September 8, 2011
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September 8, 2011
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Blast Kills 2 NATO Soldiers in Afghanistan
VOA News September 8, 2011
The international military coalition in Afghanistan says two of its service
members have died following the blast from an improvised explosive device in
the southern part of the country.
Senior police officer shot dead in E. Afghanistan
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior police officer was shot
and killed by armed militants in Afghanistan' s Nangarhar province with
Jalalabad as its capital 120 km east of capital city of Kabul, an official
said on Thursday.
The new Mullah Omar?
By Omar Samad Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - Foreign Policy
In a lengthy message on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday released
last week under Mullah Mohammad Omar's name, the fugitive Taliban leader
used a mix of "jihad-light" bravado and toned-down political rhetoric to
express his group's position on key issues, as part of a push to influence
public opinion that has garnered a variety of reactions from different
Western and South Asian quarters.
Kabul To Jalalabad: A Postcard From The Road
by Nishant Dahiya NPR
The road from Kabul to Jalalabad that NPR Morning Edition host Renee
Montagne and I took earlier this week passes through some spectacular
scenery — the road carves its way through the Kabul Gorge, between craggy,
rock cliffs on one side and the Kabul River on the other –- often, a
dizzying 1,000 feet below.
7 insurgents killed, 32 detained in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Seven insurgents were killed and 32 detained
during 10 separate operations launched by the Afghan and NATO-led forces in
eastern Afghan provinces, said a statement issued by the U.S. military here
on Thursday.
Pakistani Police Detain Dozens After Suicide Bombings
VOA News September 8, 2011
Police say they have detained some 170 suspects in connection with
Wednesday's suicide bombings that killed 28 people in the southwestern
Pakistani city of Quetta.
Pakistani Police Detain Dozens After Suicide Bombings
VOA News September 8, 2011
Police say they have detained some 170 suspects in connection with
Wednesday's suicide bombings that killed 28 people in the southwestern
Pakistani city of Quetta.
Afghans: Still hoping 'peace and stability come'
NBC News By Atia Abawi, NBC News Correspondent 07/09/2011
KABUL - Outside the walls of Kabul University, students, professors and
passersby go about their day in the capital of Afghanistan. Many are unaware
that in a few days it will be the 10th anniversary of one of America’s
darkest days.
Many Afghans Shrug at 'This Event Foreigners Call 9/11'
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
KABUL - The Sept. 11 attacks that triggered the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
also uprooted 16-year-old Abdul Ghattar from his village in war-torn Helmand
province, bringing him to a desolate refugee camp on the edge of Kabul.
U.S. envoy says Pakistan should get behind Afghan peace talks
USA TODAY By Jim Michaels 07/09/2011
Pakistan is reluctant to allow senior Taliban leaders to travel to
Afghanistan for reconciliation talks, raising concerns that Pakistan is not
helping enough to resolve the conflict.
Battle for Afghanistan' s Gambir Jungle: 1st Platoon's 'last stand'
By the end of Day 1 of Operation Hammer Down, 1st Platoon needed help. But
when reinforcements arrived, they found they had more than enough of their
own troubles.
By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer / September 8, 2011 The Christian Science
Monitor
Kunar, Afghanistan - Operation Hammer Down had begun in the hours before
midnight of June 24 as an operation to flush insurgents out of terrorist
training camps in the remote valleys of eastern Afghanistan. Now, in the
full light of Sunday, June 25, it was clear that B Company's 1st Platoon
was, in the words of one soldier, being "rocked."
Afghan Concerns Over U.S. Staying Power
The Huffington Post By Jayshree Bajoria Senior Staff Writer, Council on
Foreign Relations 07/09/2011
As the timeline for the drawdown of U.S. and international troops from
Afghanistan approaches, the United States and Afghanistan are working to
finalize a long-term security arrangement that would secure a limited U.S.
troop presence in the country beyond 2014. But the United States and
Afghanistan disagree on several points,
In Afghanistan' s Panjshir, disquiet over Taliban reconciliation
By Sanjeev Miglani and Hamid Shalizi
DALASANG, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At the entrance to Afghanistan' s
magnificent Panjshir Valley, an 84-year-old supporter of resistance hero
Ahmad Shah Massoud said his village was fully armed to fight a resurgent
Taliban to the end.
Female Militia Chief Keeps Peace in Helmand District
Veteran fighter has years of experience leading men into combat, besides
being a mother of nine.
IWPR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 7 Sep 11
Afghanistan - It is obvious how much respect Abedo, a paramilitary commander
in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand region, commands. Walking through the
bazaar in Marja district, laughing and joking, the diminutive figure is
greeted by tradesmen and shopkeepers, some of whom step forward to kiss the
commander’s hands.
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Blast Kills 2 NATO Soldiers in Afghanistan
VOA News September 8, 2011
The international military coalition in Afghanistan says two of its service
members have died following the blast from an improvised explosive device in
the southern part of the country.
NATO said in a statement that the two were killed Thursday, but did not
provide any other details or nationalities.
According to the independent online site iCasualties. org that monitors the
number of coalition deaths, a total of 421 members of the coalition have
died so far this year in Afghanistan.
Also Thursday, Afghan officials say a roadside bomb killed a Turkish
engineer working on a project in Herat province.
Another roadside bomb killed five Afghan soldiers in the eastern province of
Khost on Wednesday.
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Senior police officer shot dead in E. Afghanistan
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior police officer was shot
and killed by armed militants in Afghanistan' s Nangarhar province with
Jalalabad as its capital 120 km east of capital city of Kabul, an official
said on Thursday.
"Unknown armed men broke in the house of a high-ranking police officer named
Sayed Hakim spreading bullets and killing him on the shot in Bati Kot
district on Wednesday night," administrative chief of Bati Kot district
Esrarullah Qari Zada told Xinhua on Thursday morning.
He said the police official Hakim, who was serving as head of intelligence
department of police in neighboring Pachir Wa Agam district, was visiting
his family in Bati Kot district when the militants attacked his house and
killed him.
In the meantime, Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the incident.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the purported spokesman of Taliban in talks with local
media via cell phone from undisclosed location said the insurgents group
killed Hakim for serving the government.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group
announced to launch spring offensive from May 1 against Afghan and NATO-led
troops stationed in Afghanistan.
The militant group also warned people against supporting government and
foreign troops.
Separately, Afghan and NATO-led forces detained several suspected insurgents
in an operation to capture a Taliban facilitator in Jalalabad city Wednesday
night, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a
statement on Thursday.
"The facilitator is responsible for supplying weapons and planning attacks
against Afghan forces," the statement said, adding "One of the suspected
insurgents was shot and wounded during the operation. After receiving
medical treatment for non- life threatening wounds, he was detained by
security forces for further questioning, "
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The new Mullah Omar?
By Omar Samad Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - Foreign Policy
In a lengthy message on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday released
last week under Mullah Mohammad Omar's name, the fugitive Taliban leader
used a mix of "jihad-light" bravado and toned-down political rhetoric to
express his group's position on key issues, as part of a push to influence
public opinion that has garnered a variety of reactions from different
Western and South Asian quarters.
Yet despite the hype among AfPak watchers, the message is more a reflection
of an emerging dual-track strategy that promotes Omar as a credible
interlocutor while masking his flaws, and is directly tied to the NATO
decision to end its military engagement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The new narrative, most certainly inspired by the various covert layers of
mentoring (including non-Afghan) enjoyed by Mullah Omar's Quetta Shura, not
only provides insight into Mullah Omar's public-relations strategy, but also
aims to deflect attention from Taliban weaknesses, all while trying to
bolster the group's possible future negotiating position. One specific
objective is to force a full U.S. disengagement from Afghanistan by
disrupting the establishment of a limited multi-year U.S. military presence
in Afghanistan after the current 2104 drawdown date -- a subject of the
"strategic partnership" talks now underway between Kabul and Washington.
By claiming that "the Afghan nation is not ready to accept establishment of
American permanent bases," Mullah Omar conveyed a key demand at a crucial
time when several regional countries, including Pakistan, Iran and Russia,
have publicly expressed varying degrees of skepticism about the U.S.-Afghan
talks (with China preferring to express its concerns through diplomatic
channels).
Afghan diplomats believe that if and when the two sides reach an agreement
on "strategic partnership, " the deal would limit the use of Afghan bases by
the United States to counter-terrorism support, and would call for
international funding of Afghan security and development priorities, so
avoiding the impression of American power projection in the region.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai, feeling the heat from different quarters,
insists that the agreement should "serve Afghanistan' s national interests,"
while a close advisor to President Hamid Karzai said publicly last week that
most Afghans support an enduring U.S. military presence in the country, but
warned that "some in the Afghan Government are trying to sabotage it."
Acknowledging, but not owning, secret talks (reportedly broken up by insider
leaks by Afghan officials unhappy with being kept in the dark) held between
American emissaries and the Taliban reported to have taken place earlier
this year under German and Qatari auspices, Mullah Omar stressed that the
meetings solely addressed the release of prisoners. He rejected the notion
of "comprehensive negotiations, " unless his group's agenda is taken into
account. Omar also called for the immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. and
NATO forces from Afghanistan as a pre-condition for a settlement. The
American side, unsurprisingly, promptly dismissed the pre-condition of
withdrawal for peace talks.
As a sign of the shifting winds, Mullah Omar carefully avoided giving any
overt sign of association with al-Qaeda and transnational jihadism in his
Eid message. As a possible sign of growing rifts developing between
pragmatists and dogmatists within the Taliban conglomerate, he also informed
his followers that "the jihadic chiefs nominated by us in all parts of the
country are your Sharia-based leaders," and gives an explicit order, "you
should obey them." This is an indication that regional Taliban emissaries
appointed by the Quetta Shura are facing insubordination challenges on the
ground.
This may also be an attempt to give the impression that he is distancing his
faction from the more lethal Haqqani network, known to have strong ties to
al-Qaeda and openly operating from bases in Pakistan's tribal regions in
Waziristan. Yet Omar fails to explain how he intends to rein in the various
international jihadist outfits based in Pakistan and active across
Afghanistan, given the outfits' 15-year links with his organization and the
fragmented nature of the insurgency.
While Mullah Omar's message calls on ground forces to extend their sphere of
influence to new areas (the central highlands being a new target for
instability) , it also provides a glimpse of the internal schisms and
compliance challenges felt by the Pakistan-based leadership of the Taliban.
Cracks are appearing in the façade of Taliban unity as more runaway
militias, some led by foreign fighters, are resorting to assassinations,
extortion and civilian abuse. Compliance with the orders and rules of
conduct set by the "Leader of the Faithful" Mullah Omar appears to be
weakening across the country. Local people in a village in Helmand province
recently beat to death two Taliban fighters in reprisal for the killing of
an innocent local elder. This type of reaction by desperate civilians is
likely to increase over time.
For most Afghans though, the biggest concern remains Taliban ties to
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), long accused of
interference in Afghan affairs through different proxies. It is difficult to
imagine a change in the widespread Afghan mistrust towards Pakistan's ruling
apparatus as long as the ISI continues to provide sanctuary and logistical
support to militants, and exercise command-and- control authority through
rogue elements over key militant networks.
It is also inconceivable that terms such as "change in the status quo" and
"gunboat diplomacy" both used in Mullah Omar's Eid message, and unheard of
from a former village mullah, would come from his personal lexicon
(especially considering that Omar was born in a landlocked country!),
pointing to his continued mentoring by non-Afghans.
Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid has called the Eid message a "forward-looking
political message," while British special representative to Afghanistan and
Pakistan Mark Sedwill tweeted that the letter marks a "a shift of tone"; but
for most Afghans, angered by domestic inertia and tired of unabated violence
(Taliban and affiliated networks are alleged to be responsible for
approximately 80% of all civilian deaths, according to the United Nations),
actions speak louder than words.
Despite attempts at selling his strategy to Afghan and Western audiences,
and contrary to previous Taliban pronouncements calling for the
re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate, the Taliban leader admitted for the
first time in his message that his group does not seek to "monopolize
power." Instead, he calls for the establishment of a "real" Islamic
government based on Islamic interests, going as far as accepting a role for
other ethnic groups -- a novel idea shunned during the regime's power-grab
in 1996.
For Mullah Omar's vision of an Islamic government to become reality, though,
either the current Afghan Constitution (which guarantees basic human and
democratic rights) would have to be scrapped, or the current system modified
through top-down Taliban-style implementation of shariah. However, such
concepts do not seem acceptable to most poverty-stricken Afghans and a
devout but forward-looking population, the majority of whom, including
women, are under 30 years of age. And such radical social re-engineering
could further weaken the Afghan government's hold on power, paving the way
for further civil strife.
Public opinion polls taken in the country since 2005 show that support for
the Taliban and their style of governance garners no more than 10 percent
approval at the most. This is why the Taliban and the networks that support
them are opting for a more moderate tone. Some analysts view this change as
progress, but it may not amount to much in the long term, as long as the use
of violence against not only foreign forces but also Afghans is justified as
"jihad."
Finally, in an era of mass protests against dictatorships in various parts
of the Islamic world, and Twitter and Facebook generational activism, Mullah
Omar seems uneasy about his group's oppressive reputation. He uses a
misplaced anti-colonial narrative to target dissatisfied Afghans and
skeptical Muslim masses to change existing perceptions of the Taliban, and
solicits financial and moral support for his increasingly less popular
fight.
Fully aware that his association with al-Qaeda is now seen as a liability,
Omar blames the U.S. and NATO presence as the main cause of conflict in
Afghanistan. However, he fails to appreciate the non-violent nature of most
mass protests in the Muslim world and also fails to mention that prior to
the September 11 terrorist attacks, his forces and those of allied foreign
jihadists, including al-Qaeda, were actively promoting warfare, mass murder
and oppression in Afghanistan, long before Western forces appeared on the
scene.
While trying to stay a step ahead of his political adversaries, the Taliban
leader and his resourceful mentors are trying to enter the world of
realpolitik, by boasting about their military-political prowess on one hand,
and showing a pragmatic face on the other. Perceptions of the Taliban may
differ across the various time-zones of the world, but in war-torn
Afghanistan, realities inked on the pages of history have a powerful voice
of their own.
Given the Afghan experiences of the last three decades, it will take a lot
more than just an adjustment in tone and rhetoric on the part of Mullah Omar
to move the so-called reconciliation process forward, and end the current
round of conflict in Afghanistan.
Omar Samad is the former ambassador of Afghanistan to France (2009-2011) and
Canada (2004-2009) and former spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (2001-2004).
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Kabul To Jalalabad: A Postcard From The Road
by Nishant Dahiya NPR
The road from Kabul to Jalalabad that NPR Morning Edition host Renee
Montagne and I took earlier this week passes through some spectacular
scenery — the road carves its way through the Kabul Gorge, between craggy,
rock cliffs on one side and the Kabul River on the other –- often, a
dizzying 1,000 feet below.
The three-hour journey can often stretch into a multi-hour ordeal if there
is an accident along the way, which there very often is. The road has been
much improved in the past few years but that has only encouraged local
drivers to drive faster and take more risks on the narrow, single-lane
highway. Carcasses of cars litter the valley below.
The Taliban often attack oil tankers, trucks carrying goods, and police
checkpoints along the road, especially in a mountainous section called the
Tanqi Valley.
The mountains and the road gradually open up into the town of Jalalabad,
which sits on the Grand Trunk Road. This is a historic route stretching from
Kolkata in Eastern India, via Pakistan, all the way to Kabul, and it has
carried tradesmen, goods, ideas and invaders back and forth for centuries.
Our route was no different than the one Osama bin Laden took from Kabul to
Jalalabad in the weeks after the U.S. invasion in 2001, and just before the
fall of Kabul.
Unlike us, from Jalalabad, bin Laden proceeded toward the White Mountains
and the al-Qaida redoubt of Tora Bora — a complex of caves built into the
mountains by the wealthy Saudi in the 1980s, when he was part of the
Mujahedeen fighting the Soviet troops.
A few weeks after hiding in Tora Bora, in December 2001, bin Laden managed
to slip into Pakistan, while under sustained U.S. aerial bombardment. It
took nearly ten years for the U.S. to find and kill bin Laden.
The Navy SEAL raid that killed him on the morning of May 2nd was launched
from the airbase just outside Jalalabad. And today, though bin Laden might
be dead, the same airbase in this Eastern city is a testament to the
continuing U.S. fight against the Taliban and in its efforts to kill al
Qaeda leaders.
During the course of the three days we spent in Jalalabad, the full range of
the American arsenal in use against the Taliban and al Qaeda was in full
view: Predator drones, Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters, Apache gunships
and, C-130 transport planes rumbled in and out round the clock.
By some accounts Jalalabad is where the vast majority of the Predator drones
used to attack militants in the tribal region of Pakistan are now launched
from. Conveniently, the city sits only a 40-minute drive from Pakistan and
its tribal regions.
Nishant Dahiya is a producer for NPR. He took this trip as part of a story
he worked on with Morning Edition's Renee Montagne. That story aired this
morning and we've included audio of it at the top of this post.
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7 insurgents killed, 32 detained in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Seven insurgents were killed and 32 detained
during 10 separate operations launched by the Afghan and NATO-led forces in
eastern Afghan provinces, said a statement issued by the U.S. military here
on Thursday.
"Ten Afghan and Coalition force operations in Regional Command- East
(RC-East) resulted 7 enemies killed, the detention of 32 suspected
individuals and a weapons cache turned in over the past 24 hours throughout
the region," said the statement by the U.S. forces with NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) .
A concerned local Afghan civilian turned over a weapons cache that included
11 60mm mortar rounds, two anti-tank mines, a jug of homemade explosives, a
bag of improvised explosive device (IED) components, four hand grenades, two
82mm recoilless rifle rounds, two bolt actions rifles as well as two
shotguns and on heavy machine gun barrel, according to the statement.
It also confirmed a drone with the military alliance crashed in Sar Rowzah
district of Afghanistan' s eastern Paktika province over the same period of
time.
"The unmanned aerial vehicle was recovered and there was no enemy activity
in the area prior to the crash," it said, adding operations in RC-East are
still ongoing.
NATO and Afghan officials often use the word insurgents referring for
Taliban or the main anti-government militants in insurgency-hit country.
However, the insurgent group have yet to make comments.
Militancy has been rampant since May this year when Taliban militants
announced to launch spring offensive in the war-battered Afghanistan.
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Pakistani Police Detain Dozens After Suicide Bombings
VOA News September 8, 2011
Police say they have detained some 170 suspects in connection with
Wednesday's suicide bombings that killed 28 people in the southwestern
Pakistani city of Quetta.
Senior police official Hamid Shakil told VOA on Thursday that many of those
being questioned are Afghan refugees.
Two suicide bombers attacked the home of Farrukh Shehzad, the deputy head of
Baluchistan province's paramilitary Frontier Corps, on Wednesday. Police say
one of the assailants was carrying an identity card indicating he was from
Afghanistan' s Kunduz province.
The Pakistani Taliban said it carried out the attack in retaliation for the
recent arrest of an al-Qaida leader.
Shehzad was wounded and his wife was killed in the attack. Several of his
security guards and at least two children were also among the dead. More
than 80 other people were wounded in the two blasts.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told news agencies the militant
group carried out the attack “in revenge for the arrests of our brothers in
Quetta.”
On Monday, Pakistan's military announced that the Frontier Corps had helped
arrest senior al-Qaida leader Younis al-Mauritani and two other al-Qaida
operatives in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
Mauritani was believed to have been tasked by al-Qaida leader Osama bin
Laden with targeting economic interests in the United States, Europe and
Australia.
Pakistan's military did not say when the arrests were made but said the
operation was “planned and conducted with technical assistance of U.S.
intelligence agencies.”
The White House on Monday praised the operation as an example of the
longstanding partnership between the U.S. and Pakistan in fighting
terrorism.
The United States strongly condemned Wednesday's suicide bombings, calling
them “horrific.”
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Kazakhstan Cites Terror-Suspect Links To Afghanistan, Pakistan
September 8, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A spokesman for a Kazakh provincial court says the questioning of some of
the 22 suspects being held on terrorism charges has revealed that they
received funding from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Boranbai Galiev, the press secretary for the Atyrau Provincial Court, said
one of the suspects had been in constant contact with Afghanistan and
Pakistan through the Internet.
Atyrau, in western Kazakhstan, has seen several terrorist attacks and
security operations since May, including the country's first suicide bomber.
Galiev said money for the group was deposited in a Kazakhstan bank.
compiled from local and regional agency reports
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Afghans: Still hoping 'peace and stability come'
NBC News By Atia Abawi, NBC News Correspondent 07/09/2011
KABUL - Outside the walls of Kabul University, students, professors and
passersby go about their day in the capital of Afghanistan. Many are unaware
that in a few days it will be the 10th anniversary of one of America’s
darkest days.
There is no question that the Sept. 11 attacks changed America and the
world. Perhaps no one saw more change than the millions of Afghans who lived
under the oppressive Taliban regime that hosted the al-Qaida leaders
responsible for the horrific attacks – and as a result have been subjected
to 10 years of war.
NBC News’ producer Akbar Shinwari, photojournalist Tony Zumbado and I spoke
to a variety of Afghans on the dusty but paved road outside Kabul University
to get their perspective on how life has changed – for better or worse –
since the attacks of 9/11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. ‘The
Russians did more work for the country’ First we spotted a young man wearing
a black suit waiting for his ride.
Naweed Omar, a 23-year-old psychology student at the university, told us
that many Afghans were very excited when America and the NATO coalition came
to help –they thought their lives would finally improve.
But after 10 years that excitement has turned to hopelessness and
resentment.
“If we compare America’s arrival to the arrival of the Russians, the
Russians did more work for the country,” Omar said comparing the building
and infrastructure the Soviets provided Afghanistan in the 1980s to what
Afghanistan has seen since 2001.
“Just look at it, Russia was one country that did so much work and now you
have 40 countries who have done nothing,” he added. Ziarmal Safi, a
25-year-old English literature student, agreed that the international
community could have done more in the last decade, but he also believes that
the Afghans still need outside help.
“Afghans, they do not have the capacity to take [on] the security or to
ensure the security all over in Afghanistan,” he said, “I don’t want America
to leave, but I want America to concentrate a little bit more.”
Safi said that the Americans have spent lots of money in Afghanistan but
that his own government and the American government have squandered that
money by not implementing a system of accountability.
“They’re supporting [the] Afghan government and [the] Afghan people. They
give them money, but they don’t ask them where did they spent all this
money.”
Women’s rights have changed – for the better But money and security hasn’t
been the only issue. Human rights and women’s rights were in the forefront
when the war began, but those issues have been almost forgotten as the focus
has turned to talks of Taliban reconciliation and international withdrawal.
Many Afghan women have stories of banishment and humiliation before 2001.
During the Taliban regime, women were restricted from working, receiving an
education or even leaving their house without being escorted by a male
relative.
“When the Taliban were here we always say it was really the dark, dark
condition here. Even the people of Afghanistan couldn’t believe that they
are human,” Yalda Mojadidi, a 23-year-old psychology student at Kabul
University, told me.
Mojadidi said that with the arrival of the Americans and the international
community, much has changed in her life and the lives of women throughout
the country – she was finally allowed to go to school again.
“[There] is lots of changes for us,” she said in English, “Especially for
women. They can go to university, college, school, anywhere and they can
work as well.”
Edrees Bahadur, a 21-year-old economics major, agreed with Yalda. He said
that Sept. 11 changed Afghanistan for the better by bringing attention to
the country’s dire situation.
“America with its alliance came to Afghanistan and Afghanistan [gained] an
independent government – so that caused Afghanistan to improve and to
strengthen their capacities,” he said.
But Bahadur and Mojadidi warn that their country still needs the help of the
international community.
“My hope for Afghanistan is that peace and stability [will] come,” Mojadidi
said. “The foreigners should not go from Afghanistan, they should stay here.
If they go back, I think that the situation [of] 10 years before – it will
come again.”
Some still long for the good old days But there are still some who welcomed
the days of the Taliban and a strict Islamic government.
Those people – usually men – tell stories of not worrying about air assaults
and criminal gangs in the Taliban days.
“During the Taliban time, if you had a sack full of money on your back and
you put that on the road and left it there, nobody would touch it – nobody
had the courage to touch it,” 40-year-old teacher Haji Shadeem of Paktika
province told us.
Shadeem believes his country has spiraled out of control.
“Everyone [now] has worries that they will be killed on any day. They are
waiting for their death. And we don’t know from which side,” he said,
fearing both the insurgency and NATO forces.
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Many Afghans Shrug at 'This Event Foreigners Call 9/11'
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
KABUL - The Sept. 11 attacks that triggered the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
also uprooted 16-year-old Abdul Ghattar from his village in war-torn Helmand
province, bringing him to a desolate refugee camp on the edge of Kabul.
Yet Mr. Ghattar stared blankly when asked whether he knew about al Qaeda's
strike on the U.S., launched a decade ago from Afghan soil.
"Never heard of it," he shrugged as he lined up for water at the camp's
well, which serves thousands of fellow refugees. "I have no idea why the
Americans are in my country."
In a nearby tent that is the camp's school, his teacher, 22-year-old Mullah
Said Nabi Agha, didn't fare much better. He said he has never seen the
iconic image of the Twin Towers burning. He was vaguely aware that some kind
of explosion had occurred in America.
"I was a child when it happened, and now I am an adult, and the Americans
are still here," Mr. Agha said. "I think the Americans did it themselves, so
they could invade Afghanistan. "
The teacher's view is by no means rare here. The events of Sept. 11, 2001,
of course, are known to educated Afghans, and to many residents of big
cities. But that isn't always the case elsewhere in a predominantly rural
country where 42% of the population is under the age of 14, and 72% of
adults are illiterate. With few villages reached by television or
electricity, news here is largely spread by word of mouth.
Such opinions highlight a contrast between American and Afghan perspectives
on the longest foreign war in U.S. history, one that killed thousands of
Afghans and, at the latest count, claimed the lives of 1,760 U.S. troops.
They also explain the Taliban's ability to rally popular support—in part by
seizing the narrative to portray the war not as one triggered by America's
need for self-defense, but as one of colonial aggression by infidels lusting
for Afghanistan' s riches.
"The Islamic Emirate wages a lawful struggle for the defense of its
religion, country and soil," the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar,
told Afghans last month on the occasion of the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday.
According to a survey of 15- to 30-year-old men in the two southern
provinces where President Barack Obama sent the bulk of American surge
troops, 92% of respondents said they didn't know about "this event which the
foreigners call 9/11" after being read a three-paragraph description of the
attacks.
"Nobody explained to them the 9/11 story—and it's hard to win the hearts and
minds of the fighting-age males in Helmand if they don't even know why the
foreigners are here," says Norine MacDonald, president of the International
Council on Security and Development, the think tank that carried out the
survey of 1,000 Afghan men in eight districts of Kandahar and Helmand.
"There is a vacuum—and it's being filled by al Qaeda and Taliban propaganda
claiming that we are here to destroy Islam."
Some Afghans who do know about the events of 2001 often subscribe to
conspiracy theories, imported from Pakistan and Iran, that have long lost
currency even in the Middle East.
Maulvi Abdulaziz Mujahed, an imam at Kabul's Takbir mosque who served as
chairman of the Kabul provincial council in 2008 to 2009, said in a recent
interview that the Sept. 11 attacks were a Jewish conspiracy, a view he says
was reinforced by his 2009 visit to New York's Ground Zero.
"I saw the photos of all those who have been killed in the attacks, and I
saw people bring flowers for their loved ones. But I couldn't find a single
Jew among them," Mr. Mujahed said. "The superpowers wanted a good pretext to
invade Afghanistan, and these attacks provided it."
Abdul Hakim Mujahid, the deputy chairman of the Afghan government's High
Peace Council, a body created to negotiate a peaceful solution to the war,
was in New York when the two jets struck the Twin Towers—in his capacity as
the Taliban regime's semi-official envoy to the U.S. and the United Nations.
While Mr. Mujahid says he was saddened by the attacks, he says he still
doesn't believe al Qaeda was responsible for "the unfortunate incident."
"After 9/11, the whole world rushed to Afghanistan, and the people of
Afghanistan were under the illusion that everything would be changed: The
roads would be paved black, the houses would be painted white, the
infrastructure rebuilt and the industries established, " he says. "But
gradually these expectations have come down, and now have reached the point
of zero. The people are asking: When will the foreigners finally leave?"
Not every Afghan subscribes to the conspiracy theories or wants the
Americans to leave. At the campus of Kabul University, where young women and
men mix in a setting unimaginable under Taliban rule, students said in
interviews they were fully aware of the Sept. 11 attacks and saw the U.S.
invasion as bringing benefits to Afghanistan. Many of them were ethnic
Tajiks and Uzbeks from the country's north—ethnic minorities discriminated
against under the rule of the Taliban.
"Under the Taliban, Afghanistan was a terrorist haven, nobody could leave
their house, and I wouldn't have been able to attend university," says
Nasser Hasrab, a 20-year-old literature student from the northern Faryab
province. "After the Soviets left we had a civil war, and I am afraid that
if the Americans leave, the same would happen again."
Across town in the Herat restaurant—once the favorite hangout of Taliban
leaders and al Qaeda militants—owner Abdulazim Niyazi, dressed in a Polo
shirt and clutching a Samsung cellphone, pondered the momentous change of
the past decade.
Because TV was banned under the Taliban, there was no particular celebration
or commotion in the restaurant on Sept. 11, 2001, he said. Since then, Mr.
Niyazi complained, boomtown Kabul has been swamped with corruption,
prostitution and vice. More importantly, his business has soured.
"Under the Taliban, we were the only place," he said. "Now, Kabul is filled
with restaurants. " —Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@ wsj.com
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U.S. envoy says Pakistan should get behind Afghan peace talks
USA TODAY By Jim Michaels 07/09/2011
Pakistan is reluctant to allow senior Taliban leaders to travel to
Afghanistan for reconciliation talks, raising concerns that Pakistan is not
helping enough to resolve the conflict.
"Those who are willing to talk should be given the opportunity, " Ryan
Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, told USA TODAY in a phone
interview. "Those who are determined to fight should have actions taken
against them that should prevent them from doing so."
Afghan officials have been meeting with Taliban representatives to find a
political solution to the conflict. The United States has said that it
supports the Afghan initiative but that it is too early to report progress
in the talks.
"You can't kill your way out of an insurgency," Crocker said. "There's got
to be a political settlement at some point."
Analysts say Pakistan is attempting to play both sides in the conflict,
hedging its bets in the event the Taliban remains after the United States
leaves the region. The United States plans to withdraw its forces by the end
of 2014.
"The Pakistanis still see the Taliban as their best leverage in
Afghanistan, " said Lisa Curtis, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a
think tank. "They're on the fence right now."
Elements of the Pakistani government, such as its intelligence services,
backed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 1996. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has accused the Pakistanis of aiding the Taliban insurgency today.
Several militant groups in Pakistan provide weapons and fighters to the
Taliban.
The U.S.-Pakistani relationship worsened after the United States launched a
raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. The Pakistanis were not told
of the plan before the raid.
Crocker acknowledged Pakistan may be concerned that the United States may
abandon the region, leaving Pakistan with a need to have a relationship with
the Taliban. He said facilitating peace talks with the Taliban is "in their
interests as well as Afghanistan' s."
"It's not like they're not cooperating at all," Crocker said of Pakistan.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Pakistan's recent arrest of a senior
al-Qaeda leader and two associates in Quetta indicates cooperation.
"I think that's a good sign," Panetta said.
The Pakistani Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
Afghanistan' s government says it will negotiate with Taliban leaders willing
to put down their arms and back the constitution, including respect for
women's rights.
Though talks at the national level have not led to a breakthrough, the
Afghan government is increasing efforts to reintegrate insurgent fighters
into their home villages.
About 2,400 fighters have completed a reintegration program that provides
jobs, training and security to former insurgents, according to the coalition
command in Afghanistan. An additional 3,000 are waiting to go through the
program. Crocker is hopeful these local efforts will weaken the insurgency.
"It's kind of hard to make an insurgency if your gun-toting insurgents have
gone into another line of work," Crocker said. "It would certainly diminish
the significance of the fat cats who sit in (Pakistan's) Quetta or North
Waziristan."
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Battle for Afghanistan' s Gambir Jungle: 1st Platoon's 'last stand'
By the end of Day 1 of Operation Hammer Down, 1st Platoon needed help. But
when reinforcements arrived, they found they had more than enough of their
own troubles.
By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer / September 8, 2011 The Christian Science
Monitor
Kunar, Afghanistan - Operation Hammer Down had begun in the hours before
midnight of June 24 as an operation to flush insurgents out of terrorist
training camps in the remote valleys of eastern Afghanistan. Now, in the
full light of Sunday, June 25, it was clear that B Company's 1st Platoon
was, in the words of one soldier, being "rocked."
From a ridge some 500 yards away, the soldiers from B Company's 3rd Platoon,
also a part of Operation Hammer Down, could see the battle raging between
the 1st and the Taliban.
It was clear the enemy were experienced fighters. "They were using our
tactics against us, basically," says Staff Sgt. Christopher Panter of the
3rd. "And they know our rules of engagement probably better than we do."
When US aircraft sped down the valley in an effort to fire on enemy
positions, "You'd see a lot of females getting up on the buildings, waving
fighters in to hide them," Panter says. "It's hard to see that. You can
watch eight fighters pile into a building, but you know there are women and
children in there so you can't do anything about it."
As the 3rd watched from a distance, 1st Platoon soldiers who could were
rallying to a safe house they had established, creating a strong point for
the unit in a nearby mud-walled house called a kulat. It was "a 'last stand'
kind of thing," as one soldier describes it.
From then on, says Sgt. Elwyn Lovelace of the 1st, "We just kind of focused
on keeping ourselves alive."
Meanwhile, in the gulch, injured Staff Sgt. Nigel Kelly and the soldiers of
the 1st working to save him remained vulnerable, with Taliban fighters all
around. "At one point when we were down in there we could hear them above
us," says Spc. Derrick Dickerson. "All they had to do was lean over and
spray, and we'd be done."
Kelly urged the soldiers to just leave him behind. "He told us that while we
were playing dead. He told us that it wasn't worth us getting hurt," says
Dickerson.
Dickerson and the others did not heed his suggestion. Slowly, as darkness
fell, he and the other soldiers pulled Kelly up the gulch and to the rooftop
of the kulat that had become the strong point in hopes of having him
airlifted to safety.
A medevac chopper, under cover of night, came at last. For five minutes, it
hovered above Kelly and the other soldiers. "But it wouldn't land,"
Dickerson says. The area was too dangerous. "Once it left, probably about 10
minutes after that, [Kelly] died."
Barring the 'back door'
By that night, senior commanders overseeing Operation Hammer Down had made a
decision. They would not pull the plug. Instead, the 1st Platoon would hold
the strong point and wait to be relieved by a new unit: Havoc Company.
Just as the soldiers of the 1st had done the night before, Havoc Company was
to land on a 10,000-foot ridgeline and move some 4,000 feet down the
mountain before sunrise. But by the early hours of Sunday, June 26, it was
clear to commanders that Havoc would be forced to dig in and fight its own
battle.
First, Havoc's Chinook crashed, and medics began calling for an alarming
number of casualty evacuations, says Pfc. John Litwinczuk. Of the 57 troops
from Havoc Company on the mission, 13 were injured during the hard landing
and flown out in the hours before dawn.
Then, at first light, the 44 US soldiers left felt the brunt of the
insurgents' first salvo. A rocket-propelled grenade hit with "a big huge
boom," Litwinczuk recalls. His intuition told him there was some strategy to
the enemy barrages. "I think they were trying to gauge where we were and
where our guns were – because the next attack was huge."
Havoc Company, commanders were rapidly realizing, had been dropped in the
middle of a key insurgent transit route. "We knew it was a route," says Lt.
Col. Colin Tuley, commander of the 2nd Battalion. "But we didn't know it was
the route."
As night fell, intercepted radio intelligence backed up that assessment. The
chatter indicated that insurgents were getting reinforcements from a
neighboring province and were planning to attack again at daybreak.
Havoc soldiers were ordered to fortify their fighting positions.
This was not an easy proposition, as they dug into the stone-cold ridge
where snow had only recently receded. "That ground was rock hard," says
Litwinczuk. "Me and my buddy went around grabbing up big rocks. We built a
three-foot-high wall, and we put tree [limbs] around," he says. "Those trees
saved our lives."
As the temperature dropped, soldiers stripped the helicopter for anything
that would keep them warm. They tore the lining from the ceiling of the
downed Chinook and wrapped themselves in it. Troops who brought extra socks
used them on their hands and arms. Others wrapped bandages around their
necks to keep out the cold. Everyone dispensed with modesty to sleep as
close together as possible.
"We were spooning," Litwinczuk adds. "Everyone was spooning."
As the soldiers of Havoc Company sought what rest they could, a fresh plan
was taking shape. A new unit would come to the aid of the stricken 1st
Platoon – if it could arrive before daybreak.
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Afghan Concerns Over U.S. Staying Power
The Huffington Post By Jayshree Bajoria Senior Staff Writer, Council on
Foreign Relations 07/09/2011
As the timeline for the drawdown of U.S. and international troops from
Afghanistan approaches, the United States and Afghanistan are working to
finalize a long-term security arrangement that would secure a limited U.S.
troop presence in the country beyond 2014. But the United States and
Afghanistan disagree on several points, starting with how binding the
agreement should be. Taj Ayubi, a minister-counselor to Afghanistan' s
President Hamid Karzai, says as U.S. public opinion for the war in
Afghanistan wanes amid an economic downturn and rising unemployment, Afghans
grow increasingly concerned about Washington's long-term commitment to the
country. Ayubi, who accused some in the Afghan government of sabotaging the
strategic pact under discussion with Washington in a speech he delivered at
the Marine Corps University in Quantico, says the majority of Afghans
support a U.S. military base in the country post-2014.
There is a lot of distrust in the U.S.-Afghan relationship, and corruption
looms large as a concern among lawmakers in Congress. Where do you think
this relationship stands at present, and what can the two sides do to
improve it?
Both sides are trying very hard to mend relations. Actually, the relations
are not bad; it's just that in the last few years we were not able to
coordinate as much as we should have. We have come to a stage where the
transition of authority is taking place, so we are rushing into things.
That's why there are little aberrations occurring in our relations.
What is Afghanistan doing to mend relations?
The Afghan government and the United States have assigned their national
security advisors to continue talks and come up with some solutions. Perhaps
in the next two to three months, we'll have some definite answers to those
questions.
What steps is the Afghan government taking to tackle corruption?
The Afghan government has assigned two anti-corruption organizations: the
major crimes task force and the attorney general's office. So, there are a
number of commissions and organizations that are going to go into that. At
least twenty to thirty corrupt officials and judges and some governors [have
been] arrested.
Do you have any concerns on the prosecution of the war and how it's faring?
We always have concerns. But from a tactical point of view, we have made
many inroads; we have weakened the main body of the enemy. They have been
reduced in many parts. For instance, at one time you could not drive from
Lashkar Gah to Kandahar [both in southern Afghanistan and approximately 87
miles apart]. Now, you can do that and with a lot of comfort. That means the
[insurgents] have been reduced. They cannot hold any place; they cannot take
any place. They have to just suffice by hitting soft targets.They have even
attacked civilians at places of worship.
What concerns does the Afghan government have with how Pakistan is tackling
terrorism? And what do you see as their role in the reconciliation talks
with the Taliban?
Pakistan is going to be a very, very important factor in the talks regarding
reconciliation; Afghanistan understands that, and Pakistan also understands
that. The United States and our other partners [also understand]. Pakistan
has to be on board on these talks, and together we can gradually come to
some type of understanding.
A recent report by the Associated Press accuses the Afghan government of
scuttling the U.S.-Taliban talks due to fears of President Karzai's
authority being undermined by a Washington-brokered deal. Clearly there
seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the reconciliation talks and
between the different parties involved.
The talks have just begun in the last three months. There have been talks
between some Afghan sources and some Taliban sources. If we have to make
peace, it has to come from a position of strength, which means that the
United States should be strong in Afghanistan. The United States can be
strong only when [Afghanistan] signs a strategic partnership with the United
States. Also, the Afghan people want basing rights for the United States.
Once that happens, and people see that the United States is here to stay in
Afghanistan, much of this confusion will just fizzle out.
What is the status of negotiations for the strategic partnership agreement?
Are there sticking points between the two parties?
We had the initial agreement from the United States in 2004, and both sides
have expressed a desire to renew that. The Afghans have been asking for a
binding relationship with the United States. The United States has been a
little wary about that. Perhaps it has to go through a lot of political
[troubles] in Washington. So, they're not as prepared for that yet. Also,
the Afghans have to prepare politically for such a big agreement with the
United States, especially for basing rights.
Is there enough support for a U.S. military base inside Afghanistan beyond
2014?
I'll tell you with confidence, 85 percent support the United States to stay
in Afghanistan long term.
The Afghan government has expressed displeasure over the night raids
conducted by U.S. forces. Is that something you are addressing with the
United States in the strategic partnership agreement?
Yes, with the transition processes going on right now between Afghanistan,
NATO, and the United States, those issues will also be addressed. [The
Afghan government wants] more Afghans at the forefront [of the night raids],
and the foreign troops would be behind them. [Foreign troops] are not going
to go directly and blast Afghan doors and do all those things at night.
Given the economic realities in the United States, are there concerns in the
Afghan government and among the public that the United States might abandon
them following the withdrawal in 2014?
Yes, there is concern and fear in the Afghan public. In the last three
months, since the talks about the strategic partnership have been delayed a
bit, so many businesses and people have just put a hold on their businesses
and there is a little slump in real estate sales in Afghanistan. Once those
[strategic partnership agreement] issues are resolved, things will pick up
again. I don't think that people have too many concerns that the United
States will abandon them, because the United States has been giving
assurances, over and over again.
Are there specific issues within the agreement that they don't agree on?
Yes, for instance [Afghans think] that it should be binding, and also that
it should be ratified by the Senate of the United States. I think the U.S.
government has to do some political work. Afghans have to do the same.
This interview first appeared on CFR.org.
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In Afghanistan' s Panjshir, disquiet over Taliban reconciliation
By Sanjeev Miglani and Hamid Shalizi
DALASANG, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At the entrance to Afghanistan' s
magnificent Panjshir Valley, an 84-year-old supporter of resistance hero
Ahmad Shah Massoud said his village was fully armed to fight a resurgent
Taliban to the end.
Like the Russians before them, the Pashtun Taliban have failed to penetrate
Panjshir fortified by jagged cliffs and plunging valleys, coming as far as
neighboring Nuristan province as they extend their control in the north and
east of the country.
But as the beleaguered government and its Western backers reach out to the
Taliban to explore prospects of a political settlement of the 10-year war,
the sense of disquiet grows in the Tajik-dominated Panjshir region.
"We are all armed, we will not sit quiet. If the Taliban come, we will fight
them everywhere," said Mullah Mohammad, pointing to his village in the
valley floor by the side of the rushing waters of the Panjshir river.
It is from here that Massoud, or the Lion of Panjshir, fought the Taliban at
the head of the Northern Alliance representing Afghanistan' s ethnic
minorities, until his assassination two days before the Sept 11, 2001,
attacks.
Soon after, U.S.-led coalition forces teamed up with the warlords of the
Northern Alliance to drive the Taliban out of power from Kabul, and since
then many have gone into government.
Ten years on, the cult of Massoud grows across Afghanistan but especially in
his mountain redoubt where the gates to the valley have been draped in black
in memory of the fallen leader, killed when two men posing as reporters set
off a bomb hidden in a video camera.
It is not clear how much of Massoud's old alliance still holds and whether
the former regional backers such as Iran, India and Russia, who have deep
concerns over reconciliation with the Taliban, are involved with the old
leadership.
"Some remnants of the Northern Alliance have been openly skeptical and even
hostile to the idea of a negotiated settlement with the Taliban," said
Joshua Foust, an expert on Afghanistan at the American Security Project in
Washington.
"Rumors have been flying fast and furiously the last two years or so that
the Northern Alliance are rebuilding their militias."
FRITTERING AWAY GAINS
At Massoud's white stone monument on the top of a hill surrounded by barren
mountains, a trickle of visitors, some from as far as the southern province
of Kandahar, sit in silent prayer.
Afghan police patrol the narrow, winding road leading to the monument and
the checkpoints and the mud houses are emblazoned with portraits of the
legendary fighter.
For his supporters, it would have been a different Afghanistan had he lived
and the gains that they made for the country are being frittered away by the
administration of President Hamid Karzai.
"Afghanistan was delivered to Karzai because of the resistance fighters. The
foreign forces only gave air support. But they have wasted the victory,"
said Ahmad Wali Masoud, a former Afghan ambassador to Britain who heads the
Massoud Foundation in honor of his brother.
Massoud's assassination, which many believe was the work of al Qaeda as a
gift to the Taliban, has itself not been investigated properly, Wali Masoud
said.
He said British investigating agencies had informed him that 22 different
terrorist groups across the world had collaborated in the plot.
"But it was never investigated properly. This government has not even set up
an inquiry," he said, adding the role of some of Afghanistan' s neighbors
should also be probed. He declined to name them.
Ten years later, Afghanistan remains a deeply divided society and the
administration risks accentuating the divides further by pursuing a deal
with the Taliban without spelling out parameters, said Abdullah Abdullah, a
former foreign minister and close associate of Massoud.
"We support reconciliation, but it has to be done in a transparent manner,"
he said.
"We want peace, but peace with dignity. There was also peace in Afghanistan
during the Taliban in the 1990s, but it was peace of the graveyard. Is that
what we want?"
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
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Female Militia Chief Keeps Peace in Helmand District
Veteran fighter has years of experience leading men into combat, besides
being a mother of nine.
IWPR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 7 Sep 11
Afghanistan - It is obvious how much respect Abedo, a paramilitary commander
in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand region, commands. Walking through the
bazaar in Marja district, laughing and joking, the diminutive figure is
greeted by tradesmen and shopkeepers, some of whom step forward to kiss the
commander’s hands.
What makes 70-year-old Abedo an exceptional warrior by Afghan standards is
that she is a woman. She set aside the traditional roles assigned to women
in Pashtun society, and pursued a long career as a muhajedin fighter.
Dressed in male attire and with a yellow Helmand cap on her head, she now
controls security in her home areas, leading a force of 30 paramilitaries.
The mother of nine recalled how her military career began shortly after the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. She fought side by side with her
mujahedin husband until he was killed in battle eight years later.
“My husband was martyred during the early years of jihad and although it was
difficult for me, I continued fighting,” she said.
After his death, she changed from female clothing and dressed like an Afghan
man, and went on to command a 200-strong band of mujahedin. Although she
escaped serious injury, she says she killed and wounded many enemies.
“There were many battles at that time and we would fight for several days
without stopping,” she said. “My men would be martyred and many enemies
would also be killed. Those are the demands of war.”
She says the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 was the high point in her life.
“When the Russians left Afghanistan, I couldn’t sit still, I was so happy,”
she said. Laughing at the memory, Abedo said, “Being a leader and commander
was enjoyable, especially when I gave orders to my mujahedin and they obeyed
me. We’d attack the enemy and I would feel I was greatly honoured.”
Feeling that right had been done, she laid down her arms and tried to build
a normal life with her four sons and five daughters.
“I waged jihad to satisfy God,” Abedo said. “I didn’t pursue jihad as some
others did, to obtain positions and property in this world. Those who misuse
the name of jihad took advantage of it to loot and steal from people. Their
efforts have been futile – they will receive nothing in the next world.”
After years living in relative peace, Abedo was moved to take up arms once
more when her business was threatened by conflict between the government
forces of post-2001 Afghanistan and their Taleban opponents.
“The police would tell me not to sell to the Taleban, and the Taleban would
tell me not to sell to the police,” she said. “Finally, the Taleban torched
my shop.”
Refusing to be cowed, she called up ten young men from her village, formed
them into a paramilitary unit, and was contracted by the government to
maintain stability in the area.
“I will fight against anyone who wants to disrupt the security of my village
and district,” she said.
Her stance naturally soured relations with local Taleban leaders, so she now
takes precautions to avoid ambush – varying her movements, visiting the
district centre only occasionally to attend council meetings, and living
away from her own home.
Local officials are impressed with their ally.
“Besides being a very brave woman, Abedo has a very sound understanding of
the tactics of war,” Baz Gol, who is in overall command of pro-government
militias operating in Marja district. “In addition, the people very much
support her. She works with us to in ensuring security and we are happy with
her achievements.”
Abedo insists she has always prized her independence, so although she
currently works with the Kabul government, she has no political or factional
alliances.
“During the jihad, weapons and ammunitions were brought in from Pakistan
independently, in my name, and I would give them to the mujahedin here. I
was independent then and I am now,” she added.
Her record and current position means that Abedo is held in high esteem by
members of her tribe and village.
“Abedo is a brave, unique and gracious woman,” said Nek Mohammad, a resident
of Marja. “She should be counted as a hero of Afghan history. “During the
jihad era, we witnessed some male mujahedin commanders signing deals with
the Russians to stop fighting. Abedo fought bravely until the last moment,
when the Russians left the country.”
Mohammad Sadeq, a resident of Lashkar Gah, recalled Abedo’s influence in the
mujahedin war against the Soviets.
“I wanted to go to Marja district, but the mujahedin were in control of the
area. There were checkpoints everywhere,” he said. “I knew Abedo and got a
signed and stamped letter from her ordering the mujahedin not to touch me. I
went on my journey with some trepidation, and when the mujahedin stopped me
and started interrogating me, I showed them the letter. They said they would
have killed me if I hadn’t had the letter, because I had come from the town
and looked like a spy to them – but no one could ignore Abedo’s orders.”
Abedo said her militia members are registered and trained by the
authorities, receiving 110 US dollars a month, and abiding strictly by
official rules of engagement.
One of her men, Mirza, said, “Abedo is a woman who knows more than many men.
If we face a problem, we act on to her advice and perform well because of
it.”
Asked what she would do if her soldiers misbehaved, Abedo said, “I don’t
allow my militia to do that. I don’t even want children complaining about
them.”
Familiar with a wide range of weapons, she said her long experience gave her
an edge over many others, even in the Afghan security forces.
“Modern-day youngsters in the police and army don’t have experience, and
it’s easy for them to get killed in combat because they don’t know how to
fight,” she said dismissively.
She has even greater contempt for cowardice, saying, “Those who are afraid
of war cause others to be defeated. And liars, too, are marked for defeat. I
hate them both.”
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- 2.
September 9, 2011
Posted by: "ANC News - Fawad Muslim" news@afghanistannewscenter.com
Fri Sep 9, 2011 11:00 am (PDT)
Afghanistan News Center www.afghanistannews center.com Serving you since 1998 with over 50,000 news articles September 9, 2011 _____ The Lion of the Panjshir Written by: L. S. Carbonell on September 9, 2011 Lez Get Real lezgetreal.com Today is the other tenth anniversay, the one too few Americans are aware of. Today is the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of the Panjshir, the leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, the man who should have been president of Afghanistan these past nine years. What If Ahmad Shah Masud, Afghanistan' s 'Lion Of Panjshir,' Hadn't Been Killed? Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 9, 2011 By Farangis Najibullah Just before Al-Qaeda achieved its defining moment with the terror attacks against the United States in 2001, it was in a gift-giving mood in Afghanistan. Taliban must face 'more pain' to talk: US envoy By Katherine Haddon AFP News The Taliban must feel "more pain" for peace talks to progress, the US ambassador to Kabul said, as Afghans marked a decade since the death of an iconic anti-Taliban fighter two days before 9/11. Afghans observe 10th martyrdom anniversary of Ahmad Shah Masoud KABUL, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The people and the government of Afghanistan observed the 10th death anniversary of late Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masoud on Friday. Extra civilians in Afghanistan cost $2 billion By PAULINE JELINEK - Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - It cost nearly $2 billion over the last two years to send hundreds of extra U.S. civilians to Afghanistan to help with development projects, the economy and training Afghan government officials, a report said Thursday. ISAF: Reporter killed in Afghanistan in case of mistaken identity By the CNN Wire Staff September 9, 2011 (CNN) -- A reporter was killed by a U.S. service member last July in southern Afghanistan in a case of mistaken identity, according to the results of an investigation by NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The Uncontrollable Momentum of War By RORY STEWART The New York Times September 9, 2011 The initial decision to strike back after the 9/11 attacks is easy to understand. History, however, will ask not why the West invaded Afghanistan, but why did it stay so long? Taliban claim new missiles downing aircraft By Habiborrahman Ibrahimi Asia Times KABUL - The Taliban say new missile consignments are allowing them to down increasing numbers of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) aircraft. However, military officials and defense experts cast down on the claim, saying some helicopters have made forced landings after suffering technical problems, and any direct hits probably came from existing weapons. On the Afghan frontline, U.S. soldiers see longer war ahead By Nikola Solic Fri Sep 9, 2011 6:49am EDT KUNAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers deployed on the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan say the war isn't going away for another ten years, even after Washington pulls troops from a country locked in a deadly Islamist insurgency. NATO Commander, Pakistan army chief discuss security ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan met Pakistan's Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and discussed " ways to improve regional security", said a U.S. spokesman Friday. Counterfeit Dollars Flooding Afghanistan September 8, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty KABUL -- Money-exchange dealers in Kabul say they are concerned by the large amounts of counterfeit foreign money that they say is entering Afghanistan from neighboring countries, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports. Pakistan: Taliban Plot To Free Bin Laden's Wives ASHRAF KHAN 09/ 9/11 The Huffington Post KARACHI - Pakistan is warning that the Taliban are plotting to secure the freedom of Osama bin Laden's wives and children by kidnapping a high-ranking government official and then offering to exchange him or her for the slain terror chief's family. _____ Back to Top The Lion of the Panjshir Written by: L. S. Carbonell on September 9, 2011 Lez Get Real lezgetreal.com Today is the other tenth anniversay, the one too few Americans are aware of. Today is the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of the Panjshir, the leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, the man who should have been president of Afghanistan these past nine years. Charismatic, highly intelligent, well educated, a gifted linguist who spoke seven languages, Massoud was something of an enigma to many Westerners. He could have taken his education and his engineering degree and lived a comfortable life, instead he became a guerilla warrior. He so loved his Panjshir Valley, he blew up the entrance and cut it off from Afghanistan. He fought the Soviet invasion and their puppet government, but offered sanctuary to the last communist leader, Mohammad Najibullah. A devout Sunni Muslim who carried a book by Sufi mystic Ghazali with him, he fought the Saudi, Taliban and al Qaida interpretations of Islam. He was also, as seen in film from Canadian freelance journalist Arthur Kent, a man with a wickedly dry sense of humor who could joke about a Soviet rocket attack on his camp being an inconvenient break in his lunch. Massoud's story has been told by many. His biography in Wikipedia is impressive and lists dozens of sources. The important parts are these - he was the opposite of a stereotypical Afghan warlord, a man who never sought personal power, but simply had the talent to lead people and used that power for the good of his nation and all the Afghan people. He worked well with the Clinton administration, but was not trusted by the Bush/Cheney administration. Massoud was branded a "drug dealer" by them because he tolerated the poppy growers and opium manufacturers. The fact was, Massoud tolerated them because he taxed the hell out of them to keep his army supplied. The CIA respected him even if the Bush/Cheney administration didn't understand or appreciate him. European leaders, however, not only appreciated him, they courted his involvement. He traveled to Europe in April, 2001, and addressed the European Union Parliament. In addition to his request for humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan, which was not recovering from the ravages of the Soviet invasion and the seemingly endless civil wars, he warned that his intelligence men had uncovered evidence of an imminent "huge scale" attack on the West. Massoud was by that time holding almost a quarter of Afghanistan against the Taliban, working in conjunction with another "warlord" named Abdul Rashid Dostrum. By all accounts, life in Massoud's territory was radically different from the rest of Afghanistan. He helped establish democratic governance in the region, encouraged rights for women, kept the territory peaceful, did not not permit any abuses of power or position by his men. He did not have enough reach to keep Kabul as serene as the Panjshir, however. Massoud told the world that the Taliban could be defeated if their support from Pakistan and al Qaida was cut off. They probably could have been. When the Bush/Cheney administration captured and interrogated Zachariah Moussaoui, the so-called twentieth highjacker, he insisted he had not been trained for the 9-11 attack on America, but for an attack in Europe that had failed to mature. After Massoud's warning, there were subtle increases in airport security in Europe, increased surveillance of known al Qaida groups, small things done to intimidate al Qaida in Europe without scaring the population. The planned attack on the EU Parliament building in Salzberg was scraped. The United States only asked Massoud to report any information he received about Osama bin Laden. In August, Massoud conveyed the message that bin Laden was in residence at a farm in Afghanistan. In mid-August, Massoud received a request for an interview from a pair of Belgian-Moroccan journalists. Massoud met with them ten years ago today. Their camera was packed with explosives. Two men died in the explosion, one of them a bomber. Three were injured, including Massoud. One bomber was captured and later shot "while trying to escape." Massoud died in a helicopter flying to a military hospital in Tajikistan with his closest aide, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah at his side. Dr. Abdullah immediately called the CIA and begged them to keep the news of Massoud's death a secret. On September 10, the world knew that the Lion of the Panjshir was dead. On September 11, over 3,000 Americans died. Many in the intelligence community believe that Massoud's death served two purposes. It was bin Laden's gift to the Taliban for their support - removing their greatest threat, and it may have been the signal to go through with the plans for 9-11. Dr. Abdullah feared that his friend's death was meant as a signal for some action on the part of the Taliban or al Qaida, he just wasn't sure what that action might have been. That is why he begged for secrecy. Ahmad Shah Massoud was just 48 years and 7 days old when he died. He left a wife, Sediqa, a twelve-year- old son, Ahmad, and five daughters, Fatima, Mariam, Ayesha, Zohra and Nasrine, who was just three. His family is living in Iran, where Sediqa wrote a book about her life with the man named by President Hamid Karzai as the greatest hero in Afghan history. Massoud's brothers continue to be involved in the rebuilding and governance of Afghanistan. He is buried in his beloved Panjshir, a place he protected because it nurtured his soul. It is the most peaceful region of Afghanistan. There is one small American unit there, but the people have rebuilt the valley, not American contractors, just as they rebuilt it after each war and invasion. Dr. Abdullah ran against Hamid Karzai for the presidency, and has correctly accused the election of being rigged. He worked with Karzai for a while, until their basic incompatibility on the issues of honesty and integrity made Dr. Abdullah leave the government. Princeton University Professor Michael Barry wrote in Thoughts on Commander Massoud: "Massoud's personal mysticism led him to fight without hatred, bitterness, or spirit of revenge, regarding armed conflict only as an imposed and necessary evil in order to defend his people's freedom, certainly not as an end in itself to be enjoyed as bloodlust or intoxication with power. He always provided protection for humanitarian relief in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances, looked for reconciliation with defeated enemies, and invariably treated his war prisoners with humanity and dignity. To this I was witness . Such moral integrity in the midst of warfare ranks Massoud as one of the very few "philosopher kings" in history, that is, men who have been forced to wage war so as to protect their nation and people, but who detested war in itself and sought no personal political gain." A video camera packed with explosives robbed the Afghan people of a great leader. The men who set off that bomb also robbed America of nearly 10,000 lives lost on 9-11 and in combat in two wars, cost us tens of thousands of wounded and almost a trillion dollars, and cost Afghanistan and Iraq hundreds of thousands of civilian dead. So very much could have been so very different if Massoud had lived. It is rare in history for one man and one event to have so much impact, but this was the one man and the one event. It is not enough that Afghanistan honors his memory. We should as well. If Ahmad Shah Massoud had been the face of Islam for Americans instead of Osama bin Laden, how much better a nation we would be. Back to Top _____ Back to Top What If Ahmad Shah Masud, Afghanistan' s 'Lion Of Panjshir,' Hadn't Been Killed? Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 9, 2011 By Farangis Najibullah Just before Al-Qaeda achieved its defining moment with the terror attacks against the United States in 2001, it was in a gift-giving mood in Afghanistan. On September 9, the terrorist organization paid back its Afghan hosts by taking out the Taliban regime's most powerful enemy -- Ahmad Shah Masud. Before his assassination at the hands of two Al-Qaeda operatives posing as television journalists, Masud, an ethnic Tajik, enjoyed a reputation as a warrior, earning him the moniker "The Lion of Panjshir." He was as polarizing as he was charismatic, having earned as many friends as enemies while establishing himself as a successful mujahedin commander during the Soviet invasion and later as the leader of the Northern Alliance, which was taking on the fledgling Taliban. By 2001, Masud was considered the last bulwark against the Taliban. From Afghanistan' s northeastern provinces, including his stronghold in the Panjshir Valley, Masud commanded an estimated 12,000 troops and controlled between 5 to 10 percent of the country. Masud's assassination ushered in dramatic changes for Afghanistan. Within two days, Al-Qaeda would carry out the terrorist attacks against the United States, prompting Washington to begin the so-called "war on terror" whose centerpiece was the invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Kabul. Ten years later, peace has yet to come to Afghanistan. Taliban militants are still engaged in fighting against Afghan government forces. Tens of thousands of Western coalition troops remain on Afghan soil. This week's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has many pondering how their lives have changed in the last decade. Taking things one step further, one can ask many more questions: How would the world look today had Masud not been killed? Would Al-Qaeda have given the green light to its September 11 plans if he had lived? Would Masud have regained the upper hand against the Taliban on his own? Might Masud have emerged as the man to lead the country, instead of Hamid Karzai, following the Taliban's overthrow? Different Opinions Ahmad Sayeedi, a former Afghan diplomat, considers the possibilities and concludes, "I believe Masud would not have resisted the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. Like other mujahedin leaders who received assistance from other countries. Masud, too, knew how to deal with foreign powers. "America is a superpower, and I don't believe Masud would have fought against the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. He would cooperate with them with understanding. After all, his closest friends -- Yunis Qanooni, Muhammad Fahim, and Abdullah Abdullah -- are today among those who support pro-U.S. policies." Sayeedi says some of Masud's allies in the Northern Alliance went on to occupy high posts in post-Taliban Afghanistan, but tarnished their reputations by getting involved in corruption, misuse of public office, and criminal activities. Sayeedi suggests things might have been different had Masud lived. "I believe Masud would not do the same," he says. "But would he be able to stop his supporters from going off-track? A lot would depend on that." For many Afghans, Masud, who died at the age of 48, is known as a war hero and military commander, but not as a political leader. Would he, like many of his fellow mujahedin warriors, have involved himself in government and politics? Siddiqullah Tawhidi, an Afghan journalist and Masud's friend, says he believes Masud's heart was elsewhere. "Masud would dream of returning to civilian life," Tawhidi says. "But there are many people who would have wanted to see him in the highest post in this country. "He used to say during interviews that once peace was restored, he would go back to the polytechnic university to complete his studies. And he wanted to work as a civilian engineer. It was his private dream. But I think he would be worthy of the presidency." Born to the family of a colonel in the town of Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley, Masud grew up in Kabul, where his father had been given a post. After graduating from the French school of Al-Istiqlal in Kabul, Masud went to study at Kabul Polytechnic University. He joined the Muslim Youth League during his student years and subsequently became a guerrilla fighter. He returned to Kabul in 1992 after the communist regime of President Najibullah was overthrown by mujahedin forces. Masud was appointed defense minister, but infighting would doom the mujahedin government. Masud withdrew to the northeast in 1996, as the Taliban rapidly advanced toward the capital. Soon, the Panjshir Valley became one of the last remaining pockets of resistance. The Legend Lives On Masud's status in post-Taliban Afghanistan was officially cemented in 2002 when President Hamid Karzai named him a "national hero." But his legend lives strongest at the local level, in his birthplace, the Panjshir Valley, and in neighboring areas in the northeast. There, posters of Masud -- wearing his trademark woolen hat, the pakol -- still hang along the streets and on the walls of teahouses, schools, and shops. Masud has become a popular name for boys, says Maryam Panjshiri, a women's right activist and resident of Panjshir. "People here always remember him and pay tribute to him. We don't need an anniversary to remember Masud," she says. Panjshiri believes Masud would have continued to play a crucial role in determining Afghanistan' s fate if he hadn't been killed. "Today, it feels like Afghanistan has no owner," Panjshiri says. "There is no peace in this country. When one part of Afghanistan becomes peaceful, a conflict arises in its other part. All kinds of foreigners interfere in our affairs. I don't think Masud would let that happen if he were alive today." Opinions about Masud and of his role differ sharply. There are people who still worship him as a one-of-a-kind hero who fought for Afghanistan' s freedom. Critics remember difficult days when mujahedin fighters, including Masud's Jamiat-i-Islami, launched rocket attacks on Kabul in the early 1990s, killing scores of civilians. "For me, he is one of the mujahedin commanders who bombarded my city," says Shukriya Barekzai, an Afghan journalist and politician. "I lived in Kabul in those days and I have bitter memories. Ordinary people were killed. Mothers lost
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