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Afghan Bankers' Assets Frozen
www.washingtonpost.com-September 06, 2010
Struggling to contain an escalating crisis at Kabul Bank, Afghan authorities have barred the sale of Kabul properties held by the bank's principal owners.
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Afghan Government Moves Toward Seizing Assets Of Troubled Bank's Shareholders
www.nytimes.com-September 06, 2010
The Afghan government took steps on Sunday toward seizing the properties of major shareholders of the troubled Kabul Bank, as perturbed crowds and national security forces surrounded the central branch of the bank, the country’s largest.
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Taliban Warns Afghan Voters
www.philly.com-September 06, 2010
The Taliban vowed Sunday to attack polling places in Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, warning Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote.
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Helmand Dam A Monument To U.S. Challenges
www.latimes.com-September 06, 2010
The Kajaki Dam in southern Afghanistan was built in the 1950s with U.S. aid but fell into disrepair in the late 1970s. Efforts to repair it have faltered as the Taliban controls an access road.
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Afghan Foreign Troops Death Toll Hits 500 For 2010
www.reuters.com-September 06, 2010
The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year has reached at least 500, compared with 521 in all of 2009, according to an independent monitoring site Monday and a tally compiled by Reuters.
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Floods In Pakistan Carry The Seeds Of Upheaval
www.nytimes.com-September 06, 2010
When the governor of Punjab Province arrived recently in this small town with truckloads of relief goods for flood victims, his visit was as much a political mission as a humanitarian one. His message to the hundred or so displaced people gathered under an awning was that the government was there for them.
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Floods Give Renewed Clout To Powerful Pakistan Army
http://news.yahoo.com-September 06, 2010
The powerful military has taken the lead in providing relief -- dwarfing the civilian government -- and in doing so has greatly enhanced its prestige and influence.
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NATO asks for more troops for Afghanistan
www.msnbc.com-September 06, 2010
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for 2,000 more soldiers to join the 140,000-strong international force here, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans.
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Kandahar boardwalk is a world away from war
www.msnbc.com-September 06, 2010
It was a broiling fall evening in this southern Afghan battlezone, and U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Reed wanted to celebrate his birthday in style — at T.G.I. Friday's on the boardwalk.
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Report: Iran pays $1,000 for each U.S. soldier killed by the Taliban
www.msnbc.com-September 05, 2010
Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan, according to a report in a British newspaper.
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Report: Iran Paying Taliban to Kill U.S. Troops
www.foxnews.com-September 05, 2010
At least five Iranian companies in Afghanistan's capital are using their offices covertly to finance Taliban militants in provinces near Kabul, according to an investigation by London's Sunday Times.
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Afghanistan Tries To Help Nation's Biggest Bank
www.nytimes.com-September 05, 2010
In a bid to fend off the threat of a nationwide financial crisis, the Afghan government scrambled to shore up Afghanistan’s largest bank on Saturday after lines of frantic depositors mobbed the bank for a third day.
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Authorities Struggle To Stabilize Kabul Bank
www.washingtonpost.com-September 05, 2010
With crowds again besieging Afghanistan's largest private bank after a day's respite for Friday prayer, Afghan authorities on Saturday grasped for a plan to shore up tottering Kabul Bank and avoid potential economic and political turmoil.
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Afghan Officials Closer To Talks With Insurgents
www.bostonglobe.com-September 05, 2010
In a further step toward reconciling with insurgents, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday that he will soon name the members of a council tasked with pursuing peace talks with rebels willing to break with Al Qaeda and recognize the government in Kabul.
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General Says Foresight On Marja Was Flawed
www.nytimes.com-September 05, 2010
NATO commanders were overly optimistic when they predicted quick success last winter in taking the town of Marja from the Taliban, the outgoing deputy commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said Saturday.
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Loss of Faith in Afghan Leaders May Hurt Push Against Taliban
www.nytimes.com-September 05, 2010
THE government of President Hamid Karzai may be awash in corruption, venality and graft, but if you walk the tattered halls of the ministries here, it is remarkably easy to find an honest man.
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Gates Rallies Troops In Kandahar
www.ft.com-September 04, 2010
With a clatter of helicopter blades and a cloud of dust, the man overseeing the US war in Afghanistan came to the new front line on Friday.
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From North Korea, Word Of Shortages, Grudges
htttp://online.wsj.com-September 04, 2010
One evening last week in this Chinese border city, restaurants bustled and taxis honked. Tall buildings were clad in LED displays. Just beyond the din, an empty one-lane bridge extended across the Yalu river, to a darkened North Korean city on the other side.
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Abiding Some Afghan Graft
www.washingtonpost.com-September 04, 2010
U.S. commanders in southern Afghanistan are adopting a strategy that increasingly places the priority on fighting the Taliban even if that means tolerating some corruption.
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A Twofold Conflict In Helmand
www.washingtonpost.com-September 04, 2010
U.S. Marines and British civilian advisers are waging two wars in the hilly northern half of Helmand province: They're fighting the Taliban, and they're quarreling with each other.
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Defense Secretary Offers Cautious Views On Wars
www.nytimes.com-September 04, 2010
No one has ever accused Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates of happy talk, but during a trip this week to assess the state of America’s two wars his words were more restrained than usual.
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Gates Sees 2-3 Years Of Combat In Afghanistan
htttp://online.wsj.com-September 04, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he envisions two or three more years of combat operations in Afghanistan before the U.S. transitions to an advisory role, a mission likely to last years more.
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Gates Sees Progress In Tour Of Afghan War Zone
www.associatedpress.com-September 03, 2010
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he saw and heard evidence that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province.
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Karzai Calls Aide's Arrest 'Exactly Reminiscent' Of Soviet Times
www.washingtonpost.com-September 03, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke out angrily Thursday against the arrest of one of his closest aides this summer on corruption charges, saying that the detention was conducted in a manner "exactly reminiscent of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan" and that the investigation was illegally run by "foreign elements."
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Gates, Petraeus Ease Pressure On Karzai
htttp://online.wsj.com-September 03, 2010
American officials dialed down the pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the issue of government corruption, seeking to ease tensions because the current counterinsurgency strategy depends on a close working relationship.
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Karzai Kin Asks U.S. To Bolster His Bank
htttp://online.wsj.com-September 03, 2010
A top shareholder in Afghanistan's largest bank called on the U.S. to shore up the lender after depositors withdrew about a third of its cash reserves in two days, while the country sought to avert a destabilizing crisis at a crucial moment in the fight against the Taliban.
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Depositors Panic Over Bank Crisis In Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-September 03, 2010
One of the principal owners of the Afghan bank at the center of an accelerating financial crisis here said depositors had withdrawn $180 million in the past two days. He predicted a “revolution” in the country’s financial system unless the Afghan government and the United States moved quickly to help stabilize the bank, Dexter Filkins reports in The New York Times.
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Karzai Tells Afghans Not To Panic In Rush For Withdrawals
www.washingtonpost.com-September 03, 2010
As depositors thronged branches of Afghanistan's biggest bank, President Hamid Karzai told Afghans on Thursday not to panic shortly after his brother, a major shareholder in the beleaguered Kabul Bank, called for intervention by the United States to head off a financial meltdown.
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Petraeus Backs Karzai Over Corruption
www.ft.com-September 03, 2010
General David Petraeus, the head of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, defended Hamid Karzai, the country’s president, on Thursday after controversy over Kabul’s stance on corruption.
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Marines Work To Win Over Hearts And Minds In Afghanistan
www.sandiegotribune.com-September 03, 2010
Sgt. David McFadden was on patrol, wading slowly across the Helmand River. Cool water gurgled peacefully underfoot. But the squad leader knew that things are not always as they seem in southern Afghanistan, and a Marine must be vigilant.
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Deaths Disputed In Afghan Airstrike
htttp://online.wsj.com-September 03, 2010
Afghan officials said a coalition airstrike hit the election convoy of an Afghan parliamentary candidate on Thursday, wounding him and killing as many as 10 campaign aides, but the NATO coalition said only insurgents were killed.
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Afghan Leader Condemns Air Strike As Gates Arrives
www.reuters.com-September 02, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned on Thursday an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 election campaign workers, although U.S. officials maintained it was aimed at an Islamist leader.
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Gates, In Afghanistan, Speaks On Local Issues
www.nytimes.com-September 02, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived here on an unannounced visit on Thursday, and found himself grappling with some of Afghanistan’s most troubling domestic issues as well as the military ones.
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Avoiding a Tempest in the South China Sea
www.cfr.org-September 02, 2010
Over the past decade, dating back to the end of the Asian financial crisis, China has drastically expanded its international presence, including in Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia. But China's rising global power--both soft and hard--has been felt first in Southeast Asia, a region seen by some Chinese strategists as equivalent to Latin America in the U.S. Monroe Doctrine.
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Near Kandahar, The Prize Is An Empty Town
www.nytimes.com-September 02, 2010
When the governor of Kandahar Province came to this town, freshly liberated on Sunday from the Taliban, his armed entourage appeared to outnumber what was left of the population.
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Nervous Afghans Pull Money From Kabul Bank, Raising Fears
www.washingtonpost.com-September 02, 2010
With Afghans clamoring to pull their cash from their nation's biggest bank, the United States risks a politically perilous decision: whether to step in to help shore up a wobbly bank critical not only to Afghanistan's economy but also to the battle against the Taliban.
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U.S. Adds Legal Pressure On Pakistani Taliban
www.nytimes.com-September 02, 2010
The United States government on Wednesday ratcheted up legal pressures against the Pakistani Taliban, the Qaeda-linked group accused of a role in the failed Times Square bombing in May and in the suicide bombing at a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan in December.
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Suicide Bombers In Pakistan Kill Dozens Of Shiites
www.nytimes.com-September 02, 2010
Three suicide bombers struck a procession of Shiite Muslim worshipers on Wednesday here in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 25 people and touching off violent clashes between local police forces and mourners and protesters infuriated by the attack.
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In Pakistan, U.S. Hopes Aid Builds Goodwill
www.usatoday.com-September 02, 2010
Marine Capt. Matt Wesenberg has been flying food, water and supplies up and down Swat Valley, the former Taliban stronghold in Pakistan where devastating floods have killed nearly1,600 people and left more than 4 million homeless since late July.
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Military Families Fault Rules Of War
www.latimes.com-September 02, 2010
Bill and Beverly Osborn still can't bring themselves to erase the phone message from their son Ben. He had called from Afghanistan in June to assure them that he was safe. Four days later, he was killed in a Taliban ambush.
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A Month In, Pakistan Flood Relief Efforts Stuck at 1.0
www.wired.com-September 01, 2010
A month after the Haiti earthquake, the U.S. government had over 20,000 troops on the ground, $450 million in assistance money earmarked, and an innovative web-based system to let troops and aid workers collaborate like never before. A month after the floods in Pakistan, the U.S. effort doesn’t compare in any way. And that’s a major problem, considering Pakistan may be the most strategically significant country on the planet right now.
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N. Korea Seeks Stronger Ties With China
www.reuters.com-September 01, 2010
North Korea vowed to strengthen military ties with China on Wednesday, days after the North's leader Kim Jong-il finished a visit aimed at bolstering the bond with his isolated country's sole major supporter.
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In Central Asia, A New Headache For U.S. Policy
www.washingtonpost.com-September 01, 2010
Beset by mounting casualties on the battlefield and deepening disquiet at home over the United States' longest war, President Obama's Afghan policy now faces another big headache: the unraveling of central authority in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian nation that hosts a U.S. air base critical to the battle against the Taliban.
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Bulding the City: India's Urban Future
www.csis.org-September 01, 2010
The shadows of the Beijing Olympics and World Cup loom large over India’s upcoming Commonwealth Games. Disguised as global sporting events, these nationalistic displays are designed to showcase the strength of a country’s culture, economy, and people. Indian officials have been eager to steer the narrative of next month’s Games in this direction, as the Games themselves are perceived to be a precursor to an eventual Olympic bid.
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After Obama's Iraq Speech, Afghans Worry About U.S. Commitment
www.time.com-September 01, 2010
Afghans might have been expected to cheer when President Obama asserted that the draw-down of troops in Iraq would free up extra resources for the conflict in their country, where the fighting has only gotten bloodier because of the Taliban's resurgence.
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U.S. Won't Abandon Afghanistan, Gates Says
www.milwaukeejournalsentinel.com-September 01, 2010
As the wars wind down in Iraq and ramp up in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Taliban and other terrorist groups should not assume that the United States will leave Afghanistan next summer.
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Worried Afghans yank Kabul Bank deposits
www.washingtonpost.com-September 01, 2010
Hundreds of nervous account holders waited for hours Wednesday to withdraw their money from Kabul Bank, even as officials sought to assure them that the country's largest private bank was not in danger of collapsing.
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U.S. Troop Deaths In Afghan War Up Sharply
www.washingtonpost.com-September 01, 2010
Twenty-two American troops have been killed in Afghanistan over the past five days, a spike that follows record-high death tolls for U.S. forces in June and July.
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Afghan Government Moves To Bolster Leading Bank
www.nytimes.com-September 01, 2010
The Afghan government intervened to shore up a deeply troubled bank on Tuesday, sending shock waves through the capital and prompting fears that Afghanistan’s pervasive corruption had now put the country’s entire financial system at risk.
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Gas Sickened Girls In Afghan Schools
www.nytimes.com-September 01, 2010
Blood tests have confirmed that a mysterious series of cases of mass sickness at girls’ schools across the country over the last two years were caused by a powerful poison gas, an Afghan official said Tuesday.
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Afghan Police's Lack Of Guns And Gas Shows U.S. Exit Plan Flaw
www.bloomberg.com-August 31, 2010
The Afghan police unit rated best by U.S.-led forces last year now can’t function on its own and has ceded up to half its district to the Taliban, showing how hard it will be for U.S. troops to carry out a planned withdrawal.
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New U.S. Sanctions Aim at North Korean Elite
www.nytimes.com-August 31, 2010
The latest target for the United States, as it tries to tighten the screws on North Korea, is a shadowy party organization, known as Office 39, which raises hard currency to buy fine liquor, exotic food and luxury cars for cronies of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il.
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Petraeus Finishes Rules For Afghan Security Transition
www.nytimes.com-August 31, 2010
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, has completed work on new guidelines for turning some security duties over to Afghan forces in the months ahead, calling for American and allied troops to step back gradually from areas as they are pacified rather than handing off the task all at once to local units, according to senior NATO and Pentagon officials.
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North Korean Pair Viewed As Key To Secret Arms Trade
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 31, 2010
A North Korean arms chief and Pyongyang's former ambassador to the United Nation's nuclear agency have emerged as key figures in an intensifying international effort to curb North Korea's weapons-trading activities.
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China, N. Korea Fortified Ties During Kim Visit, Beijing Says
www.latimes.com-August 31, 2010
The two countries seemingly renew their vows as communist brethren, with China's Hu Jintao promising to help develop his ally's economy and North Korea's leader expressing a desire to resume nuclear talks.
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Taiwan To Deploy Cruise Missiles: Lawmaker
www.afp.com-August 31, 2010
Taiwan plans to deploy its own cruise missiles by the end of this year, a lawmaker and military pundit said Tuesday, reflecting continued tension with China despite warming ties.
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The Surge And Afghanistan
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 31, 2010
Unless he understands the reason for success in Iraq, the president is unlikely to lead a successful strategy against the Taliban.
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We Owe The Troops An Exit
www.nytimes.com-August 31, 2010
At least 14 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan over the past few days.
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The Folly of Holding Afghan Elections
www.cfr.org-August 31, 2010
Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, set for September 18, will be seen as a test of that country's stability nine years after the U.S.-led invasion, and three months before U.S. President Barack Obama reviews progress in the war effort. But if balloting is meant to serve as a litmus test for a military campaign that continues to sputter along, Afghanistan analyst Candace Rondeaux says the West should prepare for disappointment.
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Another Way in Afghanistan: Overcoming the Current Flawed Strategy
http://smallwarsjournal.com-August 31, 2010
All too often, the United States tries to impart a Jeffersonian style democracy into regions of the world which have had no history of democracy or into a complex tribal region of similar circumstance. If the United States Government wishes to be successful in Afghanistan, then it needs to reexamine its current Afghan strategy, understand traditional Afghan governance, and pursue a federal system of governing. Both the Bush and Obama administrations implemented flawed strategies in Afghanistan by focusing U.S. efforts on establishing a strong central government in Kabul as a way to build a cohesive national government.
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12 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in 2 days
www.latimes.com-August 31, 2010
Five U.S. troops were killed by roadside bombs and insurgent fire in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the latest casualties in a particularly bloody spell that has left 12 service members dead in two days, and 19 since Saturday.
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Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates Addresses the American Legion
www.defense.gov-August 31, 2010
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates Addresses the American Legion National Convention.
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John Ubaldi on Sacramento's KFBK Newstalk Radio
www.kfbk.com-August 31, 2010
John comments on the president's speech on Iraq withdrawal.
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Obama's Speech on the End of Operation Iraqi Freedom
www.realclearpolitics.com-August 31, 2010
Text of President's speech on Iraq.
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Boehner To Obama On Israel: "You Do Not Send A Message Of Strength To Your Enemies By Shunning Your Friends"
www.realclearpolitics.com-August 31, 2010
"Where I come from you stick by your friends and you stick by the people who share your values. You do not send a message of strength to your enemies by shunning your friends and allies. The foreign policy of the United States should not be built on a platform of apologies, corrections, and reset buttons. We will not confront and defeat the terrorist threat by blurring America's exceptionalism and backing out on America’s commitments," Rep. John Boehner, House Minority Leader, said Tuesday to the American Legion.
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‘Western Hypocrisy’
www.newsweek.com-August 31, 2010
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, widely considered the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, has kept a low profile since his unprecedented 2004 television address accepting sole responsibility for providing nuclear know-how to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan the following day, but after a period under house arrest, he remains closely watched by authorities.
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As Combat Operations End In Iraq, Gates Hails Shift In Focus To Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 31, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday called on a war-weary American public for patience in Afghanistan, arguing that after years of neglect the United States had finally devoted the necessary resources to a conflict that has long been overshadowed by the Iraq war.
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U.S. Attacks On Taliban Leaders To Increase With Iraq Drawdown, Gates Says
www.bloomberg.com-August 31, 2010
The U.S. will accelerate attacks on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan in an invigorated effort to improve security and set conditions for a turnover of combat missions to Afghan forces, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
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Roadside bombs kill 7 U.S. troops in Afghanistan
www.msnbc.com-August 30, 2010
Two separate roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed seven U.S. service members in southern Afghanistan Monday, NATO said.
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China’s Brain Drain
www.newsweek.com-August 30, 2010
As China’s economy steams toward superpower status, the country has rolled out splashy programs to lure elites back from overseas. One problem: many don’t seem to want to return.
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Afghan Fatalities Rise In Weekend Violence
www.nytimes.com-August 30, 2010
Seven American soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern and southern Afghanistan over the weekend, after several weeks of declining death tolls among NATO forces.
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American Concerns Over Karzai Deepen
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 30, 2010
Renewed tension with Afghan President Hamid Karzai—this time over the ouster of a graft-fighting prosecutor—is adding to doubts within the Obama administration and the U.S. military about their ability to show progress fighting corruption and improving governance, ahead of a White House review of war strategy in December.
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U.S. Escalates Air War Over Afghanistan
www.wired.com-August 30, 2010
There may not be quite as many bombs falling from the sky. But don’t let that fool you. The United States has dramatically escalated its air war over Afghanistan.
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US General Warned British Commanders That Their Afghan Strategy Was A Disaster
www.thetimes.co.uk-August 30, 2010
American and British military commanders were at loggerheads over the right strategy for Helmand in southern Afghanistan when Britain’s ill-fated campaign began in the summer of 2006, The Times can reveal.
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China To Conduct Live Ammo Drills In Yellow Sea
www.washingtontimes.com-August 29, 2010
China said on Sunday its navy will stage live-ammunition drills in the Yellow Sea this week after it condemned U.S.-South Korean joint naval exercises in the region and vowed to respond in kind.
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Pakistani Troops Go On 'War Footing' To Save Flooded City
http://news.yahoo.com-August 29, 2010
Pakistani troops and workers were on a "war footing" Sunday as they battled to save the southern city of Thatta after most of the population of 300,000 fled advancing flood waters.
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Graft-Fighting Prosecutor Fired in Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-August 29, 2010
One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that President Hamid Karzai fired him last week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government.
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Upstarts Chip Away at Power of Pakistani Elite
www.nytimes.com-August 29, 2010
In Pakistan, where politics has long been a matter of pedigree, Jamshed Dasti is a mongrel. The scrappy son of an amateur wrestler, Mr. Dasti has clawed his way into Pakistan’s Parliament, beating the wealthy, landed families who have ruled here.
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Top Karzai Aide Says U.S. Must Alter Its Strategy
www.washingtonpost.com-August 29, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff said Saturday that he is not sure the government is "on a path to success" in securing the country against the Taliban and that it could fail altogether if the United States does not significantly alter its strategy in fighting the nine-year-old war.
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Insurgents Attack NATO Base And Camp In Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-August 29, 2010
Insurgents, some wearing United States Army uniforms, attacked a major NATO base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday and a nearby camp where seven C.I.A. employees were killed last year in a suicide bombing.
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China Fortifies State Businesses to Fuel Growth
www.nytimes.com-August 29, 2010
During its decades of rapid growth, China thrived by allowing once-suppressed private entrepreneurs to prosper, often at the expense of the old, inefficient state sector of the economy.
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Chechen Leader’s Village Is Attacked
www.nytimes.com-August 29, 2010
Insurgents in Chechnya, in southern Russia, attacked the home village of the region’s leader on Sunday, touching off a battle in which more than a dozen people were killed, officials said.
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Taliban fighters, some disguised as American soldiers, attack two U.S. bases
www.washingtonpost.com-August 28, 2010
Insurgents disguised as American soldiers attacked two U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday morning and managed to breach the perimeter of one of them before being repelled, according to NATO and Afghan officials.
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Marines In Afghanistan Prepared For A Long Haul
www.latimes.com-August 28, 2010
A year since the U.S. troop buildup began with battalions descending on the Helmand River Valley, optimism about a quick defeat of the Taliban has given way to more sober assessments.
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U.S. Weighs Possibility Of North Korea Engagement
www.nytimes.com-August 28, 2010
The last time a former American president traveled to North Korea on a rescue mission — Bill Clinton, a year ago — he was feted by its leader, Kim Jong-il, who seized on the visit to reach out to the Obama administration. This week, Mr. Kim chose to go to China during a visit by former President Jimmy Carter to free another jailed American.
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Kim's Apparent Snub Of Carter Has Analysts Puzzled
www.bostonglobe.com-August 28, 2010
The behavior of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il often baffles even the most seasoned American diplomats. Once, he ordered the kidnapping of a Japanese film star and her director husband in an attempt to build a film industry in North Korea. Another time, he imported Italian chefs to build him a state-of-the-art pizza oven at a time when millions of his countrymen were starving.
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Coalition, Afghan Forces Strike At Al Qaeda-Linked Cells In North And East
www.longwarjournal.org-August 27, 2010
Within the past few days, Coalition and Afghan forces have targeted al Qaeda-linked cells during raids in the Afghan north and east, while over the last several weeks, more than 90 Taliban fighters have been killed during clearing operations in central and eastern Afghanistan.
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CIA making secret payments to members of Karzai administration
www.washingtonpost.com-August 27, 2010
The CIA is making secret payments to multiple members of President Hamid Karzai's administration, in part to maintain sources of information in a government in which the Afghan leader is often seen as having a limited grasp of developments, according to current and former U.S. officials.
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Pakistan Flood Sets Back Years of Gains on Infrastructure
www.nytimes.com-August 27, 2010
Men waded waist deep all week wedging stones with their bare hands into an embankment to hold back Pakistan’s surging floodwaters. It was a rudimentary and ultimately vain effort to save their town. On Thursday, the waters breached the levee, a demoralizing show of how fragile Pakistan’s infrastructure remains, and how overwhelming the task is to save it.
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Carter Wins Release of American in North Korea
www.nytimes.com-August 27, 2010
Former President Jimmy Carter left North Korea on Friday with Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor for illegally entering the country, the Carter Center said. Mr. Gomes was granted amnesty by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, the Carter Center said in an e-mail. Mr. Gomes, 31, and Mr. Carter boarded a plane at the Pyongyang Airport.
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Afghan Candidate's Campaign Workers Abducted
www.nytimes.com-August 27, 2010
Ten campaign workers for a female parliamentary candidate in western Afghanistan were abducted by gunmen Thursday and the Taliban claimed responsibility for two deadly attacks, one that killed eight Afghan police officers and another that killed two Spanish police trainers and a translator a day earlier.
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Afghan Taliban Kill Eight In Kunduz
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 27, 2010
The Taliban killed eight Afghan police in the northern provincial capital of Kunduz on Thursday, the latest incursion against Afghan police forces, this time in a once-secure province now largely under Taliban control, officials said.
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Karzai Criticizes U.S. Withdrawal Plan
www.seattletimes.com-August 27, 2010
President Hamid Karzai on Thursday criticized the U.S. plan to begin withdrawing troops starting next July and said the war on terrorism cannot succeed as long as the Taliban and their allies maintain sanctuaries in Pakistan.
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Looking At Lessons That Can Be Learned From Iraq
www.associatedpress.com-August 27, 2010
They are different wars in different regions, with different challenges. But as the war in Iraq winds down, there is a lot the U.S. military can learn and apply to Afghanistan, from how to deal with contractors to when to draw down troops.
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Taliban Threaten Attacks On Foreign Aid Workers
http://news.yahoo.com-August 27, 2010
The Taliban hinted Thursday they may launch attacks against foreigners helping Pakistan respond to the worst floods in the country's history, saying their presence was "unacceptable." The U.N. said it would not be deterred by violent threats.
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The Long War: Afghanistan After July 2011
www.politicsdaily.com-August 26, 2010
On my first reporting trip to Afghanistan, beginning in Jan. 2002, I lived for several months with 30 soldiers in a leaky tent heated against the bitter cold with a kerosene-fired pot-bellied stove. Waiting to be airlifted into the mountains to fight the Taliban, the soldiers and I shuffled through rutted snow to another sagging tent for chow and down a beaten path to the hastily built (and unheated) plywood latrine. We washed and shaved outside. The U.S. Army colonel who ran the base told me that no permanent structures would be built there; the policy of the Bush administration was to maintain a "light footprint' for the few months it would take to finish off the war.
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Key Karzai Aide In Corruption Inquiry Is Linked To C.I.A.
www.nytimes.com-August 26, 2010
The aide to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation is being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Afghan and American officials.
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Marines Training Afghans To Take Over
www.sandiegotribune.com-August 26, 2010
The lesson of the day for the Afghan police recruits was a cordial “cordon and knock.” Sometimes a more aggressive approach is required. But often it is better to rap politely at the door and ask for information, instead of breaking it down, their U.S Marine Corps instructor explained.
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Carter gains freedom for American held in N. Korea
www.msnbc.com-August 26, 2010
Looking gaunt but relieved, an American freed after nearly seven months jailed in North Korea left Pyongyang on Friday in the company of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
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U.S. To Send Part Of Pakistan Aid To Flood Recovery
www.washingtonpost.com-August 26, 2010
The United States is diverting some of its five-year, multibillion-dollar aid package for Pakistan to flood recovery and will reevaluate plans for the remainder because the disaster has dramatically altered the country's needs, the top U.S. aid official said Wednesday.
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Pakistan Denies Militant Group Is Global Terror Threat
www.washingtontimes.com-August 26, 2010
The Pakistani-based militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba is being viewed increasingly by U.S. political and military leaders as a global terrorist threat. But most Pakistanis remain unaware of the group's activities and agenda and continue to give it significant support.
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Mr. Karzai’s Promises
www.nytimes.com-August 26, 2010
It did not take long for President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to forget his latest anticorruption promise. In June, he vowed that “all obstacles” to prosecuting offenders “will be removed.” Then two anticorruption agencies in Kabul arrested dozens of suspects, including a member of Mr. Karzai’s inner circle, on graft charges. Now Mr. Karzai has become one of the main obstacles.
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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's Mission to North Korea
www.csis.org-August 26, 2010
Since Aijalon Mahli Gomes’s incarceration in North Korea began in January, the U.S. State Department has been laboring along with the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang to secure his release.
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US To Supply Taiwan Air Force Radar Equipment
www.associatedpress.com-August 25, 2010
The United States said it will supply radar equipment to Taiwan's air force, an approval of a relatively marginal item less likely to anger China than the F-16 fighter jets the island's president urged Washington to provide last week.
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The Scariest Economy
www.newsweek.com-August 25, 2010
Japan, not Greece, is the real worry.
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Jimmy Carter: Can Obama trust him in North Korea talks?
www.csmonitor.com-August 25, 2010
Jimmy Carter’s arrival in North Korea Wednesday on a mercy mission to free a jailed American citizen has raised speculation about whether the former president’s foray might ease Pyongyang’s tense relations with the world.
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System documents fingerprints in Afghanistan
www.airforcetimes.com-August 25, 2010
The bombmaking material was discovered in a neatly wrapped package under a pile of bricks, just as the intelligence report said it would be.
After carefully removing the contents — a couple of mortar rounds, a grenade and a small amount of gun powder — Army Spc. Joshua Dowling gets to work examining what has all the makings of an improvised explosive device.
"What we are looking for is prints of any known individuals already in our database," he says while applying clear tape to the rusty — but live — mortars, in hopes of lifting a fingerprint.
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Pakistan Floods Disrupt War Supply Lines For U.S. And NATO
www.nytimes.com-August 25, 2010
The immense floods that have inundated sections of Pakistan and cut roads and railways have also disrupted the main supply lines for United States and NATO military forces in Afghanistan.
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Floods Hit Pakistan Economy
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 25, 2010
The flooding in Pakistan will inflict serious damage on its economy, posing another challenge for a cash-strapped government struggling to keep a recovery on track amid high inflation and a relentless Islamist insurgency.
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Pakistan Flooding Stirs U.S. Fears
www.washingtontimes.com-August 25, 2010
Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years are increasing worries in Washington that the disaster will undermine the South Asian nation's political stability and jeopardize U.S. gains across the border in Afghanistan.
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General Says Deadline May Help Sustain Taliban
www.nytimes.com-August 25, 2010
The commandant of the Marine Corps said Tuesday that President Obama’s July 2011 deadline to begin American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan was “probably giving our enemy sustenance.”
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Taliban Could Be Misleading Its Forces
www.washingtonpost.com-August 25, 2010
The commandant of the Marine Corps said Tuesday that Taliban leaders may be misleading their own forces into believing that they only have to keep fighting through the middle of next year, when U.S. troops are slated to begin pulling out of Afghanistan.
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Conway Says Afghan Drawdown Unlikely To Include Marines
www.stripes.com-August 25, 2010
U.S. Marines will be fighting in the southern Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar for years beyond the White House’s July 2011 target date to start withdrawing American troops and transitioning power to local forces across the country, according to the Marine Corps commandant.
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No South Afghanistan Handover For A 'Few Years': US
www.defensenews.com-August 24, 2010
The head of the U.S. Marine Corps said Aug. 24 that a "turnover" to Afghan forces in key southern provinces will not be possible for "a few years," despite a July 2011 deadline for the start of a U.S. drawdown.
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U.S. May Slow 2011 Afghan Pullout
www.arizonarepublic.com-August 24, 2010
A senior U.S. commander on Monday wouldn't predict when Afghanistan might take control of its own security and warned that NATO needs at least another year to recruit and train enough soldiers and police officers.
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With U.S. Approval, Moscow Heads Back to Afghanistan
www.time.com-August 24, 2010
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev played host last week to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the leaders of Pakistan and Tajikistan at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The group's second meeting in a year was a low-key affair, but the subtext was significant. Mounting Russian concerns that Islamist militancy and cheap drugs emanating from Afghanistan are a threat to its national security have made Moscow refocus on the region even as the U.S. and its NATO allies maneuver to draw down.
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Afghanistan Then and Now
www.newsweek.com-August 24, 2010
Photographer Seamus Murphy returned to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010 and revisited locations he had photographed over the previous decade and half.
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Conway: U.S. Withdrawal Deadline Boosts Taliban in Afghan War
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 24, 2010
The top U.S. Marine general said President Barack Obama’s announced July 2011 deadline to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan had given “sustenance” to the Taliban.
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Graft Dispute In Afghanistan Is Test For U.S.
www.nytimes.com-August 24, 2010
As corruption investigations begin to focus on President Hamid Karzai’s inner circle, an Afghan official on Monday pinned blame for endemic corruption in Afghanistan on foreign contractors, which he said had created an “economic mafia” in the war-torn country.
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Afghan Officials Challenge U.S. On Corruption Within Aid Contracts
www.washingtonpost.com-August 24, 2010
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai challenged the United States on Monday to clean up fraud and corruption within the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid contracts it distributes to Afghan companies each year, saying that abuse is far worse than any irregularities in the Karzai administration.
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Commission Tracks Billions Of Contracting Dollars Wasted In Afghanistan
www.washingtonexaminer.com-August 24, 2010
American taxpayers have picked up the tab for billions of dollars worth of shoddy schools, phantom health care clinics and government buildings abandoned before completion in Afghanistan, according to members of a U.S. team that arrived in Kabul on Monday to document the waste and fraud.
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Official Threatens To Re-Arrest Afghan Aide
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 24, 2010
Afghanistan's attorney general threatened to re-arrest a top aide to President Hamid Karzai on Monday, in an escalating standoff between the Afghan leader and two U.S.-backed law-enforcement units devoted to rooting out high-level corruption.
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Troops kill 40 militants east of Afghan capital
http://news.yahoo.com-August 24, 2010
Afghan and international forces have killed about 40 Taliban fighters east of the Afghan capital Kabul as part of operations to provide security ahead of parliamentary elections next month, NATO said Tuesday.
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Insurgent Groups Rouse Fear Before Afghan Elections
www.washingtonpost.com-August 24, 2010
On a recent campaign swing through Kandahar, Afghan parliamentary candidate Khalid Pashtoon brought the essentials: posters, leaflets and 15 bodyguards armed with pistols and rifles.
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CIA Man Is Key To U.S. Relations With Karzai
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 24, 2010
The Obama administration has turned to the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Afghanistan to troubleshoot Washington's precarious relationship with President Hamid Karzai, propelling the undercover officer into a critical role normally reserved for diplomats and military chiefs.
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U.S. Aid Buys Little Goodwill
www.washingtonpost.com-August 24, 2010
Everyone here remembers the Americans.
They came with their blueprints, their engineering know-how and their money. By the time they left in the early 1970s, they had helped build a world-class dam that kept parts of Pakistan dry this month while vast stretches of the country drowned.
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In Pakistan, Power Of Flood Is Also Political
www.washingtonpost.com-August 24, 2010
Pakistan's president said Monday that the calamitous flooding that is wreaking havoc across his country could foment public anger and embolden Islamist militants, but he expressed confidence that his government would survive the crisis
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What Does July 2011 Mean In Afghanistan?
www.usatoday.com-August 24, 2010
In his Dec. 1 speech at West Point announcing that an additional 30,000 U.S. troops would go to Afghanistan, together with several thousand more allied soldiers, President Obama adopted a muscular counterinsurgency approach to the war. As this summer ends, that deployment has been nearly completed. There are nearly 100,000 U.S. troops plus almost 45,000 foreign soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan (along with about 240,000 Afghan army and police forces).
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Australian Elections - Will Oz Lose its Clout in Foreign Policy?
www.csis.org-August 24, 2010
Saturday’s national election in Australia was a popularity contest for the middle dominated by two parties led by ambitious young usurpers of previous party leaders. With 78.76 percent of the votes counted according to results posted online by the Australian Electoral Commission (at the time of publishing), the Liberal-National Coalition led by the Liberal Party’s Tony Abbott had won about 49.37 percent of the seats and incumbent prime minister Julia Gillard’s Labor Party had earned about 50.63 percent. The closest national election in 40 years Down Under resulted in what could be a hung Parliament.
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Conway Predicts Ongoing Marine Presence in Afghanistan
www.defense.gov-August 24, 2010
The commandant of the Marine Corps predicted a continued Marine presence in southern Afghanistan well after July 2011, when a transfer of security responsibilities to the Afghan government is slated to begin.
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Petraeus' Dubious Strategy In Afghanistan
www.chicagotribune.com-August 23, 2010
Gen. David Petraeus recently began a public relations blitz to convince American public opinion that the U.S. should stay the course in Afghanistan rather than holding to President Obama's pledge to start withdrawing troops in July.
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Petraeus 'Would Speak Out' If Afghan Pullout Too Risky
www.bbc.co.uk-August 23, 2010
Gen David Petraeus, who has recently taken command of Nato forces in Afghanistan, has told the BBC that if he felt the deadline of July next year which President Barack Obama has set for the start of an American withdrawal was too risky, he would tell the president so.
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East Afghan Plan: Choke The 'Rat Lines,' Secure The Roads
www.wired.com-August 23, 2010
Make the main roads safe. Stop commuting to the fight. Choke the insurgent “rat lines” that supply attacks on Kabul. Shut down bases where they’re not needed. And get ready to hand off more places to Afghan control.
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Fort Campbell's 101st Pays Steepening Price In Afghanistan
www.usatoday.com-August 23, 2010
It's been a lethal summer for the Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne Division, which has lost 41 soldiers in Afghanistan since March — including 33 in June and July. Nearly 400 have been wounded during that time, military officials said.
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Facing Afghan mistrust, al-Qaeda fighters take limited role in insurgency
www.washingtonpost.com-August 23, 2010
On Aug. 14, a U.S. airstrike in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz killed a Taliban commander known as Abu Baqir. In a country where insurgents are killed daily, this attack was notable for one unusual detail:
Abu Baqir, the military said afterward, was also a member of al-Qaeda.
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Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest
www.nytimes.com-August 23, 2010
When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism.
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Afghanistan Cites Abuse in Moves Against Agencies
www.nytimes.com-August 23, 2010
Afghan officials said Monday that they would announce new regulations on two American-backed anticorruption agencies, accusing them of abusing and humiliating suspects, including a high-ranking presidential adviser who was arrested last month.
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Pentagon Expanding 3 Bases In Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 23, 2010
Three $100 million air base expansions in southern and northern Afghanistan illustrate Pentagon plans to continue building multimillion-dollar facilities in that country to support increased U.S. military operations well into the future.
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Four U.S. Soldiers Die In Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 23, 2010
Four U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in three incidents Sunday, raising the total casualties this month to 33 international troops, including 21 Americans, NATO officials said.
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Four U.S. Troops Killed In Afghanistan
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 23, 2010
Four U.S. troops were killed in fighting in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Sunday, and a former guerrilla leader who battled Soviet invaders decades ago was killed by a roadside bomb in the country's north.
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Captured US Soldier Has Joined Our Cause, Say Taliban
www.myfoxny.com-August 23, 2010
The only known American soldier in Taliban captivity is training fighters in bombmaking and ambush, according to information reported Sunday from one of his captors and the Afghan intelligence agents working to free him.
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U.S., Russia face off over alleged arms trafficker
www.washingtonpost.com-August 23, 2010
Oh, the stories this Russian could tell! If Viktor Bout starts talking to U.S. prosecutors, the man accused of supplying the weapons for civil wars on three continents could raise the roof in Moscow and Washington.
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Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai says he intervened to secure release of imprisoned aide
www.washingtonpost.com-August 23, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted Sunday to intervening on behalf of one of his top aides imprisoned on corruption charges.
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Karzai Admits Helping Free Aide Accused of Graft
www.nytimes.com-August 23, 2010
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan acknowledged Sunday for the first time that he had personally intervened to free a top political aide who had been detained on graft charges by two American-backed Afghan anticorruption units.
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Pakistan is the Afghan war's real aggressor
www.washingtonpost.com-August 23, 2010
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Afghanistan became a rare example of international consensus. The global community, amid competing regional and international interests, undertook a military intervention endorsed and legitimized by the U.N. Security Council. It was common knowledge that al-Qaeda had created a haven in Afghanistan with the support of Pakistan's intelligence agency. Dismantling this regional terrorist infrastructure was considered vital to the international counterterrorism strategy.
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Flood Recovery Could Push Pakistan to the Edge
www.time.com-August 23, 2010
The numbers just keep rising. Nearly a month since heavy monsoon rains caused the worst flooding in Pakistan's history, a fifth of its territory is now enveloped in a sheet of water. The total number of people affected has climbed to 20 million. At the weekend, some 200,000 more people in the worst affected southern province of Sindh abandoned their homes for higher land as the raging Indus River threatened to breach embankments there. The panicked rush from three villages in the Thatta district pushed the total number of people displaced to nearly five million, the largest movement of people in the region since the subcontinent's partition in 1947.
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Arrest Offers Peek Into Russian Criminal World
www.nytimes.com-August 23, 2010
On the Internet, he was known as BadB, a disembodied criminal flitting from one server to another selling stolen credit card numbers despite being pursued by the United States Secret Service.
And in real life, he was nearly as untouchable — because he lived in Russia.
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U.S. General Cites Ambitious Goals to Train Afghan Forces
www.nytimes.com-August 23, 2010
The American commander in charge of building up Afghanistan’s security forces said Monday that in the next 15 months he would have to recruit and train 141,000 new soldiers and police officers — more than the current size of the Afghan Army — to meet President Obama’s ambitious goals for getting Afghan forces to fight the war on their own.
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Russia helps Iran load fuel into its first nuclear plant
www.washingtonpost.com-August 22, 2010
Iranian and Russian engineers began loading nuclear fuel into Iran's first atomic power plant Saturday amid international concern that the Islamic Republic is seeking a nuclear weapon.
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Taliban Intensify Attacks Against Afghan Police
www.nytimes.com-August 22, 2010
A Taliban campaign focusing on the Afghan police appears to have intensified in recent days, with five attacks reported Saturday in which at least 15 policemen were killed throughout the country. Three of the policemen died in a NATO airstrike.
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Next target: The birthplace of the Taliban
www.msnbc.com-August 22, 2010
As Lt. Col. Peter N. Benchoff prepares for an assault next month into the birthplace of the Taliban, he doesn't sugarcoat the hurdles his troops face in this crucial swath of southern Afghanistan.
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Air base expansion plans reflect long-term investment in Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 22, 2010
Three $100 million air base expansions in southern and northern Afghanistan illustrate Pentagon plans to continue building multimillion-dollar facilities in that country to support increased American military operations well into the future.
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Karzai Defends Contractor Phaseout
www.nytimes.com-August 22, 2010
Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, repeated his call for the removal of all private security companies in Afghanistan by the end of the year, saying on Sunday that the firms are “looting and stealing from the Afghan people” and acting as an impediment to the development of Afghan security forces.
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Russia's Long (and Brutal) War on Terror
www.time.com-August 22, 2010
On a Monday morning, March 29, suicide bombers attacked two metro stations in the heart of Moscow. The detonations, timed 40 minutes apart during rush hour for maximum damage, in some ways resembled the 2004 commuter-train attack in Madrid, the July 7 bombings in London a year later and numerous other public acts of terrorism around the globe.
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In Afghanistan, Duty Is Therapy For Unit That Lost 4 In Fort Hood Shooting
www.sanantonioexpressnews.com-August 21, 2010
After nearly 100 missions along a stretch of western Afghanistan where his 510th Clearance Company has found 70 undetonated roadside bombs, Pfc. Alan Carroll sometimes struggles to fall asleep while weighing a simple question. What if?
A survivor of the mass shooting last fall at Fort Hood that left 13 dead, Carroll, 21, of Bridgewater, N.J., wonders what he might have done differently after hearing a voice that he believes belonged to Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cry out “Allahu akbar!” in a crowded post deployment center.
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Prosecutors Eye WikiLeaks Charges
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 21, 2010
Pentagon lawyers believe that online whistleblower group WikiLeaks acted illegally in disclosing thousands of classified Afghanistan war reports and other material, and federal prosecutors are exploring possible criminal charges, officials familiar with the matter said.
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Karzai Will Support Anti-Corruption Teams
www.washingtonpost.com-August 21, 2010
After a series of meetings this week with Sen. John F. Kerry, President Hamid Karzai said Friday that he would support the independent work of two anti-corruption law enforcement units that had come under political pressure from his office after the arrest of one of his aides last month.
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U.S. Aims To Wash Away Hatred In Pakistan Flood Relief Work
www.latimes.com-August 21, 2010
Washington hopes its rescue missions and millions of dollars of aid in flood-ravaged Pakistan will help chip away at the deep-seated dislike and mistrust that many Pakistanis have for America.
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Senior Taliban Commander Killed In Eastern Afghanistan
www.longwarjournal.org-August 20, 2010
Coalition and Afghan forces killed and captured two senior Taliban commanders during raids over the past two days in the eastern province of Logar.
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Family, U.S. Offer Differing Versions Of Deadly Afghan Raid
www.mcclatchynews.com-August 20, 2010
When Ismail Nemati set out from Kabul last week to join his family in nearby Wardak province for the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, friends said, his biggest fear was running into Taliban forces who might question his allegiances.
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Torrent of Challenges for U.S. in Pakistan
www.cfr.org-August 20, 2010
Pakistan's floods have affected twenty million people and killed nearly sixteen hundred so far, according to the United Nations. The United States has been rallying international assistance for Pakistan; on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged additional aid at a UN meeting (BBC) boosting total U.S. flood aid to $150 million, and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) visited flood-ravaged areas in Pakistan to assess ongoing relief efforts.
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Avoiding Disaster in Kashmir
www.csis.org-August 20, 2010
Since mid-June, over 50 civilians, many of them teenagers, have been killed in clashes between stone-pelting protesters and police in the streets of Srinagar and other towns in Kashmir. This could pose a serious threat to peace in South Asia.
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U.S., Afghanistan plan to screen cash at Kabul airport to prevent corruption
www.washingtonpost.com-August 20, 2010
Alarmed by an exodus of money from Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan authorities are trying to constrict a flow of cash through the country's main airport, believed to be a major conduit for drug proceeds and diverted foreign aid.
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Thailand decides to extradite accused Russian arms dealer to U.S.
www.washingtonpost.com-August 20, 2010
A reputed Russian arms dealer will be extradited to the United States, an appeals court in Thailand decided Friday, overturning a lower court's rejection of a U.S. extradition request and ending concern that the man dubbed the "merchant of death" would be set free.
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Thai Court Rules to Extradite Arms Suspect to U.S.
www.nytimes.com-August 20, 2010
A Thai court on Friday ordered the extradition to the United States of Viktor Bout, a Russian businessman suspected of running a large-scale arms trafficking organization that provided weapons to governments, rebels and insurgents across the globe.
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New Afghan Intelligence Chief Aims To Build Trust
www.nytimes.com-August 20, 2010
Afghanistan’s new intelligence chief said this week that the Taliban appeared to have the upper hand in the insurgency but could still be defeated with better cooperation between Afghan and coalition forces and a stronger government effort to build trust in the rural communities.
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Foreigners Boost Insurgency In Afghanistan's East
www.washingtontimes.com-August 20, 2010
As the spotlight of the Afghan war focuses on the south, insurgent activity is increasing in parts of the east, with Arab and other foreign fighters linked to al Qaeda infiltrating across the rugged mountains with the help of Pakistani militants, Afghan and U.S. officials say.
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China Can't Break the Rules
www.carnegieendowment.org-August 20, 2010
The United States and the 45 other countries that set the global rules on nuclear trade expect to be confronted with Chinese plans to flout those rules by building two reactors in Pakistan. The looming deal is emblematic of Beijing’s growing nuclear assertiveness and also threatens to undermine global nonproliferation efforts championed by President Obama. Washington should be critical of this transaction, but more importantly, the United States should use this opportunity to hold bilateral talks with China on nuclear trade, security and nonproliferation issues.
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Afghanistan's National Security Forces
www.cfr.org-August 19, 2010
Building Afghanistan's domestic security forces to the point that they can effectively take over the country's security is critical to the eventual departure of U.S. troops--a fact that U.S. President Barack Obama stressed in 2009 in his strategy for the beleaguered Afghan military campaign. But despite the promises and ongoing commitments, analysts say the process will likely take more time than expected.
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Flood Brings Chaos Back to Pakistan’s Swat Valley
www.nytimes.com-August 19, 2010
Life in the Swat Valley had been torn apart long before floodwaters poured through, toppling homes and destroying crops, livestock and livelihoods.
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Karzai aide part of wider investigation, Afghan officials say
www.washingtonpost.com-August 19, 2010
A close adviser to President Hamid Karzai, arrested last month on charges of soliciting a bribe, was also under investigation for allegedly providing luxury vehicles and cash to presidential allies and over telephone contacts with Taliban insurgents, according to Afghan officials familiar with the case.
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WikiLeaks And Pentagon Disagree About Talks
www.nytimes.com-August 19, 2010
The Pentagon on Wednesday rebutted statements by the WikiLeaks organization that the Defense Department had expressed a willingness to discuss reviewing a trove of classified documents before public release.
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In Afghanistan, IED Attacks Hit High In July
www.usatoday.com-August 19, 2010
Makeshift-bomb attacks in July wounded a record number of U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, and experts say even more would have died without widespread use of armored vehicles
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In Afghanistan, More Attacks On Officials And A Protest Over A Deadly NATO Raid
www.nytimes.com-August 19, 2010
Violence struck southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, with attacks on government and security officials. There were also allegations that NATO forces had killed two civilians in a night raid in the northeast, although the military sharply disputed that.
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Sniper In Afghan Town Puts Marines On Edge
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 19, 2010
Somewhere in this dusty town, concealed among the cornfields, irrigation canals and mud-walled compounds, is a man the Marines particularly want to kill.
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Petraeus Uses Media To Press Patience On Afghanistan War
www.washingtontimes.com-August 19, 2010
A weekend media blitz by the Army's public relations master sent a clear message: It's not time to hit the panic button in Afghanistan, but success in the nearly 9-year-old war won't come quickly.
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Russia Pushes To Increase Afghanistan Business Ties
www.nytimes.com-August 19, 2010
Twenty years after the last Russian soldier walked out of Afghanistan, Moscow is gingerly pushing its way back into the country with business deals and diplomacy, and promises of closer ties to come.
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Russia Pitches In To Battle Taliban
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 19, 2010
Russia is negotiating the sale of about 20 helicopters for Afghanistan, stepping up efforts to help the country's U.S.-backed government battle the Taliban insurgency and drug traffickers.
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U.S. Strategy In Pakistan Is Upended By Floods
www.nytimes.com-August 19, 2010
The floods in Pakistan have upended the Obama administration’s carefully honed strategy there, confronting the United States with a vast humanitarian crisis and militant groups determined to exploit the misery, in a country that was already one of its thorniest problems.
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S.D. Marines, Sailors Helping In Pakistan
www.sandiegotribune.com-August 19, 2010
Marine Cpl. Kyle Wallace of San Diego has walked with a little extra pride for the past week. Well, hustled, not walked, really.
The Marines and sailors of the amphibious ship Peleliu are working long hours to keep their helicopters moving in aid of Pakistan’s flood victims.
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Low Outpouring Of Aid To Pakistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 19, 2010
The United Nations will convene a high-level donors meeting Thursday to prod frugal governments to contribute more to relief efforts in Pakistan, where massive flooding has affected nearly 20 million people but where aid contributions have paled in comparison with previous large-scale disasters.
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U.S. Expects Long Presence In Region Of S. China Sea
www.washingtontimes.com-August 18, 2010
The U.S. military opposes the use of force by countries locked in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea and will maintain its presence in the strategic region for years to come, an American commander said Wednesday.
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Pentagon's China Military Report 'Ignores Objective Truth,' Says China
www.csmonitor.com-August 18, 2010
Beijing reacted angrily Wednesday to a Pentagon report expressing worries about China’s burgeoning military capabilities, calling such concerns baseless.
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U.S., Philippine Militaries Discussed China's 'Assertiveness' At Meeting
www.bloomberg.com-August 18, 2010
U.S. and Philippine military officials discussed the “assertiveness” displayed by China in the South China Sea during a meeting in Manila today.
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U.S. Announces New Joint Exercise With South Korea
www.reuters.com-August 18, 2010
The U.S. military will conduct an anti-submarine warfare exercise with South Korea early next month, sending a message to the North that Washington is committed to defending its ally, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
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An Estimated 20 Million Pakistanis in Desperate Need: Why So Little Media Attention?
www.brookings.edu-August 18, 2010
As of today, the number of Pakistanis affected by the floods is estimated at 20 million – a massive figure that has continued to increase with the United Nations putting the number at 15.4 million only a few days ago. This disaster is unprecedented for Pakistan. The tragic 2005 earthquake in Pakistan killed 86,000 people and affected 4 million. Even more depressing is the fact that the number of people affected by the Pakistani floods is already far greater when compared to other recent major natural disasters; it is more than three times that of Haiti's earthquake or more than 10 times that of Hurricane Katrina.[1]
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Karzai Orders Guard Firms To Disband
www.nytimes.com-August 18, 2010
President Hamid Karzai ordered a four-month phaseout of all private security companies in Afghanistan, domestic and foreign, a move that, if carried out, would create an extraordinary shift in the country’s security, likely slowing many foreign projects and potentially delaying some day-to-day military activities.
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Kerry Delivers Stern Words To Karzai
www.latimes.com-August 18, 2010
The Obama administration on Tuesday delivered what might be its toughest warning yet to President Hamid Karzai over corruption in his government through a messenger who in the past has managed to forge a rapport with the mercurial Afghan leader in times of tension.
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Afghan Vote Spurs Fears Of Violence
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 18, 2010
Next month's Afghan parliamentary elections, which President Hamid Karzai hopes will produce a more compliant legislature, are prompting fears of further violence and fraud, diplomats and international observers say.
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Tactic Fits Afghans To A Tea
www.latimes.com-August 18, 2010
'Three cups of tea' has entered the U.S. troop lexicon as shorthand for a trust-building chat with locals. It is drawn from the bestseller by Greg Mortenson, who sets up girls schools in the region.
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Pakistani floods could further hurt unstable nation as military focuses on aid
www.washingtonpost.com-August 18, 2010
Staggered by the scale of destruction from this summer's catastrophic floods, Pakistani officials have begun to acknowledge that the country's security could be gravely affected if more international aid does not arrive soon.
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Don't Take The Taliban's Bait
www.usatoday.com-August 18, 2010
Most American warriors logically desire to fight with no reservations. But in this our longest war ever, it has become clear that destroying a village to save it works no better in Afghanistan than it did in Vietnam.
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Flooding in Pakistan.
www.msnbc.com-August 18, 2010
A video report from the flooding in Pakistan.
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David Petraeus: The Danger Room Interview
www.wired.com-August 18, 2010
My 45-minute interview Tuesday with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was considerably less physically taxing than the last time we talked in person. While on a military base in Mosul, Iraq, in March 2007, I learned that Petraeus, then the commander of the Iraq war, was on his way there.
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Drones Surge, Special Ops Strike In Petraeus Campaign Plan
www.wired.com-August 18, 2010
Ever since the Afghanistan war became a counterinsurgency fight, critics have charged that commanders’ cautions about using force only inhibit the fight against the Taliban. But in the shadows, NATO Special Operations Forces are engaged in an intensely lethal war of their own.
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Petraeus: Here's My Afghan Redeployment Strategy
www.wired.com-August 18, 2010
General David Petraeus isn’t planning to wake up one morning after July 2011 and order his troops out of Afghanistan’s provinces all at once. Instead, his idea is to slowly and deliberately remove small units, district by district, in an intricate process he describes as “thinning out.”
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Conflicting Objectives for U.S. in Afghanistan
www.cfr.org-August 17, 2010
General David H. Petraeus, in his first extended public interviews as chief U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, made news over the weekend when he argued against a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops in July 2011 and expressed optimism that an achievement of the U.S. objectives there is possible.
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Economic powerhouse China focuses on its military might
www.washingtonpost.com-August 17, 2010
China is quickly modernizing its military and has set its sights on extending its influence deep into the Pacific and Indian oceans now that the military balance with its longtime nemesis, Taiwan, is tilting in its favor, the Defense Department reported Monday.
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Afghans Rebuff Security Contractors
www.washingtonpost.com-August 17, 2010
The Watan Group's trained fighting force of 2,000 men, armed with rifles and rockets, battles daily to secure the most dangerous roads in Afghanistan so that critical supply convoys can reach U.S. and NATO troops across the country.
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Afghan Leader Planning To Ban Private Security Forces
www.nytimes.com-August 17, 2010
President Hamid Karzai is planning to sign a decree this week ordering the disbanding of all private security forces by the end of the year, his spokesman said Monday.
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In Bold Display, Taliban Order Stoning Deaths
www.nytimes.com-August 17, 2010
The Taliban on Sunday ordered their first public executions by stoning since their fall from power nine years ago, killing a young couple who had eloped, according to Afghan officials and a witness.
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A Fight To The Finish
www.nydailynews.com-August 17, 2010
The Taliban want to run out the clock on President Obama's surge strategy. Brooklyn-born Army Lt. Col. John Paganini is determined not to let them.
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Pakistani Terror Network Takes On Major Role In Afghan War
www.washingtonexaminer.com-August 17, 2010
The increasing numbers of fighters linked to a Pakistani terrorist group who have been killed or captured in Afghanistan this month illustrates the network's growing role in the violence there, officials told The Washington Examiner.
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Pentagon Misuses U.S. Emergency Fund On Afghan Power Project, Skelton Says
www.bloomberg.com-August 17, 2010
The Defense Department is misspending at least $227 million on an Afghan power project from a U.S. fund designed to let combat commanders bankroll small, high- impact humanitarian efforts, according to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton.
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Pentagon Cites Concerns In China Military Growth
www.nytimes.com-August 17, 2010
China has increased spending on a military that is becoming larger and more effective even as Beijing has rebuffed exchanges with the Defense Department that could improve stability, according to a Pentagon study released Monday.
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U.S. and South Korea Begin War Drills
www.nytimes.com-August 17, 2010
Tens of thousands of South Korean and United States troops began a new round of war games on Monday, as North Korea threatened a “merciless counterblow” amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
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Seoul To Release Full Report On Ship Sinking
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 17, 2010
South Korea's defense ministry next week will release the results of its investigation into the sinking a South Korean warship in a book-length document, a step officials hope will quell the doubts and criticisms civic activists in Seoul have raised about their work.
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START expiration ends U.S. inspection of Russian nuclear bases
www.washingtonpost.com-August 17, 2010
For the first time in 15 years, U.S. officials have lost their ability to inspect Russian long-range nuclear bases, where they had become accustomed to peering into missile silos, counting warheads and whipping out tape measures to size up rockets.
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Militants Overtake India As Top Threat, Says Pakistan's ISI
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 17, 2010
Pakistan's main spy agency says homegrown Islamist militants have overtaken the Indian army as the greatest threat to national security, a finding with potential ramifications for relations between the two rival South Asian nations and for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
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No ‘Graceful Exit’
www.nytimes.com-August 17, 2010
In his book, “The Promise,” about President Obama’s first year in office, Jonathan Alter describes a brief conversation between the president and Vice President Joe Biden that took place last November at the end of Mr. Obama’s long deliberation about what to do in Afghanistan.
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Conflicting Objectives for U.S. in Afghanistan
www.cfr.org-August 17, 2010
General David H. Petraeus, in his first extended public interviews as chief U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, made news over the weekend when he argued against a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops in July 2011 and expressed optimism that an achievement of the U.S. objectives there is possible.
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Flood-ravaged Pakistan faces donor fatigue
www.msnbc.com-August 17, 2010
Only a small fraction of the 6 million Pakistanis desperate for food and clean water have received any help as the United Nations battled donor fatigue and appealed urgently on Tuesday for more funds.
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China deploys new CSS-5 missiles on border with India
http://timesofindia.com-August 17, 2010
China has moved new advanced longer range CSS-5 missiles close to the borders with India and developed contingency plans to shift airborne forces at short notice to the region, according to Pentagon.
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Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2010
www.defense.gov-August 17, 2010
Over the past 30 years, China has made great progress in its pursuit of economic growth and
development, which has allowed China to achieve higher living standards for the Chinese people and has increased China’s international profile. These economic achievements, combined with progress in science and technology, have also enabled China to embark on a comprehensive
transformation of its military.
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Gen. David Petraeus says Afghanistan war strategy 'fundamentally sound'
www.washingtonpost.com-August 16, 2010
In his first six weeks as the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus has seen insurgent attacks on coalition forces spike to record levels, violence metastasize to previously stable areas, and the country's president undercut anti-corruption units backed by Washington.
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China surpasses Japan as world's No. 2 economy
www.washingtonpost.com-August 16, 2010
Japan lost its place to China as the world's No. 2 economy in the second quarter, as receding global growth sapped momentum and stunted a shaky recovery.
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Petraeus Opposes a Rapid Pullout in Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-August 16, 2010
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces, began a campaign on Sunday to convince an increasingly skeptical public that the American-led coalition can still succeed here despite months of setbacks, saying he had not come to Afghanistan to preside over a “graceful exit.”
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China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy
www.nytimes.com-August 16, 2010
After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.
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U.S. Hopes To Begin Afghan Security Transfer Soon
www.latimes.com-August 16, 2010
Pentagon chief Gates says that with NATO training troops ahead of schedule, some Afghan forces may be given security responsibilities, freeing up Western troops to focus on insurgent-held areas.
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Low Al Qaeda Count Stirs New Debate On War
www.washingtontimes.com-August 16, 2010
With the American public growing more pessimistic about Afghanistan, war proponents are renewing their case in the face of new estimates that say no more than 100 al Qaeda operatives remain in the country.
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North Korea succession: King Jong Ill appoints Jang Song Taek caretaker for Kim Jong Eun
www.washingtonpost.com-August 16, 2010
A career politician named Jang Song Taek recently became the second most powerful man in North Korea, injecting a dose of unpredictability into the power handoff playing out in Pyongyang between a father too sick and a son too young to manage the transition alone.
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U.S. set to award $1 million contract to expand the market for Afghan carpets
www.washingtonpost.com-August 16, 2010
Afghanistan is a nation of weavers, with some 1 million people helping to hand-knot intricate patterns of delicate wool. But it is also a nation at war -- one that lacks factories and the equipment that would suit a proper industry.
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U.S., S. Korea launch joint military exercises amid threats from N. Korea
www.washingtonpost.com-August 16, 2010
Amid threats from North Korea, 86,000 U.S. and South Korean troops on Monday launched their latest round of joint military exercises, described by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as a deterrent against war.
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South Korean leader has reunification plan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 16, 2010
Saying that "unification will happen," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday proposed a three-step plan to unify the Korean Peninsula and a new tax to help his country absorb the enormous costs of integration.
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China Report To Be Released By Pentagon
www.washingtontimes.com-August 16, 2010
The Pentagon this week will release its long-delayed annual report to Congress on China's military with a new title that officials say reflects the Obama administration's conciliatory, "soft power" approach to world affairs.
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John Ubaldi on Sacramento's KFBK Newstalk Radio
www.kfbk.com-August 16, 2010
John Ubaldi on Sacramento's KFBK News Talk Radio commenting on General Petraeus continuation of the Afghan strategy and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates deciding to retire in 2011.
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Massacre Survivor: Victims Had Given Shooter A Lift
www.philly.com-August 15, 2010
One of the gunmen who killed 10 charitable health workers in northern Afghanistan hitched a ride with the medical team shortly before the murders, the sole survivor of the attack said Saturday.
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Taliban's Chilling Hunt And Slaughter
www.nypost.com-August 15, 2010
Pak-trained killers used Facebook to track aid group.
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U.S. Offers Aid To Rescue Pakistanis And Reclaim Image
www.nytimes.com-August 15, 2010
As the Obama administration continues to add to the aid package for flood-stricken Pakistan — already the largest humanitarian response from any single country — officials acknowledge that they are seeking to use the efforts to burnish the United States’ dismal image there.
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20 Million Affected By Floods In Pakistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 15, 2010
Pakistan on Saturday sharply increased its estimate of the number of people affected by this summer's catastrophic floods to 20 million, and the United Nations said that 6 million of those victims lack access to food, shelter and water.
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Suspected US Airstrike Kills 12 People In Pakistan Tribal Region
www.bostonglobe.com-August 15, 2010
Suspected US missiles killed 12 people yesterday in a Pakistani tribal region filled with Islamist insurgents bent on pushing Western troops out of neighboring Afghanistan, intelligence officials said.
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Petraeus: Progress in Afghanistan will take time
www.realclearpolitics.com-August 15, 2010
Progress in Afghanistan only began this spring and needs time to take root, Army Gen. David Petraeus said in comments broadcast Sunday that were aimed at shoring up American support for the war.
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David Gregory Interviews General Petraeus
www.msnbc.com-August 15, 2010
David Gregory Interviews General Petraeus on "Meet the Press"
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Gen. David Petraeus says Afghanistan war strategy 'fundamentally sound'
www.washingtonpost.com-August 15, 2010
In his first six weeks as the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus has seen insurgent attacks on coalition forces spike to record levels, violence metastasize to previously stable areas, and the country's president undercut anti-corruption units backed by Washington.
But after burrowing into operations here and traveling to the far reaches of this country, Petraeus has concluded that the U.S. strategy to win the nearly nine-year-old war is "fundamentally sound."
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Petraeus Builds a Case for Success in Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-August 15, 2010
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces here, began his campaign Sunday to convince an increasingly skeptical public that the American-led coalition can still succeed, saying he had not come to Afghanistan to preside over a “graceful exit.”
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In the Russian Wildfires, Will Putin Get Burned?
http://carnegieendowment.org-August 15, 2010
Russians fainting in the subway. People jumping into city pools and the Moscow River, and in many cases drowning. Ambulances racing around a city eerily free of its normal traffic congestion. Morgues running out of space and corpses piling up on the floor. Hundreds of homeless animals dying of thirst. Muscovites trying to escape but getting stuck at airports that are scrambling to handle some 64,000 flights canceled or badly delayed because of poor visibility. Staff at foreign embassies fleeing. A voice on the radio warning: "Surgical masks do not help. The monoxide gas and the burning substances will stay in your lungs forever!"
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Congress growing more wary about corruption in Afghanistan, Sen. Kerry says
www.washingtonpost.com-August 15, 2010
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), one of the most stalwart backers of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, says Congress is growing increasingly concerned about corruption in that country and that he plans to raise the issue directly with President Hamid Karzai during a visit to Kabul this week
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A New Taliban Stronghold
www.washingtonpost.com-August 15, 2010
In squads of roaring dirt bikes and armed to the teeth, Taliban fighters are spreading like a brush fire into remote and defenseless villages across northern Afghanistan.
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NATO Strike Cited In Afghan Civilian Deaths
www.nytimes.com-August 15, 2010
There is a “fair chance” that a NATO jet inadvertently killed five Afghan civilians during a shootout with Taliban fighters in a village in southern Afghanistan earlier this week, an American official said Saturday.
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Coalition Troops Attack Taliban Faction In East
www.bostonglobe.com-August 15, 2010
More than 20 insurgents — including Arab, Chechen, and Pakistani fighters — have been killed by NATO and Afghan forces who are stepping up operations in the east against a Taliban faction linked to Al Qaeda, the international coalition said yesterday.
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Coalition, Afghan Forces Kill Taliban's Shadow Governor For Nangarhar
www.longwarjournal.org-August 14, 2010
Coalition and Afghan forces killed one of the top Taliban leaders in Nangarhar province during a raid last week that was also said to have killed several civilians.
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Afghans blame civilian deaths on U.S. despite spike from insurgent violence
www.washingtonpost.com-August 14, 2010
During the first six months of the year, 1,271 Afghan civilians had been killed in an increasingly violent war. On Tuesday, Hafizullah Azizi, a handsome 22-year-old who financially supported his mother and five younger siblings, was added to the list.
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U.S. Sees North Korea as Rattling Sabers for an Heir
www.nytimes.com-August 14, 2010
In the 16 years since he assumed his father’s role as North Korea’s sole leader, Kim Jong-il has been denounced by the United States as a vicious dictator who starves his people, runs gulags, sets off nuclear tests and orders attacks on South Korean ships.
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Russians To Fuel Iranian Reactor
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 14, 2010
Russia said it would begin loading nuclear fuel into Iran's Bushehr nuclear-power plant on Aug. 21, marking a crucial final step towards making Tehran a nuclear power.
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WikiLeaks 'will not be threatened' by Pentagon
www.msnbc.com-August 14, 2010
WikiLeaks will publish its remaining 15,000 Afghan war documents within a month, despite warnings from the U.S. government, the organization's founder said Saturday.
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Afghan attack survivor: 1 killer hitched a ride before massacre
www.msnbc.com-August 14, 2010
One of the gunmen who killed 10 charitable health workers in northern Afghanistan hitched a ride with the medical team shortly before the murders, the sole survivor of the attack told The Associated Press on Saturday.
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U.S. Soldiers' Mission Shows Afghan War's Uncertainties
www.mcclatchynews.com-August 13, 2010
Setting out on one of their final patrols in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army and Afghan soldiers waded through waist-deep streams, scampered over crumbling 9-foot-tall mud walls and were closing in on a suspected bomb-making factory when their mission came to an unexpected halt.
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Russia gears up to fuel Iran's first nuclear plant
www.msnbc.com-August 13, 2010
Russia said on Friday it will begin loading nuclear fuel into the reactor of Iran's first atomic power station in about one week, an irreversible step marking the start-up of the Bushehr plant after nearly 40 years of delays.
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Pakistan Fight Stalls for U.S.
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 13, 2010
The U.S. military has stopped lobbying Pakistan to help root out one of the biggest militant threats to coalition forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say, acknowledging that the failure to win better help from Islamabad threatens to damage a linchpin of their Afghan strategy.
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Gates Says Kim Jong-Il's Son Seeks Military 'Stripes'
www.reuters.com-August 13, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday recent provocations by North Korea against the south were probably tied to ailing leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son seeking to earn his military "stripes."
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Burma announces Nov. 7 date for first elections in 20 years
www.washingtonpost.com-August 13, 2010
The Burmese government will hold the country's first elections in 20 years on Nov. 7 despite an increasingly vocal chorus of international criticism.
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Cold War Mindset Harms Peace
www.chinadaily.com-August 13, 2010
The recent decision by the United States to involve its nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the scheduled joint naval drills with the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the Yellow Sea will further compromise its security strategy in East Asia.
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The State Of War
www.nytimes.com-August 13, 2010
We believe that the United States has a powerful national interest in Afghanistan, in depriving Al Qaeda of a safe haven on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This country would also do enormous damage to its moral and strategic standing if it now simply abandoned the Afghan people to the Taliban’s brutalities.
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Iran nuclear plant start date set
www.bbc.com-August 13, 2010
Russia says it will undertake a key step next week towards starting up a reactor at Iran's first nuclear power station.
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Living With a Nuclear Iran
www.theatlantic.com-August 13, 2010
Iran can be contained. The path to follow? A course laid out half a century ago by a young Henry Kissinger, who argued that American chances of checking revolutionary powers such as the Soviet Union depended on our credible willingness to engage them in limited war.
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Chinese admiral says U.S. drill courts confrontation
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 13, 2010
A senior Chinese military strategist called planned U.S. naval exercises in the region a provocation and accused the Obama administration of seeking to encircle China and pursuing a "chaotic" approach toward Beijing.
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Petraeus hedges on July 2011 Afghan pullback goal
www.realclearpolitics.com-August 13, 2010
The new U.S. commander in Afghanistan says the goal of starting an American pullback by July 2011 will depend on conditions at the time.
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Unrest Is Undermining Hopes for Afghan Vote
www.nytimes.com-August 12, 2010
Worsening insurgent violence in many parts of the country is raising concern about Afghanistan’s ability to hold a fair parliamentary election in little more than a month, a crucial test of President Hamid Karzai’s ability to deliver security and a legitimate government.
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Afghanistan Money Probe Hits Close To The President
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 12, 2010
When U.S.-trained agents from an anticorruption task force raided the headquarters of the nation's largest "hawala" money-transfer business, they caught many people by surprise: the company's politically connected executives, the nation's top law-enforcement officer, even Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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U.S. Military Seeks Slower Pace To Wrap Up Afghan Role
www.nytimes.com-August 12, 2010
American military officials are building a case to minimize the planned withdrawal of some troops from Afghanistan starting next summer, in an effort to counter growing pressure on President Obama from inside his own party to begin winding the war down quickly.
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Mayor's Claim To Merchant-Occupied Land For Counterinsurgency Causing Divide
www.washingtonpost.com-August 12, 2010
To the north of this city, U.S. soldiers are in the throes of an arduous operation to clear insurgents from lush vineyards and pomegranate groves. To the east, other newly arrived U.S. units are preparing for another wave of clearing operations.
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U.S. Military Sees Heavier Fighting In Fall
www.associatedpress.com-August 12, 2010
The United States expects heavy fighting around the key Afghan city of Kandahar through this fall, one Pentagon official said Wednesday, dimming hopes for big gains in the war ahead of U.S. elections and a White House review of its war strategy.
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U.S. builds goodwill with quick assistance in Pakistani flooding
www.washingtonpost.com-August 12, 2010
In a country of 170 million people where anti-American sentiment burns brightly, the United States may have won 84 friends Wednesday by scooping them up in the belly of a Chinook helicopter and ferrying them away from this flooded mountain town.
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Russia Moves Missiles Into Breakaway Region
www.nytimes.com-August 12, 2010
Russia announced Wednesday that it had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system in the breakaway Georgian enclave of Abkhazia, a sign that Russian forces were becoming further entrenched in a disputed region at the focal point of Russia’s brief war with Georgia two years ago.
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Russian Actions Don't Jibe With Reset
www.washingtontimes.com-August 12, 2010
As the Obama administration is touting the success of its "reset" in relations with Russia, America's former Cold War rival is challenging key U.S. policies.
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A Chance To Build Trust In Pakistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 12, 2010
The rains that have for the past two weeks caused the worst flooding in northwest Pakistan in eight decades have shifted attention from the country's battle against insurgency and militancy and the fragility of its relationship with the United States.
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Hamid Karzai and America's Vietnam mistake
www.latimes.com-August 12, 2010
Amid growing debate about whether the United States should stay in Afghanistan, one issue of agreement is that Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, is both the central figure in the war and its weakest link.
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Handling Tensions on the Korean Peninsula
www.cfr.org-August 12, 2010
The Korean peninsula has been on edge following the May 20 release of the interim investigation report that fingered North Korea as responsible for sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26. The United States and South Korea will need to manage carefully the risks of any unintended military escalation.
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Showcase Afghan Army Mission Turns to Debacle
www.nytimes.com-August 12, 2010
An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams.
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Long-Ago Human Errors to Blame for Russia’s Peat Fires
www.nytimes.com-August 12, 2010
For two weeks, soldiers with chain saws felled every tree in sight.
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Gen.Petraeus on Afghan Withdrawal
www.msnbc.com-August 12, 2010
General Petraeus on Afghanistan.
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Pakistan's Project Of Renewal
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 11, 2010
Pakistan, a nation beset by political tragedies for generations, now faces a new test of its national character: a natural calamity unprecedented in our history. Millions have been displaced and thousands have died in floods caused by unabated rain. The monsoons are destroying villages and exposing thousands to illnesses including cholera and dysentery. Apart from organizing immediate rescue and relief operations, our people and our government also face the challenges of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
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Russia's LUKOIL resumes gasoline supply to Iran -trade
www.reuters.com-August 11, 2010
Russian oil giant LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote) has resumed gasoline sales into Iran in partnership with China's state-run firm Zhuhai Zhenrong, even as the United States urges the international community to be tough with Tehran.
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U.S. Military to Press for Slower Afghan Drawdown
www.nytimes.com-August 11, 2010
American military officials are building a case to minimize the planned withdrawal of some troops from Afghanistan starting next summer, in an effort to counter growing pressure on President Obama from inside his own party to begin winding the war down quickly.
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U.S. Military Uses Local Projects To Win Over Afghans
www.npr.com-August 11, 2010
Success in the Afghan war will depend on winning the support of the Afghan people. That is a central principle of the military's counterinsurgency strategy, and is one reason the U.S. and NATO are working on construction and agricultural projects throughout the country.
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A senior Chinese military strategist called planned U.S. naval exercises in the region a provocation and accused the Obama administration of seeking to encircle China and pursuing a "chaotic" approach toward Beijing.
www.cfr.org-August 11, 2010
CFR Senior Fellow Stephen Biddle answers questions about the war in Afghanistan.
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In Mission With Afghan Police, Issues of Trust
www.nytimes.com-August 11, 2010
On paper, the plan for the foot patrol looked perfectly safe. A stroll through a couple of villages. Introductions to a few village elders. A two-mile drive back to the guarded walls of the Afghan police headquarters. Easy.
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Afghan Troops Reach 240,000 Goal Early
www.usatoday.com-August 11, 2010
NATO has reached its goal of expanding the size of Afghanistan's army and police to 240,000 three months ahead of schedule, achieving a key measurement that will be used to gauge progress in the war.
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Rising Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan, U.N. Reports
www.nytimes.com-August 11, 2010
The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan continued to climb in the first half of 2010, with an increasing number of children in the toll and a spike in the recently troubled northeast. More than ever, the deaths were caused by insurgents, the United Nations said in a report released Tuesday.
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As Pakistanis flee flood zone, officials decry shortage of international aid
www.washingtonpost.com-August 11, 2010
Hundreds of thousands of people fled an ever-expanding flood zone Tuesday as Pakistan's leaders called for a greater international response to what they say is the worst natural disaster in the country's history.
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German Offensive Aims To Repair Security, Reputation
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 11, 2010
The German military, long criticized by its allies as too passive in the face of a growing insurgency, plans to go on the offensive in Taliban strongholds in northern Afghanistan—despite the risk of a political backlash back home.
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Pakistan Pushing For Quick Infusion Of U.S. Flood Aid
www.washingtonpost.com-August 10, 2010
Pakistan wants the United States to supply immediately dozens more helicopters and significantly more money and supplies to help deal with the widespread flooding that has affected at least 14 million people there, senior Pakistani officials said Monday.
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North Korea Fires Artillery Near Disputed Waters
www.nytimes.com-August 10, 2010
North Korea fired 110 artillery rounds at waters near a disputed western sea border with the South on Monday, escalating tensions already raised to a high pitch by aggressive South Korean naval exercises and the North’s seizure of a squidding boat.
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The Costs of Pakistan's Floods
www.cfr.org-August 10, 2010
The deadliest floods in Pakistan's sixty-three-year history have killed over 1,600 and affected nearly fourteen million people. The devastation is sorely testing the government's capacity, and setbacks are likely in its efforts toward economic growth and development, fight against militancy, and the country's civil-military relations. It also carries implications for international development assistance and the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
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Rising Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan, U.N. Reports
www.nytimes.com-August 10, 2010
The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan continued to climb in the first half of 2010, but more than ever, those deaths were caused by insurgents fighting the government and the American-led coalition, the United Nations said in a report released Tuesday.
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Slain Aid Workers Were Bound by Their Sacrifice
www.nytimes.com-August 10, 2010
Their devotion was perhaps most evident in what they gave up to carry out their mission: Dr. Thomas L. Grams, 51, left a thriving dental practice; Dr. Karen Woo, 36, walked away from a surgeon’s salary; Cheryl Beckett, 32, had no time for courtship or marriage.
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Petraeus Scheduled To Start Spate Of Media Interviews
www.nytimes.com-August 10, 2010
Gen. David H. Petraeus has largely stayed out of the public spotlight since he took command of the military operation in Afghanistan on July 4 and began conducting a countrywide assessment. But that is about to change.
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Pakistani flood disaster gives opening to militants
www.latimes.com-August 10, 2010
With 1,500 dead and nearly 14 million affected by the floods, militant-affiliated aid groups have stepped in with relief work where the government has been unable to, earning goodwill and possible recruits.
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Afghan driver for slain medical volunteers being held by authorities
www.latimes.com-August 10, 2010
An Afghan driver for the humanitarian team that fell into a lethal ambush last week in northeastern Afghanistan is being held and questioned by Afghan authorities, who on Monday declined to say whether he was formally under arrest or suspected of colluding in the attack.
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Taliban Say They Abducted Afghan Soldiers
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 10, 2010
The Taliban took 21 Afghan soldiers hostage and want to exchange the men for militants held in government prisons, a Western official and insurgents said.
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Taliban X: The Next Generation Of Terrorists
www.sfexaminer.com-August 10, 2010
Early last month, Taliban suicide bombers, all believed to be in their early 20s, raided a compound of an American contractor in a northern province of Afghanistan, killing four security officers and themselves.
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Reset the Russian Reset Policy
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