In this bulletin:

• President Karzai Condemns the Killing of a Woman and Her Teenage Son
• Pakistan must fight terror 'bravely', Afghan FM says
• Pakistan backs Taliban, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan: ANP
• Taliban clashes with Afghan police
• Roadside bomb kills 2 Afghan civilians
• ISAF SOLDIER KILLED - International Security Assistance Force –Afghanistan
• Three al-Qaida suspects killed in Afghan raid
• CENTCOM’s top NCO praises Afghanistan
• Four key officials introduced to Wolesi Jirga
• Farhang to be introduced to ministry staff tomorrow
• Afghan Interior Minister Calls For 2 Parties To Be Disbanded
• Afghanistan: New Supreme Court Could Mark Genuine Departure
• Three-quarters of US aid to Afghanistan going on security
• US defends opium policy despite Afghanistan violence
• Pakistan says arrests helped foil airline bomb plot
• A string of intelligence failures
• CHILDBIRTH PROVED MORE DANGEROUS THAN FLYING FOR AFGHAN PILOT – RFE/RL
• Rae slams Afghan vote, Harper foreign policy - KAREN HOWLETT – Globe and Mail
• Letter to Mr. Dosanjh, Liberal Party (by permission)
• Dead soldier dedicated to Afghanistan mission

President Karzai Condemns the Killing of a Woman and Her Teenage Son - Date of Release: 09 August 2006 – Office of Spokesman

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned the killing of a 70-year old woman and Her teenage son in the province of Helmand. According to reports, the enemies of Afghanistan executed a 70-year old woman and her teenage son on false charges of spying for the Government of Afghanistan in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province on Monday. In his reaction to the news the President said “The killing of a 70-year old woman and her teenage son in the province of Helmand is against the historical and cultural values of Muslims. The gruesome act is unforgivable and no-one can justify it. This shameful act is an affront to all Afghans and their historical traditions.” The President instructed the relevant authorities to bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice.

Pakistan must fight terror 'bravely', Afghan FM says

Kabul (AFP) - Afghanistan expects its eastern neighbour Pakistan to fight Taliban-led militants "bravely" in a bid to stop cross-border attacks here, Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said.

Spanta said terrorism would spill back into Pakistan if not stopped by a coordinated effort between the two countries, which are both allies of the United States in its "war on terror".

His comments come amid months of bad blood between Islamabad and Kabul over Pakistan's alleged failure to tackle Taliban rebels operating from its restive border regions.

"We believe we're the main victim of terrorism. At the same time I, myself, personally believe that... Pakistan will also become one of the victims" if it does not crack down on militants, Spanta told a news conference on Thursday.

"The 9/11 exprience showed that terrorism goes out of control. The countries which were previously supporting Al-Qaeda as a political tool against the Soviets became victims of Al-Qaeda themselves," he said.

"We expect Pakistan, our brotherly and friendly neighbor, to cooperate more with us in our fight against terrorism.... We expect them to coordinate this struggle," he added. The minister however said Kabul was ready to discuss the issue with Islamabad in a friendly manner.

The Taliban, whose regime was supported by Pakistan before US-led forces toppled it in late 2001, are waging an escalating insurgency against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan says it has more than 80,000 troops along the Afghan border and points to several anti-militant operations it has carried out in the area, losing hundreds of soldiers.

Pakistan backs Taliban, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan: ANP

ISLAMABAD, Aug 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A central leader of Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP) alleged Islamabad for empowering al-Qaeda and Taliban and said it had let unbridled terrorist groups for carrying out disruptive activities in Afghanistan.

Addressing a news conference the other day nationalist politician Farid Tofan said with inking an agreement of cease-fire in Pakistan army, Taliban and al-Qaeda such groups would strengthen in Afghanistan.

Criticism of Farid comes at time, when Pakistan army in north Waziristan inked an agreement of cease-fire with Taliban some weeks back. He said: "Accord inked by Pakistan army and Taliban will only prevent Taliban from violent acts on Pakistani soil, but nothing has been written about their crossing to Afghanistan."

He said with agreement the Taliban operative in tribal areas were given free hand to carry out disruptive acts in Afghanistan. After the agreement, the Taliban would boldly launch insurgencies in Afghanistan. He said: "Pakhtun of Pakistan will never accept such series of current violence should be on in Afghanistan."

He said the accord was meant that security should be restored in Pakistan but insecurity should further prevail in Afghanistan. It merits a mention that Taliban had announced one month cease-fire with Pakistan army and government had welcomed the move. After ending of one month, the cease fire was extended for an unspecified time.

Taliban clashes with Afghan police – Reuters 8/10/06

Afghan police and Taliban fighters have been engaged in clashes in the southern Kandahar province. The battle was triggered after eight police officers were killed in an ambush on a main road west of Kandahar city on Wednesday. Yousuf Stanizai, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said 12 Taliban members had been killed and that the fighting was ongoing.

However, Mawlavi Samad, a local Taliban commander, said only one Taliban fighter had died while 15 policemen had been killed. There was no independent verification for either side's claims.

Despite a heavy foreign military presence since 2001 when US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government, recent bloodshed around the country has been the worst since the war.

Fighting in the south increased towards the end of July as Nato was building up its presence before taking over the region from US forces. Nato's expansion into the south is the biggest ground operation in the alliance's history. It is expected to move into the east later this year.

Roadside bomb kills 2 Afghan civilians - By Paul Garwood, Associated Press Writer  |  August 10, 2006

NARAY, Afghanistan --Militants detonated a roadside bomb Thursday, killing a man and his grandson selling vegetables in eastern Afghanistan.

The blast went off in Jalalabad while Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry -- the top U.S. general in Afghanistan -- visited a U.S. base in the city, but he apparently was not the target.

Eikenberry, who visited American troops hunting terrorists and leading reconstruction projects, also stopped at the Jalalabad hospital where five people wounded in the blast were taken.

"That says a lot about the enemy we are against and the immorality of that enemy," Eikenberry told The Associated Press at a U.S. base in Naray, a village next to the Pakistani border in eastern Kunar province.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence this year, particularly in the south where rebel supporters of the toppled Taliban regime have stepped up attacks. Afghan and NATO-led troops are trying to drive insurgents out of their safe havens, triggering the bloodiest fighting since the Taliban were ousted by a U.S.-led force in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.

"There is a security challenge in the south but the NATO forces are up to the challenge and are determined to push forward with development in the region," said U.S. spokesman Col. Tom Collins, who accompanied Eikenberry to Naray.

Meanwhile, a Kandahar provincial official said that Taliban rebels and police clashed two days earlier in Panjwayi district, killing 12 militants and eight policemen.

In southeastern Paktika province, a roadside bomb Wednesday killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded three in Waza Khwa district as they returned after a mission to help police surrounded by insurgents, said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

That attack followed the killing of 19 militants earlier in the day by U.S. forces in the eastern Nuristan provincial village of Kamdesh after insurgents attacked a new U.S. base there.

Extremists likely belonging to the Hezb-e-Islami militant group of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar likely staged the attack, the military said.

U.S. forces are pushing to their northernmost points along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border in a bid to crush militants loyal to Hekmatyar, the toppled Taliban regime and bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

A vehicle belonging to the NATO-led coalition force in Afghanistan struck and killed a young boy Thursday, the alliance said in a statement.

The accident happened on a dusty road just outside the capital as the victim was crossing a street, the statement said. The exact age of the boy was not known.

The patrol stopped to administer medical aid but the boy's family came out of the nearby house and removed the body from the scene, NATO said. 

ISAF SOLDIER KILLED - International Security Assistance Force –Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (11 August 2006) – At 1530 today, an ISAF soldier died in Kandahar province following a vehicle borne suicide bomb attack.

The incident occurred on the road from Spin Boldak to Kandahar, when a white Toyota Corolla drove towards an ISAF convoy, and exploded near one of the vehicles.

In accordance with ISAF policy, the nationality of the soldier will be released, in the first instance, by the relevant nation.

Three al-Qaida suspects killed in Afghan raid – The Scotsman 8/11/06

US-LED coalition forces and Afghan troops killed three suspected al-Qaida members in a raid today on a building in south-eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said.

The operation took place in the village of Ya'Qubi. Three other suspects were detained, it said in a statement. An assortment of weaponry was found, including AK-47 assault rifles with armour-piercing ammunition.

"The purpose of this operation was to capture an al-Qaida facilitator considered a significant threat to Afghan and coalition forces," the statement said.

CENTCOM’s top NCO praises Afghanistan - CO MBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN
COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER - KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – 8/11/06

K ABUL , Afghanistan – The U.S. Central Command’s top enlisted leader visited Afghanistan from Aug. 5 to 8 and praised the country for its progress in rebuilding and reconstructing, and developing its armed forces over the past five years.

Just a month away from the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Curtis L. Brownhill toured bases in Afghanistan and talked to deployed troops while here.

Brownhill is a principal advisor to Gen. John Abizaid, CENTCOM commander, on all matters concerning joint and combined integration, utilization and sustainment for more than 230,000 U.S. and Coalition forces serving in 27 countries.

“I’ve been coming in and out of Afghanistan for nearly the last five years,” said Brownhill. “I can remember, how we as a coalition, had to go in and oust the Taliban and get al-Qaeda on the run. If you just look at the general condition of Afghanistan , I see more and more openness on the streets. I also see prosperity and vendors, shops and merchants.”

Nearly five years ago, he said, Afghanistan was unstable with Taliban as the ruling form of government that gave free reign to al Qaeda. Though Coalition troops still find themselves in skirmishes with Taliban and other extremists, the majority of service members are involved in rebuilding reconstruction efforts.

“I am seeing more greenery and agriculture right now at this time of year that I have ever in the five years that I’ve come to the country,” Brownhill said. “That means that projects like wells, irrigation and infrastructure are effective.”

During his trip, Brownhill emphasized the importance of building up the Afghan National Army. The ANA works in tandem with U.S. and NATO forces to help plan and execute operations.

“For an army that is really only four years old, and fighting an enemy at the same time, those are indications that progress really is being made and that the contribution of many countries has helped Afghanistan get to this point,” Brownhill said.

Brownhill spent two days of his travels with Sgt. Maj. Roshan Safi, the first sergeant major of the ANA. Brownhill said he saw firsthand how villagers accepted Roshan as a representative of the changes that have taken place the past five years.

“I watched carefully as the sergeant major of the army in his full uniform was walking down the street and there was a gathering wherever he went,” said Brownhill.  “People of all ages wanted to talk to him and shake his hand. That’s an indication of respect by those people for the ANA.”

Brownhill said when you spend time with somebody like Sgt. Maj. Roshan who fought in the mountains, who fought for a piece of land, who fought the Taliban face-to-face right there and then, to see the progress through his eyes is an incredible experience.

Four key officials introduced to Wolesi Jirga

KABUL >>, Aug 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Heads of the Afghanistan Central Bank, Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), Office of the Attorney General and Intelligence Department have been introduced to the parliament for vote of confidence.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sadiq Mudabir said the four people had been nominated by the president and they were introduced to the parliament to get trust vote under the Constitution.

The new high-ranking officials included Noorullah Dilawari, head of the Afghanistan Central Bank, Fatima Gilani, chief of ARCS, Amrullah Saleh, head of the Intelligence Department and Abdul Jabbar Sabit, the Attorney General.

Of the four nominees, Sabit is the new face while the three people are already serving on the positions mentioned against their names. He was formerly serving as advisor to the Ministry of Interior. If approved, Sabit will replace Mahmud Daqiq, who is presently serving as head of the Attorney General's Offce.

Farhang to be introduced to ministry staff tomorrow

KABUL, Aug 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud will introduce new Minister for Commerce and Industries Dr Mir Mohammad Amin Farhang to his ministry tomorrow (Thursday).

Wolesi Jirga (lower house) approved on Monday Dr Farhang as the new Minister for Commerce and Industries. Farhang replaced senior minister Hedayat Amin Arsala.

A press release issued here on Wednesday stated until March this year, Dr Farhang was the Afghan Minister of Economy.   Born in 1940, he taught at Kabul University from 1974 to 1978.  In 1978 he was imprisoned in Pul-i-Charkhi Jail for his opposing the communist regime.

Dr Farhang was set free in 1982 and left for Germany where he taught at Ruhr University.  After the fall of Taliban, he was appointed Minister of Reconstruction in December 2001.

Dr Farhang has written many articles on economic, social and political issues for Afghan and international publications.  The statement quoted Farhang as saying he welcomed this new challenge, as the Afghan government was striving to improve the business environment and improve the lives of Afghans all around the country.

While endorsing appointment of Dr Farhang, Arsala said with all his academic qualifications and experience in the Ministry of Economy, and previously with Ministry of Reconstruction, Dr Farhang was an excellent choice for this post.  He said he wished him good luck and all success in leading several programmes started by the ministry of commerce and industry.

Afghan Interior Minister Calls For 2 Parties To Be Disbanded

KABUL, August 11, 2006 -- Afghanistan's independent Ariana TV station says Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel is calling for two political parties to be disbanded.

Ariana quotes Moqbel as saying in an interview the ban should extend to Jonbesh-e Melli-e Eslami, the party of ethnic Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum, and Azadi, the political grouping led by General Abdul Malik. Armed clashes between the two parties have been reported in the north.

Afghanistan: New Supreme Court Could Mark Genuine Departure

By Amin Tarzi – rfe/rl - Parliament's recent approval of a new chief justice and eight other members of the Supreme Court could mark a notable step on the road to long-term stability and a democratic society.

WASHINGTON, August 11, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- While Afghanistan has flirted with real and "kangaroo" parliaments in the past, genuine power has historically been held by the executive -- represented by kings, presidents, and commanders of the faithful. However, with few exceptions, the executive branch has had to walk a fine line with the judiciary, a branch that remained to varying degrees independent or even at odds with the executive branch.
 
The judiciary -- formally or informally -- also assumed the role of safeguarding Islamic values and character. This prerogative became more entrenched after the communist takeover in 1978 and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union a year later.
 
During the period of resistance to Soviet forces and their surrogates in Kabul, the elements who traditionally controlled and represented Afghanistan's judiciary became a vanguard of the struggle.

In 1992, those same elements took power in the capital, seemingly placing the executive and judiciary branches in the hands of a single group of people: They were the judges and the court functionaries, the ulama (mullahs), the clergy, and important hereditary religious families. Those groups have traditionally preserved their power bases and legitimacy by steering the Islamic sensibilities of the Afghan public in a highly conservative -- and unwavering -- direction. The importance of the Supreme Court is boosted by the abysmal state of Afghanistan's formal judicial system.

To date, Afghanistan's judiciary has remained mostly in the hands of men from conservative religious circles. Since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, conservative circles have been in firm control of the judiciary, most notably the Supreme Court.
 
The importance of the Supreme Court is boosted by the abysmal state of Afghanistan's formal judicial system. That situation has resulted in increased involvement for the Supreme Court in even minor legal aspects of the country's development.
 
Moreover, the Supreme Court as envisaged in the constitution holds tremendous power over lower courts -- all the way down to district courts. That authority extends all the way to judicial appointments and directives on points of law.
 
The makeup of the Supreme Court sworn in on August 5 is based less than its predecessor on strong ties to past Islamist governments and to prominent Afghans.
 
This new court is headed by Abdul Salam Azimi. Azimi is a moderate technocrat with experience in law and education not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan, the Middle East, and the United States. He was also among the main drafters of the country's current constitution.
 
The other eight justices (Mohammad Qasem Hashemzai; Abdul Rashid Rashed; Gholam Nabi Nawai; Bahuddin Baha; Zamen Ali Behsudi; Mohammad Qasem; Mohammad Alim Nasimi; and Mohammad Omar Barakzai) include highly educated technocrats with seemingly moderate views and no obvious ties to conservative Islamist circles. The average age of new members is under 62, with the oldest member (Behsudi) 70 years old and the youngest (Nawai) 46.

A defendant in a criminal case in Kabul in 2004 (AFP)Critics accused the previous court of allying itself with conservative elements in the National Assembly in an effort to systematically challenge Afghanistan's generally reform-mined executive branch.

The new court is more likely to seek to establish itself as a contributor to stability. Its justices are arguably more disposed to safeguarding the Islamic character of Afghanistan as enshrined in the constitution while allowing gradual reforms within legal limits.

They might also be expected to seek to respect Afghan traditions while trying not to perpetuate reactionary measures that might impede a march to democracy.
 
The Afghan Constitution adopted in January of 2004 creates the judiciary branch as an organ of the state independent of the other two branches -- executive and legislative.
 
Chief Justice Azimi and his new colleagues on the bench face a daunting task. They will certainly be tempted to reeducate Afghanistan's judiciary branch from top to bottom. But they will also be expected to work to prevent the various centers of power in Afghanistan -- both formal and informal -- from grinding progress to a halt.

US defends opium policy despite Afghanistan violence

David Fickling - August 8, 2006 Guardian Unlimited (UK)

America's drug tsar, John Walters, today acknowledged that US allies have voiced doubts about the wisdom of opium eradication in parts of southern Afghanistan where insurgents have killed 10 British troops over the past two months.

Speaking during a visit to London for talks with British officials, Mr Walters recognised that the situation in Helmand province had been "difficult".

In recent months, officials within the British government and military have privately expressed growing disquiet about the role of opium eradication in fuelling the Afghan insurgency.

Unrest in Helmand, where 4,800 British troops are stationed under the command of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), has claimed the lives of 10 British soldiers since the start of June. Before then, only two British soldiers had been killed in the whole country since October 2001.

The British army chief, General Sir Mike Jackson, has said eradication would be "counterproductive" unless done when all other conditions were right and the Conservative whip, Tobias Ellwood, last month called for the opium crop to be legalised.

But Mr Walters today said that eradicating the opium crop was the only way for Afghanistan to achieve lasting peace.

"Sometimes we talk as if security and drugs control are at odds, but the places where we have the best security are the places where we have some of the best drugs control," he said. "[Afghan farmers] know that their future and that of Afghanistan depends on rule of law, not being ruled by drug mafias."

Local officials say that the eradication programme is corrupting local government and driving support for the insurgency, as richer farmers pay bribes to protect their opium crops and poor farmers who can't afford bribes are forced into the pay of the Taliban.

Emmanuel Reinart, the director of the Senlis Council, a pro-licensing thinktank, said that the eradication policy was destroying trust between Afghan farmers and central government.

"Directly attacking the livelihood of farmers like this has very counterproductive side effects. Locals see these eradication programmes are conducted by foreigners and they often assume that they're being organised by Nato troops, which makes it harder for those troops to gain local trust," he said.

But Mr Walters dismissed the group's proposals to license opium production as "a sideshow" and said there was no market for the legal opium that licensing would produce.

"[Farmers] understand that the Taliban and the drug barons are on one side and [the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai] and the international community are on the other side, and we are trying to allow them to make the choice between those sides in a way that works," he said.

The total number of hectares under opium poppy cultivation dropped 48% in Afghanistan during 2005, although a more recent study by the UN office of drugs control found that production only sank 2.4% as individual farms became increasingly productive.

Around 90% of the UK's illegal heroin originates in Afghanistan and, despite around £36m being spent annually on opium eradication by the US and Britain, officials expect the opium crop to increase this year.

Mr Walters said there was a perception that the US was pursuing crop eradication before any attempts had been made to provide farmers with alternative means of income. But he insisted that many areas of the country had shown considerable progress in wiping out the trade.

"To say that we are losing ground or [eradication is] not making progress requires you to look at this in a very, very distorted way," he said.

Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister, Habibullah Qaderi, will visit London tomorrow to discuss the role of US drug policy in his country at a conference that will also be attended by Mr Walters.

Pakistan says arrests helped foil airline bomb plot

Islamabad (AFP) - Pakistani authorities said they had made several arrests, including at least three people linked to Al-Qaeda, which helped Britain uncover a plot to blow up planes flying to the United States.

Foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam would not say how many were held but said the arrests by key US ally Pakistan were coordinated with the detention of 24 suspects in Britain.

"Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network. There were some arrests in Pakistan which were coordinated with arrests in the UK," Aslam told AFP.

The arrests in Britain "followed active international cooperation between Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States," she said, adding that "cooperation on this was spread over a period of time."

A senior Pakistani security official said at least three people were arrested "who are linked to Al-Qaeda", the terror network of Osama bin Laden blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The official had no further details of when or where they were seized.

Britain said early Thursday that it had thwarted a plot to wreak "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by the simultaneous mid-air bombings of what reports said were up to nine planes.

Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said the 24 people arrested were mainly of Pakistani origin, while Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, from the Metropolitan Police, strongly hinted they were Islamists.

Another security source said intelligence agencies in Islamabad had provided key leads to Britain's secret service that enabled them to bust the plot.

"The actions that have been taken in London were made possible only with the close cooperation between Pakistani and British intelligence," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Pakistani intelligence cooperated and provided vital information that led to these actions."

Al-Qaeda has already been fingered as a possible culprit behind the plot, with US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff saying the operation bore the hallmarks of the group.

Pakistan has arrested dozens of senior Al-Qaeda militants, including the capture three years ago of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks which used airliners as flying bombs.

Mohammed was also behind a foiled plan to blow up 12 US-bound passenger jets over the Pacific Ocean in 1995, called "Operation Bojinka".

Pakistan came under the spotlight after the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks on the London transport system when it emerged that some of the British-born bombers had attended Islamic religious schools, or madrassas, here.

Military ruler President Pervez Musharraf launched a crackdown on extremist groups after the London blasts, which killed 56 people including the bombers, and ordered foreign madrassa students to leave.

A string of intelligence failures - Ahmed Rashid International Herald Tribune

LAHORE, PAKISTAN, What is it about the intelligence failures by Western armies and governments in the past few years? Despite being armed with the latest high-tech paraphernalia, the richest countries in the world have gone through stunning reversals of fortune when it comes to intelligence gathering and assessment.

Israel completely underestimated the extent of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal and its apparent ability to continue firing those rockets even when under intense Israeli bombardment. Hezbollah has become the hero of the Muslim world because it managed to spend the past six years digging tunnels and bunkers along the Israeli border, which the Israelis neglected to monitor. The Israeli press is already talking about the need for a thorough investigation into the country's intelligence services.

In Afghanistan, NATO and U.S. forces grossly underestimated the Taliban's capacity to mount a vicious counteroffensive after NATO deployed in southern Afghanistan in May. The Taliban have suddenly emerged with battalion-size deployments of up to 400 heavily armed men, despite the overwhelming and devastating reach of U.S. air power. No one predicted the use of suicide bombings - 54 this year alone, when last year there were none.

In Somalia, the U.S.-backed warlords that had ruled Mogadishu for two decades were suddenly overthrown this year by a bunch of lightly armed mullahs called the Islamic Courts Union. Few in the State Department seemed to have heard of this grassroots movement before it took over the country. The mullahs are now believed to be offering Al Qaeda a new base for its operations in Africa.

The United States also failed to predict that Uzbekistan would close down the American base that had been there since 2001, downgrade relations with Washington and tilt decisively toward China and Russia. No one in Washington seems even to have asked, "Who lost Uzbekistan?"

After the Palestinian elections, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stammered that the victory of Hamas came as a complete surprise to her.

The mother of all intelligence failures, of course, was the CIA's inaccurate prediction that Saddam Hussein's regime would be found to have weapons of mass destruction. That failure led to many others in Iraq, with the United States now bogged down in an interminable war.

What is behind such a run of failures? The simple fact that Western intelligence services are out of date. Their overwhelming dependence on technological wizardry, rather than the spy on the beat, may sound modern, but is actually a repudiation of the kind of fragmented and low-tech world that most people in Asia and Africa live in.

A cultural arrogance seems to have set in with Western diplomatic services and intelligence agencies. They no longer take the trouble or time to understand why people would spend six years building tunnels or sending out suicide bombers.

Just as the present U.S. administration is incapable of getting to know the local conditions and aspirations of the countries they are dealing with in the Muslim world, spy agencies have also lost the patience to do so.

Governments and spy agencies also ignore what is staring them in the face every morning at breakfast - their newspapers. All the situations above that intelligence agencies failed to see coming had been predicted by journalists.

Journalists wrote about how the Taliban were recruiting in Pakistan and Afghanistan, how the mullahs were slowly winning support in Somalia, and how Hamas and Hezbollah had learned from past wars with Israel. Every respected Arab journalist covering the Palestinian elections predicted a massive swing to Hamas, but no one in the White House seems to have been reading the newspapers.

Television presents the immediate news, but newspapers - despite their dwindling global readership and collapsing profits - still offer a depth of analysis that is often better than any intelligence report. My heartfelt message to the leaders of the free world? Take a bit longer over breakfast, and read your newspapers.

(Ahmed Rashid is the author of "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia.")

CHILDBIRTH PROVED MORE DANGEROUS THAN FLYING FOR AFGHAN PILOT – RFE/RL

The difficulties of childbirth in Afghanistan have caused the country's air corps to lose its only two female pilots. One of the pilots, Colonel Lailuma, died recently from complications during the birth of her daughter. The other is Lailuma's mourning sister, Latifa. She says she'll stop flying because she thinks a commanding officer's negligence led to her sister's death.

Latifa is the only woman pilot in the Afghan National Army's Air Corps. But she has vowed she will never fly again for that volunteer force. Latifa blames a senior commander for the death of her 36-year-old sister and fellow aviator, Lailuma.

For Lailuma's relatives, there is bitter irony in the fact that she did not die in combat -- as they had feared. Instead, she died on July 17 from complications during childbirth at Kabul's Rabia-ye Balkhi Maternity Hospital.

Early Signs Of Trouble - Family members say the commander of the Afghan Air Corps, Major General Mohammad Dawran, should have paid closer attention to
signs of trouble during Lailuma's pregnancy.

"I wanted the commander in chief of the air corps to send my sister abroad for treatment. Didn't she deserve to be sent abroad for treatment?" one of Lailuma's other sisters, who asked not to be named, tearfully explained to RFE/RL. "The commander goes to foreign countries for his eye problem -- and even for a simple headache -- every month and year. Did my sister not deserve it? I called on Dawran to come and transfer his pilot abroad for treatment."

RFE/RL contacted Dawran to discuss the allegations by Lailuma's family. He refused to comment on any aspect of the story.

Ma'ruf Same'i, a doctor at the Kabul maternity hospital, told RFE/RL that Lailuma could have been saved if her complications had been brought to the attention of medical staff sooner. Same'i says Lailuma died of excessive bleeding and high blood pressure. He says her rare blood type made it impossible – at a moment's notice -- to get the blood transfusions she required.

"Unfortunately, the patient [Lailuma] had Rh-negative blood. And Rh-negative blood is not often available in [Afghan] blood banks. This type of blood can rarely be found [here]," Same'i says. "Her relatives were extremely affectionate to her and tried their best to help, but we were unable to find [a sufficient amount of] Rh-negative blood for her. Only one bag of blood was available for her operation, and her relatives only managed to get another bag of blood [late that night]."

Afghanistan's Most Dangerous Job - Lailuma's death is an example of what the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) calls "one the world's most neglected health problems" -- maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan.

Recent UNICEF studies suggest that 1.6 percent of all women who give birth in Afghanistan die during childbirth. That means 1,600 pregnant women die for every 100,000 live births. And the Afghan Public Health Ministry says maternal mortality in some parts of the country is as high as 6 percent.

Kabul-based officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) say poor roads and insecurity in provincial regions make it difficult for many Afghan women to be transported quickly to medical facilities in an emergency. A lack of modern medical equipment -- even in the capital -- also contributes to the problem.

But WHO officials say the biggest contributing factors to Afghanistan's high maternal death rate are cultural taboos that make many Afghan men reluctant allow routine medical examinations for their womenfolk.

Career Pilot - Lailuma was born in the Shirin Tajab District of Afghanistan's northeastern Faryab Province. By the age of 20, during the final years of communist rule in Afghanistan, she had finished her education at Afghanistan's military university and begun piloting helicopters. When the fundamentalist Taliban came to power, she was grounded and spent her days at home -- only venturing outside shrouded in a burqa.

She began flying again after the ouster of the Taliban regime -- raising her total number of flight hours to more than 960. general Abdul Wahab Wardak was one of Lailuma's commanders in the air corps. He describes Lailuma as a heroine whose name will be remembered in Afghan history.

"Lailuma's death was a grave loss to our air force," Wardak says. "Lailuma was a knowledgeable and intelligent pilot of the Afghan National Army Air Corps. The Afghan Air Corps is very proud of her and will never forget her."

Lailuma's brother, Wahidullah, says she always wanted her pioneering role in women's aviation in Afghanistan to be recognized by authorities in Kabul. He says President Hamid Karzai praised women who trained to work as pilots in neighboring Pakistan.

But Wahidullah says Karzai never recognized the female pilots in his own country. Mohammad Qasim -- Lailuma's brother-in-law -- agrees. "Lailuma wanted to meet Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, in person at least once," Qasim says. "But unfortunately she couldn't do that. Nobody paid any attention to her in Mr.

Karzai's government. They should have sent her abroad for treatment." Lailuma's daughter, born just minutes before her mother's death, survived. But family members say they are saddened that Lailuma never had a chance to hold her baby daughter -- or even to see her face. (By Mustafa Sarwar, with contribution from
Radio Free Afghanistan reporters Hamida Osman and Fawzia Ehsan in Kabul and RFE/RL's Ron Synovitz in Prague.)

Rae slams Afghan vote, Harper foreign policy - KAREN HOWLETT – Globe and Mail

TORONTO -- Liberal leadership candidate Bob Rae assailed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's foreign-policy initiatives yesterday, accusing him of an "alarming disregard" for Canada's traditional strengths in international affairs.

Mr. Rae reserved his harshest criticism for how Mr. Harper won the support of Parliament last May to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan for another two years. The fate of the more than 2,000 Canadian troops fighting on the ground in Kandahar, the most serious decision a government can make, should not have been reduced to a six-hour debate, he said in his first major foreign-policy speech of the campaign.

"The parliamentary vote the government engineered in the spring to 'approve' this mission was a cynical manipulation of the House of Commons," he said. Canada's policy on Afghanistan needs to be evaluated because "the reconstruction effort in Kandahar has been supplanted almost entirely by a combat mission," he said.

"We are at the moment fighting a war in Afghanistan, and Canadian troops are dying in that war."

Mr. Rae spoke for more than an hour to a standing-room-only crowd at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre. It was only near the end of his speech, when he waded into the deadly conflict in the Middle East, that he also took aim at Michael Ignatieff, his main rival in the leadership race.

Mr. Rae did not mention his old university chum by name, but was clearly referring to him when he said too many ordinary citizens are being killed in Beirut, in Haifa, in Tyre, in Qana.

"We should not be calling [these losses] inevitable. We should be losing sleep about them," he said.

Mr. Ignatieff, the front-runner in the leadership race, stirred up controversy when he said he is not losing sleep about the Israeli bombing of a Lebanese village that killed at least a dozen children.

While Mr. Rae and Mr. Ignatieff have disagreed on the role of Canada's military in Afghanistan, they have both criticized the government's response to the Middle East crisis as inadequate. Canada must be engaged in the process of helping to secure the future of every country in the region, he said.

Mr. Rae said one of the Liberal Party's enduring legacies is a balanced, pragmatic, multilateral approach to global affairs.

"Looking at some of the major foreign policy issues facing us today, I am troubled by the direction and tone being taken by the Harper government," he said. "They show an alarming disregard for our strengths and traditional priorities in foreign affairs."

Letter to Mr. Dosanjh, Liberal Party (by permission)

On 8/4/06, Grant Kippen wrote: Dear Mr. Dosanjh,

As a life-long Liberal and someone who has recently spent almost
three years working in Afghanistan I feel compelled to write you about your recent statements in the media regarding Afghanistan. Over the past number of months you have constantly questioned the role of the Canadian military in Afghanistan. Quite frankly I find your arguments without merit and line of reasoning both confusing and naive.

From my perspective the only thing you have accomplished by your media interventions is to raise in the public's mind the question of where the Liberal Party and caucus stand with respect to defending freedom, human rights and democracy in the world. Instead of demonstrating leadership and resolve on a very difficult foreign policy issue (likely one of the most difficult foreign policy issues Canada has had to reconcile in decades), your statements leave the impression that Canadians should "cut and run" from our commitment to the Afghan government and its people, as well as to our international partners.
In that regard I seriously question the leadership and logic that is being shown by that kind of position.

In today's Ottawa Citizen you are quoted as saying "many Afghans today
don't view us as liberators.Something has gone wrong and that's why we need to reassess the focus of that mission.If we were winning the hearts and minds of the Afghani people, certainly there would be less casualties.There's no question in my mind."

Could you explain to me how your statements and position on this issue
are going to result in an improvement in the lives and conditions of the Afghan people? Perhaps you have forgotten but Canadian troops are in Afghanistan at the invitation of the Afghan government and are part of a NATO-led stabilization force committed to improving security conditions throughout the country. Canadian and international troops aren't in the country to be liberators, they are there as partners in assisting the Afghan government to bring about security, rule of law, and an improvement in the economic and social conditions of the country and its citizens.

Something has gone wrong Mr Dosanjh and its called terrorism.Canadian and international troops are on the ground in Afghanistan to take on insurgents in the form of Taliban and al Qaeda until such time as the Afghan government has developed the internal capacity, through its own military and police, to deal with this serious problem.While this transition make take years let's not lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of the Afghan people support the role of international troops and appreciate the work and sacrifice that is being made on
their behalf.

At the same time, how are your statements going to improve the situation of our troops on the ground?You don't seem to have much faith in the women and men of our armed forces, particularly its leadership, if you are suggesting that we "reassess the focus of that  mission"? Having had the privilege of meeting a number of our senior military commanders in Afghanistan let me suggest to you that there is no more impressive group of people anywhere in the world. I would
respectfully suggest that you stop questioning the ability of our military and its leadership 's to take on this mission but rather be asking yourself whether the government and people of Canada are doing everything possible to ensure that this mission is successful and that the soldiers on the ground know how much we value their commitment to this important mission.

My personal suggestion is that you need to do some more homework on this issue before making any more public statements. If you haven't already I would strongly recommend that you visit Afghanistan and have the opportunity to speak with our Canadian troops stationed there, meet with our Embassy officials in Kabul and get briefed up on the myriad of reconstruction and development projects that the Canadian government is funding.Also use the opportunity to meet first-hand with a cross-section of the new parliamentarians that were elected last year as well as with civil society representatives to get a sense of the challenges facing Afghanistan.

Sincerely, Grant Kippen

Dead soldier dedicated to Afghanistan mission - CanWest News Service Wednesday, August 09, 2006

A Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan Wednesday believed so strongly in his mission he wrote a poem justifying it last winter.

Master Cpl. Jeff Walsh, accidentally shot by a fellow Canadian soldier just days after returning to Afghanistan for his second tour of duty, felt motivated to write Monsters in the Dark following conversations with friends and family.

"I know that they are out there;" Walsh wrote. "I will not be ignorant anymore, Pulling the blanket over my head will not keep them from coming ashore, Instead I choose to confront them as afraid as I might be, Because if I don't stop the monsters our children can never be free."

Walsh, a Regina native based out of Shilo, Man., was conducting routine operations about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city, when the accident occurred.

He arrived in Kandahar less than a week ago as part of a month-long relief-in-place operation that will replace more than 2,000 troops returning to Canada. He is the first soldier in this incoming rotation to be killed, but the 25th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan overall.

"I wrote the poem to explain to the everyday civilian why we are in Afghanistan," the 32-year-old Walsh explained in an interview with CanWest News Service in February. "We (as soldiers) are all too aware that terror still exists abroad and we must prevent it from coming to our continent ever again. ... We are at war right now but it is a silent war."

Walsh, a member of the Second Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, said he was constantly being questioned as to why he would go back to Afghanistan.

"We are over there to bring stability to a nation that doesn't have it," he said.

Walsh, married with three children, said in the earlier interview the conflict had been hard on his wife and his parents, who released a short statement through family friend Ken Mushka in Regina on Wednesday.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]