In this bulletin:

• Terror 'destroying' Afghanistan, Pakistan: Musharraf
• Afghan Leader Meets Musharraf
• Osama hiding in the region, but not in Afghanistan: Karzai
• Afghan leader says business must help fight terrorism
• Urgent talks on Afghan expulsions
• Afghan spokesman denies report of 2 foreigners' arrest
• Harper stresses importance of staying in Afghanistan
• No proof Iranian gov't behind IEDs: Afghan diplomat
• Germany to provide 8.5m euros for Afghan education sector
• Taliban brutally kill policeman in Helmand
• bomb attack facilitators arrested in Afghan operations
• Authorities release 500 poppy growers in Helmand
• Taliban masterminded Baghlan massacre: NSD
• Two suspected suicide attackers held
• US avoided formal recognition of Daoud Government
• Afghans welcome home artifacts
• Can tribes take on the Taleban?
• Rethink Afghanistan and the failed U.S. war on drugs
• Media draft not signed into law due to flaws
• Chak dam renovation to cost 6.4 million euros
• Majority of Norwegians dissatisfied with Afghanistan policy of gov't
• The Gunmen of Kabul: Afghanistan Cracks Down on U.S. Mercenaries
• India should invest more in Afghanistan, say experts
• Afghan food becoming popular in Delhi

Terror 'destroying' Afghanistan, Pakistan: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on Wednesday pledged better cooperation in fighting terrorism, which Musharraf said was "destroying both our countries."

In a brief news conference after their first meeting in four months, they said their talks had been helpful in finding ways to rein in the Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who have flourished along their mutual border.

Both men have accused each other in the past of not doing enough to stop Islamic militants, particularly in the rugged tribal border region that has been in the international spotlight since the September 11 attacks on the US.

But in an apparently warm atmosphere before Musharraf was to host a state dinner for Karzai, he underlined the need for intelligence cooperation with Afghanistan to fight the militant threat.

He said the neighbours had to stop "this menace of extremism and terrorism which is destroying both our countries" and called on their respective intelligence agencies to work hand-in-hand.

"We have developed a strong understanding of each other's problems," Musharraf said. "The key to enhancing our capability against terrorists and extremists is intelligence cooperation."

Both nations are pivotal allies in the US-led "war on terror" and get substantial US aid aimed at fighting militants -- but both have also seen a sharp increase in violence this year.

This has been the deadliest year yet of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, with some 6,000 people killed, while more than 770 people have died in militant attacks in Pakistan.

Karzai, who repeatedly referred to Musharraf as "my brother" during the news conference, said their talks had helped each other understand the issues both nations are facing.

"People in both the countries are suffering -- suffering a lot," Karzai said.

"And it is incumbent upon us -- the leadership of the two countries, the governments -- to find ways to bring peace and stability to each home, each family, in both countries."

The border area, where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to have found refuge after September 11, is rife with militants and remains largely out of the control of both governments.

Musharraf acknowledged the increase in suicide attacks in Pakistan but said "the degree of terrorism otherwise has decreased".

He said there was a 42 percent decrease in Taliban activity in Afghanistan originating in Pakistan.

Musharraf and Karzai said they also discussed trade and other bilateral issues. Karzai was due to return to Afghanistan on Thursday.

It was their first meeting since August, when they attended a tribal assembly in Afghanistan to address the threat of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. Pakistan will host the next assembly, or jirga, in 2008.

The Afghan president is also due to meet Pakistan's caretaker prime minister Mohammedmian Soomro, who holds office until the country's parliamentary elections on January 8 -- a vote Islamic militants have threatened to disrupt.

Afghan officials have repeatedly said that Taliban militants are being trained and armed in Pakistan and sent across the border to attack Afghan security forces and the 60,000 international troops working with them.

Pakistan, which has deployed around 90,000 troops on the border, says Afghan and international troops must enhance deployment on the 2,500-kilometre (1,600-mile) frontier to stop the cross-border movement of militants.

Afghan Leader Meets Musharraf

By RAVI NESSMAN – ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan pledged during an unusually friendly meeting Wednesday to share intelligence and tighten border controls to quash rising militant attacks.

Talks between the two leaders — who frequently argue over the source of cross-border terrorism_ came amid a wave of violence in Pakistan blamed on local Islamic extremists in the largely lawless border region. A suicide bombing during a prayer service at a mosque Friday killed 56 people and an attack on a military convoy in the area Sunday killed nine.

"People from both the countries are suffering under the hands of extremism and terrorism," Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said at a joint evening news conference.

The violence has led to disputes between the two U.S. allies in the war on terror, with Afghan officials saying the militants are using bases inside Pakistan to orchestrate attacks against President Hamid Karzai's government, and Pakistan denying the accusation.

A recent U.S. intelligence report indicated that al-Qaida may be regrouping in North Waziristan, a tribal region where militants have staged almost daily attacks against Pakistani security forces in recent months.

During the news conference, Karzai said militant attacks on the Afghan side of the border have been decreasing, while attacks on the Pakistani side were rising.

Musharraf didn't challenge Karzai's assessment but said Pakistani offensives in the Swat region and other areas had badly weakened the militants there and he said there would be more operations in other regions in the coming days.

During the meeting, both sides agreed to increase their intelligence cooperation and to increase border security to separate militants trying to cross the frontier from legitimate traders, he said.

The two leaders, however, have held similar meetings in the past with few results. When asked what was different now, Karzai said the atmosphere in the meeting was better and both sides agreed on the root cause of the violence.

"We are facing the same problem, we are tackling the same enemy that is creating the problem, destroying homes and killing people on both sides," he said. "Since we are agreed on what is the problem and how to discuss it, there are more chances of success."

Violence continued Wednesday, with about 100 pro-Taliban militants attacking a police checkpoint and kidnapping eight police officers after a gunbattle near Bannu, a town in the North West Frontier Province along the Afghan border, said Dar Ali Khattak, a Bannu police official.

Six youths playing cricket nearby were wounded in the crossfire, he said.

Pakistani police also caught a would-be suicide bomber as the 15-year-old boy tried to carry a one pound bomb into a rally for opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said local police officer Rahim Shah.

Bhutto, a former prime minister who returned from exile to lead her opposition party in Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, has repeatedly accused Musharraf of failing to curb the rise of Islamic militants since he seized power in a 1999 coup.

In October, suicide bombers struck a parade celebrating Bhutto's return from exile, killing more than 140 people in the southern city of Karachi.

Early Wednesday, a small bomb exploded at a cable television office in Peshawar, causing no injuries, police said. Islamic militants have recently attacked music shops, billboards with female images and other businesses they believe violate their extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

Unknown militants in the northwest town of Dera Ismail Khan also blew up an empty music shop Wednesday, said police officer Niaz Muhammad.

Osama hiding in the region, but not in Afghanistan: Karzai

BOSTON, Dec 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, said Sunday he is sure that the most wanted Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, is hiding in the region but not in Afghanistan.

"I can't say exactly where he is hiding, but I am almost certain that he is in this part of the world," Karzai told the CNNs in an interview, which was telecast on its popular Late Edition telecast Sunday.

When specifically asked if bin Laden is in Afghanistan or Pakistan by the CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, Karzai said: "Well, I can't talk about that, whether he is in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but I definitely know that he can not be in Afghanistan." Where he is, is a question that I can not answer at this point.

In the interview taken on the eve of his crucial visit to Islamabad next week where he would be meeting the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, Karzai said the recent events in Pakistan and the situation in Afghanistan are a very clear indication that the fight against terror has to be real, meaningful and effective.

Karzai said: "That the Pakistan government has taken some strong measure against extremism. The Red Mosque example is one. There are other examples. I hope we can all speed up, increase and bring more effectiveness into this fight in this whole border region, not in selected areas." If that happens, then we are on a good track, he said.

Afghan leader says business must help fight terrorism

Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:33am GMT - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Terrorism is scaring off investment in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and business communities in both countries must press their governments to eliminate it, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday.

Karzai arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday and agreed in talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Pervez Musharraf, that they would boost intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that Musharraf said was destroying both countries.

"One major threat to the promotion of business and investment, actually to the growth of both countries, is the question of radicalism and terrorism, because it brings fear," Karzai told a meeting of the Pakistan-Afghan Business Forum.

"Business is shy, as we all know ... and money is even shyer, even more shy. It runs away when there's a risk, when there's a threat, and terrorism is causing that threat," he said.

Afghanistan is grappling with an intense Taliban insurgency while Pakistani forces are battling pro-Taliban militants in different parts of the northwest, near the Afghan border.

Suicide bombers have been striking more often in both countries, killing many hundreds of people this year.

Relations between the two countries, both important U.S. allies, have at times in recent years virtually broken down over Afghan complaints that Taliban insurgents operate from the Pakistani side of their common border.

But both Karzai and Musharraf appeared to have put resentment behind them when they held a news conference on Wednesday, both hailing ties and vowing to work together to fight terrorism.

Karzai said business had a role to play in fighting terrorism by pressing governments to act.

"It also is very much the responsibility of businesses in both countries to keep raising this concern," Karzai said.

"Take one step in Pakistan in this direction, we will take a 100 steps with you in this direction."

Later, Karzai held talks with Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who survived a suicide bomb attack in the city of Karachi in October that killed nearly 150 people.

Bhutto took time out from her campaign for a January 8 election to meet Karzai for talks that included the threat of militancy and religious schools in Pakistan that promote violence.

Bhutto has been speaking out strongly against terrorism in her campaign speeches. She has also criticised some Islamic religious schools, or madrasas, in Pakistan that she said train children as killers.

Afghan officials say some of the suicide bombers attacking in Afghanistan are trained in Pakistani religious schools along the Afghan border.

"The two agreed there is a dire need to contain terrorism," an official of Bhutto's party said.

Urgent talks on Afghan expulsions – BBC

Diplomatic efforts are continuing in Afghanistan to try to prevent the expulsion from the country of two senior foreign officials.The men, based in Kabul, are accused of posing a threat to national security.

One is a high-ranking UN employee, Briton Mervyn Patterson, the other is acting head of the EU mission in Afghanistan, Irishman Michael Semple.

The expulsion order follows claims that the men had held talks with the Taleban in Helmand province in the south.

The Afghan government has said the pair must leave by Thursday, and the UN has reportedly booked a flight.

Homayun Hamidzada, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said Afghan colleagues of the men had been arrested and are being investigated.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says both men are highly respected experts on Afghan culture, tribalism and languages, having spent many years living in and travelling to Afghanistan.

The decision to declare the men persona non grata appears to have come from the office of the president, he says.

Mr Karzai went to Pakistan on Wednesday, so it is likely the men will be expelled and negotiations over what the UN calls a misunderstanding may focus on allowing them to be readmitted to the country, our correspondent adds.

The men were in Helmand province in the south of Afghanistan, in the town of Musa Qala, recently reclaimed from the Taleban by British and Afghan troops.

The interior ministry knew they were going, but other layers of the Afghan government objected to the type of people they were meeting, our correspondent says.

A spokesman for the UN in Afghanistan, Aleem Siddique, denied that the diplomats had been talking to Taleban militants.

He said they had been discussing the Afghan situation with all people on the ground to help the country's stability.

But former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Jalili told the BBC the men's actions would not have helped the peace process.

"This is going to be detrimental to the overall strategy. I think... it will be exploited by the Taleban when they see that the Afghans in the international community do not speak with one voice and also it undermines the authority of the Afghan government."

Helmand province is the heart of Afghanistan's drug-producing region, and the EU and UN have been playing a major role in the eradication programme.

Analysts say the poppy industry has been a primary reason for the Taleban's resurgence in the south of the country.

The row comes as a British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, reports that members of Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, held meetings during the summer with senior Taleban members in Afghanistan.

If true, this could prove embarrassing for UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who just weeks ago told MPs that there would be no negotiations with members of the Taleban.

Afghan spokesman denies report of 2 foreigners' arrest

KABUL, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Denying reports that two foreigners have been arrested for "posing threat to Afghan national security," Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen Tuesday told Xinhua that no foreign nationals, either diplomats or UN staff, have been arrested during the past few days in Afghanistan.

He also said the remarks of Hamayon Hamidzada, Afghan presidential palace spokesman, who said that two foreigners have been arrested, could be a "misunderstanding".

Earlier, an Afghan government official who asked not to be named, told Xinhua that two foreign nationals working for the United Nations in Afghanistan have recently been arrested for suspected activities of supporting the Taliban militants with money and arms.

Harper stresses importance of staying in Afghanistan

Updated Wed. Dec. 26 2007 12:27 PM ET - Murray Brewster , The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he's uncertain whether Canadians at large understand the importance of remaining involved in Afghanistan.

His observation in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press comes after almost two years of combat operations in Kandahar, the deaths of 73 soldiers and one diplomat, and bitter, often partisan debates back home.

Parliament will be asked by spring to vote on what kind of mission Canada should undertake after the current mandate expires in February 2009.

Asked whether he believes Canadians truly appreciate what is at stake in the decision, Harper said: "I don't know, the short answer is I don't know.''

There were times during 2007 when the Conservatives were almost overwhelmed, under daily attack in the House of Commons and on the editorial pages, over their handling of the war.

Poll after poll made it clear that Canadians believed they were paying too high a price to bring peace and stability to the war-torn region and wanted out.

As the seemingly endless procession of casualties mounted throughout the spring, there was a point in June when it looked as though Harper blinked, suggesting that the combat mission might not be extended beyond the current deployment without a consensus among Parliamentarians.

But after demoting Gordon O'Connor from defence to the revenue portfolio as part of a broader cabinet shakeup, Harper seemed to get a firmer grip on the direction of the war, enough for the Conservatives to boldly suggest in their fall throne speech that Canada should remain deeply involved in Afghanistan until 2011.

"The government understands we took on an important international commitment for important reasons of international security that in the long run impact directly on our country,'' he said an interview in the living room at 24 Sussex Drive.

A poll released in the weeks after the throne speech suggested the public was overwhelmingly against continuing for another three years beyond the current mandate.

"So I don't know whether Canadians do -- or don't -- understand. I think Canadians are deeply troubled by the casualties,'' Harper said.

In June, a Canadian Press-Decima Research survey found 67 per cent of those asked believed the number of casualties in Afghanistan were unacceptable when weighed against the progress that had been made in reconstruction and keeping the Taliban at bay in Kandahar.

"Nobody is more troubled by that than I am'' about the rising number of war dead and wounded, Harper said quietly. "These are our finest men and women. When we lose them these are the worst days I have. I have no worse day than when I get this kind of news.''

He said the soldiers and diplomats on the ground understand the importance of staying, despite the heavy price they've paid directly.

In an effort to put some distance between his strong beliefs, opposition critics and public dismay, Harper appointed a blue-ribbon panel, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, to review what should come next.

A report is expected in early January.

"All we can only hope from the Manley exercise is that it causes Parliamentarians, particularly in our official Opposition -- which as you know commenced this mission -- to sit back and think about what is in the best interest of the country before a vote is actually held,'' he said.

"We really have got to avoid -- on this one -- taking a decision for reasons of short-term politics. We must take a decision that is in the long-run interest of the country, its international reputation and the respect we should all show for the sacrifice our men and women have made to secure it.''

Some critics have argued that Harper could have found no more hawkish a Liberal than Manley to lead the non-partisan panel. They suggest the panel has been rigged to give the Conservatives the answers they want to hear.

Harper bluntly dismissed the notion.

"We will get the report and look at it.''

He said he hopes Manley comes forward with a clear, immediate recommendation for the future of the mission. Beyond that, Harper wants to see a sense from the panel of where it sees Afghanistan going in general, regardless of the length of the Canadian deployment.

No proof Iranian gov't behind IEDs: Afghan diplomat

Updated Wed. Dec. 26 2007 6:52 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Afghanistan's Ambassador to Canada appears to be cautious about blaming Iran for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) being used in attacks against Afghan and NATO soldiers in his country.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay alleged that many IEDs in Afghanistan have come from Iran.

"We're very concerned that weapons are coming in from Iran, we're very concerned these weapons are going to the insurgents and keeping this issue alive," he told reporters in Kandahar, where he was paying a Christmas visit to Canadian troops.

But Omar Samad, the top Afghan diplomat in Canada, told CTV Newsnet on Wednesday that there is no evidence about where the IEDs actually originated and who brought them to Afghanistan.

"Iran is a neighbor and we have good relations," he said. "The point is -- and the questions that have to be answered (and) are being looked at as far as who is involved in this. Is this a smuggling issue? Is this a policy issue by some government? Is this maybe an attempt by arms dealers to bring arms from a certain source?"

The Afghan government is working with its partners, including Canada, in attempting to find answers to those questions, he said.

Samad pointed out that Iran, which shares a 1,000-kilometre border with his country, hosts one million Afghan refugees. He said it must still be determined whether or not certain groups in other countries are involved in sending weapons to Afghanistan or if governments are involved.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins accompanied MacKay to Afghanistan -- at Canada's request -- for the Christmas Day visit with troops. In the past the U.S. has accused Iran of supplying weapons and materials for IEDs to insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. officials have also accused Iran of having a nuclear weapons program, which was refuted by an intelligence assessment by 16 American spy agencies just a few weeks ago.

Canada had not linked Iran to weapons in Afghanistan before MacKay's and Wilkins' trip.

MacKay said in French that Canada has repeatedly demanded that Iran halt the flow of weapons to Afghanistan.

But Samad said more investigation is needed before assigning blame to a specific source.

"First, we have to establish the facts, and then we will look at the options that exist," he said.

Iran's Shiite government has historically had frosty relations with the Taliban, which is the main insurgent force fighting against NATO and Afghan national forces. The Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents are composed of Sunni Muslims, who have traditionally been antagonistic towards Iran's Shiite Muslims.

MacKay also warned Pakistan to stop supplying weapons to Afghanistan, which has a strained relationship with the government in Kabul in the past few years.

Afghanistan ordered two European diplomats out of the country on Tuesday.

Samad said the two officials -- one with the United Nations and the other with the European Union -- were "involved in activities that they were not supposed to be involved in as employees belonging to those organizations."

The two diplomats visited Helmand province earlier this week, meeting with local leaders. The Taliban had controlled the region until recently when the government reasserted control.

Samad said he doesn't believe the expulsion of the diplomats will hurt his country's relationship with international organizations or other countries.

"I think that we all should realize that there's a very important mission, a very complex mission that we are all involved in, and that the Afghan people and the Afghan government are in the driver's seat," he said.

The Afghan government wants to make sure that international governments and diplomats coordinate their efforts with Kabul, he said.

The two diplomats will likely leave the country within the next two days.

Germany to provide 8.5m euros for Afghan education sector

KABUL, Dec 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Germany has promised 8.5 million euros in assistance for the education sector of Afghanistan, with a dismally low literacy rate, under an agreement signed here on Saturday.

Education Minister Muhammad Hanif Atmar and Stefan Lutz, representative of the German Bankengruppe KfW Bank in Kabul, inked the accord aimed at promoting the cause of education in the conflict-devastated country.

Briefing journalists after the agreement-signing ceremony, Atmar said five million euros would be spent on construction of new buildings for schools and colleges and dormitories at teacher training centres in Balkh, Sar-i-Pul, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar provinces.

Part of the assistance would go to the reconstruction of vocational school buildings in Balkh and Sar-i-Pul, added Atmar, who went on to explain 3.5 million euros would be expended on rebuilding of the Kabul Technical Institute and construction of hostels for teachers.

Speaking on the occasion, Stefan Lutz remarked: "Today, Im pleased that my country is assisting Afghanistan in developing its education sector." he assured Germany would continue to support the cause of education in Afghanistan.

Germany had provided more than 30 million euros for the Afghan education sector since 2001, he pointed out. At the moment, Afghanistan has 19 higher education institutes, most of them without proper buildings and other requisite facilities, ministry officials said.

Taliban brutally kill policeman in Helmand

LASHKARGAH, Dec 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taliban fighters killed a policeman in front of his wife and children in the southern Helmand province, police sources said on Wednesday.

Helmand Police Chief Brig. Gen. Muhammad Hussain Andiwal told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident took place in Nadali district of the province.

"The policeman had gone to visit the Bahauldin Agha Shrine in Khoshkawi area of the district, where the insurgents killed him on Tuesday", Andiwal added.

Taliban have not given any information yet, however the Mullah Abdul Razaq who introduces himself as the regional commander of insurgents has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, an Afghan National Army (ANA) was killed and his brother was wounded when he along with his brother was trying to carry an unexploded shell of missile in the northern Balkh province last night.

Police Chief Brig. Gen. Sardar Muhammad Sultani told this news agency the explosion took place approximately around 8:00pm next to 209 Military Corp in the Dehdadi district of the province.

bomb attack facilitators arrested in Afghan operations

KABUL, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Afghan National Security Forces, advised by the U.S.-led Coalition forces, arrested key facilitators responsible for improvised explosive device attacks in its two separate operations, the Coalition said in a statement issued early Thursday.

During a Dec. 24 operation in Chamkani district of southeastern Paktia province, the ANSF arrested a suspected insurgent facilitator, who according to the Coalition forces is believed to be responsible for coordinating improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and insurgent activity directed against ANSF personnel over the past year.

In another operation on Dec. 24, the ANSF and Coalition forces arrested an individual believed to be responsible for the IED strikes in Tsagay and Khakrez areas of southern province Kandahar in November, the military said, adding that the person is also suspected of being a leader of a cell responsible for placing IEDsin five other villages in the region.

Anti-government militants in Afghanistan's remote regions continued to fight against the Afghan and international forces besides launching roadside bombing and suicide blast attacks in major towns and cities.

Rising militancy-related violence and conflicts have killed over 6,000 people in the war-torn Afghanistan this year.

Authorities release 500 poppy growers in Helmand

LASHKARGAH, Dec 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Some 500 poppy growers of Marjah, Nadali, Babajee, Bushran and Bast districts detained a month back were released after assuring the government not to cultivate the crop any more in southeastern Helmand province.

Helmand Police Chief Muhammad Hussain Andiwal told Pajhwok Afghan News the farmers were released after assuring the authorities. He said their crop was also destroyed.

However, some farmers allege police were demanding a bribe of Rs. 500 for growing the prohibited crop on half an acre land.

"Police warn us if they were not given the money they would destroy our poppy crop", Dad Muhammad a resident of Marjah district alleged. Andiwal however strongly rejected all these allegations.

Taliban masterminded Baghlan massacre: NSD

KABUL, Dec 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): After weeks of investigations the attorney of National Security Department (NSD) who led the inquiry team on Tuesday described, the widely deplored Nov 6 Baghlan tragedy as a suicide blast planned by Taliban.

The official also informed four Taliban were arrested in connection to the heinous attack that killed scores of people including six parliamentarians, 60 schoolchildren, five schoolteachers besides injuring many others.

The attack was termed as deadliest since late 2001 when Taliban were ousted by northern alliance backed by coalition forces.

President Hamid Karzai assigned General Attorney Office to probe into the incident after a government-appointed team and Wolesi Jirga team completed their investigations and presented their findings to President.

Speaking at a news conference here, NSD attorney Maj. Gen. Abdul Fattah, who headed the inquiry, said eight persons including four provincial officials and four suspected Taliban operatives were taken into custody.

"The law enforcing agencies arrested two Taliban operatives from the neighboring Samangan province and the arrested confessed that Taliban organized the bomb attack against lawmakers," he added, "their information led to the arrest of two more Taliban insurgents."

Provincial officials, detained for laxity in taking appropriate security measures in the province included police chief of Baghlan-e-Markazi district, education director and another official concerned of education dept for sending students to welcome officials.

"Through investigation we have concluded that Taliban were the mastermind of the blast in Baghlan," Abdul Fatah, told reporters.

The NSD official blames Taliban operatives for the incident while Taliban denied their involvement in the incident a day after the explosion; however the NSD official described the assault a pre-planed Taliban conspiracy.

The arrested Taliban insurgents were also connected to different terrorist incidents in the Northern Province, he added.

"The main target of the attack was not Kazmi or other MPs but high government officials from capital Kabul to Baghlan," Abdul Fattah said the initial investigations revealed.

Two suspected suicide attackers held

KABUL/ZARANJ, Dec 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Intelligence officials claim arresting two suspected suicide attackers one in Khost and the other in southwestern Nimroz province.

Intelligence spokesman Syed Ansari in a press conference held in Kabul told Pajhwok Afghan News the man captured in suspicion of suicide attack is by the name of Zamirullah a resident of Shktwy village of North Waziristan Agency in neighboring Pakistan.

He added the suspect suicide attacker has entered the province to attack Afghan and foreign troops but was captured.

Meanwhile, in Nimroz intelligence chief Besmillah informed police have captured a man suspected for the suicide attack in Shahr-i-Khas area of Khashrod district. He added a remote controlled bomb and some explosive were also recovered from the suspected suicide attacker.

US avoided formal recognition of Daoud Government

BOSTON, Dec 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States of America had initially shown reluctance in recognizing the Government of Mohammad Daoud after he overthrew the then King Zahir Shah in a coup on July 17, 1973.

In its first communication to the US Embassy in Kabul, the Department of State instructed the then American Ambassador Robert Neumann to avoid the issue of recognition of the new government while establishing contacts with the top officials of the new President Daoud.

This was the crux of the three-page secret message sent to the US Embassy in Kabul by the Department of State, according to the documents declassified by the US Government last week.

The message was sent three-days after the coup, by which Neumann had established contacts with officials of the new administration.

The basic thrust of our approach to play any question about recognition in as low a key as possible with a view to avoidance of seeming to approve or disapprove the new government, the message said.

In brief, the Departments policy is to minimize to the greatest extent possible recognition questions.

The Department of State supported the Ambassadors effort to establish informal channels of communication to Daoud and emphasized that questions of recognition do not in any way restrict his flexibility in establishing informal contacts with new authorities.

Ambassador Neumann met with Mohammad Naim, President Mohammad Daouds brother and chief advisor on July 20, 1973. The discussion centered on the continuation of U.S. development aid. At this meeting Naim assured Neumann that Afghanistan desired continued cordial relations with the United States.

Naim said the USSR had no role to play in this coup. While seeking support from the US, Naim said Afghanistan would continue with its non-aligned foreign policy.

Afghans welcome home artifacts
By Henry Chu Los Angeles Times December 26, 2007

Museum is overwhelmed by the return of thousands of priceless treasures from exile in Europe.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Emotional homecomings have been a big part of Omara Khan Masoudi's job this year. In the last nine months, he has witnessed the return of thousands of Afghanistan's lost and wayward charges from long exile or detention abroad.

The returnees are not people but things: rare and priceless treasures, including a foundation stone that may have been touched by Alexander the Great, a tiny statue of Buddha and coins that changed hands 2,000 years ago.

The items are back in the rugged, battle-scarred land of their origin, which has served as a crossroads between the Middle East and Asia for millenniums. It is a rich history that Masoudi, the director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, has dedicated his life to preserving. Welcoming home pieces that were pillaged from his institution or shipped overseas for safekeeping is like being reunited with old friends.

"We are really happy," Masoudi said. "Very important and precious pieces were among these artifacts. . . . Afghanistan has a very ancient civilization. We have to preserve them."

For more than a decade, the museum here in the Afghan capital has been a symbol of the country's grievous suffering. Once a repository of one of the world's most valuable collections of Central Asian artifacts, it turned into a building full of broken hopes and dreams, its shell shattered by civil war, its guts ripped out by the radically religious Taliban.

The museum is struggling to get back on its feet, its progress mirroring the often painfully slow improvements underway in the rest of Afghan society since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban six years ago.

Reconstruction of the museum building, its roof blown to bits by rocket fire, is nearly finished. Glass panes wink back sunlight from what were ugly, empty window frames.

Workers have cleaned more than 1,500 pieces and repaired 300 others damaged by the Taliban, whose rigid version of Islam considers graven images blasphemous.

The repatriation of nearly 6,000 antiquities this year from Europe was a badly needed vote of confidence for both the museum and the government of Afghanistan, which has been battling a resurgence of Taliban militancy.

In a sign of how much more needs to be done, however, virtually all of those objects remain squirreled away in boxes, awaiting proper treatment and someplace to put them on show. The museum has enough glass cases to display 250 of the tens of thousands of items it owns.

Visitors too are in short supply -- a couple dozen a day on average, many of them university students. During final exams, the corridors are even emptier.

But like the country as a whole, the museum is hoping to rebuild on the strength of foreign assistance and the return of the Afghan diaspora, in this case the many native works and objects of art that found their way abroad both legally and illegally.

The first batch to come back this year, in March, consisted of 1,423 pieces that had been packed off to Switzerland in the late 1990s. Despite the Taliban regime's objection to images, some key commanders recognized the historical importance of the museum's holdings and agreed with their adversaries, the Northern Alliance, to send away many artifacts for safekeeping.

The collection, spanning centuries and empires, went on display in northern Switzerland, in possibly the world's only museum-in-exile. It featured exquisite ivories from Bagram, a 2,300-year-old gargoyle and fly swatters made of yak hair.

When the Afghan government requested last year that the items be returned, and United Nations officials determined that it was finally safe to do so, curator and art expert Paul Bucherer-Dietschi, who took responsibility for the collection in Switzerland, was both relieved and pleased.

"It never belonged to me. It belonged to the international community, and it's correct that Afghanistan, where it was found, is caretaker of it," Bucherer-Dietschi said. "I was quite happy to bring this material back, as it is a sign that Afghanistan [is getting] back to normality."

Perhaps the most prized possession of the lot is a phallus-shaped stone bearing the Athenian symbol of the owl, part of the foundation of the ancient city of Ai-Khanum, which may have been founded by Alexander the Great. If so, it is likely that the legendary warrior handled the piece himself.

"If it would go to auction, the price could be unlimited," Bucherer-Dietschi said.

An even larger cache of artifacts was handed over by Denmark, more than 4,300 pieces that were presented directly to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in May. Danish police seized the antiquities a few years ago, a trove of plundered and stolen goods containing animal figurines and coins dating to the 1st and 2nd centuries BC.

Looting plagues Afghanistan's historical sites and excavations; authorities hope to assemble an archaeological police force to combat the problem. In February, the International Council of Museums published a blacklist of smuggled goods to alert auction houses, curators and collectors.

Masoudi reckons that more than half the museum's original holdings, which comprised 100,000 works before civil war reignited in the early '90s, have been destroyed or pilfered and sold off to private international collectors.

During the war, museum staff transferred many items to secret locations around Kabul, braving danger to save irreplaceable pieces. When a mob of Taliban acolytes barreled into the museum and smashed statues and figures that had survived the depredations of centuries, some workers wept.

The campaign of destruction and neglect decimated a collection that, in the 1970s, was described as an astonishing panoply of frescoes, coins, weapons, Islamic art, jewelry and other works of inestimable value.

Brick by brick, with money from the government of Greece and other countries, the institution is being slowly restored. Specialists have helped build up new departments of photography and ceramics.

Foreign largesse has enabled the museum to acquire cameras, scanners and printers. Japan and the Netherlands are providing more display cases.

What Masoudi really wants is a bigger facility in the center of Kabul, to replace the somewhat dreary, ash-colored building the museum has occupied since 1931 on the city's western edge, which was never intended to be a museum but rather a municipal office.

A sizable parcel of land in central Kabul is available but priced at $3.5 million, a sum the museum cannot afford.

"This is a priority," Masoudi said. "The museum should be in the center of the city so that everybody is able to visit."

Until then, he and his staff of 65 soldier on in the cold, drafty halls of the present building.

A plaque at the museum's entrance keeps their eyes on the prize: "A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive."

Can tribes take on the Taleban?

BBC News / Wednesday, 26 December 2007 - By Tom Coghlan - In Ahmadabad district, Paktia province

Drums hang in the remote villages of Paktia, deep in the tribal belt of eastern Afghanistan. At times of danger, beating the drum brings hundreds of armed local men running from their homes - an instant army to protect the area.

It is the basis for a traditional system of village militias, known as the "arbakai", that operates in only a few provinces of the east.

With Afghanistan's fledgling national police deeply unpopular and insufficient in number to impose control in many areas of the country, Western diplomats and commanders have been exploring what they term "Afghan solutions" to counter rising Taleban violence.

Britain, in particular, is exploring the use of village defence forces in Helmand province.

The idea owes much to the controversial arming of Sunni tribal militias in al-Anbar province of Iraq by American forces, which has dramatically reduced the influence of al-Qaeda in that region.

Speaking to the British parliament on 12 December, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Britain advocated a shift in strategy that would favour "hard-headed realism" and work "with the grain of Afghan tradition".

"One way forward is to increase our support for community defence initiatives, where local volunteers are recruited to defend homes and families modelled on traditional Afghan 'arbakai'," he said.

Harnessing informal militias is not a new idea in counter-insurgency. But it has a mixed history of success, not least in Afghanistan.

Alongside some successful examples - such as the British use of the Firqa irregulars in Oman in the 1970s or the US forces' use of Hmong tribal militias in Vietnam - are less encouraging precedents.

After the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989, President Najibullah surprised the world by holding out for three years against the mujahideen guerrillas.

His use of local militias initially proved successful. However, though they were sometimes tough fighters, the brutality and indiscipline of such units helped to alienate public support for his regime and they could be unreliable, self-interested and prone to switching sides.

At sunset in a village in Ahmadaba district of Paktia, in the shadow of snow-capped mountains, a group of local men stand with Kalashnikovs and a wary eye for their surroundings.

They are the local arbakai from the Ahmadzai tribe, just 10 strong but with the power to raise a force of 250 in less than 20 minutes.

"We just listen to our tribe, to our tribal elders," said Haider Jan, a wild-haired young man wearing scraps of Afghan police uniform who showed off an old Taleban bullet wound in his leg.

"We keep the Taleban out of this area. If we find someone sheltering the Taleban, the tribe will burn his house."

The system only operates in an area of eastern Afghanistan which is famous for the weakness of government influence and the strength of its tribal structures.

Officially, the arbakai of the area were incorporated into the Afghan National Auxiliary Police, a central government reserve police force formed last year. However, they regard themselves still as simply the "Ahmadzai arbakai".

In Paktia the tribes rule themselves, imposing their own legal system.

The arbakai are the police, tribal elders are the local rulers; the system as a whole is part of the ancient Afghan code of behaviour known as "Pashtunwali".

"Each sub-tribe takes its turn to be arbakai and they serve 10 days at a time," said Shaista Khan Mangal, a tribal elder in the provincial capital, Gardez.

"The arbakai only works in the area of its own tribe. The tribe will discipline them if they do anything wrong to the people.

"They recognise the local people. That is why they are better than the national police or the army."

Western officials working in the region acknowledge that the arbakai system is often a substitute for central government control, and frequently preferable to corrupt centrally-appointed police.

"There are strong tribal structures in Paktia and these usually stand in opposition to the Taleban," said one Western official.

The official emphasised that the arbakai worked only where tribal structures were strong and where tribes were not mixed together. The potential dangers that come with arming unofficial militias are clear.

Tens of millions of pounds have so far been expended on trying to disarm illegal militias across Afghanistan under two separate UN-backed programmes and to impose central government control.

And in southern Helmand province, where a number of militias tied to local warlords already operate as adjuncts to the local security forces, they have been linked to drug crime, frequent looting and murder.

But so, too, have the official police. "I am speaking for myself, not my government here - but as far as Afghanistan is concerned in three decades of war there is not any example of a militia having done anything for the benefit of Afghanistan," said Helmand Police Chief, Gen Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

"If you use the name of militia or of arbakai, people will be shocked. They had a very bad reputation and just look after the interests of their own tribe.

"The British have not contacted me on this issue, but I will always tell them to focus on the national police, not militias."

Rethink Afghanistan and the failed U.S. war on drugs

By JIM HOAGLAND The Washington Post Dec. 26, 2007, 11:07PM

The power to destroy does not carry within it the power to control. A century of failed colonial rule and the American misadventure in Vietnam etched that lesson on global consciousness for a time. It has taken the huge problems that affluent, nuclear-armed nations are encountering in the miserable ruins of Afghanistan and Iraq to drive it home anew.

Call it the paradox of overwhelming but insufficient force. It is now surfacing in a struggle in Afghanistan over the wisdom of chemically eradicating that nation's expanding poppy fields. They are the source of (1) the livelihoods of many Afghan peasants, (2) a record flood of heroin into Western markets, and (3) funding for the Taliban and other terrorist forces.

William Wood, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, has pushed so aggressively for aerial spraying to destroy the poppy fields that he has been nicknamed "Chemical Bill" by NATO officers serving there. President Bush posted Wood to Afghanistan after he oversaw a large eradication-by-air project in Colombia, with mixed results.

Wood's priorities have divided U.S. and Afghan policymakers. President Hamid Karzai's government fears both environmental damage and the radicalizing political effect that a spraying program might have on the peasants Karzai is trying to coax away from the Taliban. For the moment, Karzai has gained the upper hand over the State Department's narcotics bureau in this fight.

The argument over how abrupt and how harsh the anti-drug campaign in Afghanistan should be is in fact part of fundamental disagreements over strategy within NATO. Many alliance officials fear that an approach they term as "with us or against us" and which seems to emphasize firepower over reconciliation is proving to be unsustainable.

I first heard rumblings of this larger debate in London in October. It has now been settled, at least as far as the British are concerned. Speaking to Parliament on Dec. 12, Prime Minister Gordon Brown endorsed Karzai's campaign to get midlevel Taliban operatives to lay down their arms and seek reconciliation. Brown also outlined an expanded development program targeted on the poppy-growing countryside.

The State Department's spray-first, reconcile-later tactics have even created divisions within the Bush administration. Like the British, the Pentagon is wary of abruptly destroying crops in areas where there is little government control and no alternative livelihoods immediately available.

"Spraying is not a long-term strategy," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a group of foreign officials in a private meeting some weeks ago, according to notes taken at the meeting by a foreign diplomat. Gates emphasized he was stating his view, not settled administration policy.

A long-term strategy involves persuading Afghan farmers that they can find alternatives to growing poppies, Gates continued. For him, the immediate focus has to be on preventing the corrosive effect of drug-financed corruption seeping deeper into the Afghan government — to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a narco-state that would fund world terrorism in the way petro-states now do.

Spraying in Colombia did not diminish the flow of drugs from that South American country. Gates and other U.S. officials credit President Alvaro Uribe (and Wood's support for him) with "uprooting corruption in government" and keeping it from tipping into the narco-state category. Only in that sense could Colombia be a model for Afghanistan.

The West will begin to resolve the grim and massive problems that the international drug trade creates only when the United States and Europe make justice rather than vengeance the center of drug laws, create effective rehabilitation programs that fill hospitals rather than jails, and curb the demand for life- and soul-destroying narcotics at home. Even a "successful" poppy eradication program in Afghanistan would be no more than a bandage on a gaping wound, while inflicting great damage on Karzai's government.

Afghanistan has been treated as a one-dimensional device in the presidential political season. Democrats use it to establish that they are not pacifists, citing Afghanistan as a just war that they endorse in contrast to Bush's invasion of Iraq, which they deplore, and move on quickly. Republicans are little better on the stump.

But Afghanistan is an urgent, rapidly evolving crisis that demands the attention and commitment of all candidates for national office. So do America's overly harsh and counterproductive drug laws.

And so does the paucity of support for providing tax dollars for prevention and rehabilitation rather than incarceration of simple users. The American nation could give itself no better present in this season than a thorough rethinking of its war on drugs and of many aspects of its war on terror.

Hoagland is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, specializing in foreign affairs.

Media draft not signed into law due to flaws

KABUL, Dec 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai refused to sign new mass media draft into law for what said as flaws in a number of articles and conflict with the constitutional law articles, officials informed.

Following the media bill's approval in the two houses of the parliament, it was presented to President Hamid Karzai in 11 chapters and 53 points on 15th December to be signed into law.

Parliamentary Affairs Ministry spokesman Muhammad Asif Nang told Pajhwok Afghan News that there were some flaws in the articles number 13, 17, 41, 43 and 44 of this draft law, he argued, there were grammatical blunders also the meaning in Dari and Pushto translation of the draft varied at some points.

For instance, Nang said, the draft bill mentioned nine members for the Media Supreme Council which included members of the Supreme Court, parliamentarians and civil society members; however constitution in the 151, 152 and 153 points did not allow parliamentarians and top Court members to undertake any other responsibility while they already have official assignments.

Also in the draft bill appointment of the state-owned TV and Radio head requires MPs vote in the parliament which is also again contradictory to articles number 64 and 157of the state constitution, he said, the 11th, 12th and 64th of the constitution specifies the posts that require parliament approval and the government-owned TV and Radio head post was not among them.

The draft plan lacked clarity about media violations and punishments, he added.

Chak dam renovation to cost 6.4 million euros

GHAZNI CITY, Dec 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The renovation of Chak power dam in central Maidan Wardak province will cost 6.5 million euros.

Abdullah Elham, governor's spokesman told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday the fund has been granted by Germany.

Chak power dam located in Chak district 40 kilometer from Maidan Khar, provincial capital of Wardak will be renovated in near future.

The dam was established in 1930 by a German company and was destroyed during the last three decades of war in the country. Only one of the three Turbines is functional now.

Elham said with the renovation of dam, most of the districts will have power supply and the project would also increase economic activities in the province.

Dr. Fazl Karim, district chief of Chak said if the dam was renovated Ghazni province will also use its power. He said irrigation system should also be kept in mind when renovating the dam.

"Modern turbines and system should be placed to renovate the dam, as it will have good power supply and can easily be maintained", he added.

The Chak dam was producing 33000 kilo watts power, but it has decreased to 900 kilo watt. The river, on which the dam was built 67 years back, starts from mountains in central Bamyan province.

The dam was last cleaned in Daud's era during 1973-78.

Majority of Norwegians dissatisfied with Afghanistan policy of gov't

2007-12-26 19:30:40

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The majority of Norwegians are dissatisfied with the government's Afghanistan policy, according to reports reaching here from Oslo on Wednesday.

Of those asked, 41 percent said they considered the government's policy on Afghanistan very poor or poor while just 25percent considered the policy very good or good, according to a poll carried out by the Norwegian public opinion research institute Sentio for the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen.

Those voting for the opposition Conservative party expressed more support than dissatisfaction with the government's Afghanistan policy.

There are currently around 500 Norwegian soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Norway plans to send a new special force of 150 soldiers and two to three helicopters to Afghanistan next year.

The Gunmen of Kabul: Afghanistan Cracks Down on U.S. Mercenaries

By Fariba Nawa, CorpWatch. Posted December 26, 2007

Afghan police say they plan to shut down about 14 contractors.
In September, on a tree-lined street in the most expensive neighborhood in Kabul, dozens of men rolled out of armored vehicles in front of a little-known U.S. security company. Backed up by Blackwater guards, Afghan authorities and Americans from the FBI and the U.S. State Department quickly headed for the offices of United States Protection and Investigations (USPI). Once inside, they arrested four of the Texas-based company's management team and confiscated 15 computers. The two Americans arrested were later released, while the Afghan managers remain in custody.

The September raid was one of the first attempts by President Karzai's government to crack down on private security contractors in Afghanistan. Afghan police say they plan to shut down about 14 contractors, and so far, have closed 10 Afghan and foreign firms.

What made the USPI raid unusual was the U.S. government's role. The State Department and FBI spearheaded the operation and accused the company of defrauding the United States, according to USPI guards in Kabul and Afghan officials who did not want to be named because the investigation is classified.

Ironically, the United States used private security guards from Blackwater -- the same company under scrutiny for the September death of 17 Iraqi civilians -- to carry out the USPI raid. It was Blackwater's actions and virtual impunity that had spurred the Afghan and Iraqi governments to rein in Western security contractors in the first place.

That impunity is of particular concern to Ali Shah Paktiawal, head of criminal investigations with the Kabul police. A crusader against private security companies, he charges that many contractors are corrupt and are operating without an Afghan government license. Some, he said, are using their guns and power to commit murder and other crimes including drug dealing and bank robbery, and to extort money on a daily basis, he said.

"We're going to make sure these companies clean up because they're doing more harm than good in our country right now," Paktiawal said from his busy Kabul office.

One foreign private security contractor, who would only speak off the record, counters that the police crackdown is really a witch-hunt to extort money from Western companies. An Afghan journalist who is researching the issue and cannot publicly comment, points to the fact that many of the companies, such as Afghan-owned Khawar, are back in business. If the right people in the government are bribed, he said, the contractors have no problems re-opening.

According to a high-level contractor who worked for the U.S. embassy in Kabul, the crackdown may be targeting legitimate companies along with rogue and unlicensed operations. Some businesses may have been shut down after high-powered government officials issued false charges arising out of vendettas.

Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert and head of New York University's Center for International Cooperation, said experienced international officials working in Kabul told him that the latest crackdown on security companies is an effort by one criminal group to eliminate its competitors. Apparently, he said, foreign contracts are being offered to "favored Afghan families."

The foreign contractors say they want to be regulated without being gouged. Doug Brooks, founder and president of the U.S.-based International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), a trade group that represents private security contractors, confirms that stance. These companies are happy to register their weapons and obtain licenses from the Afghan government, he says, because it raises their standards and builds efficiency.

"They can handle high [license] fees as long as there's fairness and transparency. But they can't pay bribes because it's against U.S. laws," Brooks said.

Who are the security companies?

In the last six years, public security in Afghanistan has been on a downward spiral. According to the Afghan government and NATO figures, suicide bombings and other violence have killed hundreds of civilians in 2007, with many more injured or driven into internal exile. Western diplomats, NGOs and investors argue that the Afghan military is not ready to protect those involved in the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. Without private security contractors, the insurgency -- including the Taliban, al Qaeda and other opposition groups -- would win the war for control of the country.

The private forces filling this security gap are funded by some of the nearly $20 billion in U.S. aid money that was allocated for Afghan "reconstruction." To date, there is little security or reconstruction to show for the money spent. An undisclosed amount of the funds for projects assigned to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other donor nations appears to have simply gone to security contractors, according to aid project contracts that detail security costs. For almost every project, security is the highest expense.
There has also been little progress in efforts to control the expense of or to monitor the private security industry. Two years ago, the Afghan government hired a Canadian consulting company to help formulate legislation to regulate the companies, but the effort has not generated effective laws. This December the U.S. Congress passed a bi-partisan bill requiring contractors to provide more information on how they are spending aid money. The legislation creates the post of a special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) to monitor American assistance to Afghanistan. President Bush has yet to sign it.

Legislation or no, dependence on private security is a basic fact of life in Afghanistan. There are about 10,000 private security guards -- Afghan and foreign -- in Kabul alone right now, according to figures provided by the Afghan Ministry of Interior. Afghan officials say only 59 companies are registered and licensed, but perhaps 25 more operate illegally. These numbers are estimates, since part of the problem is that no system is in place that accurately counts the companies or publicly verifies their legal status.

Many of the private security companies, including USPI, have hired Afghan guards who fought in previous wars and were supposed to be disarmed. According to the joint United Nations and Afghan disarmament group, there are still 2,000 private militias in the country employing some 120,000 men, many of whom work for private security contractors. The largest companies are either U.S. or British, and include DynCorp, USPI, Armour Group, Saladin and Global Risk Strategy.

USPI in Afghanistan

USPI has risen quickly into the top ranks of Afghanistan's private security contractors. It was founded in 1987 by a husband and wife team: Barbara Spier was a restaurant inspector and her husband Del was a private investigator specializing in insurance fraud in Dallas, Texas. They started with small contracts around the world, but when the Taliban were ousted and the new Western-backed government seized power in 2002, USPI planted itself in Afghanistan and collaborated with former Mujahideen commander Din Mohammed Jorat.

Jorat, a notorious warlord accused of killing the aviation minister in 2002, was head of security in the Ministry of Interior and headed a militia that became part of the Afghan police. His officers were paid a low salary, $70 a month, but offered the opportunity to boost it by working as guards for USPI. They remained Afghan government employees and received a $3 to $5 per diem for USPI's on-the-job training. By claiming to train, rather than actually employing the moonlighting police, the U.S. contractor was able to provide the cheapest security option for its clients in Afghanistan. The scheme effectively turned a large sector of the Afghan police into a private quasi-militia.

In a matter of months, USPI became USAID's second biggest security contractor in Afghanistan (after Virginia-based Dyncorp). USAID awarded the company $36 million for four and a half years to protect infrastructure projects, such as a road-building project awarded to Louis Berger, a New Jersey engineering company. USPI also made money from contracts with other foreign companies and NGOs to protect their offices and staff in Kabul and the provinces. At its peak, the company employed some 4,000 Afghans.

By September 2007, according to one USPI Afghan guard in Kabul, the company's guards no longer worked for the government, and had become direct employees of USPI, which pays their salaries. Jorat, who is no longer head of security at the interior ministry, had opened his own security company, Khawar, and no longer collaborates with USPI, according to the guard.

Meanwhile opposition to the government is growing and the insurgency is targeting foreigners inside the country as well as Afghans who work for the government or foreign military and aid projects.

As both the opposition and USPI operations grew, the company began to assume a lower public profile. Until two years ago, when security in Afghanistan plummeted, USPI signs were omnipresent at booths staffed by their Afghan employees who guarded big Kabul houses filled with expatriate staff. Now the signs are gone but the guards remain.

By mid-December the security situation in Afghanistan had deteriorated so drastically that the Taliban were able to kill 15 USPI Afghan guards on the highway in western Afghanistan where they were protecting Louis Berger engineers.

The rising number of attacks has raised questions about the training, dedication and competence of private security operatives. A high-level security contractor who worked for the U.S. embassy in Kabul said that members of the small team of foreign advisers are paid up to $200,000 a year to work with the Afghan employees, but that most of the local officers received little training and were infamous for collaborating with local warlords and participating in the extortion and harassment of Afghans.
"[They] made deals with the devil and their guys could do anything they want: shakedowns, drug dealing. [They were] thugs who liked mafia-type operation," said the U.S. embassy security contractor. He said USAID was not happy with USPI, but it had spent too much money mobilizing the company to let it go.

"People got killed because of the incompetence of their guys," he added. "Taliban would attack road crews and USPI guys would run and throw away their weapons, and it happened on numerous occasions." The consequence was that civilian construction workers ended up dead and kidnapped, and engineering contractors stopped construction simply because USPI could not protect them.

September Raid

By the time of the September raid on USPI offices, the company's operations were raising red flags. USPI has a notorious history in Afghanistan of operating with a cowboy mentality and collaborating with shady local strongmen. In 2005, a U.S. supervisor for USPI allegedly shot dead his Afghan interpreter and was flown out of the country the next day, according to Afghan officials.

Despite these issues, USPI continued to get contracts because it underbid its competitors for projects and remained the cheapest option, the American contractor said.

Paktiawal, the policeman in charge of criminal investigations in Kabul, was present during the USPI raid and told CorpWatch that the FBI and USAID are both investigating the company. Until the investigation is complete, he said he could not release more details about the charges.

USPI could not be reached for comment, but in October, the Associated Press reported:

"USPI faces accusations of overcharging USAID by billing for employees and vehicles that did not exist, said a U.S. security official with close ties to the company who wasn't authorized to release the information. The overbilling could run into the millions of dollars … Blackwater held U.S. and Canadian citizens at gunpoint during the raid, said the U.S. official. Blackwater … helps provide security for the U.S. Embassy."

After the raid, one of USPI's uniformed guards, armed with a knife and an AK-47, patrolled in front of foreign offices in a quiet neighborhood in Kabul. He did not want to be named, but confirmed that there were issues of fraud involved at USPI and that none of the lower-ranking guards were aware of management's dealings.

"We were discouraged from asking anything and so we keep our mouths shut and heads down," he said.

The guard said he supports a big family with the $150 a month that he receives, and was afraid that if the firm were shut down, he would lose his job.

More Crackdowns

Paktiawal says that the Afghan police are only after the corrupt companies and that the recent law enforcement efforts will impose accountability and control over contractors. He cited USPI as an example of one corrupt foreign company that the crackdown is restraining.

But USPI is hardly alone. A senior security contractor working in Kabul told CorpWatch that the Pentagon is investigating criminal misconduct in regard to $6 billion worth of equipment and service contracts to many companies in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said that 72 FBI investigators are probing mostly Pentagon and State Department security contracts in Afghanistan, but the details are highly classified.

Other companies the government has raided include: the British firm Olympic Security Group for operating without a license; the joint Afghan-British contractor, Witan Risk Management; and Afghan companies Watan and Caps, Khawar and Mellat International Security. It is not clear whether these companies remain closed or have re-opened for business.

Meanwhile, the Afghan people face a variety of men with guns on their streets and blame most of the violence on the private security contractors.

Susanne Schmeidl, co-author of a recent report on private security companies in Angola and Afghanistan for Swisspeace, writes that the expatriate guards are often confused with foreign troops by the local populations. "While there is a positive argument to be made that private security company employment keeps former strongmen and their militia off the streets," she told a news conference in Kabul, "the dilemma as to what will happen to these militia when the contract ends needs to be addressed."

India should invest more in Afghanistan, say experts

New Delhi, Dec.27 (ANI): India should invest more and invest it where it matters in Afghanistan to strengthen its presence and influence in a country which is struggling valiantly to initiate a process of nation-building against extreme odds.

This was one of the conclusions of a round-table discussion on the Current Situation in Afghanistan, organised by Observer Research Foundation here today.

The meeting was addressed by some of the well-known experts on the subject and was chaired by Vikram Sood, vice president, ORF Centre for International Affairs and former Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing.

The discussion primarily focused on the flawed state building process in Afghanistan. The speakers pointed out two sets of influences working in the country-one was international with multiple agendas, not often complimentary and another was national, specially the phenomenon of the Taliban and its growth largely influenced by fractured political process, poor governance in large parts of the country, alienated population and flourishing opinion industry.

The key factor in today's Afghanistan is the relevance and influence of the State, or the lack of it. The State could have strengthened if it had delivered governance, security, elementary justice and a feeling of inclusiveness to the people. The fact that the Taliban, and violence, has only grown in the past five years is an indication of the State's failure to deliver to the people some very basic requirements of belonging.

The basic flaw was in the way the State was being projected and constructed. The development of three pillars of governance-administration, judiciary and police-is an apt illustration. Although the elections were held and were enthusiastically endorsed by the people, there was no guide map for the political institutions like the parliament or the local councils to function. Although the parliament was supposedly represented the will of the people, the executive refused to respect its directions. The provincial and local councils were filled up with friends, associates and relatives, creating an informal structure which has only become stronger in the past five years.

A police chief, for instance, of a particular district is appointed from outside and he brings his own tribesmen to guard him and help him police the area which has people from a different tribe or a sub-tribe. The result is people view the police force with suspicion and hatred as policemen are hardly honest and are involved in opium trading and other criminal activities. Informal taxation is quite high. There are quite a few, said a speaker, who acted as policemen in the daytime and changed into the Taliban in the night. The police are considered more of a problem.

In any case, the police force has been structured more as a counter-insurgency force rather than one tasked to take care of law and order. The force components are rooted in the tribal militia and are hardly trained---two weeks training---to become a professional group. The force is also afflicted with `ghosts` --at least 60 per cent of the 70,000-strong force remain confined to the books. The force is also riddled with a high attrition rate, caused by absence of regular and sufficient income, threats from the Taliban and plain homesickness.

The Afghan National Army was slightly better. Not long ago, there were 200,000 enlisted men and some 2500 Generals in the army which operated more like a tribal militia than a professional force. Things have improved since then. Although attempts have been made by the Ministry of Defence to reform the Army, there are quite a few problems which have not been confronted. Although the Army, modeled on a light infantry unit, has a strength of 43000, only 20,000 of them are available to fight. The tribal affinities also cause its share of problems. Half the men are Pashtuns while the officer cadre has 50 per cent Tajiks.

Speakers felt that it was very difficult to create a strong and influential officer cadre in such a short time especially when there was hardly any infrastructure to recruit and train such men. The officer corps in Afghan National Army has no incentive take decisions and work directly under foreign `mentors`. They are seen more as a junior arm of the US Army rather than an independent military force.

The other military forces on the ground have their own set of problems. First there are fewer boots on the ground, about 55000 which is considerably less than what is deployed in Iraq. The other problem is duplicity of chain of command and second, the international forces are not in a position to clear, sweep and hold; it can do the first two but cannot hold a position for long, a situation which has helped the Taliban to increase its influence.

Afghan food becoming popular in Delhi
27 Dec, 2007, 1538 hrs IST, AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Indians and Afghanis here are bonding over food as they savour authentic Afghani cuisine at a specialty restaurant. Located in South Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area, the 'Afghan Restaurant' is thronged by foodies in large numbers.

Set up in 2004, by an Afghani national, who migrated to India in a bid to earn his living, the restaurant has carved a niche for itself as both Indians and Afghanis frequent the place. Afghanis visit the place to savour the authentic cuisine from their homeland while Indians come here to relish the delicacies of another country.

"Afghanis come here because of the authentic cuisine that we serve whereas for Indians, the place holds interest as they find the food different and really like it a lot. We don't make use of many spices, but, the cooking style is different. Maybe that's the reason they come here," said Idrish Hussain, Manager of the Restaurant.

Done up in traditional classic Afghani décor, the restaurant, apart from attracting Indians, also provides the Afghani immigrants with an opportunity to bond with the fellow countrymen, providing them with a home away from home.

"Food is available at several places, but what brings me to this place is cuisine from my own country. Whenever, I return to Afghanistan I will tell my friends and relatives about this place. The other main reason for coming here is the use of Afghani language which binds us together," said Ibrahim, a visitor.

Hospitality is very integral to the Afghan code of honour and the tradition is maintained in the restaurant as well.

Afghans traditionally squat on the floor for their meals sitting around large colourful cushions, called toshak. At the restaurant, a special floor for dining has been created to make visitors get a feel of the original and to make them feel at home.

Along with the food, the restaurant provides visitors an opportunity to discuss the latest events in Afghanistan. At the eatery, the Afghans share business and views on the situation back home. They are working hard to be financially strong and contribute to the economy of Afghanistan.

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