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September 20, 2011
Key Afghan leader Rabbani killed in Kabul bombing
By Ernesto Londono, The Washington Post Tuesday, September 20, 9:00 PM
KABUL — Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was appointed last
year to head a commission trying to broker a peace deal with the Taliban,
was killed inside his Kabul home Tuesday afternoon in a suicide bombing,
Afghan officials said.

Taliban turban bomber kills Afghan ex-president: police
By Sardar Ahmad AFP
A Taliban suicide bomber with concealed explosives in a turban on Tuesday
assassinated former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading
government peace efforts, police said.

Rabbani death will not hurt Afghan reconciliation bid: Hague
AFP
The assassination Tuesday of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani
will not hurt Afghanistan' s bid for peace and reconciliation, Foreign
Secretary William Hague said.

Afghan government minister accused of hampering fight against insurgents
Bismillah Khan Muhammadi's intervention in Kabul siege may have led to
British and Afghan casualties, say Isaf officials
Jon Boone in Kabul guardian.co. uk, Monday 19 September 2011
Members of British and Afghan special forces were seriously injured during
last week's Kabul siege after Afghanistan' s interior minister barged onto
the scene at 3am and ordered the "cowards" to rush the final assault, Afghan
and international officials say.

Pakistan not to blame for Afghan violence: officials
Reuters By Zeeshan Haider Mon Sep 19, 2011
ISLAMABAD - The United States should focus on defeating Muslim militant
enemies inside Afghanistan instead of blaming Pakistan for its failure,
Pakistani officials said on Monday.

Over 40 militants killed in Afghanistan
PARUN, Afghanistan, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 40 militants have been killed
in an on-going clash in Bargi Matal district of Nuristan province, with
Parun as its capital, 180 km east of Kabul, provincial governor Tamim
Nuristan said on Tuesday.

Roadside bomb kills Afghan police, wounds another
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A policeman was killed and another
sustained injuries as a roadside bomb struck their van in Kunduz province,
250 km north of capital city Kabul on Tuesday, police said.

Does the Taliban need a diplomatic voice?
Sept. 19, 2011
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Giving the Taliban diplomatic influence is a
much-needed step in political reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan, a U.S.
foreign policy expert said.

Once again US Afghan policy is hobbled by divisions
Financial Times By Ahmed Rashid September 19, 2011
Much has rightly been made of the audacious attack on Kabul last week by a
group of heavily armed Taliban insurgents, which was clearly aimed at
sabotaging peace talks between the Taliban, the Americans and the Afghan
government. Rather less attention however has been given to the other
pressing issues threatening the talks

Afghanistan: Lessons in War and Peace-building for US
VOA News September 19, 2011 David Arnold
Washington - Taliban rockets fired earlier this month on the U.S. embassy
and NATO headquarters from across a Kabul street were a symbolic strike
against a 10-year U.S.-led effort to stabilize and rebuild a nation
devastated by decades of civil war, a Soviet occupation and a Taliban
campaign to reshape Afghans in their own fundamentalist image.

Afghan Parliament Still Stymied By Election Dispute
NPR By Quil Lawrence September 19, 2011
Last weekend marked a milestone for Afghanistan' s Parliament that should
have been cause for celebration: It's been a year since Afghans braved the
threat of insurgent violence to go to the polls to pick a new legislature.

Violence 'Affecting Afghan Children's Mental Health'
September 19, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
KABUL -- Human rights officials in Afghanistan have endorsed earlier
findings suggesting that endemic violence is inflicting considerable
psychological trauma and distress on children in that country, RFE/RL's
Radio Free Afghanistan reports.

Fighting is cultural, criminal for Afghan policewomen
USA TODAY By Lianne Gutcher, Special for USA TODAY 19/09/2011
QALAT, Afghanistan - Asked about the rigors of being a female cop in this
sparsely populated Afghan province, Fatima Tajik is blunt.

Afghans unapologetically cheer on dogfights
The blood sport, technically illegal, is lucrative and popular even among
government officials. In a culture accustomed to violence, few see it as
barbaric.
Los Angeles Times By Mark Magnier September 20, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Meyaan Ahamad dips his head into the shed where his
prized fighting dog barks ferociously at the end of a chain. The dog, a
Kuchi breed, has weightlifter shoulders, a massive head, the heft of a black
bear and the growl of a cougar.

TV Presenter Apologizes To Afghan Warlords -- At Gunpoint
RFE/RL September 19, 2011
KABUL - Nabil Miskinyar, a 60-something journalist, has numerous television
appearances under his belt. But none like the one he experienced in
Afghanistan last week.

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Key Afghan leader Rabbani killed in Kabul bombing
By Ernesto Londono, The Washington Post Tuesday, September 20, 9:00 PM
KABUL — Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was appointed last
year to head a commission trying to broker a peace deal with the Taliban,
was killed inside his Kabul home Tuesday afternoon in a suicide bombing,
Afghan officials said.

The man who killed Rabbani was brought to his house under the pretext of
peace talks, Gen. Abdul Zahir, the director of investigations for Kabul
police said in a phone interview. The suicide bomber had hid explosives in
his turban, Zahir said.

“A group of people were brought to his room, saying they wanted to discuss
the peace process,” Zahir said. “The man hugged Rabbani and blew himself
up.”

Zahir said Rabbani’s killer was not searched because he was brought to the
residence by senior members of the peace council. He said the council
members thought the men, who arrived at the heavily-fortified residence at
approximately 6 p.m., were representatives of the Taliban.

Before detonating the explosives, the suicide bomber lowered his head, in a
would-be gesture of respect, the general added. “He was killed on the spot,”
Zahir said, referring to Rabbani.

Four other people in the room, including Rabbani’s secretary, were also
killed in the attack, Zahir said. Security officials said Masoom Stanekzai,
a senior advisor to President Hamid Karzai, who was also a key player in the
peace talks effort, sustained serious injuries during the attack.

Karzai was in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly
meetings, but cut short the visit to return to Afghanistan following the
attack.

The assassination of the influential political leader is a blow to the
Afghan government's embattled effort to bring insurgents into the political
fold. The United States and other Western leaders have backed the so-far
fruitless effort, seeing it as the best opportunity to bring the war to an
end after a decade of fighting.

Rabbani, who served as president from 1992 to 1996, fled Kabul when the
Taliban seized control of the country. He was one of the key leaders of the
Northern Alliance, a coalition of warlords and political factions that
fought against the Taliban during the nation’s fierce civil war.

The bombing comes as Karzai and the U.S.-led military coalition in Kabul are
struggling to argue that Afghanistan is ready to start assuming greater
responsibility for security as NATO troops start pulling out.

Last week, a 20-hour grenade and rocket attack targeted the U.S. embassy and
the NATO headquarters in Kabul. U.S. officials said the assault, which
included suicide bombings across the city, was likely carried out by the
Pakistan-based Haqqani network, a group closely allied with the Taliban that
has been linked to several high profile attacks. Rabbani’s house is near the
embassy.

Pakistani leaders were among the first Tuesday to condemn the attack on
Rabbani. “The Pakistani leadership has conveyed to the brotherly people and
government of Afghanistan extreme anger and shock on the terrorist attack,”
a statement issued by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed
Yusaf Raza Gilani said.

Haroun Mir, a political analyst in Kabul, said Rabbani’s death would be a
huge setback for the peace process.

“This is a big loss for the entire country,” he said in a phone interview.
“We don’t know who was behind this assassination. But the message seems to
be that at least one group within the Taliban is totally against the peace
process. This is a very strong message.”

Rabbani, a Tajik from Badakshan Province, was an unusual choice to lead the
peace council, which was seated last September. His ethnicity did not go
unnoticed when he was selected to broker talks between Karzai, and ethnic
Pashtun, and the Taliban, which also draws its strength from Pashtun
committees.

Mir said Karzai likely picked Rabbani because he “wanted to make this a
national process and wanted the approval of all factions in the country. He
could not make peace only with Pashtun leaders.”

The 68-member High Peace Council has accomplished little. Taliban leaders
have said they will not negotiate while foreign troops remain in the
country. Council members have complained that the Taliban didn’t take them
seriously because the body was seen as largely powerless.

U.S. officials have opened back-channel talks with representatives of
Taliban leaders, an effort designed to set conditions for formal talks. But
those efforts have appeared to gain little traction, and it is unclear
whether they continue.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul, which is blocks away from Rabbani’s house, said
diplomats were instructed “to take cover” late Tuesday afternoon as a result
of a nearby security incident.

“We are working to account for all embassy personnel and staff,” the
statement said.

The Rabbani assassination was reminiscent of the suicide bombing that killed
Ahmad Shah Massoud, the revered Afghan commander who led the effort that
drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan in 1989. Massoud was killed two days
before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by suspected al-Qaeda
militants who got access to him pretending to be journalists. Their bomb was
hidden in a videocamera.

Bashir Bezhan, a politician close to Rabanni, said the fatal meeting had
been arranged by Rahmatullah Wahidyar, a former Taliban leader who
reconciled with Karzai’s government in 2005.

Wahidyar, a member of the peace council, served as deputy minister for
refugees during the Taliban regime in the late 1990’s.

Rabbani arrived in Kabul from Dubai on Tuesday afternoon after peace council
members notified him that they had scheduled a meeting that could mark a
breakthrough in peace talks, Bezhan said.

Bezhan said Rabbani was told, “You have to come and meet this guy.”

Rabbani landed in Kabul at 3 p.m. and rushed home to prepare for the
meeting, Bezan said.

Bezan, who talked to reporters after stepping outside Rabbani’s house, said
he was told Wahidyar was among those wounded in the attack.

Officials did not say whether they have found evidence that members of the
high peace council could have been complicit.

Special correspondents Javed Hamdard and Sayed Salahuddin contributed to
this report
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Taliban turban bomber kills Afghan ex-president: police
By Sardar Ahmad AFP
A Taliban suicide bomber with concealed explosives in a turban on Tuesday
assassinated former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading
government peace efforts, police said.

The bomber struck during a meeting at the Kabul home of Rabbani, who was
last year appointed chief of the Afghan High Peace Council that President
Hamid Karzai tasked with negotiating with the Taliban.

His death is the most high-profile political assassination since the 2001
US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power and comes just two months
after Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was also killed.

The attackers arrived at Rabbani's house with Mohammad Massom Stanikzai,
Rabbani's deputy, for a meeting before the turban bomber detonated his
explosives, according to one source amid conflicting reports of the
incident.

A member of the High Peace Council, Fazel Karim Aymaq, said the men had come
with "special messages" from the Taliban and were "very trusted."

Kabul criminal investigations chief Mohammad Zaher said two men "negotiating
with Rabbani on behalf of the Taliban" arrived at his house, one with
explosives hidden in his turban.

"He approached Rabbani and detonated his explosives. Rabbani was martyred
and four others including Massom Stanikzai (his deputy) were injured."

The bomber struck close to the US embassy, making it the the second attack
within a week in Kabul's supposedly secure diplomatic zone.

The killing prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cut short his visit to
the United States, his spokesman said, adding he was still expected to meet
US President Barack Obama as scheduled before leaving.

An AFP reporter saw an ambulance at the scene and said police had blocked
off surrounding roads.

The reporter also heard guards at the house shouting for an ambulance for
Rabbani's deputy.

Two of the former president's political allies, who did not want to be named
and speaking before police confirmed Rabbani's death, wept as they told AFP
he had been killed.

"Yes, he is dead," said one of the two sources by telephone.

The Taliban were not immediately reachable for comment, but the insurgency
led by its militia has hit Kabul increasingly hard in recent months.

The Pakistani government swiftly condemned the assassination, describing
Rabbani as a "friend" with whom Islamabad was working closely on peace
efforts.

"The people of Pakistan stand by their Afghan brothers and sisters in this
moment of grief," a joint statement released by President Asif Ali Zardari
and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said, just days after the United
States accused the Pakistani government of having ties to Taliban faction
the Haqqani network.

Among the most high-profile attacks was last week's 20-hour siege of the US
embassy and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
headquarters which left 14 people dead.

Rabbani was president of Afghanistan from 1992 until the Taliban took power
in 1996 and headed a country wracked by civil war.

Karzai's brainchild, the High Peace Council was intended to open a dialogue
with insurgents who have been trying to bring down his government since the
US-led invasion overthrew their regime.

The 68-member council, hand-picked by the president, was inaugurated on
October 7, 2010, amid mounting reports of secret peace talks with Taliban
leaders and key insurgent groups.

Delivering his acceptance speech, Rabbani said he was "confident" that peace
was possible, according to a statement from the palace.

"I hope we are able to take major steps in bringing peace and fulfil our
duties with tireless effort and help from God," he was quoted as saying.

According to Human Rights Watch, Rabbani is among prominent Afghans
implicated in war crimes during the brutal fighting that killed or displaced
hundreds of thousands of Afghans in the early 1990s.
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Rabbani death will not hurt Afghan reconciliation bid: Hague
AFP
The assassination Tuesday of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani
will not hurt Afghanistan' s bid for peace and reconciliation, Foreign
Secretary William Hague said.

Hague told reporters that he was "appalled" by the attack in Kabul where a
Taliban suicide bomber with concealed explosives in a turban assassinated
Rabbani, who was leading government peace efforts with the Taliban.

"This is an attack by people who only want to spread violence and
bloodshed," Hague said, offering Britain's condolences to Rabbani's family
and to relatives of the other victims in the attack.

"He worked tirelessly for peace and a secure future for Afghanistan, and we
are confident that this will in no way reduce the determination of the
government of Afghanistan to continue to work for peace and reconciliation. "

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Hague said
he would discuss the assassination and reconciliation process with Zalmai
Rassoul, the Afghan foreign minister.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who was due in New York, said in a statement
he was "absolutely appalled" by the murder of Rabbani.

"He was a respected former President of Afghanistan and played a vital role
as the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council," he said in a statement.

"We met on my last trip to Afghanistan where I was able to hear and see for
myself his determination to work for a better Afghanistan. He will be sorely
missed but the work of the Peace Council will go on.

"We remain determined to see Afghanistan prosper," Cameron said.
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Afghan government minister accused of hampering fight against insurgents
Bismillah Khan Muhammadi's intervention in Kabul siege may have led to
British and Afghan casualties, say Isaf officials
Jon Boone in Kabul guardian.co. uk, Monday 19 September 2011
Members of British and Afghan special forces were seriously injured during
last week's Kabul siege after Afghanistan' s interior minister barged onto
the scene at 3am and ordered the "cowards" to rush the final assault, Afghan
and international officials say.

Even as fighting raged on the upper floors of a 12-storey condemned building
site that insurgents had used to fire missiles at the US embassy, Bismillah
Khan Muhammadi, a 50-year-old cabinet minister, marched into the ground
floor at around 3am and ordered a new team to be thrown into the fight.

Well-informed sources have painted an extraordinary picture of a senior
official who not only remained in the building while fighting continued, but
also accused commanders of being cowards and threatened to sack them unless
they hurried up. A shocked official from Nato's International Security
Assistance Force (Isaf) said that by bypassing the established chain of
command Muhammadi sent the mission into disarray, spoiling what had until
that point been a painstaking and careful effort by Afghan forces.

"The troops that he sent in were not properly briefed or prepared, which may
well have led to them taking casualties. By taking complete command of the
entire operation he undermined all levels of command below him, rendering
them ineffective, " the official said.

Five Afghan commandos from the reserve unit Muhammadi had ordered into the
building were injured as they raced up the building. Another had been
wounded earlier in the operation, which took 20 hours to complete.

In addition five British special forces soldiers, most likely from the
Special Air Service who were mentoring the Afghans, were wounded by grenades
thrown in the abandoned building site. Another Isaf official said the
British casualties were taken to a Nato medical facility where at least one
man, suffering shrapnel wounds to his chest, was operated on.

The Ministry of Defence refuses to comment on either special forces
operations or on injuries sustained by troops, but all the wounded are said
to be recovering.

John Allen, the US general in overall command of the international forces,
was said to be furious with Muhammadi's interference in the operation, which
Isaf officials believe may have added hours to the final outcome, giving
insurgents extra time to prepare for the final assault. An Isaf spokesman
refused to comment on Allen's view of events, or on details of the
operation.

A group of opposition MPs have called for the resignation of Muhammadi and
other ministers with security portfolios in the wake of the day-long fight
in the capital. In a statement the interior ministry denied the claims of
security and diplomatic sources, saying the minister had stayed 600 metres
away from the building and respected the chain of command.

It said there was "no reason to clear the area with hurry", adding: "The
minister, when sought by the commanders, encouraged them to have patience
during the operation and said they should act according to the procedures
and training they have received while responding to these attacks."

But a western diplomat said Muhammadi, a former guerrilla leader who fought
the Russians in the 1980s, had been "fuming about the amount of time it took
to clear everything".

Afghan special forces believed they had no choice but to proceed slowly
after booby-trapped bombs had been found on the upper floors. "They couldn't
rush up," one official said. "Fighting upstairs is very difficult in a
normal building, let alone one that is largely open with massive arcs of
fire that the insurgents can shoot from."

In another sign of how well prepared the attackers were, a car filled with
remote controlled explosives was left by the entrance of the building in an
effort to kill security forces as they arrived. It did not explode,
officials believe, because the insurgent with the detonator was killed
before he could use it.

At one stage the Afghans planned to try and land troops on the roof with a
helicopter but the plan was abandoned after it was decided the risks of the
aircraft being shot down were too great.

It was a wise choice as the insurgents had at their disposal hundreds of
grenades, rocket propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and an 82mm mortar
tube used to fire at the US embassy.

Suspicions have been raised that such a huge quantity of weapons must have
been pre-positioned, and two policemen who worked in a checkpoint based in
the lower floors of the building have been arrested.

The insurgents, who have been identified by the US as members of the Haqqani
Network, were highly proficient in using the weapons, at one point scoring a
direct hit on a military vehicle with a rocket propelled grenade from 400
metres.

In another sign of military training, they also had basic first aid skills
and equipment which they used to treat a colleague wounded soon after
entering the building. His blood trail is still visible on the broken
concrete flights of stairs.

During a visit to the site on Sunday an energy bar was still lying on a
staircase where it was dropped by an attacker who was prepared for a long
and physically draining siege.
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Pakistan not to blame for Afghan violence: officials
Reuters By Zeeshan Haider Mon Sep 19, 2011
ISLAMABAD - The United States should focus on defeating Muslim militant
enemies inside Afghanistan instead of blaming Pakistan for its failure,
Pakistani officials said on Monday.

Washington accused Pakistan on Saturday of having links to the Haqqani
network, which Washington blames for an attack on the U.S. Embassy and other
targets in Kabul, and said the government in Islamabad must cut those ties.

"Whenever big attacks in Kabul or elsewhere in Afghanistan take place this
blame game starts," a senior military official, who requested anonymity,
told Reuters.

"Instead of blaming us, they should take action against terrorists on their
side of the border."

In blunt remarks, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, told
Radio Pakistan there was evidence linking the Haqqanis to the Islamabad
government.

Washington has long blamed militants sheltering in Pakistan for violence in
Afghanistan. Islamabad says its forces are taking high casualties fighting
insurgents and bristles at any suggestion it provides support for fighters.

Some 5,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed since the South Asian country
joined the U.S. "war on terror" after the Sept 11 attacks on the United
States.

The Haqqani network is one of three, and perhaps the most feared, of the
Taliban-allied insurgent factions fighting U.S.-led NATO and Afghan troops
in Afghanistan.

Insurgents in a bomb-laden truck occupied a building in Kabul last week,
raining rockets and gunfire on the U.S. Embassy and other targets in the
diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital, and battled police during a 20
hour siege.

Five Afghan police and 11 civilians were killed.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Pakistan last week the United States
would "do everything we can" to defend U.S. forces from Pakistan-based
militants staging attacks in Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Pakistan in 3- hours of talks on
Sunday to attack the Haqqani network, a senior U.S. official said.
[nS1E78H0AI]

The official said the issue of counter-terrorism in general and the Haqqani
network in particular were the first and last topics discussed by Clinton
and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

"They (the Americans) say militants come from Pakistan but they travel up to
Kabul and no one arrests them all the way to Kabul. It is their
responsibility (to arrest them there) not ours," said the senior Pakistani
military official.

Washington blames militants sheltering in Pakistan for violence in
Afghanistan. The discovery of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town, where he
was killed this year by U.S. commandos, has aggravated tensions between the
two countries.

The allies recently spoke of strong counter-terrorism cooperation,
suggesting they had put behind them bitterness over the unilateral raid that
killed bin Laden.

But Munter indicated ties with Pakistan, which relies on billions of dollars
of U.S. aid, were still heavily strained.

"These relations today need a lot of work," he said.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told Reuters the two
sides needed to work toward a "friction-free relationship. "

"Any perceptional differences warrant deeper engagement and that is taking
place," she said.

Ties between Washington and Islamabad are often uneasy. The Haqqani network
is one of the most divisive issues.

"Terrorism and extremism are a much bigger threat to Pakistan than to the
United States," said Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to
the United States.

(Additional reporting by Qasim Nauman; Writing by Michael Georgy)
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Over 40 militants killed in Afghanistan
PARUN, Afghanistan, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 40 militants have been killed
in an on-going clash in Bargi Matal district of Nuristan province, with
Parun as its capital, 180 km east of Kabul, provincial governor Tamim
Nuristan said on Tuesday.

"A total of 43 militants have been killed in a clash that broke out since
Saturday and is still going on in surrounding areas of Bargi Matal
district," governor of Nuristan Tamim Nuristani told Xinhua.

He said an Afghan army soldier was also killed and three policemen were
injured in the fighting that occurred in remote Bargi Matal district
bordering Pakistan.

Meantime, a purported spokesman of the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid in talks
with local media via cell phone from an undisclosed location confirmed the
incident, saying some of Taliban fighters have been killed in the fighting
in the district and claimed that the Taliban also killed nine Afghan
policemen in the attacks to gain the control of Bargi Matal district.

In another development, unknown armed men shot and killed a tribal elder in
eastern Logar province on Monday night, provincial police chief Ghulam Sakhi
Rogh Lewani confirmed on Tuesday.

"Two armed men assassinated Shah Wali, a tribal elder, in Mohammad Agha
district late on Monday when Wali was on his way home," Lewani told Xinhua,
adding the police has initiated an investigation to find the culprits behind
the assassination.

At least six government officials and tribal elders have been killed by
insurgents since September.

The insurgent group has stepped up their attacks on Afghan and NATO-led
troops since a spring rebel offensive was launched in May this year in the
war-ravaged country.

The Taliban also warned people against supporting government and foreign
troops.
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Roadside bomb kills Afghan police, wounds another
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A policeman was killed and another
sustained injuries as a roadside bomb struck their van in Kunduz province,
250 km north of capital city Kabul on Tuesday, police said.

"The bomb planted by insurgents on a road in Chardara district went off this
morning killing a local police and injuring another," district police chief
Ghulam Maihudin told Xinhua.

He blamed Taliban militants for organizing the attack; but the outfit
fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops has yet to make comment.

This is the second militants' attack against police in northern provinces of
Afghanistan.

In the previous attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of police
department in Aqcha district of Jauzjan province 390 km north of capital
city Kabul Monday evening killing four people including a police and injured
nine others including a police and eight civilians.

Militancy has been on rise since May 1, when Taliban outfit announced to
launch spring offensive in the war-battered Afghanistan.
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Does the Taliban need a diplomatic voice?
Sept. 19, 2011
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Giving the Taliban diplomatic influence is a
much-needed step in political reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan, a U.S.
foreign policy expert said.

A report last week from The Times of London claimed Washington supported a
plan for the Taliban to open an official political office in Qatar. The
plan, the newspaper said, coincides with efforts to start formal peace talks
with the former leaders of Afghanistan.

Xenia Dormandy, a U.S. foreign policy expect at Chatham House, said that
while a diplomatic presence for the Taliban wasn't a "final solution" to
Afghanistan' s political woes, it was a "necessary step," German broadcaster
Deutsche Welle reports.

"Some kind of legalized office where Taliban representatives can function is
a prerequisite to talks getting anywhere," added Stephen Biddle, a senior
fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, stressed that
any efforts to reach out to certain members of the Taliban was an Afghan
initiative.

"The U.S. has certain red lines," she added.

The U.N. Security Council in June voted to split sanctions imposed on
al-Qaida and Taliban members. The process is seen as part of an effort to
clear moderate elements of the Taliban for reintegration into political life
in Afghanistan.
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Once again US Afghan policy is hobbled by divisions
Financial Times By Ahmed Rashid September 19, 2011
Much has rightly been made of the audacious attack on Kabul last week by a
group of heavily armed Taliban insurgents, which was clearly aimed at
sabotaging peace talks between the Taliban, the Americans and the Afghan
government. Rather less attention however has been given to the other
pressing issues threatening the talks – the deep divisions within President
Barack Obama’s administration over their future, and his apparent failure to
exercise control over his officials.

Last week’s 20-hour siege followed August’s attack on the British Council in
Kabul, and showed once again that the Taliban can now penetrate Kabul’s
“green zone” with ease. In retaliation US Special Forces now mount up to a
dozen raids every night, killing and capturing Taliban and civilians in what
are often hit-or-miss operations, fuelling Afghan public anger at the
Americans.

In these circumstances European governments and the majority of Americans
want a speedy troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. But it is not only hardline
American generals like David Petraeus, the former commander in Afghanistan,
who now heads the CIA, who are dragging their feet. Senior US diplomats are
doing so as well. “The Taliban needs to feel more pain before you get to a
real readiness to reconcile them,’’ said Ryan Crocker, the prestigious new
US ambassador to Kabul who arrived in June.

In a blistering interview with the Wall Street Journal he also said the
conflict should continue until more of the Taliban are killed. With such
statements he riles Nato and US officials by openly undermining the drive to
hold talks.

Gen Petraeus was well known for wanting to continue to fight the Taliban
until well into next year, even as Nato troops are being pulled out. Whether
his views will carry weight in the more sceptical CIA still has to be seen.
However European officials – and some US ones – describe Mr Crocker as the
spokesman for a new cabal in the US administration who want to delay talks
with the Taliban for the time being and reduce the insurgency first, by
killing as many as possible.

“What Crocker is saying is totally destructive to what we have agreed
upon,’’ says one senior European official. “His language humiliates the
Taliban which is not the way to bring them to the table,’’ says another.
European officials are deeply concerned that the attempted dialogue will
stall in the wake of such comments.

The ambassador’s statements are reducing the chances that the Taliban will
go ahead with their plan to open an office in Qatar, as was expected to
happen as the next step towards an agreement. Moreover his fiery statements
are exactly what the Taliban irreconcilables want to hear, because they
sabotage negotiations that representatives of the mainstream Taliban faction
may be having with Kabul and Washington.

“Crocker’s hardline comments play into the hands of the hardline Taliban who
want the talks sabotaged anyway,” says the first European official. What is
clearly missing is leadership. The State Department team, led by Marc
Grossman, has been engaged for some months in talking to the Taliban, but
senior officials including even Mr Obama and secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton, appear to be doing nothing to discipline their officials. Mr Obama
rarely talks about Afghanistan and he barely mentioned it at the tenth
anniversary commemorations of the 9/11 attacks in New York last week.

Yet both Mr Obama and Ms Clinton have publicly and vociferously supported
the need for talks with the Taliban. Reconciliation is the official name of
the new US strategy. Beset as he is by domestic difficulties, in particular
on the economy, Mr Obama needs to become more proactive on Afghanistan and
seek to drive forward the talks rather than merely to be a “back stop” for
them.

Ironically the “hardliners” in Washington have no support from traditional
Republicans who want the US troops to come home. There is no presidential
candidate among the Republicans who wants to prolong the war. In Europe
every government wants a quick exit for its troops. European officials
meanwhile fulminate at what they see as chaos in Washington where foreign
policy appears to be set by an ambassador – while a president cannot decide
which side to back.

The writer is author of Descent into Chaos and The Taliban
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Afghanistan: Lessons in War and Peace-building for US
VOA News September 19, 2011 David Arnold
Washington - Taliban rockets fired earlier this month on the U.S. embassy
and NATO headquarters from across a Kabul street were a symbolic strike
against a 10-year U.S.-led effort to stabilize and rebuild a nation
devastated by decades of civil war, a Soviet occupation and a Taliban
campaign to reshape Afghans in their own fundamentalist image.

For a decade beginning with the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States
and Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. government has led a major and
costly effort to offer Afghanistan a greater sense of domestic security, a
new style of governance and control of its economic destiny. The
Congressional Research Service reports that the combined efforts of the U.S.
Department of Defense, the State Department and USAID (U.S. Agency for
International Development) have cost the U.S. government $444 billion.

Afghanistan is a pioneering attempt to rebuild one of the world’s poorest
and most conflicted nations. The U.S. learned some hard but invaluable
lessons from its experience in Iraq. And like in Iraq, the U.S. faces a
deadline on its presence in Afghanistan as well.

The United States has vowed to remove the final 100,000 U.S. troops from
Afghanistan in 2014. They have three years left to make a durable state
capable of growing a diversified and sustainable economy from a largely
rural and traditional society whose major crop is now poppies grown for an
illegal international heroin trade. Will Operation Enduring Freedom offer
Afghanistan lasting political and economic freedom?

The lion’s share of money spent in Afghanistan and Iraq has gone to fighting
a war and creating post-conflict security. However, war costs trumped
rebuilding. The costs of domestic reconstruction were only a small piece of
the total. Together, the Pentagon, USAID and its parent, the State
Department, spent an estimated $50 billion on building key institutions for
a once-failed state: an electoral process, an army, police force, schools,
health clinics, roads, bridges and power plants. USAID spent $12 billion in
funds on development.

However, recent studies now report that some of this money was wasted. “We
threw so much money at Iraq and spent so much and wasted a lot,” said Chris
Shays, a co-chairman of the Wartime Commission for Contracting in Iraq and
Afghanistan and former U.S. Congressman from Connecticut. “So, we’re not
repeating them in Afghanistan.” The Commission’s report cites expensive
flaws in the way the U.S. government issues and manages contracts. The group
just submitted a report to Congress identifying about $60 billion in fraud,
waste and abuse – and projects that are unsustainable because Afghanistan
and Iraq either cannot afford or do not want them.

Despite claims of funds wasted or misspent, some scholars and development
experts give the United States high marks for the reconstruction efforts,
starting with security.

Building a functioning state in a war zone

“The Afghan army and police are becoming a pretty viable and pretty
respectable institution,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings
Institution. “I think, therefore, that there are the makings of a new Afghan
state which has some degree of centralized control and power over its own
territory.”

However, O’Hanlon hedges his assessment with several substantial caveats for
Afghanistan’s future security. “Obviously, it’s a weak state. Obviously, it
doesn’t control all of its territory. It’s under threat, it has a lot of
corruption and other problems but it does have some of the trappings and
prerequisites of a functioning nation state.”

O’Hanlon has been tracking for the past 10 years Afghanistan’s
state-building process through a post-conflict lens of state-building
expenditures that have been borne predominantly by the Pentagon.

Daniel Serwer of the Middle East Institute is equally concerned about the
current vulnerability of the Afghan state. Serwer advocates a larger role
for civilian actors working through the State Department and other U.S.
federal agencies. “We really didn’t try hard in Afghanistan.” He said
development efforts were given short shrift. “For years after the war, there
was very little assistance.”

The Commission’s final report and findings from others such as the
International Conflict Group (ICG) come at a time when Congress begins an
annual examination of funding amounts for the stabilization and development
both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The recently retired U.S Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, went on record
five years ago arguing, surprisingly to some, that the State Department
doesn’t get enough attention when Congress funds such operations. He
illustrated the imbalance of funding by telling his audience he could put
the entire U.S. Foreign Service on one battleship. He put the number at
6,600 Foreign Service officers.

“One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,”
said Gates, “is that military success is not sufficient to win: economic
development, institution building and the rule of law, promoting internal
reconciliation, good governance, providing basic services to the people are
essential to success in state building.”

An ICG report calls on the U.S. government to reduce military involvement in
humanitarian, development and reconstruction assistance and to improve
coordination between civilian and military actors. That point is echoed by
others who see advantages in shifting more funds from military to civilian
contractors and in some cases, from the Defense to the State Department.

Military as major player

James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation holds that in conflict nations,
the military must take the lead. “The right model is when you have a
conflict environment and you’re trying to help get something established,
the military guys need to be in charge because the overwhelming requirement
is security,” said Carafano. “Once you’re out of the conflict stage, it
doesn’t matter who’s in charge.”

“There’s no question but that a deployed soldier in Afghanistan who costs
over a million dollars a year is far more expensive than civilians,” said
Daniel Serwer, the Middle East Institute scholar. Serwer believes that
sending in civilians “is not just cheaper but better.” But adds that “This
requires a real build-up of the State Department and USAID capacity that we
haven’t seen.”

“The United States has relied on its military as a main instrument of its
own state building and of its foreign policy for a very long time,” Serwer
said. “I think we’re at the point where the extra dollars spent on the
military are not as productive as extra dollars spent on the civilian
instruments of projecting power.”

The ICG report also recommends the U.S. government shift from their
quick-impact military or civilian stabilization programs to partner with
Afghanistan’s own National Solidarity Program that promotes Afghan-led
community development, places management responsibilities in the hands of
more than 20,000 committees that are implementing more that 50,000 projects.
That’s exactly what six non-government organizations have been doing with
funding from the Gates Foundation, the European Commission, the World Bank
and the governments of the Netherlands, Japan and Norway, as well as from
USAID.

Experts agree that, in the end, it does not matter which agency takes the
lead in post-conflict countries, but how well any manager of U.S. foreign
assistance can choose and supervise projects and its contractors. At least,
the Wartime Commission holds that view.

“We went into Iraq and Afghanistan unprepared to use contractors, and the
military has told us they can’t go to war without contractors,” said Shays,
the wartime commission’s co-chair. He was surprised to learn in the
committee’s first investigations that at times in the last 10 years, U.S.
contractors outnumbered U.S. troops.

‘They are re-building their own country with our support’

The Commission’s report highlights some of troubles the International
Conflict Group recently addressed in Afghanistan. Aid disbursed since 2001
“has largely failed to fulfill the international community’s pledges to
rebuild Afghanistan,” according to the ICG report. “Poor planning and
oversight have affected projects’ effectiveness and sustainability, with
local authorities lacking the means to keep projects running, layers of
subcontractors reducing the amounts that reach the ground, and aid delivery
further undermined by corruption in Kabul and bribes paid to insurgent
groups to ensure security for development projects.”

Representatives from several leading non-governmental organizations
testified in April at the Wartime Commission hearings in Washington, D.C.,
that not-for-profits can do a better job in the final three years in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Speakers for Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services,
Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) argued that
their development model is successful because it is based on experience in
dozens of other conflicted countries over more than 20 years. They rely
heavily on local communities to propose, implement and monitor projects of
their own selection, such as schools, clinics, roads and bridges.

“We take a very low-cost approach, we have a small footprint, most of our
staff overseas are the citizens of that nations,” said Anne Richard of the
IRC. She said her organization has 400 employees in Afghanistan and 98
percent of them are Afghans. “They are re-building their own country with
our support and it can be a tremendously successful enterprise.”

IRC first began working with Afghan refugees in Pakistan many years ago. In
Afghanistan, they have partnered with other NGOs in supporting the growth of
committee support for schools: teaching parents the value of an education,
providing teacher education and getting girls into the classroom. They have
partnered with several NGOs investing in development efforts through the
National Solidarity Program, whose work had been endorsed by the ICG report.

“It’s true that your NGOs, like Save and Mercy Corps, and others have been
in-country and know the culture and depend on the indigenous people to do
the work,” Shays told VOA after the hearings.

Shays also said the committee has concerns about how USAID and the NGOs,
which do the work in the field, perform due diligence in monitoring the
projects. The Commission believes weaknesses in contracting occur in both
agencies.

Going to war with contractors

Shays suggested a corollary to the infamous remark by former Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld to a U.S. National Guard unit in Kuwait, “You go to
war with the army you have.”

“If you’ve got to go to war with the army you’ve got,” Shays adds, “you’ve
also got to go to war with the contractors you’ve got. And you are going to
be a little more lenient for the first year or two,” Shays said. “After a
few years you shouldn’t be doing the same wasteful things.

“In the first year or two you cut yourself a little slack. But we have been
wasting money continually. So we need many reforms and it will take years,
but it will save literally billions and billions of dollars," added Shays.
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Afghan Parliament Still Stymied By Election Dispute
NPR By Quil Lawrence September 19, 2011
Last weekend marked a milestone for Afghanistan' s Parliament that should
have been cause for celebration: It's been a year since Afghans braved the
threat of insurgent violence to go to the polls to pick a new legislature.

But a dispute over election results has smoldered between President Hamid
Karzai and lawmakers ever since. And the resulting gridlock has prevented
the new Parliament from passing a single notable law, confirming any of the
president's ministers, or giving any oversight to the president or his
Cabinet.

On a recent day, just outside the security gates at Afghanistan' s Parliament
in west Kabul, a small group of constituents was crowding around Ramazan
Bashardost, a member of Parliament from Kabul. It was old-fashioned
representative democracy in action.

Bashardost is a rarity in Afghanistan, with a reputation for direct contact
with the public. For years, he pitched a tent across the highway from the
Parliament building and welcomed all comers and listened to their woes. He
writes down names and says he'll look into specific problems, but Bashardost
is candid about the record of Parliament, or Wolesi Jirga, at getting
anything done.

"The only thing that the Afghan Wolesi Jirga in one year did, it was their
salary. They asked to add 3,100 Afghanis ($72) more to their salary," he
says.

Competing Factions

To be fair, it was difficult for Parliament to make significant decisions,
since the exact results of the vote are still a matter of controversy. It
began with an election day when threats of insurgent violence closed many
polling stations.

After authorities spent months tabulating and disqualifying irregular
ballots, the results did not favor Karzai's Pashtun ethnic group. Critics
say that's why Karzai set up a special tribunal to re-examine the election.

Parliament bristled at what it saw as an overreach by the president. Since
then, lawmakers have been too preoccupied with whether they might lose their
seats to make any laws.

Most days, a number of Parliament members show up at work, passing through
metal detectors and checking their handguns in lockers before entering the
small courtyard between the higher and lower houses of the legislature.

The politicians mingling on the commons are mostly divided into two factions
over the ongoing election dispute. Karzai's special tribunal originally
ruled that 62 legislators should be replaced; that number has now, after
debate, come down to just nine.

A group of 70 parliamentarians, calling themselves the Rule of Law
coalition, say changing even those nine seats is illegal. Another group —
called the reformers — says it's not worth holding up the legislature over
just nine seats. But both groups agree their record so far this year is
abysmal.

A Government With Only One Branch

Nader Khan Katawazai represents Paktika, in eastern Afghanistan.

"It's gotten to a point where the government calls the Parliament
illegitimate and the Parliament calls the executive illegitimate, so it's a
deadlock," he says, wearing an enormous green silk turban typical of his
Pashtun province.

Katawazai says Parliament has disappointed the public.

"Yes, it's been one year and there's nothing I can really tell you about the
Parliament's achievement; we haven't really done anything," he says.

Katawazai says Afghanistan hardly has the time to waste, with many pressing
matters that legislators should be taking up.

Western diplomats and the United Nations have put pressure on Karzai to
accept the Parliament and get on with business. But Asadullah Sayadati, a
parliamentarian from central Daikundi province, says the international
community should be doing more to confront what has become a government with
only one branch.

"It raises a question, for me personally, what are you doing in Afghanistan?
If you're not supporting democracy, if you're not supporting democratic
institutions of the country, then why are you here?" he says.

Sayadati hastens to add that he doesn't want the international forces to
leave — at least not until Afghanistan' s democracy looks a little more
stable.
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Violence 'Affecting Afghan Children's Mental Health'
September 19, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
KABUL -- Human rights officials in Afghanistan have endorsed earlier
findings suggesting that endemic violence is inflicting considerable
psychological trauma and distress on children in that country, RFE/RL's
Radio Free Afghanistan reports.

Afghanistan' s Independent Human Rights Commission in Kabul told RFE/RL that
many Afghan children have witnessed acts of violence, seeing people being
killed in bomb attacks or seeing dead bodies on the streets.

A 2009 study by England's Durham University, the first large-scale survey of
Afghan children's mental health, reported that one in five children suffers
from psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic
stress disorder.

An RFE/RL correspondent in Kabul's Abdul Haq neighborhood -- the scene of a
recent Taliban attack in which six militants launched assaults against
Afghan and international forces -- interviewed some children who had
witnessed the violence.

"We were in the classroom when we heard gunfire behind our school," said one
student. "We all escaped and ran home. A lot of my classmates were crying
saying that we were going to die."

"When we were running from the school, I saw a car pull up by the road,"
Najib, a sixth-grader, told RFE/RL. "A man dressed in women's clothing came
out and shot a policeman and then ran into a building."

Hasib, 15, said the attacks caused panic among his classmates, with some
still traumatized days later. "Psychologically it hit everybody hard," he
said. "Many of us don't eat properly, we have trouble sleeping, and find it
hard to concentrate on our studies."

Children have been some of the worst victims of Afghanistan' s nearly three
decades of war.

According to UNICEF, more than 30 percent of children of elementary-school
age are working on the streets in Afghanistan and are often their family's
sole breadwinners. That means that millions of children are not going to
school.

Child labor in Afghanistan is also rampant, with many impoverished families
selling their kids into forced labor, sexual exploitation, and early
marriage.

Some of the children -- who can be as young as 3 years old -- are overworked
and are suffer from malnutrition and disease.
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Fighting is cultural, criminal for Afghan policewomen
USA TODAY By Lianne Gutcher, Special for USA TODAY 19/09/2011
QALAT, Afghanistan - Asked about the rigors of being a female cop in this
sparsely populated Afghan province, Fatima Tajik is blunt.

"We want to leave our jobs," Tajik tells her NATO mentor, U.S. Army Maj.
Maria Rodriguez. "We are risking our lives for little money: $220 per month.
We also have families to take care of. All the women in Zabul hate us.
Everyone hates us."

The women in this town where strict Islamic customs pervade all aspects of
daily life call the policewomen "whores" for working alongside Americans and
men to whom they are not married, she says. The women get phone calls
telling them they will be beheaded if they don't quit the force.

Rodriguez, Female Engagement Team leader and provost marshal of the 1st
Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, acknowledges the death
threats and that a bomb had been placed in a teacher's home. But she asks
the women to persevere.

"We don't want you to quit," Rodriguez says, promising to talk to her
commander about what could be done to help the women feel safer.

The scene reflects the scope of the challenge the Afghan government and NATO
forces face here in Zabul province — which abuts the Taliban's traditional
homeland of Kandahar province — as they try to modernize daily living and
protect Afghans from their former overlords.

The Afghan government and NATO see the female officers corps as crucial to
achieving those goals.

There now are about 1,150 women in the Afghan National Police, less than 1%
of the force. The Ministry of Interior wants 5,000 police women on the job
by 2014.

Women are needed to perform duties that men are forbidden from doing in this
tribal society in which ancient Islamic customs were strictly enforced long
before radical, militant Taliban clerics took over the country in the 1990s.

For example, policewomen search women at checkpoints and are sent into the
female quarters of civilian compounds where insurgents often hide.

To avoid checkpoint searches by male officers, armed male terrorists often
cloak themselves in head-to-toe burqas that typically are worn by women.

The Taliban also has used women as suicide bombers. In one case, insurgents
handed a bag containing a bomb to an 8-year-old girl and blew her up as she
approached a police checkpoint.

"Integrating Afghan women into this (security) process supports our combined
efforts to eliminate insurgent activity and eliminate Taliban influence
across Afghanistan, " says Lt. Col. Wayne Perry, director of media outreach
for the International Security Assistance Force, which oversee coalition
operations. "These programs, and the woman participating in them, will go a
long way in setting the conditions to support the process of transition in
Afghanistan. "

In the two years ending in December, NATO will spend $20 billion — one-third
of Afghanistan' s gross domestic product for the same period — training,
equipping and developing the Afghan National Security Forces that are
supposed to take over for U.S. troops and others by the end of 2014.

Among those forces are the Afghan National Police. It is a notoriously
corrupt force, but nonetheless critical to the U.S.-led counterinsurgency
strategy, which relies on local police to prevent the Taliban from retaking
towns cleared by the military.

That's why retaining women who have stepped forward to become police
officers is increasingly important.

After meeting with Rodriguez, the frustrated women police officers, who wear
full burqas while on the job in public, decide to stick with the force — for
now.

However, many other policewomen have quit under pressures from a community
in which fundamental Islam is prevalent.

"If it were true," says Tajik of the slurs against policewomen, "we would
have quit, too."

'The police force needs women'

The capital of Zabul province is Qalat, which is Persian for "fortified
place."

The city of several thousand people is known for its 19th-century British
fortress, and for being among the first places the Taliban resumed power
after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that forced the group from Kabul. The
province got its first airstrip only five years ago, and it's unpaved.

The Afghan National Army was largely welcomed by locals when it arrived with
U.S. special forces, Romanian troops and civilian engineers.

Since then, the number of roadside bombs has declined and some projects to
improve transportation and education are moving forward.

Bibi Khala Girls' School, with places for 1,500 pupils, opened about two
years ago, and fertilizer and seed is being handed out to farmers to
encourage them to replace the poppy crop that is converted to opium and sold
with the help of the Taliban for a cut.

But some things are not changing.

When 30 women here completed a 2½-month police training course, they were
lauded by their U.S. mentors for the vital role they were going to play in
bringing security to the nation.

Then, almost immediately, more than 20 of the new recruits quit amid rumors
that the local police chief was abusing some of the women sexually,
according to Fatima Tajik.

"It's lies," says Tajik, who has been a policewoman for three years.

Even the suggestion of impropriety here can damage a woman's honor and bring
shame on their families.

In Helmand, the province to the south of Zabul, women face a similar
dilemma.

A surge of U.S. Marines in Helmand has forced the insurgents to the
outskirts. The 16 women now on the police force are supported by the
government — but not always by the community.

"Helmand is very conservative province but people understand that the police
force needs women — and not just for ensuring security," says Daud Ahmadi, a
spokesman for Provincial Governor Gulab Mangal.

"It is also better for our culture: If women keep joining the police, then
other women will take their lead and start filling key roles in other
sectors throughout Afghanistan, " he says.

"Islam says women are free to work, and it's good for Afghanistan because
they can play key role in reconstructing the war-torn country."

Many influential Afghans disagree with Ahmadi's view.

Nabil Muradi, a mullah and tribal elder from Kabul province to the north,
says it is wrong for women to join the security services.

"I have heard, and people believe, that (unmarried) men and women in the
army and police have sexual relations with each other," he says. "These
women become prostitutes. Afghanistan is an Islamic country and we have to
follow the laws of Quran not the laws of westerners."

Some provinces are less resistant to the idea, says Canadian Navy Capt.
Angus Topshee, director of Afghan National Police instruction centers at the
NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan .

"There are lots of variations in attitude to women in the force," Topshee
says. "In the Kabul area, there is a lot of receptiveness. But in other
parts of the country, it is a complete anathema."

Working in secret

In Zabul's provincial police headquarters, the lack of resources for
policewomen and the extent of the community's hostility toward them is
clear. The nine women remaining on the provincial force said they have no
uniforms and no weapons. They complain about name-calling and slurs for
working alongside U.S. troops and men.

Bibi Shireeni Tajak says she will stay on the job despite the risks.

"I was married when I was 11. My husband was 40. I had a baby at 12. I have
no education. The Taliban killed two of my brothers by beheading them," she
said. "I was stuck at home and I went kind of crazy. I decided to become a
policewoman, and I fell in love with the job."

Another policewoman, Bibi Anwara, says her husband divorced her when he
learned she had joined the force.

"When I told him I had quit, he remarried me. Now I do the job in secret,"
she said, proudly producing her police ID card, which she keeps tucked in
her bra.

Afghanistan' s most senior policewoman, Brigadier Gen. Shafiqa Quraishi, said
women will be integral to the future of law enforcement in Afghanistan even
though some today are relegated to administrative work and even tea-making.

"There are women in counternarcotics and counterterrorism units, as well as
medics and crime-scene investigators, " she says, seated at a large desk
surrounded by international advisers.

Shafiqa is particularly pleased with the Family Response Unit, which
investigates men who abuse their wives and children, and a complaint
procedure for women on the force who claim to have been harassed by male
co-workers.

"Since Afghanistan is a religious country, most of the men don't want their
women to join the police force," she says. "That is why we are focusing our
efforts on changing their attitudes so they will let their daughters,
mothers and sisters join the police force."

Fawzia Koofi, a member of parliament, agrees: "I know it is not culturally
accepted by the people, but our society needs them to make a contribution to
improving security."
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Afghans unapologetically cheer on dogfights
The blood sport, technically illegal, is lucrative and popular even among
government officials. In a culture accustomed to violence, few see it as
barbaric.
Los Angeles Times By Mark Magnier September 20, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Meyaan Ahamad dips his head into the shed where his
prized fighting dog barks ferociously at the end of a chain. The dog, a
Kuchi breed, has weightlifter shoulders, a massive head, the heft of a black
bear and the growl of a cougar.

If Michael Vick, the American quarterback convicted of participating in an
illegal dogfighting operation, were from Afghanistan, he'd probably be a
national hero. In this country, canine bouts — literally "dog wars" in Dari
— are keenly followed even by celebrities and government ministers.

It's not about the money, said Ahamad, whose family has bred fighters for
generations. It's about knowing you've got the biggest, baddest dog around.
"You get respect," he said.

Maybe. But the money isn't too shabby either. Winning dogs fetch more than
$20,000 and bets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars are made during big
fights. "Some people arrive in a Lexus and end up losing it betting," Ahamad
said. "They go home bravely, but once inside, they cry."

Kuchis, which take their name from a nomadic tribe, can weigh as much as 175
pounds, their backs as tall as 3 feet. Bred to guard livestock and kill
wolves, they're said to be naturally aggressive.

"Iranian and Pakistani dogs are all right," dog owner Abdul Qadir said. "But
Kuchis are tougher, just like the Afghan people."

Technically, dogfighting is illegal here. But there's little enforcement
given its popularity and how much money and how many powerful people are
involved. (The champion fighter in Kabul, named Marshal, is owned by the
nation's first vice president, Mohammed Fahim.) A stadium in northern Kabul
seats 1,500, with smaller venues found in most neighborhoods.

"Afghans are from a warrior culture," said Marnie Gustavson, an animal
lover, Kuchi owner and executive director of Parsa, a civic group helping
underprivileged Afghans. "They fight everything — birds, camels, kites. Why
would dogs be any different?"

Before fights, Kuchis are taken for long walks on steep mountain paths and
fed a special diet believed to enhance their strength and ferocity, owners
said, including eggs and sheep's feet.

Most matches take place during the cooler months, October to February, when
the dogs are more energetic and their wounds are said to heal faster. Fights
can last five to 90 minutes. "It can take two weeks to get them healed and
their energy back after a fight," Ahamad said, "and a lot of sheep feet."

Afghans remain unapologetic about this blood sport, contending that the
Kuchis are treated better than family and fighting is in their nature.
Matches are also more humane than in other countries, they say, because
they're halted before the loser is killed, with fights often stopped when
the loser bares its teeth.

"I used to beat my dogs to make them tougher," said Ahamad, sporting a
neatly trimmed beard and a green vest over his traditional shalwar kameez.
"But they'd get so scared. They'd pee when they saw me, so I stopped."

Animal welfare is a rather foreign concept in Afghanistan. There's little
history of keeping pets in this country, which traditionally has had barely
enough to feed itself, with animals expected to plow, guard or otherwise
earn their keep. And many Muslims consider dogs unclean.

Three decades of war has made brutality part of life's daily fabric,
analysts said, not to mention the residual effect of years living under the
Taliban, which killed dogs and beat their owners (although dog owners said
betting on fights continued in secret).

In February, the Taliban detonated bombs twice in Kandahar in and around
dogfights, killing 25 people.

"Afghans are angry," Gustavson said. "It's a culture of violence. And
someone who beats their dog probably beats their wife."

The ones most concerned with animal welfare here tend to be foreigners, who
generally tread lightly.

"We never raise the issue or tell Afghans not to have dogfights," said Pen
Farthing, a former British soldier who started Nowzad Dogs, an animal rescue
charity operating in Afghanistan, after serving there for seven years. "We'd
lose all credibility. Instead, we focus on helping strays."

Farthing started the group, which keeps about 60 dogs at a secret location
to avoid Taliban attacks, after breaking up a dogfight in Helmand province
and adopting one of the fighters. He has recruited a few Afghan boys to help
him feed those awaiting adoption, hoping to improve attitudes among the next
generation.

Not all Afghans are fans of dogfights.

"It's not instinct that makes them fight and bleed; they're trained that
way," said Ramin Raha, 25, a music student. "Not that I necessarily blame
their owners. With no human rights in Afghanistan, how can you expect animal
rights?"

Ahamad and Qadir said they each keep two dogs, their best prospect and a
second in case the first one loses. After a loss, dogs are often abandoned
to avoid the expense of feeding them. Owners say it's a blessing because
they're finally free. Animal lovers say it sentences them to a life of
subsistence, disease and fighting.

Either way, Ahamad sees little need to change an age-old system he's
passionate about.

"Dogfighting in Afghanistan is thousands of years old," he said. "And it
will continue for thousands more."

mark.magnier@ latimes.com

Magnier was recently on assignment in Kabul.
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TV Presenter Apologizes To Afghan Warlords -- At Gunpoint
RFE/RL September 19, 2011
KABUL - Nabil Miskinyar, a 60-something journalist, has numerous television
appearances under his belt. But none like the one he experienced in
Afghanistan last week.

The Afghan-American journalist regularly appears on his California-based
Ariana Afghanistan Television and comments on the war-torn country's current
affairs and political past.

His hard-hitting monologues -- presented in Dari and often directed at some
of the most powerful political figures in Afghanistan today -- attract a
modest audience both among the Afghan diaspora and inside the country
itself.

During a recent trip to Kabul, it was made clear that Miskinyar's approach
has its detractors as well.

Miskinyar claims that on September 12 he was picked up for lunch by four
men, including Najibullah Kabuli, owner of the private Emrooz Television
channel. The two had set up the appointment through a common friend who had
proposed cooperation between their fledgling stations.

Miskinyar says that after a lavish lunch, he was forced at gunpoint to
conduct an interview with Emrooz telejournalist Fahim Kohdamani.

"He told me that 'on your television shows, you always criticize and say bad
things about the leaders of the national resistance,' " Miskinyar says,
ticking down a list of the so-called mujahedin who battled Afghanistan' s
former Soviet occupiers. "By this, he meant Burhanuddin Rabbani, Ahmad Shah
Masud, Abdul Rad Rasul Sayyaf, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Ahmed Zia Massud,
Ahmad Wali Masud, and Mohammad Qasim Fahim. What I said in the interview was
that 'if I did not say the right things, or if I have attributed false
things to these leaders of the resistance, then I apologize to the Afghan
people.'"

Scare Tactics

In a press statement on September 16, Miskinyar claims that he was asked to
confess that that he was an American agent, a supporter of Pakistan, and
anti-Iranian.

He says he had two guns pointed at him at all times.

"Kohdamani told me that I would die and my entire family would be killed if
I did not respond as they demanded," Miskinyar writes. "Under intense
pressure and in fear of my life, I told them what they wanted me to say
while they videotaped an 'interview.' "

Miskinyar says that he was held for seven hours after the interview and was
then blindfolded and left on a Kabul street. "Fortunately, I was able to
find my way back to my family and leave the country," his statement says.

Allegation Rejected

In the interview, Maskinyar is shown being aggressively questioned about his
political views and the opinions expressed during his television shows.

Najibullah Kabuli, the owner of Emrooz television, rejects Miskinyar's
allegations. He counters that he himself is a fierce critic of Iran's
clerical regime, so it would make no sense for him to force Miskinyar to say
good things about the Iranian government.

"I think he arrived here to get money from the leaders that he used to
insult [on his TV shows]," Kabuli says. "He thought that he would show to
them that he will keep silent in future in return for their payments. And
that's why he chose my television for a confessional interview. But
afterward he saw that the leaders were not impressed and didn't give him any
money. So he accused me to get something or to get fame. I think this speaks
about his motives."

written by Abubakar Siddique in Prague based on reporting in Kabul by RFE/RL
Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Mustafa Sarwar and Hameed Mohmand