In this bulletin:

• Taliban Debating Peace, Karzai Says
• Taliban leader to remain on UN blacklist
• Canada seeks special UN Afghanistan envoy
• Afghanistan: top UN envoy speaks out against deadly army bus attack in Kabul
• People disillusioned with Afghan govt: Ban to UNSC
• Afghan Boy With US Dollars Hanged
• Taliban ambush Afghan police convoy, kill eight
• More than 20 rebels killed in US-led, Afghan raids
• NATO, Taliban clash kills three Afghan civilians
• Five Afghans kidnapped
• Death rate for Afghan police force `staggering'
• Afghan police detain six insurgents in Ghazni
• Kidnapped NSP officials swapped for five Taliban
• Dont abandon Afghanistan, says Dutch premier
• Japan's PM pleads with opposition on Afghan mission
• US DEA Chief Says Cooperation Needed to Stop Afghan Narco-Terrorism
• Development and diplomacy vital to Afghan mission, top envoy says
• Tories put up roadblocks to Afghan visit: Coderre
• Charles Adler: The NDP values ideology above truth, even in Afghanistan
• Iran urges full Afghan repatriation

Taliban Debating Peace, Karzai Says

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President Hamid Karzai's office said Sunday that there is "serious debate" among some Taliban fighters about laying down arms, while a spokesman for the militants said they will "never" negotiate with Afghan authorities until foreign troops leave.

Clashes and airstrikes, meanwhile, killed 16 people, capping a week that saw more than 270 people die in insurgency-related violence.

Karzai said Saturday he would be willing to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and give militants a position in government in exchange for peace. Karzai spokesman Humayun Hamidzada on Sunday stressed that the militants would have to accept Afghanistan's constitution.

But Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi repeated a position he announced earlier this month, saying there would be no negotiations until U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

"The Taliban will never negotiate with the Afghan government in the presence of foreign forces," Ahmadi told The Associated Press. "Even if Karzai gives up his presidency, it's not possible that Mullah Omar would agree to negotiations."

But Karzai's spokesman said the government has information of a "serious debate" in some groups of Taliban about how long militants want to continue fighting. The U.N. and NATO have also said they see similar indications.

"They want to live in peace and have a comfortable life with their families," Hamidzada said. "There is serious debate within their ranks, but this is a process that takes time."

Karzai traveled to the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week, and Hamidzada said that the U.N. secretary-general and the foreign ministers of many countries, "everyone with one voice said we need a comprehensive strategy in dealing with the Taliban — both military and diplomatic components."

He said Karzai and President Bush also spoke generally about the Taliban reconciliation process and said Bush also supports such initiatives. It was not clear if that would include broader Taliban peace talks beyond the individual reconciliation process that has seen more than 4,500 fighters lay down their arms the last two years.

Karzai's latest peace overture came as insurgency-related violence continued to climb. Thirty people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a military bus Saturday in Kabul.

More than 270 have died in violence since last Sunday — 180 of them militants, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

In the latest violence, insurgents ambushed a convoy of foreign troops in eastern Paktia province on Saturday. After a brief gunbattle, airstrikes were called in that killed 11 militants, a provincial police official said Sunday on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak publicly.

The U.S. coalition said it was not involved in the battle, and NATO was looking into the report.

Another battle in Paktia between police and militants on Saturday left one suspected insurgent dead, the police official said.

In neighboring Ghazni province, coalition forces fought with insurgents, killing two Taliban on Saturday in Andar district, said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman.

Police in Kandahar city discovered a landmine that exploded while they were trying to defuse it, killing two police, said Kandahar deputy provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Hungar.

Military officials said they expected a spike in violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan based on an increase in attacks last year during the same period.

The death toll this week includes more than 165 militants killed during two battles between the Taliban and joint Afghan-coalition forces, and the 30 soldiers and civilians killed in the Kabul suicide bombing.

Militant attacks and military operations have killed more than 4,600 people so far this year, most of them insurgents, according to the AP count.

Taliban leader to remain on UN blacklist

October 1, 2007 - KABUL (AFP) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and other top insurgents will likely remain on a UN "blacklist" even if they join peace talks proposed by President Hamid Karzai, the world body said Monday.

Karzai on Saturday made a direct offer of talks with Omar and radical warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both of whom are wanted by the United States, even saying he would give them government posts if they gave up violence.

The Taliban and Hekmatyar have both rejected talks as long as there are international troops in Afghanistan. Karzai has refused demands that the troops leave before negotiations can take place.

However, the latest development has renewed interest in the chances of peace negotiations.

"If talks bring peace, then we of course welcome that," United Nations spokesman in Afghanistan Adrian Edwards told reporters in Kabul.

"However, there are certain things that are not negotiable. The constitution is not up for discussion, nor is deviating from our duties under UN Security Council resolution 1267 on measures to do with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda," he said.

The resolution includes the UN Security Council's "Consolidated List," which establishes travel, arms and other sanctions against Taliban and Al-Qaeda individuals and groups. "No, I don't think they will be taken off the blacklist," Edwards said.

Omar and Hekmatyar are wanted by the United States as "terrorists" and carry multi-million-dollar rewards on their heads.

Their groups work alongside each other -- but apparently not in cooperation -- attacking mainly international and government targets as part of an insurgency launched after the Taliban government was toppled in late 2001.

Canada seeks special UN Afghanistan envoy

MONTREAL (AFP) — Canada will ask the United Nations to name a special envoy for Afghanistan, where scores of Canadian troops have been killed helping tackle Taliban militants, Ottawa's foreign minister said Saturday.

"We believe that at the leadership level in Afghanistan we need someone of a high level and with a clear mandate," said Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, citing as a comparison the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's role as a special peace envoy for the Middle East.

He said he would present his request on Tuesday to the world body's General Assembly. "The Middle East has Tony Blair who's doing a very good job" as the Middle East envoy of key diplomatic powers, Bernier said in an interview published in the National Post. He called on the UN to be "more active" in the country.

"The UN mission is already there, and Canada is there under UN mandate, but we believe that the UN itself has to be more active in the coordination process," he said.

The National Post said Bernier had met with several delegations at the General Assembly summit this week to drum up support for his calls for an Afghanistan envoy.

Canada has 2,500 troops deployed mostly in Kandahar province, a southern insurgent hotspot in Afghanistan where foreign forces are trying to restore peace after the 2001 invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.

It has lost 71 soldiers in the country since 2002 and the debate over whether to extend Canada's mission there after its mandate expires in 2009 has become a hot political issue back home.

Afghanistan: top UN envoy speaks out against deadly army bus attack in Kabul

29 September 2007 – The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan expressed his outrage over the terrible loss of life from morning;s army bus attack in capital Kabul, which is among deadliest the city has seen.

"We don't at this stage know the final numbers for dead and wounded but it is clear this attack is among the worst that Kabul has seen," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative Tom Koenigs said in a statement.

The attack, which took place on a busy city street, was undoubtedly aimed at terrorizing the population, he noted. "Those responsible are evidently incapable of offering anything beyond savagery and murder. They must be made to know they will not prevail."

People disillusioned with Afghan govt: Ban to UNSC

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a report submitted to the Security Council, the secretary-general has said people are not satisfied with the performance of the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai.

Ban Ki-moon, in his report, says: "Public dissatisfaction with the government's effectiveness and the slow pace of economic reform, coupled with deteriorating security situation, is putting pressure on President Karzai and his ministers."

Regarding activities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the report added: "The implementation of central governments initiatives still depends heavily on the will of local political figures, some of whom are corrupt and unwilling to cooperate."

As such, the UN chief recommended, strengthening popular support for the government was essential to any long-term strategy for development.

Demonstrable progress by the government and enhanced support by the international community in the field of governance was critical to meeting public expectations and the goal ISAF aimed to achieve in assisting the government in providing security.

"Sustained and intensified cooperation between the international community and the government is needed to convince the rural population that both the government and the international community are permitted to improving the services at the local level," it said.

The report said the breakdown of the truce between the government of Pakistan and local militant leaders in northern Waziristan and security operations launched by the authorities were likely to result in some militants leaving FATA to move to the eastern border provinces in Afghanistan.

Lalit K. Jha

Afghan Boy With US Dollars Hanged

By NOOR KHAN - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had U.S. money in his pocket, and they stuffed five $1 bills in his mouth as a warning to others not to use dollars, police said Monday. Taliban militants elsewhere killed eight police.

The 15-year-old boy was hanged from a tree on Sunday in Helmand, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region.

"The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars," said Wali Mohammad, the district police chief in Sangin.

Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan alongside the afghani, the local currency, although the U.S. currency is more commonly seen in larger cities where international organizations are found.

Militants often justify their attacks and executions as a response to U.S. meddling in Afghan affairs.

In Sangin on Saturday, the Taliban shot and killed another man who had sought farm assistance and seeds from an international aid program, Mohammad said. The militants accused him of being a spy.

Taliban insurgents in Ghazni province, meanwhile, ambushed a police convoy Sunday, killing eight officers, said Abdul Khaliq Nikmal, spokesman for the provincial governor.

He said Afghan authorities have sent police reinforcements to the area and are meeting with U.S. military officials to plan a counterattack.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months. Last week alone violence killed more than 270 dead, including 165 militants killed in two large battles in the south and 30 people killed in a suicide bombing on an army bus in Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai said he would be willing to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and factional warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami, in exchange for peace.

On Sunday, Karzai's spokesman, said there is "serious debate" among some Taliban fighters about laying down arms.

But the Taliban said international troops must first leave the country before any talks are held, a position mirrored by Hezb-i-Islami in an announcement Monday.

"Negotiations with Karzai have no worth in the presence of American forces," said Haroon Zarghun, a purported spokesman for Hezb-i-Islami.

"Karzai has, in fact, no authority in the presence of American troops. Talks would be waste of time in such a situation," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "If the United States announces to leave Afghanistan, then we will be ready to hold talks."

Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,600 people so far this year, most of them insurgents, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

In Helmand's Reg district, Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces, acting on intelligence reports, were pursuing militants hiding out in the area when they came under attack, the coalition said. The troops called in airstrikes and fought the militants in a gunbattle.

More than 20 militants were killed, but there were no reports of civilians hurt. It was not possible to verify the death toll independently.

Taliban ambush Afghan police convoy, kill eight

Mon Oct 1, 2007 4:38pm BST

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents ambushed an Afghan police convoy and killed eight officers, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

"Around 100 police were on their way to the Ajristan district to strengthen the present police forces there. On the way the enemies ambushed our forces and unfortunately there was fighting for a few hours and as a result eight police were killed," said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.

An official from the province of Ghazni where the attack took place said earlier that 11 police had been killed.

Taliban rebels eventually fled the scene and the bodies of three insurgents were found after the clash, the Interior Ministry spokesman said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Elsewhere, Afghan army troops with advisers from the U.S.-led coalition called in air strikes to kill "numerous insurgents" and defeat a Taliban ambush in neighbouring Uruzgan province, a U.S. military statement said.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in the past 20 months, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces overthrew Taliban's government in 2001.
Nearly 8,000 people have been killed during that period.

More than 20 rebels killed in US-led, Afghan raids

KABUL (AFP) — US-led coalition troops and Afghan forces killed more than 20 Taliban rebels on Monday in insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan while militants kidnapped three Afghan drivers near Kabul, officials said.

The troops launched an offensive based on "credible intelligence sources" against a suspected militant hideout in the southern Reg district of volatile Helmand province bordering Pakistan, the US-led coalition said in a statement.

"During the course of operations, the combined force came under attack by anti-coalition militants using automatic and small-arms weapons," the statement said.

"Precision munitions and small-arms fire were used to suppress the attacks, killing more than 20 combatants." There were no indications of civilian casualties, the statement said.

Helmand, which is also the world's top opium-producing region, has seen some of the heaviest Taliban-led violence in recent months.

Two more Taliban rebels were killed and seven others captured, one of them injured, in the neighbouring province of Zabul, the coalition said in a separate statement.

Following a brief exchange of fire in a rebel compound, the troops found "significant numbers" of weapons and ammunition, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Taliban fighters attacked a civilian convoy of trucks supplying foreign forces and kidnapped three drivers in the central province of Wardak, near Kabul, a local police official said.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the operation and said the drivers were seized because "they are helping the invading forces."

Taliban rebels in Wardak held four Red Cross workers, two of them foreigners, for three nights last week after capturing them "by mistake." They were freed on Saturday.

Taliban-linked violence has increased to a record level this year since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. More than 5,000 people -- mostly rebels -- have died in attacks this year compared with 4,000 last year.

The Islamic extremist Taliban movement was ousted from government by US-led forces in late 2001 but has since regrouped to launch a major insurgency, mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

NATO, Taliban clash kills three Afghan civilians

Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:08 AM EDT - KABUL (Reuters) - Three Afghan civilians were killed during a clash of NATO-led forces with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktia, the alliance said on Sunday.

President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly warned Western forces in Afghanistan to avoid civilian casualties during operations as it would sap support for his government and would be risky for the presence of the troops there.

The clash broke out on Saturday after the Taliban made an abortive ambush on Afghan forces patrol in the area, NATO said in a statement, adding a number of militants were also killed.

"We take the loss of any civilian life seriously," said an alliance spokesman, adding it will conduct a full investigation into the events that lead to the deaths of the civilians.

More than 370 civilians have been killed during operations of foreign forces against militants in Afghanistan this year, according to aid groups and Afghan officials. Violence has surged to its worst level in the past 19 months, the bloodiest period since Taliban's removal from power in 2001.

In the latest incident, three Afghan police were killed, while trying to defuse a remote-controlled bomb in the southern city of Kandahar, officials there said.

Five Afghans kidnapped

October 1, 2007 - KABUL (AFP) - Five Afghans linked to international groups working in Afghanistan have been kidnapped, officials said Monday in the latest slew of abductions blamed on Taliban rebels or criminals.

Two workers with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR) were abducted on Sunday in the province of Logar about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kabul, their organisation told AFP here.

The two men had wrapped up a water supply project and were heading home when they went missing, said director Arif Qaraeen.

Later Sunday one of their superiors was called by a man who said, "We have taken your people and you have to pay us some money," Qaraeen said.

"We have called the police, the intelligence, the relevant people, the kidnappers, the elders of the community to try to find a solution," he told AFP.

Logar police said the men had "disappeared." "We are searching for them," provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa said.

A Bangladeshi national working with a microfinance development project was kidnapped in the same area on September 15 by men who demanded ransom through a video clip sent to a local television station.

Three men driving trucks to supply foreign soldiers in the central province of Wardak were meanwhile kidnapped early Monday, a local police official said.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, claimed responsibility for the abduction and said the drivers were seized because "they are helping the invading forces."

Taliban rebels in Wardak on Saturday freed four Red Cross workers, two of them foreigners, whom they held for three nights last week. The four were captured "by mistake," a Taliban spokesman said.

The Red Cross staff were seized while on a mission to try to secure the release of a German engineer and five Afghans held by Taliban-linked militants since July 18.

Death rate for Afghan police force `staggering'

With 1,150 officers killed in 18 months, replacements can't be trained fast enough

Oct 01, 2007 04:30 AM - Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

KANDAHAR–In rural Panjwaii and Zhari districts, Afghan cops are being killed faster than they can be replaced, says one of their Canadian mentors. That terrifying fact stands as a huge roadblock to Canada's efforts to turn over security in these troubled regions to the fledgling police force.

"The rate at which they're losing policemen can never be replenished, unfortunately," RCMP Cpl. Barry Pitcher said.

In Panjwaii district alone – an insurgent hotbed west of Kandahar – police officers recently had six trucks destroyed in a 20-day period through roadside bombs and ambushes.

In July, 71 police officers were killed in regional command south, a territory that includes Kandahar province. Nationwide, 650 officers were killed from March 2006 to March 2007. Government officials say another 500 have been killed since then.

Just yesterday, two more died trying to defuse a large bomb in the centre of Kandahar city, police said.

"They're in the front lines. They're doing the counter-insurgency warfare. How are we replenishing the ranks? That's a staggering, staggering casualty rate," said Pitcher, one of eight Canadian police officers here helping train the Afghan force.

While serious concerns have been raised about the training and integrity of Afghan police officers, the fatality rate highlights the stark dangers facing this low-paid, ill-trained cadre of officers.

"In places like Panjwaii and Zhari, they're what the military calls soft targets because they're visible, they're not as well armed, they don't have air support and quite often they're hit bad," Pitcher said.

While Canadian soldiers move at night in armoured vehicles with night vision gear and the ability to call in reinforcements, the Afghan police have only Toyota trucks with six officers riding in the back, each armed with an AK-47.

"They're more guerrilla warfare fighters than policemen," said Pitcher, a fraud investigator in St. John's, Nfld., before he accepted a year-long assignment in Kandahar.

"Policing in a counter-insurgency environment is probably one of the most difficult arenas to enter. You're trying to impart peacetime police training in the middle of a war zone," he said.

In recent weeks, the Canadians have helped Afghans reclaim territory and establish new police substations. Canadian soldiers will remain at the checkpoints until the Afghans are ready to assume responsibility for security.

That comes after complaints that Canadians abandoned the Afghans during the summer, allowing insurgents to overrun the positions.

The danger is just one challenge facing the Afghan police force – and the Canadians who have high hopes of passing over responsibility for security in the rural areas.

Lt.-Col. Alain Gauthier, who heads the Canadian battle group in Kandahar, says it will take "years" to develop the police into a professional, capable force.

"It takes many, many years to train a professional security force to be able to sustain themselves," he said.

He said most of them have been deployed with little, if any, training, at low wages and in "very poor" working conditions. "All of this has been recognized and they're working on all those specific points to improve their living conditions," he said.

The Canadian military, for example, has just launched a new training course, bringing 20 Afghan officers at a time to forward operating bases for a 10-day policing course.

Meanwhile, civilian police officers like Pitcher are schooling their Afghan counterparts in checkpoint training, roadside bomb awareness and police techniques such as handcuffing and ethics.

Pitcher knows that Afghan police have a reputation for being on the take, but he urges caution before passing judgment – it's often because they haven't been paid in months.

"They're in a situation here where if they're not being paid and corruption is an accepted way of life, they get caught up in the environment," Pitcher said.

"They want to be policemen ... This is why they decided to wear a police uniform ... You want to serve a greater good."

Afghan police detain six insurgents in Ghazni

KABUL, Sept 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan police, advised by Coalition forces, detained six insurgents in an operation designed to disrupt insurgent activities in the vicinity of Kamalkhel village in Ghazni province Friday morning.

Credible intelligence led the combined force to several compounds about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) south of Ghazni, the Coalition said, adding the target of the ANP-led operation was an Andar district Taliban commander.

The high-level Taliban commander is known to be extensively involved in the coordination of insurgent activities in Ghazni province, the US-led Coalition said in a statement mailed to Pajhwok Afghan News.

The commander allegedly directs improvised explosive device attacks and ambushes against Afghan forces and Coalition troops throughout the region. He also has been responsible for beheadings and kidnappings in the province.

According to the press release, Afghan police are still assessing the detainees to determine if its target was captured this morning. No shots were fired during the operation and no non-combatants were harmed.

The ANP continue to work to make Ghazni a more peaceful province, said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a Combined Joint Task Force-82 spokesperson. Information gained from this mornings operation will result in further interdictions in the area.

Kidnapped NSP officials swapped for five Taliban

ZARANJ, Sept 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two government officials, kidnapped in the Nimroz province some 20 days back, were freed in exchange for five militants last night, officials said on Friday.

Khashrud district chief Muhammad Hashim Noorzai told Pajhwok Afghan News the National Solidarity Department employees were released at midnight as a result of hectic efforts by tribal elders.

Nimroz police head Brig. Gen. Muhammad Daud Askaryar confirmed the two officials were swapped with five Taliban insurgents. The kidnappers had earlier demanded ransom for freeing the men.

The rebels had been arrested in connection with the kidnap incident, explained Askaryar, who would not give further details of the swap deal.

National Solidarity Programme (NSP) head in Zaranj Abdul Khalil, when approached for comments, said he had spoken to the men by phone. Held captive in the Farah desert, he claimed, both were in good health. ass/mud

Dont abandon Afghanistan, says Dutch premier

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende Thursday urged the international community not to abandon Afghanistan as it required sustained support in coming years.

The international community must not abandon Afghanistan to its fate. The hopes of millions of Afghans rest with us, Balkenende said in his address to the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly. The Netherlands, which has its troops in Afghanistan, said that lasting peace could be secured only if defence was combined with development and diplomacy.

We are putting that concept into practice in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, together with our Australian partners and other allies, he pointed out. Of the Dutch military presence in Afghanistan, he observed: It is a difficult and demanding mission under UN mandate.

Japan's PM pleads with opposition on Afghan mission

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's new prime minister appealed to the opposition to work with him to renew a controversial military mission as he set a limited agenda to push through a divided parliament.

Making a customary policy speech at the start of a parliamentary session, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said the naval mission, which supports US-led forces in Afghanistan, was a sign of a more active Japan on the world stage. His call was similar to one made in a policy speech last month by his unpopular predecessor Shinzo Abe, who quit abruptly two days later citing the opposition's refusal to extend the deployment.

The opposition, saying that the officially pacifist nation should not be part of "American wars," has vowed to end the mission since taking control of one house of parliament in July elections. Japan's navy delivers free fuel in the Indian Ocean to US and other coalition war jets and ships operating in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan.

"I will do my utmost to gain the understanding by the public and parliament members over extending the mission," said Fukuda, a 71-year-old political veteran known for his centrist views.

"I will exert a diplomacy in which Japan contributes to world peace through awareness of the responsibility that befits its power and growing trust from the world," Fukuda said.

Fukuda, a former oil man, noted that Japan was almost entirely dependent on the Middle East for its oil, arguing that contributing to the region's security "serves Japan's national interests."

The United States, other Western nations and Pakistan have all called on Japan to extend the mission.

Opinion polls last week showed that Fukuda enjoyed strong initial support and that public opinion had shifted to supporting extending the naval deployment. Fukuda appealed for cooperation from the opposition, which can use its newfound control of the upper house to indefinitely stall legislation on the mission, which expires November 1.

"I will conduct national politics by holding sincere talks with people of opposition parties on important policy tasks," he said. "It is an urgent task to restore trust in politics and policy administration."

Abe, an outspoken conservative, had languished in opinion polls after a slew of scandals and criticism that he pursued an ideological agenda that ignored bread-and-butter issues that most concerned voters. Fukuda's speech was also notable for what it did not address -- there was no mention of rewriting the US-imposed post-World War II constitution, the signature cause for Abe.

With many observers predicting early general elections to avoid a divided parliament, Fukuda mentioned few concrete policy goals. He pledged in general terms to tackle income disparities, a key issue that the opposition has campaigned on. Fukuda said he is committed to free-market reforms, but acknowledged that social "gaps" had also emerged as the world's second largest economy recovers from recession in the 1990s.

"I will carry out warm-hearted politics under the belief that young and old, large and small companies, and cities and provinces need to pay mutual respect and help each other, while in principle trying to support themselves," he said.

Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi had launched a free-market reform drive, the cornerstone of which was breaking up the vast post office monopoly -- a goal that finally came into being Monday.

US DEA Chief Says Cooperation Needed to Stop Afghan Narco-Terrorism
By Daniel Schearf – Islamabad 30 September 2007

The head of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency has praised Pakistan as a model for eradicating drug production. But, she says more cooperation is needed from neighboring Afghanistan where record-high poppy production is funding insurgents and threatening regional stability. Daniel Schearf reports from Islamabad.

The U.S. DEA chief is calling Pakistan a success story in the global war on drugs. Speaking in Islamabad Friday, Karen Tandy said Pakistan was once a heroin supplying country, but is now almost poppy-free. She credited Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force and Frontier Corps with catching drug traffickers, and said the DEA would continue offering them training and other support.

But, in stark contrast to Pakistan, Tandy called Afghanistan's fast-growing opium trade a "monster." She said cooperation is needed to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a "narco-state," fueling volatility and terrorism in the region. Tandy said insurgents in Afghanistan are funding their increasing attacks on security forces with drug money. Afghanistan's southern provinces are leaders in both poppy cultivation and insurgent violence.

Earlier in the week, she visited Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and told journalists the DEA would work to strengthen intelligence sharing between counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency forces, including NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF (I-SAF).

"These traffickers provide a lifeline for the insurgents. And, that is funding. It is for that reason that, on the enforcement side, the counter-narcotics police need the Afghan national army. And, in our supporting roles, DEA and ISAF [I-SAF] need to be together on this as well," she said.

Tandy says the DEA has provided more than a dozen alerts that have directly averted deadly attacks against Afghan, U.S. and ISAF (I-SAF) personnel. She says DEA intelligence-sharing has also helped capture several major drug traffickers with links to terrorism and the Taleban.

Afghanistan's opium production was significantly reduced during the Taleban's hard-line Islamic rule. But, since the U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taleban government in 2001, poppy production has soared to record highs, and the Taleban have gone from being drug eradicators to drug dealers.

A U.N. report released in August says land under poppy cultivation rose to 193,000 hectares in 2007, up from 165,000 in 2006. Tandy says Pakistan and Afghanistan should set aside historical differences and work together to stop the drug trade. Afghanistan now produces more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, most of it from provinces bordering Pakistan's volatile tribal areas where the Taleban have strong support and corrupt officials benefit from the trade.

Development and diplomacy vital to Afghan mission, top envoy says
CanWest News Service - Saturday, September 29, 2007

MONTREAL -- For Canada's top diplomat in Kandahar, success means learning from past mistakes and hanging on to ground taken -- and then retaken -- from the Taliban. But gains in Afghanistan could also have an important sociopolitical spinoff back home: Making the rest of Canada proud of Quebec's contribution to greater world stability.

So says Quebec-born Michel de Salaberry, Canada's new senior civilian co-ordinator for Kandahar. In a rare interview since the Foreign Affairs Department appointed him Canada's top diplomat in Kandahar, de Salaberry says he is proud of his Quebec roots and the opportunity to serve alongside his home province's Royal 22nd Regiment, the Van Doo.

"It's our chance -- it's the francophones' chance -- to show good service to Canada," de Salaberry explained. "In many ways, French Canada has been a source of stress for the whole of the country. This is one opportunity for the whole of the country to be proud of its French-speaking element."

A cousin, he says, was a co-founder of the famed Valcartier-based regiment, while his great-great-grandfather was a founder of another regiment that was eventually folded into the Van Doo.

Any noticeable increase in support in Quebec for Canada's military mission in Afghanistan would be welcome news to a minority Conservative government determined to carry on with the NATO mission in the face of an increasingly skeptical public -- especially in Quebec -- and an emboldened political opposition posturing to topple the government, perhaps in a matter of weeks.

At 61, de Salaberry wasn't coaxed out of retirement last summer to do the Conservatives any political favours. After a distinguished string of ambassadorships in Iran, Jordan and Egypt, he says he was flattered, but also bound by a deeply held conviction to fight the roots of fanaticism that threaten the world.

"In Afghanistan, a number of critical cleavages intersect," he says. "These are planetary strategic issues that are going to require considerable resources from Canada, whatever happens in Afghanistan."

De Salaberry's primary function is to elevate the non-military aspects of the Canadian contribution to Afghanistan, and do so from the dangerous southern terrain around Kandahar. He reports to Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, Kabul-based Arif Lalani, but he is responsible for six fellow diplomats in the violence-racked southern province of Kandahar.

His job is to better co-ordinate the development and diplomatic efforts with the military mission, whose focus is to strengthen security in the region and eventually stamp out the insurgency.

He's careful not to criticize the past efforts of the handful of diplomats and Canadian International Development Agency representatives who preceded him in the region. But his insights into his current role harbour an underlying criticism: that despite the best efforts of bureaucrats and government officials in Ottawa to play up the importance of the diplomatic and development efforts, there has not, until recently, been enough co-ordination with the military.

"There's a new level of understanding between Canadian government departments," de Salaberry notes. "What is new is joint planning. That didn't occur before. It's a switch from conceiving of three different lines of programs."

That assessment is a long way from the mantra that Canadian government officials have been preaching in Ottawa for more than a year: that the Afghanistan mission is an integrated 3-D approach that seamlessly integrates defence, diplomacy and development.On the ground, this better level of integration means more long-term planning between government departments about how to reinforce any gains by Canada's military.

Last year, Canada led NATO forces on the hard-fought Operation Medusa that drove the Taliban out of the Panjwaii and Zhari districts west of Kandahar. But smaller cells of Taliban insurgents reinfiltrated the region afterwards, planting roadside bombs that have inflicted several deaths on the Canadian soldiers. Insurgents have also killed more than a dozen Afghans in attacks on poorly fortified police outposts. In the past week, Canada has mounted a renewed offensive in the region, which, despite the death of one Calgary-based soldier, is showing positive signs.

Stronger police outposts are being set up to secure the region, and this time de Salaberry said small numbers of Canadian troops would likely remain behind to help their Afghan counterparts hold the ground.

"Hopefully it will take very few military personnel," he said. "This time we've sworn to undertake all the precautions so that we don't have to face the loss again."

Canada is also ramping up its training of local Afghan police by opening a teaching centre for more senior officers next to the Canadian provincial reconstruction team in downtown Kandahar.

De Salaberry does not try to sugar-coat the job ahead: Creating a viable police force for Afghanistan when its ranks have a literacy rate of 10 per cent and poor pay makes many officers vulnerable to corruption. Monthly salaries will be doubled to $140 as a start, but many challenges remain.

"It's extremely difficult to identify police officers in a country where there are no birth certificates," he says. "For the police, everything has to be done."

The diplomat refuses to be speculate on what will happen after February 2009, when Canada's military commitment is set to expire. All he'll say is that "a military presence" of some sort will be required for some time to come.

Like many observers, de Salaberry points to the rebuilding of the former Yugoslavia that is still underway after the country imploded in 1991.

"That was a country with good infrastructure, universal literacy, a high standard of education and institutions that had the capacity to administer social assistance. In the case of Afghanistan, we're starting from a lower base. It's not that infrastructure needs to be reconstructed; it was never there."

De Salaberry says Canadians have to adjust their perspectives on Afghanistan.

"If we want the new product to be a new Switzerland in Asia, that's a very high ambition," he says. "A more realistic one might be Bangladesh."

Tories put up roadblocks to Afghan visit: Coderre
CanWest News Service , Sunday, September 30, 2007

OTTAWA -- Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre says the Harper government deliberately tried to block his upcoming trip to visit Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

The MP from Montreal and former Liberal minister said he was forced to make his own travel arrangements after the government refused to arrange a trip for him to the Kandahar province, where the Canadian Forces are engaged in a combat mission to drive back the Taliban regime and help rebuild the country.

"I didn't plan (this trip) in a jiffy," Coderre said Sunday. "It's been a lot of months and a lot of weeks that we sent messages... Every time they had a reason."

Coderre explained the trip would help prepare the Liberals to learn more about the situation before Parliament debates on the future of the mission at the end of Canada's current commitment in February 2009.

"When we were talking about the mission (the Conservatives) were calling us names like Taliban lovers and we don't believe in the mission and all that," he said.

"It's important for us to send a clear message that we are all unconditional supporters of the troops doing a magnificent job and that they're putting their lives at stake for a novel cause and we are with them."

Coderre refused to give the exact date of his departure for security reasons, but he said he expects the military will co-operate upon his arrival and give him a briefing on its progress in Afghanistan.

Charles Adler: The NDP values ideology above truth, even in Afghanistan

She wore a long black veil to cover her mind by Charles Adler Sept 27/07 “That’s over the top Charles. We never said Karzai was a puppet of the Canadian military,” said the NDP’s Alexa McDonough. Over the top?

Alexa McDonough in a radio interview on Adler on Line, was delivering the “scoop” that much of the messaging in a speech delivered by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the Canadian House of Commons last year, was prepped for him by Canadian military officials. She insisted that the messages we got weren’t necessarily those that the people of Afghanistan would want us to have. By any objective standard, the NDP is calling Karzai a puppet. What’s over the top is not my characterization of the NDP position. What’s completely out of bounds and over the line is patently false charge that Afghanistan’s first democratically elected leader is a puppet of Canada’s Department of National Defense.

When I asked McDonough to name one single fact in the Karzai speech that was untrue, she said this issue wasn’t about the truth. The former boss of the New Democratic Party spoke volumes with that little chestnut. Ideologues care little about the truth. It’s all about ideology. Karzai,in the Canadian Parliament, simply delivered his boiler plate speech to the West. He talked about an Afghanistan where instead of schools being burned to the ground, they were being rebuilt, and instead of girls being denied the right to go to school, there were now two million of them attending. He talked about an Afghanistan where 20% of the members of their parliament were women, and where per capita incomes were going up instead of down.

Yes he was grateful to our military for helping to create a better life for many Afghans. The NDP could learn a lot from the graciousness of the Afghan leader. He has far more respect for our military than the NDP does. And it isn’t because military communications people laid down a few words on a piece of paper to help him get his message across. It’s because they laid down their lives to give his people an opporunity to have a life.

I gave Alexa McDonough three chances to come up with a single fact stated by the President of Aghanistan that wasn’t accurate. Three times she swung her propaganda bat and missed. The NDP’s issue, in their own words, isn’t about the truth. It is a remarkable confession from a Canadian political party which continues to offer feint praise for the bravery of our troops but consistently fails to admit that they have made a difference for the people who inhabit one of the poorest countries in the world.

When McDonough was asked if she could admit that our troops were doing some good down there, she would not do so. I offered her the litmus test of honesty by asking her to tell me how many of the 2 million girls now going to schools in Afghanistan would be attending school if our troops and other NATO forces had not been sacrificing their lives? “Charles you know that is a question that is impossible to answer.” “How about zero, Ms McDonough? That would be a truthful answer.”

She then called my arithmetic ridiculous. What requires public ridicule is the idea that the NDP has even a shred of moral authority on issues involving our military. What’s clear as a bell is that the party has no respect for the military because of their inability to distance themselves for their core pacifist ideology. The NDP refuses to acknowledge that sometimes when bad things happen to people, the only way to stop it is to kill the bad guys, or as General Hillier once called them, the scumbags.

The NDP refuses to acknowledge that there are times when the only way to help people is through armed force. It is not NDP rhetoric that opened up the schools of Afghanistan and converted the soccer stadium in Kabul from a place to execute “disobedient” women to a place where teams now play soccer. It is not NDP rhetoric that has created better health care for many Afghans and freedom from the Taliban barbarians that the NDP seem to prefer.

At least those headchopping, women hating Taliban types aren’t reading speeches that have been vetted by the Canadian military. Isn’t that something Canadians should respect? When given a choice between condemning the democratically elected leader of Afghanistan or the thugs that who would condemn that country to the dark ages, the NDP position is now crystal clear. And while Alexa McDonough did not have to wear a head covering to do an interview in Canada, a country kept free by the military she tries to diminish, the objective truth was concealed by her prepared talking points. For my part, I am eternally grateful to the Canadian military for keeping me free enough to have the opporunity to unmask the dishonesty of the party that some stooges of the left continue to call the conscience of parliament.

Iran urges full Afghan repatriation
Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:36:20

Iran has called for the full repatriation of Afghan refugees who have registered under the Voluntary Repatriation Program. Director General of the Interior Ministry's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA), Taqi Qaemi, expressed dissatisfaction over the number of Afghans so far repatriated and urged full repatriation.

Speaking on areas registered Afghan refugees are banned from inhabiting or transiting under the Voluntary Repatriation Program, Qaemi said that Iran would not negotiate about the issue since it was a matter connected with its security and economic interests. Iran is fully within its rights to make decisions about Afghan refugees illegally living in the country, he added.

Qaemi served as the head of Iran's delegation to the 13th meeting of the 'Joint Program for the Voluntary Repatriation of Afghan Refugees from Iran', which was held at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on September 28.

Director of the Asia-Pacific Bureau at the UN refugee agency in Geneva, Janet Lim, who chaired the meeting, thanked the Islamic Republic for its commitment to the Voluntary Repatriation Program without resorting to forced expulsion of the refugees.

[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.]