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Helicopter Crash Kills 2 NATO Soldiers in Afghanistan
VOA News May 28, 2012
NATO officials said two coalition members were killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan Monday.
The coalition said it is investigating the cause of the crash. Initial reports said there was no enemy activity in the area.
Earlier, another coalition aircraft also crashed in eastern Afghanistan. There were no fatalities in that crash.
Also Monday, an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan killed a NATO service member.
NATO did not release the names or nationalities of the victims.
More than 170 NATO troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year.
In Kabul, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, led a Memorial Day ceremony for members of the NATO coalition who have died in the war.
"While our brothers and sisters fell in a place far from home, far from their families, the values for which they stood and for which they lived and for which they died occupy an enduring place in our hearts."
On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended plans to gradually wind down military operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Speaking on ABC's This Week program, the Pentagon chief said NATO forces still have a fight on their hands, but that "it is on the right track."
Critics of a withdrawal timeline say Afghan militants will bide their time until international troops are gone.
Also Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned a coalition airstrike that officials say killed a family of eight in eastern Paktia province, where Afghan and international troops are trying to quell the Taliban insurgency.
A provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samoon told VOA Sunday the overnight airstrike killed a man, his wife and six children in the Gerda Serai district. He said that according to his information, the man was not linked to any insurgent group or any anti-government activities.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
4 policemen killed, 1 injured in roadside bombing in N. Afghanistan
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Four Afghan policemen were killed and one other injured Monday when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in northern province of Baghlan, a provincial source said.
"A unit of Afghan Local Police (ALP) was on routine patrol in Alawudin-e-Mangalah area of Baghlan-e-Markazi district at around 5 p.m. local time but a bomb was detonated through a remote-control device when their patrolling van was passing the area," a security source told Xinhua anonymously.
Afghan Local Police, set up by the government in the summer of 2010, is a community police force defending their villages against Taliban attacks and influence.
The official blamed Taliban for the attack.
In another development, six Taliban militants, who were placing roadside bombs along a road, were killed in an air strike carried out by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Nirkh district of eastern Wardak province in the wee hours Monday, a provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told Xinhua.
Two NATO-led ISAF soldiers were killed when a helicopter crashed in the same district Monday afternoon.
Earlier on Monday, another ISAF aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan, the ISAF confirmed in a statement, adding no fatalities were reported during the incident.
The Taliban insurgents, who has been waging more than a decade- long insurgency, announced on May 2 that they would launched a spring rebel offensive starting from May 3 to target Afghan forces as well as U.S. and NATO troops across the country.
Political Leaders Condemn Taliban Tactics At Daud Commemoration
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 27 May 2012
The Taliban are the enemies of Afghanistan and have lost the ability to fight, falling back instead on trying to assassinate officials, Afghansitan's first Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim said Sunday.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the death of former commander General Mohammed Daud Daud, Fahim said that the Taliban will never reach their aims by assassinating Afghan political and military officials.
"The Taliban are the enemies of Afghanistan, and they have lost their ability to fight, they lack military structure and facilities, they are trying to assassinate Afghan officials but that will not help them reach their aims," Fahim told attendees of the commemorative gathering in Kabul.
Other government officials and politicians also attended the ceremony and repeated Fahim's message.
Minister of Interior Bismillah Mohammadi said that the Afghan people have suffered under the Taliban and the group will not be able to impose itself on Afghan people again.
"If the terrorist Taliban are trying to reach their ominous aims by killing Jihadi figures, they are blind," Mohammadi said at the ceremony.
"They can't impose themselves on Afghans another time, Afghans have suffered enough from them."
Leader of Afghanistan's National Front Ahmad Zia Masoud said that the Taliban were receiving support from parts of both the Afghan and Pakistani governments and that they are were waiting for the withdrawal of foreign troops to return to power.
"Taliban are being supported in Quetta and by the Pakistani government, there are also figures within the Afghan government supporting the Taliban as they want them in power," Masoud said.
Meanwhile, National Coalition of Afghanistan party leader Abdullah Abdullah called for the government to do more to identify those planning the deaths of the officials and prosecute them.
"Those who are present here, don't you want the government to find out who killed them? They should tell us who killed them," Abdullah said.
Daud and Shah Jahan Noori, Takhar province's police chief, were killed in a bomb blast on May 28 last year following a security meeting with the German commander in the north.
The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
NATO has fight on its hands in Afghanistan: Panetta
Reuters Sun May 27, 2012
WASHINGTON - NATO forces still have a fight on their hands in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has displayed resilience although its fighters have not regained territory they lost during the decade-long war, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday.
Panetta said plans for foreign troops to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces starting in mid-2013 were on track and necessary to ensure that the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion, is kept at bay.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered a surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2009, has outlined plans to withdraw foreign combat forces from there by the end of 2014 and to take on a supportive role for the Afghan army.
Afghanistan security forced have grown to around 330,000 but still lack capabilities in intelligence, air power and logistics. At the same time, a spate of attacks against foreign troops this year by Afghans in military uniforms have raised questions about their loyalty to the government and whether some are under the influence of the Taliban.
"The world needs to know that we still have a fight on our hands," Panetta told ABC's "This Week" program. "We're still dealing with the Taliban. Although they've been weakened, they are resilient."
The defense secretary said the Taliban has been unable to conduct any kind of organized attack to reclaim territory lost to NATO and Afghan forces, adding: "We've seen levels of violence going down. We've seen an Afghan army that is much more capable at providing security."
The White House, looking toward the November presidential election, is keen to dispel notions that Obama is rushing for the exits in Afghanistan, at a time when public support for the war is plummeting.
The broad concern, however, is that the Taliban is staying out of harm's way and will resurface quickly once the bulk of foreign troops have left.
"Have you ever heard the word 'victory' come through the lips of this president, because we're always talking about withdrawal, withdrawal, withdrawal," Senator John McCain, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Republican candidate for president in 2008 who lost to Obama, told Fox News Sunday.
"The Taliban believes we are leaving" after Obama's announcements of a withdrawal schedule, McCain said.
"The president has overridden the recommendation of his military commanders who he has put in their positions, and the president has increased the risk every time."
Panetta said there continues to be concerns about the Taliban operating from safe havens in Pakistan. He said U.S. relations with Pakistan were "complicated".
"This has been one of the most complicated relationships that we've had, working with Pakistan. You know, we have to continue to work at it. It is important. This is a country that has - that has nuclear weapons," Panetta said.
"So our responsibility here is to keep pushing them to understand how important it is for them to work with us to try to deal with the common threats we both face," Panetta added.
Panetta said it was "so disturbing" that the Pakistani government sentenced a doctor to 33 years in prison on treason charges for helping the CIA track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Dr. Shakil Afridi "was not working against Pakistan. He was working against al Qaeda. And I hope that ultimately Pakistan understands that," he said. "Because what they have done here, I think, you know, does not help in the effort to try to re-establish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan."
(Reporting By Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Philip Barbara)
100 armed insurgents give up militancy in western Afghan province
CHIGCHERAN, Afghanistan, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Some 100 armed insurgents gave fighting and joined peace process in Ghor province 360 km west of capital Kabul on Monday, spokesman for provincial administration Abdul Hai Khatibi said.
"Around 100 armed insurgents under Mullah Abdul Karim gave up fighting and joined the peace process in the provincial capital Chighcheran city this afternoon," Khatibi told Xinhua.
With joining these former militants, the security situation will be farther improved in Ghor province, he said.
All the former militants have also handed over their weapons to authorities, the official stressed.
Taliban militants fighting Afghan government have yet to make comment.
More than 3,000 anti-government militants, according to officials have joined the government-backed peace process over the past one year in Afghanistan, a claim rejected by Taliban outfit has groundless.
Tending to Bodies Near the Breaking Point
By GRAHAM BOWLEY The New York Times May 28, 2012
COMBAT OUTPOST RAHMAN KHEL, Afghanistan — Each week, Capt. Rachel Odom takes off in a helicopter to fly to yet another distant military outpost of this mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan to patch the troops in her care back together.
One recent morning, 13 soldiers came to visit her in the small wooden medical hut of a 100-man camp near the village of Rahman Khel, cradled by the snow-tipped mountains of Paktia Province near the Pakistani border. One after another, the soldiers told her of their twisted knees, back pains or shoulder strains — the increasingly familiar-sounding toll of a long war.
After multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of these soldiers’ bodies are nearing the breaking point. It is up to Captain Odom, 28, from Moselle, Miss. — the only physical therapist attached to the 3,500 men and women of the Fourth Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division — to keep them together.
“These bodies get a beating,” she said as she spent the next 12 hours stretching out legs, lifting arms or standing on a box to lean over and pummel pulled back muscles, accompanied by sighs, groans, thanks and the occasional curse.
“They walk up and down mountains carrying a lot of gear, just a lot of weight, and that can result in daily aches and pains, and also injuries,” she said. “I am keeping them doing their job, living their lives with as little pain as possible.”
These soldiers are likely to be some of the last Americans to serve in Afghanistan, and as troops are beginning to withdraw ahead of the 2014 deadline, the war here can take on an end-of-the-race feel at times: the finish line is distant but finally in sight, and Captain Odom is working just to keep her charges running till they can reach it.
The action these days is rarely about face-to-face combat. Instead, it is an effort to keep up with an elusive enemy that slips from the looming mountains this time of year and moves invisibly from village to village through the woods and fields, heading west for the fighting season.
For the Army company based at this outpost, among the 19 on Captain Odom’s rounds, it involves long, bone-rattling journeys in armored vehicles protected against roadside bombs or suicide attacks. Or it is a five-hour slog encased in ever more elaborate body armor — designed to protect against a distant sniper shot or rocket. But it can add at least 35 pounds to a soldier’s load, even without his helmet, pistol, ammunition, water, medical kit and rifle.
“When you carry all this stuff and then go climb one of those mountains, it definitely takes a toll on your body,” said Sgt. James Daoust, a company medic.
Today’s protection is the I.O.T.V., or improvised outer tactical vest, a bulky affair that involves heavy ceramic block plates, side plates, deltoid protectors and groin guards. Some soldiers even have Kevlar underwear. (At higher altitudes, soldiers are allowed to wear a slimmed down I.O.T.V., called a platecarrier, but it is still heavy.) Around the bases in this region, sweating soldiers in shorts and sneakers run laps around the outer perimeter wearing the vests just to get used to them.
Captain Odom, who has broad rosy cheeks and a practical, considerate manner, represents a new kind of emphasis in the military on getting to these kind of injuries quickly, even mundane ones like twisted ankles or tweaked backs, before repeated strain can force soldiers out of the war altogether.
She was encouraged to go into the military by her uncle, a retired colonel, after she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi. Now, she is five months from the end of her first tour of duty. She seems comfortable sprinting from a standing start in the darkness to board a waiting Black Hawk, or flying over the Afghan mountains in the moonlight, bound for yet another camp in her 19,000-square-mile territory, carrying her medical bag and an M4 carbine.
Among her patients this day, one said he felt as if the pain was crushing his back, which had hurt since Iraq. Another, First Lt. Jeffrey Russell, from Copperas Cove, Tex., said that when he jumped loaded with gear from the wall of an abandoned house during a patrol, his knee buckled.
“I don’t like being the platoon leader and having to sit back in the truck,” Lieutenant Russell said, “so I have come for a professional opinion.”
Captain Odom says Army Ranger units were the first to include physical therapists, rather than have them stay back at the hospital or in separate medical units. But now with their success, therapists have spread into mainstream combat units; Captain Odom is the first her brigade has had. “They are becoming more common,” she said.
One of the biggest challenges for the therapists is dealing with an injury that has become all too common in a war defined by the Taliban’s roadside bombs: blast concussions. Back at Captain Odom’s brigade base, Forward Operating Base Salerno, over the mountains amid the sweet-smelling eucalyptus trees of Khost Province, there is a special center to treat them.
The center is run by one of Captain Odom’s friends and colleagues, Capt. Jamie Bell, 32, from Lancaster, Calif., and has been open only for the past couple of years.
“A lot of the soldiers here have been deployed three, four, five times, so they are already coming with some PTSD, and then they get concussion,” said Captain Bell, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder. “They might get blown up three or four times in a month, and that’s when you might have a high risk of permanent damage. But if they have proper treatment and rest, they can be returned to duty without long-term effects.”
Inside the small concussion center, she gives soldiers who have been caught in blasts computer tests and games like Lego, Scrabble and Blokus to improve their memory, visual perception and sequencing skills. Three recovering soldiers were sitting on a black sofa and chair, silently watching “The Big Bang Theory” on television and looking tired and worse for wear.
One of them, Sgt. Junior Daniel, a tousle-haired 24-year-old from Mims, Fla., was on his third deployment. Two weeks earlier, while he was running from his armored truck toward a building occupied by insurgents in Gardez, his group came under gun and rocket fire. He said something “blew up close to my head.” He lost his hearing for a while, and still looked groggy.
One of the men with him in Gardez, Staff Sgt. Joseph Marcinko, 29, from Ohio, was also at the concussion center, with black bags under his eyes. He had stayed behind in the armored truck, but a rocket hit the door and knocked him unconscious for 10 seconds, he said.
The third soldier, Specialist Edward Herrera, 22, from Miami, on his first deployment, was a gunner in a truck when a truck in front was hit by a roadside bomb.
“I hit the turret with my head,” he said. “The driver slammed his brakes, and I hit my head on the turret again, and then I was being shaken awake.”
Sergeants Marcinko and Daniel insisted that they would be returning to work soon, and they did: about seven hours later, they were at the camp airport with rifles and packs, looking only a little more awake, trying to catch a night flight back to Gardez.
Panetta defends Afghan strategy following Romney jabs
By CNN Producer Gabriella Schwarz. May 27th, 2012
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday labeled Mitt Romney’s attacks on the withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan “campaign rhetoric” and defended the 2014 drawdown date.
“I think you know without getting into the campaign rhetoric of what he’s asserting, I think you’ve got 50 nations in NATO that agree to a plan in Afghanistan,” Panetta said on ABC’s “This Week.” “It's the Lisbon agreement, an agreement that, you know, others, President Bush, President Obama, everyone has agreed is the direction that we go in in Afghanistan."
“That is the plan that has been agreed to. And it's a plan that is working,” Panetta said.
NATO and Afghanistan reaffirmed their long-term commitment to a political framework for future cooperation, including the 2014 date, at the NATO Lisbon Summit in 2010.
On the campaign trail, Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has targeted making the Afghanistan timeline known as a “naïve” step by Panetta and Obama. Although he has not contested the 2014 date, he has voiced opposition to making such timetables available to those that might seek to harm the U.S.
“Why in the world do you go to the people that you’re fighting with and tell them the day you’re pulling out your troops?” Romney said at a campaign event in February that was quoted to Panetta during Sunday’s interview.
But Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said a timeline is the only way to have a successful transition to Afghan forces.
“The only way to get this accomplished in terms of the transition that we have to go through is to be able to set the kind of timelines that have been set here in order to ensure that we fulfill the mission of an Afghanistan that governs and secures itself,” Panetta said. “That's what this is about.”
Two local Taliban leaders detained in S Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Two local Taliban leaders were detained in restive southern Afghanistan, authorities said on Monday.
"A senior Taliban leader named Nematullha has been arrested by personnel of National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Helmand province during an operation recently," a spokesman with the NDS or intelligence agency, Shams-ul-Raman Noori told reporters in a press briefing here.
He said Nematullah is responsible for several subversive activities in provincial capital Lashkar Gah and the surrounding areas.
A handful of weapons and communication equipment were also seized by NDS, he said.
In a separate development, Afghan security forces, backed by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) detained a Taliban leader in neighboring Kandahar province on Monday.
"An Afghan-led security force, supported by coalition troops, detained a Taliban leader during an operation in Panjwai district, Kandahar province, today," the ISAF said in a press release issued here Monday morning.
"The leader coordinated suicide bombings and attacks against Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces and coalition troops throughout the district," the release said without disclosing the name of the captured man.
"He also supervised the construction of suicide vests and other explosive devices and distributed them to the insurgents under his control,"it said, adding that as a result of the operation, the security force detained two additional insurgents.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of a spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not to make comments yet.
Afghanistan Urges Pakistan To Release Textbooks
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 28, 2012
KABUL -- Afghanistan's Education Ministry has urged Pakistan to reopen supply routes to NATO to allow for the delivery to Afghanistan of 4.5 million textbooks intended for Afghan schoolchildren.
The head of the Ministry's Publication Department, Atahullah Wahedyar, said the delay in transporting the textbooks, which are stuck in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, has created a shortage of education materials.
Afghan children began a new school term in April.
Wahedyar said he regretted the issue had become what he called "political" because of the tense relations between NATO and Pakistan.
NATO-Pakistan relations have plummeted since a NATO drone attack in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in an army outpost along the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan closed to NATO all Pakistani land supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation for the incident.
Central Bank Warns Traders From Rejecting Smaller Denominations
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 27 May 2012
Afghanistan's central bank officials warned traders to accept the local currencies smaller denominations amid reports that many reject being paid with a five Afghani or less banknote.
Da Afghanistan Bank chief Norullah Delawari said that the one, two and five Afghani notes were still reliable and they will punish anyone who refuses to be paid with these amounts.
"The one, two, and five Afghani is reliable in all of Afghanistan, and apart from the bank, no one has the right to print it or cancel it," he said.
He labeled as "propaganda" the notion that the smaller denominations were worthless and said the bank still has lots of one to five Afghani notes in the government treasury.
Delawari also said that the bank is taking new measures to prevent large amounts of money from exiting the country after estimates of last year's cash exodus reached around $4 billion - almost double the previous year.
Furthermore, it has added "new signs" to the newly-printed notes in order to protect the currency from counterfeiters, he said.
Afghanistan's ‘Safest' Province Faces Growing Insurgency, Says Police Chief
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 27 May 2012
Afghanistan's central Bamyan province, widely reputed to be the safest in the country, has seen a worrying rise in insurgent activity, according to the provincial police chief.
A group of Pakistani insurgents who go by the name Abdullah Kaltak is causing security problems, primarily in Bamyan's Kohmard district, police chief Juma Guldi Yardem said.
Yardem told TOLOnews on Sunday that he is concerned about the small number of security forces in the province which has seen far less insurgent activity than most of the country's other 33 provinces.
Bamyan is located in the heart of Afghanistan and shares its provincial border with eight other provinces. However, Yardem believes the Kaltak group are mainly moving in from Baghlan province - north-east of Bamyan - which has had a more active insurgent network for some time.
"Various Pakistani insurgents are active in Baghlan province, but they are crossing the borders and starting to do more insurgent activity [here]," Yardem said, saying it seemed most of them came through the Tala wa Barfak district of Baghlan.
"A new group of insurgents named Abdullah Kaltak have begun anti-government activity in this province."
The two provinces are divided by a mountainous border which the insurgents are crossing to make it into Bamyan.
Yardem said new security checkpoints have already been created to address the problem, but he fears that the Afghan forces are not sufficiently equipped to deal with the problem if it worsens.
"If the situation changes, we will need more equipment to defend Bamyan province," he said.
Bamyan was one of the first provinces to be transferred to Afghan security forces responsibility in the first phase of the five-tranche security transition.
The New Zealand armed forces based in Bamyan will withdraw from the province next year, a year earlier than the Nato deadline of 2014, the country's officials said earlier this month.
NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully confirmed during the Nato summit in Chicago last week that the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamyan would be withdrawn in 2013.
McCully said in a statement from his office that he had discussed the new timetable with Isaf leadership, senior Afghan ministers and other partners and they had all have agreed to the PRT winding up its role in late 2013.
"The New Zealand-led PRT has done an excellent job in Bamyan, reflected in the province being selected amongst the first tranche for transition. It is now likely that the Afghan government and Isaf will formally declare that transition to be completed later in 2012," he said.
"Over the coming weeks, a specialist team will visit Bamyan to draw up a detailed plan for the wind down in the province. We are intent on ensuring that the province is well prepared for the next steps and that major development projects are completed," the statement said.
At U.S.C., Media Training for Afghan Students
New York Times By MICHAEL CIEPLY May 27, 2012
LOS ANGELES - Before he became famous in the media world as the chief executive of MTV, and then its parent, Viacom, Tom Freston had a less glorious career as the proprietor of a clothing company based in Afghanistan.
Things ended badly, by Mr. Freston’s account, when he had to leave the country in 1978 on the heels of a coup. “There was too much shooting in the streets,” he recalled.
But his love affair with Afghanistan continued. And Mr. Freston, fired from his Viacom position by Sumner Redstone in 2006, has been quietly stealing time from his current career as a consultant and entrepreneur to connect the dots of his far-flung experiences — from untamed Afghanistan to the unruly media future — via a little-noticed program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Kept under wraps until now because of security concerns, the program, entering its second year, enrolls two Afghan students annually for a crash course in the cinema school’s summer program.
The students are sponsored by Mr. Freston in collaboration with Saad Mohseni of the Moby Group, a media conglomerate in Afghanistan (on whose board Mr. Freston serves). For about seven weeks, the students get a day-and-night education in writing, editing, cinematography and whatever else it takes to make programming for screens, large and small.
“Four years is too late,” Mr. Freston said of his reasons for backing students for short stints, rather than a full four-year education. (His own son is a graduate of the cinema school, its spokeswoman said.)
By Mr. Freston’s account, the trained talent pool in Afghanistan’s media world roughly matches what he found decades ago in the cable television world — many are willing, but few are trained. With that in mind, two trainees will arrive at U.S.C. next month to begin studying under the program’s overseer, David Weitzner.
The trainees from last summer have returned to Afghanistan, and are working in a rough-and-tumble business that still fears a Taliban resurgence but in the meantime has millions of viewers for programs as far-flung as a Persian-language version of a Spanish-language telenovela.
Before leaving Afghanistan in 1978, Mr. Freston said, he briefly considered just sticking around until things settled down. “I’d still be waiting,” he said.
Opponents Look To Put Dogfighting On Tight Leash In Afghanistan
RFE/RL By Frud Bezhan May 27, 2012
Two large dogs collide in a cloud of dust, locked in a bloody struggle that will end with only one victor -- unless, that is, you count the hundreds of men clustered around them who have placed money on the outcome.
The contest is being staged on a dirt pitch on the outskirts of Kabul, and it's not a rare event.
Dogfighting is a traditional pastime in Afghanistan, and this is just one of hundreds of clashes played out every week in informal tournaments around the country.
For some, animal fights -- which can also involve cocks, rams, and raptors -- are a source of entertainment and, with luck, extra income.
Technically, these brutal contests are illegal. But due to their popularity, the amount of money thrown around, and the powerful people involved, Afghan authorities have done little to enforce any sort of ban.
That might soon change if increasingly vocal critics have their way, however.
Seeking to enforce the official ban on animal fighting for sport, religious leaders and rights activists have brought their campaign to the government.
Dihal Haq Habid, the country's deputy minister for the hajj and Islamic affairs, intends to take the issue up with the Interior Ministry.
"Dog, raptor, and cockfights are things that don't have a place in Islam," he says. "We are planning to meet with the Interior Ministry. Through the Interior Ministry we hope to ban these activities. We are hopeful that we will have an effect."
An 'Un-Islamic' Pastime
Although there are no reliable statistics, Habid argues that dogfighting is fueling gambling addiction and bankruptcy, which in turn is leading to crime and illegal activities. He considers the blood sport "un-Islamic."
Shamsullah Ahmadzai, head of Kabul's regional office of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, calls dogfighting a primitive tradition.
He says he has brought up the issue of animal welfare with several Afghan lawmakers in an effort to raise awareness and to mobilize opposition to animal combat.
"People shouldn’t get pleasure from harming animals," he says. "During fights, one of the animals is always injured. The pain of an animal shouldn’t be a source of entertainment. The government should take measures."
Ahmadzai says that animal welfare is a foreign concept in Afghanistan, where most people do not keep pets and consider them unclean. This, he says, helps fuel the popularity of the matches.
Dog handlers involved in the contests remain unapologetic. They insist that the animals are treated better than family members and that matches are more humane than in other countries because the dogs do not fight to the death.
Noor Mohammad, who comes from a long line of dog trainers, has been involved in the matches for the past 26 years.
According to Mohammad, the matches do not usually end when one of the animals is killed but rather when one dog asserts its dominance or its opponent surrenders -- typically when one of the dogs retreats to the edge of the makeshift arena or puts its tail between its legs.
Mohammad adds that the money owners spend on feeding and caring for their dogs each month can exceed the monthly earnings of most Afghan families.
"We give the dogs veal," he says. "We boil this with the bone until it is very soft. We give it to them in the morning [before a fight]. The expense of keeping a dog is a lot. It is more than feeding a family. It is a hobby. The food we and the animals get is all from God."
Mohammad says a top fighting dog can sell for as much as a new car and that its potential winnings can exceed the investment many times over.
Banned By The Taliban
According to Mohammad, the largest and most lucrative fights, held at private venues involving animals belonging to wealthy businessman and government ministers, boast purses of thousands of dollars.
"Ministers, tribal chiefs, military commanders, and many other respectable people are keeping dogs," he says. "They're bringing their dogs [to the fight] with bodyguards and inside fancy cars, which I have never sat in. I have seen those people betting 1 million afghanis (about $21,000)."
The contests have been especially popular in and around the capital. But in areas of Afghanistan where militants enjoy greater sway, crowds have dwindled following a number of deadly attacks on dogfighting matches.
The Taliban, which banned dogfighting during its reign, appears to be enforcing its edict in deadly fashion.
In February 2010, a bomb attack on a dogfight in Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, left at least three people dead and more than 30 injured.
That Taliban attack was preceded by two others in Kandahar in February 2008. One, a suicide bombing near a dogfight, left at least 80 men dead and wounded 90. A second attack a week later claimed 10 more lives.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
VOA News May 28, 2012
NATO officials said two coalition members were killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan Monday.
The coalition said it is investigating the cause of the crash. Initial reports said there was no enemy activity in the area.
Earlier, another coalition aircraft also crashed in eastern Afghanistan. There were no fatalities in that crash.
Also Monday, an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan killed a NATO service member.
NATO did not release the names or nationalities of the victims.
More than 170 NATO troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year.
In Kabul, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, led a Memorial Day ceremony for members of the NATO coalition who have died in the war.
"While our brothers and sisters fell in a place far from home, far from their families, the values for which they stood and for which they lived and for which they died occupy an enduring place in our hearts."
On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended plans to gradually wind down military operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Speaking on ABC's This Week program, the Pentagon chief said NATO forces still have a fight on their hands, but that "it is on the right track."
Critics of a withdrawal timeline say Afghan militants will bide their time until international troops are gone.
Also Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned a coalition airstrike that officials say killed a family of eight in eastern Paktia province, where Afghan and international troops are trying to quell the Taliban insurgency.
A provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samoon told VOA Sunday the overnight airstrike killed a man, his wife and six children in the Gerda Serai district. He said that according to his information, the man was not linked to any insurgent group or any anti-government activities.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
4 policemen killed, 1 injured in roadside bombing in N. Afghanistan
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Four Afghan policemen were killed and one other injured Monday when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in northern province of Baghlan, a provincial source said.
"A unit of Afghan Local Police (ALP) was on routine patrol in Alawudin-e-Mangalah area of Baghlan-e-Markazi district at around 5 p.m. local time but a bomb was detonated through a remote-control device when their patrolling van was passing the area," a security source told Xinhua anonymously.
Afghan Local Police, set up by the government in the summer of 2010, is a community police force defending their villages against Taliban attacks and influence.
The official blamed Taliban for the attack.
In another development, six Taliban militants, who were placing roadside bombs along a road, were killed in an air strike carried out by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Nirkh district of eastern Wardak province in the wee hours Monday, a provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told Xinhua.
Two NATO-led ISAF soldiers were killed when a helicopter crashed in the same district Monday afternoon.
Earlier on Monday, another ISAF aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan, the ISAF confirmed in a statement, adding no fatalities were reported during the incident.
The Taliban insurgents, who has been waging more than a decade- long insurgency, announced on May 2 that they would launched a spring rebel offensive starting from May 3 to target Afghan forces as well as U.S. and NATO troops across the country.
Political Leaders Condemn Taliban Tactics At Daud Commemoration
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 27 May 2012
The Taliban are the enemies of Afghanistan and have lost the ability to fight, falling back instead on trying to assassinate officials, Afghansitan's first Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim said Sunday.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the death of former commander General Mohammed Daud Daud, Fahim said that the Taliban will never reach their aims by assassinating Afghan political and military officials.
"The Taliban are the enemies of Afghanistan, and they have lost their ability to fight, they lack military structure and facilities, they are trying to assassinate Afghan officials but that will not help them reach their aims," Fahim told attendees of the commemorative gathering in Kabul.
Other government officials and politicians also attended the ceremony and repeated Fahim's message.
Minister of Interior Bismillah Mohammadi said that the Afghan people have suffered under the Taliban and the group will not be able to impose itself on Afghan people again.
"If the terrorist Taliban are trying to reach their ominous aims by killing Jihadi figures, they are blind," Mohammadi said at the ceremony.
"They can't impose themselves on Afghans another time, Afghans have suffered enough from them."
Leader of Afghanistan's National Front Ahmad Zia Masoud said that the Taliban were receiving support from parts of both the Afghan and Pakistani governments and that they are were waiting for the withdrawal of foreign troops to return to power.
"Taliban are being supported in Quetta and by the Pakistani government, there are also figures within the Afghan government supporting the Taliban as they want them in power," Masoud said.
Meanwhile, National Coalition of Afghanistan party leader Abdullah Abdullah called for the government to do more to identify those planning the deaths of the officials and prosecute them.
"Those who are present here, don't you want the government to find out who killed them? They should tell us who killed them," Abdullah said.
Daud and Shah Jahan Noori, Takhar province's police chief, were killed in a bomb blast on May 28 last year following a security meeting with the German commander in the north.
The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
NATO has fight on its hands in Afghanistan: Panetta
Reuters Sun May 27, 2012
WASHINGTON - NATO forces still have a fight on their hands in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has displayed resilience although its fighters have not regained territory they lost during the decade-long war, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday.
Panetta said plans for foreign troops to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces starting in mid-2013 were on track and necessary to ensure that the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion, is kept at bay.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered a surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2009, has outlined plans to withdraw foreign combat forces from there by the end of 2014 and to take on a supportive role for the Afghan army.
Afghanistan security forced have grown to around 330,000 but still lack capabilities in intelligence, air power and logistics. At the same time, a spate of attacks against foreign troops this year by Afghans in military uniforms have raised questions about their loyalty to the government and whether some are under the influence of the Taliban.
"The world needs to know that we still have a fight on our hands," Panetta told ABC's "This Week" program. "We're still dealing with the Taliban. Although they've been weakened, they are resilient."
The defense secretary said the Taliban has been unable to conduct any kind of organized attack to reclaim territory lost to NATO and Afghan forces, adding: "We've seen levels of violence going down. We've seen an Afghan army that is much more capable at providing security."
The White House, looking toward the November presidential election, is keen to dispel notions that Obama is rushing for the exits in Afghanistan, at a time when public support for the war is plummeting.
The broad concern, however, is that the Taliban is staying out of harm's way and will resurface quickly once the bulk of foreign troops have left.
"Have you ever heard the word 'victory' come through the lips of this president, because we're always talking about withdrawal, withdrawal, withdrawal," Senator John McCain, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Republican candidate for president in 2008 who lost to Obama, told Fox News Sunday.
"The Taliban believes we are leaving" after Obama's announcements of a withdrawal schedule, McCain said.
"The president has overridden the recommendation of his military commanders who he has put in their positions, and the president has increased the risk every time."
Panetta said there continues to be concerns about the Taliban operating from safe havens in Pakistan. He said U.S. relations with Pakistan were "complicated".
"This has been one of the most complicated relationships that we've had, working with Pakistan. You know, we have to continue to work at it. It is important. This is a country that has - that has nuclear weapons," Panetta said.
"So our responsibility here is to keep pushing them to understand how important it is for them to work with us to try to deal with the common threats we both face," Panetta added.
Panetta said it was "so disturbing" that the Pakistani government sentenced a doctor to 33 years in prison on treason charges for helping the CIA track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Dr. Shakil Afridi "was not working against Pakistan. He was working against al Qaeda. And I hope that ultimately Pakistan understands that," he said. "Because what they have done here, I think, you know, does not help in the effort to try to re-establish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan."
(Reporting By Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Philip Barbara)
100 armed insurgents give up militancy in western Afghan province
CHIGCHERAN, Afghanistan, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Some 100 armed insurgents gave fighting and joined peace process in Ghor province 360 km west of capital Kabul on Monday, spokesman for provincial administration Abdul Hai Khatibi said.
"Around 100 armed insurgents under Mullah Abdul Karim gave up fighting and joined the peace process in the provincial capital Chighcheran city this afternoon," Khatibi told Xinhua.
With joining these former militants, the security situation will be farther improved in Ghor province, he said.
All the former militants have also handed over their weapons to authorities, the official stressed.
Taliban militants fighting Afghan government have yet to make comment.
More than 3,000 anti-government militants, according to officials have joined the government-backed peace process over the past one year in Afghanistan, a claim rejected by Taliban outfit has groundless.
Tending to Bodies Near the Breaking Point
By GRAHAM BOWLEY The New York Times May 28, 2012
COMBAT OUTPOST RAHMAN KHEL, Afghanistan — Each week, Capt. Rachel Odom takes off in a helicopter to fly to yet another distant military outpost of this mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan to patch the troops in her care back together.
One recent morning, 13 soldiers came to visit her in the small wooden medical hut of a 100-man camp near the village of Rahman Khel, cradled by the snow-tipped mountains of Paktia Province near the Pakistani border. One after another, the soldiers told her of their twisted knees, back pains or shoulder strains — the increasingly familiar-sounding toll of a long war.
After multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of these soldiers’ bodies are nearing the breaking point. It is up to Captain Odom, 28, from Moselle, Miss. — the only physical therapist attached to the 3,500 men and women of the Fourth Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division — to keep them together.
“These bodies get a beating,” she said as she spent the next 12 hours stretching out legs, lifting arms or standing on a box to lean over and pummel pulled back muscles, accompanied by sighs, groans, thanks and the occasional curse.
“They walk up and down mountains carrying a lot of gear, just a lot of weight, and that can result in daily aches and pains, and also injuries,” she said. “I am keeping them doing their job, living their lives with as little pain as possible.”
These soldiers are likely to be some of the last Americans to serve in Afghanistan, and as troops are beginning to withdraw ahead of the 2014 deadline, the war here can take on an end-of-the-race feel at times: the finish line is distant but finally in sight, and Captain Odom is working just to keep her charges running till they can reach it.
The action these days is rarely about face-to-face combat. Instead, it is an effort to keep up with an elusive enemy that slips from the looming mountains this time of year and moves invisibly from village to village through the woods and fields, heading west for the fighting season.
For the Army company based at this outpost, among the 19 on Captain Odom’s rounds, it involves long, bone-rattling journeys in armored vehicles protected against roadside bombs or suicide attacks. Or it is a five-hour slog encased in ever more elaborate body armor — designed to protect against a distant sniper shot or rocket. But it can add at least 35 pounds to a soldier’s load, even without his helmet, pistol, ammunition, water, medical kit and rifle.
“When you carry all this stuff and then go climb one of those mountains, it definitely takes a toll on your body,” said Sgt. James Daoust, a company medic.
Today’s protection is the I.O.T.V., or improvised outer tactical vest, a bulky affair that involves heavy ceramic block plates, side plates, deltoid protectors and groin guards. Some soldiers even have Kevlar underwear. (At higher altitudes, soldiers are allowed to wear a slimmed down I.O.T.V., called a platecarrier, but it is still heavy.) Around the bases in this region, sweating soldiers in shorts and sneakers run laps around the outer perimeter wearing the vests just to get used to them.
Captain Odom, who has broad rosy cheeks and a practical, considerate manner, represents a new kind of emphasis in the military on getting to these kind of injuries quickly, even mundane ones like twisted ankles or tweaked backs, before repeated strain can force soldiers out of the war altogether.
She was encouraged to go into the military by her uncle, a retired colonel, after she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi. Now, she is five months from the end of her first tour of duty. She seems comfortable sprinting from a standing start in the darkness to board a waiting Black Hawk, or flying over the Afghan mountains in the moonlight, bound for yet another camp in her 19,000-square-mile territory, carrying her medical bag and an M4 carbine.
Among her patients this day, one said he felt as if the pain was crushing his back, which had hurt since Iraq. Another, First Lt. Jeffrey Russell, from Copperas Cove, Tex., said that when he jumped loaded with gear from the wall of an abandoned house during a patrol, his knee buckled.
“I don’t like being the platoon leader and having to sit back in the truck,” Lieutenant Russell said, “so I have come for a professional opinion.”
Captain Odom says Army Ranger units were the first to include physical therapists, rather than have them stay back at the hospital or in separate medical units. But now with their success, therapists have spread into mainstream combat units; Captain Odom is the first her brigade has had. “They are becoming more common,” she said.
One of the biggest challenges for the therapists is dealing with an injury that has become all too common in a war defined by the Taliban’s roadside bombs: blast concussions. Back at Captain Odom’s brigade base, Forward Operating Base Salerno, over the mountains amid the sweet-smelling eucalyptus trees of Khost Province, there is a special center to treat them.
The center is run by one of Captain Odom’s friends and colleagues, Capt. Jamie Bell, 32, from Lancaster, Calif., and has been open only for the past couple of years.
“A lot of the soldiers here have been deployed three, four, five times, so they are already coming with some PTSD, and then they get concussion,” said Captain Bell, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder. “They might get blown up three or four times in a month, and that’s when you might have a high risk of permanent damage. But if they have proper treatment and rest, they can be returned to duty without long-term effects.”
Inside the small concussion center, she gives soldiers who have been caught in blasts computer tests and games like Lego, Scrabble and Blokus to improve their memory, visual perception and sequencing skills. Three recovering soldiers were sitting on a black sofa and chair, silently watching “The Big Bang Theory” on television and looking tired and worse for wear.
One of them, Sgt. Junior Daniel, a tousle-haired 24-year-old from Mims, Fla., was on his third deployment. Two weeks earlier, while he was running from his armored truck toward a building occupied by insurgents in Gardez, his group came under gun and rocket fire. He said something “blew up close to my head.” He lost his hearing for a while, and still looked groggy.
One of the men with him in Gardez, Staff Sgt. Joseph Marcinko, 29, from Ohio, was also at the concussion center, with black bags under his eyes. He had stayed behind in the armored truck, but a rocket hit the door and knocked him unconscious for 10 seconds, he said.
The third soldier, Specialist Edward Herrera, 22, from Miami, on his first deployment, was a gunner in a truck when a truck in front was hit by a roadside bomb.
“I hit the turret with my head,” he said. “The driver slammed his brakes, and I hit my head on the turret again, and then I was being shaken awake.”
Sergeants Marcinko and Daniel insisted that they would be returning to work soon, and they did: about seven hours later, they were at the camp airport with rifles and packs, looking only a little more awake, trying to catch a night flight back to Gardez.
Panetta defends Afghan strategy following Romney jabs
By CNN Producer Gabriella Schwarz. May 27th, 2012
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday labeled Mitt Romney’s attacks on the withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan “campaign rhetoric” and defended the 2014 drawdown date.
“I think you know without getting into the campaign rhetoric of what he’s asserting, I think you’ve got 50 nations in NATO that agree to a plan in Afghanistan,” Panetta said on ABC’s “This Week.” “It's the Lisbon agreement, an agreement that, you know, others, President Bush, President Obama, everyone has agreed is the direction that we go in in Afghanistan."
“That is the plan that has been agreed to. And it's a plan that is working,” Panetta said.
NATO and Afghanistan reaffirmed their long-term commitment to a political framework for future cooperation, including the 2014 date, at the NATO Lisbon Summit in 2010.
On the campaign trail, Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has targeted making the Afghanistan timeline known as a “naïve” step by Panetta and Obama. Although he has not contested the 2014 date, he has voiced opposition to making such timetables available to those that might seek to harm the U.S.
“Why in the world do you go to the people that you’re fighting with and tell them the day you’re pulling out your troops?” Romney said at a campaign event in February that was quoted to Panetta during Sunday’s interview.
But Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said a timeline is the only way to have a successful transition to Afghan forces.
“The only way to get this accomplished in terms of the transition that we have to go through is to be able to set the kind of timelines that have been set here in order to ensure that we fulfill the mission of an Afghanistan that governs and secures itself,” Panetta said. “That's what this is about.”
Two local Taliban leaders detained in S Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Two local Taliban leaders were detained in restive southern Afghanistan, authorities said on Monday.
"A senior Taliban leader named Nematullha has been arrested by personnel of National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Helmand province during an operation recently," a spokesman with the NDS or intelligence agency, Shams-ul-Raman Noori told reporters in a press briefing here.
He said Nematullah is responsible for several subversive activities in provincial capital Lashkar Gah and the surrounding areas.
A handful of weapons and communication equipment were also seized by NDS, he said.
In a separate development, Afghan security forces, backed by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) detained a Taliban leader in neighboring Kandahar province on Monday.
"An Afghan-led security force, supported by coalition troops, detained a Taliban leader during an operation in Panjwai district, Kandahar province, today," the ISAF said in a press release issued here Monday morning.
"The leader coordinated suicide bombings and attacks against Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces and coalition troops throughout the district," the release said without disclosing the name of the captured man.
"He also supervised the construction of suicide vests and other explosive devices and distributed them to the insurgents under his control,"it said, adding that as a result of the operation, the security force detained two additional insurgents.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of a spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not to make comments yet.
Afghanistan Urges Pakistan To Release Textbooks
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 28, 2012
KABUL -- Afghanistan's Education Ministry has urged Pakistan to reopen supply routes to NATO to allow for the delivery to Afghanistan of 4.5 million textbooks intended for Afghan schoolchildren.
The head of the Ministry's Publication Department, Atahullah Wahedyar, said the delay in transporting the textbooks, which are stuck in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, has created a shortage of education materials.
Afghan children began a new school term in April.
Wahedyar said he regretted the issue had become what he called "political" because of the tense relations between NATO and Pakistan.
NATO-Pakistan relations have plummeted since a NATO drone attack in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in an army outpost along the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan closed to NATO all Pakistani land supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation for the incident.
Central Bank Warns Traders From Rejecting Smaller Denominations
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 27 May 2012
Afghanistan's central bank officials warned traders to accept the local currencies smaller denominations amid reports that many reject being paid with a five Afghani or less banknote.
Da Afghanistan Bank chief Norullah Delawari said that the one, two and five Afghani notes were still reliable and they will punish anyone who refuses to be paid with these amounts.
"The one, two, and five Afghani is reliable in all of Afghanistan, and apart from the bank, no one has the right to print it or cancel it," he said.
He labeled as "propaganda" the notion that the smaller denominations were worthless and said the bank still has lots of one to five Afghani notes in the government treasury.
Delawari also said that the bank is taking new measures to prevent large amounts of money from exiting the country after estimates of last year's cash exodus reached around $4 billion - almost double the previous year.
Furthermore, it has added "new signs" to the newly-printed notes in order to protect the currency from counterfeiters, he said.
Afghanistan's ‘Safest' Province Faces Growing Insurgency, Says Police Chief
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 27 May 2012
Afghanistan's central Bamyan province, widely reputed to be the safest in the country, has seen a worrying rise in insurgent activity, according to the provincial police chief.
A group of Pakistani insurgents who go by the name Abdullah Kaltak is causing security problems, primarily in Bamyan's Kohmard district, police chief Juma Guldi Yardem said.
Yardem told TOLOnews on Sunday that he is concerned about the small number of security forces in the province which has seen far less insurgent activity than most of the country's other 33 provinces.
Bamyan is located in the heart of Afghanistan and shares its provincial border with eight other provinces. However, Yardem believes the Kaltak group are mainly moving in from Baghlan province - north-east of Bamyan - which has had a more active insurgent network for some time.
"Various Pakistani insurgents are active in Baghlan province, but they are crossing the borders and starting to do more insurgent activity [here]," Yardem said, saying it seemed most of them came through the Tala wa Barfak district of Baghlan.
"A new group of insurgents named Abdullah Kaltak have begun anti-government activity in this province."
The two provinces are divided by a mountainous border which the insurgents are crossing to make it into Bamyan.
Yardem said new security checkpoints have already been created to address the problem, but he fears that the Afghan forces are not sufficiently equipped to deal with the problem if it worsens.
"If the situation changes, we will need more equipment to defend Bamyan province," he said.
Bamyan was one of the first provinces to be transferred to Afghan security forces responsibility in the first phase of the five-tranche security transition.
The New Zealand armed forces based in Bamyan will withdraw from the province next year, a year earlier than the Nato deadline of 2014, the country's officials said earlier this month.
NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully confirmed during the Nato summit in Chicago last week that the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamyan would be withdrawn in 2013.
McCully said in a statement from his office that he had discussed the new timetable with Isaf leadership, senior Afghan ministers and other partners and they had all have agreed to the PRT winding up its role in late 2013.
"The New Zealand-led PRT has done an excellent job in Bamyan, reflected in the province being selected amongst the first tranche for transition. It is now likely that the Afghan government and Isaf will formally declare that transition to be completed later in 2012," he said.
"Over the coming weeks, a specialist team will visit Bamyan to draw up a detailed plan for the wind down in the province. We are intent on ensuring that the province is well prepared for the next steps and that major development projects are completed," the statement said.
At U.S.C., Media Training for Afghan Students
New York Times By MICHAEL CIEPLY May 27, 2012
LOS ANGELES - Before he became famous in the media world as the chief executive of MTV, and then its parent, Viacom, Tom Freston had a less glorious career as the proprietor of a clothing company based in Afghanistan.
Things ended badly, by Mr. Freston’s account, when he had to leave the country in 1978 on the heels of a coup. “There was too much shooting in the streets,” he recalled.
But his love affair with Afghanistan continued. And Mr. Freston, fired from his Viacom position by Sumner Redstone in 2006, has been quietly stealing time from his current career as a consultant and entrepreneur to connect the dots of his far-flung experiences — from untamed Afghanistan to the unruly media future — via a little-noticed program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Kept under wraps until now because of security concerns, the program, entering its second year, enrolls two Afghan students annually for a crash course in the cinema school’s summer program.
The students are sponsored by Mr. Freston in collaboration with Saad Mohseni of the Moby Group, a media conglomerate in Afghanistan (on whose board Mr. Freston serves). For about seven weeks, the students get a day-and-night education in writing, editing, cinematography and whatever else it takes to make programming for screens, large and small.
“Four years is too late,” Mr. Freston said of his reasons for backing students for short stints, rather than a full four-year education. (His own son is a graduate of the cinema school, its spokeswoman said.)
By Mr. Freston’s account, the trained talent pool in Afghanistan’s media world roughly matches what he found decades ago in the cable television world — many are willing, but few are trained. With that in mind, two trainees will arrive at U.S.C. next month to begin studying under the program’s overseer, David Weitzner.
The trainees from last summer have returned to Afghanistan, and are working in a rough-and-tumble business that still fears a Taliban resurgence but in the meantime has millions of viewers for programs as far-flung as a Persian-language version of a Spanish-language telenovela.
Before leaving Afghanistan in 1978, Mr. Freston said, he briefly considered just sticking around until things settled down. “I’d still be waiting,” he said.
Opponents Look To Put Dogfighting On Tight Leash In Afghanistan
RFE/RL By Frud Bezhan May 27, 2012
Two large dogs collide in a cloud of dust, locked in a bloody struggle that will end with only one victor -- unless, that is, you count the hundreds of men clustered around them who have placed money on the outcome.
The contest is being staged on a dirt pitch on the outskirts of Kabul, and it's not a rare event.
Dogfighting is a traditional pastime in Afghanistan, and this is just one of hundreds of clashes played out every week in informal tournaments around the country.
For some, animal fights -- which can also involve cocks, rams, and raptors -- are a source of entertainment and, with luck, extra income.
Technically, these brutal contests are illegal. But due to their popularity, the amount of money thrown around, and the powerful people involved, Afghan authorities have done little to enforce any sort of ban.
That might soon change if increasingly vocal critics have their way, however.
Seeking to enforce the official ban on animal fighting for sport, religious leaders and rights activists have brought their campaign to the government.
Dihal Haq Habid, the country's deputy minister for the hajj and Islamic affairs, intends to take the issue up with the Interior Ministry.
"Dog, raptor, and cockfights are things that don't have a place in Islam," he says. "We are planning to meet with the Interior Ministry. Through the Interior Ministry we hope to ban these activities. We are hopeful that we will have an effect."
An 'Un-Islamic' Pastime
Although there are no reliable statistics, Habid argues that dogfighting is fueling gambling addiction and bankruptcy, which in turn is leading to crime and illegal activities. He considers the blood sport "un-Islamic."
Shamsullah Ahmadzai, head of Kabul's regional office of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, calls dogfighting a primitive tradition.
He says he has brought up the issue of animal welfare with several Afghan lawmakers in an effort to raise awareness and to mobilize opposition to animal combat.
"People shouldn’t get pleasure from harming animals," he says. "During fights, one of the animals is always injured. The pain of an animal shouldn’t be a source of entertainment. The government should take measures."
Ahmadzai says that animal welfare is a foreign concept in Afghanistan, where most people do not keep pets and consider them unclean. This, he says, helps fuel the popularity of the matches.
Dog handlers involved in the contests remain unapologetic. They insist that the animals are treated better than family members and that matches are more humane than in other countries because the dogs do not fight to the death.
Noor Mohammad, who comes from a long line of dog trainers, has been involved in the matches for the past 26 years.
According to Mohammad, the matches do not usually end when one of the animals is killed but rather when one dog asserts its dominance or its opponent surrenders -- typically when one of the dogs retreats to the edge of the makeshift arena or puts its tail between its legs.
Mohammad adds that the money owners spend on feeding and caring for their dogs each month can exceed the monthly earnings of most Afghan families.
"We give the dogs veal," he says. "We boil this with the bone until it is very soft. We give it to them in the morning [before a fight]. The expense of keeping a dog is a lot. It is more than feeding a family. It is a hobby. The food we and the animals get is all from God."
Mohammad says a top fighting dog can sell for as much as a new car and that its potential winnings can exceed the investment many times over.
Banned By The Taliban
According to Mohammad, the largest and most lucrative fights, held at private venues involving animals belonging to wealthy businessman and government ministers, boast purses of thousands of dollars.
"Ministers, tribal chiefs, military commanders, and many other respectable people are keeping dogs," he says. "They're bringing their dogs [to the fight] with bodyguards and inside fancy cars, which I have never sat in. I have seen those people betting 1 million afghanis (about $21,000)."
The contests have been especially popular in and around the capital. But in areas of Afghanistan where militants enjoy greater sway, crowds have dwindled following a number of deadly attacks on dogfighting matches.
The Taliban, which banned dogfighting during its reign, appears to be enforcing its edict in deadly fashion.
In February 2010, a bomb attack on a dogfight in Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, left at least three people dead and more than 30 injured.
That Taliban attack was preceded by two others in Kandahar in February 2008. One, a suicide bombing near a dogfight, left at least 80 men dead and wounded 90. A second attack a week later claimed 10 more lives.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com