Afghan chaos growing Options

[piccadilly]

Witnesses and local officials said the two villagers were shot Feb. 11while they fled across a field, according to witnesses and local officials. In an interview with the Pakistan Tribune, two witnesses said that after the initial gunfire, soldiers approached one of the wounded Afghans and shot him dead at close range.

I plead guilty to the charge of cynism.

------------------------
02 Feb 2005

Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, an infantry officer who has commanded Marines in both Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites), made the comments Tuesday while speaking to a forum in San Diego about strategies for the war on terror. Mattis is the commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.

According to an audio recording of Mattis' remarks, he said, "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."

He added, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis continued. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

[ghostgovt]

The world does notice what we do in Afghanistan.


Saturday, March 05, 2005
China's report attacks US record in Iraq, Afghanistan
XINHUAonline: The atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the infringement of human rights of foreign nationals by the United States, according to the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004.

The report, released by the Information Office of China's State Council on Thursday, said that according to US media like the Newsweek and the Washington Post, as early as several years ago, in US forces' prisons in Afghanistan, interrogators used various kinds of torture tools for acquiring confession, causing many deaths.

.....The report said, to avoid international scrutiny, the United States keeps under wraps half of its 20-odd detention centers worldwide which are holding terrorist suspects. And at least seven US-controlled clandestine prisons, one of which dubbed "inferno," in Afghanistan, have not been kept within the bounds of law.

Link:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/...ent_2643279.htm

[Americana]

Afghanistan Makes Progress on Many Fronts
Following is a fact sheet from the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan September 12 detailing the progress accomplished in Afghanistan during the past month on a variety of fronts
U.S. Embassy, Afghanistan


The focus of the United States and its coalition partners continues to be reconstruction, elections and Disarmament, Demobilization, and Re-integration (DDR). The facts below list progress made in Afghanistan on several fronts over the last month.
Elections & Voter Registration
-- To date over 10.6 million Afghans have registered to vote -- 41 percent of them are women.
-- The presidential election campaign season officially opened September 7.
Education
-- More than 4.8 million children are enrolled in schools throughout the country, the largest number in the history of Afghanistan.
-- 500,000 children are expected to return to the warm-weather school locations this September in the south and east.
Afghan National Army (ANA)
-- The ANA has 13,500 soldiers. There are another 3,000 currently being trained.
Afghan National Police
-- The Afghan National Police has 29,275 police officers (trained by the United States and Germany).
Disarmament, Demobilization, and Re-integration (DDR)
-- 14,665 Afghan Militia Forces have been disarmed since April.
-- 12,720 of those soldiers are about to begin the reintegration program.
Heavy Weapons Cantonment
-- Heavy weapons are now completely cantoned in Kabul.
-- Cantonment continues in Gardez, Mazar, and Jalalabad and will begin in Konduz today (September 12).
Infrastructure
-- Work began on the Kandahar to Tirin Kowt Road. The road will be complete at the end of 2005.
Refugee & IDP return
-- Over 600,000 refugees and internally displaced persons have returned to their homes since January 2004.
http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20040914-12.html

[underbear1]

I haven't heard one word about Afghanistan in mainstream press since Cheney went to the swearing in of the President. Knowing how skilled Rove and Mehlman are at propaganda, if there was good news in Afghanistan they'd have some paid oaf like Gannon or Armstrong Williams singing their praises 24/7. I'd like to hear from some of the educated women in Afghanistan how they are faring?
I saw a documentary that the Taliban is busy in Northern Pakistan poisoning the teachings of conservative Islamic teachers with their subjegation of women philosophy. The Taliban hasn't gone very far away, they are regrouping and building followers, and will return to Afghanistan as soon as they can. Afghan women forget buying wheat seeds, buy a rifle!

[ghostgovt]

sadly this poor country now has this to deal with on top of the chaos of war that continues inside their country.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefie...11030062133.htm

Christian Aid - UK
Website: http://www.christianaid.org.uk
More than 500 people, many of them women and children, are reported to have died in Afghanistan’s worst winter weather for a decade.

Tens of thousands more have been cut off by heavy snowfall and are suffering from food shortages and outbreaks of disease.

Avalanches, snow storms and blocked roads are hampering the delivery of relief.

There are also concerns about the possibility of serious flooding when the weather improves and the snow starts to melt.

While Afghanistan has experienced floods before, this year the risks are much higher because of the increase in snow and ice.

'Not only do Afghans face insecurity and lawlessness but also have to try and survive in increasingly hostile weather.

'Of course, there are fears that the current death toll will rise still further. Afghanistan’s human development ranking stands at 173 out of 178 countries worldwide1.It is no surprise that the people of Ghor are struggling to cope’.

[heritage]

Gunmen Kill British Worker in Afghanistan

Updated 4:24 AM ET March 8, 2005

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...88mmuio0&src=ap

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Gunmen shot and killed a Briton who worked with Afghanistan's rural development ministry in a nighttime attack in downtown Kabul that followed a monthslong lull in violence in the city, police and the British embassy said Tuesday.

Steven Blair MacQueen, 41, was killed at about 10:15 p.m. Monday as he drove a pickup truck in front of the main guest house for U.N. workers in Kabul and the Dutch Embassy, Gen. Sher Agha, a Kabul police commander, told The Associated Press.

The British Embassy confirmed the death, and said MacQueen's next of kin had been informed.

The motive for the shooting was unclear.

Agha said two vehicles, one of them a black landcruiser, had followed the British man's white, Toyota pickup truck then drove ahead of him and blocked his way. From inside the landcruiser, someone opened fire, killing the man, before driving away.....

Since holding its first direct presidential elections in October, Afghanistan has enjoyed a period of relative calm, marked by a decline in attacks by Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents that have plagued restive areas of the south and east.

But in November, three foreign election workers were kidnapped in Kabul by a Taliban splinter group. They were released unharmed a month later.

In December, a Turkish engineer working on a U.S.-sponsored road project was kidnapped and killed by unidentified kidnappers in eastern Kunar province.

Although the three years since the ouster of the Taliban has seen numerous attacks on aid workers in the countryside, there have been few attacks against foreigners in the capital which is patrolled by thousands of NATO peacekeepers.

The bloodiest incidents targeting foreigners in the past year were a car bomb explosion in August outside the office of a U.S. security company that provides bodyguards for President Hamid Karzai, killing about 10 people. In October, a suicide attacker killed an American translator and an Afghan girl on a market street popular with foreigners.

[ghostgovt]

Here's a little more to add to your last posting Heritage.... Hope Americana isn't living in
Kabul... I'd hate for his/her trust in any BushCo improvements in Afghanistan to cause any disruptions in his/her life there.


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050309/325/fdzcu.html

Wednesday March 9, 11:54 AM

Westerners told to lie low in Kabul

KABUL (Reuters) - Westerners living in Kabul have been advised to keep a low profile and avoid moving around at night after the shooting of a British consultant to the Afghan government, diplomats and security sources say.


********************************************************

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...bcontinent&col=


Afghan bomb explosion wounds four people
(Reuters)

9 March 2005


MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan - At least four people were wounded when a home-made bomb exploded in Afghanistan’s northwest province of Faryab, a police officer said on Wednesday.

The bomb exploded on Tuesday in Maimana town, the provincial capital of Faryab, minutes after an explosion outside a Western-funded aid group called Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA), the officer said.

The first blast caused minor damage to the CHA office, but attracted a crowd of people to the site.

This post has been edited by ghostgovt: Mar 9 2005, 09:07 AM

[ghostgovt]

Further update on Afghan's bad conditions.
March 13, 2005

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=7884925


By Simon Cameron-Moore

KABUL (Reuters) - The right to vote, record numbers of children in school, near eradication of polio and a budding media vouch for Afghanistan's recovery from decades of conflict, the U.N.'s chief spokesman said in a farewell on Sunday.

[Insecurity and economic depredation still bedevil the country more than three years after U.S.-backed Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban militia for refusing to surrender Osama bin Laden following al Qaeda's Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"I think there is frustration of people of Afghanistan who do not see what they expected to see in immediate benefits today as a result of the peace process. (That) is a low," Silva said, recalling highs and lows of his three-year assignment.

But the 52-year-old Brazilian, whose last job was as deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said he saw enough to believe Afghans can overcome the past quarter century of conflict.]

[ He said the country badly needed an effective police and judicial system and that people in positions of power should be properly vetted to guard against human rights abuses.

Unemployment is chronic, housing bad, public health facilities are grossly inadequate and infrastructure requirements are massive for the Central Asian nation of 28 million. ]

[ghostgovt]

http://www.spa.gov.sa/newsview.php?extend.246864


Afghan parliamentary elections may be postponed for six months
due to logistical reasons. It appears that the country is still at unrest.

[ghostgovt]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050316/325/fedp5.html

Wednesday March 16, 03:10 PM

Mines kill US soldier and 5 Afghans

AFGHAN SOLDIER
Click to enlarge photo

KABUL (Reuters) - Five Afghan civilians have been killed by a land mine explosion near the same spot where a U.S. soldier died and four others were wounded hours earlier in a similar blast.

[ghostgovt]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050317/325/fegg7.html


Thursday March 17, 07:32 PM

Rice's Afghanistan visit marred by bomb

KABUL (Reuters) - A bomb blast in southern Afghanistan has killed at least five people as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a one-day trip, pledging long-term U.S. commitment to support Afghanistan's transition to democracy.

More than 30 people were wounded. A senior security officer blamed Taliban loyalists for the attack, but a Taliban spokesman denied responsibility.

***************************************************

http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...70459/1001/NEWS

Iowa soldier killed in Afghanistan

By COLLEEN KRANTZ
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
March 17, 2005

A western Iowa soldier fighting in Afghanistan has been killed less than a week after his arrival, the man's wife said Thursday.

[heritage]

Rice: 'We Will Get Bin Laden'

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr..._050317&src=abc

Updated 5:18 PM ET March 17, 2005

......JONATHAN KARL: President Musharraf has promised that he would get out of his military uniform, step down as the leader of the Army in December. He did not do so. Is that going to cost him in terms of his relationship with the United States?

RICE: We have had discussions with the Pakistanis. In fact, I've had discussions since I've been here in Pakistan about the importance of a democratic path for Pakistan -- that whatever else happens, however important and central our relationship is, the President also cares about progress of democracy in Pakistan. There are good signs here. There is a burgeoning free press. I think people's individual liberties are flourishing. President Musharraf has been aggressive in trying to rid Pakistan of some of the extremist elements that were growing up here, as a result of the connections earlier on to Afghanistan. He has also launched an educational reform that's an extremely important element. And if you look at where this country was on Sept. 11, you have to say it was a country on verge of extremism being heavily and deeply rooted in Pakistan, and much of that is now being addressed. So, yes, we are very concerned and made it clear to our allies here in Pakistan that we expect to see democracy progress here. But it is also important to look where Pakistan has come from.

KARL: But in terms of pure democracy, you have taken a step back here. Musharraf has hung on to his power. He controls the military.

RICE: Well, we expect that there will be a democratic path leading to elections in Pakistan, and we will continue to make that point. It is also a good thing that you have a press that is freer than it has been in recent years, and it is a very good thing that extremism in education is being addressed here because ultimately you can have the trappings of democracy, but if you do not have an educational system that supports people who are well educated, people who are given opportunities, and people who are not taught ideologies of intolerance and hatred, then it's going to be very difficult to make democracy work. ........

KARL: Today in Afghanistan, we learned officially that the parliamentary elections have again been delayed. We know the State Department report that talked about Afghanistan being on the verge of turning into a narcotic state. You have talked about what a great example Afghanistan is, but there some bumps in the road.

RICE: Of course, there are bumps on the road in a place that 3 ½ years ago was ruled by the Taliban, one of the worst regimes certainly in the 20th century. Sometimes you have to step back and give people credit for how much they have already achieved. It is very easy, sitting in a mature democracy like the United States, to forget the bumps in our own democracy early on and the fact that it takes time to build some of these institutions. [Afghan] President [Hamid] Karzai said -- and I was also told at the independent electoral commission -- that there are some technical matters that they need to take care of in order to be able to hold elections. They have to do at least some kind of population count, and there were some questions about boundaries and they are working through those. They have an independent electoral commission that said they are not quite ready for elections -- they would like to have them in September. Nobody mentioned the word "election" in Afghanistan 3 ½ years ago, so, yes, I believe they will hold the elections. It is important, and I made the point to them, that it is important that they hold them on time in September if that's what they announced because the Afghan people are impatient to have their elections, and I think the Afghan government is also desirous of completing the government framework in Afghanistan by getting a parliament seated. As to the narcotics problem, yes, it's a serious problem in Afghanistan. We have -- with the Afghans, British and other partners -- developed a strategy that will depend a good deal on interdiction and law enforcement, but also on public education about poppy and about alternative livelihoods for those who decide not to grow poppy. It's a long struggle to deal with a narcotics problem. There has been a narcotics problem in Afghanistan for a long time, but I was impressed with the commitment of the government, the willingness to talk openly and transparently about the problem and to say to the Afghan people that responsible citizens in a new democratic Afghanistan will not grow poppy.

[heritage]

Karzai Postpones Afghanistan Elections

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...317_384&src=abc
Updated 8:30 AM ET March 17, 2005

President Hamid Karzai said Afghan parliamentary elections will be held in September, confirming that logistical troubles have postponed a vote that's supposed to complete the country's transition to democracy.

Karzai announced the widely expected delay during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first visit to Afghanistan, and insisted that security was improving, despite a bomb attack that killed five civilians in the southern city of Kandahar.

The parliamentary vote had been slated for May but the United Nations and the Afghan electoral commission have been grappling with problems including a lack of census data and how to register thousands of returning refugees.....

[heritage]

Rice Lauds Pakistan on Democracy Efforts
Updated 3:12 PM ET March 17, 2005

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...88su9601&src=ap

By ANNE GEARAN

.....Rice met Musharraf on Wednesday and Kasuri on Thursday. In between she flew to Afghanistan to celebrate a clearer democratic success.

"This country was once a source of terrorism; it is now a steadfast fighter against terrorism," Rice said at a press conference alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Three years after the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban, Afghanistan has had a presidential election and plans a parliamentary one. Women, forbidden to show their faces under Taliban rule, are part of mainstream political life.

The limits of the Afghan success were evident, too. Elements of the Taliban still mount sporadic terrorist attacks, like a bombing Thursday in Kandahar that killed at least five. Rice was in the capital, Kabul, about 280 miles to the north, at the time.

Rice traveled in a fortified convoy, slipped into bunkered compounds and held her news conference with Karzai under the gaze of his hired and heavily armed American security guards........

[ghostgovt]

Afghanistan as result of BushCo managment!! 'One huge US jail'


http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/stor...36,00.html?=rss
Saturday March 19, 2005
The Guardian

'One huge US jail'
Afghanistan is the hub of a global network of detention centres, the frontline in America's 'war on terror', where arrest can be random and allegations of torture commonplace.

Kabul was a grim, monastic place in the days of the Taliban; today it's a chaotic gathering point for every kind of prospector and carpetbagger. Foreign bidders vying for billions of dollars of telecoms, irrigation and construction contracts have sparked a property boom that has forced up rental prices in the Afghan capital to match those in London, Tokyo and Manhattan. Four years ago, the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in Kabul was a tool of the Taliban inquisition, a drab office building where heretics were locked up for such crimes as humming a popular love song. Now it's owned by an American entrepreneur who hopes its bitter associations won't scare away his new friends.

Outside Kabul, Afghanistan is bleaker, its provinces more inaccessible and lawless, than it was under the Taliban. If anyone leaves town, they do so in convoys. Afghanistan is a place where it is easy for people to disappear and perilous for anyone to investigate their fate.

Washington likes to hold up Afghanistan as an exemplar of how a rogue regime can be replaced by democracy. Meanwhile, human-rights activists and Afghan politicians have accused the US military of placing Afghanistan at the hub of a global system of detention centres where prisoners are held incommunicado and allegedly subjected to torture.

This post has been edited by ghostgovt: Mar 19 2005, 12:41 PM

[anderson_perry]

one billion dollars a month is a lot of money...

bare in mind the canadians are over there helping as best we can

- perry

[heritage]

$1 billion a month for 4 years and Afghanistan ranks near the bottom in the world because of poverty and development. We built a highway from north to south (for a gas pipeline) and military bases but not much else.

[ghostgovt]

$1 billion a month for 4 years and Afghanistan ranks near the bottom in the world because of poverty and development. We built a highway from north to south (for a gas pipeline) and military bases but not much else.

On top of that, BushCo has aquired many sq acres of land there but with no mentioning of what it is being used for......... plus the announcement of making military bases permanent there as well.... so rest assure that Afghanistan will become a private enterprise under the likes of BushCo, Halliburton and friends.

Here's a recent article of Afghanis wanting the Taliban back much like similar to cries of some Iraqis about wanting Saddam back. Warning to foreign countries to the US.... beware of what you wish for in a BushCo intervention!!!

http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=48240

New Kerala
March 20, 2005

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 18 : Rampant kidnappings and killings in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar is fostering nostalgia for the extremist Muslims who once ruled the community. The Taliban used their Kandahar base to control most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, employing draconian measures that virtually eliminated violent crime and the opium trade, the Washington Post said Friday.

Recently, local discontent with increasing crimes prompted President Hamid Karzai to dispatch a top security aide to Kandahar and promise to bolster the local police force with reinforcements from the capital.

Karzai also was reportedly considering transferring the city's police chief to another province.

Last week, local anger intensified when the second child kidnapped for money was found killed -- despite the payment of a hefty ransom.

"Bring back the Taliban," some residents shouted recently at military officials who appear unable to protect citizens from warlords.

[ghostgovt]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=7992292
Woman, Children Die in U.S. Attack on Taliban
Thu Mar 24, 2005 02:17 AM ET

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led troops killed three Taliban militants in a firefight in which two children and a woman also died in southeast Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

Another child died in a separate gunbattle east of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Among the dead militants was a Taliban commander named Raz Mohammad, who was implicated in many of the attacks against coalition forces in southeastern Paktika province, according to a U.S. military statement issued late on

[ghostgovt]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...27-3-2005_pg7_2

Landmine kills four US soldiers in Afghanistan
Sunday, March 27, 2005

KABUL: Four US soldiers were killed on Saturday when their vehicle struck a landmine in southeast Afghanistan, the US military said.

The United States has lost over 100 military personnel since deploying troops in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, but most of the deaths have been accidents.

Lieutenant Cindy Moore said it was uncertain whether the mine that killed the four soldiers had been planted recently or was old.

The soldiers had been travelling with Afghan troops in a three-vehicle patrol in Logar province, around 40 kilometres south of Kabul.

Last week, a US soldier was killed and four others were wounded when their vehicle struck a mine in the western province of Herat, and five Afghan civilians died when their truck hit a mine near the same spot just hours later. reuters