Afghan chaos growing Options

[heritage]

Afghans Condemn U.S. Airstrike Deaths

Updated 10:00 AM ET July 5, 2005
By AMIR SHAH

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8b594s80&src=ap

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan on Tuesday condemned the killing of up to 17 civilians in a U.S. airstrike, and a senior American defense official confirmed the deaths of two Navy SEALs who were missing in action in the country's northeast.

The airstrike came Friday in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, the area where a U.S. transport helicopter was downed late last month, killing 16 troops in the deadliest single blow to American forces since they ousted the Taliban in 2001.

"The president is extremely saddened and disturbed," said Jawed Ludin, President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff. "There is no way ... the killing of civilians can be justified. ... It's the terrorists we are fighting. It's not our people who should suffer."

A government team is on its way to the site to investigate the bombing, a Defense Ministry statement said.

Meanwhile, two members of the U.S. Navy's elite special forces branch who were missing in Kunar have been found dead, a senior U.S. defense official in Washington said Monday night. Another SEAL was rescued Saturday and the fate of a fourth was unknown.

The official who confirmed the recovery of the two bodies spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing effort to account for the missing U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan.

The team of SEALs was reported missing on June 28. A rescue effort that day ended in tragedy when the transport helicopter seeking to extract the team was shot down.

The serviceman rescued Saturday had taken shelter in a village elder's home before American forces were notified of his location and picked him up, said Kunar provincial Gov. Asadullah Wafa.

Speaking about the U.S. airstrike, Wafa told The Associated Press that an initial strike destroyed a house, and as villagers gathered to look at the damage, a U.S. warplane dropped a second bomb on the same target, killing 17 of them, including three women and children.

He said it was unclear who was killed in the initial attack in the tiny village of Chechal. "Maybe some militants were killed, but I don't know," he said. "The 17 people were killed in the second bombing."

The U.S. military said the attack was carried out "with precision-guided munitions that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of enemy terrorists and noncombatants."

"The targeted compound was a known operating base for terrorist attacks in Kunar province as well as a base for a medium-level terrorist leader," it said. "Battle damage assessment is currently ongoing."

The statement added U.S. forces "regret the loss of innocent lives and follow stringent rules of engagement specifically to ensure that noncombatants are safeguarded. However, when enemy forces move their families into the locations where they conduct terrorist operations, they put these innocent civilians at risk."

The civilians are the latest victims in an unprecedented spate of violence that has left about 700 people dead and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace. Afghan officials insist the violence will not disrupt landmark legislative elections slated for September.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed last week that militants had captured one of the SEALs. He said the "high-ranking American" was caught in the area where the helicopter went down.

Hakimi, who also claimed insurgents shot down the helicopter, often calls news organizations to take responsibility for attacks, and the information frequently proves exaggerated or untrue. His exact tie to the Taliban leadership is unclear.

U.S. officials said they had no evidence indicating any service members had been taken into captivity.

[ghostgovt]

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/07...-name_page.html



U.S. medical team attacked in Afghanistan

Jul 6 2005

icWales


Rebels attacked a US military medical team as it was helping villagers in the same region of eastern Afghanistan where a US airstrike that killed up to 17 civilians sparked sharp criticism from the government.

No one was wounded in the assault yesterday on the medical team near Asadabad town, Kunar province, a military statement said. US forces used mortars to respond and the insurgents fled.

"It's incredible to us the enemy would attack our forces while we are providing innocent Afghans with health care," said US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara.

The airstrike last Friday was also in Kunar and targeted a known terrorist base, the US military said, but an Afghan government spokesman said the deaths of the civilians, including women and children, could not be justified.

It marked unusual criticism from the government of President Hamid Karzai, often viewed by critics as an American puppet. The US provides security for the president as well as hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid to Afghanistan.

[Marine]

July 6, 2005 - Wednesday :: Welcome. Subscribe to receive newstories.

NATO jets fly in tomorrow to secure Afghan elections
By Ahmad Khalid Mowahid
KABUL, July 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Four F-16 jets of the Dutch contingent within the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan will arrive here on Thursday to help secure the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Lt. Col. Karen Tissot van Patot, spokesperson for the multinational force in Kabul, told a news conference here on Wednesday a 60-member unit would be deployed in the capital city to take care of the aircraft.

Some of the 2,000 additional troops to come from the Netherlands and Romania to maintain security for the September 17 polls in Kabul and the northern province of Mazar-i-Sharif have also arrived.

In spring this year, four more Dutch jets of the kind were sent to Afghanistan for the same mission - to ensure security ahead of the landmark first post-Taliban legislative vote.

In addition to the 8000-strong International Security Assistance Force, there are about 20,000 coalition troops and a 42,000 Afghan police force struggling to boost security for the elections.

Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime have warned to disrupt the polls, although their threat to scuttle last year's presidential ballot did not succeed.

[ghostgovt]

http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3561894&nav=ZolH0yEa

Another Virginia Beach Based SEAL Killed In Afghanistan
July 6, 2005, 07:20 PM

The week of July 4th, 2005 will go down as the saddest, most trying week in the history of the elite US Navy SEALs.

Not only is the SEAL community preparing to bury eight fallen SEALs, now they've learned of two more fallen SEALs and continue to frantically search for another SEAL still missing in the mountains of Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon released the names of 25-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz and 29-year-old Lt. Michael Murphy.

Murphy was based in Hawaii.

Dietz was based with Seal Vehicle Delivery Team 2 at Little Creek Amphibious Base and lived with his wife, Maria in Virginia Beach.

Dietz may have only been 25, but his resume was long. He was a war veteran, one of the best of the best, a highly-skilled Seal, a medal winner, a husband and a son.

He was part of a four-man SEAL team fighting on the ground in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. When their tiny team came under fire they called for back-up.

[Marine]

Right ghost, let's let the Taliban have the place back.

This woman is burried up to her waist in preparation for her stoning to death.

[Marine]

July 6, 2005 - Wednesday :: Welcome. Subscribe to receive newstories.

Laghman has taken lead in poppy eradication: UK envoy
By Zubair Babakarkhail
KABUL, July 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The British ambassador to Afghanistan Thursday hailed the eastern Laghman province as an example worth emulating for the rest of the country in poppy eradication.

Speaking to a gathering of provincial officials and tribal elders from Laghman, Ambassador Dr. Rosalind Marsden said people of the province destroyed the crop voluntarily.

"To eradicate poppy from Laghman, the central government did not have to send police," observed the diplomat, whose country is leading counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan.

Based on a survey conducted by the United Nation Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), poppy cultivated over 3,000 hectares land in Laghman was voluntarily destroyed in 2004.

Aerial pictures of voluntary poppy destruction in Alingar and Alishing districts were displayed at the gathering, at which Marsden demanded of the international community, the Afghan government and Laghman inhabitants to step up effort for preventing cultivation, trafficking and production of opium in the province.

Appreciating the role of people, Rural Rehabilitation and Development Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar argued there was lawlessness in provinces where poppy was cultivated. "But Laghman's people preferred peace and security to chaos and insecurity.

About poverty in the province he said: "The government is aware of economic problems of Laghman citizens. As far as I know, youths here are making bricks in the Punjab province of Pakistan."

The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development MRRD has set aside up to 10 million dollars for spending next year on road construction, water schemes and small loan plans under the National Solidarity Programme in the province.

Laghman Governor Shah Mahmood Safi, Deputy Counter-Narcotics Minister General Khudaidad, Deputy Agriculture Minister Engineer Mohammad Sharif, General Daud Daud and USAID official Roger Carlson were also present on the occasion.


http://www.pajhwak.com/en/news/viewStory.asp?lng=eng&id=4179

[heritage]

Taliban Threatens to Kill U.S. Commando

Updated 4:05 AM ET July 7, 2005
By AMIR SHAH

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8b6e4100&src=ap

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A purported Taliban spokesman reiterated a claim Thursday that his group is holding a missing U.S. Navy SEAL and said insurgent leaders had decided to kill him. He offered no proof to back up the claim.

U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore, reacting to the claim, said: "We hope he is not in harm's way. We are making every effort to locate him."

The purported spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, said previously that the Taliban are holding the commando, who has been missing in Afghanistan for 10 days. Hakimi frequently contacts news agencies claiming to speak for the rebels, but his information in the past has proven exaggerated or untrue, and his exact tie to the Taliban leadership cannot be independently verified.

"This American will never be forgiven. Definitely he will be killed," Hakimi said. He said the group would release a video after the man's death.

Hakimi said he was last in contact Wednesday with the rebels who he says are holding the American and was told that his health was good and that he had not been abused. He said the rebels were holding the U.S. service member in a house in Kunar.

The man is the last of a four-member U.S. Navy SEAL commando team missing since last month. One of the men was rescued; two others were found dead.

A special forces helicopter carrying reinforcements to the area crashed on June 28, killing all 16 Americans on board, the deadliest single attack on the U.S. military since the war here began in 2001.

About 300 troops and several aircraft are in the mountainous area searching for the service member and hunting militants, U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said Wednesday.

The eastern province of Kunar has long been a hotbed of militant activity and a haven for fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is wanted by the United States. U.S. officials said al-Qaida fighters also were in the region. Osama bin Laden was not said to be there _ though he is believed to be somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.

The region's rugged, wooded mountains are popular with militants because they are easy to infiltrate from neighboring Pakistan and have plenty of places to hide.

On Saturday, a U.S. airstrike in the region killed as many as 17 civilians, prompting a strong rebuke by the Afghan government.

The violence in Kunar follows an unprecedented spate of fighting that has left about 700 people dead and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace. Afghan officials insist the violence will not disrupt landmark legislative elections slated for September.

In the latest clash, suspected Taliban rebels late Wednesday attacked a government office 40 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul, local police chief Khan Mohammed said.

Police guarding the building fought back during a two-hour gunbattle before the insurgents fled. No officers were killed, though it was not clear if the rebels suffered any losses, he said. The fighting was the closest by suspected Taliban rebels to Kabul in months.

[heritage]

C-span ran a program at the Nixon Center yesterday with an historian and Terrorism expert.

He says that the Taliban are training and expanding in northern Pakistan and some groups are tied to Pakistani intelligence and military. Musharef catches Alqaeda members only after Rumsfeld, Rice or Wolfowitz visited him and gave him intelligence and more bribe money. The Alqaeda have munitions factories in northern Pakistan. The weapons are sold in every store. They even try to make US type munitions but the weapons are not of the same quality. They also have sophisticated video/communications equipment to spread their propaganda and raise funds around the world.

ABC had the man on last night. His photos and video have been shown by ABC in the last 2 weeks.

We have taken our eye off of the real terrorism problem and now they are returning to Afghanistan where they know the terrain and can beat our few forces.

The program is about 2 hours - search and see at http://www.c-span.org or check the TV schedule when it will replay this weekend.

[ghostgovt]

Thanks for the heads up C-Span information heritage.... it's good to see forthright information being applied here.

Speaking of 'wake up' pills being passed around, We have had the Pentagon finally admit that fighting more than one war front is 'too much work' for our military forces, and some news media agencies are now also waking up to the fact that the 'real' problem exists in Afghanistan, and not Iraq.



http://www.newshounds.us/2005/07/07/fox_ad...the_problem.php

July 7,2005

Fox Admits - Afghanistan Is The Problem

In a striking piece from Tim Marshall, Sky News, London, which was aired on Studio B today, Marshall admitted that the bombings today were shocking but not surprising.

He said that the hunt is on by MI-6 and MI-5, who are now searching for a group they know is in the UK. He said that is for the short term.

But as part of the bigger picture he said there is 'still Aghanistan.' He said there were still Al Qaeda type bases there using drug money as finance for operations. He announced that, 'Targeting them is about to go up the British list of priorities.'

Comment: I'd like to congratulate our readers on this one. You have been the ones to keep Afghanistan in the forefront here on this website. Your instincts are good. Apparently when you said that the poppy production was going up, it was, and they are using that drug money to finance Al Qaeda terrorist attacks.

You should also be congratulated for your focus on keeping the focus on Afghanistan instead of Iraq. My fellow News Hounds have also been dilgent on this matter.

My shock is on the London reporting of Sky News to say that emphasis will be put on Afghanistan. I haven't watched much Sky News, but it was an enlightening piece that was aired on Studio B today.

[heritage]

The C-span program on Pakistan and Alqaeda is replaying now on C-span 1.

[heritage]

The historian is from France - Dr. Alexis Debat - wrote articles att

http://www.inthenationalinterest.com

Zarqawi's Global Reach
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Artic...y2005Debat.html

Vivisecting the Jihad: Part Two
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Artic...r2004Debat.html

"Foreign Fighters," Terrorism and the Iraqi Handover
June 23, 2004
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Artic...25DebatPFV.html

[heritage]

The C-span program on Pakistan and Alqaeda is replaying now on C-span 1. It is almost over. Check c-span.org for the next airing.

[Marine]

July 8, 2005 - Friday :: Welcome. Subscribe to receive newstories.

30 jihadi commanders pledge support to government
By Mohammad Hakim Basharat
MAIDAN SHAHR, July 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Around 30 former jihadi commanders pledged support to the Afghan government at a meeting in Maidan Shahr on Thursday.

Maidan Wardak Governor Abdul Jabar Naeemi, who took the initiative of convening the meeting, urged the commanders to turn in their weapons and take an active part in the reconstruction of the war-weary country.

"I cannot tolerate even a single illegal weapon in this province, just as I can't put up with poppy cultivation," the governor said while addressing the gathering.

Naeemi asked the commanders to hold out cast-iron guarantees that they would not retain weapons in the future if they wanted to get a clean bill of health from his government.

Haji Moosa Hootak, one of the commanders and a former Loya Jirga delegate, said he had already surrendered all his weapons and that the government should not bother too much about arms being hidden.

The commanders, in a written statement, promised to surrender remaining weapons they had and to cooperate with the government in rebuilding the country.

http://www.pajhwak.com/en/news/viewStory.asp?lng=eng&id=4230

[heritage]

Karzai Says Bin Laden Isn't in Afghanistan

Updated 10:02 PM ET July 8, 2005
By AMIR SHAH

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8b7j08o0&src=ap

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - President Hamid Karzai said Friday that Osama bin Laden wasn't in Afghanistan, saying his government has no idea of his whereabouts.

"God knows where he is," he said. "We don't know. ... He is not in Afghanistan."

The comments come just days after Pakisani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the al-Qaida leader wasn't in Pakistan and could be hiding in southeastern Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have said they believe bin Laden to be hiding somewhere in rugged mountains between the two nations.

Also Friday, a purported Taliban spokesman reiterated a claim that a missing American commando was being interrogated by the Taliban and would soon be killed.

U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore declined to comment on the latest claim that a U.S. Navy SEAL commando has been captured, except to say that "we are continuing to search for him."

The commando is the last of a four-member U.S. Navy SEAL team missing for 11 days in Kunar province, near the Pakistani border. One of the men was rescued and the other two have been found dead.

"Right now the interrogation is taking place of the American who is with us about the American strategy in Afghanistan," Mullah Latif Hakimi said.

Hakimi's information has in the past frequently proven exaggerated or untrue, and his exact tie to the Taliban leadership cannot be independently verified.

The claims follow an unprecedented spate of insurgent violence that has left about 700 people dead and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace. Afghan officials insist the violence will not disrupt landmark legislative elections slated for September.

[winston smith]

The UN has announced that Afghanistan is in very bad ways. I read also the other day that the US is doubling it's troops there. Infind it more than interesting that in the UN's closing statements, that Afghanistan has deeply suffered in more than it's 20 yrs of war. That would be back when the US CIA created the Bin Laden Taliban and war with Russia. Another intervention by our govt that has left a country in shambles and depending on more financial aid from American taxpayers.

Let's not get revisionist on this. USSR occupied Afghanistan, not Russia. We organized and funded a resistance, of which Bin Laden was an important part, but none-the-less, only a part. The consequence was the default Taliban government, but I hardly believe we can place the blame on the USA; it was a consequence of the Cold War perpetrated by the USSR. It was the same game they played on us in Vietnam: funding the insurgency.

[ghostgovt]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4657645.stm

6 July, 2005

Stung in an Afghan 'hornets' nest'

Andrew North
BBC News at US Camp Tillman, Afghan-Pakistan border

It did not make any headlines. It was just another incident among many in this volatile region.

But it gives an insight into why the US-led coalition is having such difficulty defeating the insurgency that has affected much of eastern and southern Afghanistan for the past two years.

[TheRestofUs]

This will be part of future history. This will be further proof of the massive blunders of Bush. We should have stayed in Afghanistan and finnished the job of getting those who attacked us, and stabilizing Afghanistan!

Biggest mistake we ever made!

[heritage]

Group Claims It Killed U.S. Commando

Updated 8:26 AM ET July 9, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8b7s4mo0&src=ap

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A purported Taliban spokesman said Saturday that the group has killed a missing American commando, but he offered no proof and the U.S. military said it was still searching for the Navy SEAL.

The commando is the last of a four-member elite commando team missing since June 28 in Kunar, near the Pakistani border. One of the men was rescued and the other two were found dead.

"This morning in Shagal district in Kunar province, the Taliban killed the American soldier and cut his head off," Mullah Latif Hakimi, the purported spokesman, told The Associated Press in a telephone call. "We left the body on a mountainside in this area so Afghan or U.S. soldiers there can find it."

Hakimi repeatedly has said the rebels were holding the commando. But information from him in the past has frequently proven exaggerated or untrue, and his exact tie to the Taliban leadership cannot be independently verified.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, however, said "the search for the commando continued.

"The only proof we have is that he is missing," he said. "We will run down these reports to see if anything thing pans out."

[ghostgovt]

My thots of a sad and tragic personal loss for this commando goes out to his family.



http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&cl...20898161688B212


Taliban kills 'captured' US commando

July 09 2005 at 11:28AM

By Sayed Salahuddin


Kabul - Taliban guerrillas said on Saturday they had killed a missing American commando they claimed to have captured in eastern Afghanistan last month. The United States military said it had no information to support the claim.

"We killed him at 11 o'clock today; we killed him using a knife and chopped off his head," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said from an undisclosed location. He said that the body had been dumped on a mountain in the eastern province of Kunar.

The US military has said it has no information to suggest the Navy SEAL commando, part of a four-man team that went missing during a clash with militants in mountainous Kunar on June 28, has been captured.

[ghostgovt]

USSR occupied Afghanistan, not Russia.  We organized and funded a resistance, of which Bin Laden was an important part, but none-the-less, only a part.  The consequence was the default Taliban government, but I hardly believe we can place the blame on the USA; it was a consequence of the Cold War perpetrated by the USSR.  It was the same game they played on us in Vietnam: funding the insurgency.

Appreciate your contribution.

Thanks for that correction on my post made on Feb 22 of this year. The Soviets were, in fact, Washignton's 'defined' enemy inside Afghanistan of which our CIA did fund and help train the Taliban via the Mujahedeen in their terroristic means and ways. The Bin Ladens ties with the Carlyle Group and the Bushes, that went sour, also prompt further anger in OBL after the Saudis kicked him out of his country while putting a bounty on his head. I see both sides to the story and understand the feeling for retaliation by OBL. I sure am not supporting OBL in his actions and what he believes in, but one has to look at what if it were you, and you were used in fighting a war for those who later turned on? One needs to try and look inside that person's mind while standing in their shoes and understand the entire picture for what had happened all those years. Same same Saddam.... another CIA foreign operative.... used then severed from such relations. I look at things in an overall picture and not the narrow picture with propaganda blinders on. You were right about the US funded 'enemy' in the Vietnam War. Our wars seems to do a 360 on US.... in those who we create, support and supply.

This is the monster that our CIA helped build.... in OBL's statements to Bush last Nov.


"We became experts in gang warfare and in the war of attrition," says bin Laden in the new excerpts, published on the eve of the US presidential election.

"We fought the unjust superpower, waging [a war of] attrition, along with the [Afghan] mujahedeen, [against] Russia for 10 years until they became bankrupt and decided to withdraw in defeat," he says, referring to the fight against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.


"The more serious thing for America is that the mujahedeen recently forced Bush to draw on an emergency fund to continue the combat in Afghanistan and in Iraq, which proves the success of the plan of attrition until bankruptcy," bin Laden says in the new excerpts of the message, which US intelligence agencies have deemed authentic.

He also boasts of the ease with which Al Qaeda has been able to make the US administration jump.

"It was easy for us to provoke this administration and drag it" to places of Al Qaeda's choosing, he says.

"It only takes sending two mujahedeen to the far Mashreq [east] raising a piece of cloth bearing the name of Al Qaeda for the [US] generals to scurry there, causing America human, material and political losses without any gain to speak of, except some benefits for their private companies," bin Laden adds.


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


http://www.september-11th.us/Supported-bin-Laden.html


As America fought wars around the globe in the 20th century, one principle guided U.S. alliances: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

In the war against Hitler, the United States found common cause with Stalin. In the war against Japan, America aided Vietnamese rebel Ho Chi Minh. In Third World struggles, America helped Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein.



Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmed Rashid reported recently that the CIA funded an underground arms depot, training facility and medical center that bin Laden helped build in 1986 near the Pakistan border. There bin Laden set up his first training camp.

Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., likened the situation to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, where the United States aided a future adversary, Hussein. American policies contributed to the environment that exists today, he said, "but it was an inadvertent action".

The United States provided many of the arms used today by all the forces in Afghanistan.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he's received recent reports that bin Laden or sympathizers might have shoulder-fired Stinger missiles the U.S. supplied to resistance fighters.

This post has been edited by ghostgovt: Jul 9 2005, 08:17 AM