In this bulletin:

• Prejudices against Muslims wrong: Afghan president
• US in new push to bolster Afghan police
• Pervez's move to Kabul may herald his release
• Expelled EU diplomat defends Taliban dialogue: report
• US Lawmakers Address Fear of Failed State in Afghanistan
• Delhi stresses commitment to Afghanistan
• New role for Afghan troops
• Afghan leaders hope conservative religious parties will be defeated in Pakistan election
• Taliban fight is our war: Zardari
• Musharraf Says Pakistan Election Vital to Anti-Terrorism Fight
• Karzai under foreigners' influence - Afghan paper
• In Defense of Hamid Karzai
• Durand line de facto border, says US
• Afghanistan establishes Disease Early Warning System
• Michael Gerson: A lot is riding on Afghan war
• Afghan’s fight to survive
• Germans Arrest Alleged al-Qaida Suspect
• Fear and Resolve in Kabul
• Vodafone Targets Emerging Markets

Prejudices against Muslims wrong: Afghan president

Gulf Times - Published: Sunday, 17 February, 2008

MUCH of the present-day prejudices against Muslims are wrong and exaggerated, but our own vulnerability continues to warrant the assertions, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday.

While the great body of evidence shows that Islam has had significant contribution in civilisations, we are now passing through unfortunate times, Karzai said, adding that Muslims make up one-fifth of the world but contribute only 5%.

We need to relive our great culture of tolerance, since both Quran and the founding fathers of US declared that all humans are equal, he said.

Today, in the US, Muslims live in peace and harmony and the Muslim communities elsewhere in the world aspire to the same ideas of personal freedom and values that the US guarantees to its citizens. The solution lies in recognising our common interests that are intricately connected to each other,‌ said Karzai.

He also rejected the clash of civilisation theory and emphasised that it's just a world that's shrinking and much more globalised, with media, especially the US media picking up the differences only, rather than common features.

On the threats of terrorism, he said: Years before 9/11, terrorists were killing hundreds of Muslims in Afghanistan and elsewhere as well. Imagine a person going into a mosque in Pakistan on Eid day or in Helmund during Friday prayers and blow up innocent civilians.

Terrorists are Muslims enemy first. This we know first hand in Afghanistan, which was turned into a safe-haven for their activities, after the war-torn country was abandoned, said Karzai.

But despite on-going global war on terrorism, we must find out why is Al Qaeda (or the likes) still able to kill thousands of people. We must confront our challenges with sincerity and go beyond the rhetoric,‌ he said.

Using the Afghanistan as an analogy, where countries like Japan, the US, Iran, India and others are taking part in massive reconstruction efforts, Karzai said: From Japan to US, they are all co-operating to build roads and improving the standard of living of Afghanis. These countries encompass three civilisations and this is what I call a successful co-operation between civilisations.

US in new push to bolster Afghan police

Associated Press, By JASON STRAZIUSO, February 15, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - The United States gave Afghan police 70,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 51,000 pistols and 3,500 vehicles last year, part of $2.5 billion in spending to upgrade the force.

Despite that influx of firepower, Taliban militants targeted police in dozens of attacks, killing at least 925 in 2007. Afghan police often work in small groups in remote and dangerous territory, where they are outnumbered, outgunned and overwhelmed by insurgents.

The lack of an effective training program for the police — a role first held by Germany — is often cited as one of the West's biggest failings since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida bases.

Now the U.S. is rolling out a new training program that will see small teams of American soldiers mentor and train police officers over the course of several months.

The U.S. general in charge sees the program, which broadly mirrors the model used to train police in Iraq, as a big step forward to move past the police force's lackluster reputation.

"Regardless of what you think the role of police should be, the reality is that they've become the first line of defense for the Afghan people in many parts of this country and they deserve to have the kind of training that will give them a good chance of survival," Maj. Gen. Robert W. Cone said.

The police force has about 75,000 officers now, with a goal of growing to 82,000.

The new training program, called Focus District Development — now in its first cycle, provides officers with new equipment — vehicles, weapons, uniforms, radios, protective gear — and enrolls them in an electronic pay system to prevent superiors from skimming paychecks, a common problem.

Some 1,500 mentors — 800 American soldiers and 700 DynCorps contractors — will train police for eight weeks at regional sites. Then small teams will work with police in the field for two to four months.

The training is currently taking place in seven of Afghanistan's 365 districts and will take four years to complete, Cone said.

"In years past, these guys would graduate and then go out to a place like Musa Qala and survive on their own. The police mentoring step is the key," said Lt. Col. David Johnson, a military spokesman.

About 1,000 of the 3,200 Marines scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan this spring will help train Afghan police, he said.

While Afghanistan's army has earned high marks for its continued development, the police force lags far behind despite an influx of funds. The U.S. spent $2.5 billion on the police in fiscal year 2007 and will spend $800 million in 2008, a number that could increase if supplemental funds are passed.

An official at Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, which oversees the country's police, said training police officers is more difficult than training an army.

"The police are involved with the people, with the community; they are working in smaller groups than the army," ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said. "They have a presence in every part of the country, and currently beside doing law enforcement duties they are directly involved in fighting insurgents, poppy cultivation and drug dealers."

Afghan police are paid just $100 a month. Unlike in most countries, police duties in Afghanistan often cross over into outright warfare. Officers face attack by suicide bombers and assaults from bands of Taliban militants.

On Thursday, insurgents ambushed a police vehicle in southwest Nimroz province. An ensuing three-hour gunbattle left four policemen dead, two wounded and two others missing, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub Badakhshi, the provincial police chief.

Because of such threats, police carry assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

"We hope to have a police force someday where the (Kalashnikov) is not the primary weapon," Cone said. "But the reality is that they require these kinds of automatic weapons because of the threat they face."

Cone said Afghan police face another tough year of fighting, but there will be three times more trained officers in the field than there were last year, helping improve the overall security picture.

"What we have learned is that the answer to Afghan police needs is a professional, well trained, well disciplined and well paid police, and anything that diverts from that has been fraught with problems," Cone said. "Any shortcuts have been fraught with difficulties."

Pervez's move to Kabul may herald his release

The Independent - By Kim Sengupta Saturday 16 February 2008

Pervez Kambaksh, the Afghan student sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading an internet report on women's rights, is to be moved from his current prison to one in Kabul.

Mr Kambaksh has been attacked at his current place of incarceration near Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country by fundamentalist inmates at the instigation of the prison guards, his family claim. They also say that he is being held in a small cell that he has to share with 30 others.

But family members said yesterday that they had been told unofficially that the 23-year-old journalism student would be transferred to the Afghan capital in the near future.

The immediate effect of this would be to extract him from the hands of the religious authorities who have pressed for his execution and demanded that the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, should not grant a reprieve in response to international pressure.

Relations and friends of Mr Kambaksh are worried that he remains in danger as long as he is kept in his current jail. They believe that, as worldwide protests over the case keep growing and the lobbying of President Karzai by public figures continues, the student may fall victim to a convenient "accident".

A member of Mr Kambaksh's family said: "He is being kept by the same people who wish him dead. They have total power in that part of the country and we really fear that anything can happen. The people who put him in prison are very angry about all the international attention this has raised. They can say that he was attacked by a fellow prisoner, or they can even say that he tried to escape. How can anyone disprove something like that?

"We believe that moving him from that jail is the first move in getting him to safety, and we are very grateful that it is now a good possibility. But freeing him is still a long way away and we are praying that the President will use his powers and pardon him."

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, raised the case of Mr Kambaksh with President Karzai during a recent meeting in Kabul. The Afghan leader has promised that "justice will be done" for the student.

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, Mr Kambaksh's brother, is also a journalist and has written articles exposing abuse, including murder, by powerful political figures. The family feel that one reason Mr Kambaksh was arrested was to put pressure on Yaqub, who is himself now in hiding. "We hope that the same pressure which is helping to save Pervez can protect Yaqub as well," said the family member.

Mr Kambaksh was sentenced to death for blasphemy at the end of last month by a religious court in Mazar-i-Sharif for distributing an article on Koranic verses that deal with women. Part of the article, which he found on an Iranian website, discussed whether a Muslim man should have the right to marry more than one woman.

The severity of the sentence provoked international outrage, and an online petition launched by The Independent to save the student has been supported by more than 86,000 people.

Expelled EU diplomat defends Taliban dialogue: report

16/02/2008 (AFP) LONDON - An Irish diplomat who was expelled from Afghanistan for talking to Taliban-linked insurgents defended his actions Saturday, insisting that dialogue could persuade militants to abandon violence.

"There is a critical difference between what is discreet and what is covert," Michael Semple, who was the second most senior European Union official in Afghanistan, told British newspaper The Guardian in an interview.

"What we were doing was simply discreet because that was what was required. But it was totally in line with official policy to bring people in from the cold."

Semple was expelled late last year with Briton Mervyn Patterson, a UN political adviser, for threatening national security by contacting the Taliban in the volatile southern province of Helmand.

A February 4 Financial Times report from Kabul said discovery of the contact -- and a secret British plan to train former Taliban fighters who wanted to switch sides -- had worsened relations between Kabul and London.

Britain has denied being "engaged" with the Taliban and Semple told The Guardian that they had not opened any such channel with Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban.

"We were victims of local politics initially and being seen to take on the foreigners -- in this case us -- is seen as very popular in many places in Afghanistan," he added.

A local political leader feared for his power base if ex-Taliban and former insurgents were brought into the peace process led by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said Semple.

But he said he firmly believed that "with good management you could break two-thirds of the insurgents away from" what he called "those irreconcilables" -- hardline militants totally against any accommodation with coalition forces.

"There are many people who served with the Taliban regime who are now well-placed inside the Karzai regime or else are pillars of Afghan society," he added, drawing parallels with efforts to engage Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

"Our mandate was to support the government's reconciliation process -- that's what we were doing in Helmand before Christmas. There is no purely military solution to the current insurgency.

"There isn't a serious actor in Afghanistan who says the only way forward is to fight your way out."

US Lawmakers Address Fear of Failed State in Afghanistan

Voice of America, By Robert Raffaele 15 February 2008, Washington, DC

Change in Afghanistan is not coming fast enough for many U.S. lawmakers. Frustration is growing in Congress about Afghanistan's booming opium trade, the resurgence of the Taliban and what some say is inadequate NATO support for the international peacekeeping mission. VOA's Robert Raffaele has more from a Senate hearing on Thursday.

Some Senate lawmakers say the U.S. is doing much of the heavy lifting in Afghanistan -- with little to show for it. One big problem: the failure to eradicate Afghanistan's poppy crop -- suspected of supplying 90 percent of the world's opium trade.

Republican Senator John Warner demanded answers from Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Richard Boucher. "You know, we're a long way from reducing it," said Mr. Boucher, "but it at least seems to have peaked out this year. But there's also a diplomatic effort, underway with other governments, to go after the funding, and to get at the money that the traffickers use, move around, and sometimes supply the Taliban," he said.

Senator John Warner then added, "Well, when are we going to see -- I'm not trying to put you on report. You're a fine public servant, trying to do the best you can. But we don't see any results."

The counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan is among many topics addressed in two recent reports by U.S-based institutes. One reports says NATO forces are not winning, but rather, stuck in a stalemate with Taliban forces.

Boucher said greater involvement by local governments is absolutely essential to making Afghanistan self-sufficient, and for weakening Taliban strongholds.

A key issue at the Senate hearing was the level of NATO participation in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called on other NATO countries to send more troops and equipment.

"There's no use mincing words on it, they [other NATO nations] have failed, and we should put maximum pressure on them to come through with what they need to come through with," Democratic Senator Carl Levin said.

Some additional help may be coming from Germany. Reuters reports leading politicians from Germany's governing coalition will discuss replacing a parliamentary mandate that limits Germany's NATO troop level to 3,500.

Delhi stresses commitment to Afghanistan

The Peninsula - Web posted at: 2/16/2008 Source: IANS New Delhi

India yesterday underlined its commitment to closer ties with its neighbours and reiterated its determination to continue with its help in rebuilding Afghanistan despite the deteriorating security situation in that country.

“India is engaged in the task of re-building Afghanistan in a deteriorating security situation,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the consultative committee of parliament for external affairs yesterday.

“The situation in Afghanistan is a matter of concern,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna quoted Mukherjee telling the parliamentary panel.

Sarna dismissed reports in a section about the media about any intention on the part of India to withdraw its workers from Afghanistan due to the escalation in the Taleban-led violence.

Over 4,000 Indians are engaged in a slew of activities relating to the construction of various infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. Early this year, a suicide attack in Nimroz province killed two Indians which prompted India to review security of Indians working in Afghanistan.

The suicide attack came barely three weeks after the Indian cabinet approved over $180m for building the strategic Zaranj-Delaram road that would provide India better access to Central Asia and open up an alternate route for the landlocked Afghanistan to an Iranian port.

India has pledged $850m for the reconstruction of Afghanistan that makes New Delhi the fifth largest donor in that country.

In his comments before the parliamentary panel, Mukherjee provided an overview of India's policy towards the neighbourhood and underlined New Delhi's view of South Asia as an integrated region that should spur a free flow of goods, service and ideas among countries of the region.

Mukherjee briefed panel members on India's relations with all South Asian neighbours, specially Pakistan, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

Responding to questions about India's relations with China, the minister alluded to the vision document for India-China relations in the 21st century that was unveiled during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China. Referring to the Chinese protest about Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, Mukherjee reiterated that Arunachal is an integral part of India and the prime minister has a right to visit any part of the country.

He also underlined India's willingness to help Nepal as it embarks on the critical transition towards democracy and articulated New Delhi's support for a stable, democratic and prosperous Nepal.

New role for Afghan troops

The Age, Australia, Tom Hyland February 17, 2008

THE Federal Government is set to announce changes to the make-up of the 1000-strong Australian force in Afghanistan that could mean more troops in combat roles.

But the Government — frustrated by the refusal of some NATO countries to place their troops in danger and with the army overstretched — is resisting pressure to increase troop numbers or extend their tours.

The imminent announcement comes as Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon steps up an assertive campaign for a greater say in NATO planning.

NATO's refusal to share secrets means Australia is "flying blind" while the alliance drafts a new Afghan strategy, Mr Fitzgibbon told The Sunday Age.

Defence force chief Angus Houston has given the Government a report on the composition of Australia's commitment to Afghanistan, which includes about 390 soldiers involved in reconstruction and 300 special forces.

"In the not-too-distant future the Government is likely to be making an announcement about, potentially, a reconfiguration of our troops," Mr Fitzgibbon said. "But we won't be making any decision to either increase or reduce our troops numbers."

He refused to say if this might mean more infantry or other combat troops, and fewer reconstruction engineers. Another option could be using troops to mentor Afghan forces.

The Australians — who lost three soldiers last year — are the largest contribution by a non-NATO nation to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

NATO has been torn by divisions over Afghanistan, with some members under pressure to send more troops, and allow them to take part in combat.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week, in the latest of a series of calls to allies, seeking reinforcements. Canada has said it will withdraw its 2500 troops next year if allies don't send 1000 reinforcements.

Mr Fitzgibbon said Australia would not extend troop deployments — usually about six months — despite a call by ISAF commander, US General Dan McNeill, for longer tours.

This month General McNeill said US troops in eastern Afghanistan, who serve 15 months, were performing better than foreign troops in the south, who typically serve six months.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he had still not seen NATO's new draft strategy, despite promises by NATO chiefs that it would be released. Australia had been refused a copy as it is not a NATO member.

Despite not seeing the draft, Australian defence planners have contributed to reports prepared by the eight countries serving in southern Afghanistan that will be submitted to the overall NATO strategy.

"Australia is indirectly having an input to the NATO plan, but we're doing so sight unseen with respect to NATO's own draft document," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

The other seven nations with troops in the south were all NATO members, "so we're the only country flying blind in terms of not having seen the NATO document", he said.

The strategy will be put to a NATO summit in Romania early in April.

Mr Fitzgibbon warned the new strategy "wouldn't mean anything" if "underperforming" NATO members didn't act on its likely recommendations to increase troop numbers and lift restrictions on where they could operate.

Afghan leaders hope conservative religious parties will be defeated in Pakistan election

Associated Press By JASON STRAZIUSO February 16, 2008 KABUL, Afghanistan

Leaders in Afghanistan said Saturday they hope conservative religious political parties are defeated in neighboring Pakistan's parliamentary elections, but several said they hold little hope the vote will improve the volatile border situation.

President Pervez Musharraf is not up for a vote in the election Monday, but a convincing opposition win _ as forecast in recent polls _ could leave him vulnerable to impeachment. The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said it would try to remove Musharraf if it wins.

Several Afghan parliamentarians said they saw Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party as the best hope to reign in the Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. They also said the country's more religious and conservative parties needed to be defeated.

"I think with the killing of Benazir Bhutto, the support for the militant parties or religious parties have been reduced, and we are hoping they will be weakened in the ballot," said Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost province, which borders Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan tribal area. "I think the more they are weakened. That would be helpful for us."

Kabul parliamentarian Abdul Kabir Ranjbar said Pakistan's elections would affect security, political and economic issues in Afghanistan. He said a win by Bhutto's party could reduce problems in Afghanistan.

"In my opinion, if the fundamentalists again come to power in Pakistan, they will create more problems for Afghanistan, or at least the problems that we have in Afghanistan will continue," Ranjbar said.

Rising violence around Afghanistan claimed more than 6,500 lives _ mostly militants _ last year. Afghan and U.S. officials say Taliban and al-Qaida militants find sanctuary in Pakistan's border regions and cross over to launch attacks.

Musharraf has acknowledged that militants seek safe haven in his country. Violence, driven by an increasing number of suicide attacks, has risen in Pakistan in recent months, highlighted by Bhutto's assassination in late December. Some Afghan leaders were skeptical that any vote outcome would help cool border hostilities.

"Whatever problems we have in Afghanistan, it comes from Pakistan, everyone knows that," said Hawa Halim Nuristani, a female parliamentarian from Nuristan province, which also borders Pakistan. "Suicide attackers, IED attackers are bringing explosives, weapons from the other side of the border. Who can stop them? (Only) those people who want peace and security and stability in the region and both countries."

Ranjbar said he doubted that fundamentalists in Pakistan's border region could be brought under control, no matter who wins the election. "Unfortunately Pakistan never had any control in the border areas, and it (will be) difficult for Pakistan to control it in the future," he said.

The spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said he hoped that whichever party wins will tackle border security. "We are very hopeful that those parties can understand the fact and reality about the security issues of both countries," Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. "That party should be successful in these elections."

Taliban fight is our war: Zardari

* PPP co-chairman says Pakistan is not ready to become Taliban state

Daily Times - Sunday, February 17, 2008 - LAHORE

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), if it comes into power, must persuade the people that the fight against militants is “our war”, not just America’s war, party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Zardari urged Washington to do more to promote democracy in Pakistan.

Zardari blamed authorities under Musharraf for the widespread scepticism of ordinary Pakistanis towards fighting terrorism. “They have made the people think and realise that we are fighting a war for the sake of the Americans, which is not the true position,” he said.

Not ready: He said the key question was: “Are we ready to become a Taliban state? And the answer is: ‘No, we’re not.’ ... That means we are fighting our own battle, we are fighting our own war.”

A new government of the PPP and its allies “hopefully will redefine the struggle against terrorism and really help the cause of the world rather than be an obstacle to it,” he added.

Earlier, talking to the country’s newspaper editors, Zardari said that all four provinces needed to be made autonomous according to the 1973 Constitution or the country could face collapse. ap

Musharraf Says Pakistan Election Vital to Anti-Terrorism Fight

Bloomberg, By Ed Johnson and Farhan Sharif Feb. 17

President Pervez Musharraf said tomorrow's parliamentary elections are vital to Pakistan's fight against terrorism, as a suicide bomber killed at least 38 people on the final day of political campaigning.

The attacker, driving a car laden with explosives, struck in the northwestern tribal town of Parachinar yesterday, about eight miles (13 kilometers) from the border with Afghanistan. He targeted the offices of opposition election candidate Syed Riaz Hussain Shah.

``Any effort to derail the democratic process of the holding of elections will be foiled,'' the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Musharraf as saying yesterday. A democratically elected government will ensure success in the ``fight against terrorism and extremism.''

Election campaigning has been marred by militant attacks, including the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The U.S., which has pumped $10 billion into Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001, with the aim of securing the country against al-Qaeda, is depending on the vote to further a transition to civilian government from Musharraf's previous military rule.

Six children were among the dead yesterday and 109 people were injured, APP reported, citing Farhan Ali, a doctor at the town's hospital.

``It was a huge explosion, and when we ran on to the spot, bodies were on every side,'' said Mirza Mohammed Jihadi, the leader of the district's Pakistan Peoples Party with which the candidate, who survived the blast, is affiliated.

Parachinar is the main town of Kurram, one of seven semi- autonomous tribal districts along the border with Afghanistan. Taliban guerrillas and other extremists have established strongholds in the region. The Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Bhutto until her assassination, is outspoken in its opposition to Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Two civilians were killed and eight people were injured yesterday when a suicide car bomber attacked an army check post in the northwestern Swat Valley, where troops are fighting militants trying to impose Islamic law, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Major General Athar Abbas.

Militants in the tribal region of Bajaur blew up a polling station and in the southern city of Hyderabad, police said they arrested a suspected terrorist equipped with a jacket packed with explosives, AFP said.

U.S. intelligence agencies are critical of Musharraf's efforts to control extremists and say al-Qaeda has established bases in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The number of people killed in terrorist attacks and sectarian violence in Pakistan more than doubled last year to 2,116 from 967 in 2006, the Interior Ministry in Islamabad says.

Opposition parties say tomorrow's ballot won't be fair under Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999, and imposed a state of emergency last November in the face of months of demonstrations against his rule.

The opposition will win the elections to the 342-member Parliament and the four provincial assemblies, the Washington- based International Republican Institute forecast in an opinion poll published last week.

Musharraf, 64, started a second five-year term as president in November after stepping aside as head of the army. He is backed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam party.

Karzai under foreigners' influence - Afghan paper

Reuters India, India By Sayed Salahuddin Sat Feb 16, 2008

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai is under the influence of foreign powers and troops led by NATO and the U.S. must set a firm date for their departure from Afghanistan, a government-run daily newspaper said on Saturday.

The remarks are the first of their kind in an Afghan paper about Karzai and foreign troops in Afghanistan, where there is frustration over growing insecurity and rampant corruption.

"It should be said that the Afghan nation reacts seriously, despite its difficulties, when the national interests of their country are exposed to foreign danger and have never accepted and nor will accept a protege government," Anis said.

"If the world does not pay attention to this matter, soon the fire of Afghanistan will burn the region and a situation will emerge that will be unimaginable for anyone."

Karzai has been running Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces and allied Afghan factions overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. The 51-year-old won the presidential election in 2004 but is under pressure because of a steady increase in violence and the weakness of his government.

Anis said Karzai's government was a protectorate and the nation must discuss the issue of national sovereignty with "the foreigners" before next year's presidential election.

"For the appointment of each high-ranking employee, Mr. Karzai has to propose individuals and then (announce their appointment) after the approval of foreigners," Anis said.

The paper did not elaborate further and did not identify the foreigners. Britain and the United States are the key players in Afghanistan which has been ravaged by decades of foreign intervention and civil war.

Karzai's press office said the president was on an official trip to the Gulf and it could not comment on the Anis report.

The government expelled two British nationals who worked as senior employees for the U.N. and EU in December because it said their activities were undermining its authority. Last month Karzai rejected the appointment of British politician Paddy Ashdown as the U.N.'s special envoy to Afghanistan.

The Afghan defence ministry said recently it wanted to take over from the U.S. military and NATO as the leading force in the war against Taliban insurgents.

Afghanistan's army relies on Western powers for arms and funding. More than 50,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military are stationed in Afghanistan.

Karzai has repeatedly urged Western allies to provide more funds and resources to the Afghan security forces, rather than send more troops.

Anis said the training and equipping of Afghan forces had been very slow since the Taliban's removal and this should not be used as an excuse for foreign troops to remain.

"The long-term presence of foreign military troops in Afghanistan with the justification 'that the Afghan government's military forces are not able to defend the government's authority', is in no way defensible," it said.

"These forces should come up with a precise projection about the continuation of their presence in Afghanistan so that society and the government know when to complete the priorities of government-building."

In Defense of Hamid Karzai

Washington Post, United States, February 17, 2008

Ann Marlowe's unpleasant attack on Afghan President Hamid Karzai ["Two Myths About Afghanistan," op-ed, Feb. 11] painted him as a last-minute convert to the anti-Taliban cause, in 2001. In reality, he was an active opponent of the Taliban when few commentators inside the Beltway were prepared to pay Afghanistan much attention at all. Mr. Karzai and I shared a platform at a Capitol Hill Policymakers Forum in September 1999, and he was utterly forthright in denouncing both the Taliban and what he called Pakistan's "creeping invasion" of Afghanistan. Subsequent events proved that his assessment was remarkably acute.

It is hardly a secret that the Afghan government is beset with administrative problems. Some are of its own making, but the bulk are attributable to decisions made at the Bonn Conference in November and December of 2001, and to Washington's shortsighted blocking in early 2002 of the expansion beyond Kabul of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Mr. Karzai was not a participant at the Bonn meeting, and he explicitly warned of the loss of momentum that would result from the failure to expand the ISAF.

Afghanistan faces huge challenges, not least because Pakistan's creeping invasion continues. The last thing Afghanistan needs at this critical juncture is to be distracted by an anti-Karzai campaign mounted by foreign visitors.

WILLIAM MALEY

Durand line de facto border, says US

Dawn (Pakistan) - February 16, 2008 WASHINGTON

Feb 15: The United States believes that both Afghanistan and Pakistan recognise the Durand line as their de facto border but has not tried to settle the dispute between its two key allies, says a senior US official.

Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher made these comments at a congressional hearing when asked to comment on a recent report which urged the US administration to help resolve the border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The report by the Afghanistan Study Group, discussed at the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, urges the United States to reduce antagonism between Pakistan and Afghanistan by persuading Afghanistan to accept the Durand Line as the official border. The report also advises Washington to persuade Islamabad to remove restrictions on transit trade between India and Afghanistan.

“Frankly, we haven’t taken on the issue of the Durand Line, a problem that goes back to 1893, to the colonial period,” Mr Boucher, the US State Department’s pointsman for South Asia, told the Senate panel.

“I think both sides do operate with that as the border; they shoot across it to protect it. They operate border posts on it, and our goal has been to try to reduce those tensions and get them to work in a cooperative manner across that line.”

Mr Boucher said the United States also keeps urging Pakistan to remove restrictions on Afghanistan’s transit trade with India.

“It is an issue that we have taken up, and we continue to take it up because, frankly, we think it’s in Pakistan’s overall economic interest to capture that transit trade and have it go through Pakistan, and not have it go through Iran,” he said.

“The Pakistani government keeps telling us it’s really a matter that’s determined by their bilateral relationship with India, and not even by their sort of broader global interests.”

Despite Pakistan’s reluctance, Mr Boucher said, the United States continues to push for the removal of these restrictions “because we think it would be not only helpful to us and our allies and others who operate in Pakistan, but it would be helpful to Pakistan itself”.

The Afghanistan Study Group has also recommended that America should open direct negotiations with Iran to seek its cooperation for defusing tensions in Afghanistan.

On the group’s recommendations for improving relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mr Boucher said that due to US efforts the relations between the two countries have greatly improved since March when they were shooting at each other across the border.

Afghanistan establishes Disease Early Warning System

(Xinhua) - Feb. 16 KABUL - Afghanistan has established Disease Early Warning System (DEWS) to further improve the country's health sector, said a statement of Afghan Public Health Ministry released here Saturday.

The system was established in mid December 2006 and so far has formed 126 reporting sites nationwide, it said. Nearly three decades of war, inadequate housing and poor environmental conditions are blamed for diseases in Afghanistan.

Diarrhea, Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), particularly pneumonia and influenza, meningococcal diseases, viral hepatitis, measles, typhoid, hemorrhagic fever, tuberculosis, cholera and malaria are common among the poor people, according to the health ministry.

DEWS stresses detecting outbreaks of diseases very early and responding to them on time and efficiently, it said.

All sentinel sites report on weekly basis and the reports are transmitted to provincial level and then forwarded to capital Kabul for evaluation, said the statement.

Michael Gerson: A lot is riding on Afghan war

NATO faces a long, slow march through a borderless insurgency that's preparing to strike the West anywhere. Summary.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota, By Michael Gerson Last update: February 15, 2008 MUNICH

For European leftists, apparently the only thing worse than dead white men is live white men talking about death. So the Munich Conference on Security Policy -- a yearly meeting of European and American military officials and experts -- attracted a large contingent of pierced and angry protesters chanting unprintable slogans. After a few days at the conference listening to droning simultaneous translations and concentrated diplomatic blandness, I was fully prepared to join the protesters.

But there was one important moment. Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered the latest in a series of rebukes to European nations for not sharing enough of the burden in Afghanistan. "We must not -- we cannot -- become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not," he argued. This would "effectively destroy the alliance."

For two decades, NATO's main purpose has not been "to fight" but to earnestly debate its own role and relevance. And it does have an important role. The prospect of NATO expansion provides incentives for reform from the Balkans to Ukraine. And it seems wise to maintain a military alliance of democracies in Europe, with Russia increasingly convinced that one Cold War was not enough.

But by Gates' standard -- a willingness to share military burdens and sacrifice in a common cause -- NATO hardly exists. During the past 15 years, Europe has taken a peace dividend so massive that the slightest military exertion leaves it bent and gasping for air. And public support for the Afghan mission is shallow across Europe. More than 50 percent of Germans believe their nation should withdraw from Afghanistan. German authorities seem proud of resisting that pressure by maintaining a contribution of 3,200 troops -- a rather pathetic boast from a wealthy nation of 80 million people. Administration arm-twisting is likely to result in the contribution of a few thousand additional troops by Germany and France. But no one believes this would mark a turning point in the Afghan war.

We are not merely facing another crisis of NATO as we did in the Balkans. We are facing a broad insurgency in Asia that is actively preparing for violence against the "near enemy" in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- and the "far enemy" in Europe, India and the United States.

Americans are accustomed to thinking of the Afghan war as a Taliban uprising supported from havens in Pakistan. In reality, we are seeing a broad, borderless, regional revolt in the Pashtun tribal belt, two-thirds of which lies in Pakistan. In southern Afghanistan, the Taliban is pressing to retake Kandahar and other areas. In eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban are more internationalized -- influenced by Pakistan and Al-Qaida -- and seek both to maintain the havens and take terrorist shots at Western Europe and America. In the semi-autonomous tribal regions of Pakistan, large madrassa facilities feed a radicalism with global ambitions of murder -- and radical tribal leaders put increasing pressure on settled areas.

The normal, historical response to this kind of challenge would be to pay off various tribes and turn them against each other. Pakistan has tried. The problem is that these tribes, unlike in the past, shelter a transnational threat. Terrorists and radicals exploit long-standing local grievances to gain global reach. And so our safety increasingly depends on the security and development of places such as South Waziristan and Swat -- which is the real lesson of Sept. 11.

Yet every element of our response seems hobbled. In Afghanistan, corruption has flourished, and responsible leaders are in short supply. Pakistan is unprepared to fight a counterinsurgency campaign in the tribal regions -- and seems only half convinced that one is necessary. Civilian reconstruction and military efforts in Afghanistan are uncoordinated. NATO military efforts in the south are reminiscent of Iraq a year ago -- we "clear" but cannot "hold" long enough to "build." And while it is easy for Americans to complain about the Europeans, our military is also badly overstretched.

Success in Afghanistan and Pakistan will require a long-term commitment. America will need to take a broader military role in southern Afghanistan; the Afghan military will need to be massively expanded; the Pakistani military will need to be trained, aided and motivated to fight tribal extremists. But meanwhile, the threat of terrorism germinates, sprouts and grows to ugly maturity in one of the most remote and confusing regions of the world.

Still, NATO is not on the verge of a decisive loss in Afghanistan. We are either winning slowly or losing slowly. It is just hard to tell which.

Michael Gerson's column is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.

Afghan’s fight to survive

Organiser, India - 16/02/2008

Afghanistan: Dynamics of Survival, Jagmohan Meher (ed.), Kalpaz Publications, pp. 311, Rs. 600.00

The war-torn Afghanistan has constantly been fighting others nations or handling its warlords engaged in waging a civil war against each other. The country continues to be in international limelight what with ethnic divisions and marred by tribal loyalties. The warring factions have yet to agree on a stable political process.

The Bonn agreement of 2001 provided a new era of stability and peace but within six years, it was torn by war and insurgency. The country has not yet stabilised with the Talibans raising their ugly head every now and then.

The presence of nearly 40,000 foreign troops to hunt down the remnants of Al-Qaeda and Taliban have failed to improve the situation. Although the US invasion of the country dethroned the fundamentalist regime, their presence has not ended the Afghans’ woes. For the Americans, the “war against terrorism” remains a war, but for many Afghans, the United States is increasingly being looked upon as an “occupying power”.

This volume is a compilation of articles by well-known experts like Dr. P.M. Kamath, professor of politics in Mumbai University, Dr. P.L. Dash, Director, University of Mumbai, Dr. A.P. Mavalankar, professor, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, Dr Jagmohan Meher, NDA, Khadakwasla and others.

The book tries to answer some of the following questions. What is wrong in Afghanistan? Why is the current insurgency emerging as a formidable force? Why are anti-American feelings increasing despite the US spending billions in the country’s reconstruction? What are the options for Afghanistan? What can this unfortunate land-locked landmass do?

The editor makes a very clear assessment of the situation when he says that the British were badly defeated in the 19th century and the Soviets in the 20th century because of the Afghan tradition of opposing foreign occupation.

General Eustace D’souza, a military historian, looks at Afghanistan’s historical and geo-political dimensions in order to understand the country’s dynamics of change and survival. He describes the historical background and Afghanistan’s turbulent past.

Dr. Shalini Saksena shows the vulnerability of this land-locked landmass and how it falls prey to imperialistic designs without succumbing. Prof. P.M. Kamath, an expert on security policy-making in the US and India gives a new perspective on the events and the Indian response.

Prof. S.K. Asopa, an expert in international relations, focuses on both the internal and external political dynamics about the turmoil in Afghanistan and underlines the role played by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the US.

Dr. Sudha Mohan suggests that Afghanistan is one country which finds itself embroiled in crises, clashes and confrontations without being responsible for it directly. She highlights the fact that Afghanistan is engaged in a complex struggle to determine its national identity in a complex, evolving and a changed world.

Prof. P.L. Dash argues that a single factor that differentiates Afghanistan from other countries of the region is that it had to face Soviet and American military and political involvement for long successive years.

All the papers seem to convey that peace is a distant dream in Afghanistan. At the moment the Taliban is not powerful enough to create road-blocks. Though it wants to establish a genuine Islamic state but finds itself in a weak position as it does not have enough hard-core fighters to fight the government troops and the multi-national forces.

Germans Arrest Alleged al-Qaida Suspect

The Associated Press, By CAMERON ABADI 15/02/2008 BERLIN

German prosecutors said Friday they arrested a 45-year-old German-Pakistani suspected of providing financial and logistical support to members of al-Qaida in southern Afghanistan.

Federal prosecutors gave the man's name only as Aleem N., an ethnic Pakistani with German citizenship. But he was identified as Aleem Nasir by a relative in a telephone interview from his home in the southwestern German town of Germersheim.

Prosecutors said the arrested man was suspected of making four trips between April 2005 and June 2007 to Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan to deliver at least $5,850 in cash — "and in three cases, binoculars, night-vision goggles and radios — to al-Qaida members in positions of responsibility."

They also said that in the spring of 2006, the suspect recruited another person living in Germany to join al-Qaida. The suspect wrote a recommendation letter that the recruit, who was not identified, used to secure a place in a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

Rheinland-Palatinate police arrested the suspect Thursday, and a federal judge on Friday ordered him to be held for the duration of the investigation. No formal charges have been filed.

Manfred Gnjidic, a lawyer representing Nasir, said his client had been arrested in Pakistan last June and held for two months. He said Nasir was tortured by Pakistan's military intelligence service.

The attorney said Nasir knew German authorities were investigating his activities and was not surprised by his arrest. In September, Nasir told the newsweekly Stern that he had made several trips to Pakistan to buy gems and not to visit terrorist camps.

Gnjidic said Nasir had not confessed to any wrongdoing.

Fear and Resolve in Kabul

Growing Sense of Insecurity Afflicts Afghans and Foreigners Alike

Washington Post, By Pamela Constable, February 16, 2008 KABUL

Feb. 15 -- With its fortress-like outer walls and posh interior, its sumptuous brunches and post-sauna massages, the Kabul Serena Hotel was a symbol of both progress and privilege -- a haven for foreign visitors in a harsh, unfamiliar environment and an inaccessible tower for most poor Afghans.

Today, a month after a team of suicide bombers penetrated the Serena, killing seven people, the five-star hotel has become a symbol of something else: the deepening perception of lawlessness and insecurity in and beyond the capital that both Afghans and expatriates say has left them more fearful than at any time since the overthrow of Taliban rule in 2001.

Several restaurants catering to Western aid workers, diplomats and others have been closed or sold, while those that remain open are mostly empty, nearly all embassies and international agencies having placed their non-Afghan employees under lockdown orders since the Serena attack.

Security barricades and roadblocks have been erected throughout the capital, further shielding government and international compounds but also angering the public as traffic jams thicken and traditional sidewalk bazaars, where thousands of poor Afghans buy and sell used clothing and cheap supplies, are pushed out of the city center.

Business owners, trying to fend off panic, have taken extraordinary security measures, hiring teams of commando-trained guards and installing multiple barriers. The owners of one artsy bistro, the Kabul Cafe, dragged a massive shipping container across its front gate, through which guests must now pass en route to the cappuccino bar and WiFi zone.

"This is a war, and we cannot give in, or they will have won," said Sher Dil Qaderi, who returned from two decades abroad to open the cafe. "Everyone is trying to sell, but I refuse to leave. These criminals and terrorists want to stop investment and scare foreigners into leaving," he added. "We have to prove we are not scared."

Afghanistan has been facing a violent rural insurgency by revived Taliban forces for the past two years, but the recent increase in suicide bombings in the capital, coupled with a sharp rise in organized crime and the deteriorating security and political situation in next-door Pakistan, has left people here feeling almost as vulnerable as they did during the civil war of the early 1990s.

Private investment, which had gradually climbed to about $1 billion by 2006, has now plummeted to half that level, according to the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. The organization cited lack of security and crime as the major reasons for the drop, followed by corruption and bureaucratic obstacles.

In addition to foreigners, Afghans in the capital are also coming under threat, especially those associated with international groups. Employees of foreign aid organizations or news agencies have received warnings to quit. Last week, several such Afghans who previously had been willing to be identified asked not to be named now. Others said they had sent their families to Pakistan as a safety precaution.

Wealthy Afghan businessmen have also been targeted in a rash of kidnappings for ransom. Often the perpetrators are armed men in security uniforms, who hustle victims into sport-utility vehicles with no license plates. In most cases no one is arrested, but Kabul residents talk knowingly of a network of mafia bosses, former anti-Soviet militia commanders and corrupt security officials behind the rise of criminal gangs.

"We are all afraid now," said one Afghan who works for an international agency. "I have lived here all my life, and now for the first time I am thinking of sending my children out of the country. I have seen a lot of war and violence, and I don't want them to experience that."

People here complain bitterly that a culture of impunity prevents the government from moving against powerful thugs with private armies and international connections, even as it has cracked down on the booming but poorly regulated private security industry, suspending licenses and confiscating weapons.

In one highly publicized incident last month, a former militia leader, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, allegedly broke into the Kabul residence of a former aide while drunk and brutally assaulted the man and his family. Police surrounded Dostum's home but were later called off after the ethnic Uzbek strongman, a key figure in the power-sharing negotiations that established the U.N.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai in 2002, reportedly complained to friendly diplomats.

Karzai, in an interview last week in his heavily guarded palace, expressed anger and frustration at the ability of well-connected criminals to defy the law. "This culture of impunity has to stop," he said. "I can live with undue influence, because it is part of this arrangement we have. But we cannot tolerate and protect criminals, or the whole arrangement will lose its moral existence. We are running out of options."

The president also expressed chagrin at the Serena attack, saying it could easily have been prevented if local security forces had been doing a better job. "It was entirely our fault. We were too relaxed," he said.

Several local businessmen praised the national intelligence police for their recent efforts to prevent further attacks, and agents with walkie-talkies are now a constant presence on the streets of the capital.

Karzai asserted, however, that the hotel bombing was an isolated, high-profile incident that did not accurately reflect the security situation across the country. He took issue with descriptions of Afghanistan as losing the battle with insurgents and drug traffickers, noting that a recent delegation from rural Paktia province, once plagued by the Taliban, had asked him for better roads and a new university, not protection.

U.N. officials here echoed Karzai's assessment. They said that despite the perception of rising danger, the actual number of violent incidents had remained steady over the past 18 months.

"Security has not deteriorated to the level some might think," said Dan McNaughton, spokesman for the U.N. assistance mission. "The Serena was a symbol, but nothing has really changed." Even if U.N. workers must forgo nights on the town during this period of higher alert, he added, "we are still providing aid and services and maintaining our commitment to Afghanistan. We are not here to go to parties."

Outside the capital, attacks by insurgents have continued despite the unusually harsh winter. The governor of the southern province of Kandahar narrowly survived a roadside bomb attack Monday, and an American woman who worked for a rural assistance agency in Kandahar was kidnapped outside her compound last month. There has been no news of her whereabouts or the identity of her abductors.

Afghans are also worried by recent developments beyond their borders. One is a dispute among NATO members, who have about 40,000 troops operating in Afghanistan. The United States and Britain, which provide the bulk of combat troops, want other members to contribute more to the fight against Taliban insurgents, but some are resisting for legal, political or financial reasons.

Another source of concern is the tense situation in Pakistan, where radical Islamic militias have been wreaking havoc during the run-up to parliamentary elections Monday. The assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto after a rally Dec. 27 has been followed by suicide bombings, kidnappings and threats of further violence at the polls.

In Kabul, there is now a palpable fear that another bomb may explode or another victim may be snatched off the street. The Serena Hotel has reopened, but it is surrounded by more guards, more barricades and a wide police cordon, all sapping the once-teeming area of its spirit.

Vodafone Targets Emerging Markets

CNNMoney.com, February 15, 2008 Feb. 19, 2008 (Investor's Business Daily delivered by Newstex)

Wireless phone company Vodafone (NYSE:VOD) has dialed up mobile banking in -- surprise -- developing countries, not rich nations. Vodafone's VOD service lets cell phone users transfer small sums of money via text messaging.

It's targeting developing countries in Asia and Africa, where most people don't have bank accounts, but cell phone use has soared.

In Kenya, Vodafone already has signed up 1.6 million customers for the money-transfer service it launched just a year ago.

Last week, Vodafone expanded the service into Afghanistan by partnering with Roshan, that country's biggest wireless firm. Vodafone aims to set up mobile money-transfer services in other developing countries, including India.

"There's potential for mobile banking and payment services in emerging markets because the banking infrastructure just isn't there, but wireless networks are present in broad swaths of these countries," said Daniel Winterbottom, an analyst at market research firm Informa. "People have more access to phone services than they do to banking facilities."

Using cell phones to perform financial transactions isn't a new idea. Wireless firms have eyed mobile banking and "wallet" services for years as a way to boost profit.

They've trotted out services that let subscribers check account balances, pay bills, transfer funds or use electronic money as a cash substitute at retail outlets.

But mobile banking has yet to catch on in the U.S. and Europe. Even in South Korea and Japan, usage is modest compared with popular music and gaming services.

Vodafone, though, sees a need in emerging markets, where brick-and-mortar banks are hard to find outside big cities, analysts say.

The U.K.-based carrier says that typical users of the money-transfer service are workers away from home. They might work in big cities and need to whisk money back to their families in rural areas.

Wireless firms are searching for ways to boost revenue from nonvoice services in developing countries, says Nitesh Patel, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.

"There's pressure on them to find ways of creating more value for customers," Patel said. "Mobile banking services are a way to do that."

In Kenya, Vodafone affiliate Safaricom has set up 1,800 sales agents for the money-transfer service. They include retail outlets where cell phone users normally buy prepaid airtime minutes as well as at gas stations and convenience stores.

Customers bring in real cash, making a deposit to the sales agent that acts as a virtual bank. The money is then credited to the customer's account.

The service sends a text message to the intended recipient of the money. To get the money, a recipient has to go to a nearby sales agent registered with Safaricom.

Vodafone partnered with Citi-bank (NYSE:C) C to develop the text messaging-based money-transfer service, Patel says.

Almost 20% of Safaricom's 9.2 million subscribers have signed up for the M-Pesa service.

"What we've established in Kenya is that there's a strong appetite (for M-Pesa) in a country where typically large numbers of the population have no bank accounts," said James Moberly, Vodafone's senior manager, mobile payments.

Safaricom is a joint venture between Vodafone and state-owned Telkom Kenya.

Vodafone takes a commission on the money transferred. The commission ranges from 3% to 5%, depending on the amount, analysts say. Vodafone's M-Pesa competes with Western Union (NYSE:WU) WU and other transfer services.

In Afghanistan, where Vodafone doesn't operate its own network, Moberly says Vodafone will share revenue with Roshan and sales agents.

Less than 3% of Afghanistan's population has a bank account, says Altaf Ladak, Roshan's chief operating officer. Roshan has certified 50 sales agents in four cities for the money-transfer service. It plans to have 200 by year-end, says Ladak. Roshan has 1.7 million subscribers.

Vodafone says it might launch the money-transfer system in India, where it has nearly 40 million customers. Patel says Vodafone probably will roll out the service in Eastern Europe as well.

Other wireless firms are moving into mobile financial services in emerging markets. In the Philippines, Smart Communications has pioneered some mobile banking services, Patel says. Smart is a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (NYSE:PHI) PHI.

While Vodafone provides money transfers within the same country, Smart enables migrant workers to send money back to their home countries. Last month, Smart announced a deal with China Banking Corp. and Alahli Bank to serve Filipino contract workers in Saudi Arabia.

[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.]