In this bulletin:

• Roadside bombs kill seven in Afghanistan: police
• Japan pledges fresh Afghan aid but warns on security
• Afghan foreign minister in Japan for reconstruction talks
• Britain 'not engaged' with Taliban: PM spokesman
• Afghan gov't welcomes Norway decision to increase development assistance
• Condoleezza Rice wants Nato allies to do more in Afghanistan
• Minister to deliver warning to NATO
• US, German officials wrangle over controversial Afghanistan letter
• Poland joins Canada in call for more troops in Afghanistan
• MacKay faces reluctant allies over Afghan mission
• Afghan prison official was fired after complaint, MacKay says
• Dion to meet with Harper over Afghan mission
• Afghan journalist's death sentence opposed
• Report urges Afghan farmer boost
• Allies warned over Afghan deals
• Afghanistan may turn to failed state as insurgency spreads: study
• We can't impose values on Afghans
• Taliban chief orders change in mode of executions
• Analysis: A turning point in the jihad
• Time Runs Out for an Afghan Held by the U.S.

Roadside bombs kill seven in Afghanistan: police

Kandahar (AFP ) - Two roadside bombs killed seven people in Afghanistan, five of them civilians from the same family, police said Tuesday, in new attacks linked to a bloody Taliban insurgency.

A remote-controlled bomb struck an estate car (station wagon) in the southern province of Helmand on Monday, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal told AFP.

"Five people -- a woman, two children and two men, all members of the same family -- were killed in the roadside blast. One person was wounded," Andiwal said.

He blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan" for the attack, a term often used to refer to fighters for the extremist Taliban movement that was forced from power in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

Another bomb, also remotely controlled, hit a police patrol in the neighbouring province of Kandahar late Tuesday and killed two police, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib said. Another three policemen were wounded, he said.

A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, told AFP by telephone that his organisation had carried out this attack. He made no mention of the Helmand blast.

The Taliban regularly use roadside and suicide blasts in their campaign against the government of President Hamid Karzai, who is leading the country on a troubled course to democracy after years of war and tyranny.

Japan pledges fresh Afghan aid but warns on security

Tokyo (AFP) - Japan pledged 110 million dollars of fresh aid to Afghanistan but Tokyo and other donors warned that violence, drugs and corruption were hindering progress in the war-torn country.

Twenty-four nations and international organisations held talks in Tokyo of the Afghanistan Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, which looks at how reconstruction aid is spent.

The meeting also focused on drugs in Afghanistan, which grows 90 percent of the world's illicit opium with production hitting a new high last year.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura opened the two-day closed-door meeting by announcing a further 110 million dollars of help for Kabul.

Komura said, however, that lingering violence posed threats to lasting peace in Afghanistan.

"The security of Kabul has deteriorated with suicide bombings and kidnapping of foreigners, and the insurgent activities in the southern part of the country could intensify at any moment," he said.

"So as to overcome these challenges, further strengthening of the institutions of the government of Afghanistan and corresponding support from the international community are indispensable," he said.

Those concerns were also expressed in a joint communique by all meeting participants, who pointed to progress in Afghanistan but noted areas for improvement.

The participants "noted that Taliban, related armed groups, terrorism and narcotics continue to pose a challenge, inhibiting the peace process; and governance has been challenged by capacity constraints, weak rule of law and corruption," the communique said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta acknowledged problems but said the business environment, education and health care had improved significantly since a US-led coalition ousted the extremist Taliban regime in late 2001.

"Now the major challenge before us is to translate the benefits of this growth into employment opportunities for millions of unemployed citizens," he told the monitoring board, which was meeting for the seventh time.

"Let me assure you. We are fully committed to building a stable, peaceful and democratic and prosperous Afghanistan," he said, asking for continued help from the international community.

The participants -- mainly high-level diplomats -- agreed on the need for the Afghan government to strengthen its authority in a bid to bring social order and security, said a Japanese official who attended the talks.

"The participants agreed that the Afghan government and the international community must adopt holistic and comprehensive strategies," the diplomat said. "The Afghan government expressed their wish for continued strategic, financial and other support," he said.

Japan has been a major donor to Afghanistan, already pledging some 1.2 billion dollars since the fall of the Taliban.

The newly pledged aid, which is subject to parliamentary approval, includes 13 million dollars to help literacy efforts and nine million dollars to enhance border security.

Some 90 million dollars would be sent to UN agencies for causes including assisting refugees and removing landmines.

Shortly before the meeting began, the World Bank and the British government issued a joint report calling for improved coordination among donors to increase the effectiveness of aid in Afghanistan.

"Assistance is fragmented, with 62 donors, many with their own distinct security, political and development interests," said Alastair McKechnie, World Bank country director for Afghanistan.

"Coordination requires strong leadership from governments," he said.

Afghan foreign minister in Japan for reconstruction talks

TOKYO (AFP) — Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta was in Japan on Monday for talks ahead of an international meeting here to help the war-torn nation rebuild itself.

Spanta will take part in a two-day meeting from Tuesday of the Afghanistan Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, an international committee that oversees implementation of reconstruction plans.

Japan, which is hosting the Group of Eight (G8) summit of major industrial nations this summer, "is hosting the meeting to re-confirm the commitment of the international community to assist Afghanistan," a foreign ministry statement said.

Spanta is due to meet separately Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, officials said.

Japan is a major contributor to Afghanistan's rebuilding efforts, particularly those to bolster Kabul's police force and to fight drug production and trafficking.

Tokyo has pledged more than 140 billion yen (1.2 billion dollars) to help Afghanistan after a US-led coalition ousted the extremist Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But Japan, officially pacifist since World War II, has seen controversy over military help to the US-led "war on terror."

Fukuda's government last month had to use nearly unprecedented parliamentary procedures to restart a naval mission supporting the war effort in Afghanistan amid protests from Japan's opposition parties.

Britain 'not engaged' with Taliban: PM spokesman

London (AFP) - said it was not "engaged" with the Taliban, after a report that relations between London and Kabul have soured due to a secret British plan to train former Taliban fighters.

In a report from the Afghan capital, the Financial Times said senior figures in President Hamid Karzai's government were furious at the proposal to set up a military training camp for 2,000 Taliban militants who wanted to switch sides.

Documents detailing the plan were allegedly unearthed when two diplomats, one from the United Nations and another from the European Union, were detained in southern Afghanistan in December last year and later expelled.

Asked about the report, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said only: "We are working very closely with the Afghan government in relation to the training of security forces in Afghanistan."

"I think we have always made clear that should anyone in Afghanistan want to join the mainstream Afghan security forces, then they will receive the same degree (and) level of training that is appropriate for the Afghan army."

"We are not engaged with the Taliban. We want to drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan," added Ellam, repeating Brown's position that he set out to parliament in December.

"But if there are local militia who want to join the mainstream Afghan security forces then I think that's something that the Afghan government have said themselves that they welcome."

Most of Britain's 7,800-strong troops are based in southern Afghanistan, where they have faced fierce resistance from Taliban militants, leading to calls in some quarters that negotiations may be a way towards reconciliation.

The Financial Times said the fall-out from the discovery was behind Karzai's veto of British diplomat Paddy Ashdown's bid to become the United Nations' special envoy to Afghanistan.

"We have operational discussions about these security issues with the international community, so why did they keep this secret?" one senior Afghan official was quoted as saying. "What was their motive for not telling us?"

Afghan gov't welcomes Norway decision to increase development assistance

KABUL, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The government of Afghanistan on Tuesday welcomed the decision of Norwegian government to increase financial aid to the war-torn nation, a statement released by Afghan Presidency said.

    Norway, according to the statement, has decided to contribute 140 million U.S. dollars to Afghanistan in 2008, a 50% increase on2007 according to the Norwegian media report.

    "President Hamid Karzai welcomes the decision of Norway to increase its financial assistance to Afghanistan in 2008 and terms it as a significant step towards reconstruction of the war-ravaged nation," the statement added.

 Norway has more than 500 soldiers in Afghanistan serving under the command of NATO to stabilize security in the war-torn country.

Condoleezza Rice wants Nato allies to do more in Afghanistan

Times Online - Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, flies in to London today for crisis talks on spreading the burden of combat in Afghanistan, as Washington announced record defence spending.

The Pentagon submitted a new running budget of more than $515 billion (£260 billion) yesterday — the highest since the end of the Second World War. Defence chiefs have asked for an additional $70 billion to supplement the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone.

The record defence budget, contrasting sharply with the squeeze on domestic programmes such as health and education, threatens to reignite the national debate about the war, which has been pushed to the back of voters' minds by more pressing concerns about the failing economy.

Dr Rice will have to calm a growing row within Nato, fuelled by Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, over individual states' troop contributions to Afghanistan. New reports caution that Afghanistan risks collapse if the international community does not redouble its efforts there.

The Bush Administration is sending another 3,200 Marines to southern Afghanistan from March to September, and is looking to Britain to help to convince Nato allies to put together an equivalent European force to take over from it. Canada has threatened to pull out its 2,500 troops unless other countries share its combat burden in the south.

Nato defence ministers will meet in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, this week to try to find 7,500 more troops to reinforce the 42,000-strong force already deployed across Afghanistan. Mr Gates has written to all his Nato counterparts, including an unusually “direct and stern” missive to Germany, demanding that the country does its share. The letters have caused anger in Berlin and among other Nato allies, who believe that they are being dragged into American domestic politics during an election year.

Mr Gates has done himself few favours with his recent comments that some Nato forces did not know how to do counter-insurgency operations. The Nato operation in Afghanistan never foresaw the level of combat that it now faces.

Germany, among other Nato states, has strict caveats on the foreign deployment of its troops, dating back to the Second World War, which Washington is to lift.

With no such restrictions, Britain, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark have been burdened with the bulk of the combat in the south of the country, where the Taleban are concentrated.

Britain, still smarting from President Karzai's criticisms of its 7,800 troops in southern Afghanistan and the blocking of Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon as a United Nations super envoy, has so far steered clear of the public spat.

Washington and London, however, remain far apart on key policies in Afghanistan, mostly notably the issue of drug eradication on which the US believes that Britain has failed. Dr Rice will be pushing David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to accept Washington's plan for an Afghan National Army ground eradication force in Helmand, where most British troops are based. Washington blames British failures to stop record poppy production in Helmand for funding and fuelling the insurgency.

Minister to deliver warning to NATO

Brendan Nicholson – The Age February 6, 2008

DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon flew to Europe last night to warn nations fighting in Afghanistan that Australia would no longer risk its soldiers' lives capturing territory that was soon lost because of political incompetence. Australia has lost three soldiers killed and nearly 30 wounded in Afghanistan.

"I'm really concerned that Australian troops in Afghanistan are doing outstanding work, but they are being let down by the politicians," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

"Too often our people clear areas of insurgents only to have those areas taken again by insurgents due to the lack of capacity, particularly on the part of the Afghan National Army."

He said many issues needed to be addressed at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Lithuania, and Australia would not send more troops until there was a significant change to the way the war was run.

"We won't countenance more people or resources in Afghanistan until, at least, we are convinced that a new, coherent plan has been embraced for the country and long-term success is assured," he said.

"We won't continue to put the lives of our people at risk and expend significant cost to the taxpayer if NATO and its partners aren't willing to firstly acknowledge that progress isn't good and then demonstrate a willingness to do more and embrace new strategies."

At a meeting in Edinburgh in December, countries with troops in Afghanistan agreed to draft a broader strategy for the campaign there. That draft will be studied at today's meeting.

More Afghan police and troops need to be trained and more aid and guidance in governance must be provided, along with civil infrastructure, Mr Fitzgibbon said.

US, German officials wrangle over controversial Afghanistan letter

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US and German officials had a sharp exchange of words over a controversial letter by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to his German counterpart demanding troops and helicopters for insurgency-wracked Afghanistan.

Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said the note -- reported to be unusually stern -- was "not really helpful" in boosting US ties with Germany or Europe.

He said while Germany could do more to help beef up security in Afghanistan, the Americans should not expect too much from his country, citing what he called a Latin phrase, "You cannot commit something you are not able to do.

Listing helicopters as an example, Klaeden said, "Unfortunately, we don't have them.

"There (are) no used helicopter sellers around the corner where we can say, 'let's buy it,'" he said at a dinner discussion late Monday on "Afghanistan and NATO: Why they both matter" hosted by Germany's Konrad Adenaue Foundation in Washington.

Gates had sent the letter as part of a US diplomatic offensive to shore up support for the Afghanistan mission amid fears that allies are abandoning a cornerstone of the US-led "war on terror".

The US defense chief also reportedly sought combat German troops for duty in battle-ravaged southern Afghanistan and charged that some NATO states were not pulling their weight.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung responded with a similarly "direct and stern" letter to Gates, the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported last week.

Anthony Aldwell, principal director for European and NATO policy at the US Defense Department, said Gates' letter was "very direct because we value Germany's contributions" and "because Germany has professional, well trained and competent troops."

Acknowledging that the letter was drafted by his office, he said, "We would not write this same letter to some other countries.

"It is because of the way we appreciate and honor what your troops have done ... So, yes, Germany is pushed more than some of your neighbors."

Aldwell charged that coalition government "politics" in Berlin were preventing Germany from contributing more resources to Afghanistan.

But he asked, "Do you want to be the leader that many of your leaders have aspired to?"

Kurt Volker, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said Gates' letter was a "communication between two countries that are allies" and "you have to be honest about the challenges that we face."

Disputing US claims, Klaeden said Germans were largely supportive of the Afghan mission.

He said the main concern of leftists in Germany's ruling coalition was that Germans were "fighting for America's interest" or "dealing with the leftover of British colonialism" in Afghanistan, he said.

NATO formally asked Germany last month to deploy a rapid reaction force of 250 troops in northern Afghanistan to replace a Norwegian contingent.

"We are preparing to replace the Norwegian rapid reaction force that can be deployed also to the south, if necessary," Klaeden said. "We are prepared to contribute special forces, also all over Afghanistan."

Poland joins Canada in call for more troops in Afghanistan

NATO ally offers to share helicopters - CAMPBELL CLARK - February 5, 2008

OTTAWA -- Canada's call for reinforcements in southern Afghanistan brought about a sharply worded echo from a like-minded NATO ally yesterday, when Poland's Foreign Minister warned "free-riding" countries within the alliance that they must commit troops to Afghanistan's most dangerous regions.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski backed up his pledge to be a staunch Canadian ally at NATO meetings with a promise to share two of eight helicopters his country is sending to Afghanistan with Canadian troops - and he did not close the door to committing more Polish troops to Kandahar next year.

As Defence Minister Peter MacKay prepares to press allies at a meeting of NATO counterparts in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make a pitch for domestic support today in a meeting with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.

And Mr. Sikorski, in a sense, offered support on that score, too. In a speech in Ottawa yesterday, he warned that if NATO fails to provide sufficient troops for Afghanistan, it would be a blow to the multilateral foreign policy Canada holds dear - showing that only unilateral actions, by countries like the U.S., count.

He said Poland's promise to share two helicopters with Canadians in Kandahar, where Polish special forces are also operating, is a start on Canada's demands for help, and his country will push allies for more in a round of international lobbying before a summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest in April.

"We will certainly together with Canada be arguing very forcefully in the run-up to the Bucharest summit, that more needs to be done, that burdens have to be shared more fairly, and that there's no room for free-riding in this most important operation that NATO has undertaken," he said.

The reference to free-riding countries that have placed so-called "caveats" on their troops, effectively prohibiting their use in heavy combat in dangerous southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan, underscores a rift among NATO allies.

Those who have committed troops to Afghanistan's south and east, like Canada, the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands and Poland, are intensifying pressure on those who have stayed away, or placed restrictions on their troops.

The pledge to share two helicopters, believed to be Soviet-style MI-8s, will likely help Canadian troops cope with a dire short-term shortage in the field.

So will the arrival of a new, seven-month rotation of 2,200 U.S. Marines, with helicopters, to Afghanistan's south.

Mr. MacKay said the Polish helicopters will help transport Canadian troops and aid, calling it "good news."

But neither yet satisfies the call for eight or more medium-lift helicopters that Mr. Harper has set as one condition for the extension of the Canadian mission past next February.

The other, tougher condition that NATO must provide 1,000 additional troops for Kandahar, has yet to spark commitments, and Mr. Sikorski made no offers yesterday, even if he did not close the door.

He said his country's military is "stretched" this year, but noted Poland will withdraw 900 troops from Iraq in October and refocus on Afghanistan.

"We don't have any more troops available this year, but we certainly will do whatever it takes for NATO to succeed in Afghanistan," he said.

In an television interview yesterday, Mr. MacKay also held out hope that France will provide troops. "This is a country that we believe has the capacity," he said."

However, even if NATO countries offer troops and equipment, it is far from clear whether the minority Conservative government will win support in the House of Commons for extending the military mission beyond 2009.

Mr. MacKay said he hopes Canada will take a "mandate" to a summit of NATO heads of government in April - hinting the parliamentary vote will before then.

Mr. Harper is to meet Mr. Dion today to make a pitch for support, although the Liberal Leader has publicly remained committed to his demand for Canada to leave its "combat" mission next February.

"I want to hear more. The Prime Minister a week ago, at the press conference with you, said that he will come with more specifics about his position. I hope he will start to do that," Mr. Dion told reporters yesterday.

Some Liberal MPs would open the door to a compromise if Mr. Harper mapped out an exit strategy for Canadian troops after the extension, perhaps in 2011, but others remain opposed to an extension.

MacKay faces reluctant allies over Afghan mission

OTTAWA - International angst over Canada's Afghan ultimatum awaits Defence Minister Peter MacKay as he meets this week in Lithuania with reluctant NATO allies for the first time since the Manley commission report.

"We have a real issue with respect to the future of this mission and we want to make sure that is conveyed in no uncertain terms," MacKay said Monday. Behind-the-scenes, Canadian and Polish officials held talks that might lead to the former Warsaw Pact country joining the fight in Kandahar.

Both MacKay and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski made a point of saying that they were talking about "future co-operation" in southern Afghanistan beyond the Polish special forces units already operating in region.

But Sikorski downplayed expectations, saying his country will soon have 1,600 troops - mostly in eastern Afghanistan - and would be stretched to put any more boots on the ground until Poland pulls its 900 remaining troops from Iraq in October.

Securing a Polish commitment to Kandahar, even informally, would take the sting out of what has become an ugly debate within NATO, which has 42,000 troops in the wartorn country.

The informal meeting of defence ministers comes after the military alliance's secretary general urged members to take their bickering over Afghanistan behind closed doors.

The disagreement over which country should reinforce the Canadian army in Kandahar is becoming loud and testy, with the U.S. and Germany openly squabbling last week.

The main conditions set down by the Manley commission for Canada to continue its combat mission are that NATO provide 1,000 more soldiers specifically for Kandahar and the acquisition of battlefield helicopters to improve safety for troops.

Poland stepped forward Monday with an offer to make two of its eight helicopters - being deployed to eastern Afghanistan - available for operations in the volatile southern region.

"I hope it's a good beginning," Sikorski said after a speech to the Canadian International Council.

"I hope we're showing not only that Canada's contributions and sacrifices are appreciated. Also that Canada's voice is being heard and we will certainly together with Canada be arguing very forcefully ... that more needs to be done, that burdens have to be shared more fairly."

Most military experts agree eight helicopters is the minimum needed to support the Canadian contingent. It's unlikely the Polish helicopters - Soviet-style Mi-17s - will be entirely at the beck and call of Canadians as they will be part of NATO's air pool.

Defence officials weren't clear on how the new arrangement would differ from the short-term deal struck in 2006 with the Dutch for rides on their CH-47 Chinooks and how it will improve safety for Canadians.

MacKay said the two Polish choppers and their crews will be based at Kandahar Airfield.

The Conservative government has long argued that Canada's 2,500 soldiers need reinforcement, but the public pleas, which bordered on shaming recalcitrant allies, have produced no results.

The Manley panel, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, said that if the condition of more troops and helicopters are not met by February 2009, then Canada should issue its notice to withdraw from Kandahar.

Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper accepted the recommendations there has been a frantic behind-the-scenes flurry of letter-writing among allies, led by U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

The Americans asked the Germans, who have 3,200 troops deployed in the relatively quiet north, to step up and provide 1,000 soldiers for the south - a plea that was rejected by Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung. The dispute spilled out in public with the disclosure last week of "stern" letters between the two.

Through a spokesman, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Friday that negotiations for more troops are "better done through the normal channels and with NATO at the centre of it, and quietly."

Beyond the military demands, the meetings Thursday and Friday will also be useful for the ministers to hear the Manley commission's blunt talk about the stalled reconstruction effort, said Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier.

Hillier said his counterparts in other countries quietly applauded the commission report, which they see as a clear articulation of the warnings they've been giving their own governments for months.

"I think all of the countries in NATO have been frustrated by the lack of troops," he said recently.

"The military chiefs of defence staff - the folks I deal with - they're equally frustrated. They think the Manley report says what we have been saying all along. We need a comprehensive political agreement out of NATO to put this mission in the right context to be more effective."

The meeting in Vilnius comes amid political jockeying in Ottawa, with Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton both vying for the support of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. The Conservatives want the combat mission extended; the NDP wants it ended.

Dion's Liberals will determine the fate of the mission when the issue comes to vote in the minority Parliament this spring.

Afghan prison official was fired after complaint, MacKay says

BRIAN LAGHI - From Tuesday's Globe and Mail February 5, 2008

OTTAWA — An Afghan prison official has been removed from his job in the wake of torture allegations that prompted Canada to suspend the handover of detainees last fall, Canada's Defence Minister said yesterday.

Peter MacKay told reporters that the individual was removed after Canada complained to Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid, as well as to Afghanistan's defence minister.

"What I can tell you is that the individual was removed from his position in the Afghan prison," Mr. MacKay said. "The investigation, as I understand it, continues and the final outcome of that investigation I expect will be known soon."

Mr. MacKay also expressed surprise yesterday that Mr. Khalid said he doesn't recall meeting with Mr. MacKay in Kandahar in November, when the minister said he raised the issue of prisoner treatment.

"This is something for the military, it doesn't involve me," Mr. Khalid said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "I was surprised to hear of this denial and of the fact that he didn't recall the conversation," Mr. MacKay said. "I remember it very well."

Mr. MacKay said he met with Mr. Khalid within hours of what Canada considered a credible allegation of torture.

"I made it very clear to Governor Khalid that these allegations were very serious and that prisoner abuse would not be tolerated, should not be tolerated by this government."

He said he then delivered the same message to his defence ministry counterpart in the capital, Kabul.

Mr. Khalid was the subject of controversy last week when it emerged in a Canadian diplomatic report that he was alleged to have participated in an unrelated incident involving the torture of an Afghan prisoner.

Two Canadian diplomats were told of the allegations by a prisoner who said he had been interrogated, beaten and administered an electrical shock by an individual whose name was blacked out of their report. Sources have told The Globe and Mail that the individual was Mr. Khalid.

Mr. MacKay couldn't say whether the allegations were investigated by Canadian authorities. Mr. MacKay ceased being the foreign affairs minister two months after the document was prepared.

"What I'm aware of was that there was a single allegation which did not emanate from a Taliban prisoner that was turned over by Canadian forces," he said.

Canada has said that the matter is the responsibility of the Afghan government because the prisoner had not been captured by the Canadians.

Dion to meet with Harper over Afghan mission
Canwest News Service, February 04, 2008

OTTAWA - Stephane Dion, whose Liberal party likely will have the deciding vote on Canada's future military role in Afghanistan, appeared to leave little room for negotiation when he takes part in a rare meeting Tuesday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss government plans for the combat mission.

Dion told reporters Monday he is firm in his position that Canada's combat mission in Kandahar should be ended as scheduled in February, 2009, and he "obviously" will not allow a free vote by Liberal MPs on a government motion that is expected to seek an extension.

Dion shot down a call last week by Keith Martin, Liberal Development critic, for a free vote. On Friday, a Dion official said it was premature to decide until Parliament knows exactly what Harper is going to propose. Monday, Liberal Defence critic Denis Coderre said: "We will vote as a party."

Dion confirmed the party-line vote after meeting New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton, who had hoped to persuade the Grit leader to adopt his party's position for a withdrawal of all Canadian troops immediately. Dion says the troops should stay for non-combat work, fulfilling a former Liberal government commitment to help Afghanistan through 2011.

Earlier, Defence Minister Peter MacKay signalled the government motion seeking an extension will be presented to the Commons before an April NATO meeting in Romania. He said the prime minister would like to attend the meeting with "a mandate" from Parliament.

Layton said he did not press Dion about parliamentary strategy but added "there's no question that had 25 Liberals not supported Mr. Harper the last time around, we wouldn't be here having this discussion right now - we'd already be out of Afghanistan."

In a free vote among Liberals when Harper sought Parliament's blessing to extend the mission by two years, the Liberals, under interim leader Bill Graham, were divided and gave the minority government a majority vote.

While Dion wants another country to relieve Canada's troops from counter-insurgency operations a year from now, he says they must stay for training and to provide security for civilians and reconstruction projects as promised under an international accord to help Afghanistan.

Dion rejected Layton's view that the military operations should be replaced by a United Nations peace effort. "I think the UN will never accept to do this mission if NATO is not there," Dion said. "So I knew his position, he knew mine and we accepted to have communications open."

When meeting Harper Tuesday, Dion said he will seek details the prime minister promised last week to provide after consulting with Dion about his minority government's embrace of recommendations by the John Manley panel for a conditional extension of the 2,500-troop combat mission.

Manley said the mission should be extended on condition the troops are bolstered with an extra 1,000 soldiers from another NATO country and they receive helicopters and surveillance devices aimed at reducing casualties. He also proposed a shift, as soon as possible, from combat to training.

Asked how the government and the Liberals could reach a consensus, given how far apart they now are, Dion said he could not answer the question.

The NDP and the Bloc Quebecois both call for a withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan. The NDP and the Bloc are certain to vote against the Conservative government, leaving the Liberals with the deciding vote.

Standings in the 308-member Commons are 125 Conservatives, 94 Liberals, 49 Bloc Quebecois, 30 NDP, five Independents and five vacancies.

Afghan journalist's death sentence opposed

Man condemned to death for distributing article `insulting to Islam'

February 05, 2008 - Olivia Ward toronto star

Canadians have joined a groundswell of protest against the death sentence handed out to a 23-year-old journalist convicted of downloading and distributing an article "insulting to Islam" in northern Afghanistan.

They are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take a tough stand with the Afghan government to quash the sentence against Sayed Parwez Kambaksh.

"We need to step up to the plate when freedom of the press is challenged so blatantly," said Anne Kothawala, president and CEO of the Canadian Newspaper Association.

"This is just not on in a country where Canada has invested so heavily to create peace and democratic change," she added. "If Canada doesn't speak up, who will?"

Earlier this week, NDP Leader Jack Layton urged Parliament to support a resolution condemning the death sentence and calling on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to intervene.

Yesterday, the House of Commons unanimously condemned the verdict against Kambaksh, issued Jan. 22, and appealed for a halt to all legal proceedings against him, The Canadian Press reported.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the Canadian embassy has expressed concern and Ottawa is continuing to "actively pursue" the matter. Afghanistan's Ministry of Information and Culture issued a statement saying the verdict isn't final.

Report urges Afghan farmer boost

By David Loyn - BBC International Development correspondent

A new report on Afghanistan's drugs trade urges more investment to provide alternative livelihoods for farmers. The report says it is very hard to make any progress in Helmand Province, where most opium poppies are grown, because of the scale of the fighting.

It says opium is Afghanistan's leading economic activity, equivalent to one-third of the non-drug economy. The report was commissioned jointly by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development.

Britain plays the lead role in coordinating counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan and six years on the failure in this area makes for grim reading.

The report says there is a need for far more consistency of approach, persistence in the face of setbacks and massive coordinated and sustained investment. But this is a daunting challenge for the government, as well as its donor partners.

There have been some successes - half as many provinces grow opium poppies this year as last - but the report says there are ominous signs that the drugs business is increasingly linked to insecurity.

That makes it hard to run effective development programmes across about a third of the Afghan countryside. It says there should be no illusions about the prospect for success in Helmand, where British troops are fighting the most intense conflict in the country.

The report says that the window for development initiatives to counter poppy growing in Helmand is very narrow.

Allies warned over Afghan deals

Britain and its Nato allies are in danger of undermining Afghan president Hamid Karzai by cutting their own side-deals with local leaders, a leading foreign affairs think tank has warned.

Agreements such as the appointment of a former Taliban commander as the mayor of a key strategic town on the recommendation of the British were undercutting President Karzai's authority, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

IISS director general John Chipman warned that the tensions between Nato and the Afghan government were surfacing at a time of "worrying fragility" in the alliance's commitment to the continuing mission in Afghanistan.

"President Karzai lacks the authority to govern in all areas," he said. "He has sought an accommodation with moderate Taliban as recognition of the fact that they have some political constituency. But he has been frustrated by other 'deals' brokered by international allies."

Speaking at the launch in London of the IISS's annual Military Balance survey, Dr Chipman highlighted the appointment of former Taliban commander Abdullah Salaam as the mayor of the recently-recaptured town of Musa Qala on the recommendation of the British.

Although the appointment was initially approved by the Afghan government, it was subsequently renounced by President Karzai.

Dr Chipman said: "This lack of coherence bedevils many aspects of the campaign and further undermines President Karzai's authority."

His comments came after President Karzai gave vent publicly to his frustration, criticising the British and US military effort at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos last month.

Mr Karzai has also blocked the appointment of former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown as a United Nations envoy with responsibility for co-ordinating the international effort in Afghanistan.

The IISS also highlighted the way the continuing shortage of military resources was hindering Nato's efforts. It said that around 50 coalition members operating in Afghanistan - including Germany, Italy and Spain - had "national caveats" restricting the operations of their troops.

Afghanistan may turn to failed state as insurgency spreads: study

London (AFP) - Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state if NATO troops do not defeat the Taliban, boosting Islamist extremism worldwide, a study said Tuesday, also warning that the West lacked resources.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) report lamented growing signs that the insurgency is expanding from the south of Afghanistan into northern provinces, with rebels learning lessons from Iraq.

Elsewhere the London-based think tank noted progress by the so-called surge in Iraq, but warned that US and other troops face being in the country for a generation.

On Afghanistan, the IISS annual study said there was a general acceptance that defeating the militants was of international importance and would require long-term, joined-up commitments from all countries involved.

But the NATO operation was most at risk where its technical advantage was reduced, particularly in eastern Afghanistan where troops have been engaged in intense fighting with militia, the IISS study "The Military Balance 2008" said.

"Failure in these actions would risk boosting Islamic extremism (not just in Afghanistan), would produce a failed state in an area of strategic importance, and would offer safe haven to terrorist organisations and the narcotics trade.

"It would also undermine the credibility of NATO in its first major out-of-area combat operation," the study said.

The IISS said that although NATO's 41,000-strong force was bolstering President Hamid Karzai's fledgling government, the administration "still lacks authority in much of the country".

The report echoed warnings last week from two US think-tanks -- the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Afghanistan Study Group -- which said troop levels had to be ramped up and major changes had to be implemented urgently.

Publication of the IISS report comes a day before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Britain for talks on NATO and Afghanistan after calls from both countries for all members of the alliance to pull their weight.

Germany and France are among nations particularly criticised for failing to send forces to areas where fighting is the most intense. Military commanders in Afghanistan have estimated that an extra 7,500 troops are necessary.

On Iraq, where US President George W. Bush announced a "surge" of about 30,000 American troops to the 132,000 already in the country a year ago, the IISS said the security situation remains "highly volatile".

But although violence towards military and civilians was "dramatically" down, "criminality, intra-communal military violence and sectarian strife remain commonplace, and still undermine political and economic initiatives".

And it warned that "even if (troop) reductions can happen in 2008, it is estimated that President Bush's successor will inherit a situation whereby at least 100,000 troops are still stationed in Iraq."

According to the IISS, the Iraqi Army is "a generation away" from being able to operate free of US logistical support.

But the study's most pressing warning was on Afghanistan, where it said there was a "gradual proliferation of insurgency and terrorism into Afghanistan's northern provinces."

Noting an increase in suicide attacks, it warned of signs "not only that the insurgency was spreading geographically but also that tactical lessons and techniques had migrated from the insurgency in Iraq."

The insurgencies in both Afghanistan and Iraq risk remaining the West's main geopolitical challenge for some time to come.

"In both missions, multinational forces continue to grapple with the complexities of creating and maintaining security in order to allow reconstruction efforts to gain ground," said the IISS.

We can't impose values on Afghans

Rosie DiManno - Toronto Star, February 4, 2008

Afghanistan will not fast-forward from the 12th century to the 21st century in the blink of an eye and certainly not according to the agenda of Canadian sensibilities.

If you want to see an Afghan beaten by a stick – or otherwise abused, by our standards – just walk out into the street in Kandahar city.

Their long history is soaked in violence. They have barely emerged from three decades of civil war and are coping, as best they can, with a pitiless insurgency that targets the indigenous population even more than foreign troops, preying especially on women, children, teachers, aid workers and civil servants.

Growing up in this culture hardens a people. Living in Afghanistan is a daily challenge and that anxiety contributes to an environment of distrust, menace and cruelty. But we make a mistake if calibrating their wrongness against our sense of rightness and righteousness.

I have met Governor Asadullah Khalid many times, been in the palace where it is alleged that the young minister was directly involved in the torture of detainees held in private cells. Those allegations now dwindle down to one accuser, transferred last year to the National Directorate of Security prison, an agency far more suspect in the mistreatment of detainees.

Khalid is as thoughtful and soft-spoken an Afghan male as you will ever meet. Even in Kandahar province, where there is little love for the central government of President Hamid Karzai, citizens regard him with affection and respect, as a principled official, so vastly different from his monumentally corrupt predecessor.

I don't know if Khalid beat and electrically prodded this prisoner, as claimed. He forcefully denied those reports in a weekend interview with Stephanie Levitz of The Canadian Press. But Afghans lie as effortlessly as they breathe. In this culture, dramatic prevarication is considered an admirable skill. Survival often relies on scheming. Minus any tangible evidence, I would believe Khalid over the testament of a prisoner pouring bile into the ears of Canadian diplomats.

Still, Khalid is a man who, when a NATO operation resulted in the death of a top Taliban commander last May, gleefully put the corpse on display at his compound. This is reprehensible to us. It makes entire sense to Afghans.

Afghanistan is a sovereign nation. We cannot impose our values, our Charter of Rights and our international covenants on them. Canadians are there as a primary NATO element, in support of a United Nations mandate, at the invitation of a Kabul government struggling to assert its authority. If that government falls in the next election – Afghans infuriated by corruption and incompetence – that will be their choice. But it won't be because some suspected Taliban detainees have been maybe tortured.

That plays only to a Canadian audience and nowhere as much as the headlines would suggest. This is about pounding away at the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which has so dreadfully botched its duty to inform the public and explain the merits of the mission beyond platitudes, a failure underscored by John Manley's recent report.

It is profoundly naïve and inexcusably paternalistic, however, to pretend that Canada can reinvent Afghan culture by exporting our precious ethics when that country is still very much under siege.

This allegedly tortured prisoner never passed through Canadian hands. Further, the whole detainee scandal would never have arisen had not Ottawa winced at the optics of handing over prisoners to U.S. authorities. We picked Afghans over our greatest ally knowing full well what might happen.

That's domestic politics. It was foolhardy policy.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Taliban chief orders change in mode of executions

KABUL, 4 February 2008 (IRIN) - The fugitive leader of Afghan Taliban insurgents, Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, has ordered his fighters to stop beheading people accused of spying for the government of President Karzai and international forces - and kill them, instead, by gunshots and/or hanging, a purported Taliban spokesman has told the media. The move comes after strong condemnation of the Taliban at home and abroad for their beheadings.

Video clips showing horrific scenes of human decapitations and other forms of severe physical torture had been circulated by the insurgents, apparently in an effort to threaten people who support and/or work with the Afghan government and its international supporters. Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and other international rights watchdogs have repeatedly accused Taliban insurgents of deliberately attacking civilians and systematically violating international humanitarian law. "No more beheadings"

"Mullah Omar's order is effective immediately and there will be no more beheadings by the Taliban," Zabiullah Mujahid, who claims to be a spokesman for Taliban fighters, told IRIN on the phone from an unspecified location. About 100 people have been beheaded by Taliban insurgents on charges of espionage in the past 12 months, a leading Afghan news agency, Pajwhok, reported on 4 February. Four employees of a local construction company were reportedly kidnapped and then beheaded by gunmen associated with Taliban insurgents in Nooristan Province, eastern Afghanistan, in the last week of January, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said in a press release on 30 January. Thousands of people, including many civilians, lost their lives in suicide attacks, roadside explosions and other insurgency-related violence in 2007, the government of Afghanistan and the UN reported. War crime The deliberate killing of noncombatants on charges of spying and/or disloyalty, without a fair and just trial, is a war crime and cannot be justified by a change in mode of execution, said Farid Hamidi, a member of the AIHRC in Kabul. "The right to life is enshrined in the constitution of Afghanistan and no one can deny that without a legitimate and lawful reason," said Hamidi. "Islamic Sharia also prohibits illegal and extra-judicial killings of civilians," he said.

Analysis: A turning point in the jihad

Published: Feb. 4, 2008 at 9:45 AM

By CLAUDE SALHANI UPI Contributing Editor

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Is the killing of a top al-Qaida commander by a CIA drone the beginning of a turning point in the war on terrorism?

Ikhlaas.org, a pro-Islamist Web site known to often post communiques from radicals and terrorists, confirmed the death last week of Abu Laith al-Libi, one of the most wanted al-Qaida operatives. The statement appeared Jan. 31 and was immediately noticed by the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation, which specializes in tracking terrorist activities.

The Web site said al-Libi, whose name indicates his Libyan nationality, was "martyred along with a group of his brothers on the territory of Islamic Pakistan."

The information that al-Libi was killed by a CIA airstrike was confirmed by top U.S. officials to CNN.

Al-Libi had a bounty of $200,000 on his head. According to the Asia-Pacific Foundation, "al-Libi's death is the most significant since the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in March 2003."

Al-Libi is believed to have organized the bombing on the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's visit in February 2007. The attack killed 23 people.

The London Asia-Pacific Foundation believes al-Libi's death was linked to what is suspected to be a U.S. Predator drone strike on a village near Mir Ali, in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. The strike is reported to have occurred on Jan. 29. Twelve people were killed, among them a number of Arabs and Uzbeks, "as well as local Taliban members," it said.

Along with al-Libi, another senior member of al-Qaida identified as Abu Obaidah al-Masri, and who is believed to be implicated in several terrorist plots in Europe, was also targeted by the attack.

The "sudden discovery" of such high-ranking members of Osama bin Laden's terror network in Pakistan contradicts claims by the country's president, Pervez Musharraf.

"It has the potential to embarrass President Pervez Musharraf, who repeatedly said he would not sanction U.S. military action against al-Qaida members operating in his country," stated a comprehensive study by the APF.

The foundation's analysis says al-Libi's death would be felt more by the Taliban than al-Qaida. However, points out the report, "both the Taliban and al-Qaida has proved itself to be resilient to individual losses and setbacks."

Who was Abu Laith al-Libi and what are his origins? According to several sources, he was born in Libya in 1941. He led a group called The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, (al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya al-Muqatila), which tried to overthrow Libya's leader, Moammar Gadhafi.

Analysts from the APF describe the LIFG as "perhaps the most notorious terrorist group from Libya." They developed a close relationship with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.

A video recording showing Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's deputy commander, with al-Libi was released on Nov. 3, 2007, on as-Sahab's (The Cloud) Web site, believed by intelligence analysts to represent al-Qaida's views. On the recording announcing the merger between al-Qaida and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, al-Libi states:

"We proclaim our alliance with the al-Qaida network … to become the faithful soldiers of Osama bin Laden."

Al-Libi is believed to have hatched the idea of increasing abductions of foreigners in Afghanistan, and according to the APF, he was responsible for the kidnapping of some 20 South Korean aid workers in July 2007, one of whom was murdered.

Al-Libi was a veteran of the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Upon his return to Libya in 1994 he fomented a failed coup to overthrow Gadhafi and subsequently sought refuge in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested -- and jailed for a year -- following the bombing of the Khobar Towers in 1996 in which 19 U.S. military personnel were killed. After his release he is said to have grown closer to al-Qaida.

APF says al-Libi was considered to be one of the top commanders in charge of al-Qaida's ground forces in southern Afghanistan, responsible for carrying out terrorist operations in Khost, Paktia, and Ghazni provinces, and the region bordering Miram Shah, Pakistan. In July 2002 he revealed that bin Laden was still alive, the first comments about the al-Qaida leader's health after the end of the Afghan conflict.

Al-Libi specialized in the production of improvised explosive devices, a tactic widely used against U.S. forces in Iraq.

A prior attempt to kill al-Libi in June 2007 ended in disaster when a U.S. rocket attack on a compound in Afghanistan's Paktia province killed several children but missed al-Libi.

The Libyan-born terrorist had been previously apprehended by U.S. forces and jailed at Bagram air base, near the Afghan capital. But in July 2005, accompanied by several other al-Qaida detainees, he managed to escape.

No doubt, the death of al-Libi is a major achievement in what the Bush administration calls "the war on terror." A point not to be missed is that his elimination comes about as the result of meticulous intelligence gathering in an area until now believed to have offered a safe haven for the terrorists. This new development is no doubt cause of growing concern to the jihadis who felt a certain sense of security in the wilderness of the Afghan-Pakistan border. (Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

Time Runs Out for an Afghan Held by the U.S.

By CARLOTTA GALL and ANDY WORTHINGTON

KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdul Razzaq Hekmati was regarded here as a war hero, famous for his resistance to the Russian occupation in the 1980s and later for a daring prison break he organized for three opponents of the Taliban government in 1999.

But in 2003, Mr. Hekmati was arrested by American forces in southern Afghanistan when, senior Afghan officials here contend, he was falsely accused by his enemies of being a Taliban commander himself. For the next five years he was held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he died of cancer on Dec. 30.

The fate of Mr. Hekmati, the first detainee to die of natural causes at Guantánamo, who fruitlessly recounted his story several times to American officials, demonstrates the enduring problems of the tribunals at Guantánamo, say Afghan officials and others who knew him.

Afghan officials, and some Americans, complain that detainees are effectively thwarted from calling witnesses in their defense, and that the Afghan government is never consulted on the detention cases, even when it may be able to help. Mr. Hekmati’s case, officials who knew him said, shows that sometimes the Americans do not seem to know whom they are holding. Meanwhile, detainees wait for years with no resolution to their cases.

In response to queries, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, Cynthia O. Smith, said the military tribunals at Guantánamo contained “significant process and protections,” including the right to call witnesses.

While Ms. Smith would not discuss specifics, she said that there was nothing to indicate that Mr. Hekmati’s case was handled improperly, and that detainees at Guantánamo were given a range of protections, including “the opportunity for a detainee to be heard in person, call witnesses and present additional information that might benefit him.”

Whether those protections are sufficient has been widely debated and is now being considered by the United States Supreme Court. In the tribunals, which consider only whether detainees have been properly classified as enemy combatants, detainees are not allowed to have lawyers or see the evidence against them. The Supreme Court case will decide whether they have the right to broadly appeal their detentions in federal court.

Of the 275 detainees at Guantánamo, at least 180 have sought to challenge their detentions.

Several high-ranking officials in President Hamid Karzai’s government say Mr. Hekmati’s detention at Guantánamo was a gross mistake. They were mentioned by Mr. Hekmati in his hearings and could have vouched for him. Records from the hearings show that only a cursory effort was made to reach them.

Two of those officials were men Mr. Hekmati had helped escape from the Taliban’s top security prison in Kandahar in 1999: Ismail Khan, now the minister of energy; and Hajji Zaher, a general in the Border Guards. Both men said they appealed to American officials about Mr. Hekmati’s case, but to no effect.

“What he did was very important for all Afghan people who were against the Taliban,” Hajji Zaher said of Mr. Hekmati’s role in organizing his prison break. “He was not a man to take to Guantánamo.”

Hajji Zaher, whose father served as vice president under Mr. Karzai for six months, warned that the case of Mr. Hekmati, who is widely known here by his nickname, Baraso, would discourage Afghans from backing the government against the Taliban. “No one is going to help the government,” he said.

Mr. Hekmati never had a lawyer, said Zachary Katznelson of Reprieve, a British charity that represents a number of Guantánamo detainees. At his October 2004 review hearing, Mr. Hekmati specifically asked that Hajji Zaher and Mr. Khan be contacted to act as supporting witnesses.

The military tribunal president said the Afghan government did not respond to requests to locate the men, and ruled that they were “not reasonably available.”

Although both men are well known to the American authorities in Afghanistan, both Hajji Zaher and Mr. Khan said the American authorities had never asked them to appear.

In Mr. Hekmati’s tribunal at Guantánamo in 2004 to assess his status as an enemy combatant, American officials accused Mr. Hekmati of a variety of charges made by unidentified sources, and referred to him only as Abdul Razzaq, his first names, which are common in Afghanistan.

According to transcripts released by the Pentagon, the United States military charged, among other things, that Mr. Hekmati was “high in the Al Qaeda hierarchy,” acted as a smuggler and facilitator for it, and was “part of the main security escort for Osama bin Laden.” He was also accused of attending a terrorist training camp near Kandahar and of involvement in assassination attempts against Afghan government officials.

He was also identified as a senior leader of a 40-man Taliban unit, and even as supreme commander in Helmand Province.

That last allegation was rebutted by another unidentified detainee, who explicitly stated that Mr. Hekmati looked nothing like the Taliban commander and that the commander was “not the same person as the detainee,” according to the transcript.

Mr. Hekmati denied the charges, too, saying he did not even live in Afghanistan after the 1999 prison break, when he ran afoul of the Taliban. He insisted that most of the allegations had been directed against him by two of his personal enemies.

The first was Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, the post-Taliban governor of Helmand Province, who, Mr. Hekmati said, was directly responsible for his arrest after he reported the governor for corruption and for protecting a number of senior Taliban members in Helmand.

The second was Mohammed Jan, a distant cousin who had falsely denounced him as part of a long-running family feud. “It was one person who gave them wrong information and just because of this wrong person, I am here,” Mr. Hekmati pleaded at his October 2004 review hearing.

“They can’t prove anything against me because I never did anything wrong,” he went on. “The person that was giving you all that wrong information, this is the person that killed my two brothers, my sister, my father and two of my sons.”

Mr. Akhundzada denied any part in Mr. Hekmati’s arrest, attributing it to a mistake by American Special Forces. He said they were often fed false information.

But friends of Mr. Hekmati said he was arrested in 2003 by Afghan forces in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, during Mr. Akhundzada’s tenure and later turned over to American forces.

Mr. Hekmati maintained that he was opposed to the Taliban, whom he described as “dangerous and dirty people” who had deviated from Islam.

“Taliban and Al Qaeda are the same,” he said at his review board hearing in September 2005. “When I’m against Taliban I’m going against Al Qaeda. There’s an expression in Pashto that you cannot hold two watermelons in one hand at the same time.”

The only allegation that he accepted was that he had worked as a truck driver for the Taliban, but he said he had been forced to work for them three months a year, as every able-bodied man was during the Taliban’s rule.

Several people in Afghanistan, including Hajji Mir Wali, a member of Parliament, and Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, who was held in a cell next to Mr. Hekmati in Guantánamo for three months in 2003, confirmed that he was a truck driver for the Taliban government in the 1990s.

But Mullah Zaeef said Mr. Hekmati could never have worked for the Taliban again after 1999, such was their fury over the prison break he organized.

Hajji Wali, who knew Mr. Hekmati well, said: “It was the Americans’ mistake. I know he had no relations with the Taliban.”

Yet the Americans on his tribunal and review boards seemed unaware of how significant the prison break was, or how important were the men he had helped escape and whom he had asked to be called as witnesses.

The 1999 escape was a deep humiliation for the Taliban government, which blocked roads and searched houses across the country for days afterward and offered $1 million for the capture of the escapees. Two of Mr. Hekmati’s relatives were badly tortured by the Taliban after the prison break as the Taliban looked for information.

Two of the men Mr. Hekmati freed, Mr. Khan and Hajji Zaher, returned to the battlefield to lead forces against the Taliban. They both received significant American support in 2001 and worked with Special Forces units.

A third man who escaped with them was another commander of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Gen. Mohammed Qasim.

According to Mr. Hekmati’s account in his hearing in September 2005, he organized the escape because he opposed the Taliban’s “ruthlessness and injustice.”

Mr. Hekmati said he had written a letter outlining his escape plan, which his son, Hekmatullah, who worked as an intelligence officer at the Taliban’s high security prison, smuggled in to Mr. Khan. Mr. Khan then put Mr. Hekmati in touch with his own son, who gave him $20,000 to buy a Toyota Land Cruiser for a getaway vehicle.

Mr. Hekmati said that because his son was trusted by the Taliban, he was able to walk the three prisoners out one night to where he was waiting in the dark with the vehicle. Hekmatullah corroborated much of his father’s account in an interview in 2002.

The men escaped to Iran, where Mr. Khan provided Mr. Hekmati and his family with a house and financial support in return for his daring. Mr. Hekmati said he returned to Afghanistan only in 2002, after the Taliban were toppled and Mr. Karzai’s interim government was installed. Within a year, he was arrested.

In a report in February 2006 based on an analysis of documents released by the Pentagon, researchers at Seton Hall University School of Law, in Newark, concluded that no outside witnesses had ever been called to appear at Guantánamo. Lt. Col. Stephen E. Abraham, a former United States intelligence officer who had worked on the tribunals, stepped forward last June to criticize the tribunals.

In a submission to the Supreme Court, he condemned them for relying on generalized evidence that would have been dismissed by any competent court, and as being devised to rubber-stamp the administration’s assertion that the detainees had been correctly designated “enemy combatants” when they were captured and that they could be held indefinitely.

In a second submission, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in November, Colonel Abraham explained that he was “not aware of any realistic attempts” to “identify or even attempt to bring before the tribunal witnesses or their statements,” and concluded that the whole process “was designed to conduct tribunals without witnesses other than the accused detainee.”

That is one of the reasons Afghan officials have asked that Afghan detainees be transferred from Guantánamo to Afghanistan. “Of course a judicial process needs witnesses and documents and evidence,” Minister of Justice Mohammad Sarwar Danish said. “Most of these cases have not come to trial, and are not proceeding, and that is why we asked them to be moved here.”

After Mr. Hekmati was arrested, two of the men he broke out of prison, Mr. Khan and Hajji Zaher, said they appealed to American and Afghan officials for his release. “I asked President Karzai to help, but unfortunately it did not help,” Mr. Khan said. He said he also asked the American ambassador to Afghanistan at the time, Zalmay Khalilzad, with no result.

“We did try but it was not working,” Hajji Zaher said in a phone interview. “When they are sending someone to Guantánamo, they have their own rules.”

After Mr. Hekmati’s death at Guantánamo, his body was returned to Afghanistan and quietly buried in an unmarked grave in Kandahar on Jan. 8. His family did not dare attend the funeral, fearful of both the Taliban and the Americans, friends said.

As the Taliban has reasserted itself in much of southern Afghanistan, Mr. Hekmati’s son remains in hiding. Neither he nor any relative or elder of their tribe collected his father’s body.

“He is caught in the middle,” said Hajji Wali, a family friend. “He is scared of the Taliban and scared of the government and the Americans, because the Americans took his innocent father and they could take him, too.”

[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.]