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Senate Backs Obama Choice For Afghan Command
December 4, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S. Senate has approved President Barack Obama's choice to be the next commander of U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.
In a voice vote on December 3, lawmakers backed General Joseph Dunford to succeed General John Allen.
Dunford is currently assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Allen has been nominated to become NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, but his nomination was delayed after his name surfaced in connection with the adultery scandal that led to the November resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus.
According to the U.S. Defense Department, Dunford is a graduate of the Army Ranger School, the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, and the U. S. Army War College.
He has earned degrees from Georgetown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Based on reporting by AP and RFE/RL
Bomb Kills NATO-Led Troops In Southern Afghanistan
December 4, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Two members of the international military coalition in Afghanistan have reportedly been killed by a bomb attack in the south of the country.
An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said the blast occurred on December 4 but did not provide any further details or the nationalities of those killed.
The NATO-led alliance usually waits for member nations to identify their dead before providing specifics on attacks.
Americans constitute the vast majority of at least 384 international service members killed so far this year.
Last year some 566 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by AP and pajhwok.com
3 Taliban militants killed in Afghan raids
KABUL, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three Taliban militants have been killed and nine others detained in different operations across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
"Afghan National Police (ANP) supporting by the army and the NATO-led coalition forces launched eight joint cleanup operations in Faryab, Badakhshan, Balkh, Kandahar, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni and Helmand provinces, killing three armed Taliban insurgents and detaining nine other suspects over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.
The ANP also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
Taliban has yet to make comments.
The Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings especially in southern and eastern parts of the country.
On Sunday, three members of Afghan security forces and two civilians were killed and several others including several coalition soldiers were wounded when Taliban carried out a coordinated suicide attack against an Afghan-NATO base in eastern Nangarhar province in the attack that also left nine militants dead.
'Three Cups Of Tea' Co-Author Commits Suicide
December 4, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Officials say a co-author of the book “Three Cups of Tea,” an account of school-building in Pakistan and Afghanistan that ran into controversy over some exaggerated claims, has committed suicide.
Medical authorities said an investigation found that David Oliver Relin, 49, took his own life in the middle of November in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon.
“Three Cups of Tea,” which has sold about 4 million copies since publication in 2006, told the story of how the other co-author, Greg Mortenson, became involved in building schools, mostly for girls, in poor rural parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The story came under scrutiny last year when U.S. journalists alleged that Mortenson had fabricated or embellished details.
AP reports that Relin acknowledged in legal documents that the allegations hurt his livelihood.
In April, Mortenson agreed to pay his Central Asia Institute charity $1 million following a court probe into financial mismanagement at the organization.
Mortenson also agreed to resign from the institute's board over "financial transgressions."
Local sources confirmed to RFE/RL the construction and operation of a number of schools in Pakistan by the Central Asia Institute.
Based on reporting by AP, Reuters and AFP
Guest post: China in Afghanistan, a tale of two mines
Financial Times (blog) By Raffaello Pantucci December 4, 2012
Facing a heavy domestic agenda and growing foreign policy tensions in the seas to the east, it is unlikely that Afghanistan is going to be a major priority for incoming Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Unfortunately, this does not mean the problems are going away. The contrasting fates of China’s large extractive projects in Afghanistan highlight a number of growing issues for the new administration in Beijing as the 2014 deadline for American withdrawal imposed by President Obama looms ever closer.
Up in the north, CNPC has started to extract oil from the ground in its project in the Amu Darya basin, while southeast of Kabul at Mes Aynak, the giant copper mine run by Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper has been put on hold while the Chinese firms reassess their ambitious plans for a project described by President Karzai as ‘one of the most important economic projects in Afghan history’.
This state of affairs is quite a contrast to earlier this year, when it emerged that CNPC was facing difficulties on the ground with reports of Chinese engineers being harrassed on site. This was despite the generous terms of the deal for Afghanistan: CNPC is paying 15 per cent royalty on oil, a 20 per cent rate of corporate tax and will give 50-70 per cent of its profits to the government, on top of building a new refinery. CNPC went into the deal with the Karzai family-linked Watan Group as local partner. All in all a very careful approach to investing in a risky country.
So the difficulties at the site and the staff harassment were a setback. In response, President Karzai’s Beijing visit in June included talks with CNPC, and also opened up discussions about developing a new pipeline to get CNPC’s gas out of Turkmenistan. CNPC is keen to develop another route to get gas out of South Yolatan, one of the world’s largest fields, possibly through northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
With the news that the field in Afghanistan is now producing, it looks like CNPC has cemented its position as a key investor in Afghanistan. The 25-year contract the company has signed has it extracting 1.5m barrels per year, and it is currently looking to extract 1,950 per day.
In contrast, the news from south east Afghanistan at Mes Aynak in Logar province is not nearly as positive. There, China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper, the two Chinese state owned enterprises, were recently revealed to have withdrawn some of their operatives from the site. The reason given was security concerns with engineers reportedly spooked by a series of rocket attacks. Two weeks after these stories surfaced in the press, MCC president Shen Heting visited Kabul, meeting with Karzai and Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani. In official read-outs from the meetings, security concerns were high on the agenda.
The picture may, however, be more complex than this. The Chinese companies have been accused of dragging their feet on the project, concerned about what is going to happen to the country after America officially withdraws in 2014. The important Buddist acheological remains at Mes Aynak are the subject of several campaigns, with researchers demanding more time to preserve the remains before mining commences. And the long-awaited rail line seems to be ever more distant.
Compensation for locals displaced by the site and the various ancillary projects alongside it has been slow to materialise. MCC also complained of Afghan partners being corrupt and inefficient, as documented in a US diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks.
All in all, it seems as though the Chinese companies were questioning their initial decision to invest. Looking back at the initial bids, it is clear that the Chinese bid high: offering a total investment $2.9bn (a figure that has been reported in fact as being as high as $4bn), $0.5bn more than the next offer. There were generous provisions for the Afghan government: a maximum royalty of 19.5 per cent and a bonus of $808m to the government as a signing bonus (the next closest was $243m).
MCC is concerned, along with others in the mining sector, about new legislation concerning mineral exploitation that is to be ratified by the Afghan government. Beyond Afghanistan, MCC has had other problems – its stock price in Shanghai has fallen from a high of over Rmb6 in 2009 to around Rmb2, and it recorded a net loss of $29m in the first half of 2012.
The contrast with CNPC’s experience in Amu Darya is stark. While CNPC is now producing from its site, the earliest possible production date now reported for Aynak is 2016. Clearly geography is something that has played in CNPC’s favor: northern Afghanistan is a relatively safe area compared to Logar province where Aynak lies.
The bigger question for China’s incoming leaders is how they are going to address Afghanistan once the US and Nato withdraw their primary responsibility for the country in 2014. China is not expected to take on a larger security role in the country: the PLA has little experience in such environments and such an aggressive approach is a world away from China’s non-interference policy.
China’s primary foreign policy tool is investment, mostly in Afghanistan’s natural resources: something it knows how to do very well from years of experience in frontier markets. However, this does not seem to be working in Afghanistan, with the government reportedly asking MCC to stay in Afghanistan. According to the Wikileak cable, Heting told American diplomats in October 2009 that ‘the Chinese government was urging the company to honour its commitments’.
The CNPC project may now be working, but the initial problems show that generous deals are no guarantee of a smooth passage. Beijing clearly has to re-think what it is going to do once 2014 passes. Afghanistan’s proximity to China and the potential knock-on implications in central Asia where China has invested a great deal make it is impossible to ignore.
China may not want to be dragged into Afghanistan’s interminable problems, but it seems impossible to imagine that they are not going to play some role. What this role ends up being is something that the new administration needs to calculate sooner than it wants.
Raffaello Pantucci is visiting scholar at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
Senate approves Obama's pick for Afghan commander
Associated Press December 03, 2012
WASHINGTON - The Senate has approved President Barack Obama's choice to be the top commander in Afghanistan.
By voice vote Monday, lawmakers cleared the way for Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, to take over as head of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Dunford would replace Gen. John Allen, the current commander who has been nominated to take charge in Europe. Allen's nomination is on hold as he's ensnared in the sex scandal that had led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus.
Dunford takes charge at a critical time for Obama and the military as they decide in the coming weeks the pace of drawing down the 66,000 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan. Dunford has directed combat forces in Iraq.
Reports of violence against women continue in Afghanistan
By Abdul Haleem, Hamnawa
KABUL, Dec. 4 (Xinhua)-- The blood-soaked body of 18-year-old Nasrin was surrounded by her mother and about a dozen of her relatives and neighbors in their house in Kunduz, some 250 kilometers north of Kabul.
All they could do was cry because they could not expect justice from the violent death of the young woman.
Nasrin had been engaged to a man some nine months ago and her death last Sunday was unexpected and shocking.
Her death was the latest in a series of violence against Afghan women perpetrated by criminals using age-old tradition and warped interpretation of Islamic justice. "It was 09:00 a.m. local time and we were sitting around table to have breakfast but suddenly a gunshot was heard from neighboring room. We rushed there and found Nasrin lying in a pool of blood,"one neighbor said.
Atta Mohammad, Nasrin's father, said he had no idea who killed his daughter, adding that he had no problem with her. However, Nasrin's mother refused to say anything.
Nasrin's murder is the latest case of violence against women that has happened in the male-dominated and conservative Afghanistan.
Afghan Minister for Women Affairs Husan Bano Ghazanfar confirmed last week that 3,500 cases of violence against women had been registered in Afghanistan in the first six months of Afghan year which began from March 21, 2012.
In Kunduz province alone, according to women rights' activists, 12 women and girls have been killed so far this year.
Just two days ago, a man beheaded a young girl in Imam Sahib District of Kunduz province after the girl's father refused to let him marry his daughter.
The police have arrested two people for their alleged involvement in the brutal murder of the innocent girl but the authorities have yet to publicly hand down a punishment that the criminals deserve.
Women in Afghanistan are facing variety of discrimination and violence ranging from child marriage, forced marriage, rape, polygamy and even "baad," a tribal custom of giving forcibly the hand of a widow or girl to a man from an opposing tribe to settle a dispute and end enmity.
Afghanistan, according to women activists, is a challenging country for women to live. Discrimination against women, particularly in the countryside, is still rampant. A girl can be forced to marry a boy chosen by her parents.
Cases of public execution of women, flogging of women by Taliban militants and powerful tribal leaders have been reported in parts of Afghanistan over the past year.
Najiba, 22, was publicly executed by Taliban militants in Ghorband district of Parwan province a couple of months ago while Sabira was publicly lashed in Jaghori district of Ghazni province by local mullahs months ago after she eloped with her boyfriend.
Although women's rights have seen considerable improvement in Afghanistan over the past 11 years, the Afghan women still need more years and a long way to restore their status as active members in society.
Meantime, Nadira Gia, director of Women Affairs Department in Kunduz province, has called on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation on Nasrin's case and arrest and punish the perpetrators. "I am calling on the international community, civil societies and women rights' activists to pay attention to the plight of Afghan women and help them in their campaign to bring about an end to violence against women in Afghanistan," Gia told the press in a hospital where the body of Nasrin had been taken for autopsy.
Karzai demands Britain hand over Afghan prisoners
Hamid Karzai has demanded British forces hand over Afghan prisoners "with no delay" after London halted transfers amid fears detainees were being tortured.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 03 Dec 2012
Kabul - The Afghan president ordered his security council to investigate immediately if Britain was holding prisoners on Afghan soil and insisted they were handed over. A blunt statement from his palace said: "No foreigners have the right to run prisons and detain Afghan nationals in Afghanistan."
His rebuke followed the Defence Secretary's decision last week to stop transferring suspected insurgents captured by British troops to the Afghan intelligence service because they were "at real risk of serious mistreatment".
The announcement was made at a High Court hearing for an Afghan farmer seeking damages after he was arrested by UK forces and handed over to Afghan intelligence agents. He says he was tortured into falsely confessing he was a member of the Taliban.
Lawyers for Serdar Mohammad, 24, from Kajaki in Helmand, have said Assadullah Khalid, head of the Afghan intelligence service, is known to have personally tortured captives.
James Eadie QC, for the Defence Secretary, told the court prisoner transfers would stop to avoid "the "real risk of either serious mistreatment or a flagrant denial of justice".
But the decision comes as the Afghan government is insisting that any holding of prisoners by foreign forces is an affront to national sovereignty. All prisoners must be given over to Afghan custody, the government argues, as it takes increasing responsibility for security ahead of the pull out of foreign combat troops in 2014.
The issue has already soured relations with America. Washington refuses to hand over several dozen suspected senior Taliban detainees from its Bagram prison north of Kabul, because it believes the Afghan government will let them go.
Mr Karzai's statement said he had told his security officials to "investigate and find out whether there is any British-run detention facility and whether any Afghans are held there and to make sure such facilities, if any, are transferred with no delay to Afghan government." British troops regularly seize suspected Taliban insurgents during operations in Helmand. Many of the operations are combined with Afghan forces and detainees are taken straight into Afghan custody.
However Britain does hold some detainees at Camp Bastion before they are handed over. The Ministry of Defence in London would not comment on how many are currently held.
Afghan Army, Police Take Increasing Casualties
Associated Press By By SLOBODAN LEKIC December 3, 2012
BRUSSELS - More than 300 Afghan soldiers and policemen are dying each month as the Afghan national security forces assume increasing responsibility for the war, military officials said Monday.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said deaths have risen in the past year as the army and police have taken over the lead role for security in areas covering 75 percent of the country's population. He said on average 110 soldiers and 200 policemen have been killed in action each month.
Azimi, speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters by video conference from Kabul, did not specify by how much those numbers had grown this year.
In contrast, fatalities among NATO soldiers have fallen steadily since mid-2012. This coincided with the drawdown of foreign troops, who are scheduled to end their combat role in 2014.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to wind down the 11-year-old war, even as the U.S. Congress and some NATO allies press for an accelerated withdrawal. The intent, approved by NATO in 2010, is to remove combat forces by the end of 2014 but to continue yet-to-be-defined security assistance.
The number of U.S. and NATO troops has decreased steadily throughout this year, from a peak of about 140,000 to just over 100,000 now. Commanders are now drawing up plans for the drawdown to continue into 2014.
In July, 45 U.S. and NATO troops died from all causes, in August 53, in September 27, in October 23, and in November 17, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.
"The capability of the Afghan (security forces) has really increased, and we are capable of taking over security for all of Afghanistan by 2014," Azimi said.
But while troops can take on the Taliban insurgents in battle, the military still has deficiencies in the nascent air force, military intelligence, fire support capabilities, and in the engineering and demining branches, he said.
Maj. Gen. Jim Ferron, deputy commander of NATO's training mission, said there had been a delay in reaching the full recruitment goal of 352,000 Afghan troops and police due to the vetting procedures put in place after a spate of insider attacks on NATO troops.
Originally, the security forces were planned to reach the 352,000 figure before the end of 2012, but this will not take place until next February or March, Ferron said.
The beefed-up vetting procedures for potential recruits include getting letters of recommendation from tribal elders, numerous interviews, biometric registration and other measures, he said.
This year, more than 60 NATO service members have been killed in attacks by members of the Afghan security forces or insurgents dressed in their uniforms. Dozens of Afghan troops also have died in similar attacks.
Pakistan's Endgame in Afghanistan?
The Huffington Post By Aparna Pande Research Fellow & Director, Hudson Institute's Initiative on Future of India & South Asia 03/12/2012
As preparations for the American draw down from Afghanistan get underway, there appears to be another game in town: played by Pakistan's leaders, strategists and for lack of a better word, sympathizers. The argument put forth is this: all problems would be solved if only India would stop playing a role in Afghanistan and if the world, especially the U.S., understood (read 'supported') Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan. In itself this sounds simple, however, in reality it is not.
Old South Asia hands will agree this is nothing new. In the 1980s, once the Geneva Accord discussions started, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Gen Zia ul Haq insisted that the Americans help install a pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan before they withdraw from the region. As Zia stated in an interview to an American journalist: "We [Pakistan] have earned the right to have a friendly government in Kabul. We wont permit it to be like it was before, with Indian and Soviet influence there and claims to our territory." Pakistan's leaders and policymakers have always believed what Zia openly stated.
Right from 1947, Pakistan has feared a strategic encirclement (also referred to as "the pincer movement") by its two neighbors, India and Afghanistan. The nightmare scenario for Pakistan's security establishment has been an attack from both its eastern and western borders. The need for a pro-Pakistan (read "anti- India") Afghan regime was hence deemed crucial to the foreign and security policy of Pakistan. Not only did Pakistan seek a friendly Afghanistan to prevent encirclement but also for decades Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment sought 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan i.e. an allied territory where Pakistan could relocate arms and personnel in the eventuality of an Indian attack.
As early as the 1950s, Pakistan's first military ruler, General Ayub Khan argued for a federation between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ayub also championed a regional confederation of like-minded territorially linked Muslim countries i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. The belief was this would help Pakistan stand up to India as it would provide strength in numbers and enormous resources. Pakistani strategists often cited British historian Fraser Tytler who wrote not long after Pakistan's independence: "history suggests that fusion [of Afghanistan and Pakistan] will take place, if not peacefully, then by force." As a Pakistani foreign secretary once remarked "Pakistan and Afghanistan have a symbiotic relationship."
This policy led Pakistan down the path of supporting proxies or assets like the Afghan mujahideen during the 1980s, the Taliban during the 1990s and today an assortment of groups comprising the Haqqani network, Hekmatyar's group, the Afghan Taliban and their supporters.
If we turn to Afghanistan, Afghan support for Pashtun and Baluch irredentism as well as its ties with India has always been Afghanistan's way of standing up to a neighbor they believe interferes in their country. It has also to do with Afghanistan's own domestic ethnic issues, since Afghanistan shares borders with Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian states. No Afghan government, not even the Taliban, has recognized the Durand line, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
From Kabul's vantage point, India provides a counterweight to Pakistan. As early as 1950, India and Afghanistan signed a treaty of friendship. For both New Delhi and Kabul, close ties were seen as important. Realpolitik dictated that antagonistic relations with Pakistan meant that for India, close ties with Afghanistan were critical.
Today India is one of the leading regional donors to Afghanistan, providing around $2 billion in aid since 2002. India's aid to Afghanistan and the strategic agreement of 2011 have to do with how both countries view the region and the future. Both India and Afghanistan are concerned about a significant withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014 and both fear the return of the Taliban. Both India and Afghanistan also want to grow economically.
Let us now turn to the key player in this game, the United States. Despite being allies for almost six decades the current U.S.-Pakistan tensions lie in the flawed relationship where both sides have different goals, even if during certain times their short-term interests have converged. Pakistan has always viewed its ties with the U.S. in the regional or subcontinental context i.e its rivalry with India and desire for strategic balance (read 'parity' with India). Pakistan's relationship with the United States has been based on Pakistani hope that American aid -- both military and economic -- would bolster Pakistan's meager resources in countering Indian economic and military might.
American policymakers, however, have always seen Pakistan from the prism of their global strategy: as an ally against communism during the Cold War, a key ally during the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad of the 1980s and a frontline ally in the war against terror after 9/11. And in return Pakistan received both military and economic aid from United States.
While violation of Pakistani sovereignty, including the Osama bin Laden raid and killing and the cross-border attacks, and public anger at regular drone attacks are the arguments put forth by Pakistan's policymakers and leaders for the ongoing Pakistan-U.S. tensions, the real reasons lie in the differing Pakistani and American views about India and about Afghanistan.
Like during the 1980s so too today, Pakistan's leaders and strategists believe that Pakistan has the right to be one of the (if not the sole) kingmakers in Afghanistan. While in the 1990s the United States did not have a stake in who came to power in Afghanistan, today the U.S. does. Further, those groups or leaders whom the U.S. would like in power in Afghanistan, Pakistan does not want in power and those groups or leaders that Pakistan would like to see holding power in Afghanistan are groups the U.S. would like to eliminate.
While the United States gave Pakistan considerable aid American policymakers never stopped building ties with India and never viewed India as an enemy or a threat. Today India and the U.S. have close economic and strategic ties. The U.S. also views Indian influence in Afghanistan as beneficial both from a regional and a global prism.
The argument put forth by some analysts that as long as Pakistan is worried about strategic encirclement it will keep supporting proxies is not pragmatic policy. The world has changed and one needs to look at what are the drivers of policy today: economic growth.
India, as a regional and global player, seeks strategic and economic ties with all the countries in Asia and beyond, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. As Pakistan's land-locked neighbor, Afghanistan depends on Pakistan and would benefit from close ties. Bordering two of the fastest growing economies of the world, China and India, Pakistan would benefit if it concentrated its resources on economic growth instead of the seemingly impossible task of achieving parity with India.
If we betray Afghan women, the Taliban win
CNN By Daisy Khan, Special to CNN December 3, 2012
Editor's note: Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, launched Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality and Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, global movements to empower Muslim youth and women. She is a columnist for the Washington Post's "On Faith."
Three prominent Afghan women will make it clear to a crowd of legislators on Capitol Hill Tuesday that a crucial measure of success in Afghanistan will be what women and girls can accomplish after U.S. troops leave.
If a woman is free to vote and determine her own future and a girl is free to get an education, then more than 12 years of American engagement have not been in vain.
A strong Afghan woman is a defeat for the Taliban. A determined Afghan woman who can vote will wrestle the country away from tribalism and promote democracy. An assertive Afghan woman will bring back the Afghanistan that once preached moderation and tolerance of all religions, a country where women were on par with men assisting in resolving political and ethical conflicts.
But if girls are denied an education or forced into child marriages; if talented women cannot pursue their goals, then nothing will have changed for all of cost in blood and treasure the United States has spent.
The women -- Suraya Paksad, founder of the Voices of Women Organization; Massouda Jalal, former Afghan minister of women's affairs and presidential candidate; and Sajia Behgam Amin, a gender and policy adviser who ran an underground school for girls in the Taliban era -- are warning legislators that the next two years before U.S. forces withdraw are crucial in developing methods to empower Afghan women and to create resilient communities.
No time can be lost.
Already the Taliban is regrouping and is poised to fill any power vacuum created by a weak government in Kabul. Warlords are forming coalitions to push back on the Taliban. Afghanistan could be heading toward civil war. Who will bear the brunt? Women, whose rights can easily be traded off if they are not at the table when decisions are made.
In a negotiation without women, if one side says it doesn't want schools for girls because Islam does not permit it, the other side may say sure, no problem. But if women are at the negotiating table, they can make the argument forcefully that Islam does not ban education for girls and that, in fact, Islam supports it.
Karzai already has showed he cannot be trusted to support the rights of women by signing a clerical council's "code of conduct" for women, which, among other strictures, supports women's segregation, bans women's travel without a male guardian and gives husbands rights to beat their wives in certain circumstances.
Seeing this looming threat to American war aims, last week Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, introduced the Afghan Women and Girls Security Promotion Act. It requires the Defense Department to produce a strategy to promote women's security during the transfer of power to Afghan forces.
Casey said that is the only way to achieve our overall goal of a secure and stable Afghanistan.
In consultation with Afghan women, we believe four things must be done before the United States loses its bargaining position in Afghanistan after our troops withdraw.
Create a coalition of women leaders: A coalition of prominent Afghan women ought to be created with the mandate of providing counsel every time an issue of women's and girls' rights is on the negotiating table.
Make sure women can vote: The United States must make sure that Afghan elections are not corrupt and that women actually get to vote. Women will vote against the Taliban if they are free to go to the polls. But we must have election monitors to be sure their votes are not stolen.
Imams must become advocates for women: As a deeply religious society, Afghanistan must solve its problems within a framework of Muslim beliefs. The people devoutly follow their imams and mullahs. Our experience shows that through an imam training program, they can become advocates for girls' and women's rights. Expanding our support for these training programs will pay big dividends.
Direct aid to support communities: Billions of dollars in U.S. aid will be squandered if Afghan women do not believe they are integral to the political and economic process. We have two years to redirect part of this aid to fortify communities so that Afghan women, imams and community leaders can resist the Taliban on their own terms.
If Afghan women suffer again, it will be as if we went to war for no reason. We must remember that we had three objectives for launching the Afghan war -- capturing Osama bin Laden, defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and protecting Afghan women and their rights.
If we walk away and allow Afghan women to be subjugated, we will have made the same mistake we made after we helped the Mujahedeen push the Soviets out of Afghanistan. We left the country in a power vacuum, which was filled by a radical fringe known as the Taliban.
We know how badly that turned out.
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Hindus and Sikhs - homeless Afghan citizens
DW 03/12/2012
For hundreds of years, Hindus and Sikhs have lived in Afghanistan. But even after the fall of the Islamist Taliban regime, they face growing discrimination, forcing many to leave.
Sometimes you can recognize them on the streets, usually because of their black or wine-red turbans and opulent beards. Others look no different from the rest of the pedestrians, aside from the fact that they may be homeless.
Hindus and Sikhs are a religious minority in Afghanistan. But, despite being there for centuries, they are discriminated against for their beliefs. The war years forced many people belonging to these two non-Muslim minorities to leave the country.
'Brothers'
Some, however, returned after the Taliban were overthrown. Arandar Singh is one such person. The 50-year-old Sikh was born in Kunduz. He owns a shop and wears a black turban and a long, black beard. Other than that, he wears typical Afghan clothing. Singh sees himself as a part of Afghan society and calls the local residents his brothers.
"We are treated well by the government and the locals. Work and daily life are satisfactory. We also pursue our religious obligations," says Singh.
People of a different faith, he says, are welcomed as neighbors by the Muslim majority. In Afghanistan, Muslims make up 99 percent of the population. Most people see Hindus and Sikhs as Afghans and appreciate that they stay out of all the political machinations.
According to Ahmad Farid, a resident of Kunduz, the Hindus and Sikhs are "very simple people who do their work and don't cause trouble." He says they are very open and friendly and that he has never experienced bad behavior on their part. "We have to respect that they have a different religion because that is an Afghan tradition - and they respect ours," Farid points out.
Singh says that he has friendly relations with his neighbors and, despite religious differences, no problems have cropped up. But the actual problem for both minorities is that they have no property and no houses, he says quietly. For this reason, they have to live in temples, the so-called daramsaal. This is also where their children go to school.
Homeless
"Even today, no one in Kunduz has offered us a house or property. We have complained about that often and still demand that people who live in temples get land, but we have no private property," says Singh.
Hindus and Sikhs do not belong to the same religion, but due to their small numbers, they visit the same temples and belong to the same community. They are also viewed as one and the same group by other Afghans. And one problem unites them: the fact that they own no property. Mid November, they organized a protest march to demand a piece of property to build a crematorium. They chanted "Down with the government. Aren't we also Afghans?"
"When you don't even get a cemetery, that means you're not welcome in your own country," says Darniwar Singh, a Sikh.
"We have no crematorium to cremate our dead and perform our rituals. When someone dies, we have to burn them in a temple," he explains. "But then, our Muslim neighbors complain about the smell and the smoke.
"The mayor of Kabul has promised to make land available for rituals and a park and build homes. Something that is urgently needed."
'Over our dead bodies'
The property, which the government has promised, however, already belongs to the Afghan Karokhail clan, and they have reacted sharply to the government's concession. A visibly outraged clan leader said he possessed the official title to the property and had no intention of giving it up.
"We do not accept this. Ten thousand families live here and you can only get the land over our dead bodies, even if we have to fight to the death. The president personally decreed that we may live here," he said.
The clan leader refers to rights granted to himself and to clan members.
As long as Hindus and Sikhs are guaranteed the right to shelter and to practice their religion on the one hand, and the residents of Kabul refuse to sacrifice their property on the other, it seems unlikely the row can be resolved.
Many of the country's minorities feel singled out as the number of Hindus Sikhs continues to drop. Arandar Singh says there were once 120 minority families living in Kunduz before the war started and they fled the country. And while many have returned since the Afghan War, many of those people are leaving again as they face poverty and homelessness.
Singh is one of the lucky ones. He spends most of his days at his store. He says that means a lot for someone who has no roof over their head.
US Partnership Vital for Afghan Future: Popal
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Monday, 03 December 2012
The Afghan-US security pact and long-term strategic agreement is vital for Afghanistan, the Afghan representative at the US Department of State Mustafa Popal told TOLOnews on Monday.
He emphasised that the US is interested in a long term commitment to Afghanistan and the agreements demonstrate that.
"The US does not want to abandon Afghanistan, but it wants continue its longer relations and aid to our country," Popal said in a exclusive interview with TOLOnews.
With the country on the brink of the withdrawal of foreign forces, residents raised their concern and fear over the interference of neighboring countries in Afghanistan and a return to the 90s when the country plunged into civil war.
"The Afghan-US security pact assures the residents of Afghanistan to be hopeful of their future," Popal said.
Pakistan's role in bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan has been considered very important, however until recently it had not shown interest in this process.
"We have convinced Pakistan to help the Afghan government peace process," Popal said.
Pakistan, commonly regarded as having safe havens of terrorist organisations, has been pushed recently by both the Afghan and US governments to take the step ahead in Afghan peace negotiations and bring Taliban to the negotiation table.
No Security Pact Without Complete Prison Handover, Karzai Tells Obama
TOLOnews.com Monday, 03 December 2012
President Hamid Karzai has told US President Barack Obama in a letter that until the matter of the Bagram prison is settled, Afghanistan will not sign the security agreement with the US.
Karzai asked Obama to ensure that the US finalises the handover of all prisons and prisoners to the Afghan government, according to a statement from the Presidential Office.
"If it does not happen, Afghanistan will not sign the security agreement with US," it said.
Karzai recently ordered Afghan forces to take control of the American-built Bagram prison and accused American officials of violating the agreement to fully transfer the facility to the Afghans.
The order came after what Karzai said was the expiration of a two-month grace period, agreed to by President Obama in September, to complete the transfer of the prison at Bagram Air Base.
The Afghan government has repeatedly said that any failure to hand over the remaining 600 prisoners that were not transferred in September is a violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty.
Tensions over detainee transfers have been on high since the agreement to handover prisoners was signed in March with a six-month deadline.
Domestic Carrier Opens New Flight Route to Faryab
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Monday, 03 December 2012
Fledgling domestic carrier East Horizon Airlines made its first flight to northern Faryab province on Sunday, a move welcomed by Faryab officials and residents to improve their connections to other parts of the country.
"This is the first Afghan domestic airline launched in the country to have direct flights between Maimana [the capital of Faryab] and Herat," deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez said.
Plans are underway to introduce flights to Faizabad, Ghazni, Daikundi and Farah provinces, depending on security, the airline said.
"Security is very important. We will have flights to the areas with a security clearance from security officials -- we schedule our flights according to that," East Horizons chief executive Jahed Azimi told TOLOnews on Monday.
East Horizons (Ufuq Sharq) first flight was about one year ago. Its other scheduled flights connect the country's capital Kabul with Cheghcheran city in Ghor province, Bamiyan city in Bamiyan, Kunduz city in Kunduz and Tarin Kot in Uruzgan.
The initial investment of the 100 percent Afghan-owned company is more than $20m with two airplanes and two more planes will be purchased in the future, Azimi said.
Jahed Azimi was deputy minister of Transport & Civil Aviation prior to his position at East Horizons, and was also formerly president of Ariana Afghan Airlines and domestic carrier Kam Air.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
December 4, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S. Senate has approved President Barack Obama's choice to be the next commander of U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.
In a voice vote on December 3, lawmakers backed General Joseph Dunford to succeed General John Allen.
Dunford is currently assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Allen has been nominated to become NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, but his nomination was delayed after his name surfaced in connection with the adultery scandal that led to the November resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus.
According to the U.S. Defense Department, Dunford is a graduate of the Army Ranger School, the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, and the U. S. Army War College.
He has earned degrees from Georgetown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Based on reporting by AP and RFE/RL
Bomb Kills NATO-Led Troops In Southern Afghanistan
December 4, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Two members of the international military coalition in Afghanistan have reportedly been killed by a bomb attack in the south of the country.
An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said the blast occurred on December 4 but did not provide any further details or the nationalities of those killed.
The NATO-led alliance usually waits for member nations to identify their dead before providing specifics on attacks.
Americans constitute the vast majority of at least 384 international service members killed so far this year.
Last year some 566 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by AP and pajhwok.com
3 Taliban militants killed in Afghan raids
KABUL, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three Taliban militants have been killed and nine others detained in different operations across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
"Afghan National Police (ANP) supporting by the army and the NATO-led coalition forces launched eight joint cleanup operations in Faryab, Badakhshan, Balkh, Kandahar, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni and Helmand provinces, killing three armed Taliban insurgents and detaining nine other suspects over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.
The ANP also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
Taliban has yet to make comments.
The Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings especially in southern and eastern parts of the country.
On Sunday, three members of Afghan security forces and two civilians were killed and several others including several coalition soldiers were wounded when Taliban carried out a coordinated suicide attack against an Afghan-NATO base in eastern Nangarhar province in the attack that also left nine militants dead.
'Three Cups Of Tea' Co-Author Commits Suicide
December 4, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Officials say a co-author of the book “Three Cups of Tea,” an account of school-building in Pakistan and Afghanistan that ran into controversy over some exaggerated claims, has committed suicide.
Medical authorities said an investigation found that David Oliver Relin, 49, took his own life in the middle of November in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon.
“Three Cups of Tea,” which has sold about 4 million copies since publication in 2006, told the story of how the other co-author, Greg Mortenson, became involved in building schools, mostly for girls, in poor rural parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The story came under scrutiny last year when U.S. journalists alleged that Mortenson had fabricated or embellished details.
AP reports that Relin acknowledged in legal documents that the allegations hurt his livelihood.
In April, Mortenson agreed to pay his Central Asia Institute charity $1 million following a court probe into financial mismanagement at the organization.
Mortenson also agreed to resign from the institute's board over "financial transgressions."
Local sources confirmed to RFE/RL the construction and operation of a number of schools in Pakistan by the Central Asia Institute.
Based on reporting by AP, Reuters and AFP
Guest post: China in Afghanistan, a tale of two mines
Financial Times (blog) By Raffaello Pantucci December 4, 2012
Facing a heavy domestic agenda and growing foreign policy tensions in the seas to the east, it is unlikely that Afghanistan is going to be a major priority for incoming Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Unfortunately, this does not mean the problems are going away. The contrasting fates of China’s large extractive projects in Afghanistan highlight a number of growing issues for the new administration in Beijing as the 2014 deadline for American withdrawal imposed by President Obama looms ever closer.
Up in the north, CNPC has started to extract oil from the ground in its project in the Amu Darya basin, while southeast of Kabul at Mes Aynak, the giant copper mine run by Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper has been put on hold while the Chinese firms reassess their ambitious plans for a project described by President Karzai as ‘one of the most important economic projects in Afghan history’.
This state of affairs is quite a contrast to earlier this year, when it emerged that CNPC was facing difficulties on the ground with reports of Chinese engineers being harrassed on site. This was despite the generous terms of the deal for Afghanistan: CNPC is paying 15 per cent royalty on oil, a 20 per cent rate of corporate tax and will give 50-70 per cent of its profits to the government, on top of building a new refinery. CNPC went into the deal with the Karzai family-linked Watan Group as local partner. All in all a very careful approach to investing in a risky country.
So the difficulties at the site and the staff harassment were a setback. In response, President Karzai’s Beijing visit in June included talks with CNPC, and also opened up discussions about developing a new pipeline to get CNPC’s gas out of Turkmenistan. CNPC is keen to develop another route to get gas out of South Yolatan, one of the world’s largest fields, possibly through northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
With the news that the field in Afghanistan is now producing, it looks like CNPC has cemented its position as a key investor in Afghanistan. The 25-year contract the company has signed has it extracting 1.5m barrels per year, and it is currently looking to extract 1,950 per day.
In contrast, the news from south east Afghanistan at Mes Aynak in Logar province is not nearly as positive. There, China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper, the two Chinese state owned enterprises, were recently revealed to have withdrawn some of their operatives from the site. The reason given was security concerns with engineers reportedly spooked by a series of rocket attacks. Two weeks after these stories surfaced in the press, MCC president Shen Heting visited Kabul, meeting with Karzai and Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani. In official read-outs from the meetings, security concerns were high on the agenda.
The picture may, however, be more complex than this. The Chinese companies have been accused of dragging their feet on the project, concerned about what is going to happen to the country after America officially withdraws in 2014. The important Buddist acheological remains at Mes Aynak are the subject of several campaigns, with researchers demanding more time to preserve the remains before mining commences. And the long-awaited rail line seems to be ever more distant.
Compensation for locals displaced by the site and the various ancillary projects alongside it has been slow to materialise. MCC also complained of Afghan partners being corrupt and inefficient, as documented in a US diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks.
All in all, it seems as though the Chinese companies were questioning their initial decision to invest. Looking back at the initial bids, it is clear that the Chinese bid high: offering a total investment $2.9bn (a figure that has been reported in fact as being as high as $4bn), $0.5bn more than the next offer. There were generous provisions for the Afghan government: a maximum royalty of 19.5 per cent and a bonus of $808m to the government as a signing bonus (the next closest was $243m).
MCC is concerned, along with others in the mining sector, about new legislation concerning mineral exploitation that is to be ratified by the Afghan government. Beyond Afghanistan, MCC has had other problems – its stock price in Shanghai has fallen from a high of over Rmb6 in 2009 to around Rmb2, and it recorded a net loss of $29m in the first half of 2012.
The contrast with CNPC’s experience in Amu Darya is stark. While CNPC is now producing from its site, the earliest possible production date now reported for Aynak is 2016. Clearly geography is something that has played in CNPC’s favor: northern Afghanistan is a relatively safe area compared to Logar province where Aynak lies.
The bigger question for China’s incoming leaders is how they are going to address Afghanistan once the US and Nato withdraw their primary responsibility for the country in 2014. China is not expected to take on a larger security role in the country: the PLA has little experience in such environments and such an aggressive approach is a world away from China’s non-interference policy.
China’s primary foreign policy tool is investment, mostly in Afghanistan’s natural resources: something it knows how to do very well from years of experience in frontier markets. However, this does not seem to be working in Afghanistan, with the government reportedly asking MCC to stay in Afghanistan. According to the Wikileak cable, Heting told American diplomats in October 2009 that ‘the Chinese government was urging the company to honour its commitments’.
The CNPC project may now be working, but the initial problems show that generous deals are no guarantee of a smooth passage. Beijing clearly has to re-think what it is going to do once 2014 passes. Afghanistan’s proximity to China and the potential knock-on implications in central Asia where China has invested a great deal make it is impossible to ignore.
China may not want to be dragged into Afghanistan’s interminable problems, but it seems impossible to imagine that they are not going to play some role. What this role ends up being is something that the new administration needs to calculate sooner than it wants.
Raffaello Pantucci is visiting scholar at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
Senate approves Obama's pick for Afghan commander
Associated Press December 03, 2012
WASHINGTON - The Senate has approved President Barack Obama's choice to be the top commander in Afghanistan.
By voice vote Monday, lawmakers cleared the way for Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, to take over as head of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Dunford would replace Gen. John Allen, the current commander who has been nominated to take charge in Europe. Allen's nomination is on hold as he's ensnared in the sex scandal that had led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus.
Dunford takes charge at a critical time for Obama and the military as they decide in the coming weeks the pace of drawing down the 66,000 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan. Dunford has directed combat forces in Iraq.
Reports of violence against women continue in Afghanistan
By Abdul Haleem, Hamnawa
KABUL, Dec. 4 (Xinhua)-- The blood-soaked body of 18-year-old Nasrin was surrounded by her mother and about a dozen of her relatives and neighbors in their house in Kunduz, some 250 kilometers north of Kabul.
All they could do was cry because they could not expect justice from the violent death of the young woman.
Nasrin had been engaged to a man some nine months ago and her death last Sunday was unexpected and shocking.
Her death was the latest in a series of violence against Afghan women perpetrated by criminals using age-old tradition and warped interpretation of Islamic justice. "It was 09:00 a.m. local time and we were sitting around table to have breakfast but suddenly a gunshot was heard from neighboring room. We rushed there and found Nasrin lying in a pool of blood,"one neighbor said.
Atta Mohammad, Nasrin's father, said he had no idea who killed his daughter, adding that he had no problem with her. However, Nasrin's mother refused to say anything.
Nasrin's murder is the latest case of violence against women that has happened in the male-dominated and conservative Afghanistan.
Afghan Minister for Women Affairs Husan Bano Ghazanfar confirmed last week that 3,500 cases of violence against women had been registered in Afghanistan in the first six months of Afghan year which began from March 21, 2012.
In Kunduz province alone, according to women rights' activists, 12 women and girls have been killed so far this year.
Just two days ago, a man beheaded a young girl in Imam Sahib District of Kunduz province after the girl's father refused to let him marry his daughter.
The police have arrested two people for their alleged involvement in the brutal murder of the innocent girl but the authorities have yet to publicly hand down a punishment that the criminals deserve.
Women in Afghanistan are facing variety of discrimination and violence ranging from child marriage, forced marriage, rape, polygamy and even "baad," a tribal custom of giving forcibly the hand of a widow or girl to a man from an opposing tribe to settle a dispute and end enmity.
Afghanistan, according to women activists, is a challenging country for women to live. Discrimination against women, particularly in the countryside, is still rampant. A girl can be forced to marry a boy chosen by her parents.
Cases of public execution of women, flogging of women by Taliban militants and powerful tribal leaders have been reported in parts of Afghanistan over the past year.
Najiba, 22, was publicly executed by Taliban militants in Ghorband district of Parwan province a couple of months ago while Sabira was publicly lashed in Jaghori district of Ghazni province by local mullahs months ago after she eloped with her boyfriend.
Although women's rights have seen considerable improvement in Afghanistan over the past 11 years, the Afghan women still need more years and a long way to restore their status as active members in society.
Meantime, Nadira Gia, director of Women Affairs Department in Kunduz province, has called on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation on Nasrin's case and arrest and punish the perpetrators. "I am calling on the international community, civil societies and women rights' activists to pay attention to the plight of Afghan women and help them in their campaign to bring about an end to violence against women in Afghanistan," Gia told the press in a hospital where the body of Nasrin had been taken for autopsy.
Karzai demands Britain hand over Afghan prisoners
Hamid Karzai has demanded British forces hand over Afghan prisoners "with no delay" after London halted transfers amid fears detainees were being tortured.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 03 Dec 2012
Kabul - The Afghan president ordered his security council to investigate immediately if Britain was holding prisoners on Afghan soil and insisted they were handed over. A blunt statement from his palace said: "No foreigners have the right to run prisons and detain Afghan nationals in Afghanistan."
His rebuke followed the Defence Secretary's decision last week to stop transferring suspected insurgents captured by British troops to the Afghan intelligence service because they were "at real risk of serious mistreatment".
The announcement was made at a High Court hearing for an Afghan farmer seeking damages after he was arrested by UK forces and handed over to Afghan intelligence agents. He says he was tortured into falsely confessing he was a member of the Taliban.
Lawyers for Serdar Mohammad, 24, from Kajaki in Helmand, have said Assadullah Khalid, head of the Afghan intelligence service, is known to have personally tortured captives.
James Eadie QC, for the Defence Secretary, told the court prisoner transfers would stop to avoid "the "real risk of either serious mistreatment or a flagrant denial of justice".
But the decision comes as the Afghan government is insisting that any holding of prisoners by foreign forces is an affront to national sovereignty. All prisoners must be given over to Afghan custody, the government argues, as it takes increasing responsibility for security ahead of the pull out of foreign combat troops in 2014.
The issue has already soured relations with America. Washington refuses to hand over several dozen suspected senior Taliban detainees from its Bagram prison north of Kabul, because it believes the Afghan government will let them go.
Mr Karzai's statement said he had told his security officials to "investigate and find out whether there is any British-run detention facility and whether any Afghans are held there and to make sure such facilities, if any, are transferred with no delay to Afghan government." British troops regularly seize suspected Taliban insurgents during operations in Helmand. Many of the operations are combined with Afghan forces and detainees are taken straight into Afghan custody.
However Britain does hold some detainees at Camp Bastion before they are handed over. The Ministry of Defence in London would not comment on how many are currently held.
Afghan Army, Police Take Increasing Casualties
Associated Press By By SLOBODAN LEKIC December 3, 2012
BRUSSELS - More than 300 Afghan soldiers and policemen are dying each month as the Afghan national security forces assume increasing responsibility for the war, military officials said Monday.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said deaths have risen in the past year as the army and police have taken over the lead role for security in areas covering 75 percent of the country's population. He said on average 110 soldiers and 200 policemen have been killed in action each month.
Azimi, speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters by video conference from Kabul, did not specify by how much those numbers had grown this year.
In contrast, fatalities among NATO soldiers have fallen steadily since mid-2012. This coincided with the drawdown of foreign troops, who are scheduled to end their combat role in 2014.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to wind down the 11-year-old war, even as the U.S. Congress and some NATO allies press for an accelerated withdrawal. The intent, approved by NATO in 2010, is to remove combat forces by the end of 2014 but to continue yet-to-be-defined security assistance.
The number of U.S. and NATO troops has decreased steadily throughout this year, from a peak of about 140,000 to just over 100,000 now. Commanders are now drawing up plans for the drawdown to continue into 2014.
In July, 45 U.S. and NATO troops died from all causes, in August 53, in September 27, in October 23, and in November 17, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.
"The capability of the Afghan (security forces) has really increased, and we are capable of taking over security for all of Afghanistan by 2014," Azimi said.
But while troops can take on the Taliban insurgents in battle, the military still has deficiencies in the nascent air force, military intelligence, fire support capabilities, and in the engineering and demining branches, he said.
Maj. Gen. Jim Ferron, deputy commander of NATO's training mission, said there had been a delay in reaching the full recruitment goal of 352,000 Afghan troops and police due to the vetting procedures put in place after a spate of insider attacks on NATO troops.
Originally, the security forces were planned to reach the 352,000 figure before the end of 2012, but this will not take place until next February or March, Ferron said.
The beefed-up vetting procedures for potential recruits include getting letters of recommendation from tribal elders, numerous interviews, biometric registration and other measures, he said.
This year, more than 60 NATO service members have been killed in attacks by members of the Afghan security forces or insurgents dressed in their uniforms. Dozens of Afghan troops also have died in similar attacks.
Pakistan's Endgame in Afghanistan?
The Huffington Post By Aparna Pande Research Fellow & Director, Hudson Institute's Initiative on Future of India & South Asia 03/12/2012
As preparations for the American draw down from Afghanistan get underway, there appears to be another game in town: played by Pakistan's leaders, strategists and for lack of a better word, sympathizers. The argument put forth is this: all problems would be solved if only India would stop playing a role in Afghanistan and if the world, especially the U.S., understood (read 'supported') Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan. In itself this sounds simple, however, in reality it is not.
Old South Asia hands will agree this is nothing new. In the 1980s, once the Geneva Accord discussions started, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Gen Zia ul Haq insisted that the Americans help install a pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan before they withdraw from the region. As Zia stated in an interview to an American journalist: "We [Pakistan] have earned the right to have a friendly government in Kabul. We wont permit it to be like it was before, with Indian and Soviet influence there and claims to our territory." Pakistan's leaders and policymakers have always believed what Zia openly stated.
Right from 1947, Pakistan has feared a strategic encirclement (also referred to as "the pincer movement") by its two neighbors, India and Afghanistan. The nightmare scenario for Pakistan's security establishment has been an attack from both its eastern and western borders. The need for a pro-Pakistan (read "anti- India") Afghan regime was hence deemed crucial to the foreign and security policy of Pakistan. Not only did Pakistan seek a friendly Afghanistan to prevent encirclement but also for decades Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment sought 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan i.e. an allied territory where Pakistan could relocate arms and personnel in the eventuality of an Indian attack.
As early as the 1950s, Pakistan's first military ruler, General Ayub Khan argued for a federation between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ayub also championed a regional confederation of like-minded territorially linked Muslim countries i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. The belief was this would help Pakistan stand up to India as it would provide strength in numbers and enormous resources. Pakistani strategists often cited British historian Fraser Tytler who wrote not long after Pakistan's independence: "history suggests that fusion [of Afghanistan and Pakistan] will take place, if not peacefully, then by force." As a Pakistani foreign secretary once remarked "Pakistan and Afghanistan have a symbiotic relationship."
This policy led Pakistan down the path of supporting proxies or assets like the Afghan mujahideen during the 1980s, the Taliban during the 1990s and today an assortment of groups comprising the Haqqani network, Hekmatyar's group, the Afghan Taliban and their supporters.
If we turn to Afghanistan, Afghan support for Pashtun and Baluch irredentism as well as its ties with India has always been Afghanistan's way of standing up to a neighbor they believe interferes in their country. It has also to do with Afghanistan's own domestic ethnic issues, since Afghanistan shares borders with Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian states. No Afghan government, not even the Taliban, has recognized the Durand line, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
From Kabul's vantage point, India provides a counterweight to Pakistan. As early as 1950, India and Afghanistan signed a treaty of friendship. For both New Delhi and Kabul, close ties were seen as important. Realpolitik dictated that antagonistic relations with Pakistan meant that for India, close ties with Afghanistan were critical.
Today India is one of the leading regional donors to Afghanistan, providing around $2 billion in aid since 2002. India's aid to Afghanistan and the strategic agreement of 2011 have to do with how both countries view the region and the future. Both India and Afghanistan are concerned about a significant withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014 and both fear the return of the Taliban. Both India and Afghanistan also want to grow economically.
Let us now turn to the key player in this game, the United States. Despite being allies for almost six decades the current U.S.-Pakistan tensions lie in the flawed relationship where both sides have different goals, even if during certain times their short-term interests have converged. Pakistan has always viewed its ties with the U.S. in the regional or subcontinental context i.e its rivalry with India and desire for strategic balance (read 'parity' with India). Pakistan's relationship with the United States has been based on Pakistani hope that American aid -- both military and economic -- would bolster Pakistan's meager resources in countering Indian economic and military might.
American policymakers, however, have always seen Pakistan from the prism of their global strategy: as an ally against communism during the Cold War, a key ally during the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad of the 1980s and a frontline ally in the war against terror after 9/11. And in return Pakistan received both military and economic aid from United States.
While violation of Pakistani sovereignty, including the Osama bin Laden raid and killing and the cross-border attacks, and public anger at regular drone attacks are the arguments put forth by Pakistan's policymakers and leaders for the ongoing Pakistan-U.S. tensions, the real reasons lie in the differing Pakistani and American views about India and about Afghanistan.
Like during the 1980s so too today, Pakistan's leaders and strategists believe that Pakistan has the right to be one of the (if not the sole) kingmakers in Afghanistan. While in the 1990s the United States did not have a stake in who came to power in Afghanistan, today the U.S. does. Further, those groups or leaders whom the U.S. would like in power in Afghanistan, Pakistan does not want in power and those groups or leaders that Pakistan would like to see holding power in Afghanistan are groups the U.S. would like to eliminate.
While the United States gave Pakistan considerable aid American policymakers never stopped building ties with India and never viewed India as an enemy or a threat. Today India and the U.S. have close economic and strategic ties. The U.S. also views Indian influence in Afghanistan as beneficial both from a regional and a global prism.
The argument put forth by some analysts that as long as Pakistan is worried about strategic encirclement it will keep supporting proxies is not pragmatic policy. The world has changed and one needs to look at what are the drivers of policy today: economic growth.
India, as a regional and global player, seeks strategic and economic ties with all the countries in Asia and beyond, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. As Pakistan's land-locked neighbor, Afghanistan depends on Pakistan and would benefit from close ties. Bordering two of the fastest growing economies of the world, China and India, Pakistan would benefit if it concentrated its resources on economic growth instead of the seemingly impossible task of achieving parity with India.
If we betray Afghan women, the Taliban win
CNN By Daisy Khan, Special to CNN December 3, 2012
Editor's note: Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, launched Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality and Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, global movements to empower Muslim youth and women. She is a columnist for the Washington Post's "On Faith."
Three prominent Afghan women will make it clear to a crowd of legislators on Capitol Hill Tuesday that a crucial measure of success in Afghanistan will be what women and girls can accomplish after U.S. troops leave.
If a woman is free to vote and determine her own future and a girl is free to get an education, then more than 12 years of American engagement have not been in vain.
A strong Afghan woman is a defeat for the Taliban. A determined Afghan woman who can vote will wrestle the country away from tribalism and promote democracy. An assertive Afghan woman will bring back the Afghanistan that once preached moderation and tolerance of all religions, a country where women were on par with men assisting in resolving political and ethical conflicts.
But if girls are denied an education or forced into child marriages; if talented women cannot pursue their goals, then nothing will have changed for all of cost in blood and treasure the United States has spent.
The women -- Suraya Paksad, founder of the Voices of Women Organization; Massouda Jalal, former Afghan minister of women's affairs and presidential candidate; and Sajia Behgam Amin, a gender and policy adviser who ran an underground school for girls in the Taliban era -- are warning legislators that the next two years before U.S. forces withdraw are crucial in developing methods to empower Afghan women and to create resilient communities.
No time can be lost.
Already the Taliban is regrouping and is poised to fill any power vacuum created by a weak government in Kabul. Warlords are forming coalitions to push back on the Taliban. Afghanistan could be heading toward civil war. Who will bear the brunt? Women, whose rights can easily be traded off if they are not at the table when decisions are made.
In a negotiation without women, if one side says it doesn't want schools for girls because Islam does not permit it, the other side may say sure, no problem. But if women are at the negotiating table, they can make the argument forcefully that Islam does not ban education for girls and that, in fact, Islam supports it.
Karzai already has showed he cannot be trusted to support the rights of women by signing a clerical council's "code of conduct" for women, which, among other strictures, supports women's segregation, bans women's travel without a male guardian and gives husbands rights to beat their wives in certain circumstances.
Seeing this looming threat to American war aims, last week Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, introduced the Afghan Women and Girls Security Promotion Act. It requires the Defense Department to produce a strategy to promote women's security during the transfer of power to Afghan forces.
Casey said that is the only way to achieve our overall goal of a secure and stable Afghanistan.
In consultation with Afghan women, we believe four things must be done before the United States loses its bargaining position in Afghanistan after our troops withdraw.
Create a coalition of women leaders: A coalition of prominent Afghan women ought to be created with the mandate of providing counsel every time an issue of women's and girls' rights is on the negotiating table.
Make sure women can vote: The United States must make sure that Afghan elections are not corrupt and that women actually get to vote. Women will vote against the Taliban if they are free to go to the polls. But we must have election monitors to be sure their votes are not stolen.
Imams must become advocates for women: As a deeply religious society, Afghanistan must solve its problems within a framework of Muslim beliefs. The people devoutly follow their imams and mullahs. Our experience shows that through an imam training program, they can become advocates for girls' and women's rights. Expanding our support for these training programs will pay big dividends.
Direct aid to support communities: Billions of dollars in U.S. aid will be squandered if Afghan women do not believe they are integral to the political and economic process. We have two years to redirect part of this aid to fortify communities so that Afghan women, imams and community leaders can resist the Taliban on their own terms.
If Afghan women suffer again, it will be as if we went to war for no reason. We must remember that we had three objectives for launching the Afghan war -- capturing Osama bin Laden, defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and protecting Afghan women and their rights.
If we walk away and allow Afghan women to be subjugated, we will have made the same mistake we made after we helped the Mujahedeen push the Soviets out of Afghanistan. We left the country in a power vacuum, which was filled by a radical fringe known as the Taliban.
We know how badly that turned out.
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Hindus and Sikhs - homeless Afghan citizens
DW 03/12/2012
For hundreds of years, Hindus and Sikhs have lived in Afghanistan. But even after the fall of the Islamist Taliban regime, they face growing discrimination, forcing many to leave.
Sometimes you can recognize them on the streets, usually because of their black or wine-red turbans and opulent beards. Others look no different from the rest of the pedestrians, aside from the fact that they may be homeless.
Hindus and Sikhs are a religious minority in Afghanistan. But, despite being there for centuries, they are discriminated against for their beliefs. The war years forced many people belonging to these two non-Muslim minorities to leave the country.
'Brothers'
Some, however, returned after the Taliban were overthrown. Arandar Singh is one such person. The 50-year-old Sikh was born in Kunduz. He owns a shop and wears a black turban and a long, black beard. Other than that, he wears typical Afghan clothing. Singh sees himself as a part of Afghan society and calls the local residents his brothers.
"We are treated well by the government and the locals. Work and daily life are satisfactory. We also pursue our religious obligations," says Singh.
People of a different faith, he says, are welcomed as neighbors by the Muslim majority. In Afghanistan, Muslims make up 99 percent of the population. Most people see Hindus and Sikhs as Afghans and appreciate that they stay out of all the political machinations.
According to Ahmad Farid, a resident of Kunduz, the Hindus and Sikhs are "very simple people who do their work and don't cause trouble." He says they are very open and friendly and that he has never experienced bad behavior on their part. "We have to respect that they have a different religion because that is an Afghan tradition - and they respect ours," Farid points out.
Singh says that he has friendly relations with his neighbors and, despite religious differences, no problems have cropped up. But the actual problem for both minorities is that they have no property and no houses, he says quietly. For this reason, they have to live in temples, the so-called daramsaal. This is also where their children go to school.
Homeless
"Even today, no one in Kunduz has offered us a house or property. We have complained about that often and still demand that people who live in temples get land, but we have no private property," says Singh.
Hindus and Sikhs do not belong to the same religion, but due to their small numbers, they visit the same temples and belong to the same community. They are also viewed as one and the same group by other Afghans. And one problem unites them: the fact that they own no property. Mid November, they organized a protest march to demand a piece of property to build a crematorium. They chanted "Down with the government. Aren't we also Afghans?"
"When you don't even get a cemetery, that means you're not welcome in your own country," says Darniwar Singh, a Sikh.
"We have no crematorium to cremate our dead and perform our rituals. When someone dies, we have to burn them in a temple," he explains. "But then, our Muslim neighbors complain about the smell and the smoke.
"The mayor of Kabul has promised to make land available for rituals and a park and build homes. Something that is urgently needed."
'Over our dead bodies'
The property, which the government has promised, however, already belongs to the Afghan Karokhail clan, and they have reacted sharply to the government's concession. A visibly outraged clan leader said he possessed the official title to the property and had no intention of giving it up.
"We do not accept this. Ten thousand families live here and you can only get the land over our dead bodies, even if we have to fight to the death. The president personally decreed that we may live here," he said.
The clan leader refers to rights granted to himself and to clan members.
As long as Hindus and Sikhs are guaranteed the right to shelter and to practice their religion on the one hand, and the residents of Kabul refuse to sacrifice their property on the other, it seems unlikely the row can be resolved.
Many of the country's minorities feel singled out as the number of Hindus Sikhs continues to drop. Arandar Singh says there were once 120 minority families living in Kunduz before the war started and they fled the country. And while many have returned since the Afghan War, many of those people are leaving again as they face poverty and homelessness.
Singh is one of the lucky ones. He spends most of his days at his store. He says that means a lot for someone who has no roof over their head.
US Partnership Vital for Afghan Future: Popal
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Monday, 03 December 2012
The Afghan-US security pact and long-term strategic agreement is vital for Afghanistan, the Afghan representative at the US Department of State Mustafa Popal told TOLOnews on Monday.
He emphasised that the US is interested in a long term commitment to Afghanistan and the agreements demonstrate that.
"The US does not want to abandon Afghanistan, but it wants continue its longer relations and aid to our country," Popal said in a exclusive interview with TOLOnews.
With the country on the brink of the withdrawal of foreign forces, residents raised their concern and fear over the interference of neighboring countries in Afghanistan and a return to the 90s when the country plunged into civil war.
"The Afghan-US security pact assures the residents of Afghanistan to be hopeful of their future," Popal said.
Pakistan's role in bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan has been considered very important, however until recently it had not shown interest in this process.
"We have convinced Pakistan to help the Afghan government peace process," Popal said.
Pakistan, commonly regarded as having safe havens of terrorist organisations, has been pushed recently by both the Afghan and US governments to take the step ahead in Afghan peace negotiations and bring Taliban to the negotiation table.
No Security Pact Without Complete Prison Handover, Karzai Tells Obama
TOLOnews.com Monday, 03 December 2012
President Hamid Karzai has told US President Barack Obama in a letter that until the matter of the Bagram prison is settled, Afghanistan will not sign the security agreement with the US.
Karzai asked Obama to ensure that the US finalises the handover of all prisons and prisoners to the Afghan government, according to a statement from the Presidential Office.
"If it does not happen, Afghanistan will not sign the security agreement with US," it said.
Karzai recently ordered Afghan forces to take control of the American-built Bagram prison and accused American officials of violating the agreement to fully transfer the facility to the Afghans.
The order came after what Karzai said was the expiration of a two-month grace period, agreed to by President Obama in September, to complete the transfer of the prison at Bagram Air Base.
The Afghan government has repeatedly said that any failure to hand over the remaining 600 prisoners that were not transferred in September is a violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty.
Tensions over detainee transfers have been on high since the agreement to handover prisoners was signed in March with a six-month deadline.
Domestic Carrier Opens New Flight Route to Faryab
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Monday, 03 December 2012
Fledgling domestic carrier East Horizon Airlines made its first flight to northern Faryab province on Sunday, a move welcomed by Faryab officials and residents to improve their connections to other parts of the country.
"This is the first Afghan domestic airline launched in the country to have direct flights between Maimana [the capital of Faryab] and Herat," deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez said.
Plans are underway to introduce flights to Faizabad, Ghazni, Daikundi and Farah provinces, depending on security, the airline said.
"Security is very important. We will have flights to the areas with a security clearance from security officials -- we schedule our flights according to that," East Horizons chief executive Jahed Azimi told TOLOnews on Monday.
East Horizons (Ufuq Sharq) first flight was about one year ago. Its other scheduled flights connect the country's capital Kabul with Cheghcheran city in Ghor province, Bamiyan city in Bamiyan, Kunduz city in Kunduz and Tarin Kot in Uruzgan.
The initial investment of the 100 percent Afghan-owned company is more than $20m with two airplanes and two more planes will be purchased in the future, Azimi said.
Jahed Azimi was deputy minister of Transport & Civil Aviation prior to his position at East Horizons, and was also formerly president of Ariana Afghan Airlines and domestic carrier Kam Air.
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