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Suicide bombers strike near U.S. base in Kabul, killing 2 guards
By Pamela Constable, The Washington Post
KABUL — A pair of suicide bombers in Afghan military uniforms penetrated the most heavily guarded district in Kabul early Wednesday, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding five civilians in blasts at a checkpoint near the main U.S. military headquarters and half a dozen other international facilities.
Police officials said the bombers’ target was probably Camp Eggers, the large U.S. military compound that occupies several square blocks of the capital’s exclusive Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. But a spokesman for the radical Islamist Taliban movement said the attack was aimed at a CIA compound and that “a large number” of insurgents had participated.
The attack during morning rush hour quickly emptied the city’s normally congested streets. It immediately intensified public worries about violence during the Shiite Muslim holy period of Muharram, which is to climax Sunday with street processions and ritual self-flagellation. Last year during Muharram, a terrorist bombing near a Shiite shrine in Kabul took 54 lives.
But Afghan officials noted that the bombers targeted a district dominated by foreign and official buildings, embassies and bases, which is nowhere near any Shiite neighborhoods or activities. The whole city is full of black archways and colorful banners marking Muharram, but most Shiites live and worship several miles from Wazir Akbar Khan in West Kabul.
The blocks immediately surrounding the blast site include the embassies of Pakistan and Canada, a security company and the home of the chief justice of the Afghan Supreme Court. The U.S. Embassy is several blocks away, as are restaurants frequented by Westerners and the offices of the World Bank.
According to police, the bombers walked through multiple checkpoints into the heart of the high-security zone about 8 a.m. and were spotted by guards at another post. They said the guards opened fire and the bombers’ suicide vests exploded.
Several hours later, a large jagged hole was visible at the scene of the blast. Charred metal and debris littered the street, and fire trucks were hosing it down. A guard post where the two Afghan security guards were killed was also charred black. A U.S. military tow truck was hauling away an armored sport-utility vehicle with shattered windows.
Police investigators at the scene said one of the bombers was a man in his 30s or 40s wearing an Afghan National Army uniform. He was apparently able to walk nearly four blocks, through multiple checkpoints, to the spot where he confronted the guards and detonated his explosives.
“It is still confusing what was the target. There are so many possible ones right here,” one investigator said. He said the damaged SUV belonged to a senior Afghan army general, who might have been the object of the attack. The general was said to be unharmed.
Another senior police official said the bomber might have been attempting to enter a vacant building under construction near the sensitive compounds. Several previous terrorist attacks in Kabul have been launched from such unoccupied buildings, and officials have been working to make them more secure.
Afghan Authorities Execute Six More Death-Row Prisoners
November 21, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan authorities have executed six more death row prisoners, despite international condemnation.
Rafi Ferdous, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Council of Ministers, told Radio Free Afghanistan on November 21 that the prisoners were charged with plotting suicide attacks and attacks on Afghan security forces.
Authorities also hanged eight prisoners on November 20. Those executions were condemned by the European Union and international rights groups, which urged Kabul to stop future executions.
Executions were commonplace during Taliban rule from 1996-2001, but court-sanctioned executions have been rare since the Taliban was ousted from power.
Until November 20, only two people had been put to death in the past four years.
On November 21, the Taliban warned of reprisals if the government executes any of its militants.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Rights groups dismayed by Afghanistan's return to executions
By Mirwais Harooni
KABUL (Reuters) - Human rights groups reacted with dismay on Wednesday to Afghanistan's resumption of executions after a near-four-year moratorium on a penalty that characterized the austere rule of the former Taliban regime.
Eight men found guilty of "crimes against the people, especially women and children" were hanged on Tuesday and eight more were to meet the same fate either on Wednesday or Thursday, according to a government official.
This alarmed activists who said the return of executions in a country with a weak judiciary was a setback.
"The death penalty is an act of cruelty that should never be used," said Brad Adams, Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Its use in Afghanistan, where a fair trial is typically out of the question, is even more horrific."
Those executed included a man who strangled to death a mother and her two infant children and men found guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering young boys and girls.
Officials said that in accordance with the law, President Hamid Karzai signed off on the executions. There have been only two executions in Afghanistan in the past four years.
"The eight hangings in a single day are a terrible step backwards for Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai should stop future executions and commit to a formal moratorium," Adams said.
Rafi Ferdous, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Council of Ministers Secretariat, defended the hangings.
"By applying this (penalty), the rule of law is implemented. This is a lesson to be learned," Ferdous said in a statement.
EXECUTIONS RARE
Executions were commonplace during the Taliban's strict 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, when adulterers and murderers were shot dead in public. Such executions still take place in some areas under the influence of the Taliban.
But judicially sanctioned executions have been rare since the Taliban government fell, with unofficial moratoriums between 2001 and 2004 and from 2008 until recently.
The death by firing squad of 15 prisoners in Kabul in 2007 and several more executions in 2008 sparked international condemnation. Until Tuesday, only two people had been put to death in the past four years.
In a strongly worded statement, London-based Amnesty International suggested Karzai's decision to approve the executions was for his own political gain, to prove his government could maintain law and order.
It said the death penalty was deplorable and described Afghanistan's legal system as "seriously flawed".
"Detainees are frequently tortured into confessions then relied upon by a judiciary that has little to no independence," it said. "There is simply no guarantee of a fair trial."
Hussain Ali Moin, an investigator with Afghanistan's Independent Human Right Commission, said that although the death penalty was legal, there were concerns about whether courts had been fair to those who were executed.
"The death penalty is an irreversible punishment," he said. "We haven't had full access to these cases... Still we cannot say if their trials were fair."
(Additional reporting by Miriam Arghandiwal; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Michael Roddy)
MOD Calls for Public Trial of Suspected Army Killers
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Tuesday, 20 November 2012
The police officers charged with killing three Afghan National Army (ANA) officers last month should be publicly prosecuted, Ministry of Defense (MOD) spokesman General Zahir Azimi said on Tuesday.
Azimi said the trial of the police officers who allegedly shot and killed the ANA soldiers a day before Eid al-Adha in eastern Baghlan province should be public, but did not elaborate on his reasons.
"This incident is under investigation. We want a public prosecution for this case," Azimi said at a press briefing in Kabul.
The suspect policemen claim that their commander ordered them to shoot the soldiers.
Azimi also said at the briefing that the Afghan National Security Forces were ready to take responsibility of the country's security by the end of 2013.
"The Afghan security forces are able to take over all security responsibility by the end of 2013," he said.
This comes as the French combat troops handed over all security responsibilities or north-eastern province Kapisa to the Afghan security forces on Tuesday ahead of their final departure from the country.
Afghans Working With NATO-Led Forces Fear For The Future
November 21, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Frud Bezhan
They have been branded "traitors" by the Taliban, which has said for years that it will kill any Afghans working for the NATO-led coalition.
With the majority of U.S. and NATO-led ISAF troops set to leave the country in 2014, many Afghans working in support positions look ahead with trepidation.
Their fears appear to be well-grounded.
Scores of Afghans working for foreign military forces have already been targeted by the Taliban. On November 14, in the latest such killing, the Taliban shot dead two Afghan interpreters working for NATO troops near Kabul. Their bodies were left next to their cars. There have been other killings and many others have received death threats warning them to quit their jobs or face a similar fate.
In response, some NATO members and their allies have created special immigration programs to help endangered Afghan workers leave Afghanistan. But many Afghans who have applied complain that they have been left in a no-man's-land after not hearing back, sometimes for years, from foreign immigration authorities.
Special Track
One U.S. initiative is called the Afghan Allies program. It was created in 2009 in a bid to boost the number of visas available to Afghan workers employed by the U.S. government. It has allocated 7,500 spaces for Afghans and their families to emigrate to the United States over five years. But so far, only 293 cases have been processed. And since 2010, only 31 cases have received the green light.
Afghans must prove there's an ongoing threat and that they worked at least one year for the American government to get a visa.
A U.S. State Department official, who did not want to be named, acknowledged delays in processing the applications, mainly due to security concerns. "We have an obligation to ensure that recipients of Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) -- like all others who enter the United States -- do not pose a threat to our security," he said. The State Department representative said the U.S. Embassy in Kabul had "redirected and increased resources to improve efficiency at all stages of the SIV process and reduce processing backlogs."
In addition to the United States, another NATO member, Canada, has a special immigration program for Afghans who worked as interpreters for Canadian soldiers and diplomats in Afghanistan. To date, the country has approved the applications of 800 Afghans and their families. Canada, which still has almost 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, has received some 6,000 immigration applications since the program began in 2009.
Meanwhile Australia, one of the largest non-NATO contributor of troops to the Afghan mission with some 1,500 soldiers, has no special visa program. Canberra has for years mulled introducing such a scheme, but some lawmakers have questioned its viability considering the strain it would impose on overstretched immigration authorities.
Threats In The Night
One Afghan worker who has applied for an American visa is Edris, a 25-year-old from Kabul.
Edris worked as an interpreter for American and British troops for some 18 months in militant hotspots in eastern Afghanistan. After waiting for months for a response, Edris says he feels neglected and betrayed by his foreign employers. He says he has heard nothing since May, when he first applied, and does not know whether his application has been approved or rejected.
Edris, who does not wish to reveal his full name for security reasons, says he quit his job in May after receiving persistent death threats and witnessing the deaths of several of his Afghan colleagues.
Earlier that month he received a so-called night letter, a written threat delivered in the evening hours by the Taliban. It warned him to quit his work or he and his family would be killed. For Edris, the letter was the last straw and, after a day of deliberation, he resigned.
"As soon as the Taliban finds out [someone is an interpreter], they try to find his family," Edris says. "They tell the family, 'If I see your son going to work for the foreign forces, don't be sure he will come back home alive.' Of course, the family thinks 'if we let our son go, they will kill him. They will kill either him or us tomorrow.'"
A Matter Of Life And Death
Afghan interpreters working for the NATO-led coalition force have been particularly susceptible to militant attacks. They are often sought out by militants, who have labeled them "spies" -- the eyes and ears of the foreign "occupiers." At least 25 interpreters have been killed in targeted attacks over the past five years, according to the Afghan government, with many more injured.
Edris says that working as an interpreter for coalition forces is among the most dangerous jobs in the country. In the field, he says, he went to extreme lengths to blend in and hide his identity from the Taliban, who Edris says often had spies on the lookout.
"I used to wear a turban, a scarf, a hat from Kandahar [the birthplace of the Taliban], and grew my hair long so they wouldn't know I was an interpreter or a soldier," Edris says. "I couldn't carry military clothes or equipment with me. Even if I was wearing a sock from the military or a T-shirt, they would know I was with the military. [If you were caught] it was then that they would pick you up in their car, behead you, and then leave your body on the side of the road."
After quitting his job Edris received another letter. Signed "your Taliban brothers," the missive said he had "not been forgiven" for his collaboration with foreign troops.
Edris says for him and his family leaving Afghanistan has become an urgent matter of "life and death."
There is hope yet for Afghanistan
Financial Times By Karl Eikenberry Opinion November 20, 2012
Name the country in which a recent opinion survey revealed the following: 52 per cent of the people believe it is moving in the right direction; 93 per cent have great or fair confidence in their armed forces; 89 per cent give the government good marks for the provision of education; 72 per cent say their national legislature is addressing the problems of ordinary citizens; and 50 per cent assert their financial wellbeing has improved over the past 12 months?
Not the US, Singapore or Brazil. Answer: Afghanistan.
Since 2004, The Asia Foundation has conducted eight surveys of public attitudes on the ground in Afghanistan. In June, pollsters interviewed nearly 6,300 Afghan adults in person (44 per cent of them women) in all of the country’s 34 provinces. They asked questions on a wide range of topics encompassing security, national reconciliation, the economy, development and essential services, governance, political participation, corruption, justice, gender issues and the media.
The results should be read carefully in Kabul and Washington. President Barack Obama campaigned for re-election on a promise to bring US troops home from Afghanistan in 2014. But a drawdown should not be confused with an abandonment: the poll suggests that contrary to the view of many critics, Afghanistan is making slow if uneven progress.
Inevitably, the survey has limitations. For example, 16 per cent of the designated polling locations were not accessible due to insecurity, perhaps creating optimism bias in the results. Still, these factors are acknowledged in the analysis and do not overturn the main findings.
How could it possibly be that the people of chaotic, ungovernable Afghanistan have such positive feelings about their state of affairs? There are three explanations.
First, while the polling results do reflect some optimism among the Afghan people, the findings are not uniformly positive by region or issue area. For example, 84 per cent of the respondents living in the country’s relatively peaceful central highlands report never fearing for their family’s safety over the past year; the same applies to only 34 per cent of those in the more violent west.
Second, when respondents assess their lot they are making judgments informed by their pasts. Their modern history has been filled with much darkness: a violent Soviet occupation, a brutal civil war and draconian Taliban misrule. So, when today there are more than 8m children in school (almost 3m of them girls), compared with about 1m under Taliban rule (about 50,000 of them girls), the people rightly report progress. Even the 2009 presidential election, characterised by large-scale fraud, massive logistical problems and intimidation, seemed to many Afghans a far better process to guide political transition than the warlords’ murderous assault of Kabul in 1992.
Third, while international observers understandably focus on the viability of Afghanistan after 2014, the deadline matters less to Afghans. Most of them do not think of themselves on the edge of a precipice. Sixty-seven per cent of respondents expressed concern that the Afghan military cannot yet operate by itself. But the respondents were not specifically questioned about their lives two years hence. They were also not asked to reflect on life when Nato forces will no longer conduct combat operations in Afghanistan and when the country will have navigated its first post-Karzai election.
What does all of this mean for US policy in Afghanistan and the US experience there since 2001?
Afghanistan’s future is of course uncertain. Lower levels of international support will inevitably place stress on its security forces, depress the economy, test fragile political institutions and invite even more meddling by neighbours.
The US must avoid embarking on the fantastically expensive open-ended military campaigns of the past decade, and President Obama’s strategy to end our combat operations in Afghanistan during the next two years is the right one. Yet, the strategy does not call leaving the country to its fate. In fact, the 2012 US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement runs to 2024. But it is about a new relationship characterised, in part but not in whole, by the commitment of fewer American resources.
However, it is clear from the survey results that more than a decade after the fall of the Taliban and the flight of al-Qaeda to Pakistan, the Afghan people are standing on a foundation that, while not yet firm, is tangible. There exists a middle ground on which the Afghans, with continued modest levels of outside support, have a chance of building a more secure and better future.
The writer is a former US ambassador to Afghanistan and a trustee of The Asia Foundation
Gen. John Allen returns to Afghanistan
Nov. 21, 2012 at 11:41 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Gen. John Allen was back in Afghanistan to resume as the top coalition commander after being away over a Pentagon probe, The Hill reported.
The report said Allen's return to Afghanistan to resume his responsibility as the top commander of coalition forces was confirmed Wednesday by a Pentagon spokesman.
Allen had been away from Afghanistan following a Pentagon announcement it was investigating the "potentially inappropriate" communications between him and a woman in Tampa, Fla., the report said.
The probe also relates to David Petraeus, Allen's predecessor in Afghanistan who went on to become director the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Petraeus resigned his position earlier this month because of an extramarital affair.
The Hill reported Allen has denied any wrongdoing and earned the support of U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who wants him to keep serving in Afghanistan while the Pentagon probe continued.
Earlier, the report said Allen had been nominated to be NATO's Supreme Allied Commander-Europe and to head the U.S. European Command, but that must wait while the investigation is progressing.
Khaama Press quoted a statement from Allen's Kabul office that he was happy to be back in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with his troops.
"The Defense Department inspector general's investigation into certain communications by Gen. Allen continues," the report quoted the statement as saying. "Out of respect for that process, Gen. Allen will continue to refrain from commenting on those matters that may fall within the scope of the investigation."
Punditry aside, how do Afghans feel about Afghanistan?
By Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., Karl F. Inderfurth Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 1:30 PM foreignpolicy.com
For the most part, Afghanistan is portrayed today as violent and war-torn and with an ineffective and corrupt government. The consensus seems to be that there is little hope that the country will hold together or defend itself against the Taliban and other terrorists after U.S. and NATO combat troops leave two years hence. The conclusion is that much blood and treasure has been wasted since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
But there is another view of this story. The majority of Afghans see their future quite differently.
The Asia Foundation has just completed its eighth survey of public opinion in Afghanistan since 2004. These surveys have established a valid, long-term barometer of the Afghan people's views over time. Last June nearly 6,300 Afghans were interviewed across all 34 provinces on a wide variety of issues. Respondents were divided between men (56%) and women (44%), and included both urban (22%) and rural (78%) households. The fact that 16% of polling sites were not accessible for security reasons -- potentially creating a bias -- is taken into account and does not overturn the major findings. The survey's sampling error is +/- 5%.
What is most striking in this latest survey is that 52% of the respondents -- up from 46% in 2011 -- believe that Afghanistan is moving in the right direction. 93% have a positive view of the Afghan armed forces (although many have doubts about the ability of the Afghan army and police to operate today without the support of foreign troops). 89% give their government good marks for the provision of educational services. 72% say their national legislature is addressing the problems of ordinary citizens. 50% believe their financial wellbeing has improved in the last 12 months. The performance of the Afghan central government gets a positive rating of 75%. Indeed in several substantive areas, Afghans' positive assessment of government performance is at its highest point in years, including in education (89%), security (70%) and healthcare (66%).
The survey does, as one would expect, reveal some negatives. Insecurity, lack of employment opportunities, and corruption are major issues for most Afghans. Fear for personal safety has declined in the last year from 56% to 48%, but is still high and varies among secure and less-secure regions. 70% say the unemployment situation is bad. 79% think corruption is a major problem.
The survey did not ask specific questions about the post-2014 outlook, but some future concerns and aspirations were revealed nevertheless. 81% hope for peace and reconciliation - an overwhelming proportion of Afghans want a political solution to the conflict in the country, rather than merely a military one. 84% believe elections are the right way to choose their leaders. 87% think women should have the same educational opportunities as men. 83% percent agree that everyone should have equal rights under law, regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion.
Understandably, Afghans often compare the present with the pre-1978 era, when war and destruction had yet to begin. And they have seen enormous strides since 2001. 8 million children, including almost 3 million girls, are now in school. 80% of Afghans have radios, 52% have television, and 71% have mobile phones. A new American University in Afghanistan graduated its second class last spring and is now establishing a business school.
Despite the substantial problems that still confront the Afghans, they now stand on more solid footing than they have at any time in the last three decades. But they are also aware that they are in the midst of three transitions that will determine whether the gains of recent years will be lasting: a security transition as American and NATO combat forces depart; an economic transition as foreign assistance levels decline; and a political transition in the run-up to presidential elections now scheduled for April 2014, and the post-Karzai era begins.
Each of these transitions will need to be successful for Afghanistan to proceed to a more secure and prosperous future. And while it is true that most of the responsibility here lies with the Afghans, foreigners can help.
The Obama administration's strategy includes a strategic partnership with Afghanistan that is set to last through 2024. America's NATO allies and the larger international community remain committed to assisting Afghanistan's economy and security. These pledges are consistent with the following recommendation made almost a decade ago by the 9/11 Commission in its 2004 final report, which remains valid today.
"The United States and the international community should make a long-term commitment to a secure and stable Afghanistan, in order to give the government a reasonable opportunity to improve the life of the Afghan people. Afghanistan must not again become a sanctuary for international crime and terrorism."
Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 1973 to 1978, is dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Karl F. Inderfurth, assistant U.S. secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 1997 to 2001, is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Both are trustees of The Asia Foundation. This year's survey can be found atwww.asiafoundation.org.
Afghan revolving door: 5 US generals, 5 years
Associated Press By PATRICK QUINN and LOLITA C. BALDOR Nov 20, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - For former CIA director David Petraeus, it was a one-year stint as top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. His replacement is scheduled to leave next year after 18 months in the job.
And now the sex scandal that draws them together - Petraeus' career toppled and Marine Gen. John Allen's possibly on hold - also has placed greater attention to the quick turnover of American battlefield chiefs in the 11-year war.
Nearly two dozen generals have commanded troops from the United States and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, since the American invasion in late 2001 - with five U.S. generals running both commands in the past five years alone.
There is no firm evidence the Pentagon's revolving door in Afghanistan has posed any significant obstacles for U.S. troops, but some military analysts suggest the frequent changes at the top create potential breaks in continuity in the critical cooperation with the Afghan political leadership and security officials.
"The learning curve is pretty steep," said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004. "One of the critical coins of the realm in being effective in this kind of environment is relationships among your allies, relationships with the host nation, and with the Afghans."
Iraq also had regular command changes, including Petraeus in charge during the U.S. troop "surge" in 2007 that helped dislodge insurgent control from key areas. But the war strategy in Afghanistan has, at many times, been even more complex as fronts shift and Taliban fighters regain strength.
"Rotating top commanders on an annual basis makes no management sense," Thomas E. Ricks, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, wrote in an opinion piece published recently in The New York Times.
"Imagine trying to run a corporation by swapping the senior executives every year," he continued. "Or imagine if, at the beginning of 1944, six months before D-Day, Gen. George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, told Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander, that it was time to give someone else a chance to lead."
Petraeus, a four-star general, took over the Afghan command in July 2010 to fill a void after Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal was fired because of scathing remarks about America's civilian leadership. McChrystal's predecessor, Gen. David McKiernan, was ousted on May 11, 2009, a year before his term as commander was set to end because newly elected President Barack Obama wanted a new war policy. He had succeeded Gen. Dan McNeill, who served in 2007-08.
Petraeus completed a one-year term and retired to become CIA director in September 2011.
He resigned Nov. 9 after he had an extramarital affair with his biographer. Allen, who also has four stars, is under investigation following revelations that he exchanged thousands of emails with a Florida socialite also involved in the Petraeus case, including a few which were found to be of a questionable nature.
Some analysts and former military officers say that rotating generals so quickly creates a disconnect between the commanders and their Afghan allies, including the mercurial President Hamid Karzai. Commanders also have to deal with billions of dollars in funds and the complexities of handing over security to the Afghans by the end of 2014, including building an army and police of 352,000 almost from scratch.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said the longer a NATO commander stays in the job, the more chance he has to really understand Afghanistan.
"For us, an Afghan army corps commander should stay in his position for at least three years," he said.
Jawed Kohistani, military analyst in Kabul, said he thinks a constant changeover of senior NATO commanders or Afghan military leaders hampers coordination of the two forces. Staying longer, he believes, allows a commander to know insurgents and their weaknesses.
"It gives an opportunity for the enemy to use this gap - the time between the leaving of one commander and the arrival of another - to their advantage," Kohistani said. "There should be enough time for a NATO commander to get to know the Afghan president, vice presidents, security ministers and assess the situation. If he doesn't have enough time to do all these things, it has a negative effect on the security situation."
Obama sped up the confirmation hearing last week for Gen. Joseph Dunford to become the 15th ISAF commander and replace Allen, who was to leave in the spring after 18 months at the helm for a new job as U.S. European Command chief and NATO supreme allied commander. But Allen's confirmation has been postponed until an investigation into his role is concluded.
There have also been about a half-dozen U.S. generals who only commanded American combat troops in the first years of the conflict.
By comparison, the command tours of generals in Iraq "averaged almost twice as long as ISAF's," said Stephen Biddle, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
Given the huge funds involved in the war effort, running the Afghan campaign has been as complicated as managing a multibillion dollar corporation.
Anthony Cordesman, a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the lack of continuity includes both the military and civilian presence in Afghanistan, including the State Department and other agencies.
"What the Afghans see is constant change at every level," he said. "They constantly see people come and go. They have no reason to establish lasting relationships. People leave at the point where they're becoming most effective."
He added that "this constant rotation is a problem everybody recognizes, but no one has really been willing to address."
The Pentagon also has a number of senior leaders - ranging from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and defense secretary to the commander of U.S. Central Command - who also play key roles in the war strategy and provide some continuity.
"There is no doubt that the frequent changeover is tough. There is a learning curve each time a new man takes the helm,"
"The good aspect to this is that it brings a fresh set of eyes," said Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It's not realistic to have commanders serve a whole lot longer than, say, Gen. Allen ... as these folks get tired."
---
Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Deb Riechmann in Kabul contributed to this report.
Early withdrawal from Afghanistan would fuel civil war, warns Foreign Office
Foreign Office official Mark Sedwill warned that any attempt to bring troops home before 2014 would risk civil war in the country.
Telegraph.co.uk 20 Nov 2012
Racing for an early exit from Afghanistan would fuel the risk of civil war in the nation, a senior Foreign Office official warned tonight.
Mark Sedwill said ''loose talk'' about withdrawal before 2014 would make the possibility of the worst case scenarios becoming a reality more likely.
The Prime Minister's special representative for Afghanistan dismissed suggestions made earlier this month by former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown that British forces must withdraw as quickly as possible before any more troops are killed,
He told the Commons Defence committee: ''If we raced for the exit then all of the fears that we have about Afghanistan's future would become that much likelier.''
Asked if there was a risk of civil war he replied: ''Yes, of course there is a risk.
''Loose talk about rushing for the exit in newspaper articles and books actually has a political affect because in undermines Afghan and Pakistani and regional confidence in our determination to see it through.
''If they act on their fears, then the worst scenarios become much likelier.''
Most ''green on blue'' killings in Afghanistan are ''spur of the moment'' attacks rather than planned insurgency, MPs were told.
Military chiefs told the committee only a ''tiny number'' involved any planning, when quizzed about the surge in numbers of British deaths at the hands of Afghan soldiers or police.
''Some of them have had a degree of premeditation and some of them appear simply to be a spur of the moment reaction.
''It seems only a very modest percentage are as a result of a heavily constructed plan,'' he said.
General Richard Barrons said British troops were now patrolling a ''lot less'' as Afghans take over the role as transition continues.
This year 14 British servicemen have been killed on attacks involving Afghan soldiers or police compared to one in 2011, three in 2010, and five in 2009.
At least 54 international troops have died as a result of such attacks, where Afghans turn their weapons on their coalition colleagues.
''Roughly half the perpetrators of these attacks don't survive the experience or in a few cases have escaped,'' he said.
''Of the balance there are very clear indications that a relatively modest proportion are directly connected to the insurgency and rather more they have turned their weapons on us as the result of a grievance, or slights, or some other response to a very localised event.
''But the outcome has been the same, that our soldiers have in some cases been killed and in other cases wounded.''
Gen Barrons said for every 10,000 members of the Afghan National Army one was involved in such attacks.
''It is bounded by time and the nature of the task but it cannot be eliminated entirely,'' he added.
Gen Barrons told the committee the Army can produce a ''number of plans'' for exit and could leave before 2014 if the government wanted.
''It's not a decision for me. If the Government concluded they wanted to leave sooner, we would leave sooner.''
Afghanistan marks Universal Children's Day with sad tales
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- It is ironic that when the world marked the Universal Children's Day Tuesday to celebrate the joy of childhood, hundreds of Afghan children were seen scavenging in Kabul's dumps trying to eke out a living by selling whatever usable items to support their families.
"I will be happy if I find some plastic packets, cardboard box or Pepsi cans to sell and earn some money," the nine-year-old Jawad told Xinhua in a brief interview.
Jawad, who like some Afghans have only one name, sadly told Xinhua that he was forced to collect used items to earn some money after the death of his father.
"In addition to collecting usable goods from garbage piles, I also wash cars at noon and afternoon almost every day and often earn some 500 Afghanis (about 10 U.S. dollars) daily," Jawad said.
Jawad said that he assumed the role of the head of the family after his father was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul two years ago. Since then he has been doing odd jobs aside from scavenging.
The 11-year-old Azim is also looking after his four siblings through scavenging and working in the market.
"I do all kinds of work, from washing cars, scavenging in garbage containers, and carrying boxes in the market to support my family," Azim said.
Azim said that he was not able to go to school because to do so would be to abandon his family who depends on him.
Some poor children have to work in brick kiln factories under harsh condition and polluted environment.
"I am working in brick kiln from dawn to dusk and the factory owner provides me breakfast and lunch plus 80 Afghanis per day," Sayed Khan, 12, said when Xinhua talked to him in his work site.
Even though the post-Taliban Afghanistan has made considerable achievements over the past 11 years with the support of international community, the country still needs more time to recover from the ravages of the war.
Today in Afghanistan, more than 8 million children, 39 percent of them girls, are now going to school. But 4 million Afghan children still have no access to schools because of poverty, security problems, and restrictions due to tradition and religion.
Although there is no official statistics about the number of street children in Afghanistan, it is said that thousands of street children are now forced to engage in child labor in the war- ravaged country.
Some of the children of poor families are forced to beg in the streets.
The poor Afghan children are the most vulnerable segment in the conflict-ridden country. They are kidnapped by certain groups, exploited by unscrupulous individuals, sexually assaulted and even used as suicide bombers.
A week ago, a five-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in the northern Balkh province.
In a bloody suicide bombing that rocked Kabul last September, it was a 14-year-old boy who blew himself up next to the headquarters of NATO-led troops killing seven street children and injuring four others.
Senate Rejects Foreign Commissioners on Electoral Board
TOLOnews.com By Jawed Stanikzai Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Afghanistan's upper house on Tuesday rejected the presence of two foreign advisors at the Electoral Complaints Commission with the majority voting against the article approved by parliament last month.
The senators voted against Article 33 of the draft Election Law which allowed for two foreign nationals to be included in the seven-seat board of the Electoral Complaints Commission, saying it went against Afghanistan's sovereignty.
The remaining 35 articles were approved with some amendments.
"With one vote opposing [the rejection of Article 33], the presence of two foreign advisors at the Elections Complaints Commission was not approved," speaker of the Senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar said.
Senator Mawlawi Urfani said the senators felt that foreign commissioners brought Afghanistan's ability to govern itself into question.
"With the presence of two foreigners in this commission, the Afghanistan government authority comes under question," he told TOLOnews.
A commission made up of members of both parliament and the senate will be formed to make a final decision on Article 33 because the parliament had previously approved it.
The senators also called for the Afghan High Peace Council to clarify rumours that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has died in prison in Pakistan.
"We ask the High Peace Council to provide information about the possible death of Mullah Ghani Baradar," Muslimyar said.
According to an Afghan lawmaker, a Pakistani diplomat recently said that the former deputy of Taliban leader Mullah Omar died in one of Pakistan's jails six months ago.
The comment was apparently made after Afghanistan requested Baradar be released from jail as part of the prisoner release aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table.
At least 13 former Taliban officials have been released since the agreement was struck between Afghanistan and Pakistan last week.
TOLOnews was unable to confirm which diplomat allegedly made the claim of Baradar's death.
Baradar in August was reported by the Associated Press to have met with Afghan officials from the embassy in Pakistan.
Ministry of Mines Rejects Report Claiming Mes Aynak Undervalued
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Moudoodi Wednesday, 21 November 2012
The Afghan Ministry of Mines has dismissed a report from international environmental governance group Global Witness on Afghanistan's first major mining deal, Mes Aynak copper mine, which claimed the mine was undervalued and questioned whether the Afghan people will benefit from the lucrative deal.
"The contract will benefit Afghanistan with an income of US$540 million a year and will provide thousands of jobs. Therefore it is not contracted below its actual value," said Abdulaziz Arib, head of the Aynak Copper Project in Logar province.
The Ministry has also quashed calls for the terms of the contract to be made public, saying it has signed a confidentiality agreement with the Chinese company which won the contract.
"Since there are an additional five attached contracts, we didn't publish the contents of the Aynak Copper contract. The Chinese company MCC has not agreed on the publishing of this contract," Arib added.
Aynak Copper Mine is considered one of the biggest economic projects of Afghanistan with an estimated resource of 14 million tonnes.
The Global Witness' report "Copper Bottomed? Bolstering the Aynak contract" released this week examined the economic, security, and ecological issues related to Mes Aynak and concluded the mine is not contracted at its real value.
The report urges for lessons to be learned from the Aynak experience, and calls for the Afghan government to publish the Aynak contract in full, together with all ancillary agreements, as well as extensive community engagement to ensure that mining deals benefit the Afghan people.
It also recommends urgent clarification and revision of the economic provisions and royalty rates contained in the deal to ensure a reliable revenue flow to the Afghan government, and independent monitoring and oversight of the key contract provisions.
One of the writers of the report highlights that the specified price for the copper mine is less than its actual value, an issue which can negative affect on the value of other mines in the country.
"Our report is the first detailed analysis of Afghanistan's biggest foreign investments. We have looked at all aspects and we have identified some of the major problems with the reports as well as the good points. So one of the issues on the cost is that, for example, there is a very high royalty rates and there but also a provision which allows the rates to be reduced," said Juman Kubba, researcher at Global Witness.
"The price of the contract with the Chinese company MCC is not good and this can lead to lesser the next contract prices. So far, we have asked Ministry of Mines a few times for publishing the full contract of Aynak Copper Mine. The ministry's refusal to publish the contract will raise more issues," she added.
"Copper Bottomed" also highlights some of the positive standards and protections in the Aynak contract which Global Witness acknowledged and welcomed. However, it points out that getting some of the other aspects right is important not only to Mes Aynak but to establishing the right foundations for the future of Afghanistan's mining sector.
Haqqani Leaders Arrested in Khost, Logar
TOLOnews.com Tuesday, 20 November 2012
A senior leader of the Haqqani network was captured with two other suspected insurgents in a joint Afghan and Isaf operation in eastern Khost province on Tuesday, Isaf said in a statement.
The leader is believed to have facilitated the movement of insurgents and directed the placing of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the statement said.
A second Haqqani leader was arrested in eastern Logar province in a joint operation on Tuesday, alleged to have organised the transfer of weapons to insurgent fighters throughout the province, Isaf said.
Meanwhile in southern Kandahar province, a weapons facilitator for the Taliban was arrested, alleged to have supplied weapons, ammunition and IEDs to insurgents throughout Kandahar.
Also on Monday, at least four insurgents were killed by a joint security force in eastern Ghazni province, Isaf said in the statement.
It claimed that the security force saw the armed insurgents firing several heavy weapons toward Khugyani district center and the military killed them in response, it said.
An insurgent was also killed in a joint operation in eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, it added.
Nangarhar Saffron Pilot a Success: Agriculture Ministry
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Nangarhar farmers who switched from opium cultivation to saffron in a pilot programme under the Ministry of Agriculture have said that their income has more than doubled from the sale of the spice, a promising statistic being touted by the Ministry.
The famers have said that they stand to make US$1,200 from an acre of saffron, whereas previously they made about US$400 per acre of opium.
The Ministry of Agriculture is supporting efforts for farmers to switch from opium to other produce with a scheme that supplies farmers with up to 400 kilograms of saffron plant each. It says an acre of land has the capacity to yield up to 800 kilograms of the saffron plant.
It also provides technical help, tools for cultivation of saffron, fertiliser, insecticides and fungicides.
The price of one kilogram of processed saffron in Afghanistan is up to US$3,000 and regionally it can reach as high as $6,000. Internationally, a kilo of saffron can reach as high as $8,000.
Nangarhar province is known in Afghanistan for its citrus and vegetable cultivation, but more farmers are looking to switch to the lucrative saffron, according to provincial officials.
The saffron pilot cultivation programme in 14 districts of the province has proved very successful, they said.
Saffron can be cultivated and harvested once a year and only needs to be watered four times before being harvested.
Saffron cultivation took off six years ago in western Herat province and is now grown in 20 out of 34 Afghan provinces.
Cultural Diplomacy Vital for Afghanistan: MOFA
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Cultural diplomacy is a vital aspect to the foreign policy of Afghanistan towards ensuring unity and a positive outlook on the country, Deputy Foreign Minister Jawid Lodin said.
Lodin stressed in an address at the "The Role of Culture in Foreign Relations" conference that the government is making serious efforts to show the real culture of Afghanistan to the world, a challenge amid all the war-saturated stories.
"The cultural diplomacy is very important and vital for Afghanistan. It has a positive impact on the foreign policy and helps in unity of the nation," Lodin said at the conference held at the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Afghan lawmakers at the conference condemned the "cultural invasion" of neighboring countries.
"Unfortunately, the cultural invasion of other countries in Afghanistan particularly that of our neighbors is continuing. We should work hard to protect and expand our own culture in the country," Kabul MP Farkhunda Zahra Naderi said.
Another MP claimed Pakistan and Iran have clear programmes in Afghanistan to sway culture.
"Recently, the invasion of Iran and Pakistan has increased in the country. They have launched specific programmes in Afghanistan for their own interest," Shahla Ghausi said.
The conference heard that the ongoing war and low literacy rates are among the key issues that allow the Afghan people to come under the cultural influence of other countries.
Children of Poverty Pose a Security Risk: Islamic Welfare
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Afghanistan is home to around 1 million orphans with most of them living in poverty, posing a largely unaddressed threat to security, the Islamic Relief Afghanistan (IRA) told TOLOnews on Tuesday.
On the occasion of Universal Children's Day (Nov 20), IRA country director Fadlullah Wilmot said the plight of children living in poverty sees many of them turn to crime.
"I would say of the one million orphans in Afghanistan, 95 percent are living in poverty," he said at the sidelines of a conference in Kabul discussing the state of vulnerable children in the country and the world.
He warned that if the disastrous situation of Afghan children does not change, they are more likely to become criminals and thieves which will challenge Afghanistan's future.
Apart from the orphans, there are also numerous children forced to be breadwinners for the family with harsh jobs.
"I sell chewing gum and give the money to my mother to spend in the family," a child on the street told TOLOnews.
Head of Orphanages in the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, Sayed Abdullah Hashimi said that still thousands of children are working in the streets.
"I think we could have solved the problems if we had had a good policy in the last ten years. Unfortunately, there was not such program," he said.
He added that the children working outside the home, apart from missing out on an education, face many threats including brutal violence like rape, and human trafficking.
They are also more likely to be groomed to be suicide attackers, he said.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Pamela Constable, The Washington Post
KABUL — A pair of suicide bombers in Afghan military uniforms penetrated the most heavily guarded district in Kabul early Wednesday, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding five civilians in blasts at a checkpoint near the main U.S. military headquarters and half a dozen other international facilities.
Police officials said the bombers’ target was probably Camp Eggers, the large U.S. military compound that occupies several square blocks of the capital’s exclusive Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. But a spokesman for the radical Islamist Taliban movement said the attack was aimed at a CIA compound and that “a large number” of insurgents had participated.
The attack during morning rush hour quickly emptied the city’s normally congested streets. It immediately intensified public worries about violence during the Shiite Muslim holy period of Muharram, which is to climax Sunday with street processions and ritual self-flagellation. Last year during Muharram, a terrorist bombing near a Shiite shrine in Kabul took 54 lives.
But Afghan officials noted that the bombers targeted a district dominated by foreign and official buildings, embassies and bases, which is nowhere near any Shiite neighborhoods or activities. The whole city is full of black archways and colorful banners marking Muharram, but most Shiites live and worship several miles from Wazir Akbar Khan in West Kabul.
The blocks immediately surrounding the blast site include the embassies of Pakistan and Canada, a security company and the home of the chief justice of the Afghan Supreme Court. The U.S. Embassy is several blocks away, as are restaurants frequented by Westerners and the offices of the World Bank.
According to police, the bombers walked through multiple checkpoints into the heart of the high-security zone about 8 a.m. and were spotted by guards at another post. They said the guards opened fire and the bombers’ suicide vests exploded.
Several hours later, a large jagged hole was visible at the scene of the blast. Charred metal and debris littered the street, and fire trucks were hosing it down. A guard post where the two Afghan security guards were killed was also charred black. A U.S. military tow truck was hauling away an armored sport-utility vehicle with shattered windows.
Police investigators at the scene said one of the bombers was a man in his 30s or 40s wearing an Afghan National Army uniform. He was apparently able to walk nearly four blocks, through multiple checkpoints, to the spot where he confronted the guards and detonated his explosives.
“It is still confusing what was the target. There are so many possible ones right here,” one investigator said. He said the damaged SUV belonged to a senior Afghan army general, who might have been the object of the attack. The general was said to be unharmed.
Another senior police official said the bomber might have been attempting to enter a vacant building under construction near the sensitive compounds. Several previous terrorist attacks in Kabul have been launched from such unoccupied buildings, and officials have been working to make them more secure.
Afghan Authorities Execute Six More Death-Row Prisoners
November 21, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan authorities have executed six more death row prisoners, despite international condemnation.
Rafi Ferdous, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Council of Ministers, told Radio Free Afghanistan on November 21 that the prisoners were charged with plotting suicide attacks and attacks on Afghan security forces.
Authorities also hanged eight prisoners on November 20. Those executions were condemned by the European Union and international rights groups, which urged Kabul to stop future executions.
Executions were commonplace during Taliban rule from 1996-2001, but court-sanctioned executions have been rare since the Taliban was ousted from power.
Until November 20, only two people had been put to death in the past four years.
On November 21, the Taliban warned of reprisals if the government executes any of its militants.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Rights groups dismayed by Afghanistan's return to executions
By Mirwais Harooni
KABUL (Reuters) - Human rights groups reacted with dismay on Wednesday to Afghanistan's resumption of executions after a near-four-year moratorium on a penalty that characterized the austere rule of the former Taliban regime.
Eight men found guilty of "crimes against the people, especially women and children" were hanged on Tuesday and eight more were to meet the same fate either on Wednesday or Thursday, according to a government official.
This alarmed activists who said the return of executions in a country with a weak judiciary was a setback.
"The death penalty is an act of cruelty that should never be used," said Brad Adams, Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Its use in Afghanistan, where a fair trial is typically out of the question, is even more horrific."
Those executed included a man who strangled to death a mother and her two infant children and men found guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering young boys and girls.
Officials said that in accordance with the law, President Hamid Karzai signed off on the executions. There have been only two executions in Afghanistan in the past four years.
"The eight hangings in a single day are a terrible step backwards for Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai should stop future executions and commit to a formal moratorium," Adams said.
Rafi Ferdous, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Council of Ministers Secretariat, defended the hangings.
"By applying this (penalty), the rule of law is implemented. This is a lesson to be learned," Ferdous said in a statement.
EXECUTIONS RARE
Executions were commonplace during the Taliban's strict 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, when adulterers and murderers were shot dead in public. Such executions still take place in some areas under the influence of the Taliban.
But judicially sanctioned executions have been rare since the Taliban government fell, with unofficial moratoriums between 2001 and 2004 and from 2008 until recently.
The death by firing squad of 15 prisoners in Kabul in 2007 and several more executions in 2008 sparked international condemnation. Until Tuesday, only two people had been put to death in the past four years.
In a strongly worded statement, London-based Amnesty International suggested Karzai's decision to approve the executions was for his own political gain, to prove his government could maintain law and order.
It said the death penalty was deplorable and described Afghanistan's legal system as "seriously flawed".
"Detainees are frequently tortured into confessions then relied upon by a judiciary that has little to no independence," it said. "There is simply no guarantee of a fair trial."
Hussain Ali Moin, an investigator with Afghanistan's Independent Human Right Commission, said that although the death penalty was legal, there were concerns about whether courts had been fair to those who were executed.
"The death penalty is an irreversible punishment," he said. "We haven't had full access to these cases... Still we cannot say if their trials were fair."
(Additional reporting by Miriam Arghandiwal; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Michael Roddy)
MOD Calls for Public Trial of Suspected Army Killers
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Tuesday, 20 November 2012
The police officers charged with killing three Afghan National Army (ANA) officers last month should be publicly prosecuted, Ministry of Defense (MOD) spokesman General Zahir Azimi said on Tuesday.
Azimi said the trial of the police officers who allegedly shot and killed the ANA soldiers a day before Eid al-Adha in eastern Baghlan province should be public, but did not elaborate on his reasons.
"This incident is under investigation. We want a public prosecution for this case," Azimi said at a press briefing in Kabul.
The suspect policemen claim that their commander ordered them to shoot the soldiers.
Azimi also said at the briefing that the Afghan National Security Forces were ready to take responsibility of the country's security by the end of 2013.
"The Afghan security forces are able to take over all security responsibility by the end of 2013," he said.
This comes as the French combat troops handed over all security responsibilities or north-eastern province Kapisa to the Afghan security forces on Tuesday ahead of their final departure from the country.
Afghans Working With NATO-Led Forces Fear For The Future
November 21, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Frud Bezhan
They have been branded "traitors" by the Taliban, which has said for years that it will kill any Afghans working for the NATO-led coalition.
With the majority of U.S. and NATO-led ISAF troops set to leave the country in 2014, many Afghans working in support positions look ahead with trepidation.
Their fears appear to be well-grounded.
Scores of Afghans working for foreign military forces have already been targeted by the Taliban. On November 14, in the latest such killing, the Taliban shot dead two Afghan interpreters working for NATO troops near Kabul. Their bodies were left next to their cars. There have been other killings and many others have received death threats warning them to quit their jobs or face a similar fate.
In response, some NATO members and their allies have created special immigration programs to help endangered Afghan workers leave Afghanistan. But many Afghans who have applied complain that they have been left in a no-man's-land after not hearing back, sometimes for years, from foreign immigration authorities.
Special Track
One U.S. initiative is called the Afghan Allies program. It was created in 2009 in a bid to boost the number of visas available to Afghan workers employed by the U.S. government. It has allocated 7,500 spaces for Afghans and their families to emigrate to the United States over five years. But so far, only 293 cases have been processed. And since 2010, only 31 cases have received the green light.
Afghans must prove there's an ongoing threat and that they worked at least one year for the American government to get a visa.
A U.S. State Department official, who did not want to be named, acknowledged delays in processing the applications, mainly due to security concerns. "We have an obligation to ensure that recipients of Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) -- like all others who enter the United States -- do not pose a threat to our security," he said. The State Department representative said the U.S. Embassy in Kabul had "redirected and increased resources to improve efficiency at all stages of the SIV process and reduce processing backlogs."
In addition to the United States, another NATO member, Canada, has a special immigration program for Afghans who worked as interpreters for Canadian soldiers and diplomats in Afghanistan. To date, the country has approved the applications of 800 Afghans and their families. Canada, which still has almost 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, has received some 6,000 immigration applications since the program began in 2009.
Meanwhile Australia, one of the largest non-NATO contributor of troops to the Afghan mission with some 1,500 soldiers, has no special visa program. Canberra has for years mulled introducing such a scheme, but some lawmakers have questioned its viability considering the strain it would impose on overstretched immigration authorities.
Threats In The Night
One Afghan worker who has applied for an American visa is Edris, a 25-year-old from Kabul.
Edris worked as an interpreter for American and British troops for some 18 months in militant hotspots in eastern Afghanistan. After waiting for months for a response, Edris says he feels neglected and betrayed by his foreign employers. He says he has heard nothing since May, when he first applied, and does not know whether his application has been approved or rejected.
Edris, who does not wish to reveal his full name for security reasons, says he quit his job in May after receiving persistent death threats and witnessing the deaths of several of his Afghan colleagues.
Earlier that month he received a so-called night letter, a written threat delivered in the evening hours by the Taliban. It warned him to quit his work or he and his family would be killed. For Edris, the letter was the last straw and, after a day of deliberation, he resigned.
"As soon as the Taliban finds out [someone is an interpreter], they try to find his family," Edris says. "They tell the family, 'If I see your son going to work for the foreign forces, don't be sure he will come back home alive.' Of course, the family thinks 'if we let our son go, they will kill him. They will kill either him or us tomorrow.'"
A Matter Of Life And Death
Afghan interpreters working for the NATO-led coalition force have been particularly susceptible to militant attacks. They are often sought out by militants, who have labeled them "spies" -- the eyes and ears of the foreign "occupiers." At least 25 interpreters have been killed in targeted attacks over the past five years, according to the Afghan government, with many more injured.
Edris says that working as an interpreter for coalition forces is among the most dangerous jobs in the country. In the field, he says, he went to extreme lengths to blend in and hide his identity from the Taliban, who Edris says often had spies on the lookout.
"I used to wear a turban, a scarf, a hat from Kandahar [the birthplace of the Taliban], and grew my hair long so they wouldn't know I was an interpreter or a soldier," Edris says. "I couldn't carry military clothes or equipment with me. Even if I was wearing a sock from the military or a T-shirt, they would know I was with the military. [If you were caught] it was then that they would pick you up in their car, behead you, and then leave your body on the side of the road."
After quitting his job Edris received another letter. Signed "your Taliban brothers," the missive said he had "not been forgiven" for his collaboration with foreign troops.
Edris says for him and his family leaving Afghanistan has become an urgent matter of "life and death."
There is hope yet for Afghanistan
Financial Times By Karl Eikenberry Opinion November 20, 2012
Name the country in which a recent opinion survey revealed the following: 52 per cent of the people believe it is moving in the right direction; 93 per cent have great or fair confidence in their armed forces; 89 per cent give the government good marks for the provision of education; 72 per cent say their national legislature is addressing the problems of ordinary citizens; and 50 per cent assert their financial wellbeing has improved over the past 12 months?
Not the US, Singapore or Brazil. Answer: Afghanistan.
Since 2004, The Asia Foundation has conducted eight surveys of public attitudes on the ground in Afghanistan. In June, pollsters interviewed nearly 6,300 Afghan adults in person (44 per cent of them women) in all of the country’s 34 provinces. They asked questions on a wide range of topics encompassing security, national reconciliation, the economy, development and essential services, governance, political participation, corruption, justice, gender issues and the media.
The results should be read carefully in Kabul and Washington. President Barack Obama campaigned for re-election on a promise to bring US troops home from Afghanistan in 2014. But a drawdown should not be confused with an abandonment: the poll suggests that contrary to the view of many critics, Afghanistan is making slow if uneven progress.
Inevitably, the survey has limitations. For example, 16 per cent of the designated polling locations were not accessible due to insecurity, perhaps creating optimism bias in the results. Still, these factors are acknowledged in the analysis and do not overturn the main findings.
How could it possibly be that the people of chaotic, ungovernable Afghanistan have such positive feelings about their state of affairs? There are three explanations.
First, while the polling results do reflect some optimism among the Afghan people, the findings are not uniformly positive by region or issue area. For example, 84 per cent of the respondents living in the country’s relatively peaceful central highlands report never fearing for their family’s safety over the past year; the same applies to only 34 per cent of those in the more violent west.
Second, when respondents assess their lot they are making judgments informed by their pasts. Their modern history has been filled with much darkness: a violent Soviet occupation, a brutal civil war and draconian Taliban misrule. So, when today there are more than 8m children in school (almost 3m of them girls), compared with about 1m under Taliban rule (about 50,000 of them girls), the people rightly report progress. Even the 2009 presidential election, characterised by large-scale fraud, massive logistical problems and intimidation, seemed to many Afghans a far better process to guide political transition than the warlords’ murderous assault of Kabul in 1992.
Third, while international observers understandably focus on the viability of Afghanistan after 2014, the deadline matters less to Afghans. Most of them do not think of themselves on the edge of a precipice. Sixty-seven per cent of respondents expressed concern that the Afghan military cannot yet operate by itself. But the respondents were not specifically questioned about their lives two years hence. They were also not asked to reflect on life when Nato forces will no longer conduct combat operations in Afghanistan and when the country will have navigated its first post-Karzai election.
What does all of this mean for US policy in Afghanistan and the US experience there since 2001?
Afghanistan’s future is of course uncertain. Lower levels of international support will inevitably place stress on its security forces, depress the economy, test fragile political institutions and invite even more meddling by neighbours.
The US must avoid embarking on the fantastically expensive open-ended military campaigns of the past decade, and President Obama’s strategy to end our combat operations in Afghanistan during the next two years is the right one. Yet, the strategy does not call leaving the country to its fate. In fact, the 2012 US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement runs to 2024. But it is about a new relationship characterised, in part but not in whole, by the commitment of fewer American resources.
However, it is clear from the survey results that more than a decade after the fall of the Taliban and the flight of al-Qaeda to Pakistan, the Afghan people are standing on a foundation that, while not yet firm, is tangible. There exists a middle ground on which the Afghans, with continued modest levels of outside support, have a chance of building a more secure and better future.
The writer is a former US ambassador to Afghanistan and a trustee of The Asia Foundation
Gen. John Allen returns to Afghanistan
Nov. 21, 2012 at 11:41 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Gen. John Allen was back in Afghanistan to resume as the top coalition commander after being away over a Pentagon probe, The Hill reported.
The report said Allen's return to Afghanistan to resume his responsibility as the top commander of coalition forces was confirmed Wednesday by a Pentagon spokesman.
Allen had been away from Afghanistan following a Pentagon announcement it was investigating the "potentially inappropriate" communications between him and a woman in Tampa, Fla., the report said.
The probe also relates to David Petraeus, Allen's predecessor in Afghanistan who went on to become director the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Petraeus resigned his position earlier this month because of an extramarital affair.
The Hill reported Allen has denied any wrongdoing and earned the support of U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who wants him to keep serving in Afghanistan while the Pentagon probe continued.
Earlier, the report said Allen had been nominated to be NATO's Supreme Allied Commander-Europe and to head the U.S. European Command, but that must wait while the investigation is progressing.
Khaama Press quoted a statement from Allen's Kabul office that he was happy to be back in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with his troops.
"The Defense Department inspector general's investigation into certain communications by Gen. Allen continues," the report quoted the statement as saying. "Out of respect for that process, Gen. Allen will continue to refrain from commenting on those matters that may fall within the scope of the investigation."
Punditry aside, how do Afghans feel about Afghanistan?
By Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., Karl F. Inderfurth Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 1:30 PM foreignpolicy.com
For the most part, Afghanistan is portrayed today as violent and war-torn and with an ineffective and corrupt government. The consensus seems to be that there is little hope that the country will hold together or defend itself against the Taliban and other terrorists after U.S. and NATO combat troops leave two years hence. The conclusion is that much blood and treasure has been wasted since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
But there is another view of this story. The majority of Afghans see their future quite differently.
The Asia Foundation has just completed its eighth survey of public opinion in Afghanistan since 2004. These surveys have established a valid, long-term barometer of the Afghan people's views over time. Last June nearly 6,300 Afghans were interviewed across all 34 provinces on a wide variety of issues. Respondents were divided between men (56%) and women (44%), and included both urban (22%) and rural (78%) households. The fact that 16% of polling sites were not accessible for security reasons -- potentially creating a bias -- is taken into account and does not overturn the major findings. The survey's sampling error is +/- 5%.
What is most striking in this latest survey is that 52% of the respondents -- up from 46% in 2011 -- believe that Afghanistan is moving in the right direction. 93% have a positive view of the Afghan armed forces (although many have doubts about the ability of the Afghan army and police to operate today without the support of foreign troops). 89% give their government good marks for the provision of educational services. 72% say their national legislature is addressing the problems of ordinary citizens. 50% believe their financial wellbeing has improved in the last 12 months. The performance of the Afghan central government gets a positive rating of 75%. Indeed in several substantive areas, Afghans' positive assessment of government performance is at its highest point in years, including in education (89%), security (70%) and healthcare (66%).
The survey does, as one would expect, reveal some negatives. Insecurity, lack of employment opportunities, and corruption are major issues for most Afghans. Fear for personal safety has declined in the last year from 56% to 48%, but is still high and varies among secure and less-secure regions. 70% say the unemployment situation is bad. 79% think corruption is a major problem.
The survey did not ask specific questions about the post-2014 outlook, but some future concerns and aspirations were revealed nevertheless. 81% hope for peace and reconciliation - an overwhelming proportion of Afghans want a political solution to the conflict in the country, rather than merely a military one. 84% believe elections are the right way to choose their leaders. 87% think women should have the same educational opportunities as men. 83% percent agree that everyone should have equal rights under law, regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion.
Understandably, Afghans often compare the present with the pre-1978 era, when war and destruction had yet to begin. And they have seen enormous strides since 2001. 8 million children, including almost 3 million girls, are now in school. 80% of Afghans have radios, 52% have television, and 71% have mobile phones. A new American University in Afghanistan graduated its second class last spring and is now establishing a business school.
Despite the substantial problems that still confront the Afghans, they now stand on more solid footing than they have at any time in the last three decades. But they are also aware that they are in the midst of three transitions that will determine whether the gains of recent years will be lasting: a security transition as American and NATO combat forces depart; an economic transition as foreign assistance levels decline; and a political transition in the run-up to presidential elections now scheduled for April 2014, and the post-Karzai era begins.
Each of these transitions will need to be successful for Afghanistan to proceed to a more secure and prosperous future. And while it is true that most of the responsibility here lies with the Afghans, foreigners can help.
The Obama administration's strategy includes a strategic partnership with Afghanistan that is set to last through 2024. America's NATO allies and the larger international community remain committed to assisting Afghanistan's economy and security. These pledges are consistent with the following recommendation made almost a decade ago by the 9/11 Commission in its 2004 final report, which remains valid today.
"The United States and the international community should make a long-term commitment to a secure and stable Afghanistan, in order to give the government a reasonable opportunity to improve the life of the Afghan people. Afghanistan must not again become a sanctuary for international crime and terrorism."
Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 1973 to 1978, is dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Karl F. Inderfurth, assistant U.S. secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 1997 to 2001, is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Both are trustees of The Asia Foundation. This year's survey can be found atwww.asiafoundation.org.
Afghan revolving door: 5 US generals, 5 years
Associated Press By PATRICK QUINN and LOLITA C. BALDOR Nov 20, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - For former CIA director David Petraeus, it was a one-year stint as top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. His replacement is scheduled to leave next year after 18 months in the job.
And now the sex scandal that draws them together - Petraeus' career toppled and Marine Gen. John Allen's possibly on hold - also has placed greater attention to the quick turnover of American battlefield chiefs in the 11-year war.
Nearly two dozen generals have commanded troops from the United States and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, since the American invasion in late 2001 - with five U.S. generals running both commands in the past five years alone.
There is no firm evidence the Pentagon's revolving door in Afghanistan has posed any significant obstacles for U.S. troops, but some military analysts suggest the frequent changes at the top create potential breaks in continuity in the critical cooperation with the Afghan political leadership and security officials.
"The learning curve is pretty steep," said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004. "One of the critical coins of the realm in being effective in this kind of environment is relationships among your allies, relationships with the host nation, and with the Afghans."
Iraq also had regular command changes, including Petraeus in charge during the U.S. troop "surge" in 2007 that helped dislodge insurgent control from key areas. But the war strategy in Afghanistan has, at many times, been even more complex as fronts shift and Taliban fighters regain strength.
"Rotating top commanders on an annual basis makes no management sense," Thomas E. Ricks, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, wrote in an opinion piece published recently in The New York Times.
"Imagine trying to run a corporation by swapping the senior executives every year," he continued. "Or imagine if, at the beginning of 1944, six months before D-Day, Gen. George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, told Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander, that it was time to give someone else a chance to lead."
Petraeus, a four-star general, took over the Afghan command in July 2010 to fill a void after Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal was fired because of scathing remarks about America's civilian leadership. McChrystal's predecessor, Gen. David McKiernan, was ousted on May 11, 2009, a year before his term as commander was set to end because newly elected President Barack Obama wanted a new war policy. He had succeeded Gen. Dan McNeill, who served in 2007-08.
Petraeus completed a one-year term and retired to become CIA director in September 2011.
He resigned Nov. 9 after he had an extramarital affair with his biographer. Allen, who also has four stars, is under investigation following revelations that he exchanged thousands of emails with a Florida socialite also involved in the Petraeus case, including a few which were found to be of a questionable nature.
Some analysts and former military officers say that rotating generals so quickly creates a disconnect between the commanders and their Afghan allies, including the mercurial President Hamid Karzai. Commanders also have to deal with billions of dollars in funds and the complexities of handing over security to the Afghans by the end of 2014, including building an army and police of 352,000 almost from scratch.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said the longer a NATO commander stays in the job, the more chance he has to really understand Afghanistan.
"For us, an Afghan army corps commander should stay in his position for at least three years," he said.
Jawed Kohistani, military analyst in Kabul, said he thinks a constant changeover of senior NATO commanders or Afghan military leaders hampers coordination of the two forces. Staying longer, he believes, allows a commander to know insurgents and their weaknesses.
"It gives an opportunity for the enemy to use this gap - the time between the leaving of one commander and the arrival of another - to their advantage," Kohistani said. "There should be enough time for a NATO commander to get to know the Afghan president, vice presidents, security ministers and assess the situation. If he doesn't have enough time to do all these things, it has a negative effect on the security situation."
Obama sped up the confirmation hearing last week for Gen. Joseph Dunford to become the 15th ISAF commander and replace Allen, who was to leave in the spring after 18 months at the helm for a new job as U.S. European Command chief and NATO supreme allied commander. But Allen's confirmation has been postponed until an investigation into his role is concluded.
There have also been about a half-dozen U.S. generals who only commanded American combat troops in the first years of the conflict.
By comparison, the command tours of generals in Iraq "averaged almost twice as long as ISAF's," said Stephen Biddle, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
Given the huge funds involved in the war effort, running the Afghan campaign has been as complicated as managing a multibillion dollar corporation.
Anthony Cordesman, a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the lack of continuity includes both the military and civilian presence in Afghanistan, including the State Department and other agencies.
"What the Afghans see is constant change at every level," he said. "They constantly see people come and go. They have no reason to establish lasting relationships. People leave at the point where they're becoming most effective."
He added that "this constant rotation is a problem everybody recognizes, but no one has really been willing to address."
The Pentagon also has a number of senior leaders - ranging from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and defense secretary to the commander of U.S. Central Command - who also play key roles in the war strategy and provide some continuity.
"There is no doubt that the frequent changeover is tough. There is a learning curve each time a new man takes the helm,"
"The good aspect to this is that it brings a fresh set of eyes," said Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It's not realistic to have commanders serve a whole lot longer than, say, Gen. Allen ... as these folks get tired."
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Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Deb Riechmann in Kabul contributed to this report.
Early withdrawal from Afghanistan would fuel civil war, warns Foreign Office
Foreign Office official Mark Sedwill warned that any attempt to bring troops home before 2014 would risk civil war in the country.
Telegraph.co.uk 20 Nov 2012
Racing for an early exit from Afghanistan would fuel the risk of civil war in the nation, a senior Foreign Office official warned tonight.
Mark Sedwill said ''loose talk'' about withdrawal before 2014 would make the possibility of the worst case scenarios becoming a reality more likely.
The Prime Minister's special representative for Afghanistan dismissed suggestions made earlier this month by former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown that British forces must withdraw as quickly as possible before any more troops are killed,
He told the Commons Defence committee: ''If we raced for the exit then all of the fears that we have about Afghanistan's future would become that much likelier.''
Asked if there was a risk of civil war he replied: ''Yes, of course there is a risk.
''Loose talk about rushing for the exit in newspaper articles and books actually has a political affect because in undermines Afghan and Pakistani and regional confidence in our determination to see it through.
''If they act on their fears, then the worst scenarios become much likelier.''
Most ''green on blue'' killings in Afghanistan are ''spur of the moment'' attacks rather than planned insurgency, MPs were told.
Military chiefs told the committee only a ''tiny number'' involved any planning, when quizzed about the surge in numbers of British deaths at the hands of Afghan soldiers or police.
''Some of them have had a degree of premeditation and some of them appear simply to be a spur of the moment reaction.
''It seems only a very modest percentage are as a result of a heavily constructed plan,'' he said.
General Richard Barrons said British troops were now patrolling a ''lot less'' as Afghans take over the role as transition continues.
This year 14 British servicemen have been killed on attacks involving Afghan soldiers or police compared to one in 2011, three in 2010, and five in 2009.
At least 54 international troops have died as a result of such attacks, where Afghans turn their weapons on their coalition colleagues.
''Roughly half the perpetrators of these attacks don't survive the experience or in a few cases have escaped,'' he said.
''Of the balance there are very clear indications that a relatively modest proportion are directly connected to the insurgency and rather more they have turned their weapons on us as the result of a grievance, or slights, or some other response to a very localised event.
''But the outcome has been the same, that our soldiers have in some cases been killed and in other cases wounded.''
Gen Barrons said for every 10,000 members of the Afghan National Army one was involved in such attacks.
''It is bounded by time and the nature of the task but it cannot be eliminated entirely,'' he added.
Gen Barrons told the committee the Army can produce a ''number of plans'' for exit and could leave before 2014 if the government wanted.
''It's not a decision for me. If the Government concluded they wanted to leave sooner, we would leave sooner.''
Afghanistan marks Universal Children's Day with sad tales
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- It is ironic that when the world marked the Universal Children's Day Tuesday to celebrate the joy of childhood, hundreds of Afghan children were seen scavenging in Kabul's dumps trying to eke out a living by selling whatever usable items to support their families.
"I will be happy if I find some plastic packets, cardboard box or Pepsi cans to sell and earn some money," the nine-year-old Jawad told Xinhua in a brief interview.
Jawad, who like some Afghans have only one name, sadly told Xinhua that he was forced to collect used items to earn some money after the death of his father.
"In addition to collecting usable goods from garbage piles, I also wash cars at noon and afternoon almost every day and often earn some 500 Afghanis (about 10 U.S. dollars) daily," Jawad said.
Jawad said that he assumed the role of the head of the family after his father was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul two years ago. Since then he has been doing odd jobs aside from scavenging.
The 11-year-old Azim is also looking after his four siblings through scavenging and working in the market.
"I do all kinds of work, from washing cars, scavenging in garbage containers, and carrying boxes in the market to support my family," Azim said.
Azim said that he was not able to go to school because to do so would be to abandon his family who depends on him.
Some poor children have to work in brick kiln factories under harsh condition and polluted environment.
"I am working in brick kiln from dawn to dusk and the factory owner provides me breakfast and lunch plus 80 Afghanis per day," Sayed Khan, 12, said when Xinhua talked to him in his work site.
Even though the post-Taliban Afghanistan has made considerable achievements over the past 11 years with the support of international community, the country still needs more time to recover from the ravages of the war.
Today in Afghanistan, more than 8 million children, 39 percent of them girls, are now going to school. But 4 million Afghan children still have no access to schools because of poverty, security problems, and restrictions due to tradition and religion.
Although there is no official statistics about the number of street children in Afghanistan, it is said that thousands of street children are now forced to engage in child labor in the war- ravaged country.
Some of the children of poor families are forced to beg in the streets.
The poor Afghan children are the most vulnerable segment in the conflict-ridden country. They are kidnapped by certain groups, exploited by unscrupulous individuals, sexually assaulted and even used as suicide bombers.
A week ago, a five-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in the northern Balkh province.
In a bloody suicide bombing that rocked Kabul last September, it was a 14-year-old boy who blew himself up next to the headquarters of NATO-led troops killing seven street children and injuring four others.
Senate Rejects Foreign Commissioners on Electoral Board
TOLOnews.com By Jawed Stanikzai Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Afghanistan's upper house on Tuesday rejected the presence of two foreign advisors at the Electoral Complaints Commission with the majority voting against the article approved by parliament last month.
The senators voted against Article 33 of the draft Election Law which allowed for two foreign nationals to be included in the seven-seat board of the Electoral Complaints Commission, saying it went against Afghanistan's sovereignty.
The remaining 35 articles were approved with some amendments.
"With one vote opposing [the rejection of Article 33], the presence of two foreign advisors at the Elections Complaints Commission was not approved," speaker of the Senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar said.
Senator Mawlawi Urfani said the senators felt that foreign commissioners brought Afghanistan's ability to govern itself into question.
"With the presence of two foreigners in this commission, the Afghanistan government authority comes under question," he told TOLOnews.
A commission made up of members of both parliament and the senate will be formed to make a final decision on Article 33 because the parliament had previously approved it.
The senators also called for the Afghan High Peace Council to clarify rumours that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has died in prison in Pakistan.
"We ask the High Peace Council to provide information about the possible death of Mullah Ghani Baradar," Muslimyar said.
According to an Afghan lawmaker, a Pakistani diplomat recently said that the former deputy of Taliban leader Mullah Omar died in one of Pakistan's jails six months ago.
The comment was apparently made after Afghanistan requested Baradar be released from jail as part of the prisoner release aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table.
At least 13 former Taliban officials have been released since the agreement was struck between Afghanistan and Pakistan last week.
TOLOnews was unable to confirm which diplomat allegedly made the claim of Baradar's death.
Baradar in August was reported by the Associated Press to have met with Afghan officials from the embassy in Pakistan.
Ministry of Mines Rejects Report Claiming Mes Aynak Undervalued
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Moudoodi Wednesday, 21 November 2012
The Afghan Ministry of Mines has dismissed a report from international environmental governance group Global Witness on Afghanistan's first major mining deal, Mes Aynak copper mine, which claimed the mine was undervalued and questioned whether the Afghan people will benefit from the lucrative deal.
"The contract will benefit Afghanistan with an income of US$540 million a year and will provide thousands of jobs. Therefore it is not contracted below its actual value," said Abdulaziz Arib, head of the Aynak Copper Project in Logar province.
The Ministry has also quashed calls for the terms of the contract to be made public, saying it has signed a confidentiality agreement with the Chinese company which won the contract.
"Since there are an additional five attached contracts, we didn't publish the contents of the Aynak Copper contract. The Chinese company MCC has not agreed on the publishing of this contract," Arib added.
Aynak Copper Mine is considered one of the biggest economic projects of Afghanistan with an estimated resource of 14 million tonnes.
The Global Witness' report "Copper Bottomed? Bolstering the Aynak contract" released this week examined the economic, security, and ecological issues related to Mes Aynak and concluded the mine is not contracted at its real value.
The report urges for lessons to be learned from the Aynak experience, and calls for the Afghan government to publish the Aynak contract in full, together with all ancillary agreements, as well as extensive community engagement to ensure that mining deals benefit the Afghan people.
It also recommends urgent clarification and revision of the economic provisions and royalty rates contained in the deal to ensure a reliable revenue flow to the Afghan government, and independent monitoring and oversight of the key contract provisions.
One of the writers of the report highlights that the specified price for the copper mine is less than its actual value, an issue which can negative affect on the value of other mines in the country.
"Our report is the first detailed analysis of Afghanistan's biggest foreign investments. We have looked at all aspects and we have identified some of the major problems with the reports as well as the good points. So one of the issues on the cost is that, for example, there is a very high royalty rates and there but also a provision which allows the rates to be reduced," said Juman Kubba, researcher at Global Witness.
"The price of the contract with the Chinese company MCC is not good and this can lead to lesser the next contract prices. So far, we have asked Ministry of Mines a few times for publishing the full contract of Aynak Copper Mine. The ministry's refusal to publish the contract will raise more issues," she added.
"Copper Bottomed" also highlights some of the positive standards and protections in the Aynak contract which Global Witness acknowledged and welcomed. However, it points out that getting some of the other aspects right is important not only to Mes Aynak but to establishing the right foundations for the future of Afghanistan's mining sector.
Haqqani Leaders Arrested in Khost, Logar
TOLOnews.com Tuesday, 20 November 2012
A senior leader of the Haqqani network was captured with two other suspected insurgents in a joint Afghan and Isaf operation in eastern Khost province on Tuesday, Isaf said in a statement.
The leader is believed to have facilitated the movement of insurgents and directed the placing of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the statement said.
A second Haqqani leader was arrested in eastern Logar province in a joint operation on Tuesday, alleged to have organised the transfer of weapons to insurgent fighters throughout the province, Isaf said.
Meanwhile in southern Kandahar province, a weapons facilitator for the Taliban was arrested, alleged to have supplied weapons, ammunition and IEDs to insurgents throughout Kandahar.
Also on Monday, at least four insurgents were killed by a joint security force in eastern Ghazni province, Isaf said in the statement.
It claimed that the security force saw the armed insurgents firing several heavy weapons toward Khugyani district center and the military killed them in response, it said.
An insurgent was also killed in a joint operation in eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, it added.
Nangarhar Saffron Pilot a Success: Agriculture Ministry
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Nangarhar farmers who switched from opium cultivation to saffron in a pilot programme under the Ministry of Agriculture have said that their income has more than doubled from the sale of the spice, a promising statistic being touted by the Ministry.
The famers have said that they stand to make US$1,200 from an acre of saffron, whereas previously they made about US$400 per acre of opium.
The Ministry of Agriculture is supporting efforts for farmers to switch from opium to other produce with a scheme that supplies farmers with up to 400 kilograms of saffron plant each. It says an acre of land has the capacity to yield up to 800 kilograms of the saffron plant.
It also provides technical help, tools for cultivation of saffron, fertiliser, insecticides and fungicides.
The price of one kilogram of processed saffron in Afghanistan is up to US$3,000 and regionally it can reach as high as $6,000. Internationally, a kilo of saffron can reach as high as $8,000.
Nangarhar province is known in Afghanistan for its citrus and vegetable cultivation, but more farmers are looking to switch to the lucrative saffron, according to provincial officials.
The saffron pilot cultivation programme in 14 districts of the province has proved very successful, they said.
Saffron can be cultivated and harvested once a year and only needs to be watered four times before being harvested.
Saffron cultivation took off six years ago in western Herat province and is now grown in 20 out of 34 Afghan provinces.
Cultural Diplomacy Vital for Afghanistan: MOFA
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Cultural diplomacy is a vital aspect to the foreign policy of Afghanistan towards ensuring unity and a positive outlook on the country, Deputy Foreign Minister Jawid Lodin said.
Lodin stressed in an address at the "The Role of Culture in Foreign Relations" conference that the government is making serious efforts to show the real culture of Afghanistan to the world, a challenge amid all the war-saturated stories.
"The cultural diplomacy is very important and vital for Afghanistan. It has a positive impact on the foreign policy and helps in unity of the nation," Lodin said at the conference held at the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Afghan lawmakers at the conference condemned the "cultural invasion" of neighboring countries.
"Unfortunately, the cultural invasion of other countries in Afghanistan particularly that of our neighbors is continuing. We should work hard to protect and expand our own culture in the country," Kabul MP Farkhunda Zahra Naderi said.
Another MP claimed Pakistan and Iran have clear programmes in Afghanistan to sway culture.
"Recently, the invasion of Iran and Pakistan has increased in the country. They have launched specific programmes in Afghanistan for their own interest," Shahla Ghausi said.
The conference heard that the ongoing war and low literacy rates are among the key issues that allow the Afghan people to come under the cultural influence of other countries.
Children of Poverty Pose a Security Risk: Islamic Welfare
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Afghanistan is home to around 1 million orphans with most of them living in poverty, posing a largely unaddressed threat to security, the Islamic Relief Afghanistan (IRA) told TOLOnews on Tuesday.
On the occasion of Universal Children's Day (Nov 20), IRA country director Fadlullah Wilmot said the plight of children living in poverty sees many of them turn to crime.
"I would say of the one million orphans in Afghanistan, 95 percent are living in poverty," he said at the sidelines of a conference in Kabul discussing the state of vulnerable children in the country and the world.
He warned that if the disastrous situation of Afghan children does not change, they are more likely to become criminals and thieves which will challenge Afghanistan's future.
Apart from the orphans, there are also numerous children forced to be breadwinners for the family with harsh jobs.
"I sell chewing gum and give the money to my mother to spend in the family," a child on the street told TOLOnews.
Head of Orphanages in the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, Sayed Abdullah Hashimi said that still thousands of children are working in the streets.
"I think we could have solved the problems if we had had a good policy in the last ten years. Unfortunately, there was not such program," he said.
He added that the children working outside the home, apart from missing out on an education, face many threats including brutal violence like rape, and human trafficking.
They are also more likely to be groomed to be suicide attackers, he said.
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