In this bulletin:

• Nato's top brass accuse Pakistan over Taliban aid
• Afghan government not ready to negotiate with Taleban
• US set to cut deal with Taliban
• Is it time to negotiate with the Taliban?
  Taliban Factions Growing Along Afghanistan-Pakistan Border
• Afghan Delegation visit Institute of Oriental Studies of Saint Petersburg - Posted On: Oct 04, 2006 MoFA statement
• Tories reignite support for war in Afghanistan
• 57% now support combat operations, but many doubt mission is succeeding
• Mounting Afghanistan death toll price of leadership: Harper
• CIDA: Canada Supports Polio Eradication Efforts in Afghanistan
• ‘We won't win' unless aid money flows
• NATO mission in Afghanistan 'absolutely critical' for global security: Blair
• "The price of success in Afghanistan maybe high, but the cost of failure would be catastrophic "
• Bush adopts Musharraf’s policy in Afghanistan
• Taleban resurgence is bad news for India
• Pitching a long view of Afghan mission
• Latvia extends Afghanistan mission for 1 year
• Princess Anne meets British troops in Afghanistan
• Police commander escapes life bid
• Afghanistan's Truer Story
• AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers hope NATO takeover will improve security
• Making money in Afghanistan: Still risky business
• Over eight tons of saffron distributed to farmers
• Afghan delegation participate in KIOGE

Nato's top brass accuse Pakistan over Taliban aid

By Ahmed Rashid in Kabul - Telegraph.co.uk 06/10/2006

Commanders from five Nato countries whose troops have just fought the bloodiest battle with the Taliban in five years, are demanding their governments get tough with Pakistan over the support and sanctuary its security services provide to the Taliban.

Nato's report on Operation Medusa, an intense battle that lasted from September 4-17 in the Panjwai district, demonstrates the extent of the Taliban's military capability and states clearly that Pakistan 's Interservices Intelligence (ISI) is involved in supplying it.

Commanders from Britain, the US, Denmark, Canada and Holland are frustrated that even after Pakistan 's President Pervez Musharraf met George W Bush and Tony Blair last week, Western leaders are declining to call Mr Musharraf's bluff.

"It is time for an 'either you are with us or against us' delivered bluntly to Musharraf at the highest political level," said one Nato commander.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001 America gave Mr Musharraf a similar ultimatum to co-operate against the Taliban, who were then harbouring Osama bin Laden.

"Our boys in southern Afghanistan are hurting because of what is coming out of Quetta ," he added. The Taliban use the southern province of Balochistan to co-ordinate their insurgency and to recuperate after military action.

The cushion Pakistan is providing the Taliban is undermining the operation in Afghanistan , where 31,000 Nato troops are now based. The Canadians were most involved in Operation Medusa, two weeks of heavy fighting in a lush vineyard region, defeating 1,500 well entrenched Taliban, who had planned to attack Kandahar city, the capital of the south.

Nato officials now say they killed 1,100 Taliban fighters, not the 500 originally claimed. Hundreds of Taliban reinforcements in pick-up trucks who crossed over from Quetta – waved on by Pakistani border guards – were destroyed by Nato air and artillery strikes.

Nato captured 160 Taliban, many of them Pakistanis who described in detail the ISI's support to the Taliban.

Nato is now mapping the entire Taliban support structure in Balochistan, from ISI- run training camps near Quetta to huge ammunition dumps, arrival points for Taliban's new weapons and meeting places of the shura, or leadership council, in Quetta , which is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the group's leader since its creation a dozen years ago.

Nato and Afghan officers say two training camps for the Taliban are located just outside Quetta , while the group is using hundreds of madrassas where the fighters are housed and fired up ideologically before being sent to the front.

Many madrassas now being listed are run by the Jamiat-e-Ullema Islam, a political party that governs Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province . The party helped spawn the Taliban in 1994.

"Taliban decision-making and its logistics are all inside Pakistan ," said the Afghan defense minister, General Rahim Wardak. A post-battle intelligence report compiled by Nato and Afghan forces involved in Operation Medusa demonstrates the logistical capability of the Taliban.

During the battle the Taliban fired an estimated 400,000 rounds of ammunition, 2,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 1,000 mortar shells, which slowly arrived in Panjwai from Quetta over the spring months. Ammunition dumps unearthed after the battle showed that the Taliban had stocked over one million rounds in Panjwai.

In Panjwai the Taliban had also established a training camp to teach guerrillas how to penetrate Kandahar , a separate camp to train suicide bombers and a full surgical field hospital. Nato estimated the cost of Taliban ammunition stocks at around £2.6 million. "The Taliban could not have done this on their own without the ISI," said a senior Nato officer.

Gen Musharraf this week admitted that "retired" ISI officers might be involved in aiding the Taliban, the closest he has come to admitting the agency's role.

Afghan government not ready to negotiate with Taleban

Text of report by Afghan independent Ariana TV on 3 October

[Presenter] Speaking at a news conference, the presidential spokesperson, Karim Rahimi, said that the government of Afghanistan would never negotiate with those Taleban who are armed. At the same time, a senior NATO official in Afghanistan said that the Taleban could join the government side through the Afghan Peace Commission.

[Correspondent] Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday [3 October], the presidential spokesperson, Karim Rahimi, said that the peace process was under way and any Afghan whose hands were not stained with the blood of the people could join the peace process.

According to a report published by the Associated Press, (?Bill Fiss), the leader of the majorities in the US Senate, said that violence in Afghanistan can never be ended by force and to solve this problem, the government of Afghanistan should negotiate with the Taleban, and give them a share in the government.

The mentioned official, who recently visited Zabol Province in southern Afghanistan, says if this happens, it will be beneficial for peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

At the same time, NATO's civilian representative in Afghanistan also said on Tuesday that the Taleban could join the government through the Afghan Peace Commission.

This happens at a time when a British newspaper reported that the British troops had signed an agreement with the elders of Musa Qala District of Helmand Province, according to which the soldiers would not carry out military raids in the district and in return, the elders promised to oust the Taleban from the province.

US set to cut deal with Taliban
Chidanand Rajghatta The Times of India Thursday, October 5, 2006

WASHINGTON: Alarm bells are going off in the US political and strategic community over the Bush administration's weighing the option of bringing Taliban back into the power equation in Afghanistan.

First signs of impending overtures to Taliban from Washington came last month when Bush and his aides gingerly supported Pakistan’s agreement with Taliban in the Waziristan province, a deal which was panned in strategic circles as a sell-out to extremists at the expense of US and NATO ground troops in Afghanistan.

Undeterred by the criticism, the Bush subsequently persuaded Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is vehemently opposed to the deal, to 'wait and see' how the Pakistani deal works.

Now comes advice from Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that the Bush administration should consider bringing Taliban back into the power equation in Kabul.

Arguing that Taliban fighters were "too numerous and too popular" to be defeated, Frist told reporters after a visit to Afghanistan last weekend that "You need to bring them (Taliban) into a more transparent type of government... And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

"Approaching counterinsurgency by winning hearts and minds will ultimately be the answer. Military versus insurgency one-to-one doesn't sound like it can be won. It sounds to me... that the Taliban is everywhere," he was quoted as saying.

The remarks sparked outrage in US political-strategic circles with critics panning Frist, who is a doctor by profession, of waving the white flag before elements who helped perpetuate 9/11.

"Senator Frist now suggests that the best way forward in Afghanistan is to coddle the Taliban by welcoming Taliban members into a coalition government, as if 9/11 had never happened," Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi chafed in a statement. Frist, who is a Republican Presidential aspirant in 2008, was also criticized by John Kerry.

Not that the Democrats have a great record with the fundamentalist yahoos first mid-wifed by the Pakistani military to get a foothold in Afghanistan and gain strategic depth against India, which prefers the more broad-based and pan-Afghan Northern Alliance.

The Clinton administration turned a blind eye to Islamabad's perverse machinations that gave birth to the Taliban and swallowed its barbaric rule for several months in the mid 1990s before Madeleine Albright, shook up by the mullahs treatment of women, began to have doubts. Washington still lumped Taliban till 9/11.

Analysts believe that Pakistan has never really forsaken the Taliban even post 9/11, hoping to return its barbaric wards to power in Kabul and retain its strategic foothold once US withdraws from Afghanistan under domestic public pressure and military setbacks.

Ironically, evidence of Pakistan's role in sustaining Taliban came in a stunning PBS documentary telecast Tuesday night, even as Frist made his pitch.

Titled Return of the Taliban, the documentary minced no words or images in showing Musharraf's army continued to patronize militants and had essentially cut a deal with them in Waziristan after being humiliated by al Qaeda.

The documentary also showed that Musharraf is doing nothing to stop jihadis from returning to Afghanistan to wage war, in violation of his commitment to the Bush administration. It called Pakistan "a failed state... a Taliban sanctuary that had facilitated the return of al-Qaeda."

But the Pakistani dictator bristled at questions about why Pakistan's commitment, shouting, "If Pakistan isn't doing more, who the hell is doing more?"

Among those who worked on the documentary was Hayatullah Khan (to whom the work was dedicated) a reporter who obtained proof that US forces had killed rebel leader Nek Mohammed in a Predator attack inside Pakistan, contrary to Islamabad's claim that it was not allowing US to act inside Pakistan and Pakistani forces had killed him.

According to Khan's family, an embarrassed Pakistani establishment subsequently kidnapped Khan and killed him. He was found with five bullet wounds on his body, hands tied with government issued handcuffs.

Is it time to negotiate with the Taliban ?
By Jackie Dent for CNN Thursday, October 5, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Backed by 400 years of history, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, a former Afghan finance minister, told an audience at the Royal Institute of National Affairs in London this week: "Afghanistan is not a place that can be pacified by force."

It is unsurprising then that on a tour of Afghanistan on Monday, U.S. Senator Bill Frist said the war would never be won through military means. But what was surprising -- particular coming from a Republican -- was his support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban into a larger, more representative government."

Senator Mel Martinez, also on the trip, told The Associated Press that negotiating with the Taliban was not "out of the question" but that fighters who refused to join the political process would have to be defeated.

The Democrat vs. Republican debate that has erupted over these comments is proof of how sensitive talks with guerrilla groups -- let alone discussions with a regime as brutal and hated as the Taliban -- can be.

According to Dan Smith, Secretary-General for International Alert, a conflict resolution NGO, governments like to give off the impression they are not negotiating with guerrillas so as to appear "morally clean" when oftentimes it can be the only way to bring about peace.

He says discussions range from secret talks that are "deniable and informal" to the more obvious -- take Norway acting as intermediaries between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers.

While the situation is Afghanistan is unique, it is drastically declining due to -- according to NATO generals -- a dangerous cocktail of government corruption, religious insurgents, major opium trafficking and a poor population growing increasingly desperate.

NATO has officially taken control of operations, as of Thursday, with 33,000 soldiers now based in the country. But with fears of a new Iraq developing, the suggestion of talks with the Taliban might not be as radical as it sounds.

Efforts to engage politically with the Taliban are not new -- the Afghan government has made repeated amnesty offers since 2002. Four former Talibs were elected to the parliament in 2005. Two former Talibs are in the Senate. Maulavi Abdul Hakim Munib, the Governor of Uruzgan province, is a former senior Taliban official.

Meanwhile, the Program Tahkm-e Sohl, or PTS, established to encourage insurgents back into mainstream Afghan society, has resulted in about 1,100 people surrendering.

Military negotiations have found some success in Afghanistan. NATO recently confirmed that British commanders reached a cease-fire agreement with the Taliban via the local shura in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand, a province fraught with numerous military and civilian deaths.

And in early September, Pakistan signed a controversial -- and in some circles worrying -- peace treaty with pro-Taliban tribesman in North Waziristan. Under the agreement, the government will stop operations in the area in exchange for militants agreeing to stop attacks in the border region.

Yet Dr. Ghani appeared doubtful about negotiating with the Taliban, particularly when they are part of a criminal network that is making hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal activities, and their agenda is not clear.

"Nothing is off the table. The president [Karzai] has leant backwards -- continuously -- in terms of reaching out," he said. "But what is it that group that goes under the name Taliban is proposing? What is their agenda? What do they want to be part of the solution, rather than the problem?"

Analyst Joanna Nathan, from the International Crisis Group in Afghanistan, is equally skeptical about suggestions of Taliban negotiations. "It's more about reaching out to the people," she says.

She cites the example of a recent NATO offensive, in which about 1,000 are believed to have died. "Most of those recruits were disillusioned and disaffected people ... they are the ones that need to be reached out to so they don't join with other insurgent forces."

Taliban Factions Growing Along Afghanistan-Pakistan Border
TRANSCRIPT PBS (USA) Originally Aired: October 3, 2006

Five years after the overthrow of the Taliban government in Afganistan, lawless tribal areas along the Pakistan border have fallen under control of Taliban militias. A Frontline documentary examines the crisis in the Pakistani province of North Waziristan.

RAY SUAREZ: And finally tonight, the resurgence of the Taliban. That was on the agenda last week, when the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan met at the White House. The two leaders have accused each other of failing to take action against the terrorist group.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, on a trip to Afghanistan, said the Taliban could not be defeated militarily and that a political settlement should be explored.

Tonight, the PBS program "Frontline" examines the Pakistan connection to the Taliban resurgence, especially in the Pakistani province of North Waziristan. Here's an excerpt.

Controlling a devout following

ANNOUNCER: Throughout 2005, militants continued to use Waziristan to launch attacks across the Afghan border. In North Waziristan, analysts were focused on warlord Jalal-al-Din Haqqani, the former Taliban minister of tribal affairs. A top Taliban commander recently confirmed on Al-Jazeera that Haqqani has become a principal architect of the Taliban's current offensive.

AFGHAN FIGHTER (subtitled): Sheikh Haqqani and his sons are undoubtedly the battle commanders. They devise the military plans. He and I are in charge of things here.

ANNOUNCER: Haqqani is credited with introducing suicide bombing to Afghanistan.

AFGHAN FIGHTER (subtitled): Only ten minutes left until the operation.

ANNOUNCER: This video appeared on an al-Qaida Web site a few months ago.

AFGHAN FIGHTER (subtitled): How do you feel, Abu Muhammad?

"ABU MUHAMMAD," Afghan Suicide Bomber (subtitled): I feel a great calm.

ANNOUNCER: The driver is guided to his target, a convoy of two American Humvees, by a militant who kept his distance.

AFGHAN MILITANT (subtitled): Go on a little further. You'll see the Americans. May God accept you as a martyr, Abu Muhammad.

ANNOUNCER: "Frontline" was unable to confirm if any soldiers died in this attack.

AFGHAN MILITANT (subtitled): God willing, we will annihilate you until we die. Glory to God, his prophet, and the believers.

In search of Haqqani

ANNOUNCER: But Haqqani has attracted hundreds of suicide bombers to Afghanistan.

INTERVIEWER: Where does he get his money?

AFRASIAB KHATTAK, Human Rights Activist, Pakistan: I think it's Middle East money that is still coming in. He has very strong Arab connections. The supporters of al-Qaida think that they can bleed Americans in Afghanistan, and they think they can get a new front for the United States in the tribal areas. So they are investing money in this fighting.

ANNOUNCER: Fluent in Arabic, Haqqani has deep roots with Saudi intelligence, as well as with Pakistan's ISI and the CIA. During the anti-Soviet jihad, Haqqani received millions of dollars, as well as Stinger missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, explosives, and even tanks. Haqqani was also very close to bin Laden.

STEVE COLL, Author: He controlled this area south of the Khyber pass that was an obvious crossing point for volunteers like bin Laden who were based in Pashaur (ph). And it's not a coincidence that, when al-Qaida was formed along the Afghan-Pakistan border in the summer of 1988, its first camps were in Haqqani's territory. So bin Laden and Haqqani would have known each other for 15 years by the time bin Laden came across the border after Tora Bora.

INTERVIEWER: So he's running into the arms of a friend?

STEVE COLL: A brother.

Split allegiances

ANNOUNCER: Pakistan's ISI continued to work with Haqqani when he became a minister in the Taliban's government. In all, the ISI has worked with him for 20 years. The Americans have repeatedly asked them to capture or kill him.

INTERVIEWER: Could the ISI today, in your view, find Haqqani? Do they know where he is?

PROF. BARNETT RUBIN, Author, "The Fragmentation of Afghanistan": I'm sure that the ISI knows where Haqqani is. That does not mean that it would be easy for them to arrest him.

INTERVIEWER: Why not?

BARNETT RUBIN: Because Haqqani has many men who are very loyal to him, including many members of the ISI.

INTERVIEWER: So where does that put the ISI? Whose side are they on?

BARNETT RUBIN: Well, I think the ISI is on the ISI's side.

INTERVIEWER: Haqqani, why don't you arrest him?

MUNIR AKRAM, Pakistani Ambassador to the U.N.: Well, I think Jalal-al-Din Haqqani, if he's found, I'm sure he will be arrested.

INTERVIEWER: But the ISI certainly is a very capable organization with longstanding ties to Haqqani. Even post-9/11, you were talking to him. Why not arrest him?

MUNIR AKRAM: Arresting him might be something that we will have to do, but I'm not sure whether we know where he is or whether we are capable at this time.

ANNOUNCER: According to the U.S. military, Pakistan has not arrested any senior Afghan or Pakistani Taliban leaders.

STEVE COLL: When the Pakistan army is fighting the Taliban, they're fighting cousins, they're fighting brethren. They're bound by language; they're bound, in some cases, by tribal identity.

Pashtun identity, tribal identity -- they're very complex and difficult for outsiders to fully map -- is, whenever encountered, a very powerful source of pride and personal identity.

Afghan Delegation visit Institute of Oriental Studies of Saint Petersburg - Posted On: Oct 04, 2006 MoFA statement

The visiting Afghan delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Spanta visited the Institute of Oriental Studies Institute Saint Petersburg, Russia and held meeting with the scholars of the institute.  Dr. Spanta mentioned the high quality of many of the institute’s publications in disseminating information and knowledge about Asia. He also invited the institute to establish a working relation with the Centre of Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The head of the institute welcomed the Afghan delegation and stated the institute’s readiness to work with the Afghan institutions, in particular with the MoFA. Dr. Spanta is due to leave Saint Petersburg for Moscow on Wednesday, 4 th October

The Afghan foreign minister visited some of the Afghans residing in Moscow yesterday evening. Dr. Spanta referred to the factors in the last three decades that caused immigration and added that those Afghans who cannot return to their homelands because of some reasons, they can take part in the reconstruction of their country through investing in different sectors and they will benefit legitimately. They can play significant roles as the peace messengers of their country in transforming cultures and contemporary technology to their homeland.

The foreign minister mentioned about the Afghan government’s achievements and said, “Loyalty to the national values such as political structure, and constitutions are criteria to complete the state building in Afghanistan.”

Lack of this tradition is the main cause of problem in the recent years and this lack is an attempt to betray the government. Three decades of war has resulted in loose of traditional values and contemporary values such as commitment to the government, law and geographical boundaries not to shape and at the same time uncertainty about the future has dragged behind the state building and escape of some thoughtful minds from the country has led to a big crisis, lack of experts.

Afghan foreign minister recounted externally sourced terrorism and narcotics as two enemies for peace and added that international community to effectively act against the terrorism origins and narcotic, which is a key to fund terrorism, and support the national security institutions in the country.

The Afghan foreign minister stated the Afghan foreign policy a multilateral one with focus on the national interest of the country. While he reiterated that Afghanistan has strategic relations with USA, we will strengthen our relations with Asian countries, Russia, India, Japan and China.

He also added,” because of belief bonds, relations with Islamic world are of special importance to us.” Dr. Spanta said that Afghan embassies should establish close contacts with all Afghans living abroad, represent Afghanistan and put their efforts in extending their relations with host countries.

Some Afghans also participated in this meeting and made speeches and suggestions.

Tories reignite support for war in Afghanistan

57% now support combat operations, but many doubt mission is succeeding
The Ottawa Citizen - Friday, October 06, 2006

Public backing for the war in Afghanistan has surged after an aggressive campaign by the Conservative government to build support for the mission, but most Canadians want the troops to come home when the country's military commitment ends in 2009, according to a new poll.

The poll was conducted between Sept. 26 and 28 by Ipsos Reid for CanWest News Service and Global National. It shows 57 per cent of Canadians support the use of troops in combat operations in Afghanistan.

That represents a six-percentage-point rise from early September, and a 10-point rise from late July, when support appears to have bottomed out for the year. The surge followed a concerted effort by the Tories to build support for the Afghanistan mission.

The push began on Sept. 21 with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first speech at the United Nations, where he stressed the importance of the mission to the global war on terrorism.

The next day, Afghan President Hamid Karzai delivered an impassioned plea for Canada's continued military involvement in his war-torn country, praising the Canadian soldiers who have died as the "greatest of their generation."

The campaign was capped by a rally on Parliament Hill in which thousands of people dressed in red as a show of support for the troops. At the rally, Harper played to Canadians' pride in their military history, boasting: "We don't start fights, but we finish them."

Ipsos Reid senior vice-president John Wright noted that the surge in support came after four Canadian soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber while the troops were mingling with Afghan civilians. But he said Mr. Karzai's speech in Ottawa refocused public attention on the reconstruction dimension of the mission.

"It underscored that there is another side to this," Mr. Wright said.

"Whenever that side can be presented, and whenever there is a third party from the theatre of operations who says why it is important, then support goes up," Mr. Wright said.

But it remains to be seen whether public support for the mission will remain firm as the death toll in Afghanistan continues to rise. Since the poll was conducted, three Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan, bringing the military death toll to 39 since 2002.

Indeed, the Ipsos Reid poll suggests Canadians' support for the war has an expiry date. Fifty-one per cent of respondents believe the troops should exit Afghanistan in 2009, when Canada's military commitment ends, regardless of the level of success achieved.

As part of a NATO-led mission, Canada commands a multinational military force in the south of the country, around Kandahar. A total of 44 per cent believe Canada should stay the course and "finish the job," even if that means staying beyond 2009.

The survey also gauged Canadians' opinions about the moral and strategic justifications for the war. The results suggest many of the arguments made by the Conservative government are hitting home with the public.

For example, 80 per cent of respondents believe troops are performing a "vital humanitarian mission" in Afghanistan, while 58 per cent feel the war is winning "well-deserved respect among Americans and the Bush administration."

But the poll also reveals significant public doubt about the success of the mission. Only 41 per cent believe that troops are winning the battle against Taliban forces, despite the military's recent declaration of victory in a large-scale offensive called Operation Medusa.

"It's a realistic response," Mr. Wright said of poll respondents. "The question is when are we winning and what will a win look like? We're not winning yet. There are still firefights and there are still a lot of casualties."

And the survey shows substantial differences in support between regions. Backing for the mission was highest in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan and Manitoba at 67 per cent.

Support was lowest in Quebec, at 45 per cent. In the other provinces support for the war in Afghanistan stood at 66 per cent in Alberta, 59 per cent in Ontario and 56 per cent in B.C.

Sixty-three per cent of men support the mission, while only 51 per cent of woman support the war. Ipsos Reid interviewed 1,009 adult Canadians by phone to complete the poll, which is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Mounting Afghanistan death toll price of leadership: Harper – CP 10.6.06

CALGARY — The mounting Canadian death toll in Afghanistan is the price of leadership that comes with playing a significant role in global affairs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.

Appearing in Calgary to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service, Mr. Harper said Canadians want a clear, confident and influential role in a changing, dangerous road.

“A Canada that doesn't just criticize, but one that can contribute,” he said. “They want a Canada that reflects their values and interests, and that punches above its weight.”

Mr. Harper also said Canada is making a real effort on the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

“The Canadian men and women who serve there . . . have gone willingly, knowing that not all of them will return,” he said.

Thirty-nine soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

Mr. Harper continues to defend Canada's Afghanistan mission in the face of growing concern at home over the rising death toll.

In Ottawa on Thursday, an all-party Senate committee said Mr. Harper should address the country on television in order to do a better job of explaining Canada's role in Afghanistan.

CIDA: Canada Supports Polio Eradication Efforts in Afghanistan

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Oct. 5, 2006) - The Honourable Josee Verner, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, today announced that Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), will allocate $5 million to immunize over seven million children living in Afghanistan. These funds will be allocated to the World Health Organization and UNICEF as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

"Afghan President Karzai asked us to help the people of Afghanistan by supporting the polio vaccination program when he visited Canada last month and Canada is answering the call," said Minister Verner."Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, indigenous polio viruses have been eliminated in all but four countries around the world, including Afghanistan."

The GPEI seeks to eliminate polio so that no child will ever again suffer permanent polio paralysis. The conflict in southern Afghanistan has stymied vaccination of all children, resulting in a resurgence of the disease, especially in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. If left unchecked, polio could spread among millions of Afghan children and threaten to reverse progress in neighbouring countries that have already achieved polio-free status.

This announcement comes at a time when regular and costly polio vaccination campaigns must be carried out nationwide in response to an outbreak in the southern region. The GPEI will undertake this effort, targeting over seven million children between September 2006 and December 2007.

"Since 1988, the number of children paralyzed each year by polio worldwide has been reduced from more than 350,000 to less than 2,000 in 2005, but until polio is eliminated from every country, children everywhere remain at risk," added Minister Verner.

Afghanistan has made significant strides in its reconstruction, and Canada, through CIDA, is a leading partner in helping the Afghan people create an environment that will enable them to rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. Today's announcement is part of Canada's total contribution of nearly $1 billion over 10 years.

‘We won't win' unless aid money flows

DANIEL LEBLANC - From Friday's Globe and Mail 10.6.06

OTTAWA — Canada's military mission in Afghanistan will fail unless Ottawa's aid money gets to Kandahar province where most of the troops are based, a Senate committee said Thursday.

“If we don't get aid in there, then we won't win militarily,” said Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, chairman of the Senate committee on national security and defence.

“It's also important for the safety of our troops that local Afghanis associate the patch they see on the shoulders of Canadian troops with good things happening in their community,” he said as he released an all-party report, entitled “Managing turmoil.”

The committee also released a letter from International Co-operation Minister Josée Verner that says Canada cannot track its aid in Afghanistan, because it gives a lump sum to the Afghan government which then decides how and where to spend it.

“Some of these programs are active in Kandahar province; however, at this stage, we cannot give specific figures as to how much of Canadian money in support of these programs goes to Kandahar province,” Ms. Verner says in her letter to the Senate committee.

Ms. Verner says Canada prefers to let local officials determine the best destination for the funds. Canada gives Afghanistan $100-million a year in aid.

“The funds that [the Canadian International Development Agency] provides to national-level programs are not earmarked for Kandahar province, as we support the aid principle of the recipient government setting their own priorities, making it difficult for CIDA to track its funds to the provincial level,” she writes.

Mr. Kenny said that because of a lack of aid, Afghans do not know whether Canadian troops are “occupiers or liberators.”

Former prime minister Paul Martin, whose Liberal government authorized the Afghan mission in 2005, was quoted recently as saying he does not approve of the way the military mission is unfolding. The original goal of rebuilding the country has been obscured by increasingly intense fighting, he said.

Forty Canadians have been killed in this mission, more than half of them in the past three months. The senators also said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper should go on television to sell the mission to Canadians.

“We think there needs to be a very clear statement about what the government expects to get for putting the lives at risk and spending all of that money,” Mr. Kenny said. “It's up to the government to make that case and we think, if the case is made well, there will be a significant amount of public support for it.”

The Senate committee report calls for an increase in Canada's military budget, from $14-billion a year to $20-billion, as well as doubling Canada's foreign-aid budget, from $2.6-billion to $5.2-billion.

Mr. Kenny said that in terms of military and development budgets, Canada lags far behind other industrialized countries. “Why are we being cheapskates?” he asked.

The committee of Liberal, Conservative and Progressive Conservative senators unanimously called on Canada to relaunch talks to participate in the American anti-missile shield as well as to join the race to put weapons in space.

“The truth is that there is nothing inherently evil about weapons, just as there is nothing inherently sacred about space,” the report said. “To some critics, the idea of putting weapons in space is unthinkable. To this committee, what is really unthinkable is waiting so long that potential adversaries are allowed to gain an advantage in space that might be insurmountable.”

NATO mission in Afghanistan 'absolutely critical' for global security: Blair

London (AFP)10.5.06 - inister Tony Blair has said that the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan is "absolutely critical" for world security, as the military alliance expanded its role there.

Flanked by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen of Finland, which contributes troops to the mission, Blair told reporters in London that everybody was better off now, despite the renewed fighting between NATO-led troops and Taliban rebels.

He said it was important not to forget the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 or the harsh rule of the Taliban before it was toppled in the US-led campaign following the attacks.

"We do not want the Taliban and Al-Qaeda back in charge of Afghanistan, using it as a training ground for terrorism throughout the world," Blair said in an ornate state room at 10 Downing Street.

"What we want is what the Afghan people want, which is Afghanistan to be allowed to run its own affairs, elect its government by proper democracy and have a tolerant and open society," Blair said.

"This is of enormous importance not just for the people of Afghanistan, but for wider global security," the British premier said. "This mission is absolutely critical for global security."

Blair acknowledged that civilians were indeed suffering in Afghanistan when asked to comment about a UN report stating that 90,000 Afghans have been displaced by the new fighting.

"Of course there are people in Afghanistan who are suffering as a result of the fighting that's taking place," Blair said.

"But they suffered a great deal more in the days when the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were running Afghanistan when there was no proper economic development and where people could be shot for trying to teach girls in school," he said.

Blair appeared to acknowledge the need for NATO countries to contribute more troops to Afghanistan as British and other forces admit they are stretched in their bid to repel Taliban rebels and pave the way for economic development.

However, he singled out no country in particular, adding it is for each member country "to decide how they contribute" when asked if countries like Finland should have a bigger military role in Afghanistan.

"Because of this global terrorist threat, it's important that we have the capability and also the political will to be able to go into places like Afghanistan and sort the situation out," he said.

"The price of success in Afghanistan maybe high, but the cost of failure would be catastrophic " - The Conservative Party, UK

In his speech to the Conservative Party Conference, Shadow Defence Secretary, Liam Fox said:

"This year, here, in the United Kingdom, we will spend only 2.5% of our GDP on defence. Let me put this in perspective. This is the smallest proportion of our national wealth that we have spent on defending our country in any year since 1930.

By the time the new Wembley Stadium is finished, we will be able to seat all the other ranks of the British army inside it. The Royal Navy is now smaller than the French navy. And the RAF Museum at Hendon now has more attack aircraft than the RAF.

Since Labour came to power the Army has been cut by 9,000, the Royal Navy has been cut by 10,000 and the RAF has been cut by 16,000.

Yet our armed forces have seldom been under such a strain. They have never been asked to do so much, with so little.

It leads us to an unavoidable choice for both our country and our party. Do we reduce our commitments to match the size of our resources or do we increase our resources to match our commitments? The choice we make will have the most profound consequences for our country.

Under Tony Blair, there has been too little strategic thinking about our foreign policy. So defence policy has constantly had to play catch up with overseas commitments made in the latest summit communiqué. This is no basis for a sound defence policy for the United Kingdom.

That's why under David Cameron's leadership, William Hague and I are determined that the Conservatives will have a properly integrated foreign and defence policy so that the shape and size of our armed forces will properly reflect the strategic interests and defence requirements of this country.

VALUING OUR FORCES This year I have had the opportunity to visit our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. I believe that they are the best in the world. And I believe that their families and we, their country, have every right to be proud of them.

But pride alone is not enough. Our troops are our greatest asset. They should never be sent into combat without being properly equipped. To see British soldiers killed, because there was not enough body armour to go round, would have brought resignations from more honourable governments than this one…

AFGHANISTAN During the summer David and I visited Afghanistan. It represents an enormous challenge that we simply have to face up to. Let me be blunt with you. The price of success in Afghanistan may be high but the cost of failure would be catastrophic.

We have to succeed for three reasons. Firstly, NATO's reputation and cohesion are on the line. Failure would embolden all those who threaten our security.

Secondly, if Afghanistan becomes a failed state again, it will once more become a breeding ground for Al-Qaeda and we have seen in London, New York and Madrid what that can mean.

But the third reason is that we must not abandon the people of Afghanistan themselves who have endured so much in recent decades. I sat at dinner in Kabul beside a woman who had been savagely beaten by the Taliban for taking another woman to see a doctor. She became an underground teacher for girls under the Taliban and then a journalist. She is now proudly a member of the National Assembly with a democratic constitution.

Don't let anyone tell you that we can't make a difference. Those of us who have so much and take it for granted should stand beside those who have shown such courage to get the little they have.

And let me tell you, it wasn't the social commentators of the Guardian who liberated the women of Kabul, it was the brave actions of our armed forces.

That is why NATO must succeed. That is why it is so frustrating that some of our NATO allies are simply not pulling their weight, especially in the difficult south of the country. It is our common security that is at stake. We must all remember that if we do not fight the terror of al-Qaeda abroad we will end up having to fight it at home.

But if NATO is having a testing time it doesn't mean that we should embrace an EU- based defence programme instead.

EU DEFENCE I referred earlier to how Labour are spending only 2.5% of our GDP on defence. Yet it is much more than many of our European partners spend. Austria spends just 0.7% of its GDP on defence in 2005. Spain spends only 1.3%, and even Germany spends only 1.4%.

The idea that any of the current EU states would ever be willing to contemplate spending on a scale that would match the level of protection afforded by the American defence umbrella is frankly laughable.

The crisis in the former Yugoslavia exposed the gap between EU rhetoric and EU action. In the end, it was the United States - whose presence in NATO some Europeans so resent - that was the prime mover in saving the Balkans from catastrophe…

Bush adopts Musharraf’s policy in Afghanistan

Republican leaders say only option is a political solution with Taliban

By Shaheen Sehbai – The News Int (Pak) - WASHINGTON: The Bush Administration has decided to change its course in Afghanistan by adopting Gen Musharraf’s strategy to politically engage the non-militant Taliban but it has raised a major political storm in Washington with Democrats accusing Bush of a “cut and run” policy.

The most visible sign of the change came on Monday when top Republican leaders said the only option left for Washington and its military coalition was a political solution with Taliban, as “the war against Taliban can never be won militarily.”

The statement came from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Florida Senator Mel Martinez, who were in Qalat, Afghanistan, visiting a US base. The visit to Afghanistan by the top Bush leaders comes days after the White House summit between presidents Bush, Karzai and Musharraf, which almost entirely endorsed the Pakistan policy of reaching local agreements with tribal chiefs on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border and decided to hold Jirgas to be attended by President Musharraf and Hamid Karzai to empower the non-Taliban Pukhtoons.

Bill Frist was quoted as saying that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to bring “people who call themselves Taliban” and their allies into the government.

The Republican leader said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield. “You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government,” Frist said during a brief visit to a US and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. “And if that’s accomplished, we’ll be successful.”

But the statement startled many and created immediate waves in Washington as Democrats pounced on Frist. Analysts and experts could not believe that the Bush Administration was taking a U-turn so quickly and so dramatically after the Musharraf-Karzai public boxing matches.

Democratic Party’s Senatorial Campaign Committee leader Phil Singer attacked Frist for what he called “abandoning the US campaign to destroy the Taliban and suggested bringing the terrorist group into the Afghan government.”

“By suggesting that we permit the Taliban — the same group that enabled the 9/11 hijackers, gives safe haven to al-Qaeda and remains hell bent on destroying American civilisation — to be welcomed into the Afghan democracy, Frist has given George Bush an honest and legitimate example of “cut and run” to highlight this fall and has enabled the president to stop falsely ascribing the phrase to Democrats in the context of Iraq,” Singer said.

“Frist’s proposal is a clear, unequivocal admission of defeat which will fuel the growth of terrorist groups and endanger US security,” the Democratic leader said. Steve Clemons, Senior Fellow and Director of the American Strategy Programme at the New America Foundation, reacting to the statement, said Frist would be an awkward choice to reflect a new course in the Bush administration’s thinking, but there is the small chance that he is sending signals to the Taliban that America wants to “deal”.

“I have my doubts that Bill Frist really wanted to offer an olive branch to the Taliban and its adherents. It could be he just misspoke. But if he stands by his comments, Frist’s words have big implications,” Clemons said in his blog.

Frist’s office in Washington was forced on Tuesday to issue a vague statement intended to soften the impact of his remarks. But in effect the clarification actually confirmed that Frist was standing by his statements and hinting to the shift in the Bush Administration policy.

Frist’s Communications Director Amy Call’s clarification said: “While touring Afghanistan, Senator Frist made the observation that Afghan tribesmen should be brought into the government or risk losing them to the Taliban. Giving the native tribes often targeted by Taliban recruitment a voice in the government will promote peace and prosperity in the region.”

“Senator Frist does not believe Taliban fighters — often foreign fighters who come to Afghanistan to further conflict — should be brought into the reconciliation process. In order to undermine the influence of the Taliban in Afghan society, Senator Frist believes there needs to be a multi-pronged approach to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Military efforts must continue in earnest to capture and kill the leadership of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who continue to pose a grave threat to Afghanistan and the world.

“The long-term peace and security of Afghanistan depends upon the ability of the government, led by President Karzai, to establish a political order in which the radical totalitarian ideology of the Taliban is rejected in favour of liberty, democracy, and the rule of law.”

Frist was apparently told the same things, which top US commanders have been telling to the Pentagon for months. Lt-Gen Karl Eikenberry told Pentagon reporters last month that while the Taliban enemy in Afghanistan is not extremely strong, their numbers and influence have grown in some southern sections of the country.

President Bush has recently acknowledged setbacks in the training of Afghan police to fight against the Taliban resurgence but, as expected, he has been predicting eventual victory. Frist said asking the Taliban to join the government was a decision to be made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Senator Mel Martinez, accompanying Frist on his trip, said negotiating with the Taliban was not “out of the question” but that fighters, who refused to join the political process, would have to be defeated. “A political solution is how it’s all going to be solved,” he said.

Taleban resurgence is bad news for India - 10/3/2006 - Source IANS

New Delhi • A resurgent Taleban in Afghanistan and increasing casualties for NATO forces are making Afghanistan a security nightmare for India, impacting directly on New Delhi’s stakes in the region.

Five years after the ouster of the Pakistan-backed Taleban regime in Kabul was greeted here with undisguised glee, the Indian establishment is now viewing the changing scenario in Afghanistan with alarm.

India, which has vital stakes in a “stable, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan” as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently put it, is worried about the re-groping of the Taleban militia, with its linkages to Al Qaeda and terrorist outfits targeting Jammu and Kashmir. The grim situation in Afghanistan is gauged from the public recrimination between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.

News reports from much of southern Afghanistan say that the Taleban has become a very visible phenomenon even as Karzai is increasingly becoming a prisoner in Kabul. At times, hundreds of Taleban supporters gather for meetings in open fields, and they are increasingly engaging NATO forces. “India’s interests in Afghanistan and Central Asia are significantly threatened by the rise of Taleban, which has been engineered by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),” Ajay Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management, a think tank here, said.

“India sees its interests in the region being linked to a stable Kabul under a not-unfriendly dispensation,” says Sahni.

The Taleban’s resurgence comes at a time when India’s profile in Afghanistan is growing and its relations with Kabul are becoming broad-based, straddling diverse sectors including economy, education and technology, in sharp contrast to the situation over five years ago when it had no contact with the Taleban militia.

That was when India actively backed the Northern Alliance, the Taleban’s most formidable foe. Afghanistan, for India, is not simply a security issue but a country that can be a crucial link in promoting economic and cultural integration between South Asia and Central Asia. Fully aware that it can’t afford to lose a strategically situated region to unfriendly fundamentalist forces, India has stepped up its diplomatic offensive to sensitise the international community about the dangers from the Taleban and their patronage by Pakistan. The revival of the Taleban, says Sahni, is part of the long-term Pakistani plan to extend its influence not only in Afghanistan but also in Central Asia. “The core of our policy should be to expose Pakistan as it is the fountainhead of terror in the region. We should join hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and promote a stable, democratic Afghanistan,” Sahni suggests. “The US should use its card with Pakistan to see that it is not radicalised,” Ramakant Dwivedi, an expert on Central Asia said.

“The radicalisation of Afghanistan must stop. India should reach out to all ethnic groups in Afghanistan including Pushtuns. We should build on our tremendous goodwill with Pushtuns,” he added.

Although India has pledged $650m for the socio-economic reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan, its options are limited as it is not in favour of sending troops to join the Nato-led forces, which are facing a tough time against the Taleban. As for democracy, elections have taken place but the Taleban is doing its best to frustrate the nascent democratic institutions. In the process, stability has become a victim in Afghanistan.

“If the staying power of the US-led coalition collapses, India would be affected. There are nearly half a million Talebs in Afghanistan and their supply is limitless,” Turkish Ambassador Halil Akana said here recently. For India, which regained some influence in Afghanistan, a gateway to the resource-rich Central Asia, after the ouster of a hostile Taleban in late 2001, the escalating violence in that country is clearly bad news.

The murder of three Indians in Afghanistan who were engaged in reconstruction projects over the last one year by the Taleban brought into focus the contours of a “new great game” for control of this country.

Pitching a long view of Afghan mission

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD – Globe and Mail 10.5.06

Almost since he returned from Afghanistan at summer's end, Colonel Mike Capstick has been on the road.

The former commander of the first Canadian Strategic Advisory Team in Kabul -- the second iteration of 15 men and women there to lend their strategic-planning skills to the fledging Afghan government in place now -- has been crisscrossing the nation, talking about Canada's mission in that exhausted country.

Sometimes, he speaks to army officers or other friendly audiences, where he is preaching to the converted, but, as often, he has been on university campuses, in the editorial boardrooms of newspapers and other places where support for Canadian involvement is hardly a given.

Interestingly, Col. Capstick said of his seven-city tour, "If there is overwhelming opposition to the mission, I haven't seen it."

Normally blunt, the 54-year-old colonel is about to become, as he told a small group of graduate students at York University yesterday, Citizen Capstick, and that has served only to make him even more frank.

His bottom-line message is this: Canadians viewing Afghanistan though the lens of our combat operations there should understand that it's akin to looking at the country through a straw.

With Canadian blood being spilled, and the solemn faces of young soldiers carrying the caskets of their friends all too regularly appearing on our TV screens, it's perfectly understandable that media and public alike should focus on combat and its toll, he says. But it is, nonetheless, a misleading glimpse of an enormously complicated place that has made remarkable progress since the U.S. invasion five years ago and the fall of the Taliban.

He began his presentation yesterday with a single slide -- he is a soldier, which means he's organized up the yin-yang -- which remained on the screen for a very long time.

It's a picture Col. Capstick took on the occasion of the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, Sept. 18, 2005, and it shows a long line of Afghans standing in what appears to be the middle of nowhere, but was in fact "two kilometres away from what was a still-smoking hole in the ground" where at dawn that morning an Afghan National Police patrol had been blown apart by insurgents, killing five.

The message was pretty clear. Yet, all those ordinary Afghans stood in the sun, in temperatures of about 40 degrees, for hours and hours for the opportunity to vote, and though the turnout wasn't as high as it had been for the earlier election of President Hamid Karzai (causing some cluck-clucking from international observers), it was nonetheless "a lot higher than in any recent Canadian federal election," Col. Capstick said.

He was there that day with several other Canadians: Grant Kippen, who headed the electoral complaints commission, the independent body charged with making sure the vote was fair; Ali Mahti, the country director of the Aga Khan Foundation; Chris Alexander, then the Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan and now a wheel at the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan; and a young man Col. Capstick described as a "transformational leader."

Together, Col. Capstick said, they and the work they were doing offer a much fuller illustration of the breadth of Canadian efforts in Afghanistan, which run the gamut from diplomatic to the Canadian International Development Agency to the RCMP. And unlike combat operations, what he called "taking casualties and inflicting casualties," that bigger picture offers evidence that things have improved.

The turbulent south aside, he said, "most of the country is mostly stable most of the time. . . . Development is occurring, kids are going to school, girls, too; schools are being built and they're not being burned down, and little power and irrigation projects are being built."

Col. Capstick is honest about the significant problems that remain. "Why is the insurgency there, in the south?" he asked.

First, he said, it's because the international security force was too small in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. There simply weren't enough troops to do the job, only 8,000 in the early days when one former warlord alone had a private militia of 20,000 men at his command.

Even now, Col. Capstick said, the NATO total of fewer than 40,000 soldiers is a far cry from the 60,000 who poured into Bosnia-Herzegovina in the immediate aftermath of the 1995 Dayton Accord, and that country already had an existing infrastructure and civil society, whereas Afghanistan's had been reduced to ruins after three decades of invasion, insurgency, civil war and repression.

Second, tribal lords and simple drug criminals finessed their way into positions of power in the new government, and while some have since gone, "there are still some pretty unattractive people in the Afghan parliament, and the Afghan people are tired of this."

What these characters have in common is not ideology, he said, but rather a decided interest in making sure that the rule of law isn't established and thus that the international community is driven out. The Taliban proper want to re-establish their thuggish theocracy; the drug boys want to grow and sell their poppy uninterrupted; the tribal bosses don't want to give up authority and power. Together, they are what we call now, out of convenience, the Taliban, and together or separately they offer the largely illiterate, grossly impoverished, unemployed young men of Afghanistan something, even if just $100 for the family left behind and a chance at briefly being cannon fodder for coalition troops.

Similarly, the amount of international aid that has poured into the country (like the number of soldiers, not enough) is often invisible, what is sometimes called "phantom aid." Non-governmental aid organizations, while quick to respond to humanitarian disasters and emergencies, revert to bureaucratic procedures that may see simple projects take two years from idea to implementation, and many NGOs hire consultants, some of whom, Col. Capstick said, "make big promises and are never seen again."

Add to that the fact that the entire country suffers from what he called "abandonment anxiety," the legitimate fear that the world will once again turn its back on Afghanistan.

The last slide the colonel showed yesterday was one of a gorgeous Afghan girl, who looks, he said, much younger than her age because she is chronically undernourished, as are so many of her countrymen.

"Canada," he said, "has made a commitment to Afghanistan in word and in deed, and as a human being, as a Canadian . . . I took that picture, and all you gotta do is look in that kid's eyes, full of piss and vinegar like every kid."

For a year, Col. Capstick and his group worked intimately with Afghan leaders and the bright young things who are trying to build a nation. His affection for the place and its people is as clear as his belief in what Canada is doing there.

One thing remains a complete mystery to him, "totally impenetrable," he said, and that's the office of The Master of the Special Pen. The occupant has lunch with President Karzai every day, but Mike Capstick still hasn't a clue what he does.

Latvia extends Afghanistan mission for 1 year

The Associated Press THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2006 - RIGA, Latvia Latvia's parliament on Thursday extended the nation's 36-member mission in Afghanistan by one year until October 2007.

In the 100-seat Saeima, or parliament, 73 lawmakers voted for the extension and 18 against. The remaining lawmakers abstained or were absent. Right-wing Latvian parties supported the extended stay, while ethnic Russian parties voted against.

Latvia, which joined NATO in 2004, has been a supporter of U.S.-led missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Baltic state currently has 36 soldiers in Afghanistan, and a total 169 in various international missions, including Iraq, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Defense Ministry.

Princess Anne meets British troops in Afghanistan

LONDON (AFP) Wed Oct 4 - The Princess Royal, Prince Charles's sister, has visited British troops in Afghanistan, the first trip to the country by a member of the Royal Famiy this year, the defence ministry said.

During the two-day tour of the country, Princess Anne visited Kabul, Kandahar and the southern Helmand province where most of the country's troops are stationed, accompanied by her husband Rear Admiral Timothy Laurence.

She met officers and soldiers from the Navy, Marines, Signals and the Logistic Corps during the trip, the defence ministry said. She also met troops from the Household Cavalry and RAF Lyneham.

She spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. "It is always a great honour for us to receive a visit like this, and I am delighted the Princess Royal had the chance to see the troops in Afghanistan," Brigadier Butler said.

"I took the opportunity to make clear just how immensely proud I am of all the members of the task force. "I have been hugely humbled by the raw courage and resilience of our soldiers, airmen and aviators."

"It is clear the Princess Royal was also deeply impressed."

Police commander escapes life bid

Javid Barakzai - KABUL, Oct 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A police commander escaped unhurt when his car was struck by a suicide bomber in Balabolak district of the western Farah province, officials said on Thursday.

Operation chief in provincial police headquarters Lt Col Mohammad Din told Pajhwok Afghan News the blast occurred at 8am in Baharstan area of Balabolak district. He said the bomber collided his car with car of the commander Gen Abdul Jalil Bakhtwar.

He said the bomber was killed in the blast but there were no reports about police casualties. Mohammad Din said all the explosives in the car did not detonate. ISAF and PRT forces rushed to the spot to defuse the unexploded explosives. Confirming the incident, interior ministry said Gen Bakhtwar had escaped unhurt in the attack.

Afghanistan's Truer Story

OPINION Gen. Rusty Findley Dar Al-Hayat (Lebanon) Thursday, October 5, 2006
Recent deadly and indiscriminate suicide attacks in Afghanistan have caused death and grief among many innocent Afghan citizens. These attacks once again bring to light the desperate nature of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terror networks that prey on the moderate majority in Afghanistan and other nations in the region. There is no clearer example of this than the 17 September suicide bombing of Canadian troops handing out treats to Afghani children. Four Canadian soldiers were killed, along with a number of innocent Afghan children.

Despair we may, but persevere we must in the face of this mindless violence and terror. Events of the past 5 years have given Afghan citizens new hope for freedom and opportunity. The moderate majority in Afghanistan want their nation to reemerge from years of repression at the hands of the deposed Taliban regime. The terrorists, an extreme, tiny minority within the region, want nothing more than to stifle this hope. However, their efforts are failing due to the indiscriminate violence and terror they are inflicting on Afghans and the people of other countries in the region. The terrorists themselves acknowledge their failure. As James Fallows reported in the Atlantic magazine, An Egyptian extremist, Mohammed Essad Derbala, recently stated, "…jihad for the sake of jihad has backfired…it produces the opposite of the desired results: the downfall of the Taliban regime and the slaughter of thousands of young Muslims."

Although steady progress has been made in Afghanistan, these high profile terrorist attacks dominate the news and reinforce a perception that the security situation is deteriorating, the Taliban are regaining control, and it's only a matter of time before they return to power. This is not the case. These suicide attacks have not been without cost. They have brought personal pain and suffering back into the lives of Afghans who have recently emerged from 27 years of war. But, the resilience and determination of the Afghan people are evident. With the continued help of the United States, NATO and other Coalition partners, Afghans will continue to prevail over the cowardly acts of a ruthless regime that once ruled by fear and terror. After historic national elections in 2004 in which nearly 10 million citizens voted, this fledgling democracy is building almost from scratch the institutions of government and civil society and developing an economy. With the continued help of the international community, there is no doubt the country will be successful.

Among the most visible examples of Afghan resiliency is that its citizens now understand, respect, and practice freedom of speech. Citizens are speaking out against terrorist suicide bombings. The Pakistani newspaper DAWN reports that after a recent attack, Kabul resident Mohammed Hayder Nangahari said, "This is a cowardly action that terrorists always take. They don't care if it is a residential area, government area or military area." Pharmacist Nawid Paidar, 31, said the killing of children, women and men in terrorist attacks was inhumane and he blamed militants crossing from Pakistan for the latest bombing.

Repairing the decades of physical and emotional damage, establishing democratic principles and the rule of law will take patience and courage. The Afghan people, Coalition military forces and the international community possess that courage, and all have a positive vision of the future. The Taliban, on the other hand, continues to offer only more of the same: totalitarianism, mindless violence, war, poverty, and death. What has become evident is that the people of Afghanistan will be triumphant. They have experienced the pain and suffering of this inhumane regime; every suicide attack reminds them of the past and strengthens their resolve for a better future.

*Maj. Gen. Rusty Findley is U.S. Central Command's director of strategy, plans and policy. He is responsible for preparing and maintaining bilateral and multilateral operations as well as contingency plans. He is the command's focal point for integrating theater strategies to promote stability, enhanced security and strengthen military interoperability and readiness throughout the U.S. Central Command region.

AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers hope NATO takeover will improve security

More  KABUL, 5 October (IRIN) - NATO took over command of military operations in eastern Afghanistan from the US-led coalition on Thursday, prompting aid workers in the country to call for action from the organisation on improving security and engaging more with the local community.

"We hope that NATO will boost efforts to ensure safety of aid workers in Noristan and many parts of Kunar provinces where access has been very poor due to insecurity," said Mohammad Hashim Mayar, deputy head of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR).

The ceremony handing over command of 14 provinces in the east to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took place in the capital Kabul and was attended by President Hamid Karzai, ISAF commander Gen David Richards and the commander of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry.

NATO underlined its operation was primarily about boosting security to allow development and reconstruction to take place in safety in a region where many government agencies and international and local NGOs have been unable to work.

"Throughout Afghanistan we will continue to confront insurgents when and where necessary. But the overarching purpose of our security operations is to enable improvements in government capacity and to accelerate reconstruction and development, for real benefit to the lives of all Afghans," Gen Richards said at the ceremony.

Afghanistan has seen its deadliest phase of Taliban-led violence since the hardline militia was ousted from government by US-led coalition forces in December 2001. The new conflict is in the south and east of the country, where hundreds of people, including rebels, civilians and Afghan and foreign troops, have lost their lives this year.

"To improve the humanitarian situation in the east, the NATO military operation must be followed by substantial development assistance to build on development activities that are already taking place in eastern Afghanistan," Aleem Siddique, UNAMA spokesman in Afghanistan, said.

More than 140 foreign troops have been killed since January, raising opposition to Afghan involvement among the public and opposition parties in some NATO member countries. Hashim Mayar underlined the importance of NATO forces working with civilians in the east. "Without gaining the support of local people it will be difficult for NATO to boost development activities there [in eastern provinces] and NATO should also engage mainly local people in their developmental projects."

ISAF has absorbed 10,000 coalition troops – mostly American - swelling the size of the NATO force to 31,000 troops nationwide. The expanded force includes the deployment of 24 Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) – tasked with winning hearts and minds through development projects - throughout the country, according to NATO officials in Kabul.

Another 8,000 US troops operational in eastern Afghanistan will remain under US command and continue counter terrorism operations as well as providing support to the poorly resourced Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP).

The 37-nation ISAF took over command of the volatile southern provinces from the coalition on 31 July - where the hardline Taliban militia is most active and launch regular attacks on NATO and Afghan forces.

NATO's mission in Afghanistan is considered the most dangerous in the alliance's 57-year history.

NATO forces mounted a two-week offensive in September to clear Taliban from the Panjwai district to the west of the southern city of Kandahar. A NATO commander said about 1,000 Taliban were killed during the conflict. The Taliban dismissed that and said they had suffered few casualties.

Aid workers like Hashim Mayar want the focus of NATO's work to shift away from such offensives. "Only fighting will not solve the problems but will cause further civilian casualties and displacement and will endanger development and reconstruction."

Making money in Afghanistan: Still risky business
Five years after the war, Kabul is showing signs of economic life. But making money in Afghanistan is still risky business. By Eric Ellis, Fortune Magazine October 5 2006: 6:41 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- It has been half a decade since the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, and the place finally appears to be getting down to business. On Jalalabad Road outside Kabul, where bandits once marauded with impunity, a sparkling $25 million Coca-Cola (Charts) bottling plant has appeared. The central bank, its vaults looted by Mullah Omar in 2001, has been rebuilt and boasts $2 billion in foreign reserves. And across a dusty downtown square, the Aga Khan has built Afghanistan's first five-star hotel.

"Our annual per capita income has gone from $180 [in 2001] to $355 today," says President Hamid Karzai. "If you asked me, Has the country succeeded in terms of economic recovery? I would say yes, massively. Afghanistan is reflowering."

But appearances - and statistics - can be deceptive. The most significant reflowering has taken place north of Kabul, where narco-barons are once again cultivating poppies, making the heroin trade Afghanistan's biggest industry, accounting for about a third of the nation's economy. Meanwhile, the Taliban has regrouped in the southern part of the country, which is engulfed in a war that NATO generals describe as "more intense than Iraq." Violence has become so bad that rebuilding projects have been halted and foreign aid workers are too scared to venture outside their compounds. Even the rebuilt highway connecting Kabul and Kandahar, touted as Washington's biggest reconstruction success, has been blocked by hostilities.

The litany of problems goes on. Although $12 billion in foreign aid has been injected into Afghanistan's economy, the national power grid isn't operating. The Aga Khan's $30 million Hotel Serena has a 30 percent occupancy rate, even after rates were slashed in half. The new Coke plant, employing 350 Afghans in an economy where few sustainable jobs have been created beyond the aid sector, competes for customers with cheaper untaxed beverages smuggled in from Pakistan. (Its president, Dubai-based Habib Gulzar, also complains that bureaucrats demanded testing of Coke's syrup - the secret formula on which the company's global business is based - before granting a license.) And the central bank governor, Noorullah Delawari, who returned in 2002 after 30 years running banks in California, is fighting a rear-guard action against enemies within his own government. "Certain people," he says, "see the cash pile we have built here as very attractive."

Growing pains or burgeoning corruption?
Karzai, seated in a wood-paneled office in Kabul's Arg Palace behind seven rings of heavily armed security guards, dismisses such setbacks as "teething problems." But he knows he's in a struggle to retain Washington's confidence and convince Afghans he's up to the job.

"We don't have much time," the 49-year-old leader says. "I'm in a hurry. I want to be a rich country very soon. I want to have all the roads paved. I want to have electricity. That's what I should be delivering to the Afghan people as the leader of this country ... and that is what I did not realize when I started."

It may be too late. With his fluent English and chic traditional garb, the urbane Karzai enjoyed a five-year honeymoon, feted in Western capitals as the man to unify a fractured country, a symbol of hope for war-weary Afghans. But the Karzai gloss has tarnished as real progress proves elusive. Far from moving forward, Afghanistan seems to be reverting to the murderous enmities and intrigues that have plagued its history and led to 9/11. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned last month that Afghanistan again teeters on the brink of becoming a failed state.

Karzai's administration is beset and embittered, his cabinet divided between returnee technocrats with capability but little authority and warlords lacking the capacity to govern, each side suspicious of the other. "We have not been able to gain quick capacity of our own in the ministries, in the managerial jobs," he acknowledges.

The result is sclerosis. A World Bank official derides some ministers in Karzai's dysfunctional cabinet as a "waste of space" and says he is wary of the corruption that is crippling the government. "There is corruption in the whole system," Karzai admits. "In the ministries, the NGOs, the donors' implementation of projects, in all spheres of the Afghan recovery."

Governing warlords
Meanwhile, powerful Afghans who once supported Karzai now plot against him, telling Washington that the man they backed to lead Afghanistan's transition from war to nationhood can't deliver prosperity or secure peace. "It's time for Karzai to take off his robes and do some work at home," one frustrated Afghan businessman, who asked not to be identified, told Fortune as Karzai visited the White House last month. "The best way to maintain foreign support and his own credibility is for him to perform within this country and not before the Washington media."

The limits of Karzai's power are on display at Ariana, the flagship airline. The carrier has long been one of the few cash cows in government ownership. But Afghanistan's long years as a pariah state starved Ariana of skills, parts and management, turning the carrier into a deathtrap. After liberation the airline was hijacked by warlords as the spoils of victory. Ariana pilots tell alarming stories of midnight gun- and drug-running, their services demanded at gunpoint. Flights were rarely logged, and the airline didn't produce financial statements for years. "We have been one of the most corrupt institutions in a very corrupt country," Ariana president Mohammed Atash told Fortune in June.

Karzai made reform at Ariana a priority. He wanted to prove that government can be clean and that he could break the grip of clan leaders. Atash, a U.S. returnee, was brought in as chief executive, Baltimore lawyer Enayatulla Qasimi was appointed Transport Minister, and Karzai approved a $5 million contract to hire a German consulting firm to shadow management.

For a while it seemed progress was being made. Ariana flights started leaving on time, new planes were ordered, Kabul's airport was cleaned of smugglers, and there were even sale talks with carriers like Indian Airlines and Emirates. But the warlords, denied their spoils, weren't happy. Qasimi says "dark interests" lobbied to remove him as minister, succeeding when Karzai replaced him in April. Two returnee executives spent last year in jail without charges being filed. And the Germans banked their fees and went home with little achieved.

Last month Atash was sacked. Both he and Qasimi have left the country. Today it's not clear who's running the airline, or the airport. Karzai seems embarrassed by the saga. "It's very sad," he says. "That is a case of Afghan capacity - and the absence of that capacity being misused by outsiders."

Still, despite the tribulations, Afghans like central banker Delawari remain convinced the nation can make it. "Whether I will be alive or not, I firmly believe this wave of violence will finish," Delawari says. "We have to work together. We have to find a way to end this."

Over eight tons of saffron distributed to farmers

Ahmad Qurishi  - HERAT CITY, Oct 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) distributed over eight tons of saffron to farmers in the western Herat province, as alternative livelihood, officials said on Tuesday.

Bashir Ahmad Ahmadi, promotion officer in provincial agriculture department, told Pajhwok Afghan News 8,400 kilograms of saffron was distributed to over 60 farmers in Pusthon Zarghon district of the province.

He said distribution of saffron was to promote the crop and get good source of income for the farmers. The 60 farmers were imparted training by agriculture department regarding the cultivation of saffron, he added. Besides 140 kilograms of saffron, each farmer was distributed one sack of fertilizers and working tools, Ahmadi contended.

Abdul Karim, 45, a local farmer, said:" Saffron produced great result in Pushtoon Zarghon, because the weather, water and earth were suitable for the crop here."

He asked for more help that farmers could increase cultivation of saffron. Hailing the help with farmers, Hafizullah, district chief of Pusthoon Zarghon said local farmers suffered a lot of losses due to long and severe drought and serious diseases."

The donation to the farmers was a part of the $74,000 PRT would grant in four districts. Earlier, Italian PRT provided 11 tons of saffron to Shindand district farmers and seven tons to each Karukh and Zinda-Jan districts of the province.

Afghan delegation participate in KIOGE

Mustafa Basharat - KABUL, Oct 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan, for first time, is participating in the International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (KIOGE) being held in Almaty, capital of Kazakhstan.

More than 1,000 delegates are attending the three-day exhibition started on Tuesday. Spokesman for the Ministry of Mines Khozhman Uloomi told Pajhwok Afghan News representatives from the ministry and presidential advisors were attending the 14th Kazakhstan International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition.

Uloomi said Afghanistan had huge reservoirs of oil and gas, especially in the northern parts of the country as reported by NASA earlier this year.

The Afghan delegates at the conference will inform the participants about investment opportunities in the oil and gas sectors in the country to attract foreign investment. This is the first time delegation from Afghanistan is participating in the exhibition.

A press release issued in Almaty says KIOGE provides useful opportunities for delegates to introduce with one another and establish close contacts.

[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.]