In this bulletin:

• Al-Qaida Leader not in Afghanistan: Abdullah
• Durand line serves as a line of hate: Karzai
• Afghans question motives of Iranians
• India to join Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline
• Minorities safe in Afghanistan: Parliamentarian
• Chance for a new start in Afghanistan
• NATO troops come under attack in west Afghanistan
• Former Jihad commanders to surrender weapons to govt
• ‘Afghan people want us here'- Ex-envoy makes case for Canada But others expect only body bags
• Edmonton church rallies behind dying Afghan boy
• Afghan cartoon protesters threaten to join al Qaeda
• Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive
• Foreigners Warned to Register Details in Afghanistan's Herat
• Rice urges wary Arabs to threaten to isolate Iran

Al-Qaida Leader not in Afghanistan: Abdullah - Monday, 20 February, 2006

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah was sure yesterday that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taleban leader Mullah Omar were not present in his country. He admitted that there was a recent increase in Taleban’s operations "was a matter of concern for us".

However, he told reporters that the security situation has improved taking into consideration that 90% of the country was under the control of Taleban and Al-Qaeda."

He said that discussions between President Hamid Karzai and the Pakistani leadership concentrated on ways to stop attacks from Taleban and Al-Qaeda and to put an end to the infiltration on both sides of the border.

Abdullah said that the government’s priority was to form a national army that will be a beginning of a reconciliation. On the issue of cartoons offending the Prophet Muhammad, Abdullah questioned the logic of destroying infrastructure and property during demonstrations in order to show resentment.

Durand line serves as a line of hate: Karzai - SANA, Pakistan 02/19/2006

PESHAWAR - Dubbing Durand line as a line of hatred Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he does not accept this line as it has raised a wall between the two brothers. He said this while talking to the journalists after offering condolence over the death of Khan Abdul Wali Khan.

Karzai described the demise of Wali Khan as an irreparable loss to the whole world, especially for Pakhtuns and other nations in the region. The Afghan president hailed Wali Khan as an unforgettable and towering figure in the region's political history, who had devoted his entire life to brining prosperity to the people.

The last surviving son of the illustrious Khudai Khidmatgar Movement founder Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan passed away on January 26 after a protracted illness at the ripe age of 89. "Wali Khan was not a leader of Pakhtuns in Pakistan alone; he was a venerable figure for all Pakhtuns around the world and that is why I have come here today to represent the Afghan nation in offering condolences to his family," Karzai remarked. Karzai sympathised with Wali Khan's son and ANP central president Asfandyar Wali Khan and Begum Nasim Wali Khan. The bereaved family thanked Karzai for showing so much of respect to the former opposition leader, saying it was reflective of the strong bonds of fraternity between Pakhtuns on both sides of the border.

"We appreciate President Karzai's visit, which really signifies that the Afghan nation and we are like body and soul that can never be separated," said Asfandyar Wali Khan.

After offering fateha, Karzai spoke of the issues he discussed with the Pakistani leadership during his three-day visit. In response to accusations by some quarters in Pakistan that Afghanistan was inciting violence in Balochistan, Karzai said his country remained a victim of terrorism and thus unable to foment trouble elsewhere. "Unfortunately, Afghanistan itself is suffering terrorism and is unable to create problems for others," reiterated the Afghan leader, who claimed Pakistan had held out a firm assurance to act against miscreants intent upon creating instability in his country.

Karzai assured Afghanistan would not let any one to spoil the relationship between the two nations. "We will not allow any country, any government with whom Afghanistan has relations, to interfere in our ties with Pakistan, or to use our soil against Pakistan."

About the killing of three Chinese engineers in Balochistan and its possible links to Afghan warlords and Indian consulates in Afghanistan, the visiting leader said his administration was keeping an eye on such elements. He, however, asserted warlordism and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan were a thing of the past.

Regarding the presence of high-value targets in the region, Karzai admitted there was a need to intensify the exchange of information for the sake of stability in Afghanistan. He also referred to the ongoing reconciliation campaign, spearheaded by former president Sibghatullah Mujaddedi.

The Taliban figures, with no links to al-Qaeda or other terrorist organisations, had been asked to return and find jobs in the government or other institutions, said Karzai, who went on to mention the example of Maulvi Arsala Rehmani.

However, he hastened to explain the offer was not for Mullah Omer, "who is answerable to the Afghan people, to the Muslims for the crimes against Islam, stopping children from going to schools."

Afghans question motives of Iranians - Neighbor attempting to expand influence across long border - Sunday, February 19, 2006 Kathy Gannon ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHINDAND, Afghanistan — Sitting in a grimy office at the end of a dank hallway, Police Chief Syed Ahmed Ansari tells of finding explosives and hunting spies in his corner of western Afghanistan, far from the main haunts of the Taliban.

He says his biggest worry isn’t the Taliban — it’s Iran. "Iran is a dangerous neighbor. We know that terrorists are being trained in both Iran and in Pakistan, and we are in the middle," said Ansari, whose town is in Herat province, which borders on Iran.

Iran’s foreign ministry repeatedly has rejected the accusations that it is interfering in Afghanistan as "baseless." But along Afghanistan’s frontier with Iran, Afghan officials and Western diplomats say Tehran’s hard-line Islamic regime is encouraging unrest in its neighbor while striving to increase its influence.

They say Iranians are using cutthroat business practices to gain an edge in Afghan commerce, recruiting supporters among Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority and using popular TV serials to sway public opinion against Western allies.

The Iranian push in the region seeks to take advantage of the shifts in power and relationships that have followed the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, wars that left U.S. troops on both sides of Iran.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai warns that interference from Iran and other neighbors is a dangerous game, saying an unstable Afghanistan will bring chaos to the region.

"The consequences will be that this region will suffer with us, equally, as we suffer. In the past, we suffered alone. This time, everybody will suffer with us," Karzai said.

The 580-mile border Afghanistan shares with Iran runs along three Afghan provinces. There are no big towns, and Afghan forces make few patrols, making it easy for people to sneak into the nearly empty region of scruffy plains, treeless hills and the foothills of the Bakharz mountains in the north.

Security is a major concern for Ansari. His town of sunbaked mud houses might have the look of centuries past, but Shindand plays a strategic role for the U.S.-led international coalition as home to Afghanistan’s only major military air base aside from Bagram, near Kabul.

Yet his force has only 65 officers, two cars and no communications equipment to patrol an area the size of Manhattan that is 240 miles from Iran.

Ansari said Afghan authorities had collected disturbing intelligence about Iranian activities in the frontier regions. "From Iran, they are bringing explosive material to Afghanistan. They don’t want Afghanistan to be at peace because they are at war with the United States. One hundred percent, Iran is working against Afghanistan’s safety," he said.

Ansari said the intelligence indicated Iran is sending in spies and trying to stir up opposition to Karzai’s government. "We conduct searches for explosive materials and we find stockpiles of weapons in areas around here, yet we don’t have strong Taliban commanders from here, so where is this coming from? We know it is coming from Iran. But it is not an easy thing to stop," he said.

Some experts say it’s not surprising Iran would try to gain influence among its neighbors. Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, sees Iran’s regional policy as "mostly defensive."

"At one time, Iran sought the export of its revolution, but the failure of that policy has largely tempered such ambitions," Takeyh said. Before leaving Afghanistan last year for his new post in Iraq, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad accused Iran of sending the Al Quds Division of its Revolutionary Guards across the border to incite unrest and cause trouble for Western troops.

An Afghan defense ministry official, who would not allow his name to be used because of the sensitivity of his country’s relations with Iran, said recent intelligence revealed that the Revolutionary Guards have camps along the border.

He also warned of a nexus of interests emerging among Iran, Russia, Taliban remnants and renegade Afghan militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, saying they all want to see Afghanistan destabilized.

Mohammed Zaman, acting manager of customs operations at Islam Kala, western Afghanistan’s busiest border crossing with Iran, said the Tehran regime is infiltrating loyalists recruited among the hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Iran, some since 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Zaman also said both the Iranians and Americans are active in gathering intelligence along the frontier. When the topic turned to the U.S. activity, Zaman’s voice dropped to a whisper. His information was sketchy, he said.

A news report last year said U.S. troops had slipped into Iran from Afghanistan to hunt for secret installations used in Tehran’s suspect nuclear activities. The effort to stop smuggling over the border has been unsuccessful largely because of corruption, said a Western diplomat, who insisted on speaking anonymously.

His job in western Afghanistan is to keep an eye on Iranian activity, particularly in business. “This is less sexy but vitally important because Iran is using predatory trade practices, subsidized input and smuggled goods to undercut Herat businesses," the envoy said. "What Iran is trying to do is colonize western Afghanistan by making sure they are not strong competitors able to build a strong, independent economy."

India to join Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline - NEW DELHI, FEB 20 (PTI)

Ahead of the visit of US President George Bush, India has decided to join the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline to import natural gas to meet the fuel needs of its growing economy.

New Delhi, earlier this month participated for the first time as an "observer" in the 9th meeting of the steering committee of the TAP project and has since decided to join the 3.5-billion dollar project.

"We have 90-days to get necessary official approvals to join the project. Once approved by the Cabinet, the project will be renamed TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline)," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told PTI here.

Officials said the pipeline from Turkmenistan would be more easier to implement than the Iran-Pakistan-India line as it already had the backing of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Moreover, unlike IPI, the project does not run the risk of being blacklisted for participation by US and European financers and companies.

US has been encouraging Pakistan to abandon the IPI project and consider TAP for meeting its gas needs. The Bush administration accuses Tehran of harbouring nuclear weapon ambitions and has called for its isolation.

The proposed natural gas pipeline would stretch from the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan border in southeastern Turkmenistan to Multan, Pakistan (790 miles, 1,271 kilometers), with a 400-mile (640-kilometer) extension to India. Estimated cost of the project is 2.9 billion dollars for the segment to Pakistan and an additional 600 million dollars for the extension to India.

The pipeline would offer a much-needed financial boost to war-ravaged Afghanistan in form of transit fee. "Ofcourse there are security implications but once Afghans see huge economic benefits flow in the form of jobs and multi-million dollar transit fee, they will ensure the pipeline is safe," an official said. Though New Delhi was not considering TAP as an alternate to IPI, it saw the implementation of the latter as much easier.

Besides, the tough posturing adopted by Iran on sale of gas in form of LNG to India has forced New Delhi to look at other sources, the official said.

Tehran is yet to ratify the 22-billion dollar deal to export 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG for 25-years from 2009 to India despite the initial agreement being signed in June 2005.

The proposed TAP pipeline will carry natural gas from the Dauletabad Field, in southeastern Turkmenistan at a rate of up to 2 billion cubic feet per day (20 billion cubic meters per year). US energy firm Unocal, the previous owner of Dauletabad field, had in October 1997 stated that the fields had been independently certified reserves of more then 25 trillion cubic feet (708 billion cubic meters).

The Government of Turkmenistan has guaranteed deliverability of 25 trillion cubic feet (708 billion cubic meters) of natural gas exclusively for the Central Asia Gas Pipeline. Much or all of this gas is expected to come from the Dauletabad Field.

Minorities safe in Afghanistan: Parliamentarian - Web posted at: 2/20/2006 2:57:46 Source ::: The Peninsula

Doha: Minorities comprising Hindus and Sikhs are safe and well-protected in Afghanistan, says a visiting parliamentarian from Kabul.

The Hindus and Sikhs barely account for one per cent of the Afghan population and they are originally Indians who migrated to Afghanistan during the mogul rule in India centuries ago, says Mir Ahmed Joyenda.

Joyenda represents Kabul in the 248-member national assembly of Afghanistan which came into being in September last year. Some 390 candidates vied for 33 parliamentary seats from the Afghan capital alone.

Joyenda is here to attend the 4th US-Islamic world forum that concludes today. He told this newspaper yesterday that there were Jews in his country as well but they left during the time of the mujahideen (natives who fought during the Russian invasion).

Taleban militia had disappeared from Afghanistan entirely and crossed over into the tribal areas on the other side of the Pakistan-Afghan border.

They are manufacturing weapons in these areas where the Pakistani government literally has no control, said Joyenda, who took a master's degree in archaeology from India's Allahabad University in 1978.

Already, stockpiles of arms and ammunition remain stored in the tribal areas from the time of the mujahideen, Some groups in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were still supporting these Talebans, claimed Joyenda.

Although the Pakistani government had banned the entry of foreigners to religious schools (madarsas), many Chinese, Chechens and Arabs, among others, were still studying in some of these institutions.

According to Joyenda, the condition of women was improving fast in his country after the downfall of Taleban. Some 68 members of the parliament are women.

"Some 25 per cent parliamentary seats are reserved for women, but many of them won from unreserved seats by huge margins," he said. Women are also taking active part in other fields.

Joyenda was briefly jailed during the Taleban rule for his involvement with an underground movement against them. He said that a recent survey conducted shows that 93 per cent of respondents favour the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

There are 15,000 Nato peace-keeping troops while another 12,000 coalition forces are there dominated by British and American forces.

Rebuilding the ravished country after 25 years of war and strife is a major challenge. "But we hope to do it with the $10.2bn the donors have committed for the purpose at the London conference recently," said Joyenda.

Chance for a new start in Afghanistan - By John Simpson
BBC World Affairs Editor - Afghanistan is not Iraq. It should not be necessary to make the point, of course.

But after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein there is a growing resistance in the West to further adventures. In the minds of many people in Europe, sending more troops to Afghanistan is both dangerous and imperialistic. It does not necessarily have to be either.

The motives that have led Britain, Canada, France, Germany and other countries to send their soldiers to Afghanistan are very different from those which led the United States and Britain to invade Iraq three years ago.

Mutual interest - And the response by most Afghans to the presence of foreign troops in their country is nothing like the hatred and anger which so many Iraqis feel towards the Americans and British.

In Afghanistan, the self-interest of Western countries happens to coincide with that of the Afghan people. We need a peaceful, prosperous and well-governed Afghanistan. When it is none of these things, it can do us immense damage. The attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States were planned and organised in Taleban-ruled Afghanistan.

The great majority of the heroin that reaches the streets of Western cities comes from the wilder parts of Afghanistan. Help the Afghan government grow strong, support the living standards of the Afghan people, and we ourselves will be safer.

The trouble is, the West has never seen Afghanistan as a real country. It has always seen it, instead, as a square on the international chess-board. In the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was president of the United States and Margaret Thatcher was the British prime minister, we heard a great deal about the sufferings of the Afghans under the Soviet yoke.

But when the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan in February 1989, the Americans, the British and everyone else lost all interest in the country. Now it was just an extremely poor country with no natural resources.

Taleban loathed - In the 1990s, ignored by the outside world, Afghanistan descended into a spiral of insane violence which ended only with the arrival in power of the most perverse and retrograde government in modern times: the Taleban.

The overthrow of the Taleban in November 2001 was a triumph of minimalism. A small number of US special forces and a certain amount of bombing helped the anti-Taleban Northern Alliance to chase them out of Kabul.

The Taleban had been loathed by most Afghans, and their departure was greeted like a new dawn. Britain and America promised they would not lose interest in Afghanistan again.

Then came the invasion of Iraq. All the attention was redirected there. As the resistance movement blossomed and spread in Iraq, its influence spread back into Afghanistan. The Taleban, which had seemed to be finished, began to grow in influence again. It imported the tactics of the Iraqi insurgents and became a training-ground for Islamic militants again.

New start - Anyone who knows Afghanistan knows how ordinary people there long for peace and prosperity. The author and commentator Ahmed Rashid writes: "Western forces are still welcome - as long as they are really useful and are willing to both fight and help in reconstruction."

Even the south-east, where the Taleban always had greater support, and where British troops are now going to be based, is less dangerous than Iraq. They can do a great deal more good in Afghanistan - especially if they learn from their Iraqi mistakes. The key is to act as partners in Afghanistan, not as occupiers.

One of the most thoughtful American commentators on Afghanistan, Vanni Cappelli, argues cogently that the Western forces need to work with the tribes along the wild borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban leaders are being sheltered.

Last month the CIA launched a missile attack across the border, killing 18 civilians. This kind of action against the tribes will not, Cappelli argues, "sway this warrior people if it feels it can uphold its honour and dignity by supporting Islamic extremists. The trick is proving to them that there are better ways to secure these things."

Cappelli is entirely right. If the trick can be performed, Afghanistan will be a safer, better, more prosperous country. The trouble is, public opinion in the United States still favours the use of force rather than reason. Although he is a well-regarded authority, Cappelli's eminently sensible article was rejected by 24 American newspapers before finding a home in US Italia.

There is a brief opportunity for a new start in Afghanistan. The Americans could rethink their whole approach; the British could restore their reputation, so battered in Iraq, and other Nato countries could show they can be something more than merely critics on the sidelines. Let us hope they get it right for a change.

NATO troops come under attack in west Afghanistan

KABUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Unknown militants attacked the NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the western Farah province of Afghanistan in the wee hours of Monday, spokesman of the multinational force said.

"Tonight at around 12:55 (0825 GMT) the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Farah went under attack by mortar and small arms fire by unknown number of insurgents. ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops responded to fire with both small arms and mortars," Ricardo Cristoni told newsmen at a news briefing.

Farah PRT, a civilian-military unit is one of the 19 Provincial Reconstruction Teams run by NATO and the U.S. military to enhance reconstruction and stabilization process in Afghanistan.

It is the first time that militants target NATO forces in the relatively peaceful province of Rarah. Meanwhile, spokesman of the multinational force said that the rounds of mortars impacted outside the compound fence without any damage or casualties.

"Later on ISAF troops have searched and secured the area reporting no presence of the attackers," Cristoni emphasized. He put the attack on the enemies of Afghanistan, a term used against the remnants of Taliban's former fundamentalist regime.

Remnants of Taliban who staged a violent comeback early last year have vowed to intensify their activities against foreign troops in the coming spring when the weather gets warm.

The militias also beheaded two local employees of Afghanistan intelligence service in Farah last week.

To stabilize security in the post-Taliban country NATO has decided to deploy additional 6,000 troops in the restive southern provinces where hundreds of Taliban-linked militants are said to have holed up.

Around 9,200 strong NATO-led ISAF has been stationed in the war-raved country to help Afghan government ensure security throughout the central Asian state. Enditem

Former Jihad commanders to surrender weapons to govt

KABUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Five former commanders from Afghan eastern province of Paktia will surrender their ammunition and weapons to the government on Tuesday, the UN said in a press release Monday.

    "Five former Jihad commanders from Paktia, Torab Khan, Sardar, Safihullah, Zahirullah, Rozi Khan will surrender 15 tons of ammunition as well as a mixture of over 30 light and heavy weapons to the DIAG (Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups) weapons collection team," the UNAMA (UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan)announced.

    "By voluntarily surrendering their weapons, the commanders are not only complying with the Gun Law regulating the possession of weapons in Afghanistan, but also actively supporting, in association with the governor of Paktia, the DIAG program, a process which is intending to consolidate peace, rule of law and prosperity in Afghanistan," it added.

    The DIAG process was launched in June 2005 after the finish of DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration) program which was initiated in October 2003 and is aimed at the disarmament and demobilization of former combatants prior to their reintegration into Afghan society.

    So far, through this DIAG program, 17,655 weapons as well as 25,760 pieces of boxed and 72,253 pieces of unboxed ammunition have been handed over to the government.  Enditem

‘Afghan people want us here'- Ex-envoy makes case for Canada But others expect only body bags Feb. 18, 2006 The Toronto Star (Canada) / MITCH POTTER

KANDAHAR—It is a difficult mission, a noble mission, a winnable mission. And if it subjects Canadian soldiers more directly to terror's bite than ever before — still the price will be worth it.

Afghanistan will be saved, and the region that continues to harbour Osama bin Laden will tilt slowly but decisively toward stability, thanks in no small part to the 2,200 Canadian troops landing this month in the troubled southern province of Kandahar.

That is the sunny prognosis of what Canada is up against in Afghanistan. Optimists who like their storylines clean and tidy are advised to stop reading now.

Because there is a competing version of the daunting task Canada is about to take on, together with aggressive new deployments of British, Australian, Dutch and Romanian soldiers.

The project's harshest critics anticipate a quagmire of no measurable gain — only the gradual outflow of body bags, loaded by the resurgent Taliban and their narcotics-dealing partners, until such time as Canada and its NATO partners decide they have had enough.

Left behind, the critics say, will be a country every bit as broken as before, its brief, altogether unrealistic dalliance with democracy just a bitter memory for Afghans and the international community alike.

How to reconcile these two disparate visions, on the eve of the highest-risk Canadian military operation most of us have ever known? You can begin by familiarizing yourself with the unbiased facts.

Real answers, however, could be many months, if not years, away. Among the optimists, none is more persuasive than Christopher Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Kabul, who comes with the added advantage of having put his own career on the line for the people of this landlocked Asian country whose backbone is the Hindu Kush mountain range.

At 37, Alexander opted not to take the safe career move, which would have entailed running for the hills last fall at the end of his requisite two-year-term as Canada's lead diplomat to Afghanistan. Instead, this rising star of foreign affairs took a leave of absence from the Canadian government and remained in Kabul, signing on as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's main political operative on the ground.

It is a big job, arguably much bigger than that of Canadian ambassador, and it places him as one of the primary protagonists for the international effort to put Afghanistan back on its feet.

"When I finished at the embassy, I just felt there was unfinished business. Some things (postwar reconstruction projects) were just getting off the ground and I was very keen to stay," Alexander said in an interview this week in Kabul.

"Some people think if you want to stay, you are crazy ... I realize that from the outside, things can appear murky. But we're all duty-bound to try and see the situation clearly and to understand its deeper dynamic.

"And for those of us who are here — military commanders, diplomats, Afghan leaders — it is very clear what needs to be done. When the resources are brought to bear it gets done."

Alexander does not soft-pedal the more sobering facts. He acknowledges that today, more than four years after the former Taliban regime was ousted by dint of Afghan and U.S.-led allies' efforts in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a pro-Taliban insurgency is spreading across the nation's southern provinces.

"But let's not exaggerate the strength of the threat. Right now three-quarters of this country is living more or less without insurgency. There are really only six provinces out of 34 that are regularly the scene of insurgency-related violence," he said.

"That adds up to a thousand deaths in the past year. It's a big problem, but it is not causing people to leave their homes. In the lives of most Afghans it is a major nuisance and a block to strengthening government authority, but most people aren't affected by it."

Alexander cringes when reminded that similarly sunny prognoses were often spoken about postwar Iraq. Much of the confusion about Afghanistan, he admits, may stem from the fact that in the minds of some, the two conflicts are blurring together. But Afghanistan, by any measure, is decidedly not Iraq, he says. "God help us, the worst ones are the people who want to apply the lessons of Iraq to Afghanistan."

The biggest difference, he says, is that Afghanistan was not conquered by U.S. forces, but rather, the Taliban was ousted by Afghans themselves, with U.S. air support.

"The truth is the Afghan people want us here: They want the international community, they want troops from Canada and other countries.

"The Taliban is dramatically unpopular here," he said. "They will find support in a village cut off from the rest of society and with no choice when these guys show up with cash and guns and say, `We're staying here.'

"But that support is only skin deep. It is based on fear. And given the Afghan police to protect them, the Afghan national army to protect them — backed by NATO — they will embrace that much more attractive future. That's the way they see their future. The Taliban truly was defeated (in 2001) and only exists as a structure in exile."

Ironically, one of Operation Archer's sharpest critics agrees that Afghanistan is not Iraq — and that, in part, is the problem.

"At least with Iraq you are dealing with a fairly educated population and some degree of infrastructure," said Doug Ross, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University specializing in Afghanistan.

"My main criticism, my cautionary note, is that Afghanistan is so underdeveloped and unready to become a functioning semblance of a modern democratic state," said Ross.

"The literacy rate is just too low, the ethno-cleavages too real, the indigenous Afghan troops too weak and not all that committed. Add to that the looming problem of Afghan refugees in western Pakistan, many of whom are sympathetic to the Taliban.

"My sense is it's just going to get worse, in large part because I don't see the Americans and the international community all that interested in carrying on for the long haul."

Ross's worst-case scenario makes for difficult reading. He worries that with Muhammad cartoon rage sweeping the region and the looming risk of American- and/or Israeli-led attacks to defuse Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Canadian troops are arriving on the cusp of potentially deepening instability.

"The fear is our people will be stuck out on a long, thin branch that could just snap off. I don't think people in Ottawa are thinking this through. Or if they are, they are just biting their nails and hoping nothing goes wrong," he said.

Alexander and Ross alike point to last month's vaunted London conference, which saw the drafting of the Afghanistan Compact, a document that commits the international community to $10.4 billion (U.S.) in aid over the next five years, all the while committing the fledgling government of President Hamid Karzai to deadline-driven reforms toward clean, transparent governance. Predictably, the two come away with half-empty, half-full analyses.

Alexander sees London as a dramatic affirmation of respect for Afghan recovery. "We had 23 foreign ministers around the table talking about a single country," he said. "That doesn't happen often."

Ross notes the aid pledges amounted to about half of what the Afghan government was seeking. Canada is on line for $600 million of those aid dollars, making Afghanistan the single largest benefactor of Canadian foreign aid in the coming years. But Ross suggests even such a whopping sum may prove far too little in the face of an emerging narcotics-driven economy, which now accounts for an estimated 40 per cent of Afghan GDP.

"I agree it is a noble cause — but only if you provide the resources to win it. And that means getting Afghanistan off opium. And about the only way to do that is to spend huge money promoting subsidized agriculture. I don't believe that money, or the international will, is really there," Ross said.

Where these two polar opposites of the Afghan file converge is on the question of Pakistan, where an extremist network is almost universally believed to be seeding insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials, in fact, are unabashed in blaming elements within Pakistan's spy service for motivating, training and equipping the revived insurgency as a cross-border operation. The strategic interest is for Pakistan to reaffirm control over its northern neighbour, much in the way it first funded the Taliban before officially renouncing ties in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Said Alexander: "This is the one issue where the Canadian press and others have not quite grasped what is happening. Yes, we need a military victory and with the Canadians and others arriving, I believe we're in good shape.

"But we need a political victory as well, to deal with the sources of the insurgency. It's not just about Afghanistan. It is also a regional challenge and a cross-border challenge."

Ross's worry is that without a strategy to contain insurgents in Pakistan, where an estimated 2.6 million ethnic Pashtuns remain in exile — essentially the cousins and brothers of the men Canadian troops will face in Kandahar — the mission will be endless.

Alexander acknowledges Pakistani co-operation is critical. Earlier this week, Karzai spent three days in Pakistan pressing the issue with President Pervez Musharraf. Little appeared to come of the encounter other than lip service in carefully measured sound bites.

Given the vagaries of the region, Alexander could not offer a concise answer when asked if he saw the possibility of Canadian troops in Afghanistan 10 years from now.

"That would mean things had not gone according to plan," he said. "But it is quite possible NATO or someone would still have forces here. This is a region; this is a world with a lot of uncertainty and volatility. One would be crazy to try to predict what it will look like. Of course everyone's preparing for a long stay if necessary."

But the former ambassador is quick with reasons why such a scenario is unlikely: In the four years since the fall of the Taliban, the average Afghan income has nearly doubled. However, many narco-dollars are intertwined in that wealth, life is undeniably improving, he says.

"To the outside world, to Canadians, the change in Afghan income, $180 to $330 a year, is almost not intelligible. You are in abject poverty at both ends," he said. "But it is real for Afghans, and let's take it on their terms.

"If there are more people who have 10 goats in their yard instead of two, let's share their pride. That is a real result. That's how you make their lives better.

"People say Afghanistan was always at war," Alexander continued. "That's not true. This is a place that developed civilizations, a source of some of the greatest scholarship and learning in the history of Islam.

"That deserves to be recovered and remembered and rebuilt, not for the sake of Afghans but for the sake of the whole world. That is why Canada is here, in part: To help a country recover its dignity after having suffered for longer than almost anyone else."

Edmonton church rallies behind dying Afghan boy

CTV.ca News Staff - Mon. Feb. 20 2006 8:44 AM ET

One day after CTV News aired a story about a young Afghan boy dying from cancer, an Edmonton church has raised thousands of dollars to pay for his palliative care.

"Our hearts were pumping, our hearts were saying yes, we have to do something," said Henry Motta, pastor of the North Edmonton Christian Fellowship church.

Doctors in Canada's military base in Afghanistan treated six-year-old Namatullah but found the cancer was too advanced to save him. They decided the best solution was to move the boy to a palliative care hospital in Quetta, Pakistan to ease his suffering.

However, doctors estimated it would cost $100 US per day -- far more money than Namatullah's family could afford.

Cpl. Brian Sanders, an ambulance driver at the base, took photographs of the boy and e-mailed them to his Edmonton church, asking Motta if he could raise donations.

The result was an overwhelming show of compassion. The church has raised $10,000 to date, meaning the boy's family now has enough money to ease his suffering.

"I don't know where it comes from, but it's almost instantaneous -- (the church) makes things happen very, very quickly," Sanders told CTV News.

One parishioner felt a strong need to give money because her own child was lost to cancer in August.

"We know what it's like to lose a child," Verlynn Woolf told CTV Edmonton. "We know what it's like to have a child with cancer and you can't do a thing. I think that's the part that's hard for us as a family."

The church will wire the money to a Western Union office in Kandahar and the boy could reach the hospital as soon as this week. Further donations will go towards a medical station in Kandahar where children can be treated.

Sanders' church has agreed to take further donations:

North Edmonton Christian Fellowship
Pastor: Doug Siggellkow
9004 - 153 Avenue
Edmonton, Alta. T5Z 3L6
(780) 456-7890

Namatullah's grandfather, Taj Mohammad, brought him to the Canadian base in Kandahar after being turned away from various hospitals, which had no painkillers to treat him with.

Mohammad himself has a medical condition. As a commander in the Aghan army, he suffered a wound to his right ankle. It has not healed in 20 years.

"I got this in a battle with the Russian troops," he told CTV News Saturday. "Maybe after I help my son and grandson there will be medical help for me. But if I had a choice I would trade my life for Namatullah's."

With a reports by CTV's Steve Chao and Erin Isfeld

Afghan cartoon protesters threaten to join al Qaeda

Jalalabad (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghans shouted support on Monday for Osama bin Laden and threatened to join al Qaeda during a protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, while Pakistan Islamists vowed to broaden their campaign.

In an attempt to cool the controversy, Pope Benedict said the world's religions and their symbols had to be respected.

The student protest against the cartoons in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad passed peacefully in contrast to a weekend of deadly rioting in several countries, including Nigeria, where 28 people were killed, and Libya, where 11 people died.

Two weeks ago in Afghanistan, at least 10 people were killed in several days of protests over the cartoons but the demonstrations largely petered out after that.

On Monday, students gathered in the campus of the university in Jalalabad chanting "Death to Denmark," "Death to America" and "Death to France," a witness said.

They also chanted "Death to Karzai" and demanded President Hamid Karzai close the embassies of Denmark, the United States and France and expel their forces from Afghanistan.

They shouted support for al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri, chanting "Long live Osama" and "Long live al Zawahri," the witness said. "If they abuse the Prophet of Islam again we will all become al Qaeda," the students shouted.

Cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper last year and reprinted in other European papers have sparked worldwide protests by Muslims who believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet. In the deadliest protests, at least 28 people died in riots in two Muslim states in northern Nigeria at the weekend.

A Red Cross official said on Monday the death toll from the riots in Maiduguri, where 21 people were killed, could rise further as some of the 207 people hurt were in critical condition. Troops patrolled the capital of the northeastern state of Borno to prevent further violence.

About a dozen churches, 200 shops, 50 houses and 100 vehicles were razed or vandalised by protesters in Maiduguri who ran wild after police fired teargas to disperse them.

Pakistan's main Islamist alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), said on Monday it would broaden its campaign. Five people died in protests in Pakistan last week.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of the MMA, was held under house arrest in Lahore at the weekend to prevent him leading a rally in the capital Islamabad on Sunday.

He was freed on Monday and after chairing an MMA meeting in Islamabad, he called publication of the cartoons in European newspapers "part of the clash of civilisations led by (U.S. President George W.) Bush."

"Therefore our movement is against Bush as well as against Mush," he told a news briefing, referring to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in Bush's war on terrorism.

A countrywide protest was planned for Friday, another in Lahore on Sunday and a nationwide general strike on March 3. Further protests were planned for Karachi, the country's commercial capital, and Quetta, capital of the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.

The planned protests could coincide with a visit to Pakistan by Bush, expected in early March, although no dates for this visit have yet been announced.

Last week, a Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers offered rewards amounting to over $1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet.

Denmark and Norway on Monday condemned the bounty. "It's murder and murder is also forbidden by the Koran," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller in a joint news conference with his Norwegian colleague Jonas Gahr Stoere, who expressed his support for the comments.

In a speech to the new Moroccan ambassador to the Holy See, Pope Benedict warned that violent protests against a perceived offence were wrong.

"...In order to promote peace and understanding between peoples and mankind, it is both vital and urgent that religions and their symbols are respected and that believers are not the object of provocations that wound their religious feelings," he said.

"However, intolerance and violence can never be justified as a response to any offence, because it is a response that is incompatible with the sacred principles of religion," he added.

Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive

Cairo (AP) - Osama bin Laden vowed never to be captured alive and said the U.S. military had become as "barbaric" as Saddam Hussein in an audiotape reposted on a militant Islamic Web site after first being broadcast last month.

In the tape posted to the Web site Monday, bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaida terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil. The tape was initially broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel.

Islamic militant Web forums often repost messages from al-Qaida leaders to ensure sympathizers can see them. U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that last month's tape was of bin Laden — making it his first message in more than a year.

"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," bin Laden said, in the 11-minute, 26-second tape. In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, he said:

"The jihad (holy war) is ongoing, thank God, despite all the oppressive measures adopted by the U.S. Army and its agents (which has reached) a point where there is no difference between this criminality and Saddam's criminality."

Bin Laden also denied Bush administration assertions that it was better to fight terrorists in Iraq than on U.S. soil.

"The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies," he said.

The last audiotape purported to be from bin Laden was broadcast in December 2004 by Al-Jazeera. In that recording, he endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of Iraqi elections.

Foreigners Warned to Register Details in Afghanistan's Herat

HERAT CITY, Feb 20 Asia Pulse - Officials in Afghanistan's western Herat province Sunday warned all foreigners to register their details with the Labour and Social Works Department, the authority dealing with entry to the province, or otherwise they would be dealt with severely according to the law.

Director of the provincial Labour and Social Works department Said Muhammad Hussain Hussaini told Pajhwok Afghan News the step was taken to boost security in the region and to help identify the number of foreign workers here.

They had been directed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Works to register the names of all those foreigners who were working for any domestic or foreign NGOs.

It would be better if this internationally existing rule had been implemented in the past, he said, adding now all the foreigners working for any organization should record their names with the department to avoid any legal action against them.

However, he would not specify what legal action would be taken against those who failed to register. At present, officials don't have any precise number of foreign workers in the province, he added. Director of Foreign Affairs Muhammadullah Afzali said the step would be helpful in maintaining law and order. (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Rice urges wary Arabs to threaten to isolate Iran - By Saul Hudson / Fri Feb 17, 4:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged reluctant Arab nations on Friday to threaten to isolate Iran unless it bows to international pressure to curb its suspected nuclear weapons programs.

Her appeal to Iran's neighbors came before she visits Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next week to lobby them to join a U.S. campaign against Iran, which has won increasing support from Europe, Russia and China.

"I would hope that those states that are worried about this ... are prepared to really say to the Iranians: 'You are going to be isolated from us too if you continue down this road,"' Rice said in an interview with Arab-based media about her planned talks on the trip.

"There is really now an obligation to let the Iranians know in no uncertain terms that this isolation is going to be complete," she added.

As part of a strategy to woo Arab nations with a message she hopes resonates with them, Rice also highlighted U.S. concerns Iran is destabilizing the region by backing militant groups in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Arab governments have expressed concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But they are generally wary of giving explicit support to any U.S. policies when many in the region are angry at what they see as anti-Muslim American policies because of the Iraq war and perceived pro- Israel stances against Palestinians.

Against the backdrop of chaos in Iraq, the governments are especially reluctant to back American pressure against another neighbor.

"Most countries in the Gulf do not have to be persuaded that a nuclear Iran is a threat to them," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "But they ask if the cure is worse than the disease."

"There is a certain Arab reluctance to embrace American solutions that could destabilize the politics in Iran, especially when they look at Iraq," he added.

Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation, who supports a strategy against Iran that also includes a credible threat of military strikes, called Rice's appeal "a hard sell."

"It's worth a try but we should be under no illusion just how difficult it will be to get Arab nations to isolate Iran," he said." The United States has sought to play down fears that behind its diplomacy is a push for military strikes on the Islamic republic.

"I believe that the international community has many, many, many diplomatic, economic, other opportunities to influence Iran," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. "Not only the United States, but all the international community can influence the way that Iran is acting."

"From where I sit, we are a long way away from needing a military option," he added. And Rice was upbeat that international diplomatic pressure would prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, which although it says its programs are peaceful has failed for years to allay the West's suspicions it is pursuing a nuclear bomb.

"I think they will run out of time because the world will get more and more insistent, measures will get tougher and tougher and I don't believe Iran is a state that can afford real isolation," she said.

[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.]