In this bulletin:

• Emperor Akihito, Afghan president discuss recovery of Afghanistan
• Afghan Minister Chides Pakistan on Security
• Afghanistan nominates six Supreme Court judges for trust vote
• Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill 10 Militants
• Coalition soldier, eight Taliban killed in new Afghan clashes
• Security measures increased in Kabul
• Envoy points at Pakistan for deteriorating state of Afghanistan security
• Foreigners still in Pakistan madrassas a year after 7/7
• ADB lends 40-million dollars for mobile phone development in Afghanistan
• Pakistan-funded Afghan highway nears completion
• Peshawar-Jalalabad bus service likely to be suspended
• India sending troops to Afghanistan
• Urgent plan to reinforce troops in Afghanistan as criticism grows
• Tough troops for Taliban
• US Rumsfeld to visit Tajikistan 10 July
• Sayyaf says Afghan rights group biased against Mojahedin
• Ex - Taliban Ambassador Denied Entry to Yale
• Op-Ed Contributor: A War Democrats Can Win

Emperor Akihito, Afghan president discuss recovery of Afghanistan    

Source: Kyodo, Japan 6 July 06

Emperor Akihito and Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed the recovery of Afghanistan at the Imperial Palace on Thursday, Imperial Household Agency officials said.

Referring to Afghanistan's efforts to democratize, Karzai told the emperor his country has various problems such as terrorism and narcotics, and is still poor though the economy has begun to stabilize, according to the officials.

The emperor was quoted as telling Karzai that Afghanistan "may continue to experience hardship but I hope the president will overcome it and Afghanistan's nation-building will advance smoothly."

Karzai attended an international conference of donor countries and agencies for Afghanistan in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Afghan Minister Chides Pakistan on Security

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 6, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Afghanistan's foreign minister, here for talks with top Bush administration officials, complained Thursday that Pakistan was doing an inadequate job in countering terrorism.

Between high-level meetings, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, also acknowledged weakness in his own government in Kabul, particularly Afghan security forces, for the surge in Taliban attacks, especially in the south.

''It is not as secure as last year, or the year before,'' Spanta told reporters. Terrorists stream into Afghanistan from Pakistan, ''and we don't have the strength to go after the sources,'' Spanta said.

The foreign minister met Wednesday with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser. He has meetings planned for Friday with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff.

This week, the Bush administration pledged to give $2 billion worth of military weapons and vehicles to modernize Afghanistan's army. That is in addition to more than $2 billion the United States has committed for military equipment and facilities.

Spanta said Afghanistan needed more help from the United States in organizing its security forces, which he described as no match for Taliban and especially inadequate in mobility. ''The main problem is security, particularly in the south,'' he said.

More than 10,000 Afghan and coalition troops have been deployed in the south to hunt down Taliban fighters, many of whom the Afghan government insists were trained in Pakistan.

Afghanistan nominates six Supreme Court judges for trust vote

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Kabul, 6 July: Minister for Parliamentary Affairs on Thursday [6 July] said six members of the Supreme Court [SC] had been introduced to the parliament for confidence vote.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, the minister said they included three new members Zamen Ali Behsudi, Gholam Nabi Nawabi and Mohammad Omar Babrakzai. The three old members, including Bahaoddin [Baha], Abdol Rashid and Mohammad Qasem [Hashemzai], were formerly rejected by the lower house of parliament for their dual citizenship.

But Wardag said article 118 of the constitution stated that Afghan citizenship for SC members was the basic requirement. Besides that, they could keep dual citizenship, he clarified.

He said the constitution did not support the rejection of the judges for their dual citizenship by the lower house of parliament. That was why, the three judges had again been introduced in the parliament.

Among the three new members f the Supreme Court, Zamen Ali Behsudi (70) belonged to the central Wardag Province. He has graduated from the law department of the sharia faculty [faculty of theology] of Kabul University.

Forty-six-year-old Gholam Nabi Nawabi from the northern Fariab Province is a graduate of the sharia faculty of Kabul University while 56-year-old Mohammad Omar Babrakzai, resident of Khost Province, is a graduate of the law and political science faculty of Kabul University.

Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill 10 Militants - ASSOCIATED PRESS July 6, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed 10 suspected militants during several operations aimed at flushing out Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

Four suspected Taliban militants were killed and six were arrested Wednesday during search operations in Shingai district in Zabul province, provincial Police Chief Noor Mohammad Paktin said.

Three insurgents were also killed in a clash when Afghan forces and police were attacked by militants, he said. One Afghan soldier was killed and three were wounded.

Elsewhere, three suspected Taliban fighters were killed during operations near Mt. Zubaida in the Sori district of Zabul province, Patkin said. Four were arrested.

More than 10,000 coalition and Afghan forces have been deployed across southern Afghanistan to hunt for Taliban fighters blamed for a rash of deadly ambushes and suicide attacks. More than 700 people have been killed since May, mostly militants.

Coalition soldier, eight Taliban killed in new Afghan clashes

Kandahar (AFP) - A coalition soldier and eight rebels were killed in new clashes in Afghanistan as a crackdown continued against a stepped-up Taliban insurgency, security forces said.

The soldier, whose nationality was not released, was killed on Wednesday in southeastern Paktika province near the border with Pakistan when a patrol came under fire from "extremists", the US-led coalition said.

An Afghan army commander said two Taliban were killed in the same district of Paktika, called Gayan, when a patrol was attacked, sparking a two-hour gun battle. It was likely the same incident although this was not confirmed.

Five rebels were also arrested, regional corps commander Akram Samai told AFP on Thursday. The coalition soldier was the 50th foreign service member to be killed in hostile action in Afghanistan this year, with more than 30 of them Americans, according to an unofficial tally.

They included a British soldier who was also killed Wednesday when a patrol came under attack in southern Helmand province's Sangin district. The soldier was the sixth to die in a month.

A British base in Sangin is coming under almost nightly attack, a spokesman said Thursday, although this could range from a couple of shots to a more intense assault such as one at the weekend in which two British soldiers died.

Another six militants were killed and six captured late Wednesday in two separate incidents southern Zabul province, provincial police chief Nur Mohammad Paktine told AFP.

The incidents come amid a stepped-up offensive by the Taliban in recent months, with a surge in insurgency-linked violence leaving hundreds dead, many of them rebels.

The extremist movement said it planted three bombs in the capital that killed one person and wounded nearly 50 on Wednesday to show that it was capable of mounting attacks across the country.

The hardliners were toppled from government in late 2001 by a US-led invasion of the country after the Taliban failed to hand over Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.

Their relentless insurgency has only grown despite the ongoing establishment of an Afghan police force and army, and the efforts of thousands of foreign troops. The violence is wearing down a country already battered by 25 years of war.

President Hamid Karzai has said the violence will not be ended by fighting militants on Afghan soil but by going after the sources of the militancy, their training camps and funders outside of the country.

"The situation has deteriorated because we have not addressed the sources of terrorism," Karzai was quoted in the Financial Times newspaper as saying Wednesday in Tokyo, where he was attending a disarmament conference.

"The sources of terrorism are where they are trained, where they are financed, where they are equipped, where they are mobilised and where they are motivated," he said.

He did not mention neighbouring Pakistan but has previously urged Islamabad to do more to crack down on militants operating from its border regions. Pakistan says it is doing its utmost to tackle the rebels.

Afghan and coalition forces are engaged in their largest anti-Taliban operation yet in four provinces in the south, where the militant movement was born and where it has strongholds.

Operation Mountain Thrust was launched in mid-May and has seen several major strikes, although the militants have been also been able to mount large scale attacks.

Security measures increased in Kabul - Source: AP, USA 6 July 06

KABUL The authorities stepped up security in the Afghan capital Thursday after a series of bombings that President Hamid Karzai condemned as attacks on innocent civilians, while dozens of suspected militants died in clashes in the volatile south.
 
Militants killed a soldier from the U.S.-led coalition in an ambush on a patrol in the eastern province of Paktika, the coalition said.
 
Kabul was hit Wednesday by multiple bombs for the third day in a row, killing one person and wounding nearly 50, raising fears that Taliban militants were bringing their fight to the capital.
 
Kabul has been largely spared the wave of violence that has roiled the volatile east and south of Afghanistan this year, leaving hundreds dead.
 
"The enemies of Afghanistan once again showed by attacking innocent civilians that they want to bring misery and destruction to Afghanistan, but the people of Afghanistan will never allow this to happen," Karzai said in a statement issued from Tokyo, where he is attending a conference.
 
"Afghanistan will continue to rebuild its security institutions and these incidents will never hurt the desire of the Afghan people for a better future."
 
He ordered the authorities to investigate the bombings and bring the perpetrators to justice.
 
The three Wednesday bombs were intended for buses carrying government workers and army officers as they headed to work. On Tuesday, two similar bombings shook Kabul, wounding 10.
 
Kabul's police chief, General Amanullah Ghuzar, said that extra police officers would man checkpoints around the city.
 
The U.S.-led coalition, meanwhile, continued its hunt for Taliban forces, killing an estimated 35 militants in a strike against a compound at Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand late Tuesday, a coalition statement said. One British soldier was killed on patrol in a separate attack, the sixth to die in combat in Afghanistan since June.
 
On Wednesday night, coalition and Afghan security forces launched operations near Mount Zubaida in southern Zabul Province, killing three suspected Taliban fighters and arresting four others, according to the provincial police chief, Noor Mohammad Paktin.
 
Four other militants were killed and six arrested during searches in Shingai District, he said. One Afghan soldier was killed and three wounded when they were attacked by militants in Naubahar District. Three insurgents were also killed, he said.
 
Also Wednesday, militants attacked a U.S.-led coalition patrol in Paktika's Gayan District, killing one soldier. A 10- year-old Afghan girl was also wounded, but was in stable condition after surgery, a coalition statement said.

Envoy points at Pakistan for deteriorating state of Afghanistan security - CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD Globe and Mail, 7/5/06

KABUL -- Is the security situation in Afghanistan worse? Absolutely. Does
that mean the Canadian/coalition mission here is failing? Absolutely not.
Does it mean the risk that it might fail is greater? Oh, yes.

That's the blunt assessment of one of the United Nations' top dogs in this
difficult and beleaguered part of the planet, one Chris Alexander, the
deputy special representative (political) for UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, and the bright young man who until late last year was the Canadian
ambassador to Afghanistan.

There are probably few Canadians better positioned to offer an informed
snapshot of the big picture here, and in a recent wide-ranging interview at
his office at the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul,
he did just that.

"Are we running out of time?" Mr. Alexander asked rhetorically.
"I don't think we're at that tipping point yet, but we can't be doing this
forever, and if the insurgency next year is twice as bad, with twice as many
commanders with hardened fighters coming across the border next year as this
year, there will be many questions asked, no doubt in my mind."

There are three times the casualties this year than in 2005, he says.
"So we have to do things differently, and we have to think of all the
factors driving the intensity of attacks this year, and that takes us
instantly into a regional discussion, not just an Afghan discussion."

By regional, of course, Mr. Alexander means Pakistan, which is now home to
the Taliban leadership and is coming under increasing pressure to crack down
on the fighters who cross into Afghanistan every week.

"And everyone who's fighting this out, and other members of NATO, are having
franker and franker discussions I think across the board, and that includes
the UN. We've been to see [Pakistan's President Pervez] Musharraf, and he's
agreed with us that Talibanization is a threat to his country as well as to
Afghanistan, and he is, in a sense, fighting the Taliban.

"The trick will be to have them crack down on the Taliban who are fighting
in Afghanistan, mostly from Quetta. . . . My sense is, Pakistanis, when
accused of offering refuge to a good part of the leadership, when they're
accused of training camps and so forth, put up a huge hue and cry, deny
everything, ask for the evidence, accuse the Afghans of not having their own
house in order.

"Well," he said flatly, "the evidence is overwhelming, and in fact, we're
not even discussing the evidence any more. We're really discussing what to
do and how to do it."

In Mr. Alexander's forthright language is proof of a change probably at
least as stark as the deterioration in security here -- the open
acknowledgment of Pakistan's role, which even a few months ago was being
much more delicately discussed.

In his view, that is "the No. 1 risk" to Afghanistan's tentative recovery --
"that the factors contributing to this insurgency won't be addressed, and
that they might get worse.

"And let's be very honest: They are not all, or even principally, within
Afghanistan's control or on the territory of this country.

"The Taliban was defeated in 2001, but was not dismantled as a leadership
structure. It was pushed out [to Pakistan] . . . . They moved. They picked
themselves up. They were a ragtag lot, in disarray, and in the early days of
2001-2002 they were even in hiding.

"But because no one arrested them, they were not challenged in that new
environment, and they put themselves back together and are much stronger
three years later than they were in 2002, and therefore the punch they pack
across the border in engineering this insurgency, in training bombers,
launching suicide bombers into the Afghan environment for the first time in
recorded history, is much larger than it was in 2003. So that's the No. 1
challenge."

Like the rest of the world, Mr. Alexander is well aware of how sensitive
Pakistanis are on this subject.

"We know what issues that country faces, many of which have nothing to do
with Afghanistan or security, and there's a house of cards there with
nuclear weapons inside that no one wants to see all there."

He is quick to cite Pakistan's professed commitment to the war on terrorism
and to the rebuilding of Afghanistan, and points to the country's practical
contributions to that end, such as the highway from Jalalabad to Kabul, due
to open later this month.

"But at the same time," Mr. Alexander said, "an insurgency organized from
sanctuaries within a neighbouring country needs to be addressed in just
those terms.

"You need military action to fight it where you can, in this case on Afghan
territory, and you need political action and ultimately law enforcement
action to disrupt and reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the capabilities of
the people operating in the sanctuaries.

"And the Pakistani government has said it's a key ally of all of us in the
war on terrorism. . . . So let's take them at their word, press them and
co-operate with them to arrest the Taliban leadership who are running this
insurgency."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent remarks, ruing the loss of so many
Afghans and reminding the coalition that military action will not win this
war alone, Mr. Alexander found thoughtful.

Mr. Karzai was "reacting as any elected political leader must when his
citizens are dying: He doesn't want it to continue. And let's be honest: He
has been let down by all of us to some extent, by all of his international
partners, over the last three years.

"He was told on many occasions, 'Don't berate your Pakistani neighbours or
those in Pakistan supporting the Taliban too loudly, because you're not the
right person to do this and it's not going to advance the cause. We, the
international community, will work on this issue.' "

Yet, Mr. Alexander said, only a handful of players -- none of them key
leaders -- have been arrested. Despite the historical reality of Pakistan support for Afghan jihadists, which predates the Taliban, Mr. Alexander said, "We're essentially saying to them your days of supporting jihadi, even though most of the world supported you in the eighties in this policy, are over, because the terrorism that goes with it, the instability that goes with it, are too dangerous for you, for Afghanistan and for the world."

While not a war in a traditional sense, there's one accepted measure by
which the insurgency here this year would qualify: If the number of
"conflict-related casualties" is greater than 1,000, then war it is.

In 2005, Mr. Alexander said, 970 Afghans -- police, army, civilians,
district commanders, Taliban -- were killed. In the first six months of this
year, that toll stands at "at least 1,600" and it's on "a pace three times
what we saw last year. . . . We certainly knew fighting would have to be
done and that insurgency was going to be part of the landscape, but we could
not have predicted the extent to which that intensity would increase.

"And as a result, I think it's safe to say that over the past year,
Canadians have been in the eye of the storm, have been bearing the brunt of
the worst insecurity Afghanistan has faced in five years of transition.

"And the courage they've shown, the fortitude, the persistence, the calm
that they've been able to achieve despite all of the chaos around them, has
been remarkable.

"And it's been a huge underpinning of the continuing transition, and it's
one of the reasons people are still optimistic here because there has been a
country that would step into that role after the U.S. and do it as
professionally as Canadians have done, and people have been willing to
accept those sacrifices.

"I mean, no one will accept the loss of a son or daughter totally, and
everyone will ask 'What if?' [They will] question the decisions that led to
tragedy . . .

"But at the same time, every Canadian soldier I've ever spoken to says that
they know that one of the risks they face in coming to a place like this is
that they might lose their lives, and they're willing to take that risk. And
I think Canadians don't sufficiently appreciate that, their heroic
willingness."

Foreigners still in Pakistan madrassas a year after 7/7

Karachi (AFP) - Pakistan's madrassas still host hundreds of foreign students one year after the London bombings sparked a major crackdown, but the pupils insist they are not being schooled in jihad.

President Pervez Musharraf pledged to expel all 1,400 non-Pakistanis from the Islamic schools following the revelation that one or more of the suicide attackers attended a seminary before the blasts on July 7, 2005.

At Karachi's sprawling Jamia Binoria al-Alamia, a moderate Sunni madrassa and one of the biggest in the southern city, there is still a separate section for foreigners. Those who remain here say the schools do not teach hate.

"I am surprised the Pakistani government wants all foreign students to leave. It hurts you as a Muslim and peaceful human being," a 19-year-old Canadian national who gave his name only as Ejazullah told AFP.

He condemned the London transport attacks -- which killed 56 people including the young British Muslim bombers -- as un-Islamic. "Whether it is 9/11 or 7/7, killing innocent people is against the teachings of Islam," he said.

In the huge courtyard below the dingy room that Ejazullah shares with four pupils, some of the madrassa's 5,000 boys mill around in traditional Pakistani smocks, waiting for the prayer call. A girls' school is next door.

Pakistan's estimated 13,000 madrassas have long been accused of fostering militant Islam, but Ejazullah's roommate, 15-year-old Noor Elahi, is no radical.

Elahi said he missed the social life back home in the United States. His father Fazal Rahim, a taxi driver who moved from Pakistan 14 years ago, sent him and his younger brother to Karachi in August 2004.

"I love learning about Islam, but there is no life here in the hostel," he said. "I want to go back but my father wants me to stay for a few more years."

He too condemned the bombings, saying: "Those who are killing innocents are misguided people. They may have their own cause but it can not be Islamic."

Saeed Hasan, 17, a Somalian national who has lived in Canada and Britain, praised the education at the madrassa, saying he cares more for life after his Islamic teaching than he ever did in the West.

But the London bombings should be seen in the context of the West's policies throughout the Muslim world, he added. "It's sad that several people were killed in London bombing, but it's also sad when you hear about killing of innocents elsewhere," Hasan said.

Pakistani madrassas like Jamia Binoria al-Alamia offer more than 1.5 million young people -- mostly men -- a free education in one of only 12 countries that spends less than two percent of its gross national product (GNP) on education.

However many were set up, often with US and Saudi funding, as indoctrination and military training sites during the 1979-1989 US-backed guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The most hardline schools, particularly near the Afghan border, went on to produce thousands of young recruits for the Taliban regime, both when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and then after it was ousted.

After the London bombings, Britain pressed Pakistan to move against radical madrassas, and Islamabad insists it is doing so.

Pakistan has so far deported around 470 foreign madrassa students and the rest of them would be sent home soon, in line with General Musharraf's promise, a senior interior ministry official said.

A campaign to register all Islamic schools and bring them into mainstream education was also on course, he said.

"We are doing it in a phased programme. The others who are still here are being deported. There is no fresh admission in any madrassa here of any foreign student," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said some of the opprobrium heaped on the schools since the London bombings had been unfair.

"Why should we take the blame for everything nasty happening in the world -- blaming Pakistani madrassas," the official said. "These students should study in their own countries, after all there are religious schools in their countries as well."

The senior cleric of the Jamia Binoria al-Alamia's madrassa echoed his comments, urging British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the West not to blame madrassas or Pakistan for the London bombings.

"Investigations conducted by British intelligence prove that madrassas have no role in it," Mufti Mohammad Naeem told AFP. "It's high time that the West changed its concept of madrassa teaching and they are welcome to visit them any time."

ADB lends 40-million dollars for mobile phone development in Afghanistan

Manila (AFP) - Afghanistan's leading mobile telephone network has secured a 40 million dollar loan from the Asian Development Bank, along with guarantees of up to 15 million dollars, the Philippines-based lender said.

The loan to Roshan, a company owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, Monaco Telecom International and MCT Corp would help it achieve "near-country wide coverage on an accelerated basis," an ADB statement said on Friday.

"Afghanistan continues to suffer from a critical lack of communications infrastructure and cellular phones are seen as the only viable method of providing country-wide communications services," it added.

The "large external Afghan refugee community adds a further dimension to the importance of telecommunications," the bank also said.

The ADB loan is without a government guarantee and matures in six years, with payments starting on the third year.

Roshan earlier obtained a 35 million dollar private sector loan in November 2004 and has already significantly exceeded subscriber and traffic growth targets, the bank said.

Pakistan-funded Afghan highway nears completion

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Jalalabad, 6 July: Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed in principal on dualisation of the 75-kilometre Torkham - Jalalabad road through the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) - the leading Pakistani road construction company.

This was disclosed by Pakistan's Consul General in Jalalabad Shahzada Ziaoddin while talking to a media delegation from Pakistan in this provincial capital of the eastern Nangarhar Province.

Quoting the consul general, Pakistan's official news agency said modalities and other necessary formalities were being worked out for making the road a dual carriage way. The project, he said, would cost about 350 million US dollars.

He said, Pakistan had pledged 100 million US dollars for reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan and construction of the international standard Torkham - Jalalabad road was part of the aid programme. The Government of Pakistan had committed the grant in assistance for the reconstruction of Afghanistan spreading over five years, he maintained.

The consul general said Pakistan was also funding establishment of a kidney centre in the name of "Nishtar Kidney Centre" and a science block in Nangarhar University.

Briefing the media team at Ghaziabad, camp office of FWO about the completion of the 75-kilometre road, Project Manager Col Mohammad Shahid Eqbal said over 95 per cent work had been completed. He said it was the first road project completed by the FWO in a foreign country.

The project is due for inauguration in first week of August this year and the inaugural ceremony is expected to be attended by senior officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Peshawar-Jalalabad bus service likely to be suspended

Daily Times 7 July 06

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar-Jalalabad bus service between Pakistan and Afghanistan launched a month ago is likely to be suspended due to insufficient funds. Talking to the BBC on Thursday, United Group of Transport head Zakaria Khan said that the bus service had been inaugurated with the hope “that it would be useful for both countries, but has now been in a financial crisis for several days”. He said that 10 buses had been dedicated to the route, but only four were now operating on it because of a lack of public interest and shortage of funds. The project would have to be abandoned if the situation persisted for another two weeks, he said. Khan said that few people used the bus service, instead preferring “illegal transport companies” which were much cheaper. The government had promised to crack down on these transporters, but had not done so yet, he said. NWFP Transport Department Director Sajid Jadoon also attributed the failure of the bus service to the unsanctioned transport services. He said that a complaint had been made to the federal government, which would contact the Afghan government to solve the issue. He said that other bus services planned between the two countries, such as the Peshawar-Kabul and Chaman-Kandahar buses, would not succeed without resolving the issue. online

India sending troops to Afghanistan

The Times of India 6 July 06

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani media has claimed that India wants to send peace-keeping troops to Afghanistan and blamed Islamabad for not doing anything to prevent the move.

Pakistan should not allow a situation when it faces Indian troops on both the eastern and the western fronts, the media reports warn.

According to The News, India is supposed to be contemplating sending troops for peacekeeping at the instance of the US and the European Union. The daily, in a front-page report, said there are "serious discussions in New Delhi" on the subject.

"It is safe to presume the last thing that Pakistan would like to see is Indian troops on both its western and eastern borders. For over a week now, the Indian government has been contemplating this request, which many feel is not the same as the request to send Indian troops inside Iraq, which it rejected," The News said.

But it said that Islamabad's "silence is deafening" and there are no "pre-emptive statements coming from Islamabad to block this move".

In a different twist, The Nation said India is "keen to deploy" its troops in Afghanistan under the coalition command but the US and NATO "have assured Pakistan they would not entertain any such request by New Delhi".

"Owing to its desire to increase influence in Afghanistan, India have expressed its wish vis-à-vis troops deployment in the war-ravaged country", the newspaper said, quoting diplomatic sources.

It added: "However, they said the United States and NATO have extended firm assurance to Pakistan against the deployment of Indian troops in Afghanistan."

This is a new line of argument for Pakistan that have for long been accusing India of nurturing a strategic aim by opening consulates in Afghanistan and its ministers and officials have insinuated the role of "Indian agencies" in the ongoing militancy in Balochistan, besides sectarian riots in Karachi.

For good measure, The News warned India against sending troops on two counts - sending troops would anger the Indian Muslims and that military involvement in Sri Lanka (ostensibly, peacekeeping operations in the late 1980s) proved expensive for India and did not help the Lankan situation in any way.

An article by Indian commentator Prem Shankar Jha has been cited, both as a proof of the Indian intentions and as a warning against taking such a step.

The News also reminded that Islamabad had made it clear to the US, EU and others involved in peacekeeping in Afghanistan that troops from any country, except India, would be welcomed because of military implications for Pakistan. This has been respected so far. It wondered why and how this could be changed.

The News further added: "If this proposal is accepted by New Delhi, Indian troops would take over various duties in the calmer areas of the country and thus release more British and American troops to fight the Taliban in the troubled south and east of the country."

Urgent plan to reinforce troops in Afghanistan as criticism grows

· Dead paratrooper's father attacks government policy
· Minister denies British mission is unclear

Richard Norton-Taylor - Friday July 7, 2006 The Guardian

The government is poised to send hundreds of extra troops to southern Afghanistan after demands from commanders for immediate reinforcements and amid growing criticism of its handling of the military operation.

Des Browne, the defence secretary, told MPs that he had received a request for "further deployment" which he was considering with the chiefs of staff as a "matter of urgency". The Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, named the paratrooper killed by Taliban fighters in the Sangin valley, in the north-east of Helmand province - the sixth British soldier to die there in less than a month - as Private Damien Jackson, from South Shields. Mr Jackson's father, Daniel, said in a statement: "We fully support the British army in Afghanistan whilst in no way supporting or condoning a government policy which has placed our young men and women in such dreadful danger."

The government's move was foreshadowed in last Monday's Guardian although ministers then denied that commanders had asked for more troops and equipment, notably helicopters. Ministers are sensitive about suggestions that British troops are ill-equipped or vulnerable to attack from the Taliban.

British forces in Afghanistan were told by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown on Tuesday they could have anything they needed to defeat the Taliban. The prime minister told senior backbenchers: "Anything they need to ask for in order to protect our troops, I will make sure they get. Our obligation to them is to get them what they need to do the job."

Yesterday the defence secretary, Mr Browne, said he did not believe the mission of British soldiers in Helmand, hostile territory and one of the country's biggest poppy growing areas, was unclear. "First they must establish a level of security which will allow the rebuilding to begin," he said. "This is a particularly challenging task in Helmand, which has essentially been a lawless area for years. The various elements, Taliban, drug lords, criminal networks ... will resist any attempt to bring security to the local people ... This is dangerous work, that's why we sent soldiers to do it."

Military commanders appear to have been surprised by the ferocity and number of Taliban fighters. It seems clear that a forward base of the 3 Para battle group near Sangin, where the soldiers were killed, was vulnerable and that plans for a "hearts and minds" campaign were far too optimistic.

The 3,200-strong battle group has six Apache helicopter gunships which, military chiefs say, are effective. However, they have onlysix Chinooks and four Lynx helicopters to ferry troops around an area about four times the size of Wales.

Mr Browne is expected next week to reveal the reinforcements. The MoD did not comment on a report that the Ist battalion the Royal Irish Regiment was on standby. Pte Jackson, 19, of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, died on Wednesday as his unit was ambushed on patrol.

Tough troops for Taliban

The Sun Online 7 July 06 By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON Political Editor

A MASSIVE force of the British Army’s fiercest fighting men will be sent to Afghanistan on Monday. Nearly 1,000 heavily-armed troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade will be moved to the hell zone within the week.

Military commanders in Afghanistan flashed urgent requests for tough recruits to help crush Taliban forces.

Tony Blair has given the go-ahead for a huge deployment to ensure the mission is successful. The Sun revealed on Monday that a 1,000- strong force was being planned.

Defence Secretary Des Browne told MPs last night: “I have received advice on additional deployment and I am considering it as a matter of urgency with Chiefs of Staff.”

Top brass will finalise details of the mission over the weekend. But ministers will announce on Monday a deadly package of British infantrymen and equipment will go to Helmand Province. It will include extra heavy-lift helicopters like Chinooks. Officers are also looking at the possibility of sending more armoured vehicles.

The PM promised MPs he would stop at nothing to ensure Our Boys get every piece of equipment needed. The new force will not be an extra package of men. They will replace around 800 engineers and logisticians who have been building Britain’s bases in the province.

The 1st battalion Royal Irish Regiment has been on final training in the Scottish Highlands. Military commanders have demanded a more robust force to put down the Taliban.

Six British soldiers have died in the last few weeks in Helmand — dubbed Hell Land because it is the most dangerous place on earth.
Taliban forces are proving a tough, well-equipped and organised force.

British soldiers have already wiped out 400 to 500 enemy fighters.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer called on top brass to inform families quickly.

He said: “Families are now waiting on tenterhooks to know whether their husbands, fathers, brothers are going to be deployed to Afghanistan to support the brave men of 3 Para. I beg you, put them out of their misery.”

US Rumsfeld to visit Tajikistan 10 July

Text of report by Tajik Avesta website on 6 July

Dushanbe, 6 July: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will arrive in Dushanbe on a short working visit in the evening of Monday, 10 July, an informed source has told Avesta.

The Pentagon head will meet Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov right after his arrival. They are expected to discuss cooperation between the USA and Tajikistan in the military sphere, in the joint fight against terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking. They will also touch upon the situation in Afghanistan and the region as a whole.

Following the meeting, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov are to give a news conference. Early next day, the Pentagon head will leave Dushanbe.

During talks last summer, the Pentagon head and President Rahmonov discussed issues of post-conflict reconstruction of Afghanistan, maintaining security in the Central Asian region and protection of the Tajik-Afghan border.

Sayyaf says Afghan rights group biased against Mojahedin

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 6 July

[Presenter] Abdorrab Rasul Sayyaf, an MP from Kabul Province and a former jihadi leader, in an interview with Tolo television, has criticized the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission for bias stance.

[Correspondent] According to Mr Sayyaf, reports published by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission after the collapse of the communist regime have been full of hatred, hostility and rancour against the Mojahedin. He says even before Kabul incidents [factional fighting in early 1990's] and during the Afghan jihad against the Red Army, they [Mojahedin] were called criminals by the people who now work with the commission.

[Rasul Sayyaf] We were fighting the Red Army to liberate our country. Even on that time they said we were committing crimes.

[Interviewer interrupting] Who said you were committing crimes?

[Sayyaf] A number of them are the people who are still in charge of drafting and preparing reports and investigating such cases.

[Interviewer] You mean at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission?

[Sayyaf] Yes.

[Correspondent] Nader Naderi, the spokesman for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, rejects accusations by Mr Sayyaf, saying that reports published by the commission have always been based on balanced sensibility and that the commission has always respected and valued the true jihad of the people of Afghanistan.

[Nader Naderi] The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission works on the basis of the principles that an Afghan national institution requires. We carry out our activities in the light of the constitution of Afghanistan. We work on the basis of Islamic, democratic and human rights values. We have done all in our power to maintain the commission's independence.

[Correspondent] Full interview with Abdorrab Rasul Sayyaf will be aired on Tolo television soon.

Ex - Taliban Ambassador Denied Entry to Yale

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 6, 2006

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A former ambassador for Afghanistan's Taliban regime was denied admission to a degree-granting program at Yale, but he can continue studying at the school, one of his financial supporters said.

Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, who had been studying at Yale in a special program that does not award degrees, became the topic of debate after a New York Times Magazine story in February described his life at the Ivy League school.

Supporters said the school was promoting understanding across cultures. But critics were aghast that Yale would open its gates to the 27-year-old who once represented a repressive regime that harbored al-Qaida.

Students in Hashemi's program are eligible to apply for admission to the Eli Whitney Program, which awards the same bachelor's degrees received each spring by Yale undergraduates.

Tatiana Maxwell, president of the International Education Foundation, which raised money and helped send Hashemi to Yale, said that Hashemi had informed her that he'd been denied admission, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Yale spokesman Tom Conroy would not confirm that decision. The school does not release the names of applicants who are accepted or rejected.

Maxwell was traveling out of the country Thursday. Messages left on her cell phone and with other members of the foundation were not immediately returned.

The debate over whether Hashemi should have been admitted to Yale in the first place played out on editorial pages and Web logs and in letters to the editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine.

One small group of alumni urged people to mail press-on nails to Yale officials, a reference to the Taliban's threat to pull out the fingernails of women who wore nail polish.

''This was a major victory,'' said Clint Taylor, a 1996 Yale graduate whose Web log originated the nail campaign. ''I think Yale made the right decision. It's a shame they had to do it under so much pressure.''

Fahad Khan, an incoming Yale senior who knows Hashemi, said he was unaware of the decision but said it was a shame if he was not admitted. He said having Hashemi at Yale is important ''at a time when bridges need to be built.''

''If true, it is clearly because of the controversy,'' Khan said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. ''His academic performance, which was supposed to be the only determinant, has been better than most students at Yale.''

Amid the debate spurred by Hashemi's enrollment, Yale President Richard C. Levin ordered a review of the admission standards for the Eli Whitney Program and said its standards should be as rigorous as those for regular undergraduates.

Op-Ed Contributor: A War Democrats Can Win

NY Times By JAMES P. RUBIN Published: July 7, 2006 London

IN 2003, the Bush administration left the war in Afghanistan unfinished and moved on to overthrow Saddam Hussein. This grand diversion of military, intelligence and diplomatic resources not only jeopardized success in Afghanistan but also initiated the collapse of international support and respect for the United States.

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, American and NATO forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban. Leaders like Mullah Muhammad Omar remain at large, and Osama bin Laden emerges regularly to threaten the West and inspire his followers.

It is true that Afghanistan has taken historic steps toward democracy. President Hamid Karzai is doing his best to unify the country, and there has been no insurgency comparable to the one in Iraq. But Afghanistan is hardly the shining example to the Muslim world that George Bush and Tony Blair promised. With warlords and drug barons largely in control and the Pakistani border still porous, the country has become the forgotten front in the war on terrorism.

On June 28, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Kabul to insist that Washington is still committed to Afghanistan. But I was also in the Afghan capital last week, as well as in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. What I heard from military officials, politicians, diplomats and aid workers was this: Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is still winnable, but American involvement is insufficient.

Back in Washington last week, partisan warfare had erupted over a Democratic proposal to establish a timeline for withdrawing American forces from Iraq. Even though the top commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., was working on just such a plan, Republicans battered the Democrats as quitters, unwilling to hang tough in the fight against terrorism.

Next time, the Democrats should try a different strategy. Instead of calling for troop cuts in Iraq, they should call for transferring forces and resources from Iraq to Afghanistan.

American forces are no longer the crucial factor in stabilizing Iraq. That will come only through politics, when Shiites and Sunnis commit to sharing power. But in Afghanistan, our efforts could still be decisive. Afghans are less hostile than Iraqis to American forces. And the British, who are leading the NATO mission set to take over next month, desperately need more combat power and air support in order to finally defeat the Taliban.

By forcing a debate on transferring American forces back to Afghanistan, the Democrats can avoid the trap of allowing Republicans to claim they are weak. They can argue that their proposal is not a withdrawal from the front, but rather a deployment to an equally important front where American leadership can make the difference in securing a long-term victory.

Democrats can justifiably argue their goal is to reverse the Bush administration's premature diversion to Iraq. If nothing else, such a debate would focus attention on the Bush administration's failure to finish the job in Afghanistan.

Americans know that Iraq has become a drain on our resources and reputation, but they are wary of giving up. On the other hand, since the Sept. 11 attacks were planned in Afghanistan, public support for finally finishing off the Taliban and their allies in Al Qaeda can be sustained for a long time to come.

By marrying good policy with good politics in this way, the Democrats can help win the war on terrorism and help themselves at the same time.

James P. Rubin, an assistant secretary of state from 1997 to 2000, is the international news anchor for Sky News.

[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.]