In this bulletin:

• German soldier in Afghanistan found dead
• NATO head renews call for 'international coordinator' in Afghanistan
• Brits reportedly warn U.S. on Afghanistan ‎
• Afghanistan operation faces 'real difficulties': French minister
• Withdrawal of foreign forces can restore peace in Afghanistan - Pakistani Minister
• Afghan poppy industry eludes U.S. control
• US Army's strategy in Afghanistan: better anthropology
• 75 PERCENT OF PREVENTING TERRORISM INVOLVES SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REFORMS - AFGHAN COUNTER-TERRORISM CHIEF
• WAR ON TERROR IS TAKING PLACE IN THE WRONG PLACES
• A call worth heeding – DAWN Editorial
• Embassy of Afghanistan Marks Independence Day in Ottawa
• Remarks by Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad On the occasion of independence Day
• Foreign operations bill passed by U.S. Senate includes first restrictions on cluster bombs
• Troop deaths up in Afghanistan
• Orem police officer honored for military service in Afghanistan
• Tapping into Afghanistan's Wealth of Gems
• Comedian helps soldier wounded in Afghanistan

German soldier in Afghanistan found dead

Sep 8, 2007, 16:52 GMT

Kabul - The number of German soldiers killed in Afghanistan reached 26 when a soldier was found dead at his barracks in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan, a German military source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Saturday.
According to the source, there were no obvious signs of a violent attack on the soldier whose body was being flown back to Germany Saturday.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

NATO head renews call for 'international coordinator' in Afghanistan

Posted on : 2007-09-08 | Author : DPA News Category : Europe

Berlin - NATO General-Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has renewed his call for an "international coordinator" to be appointed to oversee operations in Afghanistan in remarks published Saturday. Speaking ahead of a visit to Berlin on Thursday, the NATO head once again urged Germany and other countries to allow greater flexibility in the deployment of their troop contingents.

De Hoop Scheffer told Der Spiegel magazine that the north and west of the country were "relatively stable," although he acknowledged difficulties in the south.

Referring to a remark by President Hamid Karzai, that the security situation had deteriorated, De Hoop Scheffer said: "In general I am not as pessimistic as President Karzai."

Asked about a lack of coordination among the many organizations operating in Kabul, including the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and others, the NATO head renewed his call for "an international coordinator with real political clout."

He said he had raised the idea with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon last week and would do the same with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday.

The training of the military and the police was key to Afghanistan's future, De Hoop Scheffer said.

And he called for restrictions on the activities of the various foreign contingents to be removed.

The 3,000 troops deployed by Germany on a reconstruction and training mission in the north are prevented by their mandate from operating elsewhere, unless in emergency, and cannot accompany the Afghan forces they have trained during operations in the south.

Next month the German parliament debates renewing this mandate and combining it with a second mandate for the deployment of six Tornado reconnaissance jets.

A third, more controversial mandate, for elite troops to be deployed to the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom comes up for renewal in November.

Der Spiegel also reported that the German head of the EU police mission in Afghanistan, Friedrich Eichele, was being relieved of his duties after only a few weeks, as a result of disagreements with EU Special Representative Francesc Vendrell.

Brits reportedly warn U.S. on Afghanistan

LONDON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his foreign
secretary have reportedly warned the Bush administration that the war in
Afghanistan is being lost.

Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband are unhappy with continued
U.S.bombing of Afghan villages, its plan to spray opium poppy fields
with herbicide and its relationship with President Hamid Karzai, The Times of
London reports.

"The Americans see a bit of military success in Afghanistan and think it's
all fine," a source told the newspaper. "They are blinkered by Iraq and this
is becoming symptomatic of a lack of serious engagement on policy."

U.S. officials fear Brown and Miliband want to disengage Britain from
Iraqand become more involved in what they see as a "good war" in
Afghanistan. The British decision to withdraw from Basra, handing over
control of the city to Iraqi security forces, was also unpopular in
Washington.

Afghanistan operation faces 'real difficulties': French minister

KABUL (AFP) — The French defence minister said Friday a planned redeployment
of French jets from Tajikistan to Afghanistan would bring them closer to the
anti-Taliban operation which was "encountering real difficulties."

The six Mirage jets are expected to be moved to Kandahar city in southern
Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

The redeployment is an "operational and technical decision" as it would
enable the planes to react to emergency situations quicker, Defence Minister
Herve Morin told reporters en route from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Kabul.

The Mirages' Dushanbe base is about an hour's flight from Kandahar.

"One should not try to bury one's head in the sand: it is obvious that the
operation (the mission in Afghanistan) is encountering real difficulties and
that the situation is not improving," the minister said.

France would maintain its Dushanbe base as it was strategically important,
including for logistics operations into Afghanistan.

"It also gives the possibility for us to retreat, at one moment or another,
should the president of the Republic (Nicolas Sarkozy) decide," he said.

Morin arrived in Kabul late afternoon on his first visit to Afghanistan.

He was due to meet later Friday the head of a NATO-led force, US General Dan
McNeill, and French military instructors working with the Afghan forces.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to meet President Hamid Karzai and Defence
Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

France has about 1,000 troops serving in Afghanistan as part of NATO's
37-nation International Security Assistance Force, as well as military
instructors. It has lost 11 servicemen in the country.

The French government has said it wants to shift its priorities in
Afghanistan from military operations to training Afghan security forces and
helping the country's development.

Withdrawal of foreign forces can restore peace in Afghanistan - Pakistani Minister

KUNA, 09/07/2007* - *ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Federal Interior Minister and
Chairman Pakistan-Afghanistan Jirga Commission Friday said that withdrawal
of foreign forces from Afghanistan can help restore peace in the war-ravaged
country.

Addressing at a round-table discussion on "Follow-up of Pak-Afghan Jirga"
Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said the meeting of Joint Peace Jirga has
achieved tremendous success in terms of building confidence and removing
misunderstanding between the two states.

"It is one of the major successes of Joint Peace Jirga, which was aimed at
resolving the issues confronting by two states and region that blame game
between two countries has come to an end now", he said.

He said only one meeting of the Jirga cannot maintain peace on either side,
"We have learnt a lot from each other experiences and regular meeting of the
Jirga will help achieve the actual motives of the Jirga", he added.

He said 100,000 troops have been deployed on Pak-Afghan border to curb the
Taliban activities and cross-border crimes, but problem is there as Opium
production has reached to an alarming point and Taliban insurgency has yet
not been curbed.
Sherpao said whenever Afghan government tried to negotiate with Taliban for
peace they demanded withdrawal of foreign forces from the country and the
talks ended in nothing.

He said Pakistan wants peace and stability in Afghanistan which is not only
in vital interest of Afghanistan but Pakistan and the region as well.

The Pak-Afghan Joint Jirga Commission was formed after an agreement reached
between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart
Hamid Karzai during a meeting at the White House hosted by US President
George W. Bush in September 2006.

The commission is aimed at containing violence in the tribal areas along the
border and curtail illegal cross-border movements.

Afghan poppy industry eludes U.S. control

From Tresha Mabile, Special to CNN

NANGARHAR, Afghanistan -- In a small district in southern Afghanistan,
U.S.-backed Afghan drug forces opened fire on farmers who were blocking
roads and throwing rocks to protest the destruction of their poppy fields
earlier this year. Scores were injured in the firefight.

Undeterred by the violence, a group of angry farmers gathered around Masood
Azizi, the Afghan official supervising the eradication. They maintained that
cultivating poppy for opium is the only way they can survive. "We are
hungry, thirsty, and we don't have any money. We are in debt," one said.

It's a message that reverberates throughout this impoverished, war-torn
country. Poppy production in this part of Afghanistan -- the Nangarhar
province -- was nearly wiped out in 2005, but it rebounded this year with a
staggering increase of 285 percent, according to a new report from the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report.

Eradicating opium poppies has been a key pillar of U.S. policy in
Afghanistan since 2004, said Doug Wankel, director of the U.S.
Counter-Narcotics Task Force in Afghanistan.

Yet today, Afghanistan produces roughly 93 percent of the world's illicit
opium, according to the UNODC report, and the Taliban are making inroads in
remote areas of the country thanks, in part, to proceeds from the drug
trade.

Experts say more farmers are producing poppies because they have been unable
to earn a living by growing other crops like wheat and vegetables. They say
that the money promised by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the
international community to plant these alternative crops has not
materialized.

"Not only are they back to cultivating poppy because they did not receive
any alternative livelihoods, but they're angry at the broken promises, and
they don't trust us anymore," said Norine MacDonald of SENLIS, an
international think tank focusing on drug policy.

Afghanistan's poppy farmers said there is little the United States can do to
halt production. "You can try to kill us, but we will still grow poppy," one
farmer told CNN.

Afghan poppies, which start as flowers in farmers' fields and often wind up
as heroin < http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/heroin> on U.S. streets,
fuel a $3 billion a year industry in Afghanistan. The industry is filling
the coffers of the Taliban, the group who gave safe haven to al Qaeda before
and after 9/11, and it is destabilizing the Afghan government.

"The Taliban pretty much were ancient history four years ago, and now they
are back, because they are deriving money from the drug trade," said Peter
Bergen, a CNN terrorism analyst.

Disenchanted farmers find ready allies in the Taliban, who provide
protection for them and their fields. Both groups align with drug lords who
provide upfront money and credit for crops, pay farmers cash, and after the
harvest, pick up the opium themselves. For farmers who may not even own
trucks to get crops to market, this service is invaluable.

"Drug eradication is a fantastic opportunity for the Taliban," said Peter
Jouvenal, a British journalist who has reported from
Afghanistan< http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/afghanistan>for more
than two decades. "It gives them the opportunity to recruit farmers
that are fed up with these foreigners coming in and destroying their land."

U.S. officials claim a lack of opportunity is no excuse for farmers to break
the law.

"Look, we know you need development and that is coming, but the lack of
development is not an excuse to go against the constitution, to break the
law, to support the enemy," said Wankel. "I mean, that's part of the message
that goes out to the people."

Wankel's goal is to wipe out enough poppy fields that farmers will think
twice before they plant poppies again. Less than 10 percent were destroyed
last year. The U.N. estimates that eradication of 25 percent of the poppy
crop would start to turn the tide.

The Taliban use their share of drug proceeds to build up their forces in the
frontier provinces in the southern part of the country, which is also home
to the most poppy production. This puts pressure on local governments as
well as President Karzai's government in Kabul. It also enables the Taliban
to hire forces to attack U.S. and NATO troops.

"This place has shown itself to be something very, very usable for the
fundamentalists to operate from to do whatever is necessary to continue
their war of terrorism," Wankel said.

American officials are cautious about connecting Taliban drug money to al
Qaeda-sponsored terrorism outside of Afghanistan. But Afghan officials say
there is little doubt that some money reaches the terrorist organization.

"The drug [money] is directly funding terrorism. The drug is directly
funding the Taliban, and I wouldn't differentiate between the al Qaeda and
the Taliban," said Mirwais Yasini, the former Afghan counter-narcotics
minister.

In the past year, U.S. and Afghan counter-narcotics officials have placed a
new emphasis on targeting drug kingpins, even those who are government
officials. In June, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers and Afghan
agents arrested Abdul Khaliq, a provincial police chief. The bust netted 30
kilos of heroin, worth roughly $1.5 million on the streets of the United
States.

Wankel warns that not containing the drug trade that funds the Taliban
insurgency could have wider consequences: "We lose this government, we could
have another 9/11 here, so we have to succeed not only for Afghanistan, but
for the region and for the world."

CNN's Jason White contributed to this report from New York.

US Army's strategy in Afghanistan: better anthropology
Counterinsurgency efforts focus on better grasping and meeting local needs.

By Scott Peterson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Shabak Valley, Afghanistan
Evidence of how far the US Army's counterinsurgency strategy has evolved can
be found in the work of a uniformed anthropologist toting a gun in the
mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Part of a Human Terrain Team (HHT) – the
first ever deployed – she speaks to hundreds of Afghan men and women to
learn how they think and what they need.

One discovery that may help limit Taliban recruits in this rough-hewn
valley: The area has a preponderance of widows – and their sons, who have to
provide care, are forced to stay closer to home, where few jobs can be
found. Now, the HHT is identifying ways to tap the textiles and blankets
traded through here to create jobs for the women – and free their sons to
get work themselves.

"In most circumstances, I am 'third' gender," says Tracy, who can give only
her first name. She says that she is not seen as either an Afghan woman or a
Western one – because of her uniform. "It has enhanced any ability to talk
to [Afghans]. There is a curiosity."

Such insight is the grist of what US forces here see as a smarter
counterisurgency. "We're not here just to kill the enemy – we are so far
past the kinetic fight," says Lt. Col. Dave Woods, commander of the 4th
Squadron 73rd Cavalry. "It is the nonkinetic piece [that matters], to
identify their problems, to seed the future here." Nearly six years
after UStroops toppled the Taliban, the battle is for a presence that
will elicit
confidence in the Afghan government and its growing security forces.
"Operation Khyber," which started Aug. 22, aims for a more effective
counterinsurgency – using fewer bullets and more local empowerment.

US commanders have doubled US troop strength in eastern Afghanistan in the
past year. They are also fielding the HHT – a "graduate-level
counterinsurgency" unit, as one officer puts it – to fine-tune aid and to
undermine the intimidating grip of militants in the region.

"This battlefield has changed," says Colonel Woods, from Denbo, Pa., whose
450 or so troops are working with 150 Afghan police and 500 Afghan Army
soldiers to bring security to three districts along the Khost-Gardez Pass, a
key trade route. "I think the enemy has changed. He has to work harder to
gain popular support. He can't work openly any longer."

US and Afghan officers estimate 200 to 250 Taliban, foreign fighters, and
members of local criminal networks operate in the three districts – Gerda
Serai, Swak, and Waze Jadran.

Several key Taliban leaders have been killed in Paktia Province and
neighboring Paktika Province in recent months, and an expected Taliban
spring offensive never took hold.

But this week in Chawni, as Afghan and US forces pushed deeper into
territory steeped in Taliban influence, two 107-mm rockets fell close by on
either side of their camp one night. No third shell came, and while the
attack was small by the standards of Afghan violence, it illustrated the
challenges of rooting out militants.

One villager in Chawni, where the high, dun-colored compound walls are
divided by tall trees and irrigation ditches, recounts how, the night
before, he had seen a Taliban convoy of six cars and two motorcycles pass
through, preventing him from watering parched fields.

"I was very scared and didn't go outside," said the man, his white beard
brilliant against his dark-green silk turban.

"The problem is at night, when the Taliban walk here," says another
villager. "The government told us not to come out at night. The Taliban tell
us the same thing."

US and Afghan officers say the militants meet after 11 p.m., make plans,
then leave by 4 a.m. The fighters have been forced into the mountains, where
radio intercepts reveal uncertainty and hunger.

"A lot of the counterinsurgency fight is to deny the insurgents the ability
to feed and shelter themselves by the local populace," says Maj. Craig
Blando, head of a team working alongside Afghan police.

But intimidation remains. A one-day US military medical and veterinary
service this week in the Shabak Valley, in which doctors and veterinarians
stood ready to help, was nearly vacant.

Local police officer 1st Lt. Taj Mohammed had predicted that many hundreds
of people would show up at the clinics – up to 400 have visited ones
elsewhere – but only 100 men and a handful of women came to this one on
Monday.

One reason, US officers said, may have been because they arrested six
Taliban in the area the previous week. Rumors had spread that suicide
attacks might target the clinics. A roadside bomb was discovered two nights
before.

"They are afraid of the Taliban," confirmed one black-turbaned elder,
Maligul, who walked through the ring of US and Afghan security only to argue
his tribe's case in a land dispute. "Already the Taliban beheaded one elder
a month ago. They told people he was a spy of the coalition."

"The young people don't come. They are all Al Qaeda; they're up in the
mountains," says Lieutenant Mohammed. "All young people have no jobs, so
they join the Taliban ... to get clothes and hashish."

"Al Qaeda has influence all the time over people," he says, estimating the
"enemy" in his district at between 10 and 40, perhaps one-third of them from
Pakistan or the Arab world. "We don't have government people here. Whenever
we [Afghan and US forces] leave this place, they will come down and it will
be just like it was before...."

Operation Khyber has yielded promises from 73 families in three districts to
provide auxiliary police recruits, but this officer says none have come
forward.

"When the Afghan Army and coalition leaves, the Taliban will come back
down," says Maligul, who has only one name.

Finding ways to challenge that fear – and learn what makes Afghans choose to
support the government or its enemies – is the job of the HTT. The key
ingredient is a "senior cultural analyst," in this case, Tracy, the
anthropologist in uniform.

She has interviewed hundreds of Afghan women and men, sometimes for hours on
end, hearing how most are "so tired of war." In nine months, Tracy has
gained deep knowledge, she says, aimed at helping "fill the vacuum that the
Taliban and other nefarious actors want to fill."

Tracy tells Afghans that she wants to "enhance the military's understanding
of the culture so we don't make mistakes like in Iraq." But the bar is high,
and this village with the medical clinic shows signs of militant influence,
such as being "coached."

Still, Tracy says that she sees real progress, "one Afghan at a time." And
the US military's views are evolving accordingly, away from firepower to a
smarter counterinsurgency.

"It may be one less trigger that has to be pulled here," Tracy says of the
result. "It's how we gain ground, not tangible ground, but cognitive ground.
Small things can have a big impact."

That was the case in learning about the idle young men in Shabak Valley.

"I would have never known that was a problem in that community; they
wouldn't tell *me* about that," says Woods. "[She] is taking the population
and dissecting it, and giving us data points to improve or help solve other
problems. It's not the end-all, but it's a tool."

The strategy has been refined since it was first applied in Afghanistan last
year. When this reporter traveled to Nuristan a year ago, around Naray, US
officers spelled out the new fight-and-build strategy of winning trust in
remote villages with projects, and staying on in grim, wet, and
barely-resupplied conditions throughout the winter to deny militants a
haven.

"In counterinsurgency, you can't lead with a rifle," Lt. Col. Mike Howard
said last year. "You must lead with actions, with reconstruction."

But the goodwill was undermined by a couple incidents last November, in the
outpost of Kamdesh. In one case, a Special Forces strike netted a high-level
Al Qaeda operative and killed another after a wedding ceremony.

Days later, according to an American on the outpost, casualties from an
Apache helicopter strike "made people angry and bent on revenge."

Still, the new counterinsurgency template was passed on, and is likely to
reach beyond US efforts in Afghanistan to Iraq.

"Across the armed forces, there is a desire to build this capacity and field
it," says Tracy. "Because of the turn of events in Iraq, it made it
extremely clear that we had to have a better understanding.

"I'm amazed at the soldiers, they get it," she adds. "And the receptivity of
the commanders – they know we need to get it right." "

75 PERCENT OF PREVENTING TERRORISM INVOLVES SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REFORMS - AFGHAN COUNTER-TERRORISM CHIEF

Fariba Nawa: 9/06/07 A EurasiaNet Q&A with Gen. Abdul Manan Farahi

Gen. Abdul Manan Farahi has served as the director of the Afghan Interior
Ministry's Counter-Terrorism Department for the last two-and-a-half years.
In an exclusive interview with EurasiaNet, Farahi surveyed Afghanistan's
security landscape, and discussed the challenges facing government forces as
they strive to contain the radical Islamic insurgency.

EurasiaNet: How many people work for your department? Farahi: Not enough. I
can't elaborate on the exact number for security reasons, but I can say that
we need many more people to do our job. We work closely with the
international community but in the last couple of years, Afghans are
becoming more responsible for fighting their own battles, while foreigners
take more of a supporting role. The Afghan National Army is in charge much
more, and is well trained to do so. ... It's our police force that is in
most danger. They [law-enforcement officers] are also on the frontlines, and
we lose 10 or more police officers everyday to acts of terrorism. The police
need better training, more personnel and institutional reforms so that they
can be prepared and stronger to fight.

EurasiaNet: Does your department's power reach beyond Kabul? Farahi: Yes. We
have power and representatives in every province, but there are certain
districts where we have problems with corruption.

EurasiaNet: The number of terrorism acts over the last two years has
dramatically risen in Afghanistan. What are the main reasons? Farahi: Yes,
there has been an increase in the following areas of terrorism: suicide
bombings, IEDs (improvised explosive devices designed chiefly to blow up
vehicles), rocket attacks, and individual terrorist acts, such as
assassinations.

The situation has gotten worse because of social, political, economic and
military reasons, and it's not that we've been ignoring the reality, but
that we've had limited resources. ... The world needs to look at the
fundamentalist movements in the region; how are they forming and why? We
need to look at the roots and goals of these groups beyond Afghanistan in
order to understand Afghanistan's security problem.

EurasiaNet: In the last six months, the number of people caught about to
commit suicide bombings and other acts of violence has also increased. How
have your resources and capabilities to catch would-be terrorists gotten
better? Farahi: We haven't remained still while the enemy has been active.
In the last six months, we've captured some very strong and dangerous
networks across Afghanistan, [and] 130 acts of violence were prevented. Our
resources have gotten better, especially technically, because of the help
that the United States and other allies have offered us, and also our
officers have better salaries now through the administrative reforms that
have taken place. An officer's monthly salary was 4000 Afs ($80) a year ago
and now it's 30 to 35,000 Afs ($600 to $700). This has improved their lives
so they can be motivated to work better. The Afghan leadership's closer
attention to this issue has made things better. Better training, education,
intelligence, transportation are also reasons.

EurasiaNet: Where are most suicide bombers from, what nationality, and why
do they do it? Farahi: There are very few Afghans. The majority are
foreigners. We captured an engineer several days ago who was a Christian
from Siberia but converted to Islam a few years ago and was recruited to
al-Qaeda. He was trained for two years and brainwashed and then sent here to
blow himself up. We caught him while under a burqa with explosive devices in
a vehicle. They're mostly Pakistanis, Chechens and a variety of other
nationalities. We capture them through intelligence operations.

Poverty may be the root cause of why suicide bombers do this, but there's
more to it than that. A young boy who doesn't have enough to eat will fall
in the hands of a madrasa, but how he decides to use the training he gets
cannot be attributed to poverty.

EurasiaNet: Did the recent peace jirga (assembly) do anything to improve
Afghanistan's security situation? [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive].
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp081107.shtml
Farahi: It was a positive step and it opened the way to discussion and an
understanding that [Afghanistan and Pakistan] need to work together. We
can't immediately feel the result, but the fact that there's a willingness
to understand each other is equally important.

EurasiaNet: What is your biggest challenge to fighting terrorism?
Farahi:There are domestic challenges -- such as political pressures,
lack of
administrative and sector reforms and corruption -- and there are the
international challenges of extremism in neighboring countries that export
their issues here.

EurasiaNet: Is there evidence that Iran is contributing to terrorism here?
Farahi: I cannot discuss this issue in detail, but Iran is our ally.

EurasiaNet: What is the best way to fight terrorism, and is that way being
implemented in Afghanistan? Farahi: From what I have learned and studied
through my years of military experience, 75 percent of preventing terrorism
involves social and political reforms, and only 25 percent involves military
and law enforcement. So we need to focus on the other areas more. We cannot
just focus on bombing and killing and law enforcement.

EurasiaNet: Does the popular mood in Afghanistan today toward the presence
of foreign forces differ from that which existed during the Soviet
occupation? Farahi: It's so different that it cannot be compared at all.
Afghans by and large felt "invaded" by the Soviets and were ready to fight
against them. ... When the United States came, we were tired of war and
ready for a new beginning. There was more support for international
intervention.

EurasiaNet: Security has deteriorated across the country, yet the situation
in the East and South differs from that in the North and West. Can you
explain the security differences in various regions?

Farahi: In the South and East al-Qaeda and the Taliban are causing the
trouble, and in the North there are warlords and drugs lords. ... Most of
the funding for terrorism comes from the drug trade. We have proof of this.
The narcotics grown and refined in Badakhshan are easily transported to
Helmand for sale. My department is trained to understand the drug trade and
those involved, but we are not directly involved in eradication or fighting
the trade.

WAR ON TERROR IS TAKING PLACE IN THE WRONG PLACES

Sat Sep 8, 7:56 PM ET

What about Afghanistan? What about Pakistan?

Add this to the sins of the Bush White House: Its foolish misadventure in Iraq has diverted our politics and our military away from those places that gave aid and comfort to the jihadists who staged the Sept. 11 attacks.

While Congress digests and debates conflicting reports over progress in Iraq -- and while President Bush soft-pedals his own benchmarks to cover the failures of the Iraqi government -- jihadists in Pakistan and its next-door neighbor, Afghanistan, plot and bomb and kidnap and maim, striking at local populations as well as U.S. and NATO forces.

Afghanistan was ground-zero in the war on terror, the staging ground for the terrorist atrocities that killed nearly 3,000 Americans six years ago. That's where Osama bin Laden set up his training camps, plotted his attack and picked the hijackers to send to U.S. flight schools. And when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, he fled to the remote mountains of Pakistan, where he is probably still hiding.

Last week, German authorities arrested Islamist militants whom they contend were planning a major attack, perhaps an assault on Ramstein, the largest U.S. Air Force base outside North America. The jihadists had traveled to Pakistan, where authorities say they trained in a terrorist camp. Islamists responsible for the London subway attacks, as well as those blamed in a disrupted plot to blow up U.S. airliners, also trained in Pakistan, intelligence officials say.

In July, a National Intelligence Estimate declared that al-Qaida had re-created safe havens in the remote mountains of Pakistan and "has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability."

Yet Pakistan continues to be treated as if it's our oldest and dearest friend. You'd think Pervez Musharraf was Tony Blair. When Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, declared recently that he'd send U.S. Special Forces into Pakistan to ferret out jihadists if Musharraf refused to do so, his remarks were greeted as an outrage -- an outrage! -- by his rivals, Democrats and Republicans.

Pakistan, it turns out, was the place where many of the evil deeds Bush blamed on Iraq were actually being carried out. Its intelligence service has had close ties to Islamic jihadists, including al-Qaida, since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. (Saddam Hussein, by contrast, was too suspicious of al-Qaida to form close ties.) And while one of Pakistan's highest-ranking government scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, shared technology for nuclear weapons -- the most lethal kind of WMD -- with North Korea, Libya and Iran, Saddam had no WMDs to share.

Musharraf does occasionally aid U.S. forces in hunting down Islamists. For those desultory efforts, the United States gives his military $1 billion a year.

Neighboring Afghanistan, meanwhile, has become the world's largest producer of opium, accounting for more than 90 percent of the global supply, with proceeds from the cash crop supporting insurgents as well as assorted warlords. Even with NATO backing, the beleaguered government of President Hamid Karzai has never had the military power to take control of the entire country. Visiting the White House last month, Karzai said that security in his country has "definitely deteriorated."

Because American forces are stretched thin in Afghanistan, they frequently resort to air strikes when they're under attack. Those "surgical" strikes often end up killing civilians, including women and children --"collateral damage" that drives the locals into the arms of insurgents. Even Karzai has complained about the high rate of civilian casualties from U.S. assaults.

But with the so-called surge in Iraq straining the capacity of the all-volunteer military to the breaking point, we have no more troops to send to stave off a Taliban resurgence.

Most troubling of all, of course, is that six years after the attacks of Sept. 11, Osama is still out there, recruiting more "martyrs" to his insane crusade, with consequences we can only imagine.

A call worth heeding – DAWN Editorial

Former president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani's call for negotiations
between the Afghan government and dissident groups, including Taliban and
the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) led by Gulbadin Hekmatyar, can't be
faulted. Given his immense popularity with the masses because of his
instrumental role in the jihad against the Soviet invasion, Rabbani's
sagacious suggestion floated at a seminar in Peshawar will hopefully strike
a chord with official circles as well as mainstream political parties.

There is no gainsaying the fact that dialogue with anti-government forces, a
move supported by the opposition, holds the key to lasting peace and
stability — a sine qua non for the rebuilding of a country in urgent need of
an adequate and easily accessible health-care system, a network of paved
roads, schools, parks and other civic amenities.

The call is worth heeding, not least in that it has come at a time of
heightened militant-linked violence that has already claimed thousands of
lives. Needless to say, all cracks at ameliorating the lot of the war-weary
people have particularly been stymied in insurgency-plagued provinces, where
bloodletting has come to be accepted as a fact of life. Murder and mayhem
will certainly taper off when the antagonists sit across the negotiating
table to sort out their differences in an atmosphere of cordiality.

The Karzai-led administration, all political actors, religious scholars,
tribal elders and civil society organisations are duty-bound to sweet-talk
the rebels into renouncing armed resistance.

Equally welcome is Rabbani's emphasis on continued efforts at further
cementing

Kabul-Islamabad ties, which have started thawing as a result of a recent
peace jirga.

In order to give their relations a strategic depth, the neighbours ought to
shift their focus from disagreements to common ground and
confidence-building measures. In their drive for enduring friendship, they
should put their best foot forward. (Sept 3)

Embassy of Afghanistan Marks Independence Day in Ottawa

Afghanistan’s 88th Independence Day anniversary was officially celebrated by the ‎Embassy for the first time in Canada on Thursday.‎

The Embassy hosted a reception at the Cartier Drill Hall, where more than 250 guests ‎heard the Afghan Ambassador thank Canada and specific grassroots and non-‎governmental organizations for their contributions and help for the Afghan people.‎

Canada’s Associate Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and interdepartmental ‎coordinator for Afghanistan, Mr. David Mulroney, Spoke on behalf of the Government, ‎reiterating Canada’s continued support for Afghanistan.‎

The Honourable Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, and The Honourable ‎Stockwell Day, Minister of Pubic Safety, Mr. Leonard Edwards, Deputy Minister for ‎Foreign Affairs, and other Canadian civil and military officials joined esteemed ‎diplomatic representatives from more than 50 nations in the event.‎

Also present were members of NGOs, academia, media, business and representatives of ‎the Afghan-Canadian communities from the Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa regions.‎

During his remarks, Ambassador Samad acknowledged the presence of two Afghan ‎female journalists, Ms. Humaira Habib and Ms. Farzana Wahidy, who have recently ‎arrived in Canada on higher education scholarships.‎

He paid tribute to Canadian sacrifices and assistances over the past six years. He also ‎highlighted the work of non-governmental groups and individuals. The Ambassador also ‎honored Mike Frastacky, a Canadian carpenter, who built a school in Afghanistan, but ‎fell victim to criminal elements last year.‎

The event also featured Afghan cuisine and traditional music.‎

Embassy of Afghanistan

September 07, 2007‎

Remarks by Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad On the occasion of independence Day

Cartier Drill Hall, Ottawa, Sept. 6, 2007‎

Bismillah…‎

Honourable Ministers,‎

Excellencies,‎

Ladies and gentlemen

Hamwatanan wa dostan aziz,‎

My wife and my colleagues at the Embassy join me in welcoming all of you to this ‎reception marking Afghanistan’s 88th Independence Day in Canada.‎

Les Afghans ont célébré ce jour depuis 1919, lorsque faisant parti des rares nations de ce ‎monde ayant échappé a la colonisation, nous nous sommes battus afin de réclamer notre ‎indépendance, sous le règne du Roi Amunallah. Nous avons ainsi cessé de constituer un ‎état tampon entre les deus super puissances d'alors.‎

Translation: [Afghans have celebrated this day since 1919, when as one of the few ‎nations in that part of the world to have escaped colonization, under the stewardship of ‎then King Amanullah, we fought to claim our full independence and put an end to being a ‎buffer state between two of the contending superpowers of those days.]‎

‎Since then, Afghanistan underwent almost 60 years of stability and steady growth, which ‎was unfortunately shattered by almost 30 years of conflict inflicted by external and ‎domestic forces, plunging the country into a failed-state mode.‎

Over the past six years, however, Afghans have embarked on a major multi-dimensional ‎mission to rebuild their lives, through peace and economic revitalization. Having ‎embraced an Afghan-inspired democracy, we stand together to counter those groups that ‎pose a threat to global security. Afghans are generally hopeful about their future as we ‎lay the political and socio-economic foundations that our people desire.‎

Afin d'accomplir cette énorme tache, nous bénéficions non seulement du soutien ‎inébranlable du peuple Afghan mais aussi de l’immense appui de nos amis dans le ‎monde. Nous vous sommes reconnaissants pour votre soutien continuel qui a contribué à ‎ l'avancement de la paix et de la sécurité. Comme vous pouvez le constater aujourd’hui, il ‎est toujours d'une importance stratégique de réussir nos activités méritantes en ‎Afghanistan. ‎

Translation: [To accomplish this enormous task, we not only have the overwhelming ‎backing of the Afghan people, but also the strong support of our friends from across the ‎world. We are grateful for your continued contributions, which will further the collective ‎cause of peace and security. As you can appreciate, it is of strategic importance to ‎succeed in our worthy endeavors in Afghanistan.]‎

In particular, Afghans have had the privilege to work closely with Canada on many ‎fronts. As Afghans celebrate their freedom, I want to tell all Canadians that for the past ‎six years, you have become an integral part of the positive historic changes that have ‎affected the lives of millions of Afghan women, children and impoverished people. We ‎thank you for joining us and others in the recovery process underway half way across the ‎world. Your sacrifices in Afghanistan will always be held with the highest honor.‎

As an example of these positive changes, we have here with us today two brave and ‎dedicated young Afghan women, who arrived in Canada over the past few days as part of ‎scholarship programs. Ms. Humaira Habib, a journalism graduate from Herat University ‎and manager of Radio Sahar, is a recipient of the Sauve Scholarship Foundation Program ‎at McGill University and will be studying in Montreal for the next 10 months. Ms. ‎Farzana Wahidy, an aspiring photographer who studied secretly under the Taliban is the ‎recipient of a two-year scholarship at Loyalist College in Belleville. Both of these young ‎Afghan women are role models. We wish them well and look forward to receiving more ‎young Afghans to study in Canada and serve their country.‎

Excellencies,‎

Ladies and gentlemen,‎

I would like to salute all Canadians who have and continue to serve in Afghanistan, ‎whether as part of governmental - civil-military - or non-governmental missions. ‎However, what strikes me as under-reported and of high value in our relations are the ‎grassroots contributions made by non-government organizations, community groups and ‎even individual Canadians.‎

I would like to recognize several of these Canadians and groups, some of whom are ‎represented here today. They include:‎

‎* Care Canada for its humanitarian work performed over the years bringing hope to ‎thousands of war-widows and children,‎

‎* The sustainable development work through community participation in the central ‎highlands, spearheaded by the Hon. Flora MacDonald and the Future Generations group,‎

‎* The medical aid coming from pharmaceutical companies through Health Partners ‎International Canada, led by John Kelsall and his colleagues, who want to do more and ‎deserve our support,‎

‎* The important contributions made by the Peterson Foundation to promote good health ‎and other humanitarian work in Afghanistan,‎

‎* Peace Dividend Trust, a non-profit foundation, headed by Scott Gilmore, working to ‎make peace and humanitarian operations more efficient, effective and equitable,‎

‎* Wheelchair foundation Canada, headed by Christiana Flessner, eager to provide ‎wheelchairs and give dignity to thousands of victims of landmines and violence across ‎Afghanistan,‎

‎* Talking of landmines, a daily killer in my country, the tremendous work done by Mines ‎Action Canada, a coalition of NGOs working towards peace, development, health and ‎human rights,‎

‎* The Langford BC firefighting unit under Fire Chief Bob Beckett, which has collected ‎hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fire fighting equipment for Kabul and ‎Kandahar,‎

‎* The soon to be launched Teddy Bears of Hope Afghan project by Miss Teen Canada ‎International, headed by Sylvia Stark. We welcome here today the new Miss Teen ‎Canada international 2008, Cassondra Paletta, who will help collect teddy bears for ‎Afghan children. Congratulations and thank you Cassondra.‎

‎* Canadians for Women in Afghanistan, supporting education opportunities for girls, ‎

And many individuals who contact us, like Shemye Emery from Ontario, who wrote ‎asking how she could send more than 5 tons of supplies she collected for the poor and ‎many more who are doing good. I want to say thank you to all of you.‎

At the end ladies and gentlemen, I would like to pay tribute to a brave Canadian whose ‎goodness I and many in Afghanistan will never forget. Mike Frastacky was a generous ‎humanitarian, a carpenter by trade, who went to Afghanistan in 2002, felt a pull and a ‎desire to help. So he spent his vacations building a school in a remote northern province. ‎Tragically, Mike was killed by criminal elements last year.‎

However, he left behind the greatest gift a carpenter and a Canadian could leave for ‎Afghan children: a school. We have today with us Luba Frastacky, Mike’s sister, and I ‎want to honor Mike by giving her a very small token of our appreciation and to tell her ‎that Mike Frastacky will always be remembered for his kindness.‎

Thank you for coming today and celebrating freedom with us.‎

Foreign operations bill passed by U.S. Senate includes first restrictions on cluster bombs
The Associated Press - Friday, September 7, 2007

WASHINGTON: Legislation passed by the U.S. Senate to pay for aid and other
State Department operations abroad would restrict the sale or transfer of
cluster bombs, lethal munitions that spread death over wide areas and often
kill civilians.

A cluster bomb is designed to break up in the air and disperse 200 to 400
bomblets over an area 500 yards (457 meters) across. The weapon is meant to
disrupt large-scale troop formations, but cluster bombs have been used
increasingly in civilian areas in military confrontations across the world.

As passed by the Senate Thursday night, the $34 billion (€24.8 billion) bill
would forbid transfer or sale of any cluster munitions with a failure rate
of more than 1 percent. The idea is to reduce the incidence of unexpected
explosions of munitions that had not gone off when used.

The bill also provides military aid to familiar allies in the Middle East.
Israel would receive $2.4 billion (€1.75 billion), while Egypt receives $1.3
billion (€950 million). Afghanistan would receive about $1.1 billion (€800
million) for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction aid.

But the Senate joined the House of Representatives in denying the
administration's $456 million (€332.9 million) request for aid to Iraq; $2.8
billion (€2 billion) in Iraq reconstruction aid provided in May has yet to
be spent.

The cluster bomb restriction was sponsored by Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy
and Dianne Feinstein.

"These volatile relics of the Cold War have taken their lethal toll on
civilian populations all over the world for too long, from Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East," Feinstein said in
a statement Friday.

Leahy said the standards set by the bill could "greatly reduce the gruesome
casualties these weapons needlessly inflict on innocent civilians."

Senate and House negotiators must now work out differences in the two bills
to come up with a final version to be passed in both chambers and sent to
President George W. Bush either to sign into law or veto.

The White House told the Senate it objects to the clause and to another one
in the bill that would limit aid to countries that recruit or use child
soldiers. A statement said the Bush administration imposes safeguards on
sales of cluster bombs and "vigilantly pursues efforts to prevent the use of
children in combat."

The senators gave these figures in a background note:

_The Gulf region has 1.2 million bomblets left unexploded from the 1991 Gulf
War and the current war in Iraq. The leftover weapons have killed an
estimated 1,220 Kuwaitis and 400 Iraqi civilians.

_U.S. forces in Iraq used 13,000 cluster bombs with almost 2 million
bomblets in 2003, during the initial invasion. During the invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001 against al-Qaida centers and the Taliban government that
sheltered them, the United States used 1,228 cluster bombs with 248,056
bomblets; they have killed 127 civilians, 70 percent under the age of 18.

_In Laos, U.S. bombing campaigns during the Vietnam War of the 1960s and
1970s left 9 million to 20 million bomblets, which have killed 11,000
people, three out of 10 of them children.

_Israel dropped an estimated 4 million bomblets in southern Lebanon in its
war against the Hezbollah guerrillas last year, and an estimated 1 million
did not explode. The background sheet cited reports that Hezbollah
retaliated with cluster bombs of their own.

The U.S. military's arsenal contains 5.5 million cluster bombs containing
728 million bomblets, the senators' statement said. It said many fail at
rates of 1 percent or higher.

Troop deaths up in Afghanistan

By CHUCK CRUMBO - ccrumbo@thestate.com

Increase in coalition manpower and insurgents key factors

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two-thirds of the way through 2007, the death toll in Afghanistan is up sharply for U.S. and coalition troops.

If the trend holds for the remaining four months, U.S. deaths alone could be 20 percent higher than in the past two years.

Through Sept. 4, 164 troops — evenly split between U.S. and coalition forces — have died in Operation Enduring Freedom. That compares to 191 in 2006 and 130 for all of 2005. The U.S. toll was 98 in 2006 and 99 in 2005.

The 7,000-member Task Force Phoenix VI, commanded by the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team, has lost 11 soldiers since May 28 in Afghanistan. (None was from South Carolina.)

By comparison, the S.C. unit’s predecessor lost six troops during its year in Afghanistan.

“This is a sobering reminder of the danger surrounding us,” Brig. Gen. Bob Livingston of Lexington County, the 218th’s commander, said at a recent service honoring the task force’s fallen soldiers.

S.C. troops agree.

“It’s a dangerous place,” said Sgt. James Linton of Beaufort. “We’re waiting on our day to get hit.”

Added Spc. Travis Duncan, of St. Helena Island: “It’s not a game. It’s not a joke. These people are playing for keeps.”

While the S.C. brigade has not lost any troops, 20 of its soldiers have received Purple Heart medals, awarded to those wounded in combat.

Reasons for the rising death toll include:

• More troops. About 24,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, 3,500 more than a year ago. Overall, there are about 47,000 U.S. and NATO troops in the country.

• More insurgents. U.S. commanders say the number of Taliban and insurgent fighters is back up to where it was before the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan in November 2001. Between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters make up the Taliban and rebel forces, according to various estimates from U.S. commanders.

• The build-up of Afghan forces. As the Afghan army and police grow, there are more patrols to root out Taliban and rebel fighters. That means more fighting.

• More attacks on Afghan police. Poorly trained and equipped, the Afghan police are considered a “soft” target.

That was the case when insurgents attacked an Afghan police outpost Aug. 27 in Kunar Province, near the Pakistan border. Three soldiers, serving as mentors to the Afghan police and assigned to Task Force Phoenix, died in the attack.

STRENGTHENING POLICE

“The enemy has brought the fight to the police,” said Col. Joe Logan, commander of a Task Force Phoenix team advising the Afghan police. “The Afghan National Army is too strong. They (the enemy) can’t stand up and fight (the Afghan army). The Afghan National Police, we’re still wrestling with.”

In response, Task Force Phoenix, which in previous years concentrated its efforts on building up the Afghan army, has expanded to mentoring and advising the Afghan police.

Strengthening the police is key to Afghanistan’s security, Livingston said when the first group of police mentors was formed at Camp Phoenix, where the brigade is headquartered. While the Afghan army is capable of fighting and chasing off the Taliban, the Afghan police need to learn how to hold and secure ground, Livingston said.

The U.S. advisers face the risk of combat because they patrol with the Afghan police, teaching tactics. They also can call on close-air support from Air Force jets and radio for a helicopter to evacuate the wounded.

Meanwhile, U.S. and coalition forces are seeing more foreign fighters cross the Pakistan border to take up arms with the Taliban, said Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.

“It’s increased probably 50 to 60 percent over what it was last year ... and they come from multiple areas in the Middle East,” Rodriguez said during a recent news briefing.

Almost all of the heavy fighting is in the southern part of Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. U.S. commanders say two-thirds of the country is relatively stable and secure.

‘YOU CAN’T THINK ABOUT IT’

Taliban attacks in the Kabul area have been confined to suicide and roadside bombs, aimed at U.S. and coalition convoys.

“It’s picked up, but it’s nowhere near what I thought it was going to be when I got here,” said Spc. Thomas Epps of Greenville.

Duncan said the reality of what’s at stake sunk in when he was part of an honor guard for two fallen soldiers whose caskets were loaded on a plane at Bagram Airfield.

“They got called up to do the same thing I’m here for,” Duncan said. “They’ll never be able to see their families again — go home, hold their kids, hug their wife, talk to their mother, father, cousins, whatever. They won’t be able to do that anymore.”

Still, the S.C. troops said, they have to be ready to go outside the gate and not obsess about the danger.

“You can’t think about it because if you do, you won’t be able to do your job,” Epps said. Also, it helps to call on a higher power for protection, said Spc. Bobby Deaton of Blacksburg.

“Every time we hit the front gate, we say a convoy prayer,” said Deaton. “I thank the Man upstairs every time we roll.”

Orem police officer honored for military service in Afghanistan

By Kristin Owens Special to The Tribune Article Last Updated: 09/08/2007

Orem police Sgt. Jeff Long was honored with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star on Friday afternoon, a year after he was wounded in Afghanistan while serving with the Utah National Guard. Long was seriously injured by a suicide bomber in a van who detonated his explosives while passing Long's Humvee.

Long, 42, who was riding in the turret as gunner, was wounded along with two other members of his crew.

He was evacuated to a military hospital in Germany and later transferred to a military hospital in Texas.

Long's commanding officer presented the awards after explaining their significance to more than 100 people assembled in the Orem City Council chambers, including Long's co-workers on the police force and other members of the 405th Civil Affairs Battalion.

The Purple Heart is awarded to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. military, while the Bronze Star is awarded for acts of bravery or merit in combat.

"Jeff volunteered to come into this battalion knowing we were going to deploy," Command Sgt. Maj. Henry Jetty said later. "It takes a lot for a person who has a secure lifestyle back here in the states to volunteer to serve their country."

Long - a husband and father of three - has given 24 years of active service to the Army Reserve, and volunteered in October 2004 to deploy with the 405th Battalion as a civil affairs officer.
Jetty said Long's good judgment in wearing all his army-issued gear allowed him to survive the attack. He added that prior to the bombing, Long had trained his team to continue without him, and that the next day they were able to complete the mission they had set out to do.

"Jeff is more than deserving of this award," Jetty said. "It's long overdue."

Long, who holds the rank of sergeant first class in the Army Reserve, said at the award ceremony that it was difficult to leave Afghanistan when he knew his comrades were still there fighting.

He expressed appreciation for those he served with and for the support he received at home, particularly from his family.

Long will return to work with the Orem Police Department on Monday as a detective with the investigation division.

"We're very grateful," Orem police Lt. Douglas Edwards said after the event. "We're indebted to him and to all of those brave young men that serve in the military . . . we stand in awe of their commitment to country."

shunt@sltrib.com

Tapping into Afghanistan's Wealth of Gems

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
*NPR, *September 7, 2007 · Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the
world. Yet the mountains blanketing this central Asian nation hide one of
the world's biggest treasure chests. There are gemstones, precious metals,
coal and even oil. But the Afghan minister of mines, Mohamad Ibrahim Adel,
says 95 percent of his country's natural wealth remains untapped. Recently,
the government has begun promoting private efforts to mine the gems — with
an eye toward cashing in on the taxes and fees generated by the business.

"Our strategy is that government will not invest in these sectors," Adel
said. "All of these sectors will be privatized."

In the past year, his government started tapping into what is perhaps
Afghanistan's most famous gemstone — lapis lazuli. Afghans from the
country's northeastern province of Badakhshan have been mining this
ocean-blue stone since the time of the pharaohs.

Afghan miners say it's tough to get their 8,000-foot high mountain to give
up its lapis lazuli. But a flash of blue on the rocky white wall in the mine
gets their hopes up. The miners start up their aging Chinese drill and bore
next to the blue spot in search of a lapis bed.

But on this day, like most of late, the trace of lapis leads nowhere. Miner
Rahimullah shrugs.

"If we manage to pull some out, that's good, but if not, that's good, too,"
Rahimullah said. "It's up to God."

Theirs is a primitive operation. Save for using the old drill, some dynamite
and flashlights, these miners in Badakhshan pretty much extract lapis the
same way their ancestors did centuries ago: with hammers. What is new is
what happens with the lapis once they remove it.

Nowadays, instead of being smuggled by horseback into neighboring Pakistan,
heavy sacks of lapis are loaded onto a flatbed truck. The truck then heads
to Kabul to Afghanistan's first-ever gemstone trade center. It is a private,
but government-backed operation. The trade center opened last year in a
four-story building on the northern edge of town.

The center deals in lapis and Afghanistan's other gemstones — like the pound
of emeralds that shopkeeper Abdul Bahri Amiri sorts with his assistant on
the floor of his shop.

In the center, Afghan mine ministry workers tally the goods and gauge their
quality. They also levy a 15 percent tax. The center then locates buyers —
many of them abroad — and helps traders with the remaining Afghan red tape.

As a result, almost all of the lapis being mined in Afghanistan is now being
bought and traded legally for the first time in 50 years. Afghan Minister of
Mines Mohamad Ibrahim Adel describes the exchange.

"Until now, we have taken from them 100 million Afghanis," Adel said. "When
you change it into dollars, it's not so much, but during the past we haven't
received anything, so it's a considerable amount of money."

Mohamed Gul Rashid, who runs the trade center, said Afghan mine operators
were relieved at having someplace to sell their lapis legally. The center
was so flooded that it dealt with 900 tons of lapis in their first few
months of operation.

"We want to restore Afghanistan as the rightful seller of lapis," Rashid
said. "We want foreigners to learn this is not some other country's lapis,
but ours."

But Rashid worries the center's success will only be temporary. He accuses
the Afghan government of doing little to make the country's gemstone mining
trade viable. Rashid claims that Afghan taxes and fees for selling gemstones
are the highest in the world.

When asked about the official hoops sellers have to jump through, he flips
through a sheath of government forms a half-inch thick. He explains he has
to get approval from 17 offices before he can export anything. He says
maneuvering through the system takes at least two weeks.

Add to that the 25 percent he has to pay in bribes to police and bandits to
get the gemstones safely to Kabul from far-flung provinces like Badakhshan,
and dealers' earnings drop by half. He says the high cost of Afghan
electricity and fuel needed to transport and process lapis also makes it
impossible to stay competitively priced with the raw stone that illegally
finds its way to the bazaars in Pakistan.

Back in the mining town in southern Badakhshan, many agree with Rashid that
the government needs to do more than collect taxes. Otherwise, they predict,
smuggling will once again become the norm.

They want to see improvements on the ground. The poor condition of the only
road leading to Badakhshan, for example, makes it difficult for supply
trucks to get there. As a result, miners pay more than twice what other
Afghans pay for food and shelter.

American and German aid workers are looking to rebuild the lone bridge in
town that was washed out in a storm. A new bridge could shave at least seven
hours off the road trip to Kabul, but only if someone clears the rocks that
have fallen over the winter onto the mountain-lined roads.

Conditions in the 20 or so lapis mines above the town are even worse. Some
of them are run by militia commanders. There is no official oversight other
than a required license and taxes paid on equipment in the mine.
Surprisingly, news of the recent mine disaster in Utah has reached this
isolated enclave.

Police chief Sayed Asssadullah Mujaddedi says the American story may have
had a sad ending, but Afghans here envy the equipment and effort that went
into trying to rescue the six American miners.

"We don't have anything like that. There's only one way into our tunnels and
that's the way the miners use," Mujaddedj said. "Last year, six people got
stuck in a cave-in and we had to get them out by clawing at the rocks with
our hands."

Nor are there benefits paid to the families' of miners who die or are
maimed. Mining lapis is a job no one here likes. It doesn't help that the
free-for-all mining encouraged by the Afghan government is lowering lapis
prices. That, in turn, lowers the daily wage, which on a good day, is $10.

But miner Rahimullah says there's no other work available to them. He has
worked the mines for 9 years. He says his 2-year-old son will someday work
them as well, unless other jobs open up.

Comedian helps soldier wounded in Afghanistan

Edmonton Journal Saturday, September 08, 2007

Comedian Rick Mercer is staging a one-time performance on Sunday in support of the Northern Alberta Amputee Program and Master Cpl. Paul Franklin, who lost his legs in 2006 after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

"All I'm doing is helping a friend out, really," Mercer says of the show, Adventures in Canadian Television: An Evening with Rick Mercer. "The cause is great and this is going to be a fun, positive night."

Mercer met Franklin in Afghanistan before the Edmonton soldier was seriously wounded on tour. The two bunked together on a Canadian military base.

They hit it off and stayed in touch. Franklin even sent Mercer souvenirs and postcards from overseas.

Mercer's one-hour show is a mix of standup and storytelling featuring video clips of his television career, including This Hour has 22 Minutes, Talking to Americans and The Rick Mercer Report.

[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.]