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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Russia battles to defend nuclear sites from fires
http://news.yahoo.com-August 10, 2010
Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud shrouded over Moscow.
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Reset the Russian Reset Policy
www.heritage.org-August 10, 2010
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently proclaimed Eurasia a Russian "sphere of exclusive interests." Moscow has backed up those words with every available foreign-policy tool: diplomacy (including recognition of breakaway republics), arms sales, defense pacts, base construction—even regime change.
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WikiLeaks' Blow to the Surge
www.aei.org-August 10, 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made clear that his objective in releasing tens of thousands of classified documents was to "end the war in Afghanistan" and "oppose an unjust [war] plan before it reaches implementation." He may well achieve his goal. Assange's illegal disclosures are helping the Taliban to undermine Gen. David Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy before it has a chance to work.
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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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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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New Afghan Air War? Don't Count On It, General Says
www.wired.com-August 09, 2010
Of all the controversial moves Gen. Stanley McChrystal made while he was in charge of the Afghanistan war, the most controversial was the directive that reined in air strikes — even when his troops were in mortal danger. Last week, new commander Gen. David Petraeus revised his predecessor’s much-criticized guidelines.
So how will Petraeus’ revised rules change the air war? The answer, according to one of the generals in charge of it: not much.
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Devastated Christian aid group pledges to continue work in Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 09, 2010
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Christian aid group International Assistance Mission was forced to stop working anywhere outside the capital.
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The Taliban Method
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 09, 2010
The barbarity of Islamic extremists has become a commonplace event, but the apparent murder last week of 10 aid workers in Afghanistan, including six Americans, is especially notable as an education in the nature of our enemy.
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Afghan Murders: Last Foreign Dead Identified
www.time.com-August 09, 2010
A Christian charity said Monday it had no plans to leave Afghanistan despite the murders of 10 members of its medical aid team and repeated that the organization does not attempt to convert Muslims to Christianity.
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Karzai Slams 'Foreign Advisers'
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 08, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at foreign interference and called for a ban on the private security companies that protect many Western installations here, in a speech that ratchets up recent tensions with the U.S. over two American-backed anticorruption agencies.
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Taliban Kills 10 Aid Workers
www.washingtonpost.com-August 08, 2010
Gunmen killed 10 members of a medical team, including six Americans, traveling in the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan, demonstrating the reach of insurgents far from their traditional havens and shocking the expatriate community here.
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Gunmen Kill Medical Aid Workers In Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-August 08, 2010
Their last meal was a picnic in the forest in the Sharrun Valley, high in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan.
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The Struggle For Afghanistan: Counting Progress In Small Steps
www.politicsdaily.com-August 08, 2010
In this small corner of violence-wracked Kandahar, the counterinsurgency campaign devised and now commanded in Afghanistan by Gen. David Petraeus has produced a small island of promise, with the beginnings of good security, competent local government and active citizen participation.
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Slain American volunteers were devoted to service
www.latimes.com-August 08, 2010
They were a disparate group of American altruists who had long cared for the poor and ailing, thrown together on a mission to provide medical help in the most daunting and needy of places.
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Attack kills U.S., foreign doctors on medical mission in northern Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 07, 2010
An attack on a caravan of American and European medical personnel in a remote area of northern Afghanistan has killed 10 people, officials said on Saturday.
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6 Americans On Medical Team Killed In Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com-August 07, 2010
Ten members of a medical team, including six Americans, were shot and killed by militants as they were returning from providing eye treatment and other health care in remote villages in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the team said Saturday.
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Antigraft Units, Backed By U.S., Draw Karzai’s Ire
www.nytimes.com-August 07, 2010
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has promised to root out corruption, but after one of his own top aides was arrested by American-supported antigraft units recently, he fired back by investigating the investigators and apparently seeking control over their actions.
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U.S. Base In Kyrgyzstan Remains On Track Despite Tensions
www.washingtonpost.com-August 07, 2010
The United States is planning to move ahead with construction of a $10 million military training base in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, the site of a bloody uprising in June against the new government that reportedly left more than 300 dead.
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Afghans' Fear Of Reprisal Stands In The Way Of U.S. Strategy
www.politicsdaily.com-August 07, 2010
President Obama's problem in Afghanistan is Abdul Nabib.
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"Don't cut funding for civilian 'presence posts' in Iraq"
www.understandingwar.org-August 06, 2010
After weeks of gridlock, Congress late last month passed legislation providing $33 billion of critical “supplemental” funding for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, lost in the last-minute legislative shuffle were funds for a small but critical initiative that will be central to ensuring the hard-won security achieved in Iraq since the surge of 2007 doesn’t unravel as U.S. forces withdraw over the months ahead.
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Wolf Seeks 'Fresh Eyes' On Mission In Afghanistan
www.washingtontimes.com-August 06, 2010
Nine years into the war in Afghanistan, the American people and their elected representatives still do not have a clear sense of U.S. goals in the region, a senior House Republican says in a letter to President Obama.
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U.S. worried by Karzai's attempt to assert control over corruption probes
www.washingtonpost.com-August 06, 2010
Obama administration officials fear that a move by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assert control over U.S.-backed corruption investigations might provoke the biggest crisis in U.S.-Afghan relations since last year's fraud-riddled election and could further threaten congressional approval of billions of dollars in pending aid.
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Afghans Say NATO Strikes Killed Civilians
www.nytimes.com-August 06, 2010
NATO officials acknowledged preliminary reports that four to a dozen or more civilians were killed in a coalition airstrike Thursday in Nangarhar Province. Afghan accounts put the civilian deaths as high as 32.
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Afghan civilians killed in nighttime U.S. raid
www.latimes.com-August 06, 2010
As many as "a dozen or more" Afghan civilians died during a nighttime raid by U.S. troops hunting for Taliban commanders in eastern Afghanistan, military officials acknowledged Thursday.
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U.S. Tells WikiLeaks To Return Afghan War Logs
www.nytimes.com-August 06, 2010
The Pentagon demanded on Thursday that WikiLeaks “do the right thing” and remove from its Web site tens of thousands of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan, and return to the military thousands of others that it had not yet made public.
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Pentagon demands that WikiLeaks give back leaked reports and not post others
www.washingtonpost.com-August 06, 2010
Eleven days after the renegade Web site WikiLeaks publicly disclosed more than 70,000 classified U.S. field reports from the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Thursday that it wants them back.
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Pentagon demands Wikileaks return documents
www.washingtonpost.com-August 05, 2010
Eleven days after the renegade Web site Wikileaks publicly disclosed more than 70,000 classified U.S. field reports from the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Thursday that it wants them all back.
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Russia, Crippled by Drought, Bans Grain Exports
www.nytimes.com-August 05, 2010
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday banned all exports of grain after millions of acres of Russian wheat withered in a severe drought, driving up prices around the world and pushing them to their highest level in two years in the United States.
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Karzai Targets Two U.S.-Backed Task Forces
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 05, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai stepped up tensions with the U.S. on Wednesday by asserting control over two American-backed anticorruption task forces, ordering a handpicked committee to review all their investigations.
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Karzai Seeks Probe Of U.S.-Backed Anti-Corruption Unit
www.washingtonpost.com-August 05, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for an investigation into a U.S.-backed anti-corruption task force, following the arrest of several senior Afghan officials on graft charges.
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US Happy With Afghan Contribution
www.theaustralian.com-August 05, 2010
THE US Joint Chiefs of Staff do not believe they are "carrying Australia" in Afghanistan.
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Portrait Of Pain Ignites Debate Over Afghan War
www.nytimes.com-August 05, 2010
She cannot read or write and had never heard of Time magazine until a visitor brought her a copy of this week’s issue, the one with the cover picture of her face, the face with no nose.
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Afghans Killed By IEDs On Rise In 2010
www.usatoday.com-August 05, 2010
Bombs planted by insurgents have killed 75% more Afghan civilians this year than in 2009 as the Taliban increasingly targets villagers in a campaign of intimidation, according to military reports provided to USA TODAY.
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Petraeus Issues New War Rules
www.latimes-August 05, 2010
The new American commander of Western forces in Afghanistan has issued a directive asserting troops' right to defend themselves, but also calling on them to continue efforts to safeguard Afghan civilian lives, military officials said Wednesday.
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Petraeus Reloads Rules Of Engagement
www.usatoday.com-August 05, 2010
The top commander in Afghanistan on Wednesday issued updated rules that limit the use of artillery and airstrikes but recognize the right to use firepower in self-defense.
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Petraeus COIN Guidance Focuses On Corruption, Culture And Public Relations
www.examinar.com-August 05, 2010
General David Petraeus released his guidance for conducting counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Afghanistan on Tuesday which outlines 24 key principles that the General wants all soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and civilians of NATO, ISAF and US Forces-Afghanistan to keep at forefront of mind.
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How to Square the Caucasian Circle
http://carnegieendowment.org-August 05, 2010
Two years ago this weekend, war broke out between Russia and Georgia. At the time many expressed fears of a new cold war between Moscow and the west. In fact, relations have improved, but the situation in the separatist territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remains deadlocked. While bonhomie has broken out between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on a range of issues, their governments still trade accusations over Georgia.
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U.S. PR offensive highlights insurgent attacks on Afghan civilians Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/04/98644/us-pr-offensive-highlights-insurgent.html#ixzz0vl9l16uM
www.mcclatchynews.com-August 04, 2010
In one of his first major initiatives since he took command of the international force in Afghanistan a month ago, Army Gen. David Petraeus has launched a public relations offensive to focus attention on the Taliban-led insurgency's killings and abuse of Afghan civilians.
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New Rules Stress G.I.s’ Limits In Afghan Fighting
www.nytimes.com-August 04, 2010
Gen. David H. Petraeus is expected to issue new guidelines shortly on the use of force in Afghanistan that expand restrictions on artillery strikes and aerial bombardment but clarify that troops have the right to self-defense. He is hoping to persuade the troops that the unpopular rules will pay off in trust won on the ground.
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How The U.S. Reshaped An Afghan Prison's Image
www.usatoday.com-August 04, 2010
In an outdoor field, inmates at the Detention Facility in Parwan play soccer in the shadow of the transport planes, shipping containers and thousands of troops that cram this major hub of the Afghanistan war.
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6 Die In Futile NATO Base Attack
www.latimes.com-August 04, 2010
All six assailants are killed. It is the latest in a series of assaults on Western installations that, while futile, seem designed to demonstrate Taliban fearlessness.
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Mr. President, Quit Afghanistan, Too
www.usatoday.com-August 04, 2010
How did such a smart president as Barack Obama trip over such an obvious non sequitur?
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Iraq's Blessed Affliction
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 04, 2010
As President Barack Obama focuses American attention on this month's drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq, the result of Iraq's last national election remains uncertain. No clear victor emerged when ballots were cast in March, as the opposing blocs of former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won 91 and 89 seats, respectively. No governing coalition has formed in five months of political jockeying, and the Iraqi people are frustrated.
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Women Candidates In Afghanistan Travel A Dangerous Campaign Trail
www.politicsdaily.com-August 04, 2010
Afghan women running in the country's parliamentary elections in September face security threats that make campaigning difficult, and at times impossible. Female candidates have reported receiving verbal threats and "night letters" from the Taliban that threaten violence if they don't stop their efforts, according to nonprofits working in the country.
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In Kandahar, Echoes Of Baghdad
www.washingtonpost.com-August 03, 2010
This city is starting to feel a lot like Baghdad.
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Car Bomber Fails To Reach Afghan Governor, But Kills Children At Play
www.nytimes.com-August 03, 2010
To residents of this farming village just outside the city of Kandahar on Monday, the erratic driver of a white Toyota Corolla appeared to be a learner, or possibly a drunk driver, swerving from one side of the highway to the other.
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Protecting Afghan Lives Benefits U.S. Troops, Study Finds
www.latimes.com-August 03, 2010
Efforts to reduce civilian casualties by restricting U.S. airstrikes and other uses of force in Afghanistan are also sparing American troops from attack, according to a study to be unveiled Tuesday.
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Is Afghanistan Worth It?
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 03, 2010
The U.S. cannot remain a superpower if the suspicion takes root that we are a feckless nation.
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Gates Hints At A Gradual Afghanistan Drawdown
www.latimes.com-August 02, 2010
U.S. troops are slated to start leaving the country a year from now. The Defense secretary says the numbers may be limited at first. 'It will depend on the conditions,' he says.
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Gates, Pelosi Split On Afghan Pullout Pace
www.politico.com-August 02, 2010
In a pair of interviews airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Defense Secretary Robert Gates and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took decidedly different tacks about the speed with which U.S. troops should pull out of Afghanistan when the scheduled withdrawal gets underway next summer.
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'Modest Goal' Set For War
www.washingtontimes.com-August 02, 2010
The Obama administration and leading Democrats are dialing back expectations for the Afghanistan war, saying that their goal is to root out terrorists, not engage in a major nation-building project.
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Petraeus Resets Afghan Airstrike Rules
htttp://online.wsj.com-August 02, 2010
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have eased a rule covering the use of force that has been a source of discontent among American troops, according to military officials.
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Deaths In Afghan War Rise With Taliban Drive
www.usatoday.com-August 02, 2010
Stepped-up operations against the Taliban explain why June and July have become the deadliest months for U.S. troops since the Afghan war began in 2001, coalition officers say.
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U.S. Cleared In Afghan Crash That Led To Rioting
www.nytimes.com-August 02, 2010
The Kabul police have cleared a United States Embassy vehicle of fault for a deadly collision on Friday that set off anti-American rioting near the embassy, a senior police official said Sunday.
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Afghans March In Kabul To Protest Civilian Deaths
www.washingtonpost.com-August 02, 2010
Afghan protesters marched through downtown Kabul on Sunday morning chanting anti-American slogans and denouncing NATO bombardments that have killed civilians.
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Dutch Troops End Mission In Afghanistan
www.washingtonpost.com-August 02, 2010
The Netherlands became the first NATO country to end its combat mission in Afghanistan, drawing the curtain Sunday on a four-year operation that was deeply unpopular at home and even brought down a Dutch government.
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Irrigation Project Aims To Help Kandahar Thrive Again
www.latimes.com-August 02, 2010
Perilous security hasn't stopped the Canadian effort in southern Afghanistan, 'the kind of thing that can really make a difference,' a project analyst says.
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Australian Weapons Found In Hands Of Taliban, WikiLeaks Reveals
www.sydneymorninghearld.com-August 02, 2010
Australian weapons and equipment have repeatedly been discovered among Taliban stockpiles, raising fears that Afghan troops trained by Diggers have been pilfering military supplies.
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South Asia Monitor: A Difficult Road Ahead: India's Policy on Afghanistan
www.csis.org-August 01, 2010
Common wisdom in Afghanistan says, “The West has all the watches but the Taliban has all the time.” Following the decision by U.S. president Barack Obama in December 2009 to announce that the United States will begin to reduce its presence in Afghanistan by July 2011, the region has taken this as a signal of U.S. disengagement. India’s goals are a dismantled Afghan Taliban; an inclusive, democratic state with normal relations with India; and better transport and economic ties through Afghanistan into Central Asia.
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With Friends Like These...
www.newsweek.com-August 01, 2010
The Afghan Taliban say they have one thing in common with the Americans: they’re both getting played by Pakistan.
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Kiss This War Goodbye
www.nytimes.com-August 01, 2010
The national yawn that largely greeted the war logs is most of all an indicator of the country’s verdict on the Afghan war itself, now that it’s nine years on and has reached its highest monthly casualty rate for American troops. Many Americans at home have lost faith and checked out.
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US officials say war goals modest in Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com-August 01, 2010
As the war in Afghanistan faces a loss of public and congressional support and U.S. casualties rise sharply, the Obama administration is painting its goals for the war as humble and achievable while warning there is no quick fix.
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Afghans protest civilian deaths, American presence and NATO bombardments
www.washingtonpost.com-August 01, 2010
Afghans marched through the streets of Kabul on Sunday morning chanting anti-American slogans and denouncing NATO bombardments and the American presence in Afghanistan.
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Targeted Killing Is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-August 01, 2010
When President Obama announced his new war plan for Afghanistan last year, the centerpiece of the strategy — and a big part of the rationale for sending 30,000 additional troops — was to safeguard the Afghan people, provide them with a competent government and win their allegiance.
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Burden Of War In Afghanistan Shifts Even More To The U.S.
www.latimes.com-August 01, 2010
U.S. troops now account for about two-thirds of the NATO force in Afghanistan, and Americans make up more than two-thirds of July's Western military fatalities.
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U.S. Wearing Down Al Qaeda In Afghan
www.nydailynews.com-August 01, 2010
The Obama administration is increasingly confident it's breaking the spine of Al Qaeda and its threat to America - and the epicenter of that huge offensive is in this war-torn capital.
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NATO-Led Afghan Troops Rescue 2,000 From Floods
www.nytimes.com-August 01, 2010
Dozens of people were killed and thousands more were rescued by NATO-led Afghan forces after flash floods set off by heavy monsoon rains that struck rugged and remote northeast Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.
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Nato Troops Surround Taliban Sheltering In Afghan Town
www.guardian.co.uk-July 31, 2010
Allied soldiers launch new attack to clear almost 200 insurgents from Sayedabad in Helmand province
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WikiLeaks And War: Troops Soldier On As Hubbub Rages At Home
www.politicsdaily.com-July 31, 2010
As Washington grappled this week with WikiLeaks, a small group of U.S. troops, Afghan soldiers and police and Norwegian military advisers quietly surrounded the village of Qal'a-i-wali, three miles north of this U.S. outpost deep in Taliban country of northwest Afghanistan.
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Afghan Women Fear The Loss Of Modest Gains
www.nytimes.com-July 31, 2010
Women’s precarious rights in Afghanistan have begun seeping away. Girls’ schools are closing; working women are threatened; advocates are attacked; and terrified families are increasingly confining their daughters to home.
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July's Toll Worst For U.S. Troops In Afghanistan
www.nytimes.com-July 31, 2010
The deaths of at least 66 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen have made July the deadliest-ever month for American troops in the nine-year war in Afghanistan. The tally includes six American service members who died in four separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday.
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July Becomes Deadliest Month Of War For U.S.
www.washingtonpost.com-July 31, 2010
With the deaths of six troops on Thursday and Friday, July has become the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly nine-year-long war in Afghanistan.
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U.N. Removes 5 Taliban From Its Sanctions List
www.nytimes.com-July 31, 2010
The United Nations Security Council removed five members of the Taliban from its sanctions list on Friday, in a nod toward the kind of reconciliation considered crucial for Afghanistan’s future stability.
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The Afghan Surge Deserves A Chance To Work
htttp://online.wsj.com-July 31, 2010
In recent weeks, many experts have made the case for minimizing the U.S. role in Afghanistan and falling back on a more modest strategy. This week's WikiLeaks scandal exacerbated the situation, putting supporters of President Obama's strategy on the defensive even though the leaked dispatches were unsurprising in content.
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No Afghan Ally Left Behind
www.nytimes.com-July 31, 2010
A TALIBAN spokesman announced Thursday that the group is poring over the tens of thousands of classified military documents published by WikiLeaks this week, looking for the names of pro-American Afghans.
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U.S.-Led Coalition Finds 'Success' Elusive In Kandahar
www.mcclatchynews.com-July 30, 2010
As the U.S.-led coalition launches its most critical military operation of the nine-year war in Afghanistan, doubts are growing about whether the United States and its allies can contain the surging Taliban-led insurgency and prevent the country from reverting to an al Qaida sanctuary or erupting in civil war.
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WikiLeaks' Fallout for U.S.-Pakistan Ties
www.cfr.org-July 30, 2010
The classified U.S. military documents related to the war in Afghanistan leaked by WikiLeaks.org paint a grim picture of collusion between Pakistan's intelligence service, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and members of the Afghan Taliban.
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Afghan Women Fear Loss of Rights if the Taliban Return
www.nytimes.com-July 30, 2010
Women’s still-precarious rights in Afghanistan have begun seeping away. Girls’ schools are closing; working women are threatened; advocates are attacked; and terrified families are increasingly confining their daughters to home.
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Taliban Study WikiLeaks To Hunt Informants
www.nytimes.com-July 30, 2010
A spokesman for the Taliban told Britain’s Channel 4 News on Thursday that the insurgent group is scouring classified American military documents posted online by the group WikiLeaks for information to help them find and “punish” Afghan informers.
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Admiral Makes Good On Promise
www.sanantonioexpressnews.com-July 30, 2010
America's most senior military official, here for a second time to meet with tribal elders from Kandahar, barely settled into his chair when one leader brought up the thorniest issue of the day: attacks in his city by coalition troops.
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July becomes deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan
www.msnbc.com-July 30, 2010
Three U.S. service members were killed in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the toll for July to at least 63 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war.
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Gates Assails WikiLeaks Over Release of Reports
www.nytimes.com-July 30, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Thursday denounced the disclosure this week of 75,000 classified documents about the Afghanistan war by the Web site WikiLeaks, asserting that the security breach had endangered lives and damaged the ability of others to trust the United States government to protect their secrets.
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Mullen Says Leak Put Troops And Afghans In Danger
www.washingtonpost.com-July 30, 2010
The U.S. military's top officer charged Thursday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in releasing tens of thousands of secret documents, had endangered the lives of American troops and Afghan informants who have assisted U.S. forces.
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Gates Says WikiLeaks Endangering Lives
www.latimes.com-July 30, 2010
The Pentagon chief says the disclosure of thousands of Afghan war documents is a 'major security breach' that could have 'severe and dangerous' consequences on the battlefield.
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Computer Evidence Ties Leaks To Soldier
htttp://online.wsj.com-July 30, 2010
Investigators have found concrete evidence on computers used by Pfc. Bradley Manning that link him with the leak of classified Afghanistan war reports, a U.S. defense official said.
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Taliban Exploit Openings in Neglected Province
www.nytimes.com-July 30, 2010
Almost unnoticed, this strategic northern province is slipping away from government control.
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Afghan war spending faces new scrutiny
www.washingtonpost.com-July 30, 2010
As part of its attempt to boost Afghanistan's economic and political development, the United States is paying thousands of Afghan contractors and subcontractors to perform much of the work that supports U.S. efforts there. But the "Afghan First" program could be achieving just the opposite of its intended effect, according to officials trying to figure out where the money is going.
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Body Of Second Missing U.S. Sailor Found
www.nytimes.com-July 30, 2010
The United States military has recovered the body of the second of two American sailors abducted last week in a dangerous region south of Kabul, but it was not clear precisely how he had died.
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Strategy: Fight Hard But Be A Good Guest
www.usatoday.com-July 30, 2010
Winning hearts and minds is slow work. It's also hot, dirty, frustrating and dangerous.
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Contractors, Afghan Recruits In Deadly Training Dispute
www.washingtontimes.com-July 30, 2010
A training exercise this month erupted into a deadly gunfight between Afghan and U.S. instructors, illustrating the problems officials face in preparing the Afghan soldiers and police officers for the drawdown of U.S. troops next year.
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Afghan Women And The Return Of The Taliban
www.time.com-July 30, 2010
The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose.
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Karzai Calls Wikileaks Disclosures 'Shocking' And Dangerous To Afghan Informants
www.washingtonpost.com-July 29, 2010
President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday that the disclosure of the names of Afghan informants in the trove of classified U.S. military documents posted online by the WikiLeaks Web site was "extremely irresponsible and shocking."
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The Missing Word in Our Afghanistan Strategy
htttp://online.wsj.com-July 29, 2010
What President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron didn't say during last week's joint news conference may have mattered more than what they did say. The omissions could lead to a grave setback in the war on terror and deadly results for the Afghan people.
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Biden says no plans to nation-build in Afghanistan
www.reuters.com-July 29, 2010
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday the United States was not in Afghanistan to "nation-build" but for the sole purpose of |
