So far the administration has been sticking to 2014. If you pull out earlier you are really signalling that the Americans are collapsing and can't maintain their troops any longer - that would be a very negative signal to send. " 'Air of gloom'
After some debate with allies like Britain, the White House does seem firm. President Obama's deputy security advisor Ben Rhodes says the Nato meeting in Chicago in May will be the next milestone.
I asked him the same question the mutilated marine asked Congressman Jones: why was America still at war?
"The United States is meeting its core objective which is to defeat al-Qaeda and deny it a safe haven. Secondly we have a plan in place to wind down the war responsibly," he said. "So we are working on a plan that does bring the war to a close."
"That involves 33,000 US troops coming out by the end of the summer and a full transition to the Afghans by 2014."
"What we don't want to happen is the international community leaves and the Afghan government is not able to secure itself - then you have a situation where al-Qaeda can re-establish itself and the Taliban is over-running the country."
But isn't the president only sticking to this because he's trapped by internal American politics?
"The president has had criticism from some Republican candidates who don't want a timeline to bring the war to a close," Mr Rhodes replied.
"He made a clear statement last June when he moved faster than some of his generals wanted him to do, so I think the president was comfortable saying 'we do need to bring this war to a close, we need to do so as fast as we responsibly can but we have a commitment to the Afghans and to the alliance'."
Although some recent assessments say the war is going better than you might think, there is a general air of gloom about the eventual outcome.
Indeed, it struck me forcefully that the recent Taliban decision to suspend talks was greeted with real dismay.
Think about it. Ten years ago the Americans went into Afghanistan to topple the Taliban. Now, they seem desperate for a solution that includes the enemy they are still fighting. End game
Ahmed Rashid is insistent that this is the only sensible way forward.
"Obviously things are deteriorating very fast in Afghanistan. It's not entirely his [Obama's] fault, but where he should be pulling out all the stops is in these negations with the Taliban," he said.
"These negotiations have been going terribly slowly, the president seems to be hedging his bets here in case he gets too much Republican criticism that he is soft on terrorism.
"The danger is these negotiations are becoming hostage to the American electoral calendar. Now that would be a disaster for the Americans, because what we need is an end to the civil war."
I ask Ben Rhodes about the talks: are they important for the end game?
"Absolutely. We believe if you look at the history of insurgency there is a military component in bringing them to an end but there is always a political solution as well.
"Ultimately Afghans are the ones who have to reconcile with one another and determine how they are going to live in their country together," he said.
"What this process can do is give a path to those Afghans who want to give up violence and don't want to be associated with al-Qaeda. They can come into the government and come into society again and give up the fighting that has gone on for so many years.
"The President has made it clear he is supportive of a political resolution but ultimately the Afghan Government is the lead.
Whether Barack Obama wins or loses the election in November, the end of America's longest war will be part of his legacy.
Long after 2014 the impact of the war will still reverberate in Afghanistan and throughout the region. It is hard to see a happy ending.

Slovenia to keep military presence in Afghanistan until 2014
LJUBLJANA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia will follow NATO's strategy, keeping its military presence in Afghanistan until the end of 2014, Defence Minister Ales Hojs told the press on Thursday.
However, Slovenia will reduce gradually its troops in Afghanistan in the coming two years, Hojs said, adding that the tasks of the contingent and its location remain unchanged.
By October's rotation, Slovenia's military presence in Afghanistan will decrease from 89 to a maximum of 80, including civil experts, according to the defense minister.
Last week, Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec announced firstly in Brussels that Slovenia would gradually reduce the number of its troops in Afghanistan.
Slovenia began sending its troops to Afghanistan for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces mission in March 2004. In the past two years, Slovenia has totally allocated 1.5 million euros (about 1.95 million U.S. dollars) in development aid to Afghanistan, Erjavec said.

US to rely on India if Afghan supply route is not opened: official
The Economic times 30 Mar, 2012
WASHINGTON - US will have to default and rely on India and Northern Distribution network if Pakistan does not open up its crucial Afghan supply route, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers today.
However, the Pentagon official testifying before a Congressional subcommittee did not gave details of the Indian network, on which it can depend for its crucial supplies to Afghanistan.
"If we can't negotiate or successfully negotiate the reopening of the PAK GLOC (Ground Lines of Communication) we have to default and rely on India and the Northern Distribution Network, our increased strat airlift," Marine Corps Lieutenant General Frank Panter, the Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics, told lawmakers.
Both are expensive propositions and it increases the deployment or redeployment, Panter said in his testimony before the Readiness Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.
Islamabad has closed the NATO supply route after the November 26 cross-border fire that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
At the same time, the Pentagon official indicated that this (India) is a sensitive issue.
"There's always that sensitive issue about the nations. We're dealing with the Indian network in itself. If for some reason there's additional political strain related to these countries, that restricts the flow as well. Redeployment timelines, by not being able to use the PAK GLOC, will increase along with, as you mentioned, ma'am, the cost as well," he said.
"Despite all these challenges, though, TRANSCOM and CENTCOM, they do have mitigation strategies in place. I would be more than happy to talk about those as well. There are quite a few of them. But negotiations are ongoing, as you know, to reopen the PAK GLOC," Panter said.
Army Lieutenant General Raymond Mason, Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics, said the Pak GLOC is critical and it has been closed since November.
"The good news is, because of a lot of really great planning, our logistics situation is in very good shape. Fuel we watch very closely," he said.
"But back to the issue of retrograde out of Afghanistan. We're getting it out by air, so as aircraft come in and we fill the aircraft as they depart, both Air Force aircraft as well as commercial aircraft so we're using every available aircraft to go back out again," Mason said.
"The Northern Distribution Network, it's three to four times more expensive because it's three to four times lengthier. It's very complicated, a variety of different methods -- rail, ferries, truck -- so significant amount of changing and loading and unloading, so that adds to the cost as well," he added.

Afghan Taliban use phones for propaganda
30 March 2012 BBC News
Taliban insurgents are making use of widely-available mobile phones in Afghanistan as a propaganda tool.
The group is sending video and text messages to deter the population from supporting the Afghan government or joining the security forces.
They also project their authority in the south and east by imposing night-time bans on mobile services.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of Afghans upload Taliban religious chants and ringtones as a kind of travel insurance to avoid intimidation in areas with a heavy insurgent presence.
The clips sent by the Taliban to subscribers include beheadings, real-life suicide bombings and roadside bomb explosions.
They are intended to warn the populace against supporting the authorities or joining the Afghan National Army or the police.
Images of civilian casualties and incidences of alleged disrespect to Afghans and Muslim beliefs by foreign forces are also being sent.
Danesh Karokhel, director of independent news agency Pajhwok Afghan News, told the US-funded RFE-RL radio website that the Taliban were using the videos to "spread terror" among the people.
"They want to scare people so they do not support the government. They threaten people. Whoever sees those kinds of videos will obviously be scared," he said.
Masts destroyed
While the US military surge a year ago was taking a big toll on the insurgents in the south, they retaliated by imposing a night-time ban on mobile phone services in the regions, including provincial capitals.
This was not only to prevent the tracking and targeting of Taliban commanders and fighters by US forces, but also to demonstrate control in the regions.
Worried about psychological and other adverse impacts of the Taliban moves, President Hamid Karzai warned the mobile companies that their licences could be revoked if they caved in to Taliban orders.
But when the providers defied Taliban warnings, the group destroyed nearly three dozen transmission masts within a few weeks. The cost to the companies of repairing a tower is at least $200,000.
An increasing number of Afghans are uploading Taliban chants and ringtones to use them as travel insurance by pretending to be Taliban sympathisers.
When travelling in southeastern areas where the insurgents are strong, they delete from their phones any audio or video the Taliban might consider offensive or any evidence of links with the government or the coalition forces.
A report by leading Afghan channel Tolo TV late last year on Taliban chants showed that people go to extraordinary lengths to avoid insurgent intimidation.
A video-shop owner in the eastern city of Jalalabad told the TV: "People choose these religious chants if they have problems with the Taliban in their areas. So they come in and upload Taliban chants."
Under Afghanistan's pre-2001 Taliban administration, music was deemed un-Islamic and shopkeepers were arrested for selling music tapes. Music was forbidden at weddings and musical instruments prohibited.
The Taliban recently launched a website for religious chants. The site also provides links to sermons, such as those in support of jihad, martyrdom, the veil and the ban on music.
The boom in mobile phone ownership is one of the major success stories of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago.
There are over 17 million Sim card subscribers in the country, with four major service providers: Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), Roshan, Etisalat and MTN. Over 85% of Afghans have access to telecom services, according to Telecommunication Minister Amirzai Sangin, who says that the network should cover the whole country by 2014.
In the absence of a landline phone infrastructure in Afghanistan, mobile phone service disruption causes major problems for residents, government and businesses.
BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

Child witnesses to Afghan massacre say Robert Bales was not alone
Msnbc.com By msnbc.com staff 29/03/2012
Here are two versions of what happened the night of March 11, when 17 Afghan villagers were shot to death.
First, the Army version: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, troubled by marriage woes, drunkenly left Camp Belambai, 12 miles from Kandahar, with a pistol and an automatic rifle and killed six people as they slept. Bales then returned to the base and left again for another village, this time killing 11. He acted alone and he admitted to the killings, according to the Army.
Then there is the account that child witnesses provided Yalda Hakim, a journalist for SBS Dateline in Australia. Hakim, who was born in Afghanistan and immigrated to Australia as a child, is the first international journalist to interview the surviving witnesses. She said American investigators tried to prevent her from interviewing the children, saying her questions could traumatize them. She said she appealed to village leaders, who arranged for her to interview the witnesses.
In the video, the children told Hakim that other Americans were present during the rampage, holding flashlights in the yard.
Noorbinak, 8, told Hakim that the shooter first shot her father’s dog. Then, Noorbinak said in the video, he shot her father in the foot and dragged her mother by the hair. When her father started screaming, he shot her father, the child says. Then he turned the gun on Noorbinak and shot her in the leg.
“One man entered the room and the others were standing in the yard, holding lights,” Noorbinak said in the video.
A brother of one victim told Hakim that his brother’s children mentioned more than one soldier wearing a headlamp. They also had lights at the end of their guns, he said.
“They don’t know whether there were 15 or 20, however many there were,” he said in the video.
Army officials have repeatedly denied that others were involved in the massacre, emphasizing that Bales acted alone. Bales, who was flown to a maximum-security military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was charged last week with 17 counts of murder and six attempts of attempted murder.The massacre came several days after a roadside bomb attack that cost one soldier his leg. Village residents told reporters and Afghan government officials that after the roadside bomb attack, U.S. troops lined up men from the village against a wall and told them they would pay a price. The Pentagon has denied those allegations.
Gen. Karimi, assigned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to investigate the murders, told Hakim that he, too, wonders whether Bales acted alone and how he could left the base without notice.
“Village elders said several soldiers took part and that there is boot prints in the area,” Karimi told Hakim. He said villagers told him that they saw three or four individuals kneeling and that helicopters were overhead during the rampage.
“To search for him?” Karimi said he asked them.
“No,” he said they told him. “They were there from the very beginning.”

U.S. Military Commander Visits Uzbekistan
March 29, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The head of U.S. Central Command, General James Mattis, has met with Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Tashkent to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
According to Uzbek media, the two had talks on "prospects for developing and deepening bilateral relations in areas of mutual interest, including the military and military-technical spheres."
Uzbek-U.S. ties have improved considerably in recent months, some say due to the U.S. need for a safe and reliable exit route from Afghanistan during the "drawdown" process of foreign forces from the territory of Uzbekistan's southern neighbor.
Mattis arrived in Uzbekistan after visiting Pakistan where he and NATO commander in Afghanistan General John Allen met with Pakistani military officials to discuss re-opening Pakistani routes with Afghanistan that have been closed since mistaken U.S. air strikes on Pakistani troops killed 24 soldiers last November.
Based on reporting by UzA, Olam.uz, and AFP

Britain says Afghan govt must tighten up on corruption
Reuters By Jack Kimball 29/03/2012
KABUL - Britain does not believe the Afghan government it backs is taking the fight against corruption as seriously as it should, and future aid could be linked to anti-graft progress, a British minister said on Thursday.
After a decade of war and billions of dollars in aid, corruption in Afghanistan is rampant and violence is spreading even into once-peaceful areas as Western forces begin to draw down combat troops ahead of an end-2014 pullout.
"We're not at all convinced at the moment that it has the priority we think it should and accordingly we're getting that message out loud and clear," Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told reporters in the Afghan capital.
"(Corruption) is well up the scale of international concerns and we're very conscious that it's not something that can be dealt with immediately," he said. "This is not easily dealt with but some realistic sign that it's taken very seriously ... is very important."
Graft is common at all levels of Afghan society. A survey by watchdog Transparency International rated Afghanistan as one of the world's most corrupt countries, ranked equally with Myanmar, and only slightly cleaner than North Korea and Somalia.
London is the world's fourth-largest donor to Afghanistan.
Britain's aid watchdog said this month it must tighten oversight of its aid programme to Afghanistan, worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year, to lessen the risk of losing the money to theft, fraud or corruption.
Afghanistan relies on foreign aid for the bulk of its spending, but many international donors say they are reluctant to channel aid through the country's ministries partly because they fear it could be lost to corruption.
In a major recent scandal, lender Kabulbank gave out hundreds of millions of dollars in unsecured and undocumented loans to Afghanistan's elite, including sitting ministers and an ex-warlord, before the discovery of the fraud in 2010.
Western officials described the bank as a "Ponzi scheme".
"We're raising our voice on the issue (of corruption)," Burt said. "Kabulbank stands out as a symbol of concern where everybody appears to know what has happened but the most effective action taken has yet to be seen."
Britain will pull out 500 soldiers from Afghanistan this year, and the remaining 9,000 will be brought home before the end of 2014.
Britain's outgoing ambassador to Kabul said in a newspaper interview earlier this month that Afghanistan's government must take decisive action against corruption, or face the possible withdrawal of British funding for its security forces.
Burt also hinted that further British aid could be dependent on gains the Afghan government makes in the fight against corruption.
There was a link between the long-term commitments that could be made at a major conference about Afghanistan in Tokyo in July, and the international community's level of confidence in how money would be handled, he said.
"Good signals from the top about how corruption is to be dealt with will be important," Burt said.
(Reporting by Jack Kimball; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Afghanistan's fortune-telling industry flourishes
Deutsche Welle
Psychics and healers practice a successful trade in Afghanistan. The number of clients, who are usually women, grows by the day. But, their predictions can have devastating consequences.
Headache, heartbreak, or troubles in your marriage? Fortune tellers in Afghanistan, who are called tawiz newis, have a solution to every problem. Just about every municipality in the country has one or more seers. Their trade has its roots in age-old traditions.
There are three main reasons people seek out the services of fortune-tellers, says Nasir Qasemi, a psychic and healer from Kabul. "Many unemployed people want me to give them good fortune so they can find a stable job. A lot of sick people come, too. But mostly, it is women who come to me when they are having problems in their love lives or marriage."
Universal fix-all
Like most clairvoyants, Qasemi does not have a practice. He usually sits on the side of a dusty street in the Afghan capital. His "office" consists of a table upon which are a pair of dice and old, yellowed books containing strange writing that resembles hieroglyphics. His "patients" don't mind sitting on the cold ground - as long as the "master" finds solutions to their problems in his old books.
"What matters is results," says 40-year-old Fatima. "I had issues with my husband and sought help from a fortune-teller. He wrote down two prayers for me which I was instructed to place into one red and one white envelope. Our marriage has been great ever since."
Freshta, an 18-year-old from Kunduz, also believes in the power of divination. She is convinced that it can not only help in matters of love, but that it can even help children who have trouble concentrating in school.
"The psychic told me I couldn't concentrate because of family matters. He wrote down some incantations for me and since then, everything has been just fine."
Warding off evil spirits
Afghan healers follow a simple concept: They never point fingers at their clients for whatever situation they might be in. Instead, they listen. And then blame the mean mother-in-law or another family member or even evil spirits for their clients' predicaments. Then, "for a generous donation," the psychics' saying goes, "nasty family members and evil spirits can be overcome."
Self-professed seers live off of people's naivete. And their advice can sometimes even be harmful. Zarlaschat, a 21-year-old from Kabul, told DW how the advice of one psychic turned her life into a living hell.
"My mother-in-law wants to find good husbands for her daughters. But she has not had any luck. She went to a psychic who said her daughter-in-law, that's me, was the reason for it. Since then, she beats me regularly with a cane."
Counseling
Zarlaschat's is not a unique case, according to general practitioner Zabiullah Fetrat. He says many of his patients come to him with similar ailments.
"In Afghanistan, we hardly have any psychologists or places for family counseling. A lot of people, especially women, need someone to listen to their problems and hear their side of the story. That is exactly what these so-called psychics do. But sometimes, it can have bad consequences."
Doctors as well as clergymen do their best to warn the public of fortune-tellers, or quacks, as they refer to them. But neither medicine nor religion has been successful at reducing the credibility of the 'tawiz newis' among the general public.
The fortune-tellers themselves reject the criticism. "We existed as early as 500 years ago. And our profession will be around for another 500 to come," Nasir Qasemi, Kabul's tawiz newis, predicts.
Author: Ratbil Shamel / sb
Editor: Gregg Benzow

Afghanistan war critic wins UK Parliament seat
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — An outspoken critic of the war in Afghanistan claimed Friday that public anger over the conflict propelled him to a surprise victory in a special election for a seat in Britain's House of Commons.
George Galloway, a leftist political maverick, won the Bradford West seat in northern England — a district that includes a large Muslim community — with a majority of more than 10,000 votes, as support for the country's mainstream lawmakers crumbled.
The election was triggered by the resignation of main opposition Labour Party legislator Marsha Singh due to ill health, but Singh's party had been expected to comfortably retain the seat it had held for more than 30 years.
Galloway, who was voted out of Parliament in Britain's 2010 national election, dubbed his victory the "Bradford spring" — likening it to pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East — and claimed it was "the most sensational result in British by-election history bar none."
He insisted that resentment at mainstream political parties over the conflict in Afghanistan, which has so far seen 407 British military personnel killed since 2001, had been decisive.
"They have to stop supporting illegal, bloody, costly foreign wars," Galloway said, as the result was announced. "The public don't believe that they have atoned for their role in the invasion and occupation of other people's countries and the drowning of those countries in blood."
Labour's candidate Imran Hussain polled second behind Galloway — losing around 20 percent of the party's votes compared to 2010 — while both members of Britain's coalition government, the Conservative Party and the smaller Liberal Democrats, also saw their support fall.
Galloway, who was expelled from the country's Labour Party in 2003 for urging British soldiers not to fight in Iraq, represents the anti-war Respect party, and he will be the organization's only House of Commons legislator.
He said his victory proved the British public no longer supported efforts by the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan. International forces are due to end their combat role in the country in 2014.
"The war will end on the same terms it could have last week, or last year, or any year in the last 10 years," Galloway told Britain's Sky News. "We don't have the blood to spare and we certainly don't have the treasure to spare in Britain to be going around the world occupying other people's countries and having our young men coming home in boxes."
Galloway is known in Britain for his strident opposition to the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq — but also for an appearance in 2006 on the reality television series "Big Brother," when he dressed in a red leotard and lapped imaginary milk as he pretended to be a cat.
"I think his celebrity was a very significant factor," Labour lawmaker Toby Perkins said, explaining his party's defeat. "Bradford is an important city for the party and it has come as a big shock the way that things have changed over the past few weeks."
In 2010, Galloway was denied entry to Canada on national security grounds over his links to Palestinian group Hamas, which Ottawa considers a terrorist organization, though he was later permitted to visit. The lawmaker was previously awarded an honorary Palestinian passport by Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, after joining aid convoys to the Gaza Strip.
Galloway also has courted controversy over his links to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and was suspended from the House of Commons for 18 days in 2007 after he was accused of concealing his financial dealings with Hussein's government. An investigation found that a charity Galloway set up had been partly funded by the Iraqi dictator.
Two years earlier, Galloway had angrily denounced U.S. senators while testifying before a Washington committee that accused his political organization of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.N. oil-for-food allocations from Saddam.
During a notorious visit to Iraq in 1994, Galloway was filmed telling Hussein, "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."

Military Land Seizures Feed Afghan Anger
Locals say foreign and Afghan troops take over their houses and land without permission or compensation.
IWPR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 27 Mar 12
Afghanistan - Residents of parts of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan have accused both government and NATO forces of taking over and occupying private houses without paying compensation to the owners.
A resident of Musa Qala district, Shawali, said foreign troops had been using a property belonging to him for several years without any kind of reimbursement.
“I’ve met the foreign forces who are living in my house several times, asking them either to pay me rent or to vacate the property, but every time they say only that they will ‘try their best’. I don’t know what they mean by ‘trying,’” he said. “I don’t want any kind of aid from them. They just have to get out of my house so I can return to live there with my children.”
Esmatullah Ishaqzai, a representative of Nawzad district in the Helmand provincial council, said that besides occupying private property, the international forces used farmland to land helicopters, and knocked down compound and boundary walls to provide access for their vehicles.
“If security is restored, the foreigners leave these areas and the owners of the land return, then they will be in dispute with one another over the boundaries of their properties,” he said.
Ishaqzai said local residents were due backdated rent as well as compensation, and urged the Kabul government to take the matter seriously.
A tribal elder in Nawzad district, who preferred to remain anonymous, said NATO forces had blocked the main road through the district for security reasons, in the process obstructing movement for local people and disrupting transport, which drove up the price of basic goods.
Afghanistan’s national security forces have taken over properties in the same way.
Khan Mohammad, a resident of Musa Qala, said that because the government had failed to provide buildings for its troops in the district, the Afghan soldiers had simply moved into private houses and commercial premises.
“Members of the public now have a problem,” he said. “They come to the governor’s office every day to ask for their properties to be returned, for rent to be paid or for their houses to be vacated, but the government pays no attention.”
Because Helmand has been the scene of major battles in recent years, many civilians have fled to seek refuge elsewhere in the country, leaving their property behind. Many have set up home in the Afshar district of the Afghan capital Kabul, where they survive in poor conditions.
Tor Khan lives in an old tent in Afshar and supports his family through begging. He is originally from Helmand’s Garmsir district, where he owns a house and farmland.
“We ran from the war and came to Kabul,” he said. “We’ve been living under canvas for four years now and no one cares about us.”
Once, he said, he did return to Garmsir district, but when he arrived at his home, it had been occupied by foreign forces.
“They wouldn’t let me come near my own house,” he recalled. “They pointed a gun at me from the roof. I went to the governor’s office where I was told they were unable to instruct the foreigners to do anything. I left disappointed.”
Officials in Helmand province acknowledged there was a problem, although not all agreed on the scale of the home occupations or whether compensation was paid.
Helmand governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal said that he was aware of the issue and confirmed that both government units and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, made use of private property, including houses and farmlands.
“I have repeatedly told our police and army commanders to avoid damaging private property when they enter these areas, but there have been a number of cases where Afghan and ISAF forces have taken over and used people’s properties,” he said.
The local government chief in Nawzad district, Sayed Morad, said that both Afghan and foreign forces occupied private houses, and he was unaware of any schemes for either force to make payments to the landlords.
Governor Mangal’s spokesman, Mohammad Daud Ahmadi, said he believed that American forces usually paid rent to owners, while the Afghan national army and police did not.
Helmand’s chief of police, Mohammad Hakim Angar, said both foreign and national troops used houses as temporary bases during operations, and paid compensation to the owners.
“We need to take control in some areas and we pay rent [for properties]. ISAF has taken over some locations; we have talked to them about it and they have promised to vacate people’s houses. We try not to harm anyone,” Angar said.
An official spokesman for ISAF Regional Command Southwest said the NATO force did not pay to lease properties, but that the individual nations that contributed troop contingents could “make their own arrangements bilaterally with the owner of a property”.
For instance, “it is US policy to pay compensation for the use of private property such as land or buildings”, he said.
The spokesman said there were no figures to show how many properties had been used, but added that many were occupied by US forces purely on a short-term, temporary basis.
He said anyone seeking compensation should contact the military unit occupying their property for an application form to get the process started.
“There is a claims process that owners can use. They fill in paperwork to record the proof of ownership and their claim. This goes to the [Regional Command South West] land acquisition chief to approve the handover of money,” he said.
However, seizures of property remain a sensitive matter that feeds resentment and drives some Helmand residents to sympathise with the insurgents.
“We have no control over our own houses, farmland and roads,” the tribal elder in Nawzad said. “That is the reason the Taleban fight, and they are in the right. We must gain our freedom.”
Gol Ahmad Ehsan is an IWPR-trained reporter in Helmand.

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