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.




UN warns of fresh Afghan chaos

BBC
21.02.2005

[Afghanistan remains one of the world's poorest states and without action could plunge into chaos, once again posing an international threat, a UN report says.

Three years after the US campaign to topple the Taleban, there were serious problems in areas such as health, employment and education, it said]

[ Illicit drugs were still a major part of the Afghan economy and it was now the world's leading producer of opium. Physical violence by armed militias and attacks by the Taleban were still going on, the report added.

And while the legal economy had grown by 25 to 30% since the fall of the Taleban, there has been little trickle-down to the poorest sectors of society, according to the UN.

If such grievances were not addressed, "Afghanistan will collapse into an insecure state, a threat to its own people as well as the international community", it said.

'War to blame'

Speaking at the report's launch, Afghanistan's minister for rural development, Hanif Atmar, acknowledged how dire things were.

"It's painful but this is nothing new. We all knew it," he said, referring to the country's poverty ranking.

The report noted that most people interviewed had expressed pessimism and fear that they had been bypassed by reconstruction.

The authors conclude that more than 20 years of war is more to blame for the situation than any other factor.]

Afghans' poppy crop smaller than last year's
Sunday, February 13, 2005
By N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05044/456330.stm

....Across Afghanistan, government officials and foreign aid workers who monitor poppy cultivation have reached a remarkable conclusion: One year after Afghan farmers planted the largest amount of poppy in their nation's history and provided the world with nearly 90 percent of its opium supply, many of them have stopped growing it.

Poppy farming, officials said, may have declined by as much as 70 percent in three provinces that together account for more than half of Afghanistan's production: Nangahar in the east, Helmand in the south and Badakhshan in the north.....

Several factors may be responsible, including a drop in opium prices after the previous banner harvest, and a reluctance to plant among farmers whose crops were destroyed last season by disease or the police.....

"People will need other sources of income as soon as possible, or we'll be the witness to a big disaster," said Gen. Muhammad Daoud, deputy interior minister in charge of counter-narcotics.....

In December, the top commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, reportedly warned visiting officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that drug lords were expanding their influence in the Afghan government and could form ties with Taliban fighters.....

International donors have pledged millions to help Afghanistan combat drugs this year; the United States pledged about $780 million. About $120 million of the U.S. assistance package has been earmarked for work on irrigation canals, to improve roads, to create micro-credit systems, and to obtain better seeds and fertilizers so poppy workers can make a living from other crops and industries.

In Nangahar, the first phase of that effort has already begun, with plans to hire about 50,000 workers to do jobs such as clearing irrigation canals. In a largely symbolic gesture, the U.S. government has also distributed 500 metric tons of wheat seeds in Nangahar -- enough for less than 5 percent to 10 percent of farmers, Afghan officials said.

But it will take until at least early spring to start up more lasting infrastructure improvements, U.S. officials said.

Afghan Living Standards Among the Lowest, U.N. Finds
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: February 22, 2005

Afghanistan ranked 173rd of 178 countries in the U.N. 2004 Human Development Index, according to a new report.

The New York Times [MUST LOG IN]

[What has our $1 billion per month tax dollars gone to over the last 3 years?]

ANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 21 - Three years after the United States drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan and vowed to rebuild, the war-shattered country ranked 173rd of 178 countries in the United Nations 2004 Human Development Index, according to a new report from the United Nations. .....

The survey, "National Human Development Report: Security With a Human Face," released Monday in Kabul, is the first comprehensive look at the state of development in Afghanistan in 30 years. In addition to ranking Afghanistan in the development index for the first time, the report warned that Afghanistan could revert to anarchy if its dire poverty, poor health and insecurity were not improved.....

While there has been rapid progress, said Zphirin Diabr, associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program, the country has a long way to go just to get back to where it was 20 years ago. The figures, as President Hamid Karzai says in the report's introduction, paint a gloomy picture.....

Average life expectancy for Afghanistan's 28.5 million people is 44.5 years, at least 20 years lower than that of neighboring countries...One of two Afghans can be classified as poor, and 20.4 percent of the rural population does not have enough to eat, getting less than the benchmark of 2,070 calories a day. More than half of the population has suffered from the effects of a prolonged drought, the report said....Most glaring are the inequalities that affect women and children, still some of the worst social indicators in the world today....

Afghanistan now has the worst education system in the world, the report concluded, and one of the lowest adult literacy rates, 28.7 percent. Annual per capita income was $190 and the unemployment rate 25 percent, said Hanif Atmar, the minister of rehabilitation and rural development.

"Obviously this is a warning," the minister said of the report. "It shows why we are poor, how and in what way we can solve this."

The success of Afghanistan depends on improved security, political reform, broad-based economic development and gradual elimination of poppy production, Mr. McKechnie said, adding that failure in any of those areas would imperil the reconstruction of the state country and the living conditions of the people.

http://www.myafghan.com/

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Tuesday, February 22, 2005

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Afghan plane crash site yields 46 bodies 2:05 PM
KABUL, Feb 22 (AFP) - Forty-six bodies have been recovered about two and a half weeks after an Afghan plane crashed into a mountain near Kabul killing all 104 people on board, officials said Tuesday. "To date we have found 46 intact bodies and some human remains and ... read full article


Afghan winter kills 180 children 2:04 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- At least 180 children have died in Afghanistan's coldest winter in years, the health minister said Tuesday, amid warnings that the final toll from the subzero temperatures and heavy snow could run into the thousands. The government has yet t ... read full article


2,000 government workers set to begin census of Afghans in Pakistan 2:04 PM
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 22 (UNHCR) – A two-week long nationwide census of Afghans living in Pakistan is due to start Wednesday in a bid to provide the first comprehensive picture of the Afghans who arrived in Pakistan in several waves since their country was engulfed in civil confli ... read full article

Monday, February 21, 2005
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UN: Afghanistan Could Become Terror Haven

http://www.myafghan.com/todayall.asp?whatdate=2/21/2005


...."Curbing corruption, bringing reconstruction gains to all regions of Afghanistan, drawing in foreign investment in a secure involvement and opening up the political process to participation remain the top priorities," Karzai wrote. "As the country now turns a new leaf, our ambition is to give hope to each and every Afghan."

The 288-page report by the United Nations Development Program paints a mixed picture of the country's re-emergence since U.S. forces drove out the former ruling Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in late 2001.....

"Our team found the overwhelming majority of people hold a sense of pessimism and fear that reconstruction is bypassing them," said Daud Saba, one of the report's authors.

The report was also critical of the U.S.-led military engagement in Afghanistan, saying it helped produce a climate of "fear, intimidation, terror and lawlessness" and neglected the longer-term threat to security posed by inequality and injustice.

It also described reconstruction projects sponsored by the U.S. military as "inadequate and dangerous," echoing concern from some relief groups that they have blurred the lines between soldiers and civilians, and made aid workers into militant targets.

Still, it stressed the need for Afghanistan to develop its own national army and police - two projects which the United States is currently trying to accelerate - and proceed with a belated U.N. disarmament drive for factional militias.

On Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman said Washington has doubled the number of soldiers embedded in the Afghan army to speed the training of a fledgling force that is shouldering more of the security burden.

A group of 288 U.S. National Guard soldiers arrived in Afghanistan on Friday and Saturday to serve as trainers with the Afghan National Army, joining about 300 already assigned to Afghan units, Maj. Eric Bloom said....

Adventures in delusion:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17299126.htm

[QUOTE]

Limbaugh to visit Afghanistan with US aid official
18 Feb 2005 01:40:10 GMT

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is expected to visit Afghanistan with the top U.S. aid official to spotlight America's aid work there, officials said on Thursday.

Political commentator Mary Matalin, a former White House aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, will also be on the trip. She said she was not being paid to go and would pay her own way to Dubai but she believed the U.S. government would cover the cost of her visit to Afghanistan from there.

The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism for the Education Department's payment of $240,000 to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to tout President George W. Bush's education plan.

Spokesmen for Limbaugh were not immediately available to comment.

"It's trying to get people to pay attention to all the good things we are doing in Afghanistan," a U.S. official who asked not to be named said of the trip, which is expected to take place next week. "This is just a different kind of outreach."[/QUOTE]

CNN female reporter, Daryl Kagan was reportedly going to Afghanistan with Limbaugh (as his new girl friend) but she bowed out at the last minute. The rumor was Limbaugh was to propose on the trip - Kagan would be his 4th wife.]

I won't watch her anymore when she is on CNN.

If anyone can debunk this report, let me know. I saw a news article over the weekend.

Afghanistan could slide back into chaos
Rachel Morarjee
Posted Mon, 21 Feb 2005


Although Afghanistan's legal economy has grown by 25 to 30 percent since the fall of the Taliban, there has been little trickle-down to the poorest echelons of society, according to the UN.

http://iafrica.com/news/features/415982.htm

Snow paralyses Afghan villages
By Andrew North
BBC News, Kabul

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4286233.stm

There is concern in Afghanistan about the condition of thousands of people living in remote villages cut off by weeks of heavy snow.

Officials say the severe winter has killed more than 260 people. ....

This is a common story across Afghanistan, where many people in snowbound villages have succumbed to infections like pneumonia or whooping cough.

This is Afghanistan's harshest winter for at least a decade, officials say.

But there is no doubt the country's war-shattered infrastructure has made things much worse.

The government has had to rely on the US military and foreign relief agencies to get help to many places.

The situation is still unclear in some areas, especially in the west. In some districts, roads are blocked by more than three metres of snow.

By this article's report, after the winter thaw... the Taliban is gearing up for larger assaults on US forces in Afghanistan... and at a time when farmers will be trying to plant crops, etc etc.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EB3...52192497B23.htm
Ubaid Allah, a former Taliban defence minister regarded as an associate of the elusive Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Umar, is alleged to have made the statement via satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

"Bad weather is the reason for the reduction in attacks," he said.

"We will step up attacks as the weather changes. The Taliban movement is active under the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Umar. And Taliban will fight till the last Talib is alive."

However, a group of former Taliban fighters are said to have embraced a US-backed reconciliation drive, while the US military says that, three years after the Taliban government fell, fighting is waning.

The people in Afghanistan are dependent on their drug industry--it is all they have. Interestingly, I remember Tony Blair making the argument to support the US in attacking the Taliban because the heroin from Afghan was a huge problem for Brits. Blair seemed to make the case that taking out the Taliban would help solve the heroin crisis in UK and other European countries.

However, the opposite is true--Afghanistan's drug industry is stronger than ever and growing everyday. Russia has a devastating aids and heroin crisis from the drugs coming in from Afghanistan.

UK attempt to eradicate Afghan opium fails

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/stor...1428288,00.html

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Wednesday March 2, 2005
The Guardian

Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a "narcotic state" with its biggest annual crop of opium since the overthrow of the Taliban, the United Nations drug control board warns today.

The International Narcotics Control Board reports that the opium crop in Afghanistan - which is the source of more than 90% of the heroin sold on Britain's streets - reached a bumper 4,200 tonnes, up 800 tonnes on the previous year.

The rise is a blow to Tony Blair who told the Labour party conference in 2000 that the war against the Taliban was an opportunity to eradicate the poppy harvest which is the source of three-quarters of all the world's heroin.

I read a few months ago that planes sprayed opium fields with killing agents of which upset many Afghanistanian growers and demanding who was responsible for this. They accussed both Britain and the US for these secret spraying missions. No one claimed responsibility for it. I was concerned of what was sprayed and it's long term effect on the population with such poisons in the ground.

I also imagine that any attempt to grow food crops in the same area may also be affected by this.

"US helicopters in secret mission to spray Afghanistan's opium fields"
Luke Harding in Zafar Khel
Monday June 9, 2003
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...73463%2C00.html


Afghans probe 'poppy spray' claim
By Pam O'Toole
BBC News
Published: 2005/02/08 20:51:50 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4248217.stm


Mistrust hampers Afghan opium battle
By Andrew North
BBC correspondent, Tora Bora
Published: 2004/12/04 00:55:12 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4066525.stm

EXTRACT: "This weekend, the American development agency USAID is due to
announce the distribution of 500 tonnes of wheat seed for Nangahar province,
of which Tora Bora is a part."

USAID are distributing some kind of wheat seeds in opium-growing areas of
Afghanistan whilst spraying these areas with Monsanto's Glyphosate (see items
below).

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide that will kill all
conventional crops - but not GM herbicide-resistant crops. Monsanto's GM
wheat (MON 71800), which is modified to be glyphosate-resistant, is one of
the few crops that would survive such applications.

Meanwhile the US has imposed laws in Iraq forbidding farmers from saving
their own seeds. In a nation where 97% of farmers save their own seeds they will
now be forced to buy seeds from multinationals - the leading company
being... Monsanto. See: GRAIN, "FAO declares war on farmers, not hunger", New from

Grain, 16 June 2004, http://www.grain.org/front/?id=24

Appreciate the articles picadilly.

here's a couple extra zingers going on lately in ole Afghanistan.

1) wonder what we'll use of all this land for? secret military bases... secret 'growing' fields?

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=188042&n=31

Kabul, Feb 27 - The government of Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding for conceding a 33,000-square-meter piece of land in Kabul to the U.S. government.

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

2) I find this a little odd that the first lady (wife of President Mohammad Khatami) of Iran vists Afghanistan... since Iran is such a baaaaad country.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/...ent_2634236.htm

KABUL, March 1 (Xinhuanet)-- The first lady of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mrs. Zahra Sadiqi arrived here Tuesday for a three-day official visit to the Afghan capital Kabul.

As wife of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, Zahra Sadiqi's visit is taking place at the invitation of Afghan first lady ZinatKarzai, presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said.

"The visit by such a dignitary from Iran would further enhance bilateral relations between the two countries," Ludin noted.

Afghanistan's first lady paid a visit to Iran last year.

Report documents poverty and social misery in Afghanistan

http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=48009

World Socialist Web Site
2 March 2005
Joanne Laurier

A recent United Nations report on social conditions in Afghanistan provides a glimpse of the social reality behind the American media’s talk of a “new democracy” and the supposedly benevolent role of the US government in that country.

A quarter of a century after Washington intervened to support Islamic fundamentalist forces fighting a pro-Soviet government in Kabul, and three years after the American military invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime, the war-torn nation ranks 173rd out of 178 countries in the United Nations 2004 Human Development Index. Only a handful of sub-Saharan African nations suffer more wretched conditions....

The infant and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, with life expectancy at least 20 years shorter than in neighboring countries....

Only 25 percent of the population has access to clean drinking water—one in eight children die from lack of the resource. One of two Afghans can be classified as poor, with 20.4 percent of the rural population consuming less than 2,070 calories per person per day. Only Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have lower literacy rates....

Only 14 percent of women are literate, and the rate of pregnancy-related deaths is 60 times higher than for women in industrial countries. Seventy percent of those affected by tuberculosis are women.....

look what we have wrought....

The relationship between the state, the warlords and the narco-mafia bosses have added to the level of psychological “insecurity.” The report quotes a man from Jalalabad who provides a description of the dysfunctional, US-supported government of President Hamid Karzai: “It has no education policy, it has no health policy, it has no economic policy, it has no environmental policy, it has no security policy. It just takes everything by the day and many of the days are bad.”....

Until the late 1990s, the US turned a blind eye to the extremely regressive social policies of the Taliban, which had come to power in 1994. Under the Taliban, according to the report, “the war economy was further consolidated and Afghanistan became the world’s major source of opium.” The September 11 terrorist attacks provided the Bush administration with the pretext to invade Afghanistan and oust the Taliban regime.

The years following the US invasion witnessed “a deeply embedded war economy, which leaves the majority of Afghans living in heightened states of both fear and want.” This era has seen an expansion of narco-warlordism and the opium trade. It is estimated that in 2003, Afghanistan produced three-quarters of the world illicit opium, and officials warn that the country could become “a narco-terror state in the future.”

The survey also contends that besides opium, trafficking in archeological artifacts has been a source of booty, estimating that since 1992, approximately 75 percent of the ancient artifacts belonging to the National Museum in Kabul have been smuggled out of the country.

Security with a Human Face presents a harrowing picture of a country whose “free election” last October was timed to provide Bush with a pre-election boost. The prescriptions advanced by the report in its later chapters for a stable and democratic society appear absurd in light of current Afghan reality: foreign imperialist occupation, political power in the hands of mafia-like warlords; unspeakable conditions for broad masses of the population. .....

http://www.afgha.com/?af=news

NATO Sends Peacekeepers Into Western Afghanistan
The Peace Process
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Wednesday, 02 March 2005

NATO today began an expansion of its forces into western Afghanistan as part of efforts to rebuild the region.

The commander of the 8,300-strong International Security Assistance Force said today that an initial deployment of Italian troops started to arrive in the western city of Herat. The commander, Turkish Lieutenant General Ethem Erdagi, said the Italians will later be joined by soldiers from Spain, Greece, and Lithuania.

Italian Troops Begin Arriving in Western Afghanistan
The Peace Process
VOA News
02 March 2005

Italian soldiers have begun arriving in western Afghanistan, under plans by NATO to expand its peacekeeping mission in the country.

The Turkish commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Ethem Erdagi, said an initial deployment of Italian troops started to arrive today in the main western city of Herat. Soldiers from Spain, Greece and Lithuania are due in the region later.

Polio vaccination campaign gets under way
Humanitarian situation
IRIN
01 Mar 2005

The Afghan government, working in conjunction with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), launched a three-day national polio vaccination campaign on Tuesday in an effort to finally eradicate the virus from the country.

An estimated 5.3 million Afghan children under the age of five will receive the life-saving polio vaccine under the National Immunisation Days (NID) campaign.

Getting more women into politics
Internal Politics
IRIN
02 Mar 2005

The United Nations and the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) called on Afghan political parties on Wednesday to promote and support female candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The first parliamentary elections in Afghanistan under newly elected President Hamid Karzai were scheduled to be held in May but were postponed last week for security and logistical reasons.

Rumsfeld sued over prison abuse
Human Rights
BBC News
Wednesday, 2 March, 2005

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is being sued by two civil liberties group for allegedly authorising torture and then failing to stop it.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First have filed a lawsuit on behalf of eight men who claim abuse by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

World Bank says drugs now Afghanistan's economic lynchpin
Economy
Tribune de Genève
Mercredi 2 mars 2005

Drugs are now the staple of Afghanistan's economy, locking the country in a cycle of poverty and violence and leaving a minority of the population with the bulk of the wealth, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

Opium "has become Afghanistan's leading economic activity. By 2004 the opium spread to all of Afghanistan's provinces," a report by the Washington-based bank said.

Afghanistan's Web Sitehttp://www.afghanistans.com/

When you think Afghanistan Imagine

Where 20 years of war has totally crippled the economy, and you must try to somehow survive day-by-day by scrounging enough food to feed your children. Where people do not have the facilities to receive an education. Where people do not have the facilities to receive treatment at hospitals. Where, on average, men die at 40 years of age and women at 43. Where hundreds of thousands of people are maimed, disabled, or blind because of war and land mines. Where you face a high chance of becoming blind or crippled because of the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, causing vitamin deficiency. If you are blind or crippled, no one can help you because those that are not blind or crippled need help as well.

----------------

ABC Nightline did a show last night about a family in Afghanistam. The daughter has an enlarged heart condition and must travel over 1 hour to see a doctor once per month. The doctor sees hundreds of childred a day. There are no heart doctors in Afghanistan. She must go to India and the medical cost is $10,000. The family of 6 lived in the country but were run out and now are sqautters in a one room run-down bulding with no running water or heat. The father cannot find work so the little girl works.

Unfortunately, wrongfull kills in any community never makes for cooperative locals... and this incident may come back to haunt some US troops in the region that this took place. Especially being this close to Iran.


http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?...D=10802&TagID=2

U.S. soldiers Executed Afghan villagers

03 Mar2005


SHINDAND — Several U.S. soldiers are under investigation for killing two Afghan villagers outside a U.S. base in western Afghanistan, the commander of the base, Lt. Col. Ashton Hayes, announced last week.

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.

“They did it on purpose, I think,” said Muhammad Ismail, the brother of one of those killed. Witnesses believe the shooters were Special Forces soldiers, but that couldn’t be confirmed.

The incident prompted a demonstration and shouts of “Death to America.”

The deaths could stir up animosity in the area, a strategic region bordering Iran.

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."

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

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

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!

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’.

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.

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.

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. ]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.....

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........

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.

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

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

- perry

$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.

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

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

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...7-3-2005_pg7_22

Afghan forces insulting women
Sunday, March 27, 2005


Staff Report

CHITRAL: Shahida Sahar, chairperson of the Dukhtaran-e-Chitral and member of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), has complained about the insulting behaviour of Afghan security forces towards women.

Ms Sahar told reporters that Afghan forces had misbehaved with women in Nishagram, Afghanistan, adding their behaviour was insulting and deplorable. In winter when Chitral is cut off with other parts of the country, the people of Chitral route through Afghanistan to arrive in Chitral or Peshawar. She appealed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to ask his security forces to ‘behave decently with women.

U.S. to Upgrade Air Bases in Afghanistan

Updated 11:54 AM ET March 28, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8943da00&src=ap

By STEPHEN GRAHAM

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The United States is spending $83 million to upgrade its two main air bases in Afghanistan, an Air Force general said Monday, the latest indication that American forces will remain in the country for years.

Brig. Gen. Jim Hunt said the money was being spent on construction projects already underway at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, and Kandahar Air Field in the south. A new runway is being built at Bagram, the biggest Afghan airfield used by the U.S. military.

"We are continuously improving runways, taxiways, navigation aids, airfield lighting, billeting and other facilities to support our demanding mission," Hunt said at a news conference in the capital.

Afghan leaders are seeking a long-term "strategic partnership" with the United States, which expects to complete the training of the country's new 70,000-strong army next year.

It remains unclear if that will include permanent American bases in a region that includes Iran, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan and oil-rich Central Asia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on a visit to Kabul earlier this month that Washington had not decided how long to keep troops here.

U.S. commanders have said they may cut their 17,000-strong force this year if a Taliban insurgency wanes, but say the Afghan government remains vulnerable and that some kind of U.S. presence will be needed for years.

In an interview with CNN's "Late Edition," Army Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said fresh skirmishes along the Pakistani frontier showed "the fight is not out of the Taliban completely, and not out of the al-Qaida people that are operating in that region."

Asked where Osama bin Laden might be, Abizaid said only that "an awful lot of al-Qaida leadership" was operating in the mountainous border region and that U.S. troops were watching the area "with great interest."

Hunt said 150 U.S. aircraft, including ground-attack jets and helicopter gunships as well as transport and reconnaissance planes, were using 14 airfields around Afghanistan. Many are close to the Pakistani border. Other planes such as B-1 bombers patrol over Afghanistan without landing......

Laura Bush Takes Quick Trip to Afghanistan

Updated 11:13 AM ET March 29, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...894nt4o0&src=ap

By DEB RIECHMANN

WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Laura Bush set out Tuesday for a quick visit to Afghanistan, a war-torn country where American forces are still battling a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency.

Mrs. Bush has wanted to visit Afghanistan for a couple of years but delayed the journey, mostly because of security concerns. Her trip was kept secret until just before she left from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

"I have been so looking forward to going to Afghanistan," she told reporters on the tarmac of the military base in suburban Maryland. "When I really realized the plight of the women under the Taliban, I also found that American women really stand in solidarity with the women in Afghanistan."

"I'm delighted to be able to bring that message to Afghanistan," Mrs. Bush added. "This has been in the planning for quite some time. I didn't tell anyone."

She was to arrive in Kabul at midday Wednesday and spend about five hours on the ground, spending most of her time being briefed on educational initiatives for Afghan women. She also will meet with President Hamid Karzai and have dinner with U.S. forces at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul.

Asked what message she planned to bring to Karzai, she replied, "Just that America stands with the people of Afghanistan and how moved we are by their efforts, by the big huge vote that turned out earlier this year, how the American people are standing with the people of Afghanistan as they rebuild their country from years and years of war but also build a democracy for the first time in their history."

[After 3 years, the counrtry ranks at the bottom of all countries, the opium crop is the highest since before the Taliban ruled, reconstruction monies are spent on new US airbases, and Alqeada still roams around.]

Mrs. Bush also said she planned to meet with Afghan women who have what she called micro-enterprises that make scarves and rugs.

A former teacher and librarian, Mrs. Bush has expressed concern about the limited educational opportunities for Afghan girls under the rule of the former Taliban regime.

"She wants to be able to see the advances made for women in Afghanistan and to underscore the United States' longterm commitment to the people of Afghanistan," said Susan Whitson, the first lady's press secretary.

The first lady was accompanied by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. Her twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, did not accompany her, Whitson said.

Spellings visited Afghanistan last year and was touched by the plight of women.

"They've been abused by the Taliban and sometimes their families, their husbands _ their (Afghan people's) pervasiveness of drugs," Spellings said. "I mean, these gut-wrenching stories. And of course they adore their children, and they want to see about their children, they want a better life, a better future."

About 17,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan. More than 120 American soldiers have died since American forces invaded to oust the former Taliban government for harboring al-Qaida militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Whitson said the White House had worked with security officials to insure the first lady's safety. [Dr. Rice had to meet in an undisclosed bunker because it was too dangerous to travel.]

"We want to make sure she is safe as well as the people she is meeting with and all the citizens of Afghanistan," she said. "We've taken all the precautions."

Mrs. Bush was traveling to Afghanistan as part of a delegation of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council, a group formed in 2002 to promote private-public partnerships between U.S. and Afghan institutions and insure that Afghan women gain the skills and education deprived them under years of the Taliban.

In Kabul, Mrs.Bush was to visit the Women's Teacher Training Institute and hold a roundtable discussion with students and teachers. She also was to witness the award of a $17.7 million grant to American University in Kabul and $3.5 million to the International School. [photo-op --- whenever Bush's approval ratings drop, he send out Mrs. Bush]

The Taliban appears to be gathering steam.... while more assualts occurs on a daily basis again in Afghanistan. Too bad BushCoForces had to scurry off to Iraq to make a mess of things in Iraq while leaving Afghanistan in turmoil and unstability.




http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...nistanustaliban

Al-Qaeda funding the return of the Taliban, top US commander says
Tue Mar 29,10:07 AM ET

KABUL (AFP) - Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network is making fresh efforts to engineer a comeback by the Taliban and regain a foothold of its own in Afghanistan, the commander of US forces in the country said.

Lieutenant General David Barno said the US believed both Bin Laden and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar were probably still in the region, possibly on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Al-Qaeda clearly still wants to see the Taliban stage some kind of a comeback in Afghanistan," Barno told AFP.

"They're still providing financing, with guidance, training, support and selected individuals that help lead and motivate the operations here in Afghanistan."

Springtime and war... just goes hand in hand in BushWorld.

Springtime in Afghanistan brings surge in Taliban attacks

Thu Mar 31, 8:46 PM ET
Add to My Yahoo! Asia - AFP

KABUL (AFP) - After an unusually bitter winter in Afghanistan, the Taliban have emerged from hibernation with a vengeance and begun a spring campaign of violence, with just months to go before key parliamentary elections.



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



Australia denies NATO request for more troops in Afghanistan
(AP)

1 April 2005


CANBERRA - Australia agreed with NATO’s secretary-general that Afghanistan’s burgeoning opium crop is a growing international problem, but refused a request to increase Australia’s military presence there to help deal with it, officials said on Friday.

Too bad that Laura's last minute 6-hour trip was over shadowed by news about Terri Schiavo and the Pope.

What have we done with the $1 billion/month that we spend int Afghanistan? We built one cross country highway and military bases. The country is at the bottom of the list of poor countries. Children die from hunger and get no education. Opium is the entire GDP.

Laura goes to give $20 million for education, mostly higher education and get a photp-op. That is peanuts compared to the military funds. Where was the republicans' sympathy for the Afghan women when the Taliban ran the country? The Bush adminsitration was negotiating with the Taliban about a gas pipeline before 9-11.

------------------------
Laura Bush Takes Quick Trip to Afghanistan

Updated 11:13 AM ET March 29, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...894nt4o0&src=ap

----------------------

Your dead right on heritage......

All these repubs are interested in is making their 'own' news and yuk it up at their fancy fund raisers.... while they create more haovic around the world in from what they tear up on taxpayer's money. Total disgrace!

Now we are slowly entering Pakistan across the Afghan border.


http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/0...402_179212.html

April 02, 2005
US military confirms increasing militancy in Afghanistan
font size ZoomIn ZoomOut

The US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan Saturday confirmed the increasing militancy in Afghanistan, particularly in the areas along the border with Pakistan.

"The number and severity of attacks against Afghan and coalition forces has increased compared to the winter. The areas that might have increased actually primarily are along the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan," US military spokeswoman Cindy Moore told journalists here.

However, she ruled out the possibility of Pakistan's involvement in the cross border militancy, adding that the "government of Pakistan supports the government of Afghanistan in time to get rid of insurgents."

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/today/subcontinent_s3.php

Afghan politician beheaded in suspected Taleban attack


KABUL: Suspected Taleban insurgents beheaded an Afghan politician in southern Afghanistan last week, officials and party sources said yesterday. Lal Mohammad, a top member of Afghanistan Solidarity Party which backed President Hamid Karzai during last October's presidential election was beheaded in insurgency-hit Helmand province on Tuesday, party spokesman Massoud Mateen told AFP. "He was taken away from his house and beheaded," Mateen said, adding that the evidence pointed to members of the ousted Taleban regime being behind the attack. Mateen said members of Lal Mohammed's family had already fled his village in the Washir district of the province when the Taleban attacked a second time on Wednesday. Helmand governor Sher Mohammad confirmed the killing but said he did not know if Taleban militants, whose ultra-conservative regime was ousted in late 2001 by a US-led invasion, were behind the killing. "Yes we know that Lal Mohammad-a politician-was killed on Tuesday but we don't know who was behind his killing," Mateen said that the Washir district was "a stronghold" of Taleban loyalists who three years after the fall of the regime were still are able to carry out attacks on Afghan and foreign troops as well as civilians. Mohammad, a teacher in the poverty-stricken province campaigned for US-backed Karzai during last October's presidential election which Karzai won with more than 55 per cent of the vote. Helmand was also Afghanistan's top opium cultivating province in 2004 and eradication campaigns have fuelled drug related violence in the province in recent weeks. * Meanwhile the death toll from the fiery crash of a US helicopter in Afghanistan has risen to 18, the military said yesterday, after it found the remains of two more American soldiers among the wreckage. Investigators dispatched from the United States were also heading for the site of Wednesday's crash, the deadliest for Americans since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, to examine whether bad weather was to blame. Thirteen US service members and three civilian contractors were initially confirmed dead in the crash of the CH-47 Chinook near Ghazni, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore said the remains of two other soldiers listed as missing were found on Friday. All the remains were taken to Bagram, the American base north of Kabul. From there, they will be flown to Dover Air Base, in the US state of Delaware, for identification, Moore said. The names of the victims and the nationalities of the three contractors have not been released. Moore said investigators from the US Army's Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama, were traveling to Afghanistan on Saturday.

ANA Accepts Responsibility for Western Provinces

4/10/2005


HERAT, Afghanistan – In a ceremony held here Thursday, the remaining members of the Afghan Militia Force’s 4th Corps handed over official authority for the protection of Herat, Badghis, Farah and Ghor provinces to the 207th Regional Corps of the Afghan National Army.

The 207th Regional Corps was actually commissioned Sept. 28, 2004, and, as far as the Ministry of Defense is concerned, this exchange had happened months before, but, according to Maj. Michael Perry, an operations advisor to the 207th, it was an important ceremony nonetheless. “Basically, it was an acknowledgement by the AMF that they no longer exist,” Perry said.

During the ceremony, the commanders of both units exchanged flags, signifying the ANA’s acceptance of the responsibility for western Afghanistan. “The exchange of flags between the old army and the ANA was done very enthusiastically and very patriotically,” said Maj. Mohammad, a member of the regional command’s staff.

Sgt. Abdul Quduz, who returned from Pakistan to “take responsibility for (his) nation,” believes that the passing of the AMF serves as a sign of a new stability for Herat and all of Afghanistan. “Now we have a president who is the head of the new army and we are under the command of one person,” he said. “We will act according to the law and the rules.”

Capt. Mahboub Bullah, a former member of the AMF, said that the time had come for the nation to unify under a national authority and this handover was another sign that it was taking place.

The AMF, he said, had been too segregated—units were made up of single ethnic groups and fell under the control of warlords, acting at their whims. In fact, the first ANA soldiers to arrive in Herat Province were sent in August 2004 to quell fighting between AMF troops under the control of local commanders.

Bullah said this kind of fighting could not happen with a national army. “The new army, the ANA, is based on all Afghan ethnicities,” he said. “It belongs to all Afghans.”

http://www.cfc-a.centcom.mil/main/PressReleases.asp?id=191

Afghan Officers visit Quantico for training
Submitted by: MCB Quantico
Story Identification #: 2005487641
Story by Cpl. Sara A. Carter



MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Apr. 7, 2005) -- Afghan officers from the Afghanistan National Army stopped at Quantico on Tuesday during a 10-day tour of three military bases on the East Coast.

The six officers and an interpreter, who flew halfway around the world to examine how the Marine Corps works, spent Tuesday touring Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps University and the Staff Non-Commissioned Officer Academy. At each stop, Marines were there to give briefs about what they do.

The tour of Quantico included more than just briefs.

During their time at WTBn., they were able to look at two weapons Marine Corps snipers use.

Out of the six officers, only two have traveled outside of Afghanistan and this is the first time anyone from the Afghan National Army has traveled to the United States.

"I am proud working with the United States Marine Corps," said Lt. Col. Ishaq Tamkin, Battalion Commander, 1st Bn., 3rd Brigade of the Afghanistan National Army. "[I am] eager to have a good experience with the U.S. Marine Corps."

Most of the Afghan officers have a good perspective on the Marine Corps and its Marines.

"They are very friendly, professional," said Tamkin through his interpreter. "They are working with us on many parts."

Indeed the Marines are. The Afghans' next stop was Wednesday at the School of Infantry at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Then they will visit Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., to see how recruits are trained.

This was a historic experience for the Afghan officers, but for the Marines as well.

"We are proud to have them here," said Sgt. Christopher Sharon, primary marksman instructor at the Scout Sniper School. "It is a good opportunity for them to come out and see how we do things. The Marine Corps has a good system in place to train officers and enlisted."

The Afghans are scheduled to return to Afghanistan Wednesday.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf...t=2,afghanistan