In this bulletin:

• President Hamid Karzai moves to block Lord Paddy Ashdown as UN super-envoy in Afghanistan
• Taliban sacks its Pakistan Chief
• US military says wanted militant killed in Pakistan
• U.S. woman abducted in Afghanistan; Taliban snatch?
• A Conversation With Hamid Karzai
• Secret Operations: Supporting or Undermining the War on Terrorism?
• Pakistan nuclear sites on alert
• Beyond Kandahar, an oasis
• An Afghan Province Points the Way
• Journalist Claims Article that Led to Death Sentence
• Sharif picked to tame Pakistan's militancy

President Hamid Karzai moves to block Lord Paddy Ashdown as UN super-envoy in Afghanistan

The Times / January 26, 2008

Lord Ashdown’s appointment as the UN special envoy in Afghanistan has been blocked by President Karzai after he met a series of Western leaders in Davos, diplomats said last night.

President Karzai objected to the former Liberal Democrat leader after Lord Ashdown, a former Marine who headed international efforts in Bosnia, insisted on far-reaching powers.

The Afghan leader made clear his intention to block Lord Ashdown at meetings with Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, and David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, during the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort, one source said.

Mr Karzai also raised his reservations about Lord Ashdown with Gordon Brown in another meeting yesterday, according to a Western diplomat. Mr Brown is understood to have told the Afghan leader that Britain was not trying to push Lord Ashdown on him, explaining that it was a United Nations appointment.

Immediately after meeting Mr Brown, Mr Karzai was “grabbed” by Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, for a one-on-one discussion.

Lord Ashdown had been the top candidate to become a so-called “superenvoy” to serve as overall co-ordinator of international aid and political efforts in Afghanistan, where Nato troops are battling a Taleban insurgency. But one well-placed diplomat said last night that, in light of Mr Karzai’s opposition, Mr Ashdown’s candidacy was now “toast”. Lord Ashdown refused to confirm that he was out of the running. “I’ve made no comment on this, and am not going to start now,” he told The Times last night.

Other possible candidates include the British General John McColl, the Nato Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who served as the first commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in 2002 and later acted as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special envoy to the country.

The UN, however, will find it difficult to accept a serving general as its top civilian representative in Afghanistan. Russia is said to be pushing for a Turkish official.

The latest snub came as British officials were already fuming over Mr Karzai’s criticism of the role of British troops in Afghanistan. In an outburst to journalists on Thursday, the Afghan leader claimed that British forces had failed in their mission in Helmand province.

“Without British troops in Helmand province there would be no control over the influence of the Taleban in the south, and no control over the Taleban’s exploitation of the poppy,” said one senior army officer who has served in Helmand.

Patrick Mercer, Conservative MP for Newark and former commanding officer of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, which has served recently in Helmand, told The Times: “On behalf of the nine dead friends from my former battalion, killed in Helmand, I resent what President Karzai said.”

The Afghan leader claimed that Helmand had been under Kabul’s control before the British troops arrived on the scene, and that the province was now overrun with Taleban.

However, Mr Mercer said: “Karzai’s writ did not run at all in Helmand province until the British troops arrived. Our Armed Forces have shed blood and died while facing up to his enemies.”

A total of 87 British troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001 — 61 of them killed in action — and Britain has spent £1.6 billion on its military campaign there.

Asked if he would accept that the British presence allowed the Taleban back in, the Prime Minister’s spokesman replied: “Of course we wouldn’t accept that.” He said: “We are working alongside the Afghan Government in order to drive out the Taleban from Helmand. Our strength in Afghanistan has been to work with the Afghan Government and to extend the authority of the Afghan Government throughout the province to allow economic and political development. It is to that aim that our Armed Forces have suffered losses and shown great bravery and determination.”

The new tension has been caused by differences between the Kabul Government and the British troops on the ground over Mr Karzai’s choice of local officials to run the Helmand administration and the security forces.

President Karzai expressed particular frustration at the way he claimed the British had forced him to get rid of Sher Muhammad Akhunzada, his chosen and trusted governor in Helmand.

His deployment is yet another signal of Mr Karzai’s lack of faith in British policy in southern Afghanistan and his belief that warlords can succeed where governance fails.

The senior army officer said: “The trouble is, we’re looking at governance with Western eyes and President Karzai is looking at it with Afghan eyes, so perhaps in his view everything was fine before the British troops were sent to Helmand. I don’t know why Karzai has made these comments. It’s probably for his own political reasons, but he knows that Britain is committed to Afghanistan for the long term.”

Counting the cost

7,800 British troops deployed in Afghanistan

£738m spent by British Armed Forces in Afghanistan 2006-07

18% of British people surveyed last year thought Britain was winning the war

90% of heroin sold in Britain comes from Afghanistan

Sources: Times archives

Taliban sacks its Pakistan Chief

Press Trust Of India Islamabad, January 26, 2008

Taliban chief Mullah Omar has removed the wanted militant leader Baitullah Mehsud as the commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for fighting the Pakistani army, a news report has said.

Asia Times Online quoted Mullah Omar as telling other Taliban commanders to turn their focus on NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan even as President Pervez Musharraf has ordered intensified military operations against the pro-Taliban militants in South Waziristan.

Mehsud, appointed by Omar as the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, was expected to provide support to the Taliban in Afghanistan, but instead directed all his fighters against Pakistani security forces. Now, Omar has sacked Mehsud for fighting against the Pakistan Army instead of with NATO forces, said the report of the Hong Kong-based online.

“The Afghan front is quiet because the Taliban and al Qaeda militants are heavily engaged in fighting Pakistani security forces in Waziristan. Therefore, Mullah Omar has put his foot down to reset goals for the Taliban: struggle in Afghanistan and not against Pakistan, as was being done by Mehsud,” the report said.

It quoted intelligence sources as saying that the top Taliban cleric appointed Maulvi Faqir Muhammad as TTP chief. However, Faqir has refused to accept the post, after which the local Taliban were trying to find a replacement for Baitullah.

With the isolation of Baitullah, who has already been named by the government as the main suspect behind former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination, his loyalists are on their own to fight against the Pakistani forces.

US military says wanted militant killed in Pakistan

Kabul (AFP) - The US military in Afghanistan said that a Taliban-linked militant leader wanted by Washington had been killed in neighbouring Pakistan.

Darim Sedgai was ambushed by unknown gunmen on January 16 and died of his wounds, the military said in a statement.

The military described him as a "powerful commander" linked to a top Taliban leader, Siraj Haqqani, but did not provide any further details of the incident.

The US military here reportedly announced a 50,000-dollar bounty for Sedgai in October last year, saying he was wanted for his ties to Taliban and Al-Qaeda militant groups.

Sedgai was the third rebel commander in Haqqani's network to die in recent months, the statement said.

Haqqani, the son of famous anti-Russian commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, joined the Taliban during their advance towards Kabul in 1996 and is their top commander in eastern Afghanistan. He has a 200,000 dollar bounty on his head.

An alliance of Afghan opposition groups and US-led forces overthrew the 1996-2001 Taliban regime when it did not surrender Al-Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Taliban militants have since been waging an increasingly bloody insurgency aimed at toppling the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, which is supported by more than 60,000 foreign troops.

Afghan and Western officials say Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels have bases in the rugged Pakistani tribal areas along the border.

Pakistani troops are battling rebels along the frontier and have launched a major operation in the tribal stronghold of an Al-Qaeda-linked militant blamed for the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

U.S. woman abducted in Afghanistan; Taliban snatch?

Aid worker helped women set up their own businesses in southern city of Kandahar. By Jon Boone | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL, Afghanistan - The abduction on Saturday of a female US aid worker in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous cities may signal increased risk for foreign aid workers.

Kidnappings of Americans have been rare, and some Kandahar residents say the abduction of Cyd Mizell and her Afghan driver at gunpoint is a worrying development.

Sarah Chayes, a former journalist who now runs an Afghan cooperative that exports soap, says the incident "sends a signal. It's like a new chapter in a book."

"They haven't taken an American or a Canadian on the streets like this before. I don't think this was just bandits because the operation looks like it was too sophisticated for that."

Ms. Chayes suggests that the abduction could have been payback for US policy on President Pervez Musharraf.

Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban movement, has been rocked by the neo-Taliban insurgency that has gained strength in the past three years. The deterioration of law and order has also made the city considerably more dangerous for foreign visitors and Afghans alike.

The most recent abduction case involved four members of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the eastern province of Wardak in September. The two Afghans, a Macedonian, and a Burmese citizen were freed three days later. Perhaps the most notorious case of 2007 was the abduction of 23 Christian aid workers from South Korea who attempted to travel from Kabul to Kandahar by bus. Two hostages were shot to death before the rest were released. An American civilian was briefly abducted in Kabul in April 2005 but escaped by throwing himself from a moving car.

Analysts fear that terrorists and criminal gangs have been encouraged by the policy of some foreign governments to pay ransoms.

The few foreigners who still live in the city of Kandahar often use heavy security, including armed guards and armor-plated vehicles, whenever they ventured out of their offices. Afghan officials say that Mizell had been wearing a burqa, an all-encompassing body veil favoured by most Afghan women when they have to go out of their homes.

Ms. Mizell worked for Asian Life Development Foundation, a little-known nongovernmental organization . The group said she had been working in Kandahar for nearly three years with women and on income generation projects.

A speaker of Pashtu, the main language of Afghanistan's south, she taught English at Kandahar University and gave embroidery lessons at a girls' school.

In response to the abduction, local police increased their presence on the streets of Kandahar over the weekend and the Ministry of the Interior said it was doing all it could to find Ms. Mizell. Local police said that they had not been contacted by anyone claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

The Taliban have employed kidnapping as a tactic in their battle to erode popular support for the government of President Hamid Karzai several times before.

Zabihullah Mujahed, the Taliban's main spokesman, said they did not know if anyone affiliated with the extremist Sunni group had been responsible for the abduction.

A Conversation With Hamid Karzai

Newsweek 01/26/2008

With Taliban violence on the rise in Afghanistan and reports of government corruption marring his government's image, Afghan President Hamid Karzai finds himself embattled and on the defensive. Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he spoke with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth about the Taliban and Pakistan, his government's challenges and its ties with Iran. Excerpts:

Q. How are the Taliban affecting you in Afghanistan?

A. By trying to prevent progress, by trying to prevent reconstruction, by killing our people, by [preventing] our children in southern Afghanistan from going to school, by killing the community leaders, the religious leaders, intimidating cultural leaders. By all means.

How strong are they now?

They would not be strong without support.

From Pakistan?

I've just had a very good trip to Pakistan, so what I would say is that Pakistan and Afghanistan and the United States and the rest of the world must join hands in sincerity in order to end this problem. They have to take [action]. They have to.

The last time I interviewed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, I thought he was very angry. It's really a crazy situation in Pakistan.

Yes, very much. I found him to be more cognizant of the problems of extremism and terrorism. That's a good sign, and I hope we will continue in that direction.

Do you think Musharraf will do something about it, send forces into the problematic border areas ?

We have to end extremism. We have to end support for extremism in the region. Unless we do that, the picture is one of doom and gloom, for Pakistan, and as a consequence for Afghanistan.

When I interviewed former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December, she said to me, "I feel they are going to come knocking at my door one night."

Unfortunately, her death, the way it happened, proves her point. That's the irony. That's the sad thing about her death. She predicted something, and she proved right in that prediction. So it must be listened to. We cannot use extremism as a tool for any purpose. It will hurt us eventually, as it has begun to hurt Pakistan.

The United States is sending 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Will that help?

I'm happy about that, yes. The American contribution to the war against terrorism is fundamental and strong.

Will it make a difference?

It will make a difference when the Americans are clear and straightforward about this fight.

What do you mean by that, Mr. President? "When the Americans are straightforward about the fight"?

They mean what they say. They do what they say.

You think they don't now?

They do now. Straight means they do now. Straight means they really are fighting it.

Do you think they're the right type of troops? Should they be special operations troops?

That's a professional issue. It has to be addressed by the military. What we need is the right number, the right quality and the right-equipped troops.

But you have a problem with foreign forces -- they have limits. The Germans, for example, won't go to the south [the Taliban stronghold].

That has to be settled within the countries of NATO. But we are happy for all the contributions the NATO members are making to Afghanistan. We don't get involved in the details of operations. That's the business of NATO.

Do you plan to have more Afghan troops in the future?

We are training them. We so far have trained 57,000 of our troops. We hope that this training will grow to a larger number and to a higher quality. We are satisfied so far with the training of our Afghan army and with the equipment that we have received from the United States. We hope there will be more. We just got the first consignment of our air wing in the Afghan Ministry of Defense -- that's helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. So that is something that we'd like to push forward.

Are there other things that you're asking the U.S. for?

We're asking for the United States to help us in training and equipping a proper army.

And do you feel that the United States is being responsive to your requests?

Quite. Yes, yes.

People talk a lot about opium and opium eradication, and some people have stronger methods of eradicating opium.

Yes, aerial spray and all that.

Which I gather you're opposed to.

Very strongly, yes, very strongly. Opium is a problem for Afghanistan, opium is a problem for the region, and opium is a problem for the international community. It affects our lives all around the world. It is wrong. From any perspective, and for all of us. Therefore we have to in Afghanistan get rid of this menace.

What is the strategy?

The overall strategy is to try to get rid of poppies by improving the overall Afghan economy, by bringing better prosperity to the Afghan people, by eradicating poppies and by replacing it with other alternatives. But how to bring this about is something that we have all to agree about. In short, opium came to Afghanistan because of the desperation of the Afghan people. Thirty years ago, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, when we began to fight them, no Afghan family was sure if they were going to stay in their own house the next day or not, if they were going to be in their country the next day or not -- if they were going to be alive the next day or not. So for them the easiest way was to have a cash crop. And opium was promoted from outside the Afghan borders. The mafia came in and told the people that this is a cash crop: "Grow it, and we'll pay you."

I know people -- men -- who have destroyed their pomegranate orchards to replace them with poppies. Now no family would do that -- ever -- unless they are absolutely in limbo about the future. And I know people, families, who have destroyed their vineyards in order to replace them with poppies because they were not sure of their tomorrow. The more Afghanistan is sure of its tomorrow, the more the people have hope for the future of the country and its prosperity and stability, the higher will be our achievement in eradicating poppies, as has already been demonstrated in parts of the country.

But don't people need a substitute?

When there is stability and prosperity, then that is the substitute.

But how do you get there?

By what we are already doing. Fighting terrorism, bringing the rule of law, improving governance and having a better economy. Whatever it takes to have a society that is governed by the rule of law and is at peace.

How do you think you're doing with that ambition?

Well, we've taken magnificently strong steps. We have children going to school, we have our highways being rebuilt, we have our health services improving, we have our economy improving, we have everything right. The only thing that we have to get right is an effective fight against terrorism. With that achievement, when it comes, Afghanistan will move much faster in the direction of a proper economy, away from a criminal economy, into a legitimate livelihood.

When you talked to President Musharraf, did you say, "Okay, what are you going to do about the terrorist bases in Pakistan?"

We do see eye-to-eye more than before on this question.

Why is that?

Because of the glaring blow that we have.

Because of the death of Bhutto?

Because of her death, because of the bomb blasts, because of the suicide bombs killing people in mosques. It's unbelievable. It is impossible for us -- even if you want to ignore this in Pakistan -- to ignore it any more. How can we deny it?

So the president agreed with you that it is impossible.

To deny? Oh, he absolutely agrees that there is a problem and that we have to fix it.

There are a lot of complaints about corruption in Afghanistan.

There is, there is, yes.

What can you do to combat corruption, even in official circles?

Corruption is in official circles. Corruption is in governments or in industry.

Can you fire people? What can you do?

We do fire people. We do a lot of those things, but that is not the only answer to corruption. You see, corruption is the consequence of the weakness of the overall Afghan system and the arrival of a lot of money and the arrival of NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and international partners. Now, we cannot correct corruption by action against corruption in a criminal way only. We have to improve standards in Afghanistan by having better, more properly equipped administration, better human capital, better human resources, better skills. And police. And law enforcement. And relevant laws. In other words, the society has to grow -- all aspects of it -- from the present base, which is weak, to a stronger base into the future. Then we'll be able to end corruption.

How much influence does Iran have in your country right now, Mr. President?

We have had a particularly good relationship with Iran the past six years. It's a relationship that I hope will continue. We have opened our doors to them. They have been helping us in Afghanistan. The United States very wisely understood that it is our neighbor and encouraged that relationship. I hope Iran would also understand that the United States is a great ally of ours and that we value that alliance with the United States. So that is the foundation of our relations with them, and I hope that it will continue as it is.

So in other words, you don't agree with President Bush's assessment of Iran.

On which question?

He called it part of the "axis of evil." And there's been a lot of discussion about a nuclear program.

We don't like a nuclear region, of course. Nobody wants nuclear weapons. Who wants to have weapons of destruction around their homes? Nobody. But the United States has been very understanding and supportive that Afghanistan should have a relationship with Iran.

Are you going to run for another term in 2009?

Well, I have things to accomplish. Who was it who wrote -- Robert Frost? -- "The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep."

Secret Operations: Supporting or Undermining the War on Terrorism?

The Washington Post 01/25/2008 By William M. Arkin

An internal battle is unfolding before a military Court of Inquiry this month. At issue is a civilian casualty incident in Afghanistan last year. By many accounts, this is a case of the Army versus the Marines. But really it's about special operations and the role they play in the war against terrorism.

These forces are so secretive, and so cocksure about their importance, it's difficult to gauge their true impact. But it's clear that, in some fundamental ways, special operations (and their non-military covert counterpart in the CIA) play by their own rules - sometimes to the detriment of conventional military forces and our ongoing war efforts.

On Mar. 4, 2007, a Marine Corps special operations unit opened fire after its convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber in Nangahar Province, Afghanistan. As many as 19 civilians were killed and 50 injured. That's reputed to be the largest number of civilian casualties involving U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan since 2001.

The Army brigade commander responsible for the region where the incident occurred, Col. John Nicholson Jr., subsequently apologized to local Afghans for the deaths, approved payments to families (offers of condolences, not admissions of guilt) and condemned the Marines' actions, as well as the fact that they didn't stick around to wait for Afghan police.

Nicholson has been selected for promotion to Brigadier General, suggesting that the Army backs his complaint. But Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway denounced him for apologizing while the shooting was still under investigation.

The special Court of Inquiry has been convened at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina to determine whether charges should be filed against Maj. Fred C. Galvin, commander of Marine unit, and Capt. Vincent J. Noble, the platoon leader on the scene. Their 120-man Fox Company was expelled from Afghanistan after the incident.

At the Inquiry, Nicholson said the Marine unit frequently didn't coordinate with other combat commanders and, on the day of the operation, he didn't even know Fox Company was on patrol in his area. "I was not aware that they were out doing a mission. We weren't sure who it was," said Nicholson. He said he later learned the unit had conducted more than 30 operations, only five of which he had been notified of at the time.

Nicholson's 10th Mountain Division and Fox Company were stationed at the same Jalalabad airfield base, certainly facilitating communication. But Fox Company was part of the newly formed Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command and reported to the separate Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan.

So what happened on Mar. 4? And what does that mean for the bigger picture? Maybe this special operations unit just had a bad commander. Maybe its rules of engagement allowed particularly aggressive killing in pursuit of a target. Or maybe it had access to intelligence that the conventional military unit responsible for the area didn't -- intelligence that made it worth going after someone Nicholson called "a very low level" individual. Either way, the unit was comfortable determining its target without considering the impact on the overall strategy in the region.

Congress and others should aggressively inquire why there need to be separate chains of command between conventional and non-conventional forces. Such poor coordination is not acceptable at a time when "unity of effort" is such a mantra. All our troops should be operating with all the intelligence they need. And even semi-autonomous special operations units need to understand that popping some bad guy could undermine far larger objectives. We talk about fighting terrorism with all of the instruments at our disposal. But we don't want one of those instruments undermining, rather than assisting, the overall effort.

Pakistan nuclear sites on alert

By Barbara Plett, BBC News, Islamabad

Pakistan has raised the state of alert around its nuclear facilities amid concerns they could be targeted by Islamist militants.

But a senior Pakistan military official said there had been no specific threat to the sites, and insisted that safeguards in place were fool proof.

The official was speaking in a rare press briefing on the issue. It followed Western media reports warning that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

The Pakistani authorities have been angered by Western media reports speculating that the country?s nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda militants.

The senior military official briefing foreign journalists said that the weapons were protected by an elaborate command and control system, and multiple levels of security.

He acknowledged that Islamic militants had begun to attack army personnel in recent months, and that nuclear sites may also become a target.

He said the state of alert around nuclear facilities had increased, but there had been no specific threats against them.

The official said there was no way the Taleban or al-Qaeda could take over Pakistan?s estimated 50 nuclear warheads.

And he dismissed the possibility of collusion from within the system, saying all personnel dealing with sensitive material had been carefully monitored.

Despite fears raised by US media and politicians, the official said the US administration had not shown any recent concern about the safety of Pakistan?s nuclear weapons.

He also said any foreign intervention over the issue would be disastrous for the intruder.

Beyond Kandahar, an oasis

The Montreal Gazette, 01/26/2008 By Allison Lampert

Adeela lifts the blue burka over her head and rushes into her frigid, one-room home.

She kneels to embrace her five seated children. They are leaning against a pile of blankets in the corner of the room, bare feet tucked under knees, huddling together to keep warm.

"Where were you?" asks Adeela's eldest daughter, Zamirah, 12, the light from a single lantern illuminating her look of consternation. "We were so worried." Adeela, who like many Afghans goes by one name, was late returning from a literacy and vocational training program run by the non-profit Aga Khan Foundation. After a life of poverty, ignorance and turmoil during Afghanistan's decades of fighting, Adeela is desperate for an education. She leaves her children - including her two-year-old son - alone for hours each day to attend the classes that are given in a building an hour's walk away.

"When I was young, I never knew about education," said Adeela through an interpreter. "Now it's good. Now there is peace. I am so happy that I have this opportunity to learn." One of four provinces visited by the Manley commission - which issued its report this week on Canada's future in Afghanistan - Bamiyan has emerged as an oasis of peace in this war-torn country.

Despite extreme poverty, there is virtually no poppy cultivation or guns; it's said that Bamiyan's provincial reconstruction team, a staff of about 100 from New Zealand, hasn't fired a shot in years.

About 45 per cent of Bamiyan's girls now attend school, up from almost none in 2001, Governor Habiba Sarabi said. That's a far cry from the situation in the south of Afghanistan where 590 schools have been shut and 300,000 children left without classes since March, compared with 350 schools shut during the previous 12 months, the Associated Press reported this week.

Demand for education in Bamiyan is so great that the only school torched there was destroyed during a feud between two villages - each wanted the building constructed closer to its community, said Abdullah Barat, director of Future Generations Canada's Afghan development group.

While some critics have urged Canada to shift development efforts to more peaceful provinces like Bamiyan, this week's report tabled by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley urged the government to stay the course in Kandahar, where the fighting is among the heaviest in the country.

"To jettison these assets, and relocate a Canadian presence to some other area of Afghanistan, would inevitably waste a large part of Canada's human and financial investment in Kandahar," the report said.

It's a disappointment for Bamiyan development workers, who argue the province suffers from being too peaceful to attract the headlines and international attention that translate into serious aid money. Some question the utility of investing heavily in Kandahar schools and clinics that could be destroyed by insurgents, or closed the next week for security reasons.

"I still don't think they (the Manley commissioners) understand the idea of long-term development," charged Flora MacDonald, founder of the non-profit development group, Future Generations Canada, and a former Canadian MP. "Do you think right now you can do long-term development (in Kandahar)? "The fact is that the military are there for a purpose. They're trying to contain the Taliban and I agree with that. But there are other provinces in Afghanistan. Not just the two that most people know in the country. So why not look at those provinces where you can set up proper governance?" While none of Afghanistan, with its 34 provinces and 23 million people, is fully safe, Taliban activity tends to surround the drug trade, which is almost entirely concentrated in seven provinces - including Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan - in the south and southwest of Afghanistan.

According to the 2007 Afghanistan Opium Survey, annual opium production grew to 4,399 tonnes in Helmand, a province of 2.5 million people. That's more opium than the entire country produced in 2005. During the same year, the number of provinces considered poppy-free - including Bamiyan, Nuristan and Paktya - doubled from six to 13.

"Canadians are getting a very unbalanced view of Afghanistan," MacDonald said of the media's focus on the insurgency in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

Although the Canadian International Development Agency couldn't provide exact figures for its investments in Bamiyan, the province received a fraction of the $39 million CIDA poured into war-torn Kandahar during the 2006 fiscal year. CIDA devotes about $100 million a year to Afghanistan's development, making the country the largest single recipient of Canadian aid.

Stymied mainly by harsh winter conditions, sporadic electricity and unpaved roads - as opposed to security concerns - Bamiyan would have been an ideal place for increased Canadian investment, Governor Sarabi told Canwest News Service in a recent interview.

"Our message is that Canada should think more about development in areas outside of Kandahar," said Sarabi, Afghanistan's only female governor. "A place like Bamiyan could be a role model for other provinces." A mountainous, agrarian province in central Afghanistan, Bamiyan captured world attention in 2001, when its ancient Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban. Bamiyan's Hazara population, victimized in the late 1990s by the Taliban because of their mongol features and Shiite Muslim faith, today despise the mostly ethnic Pashtun insurgents and their extremist Sunni ideology.

The difficulties insurgents face hiding and operating in a Hazara region, along with its relatively tolerant clerics, gives Bamiyan the stability to host several non-governmental organizations and even the occasional tourist. By Afghan standards, the province is advancing in terms of gender equality: As well as having Sarabi as governor, two women have opened shops at the local bazaar, one of whom was recently elected president of her community council.

"There are so many opportunities because Bamiyan is a peaceful place and the people want their girls to be educated," said Robina Bangash, community and gender development advisor for the Afghanistan chapter of the Aga Khan Foundation, a development agency set up by the leader of the Ismaili branch of Islam.

In 2001, Bamiyan education department statistics show there were 115 schools registered in the province, which educated about 20,000 mostly male students. Most of these "schools" didn't have dedicated buildings.

Today, about 58,000 boys and 38,000 girls are students at 301 schools; 157 of them have dedicated buildings.

For Adeela, a widow whose husband was killed by the Taliban, the new schools mean hope. Adeela recalled her joy at writing her name, a few months ago, for the first time.

She now regularly signs the woolen vests she's learning to tailor. The combined literacy and training course she takes pays her $1 a day to feed her children.

Adeela used to earn the same amount washing clothes and cleaning homes - labour that weathered her face and her hands, with their orange henna-painted nails, that appear far older than her 35 years.

"I lost my husband, I lost my opportunity to learn as a child, so I want my children to go to school so they can do better." Her four daughters, age four to 12, attend school each morning from 7 to 11 a.m., walking 30 minutes each way to get to class. While they are in school, her two-year-old son, Assib, waits at home alone, with only the family's dog outside standing guard.

But Adeela's eldest daughter, Zamirah already has the ambition to escape their one-room home with its threadbare carpets and outdoor toilet. When asked about a career, Zamirah smooths her red head scarf with its beaded tassels and smiles a brilliant, white-toothed grin.

"I want to be something in the future," she said. "I want to be a doctor to serve my country." While children like Zamirah might now be going to school in record numbers, Governor Sarabi acknowledges the province's crippling poverty will make it hard for them to find jobs without leaving their home province.

"If they can get skill training, it should help them," she said. "But as things stand now, will education lead to employment? Unfortunately, I can't say yes." To improve their students' job prospects, groups like the Aga Khan Foundation mix literacy classes with vocational and entrepreneurship training, or teaching local families how to raise healthy farm animals. As well, Aga Khan runs 125 literacy classes for women in Bamiyan, about half of which are funded by CIDA.

"If you just provide literacy without the vocational skill, they won't be as confident," said Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, regional program manager for the Aga Khan Foundation in Afghanistan.

But the main obstacle to Bamiyan's success, aid groups and residents say, is the lack of proper roads.

While Canadians have paved several kilometres of roads in Kandahar province - paving makes it harder for insurgents to plant deadly improvised explosive devices - motorists in Bamiyan still navigate dusty, bumpy and winding trails.

The 120-kilometre trip between Bamiyan and Kabul takes about 30 minutes in a small plane, yet at least 10 hours to drive.

Farmers who grow potatoes and other vegetables during the warm weather can't bring their crops to market, said Abdullah Barat of Future Generations.

"The big problem is getting goods from Kabul and taking their crops to Kabul," he said.

And Bamiyan's ethnic Hazara minority, who make up about 20 per cent of Afghanistan's population, lack the political clout to secure development projects from the Afghan government, Barat said. It took about a year to pave about a kilometre of road in the centre of Bamiyan City, a project that might have never been completed without the governor's intervention, he said.

Barat recalled meeting with a former Afghan finance minister who assured him years ago that Bamiyan would get better roads.

"He told me years ago, that there will be paved roads because it's peaceful in Bamiyan. But then the government forgot," he said. "We have been screaming about this for years. We just don't have the people to go and ask for us." Since the province only has a tiny airstrip, improved roads are needed to bring in supplies for development, including building a tourist industry. There is some talk of rebuilding at least one of the historic Buddha statues and Barat has been trying to convince the Afghan government to name Bamiyan's Lake Band-i-Mir as the country's first national park, "I have no doubt that there's a lot of potential," said Future Generations Canada founder MacDonald. "When you talk about adventure tours, this would be an ideal place." Building an industry like tourism, or financing entrepreneurship in Bamiyan is the only way to answer the ambitions of the province's growing number of educated children. And it's the only way for girls like Zamirah to avoid becoming young, uneducated and over-worked housewives like their mothers.

Adeela can't quite recall when she got married to her older husband. She knows she was only a little older than Zamirah.

As she discusses her arranged marriage with a reporter, the normally outspoken Zamirah grows quiet.

Sometimes Adeela jokes about marrying Zamirah off - a prospect that terrifies the ambitious girl. She'll ask Adeela about the suggestion, questioning whether her mother needs to give her away because there's not enough food for her at home.

In fact, the family has little food; dinner that night is bread plus the box of cookies they received as a gift from a visitor. But if it's a choice between going hungry, or forcing Zamirah to live her mother's fate, the decision is simple.

"The life that I had, the one that I've told you about," Adeela says. "I don't want her to have it." alampert@ thegazette.canwest.com

An Afghan Province Points the Way

The Washington Post, 01/26/2008 By David Ignatius

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Air Force Lt. Col. Gordon Phillips has logged 5,000 hours in AWACS surveillance planes, one of the high-tech weapons systems that made America such a dominant power against conventional adversaries. But these days, Phillips is very much down on the ground, heading a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) here that's working with villagers to build dams, roads and schools.

Phillips's unlikely role illustrates the dilemma facing the U.S. military: The conventional wars it's good at fighting aren't the ones it's encountering in Iraq, Afghanistan and other unstable areas. The ideal modern warrior has to be something between a Peace Corps volunteer and a Special Forces commando.

The United States seems to be doing most things right here in Nangahar province, on Afghanistan's eastern border, and gaining some leverage in its fight against terrorism. This used to be Taliban country. Pakistan is just east, across the Khyber Pass. To the south are the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Tora Bora mountains, into which Osama bin Laden fled in late 2001. These days, there are occasional roadside bombings and suicide attacks in the province, but some people have to stop and think a moment to remember the last one.

Success here results from an interesting mix of political and military factors. There's a strong local leader in the provincial governor, Gul Agha Shirzai. This gentleman is not a paragon of democracy; to be frank, he's a warlord. He rules the province with a firm hand, and with a personal fortune that U.S. officials estimate at about $300 million, he has the money to make political deals work.

The American contribution to stability in Jalalabad is twofold. First, there's the PRT effort. With its focus on economic development, the team is reaching out to the very people whose support the Taliban insurgents need to survive. I talked with a local cleric named Mullawi Abdul-Aziz, a small, dark man whose face is creased by the sun. He was once friendly with the Taliban, but he now serves as deputy chief of the provincial council and meets twice a week with Shawn Waddoups, a State Department officer on the PRT. The mullah says he ignores Afghans who criticize him for being too friendly with the Americans.

A second component of U.S. success here is the low-visibility but high-impact mix of combat and intelligence operations. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Milhorn leads a team that seeks, as he puts it, to "tighten down the gate" at the Pakistani border. He's aided by some very high-tech biometric equipment that's being used to check the movement of known insurgents.

When you visit places like Jalalabad and see things working the way they're supposed to, there's always a disconnect with what you've been reading and hearing about the larger war. I've been trying to put those pieces together in my mind after visiting here Wednesday with the chief of Central Command, Adm. William Fallon.

The reality is that the larger war in Afghanistan isn't going as well as it seems to be in this province. Roadside bombs and suicide attacks were up last year. The Taliban is regaining strength in some parts of the country. The Afghan national government is weak and disorganized. And NATO's operations are a ragged quilt -- with no other nation matching the U.S. effort, either in combat firepower or people-friendly PRTs.

The commanders back in Kabul try to put the best face on the situation. Gen. Dan McNeil, who heads NATO's forces in Afghanistan, says that the increase in Taliban terrorist attacks is actually a sign of the insurgents' weakness and the coalition's success. He says the United States is sending 3,000 more Marines to Afghanistan on the principle that "you reinforce where you're having success."

That kind of upbeat talk in the face of downbeat numbers is eerily reminiscent of Iraq. And it's a reminder that counterinsurgency wars are, in the end, about creating a state of mind. Security is a habit, born of weeks and months of ordinary life. Insecurity, too, is a habit, born of fear that a suicide bomber may attack your village or your Kabul hotel, regardless of how infrequent those attacks may really be.

A reality check for me was to talk in Kabul with Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the country's bright young minister of education. He said that Taliban terrorist attacks killed 147 students and teachers over the past 10 months and seriously injured 200 others. This campaign of intimidation closed 590 schools last year, up from 350 the year before. In areas where students are too scared to go to school, stability and security are still distant goals. You can see in Jalalabad what success would look like; the challenge is to make that picture real across Afghanistan.

Journalist Claims Article that Led to Death Sentence

Eurasianet, 01/26/2008 By Golnaz Esfandiari

His pen name says it all: Arash Bikhoda -- or "Godless," in Persian.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, that’s a dangerous name. But Bikhoda is an Iranian-born student and Internet journalist who lives in Europe. He’s also the author of "The Koranic Verses That Discriminate Against Women," a controversial article that, a world away in Afghanistan, has landed journalism student Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh on death row.

In what media reports called a secret trial, a three-judge panel in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif on January 22 sentenced Kambakhsh to death for "blasphemy." The ruling, which highlights the tension between international human-rights law and some conservative interpretations of Islam, has been widely condemned by human-rights organizations in Afghanistan and around the world.

Kambakhsh was arrested in October after reportedly distributing the article among fellow students. Authorities apparently believed he was its author, but his brother told RFE/RL this week that Kambakhsh had copied the article off a website.

Bikhoda has confirmed to Radio Farda that it was his website -- and his article. He also expressed sadness over what has happened and appealed to the Afghan government to ensure that Kambakhsh’s death sentence is not carried out.

"But from a legal and moral point of view I don’t feel responsible," Bikhoda says. "In the rules of my websites, it has been written that many people consider the articles blasphemous and that they might seem insulting. The publishing and use of these articles in Islamic countries is usually not in line with the laws in these countries, and it is also written that the articles contain the personal views of the authors."

One chief judge from northern Afghanistan’s Balkh Province says Kambakhsh confessed to the crime, and that only President Hamid Karzai can pardon him. While it remains unclear what the journalist might have told the authorities, the question of whether he penned the article appears to be vital in determining his guilt.

"If the convicted person doesn’t accept that he wrote the article, and if he denies being quoted, then no court can judge his faith [according to Islamic Shari’a law]," Abdullah Attaei, an Afghan expert in Shari’a law, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan. "When he denies that he wrote the article, then no one has the right to arrest or investigate him or even to try to prove him guilty."

In Kabul, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has expressed concern about the case against Kambakhsh.

UNAMA says cases involving religion and freedom of expression occur in many countries and require care and sensitivity in their handling. UNAMA urged a proper and complete review of this case as it goes through the appeals process. "The pressures for punishment, warnings to journalists, as well as the holding of this case in closed session without Mr. Kambakhsh having legal representation point to possible misuse of the judicial process," UNAMA says. "This would not serve the cause of justice."

Afghanistan’s constitution commits it to uphold both Islamic values and universal human rights. Some see those values as compatible -- but not Bikhoda.

The journalist, who asked that his location not be identified due to security concerns, says his article tackles important issues facing the Islamic world. "In the article, [I have cited] Koranic verses that are discriminatory -- for example, the legal superiority and superiority in status of men over women, or the possibility for men to have several wives," Bikhoda says. "These kinds of issues were cited from the Koran and made clear that they are not in line with international human rights laws."

But while expressing concern over Kambakhsh’s fate, Bikhoda says he is also heartened to see that Afghanistan has people brave enough to express their views -- even at great personal risk. "I am happy that people such as Kambakhsh live in Afghanistan," he says. "Now there will be more world attention on the issue of intolerance toward intellectuals in Islamic societies -- that this is how Islamists deal with those who oppose them. Instead of giving them a logical answer, out of weakness they use violence and death sentences against them."

Islamic authorities in Mazar-e Sharif defend the sentence against Kambakhsh.

In an interview with Radio Free Afghanistan, Balkh Province Attorney-General Hafizullah Khaliqyar said Kambakhsh had insulted Islam, misinterpreted the Koran, and distributed the article to others. He denied there had been any violation of the journalist’s rights and said the trial was held in a "very Islamic way." Khaliqyar also threatened to arrest any journalist who defended Kambakhsh.

The case is now set for the first of two appeals. Kambakhsh will remain in custody during the process.

Editor’s Note: Golnaz Esfandiari is the director of Radio Farda. RFE/RL Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report

Sharif picked to tame Pakistan's militancy

By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times Online / January 26, 2008

KARACHI - Seven years after the invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, Dell Dailey, the US State Department's counterterrorism chief, reveals there are "gaps in intelligence" about militants in the Pakistani border regions and there is not enough information about what's going on there.

There's not enough information on al-Qaeda, on foreign fighters and on the Taliban, yet speculation is rife that nuclear-armed Pakistan will soon be under siege by Islamic militants. And Major General David Rodriguez, who commands US forces in eastern Afghanistan, warned this week that Taliban and al-Qaeda militants have postponed their spring offensive in Afghanistan as they want to focus their efforts on destabilizing the Pakistani government.

Therefore, given the assassination of the "great hope" Benazir Bhutto last month, the million-dollar question is: What political force can calm this visible storm raging in the country?

It is now emerging that Washington and London, the two major stakeholders in the "war on terror", see former premier Nawaz Sharif as the answer.

The British Foreign Office played a crucial role in backroom talks with Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shebaz Sharif to get them, since their recent return from exile, to play a major political role once Parliament is in place after next month's general elections. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) is expected to win a considerable number of seats, if not a simple majority.

Should this happen, the issue will then become Sharif's working relationship with President Pervez Musharraf. International and Pakistan players are now trying to address this problem.

Enter, therefore, retired Brigadier Niaz Ahmad, one of the country's richest ex-serviceman. He owns and operates several companies with international business, including one which supplies material to Pakistan's atomic laboratory at Kohota. He was retired general Musharraf's senior in the army and a family friend of Sharif's. He is trying to bridge the gap between Musharraf and Nawaz, an animosity that dates to Nawaz being deposed as prime minister by Musharraf's coup in 1999.

Senior PML leaders admit that Niaz met Sharif's brother in London, but say there was no political dealing. "It was purely a personal meeting. We braved eight years of the military dictatorship of Musharraf and at this stage, when he is on his way out, we will not strike any deal with him," the central vice president of Sharif's PML, Mushahidullah Khan, told Asia Times Online.

He added his party will not be part of any international agenda. "We have been opposing the policies of the [George W] Bush administration in the region and we will not support them in any form," Mushahidullah maintained.

However, Asia Times Online contacts believe the matter transcends local political wheeling and dealing over power-sharing, and that Washington and London want Sharif, as he will rally popular support for the "war on terror" as he is close to the religious segment of society and the most likely to be able to tame militancy.

The next few days could be crucial. After attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Musharraf has a two-day stopover in England. According to the official version, he will spend quite time "at a farm house". But Asia Times Online contacts maintain he will meet with Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri to discuss guarantees and a modus operandi for a relationship between the Sharifs and Musharraf.

Saad's slain father Rafik Hariri previously was the guarantor of a deal between Sharif and Musharraf which allowed Sharif's release from jail in 2000 - he had been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of hijacking - to go into exile in Saudi Arabia. Sharif initially denied this deal, but later admitted to it.

Retired Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja commented to Asia Times Online, "We are fully aware of these developments, and you would be surprised to learn that I recently met a person in the UAE [United Arab Emirates] who divulged that America's real point person has always been Nawaz Sharif. The reason is simple, he has inroads to the militants and he is considered among them to be a better person in comparison to all others."

Khawaja was a close aide of Osama bin Laden's after retiring from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)and the Pakistan Air Force. Khawaja also arranged bin Laden's meeting with Nawaz Sharif in the late 1980s in Saudi Arabia to hatch a plan to topple Bhutto's government.

Khawaja would not name the person he had met in the UAE, other than to hint he is part of the ISI's and the US State Department's initiative of backroom meetings between Pakistani officials and the opposition.

The need to work out a deal between Sharif and Musharraf is of paramount importance, given the security situation in the country.

The security forces have launched an operation to eliminate former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in the South Waziristan tribal area, but they have admitted they are clueless about his network.

Mehsud was recently "sacked" by Taliban leader Mullah Omar because of Mehsud's obsession with waging war against the Pakistan state. Mullah Omar wants the Taliban to concentrate on the struggle in Afghanistan.

Recently arrested militants in the port city of Karachi apparently divulged details of Mehsud's plans to attack Pakistan's strategic installations. As a result, security has been beefed up around intelligence and military installations. Officials even fear an imminent country-wide clash between security and extremist forces.

Pakistani intelligence's efforts to eliminate militant cells has been hampered by the loss of several key people. Former members of Musharraf's ruling coalition and ministers such as Sheikh Rasheed and Ejaz ul-Haq have been discredited in the eyes of the militants. This is because of their role in the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) incident last year when the radical mosque was stormed by security forces. They had been close to the militants.

Even former opposition leader Fazlur Rehman, who played a major role in striking a ceasefire deal in the tribal areas, is now on al-Qaeda's hit list for trying to broker a ceasefire between Taliban commanders and Western intelligence agencies in southwestern Afghanistan.

All eyes are now on Sharif to rescue the situation, whether in the role of a friendly opposition (as the six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal did in the past) or as part of a ruling coalition.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.  

[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.]