In this bulletin:

• Pakistan president blasts Afghan leader
• Pakistan leader derides Afghan security complaint
• 'More militants die' in Pakistan
• Pakistan choppers attack militants on Afghan border
• Afghan UN worker killed in western Afghanistan
• STATEMENT BY TOM KOENIGS, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY
  GENERAL FOR AFGHANISTAN, ON THE MURDER OF ENG. MOHAMMAD HASHIM
• UN worries over worsening Afghan security
• Three wounded in blast near convoy of Afghan governor
• Second Canadian dies of Afghan injuries
• Canadian soldier injured in Afghan axe attack
• No time to question Canadian role in Afghanistan, says foreign minister
• Where's Osama bin Laden?
• Why Al Qaeda Is At Home In Pakistan
• Parliament approves rule on how to replace a minister
• Truckloads of food burnt in Afghanistan
• Another big Afghan opium crop predicted
• From Taliban mouthpiece to Ivy League undergraduate
  

Pakistan president blasts Afghan leader - CNN 03/06/2006

RAWALPINDI - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf ripped the president of neighboring Afghanistan on Sunday, telling CNN that Hamid Karzai is "totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country."

Tension between the two leaders, both key U.S. allies in the effort to crush al Qaeda, has developed "in the last one or two months," Musharraf told CNN's "Late Edition."

Musharraf was furious over an Associated Press report that Karzai had given Pakistan intelligence suggesting that former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and his associates are hiding in Pakistan.

The report also said Afghanistan gave Pakistan information about locations of alleged terrorist training camps along the border between the two nations.

"I am really surprised and shocked why they have disclosed this to the media," Musharraf told CNN.

"We've already gone through it, this list. Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing," he said. "What there was, the telephone numbers that they are talking of, two-thirds of them are dead numbers, and even the CIA knows about it, because we are sharing all this information with them.

"The location that they are talking of Mullah Omar is nonsense. There's nobody there."

He also accused Karzai of "waiting for a presidential visit to hand me over this list" -- an apparent reference to President Bush's visit to both nations this past week.

"Is that the way intelligence functions? I am totally disappointed with their intelligence, and I feel there is a very, very deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan by some agents, and President Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country."

Musharraf accused Karzai personally of releasing the information publicly, saying he "has raised this accusation against Pakistan." He added, "There is no need of releasing such sensitive information to the press. And he did that. His government people did that, and [that is the reason for] the response, the harsh response that I am now giving against that."

And Musharraf complained of a "conspiracy going on against Pakistan in [Karzai's] ministry of defense and his intelligence setup" and said he had passed on information about it to Karzai. "He better set that right," Musharraf said.

Former members of the Taliban, which sheltered al Qaeda, and wanted al Qaeda members -- including the leader of the terrorist network, Osama bin Laden -- are believed to be near the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have said they are committed to tracking down the wanted individuals and assisting the United States in what the Bush administration has called the war on terrorism.

Karzai was elected in October 2004 after the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan ousted the Taliban following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Musharraf told CNN he helped in Afghanistan's election process, and "if it was not for Pakistan, maybe [Karzai] and his election would not have taken place smoothly."

Musharraf, an army general who assumed power during a bloodless coup in 1999, gave a staunch defense of democratic reforms during Bush's visit Saturday, saying "sustainable democracy" has been introduced.

Bush said part of his visit's purpose was to determine whether Musharraf "is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice -- and he is."

Bush said Pakistan won't receive U.S. help for its civilian nuclear power program as India did, saying that he had explained to Musharraf "that Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories."

Pakistan leader derides Afghan security complaint

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf stepped up a war of words with Afghanistan, deriding accusations the Taliban leader was in Pakistan as nonsense and questioning the Afghan president's leadership.

Musharraf in an interview with CNN late on Sunday, said relations with neighboring Afghanistan were growing tense and President Hamid Karzai was "totally oblivious" to efforts by elements in his government to malign Pakistan.

U.S. President George W. Bush visited both major allies in the war in terrorism last week and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was trying to promote cooperation between the often uneasy neighbors.

"President Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country," Musharraf told CNN. Afghanistan is facing an increasingly vicious insurgency by the Taliban, who have been fighting since they were ousted shortly after the September 11 attacks when Pakistan dropped support for the radical Islamists.

Although Pakistan officially ended its support, many Afghans are convinced the Taliban could not survive and fight without the benefit of Pakistani refuges from where they plot and launch attacks into Afghanistan. Pakistan has long rejected such accusations.

Karzai visited Pakistan last month and handed over what Afghan officials said was detailed information about Taliban members and activities in Pakistan, including telephone numbers and the location of supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

But Musharraf said much of the information was old and useless. "Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing," he said. "The location that they are talking of Mullah Omar is nonsense. There's nobody there. We've gone there exactly and seen that there are families living there and there's no sign of Mullah Omar," he said.

In Kabul, an official in Karzai's office said Musharraf's comments were "highly undiplomatic and inappropriate" but cooperation was "the only way forward."

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah echoed the call for cooperation. "Despite these remarks we believe Afghanistan and Pakistan should have honest cooperation ... based on the two countries' long-term interests," he told a news conference.

Musharraf said he believed there was a conspiracy against his country within Afghanistan's Defense Ministry and intelligence agencies, which are dominated by members of the old Northern Alliance.

The alliance, which helped U.S. forces oust the Taliban, is made up of ethnic Tajik factions traditionally close to Pakistan's old rival, India. "I feel there is a very, very deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan," Musharraf said.

"He should pull up his intelligence, he should pull up his ministry of defense, he should coordinate with our intelligence," Musharraf said, referring to Karzai. "Let me tell you that I passed on a lot of information to him ... what is the conspiracy going on against Pakistan in his ministry of defense and his intelligence setup. "He better set that in order before accusing Pakistan."

Afghanistan's relations with India are blossoming, much to the suspicion of Pakistan which recently accused India and Afghan drug lords of meddling in an insurgency in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Asked about tension with Afghanistan, Musharraf said: "Well, unfortunately, it is developing in the last one or two months."

'More militants die' in Pakistan – BBC

More than 120 militants have died in three days of clashes with Pakistan security forces in the restive area of North Waziristan, the army says. Helicopter gunships have been used to end sporadic but continued resistance around the regional capital Miran shah.

A curfew has been imposed in the city, but many people have reportedly fled. These are the fiercest clashes between army and pro-Taleban militants since the army went into the area three years ago, the BBC's Barbara Plett says.

Several hundred militants seized government buildings in Miran shah on Saturday. It followed the bombing of an alleged militant hideout by security forces last week that killed dozens of people.

On Monday, 19 militants - including foreign militants - were killed when security forces moved in to Miran Shah to retake a telephone exchange building that had been occupied at the weekend, officials said.

Several more militants were killed at a checkpoint overnight. The teenage daughter of a government official was also killed when a rocket hit a residential compound.

"According to latest information, the death toll in 4 March fighting has gone up to more than 100. This is in addition to the 19 killed," Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told the AFP news agency.

Abdul Qayyum, additional secretary for security for the country's tribal areas, said a daytime curfew would be in place, except for three hours in the afternoon to allow people to buy provisions. Electricity was still cut off in the town but telephone services have been restored to some extent, officials said.

The military authorities expelled the BBC's Haroon Rashid from the area after detaining him for several hours at a security checkpoint on Monday morning on his way to Miran Shah. The officials did not give a reason for the detention.

Two other journalists working for foreign agencies have also been barred from entering the town. Thousands of people have already fled the town while many more continue to leave to escape the clashes, witnesses said.

"We were waiting for the day. It was fighting all night and we feared that we might be hit by fire from a helicopter," Mohammad Anwar, a resident who was fleeing with his family told the Associated Press. "Helicopter gunships have been pounding militant positions around Miran Shah... the situation is very tense," another resident told the Reuters news agency.

Our correspondent says Miran Shah wears a deserted look and most of the women and children have moved off to nearby areas. For more than three years, the army has been trying to flush out foreign Islamic extremists and their local supporters in this tribal area along the Afghan border.

Pakistan choppers attack militants on Afghan border - By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces battled Islamist rebels holding out in a town near the Afghan border on Monday, killing 19 of them as the toll from three days of clashes rose to more than 120, the military said.

The pro-Taliban rebels launched attacks on government positions in Miranshah town on Saturday as U.S. President George W. Bush was meeting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the capital and the fighting has raged since then.

"Helicopter gunships have been pounding militant positions around Miranshah," a resident of the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region said on Monday. "The situation is very tense."

The semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun lands along the Afghan border are Pakistan's front line in the war on terrorism.

Many al Qaeda militants fled to the area awash with weapons after U.S. and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, and were given refuge by Taliban supporters among the Pashtun clans.

Pakistani forces have been trying to clear foreign militants from the border and subdue their Pakistani allies since late 2004 and hundreds of people have been killed.

Government forces faced stiff resistance as they tried to clear the last of the rebels from Miranshah on Monday, said military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. "Troops engaged the miscreants and killed 19 of them," he said.

Militants launched attacks and seized government buildings in Miranshah on Saturday in revenge for the killing on Wednesday of 45 of their comrades in a government attack.

The toll from the first day of fighting had gone up to more than 100 militants from 46 as more detailed reports came in, Sultan said. Two militants were killed on Sunday. Five troops were killed and two wounded over the three days, he said.

Thousands of residents had left Miranshah since last week's violence and the exodus was continuing on Monday, said the resident who, like many people in the town, is fearful of militant reprisals and declined to be identified.

Sultan said government forces had retaken control of the town. The region's security chief, Arbab Shehzad, said a curfew had been lifted for three hours to let people find food.

The town's telephone service had been partially restored after the army took back the exchange and troops were in control of the main market, the resident said. Waziristan has a long history of military intervention.

Britain won over some Pashtun tribes and made the region its first line of defense from perceived Russian designs on British India in the nineteenth century.

In the 1980s, a flood of U.S.-funded weapons and Islamist fighters poured into the area to bolster the Muslim holy war against Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan.

Today, Afghanistan complains of Taliban and other militants infiltrating from Waziristan and other Pakistani border areas to launch attacks against the U.S.-backed government and U.S.-led foreign troops there.

The Afghan violence has strained relations between the uneasy neighbors, with Musharraf on Sunday deriding accusations the Taliban leader was in Pakistan as nonsense, and questioning Afghan President Hamid Karzai's leadership.

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan declined to comment on the row but welcomed the Pakistani action in Waziristan. "We see this as a very positive move," Colonel Jim Yonts told a briefing in Kabul. "This issue in Waziristan is an example that they are fighting the war on terrorism."

Pakistan said on Sunday for the first time the Waziristan violence was directly related to the Taliban insurgency and Pakistani areas would only be brought under control when the Afghan side of the border was stable.

Afghan UN worker killed in western Afghanistan - 06 Mar 2006

KABUL, March 6 (Reuters) - An Afghan working for the United Nations was shot dead in the west of Afghanistan at the weekend, a provincial governor said on Monday.

The killing took place in the Zairkoa area on the border between Farah province and neighbouring Herat on Sunday, Farah Governor Ezatullah Wasfi said. The victim worked for the U.N. HABITAT agency, he said.

The governor said it was unclear if the killing was the work of Taliban insurgents, or provoked by a tribal rivalry.

Two U.N. staff members were killed in Afghanistan last year, but attacks by Taliban insurgents on aid workers have declined while those on government officials and security forces have increased. A U.N. spokesman said he was not immediately able to comment.

STATEMENT BY TOM KOENIGS, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY
GENERAL FOR AFGHANISTAN, ON THE MURDER OF ENG. MOHAMMAD HASHIM

I am shocked and greatly saddened to have learned today of the murder of a cherished colleague in the development community, Eng. Mohammad Hashim. I offer my full condolences to Mr. Hashim’s family and his colleagues.

Mr. Hashim’s death is a great loss for Afghanistan and for all of us in the United Nations family here. The death of such a treasured colleague will be a matter of enormous sadness to those who knew him, and to all who care about Afghanistan’s rebuilding.

Mr. Hashim, an Afghan national, was contracted by the UN Human Settlements Programme, UN HABITAT, and worked on the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) in Farah province.

He was undertaking a monitoring visit to NSP communities and project sites in Bala Buluk district of Farah province on the morning of Saturday March 4th, when six armed men stopped the vehicle he was travelling in.

Mr. Hashim was dragged from the car and shot dead. Community Council members travelling with him tried to intervene, but were unsuccessful.

KABUL, March 6th 2006
The Office of Communications and Public Information
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

UN worries over worsening Afghan security
KABUL, March 6, 2006 (AFP) - The UN mission in Afghanistan said Monday it was worried about deteriorating security in the country's insurgency-hit south, with increasing violence hampering sorely needed reconstruction.

"We are concerned," spokesman Adrian Edwards said when asked about a string of attacks over the winter, a season which in previous years has seen a decrease in violence linked to Taliban rebels, other militants and criminals. "This does seem to be an increasing trend," Edwards said, citing 12 suicide attacks so far this year.

Such attacks were rare in conflict-plagued Afghanistan until late September, marking an apparent "Iraqification" of the insurgency launched by the Taliban after it was removed from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

"Overall there seems to be a different threat, more sophisticated with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and suicide attacks. Some incidents are related to insurgency or terrorism, others to organised crime," Edwards said.

Destitute Afghanistan's efforts to rebuild after 25 years of war has been hobbled by the insurgency, which has included attacks on foreign and Afghan aid workers.

Last week attackers destroyed 29 tonnes of wheat from the World Food Programme in central Uruzgan province. "Without doubt, the job of reconstruction and development is becoming more difficult in this environment," Edwards said.

Security was a key component of the Afghan Compact, a blueprint for Afghanistan's development adopted by the country's international partners in London last month, and "we need to work hand in hand to address the problem", he said.

Violence, much of it blamed on the insurgency, has claimed more and more lives in Afghanistan every year since the Taliban were toppled for refusing to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Last year about 1,600 people were killed, many of them militants, and around 150 people have already died this year.

Three wounded in blast near convoy of Afghan governor
Web posted at: 3/6/2006 1:5:20 Source: AFP

KABUL: A bomb planted on a motorbike exploded as a provincial governor was passing in northern Afghanistan yesterday and wounded three bystanders, the governor said, adding he may have been the target.

Provincial governor Munshi Abdul Majeed said the bomb exploded in Faizabad, the capital of northeastern Badaskhshan province, just a few metres (yards) from his convoy.

“We had just passed the area when the bomb went off,” he told AFP. “It seemed it was aimed at us.” He said three civilians were slightly injured and treated at the scene.

Majeed blamed “anti-government” elements for the attack, which was similar to others pinned on rebels loyal to the ousted Taliban government waging an insurgency focussed in the south and east of the war-torn country.

Northern Badakshan has been largely free from the violence that continues to plague Afghanistan after the extremist Taliban were overthrown in a US-led attack in late 2001 for not surrendering Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Violence blamed largely on Taleban rebels and militants allied to them has claimed thousands of lives since the ouster of the regime. More than 1,700 people died in violence last year, many of them attackers.

Another nearly 150 Afghans — mainly rebels — and around 10 of the roughly 20,000 foreign troops hunting militants have also died in Afghanistan this year.

They include two Canadians who died after a car crash in southern Kandahar province. Seven US soldiers have died in hostile action in Afghanistan this year.

Another Canadian soldier was flown to Germany Sunday for medical treatment after being hit on the head with an axe during a meeting of village elders in southern Afghanistan.

The affiliation of the attacker was unclear. A trait of the insurgency is the frequent torching of fuel tankers supplying foreign or Afghan forces. Two more were gutted Sunday in insurgency-hit Helmand province but the drivers were unharmed, a district police chief said.

The unrest has also seen about 25 suicide bombings since September, several car bomb attacks, the torching of schools and the assassination of people associated with the government, including teachers, clerics and aid workers.

Second Canadian dies of Afghan injuries

KABUL (Reuters) 03.05.06 - A second Canadian soldier died on Sunday of injuries received when an armored vehicle overturned in southern Afghanistan and another was in serious condition following an ax attack during a meeting with tribal elders.

Master Corporal Timothy Wilson died early on Sunday at a U.S. military hospital at Landstuhl, Germany, three days after the accident in Kandahar province, Canadian military spokesman Lieutenant Mark MacIntyre said.

Lieutenant Trevor Greene from British Columbia, who was struck with an ax to the head during a meeting with tribal elders in Kandahar on Saturday, remained in serious condition at Landstuhl, where he was evacuated on Sunday.

MacIntyre said Greene had removed his helmet as a sign of respect for the elders he was meeting and was sitting on the ground with them when he was attacked from behind.

Canadian soldiers opened fire and killed the attacker, whose identity was unknown. MacIntyre said a grenade was also thrown at the gathering, but it caused no casualties.

Wilson's death brought Canadian fatalities in Afghanistan to at least 11 since 2001, when U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban for refusing to give up Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda leaders responsible for the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

Another soldier died on Thursday after the vehicle carrying Canadian troops overturned during a patrol near Kandahar. Canada's defense minister, Gordon O'Connor, said the latest death underscored the risks of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, but said the military was aware of those risks.

"They understand that their presence in Afghanistan is necessary to help the Afghan people have a better future," he said in a statement. "And most of all, they understand that it is necessary to protect Canada from the scourge of terrorism."

The volatile south of Afghanistan has been hit by a spate of militant-related violence in the past week that coincided with a visit to South Asia by U.S. President George W. Bush.

In northern Afghanistan on Sunday, a vehicle of the NATO-led peacekeeping force was damaged by an explosion in the city of Faizabad, but there were no casualties, force spokeswoman Commander Sue Eagles said.

The blast went off between two NATO vehicles, she said. A Taliban spokesman said its guerrillas carried out the attack, which occurred in an area where they are rarely active. A NATO spokesman declined to identify the troops attacked, but German, Czech and Danish troops are based in Faizabad.
On Friday, five soldiers with the 2,300-strong Canadian force in Kandahar were wounded, one seriously, in a suspected suicide car bombing that followed a wave of such attacks in recent months that have killed dozens. Elsewhere in the province on Saturday, a French special forces officer was killed in a clash in which two militants were also reported killed.

The violence has been part of an intensified insurgency that has claimed more than 1,500 lives since the start of last year, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's overthrow.

Militants have also attacked in Helmand province adjoining Kandahar, where British troops are deploying as part of an expanded NATO deployment aimed at allowing Washington to cut its troop numbers in Afghanistan.

Canadian soldier injured in Afghan axe attack
Updated Sun. Mar. 5 2006 8:01 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff

Canadian soldiers saw a routine tribal meeting in Afghanistan turn into an ambush, with one officer critically wounded by an axe-wielding assailant.

"The guy lifted up the axe, and called out Allah Akbar, the jihad prayer, before they do suicides, and he swung the axe into Trevor's head," Capt. Kevin Schamuhn, the platoon commander, told CTV News on Saturday (an audio account of the incident by Schamuhn is available in the video section at right).

Canadian soldiers shot and killed the attacker, who was in his 20s.

A helicopter took the reservist soldier, Lieut. Trevor Greene of Vancouver, from the village of Gumbad to the hospital at Kandahar Airfield where he underwent treatment.

He is in serious but stable condition and will be transferred to a U.S.-operated military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, said CTV's Steve Chao from Kandahar.

CTV's Lisa LaFlamme told Newsnet the soldiers believed Greene had been killed by the attack until a medic inspected him and found that he still had vital signs. Greene, who serves with the Vancouver based Seaforth Highlanders infantry unit, is also a journalist and published author.

Here was one ominous sign that no one picked up on, Schamuhn said: "About two or three minutes prior to the incident, all the children that were present were escorted away, twenty to thirty metres away. We were completely vulnerable to them and they took full advantage of that."

Once the attack on Green happened, Schamuhn said: "There was a whole bunch of explosions and a pretty heavy volume of fire. It turns out we were under fire from the south of the river, which is on the adjacent bank."

Later, another insurgent attempted to throw a grenade at the troops but was unsuccessful. After the firefight, Afghan and Canadian soldiers found all fighting-age men vanished from the village. All they found were old men, women and children.

Even the leaders -- who had welcomed them with blankets, breads and meats -- disappeared. No one from the village would identify the attacker. LaFlamme said the attacks took place during a shura, where Canadian soldiers meet with local residents to learn what their concerns are in an attempt to gain trust and build relationships.

The soldiers have held four previous such gatherings, which have all been successful. "They are absolutely important," LaFlamme said. "We were on several this week. And this is where Canadian troops go and engage the locals to gain their trust.

"In these conversations the goal is to find out what the concerns of the community are … They had been going extremely well before this attack happened."

In previous meetings, the soldiers had offered blankets, toys and soccer balls. The last meeting was said to have been the most welcome. Chao said the Gumbad area, about 70 kilometres from Kandahar, is traditional Taliban territory and has been the scene of many attacks on U.S. troops in recent months.

The area has narrow, twisting roads that provide prime spots for insurgents to mount ambush attacks, making troops feel like "sitting ducks," he said.

"This area of Gumbad is well known not only to soldiers but to many people in Kandahar. It is a hotbed of insurgent activity," Chao said.

Military commanders have stressed that Canadian troops in Afghanistan will face danger and death to accomplish their purpose. "The Canadians have been up there trying to push out the Taliban," Chao said. "From the start the Canadian commander said as soon as they took over command, which happened this week, they would begin to push out, make their presence known throughout the province of Kandahar so the Taliban could be pushed out of the area."

It has been a difficult week for Canadian troops. On Friday a suicide bomber drove his vehicle into the side of an armoured vehicle and detonated his explosives, injuring five Canadian soldiers -- one seriously.

Master Cpl. Michael Loewen, who suffered the most serious injuries in the Friday attack, will require major reconstructive surgery to save his arm, a surgeon told The Canadian Press. Loewen was taken to the U.S. combat casualty hospital at Landstuhl, Germany Friday night. Four others had minor wounds and will be allowed to return to duty.

The Friday attack came as coalition forces were mourning the death of Canadian Cpl. Paul Davis, who died Thursday when his armoured vehicle rolled over.

Davis' body will be repatriated to Canada on Sunday. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier will be among those paying their respects when the body arrives at C.F.B. Trenton in Ontario, ahead of a full military funeral.

A suicide bomb killed Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry six weeks ago. In total, two Canadians have died and about 20 have been injured in Afghanistan this year, as the Canadian presence in Afghanistan increased to about 2,200 troops.

With a report from CTV's Steve Chao

No time to question Canadian role in Afghanistan, says foreign minister

OTTAWA (CP) - Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says that despite mounting casualties in Afghanistan, Canadians should be standing behind their troops rather than questioning their deployment.

"This is the type of mission that is demanded in this day and age," MacKay said. "Terrorism, which has its roots in Afghanistan, is something that we have committed to fight with our allies."

MacKay said it would have been preferable if the former Liberal government had held a parliamentary vote before dispatching the first Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan in 2002, as part of a U.S.-led coalition sent to root out al-Qaida operatives and the Taliban government that had protected them. Now that the troops are there, the Conservatives are determined to continue down the path charted by their predecessors, said MacKay.

"The last thing we want to show is any wavering or any backing away from the commitment of our Canadian troops. We have to be 100 per cent behind them."
His comments came as the remains of the latest two soldiers to perish on the Afghan mission were being flown to CFB Trenton, Ont. Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson and Cpl. Paul Davis succumbed to injuries suffered when their armoured vehicle accidentally rolled over.

A dozen others were hurt in the last week in accidents, bombings and rocket-propelled grenade attacks. The most seriously wounded were Cpl. Michael Loewen, who will need reconstructive surgery to save an arm after a suicide bomb attack, and Lieut. Treveor Greene, who took an axe to the head when he was ambushed at a meeting with village elders.

New Democrats and some Liberals have been calling for a debate when the Commons resumes next month and a vote on whether to continue the mission. NDP Leader Jack Layton contended Sunday that the nature of the deployment has changed for the 2,200 Canadians currently in Afghanistan.

"We certainly don't want to become involved in a protracted war," Layton said. "The goal of Canadians being in Afghanistan was in our more traditional role of peacekeeping, peacemaking."

Ujjal Dosanjh, the new Liberal defence critic, has also maintained that the situation has changed and has pressed for renewed debate on the mission.
That drew a sharp rebuke last week from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who accused the Liberals of playing politics now that they're in opposition.

"You do not send men and women into harm's way on a dangerous mission with the support of our party and other Canadians, and then decide, once they're over there, that you're not sure you should have sent them," said Harper.

Opposition Leader Bill Graham, when he was defence minister, warned last year of the potential for casualties in operations around Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan.

So did Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, who more recently has suggested it could take a decade to rebuild the country. It appears many Canadians either ignored the warnings or have had a change of heart since then. Opinion polls suggest declining public support for the mission in the wake of the recent casualties.

One survey by Strategic Counsel indicated 62 per cent of respondents were against the deployment. Another poll by Ipsos-Reid, with questions framed differently, found 52 per cent support for the mission, but that was down from 66 per cent in 2002.

The first Canadian contingent dispatched four years ago engaged in combat operations. Starting in 2003, however, the Canadian focus shifted to much less dangerous patrol duties in the capital of Kabul. That has changed again with the move to Kandahar, where Canadians again face a hostile environment and renewed attacks by insurgents.

Where's Osama bin Laden? -By Peter Bergen The Washington Post, March 5, 2006

When I visited Osama bin Laden's former base in Tora Bora little more than a year ago, I climbed steep, scree-covered slopes to reach his Afghan house, perched high above the snow line and commanding views of verdant valleys several thousand feet below. The hamlet, known as Milawa, comprised several lookout posts strung out along ridgelines, a bakery, bin Laden's two-bedroom house and even a crude swimming pool, all of which had been destroyed by U.S. air strikes in December 2001. It is a place where bin Laden seems to have been very happy. He once told Abdel Bari Atwan, a Palestinian journalist, "I really enjoy my life when I'm here. I feel secure in this place."

It is also the place from which bin Laden staged one of history's great disappearing acts. His escape from those air strikes during the battle of Tora Bora has become part of al-Qaida's mythology: In an audiotape aired on Al-Jazeera in February 2003, bin Laden boasted: "We were only 300 fighters. We had already dug 100 trenches spread out in a space that didn't exceed one square mile ... American forces were bombing us by smart bombs that weigh thousands of pounds."

Shortly after the release of that tape, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked why the United States had not been able to find the terrorist leader. "It's very hard to find a single individual in the world. It's a big place," Rumsfeld explained, adding: "He's either alive — he's alive and injured badly — or he's dead. Who knows?"

Today, bin Laden remains stubbornly alive, as demonstrated by another audiotape released in recent weeks in which he offered a truce to the United States, should it withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and vowed never to be taken alive. Indeed, he has proved such a successful fugitive that it's worth asking some of the questions that underlie the continuing U.S. efforts to track down the al-Qaida leader: Does finding him really matter? What makes him so difficult to capture? And, if Osama bin Laden is finally located, would it be better to capture him or to kill him?

Why bother? - According to recent USA Today polls, seven out of eight Americans believe that it is important to capture or kill bin Laden, while 75 percent believe he is planning a significant attack on the United States. These numbers suggest that bringing bin Laden to justice would be a key psychological victory in the war on terrorism.

There is another reason that finding bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, is important. Bin Laden may no longer be calling people on a satellite phone to order attacks, but he remains in broad ideological and strategic control of al-Qaida around the world. An indicator of this is that two years ago, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent commander in Iraq, renamed his organization al-Qaida in the Land of the Two Rivers and publicly swore bayat, a religiously binding oath of allegiance, to bin Laden.

Moreover, the 35 video and audiotapes that bin Laden and al-Zawahri have released since 9/11 have reached tens of millions of people worldwide through television, newspapers and the Internet, making them among the most widely distributed political statements in history. Those tapes have not only had the effect of pumping up al-Qaida's base, but some have also carried specific instructions that jihadists have acted upon. In 2004, for example, bin Laden offered a truce to European countries willing to pull out of the coalition in Iraq. Almost exactly a year after his offer expired, explosions on London's public transportation system killed 56 people. On a subsequent videotape, al-Zawahri explained that the bombings came as a result of the British government ignoring bin Laden's offer.

Why is it so hard? - Rumsfeld has a point. It can be difficult to find any fugitive, even one who stands out as much as bin Laden (who is 6 foot 5). Think of Eric Rudolph, the object of one of the most intense manhunts in U.S. history, who remained on the run for five years after bombing Atlanta's Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympics. Or the alleged Bosnian-Serb war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic, whose arrest was reported and then denied by Serbian authorities two weeks ago — more than a decade after he was indicted for genocide. Now imagine the challenge of capturing bin Laden, who is likely in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Afghanistan's border — an area of 30,000 dauntingly inhospitable square miles.

The United States has had some success locating terrorists in Pakistan. Mir Aimal Kansi, who killed two CIA employees in 1993 outside the agency's Langley headquarters, was tracked down four years later in the obscure town of Dera Ismail Khan. His capture was the result of a carefully cultivated network of informants and the payment of a substantial reward to the person who dropped a dime on Kansi.

But those in bin Laden's immediate circle do not seem to be tempted by the promise of rewards. There were no takers for the $5 million bounty the State Department put on his head following the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa. And there seem to be no takers now for the payout, which has risen to $27 million. (Throw in al-Zawahri, and the total reaches $52 million.)

What's more, bin Laden seems to have long been preparing for life on the run, adopting a lifestyle of monk-like detachment from material comforts. One Palestinian journalist who interviewed him in Afghanistan in 1996 recalls that dinner for bin Laden and some of his inner circle consisted of salty cheese, a potato, five or six fried eggs and bread caked with sand. Noman Benotman, a Libyan who once fought with al-Qaida, told me that bin Laden used to instruct his followers, "You should learn to sacrifice everything from modern life like electricity, air conditioning, refrigerators, gasoline. If you are living the luxury life, it's very hard to evacuate and go to the mountains to fight."

Where exactly is he? - There doesn't seem to be much intelligence about bin Laden's exact whereabouts. The conventional wisdom is that he is somewhere in the tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, but it is clear from the most recent videotapes of bin Laden and al-Zawahri that they are not living in caves. Both men's clothes are clean and well-pressed, and the tapes that they have released are well-shot productions suggesting access either to electrical outlets or generators to run lights.

Their statements have also been notably well-informed about what is going on around the world. In his most recent videotape, bin Laden made a reference to the scene in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" where President Bush continued to read a story about a goat to a kindergarten class after he had been informed that passenger jets had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Comments like that suggest that if bin Laden and al-Zawahri are indeed in the tribal areas, they are in a compound either in, or near, one of the larger towns with access to modern amenities.

One U.S. military official familiar with the hunt told me he believes bin Laden "has been hunkered down in one place for a long time," making it harder to track him, whereas al-Zawahri is "more operational and is moving more." That may explain the January U.S. air strike aimed at killing Zawahiri in the village of Damadola, on Pakistan's Afghan border. It resulted in the death of five alleged terrorists, but about two weeks later al-Zawahri released a videotape thumbing his nose at President Bush.

How to go about it? - Probably not by signals intelligence generated from phone calls. Bin Laden had been careful not to use satellite or cellphones since long before the 9/11 attacks. According to his media adviser, Khalid al-Fawaz, whom I met in London in 1997, bin Laden had already learned to avoid electronic communications. Bin Laden has released only one tape in the past 14 months, possibly because al-Qaida leaders are aware that every time they do so, they open themselves to detection as the chain of custody of these tapes is the one sure way of finding them.

One possible vulnerability is bin Laden's immediate family, with whom he may remain in contact. Three of bin Laden's wives, along with a dozen or so children, chose to remain with him when he adopted the jihadist life. After the fall of the Taliban, they all disappeared. My hunch is that they are under the protection of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a formidable Taliban commander who has known bin Laden since the 1980s. Haqqani's forces are spread from Khost in eastern Afghanistan to Waziristan in western Pakistan, sites of some of the most intense recent fighting.

Are we getting the help we need? - Pakistanis certainly feel that they have done more than their share. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military dictator, has survived at least two assassination attempts engineered by al-Qaida and its affiliates in the past two years; hundreds of his security and army personnel have been killed, and Pakistani law enforcement has participated in the arrest of half a dozen key al-Qaida operatives. But the continuing presence of its leaders in Pakistan indicates that al-Qaida has found a congenial place to relocate itself, close to its former bases in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden has long enjoyed popularity among Pakistanis. In 2004 a Pew poll found al-Qaida's leader had a 65 percent favorability rating. However, in a poll released in mid-December by ACNeilsen Pakistan, the number of Pakistanis expressing a positive view of bin Laden had fallen to 33 percent. This comes at the same time that Pakistanis are expressing more favorable views of the United States — 46 percent — as a result of American relief efforts following October's devastating earthquake.

Perhaps these more-positive attitudes about the United States provide an opening that President Bush can exploit on his trip to Pakistan to advocate for some kind of role for U.S. forces on the ground in the tribal areas. Right now the key weakness in the U.S. hunt for bin Laden is that its soldiers are not allowed to operate openly on Pakistani territory. Granting such a request would entail political risks for Musharraf, who is widely seen as a stooge of the Bush administration (and often referred to as Busharraf).

Dead or alive? - Making bin Laden a martyr would not serve our interests. Instead, he should be subjected to the same treatment that Saddam Hussein suffered when he was captured — checked for head lice and publicly humiliated on camera. Bin Laden is now a mythic personality, and the best way to revert him to the status of an ordinary human being is to treat him like one. (One U.S. official told me, though, that if al-Qaida's leader were captured, it would likely produce a significant backlash — Americans being taken hostage with the aim of freeing him.)

It is, however, unlikely that he will be captured. Last year, his former bodyguard, Abu Jandal, told the al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, "Sheikh Osama gave me a pistol. The pistol had only two bullets, for me to kill Sheikh Osama with in case we were surrounded or he was about to fall into the enemy's hands so that he would not be caught alive."

Of course, bin Laden may make a mistake that reveals his location and makes him vulnerable to American Predator drones. If the United States felt it had intelligence about bin Laden's location, the pressure to launch a missile strike immediately would be intense, despite the risk of his ensuing martyrdom and a rash of anti-American attacks.

As bin Laden himself put it to Jandal, if he were killed, "his blood would become a beacon that arouses the zeal and determination of his followers." The man who once enjoyed a quiet rural life in the mountains of Tora Bora aims in death to ascend into the pantheon of Islamic heroes — a Saladin for the 21st century "martyred" by those he calls "the Crusaders."

Why Al Qaeda Is At Home In Pakistan

Terror Organization Believed to Be Drawing Less From Arabs, More From South Asia - ABC News -U.S.A Analysis by ALEXIS DEBAT

March 3, 2006 -- The Secret Service is not the only agency losing sleep over President Bush's trip to Pakistan. In many ways, the security challenges of the trip pale in comparison to the many riddles and incongruities that other parts of the foreign policy bureaucracy have been trying to overcome regarding this trip.

First and foremost among the administration's preoccupations is to fully understand the nature and structure of the terror threat in Pakistan. The bombing Thursday in Karachi illustrates a fundamental and irreversible mutation in the nature of al Qaeda. Although it is still too early to formally identify the perpetrators, and — as in the London bombings — we may never fully uncover the attack's trail back to Osama bin Laden or his lieutenants, it is safe to assume that the attack is the product of a phenomenon best described as the "Pakistanization" of al Qaeda.

While it was created in Pakistan in 1988, and with important input from several Pakistani clerics and veterans of the jihad against the Soviets, al Qaeda remained for many years essentially an Arab organization, drawing mostly on Ayman al Zawahri's Egyptian terrorist networks and bin Laden's Saudi and Yemeni recruits.

Shortly after the Taliban, with the help of around 6,000 Pakistani fighters, secured control over Afghanistan, bin Laden decided to move al Qaeda's headquarters back to Afghanistan and establish training camps for its volunteers recruited all around the world.

But under the precarious "deal" that kept the Saudi under the protection of the Pakistani-sponsored Taliban in Afghanistan, al Qaeda also had to provide military training and ideological indoctrination to Pakistani Sunni militants fighting — sometimes directly on behalf of their government — for a wide variety of nationalist and religious causes, including the independence of Kashmir and the establishment of a strictly Sunni theocracy in Pakistan.

The 'Rolodex of Jihad'

According to Pakistani intelligence sources, thousands of members of such violent militant groups as Lashkar e Taiba, Lashkar e Jhangvi, Jaish Muhammad, Harakat ul Mujahideen, and Hakarat ul Ansar (to name only a few) were sent to the 22 training camps set up by al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Some were from mainstream political parties, such as Jamaat e Islami or Jamaat ul Ansar.

1998, most of these jihadi groups had relocated the bulk of their force in or around al Qaeda's training camps, where they soon became trainers. These volunteers would serve as the military backbone of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and would only venture out to Pakistan to conduct guerrilla operations in Kashmir or attacks on the Shiite community, which make up around 17 percent of the population of Pakistan.

These militants would also conduct "joint operations" with al Qaeda, such as the high-profile assassination attempt on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1998.

The chief liaison between al Qaeda and this community of Pakistani militants, according to Pakistani military sources, was a 25-year-old Harakat ul Ansar militant named Amjad Farooqi, who, along with his young deputy Matiur Rehman, compiled a massive log listing the name, affiliation, skills set and contact information of every Pakistani militant trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan. This "Rolodex of Jihad," as it is sometimes referred to in the Western intelligence community, was to serve as a database for recruiting volunteers for future terrorist operations in South Asia and the West.

After its uncomfortable retreat in Pakistan in late 2001, al Qaeda was forced to rely on this vast community of Pakistani militants for its survival and the continuity of its activities. With the help of millions of dollars of bin Laden's money, and in close cooperation with al Qaeda's operations chief — and 9/11 mastermind — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (also a Pakistani), the two "archivists" of the al Qaeda-Pakistani nexus, Amjad Farooqi and Matiur Rehman, drew heavily on their "directory" to lay out an extensive and clandestine logistical infrastructure for al Qaeda's senior leadership on the run in Pakistan, as well as conduct several "joint operations" such as the assassination of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

With the help of these militants, whose organizations were officially "banned" (but never seriously dismantled) by the Pakistani government in 2001 and 2002, such high-profile targets of the American-Pakistani "war on terror" as Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (all involved in the planning of 9/11) were able to navigate clandestinely throughout Pakistan's urban areas for several months before being arrested (always as the result of an American intelligence operation).

According to Pakistani military and civilian sources, Abu Zubaydah was picked up in March 2002 in Faisalabad in the villa of a local militant of the Pakistani militant group Laskhar e Taiba. Ramzi Binalshibh, who helped coordinate the 9/11 hijackings, was arrested in Karachi several months later, in September 2002, in the house of a Jaish Mohammed militant. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in March 2003 a few hundred yards from where Bush will land in Rawalpindi, in the house of a retired officer of Pakistan's intelligence service and local official of Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan's main Islamic party, which also had developed deep ties to al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Shortly before his arrest, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed laid out with Amjad Farooqi a broad and ambitious plan to "merge" al Qaeda with the Pakistani jihadi "grid," which had essentially broken into hundreds of small cells of no more than 20 operatives, making it extremely difficult for the Pakistani security services to identify its many connections. This fundamental overhaul was designed to provide al Qaeda both with new operational capabilities as well as with a broader, stealthier, and more secure logistical and financial base in Pakistan. After Mohammed's arrest in March 2003, this fundamental task of rebuilding al Qaeda into a largely Pakistani operation was left to his deputy, Abu Faraj al Libbi, in close coordination with Farooqi and Rehman.

The War on Terror Starts in Washington - This cooperation did not take long to bear fruit. In late 2003, Farooqi and Rehman provided the "muscle" for several Al Qaeda operations, including the two consecutive assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003 as well as the bombing of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's convoy in July 2004, all of which, according to Pakistani intelligence sources, were ordered by Ayman al Zawahri and planned by Abu Faraj al Libbi. This "nexus" between al Qaeda and the Pakistani militants community also emerged as a major focus of interest in the investigation conducted by the CIA and its British counterpart MI6 both into the international connections of al Qaeda's "computer expert" Mohammed Noor Khan (arrested in Lahore in July 2004), as well as the Pakistani connection to the July 7, 2005, London bombings, which has yet to reach definitive conclusions.

When Amjad Farooqi was gunned down in a shootout with the police in Karachi in September 2004, his deputy, Matiur Rehman, inherited his boss's "Rolodex of Jihad" as well as his ever closer links with al Qaeda. Now teamed up with Al Libbi's third in command Abu Suleiman, according to Pakistani military and civilian sources, Matiur Rehman is now Pakistan's "most wanted" with a price tag of 10 million Rupees ($166,000). As reported by ABC News' Brian Ross on March 1, he is believed to be shuttling between Karachi, where he draws most of his support, and the tribal areas, where al Qaeda's senior leadership is still suspected to be hiding.

While it is too early to conclude that he had anything to do with today's Karachi bombings, Pakistani intelligence sources indicate that Matiur Rehman is actively involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against the United States.

The texture and extent of this threat present intricate challenges for Bush, who will have to pressure the Musharraf while giving him guarantees that the United States will remain engaged in Pakistan over the long term, regardless of both the future of democracy and the outcome of the war on terror there. There is no doubt that the Pakistani government is keeping the terrorist threat alive on its territory to secure from the United States government the guarantee of a long-term relationship not unlike the one that has been so easily offered to India. Bush will have little choice but to deal with that diplomatic blackmail. But giving Pakistan what it wants will involve some very tough decisions on the part of the president, his advisers and — most important — his few remaining supporters on Capitol Hill. As usual, the war on terror starts in Washington.

Parliament approves rule on how to replace a minister - Pajhwok 03/05/2006

KABUL - The Upper House Saturday approved rules on how to select another person as cabinet minister in case any of the existing ones fails to get vote of confidence from the parliament.

According to the new procedure, President Hamid Karzai will propose a name in case a minister is rejected by the parliament. He will then get vote of confidence from the parliament. If the next man also fails to get confidence vote, then the president will have to select another individual until he is approved through majority vote.

The MPs hold extensive discussion on the rule which was approved before conclusion of the day. According to the procedures, the cabinet ministers will brief the parliament about activities, achievements and future plans of his ministry and then will present himself before the parliamentarians for confidence vote.

The 27 member cabinet was appointed by President Hamid Karzai after winning the December 2004 presidential elections with a bigger margin.

Truckloads of food burnt in Afghanistan – Dawn

KABUL, March 5: Attackers torched two trucks hired by the World Food Programme and destroyed 29 tons of food aid destined for 1,200 needy people in destitute Afghanistan, the UN body said on Sunday.

“Unidentified criminals” stopped the commercial trucks in insurgency-hit south-central Uruzgan province early Thursday and burned them, destroying wheat valued at 9,300 dollars, the programme said in a statement.

“The two drivers reported being threatened and beaten. The trucks were then burned and the food was destroyed,” it said.

The wheat was meant for about 1,200 “vulnerable people” working on a food-for-work project that involved the rehabilitation of a 40-kilometre stretch of road in the province.

“While the matter is still under investigation by government authorities, WFP regrets that valuable food could not reach hungry people in the region,” it said. “The World Food Programme calls on all to allow humanitarian goods to reach the poorest people in Afghanistan.”

BOMB BLAST: A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded as a provincial governor was passing in northern Afghanistan on Sunday and wounded three bystanders, the governor said, adding he may have been the target.

Provincial governor Munshi Abdul Majeed said the bomb exploded in Faizabad, the capital of northeastern Badaskhshan province, just a few metres from his convoy.

“We had just passed the area when the bomb went off,” he told AFP. “It seemed it was aimed at us.” He said three civilians were slightly injured and treated at the scene.

Majeed blamed “anti-government” elements for the attack, which was similar to others pinned on rebels loyal to the ousted Taliban government waging an insurgency focussed in the south and east of the war-torn country.—AFP

Another big Afghan opium crop predicted - Financial Times By Daniel Dombey in London - March 3 2006

Afghanistan's opium harvest in 2006 will be at least as big as last year's, a United Nations report has predicted. The survey, produced by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Afghan ministry of counternarcotics, adds that a big rise in poppy cultivation this year is expected in the south of the country - where Nato is set to send 7,000 troops.

After a decline in cultivation in 2005, the study reports that "the situation is different this year". It adds: "Villagers have already planted crops on a scale equal to or exceeding that of 2005, on the basis of which opium poppy cultivation in the majority of Afghanistan's provinces is not expected to decrease in 2006."

Although the report says a government eradication campaign this year may turn the trend around, it adds that many farmers do not believe the Kabul administration will manage to ban poppy cultivation or destroy crops.

It says that in areas such as the southern Helmand province, to which the UK is sending 3,300 Nato troops, "a sharp increase in cultivation is expected".

Kim Howells, minister of state at the UK Foreign Office, said that the drugs crackdown had previously not been sufficiently well targeted at the "wheeler dealers" who profited from drugs, and acknowledged that some Afghan regional politicians could still be involved in the trade.

He added that drugs traffickers were often well armed in Afghanistan, and were sometimes equipped with anti-aircraft weaponry. But he said it was still up to the Afghan forces - rather than Nato - to lead the counternarcotics effort.

"We don't go in to knock crops down, but we try to provide a degree of security," he said. Mr Howells cited a separate report to the UK Foreign Office that cited "encouraging signs" such as negligible levels of poppy cultivation in the country's relatively wealthy areas of Nangarhar and Laghman.

He added that the resilience of the opium harvest in the past had largely been due to good rains and a lack of crop disease and that the area of land under cultivation had been reduced last year.

But even the British report predicts dramatic increases in poppy cultivation in Helmand province, where 72 per cent of interviewees said they had increased the amount of land devoted to poppies over the previous 12 months.

Nato is expected to assume command in the south ofthe country in July, butwill keep its stabilisation and peace-building workdistinct from the combat activities by US troops in the area.

From Taliban mouthpiece to Ivy League undergraduate - The Australian
Tim Reid, New Haven, Connecticut March 04, 2006

SECONDS before meeting the Taliban's former spokesman amid the venerable towers of Yale, to talk about his astonishing journey from Mullah Mohammed Omar's adviser to Ivy League undergraduate, I wonder if I will recognise him.

Suddenly, there he is, walking towards me, and it is unmistakably Rahmatullah. Gone are the dark turban, flowing beard and baggy trousers in which he travelled the world in early 2001 as the Taliban's "roving envoy", defending the Islamic zealots' treatment of women, their destruction of the ancient Buddha statues of Bamiyan, and their determination to keep Osama bin Laden as a guest of Afghanistan.

He is now wearing chinos and Nike trainers, with a trimmed beard and rucksack full of books, and looks worried. A man is filming him. Rahmatullah takes out his mobile to call the police.

It has been a stressful week for Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, 27, who met bin Laden in his native Kandahar in the late 1990s, having just become the Taliban's deputy foreign secretary at 22.

After eight months at Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut, where even his closest friends did not know his past, the US press has revealed all. Some of the reaction has been hostile. Rahmatullah fears for his wife and two children in the Pakistani border town of Quetta.

"If people can chase me in New Haven then imagine what might happen back home," he says. Rahmatullah looks weary. "I hate to be hated," he says. But he feels lucky to have made it to America's third-oldest university, whose alumni include the current and past two presidents.

At first, he found the food unpalatable, but then he found kosher meat at Yale's Jewish dining hall. He enjoys pizza and Coke. A compass on his watch tells him the direction of Mecca. He is close to completing a non-degree course as a special student and hopes to begin a three-year degree in political science later this year.

Rahmatullah did unexpectedly well in English but surprisingly badly in his class on Terrorism: Past, Present and Future. The textbook references to the Taliban annoyed him. "They would say the Taliban were the same as al-Qa'ida," he says with disgust.

Rahmatullah spent most of his formative years in the slums of Quetta, as a refugee from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. When the Taliban took control of Kandahar in 1994, "nobody opposed them, not even the United Nations", he says. "They were seen as saviours. I wanted to join them."

He got a job as a computer operator and translator in the Foreign Ministry in Kandahar, and fell under the wing of Mullah Muttawakil, later to become foreign minister. The first time he saw bin Laden was in 1996.

When then US president Bill Clinton bombed Afghanistan in 1998, Rahmatullah went to see bin Laden speak at a house in Kandahar. "He was trying to explain his position, the presence of US troops in holy places, and he was very antagonistic toward the Saudi royal family," he recalls.

But Rahmatullah now believes bin Laden has done more harm to Muslims than anybody. "As a result of 9/11, 3000 people were killed. Afghanistan has lost 20,000. We were also victims of 9/11," he says.

Shortly before the US invasion of 2001, he fled to Pakistan. He returned to Kabul in 2004 to clear his name with the US authorities. After several interviews, he was told he could go.

Mike Hoover, a CBS cameraman who set up a charity called the International Education Foundation, suggested he apply to Yale. He flew to New York that October for a successful interview with Yale's dean of admissions.

Rahmatullah had visited Yale before. He appeared there in March 2001, in turban and tunic, as the Taliban's spokesman. In one encounter immortalised in Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, he told a female Afghan heckler: "I'm really sorry for your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you." Does he regret that now? "That woman, for your information, did divorce her husband," he replies.

Rahmatullah blames much of the Taliban's excesses - the amputations, the floggings, the ban on kite-flying, barbers, books, radio and chess - on its Ministry of Vice and Virtue, although he defended much of them during his 2001 travels. What about the public executions in the football stadium? "That was all vice and virtue stuff. There were also executions happening in Texas."

Rahmatullah now wants to promote understanding between the Muslim world and the West. "It's not a good feeling to know the world is not a simple place. But people must be told that things are not black and white," he says.

[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.]