In this bulletin:

• President Karzai Orders a Thorough Investigation on the Kunar Incident
• Afghan Taliban denies any peace talks with NATO
• Taliban members join Afghan scheme
• NATO appoints new civilian representative in Afghanistan
• U.S., Afghan, Pakistan senior NCOs meet for first time
• Coalition forces to help train more Afghan soldiers, policemen
• Bush commends Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism
• Pakistan withholds terror suspects' info
• Afghan President Karzai under attack in US
• Trees and tapes may hint at bin Laden location - Pakistan ambassador wants terror chief 'strung up' on pole
• President grieved over Russian plane crash
• Deconstructing Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: Women's Music
• Afghan athletes secure seven medals in SAF Games
• Army Reviewing Casualty Reports

President Karzai Orders a Thorough Investigation on the Kunar Incident - Date of Release: 25 August 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, has instructed a thorough investigation into the death of 8

people caused by a Coalition forces operation in the province of Kunar.

Eight people were killed, including a 10 year old child, and a woman was also wounded during the Coalition Force operation on Thursday morning in the Shegal district of Kunar province, an area bordering Pakistan.

To do investigation, the governor of Kunar joined by the representatives of the Kunar province in the two houses of parliament, have traveled to the site of the incident.

While saddened by the loss of civilian lives, the President is awaiting the conclusion of the investigation.

Khaleeq Ahmad - Deputy Director of Communications & Spokesman on International Affairs Office of The Spokesperson to the President of Afghanistan

Afghan Taliban denies any peace talks with NATO – Reuters 08/25/2006
By Saeed Ali Achakzai

SPIN BOLDAK - The Taliban on Friday denied secretly talking with the Afghan government and NATO to lay down their arms in the volatile south, rejecting such reports as propaganda by weakened foreign forces.

The guerrillas' military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone NATO and U.S.-led forces were trying to sow dissent among Taliban fighters and supporters.

"We have adopted the path of jihad and people are joining us in jihad," he said, adding foreign forces were pulling out of areas that have seen heavy fighting, especially in the Taliban's southern heartland, because they did not have the will to sustain heavy losses.

NATO has also denied direct involvement in any talks with the Taliban in southern Kandahar province, which foreign media reports said were led by a government-backed mediation agency as part of the authorities' reconciliation effort with the Taliban.

Some NATO troops were also involved in the talks, the reports said. Asked about the issue on Thursday, U.S. Major-General Robert Durbin told reporters in Kabul the coalition and NATO fully supported President Hamid Karzai's efforts for reconciliation.

NATO troops have run into heavier than expected opposition from the Taliban in the run-up to and after their July 31 takeover from U.S. forces in the south.

Violence across the country is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 and the heaviest in the southern and eastern provinces, many of which border Pakistan.

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Taliban on Friday denied secretly talking with the Afghan government and NATO to lay down their arms in the volatile south, rejecting such reports as propaganda by weakened foreign forces.

The guerrillas' military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone NATO and U.S.-led forces were trying to sow dissent among Taliban fighters and supporters.

"We have adopted the path of jihad and people are joining us in jihad," he said, adding foreign forces were pulling out of areas that have seen heavy fighting, especially in the Taliban's southern heartland, because they did not have the will to sustain heavy losses.

NATO has also denied direct involvement in any talks with the Taliban in southern Kandahar province, which foreign media reports said were led by a government-backed mediation agency as part of the authorities' reconciliation effort with the Taliban. Some NATO troops were also involved in the talks, the reports said.

Asked about the issue on Thursday, U.S. Major-General Robert Durbin told reporters in Kabul the coalition and NATO fully supported President Hamid Karzai's efforts for reconciliation.

NATO troops have run into heavier than expected opposition from the Taliban in the run-up to and after their July 31 takeover from U.S. forces in the south.

Violence across the country is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 and the heaviest in the southern and eastern provinces, many of which border Pakistan.

Taliban members join Afghan scheme – AFP 08/24/2006

HERAT - About 80 former Taliban guerrillas have joined a government-initiated reconciliation scheme in western Afghanistan, an official and some of the former rebels said.
 
The bearded, turban-wearing former fighters declared at a ceremony held in the western city of Herat that they had decided to stop fighting the current government, which took over from the Taliban regime ousted in late 2001.
 
"Now they have joined peace," the provincial head of the reconciliation programme, Sayed Sharif Mujadadi, said.
 
Among the group was a man who said he had been the Badghis province head of the Taliban's notorious religious police, which carried out punishments in accordance with the regime's harsh version of Islamic law, including lashing women who failed to wear the burqa.
 
"We surrendered to be part of the peace programme," Mullah Mesher said. "We want the government to provide us security now." The Taliban target people allied with the new government in their violent campaign.
 
In early June, gunmen believed to be linked to the group shot dead an influential tribal chief in eastern Kunar province who had been helping to persuade Taliban members to work with the new government.
 
President Hamid Karzai's administration initiated the reconciliation programme in 2004 in a bid to win over Taliban and quell the insurgency, which this year is going through its bloodiest phase.
 
The scheme provides an amnesty for supporters of the Taliban and other Islamic militias who renounce violence. Taliban leaders, including the extremists' chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, are excluded.
 
Hundreds of rebels have joined the scheme, but Afghan officials believe scores of others are coming into the country, including from neighbouring Pakistan.

NATO appoints new civilian representative in Afghanistan

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced on Thursday the appointment of Daan Everts of the Netherlands to be the new NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan.

"I welcome Ambassador Everts and wish him every success. He has a demanding task ahead in leading NATO's political engagement in Afghanistan and has the (North Atlantic) Council's full support," said de Hoop Scheffer, who himself is also Dutch, in a press release.

The North Atlantic Council is the alliance's decision-making body. NATO is currently leading an international peace-keeping mission in Afghanistan -- the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Everts replaces Hikmet Cetin of Turkey, who has served as NATO's first Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan since November 2003. Cetin became an indispensable partner to all the actors in Afghanistan, said the press release.

"In recognizing that security cannot be achieved by military means alone, he laid the ground work for continued progress and effective relations with the government of Afghanistan, the international community and the broader Afghan population," it added. Cetin had held important positions in Turkey, including foreign minister and deputy prime minister, before this NATO post in Afghanistan.

NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan is mandated to advance the alliance's political and military agenda in the Asian country. The representative are also tasked to maintain close links with ISAF, the United Nations and other coordinating bodies established by the international community as well as with the Afghan government.

Everts, educated in the United States, India and his home country, has a long career in the Dutch Foreign Ministry. He used to work in the Dutch embassy in Washington DC, the United Nations in New York and the World Food Program in Rome.

During the Netherlands' European Union (EU) presidency in the first half of 1996, Everts was asked to head the European Community Monitoring Mission for the former Yugoslavia. At request he continued in this capacity under the following Luxembourg EU presidency.

The Danish OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) chairmanship appointed Everts as head of its Tirana Office in Albania. In 1999 the Norwegian OSCE chairmanship asked him to take charge of the new OSCE Office in Kosovo. He later became the Dutch representative at the OSCE in Vienna. Source: Xinhua

U.S., Afghan, Pakistan senior NCOs meet for first time - COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER KABUL - Aug. 25, 2006

By Tech. Sgt. Matt Summers - Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan Public Affairs

KABUL , Afghanistan – Senior enlisted leaders from Pakistan , Afghanistan and the United States met for the first time this week to share insights between their respective armed forces and future interoperability.

“Building a relationship between these forces is essential,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel Wood, Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan command sergeant major, the top U.S. NCO in the country.

Wood said he thought it was important to create an enduring engagement plan because the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan is important not only to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan , but also to the overall campaign in support of the war on terror.

The meeting, linked to the U.S. Central Command’s Theater Security Cooperation program, coincided with the 18th Tripartite Commission meeting, made up of senior military and diplomatic representatives from Afghanistan , Pakistan , Coalition forces in Afghanistan , and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

Tripartite participants discussed future operations and how the security environment can be better shaped in the region. The senior NCOs explained the present construct of their respective services, describing promotion systems, professional development paths, and duties and responsibilities of NCOs.

Meetings at Kabul ’s Camp Eggers were followed by a visit to the Kabul Military Training Center , the training home for the Afghan National Army. Sergeant Major of the Afghan Army Roshan Safi, a graduate of the U.S. Army's Sergeant Major Academy at Fort Bliss , Texas , provided a tour of some of the facilities and a close-up view of squad-level tactics.

The Pakistani senior NCOs came away with a greater appreciation for how training is conducted in the Afghanistan army, Roshan said. “I know they were excited, and when they go back, they will be talking about the training of the Afghan Army,” he said. “And I hope in the future we have a chance to go there (Pakistan ) to see how their soldiers are trained.”

Wood, who has experience with Theater Security Cooperation programs in Central and South America , said the information sharing is invaluable. “Each army does things a little bit different and in some ways drastically different,” he said. “But we can all learn from each other’s experiences.”

Security cooperation programs foster the personal relationships between U.S. military personnel and their counterparts in partner countries, helping to build the trust and confidence needed between allies when they fight as partners against a common foe.

Despite their close proximity and common enemy, the Afghan and Pakistani senior NCOs had never met their counterparts, Wood said. Perceptions or misconceptions were clarified during the dialogue created at the meetings.

Described alternately as “the backbone, the life blood and the fuel that makes the Army go,” Wood said each country’s NCO corps is essential. “You can’t have peace without a military, and you can’t have an effective military without the NCO leadership of people like the ones sitting around the table (here).”

In addition to meeting on a regular basis, the engagement initiative may lead to sending NCOs to each other’s professional development academies and, long-term, a possible NCO exchange program.

“This conference was an ice-breaker that will hopefully lay the groundwork for better working relationships and better communication in the future,” Wood said.

Coalition forces to help train more Afghan soldiers, policemen

The U.S.-led coalition forces will train 40,000 more Afghan troops and nearly 20,000 Afghan policemen in the next few years, a senior coalition officer told reporters at a round table on Thursday.

There are about 30,000 Afghan troops now, and the number would reach 70,000 in the coming years, said Brig. General Douglas Pritt, adding coalition forces would provide most of the training for new Afghan soldiers.

In addition, Pritt, commander of Task Force Phoenix, which is responsible for training the Afghan National Army, said the number of Afghan police would rise from 43,000 to 62,000 probably in the next two years.

Maj. General Robert Durbin, commander of coalition forces' Combined Security Transition Command, said at the round table that "Coalition forces and the international community can provide all equipment for Afghan security and defense sectors."

The Combined Security Transition Command is in charge of training the Afghan police and army, Durbin said in the past few years hundreds of outstanding Afghan army officers have been sent to the United States and Germany to receive further and systematic military training.

He said "50 Afghan officers were sent in 2004, and the number was around 100 in 2005, while in the following years, 200 to 300 Afghan officers would have the chance every year."

Afghanistan is suffering from a rise of Taliban-linked violence this year, during which more than 1,800 people have been killed. Coalition forces intend to speed the process of training more Afghan troops and policemen, so that the latter can share more responsibility in keep security and fighting insurgents.

At present, about 20,000 coalition forces are staying in eastern Afghanistan to hunt militants there, while around 21,000 NATO troops are deployed in other parts of the volatile country. Source: Xinhua

Bush commends Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism

AFP - US President George W. Bush called President Pervez Musharraf and expressed appreciation for Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism in the context of the terror plot in Britain, the foreign ministry said.

"In the context of London terror plot, President Bush expressed deep appreciation for Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism and the support Pakistan has been extending internationally in this regard," the ministry said in a statement.

Bush said he was looking forward to meeting Musharraf in the United States next month, and to the opportunity to exchange views on international developments and on measures to further strengthen the strategic relationship between Pakistan and the US, the statement said.

Pakistan has said it arrested seven people, including British national Rashid Rauf, with suspected links to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The ministry here said these arrests led to the uncovering of a plot in London to blow up planes flying from the British capital to the United States.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Musharraf and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz earlier this month to express gratitude for Pakistan's role in thwarting the alleged terrorist plot.

Pakistan withholds terror suspects' info - By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer

Islamabad (AP) - Two weeks after an alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners was thwarted in Britain, Pakistani authorities have screwed tight the faucet that had trickled intriguing details from their investigation.

Mystery surrounds the role played by "key suspect" Rashid Rauf, a Briton with dual Pakistani nationality who has family ties to a notorious Pakistani militant. Pakistani authorities allege Rauf communicated between an al-Qaida mastermind in Afghanistan and the plotters in Britain.

Britain has yet to confirm al-Qaida's involvement in the plans to bomb as many as 10 U.S.-bound aircraft. On Wednesday, it released Rauf's brother Tayib without charge. The Home Office in London refused to say Thursday whether it was still seeking Rashid Rauf's extradition.

Rauf, in his mid-20s, is the only one among the at least seven suspects arrested in Pakistan to have been named. He is being interrogated at a high-walled Pakistani intelligence headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.

It's unclear if he or the other suspects have been charged with any offense. The lack of transparency is characteristic of terror cases in Pakistan, which has netted most of the top al-Qaida figures captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America. It contrasts with the legal process pursued in Britain, where despite tight control on information from the investigation, authorities named two dozen suspects soon after their arrest Aug. 10.

So far, British authorities have charged 11: eight with conspiracy to murder and preparing to commit terrorism, and three others with lesser offenses, including failing to disclose information.

Under Pakistani law, authorities can hold any terror suspect for up to a year without charge. Such a detention must be approved by a panel of judges. In practice, suspects in the custody of intelligence agencies have little or no recourse to the law.

"The difference between Britain and Pakistan is the absence of due process," said Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group think tank.

"There's been very little information to come out, other than about Rauf, and I think that's because his links with some very prominent jihadi leaders were bound to come out in the open. It would have been impossible to keep it covered up," she said.

Rauf has ties by marriage to Masood Azhar, leader of an al-Qaida-linked Pakistani militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed. Rauf was arrested Aug. 9 in the Punjab town of Bhawalpur, where he had settled and where the outlawed group has a strong presence.

A senior Pakistani government official, who like the intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the case's sensitivity, described Rauf as a "transmitter of messages" between the unnamed al-Qaida mastermind in Afghanistan and plotters in London.

The official said there was as yet no established link with Pakistani militant groups to the plot. To many observers in Pakistan that stretches credibility, and could explain authorities' reluctance to divulge more details about the other suspects, even their nationalities.

A Pakistani intelligence officer said Rauf had been monitored for five or six months, and within two days of his arrest had given investigators a full picture of the plot. The information was shared with Britain and the U.S., whose leaders later praised Pakistan's role thwarting the plan.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key Western ally, has been robust in fighting al-Qaida and has taken steps to reel in militant groups that emerged here during the U.S.-backed jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and later, the Pakistan-endorsed fight against Indian rule in Kashmir.

But the continued presence of dangerous militants in Pakistan and its failure to regulate religious schools that cultivate extremists has left this Islamic nation open to allegations that it remains a magnet for jihadists — such as the suicide bombers who killed 52 people on the London transit system in July 2005. Three of them visited Pakistan before the attacks.

Pakistan has also placed under house arrest Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, former leader of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, which fights in Kashmir.

The government said his Aug. 10 detention was to prevent him from making a public address in Lahore on Aug. 12, but he has not been released, adding to the mystery surrounding Pakistan's investigations.

On Thursday intelligence agents took him away from his home in the city to an undisclosed location for questioning. Officials refused to disclose the reason.

Afghan President Karzai under attack in US – AFP August 25, 2006

WASHINGTON --  Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is coming under increasing criticism in the United States for rampant graft, poor security, and failure to slash poverty in the insurgency-wracked nation.

While the democratically elected Karzai government is a big improvement over any of its recent predecessors, it has not brought security, economic revival, or effective governance to most of the country, the New York Times lamented in an editorial Thursday.

A day earlier, in a lengthy commentary attacking his rule, the newspaper said, "For the first time since Mr. Karzai took office four-and-a-half years ago, Afghans and diplomats are speculating about who might replace him."

"Most agree that the answer for now is no one, leaving the fate of the American-led enterprise tied to his own success or failure," it said.

Recently the Washington Post, another influential daily, reported on a growing rift between Kabul and some of the foreign establishments whose money and firepower helped rebuild and defend the country.

Several European governments particularly expressed concerns about Karzai's leadership, it said, citing such problems as corruption, highway police robbing travelers, booming drug trafficking, and vanishing aid money.

Karzai became Afghanistan's transitional leader soon after US-led troops ousted the Taliban regime for giving sanctuary to Al Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden, who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

But after receiving enormous development and security aid, Karzai remains unable to push ahead with rapid reconstruction of the war-battered country. Security is largely not under control, especially in the volatile south where Taliban militants remain active.

Nearly 90 people were killed in a series of attacks last weekend in the deadliest violence since NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over command of the south from a US-led coalition July 31.

"We may be at a tipping point," warned Marvin Weinbaum, who once served as an analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the US State Department's bureau of intelligence and research. Karzai is "decent and honest" yet "indecisive" and "inconsistent," he said.

"In many ways, he is operating like a tribal chief," unwittingly nurturing a criminal culture network of insurgents, drug barons, militias, and corrupt local officials "who do not want to see the central government or international forces assert authority countrywide," Weinbaum said.

"Many believe that there is drug involvement right up to provincial officials, governors, and even to cabinet members but Karzai has no stomach to confront this problem because if not his own political survival may be threatened," he said.

The American-backed Karzai government and the international community, he said, must strive to restore the confidence of the Afghans by "making clear and firm commitments to bring about a secure and better life economically."

Washington is "very aware" of the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan, a State Department official said. "But the country is still in transition and it needs more time and we will give all the support and assistance," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I think President Karzai is still operating in a very fractured political climate and there is definitely a limit to how strongly he can act to impose his particular will on the country," the official said.

More than four years after the Taliban ouster, people still face lack of access to proper healthcare, housing, education, jobs, drinking water, and the rights to property as well as to justice.

This despite increasing foreign funds poured into the country. The United States alone has given more than $10 billion so far.

Teresita Schaffer, a former US envoy and now South Asia chief at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that while implementation of projects had proved difficult, foreign donors needed to focus with some urgency on "a small number of very difficult problems with huge strategic implications."

These include establishing an effective counter-narcotics program, including alternative livelihoods for those caught up in the drug trade against their will; creating an effective police force; and simplifying the very complex ground rules for foreign military forces in Afghanistan, she said.

Foreign donors also need to find ways to help the government increase its capacity to act effectively, Schaffer said. "Time is not on our side," she said, warning that "the consequences of backsliding are dangerous indeed."

Trees and tapes may hint at bin Laden location - Pakistan ambassador wants terror chief 'strung up' on pole - By Peter Bergen CNN August 24, 2006

Editor's note: CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen met Osama bin Laden in 1997 and has written two books about al Qaeda and its leader. Here, he shares with CNN.com his analysis on the hunt for bin Laden.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. intelligence officials say Osama bin Laden is likely hiding in Pakistan, and the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit says the United States will have to be "extraordinarily lucky" to get the al Qaeda leader.

"Sometimes you get lucky," Michael Scheuer, who headed the CIA's bin Laden unit from 1996-1999, told CNN. "But looking for Osama bin Laden in the Hindu Kush is not like looking for Eric Rudolph in North Carolina."

Gary Berntsen, who led a CIA paramilitary unit pursuing bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, said Pakistan is a country bin Laden knows well. He feels at home there and enjoys popular support. It's also a country where the U.S. military is not welcome.

"It's likely that he's in Pakistan," he told CNN as part of a documentary, "In the Footsteps of bin Laden."

Berntsen said there are Pakistanis who remember bin Laden's work from the 1980s, when he set up what is known as the Services Bureau in Peshawar to help refugees fleeing the Soviets in Afghanistan.

"They have as a custom [of] not turning in individuals," Berntsen said. "He has sought refuge among them." (Watch bin Laden's 1997 declaration of war -- 1:42)

The bottom line: Nearly five years after he escaped the U.S. siege at Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden is believed to be still alive and still inciting terror. And it's the consensus view of both the U.S. intelligence community and the American military that bin Laden is in Pakistan.

Mahmud Durrani, the Pakistan ambassador to the United States, said Pakistan remains "fully committed" to the war on terrorism. Pakistan is not only pursuing bin Laden, but all his associates, he said.

"Our commitment is total and absolute," Durrani said. "This is in our national interest. We want to get rid of extremism and terrorism." Would he like bin Laden captured or killed? "I would like to see bin Laden strung up from the tallest pole," Durrani said. "He is no friend of Pakistan." He added that he believes bin Laden is "somewhere in Afghanistan." (Watch how bin Laden escaped from Tora Bora -- 2:04)

According to a U.S. military intelligence official familiar with the hunt, bin Laden is likely hiding in an area called Chitral, in the far north of Pakistan, bounded by Afghanistan to the west and China to the north.

Contrary to popular belief, the official said, bin Laden most likely isn't living in a cave but in a house, possibly with a family and no more than two bodyguards.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the hunt, said the thinking that bin Laden is in Chitral is based in part on trees that are peculiar to that region that can be seen in a 2003 video of bin Laden walking in a mountainous region.

In addition, the official said, the conclusion that bin Laden is in Chitral is based on the length of time it takes for bin Laden's audiotapes to make their way to news outlets like Al-Jazeera when he comments on important events, such as the death of al Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It took three weeks for bin Laden's reaction to appear on the world's television screens.

However, Durrani said Chitral is "the last place Osama bin Laden would be," citing both cultural and religious differences. "They don't like him," he said. "In Chitral, he would stand out like a sore thumb." (Watch Peter Bergen describe meeting bin Laden -- 2:07)

Even with the knowledge of bin Laden's possible whereabouts, a longtime American counterterrorism analyst said "there is very limited collection on him personally."

That's intelligence community shorthand for the fact that the usual avenues of gathering information on a target such as bin Laden are yielding little or nothing. Those avenues typically include intercepts of phone calls and e-mails, as well as intelligence from spies. Durrani said Pakistan and the United States are working cooperatively to share intelligence.

The belief that bin Laden is in Pakistan is also based in part on common sense. Every senior al Qaeda leader who has been captured since September 11, 2001 has been run to the ground in Pakistan. Also, the terrorist organization has deep roots in the country, where it was founded by bin Laden in 1988.

Bin Laden started visiting Pakistan in the early 1980s and is comfortable there. He enjoys a degree of safety there because while there are some 20,000 U.S. troops and 15,000 NATO troops inside neighboring Afghanistan, none are able to go into Pakistan because no Pakistani government will allow foreign troops on its territory.

And despite what the Pakistan ambassador says, some believe the Pakistani government has had little appetite for hunting down bin Laden as he arguably enjoys more popularity in Pakistan than any Pakistani politician. (Click here for a slide show on bin Laden's appeal)

And so bin Laden is benefiting from a stalemate, hunkered down in Pakistan safe from the U.S. military and unlikely to face a concerted Pakistani effort to find him. This situation has gone on for nearly five years, and it could carry on indefinitely.

According to the U.S. military intelligence official, bin Laden is not in the same place as al Qaeda's No. 2; the far more visible Ayman al-Zawahiri already this year has released 11 videotapes to bin Laden's five audiotapes.

Al-Zawahiri likely is based in the Pakistani tribal territory of Waziristan, which is about halfway up Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan. The official said that while the "center of gravity" of al Qaeda is in Waziristan, "nothing tells me that [bin Laden] is there."

The official said bin Laden relays messages to other members of al Qaeda through a system of couriers, adding that in the past there has been some success in intercepting these messengers. "We have hit couriers from time to time," this official said.

The official said bin Laden likely has access to news by listening to BBC radio and possibly via an Internet connection using an HF modem, an inexpensive device that connects users to the Web using radio waves.

As to whether bin Laden remains important to al Qaeda and the wider jihadist militant movement, the U.S. military intelligence official said that the terrorist leader continues to have "iconic value -- Stalin and Hitler could not talk to a billion people."

"Bin Laden can [release] a tape, and the day after it's heard by a billion people."

CNN.com producer Wayne Drash contributed to this report.

President grieved over Russian plane crash

KABUL, Aug 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai has expressed grief over the killing of 170 people aboard a Russian passenger plane that crashed last evening.

In a statement released here on Wednesday, Karzai offered his condolences to the government and people of Russia on behalf of the government and people of Afghanistan.

The Russian passenger plane, with 170 people aboard, crashed east of Ukraine Tuesday evening.

The president also condoled the deaths of 58 people in a train accident in Egypt. In his message, Karzai expressed sympathy with families of those died in the tragic accident. Babakarkhail

Deconstructing Afghanistan - Council on Foreign Relations, 08/29/2006 By Lionel Beehner

Afghanistan's post-conflict troubles are often overshadowed by Iraq's. Shortly after the fall of the Taliban, some limited reconstruction work began. Bridges were rebuilt and roads were repaired. The introduction of so-called provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs)—small, civilian-military units typically comprising around one hundred to 200 personnel—had a mixed record of success. But the bulk of the humanitarian funds in 2002 and 2003 still went toward emergency food and shelter, not long-term reconstruction projects, reports the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) (PDF).

That has changed, according to a more recent GAO report on Afghan reconstruction. Of $720 million spent on non-security-related assistance in 2004, over three-quarters was devoted to reconstruction. More recently, the distribution of reconstruction aid is based on the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year plan signed in January that focuses on security, rule of law, and development. In addition to roads, hospitals, and schools, a nascent banking sector has been slowly built, with eight or more private banks now in existence in Afghanistan, according to Amirzai Sangin, Afghanistan's minister of communications, speaking at CSIS. He also points to Afghanistan's growing telecom industry; more than 1.5 million Afghans now own phones (most of them mobile phones), a figure expected to double in the next three years.

Yet, as the country's security situation increasingly worsens, so too does its pace of reconstruction (NYT). Former U.S. ambassador Peter Tomsen believes reconstruction in Afghanistan is now worse than in Iraq, particularly along the border with Pakistan. "Our overall reconstruction in Afghanistan in the south and east has been a lot of promises and very little product to show for it," he says in this Backgrounder.

Part of the problem, Tom Koenigs, UN special representative for Afghanistan, tells Der Spiegel, is the lack of money and personnel. He says the West invested ten times as much per capita in Kosovo. That has left Afghanistan's police force grossly undermanned and undertrained. It has also left the country bereft of adequate schools, forcing families to send their children to madrassas across the border in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's economy remains a basketcase, with "levels of poverty, hunger, ill health, illiteracy, and gender inequality that put [the country] near the bottom of every global ranking," writes Barnett Rubin in this CFR Special Report. To reverse these downward trends, experts say a strong, effective state must emerge where none traditionally had existed. "Delivery of services is the primary means of gaining broad popular respect," while "development aid is still one of the major assets the central government possesses," according to this August 2006 CSIS report. The Afghan government must also rein in the growing drug trade. Roughly 87 percent of the world's heroin poppy is produced in Afghanistan, Harriet C. Babbitt of Hunt Alternatives Fund told CFR last November.

Still, security remains the most daunting impediment to reconstruction. The decision to deploy additional NATO forces to provinces under the sway of the Taliban is a positive sign, experts say. Yet the training of the Afghan National Police has fallen well short of expectations. According to the CSIS report, there is talk in Kabul of even reestablishing village militias to secure the country's restive provincial towns, the latest indicator that Afghanistan is looking more like Iraq every day.

Afghanistan: Women's Music - Program Angers Conservative Clerics Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Music is opening a new world to 18 Afghan girls and young women enrolled in a cultural program in northern Afghanistan. The United Nations, which is helping to implement the program, says it is aimed at strengthening the voice of women in society. But conservative Islamic clerics in Mazar-e Sharif say the Koran forbids women from singing or learning to play musical instruments.

PRAGUE, August 23, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Young Afghan women would have been executed a few years ago for performing music. Today -- nearly five years after the downfall of the Taliban regime -- Afghan women are finally getting a chance to enroll in a music school.

At the Nagashand Fine Arts Gallery in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, women laugh and joke with their faces exposed as they play musical instruments and sing in the country's first all-women's music school. The project, funded by a $9,000 grant from the European Commission, is implemented by the United Freedom.

Masoma Mazari is a 25-year-old Afghan woman who heads the six-month-old project. She says the school's 18 students relish their newfound freedom.

"Music is needed by our souls," she said. "We can relax through music. We can express our views. We can bring peace. Finally, I can say that everybody has a certain need for music."

But even the youngest student in the school, 14-year-old Zohra Amiri, says she faces criticism in her neighborhood because of her love for music.

"At the moment, there are restrictions for women to play music," Amiri said. "People don't welcome women learning music. It is all due to insecurities and the lack of freedom in our country. But we are hopeful about the future. God willing, we will have a better future through this."

All of the students lived for years in Iran as refugees. Amiri and Mazari had never seen Afghanistan until they moved to Mazar-e Sharif from Iran two years ago. Like millions of other Afghan refugees, they have experiences that could help break down barriers for women and lead to cultural changes in the conservative religious society.

By contrast, women who stayed in Afghanistan during the last 20 years are reluctant to join such classes. Among them is Gul Sanam, a resident of Mazar-e Sharif who still covers herself with a burqa when she ventures outside of her home.

"Women should not learn music," she said. "We are Muslims and we know that music is an illegal phenomenon according to Islamic Shari'a law."

Indeed, the only student in the program who stayed in Afghanistan through its years of civil war and Taliban rule decided to quit the classes after just a few weeks. She made the decision after winning third place in a televised music competition in Kabul. She says she was harassed because of her performance when she returned to Mazar-e Sharif.

Conservative Islamic clerics in the city tell their followers that it is a crime against Islam for women to sing or perform music.

At Mazar-e Sharif's main mosque, Islamic cleric Mullah Abbas teaches the Koran to both girls and boys. That would have been unheard of under Taliban rule. Still, Mullah Abbas says he is unhappy about the new music school in his city.

"According to Islamic Shari'a law, women's voices should not be heard by men," he said. "Therefore, I can say that a woman cannot be a musician. They should not try to learn it."

In Kabul, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique says the United Nations is not trying to fuel religious debates about music and women.

"The musical traditions of Afghanistan have been here for as long as Islam has been in Afghanistan," he said. "[But] the United Nations would never preach to people what is Islamic and what is not Islamic. It is not for us to dictate to anybody. That's a choice that people have to make for themselves."

Siddique told RFE/RL that the purpose of the music program is to strengthen the role of women in Afghan civil society.

"Culture within a society has a vital role in giving people a voice and confidence to express themselves," Siddique said. "The United Nations is playing a leading role in helping to strengthen civil society within Afghanistan. Our project in Mazar is a music school helping young women to learn how to play instruments that have been played for generations in Afghanistan, and also to revive the tradition of singing amongst minority communities in Mazar. We are giving women in northern Afghanistan their voice in society again."

Most students say their families are supportive. But even Mazari says she thinks it is too soon for boys and girls to study music together. She says the program aims to prepare some as teachers so they can open separate classes for both boys and girls -- and eventually charge fees to become self-supporting.

Both teachers at the music school are men. Khalil Bakhtari and Nadair Kharimi teach about 10 instruments, ranging from western instruments like the saxophone and electric keyboard to instruments that are used for Afghan classical music like the tabla, harmonium, and rabab -- a traditional Afghan lute.

The students study Persian, Arabic, and Hindustani traditions as well as classical Afghan music. But one of their favorite compositions is an Afghan song called "Let's Go To Mazar." It is a song about returning home.

Afghan athletes secure seven medals in SAF Games

KABUL, Aug 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan won one silver and six bronze medals in boxing and Wushu competitions in SAF Games 2006 being played in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka.

Athletes from eight SAARC member countries, including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan are taking part in different disciplines of games.

Press in charge of the Afghanistan Olympic Committee Arif Paiman told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone, the only silver medal was won by Afghan athletes in the 81 kilogram category of boxing. Two bronze medals were won by them in 57 and 60 kilogram categories.

The athletes won four more bronze medals in Wushu in different weight categories. He said Afghan players were participating in badminton, bicycle race, taekwondo, wrestling, judo, football, karate, weightlifting and volleyball.

So far, India is on top of the list by winning 54 gold, 31 silver and 12 bronze medals followed by its arch rival Pakistan with 16 gold, 21 silver and 20 bronze medals. Afghanistan has so far won seven medals and stood at sixth position.

More than 100 athletes from Afghanistan are participating in different disciplines of games. In SAF games 2004 in Islamabad, Afghan players had returned home with one gold, two silver and 28 bronze medals.

Javid Hamim

Army Reviewing Casualty Reports

Army Reviewing Afghan and Iraq Casualty Reports on Complaints of Not Always Being Accurate

By SCOTT LINDLAW

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The Army is reviewing casualty reports on American soldiers killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since 2001, a response to complaints that it has not always given families accurate information.

The review covers hundreds of casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom, the campaign in Afghanistan, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, two senior military officials said. It also includes American soldiers killed in neighboring countries in support of the two operations.

In coming weeks, the Army will issue a directive formalizing the review, according to the military officials. One spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because officers at the highest levels of the Army are still making minor changes. The other described the initiative in memos obtained by The Associated Press.

"We are actively screening every Criminal Investigation Command report to ensure that there were no disconnects with the Casualty Reporting System. We are about half way through with that mission," one of the memos states.

The purpose of the forthcoming Army-wide order is to tell units in the field that they must tell the Army's headquarters of any change in investigative findings that differs from what a family was initially told, a third official said.

Brig. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo, who heads the Army's public affairs office, said the Army's move is not new but a continuing "rigorous and routine review of current casualty cases with outstanding issues."

Col. Dan Baggio, an Army spokesman, said that because of the constant turnover of units in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is important to remind troops that the casualty reports must agree with the actual events that occurred when a soldier was killed.

"It's important to reinforce that the information we provide the families is accurate," he said.

The step follows high-profile mistakes in telling families the circumstances of soldiers' deaths.

The best-known is that of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the one-time NFL star from San Jose, Calif., who quit football to join the U.S. Army Rangers and was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.

Tillman's family was originally told he had been killed by enemy fire. Five weeks later, they learned he was shot dead by fellow Rangers after an ambush.

The military suspected it was a friendly fire death within hours, but failed to tell the Tillmans despite a regulation on the books directing it to do so, said the soldier's mother, Mary Tillman.

She called the move positive, but she said the Army must follow up and deliver any new information to surviving family members.

"People will be able to come to terms with the truth, but if you were lied to once, then you're always going to be distrustful," she said in a telephone interview.

Two months after Tillman died, Lt. Andre Tyson and Spc. Patrick McCaffrey, two California National Guardsmen, were killed by the Iraqi civil-defense soldiers they were training.

The Army initially told the families the two men were killed in a conventional ambush. It was two years before their survivors learned they were slain.

The Army is not reopening investigations into the deaths of all soldiers killed in action, but it is revisiting them to ensure family members were informed of the Army's most accurate and updated findings.

The review has been quietly under way for more than two months, but the directive has not yet been sent to units in the field.

It will order Army units down to the battalion level to dig up so-called 15-6 investigative reports routinely conducted after combat deaths. Battalions that have been or are in Iraq or Afghanistan are being directed to ship copies of the initial casualty reports to top Army officials.

The Army will compare the initial reports to the follow-up investigations, looking for discrepancies in conclusions, according to military officials.

If the Army finds such a discrepancy, it will reappoint a casualty notification team, prepare a new report for the surviving family members and revisit the family to make personal notifications, one official said.

Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas said he was not aware of any similar review by the Marines.

A soldier's death may result in multiple investigations for a number of reasons. Follow-up inquiries are often launched when a first layer of military investigators concludes they need to probe more deeply. For instance, sometimes a crime is suspected but investigators in the field do not have access to resources such as ballistics testing.

Follow-up inquiries are commonly conducted by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, known as CID, and by the Combat Readiness Center.

The full scope of the effort was not clear Thursday. Officials who spoke said they did not know how many soldiers' deaths would be included, or the circumstances that would trigger review. But it will certainly include several hundred deaths, one official said. Another said the review will include all combat deaths in the two theaters.

That would mean the review would cover some 2,000 reports. Nearly 1,800 Army soldiers have died in Iraq since 2003. More than 230 have died in Afghanistan, according to an Associated Press tally.

Nadia McCaffrey, the mother of Patrick McCaffrey, welcomed the move but said she was cautious in her optimism because the Army has moved slowly to inform her in the past.

"So now again we have to see how long it takes for people to act on it," she said from her home in Tracy.

Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

[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.]