In this bulletin:

• President Karzai: “A Secure and Stable Afghanistan Means Security and Stability for Pakistan”
• President Karzai Condemns the Terrorist Attack in the Province of Helmand
• Two Afghan Civilians Reported Killed In Bomb Attack On NATO Convoy
• Afghan bombings kill 24 over 2 days
• Afghan president attends starting ceremony of road project
• Afghanistan's top phone network in 65-mln-dollar expansion
• Canada's defence minister visits Afghanistan
• Iran: Government to expell 1 mln Afghan Refugges
• US media attacks Karzai over graft, security issues
• Wolesi Jirga condemns Bugti's killing
• Strike Shuts Down Pakistan City After Rebel Leader's Killing
• UNDP-SEAL Assists Afghan National Assembly Committees Tackling Narcotics Problem
• Why It's Not Working in Afghanistan

President Karzai: “A Secure and Stable Afghanistan Means Security and Stability for Pakistan”

On August 28, President Karzai received a number of officials and reporters from the Pashto language Pakistan-based Khyber TV at the Presidential Palace.

Issues such as Afghanistan’s progress, economic development, and reconstruction were discussed.  Participants included the Afghan Minister for Culture and Youths and the Director of the Cultural Branch of the Afghan Consulate in Peshawer.

President Karzai said, “Stability and development in Afghanistan is still threatened by the terrorists who kill our teachers, children, and doctors.  However, such evil efforts will not affect our resolve for progress.”

He added that a secure and stable Afghanistan means security and stability for Pakistan, and that a developed Afghanistan will benefit millions of people on both sides of the border who share a common religion, culture, and language.

The President also stressed that easier access to journalists on both sides of the border will lead to greater friendship and progress. 

He applauded Khyber TV for its programs on culture and education and promised to initiate a greater exchange of cultural programs with Pakistan.

President Karzai Condemns the Terrorist Attack in the Province of Helmand

Press Release - Date of Release: 28 August 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned the terrorist attack in the city of Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, which killed 17 civilians and wounded 47.

The enemies of Afghanistan detonated a bomb in a crowded market opposite a police station in the city of Lashkar Gah Monday, killing 17 innocent civilians.

In his reaction to the news, the President said, “This heinous act of terrorism is the work of the enemies of Afghanistan and I condemn it in the strongest terms.”

“The enemies of Afghanistan, at the instruction of foreigners, carried out today’s vicious attack, killing innocent people who were the breadwinners of the poorest families.”

The President emphasized that the perpetrators of this heinous act of terrorism will be brought to justice.

The President expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims and prayed for the full and speedy recovery of the injured.  

The President instructed the relevant authorities to identify the perpetrators of this vicious attack and bring them to justice.

Two Afghan Civilians Reported Killed In Bomb Attack On NATO Convoy - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

KANDAHAR, August 29, 2006 -- Two civilians were killed today in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province when a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle rammed into a NATO military convoy.

Another civilian was wounded in the attack. No casualties were reported among the Canadian NATO troops.

The attack took place between Kandahar and an airfield manned by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. In separate violence, a bomb went off in Kabul shortly after a military convoy from the U.S.-led coalition passed by. No casualties were reported.

Afghan bombings kill 24 over 2 days

Kandahar (AP) - A suicide bomber in a car struck a NATO-Afghan military convoy Tuesday, killing one civilian and wounding two others, a day after a bomb at a market left 21 civilians dead and 43 wounded, officials said.

Another bomb, detonated by remote control, killed two police on patrol in Helmand province, an official said.

The suicide bomber hit the military convoy on the main road linking Kandahar with the city's airport, said. Col. Sher Shah, who was in the convoy. No NATO soldiers were wounded.

A civilian driving near the convoy died in the blast, while another civilian and an Afghan soldier were wounded, Shah said.

The Taliban have increased suicide attacks this year, borrowing tactics from militants in Iraq. The escalation in the Taliban insurgency has stoked bitter fighting. More than 1,600 people, mostly militants, have died across Afghanistan in the past four months, according to an Associated Press tally of reports by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.

The remote-controlled bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol in Grieshk district of Helmand province killing two officers, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the Helmand governor's spokesman. He blamed the Taliban.

Another remote-controlled bomb went off in east Kabul shortly after a NATO vehicle patrol drove past, but no one was hurt, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai.

On Monday, a suicide bomber targeting a former police chief killed 21 people and wounded 43 in a market in the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The bomb initially killed 17 people, but four of the wounded later died, officials said. NATO and the United Nations also characterized the bombing as a suicide attack.

But Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said Monday's attack was conducted with a remote-controlled bomb, and that it targeted a former Lashkar Gah police chief because he had served under the pro-Communist government during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. The target and his son were killed.

"We are very sad about the civilian casualties," Ahmadi, whose ties to the Taliban leadership are unclear, told an Associated Press reporter in a phone call from an undisclosed location. "We only wanted to kill this former police chief."

It was not immediately clear why Ahmadi's account of the attack conflicted with the other reports that it was a suicide bombing.

The attack was the second major bombing to kill civilians this month in southern Afghanistan, which is undergoing its bloodiest period of fighting since the U.S.-led ousted the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden.

Meanwhile, two New Zealand soldiers serving in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province were flown to a military hospital after being injured in a road accident, a New Zealand defense spokesman said Tuesday. The soldiers were injured when the part of the road they were on gave way, causing their vehicle to roll down a 60-foot slope.

Afghan president attends starting ceremony of road project - Xinhua

KABUL - The project of reconstruction of a major road started Sunday in central Afghanistan's Wardak province, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the project would bring "new hope" to local people.

The project covers a 142-km road, connecting Maidan Shar, capital of Wardar, and Bamyan city, capital of neighboring Bamyan province. Taking part in the project, the China Railway Shisiju Group Corporation (China Railway) will be responsible for at least54 km.

The 54-km section will be built at a cost of about 33.4 million U.S. dollars, and will be finished in two years, Wu Jingwen, manager of the project from China Railway, told Xinhua.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the start of the project in Maidan Shar Sunday, Karzai said Afghans had waited for the project for a long time, and that the road would bring "new hope" and many chances for local residents.

The president said he was "very happy" to see the reconstruction of the road, which serves as a vital communication line in central Afghanistan.

He said it was very hot in the colorful tent where the ceremony was held. He then asked those present to go outside to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for the project.

Workers from China Railway, with yellow safety helmets on the heads, and Chinese Embassy officials attended the ceremony.

Wu Jingwen said it is still undecided who will rebuild the remaining sections, and that his company is sparing no efforts to bid for them.

Mohammad Salim, a local resident, told Xinhua, "The road reconstruction would bring a lot of benefits to locals, including a big reduction of transportation cost between Wardak and Bamyan."

Since the Taliban regime's collapse in late 2001, Chinese companies have built or are building altogether 485 km of roads inAfghanistan.

Afghanistan's top phone network in 65-mln-dollar expansion - AFP
08/29/2006

KABUL - Afghanistan's top telephone network Roshan has announced a 65-million-dollar expansion of its coverage, with part of the funds coming from foreign commercial banks in a first for the country.

The first-ever cross-border private sector loan to Afghanistan was a vote of confidence in the future of a nation often portrayed as a tough environment for business, Roshan chief executive officer Karim Khoja said.

The Asian Development Bank has committed 35 million dollars to the expansion of Roshan's coverage from 35 to 40 percent of the population, the company said.

The French and German government development agencies would each provide 10 million dollars more with the remainder secured by South African-based Standard Bank as private loans from a range of commercial banks.

Roshan, 51 percent owned by the economic arm of the Agha Khan Development Network, has in the three years since it was established signed up about 900,000 subscribers -- nearly two-thirds of those in the country.

The company covers more than 150 major cities and towns and will expand to 70 more. With the landline system nearly non-existent after years of war destroyed most of Afghanistan's infrastructure, the vast country relies on mobile networks for telecommunications.

Three other companies have licences to operate, one of which is due to set up later this year. About 60 percent of Afghanistan's population is covered by telecommunications services, Communications Minister Amirzai Sangin told a ceremony to announce the expansion.

He described this as a remarkable achievement considering that under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, Afghans had to travel to neighbouring countries to make telephone calls.

About 1.5 million Afghans, or six percent of the population, have mobile telephones, he said. Roshan, also owned by Monaco Telecom International and MCTCorp of the United States, is also Afghanistan's largest taxpayer.

It had contributed 45 million dollars in taxes by the end of 2005, which accounted for about six percent of the government's revenue by the end of the same year.

Afghanistan is trying to attract investment to develop its shattered economy but faces significant hurdles, including a lack of infrastructure -- with sporadic electricity supply even in the capital -- and concerns about security.

Canada's defence minister visits Afghanistan - Tuesday, August 29, 2006

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada's Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor made an impromptu visit to Afghanistan to rally Canadian troops and meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, his spokesman said.

"(His) second visit to Afghanistan is to ensure that the government of Canada is doing everything it can to support Canadian forces in their mission to stabilize and reconstruct Afghanistan," O'Connor's spokesman, Etienne Allard, told AFP.

During his three-day visit, O'Connor will meet with Canadian troops and diplomats, as well as local and provincial government officials, "to get a local perspective about how the mission is proceeding."

Canada deployed 2,300 troops in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting Taliban militants ousted by US forces in 2001.

O'Connor will also meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardack in Kabul, Allard said. He will then head to Pakistan for talks with officials, Allard said.

Iran: Government to expell 1 mln Afghan Refugges - IRNA, Iran

Tehran - The Iranian government has given one million Afghan refugees legally residing in the country, three months to leave Iran. Ahmad Hosseini, the head of the immigration office of the Iranian interior ministry, said on Monday that another million Afghans allegedly residing in Iran illegally are "a serious threat to security." He added that "in the past three months 130,000 Afghans illegally living in the country have been arrested and expelled."

The government official announced that a repatriation agreement for Afghan refugees had failed and only a few thousands had agreed to leave.

Under the repatriation agreement for Afghan refugees in Iran signed in 2002 by Tehran, the Afghan government and the UN's High Commission for Refugees, the return is voluntary. The programme was aimed at helping an estimated 1.5 million refugees believed to be living in Iran at the time.

US media attacks Karzai over graft, security issues – AFP 08/29/2006

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is coming under increasing criticism in the US 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.

A day earlier, in a lengthy commentary attacking his rule, the newspaper said, "For the first time since Karzai took office four-and-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 US.

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 on 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 health care, 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 US alone has given more than $10bn so far.

Wolesi Jirga condemns Bugti's killing - Pajhwok By Makia Monir

KABUL - The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament on Monday condemned the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation in Pakistan.

In a statement, the lower house termed the death of Akbar Bugti a grave loss for the entire Baloch nation, especially those living in Pakistani.

Bugti was killed, along with his two grandsons and other family members and colleagues, in an operation by Pakistani military in the mountains in Dera Bugti on Saturday.

The statement said the people of Afghanistan were deeply grieved over the killing of the Baloch chieftain. "Bugti was brutally murdered along with a number of his relatives and supporters for his righteous struggle to defend the rights of Baloch people," said the statement.

The parliament expressed condolence with Bugti's family, the Baloch people and all those struggling for freedom across the world.

Several MPs showed their opposition to the statement, saying it was an internal affair of Pakistan. However, majority of the parliamentarians supported the statement.

"I will not support even to express a word of sorrow over Bugti's death because he was involved in armed struggle with Pakistani government," said Muhammad Hussain Alami Balkhi, a legislator from the northern Balkh province.

He said any such statement would not serve the interests of Afghanistan. The parliament, he said, should refrain from issuing statements pointing to some sorts of interference in internal affairs of others.

Imami Ghori, another MP, said it would be better to express sorrow over the incident and avoid remarks signifying interference in the internal affairs of others. However, the number of MPs supporting the statement surpassed its opponents.

Fazl Rahman Chamkanai, another legislator from Khost, said the history showed that Pashtuns and Balochs are closely linked to Afghanistan. They (Pakistan) would oppress their future generations if we showed any negligence to their problems.

Strike Shuts Down Pakistan City After Rebel Leader's Killing - Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty QUETTA, Pakistan August 28, 2006

A strike called to protest the killing of a nationalist rebel leader brought the Pakistani city of Quetta to a standstill today, closing shops and markets and shutting down public transport.

The strike came after at least three people were killed in violent protests across gas-rich Baluchistan Province after government forces on Saturday (August 26) killed veteran rebel leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

Pakistani Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said police did not mean to kill Bugti when they attacked his cave dwelling: "It was never our intention to harm [Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti] physically. What happened [on August 26] was something not of the government's own doing. The land mines which exploded caused this explosion to bring down the cave. But certainly it was not our intention to kill him."

Meanwhile, a court in Lahore today ordered the release of a former Islamic militant leader detained in connection with an alleged plot to blow up airliners flying from Britain to the United States.

Officials said Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was not involved in the plot, but had been detained to stop him from speaking at a rally.

UNDP-SEAL Assists Afghan National Assembly Committees Tackling Narcotics Problem

Responding directly to the challenge posed by His Excellency Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, for the international community to contribute to narcotics eradication, on 27 August the UNDP-SEAL Project held a workshop on counter-narcotics for members of the Meshrano and Wolesi Jirga Commissions responsible for counter-narcotics. His Excellency Mr Habibullah Qaderi, Minister of Counter Narcotics attended, as did representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Kabul University, the Embassies of the United States and the United Kingdom, UNAMA, and UNODC.

The problem of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan remains a serious and growing one. This year 370,650 acres of opium poppy was cultivated, compared with 257,000 acres last year. 4,500 tons of opium was produced in Afghanistan last year, enough to make 450 tons of heroin – nearly 90% of the world’s supply.

Dr John Patterson, Project Manager of SEAL, said:

“The National Assembly of Afghanistan is due to consider the Presidential Decree on counter-narcotics soon. One of SEAL’s tasks, under the leadership of the National Assembly of Afghanistan, is to assist members of the Assembly to strengthen their legislative and scrutiny capacities. A vital aspect of this work is the operation of the commissions of the Wolesi and Meshrano Jirgas. It is in the commissions that the detailed work of legislative and other scrutiny, on which the quality of law ultimately depends, will take place. SEAL was delighted, therefore, to facilitate this workshop on a subject vital to the future of Afghanistan and many other countries grappling with the drug problem.

He concluded:

“This is the first in a series of workshops designed to assist the scrutiny work of Assembly commission members. These workshops will relate directly to the working concerns of the Commissions. This initial workshop, on counter-narcotics, was a stimulating and lively event which was well received by the parliamentarians. I am confident from the feed-back we received that it will assist members in contributing constructively to the debate on the Presidential decree.

“The success with which the drug problem is tackled in Afghanistan will affect the lives of each and every Afghan citizen. SEAL is proud to be involved in seeking ways of combating this problem. We are looking forward to undertaking similar work with all commissions of the Assembly over the coming weeks.”

Why It's Not Working in Afghanistan - Alarab online, UK 08/28/2006 By Ann Jones

Remember when peaceful, democratic, reconstructed Afghanistan was advertised as the exemplar for the extreme makeover of Iraq? In August 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was already proclaiming the new Afghanistan "a breathtaking accomplishment" and "a successful model of what could happen to Iraq." As everybody now knows, the model isn't working in Iraq. So we shouldn't be surprised to learn that it's not working in Afghanistan either.

The story of success in Afghanistan was always more fairy tale than fact -- one scam used to sell another. Now, as the Bush administration hands off "peacekeeping" to NATO forces, Afghanistan is the scene of the largest military operation in the history of that organization. Today's personal email brings word from an American surgeon in Kabul that her emergency medical team can't handle half the wounded civilians brought in from embattled provinces to the south and east. American, British, and Canadian troops find themselves at war with Taliban fighters -- which is to say "Afghans" -- while stunned NATO commanders, who hadn't bargained for significant combat, are already asking what went wrong.

The answer is a threefold failure: no peace, no democracy, and no reconstruction.

Doing Things Backward - Critics of American Afghan policy agree that the Bush administration, in its haste to take out Saddam's Iraq, did things backward. After bombing the Taliban into the boondocks in 2001, it set up a government without first making peace -- a scenario later to be repeated in Iraq.

Instead of pressing for peace negotiations among rival Afghan parties, the victorious Americans handed power to Islamists and militia commanders who had served as America's stand-in soldiers in its Afghan proxy war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Then the Bush administration staged elections for these candidates and touted the result as democracy. It also confined an International Security Assistance Force, made up largely of European troops, to the capital, creating an island of safety for the government, while dispatching warlords of its choice to hunt for Osama bin Laden in the countryside.

In the east and south -- that is, about half the country -- the Taliban never stopped fighting. Now, augmented by imported al-Qaeda fighters ("Arab-Afghans") and new tactics learned from the insurgency in Iraq (roadside bombs or IEDs, suicide bombing), Taliban forces are stronger than at any time since the United States "conquered" them in 2001. According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, most Afghans have long favored a process of amnesty and reconciliation; and President Hamid Karzai recently called on the Bush administration to change course and stop killing Afghans. But administration policy, recently reaffirmed in Kabul by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calls for a fight to the last Talib.

Predictably, public opinion has been turning steadily against the largely powerless central government, guarded in the capital by foreign forces. The insecurity endured by most Afghans -- the absence of peace -- is enough to make them give up hope in President Karzai, often jeeringly referred to as the "mayor of Kabul" or "assistant to the American Ambassador."

Historically Afghans have selected and followed strong leaders; they expect a leader to deliver security, jobs, special favors… something anyway. The Karzai government, confined to a self-serving American agenda that is often at odds with Afghan interests, has delivered nothing at all to the average Afghan, still living in abysmal poverty. In 2004, Afghans dutifully voted for Karzai as the instrument of American promises. By 2005, when Parliamentary elections were held, voters indicated that they were fed up with the same old candidates -- all those militia commanders and Islamist extremists -- and the same old hollow promises.

The sad part of the story is this. Despite the Bush administration's sham "peace" and fake "democracy," it might have made -- might still make -- a success of Afghanistan if only it delivered on that third big promise: to rebuild the bombed-out country. Most Afghans, after the dispersal of the Taliban, were full of hope and ready to work. The tangible benefits of reconstruction -- jobs, housing, schools, health-care facilities -- could have rallied them to support the government and turn that illusory "democracy" into something like the real thing. But reconstruction didn't happen. When NATO-led forces moved into the southern provinces this summer to keep the peace and continue "development," Lieutenant-General David Richards, British commander of the operation, seemed astonished to find that little or no development had so far taken place.

For that failure the U.S. is to blame. Until this year, the American-led Coalition assumed sole charge of "security" operations outside Kabul, but it never put enough troops on the ground to do the job. (Sound familiar?) As a result, aid workers (both international and Afghan) lost their lives, and non-governmental aid organizations (NGOs) withdrew to Kabul, or like Médecins Sans Frontières, left the country altogether. Private contractors who remained in the field found themselves regularly diverting project funds to "security," so that, as in Iraq, aid money poured into operations that belonged in the military budget.

A recent audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) using "an accounting shell game" to hide mammoth cost overruns on projects -- as high as 418% -- resulting partly from such security problems. There's every reason to believe that an audit of Afghanistan reconstruction by many of the same firms under contract to USAID would reveal similar accounting practices used for the same reason. Without peace there can be no security, and without security no development.

The Reconstruction Shell Game - But there's more to the story than that. To understand the failure -- and fraud -- of such reconstruction, you have to take a look at the peculiar system of American aid for international development. During the last five years, the U.S. and many other donor nations pledged billions of dollars to Afghanistan, yet Afghans keep asking: "Where did the money go?" American taxpayers should be asking the same question. The official answer is that donor funds are lost to Afghan corruption. But shady Afghans, accustomed to two-bit bribes, are learning how big-bucks corruption really works from the masters of the world.

A fact-packed report issued in June 2005 by Action Aid, a widely respected NGO, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, makes sense of the workings of that world. The report studied development aid given by all countries globally and discovered that only a small part of it -- maybe 40% -- is real. The rest is "phantom" aid; that is, the money never actually shows up in recipient countries at all.

Some of it doesn't even exist except as an accounting item, as when countries count debt relief or the construction costs for a fancy new embassy in the aid column. A lot of it never leaves home. Paychecks for American "experts" under contract to USAID, for example, go directly from the Agency to their American banks without ever passing through the to-be-reconstructed country. Much aid money, the report concludes, is thrown away on "overpriced and ineffective Technical Assistance," such as those very hot-shot American experts. And a big chunk of it is carefully "tied" to the donor nation, which means that the recipient is obliged to use the donated money to buy products from the donor country, even when -- especially when -- the same goods are available cheaper at home.

The U.S. easily outstrips other nations at most of these scams, making it second only to France as the world's biggest purveyor of phantom aid. Fully 47% of American development aid is lavished on overpriced technical assistance. By comparison, only 4% of Sweden's aid budget and only 2% of Luxembourg's and Ireland's goes to such assistance. As for tying aid to the purchase of donor-made products, Sweden and Norway don't do it all; neither do Ireland and the United Kingdom. But 70% of American aid is contingent upon the recipient spending it on American stuff, especially American-made armaments. Considering all these practices, Action Aid calculates that 86 cents of every dollar of American aid is phantom aid.

According to targets set years ago by the UN and agreed to by almost every country in the world, a rich country should give 0.7% of its national income in annual aid to poor ones. So far, only the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (with real aid at 0.65% of national income) even come close. At the other end of the scale, the U.S. spends a paltry 0.02% of national income on real aid, which works out to an annual contribution of $8.00 from every citizen of "the wealthiest nation in the world." (By comparison, Swedes kick in $193 per person, Norwegians $304, and the citizens of Luxembourg $357.) President Bush boasts of sending billions in aid to Afghanistan, but in fact we could do better by passing a hat.

The Bush administration often deliberately misrepresents its aid program for domestic consumption. Last year, for example, when the President sent his wife to Kabul for a few hours of photo ops, the New York Times reported that her mission was "to promise long-term commitment from the United States to education for women and children." Speaking in Kabul, Mrs. Bush pledged that the United States would give an additional $17.7 million to support education in Afghanistan. As it happened, that grant had previously been announced -- and it was not for Afghan public education (or women and children) at all, but to establish a brand-new, private, for-profit American University of Afghanistan catering to the Afghan and international elite. (How a private university comes to be supported by public taxpayer dollars and the Army Corps of Engineers is another peculiarity of Bush aid.)

Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister of Afghanistan and president of Kabul University, complained, "You cannot support private education and ignore public education." But typically, having set up a government in Afghanistan, the U.S. stiffs it, preferring to channel aid money to private American contractors. Increasingly privatized, U.S. aid becomes just one more mechanism for transferring taxpayer dollars to the coffers of select American companies and the pockets of the already rich.

In 2001, Andrew Natsios, then head of USAID, cited foreign aid as "a key foreign policy instrument" designed to help other countries "become better markets for U.S. exports." To guarantee that mission, the State Department recently took over the formerly semi-autonomous aid agency. And since the aim of American aid is to make the world safe for American business, USAID now cuts in business from the start. It sends out requests for proposals to a short list of the usual suspects and awards contracts to those bidders currently in favor. (Election-time kickbacks influence the list of favorites.)

Sometimes it invites only one contractor to apply, the same efficient procedure that made Halliburton so notorious and profitable in Iraq. In many fields it "preselects vendors" by accepting bids every five years or so on an IQC -- that's an "Indefinite Quantities Contract." Contractors submit indefinite information about what they might be prepared to do in unspecified areas, should some more definite contract materialize; the winners become designated contractors who are invited to apply when the real thing comes along. USAID generates the real thing in the form of an RFP, a Request for Proposals, issued to the "pre-selected vendors" who then compete (or collaborate) to do -- in yet another country -- work dreamed up in Washington by theoreticians unencumbered by first hand knowledge of the hapless "target."

The Road to Taliban Land - The criteria by which contractors are selected have little or nothing to do with conditions in the recipient country, and they are not exactly what you would call transparent. Take the case of the Kabul-Kandahar Highway, featured on the USAID website as a proud accomplishment. In five years, it's also the only accomplishment in highway building -- which makes it one better than the Bush administration record in building power stations, water systems, sewer systems, or dams.

The highway was featured in the Kabul Weekly newspaper in March 2005 under the headline, "Millions Wasted on Second-Rate Roads." Afghan journalist Mirwais Harooni reported that even though other international companies had been ready to rebuild the highway for $250,000 per kilometer, the U.S.-based Louis Berger Group got the job at $700,000 per kilometer -- of which there are 389. Why? The standard American answer is that Americans do better work -- though not Berger which, at the time, was already years behind on another $665 million contract to build Afghan schools. Berger subcontracted to Turkish and Indian companies to build the narrow, two-lane, shoulderless highway at a final cost of about $1 million per mile; and anyone who travels it today can see that it is already falling apart.

Former Minister of Planning Ramazan Bashardost complained that when it came to building roads, the Taliban had done a better job; and he too asked, "Where did the money go?" Now, in a move certain to tank President Karzai's approval ratings and further endanger U.S. and NATO troops in the area, the Bush administration has pressured his government to turn this "gift of the people of the United States" into a toll road, charging each driver $20 for a road-use permit valid for one month. In this way, according to American experts providing highly paid technical assistance, Afghanistan can collect $30 million annually from its impoverished citizens and thereby decrease the foreign aid "burden" on the United States.

Is it any wonder that foreign aid seems to ordinary Afghans to be something only foreigners enjoy? At one end of the infamous highway, in Kabul, Afghans complain about the fancy restaurants where those experts, technicians, and other foreigners gather, men and women together, to drink alcohol, carry on, and plunge half-naked into swimming pools. They object to the brothels -- eighty of them by 2005 -- that house women trafficked in to serve the "needs" of foreign men. They complain that half the capital city still lies in ruins, that many people still live in tents, that thousands can't find jobs, that children go hungry, that schools and hospitals are overcrowded, that women in tattered burqas still beg in the streets and turn to prostitution, that children are kidnapped and sold into slavery or murdered for their kidneys or eyes. They wonder where the promised aid money went and what the puppet government can possibly do to make things better.

At the other end of the highway, in Kandahar city -- President Karzai's home town – and in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, and Uruzgan, Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah is reported to have more than 12,000 men under arms and squads of suicide bombers at the ready. They ambush newly arrived NATO troops. The embattled British commander, Lieutenant-General Richards, recently issued a warning: "We need to realize that we could actually fail here."

The U.S. attacks the Taliban, as it did in 2001, with air power. (The Times of London reports that in May alone, U.S. planes flew an "astonishing" 750 bombing raids.) Every day brings new reports of NATO and Taliban combat casualties, and of "suspected" Taliban as well as civilians killed, long range, by American bombs.

In the meantime, the Taliban take control of villages; they murder teachers and blow up schools. U.S.-led drug eradication teams take control of villages and destroy the poppy crops of poor farmers. Caught as usual in the middle of warring factions, Afghans of the south and east long ago ceased to wonder where the money went. Instead they wonder who the government is. And what ever happened to "peace"

* Journalist and photographer Ann Jones spent much of the last four years in Afghanistan working as a human rights researcher and women's advocate with international humanitarian agencies and teaching English to Kabul high school English teachers. She writes about her Afghan experience for the Nation magazine and notably in a new book Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan (Metropolitan Books, 2006). For more on her, check out her website.

[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.]