In this bulletin:

• Women, children killed in Afghan raid: local officials
• NATO says insurgency is not spreading in Afghanistan
• NATO allies must do more in Afghanistan: Development Secretary
• Japan to host conference on reconstructing Afghanistan
• Afghan opium increasingly confined to south-U.S.
• Afghan police lift siege of ex-warlord Dostum
• Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law
• Afghan leaders accuse British of secret plan for training Taleban
• Afghan police kill over 9 Taliban rebels in S. Afghanistan
• Canadian takes command of troops in Southern Afghanistan
• Kandahar governor: prisoners responsibility of military; denies abuse allegation
• Poland to share helicopters with Canada in Afghanistan
• End to Afghan combat mission not realistic, top soldier says
• Dion's Afghanistan balancing act could be toppled by internal tensions
• Afghan war a 'dead end' in need of change: Layton
• The world can't ignore the Al Qaeda and Taliban threat in Afghanistan
• Iran to build a road network in India
• US senator wants Afghan contracts probed

Women, children killed in Afghan raid: local officials

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — A raid by Afghan and NATO troops against Taliban insurgents in southwestern Afghanistan killed several civilians, among them children, local officials said Monday.

Authorities from Farah province gave different figures for the number of civilians killed in the raid late Sunday. Officials in Kabul, including from the NATO force, did not immediately have information.

The strike, involving ground and air forces, took place in the Bakwa district, which has seen a series of attacks by fighters with the Taliban movement, in government between 1996 and 2001.

The governor of Bakwa district said that two women and three children were among the dead and only one Taliban fighter was killed.

"A Taliban commander had been invited to the house," said Khan Agha. "In the operation nine people were killed, which includes two women and three kids." The rest were men.

But provincial governor Ghulam Mohaidun Balouch said that out of 10 people killed in the raid on a Taliban "cell" most were rebels. "Among the 10, eight are Taliban plus the wife of the commander and his child," he said.

Balouch said Italian NATO troops, who are based in the nearby province of Herat, were involved but this was not immediately confirmed by the alliance's International Security Assistance Force.

The issue of civilian casualties in military operations against Taliban insurgents is one of the most sensitive aspects of the international effort in Afghanistan .

NATO says insurgency is not spreading in Afghanistan

The Associated Press - Sunday, February 3, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan: The Taliban insurgency is not spreading and 70 percent of the violence last year occurred in only 10 percent of the country, NATO said Sunday, in contrast with other recent more pessimistic reports.

Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said three-quarters of Afghanistan suffered one violent incident per week. "It is becoming increasingly clear that the insurgent movement is being contained," Foss told a press conference in Kabul.

Her comments followed a series of pessimistic assessments of the situation in Afghanistan, which said a resurgent Taliban is challenging the United States and its allies.

An independent study co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering warned last week that Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state because of deteriorating international support and the growing Taliban insurgency.

At the same time, most of NATO's European members are refusing to send soldiers to Afghanistan's dangerous south, opening a rift between the U.S., Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and others that have borne the brunt of fighting.

A British Cabinet minister called on the allies Sunday to send troops to the south, where most of the fighting happens.

"We have made clear to our NATO partners that we do want to see appropriate burden sharing, not just in the number of troops on the ground but where those troops are committed within Afghanistan," Douglas Alexander, British International Development Secretary, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Germany in particular has been resisting pressure to deploy troops to the south. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has reportedly urged all NATO partners to send more forces to join the fight against the Taliban.

On Friday, however, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung rejected the appeal and defended his army's efforts in the north of Afghanistan. Germany insists its parliamentary mandate is for its 3,500 soldiers to serve along the northern border, only helping out in the south for a limited period of time.

The issue is expected to feature prominently in discussions at an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, next month.

The U.S. contributes one-third of NATO's 42,000-member International Security Assistance Force mission, making it the largest participant. The U.S. has an additional 12,000 to 13,000 American troops there involved in counterterrorism operations.

Canada is threatening not to extend its military mission in Afghanistan after next year unless another NATO country sends more soldiers to the south. Canada, which maintains 2,500 troops in Kandahar province, has lost 78 soldiers and one diplomat since joining the U.S.-lead force that toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

More than 6,500 people — mostly insurgents — died in violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count of figures provided by local and international officials.

NATO allies must do more in Afghanistan: Development Secretary

LONDON (AFP) — Britain wants some of its NATO allies to start pulling their weight more in Afghanistan, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said Sunday, ahead of crunch talks on the issue.

Germany and France are among the nations which have been criticised for failing to send forces to the areas where fighting is the most intense.

"We've made clear to our NATO partners that we do want to see appropriate burden sharing, not simply in terms of the number of troops on the ground, but where those troops are committed within Afghanistan," Alexander told BBC television.

"It's obviously a discussion that we've recognised we need to have with colleagues to make sure there is appropriate burden-sharing right across Afghanistan."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit Britain this week to discuss Afghanistan and NATO defence ministers are to hold an informal meeting in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Thursday and Friday.

The United States has ramped up its attempts to get other countries to get stuck into fighting the Taliban insurgency in the battle-ravaged south of Afghanistan.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force comprises some 42,000 troops from 39 countries. Canada has warned it could withdraw its 2,500 troops if NATO fails to send reinforcements to the south.

Commanders in Afghanistan have been calling for around 7,500 extra troops to be deployed in the region. There are about 7,800 British troops in Afghanistan, most of whom are in the restive southern province of Helmand.

"Notwithstanding all of the real challenges -- poverty, narcotics, insurgency -- we are making progress in Afghanistan," Alexander said.

"It's a desperately poor country. "Where the roads end the Taliban begin. "Where you have law and order and security you can eradicate poppies, and where you have insurgency it's far more difficult."

Japan to host conference on reconstructing Afghanistan

TOKYO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan will host a two-day international conference on Afghanistan's reconstruction started from next Tuesday in Tokyo, officials from the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Delegates from 24 countries and international organizations will take part in and to hold discussions on the topics of security, economic development and further financial donations for the war-torn country.

Participants will reiterate the necessity of continued international assistance to the country, Japanese media said, adding that Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta are both scheduled to give speeches at the meeting.

Afghan opium increasingly confined to south-U.S.

By Isabel Reynolds - TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - An opium crackdown is bearing fruit in the north and east of Afghanistan, but progress there has been outweighed by increased production in the south, the U.S. coordinator on the issue said in Tokyo on Monday.

Thomas Schweich is in Japan for an international conference on Afghanistan, amid deepening gloom over the burgeoning narcotics trade, which has funded increasing violence by insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion more than six years ago.

But he said pessimism over Afghanistan's future was based on incomplete information. "To say that the whole place is falling apart is not accurate," Schweich told Reuters in an interview.

"In the north and the east of the country there has been a very significant shift away from poppy production."

Thirteen of the country's 34 provinces are poppy-free and the State Department calculated that 24 will be opium-free or nearly so by June this year, he said.

Overall production has nonetheless risen over the past two years because of sharp increases in production in southern provinces, he added.

"We have a very tenacious problem in the south of the country that tends to eclipse the positive developments in the rest of the country. That's really what we're focusing on this week," he said.

Last year, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the total export value of Afghan opiates stood at about $4 billion, equivalent to more than half of the country's legitimate gross domestic product.

Taliban insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers shared the bulk of that total, it said, with farmers retaining about 25 percent.

The Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, which brings together Afghan ministers and representatives of donor countries, meets in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Host nation and key donor Japan hopes to draw international attention to the worsening plight of Afghanistan, a Foreign Ministry official said last week.

Afghanistan is set to release a paper refining its own counter-narcotics policy, while Schweich said he also hopes to see progress on the reform of the judicial system.

"That's really important because you're not going to be able to stop the narcotics problem unless there's a functioning court system," he added.

Some in the U.S. government favour aerial spraying of herbicides over poppy crops, as practised in Colombia, but this is opposed by the Afghan government because it would likely alienate the public and spark health concerns.

Schweich said the idea had not been raised again by the U.S. State Department since it was rejected by Afghan President Hamid Karzai last year. (Editing by Katie Nguyen)

Afghan police lift siege of ex-warlord Dostum

KABUL (Reuters) 02.03.08 - Afghan police lifted a brief siege of the house of former ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in Kabul on Sunday after he and a group of around 50 armed men beat up a former ally, a police chief said.

The standoff highlights the problem of powerful warlords who helped tear Afghanistan apart in the 1992-96 civil war and are still waiting in the wings should President Hamid Karzai fail in the fight against Taliban insurgents and lose his grip on government.

Dostum, a fierce warlord with a reputation for brutality and treachery, beat up his former election manager Akbar Bay late on Saturday, said Kabul police chief Salem Hasaas.

One of Bay's bodyguards was shot and Dostum and his men fled to the warlord's house, Hasaas said. Bay was taken to hospital.

Dozens of police armed with assault rifles and machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks surrounded Dostum's house in a relatively upmarket part of Kabul and other officers took up positions on the roofs of neighboring houses.

One shot was fired, but it was unclear where it came from. Shortly afterwards, police began to withdraw. "We have received orders to hand the case over to the judiciary for investigation," said the head of the Kabul police criminal investigations Ali Shah Paktiawal.

The burly Dostum rose to command ethnic Uzbek fighters allied to the Soviet Union during the 1979-89 occupation, then switched sides as Soviet troops withdrew. He then formed and broke alliances several times during the civil war, meanwhile running much of northern Afghanistan as his personal fiefdom.

At the height of his power, the burly, mustached fighter ran a mini-state centered in parts of the north and his well-equipped army kept even the Taliban at bay until 1997. He printed his own money, set up his own airline, drove an armored Cadillac and vowed never to bow to a government that banned whisky and music.

Police officers outside Dostum's house said the former warlord briefly appeared on the roof of his residence and seemed drunk as he abused them before his guards pulled him indoors.

A spokesman for Dostum said there was no truth in the accusations against the former warlord and warned of unrest if police tried to arrest him.

"This is a plot against General Dostum, the government is trying to undermine him," said spokesman and member of parliament Mohammad Alem Sayeh. "The government should know that if it tries to capture Dostum, then seven or eight provinces in the north will turn against the government."

Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun from the south, is struggling to assert his authority faced with a resurgent Taliban campaign of guerrilla warfare in the south and east and suicide bombings along the length and breadth of the country.

Karzai has also lost the backing of the Northern Alliance former mujahideen commanders, including Dostum, that helped U.S.-led troops helped overthrow the Taliban government after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Dostum ran for president in the 2004 election gaining 10 percent of the vote. Since then President Hamid Karzai named him as a top military advisor, a post largely seen as an attempt at co-opting a powerful and unpredictable figure.

Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law

RFE/RL - Afghan police have lifted a brief siege on the Kabul home of a longtime warlord and current presidential adviser, Abdul Rashid Dostum, after he and dozens of armed men allegedly beat up and kidnapped a former campaign aide, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

The episode could bring further embarrassment over the government's association with the ethnic Uzbek strongman Dostum, who spent decades as a powerful northern warlord but was co-opted by President Hamid Karzai in 2005 to take a vaguely defined role as "Afghan Army chief command."

Moreover, comments by Dostum allies during and after the siege highlight a smoldering debate over the influence of current and former warlords whose actions undermine the rule of law and public confidence in central authorities.

The acting head of Dostum's political party expressed surprise that police would respond by surrounding Dostum's home, since he "holds a higher position" in the government than the interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Moqbel.

Reports suggested that Dostum and around 50 armed men attacked and abducted one of his former campaign managers, Akbar Bay, and one of Bay's bodyguards late on February 2.

More than 100 police or security officers, armed with assault rifles and machine guns, later surrounded Dostum's home in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul for several hours, while other officers took up positions on the roofs of nearby houses.

Police later lifted their siege, with Interior Ministry spokesman Zmarai Bashari saying security forces were referring the incident to prosecutors "as soon as possible" for possible legal action. Both Bay and his bodyguard were reportedly freed and hospitalized.

The fiery Dostum's northern-based supporters have been at the heart of several violent clashes in the past year, although Dostum himself has generally maintained a low public profile.

Dostum has been accused by international groups of involvement in numerous human rights abuses dating back to Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s. Bashari suggested to Radio Free Afghanistan that Dostum was under the influence of alcohol during his armed raid on Bay's house.

"General Dostum is still an Afghan government official, and you know that," Bashari said. "This was a criminal case and the Afghan Attorney-General's Office will follow the case with details to identify the guilty or the innocent and hand it over to the law."

Speaking at a press conference in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, Sayyed Nourallah, the acting leader of Dostum's political faction, the National Movement (Junbesh-e Milli), expressed surprise over the standoff at Dostum's house.

"Certainly we were not expecting that from security forces -- particularly from the Interior Ministry -- to surround the house of General Dostum in Kabul," Nourallah said. "[Dostum] holds a higher position than the interior minister in the government."

A spokesman for Dostum, Mohammad Alem Sayeh, insisted there was no truth to the accusations against Dostum and warned of unrest if police tried to arrest him.

"If General Dostum is surrounded and anyone touches even one hair on Dostum's head, they must know that seven or eight northern provinces will turn against the government," Radio Free Afghanistan quoted Sayeh as saying.

In May, protests staged by his supporters against a controversial governor of the northern province of Jowzjan turned violent, leaving at least 10 people dead. Around the same time, armed Dostum supporters clashed with authorities in Faryab Province, forcing Kabul to send in troops to quell the violence. Provincial authorities in Jowzjan have accused his National Movement (Junbesh-e Milli) of rearming its supporters in the north.

In the context of Dostum's most recent scrape with authorities, the attack on Bay and his entourage, Afghan National Assembly member Shukaria Barkzay warned Radio Free Afghanistan that impunity represents one of the country's greatest challenges.

"The non-implementation of the law is one of [Afghanistan's] key problems, and this culture of immunity for any politically powerful people -- whether they have legal authority or not -- leads to their impunity," Barkzay said. He stressed that the problem extends to more than "one specific group" and cited public complaints regarding "several groups."

"Government officials are taking all these decisions about public trust, while the Afghan people want justice," Barkzay said.

Dostum is a former union boss in the gas and oil sector who rose to command ethnic Uzbek fighters backing communist forces after the Soviet occupation in 1979.

But his three kaleidoscopic decades as a militia leader have been marked by many short-lived -- and frequently contradictory -- alliances.

In 1997, after unsuccessfully challenging Taliban forces in the capital, Dostum was forced to flee his stronghold around Mazar-e Sharif to live abroad. He reemerged to back the U.S.-led attacks to oust the Taliban regime in 2001, returning to the area to reclaim control of large swaths of northern Afghanistan.

Dostum placed fourth among the 18 names on the presidential ballot in October 2004 with 10 percent of the vote.

The next year, Dostum was named by the Karzai administration as its "Afghan Army chief command" in a move generally regarded as an effort to avoid friction ahead of key parliamentary and provincial elections in September 2005.

A security adviser to Karzai under the former Transitional Administration, Dostum has long wielded major influence in some northern provinces and consistently chafed at central authority out of Kabul.

Afghan leaders accuse British of secret plan for training Taleban

Scotsman, 02/03/2008 By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

SECRET British plans for a Taleban training camp in southern Afghanistan are behind a spectacular diplomatic spat that has seen Anglo-Afghan relations plummet to an almost unprecedented low.

Afghan officials claim the camp for 2,000 fighters was part of a top-secret deal to make the insurgents swap sides. The plans were discovered on a computer memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.

The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the Taleban without the president's permission.

The British insist president Hamid Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai expelled two top diplomats, linked to the plan, amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents.

The row was the first in a series of disagreements. Since then Mr Karzai has blocked the appointment of Paddy Ashdown to a top UN job in Kabul and has blamed British troops for losing control of Helmand province.

Last week the president's political mentor, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, endorsed a death sentence on a student journalist, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, for blasphemy, and two British contractors have been arrested in Kabul on trumped up weapons charges. Experts see it as deliberate "two fingers" to the British.

An Afghan government whistleblower said the training camp was part of a controversial British plan to use bands of reconciled Taleban, called Community Defence Volunteers, to fight the remaining insurgents.

He said: "The camp would provide military training for 1,800 ordinary Taleban fighters and 200 low level commanders."

The thumb-sized computer chip was impounded by Afghanistan's national directorate of security, when they moved against a party of international diplomats visiting Helmand, on 23 December, last year.

A ministry insider said: "When they were arrested the British said the ministry of interior and the national security council knew about it, but no- one knew anything. That's why the president was so angry."

UK diplomats, the UN, western officials and senior Afghan mandarins have all confirmed the outline of the plan, which they agree is entirely British-led, but all refused to talk about it on the record. The president's office claimed it was "a matter of national security".

The memory stick information revealed £64,000 had been spent preparing the camp and a further £102,000 was earmarked to run it in 2008, an Afghan official said. The figures sparked allegations that British agents were paying the Taleban.

Government staff also claimed the "EU peace-builders" had handed over mobile phones, laptops and airtime credit to insurgents. Officially, the British have remained tight-lipped. A spokesman said: "The EU and UN have responded to inquiries on this. We have nothing further to add."

Afghan police kill over 9 Taliban rebels in S. Afghanistan

KABUL, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police have killed at least nine Taliban militants during an overnight fighting in Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan, said a local police official on Monday.

Juma Gul Himat, the provincial police chief, told Xinhua that an operation for clearing the Taliban outfits in Dihrawud district was launched by Afghan police one week ago.

"A fresh clash between police and Taliban insurgents occurred on Saturday evening, leaving over nine militants dead," Himat said."Eight bodies of the insurgents were found in the battlefield along with their weapons."

"One local Taliban commander was also in the death toll, but there were no casualties in Afghan police," he said.

Meanwhile, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesman, confirmed that Taliban has ambushed the police in Dihrawud district on Saturday night but rebuffing any loss in Taliban side.

The year of 2007 was the deadliest one since the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001 as more than 6,000 had been killed. However, observers predict more Taliban violence mostly in the shape of roadside and suicide bombings in 2008.

Canadian takes command of troops in Southern Afghanistan

Canwest News Service - Canadian Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard took command Saturday of 12,000 troops operating in Regional Command South in Afghanistan.

"I see two priorities; firstly, to increase security within the region in order to ensure the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan exercises its legitimate authority," said Lessard during the handover ceremony.

"The second priority is to coordinate to the greatest extent, the aspects of governance and development within the overall security framework," the Maj.-Gen added.

"The appointment of Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard to Commander of Regional Command South demonstrates Canada's commitment to NATO and to the Afghans we are there to help," said Canada's top soldier Gen. Rick Hillier. "Maj.-Gen Lessard's leadership will be of great value as we strive towards greater security and consequent increased development in the South of Afghanistan."

Lessard will be in charge of troops from Canada and 11 other countries operating in six provinces in the south of the country. The Canadian will be in post for the next nine months, taking over from British Maj.-Gen. Jacko Page.

Kandahar governor: prisoners responsibility of military; denies abuse allegation

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Mirroring politicians in Canada, the governor of Kandahar province insisted Saturday that the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan is the responsibility of the military.

Gov. Asadullah Khalid also bristled at allegations he was personally involved in the torture of at least one prisoner in Kandahar, as reported by Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan.

"I'm the governor of Kandahar, I am not an investigator," he said in an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press. "To ask someone a question, or abuse them or tell them something, my job is completely different."

Khalid said he has only visited prisons in Kandahar once and in the company of parliamentarians to observe rebuilding efforts. He wouldn't have been in a room with a prisoner to discuss anything with them, he said. "Never, never, never," he said.

According to a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kandahar and passed to the Canadian government, a prisoner complained that Khalid beat him. A furor emerged in Ottawa earlier this week over allegations the government tried to quash the report and ignored the information.

But Khalid said some people in prison will say anything to get their freedom. "I think this is clear for everyone that if you have some prisoner in the jail they will accuse everyone," he said.

"But if you ask him: 'Do you know the governor, do you recognize the face?' I don't think he's met me."

Khalid also said he didn't recall meeting with Defence Minister Peter MacKay in Kandahar in November when MacKay says he raised the issue of the treatment of prisoners with Afghan authorities.

It was in November when Canada stopped transferring detainees captured in military operations to Afghan authorities. Khalid said he wasn't aware that had happened. "This is something for the military, it doesn't involve me," he said of the issue.

However, MacKay's director of communications, Dan Dugas, said in an e-mail response that he attended the November meeting between his boss and Khalid and that the "allegation that led to the temporary suspension of prisoner transfers was discussed and Canada's concerns were laid out."

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said it was told last week by the Canadian military that 18 to 20 detainees had been taken into Canadian custody since the end of transfers in November. It's assumed they are being held at the Kandahar air field, though the agency said it wasn't sure.

Under an agreement on detainee transfers signed by Canadian and Afghan authorities, the Afghan rights agency as well as the Red Cross both have the ability to monitor the conditions faced by detainees.

Only the Red Cross, however, has access to the detention facilities of foreign military forces in the country. In 2007, the Red Cross said it followed the cases of more than 3,000 people detained in connection with the conflict throughout Afghanistan.

At the U.S. detention facility in Bagram, they even initiated a program to allow detainees to connect with their families via teleconference.

A meeting set for this week between the Afghan rights agency, international representatives and the UN in Kabul will examine the treatment for prisoners seized in the course of combat operations.

The Afghan rights agency said it wants Canada to resume transfers to Afghan's National Security Directorate, saying the conditions have much improved since allegations of torture surfaced in the spring.

In Ottawa, federal politicians have said the issue of what happens to detainees and where they are held belongs in military hands. Many countries in the NATO-led international coalition in Afghanistan disclose the number of prisoners taken and their whereabouts. But Canada's chief of defence staff, Gen. Rick Hillier, has refuse to disclose the whereabouts of the detainees, citing operational security.

Poland to share helicopters with Canada in Afghanistan
Canwest News Service Monday, February 04, 2008

OTTAWA - Poland will share two helicopters with Canada in southern Afghanistan.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced the commitment in a speech Monday morning in Ottawa. "Poland is unequivocally committed to a reinvigorated NATO," Sikorski said.

Poland has 1,200 troops in southeastern Afghanistan, all deployed without caveats - conditions that would prevent them from frontline fighting in the south where Canada's 2,500 troops are based.

Eight Polish helicopters form part of the eastern European country's contribution to the NATO mission.

The independent Manley commission said Canada must come up with medium-lift transport helicopters as a condition to stay in Afghanistan beyond February 2009.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also said NATO must find an additional 1,000 troops for the south or Canada will end combat operations next year.

Sikorski said Poland may make further contributions as it withdraws the last of its troops from Iraq. The Polish foreign minister said the deaths of 78 Canadian troops in Afghanistan had not been in vain.

End to Afghan combat mission not realistic, top soldier says

Canadian Forces are needed in Kandahar and nowhere else, Gen. Hillier, British minister say

The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, February 02, 2008

Canada's top soldier and the British government both say an end to combat in Afghanistan by February 2009 is simply unrealistic, potentially bad news for Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.

Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, and British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells both said yesterday that ending combat by that date and focusing exclusively on training simply does not reflect the reality on the ground.

"If you're in Kandahar, you're going to be in combat operations," Gen. Hillier said. "If you're in Kandahar, this is the home of the Taliban. If you're in Kandahar, and you have soldiers on the ground, you are going to be attacked by the Taliban. You simply are going to be in the middle of it."

In a separate interview with Canwest News Service, Mr. Howells said the Canadian Forces have learned to fight the Taliban and have destroyed the "cream" of its best fighters, and that Britain has an intelligence sharing arrangement with its trusted Canadian ally in the south that could not easily be replaced by another country.

On a brief visit to Ottawa yesterday, Mr. Howells said he is aware of the divisions within Liberal ranks, but said the "simple vision" of some that troops can be pulled out and full-time training and aid work can begin is simply not tenable.

Both said that if Canada stays in Afghanistan, it must stay in Kandahar simply because the Forces aren't needed anywhere else.

Mr. Dion has suggested that Canada can be rotated to another less volatile part of the country and that another NATO member can take its place in Kandahar.

Gen. Hillier said it makes no sense for Canada to trade with another NATO ally and move to a less volatile part of the country because Canada would be essentially throwing away all the gains that it has made in the southern part of the country.

"All your investment in an area now actually just goes down the tubes," Gen. Hillier explained. "The logic of just picking that up and moving it somewhere else and having any effect for some years is just not there."

Mr. Howells said Britain, which commands the Taliban-occupied Helmand province, believes Canada's shoes would be next to impossible to fill in Kandahar province next door.

"The battles that Canadian troops fought last summer and last spring in Kandahar were very, very important battles. We know that they took out some of the cream of the Taliban army," said Mr. Howells. "They have an expertise which is valuable to us ... You just can't expect somebody to come in and take it over."

Mr. Howells, whose meetings in Ottawa included a breakfast with MPs from all federal parties, said he is well aware of the political discussions in Canada's Parliament over continuing the mission.

Mr. Harper is continuing his diplomatic push, as his office announced yesterday that he had called NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer late Thursday to personally deliver John Manley report's ultimatum that NATO find 1,000 additional troops or Canada would pull out next year.

Mr. Harper also called British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday, one day after a similar call to U.S. President George W. Bush.

NATO supports Canada's efforts to find the extra troops. Mr. Howells said Canada could count on Britain's full support in the halls of NATO.

"We'll be making it very clear that we want to see the efforts of the Canadians backed up by those of nations that can afford to do so," Mr. Howells said of the series of upcoming NATO meetings that culminate with a leaders' summit in early April.

Dion's Afghanistan balancing act could be toppled by internal tensions
Canwest News Service; Ottawa Citizen Monday, February 04, 2008

OTTAWA -Tugged by Conservatives on one side, and New Democrats on the other, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion also faces internal tension in caucus over policy on Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.

A year of Liberal solidarity has shown signs of strain around Dion's position that Canada's combat operation in Kandahar should end as scheduled in February 2009.

It's against that backdrop that Dion, whose party's vote in the Commons could make or break an extension of the mission, meets today with NDP Leader Jack Layton and later, at a yet unscheduled date, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Layton wants a full withdrawal of Canada's 2,500 troops from Afghanistan. Harper has embraced the John Manley panel recommendations for an extension of the combat role on condition NATO sends 1,000 more troops and Ottawa sends more equipment.

Dion wants an end to combat activities in a year's time and reassign troops to training and to security activities for civilian protection, development and reconstruction.

He warns against a "never-ending mission" and notes that the former Liberal government that sent troops to Afghanistan to begin with committed Canada to the Afghanistan Compact, which expires in 2011. The compact is an international agreement to help restore Afghanistan.

While Dion has been categorical about the February 2009 combat end date since the release of Manley's recommendations, other key Liberal players have tried to keep options open.

The two most prominent players are his ex-leadership rivals Bob Rae, Liberal foreign affairs critic, and Michael Ignatieff, deputy Liberal leader. They do not openly oppose Dion on the matter; they have been diplomatic so far, usually steering away from the issue of the end date.

While Dion has repeatedly emphasized that the Liberals want to react to whatever details of a future mission Harper puts on the table, some of his MPs are pushing for a proactive stance in which the Liberals offer their own detailed plan for public examination.

Whether Dion can salvage a coherent, united Liberal caucus strategy may be in some internal doubt, given a call by Keith Martin, his development critic, for a free vote on the government's expected motion to extend the mission if the forces are bolstered by more troops and equipment.

It is not known whether Harper will make the motion one of confidence in the government that could trigger an election if defeated. But Martin says a free vote will allow Liberal MPs to reflect differing opinions among Canadians. "It's not a harmful thing," he said.

It is premature for Dion to pronounce on whether there will be a free vote, says one of his officials, since the exact content of the government motion is unknown.

While the Liberals outlined their ideas in a submission to the Manley panel, Martin is advocating the Liberals produce a detailed plan that includes specific targets and timelines for training and equipping local police, army, corrections and judiciary. As for an end to the combat mission in February, 2009: "All aspects of the mission are being discussed right now in the party."

That flies in the face of Dion's daily mantra in the foyer of the House of Commons, where his commitment to ending the combat mission a year from now appeared firmer by the day.

An official in Dion's entourage is taking the situation in stride, saying that after a year of unity and in the absence of knowing exactly what Harper will propose, "there's a lot of different views about how to proceed on this."

As far as Dion is concerned, the ball is in Harper's court. "From there, we'll react."

Afghan war a 'dead end' in need of change: Layton

Updated Mon. Feb. 4 2008 10:34 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff

New Democrat Leader Jack Layton says Canada's current direction in Afghanistan is leading towards a "dead end" and he hopes to convince Liberal Leader Stephane Dion to join him in pushing for a change.

During an appearance on CTV's Canada AM on Monday, the same day he was scheduled to meet with Dion, Layton said he would call for a drastic change.

"It's quite clear this is a mission that really has no end in sight and the idea that adding another 1,000 troops to the 36,000 that are already there is going to win the war, is wrong," Layton said.

A recent report from a panel headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley called for Canada to extend its commitment beyond the February, 2009 deadline, but only if other NATO nations commit troops to take on combat duties and Canada moves to a training role.

But Layton said the mission needs to be dismantled and a new approach must be taken -- one that would see the United Nations handling the mission.

"We're saying it's time for Canada to lead the way in taking a new path and ultimately to have NATO itself withdraw and bring in the United Nations -- that's an organization that was created globally to deal with regional conflicts and unstable situations in countries which is what we're dealing with now."

The UN, he said, could give the mission a mandate that would go beyond military commitment and put a renewed focus on development, peacekeeping, equality for women and aid.

"I think we need to send a very strong message to the world that Canada feels the current NATO approach is not going to be successful and what we need is a new approach based on Canadian values."

Layton said he hoped to have a frank discussion with the Liberal leader and convince him to lead his caucus in a similar direction.

Some military experts have slammed Layton's position on the war, calling it harmful to the morale of soldiers and to the struggling Afghan government.

Dion is expected to take a more middle-of-the-road position and is unlikely to call for an immediate end to the NATO mission.

However, if Dion did align himself with Layton, it would theoretically mean the two parties could join with the Bloc Quebecois and out-vote the government in any bid to extend the Afghan mission.

The world can't ignore the Al Qaeda and Taliban threat in Afghanistan

Christian Science Monitor editorial - A surge by the US and its allies is needed in the country.

A triple alarm sounded on Afghanistan last week. Three reports by reputable, nonpartisan groups in the US concluded that it's a country verging on failure. It needs more troops and aid, the reports said. The international community must step up – and soon.

Despite President Bush's encouraging remarks about this "young democracy" in his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, all is not well.

Yes, hospitals and roads are being built, and boys and girls are going to school, as Mr. Bush said. But last year saw the highest casualties since the post-9/11 invasion in 2001 (mostly of insurgents), as the Taliban fights hard in the south. The former rulers can now launch suicide bomb attacks in the capital of Kabul. The war looks like a military stalemate.

The increased violence reduced the number of children attending school in Afghanistan by 50 percent in 2007, and private investment also plummeted. Meanwhile, the opium trade that bankrolls the Taliban flourishes.

So does its haven next door in Pakistan. Seven years into this war and the Taliban and Al Qaeda have regrouped and spread their control in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas. They've stepped up terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, and are blamed for the assassination of political opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. United States and European officials have traced terrorist plots in Britain, Germany, and Denmark to Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

In reality, Afghanistan and Pakistan are not two theaters in this war, but one terrorist showplace. Together, they present a terrorist breeding ground "potentially worse than before September 11th," according to "Saving Afghanistan," a report by the Atlantic Council, which was presented at a US Senate hearing Jan. 31.

Fortunately, Washington looks to be awakening to this danger. The Pentagon plans to send in 3,200 more troops and has pledged to finance an increase of 10,000 soldiers for the Afghan Army. It's successfully putting what it learned about working with tribal leaders in Iraq's Anbar Province into practice in eastern Afghanistan, where, for instance, it's funding Islamic religious schools to stem the flow of youngsters to more radical schools in Pakistan.

The US is also coordinating more closely with Pakistani intelligence. It scored a major win last week when a missile, reportedly from a US drone, killed Abu Laith al-Libi in the Pakistani tribal areas. Mr. Libi was the mastermind behind insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, including last year's bombing at Bagram Air Base during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

But what of Washington's allies? Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged his friends in NATO to send more troops to Afghanistan, especially to the hot war in the south. (The US contributes a third of the 42,000 NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan.) But the public in these countries blindly believe they have no dog in this fight and are pressing their governments to get out.

And what of Pakistan? Is President Pervez Musharraf serious this time about routing out terrorists now that they've focused on his own nuclear-armed country?

The alarm has sounded. The US is responding more forcefully. Its allies must follow.

Iran to build a road network in India

New Delhi, Feb 2, IRNA - Iran has stepped in to build a road network in India that will shorten the distance between Kabul and the Iranian port of Chahbahar by at least 800 km.

An Iranian company, Technic, has won a contract valued at dlrs 1.36 million for constructing roads as part of a network that will link India's northeast to the northwest and the southeast to the southwest in the broad shape of a square, an Indian English daily reported Saturday.

The Iranian mission confirmed the contract, which requires Iran to complete the project in 30 months. Other companies are also participating in the mammoth project with Technic bagging a major portion of the proposed road network in southern India.

Road diplomacy, introduced first by the NDA government under then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, has worked well to bridge the stresses and strains of bilateral relations.

New Delhi has undertaken a major project to construct the 218-km Kandahar-Herat highway that will shorten the distance between Iran's Chahbahar port to Kabul.

India is investing Rs 378 crores in this project, which has invited terrorist attacks on the employees working to build the road.

Iran is currently building the Chahbahar-Milak-Zaranj road in Afghanistan. The three countries - India, Iran and Afghanistan - had signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2003 allowing duty- free access to Chahbahar port for both Afghan and Indian goods.

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was the chief guest for Republic Day at the time when the broad understanding to develop roads and economic ties was reached between the two governments.

India is constructing the Zaranj-Delaram road in south-western Afghanistan and is committed to rebuilding the railroad from Chahbahar to link it to the Iranian railway network.

Iran is upgrading the port to international standards. India's involvement in road construction in Afghanistan has made it the target of terror attacks, but this has not stopped the government from pursuing what is a strategic objective for the region. The roads under construction will give India greater access to Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan, which is not willing at this stage to even allow a route passing through its territory for Indian goods.

US senator wants Afghan contracts probed

Pajhwok News Agency, 02/03/2008 By Lalit K Jha

NEW YORK - A resolution seeking the creation of a special committee to investigate the award and implementation of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq has been introduced in the US senate.

Tabled by Senator Byron Dorgan, the resolution has been sent to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for necessary action.

The Special Committee on War and Reconstruction Contracting will probe the awarding and performance of contracts to conduct military, security and reconstruction activities and support the prosecution of the war on terror.

Having no co-sponsor, the resolution proposes seven members on the committee four to be nominated by the Senate majority leader and three by the minority leader.

It will have jurisdiction to look into the various aspects of the award of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq, including bidding, contracting, accounting and auditing standards for federal contracts, methods of contracting and consequences of cost-plus and fixed price contracting.

Coming in the wake of complaints and media reports about irregularities in contracts, the measure says the body will be modeled on the popular Truman Committee, established after World War II to carry out an investigation.

Observing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have exerted large demands on the US and required tremendous sacrifices by the members of the armed forces, the resolution says Congress has a responsibility to ensure comprehensive oversight of the expenditure of government funds.

[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.]