In this photo provided by the White House, President Bush sits with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as they host a working dinner Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006, at the White House with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, left, and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. (AP Photo/The White House, Eric Draper)

In this bulletin:

• Musharraf denies Pak supports terrorism, says Osama in Afghan
• Bush urges better Pakistan-Afghan cooperation
• Blair, Musharraf meet to discuss terrorism, Afghanistan
• Nato ministers expected to announce Afghan mission expansion
• Afghan attacks up despite truce
• Militant attacks up in Afghan border area: U.S.
• Militants in Pakistani tribal region kill Afghan man for being U.S. spy, official says - The Associated Press
• PM slams Martin over Afghan comments
• U.N. official points to human rights cost of deteriorating Afghan security
• The Associated Press
• It may take 10 years, but Afghan war 'winnable'
• Afghan candidate for top U.N. job says he would focus on management reform
• Slaying of Afghan activist sounds alarm for women

Musharraf denies Pak supports terrorism, says Osama in Afghan
(AFP) 28 September 2006

LONDON - President Pervez Musharraf denied allegations made in a British military policy paper that Pakistan had indirectly supported terrorism, and said he would bring up the matter in discussions with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Thursday. “Absolutely, 200 percent, I reject it,” Musharraf told the BBC in an interview from the United States.

The British broadcaster cited the policy paper written by an unnamed senior official in the British defence ministry as charging that Pakistan indirectly supported terrorism.

“Indirectly, Pakistan, through the ISI, has been supporting terrorism and extremism, whether in London on 7/7 (the July 7, 2005 bombings on London’s transport network) or in Afghanistan or Iraq,” the report reads.

The policy paper proposes using military links between British and Pakistani armed forces to persuade Musharraf to step down as leader of the country, accept free elections, withdraw the army from civilian life and dismantle Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI.

Pakistan’s military ruler responded angrily to the suggestions, saying: “I would like to tell this Ministry of Defence spokesman to say the Ministry of Defence maybe should be dismantled before the ISI is dismantled.”

He said the ISI was a “disciplined force” which “won the Cold War for the world”, adding: “We don’t like anybody advising us to dismantle ISI, least of all the (British) Ministry of Defence.”

The report was described as being written by a senior military official linked to Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6, and part of a fact-finding mission to Pakistan in June.

“I take exception seriously, and I would like to talk about it Prime Minister Tony Blair when I meet him...”

The two leaders are to meet after Musharraf arrives in London on Thursday, Blair’s office said.

A spokeswoman for the British defence ministry said the paper ”in no way represent the views of either the MoD or the government.

She said the author of the report “suspects that (it has) been released ... precisely in the hope that (it) would cause damage to our relations with Pakistan.”

“Pakistan is a key ally in our efforts to combat international terrorism and her security forces have made considerable sacrifices in tackling Al Qaeda and the Taleban.”

Criticism of Pakistan has risen recently, with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan charging Wednesday in a CNN interview that fugitive Taleban militia chief Mullah Omar was in Pakistan, and that Islamabad needed to do more against Islamic religious schools that ”are training extremists full of hatred for the rest of the world.”

Meanwhile, Musharraf, in Washington along with Karzai to jointly meet with US President George W. Bush, claimed that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, reported last week to have died, is alive and hiding in Afghanistan, in an interview with The Times published on Thursday.

“It’s not a hunch,” Musharraf said, speaking from a hotel in New York.

The newspaper, without directly quoting Pakistan’s military ruler, said he believed bin Laden was hiding in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.

“Kunar province borders on Bajaur Agency. We know there are some pockets of Al Qaeda in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation,” he told The Times.

Musharraf also said he had nothing to confirm reports bin Laden may have died from typhoid fever that emerged from a French intelligence memo citing Saudi sources that was leaked to a newspaper at the weekend.

“I don’t know” about bin Laden having died, he said.

“Unless I am sure I never say anything.

“If they have some source they should tell us. At least our intelligence does not know anything.”

The report met with widespread scepticism, with French, Saudi Arabian, US and Pakistani officials saying it could not be confirmed.

Bush urges better Pakistan-Afghan cooperation
By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush urged the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan on Wednesday to improve cooperation in fighting terrorism as he mediated talks aimed at easing tensions between the two U.S. allies.

Bush spoke as he stood between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who have traded barbs in recent days over who is at fault for security lapses along the rugged border between their countries.

Musharraf maintained a serious expression, while Karzai smiled slightly during Bush's statement in the White House Rose Garden. They did not shake hands.

"Today's dinner is a chance for us to strategize together, to talk about the need to cooperate, to make sure that people have got a hopeful future," Bush said.

Musharraf and Karzai have accused each other of not doing enough to combat extremists amid a Taliban resurgence that has spawned the worst violence in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces toppled the Islamist hard-liners five years ago.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the remote Afghan-Pakistan border area, but Musharraf and Karzai have each said he was in the other's country.

They flung similar charges about the location of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"As we work for a more hopeful world, we will continue to make sure that extremists, such as Osama bin Laden, that wants to hurt my friend here, as well as upset the democracy in Afghanistan, is brought to justice," Bush said, referring to assassination attempts against Musharraf.

Bush called the two leaders "personal friends" and emphasized they faced common challenges and must work together. "They understand that the forces of moderation are being challenged by extremists and radicals," he said.

During a 2 1/2-hour dinner of spicy sea bass across a round table, Karzai and Musharraf spoke directly to each other and individually to Bush, a senior administration official said. He described the exchanges as cordial and frank.

Karzai and Musharraf had exchanged warm greetings with good humor earlier in the Oval Office and shook hands before leaving for the night, the official said on condition of anonymity.

"They committed to supporting moderation and defeating extremism through greater intelligence sharing, coordinated action against terrorists, and common efforts to enhance the prosperity of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan," White House spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement.

Musharraf discussed initiatives in the tribal region to improve governance, economic development and security, while Karzai discussed efforts to improve security, governance, and accelerate development throughout Afghanistan, Snow said.

In the past week Musharraf and Karzai have publicly complained about each other's handling of security. Karzai says Taliban fighters carrying out armed attacks inside his country are being sheltered in Pakistan.

Musharraf has touted an agreement reached this month with pro-Taliban tribesmen in the North Waziristan region as anti-Taliban. Critics are concerned the pact would allow militants to find refuge in the semi-autonomous region.

The resurgent Taliban has become an issue in the Nov. 7 U.S. congressional elections because Democrats charge Bush shortchanged Afghanistan in order to pour troops and money into the Iraq war.

In separate CNN interviews, Karzai said Musharraf must take more action against madrassas, or religious schools, that are training extremists, while Musharraf accused Karzai of "turning a blind eye like an ostrich."

Blair, Musharraf meet to discuss terrorism, Afghanistan

LONDON The leaders of Britain and Pakistan are to discuss terrorism and cooperation in Afghanistan in a Thursday meeting likely to be overshadowed by the leak of a document suggesting Islamabad's security forces are indirectly supporting terrorist groups.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf rejects the allegation, raised in a document obtained by the British Broadcasting Corp., and said he intends to ask why the British military believes the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence — Pakistan's top spy agency — should be dismantled.

"I totally, 200 percent reject it. I reject it from anybody — MoD (Ministry of Defense) or anyone who tells me to dismantle ISI," he said. "ISI is a disciplined force, breaking the back of al-Qaida."

The broadcaster said the documents were written by an unidentified senior researcher at the Defense Academy, which is a ministry think-tank and college. It said the document was part of a private British review of efforts across the world to combat terrorism.

"Indirectly, Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism — whether in London on (July 7, 2005) or in Afghanistan or Iraq," the BBC quotes the document as saying. "Pakistan is not currently stable but on the edge of chaos."

The defense ministry said the material obtained by the BBC was in no way a report or a policy statement.

Instead, the papers were merely research notes taken by an academic to reflect material seen or collected from a variety of sources — not a collection of facts meant to influence the government's position or policies, a ministry spokeswoman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

The spokeswoman, reading a strongly-worded ministry statement, said the "academic research notes quoted in no way represent the views of either the MoD or the government."

"To represent it as such is deeply irresponsible and the author is furious that his notes have been willfully misrepresented in this manner," the statement said.

"He suspects that they have been released to the BBC precisely in the hope that they would cause damage to our relations with Pakistan."

The ministry reiterated Britain's long-standing position that Pakistan is a key ally in the fight against terrorism.

Musharraf called the intelligence agency a critical player in the war on terror and said their work had led to the arrests of 680 suspected terrorists.

Blair and Musharraf meet at the British prime minister's official country residence, Chequers, in the countryside west of London. A spokesman for Blair said the private conversation will cover topics including terrorism and Afghanistan. They do not plan to speak to reporters afterward.

Musharraf arrived at London's Heathrow Airport on Thursday morning, following a visit to Washington, D.C. Speaking with reporters, he said that meetings in the United States with President George W. Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai were "very good."

He said it was decided Afghanistan and Pakistan should have better intelligence coordination and interaction to meet the challenges of fighting militants. But a news conference following the dinner revealed a frosty relationship between the leaders, with Karzai and Musharraf not shaking hands with each other, after shaking hands with Bush.

Afghanistan is one of the issues he intends to raise with Blair, Musharraf said Thursday, but he also hopes to discuss trade, counterterrorism and reinforcing intelligence.

Nato ministers expected to announce Afghan mission expansion  

Nato defence ministers were today expected to approve an extension of the alliance’s Afghan security mission across the whole of the country, taking in the volatile eastern region and bringing around 10,000 US troops under allied command.

Diplomats said the move had been discussed at an early morning meeting of ambassadors at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and was likely to be announced during the ministers’ talks in the Slovenian resort of Portoroz.

The decision comes just two months after Nato troops moved into the southern sector, sparking fierce resistance from Taliban fighters and dragging the alliance into the first major ground combat since it was formed six decades ago.

European ministers will also come under pressure to send more troops to the southern sector where soldiers from Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands have borne the brunt of the fighting.

“I will be urging Nato to look again to see what more can be done,” said Britain’s Defence Secretary Des Browne ahead of the meeting. “Allies must step up to the plate to meet our collective commitment to support the government and people of Afghanistan.”

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to make a similar call.

A senior US official said allies were expected to come forward with more troops although they may not fully meet the requirement of up to 2,500 extra soldiers backed by helicopters and planes which Nato’s top commander, US General James Jones, has requested.

The 26 Nato defence ministers, gathering for their two-day meeting in Portoroz, are expected to agree today on a plan to donate surplus military equipment to Afghanistan, and also are likely to announce new commitments of military resources.

According to a senior US official, Afghanistan has compiled a list of needed equipment, from helicopters and vehicles to armour and guns, and officials will set up a programme to co-ordinate the donations.

The official requested anonymity because the ministers had not met to finalise the agreement, which is similar to one set up previously for Iraq.

Afghan attacks up despite truce – BBC

Militant attacks in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, have tripled in some areas, the US military has said.

There were "in some cases two-fold, in some cases three-fold increases in the number of attacks," coalition spokesman Lieutenant Colonel John Paradis said.

The rise in activity comes despite a peace agreement meant to end violence by pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan border area.

But correspondents say the deal has increased friction with Afghanistan. The US military announcement came after US President George W Bush hosted talks between the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan in Washington.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are at odds on how to fight the Taleban in their border region, and failed to shake hands or speak to each other at the talks.

A brief White House statement after the three-way talks said the leaders had agreed to "moderation and defeating extremism through greater intelligence sharing, [and] coordinated action against terrorists".

Gen Musharraf meanwhile angrily rejected a leaked document by an official close to the UK Ministry of Defence suggesting his intelligence services, the ISI, indirectly backed terrorism by supporting religious groups in Pakistan.

In a BBC TV interview, Gen Musharraf said his intelligence services were doing an "excellent job" in tracking down and apprehending militants, and that he rejected "200%" calls to dismantle them.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the allegations in no way represented its views or those of the British government. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to try to allay Gen Musharraf's concerns at a meeting in London on Thursday.

The Afghan and Pakistani leaders have been at odds on the issue of security in recent months. Mr Karzai says violence in his country has increased since the Waziristan agreement. The US findings appeared to confirm this.

"There has been an increase in the activity certainly along the border region especially in the south-east areas across from Waziristan... in [Afghanistan's] Paktika and Khost provinces," Lte Col Paradis told a news conference.

Mr Karzai suggests that Pakistan has turned a blind eye to Taleban supporters using parts of the country to train and launch attacks on Afghanistan, and accuses Pakistan of sheltering former Taleban leaders.

Gen Musharraf says the North Waziristan agreement was necessary to fight the Taleban and strongly rejects Mr Karzai's allegations. He says Pakistan is doing all it can to fight terrorism and, in turn, accuses the Afghan leader of inaction.

The ceasefire was agreed on 31 July and became a peace agreement on 5 September aimed at ending two years of regional conflict.

The pact was also designed to choke off cross-border attacks into Afghanistan. It is nearly five years since the Taleban were forced from power, but thousands of international troops remain in the country hunting Taleban supporters, who have regrouped.

Militant attacks up in Afghan border area: U.S.
Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:35 AM ET By Robert Birsel

KABUL (Reuters) - Militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, have tripled in some areas, the U.S. military said on Thursday, despite a peace agreement on the Pakistani side meant to end the violence.

A Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan has spawned the worst violence since U.S.-led forces toppled the hardliners in 2001.

It has also soured relations between Kabul and Islamabad, crucial allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism that are both battling Islamist militants.

President Bush urged the Afghan and Pakistani leaders on Wednesday to improve cooperation in fighting terrorism as he mediated talks between them in Washington.

Afghanistan is angry about the support a resurgent Taliban can get in Pakistan and is suspicious of a peace agreement struck in Pakistan this month.

The pact is meant to end violence by pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan border region. It is also meant to choke off cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

But the number of attacks on the Afghan side of the mountainous border, in the provinces of Paktika and Khost, had risen since the pact was signed, the U.S. military said.

"There has been an increase in activity, certainly along the border region, especially in the southeast areas across from North Waziristan," a U.S. military spokesman, Colonel John Paradis, told a news conference.

Referring to accounts from soldiers on the ground, Paradis said: "They have seen, in some cases two-fold, in some cases three-fold increases in the number of attacks."

The greater number of attacks was partly a result of more extensive operations by U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces, he said. He did not say if the U.S. military thought the attacks were being carried out by infiltrators from Pakistan.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled to semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun lands on the Pakistani side of the border after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban. Musharraf has been trying to clear them out.

Fighters have been drawn to the area since the 1980s, when the United States and Pakistan encouraged them to battle Soviet invaders in Afghanistan.

Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have said they do not want to prejudge the North Waziristan pact, struck after many months of fighting between militants and the Pakistan army.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding along the remote, rugged border. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Karzai have each said bin Laden was in the other's country.

Pakistan used to support the Taliban, who emerged from Pakistani religious schools in the 1990s. The Taliban still enjoy the support of Pakistani religious parties in charge in some border areas.

Pakistan is worried about the influence of arch-rival India in Afghanistan.NATO members with troops in Afghanistan are watching the row.

NATO troops have met fierce Taliban opposition since the alliance took over in the south in July. NATO will soon take over responsibility for the east when U.S. coalition troops there come under its command.

A NATO spokesman, asked about the row between Afghanistan and Pakistan said: "Both of them agree that there is a common problem."

Militants in Pakistani tribal region kill Afghan man for being U.S. spy, official says - The Associated Press THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2006

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan Suspected militants abducted and killed an Afghan man in a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan over suspicion that he was spying for the United States, an official said Thursday.

Villagers spotted the Afghan's bullet-riddled body early Thursday by a roadside and alerted authorities in North Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border, area government officer Fida Mohammed said.

A note, written in the locally spoken Pashtu language, had been left with the body that identified the shooting victim as Malang, from Afghanistan's eastern Khost province, Mohammed said.

Malang had been abducted Wednesday from a bus station in Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan, and some town residents who saw his body identified him as a weapon dealer, Mohammed said.

The note warned area tribesmen against spying for the United States.

"People of Waziristan! beware, spies have come and they are spying for America," Mohammed quoted the note on Malang's body as saying.

Tribal Islamic militants, suspected of links with Afghanistan's Taliban militia, as well Arab, Central Asian and Afghan fighters — allegedly linked with al-Qaida — operate in Waziristan.

In recent years, dozens of tribesmen and Afghans have been killed in suspected militant attacks after they were accused of spying for the United States or collaboration with Pakistani authorities.

Earlier this month, pro-Taliban tribal militants signed a deal with the government, agreeing not to launch attacks on Pakistani security forces or cross the border into Afghanistan to fight coalition forces.

In return, authorities agreed to withdraw troops to barracks from several security posts in North Waziristan and released dozens of tribesmen detained over suspiciion of links with militants.

While militant attacks on security forces have subsided after the peace deal, at least three men have been killed over spying allegations in the area since then.

PM slams Martin over Afghan comments

Former leader's indecision cost him country's top office, Harper asserts

DANIEL LEBLANC AND GLORIA GALLOWAY - From Thursday's Globe and Mail

BUCHAREST AND OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper lashed out at Paul Martin Wednesday, saying the man who approved Canada's military mission to Afghanistan when he was Liberal prime minister should not be questioning it now.

“When you make those kinds of decisions as a prime minister, you have to be able to take responsibility for them and stick with them,” Mr. Harper said in Bucharest, where he is attending a meeting of francophone countries.

“The fact Mr. Martin is incapable of sticking by his decisions explains why he is no longer the prime minister of Canada.”

Mr. Martin was quoted this week as saying he doesn't approve of the way the military mission is unfolding, because the original goal of rebuilding the country has been obscured by increasingly intense fighting.

It was the former Liberal government that agreed to send Canadian troops to the dangerous southern region of Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. Mr. Martin, who was then prime minister, defended the decision in 2005, saying the danger was necessary because it was Canada's responsibility to fight terrorism.

The apparent softening of Mr. Martin's position drew pointed criticism from Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.

“This is too important to play games with,” Mr. MacKay said in Ottawa. “He clearly, when he was prime minister, committed to this mission until 2007. And six months in advance of that, he is suggesting it's not the right mission? The mission that he began? It's a huge knock on his credibility for him to be making those public utterances.”

Mr. Layton criticized Mr. Martin for being absent when the House of Commons voted in May to extend the mission to 2009.

“It is appalling to me that he is now waffling on the very mission that he took us into, but he didn't find the time to come to the House and vote on last spring.”

Liberal Leader Bill Graham came to the defence of his predecessor, saying Mr. Martin's position has been consistent: “The mission isn't just the military dimension. The mission is about reconstructing Afghanistan.”

Mr. Harper praised his Romanian hosts yesterday for agreeing to send 200 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing their total to 800.

“One of the subjects that we both have at heart is the issue of international security and, in particular, our co-operation in Afghanistan,” Mr. Harper said during a joint news conference with Romanian President Traian Basescu.

Mr. Basescu concurred, calling terrorism “one of the biggest scourges that have faced mankind” and saying he supports a continued international presence in Afghanistan.

Mr. Harper and Mr. Basescu met in Romania's presidential palace, a French-designed building dating back to 1888 that rivals castles in Western Europe for its beauty.

Mr. Harper also met with Francophonie Secretary-General Abdou Diouf in the Palace of the Parliament, a gigantic building that former dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu is said to have destroyed one-sixth of Bucharest to build. Rooms in the former “Palace of the People” are adorned with massive chandeliers, ornate columns and marble floors in a style that mixes the grandeur of communist regimes with the glamour of the Renaissance.

The 11th Francophonie summit opens this morning in Romania, even though English is the second language of choice in most restaurants and hotels in the country.

At the Best Western Hotel near the airport, for example, a sign has been placed in elevators warning guests of traffic jams caused by the arrival of delegations to the francophone summit. While the notice is bilingual, the two languages used are Romanian and English.

Mr. Harper has pointed out during the trip that there are 130,000 Canadians of Romanian origin in Canada, and has called for increased economic ties between Canada and Romania. In particular, the Canadian government hopes Romania will buy additional Candu nuclear reactors.

U.N. official points to human rights cost of deteriorating Afghan security

The Associated Press - THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2006

GENEVA Deteriorating security in Afghanistan has had serious consequences for human rights, the United Nations' top rights official said Thursday, citing civilian deaths caused by insurgent attacks as well as government and international forces.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, expressed disappointment with "a series of killings" of government supporters, including Monday's assassination of Safia Ama Jan, a women's rights advocate who ran an underground school for girls during Taliban rule.

Arbour said the lack of security in Afghanistan has severely restricted the work of human rights institutions there, particularly in the south and southeast near neighboring Pakistan.

Arbour was addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council, the 47-nation rights watchdog currently meeting in Geneva, a day after the U.S. military said it has seen a tripling of attacks since a truce between the Pakistani army and pro-Taliban tribesmen that was supposed to stop cross-border raids by militants.

Insurgent bombings, ambushes and rocket attacks had soared this year even before the cease-fire. Both the United States and NATO launched big offensives this month in response to insurgent attacks, claiming to have killed 640 militants.

"The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan carries grave implications for human rights," Arbour said. "Civilians have at times become indirect victims of attacks by insurgents as well as by government and international military forces."

At least 25 militants were reported killed in fighting Wednesday before a White House meeting of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and U.S. President George W. Bush to try to patch up their dispute over how to quell Islamic extremists.

Under Musharraf, Pakistan was a key supporter of Afghanistan's Taliban militia before it was ousted from power by a U.S. military campaign in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida. But Pakistan quickly distanced itself from the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks and aided the Americans.

Afghan officials allege that Pakistan is letting Taliban militants hide out and launch attacks into Afghanistan. Pakistan bristles at such charges, insisting that Afghan insurgents get no help from inside its borders.

Arbour also expressed disappointment that Afghanistan's Supreme Court includes no women, and said there had been increasing violations of freedom of speech and religion in the country.

It may take 10 years, but Afghan war 'winnable'

Mark Dodd - September 28, 2006

AUSTRALIA'S military presence in Afghanistan is needed for at least another 10 years to eradicate the forces of terror, but the nation's senior defence commander says the war is winnable.

In likening the scale of the war to Vietnam, Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said yesterday the Howard Government should start planning for a long mission.

In a rare briefing on the work of Australia's special forces taskforce in Afghanistan, Air Chief Marshal Houston said the soldiers had faced sustained battles.

The "re-energised" insurgency in some of the harshest country in the world was custom made for guerilla warfare and he could see Australia's recently returned special forces heading back to the battlefield.

Air Chief Marshal Houston's bleak assessments were backed by a visiting US terror expert, Phillip Gordon from the Brookings Institution, who warned of worsening violence in Afghanistan.

"Suicide bombings which were virtually unheard of in Afghanistan in the first few years of the international presence are now proliferating and are a regular occurrence," Dr Gordon told a conference being held by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

More than three-quarters of all suicide bombings since 2002 had occurred in the past 12 months; Taliban insurgents were on the comeback while opium production was up 50 per cent, he said.

The Defence Department yesterday revealed chilling details of hard fought battles and epic heroism by a composite special forces battle group comprising mostly commandos and Special Air Service operatives deployed on active service for 395 days to volatile Oruzgan province.

"The commandos regularly worked in concert with the SAS remote from their operating base (Camp Russell, named after SAS Sergeant Andrew Russell, who was killed in 2002) particularly in the latter phases when enemy activity was at its height," said Major General Mike Hindmarsh, head of the Australian Special Forces Command.

He said the Sydney-based soldiers earned international praise for their role in securing the rescue of a foreign assault force involved in a vicious gun battle following an attack on the camp of a militia commander.

"At one stage they had to circle their vehicles and resist a close-quarters attack for up to an hour," he said. "When the assault force, by now carrying a number of dead and wounded, finally reached the landing zone, Australian CH-47s (Chinooks) landed in a maelstrom of enemy fire, picked them up and departed, leaving the commandos to fight their way out on the ground."

The Australian commander of the reconstruction taskforce in Oruzgan, Lieutenant Colonel Mick Ryan, told The Australian yesterday that security in the province was his main concern.

His soldiers had been specially prepared and familiarised with Afghan Islamic culture and many could speak the local language, he said in a telephone interview. The centrepiece of Australian work in the province apart from helping with basic infrastructure improvements was the construction of a trade training school.

"There is always a security threat but these soldiers are dead keen. This is the type of mission they love doing," said Colonel Ryan, emphasising the need to win hearts and minds by helping Afghan civilians.

Details of continuing heavy fighting in Afghanistan prompted an immediate attack by the federal Opposition, who accused the Government of acting prematurely in pulling out Australia's only combat force engaged in offensive operations there.

"Labor remains concerned that the threats the taskforce were addressing may resurface in the future.

"As Major General Hindmarsh and Air Chief Marshal Houston stated, the danger of infiltration by insurgents is ongoing and a substantial number of enemy fighters remain present in Oruzgan today," said federal Opposition defence spokesman.

Unconfirmed reports claim more than 150 Taliban insurgents were killed by the Australian special forces in one nine-day operation in the Chora valley, 15km from the Australian base.

Air Chief Marshall Houston said body counts were not an accurate method of assessing progress in the Afghan conflict, and refused to reveal enemy casualty figures, citing the need for operational security. The 395-day operational deployment involved more than 100 patrols and 306 mission days.

Patrols lasted from a few days to a few weeks. Coalition air support was called for on 217 occasions. During the deployment, 11 soldiers were wounded, six in one mission, the scene of the largest Australian medical evacuation since Vietnam.

Afghan candidate for top U.N. job says he would focus on management reform

The Associated Press - THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2006

NEW YORK Afghanistan's candidate to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that he would focus most on fixing the organization's troubled management department if he gets the job.

Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan finance minister, is the latest of seven candidates to enter the race. He said transparency at the U.N. must be a priority and audits were like "a dye" that could be used to ensure that.

"Its damaged culture can be fixed — it must be fixed," Ghani told an audience at the Asia Society in Manhattan on Wednesday, in reference to criticism that the management department is inefficient and marred by corruption.

"It must disclose every dollar of its expenditure to the citizens of the world. It cannot hide behind secrecy, because its only the sunshine of public scrutiny that can bring about the required system of checks and balances," he said.

Ghani said a review of skills among existing U.N. staff was necessary. He also said, as a place of employment, he would strive to make the U.N. the "top choice of women and men across the globe."

He said the organization must also emphasize partnerships between civil society and government.

In order to fund those partnerships, Ghani said diversifying the source of financial contributions would be a priority, in order to get away from the U.N.'s dependence on the fraction of members who contribute the vast majority of its budget.

He cited former President Bill Clinton as an example. On Friday, Clinton announced $7.3 billion (€5.8 billion) in pledges to The Clinton Global Initiative to help reduce global warming and fight poverty, disease and ethnic conflicts in the developing world.

"If President Clinton can have such an enormous power ... the U.N. should be able to use imagination to draw on immense good will that can exist," he said, adding that it was another reason that transparency that would translate into trust was vital.

The U.N. should also become more focused, choosing five or six issues to be effective, he said.

"The United Nations can not do everything that everyone wants it to," Ghani said.

The U.N. Security Council wants to pick a successor to Annan by the end of October. Annan's second five-year term expires on Dec. 31.

The current front-runner for the job is South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon. Other candidates come from Thailand, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Latvia.

Slaying of Afghan activist sounds alarm for women – USA Today

Call her the Susan B. Anthony of Afghanistan. Safia Ama Jan fought for women's rights in a chauvinistic society. After the fall of the repressive Taliban regime in late 2001, she pushed women to vote and take part in civic life.

"This country has had two-and-a-half decades during which both males and females have been left uneducated," she said two years ago. "You cannot change their minds overnight. We need some time."

Tragically, Ama Jan didn't get that time. On Monday, suspected Taliban assassins gunned her down as she went to work in a taxi. The southern Kandahar government, where she ran the women's department, had denied her requests for a bodyguard.

Ama Jan's death at age 65, like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, raises a larger, and very disturbing, question: Is she a symbol of where Afghanistan's fledgling democracy is heading? It's not just that she was a victim of a dangerously resurgent Taliban. She was also facing an uphill battle in her fight for women's rights in Afghan society more broadly.

Her courage, and that of many other Afghan women, was bolstered by the Bush administration after it ousted the Taliban. The United States pushed for democracy and insisted that women take full part. It helped get girls back into school (the Taliban had kept them illiterate and at home) and helped craft a constitution ensuring women one quarter of the seats in the new parliament.

But now, women's equality is moving in the wrong direction. "We do have rights on paper, but we don't have them in reality," Fatima Kazimyan, one women's representative, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The signs are everywhere. Female members of parliament say they a re not taken seriously. Most have been dropped from high government positions.

The most obvious problem is one of declining security. The Taliban are attacking girls' schools. NATO forces, which have taken over from U.S. troops in the south, are facing fierce battles. Warlords reign in many areas. The heroin trade, which fuels both the Taliban and the warlords, is at an all-time high.

But security concerns can't be an excuse to dim the spotlight on women's rights. On Tuesday, at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush lamented Ama Jan's death — to illustrate the nature of the enemy in the war on terror.

Also disturbing, though, is the sidelining of women in the government and courts — hampering their struggle against the spread of harsh sharia law, which denies women most rights. This trend is replicating itself in Iraq, which, under Saddam Hussein's brutal yet secular regime, was one of the Middle East countries where women experienced the least discrimination.

Renewed U.S. focus on the everyday battles of women such as Safia Ama Jan can better honor her and what she fought for — perhaps even, one day, with a coin of her own.

[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.]