In this bulletin:

• Pakistan to raise border attack with Afghan president
• Two Afghan Soldiers Killed, Six Missing In South
• Four American soldiers killed in Afghanistan
• US fire from Afghanistan kills Pakistan nomads
• Nepal seeks release of 2 Nepalis abducted in Afghanistan
• Suspected Taliban fighter killed in Zabul
• Afghan police seize 700 homemade bombs arriving from Pakistan
• 770 al-Qaida linked foreigners get Afghan citizenship during past regimes
• Military accused of hindering Afghan aid work
• Focus on Kandahar means other areas go lacking, CARE director says
• Reports announce establishment of ‘Islamic State’ in Waziristan
• Poverty, drugs and corruption 'fuelling Afghan insurgency'
• Weaker Osama is still on the run, says Rice
• Afghans call on US to improve security
• AFGHANISTAN: ISAF PREPARES TO LEAVE BASE AT KABUL AIRPORT
• Saving country will require 'great effort'
• Canadians roll into 'Taliban country'
• Landmark Meeting of Trans-Afghan Pipeline Begins Monday in Turkmenistan
• Japan Grants Pakistan US$7 MLN for Afghan Refugees
• Vladimir Putin: Let’s solve Afghan debt
• Wanted: A Few Good Taliban Recruits
• Afghanistan: Exporting tactics of terror

President Karzai Will Make an Official Visit to Pakistan - Date of Release: 13 February 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, will make a two-day working visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, 17 February 2006. During the visit, the President will hold meetings with H.E. Pervez Musharaf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and H.E. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan and other senior Pakistani officials.

In his meetings, the President will specifically discuss the fight against terrorism and ways to dismantle terrorist networks in the region. The President will emphasize the continued and need for co-operation in the region and beyond in fighting terrorism. The President will address Pakistan’s National Defence College on the regional dimensions of stability in Afghanistan.

The President will also meet with Pakistani entrepreneurs and investors to encourage their investment in Afghanistan. The President will visit Khan Abdul Wali Khan’s tomb in Peshawar and meet with his wife, Mrs. Begum Wali Khan, and his son, Mr. Asfendeyar Wali Khan to express his sympathies and condolences.

The President will be accompanied on this trip by a high-ranking state delegation compiling cabinet members, provincial governors and other senior officials. A small parliamentary group representing both houses of parliament will also be part of the delegation.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Pakistan to raise border attack with Afghan president - Feb 13

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani leaders will discuss the latest in a series of deadly cross-border attacks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he visits the country this week, the foreign ministry said.

Two women from a nomad community were killed and four children were injured Saturday when a suspected US rocket fired from     Afghanistan landed on their tents in the restive Pakistani tribal belt along the frontier.

Karzai will meet his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his three-day visit, which starts on Wednesday.

"We have seen reports of the attack. I think this issue will be discussed both with the Afghan president and the Tripartite Commission," foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly briefing on Monday.

The Tripartite Commission, which meets every two months, brings together military and diplomatic representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan confirmed on Sunday that it had fired artillery rounds in coordination with the Pakistani military in the area where the nomads died, but said it was not aware of casualties.

The incident came as Musharraf confirmed that a US air strike last month on another Pakistani tribal village had killed five militants including the son-in-law of Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The January 13 attack sparked protests in Pakistan after up to 18 civilians were also killed. Zawahiri himself was meant to be there but escaped, Musharraf said.

Four American soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Feb. 13 2006 Associated Press

A bomb hit a U.S. military vehicle Monday in central Afghanistan, killing four American troops, the military said.

The attack occurred in Dihrawud district, Uruzgan province, as the service members were patrolling in an armored Humvee, the military said in a statement.

Shortly after the blast, militants fired at the troops with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The military responded, calling in attack helicopters and fighter planes, it said.

An assessment of militant casualties is ongoing, the statement said.

"This is a sad and tragic day for us all," said Brig. Gen. John Sterling, a U.S. commander.

The names of the victims was withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The bombing brings the death toll of U.S. personnel to 214 in and around Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded the country in late 2001.

Two Afghan Soldiers Killed, Six Missing In South - (RFE/RL)

13 February 2006 -- Two Afghan soldiers working for the U.S.-led coalition were killed and six more are missing after their militia convoy came under attack late on 12 February in southern Helmand Province.

A man claiming to represent the ousted Taliban regime said it was responsible for the attack in the provincial district of Girishk. He said all eight Afghan soldiers had been killed.

There are regular clashes in Helmand, which is Afghanistan's top opium-producing area. More than 40 people were killed there earlier this month in a single day of clashes between suspected Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces.

More than 3,000 British troops are soon due to be based in Helmand Province as part of a plan to expand the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from 9,000 to about 16,000 troops this summer.
(AFP, Reuters)

US fire from Afghanistan kills Pakistan nomads - Irish Examiner 2/12/06

Cross-border firing from Afghanistan hit the tent of a nomad family on the Pakistan side of the frontier, killing two women and injuring at least four children, Pakistani officials said today.

Four rockets or shells were apparently fired by the US military in fighting with suspected militants in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province, and one hit the nomads’ tent at Bangi Dar, in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, the officials, an intelligence official and a local government administrator, said.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Pakistan government or military.

In Kabul, Lieutenant Mike Cody, a spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, said a security post along the border in Khost was attacked from the Pakistani side at 4pm local time on Saturday, and the US military, coordinating with the Pakistani military, used artillery to return fire at the point of attack.

Lt Cody said there were no reports of casualties on either side.

Nepal seeks release of 2 Nepalis abducted in Afghanistan

KATHMANDU, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The Nepali Foreign Ministry has asked the Royal Nepalese Embassy at Islamabad to initiate efforts for the release of two Nepalis kidnapped from Afghan Capital Kabul, an official at the ministry said Sunday.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry Shankar Das Bairagi said that they have urged the Afghan government to initiate efforts for the release of abducted Nepalis.

Royal Nepalese Embassy in Pakistan is coordinating with the Afghan government for their release, as Nepal does not have its embassy in Kabul, he said.

Two Nepalis were kidnapped in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday, according to reports.

The identities of the two were not immediately known, but reports quoted a police official as saying that they were snatched while walking along a road in a central part of the city where some aid agencies have offices.

Some Nepalis work for security companies in Afghanistan and are also employed for guarding foreign embassies in Kabul.

Suspected Taliban fighter killed in Zabul

QALAT, Feb 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan police said they had gunned down a Taliban fighter during an overnight shootout in the southern Zabul province.

Provincial police chief General Mohammad Nabi Mulakhel told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday the fight erupted when three suspected Taliban attacked the police party in the provincial capital.

In retaliatory fire, one insurgent was killed while his accomplices managed to escape, said the officer. He added the dead fighter had been identified as Hashmat, whose body is lying in the area. Police also seized a rifle from him, informed the official.

Zabul is among the provinces considered as a hotbed of insurgents. However, in the past few months, Taliban have stopped direct encounters; instead they are carrying out explosions and landmine attacks to target the foreign and Afghan forces.

Afghan police seize 700 homemade bombs arriving from Pakistan

KABUL (AFP) - Afghan police seized Sunday about 700 homemade bombs being smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan and hidden in orange crates, the government said.

A range of wires and fuses was also found among the improvised explosive devices discovered in eastern Kunar province on the border with Pakistan, the interior ministry said. One person was arrested, a ministry spokesman said.

Afghanistan is hit by regular explosions caused by homemade bombs and largely blamed on remnants of the Taliban regime that was removed from government in a

U.S.-led attack in November 2001.

The militants are waging an insurgency against the new U.S.-backed government, which, with other attacks, resulted in about 1,700 deaths last year. Most of the dead were attackers killed by Afghan and foreign security forces.

The Taliban leadership is believed to have fled to Pakistan after the ultraconservative government was removed from power.

770 al-Qaida linked foreigners get Afghan citizenship during past regimes - Xinhua 02/12/2006

Some 770 al-Qaida linked foreigners have got Afghanistan national identity cards during the past regimes in last decade, the spokesman of Interior Ministry said Sunday.

"Yes, I confirm that 990 foreign nationals have gotten Afghan citizenship before establishment of provisional government of Afghanistan and 770 of them are al-Qaida associates," Yusuf Stanikzai told Xinhua.

However, he declined to identify their countries by saying, " They are foreigners." The spokesman also did not say who did provide Afghan national identity to these strangers.

Afghanistan's provisional administration under incumbent President Hamid Karzai was established in early 2002, weeks after the collapse of Taliban regime four years ago.

Hundreds and even thousands of foreign fighters with majority of them from Arab countries had used to live in Afghanistan during the former anti-Soviet Mujahidin rule and Taliban reign in last decade, which ended by U.S.-led military campaign in late 2001.

The spokesman of the Interior Ministry also said that the Afghan government was trying to further identify and pursue these foreigners with the support of Interpol and retake the Afghan capital transferred by them to foreign banks.

Afghan officials said last month that al-Qaida leaders had bought 66 houses in Kabul while Taliban leaders had taken millions of U.S. dollars of Afghan property to foreign countries before their regime's collapse.

Military accused of hindering Afghan aid work

Focus on Kandahar means other areas go lacking, CARE director says

Mike Blanchfield-The Ottawa Citizen, February 13, 2006

One of Canada's largest aid agencies is criticizing the federal government's focus on the war-torn Kandahar region, saying it will force the end of relief efforts in other parts of Afghanistan -- including helping the country's impoverished war widows.

CARE Canada director John Watson levelled that charge in a recent interview in which he responded to comments made by the leader of the Canadian Forces' provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar, who said last week that non-governmental agencies need to do a "gut check" and come back to the increasingly violent region.

Mr. Watson said the comments by Canadian Col. Steve Bowes reflect "a breathtaking lack of understanding" of how the military and aid groups should be working together.

"When they say, 'you got to do a gut check,' what he's got in mind is NGOs coming and staying with the military, going out on patrols and doing work. That's not the way it works," said Mr. Watson.

"We have to have the ability to carry out our operations independent of the military, to be seen to be doing that independent of the military."

Mr. Watson, who has been critical of the military's renewed focus on humanitarian operations in the past, said he applauds Canada's military contribution to international efforts to bring security to Afghanistan's troubled south, where violence has spiked in the last year with a Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgency that now features suicide bombings.

That doesn't mean aid agencies should be working under military protection, he added.

Almost all western aid groups have abandoned southern Afghanistan since the renewed violence. Canada has pledged funding to Afghan reconstruction through the Canadian International Development Agency.

But most of that aid will be funnelled through military-led efforts in Kandahar under the provincial reconstruction team.

This "3-D" policy approach emphasizes co-operation of defence, diplomatic efforts through the Foreign Affairs Department and development assistance through CIDA.

Outside Kandahar, that will mean an end to funding for other projects such as CARE's efforts to feed and provide other aid and basic vocational training to Afghanistan's 60,000 war widows and their children. The Widows Feeding Project is so popular it drew a visit by ex-deputy prime minister John Manley in Kabul four years ago.

With CIDA funding to Afghanistan due to be cut from this year's $100,000 contribution to $40,000 by 2008, Mr. Watson said the widows' program is on the chopping block. CIDA currently funds the full $6.5-million cost of the program to March 31.

"They're cutting it off because of Kandahar," said Mr. Watson. "Everything is focused in Kandahar, and everything that falls outside of that is being cut back.

"We're working quite fine in Afghanistan, and they're cutting the funding to successful projects in order to fund initiatives in Kandahar that are just not feasible."

Since the end of the Cold War, aid workers have become targets of some combatants in war-torn countries. Mr. Watson said CARE has thought long and hard about where it operates after having lost 44 local staff in Somalia and another 24 in Rwanda a decade ago.

Aid agencies aren't prepared to give up their hard-earned neutrality by going "behind the wire" and aligning themselves with military forces, he said.

The international arm of CARE has been active in Afghanistan since 1961 and has 900 staffers -- 99 per cent of them Afghan hires -- in 11 provinces, and running 13 projects worth $20 million.

It remained in the country during the 1996-2001 rule of the fundamentalist Taliban militia that harboured al-Qaeda.

Reports announce establishment of ‘Islamic State’ in Waziristan

NEW DELHI, Feb. 12. — After taking “virtual control” of the entire North Waziristan province of Pakistan, Taliban and Al-Qaida have recently “declared” the establishment of an ‘Islamic State’ in the area and gained a major base for their operations against the US-led forces in Afghanistan, media reports said.

“The Taliban recently declared the establishment of an ‘Islamic State’ in North Waziristan, and they now, through the brutal elimination of criminal elements who previously held sway, in effect rule in the rugged territory,” a report in Asia Times magazine said. It said that by “taking control of virtually all of Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, Talibans have gained a significant base from which to wage their resistance against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

In a related report, The Friday Times said “the growing influence of militants have forced tribesmen in the restive North and South Waziristan to migrate to adjacent districts of the North West Front Province”. — PTI

Poverty, drugs and corruption 'fuelling Afghan insurgency' – by Sardar Ahmad

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 12, 2006 (AFP) - The bloody insurgency being waged in southern Afghanistan by loyalists of the ousted Taliban regime is being fuelled by poverty, drug money and corruption, according to analysts.

The violence that started months after the Taliban were toppled in late 2001 is focused on southern and eastern Afghanistan -- destitute areas where militants find some support among a population struggling to make ends meet.

The area along the border with Pakistan is also where the Taliban first surfaced in the early 1990s, earning some local allegiance by standing up to warlords who cultivated lawlessness as they slugged it out for dominance.

Four years after hardliners' fall from power -- once they had crushed Afghanistan with their ultraconservative doctrine -- many in their traditional support base have had no reason to switch loyalties because they have seen little of the new government's promised reconstruction.

"The people are severely poor in this region," analyst Abdul Qadar Noorzai of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told AFP. "The government has done nothing to improve peoples' lives -- instead, it fights their poppy crops which they rely on."

For two million Afghans, nearly nine percent of the population, opium from poppies is their main source of income, according to UN figures. The top growing area is southern Helmand, which along with neighbouring Kandahar and Uruzgan, is a hotbed of an insurgency led by the Taliban.

The new government and the international donors on which it depends are determined to do away with the country's opium crop which makes up nearly 90 percent of the world total, and are cracking down.

But poppy farmers are reluctant to pull up the crop, which earns them a better living than conventional ones, and have found an ally with Taliban militants who can earn money protecting poppy fields.

"The government destroys their poppy crops but the Taliban encourages them to grow and promises them protection," said another Kandahar-based observer, requesting anonymity. "Here, people simply slide to the Taliban side," he told AFP.

Taliban fighters offer to protect opium farmers against police for a tax of 10 percent of their harvest, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.

"The Taliban are everywhere. In my village they come and urge people to grow poppy," said driver Saleh Mohammad from Kandahar's Maiwand district, site of several Taliban attacks and a major poppy-producing region. "People help them. Why not?"

Noorzai alleged that buyers of the raw opium included former commanders who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and now had jobs as high-ranking government officials. "Corruption, drugs and militancy has formed a triangle in our region," he said.

Many groups have a vested interested in ensuring a level of instability remains, agreed Joanna Nathan, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

"It's not just the card-carrying Taliban, there are many different strands to the insurgency," she said. These included the narcotics industry, tribal and regional grievances and dissatisfaction with local leadership, including "failed figures from the previous regime who are back in power", she said.

Insurgency-linked violence killed about 1,700 people -- many of them militants but also Afghan troops, civilians and even aid workers -- over the past year, the bloodiest since the ouster of the Taliban. Nearly 70 US troops helping to hunt down militants were also killed last year.

The increasingly deadly insurgency has taken a vicious turn in the past months with a spate of suicide blasts and car bombs, a sign some say of the influence of Al-Qaeda, a long-time ally of the Taliban.

The authorities need to bring Afghan people onto their side if they are to beat back the unrest, Noorzai said. "Unless the corruption is curbed and unless peoples' lives are improved, there will be no end to the militancy," he said. "The people are the most effective weapon to defeat the Taliban."

Weaker Osama is still on the run, says Rice - AFP - February 12 2006

Washington - Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden may have escaped capture for years, but he's on the run with his al-Qaeda group "significantly weakened", American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday.

Speaking on ABC television, Rice defended the US effort to nab Bin Laden that has drawn fire from Democratic critics, including a potential presidential candidate, Senator Hillary Clinton.

"Yes, we are dealing with a figure who has been able to hide, but he's on the run," Rice said. "His organisation has been significantly weakened because of the international effort against al-Qaeda in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia."

The top US diplomat also took an implicit jab at the previous administration of Bill Clinton for failing to deal with Bin Laden before he launched the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

She said Bin Laden "is not the figure who sat for the entire period of the 1990s in Afghanistan, with training camps there, able to carry out operations, able to use the territory of Afghanistan as a base for his operations".

"We now have an ally in Afghanistan that is fighting against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda," Rice said. "We now have allies in Pakistan, who are fighting against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. "It's a very different situation than we faced in the '90s."

Rice was responding to a video clip of Hillary Clinton shown by ABC in which the New York senator told a crowd: "You cannot explain to me why we have not captured or killed the tallest man in Afghanistan."

Afghans call on US to improve security - Financial Times, UK 02/12/2006 By Rachel Morajee in Kandahar

Local leaders in southern Afghanistan have called on the US to put pressure on Pakistan to quell cross-border terrorist attacks ahead of a visit by President Hamid Karzai to Islamabad later this week.

A delegation of tribal elders, mullahs and elected politicians in the southern city of Kandahar called for more US help to stem a growing tide of violence during a visit at the weekend by Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry, who heads the 21,000 strong US-led force in the country.

"We need security, not roads, bridges and schools," said Zarghuna Kakar, a delegate from the newly elected provincial council at a meeting on Saturday. "Security must come first, and then we can do reconstruction."

The comments came after 13 people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a police headquarters in Kandahar on Tuesday - the latest in a wave of Iraq-style attacks across the south and east of Afghanistan.

"Pakistan is producing terrorists and sending them to conduct suicide attacks on our innocent people," said Hayatullah Aliko, a tribal elder in the city, echoing earlier accusations by Assadullah Khalid, Kandahar provincial governor.

Mr Eikenberry said Pakistan had been important in securing peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections, putting 70,000 troops along the rugged 2,000km border. But he conceded there was more work ahead.

"There is a challenge on both sides of the border with al-Qaeda and associated movements. This is something which has developed over 30 years and so this is going to take time and commitment from the US and Pakistan to work our way through," he said.

Afghan officials have blamed foreign militants for the rising violence in the south and east that has seen more than 20 attacks in the past four months, saying they are launching attacks from tribal areas of Pakistan where they can operate with greater impunity.

"President Karzai will raise this issue when he goes to Pakistan. We will have frank discussions," an Afghan intelligence official said. A senior Pakistan foreign ministry official said last night that General Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler, would tell President Karzai that Pakistan remained committed to blocking the entry of Islamic militants through its Afghanistan border.

Mr Eikenberry, who was on a two-day visit to Kandahar and neighbouring Zabul province, said there was evidence of greater sophistication in the attacks.

"The tactics being used in Iraq are being mimicked here to achieve attention and publicity.

"There is more use of assassination and attacks on civil society targets like mosques and government buildings," he said. Southern Afghanistan looked like a "chequerboard" with security varying greatly between different districts and provinces where Nato troops would deploy in the spring. "The enemy will test the will of any forces that come in here," Mr Eikenberry said.

AFGHANISTAN: ISAF PREPARES TO LEAVE BASE AT KABUL AIRPORT

Ahto Lobjakas 2/12/06 A EurasiaNet Partner Post from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

ISAF, the NATO-led stabilization force in Afghanistan, is taking steps to release much of Kabul’s main airport to Afghan officials for civilian use. ISAF has had hundreds of troops based at Kabul Airport since late 2001 when the multinational force first deployed to Afghanistan under its UN mandate. But ISAF is building new facilities to the north of the main runway. It also is training Afghan staff to help Kabul take over buildings that house about 1,500 ISAF soldiers.

Although ISAF accounts for only some 40 of the 130 flights leaving or arriving at Kabul Airport every day, its impact on the facility has been far greater.

A sprawling complex of ISAF buildings and equipment takes up about half of the land along the 3-kilometer runway -- the only operational runway at the airport. For civilian air traffic during the last four years, Afghan officials have operated a separate terminal building at the south end of the runway.

But that will soon change, according to Konstantinos Prionas, who heads security at ISAF’s part of the airport. "For the military plans, hopefully, depending on the weather or some other constraints maybe we have by summer of [2007] all the works finished [in] the north part [and] we are ready after that to move to the north part of the airport."

Prionas says he expects demining operations to be completed within a few weeks. He says more construction will follow in the form of parking space for planes, a new taxiway, buildings, and other facilities.

Improvements at Kabul Airport -- as well as the airport in the western city of Herat -- have been listed by the Afghan government as top infrastructure priorities during the next five years. "When all the plans will be [realized] and all the procedures [applied], [Kabul Airport] will be a real international airport with many flights."

Much work has been done in the four years since ISAF troops arrived. Most of the wreckage of Soviet and Afghan military aircraft destroyed during decades of war has been hauled away from along the runway. Deminers have located much of the unexploded ordnance and land mines there -- leaving behind red flags as warning markers. But officials say mines remain troublesome on some parts of the airport grounds.

Prionas says the airport will retain only a single operational runway.

He says ISAF has so far worked closely with Afghan civilians at the other part of the airport. The two sides share many facilities.

ISAF played a significant part in supporting Muslim pilgrims who were traveling to Saudi Arabia this year for the hajj. Prionas says the NATO-led force helped some 25,000 pilgrims pass through Kabul Airport this year. However, he says the civilian authorities increasingly want to draw distinctions between themselves and the foreign military authorities at Kabul Airport.

Prionas praises the Afghan airport authorities for making "major steps" towards being able to operate the airport independently. ISAF is playing its part here, too. Prionas says that apart from other assistance, ISAF offers specialized training for crucial personnel.

"We have other training now [for Afghan air-traffic controllers]. Most of them, I can say, do very well. And maybe after eight months or 10 months [they] will be ready to take [over] the responsibilities [of] air-traffic controllers."

ISAF is currently also training Afghan meteorologists and firefighters.

Prionas says it will take years before Afghan civil-aviation authorities are able to run the airport independently of ISAF.

Saving country will require 'great effort'

First ambassador to Afghanistan says he's back where he belongs

Matthew Fisher-The Ottawa Citizen , February 11, 2006

The young Canadian diplomat whom United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has selected as his political point man in Afghanistan says the recent bombing attacks against Canadian Forces will continue unless the international community gets a much better understanding of what the Taliban is and how it operates.

"If we want our soldiers to be safe, ... all of the NATO soldiers to be safe, we have to do much, much more at the regional and international level than we're doing today," Christopher Alexander said in a telephone interview from Kabul, where he has just taken up a new assignment as a UN assistant secretary general and Annan's special representative for political affairs.

"We know the Taliban claim responsibility for these attacks (on Canadian and NATO forces). We assume that many of their top leaders who organize the attacks in Kandahar and other southern provinces are living in Quetta (Pakistan). But these are only assumptions. A lot more has to be done to make this an actionable conclusion."

The 37-year-old McGill and Oxford graduate has been widely regarded as Canada's highest flying young foreign service officer since being named No. 2 at the Moscow embassy six years ago.

He was appointed as Canada's first ambassador to Afghanistan in 2003, establishing the embassy there and earning a reputation as a diplomat who got out and about and learned a lot about the country's complicated, often tribal political setup.

Mr. Alexander left Kabul when his tour ended four months ago but has returned to Afghanistan because, more than anywhere else, it is where he wants to be.

"I enjoy it immensely,'' Mr. Alexander said. "The UN is in the DNA of every Canadian and this is an opportunity to work with some highly competent people. If the UN mission here is known for one thing, it is for the high calibre of its people.''

Mr. Alexander was one of the authors of the Afghanistan Compact, a UN blueprint for continuing action in Afghanistan, which was approved by 27 countries at a conference last week in London.

"The Compact was agreed because we all recognized that the transition here is not assured," he said. "We are still at ground zero here in terms of human development, how to help people live better. Poverty remains the dominant reality. A lot more has to be done to make real improvements in living standards, in health, in education.

"We need security, and not only security provided by the military. We need the rule of law, not only with regard to who governs, but human rights, where, frankly, there has not been enough progress in the past four years.

"The groundwork has been laid. The political process (successful presidential and parliamentary elections) has connected people to government institutions for the first time. That was quite remarkable. Now it must be made to work."

Violence is an everyday occurrence in Afghanistan.

Glyn Berry, the Canadian diplomat who was killed when a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian army convoy in Kandahar last month, was a friend and colleague.

"That was a sobering and tragic moment for all of us,'' Mr. Alexander said. "It was terrible.

"Beyond all the other challenges this country faces, it confronts terrorism and Kandahar has borne the brunt of it."

The Taliban got its start in Kandahar before ruling Afghanistan for five years so, "they clearly feel they have something to prove there now,'' Mr. Alexander said.

Mr. Berry's killing and wild riots across Afghanistan last Monday and Tuesday in response to the publication in Europe of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, and sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis in the city of Herat on Thursday, have illustrated how difficult the growing Canadian military and civil mission was and will be.

"We are really going to have remain determined and rally around to make this situation better,'' Mr. Alexander said. "It can be done, but it will take a great effort."

Canadians roll into 'Taliban country'

Their spirits remain high; but the danger is real for the first round of Canadians to venture out beyond the safety of the compound, writes Chris Wattie from Kandahar.

Chris Wattie- The National Post, February 11, 2006

The first Canadian patrols have begun rolling out from the coalition base at Kandahar Air Field into what the soldiers call "Taliban country" -- hundreds of square kilometres of rugged terrain that will be their responsibility for the next six months.

A patrol from A Company, 1st Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry -- nicknamed "The Red Devils" -- left early yesterday on a multi-day mission and their commander says more are expected to depart over the next few days.

"The plan is to move us up north and into our operating area fairly quickly," said Maj. Kirk Gallinger. "We want to be able to react quickly to events."

Before the patrol left in the pre-dawn darkness, Capt. Sean Ivanko sent his platoon off to their vehicles with a few parting words.

"I've got full confidence that we will all come back safe and sound," he told the troops gathered in a semi-circle around him. "And if we do come across the enemy out there, then God help them. We will get them. We will kill them."

"If we don't kill them, we'll at least scare the shit out of them," one sergeant replied to general laughter.

Then Warrant Officer Doug Hurl, the platoon's senior NCO, barked: "Mount it up!" Soldiers scrambled into the turrets and rear hatches of the LAVs. They fired the engines to life and then the patrol slowly rumbled out of the A Company compound towards the front gate and the dangerous territory beyond.

The Red Devils, the first soldiers of the Canadian Task Force Orion to venture into the mountains and hills around Kandahar, have already run up against Taliban guerrillas. A roadside bomb attack Thursday slightly injured three soldiers and damaged one LAV III armoured infantry carrier.

The attack occurred about 60 kilometres northeast of Kandahar, along a narrow stretch of winding mountain road known as "IED Alley" for the frequency of attacks using an Improvised Explosive Device, military parlance for roadside bombs.

Company Sgt. Maj. Pierre Leger said the incident has rid soldiers of any last-minute jitters before their first missions "outside the wire" and into the vast mountainous area around the city of Kandahar

"For a lot of the guys the realization has sunk in that they aren't out on exercise shooting blanks anymore. But they're looking forward to getting outside the wire," said Sgt. Maj. Leger. "Now for them it's personal. They're not afraid to go out and actively hunt down this insurgency.

"We won't let them push us around: We won't give way."

Maj. Gallinger said the Canadian task force, along with Dutch and British battalions, will be responsible for an area about the size of New Brunswick. His Red Devils will have almost 4,000 square kilometres of mountainous terrain to patrol, an oblong-shaped territory stretching north of the city of Kandahar.

"It's huge," he said. "We don't have enough manpower to blanket the area ... so we're going to use economy of force. We'll probably be doing a lot of moving to where the bad areas are, covering them with satellite bases."

Maj. Gallinger said that while the prospect of coming to grips with the Taliban may be drawing headlines back home, "The work here is 90 per cent tedious and boring and 10 per cent sheer adrenaline."

He said the Canadian troops will operate differently from the American soldiers they are replacing in the region.

"We are war fighters, but we fight smart and we do it in typical Canadian fashion," said Maj. Gallinger.

"My biggest concern is that we get too caught up in having to actively search out and destroy the insurgent cells that we don't have enough time for that nation-building work."

"All that other stuff may not be as 'sexy' as combat ... but a simple military solution will not win a counter-insurgency fight."

Landmark Meeting of Trans-Afghan Pipeline Begins Monday in Turkmenistan

NewsCentralAsia 02/12/2006

Ashgabat - The long-dormant Trans-Afghan Pipeline project (TAP) for shipment of natural gas from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan and possibly India, could finally be poised to step off the drawing board. A crucial meeting of the pipe planners would start Monday in Ashgabat.

This would be the ninth meeting of the steering committee of TAP. Pakistan is sending a powerful delegation headed by Amanullah Khan Jadoon, minister for petroleum and energy. Mukhtar Ahmed, advisor to the government of Pakistan on energy issues is also included in the delegation. Other members include Ahmed Waqar, secretary for petroleum and energy, Jahangir Khan, Tariq Osman Hyder, and three top energy experts of Pakistan.

Afghanistan has confirmed participation of Mir Mohammad Sediq, minister for mines and industries and other senior officials. According to unconfirmed reports, a high level Indian delegation would attend the meeting as observer. It has been learnt that India's participation as full member has been approved by the TAP planners and the matter could come up for formal vote during the meeting.

The meeting and the site visits would help pick the slack that has developed over the past few months. In a very direct way, the meeting could establish whether the project can generate enough steam on its own.

If all goes well, the construction work is likely to start sometime late this year. The project planners have made it clear that TAP is not in conflict with any other project and there is any scope for several project of this nature.

Turkmenistan has assured that enough gas reserves are available to meet the commitments of all projects that are under consideration.

Japan Grants Pakistan US$7 MLN for Afghan Refugees - February 13

ISLAMABAD, Feb 13 Asia Pulse - Japan Saturday granted US$7 million to Pakistan for providing relief to Afghan refugees in the country. Pakistan Minister for Refugees Sardar Muhammad Rind told Pajhwok Afghan News that US$3.5 million would be spent on providing potable water to Afghans in Frontier and Balochistan provinces, while other funds would be used for their repatriation.

Spokesman for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nadir Farhad said that nearly three million Afghans were living in Pakistan.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Vladimir Putin: Let’s solve Afghan debt - Source:  Pravda - Feb 13

Vladimir Putin has urged the international community to join the Russian Federation, Afghanistan’s largest creditor, in solving this country’s debt problem. The move from the Russian President follows Hamid Karzai’s plea on January 31st for debt relief.
 
Vladimir Putin declared that Afghanistan faces many challenges in its attempt to build a sustainable free-market economy and “one of these challenges is the heavy debt burden inherited by the democratic government”.

To help Afghanistan to develop and to free its economic resources for the building process, Vladimir Putin declared that “The Russian Federation being the largest creditor of Afghanistan intends to settle the debt Afghanistan owes to the Government of the Russian Federation, on a multilateral basis in the context of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, through the Paris Club process and subject to our respective domestic legal requirements”.

If Afghanistan implements the conditions of the HIPC Initiative successfully, this “would result in a 100% cancellation of its debt towards the Russian Federation”, declared the Russian President.

For Vladimir Putin, the Government of Afghanistan could facilitate this process by “promoting trade and economic cooperation with the companies of creditor countries on a non-discriminatory basis”.

“The solution of the debt problem will strongly contribute to ever broader development of Afghanistan’s trade, economic and investment cooperation with its major creditors and with the rest of the world,” declared Vladimir Putin, adding that “We urge all other bilateral creditors to join us in this crucial effort”.

Wanted: A Few Good Taliban Recruits – Newsweek

Feb. 20, 2006 issue - Taking a cue from the media-savvy Iraqi insurgency, the Taliban has produced its first fund-raising, recruiting and training VCD shot entirely in Afghanistan. Taliban sources say that over the next few months, Mullah Mohammed Omar's anti-U.S. movement hopes to distribute hundreds of thousands of copies of the hour long VCD throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan and the wealthiest of the gulf states. "We want to motivate people, make them emotional, so they'll join, contribute to and support our growing jihad against the United States and their puppets in Afghanistan," says Zabihullah, a senior Taliban official based along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The VCD, titled "Lions of Islam"—a copy of which was obtained by NEWSWEEK—is thoroughly professional. Shots of silhouetted guerrillas armed with AK-47s and RPG launchers are accompanied by songs in Pashto. Groups of masked fighters in Afghan Army camouflage are shown taking target practice, firing mortars and antiaircraft missiles. Getting the VCDs to their intended audience will be difficult for the Taliban.

Because they lack access to industrial VCD manufacturers, supporters currently have to reproduce the VCDs by copying them one by one in small Pakistani video stores. They then have to be smuggled back inside Afghanistan—often inside the jackets of popular Bollywood movies—where, according to one Quetta shop owner who peddles the VCDs, they are sold clandestinely, "just like pornography."

Afghanistan: Exporting tactics of terror - CRAIG GORDON Newsday.com
February 11, 2006,

WASHINGTON -- The suicide bomber rolled up to police headquarters on a motorcycle Tuesday and left behind a scene repeated time and again during the Iraq war: broken bodies and wailing victims, 13 dead in all.

But this wasn't Iraq. It was Kandahar, Afghanistan -- a place where even the fighters who repelled a Soviet invasion two decades ago never relied on killing themselves to kill others.

Now, more than 20 suicide attacks have taken place in just four months as one of the most brutal and effective tools of the Iraqi insurgency is being exported to Afghanistan, where newly resurgent militant groups are seeking to regain power.

Militants have taken up other Iraqi-style techniques: beheadings, targeting civilians and building the powerful improvised bombs that are the biggest killer of U.S. forces in Iraq.

And there are early indications of another worrisome trend -- the presence of al-Qaida-backed Arab and Pakistani fighters coming into Afghanistan to ply these terror tactics, particularly suicide bombings. A few even claim they traveled to Afghanistan from the battlefields in Iraq, according to one provincial governor.

The Bush administration has long said the Iraq war would be like a pebble dropped in a pond, with ripples reaching across the region, but this wasn't what it had in mind. Instead, it is seeing insurgents in Iraq offering a textbook display to like-minded fighters on how to sow terror among the populace and bedevil the world's most powerful military force -- making Iraq in many ways a new terrorist training ground, in much the way Afghanistan once was.

"There's no doubt that there's nothing like real-world experience, and the place to get it right now is Iraq," said Michael Eisenstadt, a former U.S. Army military analyst who has studied the Iraqi insurgency.

U.S. military officials say they have seen no direct evidence of links between the insurgents in Iraq and in Afghanistan. But Afghan officials and outside experts are worried just the same. They believe the use of increasingly brutal tactics and the kind of "foreign fighters" who are a driving force in Iraq's insurgency signal that al-Qaida and other groups are seeking to restore Afghanistan as a front in the global jihad.

"Afghanistan was known to the world as a success story compared to Iraq. It was stable and relatively peaceful," said Ali Ahmad Jalali, a former Afghan interior minister who resigned late last year. "But al-Qaida wanted to change that impression and bring back tactics from Iraq and say, 'Here, you have suicide bombers.'"

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is warning that Western nations must not be scared off their commitment to stabilize his nation now, or risk seeing Afghanistan slip back toward becoming a breeding ground for international terror groups -- in the way it was leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"If you don't defend yourself here, you will have to defend yourself back home in European capitals and American capitals," Karzai said recently.

The recent spike in insurgent violence comes at a tenuous time for Afghanistan. Karzai's weak central government is trying to find its footing amidst a thriving drug trade, the continued influence of powerful warlords, a struggling economy and a reinvigorated Taliban seeking to assert itself violently, with the assistance of al-Qaida funding and expertise, Afghan officials say.

Later this year, the United States plans to pull about 3,000 of its 19,000 troops from Afghanistan and turn over security duties in the dangerous southern region to NATO -- whose member nations have restrictions blocking them from carrying out counterinsurgency campaigns, despite the rising violence.

The numbers tell the tale: The American death toll in Afghanistan has risen steadily since 2001, from just 12 in the year that U.S. forces invaded to topple the Taliban regime to 99 last year.

U.S. officials say casualties rose last year because coalition forces were on the attack more, and call the suicide tactics a sign of desperation in the face of popular support for Afghanistan's budding democracy.

Peter Bergen, a terrorism analyst who recently returned to the United States from his 10th visit to Afghanistan, said the number of major insurgent attacks there also has risen, from just 24 in 2004 to 81 last year, with nearly a dozen last month alone.

But Bergen also said it's unclear exactly who is carrying out these attacks, despite the belief by Afghan officials that foreigners -- not Afghans -- are responsible for the suicide bombings. Meanwhile, a new Taliban movement has taken control of part of neighboring Pakistan, shuttling guerrillas to the Taliban insurgency inside Afghanistan.

Jalali believes there is al-Qaida cooperation with the militants -- probably short of direct control but more along the lines of providing money and technical assistance for attacks.

Added former CIA officer Milt Bearden: "The place is awash with money. It's awash with weapons. If you started doing this in Afghanistan as they do in Iraq, that's beginning to be a huge problem."

But hard evidence of who is carrying out the attacks is difficult to come by. And the most intriguing possible link to Iraq came just earlier this month, when a provincial governor claimed he had interviewed an Iraqi caught trying to enter the country illegally. Two months earlier, another Arab fighter claimed he was one of 17 traveling from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Jalali said the growing violence puts Afghanistan "at a crossroads. One road leads to stability and prosperity; the other leads to the loss of all that has been achieved so far. It all depends on the level of international commitment to make Afghanistan capable."

Losing bin Laden - By Reviewed by John Lehman Sunday, February 12, 2006; Page BW07 JAWBREAKER

A CIA veteran explains a new kind of warfare -- and how America's nemesis survived it. The Attack on Bin Laden and al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander

The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaeda will certainly go down in history as a brilliantly executed military victory in an entirely new age of warfare. But its glory was a bit marred, just as in Operation Desert Storm, by the failure to kill or capture Dr. Evil. Despite a huge and costly effort by the media, the public still has an incomplete picture of what really happened during the first post-9/11 war and of how Osama bin Laden survived it. While not intended to be a comprehensive history of the campaign, Gary Berntsen's Jawbreaker provides a valuable new account by a major participant that fills in many blanks.

Berntsen was a top CIA field commander in the most critical sector of a new kind of war. What made the Afghan campaign a landmark in U.S. military history is that it was prosecuted by Special Operations forces from all the services, along with Navy and Air Force tactical airpower; operations by the Afghan Northern Alliance and the CIA were equally important and fully integrated. No large Army or Marine force was employed. The complex campaign had not been practiced or war-gamed before 9/11, but despite the inevitable conflicts and shouting matches, the different elements of American might came together brilliantly. Berntsen exemplified this new synergy; at various times, the CIA veteran had elements of the Delta Force, Army Rangers, Navy SEALs and tactical air units reporting to him.

This field commander was straight from central casting: a hell-raising kid who found himself during military service and was later recruited by the CIA and served as an operative for 22 years. Berntsen's counterterrorist philosophy is simple and straightforward: "Focus on those groups that pose an immediate threat and strike them quickly; understand that the risks cannot be removed even though CIA and political leadership will always gravitate towards risk-free solutions." His story is a comforting reminder that underneath the ponderous and bloated Washington intelligence bureaucracy, there are still doers and risk-takers who fear neither Washington bureaucrats nor al Qaeda -- and are eager to get in harm's way.

In 2000, Berntsen had led a promising effort to work with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance "to capture a bin Laden lieutenant." But the operation was called off, for which he blasts CIA Director George Tenet and President Clinton for lacking "the will to wage a real fight against terrorists who were killing U.S. citizens." Berntsen was withdrawn and sent to a comfortable position as CIA station chief in a country in Latin America. After 9/11, Berntsen immediately began jostling to get to the center of the strike against al Qaeda. He got his wish and was one of the first senior CIA officials inserted into Afghanistan.

Unlike the public image of the self-effacing spy always lurking in the shadows, the CIA operatives I have known have never been shy about tooting their own horn. Berntsen shares that characteristic hubris, and Jawbreaker is written (with the help of Ralph Pezzullo) in the first-person singular from start to finish. "In the past, I've stopped dozens of bombings and assassinations overseas," Berntsen brags. "I've also hunted down and captured terrorists from various groups. These are CIA successes that were never reported in the news."

Although the book dwells on such successes, Crown Publishers has chosen unnecessarily to position it as a diatribe that the CIA tried to suppress. In fact, while the CIA dragged its feet in reviewing the manuscript for classified material and redacted plenty of specifics, the book is hardly an attack on the CIA. Perhaps unintentionally, Berntsen demonstrates that the agency employed quite a few superb people -- not only field operatives such as himself and his supervisor, Gary C. Schroen (who told his own side of the story in his gripping 2004 memoir First In ), but also desk-bound officials back at Langley such as the agency's counterterrorism chief, Cofer Black.

In fact, the overall picture of the CIA here is far more flattering than that in The 9/11 Commission Report . Still, to portray Jawbreaker as "the book the CIA doesn't want you to read" (as the cover puts it), the publisher has displayed the redactions throughout the book as large black lines. But there are good reasons to keep some operational secrets; some of the censor's decisions are obvious absurdities, but, many others, as far as I can tell, seem quite sensible.

If the worst part of the book is its packaging, the best aspect of Jawbreaker -- named after the code-name for the CIA teams working with the Northern Alliance -- is its day-by-day account of the execution of an aggressive strategy that originated at the most senior levels of the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA. The tale of how about 110 CIA operatives and 350 Special Forces troops spearheaded the toppling of the Taliban is a thrilling read -- and a heartening one to anyone jaded by the endless bureaucratic paralysis in Washington that stymies a truly successful fight against the jihadists today.

It comes as a relief to see Americans truly focused on getting the job done, using whatever it took to prosecute the war ferociously and effectively.

The success of the Afghan campaign makes all the more heartbreaking the unnecessary failure to kill bin Laden during its endgame.

Contradicting Bush administration denials, Berntsen writes that his teams discovered bin Laden and the remnants of his entourage in the now famous Tora Bora Mountains along the lawless, rugged Afghan-Pakistani border. U.S. operatives under his direction were able to call in precision strikes 24 hours a day and pulverize the remaining al Qaeda forces.

Berntsen recounts very credibly how he and others pleaded with Gen. Tommy Franks and the Pentagon brass to put in blocking forces so that bin Laden and the remnants of al Qaeda's leadership could not flee into Pakistan. But for reasons that remain unclear to Berntsen (and, indeed, to this reviewer), the Bush administration or Franks decided to depend instead on local Afghan warlords rather than put U.S. forces on the ground to block bin Laden's escape.

The CIA and Berntsen, who had many years of experience with these militiamen, warned that relying on them, with their many personal agendas and family and tribal ties, would mean letting al Qaeda's leader cross easily into Pakistan. Ignoring their counsel was a huge blunder -- one we continue to pay for as we are taunted by bin Laden, who remains alive and well, probably in the mountains of Pakistan, continuing to inspire jihadists worldwide and helping organize the increasing counterattacks on the fragile democratic government in Kabul.

Berntsen did his best to try to get bin Laden; many in Washington have yet to do theirs.

[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.]